If you turn again in your Bibles
to Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13, we're looking
at verse 20 and 21 this morning. The apostle says now the the
God of peace. The God of peace. And then he describes what the
God of peace has done. 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 the apostle in this
chapter is given many exhortations to the church. Many exhortations
concerning their faith and their practice. He begins saying, let
love continue. That's a wonderful exhortation
for the believers. Let love continue. Love one another. Isn't this the commandment of
our Lord Jesus Christ? That we love one another. He said that our conversation,
our lifestyle, our conduct in this world, let your conduct
in this world be without covetousness. What an exhortation, ain't it? You need that? You hear that? Yeah, we do. Now, what's the
grounds of this? Because the Lord has said, I
will never leave thee nor forsake thee. What else do you need?
If you have him always and forever to be your helper and God and
strength, why would you covet anything? We should be content with such
things as we have, as God has given. that the church should
be mindful. He exhorts us to be mindful of
the gifts that God has given the church. What is he talking
about? He's talking about pastors. He's talking about those that
have the rule over you. That preach the word of God,
remember them, remember them in prayer, remember their needs,
their gifts of God to edify you. To strengthen you, to preach
the gospel to you, He says give praise because of the immutability
of Jesus Christ. He says this is the one they
preach. This is the end of their conversation. This is the end of all their
messages is for this one thing. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
today and forever. That's who we preach. What a blessed thought this is
that our Lord Jesus Christ never changes. You know, there was
not ever a time he did not love me. You got that? Never a time he didn't love me.
Why, he doesn't change. The Christ of this world changes. He said, well, he hated you yesterday,
but today he loves you. No. Jesus Christ is the same
yesterday, today, and, listen, forever. What a blessed thought
that is for the believer, for those who are in Christ. This
is true. He is the same. It doesn't change. Therefore, he says, don't be
tossed about by every wind of doctrine. Verse 9, don't be carried
about by divers in strange doctrine. It's a good thing that you be
established with one message. Grace. Grace. Every gospel message is
grace. Mercy. Unmerited favor. You be established with that.
You be grounded in that. Let's not be tossed by the trinkets
of false religion. Believer in Christ, we should
not marvel. And when they seem to the religious
world seems to prosper. When they are not troubled like
us. I read an article this morning
by Joe Terrell. He said, I've seen so many different things
in so-called churches about, you know, they have clowns and
they have puppet shows and they have all sorts of things that
they add to the preaching of the gospel. But it doesn't edify
the spirit, it only excites the flesh. Christ said the flesh profits
nothing in them. Don't be troubled by their prosperity. Their promises of health, wealth
and prosperity in this present world. I'll tell you sometimes
believers are troubled by this. They're prosperous and the church
suffers. Asaph was like that in Psalm
73. He said, you know, I know God's
good to Israel, but I don't know about me. What I thought was
bad. It was horrible. My faith did
not well slip. I was envious at the foolish. Believers, we can be envious. Sometimes we are, but you know
what Asaph said, he said, when I considered their end. What good is all the prosperity
of the world and they lose their own soul? And then what Christ
said, what is the profit of man if he gained the whole world
and lose his own soul? Or what will you give in exchange
for your soul? Consider the end of the wicked.
Don't look at their present state, their present prosperity. Why
God has set them in slippery places. And those who assume to be accepted
of God in the end will not be. So how foolish are we to take
our eyes off of Christ? And how often do we as believers
do that? Let us then come to Christ by
faith and bear the same rejection. That's what he tells them. He
says those that serve the law There's no profit in that and
they don't have a right to the altar. We, we feast at a spiritual
altar. They got a physical one, but
we have a spiritual altar. In other words, he's saying this.
If you come to God by your works, you have no right to this gospel. You have no right to claim your
acceptance with God. And so He says to believers,
He encourages us, come outside the camp. That's where Christ
was crucified, wasn't it? They took Him outside the camp.
And so we must go, we who go to Him, we go outside the camp. So that we are also, as He was
despised and rejected, listen, all who follow Christ are going
to be despised and rejected. And so believers remember this,
that this world is not our home. You see that in verse 14, he
says here we have no continuing city. Remember that. That's a good exhortation, is
it? Remember that this place is not our home. James said to
be a friend of the world is to be an enemy of God. This world is not our home. We
should not plant roots here. Why do you suppose that we are
so often disappointed with the things of this world? Because
they cannot satisfy. The pleasures of this world are
fleeting. You not found that to be true? The only thing that can satisfy
the soul and heart is to know our union with Jesus Christ.
Are you in Christ? Are you in Christ? This world
is not our home, therefore nothing of it. This world can fulfill
our need of mercy and forgiveness. And listen, peace with God. Nothing in this world will give
you peace. It promises peace. Your flesh
says it will give you peace. But what have you found in this
world that's really given you lasting peace? Name it. You can't. Because there's nothing
here that gives you peace. Because what man needs is not
just inner peace. You just need some inner peace.
So they buy counselors and they find all these people to try
to give them a positive attitude. The only thing that will give
a man true peace is to know that he has peace with God. Peace
with God. Is there anything more needful
than this? What else do you need but to
be found in Christ? Nothing. Listen, Christ is all. Christ is all. He is all salvation. He is all our hope of eternal
life. And he is all our peace with
God. Now, let me be clear about this,
if you have made your peace with God. Listen, you have no peace
with God. If you made your peace with God.
I can't tell you how many times I've heard that foolish statement.
Well, I've made my peace with God. No, the only one that can make
peace with God is Jesus Christ. And listen, the only one who
has made peace. He's already made it. The only
one who has made peace with God is Jesus Christ. And so then you who are in Christ,
let us then, as Paul says, offer the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving
continually. Isn't this a good exhortation?
Offer the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. That is, he
explains it, the fruit of your lips. Offer it. Praise Him. I've often said this, you can't
murmur and be thankful. Inconsistent, if you're murmuring
because you're not thankful. If you're thankful, you can't
murmur. So he says all for the thanksgiving, and if yet I ask
you who are believers now that you know you have peace with
God. Now, these exhortations, we we long to do them. We long
to follow these exhortations. They're good. But let me ask
you this, is your life smooth? Is your life now you're coasting? That's how foolish I was. I thought that that's how it
should be. When Christ saved me, I thought everything was
going to be well. In actuality, everything was the opposite of
what I thought. We are often fearful and unbelieving
people. Remember when the Lord Jesus
brought the disciples across the sea and he was asleep and
in the bottom of that boat and the storm was so enraged so much. Now, these guys were professional
seamen. They actually sailed all the
time through storms. This was one that was going to
kill them. They knew it. And they ran down
the bottom of the boat and they said, Lord, carest thou not that
we perish? How often have we come to the
Lord like that? And the Lord arose and rebuked
the wind and the sea and said, peace, be still. And the wind
ceased and there was a great calm and he said to them, why
are you so fearful? You that believe, why are you
so fearful? How is it that you had, listen,
no faith. No faith. Our Lord Jesus can. And does calm the storms of our
life. He has power over every storm.
Yet we are so often found with no faith. And so let us as believers this
morning behold together the word of God for our assurance and
comfort that no matter the storm or the trial, no matter your
failures, your griefs or your sorrows, listen, You are at peace
with God. After all those exhortations,
what does he do now? Exhortations make us anxious.
Because we've not done them right, we've failed at every one of
them. Every one of those exhortations I gave you, have you been successful
in any of them completely? No, they cause us to be anxious. And so what he said, be anxious
for nothing. Why? Because he knew they'd be
anxious. And then he directs them to what now? Look at our
text now. The God of peace, the God of
peace. No matter our trials and troubles,
no matter our failures and griefs, let us know this. We have peace
with God. If you're a believer in Christ,
Only a believer in Christ has this peace with God. And I want
you to see this about the God of peace. The God of peace. I
want you to know this, that God is the architect of peace. The
architect of peace. He is the creator of peace. He is the one who purposed peace
between God and man. When we were born into this world,
we only had one nature. It was a sinful and wicked nature. It is a depraved nature that
is fully set to do evil. We have a nature that is not
at peace with God, but rather at war. I want you to look at two passages
of scriptures that really testify of the depravity of man. Go to
John chapter five. Go to John chapter five. The Lord here is speaking to
these Pharisees, these religious men. Look at verse thirty nine. He's speaking to these religious
men and He gives them a command and this is astonishing to them. This would have been very offensive
to them. He said this, search the scriptures. There was nobody in that time
that knew the scriptures like the Pharisees. Matter of fact,
they had memorized the scriptures. They were instructed in their
schools to memorize these things. They had the Word of God written
on their sleeves. And he said, you need to go back
and search them again. I'm going to tell you why. You
missed the whole point. He said, search the Scriptures.
For in them you think you have eternal life. They thought they
had eternal life. They really believed they were
going to heaven. You couldn't convince them otherwise. They really believe they felt
it within their souls. They felt like they were going
to heaven. And Christ says, you think you have eternal life and
that's all you're going to do is you think about it. That's
it. You dream of it, but you don't. Now, why didn't they have
eternal life? Because they sought it by works. They sought it by works. A self-righteous
man, they sought it by works. But what are the scriptures testify
of? He said they are they that testify of me. What a statement. He just said
the whole word of God's about me. You got this whole thing's
about me. That's a that's a bold statement
in. But it's true, the scriptures
are about Christ. And there he was, the son of
God. The one who came to offer himself a sacrifice for sin. The one who came to save Israel. You see they read about that,
that the Messiah was going to come and save Israel. They read
it. But they didn't. He was standing right there.
And notice what their response was. Jesus tells them. He says,
and you will not come to me that you might have life. Herein is the absolute depravity
of man displayed in this. You will not come to Christ. You will not. You that have not come to Christ.
Listen. You have not come to Christ because of this. You will
not come. Now you'll come to your own Christ.
You'll make stipulations. Well, I'll come to you if this,
this and this. If you do this, I'll do that.
No, you will not come to Christ as a sinner. These men would not be beggars.
You come to Christ, you have to be a beggar. I came to Christ as a beggar. I needed mercy. I didn't need
merit. I needed grace. Christ says come unto me all
you that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Isn't it the most crystal clear
display of man's hatred to God in this. They will not come to
Christ. They will not stop trying to
earn their favor with God. Men run from heaven as though
it were hell and run to hell as though it were heaven. You
run to the pleasures and things of this world and you run away
from Christ. It's madness. It's utter insanity. This is proof that man is depraved. They will not come. Now, why
will not men come? I'm going to tell you why you
cannot. Go to John, Chapter six, one
page, a couple of pages over John six, 44. Jesus said this
no man, verse 44. Here's the reason why they will
not come, because no man can come. So you don't know. The reality
of your situation. The reality of man's situation
is that he's dead. Men will not come because they
are dead. They are blind and they cannot
see their need except the Father which has sent me draw them. No man can come unto me. So the clear display of man's Hatred of God is in this, that
they cannot and will not come to Christ. They will not accept
this maxim, there is nothing good in us. You believe that? That there is nothing good in
you? I had a man talk to me about, oh he just, he thought he was
really smart, he said, you know, if God is so good, then why do
good men suffer? I said, you don't understand,
there are no good men. You listen what God says, there
is none that do with good. No, not one. There is nothing in us that merits
peace with God. There is nothing that we have
that can please God. There is nothing we can do to
satisfy the justice of God for our sins. Nothing. There is nothing you can do to
give yourself spiritual life. Nothing. And so then there's nothing that
will ever move you in you. There's nothing that will move
you to believe on Christ. Nothing. Go to Romans 8. I want you to
see what's in the heart of man. Romans chapter 8, look at verse
6, to be carnally minded. To be carnally minded is death. But to be spiritually minded
is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is at
its birth, at its conception, it is at its enmity against God. The word enmity means it's war.
You're at war with God. This is how we come in the world.
Not having peace with God. We're at enmity. Well, how do
you know? I really love God. Preacher,
you can't say that about me. I didn't. It just did. But OK,
you want proof? Here it is for. It is not subject
to the law of God. Are you subject to the law of
God? No, the natural man is not subject
to the law of God. Listen, neither indeed can be. You see, there's both will and
ability. You have neither the will to
subject yourself to the law of God, nor have you the ability
by nature to subject yourself to the law of God. So then, here's
the conclusion, they that are in the flesh, they that only
have this carnal nature, the nature you're born with, So then
they that are in the flesh cannot please God. And what do I mean
by nature? I want you to understand this. Nature has three things.
It has a mind, it has a heart, and it has a will. These three
things make up a nature. In your will, you will not come
to Christ. In your heart, you are enmity
against God. In your mind is only sin. This is what we are by nature.
And you that are believers in Christ, we know this to be true. We remember that this old flesh
hasn't changed. That nature that's in the lost
is still in us. That old man's still there. You
that believe in Christ, that old man hasn't changed. He's
just as vile and wicked and corrupt as the day we were conceived.
When God saved us by His grace, what did He do for us? He gave
us a new nature. He gave us a new mind, a new
heart, and a new will. Isn't that right? Three things
our nature's gotta have. And so now then we have what?
We have the mind of Christ. We have the mind of Christ. We
have a new heart, a heart of affection and love toward the
things of God and the people of God. And that new nature we
have, it has a will. It is willing to come and not
only willing, it's able. Gives us a new nature. So you
that are without Christ, what you need is a new nature that
you can't give yourself in order to have peace with God, you have
to have a new nature. God has to create something in
you that's not there. He has to create in you. Something
that wasn't there. Go to Ephesians chapter four
and see that. Ephesians chapter four. All is
exhorting believers. And look at verse 22. Verse 22, he says to you, believers,
put off concerning the former conversation, the what? Old man. Now, if you didn't have
an old man, you wouldn't need to put him off. But you do, so
you got to put him off. Constantly putting him off. What
does this mean? Mortify the deeds of the body.
Put him off constantly. The old man, which He is corrupt
according to deceitful lust. You got to put him off. And now
what's the exhortation? And be renewed in the spirit
of your mind and put on the new man. Which after God is what? Created. You that have no peace with God.
Let me tell you why. You don't have a nature that is at peace
with God. Your nature is only set one way
at enmity. But we who have a new nature,
listen, we must put him on, constantly be reminded in the spirit of
our mind to put him on, be established with the things which is created
after God in righteousness and true holiness, true holiness. And so then we who are believers
are people of two natures, two armies, warring factions. Paul explains this of himself
in Romans seven. Romans seven, verse 18, the apostle
describes this when a man is comes to faith in Christ and
God gives him a new nature. Listen, he's at peace with God.
And I'm going to explain that in just a minute, what that means.
He's at peace with God. But one thing he's not at peace
with is himself. We are never at peace with ourself.
Paul says this, For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, verse
18, dwelleth no good thing. And listen, only a believer can
know this. Paul didn't know this before his conversion. He only
knew it after. For to will is present with me,
but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good
that I would do, I do not, but evil that I would not do, that
I do. This way it is with you, you believer. It is with me. Now if I would do that, what
I would not is no more I that doeth but sin that dwelleth in
me. That's that sin nature that dwells in me, that old man. And
I find a law, a principle, a maximum, here it is, that when I would
do good, what? Evil is present with me. That's what I find. I see another law in my members
warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity,
the law of sin, which is in my members. Oh, wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Oh, wretched
man that I am. This is the confession of every
true believer in Jesus Christ, everyone that God has given a
new nature, a new heart, a new mind, a new will, we find this
whatever I do, it's not going to be good enough. Whatever I do, it's not going
to please God. Therefore, we do not hope to
be delivered by what we do. He says this, here's the answer
of faith to that struggle. I thank God through Jesus Christ,
our Lord. There is my hope of deliverance.
There is my hope in this struggle, this inward struggle within every
believer. Though I know that in me dwelleth
no good thing, yet I delight to do the will of God. What then is the comfort to the
believer's soul? What is this? Is this that we
have peace with God regardless of how we feel, regardless of
our struggle, regardless of the warfare that rages in us. We
have peace with God. Why? Because God purposed it. I could not make my peace with
God, but thanks be to God that he purposed to make peace with
me. And so it was when God. It was
God then who chose us in Christ before the world began. God purpose
that when did God purpose to have peace with man? Before man
was created. God purposed to have peace. And in sovereign love, eternal
love, he set forth in a covenant of grace and peace. You see that
in Ephesians 1. Ephesians 1, it says, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, verse 3. who
has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ, according as he had chosen us in Christ before the
foundation of the world. That we should be holy and without
blame before him. What does that mean? It means
this, that we should have peace. The only ones going to have peace
with God are those that are holy. You see, God purposed that I
should be holy. And by being holy, made holy, I would have
peace. I would have peace with God.
In love, having predestinated us under the adoption of children,
how is He going to do this? By Jesus Christ. That's how God purposed to make
peace. The God of peace purposed peace for a people who by nature
were at enmity with Him. By nature we hated Him, we would
not come to Him, and yet behold the grace of God to purpose peace. And the way He was to make peace,
there's only one way, it's a very narrow way, by Jesus Christ. God purposed that we should have
peace, only one way, by Jesus Christ. Though I find no peace in my
flesh in this world. Though I'm often robbed of the
feeling of peace. Here is the foundation of our
peace with God is this he purposed. To make peace. Purposed. He willed it. that we should
be holy and acceptable. How can God be just and justify
the ungodly? How can God be at peace with
rebels? Simply because he chose us in
Christ and it was a covenant of God, the father with the son,
that Jesus Christ should be the elect surety for his people. Consider this. My peace with
God is totally outside of me. It was purposed outside of me,
and listen, it was to be accomplished outside of me. So I had nothing
to do with it. Nothing. God said we do his son,
I'm giving you these people. And you are going to make peace
for them. You're going to make peace. He
was to be all their righteousness. He was to be all their redemption,
all their sanctification, all their wisdom. He was to be all. And this piece that God purposed,
when was it accomplished? It was accomplished when Jesus
Christ came into this world and was made a man. Adam was a man. Adam represented
you and me. And when he, just like we were
saying earlier, when Adam sinned alone, we all in his transgression
died. He represented us. And his sin
condemned us to death. Even so, peace is made by another
man. by another man, Jesus Christ.
He came in this world and with God was made flesh and dwelt
among us. And this peace was finished when
Jesus Christ fulfilled the law of God. This peace was ratified when
Jesus shed his blood on Calvary's tree. What was the price of peace? Justice demanded death for the
sinner. So what's the price of peace? Death. Death. Blood. Without the shedding of
blood is no remission of sins. Jesus Christ came into this world
to make peace by His one offering. You got that? One offering. Go
to Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews chapter 9. Look at verse
12. It says neither by the blood
of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in. How
many times? How many times did Jesus Christ
need to offer his blood? Once. Once he entered into the
holy place, and what did he get having obtained? Eternal redemption. How long is that redemption? It's eternal. That's the power of his blood. His blood. Satisfied the justice
of God. Forever. That's what we read in the in
the text, he says, and the God of peace that brought again the
Lord Jesus from the dead, the great shepherd of his sheep,
through the blood of the everlasting covenant. Peace was made by the
offering of Jesus Christ, and that alone made peace with God. Christ was crucified. He bared
the sins of His people. God's justice and hell came on
Him. And He endured it. And when justice
could demand no more, He said these words, It is finished. Peace has been made. Ephesians 2,14 says, for he is
our peace. Believer, are you struggling
still? Be comforted in this, the God
of peace, through the covenant offering of the blood of Jesus
Christ, has made peace. Has made peace. He has abolished the enmity of
the flesh, the thing that stood between us and God was sin, and
He took that out of the way, nailing it to His cross. Took
it out of the way. The law of God stood between
you and God, and what did He do? He took the law out of the
way, satisfying it forever. And so that God is the architect
of peace, then what is Christ? Christ is the one who actually
accomplished it. He fulfilled peace. Now, how do we know he made peace? We know he claimed to make peace,
but how? Did he? Is it real? What's the evidence? God of peace
that raised again the Lord Jesus from the dead. If there was any
sin left, God could not raise him from the dead. But because
there was no sin, God raised him from the dead. There's my
evidence that I have peace with God. You see, my evidence Have
I made it clear that there is no evidence in you that you have
peace with God? You're not going to be able to
look at something you do and say, oh, look, I got peace with God. Not to be able to look at circumstances
and say, oh, look, I'm at peace with God, everything's going
well. That's not how you judge you have peace with God. I know
I have peace with God because Christ's blood was accepted and
now he's risen from the dead. Therefore, what Paul say in Hebrews
chapter five, I believe it is, he said, therefore being justified
by faith. Now, whose faith justified you,
yours or his? I was justified by his faith.
You can be justified by yours if you want to. I'm justified
by his faith. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God. We have peace with God. So what's the grounds of our
peace? It is the death, the burial, and the resurrection of our Lord
Jesus Christ. And while we are in this body,
we will never be at peace with the old nature. We will always
contend with the flesh and despise our sins. But there is nothing
that the flesh can do then that could separate us from God. Seeing
we have peace, nothing can mar our peace. Remember, it was all
done outside of you. So what inside of you can mar
it? Nothing. Nothing can change that. There is nothing that merited
our peace with God, and there is nothing that will ever merit
our keeping peace with God. The whole God and purpose, peace,
Christ has accomplished peace, and this final thing. I know, preacher, I know that
God purposed it, I know that Christ accomplished peace, but
how do I know that I have peace? Simply this everyone God has
made peace for, he gives them this life and faith. Everyone. John, Chapter six, our Lord says
this. Sherman, the right place. He
says this all that the father giveth me. All those he purposed
to make peace, all those that I'm making peace for, listen,
all that the father giveth me shall come to me. Have you come to Christ? What keeps you from coming to
Christ? The only thing keeps you from
coming to Christ, your hatred. Your hatred of Christ. But all
those that the father gave, they'll come to him and him that come
to me, I will in no way cast out. Is that not the most gracious
thing you've ever heard? Well, I don't come because. What? Him that come to me, I will in
no wise cast out. where I came down from heaven,
not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
And this is the will which the father which has sent me, that
of all he has given me, I should lose nothing. Raise him up again
at the last day. You see, they're going to come
to Christ. Those who he made peace for, they're going to come. Everything in my whole heart,
mind and soul was set against coming to Christ. But you see,
God had purposed that I should come to Christ. And nothing could
have stopped that. You know, I've told you that
testimony, the woman that had been coming here while she told
me of her. Conversion. And she said that
the moment I began to listen to the message, I knew this,
I did not believe. Matter of fact, she said, I would
not believe. And she says, as I was listening,
all of a sudden, I could not help but believe on Christ. That's the power of God upon
everyone he has made peaceful. And listen, in this world, you
shall have tribulation. Isn't that true? Do you believe? Isn't it true? The world is full of pain. Full of sorrow. But be of good cheer, for I have
overcome the world. All that opposes you. The one who made
peace with God for me rules over all things. In that text he says,
and the God of peace make you perfect in every good work. Believers desire to do good work,
but I know this, it's not perfect, right? But know this, God made
it perfect. Your worship this morning, has
it been perfect? Mind didn't stray, Rick, you
know what I mean? Mine did, I'm sitting here with
you preaching. I can't imagine what you're going through. No, it's
not perfect, but listen, the God of peace made it perfect. Accept it. You got that, you're
accepted. Often you feel unaccepted. I didn't got a thing to do with
it. How I feel just doesn't enter into this matter of peace. God
purposed it, Christ made it, and listen, the spirit keeps
it. It keeps me. It keeps me. Does this not redound all to
the glory of Christ? Did I give you any glory? If
I did, it was by mistake. All the glory belongs to God. If you've not come to Christ,
come to Christ. Oh, why would you not? Why would
you not? There's peace with God. I stand and be dismissed in prayer. A gracious father dismisses with
your blessing and mercy. Pour out your spirit. Be gracious. To rebels. Give them minds and hearts that
see their need peace. Give them faith to see that Christ
is made peace. Give them grace to love and serve
and believe on Jesus Christ. And give comfort to those that
believe. For Jesus Christ is our peace. In Christ's name, I pray.