THE REFORMED WITNESS HOUR
"The Great Thanksgiving”
Rev.
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prca.orgDear radio friends,
This week Thursday
our nation will celebrate its annual Thanksgiving Day.
What is Thanksgiving? What is Thanksgiving for a Christian?
Thanksgiving is an
overwhelming sense of joy and gratitude to God for His saving grace to me, an
unworthy sinner. Then,
to thank God out of that for everything.
I would like to
give you three examples of Thanksgiving taken from the events of our Lord’s
ministry. I will put them in a more
modern context. As I explain these
events to you, I would ask you to answer two questions. The first question will be simple. Which one is an example of true thanksgiving? The next question is this (perhaps a little
harder): Which one is true of you?
The first example
brings us to a temple. A man who is
noted as being a great worshiper of God has entered into this temple. The temple has massive oak doors and a marble
floor. And there are many worshipers
coming and going on this day. It is
Thanksgiving Day. The man we are talking
about is well dressed. He has a very
long and flowing robe. And he occupies
the central place of the temple. In the
presence of all he spreads forth his hands and he says the words: “I thank thee that I am not as other men
are—not like this tax-collector (whom he sees out of the corner of his
eye). That I’m not like those other men
who are thieves, lazy, and adulterers.
I’m a notch up. Look at all that
I’ve done for God this year. I thank
thee that I’m the kind of man that I am.”
As he leaves this
temple, the wind blows as the doors open.
And his breast is exposed. And we
see a heart of stone.
The second example
brings us to the beautiful countryside of southern
We come before a
bay window and, looking through the window, we see a large gathering of a
family. There is
all kinds of noise. There are children
and parents and grandparents. A table is
loaded with the very best. It is filled
with food. And at the head of the table
is a great big brown turkey. A man is
standing up before it with a carving knife in his hand. He is ready to start carving the turkey when
a rather slender and shy woman on his right says, “Dear, shouldn’t we first
pray?” And he says, “Hmm, yes, yes, we
should.”
So he prays. And, strikingly, on this Thanksgiving Day
these are his words. “Lord, I thank thee
for my diligence and my hard work, for my planning and for my foresight. If others worked as hard as I did, they would
succeed too. I thank thee that all my
grain is in all my big barns (and I’m building a bigger one yet). I’m thankful that my brokers are holding out
for the top dollar. With all these
things, I see the day is coming that I am going to be able to take my ease and
all shall be well with my soul. Oh, I
thank thee for my industry. Amen.”
Then everyone digs
into the food.
Later that night,
however, we are told that upstairs in his study, as this man spread the
blueprints of his new barn before him, he was suddenly gripped with a heart
attack. Paramedics were summoned to the
house. They did everything humanly
possible. But he died. And now we hear that his children are in
court fighting over his assets.
The third example
brings us to a poor widow. She lives in
a one-room apartment. She has two
daughters. One has moved out of the
country and the other one lives six hundred miles away. So she will be spending Thanksgiving Day by
herself.
She gets up in the
morning as she always does and makes her way to church on Thanksgiving
morning. She has in her purse at the end
of this month two five-dollar bills. Two. Not one
ten-dollar, not one five-dollar, but two five-dollar bills. The collection plate is passed. And she reaches into her purse and gives
both.
She returns to her
apartment that day for dinner by herself.
And later in the afternoon, around three o’clock, when she is taking out
the garbage she slips and falls. She
breaks her hip and cannot get up. She
lies there for a couple of hours until her neighbors find her and she is taken
to the hospital. There the pastor is
called to come and visit her.
He arrives at nine
o’clock on Thanksgiving night. As the
nurse shows him into the room with a curtain drawn around her bed, they hear,
as if she is singing—yes, she is singing. She is singing from Psalter 383, a versification of
Psalm 139:
“All that I am I owe to Thee. Thy wisdom, Lord, hath fashioned me. I give my Maker thankful praise whose
wondrous works my soul amaze.”
And the pastor
cannot move, but weeps.
Which one of the
three worshipers of thanksgiving are you?
Which one of the three gave thanks?
Thanksgiving is rooted
in the knowledge of God’s grace to me, an unworthy, hell-bound sinner in Jesus
Christ, and therefore thanking God in Jesus Christ for everything, always, and
every day. Is that true of you?
The apostle Paul puts it this way in
Ephesians 1:3:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ.” That is
Thanksgiving. That is a wonderful
doxology of thanksgiving. That is
profound and rich.
The epistle that
Paul wrote to the Ephesians is not unique in that Paul begins there with a
thanksgiving to God. He does that in all
of his other epistles. It was Paul’s
customary method in the beginning of his letters to the different churches to
have words of thanksgiving. But the book
of Ephesians is unique in the marvelous richness and fervor of the thanksgiving
with which it begins. In the other
epistles the apostle drew the theme of his thanksgiving from the special
conditions of those whom he was addressing.
Or, when he thought of certain persons whose faith had
been shown in its brilliancy and power.
For instance, in
Philippians, Paul says in the beginning:
“I thank God on every remembrance of you.” Or, in Colossians, he writes: “We give thanks to God and the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you.”
But here in
Ephesians it seems that the apostle’s mind is not upon any particular
person. It is not upon any particular
circumstance. But his mind is thrown
back on the great principles of the gospel of grace. His mind, by the Holy Spirit, is face to face
with the grace of God that has brought salvation through Jesus Christ. With depths of feeling and magnificent
statements he details the salvation that is in Jesus Christ.
He describes, in
the opening words of Ephesians (1:1-12), the loving activity of God, the triune
God. Of God the Father
planning salvation; God the Son securing salvation; and God the Holy
Spirit applying salvation to the heart of the sinner. Paul traces the salvation that is in Jesus
Christ for which he thanks God. He sees
that this salvation has been prepared in a grace of eternal election (vv. 4,
5), “according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predestined us unto the adoption of
children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his
will.” There Paul thanks God for the
preparation of salvation in a gracious decree of election—God choosing out of
mere grace whom He will save. Not
because of the work of any man, but out of His own good pleasure and will.
Then the apostle
goes on to say how salvation has been executed or accomplished (vv. 6, 7). He says, “To the praise of the glory of his grace,
wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved [that’s Christ]. In whom we have redemption through his blood,
the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.” There Paul sees that we have been accepted of
God through the blood-shedding of the beloved Son of God upon the cross.
And then the
apostle goes on to talk about the publication and the application of
salvation. He says that it is by the
Holy Spirit that we are now sealed in this salvation, and we have obtained a
secure inheritance in salvation through the work of the Spirit in the
heart.
He brings, then,
before us in those opening verses of Ephesians the whole salvation in Jesus
Christ: by grace, all of God, from
eternity to eternity. He contemplates
the eternal purposes of the loving heart of the Father, the eternal
consummation when all things in heaven and in earth will be summed in Christ
under one head. In high doxology, in a
splendid and magnificent way, in clear and profound words, Paul sings of the
salvation of grace that is come to sinners.
And he says,
“Blessed be God!”
We ask ourselves
this question as we look forward to a Thanksgiving Day: Are these truths that are brought to the
heart and mind of the apostle Paul, causing him to burst out in praise and thanks—“Blessed
be God”—are these the truths that are upon your heart and mine? Do you say “Blessed be God,” no matter your
state in life, now? No matter if the
year has been good or bad, whether you have health or sickness, whether there
has been life or death. Do you say,
“Blessed be God, the God of matchless glory, who has saved me by grace”?
To say, “Blessed be
God,” means to speak well of God. It
means to extol the worth of God. It
seems that on the apostle Paul’s lips only one word
can come out as he thinks of all of these things: “Blessed, blessed be God!” Paul blesses God because God has so highly
blessed him, so highly favored him with His grace.
Now, as you
contemplate having received the salvation that is in Jesus Christ, when you
think of the entire graciousness of it, that it is totally undeserved, the
magnitude of it—oh, how great is the salvation that is in
Christ. It is of inconceivable
good and glory. Do you then say today,
in your state whatever it may be, “God be thanked, God
be praised today”?
And is that the
theme of your life? Is that the song,
the repeated chord: “Blessed be God”? It must
be. For when you are brought to
experience the saving grace of God, then thankfulness becomes the core of your
heart. Whether today, for the most part,
everything goes your way; whether today there is a heartache,
a weariness, a pain; or whether you stand in sunshine or in clouds: Blessed be God.
He hath blessed us
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. I say again, it is as if the apostle Paul’s heart is running away with him. He says, not only has God blessed us, but He
has blessed us with all spiritual blessings, in the heavenlies,
in Christ Jesus. Paul seems to be piling
it up. They are spiritual blessings. They are not vanishing, earthly, tarnished
blessings. But they are enduring,
spiritual, glowing blessings.
All
spiritual blessings. You cannot
begin to count them. Blessings
of forgiveness of sins. Can you
count that? Assurance
of God’s love and mercy. Can you
fathom that? The
blessing of being adopted as a child of God. Can you get your heart around that? To be made a son or a daughter of God, the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
He has blessed us
in heavenly places. It is not that we receive
all of these blessings for the first time in heaven. No, Paul means to say that these are
heavenly, other-worldly blessings. The
great blessings of God do not consist in the home or in the computer, the car,
the investments, the land, the clothing, the jewelry, the
honor, the fame that you might or might not possess. But the great blessings are of that other
world—the world of infinite glory. In
this world Jesus Christ has made us rich, rich in heavenly blessings. These blessings are in Christ. They all come to us through His work, through
His work alone.
Now, do you thank
Him? Is your life one of grumbling and
discontent or despair? Do you say, “I’m
not very happy.
I can’t be happy. I don’t like
this. I don’t like my job, my wife, my
house, my car, or my friends.” Or do you
say, “But I bear in my heart something that is unbearable. I can’t be happy anymore.”
Beloved in the Lord
Jesus Christ, are you, by faith, looking to the spiritual blessings that are
yours in the heavenlies, in Christ Jesus your
Lord? “Blessed be God,” says the
apostle, “for His grace of salvation and for all that is given to us in His
Son, Jesus Christ. For all the blessings
that are deposited in His Son, Jesus Christ.
For Jesus Christ, the exalted conqueror of sin and
death, seated now in the heavenlies, ruling over all
things. Everything that is His is
ours. He hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” And all of this by grace, by grace
alone! It is all of God. That is the keynote. That is the striking note here in Paul’s doxology in
Ephesians 1.
It is all of
God. It is not of our deserving. It is not of our doing. It is all of God! Thanks be to
God!
Because salvation
is all of the grace of God, a grace prepared from eternity, poured upon us by
the Holy Spirit, given to us through the work of the Spirit in Christ
Jesus—therefore we say, “Now thank we all our
God.” Do you?
Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving does not depend upon your
external situation. You may be poor,
sick, suffering from cancer, deeply wounded, hurt by others. You may be ridiculed for your faith. You may live, as the psalmist says, among
lions. Thankfulness does not grow out of
an earthly situation. Thankfulness does
not grow on the tree of money, on the trees of property, on the trees of food,
on the trees of skill. Thankfulness
proceeds only out of one place: a heart
that knows God’s grace.
The early
Christians had to endure all the hardships and difficulties of confessing Jesus
Christ. They had nothing in this
world. But they were characterized by a
spirit of praise and thanksgiving. They
were a people known to have a spirit of peace and happiness and joy that the
world had never known. The world could
not understand it. Here is the test of our
Christian profession: Are you a thankful
person? Not on Thanksgiving Day
alone. Is the core of your life thanks? So that God’s grace in saving you is not a
glib word, but the treasure and joy of your soul in the wonderful grace of God,
and the heartfelt expression of your life and heart is praise and thanks for
His grace.
The world in which
we live today is miserable, afraid, unhappy, sour, filled with complaints. But there shall be praise and thanksgiving
upon the heart of every one who knows the grace of God in Jesus Christ.
Now I know that we
are sadly deficient in this. You have to
remember that you cannot make it up in one day.
You cannot say, “Well, I’ve fallen behind this year so I’ll pay my vow
on Thanksgiving Day and I’ll be happy all day.”
No. So much thankfulness is owed
by us. It is our whole life. It is every day. It is all eternity. But we do well to ask ourselves this
question: Does thankfulness play a vital
part every day in our life? Does it play
a vital part in our prayers? How often
during the day do you cry out: “Blessed
be God the Father who hath blessed me with all heavenly blessings in Christ
Jesus my Lord”? Is that thankfulness
there? It must be there. It is there, by the grace of God, in our
hearts. And it must deepen within
us. It must deepen not in mere words,
but in how we live our life. We have so
much to thank God for. It is staggering.
And when we are at
last ushered out of this weary world into His presence and we shall stand
before Him face to face, where no sin will detract and we will stand before the
fullness of His grace, then it will be as if our hearts burst in thanks and
praise.
So, going back to
the beginning, which one of the three that I spoke of gave thanks? The man in the temple, “I thank thee that I’m
not like other men”; the rich farmer, “I thank thee that I’m so industrious”;
or the widow, “All that I am I owe to Thee”?
The answer is
obvious, is it not? It was the widow
after all, the lonely widow who knew what it was to give thanks and before whom
the angels trembled and joined her that night in praising God.
But now, here is
the question: Which one are you, today, tomorrow?
No, here is the question: Which
one will be the summary of your life?
Let us pray.
Father in heaven,
we thank Thee for Thy precious word.
Write it upon our souls. In
Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.