I want you to turn with me in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter eight. Hebrews chapter eight. Okay. You find it? You might have a little machine that may be quicker, I don't know. But if you can find it, follow along. I'm going to read 12 verses, 8th chapter of Hebrews, beginning at the first verse. Now the point in what we are saying is this. We have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent, that the Lord set up, not man. For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices. Thus, it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. Now, if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. They serve a copy and a shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God saying, see that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain. But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old, as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. For he finds fault with them when he says, behold, the day was coming, declares the Lord, the days are coming when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, for they did not continue in my covenant and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my laws into their minds, write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor, and each one his brother, saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more. I'm gonna read on through 13. And speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what he becoming, what is becoming obsolete and growing old, he's ready to banish away. And a new covenant ready to replace the old covenant. What a glorious covenant it is. I wanna learn a little more about it with you. Dr. Packer said many times over through the years, as he stood to open a class, I was in a lot of those at Regent. He stood to open a class, he said, theology is for doxology. What he meant, well, he explained it very clearly. Here, theology has to do with the study of God, doxology has to do with worship. So what he's saying is, it is when you look at this account, theology, the study of God himself, is for the opportunity to worship him. Here we're listening Theology is for doxology. What does that mean? That means you don't get a chance to just study, study, study, study, study and forget about your life and living and the necessity of living life fully inspired from within by the Holy Spirit. It brings you to worship. To reflect on our Christian worship is the road of understanding the Christian theology that we talk about. We walk with him. We draw near to him. He draws us near to himself as we follow. The unique center of the Bible is Jesus Christ. All our doctrines unfold from the center. True theology is done in the presence of God. It's done in the midst of a worshiping community. Maybe in a class we've gathered around local church, it may be in an auditorium like this, but we have the opportunity to draw near to Him, to learn of Him, to know that why the doxology is so beautifully connected is because of the beautiful job God has done in delivering us from sin's bondage. Making it possible to draw near to Him in that. True theology, and this is interesting. This is James Torrance, and he comes out of a different school altogether. He knows Packer, they're friends. It said, true theology is done in the presence of God in the midst of the worshiping community. True theology is theology that sings. Listen, if you're gonna have truth, you gotta have a song somewhere. If you're going to have an understanding of what is in the gospel, of what God has provided for us in the midst of all the things that are going on out there. And we're pausing, we're stopping. We wanna know what the word says. We wanna know what God says. We wanna know in such a way that our inward man is changed by him. Don't stop the changing. There is the beginning that continues. There is the little thing that starts and then exploding in front of you is the genesis of the creator's work. powerful gospel we've heard. What a glorious gift that he brings us this life in Jesus Christ. We can't, though, just make it a theological word on paper thing and say, I know what's there. Nope, you don't know there until the Spirit's working in you about it. And when it begins to work in you and somebody says, let's go hear the Word preached today, and we're gonna say, oh, man, I've been working hard. Just go. Find a place where the gospel is real. I wondered when I went to Regent what it was gonna be like, but I'll tell you, I loved the atmosphere of the conversation that was so filled with God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit and men and women who spent their time talking about the scriptures in between. I got a chance to sit on the floor in the dining area, noon soup, and listened to them all, and some of them were preachers, and one of them was Peterson. We just had a great time there. But it was the truth of the scriptures that did it. It's real changing our lives along the way. True theology is theology that sings. Let me comment on that. Psalm 22, 23. And one place puts on the lips of Jesus, put on the lips of Jesus by the writer of the Hebrews, where he says this, I will declare your name to my brethren. Listen, in the midst of the congregation, I will sing praise to you, our Lord said. He's talking to a congregation like ours. a congregation of common people like us. And we're not common in the Christian reality, but we're just people who've been loved by God and redeemed. I will declare your name to my brothers in the midst of the congregation. I will sing praise to you, Hebrews 2.12, which we ran right through a while ago, didn't we? 2.12. And then John Calvin might walk up and say, Christ is the great choir master who tunes our heart to sing God's praise. Hey, Calvin is, if he can say that and express it and battle through all the opposition he had, God's doing a work that's not gonna end. And he's one of those servants that God will use. Christ is the great choir master who tunes our hearts to sing God's praise. One step further on this song business, all creation is made for God's glory. All of it. I love feeding those deer the corn I get them. You know, where we live, I've got at least 15 head of deer that come by the house twice a day. And there are a few other things that wander through like raccoons, but they don't get much. They get dog food. My deer get yellow corn, good corn. And they come by and stand in the back after it's all over. They stand behind the windows in the back of the house and look through the window, asking for more. Of late, we've had them bailing out, just laying out on the ground in the front and in the back. Like cattle. Well, I thought one time I was gonna be a cattle rancher. We had cattle, 150 head of mother cows. We tried to keep them going in a pine forest. That's just almost impossible. Pine needles are not very helpful for feed. But I'll tell you, God can do some beautiful things with animals, but the animals without us couldn't do what they need to do, and that's give God glory. See, we always lay it off on them, they know. No, no, you're the spokesman for the creation. I'm the spokesman when it comes to declaring God and his greatness. Because the animals are gonna chirp and they're gonna grunt and they're gonna all the stuff they do, but I'm not understanding them. I got a Bible in front of me that I can understand them a little better. And when I speak it and when I live it, the whole creation is a part of it. Wow. All creation is made for God's glory, the flowers of the field, the trees, the birds, the animals, the people. Here's the title, Theater of God's Glory, back to Calvin. Wow. Humanity is to lead creation in praises to God with words. exaltation. Why? Because we are here to glorify God and to enjoy Him. So we get involved with God in His beauty. Sin, marred, humans don't have songs of joy. The whole creation groans and labors with birth pains. waiting for the fulfillment of God's purposes in human lives. Isn't it all tied to the human lives? I mean, isn't there a day coming when you recognize as Romans 8 will help us a little bit, Romans 8 will help us a little bit, but you are gonna find out it is when we come to the place of being all together what God wants us to be and is ready to take us together home that we're gonna be really able to see. what God has provided for us. And the groans and the labors will be passed. And the beauty of redemption will reflect with so much light and glory, it'll be time to dance for some. Waiting for the fulfillment of God's purposes of what we're doing. Now listen to this simple lead up. I'm gonna give you a little run about Jesus coming to us. Jesus comes to stand in for us. comes to stand in because man didn't get it done. Human family didn't get it done, did they? Why? What's happening? Well, we're getting someone that's gonna get it done. One came who can get it done. because this one is able to deal and take care of the sin, all of that parts of it. He's not limited in that. He's promised that he's gonna do that. He's gonna have his people together. They're gonna be one nation, one nation created by God. Now, think about this. Well, when we talk about, let's see if I can get the right place to really start. Now let me just wait, I'll get there in a moment, because it's too much tied to it. But Jesus comes to stand in for us, to be the priest, to do for us what we fail to do as a human family. To offer to the Father worship and praise that we fail to offer. To glorify God by the life of perfect love and obedience. to be the one true servant of the Lord. That's what Jesus comes to do. And listen to the list. God comes to us in Jesus. He stands in for us to be the priest, to do for us what we failed to do, to offer to the Father worship and praise we failed to offer, to glorify God by a life of perfect love and obedience, and finally, to be the one true servant of the Lord. He's coming to be all that. wow language. In him and through him we're renewed by the Spirit in the image of God and in the worship of God, in a life of shared communion. God is building a people. Jesus came to bring us to him. Jesus came to bring us to the Father. He comes as our brother to be our great high priest. You understood that from scripture, that he came as your brother? He comes to reconcile all things to God. He comes to intercede as our eternal mediator and advocate. He makes us his body and calls us to a royal priesthood. Ah, yes, a royal priesthood. How many remember that in the book of Peter, There's a couple of statements regarding that group of people that we were a part of, right in that chapter. And when you see it, there's two levels of it there in the same chapter. And you see that Jesus, this wonderful one who does it all, has appointed us as his, I don't wanna say royal priests, royal priesthood. Let's look at it this way. High on the throne is the high priest himself. There is no other above him. None. Jesus lives and functions as a high priest and sets his people in as what is called right here, a royal priesthood. You know, there's not much said about we being the priests. Prophet, yes. King, yes. What about priest? Well, it's right there in the middle and we haven't done anything with it. This is one of the things that Jesus came to fix. He came to establish the fact that there is a communion place whereby you stand there before God and have been commissioned as his as his to function as a priest, a servant, a person with a responsibility to others. We used to fuss all the time about the Catholics because they made people priests and, you know, wanted them to live up to certain things. Some of the standards they didn't keep, obviously. Breaking across what is not humanly Exactly right, created lots of problems for the Catholics. But they knew what it was to have all the priesthood ideas. Because they knew what it was gonna take to be saved if they use that word, which they don't. All these things. But God can save people out of there because God has a people who are gonna be priests. And the priesthood, is a part of what he came to provide, offering spiritual sacrifices, the statement says. That's what a priest does. He offers the sacrifices. Bring them here. Let's go get them to the man in charge. The high priest is ready for this. He calls us to be identified with him by the Spirit in his communion with the Father, in his intercession and in his prayers. He takes our broken lives and sanctifies them and offers them without spot or wrinkle to the Father and gives them back to us. Have you ever felt that move in your life where God was at work in you? And he took you, he's the one that came to save, he knows how to call, the call is on when Jesus does that. And then Jesus looks and sees, now let's fix the rest of this so that you recognize your high priest is in charge and that you are a part of the priesthood. Not like his, but according to the worship of God's people in place. takes our broken lives and sanctifies them, and he offers them back without spot or wrinkle to the Father. He gives them back to us. He takes our prayers and makes them his prayers and makes his prayers our prayers, and we are heard. You can be assured we've heard. How can you be sure? Well, we know him. It's the life-changing touch. There's one other thing that I wanna toss in here. They are heard. All these things going on, he takes our prayers, makes them his prayers, makes his prayers our prayers. They are heard. They are heard. For Jesus' sake. Can I say it like that? Now see, I was taught not to pray like that. Not for Jesus' sake, I got to listening to Alistair Begg and that's the way he prays almost every time. I was listening to another series of tapes or just one tape off of it, one thought off of it, it came some written pages. And it was for Jesus' sake. What does that mean? The priest, Our prayers are heard. He makes them his prayers. He makes his prayers our prayers. They are heard as his prayers, our prayers connection. And they are heard and given answers to that and supplying answers to that for Jesus' sake, for Jesus accomplished work. Yes, Jesus has accomplished his work. And for that, for his sake, for his accomplishing it, our prayers somehow get placed back in his hand and he does the work with them. Our prayers are part of his prayers after a while. This kind of thing is all of grace. I mean, these are things that we can't do still, but we can trust him who's doing it and find him setting us free, making us usable vessels. In essence, we have just such a high priest, authoritative right alongside God, the writer says, conducting worship in the one true tabernacle built by God. You ever seen Jesus leading worship? No. but he's been there. And just two or three people get together in his name, he's there. Is he able to do what is needed? Yes, he is. working his way through this prayer identity together, working through some of this other, this essence that we have such a high priest who can do these things. And now, according to Hebrews 8, one and two, seated at the right hand of God. Where did he go? At the right hand of God. That's the power hand, by the way. That's the hand that turns the wrench. That's the one that gets the job done. The power is not human flesh only. The power is the power that is found in the gospel and the power that is concentrated in the priest that is high and us who are part of his entourage. A holy nation, royal in priestly work, the leader of the worship, seated at father's right hand, the leader of the worship, and that is an active leadership, not a mere status situation, a minister of worship. Where is he now? Where is my Lord Jesus Christ now? Where is the master of my soul? Where is he? Well, he's seated at the, yeah, but he doesn't stay there. It's an active activity going on. It's the work of him through a people. We'll have to think about these things just a little bit. Ton Hagion Latourgas. Ton Hagion Latourgas is in the holy place. In the holy place, said right here, the leader of the worship. This is the worship which God has provided for humanity, and which alone is acceptable to God. What is it? It's the worship that comes through the Son, high priest, and through the church that's being collected as His people. And that is the level of worship God gives us. He's a high priest after the house of God and over the house of God. the minister of the sanctuary, the one true worshiper who leads us in our worship, and covenant, the promises of God are yes and amen. I preached a whole series on this a few years ago. And the word sticks when we get it and hold on to it. It begins to change our heart and our lives and our understanding, all that. Christ has become for us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. The real agent in all true worship is Jesus. That's the one marking place we get that down. I found my memory a little better when I was thinking about looking way back years ago. And I tried to see, just with the knowledge of his presence, and here that he was saying to us, come, follow me, let's go worship. He didn't say it's the Lord today. He didn't say it's the special day, but it's all there. And Jesus will lead worship around the throne times with people who've gone before, held in a beautiful life there. Prophet, priest, king, we are called to participate by grace in his continuing ministry, lifting us by the Spirit into the very triune life of God. Common understanding of worship for me, for you too, is that we go to church, Sundays now, Sunday's the day still, Thank God for that. We go to church, we sing our songs, we pray, we listen to sermons, we give our money and our time and our talent for the ministry of the Lord through his church. We need God's grace to help us do these things, yes. Worship is something we do before God. Emphasis on our priesthood. Where is Jesus, the high priest? Where's the mediator in worship? Is worship human-centered or is it our offerings and our prayers all inspired by God's grace and work? Bishop Leslie Newbigin has commented that when the average Christian in this country hears the name of God, he or she does not think of the Trinity. That's probably true, generally speaking. Triune God, grace. Hang on a second. Another view of worship, view of worship, sees us participating through the Spirit in the Son's communion with the Father. Can you see that? Son's communion with the Father. and we're allowed or called or made to be a part of that worship. Participating in union with Christ and what he has done for us once and for all in his self-offering to the Father and his life and his death on the cross and what he is continuing to do for us in the presence of the Father and in his mission from the Father to the world. There's only one true priest through whom and with whom we draw near to God, our Father. One high priest, one. There's only one mediator between God and man. There's only one offering which is truly acceptable to God. And it's not ours, it's his. It's the suffering, it's the offering by which he has sanctified for all time those who came to God by him. those who came to God by him. Jesus Christ, the high priest, and we the church, a royal priesthood, participating in worship through him. Our sonship and communion with the Father is shared by the spirit of adoption in his sonship and communion with the Father. Our prayer and commission to the world is shared in the prayers and mission of the apostle and high priest with whom we confess. Our baptism is the gift of participating through water and spirit and the one baptism of Christ's baptism for us in the Jordan and on the cross. This is the life and the spirit. communion, fellowship, sharing, participating. And because you are sons, here's what he gives us, God has sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. The view of worship is Trinitarian, incarnational. It takes the headship and priesthood of Jesus Christ seriously. It takes seriously his self-offering for us and our life in union with him through the Spirit, being the body of Christ. Of grace, God our Father gives us what he demands. What does he demand? The worship of our hearts and minds. Is it possible that every believer might have a mind and a heart like that? Yeah. How long? Maybe not anytime we can even fix on anything. You know, church and people living is not done when we leave. So we always have to stop when we're looking at what do you think is gonna happen? And say, well, I don't know exactly what's gonna happen, but I can see that it may not happen for a long time yet even. or it may be gonna happen real soon. But the problem is we don't know. So when I look at things around and I look at this, God our Father gives us what he demands, the worship of our hearts and minds. He lifts us out of ourselves to participate in his very life in communion. in the Godhead, of the Godhead. I mean, how many gods are there in the Godhead? Thank you very much. One, the Godhead doesn't have a bunch of pieces and parts. There is the Father, there is the Son, there is the Holy Spirit. And when you start dabbing around with that, you find out that runs into real stuff, real challenging thought. But there are so many beautiful ways to understand the triune God and His fellowship with His own when you understand the application of the triune Godhead to His people. We're baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit into the community, the body of Christ, which confesses faith in one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and which worships the Father through the Son in the Spirit. Okay, you wanna unwind that for me? I took time to make sure it got written down, so probably need help. Trinity is the focal doctrine for grasping the reality of worship and prayer to the Father through the Son in the Spirit. We only come to the Father through the Son. We're brought by the Spirit into His presence. We come into the life of praise and adoration and union with Him. We know that the living Christ is in our midst leading our worship, our prayers, our praise. He's in all that, all of it. We know that the living Christ is in our midst, leading our worship, our prayers, our praise. When it comes to justification, as I close this, we are freely accepted by God in Christ, and not because of our works. By God's grace through faith is how it works. It is He, God is not accepting because we have offered worthy worship. How many of you know worthy worship does not get you accepted? This is some of the stuff that we always run right through and never see, never stop long enough to see it. We know that the living Christ is in our midst leading our worship, prayers and our praise. When it comes to justification, we're freely accepted by God in Christ, period. And not because of our works. God does not accept us because we have offered worthy worship. He accepts us freely in the person of his beloved son. It is he who on our behalf, in our name, has made the one offering to the Father which is acceptable to God. It is he who unites us with himself in the one body and his communion with the Father when his continuing intercession. The real agent in worship in New Testament understanding is Jesus Christ, who leads us in our praises and prayers, the one true minister of the sanctuary. Our high priest leads us into the holy of holies, the holy presence of the Father, the holy communion of the Godhead. Henry Schugle, anybody familiar with that name? Okay, I don't have to tell you who he is then. Henry Google was a professor, theologian, third century, 17th century, not too long ago. And he wrote a book called The Life of God in the Soul of Man. I found a copy of it a couple of years ago. And it still remains pretty good. It was a book, a small book, that was, God just got it out there at the right time, George Whitefield. reaching all those outpourings of the Spirit toward the East Coast and around, years ago, was converted by reading that little book. The discovery that worship is not just something we do to please God, and this is out of the book, but that in worship, Christ himself comes to live in our hearts by His Spirit and draws us into the very life of God. into the very life of God. Where's the life of God gonna be when you get up in the morning, fumbling, trying to find the coffee? See, I have my coffee already right above the coffee machine. If it falls out, I got too much in there, but if it don't, I'm okay. And we wanna get a drink, we wanna get ready to go for the day. Hey, listen, slow it down for just a minute and acknowledge. the beauty of the relationship that makes you a child of God, that makes you a part of God's chosen people. What a blessing. Do a little tippy-toe dance around the table and go ahead and get your coffee. Got it going with that. The reading of the book led to John Woodfield's conversion The discovery that worship is not just something we do to please God, but that in worship Christ himself comes to live in our hearts by a spirit, draws us into the very life of God. The idea here is that the life of humanity is lifted up into the very life of the triune God. That'll be enough to confuse us as we think about it. But you only got Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to deal with here. And then us. And the nations and the world, all that's there can be tied right in. If God is doing it, he brings his people in. So somewhere out there in the back row or a front row or a farm or working in town at some other little place, we get concerned about our relationship to God. Just go back and get enough of this to say, I gotta stop and sit down. I gotta think about this. get our minds shaping again. The life of humanity is lifted up into the very life of the triune God. I like to say it this way, we are brought into the divine dance. Through the years here, I've used grace as my prop quite a few times when I needed another person to be a part of it. We've done some stuff that looked kind of funny. setting our music and song to a piano up and down. You remember that? We had some things going on. And I didn't know how it was gonna end up, but it was fun. It was good. This is Gospel Live. It's got big gaps in it for us to shovel in all the things that we've learned, see if we can sort them out a little bit. But know this, the life of humanity is lifted up into the very life of this triune God of grace. And if you're his, he will not let you go. Don't waste any time. Respond to the God who's calling as a shepherd, the sheep he loves. He'd probably say, Charmaine, Where are you? Come to me. Now she's done that. And every once in a while, you gotta just stop and pause and get on your face or on your knees. Thanks for letting me have another prop run. Let's dance when it's time to dance. Let's pray when it's time to pray. Amen. Let me pray. Father, I wanna thank you for your Word. I wanna thank you for the life you've given us. I wanna thank you now for the days ahead because I'm asking you to so work in us that we'll have a new hunger and thirst after righteousness. And we'll wanna know what you are doing, what you're saying in a fresh way. So bless your people, Lord. Bless us as we live. as we draw near to God, as we do what you've bid us do, that we might give you praise. Bless your people, give them health, give them energy. Oh Lord, give them the capabilities of just moving on in your plan and let us see your glory. In Jesus' name, amen.