Well, we are blessed today to
be reminded of what it is that we are to be thankful for. I
have often thought, as Brother Al pointed out, it is an amazing
thing that multitudes speak about thanksgiving, and they do give
thanks, but they don't have any idea of who it is they should
be thanking. And so we do desire to be thankful
and we do desire to be thankful for the things that people do
for us in this world. But that is not the reason that
we're thankful primarily. I mean, we're thankful unto the
Lord who daily loatheth us with benefits for it's he that hath
made us and not we ourselves. We wouldn't have anything if
he didn't give it to us. As Paul told the Corinthians,
what hast thou that thou hast not received? Now thou hast received
it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? I
mean, what can one thing you point to in your life that you
have gained that is of benefit to you that the Lord our God
is not placed within your hands? And by the grace of God, he gives
us a mind and heart to know and understand that, while the vast
multitude of humanity has no comprehension of that. But they
go along their way thinking that they have done the things that
brought them success. How much is the pride of man
displayed? as men boast of what they have
and what they've done in all of these things. Dear brethren,
we all hang our heads in shame when we think of the things we
have done because everything that we have done has been tainted
with sin in some way or another. But that which the Lord has done
and gives us is the freedom from those things and an understanding
that he is the provider of all of our blessings We're looking in Psalm 128 today. This is another of those songs
of degrees. And Psalm 128. It says, blessed is everyone that
feareth the Lord, that walketh in his ways. For thou shalt eat
the labor of thine hands, happy shalt thou be, and it shall be
well with thee. Thy wife shall be as a fruitful
vine by the sides of thine house, thy children like olive plants
round about thy table. Behold, that thus shall the man
be blessed that feareth the Lord. The Lord shall bless thee out
of Zion and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days
of thy life. Yea, thou shalt see thy children's
children and peace upon Israel. Now what a glorious word this
is to us in the natural sense. And surely, as we read the Psalms,
there are natural blessings that are described in that. And when
I say natural blessings, I mean blessings that are enjoyed in
the natural realm. That is, a man is blessed by
the hand of the Lord in all of these things, as it says. Now,
the Psalm begins with the word blessed, which is an interesting word,
blessed, is the man. Now a blessing is something that
cannot be earned. I mean a blessing is something
that's bestowed. You can't do something and get
a blessing. In other words, you can't gain
it by something you do. It has to be given to you. Because
you can do the things that you do and not be blessed in them.
You know, a man, he may invest his money in the stock market. And one man invests his money
in the stock market and loses everything he's got. The next
man puts his money in the stock market and he gains a great blessing
in the natural realm. Now why is that? It's because
it was bestowed upon him. You know, because both of them
went into the venture, did they not, with the same expectation,
with the same desire. But it didn't always turn out
that way. And so it is that blessings are those things which are bestowed
upon us, and there's not a thing in the world that you can do
to gain it. Because if you try, if you do
something to gain it, it's the payment of a debt, not a blessing.
You see, when you work all week and then you go to your employer
and he hands you your check, that's not a blessing, is it?
No, that's something you earned. I mean, he could say, well, I'm
gonna bless you with this check. No, he's not blessing you with
the check, he's paying you the check because you did something
to earn it. But you see, when a man pours
out a blessing upon another's when he gives him something that
he didn't deserve, that he didn't work for. That's the blessing.
And so it is that all of the things that we receive from the
hand of the Lord are a blessing. Because if we did not, if we
were not blessed, we would be destroyed. And, you know, men
don't really seem to understand that. And especially when we
look at the vast our governments and all of those
things, they have no concept that it is the mercy of God that
has spared us up until this point. I mean, you know, you read in
the scriptures about Sodom and Gomorrah and how the Lord destroyed
them. Now, why is it, if you look at
our nation and you look at Sodom, how much different are we than
they? And so why should we not be destroyed in a moment, in
a heartbeat, and be no more? It's because of the blessing
of God. It's the mercy of God poured out. Mercy and blessing
go hand in hand. And so it is that he says here,
blessed is everyone that feareth the Lord. Now if we understand
that a blessing is a gift and not a payment, then we don't
get the cart ahead of the horse. Now you see a lot of people say,
well if you fear the Lord, you'll be blessed. Well that's not what
this thing says. It says blessed is the man that
fears the Lord. You see, he is blessed to fear
the Lord. Because you see, all men don't
fear the Lord. Some men have no regard for the
things of God. They just go upon their way.
David, I mean, Solomon said in the Proverbs, the simple pass
on and are punished. I mean, they just go on their
way. They're just mindless of the
things of God. But blessed is the man that feareth
the Lord. What a blessing it is, dear brother.
I can't cause a man to fear God. Neither can you. You can't learn
to fear God. But you see, when God causes
a man to fear Him, he can't do anything else. He's gonna fall
on his face before Almighty God and tremble. See, we live in
an enlightened age. All that stuff, you know, that's
all back in the past when men didn't have the knowledge and
understanding that we have today and talk about all that fear
in God and stuff like that. No, fear of God has never gone
out of of style in the kingdom of heaven,
because it is the blessing of God for a man to fear God, to
tremble before Him. Let all the earth keep silence
before God. What a glorious thing it is to
be given such a blessing, to fear God. If you fear God, dear
brethren, you should count yourself very blessed. You know, because
men by nature just go on their way without regard to God at
all. And it is a great blessing when
He causes a man to fear Him. That walketh in his way, same
thing. Why do some men follow the way
of God, walk in the way of God? It's because of the blessing
of God. It's because God's given it to them. He's constrained
their heart to love His Word, to love His way, to walk in His
way. See, men think, well, I'll walk
in the way of God and I'll cause God to bless me. Isn't that what
you hear pretty much today in most of these preachers, these
smiley face preachers on TV? You know, they just grinning
and telling you, you know, it's just wonderful, you just do all
these things and God just gonna pour out blessings on you and
the heavens gonna come down and all that and it's all gonna be
because of what you did. No, dear brother. If you're blessed,
it's gonna be because God caused it to happen. If you walk in
the ways of the Lord, it'll be because God caused you to do
so. It won't be because you did it and then God blessed you.
Now we need to understand that. If you don't ever get anything
else, I hope you get that. And you understand it. That walketh
in his ways. For thou shalt eat the labor
of thine hands, happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with
thee. It is a blessing. I remember
hearing one time Rolf Barnard said this, he said, there's a
lot of hell on the road to hell. See, there's a lot of heartache
and trouble on the road to hell. And that doesn't mean that people
who are not on that road don't have heartache, but there's heartache
on that road. But there is blessing. There's
happiness, there's glory, there's joy, there's a lot of heaven,
he said, on the road to heaven. And it is the heaven that's on
the road to heaven that causes God's people to rejoice. And
why do they rejoice? I mean, did they just decide
to rejoice? Can you just make yourself rejoice? Oh, you can go through the motions
of it. You know, somebody can drive
you up and you can get and jump and jam and put your hands up
and carry on. And you can get feeling better
just cause exercise. You get the endorphins running
through your body and you feel better. That doesn't have anything
to do with the blessing of God. It has to come from Him. And He
blesses His people. And when we sing joyful, joyful,
we adore thee. It is a joyful thing, is it not?
I mean, where would you rather be than singing praises unto
God? What a more joyful and blessed
time is there for the God's people who fear Him to worship Him. I mean, that's a joyous thing,
is it not? Oh, what a glorious blessing
we have. Thou shalt eat the labor of thine
hands, happy shalt thou be and it shall be well with thee. Now
there's a temporal consideration of this. The Lord does bless
his people because you see it's better to eat a morsel of food
in the joy of the Lord than to have a banquet without him. David said I'd rather be a doorkeeper
in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
You see, what a glorious thing it is. The Lord makes small things
to be glorious that the world has no regard to. See, the widow,
what a blessed woman she was. And a woman, the world looked
at the widow who had two mites that came up to the temple. They
said, what's this woman doing here? I mean, she's just gonna
come up here and throw these two pennies in the treasury. What is that? I mean, you know,
that's nothing. That woman was blessed. What
was she blessed with? She was blessed with a cheerful
heart that gave unto the Lord all that she had. Now what caused
her to do that? Did she just decide to do it?
No, it was the work and mercy of Almighty God in her heart
that constrained her to love the way of God and to walk in
those things and her delight. What about the woman that came
and broke the alabaster box of ointment? That was a costly thing. Scripture doesn't indicate that
she was a wealthy woman. This was a precious possession.
And there were some sitting there, they said, this is ridiculous. To waste all this. This could
have been sold for money and given to the poor. The Lord said,
this woman's blessed. She's blessed. She said, I've
been here. He says, you didn't. wash my
feet." She said, this woman has washed my feet with her tears.
She was a blessed woman. He said, wherever the Gospels
preach this woman will be remembered. She's blessed. Oh, how blessed
are those who eat the labor of thine hands. Happy shalt thou
be, and it shall be well with thee. Thy wife shall be as a
fruitful vine by the sides of thine house, thy children like
olive plants round about thy table. Now, you know, there's
the temporal blessing of a godly home is reserved unto those whom
the Lord blesses. That is a blessing, is it not?
when the Lord causes a household to walk in the fear of God, and
this is the evidence of it. Thy wife shall be as a fruitful
vine. I mean, Solomon wrote about the virtuous woman. How do virtuous
women get to be virtuous women? Because of the mercy of God,
to cause them to be so. Because you see, all women that
are born into the world are not virtuous by nature, are they?
No, but they're virtuous by the grace of God who constrains them
so. And they're blessed. What a glorious thing it is.
And thy children, like olive plants, round about thy table.
What a glorious thing it is for the children to walk in the ways
of the Lord. How does that come to happen?
Now we can train up our children in the way they should go, and
well, we ought to. But the only way that our children
will walk in the ways in which we raise them is by the grace
of God. Now one thing that I learned
a long time ago, and that is this, you cannot impart your
values to your children. As best you can try it, you can't
do it. But what you can do, by the grace
of God, is to set an example for them of what it is that you
believe. And so they may not ever embrace
what you believe, but they will always know what it is that you
did believe, because they saw you walk in it. How does that
happen? By the grace of God. It's the
only way it can happen. And the only way that children
grow up as olive plants around thy table is by the grace of
God. And oh, what a blessing it is. What a blessing. Behold, thus shall the man be
blessed that feareth the Lord. He is blessed. The Lord shall
bless thee out of Zion, and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem
all the days of thy life. Yea, thou shalt see thy children's
children in peace. upon Israel. The Lord blesses his people in
Zion, that is the kingdom of God, and the kingdom of God is
seen in its manifestation in the earth in the gathering together
of God's people. See, when we come together It's
not just we're going somewhere to go to church. That's the idea
today. We got all these fine buildings
and everything scattered around all over the country and one
day a week or two days a week or whatever, people come and
they go to church. Well, that may or may not be
a blessing. Just because everybody's gathered
up someplace in a fine meeting house doesn't mean that the Lord's
there. But where the Lord is, there is great blessing. And
where his people are gathered in his name, he said he would
be in their midst. Now, is he there in their midst
because they come together? Or is it that he brings them
together as a manifestation of the fact that he is in their
midst? You see, that is the work of God to cause people to desire
to gather together. Now, I've shared this with you
many times. I can't remember a time in my
life when I wasn't in church, I mean brought to church. My
mama made sure I tell people a lot of times that I had a drug
problem when I was growing up. My mama drug me to church every
time the door was open. And so I was there. Now I couldn't wait to get out. I didn't enjoy it as much as
she evidently did. And I couldn't figure out what
it was that made people want to do that. But by the grace of God, he brought
me to a place in my life, in my understanding, and he calls
me to delight in the gathering together of God's people. The
Lord will bless his people out of Zion. The joy of the Lord's
our strength, and the Lord inhabits the praises of his people. and
wherever his people are gathered in his name, he is in the midst
of them. Dear brethren, I can't think
of a place on earth I'd rather be than in the company of men
whose delight is to praise God with all of their heart, with
all of their mind, to exalt the name of Christ. I mean is that
not a delightful place for the sons of God? Oh, what a glorious
thing it is. The Lord shall bless thee out
of Zion, and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days
of thy life, because it is the blessing of God. Yea, thou shalt
see thy children's children and peace upon Israel, because it
is the work of God to bring men into the church, to bring his
people in a way they knew not, and to cause them to come. and
be gathered together as well. Now I've said all of that, and
that is as it applies to us in the natural realm, in the realm
in which we live, and we are blessed in that way. But like
all of the Psalms, we would miss the true blessing of it if that's
all we saw. Now that's a glorious thing,
and you can get a lot of good in it, and you could stop there,
and you could have a blessing in it, in seeing it and understanding
it. But dear brethren, there's an
even greater blessing here when we understand that this is a
description of the life of Jesus Christ. Blessed is the man that
feareth the Lord. You see, we would desire, by
the grace of God, as He's worked in us and caused us to delight
in these things, we would desire to fear the Lord perfectly, would
we not? But alas, we don't. And quite often, the fear of
God escapes our mind. And we are less than what we
ought to be. And so a man cannot say that
he fears God completely and totally every day of his life, every
moment of his life, as he walks through it. because of the sin
nature that we are born with, we often fail in that endeavor,
do we not? But there's one of whom the psalmist
writes, who learned the fear of the Lord by the things which
he suffered, the scripture says. He learned obedience by the things
which he suffered in our behalf. And he is blessed. You see, all
blessings to the sons of God come to them through Christ.
They're not a blessing you can ever gain that has not been bestowed
on you because of Jesus Christ. He is the source of all of our
blessing. He is that one in whom all the blessings of God are
hidden. How can a man know God except it be through Christ?
Because you see, he's the fullness of the Godhead bodily. I mean,
you could never have had any concept or consideration of who
God is. See, people by nature think they
worship, they think they just gonna know God. I mean, if you
ask most people, most people, I mean, there are people out
there that claim they don't believe in God, but most people kind
of have in the back of their mind some idea they think they
know God, they think they talk to God. I mean, the Pharisee,
he figured he did, did he not? I mean, he was a fine, upstanding,
moral man that was in the temple every day, and I mean, he was
doing well. And surely a man like that is
praying, is he not? The Scripture says that he said,
Lord, I thank Thee that I'm not as other men. I'm a fine man. I'm doing good. I'm certainly
not like this old publican. He looked over there and he saw
the old guy just humble down there and with his face toward
the floor. He said, I'm surely not like
this publican. The scripture says he prayed
thus with himself. Now see, religious men pray with
themselves all the time. when a man gets in a tight spot. Oh, he begins to pray, does he
not? Oh Lord, if you'll just help me out of this, I'll serve
you forever. And what happens? When the troubles pass, he's
fine. He's like the old guy that was
on the rooftop and he slipped. and he's sliding down the roof,
and he's fixing to go off the edge, and he says, oh Lord, help
me. And about that time, the strap on his overalls hung on
a nail that was sticking out of the side of the house and
stopped his fall. He said, that's okay, Lord, I
got it from here. So you see, men, are religious
by nature. You don't have to teach anybody
to be religious. They'll call upon God when the
time comes. But you see, it's not that calling
that comes out of a fear and knowledge of God, is it? It's
a natural fear. And so praying is not, it's not
the words, but it's the work of God in the heart of a man
that causes him to pray. But the Lord Jesus Christ, He
was perfect in all of His ways. He feared God and He's blessed
and all of our blessings come because of Him. He shall eat
the labor of His hands because the Lord Jesus Christ labored
in the behalf of His people. He bore our sorrows. He carried
all of our grief. He undertook the redemption of
his people. And he poured out his soul unto
death. And he shall see of the travail
of his soul, and be satisfied. He shall eat the labor of his
hands. For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross,
despising the shame, and is now sat down at the right hand of
the Father. Happy shall he be. It shall be
well with thee. You see, we're blessed because
of Christ. It is well with us because the
Father's pleased with the Son. And all those who are in the
Son, those who are hidden in Christ, they are those who receive
those blessings. Thy wife shall be as a fruitful
vine by the sides of thine house. Now we sang about it a moment
ago. We are a garden walled around, chosen, and made peculiar ground. The Lord has a wife. He has a
bride. The scripture speaks of the fact
that there is a marriage supper that is yet to take place when
the Lord shall gather all of those who are his bride, and
they shall sit down with him. He is their husband, and they
are his wife. Thy wife shall be as a fruitful
vine. See, the Lord has planted a vine, and he has called fruit
be born in it. If we be without fruit, he said,
if a vine has no fruit, then it's cut off and cast into the
fire and burned. But you see, the Lord calls his
fruit. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, gentleness,
goodness, longsuffering, meekness. And the scripture says, against
such there is no law. Now do you realize that everything
that the natural man has a desire towards, there's a law against
it. You realize that? I mean the law has restrictions
upon everything that man by nature seeks after. But there is no
law against the fruit of the spirit. the work of God in the
heart of a man, there's no restriction. See, a man's free to love Christ
with all of his heart, with all of his mind. When he's been set
free in Christ, he desires those things. And there is a fruitful,
a wife is a fruitful vine. The children like olive plants
around the table. The children of God grow up before
him, and he's pleased. He's pleased. See, if the Lord
ever became angry with the children, they'd be in trouble, would they
not? They're not appointed unto wrath,
but to receive the blessing of God. What a glorious thing. Dear brethren, not because of
anything they've done, not because of anything that they have produced,
but because of the blessing of God in Christ. Behold, just shall the man be
blessed that feareth the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ will receive
all blessings for his people. Because you see, unto him the
covenant was made. The Lord said he made the covenant.
He said that he gave these things to Abraham and his seed, not
as seeds as of many, See, that's where people go astray in thinking
that the blessings of God have been brought on Abraham's seed
as a nation, as a bunch of people. But he said, not as seeds as
of many, but as thy seed, which is one, and the seed of God is
Christ. He is Abraham's seed. He is that
singular seed. Thus shall the man be blessed.
The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion, and thou shalt see the
good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life. He has and he will. You see, he's intended the goodness. He causes all things to work
together for good to them that love God, who are the called
according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow them,
he also did predestine. Now we know, I'm not going to
go into any great exposition of that, but the foreknowledge
of God is not what he knew ahead of time, but it is the fact that
he loved ahead of time. See, before ever there was a
sinner, there was a Savior. From the beginning, the Lord
had a people that he loved, that he chose in Christ. And they're blessed. And there's
not a thing in the world that I can do to change that, neither
can you. But the glorious thing is, the glorious thing is that everyone
that feareth the Lord shall indeed be received into his presence. For he said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. So we don't have to worry about
some of the children of God not coming to him, nor do we need
to worry about those who are not the children of God coming
to him and being turned away. They won't come. They won't come. What a blessing it is, dear brethren,
to be called by the Lord. He said, come unto me, all you
that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. And he
will. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and
lowly of heart. My yoke is easy and my burden
is light. Oh, what a glorious God he is,
full of grace and mercy to all that call upon his name. And
why do they call? because of his grace, because
of his mercy, because of his blessing. Blessed is the man
that feareth the Lord and walketh in his way. Well, we are a people
blessed for sure. And, you know, as we sang that
song a moment ago, Rock of Ages, cleft for me. Let me hide myself
in thee. Let the water and the blood from
thy wounded side which flowed be of sin the double cure. Oh, that the Lord might help
us. Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling,
naked come to thee for dress, helpless look to thee for grace. Foul I to the fountain fly, wash
me, Savior, or I die.