The title of my message tonight
is Thanksgiving. Of course, it is no surprise
to you, I'm sure, that my mind be turned in that direction,
as yours is. Our nation will celebrate a national day of Thanksgiving
Thursday. Sad to say, few people, few people
have any understanding of what it is to walk before God with
thanksgiving. But most of us will have an occasion
at least sometime during the next few days to get together
with family and friends for a time of feasting and enjoyment. And
that's all right. That's just fine. But I trust
we will not fail to have a time of thanksgiving as well. The
Lord God says, when thou hast eaten and art full, then thou
shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath
given thee. Let us not fail to give thanks
to him. Thanksgiving is always in season. Every child of Adam living upon
this earth ought to lift his heart continually to God with
thanksgiving and praise for his great mercy. The fact that anyone
exists out of hell is mercy. God extends mercy to men upon
the earth. We feed by his hand. We live by his mercy. We breathe his air. We live in
this world only because of God's bounteous mercy, and we ought
to give thanks to him for it. The scriptures give us instruction
in this regard constantly. And it seems strange that we
should have to have the instruction, doesn't it? It seems strange
that a parent should have to teach their children to say thank
you. But something has to be taught,
because we all take everything for granted. And how sad that
we have to be taught to give thanks to God. Give thanks unto
the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the
people. The psalmist says offer to God thanksgiving. It is a
good thing to give thanks to the Lord and sing praise to the
name of the Most High. He calls us to enter into His
gates with thanksgiving, into His courts with praise. Be ye
thankful and bless His name. Let them that sacrifice, sacrifice
the sacrifices of thanksgiving and declare God's wondrous works
with rejoicing. In the New Testament, we're given
this same kind of admonition. Let the peace of God rule your
hearts, to the which also you are called in one body, and be
thankful. Be thankful. And I'm here to
tell you that there is a direct correlation between peace ruling
your heart and thanksgiving to God. As we give thanks to Him,
truly give thanks to Him. As we bow before the Lord God
with thankful hearts, we walk before Him in peace. In everything,
give thanks. In everything. For this is the
will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. The scriptures do not admonish
us to give thanks to God for everything. That would be an
absolute impossibility while we live in this world. The time
will come soon when we will give thanks to God for everything. For we will soon see how that
everything has been indeed a blessing and has been indeed a source
of good to our souls. But in this veil of tears, the
Lord God does call for us to give thanks in everything. Give thanks to Him acknowledging
that this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning us.
No matter what it is we presently experience, it is God's will. It is God's will. It is God's
will. Not only that, it is God's will
that we give thanks in it. This is the will of God. In everything,
give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning
you. Whatsoever you do, in word or
deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to
God and the Father by Him. Thanksgiving is always in season
for all men. But if you and I are partakers
of Christ, if we are born of God's Spirit, If we are washed
in the blood of Christ, robed in his righteousness, if we are
saved by God's free grace, our hearts should be constantly filled
with thanksgiving to God continually. We ought to unceasingly give
thanks to him in all things. But the sad fact is we are far
more inclined to murmur and complain before him. We're far more inclined
to murmur about our present lot in life than we are to give thanks
to him. I don't know why it is that if
you get a hangnail on your little finger, you can be in otherwise
robust health, strong, not a thing wrong with you, not a sniffle
in your body, but you've got that little hangnail. And all
you think about is that stinky little hangnail. When your body
is full of life and vigor, And when we have some little trouble,
some little difficulty, some little thing to make us uneasy,
all we think about is that and murmur and complain at God's
goodness. Let us not be so foolish, but
rather give thanks to Him. Listen to what the Apostle says
in Ephesians 5. You don't need to turn there,
just listen. He's urging us to be filled with the Spirit. Now, whatever it is to be filled
with the Spirit, whatever it is to be ruled, dominated, and
controlled by God the Holy Spirit, this is certainly included. Speaking
to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing
and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Listen now. Giving
thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, let's turn, if you will,
to Colossians chapter 1. In this first chapter of Colossians,
The Holy Spirit tells us something very important about this matter
of Thanksgiving. He gets to the heart of it. Now, it's very,
very difficult for me to pick a place in this great, magnificent
chapter to begin and end without beginning at verse 1 and ending
at the last verse. But I wouldn't even think about
getting done with that. So tonight, we're going to break
into the middle of a sentence. And we'll begin reading in verse
12. and go through verse 14 and this will be our text for this
evening. Giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet
to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light who hath
delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us, hath
translated us into the kingdom of his dear son, in whom we have
redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. Now these three verses are a
treasure chest. They are just absolutely full of great, great
jewels. This text is a deep, deep mine. I have been studying it. I have
read it repeatedly over the last two or three weeks. I've just
had this on my mind almost incessantly. And every time I've opened it,
every time I've read the text, I've found some nugget that I
missed before, something that I overlooked before. So I want
you this evening to just hold your Bibles open on your lap,
and we're going to look at these three verses line by line, and
I pray that God the Holy Spirit will inspire our hearts with
thanksgiving. I know before I start, when I
get done, this is one of those sermons I'm going to lay in bed
tonight and I'll think to myself, I should have said this or I
should have said that. I'm not going to get said everything
I want to say tonight. And there'll be a whole lot of room for you
to study and contemplate later. Perhaps this will be a good passage
for you to meditate on with your family when you set at your Thanksgiving
table this week. But let's start at verse 12,
the first line. Giving thanks unto the Father. Here we're called upon to do
what we ought always to do without exhortation. Called upon to give
thanks unto God our Father, the God of glory who is our Father. Let us give thanks unto the Father
because he is our Father. Pause and consider that. We who are born of God have been
given the spirit of grace and supplication, so that we can,
with confidence and with good reason, lift our hearts to God
in heaven and cry, Abba, Father. God Almighty is my Father. The God of glory and grace is
my Father. Hold your hands here and turn
to Romans chapter 8. John contemplates this and he
says, behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed
on us that we should be called the sons of God. Here in Romans
chapter 8, the Apostle Paul is writing to us and telling us
what it is to live in the Spirit. We no longer live in the flesh.
We live in this body of flesh. We no longer live in the flesh.
We live in the Spirit. We walk in the Spirit. And this
is what it is. Verse 14, for as many as are
led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. If our lives
are ruled, controlled, dominated by God the Holy Spirit, it's
because we're God's sons. Verse 15, for you have not received
the spirit of bondage again to fear. Now religious folks have. Religious folks have got a spirit
of bondage and they're scared to death of God. But you who
know him, you who are born of God, you've not received the
spirit of bondage again to fear. If God's my father, why should
I be afraid? If God is my father, whom shall
I fear? If God is my father, what shall
I dread? Certainly not him. Certainly
not him. Somebody said, well, we need
to look at God as our judge too. Show me in this book where it
says that. Now we recognize he is judge, but the judge of all
the earth who must do right has declared us right before him,
and we have nothing to dread from the judge. We've not received
the spirit of bondage again to fear, but rather the spirit of
adoption, and this is it, whereby we cry, my father, my father. Verse 16. The spirit itself,
now that's an accurate translation but a bad theology. Because it's
an accurate translation, it's an accurate translation because
the word spirit is a neuter word and can't use a masculine pronoun
with it, but properly speaking, the spirit himself. The spirit's
not a thing. The spirit is one of the persons
of the Godhead. The spirit himself bears witness
with our spirit that we are the children of God. How? By giving
us faith in Christ. By causing us to look to Christ
alone for everything. Now look at verse 17. And if
children, then heirs of God, heirs, heirs of God, and joint
heirs with Christ. If so be that we suffer with
him, that we may be also glorified together. Now then, let that
sink in. And you'll understand why Paul
says what he does in the next line. For I reckon that the sufferings
of this present time, whatever they are, however long I have
to endure them, wherever they come from, I reckon that the
sufferings of this present time aren't fit to be put in the same
balances, are not worthy to be compared with the glory that
shall be revealed in us, because you are sons. Because God from
eternity chose you, because Christ redeemed you in the fullness
of time, he sends forth his spirit into your hearts crying, Abba
Father, in urging us to give thanks unto the Father. The apostle
does not, however, exclude, but rather he includes the other
persons of the Holy Trinity. When we sing the doxology, we
sing properly, praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise
Him all creatures here below. Praise Him above ye heavenly
hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost. We sing that properly because
according to this book, the Lord our God, who is one Lord, is
three distinct persons. We are Trinitarians. We give
thanks to the triune God because all that is done by the Father
or the Son or the Spirit is spoken of as being done by the Father
and the Son and the Spirit. I challenge you to read the book.
You will find it absolutely impossible to strictly divide the works
of the Father from the works of the Son, or the works of the
Father and Son from the Spirit, or the works of the Spirit to
be divided from the works of the Father and the Son. The three
are mingled together, though certainly in the covenant of
grace each person has distinct things that are done, yet in
the Word of God we understand that all three are working together.
Let me show you what I mean. Do we say that it is God the
Spirit that quickens the dead? That he gives life to dead sinners?
Certainly that's true. But you'll find it written in
the book, the Father quickeneth whom he will. Do we say that
the Spirit is our sanctifier? Indeed we do. Sanctification
is the work of God the Holy Spirit. And yet Jude declares that we're
sanctified by God the Father. Anything performed by the Spirit
is done by the Father because he sends the Spirit. It is the
Father who says to the dry bones, live. And yet it's the Spirit
coming with the word from the Father who gives life to the
dry bones. It is true that the Holy Spirit
is the seal of the covenant. He is the seal in our hearts,
the pledge of everlasting redemption and everlasting grace. But it's
the Father who sets the seal by the hand of his omnipotent
grace. The works of the Son, like the works of the Spirit,
are also the works of the Father. They are, every one of them,
in intimate connection with the Father. If the Son comes into
the world, the Father sent Him. If the Son lays down His life
for us, the Father gave His Son. If the Son comes to redeem us,
it is because He is the gift of the Father, and therefore
we read, thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift. God the
Father, the Ancient of Days, is ever to be extolled with the
Son and the Spirit. We are Trinitarians. Turn to
1 John chapter 5. Let me show you this. Now the Father, the Son, and
the Spirit has arranged, as we read in Colossians 1, that in
all things Christ had preeminence as the mediator of the covenant.
so that we have the revelation of the Father and the Spirit
and the Son and the person of the God-man, our Lord Jesus Christ. We do not know the Father, the
Son, or the Spirit apart from that divine mediator. But let
us never imagine that we confuse the works of the Godhead when
we speak like this. In 1 John 5 and verse 7, there
are three that bear record in heaven. The Father, the Word,
and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. Now that one verse
of scripture is the one verse of scripture that has been under
attack from Satan since the beginning of time, or since the beginning
of this gospel age with the completion of the New Testament. You see,
this is the only text in all the Bible that distinctly states
in one sentence the doctrine of the Trinity. And every modern
translation, without exception, every modern translation of scripture,
without exception, either takes the text from the scriptures
and says it's not inspired, or puts it in and puts a note by
it and says you ought not have it in there. Every modern translation. This text of scripture stands
and declares for us that which is taught everywhere in the word
of God. There are three that bear record
in heaven. The Father, the Word, and the
Holy Spirit. And these three are one. Three
persons in one divine trinity. Turn back to Colossians chapter,
I'm sorry, Ephesians chapter one. Ephesians one. In this very
very familiar text of scripture, The apostle writes to us and
gives us this word of exhortation to bless and praise our God.
And he speaks of all three persons in the Trinity being involved
in the work of our salvation, being involved in the work of
grace. He says in verse 3, blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in Christ, according as he, the Father, hath chosen us in Christ
the Son before the foundation of the world, Verse 5, in love,
having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he, the Father,
has made us accepted in the beloved in his Son. The work of God the
Father, then, is set before us here in the plan and purpose
of grace, and yet, at the same time, has included redemption,
and justification, and acceptance, and sanctification. Then in verse
7, the apostle proceeds to speak about the accomplishment of redemption.
In whom, that is, in Christ the Son, we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches
of his grace, wherein he has abounded toward us in all wisdom
and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of his will,
according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in himself.
Now, wait a minute. The son having something to do with predestination?
We just read in the previous verse, in verse 5, that that
was the work of the father. That's because the two work together.
Read on, verse 10, that in the dispensation of the fullness
of times, He, the Son, might gather together in one, or I'm
sorry, the Father, might gather together in one, all things in
Christ, both which are in heaven and which are in earth, even
in Him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance being
predestinated according to the purpose of Him, who works all
things after the counsel of His will, that we should be to the
praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ. That we should
be to the praise of the glory of the Father who first trusted
the Son. Now look at verse 13. Here he
speaks of the work of the Spirit. In whom you also trusted after
that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.
In whom also after that you believed you were sealed with that Holy
Spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance until
the redemption of the purchased possession under the praise of
His glory. Three times we're told that the
works of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit offer the praise
of the glory of the triune God in the exercise of His grace.
All right, now turn back to Colossians chapter 1 again. Giving thanks
unto the Father. Look at the next line. Which
hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints
in light. The Lord God Almighty, our Heavenly
Father, hath already made every believer meet. Now that word
is used very rarely in the New Testament. I think just maybe
two other times. It means sufficient or worthy. He's made us meet, sufficient,
worthy, equal to, being made partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light. This is our present position
and our present standing before God Almighty in Christ. Oh, now
we've got a reason to give thanks. Give thanks to the Father. He's
made us worthy of the heavenly inheritance right now. This is
called an inheritance. for God's elect, and he's speaking
of heavenly glory, because this inheritance is the free gift
of God's grace. It's given to us as heirs of
God and joint heirs with Christ. Because it is a free gift, it's
called an inheritance. An inheritance is not something
you earn, an inheritance is something you get by a relationship. An
inheritance is something that's given to you freely because of
who you are and whose you are. We have this inheritance in Jesus
Christ through God our Father because Christ is ours, and we're
his, because we are the sons of God. The Holy Spirit is the
earnest in the pledge of this inheritance by which we are assured
of it. We read in Ephesians 1 that he's
the earnest of the inheritance. The earnest is... This is... A very mundane way of speaking,
but this is exactly what the Apostle was telling us in Ephesians
1. The earnest is the pledge. It's the down payment. It's the
down payment. You go to buy something, if you
see an ad in the paper for a car and you really want that car,
and you don't have the money to get it, you go put down some
earnest money. And that means you're going to
forfeit the earnest money if you can't get the money to get
the car. But you put down the earnest money so that the fellow
who owns it is obliged now, if he signs a contract with you,
he's obliged to keep the car for a given period of time until
you get the rest of your money. Now let me tell you something.
God Almighty is never going to lose his earnest money. He has
given us his spirit, the earnest, the pledge, the foretaste, the
down payment of our heavenly inheritance, given us by his
grace in Christ Jesus. And this is the inheritance of
the saints, all of them. You see, because it's a free
grace gift, our works have nothing whatever to do with it. All of
heaven's glory is given to all God's elect, the saints of God,
because they are one with Christ, in union with Christ, by the
free gift of God's grace. We are those who are called saints,
sanctified people. It's amazing to me that religion
talks about God's people and urges them to sanctify themselves.
But in this book, God's people are always spoken of as saints.
Read the New Testament. The apostle writes to folks he's
never seen before. Never seen them. And because
they are in Christ, because of their professed faith, dealing
with them on the basis of their faith, Larry, he calls them saints.
Saints. Saints. Sanctified people. All of God's people are. They
are holy. That's what the word saints means.
Holy ones. Now they don't dare speak of
themselves as doing something holy, or as being holy, because
in themselves they know otherwise. But blessed be God, in Christ
we are indeed sanctified. Sanctified by God the Father
in eternal election. Sanctified by God the Son in
his precious blood, making us righteous before God in justification. And sanctified in the new birth
by God the Spirit coming and putting in us what we did not
have before, a holy, righteous nature. Sanctified by Jesus Christ. Sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Sanctified by God the Father. And our inheritance is called
an inheritance in light. People all the time talk about
believers and try to talk about folks being believers who walk
in darkness. Now let me tell you something. God's people don't go about in
darkness. They just don't. When you walked
in religion for 25 years, you were groping about in darkness,
and God gives light. I remember when Larry Criss was
a free will preacher, groping about in darkness, and then God
gives light. Folks who don't believe the gospel
are in darkness? Well of course that's what it
means. You mean folks who are walking in darkness are darkness?
Well of course that's what it means. God's people walk in the
light. Our inheritance is an inheritance
in the light. In the light of the gospel we're
made to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ and
the exceeding sinfulness of our sin, the exceeding preciousness
of his blood, the exceeding greatness of his salvation. And when we
stand before God in our heavenly inheritance, we stand before
God in light. In the book of Revelation, when
the scriptures describe that city, the new Jerusalem, the
holy city, when God makes all things new, he says there'll
be no more need of the sun or of the moon. How come? Because God himself shall be
our sun. Christ himself shall be our light.
So that we will spend eternity in the light of his glory. In light. In light. And in his light we'll see everything
in light. In his light we'll see everything
as he has done it. We'll see everything as it really
is. We'll see everything as he sees
it. In light. In light. Constantly. Uninterrupted. Dwelling with
him in light. John Gill said this seems to
point out the situation and nature of the heavenly inheritance.
It is where God dwells in light inaccessible to mortal creatures,
where God dwells who is light itself, where Christ is who is
the light of the new Jerusalem, and where there is the light
of endless joy, uninterrupted happiness, and where the saints
are blessed with clear, full, beatific visions of God in Christ. Where we see Christ as He is. Face to face forever. Sometimes I get carried away
with myself and I think, boy, I have seen something now. I have some rapturous conceptions
of Christ. But let me tell you something.
The best I see now, the best I know now, the best we understand
now. Perhaps we just see through a
glass darkly. Oh, but this is an inheritance
in light. In thy light we shall see light. Our text tells us that we are
right now, permanently, forever worthy of this inheritance. Now I got there today as I have
the last several weeks. I remember the other day sitting
on the plane looking out the window trying to mull this thing
over. It's hard for me to grasp which
is greater. the inheritance, or the fact that we presently
have it, or this fact that we are right now worthy of it. Worthy. Worthy of God's approval. Worthy of God's smile. Worthy of God's reward of everlasting
glory. Oh, give thanks to God. In ourselves, listen now, there's not one of
us fit for the company of a breathing mortal. Not one of us. We are fit in ourselves for nothing
but hell and misery and corruption, for that's what we are. But in Christ, we're worthy of
heaven itself. Preacher, how can that be? By God's purpose, this is the
inheritance to which we were predestinated. This is that inheritance
prepared for us before the foundation of the world. If it was prepared
for us specifically, then it is only right that we possess
it. But it's an inheritance of which we're worthy because of
divine adoption. We have been made the sons of
God. The Lord God Almighty chose us to be his own. He set his
heart on us. He said, I'll be their God. They
should be my people. You shall be my sons and daughters, saith
the Lord. I'll call my people from the east and from the west,
from the north and from the south. I'll say, give up! Keep not back! And I'll bring my children from
afar. We're made worthy by blood atonement, as we'll see in just
a moment. The Lord Jesus Christ has both fulfilled all righteousness
for us and put away our sins. And we're made worthy by the
new birth. The Lord God has put a new nature
in us and soon we're going to drop this body of flesh and everything
related to this body of flesh. But more than anything else,
more than anything else, we're worthy of this inheritance gift
because of a union. A union with Christ the head.
A union we haven't yet begun. to fathom that Bobby and Julie
are one, but not really. At best, you can be, but not
really. You're still two people. One in the union of marriage,
one in the union of a family, one in the sight of the law,
but not really one. But you see this hand and this
head? It really is one. And you see the Son of God, yonder
in human flesh, on the throne of glory, rightfully possessing
everything. We really are one with Him. When He prayed John 17, He said,
Give me the glory which I had with you before the world was.
Before he got done praying, he said, now the glory that I have
from you as their mediator, I give to my people. And we're worthy
of it. By virtue of our union with him.
Alright, look at verse 13. Verse 13. Here the Holy Spirit gives us
the experimental assurance of heavenly glory. We know that
heaven's glory is ours in eternity because grace is ours now. Who
hath delivered us from the power of darkness? That's where grace
found us. But grace has fetched us out
and translated us into the kingdom of God's dear Son. Let me give
you a precious, better translation of those last words. He's translated
us into the kingdom of the son of his love. Because we are the
sons of his love. The Lord God is a sun and a shield. The Lord will give grace and
glory. No good thing will he withhold
from them that walk upright. He will withhold nothing good
from any sinner, saved by His grace, trusting His Son. Where
He gives grace, He gives glory. Now that's the experimental assurance
of our heavenly inheritance. Look at verse 14. Here's the
legal, just, righteous ground of our assurance before God.
In whom we have redemption through His blood. Now if there were
no other text in all the Bible to clearly set forth the doctrine
of particular effectual redemption, this one does. It sets it forth
in the most unmistakable language possible. Even. Even. If I were to say to you we're
going over to Bob and Sally Potts' house, that place over on Jefferson
Avenue, you'd understand I'm talking about the same place,
wouldn't you? He says, in whom we have redemption through His
blood, and this is what redemption is, the forgiveness of sins. Christ died for us. Our sins
are gone. We now walk before God without
sin. Almost every year, I travel to
a foreign country preaching the gospel of Christ. I've crossed
the borders of our nation, north, south, east, and west a number
of times. And whenever you leave this country and cross into another,
you've got to have three things if you go legally. You've got
to have three things. You've got to have a birth certificate
or a proof of citizenship. And you've got to have a visa
from the country receiving you, a right to enter. And you've
got to have a clear record. You've got to have a clear record
before the law. Soon I'm going to leave this
land of sin and sorrow. And I have a good, reasonable
hope that I shall enter into the glory and bliss of heaven. I hope to stand before God, a
citizen of the new Jerusalem, forever. And here's the basis
of my hope. I have a birth certificate that
the Lord God Almighty has snatched me from darkness and translated
me into the kingdom of his dear son. And I have a visa, a right
to enter by heaven itself by the blood of Jesus Christ because
I'm robed in his righteousness. It must be perfect to be accepted,
God says, and in Christ I'm perfect. He's made me perfectly righteous
before God. And I have a clean record. A clean record. Clean record. God Almighty declares I have
no sin. God declares I have no sin. And
it doesn't much matter what anybody else says. I have a clean record. Clean record. What's the basis
of your hope? Are you now made meek to be a
partaker of the inheritance of the saints in life? Then give
thanks unto the Father. Oh, give thanks. Amen.