In this sermon, Scott Brown explores Hebrews 1:8-9 and the concept of the oil of gladness. He emphasizes God's delight in His Son and the anointing of Jesus with the oil of gladness. Brown discusses the relationship between the anointing and the early church in Acts, as well as the importance of loving righteousness and hating lawlessness. He also addresses the sanctification of emotions and the need to bring them into obedience to Christ. Overall, the sermon highlights Jesus as the source of true joy and the role of the Holy Spirit in anointing believers with the oil of gladness.

Please open your Bibles to Hebrews chapter one. Hebrews chapter one. And find verse eight. Hebrews one verse eight. Hebrews 1 verse eight, this is the inerrant, all sufficient, sweeter than honey Word of God.

But to the Son, He says, your throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Therefore, God, your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions. Let's pray.

Oh Lord, come and feed your flock. Lord, come and tend this vine. Come, equip the saints. Put the devil to flight, comfort the brokenhearted. Save any who are lost.

Bring back any who are wayward. We're just so thankful for your word to bring us into such pleasures in your presence. And so Lord come, we need you to come and accomplish your will by your power today, amen. Please be seated. So these verses show us, First of all, God's total delight in his son, and they tell us also that Jesus Christ was the happiest of all, the disciples.

The delighted God has a delighted son. And he was anointed with the oil of gladness. And yet, we've been speaking in recent days of this oil of gladness that came upon the early church in the book of Acts last Sunday, Trent preached in Acts chapter two. And we saw there the outpouring of this oil of gladness, this same oil of gladness that rested on the Lord Jesus Christ on the day of Pentecost. And of course, as was pointed out in the text, that the people thought the disciples were drunk because they were so happy and they were So uninhibited because this is what alcohol will do to you and yet the Holy Spirit does a very similar thing yet for the glory of God.

And so I wanna speak about the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, taking off from where Trent left off last Sunday, and then take us into the book of Acts, through some portions in the book of Romans, but I wanna land here in Hebrews 1, eight and nine. But this really, these words that are before us here really should cause us to ask, do I have the oil of gladness? Are you a happy person? Should you be a happy person? Or how about this question that I think about all the time?

Is this a happy church? Are you a happy church? Because the gladness of God poured out upon his son is also poured out upon his disciples, and his disciples are anointed. They are the anointed ones with the oil of gladness. I do pray for a happy church.

It's so consistent with everything that God has called us to. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom of joy. Brian Borgman in his book Feelings and Faith, he wrote it like this. He is the eternally joyful, authentically happy God who overflows with delight in his own perfections as they are perfectly reflected in his son and imperfectly and dimly reflected in His creatures. They are dimly perfected in His creatures, aren't they?

But perhaps ever so more brightened as the years go by as the process of the working of the word of God and the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart sanctifies the soul, renews even the emotions with the oil of gladness. So I wanna take off from where Trent left off in Acts 2 here. So I wanna take us on a bit of a journey into Acts 2, then Romans 5, then Romans 8, then Romans 14, and then finally down into Hebrews chapter one. But by way of reminder, in verse four in Acts two, go ahead and turn there, I wanna bounce through this text. Acts chapter two in verse four, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Others mocking said, they're full of new wine. Yes, their inhibitions had dropped and their gladness had risen. And this is of course a fulfillment of a prophecy in the prophet Joel in verse 16, but this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel. And it shall come to pass In the last days, says God, I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. And then verse 41, then those who gladly received his word were baptized.

And then verse 46, what happened to them? What kind of church did this create? So continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house. They ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

And as we've been walking through so far in the book of Romans in the first two chapters, the apostle Paul is explaining why he's not ashamed of the gospel. This is one of the reasons Paul is not ashamed of the gospel is because God changes people's lives and he tells about it in the first verses about how God completely altered his life and changed the course of it and he became actually a slave. What a happy slave he was though at the same time. And he's going to explain how he's not ashamed of the gospel over and over again. In Romans 5, 5 he says, "'Now hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom he has given to us.

The peace of God is poured out, and of course, you recognize this as one of the manifestations of the Holy Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, and ongoing. When you get to Romans chapter eight, this is the chapter of the spirit in the book of Romans. It'll be so thrilling to get there. And In the second verse in Romans 8, he's the spirit of life.

In the fourth verse, he is opposed to the flesh. In the ninth verse, he's a sign that you belong to God. And in The 13th verse, he puts to death the deeds of the body. In the 14th verse, he identifies you as the children of God. In the 15th verse, he is the spirit of adoption that cries out in your heart, Abba, Father.

In verse 16, He testifies that you're the children of God. And in verse 26, He tells you that when you don't know how to pray, how often is that? He intercedes for you. And he puts it in words that you can't put it in, because he loves you. Jesus, lover of my soul, let me to thy bosom fly.

This is the love of Jesus Christ for his children. He loves his children. He's delighted in his children. He sends his son with the oil of gladness to delight his own children. So we've seen some of these manifestations of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts, streaming up into the book of Romans, and now I would like to help us move to really the source, the source of all of this work of God in the church, this Jesus Christ loving the souls of his children.

He loves your soul. He wants to restore your soul. Isn't that an amazing thing? Where else would we go? You do not get your soul restored anywhere else but in Jesus Christ.

He is such a good shepherd. God is such a kind Father. And that's really manifested in all of what we are reading here. One of the things that I think we should grasp in what this means as the Lord Jesus Christ is loving your soul. You're not stuck with your bad emotions because you have an anointing from God.

And so here we find that this is the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's why Paul is not ashamed of the gospel because it's the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes. You know, Octavius Winslow wrote a treatise on the emotions of Christ called the sympathy of Christ, and he says this, the religion of Christ is the religion of joy. Christ came to take away our sins, to roll off our curse, to unbind our chains, to open our prison house, to cancel our debt in a word, to give us the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. This is the life of Jesus Christ.

This is the way that Jesus Christ loves his children. He loves their souls. And his life is manifested in your body through the oil of gladness, through the anointing of the Holy Spirit. And the Lord Jesus Christ made this so clear in his earthly ministry. He said this, these things I have spoken to you that my joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full.

Jesus Christ wants His children, as He loves their souls, to have a joy that they've never known, His joy. He wants to give you His joy. Everything He said, everything He wrote, was for this purpose, was that you might have his joy. I absolutely believe that this is the purpose of the universe, that God desired to enter sinners into his joy, his everlasting joy, in his everlasting kingdom of joy. For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but It's in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

In John 17, he said something very similar, 1713. He said, now I come to you and these things I speak in the world, that they may have them, they have my joy fulfilled, you know, flourished. In other words, like saturating their hearts the way that they think and the way that they are to fulfill his joy in them. And of course, we are so aware of the devil's raging attack against the joy of the Lord in our lives. He brings so many things in front of us to diminish our joy in Him.

So many distractions, so many profane images, so many silly and ridiculous things in order to dull your joy. The entertainments of this world are just such cheap imitations. But The Gospel is the Gospel of the joy. Okay, so let's move into this text in Hebrews chapter one verse nine. "'You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.

"'Therefore, God your God has anointed you "'with the oil of gladness above your companions. And this whole quotation really is a statement of God's favor toward his son. At his baptism when he was anointed, he said this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. The Father also has anointed His Son, manifested in His earthly ministry at his baptism. But in this passage is really the beauty of Jesus Christ and his love for our souls, but it's also containing the secret of his happiness.

And the secret of his happiness is for us. It's the instruction that we need if we would have these things that are here. And the first secret of Christ's happiness is that he loved righteousness. This is righteousness as a moral action. The Bible uses the word righteousness in two different ways.

One is a moral action, a moral affection, or it's also used of a state of being. The righteousness, for example, of Jesus Christ is imputed to his children. We are clothed with his robes of righteousness. His righteousness is imputed to the sinner and God sees his children as righteous. That's the state of righteousness.

That's not what he's talking about here in this verse. He's talking about righteousness as a moral action. And he says that he loved it, you have loved. He loved righteousness. Righteousness was not a hard duty.

Righteousness was a loved duty and an opportunity. And that's why he said, I delight to do your will, oh my God. He was the fulfillment of David, the man after God's own heart, and his heart was after God. And what did he love? He loved righteousness.

He loved the pure things of this world. He loved what was right. And of course we know that he perfectly kept all of God's commandments. He obeyed perfectly every commandment because sinners cannot obey perfectly his commandments. No one has ever obeyed all of his commandments with any kind of perfection.

We all fall short of the glory of God and so we need a substitute who has obeyed every law of God. This is Jesus Christ. He loved righteousness and he hated lawlessness. In Psalm 40 verse eight he says, I delight to do your will, oh my God, and your law is in my heart. That's the key.

He loved the law of God. He said in Psalm 119, 97, David, the man after God's own heart, the type of Christ, oh how I love your law. It is my meditation all the day. In Psalm 119 verse 47 he says, I will delight myself in your commandments which I love. In Psalm 119, 167, he says, my soul keeps your testimonies and I love them exceedingly.

It wasn't simply the doing of righteousness which always bears good fruit, but he loved righteousness. His eyes were attracted to God's law. This was the key to his happiness. This is the key to your happiness in mine, is to love the law of God, to saturate our minds in the holy word of God. But he was not simply loving righteousness and doing righteousness.

He hated lawlessness. He hated lawlessness. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. This word lawlessness appears in a number of places in the Bible, particularly the New Testament, and it's a word in the original language, anomia, no law or without law, and we get our English word antinomianism from that term lawlessness, no law, anti-law. And the Anointing of Jesus Christ is the consequence of this loving righteousness and hating lawlessness.

And this whole problem can be traced back to the garden. Eve experienced this emotion of desire. She delighted in what was forbidden. She did not hate lawlessness. And her affection was a forbidden affection.

Her emotions came to delight in lawlessness. And this is always the beginning of all the problem. In Genesis 3, six, so when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. But this has to do with emotions, affections for lawlessness.

Wrong, wrong emotions. As you can see in my outline here, as we work our way through these verses, I want to speak about the sanctification of our emotions next, and then, and then also the things that made the heart of Jesus glad. But there was a moment in Eve's heart where her emotions led her astray. It was her emotions, her affections that led her astray. In Psalm 101, David says, I will set nothing wicked before my eyes.

I hate the work of those who fall away. It shall not cling to me. I hate the work of those who fall away. It shall not cling to me. I hate the work of those who fall away.

This should cause every person who reads it to question our celebration of celebrities. This should cause us to question our celebration of songs that are the work of those who fall away. Should be very cautious. The words before us are more than cautious. I hate the work of those who fall away.

I hope that we are as a church are people who hate the work of those who fall away. It's so damaging to your happiness on the one hand, but it's even worse than that. David says, I hate the work of those who fall away. It shall not cling to me. A perverse heart shall depart from me.

I will not know wickedness. In Psalm 5, verse 21, he says, do I not hate them, oh God, oh Lord, who hate you, and do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with a perfect hatred. I count them my enemies. We don't want to be the kind of people who love the ones that God hates.

How often in a day are delivered up into your ears through songs, the work of those who fall away. And here I think the Lord is saying don't go there. Jesus Christ loved righteousness and He hated lawlessness. Amos 5, 14, seek good and not evil that you may live. So the Lord God of hosts will be with you.

Psalm 119, 13, I hate double-minded men, I love your law. Proverbs 6, 16 says there are six things which the Lord hates. So we have to understand that we have in this world a legitimate love-hate relationship, to hate the work of those who fall away. There's such a danger in lawlessness. Jesus spoke of it, that lawlessness actually is often manifested even in the most religious people.

And he said, he said, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, But he who does the will of my Father, in other words, these are the obedient people, which is why in the Great Commission, ministers are commanded to teach them to obey all that I've commanded. It's right to preach obedience in a church. He says, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out many demons in your name, performed many wonders in your name, and he will say, I never knew you. The most terrifying words you can ever hear. I never knew you.

But then he said, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. Lawlessness. It's very dangerous to your soul to be a lawless person. To hate the law of God. We live in an era where people hate the law of God.

But Jesus Christ, He loved the law of God. He loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. It's interesting, the very first psalm speaks of the happy person who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly or in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord. And in his law he meditates day and night, and what happens to him? He flourishes like a tree planted by rivers of water, bearing fruit in season.

And in whatever he does, he prospers. This is the fruit of what you love and what you hate. But the happiness of Jesus Christ, it first of all flowed from his love of righteousness and his hatred of lawlessness. Let's be a church like that. You know, as God shepherds his flock, he shepherds his flock to living waters.

He always takes his children to the very best pasture, and the very clearest, cleanest water. A church like that, what a blessing. In your presence is fullness of joy, at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. That might be my favorite verse in the Bible. So the first secret of the happiness of Jesus Christ, His oil of gladness was he loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.

But there's more. There was an anointing. There was an anointing. This is the second secret of his gladness. Therefore, God your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions.

It was gladness. The word that he uses actually is like a word picture of leaping. Just like a stall-fed calf that's talked about in the prophets. You know, you'll kick about like a calf, you know, running through the pasture. I don't know if you've ever seen that.

It's such a delightful scene. But it means to jump for joy. It means to leap for joy. Like the man who was healed at the beautiful gate in the book of Acts, he went walking and leaping and praising God. You should probably go home and sing that song.

But it was an anointing, notice it was an anointing by God. God, thy God, God did something. God took an action. And it's like these repetitions in the Bible. Truly, truly I say to you, God your God.

He's trying to emphasize something, that it was God who anointed his son with the oil of gladness. You can just picture that anointing. This was the treasure of Jesus Christ. His father had anointed him. But also it was God, but also it really was the essence of his name, Jesus Christ.

Christ is not Jesus' last name. Christ is his title. Christ means anointed one. Jesus, the anointed one. You could say it like that, most literally.

And he's bringing out imagery in the Old Testament about kings being anointed for their duties for the kings of Israel. Oil was poured on their heads, So you should picture this anointing. Later on in Romans, we're gonna get to this place where we're standing in grace. There's this picture of standing in grace. Grace is falling down upon your head in Jesus Christ.

But here you have this, the oil of, this anointing oil of the priests. And there's so many that were anointed this way. Saul and David and Solomon and Jehu and Joash and Jehoaz were all anointed like this. They were anointed with oil. 1 Samuel 10, one, then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on his head and kissed him and said, is it not because the Lord has anointed you commander "'over his inheritance.'" What a beautiful picture of the anointing oil, the oil of gladness.

In 1 Samuel 16, the Lord said, arise, anoint him, for this is the one. And Samuel took a horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. So you have this oil being poured out. In Acts chapter 10 verse 38, we read of this very same thing about Jesus Christ, of course.

Verse 18, or verse 38, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. This is the anointing of the presence of God. This is the way that God loves your soul. This is the way of God and the lasting joys and solid treasures that none but Zion's children know. The anointing oil had a sweet smell.

The Bible says it makes the face shine. It maintains lamps in Exodus 26 verse five. Exodus chapter 30, take for yourself quality spices, 500 shekels of liquid myrrh, half as much sweet-smelling cinnamon, and you shall make from these a holy anointing oil, an ointment compounded according to the art of the perfumer. It shall be a holy anointing oil. Picture that.

These are the metaphors of God's love toward your soul. It's fragrant aroma. The Apostle Paul says that we are an aroma of Christ. In Saint Corinthians 3.15, this is how the apostle speaks about it in the, to the Corinthian church. He says, for we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are being perishing, who are perishing.

John, the apostle in 1 John 1.20, he's speaking of believers and he tells them that they too are anointed. He says, verse 20, but you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. But, verse 27, but the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you. So it was an anointing of oil. Picture it running down.

You know Psalm 133, the oil running down David, or the priest's beard. And But it was also, you can see the impact of the anointing. It was the oil of gladness. It wasn't just any kind of oil, it was the oil of gladness. Jesus Christ, the anointed one, anointed by the Holy Spirit at his baptism.

He has an anointing of gladness. We learn in John chapter three that it was an anointing without measure. The believer is called to be filled with the Holy Spirit. We're not always as we ought to be, but the anointing of Jesus was complete. Oh, it was last year, most of us went to a conference called the Chief End of Man.

What is the chief end of man? Man's chief end is to glorify God and Enjoy him forever. Enjoy him. Why, how? Because he loves your soul.

Because he anoints you with the same anointing with which he was anointed. It's so amazing. And notice it was a powerful, it was a powerful anointing. More than your companions. More than, Jesus Christ was the happiest man who ever lived.

He was happier than all the prophets. He was happier than all the priests. He was happier than all the happy saints that streamed to worship God. He was the happiest of all the disciples. His joy was distinguished from all other joy.

It was complete, it was without measure. You can always see what it looks like to be a truly happy man by seeing Jesus Christ in his word. You know, I'm very disturbed, I'm very disturbed with people who try to depict Jesus Christ. There's a very popular movie about, called The Chosen. It's nothing more than a massive second commandment violation.

Because in the second commandment, we're prohibited from making pictures of Jesus to try to illustrate him in pictures. It's sinful to do that. There is no way Anyone in a film could capture the happiness of Jesus Christ. Everything in that film is a disfiguring of Jesus Christ, not a revealing of him. You cannot capture him like that.

You cannot picture him. All of the imagery of Jesus Christ, whether it's in a kiddie Bible or wherever it is, they always mislead. They always take you in the wrong direction. Because he was never meant to be made into a movie. God gave us words to describe him.

He is infinitely beautiful. You cannot capture him in a film. You only mangle his image in a film. Because he was the happiest of all the disciples. How do you capture that?

You cannot capture it with any kind of accuracy at all. And that's why it is a terrible second commandment violation, yet very profitable second commandment violation. In Hebrews chapter 3.14, we learn that we, I'm quoting, we have become partakers of Christ. We have become partakers. And we have this anointing, this anointing of the oil of gladness, and it never can be taken away.

I was reading somewhere, I can't remember where it was, about a tyrant who was threatening a believer. And he said, I will destroy your home. He said, but you cannot destroy my peace. He said, I will confiscate your goods, but you cannot rob my peace. I will banish you from your country.

I will take my peace with me. This is the anointing of the oil of gladness. It's transportable into every trial, through every joy, in the midst of every sorrow. The oil of gladness flows in the times of sadness, in trouble, in loss. The oil of gladness is an ever flowing stream that never runs dry.

This is Jesus' love for your soul. He loves your soul. He wants your soul not to be captured by the evil destructor who would destroy your soul. Let's talk about the sanctification of our emotions. We've seen what Jesus Christ wants to do, even actually with your emotions.

And the Bible teaches us that the oil of gladness is transportable everywhere, and we could spend quite a bit of time talking about that. Jesus experienced trouble in his soul. He cried out, yet he cried out to God, and he said, yet not my will, but thine be done. His soul was troubled, but he wanted to do the will of God. Jesus Christ possessed a perfect mixture of emotions for the glory of God.

You can see him in Mark 1 with compassion and sternness. You can see him in John 11. On the one hand, he weeps with compassion at the death of his friend Lazarus, but then he's angry at the same moment. He experiences all of the emotions yet with purity. He was angry with the Pharisees in Mark chapter 141.

He was moved with pity. He had righteous anger only. John Calvin says he kept his emotions under the control of his father in the experience of all of his emotions. And When your emotions are running wild, what should you do? God's will should bring your emotions into control.

It's very important that we understand that God's will is more important and more life-giving than our emotions often. And our emotions need to be shaped by the truth. Often our emotions mangle the truth. They contradict the truth. And emotions should always be judged and sanctified by the truth, not by the emotions themselves.

Brian Borgman, he says this, any attempt to sanctify the emotions, detoxify ourselves of hazardous emotions, and cultivate godly emotions must be built on the firm foundation of Christian truth. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, and we should always evaluate and dissect our emotions by the truth, not by the emotions themselves. We live in a world where people objectify their emotions and they almost worship their emotions and they just sink deeper and deeper into them, even though they might be ungodly emotions. There is such a thing as ungodly emotions. And Often in sanctifying our emotions, it means to do what the apostle told the Corinthian church, to cast down arguments in every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought captive into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

There are thoughts and emotions that need to be brought into captive obedience to Christ. And God gives us the spirit. So there are ungodly emotions. I'm not referring to chemical imbalances and medical conditions and physical problems that make you feel bad. I'm not talking about that.

I'm talking about ungodly emotions. Jealousy, anger, envy. Paul says to the Ephesian church, let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you and with all malice. You have depression, which is turning your back on God's goodness. You have resentment, which is turning your back on God's love.

You have maliciousness, which is turning your back on God's mercy. You have self-pity which is turning your back on God's sovereignty. You have self-loathing which is to turn your back on God's design. You have despair which is to turn your back on God's providence. You have lust which is turning your back on God's love.

So there are ungodly emotions. Fear, fear might be one of the most prominent ungodly emotions. It's actually a prohibited fear. It's a fear against the command of God. And the command do not fear or fear not in various variations is the most repeated command imperative in the Bible, over 300 times probably.

The Bible teaches us how to deal with our fears. Do not fear the future, Isaiah 41, 10. Do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you.

I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. There's fear of worthlessness in Luke 12, seven. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows.

There's fear of aloneness. In Deuteronomy 31, six, it's addressed, be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or terrified because of them, For the Lord your God goes with you. He will never leave you or forsake you. There's fear of weakness in Deuteronomy 3.22. Do not be afraid of them.

The Lord God himself will fight for you. The Lord will fight for you. Some of the sweetest words in the Bible, really. There's fear of enemies. Psalm 27, the Lord is my light and my salvation.

Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid. When my enemies came against me to eat up my flesh, my enemies and foes, they stumbled and fell. There's fear of defenselessness. Psalm 118, six, the Lord is on my side, I will not fear.

What can man do to me? There's anxiety. Jesus says in Luke 12, 25, and which of you by worrying can add one cubit from his stature? In Philippians 4, six, we're commanded to rejoice always and to pray without ceasing. You know, there are many sins that flow out of anxiety, of indolence and laziness and self-pity and covetousness and theft and lying, all of these things flow out of anxiety.

And that's why it's such a great sin to continue in anxious thoughts. And why so often God wants to pull you out of your anxious thoughts. Jesus said, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? You know, we're talking about the oil of gladness above all his companions, and also the way the enemy of our souls wants to pull us into anxiety, into ungodly emotions. And we just feed our emotions, we baptize them and hang with them and satisfy them with songs and other discouraging thoughts. Lloyd Jones, he said this, have you realized that most of your unhappiness is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning.

You have not originated them, but they are talking to you. They bring back the problems of yesterday. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you.

Now this man's treatment in Psalm 42 is this. Instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. Why art thou cast down, oh my soul, he asks. His soul has been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says, listen, soul, listen for a moment, I will speak to you.

David, in that Psalm, he's speaking to his soul. He's actually rebuking his soul. Some of us need to rebuke our souls and recognize that Jesus is the lover of your soul and he wants to deliver your soul. Emotions are not our guide. They're a gauge, they're not a guide.

They're a thermometer, not a thermostat. They're like a warning light on the dashboard of your car. They're like a check engine light. So we have before us this matter of the oil of gladness and these ungodly emotions that compete with one another in our souls. And some of our emotions are sinful emotions.

We need to declare them to be sinful emotions. This is disobedience to God. Languishing in anxiety is disobedience to God. It's rebellion against God and it's a sin that should be repented of. That's why there are so many commands not to fear, because it's sinful to fall into sinful fear.

John Owen stated the question I really wanted to ask in his book, The Mortification of Sin. Do you mortify? Do you make it your daily work? Be killing sin or it will be killing you. But the Lord Jesus Christ dispenses his oil of gladness upon his people.

This is how he loves your soul. To console those who mourn in Zion, Isaiah 61, three. To give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they may be called the trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that they may be glorified. And what do they do? What do these happy people do?

Verse four, they shall build the old ruins. They shall raise up the former desolations. They shall repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations. That's what many of you are doing. You're restoring many things that the generations were destroying.

You're bringing righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit back into your families that you didn't grow up that way. But God, God who loves your soul, He anointed his son with the oil of gladness who rises up to anoint his children with the oil of gladness, even in all of their sadness. God is so good. God is so good. There's so many implications of this.

I don't have time to develop the things that made the heart of Jesus glad, but let me just summarize it like this. What made him glad was to rescue his children. And there are many, many places that prove that. You know, as you're raising your children, you need to recognize that your children can control their emotions. You need to teach your children to control their emotions because all of their emotions are not good.

And you need to teach them to repent of ungodly emotions as you so do the same. Jesus, lover of my soul, let me to thy bosom fly. I'll close with this, Psalm 139, 23. Search me, oh God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxieties and see if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.

Lord, Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the beauty of holiness. We thank you for your love for our souls, for the anointing of the oil of gladness, for your desire to reshape our whole internal selves as the power of the gospel moves in our hearts. The anointing is made known in the world. And you use your children to rebuild the ruins as your happy warriors, your glad saints who love you.

Lord, I pray that you would manifest your glory in all these ways in this little local church, that you would sanctify this church in the truth, for your word is truth. Amen.