We're going to be in the book
of Hebrews, if you'd like to turn their Hebrews chapter 13. I've titled this message by him. By him. Hebrews chapter 13. I want to read us this before
we read our texts. Colossians 1 tells us, for by
him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in
earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers, all things were created by him
and for him. And he is before all things,
and by him all things consist. By him. If the Lord chose to
reveal himself to you, you've been made to know that everything
is by him, according to his own goodwill and purpose. Christ is light, and without
him, there's darkness. Christ is life, and without him,
there's nothing but utter death. Christ is peace, and without
him, there's just chaos. Christ is rest, and without him,
there's just work. Christ is joy and hope, and without
him, there's nothing but fear and doubt and pain and suffering. Christ is salvation, and without
him, there is only damnation. Let's read our text, 2 verses
15 and 16 of Hebrews chapter 13. 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. You see that word giving in the
first verse that's the word confessing to confessing to it would read
like this. By him, therefore, let us offer
the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit
of our lips, confessing his name. Confessing his name. The only way that we can praise
God is by him. The only way we can worship
God is in spirit and in truth. You know what that means? It's
by him also. It is in him we live, move, and
have our being. It's by him the worlds were made.
It's by him salvation was accomplished. It's by him that we are sitting,
well, you're sitting, I'm standing. You're sitting where you're sitting,
and he is, and I'm standing where I'm standing. By him, all things
consist. Without him, nothing was made
that was made. He made all things. By him were
all things made. It's in Him we live, we move,
and we have our being. And that's the only way we can
live, is in Him, by Him, by Him doing it. But here we're shown
our praise and thanksgiving is also completely by His doing. It's by Him. If God requires
praise and thanksgiving from you, and praise and thanksgiving
from me, Everything he requires, he must provide. He must provide. We can say that about anything.
We can always say that. He must provide me with thanksgiving. He must provide me with the ability
to praise him. He must provide me with the ability
to confess him, as we just read. I have my handkerchief. Our praise and thanksgiving is
completely by Him. Meaning you and I can't even
praise Him unless He enables us. Think about that. You and
I can't even praise Him. You and I can't even worship
Him. You have a lot of will worshipers out there, as Paul talks about,
that are doing their best, they think, to worship God, but they're
not worshiping God. They're worshiping self. It is
the gift of God to worship him. It is the gift of God to praise
him. It's the gift by grace. If it was up to us to praise
him, and we could do it all in ourself, if we could worship
all in ourself, wouldn't we brag about that? Wouldn't we pat ourself
on the back? I have this in the notes somewhere,
but I was going to save it. I'm going to tell us now. Men,
by nature, want to be bragged on. I work with some people that
they like to hear that they're doing a good job. And if you
don't tell them they're doing a good job, they'll let you know
that they're doing a good job. Do you ever met anybody like
that? I'm reminded of Nebuchadnezzar, this is great Babylon that I
have created. And unless God comes to where
we are and shows us, no, Babylon's what it is because of me, Nebuchadnezzar,
not you. Made him eat for seven years
the grass of the earth and turned him into a mine, into an ox,
put him in the dirt. What was his confession after
that? It's the same as Jonah, salvations of the Lord. Salvations
of the Lord. I was mistaken. I thought that
I got glory. No, he gets all the glory. He
gets all the glory. If we are going to praise him,
that's how it's going to have to be. He's going to have to
enable us. He's going to have to teach us. And thank God, he
said, they all, all my children will be taught of me. He's going
to teach his people. He's going to teach his people.
Understand giving the smallest amount of glory to ourself is
giving all glory to ourself. I heard somebody tell me recently
that they love that we're talking about what's God's greatest gift.
And I was like, Well, that's that's not complicated for me
to answer. But I said, What do you think it is? And he said,
Well, my the greatest gift God gave me was my free will. That's
what he told me. And I said, So you're telling me that you're
praising God for allowing him, how did I write this? He was thanking God for allowing
him to praise himself. That's exactly what that is.
He was thanking God for allowing him to praise himself. If free
will Look at free will. If it's something that you choose,
you get the glory for it. If it's something you do, you
get the glory for it. He was thanking God that he got to praise himself. Look what I have done. This is
great Babylon. This is salvation that I have
gotten because I did this. Oh, perish the thought. Now we
give all glory to the Lord. All praise to him. We give him
all praise. Is that guy praising God or himself?
No, he's praising his decision. Pharisee prayed the same. Lord,
I thank thee that I am not like other men are. I tithe, I fast,
I pray, I do this and I do that. And Lord, I thank you that I'm
not like that publican over there. Well, he was, he thought of himself
pretty high, didn't he? What of the publican? Well, the
scripture says he beat upon his chest and would not so much lift
up his head unto the sky, but he, under the Lord, have mercy
on me, the sinner." See, he knew by God's grace, by faith given
to him, he knew that the only way he was going to be saved,
the only way he was going to be able to praise God, the only
way he's going to have anything to do with God other than wrath and judgment
is God had to show mercy. God had to show grace. See, salvation's
of the Lord. It's not of us, not by us. It's for the Lord's people. But
it's all him. It's all him. And if he doesn't
come to where we are and show us, you need mercy. You need
grace. You need to be saved, not just
from your sin, but from yourself. You need to be saved from your
will. We need to be, our will is bound to our nature. We need
to be saved from our will. We need a new will. One that
seeks the face of Christ. See, one of these men, they were
enabled and made to praise God, God's way. And the other would
just left to himself. The Pharisee was just left to
himself. That'll be the end result of every man and every woman.
If left to themselves, they'll end up praising themselves, not
God. Praise is a gift of grace. Being
able to praise God, being able to worship the Lord, it's a gift
of grace. Not everybody can do that. Now
I understand the scripture says even the wrath of man will praise
him. He's gonna get all the glory and everything, don't get me
wrong, but for you to be able to actually praise God from the
heart, that is a gift that he gives only to his people. Now I wanna preface what I'm
about to say because he talks about sacrifice here. And he
talks about this pleasing God. And so I want it to be as clear
as I can on this. He calls it the sacrifice of
praise. So I want to, actually verse 16, I should have put verse
16 in here also, but it says, but to do good and to communicate,
forget not for with such sacrifices, God is well pleased. God is well
pleased with these sacrifices. Now, I wanna preface again, everything
God requires, He must provide. This is not a sacrifice that
we make in order to please God. The Lord is pleased with the
sacrifice He allows us to do, He causes us to do. And I'll
try to explain this as best I can. There's nothing, there is no
sacrifice that you and I do that brings us in better fellowship
or standing with God. Be as clear as I can be. There's
no sacrifice that you and I do that brings us in better standing
or fellowship with God, because our standing is in Christ. Our
fellowship's based upon Christ. It's not based upon what we do.
It's not the life we live, not the praise of our lips, but notice
worship and praise given unto the Lord is called a sacrifice
here. Why is it a sacrifice? Because it's selfless. That's
what the word sacrifice means, it's selfless. That's why the
Lord is pleased with it, because we're looking to the same thing
He is looking to, the Lord Jesus Christ. We're desiring the same
thing that the Lord has purposed for salvation, the Lord Jesus
Christ. We are glorifying His Son, and the Lord is well pleased
with His Son. So in order for us to be able
to praise and worship, we look to the same thing that the Father
looks to, the Son. We look to the Lord Jesus Christ. Only God's people are made to
be selfless. Did you know if you're a believer,
if the Lord's called you out of darkness into his light, you
have taken sides with God against yourself. Against yourself. You have declared that you are
your own worst enemy. Think about that. You know it's
true too. We see our sins ever before us.
I'm my own worst enemy. Oh wretched man that I am, who's
gonna deliver me from this body of death? Other than the Lord,
nobody can. So it is a miracle of grace that we're able to praise
God. It's a miracle of grace. He causes
us to take sides with him against ourself. Understand something. Worship is not for you. Worship is not for me. Worship
is an offering unto God from the heart. That's what worship
is. Worship is believing, confessing, he called it confessing right
here, the same thing that God confessed. That's what worship
is. It is for the admiration and
for the glory of God. If worship was for us, we would
make a work out of it. We would say, well, look at my
worship. Look at my, well, people do it with service too, don't
they? worships unto the Lord, isn't it? It's in the heart.
It's given unto the Lord from the heart. It's offering what
God is pleased with. What are you gonna offer God?
Think about that. What are you gonna offer God? He don't want
anything. If I was hungry, I wouldn't tell
you about it. If I was hungry, you wouldn't know. I wouldn't
tell you. That's what he told the disciples, didn't he? What are
we gonna offer God? It's got to be the Lord Jesus
Christ. We've got to look to him. He is the offering. We don't,
it's hard to describe because we don't actually offer him,
but we're offering our praise unto Christ. So in that sense,
we're offering the father the same thing that he's pleased
with, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord was offered once to
his father, wasn't he? Once on the cross of Calvary for his
people. And the father was well pleased with that sacrifice in
so much he justified every person that the Lord Jesus Christ died
for. Every one of them have been justified freely by his grace. Oftentimes we do come looking
to be fed. And that's a good thing. That's a good thing. But worship
is looking to Christ, praising, adoring him, admiring him, glorifying
him. How do you do that? Well, when
the gospel goes forth, In your heart, you're saying, amen, amen,
truth, Lord. Some of us say it vocally, but
that's what agreeing with what the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished. Agreeing that that's your only
hope of salvation. That's worshiping God. Agreeing
that you could never save yourself. Agree, confessing that unto him
in the heart by faith. That's what true worship's in
the heart. Never draws attention to the
flesh. Like the result of the Old Covenant, which drew all
the attention to the flesh, didn't it? The Old Covenant was all
about, look at what we're doing. We're doing this ceremony, or
we're doing this, or we're doing that. And they would have their
feasts and all these things. All that did was leave the users
with a covering for one year as we heard the first hour. And
as soon as that year was up, it didn't clear the conscience
though. They were still guilty. The sin had not been put away.
Think about that. This was just a covering of a covenant that
God made in order for them not to be destroyed. That's what
that was. But only the Lord Jesus Christ's blood washed away the
sin of his people. Only the Lord Jesus Christ successfully
redeemed his people. No sacrifices never could have
done that. The new covenant has been accomplished and mediated
by Christ and it leaves the recipient with a clean heart before God,
a clear conscience before God. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ
accomplished. That's why we worship, because he's our savior. We use that word so often, it's
thrown around, but he saved us from our sin. He saved us from
ourself. He saved us from destruction,
his wrath. He saved us from hell. He saved
us from Satan and the world. He saved us from, oh, he saved
us, didn't he? And if he hadn't, we know we
would never have been saved. The new covenant leaves the recipient
with a heart full of praise and thanksgiving. He provides it. He provides the heart of praise
and thanksgiving. Now we never praise him. We never
worship him as a work. something to add to our salvation. Now we praise him because salvation
has been accomplished. We never try to add to the finished
work of Christ in anything, but every old man, every chance it
gets, it tries to make something into a work. It just tries. It
wants to do it. It doesn't matter what it is,
even in worship. And that's why you see people, their worship,
their hands will be flying around and things like that. They're
drawing attention to their self. They're making a work out of
it. They don't even realize that's what they're doing. No worships done
in the heart and through it's through the eyes of faith. The heart of praise and thanksgiving
is what we. Heart that he gave us, we're
just giving him back to all the things that he gave us. That's
all we're doing. We're saying this is my this is my heart that
you gave me. And we look to Christ. We look
to Christ. This is why the modern day worship,
so-called splasphemous, it's all about how they feel. But
worship is not how you feel. Feelings come and feelings go.
Worship's believing God. Worship's believing Christ. Worship's
taking him for his word and confessing him. That's worship. Have you ever got to the place
where you have been made to realize that you're just not pleased
with yourself? I'm just not. I used to be in love with myself
back in religion. Had everything down pat. I don't
know if some of you all were like that too, but I had it down
pat. I mean, I would stick my nose
up at people. It's embarrassing. It's just
embarrassing to talk about. Now I see we, the Lord's people
really become the chief sinners. They really do. We don't have
time to look at each other's sin because we have our own to
deal with. I'm not, we don't look down on
each other because I, I, I'm the worst one here. That's why
somebody said, well, no, I think I am. Well, that's the whole
point. The Lord doesn't let us see the goodness in us because there
is no goodness in us. And it's not about us. It's,
this is about his worship. This is about his praise for
making us the very righteousness of God. In the Lord Jesus Christ,
I've been made to say I'm pleased with not myself, but with one,
the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm pleased with him, just like
God is. Something important to mention,
in no way, shape or form, is our worship and praise a determining
factor in salvation. Salvation was accomplished on
the cross of Calvary. Salvation's finished. It's done. Worship
is something the Lord has enabled his people to do unto him to
show thanksgiving in their heart because he gave them the heart
to have thanksgiving. He gave them the thanksgiving
in their heart. That's what worship is. It is like all the things
we do pertaining to God. It's by his grace, completely
by his grace. And here's what he tells us.
1 Corinthians chapter six, and God hath both raised up the Lord
and will also raise up us by his power. He, number one, he
woke you up this morning. We could, how many times, we
don't control our heartbeat is what I'm trying to say. We don't
think about our breaths. These things are just happening.
And yet last night, he didn't let every one of our hearts just
stop. Why? Well, it's mercy and it's grace. He woke us up. He allowed us to get into a vehicle.
He brought us here safely. How many accidents did we miss?
I don't know. All I know is, is he protected
us all the way here. He allows us to come into this building
where we have air conditioning and heat. He allows us to sit
here and hear the gospel without being persecuted from the outside
world. This is why we worship him. If he doesn't do all of
those things, we can't even get here to worship him. And then
we come here, and what do we do? We beg, Lord, send your spirit.
I wanna worship you, but I can't, my flesh, it's impossible for
my flesh to worship you. I have to worship you in spirit
and in truth, so if you don't give us your truth and send your spirit,
we're meeting in vain. You know what he said? I will.
Where two or three are gathered in my name, I'll be there in
the midst. He promised. He said, I'll let
you worship me. I'll let you, I love that. God
said, I'll let you, I will make you, I will let you worship me.
And then he gives us the entire ability to do it. That's glorious,
isn't it? If he does not uphold us, we
will end up praising ourself, just like Nebuchadnezzar did,
until God did something. Once God did something to Nebuchadnezzar,
Nebuchadnezzar didn't praise himself anymore. He said, it's
the God of heaven I will praise and extol, who the nations are
nothing to him. The Lord, Nebuchadnezzar's our
brother. You can understand that. That's
awesome, isn't it? That's awesome. This is what he does to all of
his children and he reveals this Romans chapter 11, for of him
and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever.
Amen. David said this, not unto us,
O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name be all glory. Thy name
be all glory. Paul said, the life that I live
in the flesh, I live by the grace of God. He said, yet not I, but
Christ. It's Christ that he lives in
me. Understand either we are praising self or we're praising
God. There is no in between. No one
that praises self can praise God. And no one that praises
God praises self. He gets all the glory. He gets
all the glory. How do we know that to be true?
Well, the scripture tells us out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaketh. So whatever's in your heart,
that's what's going to come out. And if it's adoration and thanksgiving
for the salvation that the Lord wrought, that's gonna come out.
And as a confession, it'll come out and you'll confess. Jesus
Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Scripture tells
us clearly, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess just
that. But the grace that we desire so much is to be able to bow
right now and confess Jesus Christ is Lord and believe it. And believe
it. If you desire to praise the Lord,
you have been given a new heart, a new heart born from above.
You've been made the very righteousness of God in him. Men do not want
to praise the Lord by nature. They don't want to praise the
Lord by nature. So if you have a desire, he's gave you a new
heart to do it. He's gave you a new heart to do it. Now go
back with me to our text, Hebrews 13. Look at 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, but to do
good and to communicate, forget not for with such sacrifice,
God is well pleased. Why does this sacrifice of praise
please God? He said it pleases God. What
does he mean? What does he mean? Well, because it comes from him. It comes from him. It glorifies
nothing but the Lord Jesus Christ. It is of him, it is by him, it
is from him, it is to him. That's why. God is pleased with
just one, his darling son. God is only pleased with God.
And we confess Jesus Christ, he's pleased with that because
of the confession. Because of the confession. Note well that this sacrifice
and this thanksgiving is by the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why
I titled this message by Christ, by the Lord, by Him. It's by Him. This sacrifice that
we're describing, this thankfulness, this thanksgiving, this worship,
it's by Him, it's of Him. Who worshiped God perfectly?
The Lord Jesus Christ did. And when he sees his people,
he sees the blood applied, he sees his darling son, doesn't
he? Just like David, when David had Mephibosheth come in, David
didn't see Mephibosheth, David saw Jonathan, Mephibosheth's
daddy. That's why he loved Mephibosheth.
Whenever God looks at you, he doesn't see you. If you're his,
he sees the Lord Jesus Christ. And when you offer up praise
unto God, he accepts that praise because it's the Lord Jesus Christ
that gave it to you, gave it to you. Christ said in John 17,
I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work
which thou gave us me to do. He glorified God perfectly on
our behalf. This is the heart that the Lord
gives to his people. We glorify our savior. We glorify
our father. We know we'd be in a pit somewhere.
We'd be, some of us be dead. The Lord hadn't been so merciful. Lord hadn't been so kind and
long suffering and gracious. But He chose to save us from
our sin. Chose to save us from our sin and not leave us to ourself.
This is why we praise Him. And we never look, and this is
important, we never look to our worship as evidence of our salvation.
We don't do that, or it's not worship at all. We don't look
to ourselves in any way when we praise or we worship. This
is freely given, if I can put it that way, this is, Unselfishly
given, we don't look to ourself at all, we look to him. No man
can please God in the flesh. But if God's given us his nature,
that's what the new man is, born from above, born of his seed,
then whenever we praise him, our praise is genuinely by him,
through him, and for all his glory, for all his glory, points
to Christ alone that pleases God. That's why, you know, in Revelation
talks about the Lord, it says, under thy name, be all glory
and honor and praise now and forever. You, that's what we're
going to be saying forever and ever and ever. We're going to
be glorifying him for us. What heaven is, is worshiping
him. Worshiping Him. And we'll be able to worship
Him perfectly. Perfectly. He sees the worship perfect now
because He sees us in Christ. We can't see it perfectly, can
we? We'll come to services and sit down and our minds will wander
off. I say we. I say we. The Lord has to keep
us focused on a subject. He has to keep my mind focused
on what I'm trying to get across. He gets all the glory in this.
So we never look at our worship as evidence of salvation. We
never look at our devotion, we never look at our praise as evidence
of salvation. No, we look to Christ's finished work, Christ's
resurrection as evidence of our salvation. That's what we look
to. If you want evidence, that's it, his resurrection. Colossians
1 tells us, and having made peace through the blood of his cross
by him to reconcile all things unto himself, by him, I say whether
they be things in earth or things in heaven. I've already answered this question,
but in closing, I have this question for us. Why do we worship him? Why do we worship him? Because
he is worthy. He is worthy. You and I are the
unworthy thing, and he is the worthy king of kings and Lord
of lords. He's worthy of all glory and
honor. and praise. He alone satisfied
the law. He alone justified his people
by satisfying justice itself. He alone is the end of the old
covenant so that you and I could be brought into the new covenant
by grace. Are you saved through faith and
that not of yourself? It is the gift of God, not of
works. Less than he mentioned boast. This is why we worship
him. This is why we worship him. We
worship Him because we cannot sin in His eyes. I don't know
if I've never paid attention to this verse or not, but I want
you to hear this verse in 1 John chapter three, verse nine. Whosoever
is born of God doth not commit sin. Think about that. In God's eyes, whenever He sees
us, He sees the blood, you don't commit any sin. I just committed
sin, I am sin. What does He mean? No, He says,
whoever's born of God doth not commit sin. For his seed remaineth
in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God. Isn't that
awesome? Miraculous. It's glorious. That's why we worship him. What a salvation. Offer thanksgiving
for our great God's mercy and grace. Never brag on self, brag
on him. Never point to self, point to
him. Never confess how good you are, confess how good he is.
He alone is worthy of all glory and honor. He alone saved his
people. He alone can redeem the most wretched, vile sinner and
make him the spotless righteousness of God, never having sinned. This cannot be done by you and
I, but he did it for his people. He's already accomplished it.
He did it. It was all done, finished, completed by him. By him, that's
why we worship. Let's pray. Father, we ask you
to take these words and bless them to our understanding that
you would get all the glory. In Christ's name, amen.