First hour, we started in the
first chapter of Hebrews. Second hour, we're going to be
in the last chapter of Hebrews. We could spend many Sundays in
Hebrews and, uh, very thankful for the Lord revealing his face
page upon page and his precious word. He gave me this message
to you from Hebrews 13. If you were to ask me, what's
the theme? I think I've told this first
hour, but the theme would be everything that God requires
God provided in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. That would
be the theme. And since the title spacing is
limited on my computer, I can't title it that. So I just simplified
that to God provided. God provided, that's the title
this morning. Let's read here two verses, Hebrews 13 and verse
20. 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. Amen. Everything required
by God. God provided in the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ. God is sovereign. We've said
that many times. God is absolute. And God demands
perfection. You and I can only produce imperfection. It was said of this, the wisest
man that ever lived beside Christ named Solomon, man at his best
state is altogether vanity. Everything that we produce is
imperfection and everything. Furthermore, even if we could
produce something that we find good or that man's standard would
say is good, God still only accepts what he provides. Thank God he
provided the Lord Jesus Christ. Now God's not like most men conceive
him as. He's not, we can't restrain him. We can't constrain or restrain
him. We can't threaten him. We can't
manipulate him. We can't challenge him. We can't
do anything against him. He's God. By definition, God
means supreme being. all authority, all power, men
use the term God and even Greek mythology and things use gods
plural as their terminology and all of them were a figment of
the imagination of man and therefore they had limitations, maybe they
were some kind of a Superman type being. But God and who he
is, is absolute. And think about Logically speaking,
if there's a God, he has to be completely sovereign in all things,
in all of creation, in all of time, and all of eternity. That's
who we're preaching. That's who we believe. There
is a God. Paul went to Athens one time, and they had statues
set up. And I believe my memory served me right. There were 12
of them. And he goes down the list and the line and says, OK,
this God and this, he said, well, I suspect you're very superstitious.
Because if this God, you sacrifice unto this God, and to this God,
and to this God, and you think, and you're dotting every I and
crossing every T, but just in case that number 12 down there
on the end says to the unknown God, in case we missed one, we've
got Him taken care of too. He says, that's the one I wanna
tell you about. That's the one. See, none of
these other ones are real. God's real, and He is sovereign,
and He is absolute, and He is holy. And we can't understand
what holy even means, because we've never done anything holy.
We've never had one holy thought, but that's all he thinks is holy
thoughts. We've never had one good thought, but that's all
he thinks is good thoughts. He's perfect in every way. He's
the same yesterday, today, and forever. He can't be controlled
and there's no weakness in him. We can't even enter into his
realm of existence, can we? No, not until we die. Once we
die, the spirit goes back to God which gave it, the flesh
goes back to the dust from whence it came. That's when we enter
into his realm, but we can't enter into his realm by what
we do according to the flesh. God is a spirit. He is sovereign
in will, he is sovereign in purpose, and he is sovereign in power.
And these are things we've heard over and over again, but we need
to be reminded. If everything I'm saying is true, that means
everything that's spinning on this earth, even the earth spinning
on its axis as it is, was purposed and ordained of God. Do you believe
that? Yes. The rain that falls, not one drop has fallen without
the Lord's purpose in it. The Lord ordained that drop of
water to fall from the sky. The Lord purposed the sun at
the exact moment to allow or cause the evaporation process
to happen that would cause that one drop to fall in that one
place at that particular moment. He's completely sovereign over
everything. All the inhabitants of the earth, even the worms
that are crawling around on the ground, He purposed that. He
purposed that. The clothing that you're wearing
right now had to come from cotton or come from other materials.
God purposed that seed to take root and that plant to grow and
that cotton to be harvested and then manufactured. And God gave
a man or a woman the idea, hey, I can make clothing out of this.
He put that in them to do, and they did. Everything is ordered
by God. The chair that you're sitting
on that's made of wood, whether it's wood that's pressed together
by like particle board or if it's solid slats, it came from
a tree. Who caused the tree to grow?
Did I? No. Did you? Certainly not. God did. Now, see, he's absolute in all
things and he's sovereign in all things. He's purposed and
ordained all things. Now, in that being said, think
about you. What is his purpose for you?
because he's ordained some into eternal life and some he's not.
Lord, I need to be ordained to eternal life. I know that you're
absolutely sovereign. I know that you're completely
holy. I know that I have no hope in myself and what I do. I can't
make the tree grow. I can't make the seed take root. I can't cause the rain to fall.
I can't cause the sun to rise, but you can. Lord, you can and
you do every day, every day. And he gives to us by grace and
by mercy, according to his purpose. He gives to us. Wednesday night, I brought the
thought of the Lord being the author. And I will reiterate
this just briefly for those of you who weren't present. How
much power does an author have over their book? If you sit down
to write a book, you can name the characters what you want
to name them, can't you? You can make the colors of the
wall whatever you want them to be in your book. You can make
the flooring out of whatever the material that you want the
material to be. You can make it rainy. You can make it sunshine.
You can make whatever you choose to make in your book. Every character
in your book bows to your will because you're the creator of
that character. That's who God is. He's the author.
He wrote the book. He's completely sovereign in
the book and everything obeys him and does everything that
he has purposed. The most amazing part is that
he chose in the fullness of time to write himself into the book
as a character, to save the characters that are in the book, to save
the creatures that he created. That's grace, isn't it? That's grace. That's mercy. Everything
is ordered by his design. All things are certain because
he is the author. It's unchangeable. You and I
can't pick up the pen of God and change something. It's not
possible, is it? There's a lot of fear in that,
but there's also a lot of rest in that, isn't there? If we're
looking to what he's provided in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ, remember, the title is everything that God requires,
he provided. If he requires us to be completely perfect, he's
got to require it, and he did in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's the good news. That's the good news. He created all things for His
glory, for His honor, according to His liking. You and I have
a tendency of doing things the way that we like them. If I go
to your house, or you come to my house, my decorations, we
may have one or two decorations that are similar, but I don't
have the decorations that you have, and you don't have the
decorations that I have. You like things that I do not like.
I like things that you do not like. It's our individuality.
God is absolutely sovereign, and the way that He likes things
is the way that they are always going to be. You and I might
not like our picture that we had to have on clearance that
one time and get rid of it. But everything he's purposed,
he doesn't change. What he loves now, he's always
loved. And he's always going to love it. What he likes now,
he's always liked, and he's always going to like it. Who is that?
The Lord Jesus Christ. Well pleased with him. He's well
pleased with him. He said, I am the Lord and there
is none else. I form light, I create darkness,
I make peace, I create evil. The Lord do all these things. Man tries to make God out like
them. We're very reactive, aren't we? We are very reactive whenever
we feel threatened. We may feel fear. We may feel
intimidated. We may become hostile. We're
reactive. When we are insulted, we may
become prideful. When we're caught, we may lie.
That's all reactive, isn't it? God's not reactive. God's seated. God is not reacting because of
what man does or anything in this earth that's happening.
God's not being taken off guard. He's not reactive. Boy, there's
rest in that, isn't there? He's not reacting to a cause. He is the cause of all things. He's not reacting because of
a circumstance. He is the circumstance. He ordained
it. He's God. He's God. He's not reactive. Our God is
higher than the heavens. His ways are not our ways. His
thoughts are not our thoughts. I love the thought that the one
that created the stars, the universe, this earth, the fullness thereof,
knows his people by name. I love that. He would condescend
to know us by name. Moreover, die for us. Become
the creature and redeem his people. Romans 11 says, for who hath
known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counselor,
or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto
him again. For of him, and through him, and to him are all things,
to whom be glory forever, amen. Everything that we know about
the Lord, everything that we know about him, he has revealed
unto us. His ways are past finding out.
He chose to reveal it. He revealed it in his word. That's
the way that he speaks, isn't it? It's through his word. You and I wouldn't know who God
was if he hadn't chose to reveal himself. Not just the, not just
the physical in regards to, having a head knowledge that there's
a God. You ask people, is there a God? A lot of people will tell
you, yes, there's a God. But even the demons believe and
tremble. Even the demons believe and tremble.
And that's not what brings about salvation is a head knowledge,
is it? No, it becomes, it's necessary for him to give faith and he
must be the one that provides it. It's necessary for him to
reveal himself, saying live unto us, revealing himself, giving
us repentance and faith. Everything he requires for our
salvation, he must provide. All that we can comprehend is
what he's shown. Most of the time we talk about
Sovereign, we must just believe that. Sovereign grace, we must
just believe that term because we don't understand anything
about sovereignty. We know about a king or maybe a dictator that
established themselves up as the most dominant character and
they were referred to as sovereign, but that's not sovereign. They're
still frail. They're still human. They're
still able to falter. They're still able to fail. God
cannot fail. God cannot lie. He's sovereign. He's absolute. He's shown that
all that he accepts is perfection and holiness and he must provide
this. And he did, he did provide this. His will is done on earth
and in heaven always. Man by nature is unable to do
anything on this earth that will please him. Man is unable to
do anything. God must do it, and he did. He
did. You remember when the children
of Israel across the Red Sea, and I find it, we shouldn't stand
in awe of it or think about it as being something that blows
our mind, but they just saw the Red Sea part, and they walk across
the wilderness to Mount Sinai, and this was a very short traveling
distance. It wasn't long, and you've heard
me talk about this before, but after seeing the sea physically
part, they walked across on dry land. and they're at the mountain
where God is going to give the law unto Moses. He tells Moses
when they return to come up and he's gonna give them the law,
the Ten Commandments, and he does so. But he tells Moses,
you tell the congregation, tell the elders, tell Aaron to tell
everyone, do not approach this mountain. Do not approach this
mountain. If anyone touches it, If any
animal touches it, if anything touches it that's alive, it will
surely be put to death. It will surely die. This was
God's holy law. That was a picture here of the
Lord giving his word, giving his law, describing who he is,
his requirements to please him. Now you and I have never kept
God's law and cannot keep God's law, but the biggest mistake
that we could make is thinking we can put our hand to it. and
try to keep it. But what happened if we touch
the mountain? We die. We can't touch it. We can't touch
it. No, if we touch it, we'll die.
We need a substitute, don't we? We need one that can touch the
mountain of God and not be destroyed and touch us and not be defiled. See, we're defiled by our first
Adam, our father, Adam. And we're all born in sin and
shaped in iniquity because of that. Therefore, that's all we
can produce. But the second man, Adam, his
obedience shall many be made righteous. See the Lord, everything
he required, he provided. You and I can't even approach
God's mountain. It's death. It's death to us. Someone may
ask, you mean to just touch it is death? Well, that doesn't
seem very fair. That doesn't seem very fair that the standard
is set that high. To God's standard, it's mercy
that you and I are breathing right now. Think about that.
God's standard is mercy that you and I are taking a breath
and that our heart is still beating. That's mercy. That's God's standard. His ways are far above our ways. Paul. Writing to the Romans said,
shall the thing form say unto him that formed it, why am I
thus? Can you look at the author as being a character and say,
why am I this character? No, it's the author has all authority
and power. Can the thing form say unto that
which created him, why am I thus? No, who are you old man to reply
against God? You're a man. I'm a man, he's
God. He's other than we are in every
way. He's not mortal, he's immortal. He cannot die and yet, He died. He became a man robed in the
likeness of sinful flesh, condescend from being a spiritual being
to a physical being, 100% man and 100% God in the flesh and
bore the sins of his people and died. God died. Explain that to me. I can't.
I can't explain that to you and you can't explain that to me.
But we're like Job, aren't we? Whenever we hear that, we're
going to no longer reply against the Lord. We're no longer going
to say, the Lord told Job, Job had a pity party. And you know
the account, he lost his daughters and sons and all of his herds.
And he was a very wealthy man, lost everything all in one day.
And he began to say, I don't deserve this. I don't deserve
all this. What wrongdoing have I done that
merited this? The problem was, is it wasn't
what Job had done. It was what Job was, if we were
talking about what was the reason. But it had nothing to do truly
with Job, did it? Think about this. It had everything
to do with God's glory. That's what it had to do with
the Lord allowed this to happen to Joe for his glory to come
forth for the Lord to reveal to Joe. I am. I am before the
world began. I am where were you Joe when
I laid the foundations of the world. Where were you when I
hung the stars in the sky. Where were you when I counted
the sands of the sea. Lord made the number of the sands
of the sea. Can you imagine that? The Lord
numbered the hairs of your head. It doesn't say he counted them. He numbered them. He made them
to be exactly what they are. That's God. That's who God is. What did Job say? The same thing
we say. I'm going to put my hand over my mouth and not talk anymore.
It's a good idea, Job. May the Lord give us the grace
to say the same thing. Job couldn't say anything to
justify himself before the Almighty. By definition, all mighty, all
of it. There's no might left for you
and I. He's all powerful. We have no power. He's all holy. You and I are not holy in any
way, but he is. You and I don't deserve better
than this. That's not what this is about. It's about us understanding
we deserve eternal damnation, eternal damnation. What's unfair
is that we breathe his air. This is what's unfair. We breathe
his air. We drink his water. We eat his
food. We're clothed with his clothing.
We walk on his ground. We smell the fragrances that
he has purposed. We get to have his sunshine beam
upon our face. How often do we thank him? How
often do we praise him for that? Oh, woe is me. Woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips. I
thought everybody else was the problem. I'm the problem. I'm
the problem. I deserve eternal damnation.
We're driving through the woods. I guess they would call them
woods in Florida. They're not woods to me. It's a jungle. But
here, I get to drive through the woods again and get to see
the leaves. I mean, I've forgotten about
how beautiful the leaves are when they change. I mean, they're
breathtaking. The splendor of the Lord, and I don't mean this,
it's his coloring book. I mean, I don't think that's
wrong of me to say. He's painted it, didn't he? He's the author
of it. He's spoken into existence, it's his coloring book. Whatever
color he wanted it to be, that's exactly what it is. And yet he
lets us look at it. We get to drive through and look
at all the splendor of his majesty. And we say, what a God. Let us
be reminded to thank him for it as often as we can. Maybe
the Lord be pleased to remind. I was driving through and all
of a sudden I thought, have you thought to praise him for this?
I thought, no. Take it for granted. I take it
for granted. I wake up in a house that we're
warm. We're not on the street. We're
not. I got legs to walk on. I've got arms. I've got a mouth
to speak. My wife wishes I didn't sometimes, I'm sure. But I get
to listen to her voice. I get to listen to the things
around. Who did that? God did that. Everything that
he required for your salvation, he also provided, everything,
everything, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. How guilty are we for thinking
of ourselves? We're born selfish, aren't we?
We're born self-centered, self-righteous. I was thinking, I have three
daughters and Kylie, you have three daughters and Kylie didn't
have to teach her three daughters no more than I had to teach my
three daughters to be selfish. Every one of them has their own
toys and they, sometimes they share, but other times they're
like, nope, this one's mine. You can't have it. And uh, what
grace it is that the Lord reveals that. to his people and says,
and gives us faith that we're no longer selfish when it comes
to salvation. Lord, I want you to have all
the glory. That's the truth of it, isn't it? I'm no longer selfish
and I see my nature. I see what I am. I need a substitute. I need a substitute and everything
that God required in salvation, he provided in that substitute,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. He reveals that
we are the center and we're the chief. And when he reveals that
I'm the chief center, that tells me that all I can produce in
my children, they're just a bunch of smaller chief centers. And
I pray by God's grace, that's what he causes them to see. Only
then will we need a substitute. Only then will we need a savior.
Truly they that are in the flesh cannot please God. We are born
in sin and shaped in iniquity. All that dwells in our flesh
is no good thing. Somebody said, well, that doesn't
give me much hope. Doesn't give you much hope in
the flesh. But if you see yourself as the chief of sinner, I've
got good news. Everything that God required,
he provided for your salvation. Everything that God demands,
Christ met those demands. Everything needed, Christ provided. How can a man be right with God?
How can a man that is unclean from the womb be made clean?
By the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ alone. The very sovereignty that I've
described that we tremble before is the same reason we have hope
because he's just as sovereign in salvation as he is in creation. He's just as sovereign in justification
as he is sanctification as he is in us being made righteous. Everything that he does, he's
sovereign and absolute in. Everything required, he provided. I want to read our text again
here in Hebrews 13 verse 20. Now the God of peace. Now I've
already told you that he's the God of justice. He's the God
we know he's the God of vengeance. He's the God of wrath, but he's
also 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. Amen. The Lord Jesus Christ is
the only reason that we have peace with God. And I love the
wording that he says right here that he because of the blood
of the everlasting covenant. Now we got to understand the
cause and effect here. This is not that we are perfect by what
we do. This is perfect by what he has
done. What did he do? Well, in the covenant of grace
before time, the Lord purposed to redeem his people, and he
did so by his own blood. Therefore, we have peace with
God. Therefore, we are perfect in
every good work to do his will because he's working in us that
which is well-pleasing in his sight. Everything he requires,
he provides. He's working that which is well-pleasing
in his sight. We are doing, in Christ Jesus,
That which is pleasing in his sight. Just to think for a moment that
the. The sovereign God. Is working that which is well
pleasing in us. He's well pleased with his people
because his people is in his son. He is well pleased with
his darling son. Our peace is not with him based
on what we've done. Our peace is based upon what
he has done for his people. Not because we chose him, but
because he chose us. Isaiah 43 says, but now thus
said the Lord that created the O Jacob and he that formed the
O Israel. Fear not. For I have redeemed
thee. I have called thee by thy name. Thou art mine. Thou art mine. He did it all everything he required. He provided. In the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ before time. The sovereign, holy, self-existent
God chose to redeem, and he did. He made a covenant that required
blood, and God provided the lamb, the blood sacrifice, for that
covenant to be sure. It came from him, so it was sure
from the beginning, but we had to have a surety in order for
it to be, in order for it to be finished. And what did the
Lord say on the cross? It is finished. Paul tells us that without the
shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. Men have a
tendency of thinking they can do something to either make that
blood effectual or not effectual. But it's certainly not our blood
that the Lord's looking for. It was the blood of the Lamb.
It's always been the blood of the Lamb. That's what the required.
if I can put it that way, we're going to be taking the Lord's
table. And that's what it represent is that precious blood. It couldn't
be by the bloods of the bulls and goats as we've heard already,
but by his own blood, by his own blood. And God must provide
that blood. It can't be our blood. And he
did. He provided that blood in the
person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The book of Genesis 22, We have Abraham's account. You
can imagine Abraham being 100 years old, getting the promise
of the Lord a few years before, waiting for a son, longing for
a son, desiring to have a son by Sarah. And the Lord promised,
you're going to have a son. You and I would be the same way.
We would become anxious and worried and let's do something to help
the Lord out. And we know that he did by Ishmael
being born of the handmaid of Sarah, but that was not the child
of promise. That was the work of the flesh. There's the picture,
covenant of works and covenant of grace. But in the fullness
of God's time, Abraham has Isaac. And after Isaac was born for
a while, He's called a lad, which typically in the scripture that
means he's in his teens, in his mid-teens, 14, 16 years old is
where it's kind of predicted or assumed that he would be. That's the same as David facing
Goliath and many other accounts that we have that's about the
same age. When he's that age, can you imagine the love and
the relationship he would have had, Abraham being an old man,
having the son of promise that the Lord gave him and finally
have a son that's, and the love that he would have shown towards
him. And yet the Lord appears unto him and says, take thy son,
thy only son, Isaac, and offer him up a sacrifice unto me. Now
we know how we would have responded to that unless the Lord gave
us the same grace and the same faith to believe him that he
gave to Abraham. Turn with me to Genesis 22. Hold your place here. Hebrews
13. After Abraham is instructed to
offer up his son at the beginning of this chapter, they load up
with the men, they take everything necessary for the sacrifice,
and they head to Mount Moriah according to the Lord's word.
They come to the base of that mountain and Abraham says, wait
here with the asses, wait here with the donkeys while me and
the lad goes yonder and worship. So now we have Isaac and Abraham
climbing the mountain in verse seven of chapter 22. Isaac spake
unto Abraham his father and said, my father. And he said, here
am I, my son. And he said, behold the fire
and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And
Abraham said, my son. Now here's what we're preaching
this morning. These exact words. God will provide himself a lamb
for a burnt offering. So they went both of them together.
And you know the remainder of the story. They get to the place
where God told them to go. He lays the wood. He binds Isaac
to the altar. He rears the knife back, ready
to sacrifice his son, and the angel of the Lord stops him,
says, harm not thy son, thy only son Isaac. And the Lord says,
now I know that you believe me. Now I know. And he turned and
he saw a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. See, God provided
himself a sacrifice. I had this thought, what would
the sacrifice of Isaac had done? What would it have accomplished?
It would have proved that Abraham believed God, but what would
it have really accomplished for Abraham? What would it have really
done? Nothing. Nothing. It was a type
and picture of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary.
That's what it is. But it took the blood of the
lamb to put away sin. See, Isaac was just as tainted
with sin as you and I are. It would have done no good for
that lad to be killed for Abraham. He was saying, even if you offer
your own son unto me, takes the ram. It takes the lamb of God.
It takes his blood. It takes my son to do the work. Not your son. Your son's the
son of promise of good things to come. My son will put away
sin by himself. My son will purge those sins.
And how did he do that? Well, he became a man, didn't
he? The lamb of God became a man, went to the cross of Calvary,
caught With the curse, that's what those thorns represent,
is the curse of man. Genesis chapter three, thorns
and thistles shall the earth yield unto you. Speaking unto
Adam, he was caught with our curse, by our curse. According
to his will, according to his purpose, according to his choice,
he bore our curse in his own body on the tree. That's what
the scripture says, because cursed is everyone that hangeth on the
tree. He bore our sin and his own body on the tree. Can you
imagine the relief Abraham felt whenever he saw that ram and
the Lord had given him that sacrifice? When he knew that the Lord no
longer required his only son, the Lord no longer required his
only son, that his son was not good enough, but what the Lord
was pleased with, he provided right there. Does it give you
great comfort to know that you don't have to offer up your firstborn
unto the Lord, that you don't have to offer up the first fruits
of your hands or what you do yourself, but everything that
He requires, He provided in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Lamb of God. He provided it in the blood sacrifice
on the cross of Calvary. Now, when the Lord was on that
cross, this time the sword of justice could not be stayed.
It had to pierce the heart of the Lamb of God. And the Lord
Jesus Christ was executed on that cross by his own will, offering
himself up unto the Father. Thou shalt make his soul an offering
for sin, thou shalt be satisfied. By his sacrifice, thy righteous
service shall justify many. And he did. He justified his
people on the cross of Calvary by the sacrifice of himself.
He put our sin away. Everything he required, he provided,
he provided. As we think about us being bound
to the altar, we see our sin. We see our sin, we're bound to
the altar of our sin, the responsibility that we have, according to the
flesh, being born in sin, shaping into iniquity. When the Lord
gives repentance, we understand that we have a responsibility,
that we are sinners, that we are sinners. And now we hear
the law's demands. Well, what is the wages of sin?
It's death. Well, I have no hope then. Well,
you do with the rest of the verse, but the gift of God, see everything
he requires, he provided. The gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And now the law is silent unto
the child of God and now the sword of justice that would have
pierced you and I in eternal hell doesn't move an inch. doesn't
move and it doesn't even glisten in our direction because it pierced
the heart of the only begotten Son of God. It pierced the heart
of the Lamb of God once and for all. And this man, the Lord Jesus
Christ, everything God required is the person, the Lord Jesus
Christ. This man, after he had offered himself up, this man,
after he had made one sacrifice, just one, one sacrifice for sins
forever, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. He offered himself unto God,
not unto man. And as the fire burned upon him
and the sword of justice pierced him, we hear him cry with a loud
voice. When everything that was necessary
was accomplished, when everything required was completed, he says,
it is finished. And now, right now, there is
no condemnation. Because of everything that he
accomplished, there is therefore no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus. Everything, everything God required,
he provided in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, let's look at the result
of that back in Hebrews chapter 13, in closing. I love that the Lord's given
us understanding from his word that this is the result of everything
that we've said for this hour. This right here is the result.
The God of peace brought again, that brought again Jesus. 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, amen. How is it that he
is the God of peace? Because of the everlasting covenant,
because of the blood sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, we
have peace with God. See, if I'm going to have peace
with him, everything he requires, he's going to have to provide.
And He did. If I'm going to have hope in
Him, everything that He requires, He must provide. And He did.
If I am to be justified, if I am to be made the righteousness
of God in Him, if I am to be sanctified, if I am to have eternal
life, everything He requires, He must provide. And what does
He say right here? makes you perfect in every good
work to do His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing
in His sight through Jesus Christ, all because of the blood of the
covenant, the everlasting covenant. Everything required, the Lord
provided. He's made us perfect. He's made
us acceptable in the beloved. He's made us the righteousness
of God in Him. Now, my question to us in closing is, we've heard
that we're sinners. We've heard that we're, he's
the savior. We've heard that we are desolate,
destitute by nature. We've heard that we're empty.
We heard that we're dead in trespasses and in sin, but we've heard that
he is the remedy and everything God required, he provided. So
the question is, wilt thou be made whole? Wilt thou be made
whole? Well, how, how am I to be made
whole? Because everything he requires, he's going to have
to provide. Look to the lamb. Look to the ram caught in the
thicket. Look to the lamb caught in the thicket. Well, isn't looking
a work? Looking is a command. A command
that can only be obeyed by God-given faith. It's a command. Look to
the Lamb and live. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Those are commands. Those are not options. To the
Lord's people, given faith, we look, we see, we believe, we
rest, we hope. These are the cause and effect. The command comes, the Lord gives
what he requires, everything he requires, he must provide.
He gives faith to believe it. He gives faith to believe it.
And because of that, the effect is what? We're looking. We're
resting, we're believing. Everything he requires, he provides
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the cause of salvation
to God's people. If you're looking, it's because
he has commanded you, he has given you the ability to, and
he has made you to do it in Christ Jesus. Look to what he has provided
and nothing else. Thou will be made whole. Look
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, we desire
to look to you. We desire to see you and rest
in you. Cause us to do so in Christ's
name. Amen.