Turn to Colossians chapter three,
if you would. Long time, no see, just been
two weeks. Pleasure to be back with you
again. I've had a difficulty figuring
out what to title this message, I guess you could call it the
doctrine of thankfulness. Somehow that doesn't seem appropriate
to call thankfulness a doctrine, but. Let's begin reading in verse
12. Colossians chapter three. Put on, therefore, as the elect
of God, holy and beloved. Bows 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 the which also you are called in one body and
be ye thankful. And this is a command. Be ye One would think that this command
should be utterly unnecessary. Why should we be commanded to
be thankful? We have every reason to be thankful. And yet this is given in the
form of a command. Does a believer, a true child
of God, need to be commanded or even reminded to be thankful? Evidently. Because he does, in
fact, command us and remind us at the same time, be ye thankful. Now, this is a testimony to the
remarkable wickedness of the old man still dwelling in us
that we have to be commanded to be thankful. But there stands
the command. Be ye thankful. Everybody ought to be thankful.
You agree with that, don't you? Everybody, I don't care who they
are, everybody ought to be thankful. I don't care who it is or what
their state is, everybody ought to be thankful. The scripture
says, he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and
he sendeth his rain on the just and the unjust. Psalm 145 9 says
he is good to all. Every human being. Has a reason
to be thankful. That's true, isn't it? I don't
care what their condition is. Every human being. No exceptions
to this rule. Every human being has a reason
to be thankful, and the fact that some would question this
is once again a testimony to the wickedness of men. Unthankfulness
is a sign of being a reprobate. Romans chapter 1 verse 21, we
read these words, when they knew God, they glorified him not as
God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations
and their foolish heart was darkened. A reprobate is someone who is
ungrateful, unthankful. But as the psalmist said in Psalm
92.1, it is a good thing to give thanks to the Lord. It's good
for me to do this right now. It's good for you to do this
right now, to give thanks unto the Lord. Now, why is it good
to give thanks to the Lord? Well, here's the first reason,
because it glorifies God. That's a good enough reason,
isn't it? Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4.15 that thanksgiving, the thanksgiving
of many may redound to the glory of God. It glorifies God when
people are thankful to him. But it's also good because it's
good for us. I want you to think about how
happy you are when you're thankful. It's a wonderful feeling, isn't
it? As a matter of fact, there's no better feeling than simply
being truly thankful and grateful. It's good for us. We'll be personally
much more happy as thankful people. And you know how miserable you
are when you're not thankful. You're miserable. You're depressed.
Things aren't going your way. You think things could be different.
Think how unhappy you are when you're not thankful, but think
how happy you are, how content you are. how much joy you have
when you're simply thankful. Be ye thankful. Now, this is very important.
You give thanks for what is given to you. If you earned it, you
may say thank you, but you had it coming. When you get your
paycheck, You worked hard for that. You don't grovel and say,
oh, thank you for giving me this. No, you earned it. It's yours
by right, by merit. You worked hard for it. You're
grateful that God gave you the grace to work hard. I realize
that. You give him the credit for it. But still, when you earn
something, you're not really thankful the way you are as when
you're given something as a free gift. And when you're given a
gift, you are truly thankful. I love what Paul said of the
gift of Christ. He said, thanks be unto God for
his unspeakable gift. Now. Think of this. God, the Holy Spirit. inspired
Paul to write that. And you'd think that God the
Holy Spirit would come up with a word that could describe the
gift of the Lord Jesus Christ. But even when God the Holy Spirit
describes this gift, he calls him the unspeakable, unexpressable
gift. Christ and all that is connected
with him is the gift of God. And if we have Christ, we have
everything. There's nothing we do not have.
True story. It's happened in England. There
was a man who was an art collector and he had amassed a great fortune
in great works of art. And this man finally died and
his artwork, all of his collection was going to be auctioned off.
And this was a very rare opportunity for anybody to have the opportunity
to buy artwork like this. It was some kind of special auction. And so the time for the auction
came and the first painting the man had was brought out. It was
just a very fairly unimpressive looking painting of a young man. And that young man happened to
be the son of the man who owned all this painting. It really
was his son. He was someone who was killed
in World War II. But that was the first thing
that went on the auction that nobody wanted. It wasn't famous.
It wasn't painted by somebody famous. And nobody bid anything. But there happened to be a man
that was a servant for that man some years ago. And he'd seen
that young boy grow up. And he said, well, I like that
young man. I think I'll go ahead and get
it. And he gave a small bid. Nobody else gave a bid. He gave
a small bid and sold. The man had it. So he got up
and got his painting and sat back down. waited for the auction
to go on, and the auctioneer got up and said, the auction
is over. The man who got the picture of
the man's son gets everything. True story. If you have the son,
you have everything. Ephesians 1 3 says, Blessed be
the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who have blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
You have everything. Can you see what a glorious gift
the Lord Jesus Christ is? And you know you didn't earn
Him, don't you? You know He was freely given. There was no merit
in you that drew the Father to give Him, His blessed Son, to
you. He did it freely. Ephesians chapter
five, verse 20 says, giving thanks always for all things unto God
and the Father. When do we give thanks? Always. Always. For what do we give thanks? All things. That's a powerful
verse, isn't it? Giving thanks always. for all things. And you know,
even in our thanksgiving, we realize that our thanksgiving
itself is no good. It must be presented to the Father
through the Lord Jesus Christ. 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. But did you notice how that verse
began? By him, let us offer the sacrifice
of praise to God continually. I don't even want my thanksgiving
and praise to come into God's presence apart from the mediation
of Christ. It's only through him that this can be presented. Aren't you thankful for his name? Ephesians 4.32 says, Be ye kind,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's
sake, hath forgiven you. Now, this thing of thankfulness
is to describe our walk. Turn to, you're in Colossians,
look in Colossians chapter 2. Verse 6. As you have therefore received
Christ Jesus, the Lord. So walk ye in Him. Now, how did you receive Him?
I know how I received Him. I received Him as an empty-handed
sinner with nothing to recommend myself. I just received Him.
Gratefully, thankfully, I sure was glad for the salvation that
was in Him, the salvation that's all by grace. That's how I received
Him. Now, I was, I was thankful. Thankful. Thankful for the free
grace that's in him. Thankful for his precious blood.
Thankful for his intercession. Thankful. You remember being
thankful in receiving the Lord. Oh, you were so glad you didn't
have to stand before God in your works. That's how you received
him. Thankfully. Now, as he received Christ Jesus,
the Lord, so walk ye in him. Rooted. and built up in him and
established in the faith as you've been taught, abounding therein
with what? Thanksgiving. Now that is to
be the character of every believer, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Why, we have reason to thank
him for the things he's not given us. The psalmist said he has not
dealt with us after our sins. Nor rewarded us according to
our iniquities. Aren't you thankful for the things
that he hadn't give you? Now, we could spend the rest
of our lives thinking and. About what we have to be thankful
for. And praising him. Truly, we could all say, bless
the Lord, oh, my soul and all that is within me blessed. his
holy name. Bless the Lord oh my soul and
forget not all his benefits. Now it's my prayer that after
this message we will not be thanking him because things could always
be worse. But we'll be thanking him because
things couldn't be any better. There's a big difference. Now, thankfulness. Be ye thankful. First, we're thankful because
He is who He is, and He does what He does. We're thankful
for Him. I love that scripture in Psalm
where it says, to the saints give thanks at the remembrance
of His holiness. I'm thankful He's a holy God.
I'm thankful He's a just God. I'm thankful He's a sovereign
God. I'm thankful He's an all-wise
God. I'm thankful he's a merciful
God. I'm thankful for him as he reveals
himself in his word, and if it were in my power, I wouldn't
change him if I could. I'm thankful for all of his wonderful
attributes. I think of what our Lord said,
I thank thee, O Father. Christ gave thanks to the Father.
I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
you've hid these things. What things? The things of salvation.
You've hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed
them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight." Can you say the same thing with the Lord?
Whatever's good in His sight, I'm thankful for. And I can thank
Him for all He does. Listen to the Song of the Four
and Twenty Elders in Revelation chapter 11 verse 17. We give
thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art and wast and art to
come, because thou hast taken to thee great power and reigned. Can you give thanks that God
reigns right now, that he's in absolute control of everything? Are you thankful for that? I'm
not even asking you if you agree with it. Are you thankful for
it? Can you give thanks at the sovereignty
of God? We thank him for all of his wonderful
attributes. They make us happy. We're thankful. We not only give thanks that
he is who he is, we also give thanks for what he's done for
us, to us, and in us. Now, I'm going to give you some
scriptures regarding this. Now, first of all, We're thankful
for Him who He is, and we're thankful for what He's done.
Now here's where I'm going to begin. 2 Thessalonians 2 verse
13 says we're bound to give thanks. We're bound, we're obligated
to give thanks to God always 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. Thank God for election. You know
who loves election? The elect. Every single one of
them. We thank God for election. And I know this, if God didn't
elect the people, nobody'd be saved. Your people argue against
election, that's biting the hand that feeds you. The only hope
you got is that God elected the people freely of his own sovereign
will. You take away election, you take away salvation. Thank
God for election. Election tells me God is God.
I love election because I love the God of election. It tells
me God is God. And it gives this sinner hope.
The free election of grace, not of works, lest any man should
boast. Thank God for election. I'm thankful God elected the
people. And I'm so thankful he elected
me. to think that he chose me and he passed so many others
by that he, and he chose me. He said his love on me. He said
his affection. Thank God for election. Look in Colossians chapter one.
Boy, there's a lot about thankfulness in this book of Colossians. Verse
12. Giving thanks unto the father. which hath made us meet, to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. Now you
think of those saints in light. We just buried a saint this week
in Lexington. I've never known a finer woman,
Donna Grubb. And right now she's a saint in
light. She's in the light of God's countenance. She's in the light of God's presence. Everybody in heaven is a saint
in light. Now, you think of those saints
in light up there. This passage of scripture tells
me he hath made us meet. Not he will make us meet. He's
already done it. All I need for heaven, I possess. And I give thanks for that. He
hath made us meet for the inheritance of the saints in light. I can't
get any more saved. I can't get any more loved. I
can't get any more holy. I can't get any more perfect
than I am right now in Christ Jesus. Now you say, how could
that be when you're a sinful person? Well, my flesh is sinful,
but one of these days I'm gonna put away that flesh. It's gonna
be gone, but I'm not gonna be any more holy in heaven than
I am right now. He's made us meet for the inheritance
of the saints in light. Think of this scripture, 1 Corinthians
1.30. Says of Him are you in Christ Jesus. You know how you
got there. God put you there. Of Him are
you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us. Wisdom. Righteousness. Sanctification. And redemption. Now that's me,
isn't it? I have the wisdom of God. I am the righteousness of
God. Christ is my holiness. I am sanctified
before him. Everything Christ is. Now you
take whatever Christ is, that's what I am. That's how meat I
am. First John chapter four, 17 says, as he is, as he is,
so are we in this world. That means right now. He hath
made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints
in light. I'm thankful for that, aren't
you? Giving thanks unto the Father. I love being thankful. It's the
most enjoyable. It's a whole lot better than
grumbling and complaining and being depressed. Thankful. And
this is not just positive thinking either. I mean, I got reason
to be thankful. Look in Romans chapter 7. Romans chapter 7. Paul says in verse 22, for 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, that mind
that delights in the law of God, and it brings me into captivity
to the law of sin, which is in my members. Now that's a bad
place, isn't it? He doesn't say sometimes I mess
up. He says I find this law in me
that when I would do good, evil is present with me and I'm brought
into captivity. I feel like a captive. Look what he says next. Verse
24. Oh, wretched man that I am, who should deliver me from the
body of this death? And he's referring to what they
did to Roman prisoners back then. They would chain dead bodies
to them. And they couldn't be separated
from those dead bodies. Wherever they went, that dead
body went with them. And Paul certainly felt that
way about his flesh. Now, who's gonna get me out of
this quandary? I mean, that's a mess. Well,
look what he says, verse 25. I thank God. Now, this question, who shall
deliver me? I tell you what, if you believe
what he said in the previous verses, you know you can't deliver
yourself. There's nothing you can do to make it better. But
he says, I thank God. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord,
I know who's going to deliver me. Jesus Christ, the Lord, and
I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord, we're thankful for
this deliverance that he has given us. Turn to 1 Timothy chapter
1. I like this. I like all these. Verse 12. And I thank Christ Jesus, our
Lord, who hath enabled me. Now I could go on reading and
you can see how he enabled him, counting him faithful to putting
him in the ministry and so on, but just take this word, he enabled
me. I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord,
who enabled me. Now truly Christ is the great
enabler of his people. Now this is particularly precious
when you really believe that you have no ability. Do you believe you have no ability?
You can't come up with the goods. You can't muster up faith. You
can't repent. You can't do any of these things
in and of yourself. You know, the Lord said, without me, you
can do what? Nothing. He didn't say, without
me, you can hardly do anything. He says, without me, you can
do absolutely nothing. And if you really believe that,
this is precious. I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord,
who have enabled me. You know, there was a time when
I could not believe. And I didn't even know what it
meant to believe. And I would hear the preachers telling me to believe,
and I thought, I would if I even knew what it meant. What does
it mean to believe? And then God gave me faith. And
it's easy to believe on Christ. It's easy. It's easy to trust
Him. I don't have anything else to
trust. There was a time when the preacher would talk about
repentance, and I was just mystified by what it meant. What does it
mean to repent? Does it mean to be sorry? How sorry? When am I sorry enough? Does
it mean to stop sinning? Well, I haven't stopped at my
heart. I'm in trouble. But what does it mean to repent?
What does it mean? Then God granted me repentance.
And I'm repenting right now. I've changed my mind. I've changed
my mind. I used to believe salvation was
by works. I don't believe that way anymore. I've changed my
mind. I repent. He enabled me. He enables me to love God. There
was a time when I did not have any love for God. I do now. He
enables me to persevere. I do persevere in the faith and
there's a reason I persevere in the faith. He enables me to. You take the Beatitudes in Matthew
chapter 5. So beautiful. Blessed are the
poor in spirit. Blessed are they that mourn.
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Blessed are the meek, blessed are the peacemakers, on and on. The beautiful Beatitudes, which
describe what a believer is. Blessed are the pure in heart.
Well, Christ enabled me to be poor in spirit. I am poor in
spirit. What do you mean by that? That
almost sounds prideful to say you're poor in spirit. Well,
I'm sure there's a lot of pride in there somewhere, but I'm poor
in spirit because I know I have nothing before God. I know I'm
bankrupt before God, and the only hope I have is the Lord
Jesus Christ. I'm poor in spirit. I don't have anything. And I
do mourn over my sin. It's ever before me. I hate my
sin. And I do hunger and thirst after
righteousness. All the description of what a
believer is. Christ enabled me to be that
way. He's the great enabler. Thank
God for his enabling grace. He always says, my grace is sufficient
for thee. Whatever it might be, He says,
My grace is sufficient for thee. I'm thankful for that, aren't
you? We're thankful for hearing. The ability to hear. You know,
there's folks who can hear the message, it means nothing to
them. They walk out, just another sermon, and there's somebody
else that hears the very word of God. Who do we thank for that?
Turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. Verse 13, for this cause also
thank we God, Paul says without ceasing, nonstop, for this cause
also thank we God without ceasing, 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 that believe. And we thank God
for that. Have you heard the word of God? And you know it's
God's word, it's not man's word. It's God's word, not man's opinion.
It's God's word, not man's denomination or distinctives and so on. You
know it's the very truth of God and you believe it and you've
heard from God. There's one to be thanked for that and that's
God himself. God gave you hearing ears. Not everybody has hearing
ears. But he that has ears to hear,
our Lord says, let him hear. Thank God for hearing ears. Thank
God for the ability to hear the gospel and believe and rejoice
in it. I'm thankful. I know what it is to not be able
to hear. Isn't it miserable when you hear the gospel and it's
just not ringing your bell? That's a miserable feeling. You're
scared to death. What's wrong with me? And you
know the only way you can hear is if God gives you grace to
hear. You know that, don't you? Thank God for hearing ears. We give thanks for obedience. Listen to this scripture, Romans
6, 17. Now we must obey the gospel. Obedience. To obey God. There's no salvation apart from
obedience to the gospel. And I want to obey him in all
things. I want to walk in obedience.
Listen to the scripture Romans chapter six verse 17 says, but
God be thanked that you were the servants of sin. You were
the slaves of sin, but you've obeyed from the heart, that form
of doctrine, which was delivered. You notice how he began that
verse, but God be thanked, but God be thanked. If you're obedient
to the gospel, there's somebody to thank for that. That is God
himself. We give thanks to him for obedience. We give thanks to him for growth.
Look in second Thessalonians chapter one. Verse 3. We're bound to thank God always
for you, brethren, as it's meet, because that your faith growth
exceedingly in the charity of every one of you all toward each
other abounds. He says, we thank God for your
growth. Now, I know this. If he doesn't cause me to grow,
I'm not going to grow. I'm sure of that. But this is encouraging
to me. I can thank God. He'll enable
me to grow. He'll cause me to grow. And we thank God for that
growth. The only place it comes from
is God. We know this. If He doesn't cause us to grow,
we won't grow. But we thank God for growth. We give thanks that
we have always a reason to give thanks. You know, we're thankful
to be thankful, aren't we? And we always have a reason to
give thanks. Look in 2nd Thessalonians, or 2nd Corinthians, excuse me,
Chapter 2. 2nd Corinthians, Chapter 2. Verse 14. Now. Thanks be unto God. Which always. Causes us to try. In Christ. You ever heard people
talk about. Leading a defeated Christian
life. There's no such thing. I. always triumph in Christ. And I thank God for that. And
I know the only reason I triumph is in Christ. But in Christ,
I always triumph. There's no such thing as leading
a defeated Christian life. We're more than conquerors. through
him that loved us. And here we have this promise,
no matter what's going on, we have this promise. Thanks be
unto God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ. We give thanks for the victory
we have, and we give thanks for the victory we have awaiting
us. Look in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 51. Behold, I show you a mystery.
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 put on incorruption, and this mortal
shall 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, and the strength of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ. I turn over to 1 Thessalonians
chapter 5. Verse 16. Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything, give thanks. For this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus concerning you. Now, whatever it is you're having
a hard time with, and whatever it is that you even have a hard
time thanking God for, this is the will of God in Christ Jesus
concerning you, whatever it is. Now, can you give thanks? If it's his will, you can. I don't care what it is, you
can give thanks for it. This is God's will in Christ
Jesus concerning you. No matter how painful it is,
praise the Lord. And you mean that. You're not
saying it just because you know you're supposed to. You're not
just accepting it because you don't have any choice, kind of
a fate, well, nothing I can do about it, might as well get through
it. No. If God brought it my way, it is best. It came from the hand of him
who's too wise to err and too kind to be cruel. This is the
will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Now you can give thanks. If Romans 8, 28 is true, is it? And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God. to them who have called
according to his purpose. If Romans 8, 28 is true, what
is there to not be thankful for? Now, when somebody is going through
a difficult time, don't come up to them and say, all things
work together for good. Sometimes I can get, I know they
do. You know, let me let me work
through it. But every believer can rejoice in this. All things
work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
the called according to his purpose. Do you know something else that
Paul was always thanking God for? I think that what he talked
about when he used the word thanksgiving most in the New Testament, it
was always about where he thanked God for believers. We thank God
for you. We thank God for you over and
over and over. Aren't you thankful to be a member
of the family of God? God, your father. Christ is your savior. God, the
Holy Spirit is your comforter and your guide and your companion. You have his elect. His bride,
as your friends. What a family to be in. The family
of God. What brothers and sisters we
have in Christ. What a big, happy family. You're my family. You're my family
just as much as those folks at Todd's Room are. We're one big,
happy family in Christ Jesus. We really do love each other.
And it's wonderful being a member of his family, isn't it? What
a blessing. Now this is a command that is
most blessed to obey. Be ye thankful. Let's pray together.