Ladies, if you would, open the
Scriptures to Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13. I just got that suit out of the
dry cleaners. And they're expensive to get
them dry cleaned. And I didn't want to perspire
in it. It's a little warm. I see some
of you fanning. I assure you it's warmer up here. Hebrews chapter 13. I've selected
this morning, I believe by the direction of the Spirit of God,
a few words from verse 20 that I want to speak to you about.
Hebrews 13 verse 20, now, the God of peace, that's my subject,
the God of peace. Let me read the rest of it, 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. And then he says,
to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. The God of peace. Thankfully, our God is at peace
with us. A believer has many enemies in
this world. And I'm going to mention a few
of them in just a couple of minutes. But it is delightful to know
God is not one of them. God is not the enemy of His people. He has never been the enemy of
His people. He has always been gracious to
his people, having been gracious to us in the Lord Jesus even
before he made the world. God has never had a hatred for
his people. God has always loved his people. The scripture says, the Lord
said to Jeremiah, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore in loving kindness,
Have I drawn thee? The Lord has a good, favorable
disposition toward His people, and He always has. He's always
been at peace with us. You remember reading, I'm sure,
in Ephesians chapter 1 of God having blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, and that happened
before the world ever began. And then he goes down to speak
about being redeemed by the blood, through the redemption of the
blood of the Lord Jesus. But even before he mentions redemption
by the blood, he says we're accepted in the Beloved. You see, this
acceptance, it goes way before the creation of the world. It goes back in eternity. It
goes back in the mind and purpose and heart of God. We've always
been accepted in Christ Jesus. He's always been the God of peace
to all of His children. Now, it's very true that we haven't
been at peace with God. In fact, there's enmity in our
hearts toward God by nature. And we read about that in Romans
chapter 8. The natural mind is enmity against
God. It's filled with hostility against
God. By nature we hated God. By nature
we hated Christ Jesus. But though our attitude was so
vile toward God, His was never like that to us. He's always looked on us with
great tenderness and with compassion. He's always been affectionate
toward His children. Therefore, in covenant grace,
He gave us to His Son our surety. He entrusted all of His elect,
all of His children, to the Lord Jesus and said, Bring them home
to glory. I give them to you." You see,
the very first one who trusted Christ was the Father. He trusted
Him to do for us what we needed to have done. He trusted Him
to save us. He trusted Him to redeem us.
He trusted Him to reconcile us to God. all of the elect of God,
all of the beloved ones of God, this multitude which no man can
number that God gave to the Lord Jesus Christ in covenant grace,
God loved them, and He said, now it's your responsibility
to justify them, to watch them, to robe them, I bring them all
safely home to glory. And we know from reading in Hebrews
the second chapter that our Lord Jesus will one day say, Behold,
I am the children which thou hast given me. And in John chapter
6, our Lord Jesus says, Of all that the Father has given me,
I have not lost one of them. I bring them all safely home
to glory. And he says essentially the same
thing in John chapter 17 in his high priestly prayer. God is
the God of peace to us. And He always is. Oh, He may
cause disturbances in life. He may bring to each of us, to
His children, those events that trouble the heart. cause fleshly
pain, bring weariness to us, even bring sorrow to us. But
God has never been mad at his children. He has never been upset
with us. You say, but we're such sinful
people. Well, there's no doubt about
that. There isn't any question about that. But you see, that
issue as to what was to be done about our sinfulness, that was
handled before we were ever born. Before God ever made the universe. He put that job upon the shoulders
of one who is mighty, even the Son of God. And so our salvation
and redemption and reconciliation, justification, sanctification,
glorification, none of those things have ever been dependent
upon us. Always dependent upon Christ
Jesus. That's why we read in Psalm 89,
the psalmist says, quoting the Lord, quoting Jehovah, I have
laid help upon one who is mighty. And therefore He is said to be
in Isaiah chapter 9 and verse 6, the mighty God. Only the mighty God could save
us. Only the mighty God could meet
our needs. Only the mighty God could bear
the burden of all our iniquities. Only the mighty God could do
business with the holiness of God and the justice of God. Only the mighty God could do
that. Only the mighty God could take
the weight of all our sins and then carry them away into a land
uninhabited. Only the mighty God could do
that. I've laid a help upon one who is mighty. That's what God
said. And that's our Savior. And the
one who laid this help upon Him, the one who commissioned Him
to be our Savior is said to be the God of peace. That helps me. The God of peace. He's at peace with me. I wasn't
always at peace with Him, but He's always been at peace with
me. And He has always loved me. And He has always been gracious
to me. You see, I know there are a lot
of people in this world who think, well, there was a time when God
hated us. But then Jesus came into the
world and He died for sinners, and now God loves us. Or they
may view it this way. There was a time when God hated
us in our sinful pollution. But when the Spirit of God quickened
us and brought us to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, brought
us to true repentance, and we turned to the Savior, then God's
hatred turned to love. No, because God doesn't change. He can't change. And His attitude
toward us can't change. Just like here in Hebrews chapter
13, we read of the Savior, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and
today and forever. That's how the Father is. And
that's how the Father's attitude is toward us. It doesn't change. Well, Jim, don't you believe
there are some people in this world God hates? Oh, I know there
are. And He's always hated them. And I don't find that to be strange. I don't find that to be unusual.
I don't even find that to be astounding. I'll tell you what
is astounding, that he didn't hate me. That's what's astounding
to me. That he's always had feelings
of peace toward me. that He's always had an attitude
of love toward me and love toward all of His people. No, the love
of God has always remained the same, just like God. The Scripture
says, from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Even so, from everlasting
to everlasting, God has loved us. And from everlasting to everlasting,
God has been gracious to us. And from everlasting to everlasting,
God is merciful to us. He has always been to us the
God of peace. And this is necessary for us
to understand this because we're in a world surrounded by enemies. And not only are there enemies
without, There's enemy within. We have so much opposition as
we make our pilgrimage and as we make our journey into eternity. All the forces that are against
us. And as we think about the multitude
of all of the enemies against God's people, here's the one
constant thing that we've got to remember. God is to us the
God of peace. And that means every enemy against
our souls, and there are many, but every enemy against our souls
can never, they can never be successful in destroying us. And here's the reason. God's
a God of peace to us. This is everlasting peace. You think about the enemies that
are against us. False religion. I got on that subject in Bible
class this morning. Here's the thing about false
religion, which is a religion of works, any religion other
than the true religion of God, which is salvation by grace through
the substitutionary work of the Lord Jesus Christ and the saviors
received by God-given faith. There are many voices that speak
out in opposition to that beautiful message. False religion. And we're so vulnerable. We're so open to error. And by nature, we're absolutely
closed-minded to the truth. And therefore, men, even our
Lord Jesus, He talked about men hate the light. because their deeds are evil.
He's the light of the world. He came into this world and men
hated Him. Well, what was there to hate
about Jesus of Nazareth? He went about doing good. He
healed every sickness He ever faced. He had words of mercy
for the fallen. What was it about Jesus of Nazareth
that people hated? The natural man hated His salvation
by grace alone. We talked about the Pharisees,
the scribes this morning. And we've been studying, we're
involved in the study of Matthew in our Bible class. And our Lord
Jesus in Matthew chapter 23, He just rebukes the Pharisees
something awful. I mean, He has all these scathing
remarks. And we've said it before, He
had words of mercy, grace and compassion and tenderness for
poor old sinful people. But those who were bound up in
their own self-righteous salvation. a salvation dependent upon obedience
to the law and to the traditions of the elders. He did not have
any words of mercy for them. In fact, he rebuked those scribes
and Pharisees in Matthew chapter 23. The most severe remarks our
Lord ever made are in Matthew chapter 23. Eight times he pronounced
woes against them. Woes, scribes, Pharisees. You bunch of hypocrites. And he warned the people of them. You see, the greatest danger
I think we face today, it isn't socialism. That's terrible. It isn't ultra-liberalism. It isn't any number of other things, social
ills. The greatest danger to your soul is false religion and those who
preach it. That's the greatest danger you
face. That's why you're close by here. Look at 2 Peter 2. Look
at 2 Peter 2. And the thing of it is, about
false religion and false prophets, we're open to error. We're open
to religious error. But when it comes to the truth
of salvation by grace, sovereign grace, particular grace, free
grace, salvation by completed redemption, effectual redemption,
successful redemption, Salvation by the regenerating work of the
Spirit of God whereby He makes us alive and He shows us Christ
Jesus and He woos us and He brings us effectually unto the Savior. That message will not be received
by anybody apart from work of grace in the heart. That's just
the fact. We're open to error. It's the
greatest danger you face. You see on television, you see
these men and perhaps you've listened to them on the radio.
That's the greatest danger you face. False religion. Look here
in 2 Peter 2 and verse 1, but there were false prophets also
among the people. Even as there shall also be false
teachers among you, who privately shall bring in damnable heresies,
even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves
swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious
ways." What does pernicious mean? Destructive. Their destructive
ways. by reason of whom the way of
truth shall be evil spoken of. The way of truth. You see, today as always, there's
one message that men despise. That's God's message. Because God's message of the
gospel will not tolerate a rival. Have you seen the bumper sticker
coexist? Coexist. Muslim, that's the C
because that stands like a moon with the C and the moon. And then the X is the Star of
David. The T is Christianity. There's Muslim, Judaism, and
Christianity. Let's all co-exist. How can we? We can't peacefully co-exist
as far as beliefs are concerned. There is the way of truth, and
there is the way of error. And I know that we do have to
peacefully get along with people in the world who believe other
ways than we do. I understand that, but there's
no toleration of a false gospel. Listen, there's one message of
peace. There's one message of salvation. There's one message of grace.
There's one way to God. Do words mean anything in the
Bible? Christ said, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the light. No man cometh unto the Father
but by Me. Listen, as true 2,000 years ago
when He spoke those words to Thomas and the rest of the disciples,
it's true today, it'll be true forever, because forever, O Lord,
Thy Word is settled in heaven. And yet there are people who
speak against the way of truth. You see, the way of truth is
the way of righteousness. The way of truth is the way of
life. The way of truth is somebody. Christ Jesus. And there are voices
out here. It's dangerous to listen to them.
You put your soul in jeopardy. Listen, I try to get along with
folks. But I can't get along with people
who insist on believing another gospel. And that's when we've got to
get tough. I'll tell you what Paul said.
He said, if anybody comes along preaching another gospel than
the one I preached to you, the gospel of grace, the gospel of
Christ, The gospel of redemption. If anybody comes along preaching
another gospel than the one I preached to, he said, I don't even care
whether it may be an angel from heaven. He said, don't you believe him. Don't you believe him. He's a liar. Because there's
just one gospel. Just one gospel. The gospel of
Christ Jesus. Our Lord, people love to quote
the Sermon on the Mount. And indeed, it should be quoted.
And they'll talk about the beatitudes, all the blessings, and those
are wonderful. But I'll tell you what you don't
usually hear spoken about when people refer to our Lord's Sermon
on the Mount, when He said, beware of false prophets. They don't
talk about that much. And the reason I don't talk about
that very much is because they are false prophets themselves.
Beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing.
They act like they are the people of God. This is the thing I told
the Sunday school class this morning. Israel was always instructed
to look up to their religious teachers. And they had utmost
respect for the prophets, or they were supposed to. And they
bragged on the prophets. And the scribes and the Pharisees,
teachers in the synagogue, they held them in the highest esteem. But those men were relying on
God. And the people just swallowed everything these guys said. As we say today, hook, line,
and sinker. They took it all. Our Lord says, beware of them. They're not sheep at all. They're
wolves. They're wolves. They're out for
destruction. And I warn you, I'll tell you
who your enemy is. The enemy's out there and the
enemy's real. But the enemy on the outside is nice, looks nice,
moral, decent, Often very kind. But it's their message that's
so damnable. That's what will get you in everlasting
trouble. Believe in the wrong message.
Thank God we have the God of peace. The God of peace. In this world of enemies, and
not only is false religion our enemy, but our own nature is
our enemy. It's against us. It's against
everything that's good and decent and holy. Our nature. And even after we've been born
again, given new life in Christ Jesus, after the creation of
a new man in righteousness, even then we still have that old nature
that is our enemy. And we're often warned in the
Scripture, don't give in to it. Don't give in to it. That's why we read in Romans
7, Paul said, I see another law in my members warring against
the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law
of sin, which is in my members. He said, there's another law,
there's another nature, and it wars against me. And the word
war in there means ambush. How many times, you who are the
people of God, how many times have you had your mind on the
things of God, reading the Scriptures, praying, just sincerely worshiping
the Lord from the heart, And all of a sudden, right out of
nowhere, comes some kind of crazy thought. It doesn't have anything
to do with worship. You know what's just happened?
You got ambushed. And it happens over and over
and over again. Because that sinful nature with
which you're born, when you were regenerated, it wasn't improved. It wasn't taken away. It doesn't
grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. The
new man does. But not the old. The old is still
opposed to God. It's still opposed to grace.
It's our enemy. That's why we're so often cautioned
about how to keep it in check. Keep it in check. And the world itself, it's not
our friend. 1 John 2.16 says, For all that
is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the
eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but of
the world. The world is in opposition to us. The world isn't your friend. And the world has a lot of allurements
for you and for me. It has a lot of attractions for
us. The world is very happy to get
your attention off of everything that has to do with God and eternity
and grace and salvation, and you just get focusing on the
things of mammon, is what the Scripture calls it, materialism. And here's what materialism does,
it chokes out the Word. That's what the Lord Jesus says,
it chokes it out. These things are not your friend.
That's why we say, use the world. That's okay. Use the things of
the world, but don't love them. Don't set your life on them.
Don't make the getting of the things of the world the measure
of your happiness and your success. Listen, our happiness is found
in the Lord. Our happiness is found in Christ
Jesus. My friends, I'm a child of God.
I have an eternal inheritance. My sins have been washed away.
I'm robed in the garments of God's salvation. I have the Lord
Jesus Christ Himself to represent me forever. And God has always
been to me the God of peace. And the Holy Spirit is my comforter. I am the richest man in the world. The riches of God's grace have
been given to me. They're continually heaped upon
me. He's given me Christ Jesus. He can't give any more than His
Son. He's given me His all. He's the God of peace to me. And I'm so thankful that though
these enemies are real, they can't destroy me. But there's another enemy, and
he's a tough guy, Satan. He goes about seeking whom he
may devour. His opposition is indeed against
Jehovah, and he sought to ruin Jehovah's wonderful creation
And that most marvelous creative act of God, the creation of man,
Satan set himself to spoil that, to ruin that, to rob God of His
glory of that. But even in bringing sin into
the world, Satan, though he thought he had
got the victory, our Lord Jesus used that wickedness The fall
of man, He used that to bring about His greatest glory. Salvation
by grace. You see, no weapon formed against
us or formed against God can defeat Him. His purpose always
stands fast and secure. But Satan, though he can't destroy
us, He sure can bring some misery to us. That's the reason we're warned
in Ephesians 6. Finally, my brethren, be strong
in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole
armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles
of the devil. I doubt that any of us have really
been dealt with by Satan himself. I heard Scott Richardson say
one time, it doesn't take any more than just a third string
demon to cause us to fall. Not one of the second string
or the first string and not the devil himself. Just a lowly demon,
he can bring us down. We're that weak. Be on guard. Children of God, be on guard.
The forces of evil are about you. And he knows, Satan knows, and
his demons know exactly where you're vulnerable. He knows your
weakness. And we may not even be aware
of our own weakness. But I guarantee he knows. Well, what should I do? Take
the sword of the Spirit. I can tell you this. I'll tell
you something Satan hates. He hates the Word of God. He
hates the blood of Christ Jesus. He hates the doctrine of substitution. He hates the doctrine of satisfaction. Satan is very much opposed to
the gospel of God's grace, so saturate yourself with the gospel. Read the word, stay in the scriptures
and stay under the sound of the message of God. Are we not told,
fight the good fight of faith? Not easy, is it? Not easy. but we're more than conquerors
through him that loved us. Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy
1 in verse 18, this charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according
to the prophecies which went on before thee, that thou mightest
war a good warfare. War a good warfare. O saints
of God, take the sword of the Spirit. Stand firm. Stand for the truth in the midst
of error. Stand for the gospel of God's
grace. Always remembering this. God is the God of peace to us. And remember this. every enemy
of your soul, our Lord Jesus has already conquered them. He
conquered them on the cross. In a sense, you could say the
justice of God was against us, the law of God, which marked
every violation of God's law. It cried out for our death. The
law said the soul that sinneth shall die. Christ came and answered
that. He died for our sins according
to the scriptures. Our sins were vile and filthy. They would sink our souls into
the lowest hell. But our God found the way to
deal with those so that He could remain just and true and yet
be consistent in showing mercy and grace to us as through the
substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Satan stood against us, but our
Lord bruised His head at the cross. Death in the grave stood against
us, but He arose! He conquered death. He conquered
the grave. He said, because I live, you'll
live. You'll live. Through Christ Jesus,
we have peace with God. He is the God of peace. We have
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. His blood, it's
the blood of the covenant of peace. And His blood made our
peace with God. I tell you, everything's alright
between God and His people through the sacrifice of Christ. There's
a church building Religious Oedipus,
I don't know, it's not a true church, but there's a religious
establishment, I'll put it that way. I've gone and had some treatments
down, physical therapy, and I'd ride by there and look, and the
sign says, God is not mad at you. Well, that's a real general
statement, and everybody can't take that to be the truth, but
I thought, I'm thankful for that. He isn't mad at me. He's not
made in any of His people. He never has been. Because all
of my sins were put on the Savior. And He died in my stead. He died
for my sins according to the Scriptures and He paid for them
all. God doesn't look to me for satisfaction, His justice. He
looked to Christ Jesus. He looked where He's always looked.
And the one God looks to, that's the one I look to. Christ Jesus. And in Christ Jesus, He is to
us the God of peace. The God of peace. And that speaks
peace to our hearts, doesn't it? It's soothing to me in the
light of all of these enemies all around me. There's darkness
all around me, but God is to all of His children, The God
of peace. We find great consolation and
comfort in Him. Let's sing a song. Let's sing
redeem. Boy, it's a good one, isn't it? 475. Redeemed by the blood of
the Lamb. Number 475.