Hebrews chapter 13. I want to pick up on verse 15. Title of the message, praise and thanksgiving. Praise
and thanksgiving. I wonder, and I mean this, I
wonder over the 40 years that I have believed the Gospel, and
I consider who God is, who Jesus Christ is, and what He has done
for me, I really wonder if I have ever really... praised him for who he is and
what he's done for me. To really worship, you don't
have to worship one, worship something. You have to
be obsessed with it. Now to me, worship is giving
unto him that which is due his name, but true worship has and
an obsession with that person. That's why the Lord said, he
that loves mother, father, sister, brother more than me is not worthy
of me. Because that would mean that
you are obsessed more with them than him. That's why I titled this Praise
Thanksgiving. Verse 15 starts out by Him, or maybe the
better rendering is through Him. Through Him, therefore, let us
offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. The apostle,
in this epistle has set forth Jesus Christ as superior over
everything and everyone, Aaron, the priesthood, over all the
sacrifices. And the apostle has made it very
clear that all those sacrifices have ended. There's no purpose
for them. And the Hebrews to which he's
writing here were accustomed to offering the sacrifice. They
had the morning and evening sacrifice. They had the sacrifice on the
day of atonement. They were always offering up
sacrifices. And it's as if he's saying here
now, the sacrifice which we offer, because we do offer a sacrifice.
But the sacrifice that we offer is praise and thanksgiving. That's
the sacrifice we offer. And it's all through Him. He
is the mediation through which we praise God, through which
we come to God, through which we worship God, through which
we believe God, We believe God through the Lord Jesus Christ.
He said, no man knows the father but the son and he to whomsoever
the son will reveal him. It is written in the scripture
that he is, Jesus Christ, is the only mediator between God
and men. He's the only way we can go to
God, and that's through him. We are sanctified through him.
He's the altar. the altar on which we offer the
sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. He's the altar on which we offer
it, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now how often are we to do this? As I said, they had the morning
and the evening sacrifice, sacrifice on the Day of Atonement, these
different sacrifices. But He tells us here how often
we are to offer praise and thanksgiving, and that is continually. There is no special day or holiday
that we offer unto God praise and thanksgiving. Praise and
thanksgiving, since it's being offered continually here, is
an attitude. It defines us. It describes who
we are. We are a people who praise and
thank God. We are a thankful people for
what He's done for us. Aren't you glad? I'm serious
here. Aren't you glad you're not in hell right now? Because
there are a lot of people in hell right now. That's a serious
matter. Serious matter. I believe it
was Jonathan Edwards, he wrote out a bunch of resolutions, and
one of them was that he always thanked God and thought about
those in hell, those under the torment of God. And he said,
I thank God I'm not there. I'm not there. I have an interest
in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to do this continually,
not once in a while, not in a certain place, not in a certain place. But we are to do this all the
time, in all places, listen now, in all situations. We are to
give thanks to God, it says in another epistle, because this
is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus. Whatever it is,
it's the will of God for you. And some of it is just such a
mystery. It's such a mystery. It's just
founding. Why? Why this? Well, I don't know. Most of the
time, I don't know. I don't have the answers. But
I do know this. All things, the Scripture says,
are of God. and we are to thank Him at all times in all situations. And as a priest, you know that
Jesus Christ has made us kings and priests under God? The Word
of God teaches us that He has made us kings and priests under
God. Now what was the office of the
priest? It was to make offerings. Now
listen, as priests, we offer up praise and thanksgiving. He calls it the fruit, the fruit
of our lips. And what he's referring to here
is in the Old Testament, not all offerings were blood offerings. There was the offering of the
first fruits. There was the offering of the first fruits. And I think
that's what he's making reference here to. The first fruits, The
first fruit out of our mouth in the morning, really, it ought
to be praise and thanksgiving. One of the things that I do,
one of the things that I do is the first thing in the morning
is I thank God for a safe night. I do. That he gave me and my family
a safe night. You realize where we live? We live on enemy turf. We live in a world of darkness.
You are the light of the world, but the world is darkness. We
live in a world of evil. We live in a world that absolutely
hates us, hates Christ, hates God, hates everything that has
to do with God. And we live in that world. And
if God would allow Satan, none of us would make it back here
Sunday. Thank God every day for a safe
night and kept the family safe. I don't want to depend on me.
I tell you, Vicky don't need to depend on me because I can
outrun her. That's what they say. If you ever get attacked
by a bear, if you're the fastest, you don't have anything to worry
about. It's that guy that can't run very fast. He's the one that's
got to worry. Yeah, don't depend on me. depend
on Christ, depend on Him. We offer up praise and thanksgiving.
He calls it here the fruit of our lips. The fruit of the lips
is an expression of the heart. You know, the fruit of the lips
is the expression of really who you are. What usually comes out
of our mouth, that which comes out of us is us. It's us. It's who we are. Out of the abundance
of the heart, the mouth speaks. And this fruit, this fruit of
our lips, this praise and thanksgiving that's of God, it's a work of
God. The work of God. There was a
time you and I did not thank God for anything. We didn't praise
Him for anything. We praised ourselves. We thank
God for ourselves. We like that Pharisee. God, I
thank you. I'm not like other men. Even if we were, even when
we were like other men, we didn't think we'd always find somebody
worse. Wouldn't we? We'd find somebody
worse. You know, I know so-and-so. Man, I wouldn't do what he does. There's nothing you and I wouldn't
do that anyone else hasn't done. What would a believer, what will
a sinner do, a lost sinner do that a believer wouldn't do? By the grace of God, nothing. This fruit is sweet because it's
of God, it is produced by the grace of God in the heart, it
is the produce I had written down their product, but it's
the produce. You ever went to a produce stand?
You know what produce is. Fresh produce. It is the fresh
produce brought on by the Holy Spirit.
It's the produce of humility. We give thanks. Listen, we give
thanks. by Him, through Him, in His name,
to His name. "...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." Now there
is a lot of people who use the name Jesus Christ and they don't
have a clue who He is. They couldn't carry on a conversation.
An intelligent, biblical conversation, they could not carry on a conversation
with you as to who Jesus Christ really is. Who he is, what he
did, what he accomplished, who he did it for, where he is now,
they couldn't tell you. They just used his name. But we give thanks to His name,
that is, His person. Person. The Lord our righteousness. The Lord will provide. He's our peace. The Lord is our
peace. All those names, you can go back
to the Old Testament, Jehovah Sidcanu, Jehovah Jireh, you can
go through all those different names. So when we give thanks to His
name, we're giving thanks to a person who is God, God Almighty. Now to do this, there has to
be knowledge of Him. You can't give thanks to someone you don't
know. You're not going to praise someone you don't know. Not really,
not sincerely, not truthfully. You're going to have to have
knowledge of Him And it's going to require faith in Him. Knowledge
of Him, faith in Him. You can't believe on someone
you don't know. You've got to have some knowledge of Him. God
gives you an understanding and you believe in Him. For praise and thanksgiving to
be real, there's got to be real faith and real knowledge. Anything
short of this is hypocrisy. It's just a show. Just like the
Pharisees were wearing those long phylacteries, and they had
them all embroidered, and they just stood out, but it was empty. Something to look at, but there
was nothing inside. This praise and thanksgiving
we are to give, he says here, sacrificially. is the attitude of a believer.
It's their character. We should be known for this.
We should be known as a people who praise and thank God continually. Have you ever been around somebody
that's really thankful? I've learned this. When you're
really thankful, really thankful, you can't complain. You can't
complain. It's like salt water and fresh
water trying to come out of the same fountain. If you're really thankful and
you praise God, you praise Him for salvation, you praise Him
for bringing you through a trial, you're thankful for what He's
given you, when you're really thankful, it cuts out complaining. It cuts it out. It's our character. It's the
character of God's children. They are a thankful people. They
really are. And I thought of this. Is it
asking too much of us to praise and thank God through Christ
for saving our souls and making us whole? Is that asking too
much? Is that too much of a sacrifice for God to ask? of us, just thanks. Thank you. Thank you, Lord, for
saving my soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you for revealing yourself
to me. Thank you. I'm not in hell. There are some there. This attitude preserves us from
many evils. It does. It preserves us from
many evils. One writer wrote this. He said,
Are we the only ones to benefit from the worship service? Shall
not God enjoy our praise and thanksgiving as much as we enjoy
the edification? Boy, I like that. I never thought
of it that way. That never struck me that way before. Shall he
not get enjoyment and pleasure out of it? Because it says in
verse 16, "...with such sacrifices God is well-pleased." He gets
great joy out of it. For whatever reason, we just
don't think as God getting joy out of our true thankfulness
and praise. Now that's the thanksgiving.
By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice. And it's amazing
it's called sacrifice because it ought to just be so automatic.
It is. It should be so easy. But in this flesh, it's not.
But let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually
That is, and this is what I'm saying, the fruit of our lips
giving thanks to His name, but to do good. Now here is thanksgiving. I wrote a little article in the
bulletin, Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving. I started the title at that.
That might be the better title. Thanksgiving, which we have just
seen in verse 15. Verse 16 is thanksgiving. I tell you this, A thankful person,
really thankful, gonna spill over. Spill over to somebody
else. Gonna spill over to someone else.
In line with praise and thanksgiving is this, to do good and to communicate,
that is to help, get not. Get not. The Word of God has
much to say about doing good. That's Scripture. Let's not go so far in one direction
that we ignore the truth in another direction. We are saved by the
righteousness of Christ. You know that. You've been taught
that. You believe the Gospel, so you have to know that. You
have to know that. You have to know that Jesus Christ
is your righteousness. But scripture tells us, Paul
wrote this, be careful to maintain good works. What's an example of good works? Bear ye one another's burdens. Bear them before the Lord. That's
really one of the greatest ways to bear one another's burdens
is to help take them before the Lord. I know where, as I said, we are
saved by the grace of God through the blood and righteousness of
Christ, but grace alone with the spirit of God working in
us produces good works, produces genuine good works.
They are produced. He has wrought, it says, all
our works in us. It's Christ working in you both
to will and do of his good pleasure. Maybe his will and good pleasure
for, for, uh, bring one of the flock down and have another one
of the flock members come over and help one that's down. The good work spoken of here
is this. He says to communicate, help. That is to remember the poor.
You have to Think about who Paul, I'm going to say Paul, is writing
to here. He's writing to people who have
had their property confiscated. They've had their homes taken.
They've lost their jobs over the gospel. I've not lost anything
over the gospel. Friends, old friends, but they really weren't friends.
you don't lose real friends. But they lost their homes, they
lost their jobs, they lost their income. They lost it all. He said, don't
forget to shout to them. Don't forget to help them because
with this, with this sacrifice, you say, well, I'm going to go on vacation this
year. So-and-so really needs the help. This is just an example. So-and-so needs real help and
you forego that vacation. You're sacrificing what you want
to do. You're sacrificing what you've
saved up for yourself. to help a brother or a sister.
And you know what it says? With such sacrifices, God is well pleased. Look over
in 1 John. In 1 John 3, look in verse 16. Hereby perceive we the love of
God, because he laid down his life for us, and we ought to
lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's good,
and God blessed you with these things of this world, material
things, and seeth his brother have need, and shuts up his bowels
of compassion from him, He says, Now explain to me, tell
me, how dwelleth the love of God? How dwelleth the love of God
in that man? My little children, let us not love in word, neither
in tongue, but in deed. It's easy to say I love you. God, what if God, what if God Almighty
just, and this is the Armenian doctrine, God loves everybody and most of them wind up in hell. That would be a total denial
of what this scripture is saying, wouldn't it? If he did, My little children,
let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in
truth. Express it, show it. The Lord did. Now in verse 17, along this same line, he's saying,
now, let me get back here. He said, now, let's offer unto God praise and
thanksgiving through the Lord Jesus Christ continually, and
let's do good and communicate and forget not, let's take care
of our brothers and sisters, who have such sacrifices, God
is well pleased. And obey them that have the rule
over you. You know, back here in verse, I believe it's verse
7, it says, remember them which have the rule over you, who have
spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow. Remember
them. Remember them in prayer. I hope, pray for me today, this
week, the Lord would give me something for you. and that He
would enable me to stand here and first of all, glorify His
name, give you something to go home with. Remember them which have the
rule over you. But over here in verse 17, it's
a different instruction. Obey them. Obey them that have the rule
over you. You see, God has set the order
God has set the order. I was talking to a salesman one
time that I've known for years, and he's a very religious man.
Every three years, they have their pulpit committee get together
and they assess their pastor. If he's doing his job, If they're going to give him
a raise, and if not, do they need to get another one? Has
the church grown? It's a business. I mean, it all
is a business. I mean, it's this whole buffet of things they look
at. He's just a hireling. The pastor is not a hireling.
He's not a hireling. If he's a hireling, he'll say
whatever you want him to say. If he's a hireling, you've got
a politician. You don't have a pastor, you
have a politician. But God has set the order in
the home. He said the husbands be the head
of the house. He has set the order in the church.
The pastor is the undershepherd. He's the one whom God holds responsible. Obey them that have the rule
over you and submit yourselves for they watch for your souls. This was a particularly strong verse to me this week
as I was looking at it. This is speaking to you heavily. For they watch for your souls,
now listen, as they that must give account. I've got to give account for
you. I am a steward. Paul said he
was a steward of the grace of God. I'm a steward of the gospel
of the grace of God. I've been placed in this position
to watch over your souls. Preach the gospel to you. That's
the best way to watch over your souls is to keep preaching the
gospel to you. You know, Paul said in Philippians chapter 3,
for me to preach the right, the same things to you. He said,
indeed, it's not grievous to me, and for you it's safe. The
gospel again and again. And I think going verse by verse
like this, going verse by verse, keeps us from getting hung up
on any one doctrine, and it enables us to preach the whole counsel
of God. Instead of being hung up on a
doctrine, I'm now telling you to offer the sacrifice of praise
and thanksgiving. Now we're in the realm of praise
and thanksgiving. Then we're in the realm of thanks
living. Do good to them who need help
and are poor. I tell you what, the Scriptures
and the Word of God is everything we need. Every problem, I promise you,
every problem that I will ever have in this life, there's an
answer to it in this book. If I want the answer. There's
a difference. If I want the answer, if I... Henry said this one time, the
Lord will reveal His will to you if you really want to do
His will. But don't play like you want
to do it. Because He ain't going to reveal it. And there's an answer to my problem
if I'm willing to take the answer. I promise you there is. God has given, let's go back
here to verse 17. Obey them that have the rule
over you. God has given under shepherds, shepherd the flock,
They are to be followed and obeyed as they preach Christ. Now if somebody goes off course
and gets into some foolishness, no, don't follow that. Paul said, follow me as I follow
Christ. As long as you keep hearing that
C note, you're following it. If you don't hear that C note
no more, you might want to stop. You might want to say, whoa,
hold on here now. But as they must give account,
they must give account of their stewardship, their time. Boy, I thought about that. I
thought about that. Stewardship of time. Time is
something we can't get back. If I waste a minute, it's gone. And I've wasted a lot of time.
We've wasted a lot of time, haven't we? Scripture says redeeming
the time, tells us to redeem the time. And he says here, let me go back
now and read this whole scripture to you. 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.
They may do it with joy. You know, it's a joy preaching
here. It's a joy preaching to you the
gospel. If there was division and fighting,
that wouldn't be a joy. It wouldn't be a joy to stand
here. It would not be a joy. And part
of this joy he's speaking of here is that they may do it with
joy and not with grief. Would that be unprofitable for
you? I can go to the throne of God and pray for you, and it
can be either a joy or it can be one or the other. And to obey them to have the
rule over you is to obey Christ. It's to obey Christ. He said
that if you keep my commandments, then are you my disciples. But
what's verse 17? That's a commandment. That's
not a suggestion. Our Lord never makes suggestions.
That's a commandment. Obey them to have the rule over
you. For they watch for your souls. as they that must give account,
that they may do it with joy, not with a broken heart. Now, he's going to end with what
I'm going to end with. Well, we're not ending. We've
got one more week, one more Thursday night. But tonight, I'm going to end
with what he has in verse. Pray for us. Pray for me. Put that on your refrigerator.
Put that on your refrigerator. Put it in your billfold or your
purse or someplace where you can remember to pray for me. Lord, give me a heart of a pastor,
wisdom of a pastor, The ability to communicate the
Gospel to you. There's one of the things that
I want to strive for. And that's the ability to communicate
the Gospel to you. I don't want to just go verse
by verse and say, well, this is what this means, verse 15
means this, verse 16 means this. But to really find the message
that is there, and glorify Christ, and feed the sheep, and warn the lost. There's lost
people in this congregation. Not everybody here is saved.
I'm not going to assume that. I'm not going to assume that
everyone here is saved. That would be foolishness on
my part and a dangerous person here who is lost. Dangerous. Pray for us. The best thing you
can do for me is to pray for me. Look over in Romans chapter
15. Romans 15, verse 30. Romans 15, verse 30. Now I beseech
you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love
of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in your prayers
to God for me. That you strive together, body
of believers, strive together with me in your prayers to God
for me. Pray that the Lord would really
make us a praying church. Praying church. Let me close with here, the preacher's
conscience. Pray for us, for we trust we
have a good conscience. And what he's saying here, And
I want to strive for this is that I have no sinister motive
in doing this. No sinister motive gospel. Good conscience is one cleansed
by the blood of Christ. Its motive is pure. It's a heart. It's the heart of God's preacher.
good conscience is when one who's been called to preach has not
shunned to declare the whole counsel of God to the body of
Christ, the whole counsel. So let us Come before God with praise and
thanksgiving in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as God
gives us opportunity, let us do good to one another. And that's
not just in this congregation, it's believers in other places. Good to one another. And let's
pray for one another. Pray for the spiritual welfare. I preach to you each week, sooner
or later, sooner or later. If I don't get buried first,
if I don't go first, I'm going to bury some of you. I'm going
to stand and I'm going to preach your funeral. This verse weighs heavy as they
that must give account. I hope I have preached to you
faithfully, honestly, spiritual integrity, truth, and I want
me and you to die in the faith. The rest of those in Hebrew,
die in the faith.