giving thanks unto the Father,
and as I've already indicated, of course, you know, tomorrow
is set aside as a national day of thanksgiving, and we have
an abundance of things for which to be thankful. I remember Nancy's
daddy, when he would say the blessing at the table, he would
say, Lord, I have more than one man can say grace over. And I
understood what he meant by that. We have more than we can ever
thank God enough for. We're a most blessed people.
And I know we're blessed with temporal gifts. And we're thankful
for those. I'm thankful for whatever measure
of comfort we have. the mercies, the daily mercies
that God gives us. But God gives daily mercies. The mercies of God, the scripture
says, are over all of His works. But not His grace. His grace
doesn't go everywhere. His grace has a designated people
to whom that's shown. And that grace that was given
us in Christ Jesus Even before God made the world, it's still
effectual to us tonight. Thank God for His purpose of
grace. The reason we love the Gospel,
the reason we believe the Lord Jesus Christ, the reason we love
to hear about the sovereign grace of God is because He set us apart
for Himself. God loved us with an everlasting
love. That's what the Lord said to
Jeremiah. And I often get comfort from
that passage of scripture where the Lord says to Jeremiah, I've
loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, in loving kindness,
I've drawn you. Why you think God drew you, drew
you to the gospel, drew you to the message of substitution and
satisfaction, drew you to Christ Jesus? Well, it's because He
loved you. He loved you. I'm so grateful that people love
me. When we were, of course, over
in Hawaii, You know, people hugged us and said, we love you, Brother
Jim. The kids hug me and say, we love
you, Uncle Jim. They call me Uncle Jim and Auntie
Nancy. We love you. I'm thankful that
people love me. And I believe you love me. And
I'm truly grateful for that. But I tell you, if nobody else
loves this unlovable sinner, an unlovely sinner, I know one
who definitely loves me, and that's God. And He didn't see
anything lovely in me. He didn't see anything worth
loving in me, but He loved me because He would. Because He
would. And He loved me in Christ Jesus. And we could just, you talk about
giving thanks, we could thank God from now on for His love,
and for that grace that was given to us in Christ Jesus, even before
God made the world. You think of it, God loves us,
and I said this in my prayer. I didn't intend to say it, but
the Spirit of God, I believe, brought it to my mind, that passage
in John 17, where the Savior said, as thou hast loved me,
thou hast loved them. My goodness, can you even begin
to grasp that? As God the Father loves God the
Son, as He loves His Son, His only begotten Son, that One who's
been with Him forever, as God loves the Lord Jesus, That's
how He loves us. I can't even fathom that, and
I know you can't either, but we'd do well to spend some time
thinking about that and rejoicing in that, the love of God in Christ
Jesus. He loved us with an everlasting
love, gave us to His Son in covenant grace. He wedded us to Christ
Jesus. He united us to the Son of God. We're one with Christ Jesus. Isn't that absolutely astounding? And there's no divorce in this.
There is no separation. I read this past Sunday evening
from Romans chapter 8 that there's nothing that can separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus the Lord. Oh,
the mercies and the grace that God has given to those of us
who are His people. And then Christ came and redeemed
us. He bought us. out of the slave
market. I think about there was a gomer
there in the book of Hosea. She's on the auction block. She
owed everything, couldn't pay anything. Nobody wanted her. There she
was, naked in her helplessness, and her beauty was gone. Her virtue had left her. Men
had used her and just got tired of her and set her aside. And
they said, she got so many debts, she can't pay it. Here she is. Who wants to bid
on her? Here's what the price is. Here's
the price of redemption. Here's the ransom price. And
Hosea said, I want her because I love her. And he paid. All
she owed. That's what Christ Jesus did
for us. He paid all we owed to the justice
of God. All the debt. And we don't have
any idea how much our debt is. I was reading Mr. Spurgeon today. And it was on the subject of
Thanksgiving. And he had mentioned in a message
that we should be thankful for all things, and all of us have
something for which to be thankful. And he wrote that one poor soul
came up to him after the service and said, I have nothing for
which to be thankful. And he said something to this
effect, I beg your pardon. And she said, I have absolutely
nothing. All I have is a bunch of creditors. And he said, why, ma'am, then
be thankful you're not one of your creditors. And he went on
to say, there's always something for which to be thankful. But
you and I, we have no creditors. The justice of God is not after
us. The justice of God has been silenced. Isn't that wonderful? Our debt's
been paid. The law of God, it's not barking
after us. It's not demanding anything of
us. In fact, the law of God has nothing
to do with us. Because you see, the law wasn't
made for a righteous man. And we're righteous in Christ
Jesus. Oh, you're talking about how we ought to be a thankful
people and then the work of the Spirit of God within us, bringing
us to Christ Jesus, bringing us to a realization of what God
in the Son of God has already done for us. The Savior said
to His disciples over in the Gospel of John, He said, I'll
send you another comforter. and He'll show you things of
mine. He won't speak of Himself. He'll
speak of me. And I tell you, God sent us a
preacher one day, and the Spirit of God took that gospel that
was going forth, and all of a sudden our eyes were opened, and then
we saw Christ is altogether lovely. And He's the one we then fell
in love with. and the way God preserves us,
keeps us every day. I was speaking in one of the messages
over there about, and this was on the big island, I spoke so
many times I'm having a hard, I have a hard time remembering
where I preached what, but I was talking about the presence of
demons. in services, and also the presence
of angels. I wouldn't advise you study demonology
very much. It's a real subject, but it'll
drive you nuts. But I tell you, you can study
the subject of angels and be thankful that there are more
that are for us than are against us. And in this building this
evening, I'm fully persuaded that though We're somewhat few
in number as far as sinners saved by grace. I believe there's a
host of angels here and they're being used by God in some mysterious
way as ministering spirits. That's what they're called in
Hebrews 1. And they're here, I'm thankful for the angels of
God who minister to us. And he uses them to to guard
us and hedge us about. In fact, I'm thankful for everything.
At least right now I am. Even the troubles of life. I'm thankful for all things. And really, that's what this
passage in Colossians chapter 1 is about. Giving thanks unto
the Father. This is a letter written by the
Apostle Paul while he was in jail in Rome, and he wrote to
the saints of God who were at Colossae. This is a church that
had been established many years before this. He and Luke, if
you go back, you can study this, Acts chapter 16. He and Luke went through Phrygia. Phrygia. And that's where the
city of Colossae was. And God established a work there. And over the years it had grown
and God blessed it. They came to knowledge of the
gospel of Christ Jesus our Lord. God gave them a faithful preacher
to preach the gospel to them. A man by the name of Epaphras.
And he went to the apostle, he visited him in Rome, he gave
a really good report concerning the saints of God. They're in
the church at Colossae. And then he also told the apostle,
well, you know, God has blessed us immensely, but there are some
enemies of the gospel who've come in, some Judaizers. They're
teaching salvation by works. Others are coming in, and they're
talking about angels, but then they lead men to worship angels. And so he told the apostle of
these things, and so a letter was written. It was inspired
by the Spirit of God, and he writes this. He introduces himself
in the first verse, and then he names the people to whom he
writes. In the second verse, in verse one, he says, an apostle
of Jesus Christ by the will of God. In other words, it wasn't
my will. I didn't volunteer for the apostleship. I didn't volunteer to be the
12th apostle, but I'm an apostle by the will of God. I'm a messenger. I've been commissioned by God. And I have somebody with me,
Timothy, who's our brother. He says, I write to the saints
and the faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossae. He
says, grace be to you and peace. Grace first and then peace. There
can be no peace without the grace of God. There's just no way. There's no peace with God apart
from His grace, His grace in giving us the Lord Jesus, and
there can't be any peace in our own hearts and consciences unless
God reveals His grace to us, unless His grace is effectual
in salvation, and then only will we have peace in our hearts.
That all is well with God. He says, grace be unto you and
peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give
thanks to God. This is the way he starts off.
We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray always for you. And then
he lists some things, specific things for which he's thankful.
Number one, he says, since we heard of your faith in Christ
Jesus. I'm thankful you believe Christ. Faith is a gift of God, is it
not? We don't have faith. We can't
muster up faith. We can't invent faith. I can't
talk you into faith. Not all men have faith. Only
those who have faith are those to whom the Spirit of God has
given faith. It's a gift of God. Or by grace
are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Since we heard of your faith
in Christ Jesus, I'm thankful for your faith. That's what he
says. He's giving thanks to God. And I'm thankful for your faith.
You believe the Lord Jesus. You rest in Him. You embrace
Him. You cast all of your soul upon
the Lord Jesus for righteousness, for everlasting life and salvation. Do you do that? Do you have faith
in the Lord Jesus? Well, I'm not going to thank
you. I'm going to thank God. That's what Paul is saying, I
thank God. I thank God He gave you faith,
because if He didn't give you faith, you wouldn't believe.
He then secondly says, and then I'm also thankful to God for
the love which you have to all the saints. He says you love
God's people. You know, you think about a congregation
Men and women, young people, we have different views on different
things. Maybe political things or just
you don't see eye to eye on things every day. Everybody's got different
viewpoints, you know, on a multitude of things. Yeah, we love one
another. We love one another. And if somebody
slips up and falls, you know, we cover for them. Not that we
ignore the fact that they've fallen or sinned. But love covers,
charity covers a multitude of transgressions. It's just like
in your family, if your wife, your husband, son, daughter,
mother, father, they mess up, you don't get on the phone and
tell everybody about it. Because love covers a multitude
of transgressions. You don't air your dirty laundry
for everybody to see. That's the way we used to say
it, and that's the way it is among the people of God. We love
one another. We're forgiving of one another
because we understand there's nothing to us anyway. We're just polluted. I know we're
the people of God. God has regenerated us. God's
given us a new heart to believe Him, to embrace the gospel. We're just sinners saved by grace. And we're going to mess up, we're
going to blunt, we're going to say some things, some things
are going to come out of our mouths that the world would say,
well, I don't think Christians talk like that. Well, I tell
you what, we'll talk just like the world talks, unless God curbs
our tongue. And even then, sometimes some
stuff comes out that ought not to come out. Bitterness, words
of discontentment, I'm sure you've never murmured to anybody, have
you? You've never told anybody, you know, I tell you, I wish
things wasn't like this. I don't know why this had to
happen. I'm sure none of you have ever thought that or even
said that to anybody. You haven't done that, have you? Fact of the matter is, we are
just sinners saved by grace. And we mess up. But we love one
another, so we forgive one another. We're just sinners. He says,
I'm thankful for the love you have for all the saints. And then I'm thankful, he says,
for the hope that's laid up for you in heaven. Where have you
heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel? I'm thankful
for hope. We have a good hope, the scripture
says, through grace. So what does He say and I'm thankful
for? Faith, love, and hope. Those three. Read 1 Corinthians
chapter 13 again. The greatest of these is love. It's hope that's laid up for
you in heaven. What is hope? It's a grateful,
confident expectation of future bliss and future glory. based
on the Word of God, based on what God has said. That's what
a good hope is. And we have a good hope through
grace. He says, I give thanks to God that you've got faith,
you've got love, you've got hope. Thankful to God. And then he says in verse 6,
which is common to you as it is to all the world, and brings
forth fruit. I'm thankful, he says, fourthly,
you bring forth fruit. You bring forth fruit, fruit
of worship, fruit of devotion, fruit of commitment. After all,
we're trees of righteousness planted by God and we bear fruit
for his glory, which he's ordained. And then he says in verse 7,
he says, as you also learned of Epaphras, their pastor, he
says, our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister
of Christ, who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit.
In other words, here's what he's saying, I got a good report from
your pastor about you. That's what he's saying, I got
a good report. He says, I'm so thankful, I'm
so thankful you're holding true to the gospel, But that doesn't mean he's going
to stop praying for them, because look in verse 9. For this cause
we also, ever since the day we heard of, we don't cease to pray
for you. In other words, when he got this
good report from Pastor Epaphras, he came to Paul and said, I'll
tell you, Paul, God's blessing and the work is going good. And
I tell you, people love the gospel. People believe the gospel. They
love each other. They got a good hope through
grace. We see the fruit of the Spirit. People ministering to
one another, and I tell you, I've got a really good report
to give you, Paul. Well, the apostle didn't say,
well, then I'm going to go pray for somebody else. He said, no,
I'm going to pray that the work will continue. Don't ever stop
praying that God would continue to bless the work. You see, the
reason we do, the reason we do keep believing And the reason
we do keep loving one another, and the reason we do have a good
hope, and the reason we do bear a little fruit, is because of
what God is doing for us. And that's why we continue to
ask the Lord, continue to bless us, Lord. Lord, this work has
stood here for many years, but don't leave us. Lord, continue
to bless, continue to honor Your Word as it goes forth. That's
what he's saying. He says, that's the reason I
don't cease to pray for you. I desire that you might be filled
with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. He said, I pray that you'd be
filled with the knowledge of God's will. His will? Yeah, His redemptive will? Well,
I have a knowledge of His will, of His redemptive will, but I
want to be filled with it. I want to be filled with an understanding
of the will of God, that God's will is being done everywhere.
Lord, fill us with that knowledge, because as we understand, as
we continue to comprehend this wisdom of God that rules and
reigns over all things, then we'll have contentment in the
soul. And he says, and I pray that
you'll walk worthy of the Lord to all pleasing, being fruitful
in every good work, and still increasing in the knowledge of
God, and that you'll be strengthened. I want you to be strengthened
according to His glorious, glorious power, and all patience and longsuffering
with joyfulness. I pray God give you patience.
Anybody need patience? I need patience. Well, I'll tell
you, tribulation works patience. You might say, well, I don't
need it that bad. But that's what it says in Romans
chapter five, and long suffering with joyfulness, with joyfulness. Now, I would remind you, this
is the man who's writing this letter. He's in prison in Rome. I tell you, he's learned something
about contentment. Read the book of Philippians.
He learned some patience. He learned long-suffering and
he learned something about joyfulness. He could rejoice in the Lord,
even in the midst of his troubles. He says in verse 12, giving thanks
unto the Father, which have made us meet, fit, made us qualified
to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. And we're,
in and of ourselves, we're anything but fit for the inheritance of
the saints in light. But here's our qualification,
here's our fitness, Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus. It's what the Lord
has done for us through His Son. Look at verse 13. Who hath delivered
us, He's rescued us. We've been rescued. We were perishing
and He rescued us. In fact, you know, I've been
in religion all my life, practically. And we used to sing that song,
Rescue the Perishing, Care for the Dying, Duty Demands It. I'm
sure y'all used to sing it years ago, at least I expect you did. We can't rescue anybody. We need
rescue. We need rescue. You know, I used
to be a lifeguard. And I'd go rescue somebody that'd
be going under. I'd dive in and rescue. You know
how it is in spiritual things? To make an application of it
over to the spiritual things, it'd be like one who can't swim
diving in to save somebody who's drowning. That's the way it is
in spiritual things. We can't save anybody. We can't
rescue anybody. We've got to be rescued ourselves.
And here's the thing of it, we don't even want to be rescued.
That's the way we are by nature. We have no desire to be delivered. Because we don't know we're in
trouble. We don't know what the situation is. We don't know how
evil. Sin is. We don't know how evil
Satan is. We don't know anything about
the justice of God and the wrath of God. We've got to be rescued.
Who has delivered us? Delivered us from what? The power
of darkness. The authority of darkness. Literally
the strength of darkness. Darkness has got a hold on us.
The only one who can rescue us is the Lord. And what has He
done? Translated us into the kingdom
of His dear Son. And this is how it all happened.
In whom we have redemption through His blood. This is the way we're
made fit. This is the way we're made qualified.
Through the redemption that's in His blood. Even the forgiveness
of sins. Here's our qualification. The
blood. The blood, the sacrifice. The
redemption. There's our fitness. See the
blood. See the blood. God said, when
I see the blood, I'll pass over you. And He saw the blood and
He passed over the firstborn of every house in Egypt that
had the blood marked over. And then it's as if the Spirit
of God, as He led the apostle to write these words, He begins
to think about the redemption that's in Christ Jesus and that
forgiveness of sins. And then he just, he stays, he
stays on point regarding the Son of God. It's as though he
said, now let me tell you a little bit about the one who redeemed
us. Verse 15, who is the image of the invisible God? The image
of the invisible God. John 14, Philip said to the Savior,
show us the Father. It'll satisfy us. It'll suffice
us. And the Son of God said, Philip,
have I been with you all this long, and you don't understand,
he that's seen me has seen the Father. He's the image of the
invisible God. Our Savior, this One who redeemed
us, by His blood. He's the image of the invisible
God. In fact, He's the firstborn of
every creature. What does that mean? The next
statement describes it. For by Him were all things created
that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.
All things were created by Him and for Him. Our Savior is the Creator. He's
not only the Redeemer, He's the Creator. And then He says, He's
before all things. That's His preeminence. And by
Him all things consist. He's the head of the body. Oh,
He has a body. What is that body? The church. That's the church. What is the
church? It's a called out assembly. We're His people. This One who
is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things
He might have the pre-emptance. And you name it, He's got the
pre-emptance. In that everlasting covenant
of grace, He's got the pre-emptance. In the Bible, He's got the pre-emptance. In our preaching, He's got the
preeminence. Just name anything, He must have
the preeminence. He's first. He's first. Because verse 19 says, For it
pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. Chapter
2 verse 9 it says, For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of
the Godhead bodily. They're walking through Jerusalem,
walking through the cities and towns in Galilee. There is Father,
Son, and Spirit. There's the absolute fullness
of the Godhead in a body. And I've said before, He's all
that God will ever see. He's all that God will ever touch.
He's all of God will ever embrace. When we embrace Him literally
in glory, we're embracing the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit. In Him dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. I'll get verse 20 again. Chapter
1, in having made peace through the blood of His cross. You don't
make peace. You can't do it. You can't do
business with God. Man thinks he's a big Ike, you
know. Make your peace with God. Deal
with God. God's not going to deal with
you. Let the potsherds of the earth deal with the potsherds
of the earth. God's not going to deal with
potsherds. You deal with God through Christ Jesus. And He
deals with God for you. And that's good. That's wonderful,
because that's our only hope, is that we have a mediator. Having made peace through the
blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself,
oh, the bliss of reconciliation. By Him I say, whether they be
things in earth or things in heaven, and you who were sometimes
alienated in enemies, in your mind by wicked works, and that's
us. We were alienated in our minds,
in our hearts, but now He's reconciled us. In the body of His flesh
through death. Watch this. To present you. to present you holy, unblameable,
and unreprovable in God's sight. A reason for thanksgiving. We
sure got them. We got a great reason for Thanksgiving. So as you gather with your friends
and families tomorrow and you're thankful for the breath that
God gives you, and rightfully so, and you're thankful for your
sons and your daughters and your grandchildren and moms and your
dads and your friends and all the other relatives and so forth
and so on, Don't forget to give thanks for your spiritual blessings.
And I know you won't forget that. God reminds us every day that
everything we have is due to His goodness to us. We owe Him
everything, don't we? Owe Him a debt of thanksgiving.
Well, let's sing a closing.