Would you turn to Colossians
chapter one? This will be the second part
of this morning's message, the doctrine of thanksgiving and
what a blessing it is to be enabled by the grace of God to be thankful. There isn't anything more blessed
than for the Lord to enable us to actually be thankful, thankful
to him for his presence, for his grace, for his salvation. Truly in every aspect of salvation, the Lord is the giver and we're
the receiver. And we give thanks. You know,
I love that passage of scriptures that it says it's more blessed
to give than to receive. And the Lord's going to be the
more blessed one. In salvation, he does the giving. We do the
receiving and he gives us the grace to do the receiving. Isn't
that amazing? It takes grace to receive grace.
Oh, how thankful we are. Now this morning, we looked at
being thankful for the unspeakable gift. being thankful for divine
election, being thankful for being made meat to be a partaker
of the inheritance of the saints in light, being thankful for
the broken body and shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thanks
for deliverance from that wretched man that I am the body of this
death. Thanks to God for always causing
us to triumph in Christ. and thanks to God for giving
us the victory. Now look in Colossians chapter
one, beginning in verse three. We give thanks to God and the
father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you. Since
we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which
you have to all the saints for the hope which is laid up for
you in heaven wherever you've heard before in the word of the
truth of the gospel. We give thanks to God for your
love, for your faith, and for your hope. Now abideth Love, charity, faith,
and hope, these three. But the greatest of these is
charity. Now, faith, hope, and charity
are exotics. They do not spring from the heart
of the natural man. If I possess these three things,
it's because God gave them to me. And I know that in my experience. Now, I have faith. What's that mean? That means
right now, I am relying completely on the Lord Jesus Christ to be
everything in my salvation. That's what I mean by faith.
I'm relying upon Him when my name is called. I'm relying upon
Him to answer for me. Now that's what faith is. I'm
completely dependent on who He is and what He did as everything
I need to make me acceptable before God. That's what faith
is. All my eggs are in this basket
that who He is and what He did is enough, plus nothing, minus
nothing. And that's faith. It's a complete
reliance on leaning upon him. It's resting in him. You know,
I brought a message a few weeks ago on four things that I can't
live without. And somebody listened to that
message and wrote me and said, there's a fifth thing you can't
live without rest. I can't remember, what were the
four things? Four things you can't live without. I've forgotten
what they are already, so evidently they, but the rest, rest. And that's what faith is, it's
resting in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I know this, the faith that
I have is the gift of God. I know that it's not something
that I worked up. It's not something I just up
and decided to start believing. I found myself believing. I can
remember when I wondered what it meant to believe and then
I found myself believing and I knew that the faith I had is
the gift of God's grace. By grace are you saved. through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. You know that, don't you? You
have faith, God gave it to you. It's his gift to you. Isn't it a precious thing to
believe the gospel? And it's the gift of God. I have hope. Hope is a confident expectation
regarding the future, particularly with regard to judgment. I have
this hope. I have this hope that when I
am called, when my name is called, God himself will say to me, well
done, thou good and faithful servant. I really believe the
Lord's going to say that to me. I have a hope that on judgment
day, that's what I'm going to hear. And I have a hope that
everything between now and then is working together for my good
and His glory. And let me say this, this hope
is entirely because of the grace of God. It's not because I think
that I've done well or that I've been faithful. When I say, it's
not because I think I'm this good, faithful person the Lord's
going to say that to. Here's my hope that everything Jesus
Christ is, I am. He's good and faithful, and as
He is, so are we in this world. And God will say to me, well
done, thou good and faithful servant, because the goodness
and the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, the Lord, is mine. That's
my hope of salvation. And Paul tells us in 2 Thessalonians
2.16, this hope we have is a good hope through grace. Through grace. Now, if salvation really is of
grace, This hope I'm talking about, of him saying to me, well
done, thou good and faithful servant. If salvation really
is by grace, I have hope that I'm gonna hear this, it really
is mine. I said this last week and I think
it's worth repeating. Grace, let me make these statements
about grace. Grace is God acting freely according
to his nature. He's gracious. The reason he
gives grace is because he is indeed gracious. Aren't you thankful for that?
Grace, God's grace is for the individual that has nothing and
can meet no requirements. If that's what grace is, that's
for me. Grace is righteous. Grace doesn't make sin okay.
Grace doesn't sweep sin under the carpet. Grace is altogether
righteous. Grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life. You see, God deals with sin in
his grace and he puts it away and he makes those who are sinful
altogether righteous. Grace is righteous grace. It doesn't overlook sin. it puts away sin in a righteous
way that glorifies God. And grace doesn't need our help. It's all or nothing. Flesh has
no place in the purpose of grace. All flesh, the scripture says,
is grass. I love that where in Isaiah 40, the voice said, cry. And I said, what shall I cry?
All flesh is grass. That's what I'm to cry. Every
time I preach, I better be in it. All flesh is grass and all
the goodliness of man is the flower of grass. The grass withers
and the flower thereof falleth, but the word of the Lord endureth
forever. All it takes to fall from grace
is to add something to it. It's all it takes. And grace
is the only reason for God's blessing. Now you have every
reason to believe God's blessing because he gives his blessing
in grace. Not because you deserve it, not
because I deserve it, not because we've earned it, but because
of grace. And grace always produces true
humility before God. Grace makes us thankful. The
hope we have is grace and we thank God for it. I think it's
very interesting that in the original, in the Greek language,
grace and thanks are the same word in the original. Same word. And charity, charity. I love God. I love his son. I love his spirit. I love his
people. I love his gospel. You know,
when the Lord said to Peter, Peter, do you love me? Peter
appealed to the omniscience of Christ. And he said, Lord, you
know, all things, you know, I love your person. And Lord knows that
I love His person. I find Him altogether glorious
and lovely. I love that song we sing, all
that thrills my soul is Jesus. He is more than life to me. and the fairest of 10,000 in
my blessed Lord I see. Oh, I love his salvation. I love
being saved by him. I love being saved by his righteousness.
I love being saved by his grace. I love everybody he saves. I
love men and I want men to hear the gospel. And I know this,
the love that I have, he gave me. We love him because Why? Because He first loved us. These are gifts of His grace. Aren't you thankful for faith?
Aren't you thankful for hope? Aren't you thankful for love?
And they are the gifts of His grace. Turn to 1 Thessalonians
chapter 2. Verse 13. 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. We thank God for
hearing. We thank God for hearing. If
you hear, If you hear the gospel as the word of God and not the
word of man, there's one reason. God gave you those ears. And
we thank God for the ability to hear the gospel. Now here are two people hearing
the same message. One person, no interest. Doesn't grab them, boring, insignificant,
perhaps offensive. And somebody else hears the exact
same message and they find it the very word of God from heaven. It is a word. It's the gospel. It's the good news. It's not
just some man's opinion or some doctor, a man's doctrine or a
denominational distinctive. It's the word of God. Oh, to
hear with hearing ears where you really believe what you're
hearing is the word of God. There's nothing like it, is there?
I can say. And I mean this, there's no pleasure
on earth to me like being enabled to hear the gospel and the power
of the Holy Spirit when I know it's the word of God, when I
know it's the truth. I guarantee you, I'd rather hear
than preach. There's more pleasure in sitting
and hearing the gospel. You know, when you're hearing,
you're not doing anything. You're just hearing, hearing, hearing the truth. And
he said, we thank God that when you heard us preach, you didn't
hear it as man's word. but you heard it as the very
word of God, the truth of God. And we thank God for that. You
know, the Lord said, if any man have ears to hear, not everybody
does, do they? But if any man has ears to hear
the gift of God's grace, let him hear. Turn to second Thessalonians
chapter one. Verse 3. We are bound to thank God always
for you, brethren, as it's meat. It's only appropriate because
that your faith groweth exceedingly and the charity of every one
of you all toward each other aboundeth. We thank God for growth. We thank God for growth. Now, living things grow. Dead things don't grow. but living
things grow. Sometimes living things shrink
and that's always a discouragement to see people not grow and sometimes
you see people become instead of more gracious, more immature
in grace. I mean there's living things
shrink, you know that, but living things grow. Now let's say you've
grown. You know, the first sign, I think,
of somebody growing is growing in their sense of their need
of Christ. If you grow, you see more clearly of your own sinfulness
and your need of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, that's growth. That's
growth and grace. There's a growth in seeing your
need of the grace of God, your need of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's growth. And you grow to
love Him more. You love Him more than you used
to. I mean, I believe I do. I love him more than I used to.
Now, do I feel good about my love? No. My love is not anywhere
near what it ought to be. But I see more of his beauty. I see more of the greatness of
being saved by him. I love what the writer in Song
of Solomon said. He's altogether lovely. And I love his sovereignty more.
I love his justice more. I love his grace more. I love
him. There's only one reason that
is. He gave me that. If I've grown to rely on Him
more, if I see more clearly than I ever have, that His righteousness
is the only righteousness that I have. That's growth in faith. Your faith groweth exceedingly.
Well, I know where that came from. He caused it to grow. Any
growth I have, any growth I have in love to the brethren. Oh may
we grow in grace. Peter said grow in grace in the
knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I want to grow
in grace. I want to be somebody that is more gracious. I want
to be more forgiving. I want to be that person who
truly wants to do unto others as I would want them to do unto
me. The golden rule. I want to grow in those things.
And I know this, any growth that I have or any growth that I experience,
any growth that I desire is His gift. We thank God that your
faith groweth exceedingly and your charity toward each other
abounds. Romans chapter 6. Verse 17. But God be thanked. That you
were the servants of sin. The slaves of sin, but you've
obeyed from the heart. that form of doctrine which was
delivered you or which delivered you where unto you were and by
which you were delivered, the gospel. Now, thank God for obedience. We give thanks to God for obedience. Now, there is no salvation apart
from obedience. Now, what do I mean by that? God commands all men everywhere
to repent. That's a commandment. And if
I don't obey that command, if I don't repent before God, if
I'm not in a state of repentance before God, I'm not obeying that
command, I won't be saved. The command of the gospel is
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Now
that's a command. It's not good advice. It's a command. When
the Lord says, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy
laden, and I'll give you rest. He's commanding us to do that.
And our right to do it comes from his command. He commands
me to come to him. He commands me to believe on
him. He commands me to repent. He commands me to deny myself,
take up my cross daily and follow him. He commands me to do these
things. And I know this. If I obey those
commands, it's because He gave me the grace to do it. I know
that for a fact. I know that in me is nothing
but disobedience, and I'm not even able to do anything. Without
me, the Lord said you can do nothing, and any obedience I
have, and I won't be saved apart from this obedience, any obedience
I have, He gave me as a gift, and I thank Him for it. Don't
you thank God for any of it. If you've obeyed the gospel,
if you believe the gospel, and that's what believing and obedience,
same thing. What, what reason you have to
thank the Lord that he's given you the grace to do that. It's God that worketh in you. The scripture says both to will
and to do is good pleasure. Don't you love that verse? Turn to Philippians chapter four. Verse six, be careful for nothing. Don't be anxious. Don't be stressed
out about anything. You know, the only time I'm not
anxious is when the Lord enables me to hear the gospel. The rest
of the time I am. I am. I mean, you know, I remember
one time, Somebody said, I believe, somebody was coming up, walking
out the door, and they said, I believe what you preach. I don't know
what I'm gonna be like as soon as I get out in the parking lot, but right now
I believe. But the Bible commands us, God's on the throne. God's
on the throne. Be anxious for nothing. Don't worry, don't stress. Be
anxious for nothing. But in everything, by prayer
and supplication, Whatever it is you're anxious about, pray
about it. Ask the Lord to help you. Oh, he tells us to come. Men ought always to pray and
not to faint. And there's nothing you shouldn't
pray about. If there's anything you shouldn't
pray about, well, who determines? Well, that's too insignificant.
Oh, God's God. He's so vast and glorious. Call on his name. in everything
by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your requests
be made known unto God and the peace of God that passes all
understanding. This isn't human peace. This
is spiritual peace. The peace of God that passes
all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through
Jesus Christ. Now, in everything with prayer
and supplication with thanksgiving. You know what that means? That means even if the Lord doesn't
give me what I'm asking for, I'm still thankful he would help
from me because it would not have done me any good. It would
have been positively bad for me. You know, there's a lot of
things I've asked the Lord for that he didn't give me. Well, didn't you have any faith?
Maybe I didn't, I don't know, but he didn't give them to me.
And I know it was for my good and his glory. And I thank him
that he will give me whatever it is I need. So whenever I'm
praying, I have this confidence. I mean, Lord, this is important
to me. I'm praying to you about it,
but I know your will will be done, and I know your will is
best. And if you say no, I know it's best. I pray with thanksgiving. Look what it says in 19 verse
19 of the same chapter, but my God shall supply all your need. And I, I read that for a long
time as needs. It's not needs need. My God shall
supply all your need according to his riches and glory
by Christ Jesus. Turn back to Psalm 75. Isn't it a blessing to be able
to pray to have the Lord hear you? To have the Lord call on
you to pray and He gives us that encouragement in everything by
prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your request
be made known to God. Now look in Psalm 75 verse 1.
Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks. Unto thee do we give
thanks. He doubles it. For that thy name is near, thy
wondrous works declare. We give thanks for the nearness
of his name. Now what's that mean? We'll turn
to Psalm 34. I'm not Psalm 34, but Exodus
34. The Lord's name is who he is. Jehovah Tzedkenu, the Lord our
righteousness, all the other Jehovah's, I can't remember what
the Hebrew names are, but there's seven of them that tell us who
he is. He's Elohim, Adonai, all these
names that say who He is. I am that I am. But you remember
in Exodus chapter 33, this is where Moses said, show me your
glory. Verse 19 of 33 said, I'll make all my goodness pass before
then I'll proclaim the name of the Lord before thee and will
be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show mercy
on whom I will show mercy. Now, look in verse five of chapter
34. And the Lord descended in the
cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the
Lord. And the Lord passed by before
him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God merciful. Aren't you thankful for that? Gracious. Long suffering and abundant in
goodness and truth. Keeping mercy for thousands forgiving
iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means
clear the guilty. Visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children, upon the children's children, and
to the third and fourth generation, and Moses made haste and bowed
his head toward the earth and worshiped. Are you thankful for
his name? Merciful, full of mercy, gracious, Long-suffering, abundant
in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving
iniquity and transgressions. Aren't you thankful for his name?
Aren't you thankful for this? He'll by no means clear the guilty.
He's utterly and absolutely just. We're told to give thanks at
the remembrance of his holiness. Oh, I'm thankful that his name
is near. I turn to Philippians chapter
one. I love this. Verse three, Paul
says to the church at Philippi, I thank my God upon every remembrance
of you always in every prayer of mine for you all making request
with joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first
day until now being confident of this very thing that he which
had begun a good work in you will perform it into the day
of Jesus Christ. Paul says, I thank my God for
the fellowship we have in the gospel. Now, what is fellowship? Fellowship is sharing in common.
That's what it means. Now, if we're believers, there's
some very strong common bonds that we have. And this is what
fellowship is. It's common bonds. It's a sharing
in common. First thing we share in common
is we're sinners. We're real, bonafide sinners. And I'm not saying that by way
of pride, but I'm talking about the facts. We're sinners. But
you know what? We're saved by the same Savior.
We got that in common. We're saved by the same grace.
We have that in common. We have the same Father. We have
the same Savior. We have the same nature, partakers
of the divine nature, board of the Spirit. We have the same
belief, Christ is all. There's a true fellowship in
the gospel. And what we're doing right now,
this is fellowship. You're in agreement. You're in
agreement with the gospel of the Lord Jesus. That's what fellowship
is. Getting together and enjoying
one another's company, yeah, that's fine, and I would say
that's, but this is what real fellowship is. It's fellowship
around the gospel. It's sharing in common. We have
the precise same righteousness, the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's why every believer is gonna hear him say,
well done, thou good and faithful servant. Isn't it sweet to have
fellowship in the gospel? We thank God for that fellowship. And there's two things I'd like
to say about that. Number one, thank God for it. And number
two, endeavor. Endeavor to keep the unity of
the Spirit in the bond of peace. Everybody take the lowest seat
and everybody esteem each other as better than themselves. May
the Lord enable us to endeavor. That means there's effort involved
in that. Endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond
of peace. Now turn to Acts chapter 28. Paul is being transported to
Rome under arrest to go before Caesar. He's going to be arrested. We read in verse 14, he was traveling
from island to island to get to Rome a long way. He said,
where we found brethren and were desired to tarry with them seven
days. So we went toward Rome and from
thence When the brethren heard of us, I love this term, the
brethren. When the brethren heard of us, they came to meet us as
far as Apiphorium and the three taverns, whom when Paul saw,
he thanked God and he took courage. Evidently, he was discouraged.
He was on his way to be tried. He didn't know what was going
to happen. But when he saw these brethren who came out to see
him, He thanked God and he took courage. I want to be one of
these brethren that encourage like this, don't you? He saw him and he thanked God. First Thessalonians 5. Verse 16, rejoice evermore, pray
without ceasing, in everything give thanks. For this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus concerning you. I've heard people say, I want
to find God's will for my life. Let me tell you, you're up to
your neck in it. You are. God's will in your life is going
on right now. Give thanks for it. In everything,
difficult, heartbreaking, heart-wrenching, trouble, thank God for it. It's God's will for you. It's what you need, and it's
for His glory. In everything, give thanks. For this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus concerning you. Can you do that? If it's God's
will, you can thank God for it. You may hate it, it may be painful,
but when you think, this is God's will for me, you can give thanks. This is the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning you. Two more, and I'm not going to
say much about them. It seems like it's real hot in
here, but it's kind of, but Ephesians chapter five. Why is it it's always either
hot or real cold? I like it real cold, to be honest
with you. I'd rather it stay that way, but then Lynn doesn't
seem to be real happy with that. Always says some real mean things
to me about it, so. Ephesians chapter five, let's
begin in verse 17. Wherefore, Be not unwise, but understanding
what the will of the Lord is. You know, if I'm not thanking
the Lord for whatever's going on, I'm being very unwise, am
I not? And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, profligacy,
but be filled with the Spirit. speaking to yourselves in songs
and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in
your hearts to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things
unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. And
that's what it is to be filled with the Spirit. You're thankful
for all things and you submit to one another in the fear of
God. I got one more. Turn to First Timothy one. Verse 15. This is a faithful saying. and
is worthy of all acceptation. Now that word, acceptation, means
the appreciation of a gift. Thankfulness. Thankfulness. And what is it? That Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners. Can you thank God for that? Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And I am eternally
grateful that he came to do that. Oh, the way we would be more
thankful. I love reading this. John Bunyan
was eating dinner with a poor widow. I've told you this before.
He was eating dinner to a poor widow And all she had to give
him was bread and water. And she sat down with Bunyan
and she said, we have Christ and all this too. May the Lord give us that true
thanksgiving. Let's pray together.