The Grace of Thanksgiving

Well, I wonder what comes to your mind when I say the word Thanksgiving. The first thing that pops into the minds of many is the American national holiday that we call Thanksgiving. Some other countries have something similar, though not always called Thanksgiving, sometimes called Harvest Day and various other names. But here in America, we have a holiday every year called Thanksgiving. And of course, that holiday was instituted for the purpose of remembering the goodness of God and giving Him thanks. It's almost amusing sometimes to hear people talking about Thanksgiving on television, newscasters and so forth, talking about Thanksgiving, but stumbling all over themselves to be sure that they don't mention who it is that we are giving thanks to. It's just a kind of a vague general feeling of thankfulness. It's not directed toward anything or anyone in particular.

And that really misses the whole point, doesn't it? But the National Day of Thanksgiving comes to mind to many people when we say that word Thanksgiving. But also sometimes when we say the word Thanksgiving, we think more of an activity, the act of giving thanks. Thanksgiving is giving thanks.

And so we can think of it in that light, and that's the light we're going to be thinking about it in this morning. Because with the national holiday of Thanksgiving very much on our minds, I think it would be a good time for us to focus upon this very important subject that's found in the Bible, namely the topic of Thanksgiving, as we are reminded continually in the Bible that this is something that we are to do. The Bible says a great deal about giving thanks. The Bible admonishes us to give thanks without being specific as to details very, very, very often. But even in addition to those admonitions to give thanks, there are a number of times when we can learn more of the details about how that is to be done. And so we want to look at one of those texts today to give us some help in this regard.

Because Thanksgiving is something that I think all of God's blood-bought people recognize, number one, that we have been given a heart of thanks by the grace of God. We know where that came from. It didn't come from our Adamic nature.

It came from the new nature. But it's also something that most of us recognize that we probably don't do as frequently and as fervently and as joyfully and as effectively as we could and as we desire to. It's something that we all need to develop in ourselves and also in our children. Very important to teach our children to be thankful. Because a grateful heart is usually a spiritually healthy heart. And conversely, an ungrateful heart is almost always a spiritually unhealthy heart. So we come today to a text in the book of Colossians, chapter 1 and verse 12, which says, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. Giving thanks to the Father. We're taking that as our preaching text for today.

Now just a bit of background. Paul's epistle to the Colossians was written from Rome where he was imprisoned in his first imprisonment, one of the prison epistles, of which there are at least four in the New Testament. And Paul is writing to the church at Colossae, which is one of only two of the churches that we have epistles that he wrote to that was not founded by the apostle Paul. The other one is Romans. Paul didn't found the church at Rome. It was well established before he ever arrived in Rome.

But he wrote a masterful epistle to the Romans in preparation for his visiting there, which had been his heart's desire for many years. But the church at Colossae was not a son, a spiritual son, of which Paul was the spiritual father as the founder of the church, but it was instead a spiritual grandson. The church had been established by a man by the name of Epaphras, which name came up in the portion that we read today in verse 7.

As you learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf. Epaphras, we believe, was a native of the city of Colossae. At some time, in the providence of God, traveled the 100 miles from Colossae, which is inland, down to the coast to the great port city of Ephesus, where Paul was ministering. And Paul had a very fruitful, God-blessed ministry in Ephesus.

And many people were saved, and Epaphras apparently came under the power of the gospel in Ephesus. And Paul had a school in Ephesus. He was teaching daily in the school of a man named Tyrannus. The name means tyrant. How would you like to be the pupil in the school of a man who was named tyrant?

Well, some of you have been there. I don't need to ask you how that went, but Tyrannus had a school. He had a school building, evidently. He had, evidently, also some unused time in that school building.

We would assume that he conducted classes in the morning, and it was available in the afternoon, maybe the evening. And Paul apparently rented that facility. And so he was preaching, teaching the word of God, not just on the Lord's day in Ephesus, but daily, daily. And he was conducting a school there over the course of about three years. And he, in that way, trained a number of preachers, and one of these apparently was Epaphras, who, when he was adequately equipped for the work of the ministry, went back to his hometown, preached the gospel, God saved souls, a church was established.

Paul heard about it, heard good reports of it. He'd never been there, but he felt a very close affinity with these people, and indeed recognized some responsibility for spiritual oversight, because it was an extension of his own ministry. And so he writes this epistle to the Colossians to cover a number of important items, including warning them about some of the false teachers who were already at work in the city of Colossae. But in the course of this epistle, Paul emphasizes the importance of thanksgiving, as we see in our text for today. Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. And so we're going to talk this morning, first of all, about the importance of giving thanks, secondly, the manner of giving thanks, and third, the reasons for giving thanks. And the importance of giving thanks, we can see in a number of areas. We see a pattern of giving thanks. We see a requirement to give thanks. We see a development of giving thanks. We see an indicator from giving thanks.

So let's look at these. First of all, a pattern of giving thanks, and that is seen in the life and ministry of the apostle Paul himself. Here in this Colossian epistle, by the time we get to verse 12, our text for today, Paul has already mentioned giving thanks twice, just in the course of 12 verses.

Did you see it earlier in verse 3? We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you. There's his first mention of thanksgiving. He prays for them, but he gives thanks for them, and he says so. He tells them that I give God thanks for you.

That's a good pattern. That's something that we can do and should do. We should tell people from time to time, I give God thanks for you.

Now there are other ways that we can render thanks to them, but that's a very good way to do it. I thank God for you. That's what Paul says in verse 3. And then by the time he gets to verse 12, he has another expression of thanksgiving with a little bit different emphasis. But Paul is a pattern of giving thanks. In fact, you will find that Paul's epistles are peppered with thanksgiving, are saturated, I don't think is too strong a term, with thanksgiving. You can't read very far in most of his epistles without finding expressions of thanks again and again and again. In other words, Paul clearly, number one, had a grateful heart that was filled with thanksgiving, but for our purposes today, he also expressed that frequently and thereby becomes a pattern for us. In fact, Paul told us someplace else, be you followers of me, as I am of Christ. And Paul sets a pattern in a lot of things.

And here's one of those areas. He sets a pattern for us to be thankful people, not just feeling thanksgiving in our heart, though that's where it must begin, but going one step further and expressing that thanks frequently out loud. It's one thing to feel in your heart, and all of God's true children do. You can't be a born-again child of God without having gratitude in your heart toward God for a number of things. But some people find it difficult to communicate that, to say that to others, to say that out loud, to say that publicly, to thank God publicly, to thank other people with words of expression of gratitude.

And we need to get over that. We see the pattern of the Apostle Paul, who renders thanks to God, and he's also teaching the Colossians that they need to be people of thanksgiving. So in the importance of giving thanks, number one, we see a pattern in the life of the Apostle Paul. But number two, and more importantly, we see a requirement that's found all throughout Scripture, both Old Testament and New Testament. I read one section for you this morning earlier, that well-known Psalm 100, make a joyful noise to the Lord, all you lions. And what does it say in verse 4? Enter His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him and bless His name. Now, folks, that's not a mere suggestion.

That's a command. That's a command for the people of God. This is the way God desires to be worshiped with our expressions of thanksgiving. Thanksgiving should be upon our lips frequently.

It's part of our public worship as well as our private relationship with God. We are to enter His gates with thanksgiving. We are to be thankful to Him and bless His name. Of course, the New Testament has similar commands. We could turn to 1 Thessalonians 5 and read this. In everything, give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Again, a command. In everything, give thanks. Render thanks. Speak thanks.

Communicate thanks. In everything, give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. It is a command. We could turn to 1 Timothy chapter 2 and read in verse 1, Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men. It's a command to pray. Three words relating to prayer. Supplications, prayers, intercessions, that all has to do with praying, but giving of thanks be made for all men. Paul is talking in this chapter about public prayer, about corporate prayer, about the way we pray when we come together as a local body of believers like we have this morning to worship God. One of the elements of our worship is to render prayer to God, supplications, intercessions, prayers, but don't leave this out with giving of thanks. That must be very much upon our lips as we pray, and so forth. We could turn to Philippians chapter 4 and read in verse 6, and this again is a command. Be anxious for nothing. Say, how do you? It's a command not to worry.

How do you do that? I can't help it. It rises within me. I worry.

It's a command. Be anxious for nothing, and this will help you with it, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. That's a great remedy for worry, for anxiety. Take your burdens to the Lord and leave them there.

Pray with thanksgiving. It is a command. So number one, it is a pattern. We see it in the life of the godly apostle Paul.

Number two, it is a requirement. It is commanded to us in the word of God, but number three, it is a development, and we see this in Paul's prayer for the Colossians. His first mention of prayer in verse 3 is his own personal thanks to God.

We give thanks. We, meaning Paul and Timothy. Timothy was mentioned in verse 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother. It's like Timothy is almost a co-author with Paul of this epistle. Timothy probably was serving as Paul's amanuensis. He was probably dictating this epistle to Timothy.

Paul was in prison. Timothy was there visiting him. But Paul mentions Timothy, and he says, we, I, Paul, and Timothy, and other saints who might have been there at that time, we give thanks to God for you. And as he comes to verse 12, what he's doing is saying, I'm praying for you that you will become people of several things. Spiritual understanding, verse 9. Exemplary behavior, verse 10. Spiritual fruitfulness, verse 10. Patience, verse 11. And people of thanksgiving, verse 12.

That's the setting for this text. Back to verse 9. For this reason, we also since the day we heard of it, do not cease to pray for you and to ask that. Paul doesn't just say, I'm praying for you.

He tells them what he's praying for. Here's what I'm asking God on your behalf for. Number one, that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding.

I'm praying that God will give you enlarged spiritual understanding. What else? Number two, verse 10. That you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him. Exemplary behavior. That's very important for your testimony before the world and for the way you please the Lord.

What else? Number three, spiritual fruitfulness. The last part of verse 10. Being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

It goes back to that first one again. That's very important, that your spiritual understanding, that your knowledge of God be enlarged. But spiritual understanding, exemplary behavior, spiritual fruitfulness. Number three, patience, strengthened with all might according to His glorious power for all patience and longsuffering. I'm praying that God will give you patience. I'm praying that God will help you to face the adversities and trials of life, the persecutions of life, the difficulties of life with patience. I'm praying for that.

What else? I'm praying that you will give thanks to God the Father. That's what He's saying. I'm praying that you'll be strengthened with all might according to His glorious power for all patience and longsuffering with joy and that you will be, verse 12, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. Paul is praying for them to develop a greater spirit of thankfulness, or maybe I should go beyond that. Paul is praying that they will develop greater communication, greater expressions, greater verbal testimonies of their thankfulness, greater public expressions of their gratitude to God.

This is a development. It's like so many other things that God gives us at salvation but are not given to us fully developed. And it is in the process of our growth in grace and knowledge, it is in the process of our sanctification over the course of time that we develop these things more fully and giving of thanks is one of those things. That's why I have entitled my sermon today, The Grace of Thanksgiving. There are a lot of things that are areas of grace that are to be developed in our life. We've been through missions month where we put some emphasis upon developing the grace of giving, a very important grace to develop in our lives. But now we're told to develop the grace of thanksgiving.

I'm praying, says Paul, that you will develop greater thanksgiving in your life. So giving thanks, it's important because it is number one, a pattern in the life of the apostle Paul for us to follow. It is number two, a requirement that is commanded to us in the word of God. It is number three, a development of something that God tells us ought to increase and develop in our lives as Christians. And it is number four, an indicator of the level of grace that is within us.

It is an indicator of grace either present or absent. I've gone beyond my text for this, but let me pick up a few other statements from Scripture. Romans 1.21. You know Romans chapter 1 has that section where it describes the ungodly. And it says in verse 20, for since the creation of the world, His, that is God's, invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.

There's a revelation of the power and majesty of God in the universe in which we live, in the creation that's all around us. There it is, clearly to be seen and only to be denied by those who are determined to deny the obvious. His attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because although they knew God in the sense that they understood that there is a God, they understood the reality of God, I think this text is really teaching us that there really are no atheists, though there are many, some people who say they are. In fact, we can take it a step further, there really are no agnostics. An atheist is one who says, there is no God, dogmatically, absolutely, there is no God, denies the existence of God. Well, Romans 1 says that's not true, that's not true, because although they knew God, an agnostic is like a, what should I say, an atheist light. He doesn't say dogmatically, there is no God, but he says it's impossible to know if there is one or not. I won't say there isn't, there could be, but there's no way to prove it, I'm not convinced that there is a God, I'm an agnostic, I don't know.

Well, that's not true either, because this text says they do know. Because although they knew God, and here we come to the crux of it, they did not glorify Him as God, that's the reason why they deny Him, they don't want to give Him honor and glory, they don't want to give Him His rightful place in their thinking, in their lives. They did not glorify Him as God, and then this, nor were thankful, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened. They were not thankful to the God who made them, they were not thankful to the God who gave them life, they were not thankful to the God who sustains them day by day, they were not thankful, they are not thankful to the God who enables them to live and move and breathe and who supplies their food and their needs in life, and they have no gratitude in their hearts toward God, they are not thankful.

What's that the characteristic of? It's the characteristic of one who has no grace of God operating within them, unthankful. 2 Timothy 3, 2 tells a similar story. But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come, for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy. Ingratitude is keeping some pretty bad company. We don't think of ingratitude as being a particularly serious transgression, but God does.

God tells us this is very serious. And what he's saying is that a lack of thanksgiving is found in the lives of those who are in rebellion against God, in whose lives the grace of God has not operated to bring them to salvation. Remember Jesus and the Ten Lepers, you know that story in Luke chapter 17.

I don't mean to say story, I don't mean to say story as if it's not an historical account, it is. Now it happened as he went to Jerusalem that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. Then as he entered a certain village, there met him ten who were lepers who stood afar off, and they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. So when he saw them, he said to them, go show yourself to the priests. So it was that they went, or so it was that as they went, rather, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned and with a loud voice glorified God and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. So Jesus answered and said, were there not ten cleansed?

So where are the nine? Were there not any found to return to give glory to God except this foreigner? And he said to him, arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well. Now all of them had been healed of leprosy, so I take it your faith has made you well speaks about the state of his soul. And Jesus isn't saying right now you become a vessel of grace.

He's saying, no, you have evidenced that you are a child of grace. Your faith expressed in your gratitude has already made you whole. It is that wholeness of soul that gives you a thankful heart, whereas the other nine grabbed their blessing and ran off to use it for their own selfish purposes without a thought of gratitude to the one from whom they had received it.

That's the way so many people are. Oh, may God deliver us from being that way. The ungodly lack thanksgiving. Thanksgiving, therefore, is an indicator of grace.

Little or much, in some cases, some or none is the contrast. An ungrateful heart is a heart void of grace. That brings us therefore to number two. We talk, first of all, about the importance of giving thanks. Now we talk about the manner of giving thanks.

And thanks is clearly directed at an appropriate or to an appropriate object. Here Paul says, giving thanks to the Father. We do give thanks to someone. We can't have a national day of thanksgiving without having anyone to whom we give thanks. We give thanks to God ultimately. But it's appropriate to direct thanks to those people who have blessed us and helped us. That's very important. That's very appropriate. And we should learn to do that.

Don't be one of those people who only communicates correction and unhappiness to people around you and never, never or seldom ever expresses gratitude and thanks. That probably has killed more marriages than nearly anything I know. What's the big problem with marriages? Marriage problems. Is it money?

Is it sexual problems? Is it various things? I'll tell you one of the things it is. It is an ungrateful heart. It is the inability or unwillingness to express thanks. It is the condition that one of those marriage partners, whenever they open their mouth, their mouth is filled with criticism and unhappiness and lack of appreciation for their mate.

And that's the constant stream of words that's coming out of their mouth. But very seldom do they take time to express gratitude and thanks and appreciation. That can be a problem in marriage relationships. That can be a problem in parent-children relationships. Don't be one of those parents who only opens your mouth to correct and criticize your children and never opens your mouth to thank them. I heard somebody say, and I don't know, this isn't scientifically proved nor biblically proved, but I heard somebody say that in your expressions to others, you ought to express words of appreciation and gratitude ten times for every one word of correction and constructive criticism. It's probably not a bad ratio. I can't prove the ratio, but I do know when it's all negative and never the positive words of appreciation, you are going to destroy a good relationship.

It won't exist forever under those conditions. We need to be directing gratitude, thanks toward others. We need to develop that. I can tell you as a pastor, I probably shouldn't say this, but I will. There are some people when I see them coming to speak to me, I know it's going to be a word of encouragement, it's going to be a word of appreciation, because that's what I hear from them constantly.

And if that person has a recommendation or suggestion, I am delighted to hear it. I know other people that probably the only time they've approached me to speak to me is when they've got a complaint or a correction or something that they'd like to see changed. Never a word of appreciation, no. I try to be as charitable as God will help me to be and to receive their words gratefully and considerately as well, but I want to tell you it's a little harder to welcome their words of request when there's never an expression of appreciation. Only they're the kind of people that it seems like in their little world that something's constantly not quite right.

Never. It's always something wrong and they're quick to say so and have a hard time finding things that are right and wonderful and welcoming and even if they feel that in their heart, somehow they never express that. Don't be.

Don't be that way. Learn to direct thanksgiving appropriately to people when it is appropriate, but ultimately, and here's what our text is teaching us, ultimately our thanksgiving always must be directed to God. Giving thanks to the Father, to God who is the ultimate enabler. Anyone else who has been a blessing to you has done so because God enabled them. God directed them.

God blessed them to be able to do that. God is the ultimate enabler. God is the ultimate giver. Every good gift, every perfect gift, James tells us, comes down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. So here Paul says, I'm praying that you Colossians will develop a greater spirit of gratitude to God the Father. Now we may be more inclined to express our gratitude to God the Son, particularly when we're thinking about salvation.

After all, He's the one who died on the cross for us and that is true. And it's appropriate, it's very appropriate to express our gratitude to Jesus. I love these signs that have been popping up around Alamance County over the last couple of years, these yellow signs that just say, thank you Jesus.

Isn't that beautiful? Bumper stickers sometimes, thank you Jesus. That's a wonderful testimony.

That's a wonderful testimony. When you see one of those in a yard, you can be pretty sure there's a Christian who lives in that house. Unconverted people don't put signs in their yard that say, thank you Jesus. But we're more inclined to say, thank you Jesus.

I'm thinking of that chorus. I don't think we sang it Tuesday night with the several hymns of praise and thanksgiving that we sang during our praise service, but thank you Jesus for all you've done. Thank you Lord. Thank you Jesus for victories won. Thank you Lord.

You know that chorus. We're more inclined to think in terms of thanking Jesus. But here Paul tells us to thank the Father. Now what we know is that God exists in a triunity of persons, three persons, one God. And when it comes to salvation, God the Father administrates, God the Son accomplishes, and God the Spirit applied. God the Father is the administrator, God the Son is the accomplisher, and God the Spirit is the applicator.

And it's good to understand that and to be able to explain that. God the Father as the administrator is the initiator. He evidently devised the plan of salvation and assigned the roles. He's the administrator and he assigned the work of redemption to the Son to come to earth, become a man, to live a perfect life, to die upon the cross in order to become the sacrifice for sins.

And so God the Father is the administrator. God the Son is the accomplisher. He accomplished redemption by becoming that satisfaction upon the cross.

And God the Spirit is the applier. He's the one who takes the truth of the gospel and he applies it to hearts. He works in hearts to convict of sin. He works in hearts to show those people Jesus Christ and to understand their need of him and to enable them to believe on him.

He applies the work of redemption to hearts. So it's perfectly appropriate to thank God the Father, to thank God the Son, to thank God the Holy Spirit. But here the thanks is directed to the Father who initiated. It is thanks to, for God who so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.

That's the Father. If you're talking about giving the Son, you have to be talking about the Father gave the Son. God so loved the world that he, the Father, gave his only begotten Son. So thanks is to be directed to an appropriate object.

And number two, thanks should be rendered with heartfelt emotion. It tells us in verse 11, with joy. And though the actual Greek is a little ambiguous and translators aren't always sure where to apply that word joy as it go with the thoughts in verse 11 or does it go with this thought in verse 12, I can tell you, and you'll have to take my word for it, that the majority of commentators believe that it ought to apply to verse 12. It is something like this, if I can pick it out here, with joy giving thanks or joyfully giving thanks. Strengthened with all might, verse 11, according to his glorious power for all patience and long suffering, period, joyfully giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. So this is the way we are to give thanks with joy. It's pretty hard to give real thanks without joy. It goes together, but it comes from a joyful heart. Something must be rendered to be pleasing to God, must be rendered with joy. Not unfeeling, not rote. It's possible to go to church and sing songs of thanksgiving without your really entering into the meaning of it.

You're just going through it. That's one reason why a number of years ago we deliberately started introducing unfamiliar hymns. There were several reasons for this, but one of them was because when you sing the same old, same old hymns you've sung all your life, it's real easy to just do it. You put it on autopilot and you don't even think about the words you're singing. But you get an unfamiliar hymn and you've got to struggle with it a bit, and it causes you to look at it and think about it.

That's good. Now eventually those become familiar, and so you're kind of singing them on autopilot, but you need to engage your mind and think about what you're saying and singing and joyfully render thanksgiving to God. And the more we understand the gospel, the more will be our joy. And the more we feel our sin death, the greater will be our joy.

You remember what Jesus said in Luke chapter 7 verse 41. He said there was a certain creditor who had two debtors, one owed 500 denarii and the other 50, and when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell me therefore which of them will love him more? Simon answered and said, I suppose the one whom he forgave more, and he answered him, you have rightly judged. Who was more grateful, the one who had 50 denarii forgiven or the one who had 500 denarii forgiven? Who was more grateful, the one who has had an innumerable mountain of sins that is so great it cannot even be estimated or enumerated or the one who in his mind, and it's never really true, but in his mind just has a few little problems that I thank God that he forgave me for those.

Well, when you come to understand the reality of your sin, and it's not just a few little problems, it's a mountain, it's a mountain, it's a mountain of debt, a mountain of sin, it mounts up and up and up and up, it is gigantic, it is impossible, and yet God in his grace and Christ Jesus forgave it all. Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me whole. What can you have but great gratitude in the face of that? The more we feel our sin debt, the greater will be our joy.

And here's a little thought, and I know I'm going to have to hurry to finish this up, but this is important. Expressions of thanksgiving will stimulate joy. We are to give thanks with joy, but just the act of giving thanks is going to kindle and stimulate joy within you, and that's why this becomes good therapy for despondency. Are you feeling down? Are you feeling gloomy? Are you feeling depressed? Don't nurse your gloominess and despondency. Start enumerating the things that God has done for you and it won't be long until your heart is going to be lifted out of despondency into joy.

I mean, take your pick. You're depressed. You can go to the doctor and get medicine or you can go to the scriptures and get gratitude, and that'll cure you better than the medicine will.

I promise you, if God will give you the grace to be grateful, that will cure you better than any pills the doctor can prescribe. And finally, we see the reasons for giving thanks. And foremost is the gift of salvation.

That's the point of this verse. Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints and the light. What has God done? He qualified us. He included us. He enriched us. He qualified us. That's almost a strange thought. God qualified me for salvation.

I know I'm not qualified in myself. And sometimes we tend to carry that reality even beyond what we should, even beyond the place where having believed the promises of God and truly trusted Jesus Christ alone for our salvation, we still can't get to the place where we feel qualified. And there may be a good reason for that. That may be good that we don't ever forget the pit from which we were dug, that we don't ever forget the sins from which we were cleansed. But it is a glorious thought to realize that God has taken a sinful rebel deserving of hell and has not only erased our sins, not only made us children of God, but he's actually taken that one who could not be more unqualified and has qualified us for an inheritance with the saints in light.

Now that is really a thought worth dwelling on for a while. I think of that hymn that Betty and Margie used to sing, unworthy am I. And it goes on all the things that we know that we are unworthy.

But then what does it say? But he made me worthy. He made me worthy. And now by his grace, I'm a child of the king.

I know I'm mashing the words a bit, but you get the idea. He made me worthy. He qualified me to have an inheritance with the saints in light. And how has he done this? By making us righteous.

Sin disqualifies us, but the imputed righteousness of Christ qualifies us. How has he done this? By giving his son.

God the Father gave his son. That's what he did to qualify us. How has he qualified us? By providing a qualified substitute.

He made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. How has he done this? By approving the arrangement of imputation. There's some critics.

I'm sure you can't believe this. The world is full of critics. Anything that the Bible teaches, somebody objects to and is critical of.

And there's some people who have been critical of the concept of imputation. That isn't right. That isn't fair that God takes our sin and places it upon a sinless one and treats him as if he's the sinner and he dies on the cross. And God takes his righteousness and imputes that to us.

And we who are the actual sinners, he treats us as if we are righteous. That's not just. That's not fair.

I don't approve of that. Well, you better change your mind because God approves of it. God designed it. God said, this is right.

This is just. That he might be just and the justifier of him who believes in Jesus. God approved the arrangement of imputation, certified it by the veil that was ran in two in the temple when Jesus died. What did that do? That gave immediate access of all who came by faith into the very presence of the holy God who had been shut out by that veil all of those centuries and the worshipers couldn't go that far. But now we can.

Why? Because he qualified us. We are priests.

We are qualified. We can go into the very presence of almighty God. Well, two lessons that we should learn from this passage. Number one, it ought to be a salvation checkup. If I'm talking to someone who just doesn't have much gratitude, doesn't express much gratitude, is not known as a person who expresses thanksgiving to others and to God, I very possibly I would have to say very likely am talking to someone who needs to be born again regardless of what you professed. You're not showing the evidence of the new birth of the grace of God within you.

It's a salvation checkup. But number two, to believers who have been given grace and gratitude, we all still need to develop it more, don't we? So let's work on developing the grace of thanksgiving. Include thanksgiving more in your prayers.

Develop thanksgiving more in your relationships with others. Communicate thanksgiving more in your testimony. Say, I don't know how to testify. I don't know how to witness to people.

Well, here's a thought. Just say, let me express to you the gratitude I have to God for what He's done for me. I am a sinner deserving of hell, and God has mercifully rescued me, saved me, cleansed me through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Can't you tell somebody that? That's a wonderful witness.

Can't you tell somebody that? That doesn't require a PhD. That doesn't require deep understanding of theology and doctrine. That just requires a grateful heart for salvation for the one who's qualified you for an inheritance with the saints in light. Let's tell it to others to the glory of His grace, shall we pray? Father, thank You for all You have done. Make us more grateful and more willing to express it, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.