Who would be turning to Hebrews
in your Bible? Chapter 13 Most of you are aware, I think,
of Brother Smith's death, Ray Smith's father, Ray Smith Sr. Let's see, the funeral was this
past Thursday at two o'clock in Angier. My message for that funeral meeting from 2 Samuel, to which we will
not turn this morning, but there is a statement in 2 Samuel 23.5 that declare themselves to be
the final words of David the king. Those words are very important. especially in his case. And after
reading that statement, it is talking to us, David is speaking
of his interest, saving interest, in this everlasting covenant
of grace that was made between God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. And this was done before there
was any world ever created, before time ever was, before man had
ever been heard of. And here we have in this last
chapter of Hebrews a wonderful statement pertaining
to that same covenant. But I'd like to read the whole
chapter of Hebrews 13. We must use every means possible to declare every time we gather
that this book is our only textbook. Our whole message, our whole
gospel is from Genesis to Revelation. Consequently, we find a text
on the everlasting covenant in 2 Samuel 2, verse 5, or believe
it. That doesn't sound right, but
anyway, you can find it if you're interested. But this morning,
we're going to be in Hebrews. I want you to hold on to your
place. to the book of Hebrews, we shall
make some references to it. Now before we begin our reading,
I remind you that if a preacher's voice is all
you hear, ain't nothing happening. Nothing. If God doesn't speak, it cannot
be. Divine things, spiritual things,
heavenly things are out of our hands. So let us beseech the God of
this book, the triune God, to meet with us this Lord's Day
morning. Let us pray. Lord, thank you for letting us
meet in this place this day, that we might come to this most,
most important subject to be found in our Bibles, namely,
that everlasting covenant of grace that was made between yourself and our Lord Jesus Christ and
the Holy Spirit, all three of whom are addressing each other
in this wonderful covenant of grace, an eternal, everlasting
covenant. Lord, it is sacred ground on
which we stand this morning. Not this pulpit, but this book,
this chapter, this Bible. Oh, what a book it is! How glorious
and wonderful it is! But we know one thing. If you do not speak to our souls,
We shall never learn the meaning or the application of what this
Bible is all about. If left to ourselves, no matter
my IQ or lack thereof, if left to ourselves, we could read this
book from cover to cover and never find anything of a saving
nature and grace in the person of God the Son, the God-man,
Christ Jesus. Lord, open our eyes. Give us
eyes to see and hearts to understand and grace to believe what is
found in this precious book. Lord, we are here before you
this morning. We are nothing, we have nothing,
and we can do nothing. But that's perfect ground for
the God of the Bible to work. Oh, that we might see some of
that matchless glory of our Lord Jesus Christ this very day. Lord,
come into our midst. Take the words of this book and
give them life to our souls. We shall be fed. We beg in Christ's
name. Amen. I suppose would be to read this
chapter like I promised. I was about to go on without
it. Oh my! What a wonderful memory I have. Chapter 13 and verse 1. Let brotherly
love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain
strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them, and them
which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body. Marriage is honorable in all,
and the bed undefined, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. Let your conversation be without
covetousness, And be content with such things as you have,
for He has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you, so
that we may boldly say, The Lord is my Helper, and I will not
fear what man shall do unto me. Remember them which have the
rule over you, Referring to the church and no doubt to the pastor, whoever
it happens to be, remember them which have the rule over you,
who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow,
considering the end of their conversation And perhaps included
in that word conversation is not only conduct, but it is also
our work, what we do. Verse 8, Jesus Christ, the same
yesterday, today, and forever. He's the eternal Christ. Be not carried away with divers
or various and strange doctrines, for it is a good thing that the
heart be established with grace, but not with meats. The Old Testament,
under the Jewish law, addressed what people physically ate Remember
what happened to Peter when he had this vision on the rooftop
of Simon the Tanner's house in the book of Acts. And the Lord,
in a vision, brought down a sheep from heaven with all kinds of
protein called animals of different types and sorts. And the Lord
said to Peter, Rise and eat. And Peter said, There ain't never
anything unclean passed by lips. Now, he thought he was telling
the truth. He's probably lying. I think he was lying myself.
Because I know I can't make that statement, and I know you can't.
But the Lord told Peter, don't you ever call anything that I
make unclean. Now, all of this was preparation.
to send Peter to the house of Cornelius to preach the gospel
to Gentiles. Otherwise, he would never, in
a million years, would never have spoken to a Gentile about
Christ and about the gospel. But he had no choice after this
event transpired in Acts chapter 10, I believe it is. What verse was I on before you
all interrupted me? Nine, be not carried about with
various and strange doctrines, for it is a good thing that the
heart be established with grace, not with meats." Now, that don't
mean that you can be a smart person and not eat certain things. And for most of us, not eat too
much of whatever it is we are eating. But this is talking about
religious rules and regulations about a person's actual physical
diet. The Jews were on top of that
long before any of us ever saw the light of day. Verse 10, we have an altar. Now, this platform
that I'm standing on is not an altar. You can call it a pulpit,
because that's what it is. But now, if we were going to
talk about the original word pulpit, the pulpit would be up
there about the height of that ceiling, which is the part of
a sailing ship where a person went out in front of the boat
on some contraction that jutted out a good long ways from there,
There is always a person there looking for submerged danger
in order to avoid a shipwreck. And so the pulpit needs to be
viewed in that kind of light. It is to awaken us to what our
need is, and who God is, and that wonderful salvation that
He has provided in our Lord Jesus Christ. We have an altar, whereof they have no right to
eat, which serve the tabernacle." Now, that means the Jewish priesthood. Whatever rank or height or depth
of it you may want to mention, It is serving the tabernacle. And everything that took place
in the tabernacle and later in the temple, when Christ said
it is finished on the cross, that temple was finished. And
that tabernacle is now passé, past tense. You cannot worship
God in those methods anymore. I don't care if it's a Baptist
church or a Methodist church or a Catholic church or any other
kind of church. It doesn't make any difference.
We cannot do it. For the bodies of those beasts,
verse 11, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high
priest for sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore, Jesus, the
Lord Jesus, also, that He might sanctify the people with His
own blood, suffered without the gate." That bloody cross of Calvary
was outside the gates of the city of Jerusalem. Let us go
forth, therefore, unto Him, unto Christ, without the camp, outside
the camp. Let us leave this world's religion
behind, no matter what its name. and find that glorious gospel
truth concerning our precious Lord Jesus Christ. For here we
have no continuing city, but we seek one to come. By him,
therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is, the fruit of our lips
giving thanks to his name, But to do good and to communicate,
forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. Verse 17,
Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves,
for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account,
that they may do it with joy and not with grief, for that
is unprofitable for you." You can't read, put on a pair
of glasses, open your ears, whatever you can do to listen carefully
in these remaining verses in Hebrews chapter 13. Paul said
to these Hebrews, pray for us, for we trust we have a good conscience
in all things, willing to live honestly. But I beseech you,
the rather brethren, that I may be restored unto you the sooner. 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,
here's what that covenant does. Here is at least partially why
it is so very important. Verse 21, the blood of this everlasting
covenant makes people perfect who in themselves
are nothing but imperfect. Make you perfect in every good
work to do His will, God's will, working
in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight. The Lord never entertained the
thought that we could do what the Bible demands that a man
must do if he's going to appear before God on the basis of something
he's done. When the Lord gave the Ten Commandments,
do you think He didn't know that it would be broken even while
Moses is in Mount Sinai receiving it? If you think that, your God is
just too blame little. If there's anything, anywhere,
anytime that He doesn't know, there ain't no such thing as
that. No such thing. Make you perfect in every good
work to do His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing
in His sight. If you have any kind of work
that you consider doing for God, the best lesson we can ever learn,
it ain't me, it's Christ. It's not my ability, it's not
my mind, it's not who I am, it's who Christ is. Working in you that which is
well-pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory
forever and ever. Amen." Now, I'm going to stop
right there and leave off the salutation there on the end of
that and see if we can spend a little more time on this 20
and 21st verse of Hebrews 13. To view the Scriptures as we
do, we have a covenant theology. And here's that covenant, verses
20 and 21. First of all, this covenant has
covenant names. The framers of this covenant,
the ones who met And this is the result, are none other than
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The Father chose a people in
this covenant of grace, and he gave those people to his Son. Thousands of years went by before
Christ ever came into this into this world to be born of a virgin
by the name of Mary, to have a body, a human nature that is
without sin, because no man conceived our Lord Jesus in Mary's womb
but God the Holy Spirit. And therefore, these things are
vital for us to understand. God is the God of peace. It says it right there in verse
20 in the first phrase, now the God of peace. Then it talks about our Lord
Jesus Christ, the God of peace, which brought again from the
dead our Lord Jesus, that Great Shepherd of the sheep. This One
who is the Great Shepherd in addressing the statements in
the New Testament of our Bibles, There are three distinct titles
concerning our Lord Jesus, all having to do with the word shepherd. He is the Good Shepherd in John
chapter 10, because He lays down His life for His sheep. He is
the Great Shepherd. And then thirdly, In this one statement now, in
verse 20, is the great shepherd of the sheep. And then there's
one more in 1 Peter 5, verse 4, and he's called the chief
shepherd. Christ is the shepherd of all
shepherds. He's never lost a sheep to this
day, and he never will. All right, we move now, secondly,
to the seal. This covenant has a seal. Let
me point it out to you. It's the last phrase in verse
20 of Hebrews 13. That is, through the blood of
the everlasting covenant. The blood of the everlasting
covenant. Now, I'm going to put a marker
right there, and I'm going to go back. I think it's chapter
9 in Hebrews, so it's not a difficult search. But these are essential
words for us to look at this everlasting covenant through
the eyes of these things. Vitally important that this be
the case. Hebrews 9, beginning at verse
11, and reading through verse 15, But Christ being come, and
High Priest of good things to come, by greater and more perfect
tabernacle. What tabernacle are we speaking
of here? Our Lord is speaking of the tabernacle
of his body that makes that other tabernacle past tense. By greater and more perfect tabernacle,
A tabernacle 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,
Christ entered in once into the holy place in glory, having obtained
eternal redemption for us. Christ is our Redeemer. having
obtained eternal redemption for us, for if the blood of bulls
and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean,
sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh, how much more, how
infinitely, infinitely more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit
offered himself without spot to God, how much more shall Christ
purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" Well, preacher, I know that God
commands us to tithe, and I tithe, and I want everybody to know
it. Well, I'll tell you what, that
law went out with the tabernacle. It did. Well, why do churches
still preach that gospel today? Because they don't know the gospel
first. And the other is, they're greedy. They spend their time trying
to figure out new tricks of the trade to get people to give more
and do more and all this kind of mess. Oh, I'm so glad I'm
out of that rat race. You don't know what it's like
when a preacher is looking at a congregation and they're expecting
him to do wonderful things to make the burden of that particular
congregation less on themselves and some others to be brought
in. Now, these other people coming
in, they can't have any offices of any significance, You know, they need them anyway.
So they'll let you come in, but you ain't going up the ranks.
Those are already full. Our Lord offered himself without
spot to God. Purge your conscience from dead
works to serve the living God. And for this cause, he is the
mediator of the New Testament. Now, if you have a reference
Bible, it ought to say in the margin, the New Covenant. These words are virtually interchangeable
as far as the ones that are used in Scripture and pretty much
even among legal matters in the day in which we live. For this cause, Christ is the
mediator of 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. If you are a believer And you
have this saving interest in Christ, you can't be a believer
without it. Then I'm telling you everything
is alright in time as well as eternity. Nothing that our Lord purchased
by His blood can be taken from Him. Not one of His sheep can
be lost. If he can lose one, he can lose
a thousand. If he can lose a thousand, he
can lose a million. If he can lose a million, he
can lose you and me. But that ain't the case. That
is not the case. Anybody who makes Christ less
than what our Bibles make him, do not know him. We ought to
know this. We've been down this road. Alright, now we come... Let me find the right spot here. Verse 21, this everlasting covenant and
the blood of Christ which ratifies that covenant, the last phrase
in verse 20, now 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 to whom
be glory forever and ever. So this God of peace that brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the Lord Jesus is alive. He is risen. He is ascended to
glory. He is right at this moment seated
on the throne of grace. And all He has to do is ask His
Father and it will be His. Try reading Psalm 110 this afternoon
if you can possibly squeeze it in. Why was our Lord Jesus returned
from the dead to all this glory? While down here, He received
insult upon insult. Everything that God would allow
men to do to Him, they did it. And finally, they crucified Him.
But He could not die even on that cross until those famous
words fell from His lips, It is finished. Redemption is finished. Salvation is finished. Justice
is satisfied. All who know Him, who trust Him,
who follow Him, are on the road to glory. How many is up there
already, I have no idea, but it ain't a few, it's a bunch.
It's an uncountable number. The Lord Jesus returned from
the dead to all of this glory because he had presented the
blood of the everlasting covenant in glory. This is done in glory. Let me read you a verse, you
don't need to turn to it, I'll just keep it secret so you can't. It won't for you know what over
here, I would definitely do it the other way. Here's the language. which you've
heard this many times from me, and I know telling how many others, this statement about our Christ
being in eternal glory and taking there that blood that was shed
on Calvary. Verse 24, and I'll give you the
chapter in a minute, our Lord is praying in that wonderful
mediatorial prayer of Christ, As our Mediator, there is only
one Mediator between God and men, and it is the God-man, Christ
Jesus. Our Lord prays like this. We
ought never to attempt this. If God opened the ground and
swallowed up, what was that character's name, Korah, and those that pertain
to him, I tell you what, if we think we can just waltz right
into God's presence, we've got another thing coming. Father,
I will that they also whom you have given me be with me where
I am. So where do you think believers
go when they leave this world? They go to be with Christ. Let me read that again. Father,
I will that they also whom you've given me be with me where I am,
that they may behold my glory which you have given me, for
you loved me before the foundation of the world. Now, just roll
that in your mind a little while. It's just incredible. for people to say that the Lord
Jesus wants to save a sinner and the sinner won't let Him.
And He can't violate the sinner's will, and if He doesn't, that
man is a gone Jesse. No hope. No hope whatsoever. I don't know how many years it
took for religion in America to reach this sorry state, but
we're there with bells on right now. You'd look a long time before
you'd even find a congregation that worships the true God of
the Bible. I hope by the grace of God this
is one of those. Number four, in verse 21 again,
back in chapter 13 of Hebrews, we have these covenant blessings. These are blessings that come
as the result of the everlasting covenant. It has to do with making
us perfect in every good work to do God's will, working in
you that which is well-pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ,
to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. And we certainly
ought to be able to say that very same thing. Goodness me! Let me read you another statement
from Hebrews. Oh, that last reference we had
was in John's Gospel, in case you didn't figure it out. But
this is back in Hebrews 10. And verses 16, 17, and 18. This is the covenant
that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord. I'll put my laws into their hearts. Boy, that's better than putting
it in your hand. Put my laws into their hearts,
and in their minds will I write them. Now see if you can get
a hold of this. And their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. No more. If I remember right, there's
a string of no mores in Hebrews chapter 10. You ought to try
looking for them if you haven't seen them. I put my laws in their
hearts and in their minds will I write them, and their sins
and iniquities will I remember no more. Now, what are we going
to do about this? Where remission of these is, there is no more offering for
sin. These slick preachers will try
to sell you forgiveness if you'll give enough money. That ain't what that said. Where remission of these sins
and iniquities are, there is no more offering for sin. There's no more bartering with
God. God, if you'll do this, I'll
do that. No, you won't. Finally, the covenant doxology. Back in chapter 13, this is it. The last phrase in verse 21,
to whom be glory forever and ever. and ever and ever. Amen. Amen. I mean, that's the end of the
book and the end of the chapter. It's some kind of silly commercial
on TV where these people are solving some electronic computer,
whatever kind of stuff. And so they've had their little
meeting Some were in the same room and others were on their
stuff somewhere else. And the head honcho is thanking
everybody. And they say, well, what's next? He said, there ain't no next.
He said, it's finished. It's finished. And I'm telling you, there ain't
another. Christ is everything. And if He's not everything to
me, He's not anything to me or to you.