All right, let's take our Bibles
and turn with me to the book of Psalms chapter 105. Psalm chapter 105. I've entitled this message, Give
Thanks Unto the Lord. I'd like to deal with the first
six verses of this of this psalm, Psalm 105 verses 1 to 6. We're commanded to give thanks
unto the Lord. Look it over, Psalm 106 verse
1. Praise ye the Lord, O give thanks
unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. Give thanks. In our greatest
afflictions, trials, tribulations, we know, according to the word
of God, we know that all of these are sent graciously by the Lord,
but the scripture declares us in everything, everything, give
thanks. We all know this, that the Lord
has, mercy and for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ, He's given
us because of Him who has borne our debt. We personally have
experienced His grace much less than we deserve. The Lord is
good. He's bountiful. His blessings
to us are innumerable. And so therefore we know that
we are to give thanks unto the Lord. But we don't do it as we ought.
We don't know how. That's been my experience. I
don't know how to be thankful. We're frail creatures of the
dust and we need guidance, we need direction, instruction from
the Holy Spirit to know How do you give thanks unto the Lord?
I think about things that have happened, experiences, and then
I think back on them and I just, I don't know how to give thanks.
A week ago yesterday, Glenda calls
me. She's going to see Glenn. He
had just gotten in the hospital there and she's going to see
him. And she calls me here at the
church And she says, I'm OK, but I've been in a wreck. All
I heard was, I've been in a wreck. That's all I heard, Dick. I was thankful. But then later,
I realized I didn't know how to be thankful. I get to think
of what could have been, but for the grace of God. But I know
that the scripture says, Psalm 105, verse 1, Give thanks unto the Lord. And so this morning, I pray that
the Spirit of God will teach us something concerning giving
thanks. Like I said, we don't know how
to give thanks. I don't know how to give thanks. But bless
God, the Spirit of God has told us something here. And I look
at that passage and I'm not very good in English. But I do know
that when I see a semicolon, I know that everything that follows
that is going to be saying the same thing, but it's going to
give a description. It's going to tell you in detail
what it was talking about. So I'm thankful for that semicolon
after Lord. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord. How is that, Lord? Well, here's
the first thing He says. Call upon His name. Or rather, address him in a proper
manner. That's what that means. Address
him properly. Now, I realized immediately as
soon as I said that how can I call upon him in a proper manner? How can I express unto the Lord
to him in a way that I should Well, he revealed himself to
Moses in the burning bush. He revealed himself to Moses
as the God of covenant mercy. This is what he said when Moses
came to that burning bush and he was going to look, and the
Lord told him, he said, Moses, you take your shoes off. Wear
your standings holy ground. And he revealed himself to Moses
like this, Exodus 3, 6, I am the God of Abraham. the God of
Isaac, and the God of Jacob. So according to the Scriptures,
we give thanks unto the Lord when we recognize, and from our
heart, call upon Him as the covenant God. This is who you are. Whenever he told Moses, he said,
I want you to go into Egypt, and I want you to tell Pharaoh
to let my people go. And Moses said, well who shall
I say sent me? This is what the Lord told him.
He said, you answer this way. You tell them, I am that I am. I am has sent you. Who is he? Well, he's the all-sufficient,
eternal I am. That's who he is. So we give
thanks unto the Lord when we call upon him in a proper manner. I listen to how people speak
of Him disrespectfully. I don't even want to say it.
You know what I'm thinking about calling Him, you know. You give thanks unto the Lord
when you address Him properly. was spoken to by the Spirit of
God, and this is what Isaiah wrote down. For unto us, this
is Isaiah 9.6, a child is born unto us, a son is given, and
the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall
be called Wonderful. Counselor, the mighty God, the
everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, we address Him as He
reveals Himself to be. Luke penned these words, Luke
1, 31, 32, Thou shalt call His name Jesus, For he shall be great,
and shall be called the Son of the Highest. Revelation 19.12,
He hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King
of kings and Lord of lords. The Lord told his disciples in
John 13.13, You call me master and Lord, you say well, for I
am. So we give thanks unto the Lord
when we truly desire, and I'm going to admit it, and you'll
agree with me, I know you will, we really, we don't know how
to properly address Him as He should be, with a proper title,
with a proper heart, but we thank the Lord. because we know that
He is. He is our God, our covenant God,
our Lord, showing mercy and compassion to us. That is being thankful. Then the scripture says, and
make known His deeds among the people. Now, again, a believer
is going to have to admit I'm not adequate to To exhaust this
blessed subject, how can we make known the fullness of His deeds
among people? That's what He says, O give thanks
unto the Lord, call upon His name, and make known His deeds
unto His people. I will say this, Lord, I know
I can't exhaust that, but I'll tell you what I can do. I can
say what I know. I heard Brother Henry, I was
listening to a message the other day that he was preaching. He
said, he remembered hearing Ralph Barnard say this. He said, you
can't speak about what you don't know any more than you could
come back from somewhere you've never been. But I tell you this,
we don't know a lot. We see through a glass darkly,
but we see. There's some things that we do know. We can speak
of him, who is eternal and has eternally loved His people. I
know that. To make known His deeds, He's
revealed that He's always loved His own. He's revealed to us
that He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.
The Scriptures reveal that He redeemed us. I don't even know
the depth of what He's redeemed me from, but I know He has. I
know He's finished the work. That work that I don't even know
how to talk about. The Spirit of God has given a new heart. He's taken out a heart of stone. It doesn't have dominion over
me anymore. And He's given me a new love
for Him. And the more I think and the more I contemplate and
the more I try to say about it, the more I realize how much I
don't know, how stupid I really am. But I know this. He's told me that He's given
me the earnest of His Spirit. He's given me a portion of my
inheritance. And I know this, He's told me
that He's coming back to get us. That where He is, there we
may be also. I know that. Whenever that demoniac of Gadara
had wanted to go with the Lord, The Lord told him, Luke 8, 39. He said, I want you to return
to thine own house and show how great things God has done for
thee. So we give thanks unto the Lord.
We call upon his name and we make known his deeds among the
people. We tell people what the Lord
has done for us as well as we can. And then the scripture says
concerning giving thanks unto the Lord. Sing unto him. Sing
songs unto Him. Talk ye of all His wondrous works. Sing before the Lord. Sing songs
that magnify His name and publish His glory. That gospel that gives
all the honor and glory and praise unto Him. We don't preach one
thing and sing another. We sing unto the Lord the gospel
that we believe. So when we sing these songs,
we sing, we want to look at them and if we see something that
bothers us, we make a change, we change a word or something
like that. We don't want to say anything
that's disrespectful to him. Why? Because we give him thanks.
Lord, I don't want to even sing anything. that would detract
from your glory and give man anything to boast in. Talk ye of all his wondrous works. I'm reminded of that passage
of scripture in Malachi 3.16, when he says, talk ye of all
his wondrous works. This just amazes me, this passage
of scripture. Then they that feared the Lord
reverenced him. spake often one to another, and
the Lord hearkened and heard it. And a book of remembrance
was written before him for them that feared the Lord and that
thought upon his name. Speaking, talking, talking of
all these wonderful, talking one another. When we talk to
one another concerning the Lord, and that's what believers do,
you know what the Spirit of God says you're doing? You're giving
thanks unto the Lord. Two on the road to Emmaus, after
our Lord's crucifixion and burial, they were talking together about
the things that had recently happened. And the Lord came to
them. Their eyes were holding, they
didn't know who He was. And He expounded unto them, the
scripture says, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, all
the scriptures, the things concerning Himself, And the scripture says
after he appeared as though he was going to keep going, you
know, and they constrained him, said, no, come in, you know.
And their eyes were open. They saw him. He left them. But
after they began to think on what they had heard from his
lips, they said, oh, didn't our hearts burn as he opened unto
us the scriptures? But the scripture reveals. that they're talking together.
They were giving thanks unto the Lord. Look at verse 3. Glory
ye in His holy name. Glory ye in His
holy name. Make it a matter of joy that
you have God Almighty to boast in. That's what it is. in the
Lord. Glory ye in his name. That you
can boast in him and also that glory in his name it also has
this meaning to be clear before men concerning him. That which he's taught you. Make
a boast and be clear before men. God's people Don't want to be
vague about the God they serve. I want you to understand exactly
what I'm talking about. I want you to hear what I'm saying
and I want to celebrate in what I'm proclaiming with a heart
that's been made thankful. I don't want to detract from
Him His glory by not being clear concerning these scriptures.
Man by nature boasts in himself. He boasts in his ability and
his strength, his works, but God's people have been taught
who He is. Again, I'll say it again, I know
we see through a glass darkly, but we do see and we are thankful
that we can boast in Him. He loved me. God chose me. God redeemed me. God called me. God saved me.
God keeps me. Glory ye in His holy name. And let the heart of them rejoice
that seek the Lord. Let those that have been given
a heart of reverence, true reverence, Be glad that they're permitted. That's what it's talking about.
When it says, let the heart of them rejoice and seek the Lord,
I'm glad that He has permitted me to search for Him. That He's given me a heart to
be inclined to seek Him that has been taught something of
who He is. I'm thankful that He who is holy
and mighty and good and gracious would permit me. He could have
left me to myself and I'd have gone straight to hell in absolute
rebellion. But I'm thankful, I'm thankful
that He's given me a heart to rejoice and to seek Him, search
after Him. Jeremiah 29.13 says, and ye shall
seek me and find me when you shall search
for me with all your heart, with all your heart. Man, I read something
like that and I think, oh. John Calvin wrote this on that
particular passage of scripture. He said, and I'm so thankful
he did, we know that we don't seek or search in perfection,
but we do it sincerely. I thought that's the truth. Lord,
I see something in my frailty. And I know, I know, that I'm
a frail piece of dust. But Lord, I want to. I desire
to. I want to seek you. How do God's
people seek the Lord? We seek the Lord in hearing the
gospel. You realize that... Okay, going
right back to this. Seeking the Lord. Glory in His
name, and let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord. Do
you realize that seeking the Lord and hearing the gospel,
being here to want to hear, you're thanking the Lord. That's thankful. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord.
How do I do that? You hear what He has to say.
You listen to His gospel. Whenever we go into our closets,
When you pray, that's what the Lord says, when you pray, enter
into your closet, wherever, you get alone, you get somewhere
by yourself, you get where you can just have some private time,
whatever that is, whatever it is. Whenever you're seeking the
Lord in prayer, asking, pouring out your heart before Him, what
are you doing? You're thanking Him. Whenever
you search the Scriptures, like those in Berea that search the
Scriptures daily to see if these things were so, whenever you
hear the Gospel preached and you take the Word of God and
you look at it and you ask the Lord for direction and you're
thanking the Lord. I'm thankful that God would give
me a heart to search for Him, be permitted to search for Him.
being thankful unto Him. We thank the Lord when we strive
to seek and worship as He has revealed Himself to be. Verse
4, seek the Lord and His strength. That word seek right there is
different than the word seek in verse 3. This word seek, it
means to frequent, do it frequently. Frequent. And follow after Him
who is your strength. Seek to be strengthened only
by Him. Now, let me ask you this. What
can I do for myself? I don't have sense enough to
get out of the rain. I know something of how weak I really am and how
unable I am to keep myself. How can I keep myself? I don't
know what's going to happen tomorrow. I don't know what's going to
happen here in the next two seconds. But I follow after Him who is
my strength. I'm fearful about everything. because of my weakness, but I
know that He's ordering all things after the counsel of His own
will. I know that He's doing exactly what He's purposed to
do, and I know He said, I'm not going to leave you, I'm not going
to forsake you. I'm so thankful for that, because I need to seek
Him. I need to seek Him who is my
strength. He is the mighty God, God Almighty. And I know that He has promised,
He said, I'm going to uphold you, I'm going to support you.
Therefore, my strength is in Him. Seek the Lord and His strength,
and seek His face forever. Seek His presence and His favor. Lord, You've promised. You've
promised that you're going to show mercy and compassion to
your people. Lord, would you show mercy and
compassion to me? Lord, would you save me? I've
said this before. How many times have you heard
somebody talk about when they were saved? And it's always something
in the past. Believers speak of salvation
right now. I understand. I do understand
what they're saying when they realize and they remember a time
when they look back when the Lord I can tell you this. I've told you this before. I
think about when the Lord revealed Himself to me. I could tell you
about when it was. It was kind of during a year
period. Something like that. But to be
able to tell you concerning salvation, when the Lord truly... And I
went from darkness to light. I know I did. But I don't know. But when it comes to salvation,
today. is the day of salvation. Seek
His face forever. Seek Him who is the truth. Call
upon Him who is our strength. And again, when we seek His face,
right now, when does a person come to Christ? Right now. I
told you before, yesterday's faith is water under the bridge. Right now, verses 5 and 6. Remember His
marvelous works that He hath done, His wonders, and the judgments
of His mouth. O ye seed of Abraham, His servant,
ye children of Jacob, His chosen. Now, in closing, I put these
two together And I'm going to make mention of the 6th verse
first, and then go back to verse 5. But who's he talking to? Well, the Spirit of God reminds
the Lord's people of their standing in Christ. He's telling us, you are God's
elect. You are the seed of Abraham. What does that mean? that He
is our God of covenant, mercy, and compassion. We are the servants,
the bond slaves of the Lord, of the Most High God, He who
has everlastingly loved us and placed us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now when you stop and think concerning
Almighty God, choosing to show mercy. Choosing to show mercy
to you. Just contemplate this for a minute.
Lord, thank you. Lord, if you'd have left me to
myself, I'd have been just happy-go-lucky. I'd have been completely satisfied
with what I was doing. I was doing real good in religion.
I was very proud of myself. You could have left me to myself
going straight to hell. But Lord, thank you for reminding
me every time the Lord brings back to our memories that we
are his servants, children of Jacob. You remember Jacob, the
supplanter, the trickster, the liar, the cheat. That's Jacob. But the Lord said, Jacob I've
loved. He saw I hated. What is my standing before God? Not in myself. I am what I am
by the grace of God. That's what I'm reminded of.
So to those that have been chosen of God, called of God, now I'm
going to look at verse 5 in closing. Remember his marvelous works. that he hath done, his wonders,
and the judgments of his mouth. Remember his marvelous works
that he hath done. I read that again and every one
of these verses just really causes me to contemplate my inability. Remember his marvelous works
that he has done, his wonders, the judgments of his mouth. Mr. Spurgeon said this, he said,
by nature, we're prone to remember foolish things. You know I don't
have a problem remembering silly, stupid things. I mean, I can
recall all those things, but our memory is never employed
in a better way than when we remember the marvelous works
of Almighty God. I was thinking about these marvelous
works and I looked in my Bible, there's a reference there to
Psalm 72, 18 concerning these marvelous works. This is what
the Lord moved upon the psalmist to write concerning the marvelous
works, the wondrous works of God. Blessed be the Lord God,
the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. What are the
marvelous things that the Lord has done? Everything that He's
done is wonderful. Everything that He's done is
marvelous. We remember and thank the Lord that He's done what
He's done in creation, in providence, and in salvation, when the Lord
created everything. Now he summed up, the Lord Himself,
summed up what He had done in that marvelous work. Here's what
it said, Genesis 1.31, And God saw everything that He had made,
and behold, it was very good. What has the Lord done in creation? Everything good. In Providence,
remembering His marvelous works, And we know, Romans 8, 28, that
all things work together for good to them that love God, to
them who are the called according to His purpose. What has He done
marvelously in Providence? What has He done? Everything
good. All things work together for
good. And in salvation, I think about
what He said to Moses, Exodus 33, 19. Here's what it is, I'll
make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the
name of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom
I'll be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. Oh, verse 5, remember his marvelous
works that he's done. Creation, governing everything,
saving his people, John 1, 11-13, He came unto His own, His own
received Him not, but as many as received Him. To them gave
He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe
on His name, which were born not of blood, nor the will of
the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. What is the marvelous
work in salvation? Jonah said like this, Salvation
is of the Lord. And when we recognize that everything
that God does is good and marvelous, we thank the Lord. Thank you. So we remember His marvelous
works that He's done, His wonders, and the judgments of His mouth. And here judgments speak of mercy
in the Lord Jesus Christ and the surety of destruction. of
all who bow not to His Son, the Lord Jesus. The judgment of God.
The declaration of His will. I've said this before. It makes
it a little easier for me to understand. When I talk about
the judgments of God, it doesn't mean necessarily condemnation. It means the call of the judge.
When all the evidence is presented, and a judge is going to have
to say, well, I'm going to judge this way. acquittal, condemnation. He made the judgment based on
the evidence. When he looks upon his people
in Christ, this is what the judgment of God is. There's therefore
now no condemnation to them which be in Christ Jesus, who walk
not after the flesh but after the spirit. When those stand
before the Lord in the day of judgment, Matthew 7, and they
began to tell the Lord all they've done, all the mighty works they've
done. They cast out devils in His name, preached in His name.
We've done many mighty works in Your name. You know what His
judgment is? I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of
iniquity. God doesn't make idle threats. He doesn't say that
which He doesn't mean. His word to save those that He's
loved, is sure. His word to judge and cast out
those who rebel against Him is sure. He's a just God and a Savior. So in giving thanks unto the
Lord, O give thanks unto the Lord. Call upon His name. Make known His deeds among the
people. Sing unto Him. Sing psalms unto
Him. Talk ye of all his wondrous works. Glory ye in his holy name. Let the heart of them rejoice
that seek the Lord. Seek the Lord and his strength.
Seek his face evermore. Remember his marvelous works
that he hath done, his wonders and the judgments of his mouth.
O ye seed of Abraham, his servant, ye children of Jacob, his chosen. I pray God be pleased. to bless
this Word to our hearts and give us some understanding. When Scripture
says, give thanks unto the Lord, remember that. He didn't make
that statement. He didn't make that command without
giving us some instruction on how it's to be done. We do believe
Him. We pray, Lord, help our unbelief. But we do believe.