Well, for the last time in this
series, turn back to Hebrews, the epistle to the Hebrews, and
the last half of the 13th chapter. And I've called this message,
Well-Pleasing Sacrifices, Well-Pleasing Sacrifices. By way of introduction,
I want to recap a bit of what we looked at last week, just
to reinforce it. We live here as believers from
the time that we become enlightened to the truth and believe the
gospel of grace there's a time and in the case of the thief
on the cross who knows how few the number of hours it was from
the moment he saw who Christ was to when he was taken to be
with him that day in paradise very very short and for others
you believe in childhood and you go on to old age and you
spend the majority of your life conscious and knowing the gospel
of God's grace. But how do you live that time
knowing the gospel of grace, knowing the truth of it? How
do you live in a way, we were looking at it last time, that
is acceptable to God? How do we serve God acceptably? That's verse 28. of chapter 12.
How do we serve God acceptably? You see, we are always sinners
in this flesh. You know, the grace of the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ doesn't gradually make your flesh better
and better and better until you're fit for heaven. That's a complete
fallacy. That isn't taught in the scriptures.
Your flesh remains flesh. It is corruptible. In your flesh
always remains the seed of every sin. We're always sinners. And our service for Christ as
believers, seeking to follow him, is never, ever meritorious
in salvation. Your service never, ever does
anything to improve your standing before God regarding eternity,
regarding His justice, regarding judgment to come. It never, ever
makes a scrap of difference. Don't think that for one minute.
You are saved and justified and sanctified in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is made unto us wisdom from
God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. So that Paul
says to the Colossians, you are complete in Him. What do you
think he means? Oh, let's have a debate about
what that could possibly mean. I think it means you are complete
in Him. Complete in Him. We are meant to be those, as
believers, who live to the praise of the glory of His grace, that
our lives bear fruit. And how? Well, we saw that it's
only by holding fast grace. It says in the text, verse 28
of chapter 12, let us have grace, but if you look at the marginal
alternative translation, this is what the translators of all
those years ago put in the margin. It could possibly be translated
this way, and I think often the marginal way is a better way. It's let us hold fast grace whereby
we may serve God effectively. It's only by holding fast grace
that you serve God acceptably. Yeah? Think about it. It's only
by holding... I'm going to go off and I'm going
to do all sorts of things for God. Oh, I don't believe in His
sovereign grace or anything like that. Sorry, you're not doing
anything for God. Not at all. It's by holding fast
grace that you serve God acceptably. It's that grace, the thing you
must hold fast, the grace of God in the gospel of grace. I know we looked at it last time
and I often refer to it because it's a good thing to keep in
mind. Tulip. Tulip. That's the grace of God
summarized in one mnemonic. Total depravity. You know, what
is it to hold fast grace? It's to know I am totally depraved
in my flesh. I am never any better than totally
depraved in my flesh. That if it was not for the grace
of God, I would be worthy of just eternal condemnation. That is the truth of total depravity. Hold fast that grace, knowing
that, what you really are by nature. You're never getting
any better in the flesh, never. And were it not for the unconditional
election of God, why did he choose me? This is what the believer
will cry on that day, why me? I don't know why. I can't think
of a solitary reason why God would choose me. I may regard
myself as better than this person or better than that person but
no, in the eyes of God all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God. And then he limited that atonement. Because he chose a people and
to bring them to glory he must save them from their sins. How
must he save them? By satisfying justice. He must
do it. How must he satisfy justice?
By the shedding of blood. Without the shedding of blood
there is no remission of sins. He must do it by the shedding
of a perfect sacrifice. The Lamb of God that takes away
the sins of a world of sinners, Jews and Gentiles. And how does
he do it? Does he do it by doing it for
everybody if they want it? And then throwing open an offer,
come forward, any of you that fancy this? Not in the slightest.
He does it particularly for the people that he chose in unconditional
election before the beginning of time because only in that
way is it an effectual salvation. Effectual gets the job done,
achieves its purpose, achieves its objective. That Christ came
and died for his elect is the assurance that it achieved the
purposes of God. We read in Romans how God declared
him to be the son of God with power by what? Raising him from
the dead. Why did he raise him from the
dead? Because the sacrifice had paid the price of his people's
sins. And he irresistibly calls. I
don't care what you're doing and where you think you're going
but if God calls you, you won't be able to resist it. You'll
hear his voice. He'll call you. He'll get hold
of you. Like that shepherd that goes
out onto the mountain looking for his lost wayward sheep. That
one that's wandered off and got into all sorts of brambles of
this world and he goes and he finds his sheep. Jesus said this.
He goes and finds his sheep and like that strong shepherd he
gets hold of that lamb and he puts it on his shoulders and
he holds it tight and he brings it home to the fold. That's what
he does. Irresistible grace and then perseverance. Nobody can pluck them from my
father's hand. My father is greater than all.
He causes them to persevere. from the moment that the spirit
opens the eyes of those whom Christ has saved to the moment
he takes them to glory or he himself comes to take his people
to be with him he causes his people to persevere and I may
have ups and downs and I may have periods of great spiritual
blessing and awareness and I may have periods of great doubt and
uncertainty in the flesh but nevertheless he keeps his people
and causes them to preserve this is the grace of God in the gospel
of salvation, and it's by holding fast the truth of that grace
that we live the lives that God would have us live. Doctrine
is vital, but it must be heart doctrine, held in the heart,
in the emotions, not just in the head. It makes us who we
are. This doctrine, this tulip doctrine,
makes us the people we are, and the people we are is how we live
out. Proverbs 23 verse 7, as a man
thinketh in his heart, so is he. As a man thinketh in his
heart, so is he. Matthew 7 verse 16, Jesus said
in the Sermon on the Mount, that you will know them by their fruits. He says, how do you know a grapevine? You know, you're walking through
the fields of southern France, and how do you know that these
bushes are grapevines? Because they've got lovely big
juicy bunches of grapes hanging off them. How do you know that
I don't know if he's still got it, but our next door neighbor
for many years had a little fig tree by his greenhouse and it
used to get lovely figs on it. And how did you know it was a
fig tree? That's how I know it was a fig tree, it got figs on
it. Do you get grapes from thorns or figs from thistles, said Jesus? No, you don't, by their fruits.
I'm a Christian, I believe all these wonderful things, and then
I live a life of pure, hedonistic selfishness and greed and spitefulness
to others, and just a complete contradiction of the gospel of
grace. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, whatever you believe in your
heart, that cannot be true. You don't live like that. It
makes you what you are. You're known by your fruits.
Grace in the heart, doctrine apprehended by faith, doctrine
felt and experienced. Do you know what I mean by that?
T, total depravity. I know it. I know what I'm like
in my heart. I apprehend it, I feel it, I
experience it in my heart. Unconditional election. Why me?
What riches to me? Limited atonement that Christ
should come for glory to save his people from their sins. Irresistible
grace of God. Perseverance of the saints. Knowing
these things produces fruit in the life, produces fruit in the
experience. Doctrine and practice are inseparable,
and so the epistles are full of gospel doctrine and gospel
precepts together, precepts on how to live it out in practice.
That's why you get the first half of the epistle to the Ephesians,
doctrine, and then the second half, how to live it out in practice.
It's all part and parcel of the gospel. It's not, there's the
gospel, right, now I've got a few things to say to you people.
No, it's all one and the same thing. What you believe in your
heart and how you live, the person that you are. Love is foundational
to it all. verse 1 of chapter 13, let brotherly
love continue. Let it continue. That love, brotherly
love, that love of Christ, that self-sacrificing love of Christ
works itself out in those first few verses of Hebrews 13 in hospitality,
in practical compassion, in married love and home love, in contentedness,
contentedness in all things. These are gospel commandments
Christ gives us these commandments by the Apostle in the Scriptures. He tells us to be hospitable,
be practically compassionate, be right in your home life, married
love, home love, be contented with whatever you have. Don't
be constantly coveting other things in a discontented way.
These are gospel commandments, the commandments of God to his
people. This is what he tells us to do.
And John says his commandments are not grievous. They're not
grievous. The commandments of the Mosaic
law are grievous. They are grievous. Peter said
this, he said, why are we putting a burden on new Gentile believers
that, let's face it, our fathers couldn't keep them, neither could
we. Let's be honest. You who desire to be under the
law, do you not hear the law? You who desire to live a Sabbatarian
Sunday, do you not hear the law? Whosoever goes out picking up
sticks to light himself a fire should be what? Stoned to death. Can you start doing that? See,
they're grievous, they're grievous, they're burdensome. But the commandments
of Christ are not grievous. They're the commandments that
come from love, out of love. And when obeyed, In love, the
law is fulfilled, as we saw last week. Love fulfills the law. All of the behavior of believers
should be constrained by the love of Christ. It's not the
law that constrains us, it's the love of Christ, the grace
of Christ. Our motivation should be Christ.
And that's why Paul wrote in chapter 12, at the start of it,
let us run the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus. motivated by him, the author
and finisher of our faith. And also we saw that serving
God acceptably is serving him in sound doctrine, in those verses
7 to 14 or so of chapter 13. It's in sound doctrine, sound
gospel doctrine, tulip as we've already been saying, as preached
by faithful pastors. Grace, not legal ceremonial religion
which so many harp back to. No, it's worship What did Jesus
say to the Samaritan woman by the well? She said, you Jews
say that Jerusalem's the place to worship and our fathers say
that in this mountain is the place to worship. There are places
to go to, this cathedral, this is the right cathedral to go
to. Or that place, I couldn't possibly leave my church, I know
there's all sorts of things wrong with it, but there's just something
about it, there's just an era about it, there's just an ethos
about the place. I can't leave it. Jesus said,
no, no, the day is coming when true worshippers will worship,
not in a particular place, but in spirit and in truth, in spirit
and truth. You can't serve God acceptably
by staying in a church situation where grace is distorted, where
scriptural truth is ignored, where the leaders do not speak
with the voice of Christ to his sheep. There are people, I'm
afraid, true believers in this country today, who are in church
situations which, quite honestly, they have an obligation under
the instruction of the Scriptures to come out from those situations,
to leave them, because they're not being taught the grace of
God as it is in the Scriptures. They're not being guided in the
right way. The under-shepherds are not speaking
with the voice of the good shepherd, and they have an obligation,
as the command of God, come out from them, be separate from them.
Don't associate with it. Anyway, we now come to the last
section of this epistle, verses 15 to 22, and then the final
salutations. Let's just read verses 15 to
19 again now. Verse 15. 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 obey them that have the rule over you and
submit yourselves for they watch for your souls as they that must
give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief
for that is unprofitable for you pray for us for we trust
we have a good conscience in all things willing to live honestly
but I beseech you the rather to do this that I may be restored
to you the sooner now the God of peace and we'll stop at that
point there acceptable sacrifices this is what I want to look at
in verse 15 the acceptable sacrifices of praise and thanks in verses
16 and 17 the acceptable sacrifices of good works. In verse 18, the
acceptable sacrifice of prayer. Who is it that offers sacrifices? Think about that. Who is it that
offers sacrifices in the scriptures? It's priests. Priests offer sacrifices. And we know that from everything
that Hebrews has taught us that there are no more Levitical priests
and there never have been any other sort of human priests. There never have been. There's
no such thing as Roman Catholic priests and Buddhist priests
and Anglican priests. They're not priests. They're
no such thing. You know, they may call themselves priests,
but God doesn't call them priests. The scriptures don't call them
priests. There are no priests. now that the Levitical priesthood,
the Aaronic priesthood has finished and that finished when Christ
came it finished Christ now is the only great high priest for
his people and his priesthood is not according to the order
of Levi or Aaron his priesthood is according to the order of
Melchizedek And his priesthood is a changeless, eternal priesthood. What does he do? He is always
the intercessor for his people, between sinners, who are where
we are, and God, who is in unapproachable light and holiness. He is the
intercessor. There is one mediator between
God and man. The man, oh thank God, our God
is a man. The Lord Jesus Christ, made of
the seed of David, according to the flesh, He is a man who
came. Our God, our great high priest
is a man and there is one mediator between God and men, the man
Christ Jesus. He is our intercessor. We need
no other priests today. In fact, you must not dare make
any other. You must not dare do anything
which looks like you're pretending to be a priest. I don't care
if you're in some sort of traditional branch of the Anglican Church
you mustn't do it the scriptures forbid it you mustn't do it there
are no priests like that but all believers are priests all
believers How do I know that, having said what I've said about
there being no more priests? In a way, all believers are priests,
because the scriptures tell us they are. 1 Peter chapter 2 verse
9, he says, you are a royal priesthood. Do you believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ? Is your trust in him? for salvation. You are royal priests. You're
a royal priesthood. Why are you a royal priesthood? You see, what that means is that
you, now that the veil of the temple has been rent from top
to bottom by the death of Christ, you have access into the Holy
of Holies like the high priest alone had that access once a
year on the Day of Atonement with the blood of an acceptable
sacrifice. You by faith in Christ now, with his blood, looking
to the blood, can come there now. You're priests to God, you're
a royal priesthood. How come royal? Based on your
relationship with the King of God's kingdom. Who's the King
of God's kingdom? Our Lord Jesus Christ, the King
of kings. You reign with him, Revelation 20 verse 6, blessed
and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. On
such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests
of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
As God's priesthood, what are the sacrifices you and I are
to offer? Here's the first one, verse 15.
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. Praise and thanks. And how do
we offer? By him. by the Lord Jesus Christ. All that we offer as priests
of God, as a royal priesthood, as this holy nation, all that
we offer must be offered by Him, by Christ. How do we approach
God? We dare not approach outside
of Christ. If you approach God outside of
Christ, you will know this, our God is a consuming fire. It is
a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
But if you approach by Christ, he's the God of peace, he's the
God of salvation, he's the friend of sinners, he's our brother,
he's our master and our friend. By his person we come. All that
he is, because all of his people are united with him, and all
that he is, we are in him. We come by him to offer thanks
and praise. We come by him. This is why we
pray in his name. This is why we come praying for
Jesus' sake. We dare not offer prayers other
than for Jesus' sake. We come by his grace because
it's only in his grace that we find acceptance with God. We
come through His wisdom, for He is unto us wisdom from God.
All that we need to know about God, all that is revealed of
God to us is in Him. He is the wisdom of God. We know
Him. We know the glory of God in His
face. This is how we come to God. We
come to Him by His righteousness, which is made unto us, the righteousness
of God, for He who knew no sin, was made sin for us, our sins,
the sins of his people, loaded onto him on the cross of Calvary
that we might be made that which we must have if we are to see
God, the righteousness of God in him. He is made unto us redemption,
for he has paid the price of our redemption, the price of
our ransom. Let him go free, says the scripture,
for I have found a ransom. What a glorious tingling thing
that is to realize. Let him go free. Let the sinner
go free for I have found a ransom. A ransom. You think about those
Somali pirates and the people they've kidnapped and how many
have had to pay ransoms to get their relatives back and how
precious just purely in worldly terms that ransom must have been
to the ones that were free that their relatives raised money
they got themselves into debt to raise money to get them free
to pay the ransom and our Lord Jesus Christ looked at his brethren
for he calls us his brethren in bondage in captivity and he
came out and paid the price of ransom of redemption and sanctification
He's made that to us, all things made holy and acceptable in Him. By Him we offer praise, by Him. How do we approach God? How do
we worship Him? We already read Hosea chapter
14, but in chapter 6 of Hosea and verse 6 it says, God says,
for I desired mercy and not sacrifice. He stipulated sacrifices in the
Old Testament, in the Mosaic law. but not done in a mechanical,
mechanistic way, as so many approach religion. No, he desires mercy. Don't come to me with an unmerciful
heart, is what God is saying, and go through the external motions
of offering your sacrifices on the altar. I'm not interested
in that, says God. I don't accept it. And he says,
and the knowledge of God. Come to me knowing me. in your
heart, knowing the living God. He wants that more than burnt
offerings. He wants the sacrifice, priesthood,
royal priesthood, he wants this sacrifice to be offered. The
sacrifice of true heartfelt praise. And look what it says, continually. Praise to God continually. This is a mode of life. you go
through life every situation praise continually you know we
come together on a Sunday when we meet formally to worship him
like this and this is good and right and we must do it but true
worship is that which is a mode of life continually all the time
not just on Sunday it's the sacrifice that we offer. And what is a
sacrifice? It's offering something of true
value and denying self-will in the process. That's it. God in
other prophecies talked about those who rather than bringing
the choice lamb for a sacrifice the best of the flock for the
sacrifice they brought the one that was lame or blind or halt
in some way and he said I don't want this your heart is not in
it your heart is not right you're offering something that quite
frankly you know you can't sell in the market you know you'll
get nothing for it don't bring that to me God wants the sacrifices
of a true heart, something of value, denying self-will in the
process. It doesn't earn merit, it doesn't
earn favour, it doesn't earn reward in any way, but offered
in obedience to God's command, because here it is, let us offer,
let us offer, exhorting, let us offer the sacrifice of praise
to God continually, that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks
to his name. No, it doesn't earn any of those
things, but offered in obedience to God's command, in faith, out
of a principle of love, let brotherly love continue, in Christ, for
God's glory, this is what he wants. Thanks also. Thanks. Look, that is the fruit of our
lips, giving thanks to his name. We read in Hosea 14 and verse
2, turn to the Lord, say unto him, Take away all iniquity and
receive us graciously. Did you notice this bit? So will
we render the calves of our lips. What are the calves of our lips? What are the little baby cows,
the little baby cattle of our, what's he talking about? The
calves of our lips. The calves were the animal sacrifices
in the Old Testament temple. the animal sacrifices we will
offer the sacrifices of our lips what's this? the fruit of our
lips giving thanks to his name the fruit of our lips is a sacrifice
which is acceptable to God the fruit of our lips is thanks to
his name one of the indictments as we'll see next week as we
look at Romans chapter one in the Bible class one of the indictments
of mankind, fallen mankind is neither were they thankful not
thankful to God not thankful at all thinking that everything
is ours of a right not thankful to God that's the first thing
sacrifices with which God is well pleased praise and thanksgiving
secondly verse sixteen but to do good and to communicate forget
not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased Good works
is what he's talking about here. Don't think for one minute in
verse 16 that he's encouraging you to constantly be texting
on your smartphone. This is not what Communicate
is talking about there. It's not talking about constantly
being texting on your iPhone or whatever it is. No, it's communicate
with the poor. It's give to those who are in
need. It's self-sacrifice. Denying
self what self would want in the flesh so that others may
benefit. Why? Why would you do that? Why
would a believer do that? You know, you've worked hard
for your money, you take care. Why would you give any of it
to anybody else for any other reason? Don't you look at what
God has given us in Christ? Don't you look at how rich you
are in him? Has he not blessed us with every
spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ? Has he not
given us so much that whatever happens to us, whether we're
in need, physically or in great abundance physically whatever
state and you know how fragile a world we live in you know how
fragile a world we live in you know that in terms of the material
blessings that we've all enjoyed for so many years you know they
could all rapidly come to an end I'm not trying to speak as
a prophet of doom just a prophet of reality this is the age in
which we live You know, things that everybody has regarded as
the rock on which they build their lives. Our prosperous society
is so fragile at the moment, never been more fragile in its
history. Never. You know, but yet you know that
God gives us everything we need. The child of God, you can trust.
I don't know whether the Euro's going to collapse and what the
consequences of it will be, but I do know this, there's the promise
of God. He doesn't ever suffer his children to go begging bread.
That's a promise of God. How can you then hold back from
being generous spirited to others? How can you do that? You can't
do it. Look at what he has done. Look at what he has given. You
know the good works that we should do and that are commended here
and the sacrifices that we should give out of obedience to God's
command, out of love, they're those that God has before ordained
Ephesians 2 verse 10 we are his workmanship you who are saved
are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus why? unto good works
this is why he's done it unto good works which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them that's good works I can't
really get my head around that but It's something to think about,
isn't it? To meditate on. God has ordained
things that we should do, that we should walk in good works,
as a sacrifice to him, as a well-pleasing sacrifice to him. And gospel
doctrine in the heart, and gospel precepts of doing good works,
instructions and commands of gospel They're inseparable. You
can't divorce the two of them. And these good works are done
in obedience. Look at verse 17. Obey them that
have the rule over you. This is not talking about an
ecclesiastical hierarchy that are exerting power over people. No. Obey gospel doctrine in the
heart and gospel precepts that are done in obedience to the
word that is preached, in faith, out of love, in Christ, for God's
glory. For with such sacrifices, he
says, God is well pleased. Did you know that? You know,
yes, nothing we do earns merit. All our righteousnesses which
is attempts to do good, to earn something better with God, it's
that that makes them filthy rags, the efforts that we do, the failing
efforts that we do. If we're doing them with a view
to earning favor with God, they're filthy rags in his sight. But
if they're done out of faith, out of obedience, out of a genuine
desire to honor Christ, not for any personal merit, not for any
personal glory, but just to serve him because he's told us to with
such sacrifices God is well pleased finally prayer verses 17 to 19
obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves
for they watch for your souls as they that must give account
that they may do it with joy and not with grief for that is
unprofitable for you pray for us For we trust we have a good
conscience in all things, willing to live honestly. But I beseech
you, the rather to do this, that I may be restored to you the
sooner." Pray, pray. In particular, he's exhorting
prayer for preachers because preachers like the Old Testament
priests, the Levitical priests who had to carry the Ark of God
and it was that wood overlaid with gold so it was no doubt
a heavy thing to carry and it was a burden on them and they
must carry it and it must be them that carried it He says,
they watch for your souls. Like the watchmen of the Old
Testament prophecies of Ezekiel. The watchmen that watch for your
souls. What does the word of God say? What is the situation
in which we are? Let's try and apply it. But they're
all weak in the flesh. and all have consciences that
accuse them of falling short of what we should really be doing
and constantly giving account. I'm sure this as they that must
give an account doesn't mean that there's going to be a separate
kind of annex at the judgment seat of Christ where preachers
stand and are going to be marked as to whether they've been good
preachers or not good preachers. I'm sure it doesn't mean that.
How can it? The word of God regarding the
judgment to come is one of extreme horror and terror for those outside
of Christ, but for everyone in Christ, with all of their failings,
it is nothing other than a joyous, glorious day of well done, my
good and faithful, receive the kingdom prepared for you from
before the beginning. I cannot believe that there's
a separate annex that's saying now you've done badly you're
going to go away as a less than adequate one, no this giving
account is to your own conscience the preacher has a conscience
that's saying I haven't done things adequately and Paul says
we trust we have a good conscience you know we've tried we've done
our very very best in all things to live willing to live honestly
but pray for us he says verse 19 rather do this pray for us
pray for his servants pray for them that God would restrain
Satan's hindering of his servants ministering I think that's what
Paul is saying pray that God would restrain Satan's hindering
of his servants ministering it's a sacrifice of time to pray so
often the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak You know, Moses
went up the mountain when Israel fought Amalek, and Amalek was
prevailing. And Aaron and Hur, H-U-R, went
with him, and they held up his arms. And when they held up his
arms and he prayed, Israel prevailed. And when his arms got heavy and
fell down by his side, Amalek prevailed. The spirit is willing,
but the flesh is weak. It's a sacrifice of time, but
Paul beseeches the prayer of his people, of God's people.
And this is what we should do, it's a sacrifice well pleasing
to God. Spurgeon coveted the prayers
of his people above all else for the effectiveness of his
ministry. What's the secret to your ministry? Oh because I've
got a particular style of speech. No, he said the prayers of my
people. That's what he said. Sacrifices well pleasing to God. All done in obedience, faith,
love, in Christ for God's glory. The final benediction, let's
just read it, verse 20. Now the God of peace that brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of
the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make
you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you
that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ.
to whom be glory for ever and ever. The God of peace, who is
the God of peace now to you who are in Christ Jesus, no longer
a consuming fire as he is to those outside, that brought again
from the dead our Lord Jesus. Oh, how glorious that he brought
him again from the dead because that means that he paid the price
that was acceptable. That great shepherd of the sheep,
how did he bring him? Through the blood of the everlasting
covenant. That everlasting covenant, the
price of it was paid to seal its outcome. May he make you
perfect in every good work. May he make you complete in every
good work. To do his will, working in you.
This reminds me of that verse in Philippians 2.13. for it is
God who works out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it
is God who works in you both to will and to do of his good
pleasure working in you that which is well-pleasing well-pleasing
sacrifices in his sight through Christ Jesus by him therefore
let us offer the sacrifice of praise through Christ Jesus to
whom be glory forever and ever it's as if he's saying may the
God of the true gospel expounded in Hebrews accomplish the purpose
of his grace in each of you for his own glory. And verse 22,
and I beseech you, brethren, suffer, allow the word of exhortation. For I have written a letter to
you in few words. You might think 13 chapters is
a bit more than a few words. It's been a bit of a, it's taken
us the best part of a year to get through it. And we haven't
done more than barely scratch the surface of what is here.
But he says this, I beseech you, brethren, Take this letter to
heart and let's do the same. Let's not just move on and say
that's it, we've done that, we don't need to go back there again.
Let's take it to heart. Let's live it. We trust that
the doctrine that it has brought to us has affected the people
we are and therefore let us live out to the praise of God's glory
those precepts that we know and understand. Sacrifices well pleasing
to God. Amen.