Standing and take your Bibles and turn to Revelation chapter 4. Revelation chapter 4. We will read this chapter together and then we will read Hebrews chapter 13. We'll read Revelation chapter 4. Before we read the infallible Word of the Living God, let us again go to Him in prayer. Our Father, we are completely without strength apart from Christ. Without Him, we have no light. Without Him, there is no way. And without Him, there is no life. Strengthen us, we pray, O Lord, by Your Spirit. Shower us with Your blessed Holy Spirit that we might find illumination that we might understand this precious gift of Your Word, that we might see Christ and see our duties clearer this morning than we ever have. O God, meet with us. Be with us. Lord, if there are any here this morning that are guilty of not knowing You, of hearing of Your blessedness, of your offer of grace, and instill not, have accepted Christ as Savior, Master, and King. Have mercy upon them, O God. Open their eyes to see their need. Enlighten and quicken their dead hearts. O God, have mercy upon them. Lord, if there's any believer here that has backslidden, become cold, lethargic, and apathetic to your grace, Oh Lord, by Your Spirit, call them back. Bring them back. Lord, that they might be strengthened through the means of grace. That they may find comfort in the house of God and in His Word. And Lord, for those who are strong in the Word, Faithful in the Spirit. Obedient. O God, strengthen these brothers and sisters. Continue to give them more illumination. More illumination of Your glory and of Your splendor and of Your majesty and of Your power. Show us more of Christ. May we today stand in awe of His person and work. And Lord, let us not grow weary in doing good. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Let us read from Revelation chapter 4. Hear now the word of the living God this morning. After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I had heard like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me said, Come up here and I will show you what must take place. after these things. Immediately I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne was standing in heaven, and one sitting on the throne. And he who was sitting on the throne, he who was sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardis in appearance. And there was a rainbow around the throne like an emerald. in appearance. Around the throne there were 24 thrones and upon the thrones I saw 24 elders sitting clothed in white garments and golden crowns on their heads. Out from the throne come flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. And before the throne there was something like a sea of glass, like crystal, and in the center and around the throne, four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. The first creature was like a lion, and the second creature like a calf, and the third creature had a face like that of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within, and day and night they do not cease to say, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come. And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever, and ever the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For You have created all things, and because of Your will they existed and were created." Now, Hebrews chapter 13. Let love of the brethren continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember the prisoners as though imprisoned with them and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body. Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled. For fornicators and adulterers God will judge. Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have. For He Himself has said, I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you. So that we confidently say, The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me? Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you, and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods. through which those who were so occupied were not benefited. We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered outside the gate. So let us go out to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come. 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. And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you. Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a good conscience, designed to conduct ourselves honorably in all things. And I urge you all the more to do this, so that I may be restored to you the sooner. Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is well-pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. It's turning out that Hebrews chapter 13 is taking longer than Hebrews chapter 11. I didn't anticipate that, but that's the way the Lord has unfolded this chapter to us. You see, the book of Hebrews ends, and remember last week we talked about this, theological portrait that the Apostle is painting for us. And he has painted this picture of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And chapter 13 are those final touches to this glorious theological portrait that would have as its result to stimulate and to stir up those brothers and sisters who have been oppressed during difficult and hard times, that they may rise up and maintain their good confession before men and God. You see, brothers and sisters, whenever hard times come, whether they be financial, illness, death, whatever they may be, We are to maintain a good confession before men and before God. That those difficult and hard times, no matter what they are, are not excuses for not serving the living and true God with all of our hearts. And that's exactly what the book of Hebrews is discussing. He's dealing with the heart. How many times have we read in Hebrews that we are to draw near to God? What? Just with outward activity or outward obedience? Not at all. God has never accepted alone outward obedience. He loves obedience. But it must come seasoned with a heart of grace. It must come seasoned with a heart of love and adoration to God. And without that love, he rejects it. You remember that. Without that heart that is bent to holiness and righteousness and justice, not perfectly, it's pleased God not to make us perfect in this life. But it's pleased God to leave that sin principle. to leave that sin nature within us that it might discipline us and cause us to long for Him more than if we not had it. Brothers and sisters, listen. This week alone, have you been buffeted by sin? I'm sure you have. When you looked into the mirror, did you see A man or a woman or a boy, young man, young woman, that's been buffeted by sin. And have you asked this question or have you praised the Lord in this way? I can't wait to see the Lord Jesus Christ. There's coming a day, brothers and sisters, when you will no longer strive and fight sin any longer. That's why all of the great women, all of the great men in the past, and the Apostle Paul says, look, for me to die is gain. You're going to take me out of this world? So be it. Break me and usher me into the presence of Christ. And I will no longer strive and fight this sin any longer. Put me into the presence of my Maker. Go ahead. But I will continue to make my lips praise His name. I will continue to preach His gospel. I will continue to call sinners to grace. And I will continue to preach against wickedness in every high place that I see it. Usher me into the kingdom of heaven if you like. But I will not stop praising God. Praise is a permanent theme of the Bible. I mean, praise starts in Genesis and it ends in Revelation. The Bible is a book of praise. It's a covenant of praise. Beloved, we read just one chapter. I could have picked from literally, literally hundreds of passages Psalms that extol the living and true God, that praise Him, that give adoration to His name for His goodness, for His glory, for His majesty, for His power as Creator God and Savior of men. I could have picked between hundreds of passages of Scripture, because the Bible is a document of praise. Why? Because it's a covenant document. It's a covenant document that establishes a relationship between a holy, infallible, and infinitely perfected God and lowly sinners, desperate sinners. That's what we talked about last week. Our text and our focus is verses 15 and 16 in Hebrews 13. And last week we focused on that relationship that we have with God through Christ. Just that one phrase there, through Him then let us continually offer up the sacrifice of praise to God. Through Christ! What has the book of Hebrews taught us? If anything, it's taught us two things. There are two words. You remember these two words. Never forget these two words. And those are the words, access and acceptance. You don't have access to God without a priest. without a mediator. God does not allow sinners to come into His presence. He's holy. And He's infinitely holy. And He allows no sinners to just waltz into His presence and to do anything in His sight. They must have a mediator. They must have a priest to have access to God and an acceptance. Because you don't want to have access to the king of glory and holiness and be defiled. You'll be cast into hell. You must have acceptance. Jesus Christ is not only that high priest, but he is that acceptable sacrifice to God. He is what Hebrew says, the sacrifice without spot, without blemish, perfect. perfectly able to satisfy the wrath and anger of God. See, the blood of bulls and goats, what did that do? That was a temporary satisfaction. God allowed that to be added to the debt of Christ. God accepted that, He instituted it, and He accepted it all while, because every one of those sacrifices pointed to Christ. But when Christ offered Himself, it fully satisfied God's anger and God's wrath. So not only, beloved, do we have access through Christ as our priest, we have acceptance through Christ as our sacrifice. And every time, in the book of Hebrews, When there is this great manifestation of doctrine of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, many times He gives this immediate exaltation to the brethren to draw near to God, because you have access, because you have acceptance. with God. Draw near to Him. What are you waiting for? You have the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't draw back, but draw near through Christ by His Spirit. Come into His presence with thanksgiving and praise. Come into His presence and lift up these petitions. Lift up your cares. Lift up your concerns and your desires. Why? Because you have access now through the blood and sanctification of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, beloved, The Bible makes one thing crystal clear. Man is unable to save himself. It's a fact. That's a fact. It's an imperative. Man is without strength. And without Christ, he can do absolutely nothing to have access to God, and he can do absolutely nothing to be accepted by God. He can do absolutely nothing to be pleasing to God whatsoever. And that's exactly the theme of the book of this chapter 13. It is how to be pleasing to God. Now that you have this great poetry hanging of the person who worked unto the Lord Jesus Christ, Now that you see Jesus in greater detail than you ever have, now that you understand His work more than you ever have before, what is required of you? What do you need to do to be pleasing to God? And that's all that matters. It's not pleasing our spouse. It's not pleasing our children. It's not pleasing one another. The very first and primary thing that we ought to be concerned about this morning is are we God-pleasers? Are we pleasing God now that we've had this wonderful illumination of Jesus Christ? Now that we understand the arduous labor that was laid upon Him to bear our reproach and sins. Now we know what it cost Him. What does it cost us? So we are without strength in this world. We are unable to save ourselves. Beloved, we are without Christ, polluted and holy and perfectly defiled. We know and understand that the Bible teaches that salvation is a sovereign act of God and God alone is the cause of salvation. It's clear. You cannot mistake that fact in the Bible. You have to overlook it. You have to ignore it. You have to totally reject and deny the sovereignty of God. Do not deceive the sovereignty of God in salvation. You have to ignore it. The Bible speaks of it everywhere, that God is the God of salvation. He even names Himself, I am the God of salvation. Is my right arm short to save? Am I unable to save you that need saving, that need access and acceptance? No, I'm not. I'm powerful to save. Come to me. Come to me through my Son, because Jesus is the truth and the way. Come to me through Christ, my provided and appointed mediator, and you'll find acceptance and you'll have access to me. You see, beloved, This is exactly Paul's argument in the whole treatise of Romans. Romans is the treatise of justification. And Paul establishes the fact that all men, Gentiles and Jews alike, are unable to save themselves. I know that's hard for some people to understand that Jews are not able to save themselves. Some people hold out the national election of the Jewish people and say, no matter what happens, they're going to be saved. I'm here to tell you that contradicts what Paul said. Paul said that if they are going to receive circumcision and live by circumcision, then they've got to live by it. And that means they have to stand before God according to the law. And when they stand before God according to the law, what's going to happen? They'll be condemned. He said you can't have it both ways. Either you want the law and you want to be justified by the law, or you want grace. And if it's of grace, it can't be by law. That's Paul's point. Paul's point is that God is the Savior of sinners, of all men. You see, beloved, and one of the reasons I'm hammering this point, Finishing up the book of Hebrews is because we need to understand that what's required of us, if you don't understand the glory of salvation, if you can't comprehend the manifestation of God's mercies, you won't live for Him the way you need to live for Him. You're going to be up and down like a roller coaster. You're going to constantly be tossed to and fro. Everything's going to be a distraction to you. I mean, if you don't understand what it costs to purchase your soul from hell, you're not going to live completely and totally for Christ. You will do so when it's convenient for you. But you won't do it fully and completely all the time. You won't wake up in the morning even though it's so imperfect and you pray to God and you say, God, I need the strength today because you are so worthy of my service, of my labors and energy that you would give me the strength that I might live and be a testimony to you this day. Because I know what it costs. I know. the scourges and the beating that Christ took, the sacrifice it took. And the Bible is clear, He laid down His life that we might have life. We must hammer this point. This is not a point that we can overlook. This is not something that we will ever forget. Forget the cost of your salvation, beloved, and you'll be useless in the Kingdom of God. You'd be useless. If that does not stir you up to faithfulness, then you are in need for quickening grace. If that does not cause your heart to warm, to Christ, to cry out, even now as I am preaching this gospel to you, to cry out to the blessed Savior and thanking Him and to praise in your own hearts and minds. If that is not the result of the things that we're talking about, you are in need of quickening grace and you need to ask God to give you the Spirit. Because wherever His Spirit resides, there's praise for God. Wherever the Holy Spirit resides, there's praise for God. We're going to talk about that praise in just a little while. Beloved, we need to understand that Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 9, the writer talks about our hearts being established by grace and not law. We spent several Sundays talking about law. We love the law. Every redeemed born-again believer loves the law of God because the Holy Spirit lives within that person and that Holy Spirit wrote the law of God Every believer loves the law of God they can say along with David. Oh how I love thy law It is my meditation day and night, but David did not use the law for salvation. I He used the law as a means of obeying God, being pleasing to Him, carrying out His will, not as a means of salvation, but as a means of pleasing God, as God revealed Himself, as the law of God is a reflection of His eternal character and goodness. We recognize that. We love the law, but we know that the law does not establish us. We are established by grace, by the free grace of God. Westminster Confession of Faith in chapter 7 and paragraph 1 says this, the distance between God and the creature is so great. that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience unto Him as their Creator, yet they could never have fruition of Him as their blessedness and reward, but by some voluntary condescension on God's part, which He has been pleased to express by way of covenant. The distance between God and the creature is great. What does it mean by that? What are we talking about? When the confession is talking about great, I mean, is it like the illustration of salvation where you have God on this side and you have man on this side and there's this chasm in between the two and somehow the cross is the bridge between God and man? I don't think that's exactly what it's talking about. It's talking about character and nature. God is infinitely holy. I mean, He's holy, but He's infinitely holy. He's infinitely blameless. He's infinite. All of His perfections you must attach infinite to. He's infinitely other. But man, after the fall, is the creature. A sinful creature, and his heart is bent against God. His heart is bent against holiness. His heart is bent toward wickedness and unrighteousness. As Genesis chapter 6 talks about, and the heart of man was evil constantly, all the time. bent to evil constantly. What does it mean? It means that God is this holy God and that we can never breach this ourselves. Listen, you know how the evolutionists, you know, it's amazing. They're the only ones that can get away with this. But when the evolutionists find something that they can't actually explain, they just add more time to it. It used to be millions of years. And because they can't explain a certain aspect of real and true science, they say, well, let's add a billion to it. Because surely in a billion years, even though we can't make this understandable now, but in a billion years this might be possible. Listen to me. I don't care if you had a billion lifetimes to please God, you could never do it apart from Christ. You can't have enough lifetimes to please God for one millisecond apart from Jesus Christ. That's the importance of it. I don't care how many lifetimes you were given, you would never, ever, ever please God apart from His Son. That's how important this doctrine is. But through Christ it's possible. You know, John 14, verse 6, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except By me. Except through me. And that's the reason for our text in Hebrews 13, 15. Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise. I want to paraphrase what Calvin said about verses 15 and 16. He says, There still remains a sacrifice for the Christian. That is, beloved, you know what the whole theme of Hebrews is. The Jews who were telling these Christians that they didn't have a God, they were atheists. That they didn't have a sacrifice. They didn't have a temple. They didn't have the priesthood. They didn't have these things that we have. We have a priesthood. We have an altar. We have a sacrifice. We have all these glorious and the pageantry of all these things that God instituted. But you don't have that. All you've got is this man named Jesus who's been crucified and buried in a tomb. Somebody stole his body. We don't know who stole it. But the only reason he's not in the tomb is because somebody stole him. He never resurrected from the dead. That's what they were being told. Those were the lies they were being told, and that's why the author of Hebrews says, no, we, four times in the book he says, we have a mediator. We have a sacrifice. What does that mean? It means they don't. That those who hold and cling to the old law, the old ceremonial law, they don't have Jesus as a mediator. As they still offered up the blood of bulls and goats, they don't have acceptance or access to God. Because God had already received His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, as full payment for sin. And as they continued in these sacrifices, there was no payment there. There was no satisfaction there. Only condemnation. Because they failed to recognize, with spiritual eyes of faith, Jesus in that sacrifice. They failed to recognize that Jesus was what that sacrifice pointed to. You see, Calvin says that there are still sacrifices for the Christian. Now, let me say this quickly, because I think sometimes terminology can confuse theology and ideas, especially when it's kind of used without really thinking about it. And that's the whole idea about Judaism. You can buy a ton of Christian books that use the word Judaism. And a lot of times what these books will do, especially most of them, all contemporary books, I mean all books that were written within the last 50, 60, 100 years, is they talk about the religion of Judaism to refer to the Old Testament, and then they talk about Christian sacrifices to refer to the New Testament, to refer to that time when Christ came and offered up Himself. Now, the problem with that, beloved, is that it confuses true Christianity. The problem with that whole idea of Judaism slash Christianity is that it confuses what is real faith. Judaism is the religion of man. Judaism is the religion that the Jews rejected faith in God and established their own legalistic religion. That somehow they might be saved through the outward obedience of these sacrifices and offerings. And God never accepted them. How many times can you go through and read Rupert's Psalm 51? We read the responsive reading of Psalm 51. What does David say? A thousand years before the Lord Jesus, David says, it's not the sacrifice you desire, God. It's a broken and a contrite heart. It's what's on the inside. Deuteronomy 10, Deuteronomy 31. He says, listen, I desire circumcision of the flesh. No, that's not going to save you. Of the heart. I desire a heart that loves and adores me. that offers up these sacrifices with love. That's why Paul said, without love, you can't be pleasing to God. Everything must be seasoned with love. Everything. Love for God, love for man. But you see and understand, Judaism is not a Christian religion. All throughout the Old Testament, God required faith. Faith in what? Faith in the sacrifice? Not at all. Faith in Christ. There's one Savior. Jesus. That's what Hebrews chapter 11 is all about. All of those Old Testament saints had faith in whom? Jesus. They all offered up their sacrifices looking forward to the Savior. Jesus. Not in the ritual itself, but the ritual did please God because He instituted it. But they knew that the ritual itself was just outwardly that God desires the inward manifestation of adoration and love. So Judaism is not a Christianity. It's a knockoff. It's man's way of trying to be pleasing to God without having to do the difficult things. You know what we talked about, the heart, you know, the checklist. Everybody, listen, we love checklists. And you can give a person a checklist and say, if you'll check off items one through ten, you'll be holy. And we'll take that list and we'll grab it and we'll say, man, that's easy. But you see, it's not easy. Always bending your heart to love righteousness. Why? Because your heart's always ready to go after wickedness and you're constantly having to pull it back. You're weak. And you need grace of God. You need the means of grace. You need Christ to feed you the means of grace. And your heart is always willing to go after it. Calvin said our heart is a factory of idols, constantly manufacturing idols, beloved. It's easy to check off the list, but it's hard to continue to subdue and beat down your body. As Paul says, I buffet my body, I beat it down, I make it submissive to the revelation and will of God. I make my body obey. I bend my heart to righteousness. I can do no other, in the great words of Martin Luther. I can do no other because he's my Savior. Calvin said that these sacrifices under the old covenant were instituted for the worship and celebration of God, and they were. That means when God's people gathered together, they offered up these sacrifices as part of the celebration and worship of God. And part of this celebrating was that God is the God who saves sinners. That God is the God who brings sinners into a relationship with Him, who gives them access and acceptance into His sight. But beloved, it's no different in the New Covenant. Wipe away from your minds the distinction of Judaism and Christianity. It's all Christianity. In the Old Testament, it pointed to Christ. In the New Testament, we look back to Christ. It's all about Jesus. But we're to offer up now, no bloody oblations. We're not to offer up bloody sacrifices, but now we're to offer up sacrifices of praise to the living and true God. And that's where we're going to spend the bulk of our time here explaining these, this sacrifice of praise in this text of scripture. We will consider. The sacrifice of praise under three headings, and I hope to get to all three of them. If not, we'll use the last one as an application. The first heading will be the precept of praise, the precept of praise. Secondly, we'll talk about the purpose of praise. And thirdly, we'll talk about the fruit of praise. The precept of praise is that teaching and instruction the Bible gives us concerning what praise is. what it does mean to worship and adore the living and true God. What does it mean to extol His name? What does it mean to bring the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving into His presence? And the purpose of praise, we'll look at its design, what it's intended to do. And of course, the fruit of praise, we'll look at the result of what it means to praise God. First, the precept of praise. Now, what do we mean by this? We're talking about how the Bible instructs us better yet, commands us to offer up the sacrifice of praise. This is a command. It's an imperative verb. We are commanded as God's people, those who have been brought into this relationship, look back at verse 10. Or let's go back to verse 9. Those who have had their hearts strengthened with grace, those who have an altar, which is Jesus, those who have been, verse 12, those who have been sanctified by the blood of Jesus, Those who have gone outside the camp to be identified with Jesus, those who have this lasting city as the Lord's Prayer, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We're not waiting for the pie in the sky by and by. We're waiting for God to continue to manifest Himself on the earth. For those of you who are waiting for those kinds of things now, you are to, through Jesus, offer up a continual sacrifice of praise. That's what it means. You're commanded to do so. There's no option. You cannot claim to be a Christian and to leave here this morning and tell yourself, well, you know what? I'm just not a good praiser. We're going to find out that praising isn't just singing. I'm going to let so-and-so praise the Lord. They have a good voice. I'm going to let so-and-so praise the Lord. You know, they're better at it than I am. Brothers and sisters, look, you are commanded by the living and true sovereign God of the universe to lift up a continual sacrifice of praise, commanded by Him to do so. It's not optional. It's not up for discussion or church vote. It's mandatory that His people demonstrate this character. This is a characteristic of those who have been brought into a relationship with Christ, that they are people of praise. Now, if they are people of praise, what is praise? What is it? I bet you if we were to survey the majority of Christians about praise, mainly it would be singing. It would just mainly be singing. And that is part of it, but that's not it. Praise is the adoration. and exaltation of the living and true God, recognizing His perfections and glory, and ascribing to those things praise, not just with our lips, but with our hearts. Remember the complaint that Jesus had was, you draw near to me with your lips, but your hearts are far from me. You draw near to me, you sing all these praises. And beloved, listen, we have over 400 churches in Macon, Georgia. in the highest crime rate probably in the state. How can that be? Is church relevant? How can these people, I mean, if just the people sitting in church today were true born-again believers, what a difference it would make. If they took seriously the praise and adoration of the living and true God through Christ as mediator, prophet, priest, and king, what a difference it would make in their relationships one with another. Remember, it's not just me stealing your property God condemns, it's me protecting your property. It's the positive aspects of the law. It's not just, oh, I don't want to do those things, but it's the positive aspects. It's the protection of somebody's property. Not allowing somebody else to steal your property. That's just one of many hundreds of applications which we don't have time to go into. So what is praise? Praise is the exaltation and manifestation of God's glory. That's it. That's simple enough. But what does it mean to manifest it? That's the question. What does it mean to manifest these perfections? Does it mean to sing about one of God's perfections over and over and over? No, it doesn't. There are two prongs to praise. Two parts. to praise, as there's two parts to a sacrifice we're going to look at later. But those two prongs are adoration and gratitude. Adoration and gratitude. I spent a portion of yesterday listening to Macon's Contemporary Praise Station because I wanted to familiarize myself with praise. And I'm not going to belittle everything I heard. But I have to make this application, because so many Christians think that when they listen to praise music, it's praise music. But we're going to learn this morning that praise is so much more complex and glorious than that. It is so much more comprehensive than just the praise. I love music. I love praise music. But it needs to be biblical praise music. It needs to be solid praise music. And singing about one of God's attributes over and over and over. Now, this is just an application. This is something that I think. To me, it has more to do with whipping me up into some sensationalism than it does really ascribing to God the glory due His name. Because God is just more than holy. He's more than that. He's a lot more than that. And we don't find any praise song in the Bible that does that. We're going to look at a few of them in a little bit. Praise is more complex than just singing a song, even though we love to sing. Singing is an attribute of a Christian. We've got to be singers. Every time we've been studying the Reformation on Sunday night, There's been no revival. There's been no reformation. The reformers were notorious singers. They loved to sing. They loved to sing praises to God. They loved to exalt the name of God. When they marched into battle, they were singing praises to God. That's an army. When they marched in the battle, they were singing psalms of praise to God. They were acknowledging the true and living God, the Creator of the universe, the Savior of sinners, the One who is blessed forever and ever. Amen. They were acknowledging that He alone is their strength. And that apart from Him, they could do nothing. Beloved, if we're going to see revival in our person, Reformation in our person. Reformation in our families. Reformation in this body. Reformation in this city. We must be a people of praise. And not embarrassed of praise. the living and true God. Well, there are several parts to praise. We're going to look at some of these. From the Scripture, we see that praise is comprehensive and it's complex. Now, this is not an exhaustive list. This is just a partial list. You can add to it. I implore you to go home. Add to it. Study it throughout the week. But there are at least five parts to praise that we must recognize if we're going to understand it this morning. First of all, praise is singing. The Psalms, over and over and over again speak of praising God through Psalm. We read one of those to our call to worship. Psalm 96. Let's go back there. We're going to look at several passages of Scripture. Psalm 96 says that we are to sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord. Bless His name. Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day." What's he referring to when he talks about singing to the Lord a new song? He's talking about the salvation that Jesus brings in the New Covenant. That this is a new song. Guess what? We're no longer looking forward to salvation. It's here. It's Jesus. Sing to the Lord a new song." So we are to be a people who sing to the Lord. Turn to 2 Samuel chapter 22. 2 Samuel. 2 Samuel 22. Here's David's song. I mean, just read the first part of it. And David spoke these words in this song to the Lord in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all of his enemies and from the hand of Saul. He said, now it's a song, the Lord is my rock and my fortress, my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge, my Savior, You save me from violence. I call upon the Lord worthy to be praised, and I am saved from all my enemies." Beloved, this is singing praise to God for who God is and for man being unable and is without strength to do anything pleasing to God, but we know that God makes us able. It is God and by God's grace. Deuteronomy chapter 32. Many of you probably already know this passage of Scripture, but this is an old man, the song of an old man. Who is this old man? This old man is Moses. What does Moses offer to us by way of praise? This is a song of an old man who has walked with God and who has been the recipient of the grace of God. And what is it? He's at the end of his life. This is a Psalm. where Moses is at the very end of his life, and he's fixing to go home to the Lord. But this is his song of praise. Let me read to you the first few verses. Give ear, O heavens, and let me speak, and let the earth hear the words of my mouth. Let my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, as the droplets of the fresh grass and as the showers of the herb. For I proclaim the name of the Lord, ascribe greatness to our God. The rock His work is perfect, for all His ways are just. A God of faithfulness and without injustice, righteousness and upright is He." You know what you see in this? Moses is saying, Sit down, young folks, and listen to this old man tell you about God. You know, I think it would have been even better if Moses couldn't sing. I think it would be glorious if Moses, with a crackling voice and tears in his eyes, said, this is my God. Listen, all ye earth. Oh God, open their ears and open their hearts. Let my word shower upon them the dew of heaven. Let them hear this old man praise God. I've sinned against him, but he's been faithful all along. He's brought me through thick and thin. He's brought me through hard times and not. This is my God. Oh, you young people, you listen to my crackling voice and this is my God. He praises God. What do you think that would do? Stimulate, stir up faithfulness. To hear the voice of a crackling, that crackling voice of an old man say, I will tell you about this God, because I walked with Him, and He's been my God. And you need to know this God. And you need to serve this God. And this God is worthy of every bit of your adoration and worship. The last one is Luke chapter 1. The last psalm of praise we will look at is Luke chapter one. And of course, this is Mary's song. This is the total opposite. This is the song of a little girl. I say little girl, probably 14 years old, 15 years old, probably no more than 16 years old. Of course, nowadays we would consider them to be young girls, but here's the mother of the Lord Jesus Christ. She's just been given the message that she would be the one who would give birth to the Savior of the world. And this is what Mary says in verse 46 of Luke chapter one. She said, My soul exalts the Lord and my spirit has rejoiced in God, my Savior, for he has regard for the humble state of his bond slave. For behold, from this time on, all generations will count me blessed. For the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is His name. And His mercy is upon generation after generation, toward those who fear Him. He has done mighty deeds with His arm. He has scattered those who are proud in the thoughts of their heart. He has brought down rulers from their thrones and has exalted those who are humble. He has filled the hungry with good things and sent away the rich empty-handed. He has given help to Israel, His servant, in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his descendants forever." You know what? You sit right there in that hymn, in that psalm of praise, what does Mary do? Mary goes all the way back to the covenant God made with Abraham, and she says, this is Jesus. He's the promise. And I exalt God's name because he keeps his promises. God made that promise 4,000 years before Mary sung this song. So we see that song, that praise is singing. Not only is praise singing, but it's prayer. Praise is prayer. Turn to Ephesians chapter 1. I just want to read to you a couple of prayers of Paul. I know it's taking up a lot of time, but I think it's important for us to understand how comprehensive praise is, so we can do it. So that when we lift up praise to God, It's accepted, and he delights in it, and we are faithful and obedient. But in Paul's prayer in Ephesians 1, verse 15, he says, For this reason I too, having heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, which exists among you, and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you while making mention of you in my prayers. Paul says, I continually lift up thanksgiving to God for your faith. That God, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you know what is the hope of His calling, that are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe these are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might. which he brought about in Christ, when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in heavenly places far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And he put all things in subjection under his feet and gave him head of over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness. of Him who fills all in all. Paul here praises God with thanksgiving and gratitude that these people are saints. They are blessed in Jesus Christ. Chapter 3. Chapter 3 and verse 14, For this reason I bow my knees before the Father. from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives his name, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all fullness of God. To Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works within us. To Him be the glory in the church and in Jesus Christ to all generations forever and ever." Here we see that praise is prayer. Thirdly, praise is testimony. Praise is testimony. Back to Psalm 111. Psalm 111. Praise is not only singing a prayer, but praise is testimony. Psalm 111. Listen to this Psalm. Praise the Lord. I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart, in the company of the upright and in the assembly. Great are the works of the Lord. They are studied by all who delight in them. Splendid and majestic is His work, and His righteousness endures forever. He has made His wonders to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and compassionate. He has given food to those who fear Him. He will remember His covenant forever." Beloved, he says not only this, he says, what am I going to do? I'm going to praise God by testifying to the goodness of God amidst the assembly of the righteous. Among God's people, I will testify to the goodness of God. So praise is testimony. Beloved, praise is also attitude. You don't have to turn there. You know the passage. Psalm 51, verse 17. Praise is attitude. Praise is a disposition of the heart. It's not just an outward conforming. It's an inward conforming to God's glory. God requires a broken and a contrite heart. It's an attitude. Praise is an attitude. It's not that I'm going to sing or I'm going to experience the kind of worship that makes me feel good. That's not praise. Praise has one thing, one object. It's God. Praise desires to see God manifested and glorified, not myself. So that when people see you praising God, are they going to look at you and say, well, that's a spiritual person? Or will they say, what a God that person serves. Listen to the words coming out of his lips. What God is that? You see, when you praise God, when we worship God here, are we pointing to ourselves? Are we pointing people to God? But you see, praise isn't just Adoration in song, it's prayer, it's an attitude, it's a testimony, and beloved, it's also obedience. Fifthly, it's obedience. Joshua chapter 7 and verse 19, you know the story of Achan. Achan robbed God in the city of Jericho. God told them that they were to take nothing out of Jericho, that all of it belonged to Him. And Achan stole some gold and some other items. And because Achan had done that, they went out to battle and they lost. And they knew that God wasn't fighting that battle for them. And so Moses pleads with God and they begin understanding their sin in the camp. Well, Moses stands before Achan and he says this, Praise God this day, Akin. Did you take the gold? What did you do? Praise God and confess your sins. Praise God, Akin, and be obedient. Did you do these things? So praise is not only song, prayer, testimony, and attitude, beloved. It's obedience. You see, that's why we are to continually offer up the sacrifice of praise. Everything about your life should be praise to God. It is that sacrifice of praise. It is that which you lift up to God as being well-pleasing and acceptable in His sight. Everything you do should continually be a sacrifice of praise, beloved. The second thing we need to understand is it's mediated. Our praise must be mediated. It must be through Jesus. You see, God doesn't accept any of those things apart from Jesus. We talked a little bit about that, but I just want to make three comments and then we'll move on. Why does praise need to be mediated? Well, because without a prophet, how do you know what to do? Jesus is our prophet. Without a prophet, how do you know how to praise God? How do you know what to sing? How do you know what to pray? How do you know what to testify to? How do you know what kind of attitude you need to have? How do you know how to be obedient if the prophet of God does not reveal it to you? As a priest, again, that access and acceptance. God accepts our praise. He accepts our sacrifice because are we good? No, because of the goodness of Jesus. Because He's the Lamb of God, spotless and blameless. The eternal Lamb of God. As our King, because He removes our defilement and gives us strength and leads us. He's the captain of our salvation. We rally up under King Jesus' banner, not our own banner. We don't rally around our own banner. We rally around Jesus' banner. He's the King. He's the leader. He's the captain of our salvation Hebrews talks about. Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 12 says that in the midst of the congregation, I will sing your praise. It's talking about Jesus. It's talking about Jesus. Jesus says, in the midst of the congregation, I will sing God's praise. What does He mean by that? Did we hear Jesus' voice when we sung this morning? Did we hear mystically the voice of Jesus? And if we did, how do we know it was the voice of Jesus? What does this verse mean? Well, let me tell you what Calvin says. Calvin says, let me tell you how Jesus sings in the congregation. You can hear the voice of Jesus singing in the congregation because He is the prophet of God who has revealed to you what to sing. And when you sing those things that God has prescribed in His Word, when you sing those things that rightly comport and conform to His Word, you hear Jesus' voice. Praise God. That's how you hear Jesus's voice. It's not mystical. It's doctrinal. It's theological. We hear Jesus's voice by conforming to the word of God. And as he is, the great prophet teaches us his word as our hearts fill up with his word, then out of our mouth come the praises of God. And that's Jesus singing God's praises. Well, He says we ought to offer up these sacrifices continually. When is that? Well, that's all the time and everywhere in your workplace. Everywhere your being is, you ought to be praising God. Does that mean you're just standing out there going, praise God, praise God, praise God? No. Remember, it's all of those things. It's complex praise. It's being obedient. It's helping somebody who's in need. It's doing a good deed. It's a good work. It's not just the song, but it's a consecrated life. It's a life that draws near to God through the personal work of Christ, Hebrews 10.22. Let me make this point, and I think we'll bring it to some application. John Owen said this about a sacrifice. John Owen said, look, there's two parts to a sacrifice. Remember when we talked about two parts to praise? There's two parts to a sacrifice. He said, first of all, the first part is that you must first slay the victim. You first slay the victim. That's the first part. But if you just slay the victim, that's not a sacrifice. That's part of the sacrifice. That means if you just throw the bull up on the altar and cut its throat, that's not pleasing to God alone. You've got to have the second part. You have to have the application of the blood. You have to take the blood and then please God by sprinkling the blood of that bull upon the altar. You must have the application of it. Not only must we die to ourselves, but we must offer up ourselves as what? Living sacrifices to God through Christ by His Spirit, beloved. It's not just acknowledging that Jesus is our sacrifice. It's not just saying, oh, we have a sacrifice, and the Muslims and the Buddhists and the Hindus and Judaism don't. I mean, we've got a sacrifice. It's not just that. It's living it. It's a consecrated life that draws near to God. Galatians 1 and verse 20, what does Paul say? I have been crucified with Christ and it's no longer I who live. But Christ lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. Romans chapter 12. I bet you've been thinking about that verse all along. I beseech you now, therefore, brethren, offer up yourselves as living sacrifices to God. I beseech you by the mercies of God to offer up yourselves as living sacrifices. Paul says, I beseech you. I want to read the whole chapter to you. And I don't have time. Because when you read Romans chapter 12, you see a parallel of Hebrews 13. You've got to read it. What's Paul saying? It's the same application here, they're just in different places. Paul is saying what? I beseech you by the mercies of God. What mercies? What mercies? Well, the unmerited and undeniable grace of God, because no man can save himself. Secondly, the undeserved election of God, because no man can be saved apart from God's eternal election. His ever-present Spirit testifying to our own spirits that we are what? Sons of the living God. Those are the mercies, Paul says, I beseech you by the mercies of God to offer up yourselves as living sacrifices. Hey, every bit of that is worth everything you have. What's the option? What's the alternative? Death? Destruction? Condemnation? Eternal fire? Darkness and unwavering hope. Paul says, by this unwavering hope offered to us in Christ Jesus who cannot separate us. Once we're in Christ Jesus, we cannot be separated from the love of God. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, offer up yourselves as living sacrifices. This is what praise is. It's complex, beloved. It's comprehensive because God is the object of it and God is complex and comprehensive. By way of closing, what's the purpose of our praise? I mean, let's just, we're going to leave with this. The purpose of our praise. Why is it important? Well, it's important. I mean, yes, God commanded it. I mean, it's true. It's an imperative in scripture, and we ought to do it because it's a command. But is that it? No. I believe there's a threefold purpose, and I want us to think about this as we leave this place today. And as we meditate on the Lord's Day, as God has set aside this day that we might be consecrated to Him, that we would draw nearer to Him, that we would understand greater His mercies and grace. I believe there's a threefold purpose to this praise. What we know in the book of Hebrews, it was to stir up faithfulness among the brethren. It was to stir up. faithfulness and obedience because they have grown apathetic and lethargic. But there are other reasons, beloved, and I think the first one is to magnify the Lord Himself. To magnify God Himself. Matthew chapter 5. We're not going to go there. But where it talks about the believers being a city set on a hill. It says that they will do their good works and people will see their good works and what will be the result of people seeing their good works. they will magnify the name of God. So if we're going to be serious about praise, and we're going to offer up a continual sacrifice of praise, what's going to be the result of that praise? People will see the good works, and they will magnify the name of the Lord. Does that mean everybody? No. But it does mean the sheep will. The sheep are looking for Jesus. The sheep hear His voice. The sheep recognize the true Shepherd when they see and hear Him. So, to magnify the name of the Lord, to magnify the Lord God Almighty, the Savior of sinners. Beloved, it's not to bring attention to ourselves. You know, whether you run around the building, raise up your hands, and all of this drama. I'm not saying, the Bible talks about lifting holy hands to the Lord. And the fact is, I mean, my children asked me a good question one time. They said, why do we close our eyes when we pray? Well, we don't have to close our eyes when we pray. I know many of you spanked your children for not closing their eyes when they're praying in church. And the children were talking about so-and-so. You know, they didn't have their eyes closed because they just said that they saw somebody doing something. But you know what? What they did in the Bible many times, if you read, it says Jesus went out and looked up in heaven and he began praying to God, my father. to magnify the Lord. But I want to ask you this, when people recognize your life and they see your life, do they know God? Is there something about God they know by knowing you? Or do they know more about you than they do the God you serve? Do your friends know more about you than they do your God? And let me ask you this, just this past week, don't go back any further, Just this past week, how many times did you praise Jesus? I mean, how many times did you speak about the praise of Jesus? How many times did somebody hear you magnify the name of Jesus? And I mean, how many times this week did somebody see you in a difficulty and they saw you praising the name of Jesus by your obedience? Something to think about, is it not? Secondly, it's to mature us. See, praise isn't for babies. We always talk about praise songs for the little children, and we want to teach the little children to praise, and it's so cute to see all the little children. But see, praise is more than that. I think like Moses, the older we are in the Lord, we ought to be leading praise when we walk with God longer. I mean, these children, we ought to give them an example. They ought to look to us and go, wow. I mean, my mom and dad and my neighbor and my friends at church, the ones who have walked with God the longest are praising His name. So it's a maturing thing. If we're really mature, we're praising God. Thirdly, it serves as a motivator. There's a couple of passages in Hebrews. I'll just mention them. Hebrews chapter 3, verse 13. Hebrews 10, 25. Brothers, when we see people truly praise the Lord, it's edifying. It's a motivator. It motivates us to quit our pity partying and to get busy serving the Lord. That's what it does. Let us be about offering up our lives as a continual sacrifice of praise to God. Let's pray. Most gracious Father, thank You so much for being with us. Thank You for Your Son, Jesus. Thank You for Your Spirit. Thank You for Your Word. And Lord, we pray that this Word would bear fruit, that the seed that's been planted in our hearts, Lord, would be watered and that it would bear fruit for the Kingdom of God, that we would extol Your Name, that we would speak of Your greatness, testify to Your goodness, Lord, not embarrassed to sing Your praises, but that we would offer up an obedient life to You, that which is well-pleasing in Your sight through Jesus Christ. Be with us, we pray. In Jesus' name, Amen.