Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Sacrifice That Remains: Continual Praise Through Christ (Hebrews 13:15)

Transcript

The Sacrifice That Remains: Continual Praise Through Christ (Hebrews 13:15) · Reformed Thinking

• 0:00
  Welcome to reform Thinking, and this is the deep dive.
• 0:03
  Today we're doing a really focused analysis, looking at the
• 0:06
  source material you sent over. We're honing in on one massive
• 0:10
  statement about Christian worship, and it's found in
• 0:13
  Hebrews 13, verse 15. Right.
• 0:15
  And our mission really is centered on a single core
• 0:18
  question. The whole letter to the Hebrews
• 0:21
  tells us that Christ's sacrifice is done, it's singular, it's
• 0:24
  sufficient, it's complete. So if the work is finished, what
• 0:28
  is left for God's people to offer?
• 0:31
  That's what we're trying to uncover, the nature of this new
• 0:33
  covenant offering the sacrifice of praise.
• 0:36
  It's a fantastic tension in the text, isn't it?
• 0:38
  I mean, the author spends chapter after chapter just
• 0:40
  hammering home that Christ is the superior high priest, that
• 0:44
  he perfected us forever by one offering which basically makes
• 0:47
  the whole Levitical system obsolete.
• 0:50
  The old altar is, and it's retired.
• 0:52
  The writer leaves absolutely no room for doubt.
• 0:54
  The debt is paid, the work is done, atonement is secured.
• 0:58
  Then after all of that, at the very end of this long
• 1:00
  theological argument, we get this really sharp active
• 1:02
  command. Through Him, then, let us
• 1:05
  continually OfferUp a sacrifice of praise to God.
• 1:07
  And that's the paradox we're looking at.
• 1:09
  If we've been perfected, why are we still told to sacrifice?
• 1:13
  And the central insight I think that's going to guide us through
• 1:15
  this deep dive is that this final command isn't a
• 1:19
  retraction. It's not the author suddenly
• 1:22
  getting cold feet and going back to rituals.
• 1:24
  Instead, this command to offer praise is the proper consequence
• 1:29
  of our secured acceptance. It's the new language of
• 1:32
  worship, which is gratitude that just rises up from a people who
• 1:35
  have nothing left to add to what was done at Calvary.
• 1:38
  So the whole orientation of worship just gets flipped on its
• 1:41
  head. It's no longer about a
• 1:42
  propitiatory offering, you know, the act of paying for sin, but
• 1:46
  doxological one, the act of praising the God who provided
• 1:49
  the full payment. But to get that, we have to 1st
• 1:51
  understand the the pressure the original readers were under.
• 1:55
  The author sets up this final command very deliberately.
• 1:58
  We have to start in the immediate context versus 10
• 2:00
  through 14. It would be a huge disservice to
• 2:03
  just lift verse 15 out of its setting.
• 2:05
  Its placement is anything but random.
• 2:08
  It's the it's the logical conclusion of a really sustained
• 2:11
  argument that connects Christ's finished work with the believers
• 2:14
  identity and then the necessary response.
• 2:17
  And the sources are clear that the original readers were facing
• 2:20
  this real temptation to drift, to go back to the old system.
• 2:24
  The author warns them about being carried away by diverse
• 2:28
  and strange teachings. Specifically about foods, about
• 2:31
  rituals. Exactly.
• 2:33
  And this wasn't just some abstract doctrinal debate for
• 2:35
  them. It was a deeply practical,
• 2:38
  deeply social crisis. Absolutely.
• 2:40
  Just think about the sociological pressure for a
• 2:42
  moment. The old system, the temple, the
• 2:44
  priesthood, all the rituals, it provided something tangible, it
• 2:48
  gave security, and maybe most of all, it gave social
• 2:50
  respectability. Right within the Jewish
• 2:52
  community and even the wider Roman world, it was an
• 2:54
  established thing. It was and Christianity by
• 2:58
  contrast. What did it offer?
• 3:00
  An invisible high priest, a non local altar and a message
• 3:03
  centered on a crucified rejected Messiah.
• 3:06
  It was basically an invitation to become a social outcast.
• 3:09
  So going back to the old forms, the fulfilled forms, was the
• 3:13
  path of least resistance. It was a way to blend in, to
• 3:16
  avoid the shame that came with following the Nazarene.
• 3:20
  And the author just confronts this head on by setting a clear
• 3:23
  theological boundary marker. In verse 10, he makes this
• 3:26
  startling assertion. He says we have an altar.
• 3:29
  Yeah, that's such a confident declaration.
• 3:31
  They were being told. You feel like you don't have an
• 3:33
  altar, You feel insecure. That's just false.
• 3:36
  You do have an altar. But the Christian altar is not
• 3:39
  some stone slab in Jerusalem. So what is it?
• 3:41
  What's the nature of the sulfur? It is the reality to which all
• 3:45
  the old covenant structures only pointed.
• 3:47
  It's Christ himself in the singular, once for all offering
• 3:51
  of his life in his blood. And this assertion immediately
• 3:54
  creates A radical kind of exclusivity.
• 3:57
  The author says plainly that those who claim to the old
• 3:59
  system, he calls them those who serve the tent, they have no
• 4:02
  right to the privileges of the Christian altar.
• 4:05
  That's a hard line. It means you can't have it both
• 4:07
  ways. You can't try to find your
• 4:10
  purity or your security in the old traditions and also claim
• 4:13
  the finished work of Christ. You can't have two altars.
• 4:16
  The boundary is absolute purity communion.
• 4:19
  All of it is now entirely relocated into union with the
• 4:23
  mediator, and to prove this, the author immediately pivots to a
• 4:27
  really powerful Old Testament ritual.
• 4:30
  Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
• 4:33
  Specifically the sin offering on that day.
• 4:35
  And this is where the physical location of the ritual becomes
• 4:38
  the theology. So just remind us of the pattern
• 4:41
  well. When the high priest performed
• 4:43
  the sin offering, the body of the animal wasn't eaten inside
• 4:46
  the camp. It was taken outside the camp to
• 4:48
  be burned. It signified the removal of
• 4:50
  defilement, but it was also a sign of the shame of the sin it
• 4:53
  was bearing. It was an emblem of rejection.
• 4:56
  And the author applies that pattern directly to Christ in
• 4:58
  verse 12. So Jesus also suffered outside
• 5:01
  the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own
• 5:03
  blood. The Holy One, the very source of
• 5:06
  purity, was treated as the ultimate carrier of defilement.
• 5:09
  He was expelled, pushed out, shamed.
• 5:12
  He suffered that ultimate rejection outside the city
• 5:15
  walls. And that's the crucial point.
• 5:17
  Sanctification, the making holy of the people, is not secured by
• 5:21
  our own meticulous religious techniques.
• 5:23
  It's secured solely by Christ's bloodshed outside the camp.
• 5:27
  So the location of his suffering defines the required posture for
• 5:31
  his followers, and that Tees up the command for costly
• 5:35
  allegiance in verse 13. Therefore, let us go to him
• 5:37
  outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured.
• 5:41
  That is a radical call. It means public, visible
• 5:44
  identification with the Savior that the world has already
• 5:46
  judged, cast out, and found guilty.
• 5:49
  For the original readers, this meant refusing the temptation to
• 5:52
  water down their confession, refusing to blend in.
• 5:55
  It meant accepting the shame that came with the cross.
• 5:58
  And that really is the preparation for praise, isn't
• 6:00
  it? If you're afraid of what people
• 6:01
  think, your lips are going to puzzled.
• 6:03
  If social approval is what you're after, you're not going
• 6:06
  to risk saying the things that make you an outcast.
• 6:08
  Precisely if they were longing for the comfort and approval of
• 6:11
  the camp that established respectable system, they could
• 6:15
  not offer genuine praise to the rejected Savior.
• 6:19
  So the call to go to Him is a call to costly, uncompromising
• 6:23
  allegiance. But the author doesn't just
• 6:25
  leave them with a command, he gives them the motivation to
• 6:28
  sustain that choice by turning their focus from the present
• 6:32
  difficulty to the ultimate prize in verse 14.
• 6:34
  The perspective of the Pilgrim. For here we have no lasting
• 6:37
  city, but we seek the city that is to come, right?
• 6:41
  The present city's approval, it's stability, it's security,
• 6:43
  all of that is temporary. It's irrelevant in light of the
• 6:46
  eternal Kingdom. This eternal horizon makes the
• 6:49
  present loss not just something you tolerate, but a mark of
• 6:52
  authentic belonging to Christ. OK, so if we put this first
• 6:55
  section together, the context demands that we leave the old
• 6:58
  securities, identify with the rejected Christ outside the
• 7:01
  camp, embrace the social stigma, and fix our hope on the future
• 7:05
  city. Exactly, and therefore the only
• 7:07
  appropriate response from this Pilgrim people who have this
• 7:11
  secured access through Christ's blood is doxological.
• 7:14
  We can't retreat and we can't be silent.
• 7:17
  The path of allegiance leads directly to the mechanism of
• 7:20
  that praise, which is totally hinged on the person of Christ.
• 7:23
  The theological engine that powers this entire command is
• 7:26
  found in the first few words of verse 15 Through him, then, that
• 7:30
  little word then, or therefore, is like a gospel hinge.
• 7:33
  It rests the whole exhortation, the whole command to praise on
• 7:37
  the completed redemptive logic that he just laid out.
• 7:40
  We have to pause on the weight of that phrase through Him.
• 7:43
  This establishes Christ as the exclusive and the entirely
• 7:46
  sufficient mediator. If you take out those two words,
• 7:49
  the whole command just collapses into self-righteous works.
• 7:52
  So if we as fallen people try to approach a holy God with our own
• 7:56
  praise, even if it's really sincere, why is that
• 7:58
  disqualified? Because the problem of sin
• 8:00
  demands mediation. The moment we try to present our
• 8:03
  best efforts, our most genuine feelings, directly to God, they
• 8:07
  are. They are tainted by our
• 8:08
  imperfection. They fall short of His standard.
• 8:11
  The sources are clear on this. Worship is not self
• 8:14
  authenticating. It's acceptable only because it
• 8:18
  is routed through the priesthood of Jesus Christ.
• 8:20
  It sounds like a pretty powerful doctrinal fortress against any
• 8:24
  attempts to, you know, add other things into our approach to God.
• 8:28
  It rules out every competing mediator.
• 8:30
  It rules out sasserdotal systems that try to put a human priest
• 8:33
  between you and the Savior. It rules out self righteousness,
• 8:37
  which is just the assumption that our own sincere effort
• 8:40
  deserves a hearing. It even rules out the idea that
• 8:43
  sincerity alone is enough. We don't climb to God by the
• 8:46
  strength of our own devotion. We come only by the sun.
• 8:49
  And the moment we forget that conscious continual mediation,
• 8:53
  our worship becomes misdirected. We're essentially addressing an
• 8:57
  idol of our own making, a God who accepts us based on our
• 8:59
  performance. That's right, our acceptance is
• 9:02
  blood bot. It's covenantal.
• 9:04
  We are standing on the platform of his merit, not our own.
• 9:07
  OK, so let's look at the language of the command itself.
• 9:10
  Let us continually OfferUp the verb he uses there.
• 9:13
  Anna Fermin is sacrificial language.
• 9:16
  It implies A consecrated approach to God.
• 9:19
  So since we've established the atoning work is finished, how
• 9:22
  does the content of the sacrifice change?
• 9:24
  It changes fundamentally because Christ's sacrifice is once for
• 9:28
  all. Our offering cannot under any
• 9:30
  circumstances be propitiatory. It cannot pay for sin.
• 9:35
  The whole definition of the New covenant is that the conscience
• 9:37
  has been perfected. If the conscience still needed a
• 9:40
  fresh payment, then the sacrifice demanded would still
• 9:42
  be blood because the price wouldn't been fully met.
• 9:44
  So the very fact that the commanded sacrifice is praise
• 9:47
  and not blood is the proof that the atonement is final.
• 9:51
  It's the systemic proof. We are exchanging the sacrifice
• 9:54
  of expiation for the sacrifice of gratitude.
• 9:56
  Pratitiation is finished, therefore praise remains.
• 10:00
  This distinction is historically so vital, and we need to unpack
• 10:03
  it. This systematic correction means
• 10:05
  we have to confront theological systems that might imply an
• 10:09
  ongoing propitiation. So how does the finished work of
• 10:13
  Christ in Hebrews stand against, for example, the Roman Catholic
• 10:17
  doctrine of the Mass? Well, the contrast really hinges
• 10:19
  on the meaning of the word sacrifice.
• 10:21
  Hebrews insists Christ's offering was complete and
• 10:24
  unrepeatable. I mean, Hebrews 9 and 10 are
• 10:27
  just full of that once for all. So when some traditions define
• 10:31
  the Mass as a true and proper sacrifice where Christ is, say,
• 10:35
  you're presented as a propitiatory offering.
• 10:38
  That language, according to the logic of Hebrews, introduces a
• 10:41
  fatal flaw. Because it seems to imply that
• 10:43
  you could supplement or repeat what the author calls once for
• 10:46
  all. It suggests that the Church is
• 10:48
  still somehow involved in the work of making satisfaction for
• 10:51
  sin, even if it's subtle. But Hebrews argues that there is
• 10:55
  no more need for an offering for sin.
• 10:57
  If the debt requires repeated payment, even if it is the body
• 11:01
  and blood of Christ made present, then the original
• 11:03
  offering wasn't sufficient to perfect the conscience.
• 11:06
  So the Reformed view, which is anchored in Hebrews, would say
• 11:09
  that when we take communion, we're participating in the
• 11:12
  benefits of the finished sacrifice.
• 11:14
  It's a memorial, it's nourishment, but we are not
• 11:16
  performing the sacrifice itself. Precisely.
• 11:19
  We don't come to the altar to pay for sins.
• 11:22
  We come to gratefully confess that they are paid.
• 11:25
  Our worship service is doxological.
• 11:27
  It's about Thanksgiving and confession, not propitiatory.
• 11:31
  We celebrate the conclusion of the work.
• 11:33
  That clarity provides so much comfort, especially when we
• 11:36
  think about the imperfections in our own approach.
• 11:38
  I mean, our best efforts at praise are imperfect.
• 11:41
  They're mixed with distraction. They're often self-centered.
• 11:44
  How does Christ's mediation handle that?
• 11:46
  This brings us to the beauty of his continuous priesthood.
• 11:50
  It's more than just getting us initial access.
• 11:52
  The Westminster Confession in chapter 8 talks about Christ the
• 11:55
  mediator not only having offered himself up, but also continually
• 11:59
  making intercession for us. So his work didn't stop at the
• 12:02
  Cross or the Ascension. He's actively sustaining our
• 12:05
  connection to the Father. Yes, His intercession acts as
• 12:09
  the filter and the perfector of our imperfect offerings.
• 12:13
  Our position is secured in the Beloved, and therefore our
• 12:16
  derivative acts of worship, Our praise are accepted by the
• 12:20
  Father, not because of their quality, but because of Christ's
• 12:23
  merit covering the act of presentation.
• 12:25
  That's liberating. Our worship is accepted even
• 12:28
  when it's weak because we offer it through Him.
• 12:31
  If it were based on our emotional intensity or our
• 12:33
  performance, we would always be striving and that striving would
• 12:36
  just become the self righteousness the letter warns
• 12:38
  against. The acceptance of our praise is
• 12:40
  a testament to His ongoing priesthood.
• 12:43
  Without that conscious filtering through his merit, every act of
• 12:46
  piety, every hymn, every prayer would be dismissed by God as a
• 12:49
  dead work. Through Him is the only platform
• 12:52
  on which a true, acceptable New Covenant sacrifice can stand.
• 12:56
  We've established the basis, Christ's efficiency, so now we
• 12:58
  need to define the action itself, a sacrifice of praise to
• 13:01
  God. And that phrasing confirms that
• 13:03
  the object of our worship is God alone, which counters any
• 13:06
  tendency toward, you know, self focus or therapeutic religion.
• 13:09
  And to make sure there's no misunderstanding about what this
• 13:12
  praise looks like, the author gives a crucial non negotiable
• 13:15
  definition. It's like a divine footnote that
• 13:18
  is the fruit of lips. That word fruit is significant.
• 13:22
  It implies something natural, something that grows organically
• 13:25
  from a living source, the heart made alive by grace, not
• 13:28
  something manufactured or forced.
• 13:31
  But then specifying lips grounds it in something concrete.
• 13:35
  It anchors New Covenant worship in intelligible verbal doxology.
• 13:40
  This is a deliberate pushback against any drift that equates
• 13:44
  worship primarily with a vague atmosphere or a feeling or a
• 13:47
  mood that's detached from propositional truth.
• 13:51
  Biblical worship is the concrete, outward expression of
• 13:54
  truth through prayer, confession, sung theology, and
• 13:57
  Thanksgiving. So we're talking about substance
• 13:59
  words that can be understood and checked against scripture.
• 14:01
  Exactly. And the writer here is reaching
• 14:04
  back into the Old Testament. He's making this powerful
• 14:06
  prophetic illusion that just seals the New Covenant reality.
• 14:09
  He's referencing Hosea 14, verse 2.
• 14:11
  Where the people are told to bring words instead of animals.
• 14:14
  And Hosea uses that incredible phrase.
• 14:17
  And we will render the calves of our lips.
• 14:20
  The parallel is just stunningly direct.
• 14:23
  It is the new covenant. Substitution is finalized.
• 14:26
  The animal sacrifice, the literal calves that once stained
• 14:29
  the altar with blood are replaced by the confession, the
• 14:33
  fruit of the lips. The ritual substitution is
• 14:35
  complete. It confirms the abolition of
• 14:38
  propitiation, but it maintains the posture of consecration.
• 14:42
  And that takes us to the specific nature of that speech,
• 14:44
  which is described with a Greek participle homologon tune.
• 14:47
  It's translated as confessing or acknowledging.
• 14:50
  The root of that word is critical.
• 14:52
  It literally means to say the same thing, to agree with God.
• 14:55
  Our sacrifice of praise isn't just making noise, it's the
• 14:58
  public, articulate affirmation of God's testimony about
• 15:01
  Himself. Centrally about the finished
• 15:04
  work and identity of Jesus Christ.
• 15:05
  Yes, most centrally. So if the essence of worship is
• 15:08
  agreeing with God, it has to have theological content and
• 15:11
  this is where we have to draw a line against anti word
• 15:14
  spirituality. It does.
• 15:16
  True worship is propositional. It's rational.
• 15:19
  It carries specific doctrinal content.
• 15:21
  We confess truth. The sources contrast this need
• 15:25
  for intelligible cognitive worship with forms of mysticism
• 15:28
  or practices that elevates A ecstatic utterances or gibberish
• 15:33
  over verifiable theological speech.
• 15:35
  So if the fruit of the lips can't articulate the name of
• 15:38
  God, it doesn't qualify as the commanded sacrifice.
• 15:41
  The test is not whether the worshipper feels transported, is
• 15:44
  whether the confession is true and intelligible.
• 15:46
  Truth honors God, noise and emotional intensity.
• 15:50
  When they're divorced from truth, just honor the self.
• 15:53
  God is honored by truth spoken, confessed, and son.
• 15:56
  And the object of this confession is specified as
• 15:58
  acknowledge his name. That's more than just saying the
• 16:00
  word God. The name represents God as He
• 16:03
  has revealed Himself, His character, His sovereignty,
• 16:05
  holiness, mercy, justice and the ultimate revelation is in
• 16:08
  Christ. This acts as a vital safeguard
• 16:10
  against the idolatry of self-expression.
• 16:12
  So the measure of praise is what the worshipper says about God,
• 16:15
  his revealed attributes, his acts, not how the worshipper
• 16:18
  feels about their own spiritual journey.
• 16:20
  Right. And we have to connect this
• 16:22
  definition of praise back to the context we started with that
• 16:25
  pressure to go outside the camp. Because that's what makes it
• 16:28
  costly. The act of confession is
• 16:30
  inherently costly because it invites reproach.
• 16:34
  When the society you're in has already judged and rejected
• 16:37
  Christ, to acknowledge his name is an act of defiance against
• 16:42
  the prevailing culture. The sacrifice isn't just the
• 16:44
  words themselves, it's the courage it takes to say them
• 16:48
  publicly and persistently, when silence is the safer, more
• 16:51
  respectable choice. It demands an act of determined
• 16:54
  will grounded in the certainty of Christ's victory.
• 16:57
  It means overriding those natural tendencies towards self
• 17:00
  pity or entitlement or the fear of man.
• 17:03
  That active choice, that sustained confession in the face
• 17:06
  of adversity, is why this grateful response is still a
• 17:09
  sacrifice. OK, we now have to address the
• 17:11
  temporal instruction that's attached to this command,
• 17:13
  because it dramatically shifts the entire scope of New Covenant
• 17:16
  life, he says continually. Which in the Greek is diapantos?
• 17:20
  Right. And under the Old Covenant,
• 17:22
  sacrifice was episodic. It was tied to a very strict
• 17:25
  liturgical calendar, a specific location, a specialized
• 17:28
  priesthood. It was time bound.
• 17:31
  But when Christ entered the heavenly sanctuary once for all,
• 17:34
  that whole temporal staff holding was just dismantled.
• 17:37
  Access is now perpetual. The veil is torn.
• 17:40
  The high priest is eternally interceding for us.
• 17:43
  And since access is perpetual, the corresponding sacrifice of
• 17:47
  praise must also be perpetual. It means through all time or
• 17:51
  always. Which moves Christian worship
• 17:53
  from being a compartmentalized event, something you do on a
• 17:56
  Sunday, to being an all-encompassing lifestyle.
• 18:00
  The believer is meant to live in a sustained priestly posture
• 18:03
  before God. This doesn't mean nonstop noise
• 18:05
  or singing. It's not about that.
• 18:07
  It implies A settled disposition of the heart and the habit of
• 18:10
  Godward speech that consistently pushes worship into ordinary
• 18:13
  time. Into the home, the marketplace.
• 18:15
  Through suffering. Through blessing, it means that
• 18:18
  throughout the day, gratitude should systematically displace
• 18:21
  grumbling. This idea of continually needs
• 18:23
  some guidance for the Christian life and this is where Reformed
• 18:27
  theology brings in the third use of the law to position this
• 18:30
  command accurately. The Westminster Confession in
• 18:33
  chapter 19, paragraph 6 makes it very clear that the moral law
• 18:37
  remains a rule of life for the believer.
• 18:40
  We are not under the law as a covenant of works.
• 18:43
  It can't save us. It can't justify us.
• 18:45
  It can't earn us favor. Right.
• 18:47
  However, it functions as an indispensable guy for gratitude.
• 18:50
  So if the command to praise flows from the reality of our
• 18:53
  justification, then the law shows us the specific shape that
• 18:57
  our grateful obedience should take.
• 18:59
  It tells us how to thank the God who saved us rather than being
• 19:02
  the path to salvation. That's a great way to put it.
• 19:05
  For example, the command to not take the Lord's name in vain is
• 19:08
  clarified by the command to continually acknowledge His name
• 19:11
  in praise. The negative prohibition don't
• 19:14
  profane is complemented by the positive duty continually offer
• 19:18
  praise. The law, in that sense, maps out
• 19:21
  a life of things. And this is such a powerful
• 19:24
  guard against antinomianism, that false belief that because
• 19:28
  we're saved by grace, we're freed from all obligation.
• 19:30
  We're freed from the law's condemnation, yes, but we are
• 19:33
  bound to Christ's righteousness, and this continual command to
• 19:36
  praise is a central part of that.
• 19:39
  And it directly addresses the practical failure of Sunday only
• 19:42
  Christianity, which tries to compartmentalize religion into
• 19:46
  one weekly event. You can't claim to follow a
• 19:49
  continually interceding high priest if your worship is just
• 19:52
  sporadic and convenient. The mundane altars of life
• 19:55
  suddenly become incredibly significant here.
• 19:58
  The Monday morning commute, that frustrating negotiation at work,
• 20:01
  the struggle with a difficult child, the waiting room at the
• 20:03
  doctor's office. All of them.
• 20:05
  They're all opportunities to interpret our circumstances
• 20:08
  through the lens of God's sovereignty and to utter that
• 20:10
  sacrifice of praise. And to praise God when the
• 20:14
  finances are tight, or when you suffered loss, or when
• 20:16
  circumstances are just screaming the opposite of His goodness,
• 20:19
  that is the purest form of sacrifice.
• 20:22
  It requires an active faith that overrides self pity and
• 20:26
  entitlement. It makes the praise costly
• 20:28
  because it demands allegiance when the flesh just wants to
• 20:31
  complain. We also need to touch on the
• 20:33
  corporate nature of this. The instruction isn't just
• 20:35
  singular, it's let us continually OfferUp.
• 20:39
  It's a plural command to the whole Christian community.
• 20:42
  This is a devastating critique of anti church individualism.
• 20:46
  The person who says, oh, I worship God just fine on my own,
• 20:49
  I don't need the gathered assembly is fundamentally
• 20:52
  misunderstanding the nature of this command.
• 20:54
  The sacrifice of praise is a unified corporate action of a
• 20:57
  gathered confessing priesthood. So the.
• 20:59
  Lord's Day gathering has to be viewed not as optional
• 21:01
  entertainment, but as the concentrated public corporate
• 21:04
  act of offering God what he deserves through the Mediator
• 21:08
  with one voice and one mind. The quality of our corporate
• 21:11
  praise matters intensely because it is the commanded New Covenant
• 21:14
  offering. And finally, the author refuses
• 21:17
  to let Doxology just float free from duty.
• 21:21
  Verse 16 immediately follows, and it binds the sacrifice of
• 21:24
  speech to the sacrifice of service.
• 21:26
  Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such
• 21:30
  sacrifices are pleasing to God. Our praise is never a spiritual
• 21:34
  substitute for practical love and generosity.
• 21:36
  If our lips are producing fruit, our hands have to be open.
• 21:40
  A mind that confesses God's ownership of all things while
• 21:43
  the hands are closed in selfishness is offering a
• 21:46
  contradiction. So verbal confession and
• 21:48
  practical generosity are twin sacrifices.
• 21:51
  They're acceptable, and they flow from the same source, a
• 21:54
  life redeemed by the finished work of Christ.
• 21:56
  Our gratitude should motivate us to loosen our grip on our
• 21:58
  possessions, our time, and our comfort.
• 22:01
  To make sure the listener can apply this text rightly, you
• 22:03
  probably need to flag some common errors that can
• 22:05
  compromise the coherence of this verse.
• 22:07
  Yeah, good idea. So misreading #1 is what you
• 22:10
  could call propitiation smuggling.
• 22:12
  This is when we hear the word sacrifice, and we treat our
• 22:15
  praise as if it's somehow necessary to complete or
• 22:18
  continue or supplement Christ's atoning work.
• 22:21
  And we have to say it again. The New Covenant sacrifice is
• 22:24
  purely a grateful response to a finished reconciliation.
• 22:28
  The moment we or a church imply that we need to offer again or
• 22:32
  represent the sacrifice in any way, we're functionally denying
• 22:36
  the core message of Hebrews that Christ has secured perfection
• 22:39
  forever. Misreading #2 is viewing worship
• 22:42
  as consumption or performance. Modern pragmatism focuses
• 22:46
  entirely on the subjective experience.
• 22:48
  Was the music good? Did I feel uplifted?
• 22:51
  Did the service meet my needs? Right.
• 22:53
  And Hebrews commands us to reframe that question entirely.
• 22:56
  The question is, did we offer God what He is worthy to receive
• 22:59
  through Christ according to His Word?
• 23:01
  The Church is a priestly people offering a sacrifice, not an
• 23:05
  audience consuming a spiritual product.
• 23:08
  That consumer spirit just corrupts the whole doxological
• 23:11
  logic of the offering. Misreading #3 is the danger of
• 23:14
  empty religiosity. It's using the fruit of lips as
• 23:17
  an excuse to say doctrinally correct things while cherishing
• 23:20
  practical sin in your heart. If the confession is orthodox
• 23:23
  but the lifestyle is antinomian, the offering is rejected.
• 23:26
  True praise means life. It's fruit.
• 23:29
  It has to be consistent with the practical obedience demanded in
• 23:33
  verse 16. The Lord despises the divorce of
• 23:36
  correct liturgy from genuine, practical love and mercy.
• 23:40
  And finally, mystery #4 is the one that softens the decisive
• 23:43
  through him into just generic spirituality or some kind of
• 23:47
  broad ecumenicism. This is the idea that you know
• 23:50
  all sincere paths of praise lead to God, regardless of the
• 23:53
  mediator. And that's disqualified worship.
• 23:56
  Worship is acceptable only through the priesthood, the
• 23:59
  blood, and the exclusive mediation of Christ.
• 24:02
  The object of confession is His name revealed fully in the Son.
• 24:05
  If Christ is excluded, the offering, no matter how sincere,
• 24:08
  is invalid according to this text.
• 24:10
  So let's move to practical obedience.
• 24:12
  What does it look like for you, the listener, to live out this
• 24:14
  continual sacrifice of praise in the world, embracing that
• 24:17
  reproach outside the camp? Personally, I think obedience
• 24:20
  looks like repenting from treating devotion as optional or
• 24:22
  only convenient. It requires cultivating the
• 24:25
  habit of fighting that natural impulse to grumble by actively
• 24:28
  voicing Thanksgiving when fear or anxiety comes.
• 24:32
  The antidote is courageous confession to speak the truth of
• 24:36
  God's sovereignty out loud in defiance of your circumstances.
• 24:39
  It also means refusing to let the fear of man muzzle your lips
• 24:42
  outside the camp. We have to consciously confess
• 24:45
  God's name in hostile environments, even when it costs
• 24:48
  us social standing or reputation.
• 24:50
  That's the necessary friction that proves our praise is a true
• 24:53
  sacrifice. And in the household, this means
• 24:55
  establishing a God Word atmosphere where God's name is
• 24:58
  spoken with substance and with reverence.
• 25:00
  Parents, spouses in particular, have to lead in audible,
• 25:03
  substance filled prayer and Thanksgiving.
• 25:06
  For example, not just saying a quick robotic blessing before
• 25:08
  meals, but using that time to express specific doctrinal
• 25:12
  gratitude, singing psalms or hymns together, or pausing
• 25:15
  during a family crisis not just to worry, but to thank God out
• 25:18
  loud for His control. These simple, continuous habits
• 25:21
  train a family to live in that sustained priestly posture.
• 25:24
  Corporately, obedience demands seriousness in public worship.
• 25:28
  This is not about choosing the service that makes you feel the
• 25:31
  best. It requires attentive hearing of
• 25:33
  the Word, congregational singing with doctrinal conviction, and
• 25:36
  the firm rejection of the consumer spirit that judges
• 25:39
  worship on personal preference or entertainment value.
• 25:42
  The goal of the gathered assembly is not novelty or
• 25:45
  atmosphere. It's the unified, intelligible,
• 25:48
  doctrinal and Christ exulting offering of a confessing
• 25:51
  priesthood, giving God what he deserves.
• 25:54
  This is the commanded continual duty and the genuine delight of
• 25:58
  the redeemed. This deep dive into Hebrews
• 26:01
  13.15 reveals such a profound coherence.
• 26:04
  In the New Covenant, Christ is all, and Christ has finished the
• 26:07
  work. The altar of atonement requires
• 26:09
  no more blood, no more repetition, no more payment.
• 26:12
  The cross doesn't eliminate sacrificial language, it just
• 26:15
  redefines it entirely, leaving us only with the continual
• 26:18
  Christ mediated offering of confession, Thanksgiving, and
• 26:21
  practical obedience. The choice presented by Hebrews
• 26:24
  13 is so clear. The world says hide your faith
• 26:27
  to secure your reputation in the present city.
• 26:30
  But the gospel says, Acknowledge his name and bear the reproach,
• 26:33
  because you seek the city that is to come.
• 26:35
  The flesh says grumble over what you lack.
• 26:39
  Faith says give thanks for the infinite riches secured for you
• 26:42
  in Christ. So if our praise is acceptable
• 26:45
  only through him, what specific, costly confession can you make
• 26:50
  today that intentionally defies your immediate, difficult
• 26:53
  circumstances? How will you prove that your
• 26:56
  hope is fixed not on the fading securities of this age, but on
• 26:59
  the unassailable, finished work of the Sun?
• 27:02
  The final challenge is this. Will you let the shame of the
• 27:05
  world muzzle your confession, or will you let the infinite worth
• 27:08
  of Christ loose the fruit of your lips?
• 27:11
  This is the ongoing duty and the delight of the Christian life.
• 27:14
  Thank you for joining us for this deep dive into the nature
• 27:16
  of the Christian's continual sacrifice.