A few minutes ago, Isaac told
me that Brady was going to be singing us a special, and I thought,
oh, I hope he sings that song. He did. I'm so thankful. I'm just really not sure that we can preach Christ and
believe on Him narrowly enough. If we get a hold of that, it's
Christ alone. I'm telling you, that'd clear
up so much confusion, that'd clear up all the fussing and
fighting and all the, oh. Well, maybe I'll try to do that,
preach Christ alone. If you would, open your Bibles,
first of all, to Psalm 97. I've titled the message this
evening, Giving Thanks. As you all well know, tomorrow
is the day that our country has set aside to give thanks. And
I honestly cannot think of a more biblical, scriptural holiday,
if you want to call it a religious holiday, than Thanksgiving. Just there's nothing more right
that we can do than give thanks to our God. And I know as we
all sit around our tables tomorrow, I know this group, I know you'll
be thankful. I know we will. We'll be thankful
for our families. I do look forward to tomorrow
sitting around that table and looking at my family, the family
God's given me and Janet. And we'll be thankful, getting
to spend some time with them. We'll be thankful for the food
that we eat. We'll be thankful for our homes. We'll be thankful
for our jobs, the physical blessings that our God has loaded us with. I mean, He's loaded us with blessings. We'll be thankful for our country.
thankful for the freedoms that we have long enjoyed as Americans. And it's right to be thankful
for those things. But you know the things that a believer is
most thankful for are spiritual blessings. Now we're thankful
for these earthly blessings. I'd like to say we ought to be.
But you know what? They'll be gone someday, won't
they? They'll all be gone. But the
spiritual blessings that God has given us in our Lord Jesus
Christ, they'll be forever. You know, these are blessings.
You can't live without them. I was talking to a man the other
day. He said, well, me and my wife, we don't have any family.
You know, we get together at Thanksgiving with some friends,
and everybody doesn't have a family. But, you know, you can get through
the world all right. You can't live without these
spiritual blessings that we're going to talk about here in just
a few minutes. Now, I want to look at a few of them, and it's
my prayer that seeing these things, giving thanks to our God, it'll
put our hearts, number one, in the right attitude of worship.
I mean, you cannot worship without thanksgiving. I think it'll put
our hearts in the right attitude to celebrate Thanksgiving Day
tomorrow. So number one is this, give thanks that our God is sovereign
in all things. Psalm 97 verse one, the psalmist
says, the Lord reigneth. Let the earth rejoice. Let the
multitude of Isles be glad thereof. Now I know David uses the word
rejoice here. The word means glad. And that's
close enough for me to Thanksgiving to fit into our message tonight. Our God is sovereign. That's not just a point of doctrine
that differentiates us from other forms of religion. Our God is
sovereign and we're thankful. who, as the old preacher said,
God's sovereign and we'll be thankful. And you know, if God
is truly God, He must be sovereign. Isn't that right? If He's God,
He must be sovereign. He must be in control of everything.
If God is truly God, He's not somehow a... I can't call Him
a God, but some sort of a being that, you know, a man controls
with strings like you control a kite or something. But if God
is truly God, then everything that happens, absolutely everything,
has to be His will. It has to be. Nothing can happen
that's outside of His will if our God reigneth, if He's sovereign.
And everything that happens is God doing. He's doing it to accomplish
His purpose, to redeem His people from their sin, to glorify His
Son in redeeming His people from their sin. And ultimately, He's
working all these things together to bring His people to be glorified
with Christ our Savior. And the scriptures plainly declare
a God who's sovereign. And we're thankful. Isn't that
what Nebuchadnezzar told us? God always does His will. In the armies of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay His hand. None
is even qualified to ask Him, what are you doing? He's sovereign. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that's just exactly what He did. heaven and earth and the seas
and all deep places. And David tells us here that
the sovereignty of God is a reason to rejoice. It's a reason to
give thanks. I know there's many reasons for
that, but I can tell you the main reasons why David's saying this.
If almighty God is sovereign over all things, then God chose
a people to save simply because it seemed good to him to do it.
They didn't deserve it. If one wasn't better than another,
you don't have to be good enough to be saved. You don't have to
be good enough. You don't have to stand out from the crowd in
order for God to save you. As a matter of fact, you've got
to be down at the bottom of the barrel. But God didn't choose the people
because they're any good. You don't have to be good enough
to please God. God simply chose the people to
save because it pleased Him to do it. It was His sovereign will
to do it. God is sovereign. He determined
to save a people. He must be holy. Everything God
does must be holy. Everything God does must be right.
It must be just. But you know, mercy is an attribute
of God too. God must also be merciful. He
determined in his mercy to save a people. And God in his wisdom
did not leave that salvation up to the will of man. God made
it so that salvation depends on his will and his doing It
doesn't depend upon the dead fallen will of man. It doesn't
depend upon the dead works of man. God made it so that salvation
depends on his sovereign will to save whom he will. And if
God is sovereign over every event that happens in creation, then
absolutely nothing can happen to take God's people and pluck
them out of God's hand and make them lose their salvation. That's
what you just saw. If God's sovereign, His people
cannot lose their salvation because Almighty God uses his sovereign
power over everything to guarantee the salvation of his people.
You think what a king we have, what a sovereign we have. Every
other king, every other man who's ever had any power in the history
of this world has used it for his own good. He uses his power
to line his pockets and, you know, just Almighty God uses
his unquestioned power for the good of his poor people. And unfortunately, because man
is dead in sin, there are people who hate hearing about the sovereignty
of God in salvation. And this is what they say. This
is why they say, I hate hearing of God's sovereignty, because
that means I don't have a chance to be saved. I want the chance
to decide for myself. Brother, I don't. I don't want
a chance to be saved. I want the Lord to save me. If
the Lord left salvation up to my will and up to my doings,
my chance of being saved is zero. But if it's God's sovereign will
to save me, then I shall be saved without any doubt about it. See,
this is why David's saying rejoice, our God reigneth, rejoice. The
sovereignty of God is the assurance of our salvation. If God has
willed the salvation of his people, then those people must be saved. Because our God reigns, he always
does his will. And that's the kind of salvation,
it's the only kind of salvation that'll save a sinner like me.
I need God to do it all, I'm thankful. Every time I think
about the sovereignty of God, I'm thankful. It's the assurance
of our salvation. But you know, the sovereignty
of God is also our comfort and our assurance in times of trouble
and trial. Our trials, they come upon us
suddenly, don't they? I never had a trial that didn't
take me by surprise, but didn't surprise God. Didn't surprise
him. You know why it didn't surprise
him? Because he's the one that sent it. He is the one that sent
it for our good. And for our learning. He sent
that trial. Boy, sometimes they knock you
flat, don't they? God sent that trial to take me
down a peg. So I learned to trust Him more. Painful, but it's good
for me. It's painful. A trial is not
a trial if it's not painful. But the Lord still means it for
our good. and he's going to bring good
out of it even if we don't understand how he's doing it. I promise
you he is. Let me give you a couple of examples.
Way back in Genesis 15, Abraham didn't have any children. Lord
told Abraham, you're going to have a son and your seed one
day is going to go down and sojourn in the land of Egypt where they
will be slaves. Abraham, they're going to be
down there and he doesn't have any children. I mean, he can't
even imagine a nation that's come from him. But those people,
that nation of people is going to be down there in Egypt afflicted
for 400 years. Not 399 years, not 398 years,
not 401 years, 400 years. They're going to be there that
exact amount of time because that's what the Lord's purpose
is. And the Lord said, then I'm going to bring them out. Well,
sure enough, children of Israel, there were just 70 of them at
the time. They went down there to Egypt. because Joseph was
down there in charge of all the bread that was existed in the
whole wide world. And they went down there for Joseph, take care
of him. And he did. And they prospered there. They
prospered during the reign of Joseph and they prospered for
a while after, until Moses says there arose a Pharaoh who knew
not Joseph. That Pharaoh enslaved the Israelites. They were there in Egypt. Now there they were. Slaves. I mean helpless slaves with no
rights, with nobody to appeal to. They're slaves. One day,
I mean they're property of somebody else. One day, just on a whim,
you know what Pharaoh did? He sent his soldiers to go down
there where the Israelites lived and kill every boy baby. Just
kill every one of them. And they did. They went down
there and slit their throats, they threw them in the Nile,
they killed every boy baby they could find. And those slaves
couldn't do one blessed thing about it. I mean, you talk about
helpless. How helpless. I can't even imagine. We can't. With the freedoms we
enjoy in this country, we cannot imagine what that was like. And
when all hope was gone, the 400 years were up. They didn't know
it, but the 400 years were up. And the Lord set His people free
from the bondmen with a mighty hand. And they were free. And you know who let Israel out?
The one boy baby that they missed. Who was raised in Pharaoh's home.
That's God's sovereignty on display. How about Joseph? He went down
there for any of them. That's why they all ended up
coming down there. Remember, Joseph was his father's favorite. Joseph had a dream. His family,
his brothers, his mother, his father, they're all going to
bow down to him. Boy, his brothers hated that, and they hated Joseph
for it. So they ended up selling him
into slavery down there in Egypt. Joseph went down there as a slave.
You know, he just did such a good job. He was owned by a man named
Potiphar, and Joseph ended up prospering in that house. He
prospered. Potiphar didn't know anything
that he had. He didn't know anything about
his business dealings. It was all in the hand of Joseph. Potiphar just stopped playing
golf, I reckon. I mean, it was all in Joseph's hand until Joseph
went back to the dungeon for a crime he didn't commit. Now
you think, that's not fair. That's just not fair. But while
he's there, he met the baker and butler Pharaoh and he interpreted
their dreams and told them what's gonna happen. He said now when
you get restored You got an audience with Pharaoh you tell him about
me this old Joseph. We will we would never forget
you You've been so special to us and buddy the minute that
dungeon door closed behind him. They forgot forgot all about
poor old Joseph There he is in that dungeon Scripture says the
fetters were hurting his hands and his feet forgotten by everybody
but God And what we're gonna do about this Well, and the situation got just
as bad as it could get. Scripture doesn't say this, but
I just wonder if Joseph hadn't reached the lowest point that
he'd been since he's been in Egypt. When it got as bad as
it could get, in just a matter of a couple hours, Joseph went
from the prison to the palace, second in command, the greatest
nation on earth. That's got sovereignty on display.
And it's a comfort for us, it is for me anyway, to remember
this. The Lord almost never, I say almost, I would say never,
maybe in some cases He doesn't, but at least almost never, will
the Lord deliver His people from a trial until all hope in the
flesh is gone. And the situation gets as bad
as it can get, and then the Lord bears His mighty sovereign arm
and delivers His people so that He gets the glory for it. I'm
thankful for God's sovereignty, aren't you? It's our assurance
of salvation. It's our comfort in times of
trial. All right, now turn back to Psalm
69. Here's a good reason to give
thanks. Give thanks so that you can exalt our God. Now, every
believer would like to be able to exalt our God as he should
be exalted. Every believer would like to
praise our God as he ought to be praised. There's a great burden in preaching,
in preaching Christ. When I first felt like I was
being called to preach, I never dreamed I'd be doing this. I
thought I'd just fill in for a Sunday school class every once
in a while or something. And I wonder, well, I mean, is this
just a natural desire of a believer to want to talk about the Savior?
Or is this something else? And there's a great burden in
this thing of preaching Christ. Very, very, very serious. There's
a burden in telling the truth on God. There's a burden in handling
the word of God honestly, rightly dividing the word of truth. These
Scriptures are not just some account of a documentary or something.
This is the Word of God. I mean, we're dealing with great,
great, great things here. There's a burden. I want to be
sure I have a message from God for you, not a message that I
want you to hear. There's a great burden in dealing
with eternity-bound souls. But it's also a great joy. What
a joy to get to talk about the Savior. What a joy it is to be
able to have this opportunity to brag on our Savior. And I
know a lot of you, you would never feel called to preach or
you know, whatever, you just, you're so shy, you just, you
know, that would just petrify you, you know. I asked Aaron
Simpson one time, I said, next Wednesday, what happened if I
lead you to sing? He said, I don't know, I wouldn't
show up. I mean, it's not for everybody, you know. But listen
to me now, don't think preaching, don't think having a part in
this public worship service is the only way that you can exalt
our God, because it's not. It's not. A believer exalts our
God by giving thanks. Look here, Psalm 69, verse 30. I will praise the name of God
with a song that will magnify him with thanksgiving. This also
shall please the Lord better than an ox or a bullock that
hath horns and hooves. The humble shall see this and
be glad, and your heart shall live that seek God. For the Lord
heareth the poor and despiseth not his prisoners. I will magnify
him with thanksgiving If you exalt the Savior, if you want
to exalt the Savior, tell you what to do, just pray and say,
thank you, Lord. Thank Him. It's not hard to start
thinking up things that you can thank the Lord for, is it? Thank
you, Lord, for saving my soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you for your mercy. Thank you for your grace. Lord,
thank you for your electing love. Thank you. Thank you doesn't
even seem like strong enough word to say, thank you, Lord,
for slaughtering your son. So you give me life. Thank you,
Lord. That is exalting the Savior.
See, if we thank God for who he is, thank him for his purpose.
Thank you. His purpose is always done. His
purpose is a purpose of redemption for his people. His purpose is
to forgive the sin of his people, saying thank you like that. That
pleases the Lord better. and all the ceremonies of religion
and the sacrifices of an animal. That's what David means here,
verse 31. This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or
a bullock that hath horns and hooves. David here says that the Lord
hears the prisoner, the poor and the prisoner. Well, if you're
a prisoner to self, you're a prisoner to sin, you're a prisoner to
the law, You're lowly in nature. I mean, you're low. You're low,
down, rotten, dead, sinner. Those people exalt the Lord. You know how? By thanking Him. Those people can't take any credit
for anything by themselves, can they? Giving the Lord the credit
and thanking Him for it. That exalts Him. Simply saying,
thank you, Lord. That automatically puts the Lord
where He belongs on the throne And me down there on the dust,
by his feet, thanking him. Thanking him as a mercy beggar.
And that's something everybody has the opportunity and the ability
to do. You might not think you got the
ability to preach or lead to singing or read scripture or
lead in prayer, but you got the ability to say, thank you, Lord.
Thank you, Lord. All right, now look at Matthew
chapter 11. Here's a good reason to give
thanks. the Lord reveals himself to babes. Matthew 11, verse 25. At that time, Jesus answered.
Now here's something that the Lord himself is gonna give thanks
for. I thank thee, O Father, Lord
of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent and has revealed them unto babes. Even
so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. Now the Savior
himself thanks his Father for his electing love. And when the
Father determined to choose a people to save, he didn't choose the high and
mighty. He didn't choose those who live
in big houses and big gated communities People that are rich and powerful
and famous. People who are impressive to
the flesh. That's the best way to put it in. The Lord didn't
choose people who are impressive to the flesh. The Lord chose
to save babes. These are the spiritually undeserving.
They're small. They're weak. They can't do one
thing for themselves. Not one. And the Lord passed by all those
who are strong in themselves. The Lord chose Jacob and set
his love upon Jacob and passed by Esau. Every person in this
room would have chosen Esau. Will would have. I mean, he's
a man's man. He's a working man. He's the
kind of fella that goes out there and gets stuff done. He's the
kind of fella you want to be your neighbor. You don't want
Jacob to be your neighbor. It's hard telling, but you'll
end up losing to Jacob. You know, you don't want to get
no business dealings with Jacob. He's a cheap and he's a planter.
But God chose Jacob. Oh, that gives somebody like
me hope. Somebody that's a nobody from
nowhere. Somebody who By God's grace,
he's been able to see, I'm nothing. I'm nothing before God. I'll
tell you what I deserve from God. I deserve His wrath. But in doing something only God
would do, He chose to save worthless sinners. He set His electing
love upon that. And I'm telling you, when we
talk about God's electing love, it's not something to argue about.
It's not something to debate. It's not something to fuss and
fight about. It's something to be thankful for. Look at 2 Thessalonians
2. The Apostle Paul was, he was
thankful. 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13. But
we're bound, we're honor bound, we're bound to give thanks always
to God for you brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath
from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth. Weren't you? He called
you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Lord did something so wonderful
for his people. He chose to save them and he
didn't keep it a secret. He let them in on by letting
them hear the gospel and giving them faith to believe it. God's
electing love is always a reason to give thanks because nobody
would be saved without it. Nobody. And if we're going to
be truly thankful, we have to be humble, don't we? Have to
be humble. Here's the other thing about
God's electing love. To the believer, this is not just a point of doctrine
that differentiates us and we want to just ram down people's
throats, you know. I thank God for His electing
love. That God, holy, sovereign, right, dwelling in a light to
which no man can approach, would choose to save a sinner like
me. Me! Of all people! I can see how
God would choose you. I can't see how He'd choose me.
I can't. The truth of God's electing love.
A man told me one time, he said, we all believe in election. You
just believe you're so proud, you're the special few, you know?
I said, no. Anybody that believes in God's
electing love is humbled by it. Humbled by that God would choose
me? Oh, I'm thankful for God's sovereign
electing grace, aren't you? Thankful. Now look at Colossians
chapter one. We can give thanks that God has
made it right for his people to be in his kingdom. Colossians
1 verse 12, giving thanks unto the father
which has made us meet to be partakers. Meet, he's made us
meet, it's right to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints
in light who have delivered us from the power of darkness and
have translated us into the kingdom of his dear son. Now God chose
the people who were dead in Adam. They were in darkness and he
translated them from that kingdom of darkness and he put them into
the kingdom of his dear son and he made it right for them to
be citizens there. The father set his love upon
a people and he chose to bring them into his presence, in his
kingdom. And the only people who can be
in God's presence are people who are holy. God can't accept
anything else can he? But these people, they're born
dead in trespasses and sins. Now, how are you going to get
them into that kingdom? Are they going to climb the wall? Are
they going to dig a tunnel? How are you going to get them into that kingdom and
make it right for them to be there? See, you and I, we do this with
those that we love. We choose to ignore their faults.
We choose to just, well, we'll look over those things because
we want to be with them. We want to have peace with them.
So we just have to choose to overlook one another's faults.
We're going to live together in peace, but not God. God can't
do that. Not be holy, not be God. He can't.
So God did something far, far better than ignore our faults. He put them away. He made it
right for him to be merciful to us. He made it right for us
to be called the children of God. He made it right. for him to call us righteous.
Because he sent his son into this world as a man. And when
the fullness of time came, the father made his beloved son sin
for his people. And he slaughtered him for it.
Injustice. He gave him exactly what he deserved.
Now justice is satisfied. Now the debt's been paid. So
the father can bring his people and his king. He made it right.
He put the sin of His people away, so it's right for them
to be in His presence. I can't think of a better reason
to give thanks than that, can you? God made it right for somebody
like me and you to be called children of God. All right, now look at Romans
chapter 1. When we give thanks, let's give thanks
for each other. Romans 1 verse 8. First, Paul
says, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all that
your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. And I will borrow
the apostles words as my own to this congregation. I thank
my God through Jesus Christ for you all. I do. I thank God for
I thank God for you every day. And I pray. that we can say that
about one another, that we can thank God for each other. And
without getting overly emotional, I want to tell you, I love you
all. I love this congregation. I pray
for you. When I know the troubles and situations you're going,
I pray for you. I pray every night. Just in my mind's eye,
I go through this congregation. It's a good thing everybody sits
in the same seat every time. That way I don't lose track of
nobody. I pray for you. And I thank God for you. I thank
God for bringing us together. I thank God for his mercy and
his grace to you. I thank that he's made you so
faithful, so faithful to him, and faithful to his gospel for
your kindness one to another. And I know we're not perfect,
but there's no place and no one that I would rather serve the
Lord with than you right here. That's the honest truth. I thank
God for you. And then last, this is where I've been working to
Psalm 136. Give thanks that God's mercy
is eternal. Psalm 136 verse one. Oh, give
thanks unto the Lord for he's good for his mercy forever. Oh, give thanks unto the God
of gods for his mercy forever. Oh, give thanks to the Lord of
lords for his mercy forever. And if you care later this evening
to go on reading, you'll find that every verse of this Psalm
ends with this statement, for his mercy forever. Thank God his mercy is eternal. The word endureth there has been
added by the translators. What the psalmist actually wrote
is, give thanks unto the Lord, he's good. His mercy forever. God's mercy doesn't have a beginning.
You know, we say endureth, it makes it sound like, well, it
starts now and lasts forever. God's mercy doesn't have a beginning.
And it doesn't have an ending. It's eternal. You see, before
creation, the eternal father, determined to have mercy on a
sinful people. But like I said a minute ago,
now in order for the Father to be merciful to people, He still
has to be holy. He still has to be just. He still
has to be right. So the Father determined to be
merciful. But something's got to be done about their sin. Because
they're sinners. They're sinners by birth and
Adam. They're sinners by choice. Their own choice. They're not
a sin we've committed. We tried not to. No, we did it
willingly. Sinners by practice, it's all
we can do is sin. And the Son of God came in the
flesh. The Son of God was born a real
human being. So he had a body of flesh that
could be broken for sin. In a minute, the men are gonna
take this unleavened bread, it's in sheets right now, like the
body of our Lord was whole until it was broken. And they're going
to break that bread. That's the body of our Lord. That's a picture. What the Lord
has given us to remember is how His body was broken for our sin. And the men will distribute the
bread. We'll take the bread. We'll pray and thank God for
it. We'll put it in our mouth. Nobody can hear it but you. But
you hear that bread being ground in your teeth, don't you? It's
His body being ground. It's a picture of his body being
ground under the justice for God's sin. And our Lord's body
was broken. Out came his blood. The blood
that he shed to pay the sin debt of his people in full. The debts
paid. Mercy means God not giving us
what we do deserve. This makes mercy so sweet to
God's people in order to be merciful to sinners and not give them
what they do deserve. He had to give his son what we
deserve. Let that sink in. And he did
that so he could give us what his son deserves, what his son
earned by his perfect obedience as a man. Can you think of a
better reason to be thankful than that? I can. And I've thought about
it all week, and I can't think of a better reason to give thanks
than that. So when we observe the Lord's table, this is what
we're doing. We're remembering. Our Savior said, this do in remembrance
of me. We're remembering our Savior.
We're remembering what it is he suffered so that he could
put the sin of his people away. And I can't think of a better
way to begin the national day of Thanksgiving than remembering
our Savior and his sacrifice for his people. All right, Eric,
if you would, you may distribute the bread. The Apostle Paul gives us instructions
for the Lord's table, 1 Corinthians chapter 11. For I received of
the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus,
the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when
he had given thanks, he break it and said, take, eat. This
is my body, which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of
me. Gary, would you give thanks for
the prayer? You break this bread, and you
remember it. And you remember it for a while. And you'll be very proud. After the same manner also he
took the cup, when he had supped, saying, this cup is the New Testament
in my blood. This do ye, as often as you drink
it in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread
and drink this cup, you do show, you do thoroughly tell the Lord's
death till he come. Eric, would you give thanks for
the blood. Our God, Father in heaven, we
give you thanks for this opportunity once again to gather around you
today. We thank you for the blood of
Christ. And we say in your word, the blood of Jesus Christ, your
son, cleanses us from all sin. Lord, from that very time, Lord,
cause us all Think on God's name. Remember Him. Do so in thankfulness.
In thankfulness. Again, thanks for this opportunity
to remember you. Think on His name. I want
you to God bless you. God bless you. Thank you for taking this. Thank you for practicing. Well, I hope you think this has
been as special of a service as I do. This Wednesday before
Thanksgiving is one of the services I look forward to all year long,
to worship our Lord together and remember him around his table.
All right, Isaac, you come lead us in our closing hymn.