The Sacrifices That Please God (Hebrews 13:15-16)

Kootenai Church

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We are back in the book of Hebrews chapter 13. There is only 11 verses left in this book from where we left off after verse 14.

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And though we are back in the book of Hebrews, I want you to be encouraged by this. Like the end of your life, the end of the book of Hebrews is closer than it might have first appeared.

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So there is a reason there for hope. There's only 11 verses left that I have to preach through before we are done.

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And I know that given the fact that we've been in Hebrews since 2017, the end of 2017, that offers you little consolation.

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But some of this is closing benediction, so we're going to go through the last few verses of Hebrews at a faster pace, relatively speaking, a faster pace than we've done other portions of the book.

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I want you to take a quick look at the remaining verses and how this is going to sort of fall out in an outline.

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I'll give you an overview of what is ahead in the next couple of weeks. Today, we're looking at verses 15 and 16, which describes sacrifices of praise and of doing good to others, our sacrifices and our worship.

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Then in verse 17, you'll notice that the author addresses church leaders and says we are to submit to them for they keep watch over our souls.

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There's information there concerning our responsibility to those who lead us as well as the responsibility of those who lead us to us.

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And so, we're going to be talking for two weeks, I think, on church leadership and the responsibility and the role of elders in a local church.

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The second week, and this is going to be two weeks from today, yeah, the second week of that, two weeks from today, we're going to install

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Jeff Miller, whom we announced over a year ago that we were going to considering adding him to our eldership.

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And we've been working with him for the last six to eight months in our elders meetings. And we have heard nothing from any of you and a few times that we've made the announcement that you have any concerns with that.

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So, we're going to recognize him for the gifting and calling that God has put upon his life. And we're going to install him two weeks from today.

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It'll be in conjunction with this passage that deals with eldership and leaders. Then you'll notice verses 18 and 19, the author mentions a prayer request, asks those readers to pray for him.

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And then in verses 20 to 25, there's a benediction. So I'm expecting five to six weeks left in the book of Hebrews.

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And I'm going to try and stick to that, I think. I said

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I'm not...I didn't say I'm promising, I said I'm expecting five to six weeks left in the book of Hebrews. But let's begin today by reading our passage, verses 15 to 16, and then we'll open with prayer.

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Verse 15, through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God that is the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.

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And do not neglect doing good and sharing for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

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Let's pray together. Our Father, we do now ask Your blessing upon Your Word as it is read, as it is preached.

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As it comes to our ears, may it also enter into our hearts to pierce deep down into our souls that Your Word may search us and try us, that You would sanctify us as Your people, make us holy, conform us, we pray, to the image of Christ through Your Word.

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And we pray that we may, by Your Spirit, delight and take joy in what

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Your Word teaches concerning Your great work of salvation and our responsibility, our response to that.

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We ask these things in Christ's name. Amen. Chapter 13 is a collection of exhortations.

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You can see that even when earlier we read going back to verse 1 of chapter 13. These exhortations that the author is giving us are not conjured up out of thin air.

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They're not unrelated to anything else in the book. They're not simply his inventions out of his mind.

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Instead, they are really exhortations designed for their circumstance, their situation, and it is the application of the truth that he has been sharing with them for 13 chapters.

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He has now come in...it's not that everything else in Hebrews has not been applicable, but now in chapter 13, he begins to specifically address some of the theology and the thinking and the doctrine that he has been laying out.

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And he's giving some specific exhortations, specific commands that are grounded in the profound promises and spiritual realities that he has been unfolding for 12 solid chapters.

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In fact, if you go back up, just let your eyes look up at chapter 12, verse 28 and 29, you'll see he begins to transition from the truth and the warning of the theology that he's been given to more of the idea of applying that and offering to God acceptable service.

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Verse 28, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, that's a profound promise, let us show gratitude, that's thanksgiving, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe for our

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God is a consuming fire. There's a word of warning there, a word of promise there in verses 28 and 29.

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And then what does acceptable service look like? Verse 1, chapter 13, we're to love the brethren.

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Verse 2, show hospitality to strangers. Since we have received a kingdom, we should remember the prisoners, verse 3.

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We should honor marriage and the marriage bed, verse 4. Since we have received a kingdom, we should be content with what we have and free from the love of money, verses 5 and 6.

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We should remember our spiritual leaders and imitate them, verse 7. We should remain steadfast in sound doctrine, verse 9.

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And we should identify with Christ and be willing to bear His reproach, verse 13. And he reminds us of our motive in verse 14, for here we do not have a lasting city but we are seeking the city which is to come, which ties it in with the promise of the kingdom in verse 28 and 29 of chapter 12.

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Notice in verses 15 and 16 that the word sacrifice appears twice. He is using the language of a priestly sacrifice and it's language that his readers would have been familiar with having come out of the

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Judaism of their background with the temple in their midst and the animal sacrifices with the priesthood that the

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Old Testament described. So, he is using Levitical language, the language of worship and offering.

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Verse 15 mentions a sacrifice of praise, let us continue to offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.

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And then verse 16 mentions sacrifice that God is pleased with, namely doing good and sharing.

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And that observation that the word sacrifice is used twice, that is going to form our outline for this morning.

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The Christian life is a life of worship in word and in deed. And this is described here in terms of sacrifices.

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He speaks of sacrifice or an offering of praise that is the word of our lips in verse 15 and then the deeds that we do, the things that we do in verse 16.

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What we say and what we do, this is the way that we worship God, these are the things that please God.

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Verse 15 describes our worship in word with praise and thanksgiving and verse 16 describes our worship in deed by doing good and by sharing.

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So that'll be our outline and in keeping with my promise and expectation, that's not going to be two sermons, that's just going to be one today.

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So let's look first in verse 15 at our worship to God in word with praise and thanksgiving.

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You'll notice verse 15 begins with a prepositional phrase that in the original language stands at the beginning of that verse in order to give emphasis to something.

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So if we were to read it with the intended emphasis, it would sound like this. Through Him, let us offer up a sacrifice of praise.

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He as the author is emphasizing there the means, the environment, the sphere in which we are to offer up this praise and thanksgiving and that is through Him and that is through Christ.

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How do we know it's Christ? Because verse 12 mentions Jesus, Jesus also that He might sanctify the people through His own blood suffered outside the gate.

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Verse 13, so let us go out to Him, that is Christ, outside the camp bearing His reproach.

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In other words, because Christ has done this, gone outside the gate and suffered in our stead and paid the price for our sin, because He has borne our reproach that our sin merits, we are therefore to go out to Him and bear

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His reproach in the face and in the eyes of a hostile world and in doing this, we are to, through Christ, this

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One who bore our sin in our place, who took our wrath, we are to offer up praise and thanksgiving through Him to the

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Father in the power of the Holy Spirit. In our praise and in our worship, all three persons of the triune

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God are active and involved. We praise the Father through the Son because of the sacrifice that He has made,

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He has opened up heaven's doors, He has torn the veil, and because of Him we have access now in that one person,

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Christ, because He has made God accessible to us in the incarnation through His sacrifice, we can then through Him, that is through Christ, offer our praise and thanksgiving to God.

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And that should be a reminder, by the way, that we can only, because we can only access

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God through Christ and because we can only offer praise to Him through Christ, that if you are outside of Christ, no amount of worship and no amount of praise and no amount of adoration and there's no word and there's no deed whatsoever that can be acceptable to God.

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Because outside of Christ, we do not even have the standing to approach God. We have access to this

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God that was behind the veil, holy and separate from sinners only because of what

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Christ has done. Therefore, we approach God in the merits of Christ, that is what it means to come unto

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God through Him. By the merits of Christ, because we are clothed with His righteousness, because He has borne our sin, because He has made the way open for us, we can approach

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God through Him. It is through Him that we offer up the sacrifice of praise, the fruit of our lips.

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The language of sacrifice was associated with the priesthood and, of course, with the temple, and it is language that the readers would have been familiar with because of their

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Old Testament background. Don't miss the fact that in verse 12 and 13 and 14 of this chapter, the author has called upon the readers to turn their back upon that system.

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Notice verse 12, therefore Jesus also that He might sanctify the people through His own blood suffered outside the gate.

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Do you remember when we looked at that, that was the place of reproach where they took the garbage, they took them outside the city so that the dead might not defile that holy city.

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They took them outside the gate to the place of uncleanness, and that's where Christ bore our sin.

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So then the author says in verse 13, so let us go to Him outside the camp bearing

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His reproach, for here we do not have a lasting city. That reference to going outside the city was a call by the author to his readers to turn their back upon Jerusalem, which meant the temple and the sacrifices and the priesthood, to turn their back upon that and to fully embrace the reproach of Christ.

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They could not hold on to the Old Testament sacrificial system with the animals and the priesthood and all of the bells and whistles and the smells of that system and have

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Christ at the same time. If you are trusting Christ for salvation, you must give up your confidence and trust in everything else.

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You can't simply add Him to whatever it is that you are trusting and doing now. So when the author says, go outside the gate to Christ where He has taken and borne your reproach and there gladly bear

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His reproach, the author is saying, though your family and friends may scorn you and hate you and come after you with hostility, though they may not understand you, you must be willing to turn your back upon them and everything that you have counted precious to this point and believe and trust in Him and bear

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His reproach. You want to be with God, you go outside the gate to where Christ is, turning your back on this system.

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So then it might have occurred to the original readers, well, if we no longer bring our lambs to the altar and we no longer bring our offerings and our grain and everything else and we don't trust in that priesthood to offer up to God things acceptable to Him on our behalf, and we're supposed to turn our back on all of that and believe that that entire

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Mosaic Old Testament sacrificial system is defunct and abandoned and worthless for my standing before God, then does that mean that I have nothing then to offer up to God?

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If I turn my back on all of that, then what do I offer to God? Here is the author's answer to that.

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We offer up continually a sacrifice of praise to God that is the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.

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You see, we don't offer up nothing. We are not left with nothing to give to God in worship to Him.

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Instead, our sacrifices want a praise, not the offering of an animal on an altar, but instead the offering of praise on the altar of our lips so that the completed work of Christ does not remove our incentive for praise, but instead the completed work of Christ stokes the fire of my passion for praise.

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When I think about what God has done on behalf of guilty sinners and what that means not only for my rescue from eternal damnation, but also for my eternal joy and bliss in that lasting city, that kingdom we have received, when

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I think about that, what can we do but praise Him and thank Him for that? That is the most ultimate sacrifice, is to give to God continually the praise of our lips for His great redemption in Jesus Christ.

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The language of using...the language of praise to God that is the fruit of lips, sorry, that language, the fruit of lips, that comes from Hosea 14 .2.

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You don't have to turn there, but I just let you listen to this verse. Do you hear what

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Hosea describes there, this prayer, take away all iniquity and receive us graciously?

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This is what Christ has done. Christ Himself has taken away our iniquity so that we may be received gracefully and Hosea says that we may present the fruit of our lips.

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And it's the language of sacrifice that we may offer up to God on the altar of our lips, words of praise and thanksgiving.

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Think of your lips as an altar and you are offering up onto that altar to God a sacrifice which is pleasing and acceptable.

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The lips, by the way, are the reader board of the heart, the pressure valve of the heart, as it were.

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You can tell what is in somebody's heart by what comes out of their lips. If the heart is full of gratitude, then praise will come out as speech and if the heart is full of bitterness and resentment and hostility and anger, if the heart is vile and impure, if the heart is profane and defiled, then the lips will offer up the very thing that characterizes the heart.

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This is not 100 % true in every moment because you could be sitting here with a vile heart offering up words of praise off the screen, can't you?

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But in the unguarded moment, your mouth is the pressure valve of your heart.

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This is true when you are home with your family, it is true when you are at the workplace, it is true when things are going well, it is true when things are going poorly.

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In fact, the mouth is such a reliable indicator of the state of one's heart that Paul, when he wanted to condemn all of humanity and show the vileness of sinful men, in Romans 3, verses 13 and 14, describes their mouth and their lips.

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Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.

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There was no greater demonstration, no more acute and accurate demonstration of the vileness of unredeemed man's hearts than that which comes out of their mouths.

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Like an open grave with the putrid smell of rotting flesh, so is the throat of an unredeemed man and you can smell the vileness on the words that they speak.

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Whatever is in the heart spills out into the mouth. That's not Jim Osmond, that's

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Jesus, Matthew 12, verse 34. You brood of vipers, how can you being evil speak what is good?

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For the mouth speaks out that which fills the heart. So if your heart is full of thanksgiving and gratitude and praise and adoration of the

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God who has redeemed you from the pit and made you His own and adopted you into His family and promised you a kingdom and given you this city and promises you a reward, then what will be most coming out of that heart will be the praise of thanksgiving offered up on the altar of your lips.

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A thankful heart is what we offer up to God in the fruit of praise that is on our lips, giving thanks to His name.

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This was a concept familiar to the Jews because of their Old Testament background. The Psalms use some of the same language,

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Psalm 50, verse 14, offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving and pay your vows to the

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Most High. Psalm 107, verses 21 and 22, let them give thanks to the

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Lord for His lovingkindness, for His wonders to the sons of men. Let them also offer sacrifices of thanksgiving and tell of His works with joyful singing.

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And lastly, Psalm 69, verse 30, I will praise the name of God with song and magnify

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Him with thanksgiving and it will please the Lord better than an ox or a young bull with horns and hooves.

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Notice the contrast there between the animal sacrifices and the sacrifice of praise. He says,

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I will praise the name of God with song and magnify Him with thanksgiving and this will please the Lord better than if I were to offer up an ox or a lamb or a calf on the altar.

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God is more pleased with the fruit of our lips. Why? Because it is a demonstration of our heart.

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It is the outward vocalization of a praise that dwells deep within us. Because you can have a vile heart and offer up an ox, that's not a problem.

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You can drag a lamb to the temple, throw it, give it to the priest, have him throw it up on the altar and kill the lamb there in front of you, offering up a sacrifice in your name.

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You can have the priest do that, then bless you with this thing and sprinkle the blood and you can walk away thinking that you are fine, all the while your heart is full of poison and vileness and defilement and never dealing with the heart issue.

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And so to offer up a sacrifice of thanksgiving in the name of God, that pleases the

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Lord better than an ox or a young bull with horns and hooves. We offer this up to a

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God of grace and mercy and kindness, longsuffering, compassion, goodness and provision. We praise

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Him for His justice. We praise Him for His righteousness. We praise Him for His holiness. We praise Him for His judgments against the impenitent and we praise

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Him for His deliverances of the righteous. We praise Him when things are going well.

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We praise Him for creation, for redemption, for deliverance, for judgments, for His promises. He is to be thanked because He has given to us an unshakeable kingdom.

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He is to be thanked because of His threatenings of judgment upon the impenitent. He is to be praised because of the goodness that He shows to those who are in Jesus Christ.

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He is to be honored and praised, even in our immediate context here, verses 12, 13, and 14, because of the death of His Son that sanctifies

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His people. And He is to be praised because He has given us a city, a lasting city that is to come.

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The death of Christ has secured our salvation and it has paid the price for any and all who will turn from their sins and believe upon that sacrifice and trusting themselves to a righteous

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God who punished Christ in our stead. He suffered and died to pay the penalty for all who will do that and therefore

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He is worthy of praise. Hebrews 9, verse 25 and 26 says that He would offer

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Himself, not that Christ would offer Himself often as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with the blood that is not

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His own, otherwise He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world. But now, once at the consummation of the ages,

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Christ has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. When you realize that that sacrifice has put away your sin and that you have been sanctified through the one offering of Christ once and for all, that in the language of Hebrews 10, verse 14,

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He has perfected forever for all time those who are sanctified. What is the proper response to that?

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It is to offer up to God praises of thanksgiving for His good kindness to us in Christ Jesus. And how often do we do this?

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What does the text say? Verse 15, continually. Now I would submit to you that if we understand that in its wooden literal sense, that is impossible because you have to sleep, right?

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I'm assuming that everybody here slept last night. I was not offering up to God in the fruit of my lips thanksgiving at 2 a .m.

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2 a .m. when I woke up, I was instead praying that I would be able to go back to sleep so that I wouldn't be tired when I got here this morning.

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But you have to work and you have to do commerce and you have to make your order at the restaurant and you have to talk to your children and you have to teach a class and I have to preach and even right now

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I'm not offering up words of praise to God, I'm explaining the text to you. So if we understand this in a wooden literal sense, that is literally impossible to do.

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But what does the author intend by that? What is meant? He simply means that we are to do this at all times, in all circumstances, that it is something that is always appropriate, it is something that should be the constant attitude and the constant inclination or leaning of our heart to do this.

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Like 1 Thessalonians 5, verses 16 and 18 where Paul says, rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is

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God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Can we do this always, even when we sleep, even while we're working, depending on what you do for work, maybe, but when you sleep, no, when you're talking, when you're ordering at the restaurant, no, you can't always be doing these things.

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But both Paul and the author of Hebrews mean this, that praise and thanksgiving to God is something that is appropriate and should be considered and leaned into at all times.

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In the morning? Yes. In the evening? Yes. Before meals? After meals? While you're writing, while you're driving, while you're working, while you're in the garden, while you're mowing the lawn?

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Yes. While you're lounging about the house? Yes. During entertainment, while you're sitting out on the back porch enjoying a barbecue this afternoon?

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Yes, you can do that. At all times, good times and bad, and in all circumstances, that is that this is appropriate and commanded during times of temptation and stress and anxiety and frustration and disappointment and discouragement and depression, during joyous celebrations and reminders of God's goodness and His provision, in times of happiness and delight, and in times of sorrow and loss and hurt and pain and affliction and trials, in all circumstances, this is appropriate.

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And on every occasion, during a worship service, at a wedding, at a birthday party, at a funeral, at the loss of your job, in retirement, before retirement, before work, after work, at all times, in all circumstances, on every occasion, this is appropriate.

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So you never have to ask yourself, is now an appropriate time for me to offer to God praise and thanksgiving?

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Yes. The answer to that is yes. You don't feel like it, that's the best time to do it, to remind yourself of His goodness and of His truth.

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And in speaking that truth to your heart and to your mind, it will bring to your heart and to your mind all the causes and reasons for thanksgiving and praise.

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So that's worshiping God by what we say, now let's look at worshiping God indeed by doing and sharing.

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Verse 16, do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

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The realities of Christian living are very simple, they are tangible, practical, it's very down to earth, it's not just about what we profess or what we proclaim or what we say with our lips, but it is instead what we do, how we act, and how we manifest in our lives.

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It is our behavior, our attitude, our demeanor, our facial expressions, it is what we do with others and the way that we serve others that also manifests a heart that is pure and filled with praise.

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The author commands us to not neglect, he states it negatively as if to say, don't not do this, doing good to others, don't neglect doing this.

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It's very easy, it's just like the command up in chapter 13 verse 2, do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, it's the same idea.

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It's very easy and simple for us to neglect to do good and to show hospitality to strangers, for things to fall off of our radar as it were when life gets busy and things are happening, and then we begin to make the excuses that, well,

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I might not be doing these things, but at least I went to church on Sunday and praised God. Here the author is putting those together and reminding us that the public or the private praise and adoration with our lips cannot be divorced from, it cannot be separated from a life that demonstrates the same kind of praise in our works, in our deeds.

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The heart is truly what motivates this effusive thanksgiving and praise, and a heart that motivates that type of effusive thanksgiving and praise will also motivate doing good and sharing with others, so that the word and the deed go together.

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As 1 John 3 verse 18 says, little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.

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Now, John is not saying don't love in word or with tongue, his meaning is that your love should not be manifested in only word and tongue, but rather in deed and in truth because these things go together.

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What does he have in mind here by doing good? Verse 16, do not neglect doing good and sharing with such sacrifices.

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Doing good is everything that we have covered in chapter 13 up until now. Doing good is loving the brethren and showing hospitality, verses 1 and 2, remembering the prisoners, verse 3, honoring the marriage bed, verse 4, being content with what you have.

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Those are things of doing good. Some of these things the readers of this letter had already been doing, the author is reminding them to continue to do what he knows that they have already at least to some extent been involved in doing, because he references back in chapter 6 things that they were doing where they were serving and loving one another and doing good to others.

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Chapter 6, verse 9 and 10, but beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you and things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this way, for God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name in having ministered and still ministering to the saints.

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In other words, after that profound warning passage in chapter 6 where he warns them of the danger of apostatizing from the faith, he says of the true believers, we're convinced of better things concerning you, things that accompany salvation, namely the good works and the good deeds that you are already engaged in doing.

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That was the evidence of their salvation in chapter 6. In chapter 10, in referencing the suffering of some of them, he says in verse 34, you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one.

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So they had already shown courtesy and sympathy to prisoners. Some of them had suffered financially and others were pitching in and helping out to fill that need.

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So the readers of this letter were already involved in doing good with one another, and the author is saying, continue to do that.

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That is, in fact, showing an example to others of your good deeds. Like Titus 2, verse 7, in all things, show yourself to be an example of good deeds with purity and doctrine and dignified.

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In fact, listen to Paul's emphasis on good deeds, doing good in the book of Titus 3, verse 8.

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This is a trustworthy statement, and concerning these things, I want you to speak confidently so that those who have believed

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God be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and profitable for men.

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And then in Titus 3, verse 14, our people must also learn to engage in good deeds to meet pressing needs so that they will not be unfruitful.

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Notice the good deeds is the fruitfulness of salvation. In doing good to others, we produce fruit in our salvation.

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It's not just doing good, like giving that is described in this book and sharing with others in their suffering as described in this book.

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But verse 16, a second way is through sharing. That's actually interesting. The word there is koinonia from which we most often translate as fellowship.

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In other words, do not neglect doing good and fellowshipping. Now, if your view of fellowshipping is that fellowship means we sit around and talk sports and barbecue and complain about the government, then you have a warped idea of what fellowship is and that idea inserted into the text would probably be very confusing.

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But once you understand that the word koinonia or fellowship didn't mean sitting around and talking about sports and complaining about the government, but instead had the idea of participating in something with somebody else, that is namely to engage together in an endeavor.

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It doesn't mean visiting. If I go into business with somebody else, we may, and we have an equal share, a partnership in this business, we would say to have had koinonia in that business because we are both invested in it and we are partnering in it.

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We are both pulling the same direction in it. It talks about a participation or an association. It is a sharing of things.

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Now, it can refer to financial contributions or financial help, and there are a lot of commentaries who think that that's what the author has in mind here, that what is intended by the reference to koinonia is the sharing financially with the needs of the body, and that very well could be.

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But I wouldn't limit it to that because doing good to others and sharing with them in church life, in life together, in the endeavor of Christianity and bearing the reproach of Christ, that is what the faith is all about.

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That is what we are called to do as Christians. Put this back into its context and remember, He has just told them, turn your back on that system in Jerusalem, that defunct sacrificial system, listen, and your family and your friends and your coworkers and your neighbors and your acquaintances, if need be, and go out to the place that is considered by them to be unclean and there bear

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Christ's reproach. That's a serious command. It's not in isolation.

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In doing that, do not neglect to do good and to share with others because out at that place of reproach, there we find a new community.

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We turned our back on one community and now out at the place of reproach, we are going to find a new community and that is where we do good and we share with others.

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We participate in it. Sharing with another and fellowshipping in this way is not just a matter of shimmying into the building during the opening song and finding an available seat and then hitting those doors before the benediction is over at the end of the service.

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Instead, it is doing life together. That might be appropriate to do that for a couple of weeks.

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If you're kicking the tires and testing the water at a new church, you want to find out, okay, what's the show like?

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What is the service like? Is the preacher good? Does he sound like he just got off of a six -week vacation?

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What's that going to be? That might be appropriate then. But when you call a place your church and these are your people, when you go out to that place to bear that reproach, to approach fellowship like that, that's neglect.

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That's neglect because we are called to do life together and to be involved in one another's lives to the greatest extent that God by His grace gives us the capability to do.

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Do not neglect doing good and sharing for with such sacrifices, God is pleased.

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Now, don't read that and think that in doing good and sharing, we end up pleasing

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God and therefore warranting or meriting our salvation because that is not what the author has said.

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Earlier in the chapter, just a couple of verses ago, he says that our salvation and our sanctification being set apart for God has everything to do with Christ's suffering by His blood and sanctifying us and paying that price for our sin.

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That is what salvation rests upon. So when he talks about pleasing God, he is not saying that we can please

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God by our works for we cannot. If we're outside of Christ, there is no good deeds that we can do, no amount of sharing or giving, no amount of praising or worshiping that can please

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God because it comes from a vile, wicked sinner whose heart is corrupt and defiled and fallen in Adam and offered to God, nothing that would please

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Him, nothing that is praiseworthy or good. That is what we have to offer to God in ourselves.

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But instead now, having been brought to God and having been made pleasing to God on the basis of Christ's righteousness, and get this in your head, we are acceptable to God and we please

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God not because of who we are, but instead because we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ.

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So God sees His people through the righteousness of Christ. And because we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ, the

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Father is as pleased with you in terms of your standing before Him as He is as pleased with His Son who never sinned and did anything evil or wicked.

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He's perfectly righteous. And so the Father, because we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ in Him, the

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Father is pleased with us. It's not our good works that make Him pleased with us in terms of our standing, but doing good and sharing, these are the sacrifices that please

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God in terms of our service. Right? So we are already pleasing to God because we are in Christ in terms of our standing, but in terms of our service, these are the things that please

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God. Sacrifice of praise on the altar of our lips, doing good and sharing with others, these are the things that please

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God. So if you're going to turn your back on that sacrificial system where you were raised to believe that every animal that you brought, the ox, the calf, the offering, all of that, you brought it to the temple, you brought it to the priest, and that was what pleased

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God, the author is now saying that in Christ, because we have been made pleasing to Him in terms of our standing because of what

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Christ has done, now we can offer up instead the fruit of our lips with thanksgiving from joyful hearts, praising

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Him, serving one another, sharing with one another, doing life with one another, and this is what pleases

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God in terms of our service. I don't have to offer an animal. I can do kindness to you.

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It's a lot cheaper than offering up an animal. That's good news. But instead of offering up oxes and lambs, now we offer up the praise of our lips.

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Those in Christ for whom His blood has atoned and His righteousness has covered us, this is how we offer up sacrifices of worship and praise to God that please

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Him. We're called to worship in deed. We are called to worship in word. These are the sacrifices, and we want to please

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Him. Is that not our ambition? To please Him? If you think about what He has done for us and what

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He has provided for us and His grace, it should be our greatest ambition to please Him.

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That is our calling. So can I be a redeemed sinner and yet be unthankful, ungrateful?

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May it never be. Can I be saved and be stingy and selfish and surly?

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It's just unthinkable. Can my heart be filled with praise and can I be adopted into God's family and yet be uninterested in His children?

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May it never be. Instead, we have a calling that is to please

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Him. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 9, therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, while saying whether in the body or out of the body, whether alive or dead, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.

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We have as our ambition, whether living or dying, to please

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Him. This is how it is done. Colossians 1, verses 9 and 10, for this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner that is worthy of the

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Lord and to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

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Is this your ambition? To please Him, to bear fruit, and to walk in a manner that is worthy of His great name?

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Let us do that by giving to Him praise and thanks from our lips, giving obedience to Him and doing good to others, and sharing and fellowshipping with one another in Christ.

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For with such sacrifices, God is well -pleased, and He will reward the faithful servant.

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Let's pray together. Our Father, we do thank You for the great work of grace that You have done in the hearts of Your people to bring them to a knowledge of Christ and His salvation, to regenerate us, to give us new hearts, new minds, new affections, new desires, new inclinations.

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It is my prayer for any who are here this morning who do not know Christ, that You would open their eyes to their need for a

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Savior, that they may trust in that Savior and His all -sufficient and perfect sacrifice, which has once for all taken away sin.

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May they find in Him the satisfaction of all their longings and desires, and may they find in Christ a substitute that is sufficient to bear the wrath for their sin.

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We pray that You would bring them to saving faith in Christ so that Your Son may receive the just reward for all

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His suffering, and He may get all that He deserves, Your people, purchased and loved by You from before the foundation of the world.

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We pray that You would encourage our hearts together as Your people to love and to serve one another, to share with one another in our fellowship and in the life that You have called us to live.

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As we go outside of this world to bear the reproach of Christ, we pray that we may find joy and delight in the new community, that as we live together, share together, love together, and serve together, that You would be pleased with us.

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Thank You that we can offer to You praises now as every man and woman is a priest, that we can offer praises that please

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You, sacrifices that make You delight in us and our works. We pray that You would be pleased and that You would delight in us,