If you would, turn with me to
Hebrews chapter 12. I have two verses I want us to
look at, beginning in verse 28. Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom
which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve
God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is
a consuming fire. Now you've heard me say many
times from this pulpit that we live in a day where religion
is all about what men and women are doing for God. Have you ever
really thought about what it truly means to serve God? Have
you ever given much thought as to how we can serve God acceptably? If God doesn't accept our worship,
then our worship is in vain. What service can we do for God
that God will actually accept? I was so thrilled to hear Brother
Tommy's prayer a minute ago because that's pretty much the subject
of my message today. How do we worship? How do we
serve God acceptably? I want to know. I want to be
acceptable to God. And to be acceptable to God simply
means that God is fully agreeable to my service, and my service
is well-pleasing to Him. And I hear a lot today about
what I said a moment ago, what men and women are doing for God,
and I see a whole lot of what men and women today call worship. But sadly, and I do mean sadly,
it in no way resembles the true worship of God. Now I know most
of you know, but I'm gonna tell you anyway, true worship is not
getting emotional in our singing, raising, and waving our hands,
has nothing to do with worship. More with emotionalism, more
with show, but not with worship. True worship is not about what
we place in the offering box. Some folks seem to think the
more they give, the more they worship. Couldn't be further
from the truth. True worship is not volunteering for some
office, some position, some service in the church. true worship,
and true service. Now listen to me. It's all about
the priority and the importance that we place on who God is in
our hearts and in our lives. And I suppose the Lord Jesus
asked the most pertinent question of all questions when it came
to the heart of the matter. He asked very simply and very
plainly, what think ye of Christ? That's the issue. What do you
think of the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you know whose son He is? Do you know what He as God did
for His people? That's the issue. That's the
issue. Are you trusting in His perfect
work of righteousness for you? Are you looking to Him alone
as your only sacrifice for sin? Are you putting all your confidence
in His fulfilling of the law in your stead? And are you trusting
totally in Him satisfying God's justice in your place? Now these
are things that you hear pretty much all the time from this pulpit. And I'll tell you this, you're
blessed to do so. Blessed to do so. It's not because
I'm preaching them, but because this is the truth concerning
Christ and salvation in Him. Our love and submission for God
flows out of knowing that we believe and do all these things. We trust in Christ for all these
things because He first loved us. Not because we loved Him. We love Him because He first
loved us. And I find such comfort in that
passage of Scripture. My salvation is not in any way
based upon my doing, my faithfulness, my love for Him, but His doing,
His faithfulness, and His love for me. I can't do anything to
merit and deserve my salvation, and glory be to God, I can't
do anything to lose it. Because it's in Christ and the
faithful work of righteousness that He did for me. Now men talk
about their ministry. I'm going to be honest with you.
I learned this from my pastor. Oh, I tell you, I hear folks
say that immediately when they say my ministry. That immediately
tells me that they don't have a clue as to what a true ministry
is. I'm not interested in what sinners
are doing for God. Why? Because He doesn't need
anybody to do anything for Him. I don't have a ministry except
for the ministry of reconciliation. Same ministry you've got. He's
given to us all the ministry of reconciliation. And I pray
that any who are here that are lost, that in Christ's stead
you might be reconciled to God. That's the issue. Sin has alienated
us from God. God is so holy that He cannot
excuse sin. Sin has got to be dealt with.
You and I need a substitute. And that substitute is the God-man
who as a man can die and as God can satisfy. He's the only one
that can do for me what I cannot do for myself. And that's just
the plain truth of the matter. That's the kind of ministry that
God accepts. That ministry is about being
accepted in the Beloved. And Christ is the Beloved. And
I am my Beloved's and my Beloved's mine. And I rest in that. I lay down at night and I sleep
and I just rest in the fact that my salvation is sure. Not because
of me. but because of who Christ is
and what He's done for me. I'm not interested in a work
of righteousness that men and women are attempting to do, to
earn and to serve and to merit righteousness and salvation.
And there's very little said anymore about what God does for
sinners in the Lord Jesus Christ. Very little is mentioned about
true service and true worship that is agreeable. That's what
the word acceptable means. It means agreeable and well-pleasing
unto the Lord. Now, I want my service to be
acceptable. I want it to be agreeable and
well-pleasing with my God, and I want my worship to be so too.
agreeable and well-pleasing to God. Is my service, my worship,
agreeable and well-pleasing to God? That's what service is,
it's worship. Paul told Timothy, he said that
supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks should be
made for all men. He added, for kings and for all
that are in authority. In our days there are not Many
kings that are actually ruling in power and authority in the
world, they're just figureheads. But there are presidents, and
there are governors, and there are even mayors, and councilmen,
sheriffs, and elected officials, men and women that are given
some authority. I'm making a point here, so bear
with me. Do you know why they have this authority? Because
we elected them? Well, that's the second cause.
The first cause is that God gave it to them. God gave them the
authority. Because God put them in that
office. Because God allowed them to be
elected. And I can prove that from scriptures.
Pilate, who was either appointed or elected official, no doubt
a man of authority he was. Christ told him, he said, you
could have no power at all. concerning me or against me,
except it were given to you from above." So this power and this
authority that men have in this life is given of God. Now, Paul tells Timothy there
that we pray and thank God for all men, including kings and
presidents and those in authority, that we may lead a quiet and
peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. And he said this,
for this is good, and acceptable, same word, it's agreeable, it's
well-pleasing, in the sight of God our Savior. Now do you know
what that simply means? It means that we are to bow to
the purpose, the power, and the providence of God. Whether it's
the president or a supervisor in the workplace that has authority
over us, the scriptures plainly tell us that God has predestinated,
that God has predetermined all things after the counsel of His
own will. All things. All things. That means all things, doesn't
it? Yes, it does. All things. And if you don't
like a particular person that God's placed in authority over
you, if you don't think they're doing a good job, if you don't
think they're being fair to you, Paul says pray for them. Pray
for them. Offer up supplications, prayers,
and intercessions for them. This is nothing less than submitting
yourself to the will, the purpose, and the providence of God. That's
well-pleasing. That's acceptable unto God. It's trusting that God has everything
under control. Do you believe that God has everything
under control? then you won't complain. It's
trusting that God does all things well. Do you believe that God
does all things well? I do. I really do. Our Lord said,
you've heard that it hath been said, thou shalt love thy neighbor
and hate thine enemy, but I say unto you, love your enemies.
Bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and
pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you, that
you may be children of your Father, which is in heaven. No, no, we
need to impeach. We need to file a complaint.
We need to get our supervisor fired. We need to rant, rave,
and raise hell because we don't like the way things are. What
you mean is that you don't like the way God is doing things.
Let's just be honest. Paul told Timothy to simply endeavor
to lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. He said, for this is good and
acceptable in the sight of God. Now God doesn't want his people
all wrapped up in controversy, contention, and complications. Peace, godliness, and honesty
is what God finds acceptable. To serve God is to worship God. To worship God is to believe
God. To believe God is to serve God. It's just a beautiful circle. Serving and worshiping and believing
God is always acceptable to Him. Yet it pleased the Lord to make
you His people. We often read that scripture,
but we need to quote the first part of that. which says, for
the Lord will not forsake His people for His own great namesake.
Worshipping is all about the glory of God. Serving God is
all about the creature worshipping the Creator. It's He that hath
made us, not we ourselves. Salvation has nothing to do,
let me say it again, say it all the time, has nothing to do with
what you do or don't do. Salvation is a sovereign act
of creation in the heart. Salvation does not involve a
single act of the sinner doing a work that would commend them
to God. It's simply believing what God
says. That's it. You want to worship
God, you believe God. You want to serve God? You worship
God and you believe God. I think we can substantiate this
from these two verses in our text here this morning. Let's
look at it again. Hebrews 12 verse 28. Wherefore,
we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have
grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and
godly fear. Now the first thing I see here,
I think I have four points to give you. If we are to serve
God acceptably, it must be under a sense of our immeasurable obligation
to Him. And out of our great love for
what He's done for us. We serve God because He created
life in us. He accepted us in the Beloved. As I said, that Beloved being
Christ. You and I are dead by nature. We're dead in trespasses and
sin. What can dead men and women do? Absolutely nothing. They
don't have a will. They're dead. But God in Christ
gave life. He chose a people before the
foundation of the world, and He gave them to His Son. And
His Son came into the world, became a man, made under the
law, and redeemed us from the curse of the law by being made
sin for us. Oh, that's the greatest story
ever told. No greater story than that. We're
accepted in Christ. That's the only thing that makes
us acceptable unto God. Loving and trusting in Christ
alone is what makes our serving acceptable to God. And whatever
service we render to God, we begin by being recipients of
His grace and His mercy to us. Isn't that what the verse says?
Wherefore we receiving. Receiving. Not what we do for
God. Not what we're giving to God.
People talk about accepting God. You did. God's got to give you
life. God's got to accept you before
you'll accept Him. Just the same as He's got to
love you before you'll love Him. Our first dealings with the Almighty
is not found in us bringing or doing something for God, but
our bowing to Him, believing and receiving that He does all
things well for us. Our receiving is not the cause
of His grace to us. Our receiving is the effect of
God's grace to us. First we receive grace, and then
we return service. You can't get the cart before
the horse. Do you know why that's the order of things? Again, a
dead man or woman cannot serve until they are first given life. And I was thinking as I read
this verse, I was thinking of what a gift it is to even be
able to receive. For some people, myself included,
it's always been very difficult to receive anything from anyone.
And you know, I figured out that it takes some humility to receive. It does. By nature, we're bound
and we're determined to earn, to merit, and do something to
deserve God's gift of grace. By a work of what men call righteousness,
it's not righteousness at all, it's self-righteousness. Something
that we do by our own hands. But it ceases to be a gift if
you have to do something to receive it. Now that's not a hard thing
to understand, is it? Only an enlightened obligation
to God in Christ will bring about acceptable service and worship
to God. Now did you notice what the believing
child of God receives in verse 28? They receive a kingdom which
cannot be moved. We don't receive beggarly wages
based on our performance. If my wages was based on my performance,
I wouldn't make much. We don't receive a pauper's pension
in our retirement of doing. We receive a kingdom which cannot
be moved. Stop doing and rest in the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not due, it's done. Ours
is the kingdom of God. In this kingdom, the gospel is
the law we live by. Boy, I tell you, the Lord Jesus
said, my way is easy. My burden is light. In this kingdom
of God's grace and glory, it's daily growing in brightness.
This is a kingdom that God has prepared for those whom Christ
was made to be sinned for, to them whom He gave His perfect
righteousness. In this kingdom that Christ has
sovereignly procured for His people, it's just another gracious
gift given to us by God's promise. And one may say, well, we haven't
received this kingdom yet. But you know, in a sure and certain
way, we have. We absolutely have. How have
we received it? By promise. Now I'll tell you
why that'll mean something. It'll mean something to you when
you realize who it is that's gave the promise. Fear not, little
flock, for it's your Father's good pleasure to give you the
kingdom. If a man is a man of honor and
he gives his word, his word is his bond and his promise to give
is equivalent to the gold that he promises to bestow. How much
truer is that when it's the Word of God, when it's God's promise?
God is not a man that He should lie or the Son of Man that He
should repent or change His mind. For all the promises of God are
in Him. And in Him, amen unto the glory
of God by us. If our service, if our worship
is concerning the glory of God, then I can assure you without
any reluctance or hesitation that your service and your worship
will be accepted by God. We've received a kingdom. God
gave us an eternal kingdom. And first of all, in this kingdom,
we were subjects, then children. then heirs, and then kings and
priests unto God. And it's a gift. It's a gift. It's God's gift to His elect. My second point, acceptable service
must be rendered to God in the power of divine grace. We, by
grace, have been made believers. Let us have grace. Let us have
grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably. It's only going to
be by grace that we serve God acceptably. By God's grace, believers
in God's kingdom receive a measure of kingly power by the indwelling
of the Holy Spirit in this life. You say, well, how so? Well,
death no more has dominion over us. Hell and the grave have no
further claim on us. Paul said, all things are yours.
You are Christ, and Christ is God's. Royal provision has set
you apart. All things work together for
your good, for you are be called according to His purpose. Everything
is arranged for your behalf, for your benefit. Mine? Yes. Yours? Absolutely. The kingdom that we have received
has come to us by grace alone. We could not earn it. We had
nothing to pay. We certainly don't deserve this
kingdom or any of its gifts, for it wouldn't be grace if we
did. Grace must be unmerited in order to be grace. and we
in no way can merit God's grace. It can't be won by our strength
because we're without strength. We're spiritually dead. It's
God that has taken the beggar from the dunghill and set him
among princes. Who did that? God did that. And
it was all by grace. No fear of hell, no hope of deserving
heaven can urge us on to please God. Grace by Christ and gratitude
for Christ is what proves that we've passed from death to life.
Both grace and gratitude are the gifts of God. You know, a
large measure of the splendor, the majesty of God's kingdom
lies in the fact that it's a kingdom that can't be moved. Our kingdom
has been established on Christ, the solid rock, the sure foundation,
and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. When the
sun and the moon are blown out in darkness, that day's coming. God's gonna make a new heaven
and new earth. When the stars fall out of the sky like autumn
leaves, our kingdom will not be shaken. Not the kingdom that
God's given us in Christ. And look what the apostle writes
in verse 25. It says, see that you refuse
not him that speaketh. For if they, speaking of Israel
in the wilderness, escape not who refused Him that spoke on
earth, speaking of Moses, much more shall not we escape if we
turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven. That's speaking
of God in Christ. How does God speak to us in these
last days? through His Son, through His
Word, by the Word of God, through the preaching of the Gospel.
Don't refuse Him. Don't refuse Him who speaks from
heaven. Verse 26, whose voice then shook
the earth on Mount Sinai, but now He hath promised saying yet
once more, I shall shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this Word, yet once more,
signifyeth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of
things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken
may remain. Friends, this earth is going
to be destroyed, but the Kingdom of God will remain forever. Wherefore,
we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved. Safe and secure. Safe in the Shepherd's fold.
Under the blood of Jesus. Safe in the Shepherd's fold.
Verse 28, let us have grace. Let us have grace, whereby we
may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Now remember, we're talking about
our service to God. We're trying to discover what
it is that God accepts. We want to know what true worship
is. I pray the same prayer with Brother
Tommy. I want to know what it is to
worship God. I want to worship God. Our service
to God is not found in the power of our nature. I can most definitely
tell you what true worship isn't. It's not found in the power of
our nature. We're dead in trespasses and
sin. Well, you talk about being dead
a lot. Well, that's what happened in the garden when Adam disobeyed
God. God said, of all the trees in
the garden, thou mayest freely eat. But in the covenant of works,
there was an exception. But of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, the day you eat thereof, you shall die. And
Adam lived 900 and what, 30 years? But he died immediately, spiritually. And we all died in him. By one
man's disobedience, all were made sinners. That's the issue
at hand. We are separated from God. Our service to God is not found
in our ability to serve. No man can come to Christ that
he might have life. So how do we serve God? Let us
have grace. Let us have grace. If you have
a marginal Bible, you probably see that the phrase, let us have
grace, means let us hold fast to grace. I like that. Let us hold fast to grace. We ask for grace, and then we
serve God in the power of His grace. In other words, we cannot
even serve or worship God in Christ apart from His grace. Let us have grace. Grace in our
hearts. Grace in our speech. Grace in
our lives. Grace every heartbeat, every
breath. Oh God, let us have grace. To
find grace is an act, but it's an act of God's, not ours. Where
did Noah find grace? In the eyes of the Lord. Noah
wasn't seeking God. You read that account and see
if you can show me anywhere in Genesis chapter 6 or any of the
chapters before and after where Noah was seeking God. Noah found
grace in the eyes of the Lord. But to have grace, friends, is
a state of being. That's what I want you to see.
My state and my standing before God is perfect forever. How so? By His grace. by His grace. And I have this
perfection forever only because God's grace in Christ to me is
perpetual. It never ceases. It never ends. To hold fast to grace means that
I cling to the act of God's grace given to me. Because of God's
continual love and mercy to me, my state of grace is continual. Only Christ can keep us in a
continual state of grace. Now I have to mention this as
a warning. There is such a thing. is busily
serving God and losing grace while you're doing and serving.
I don't mean losing it forever, but I mean missing out on God's
grace. Isn't that what Martha did? I
mean, when you think about it, you can become so concerned with
your serving that you yourself miss out on the true blessings
or as the Lord called it, the good part. Mary had chosen the
good part. We can miss out on the good part
by being cumbered so with all our serving that we miss out
sitting at Christ's feet like Mary learning of Him. You can
become weary and well doing. So Lord, my prayer is Let me
have grace. Keep me by your grace. Let us
hold fast to the grace that you give. Well, that's something
we don't have to worry about either. Why? Because He giveth
more grace. He giveth more grace. His grace
never runs dry. Marvelous, infinite, matchless
grace. Why? Because in, by, and through
God's grace in Christ, we're kept by the power of God. Saved by the power of God. Kept
by the power of God. What I love about grace is that
it entails so much. Grace means the divine influence
of God upon the heart. Boy, I like that definition.
That came straight from the Greek dictionary. It means the giving
of benefits and favors and pleasures and the joys of God. God delights. to have mercy and to give grace.
He delights. But did you know that grace also
means gratitude and thankfulness? So we can read these verses this
way. Let us have gratitude. Let us be thankful in serving
God acceptably. Nobody had to encourage that
harlot, no one had to encourage her to take that costly alabaster
box and pour out the precious perfume on Christ's head. Why? She did it out of love. She did it out of gratitude.
She did it out of thankfulness. She loved so much for so much
had been forgiven her. And that's the true spirit of
serving and worshiping God. Thirdly, we must serve God with
reverence. Only grace will enable us to
do that. Oh Lord, let us have grace. Notice
the phrasing here in verse 28. Let us have grace whereby we
may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Now,
it's nearly impossible to divide these two words, reverence and
godly fear with any accuracy. You know why? Because godly fear
is reverence and reverence is godly fear. You could just as
properly read, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably
with reverence and reverence and more reverence or with godly
fear and godly fear and more godly fear. This is the first
thing that God dealt with in His Ten Commandments. You ever
thought about that? First commandment, God said, thou shalt have no
other gods before me. True reverence and godly fear
is to serve the one true and living God. The Lord Jesus said,
thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and only Him shalt thou serve. God is clear in His word and
in His law. that His people must worship
Him alone. The second commandment that God
gave, Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any
likeness, or anything that's in heaven above, or that's in
the earth beneath, or that's in the water under the earth.
And the Lord went on to clarify, Thou shalt not bow down Thyself
to them, nor serve Worship them, for I the Lord thy God am a jealous
God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children
unto the third and the fourth generation of them that hate
me." Did you know or notice here that to bow down to an idol is
the same thing as to hating God? It sure is. God's very clear
about that. He's a jealous God. He's a jealous
God. He made mankind for the sole
purpose of worshiping Him and His Son and His Spirit. This
godly fear and reverence has something to do with shamefacedness. That's exactly how the word reverence
is defined in the Greek dictionary. It means shamefacedness. You
know, I think about those seraphs with six wings around the throne
of God. They have one pair of wings to
cover their faces. That's expressive of their modesty
and their humility. You see, true worshipers of God
look upon themselves, as Paul did, less than the least. They
look upon themselves as the chief of sinners, the worst of the
worst. And they cover their faces, being
conscious of their sinfulness and their unworthiness of being
in God's presence. They have another pair to cover
their feet, which represents the child of God's consciousness
of their own imperfections, of their walk, their conduct, and
their conversation. And then the third pair of these
seraphim's wings, these ministers, they fly, denoting their readiness
and their willingness to flee to preach to sinners the everlasting
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what it means to serve
God, with godly fear and true reverence. And lastly, the fourth
thing, in order to serve and worship God in an acceptable
way, that's what we're talking about. We must have a profound
sense of the divine holiness of God and His wrath against
sin. That's something you don't hear
much about in churches today. The holiness of God. The wrath
and judgment. The anger of God. God is angry
with the wicked every day. Most churches will tell you God
loves everybody. Jesus loves everybody. Men and
women, I tell you, me and Jesus, we've got a good thing going.
If you are outside of Christ, you don't. No, sir. God is a
holy God. He will by no means clear the
guilty. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. It's certain. It's certain. Verse 29. The Holy Spirit tells
us this in no uncertain terms by simply saying, for our God
is a consuming fire. Consuming fire. Observe then
from this most solemn sentence that the God of the Old Testament
is the same God of the New Testament. I hear folks say all the time,
Well, you know, God dealt differently with folks in the Old Testament
than He does in the New Testament. No, He doesn't. Our God is a
consuming fire. It doesn't say our God was a
consuming fire. For our God is a consuming fire. In Deuteronomy 4, chapter 4,
verse 24, it says, For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire,
even a jealous God. And we have the same description
here in the New Testament. God is still a consuming fire.
God is still too holy to clear the guilty. Sin's got to be dealt
with in divine justice. Sin still has to be punished
in order for God to remain just. Some of you might be surprised
to know that this dreadful sentence of our God being a consuming
fire is actually all my hope and all my comfort, and all my
joy. Yet others of you won't be surprised
at all, because it's all your hope, and all your comfort, and
all your joy. Well, how so, you might ask.
Well, I call your mind back to those two altars up on Mount
Carmel. We've talked about it a lot recently.
We talked about it a few weeks ago. We talked about it in our
study of Exodus. The prophets and the followers
of Baal, they put their sacrifice upon their altar. And I can just see them as they
prance around, leaping upon the altar. They called upon Baal. He didn't answer, so what'd they
do? They cut themselves with knives and lances, and the blood
poured, trying to get God's attention, I suppose. No trace of Baal. Their god is not a consuming
fire. But then here comes Elijah. Pour
water, he says on the bullock. Do it a second time. Do it the
third time. And they fetch up those huge
sea buckets from the sea and pour the water out over everything
until the trenches around the altar are full. And now the prophet
of God lifts up his prayer to heaven and down comes the fire. And God accepts the sacrifice. He's a consuming fire, friends,
and the token of his presence is so manifest that day that
the people whom Elijah said, choose this day. If Baal be God,
follow him, but if God be God, follow him. And the people cried,
Jehovah, he is the God. He is the God. Oh, if I believe
and trust in Christ and have offered unto God. Now listen
to me, this is the Gospel. If you and I believe and trust
in Christ and we've offered unto our God with reverence and godly
fear our perfect sacrifice, which is Christ Jesus. You and I can
find great comfort and joy, and we can rest assured that Christ,
our sacrifice and substitute, will be accepted. He will be
accepted. Oh, how much comfort I find in
the fact that God is a consuming fire. Why? Because in Christ,
God is well pleased. He fulfilled God's law for me.
He satisfied God's justice against me. And God accepts my one sacrifice
for sin forever. However, in the acceptance of
my sacrifice, God's holy wrath, judgment, and justice has been
exhausted. And it's been exhausted on Christ
to substitute And he remains, and the holy justice of God is
satisfied. Why is that important? Because
he now sits at the right hand of God. He sits at the right
hand of God forever making intercession for us. Let us have grace to know that
He, Christ the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world,
sits at the right hand of God making intercession for us. Sin
is gone. The wrath of God is appeased.
The holy justice of God is satisfied. Have you ever heard such glorious
news? Our surety remains and pleads
our cause before the throne of God. I'm so thankful that God
is a consuming fire, aren't you? And His judgment and His justice
against me was consumed on Christ. Let us have grace, O Lord, whereby
we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for
God is a consuming fire. That's what it is to serve God
acceptably. That's what it is to worship
God in spirit and in truth. Oh, may God continue to grant
me the grace and grant you the grace to do so. Amen.