Let's turn in our Bibles this
evening to the last chapter of the book of Hebrews, to the very
last verses tonight. Hebrews chapter 13, and verses
18 through 22. Hebrews chapter 13, verse 18. Pray for us. For we trust we have a good conscience
and all things willing to live honestly. But I beseech you that
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 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. And I beseech you,
brethren, suffer the word of exhortation, for I have written
a letter unto you in a few words. I want you to notice, first of
all, that this passage begins with a request, and it is a request
from the writer to the believers that he had written this letter
to, and he asked for prayer. Pray for us. And I would just
mention that this is something that every minister of the gospel,
both desires and needs, The Apostle Paul confessed this truth about
himself and of all of God's ministers. He said, we are unto God a sweet
savor of Christ. This is true of all of the ministers,
the preachers, missionaries, and pastors. The Lord calls and
puts into the ministry. No wonder the writer asked for
prayer. We are unto God a sweet saver
of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish. To the one we are the saver of
death unto death and to the other of life unto life. And who is
sufficient for these things? Who is sufficient? Our sufficiency
is of God. Now, the writer here, when he
requests this prayer, pray for us, his request is that
he might be returned or restored unto them the sooner. They were
separated for some reason, and his desire, of course, was to
be with God's people, these to whom he wrote this letter. But then immediately after requesting
prayer and asking that they pray that he would be restored to
them, immediately he prays, the writer prays. That's what we
have in verses 19, or verse 20 and 21 through 22. But I want to point out to us
six things from the prayer. Six very simple things and yet
very important truths that will help all of us as we probably
have heard these things and know these things, but it's good to
be reminded once again of how clear the scriptures is. But
first of all, The prayer is made to the God of peace. I want you
to notice that. He addresses his prayer to the
God of peace. Now, the God of peace. I believe it's important to recognize
and to think about the titles that we find given unto the Lord
in the New Testament. I want you to turn back with
me to Romans chapter 15. In this chapter, the apostle
gives us three titles. And the reason I point this out
to us, when we go to the Lord in prayer with a particular need,
if we know that God is the God of whatever it is we have need
of, it would be good to address God, to begin our prayers to
Him under this title. If you notice here in Romans
chapter 15 in verse 5, now the God of patience and consolation. Are you ever praying for patience?
Do you ever pray for patience? I know we do. But when we do,
do we begin our prayer to the God of patience. And what about
consolation? Do we need comfort? Do we need
consolation? Sure we do, many times. And in
2 Corinthians chapter one, the apostle Paul calls God the God
of all comfort. Now the God of patience and consolation. What a name. Now notice down
in the chapter to verse 13, Now the God of hope fill you
with all joy and peace and believing. Does your joy ever wane? Do you
need joy? Remember, Nehemiah tells us that
the joy of the Lord is our strength. So when we pray for joy, why
not begin our prayer? The God of joy, of all joy, the
God of hope, the God of hope. fill you with all joy and peace. And then down in verse 33, so
this three different titles or names of God in this one chapter,
the God of patience and consolation, the God of hope, and now the
God of peace be with you all. The Apostle Paul uses this name
of God, this title of God, here in the letter of Romans, also
in 1 Thessalonians, and in the letter of Philippians. And many
people, of course, believe that he wrote this letter of Hebrews. So if that is true, then once
again, he begins his prayer in the passage we're looking at
tonight, now the God of peace. But I want you to look in 1st
Peter at this title, this name of God that the Apostle Peter
gives us. 1st Peter chapter 5 and verse 10. But the God of all grace. Now
I know we need grace, always. And there are different kinds
of grace. We recognize that. He is the God of all grace, no
matter what kind of grace we need. If it's restraining grace,
or persevering grace, or keeping grace, or helping grace, no matter
which grace it is we need, Now the God of all grace, let's pray
for that grace, addressing him with this name, the God of all
grace. We see these different names
I pointed out to us here, the God of patience and consolation,
the God of hope, the God of peace, the God of all grace. But one
of our favorites always is our father. Our Father. The Lord Jesus Christ taught
us to pray like this, didn't He? And when you begin your prayer,
I would imagine that's the way most of us pray most of the time. Our Father. Think about what
it cost and what it took for you to call Him, in truth, your
Father. What it cost. It cost Him giving
His Son. For God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son. If God had not given His Son,
there's no way any of us, in reality and truth, could ever
refer to Him and know Him as our God and as our Father. And
it cost the Lord Jesus Christ His life, didn't it? It cost
Him His blood He had to give Himself. The Father gave His
Son, the Son gave Himself for us. Our Father, what is included
in us being able to approach unto God and call Him our Father. What a blessing. What a blessing. All right, now notice the second
thing. I said there's six things I want to bring out here. The
second thing is the deity of the Lord Jesus. Notice the text
again. Now to the God of peace, that
brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus. When we read God,
don't most of us associate that with the Father? When we read
in the scriptures God, just that name God, we think of the Father,
don't we? Most of the time. But here, I
want you to notice, that's the case here. But notice what it
says that He did, the God of peace, the Father, that brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus. The Father, here's the
point, the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Father, God,
brought Him again from the dead. But yet, didn't He say, destroy
this temple this body, and in three days, I will raise it up. And then in Romans chapter 8,
in verse 11, the Word of God says, But if the Spirit, if the
Spirit, God the Holy Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from
the dead dwell in you. So we've got three verses here.
One verse says it's the Father that brought Him again from the
dead. Another verse said, it is the Spirit that raised Him
from the dead. And one verse, the Lord Jesus
Christ declares that He Himself would raise Himself from the
dead. Are two of these verses false
and only one true? You know that's not so. All three
are true. But how can that be? How can
it be true, all three of these verses? The Father raised Him
from the dead. The Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal
Son of God, raised Himself from the dead. God, the blessed Holy
Spirit, raised Him from the dead. How can that be true? Because
there's one God. And there are three persons in
the blessed Trinity, yes, but there's one God, and there's
one in essence, there's one in will, and there's one in every
attribute. The Father is not more holy than
the Son. The Son is not more powerful
than the Spirit. Every truth about each one is
the same, because there's one God, one God. So what I see here
is the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now here's the third. The Lord Jesus is that Great
Shepherd. Look at the verse again. Now
the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord
Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep. It doesn't say the great shepherd
of the sheep, does it? Many of the verses where the
Lord Jesus Christ declares himself to be the shepherd, I am the
good shepherd. But here we read that great shepherd
of the sheep. I wonder why that is, and I would
like to suggest some reasons. I want you to look back with
me to the book of Zechariah. It's an Old Testament book. I think it's the second from
the last, Zechariah chapter 13. And verse 7, this of course is a prophecy.
Awake, O sword, against my shepherd. Now this, notice these things
about this one who is called God's shepherd. Against the man,
the God-man, that is my fellow, that is one with the Father. The Father calls for the sword
of justice to awake. O sword against my shepherd and
against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts, smite
the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered and I will turn
mine hand upon the little ones. He is that great shepherd of
the sheep who is the man who is God's fellow and yet smitten
by God's sword of justice. That great shepherd of the sheep. All right, look at another passage
back further in Ezekiel. Ezekiel chapter 34. And verses
11 and 12. Ezekiel 34 verse 11, but for
thus saith the Lord God, behold, I, even I will both search my
sheep and seek them out as a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the
day that he is among his sheep that are scattered. So will I
seek out my sheep and will deliver them out of all places where
they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. Now the
cloudy and dark day, no doubt, was the day when Adam disobeyed
God. The Lord Jesus Christ already
had his sheep. They were already given unto
him in that everlasting covenant, but they were scattered. They
were scattered in that dark and cloudy day, that awful day when
Adam disobeyed God and brought ruin upon all of his posterity. But notice what it says here
about this shepherd. He will both seek. He will seek
them out. He will search, both search my
sheep and seek them out. Remember the Lord Jesus Christ
gave this same parable, I believe twice in the gospels when he
spoke about a man having a hundred sheep and one being lost. And
what does the shepherd do? He goes out to find that one
lost sheep. That's what this is speaking
of, isn't it? This shepherd, he will seek,
and not only will he seek, but he will seek until he finds.
He's just not out here seeking, he's going to seek till he finds. The Lord Jesus Christ said this,
he said, the Son of Man has come both to seek and to save that
which is lost. He's that great shepherd of the
sheep. He's that great shepherd of the
sheep that Ezekiel wrote about, who, yes, his sheep were all
scattered, and they are scattered in this world, lost sheep, until
he finds them. But he's going to seek until
he finds each and every one. He is the good shepherd. Or look
at another verse here in Isaiah chapter 40. He's that great shepherd
of the sheep. Look at this in Isaiah chapter
40 and verse 11. He shall feed his flock like
a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead
those that are with young. What we see here about the shepherd
is his tenderness and his nourishing his sheep, carrying them even
in his bosom. He's that great shepherd of the
sheep. Not only seeks till he finds
his sheep, but he carries them. Remember the man in the parable,
when he found that one sheep, he put it on his shoulders and
he carried it all the way on. I was reading again the other
day, Pilgrim's Progress, and when he went into the interpreter's
house, you know, one of the things that he saw there was that fire. And that man was pouring water
on that fire, but he couldn't put the fire out. And he didn't
understand what that meant until the interpreter took him around
behind the wall and he saw the Lord Jesus Christ pouring oil
on him. When he finds his sheep, he's
going to keep his sheep. He's going to nourish his sheep
and he's going to preserve his sheep. Not one. He's that great
shepherd of the sheep. All right, look in Psalm 23.
You don't even need to turn here. You know this Psalm, but he's
that great shepherd of the sheep that David sang about in this
Psalm when he said, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He's that shepherd, my friends,
that shepherd who gives his sheep everything that we have need
of, everything. Many times we have wants that
he doesn't give us, but everything that his children, his sheep
have need of, he's going to give. The Lord is my shepherd. He's
that great shepherd of the sheep. This shepherd that David wrote
about, this shepherd who makes us to lie down in green pastures. And the green pastures is the
word of God. One of the earliest or clearest
marks, I should say, and yes, early also, but marks when a
person has truly been born of the Spirit of God, there's a
love for the Word of God. There's a love for the Word of
God. When a person is born again of the Spirit of God, it's our
food, it's our nourishment. The green pastures, he makes
us lie down in the green pastures. And we cherish the Word of God. We want to read the Word of God.
We want to hear the Word of God proclaimed. That's a good indication
the Lord has done a work of grace in the heart when a person looks
upon the Lord Jesus Christ, first of all, as being precious and
loving His Word. He's that great shepherd of the
sheep. Now, back in our text, Here's
the fourth thing, the blood of the everlasting covenant. The
blood of the everlasting covenant. 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. When he instituted the Lord's
table. And he gave his church this memorial
service for us to observe, for his church to observe until he
comes again. You remember, he said, this is
my blood of the new covenant. He had that cup in his hand and
that wine in that cup represented his blood that he would shed
the next day in ratifying and sealing this everlasting covenant. This is my blood of the new covenant,
the new testament. It was sealed with his blood,
with his death. And notice that this verse here,
this prayer actually, but it speaks of our Lord's death and
his resurrection. Just as Paul did in Romans chapter
four and verse 25, when he said, who was delivered for our offenses,
and was raised again for our justification." We see both,
his death and his resurrection. Delivered for our offenses, raised
for our justification. You know the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ. There's no way, there's no word
that I have or anyone else has to show the importance of the
death of Christ. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission. But my friends, not only is his
death all important, so is his resurrection. Look with me in
1 Corinthians chapter 15. Yes, his blood was shed to take
away our sins, But here in this verse, verse
17, notice the apostle said, and if Christ be not raised,
if there was no resurrection, if there was no death, no blood
to make an atonement for our sins, then we're still in our
sins. We know that. But the apostle
also says, if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, you are yet
in your sins. The gospel includes his death
and his burial and his resurrection according to the scriptures. All right, back in our text,
here's the fifth thing. The request, verse 21. make you perfect. He's praying
to the God of all peace. And here's his request, that
God would 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. What does that tell us? Well,
when the writer requests that these believers be made perfect,
notice that, be made perfect in every good work, it has to
do with sincerity. Now, as believers, we know that
we have been ordained unto good works. That's what the apostle
tells us in Ephesians chapter 2. For we are his workmanship. created in Christ Jesus unto
good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them. But what we see here from this
petition is that in order for believers to do good works, the
power and the grace must come from God. We don't have it in
ourselves. We recognize that any good work
performed in us and by us is holy of God. It is Him who works in us both
to will and to do of His good pleasure. For things that we
do to be well-pleasing, now notice in the text, these good works,
for things that we do good works to be well-pleasing in His sight,
they must be through the Lord Jesus. They must be through Him, well-pleasing
in His sight through Jesus Christ. For our works to be well-pleasing,
our good works that He's ordained that we walk in, The power, the
strength, the grace to do them must come from Him. And in order
for them, the good works to be well-pleasing in God's sight,
they must always be done through Jesus Christ. Looking to Him,
trusting in Him, believing in Him. He must receive the glory
in all things, in all things. And here's the last thing, and
I'll close with this. Have patience with the preacher. Verse 22. Have patience with
the preacher. He thought he had written a small
letter. I beseech you, brethren, suffer
the word of exhortation, for I have written a letter unto
you in a few words. Sometimes you think the preacher,
he's too long. Too long winded. Well, maybe
so. Have patience with him. Have
patience with him. And sometimes the word of God
cuts because all scripture is given by inspiration of God and
is profitable for doctrine, yes, for teaching, but also for correction. Suffer it. Suffer it. That's
what the apostle tells these believers. He had written some
things that were strong, to these people, no doubt, but they were
necessary things because they were being tempted to turn back
to Judaism. They had professed faith in Christ,
but no doubt under pressure from family and friends and society,
they were tempted rather to turn back. And the apostle makes it
very clear that to turn back, go back to that old ceremonialism
of the tabernacle and the temple and that old priesthood and that
old covenant and the animal sacrifices and all of those things would
be a terrible, terrible mistake. It would be the ruin of your
soul. No doubt it cut, these words
cut some of those who received this letter. Suffer, suffer the
word of exhortation. Reproof is needed sometimes by
all of us. We all need reproof from time
to time. Well, I pray the Lord will bless
these words to all of us here tonight. Aren't you thankful
for that great shepherd of the sheep, who's a good shepherd,
gave his life for his sheep. We're going to sing a hymn and
then we'll have prayer and be dismissed.