Once again, we are in the 13th
chapter of Hebrews. If you want to turn over to Hebrews
chapter 13. And I want to read the first
16 verses of Hebrews chapter 13. Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain
strangers. For thereby some have entertained
angels unaware. We never know. We never know
who the Lord is bringing into our midst, into our company,
whether it even be maybe a member of our own family. Entertain
angels, strangers. For thereby some have entertained
angels unaware. Remember them that are in bonds,
and bond with them, and them which suffer adversity, as being
yourselves also in the body. Marriage is honorable in all,
and the bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content
with such things as ye have. For he hath said, I will never
leave thee, nor forsake thee. We're in Hebrews chapter 13,
reading verse 6 now, so that we may boldly say, the Lord is
my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. Remember
them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you
the word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of
their conversation, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today
and forever, be not carried about with diverse and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the
heart be established with grace, not with meat, which have not
profited them that have been occupied therein. We have an
altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle
for the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the
sanctuary by the high priest for the sin are burned without
the camp outside of the camp in other words wherefore Jesus
also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered
without the gate Let us go forth, therefore, unto him without the
camp, bearing his reproach, for here have we no continuing city,
but we seek one to come. By Him, and this will be where
our text that we'll spend most of our time looking at today.
By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God
continually, that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to
His name, but to do good and to communicate, forget not, for
with such sacrifices God is well pleased. It says with such sacrifices
God is well pleased. It is my prayer this morning
that the Lord would cause us to hear and heed to the admonition
that Paul is giving us and give us grace to offer the sacrifice
of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips,
giving thanks to His name. First off, let's consider this. The first thing we see in verse
15 there is by Him. Folks, that's the beginning of
everything. Salvation is of the Lord. He's the author and the
finisher of our faith. Remember that? Back in Hebrews,
in the earlier parts of Hebrews? Christ Jesus is the author and
the finisher of our faith. By Him, everything begins with
Christ. We cannot worship God without
Him. If you're not worshiping Christ,
you're not worshiping God the Father. There are many who don't
worship Christ. Do you know that? There are many
who worship themselves in their own free will, or they'll even
call Christ a God, not God Almighty Himself in the flesh. I'm talking
about those who call themselves the Jehovah Witnesses. They've
changed the Bible. If you were to get a Bible from
the Jehovah Witnesses, they change that verse in John chapter 1,
where it says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God. They change that to, Was a God. As though they were worshiping
many gods. They won't worship Jesus Christ as God Almighty.
They say that's blasphemy against God the Father. But God the Father
tells us that if you don't worship the Son, you're not worshiping
Him. By Him. Everything begins with
Him. We cannot come to God without
Christ. We cannot be saved without Christ.
In all of our approaches to God, we must have Christ. And when
Paul says, by Him, he means by faith in Him. Remember, that's
what we're talking about here in these last chapters of Hebrews. We've gone through chapter 10.
No, chapter 11, now faith is the substance of things hoped
for, and for it by the elders attained a good report. Through faith we understand that
the worlds are framed by the word of God, so that things are
seen which are not made, things which do appear. And it goes
on, it talks about faith of Abel, the faith of Enoch. But then
it says this, but without faith it is impossible to please him. When Paul says by him he means
by faith, faith in him, faith in the Lord Jesus. He means through
his mediation Faith in His mediation. Faith believing that Jesus Christ
is sitting on His throne right now as our High Priest of another
point that we've spent time looking at in the book of Hebrews. Our
High Priest who sits on His throne today. Our High Priest who made
the intersection for us through the blood of Himself. The sacrifice
of Himself. A better sacrifice than those
of the blood of animals and goats. We must believe in Him as our
mediator. By the merit, we believe in the
merit of His blood. It's by His blood and His blood
alone that we are washed clean from the sins that are in us and upon the grounds of His righteousness. Faith that we have no righteousness
of our own and our only righteousness is the righteousness of Christ
Jesus our Lord. So we see how that word, that
phrase, by him means a lot more than if you just read over it
kind of quickly, doesn't it? By him it says, therefore. Let us who come to Christ keep
coming to Him. Let us always have our hearts
and minds fixed upon Christ, consciously coming to God by
Him. It says, to whom coming as unto
a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and
precious in 1 Peter 2, verse 4. At the very threshold of all
our worship, And all our sacrifice that it talks about there, the
sacrifice of praise to God continually, all of that we begin with Christ
Jesus, our Lord and Savior. We cannot go a step without Him.
Without a mediator, we can make no approach unto God because
we need somebody to stand between us. I'm full of sin today, folks. I'm no better today than I was
yesterday. Neither are you. Not in this
flesh. in our spirit, absolutely. Our
spirit, the one that the Lord Jesus dwells in, the one who
gives us a new heart, a new spirit, as we read in the book of Jeremiah. Folks, apart from Christ, there's
no acceptable prayer, even. There's no pleasing sacrifice
of any kind at all without Him. It says, by Him, therefore, we
cannot move our lips. Without him. We cannot move our
lips without him who suffered without the gate. The great high
priest of our profession meets us at the temple door and we
place all of our sacrifices in his hands. That's what they did.
The priest showed up. He was the only one allowed to
go into the holiest of holies. But he went in representing the
people. That's what our Lord and Savior does for us. talks
about us being accepted in the Beloved and only in the Beloved. And our sacrifices are acceptable
to God only because of His great sacrifice. Yet because of His
great sacrifice, our sacrifices are accepted to God by Him. Listen to 1 Peter 2 verse 5,
Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house and
holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God
by Jesus Christ. Behold, our great Melchizedek. He meets us at the door of the
temple and receives our sacrifices of what? Not of blood, not of
flesh, but a praise for Him and what He has done for us. It says,
therefore, by Him, therefore. The word therefore, as you know,
points us back to the context. And the context that we have
here, if you look with me at chapter 13, look back at verse
10. We have an altar. Look what it
says in verse 10. We have an altar where they have
no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. As you know, at this
point, Christ is the altar upon which we offer sacrifice to our
God. Secondly, Christ has sanctified
us with his own blood. Look at verse 12 if you would.
Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with
his own blood, suffered without the gate. Therefore we are worthy
to come boldly to the throne of God. Thirdly, we must go forth
unto Christ without the camp. We must go forth unto him, bearing
his reproach, serving the interest of his kingdom, his glory, and
his people. So what are the sacrifices of
praise to God? It says there in verse 15, By
him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God. Folks, I have nothing carnally.
There's nothing in this flesh that I can offer God. There's no material altar that
I can go to. We offer no carnal or material
sacrifices. The sacrifice which God requires
are the sacrifices of the heart. Turn over to Psalms 51 and look
with me at a couple of verses there if you would. Psalms 51.
Psalms 51. Sacrifices of the heart. Remember that old stony heart
that we had before? The old stony heart that shook
our fist at the Lord and said, I'll not have this one to rule
over me? Well, this new heart that God
has given me, this new heart of flesh, is a heart that cries
out for mercy, but it also cries out with thanksgiving and praise
to our Savior. Look here at chapter 51, verses
15-17. Oh Lord, open Thou. Notice what the psalmist
is crying out here. Open Thou my lips and my mouth
shall show forth what? Thy praise. We can't do it without
Him opening our mouth. We can't do it without Him giving
us the new heart to do so. The old heart would never come
to Christ, my aunt. She said she had never heard,
even though she was under the preaching of her husband, who
was a pastor of a Baptist church there in Arkansas. Even though
she sat under his ministry the whole time she was married to
him, she had never heard that the will of men will kill you. The will of men will not come
to the Lord Jesus Christ. In her opinion, she was thankful
that she came to Christ when she did. At a young age, a very
early age of a teenager. She was thankful that she had
lived all of her life according to God's Word, according to the
Word of the Bible that her husband preached. Even though he preached,
it was not the will of the Father, but the will of man that brought
them to Christ. Look at these words again. O
Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy
praise. If the Lord opens your mouth,
if He opens your lips, You're going to see yourself as one
who would have never come to Him if He had not come to you
first. And that's where the praise comes.
Look at verse 16. For thou desirest not sacrifice,
else would I give it. Thou delightest not in burnt
offering. The sacrifices of God are what?
A broken heart, a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart,
O God, thou wilt not despise. Isn't that wonderful? What is
the sacrifices of God? It's playing on your face right
now. Look at verse 19 of that very
same chapter. Then shalt thou be pleased. Oh,
we're going to talk about that. Would it please the Lord? That's
going to be our subject for our next message. Would it please
the Lord? When it please the Lord to call
me from my mother's womb, then shalt thou be pleased with the
sacrifices of righteousness with burnt offering and whole burnt
offering, then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar. Back in our text in the book
of Hebrews. The first sacrifice we present to God is Christ himself. our sin atoning substitute and
you can't present him as your sacrifice in the natural flesh
only by the loving pursuing hand of God can one
be born again and that's what it takes is to be born again
a new heart We offer up Christ as our sin
atoning substitute. The second sacrifice is ourselves
as well. Turn over to 2 Corinthians chapter
8. Go to the left of Hebrews there
to Corinthians and go to 2 Corinthians chapter 8. And look with me if you would
at verse 5. And this they did, not as we
hope, but first gave their own selves to the Lord and unto us
by the will of God. See how they gave themselves?
Absolutely we give ourselves to the Lord. Absolutely we come
to the Lord, but it is the Lord who must come to us first. Look if you wanted another example
of that. Turn again to the left back to
Romans chapter 12. I'm going to open with this statement. No man, no man knows where the
line is between God's sovereignty and man's responsibility, but
the Bible teaches both. For us to teach that God is sovereign
and that men are not responsible for what they do is a lie. Scriptures
teach us very clearly, just as we just read there a moment ago
in 2 Corinthians. Look here at Romans 12 verse
1 through 2. I beseech you therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your responsible
service. That's the Bible saying that,
not me. What that's telling us is it's
not okay for us to sin. What it's telling us is that
we are not a lawless people like some would like us to believe,
would like to believe of us. We're not antinomian. We love
God's law. We just can't fulfill it to the
perfection that He required. That's what we need a substitute
for. One who stood in our place and fulfilled it perfectly for
us. Our substitute, not only our
substitute in fulfilling the law, but our substitute in paying
the ransom price for breaking the law. I love God's law. If I could fulfill any part of
it, That would be my desire. It is my desire to walk in the
ways of God the best that I can. Why? Because He's my Father.
He's my Lord. I want to do right by my Lord. But let this never come between
me that what I do has nothing to do with what the Lord has
already done for me. Verse 2, Be not conformed to
this world But be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect
will of God. It's a very tough subject to
talk about, man and their works, what's required of us. That's
why I want to leave this mostly to what the Lord has given here
for the commentary. I can't express that any better
than what He has there. Be not conformed to this world,
but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye
may prove or demonstrate what is the good and acceptable and
perfect will of God. Back in our text again in Hebrews
13. As Christ gave Himself for us,
we now give ourselves back to Him. Here we are called to offer up
the sacrifice of praise to God. The God of all grace. Listen
to the words of Psalm 100. Let me read for you from the
Psalms again. Psalm 100. First five verses we read these
words. Make a joyful noise unto the
Lord, all ye lambs. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before His presence with
singing. 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. entering 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 endures to all generations. The sacrifice of
praise involves the adoration of His person, the ascribing
to Him all the honor, The glory, the majesty, it all belongs to
Him as God alone. Him that glorieth, letting glory
in the Lord. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse
31. And delight in God implies a
confident trust in Him as God our Father. We believe that He
is. We believe that He is the rewarder
of them that diligently seek Him. We trust Him. We delight
in Him. We find satisfaction only in
Him. These are the praises that God's
people offer up in sacrifice to our Savior. When we understand
who God is and we delight in Him, we understand that He always
does right. He always does us good. What
peace the Lord gives us in reminding us that Romans 8, 28 did all
things. You know, those winds that came
up against the ship when the disciples were in the ship and
it was overwhelming the ship and they ran down to the Lord
where He slept and they said, Lord, does thou not love us?
Do you not care about us? Those winds were brought upon
them by the Lord. When Peter walked on water as
he kept his eyes on Christ, when he began to look at the boisterous
waves that were coming up against him, he began to sink. And the
Lord reached down and grabbed ahold of him. We understand who the God is,
and we delight in Him. We understand that He's always,
everything He does is right for us. We trust Him and delight
in Him, giving Him praise. We praise Him for all of His
works, both in providence and in grace. Again, I want to read
for you a section of the Psalms. Allow me, if you would, to read from Psalm 92. It is a good thing to give thanks
unto the Lord, This is that praise that Paul is talking about to
the Hebrews. It is a good thing to give thanks
unto the Lord, and to sing praise unto thy name, O Most High, to
show forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness
every night. O Lord, this is verse 5, O Lord,
how great are thy works, and thy thoughts are very deep. This
praise, this adoration, this delight, this confidence and
trust in our God, our Father, arises from a heart of true,
intense love for Him as God. And we do it continually, even
in the sight of our trials. It says, by Him, therefore, let
us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. As I mentioned
in our prayer, in our opening prayer, the Lord causes us to
continually praise Thee in all that comes our way. The verses we have here, it says
the fruit of our lips. It says, by him therefore let
us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is the
fruit of our lips. There's a reference here to Hosea
chapter 14 verse 2 where we read these words, take with you words
and turn to the Lord. Say unto him, take away all iniquity
and receive us graciously, so will we render the calves of
our lips. Let us praise our God and savor
His wonderful grace continually. It also says give thanks to His
name. After it talks about the fruit
of our lips, it says give thanks to His name. Thanksgiving is
the essence of worship and praise. Let us engage in it continually,
privately, and publicly, continually giving the thanks to God for
all that He is, for His darling Son, our Savior, for His blessed
Spirit, our Comforter, for His purpose in grace, His providence
in our lives, and His presence with us right this moment. And
then Paul says this, he says, do good. But to do good and to
communicate, forget not. Paul is telling us that gratitude
and thanksgiving and praise and worship make people gracious,
kind, and generous themselves. Sometimes we lose sight of that
in our own selves, don't we? I remember once, well I'm ashamed to express that,
what I did, but it was all over the man who
cut me off on the freeway. I don't know where it came from. I don't know why. Folks, it only takes a moment
for that ugly sinful flesh to rear up its ugly head in our
lives. And don't just think it's anger
with others. Remember when Peter said, I'll not let these ones
take you, Lord. They'll have to take me first.
And the Son of God said to him, get thee behind me, Satan. He
called Peter Satan at that very moment just out of an act of
kindness that was against God's Word. Sin rears up its ugly head all
the time. That's why we consistently look
to Him for all things. That's why we're to continually,
continually praise and give sacrifices of praise from our lips for our
God, giving thanks to His name. Lord, help us. Lord, draw us. Cause us to do good. To do good
is to love one another. It's to help one another. It's
to communicate and provide for one another. God is well pleased,
for with such sacrifices God is well pleased, it says. Our
sacrifices of praise, our sacrifices of thanksgiving, our sacrifices
of love for each other are not profitable before God. What we give is but what God
has given us. Our sacrifices cannot be profitable
to Him. Yet doing good in this way, when
it is done in faith, springs from love for Him. A love for
Him because He first loved us. And it's directed to the glory
of God and it is well pleasing to Him as we read in Hosea. For I desired mercy and not sacrifice,
and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. God is
pleased with our feeble efforts. as at pleasing Him when our sacrifice
of praise, when we do good to one another, because we are in
His Son in whom He delights. And our sacrifices are bathed
in His blood and robed in His Son's righteousness. Listen to
1 Peter 2.5 and we'll close with this. Ye also as lively stones
are built up a spiritual house and a holy priesthood to offer
up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. I began this study with this. Let us offer up sacrifices of
praise to God. What are those praises? I believe
God. Faith in Christ. How do we have
faith? By the gift of God, not of men,
not of works, lest men should boast. Amen.