November 22, 2023
Author: Pastor Gordon Cook
November 22, 2023
“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him,
rooted and built up in him and established in the faith just as you were
taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”
Colossians 2:6,7
We've been going through the book of Romans in the morning and for
good reason. It’s been called the greatest epistle or letter ever
written. There's probably no book in the Bible from a New Testament
perspective that mentions grace, that concept of grace more than the
book of Romans. It's mentioned at least 25 times and Paul opens up the
doctrine of grace. You could say, could you not, the need of grace,
chapters 1 through 3; the cost of grace, cost us the savior, he died on
the cross, chapter 4 and chapter 5; and then the power of grace, chapter
6, chapter 7 and 8. And then you have what you call the triumph or the
victory of grace in chapters 12 right through chapter 15. We can now
live by grace and overcome sin and walk by the spirit. But grace is
free. It's a concept we should always associate with grace. Grace is
free, absolutely free without money, without price. No one deserves
grace, it’s called amazing grace.
What should be our response?
What kind of effect should it have on our hearts and our minds? What
kind of response should come from our lips? Well, I think we could all
say, “A worship response of praise and thanksgiving.” Then you go back
to the book of Romans and you'll find that the concept of thanksgiving
and praise is mentioned several times, right back to Romans 1:8. Here's
how Paul starts off, comes right into the starting block, “First, I
thank my God through Jesus Christ.” Chapter 6:17, “But thanks be to God
that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the
heart.” Chapter 7, where he deals with the struggle with remaining sin,
“Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of death?
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” In Romans 11 you hear
this outburst of praise after he considers the great redemption and
salvation we have in Christ. Romans 11:33, “Oh the depth of the riches
and wisdom and knowledge of God,” and you drop down to verse 36, “From
him and through him and to him are all things, to him be glory forever.”
Come to chapter 14 and Paul deals with Christian liberty. He
assumes that we are regularly giving thanks for our everyday mercies in
the use of Christian liberty. Romans 14:6 “The one who eats, eats in
honor of the Lord since he gives thanks to God; while the one who
abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.” And in
the very last chapter, chapter 16, Paul again closes on a note of
personal thanks. Here's what he says in 16:3, “Greet Prisca and Aquila,
my fellow workers in Christ Jesus who risked their necks for my life to
whom not only I give thanks, but all the churches of the Gentiles give
thanks as well.” So here you have a man, Paul, who suffered a lot, read
chapter 11 of 2 Corinthians and there's that list of his sorrows and his
sufferings no matter where he seemed to go, he was always in trouble,
but at the same time a thankful man. His epistles ring with
thanksgiving, they really do.
What about us? Here's a quote from
Dr. Packer I've used over the years several times, “It's safe to say
that no religion anywhere has ever laid such a stress on the need for
thanksgiving or called on its adherence so incessantly and insistently
to give thanks as does the religion of the Bible in both the Old and New
Testament.”
If you were here on Sunday night for our corporate
Thanksgiving, it was wonderful to hear God's people giving thanks to
God. I think we had twenty plus people counting the men and the women
together, giving thanks to God and that's a testimony to God's goodness.
It's also a testimony to the grace at work in the hearts of God's
people. It's easy to see the world we live in is marked by ingratitude,
anger, bitterness. Paul Tripp says, “I am convinced that the universal
language of a fallen world is grumbling. That's what characterizes our
world, grumbling, complaining and murmuring. Whereas for Christians if
we have a consistent, humble expression of gratitude, we will be the
light and salt of the world.”
So let's keep on keeping on being
thankful. Let's even pray that we would be more thankful. Just like you
and I can be more loving, we can always be more thankful and let's even
ask God to help us to be more thankful; people marked with humble
gratitude and it should be heard from our lips.
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