Alright, if you would, open your
Bibles with me to Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13. Give you a couple of medical
triage updates. Charlie Davis had a shoulder
replacement surgery on Thursday morning. And he is right on schedule
doing exactly what he's supposed to be doing this many days after
a shoulder replacement, which is stiff and sore and a lot of
pain. and waiting until that heals up enough where they can
go to physical therapy and make it hurt a little more. So, but
he's doing very well. And most of you know Carter Brown
is in the hospital. They put him in the hospital
on Wednesday and he is weak. Joyce told me he's quit eating
and he's in physically not very good shape. And we want to remember
both of them in prayer. And on that note, we'll begin
our reading in verse 18 of Hebrews chapter 13, where the writer
says, pray for us, pray for us. For we trust we have a good conscience
and all things willing to live honestly. But I beseech you the
rather to do this, that I may be restored to 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, make you perfect. and 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. All right, now let's stand
together as Mike leads us in singing our call to worship. What sacred fountain yonder springs
up from the throne of God? All new covenant blessings brings,
Tis Jesus precious blood. God mighty Son, paid all my debt, And has my soul at freedom set
This Jesus precious blood? What sleep is that which sleeps
away My sin just like a flood? nor let one guilty blemish stay,
did Jesus' precious blood. What voice is that which speaks
for me in heaven's horn for good? Thank you, be seated. Let's turn now to 284 in our
great hymns of faith. 284. There comes to my heart one sweet
refrain, A glad and a joyous refrain. I sing it again and again, Sweet
peace, the gift of God's love. Peace, peace, sweet peace Wonderful
gift from above Oh, wonderful, wonderful peace Sweet peace,
the gift of God's love Christ on the cross, peace was
made. My debt by His death was all
paid. No other foundation is laid for
peace, the gift of God's love. Peace, peace, sweet peace, wonderful
gift from above. Oh, wonderful, wonderful peace,
sweet peace, the gift of God's love. When Jesus said, Lord, I had
crowned My heart with this peace did abound. In the rich blessing I found
Sweet peace, the gift of God's love Peace, peace, sweet peace
Wonderful gift from above Wonderful, wonderful peace Sweet
peace, the gift of God's love In Jesus for peace I abide And
as I keep close to His side Nothing but peace, the three-tine. Sweet peace, the gift of God's
love. Peace, peace, sweet peace. Let's turn over one page to 287. 287. Like a river glorious is God's perfect
peace, over all victorious in His bright increase. Perfect yet it groweth, Fuller
every day. Perfect yet it groweth, Deeper
all the way. Stayed upon Jehovah, Hearts are
fully blest, Hidden in the hollow of His blessed
hand Never foe can follow, never traitor stand Not a surge of
worry, not a shade of care Not a blast of hurt, Three times
the speed. Now all the hogs are fully blest
Finding as he promised perfect peace and rest Every joy or trial
calleth from above Christ upon our dial, by the Son of Love. We may trust Him wholly, all
for us to do. They who trust Him wholly, find
Him wholly true. Oh, the hearts are fully blest,
Binding as he promised, Perfect peace and rest. Our pastor has asked that we
read this morning Psalm 72. So if you could find Psalm 72. Beginning in verse one. Give the king thy judgments,
O God, and thy righteousness unto the king's son. He shall
judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment. The
mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills
by righteousness. He shall judge the poor of the
people. He shall save the children of
the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor. They shall
fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure throughout all
generations. He shall come down like rain
upon the moon grass, as showers that water the earth. In his
days shall the righteous flourish in abundance of peace so long
as the moon endureth. He shall have dominion also from
sea to sea and from the river unto the ends of the earth. They
that dwell in the wilderness shall bow down before him and
his enemies shall lick the dust. The kings of Tarshish and the
Isles shall bring presents The kings of Sheba and Seba shall
offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down
before him. All nations shall serve him.
For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth, the poor also
and him that hath no helper. He shall spare the poor and the
needy. He shall save the souls of the needy. He shall redeem
their soul from deceit and violence. and precious shall their blood
be in his sight. And he shall live, and to him
shall be given of the gold of Sheba. Prayer also shall be made
for him continually, and daily shall he be praised. There shall
be a handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains.
The fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon, and they of the
city shall flourish like grass of the earth. His name shall
endure forever. His name shall be continued as
long as the sun. And men shall be blessed in him.
All nations shall call him blessed. Blessed be the Lord God, the
God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. And blessed
be his glorious name forever. And let the whole earth be filled
with his glory. Amen and amen. the prayers of
David, the son of Jesse are ended. Let's look to the Lord in prayer. Our heavenly Father, we are so,
so grateful and thankful for your mercy and grace that through
your son, made to be our Lord Jesus Christ, we can come to
Thee and call Thee Father. What an awesome blessing and
privilege to be called sons of God in our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we pray that You would
give us Thy peace, that in Your grace that we would
put down our arms, that we would stop fighting against Thee and
Thy holiness by trying to establish a righteousness of our own. Father
calls us to know our need and our complete lack of ability
to please Thee in ourselves, cause us to look to Christ to
give us the peace of surrender. Surrender to your holiness. Surrender
to the righteousness that only comes from Christ. Surrender
to thy judgment, which put away our sin in our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, what wisdom that we could
never fathom. Father, we pray for. Those of
our number who are. Going through. Difficult, difficult
times. Mind, body and spirit Lord. Cause these trials. To have us
look to Christ. We know Lord that. These ailments
of the body and mind are the result of sin. Father, we pray
that you would keep us mindful that we're sinful men, and that only
through Christ we can come to Thee, but that these bodies will
fail, these minds will fail, and Lord, will be put in a place
of need where we can do nothing for ourselves. Father, help us
to know that we're there now. No matter how strong we feel
or how we feel, we can face this world. Lord, we are weak and
needy people. Lord, we need the righteousness
of Christ. We need thy mercy. We need thy grace. Father calls
us to. Go out into this world. And show
forth your mercy and your grace. Father, we pray that you would.
Continue to bless this congregation. That you would uphold our pastor. Lord, don't let him stand here
without a word from thee. We pray that you would give him
thy message to feed thy sheep. Lord, you've blessed us with
an under shepherd of the great shepherd, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Give him thy word, give him thy message for thy people. Uphold
him mind, body, and spirit. And Lord, we pray that the word
spoken here, the word, the living word, Our Lord Jesus Christ should
go forth from this place and bless your people. You might
use it to call your sheep into this local fold. Father, we pray
for our children. We need you to save them. They need your grace and your
mercy. Lord, leave them not alone. Father, we pray that we would always
be mindful one for another, that we would pray for them in love
and act in love to do what we can where you've put us to help
your people. Father, once again, We pray that
you would be with us this morning. Leave us not alone. Send your
spirit to apply the word to the hearts of your children. We ask
all these things in the great name that brings us peace. Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. If you'd like to follow me in
a special song today, it's 288. I'd like for you to help me sing
the chorus after the second verse, and the fourth, and the fifth. Far away in the depths of my
spirit tonight grows a melody sweeter than song. In celestial-like strains it
unceasingly falls, O'er my soul like an infinite calm. What a treasure I have in this
wonderful piece, buried deep in the heart of my soul. So secure that no power can mine
it away, While the years of eternity rule. Peace, peace, wonderful peace,
Coming down from the Father, Sleep over my soul, spirit, forever,
I pray, In fathomless pillows of love. I am resting tonight in this
wonderful peace, resting sweetly in Jesus' control. For I'm kept from the danger
by night and by day, And His glory is flooding my soul. And methinks when I rise to that
city of peace, Where the author of peace I shall see, That one strain of the song which
the ransomed will sing, In that heavenly kingdom shall be. Wonderful peace coming down from
the high. My spirit forever I pray In fathomless
billows of love. Ah, soul, are you here without
comfort and rest? Marching down the rough pathway
of time. Seeking Jesus, your friend, ere
the shadows grow dark, O receive this sweet peace, O sublime. Peace, peace, wonderful peace,
coming down from the Father above. Sweep over my spirit forever,
I pray, In fathomless billows of blood. Let's open our Bibles again now
to Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews, the 13th chapter. I've titled the message this
morning, Peace with God. Our text begins in verse 20 of
Hebrews 13. Let me read our text and we'll
come back and make a few comments. Now the God of peace that brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of
the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
make you perfect, and 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. Our subject this
morning is peace. It's peace with God. Now, peace
with God can only come from God. We're in this war. The flesh
is in this war with God. carnal mind's enmity against
God. We're in this war because we have declared war. You and
I, in the flesh, sons of Adam, have declared war on God in Adam. Man is the one who made the war,
but man cannot make the peace. Whenever someone says, I've made
my peace with God, you mark this down. They're not at peace. God's
not at peace with them. Because man cannot make peace
with God. Whatever it is you think you've
made, it's not peace. You know, you might have fooled
your conscience. You might have just shoved it off, not think
about it. You might have convinced yourself that something is true
in the judgment that will not be true. But whatever it is you've
made, it's not peace. Because man cannot take away
the sin that makes God angry. Man cannot take away the sin
that has caused this war in the first place. So if there's ever
going to be peace between God and the creature, God is the
one who's going to have to make peace. That's why the writer
here calls God the God of peace, because God is the one who has
made peace between him and his people. And this peace is the
work of the whole Godhead. God the Father is the one who
purposed this peace. He purposed it for his people
through the sacrifice of his Son. God the Son came into flesh
And He purchased it. The Father purposed it. The Son
purchased it. He purchased it for His people by the blood of
His cross. And God the Holy Spirit applies this peace to the hearts
of God's elect by applying the blood of Christ to their hearts.
And when He does that, there's peace. The Holy Spirit gives
God's elect faith. We receive faith from the Holy
Spirit. And by that faith, we receive
peace with God. See, that's a peace that God
made. God purchased it, God made it, God applied it, and God keeps
it. It's all dependent upon God. And what a blessing for people,
sinners like you and me, to be able to have peace with God.
When we have peace with God, God's not angry with us because
of our sin. We have peace with God, there's no fear of death.
If you have peace with God, you don't have fear of dying. When
you have peace with God, there's no fear of judgment. When we
have peace with God, God's not angry with us anymore, and we're
not angry with God anymore. This peace is a two-way street.
We have peace because God's made us surrender. Dan talked about
in his prayer the peace of surrendering. If we're going to have peace,
we've got to surrender. We've got to stack our arms and
we've got to surrender. God makes His people surrender,
lovingly, willingly surrender to God. And we love Him. We love his gospel. We find our
hope and joy and peace and salvation in the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ. What peace, what peace to be
enabled by the Holy Spirit to believe the gospel of Christ
and not fight against it anymore. Not saying, but I thought this
and but I think this and but this, but what about this? To
quit your button and surrender. To believe the gospel, not argue
against it. What peace to be enabled by the
Holy Spirit, to love Christ, to believe Him. What peace to
be able to rest in Christ, to quit your works and rest in Christ. That's peace, isn't it? And that
peace is what every believer has. Every believer, every believer
has perfect peace with God. Every believer. But because of this flesh, Our
enjoyment of that peace is never perfect, is it? Never. No, we
don't enjoy this peace as much as we should or as much as we
would like to. You can have peace and not feel
peace. You can have it and not feel
it. We have peace with God. If you believe Christ, you have
peace with God. But we're not fear from worry,
are we? We're not fear from doubting. We're not free from fears and
pains and doubts. and things that affect the mind.
We're not free from those things. And that stops us from enjoying
the perfect peace we have with God. And I don't know about you,
but I suspect you're like me. I'd like to enjoy this peace
more fully, wouldn't you? I'd like to enjoy it. Well, I'm
going to give you five foundational reasons the believer has peace
with God. And the more we focus on how
our peace comes to us, peace with God, the more we focus on
that this comes to us in Christ, the more we'll enjoy this peace.
Number one is this, peace with God comes from the resurrection
of Christ. The writer says, now the God
of peace that brought again from the dead, our Lord Jesus. I had
to bring him from the dead. That means that Christ died.
Why did he die? Well, Christ died for the sins
of his people. The sin of God's elect was made
to be Christ. It was laid upon him and it became
his. And the Savior suffered every
drop of justice that those sins deserved. He had to die for those
sins because that's what the law demands, death for sin. During
three hours of agony on the cross, the Lord Jesus did what you and
I couldn't do in eternity in hell. in those three hours, his
suffering, paid the price in full for all of the sin of all
of his people. The blood of Christ paid the
sin debt of his people in full because of whose blood it is.
It's God's blood, perfect blood. Now, how do I know that? I mean,
that's something a preacher says, but how do I know that that's
true? How do I know that the death of Christ paid the sin
debt of his people in full and there's nothing left for me to
pay? Nothing left for you to pay. How do I know that? How
do you know that? It's the resurrection of Christ. The Apostle Paul wrote
in Romans 4 verse 25, speaking of our Lord Jesus Christ, he
said he was delivered for our offenses and he was raised again
for our justification. The resurrection of Christ is
the proof his death satisfied God's justice. It put away all
of the sin of his people and he justified them. His blood
justified his people. made them without sin so that
that sin is gone. It was impossible for Christ
to stay dead. The sin that demanded his death
is gone. That's what the death of Christ
accomplished. It put away the sin of his people. Now, if you
want to enjoy peace with God, think on the resurrection of
Christ. Think on his resurrection. Think what that means to your
soul, that Christ put your sin away. If you believe on him,
if you believe on Christ, the life, the death, the burial,
the resurrection of Christ has made you sinless. If you've got
no sin, you've got no worry. You don't even have to worry
ever about the effect of sin on your soul. If you think upon
the resurrection of Christ, you'll enjoy peace of conscience. Yes,
you'll still see your sin. Believe it or not, you're not
going to deny your sin. Of course we sin. But we have peace of
conscience because the death of Christ put my sin away. In
the death of Christ, my sin has been forgiven. So I have peace
with God. Peace with God and peace of conscience. Now I know that all of us are
still going to suffer the effect of sin in our bodies. All of
us will. All of us someday are going to
get sick. All of us, someday, are going
to die. Unless Christ returns, all of us are going to die. And
between here and there, there's going to be lots of aches and
pains and sicknesses and viruses and who knows what all else. It's because of sin. Because
of sin. The effects of sin in this flesh are still going to
be there. We're going to get sick and we're going to die. Even knowing
that, even knowing that, you have peace. Even on your deathbed,
when you don't know what dying is like, You don't know what
it's like. But there doesn't have to be
fear. You have peace even on your deathbed. You have no reason
to fear death if Christ has already died for you. If Christ has already
condemned for you, you're not going to be condemned. So you
have no reason to fear death if Christ has both died and risen
again for you. There's no reason to fear judgment. Christ has already been judged
for you. And there's no reason to fear and think that death
is the end. This is the end. Just like, you
know, when a dog dies, that's the end. Not when you die. No, it won't be the end. If Christ
was raised for you, this will not even be the end of your body.
If Christ died for you, you will never die. And even your body
won't perish forever. Because just like Christ was
raised, you'll be raised too. In a perfect, sinless body. just
like the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the resurrection
of Christ means to his people. That gives me peace, doesn't
it, Jude? Let us enjoy this peace that he's purchased. All right,
number two. There's peace in having the Lord
Jesus Christ be our shepherd. He says in verse 20, now the
God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus,
that great shepherd of the sheep. Now sheep in scripture, are God's
elect, those who belong to Christ. And I have peace belonging to
God. There's peace, and I have peace
in knowing the Father chose to save me. Not because there's
any good in me, but just because He would. You see, if there had
to be any good in me for the Father to choose me, I would
have no peace in divine election. But I have peace In the Father's
election, He chose me to belong to Christ just because He would.
Just because He would. Not because I'm any good, but
because He's good. That gives me peace. I have peace
in knowing that the Lord Jesus Christ purchased me. He bought
me, stock and barrel, with His precious blood. I have peace
in that. Scripture says you're not your
own. You've been bought with a price. Purchased by the blood,
the precious blood of Christ. If He paid the price with His
blood, I belong to Him. Nobody can ever take me from
Him. I have peace in that. I have peace in knowing that
God the Holy Spirit has given me a new nature. It's the nature
of a sheep. He didn't give me the nature
of a goat. He gave me the nature of a sheep in the new birth.
God did that for me so that I hear the voice of the shepherd and
I follow Him, so that I love Him, so that I trust Him. He's
given me the nature of a sheep. God did that for me. That gives
me peace. That lets me enjoy this peace.
Look at John chapter 10. You know the sheep. There's peace
in knowing that Christ is our shepherd. The sheep have nothing
to worry about as long as our shepherd is perfect. The sheep
have peace because of who it is that leads them. John chapter
10 verse 1. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth
up some other way, the same as a thief and a robber. But he
that entereth in by the door, he is the shepherd of the sheep.
To him the porter openeth, and the sheep hear his voice. And
he calleth his own sheep by name, and he leadeth them out. And
when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goes before them. They don't take a step, he didn't
go first. He goes before them, and the
sheep follow him. For they know His voice. Now
Christ has some sheep. That is an undeniable fact from
Scripture. You just read Scripture with
any honest, open mind and you see Christ has some sheep. And
brother, He's going to go get them. I mean, I don't care where
they're at. He's going to go get them. And when He goes and
gets them, He's going to lead them. And they're going to lovingly,
willingly follow Him. And He'll never lead them wrong. Never. That gives the sheep peace. You know, I feel very anxious
when I am driving somewhere that I've never been before or someplace
that I've been before, but I still don't remember where I'm at or
how to get where I'm going. I feel a lot of anxiety about
that. I feel a lot of anxiety following our stupid GPS. 99%
of the time it's wrong. I just feel anxiety about that.
But when I'm following a local that knows exactly where they're
going, I have peace. I have comfort. I just feel confident
because I know they're not going the wrong way. They're going
the right way. That's the sheep following Christ the shepherd.
I have peace if I'm the great shepherd. He knows where he's
going. He knows. He knows where I need
to be going. If I am following Christ, I have
peace because all the pressure is off. All the responsibility
is on the shepherd, not on me. I don't have to know where the
green pastures are. He does. And he'll lead me to
them and he'll make me lie down in them. I don't have to know
where the still waters are. Christ knows, the shepherd knows
that he's going to lead me to them and he'll make me sit there
and drink them. I don't have to produce a righteousness of
my own. Christ the shepherd will lead
me in paths of righteousness for his namesake. I'll be righteous
in him for his namesake. I don't have to worry that I'm
going to Wander off and perish. I'm going to wander and fall
off the cliff, or I'm going to wander and never come back to
the shepherd, because the shepherd's rod and his staff, they comfort
me. They comfort me. Now that he
may use that to correct me, that comforts me, because he's going
to keep me on the path. He's going to keep me following
him. See, all the pressure's off if I'm following Christ.
So I have peace. I have peace because if Christ
is my shepherd, I don't have to worry about redemption. Look
here at verse 11 of John 10. Our Lord says, I am the good
shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. When
the shepherd laid down his life for the sheep, he redeemed them
forever. Look down at verse 17. Therefore
doth my father love me, because I lay down my life. Nobody can
take it from me. I lay it down that I might take
it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself.
I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.
This commandment have I received of my father." That goes back
to our first point about the resurrection of Christ, doesn't
it? He has the power to lay down his life. He laid down his life
to purchase the redemption of his sheep. He has the power to
take it again because his death justified that. If Christ is
my shepherd, I don't have to worry, do I? I don't have to
worry about the redemption. If Christ is my shepherd, I don't
have to worry about being lost forever because he says in verse
16, that other sheep I have which are not of this fold. them also
I must bring and they shall hear my voice and there shall be one
fold and one shepherd. Each one of Christ's sheep is
so important to him. They're so important to the great
shepherd. He'll never let one of them go.
The lion, the bear will never come and get one of God's sheep
because of who our shepherd is. Now that gives me peace in knowing
that Christ is my shepherd. The responsibility is all on
And that lets us enjoy peace. All right, third, back in our
text, there's peace with God through the blood of the everlasting
covenant. He says there at the end of verse
20, through the blood of the everlasting covenant. Now, it's
very important that we understand this covenant of grace. I almost
preached a message alone on the covenant. It's very important
we understand the covenant of grace. Now God is a covenant
God. When we say that God is a covenant
God, it simply means this, that what God does, what God is doing
right now, is exactly what He purposed to do, what He promised
to do before He created anything. God is not reacting to what you
and I do and changing, oh I better do this or I better do this.
God is doing exactly what He purposed to do before He created
anything. God is a covenant God. Now covenant means a promise. I know a covenant is a contract
between two parties and it's a promise. Now get a hold of this. This
will give you peace. The covenant God obligated himself to save
his people by his grace, which was in Christ Jesus. And he did
it before the world began. God obligated himself to do that.
Dean, you reckon he's going to do it? I'd say, this is God who
cannot lie. This is what He promised. He's
going to do it. And that gives God's people peace. All it gives us is peace with
God. And it gives us peace of heart, peace of conscience, and
lets us enjoy the perfect peace that Christ made for His people.
Now, God's covenant goes by several different names in Scripture
to tell us how all-encompassing God's covenant is. God's covenant
is called the covenant of peace. It's the covenant of peace because
this covenant tells us how it is God made peace between him
and his elect. It's called the covenant of life
because it tells us how it is. God's going to give dead sinners
life. He's going to do it in Christ.
That's what the covenant tells us. God's covenant is called
the new covenant. Now it's really that, well let's
see this in a minute, it's an ancient everlasting covenant,
but it's called the new covenant because it's newly revealed in
human time. The first covenant revealed to
man was the covenant of the law. That's the old covenant. It's
the new covenant as opposed to that old covenant of the law.
And this new covenant is a better covenant. It's better than the
covenant of the law, far better because the covenant of the law
could never save any son of Adam by our obedience to it. All the
covenant of the law can do for you and me is say guilty. guilty,
your death is demanded. But this is a better covenant.
God's covenant, the covenant of grace to man's life for all
of God's people, all those that he obligated himself to say this
covenant demands their life after death. And then in our text,
God's covenant is called the everlasting covenant. Seven times
in the word of God, God's covenant is called the everlasting covenant.
And this is what that's telling us. It's an everlasting covenant.
All of salvation must be traced back, must trace its roots back
to this eternal, everlasting covenant of God's grace. If you
can trace any part of salvation to something other than this
eternal, everlasting covenant, your doctrines are on. It all
must go back to this covenant of the everlasting covenant of
grace. And it's all got to stem from
that. Now I'll give you three reasons why God's covenant of
grace is called an everlasting covenant. And each one of these
three reasons will set your heart at ease and
let you enjoy this peace with God. First, God's covenant of
grace is the everlasting covenant because of how old it is. It's
eternal. It doesn't have a beginning and
it doesn't have an ending. You see, God did not leave it
up to men. to see if they would choose Christ or not, because
God knew better than that. God knew no flesh would ever
choose Christ. So you know what God did? He chose to save a people
out of Adam's fallen race. And He chose them on purpose.
He didn't just say, well, I'm going to save this many and the
first many, you know, come first, get first come, first served.
No. God chose those people on purpose. He chose them by name. And He chose them knowing full
well what they'd be in Adam. He chose them in spite of their
sin. He didn't choose them because of who they were or would be.
He chose them in spite of who they would be, in spite of what
they would be. And God's going to fulfill that
promise to save his chosen people. He's obligated himself to do
it. And that gives me peace. You see, the everlasting covenant
means that before there was ever a sinner, there was already a
Savior. Before Adam fell, God already
had a covenant with God. God didn't make a covenant with
you and me. God made a covenant concerning His people. God made
a covenant with God. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. There's a covenant between God
and God. And this covenant said God's
going to save a people out of Adam's fallen race. So God knew
Adam would fall when He put him in the garden, but He already
provided the Savior. Before, if you believe Christ,
before you ever sinned, God put your sin away in the blood of
the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Before you ever
went astray from your mother's womb speaking lies, God already
provided the way to bring you back, to bring you back to Him,
in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's God's everlasting covenant.
And God's not going to forget. God's not going to change His
mind because this is an everlasting covenant. It doesn't have a beginning.
It already existed before Adam fell in the garden, and it doesn't
have an ending either. God will never change his mind.
It's an everlasting covenant. All right, number two, God's
covenant. It's called the everlasting covenant because of how sure
it is. There'll be no need to ever change
it. You know, people make contracts and agreements between one another.
After a little while, they have to change them, don't they? The
NFL right now is debating a new a new CBA. Is that what it is,
CBA? We got an agreement, but we need
to change it. We need to make a few modifications.
Not God's covenant. It's an everlasting covenant.
It doesn't ever need to be changed. That's how sure it is. Because
everything in this covenant has already been done. This covenant
has already been sealed. It's been ratified by the blood
of Christ. The writer here calls it the
blood of the everlasting covenant. It's the blood of Christ, the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, from before God
created anything. God already saw His Son sacrificed for the
sin of His people. And the blood of Christ sealed,
ratified this covenant so it can never be changed. Every promise
of God is sure. Every promise of God to His people,
every promise of mercy, every promise of grace, every promise
of peace, It's sure. It can never be changed because
every promise of God to his people is in Christ. It's all dependent
upon Christ, who he is and what he's done for his people. And
none of God's promises are dependent upon us. See, God's covenant
has no maybes. It's not like, yeah, maybe this
will happen and maybe it won't. We'll have to wait and see how
it plays out. There's no maybes with God. What happens, everything
that happens is God's eternal will. If God purposed to save
you, brother, you're going to be saved. If God purposed to
save you, He's going to save you. And that gives us peace,
doesn't it? And there's no ifs with God's covenant. There's
no, well, I'll do this for you if you do this. I'll save you
if you do this. I'll bless you if you don't do
that. There's no ifs with God. You will be saved. If God purposed
to save you, you will be saved because God's already saved you
by the sacrifice of Christ, by the obedience of Christ. And
that gives me peace because Christ's obedience and Christ's sacrifice
is perfect. There's no need for it to change.
It's a sure thing. There are no ifs in God's covenant of grace
because all of God's purpose of redemption is dependent upon
the Lord Jesus Christ. And that gives me peace. All
right, thirdly, God's covenant of grace is called the everlasting
covenant because of its immutability. Immutability is a word we don't
use very much anymore, but that's just a great big word that means
it can't change. God's immutable. God cannot change. Not one promise of God can be
broken. Not one promise of God can go
unfulfilled. Not one purpose of God can be
changed or altered. Not one word of God can fall
to the ground. So God's covenant can't be changed.
If God is unchangeable, His covenant is unchangeable. You see, God
chose to save me when He knew I would be fallen in Adam. He
knew about my sin and my rebellion and He chose me anyway. Well,
then my sin now is not coming as a surprise to God. It's not
going to make God change His mind because God is immutable. He cannot change. So there's
peace in believing and knowing that salvation is not by my works,
that the keeping, retaining of this peace is not by my works,
but salvation is all by the purpose, by the promise of God, of God
doing for me and in me everything he requires. Look at the second
Samuel, second Samuel chapter 23. I told you earlier, even
on your deathbed, you have peace. You know, we may not all have
peace, but there is peace, and we can enjoy this peace, peace
with God, peace of conscience, even on our deathbed. David's
an example of it. Here in 2 Samuel 23, verse 5, David says, Although my house
be not so with God, yet hath he made with me an everlasting
covenant. This covenant is ordered in all
things and it's sure for this is all my salvation and all my
desire. This is all my salvation. I don't
want it any other way, although he make it not to grow. This
is what brought David peace on his deathbed. God had made with
me an everlasting covenant. It's ordered in all things and
it's sure it will save every object of God's mercy and grace. All right, fourthly, back in
our text, Hebrews 13, there is peace depending on God for everything. 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. Now, God has saved
His people. The covenant is complete. It's
done. It's finished. God has taken care of every detail. But for you and me, there's still
a life to live, isn't there? There's still a walk to be walked.
There's still service to be done in God's kingdom. There's still
faith to be exercised. There's still mercy, grace, and
help to be shown to God's people. There's still help to be rendered.
Now, I know that Christ made me perfect before God. I know
that. I know that. But now it seems
like the writer is kind of talking about a slightly different subject,
doesn't he? He here is talking about making us perfect in every
good work and doing God's will. That's tough to figure. How can
any of my works be good works? I know good works are done to
help God's people. That's the definition of a good
work from God's Word. But how can anything I do How
can anything that you do be perfect? That's what the writer calls
it here. Make you perfect in every good work. How is that
possible? Because everything that I do has sin mixed in it. So how can it be perfect? I have
a heartfelt desire to help you. I have a heartfelt desire to
do that. I have a heartfelt desire to do good in the service of
Christ. I have a desire to help you in
the pulpit. I have a desire to preach the
gospel to you, lead you to Christ. I have a heartfelt desire to
help you, be of some help to you, comfort to you outside of
the pulpit. That is a genuine desire. But now the word is to
be honest with each other, flesh is mixed in with everything that
I do. So how can it be perfect? If what the writer is telling
me here is that I have to have a perfect motive in order to
have peace, that what I do for you has to be perfect, then I'm
not going to have any peace. I mean, I'm in trouble. I'm in
trouble. And you are too. So how can we be perfect in every
good work? How is that possible? It's by
depending on Christ. See, he says he's going to do
this through Jesus Christ. It's by depending upon Christ.
The writer doesn't tell us that we're going to be able to grow
into being able to do perfect and good works. Because if you're
trying to do that, you're trying to grow and become more and more
perfect, you're going to fail. And if your motive is to do good
works, if your motive is to rack up a bunch of good works, you're
going to fail. You're going to fail in doing
them because your motive is wrong. I read to you in the class in
Matthew chapter 25, When the Lord turned to His sheep and
He said, how you did all these things for me? They said, when
did we do that? I don't remember doing that. Because they weren't
trying to rack up a bunch of good works. If that's your motive,
your motive's wrong. That's not going to be a blessing to anybody.
But if you do what you do for God's glory, to help God's, just
as an honest, not to be noticed, not to be recognized, but to
help God's people, that's doing good works. And God will accept
that. Now what I've done, all it is that I can do. Peace comes
from depending on God for everything. It doesn't come from depending
on whether or not I've done enough. It comes by depending on God
for everything. In that salvation, we had to
depend on God to choose us because we never choose Him. We had to
depend on God to put away our sin because we could never do
it. We have to depend on God to give us life. We can't do
it. We have to depend on God to keep us because we'd wander
off with a drop of that. Salvation is depending upon God. Well, we also depend on God to
enable us to walk in this world like we should walk. See, God
is the one who will make you perfect in every good work. God's
the one who enables you to do his will. God's the one who makes
what you do pleasing unto him. And he does it through Christ,
through Christ, through faith in Christ. I'll show you that
in Philippians, the book of Philippians. Chapter two. Verse 12 Philippians chapter
two. Wherefore my beloved, as you've always obeyed, not as
in my presence only, but now much more my absence, work out
your own salvation with fear and trembling. Well, I can't
do that. Well, look what he says next.
For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of
his good pleasure. See, it's God who works in you
to make you even want to do his will. And it's God who makes
you able to do something that's pleasing to him. Now, that doesn't
mean I'm not supposed to put an effort into these things because,
oh, you know, God will just do it through me and I don't like
putting the effort. No, you got to put an effort into this thing. But
peace comes from knowing that God is the one who enables me
to do his will, that God puts it in my heart to do his good
will. I don't know what God's will is, but he does. And he's
the one who enables me to do that. And all that starts with
believing Christ alone. And then it continues depending
on Christ alone. See, peace comes from knowing
I'm accepted in Christ. I'm accepted in Christ and my
works in God's service are well pleasing to God. in Christ, not
because I did him well enough, not because I have a perfect
motive, but it's in Christ. And that takes the pressure off
and gives us peace. See, depending on God for everything,
depending on him for everything, that gives us and lets us enjoy
this peace. All right, lastly, this will help us enjoy the peace
with God. It's knowing this. Christ is
going to have the glory. See what he says here at the
end of the verse 21, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory
forever and ever. Amen. Now this, I know Christ
will have the glory. He's going to have all glory.
Not one person that the father chose, not one person for whom
Christ died. And that's the same group of
people, not one. person, that the Holy Spirit
is called to Christ. Not one of those person can ever
perish. Not one of them can be lost.
Not one of them can lose their salvation. Because if just one
of them, just one, Christ saved a number no man can number. That's
what we read. If just one's missing, it won't
be that big a deal, would it? Percentage is still pretty good. 99.99999. If just one of God's sheep is
lost, just one, Christ would lose every bit of his glory.
If Christ lost one sheep, what good did God promise to do? If
Christ lost one sheep, what good did the Father's election do?
If Christ lost one sheep, what good does his righteousness do?
If Christ lost one sheep, what good does his blood do? If Christ
lost one sheep, what good does the love of God do? Now, Christ
is not going to lose one sheep because he will have all glory. Now, I don't know everything
that's going to happen between right now and eternity. I don't
know. I don't know. But there's some
things that I do know about now to eternity. There's some things
I do know. Dan mentioned in his prayer, I know this, between
now and eternity, our bodies are going to fail. I know that.
I ought not be surprised when it happens. I know this, between now and
eternity, our minds are going to fail. Might come a day, I don't know
your name, I don't recognize you might come that day, probably
will. That's all right. Our bodies are going to fail,
our minds are going to fail, but our Savior will never fail.
He's not going to fail because he's going to have all the glory.
And whatever happens between now and the day I close my eyes
in death, I know this, Christ can have all the glory. And He'll
even get it from these lips one day when I sing His glory to
the praise, oh, to the praise of the Savior who loved me enough
to die for me, to bring me to glory. Now that gives me peace
to know this thing's not going to go off the rails. He's going
to have glory. All right, let's bow together. Our Father, oh, how we thank
you for peace with God. It's only peace that you could
have purposed. It's only peace that you could
have purchased. It's only peace that you could give to the hearts
of your people. And Father, we're thankful. Oh, how we thank you
for the Lord Jesus Christ. How we thank you that salvation
is not dependent upon our works and our obedience, but it's all
in His obedience and His righteousness that He freely gives His people.
How thankful we are that salvation does not depend on us straightening
up and sinning less, but it all depends on the blood of Christ
washing us white as snow, free from every sin. Father, how we
thank You. How we thank You for keeping
this salvation does not depend on us living right, but it depends
upon your spirit, by your grace, keeping and preserving your people. Father, how thankful we are.
And Father, we ask that you would free our minds and our hearts
of depending upon the arm of the flesh and the strength of
the flesh and the things that we have in this world. And let
us set our our affection upon the Lord Jesus Christ that we
might fully enjoy this perfect peace that we have with you in
him. Father, bless your word to your
glory. Bless it to the hearts of your
people to strengthen and help and encourage us. Bless your
word to the hearts of your people to call your sheep to Christ.
For it's in his blessed name that we pray and give thanks.
Amen. All right, Mike, you come lead us in a song, if you would. I stand and sing 256, 256. When peace like a river attendeth
my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll, Never, my Lord,
Thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. Though Satan should buffet, though
trials should come, Let this blest assurance come true, That
Christ hath regarded my helpless estate, And hath shed his own
blood for my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. My sin, O the bliss of this glorious
thought, My sin, not in part, but the whole, is nailed to the
cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
O my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. And, Lord, haste the day when
my faith shall be The cloth be rolled back as a scroll. The trump shall resound, and
the Lord shall descend. Even so, it is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul.