Giving thanks in all circumstances is presented as God's will for believers, rooted in His provision and plan. The sermon emphasizes that true thankfulness extends beyond material blessings to encompass spiritual salvation and even difficult trials, drawing parallels with Joseph's story and the example of Jesus. It highlights that ingratitude is a serious sin, leading to spiritual darkness, while consistent thankfulness, even in hardship, demonstrates faith and obedience. The message concludes by urging listeners to embrace thankfulness as a core aspect of their Christian walk, particularly for the gift of salvation.
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The Ephesian Studies, but, or Corinthian Studies, but I found some texts. I thought of some texts that would fit right in with the studies on First Corinthians. Before I read the text, I want to read this. Dr. Al Stidger relates that one evening during the Depression of the nineteen thirties, he was discussing the general situation with some friends. The outlook was gloomy. Banks were closed, thousands were out of work, and men by the scores, faced with the collapse of their paper fortunes, were taking their own lives. There isn't much to be thankful for, one of the company remarked.
Siddler said, Well, I, for one, am grateful to Mrs. Wentz. He explained, that Mrs. Went was a school teacher who, thirty years before, had gone out of her way to encourage him in his studies. Did you ever thank her, someone queried. Dr. Fidger admitted that he never had. But that very evening he sat down and wrote her. In a few weeks, a reply to her, a reply to his letter, arrived written in the shaky hand of an aged person. The letter read, My dear Willie, I want you to know that your note meant to me, what it meant to me, I am an old lady in my eighties, living alone in a small room, cooking my own meal lonely, and seeming like the last leaf on the tree.
You will be interested to know, Willie, that I taught school for fifty years, and in all that time, yours is the first letter of appreciation I have ever received. It came on a blue-cold morning, and it cheered my lonely old heart, as nothing has cheered me in many years. Good thing. So we turn to a few texts. First Corinthians chapter five. I've never spoken on these texts before on Thanksgiving, but they impress me.
First Corinthians chapter five and verse eighteen. In everything give thanks for this is the will of God. in Christ Jesus concerning you. I want to emphasize in Christ Jesus because we've been emphasizing that in our Corinthian studies. Then you have another one over in Second Corinthians nine and fifteen. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gifts. And in Colossians one and twelve, giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.
My, is that something to give God thanks for? And then you have another in Ephesians five, twenty, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. First Timothy two one, I exhort therefore that first of all supplications, prayers and processions and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and for all that are in authority. that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who will have all men to be saved, and to come into the knowledge of the truth.
First Corinthians, fifteen, fifty-seven, but thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. That's something to thank God for. Victory over death, grave, and hell. The last one in Revelation, four and nine. And when those living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him that sapped on the throne, who liveth forever and ever. We go from the first Right up till we see a man sitting on the throne at the right hand of God.
And we see those beautiful creatures giving thanks to God for his sitting there. And we sure can thank God those of us who were saved after victory over sin, death, the grave. We too, when we see that occupier of that throne, will join with those living creatures that give thanks. unto God. Now this morning I want to speak on the thanksgiving that we have in all these texts. Here you have a command from God and a good reason to obey him. That was our text in Thessalonians.
In everything give thanks. Why? Why is the reason? A good reason. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus. We have a good reason to give God thanks because it's God's will that we do so. How strange we forget so often to give God thanks. There are two things every Christian should keep short accounts with God on. If a Christian sins, don't wait to kneel beside your bed at night to confess it. Confess it right then, and he'll forgive.
And when some blessing comes your way, don't wait till you get on your knees at night to thank God for it. Thank them right then. Keep short accounts with God on confessing sin and giving him thanks. When the blessing comes or God answers your prayer, give him thanks. This is the will of God concerning you. To whom does he address these words? in everything give thanks. Well, not to men indiscriminately. It's not for all men to give God thanks in this text. These words are addressed to men who are saved and women who are saved.
We have a very sad Scripture where we have the unthankful mentioned. That's over in Romans chapter one and eighteen and twenty-five, and I'm going to read this to you. Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has showed it unto them, for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and God had so that they are without issues. Because that when they knew God, They glorified Him not as God.
Neither were thankful, but became vain in their imagination, and their foolish heart was darkened. Wherefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness, through the lusts of their own heart to dishonor their own bodies between themselves. God gave them up because they didn't give Him thanks for what they saw as the evidence of His eternal being. God gave them all kinds of material, literal evidence by His handiwork that He was the giver of all these things. And they were unthankful.
They didn't even believe that God was the author of all these things. Unthankful. What ingratitude. And today, I believe because of the mess the world is in today, and it's in a mess. It's because of insanity. How God has blessed our country. Think of the things we have we enjoy our affluent society. And although there are other countries, they seem to be superpowers or call upon as such, and although we have many mistakes, and made many mistakes as a nation.
Yet I'd sooner be in America than any other nation on earth. With all their military power, our country is a paradise compared to any other. Do we give God thanks every day for that? We can easily find fault with our country, but I'll tell you one thing, in spite of all our faults, I thank God for this country every day, and God intends that we should. And because man is so ungrateful, he accepts all the good things, and he magnifies all the bad things, and he forgets to praise God and thank God for the things he doesn't do.
This has led to the mess with it. In gratitude to God for all that we enjoy. Men that days and weeks and almost months go by, for some don't even believe in God. Those that do, many of them, don't even kneel once a day and thank God for the things we do enjoy. And so we see the unthankfulness, the ingratitude. of men and women. The natural man understandeth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them. How can he give God thanks if he's unsaved? He can't. God won't accept it if you're unsaved.
He's talking to Christians here, and everything gives thanks. Let's go back to the first of this book and see about these people, these Thessalonians. This is what you read. and Timotheus unto the Church of the Thessalonians, which is in God. These people were in God the Father, and in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, Grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers. remembering without ceasing our work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father.
These people had turned to God from idols to serve the living and the true God and to wait for His Son from heaven. These people had been delivered from the wrath to come. Therefore, Paul says, give God back. These are Christians. who are thus thanking God. In everything, give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. I trust we as Christians will know something of thanking God. Apart from the material, tangible, physical things we enjoy, oh, to be able to thank God for the spiritual blessings.
They're constantly ours. Another thing, when you stop to think of ingratitude. Think of the ten lepers the Lord healed, and Christians can be guilty of ingratitude. After you're saved, the Lord healed ten lepers. One returned to give them thanks, one out of ten, and they were all cleansed. How pitiful the words of the Lord Jesus. Where are there not ten, Clem? Where are the nine? Am I among the nine who receive God's bounty physically, materially, and above all, spiritually?
And I don't have time to give them thanks. How ungrateful men and women are in this matter. One could read a lot of Scripture relative to man's In gratitude, you could read over in Malachi for chapter one, verses six to ten, and I'll read it to you. I don't suppose you read it. So I'll read it. A son on earth, his father, and a servant is master. This is God complaining about their ingratitude. If then I be a father, where is my honor? And if I be a master, where is my fear? Say, if the Lord of hosts unto you, O priest that despise my name, And you say, Wherein have we despised thy name?
Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar. And you say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say the table of the Lord is contemptible. And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, it is not evil. And if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? Offer it now to your governor. Will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person, saith the Lord of hosts? And now I pray you beseech God that he will be gracious unto you. Just have been by your means. Will he regard your person, saith the Lord of hosts? Who is there among you that would shut the doors for not?
You preach you're supposed to be janitors and open shut in the doors of the temple. And you won't do it without pay. You've got to be paid for everything. God says, Who is he? or there even among you, that would shut the doors for naught. Neither do ye kindle or fire on my altar for naught. You've got to be paid for everything. I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts. Neither will I accept any offering at your hand. Here's the people so blessed of God, and they can't do anything, and praise God for the opportunity. They've got to be paid for. This is a sad situation for an almighty God to look down upon his people in such a condition.
Now he says, in everything, give thanks. Oh, but you say, Brother Wilson, I can thank God for something, but not everything. That's what it says on two occasions, the text we read in First Thessalonians five, eighteen, and also in Ephesians five, twenty. Give thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, it means taking the bitter with the sweet. It's not always sweet. We get the bitter. Can you thank God for the bitter as well as the sweet?
Can you thank God for the desert as well as the river road that's so pleasant and plenty of water? Are we just going to thank God when we get what we want and what pleases us? People say, the Lord was so good to me during that illness or that experience. Had he not raised you up, would he not still have been good? Did he not have a purpose? That's what he's talking about. James says, Blessed is a man that endure a temptation. Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ah, yes, all things work together for good.
to them that love God. You notice in this text it says, Note this, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. What does the word this refer to? The thing or the thanks. The thing or the experience to which you pass or the thanks. Which is the will of God? Both. For this is the will of God concerning you. One doesn't want to be a fatalist, like some people seem to be. But here are three texts that popped into my mind.
I want to read them to you. First ones in First Corinthians, four of these. For this is the will of God. Even your sanctification that you should abstain from fornication or keep your body from unclean practices. This is the will of God, that you keep your body from unclean practices. Now, that's God's will. But doing God's will demands your help, your participation. This is God's potential will, made possible only with your cooperation. It's God's will that Christians live consistent life.
That's what the Bible says right in this verse. But remember this, although that's God's will, you've got to cooperate. How are we going to live a consistent life that glorifies God unless you study your Bible and spend time in prayer and live for him? And then here's another verse I want you to notice, a very important one, in First Timothy, chapter two and four, who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. God wants, it's God's will that all men be saved. But all men are not going to be saved. Only those who accept the Lord Jesus Christ are going to be saved.
But God has made provision for all men. But it's not a hardened fast rule. Everybody's going to be saved because God said it's his will. Here's another one of those potential wills of God only made possible for your salvation. you're accepting Christ. God willeth up all men be saved. It's God's will that a Christian be baptized. It's God's will that a Christian remember the Lord. But that depends on your obedience. This is what God wants to be done, but man is responsible. Then there's another text, just the opposite. If God willeth not the death of any man, but that all men should be saved, notice verse nine of second Peter three, The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish.
God wills that all men should be saved, but all are not going to be saved, only those who accept Christ. It's God's not God's will that any man should perish, and yet many are going to perish. It's not God's will. God's not determining your eternity. Whether you're going to be in heaven or hell is entirely up to you, made plain in these things. These are the potential will of God. Man has got to cooperate. This is a decision you've got to make. This is clearly given us in the Bible. Tragedies are not trials. If God permits them.
Think about that. a tragedy or a trial. In other words, you can look upon them as something that was absolutely foreign to God. Tragedies and trials. God's people have had them. God is teaching you lessons in those tragedies and in those trials. Think of the case of Joseph. Joseph at the age of sixteen. Here he was, practically kidnapped, taken by his brothers, stripped them of his coat of many colors, till the goat then stained the blood, stained that coat of many colors with the blood of the animals, took it back to the father, and said, here we found this coat.
You discern where there's Joseph. They knew. Poor old Jacob liked to die. He said, that's my son's coat, an evil beast, had killed him. Sixteen years of age, Poor Joseph, envied, hated, sold into Egypt, slandered, lied about by Potiphar's wife, and thrust into prison. Yes, but now at thirty-two, he is governor of the land of Egypt, next to Pharaoh on the throne. He's grown his features of change.
something happens. God brings a famine upon Egypt. And Joseph's brethren, the famine reached up to where they lived. And they come down to get some help because they've heard of all the wheat that is down and grain that is down in Egypt. They came down and Joseph detected them immediately. He says, you're a bunch of spies. The moment he saw them, He knew his brethren. They didn't know him. He said, you're a bunch of spies. Well, no spies. You are spies to see the nakedness of the land, I eat.
Seven times during those events, Joseph went aside and wept for his brethren. He loved them, but he couldn't forgive them or give them their grain until they confess their dirty deeds. The after it was all over, old Jacob had died, Joseph said to his brethren, and they were talking among themselves, now that our father's dead, Joseph, he'd like to pay us back. He'd like to make it hard for us. I want you to listen to some of the most touching words from Joseph, and all to be suffered.
These are the words in Genesis He's talking to his brethren. Now therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that ye sold me hither. For God did send me before you to preserve life. For these two years hath the famine been in the land, and yet there are five years in the which there shall neither be earring nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve your posterity in the earth. and to save your lives by great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God, and he have made me a father to Pharaoh, and Lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.
Joseph looked upon all that he had suffered, at the hands of his own brethren. He didn't blame him. He says God was in all this. God was in all this. Imagine that. If that didn't soften the house, what would it? He didn't believe them. I want to say this, but God's purpose and plan did not diminish the atrocity and sin of Joseph's brethren. But it was God's plan that was worked out. And Joseph took it. And he thanked God for it. His was the road of affliction.
Fliction, a lot of affliction at the hands of his loved one. And yet he said, I see God's plan to do it all. God's purpose was in it. I hold no hard feeling. Here is something God wants his children to learn, giving thanks when we go through hard times, deep water, rough experiences. Hard to take. The only way you can take these things is when you accept it as the will of God. Not his perfect will, not his directive will.
He didn't direct those things intentionally, but God's permissive will. He permits these things to happen. We as Christians might learn lessons that has happened. have an evidence of God's permissive will time and time again in the Scripture, for our good and for His glory. And the Joseph's case is a case in front. I wonder if we have Christians have learned this. Can you say this morning, I thank God for eyes to see. I thank God for ears to hear.
I thank God for a tongue to taste good food. I thank God for senses, a smell of lovely flowers and fragrance. I thank God for a smell of fresh fruit and food. I thank God for touch the feel of a baby's hand or the class of a loved one. Oh, I thank God for these things. I thank God for life, for life itself. To be loved and to love.
I thank God. And if you want to get the urge to thank God, take a visit to Palmyra, old folks. And you'll come out thanking God, and if you don't, You've got a hard heart. But above all these things, material blessings, I thank God that I'm saved. I thank God as we read in one of those beautiful passages, such as we have in Colossians one, I want to ask you, can you give thanks for this? Giving thanks unto the Father. which hath made us meet to be partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light.
Can you thank God he's delivered you from the power of darkness and translated you into the kingdom of God to your son? Can you thank God that you have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of his? That's something to thank God for, isn't it? Now these Thessalonians They passed through many an experience that was hard to take. And on each occasion they thanked God, just like Joseph. I'm going to read you a few. First Thessalonians, one, six. And ye became followers of us and of the Lord, having received their word in much affliction, with joy.
Yes, they passed through a lot of affliction, but they had joy. Then you have in verse two, chapter two and fourteen, for ye brethren became followers of the churches of God, which in Judea are in Christ Jesus. There it is again in Christ Jesus. But ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews. You Gentiles have suffered because you're a Christian. Also you have in chapter three and verse five for this cause when I could no longer forbear I sent to know your fate less by some means the tempter have tempted you and our labor be in vain the devil tempted you people because you're Christian for these Christians were sorrowing because loved ones had died and they thought that was the end what sustained them verse four and thirteen But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them, also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with them. You Thessalonians have gone through all these afflictions, persecution, tied by the devil, the loss of love, and he says in our text, give thanks. Give thanks. For this is the will of God, and everything give thanks. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. You who sit here this morning, Christians on the way to heaven, can you give thanks for your present circumstances?
Let's go to the most marvelous example of giving thanks of all. The night before the Lord Jesus was to be betrayed. He instituted the feast we had this morning, and he took the loaf, the bread, and he gave thanks. He knew what that loaf meant, his body. He knew what that body was going to suffer at the hands of men and the hands of God. He knew the dark cloud that was gathering all God's gifts.
He knew the storm that was going to break it. He knew it all, and he quietly gave that. He took the cup. He gave that. He didn't complain. He gave that. He gave thanks for the privilege of doing the Father's will. He said, I delight to do thy will, O my God. And He gave thanks for the bread and the wine. He gave them. Over in Matthew chapter eleven, when the cities rejected them, and everyone turned against them, we read these amazing words.
At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and the prudent, and hath revealed them unto them. Even so, Father, so it be, Goliath. Think the Lord Jesus could thank God for being rejected of men. Thank God for the privilege of laying down his life for you and me. Thank God for the privilege of suffering at the hands of men of God, men and God, that you and I might be saved.
This is thanksgiving. And the Lord Jesus sets the path. We'd like to thank God when the sun is shining. We get three good meals a day and a day. Everything's going our way. Oh, it's so easy. Thank God. Can we thank God when things are in the rivers? What thanks do you think pleases God the most? The thanks he gets when he's loaded up with benefits or the thanks he gets when times are rough and tough. We have little evidence of the goodness of God materially or physically.
Body wracked with pain. Can I thank God then? That's the kind of thanks that God loves to get. In everything, give thanks. We read in one of our texts, thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift. We read in God's word about unspeakable words. Paul said, I was caught up in the paradise and heard unspeakable words. We read about unspeakable joy, an unspeakable gift. These are things, unspeakable things.
Do I give thanks for these? We haven't time to go over to Colossians one, twelve to fourteen, or first Corinthians fifteen, fifty-seven, Revelation four, nine, things that happen through life. Things that are going to happen at death. If we have to go through the death of dark waters. Things that we'll have in eternity when we see the man sitting on the throne. Oh, yeah. We can thank God for these things. I wonder if you can thank God this morning for salvation, that you're saved. Your sins are forgiven. You're on the way to heaven.
Brother Roy Haddon is sitting over here. Took him visiting with me one day, about ten days ago. He was coming back from Pryport. He passed some places that he knew when he was sitting at the throttle. He said, I thank God for you, people. Why? Four and a half years ago, he came up here one Sunday morning. He says, the devil's had me for seventy-five years, but I got seven this morning. Why, God? He said, I got Christ.
He said, I thank God for you people. Roy's father was a preacher. His name's on the cornerstone of a church down the country. The reason he started coming here first, I think he heard that I was a worker in the railroad, and of course railroad men have a kind of fraternity. He started telling me, but when he heard me preach, he says, you preach just like my father, just like my father. Roy had a godly mother and a godly father. He told me about it. They prayed for him. They went to heaven without their prayers being answered.
But their prayers were answered here about four and a half years ago. And he'll see us there. And how happy they'll be to see him there. Yes, friend, you're hearing the gospel this morning. And I hope some of you in days to come will be able to say, I thank God for you, folks. You gave me the gospel. You showed me the way to him. Can you thank God for hearing the gospel? Many people this morning are sitting in pews, expensive, crude pews, hearing a message with no gospel and no talk.
Modernism. But you're listening to the old-fashioned gospel. Something will save you if you believe it. You should give God thanks for that. We don't ask your money. All we ask is your attention to the message we preach. We want to see you in heaven. Even if you don't thank me, we want you to thank the Lord. And sing that lovely whole hymn. Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to me.
So great salvation, so rich and free. We're going to sing that hymn. Mr. Cora, thank you, Lord, for saving my soul. You can't sing that unless he has saved your soul. This is going to be a hymn that's going to stop your lips. You're either going to sing it and mean it or sing it and tell a lie. How can you thank the Lord for saving your soul when you haven't accepted it? You hear in the gospel? I trust this morning you'll accept Christ, and this will be your happiest thanksgiving.
Shall we pray? Our Father in heaven, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we come into thy presence. We thank thee for thy precious holy word. Oh, we thank thee for sending thy son. We thank thee for thy words. We thank you for the day when the Holy Spirit convicted us through that word, and we accepted Christ and found ourselves in Christ on the way to heaven. Oh, how we thank you. We thank you for our country. We thank you for all here who are saved. We even thank you for those here who are not saved because they're here in the gospel and become Christians.
We trust that some will, as we sing this closing hymn, may some precious soul thank God for the first time for thy wonderful salvation. We ask it in our Savior's name. Amen. Shall we stand and sing? Five hundred or six hundred and thirty. Six hundred and thirty. Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to me thy great salvation, so rich and free.
If you haven't accepted Christ, do it. I'll understand myself. Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to me. My greatest salvation is all rich and free.
I want to sing it one more time, and the Christian really thank them. And if anyone's not saved, you'd like to thank them. Trust them now, or come up after, and I'd be glad to go into the room with you in my Bible and show you how you can thank them for salvation. Shall we sing it the second time? Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to me, my great salvation, so rich and free.