Well, I am thankful to be here tonight and thankful for the church's invitation, confidence, and having us come and preach the Word of God to you. And we do live, as our brother said, in some trying times. But you know, the Lord directs us to Himself. He's the answer for trying times, isn't He? And we are to continue to be looking at the Lord Jesus. So tonight I want to look to Him. and consider a subject matter I believe that would be a help to us as we look to our Savior. Now you understand that the way we live as Christians is we follow the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean to have a good Christian life is to have a life patterned after the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's not what makes you a Christian. Faith in Christ makes you a Christian. But living your life after the Lord Jesus Christ is the kind of life that makes you a good kind of Christian or you live out your Christian life that way. But in the book of Luke 22, if you'll turn your attention there tonight, I have preached on different aspects of the Lord's prayers in Scripture and in Him giving thanks in different times and circumstances. And I really believe I can't get away from the subject matter tonight. I want to look at this on how that Jesus gave thanks. And you say, well, what does that have to do with troublesome times? Well, tonight you'll see that, I hope. We have a lot of suffering going on in our world. I mean, we've seen the calamity that just has transpired. through the storm that ravaged, you know, North Florida and Georgia and just settled down in North Carolina and destroyed a great, vast number of people's homes and lives. And there's great suffering and deep suffering, great anguish. But in the magnitude of that suffering and all that they went through and the natural disaster that took place there, it doesn't even compare. to the suffering that our Lord went through on the cross. He really does. And so when you see what you saw in North Carolina and you see the pictures coming out and the devastation, we don't minimize that tonight, but we maximize the fact that our Lord Jesus Christ went through a far greater suffering than any men or a combination of men or any time or combination of times went through because he is the great sufferer. He's magnified in everything. Every aspect of His work is magnified. And what we'll see tonight is in the midst of His great suffering, He was thankful. He was thankful. And so that's what I want to look at tonight in the book of Luke chapter 22 and verse 14. We'll begin reading and notice what the scripture says. And when the hour was come, He sat down and the twelve apostles with Him, And he said unto them, With desire have I desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he took the cup and gave thanks and said, Take this and divide it among yourselves For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God shall come. And he took bread and gave thanks and break it and gave unto them, saying, this is my body, which is given for you, this do in remembrance of me. Likewise, also the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you. And I simply tonight want to look at a vast subject matter, and that is Jesus gave thanks. Jesus gave thanks. Now what you find in the scripture as you study the scripture, that as God, Jesus is prayed to. He is the eternal word made flesh. He is the eternal God of the Bible made flesh. But as a man, and he was a real genuine man, and as a man, he prayed. And this, tonight, we magnify the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect humanity, the humanity that you need in exchange for your imperfect humanity. If you're here tonight and you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ and the full pardon and forgiveness of your sin, you desperately need the individual that I'm gonna talk to you about tonight that the scripture presents. Now you may have in your mind some kind of Jesus Christ that you've been taught about that's foreign to the scriptures. But the Jesus Christ of scripture, as I've already said, is both God and man. And we're gonna look at the magnitude of his manhood, the beauty of his manhood, and the perfection of his manhood tonight as he simply thanks the Father for what he's going to do. And what you'll find in Scripture, and it's a wonderful study, is that the thankfulness of Jesus is on vivid display throughout the Gospels. He was thankful over in the book of Mark chapter 11 for God's sovereignty in the midst of rejection. I want to just to show you a few little things and they're worth your attention and it's worth deeper study tonight. We're not going to be able to of course expound on all these things, but I just want to paint you a picture tonight. of how that the man Christ Jesus, in all of his perfection, this sinless man, that he was always a thankful man, no matter what was going on in his life, no matter the difficulty that he was facing, no matter what was dealt to him as a man, he was always thankful. in the book of Matthew chapter 11 and verse 14, in Matthew 11 and verse 14, it begins up there, but we'll just kind of drop down into verse 20, and he says, and he began to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not. And he said, woe unto thee, Chesron, woe unto thee, Bethsaida, for if the mighty works were done in you, For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon the day of judgment than for you. And thou Capernaum, which art exalted into heaven, shalt be brought down to hell, for if the mighty works had been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained unto this day. But I say unto you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee. And at that time, after he gave all this about their rejection of him and how sinful they were by not receiving the Messiah, he says this, And at that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth. because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, that is, the worldly wise, the self-wise, those that have the wisdom that is sensual and devilish that the book of James talks about. Not God's wisdom, but they were wise in their own eyes. Hid the things from the wise and prudent and hath revealed them unto babes, even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. Now here Jesus is faced with rejection, but he's thankful for God's sovereign control over all of those things. And even though he's despised and rejected of men, he was still going to be thankful. And you see this, so how many times have you been despised or rejected as a believer? How many times have you as a believer said, you've gone too far, you're making too much of the Lord Jesus Christ, you make too much of religion. Well, Jesus was rejected right out of hand, and he said, Father, I just want to thank you that you're in control of all of this. And so he thanked God for his sovereignty in the midst of rejection. And then in Matthew 15, you find that he was thankful for God's supply in the midst of impossible circumstances. In Matthew 15, verses 32 through 38, you'll find, and you know, you may pass over sometime. We eat meals so often. We eat a lot of meals, don't we? We eat meals so often, and we rush into meals, and a lot of times, even God's people, we're thankful, but how thankful are we really? And we may say a little blessing over our prayers, and hopefully we do are truly thankful when we pray. And so you may say, well, this is just a common Thanksgiving. Well, with Jesus, nothing is common. When you see, and you see Jesus being thankful in the scripture, he really is thankful. And so in the book of Matthew chapter 15 and verse 32, Matthew 15 and verse 32, It says, and Jesus called his disciples and said unto him, I have compassion on the multitude because they continue with me now three days and have nothing to eat and I will send them away fasting lest they faint in the way. And his disciples said unto him, whence should we have so much bread in the wilderness as to fill so great a multitude? And Jesus said unto them, how many loaves have you? And they said, seven and a few little fishes. And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground, and he took the seven loaves and the fishes and gave thanks. Now here's one who has all power to do all things, but before he breaks a bread, Before this wonderful miracle of the loaves and the fishes is displayed, Jesus stops the man Christ. Jesus stops. He pauses. And they admit, this is impossible. We can't feed all of these people with just this little bit of stuff that we've got. And Jesus goes to the very source of the impossible. He goes to the Father and he says, I just want to thank you. And so he gave thanks and then he began to do his work. You know, we oftentimes run into our work without prayer, we run into our work without thanksgiving, and well, our work doesn't work out, does it? But Jesus' work as a man, as the perfect man, He goes into His work prayerful, and He goes into His work thankful. And so it's not idle words that your Bible says. And He gave thanks, and He break the bread. He was thankful for God's supply in the midst of impossible circumstances. And then thirdly, he was thankful for God's purpose in the midst of great heartache. In John chapter 11, you'll remember there was a man whom he loved. The Bible says, he who thou lovest is dead, you know. So he loved that or is sick and then later on he dies and Jesus waits, he doesn't go there. But when he gets to the tomb, to the stinking tomb. When he gets to the tomb, this man had been dead over four days and he's there in the tomb. The Bible says before he does anything else, you can read it there in the book of John 11, that he gave thanks. He lifted up his eyes to heaven and he gave thanks. And so in the midst of great heartache, He trusted the will of God, knowing God's grand purpose for the glory of God and the good of God's people, because that's what he said. He said, I'm glad that I wasn't there when Lazarus died. And then he goes to that place, and there he gives thanks. This is the pattern of the perfect man. Always thankful. In every circumstance that comes along, our blessed Lord Jesus Christ is thankful. Tonight I turn your attention to this wonderful passage here in the book of Luke, chapter 22, where the thankfulness of Jesus is magnified, magnified in the institution of the Lord's Supper. Our attention here in the book of Luke, chapter 22, is drawn to the supper. It is the last supper. It is the night of remembrance like no other night of remembrance. The Passover night of remembrance of the Old Testament was a time of deliverance for God's people from Egyptian bondage. And it was typical of what Jesus Christ was going to do, but there's nothing like, you know, what happened on that night of deliverance is that the firstborn was delivered. A firstborn in a household was delivered if there was shed blood. According to God's ordained order, there was shed blood in the household. And that blood had to be shed according to God's order. There had to be a certain lamb of God's choosing that they chose, but God's choosing first. And then a certain order of things that had to be done. And then when God came through Egypt that night, And God came through Egypt that night, and wherever the blood was, He just passed right over and went on about His business, and judgment didn't come because God's blood was there, the blood of the Lamb was there. You know the account. And that is typical. And I'll tell you what, beloved, that was a great thing. But all that did was deliver a firstborn in order of birth. But there's something greater than that. You know, you have a firstborn nature, the Bible teaches us. You're born an Adam, right? You have an Adamic nature and that Adamic nature, beloved, rises up itself and shows itself and you're the sinner you are tonight because you have that Adamic nature, that first nature. And you've got to have the blood applied to take care of that nature. And I'll tell you what, if the blood's not applied, God doesn't just pass over. God comes in judgment on you. And there'll be a day of judgment. So Jesus Christ, in His memorial or remembrance of the Passover, it pales in comparison. That was just typical. That's like, you know, typical is something that paints a picture, right? I carry a picture of my wife in my pocket. I got a couple of her in there. When she was in high school, I got a picture of one of those in my pocket. You know, and she's beautiful, and I got one now when she's older, and she's just as beautiful, but it's not the real deal, you know? I can look at it. You know, some of you widows in here, you may look at your husband's picture, and you say, I remember him, and the fond memories we have, but you know it's not the same thing as having the real deal, right? That's the idea. Jesus is the real deal. And so He comes to fulfill the Passover type, and in doing so, we find that He's going to leave a night of remembrance like is never known in the face of the earth. It's the night of His betrayal. It is the night that He's going to be sentenced to death. It is the night, beloved, that He's going to be the one who ultimately goes and dies on the cross, that we might have eternal life. And so this night would forever supersede the Old Testament Passover, so much so that when you come to the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 7, it says, Christ our Passover. You know, I don't go to a Seder meals and sit down with people around herbs and bitter herbs and all those things, and you know, people might want to experience what that was like, and that's fine, I guess, if you want to do that, but there's something far better than doing all that. You can go right to the source and you can see how our Lord Jesus Christ, you talk about bitter, He took the most bitter. It was far worse than bitter herbs that you might eat. He took the cup of sin and put it to His lips. And all the sins of all of God's people, He drank down all the way to the dredges of those sins and took them in, in that bitter cup that He drank for us. This night moves us from a Passover memorial to a fulfillment, if you will. And this supper would be a memorial or a remembrance of a greater Passover. I want to just show you something before I get a little bit further on now. And I think it's good for church to see this because there's movements all the time, religious movements in this world that are vying for the Lord's glory. In our day, there's what's called a messianic movement, and they're vying for the Lord's glory, and they try to get people back to the Old Testament and keep them locked up there. Well, the Old Testament's good if you're looking at it for types and shadows and pictures. I mean, they're fine. And the Lord gave it to us, and we still have it in our book, don't we? So it has its place, but never, never to get us back to that old law and to keep us there. Never, never. Always to point us back to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so they say, well, you know, we're gonna do the Passover. No, no, no, we don't do the Passover. We have a Passover. There's a difference. They do it, we have it. We have a Passover and our Passover is the Lord Jesus. I just read that. So when the Lord, here he's with that first church. They're gathered together this night of his betrayal. And what they're gathered, first of all, is to keep the Passover. But it's the end of the Passover. It's really the last Passover. There is no more Passover. It's the last one. And He's going to take the elements from that Passover and He's going to make something brand new. He's gonna make the Lord's Supper. Now, this little church here is acquainted with the Lord's Supper because from time to time, they take the Lord's Supper together. And they're looking back to what the Lord did for them and they're looking forward to the Lord's coming for them as they take that supper. But this supper, this supper is not the Passover. It's something different than the Passover. Matter of fact, the Bible teaches us that it is what God has left in His church to show us or reveal to us His new covenant for us. Let me show you, if you will, in Luke 12. I don't have time to explain a lot of things this evening. I want to move on, but I want to just show you this in passing. It says in 22 and verse 19, And he took bread, and gave thanks, and break it, and gave it unto them, saying, This is my body, which is given for you, and this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper." What supper? Well, I mean, I thought he was taking it with the supper. Well, after the supper. So that supper there is the Passover supper. So they had the Passover supper, and then after that supper, they had the Lord's supper. They're not one and the same. They're two different suppers in the text. And what is this second supper that he's talking about here? Well, he says this about this separate supper, second supper, verse 20, likewise also the cup after supper saying, this cup is the New Testament in my blood, which is shed. for you. You know, you got a book in your hand. It's got an Old Testament, right? And it's got a New Testament in it. And the New Testament is the revelation of what Jesus has accomplished that was only typical in the Old Testament. And so if you want to go back to that Old Testament and get under all those laws of the Old Testament, you just go right on forward all you want to, but this old boy's not going back there. I'm going to be happy with a new covenant. And so what Jesus is saying here, and this is what I really wanted to get to in that, is that Jesus is saying, I am thankful for the new covenant. I am thankful for my obligations. I'm thankful for being obligated. I'm thankful to having been sent to die for the sins of my people. I'm thankful for my sacrifice. I'm thankful for what you have done, what the Father has done, what the Holy Ghost has done, and what I'm about to do. I am thankful for covenant obligations, the new covenant. See, if you're here tonight and you're saved by God's grace, it is because of the New Covenant. It is because of what Jesus Christ did. And so, church, every time you come together in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you take of the Lord's Supper, you remember this, of the great price that your Savior gave that you might drink of His blood and eat of His flesh, typically now, of course, but eat of His flesh and drink of His blood. And every time you do that, remember that it's my participation in the new covenant, that God has a new covenant for me, that He's ratified, that He's done some things for me. So what Jesus is saying here as He gives thanks is He's thankful for the sacrifice. We see Jesus giving thanks about his new covenant obligations. We see Jesus giving thanks for two things that represents his work in redemption, his body and his blood. Now you here tonight who are saved by God's grace, you ought to be thankful. What ought to resonate in your heart of thanksgiving more than anything else is for the body and the blood of the Lord Jesus. Now I'm talking about the literal body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. You ought to be thankful that God interjected Himself into humanity, penetrated His own creation, and came and dwelt among you that you might have eternal life. You ought to be thankful that Jesus Christ was made flesh and dwelt among us. You ought to be thankful that He took upon Himself human form. You ought to be thankful that He died in your place as a believer. You ought to be thankful for that, and that His body was broken, not because of Him, but because of you. You ought to be thankful that He interjected Himself in your place, put Himself in your place, and that He shed His precious blood for you. And this text teaches us this wonderful truth. And so with that, tonight I want to look at a few things about how Jesus is thankful. First of all, we notice from this text that Jesus was thankful as He faced the greatest of all sufferings. The greatest of all sufferings. Jesus faced the great hour of suffering and was right at the precipice of this great hour of suffering. He says right in the text, verse 15 now again, Luke 22, 15. And he said unto them, with desire have I desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. Now, there is no doubt, beloved, that Jesus, as a man, lived a whole life of suffering. He is called, in the book of Isaiah, a man of sorrows. He's acquainted with grief. And no doubt, his whole life, every day of his life, he endured some kind of suffering. I mean, just the fact to live in such a hell hole as the world is, was enough, beloved, to make someone suffer. And Jesus, knowing what it was, interjected Himself. He just came right in it. And the Bible talks about Him going to the lower parts of the earth. There's all kinds of arguments about that, but you can be assured of this, beloved, that there's a lot of low parts in the earth, all over the earth, and Jesus went right down into the midst of all of that. The King of Glory, the Holy Eternal Word, injected Himself that way. But, having said that, there is a specific time of suffering. that Jesus Christ has in mind. And that is the suffering at the hand of the Father as the Creator and come under His wrath. You know, beloved, your salvation cost. It wasn't just a bodily suffering that Jesus went to on the cross. It wasn't just at the hands of the Roman government that He died. It wasn't just the betrayal of Judas and the betrayal of Jews that Jesus Christ died. Oh, people like to play the blame game, don't they? Now, it is true that all those were involved, but that's really not what it's all about, is it? It was a soul suffering. The Bible said in Isaiah 53, he poured out his soul unto death, and there he experienced the wrath of God. You know, beloved, I don't have to experience the wrath of God. The Bible says over in the book of 1 Thessalonians that I've been delivered from the wrath of God. And I've been delivered from the wrath of God because somebody took my place under the wrath of God. And that is the man Christ Jesus. And so, Jesus knew what lay before Him. He says, before I suffer. Matter of fact, He knew the agony that awaited Him. This was not something that took Jesus by surprise. Matter of fact, the very purpose for the eternal Word being made flesh was that He might suffer. He come knowingly, He come willingly to suffer, to suffer in our place. The Bible says in Revelation 13, 8 that He's the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Speaking about the eternality of the work that He was going to do. Looking into time and seeing that this work would be accomplished for His people. In the book of Hebrews, it speaks of it this way. The man Christ Jesus, It speaks of it this way in the book of Hebrews chapter 10. Verse 4 says, For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he sayeth, Sacrifice and offering, thou wouldst not. You know, those are just typical. They couldn't do anything but just push it off and push it off and push it off every year. That's all they could ever do. You can't even do that much. You can't even do that much with your sin, but God would push it off and push it off and push it off. And then the eternal Word spoke up from the corridors of eternity and says, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me. and burnt offering and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, lo, I come in the volume of the book it is written of me. I tell you what, you can go this way in God's book or that way in God's book. You can go this way in eternity or that way in God's eternity. And the Lord Jesus Christ is there saying, I come to do thy will, O God. He knows that He's going to come and suffer. And so, facing great suffering, Jesus the man, Jesus the man says, well I had something to do before I suffer. I wanted to eat with y'all tonight. And he wanted to do a little bit more than just eat the Passover. He wanted to institute the Lord's Supper that night, and he did. He wanted to fellowship with them that night. He wanted to preach to them a little bit more before he died. It's very interesting that if you study all the accounts there that Jesus goes from the mill, and then they have a little sermon, then they have a little song, and then they go out and they head toward the Mount of Olives, and all along the way he's preaching to them, and then he's preaching a little, and praying a little, and then he keeps on right on going until finally he gets to the Garden of Prayer, and he begins to go through great suffering, so much so that he sweat great drops of blood, and then he goes to the place of suffering, till God got this healed. But I say this, beloved, that Jesus was thankful even though he faced great suffering. That's what you get out of this text when you don't just kind of pass over the word Thanksgiving. You know, well, of course he's a Thanksgiving preacher. He's getting ready to eat something. No, no, no. It's far deeper than that. And ever, you know, whenever you come to the Lord's table as a church, I hope that you'll see this the next time, that whoever breaks the bread in this building, and they take that bread and they give thanks. You know, we always give thanks. I don't know how you do it here, but we always, we open with thanksgiving, and then as we go through the ordinance, we give thanks for the bread, and then we give thanks for the cup. Oh, let it penetrate into your heart and mind. There's great import. in that giving of thanks. And here in the text, what I want you to see tonight is that Jesus is our example in suffering. all the suffering that He was going to go through. The magnitude, I cannot preach it strong enough tonight. I cannot draw you the picture I'd like to draw you tonight of the suffering that the Lord Jesus Christ would go through this evening, you know, and the next day as He goes on the cross. I can't draw the picture that I'd like to draw tonight. But in the midst of all of that, in the midst of that, He's thankful. In the book of John chapter 12 and verse 27, in John 12 and verse 27, John 12 and verse 27, the Bible says, now is my soul troubled. See, it was a soul suffering. Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. Shall I pray that? No, he's not going to pray that. No, I'm not going to pray that. What I'm going to pray is, but for this cause came I into this hour. This is the very purpose of my existence. You know, I'll tell you what, the perfect man, he knows why he's here. That's why, you know, you're imperfect. You don't know why you're here. People are trying to figure it out, aren't they? What's my purpose in life? Well, it's a good pursuit to try to find that out, but Jesus didn't have to find it out. The perfect man doesn't need to find out his purpose. He knows his purpose. He said it right over there before he ever came, did he not? I have come to do thy will, O God. A body hast thou prepared me. He knew his purpose. He knew his purpose. And when it come that time, that hour, right here in the text, and that's an interesting little expression in the book of John. His hour was not yet. His hour was not yet. His hour had not yet come. All through the book of John. And Jesus prays, well shall I pray save me from this hour? No, no, no. I'm not going to pray that because I've got a purpose. This hour is my purpose. This hour of suffering. He was troubled, he was weary, he was broken, he was afflicted, but yet he was thankful. Now listen, believers tonight, in church tonight, we live in trying times, and they're not going to get any better. And you may go through great suffering. Physical suffering, I mean, they can't destroy your spirit. Listen, the lost world and the powers that be, they can only touch your body. They can't take your eternal life away from you. They can't take you out of God's hand. They can't take you from God's love. They can't do any of that. Jesus said, you fear Him who can destroy both body and soul and hell. That's who you fear. The fear of man brings a snare. And they'll come against you. As a matter of fact, we know, Jesus said, if they hated Me, they'll hate you. Right? We know that. But what do you do in all that? Well, Jesus is our example. He says, we find the Apostle Paul says in everything, give thanks for this is the will of God concerning you. Thankful, thankful that the world's on fire. Thankful for all the destruction that's going on. Thankful. What do you mean thankful? I'll tell you why. We can be thankful because it's just all shaping up. That doesn't mean that we don't feel bad for people who are going through bad things. Oh no, Jesus. You know, Jesus, we read that when He broke that bread with all those fish. He said, I have compassion on the multitude. You know why He had compassion on them? If you study the context, is it because they're like sheep without a shepherd? He had compassion on them because they were people of great need in that text. And He still has compassion on people. But you know what happens? They reject Him over and over again. We got all this destruction going on up in North Carolina. You know, I've seen whole farms just, you know, these nice big crops of corn. It's time to harvest all that corn. It's washed all away. And I saw a farmer up there. Now, I'll tell you, this will put two farmers. I didn't see the other one, but I'm sure there's plenty of them around. There's one farmer up there, and they had the cameras there, and they were asking him different things. And he said, well, I'm just thankful for all that the Lord's given me. He said, y'all go to church. That's what he told the reporter. He didn't bad mouth his God. He didn't say, I don't know why God did this to me. I hate Him for it. But you know in the book of Revelation, when the rocks fall, that doesn't give them repentance. I can read it over in the book of Revelation. They just get angrier and angrier and angrier at the God of heaven. But Jesus, Jesus is coming under the wrath of God. You know, the whole world's going to come under the wrath of God one day. You understand that, do you not? The whole earth is going to come under the wrath of God. It's already happened before, back in the Andalusian age when God washed the world away because of the great iniquity and the sin of the world. But in the midst of all the wrath of God, there's a perfect man in tune with the will of God. A perfect man that knows what holiness is all about. A perfect man who delights in the righteousness of God. A perfect man who can see through all, you know, the make-believe. He can see through it all. Religious make-believe, whatever it is, he can see through it all, and yet he knows the true God, the living God, His Father in Heaven. And as a man facing great suffering, he says, I just want to thank You, Lord. Thank you, Father. And he breaks the bread. He breaks the bread. In Psalm 69, you kind of get a glimpse in the book of the Psalm about the weight and the grief of the suffering of the Lord. Where are you tonight in your suffering? In your tragedy? Well, I pray that you'll be on the ground of thankfulness. You may not understand, our Lord understood. But I pray that you'll be thankful, even for what you don't understand tonight. You know, a preacher, I don't have all the answers, but I've got a book that does. Even if I don't understand it all, the answers are there. In Psalm 69, in verse 1, it says, Save me, O God, The waters are coming to my soul. And I sink in deep mire where there is no standing. And I read that passage and I thought, man, I tell you what, houses sliding off the hills and people being confined to them and going to their death. But hear the Lord Jesus Christ, and this is prophetic. You'll read the whole psalm. I'm not going to go through the whole psalm tonight. But this is Jesus, prophetically speaking, through the mouth of his prophet. And he says, I'm sinking, I'm sinking, I'm sinking, and there's no standing here as he comes under the wrath of God. No standing. Verse 4, it speaks of it this way, They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my hand. We know that's the Jesus talking. We got that over in the New Testament. We know who this is. They that would destroy me be in mine enemies wrongfully. You know who is his enemy rightfully? The Creator. The Father as the Creator became the enemy of Jesus Christ because my sins were laid on Him. I tell you what, that's some deep truth. that the darling of his heart becomes his enemy because of the sin, the wickedness, the filthiness, the vileness of the preacher standing before you. Just my sins would have pushed him down to hell. What about yours tonight? How bad are you tonight? I'll tell you what, you're bad enough to send Jesus to hell. That's how bad. And Jesus knows all this. That's the point. And he takes that bread which was typical of his body. And he lays hold of that body. And he gives things. And then he breaks it. Just like he would be broken. under the wrath of God, broken for me, wounded for my transgressions, but yet He gave thanks. Jesus was thankful in the face of great, great suffering, the greatest of sufferings. The weight of our sin and the anticipation of the cruelties of the cross and God's wrath did not stop Jesus. from being thankful. There were men that he knew that would betray him. There were men that he knew, that he knew who they were that would say, I find no fault in him, kill him anyway. But yet he was thankful. Yet he was thankful. He would be separated from the Father. You can read that in Psalm 69. You read it over another Psalm where He says, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me? He'll be forsaken by His disciples, yet He was thankful. His heart was fixed on suffering, and He's thankful. I can hear Him as He sits there around that table with His disciples saying, Thank you for the suffering. Thank you for my people. Thank you for your holiness. Thank you for your justice. God's thank-worthy in His justice. The Bible says the wrath of man will praise Him. God is thankful for His justice. And we're thankful that He restrains man too, for it says the remainder of wrath He will restrain. Aren't you glad that God restrains people? This place would be a lot worse than it is if God didn't restrain people. Thank you for your mercy. Thank you for your love. See, he's thankful as he breaks that bread. I'm thankful. I'm thankful tonight that God wanted me That the Father wanted me. And that the Son wanted me. And that the Holy Ghost wanted me. And I know He wanted me. Because He tells me in His Word He wanted me. Now why, oh my, that's a whole other story, isn't it? There's nothing in me. No good that I've done. But I can read, beloved, that He's thankful for us in John 10. in John 10. I'm telling you He's thankful for us. That's one thing He's saying when He's breaking that bread. I'm thankful for Troy Shepherd. The Father gave me to the Lord Jesus. Did you know that? The Father said, here's your one. And the Son said, yep, that's mine right there. I'll claim Him. I'll do something for Him. And the Holy Ghost says, yep, sure enough, I'll go after the boy. Because God loves me. The Father loves me. The Son loves me. The Holy Ghost loves me. Let me show you something. John 10 and verse 15. John 10 and verse 15. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father. and I lay down my life for the sheep. Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold, them I also must bring. They shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me." What do you mean, no man? Because he had to give it up. When those soldiers came that night to get the Lord Jesus Christ, they just all fell down. He had to let them take Him. But in the text, what I wanted to make a point of that text is that He loved me. I just do it of my own will. You talk about man having a will. Here's the will. God had a will for me. The Son had a will for me. The Holy Ghost had a will for me. Love me with an everlasting love, a pursuing love, a drawing love, a dying love. So he's thankful for us. He wanted me. He's thankful because he wanted to satisfy God's justice for me. And really, beloved, he's saying, I'm thankful for my part in the covenant of grace. You know, that great shepherd and bishop of our souls, the Lord Jesus, he had a place in the covenant of grace. If you study out the scriptures, you'll find that the father chose us. And the Son died for us. That was His place. That was His agreement in the covenant of grace. And what He's saying here in this text is the new covenant now. The new covenant in my blood. He's saying I'm thankful for the new covenant. I'm thankful for my part in the new covenant. I'm thankful for the recipients of the new covenant. Then I'll give you this. Jesus was thankful not only in the midst of this great trial and suffering, but he was thankful in the midst of great betrayal. In Luke 22 again, just very quickly now in verse 21. But behold, the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table. And truly the Son of God goeth as it is determined. But woe unto the man by whom he is betrayed. I thought about this. Here's a man who lived with Jesus, walked with Jesus, talked with Jesus. saw all the works of Jesus. Like you've never seen them. You've seen them written on the pages of Scripture. Yet he betrays the Lord. He betrays Him. Yet the Bible speaks of Him as His own familiar friend. The one that had gone to worship with Him. The one that had gone up to the house of God with Him. That friend. And without going great into detail of this, I believe that Judas is at the Passover. But then he leaves when Jesus institutes the supper. I don't have time to develop that tonight, but you just go in the scripture and you'll find it to be so. But he had been there that night, going through all the rigmarole of the Passover. And Jesus said, there's this one at the table that's going to betray me. And of course, the other disciples, they begin to say, is it I? Is it I? Is it I? You know, checking themselves, which is a good thing for disciples to do is to check themselves, right? But in the midst of all this betrayal, now I'm telling you, my point is this now. In suffering, great suffering, suffering like you can never even known. And as a believer, never will know. But he was thankful. You ever been betrayed? Somebody betrayed your confidence. Someone betrayed you. You thought, you know, that you knew them well, and they just robbed you blind. Or, you know, they robbed you of your time and you put a lot of investment in them. And then they just walk away. Well, the man Christ Jesus invested a lot of things in Judas Iscariot. He equipped him. Now this is not just a common man. As I said in John 13 and in Psalm 41, he is my familiar friend. And Jesus had trusted him with the bag that is the treasury, the church treasury. He had trusted him with apostleship. He had made him an apostle. He had equipped him with some kind of spiritual gifts. I mean, this man had a lot of things going for him as far as Jesus' investment in him. But he sold Jesus out, betrayed Him. And you'll know what Jesus didn't do. He didn't become unthankful. You know, there's probably been many people, this church is an old church, there's probably been many people who've come and gone, haven't they? Some of them you were glad to see them go. I mean, you know, kind of what I'm talking about. But you know, they've come and gone. Sometime you've been used, haven't you? You've been used. But you know what? Whether used or not used. Whether you invest in time and people and you do all you can and they still betray you. That's the point in the text. Jesus was still thankful. Still thankful. Jesus did not let hypocrisy and betrayal dissuade him from thanksgiving. Those that lie on us and betray us and live lives should not move us from thanksgiving. And dear believer, tonight let no matter how seemingly great keep you from your New Testament obligations. Jesus did not use Judas Iscariot as an excuse for not being thankful. He did not use Judas as an excuse for not going to the cross. He does not use excuses. He knows His purpose. He's focused on His purpose. which is the Father's will. And then finally, Jesus was thankful in the midst of great strife and misunderstanding. Look at it with me in verse 24. And there was also a strife among them. Which of them should be accounted the greatest? Oh, how fickle. And self-centered, true disciples. We're not talking about false disciples now. No, no. This is the good guys, if you will. This is Peter and John and James. As a matter of fact, it's really James and John because it started a long time ago. And you can read the account. A long time ago in their life and ministry, old mama sticks up her head and she says, okay, now when you get into your kingdom, are my boys going to be able to sit at your right hand, right? Mama wants the best for her boys. But you know what Mama was doing? Mama was interjecting herself into the will of God. Mama was stepping out of line. And Jesus said, that's not mine to give. They're going to have their place. That's not mine to give. But I'll tell you this, beloved. That had been going on. And now it resurfaces. Can you imagine? At the Lord's table. That's the context. There was a strife among them. Jesus was thankful, and they were fighting. Jesus was serving, and they were vying to get the most honor. Where are you tonight, believer? Church member? Where are you tonight? He didn't even say thank you for what I did. I swept the church floor, and they act like nothing ever happens around here. What you doing it for? Who you doing it for, right? Well, I visited so and so five times, and I never even got an acknowledgment of it. Huh? I want to be greatest. Well, that's not the road to greatness, is it? You know where the road to greatness is? The road to greatness is being a servant. Jesus humbled himself and became obedient unto death. I mean, he had a track, a whole life track of obedience right down to the nitty gritty. to do the Father's will, and to pay the sin debt of His people, even unto death. That's the ultimate cost, isn't it? Death. There's often strife among disciples. Often strife among disciples. But don't be the cause of it. Don't be called up in it. Focus on your sacrifice. You know, I don't know what goes on around here. Brother Burnham and I don't talk much at all. I don't know who's who and who's what and who's this for and that for or against. I don't even know if there's any against. But I know this, if there is, you don't want to be a hindrance to the Lord's work, do you? But it will. It will, at least in the minds of men, it will. But as I close tonight, I want you to see this. You stay focused in serving the God of heaven. Jesus is our example. in the greatest suffering that any human being could ever, ever know, Jesus was just thankful. Matter of fact, the Bible said, for the joy that was sent before Him, He was joyfully thankful, eagerly thankful, and just rushed right in to do the Father's will there at the cross. He was thankful in betrayal. Don't let others make excuses for you to not serve the Lord God of heaven. And he was thankful in the strife. And the reason that was is because he was focused on the Father's will. He was focused on the love that he had for his people. Where are you tonight? Where are you tonight in your place in God's economy? Where are you tonight? You know, if you're here without the Lord Jesus Christ, one of the evidences of being without Christ, the Bible says over in Romans is to be unthankful. That's one of the litmus tests of being without Christ. Matter of fact, the whole course of the end time is one of the things that they said they are is unthankful. Where are you tonight? Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ and the full pardon, I mean the full pardon and forgiveness of your sin? Such suffering by the Lord Jesus that I can't even describe tonight. but the magnitude of his suffering was done in covenant obligation for the sins of those who, in time, would trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, beloved, your sin's so great, it'll just push you right off into the wrath of God. It'll just push you right off into hell, unless you have someone who's willing to step right in and say, I'll take his suffering. And that's what Jesus did. He just stood right in there and said, I'll take his suffering. And he did it joyfully. He did it willingly. He did it thankfully. And if you're here tonight, you ought to thank him. I mean, your heart ought to resonate with thanksgiving as you leave this place for what Jesus promised to have done for you.