Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 1. Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember those who are in prison as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. Let marriage be held in high honor, in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled. For God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Keep your life free from love of money and be content with what you have. For He has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So we can confidently say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me? Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace and not by foods which have not benefited those devoted to them. We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. The bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore, let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. Through him, then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good, to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. You may be seated. I thought with this text before us this morning, especially this first paragraph, but these first two paragraphs, I thought we could think on the question, ponder the question, what makes a community truly Christian? What makes a group of people truly Christian? What are its distinguishing marks? Or what are those chief character differences between those who are outside of Christ and those who are believers in Christ? What would those marks be? What would those distinctives be? We could say, and it would be right to say, we could talk about our beliefs. and are, for lack of a better term, rituals, prayer, Bible reading, church attendance. Those things are definitely things that could be there but it's not merely an acknowledgement of truth that makes a community truly Christian. The demons believe and know these things and yet they shudder and they fear the Lord and they're not of his people. So the truth has to do something inside of us in order for it to have its effect, in order for us to be truly Christian. And so we could also talk about our conduct, our behavior, our morality. We could say these things might make us truly Christian, but there again it might not. Just as people might profess Christian doctrine, Christian truth and not be Christian, people could also have Christian conduct and not be Christian. One might look at the life of a non-Christian and see little difference with those Christians, especially in some of these things on this list here in chapter 13, 1 through 6. Some of these things listed, we could say that there are some non-believers, non-Christian, who could act in such ways as well. And sometimes it's hard even with us Christians to distinguish between some who are Christian and some who are not, just by outward conduct. So it's not necessarily the conduct. But I want to ask ourselves, how do we be something that we will not find anywhere else in this society? How do we be something that you will not find anywhere else in this society? I don't want to be a people who merely just do the things on the list of Christian duty. I want to be more than that, more distinct than that, more peculiar than that. I want us to be a fellowship, a community who are very different than those who are around us. Something that stands out. I think the fellowship of the saints is truly counter-cultural. We use this term counter-culture to speak about sub-cultures within our society and I don't think those sub-cultures are counter-cultural at all. You can think of bikers, biker gangs, you can think of even like punk rock people, and I don't think they're counter-cultural. I think they take an aspect of the culture and amplify it. The Christian is the only one who is truly counter-cultural, truly not of this earth, truly not of this world, truly goes against everything that this world and all its people go for. And so we are to be truly counter-cultural, but how? And I could ask what is, by probing this question, what is at the heart of our behavior, the heart of our conduct, the heart of our morality? There are a few things. One thing would be that we've been regenerated by the Holy Spirit. We have the living God living in us, and it causes us to love those things which He loves, and to hate those things which He hates. And so this is a drive behind what we do. It's a drive behind us doing the things that we do. We love what is pure. We love what is right. We love what is merciful. We hate those things that are unjust. It's truly something from our heart, born from within us. We also are pilgrims. We know that this is not our home, so we will act differently because this is not the place that God has made us to dwell forever. But this third one is the one I want us to consider today, that the Christian has his or her life devoted to God and hearts that aim to please Him. Our lives are lives of worship, lives of dedication to God. And so our lives should be pure. They should be more righteous in the world around us. To say so would be an offense against God. To say against that would be an offense against God. To say that there really is no difference between the church and the world is to say that God's power really has no effect. God's strength has no might in a person in whom he is dwelling. so that we are sinners. That power that raised Jesus from the dead is dwelling within us, and that should make a difference. It should make us different. We have the spirit of holiness and the spirit of power dwelling in us, making us new, making us different, and we have a stronger motivation. We have a stronger motivation to do what is right, and that motivation is that we are loved by God. that we are loved by God and we live out of those deep wells of gratitude and worship. And those deep wells carry a lot more strength than legalism does. And so the Christian distinctive, I would say, is we are a people whose lives are worship offerings to the true and living God. And you will not find that in the world. I want to look at these, there are two phrases that surround these paragraphs that I've read. And one is back up in chapter 12, in verse 28. Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Let us be grateful and let us offer up to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God is consuming fire." So leading into this passage we read, we have worship. We are to offer up ourselves to God as worship. And at the end, bookmarking the other side in verse 16, Actually, verse 15 and 16. Through Him, through Jesus, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God that is the fruit of lips that acknowledge His name. Do not neglect to do good, to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. So we have within this passage bookmarks saying, Worship your God. Do so with the lips of your mouth. Offer up praises with your lips in gratitude and also offer up your lives as sacrifices to Him and live in a way that pleases Him. And like I said, this is a more compelling way, a much stronger force for our conduct than legalism ever is, never will be, and never has been. So we are offering up our lives as sacrifices of thanksgiving, as sacrifices of devotion, not as sacrifices of atonement for our sin. We are not trying to gain leverage with God. We are not trying to appease God. We're living to please Him, not to appease Him. We're living in reaction of what He has done for us and in reaction to His love for us, not as trying to gain His favor, gain His love. And that is a big difference. And so we live as people who have been freed from sin. We live as people who have been freed from Satan and death and the law of God and His justice. And we live as people who live for the Lord Jesus who did free us. We live out of gratitude. We dedicate ourselves to Him. And so as the old saints in the Old Testament go to the temple on the Sabbath and they offer up their sacrifices to the Lord, their Thanksgiving offerings and their burnt offerings, our religion is one in which we offer up our entire lives to our God. We offer up ourselves. So as the ancient saints would go into the temple courts celebrating all that God has done for them, And they brought to the Lord gifts that they would place on the altar. But with us, what God desires for us, He also desired for them, but the gifts that we have to offer Him are lives of holiness and lives which bless others. And so out of our gratitude for all that the Lord has done for us, we say, we thank you, Father. We thank you, Lord Jesus. And now here's my life. Here's my life." So we obey Him out of gratitude and love, and this is gospel worship. This is gospel devotion. This is gospel conduct and gospel behavior. And it's not a new concept in the New Testament. The Old Testament saints should have known this. It should have been there. It was always there. Jesus quotes Hosea when He talks to the Pharisees. He says, He has them read and consider Hosea 6-6. Learn what this means, for I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice. The knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. This is what God has always wanted from his people and this is what we have now as our gifts to God. Sacrifices of lives, lives out of love. If you remember Psalm 10, Psalm 10 is the great psalm where the psalmist marries the high priest of Christ in his kingship. The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies. He's saying, Lord, God, my King, you are going to go out from Zion, you're going to rule, you're going to conquer all things. And then it says this in verse 3, your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power in holy garments from the womb of the morning. the dew of Your lips will be Yours. When we see the King in all His glory and all His power, Your people are going to offer themselves up freely to You. They're going to offer their lives unto the King of glory. And now that Jesus has come, now that this psalm is probably the most quoted, especially in the book of Hebrews in the New Testament, that in the manner that Christ has come, in the manner that He has ruled and reigned, that He has saved us, His people now, out of worship, offer themselves up freely to Him. And so our prayer every morning should be, here I am Lord, do with me what you will. You have purchased me, I am yours. The day of your power is now here, and I offer myself freely unto you. This is the sacrifice that we bring to the table. And so there's a difference between the church and between the culture. I'll illustrate this by something that Emily and I have heard. We were visiting some people I haven't seen in quite some time and they talked about this ministry that helped them out in their time of need. And it flew people places that couldn't afford tickets to fly. And the remark that one of them said was, these people didn't push their religion on us. I don't even know if it was a faith-based ministry or not, I still don't know, but they said the thing they enjoyed about it is that these people didn't push what they believed on them or even tell them what they believed. And so people go away from ministries like this thinking that these people just operated out of the goodness of their heart. And they think that's noble. And not that that is a bad thing, not that that's an evil thing, but the Christian, on the other hand, does not do this. Now, the Christian does things out of a reaction and a celebration of the goodness of God. The Christian says, I am not good. This is not some innate goodness in me that is producing this love. This is my sacrifice of praise to the only one who is good, the only one who is righteous. He is the fountainhead of anything and everything that is wonderful. And that fountainhead has poured into me and it's spilling out of me. That is what you are seeing. The Krishna is not seeking to be commended or applauded. He's seeking to spread the fame of Jesus Christ in this earth. The Krishna would rather have Christ be known than people be known, but the world would rather commend people rather than God. The world would rather have people commended than God. See, the world does not even have the slightest thought towards the first and greatest commandment. You should love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, all your soul, and all your strength. It sometimes can be hard to have a thought toward it, too, in our lives. It's all about Him, and it's all about His glory. That is why we live the way we live. That is why we do what we do. Not because we are gaining His favor, but because we are celebrating what He has done and who He is. and everything we do should be in honor and in tribute to this triune God. I think sometimes we have diminished this greatest commandment in our lives and our thoughts. We watch movies which have taken its name in vain. Earlier Christians throughout other generations would be appalled at what we do. We should do everything to glorify Him, to honor Him, So the culture and the church are different in this. Secular people will do acts of kindness to our fellow human beings. People will do acts of kindness. People will do good things. They will feed the poor. They will take care of those in need and the like. But secular people will not exalt the name of the Lord Jesus Christ with their lips or with their lives. They won't fill the earth with His much deserved worship. If we don't do this, nobody's going to. That's what makes us distinct. They will help people, they will feed the poor, they will help those who are oppressed, and that is good. But if we don't exalt the name of the Lord Jesus Christ with the way we live with our hearts, if we're not living as acts of worship, offerings to God, nobody else is going to do it. This is what makes the Christian life distinct. This is what makes the Christian community distinct from everyone else. And also we are not just doing this, we're not doing good things out of a love for goodness. We're not doing what is noble for nobility's sake, and we are not doing what is right for righteousness' sake. We are after the Lord who bought us for His sake. We do what is pleasing to Him as our King and our Savior. You know Romans 12, 1 and 2, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. So we want to honor our God. That is our aim. And so we dig up, we consider, we look into what is this that pleases Him? What is it that is acceptable to Him? What are the things that He likes? Now, I want to have a caution for us. A lot of times with our Reformed theology, we tend to say that all our goodness is its filthy rags. And that's true. And just because our good works are its filthy rags when it comes to our justification, it doesn't mean when we do good works out of acts of worship for God, He considers them filthy rags. They please Him. He enjoys them. And so He wants us to do them. And so when we do them, we're not offering up to a God who is indifferent to them. He is pleased. It's a fragrance of a pleasing aroma to Him. He loves it. But we are not living up to our own standards. We are seeing what pleases our Lord. When I was in high school and early college, I had my own code of conduct, I went by, I loved philosophy, I loved ethics, I loved this idea of having a higher way of living, a noble way of living, and so I didn't do a lot of the things I abstained from a lot of the things, drugs and alcohol and different things, abstinence. It wasn't because I was trying to please God with it. It's because I thought that was a higher way of living, I thought it was ethical. And I loved ethics, and so that's why I did it. I had a standard for myself, and I lived by it as much as I could. I had actually, it was based more on a book called Brave New World than it was the Bible. But my heart, and I know there are people today living like this. That's why we see good things happening with people who are unbelievers. I tried to be good, in world standards I was good, but it wasn't because I was living out of worship to God. My heart was not in a state of adoration and reverence when I was thinking about how I should live and when I was going about living the way I should live. That's what I want, is to have a state of worship. We are living for the Lord's sake, not for goodness' sake, not for righteousness' sake, and not for nobility's sake. We are living for our King who purchased us. I would ask, are you anywhere in the ballpark of being a living sacrifice unto God? Is that something that's on your heart when you're considering how you ought to live and when you go about your day? Are you offering yourself as a daily sacrifice, a daily offering to your Lord when you wake up in the morning? How are you doing in that? How am I doing in that? And how do we get there? How do we get to that point where this is our heart, this is our motivation, this is why we do what we do every day. How do we get there? And I would say we go to where Paul went when he's leading the readers up to chapter 12, verse 1 and 2 of Romans. Go to where Hebrews went when the author is leading us up to chapter 13, having us be sacrificial offerings. We need to have our hearts in the right state. It seems easier, at least in our minds, to have ourselves be given up as a dying sacrifice to our Lord, a dying offering to our Lord in martyrdom, rather than giving ourselves up as a living sacrifice in our day-to-day living. So how do we get there to motivate ourselves? I would say we meditate on what the Lord has done. Go through the book of Hebrews. See that God has not held himself at bay from us. God has not veiled himself, but he has spoken to us through Jesus Christ. God has made himself understood. He has exegeted who he is to us in the Lord Jesus. And it is a full revelation. It is a final revelation. It is a sufficient revelation. And this Jesus is greater than any angel, any created being, or the sum of all things ever made. Nobody has ever been given the name that Jesus has been given. He became one of us. He became one of us so He could taste death on our behalf, so He could free us from our slavery to our own sin, and our slavery to Satan, our slavery to this fear of death that we have in us. He came to set us free from those things. He came and He's greater than anything that's come before Him, greater than anything that will come after Him. Last night I read a sermon by Robert Mary McShane which made me think as I read through Hebrews and see that Jesus offered up himself in tears. He learned by suffering how to be a servant of God. McShane said that there are no tears in heaven. That God had come to earth to weep when he encountered what this earth has. When he ran into sinners and unbelievers and those who hate the name of God, he wept. Jesus came to be one of us so that he could suffer and so that he could be a faithful high priest for us. Now he's bringing us back to God as one who died for us, has offered up himself for us. The old priest, the old high priest would lay their hands on the two goats The scapegoat and the goat of sacrifice for the sins of his people. And this high priest did not. He took his hands and laid them on his own head. Sacrificed himself once for all. It doesn't need to happen again. This is something that was done. It is finished. And read through Hebrews and say Amen. It has been done. There's nothing more that needs to be done and now He's put His Spirit in us and He's working in us. So go to Romans and see how all people are all on the same page. We're all guilty and condemned before the Living God. Some people try to hide the knowledge of God, as we do often. We don't like to think certain things about God because that makes us in great peril. There are things about God we don't like to see, or there are religious people. Chapter two of Romans, one and two, where it says that there are people who say what to do, but don't do those things. We are all guilty. All of humanity is guilty before the living God. All have sinned and fallen short of his glory. And what hope do we have? Except in chapter three when we hear that God has appeased himself on our behalf. through the sacrifice of His Son. And it is by faith, and faith only, that we're going to be saved. So as all of us have died in Adam, so all can live in Christ. And as we wrestle with this flesh that is still in us, we have one who is greater, who has overcome the flesh. Chapter 7, we know that Jesus, though the law condemns us, He saves us. These are the things we think on. These are the things we are thankful for. And in reaction we say, here I am Lord, do with me what you will. I am yours. We have a God who has done so much for us. He's done so much for us. He's been so good to us. He has so much prepared for us. And so our lives are to be fragrances of peace offerings, of gratitude, of love, of worship. Just want to walk through briefly these applications that we find in the text. So if you ever say to yourself, I don't have anything to offer to God. If you ever say to yourself, I have this love for the Lord, but I don't know what to do with it. I mean, I could sing, but is that it? Is there anything else I can do for my King? How can I ever thank Jesus enough for all that He has done for me? If you ask yourself this, or if you want to test and find out what is acceptable to God, here are a few things in verses 1 through 6 of Hebrews 13. And notice that much of this worship that we have to offer is expressed communally or corporately. They will know we are Christians by our love, right? When Paul says, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God, in that context, God is saying, make sure you don't cause your brother to stumble. Don't start beating down the weak one among you. Whatever you do, do it out of love and consideration for those around you, whether you're eating. Don't eat meats if it's going to bother them, if it's going to cause them to stumble. Don't eat food sacrificed to idols if it's going to bother the conscience of people around you. Whatever you do, do all for the glory of God. Worship Him in it. Love one another by what you do. And that is what is pleasing to Him. So 13.1, let brotherly love continue. Brotherly love continue. It's already happening. He says, let it continue. We are family. We've been all purchased by the blood of Christ. We've been loved by an almighty God. We've all been through the same things. We've all been sought out by the sovereign Lord. We've all been regenerated by His Holy Spirit. We've all been born from above. We've all been purchased. We've all been delivered, set free, liberated. We've all been taken out of our darkness and our sin and we're all going to the same home. We're brothers and we're sisters. We have ties that bind us. We have a love for one another that we won't have with other people. We have one heart and one soul. Often we think we have our church friends and then we have our real friends. That ought not to be. We do have friends that are unbelievers and we have friends that are believers, but the ones that we have the tightest bind with, the ones that we have that blood relationship with, are our brothers and sisters in the faith. And so if you want to worship the Lord, if you want to express your love for Him, He tells you, love your brothers and sisters in Christ. And so we are doing this when we have love and charity passing in and amongst us. And when we're doing that, we're sending up a sweet-smelling fragrance to the Lord. This is what He delights in. This is what He desires, that we love one another. Verse 2, Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember what Jesus said to his people when he says on that day there's going to be a great call, there's going to be a great division between the goats and the sheep. He says, I was a stranger and you welcomed me. The people said, and when did we see you as a stranger and welcome you? Jesus replied to them, as you did to the least of these my brothers, you did to me. Open up your house. Open up and share your home and your life with others. Do this as an offering to God. Do this as an act of worship, especially with those who are in need, and those who are lonely, those who are strangers. God has brought us to Himself. He's given us a home in Himself. He's given us a family. So give thanks to Him by extending that tenderness to others. He is pleased by that. In verse 3, remember those who are in prison as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body, or since you also are subject to such treatment. Those who are mistreated, especially those in this context who are mistreated for the Gospel's sake, those who have been faithful to the Lord and they've been mistreated by the world, Be with them. Share in that. I remember when I was in elementary school, I believe, and living in Illinois, it was during the Persian Gulf War, Operation Desert Storm, and it felt like we were in war with the people overseas, that I didn't feel, maybe for a number of different reasons, during the Iraq War. It felt like we were with the people. We had pen pals with soldiers in school, and I remember all around our town there were all these reminders that we are at war with, and we are with our soldiers. That's that sentimentality, that's that feeling we should have with those who are mistreated. We are with them. We are in this with them. We are together with them. They are our brothers, our sisters, and they are waging the great war for the Lord Jesus' sake. and they are suffering because of it. But we will not abandon them. We are one with them. And Jesus is going through these sufferings with his people. Jesus is with them, suffering through his people. And so let us go and suffer with him in this. This is an act of worship. This is what pleases our Lord. Verse four, let marriage be held in in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and the adulterous. Marriage, one man, one woman, united for life. This is to be held in honor among all of us, in high honor. This is the antithesis in the antidote to sexual immorality. This is both the antithesis and the antidote to sexual immorality. Esteem marriage. Don't just be against immoral behavior. Don't just be against sexual immorality and adultery. Be pro-marriage. Celebrate it. Cherish it. Hold it in high regards. Not only in profession, but with your lives. And do so in worship to God. Marriage in this country was ruined by heterosexuals long before it was ruined by homosexuals. Long before it was attacked by those who are outside of the heterosexual community. If we hold marriage in high regard, we will be honoring to the Lord. We will do what is pleasing to Him. We don't need to be activists in order to be counter-cultural. We just need to cherish what is to be cherished by God. We just need to do so out of love. We can engage, we can have a voice, we can talk about judgment on the Lord, judgment of the Lord on the nation, we can do all these things, but we should see to it that we honor this beautiful institution. We should see to it that we honor and cherish and celebrate this, what God has given us. And we should do that a lot more so than we should try to make a godless culture revere it and honor it. Let's make sure we do it. Let's make sure we cherish it and hold it in honor. This is an offering that we can give up to God of thankfulness. And keep your life free from money, from the love of money. And be content with what you have where you said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So we can confidently say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me? Keep yourself free from love of money or from covetousness. So contentment is the antithesis and the antidote to covetousness. Contentment is the antithesis and the antidote to covetousness. So if you're saying, my Lord, how can I honor you today? He might reply, keep yourself free from the love of money. I am with you. I won't leave you. I won't forsake you. Believe me. Be content. I love what Matthew Henry, commentator, said about this promise, I will never leave you nor forsake you. He says, this promise, that I will never leave you nor forsake you, this promise contains the sum and the substance of all promises. This promise contains the sum and the substance of all promises. I will never, no never leave thee, nor ever forsake thee. So how can we not be content? How can we not be content? He took us out of the kingdom of darkness. He conquered our enemies. Do you think He'll then let us perish in hell? No, He will not leave us, nor forsake us. He will not lose track of you. He will not hold out on you. He will not now be so careless with you after He went through all that trouble saving you. God is not going to hold out on us. He's not stingy. He's got something prepared for us. So if you want to love your Lord, if you're saying, what can I do to serve Him? What can I do to love Him? What can I do to be different from this world around me? Do some of these things. Hold marriage in high honor. Keep yourself in the love of money. Let brotherly love continue. Show hospitality. Offer yourself up as a thankful, worshipful child of God. And you will be different from the world. So let's not be merely a moral people. Let's be a people who live unto God. Let's be a people who honor Him. Not out of works of righteousness, not out of a drive trying to appease Him, but out of thankfulness and pleasing Him, out of worship. And that people say of us, they don't go to a temple to pay homage to their God. They're something different, but they don't go to a temple to pay homage to their God. They pay homage every day. And they do so with such worship and such gratitude. There's something about those Christians. Let's be such a fellowship. Let's be such a community. Let's be such a people of God.