A Thanksgiving Day Sermon
Deuteronomy 26 was read as a scripture lesson. If our readers will open their Bibles to that chapter and keep it before them, they will follow the sermon with greater clearness.
IN THIS twenty-sixth chapter of Deuteronomy we have what undoubtedly gave rise to the Puritans’ harvest home festival. It was Israel’s national Thanksgiving Day and most suggestive of that which should occupy our hearts at this present time. You will notice the chapter is divided into two parts. In verse 1 to 11, the people are seen bringing the first fruits to God and rejoicing before Him as they give thanks for all the mercies of the past year. In verse 12 to 19, the same people are seen ministering to the Levites, the strangers, the fatherless, and the widows, and to all who are poor and needy among them, and by these acts of consideration for their less fortunate fellowmen and for the servants of the Lord, who were largely dependent upon their bounty, we see evidences of grace working in their souls, and can understand something of what our own attitude ought to be when, blessed ourselves, we look upon a vast host who are suffering for the lack of what God has so graciously lavished upon us.
These two divisions of this great chapter answer to the two aspects of sacrifice brought before us in our text. In verse 15, we have the sacrifice of praise to God; the fruit of lips that confess the name of Jesus. Whereas in verse 16, we have the sacrifice of ministering to those in need; doing good and sharing with others what God has given to us.
This sacrifice of praise can be presented to God only by those who are in happy relationship with Himself. None but redeemed people can come into His holy presence as worshipers. Worship is not merely the observance of some religious ceremony; neither does it consist in listening to a sermon nor in presenting our petitions in prayer. It is a great mistake to think of worship as the enjoyment of soulful and beautiful music. Carnal and even unconverted people may have their sentimental natures thoroughly aroused by the dulcet strains of the organ or by the sweet singing of a trained choir. But this enjoyment does not necessarily imply that the spirit is worshiping God in reality. Our Lord Himself said to the Samaritan woman, “God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” The highest worship is when the saint of God enters by faith into the holiest, passing through the rent veil and prostrating himself before the throne of the eternal, there to gaze with adoring love and gratitude upon our blessed Lord Jesus Christ who now sits exalted on the Father’s throne. There can be no true warship apart from our occupation with Himself. Outward observances may often hinder rather than help because there is ever the danger of distracting the mind, of fixing the attention upon some religious performance instead of on Christ Himself. It is when the spit enters into the stillness, the quiet of God’s own presence, there to be overwhelmed with a sense of the dine holiness and the divine love as manifested in the Lord Jesus Christ, that we really worship.
And this is pictured for us very beautifully in these first eleven verses of this Old Testament chapter. We read in verses 1 and 2: “And it shall be when thou art come in unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, and possesses it, and dwellest therein: That thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the earth, which thou shalt bring of thy land that the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt put it in a basket, and shalt go unto the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to place his name there.” Observe this was something that could never be carried out in the wilderness and certainly not in Egypt. God says, “When thou shalt come in unto the land.” As a redeemed people, redeemed by blood and redeemed by power, dwelling in the inheritance which God had given them, the Israel it’s were called to observe this festival. No unsaved person, no one who is still in nature’s darkness and in bondage of sin and Satan, no one who has not been washed from his sins in the blood of Jesus and raised up together and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ can be a true worshiper. Men often speak of public worship, but this is a mistake. The public cannot worship. Worship is a very selective thing, and it is the glad privilege of those who are complete in Christ.
Now notice the form their service was to take. They were commanded to bring the first fruits of the land which the Lord had given them; to put it in a basket; and to go to the place where the Lord has chosen to set His name. How significant all this is. The first fruits speak of Christ Himself even as we read in 1 Corinthians 15:20: “But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept.” Again in verse 23: “Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming.” The first fruits tell of the great harvest soon to be gathered in, even as a Risen Christ has entered into the presence of God as our forerunner, the pledge of the great ingathering when millions of the redeemed will be transformed and translated at the moment of His return.
The basket may well speak of our poor hearts, straitened indeed as we often are in ourselves, and yet in which Christ is pleased to dwell, “that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.” We come to God with a heart filled with Christ, thinking of Him, praising Him, occupied alone with Him, rejoicing Jesus Christ and having no confidence in the flesh. How God delights to see His people thus before Him.
I was trying to expound this passage some years ago and there was a dear little golden haired girl in the service. On the way home she said to her father, “Daddy dear, I didn’t have anything in my basket for the Lord today.” Thinking she had not understood, the father said, “Well, Flossy, what do you mean?” “I was so busy,” she said, “going to school and playing that I didn’t put anything in my basket.” “You didn’t?” the father asked, still not sure that she had understood. “No,” she said, and walked along silently for a few moments, and then said, “Daddy, I am going to have my basket full by next Sunday.” “How are you going to get it full?” her father asked. “Every day,” said the little one, “I am going to stop playing for a little while and think of Jesus and I think by Sunday I will have it full.” “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou has perfected praise” (Matt. 21:1616And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise? (Matthew 21:16)). Yes, a heart filled with Christ, that constitutes a worshiper.
Of old there was only one place where the first fruits could be presented and that was at the place where God had set His name, where the tabernacle had been pitched or later on the temple built, and where He dwelt between the cherubim. Now it is to no earthly sanctuary we are invited to come, but the word is “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh: And having an high priest over the house of God: Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb. 10:19-2219Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; 21And having an high priest over the house of God; 22Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10:19‑22)). Neither in Jerusalem, nor in some temple on a Samaritan mountain do we find God, but as a spiritual people, we enter in spirit into His immediate presence and there present our first fruits.
Accompanied with the presentation, we have the confession as in verse 3: “And thou shalt go unto the priest that shall be in those days, and say unto him, I profess this day unto the Lord thy God, that I am come into the country which the Lord sware unto our fathers for to give us.” It was a recognition and an acknowledgement of the fact that there had not failed one word of all God’s good promise. And so today as a worshiping company, we gladly confess that we have by faith entered into the inheritance which is ours in Christ. The priest is another picture of our Lord Jesus Christ himself. We read, “The priest shall take the basket out of thine hand, and set it down before the altar of the Lord thy God. “It is our great High Priest who presents to God our worship and praises and it is His perfection which alone can make our feeble adoration acceptable to the Father.
No thought of merit was to be in the mind of the Israelite and surely there can be none with us. We are saved by grace apart from works, and so have nothing of which to boast. Their confession was most abject. “A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous: And the Egyptians evil entreated us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage: And we cried unto the Lord God of our father, the Lord heard our voice, and looked on our affliction and our labor, and our oppression: And the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders: And he hath brought us into this place, and hath given us this land, even a land that floweth with milk and honey. And now, behold, I have brought the first fruits of the land, which thou, O Lord, hast given me. And thou shalt set it before the Lord thy God, and worship before the Lord thy God (Deut. 26:6-106And the Egyptians evil entreated us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage: 7And when we cried unto the Lord God of our fathers, the Lord heard our voice, and looked on our affliction, and our labor, and our oppression: 8And the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders: 9And he hath brought us into this place, and hath given us this land, even a land that floweth with milk and honey. 10And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land, which thou, O Lord, hast given me. And thou shalt set it before the Lord thy God, and worship before the Lord thy God: (Deuteronomy 26:6‑10)).
What an acknowledgment was this that they owed every blessing to divine grace. They merited nothing, they purchased nothing, but all came to them through the wondrous loving kindness of the Lord. And so in response to that matchless mercy, they brought the first fruits and set them down before Him, rejoicing in His presence because of all the good things He had lavished upon them. Shall we not emulate them this morning as we think of a nobler inheritance, a greater deliverance, and a more marvelous exhibition of dine grace than they ever dreamed of all ours in Christ Jesus? Surely we can rejoice in Him today and offer the fruit of lips that confess His name.
But what about the needy all around us? The spiritually needy and the temporally needy also? We have been blessed in Christ; and concerning earthly things, we are told, “He hath given us all things richly to enjoy.” But at our very doors are those who know nothing of the grace of God revealed in Christ. All about us are those who are suffering for lack of the everyday mercies that mean so much to us. God has given us an example in His further commandment to Israel of what His pleasure is in regard to this. We read in verse 12 to 14: “When thou hast made an end of tithing all the tithes of thine increase the third year, which is the year of tithing, and hast given it unto the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat within thy gates, and be filled. Then thou shalt say before the Lord thy God, I have brought away the hallowed things out of mine house, and also have given them unto the Levite, and unto the stranger, to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all thy commandments which thou hast commanded me: I have not transgressed thy commandments, neither have I forgotten them: I have not eaten thereof in my mourning, neither have I taken away ought thereof for any unclean use, nor given ought thereof for the dead: but I have hearkened to the voice of the Lord my God, and have done according to all that thou hast commanded me.” Here was grace in activity; here was love manifested. Here was the kindness of God seen in His people as they ministered to the need of others. In Hebrews 13:16,16But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. (Hebrews 13:16) we have the same thing where God says, “And to do good and to communicate, forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.” He would not have those who have been so richly blessed forget the needs of others, and I am sure that no one who truly enjoys Christ can help telling of Him to men and women who are still strangers to His grace. And as we thank God today for the temporal mercies He has lavished upon us, our enjoyment will be the greater as we share these good things with those whose circumstances are not so agreeable as ours, passing on to them what will brighten their lives and gladden their hearts in the name of Him who said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
You have heard of the old gentleman who was so pious, that all through the church service he would sit with enraptured face looking up to heaven, but when they passed the collection plate, he closed his eyes so as not to be disturbed in his meditation. Dear friends, spirituality is manifested just as truly in sharing with others what God has entrusted to us; whether it is making known the Gospel or giving to others that which would alleviate their distress. “But whosoever seeth his brother in need and says, ‘Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled’; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?” (James 2:1616And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? (James 2:16)). You see, as priestly believers we are called upon to present our sacrifice of praise to God, and our sacrifice of giving to the world outside. May we truly enter into the responsibilities and the privileges of our priesthood, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be magnified.