Well, let us turn once again
to God's Word and directing you to that portion we were considering
this morning here in Hebrews chapter 13. I'll read again then
verses 20 and 21. Hebrews 13 20 and twenty-one, 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 for ever and ever. Amen. It is of course a new covenant
blessing. We remarked this morning how
it is in many ways a covenantal benediction. The words we were
looking at last Lord's Day, there in the end of 2nd Corinthians,
that great apostolic benediction, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost. It very much
centers in the doctrine of God, the doctrine of the Trinity.
Well, here is that that we use as a prayer of benediction at
the close of a service. Oftentimes, as I said this morning,
we make use of it at the end of that holy supper, that ordinance
that Christ has appointed for us wherein we remember his dying
and his sealing really of the covenant, the testament with
that precious blood that was shed. This is that benediction
that so centers in the doctrine of the covenant and it's the
new covenant. And the new covenant really is
the everlasting covenant. That's what we read of at the
end of verse 20, the blood of the everlasting covenant or it
might be rendered the eternal covenant. It stretches from everlasting
to everlasting. The First Testament, we call
it the Old Testament, concerns the Old Covenant. It concerns
the law. But in the fullness of the time,
it was the eternal covenant which was revealed with the coming
of the Lord Jesus, when the fullness of the time was come. God sent
forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law. It's revealed in the fullness
of the time and so we refer to it as the New Covenant or as
we have it in our Bibles the New Testament and yet that that
we call the New Testament is really the Eternal Covenant and
the Law is there to serve that is revealed in the New Testament,
which is the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord is that
schoolmaster that is meant to bring us to the Lord Jesus. And
we were thinking this morning about how the Lord Jesus is that
one, of course, who was the mediator and the good shepherd, who gives
his life for the sheep, how he has sealed that covenant with
the shedding of his precious blood. We referred to the words
this morning, we read them earlier tonight, those great words back
in the 9th chapter. And there at verse 11 and verse
12 of Christ being come and High Priest of good things to come
by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands,
that is to say not of this building, it's nothing of this earth. It's
not that tabernacle that was raised by Moses in the wilderness
after the coming out of Egypt and the giving of the law that
worldly sanctuary as it is spoken of at the beginning of that ninth
chapter. Worldly in the sense that it
is of this world. But here is a greater and a more
perfect tabernacle. And that of course is the Lord
Jesus. Because the tabernacle itself
is a type of Christ. As the Temple of Solomon is a
type of Christ. And here we're told, aren't we,
how Christ has become a high priest of good things to come
by a greater and more perfect tabernacle. God manifest in the
flesh, God tabernacling amongst men. not made with hands that
is to say not of this building neither by the blood of goats
and calves but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy
place having obtained eternal redemption for us." How he has
shed his precious blood. He is the mediator we are told
of the New Testament, the New Covenant. that by means of death
for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament
they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. And so we spoke of that everlasting, that eternal covenant
as something that is permanent and stands forever. It's a covenant
of peace. and we have it in the language
of the Prophet Isaiah speaks of it doesn't he there in chapter
54 and verse 10 he speaks of the the covenants of peace the
mountain shall depart the hills be removed my kindness shall
not depart from thee neither shall the covenant of my peace
Be removed, saith the Lord, that hath mercy on thee. The eternal covenant, the covenant
of redemption between the persons in the God and the covenant of
grace, it is also that covenant of peace. And of course, it's
spoken of here in this text, now the God of peace The opening
word of the text is the God of peace, and that's an expression
that we find several times in the New Testament. For example,
there in Romans 15 and verse 33, now the God of peace be with
you all, says the Apostle. The God of peace. And again in
chapter 16 and verse 20, the God of peace, he says, shall
bruise Satan under your feet shortly. He is the God of peace. And we see that peace in the
gift of the Lord Jesus because what has Christ come to accomplish? He has come to accomplish a great
salvation. He has come to redeem his people.
He is made of a woman. He is made under the law to redeem
them that were under the law. What is that redemption? Why
He is the propitiation for their sins. Oh, His blood speaks peace
here in His love, not that we love God, but that He loved us
and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Propitiation has
that idea of peace with God. It's that Godward aspect of the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so as we Come again to look
at these words this evening, this text in Hebrews 13 and verses
20 and 21. I want us to consider the covenant
of peace, the everlasting covenant, but it's the covenant of peace.
We can consider it objectively, it's revealed. It's revealed
here in the in the word of God, we can think of it subjectively,
it's made known in the experiences of the people of God. But as
we come to consider these things this evening, I want to deal
with the subject matter in terms of three things really, doctrine,
experience and practice. Doctrine, experience and practice. It's the threefold division that
we'll take up as we come once more to look at these remarkable
words of Holy Scripture. First of all, the doctrine. Of course, we said much this
morning concerning this great doctrine. And what a contrast
there is between these two covenants, the Old Testament The Old Covenant
and this New Covenant of Peace revealed here before us in the
New Testament Scriptures which is the everlasting covenant.
There is a remarkable contrast. What does the law do? Paul says
the law worketh wrath. The law worketh wrath. Romans 4.15. It is that ministration
of condemnation. Whatsoever things the law says,
it says to them who are under the law that every mouth may
be stopped and all the world become guilty before God. It works. It works wrath. Condemnation. It's administration
of death. And you can see this quite clearly
read through the language that we have there in 1 Corinthians
chapter 3. and on the other hand in that
chapter the apostle speaks of the gospel. And what's of that gospel? Why in the gospel we have peace
with God. In the gospel we have that that
is spiritual, we have that deals with man in all the turmoil of
his sinful soul that brings peace and reconciliation. That is the
wonder. The Lord Jesus himself says to
his disciples, Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto
you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your
heart be troubled. or to consider then something
of the wonder of the doctrine that we see revealed to us in
this blessed covenant of peace. It is that of which the Lord
Jesus himself is the mediator. Remember the language of Zechariah? Zechariah 6.13, the Council of
Peace. shall be between them both says
the prophet there and he's speaking of that man who is the branch
and he is God's fellow and the council of peace is between them
both between God the Father and God the Son together with God
the Holy Ghost it's a council of peace and so when the fullness
of time comes what do we see we have the great mystery of
the incarnation unto us a child is born unto us a son is given
and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name well
what is his name he shall be called wonderful counsellor the
mighty God the everlasting father the prince of peace that's his
name he is called the prince of peace It's a covenant of peace. It's
interesting again to consider some of the language that we
find being used in the Old Testament Scriptures where these things
of course are continually being foretold. We're not to think
that the Old Testament is nothing but law, there's much of gospel
there in the Old Testament. The setting forth of that that
would come in all its glorious fullness with the appearance
of the Lord Jesus and there at the end of the of the Old Testament
in the prophecy of Malachi. We find these words in Malachi
2.5, My covenant was with him of life and peace. My covenant was with him of life
and peace. Now, who is being spoken of? Well, if you look at the context
there in Malachi 2, those words are spoken of concerning Levi. The tribe of Levi, from whence
have come, of course, come the priests, the priests of Aaron,
Aaron of the tribe of Levi. And God says, My covenant was
with him of life and peace. The prophet says, God's mouthpiece
is rebuking the priest in his own day. But that priestly tribe
is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. and that covenant of life and
peace ultimately is to be seen in him who is the great antitype
of all that's set before us in the Old Testament and when we
think then of the of the person of the Lord Jesus why there is
peace in his very person this man shall be the peace says Micah
this man the Lord Jesus Christ. You see that child that is born
and that son that is given. How significant is that expression? The son that's spoken of there
in Isaiah 9 is not born. The son is given. The child is
born, who is the son? The son is the eternal son, the
only begotten son, the son of the Father in truth and in love.
And in the fullness of the time, he who is the second person in
the Godhead, takes to himself the human nature, that holy thing
that was conceived by the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin
Mary, is taken into union by the person of the Eternal Son
of God. And so subsequent to that incarnation
He is now always God and man in one person. He always was,
always will be the Eternal Son of God. But He has taken to Himself
a human nature. He has accomplished the great
work of salvation here upon the earth. as that blessed person,
God-man and now he has ascended into heaven as God-man and there at the right
hand of the Father he is God-man oh this is the wonder you see
of the covenant that he is the mediator of God has sent his
own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin Christ has
identified himself with man What a revelation, what a revelation
of peace with God through this blessed person. And in the work
of course. Why it is very coming, the song
of the angels is on earth, peace, goodwill towards men. That's
the song of the angels, they sing of peace. Not a political
peace, but he comes to establish that spiritual peace, as we said,
ultimately he comes to make the great sin-atoning sacrifice. He is the propitiation for our
sins, it says. And there we have to think very
much in terms of the Godward aspect of sin. God is angry with
the wicked, every day. The wrath of God burns against
the sinner. He can by no means clear the
guilt because he is a holy God and a righteous God and a just
God. But the Lord Jesus Christ has
addressed the matter of that holy wrath and made reconciliation. He is propitiation. or the wonder
of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done in that great work of
redemption. He has made peace through the
blood of His cross. We have it, don't we, there in
that first chapter of Colossians, verse 20, or verse 19, It pleased
the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell, and having
made peace through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile
all things unto himself by him I say whether they be things
in earth or things in heaven and you that were sometime alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled
in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in his sight this is the work
Oh, this is the great work, reconciliation. Those who were in that state
of alienation from God, enemies, in their minds by wicked works,
yet now made nigh by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because God hath made Him to
be seen. For us, says Paul, who knew no
sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. And that work, oh, it's completed. He's finished that work. He has
sealed the whole work, the covenant, by the shedding of His precious
blood. 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,
sealed with blood, The testator has died. As we read there in
chapter 9, remember, verses 15, 16 and 17. We read the murder in the service.
The testator has died. The Testament stands. And now
the Lord Jesus Christ has been vindicated himself, of course,
and vindicated in the resurrection from the dead. The Father has
owned and acknowledged all that He has done. This is my beloved
Son, He says, in whom I am well pleased. God, the God of peace, brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus. He's that One who is declared
to be the Son of God, marked out, distinguished really as
the Son of God. by the Spirit of Holiness through
the Resurrection. The Father owns the Son, vindicates
the Son. Oh, it's all accomplished, the
blessed work and there is now peace between that God who is a holy, righteous
and just God and those who were in a state of enmity and alienation. This is the doctrine then that
we have said before us. But then, in the second place,
to say something with regards to the experience of these things. What does he say in verse 21? 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 there is something being wrought
there is something being accomplished in the soul of the sinner isn't that a glorious truth make
you perfect in every good work there is to be an experience
of these things What follows the words of the text there in
verse 22, I beseech you brethren, suffer the word of exhortation.
There has to be some application of these things. We have the
doctrine laid before us on the page of the Word of God, but
we need that that doctrine is brought home and made real in
our lives, imprinted in our hearts. What is the state of man by nature? Man's condition is, as we said,
that of alienation and enmity. There is confusion, there is
darkness in the soul of the sinner. That's our natural condition.
And we see it spelt out time and again on the page of God's
words, the wicked, they're like the troubled sea, which cannot
rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace,
saith my God, to the wicked. And that's where we all are.
as we're born into this sinful world we're those who have the
understanding darkened we're alienated from the life of God
through the ignorance that is in us because of the blindness
of our hearts but there's to be an experience
you see of this peace this blessed covenant of peace in which God
is reconciling the sinner to himself in the person and the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it must be a work of some
depth. No light work this. Or we read,
don't we, in Jeremiah of the ministry of the false prophets
healing the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying
peace, peace, when there is no peace. Oh remember how time and
again that the prophet, as God's mouthpiece, is rebuking those
false prophets. And we have the false prophets
in our day with their talk of easy-believism. How it's so easy to believe and
yet when God begins to deal with us and God begins to show us
where we are and what we are and we have to discover that
our true condition is one of complete impotence why in nature
we are dead in trespasses and sins? there is a terrible truth of
the sinner's total depravity And in some measure we have to
come to terms with that if we're going to know what salvation
is. The Lord comes to save them that are lost. He himself says
the whole need not the physician but they that are sick. I came
not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. Who is
his salvation for? It's for sinners. all there are false prophets
you see even in our day and they tell us that all that salvation
entails is is to do the alpha course and to cross the little
t's and to dot the i's and yet really it's a course that has
nothing to say really with regards to the dreadful sinful condition
of those who are in that terrible lost condition They have healed also the hurt
of the daughter of my people. They say peace, peace, when there
is no peace. But how the Lord Jesus is that
one who comes to preach true peace. Paul, when he addresses
the Ephesians there in chapter 2, of that epistle Ephesians
2 and verse 13 is addressing of course principally
a gentile church and of course as you're aware in chapter 3
is going to open up that great mystery the calling of the gentiles
but what were these gentiles? they were a far-off Verse 13
there in chapter 2 it says, Now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes
were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ for he is
our peace. who hath made both one, and hath
broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having
abolished in his flesh the enmity even the law of commandments
contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain,
that is of two, one new man so making peace, and that he might
reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain
the enmity thereby." He's speaking very much of the Gentile who
were a far-off over a gangstly Jew who were nigh, they had all
the privileges under the Old Testament. You only have I known
of all the families of the earth. But now you see this gospel is
to go to Gentiles as well as to Jews and Christ is the one
who has broken down that wall of partition between Jew and
Gentile. He has abolished all that enmity
which was there in the Old Testament. He has made of the two one new
man. Oh, He has reconciled even those Gentiles who were so far
off and made them nigh by the precious blood of His cross. There must be that work then
wrought in the soul of the sinner. When the Lord begins to deal
with His people, they experience what they are in their fallen
nature. They feel that dreadful enmity. They come to terms in
some measure with the fact that they can in no way free themselves,
release themselves. As Heman speaks here in Psalm
88, he cries out, I am shut up, I cannot come forth. What is this work? It's the work
of the Spirit of God in the soul of the sinner. It's not mere
decisionism. It's not merely the preacher
standing there and so reasoning with men and drawing up his arguments
and his persuasions and making them Christians. No, it cannot
be done. It's the work of the Spirit of
God. it's God bringing peace through the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ and there now the believer discovers
that there will ever be that conflict all his days the Lord Jesus says it doesn't
he at the end of John 16 these things have I spoken unto
you that in me ye might have peace In the world ye shall have
tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." Oh,
there's no comfort in that sense for the believer in this fallen
world, this world that lies in the wicked one. All that is in
the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and
the pride of life, all that is not of the Father but is of the
world. Oh, in the world tribulation but Christ said in
me peace and now the believer has to look to him again and
again and again and he has to fight that good
fight of faith and lay hold upon eternal life and do that day
by day there's the experience and then there's to be the practical
part there's doctrine there's the experience of the doctrine
then there's the practice of the doctrine here in chapter 12 and verse
14 follow peace with all men and holiness without which no
man shall see the Lord That's practice, isn't it? Always to suffer the word of
exhortation. This is what Paul is doing. I
beseech you, brethren, suffer the word of exhortation. We've got to practice the doctrine.
If we know that peace of God in our soul's experience, we
will give some diligence to the way in which we are to conduct
ourselves. Again, when Paul writes to the
church at Rome, he tells them, If it be possible, as much as
lieth in you, live at peace with all men. All blessed are the
peacemakers, says the Lord Jesus in the Beatitudes. The peacemakers
shall see God, we're told. If it be possible. I know sometimes
it's not very possible. but we are to endeavour to be
peacemakers in this wicked world. Going the language of Romans
14, 19, let us therefore follow after the things which make for
peace, and things wherewith one may edify another. Let us therefore follow after
the things which make for peace. And the word that we have there,
to follow, to follow after, it's a strong verb that he uses. It
literally means to pursue, to take hold of. It even sometimes
is rendered by the word persecute, taking hold with violence. That's
how we're to follow after the things that make for peace. We're to do it violently in a
sense. You know the language of Ephesians
4 and verse 3, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace. Well mark that opening word.
Endeavoring. Endeavoring to keep the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Why? We live in a world
that's all enmity and alienation to God and the things of God. and we all still have our old
natures and so there is this awful conflict
all the time it's no easy path that the Christian is treading even in the church we're to be
those who would be seeking peace and peacemakers we know that
God is not the author of confusion says Paul, but of peace, as in
all the churches of the saints. Oh, there is not to be confusion,
there is to be peace, there is to be that proper order. What
are believers to do? They are to imitate God Himself. They are to imitate God Himself. And He is the God of peace. He
is the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord
Jesus, that Great Shepherd of the sheep. we are to seek to
imitate him and so we need to ask that he would come and work
that peace within us because we cannot attain it of ourselves
how does Paul pray for the Thessalonians? he prays for their sanctification
Just as the Lord Jesus prays for the sanctification of his
church, sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth,
the language of the Lord there in John 17, well, doesn't Paul
echo that prayer in 1 Thessalonians 5.23 and he says there, the very
God of peace, sanctify you wholly. And we need to know that gracious
sanctification of the Spirit. The Lord of Peace Himself give
you peace always and by all means. These exhortations that we find
at the end of the Apostles, the various epistles. You see there
at the end of 2 Thessalonians 3.16, there the Lord of Peace
Himself give you peace always by all
means yes it's a benediction that we're considering it's a word of blessing but it's
more than that it's a prayer the apostle is addressing God
himself and addressing God on behalf of these Hebrew Christian
believers that they might understand the doctrine of this covenant
the covenant of grace, the covenant of peace but not only understand
the doctrine of it but experience it in their souls and as they
experience it in their souls will they not then express it
in the manner of their living and it's not just addressed of
course to the Hebrews it's addressed to us it's part and parcel of
the word of God and does it not belong then to the churches of
Jesus Christ it's God's word then that comes
to us it's a word of great blessing But it's a prayer, and how we
need to pray it ourselves. The God of Peace. May the God
of Peace have 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. The glory is
Christ. He is that one who is the mediator
of the covenant, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen." Can
we honestly utter our amen and desire in all sincerity that
this might be true in us individually, that it might be true in us as
the Church of Jesus Christ, that we might be those who are ever
endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in that bond of
peace. Oh, the Lord be pleased to do
it and to own and bless His Word in all our hearts. Amen.