Well, let's turn over a couple
of pages to Hebrews chapter 13. And here is the end of the book
of Hebrews. And really, as we look at the
last few verses of Hebrews chapter 13, we find that Paul, in closing
out his letter to the Hebrews, he gives us an admonition of
being prayerful for preachers. Notice what he says in verse
18. He says, pray for us. Hold your place there and go
back to Ephesians 5. You know, he asks the Ephesian
brethren to do this same thing, to remember him in prayer. Look
at Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 18. I'm sorry, Ephesians 6 and
verse 18. He says, praying always with
all prayer and supplication, that is, with contrition, with
humility in the spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance
and supplication for all saints and for me. Pray for me, that's
what Paul says. But Paul, you're an apostle. You were used of the Spirit of
God. You will be used of the Spirit of God to write over half
of the New Testament. And yet he says, pray for me. Pray for me. This is the desire
of every preacher of the gospel. The saints of God would pray
for us. I wonder, and I wouldn't ask
you, personally. But I wonder if you prayed for
me and prayed for this service before you came into the building. I remember the words of the Savior,
we have not because we ask not. Let us always remember those
who minister to us in spiritual things. This is the weightiness of the ministry,
the burden of the Lord. I told you this morning from
Zechariah chapter nine, the word, the idea of a burden of the Lord
carries with it on one hand, the burden of judgment upon unbelievers,
and on the other hand, the good news of the gospel of our Lord
Jesus. And we bear the burden of that.
We bear the double burdens of great concern for those who know
not the Redeemer. And we pray for them. We pray
that God will be pleased to reveal the gospel of His glory to their
hearts. That He would open their hearts
to the truth and make them to be willing to be saved God's
way by grace only and by Christ only. By substitution only. By satisfaction only. By the
sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. We want you to pray for the preachers. Not only this preacher. There's
a preacher back there. Brother Allen. Pray for every
preacher of the gospel. Every preacher of the gospel.
Some of them you know. Some of them you don't know.
But here's what Paul says over here. Look at verse 19. And for
me that utterance may be given unto me. that I may open my mouth
boldly, boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel. The
mystery of the gospel is a mystery hidden from the natural man that
has to be revealed that God is a just God and a Savior only
through the death of the Lord Jesus our Savior. It's a mystery. How can God remain holy and without
blame? And without taking any, without
dulling the sharp edge of His gospel, without compromising
His justice, how can He remain stern in His justice and yet
reach down and save the vilest of the vile? That's a mystery
that God has taught us. The mystery is through the Lord
Jesus Christ and His sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary. So
he says, and pray for me, he says, that utterance may be given
unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery
of the gospel. So I would ask you to pray for
me. Pray for me. Go back over to Hebrews 13. So
he says, verse 18, he says, pray for us. And then he gets down
to verse Number 20. And now he, in return, is praying
for and taking great pains to pour out
his soul to God for the Lord to bless his people. He says,
now the God of peace, I want you to pray for me. Now he's
asking a blessing for those who will read these words And this
would be for us as well. 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 His prayer for the people of God, for the sheep of the
Lord's pasture, 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. Here's what he prays, and here's
what I pray for you, that God will do His work within you. You see, here's what Paul is
dealing with. He's dealing here with a kind
of a summation. of all that he has said in the
book of Hebrews. And throughout the book of Hebrews,
he's setting forth the inferiority of the old covenant that could
never put sin away, could never remove it, and could give no
good hope to a sinful person. You see, some of the Hebrews
were falling into a trap laid by some of the Judaizers, some
of the legalists, that would have them to go back under the
Old Covenant. And Paul has said over and over
again, and I just read out of Hebrews chapter 10, these things
could never put sin away. Why would you want to go back
under the Old Covenant? Laws, rules, do this, do that,
and if you fail, judgment must follow. There's no joy there. There's no gladness there. And now he winds up by saying,
by reminding them and reminding us of the everlasting covenant
of grace. Herein is a sinner's hope. Not in what we would do for God,
but what God has already done for us and determined to do for
us before the world began in the everlasting covenant of grace. Now, every word of these two
verses that I'm going to read to you, 20 and 21, every word's
important. Now, the God of peace that identifies
our God, who is he? Well, he's the God of peace. In Exodus chapter 15, the Israelites
had crossed the Red Sea. And then after they got on the
other side to safety, the Egyptians then decided they would march
in this path that God had, of course, miraculously opened up
through the Red Sea. It was on dry ground and they
just went right on in. And then the Lord, after the
Israelites were safely on the other side, The Lord closed the
waters back together and washed them away. And the Israelites
in chapter 15 of Exodus, they sang this, the Lord is a man
of war. The Lord is a man of war and
he is to his enemies. But to his dear people, he's
the God of peace. Let his enemies fear him. Be
very afraid. Vengeance is mine, saith the
Lord. We read that just a few minutes
ago. If there be any here or any watching, who are yet unbelievers,
who have no confidence of salvation in Christ Jesus, who don't see
the glory of salvation by sovereign grace, who don't see the beauty
of salvation by smitten, wounded, bruised, dead, buried, resurrected
Savior. Know this, if you die in that
condition, you will be an object of the wrath of God forever. And I'm a believer, but that
kind of sends chills down my spine. To be opposed by the man
of war? To have God against you? We read
in Romans chapter 8, if God be for us, who can be against us?
Amen. But if God be against us, oh
my soul, who can be for us? It doesn't matter who's for us
if God's against us. Thank the Lord, he is the God
of peace to all of his children. In Jeremiah 29 and 11, the Lord
says, for I know the thoughts, I know my purposes and my intentions,
my means that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts
of peace. and not of evil, not of misery,
to give you an expected, a desired end. To you who are the people
of God, God has no thoughts of evil toward you. Never. He never
has. Like Jeremiah, you're loved with
an everlasting love. Your names were written down
in the Lamb's Book of Life from before the foundation of the
world. You were chosen by God in free
and sovereign grace to be His. He named you as one of His own. Not choosing you with a great
number of people like a mass of people. Well, I'll just choose
to say this big lump of people. No, He chose us individually,
personally. Knowing us and loving us and
rejoicing in us from all eternity. All rejoice and be thankful. He's a God of peace toward us.
He has thoughts of peace. He has thoughts of peace, not
evil. The Lord's not going to harm
you and he will never send anything your way except that which he
has determined that he will work together with everything else
that he sends to you for your spiritual good. That ought to comfort us. The
Lord bless us. And what has He made for us?
A covenant of peace. As Zechariah says, a council
of peace. And what has He done for us?
Well, the chastisement of our peace was upon the Lord Jesus
Christ. And with His stripes we're healed.
The punishment for our sins were inflicted upon him. He is our
peace. He is our reconciliation with
God. Our peace with God was made by
the one who came to save us from our sins. For unto us a child
is born. Unto us, unto us a son is given. And the government shall be upon
his shoulders, the government of all the world, and the government
of his church, for he's the head of the church, is upon his shoulders. And his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,
and the Prince of Peace. The Prince of Peace. You see,
the Prince of Peace reigns all things for His glory, to fulfill
His eternal purpose, and He reigns over all things for the good
of His people. Your Savior, the Prince of Peace,
who sits at the right hand of the Majesty on high, He reigns
all the world. for your good, for your good. And this gospel that we preach
of accomplished redemption, of the triumphant work of our Lord
Jesus, it is rightfully called the gospel of peace. The good
news of peace accomplished and our heavenly father, has sent
to us on the basis of the successful sacrifice of Christ. He has sent
to us the Spirit of God, who is called the Spirit of Peace. And we have this assurance, thou wilt keep him in perfect
peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in
thee. Trust ye in the Lord forever. For in the Lord, the Lord Jehovah
is everlasting strength. When he says he'll give you perfect
peace, that means a real true peace. The wicked don't have any peace.
The Lord says there is no peace saith my God to the wicked. Because
you see, the only one who can speak peace to the heart of a
sinner is the God of peace. The God of peace. Who does so
upon the basis of the Prince of peace, who made all things
right between us and God. There was something in the way
between us and God that was immovable as far as we were concerned.
It was the mountain of our sins. And that was moved out of the
way because God's the God of peace for his people. He wasn't
ever the God of evil toward us. He is the God of peace toward
us. But that peace, that salvation would not be shown to us apart
from a successful Savior who took that mountain of sin, of
guilt, and took it all away. Now hear me, there can be no
peace from God toward us until sin's dealt with. That's right,
isn't it? Sin's gotta be dealt with. And
there's not gonna be any peace in my heart until I am fully
persuaded by the Spirit of God that my sins have been dealt
with. That's the only way I can have
any peace. Till then I'm just troubled, because I know my guilt,
some of it, a little of it. I know something of my own wretchedness
and being fallen in Adam. I can't have any peace that everything
is all right between me and a holy God till the Spirit of God teaches
me, Jesus Christ paid all my sin debt, then I'll have peace. There's no peace to be found
anywhere else. The false prophets cry out, peace,
peace, when there is no peace. But the Lord keeps us in peace
in this troubled world because he's convinced us Jesus paid
it all. All the debt I owed, sin had
left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. And you see, that's a peace that
really the Old Testament saints couldn't enter into except by
faith, seeing pictures of Christ and typologies and shadows, but
they couldn't enter into the fullness of this salvation as
we can because we have the New Testament Scriptures. If we see
through a glass darkly, oh, how darkly was the glass that they
looked through, and yet they believed God. And may we believe Him as well. Now this thrice holy God is identified
by the Apostle Paul as being the God of peace. The God of
peace. Well, what did the God of peace
do? He brought again from the dead
our Lord Jesus. Why did he bring him back from
the dead? Let me tell you, here's what
all the Old Testament sacrifices and all the Old Testament prophets,
here's what they all had in common. None of them were raised from
the dead. That's what they all got in common. Those sacrifices
that died, thousands and thousands of lambs and rams and bullocks
and turtle doves died on Jewish altars, but none of them came
back from the dead. And the reason they didn't come
back from the dead and all the high priests that offered those
sacrifices, they died and they didn't come back from the dead.
And the reason was this, there was not a perfect sacrifice offered
under the Old Covenant. No sins were put away. The issue
was not settled in the Old Testament. By faith, the saints of God looked
ahead to the time when the Messiah would come and he would take
care of everything. But the issue wasn't settled,
at least as far as men were concerned. I know in the mind and purpose
of God, Christ is a lamb slain from before the foundation of
the world. But as far as we're concerned, the issue was settled
when that one who inhabited eternity, stepped out of eternity into
time and was made according to the likeness of sinful flesh
and for sin. And he had to condemn sin in
his flesh, which he did. And that's why God raised him
from the dead, because he condemned sin. He did what he came to do.
He settled the issue. And salvation comes to us freely
through the Lord Jesus Christ. God brought him again from the
dead. Read through the book of Acts. I'm teaching through Acts
right now. We're in the 13th chapter so
far. Over and over again, those early
preachers emphasize the fact that God raised him from the
dead, though men killed him according to the purpose of God. The Lord
raised him from the dead. That's emphasized. Peter in chapter
2 in that great message on the day of Pentecost, you with your
wicked hands crucified the Lord of glory, but God raised him
from the dead. He said, you were murderers of
the Son of God, but God raised Him. In other words, what He
keeps on saying and repeating it over and over again is that
this Savior who died has been exalted. he ever lives to make
intercession for his people. Unlike all those sacrifices in
the Old Testament that never lived after they died, our Lord
Jesus, the Lamb of God died. He laid down his life and then
he took it back again because God was absolutely satisfied
with the sacrifice that he offered. He did what no other No other
sacrifice could ever do. He took the mountain of our sins
away. He buried them in the depths
of the deepest sea. He put them behind God's back.
He erased them from the very memory of God. And I read there
in chapter 10, the Lord says, there are sins and iniquities.
Will I remember? No more. We remember. Some of them, don't we? And we remember them with a certain
degree of shame, embarrassment, but God doesn't remember them
at all. He has no memory of them. It's as though they were never
committed. This is how powerful the blood of the everlasting
covenant was and is. It goes on cleansing us from
our sins. Have you ever noticed that passage
in 1 John 1 in verse 7? The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanseth us. What does that mean? Because
cleanse it, ETH means it's always in the present tense. His blood
goes on cleansing us. It never quits. The hymn writers said, The church
of our Lord Jesus Christ, experiencing the power of the blood of Christ,
that blood will never lose its power till all the ransomed church
of God be saved to what? Satan no more, will sin no more. Oh, how powerful is this blood. God raised him from the dead.
Well, who did he raise from the dead? that great shepherd of
the sheep. I've been talking to you on Sunday
nights about the shepherd. And John, or rather Paul, identifies
him here as being the great shepherd. He's identified in Titus chapter
two as being the great God and our savior, Jesus Christ, who
is the one to whom we look. He's great in every aspect of
His being. He's great in His person. Who
is He? Who is our Savior? He's God. He's all God. And all that that
means, all is a very short word, but He's all God in every aspect
of His being, eternal, glorious, the infinite God who inhabits
eternity from everlasting to everlasting. Thou art God. He
has all the attributes of God, all the characteristics of God.
He's all-powerful. He's all-knowing. He's all-present. He's everywhere. He's omnipresent. He's God. He's God over all,
blessed forever. Nobody but God could save us. Nobody but the sacrifice of God
could wash our sins away. He's God, but God can't die. God can't suffer. So God stepped out of glory to
this earth and joined his deity to humanity. He didn't give up
being God. Still altogether God. but he
took upon himself flesh. And not merely took it as a robe
that he could put on and then take off. He was wedded to our
humanity. He is one with us. There's a
union of our Lord Jesus Christ and human flesh that will never,
never end. He is truly the God-man. For there is one God and one
mediator between God and men, the man, the only perfect man
who's ever lived, the only real man, real and perfect in every aspect
of his being, in all of his thoughts, in all of his motives, in all
of his actions, in all of his words. He's the perfect man who
joined our flesh to his deity. And in that body that he said
in Hebrews chapter 10, a body thou hast prepared me. In that
body he fully obeyed God's law, thereby proving himself to be
the worthy sacrifice. You remember when the Lord appointed
or told Moses about the Passover and he said, pick you out a lamb? A lamb, the lamb, your lamb,
he said. Gotta be perfect. Put him up
four days. Inspection. Must not have any
imperfection whatsoever. Our Lord Jesus came to this earth,
and through all his life, he was under the inspection, not
just of men, But he was under the inspecting eye of God. And
he was found to be without spot and without blemish. The only
perfect man. He's qualified. He's qualified
to die. I disagree with those, and there
have been some some men who I believe knew the gospel, but I disagree
with those, some who passed on and some who are preaching now,
who say that by his life he established righteousness. I take great,
I oppose that. Because he established righteousness
by his death, by his death. Adam and Eve clothed with garments
provided by the Lord. Were they clothed before the
death of those animals? The answer is no. They were only clothed after
the death of the animals. And we're clothed with righteousness. And this is not just a shallow
righteousness that we've been given We're made the righteousness
of God in him by his sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary. He's
great. He's great in his person as God
in man. He's great in his position. He's
exalted. He's the reigning monarch. Sometimes if I get thinking too much about conditions
in the country and people who are in leadership and who's running
for this and who's running for that. The Lord reminds me, all
these men, he raises them up and he brings them down. There's
no use for me to sweat it. No use for me to get upset. He
rules over all things. He's got the position of authority. And whatever he brings to pass,
that's okay. In fact, I ask for grace to rejoice
in what he does. I don't know what the Lord's
got in store for our country. We might go down the tubes like
every other great nation has done. Or he might prop us up
a while longer. But I know this, our Lord Jesus,
who is great, he's great in power. He upholds all things by the
word of his power. He says, all powers given unto
me in heaven and in earth, go ye into all the world and preach
the gospel. In his high priestly prayer,
he said, as thou hast given him power over all flesh to give
eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. This one who
is God and man, ascended monarch, reigning king, he's great in
power. And he has all authority. Don't
trouble yourselves about who's running, who's doing this, who's
doing that. Be an interested observer. I don't think there's anything
wrong with that. And pray about who you're gonna vote for and
all of that kind of stuff. But know this, your vote, in
one way of looking at it, really doesn't matter. And neither does
mine. One vote's been cast. That's
our Lord. And ever how he has voted, so
it had determined everything. So don't, what that book said,
don't sweat the small things, isn't that a book by that name?
Don't sweat the small things. Because our great God and Savior
rules over all. He's great in his possessions,
all things belong to him. You need grace, he's got grace
to give. Need forgiveness? Forgiveness in Him. You need
righteousness? He is the Lord our righteousness.
You need added strength? He has strength to give. He gives
liberally. He's great in His possessions.
He's great in His provisions to us. And He's great in His
sacrifice. Well, who is He? Well, Paul identifies
him in verse 20. He's that great shepherd of the
sheep. That great shepherd of the sheep. You know, his enemies, when they
were observing him, some of them said, this is the great prophet. They had no idea how great he
was. Because he not only spoke the
word of God, He was the word of God. Great prophet. He said a great prophet is here.
You're right. And he's the great high priest
who offered God the sacrifice that put away our sins. He's
the great high priest who makes intercession for his people.
And he's the great high priest and he's the only one who can
truly pronounce a blessing upon us. And he's the great king, the
great king. He is king in Zion. And he rules the world for his
glory. He's the great shepherd of the
sheep. And he is the great shepherd of the sheep, and he arrived
at his position as a monarch through the blood of the everlasting
covenant. Oh, the blood. Was it Mr. Spurgeon, I believe,
who said he kind of drilled a hole all the way through his Bible
near to the binding and put a scarlet thread through it. So whenever
he turned the page, I'm looking for the blood of the Lamb of
God on that page. The blood of the everlasting
covenant, that covenant in which he chose us unto salvation, that
covenant in which he was chosen to be the savior, to be the redeemer
of his people. And then he says this, may this
God of peace, verse 21, make you perfect. in every good work to do his
will. Working in you. You see, what
Christ has done, he worked, that was work, he was working for
us outwardly himself. And now the Lord is working inwardly. He's working within us. To will
and to do of his good pleasure. that we may labor in the cause
of Christ, doing that which is well-pleasing in his sight through
Jesus Christ. And he says concerning this great
shepherd, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. How can you not
praise the Savior? How can you not praise the great
shepherd of the sheep who loved us and who gave himself for us. Get your song books. Let's sing
closing song. Number 63 is the number. Number 63, take the name of Jesus
with you.