Joe: Hi, I'm Joe.
Tom: And I'm Tom.
Joe: Today we are continuing our fellowship from Chapter 2 in Volume 1 of the "Basic Elements of the Christian Life".
The topic of our discussion today is "The Joy of Salvation".
Tom, whenever someone is saved, and you know in the previous sections we've discussed about how
they can be assured of their salvation and also how their salvation is secure.
But there is another question that has come up related to why we lose the joy of our salvation.
So maybe when we're first save we're full of joy, we're very happy, but over time we can lose this joy.
Can you share with us a little bit about this and how we can maintain our joy?
Tom: Joe, once we know that we're saved and we can't lose our salvation, still there may be the consideration,
"Well, I still don't feel like I'm saved and I used to feel like I was saved but somehow now I don't.
So then what's wrong? Maybe I thought I lost it, but you told me I didn't."
Well we didn't lose the eternal salvation,
but we have to realize that there are things that can cause us to lose the joy of salvation.
So we need to do something to maintain the joy.
And so there's four things that the book touches that will be factors to maintain this joy.
And the first we really like to get into is this matter of confessing our sins.
Second, we need to have a healthy touch with the Word of God.
We need to pray that we could enjoy the Lord and we need to have fellowship with other believers in Christ.
All of these things are means to preserve the joy of our salvation.
So you mentioned this point about confessing our sins
and how it is related to maintaining the joy of our salvation.
Can you talk a little bit more about that?
The first point which is really primary, I think, to every Christian
especially when it comes to the matter of maintaining the joy, is this matter of confession.
And we can see it clearly in 1 John 1:7 and 9.
It says, "But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another,
and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanse us from every sin.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins
and cleanses us from all unrighteousness."
So there are two things: On God's side, there's forgiveness.
And the forgiveness is something that is related to what the Lord Jesus did with His precious blood.
But on our side, there's the confession.
So God is willing to forgive, but we have to confess.
So yes, we have committed sins.
So what do we need to do? We simply need to confess those sins to the Lord.
And then, based on His word we believe that His blood cleanses us from those sins.
And in this way we restore our joy with the Lord.
Joe: I really like this point. I know in my experience whenever I lose the joy of salvation,
like you mentioned, the primary reason is related to confessing sins.
So what we can realize is that sins are the main thing that frustrate us from having the joy of our salvation.
But based on this verse in 1 John, we know that if we confess our sins
God is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
So even in a daily way we can practice just to confess our sins.
In this way, we can maintain the joy of our salvation.
Tom, thank you for joining us again today.
Thank you all for joining us and we look forward to having more fellowship more again soon.