Go with me if you would back
to Psalm 100. Psalm 100 and let's read verse
4. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving. and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless
his name. This coming Thursday is a holiday
that we and many people in this country will celebrate and it's
called Thanksgiving. Even though the origin of that
holiday, it didn't start with the spiritual things of God.
I would say, I believe that every true believer in and on the Lord
Jesus Christ, every person who is truly casting their all on
Christ. I mean, he is it, he is all their
hope. Every believer in that case,
I would venture to say this is the holiday they embrace the
most. This is the one they welcome
the most and enjoy celebrating the most. And the reason is because
when it comes to everything that Christ has done, and we emphasize
with a very heavy done, when we dwell on the body he broke, When we dwell on the blood he
spilled, when we dwell on the life he
gave, the sin he carried, the debt he paid, the suffering he
endured, the redemption that he accomplished. When a sinner
enters into every bit of that, I believe the number one response,
when we truly enter into those things, I believe the number
one emotional response is thankfulness. I believe it is. Happy, humble,
broken thankfulness. It's humbling, isn't it? When
a sinner enters into what Christ has done for him, pride is not
even in the vocabulary. It is humbling. It brings you
so low, dwelling on how low he went for you. Happy, I mean happy. Happy is he that has the God
of Jacob for his help, but thankful. Very thankful. Look at Psalm
92 with me. Psalm 92 verse 1 says, it is
a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord and to sing praises
unto thy name, O most high. That's a good thing. That's a
good thing. Let's not just give thanks to
him on Thursday. Let's give thanks to him right
now. Right now. Let's have a Thanksgiving
tonight. Maybe our Lord will feed us a
spiritual Thanksgiving meal. Go with me back to Psalm 100.
The heading just under Psalm 100, just under the title, it
says a Psalm of praise. And if you look at the margin,
For the word praise, it says, Thanksgiving. This is a Psalm
for Thanksgiving. Number one, verse number one,
it says, make a joyful noise unto the Lord. Make a joyful
noise. What he's saying is, Let's let
something come out of our mouths that is joyful to the Lord. Let's let something come out
of our mouths that is sent to him make a joyful noise unto
the Lord. But as it enters his ears, David
said, bow down your ear to me. As it enters his ears, may it
be something that is joyful to him. Make a joyful noise unto
the Lord. The only way that's possible,
our Lord said, out of the heart, the mouth will speak. Isn't that
right? The only way that's possible, The only way to make a joyful
noise is if there's a joyful heart. There must first be a
joyful heart. Now what creates a joyful heart
in a sinner? I mean a real sinner. What creates absolute joy in
a real sinner? The answer is Seeing the sacrifice
for sin. That's the answer. That's what
creates absolute joy in a center. Seeing the sacrifice for his
sin. Verse one says, make a joyful noise unto the Lord. All ye lands. If you look at the margin for
that, it says all the earth. Make a joyful noise all the earth. Let everything in the earth. Give thanks. Everything, just
like that story. Of Brother Burke. That man saw
his sin. He went, heard the gospel and
he saw his sin. He saw the sacrifice for sin
on the way home. He said. I heard the trees clapping
their hands. I heard the birds singing. I heard the stream babbling. They all said, we're glad you're
saved. Let everything, everything make
a joyful noise. Everything. That's what creates
a joyful noise in this heart. See in that sacrifice for sin.
Verse one says, make a joyful noise unto the Lord. All ye lands
serve the Lord with gladness. Serving the Lord will bring gladness. If we don't seem to have much
gladness, if we seem to be low in the gladness department, The
remedy for that is serving the Lord. That's the remedy. How do we do that? How does a
sinner serve the Lord? Look with me at Matthew 25. Matthew 25, verse 31, it says, When the Son of Man shall come
in His glory and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He
sit upon the throne of His glory. And before Him shall be gathered
all nations, and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd
divideth his sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on
his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the king
say unto them on his right hand, come ye blessed of my father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. For I was in hungered and you
gave me meat. I was thirsty and you gave me
drink. I was a stranger and you took
me in. naked and you clothed me? I was
sick and you visited me? I was in prison and you came
unto me? Then shall the righteous answer
him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee and hungered and fed thee,
or thirsty and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger and
took thee in, or naked and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick
or in prison and came unto thee? And the king shall answer and
say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as you have done
it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it
unto me. We can show our thanks And we
can show our gratitude to our Lord by showing our thanks and
our gratitude to each other. He said, if you want to show
it to me, show it to them. I'm in them. Show it to them. Go with me back to Psalm 100. Verse one says, make a joyful
noise unto the Lord all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before his presence with
singing. Charles Spurgeon said, singing
is delightful. He said, but singing in God's
presence. He said, that's heavenly. He said, when we come together,
I am afraid that we sometimes go through the tune mechanically. And the words languish on our
lips. He said, I wish whenever we sing,
we would sing as though we were in the presence of God. Well,
guess what? When we're gathered together,
we are. Does it ever strike you? It strikes
me. Sometimes I say it often, I think
about it often, but sometimes it really gets a hold of me that
our God said, the one who cannot lie said, where two or three
are gathered in my name, I am in the midst of you. The presence of God. That's something
to give thanks for. That is something to give thanks
for. You know, we envision, we think about, we dwell on one
day being in his presence, right? We're going to be able to walk
up to him, stand next to him. You know that account in Acts
where Paul was on trial, brought before trial, and the Lord was
right there the whole time standing next to him. He didn't know it
until he whispered in his ear. And we're waiting for the moment
where we can stand next to him, where he said, where two or three
are gathered in my name, I'm standing right there with you. I have no idea. Something to give thanks for.
He's not standing with everybody. Here's another thing to give
thanks for. Verse three says, know ye that the Lord He is God. We have so much reason to rest. We have so much reason to be
at peace. We have so much reason to not
fear. As Rahab said to those two spies,
she said, the Lord your God, He is God. He is. He is in absolute control. I'm so thankful for that. Everything is in His hands. Everything. I am truly grateful. I'm thankful that we have one
day out of the year specifically designated to give thanks. We
ought to spend all day just giving thanks. I'm thankful for that. Everything is in His hands. Everything. My life Every single thing about
my life, every single thing is in his hands. Every single thing
about my wife's life, my children's life is in his hands. Everything about your life is
in his hands. I love that. This ministry is
in his hands. I worry about you so much. And it comforts my heart to know
you're in His hands. You are in His hands. My salvation,
their salvation, your salvation is in His hands. It's not up
to me to save anybody. I love that. I want to give thanks
for that all day. And I'm not waiting till Thursday.
It's in His hands. The preaching is all in His hands. the applying of it to the hearts
that's all in his hands. I cannot hinder his work. That's one of my own personal
greatest requests to him. Lord, let me not be a hindrance
to the message. Could you please, please remove
me? Please just remove me. I can't
mess it up. I cannot alter his will or his
purpose. Everything is ordered and sure. And I'm thankful, very thankful
for that. So thankful he is God. I love
the story of when the queen of Sheba came to see Solomon. when
it was all over and she saw all of his greatness this is what
she said she was taken with him all of his greatness and this
is what she said and i adore this she said because the lord
loved israel forever therefore made he the king to do judgment
and justice because God loved those people. He made you king,
greatest king ever known. And that's Christ. And I'm so
thankful he's God. I'm just thankful he's God. Grateful. Verse three says, know ye that
the Lord, he is God. It is he that hath made us and
not we ourselves. Do you see the margin for, and
not we ourselves? It says, and his we are. It is he that hath made us and
his we are. David said in Psalm 139, I will
praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. He made
us. And David said, I'm fearfully
and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works and that
my soul knoweth right well. We do give him thanks for the
life that he's given us. We're grateful for that, but
we have another reason to give him thanks. Go with me over to
second Corinthians chapter five. 2nd Corinthians 5 verse 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature. David said, I'm fearfully and
wonderfully made. And we are, and we were grateful for that,
but we fail. We ruined the life he gave us. And if any man be in Christ,
he's made to be a brand new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. What does that mean? Verse 21,
he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin. that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. What a reason to
give thanks. What a reason to give thanks.
Go with me to John 10. As you're going there, I'm going
to read to you the next line in the text. Psalm 100 verse
3 says, Know ye that the Lord, He is God, It is He that hath
made us and not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep
of His pasture." We're His people and we're the sheep of His pasture.
Now, these words right here are words to give thanks for. John
10 verse 7, then said Jesus unto them, again, verily, verily,
I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came
before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.
I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he
shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. The thief cometh not but for
to steal and to kill and to destroy. I am come that they might have
life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the
good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling and
not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf
coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth. And the wolf catcheth
them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because
he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. I am the good
shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the
Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father, and I lay down
my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which
are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall
hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. Therefore doth my Father love
me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again, No
man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power
to lay it down and I have power to take it again. This commandment
have I received of my father. And he said in verse 27, my sheep
hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give
unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall
any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them
me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out
of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. No better
news could ever be told." This is what he said. If my sheep
were in the hands of anybody else, they would die because
they're all hirelings, and when the trouble comes, they're gone.
But I'm the good shepherd. And I know every single one of
my sheep. And I lay down my life. This is the whole reason my father
loves me. It's because I lay down my life
for the sheep. I have the power to lay it down. I have the power to take it again. My sheep hear my voice. They
follow me. They're in my hands. I'm in my
father's hands and nobody can plug them out. That's a reason
to give thanks. Great reason to give thanks.
Go with me back to Psalm 100. Verse one says, make a joyful
noise unto the Lord all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness.
Come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord
he is God. It is he that hath made us and
not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep
of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving
and into his courts with praise. We give thanks because he's put
joy in our hearts. See in the sacrifice for our
sin. We give thanks to him for allowing us to come before his
presence. He said come before his present.
Hebrews 4 says we can come with boldness. We give thanks because
our God is God. We give thanks for that. We give
thanks because he made us and he made us to be new creatures
in Christ. We give thanks because he shepherds us. He has provided
green pastures of rest for us. We're going to be fed. We're
going to be safe. We're going to be happy. We're
the sheep of His pasture. We give thanks because as verse
4 says, He has allowed us to enter into His gates. We give thanks because mercy
swung the gate wide open. Seeing that gate swing wide open,
seeing grace come out and take us by the hand and pull us in
while many are not able to enter in to that narrow way, that straight
gate. Do you think that the ones who
are going through having their sins removed and washed and cleansed,
do you think pride's in their heart? We give thanks. Oh, we give thanks. We give thanks. He has allowed us to enter into
his gates. Enter into his courts with praise. And verse four says, be thankful
unto him and bless his name. For the Lord is good. We give thanks and we bless his
name because he's good. Anything aside from him putting
a sinner where he belongs, he belongs in hell. Anything
aside, you know, people, you know, they want to get angry
with God and God's done me wrong and all. Anything aside from
God putting us in hell is kindness and goodness. But His goodness
is immeasurable. It's immeasurable. And we give
thanks for it. The end of verse 4 says, Be thankful
unto Him and bless His name, for the Lord is good. His mercy
is everlasting. We give Him thanks because His
mercy toward us will continue forever. It'll never run out. Never run out. It starts over
brand new every morning that will continue for all eternity. Now we give thanks. One last
one. I want to acknowledge to the
Lord how much I personally give thanks to him for this. I know
that all of us do. I know we all do, but I want
to personally, personally say thank you to him for this. Verse
5 says, for the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, and
his truth endureth to all generations. That makes me want to keep preaching. We give thanks. We give thanks. That gives me hope. It gives
me hope. It's never too late. We get, wouldn't we? Oh, wouldn't
we give thanks? How much joy would it put in
our hearts if God saved our children? Oh, wouldn't we enter in with
praise if we could enter in with our children? This is the promise of his word.
I believe we all give thanks for it. He said His truth is
going to endure to every generation that stands on earth. Our God
is going to save some souls out of every generation. Every generation. Every generation. And I know that makes us all
give thanks. We just give thanks. Lord, save and thank you. Save and thank you. We have a
lot of reason to give thanks. Much, much reason. I pray we
give thanks all week long. I pray we just keep on giving
thanks until he returns. I pray when he returns, we're
already gathered here together giving thanks. And then, boom,
and the roof flies off of this place and we all cry, thank you.
as we're passing through the air. Let's all stand together
and say, thank you, Lord.