Well, it's just a delight to
be with you. I've been looking forward to
this. I sure love you folks. Love your pastor. I'm thankful
to be here. Would you turn with me to Colossians chapter 3? I'm going to try to preach on
this subject, the doctrine of thanksgiving. Now, I don't know
if that's an appropriate title or not, the Doctrine of Thanksgiving,
but that's what I'm calling it at any rate. The Doctrine of
Thanksgiving. Let's begin reading in verse
12 of Colossians chapter 3. Put on, therefore, as the elect
of God, holy and beloved. And that is what all of God's
elect are, holy and beloved. Put on, therefore, as the elect
of God, holy and beloved, boughs of mercies, kindness, humbleness
of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another and forgiving
one another. If any man have a quarrel against
any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put
on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace
of God rule in your hearts, to which also you are called in
one body. And be ye thankful. Be ye thankful. Now this is given in the form
of a command. This is a command. It's not good
advice. It's a command. To all of God's
children, be ye thankful. One would think that this command
should be utterly unnecessary. Does a believer need to be commanded
or even reminded? to be thankful. Evidently, we do. That's why
this is given in the form of a command. Now, this is a testimony
to the remarkable wickedness of the old man that still dwells
in the believer that we have to be commanded to be thankful. But there stands the command,
Be ye thankful. Everybody ought to be thankful. Isn't that so? I don't care who
they are or what their condition is. Everybody ought to be thankful. Scripture says he maketh his
son to rise on the evil and the good and sendeth rain on the
just and the unjust. Psalm 145.9 says the Lord is
good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works, and every
human being has reason to be thankful. No exceptions to the
rule. And the fact that some would
question this is once again a testimony to the wickedness of man. Everybody
ought to praise the Lord. I don't care what their condition
is. I don't know where they're at. Somebody says, well, they
might be going through a living hell. No, they're not. No, they're
not. Anything this side of hell is
space for repentance, and everybody ought to praise and to thank
the Lord. Unthankfulness is a sign of being
a reprobate. Listen to this passage of scripture
from Romans chapter 1 verse 21, When they knew God, they glorified
him not as God, neither were But they became vain in their
imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. That's a
sign of reprobacy. But as the psalmist said in Psalm
92.1, it is a good thing to give thanks to the Lord. Indeed, it is a good thing. Why is it good? Well, let me
give you two reasons. First, because it glorifies God. Is
that enough of a reason? Listen to this scripture, 2 Corinthians
4, verse 15. Paul said that the thanksgiving
of many may redound to the glory of God. When I truly thank God
in my heart, when I have a truly grateful heart, and I have every
reason to have a grateful heart, you do too. When I do, it glorifies
the God of heaven. That's a good reason to be thankful,
isn't it? It glorifies God, but here's another good reason. It's
good to be thankful because it's good for us. I want you to think
about how happy you are when you're thankful. You're happy,
aren't you? And I want you to think about
how miserable you are when you're not thankful. You're depressed,
everything looks dark, everything looks cloudy, everything is morose
when you're not thankful. But when God gives you grace
to be thankful, you think about how happy you are. Everything
looks good. Everything's great. And we don't think when we're
truly thankful before God, we don't think, well, things could
always be worse. I ought to be thankful. No, we
think things couldn't be better. Things couldn't be better when
I'm truly thankful. It's a good thing to be thankful.
Be ye thankful. Now, you give thanks for what
is given to you. If you earned it, you're thankful
in a sense. You're thankful the Lord gave
you the grace to have the strength to earn it. But when you take
your paycheck, do you go groveling in and say, oh, thank you, thank
you, I don't deserve this? You don't take a paycheck like
that, do you? No, you earned it! And you take it, you receive
it, you got it coming. You worked for it. When I get
my paycheck, I don't think, oh, I don't deserve this. I never
think that. I work for it. I work for it. A paycheck is what you earn.
But when something's given to you that you didn't earn, that
you didn't deserve, and you know you didn't deserve it, you're
grateful, aren't you? You're thankful. When Paul speaks of the gift
of the Lord Jesus Christ, He says in 2 Corinthians 9, thanks
be unto God for his unspeakable gift. Now, I think that's an
interesting choice of words. This is God the Holy Spirit who
inspired Paul to write this. And even when God the Holy Spirit
is describing the gift of the Lord Jesus Christ, the only word
he comes up with to describe it is unspeakable. It can't even
be expressed. The gift of God is the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now you think of what a gift
He is, an unspeakable gift. This gift that God gives, the
Lord Jesus Christ Himself, is such that if you have this gift,
you have all things. Let me tell you a true story.
This happened in England. There was a very wealthy art
collector who died. And his art collection was going
to be put up for auction, and this was a very rare opportunity
to be able to get art of such value. And so people came from
all over England to come to this auction. It happened sometime,
I think, in the fifties. Everybody was very excited about
the opportunity they were going to have to get some of this art.
And so when the auction began, there was a painting brought
out that no one had ever seen before. It was not really famous
or well known. It was not by a famous painting.
But it happened to be a painting of this man's son, who was killed
in World War II. And nobody really wanted it.
I mean, whoever painted it was a nobody and it really wasn't
worth much. There was somebody out in the audience that used
to work for that man. He was a servant. And he knew who it
was. He knew it was the man's son who was killed. And he thought,
well, I always liked that young boy. I think I'll go ahead and
get it. Nobody else did. He was the only one to bid. And
he put out a very small bid and he got it. So he walked up to
take his painting, sat back down and waited for the auction to
continue. And the auctioneer got up and
said, the auction is over. Whoever has the painting of the
son gets everything. And that is exactly what takes
place whoever has the Lord Jesus Christ, has, possesses, actually
has right now all of God's blessing. There is no blessing that you
do not have. Ephesians 1 verse 3 says, He hath blessed us with
A-double-L-all. spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. Whoever has Christ, if God has
given me Christ, I have all of God's blessing. What a gift He
is. And I'm thankful. I am thankful. Yes, I ought to be thankful.
I ought to be thankful, no doubt about that. And I'm thankful.
I realize I'm not as thankful as I ought to be. Ephesians chapter 5 verse 20
says, giving thanks always for all things. How often am I to give thanks?
Always. For what am I to give thanks?
All things. Even our thanksgiving is by Him. You know, I know my thanksgiving
is no good in and of itself. Listen to this scripture. Hebrews
chapter 13, verse 15 says, By him, let us offer the sacrifice
of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips
giving thanks to his name. How do we give thanks? By him. I even present my thanksgiving.
Lord, accept this thanksgiving for Christ's sake. I know in
and of itself it's no good. The only way this thanksgiving
of mine can actually be accepted, the only way my praise can be
accepted is for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake. By Him, let us
offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the
fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. Aren't you thankful
for His name? Turn with me for a moment to
Psalm 106. I thought of this this afternoon while I was thinking
about this passage of scripture. I love this scripture. Psalm 106, verse six. The psalmist is confessing his
sin. He says, we sinned with our fathers. We've committed iniquity. We
have done wickedly. Now, that's true confession. How often do you just say, forgive
me of my sins? You don't even think about what
they are. I'm afraid that far too often we just go through
the motion. But this confession is something to this. We sin
with our fathers. We're just like them. We've committed
iniquity. We've done wickedly. He talks
about our fathers. He said, Our fathers understood
not thy wonders in Egypt. They were a spiritually stupid
people. They remembered not the multitude of thy mercies. They
were ungrateful people. They didn't even remember the
multitude of thy mercies. But they provoked Him at the
sea, even at the Red Sea. They were provoking people by
their sin. Nevertheless, that's a good word. Nevertheless, in spite of that,
He saved them. Why? Why? For His name's sake. Can you give thanks for His name? Now, this thankful spirit is
to describe our walk. You're there in Colossians. Well,
you might know you're not, but turn back to Colossians. Look
in chapter two. Verse six. As you have therefore received
Christ Jesus, the Lord. Let's stop right there for a
moment. As you receive Christ Jesus, the Lord, how do you receive
Him? I know this personally. I don't
know when it was I received Christ. Can't give you a date. Can't
even come close to giving you a date. I've heard people say,
well, I heard a preacher say once, he said, if you don't know
when you were saved, you're probably not saved. He said, I broke my
leg, I'd know when I broke it. And I remember I thought, well,
I don't remember when I was born. I really don't. I cannot remember
when I was born. Does that mean I wasn't born?
No. I don't know when I received the Lord Jesus Christ. Maybe
some people do. I don't. But I know this. I know this.
When I did receive him, I received Him as an empty-handed sinner
with nothing to recommend me, no experience, no good, nothing. I received Him empty-handed and
I received Him gratefully. I know that. I received Him gratefully. As you've received Christ Jesus
the Lord. Everybody that's ever received
Him knows that's how they received Him. They received him empty-handed
and they received him gratefully. As you receive Christ Jesus the
Lord, so walk ye in him. You never graduate past this.
Rooted and built up in him and established in the faith as you've
been taught, abounding therein. What is the faith? That's the
faith of God's elect. That's the faith of salvation
by Christ, salvation by grace. That's abounding therein with
thanksgiving. Now, why? We have a reason to
thank Him for what He's not given us, don't we? I love that scripture
that the pastor read out of Psalm 103. He's not dealt with us after
our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. Aren't you
thankful for what He hadn't given you? We could spend the rest
of our lives thanking and praising the Lord for what He's given
us and what He's withheld from us. We could spend the rest of
our lives truly saying, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all
that's within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all of His benefits. And it's my prayer that after
this message, we'll not be Just thinking about how we ought to
be thankful, but we'll be thankful. And it will not be thankful just
because things could always be worse, but we'll really believe
we're thankful because things could not be better. That's a wonderful feeling, isn't
it? You know, thankfulness is one of the greatest feelings
in the world. It's healthy to the soul, isn't it? Now, first,
we give thanks Because He is who He is, and He does what He
does. We give thanks for the Lord.
I like what the psalmist said in Psalm 30, verse 4. He said,
O ye saints of His, give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness. You know, I'm thankful the Lord's
holy. I'm thankful for all of His wonderful attributes. I'm
thankful for His justice. There's no iniquity in Him. I'm
thankful for his sovereignty. I'm thankful for the fact that
he reigns and controls everything, that everything's in his hand
and nothing moves without him, that he's the first cause behind
everything. I'm thankful for that. I'd be scared to death
if that weren't the case. I'm thankful for his mercy. I'm
thankful for his grace. I'm thankful for his wisdom.
I'm thankful for his power. Every one of his glorious attributes,
I'm thankful for. I wouldn't change him if I could.
If it were in my power to change the Lord, I would not do it. He is perfect. I'm thankful for
who He is. I think of the words of the Lord
Jesus. He said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, because you've hid these things from the wise and fruit.
I'm talking about the things of salvation. He said, you've
hid them from them and revealed them unto babes Even so, Father,
for so it seemed good in thy sight." And bless God, if it
seems good in His sight, that's fine with me. I like it that
way. I'm thankful for the way He is
and the way He does. Hear the song of the four and
twenty elders in Revelation 11, verse 17. We give thee thanks,
O Lord God Almighty, which art and was and art to come, because
thou hast taken to thee great power, and thou hast reigned. That's His sovereignty. His sovereign reign. I give thanks
for that. I love the sovereignty of God. Not just the doctrine I love,
I love the God who is sovereign. I love Him as He is and I give
thanks. Now we not only give thanks that
He is who He is, we give thanks for what He has done for us.
to us and in us. Now, I'm going to ask you to
turn to several scriptures that I want you to see. First, turn
with me to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. This
is a familiar verse of scripture. Verse 13. But we are bound We're
under solemn obligation to give thanks always to God for you,
brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God has from the beginning
chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit
and belief of the truth. We thank God for election. You who love election, You know
who loves election? The elect. Every one of them
do. If God didn't let the people,
nobody would be saved. Election doesn't keep people
from being saved who would have been. It saves people who would
have been damned. And election glorifies God. It
tells us that God is in control, that He has such control that
He actually controls who will be saved. And we like it that
way, don't we? Thank God for election. If it
wasn't for election, no one would be saved. This glorifies God.
This gives us sinner hope. Because I know it's the election
of grace. God chooses to save freely with no... nothing we
need to have to recommend. This is the most glorious, positive
thing. I love that Scripture, Romans 9, 11, for the children
being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God, according to election, might stand. Not of
works. Say, rejoice your heart. Your
good works can't recommend you. Your bad works can't disqualify
you. It's a free election. Thank God for election. Election
is a doctrine of divine praise. We're bound to thank God always
for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God has from
the beginning chosen you to salvation. Colossians 1 verse 12. giving thanks unto the Father,
which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light." Now, who are these saints in light?
They're the people that are in heaven. Last week, we buried one of the
most wonderful women I've ever known, Donna Grubb. And she was such a blessing to
our church and broke our heart. But we're happy for her. She's right now a saint in light. She's in the very presence of
the Lord Jesus Christ. She's perfect in Christ. Now, everything she has up there,
every believer has right here. Notice it says, He hath made
us meet. It doesn't say He will make us
meet. He hath made us meet. All I need to be a partaker of
the inheritance of the saints and light, I've already got. You know, I can't get any more
holy than I am right now. I can't get any more perfect.
I can't get any more accepted. I can't get any more loved. I
can't get any more saved than I actually am right now. Now,
that's hard to believe, isn't it? That's hard to get hold of. And the only way you believe
is by faith. Because you can't see it. You can't look at yourself
and say, yeah, I see, I see what you're saying. Yeah, you're right
and ready for it. No, I don't mean that at all. I know it by
faith. Because God's Word says, He hath made us meet to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in life. 1 Corinthians chapter
1 verse 30 says, Of him, we know who it's of, it's of God. Of
him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification and redemption. Now, every believer
possesses wisdom. I'm the very wisdom of God in
Christ Jesus. Now, can God have fellowship
with an unwise creature? I can't have fellowship with
my dog. We're on a totally different level. It's a dog. And God couldn't
have fellowship with a sinner. But I have the very wisdom of
God because Christ has made unto me wisdom. Every believer in
the very sight of God is a truly wise person, fit for fellowship
with God. He's made unto me righteousness. I am the very righteousness of
God. This is where my confidence is. This is where my boldness is.
I can come into God's presence with confidence because I know
I'm the very righteousness of God. My righteousness, understand
this, my righteousness is not based upon the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. My righteousness is the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. And I can come into His presence
with boldness and confidence. He's made them to be sanctification.
Holiness. Holiness. I've heard people say,
well, I'm not holy. Well, you won't see the Lord
then if you're not. Follow peace with all men and
holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Every believer
is holy. They've been given our holy nature.
Yes, they have an evil nature and a sinful nature, but they
have our whole. We're sanctified in Christ Jesus, and we're redeemed. He's made unto us redemption,
final, full, complete deliverance. In God's sight, every believer
right now is holy, unblameable, and unapprovable. Is that fit
for the inheritance of the saints and light? And notice it says,
He hath made us. It's already done. It's not something
that's going to happen. It's something that will happen.
And you know, like I said, we can only see this by faith. You
can't see it by looking at it, but that tells us how bad this
sinful flesh is. That's what brings us down. But
one of these days we won't have to deal with that anymore. And
what a blessing that'll be. He hath made us meet to be partakers
of the inheritance of saints in light. Look in Romans 7. Romans
7. Paul said in verse 21, I find
in the law that when I would do good, and
I would do good, I'd never sin again. You know, John said in 1 John
chapter 2 verse 1, these things write unto you that ye sin not.
And everybody in this room ought to make it their intention and
their purpose and their goal to never sin again in any form. I find me in a law that when
I would do good, no, even when I say that, evil is present with
me. It's right there. I feel it breathing
on me. I know my wicked nature. Paul says in verse 22, For I
delight in the law of God after the inward man. I love God's
holy law. I love ten commandments. I delight in the law of God after
the inward man, but I see another law in my members, warring against
the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law
of sin which is in my members. Oh, wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this
body of death? I thank God. Notice what he says, who shall
deliver me. He doesn't say what can I do to change things or
what can I do. He says who shall deliver me
from this body of death. I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. I thank Him for this deliverance. 1 Timothy 1. Verse 12. And I thank Christ Jesus, our
Lord, who has enabled me. He counted me faithful, putting
me into the ministry. I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord,
for enabling grace. You know, you're grateful for
enabling grace when you know something about inability. Remember
what our Lord said in John chapter 15? He said, without me, You
can do what? Nothing. He didn't say without
me you can do hardly anything. He said without me, you can do
nothing. You find that to be true, don't
you? I can't... I can remember a time, and I
can remember a time when I could not believe. I didn't know what
it meant. I heard the calls, believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. I heard that, but I couldn't
figure out what it meant to do it. What's it mean? If I knew what it meant, I would,
but I couldn't understand. When I'd hear the preacher say,
repent, I'd think, what's it mean? How do you go about repenting? Does it mean sorry? Well, how
sorry? What are you sorry enough? Does
it mean to stop sinning? Well, what sin have I ever really
stopped in my heart? What does it mean? I'd hear these
calls of the Gospel and I couldn't understand them. But then something
happened. I was given faith and I was enabled
to believe. And you know what? I do believe
now. I do trust the Lord Jesus Christ
now. There was a time when I didn't
even know what it meant. I do now. I'm repenting right now
while I speak to you. I'm in a continual state of repentance. Every believer is when God enables
you. God has enabled me. He's enabled
me to be poor in spirit. I really am a bankrupt before
God in myself. I'm poor in spirit. I'm not talking about mock humility. I really am. I don't have anything
before God. I'm meek. Every believer is meek. Everything
God sends my way is right, best, and good, and I accept it, and
I bow to it. Not just because I don't have
any choice in it, but I really believe it's best. I do mourn
over my sin. Blessed are they that mourn.
God's enabled me to mourn. My sin is ever before me. I do
hunger and thirst after righteousness' sake. I've been enabled to thank
God for enabling grace. If you believe in inability,
whichever believer does, no man can come to me. He lacks the
ability to come to me except the Father which has sent me,
draw him. If you believe in inability, total depravity of man, you sure
are thankful for enabling grace. I thank Christ Jesus our Lord
who hath enabled me. Turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter
2. Verse 13, For this cause also thank we
God without ceasing. You'd be amazed how often throughout
the Scriptures we're exhorted to thank God. He says we thank
God without ceasing for this. This is something we're always
thanking Him for. Because when you receive the Word of God which
you heard of us, you received it not as the Word of men, but
as it is in truth, the Word of God. which effectually worketh
also in you." We thank God for hearing. Can you hear the Gospel? Are you hearing this as the Word
of God? And not just what the preacher
is saying, but the Word of God. Divine truth. You know it's the
very Word of God. You hear it that way. Thank God. That's the gift of His grace.
You could not hear. There's somebody else. This is
boring. It's his opinion. Well, I haven't
heard from God. Hearing is the gift of God's
grace. Him that hath ears to hear. Not everybody does, do they?
Him that hath ears to hear, let him hear. And you know what it
is to hear the gospel when it's not speaking to you. You hear,
you know the truth is being preached and you just feel cold and you
learn once again, hearing is the gift of God's grace. You
can't even hear the gospel unless God gives you those hearing ears
and you thank God for hearing ears. Thank the Lord Jesus Christ
for that. Second Thessalonians 1. Here's
another one of those, we're bound to thank God, verse 3. We're
bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it's meant.
It's just appropriate because your faith groweth exceedingly
and the charity of every one of you all toward each other
abounds. We thank God for growth. You
know, I know if God didn't cause me to grow, I wouldn't grow.
It wouldn't happen. I'm just sure of it. The only
way I'll grow is if He causes me to by His irresistible sovereign
grace. That's the only way I'm going
to grow. So I thank God for growth. It's the gift of His grace. We're bound to thank God for
that. I want to grow, don't you? I want to mature and be a strong
man in Christ Jesus. And that is the work of His grace. And we're bound to thank God
for it. Turn to 2 Corinthians, chapter 2. This passage of Scripture,
I don't know how many times this passage of Scripture has kept
my head above water. I don't know how many times I've
just felt like everything's falling down and I'm nothing more than
a failure. And it just, it's just, but this scripture has
always been an encouragement to me. 2 Corinthians chapter
2, verse 14. Now, thanks be unto God, which,
what's the next word? Always. Causes us to triumph. in Christ. Always. At all times. You ever heard
somebody talking about somebody living a defeated Christian life?
There's no such thing. We are more than conquerors through
Him that loved us. And this passage of Scripture
tells me that I always triumph in Christ. And I believe that.
Whether I can see it or not, I believe it. Every believer
at all times is victorious in the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank
Him for the triumph we have and we thank Him for the victory
we have awaiting us. Look in 1 Corinthians 15. Beginning in verse 51, Behold,
I show you a mystery. What is a mystery? It's something
we wouldn't have known unless God told it to us. That's all
the mystery means in Scripture. You know, the Bible is so filled
with mystery. It's mysterious. We couldn't
understand it or grasp it. The only way we know it is because
God made it known. It doesn't mean we don't know
it. It means we know it because God made it known. Behold, I'm
showing you this mystery. And what a mystery this is. What
a glorious mystery it is. We shall not all sleep, but we
shall all be changed. in a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound,
and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be
changed. For this corruptible must put
on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when
this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal
shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass
the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, the
strength of sin is the law, but thanks be to God which giveth
us, giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. And between now and then, We
can thank Him for everything He sends our way. Now let me
show you a very precious scripture. This is the last one we're going
to look at. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 16. Rejoice evermore. without ceasing, in everything, give thanks. For this is the
will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Now, I used to read that
passage of Scripture, and I read it like this. Well, obviously,
it's God's will for me to give thanks. That's what God's will
for my life is. It's for me to give thanks. And
it is God's will for us to give thanks. But that's not really
what this passage of Scripture means. That thing that you have
difficulty thanking God for, that's God's will for you. Therefore,
give thanks. If you really believe that God
sent it, no matter how painful and difficult it may be, You
can give thanks, can't you, if you believe God sent it. This
thing, it's God's will in Christ Jesus concerning you. So, give thanks. You know, if you read the epistles
of the Apostle Paul, you know what he thanked God the most
for as far as things? other believers. How many times
does he say, I thank God for you. I thank God for you. I thank God for you. Aren't you
thankful to be a member of the family of God? God's your father. What a father. Christ Jesus is
your Savior. God the Holy Spirit is in you
as your comforter, as your teaching. As your guide, as the one who
gave you life. And you are in the presence of
a bunch of dear brothers and sisters. The elect of God. People that God loves. People
that Christ died for. People who have God the Holy
Spirit in them. What a blessing to be a member
of the family of God. Truly, this is a commandment,
not only that ought to be obeyed, but is obeyed, and it's easy
to obey. Be ye thankful. Amen.