You can open your Bibles if you
would to Hebrews 13. The name of the message is the
Sacrifice of Joy. The Sacrifice of Joy. In this
portion is an illustration of the Old Testament service. And
Paul proves that the whole of the Old Testament pointed to
Christ, pointed to Him. On that great day of atonement,
when they did the sacrifice on the great day of atonement, That
sacrifice pointed to Christ and Him alone. Also, think of this
too. He was also the offerer. He offered
Himself up, didn't He? He offered Himself. He was our
total substitute. I was talking to Vicki about that this week.
I said, He was our total substitute. He offered Himself up for us.
He was the sacrifice. He was the priest. He's the altar.
It's His blood that's sprinkled upon the altar. My, He's the
total substitute in His life and in His death fully. And in
the types and pictures and shadows, he fulfilled them all, beloved.
All of them. And from the eighth verse onward
of Hebrews 13, the apostles engaged in setting forth those spiritual
duties of worship of which God himself is the object. The Israelites
offered the sacrifices in adoration to the God, to our great God,
right? He told them to offer certain sacrifices and they did
because they were being obedient to what He said. But those sacrifices
for us in the New Testament, they pointed to Christ who is
our sacrifice. They pointed to Him. And a series
of contrasts are drawn between that which occurred under the
old covenant and that which pertains to the new covenant. And marvel
at how the Christian's privileges excel those which belong to Judaism. Our privileges far excel the
privileges of the Old Testament. His rights. Verse 15 brings this
forth in a general principle, is the liturgical rites required
God's people, the Israelites, to provide a material offering,
right? They had to offer a material
offering, a lamb. But note the Christian sacrifices
are entirely spiritual. They're entirely spiritual, beloved. The Israelites had to provide,
again, material offerings, but we offer spiritual offerings.
Look at verse 15. By Him, that being Christ, therefore
let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. We offer the sacrifice of praise
because Christ is our sacrifice. He's already done everything
for us. He offered Himself up. as the sacrifice for our sins.
Therefore, we just offer sacrifices of joy up now, beloved. It's
wonderful. He's our sacrifice. He's the
one who did it all for us. And it says, offer these up continually. Well, you know how that we do,
by looking to Christ, by praising his name, by living our lives
unto God. We're offering up sacrifices
of praise, beloved. by doing those things. And then
it says, that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his
name. So our praise to God through
our lips are offering up sacrifices of praise to him, sacrifices
of joy to him. Is it not so? Does it not come
from a heart, a new heart that's grateful for what Christ has
done for us? We didn't praise God before we
were saved, did we? I certainly didn't. But now that
I'm born again by the Holy Spirit of God, and remember what we
looked at last couple weeks in Sunday School, we're new creatures
in Christ now, right? We offer up sacrifices of joy
now. Praise to our great God. And do we not do this every day?
Of course we do. Sometimes we don't even have
to verbalize it, do we? It just comes from our heart,
in our minds. Thank you, Lord, in our minds.
Praise you, Lord, in our minds. But there are some times when
we just let it out, don't we? Praise be, when the power came
on, I'll tell you what, I was saying praise be to God. I was
thinking, and all the way home, I'm like, please, Lord, let the
power be on. Lord, if it be your will, let the power be on. And
knowing also that if it wasn't on, well, Lord, that's your will
then, you know. But I'll tell you what, I sure
prayed on the way home that it would be on. Ain't nothing wrong
with that, is there? And then offering up sacrifices
of joy when the power was on, boy, I'll tell you what. And
it's just a little thing like that though, right? You ever
pull on a parking spot that somebody took off and you get this primo
parking spot right up front? The Lord reserved that for you.
Give Him thanks. Praise Him for it. Thank you,
Lord Jesus. I walk across the road here,
and every time I walk across the safe, I'm like, thank you,
Lord. And it's amazing how many times I come up to that road,
and there's no traffic on both sides. And I'm walking across
the road going, Lord, you're amazing. Thank you, Lord Jesus.
This is incredible. Yeah, see, so we just offer that
up to them, don't we? We do. We never did that before.
Didn't even think about it before. Now, Now we offer sacrifices
of praise to God, sacrifices of joy. And the Israelite worshiper
could not offer his sacrifices to God directly either. Remember
that too. He couldn't directly go. He had to give his sacrifice
to a high priest, didn't he? You know, now we're priests,
aren't we? So we can just offer sacrifices of joy right to our
God. They had to go through the high priest. Well, our high priest
died for us, didn't he? So now we have acceptance with
God. We can go right to God right now and offer him sacrifices
of praise, can't we? What a blessing. They had to bring the sacrifice
themselves. God already provided the sacrifice for us. They had
to give the sacrifice to the high priest. Christ is both the
one offering the sacrifice and also the sacrifice itself. They had to give it to the high
priest. He's our high priest. Then he's the altar, the sacrifice,
and the high priest, right? He's everything. He's everything. So all we do is offer sacrifices
of praise to our great God from our lips. And the praise sacrifices
were only presented at particular times, too, during the feasts,
like the Day of Atonement, certain feasts. That's when the praise
sacrifices were offered. But we see in our text that we
offer sacrifices of praise continually. We don't have to do it on special
times. Do you see how much we have more privilege than the
Old Testament Israelites? We can access God right now,
beloved. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace,
that we may obtain grace and mercy in time of need, right
in his presence because of Christ and Christ alone. It's wonderful. Look over in Hebrews chapter,
or actually let's read Hebrews chapter 13 verses 10 to 16, what
Brian read there. Look at this. We have an altar. whereof they
have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. Look at that. We'll look into that verse in
a little bit. For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is
brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned
without the camp. That without you see in the margin
will be outside, outside the camp. Wherefore Jesus also that
he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered without
the gate. Christ was suffered outside the gate. Let us go forth, therefore, unto
him without the camp, bearing his reproach. For here we have no continuing
city, but we seek one to come." What a beautiful verse. We're
going to look into that a little bit more, too. We seek a city
that's far off. Oh, it's wonderful. The celestial
city John Bunyan wrote in Pilgrim's Progress. The celestial city
where God dwells. By him, therefore, let us offer
the sacrifice of praise to God continually, by Christ, through
Christ. Just as we have access to God
through Christ, by Christ dying for us and giving his life for
us, we have access to go to the throne of God with sacrifices
of praise, beloved. Sacrifices of praise. 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. Look at verse 10. It says, We
have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the
tabernacle. The altar of the true church
is Christ. He's the altar. He's the Lord Jesus Christ, the
living God. And he's a precious altar. And
it is he who offered himself up to God for our sins in our
ruined place, as we saw on Sunday school, because he loved us.
He gave himself for us. My, it's absolutely amazing. And he did this willingly. And
he did it for a people of God's choosing. Turn with me a few chapters over
to Hebrews chapter 9, and marvel at these verses, verses 14 and
15 of Hebrews chapter 9, and look at the great truce bought
forth, contained in these two verses. Hebrews chapter 9, verses
14 and 15, the scripture declares, how much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without
spot to God. Look at that. The blood of Christ,
that's what redeems us, isn't it? That's what saves us from
our sins, the blood of Christ. Look at this. Who through the
eternal spirit offered himself up without spot to God. Look
at that. He's the perfect, sinless, spotless Lamb of God. The scripture
says there he offered himself up without spot. It means he
had no sin. Remember the Passover lamb had
to have no blemishes? That's just a picture of Christ,
beloved. The two that were offered on the Day of Atonement, remember,
they didn't know which one the lot would fall upon, but they
both had to be perfect, didn't they? Because one was the scapegoat
and one was the offering. But they both had to be perfect.
And the Scripture says here clearly, he offered himself up. Who did
he offer himself up to? The very one we offended. The
very one we sinned against. He offered himself up to God.
Yeah, he's the substitute, isn't he? He's the great substitute. He offered himself up to the
very one, the very one who we sinned against. Why? To purge your conscience
from dead works, to serve the living God. And for this cause,
because of what he did, because he did that, he's the mediator.
He's the one mediator between God and man. He's the only one
who's ever been sinless. You and I and everybody in this
world that's ever been born, every daughter and son of Adam,
are sinners from the top of our head to the bottom of our feet.
But he's the only one conceived by the Holy Spirit of God, born
of a virgin. seed of the woman and for this
cause he is the mediator of the New Testament that by the means
of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were
under the First Testament they which are called might receive
the promise of what? Eternal inheritance. Eternal
life. Isn't that incredible? He's loved
us with an everlasting love. He manifested that by going to
Calvary's cross and dying in our room and place that we might
receive the promise of eternal inheritance. And that inheritance,
beloved, that inheritance will never fade away. It can never
be spoiled. It's in a place where none can
reach it. Nothing in this earth can reach it. It's in glory.
It's in Christ. See, down here, we can get an
inheritance and spend it, right? Or it can go to someone else.
but not our inheritance we have in Christ. It's incorruptible. It's undefiable. It can never
be defiled, beloved, because it's in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
And the Lord Jesus Christ is our altar. It says there in verse
10, He's our altar. We have an altar, where they
have no right to eat, which serve the tabernacle. So again, the
Lord Jesus Christ is our altar. He's our sacrificer. He's the
high priest and He's the one offering the sacrifice too. All
in our room and place, beloved. All because He loved us. Then
He gave His life for us to prove that love. To prove that love. We see that song, how can it
be? How can it be that God would love a sinner like me? How can
it be? Because it pleased God to do
so. Isn't that amazing? Because it pleased him to save
you and I. It pleased him to come to this
world and give his life for us because he's loved us from eternity. Now let that just sink into your
souls this week. That's a truth, beloved. He's loved us from eternity. I know for our minds, we can't
really fathom that, can we? We can't really fully grasp it,
but it's true. It's true. He has loved us from
eternity, and He manifested that love by giving His life for us. That's why the Scripture says,
greater love hath no man than this, and the man give his life
for his friends. And that's not talking about
somebody jumping on a hand grenade. That's talking about Christ giving
His life for all these sinners. Now that's a valor and honor.
That man would do that, wouldn't it? But this life, this death is
absolutely incredible because he's spotless. He's sinless. He gave his life for us. He offered
himself without blemish, without sin to God for us in our place,
in our room instead. So that we We will not face the
judgment of God. And that's what people will face.
They will face the judgment of God if they die in their sins. Sin is so awful that the son
of God had to give himself up for our sin, beloved. It's so awful. Now anyone who's looking to any
other sacrifice for the salvation of one's soul, other than the
Lord Jesus Christ, this verse here in verse 10 says they have
no right to Christ then. That's what that's saying. If
they're trying to get to heaven by anything they do or say or
anything within their own power, the scripture here declares that
they have no right in our altar. No right to it. And the only reason we have a
right to it is because God made it so, right? Isn't that amazing? They have no right, no benefit
in this altar spoken of here. No benefit in the sacrifice of
Christ. They're putting their hopes in
a false refuge, a refuge of lies, which will lead to their judgment
before God. It will lead to their judgment
before God against their sins. Anyone who's trusting in their
own righteousness also has no participation in this altar. Salvation is only in and through
the finished, perfect, sinatoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that verse is so clearly,
we have an altar. We believers, we have an altar.
We all praise God we have an altar, right? where they have
no right to eat, which serve the tabernacle." Jesus Christ
is the only hope for any hell-deserving sinner. There's no other hope.
I'll tell you, there's no other hope for hell-deserving sinners.
There's no hope for anyone else. The only way to escape God's
wrath is through the Lord Jesus Christ. And God himself tells
us in this word that there's not a just man upon this earth.
Right? That there's none that doeth
good. No, not one. Tells us that all sin and come short of the
glory of God. The whole human race from the
fall of Adam to the last person to come into this world deserve
God's eternal wrath. But when the Lord Jesus Christ
died on Calvary's cross, he took care of somebody's sin debt,
didn't he? He took care of somebody's sin debt. It wasn't for everybody
in the world, but he definitely took care of somebody's sin debt. He paid for somebody's sin. Some sinners were delivered from
the eternal wrath of God. How did he do that? Well, look
at verses 12 and 13 of our text. Wherefore, Jesus, also that he
might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without
the gate. died on Calvary's cross. Let us go forth therefore unto
him without the camp, bearing his reproach. Oh, it says there he's redeemed
some people, he sanctified some people with his blood. How did
he do that? By bearing their sins. By bearing
their sins in his own body on the tree, they were imputed to
him. Then He redeemed them with His precious, precious blood,
with the shedding of His blood. Whose iniquities were laid on
Him? Whose stripes are healed by His
sacrifice? Well, His elect. Those the Father
gave Him. If anyone has any doubt about
that God the Father gave a people to Christ, please read John 17
carefully and prayerfully. It's so clear. The Father gave
a people to Christ. And as we sang in that song,
how can it be? That's what we say as believers.
How can it be that I'm included in that number? By the grace
and mercy of God, beloved. By the grace and mercy of God.
So God the Father accepted the sacrifice of Christ. which he
made on Calvary's cross, he accepted the sacrifice of Christ, and
he accepted all those for whom Christ died. All those he gave
to Christ in eternity. He's our representative. And
there therefore now is no more sacrifice for our sins. Christ
is the sacrifice. Let us live in that truth, beloved.
There's no more sacrifice for our sins because Christ died
for us. And God says, I don't remember your sin no more. As
far as the east is from the west, it's gone. Wash clean in the
blood of my son. When I see that blood, I'll pass
over you. My, it's wonderful. And on the day of atonement,
the goat that was slain, the blood was brought into the Holy
of Holies and sprinkled on the mercy seat to make an atonement.
And the bullock and the goats were taken outside the camp and
burned. And in order to sanctify us with his blood and to fulfill
this tithe, Christ was crucified outside the walls of Jerusalem,
dying as our substitute on Calvary's cross. securing eternal salvation for
us, purchased with his precious, precious blood. And look at here, before we move
on for verse 13, look at, there's some key words in this verse.
It says, let us go forth therefore unto him without the cant bearing
his reproach. There's two key words here, unto
him. Unto him. Unto Him. Look unto Him. Trust
in Him. Beloved, the Lord Jesus Christ
is our sin offering, our hope of redemption, our Redeemer. Where is He? There we must be. Whether in the camp or outside
the camp, there we must be. In His shame and reproach, He
suffered without the camp, So being one with him, we quit the
camp of ceremony, legalism, human works, worldliness, or whatever
else to be identified with the Lord Jesus Christ in him alone. We quit all those means that
we used to think would lead to our salvation, but would only
lead to our doom. And we just look to Christ, don't
we? We look to him. Unto Him. Look unto Him, beloved. He's all our wisdom. He's all
our righteousness. He's all our sanctification.
He's all our redemption, that according to His written, He
that glories, let him glory in the Lord. And that's who we glory
in. We glory in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then verse 14 brings forth that the world is not our home. We're
just passing through, beloved. Pilgrim in Pilgrim's Progress,
he was on the way to the Celestial City. That's where we're going,
beloved. We're just journeying through
this world. Remember that old song, this world is not my home,
I'm just passing through? Right? That's true. We're just strangers and pilgrims
in this world, beloved. We once loved this world. Now
it doesn't hold the beauty that it did before, does it? No. We live in this world, and we
use things in this world, but we're not tied to the world,
are we? We're just passing through. It
says here, for we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come.
Oh, are you homesick for heaven? I was talking to a brother in
the Lord this week about how homesick we both were for heaven.
Just homesick. What a joy it'll be. What a joy
it'll be to go home to be with the Lord. Now, when we lose one
of our loved ones or our brothers and sisters, we mourn for the
loss that we feel, but oh my, they've gained, beloved. They've gained. That's why Paul
said, to die is gain. My. We're going, when we die,
we go to that city, that city that's to come, beloved.
Wherein dwells righteousness. Where there's just a bunch of
people who love the Lord. Love His people, love His gospel. Won't that be amazing? You know
the world, This world and everything in it is unstable and temporary. It really is. Do you know everything
we see in this world is temporary? It's all temporary, beloved.
You say, well, how can you say that? Well, trees die and they
grow, little ones grow. We die, little ones grow, right? Cars break down, houses get old,
you got to fix them up. Sometimes they get sold, they
just fall down, right? Buildings get abandoned, overgrown,
fall down. Everything's temporary here,
beloved. The riches, the honors, the pleasures, even the people
in this world are temporary. Temporary. It's all gonna pass
away. And we're in this world, but
we're not of this world, beloved. We're not of this world. And
when the will of God is done for our lives, we'll be taken
home to the city. My, that'll be amazing, won't
it? Taken out of this world and brought into the presence of
the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Into heaven, into perfect
peace, perfect love, bliss. Now let's read verse 15. By him
therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually
that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. Now
verse 15 here is a place where we could camp for a very very
long time. This is like that verse in Galatians
2.20 that we camped in now for for three weeks in Sunday school. This is very similar. You can
camp in this verse for a long time. My oh my. Look at the first two
words. By Him. By Christ. By Him. By Him, all things were created. By Him, all things consist. By Him, we live and move and
have our being. By Him, we are delivered from
the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of God's Son. By Him, we have been united to
God by the gift of true saving faith. By Him, we now have acceptance
with God. By Him, we are now justified
by God. By Him, we now have peace with
God. By him, we are now redeemed by
his precious, precious blood. By him, by his power, we are
kept through faith unto salvation. By him, we will be presented
faultless before his throne of grace. And by him, we could just keep
going, couldn't we? The list could just keep going
and going and going and going. By Him, by Christ, two so very
important words in this text here. By Him, therefore, it says
therefore now, which again draws our attention to what He's already
said, and we can go all the way back up to verse 10, we have
an altar. By Him, we have an altar. By Him, we have a sacrifice. By Him, we're redeemed by His
blood. My, oh my. You know, God was
never pleased with the blood of animal sacrifices. Those sacrifices
could never take away sin, the scripture declares. But those
sacrifices all pointed to Christ, who is the believer's sacrifice,
whose precious blood has purged us from all our sins, the sins
of God's chosen people. And our sins are now taken away
from God's sight. Now let this sink in forever. Forever. I'll remember your sins, what?
Does he say, well, I remember a couple here and there? No,
our great God says, I'll remember your sins no more. And God's not one of them fellas
that says, well, I won't remember that anymore, then brings it
up six months later. You ever had friends like that? I'm not going to, I'm not, I
forgive you, I'm not going to, boom, you get hit like a hammer
six months later with the thing. God doesn't do that, beloved.
When God, the almighty God of the universe, now take this,
oh my, this is just, as Henry used to say, you take it to the
bank, right? God says, I'll remember your
sins no more. Oh my. Oh my. But Lord, I remember them. I
don't remember your sins anymore, Wayne. But Lord, I remember the things
I did. I don't remember your sins anymore, Wayne. Put your
name in it. Sometimes we forget very easily,
don't we? And I believe that's why the
scripture reminds us of these precious truths. Because we are prone to look
at our sinfulness, which now we look at more than we ever
did before. But don't let that, you know,
if the Lord brings something up to your mind, confess it and
it's gone. It's already been forgiven. But
just confess it and move on. Because he doesn't remember it.
And it says He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins,
right? We confess our sins to Him, don't we? We are to confess
our sins, absolutely. But they're covered in the blood
of Christ, beloved. They're covered. They're gone. This is one of
the things that's most amazing about salvation in Christ. We're
not under the law of Moses anymore. We're not under the old Mosaic
economy. Because Christ, by His perfect
life of obedience, And then by His supreme sacrifice on Calvary's
cross, He's fulfilled all the Old Testament types and shadows.
He's fulfilled the law for us. He's redeemed us out from under
the law, remember? We're redeemed out from under
the law. So now the law doesn't have any claim on us. And this
is absolutely amazing. We are totally freely forgiven,
beloved. That's why people say, well, if you preach like that,
you can do whatever you want. No, no, no. Because now, as we've
seen, we live our life unto God now. Because we have a new nature,
right? Now, if someone said that to
an unbeliever, I could understand that. Because they're not guided
by a new nature, are they? They're still guided by their
old nature, right? But for a believer, we're now
guided by a new nature. That's Christ in us, the hope
of glory, right? The Holy Spirit within us. And
He convicts us of sin, doesn't He? He teaches us. You know, someone doesn't have to tell
you a movie is wrong or a certain type of movie or a certain type
of something is wrong. You already know that, right?
Or anything in your life. You already know it. And so you
say, well, I'm not going to watch that. Because God will teach us, beloved,
and guide us, and direct us. God is a loving God to those
who are in Christ. Now, to those outside of Christ,
the wrath of God is going to fall upon them. But our God, He's a great God. And there's only one way for
any hell-deserving sinner, and that's what we are. But there's
only one way that any hell-deserving sinner can approach a thrice-holy
God, God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and that
is in and through the Lord Jesus Christ in Him alone. There's
no other way. Turn a couple chapters over to
Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. We'll read verses 16 to 23. This is the covenant that I will
make with them after these days, saith the Lord. I will put my
laws into their hearts and in their minds, I will write them.
So the law is actually written on our hearts, right? We know
what's right and wrong, don't we? We know. We know what's lawful for us.
Even though we have freedom in Christ, we know what's good for
us and what's not. We know. We've been taught. We've been
taught that. Look at this. And this is God
saying this. And there are sins. Well, how
many? Well, all of them, right? Because either Christ died for
all my sins or He didn't die for any of them. And there are
sins and iniquities. Well, I remember No more. God is telling us that in Christ,
here remember our sins and inequities no more. No wonder we offer up
sacrifices of praise to our great God. All my sins are forgiven. He says right here, I don't,
I won't remember your sins anymore. Put your name in there. And Wayne's sins and iniquities,
will I remember no more? Put your name in there, beloved.
If you're a born again, blood lost child of God, put your name
in there. That's incredible. The very one who I sinned against
is telling me, I won't remember your sins anymore, Wayne. Because
of the sacrifice of my son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Because of
his precious, precious blood. Look what it says here. Now where
remission of these is, there's no more offering for sin. You
can't offer anything up. If they're all forgiven, there's
nothing else you can offer. You see, this is why the fruitlessness
of people trying to say, saying, well, it's Christ in my works.
No, no, the scripture here is clearly teaching us that if you're
saved in Christ and God doesn't remember your sins anymore, then
there's no more offering that you can offer up. None. Isn't
that wonderful? That means we're free. That means we can enjoy this
life. We have liberty and freedom in Christ. Not to go out and sin more, right?
God forbid, Paul wrote. But to live our lives unto God.
To live our lives for Him. For Him. It's absolutely amazing. Having therefore, brethren, boldness
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Christ. See, now
we can enter into the holy of holies. Only the high priest
could enter in there, right? Well, Christ, our high priest,
he's our forerunner. He's already went in for us.
Right? Having therefore, brethren, boldness
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new
and living way, which he hath consecrated for us. See, it's
all his work. Through the veil, that is to
say, his flesh. and having the high priest over the house of
God, that's Christ. Let us draw near with a true
heart, look at this, in full assurance. God's people don't have to doubt
their salvation because it's in Christ. If you're trusting and resting
in Christ alone for everything, you have a full assurance, beloved.
Even if we don't always have that, a full assurance of faith,
God-given faith, beloved. Faith that has one object, that's
Christ. Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our
bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession
of our faith without wavering, for He that is faithful has promised. Oh my. And you know how we hold
fast the profession of our faith? God keeps us holding fast. Isn't
it wonderful? Because even when we're not faithful,
He's faithful. Isn't that wonderful? When we
stumble and fall, which we often do, He just picks us up, leads us along the way, like
a shepherd with the sheep. Let's read verse 15 again. 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. Our text says, By Him, that's
Christ. Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually.
Now, these sacrifices of praise must come from the heart. And
this praise and adoration, this delight in confident trust, is
in Christ and Christ alone. And this arises from a heart
that's truly regenerated, born again by the Holy Spirit of God. And it's this true, intense love
that we have for Christ. Now, our love wavers, right?
our love waivers. Now, remember feelings come and
feelings go, but feelings will deceive you. Don't look to your
feelings for how much you trust in Christ. Just trust Christ.
Just trust Christ. Just keep looking to Him. Right? Look to Him and Him alone. Nowhere
else. Nowhere else. Oh, let us continually offer
the fruit of our lips, the sacrifice of praise, And this heart is
the inner man. This heart that's spoken of is
the inner man. Not this heart of flesh we have,
but the inner man. Remember we spoke, we looked
at this morning about how we're new creatures in Christ. We live
in this flesh, but yet we're new creatures in Christ. That's
the heart that this praise and adoration comes from, the inner
man. Where our thoughts come from from the Holy Spirit in us. See, before we were saved, our
thoughts come from an unregenerate mind. Now we have a new mind,
a new heart that hungers and thirsts after righteousness. It's amazing. I sent a dear sister
some scripture this week, and she wrote back saying, you know,
the scripture means more to me now that the Lord saved me than
it ever has before. It's true. Now it's real. Oh, now it's wonderful. It's
absolutely wonderful. And this new heart in us is the
new man that God's created in us. So by Christ, through Christ,
let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. You
see, this brings forth that there's no coming to God except through
Christ. So someone who says you can go
to God through all these different means, they're not true. They're
lies. There's only one way to God, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
There's only one access to God, and that's Christ. It says, by
Him, by Christ, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God
continually. All of the mercies and all the
blessings of God come through Christ in our praises and our
thanksgiving are only acceptable to God through Christ, through
Christ. And being made priests before
God by Christ, all those typical sacrifices
having been fulfilled and abolished by Christ, our high priest points
out that we are now as priests of God to offer sacrifices of
joy. Sacrifices of praise. Sacrifices
of praise. Turn, if you would, to Ephesians,
chapter 5. And I'll read 1 Thessalonians
5, verses 16 to 18, which says, Rejoice evermore. Pray without
ceasing. In everything give thanks, for
this is the will of God and Christ Jesus concerning you. Whatever
circumstance you find yourself in, give thanks to God. Even
when it's hard to do so, just give him thanks. Give him thanks. Look at Ephesians 5 verses 19
to 21. Speaking to yourselves in psalms
and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in
your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things
unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
submitting yourselves to one another in the fear of God. Look
at that. That's giving thanks. That's
offering sacrifices of praise. Turn a few words to Psalm 150,
the last psalm in the scriptures. Oh, this is a wonderful psalm.
This ties in with that continually, which just means in every condition,
in every condition, the believer is to offer praise to God, even
when it's hard for us to do so. I'll tell you what, when I'm
going through something and I'm low, I find when I start praising
God, it starts to lift me up, even though I'm still in the
midst of whatever I'm going through. I'll tell you, the Lord's so
good to us. Look at this, this is one of my favorite psalms,
Psalm 150. I probably say that about every psalm, but this is
just wonderful, this one. Look at this. Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in His sanctuary.
Praise Him in the firmament of His power. Praise Him for His
mighty acts. Praise Him according to His excellent
greatness. Praise Him with the sound of
the trumpet. Praise Him with the psaltery
and harp. Praise Him with the timbrel and dance. Praise Him
with stringed instruments and organs. Praise Him upon the loud
cymbals. Praise Him upon the high sounding
cymbals. Let everything that hath breath
praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. That's wonderful. That's offering sacrifices of
praise. Sacrifices of praise. And it's
the fruit of our lips. And remember, this is not from
our own doing, is it? This is the Holy Spirit working
in us, beloved. And then we give sacrifices of
praise. Lord, you saved my soul. Oh,
I'm such a sinner. I deserve nothing but hell. But
yet you saved me. You had mercy on me. I'm going
to praise you with my lips, Lord. And you ever notice something
too? We can't even praise God the way we feel in here, can
we? What we say is not even sufficient. But yet, don't let that stop
you. Just give him praise and glory. Just sing hallelujah to
him. Praise his name. Praise his name. for the great things that he's
done for us. Give him all the glory and all the honor and all
the praise. My oh my. And it's called the
fruit of our lips in reference to the offering of the first
fruits in the Old Testament to distinguish it from the ceremonial
sacrifices and to show the way that we are to praise God. Namely
with our lips from a new heart, beloved. from a new heart, from
the new spirit within us, right? The Holy Spirit of God within
us, Christ in us, the hope of glory. Marvel that we are now
doing that. We who were once enemies to God
in our minds, rebels in our hearts, now we sing praises. We got a
new heart now, don't we? We got a new spirit. We're born
again. Now we sing sacrifices of praise
to our great God and King. And then look at verse 16, it
says, but to do good and to communicate, forget not, for with such sacrifices
God is well pleased. Our text says to do good and
communicate, it just means to participate with the saints in
close fellowship. That's why we have such joy when
we're together and we start talking about the things of Christ. That's
why we have such joy. And forget not such sacrifices.
because God's well pleased. Praise and thanksgiving comes
not only from our heart as we worship him with words, but also
comes from our lips, doesn't it? Comes from our lips. Praise
and thanksgiving comes from a recognition. You know where we really start
praising God? And I find this is true for me,
I hope it is for you too, is that when we start seeing things
going on in the world and we can get, we can get, start getting
a little worked up, right? I like what Tom does, he just
turns it to another channel. But, but we just start getting
worked up, right? We start getting, we do, we start boiling up a
little bit. But then when we start thinking about God's sovereignty
and how he's in absolute control, we don't have to worry about
that, then what will start happening? The more we dwell on that, the
more we start thinking about that, I guarantee you this will
happen to you. The more you start thinking about that, Oh God Sovereign,
save my soul. Before you know it, you're going
to be praising God. And you won't be thinking about
what you were just thinking about. I'll tell you. And that all comes about by the
new heart within us, right? And we start praising God. And
that's why we preachers, we just say, keep looking to Christ,
just keep looking to Him. Because we look to the things
in this world, I'll tell you, I'm gonna get worked up. But
remember, He's sovereign in everything that we consider good and bad.
He's absolutely, if we keep that, if we keep that in our minds,
that no matter what happens, God is good. Norm Wells would tell me his
daughter had an accident years ago where her neck got broken.
And it was looking like she wasn't going to make it. And someone
said to him, well, that's awful. And he said, no, God's good.
God's good. And his daughter recovered, thankfully.
And everything's fine. But he said, God's good all the
time. And he always tells me that.
We say, God's good. And he says, all the time. He
is. All the time, isn't He? He's
good all the time, beloved. Good and bad. And He's sovereign
over all things. And God the Holy Spirit moved
Luke to write these words, Jesus Christ, Lord of all. Good and
bad things, right? He's Lord over all. He's not
the author of sin. All He's got to do is let man
do whatever they want to do, right? And man will do the worst
things. We'll do things unimaginable
to each other. And there go I, but for the grace
of God." Every one of us would say that. There was a man being
taken to the Gattles. He went by John Bradford, a preacher
from the 1500s, and he goes, there goes John Bradford, but
for the grace of God. It's true, isn't it, for us?
It's true. Our great Savior, though, He
controls everything, beloved, and that'll lead us to praise
His name. And He's the same yesterday,
today, and forever. He does not change. Therefore, we offer sacrifices
of praise to the One who's the same yesterday, today, and forever,
the unchanging God. And if He's loved me from eternity,
then He still loves me because eternity has got no time! My, oh my! I remember Joe Terrell
and I were talking, he says, some people say eternity old
and eternity future, but it's all eternity, Wayne! It's true, isn't it? It's all
eternity. And think of this. Think of how
sovereign our Lord is. He sent seven years of plenty,
giving Joseph the wisdom to store up that food, right? In Egypt,
remember? And then seven years of famine hit. And He did all
that. He did all that to get His people
Israel down to Egypt. down to Egypt, beloved. And they
were placed in the chosen land of Goshen, the best land that
the Egyptians had, the most fertile land, they were placed there.
And Pharaoh gave him that land. Oh my, oh my. And under the preaching of the
gospel, our Lord Jesus sends a spiritual famine in our souls,
doesn't he? hunger and thirst after righteousness,
and we under the Holy Spirit of God are convicted and realize
that we have no hope outside of Christ, and we run to him.
Then he dresses us in his perfect spotless righteousness that was
already provided by the obedience and death of Christ. By his perfect
obedience, he clothes us in his own righteousness, beloved. And
our Lord is in Our Lord is in control of what foolish people
call Mother Nature. You hear that all the time, right?
No, it's God. It's God who puts the laws of
nature into being. It's God who sends the storms
or withholds the storms. He makes the clouds His chariot,
beloved. He's in control of everything.
And you know, he wouldn't even let a dog bark at the Israelites
when they left Egypt. Not even a dog barked. He wouldn't
let a dog bark at his people as they left Israel or Egypt.
My, then he sent ravens to feed Elijah. See how sovereign he
is? There was 40 children who mocked
his servant, Elijah. He had a she-bear come out and
kill them all. My. He is sovereign when our little
vessels of clay are sailing on rough waters. We're just little
vessels of clay, beloved. When we're sailing on rough waters,
He's sovereign. When we're sailing on smooth
waters, He's sovereign. He's sovereign over all. When
we're in good health, He's sovereign. When our health is poor, He's
sovereign. When we have money in the bank,
He's sovereign. When we have very little money
in the bank, He's sovereign. My, oh, my. It isn't funny when
we just have a little bit of money, we always make it to the
end of the month. Oh, God's so good. He's so good.
In everything, not just from our lips, but from our hearts,
this is God's will concerning his children. Let us offer sacrifices
of praise for what he's done for us. And Jesus Christ is our
sacrifice. He's our life now, beloved. He's
our Savior. He's our Redeemer. Let us therefore
present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God,
for this is our reasonable service, Paul writes. Let us now live
our lives unto God, unto Him. And we love Christ because He
first loved us, right? That's the only reason we love
Him. And may our great May with our great God's help we be motivated
by faith, which works by love, to devote our lives to Christ,
giving him all the glory in all things. He saved my soul. He
remembers my sins no more. I'm fully, freely forgiven by
him. Let us offer the sacrifice of
praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips,
giving thanks to him.