Welcome back to Hebrews chapter
13, and I think this is going to be the last message of a series
that we started. It was either the end of February
or the first week of March, so it's a long time we've been in
this epistle, in this book, but I trust it's been a blessing
to think on these things. The way in which our Lord Jesus
Christ, our God in Christ, has perfectly accomplished everything
that the Old Testament order pictured and foreshadowed. And
last week we were looking, as with all the epistles, when you
get towards the end, the doctrine is applied in practical outworking,
in gospel precepts of living. And last week we were thinking
about the phrase at the end of chapter 12, and then looking
at its application in the first few verses of chapter 13, serving
God acceptably. Let us have grace that we might
serve God acceptably. serve God in what remains of
our earthly course of life. Because it's that race, which
it says in chapter 12, verse 1, that is set before us. And
who sets the race of life before us? We don't. We don't. We strive, people strive to influence
what will happen. But God sets the course of life
before us. So he says, let us live that
life looking unto Jesus. But also, at the start of chapter
13, he says, let brotherly love continue. Let love between brethren. We're in the family of God. If
you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, if you're united
with him, then we are together brethren, and therefore let brotherly
love continue. Self-sacrificing love for one
another. We're in such a blessed position.
In verse 8, just follow with me in chapter 13 down these first
few verses by way of introduction. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday,
today, and forever. We have an unchangeable Christ,
an unchangeable God. And what does that mean? It means
that on this race that we're to run, the objective of the
race, which is eternal glory, which is our place as his people,
in his family, in the kingdom of God for eternity, is guaranteed. It's absolutely fulfilled. It's
accomplished. All of God's purposes, all of
God's purposes set in the everlasting covenant. Where do I get that
from? Look down at verse 20. The blood of the everlasting
covenant. We read about that covenant in
Ezekiel. You can read about it in Jeremiah.
Hebrews quotes it two or three times. The everlasting covenant,
the everlasting agreement. Who agreed? the persons of the
Godhead, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, agreed, covenanted,
committed, shook hands to save a people from the curse of the
law, to save a people from their sins, a multitude which no man
can number. And it's guaranteed because our
Lord Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. That covenant is the everlasting
covenant of God's purposes. And it contrasts with the temporary
Mosaic covenant which was given at Sinai. You are not come to
Sinai, you're come to Zion. The covenant given at Sinai was
for the purpose of highlighting, of underlining, of pointing out
transgression. the transgression that causes
the curse it was for that purpose and it was given to show how
there is a recovery from that curse how in the pictures of
the animal sacrifices and the priests and the temples everything
there was to be fulfilled by God in Christ and so therefore
that verse that the majority of religion has in its bible
but doesn't read Romans 10 Romans chapter 10 and verse 4, Christ
is the end of that Sinai law for righteousness to everyone
that believes. There's no going back to it.
Look at verse 9. Look at verse 9. Be not carried
about by diverse and strange doctrines for it's a good thing
that the heart be established with grace and not with meats
which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.
What's he saying there? A heart established with grace,
not profitless religious practices. So much of the so-called Christianity
that we see in the world around us is riddled with profitless
religious practices that do nothing other than not promote brotherly
love, but cause contention and division. Don't be distracted
by those things. Verse 10, we have an altar. Oh,
an altar, we need an altar in our church, don't we? We have
an altar. It's not a physical altar. It's our Lord Jesus Christ.
He is our altar. The altar was the place of peace
brought about by the sacrifice of an acceptable substitute. He, our Lord Jesus Christ, is
that altar. We have an altar which sanctifies
us. We have a sacrifice which sanctifies
us. Verses 11 and 12, the bodies
of those beasts on those Jewish altars, whose blood is brought
to the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned without
the count, wherefore Jesus also. that he might sanctify the people
with his own blood, suffered without the gate. He has made
his people holy. The Lord Jesus Christ, our altar,
has made his people holy. He has done what it says in chapter
10, verse 14, by one offering of himself. By one offering,
he has perfected, sanctified, made holy forever them that are
sanctified. Does that not immediately pull
the rug from underneath any ideas of progressive sanctification
and us making ourselves more and more fit for heaven? Christ
has made his people perfect. So therefore, verse 13, let's
go out of this world. Let's go out of its religion,
of its treasures, of its baubles and its trinkets. Let's head
for the city, verse 14, that we seek. Here we have no continuing
city. This isn't our eternal abode.
This is just temporary, fleeting for a moment. but we seek one
to come wherein dwells righteousness, because there dwells our God
and his people in union. And so therefore, verse 15, as
a royal priesthood, it's priests who offer sacrifices. Let us
offer the sacrifice of praise. How are we priests? 1 Peter chapter
two and verse nine. You believers, you believers
are a chosen generation. You didn't choose me, he said,
I chose you. You are a chosen generation.
You are a royal priesthood. He's quoting from Exodus 19,
I think, and then elsewhere in the Pentateuch. You are a chosen
generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. Yes, Exodus 19,
five and six. A peculiar people that you should
show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness
into his marvelous light. Sacrifice of praise and thanks
to God continually. And verse 16, as he says, let
brotherly love continue. Be gracious spirited. Do good
and communicate. Give to the needs of others.
For with such sacrifices God is well pleased. Be generous,
be helpful to others in the light of God's grace in Christ to us. He's been gracious to us, therefore
ought we not to be gracious? Ought we not to be forgiving?
And verse 17, he says, respect and heed the men that God has
called and equipped to speak with his voice. Because he says,
my sheep hear my voice. My sheep hear my voice and follow
me. People say, well, you ought to respect a pastor, or a minister,
or a priest, or whatever he is, because of the role into which
he's been ordained by men. It's not the title that gives
authority to a man's words on behalf of God, it's the message
that he preaches. If you, the sheep of God, hear
the voice of the good shepherd through a man who is preaching,
then you ought to give heed to what that man is saying. Sinner
though he be, fallen and failing though he be, but if you hear
the good shepherd's voice, you should heed that as if it was
him himself speaking to you. That's what gives a pastor or
a preacher God-given authority to speak the word of God. So
what's left? Well, there's some closing words,
but what I want to look at this morning in the time we've available
is number one, a request for prayer, and number two, the apostle's
prayer for God's people. So first of all, Paul's request
for prayer. Now look at verse 18. In verse
18, he says it straight out. Pray for us. For we trust we
have a good conscience in all things, willing to live honestly.
But I beseech you, the rather, to do this. that I may be restored
to you the sooner. He's asking for the prayers.
He, the apostle, he, the apostle, is acknowledging he needs the
prayers of God's people before the throne of grace. Why do we
pray? Well, I know I've touched on
this before, but it's worth reminding ourselves. We believe in a sovereign
God, don't we? We believe in an unchangeable
Lord Jesus Christ, don't we? We believe that when his word
says, We know that all things work together for good to those
who love God, who are the called according to his purpose, because
he is sovereign and orders all things. So why do we need to
pray? We're not going to change God's
mind, are we? We're not going to alter events
thereby, are we? Well, look at Ezekiel, again,
we read from Ezekiel 34 at the start, but Ezekiel 36 and verse
37 says this, thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for this,
whatever it was, it doesn't matter, but I will yet for this thing
be inquired of by the house of Israel. to do it for them. God says, I will have my people
pray to me. Even though he's sovereign and
unchangeable, yet he will have these people pray to him in order
that he might do it for them. I will increase them with men
like a flock. Why pray? Because God tells us
to pray, to pray without ceasing. Prayer is the breathing of a
regenerated soul. A person comes from that state
of being a child of wrath, even as others, into the light of
the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,
the sign of life, as with a newborn baby. You know, I remember when
our sons were born, that anxious moment of listening out for that
first cry. Are they alive? Are they well?
Can you hear them breathing? It's that, it's the sign of life. And the prayer is the sign of
spiritual life, planted by the Holy Spirit within that soul.
It's the sign that Paul, when he was Saul of Tarsus, and he'd
been blinded on the Damascus road, and he was led into Damascus
to the house of, was it Ananias? I think it was Ananias. failing
memory these days, but never mind. He was guided to that house,
and when that old saint was told to go to him, he said, I'm scared
of him, I've heard all about him, and the answer came back,
he's praying, he's praying. He's a regenerated soul, he's
a regenerated child of God. Proverbs says this, Proverbs
15, 29, the Lord is far from the wicked. But he hears the
prayer of the righteous. He hears the prayer of his people
made the righteousness of God in him. Satan constantly tries
to frustrate God's kingdom. That's his purpose down the ages.
Satan constantly tries to frustrate God's kingdom. He tried so hard
that God brought the flood upon the world. He tried at the Tower
of Babel. He tried all down history with
the empires. He tried every way to frustrate
God's kingdom. but God wouldn't allow that.
He tried to frustrate God's kingdom by preventing Paul from visiting
the Hebrews. So Paul asked, pray for us and
then we might be able to come to you. God will be inquired
of by his people to do it for them. Back in Exodus chapter
17, we won't turn to it now for the sake of time, but the Israelites
when they'd come out of Egypt at the Passover in chapter 12,
they'd come out of Egypt And in their initial wanderings,
they came across Amalek, the opponents of the people of God. And they fought with them. The
Amalekites stood in their way and tried to bar their way. And
they fought with them. And Moses went up on a hill overlooking
the battlefield and prayed to God. And when Moses prayed, he
lifted up his hands And when Moses prayed, the battle went
with Israel. And when his hands grew weary
and fell down by his side, the battle went in the favor of Amalek.
And so Aaron, his brother, and her had gone up onto that mountain
with him. And they put a stone underneath
him for him to sit on, and they stood either side of him, and
they held up his hands in prayer. Because when he prayed, Don't
ask me to explain this. I cannot explain it in the light
of the absolute sovereignty of God. But it's in the Scriptures
to teach us that we ought always to pray. And when Moses' hands
were lifted up in prayer, Israel prevailed over Amalek. The victory
is, as it says in Zechariah chapter 4 and verse 6. In Zechariah chapter
4 and verse 6, He answered and spake unto me saying, this is
the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel. He was the rightful king coming
back from the captivity. This is the word of the Lord
to Zerubbabel saying, now these are the words, listen to this.
How are things going to get done? Not by might, no by power. But by my Spirit, saith the Lord
of hosts. That's how God works. So we believers
are encouraged and exhorted to pray, to pray for one another.
Because why? Our God is able to do above all
that we ask or think. That's Ephesians 3, verse 20.
Think of that. We have a God, believer, we have
a God who is able to do above all that we ask or think. He
is all-powerful. He is omnipotent. That's what
the word means, all-powerful. He's omniscient. He knows everything. He's everywhere, omnipresent. There is nothing, nowhere, nothing
that can be hidden or prevent God from doing his will. He's
able to do above all that we ask or think. You say we're only
told to pray in accordance with God's will and we feel so weak
and so poor in our spirits and our minds that we say, well,
we don't know what God's will is. How do we know in this situation
what God's will is? But God's spirit helps us. In
Romans 8, we read this about the spirit of God. We, weak in
the flesh, but believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 26 of
Romans 8 tells us, Likewise, the Spirit also helps our infirmities,
our weaknesses. For we know not what we should
pray for as we ought. Pray according to God. I don't
know what it is. I wish I knew. I wish I had more
wisdom. but the Spirit itself maketh
intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And
he searches the hearts and knows the mind, what is the mind of
the Spirit. He makes intercession for the
saints according to the will of God. There, be encouraged
with your faltering words and your faulty ideas. And also,
we read in Hebrews chapter four, many weeks ago, but chapter four,
verses 15 and 16, Who is the God that we're to come and pray
to? We have not an high priest. This
is our Lord Jesus Christ. He isn't a high priest which
cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. There's a
double negative in there, which means that we do have a high
priest who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. We
have a God who is sovereign, who dwells in unapproachable
light, yet who became man, and he understands us. And he knows
us, because though without sin, yet he's lived in flesh like
ours. He was made flesh. He became
a man like us, except for sin, in the same weak flesh. He's
touched. He knows it. He doesn't just
sympathize. He empathizes with our weaknesses,
our infirmities. He's touched in all points. He
was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. Let
us therefore come boldly, confidently to the throne of grace. God sits
on a throne of grace that we may obtain mercy, that's what
we need, and find grace to help in time of need. Oh, the times
of need that as the children of God we're brought through,
as he causes all things to work together for our good, yet we're
confidently told to come and pray to him. You know how a loving
father I know in this world in which we live the roles of men
and women have become completely blurred deliberately by satanic
interference, but the idea of scripture and the idea of God
is that the loving father is the head of his household and
his little children come and make very imperfect requests
to their father. But the father delights in the
childish imperfections of his children. He loves that they
come and speak to him and ask for things, even if it isn't
in their interest. He loves the fact that they come. You know,
Jesus said, your child asks for an egg, will you give him a serpent?
Will you give him something bad? No, God much more. God, if you
know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more
does your heavenly Father know how to give good gifts to you?
So pray for one another. Pray for God's preachers to be
given his message that they might feed their souls. Pray for one
another through the difficulties of life. It's sin not to pray. You know what Samuel said back
in 1 Samuel chapter 12? And verse 23, this is him speaking
to the people of Israel, the Israelites. Moreover, as for
me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing
to pray for you. If we cease to pray for one another,
that's sin against the Lord. That's sin against him. Let's
not do that. Pray for one another. It's sin
not to pray for one another. Now, there's so much more that
could be said, but time is running out. There's a lot that could
be said about, in verse 18, we trust we have a good conscience,
but perhaps that will wait for another time. But I want to move
on to the Apostle's Prayer. The Apostle's Prayer we see in
verses 20 and 21. And you'll have heard these words many,
many times because it's often used as a benediction at the
end of a service. 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 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. His prayer is what we call
a benediction. It literally means a good saying,
a saying of blessing, words of closing blessing, words to chew
over, to meditate over. This prayer is a benediction.
And the core request of the prayer is in verse 21. make you perfect
in every good work to do his will. It's a prayer that God
will make his people perfect. All God's believing people, all
of them fitted with what they need. What do they need? Turn
back a chapter, chapter 12 and verse 14, where the apostle instructs
the people of God to follow peace, seek peace with all men. Don't
be argumentative. Seek peace with all men and holiness. without which no man shall see
the Lord. Are you holy enough? Do you have
a hope of seeing the Lord in eternal glory? Do you have a
hope of that? Are you holy enough to see the Lord in eternal glory? You must be holy. You must pursue
that holiness. Where is it going to come from?
It's only in the Lord Jesus Christ. For he makes his people the righteousness
of God in him. May he make you perfect in every
good work to do his will. May he make you holy before him
in love. It's his work. That's what Jesus
said. When the Pharisees, the Jews,
the religious folks said, what work must we do to do the work
of God? And Jesus said, this is the work
of God that you believe on him whom he has sent. Because even
that work of believing is not of yourselves, it is the gift
of God. It is the work of God that you
believe. Even that multitude sinners in the flesh, that multitude
chosen before the foundation of the world, but in life, in
descent from Adam, worthy of eternal separation and worthy
of condemnation before the justice and righteousness of God. Even
them are made meat, as it's said, made fitting, qualified for heaven. So to whom does Paul pray? And what's the basis of this
prayer? And what are the grounds for his bold approach to God's
throne? Look who he prays to that they
be made, that we all, children of God, believers in the Lord
Jesus Christ, be made perfect in every good work to do his
will. Who does he pray to? Verse 20, the God of peace. Now
the God of peace, the God of peace, is that the same God that
we've read about in this epistle earlier? Is that the same God
that Psalm 7 verse 11 says is angry with the wicked every day? That doesn't sound very peaceful,
does it? Is this the God of peace, the one who is angry with the
wicked every day? Look back to the end of chapter
12. Our God is a consuming fire. That doesn't sound very peaceful,
does it? Back to chapter 10, verse 31. It is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God. That doesn't sound very
peaceful, does it? The answer is, of course, yes,
the very same God. The very same God is, the God
of peace, the very same God. But what has caused the enmity,
the hostility, the wrath that makes him a consuming fire, that
makes him angry with the wicked every day, that makes it a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of this judge whose justice is
strict? Answer is the fall in the Garden
of Eden at the beginning of time. The fall. Man was created. Adam was created in the image
of God. Adam was given that moral perfection
of which God himself said when he looked on his creation, it
was very good. It was very good. But sin entered. Satan came and deceived. Satan
came and tempted. Sin entered. Adam fell. And in Adam, all died. Everyone descended from Adam.
was confirmed in that sin and all died, spiritually all of
us. As it says in Ephesians chapter
four and verse 18, we all by nature are alienated from the
life of God. You know, alienation doesn't
speak of peace, does it? Alienation speaks of enemies. Alienation speaks of hostilities. We're in ourselves because of
the fall alienated from the life of God. And the result is antagonism. The result is being enemies. Romans 8 verse 7, the carnal
mind, the fleshly mind, the mind of you and me in this flesh as
we are, that mind is enmity against God. Not peace with God, enmity
against God. And sin calls forth, as it says
in Romans 1 verse 18, sin calls forth the wrath of God. The wrath
of God is the anger, that's the wrong word, but the anger of
God against sin, against his being, because sin is a contradiction. a rebellion against the being
and the person of God. And it's in us all, by nature
of our descent from Adam and that fall, and the wrath of God
is naturally upon us. It must be, because God in his
character is unchangeable in holiness and righteousness. In
his essence of divine perfection, it says in Psalm 5 and verse
5, that God hates all the workers of iniquity. Who's that? That's
all of us. You and me, as we are. To sinful
man, God is to be feared. Let me say that again. You know,
there's so little. There's no fear of God before
their eyes, it says in Romans 1. To sinful man, God is to be
feared. Matthew 10 and verse 28, fear
him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. He
said, don't just fear those that'll harm your body in this life.
Fear him who is God, who is able to destroy both soul and body
in hell. You say this doesn't apply to
God's chosen people. But no, all in their natural
state are, as Ephesians 2 verse 3 says, children of wrath even
as others. So how can God be called the
God of peace? Answer? by grace through righteousness. Peter read Romans 5 for us earlier,
and in verse 21 at the end of that, as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. That grace reigns through righteousness,
not at the expense of it. Romans 5 10 says this, we were
enemies Reconciled to God, how? Through the death of his Son.
It was the death of Christ, the Son of God, as the substitute
that established peace between God and fallen man. We have,
as Colossians 1 verse 20 says, we have peace through the blood
of the cross. There is no peace without the
blood of the cross. Those who think you can have
a religion without blood, you think you can have all of the
good works without the blood of the cross, they're totally
mistaken. There is no peace except through the blood of the cross.
God, the judge, is pacified, is made peaceful, is propitiated,
his anger is turned away by Christ's obedience unto death. Again,
in Romans chapter 5, in verse 19, as by one man's disobedience,
that's Adam's, many were made sinners, so by the obedience
of one shall many be made righteous. And can I just stress again,
I know dear friends that I love in the Lord, say otherwise, but
I'm absolutely sure that obedience of one, the obedience of Christ,
is not his obedience to the law as he lived as a man, for by
the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight.
we're justified in that way, it says in Galatians chapter
2, if we are justified by the works of the Lord, Christ is
dead in vain. So what's the obedience of Christ
that it refers to here? Philippians. He became obedient. Obedient what? Unto death, even
the death of the cross. That's the obedience, to shed
his blood, to pay the price. God the Judge is pacified by
Christ's obedience unto death, by his shedding of his blood,
his lifeblood has satisfied the broken law's demands. What is
the proof of that? What is the proof of it? What
is the means that 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. He make you perfect, working
his purposes out. It's not just his resurrection.
I put a little piece in the bulletin. When Paul and Silas were in prison,
unjustly, in Philippi, and they'd been beaten, and they'd been
put in the stocks, and the magistrates ordered that they be put there,
and the magistrates, for some reason, realized their mistake,
and they came to have them, well, they sent to have them, you can
let them go, we maybe were a bit harsh on those guys, let them
go, but Paul said, no, no, no, no, no. Let them come, let those
magistrates come down here publicly and bring us out of this prison. Because in so doing, they will
say to this society, we never did anything that broke any of
your laws. That we, the magistrates, never
should have put you there. He brought them out from that
position. Well, here, it's the God of peace
that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus. It wasn't just
the resurrection. God, his justice satisfied. God, the judge. God, the upholder
of divine law, brought him out of prison. Brought him out of
the prison of death because he had satisfied, he had finished
the satisfaction of divine justice. and the ransom was accepted. The ransom which our Lord Jesus
Christ paid with his own blood, that ransom was accepted. And
so we have that scripture in Job 33 verse 24, where he says,
deliver him, deliver them, all the people of God, deliver them
from going down to the pit of hell. Why? He says, I have found
a ransom. God the Father, the Judge, has
found the ransom. The ransom money has been paid,
and as Romans 4.25 says, our Lord Jesus Christ was delivered
up for our transgressions. He was hung on that cross to
shed his blood, to pay the price for sin, and raised again for
our justification. It's his rising from the dead,
it's his being brought again from the dead, that is the seal
of the justification. The everlasting covenant agreed
on a price, before the beginning of time between Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit. It would be precious blood. Whose
blood? The blood of God. The blood of
God. How do I know that? Acts 20,
verse 28. Look after the church of God,
which he purchased with his own blood. How did he do it? Jehovah
Jesus. Our Lord Jesus Christ, Saviour
God, our Saviour God. That's what Jehovah Jesus means,
God our Saviour. And in union with him, because
that multitude which were chosen in him before the beginning of
time were placed in him, in union with him, all of, look what it
says, that great shepherd of the sheep. Not just the great
shepherd of the sheep, that great shepherd of the sheep. What does
that imply? He's the shepherd that was prophesied
throughout the Old Testament. Isaiah 40 verse 11. He shall
feed his flock like a shepherd and gather the lambs in his arm. Ezekiel 34 and verse 23. Was that what we read earlier?
I think it was, wasn't it? I will set up one shepherd over
them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David." Well,
of course, he's referring to King David, but he was just a
picture of who that picture fulfilled, which was the Lord Jesus Christ.
He shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. John chapter
10, verse 11, I am the good shepherd. Jesus said, I am the good shepherd.
He is the shepherd of his sheep. He is the prophesied shepherd,
and here, his particular redemption, written clear and large, Jesus,
our God, has his sheep, and he died for his sheep. Those that
don't believe, he said to those Pharisees, you believe not because
you are not of my sheep, but my sheep hear my voice and follow
me, every single one of them. Here is particular redemption.
Every one of these sheep made perfect, made perfect to do his
will, made perfect in believing, made perfect in trusting the
Lamb. The Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. Slain before there ever was a
creation. Slain from the foundation of
the world. those people are made perfect
in him, in faith, that gift of God which he gives them, in judicial
justification, in the pronouncement of the justice of God, who made
him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we, his people,
his multitude, his sheep, might be made the righteousness of
God in him. And it's in fruit of and outworked
life, the Holy Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit, unto eternal bliss.
And none of them will be lost, not one of them. This is the
will of him that sent me, said Jesus, that of all that he's
given me, I should lose nothing. They'll all come to me, all that
the Father's given me will come to me. And whoever comes, I will
in no wise cast out, but of all that he's given me, I should
lose nothing, but will raise it up at the last day. This is
all the work of God in you, make you perfect to do his will, in
every good work to do his will, working in you that which is
well-pleasing in his sight. As it says in Philippians 2 and
verse 12, wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, believe
the gospel. Not as in my presence only, but
now much more in my absence. This is what he says. Work out
your own salvation with fear and trembling. Why? Where's the
confidence of that? You've got no strength. For it
is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of his
good pleasure. May he make you perfect, make
you well-pleasing, it says there, that which is well-pleasing in
his sight through Jesus Christ, unto glory, glory, eternal glory,
glory forever. God's eternal will and purpose
is to populate his kingdom. with an innumerable multitude
of justified, reconciled, to his justice, people, at perfect
peace with him, the God of peace. So Paul prays, in accordance
with that revealed will of God, that he will do that, confident
of its accomplishment as it is. So then, that's the prayer of
Paul, the benediction for his people. And that's how we should
pray, if we can, that God would guide us and lead us to pray
in accordance with his will. It says in verse 22, I beseech
you, brethren, suffer the word of exhortation, for I've written
a letter unto you in a few words. This is the final thing. He says
about this epistle, he didn't write 13 chapters, but that contained
in the 13 chapters as we have them. He says to them, read it,
take heed of it, seek to live by its instruction in truth and
in godliness. And finally, verse 25, grace
be with you all. Amen.