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Friends, please remain standing for the reading.
And once again, we take a pause in our consideration
of the Book of the Prophets.
Consider a passage from First Corinthians, chapter one,
Thanksgiving, that Paul wrote in his first epistle
of his to the Corinthian church.
First Corinthians one, verses four through nine.
I’ll begin reading from the first verse
to fill out the 1131 in your pew Bible.
Dear friends, this is the word of God.
Let us hear it with attentiveness, reverence and awe.
Paul called by the will of God
to be an apostle of Christ Jesus,
and our brother Sosthenes,
to the church of God that is in Corinth,
to those sanctified in Christ Jesus,
called to be saints together with all those
who in every place call upon the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I give thanks to my God always for you
because of the grace of God
that was given you in Christ Jesus,
that in every way you were enriched in him
in all speech and all knowledge,
even as the testimony about Christ
was confirmed among you,
so that you are not lacking in any gift
as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who will sustain you to the end,
guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God is faithful by whom you were called
into the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God endures forever.
Let’s pray.
Our faithful Lord and Father in heaven,
we thank you, O God, for your amazing grace given to us
in union with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
And we thank you, Lord, that you give us spiritual food
for our souls in the word.
We would pray, Heavenly Father, that this morning,
as we turn our attention to this passage
of your inerrant, infallible, authoritative word,
that your spirit, that spirit which has inspired
and breathed out this word,
would indeed use this word to breathe new life,
renewed life, strengthen spiritual life
into our souls this day.
And we would ask, O Lord,
that you would open our minds and our hearts
to behold wondrous things from your word
and cause us, Lord, to delight in these truths
that we receive this morning
and to see their relevance and applicability
to our own personal circumstances
and to the life and fellowship of our church this day.
Be with us now and be glorified
in the proclamation of your word.
And again, guard my lips,
only that which is faithful to you.
In Jesus’ name we pray, and all of God’s people said.
Amen.
You may be seated.
Title of my sermon this morning is Always Giving Thanks.
And the children can be listening for these four key words,
the words, thanksgiving, grace,
gratitude, and faithfulness.
Think about that term, gratitude.
Thankfulness.
Dear ones, let me ask you, what are you thankful for?
If you were asked to come up with a list of, say,
10 items in your life that you are grateful for, gratitude,
what items would you include on your top 10 list
of things that you are grateful for?
Now, questions like these can be common
during this time of year,
especially as we anticipate the holiday coming up this week.
And of course, that can be a very good thing.
It can be a good thing for us to be encouraged
to think about all of those things
for which we ought to give thanks.
After all, in our sin and in our fallenness,
we are prone to do the opposite of showing gratitude.
We are prone to do things like complain.
We are prone in our fallenness to feel slighted
by the less than ideal circumstances
that our lives confront us with.
We are even prone to feel embittered
if we don’t get our way.
Let’s face it, brothers and sisters,
our natural direction,
the natural direction of our fallen, sinful hearts
is pointed toward petty grievance.
And petty grievance is, of course, the opposite.
Gratitude.
But if we decide to spend time reflecting
on the things that we are thankful for, as we ought to do,
even then, our tendency when we think of things
we’re thankful for is to focus on the blessings
that we enjoy in this present life.
In other words, the blessings of creation and providence,
the blessings that flow to us
from what we call God’s common grace,
His general benevolence and goodness toward all of humanity.
And of course, these blessings include such things
as the gifts of family, loved ones and friends,
good health, food, a measure of prosperity,
physical safety and security.
And of course, as we have this national Thanksgiving holiday,
we think of our civil liberties and freedoms and so forth.
But my dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
while God’s blessings of creation and providence
are indeed significant blessings,
blessings for which we ought frequently to give thanks.
Our passage for this morning,
taken from this opening Thanksgiving section
of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthian Church.
This passage points us as believers
to the spiritual blessings of grace and salvation
that we, brothers and sisters, have received in Christ.
And it points to those blessings as blessings
for which we ought always to give thanks.
As followers of Jesus Christ,
these should be the blessings that dominate our thinking
when we think that we are thankful for.
Correspondence to the church,
correspondence which we know today
as the Epistles of First and Second Corinthians,
the Apostle Paul, by the Holy Spirit’s inspiration,
addresses a church that is in serious crisis.
Many of you, I know many of you are faithful Bible readers
and you know that the Corinthian Church
was a messed up church.
If you read through the Corinthian Epistles,
the Church of Corinth is presented
as a troubled, messed up, dysfunctional church
if there ever was such a thing.
The Corinthian Church was riddled
with pastoral issues and problems,
including such things as a divisiveness
and an almost cult-like attachment to favorite preachers.
I am of Apollos, I am of Cephas,
I am of Christ and so forth.
And all of that, of course,
the Corinthian believers
for their inexcusable spiritual immaturity.
There was also, among some of the members,
problems with sexual immorality.
There were marriage problems.
There were compromises among some
of the most pagan ways.
There was disorderliness in their worship practices
and even in their observances of the Lord’s Supper.
Some folks were even getting drunk
in their celebrations of the Lord’s Supper.
There was an overlooking of
and a discrimination against the poor in the congregation
who were not treated as they ought to have been treated.
There was a tolerance for false apostles
and false teachers and so forth.
This was a troubled church.
We might expect Paul to come out of the gates here
at the beginning of this epistle
with a sharp and chiding tone.
However, what’s amazing here, friends,
is that in this opening section of 1 Corinthians,
I want you to notice that Paul doesn’t begin
this epistle with a chiding tone.
He doesn’t begin it with sharp rebuke
or with confrontation or correction.
Instead, he begins his epistle to this troubled church,
this church which probably gave him many sleepless nights
and many pastoral headaches.
He opens up this epistle on a note of deep thanksgiving.
And this thanksgiving is grounded
in the person and work of the eternal Son of God,
our Lord Jesus Christ.
And so as we turn our attention
to this opening thanksgiving,
I would have you notice, first of all,
what we learn here about perpetual thanksgiving
for God’s grace in Christ.
Perpetual thanksgiving for God’s grace in Christ.
As Paul writes in verse four,
I give thanks to my God when?
How often?
Always, pantote in the Greek.
I give thanks to my God always for you.
For you, messed up though you be.
Dysfunctional, spiritually immature though you be.
I am thankful for you.
Why?
Because of the grace of God
that was given you in Christ Jesus.
Even though you’ve got areas where you need to,
even though you’ve got issues and problems as a church,
I’m still thankful for you.
And I recognize God’s grace at work in you.
This is what Paul in us to them.
Now friends, if you’re familiar with the epistles,
if you see the epistles carefully,
when we do so, we find that Paul was a man
who had a life of prayer.
He was a man whose life was saturated by prayer.
His life, because it was a life of prayer,
was a life that pulsated with thanksgiving.
And as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ,
he abounded in thanksgiving for God’s work of grace
in the lives of his saints.
And we see similar notes of thanksgiving
in many of his other epistles.
Let’s take a look at a sampling of that.
Let me have you turn to Romans one, verse eight.
Beginning of his Romans, he says this in verse eight.
He says, first, what does he do?
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ.
Notice he thanks God the Father
through the mediation and merit of Christ.
I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you.
Why does he thank God through Jesus Christ?
Because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.
He rejoices to see that their faith,
their gospel faith is being proclaimed.
It’s spreading abroad.
And others are hearing the glad tidings of great joy.
Again, Paul is characterized by thankfulness, by gratitude.
Or turn with me, if you would, to Philippians one.
And let me read verses three through five.
Philippians chapter one, verses three through five.
His opening thanksgiving in his letter to the Philippians,
he writes this to the Philippian believers.
He says, I thank my God in all my remembrance of you.
In other words, when I think about you,
when I remember you, I thank God in all my remembrance
of you, always in every prayer of mine for you,
for you all, making my prayer with joy.
Why?
Because of your partnership in the gospel
from the first day until now.
He praises God, he’s thankful to God
for their partnership with him
in the proclamation of the gospel,
the good news of Jesus Christ.
Or consider Colossians one, verses three through five.
Paul writes, we always thank God, there it is again.
We thank God, we always thank God.
We always thank God, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ
when we pray for you.
Again, why?
Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus
and of the love that you have for all of the saints
because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.
He is grateful for this trinity,
this triad of Christian virtues,
graciously wrought in their hearts by the Holy Spirit,
namely faith, hope, and love.
He doesn’t just say, you guys are so cool
and you guys are so wonderful.
No, he says, I thank God because I see the evidence
of his grace at work in you, your faith in Christ Jesus,
the love that you have for all the saints
and the hope laid up for you in heaven.
Or turn next to 1 Thessalonians one
and look at verses two and three.
Paul writes in a similar vein.
He says, we give thanks to God always for all of you,
constantly mentioning you in our prayers,
remembering before our God and father,
your work of faith and labor of love
and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
There it is again, faith, hope, and love.
It sometimes is in different orders as it is here,
faith, love, and hope.
But again, what are faith, hope, and love?
These are graces that the Spirit works
in the hearts of true believers.
They are evidences of God’s grace at work
in the hearts and lives of his people.
And finally, not only does Paul express gratitude
for God’s work among the churches
under his apostolic care,
he also offers thanks for God’s work
in the lives of individuals like his son in the faith,
Timothy, Pastor Timothy, whom Paul,
not only in the faith, but in the ministry.
Second Timothy, Paul writes, I thank God whom I serve
as did my ancestors with a clear conscience
as I remember you constantly in my prayers
night and day.
Friends, by God’s grace, it seems that prayer
was as natural to Paul as breathing.
And thanksgiving, the attitude of thanksgiving
was as natural to him as the beating of his heart.
What was the cause for such Christian thanksgiving
on Paul’s part?
When Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter one, verse four,
I give thanks to my God always for you.
Why?
Why does he give thanks always for them?
Why this perpetual thanksgiving?
Well, he gives thanks, first of all, for you.
He’s not just focused on himself.
Paul not only rejoiced when he considered
the way God’s amazing grace had worked in his own life,
turning his life upside down, turning it around
so that he, once a persecutor of the church,
was now a proclamer of the same faith
that he once sought to destroy.
But he was also thankful when he considered
God’s grace at work in the lives of others
and when he saw evidence of that,
it filled his apostolic heart with joy.
In other words, his gratitude was not merely self-focused.
Oh, I’m so thankful for all the blessings God has given me.
There’s a place for that.
But he’s also thankful for God’s grace
in the work, in the hearts and lives of others.
Again, why did he give thanks for the Corinthian believers?
He says because of the grace of God
that was given you in Christ Jesus.
Given you in union, spiritual and saving union
with the Messiah, the anointed one, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, clearly Paul is speaking here
about what we would call God’s saving grace.
Saving grace is that undeserved favor of God
that moved him to save undeserving sinners like me
and like you, to save us from the guilt,
the penalty, and the power of our sin.
This statement, by the way, where Paul says,
I thank God always for you because of the grace
that was given you in Christ Jesus.
This statement, my friends, assumes that it is only
in spiritual and saving union with the Lord Jesus Christ
that we sinners can experience the saving grace of God.
You cannot have or experience God’s mercy and grace
outside of a personal saving relationship
with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, some might say, well, Pastor, what about common grace?
Unbelievers experience the blessings of common grace
and isn’t that outside of Christ?
Well, even the blessings of common grace
are ultimately blessings that flow out
to the world indirectly from the atonement of Christ.
We don’t have time to get into that matter this morning.
But again, clearly in the context of this passage,
Paul is not speaking of common grace.
He’s talking about the grace of God
that rescues us from sin and death and hell
because of the life, death, and resurrection.
And my friends, again, saving grace is the grace
that is in view and how does Paul know
that these, all of their problems, all of their issues,
all of their inadequacies as immature believers,
why is it, how is it that he knows
that they have received the grace of God in Christ?
Well, he says in verse five, that in every way,
you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge.
In other words, as evidence of God’s saving grace
among the Corinthian congregation,
Paul, the serving grace that they had been given,
the gifts of the spirit,
the gifts of the spirit are not present
where the gift of the spirit has not been given.
And it’s interesting, Paul says,
you’ve been enriched with these gifts
and he mentions a couple in particular
that were prominent in the Corinthian congregation,
namely gifts of speech and knowledge.
We’ll talk about that in a moment,
but he says they have been enriched
with all these spiritual gifts.
Now, the word enriched here has led some commentators
to suggest that the gift of the Holy Spirit,
the gifts of the Holy Spirit,
have the effect of supernaturally enriching,
natural, for example,
some take the view that what God does
when he blesses us with spiritual gifts
is he enhances the natural gifts that we already have.
So if you have musical gifts in your natural state,
the spirit enhances those gifts
so that you can use those gifts
for the edification of his church.
And again, that is an interesting perspective to consider.
I think there is something to that,
but the point is the presence of the spirit
was evident in that congregation.
The presence of the Holy Spirit,
the spirit who is the spirit of grace,
enriches God’s people with spiritual gifts.
And he mentions too in verse five
that in every way you were enriched in him
in all speech and all knowledge.
Now that’s very interesting.
Think about the first century setting here.
The first century setting of the Roman Empire
and among the Greek-speaking Gentiles.
It seems that the Corinthian congregation
was made up primarily of Gentiles converted to Christ
from a pagan background.
The Greeks of Paul’s time highly valued those
who were skilled in public speaking, public rhetoric,
and also skilled in what they regarded as wisdom.
But here Paul is alluding to the
ancient Greek-speaking and knowledge gifts
that the Holy Spirit had blessed the Corinthians with.
Gifts of the spirit, which Paul will reference later on
in this epistle in chapters 12 through 14.
For example, a gift of interpretation of tongues,
prophecy, knowledge, teaching, and so forth.
And I will say again that we take the view
that the extraordinary revelatory gifts
have ceased with the energy gauge
and the canonization of the Holy Scriptures.
But nevertheless, that issue aside,
these gifts were abundantly poured out
upon the Corinthian congregation.
And so not only that, not only does the presence
of the spirit, the presence of the grace of God,
evidence itself by the multitude of spiritual gifts
that were operative in the Corinthian congregation.
It also says, Paul also mentions here in verse six,
even as the testimony about Christ,
which could mean the testimony that Christ gave
to the gospel or the apostolic testimony to Christ,
that testimony, which is talking about the gospel,
was confirmed among you.
The presence of the spirit’s gifts in the Corinthian church
was confirming evidence that the gospel message
had been truly received, truly implanted
within their souls, within their fellowship.
And what was the result?
Verse seven, so that you are not lacking in any gift.
Again, Paul is not glossing over their problems,
he’s gonna get to that, but he recognizes
what God is doing in their midst.
And he is confident that you work in their midst,
which is why he writes them with such boldness.
You are not lacking in any gift.
Again, Paul mentions many of these extraordinary
spiritual gifts in chapters 12 to 14.
And then he goes on to say, as you wait for the revealing
of our Lord Jesus Christ, this is one of the evidences
that their faith in Christ, as immature as it might be,
as undeveloped as it might be,
their faith in Jesus Christ was genuine
because they eagerly await the coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the return of Christ,
described here by Paul as the revealing
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The term revealing is the Greek term apocalypse,
from which we derive the word apocalypse.
And that, in this context, is clearly referring
to the second advent of Christ.
One of the things that’s very clear, brothers and sisters,
as we read through the New Testament
is that the early Christians were animated
by the hope of Christ’s return.
They eagerly awaited the return of Christ.
And yes, Christ has tarried these 2,000 plus years,
but he is coming again and he could come again at any time.
Do we eagerly await his coming?
That in itself is an evidence of God’s grace
given to them in Christ Jesus.
And it goes on to say, our Lord Jesus Christ,
the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Note, the full name and title of Christ is given,
not just once, not just here in verse seven,
but also in verse eight and verse nine.
So that you are not lacking in any gift
as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and then notice the next verse,
who will sustain you to the end,
in the day of whom?
Our Lord Jesus Christ.
God is faithful by whom you were called
into the fellowship of whom?
His son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
And all of this, Paul is so Christ-centered,
so Christocentric.
All of this reinforces what Paul is saying here,
namely, God’s grace that we receive and experience
is rooted in and flows out of the person and work
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
So what does Paul give thanks for?
He gives thanks, as he says in verse four,
for the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus.
Brothers and sisters,
give thanks to God for
given to us and given to our brothers and sisters
in Christ in the family of God,
that grace that is experienced in spiritual union
and communion with Jesus Christ, our Lord.
But let us also, as we,
consider gratitude for the Lord’s sustaining grace,
gratitude for the Lord’s sustaining grace.
It says in verse eight, of the Lord Jesus Christ,
Paul says of the Lord,
sustain you to the end,
guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He will sustain you to the end.
Well, there is so much comfort here.
Here is a promise of divine preservation,
as well as a verse that supports
the biblically reformed doctrine
known as the perseverance of the saints,
the P and the tulip acrostic,
total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement,
irresistible grace,
and then there’s the perseverance of the saints.
And God enables his people
to continue to believe in Jesus,
to continue to trust in and follow the Lord Jesus,
even to the end of their lives,
not because of their strength of their own free will,
but all by his grace.
You see, the saints persevere in the faith
because God in Christ preserves them.
This is true even of believers who are messed up,
who are immature believers like the Corinthian Christians.
And that is so comforting, brothers and sisters,
because so often I think the tendency is to imagine
that our ability to keep on keeping on in the faith
depends on our resolve, our own personal willpower,
our own works, our own worthiness,
making sure that we’re on that religious treadmill.
But that’s not what this verse says.
It says that our Lord Jesus Christ
sustains you and me to the end.
And he will sustain us, brothers and sisters,
guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now that’s not a permission slip
to be loose and careless in our discipleship.
That’s not a permission slip to give ourselves over to sin.
Of course not.
We do have a responsibility to diligently use
the means of grace and to persevere in the faith
and to continue in scripture reading, prayer,
and the fellowship of the church and all of that.
But that’s not why you can be assured
that you will persevere to the end.
Don’t be like Peter.
Peter said, oh Lord, all the others may abandon you,
but I’m special.
I’m gonna stick with you Lord.
I will die with you if I have to.
And then that very night he denies Christ three times.
Peter had way too much confidence in himself,
not enough confidence in the Lord’s preserving power.
We don’t persevere because of our own strength
or worthiness, but because God sustains us to the end.
And he will sustain us guiltless until the day of Christ.
I like how our Westminster Confession of Faith
describes this sustaining grace in chapter 17,
sections one and two.
Let me just read that to you.
It’s on page 929 in your back
of your Trinity Psalter hymnal.
This is the chapter of the perseverance of the saints.
Section one reads,
they whom God hath accepted in his beloved,
effectually called and sanctified by his spirit,
can neither totally nor finally fall away
from the state of grace,
but shall certainly persevere therein to the end
and be eternally saved.
Praise God.
And then to clarify even further,
section two says, this perseverance of the saints
depends not upon their own free will,
but upon the immutability, the unchangeableness,
in other words, of the decree of election,
flowing from the free and unchangeable love
of God the Father upon the efficacy and the merit
and intercession of Jesus Christ,
the abiding of the spirit and of the seed of God
within them and the nature of the covenant of grace
from all which arises also the certainty
and infallibility thereof.
It’s because of that that Paul can say
to this messed up congregation,
he will sustain you to the end.
This is a promise we can be grateful for
because it is a divine promise that cannot be broken.
And our faithful covenant God who made this promise
is faithful to keep his promises
as Paul will go on to say in verse nine,
God is faithful by whom you were called
into the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
This is agrees with what Paul for example,
Philippians chapter one, verse six,
Paul writes in a similar vein
as he addresses the Philippians,
he says this to them in verse six, he says,
and I am sure of this that he who began a good work in you
will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
That’s when Christ returns in glory at his second advent.
God has begun a good work in you brother, sister in Christ.
He has saved you, he has forgiven you,
he has brought you into the fellowship of his son,
his eternal son for you and eternal redemption.
And therefore he doesn’t leave unfinished projects
that he begins, we are projects of his grace.
He works in us and if he has begun to graciously work in us,
he will continue even to the end.
He who began a good work in you
will bring it to completion,
not might not maybe bring it to completion
as long as you cooperate, no.
He will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
And then also, again, I know this is familiar,
but we need sometimes to hear these truths
over and over again.
Romans chapter eight, 31 to 34.
What then shall we say to these things?
If God is for us, who can be against us?
Who indeed?
He who did not spare his own son
but gave him up for us all,
how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?
It is God who justifies, who is to condemn.
Christ Jesus is the one who died more than that,
who was raised, who is at the right hand of God,
who indeed is interceding for us, hallelujah.
He is the one who brings us into a relationship of grace
and he is the one who sustains us,
who blames even until the end.
Dear listener, if you are a believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ,
if the Lord Jesus Christ is your savior,
then God is on your side.
The all-powerful, infinite God is on your side
and you can be absolutely assured
that he will sustain and preserve you guiltless
until that final day.
The pastor, I’m so weak and I struggle with this sin
or that sin and I get so discouraged
and I don’t know sometimes how I’m gonna make it.
He who began a good work in you
will carry it through to completion.
Christian, you don’t need to worry about judgment day
for Jesus Christ, your savior, he has you covered.
The grace of God in Christ that saved you to begin with
will sustain you to the end.
Are you grateful for your Lord’s sustaining grace?
I mean, what a cause, what a reason for gratitude.
Graces also, but again, how can we be confident
that we will be preserved blameless?
And the answer is, not because you and I are faithful,
we are often faithless, but because God is faithful
and that leads me to my final brief point from verse nine.
Friends, gratitude for God’s faithfulness.
Let us consider gratitude for God’s faithfulness.
As Paul writes in verse nine, God is faithful
by whom you were called into the fellowship of his son,
Jesus Christ our Lord.
Now some might say, wait a minute,
everyone who hears the gospel,
the gospel called to repent and believe in Christ,
everyone who is called, not everyone who hears that call
ends up responding with true faith and repentance.
There are many who hear the call of the gospel
who reject Christ.
So how can Paul say that through this call,
we will be sustained till the end?
Well, it’s important to understand here
that Paul in this context, when he speaks of the call,
he’s referring to what the theologian
sexual or saving call that actually brings elect sinners
to faith in Jesus Christ.
He’s not merely referring to the external gospel call
that goes out to all who hear the gospel.
That gospel call is often resisted and refused,
but by the spirit and through the call of the gospel,
the elect are enabled to embrace Christ,
to trust in the Lord and Savior.
Again, Paul, this effectual call in other places,
for example, in that familiar passage, 28 and 30,
28 to 30, it says, and we know,
for those who love God, all things work together
for the good, for those who are called
according to his purpose, that’s the saving call,
that’s the call that flows out of election,
God’s gracious choice.
For those whom he foreknew,
he also predestined to be conformed to the image
of his son in order that he might be the firstborn
among many brothers, and those whom he predestined,
he also called.
Not everyone who hears the external call
has been predestined, but in this case,
those who receive the effectual call, the saving call,
it says, though they have been predestined,
those whom he predestined, he also called,
and those whom he called, he also justified,
and those whom he justified, he also glorified.
It’s so certain that even future glorification
is spoken of as if it’s already a fact,
already a reality.
And what have we, brothers and sisters,
been effectually called into?
We have been called into the fellowship
of our eternal son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
The term fellowship, and this refers
to the saving fellowship of God’s son,
Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Charles Hodge, in commenting on the name,
or the statement, God’s son, Jesus Christ,
our Lord, writes the following.
He says, the person with whom believers
are thus intimately united is the Son of God.
Of the same nature, being the same in substance
and equal nature, he is also Jesus, a man.
Consequently, he is both God and man,
in two distinct natures and one person.
This incarnate God, the Savior, is the Christ
of whom the Old Testament says and promises so much.
He is also our Lord.
We belong to him.
He is our possessor, our sovereign, our protector.
How can they apostatize and perish
who stand in this relation to the eternal Son of God?
Dear ones, in closing, consider that this fellowship
that we believers have with the eternal Son of God,
it involves a personal as well as a communal relationship
with the Lord Jesus Christ, so that we who are,
we who are believers in Christ can say honestly,
I know him, I know him.
Now, we need to be careful with that language.
We certainly do not know him now,
as we will know him in glory when we see him face to face
and oh, we look forward to that day.
And though in this present age, we must walk by faith
and not by sight, nevertheless,
even in this present evil age,
we have been blessed, brothers and sisters,
with the firstfruits of the Spirit,
that Spirit of adoption by which we cry, Abba, Father.
By the Spirit of adoption who dwells in and among us,
we have a sweet foretaste of the age to come
as we commune with our Savior in the Word of God,
sacraments, prayer, and praise.
And that’s ultimately why we come to church.
We don’t just come to church
to check off an item on our to-do list.
Oh, I fulfilled this duty, this responsibility.
Worship is a duty, a responsibility.
Yes, we are not to forsake
the assembling of ourselves together.
Worship is also an opportunity
to commune with our Savior in a way
and to an extent that we don’t experience
in our own personal devotions,
as important as personal devotions are,
when we are gathered together in a special way.
And that fellowship that we have individually
with the Son of God is brought to corporate expression.
And my friends, since by God’s grace,
we have been brought into the fellowship of His eternal Son.
I can think of no greater reason
to join ranks with the Apostle Paul
in being among those who are always giving thanks.
Have you been brought into the fellowship of God’s Son?
If you’re not sure, Christ calls you through His word.
Repent of your sin, trust in Him,
for He was crucified for the forgiveness of sins
and raised from the dead
so that whoever believes in Him might not perish,
but have everlasting life.
And then God by His grace will flood your life
with gratitude, gratitude indeed.
Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, our sovereign and eternal God,
we thank you and praise you
for all of the spiritual riches and blessings
that we have received in Christ.
We thank you, Lord, that you have blessed us
with every spiritual place in Christ Jesus.
And we would ask, O Lord,
that during this Thanksgiving season,
may we not merely reflect upon
these wonderful temporal gifts that you shower upon us.
We are thankful for those gifts,
those gifts of creation and providence,
but once again, we are especially grateful
for the gift of your Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,
and for the glorious gifts of salvation full and free
that we have received in fellowship with Him.
So Lord, help us to live lives of gratitude,
even as we strive to be faithful disciples of Jesus.
We pray these things in His name,
as God’s people said, amen.
As we close our time of worship,
I’d invite you to rise as we sing together 553,
sing to the Lord of harvest, 553.