LET US BE THANKFUL: Psalm 100:1-5
The traditional Thanksgiving Day has passed, but I want to bring us a few thoughts on being thankful. Listen as I read today’s text.
Psalm 100:1-5 Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. 2Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing. 3Know 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. 4Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. 5For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.
Listen as I read our text verse once again. PS. 100:4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
Thanks giving day is every day and not just on the traditional Thanksgiving Day.
First of all I want to say that I’m thankful to be saved, I’m thankful that my wife and family are saved, I’m thankful that I was exposed to the truth of the Word of God, I’m thankful that I have not be duped into excepting any and all versions of the Bible.
I’m thankful for a good Bible believing Church, I’m thankful for good Christian friends, I’m thankful for the W.T.B.I. radio station where the true Word of God can be heard all over the world 24 hours a day by way of internet, I’m thankful for known friends that listen by way of internet, ”Bro.and sister Eddy and Chris Davis from Savannah GA.-also Bro. and sister Terry and Belinda Hailey from Townsend Tenn.- I’m thankful that God has allowed me to have part in working in His Vineuored, I’m thankful for Brother Donald Cartee my fellow co laborer.
I’m thankful that I was born in America, I’m thankful that I have love in my heart for Gods chosen people Israel, and I’m thankful that one day soon the King of the Jews is to return.
Let us be thankful that we have a eternal Home in Heaven, where all will be peace and love and joy.
Revelation 21:2 And I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
The Bible tells us in,
Philippians 4:6 Be careful [anxious] for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication [request of our needs] with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
EPH 5:20 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;**
PS. 107:8 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness,
We should be thankful for this King James Bible.
The KJ Bible is the Bible for the English-speaking people, and we’re not interested in any other version. We’re thankful that God has promised that He will persevere His Word forever.
PS. 12: 6-7 The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. 7Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.
PS 119:62 At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments. [His Word]
And we certainly are thankful to God The Father for giving us His Son, Who took our place there on the cruel cross of Calvary as He paid for our sins.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
2 COR. 9:5 Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.
I suppose that we could go and on thanking God for His wonderful blessings because according to James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
Listen as I read Luke’s record to do with Jesus as He was on His way to Jerusalem to die on the Cross. We find Him here traveling in the midst of Samaria and Galilee, and as He journeyed He sees ten men who have leprosy and they come as close to Jesus as the law permitted.
As we read this account we’ll notice that all ten of the Lepers were healed, but only one turn back to give Him thanks.
Lets remember that leprosy in the Bible is a picture & type of sin.
Luke 17:11-17
11And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. 12And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off:
13 And they lifted [notice, they, all of them, have you ever noticed that most of the time when a person is at rock bottom and desperate for help, they’ll call on God, and when God answers their request 9 out of 10 seem to let that be the end of it, their not really thankful as we see here in the account of the 10 lepers] And they lifted up their voices, and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us”.
14And when he saw them, he said unto them, “Go shew yourselves unto the priests”. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.
15And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, 16And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. 17And Jesus answering said, “Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? 18 There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger”. 19 And he said unto him, “Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole”.
So we see here that only one out of the 10 was truly grateful and gave praise and glory to God showing true thankfulness.
The next time you go to your Church and some one is called on to pray, I’ll venture to say that among the very first words you’ll hear the one praying will be, “Lord we thank you” listen and you’ll see this is true, people that prays know to thank God, and they will always pray in “JESUS NAME’.
EPH 5:20 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;**
Lets realize that Leprosy is a horrible disease that deteriorates the skin, and people that were diagnosed with it could not live with the rest of the community.
“Sin” is the same way, if the sinner is not cured of his or her sin, that is to say “born again” then they can not live with the saved there in heaven either.
These lepers had to live apart from the rest of the people. They couldn’t even go to the place of worship.
And again, the sinner that dies in his sinful condition cannot go to the place of worship either. Revelation 5:14--And the four and twenty elders [all the redeemed of all past ages] fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever.
Notice, it’s Jesus that hears their request and tells them to go show themselves to the priest. According to Leviticus 13 and 14, the priest was the one who would examine the leper and see if he was cleansed and allowed back into society or to remain quarantined if he was not cured.
Jesus is our High Priest; it’s He that justifies us.
Hebrews 3:1 Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;
Hebrews 9:11 But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come
In these verses we have a picture much like our world today. A lot of people want God’s gifts but they don’t seem to want him. People want healing but they don’t want the Healer. They want Redemption but not the Redeemer.
We that are saved, are we really thankful that the leprosy of our soul has been cleansed?
I doubt that any of us, or let me say, that I hope that none of us, is suffering from this terrible disease of leprosy, but all of us had or has leprosy of the heart.
Leprosy of the heart is a heart cold to the gospel and has no room for God. A heart that is sinful. We like the lepers have to cry out "unclean, unclean." When we let Jesus restore us and come in our hearts he makes us clean. For that, we should be eternally thankful.
John 15:3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
Let’s be thankful that because of Jesus cleansing us of our sin disease we will never be the same again.
In verse 19 Jesus tells the cleansed leper to "rise and go." We can rest assured that this cleansed leper would never be the same.
How could this dear man ever forget what Jesus did for him? Nothing more in the scriptures tell us what he did after this.
I think we can safely say, that when he went back to his home he would never be like he was before.
Jesus told him in verse 19- “Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole”.
Notice, not partially whole, but whole.
Once Jesus has cleansed our sin sickness it will never damn us again.
1 John 5:12 He that hath the Son hath life-
John 3:16- that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
And the old friends that remembered the leper here in Luke 17: probably had their doubts that he would ever be cleansed from his leprosy.
Without a doubt many of my old friends probably said, “he want last long, he’ll be back just like he was”.
Well guess what, since April 1983 I haven’t been the same, the Lord washed me clean of my sin sickness; my leprosy of the heart was cleansed. But we have learned from the Bible that we still need to ask forgiveness of our sins daily. Not “Lord save me again”, but to keep ourselves in fellowship with God.
Isaiah 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
Revelation 22:17 - let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely
Remember that this man that had been cured of the leprosy here in LK.17: had to be away from his family, away from his work, away from the place of worship.
Those must have been some sad days. His days now would never let go to waste from now on.
Some people seem to think that they are only supposed to be thankful only for the things that they can see.
But let me remind us of the most important reason we need to be thankful: and that is, what he did for the leper, He did for us spiritually speaking.
Ephesians 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.—19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; 20And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
Romans 5:1-9 Therefore being justified**[do you know what it means to be justified?] Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
3And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 4And patience, experience; and experience, hope: 5And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
6For when we were yet without strength, in due time [at the fore ordained appointed time] Christ died for the ungodly. 7For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure* for a good man some would even dare to die.
8But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
