It's good to be back with family
again. It's good to be back with familiar
faces. It's good to be back with those
who God has entrusted into my care. What a remarkable thing.
There I was in America with students that I had cared for for five
years and then cared for some time afterwards and as you go
back you see that they have gone in so many different paths and
I've spent four days there almost all the time talking to one or
the other privately and personally and talking to them all about
the questions they had about who God is and what path they're
going on. You see, we're all following
someone. We're all following down a path
and we read those words that should send a chill through those
who care about God's glory and know of His character. He says, the foolish shall not stand in thy sight,
thou hatest all workers of iniquity. For thou art not a god that has
pleasure in wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with thee. He goes on to say, Thou shalt
destroy them that speaks lies. The Lord will abhor the bloody
and deceitful man. For those who stand behind a
pulpit and claim to speak in God's name to sinners bound for
eternity. Those words we have just read
are some of thousands in this book that are warning the people
of God. There are warnings about who
to follow, there are warnings about who not to follow, and
the issue is clear for those who have the Scriptures before
them. The book of Hebrews was written probably later than some
of the other New Testament letters. At the time of the writing of
the book of Hebrews, there was this remarkable temple that Herod
had built in this magnificent city called Jerusalem. were Bible colleges, there were
mission organisations, there were tens of thousands. In fact,
they say that on the day of Pentecost and Passover at that time there
were a million people in and around Jerusalem. When Josephus
talks of the fall of Jerusalem, he talks of the deaths of a million
people inside that city, all of them religious, all of them. claiming to know God, multitudes
of them claiming to be teachers of people, to be those who are
appointed by God to lead people to speak on his behalf. And so the book of Hebrews is
written as a warning to that million people and a warning
to God's people who were remarkably by prophecy and by His sovereign
hand taken out of Jerusalem, a great picture of His salvation. He left that religious world
there to bite and devour each other inside and finally to be
overthrown and destroyed completely by Titus. All of that stood there as impressive
in its numbers, and God's people were just a remnant. Let's turn
to the finish of this book. As we saw on Thursday night,
it begins with a declaration of the wonders of redeeming love,
the greatness of our great God and Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one who speaks. And
He's the One who speaks now. He's the Creator, verse 2 in
chapter 1. And He is the brightness of His
glory, the express image of His person. He upholds all things
by the word of His power. When He had by Himself purged
our sins, He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on
high. And the book of Hebrews goes
to show us the perfection of the completion and the fulfilment
of all the types and the promises. All the promises of God are yes
and amen in the Lord Jesus, and Hebrews takes us again and again
to those types and shows us that the Lord Jesus has completed
it and fulfilled it. We'll start in verse 5 of chapter
13 at the end, and we come to the book ends. And what a wonderful
way he finishes. He says, Let your conversation
be without covetousness, and be content with such things as
you have. For he has said, I will never
leave thee, nor forsake thee, 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, considering
the goal or the end, the terminus of their way of living. And this
is it, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever. be not carried away with diverse
and strange doctrines, for it is a good thing that the heart
be established with grace, not with meats 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 sin are burned without the camp. Therefore
Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood,
suffered without the gate. Let us go therefore unto him outside the camp, bearing his
reproach. For here we have no continuing
city, but we seek one to come. 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 then 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, 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 Him be glory for ever and
ever. Amen. And I beseech you, brethren,
suffer the word of exhortation, for I have written a letter unto
you in few words. Know ye that our brother Timothy
is set at liberty, with whom, if he come shortly, I will see
you. Salute them, greet them, that
have the rule over you, and all the saints, they of Italy, salute
you. Grace be with you all. Amen. Let's pray. Our Father in Heaven,
we come before you in the name of your dear and precious Son,
and we pray, Heavenly Father, that you would guide us and that
you would cause us to be shepherded, such that as a flock we live
to the praise of His glory, and we might sing together songs
of thankfulness with joy in our hearts, that we might find ourselves
established in the faith by your grace, that we might find ourselves
with the Lord Jesus. outside the camp bearing his
reproach. Heavenly Father, we want to acknowledge
the completeness and the depth of our dependence upon your Spirit's
work in our lives, upon your grace. And we praise you, Heavenly
Father, that we have before us a Book of Promises signed and
sealed and secured in the blood of your dear and precious Son,
Our Father, we pray again that you would cause him to be lifted
up and to be seen high and exalted before us today and that we might
find ourselves at rest and at peace and trusting in his blood
and his righteousness, in his sacrifice, in his work alone
for all things in time and eternity, our Father. Bless us, we pray,
in Jesus' name. Amen. The Lord Jesus said, if you love
me, feed my sheep. If you love me, feed my sheep. See the sheep belong to the Lord
Jesus Christ. People are bought, he's bought
the church with his own blood. But in this time and for this
time in life, God has chosen, God has ordained that he will
speak to people through men like me. What a remarkable thing. You read it there in verse 7.
He says, Remember, be mindful, keep in mind them which have
the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God. It's not for nothing that the
text we have before us is there on your laps each week, that
you will hear God speak. And this God takes the things
of the Lord Jesus and takes His words and makes them spirit and
life to your hearts and your souls. Nothing has happened of
any spiritual benefit. Remember them. Remember them. Be mindful of them. And you will
notice if you've been sensitive at all, as I have many times,
there are some words in these verses that need to be dealt
with fairly quickly, otherwise you will think ill of me or wrong
of me, and you'll think wrongly about the role of a pastor. It's good for us to have God's
view of these things. See, remember them which have
the rule over you. It actually means to guide you,
to go before you. It means to hold a view, to have
an opinion. It means to be led after weighing
the facts and after careful judgment. See, God's shepherds, they go, as we'll see in these
verses, they go before the flock, leading the flock. They do not
drive the flock from behind. They do not whip the flock into
line. We proclaim the Great Shepherd. But it says down in verse 17,
Obey them which have the rule over you again, 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. There are several verses in the
scriptures that give me great cause for concern. When I was
in India, my first teaching job over there was teaching Mark's
Gospel in Mark Chapter 9. It says, if you lead one of these
little ones, and the ones I was teaching were 14 and 15, the
ones in my dorm were 13 and some as young as 12, and they are
little ones that had been in that recent time had to leave
their families, often continents away, and come to a strange country
called India, and then come to a strange school called Hebron,
and they were vulnerable. And it says in Mark 9, it says,
it's better, it's better, the Lord Jesus said, it's better
for you to have had the millstone around your neck and to be lying
on the bottom of the Sea of Galilee than it is to lead one of these
little ones astray. I can't count the hours that
I spent lying on my bed in India thinking about the gravity of
that verse. But here it says, for they watch over your souls
as they that must give account. And rather than you thinking
that I have to give account on the Day of Judgement, It means
simply, I have to give a word. It's talking about the prayer
life of a pastor. He brings a word. He brings their name. He brings their name before God. And as every God-sent pastor
looks out and brings his flock before God. There are some that
you bring, their names come to your heart and you just smile. You smile because you are so
thankful for the evident signs of God's grace in their lives. That's joy, isn't it? because
you are encouraged. You're encouraged by what you
see God doing in their lives. That's the joy. You see evidence
of God's grace, and it's a delightful, delightful thing. They may do
it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable. There are some people No doubt
your situation is similar in many cases, isn't it? Where we
come before the Lord carrying the name of this person to the
throne of grace and we do it with a deep sense of concern,
a deep sense of concern for their eternal destiny. That's unprofitable
for you. It's unprofitable. Ultimately,
what Moses said in chapter 3 was that they didn't enter because
of unbelief. In verse 17 he says, but with
whom was Moses grieved? Forty years he was grieved, a
shepherd of that flock. And was it not with them that
sinned? that had sinned, whose carcasses
fell in the wilderness, and to whom swear he that they should
not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not. So we see that they could not
enter in because of unbelief. What causes the man to give account,
to come before God with joy is evident signs of faith. Just simply trusting God, trusting
Him in the storms, trusting Him in the darkness, just trusting
Him. Let's go back to the beginning
and let's look again now that we've covered those couple of
things. Let's look at what it is to be someone who follows,
whose faith follows. It can be cast as a statement
and in a sense for us it can be cast as a question. We have
many people around us and you are people who are following. That's just the reality. God
takes it seriously. God will deal with them seriously. If you look at the false teachers
here in these words, you'll find that
what they do is they bring, in verse 9, they bring diverse,
they bring a multitude of strange doctrine. Isn't that just so
typical of this religious world we live in today? A multitude
of strange, means not true, doctrines. And we'll find that their activities
are about fleshly activities, not with meats, not with human
activities. And they are not profited. at the end of verse 9. They're occupied in them and
they're not profited. They partake of ritual sacrifices
and they are just empty and vain. And down in verse 10 it talks
about what we have. We will look at it again soon.
But it says that those who are involved in earthly carnal religion
have no right to eat at the altar that God's people eat at. They have absolutely no right
to eat. We are going to participate in
the Lord's Supper later on. We have a right brothers and
sisters in the Lord Jesus, we have a right to participate in
that remembrance of a sacrifice. We have an altar. They have no right to the benefits. And then in verse 13 we'll see
what they did to the Lord Jesus is what they have done to His
people throughout time. from Cain's murder of Abel until
the last event on this earth. You see, they reproach. It means
to heap abuse upon. They heaped abuse upon the Lord
Jesus. They heaped abuse upon His children
and His servants. In fact, Hebrews 13.13 is in
a sense a beautiful summary of the entire book of Hebrews. Just look what it says. Therefore
let us go forth Let us go forth therefore unto Him. We want to go to Him. We want to have communion with
Him. We want to have fellowship with
Him. It means to keep on going out
there to Him. Let us go forth to Him, outside
the camp. The camp in their day was clear
to see, wasn't it? It was the religious world of
Judaism. It was the religious world of
man's work, man's will, man's activity. It was a world that
turned its back on the Lord Jesus Christ. So we go to Him. We go, to go to Him, you have
to go outside of that camp. And to go to Him and to be with
Him, you are to be outside the camp and you will bear His reproach. You will have abuse peaked on
you. Ultimately, the true servant of God, speaks
the word of God. In a word, they do not speak
God's words at all. The Old Testament and the New
Testament is just full of warnings about those who claim to speak
for God. They claim to speak on God's
behalf. They claim to speak with God's
authority. He says in Jeremiah 23, it's
one of hundreds and thousands of passages in the scriptures,
he says, I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet
they prophesied. He says, woe to them, woe to
them. And what he says is remarkable
in verse 30. He says, I'm against them. I'm against the prophets, says
the Lord, that steal my words, everyone from his neighbour. They prophesy, they run. and
God has not sent them. They speak and God has not spoken
to them. Let's look at the true shepherd. They guide you and they speak
unto you the word of God. They don't speak unto you the
opinions and the speculations of men. They just simply want
to say this is what this book says. End of matter. This is what this book says.
Whose faith follow. Whose faith follow. It's remarkable
the list of activities that this faithful pastor here is. designated with in these verses.
He speaks the Word of God to them. He's a faithful servant. He just speaks God's Word on
God's behalf to God's people. and is not carried away by strange
doctrine. He leads people to see that we
have an altar. He leads people to see that on
that altar, verse 12, the Lord Jesus completely and perfectly
sanctified His people. He made them holy by His one
activity, with His own blood, not a cooperative activity of
man plus Him. He leads them to a place where
they suffer, as we just said. They are people who seek a city. They seek something beyond this
world. They seek the One to come. They see, as verse 14 says, here
we have no continuing city. Here is no place to build your
life. We seek One to come. and they encourage people that
by Him, by the Lord Jesus Christ, let us offer the sacrifice of
praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips
giving thanks unto His name. See, that's their faith, isn't
it? They are looking to the faithfulness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are not looking to their
works, and they're not looking to your works, and they're not
wanting you to look to yourselves. They're saying, let's go out.
Let's go out with Him. Let's go out to Him. Let's look for Him. Let's look
to Him. Let's look to what He's done
and what He's promised. Let's look away. You see, and
then as you follow their faith, you consider the end of their
conversation. You consider the end of their
manner of life. What's the end of their manner
of life? It's simple, isn't it? Just read
the next verse. What a great description of our
great and awesome God. Jesus Christ is the end of their
conversation and the beginning of it. The same yesterday and
today and forever. What a remarkable description
of our God. As we read earlier in verse 5,
He says, I will never leave you nor forsake you. He's the same yesterday, today
and forever. Here is the great Here is the great distinction,
isn't it? He wants this faithful pastor
for these people to have, in verse 9, to have their hearts
established with grace and not with meat. but to have your heart
established. You must have it established
in someone who is stable and perfect. You must, to build strong,
have a foundation that is firm. Someone that will never leave
us. Someone that will never forsake us. I was talking to Graham earlier
about someone who claims to believe in election, but he also says
that God's elect can fall away. That Jesus is not the same yesterday,
today and forever. He is the same in His person. He's the same in His characters. He's the same in His relationships. He's the same in His faithfulness
to God. He's the same in His faithfulness
to man. He's the same in His love to
His church. He's the same in His love to
His bride. All of it is an everlasting sameness. We often quote that verse down
there in verse 20, don't we? Just look at it. The great shepherd
of the sheep. That's his description. He shepherds
his sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant. Through his blood, shed everlastingly,
shed purposefully. That's what yesterday means,
isn't it? You go back as far as you like in time and Jesus
Christ is the same. From everlasting, He is the same. You can go to today. How many todays has this world
seen? Every one of them, Jesus Christ
is the same. Every day. His love is like Himself, the
same yesterday, today and forever. His grace is like Him, the same
yesterday, today and forever. There are so many diverse and
strange teachings, this verse just undoes completely, doesn't
it? People like to think that God's
wrath is upon His children, and then when you do something, His
wrath changes to love. People want to say, like A. W. Tozer, I believe, that God
loves absolutely everyone in this world, and he loves them
up to the gate of hell, and then his love changes into hatred
for them. They want to say that He has
this grace, this grace which is common to all men. And then that grace changes to
wrath when they do something wrong. It's proclaimed all around
us, isn't it? Diverse and untrue teachings,
a multitude of them. And this verse just deals with
them so beautifully, doesn't it? is the Jesus that's been
proclaimed. Is He the same yesterday, today
and forever. No change in time, no change
in men, no changes in world. What He is now to His people,
He is forever. In fact, His unchangeableness,
according to Malachi 3.6, is the reason that you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. He says, I change not. You see, a changeable God is
not the God of this book. He's not changeable. He is the
author and the finisher of faith. If he's the author of it, I imagine
that he wrote it exactly how he wished it to be. Is that right?
When you author a letter or a book, when you finish it, there it
is, that's exactly what I want to say. He's God. When he wrote
it, what did he write? He wrote it exactly how he wanted
it to be. Every little tiny event in all
of history, whether we see it or not, What did David say? He looked at his house, his physical
earthly house of his family. He looked at his nation, the
house in a sense that he was given responsibility for, and
he says, this is a mess. He might have looked at the house
of his life and said, this is a mess. And then he says, but But the Lord has made with me
an everlasting covenant, ordered and secure in every detail. This is all His joy and all His
salvation. Our God, our God, the Lord Jesus
Christ, is the same yesterday, today and forever. I want to hear from someone,
and when I listen to messages and encourage you to listen to
lots of other people around the world, I want you to hear from
someone who speaks the words of God faithfully. I want you
to hear about the Lord Jesus and say to the statements that
man makes, Amen. That's exactly what the Word
of God says, Amen, yes, yes, yes, all the time. And any that
don't do that, there are such a huge number of good ones out
there, we don't have to bother about the ones we know are dodgy.
There are so many. Now if I'm going to have someone,
if I'm going to follow someone's faith, I want to know that he
has the Gospel, he knows the Gospel. That he not just knows
it, but he loves it. Not that he just loves it, but
he preaches it. I want him to tell me the truth
about who God is and how he saves sinners. I want Him to tell me
the truth about who I am as a sinner in Adam, a sinner In that garden
I was there, sinning wickedly and willfully against God. I've
come forth from a mother's womb and I'm speaking lies, and I've
sinned 100% of the time in thought, word and deed. I need for Him
to tell me how deep the pit is, and how dark the pit is, and
how slimy the walls of the pit are, and how high and holy and
lofty God is. I want him to tell me that the
only possible hope for my soul is Christ Jesus the Lord. I want
him to tell me about sovereign grace. I can't do anything. I can't get rid of this record
that I've accumulated, the record I've got in Adam and the record
that I've added to all of my days. I want to hear about the
electing love of God the Father, that unchangeable eternal decree
which secures the salvation of His people. I want to hear about
the redeeming love of the Lord Jesus Christ. A perfect work
as we see in these verses in Hebrews. What's he saying? That he might sanctify the people. What's it mean? That he made
his people holy on the altar of his cross by shedding his
blood. His people are made holy. I love what Henry Mayer says,
a man does not have salvation until he comes by the power of
God's Spirit through faith to a living, personal, vital, intimate
union with Christ as Lord. A man is not a Christian until
he has a vital union with Christ. A man is not a Christian until
he is inseparably joined personally joined to Jesus Christ. A man is not a Christian until
Christ becomes his life. It's Christ in you, the hope
of glory. I want to hear a man, I want
to follow someone who knows the Gospel and loves the Gospel. So many people claim to know
truth, And then by their actions and
then by their joining with others who hate that truth, show that
that love is a shallow, meaningless love. In 2 Thessalonians, just
back a few pages in your scriptures, you will find a solemn and serious
warning from God. He talks about Satan and all
of his signs and powers and lying wonders in chapter 2 verse 9.
He talks about all the deceivables, unrighteousness in them that
perish because they receive not the love of the truth that they
might be saved. We want to talk about the doctrines
of grace. And people want to own the doctrines
of grace as if it's some badge of honour for them. And then
they associate and encourage others to associate with people
who hate them. See, religion is always wanting
to find a common denominator of understanding. We can all
sit together. God's children go outside of
the camp. So if I'm going to follow someone,
he has to know the Gospel. He has to love the Gospel. And
he has to believe and live his belief. He has to have a confidence,
a trust and a rest in it. I don't want to follow someone
who doesn't live what he believes, but also It's the words of this verse
to say, I want to follow someone who has my best interests at
heart. They watch out for your souls. They are more concerned about
your eternal destiny than they are about the things of time
and space. They are more interested in you
knowing and loving and living for the Lord Jesus than they
are for you following them and being part of their network,
part of their institution. You are going to meet God. I'm
going to meet God. It may be soon, it may be later,
but as time flies away in my life, it's a short, short journey
from here to eternity. A short, short journey." His
faith followed. We want to see what the end is.
We want to see the terminus of their conversation and their
manner of life. And it's Jesus Christ. We want
to see, we want for people to have a foundation, as Hebrews
says here, a heart established with grace. I love that word,
isn't it? It means to have a heart that
is settled, a heart that is stabilized. established with grace, established
by the grace of God in eternal election, established by the
redeeming work of the Lord Jesus, established by the Holy Spirit
coming and taking the things of the Lord Jesus and revealing
them to you, to be established, established, settled, to have
a foundation, a foundation that weathers the storms. As the Sama
said, lead me to a rock that is higher than I. I know some of you have gone
through and are going through trials which are inexplicably
painful and difficult. And for those who aren't going
through them now, they may just be around the corner. But this shepherd in Hebrews
13, he doesn't want his people to be carried. He wants them
to have this foundation. He wants them to have this, like
the ballast in a ship, isn't it? You can have a big sailing
ship with a huge tall mast and it's blown around by the winds
and the waves and the storms. And yet, what keeps it vertical
as soon as it has an opportunity? It's the ballast in the ship,
under the water, unseen. out of the way and it stabilizes
it. The stronger the ballast, the
more clearly the ship will stand those storms. He wants them to be established. Where is this establishment won? The very next verse, isn't it?
The very next verse. our people, and we are established
ourselves because we have an altar. We have it. God's children have an altar. How did Paul describe his life?
He says, I am crucified with Christ. That's how intimately
he and that altar and that sacrifice are one. We have an altar. We have, if you go down to verse
12, an altar where we are sanctified. You see, if I am sanctified,
if you are sanctified, we are perfectly fit for heaven right
now. How did he describe himself? In chapter 9 he says, he didn't
enter into the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood
he entered once into the holy place, having obtained No, it's
more than that, brothers and sisters. Having obtained eternal
redemption for us, how much more shall this blood, the blood of
Christ who through the Eternal Spirit offered Himself without
spot to God, purge, cleanse your conscience from dead works to
serve the Living God. That's a sanctification that
I'm very interested in brothers and sisters. not just a sanctification
of the flesh, a sanctification of my conscience, my conscience
that screams against me, guilty, guilty, guilty. And the Lord
Jesus says, peace, peace. It's all been taken away, it's
all been dealt with, and it's been dealt with perfectly. We have an altar. That's what God sent pastors,
desire for all those who are here, that your hearts are established
on that altar, you're settled. You have a foundation that is
fit to be trodden on. It's durable, it's unshakable,
it's reliable, it's certain. In Hebrews 6 Paul likens it to
an anchor. He talks about the anchor we have
for our souls in Hebrews 6. An anchor. We have that hope
as an anchor for the soul. An anchor is no use unless it's
thrown over the boat and it's attached to something incredibly
strong. I haven't spent much time in
boats but I was a few years ago taken out and parked next to
some rocks in some waves and they threw an anchor over and
I sat there bouncing around this thing and if that rope or that
anchor had moved I thought this is going to be a long swim, an
unpleasant swim, and those rocks and those oysters are nasty and
sharp, and I don't like those sharks that are down there. It's
nasty. But we have an anchor. You see,
so many people are looking to an anchor in themselves. An anchor
is effective when you throw it out, and it's attached to a foundation. That anchor is that altar. is that Saviour on that cross. We have an anchor, an establishment,
and a place to establish our hearts, and it's by grace. It comes by God's sovereign grace. It depends for its validity and
its stability on God's promises. on God's person, on God's work,
and not on man's worth and will. That's the anchor. That's the
only anchor in the storms of life, brothers and sisters, an
anchor for the soul. People are following. We are
a following mass of humanity, are we not? Why does advertising
work? Why do we follow the trends? Why are you young people caught
up in the latest fads? Why are we old people caught
up in similar ones and have been caught up all the while? Because
we do follow. Whose faith are you following? Just listen to what this pastor
says. He talks about we. He doesn't drive these people.
He presents the attractiveness of a God who's the same yesterday,
today and forever. A God who promises, I will never
leave you nor forsake you. You might feel as if I'm absent,
but I will never leave you nor forsake you. My love doesn't
change. My grace doesn't change. My favour upon you doesn't change. And this pastor, he leads these
people. He shows them. He wants them
to be persuaded by. That's what it means to obey. It means to be won over by. I want you to believe the Lord
Jesus Christ. I want you to look to Him and
see Him as glorious. I want you to look to Him and
see what He did on Calvary's hill. I want you to look to Him
and see that as Acts 11 says, this same Jesus that you saw
leaving this earth. This same Jesus sits on the throne
of heaven. This same Jesus is coming back. This same Jesus rules all things
and sovereignly ordains all things for the good of his people. He
says we have He wants you to go to an altar. He wants you
to come with Him to an altar, an altar where the people are
sanctified perfectly and completely. He wants them to go with Him. Let us, He says, go therefore
unto Him. We go together to Him, brothers
and sisters. We go to Him outside of the camp. And we say to each other, here,
we have no continuing city. We don't have a place here. Our home is that glorious city
that Revelation talks about. It's coming down out of heaven
as a bride, beautifully adorned for a husband. We seek together
the one to come. And then in verse 15 it says,
by Him, let us offer, by Jesus Christ, let us offer the sacrifice
of praise to God continually. What's the sacrifice of praise
to God? It's not our activities. What
is it? It's the fruit of our lips giving
thanks to his name. And his name is more than words,
it's his character as I've tried to define it to you again. And he says, but to do good and
to communicate, it means to have fellowship. To do good and to
have fellowship, come together one another. Come together, let
us go together. Let us go to our altar together. Let us join together. for because with such sacrifices
God is well pleased. There are sacrifices being offered
all over the world that God says in verse 9, they have no profit
to anyone and they have no right to eat, but with the sacrifices
of thanks the sacrifices of praise, the doing good, and the joining
one to another together. God is well pleased with them. God is well pleased. We come
together, we are shepherding, shepherded, and we are to be
shepherded together. All of this is God's appointment,
isn't it? The Lord Jesus gave some to be
apostles and prophets and evangelists and some to be pastors. God has
made his people, according to 2 Corinthians 3, 6, able ministers
of the new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. because the letter kills but
the spirit gives life. And what life it is. Paul longs
to be with these people and in verse 20 he says these words,
now the God of peace And he describes the God of peaceless
activities that brought again from the dead. Why did he bring
again from the dead the Lord Jesus? Because the work is finished,
the sacrifice is acceptable. He was put to death because of
our sins. He was raised because of our justification. He had
a right. The work had been done, the sins
had been put away. 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." I like being shepherded by a
shepherd like that. What a great word, isn't it?
He works in us that which is well-pleasing in His sight. So by Him, in verse 15, we offer
those sacrifices of praise. His working in us is well-pleasing
in His sight. Through Jesus Christ, to whom
be glory forever and ever. Amen. Good surprise.