Verse four and five of this psalm. The psalmist says, enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless his name for the Lord is good. His mercy is everlasting and his truth endureth to all generations. Some of you people have been listening to me preach the gospel. for almost a half a century. That's a long time in anybody's book. And most of you have learned that I don't get excited about holidays. I only care about one holiday a year, and it happens this coming Thursday. Thanksgiving is a special day. You know, God's the giver of every gift and every blessing. And because of that, we ought to be motivated to be thankful. Every month or two, I'll look in a drawer or in a cabinet or something and I'll see things there that I gave to Patty and I think about what that meant to me. And then I'm reminded that God gave me those things to give to her. That God has given me everything I've ever had. I think over my life, I think strange things like most men do. I think about things like, I remember my first tractor, and I thought it never would wear out. I think about when our children were born. I think about when we first had to deal with sickness. The Bible is a revelation of the lives of godly men and women And they are all seen to be thankful people. Some, like David, have sang the praises of God from the time that they were teenagers. Some, like Manasseh, have only seen God in their old age and rejoiced in Him. Some, like Joseph, have gone through slavery and bondage and imprisonment, but they thank God. We live in a country where we're so richly blessed with the kindness of God, and we ought to be a thankful people. But we're not. And I hope you're knowledgeable of that. Every spiritual gift that God gives us is a reason to rejoice. The fact that God hears our prayers is a reason to give thanks. The fact that God gives us a Bible to read in our language is a reason to give thanks. The fact that God establishes churches where we are for us to go and hear the word of God is something to be thankful for. I want to bring you a message this morning if the Lord will help me for a little while. that I have titled Come with Thanksgiving. Come with Thanksgiving. There are several things that I want to try to present to you in a short time. First of all, I want to tell you some things that people ought to know about God. It tells us in verse three, 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. First of all, the Lord is God. He's not some imagination. He's not some figure. He's God. He's revealed himself to his people and revealed himself through his word to be God. He's the only true and living God. People have all kinds of gods. People worship rocks, trees, totem poles, mystical figures. What do they call those horses with a horn in the middle of their head and all that stuff like that? Yeah, all that stuff. But they're not God. The God of the Bible is the only true God. He is self-existent. He does not need you. Now you won't hear that anywhere else this morning in this county, but he does not need you, but you need him. He is self-sufficient majesty. President of the United States is worth about 30 or $40 billion. And he probably could get by without being the president. You and I can't do that. But God enables us to live as blessed people, whatever our lot might be. He's the fountain of all life and all being. When I used to work at the hospital, every time a baby was born, they'd play this little tune on the PA system. Most people would say, oh, somebody's been blessed. I'd say somebody's life's just been ruined. The Lord God is the creator of all things. We do not. We could not make ourselves. People have a baby and they'll say, look what we've made. You ain't doing no such thing. You've been given a great gift by the great gift giver. Our being is derived and dependent. We depend on God. Say, I don't depend on God. Well, turn your hair off. Sit along, get along without him. Let him stop the flow of water. I got thinking about this the other day. Sometimes I amuse myself with my ability to think. But I got thinking about what would happen in Puerto Rico they are hoping to have the electricity back on next April or May. Can you imagine what would happen in this country? We'd have a revolution. You ever give thanks to the fact you turn a light switch on and electric comes on? It is God's prerogative to be his own cause. He's the only one who can do that. He's our ultimate owner and our rightful owner. God owns you. Now the world doesn't want to hear that, but it's the truth. He owns all of us. Back in the days when slavery was common in this country, men used to boast and be proud that they owned other human beings. but they themselves were owned by God. He made us. We belong to Him. And because He's our creator, He's also our master. I've had people say to me in my ministry, God can't tell me what to do. God can't make me do anything I don't wanna do. God's not in any power over me. And I have said to more than one of them, you're a fool. You're a fool. God's in absolute control over you. We have prayer for people that are sick, people that are dying, families that have lost loved ones. Why don't they just get well? Because they can't. Because he's the master. The Lord God is the sovereign ruler of every human being. And I mean, I want to emphasize that sovereign part. I was talking to a man the other day, and we were talking about something I don't always talk about. He said, I'll tell you what matters to me. He said, if I ask a man, do you believe in the sovereignty of God? And he says, no, I know he's a fool. I said, well, I never thought about it that way, but you're pretty wise. God is sovereign. He rules over everything the way he wants to. We're his subjects. We call him master. We bow to him and call him king. He's the Lord of glory. He's everything. He gives us laws and holds us accountable to keep them. We have all these politicians in Frankfurt and Washington, and they all can make laws like you can't believe. And they can't make anybody keep one of them. If you don't really, if you don't want to obey the law, you don't have to. Now, they might put you in prison. They might fine you. They might do this, that, the other thing, but they can't make you keep the law. But I'll tell you, when God gives a law, he aims to hold you accountable for it. And there's a hell in existence for those that won't keep God's law. The Lord God is also our bountiful benefactor. Every time somebody's been good to you, it's because God moved them to. We're the sheep of His grace. And we're entitled to Him. God gave us to Him before the foundation of the world. As a sheep of His pasture, He takes care of His flock. I remember my grandfather, he'd just take care of those sheep. He was a simple man. He didn't care about anybody blowing the horn or ringing a bell in his honor. He just wanted to take care of his sheep. They were special to him. The Lord of glory loves his sheep. He loves his sheep. He is a God of infinite mercy and infinite goodness. Verse five, the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting. Everlasting. Because the Lord is good, he always does good. Now, God may do things that you don't like. He may do things that you don't appreciate. But when it comes to the end of time and God balances the books, everything he does will be declared to be good. Declared to be good. His mercy is everlasting. It never wears out. I have to admit to you that my mercy is not everlasting. I fail often in this. But my God's mercy is eternal. Never runs out. And it's always extended to his sheep. Not to goats, not to hellions, not to rabble, to his sheep. The Lord is the God of inviolable truth and faithfulness. He says there in verse five, His truth endureth to all generations. His blessed word is true and practical to people of every age. The same God that John Newton believed in, the same God that the Apostle Paul believed in, The same God that David, the singer of Israel, believed in is the same God we believe in. No word of his voice will ever fall as antiquated. You know, I read a lot of old books. I don't read much new stuff. I read stuff that was written back in the 16, 17, 1800s. And every once in a while, I'll read about something and I'll think, that's funny. They passed some law and it would be in effect forever. And now it's so antiquated that nobody pays any attention to it. I don't know if it's still on the books, but if it is, nobody pays attention to it. It's against the law to feed ice cream to a horse in Harrodsburg. I read that in the paper. It's still on the books. I never did feed ice cream to a horse. But I fed plenty of it to a dog. God's word never goes out of date. Never goes out of date. The word of God is never revoked. Our politicians are always making new laws and revoking old ones. Constantly changing the books. He is the holy eternal God and he never changes his mind. He never changes his ways. He's just God. And then we also find here the privilege of access to such a God. He says in verse four, enter into his gates. How amazing that mortals should be encouraged to come. God says to you and to me and people like us, come, come. And we're not only allowed to come, it's one thing to be allowed to come, but we're ordered to enter his gates, come. When God says come, he's not inviting, he's ordering, come. He has opened the gates of his church to the most guilty of sinners. Paul said, I'm the chief of sinners. The only reason he said that was he didn't know me. We unlock this building every Sunday morning, every Wednesday night, invite people to come in, sit down, hear the word God preached. Have no power to make you come. Wouldn't even know how to do that. But God says come. Come. Then there's the duty of thankfulness here. He also says in the fourth verse, enter into his gates with thanksgiving. Don't just come, but come with thanksgiving. Leviticus 7, 12, it says, if he offer it for Thanksgiving, then he shall offer, with the sacrifices of Thanksgiving, unleavened cakes mingled with oil and unleavened wafers anointed with oil and cakes mingled with oil, a fine flour fried. All the ironic sacrifices of the Old Testament have been replaced. And they're useless. Now, if you want to build an altar down on your farm or in your backyard and kill a cow and burn it, I guess you can. But it won't make any points with God. Because he has sacrificed the greatest sacrifice that ever could be offered. His son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The sacrifice of thanksgiving will always remain. There's always reason for us to give thanksgiving to God. I'm no different than you are. Sometimes I get disgusted with life, disgusted with my lot, disgusted with my situation, and then God reminds me, in everything, give thanks. Gratitude is due to God in life. And it will be in eternity. That's what we're gonna do in eternity. We're gonna give thanks. That's why I like Thanksgiving. One reason I like it. My wife used to make me three big pans of dressing every Thanksgiving. That's why I like Thanksgiving for that. But I like Thanksgiving because that's what I'm gonna do in eternity. We're gonna give thanks. every day, every hour, every moment. The hearts and mouths of the saints ought to be filled with praise in this world as we prepare for eternity. And then there's some reasons for enjoying this access and thankfulness. In the last part of verse four, he says, be thankful unto him and bless his name. You know, the earlier part of the psalm was part of the praise celebration. The priest and the temple singers and the tabernacle singers would lead the people in this sacrifice of praise. And they'd give thanks. But this part of this verse was a chorus that was sung by those singers. They would sing this and the people would sing with them. Be thankful unto Him and bless His name. The song of peace is accompanied by the lighting of the fire on the sacrifice. When they would sing that chorus, the priest would light the fire on the sacrifice of Thanksgiving. And the people of God must come to their master with gratitude. I'm a dog fella, I like dogs. I like most dogs. I'm not sure if I like Porky or not, I haven't decided that, but I love his sister. She's the sweetest dog. No matter what's going on, no matter what you're doing, no matter how bad you feel, Sadie is always ready to come and lick your hand and wiggle her little tail about that long. And I'll tell you, the people of God ought to come before our Father with that same kind of gratitude. Rejoice in it. Then there's an inexhaustible fountain of gladness here. He says, for the Lord is good. The Lord is good. There is no end of the Lord's goodness. It has no limitations. When I was a child, we didn't have much. And Christmas for us was not always a great thing. But one thing I could count on at Christmas time, my daddy, if he couldn't buy you anything else, my daddy was gonna buy a coconut. And Sandy and I remember, we'd sit under a Christmas tree if we had one and daddy would, knock hole in the eyes of that coconut and he'd drain that liquid out. And we drank that coconut milk, we thought it was like gold. We'd break that coconut and we'd take that husk off, we'd eat that, we'd chew on that old coconut meat for a week. It'd be so tough, it'd be like eating shoe soles. There's no end to God's goodness. There's no limit to God's goodness. There are no restrictions to his abundant goodness. People say got this till we run out. We've got this. For the first 5000 people. We got enough this for the first 100 people. And the rest of you just left out. The next Friday is Black Friday. They'll be shopping everywhere. They'll have stuff in stores. They'll always have this, that, the other. They'll have 100 of this and 20 of this and two of this. Every store's got something. They just got one of them. First one there gets it. My father doesn't have one of anything. His goodness is abundant. It's abundant. Well, to rejoice that we have this perpetual need of goodness fulfilled in His strength. And then there's an everlasting stream of mercy here. He says in the middle part of verse 5, His mercy is everlasting. The sinful nature of mortal flesh demands infinite mercy. I know enough good people, relatively good people, let me put it that way, that in my flesh, sometimes it's hard for me to believe in total depravity. But when I look at people, I mean really look at them, total depravity becomes quite obvious. Little newborn babies, everybody thinks they're angels. Well, I got news for you. You hang around long enough, they're not angels. The regenerate believer still has a perpetual need of mercy. I've been a believer for 50 years. I still need mercy every day. Every day I need to go to God and say, I'm sorry I did that or I said that or I thought that. God have mercy on me. He's the all wise supplier of grace. that gives glorious majesty to poor sinners. The Lord of glory is a constant supplier of divine mercy, not human mercy, divine mercy. I remember a lady one time told me, she said, preacher, you don't seem to have very much kindness about you. And I said, ma'am, you are exactly right. I don't have very much kindness. what my God does. There's a fathomless ocean of truth here. His truth endureth to all generations. There have been many wise men whose truth has turned bad. John Gill was a wise man, but he wasn't perfect. John Wesley was in many ways a fool. Other theologians have thought they knew, but they were wrong. In this world of insatiable sin, truth is a precious commodity. If you can find a man or a woman that'll tell you the truth all the time, you've been blessed. If you find one, let me know, because I want to make friends with them, too. Men have searched for pure truth, but have never found it. Diogenes was always looking for the truth, but he never found it. God is a perpetual flow of infinite truth forever. His truth endureth to all generations. And then let me give you just a few things that a relationship with God gives to the saints an eternal existence of peace. We're going to have peace forever. I don't know what's going to go on in the world. I don't know what's going to go on in this country tomorrow or today. I don't know what's going to go on in my house today. I don't know what's going to go on in this church today. But I do know this, that in the Lord Jesus Christ I have eternal peace. He ought to be served because he's the best of all beings. Who are you going to serve better than God? There isn't anybody. His commandments are never grievous to his people. My parents used to tell me to do things and I didn't like it. It bothered me. Was interfering with whatever I was doing. But what God commands us to do is never grievous. He tells you to do something. He has purpose in it. And it's your good. And His glory. He's our Savior and our Creator and our Lord. You must remember that. Angels and saints serve Him with gladness. The angels of God have been serving Him since He created them. They still rejoice too. And that's what we're going to do. We serve God. Believers also serve themselves. Because when you do what God told you to do, and you obey God's Word, and you submit to God's authority, you're blessed. You're blessed. In serving the Lord, you make religion to be very attractive. There's a lot of religion that stinks. Now, I'll just tell you the truth. There is. I look around us at all the mess that goes on in the name of religion, and it makes me sick. But I'll tell you, if you serve the Lord in the counsel of His word, you'll make it attractive. As servants of Jehovah, He makes us fit for heaven. I'm like John Jasper. I ain't got no right to be there, but I am by the grace of God. The goodness of God is an inexhaustible fountain We were talking the other day about that old fountain used to be up in front of the courthouse. Could always go over there and step on that pedal and get some water out of it. It was usually cold. But one day they unhooked it and took it away. I'll tell you, God's goodness won't be taken away. The mercy of our God is an ever-flowing stream. You ever stand by a waterfall Some of you have been to Niagara Falls and you've seen the water coming over there. Millions of gallons a minute and it never stops. If you can't go to New York, go to Cumberland Falls and watch the water go over the falls. It just keeps coming and coming and coming and coming and coming. But let me tell you something. When Cumberland Falls dries up and Niagara Falls dries up, the goodness of God will still flow. The truth of our God is a bottomless ocean. How deep is the ocean? There are places in the Pacific Ocean that are well over five miles deep. I don't know what the deepest place in the ocean is. Nobody else does either. But I tell you, God's grace is deeper. It's deeper. We're God's people. We're born of the flesh, but we're also born of the spirit. And we ought to rejoice and give thanks for all his blessings. This week, as families gather together and they give thanks, don't forget to give thanks to the Lord for all of his blessings and to rejoice in his abundant mercy, for he is worthy. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless his name for the Lord is good. His mercy is everlasting and his truth endureth through all generations. Come with thanksgiving. Amen.