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May I turn in your Bibles to
Deuteronomy chapter 6? Deuteronomy chapter 6, our focus
this evening will be verses 10 to 16. I've entitled this message
as Thanksgiving as Protection for the Soul. Thanksgiving, as
I've already mentioned, is tomorrow, at least in Canada, as people
gather around and eat turkey and hopefully express some degree
of thankfulness to God, but thanksgiving for the Christian ought to be
a vital part of our lives, not only as a response to God's grace
in having delivered us from our misery, we respond in thankfulness
and in gratitude to Him, but there is a protective element
necessary with reference to thanksgiving. There are three dangers indicated
in verses 10 to 16, which the children of Israel would be likely
to face when they entered into the land. We find ourselves in
a similar situation. Now it's not directly parallel.
We are not tasked with engaging in holy war here in Canada. We
are not called to go and dispossess the land of the enemies. But
there is a similarity in the sense that God has been good.
God has been gracious. God has been merciful to His
new covenant community in bestowing on us good gifts. And one of
the problems here that Israel would face is that when they
went into the land they would have the danger of forgetting
God because of prosperity. That'd be verses 10 to 13. Second
danger would be forsaking God because of idolatry in verses
14 and 15. And then the third danger was
testing God because of difficulty in verse 16. And it seems to
me that at least one of the means or preventative means that we
ought to employ so that we don't fall prey to these dangers is
that very idea of thankfulness. It's hard to forget God when
you're thanking Him. It's hard to commit idolatry
and apostatize from Him when you are thanking Him. It's hard
to test him when you are thanking him. I'm not saying it's impossible
because we have sinful hearts and our inclinations are bent
in such a way. But thankfulness ought to frame
the soul in such a way that it will protect us from departing
from the living and true God. So thankfulness is not just a
day, or thanksgiving is not just a day in Canada or in America
where people eat turkey and gravy. It is a disposition that ought
to be constant in the heart of the believer. As you study the
New Testament epistles, you will see everywhere this emphasis
on thankfulness as a virtue enjoined upon the people of God. Well,
I do want to read the chapter as I think it helps us to put
ourselves on the plains of Moab where this message was originally
delivered. So beginning in chapter 6 at
verse 1. Now this is the commandment and
these are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded
to teach you. That you may observe them in
the land which you are crossing over to possess. That you may
fear the Lord your God. to keep all His statutes and
His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your
grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may
be prolonged. Therefore, hear, O Israel, and
be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and
that you may multiply greatly as the Lord God of your fathers
has promised you, a land flowing with milk and honey. Hear, O
Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the
Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with
all your strength. And these words which I command
you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently
to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your
house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you
rise up. You shall bind them as a sign
on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your
eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and
on your gates. So it shall be when the Lord
your God brings you into the land of which he swore to your
fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and
beautiful cities, which you did not build, houses full of all
good things, which you did not fill, hewn out wells, which you
did not dig, vineyards and olive trees, which you did not plant.
When you have eaten and are full, then beware, lest you forget
the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the
house of bondage. You shall fear the Lord your
God and serve him and shall take oaths in his name. You shall
not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are all
around you. For the Lord your God is a jealous
God among you. lest the anger of the Lord your
God be aroused against you and destroy you from the face of
the earth. You shall not tempt the Lord
your God as you tempted him in Massa. You shall diligently keep
the commandments of the Lord your God, his testimonies and
his statutes which he has commanded you. And you shall do what is
right and good in the sight of the Lord. that it may be well
with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land
of which the Lord swore to your fathers, to cast out all your
enemies from before you, as the Lord has spoken. When your son
asks you in time to come, saying, What is the meaning of the testimonies,
the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord our God has commanded
you? Then you shall say to your son, we were slaves of Pharaoh
in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty
hand. And the Lord showed signs and wonders before our eyes,
great and severe against Egypt, Pharaoh, and all his household.
Then he brought us out from there that he might bring us in to
give us the land of which he swore to our fathers. And the
Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes. to fear the
Lord our God for our good always, that he might preserve us alive
as it is this day. Then it will be righteousness
for us if we are careful to observe all these commandments before
the Lord our God as he has commanded us. Amen. Well, let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank
you for this, your word. We pray again for the ministry
of your Holy Spirit. We pray that you would guide
us and direct us in our consideration of these dangers. And God, do
fill our hearts with thankfulness. Grant us grace to respond to
you as is fitting, giving thanks in all things to the Lord for
all of your blessings and all of your mercies to us. And we
pray through Jesus Christ,
