Give Thanks for God

Colossians 2:6-7
Richard Spencer | Sunday, November 22, 2020
Copyright © 2020, Richard Spencer

This coming Thursday we will celebrate Thanksgiving. And we, as people living in the United States of America in the early 21^st-century have a great deal for which we should be thankful. It has been said, correctly, that anyone born in the United States in the past 70 years is one of the most privileged human beings to ever walk on this planet, and that is true regardless of whether the person was born into a wealthy family or a poor family, whether the person is black, white, brown, male or female. And it is also true of those who are living here now but were not born here.

The last 70 years in this country has been a time of peace and prosperity such as this world has rarely, if ever, seen before. We should all be deeply thankful for that. None of us did anything to deserve being born in this time and place. We could just as easily have been born in abject poverty in some place and time where there was horrible famine, disease, warfare or a combination of those or other deprivations.

We have unprecedented access to information, education, food, housing, healthcare, recreation and so on. All of these are things for which we should give thanks daily. But it is eternally important for us to take note of the fact that all of these things are mere circumstances. They are temporary conditions that in and of themselves have no eternal significance. And so, this morning, I want us to think about what it is we should be most thankful for. Our circumstances can change. Our health, wealth and comfort can disappear. Even our life can be taken from us.

But, brothers and sisters, if you have been born again, you have a true and certain hope that transcends your earthly circumstances. And this hope is not just for here and now, it is also for eternity. For you have been redeemed from the empty way of life and have been freed from your bondage to sin. You are free to say “no” to sin and to do what is right. And Jesus told us that he will never leave us nor forsake us. He told us that no one can snatch us out of his hand, or out of the Father’s hand. God tells us that he has plans to prosper us and not to harm us, to give us a hope and a future. We are told that all things work together for our good. We are told that we will never die in the ultimate sense, that God will complete the work he has begun in us. And Jesus told us that he has gone to prepare a place for us, that we will one day join him and our Father in heaven and know a love and unity and peace that we cannot even imagine now. We are told that we will see God face to face. That he will wipe away every tear and that we will spend eternity in his presence with joy unspeakable and full of glory. We are citizens of the kingdom of God even now while we have to spend some time as strangers on this earth which is why we read in Hebrews 12:28, “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe”.

And that is why, when Paul heard from Epaphras about the faith of these Colossians to whom he was writing, he wrote in Colossians 1:9-14, “For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

And so, brother and sisters, I submit to you that above all else we should be thankful for God and what he has done for us. He has redeemed us and set us free from sin and death. All of this is subsumed in a simple but profound phrase in the first part of our passage this morning. In Colossians 2:6 we read, “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord”. Paul addresses himself to those who have received Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. If you are a Christian, you must think about what that means for you personally.

It means that God the Father, in eternity past, looked at the huge mass of sinful humanity and chose you to be saved. He conceived of the plan of salvation and he sent his eternal Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ, to become incarnate through the virgin Mary, to live a perfect life in obedience to the law, and to willingly take your sins upon himself and bear the wrath of God on your behalf, to die on the cross as a propitiatory sacrifice for you, to be raised from the dead for your justification, and then to be seated at the right hand of God the Father, where he is even this very moment interceding on your behalf. And God the Holy Spirit came to you in time and space and applied this glorious redemption to you. You were born again and enabled to repent and believe and then the Holy Spirit indwelt you and works in you to help you put your old sinful nature to death and to walk in holiness, being sanctified and persevering to the very end.

And when you die, your spirit will be perfected and will immediately go into the presence of God to await the consummation of your hope. Then, when God’s work of redemption is complete and he has finished gathering together all of the elect, Christ will come again and you, along with all the other saints, will receive your glorified body and will begin an eternity of bliss in fellowship with God and one another. We must say “Thank you Lord!”? Hallelujah!

Paul then goes on in our passage to say, “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”

Paul says that just as we received Jesus as Lord, we are to do certain things. First, we are to “continue to live in him”, or as it says in the Greek, to walk in him. In the Greek, the verb is a present, active, imperative, so this is a command for us to walk in Christ continually. As John Calvin points out in his commentary on this passage, this is also the first of three metaphors that Paul uses to show the “steadfastness of faith” that God requires of us. We are to walk in Christ each and every day of this life.

Then Paul wrote that we are “rooted and built up in him”, which doesn’t quite convey what it says in the Greek. In the original, the verbs are both participles and two different tenses are used in that phrase. The first participle is in the perfect tense, meaning that it is an accomplished fact. It could be rendered “having been rooted” in him. This is the second metaphor Paul uses for the steadfastness that is required of us, but in this case it is an accomplished fact, brought about by new birth. We are rooted in Jesus Christ. Just like a tree is rooted in the ground.

The second participle in this phrase is in the present tense, which in the Greek means it is a process that is continuing. We could render it this way, we are “being built up” in Jesus Christ. It is a daily activity for a true Christian. John Calvin calls this the third metaphor, referring to the building of a house. It is the same Greek word that is used in Ephesians 2:20 where we are told that we are being “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.” So, in a sense, Paul is using a mixed metaphor here. We are rooted like a tree, which is also like a solid foundation for a house, and we are then being built on that solid foundation.

Paul next wrote that we are “strengthened in the faith”, which is, again, a present participle in the Greek and could be rendered “being strengthened in the faith.” And then Paul adds the comment, “as you were taught”. God does not leave us alone to figure everything out for ourselves. He gives us his Word, his Spirit and his church, especially pastors and teachers to instruct us how to live in a way that pleases God.

Finally, Paul wrote, “and overflowing with thankfulness” or, as other translations put it, abounding in thanksgiving. All of the Christian life is to be lived in abounding, or overflowing thanksgiving to God for what he has done, is continuing to do, and promises to do in the future in our lives and in our death. Paul wrote to the saints in Philippians 1:6 that he was “confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Friends, God is faithful. If he has begun this good work in you, you must live in thanksgiving no matter what your present circumstances are. And if you have never surrendered to Jesus Christ, cry out this morning for God to have mercy on you, he is faithful to save all who call on him in faith.

And so, I want to explore the meaning of these verses more fully in five points this morning and these five points come straight from the text: First, walk in Christ; second, rooted and being built up in Christ; third, being strengthened in the faith; fourth, we were taught; and fifth, overflowing with thankfulness. Let’s begin with my first point, walk in Christ.

I.       Walk in Christ

Notice that Paul did not say that we are to walk with Christ. He isn’t thinking of Christ as simply a companion to help us and encourage us or even as a good example to inspire us. Christianity is not an addendum to life, it is life. Paul is using the common New Testament expression “in him” or “in Christ”, which refers to our being united to Christ by faith.

And our union with Christ means that we are the beneficiaries of the double imputation, or double transaction, described in 2 Corinthian 5:21, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Because of this indescribably glorious gift, our sins have been taken away. God no longer holds them against us. In Jeremiah 50:20 we read, “‘In those days, at that time,’ declares the LORD, ‘search will be made for Israel’s guilt, but there will be none, and for the sins of Judah, but none will be found, for I will forgive the remnant I spare.’” And in Jeremiah 31:34 God says that he “will forgive [our] wickedness and will remember [our] sins no more.” Then, in Psalm 103:12 we are told that, “as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” When King Hezekiah praised God for healing him, we read in Isaiah 38:17 that the king said, “Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish. In your love you kept me from the pit of destruction; you have put all my sins behind your back.” In Isaiah 43:25 God says that “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.” And in Isaiah 44:22 God says, “I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.”

God has been most gracious and merciful to his people. Jesus Christ, the perfect, sinless Lamb of God, took our sins upon himself and paid the price that we owed. As Peter wrote in 1 Peter 1:18-19, “it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” And he added, in 1 Peter 2:24, that Christ “himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.” Praise God and give him great thanksgiving for this priceless and indescribable gift!

And that is just half of the double transaction. The other half is also glorious beyond description. We are given the righteousness of Christ, which is what we need in order to be justified. In Zechariah 3:1-5 we read about the high priest Joshua standing before God with Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes, which represent his sin, but God rebuked Satan, and an angel ordered that Joshua’s filthy clothes be removed and that he be clothed in rich garments, which are symbolic of the righteousness of Christ.

And we are commanded, in Romans 13:14 to clothe ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ. The righteousness of Christ is a free gift and is the basis of our justification, but then we are to walk in Christ and grow in our personal righteousness as well. We must be active and our new nature must result in a changed life. In the Greek Ephesians 2:1 literally says that before God regenerated us, we were dead in the transgressions and sins in which we used to walk. And then, in Ephesians 2:10 in the ESV, which is faithful to the original Greek, we are told that “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them”.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, to walk in Christ is to live self-consciously united to Christ by faith each and every day. It is to be constantly led by the Holy Spirit. As Paul wrote in Romans 8:14, those who are being led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. And to walk in Christ is to be doing the work that God has prepared for us to do, conscious of his having taken away our sins and given us the righteousness of Christ and then to be constantly praising and thanking God for his great mercy and grace.

And that brings us to my second point; we are to be rooted and being built up in Christ.

II.      Rooted and Being Built up in Christ

If we have been born again, then we have been rooted in Christ, or we could say that he is the rock on which our lives are being built. Jesus himself told us, in Matthew 7:24-25, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.” Notice that there is a test implicit in these statements. If we have been born again, if we have been rooted in Christ, if our foundation is on the rock of Christ, then we will be among those who hear and do the words of Christ. We will obey.

So, friends, do you obey Christ? Are you rooted in Christ? Is your life being built on the solid-rock foundation of Christ? If not, then you cannot give thanks in the truest and deepest sense. You may be thankful for your earthly circumstances today, but those circumstances may change tomorrow and then you will fall. You will be like the house Jesus described in Matthew 7:26-27 when he said, “But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” And make no mistake about it, the winds and the waves come to everyone. Your building will be tested. So make sure of your foundation. As Peter admonished us in 2 Peter 1:10, “be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure.”

And then, if your foundation is sure, be certain that you are being built up in Christ. This requires that you make full use of all of the means of grace. Don’t think you have arrived. There is no standing still in Christianity. If we aren’t growing, we are sliding backwards. Even the apostle Paul wrote, in Philippians 3:12-14, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

And notice that each one of us is only a small part of the building. We must be built up in Christ as a part of the body of Christ. There are no individual Christians, there are only Christians that are part of the one body animated by the one Spirit. Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:18-22, “For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” That is being built up in Christ! To be part of the holy temple; to be a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. And we must give thanks daily for this amazing blessing and privilege.

And we must continue to build throughout all of life. Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:12-13, “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” Notice that Paul speaks about our obedience, but also about the fact that it is God working in us. We are led and empowered by the Holy Spirit, but obedience is essential to building a solid Christian life, just as Christ said in Matthew 7:24-25, which we looked at earlier.

Building a solid Christian life takes work, just like building a solid house takes work. We must get up every morning, spend time in the Word of God, pray, do the work God has assigned, guard our hearts and minds from the filth that our culture throws at us every day, avoid bad company, seek the fellowship of the saints, and use our own gifts for the good of others. If we do all of these things every day, whether we feel like it or not, we will build a strong house and be able to give God thanks every day for what he is doing in our lives. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:58 that our labor in the Lord is not in vain. And if we do these things, we will also be being strengthened in the faith, which is my third point.

III.    Being Strengthened in the Faith

Our faith will grow if we are doing what we should be doing. And a growing faith reveals itself in greater works of faith and greater assurance and joy. Friends, our faith is under assault every single day, especially in the horrible culture in which we are living. Our secular leaders, the media, our public-school teachers and so-called intellectuals, all tell us in many different ways, some subtle and some not-so-subtle, that man is the measure of all things. That there is no God. That we are just cosmic accidents and that when we die, we simply cease to exist. But that is all lies. It all comes directly from Satan, the father of all lies. And it all leads to destruction.

If it were true, then there would be no absolute moral standard and there would be no purpose to life. And because these people at least superficially believe these lies, they try to manufacture their own morality and purpose. They jump on the bandwagons of grand schemes to save the planet from global warming, or global cooling, or over population, or to save humanity from the supposed oppression of employers and others in authority. They reject even the most obvious facts of existence and declare that there are more than two genders and that man is continually getting better and will eventually arrive at some sort of heaven on earth.

But, as Paul tells us in Romans 1:18, they “suppress the truth by their wickedness”. And that is why so many of the things they say are obviously self-contradictory and at odds with reality. But the righteous will live by faith. And faith is not in opposition to reason, faith is in opposition to human autonomy. You are not God. I am not God. Even all of the human race collectively is not God. There is only one God, the Triune Creator of all things. He alone knows the end from the beginning. He alone understands all things because he created and controls all things. In Isaiah 46:8-10 God tells us, “Remember this, fix it in mind, take it to heart, you rebels. Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.”

So, be wise friends. Do not suppress the truth. As Psalm 19 tells us, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” (Ps 19:1-4) You know that God exists. You know that you are a mere creature. You know that you are a sinner deserving punishment. And you know that when your body dies you don’t cease to exist. Therefore, reject Satan’s lies and stand on the truth and always be filled with thanksgiving. Stand on what you have been taught, which brings me to my fourth point, we were taught.

IV.    We Were Taught

I have noted that in order to make sure we have the right foundation and to build on that foundation properly, we must walk in obedience. And in order to walk in obedience, we need to know what God’s will is. And where do we learn God’s will? We learn of his will in his Word. But we also need help. We need teachers and counselors to help us understand and apply God’s Word properly. In Ephesians 4:11-14, Paul wrote that God “gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.”

And we certainly know there are waves and winds and false teaching in this time of Corona virus lockdowns, disputed elections and fake news. If you want to stand up to the winds and waves of life’s troubles and of false teaching and deceitful scheming, then press in to God’s church. We should be thankful for our God-given teachers and we must pay careful attention to them in order to profit from them. As Pastor has preached many times, if we respect our leaders and respond to their counsel and admonitions, then we will receive blessing.

In other words, you need to be teachable in order to receive any benefit from the teaching given to you. If you think you already know what you need to know, you are in trouble. Now, that is not to deny that you are to test the spirits. You should know the Word of God well enough to detect false teaching. But it doesn’t follow that you know the Word of God as thoroughly or correctly as possible or that you don’t have more to learn. If you know God and are guided by his Holy Spirit, you will recognize true teaching. The truth is its own best witness, even, or especially, when it convicts you of having believed or practiced falsehood to some extent. We read this past week about what happened to King Joash when he listened to the officials who paid homage to him – we must beware of those who flatter us! Much better is the one who loves us enough to rebuke and correct us.

We all need to grow in our understanding and the teachers, counselors and the body of Christ are all used by God to build us up. And then, if we are walking in Christ daily, rooted and being built up in him, being strengthened in our faith and making full use of the teaching available to us, we must and will respond by overflowing with thankfulness, which is my fifth and final point.

V.      Overflowing with Thankfulness

Being truly thankful requires humility. It requires recognizing that we are not sufficient in ourselves. And only those who have been born again can be truly thankful to God for saving them. You must see that you deserve God’s wrath and can do nothing to pay for your sins or earn God’s favor. For your thanksgiving to be real and acceptable to God it cannot be mixed with even the tiniest hint of having contributed to your own salvation or of deserving the good things that he provides.

The only thing that separates a saint in heaven from a sinner in hell is God’s redeeming love. It is all of grace. And when you understand that, how can you not give thanks to God? And how can your thanksgiving be dependent on your circumstances? We must all repent of having grumbled and complained and thought that we somehow deserved better. Or that God somehow let us down by not answering some prayer. God doesn’t owe us anything but wrath. The mere fact that we are not in torment this very moment, experiencing the wrath of God, should be sufficient for us to be filled with thanksgiving and praise.

Look at the apostle Paul. In Acts Chapter 16 we read that he and Silas were severely flogged and then put in the inner cell with their feet in the stocks, and yet, in Verse 25 we read that “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God”. In other words, they were thankful and full of joy! As Paul wrote in Philippians 4:12, “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.” Friends, that is what we must strive for. We must seek to have hearts that are so full of gratitude for God’s having saved us that we can be content, yes even rejoice and be filled with thanksgiving in every circumstance.

And if you are honest and look at your own life you can see the many ways in which God has been faithful and has blessed you. We must take time to notice all that God has done. He created all things. He gave us life. He has taken care of our every need. He has given us salvation. And during these last eight months he has watched over this congregation and provided for us in so many amazing ways. We must be thankful. But as I have been endeavoring to make clear, our greatest thankfulness is not dependent on our earthly circumstances.

Look at what else Paul wrote later in his letter to the church in Colosse; in Colossians 3:1-3 we read, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” And in Philippians 4:4-7 Paul commands us, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Brothers and sisters, we must all work to make our calling and election sure and to walk in humble obedience, constantly giving thanks to our great God and King, first and foremost for his gracious electing love and the redeeming work of Jesus Christ. If you do that, then this thanksgiving will be truly blessed.

As we read in Psalm 100:1-5 “Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.     Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.”

And now let me close in prayer by quoting from King David:

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Cry out, “Save us, O God our Savior; gather us and deliver us from the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name, that we may glory in your praise.” Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Then all the people said “Amen” and “Praise the Lord.”
(1 Chronicles 16:34-36)