Hebrews 13, verse 20. Now the God of peace that brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of
the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working
in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ,
to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Now, I want to look
at three things here with you. First of all, every good work. And secondly, the will of God. And thirdly, how believers are
equipped. Now, it says here in verse 21,
make you perfect in every good work to do His will. So what
is every good work? What is that? Well, scriptures
are somewhat vague as to what particularly good works are. And they're vague because really
it means honest work. It means lawful work. It means anything you endeavor
to do that is helpful to your brethren and to fellow man. It's
not harmful. It's not contrary to truth or
to the gospel. It's helpful. So we have this
many people here in our congregation. And there's various occupations
here. And you have, my honest work
is as your pastor. Art manages a hardware store. Jaime, Brother Jaime is a physician. There's all these varied occupations. That's good work. It's honest
work, lawful work. And then there's other types
of work that's honest and good work, like visiting the sick
and feeding those who can't feed themselves and providing for
brethren and things like that. But what I want you to see is
that these various honest labors, this every good work, is not
what is said here to be the will of God, but make you perfect
in every good work to do His will. In other words, the work
is performed toward or for the intent of doing the will of God. So, that brings us to the second
question. What's the will of God? Well,
everybody ask that question, what's the will of God for me?
What's the will of God concerning me? And most of the time when
we ask that question, what we really mean is, We want to know
what we should do next or how we should make this next decision.
And usually, it's not necessarily to do the will of God or for
the glory of God as much as it is about keeping us from suffering
grief. It's usually what that saying
means because God's pretty clear in His Word about what His will
is. Now, it's important to know because we read this Not everyone
that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom
of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is
in heaven." That's who will enter into heaven. And then we read,
Whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven,
the same as my brother and sister and mother. The Lord Jesus Christ
said these things. When I ask, what is the will
of God, and I know it's something that's going to put me in heaven,
and I know it's something that's going to make Christ say, that's
my brother, my sister, my brethren, then it probably doesn't have
to do with whether I should take this job down at such and such
place or not take that job. That's probably not the main
concern here about what the main point of the will of God is.
The will of God is twofold. It's this right here, John 638.
The Lord said, I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will,
but the will of Him that sent me. And this is the Father's
will which hath sent me, that of all which He hath given me,
I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last
day. And this is the will of Him that sent me, that everyone
which seeth the Son and believeth on Him may have everlasting life,
and I will raise Him up at the last day. You see, the first
thing, the will of God is for Christ to save His people. And
in doing that, the will of God is for His people to worship
Christ. The will of the Father is for
His people to worship His Son and glorify His Son. He said,
this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, hear ye Him. And then secondly, the will of
God is for believers to bear witness of Christ Jesus, His
Son, to others. Because in this way, God's going
to call out others to worship and bear witness of His Son.
When the Apostle Paul was converted, when the Lord rested him on the
road to Damascus, the Lord said this to him. The God of our fathers,
this is what the gospel that was preached to him came to him
like this. The God of our fathers hath chosen thee that thou shouldest
know his will and see that just one and shouldest hear the voice
of his mouth. That's the hidden mystery. That's
the will of God is to see the just one and to hear the voice
of His mouth. And then here was the second
thing that was told to Paul. That first thing involves worshiping
Christ. Here's the second thing that
Paul heard. The Lord said unto him, Go thy
way, for he's a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before
the Gentiles and kings and children of Israel. So first of all, it
was for Paul to worship Him, to know the will of God, to see
the just one, to hear His mouth speak. The second thing was to
go forth and bear His name. If you look at John 17, 18, I
think this bears out what the Lord said when He prayed. John
17, 18. Now the Lord said, I came into
the world to do the will of my Father. Now here's what the Lord,
He's praying to God the Father, and here's what He says concerning
Himself and what He did, and concerning what He's called others
to do. Watch. John 17, 18. As thou hast sent me into the
world, He just said He sent me into the world to do His will.
And He said, even so, as thou hast sent Me into the world,
even so have I also sent them into the world. Now look, this
is what He did for their sakes. For their sakes, I sanctify Myself. I separate Myself from this world
and this world's ways and everything about this world that they also
might be sanctified through the truth. And then, look, neither
pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe
on me through their word. In other words, Christ says,
I separated myself that they might hear the truth. And so
I've sent them forth to separate themselves from this world that
through them others might hear the truth. being separated from
this world is being joined to Christ and worshiping Him. And
going forth into this world and bearing witness of Christ so
that others through that Word will hear Christ and rejoice.
This is the will of the Father. This is what Christ came to accomplish. So, if you look in Matthew 6.24,
Matthew 6.24, therefore when we read this, He gives great, great meaning.
If you're the willing bondservant of Christ, if you've been made
willing to serve Him, then we do that which He's given us the
charge to do. We worship Him and we bear witness
of Him. And look at what verse 24 says. No man can serve two masters. For he will either hate the one
and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise
the other." You cannot serve God and the world and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, take
no thought for your life what you shall eat or what you shall
drink, nor yet for your body what you shall put on. Is not
the life more than meat and the body than raiment? Doesn't that
give some meaning to that verse? If we understand that the will
of the Father is to worship God, worship Christ the Son of God,
and to bear witness of Him, that's why this world exists still. That's why there's still people
in this world who trust God is to bear witness of Christ until
Christ calls those others out. There's no other reason a believer's
here. There's no other purpose for
a believer than that. And so he says, life is more
than what you'll eat or what you'll put on. If that's all
it is, then it's what Scripture says, your God is your belly.
It's about, what can I get for myself? How big a house can I
build? How nice toys can I get? How
much can I make a name for myself? That's not what we're here for.
That's not, that's what the people of this world are for. God said,
I separated, Christ said, I separated myself from that, that I might
call these out in truth. And he said, now I've sent them
forth to separate themselves from this world that they might
call some others out through the truth. Worshiping God and
being a witness of Him, that's the purpose of life. That's the
purpose of the believer's life. No other reason. No other purpose.
Well, how are we going to be equipped to give ourselves in
every good work to this end cause, to do the will of the Father,
to worship Christ and to be a witness of Him. How are we going to be
equipped to do that? This is wisdom. This is wisdom
right here. You know how you're going to
be equipped? to go forth in every good work, every honest labor
that you engage in. You know how you're going to
be equipped, perfected to go do that so that the end of that
labor will be that you can worship Christ and your household can
worship Christ and you can further, help further the gospel? You
know what's going to equip you to do that? The gospel. The gospel
of Christ. Now look, First of all, in our
text it says the God of peace. It's going to be by God the Father.
Do you want peace? Do you want some peace? How many
times have you read about people who You look at them and what
they achieved in this world and you think, wow, they have it
all. They really have it all. And
yet, to hear them talk or to read stories about them, they
never had any peace at all. No purpose, no reason for what
they did. After they got everything, they
thought those things is what would make them happy. But they
got them and they had no peace. Those things for the believer
that we obtain in this world are for one reason, just one
reason. It's so we can worship Christ
and so that we can proclaim the name of Christ to others. We
give them to have the money or the means or whatever we need
to worship Christ with our family and to teach others about Christ.
And if that's not my purpose, I'm being vain. I'm being carnal.
I'm looking at myself. I'm trying to just, there's no
peace there, but the God, the father would give some peace
there. Where's this peace come from? Look at the next word.
Verse 21. It says, make you perfect in every good work to do His
will working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight
through Jesus Christ. So it's God the Father and then
it's through Jesus Christ. Here's the three key ingredients
to peace in this world. You want them? You want to know
what they are? The resurrection of Christ Jesus the Lord, Christ
our Great Shepherd, and the everlasting covenant. If you got those three
things, you got it all. If you got those three things,
you'll never ever hear any more bad news after you have those
three things. The God of peace brought again from the dead,
our Lord Jesus Christ. And what that means is, is God's
satisfied. He's pleased. We have peace with
God because our Israel, who He has prevailed as a prince with
God, He's the prince of peace. Justice is satisfied. Mercy has
entered in. And in Christ Jesus, God is satisfied
with His people. He's not angry with His people.
He's satisfied with His people in Christ. And then he's our
shepherd, the shepherd of the sheep. You know what sheep need?
A shepherd. A sheep's a dumb, stinking animal
that doesn't know which way's up. It just doesn't know anything,
and it needs a shepherd. If you were, you imagine yourself
being a little sheep out in a field, And there's wolves around that
field. And there's coyotes around that
field. And there's all manner of things
that could kill you around that field. And you're just a little
sheep. You've got no defense whatsoever.
You've got nothing whatsoever to protect you and keep you safe. What value would you put on having
a shepherd? Wouldn't you love that? You'd
love having that shepherd who kept that wolf away, and who
kept you protected, and kept you gathered together with other
sheep, and kept you safe. Well, Christ is that shepherd. And his people are in a field
just like that, surrounded by wolves and by all manner of beasts
that would kill them were it not for the shepherd of the sheep.
He said, I'm the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. But he that's a hireling and
not the shepherd, who's owned the sheep or not, he sees the
wolf coming and he leaves the sheep and he flees and the wolf
catches them and scatters the sheep. The hireling flees because
he's a hireling and he doesn't care for the sheep. But the Lord
said, I'm the good shepherd. I know my sheep and I'm known
of mine. And then this peace is coming
through the everlasting covenant. The Word here says that He raised
him the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord
Jesus Christ, that Great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood
of the everlasting covenant. What that means is, do you know
what a covenant is? Do you know what that is? That's a big word
for a promise, what it is. It means a promise. God made
a promise with Himself between God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit to save a people for Himself. And when
He enters into the heart through the Holy Spirit, He makes this
covenant. He makes you to realize this
covenant is sure. And the reason it's sure is,
is it's written in the blood of Jesus Christ. In other words,
because Christ laid down His life for His sheep. Because He
paid the price God demanded to save His sheep. His sheep are
going to be saved. And so when you have that understanding
of who He is, and you're able to just commit all to Him, it's
because He has written this covenant on your heart and convinced you
that anything else would be foolishness. To do anything else would be
utter foolishness. And when He does this, He does
it through the Holy Spirit. Look there in verse 21. It says,
Make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working
in you. Working in you. Ephesians 3.16. Let me read this
to you. Paul said he prayed that God
would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be
strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, that
Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye, being rooted
and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints
what is the breadth and length and depth and heighth, and to
know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that you might
be filled with all the fullness of God. You know what's going
to make you want to worship Christ and make you want to get up in
the morning and go to work, not so you can buy a bunch of toys
and go out and live the high life and impress all your friends.
All that stuff is going to go out the window if Christ ever
gets a hold of you. If He ever creates Himself anew
in your heart, then all that ambition for those things will
be gone. You notice it says here, working
in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight. When God begins
to work in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight, He'll
make you not worried about what other people think, about what
you look like in front of other people's eyes, if all you can
do is get up and go out and dig a ditch. If that's all you
can do. If it's so that you can take
whatever you've got to support this gospel and to make it so
you and your family can worship Christ. You won't care what the
world thinks about you. If you live in a shack on the
shady side of town, it won't matter to you what people think
about you. You've got the peace of God in
your heart. You've got the great shepherd of the sheep protecting
you. You've got the blood of the everlasting covenant, the
everlasting covenant of peace written in your heart. And you're
not caring about what other men think. God's working in you to
do that which is well-pleasing in His sight. And what's well-pleasing
in His sight is for His Son to be worshipped and honored and
glorified and for His people to be called out of this evil,
sinful, wretched world. If you got that, it don't matter
what your occupation is. It don't matter what the good
work is you're doing. You're doing it for one purpose,
as unto the Lord, which means you're doing it for Him. You're
doing it for His honor, for His glory. You're doing it to bring
sinners to Christ. That's why you're doing it. And
then you've got some purpose in your life. Now you've got
a reason to go to college and try to make good grades. Now
you've got a reason to try to go out and get yourself a good
job. Now you've got a reason to get up in the mornings and
go to work. Now you've got a reason to come home and get a good night's
sleep so you can be fresh in the morning and work your job
like you told your boss you would. Now you've got some purpose in
your life because you're serving God. You worship in Him. You're sold out to Him. And you
want other sinners to be sold out to Him. And when the last
one is, we're going home. When the last one is, we're going
home. And that'll make you productive.
That'll make you a productive person. The Gospel does that.
Nothing else will do that. Oprah can't do that. This Gospel
can, though. When He's done this, you know
who's going to get all the glory for it? Look at verse 21 at the
end. To whom? God the Father, God
the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. To whom be glory forever and
ever. Amen.