Be thankful unto Him. I like
to be around thankful people, especially the older I get, the
more I understand something about thankfulness. And I like being
around thankful people, people who have been humbled by the
grace of God. And those are the only ones,
now listen, they are the only ones who are truly truly thankful. Some others think they're lucky
stars. But God's people thank Him. We're thankful to Him. People who've given up their
sense of entitlement and recognize the hand of God's mercy in all
that they have, all that they are, and all that they ever will
be. We owe it to the grace of God.
A people who recognize that through Christ they can do all things
and yet at the same time recognize that without Christ they are
absolutely nothing. Without me you can do nothing. Now he says here in verse one,
make on purpose, on purpose. a joyful noise unto the Lord
all ye lambs." True religion and melancholy really don't go
together, do they? Good news. The gospel is good
news. And melancholy, being cast down,
David said, Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Hope thou in
God. Why are you cast down? We are
a joyful people. We are to be a joyful people
in the Lord. When we come together to sing
God's praises, to worship Him, we are to do it on purpose, something
we desire to do. David said, I was glad when they
said unto me, let us go to the house of God. Let us go to the
house of the Lord. I was glad. I was happy, thankful. When they said, let us go, David,
and worship God, he said, I was glad. It made me glad. You know,
worship is only worship when we do it willingly from the heart. That's the only time it's worship,
is when we freely and willingly do it from the heart. And I asked
myself when I was writing this, Is my heart, my heart now, engaged
in worship tonight freely? If so, that's worship. That's
worship. And notice the scope of all those
who are to praise Him. The scope of the command. All
ye lands. You know, David was talking about
us when he wrote this. He was living over there. He
was living over there in the Mideast. We were over here. All ye lands, all ye Gentiles,
Jews and Gentiles, God has a people out of every
kindred, tribe, and tongue under heaven. All lands. He made all. All are His. All
are to praise Him. Look over Revelation 11. Revelation chapter 11, look in
verse 15. And the seventh angel sounded
And there were great voices in heaven saying, The kingdoms of
this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ,
and He shall reign forever and ever. Satan doesn't own a speck
of it. It all belongs to our Lord. It's His. That being so, all
lands are to praise Him, bow to His sovereign will, acknowledge
His sovereign rights, and praise Him. Give unto Him the glory
due unto His name. And here's our attitude in service
in verse 2. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before His presence. Isn't
that what we've done this evening? Have we not come before His presence?
Have we not gathered here before His presence? Have we sang His
praises? He said, serve the Lord with
gladness and come before his presence with singing. You know,
our Lord did that. He came before God with gladness. You know, after they had the supper,
they sang a psalm. He went about his service. He went about his work that the
Father gave him. Now listen, he went about it
with gladness. Look over in Psalm 40. Look back in Psalm 40. Let's see if I have this written down.
Psalm 40, look in verse 6. Sacrifice and offering thou didst
not desire. Mine ears hast thou opened. Burnt
offering and sin offering hath thou not required, then said
I, Lo, I come, and the volume of the book it is written of
me, I delight." I delight to do thy will. What's God's will concerning
Christ? What was His will concerning
Him? To suffer and die for a people. To suffer His wrath. To be made
sin in their place. and take the wrath of God that
they deserve? And he says here, I delight to
do thy will, O God. Yea, thy law is within my heart. He's delighted. He's delighted
to do the will of God. Attitude is everything, isn't
it? Attitude is everything. especially
in worship. It's everything. Serving the Lord in gladness,
there is no other way to serve Him. The word gladness means joyfulness, glee. It means exceedingly glad. Here's a question. Are you joyful? And I ask myself these things
as I do this, as I write these notes. Are you joyful? Glee? Are you exceedingly glad
with where the Lord has placed you and what you're doing? Are you? He puts you where you
are. He has given you the job that
you have, whatever it is you do, and in that position, as
His child, as a believer, you serve Him. You serve Him where
you are. We don't just serve God when
we come here or stand at the pulpit or pray or sing. No, we
serve Him every minute of our lives, in every point of our
lives, in every place we go. I don't care if it's a job or
on vacation. We are never out of His service. If I'm not glad with the lot
that the Lord has given me, I assure you I will not be glad doing
something else. It won't happen. Here's why. True contentment begins with
Christ, not with what I am doing or where I am. It begins with
the Lord Jesus Christ. If I am content with Him, If
He's all I need, if I have found in Him all I need, and I am content
with Him, I assure you I'll be content wherever He puts me,
and with whatever I'm doing, and with whatever talent He's
given me. True contentment starts with
Christ. Now, He says here, come before
His presence with singing. The fact that we are allowed
to come into his presence is something to sing about. That
we are allowed in Christ to come into the holy of holies. I tell
you what, I assure you, when our sister went to be with the
Lord this morning, she entered in with thanksgiving. and praise
and singing. I guarantee you that happened. And we need to start, it's got
to start here. If it doesn't start here, it ain't going to
happen there. Come before His presence with
singing. Singing is an outward expression
of what's going on in the heart. I think if there's anything that
really expresses, that expresses a person, it's singing. Some
people sing the blues. Some people just, you know, they
sing upbeat songs. Look over in Colossians 3. Here's
what we're to do, the believers. Colossians chapter 3. In Colossians 3.16, let the word of Christ dwell
in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one
another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with
grace in your hearts to the Lord. It's an outward expression of
what's going on in the heart. You cannot sing, you cannot praise,
you cannot worship someone you don't know. Can you? Verse three. Know ye that the Lord, he is
God. Know ye that Jehovah Know ye
that Elohim, He's God. Worship, true worship,
begins with intelligence. We are not ignorantly singing
and going through this religious service. We are worshiping God
according to the Scriptures. We are worshiping God in Christ.
You can't worship someone you don't know. You can't do it. Know ye that the Lord, he is
God. This one to whom we are singing,
this one to whom we worship is God. He is the only God. He is the self-existing God. He is supported by no one. You and I are supported by him. We have a large support group,
don't we? I mean, I wouldn't ever want to say that I don't
need anybody. I do. I do. But God is self-existent. He
doesn't depend on anyone. He depends on absolutely no one. And this knowledge, this knowing,
this knowing God It brings gladness. It brings
thankfulness. Apply this knowledge and it'll
make you glad. Seek to know God in Christ. It'll
make you joyful. It'll make you joyful. But here's another reason for
joy, gladness, and thankfulness. That is, God made us. He made us. Now, if you listen
to the modern-day preaching, men are making themselves. God
wants to save you if you let Him. No, He made us. He has made us and not we ourselves. This has given all the glory
to Him. I didn't have anything to do with it. I did not have
one single thing to do with my first birth. And I did not have one single
thing to do with my second birth, that new birth, born of God. It's all of Him. But it says
here, He hath made us, and not we ourselves. Our God is the
God of creation. When you read through the Old
Testament, I want you to notice one thing. As you read through
the Old Testament, the prophets of old often identified God first. First as the God of creation. That's how they identified Him.
First as the God of creation. I tell you why. The one that
made all this, He's God. The one who made all this is
God. He hath made us, not we ourselves. We are His special creation. He has made us new in the Lord
Jesus Christ. We are His special creation.
He gave us our existence. Without Him, nothing would exist.
All things were made by Him and for Him. Without Him, not anything
made that was made. And all things were made by the
Lord Jesus Christ and for Him. Everything. Everything that exists,
the things we can't even imagine that's out there, was for Him. It's for Him. And it's made by
Him. No one comes into this world
by accident. There's no accidental birth. And no one's born of God by accident. Our names are written in the
Lamb's Book of Life before the creation of the world. And He's the one who gave us
faith. He's the one who gave us repentance. He did it. Both of these are
the gifts of God. And we are His people. This just
keeps getting better. It's just building up to this,
be thankful unto Him. We are His people and the sheep
of His pasture. The flock whom He feeds. The flock whom He takes care
of. We are His. We are His. You know, the only
reason for Israel's existence is God. You take Israel over there in
the Middle East. God chose Abraham, and He brought
a people out of him, named them Israel. It's typical of the church. It's type of the church. He brought them out. Chosen,
redeemed them, typically. That's what He's done for us
in Christ. God has a people that He loved
in Christ. He chose in Christ. He redeemed
by Christ. Made the righteousness of God
in Christ. They are His. They are His. Look over in Isaiah 43. Isaiah
43, verse 21. This people have I formed for
myself." He did not say that about any other nation. This
people. God has a people. They shall
show forth my praise. We are His people. Those who
believe on Christ, love Christ, You're His people, special people. You're His. And you're His sheep. You're the sheep of His pasture. Now, what are we to do? Enter
into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise.
Be thankful unto Him. Be thankful He didn't leave you
alone. Be thankful to him and bless
his name. We ought to be glad that we are
allowed to enter into his gates, as I said earlier, into his presence,
into his courts. Allowed to do that through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Someone said this, all sacrifices have been done away with. except
the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. All sacrifice has been done away
with except the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. They
are always in season. Always. Thanksgiving is to be our attitude
toward God in all things. It says in the scriptures, in
all things give thanks. Job. Job said, the Lord giveth
and the Lord taketh. Blessed be the name of the Lord. He lost ten children. All of his flock, everything
he had, it was gone. Except his life. Couldn't touch his life. He said,
you don't touch his life. See, our life is hid with Christ
and God. It can't be touched. Don't touch his life. In all things, give thanks. In
all things. And here's the pinnacle of our
thanksgiving. For the Lord is good. He's good. I might be having
a bad day. He's still good. I might lose
something, but He's still good. It's good that I lost it. I tell
you what, He's good when He gives and He's good when He takes. He's always good. And it says
His mercy is everlasting. Aren't you glad of that? I mean,
we can wear each other's mercy out real quick. We can wear it
out. I mean, it wouldn't take long
before we're saying, how often should I forgive my brother?
That's what the disciples want to know. They're going to count
it out. Boy, you get on that last one, you're mine. You're
mine. It's everlasting. Everlasting. Infinite. You can't wear it out. I'll tell
you what, if we could, we would. But it's everlasting. His mercy is everlasting. He
will not run dry of mercy. But don't be backward. Ask for it. Ask for it. And His truth endureth to all
generations. We have the same truth as Spurgeon
had. Paul had. Abraham. able. Satan and men have tried on a
daily, on an hourly basis to destroy the truth. And here we
still have it. We have the unerring Word of
God in our hands. And we have the truth, the embodiment
of truth seated at God's right hand. So when you and I are gone, and
this world's still going, so will His truth be. Our children,
children's children, and children's children will hear it, because
as long as this world stands, God has a people. And they're
going to hear the truth. They're going to hear the truth,
not a portion of it. A portion of the truth is nothing
but a lie. They're going to have the truth.
You think about all the attacks God's truth has met with over
thousands of years, and yet we still have it. We still have
it. I want to close with Psalm 103.
In Psalm 103, it says, Be thankful to the Lord, O my
soul, and all that's within me, bless his holy name. Bless the
Lord, O my soul, forget not all his benefits. Do you have any
benefits today? Do you have food? Do you have family? Daily, it says in the scripture,
daily he loads us with benefits. Daily. We don't even recognize
all the benefits he loads us with. If I lost something, that's a
benefit. He takes it from me. That's a benefit. We cry about
it, whine about it. But it's a benefit. Who forgiveth
all thy iniquities. All of them. Not one of them
left. Not one of them hanging out there. They're all gone.
And who healeth all thy diseases, spiritual and physical, if he
so please, with all true healings of God. Who redeemeth thy life
from destruction? Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness
and tender mercies? That's what we are crowned with. We are absolutely crowned with
lovingkindness and tender mercies all day long. And who satisfies thy mouth with
good things? things, so that thy youth is
renewed like the eagle." The Lord executes righteousness and
judgment for all that are oppressed. He made known His ways unto Moses,
His acts to the children of Israel. Has God made known His ways to
you? The way of salvation? How He saves sinners? Oh, the Lord is merciful. All
these things are to be thankful for. The Lord's merciful and
gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy." It's everlasting. He'll not always chide. He will
keep his anger forever. All trials have an end. All chastening
has an end when we learn the lesson. Sometimes it just takes
us a while to learn the lesson. He has not dealt with us after
our sins. He did our Lord. But not us,
not his people. Nor rewarded us according to
our iniquities. I'll tell you why. If he did, we'd be in hell.
We wouldn't be here. We wouldn't be here. For as the heavens high above
the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As
far as the east is from the west. How far is that? Those two never
meet. The East and the West can never
meet. You go this way, you can go this way, but the two are
never going to meet. Like as a father pities his children,
so the Lord pities them that fear Him. He knows our frame. He remembers we're dust. And
through trials, He reminds us that we're dust. But He remembers
we're dust. He knows what we are. There used
to be a song, I don't remember who sang it, Dust in the Wind.
I remember hearing that when I was a younger man. As for man, his days are as grass
as the flower of the field, so he flourishes. You'd think he's
somebody. Steve Jobs was somebody for a while, wasn't he? But the wind passes over it,
and it's gone, and the place thereof shall know it no more.
But the mercy, the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting
upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto the children
of children, to such as keep his covenant, and to those that
remember his commandment to do them. We have so much to be thankful
for. Be thankful unto Him.