Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

AuthorClay Curtis
TitleIt Is Good to Give Thanks
Bible TextPsalm 92:1-15
Synopsis As we near the beginning of a new year and end of this one, we have so many blessings for which we give thanks unto God and praise his name, but most of all, for our great salvation in his Son. Listen
Date27-Nov-2019
Article Type Sermon Notes
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Audio HI-FI Listen: It Is Good to Give Thanks (32 kbps)
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Length 36 min.
 
Title: It Is Good to Give Thanks 
Text: Ps 92: 1-15 
Date: November 27, 2019 
Place: SGBC, NJ 
  
We are upon our national day called “Thanksgiving.”  I like that we have a national holiday for “Thanksgiving.” I like it because it begs the question—to whom are we thankful? If we give thanks then we have to thank someone in particular.  That is good for lost sinners to think about.  To whom does the sinner saved by grace give thanks. 
  
Psalm 92: 1: It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High: 
  
It is a good thing to give thanks to the LORD because it gives God the glory—God’s true saints give God all the thanks and all the praise.  We acknowledge that everything we have—spiritually and temporally—is of God.  That is why God says, “Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me” (Ps 50:23).  That is why it is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD and to sing praise unto the name of the most High 
  
It is good to thank God when he gives us good times—but also when he brings us low and breaks our heart.  No matter our condition, the Most High did it.  And he did it for our good and his glory.  This is what Paul says when he says, “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” (1 Thess 5: 18).  In all states that I am in, it is the will of God in Jesus Christ who put me in that state.  It is also the will of God that I give thanks for it.  Therefore, in everything I am to give thanks.  It is good, 
 
Psalm 92: 2: To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night,…
  
God is Alpha and Omega—Christ is the Author and Finisher of our faith.  In the morning of eternity, salvation began by God’s unmerited lovingkindness choosing whom he would and he carries it through to the end of time by his faithfulness.  In our experience of God’s grace from the womb of the morning, we are born-again and drawn to Christ by God’s lovingkindess and he carries us to the end of our life by his faithfulness.  The same is true of each new trial.  So the same is true of each new day.  God gives us a new morning by his lovingkindess and carries us to and through the night by his faithfulness.  So we should begin and end each day giving thanks to God and praising his lovingkindess and his faithfulness to sinners such as we are. 
  
Proposition: As we near the beginning of a new year and end of this one, we have so many blessings for which we give thanks unto God and praise his name, but most of all, for our great salvation in his Son. 
  
Divisions: This Psalm gives three things in particular for which we give thanks to God 1) For saving us by the works of his hands 2) For strengthening us by his Spirit 3) For preserving us unto the end 
  
THANK GOD FOR SALVATION BY THE WORK OF HIS HANDS
  
Psalm 92: 4: For thou, LORD, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands. 5: O LORD, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep. 6: A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this. 
 
It is good to give thanks to God and good to give him all the praise because God has saved his people by the work of his hands. 
 
Here is the state of each believer"glad”.  Even when I am sad, in Christ I am glad.
 
Here is how we arrived at this state —"Thou, LORD, hast made me glad…"
  
Psalm 100:3: Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 4  Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. 
  
1 Corinthians 15: 10: By the grace of God I am what I am
  
God made us by choosing his Son to be our Head and by choosing us in Christ and blessing us with all spiritual blessings before ever the earth was.  God made us by predestinating us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself.  The most High is not a god of chance but a God of purpose.  In God’s immutable purpose, the works were finished from the foundation of the world—God made us before our father and mother made us.  “Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them” (Ps 139: 16). 
  
My state  — " glad."  How I arrived at it  —"LORD, thou hast made me glad.” What is the means of it? –"through thy work."  The Son of God himself took sinless flesh and finished the work which God sent him to do for God.
  
Isaiah 42:21: The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness’ sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable. 
  
Christ alone did the work of declaring the righteousness of God—he alone made mercy and truth meet in harmony; justice and free justification kissed in peace in Christ.  And Christ finished the work his people could not do for ourselves.  When Christ cried “It is finished” he declared that he alone finished the transgression, and made an end of sins, and made reconciliation for iniquity, and brought in everlasting righteousness, and sealed up the vision and prophecy, and anointed the most Holy (Da 9: 24). 
  
My state  — " glad."  How I arrived at it  —"LORD, thou hast made me glad.” What is the means of it?  —"through thy work."  What is the result of it?—“I will triumph in the works of thy hands?”  Christ’s blood is so effectual, God’s justice so satisfied, his law so upheld, the work so finished and complete that we can speak with of our future as if we have already won the victory and divided the spoils—I will triumph in the works of thy hands.  Christ “delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us” (2 Cor 1: 10). 
  
Seeing this is all of God, what, then, shall I do? I ascribe it all to God by thanking him and praising his name—"O LORD, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep. 6: A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this.”  On Thanksgiving Day, some will not give thanks to anyone but themselves; but there is no such thing as a “self-made” man.  Many will thank their lucky stars; but there is no such thing as luck or lucky stars; everything that comes to pass, good or bad, is by the direct hand of God who created the stars.  The self-righteous will thank their idol that they call god; they say he cannot save unless they let him so it makes you wonder why they would even thank such a helpless one as that.  But at one time, believer, we were the “brutish man” and the “fool”.  We did not know neither understand that salvation is by the works of God’s hands.  But it was those very works of God’s hands that made us to differ.  What resounding proof that salvation is of the Lord!  We did not, nor could we, know that God’s people triumph only by God’s works.  Yet by those very works which were ignorant of, God gave us life and faith and understanding and now we know! 
  
Brethren, only those God makes to triumph over our sin-nature give God all the glory for making us do so.  This is why every sinner born of God thanks God for his works and puts no confidence in our own. 
  
THANK GOD FOR STRENGTH
  
Psalm 92: 7: When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever: 8: But thou, LORD, art most high for evermore. 9: For, lo, thine enemies, O LORD, for, lo, thine enemies shall perish; all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered. 10: But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil. 11: Mine eye also shall see my desire on mine enemies, and mine ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against me.
  
We thank God that he gives strength to his particular people.  As we see from these verses, God does not do this for everybody.
  
All about us we see the wicked spring up as grass, all the workers of iniquity do flourish.  We are living in one of the wealthiest generations ever.  Great prosperity is the frequent forerunner of destruction to wicked men because it leads them to provoke divine wrath: 
  
·         By hardness of heart, as Pharaoh. 
·         By pride, as Nebuchadnezzar. 
·         By haughty hatred of the saints, as Haman. 
·         By carnal security, as the rich fool. 
·         By self-exaltation, as Herod. 
  
Yet, all the while the wicked man thinks God has really blessed him due to his prosperity.  “But thou, LORD, art most high for evermore.”  Nothing is out of God’s control.  Wicked men are made to prosper by God for a reason: "It is that they shall be destroyed forever!”  God warns us more than anything else against money and prosperity in this worldThe cares of this world choke out the word.  Do not envy the prosperous in this world?  They are only being fattened for slaughter. 
 
On the other hand, for God’s particular people, God gives fresh oil, strengthening us by his Spirit—"But my horn [my strength] shalt thou exalt like an [wild ox]: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.” Christ prayed the Father and sent forth the Holy Spirit in the first hour making us to be born-againAfter bringing us to faith in Christ, the Spirit of God sealed us, “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise” (Eph 1:13).  And Christ promises to continue to give us “fresh oil”, the Spirit of our God, who strengthens his child like the wild ox.
  
Now hear what these verses declare!  If you are outside of Christ then you are God’s enemy.  You may flourish in this life but understand there is coming a day when that will not be the case.  If you are trusting in your works they are iniquity.  All who have not faith in Christ are workers of iniquity.  Our works do not equal the glory of God.  We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God.  Be warned—"For, lo, thine enemies, O LORD, for, lo, thine enemies shall perish; all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.”  In the great day of judgment, Christ tells us that he shall say to some, “Depart from me ye workers of iniquity, I never knew you.”  Seek Christ while he may be found.  Call on him while he is near!
 
Still, Christ’s people, born of his Spirit, shall live forever and behold the wicked cast out—"Mine eye also shall see mine enemies, and mine ears shall hear the wicked that rise up against me.”  We shall see and hear them cast out of God’s presence in righteousness.  And we shall praise God for his righteousness in that day.  
  
So, believer, let us thank God for his righteousness now; that is why he strengthens his people; let us thank God for continually giving us strength and let us thank God that Christ is our Strength. 
  
THANK GOD FOR PRESERVING US UNTO THE END
  
Psalm 92: 12: The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree [date tree]: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. 13: Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God. 14: They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing; 15: To shew that the LORD is upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.
 
Christ made each of his people righteous.  by Christ’s preserving hand he makes the righteous flourish like the date tree.  He makes us flourish in godliness as well as in thanksgiving and praise to God.  By Christ’s preserving hand, he makes us grow evergreen and strong like the cedar tree. 
 
Where and how does he make us flourish?—"Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God.”  He plants us in the house of the Lord, in his local assembly, under his preacher.  So he preserves us and makes us flourish by the preaching of the gospel of Christ crucified in his house, in his courts.  Christ preserves us to the end and shall not lose one—"They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing;” 
 
Let’s end by reading the last verse.  This verse applies to everything in this Psalm.  It declares why it is a good thing to give thanks and sing praises to our LORD—"To shew that the LORD is upright: [to show] he is my rock, and [to show] there is no unrighteousness in him.”  This is why he saves by the works of his hands, why he destroys his enemies while strengthening his particular people, and why he preserves his people—"To shew that the LORD is upright: [to show] he is my rock, and [to show] there is no unrighteousness in him.”
 
Each Thanksgiving Day, as every day, let us give God thanks and praise.  And if some family member or friend asks why you are thankful to God and why you give God all the praise for your salvation then tell them—"To shew that the LORD is upright: [to show] he is my rock, and [to show] there is no unrighteousness in him.”  
 
Amen!