Hebrews chapter 13 and beginning
reading there in verse 15, it says, 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 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 forever 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 all them that have the rule over you, and all the
saints. They of Italy salute you. Grace be with you all. Amen. And so he begins there
by reminding us as we have looked at these verses, but we can never
look too closely or too much at giving God praise. By Him, by Christ, therefore
let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That
is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name. As Brother
Al pointed out this morning, the Lord provided the lamb. And there is no sacrifice that
has ever been acceptable to God that He did not provide. Now,
men have thought they brought something to the Lord as we see
that Cain did in the beginning. He thought he would bring something
to the Lord. But the Lord is pleased only
with the sacrifices that He provides, and He's not interested in the
sacrifices of men. As we see in the account of Abraham,
he wasn't pleased with the sacrifice of Isaac. That wasn't the purpose. The
whole reason for that exercise was to manifest the fact that
He would provide a sacrifice. There was nothing Abraham could
do. I mean the greatest thing, think about it, and again Brother
Al pointed this out, but the greatest consternation, the greatest
thing that a father could be called upon to do, I mean the
most tremendous weight and burden and sacrifice it would be to
give your own son, to take a knife and plunge it in him Offer him
to the Lord. I mean, that would be a terrible
thing. That would be a tremendous thing. And yet, the Lord wasn't
pleased with that on Abraham's part, but he was pleased with
the sacrifice of his own son. And that's a glorious thing,
and it's a thing that remains foolishness to the world. The
preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness.
And you can't convince a man of the wisdom of God by natural
reason. And so it was that Nicodemus
came to the Lord by night and in his natural reason was going
to seek out some answers from the Lord Jesus Christ. And he
never got to the first base. He didn't even get to ask a question.
The Lord said, Nicodemus, except you be born again. You cannot
see the kingdom of heaven. And so Nicodemus was astonished
because he couldn't even begin to comprehend what it was that
the Lord was saying. And the Lord was simply telling
him this very same thing that with no other sacrifice than
that which the Lord provides will he be satisfied except the
man be born again. Now what can a man do? Nicodemus
said, Can a man be born again? Can he go back into his mother's
womb? How could this be? Because you see, he's thinking
naturally. But the Lord told him, No, this isn't a natural
birth, and it's not something that man can effect or bring
about in any fashion, but it's something that's the work of
God. It's that which the Lord would bring. And you see, that
is what the purpose of the preaching of the gospel is, is to bring
glory to God. It's to magnify the name of Jesus
Christ. It's to exalt Him in the earth
for what He has accomplished. Not what we're going to try to
get men to do, but what God has already done, the sacrifice He
has provided. And that's what it is to declare
the gospel of Christ. It is to declare what He has
done. And so it is that the apostle tells us that we are to offer
the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the praise. The sacrifice of praise is only
pleasing in the ears of the Lord when it has to do with Christ. And it is thanksgiving, giving
thanks for what He has done. You see, you give thanks. You
don't give thanks to people for what you've done. You give thanks
to people for what they've done for you. And so it is that that
is the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is not
just occasionally or when we get ready. Now every year, you
know, a big deal is made out of thanksgiving. And I like thanksgiving. I enjoy it. I like the food probably
as much as any part of it. But, you know, people talk about,
oh, we're going to give thanks. Well, brother, if you wait until
thanksgiving to do it, you waited too late. You know, because he
says they give thanks to God continually. Now Thanksgiving
is a good thing, and I wouldn't ever say anything against it,
but the idea or the concept that we're going to set aside a day
to give thanks is too little. It's too late. It's not enough. Because He said, let us give
the sacrifice of praise to God continually. Now what is it that
we're offering up to Him? It is the fruit of our lips.
That is the words that we speak. that come forth from our mouth,
thank you, Lord, for such things as you have done. That is the
fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. But then he says
something. He says, but to do good and communicate,
forget not. Now it's a good thing to give
thanks. But he said don't forget that
the giving of thanks is more than just saying a few words.
It is to demonstrate your thanks. by the giving of such things
as you have back unto the Lord. Now, it is a common thing today for the consideration to be that
in order to give something to God from a monetary standpoint
that you have to put it in a collection plate. Now, I don't know where
that idea started. I have some ideas about how it
started, but that's not the... And, of course, if you turn on
the TV, you don't have to go through very many channels that
you'll find out that the way you give to God is to send it
to these particular fellows. And they've got their address
up there, so you're sure you don't miss it. Because they want
you to give to God, you know. But they want you to route it
through them. The routing of the thing is not
what we're interested in, but to do good, that is to go about
doing good in a general fashion is what we ought to be about. I mean, we ought not to be about
going out doing bad, should we? We're to be doing good. I mean,
looking for ways that we can do good. That should be the motivation
that's within us. Now primarily, our concept and
consideration of doing good is to the household of faith. Now
that's our first consideration. They are our family. A man that
doesn't take care of his family is worse than the infidel is
what the Scripture says. And so it is that we have need
have that same concept when we consider the family of God. This
is our family, and to do good and communicate among the people
of God is a good thing. Now, that doesn't mean then,
on the other hand, that our concept of giving is not broader than
that. I'm sure it is. I mean, if there
are those that are in need, and there's a need that we can help
with or meet or whatever, why would we hold back from doing
that? What would be our reason for
that? I mean, if we have it within
our hands, is it not ours to do with as well? Well, why would
we not want to do some good with it if we could? And so that's
what he's saying here. Don't forget. to communicate,
that is, to give back such things as the Lord has given you. And
so, you know, the Lord loveth a cheerful giver. That's why
there's no teaching about tithing in the New Testament. I mean,
that's... Now, if you went into a Baptist
church today, you'd probably be that wouldn't necessarily
come across to you because you'd think it was on every page. But
there's no teaching about tithing in the New Testament. There's
teaching, however, about loving to give and being a giving person. And whatever that is, it's not
necessarily money, but it's giving what you have. If it's time,
if it's your talent or whatever it might be, The mindset of God's
people is not to be a miser, not to be thinking only of ourselves,
but to be thinking of that good which we can do and to give back
such things as are given to us. So to communicate, forget not. For with such sacrifices God
is well pleased. Why is God pleased with you?
Because He gave it to you. What do you have that you have
not received? I mean, what do you have? Now, a lot of people, there's
books written about all these people talking about how they
got all what they got and how you can have it too if you'll
do the same thing. You know, but brethren, that's
not the picture. God's the one that gives people
things. Now, I'm not promoting laziness
or anything else. I'm just pointing out the facts.
that if a man has anything in this world, it's because God
gave it to him. And he might not want to admit
it, and he might want to grudgingly share the responsibility with
it and say, well, yeah, God, He gave me the idea, but, buddy,
I carried it through, and, you know, it was by my effort and
office. Listen, why wasn't you struck down with polio when you
was a kid? Or why wasn't you born an idiot? I mean, why is that? Everything
you have, it doesn't make a difference what it is. It came from the
hand of the Lord. It's the mercy of God. And what
are you going to do with it? I mean, why do you think it's
yours? I mean, why do you think you
can consume it upon your own lust? Don't the heathen do that?
I mean, he said, don't forget where it came from. Don't forget. that the Lord didn't just give
this to you for you to gloat and glory in and to have more,
but rather God's well pleased because these things come from
Him. And He's well pleased when they're given back. Obey them,
He says, 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 impossible for you." Now, this is interesting, what it
says here, because that word, obey them, literally means convince. I mean, that's what the word
says, convince them. Now, of course, in the context
of what he's saying here, he's not using convince in the same
way, but what it basically it has reference to is he says,
listen. He didn't say become a mindless
robot and do whatever somebody tells you to do. Now that's what
happens in cults is that you've got some guy that is a real whiz-bang
orator and he can keep everybody's attention and so he can convince
men to do things. Well, see, it's not saying here
that we are to be convinced. It says we are to convince. We're
to obey them. That is, we're to be as the Bereans
who search the Scriptures daily to see if these things be so.
But we are to listen. We're to listen. We're to take
these things in. Obey them. That is, listen to
them that have the rule over you. Now, how does anybody have
the rule over God's people? The only way that that is can
be said to be is that when the truth of God is spoken. Because
we're not lords over one another in any fashion. We don't have
the right to tell one another what to do. None of us have any
more authority in that sense than the other. The church has
one head, and that head is Christ. But it has pleased Him in the
church to set forth the preaching of His Word. And He has given
gifts to His people, among His people, for that purpose. Now,
that doesn't mean that He gave men a gift in order that they
might lord it or that they might become a dictator or anything
of that sort. But He does give gifts to men
for the purpose of benefiting the saints of God. And so he
says to the saints, listen to them that have the rule over
you. That is, listen to them that
teach you the Word of God. Now, we know this, that a man
can't be taught the Word of God like he can be taught arithmetic. It's not the same thing. Because
except the Lord opens a man's ears to hear it, he can't get
the things of God. But he says, listen to them.
Now, the Lord sends the Word and He also gives the hearing
ear. But the exhortation to God's
people is to listen. Don't you want to be listening
to hear what God has to say? I mean, and how can you do that
if you disregard those that have been sent with that Word. Now,
somebody that's sent with the Word is not necessarily always
the same person every time, okay? It doesn't mean that, okay, God
sent this particular individual down and you better listen to
him. No, what he's saying is that
those who have been set among you that teach you the Word of
God, you need to pay heed to what they say and don't be puffed
up with your own thought and say, well, I don't need to pay
attention to that. You better listen. I mean, if God puts you
in a place where somebody is, whoever that may be, if they're
telling you the things of God and they're exalting Jesus Christ,
you better listen to them. Now that's what he's saying here.
Obey them that have the rule over you, those that have been
sent with the Word of God, whoever they may be. They don't have
to occupy a particular position or be set apart in some particular
fashion, but they are those whom God has sent with the Word and
paid heed, he says. Obey them that have the rule
over you and submit yourselves, that is, Don't think that you
have all the answers, because none of us have all the answers. When a man gets to the point
where he thinks he can't be taught something, he's in a bad place. And that goes for those that
call themselves preachers and teachers. You know, teachers
can be taught. Preachers can be preached to.
I mean, they better be able to hear because this is just as
true to those who are sent with the Word as it is those who are
sent to hear the Word. Now we are to submit ourselves,
the Scripture says, in one place submit yourselves one to the
other. This is the act of humility around one another. No man is
to be puffed up and to think that we have wisdom That's greater
than everyone else, but we are to be submissive to one another. Submit yourselves, but he says
specifically, submit yourselves to the Word of God. Submit yourselves
to those who have been sent. Don't despise the prophesying
that God has sent forth. But listen, for they watch for
your souls. Now if a man has been sent with
a message and God has burned it on his heart, This is not
just something he can take or leave. I mean, he can't just
say, well, I don't think I'll go do that. Jonah found out about
that, didn't he? I mean, Paul said, God forbid,
that I should glory save in Jesus Christ. But he said, how can
I not preach the Word of God? He said, woe is unto me if I
don't preach the Word of God, because he knew Whether anybody
else knew it or not, that He was sent as a watchman on the
wall. He was sent as one who was a
guarder of the souls of men. Now whether they wanted Him to
be or not, that didn't concern Him. He was going to tell them
the things that God had given Him. And so they watch for your
souls. The Lord does send those. into
our midst that watch for our souls, that care about us, that
are concerned about our well-being. Now why would we not be willing
to listen to what they have to say? That doesn't mean that everything
they say is necessarily something that we need to pay heed to,
but we don't need to just disregard what they have to say. We need
to search the Scriptures to see if it be so. As they that must
give an account, Because indeed, the Lord, to whom much is given,
much is required. The Lord requires at the hands
of those whom He sends that they do what He says to do, that they
be faithful with such things as they are given, that they
may do it with joy, not with grief. You know, I mean, he said,
listen to what they have to say so that their hearts are not
broken that you have disregard to it. I mean, that's essentially
what he's saying here. Obey them that have the rule
over you. He said, because they must give an account that they
may do it with joy, not with grief. I said, Lord, you know,
I told them, but nobody paid any mind to me. They just wouldn't
listen. I mean, do you want that? Would that be what you desire? No, he says, don't do that. He
said, listen, that they may give an account to the Lord. When they go before the Lord,
that they might praise Him for that which they see. that they
may do it with joy and not with grief, for that's unproper to
you." Now there's a mixture of joy and sorrow, and Paul knew
all of that in his life in ministry among the saints of God. He said
of some of the saints, he said, man, I just rejoice when your
name is spoken and I think of all the blessing that has been
mine on your account. But then think of what he thought
when he spoke to the Galatians. Why? Because they didn't listen
to Him. He says, I'm in doubt about you. He said, God sent
me into your midst to preach to you the everlasting gospel
of Jesus Christ, and you've turned back to the law. And you thought
that you'd begun in the Spirit, now you're going to be perfected
in the flesh. And He said, my heart is breaking
within me to think about the fact that you disregard not simply
my words, but the gospel of Christ. And that's what he says. That
they may do it with joy, not with grief, for that's unprofitable
for you. What good is that to you? Pray for us, he says. For we
trust we have a good conscience in all things, willing to live
honestly. Pray for us. We believe we have
a good conscience. But we know, Paul said, I'm the
chief of sinners and I'll be departed from my conscience tomorrow.
I need you to pray for me that the Lord will give me grace to
continue on. We believe we have a good conscience
in all things willing to live honestly. We're hopefully not
walking in a hypocritical fashion. that we're saying one thing and
doing something else, but if we know anything about what it
is we're saying, he says, we desire to live honestly among
you, sending forth the truth of God, not deceitfully, not
trying through subterfuge to get you to do something, Not
telling you, oh, God's going to go out of business next week
if you don't send in your money. Now, brethren, I can't think
of anything more dishonest than a man that will stand up in front
of people and tell them that God needs your money. That's
dishonest. Now, they can call it whatever
they want to, but a man that will beg for money in the name
of God has a pretty small God. God doesn't need your money. And he's not holding up the windows
of heaven waiting to pull them out on you if you'll send in
your money. That's subterfuge. That's deceit. It's dishonesty. Paul said, I won't have anything
to do with it. And then he says, but I beseech
you to rather to do this. He said, I want you to do that
for that reason. But he said, I want you to also pray that
I might be released from prison, that I might come back to you
sooner. Because he was in prison at this time. And he desired
to be in their midst. I mean, who wouldn't want to
be in prison? Certainly not anybody that's ever been in prison. You
know, you might think it might be like a vacation for a while,
get away from things and not have any problems. Anybody that's
been in there wouldn't want to be in there. And so Paul said,
I want to be out that I might be restored to you 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. Now he's summing this up really
what he said to them from the beginning. And this is it, and
this is the Gospel, and this is the only message that we really
have to tell to men, is that the Lord Jesus Christ, the great
Shepherd of the sheep, is risen from the dead. Now there's a
lot in this verse, and you could preach for weeks on this particular
verse. I mean, you could never get everything
out of this that's here because of the fact that it is the gospel
in a nutshell. You see, the message that the
apostles went proclaiming throughout the world was that Jesus Christ
is the Savior of sinners. Now what was the crowning thing
that convinced them of this? It was the resurrection of Christ.
I mean, look, this was a downhearted bunch of guys when the Lord Jesus
Christ was crucified. And the days following His crucifixion,
I mean, they said, man, you know, here we've spent all this time
and neglected our businesses. and all of this, and for what? I mean, we thought,
isn't that what they said? We thought this man was going
to be the one to deliver Israel. We thought. But see, a transformation and
a change took place. They were changed men when they
realized that the Lord Jesus Christ was risen from the dead.
Now they heard about it, but they didn't see Him. But oh,
think about when they were in that upper room and He came in
the door and He walked in their midst. And all of the doubts and all
of their unbelief came to the forefront of their mind. And
they fell on their faces and they worshipped Him. And I'm
telling you that nothing, no power on earth could have turned them away from
Him because God granted them faith. to believe. And they went forth after those
days when the Lord left them declaring this message, that
Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. Now, you can imagine what
kind of a reception they had in general. These are a bunch
of nutcases. But oh, what about those Jews
in Jerusalem? What did they do? Those that
were in power, they said, Man, we've got to quell this because
we know something happened to them. We haven't been able to
figure out what happened to them yet. But we know good and well
that if this thing gets out here that he's risen from the dead,
why, we'll have a mass problem on our hands. But you see, nothing
could stop that. And those whom the Lord has prepared
to believe it, believed it. And those whose hearts were hardened,
they did not believe it. And they said, it's foolishness.
And they turned aside and they wouldn't believe it. But the
preaching of the gospel is the preaching of a risen Christ.
He's alive. He's alive at the present time,
dear brethren. This is not just some pipe dream
or fairy tale that we tell one another and tell our kids. And
then around Easter time we say, oh yes, Jesus went to the cross
And he went in a tomb. No, dear brethren, we're preaching
someone who's alive at the present time, who's sitting on the throne
of God. And he's just as real as you
and I are. And he has a body just like you
and I. How do I know that? Because the
angels said, He said to these disciples, He said, Hey, what
are you all doing standing and gazing up into heaven? The same
Jesus that went away shall so come in like fashion as you have
seen Him go away. Now how did He leave them? Brethren,
did He leave them as some spirit that floated off? No, He left
them as a man in flesh and blood and He went up into the heavens. And in the same fashion, the
Scripture says, He's coming again. Now if He's coming again in the
same fashion in which He left, it leaves me to believe He's
in the same state in the present hour, dear brethren. Now I know
this is far beyond the concept of human flesh to reason this
out and think how it could possibly be. Because the same great human
minds that tell us we evolved out of a piece of an atom, out
of, you know, slime in the ocean or wherever it was, a swamp or
what, the same great minds that tell us that can't possibly be
true have told us such stuff as that. Now, it's foolishness
to the world. I fully understand that. Have
any? I'm not mad with anybody that
doesn't believe it. I wouldn't believe it either
if it wasn't for the grace of God. The only reason I believe
it, I'll tell you right now, the most preposterous thing that
anybody came forth telling is the gospel of Jesus Christ, that
God would save sinners. I mean, that's an amazing thing.
See, when a man is convinced of what sin is, the fact that
God would save sinners is an amazing story, is it not? It's unbelievable. But it's true. Now, why do we believe it? It's
because of the grace of God. Now, the God of peace, and He
is the God of peace. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I
come to bring peace. Not as the world gives us peace,
give I unto you. But he's had peace with the people
of God. But you see, it's not the peace
that men are looking for. Men are looking for war to stop. That'll be peace to them. Oh,
we finally killed all the ISIS guys. Buddy, we turned the sand
into glass over there. We killed them out. Buddy, we
got peace now. Well, let me tell you something.
There won't be any more peace when Isis is all dead and gone
than there is in the present time because there will be wars
and rumors of wars until the time of the end. But there is
peace, dear brethren, in Jesus Christ because He is the God
of peace. And even in the midst of the
greatest battles on earth, those who have fled for refuge are resting in that peace. Now the God of peace that brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, He brought Him
again from the dead. How did He rise from the dead?
Can you think about that for a minute? I mean a dead man,
how does a dead man rise from the dead? Dead men can't do anything, can
they? Not according to the definition
of death, but you see, the scripture says that God brought him from
the dead. That's absolutely correct. The
Lord, I mean, He is God. Now, I'll leave that to somebody
else to explain all the ins and outs of it, but He is God, never
ceased to be God. Even when He was in that tomb,
He never ceased to be God, but He has risen. And the Scripture
says, the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord
Jesus Christ, He is that One who has risen from the dead,
the Great Shepherd of the sheep. Now the Scripture speaks of the
Lord as a Great Shepherd, as a Good Shepherd, and as a Chief
Shepherd. And whenever you see the great
shepherd of the sheep, it's always associated with the fact that
he has risen from the dead. Because, dear brethren, a good
shepherd, he might intend to do something and not be able
to do it, because people have good intentions all the time,
don't they? But you see, when somebody is great, then they
can accomplish whatever it is they set out to do, and he is
the great shepherd. because He has risen from the
dead through the blood of the everlasting covenant. We'll stop
right there and trust that the Lord might apply these things
to our minds.