I invite you to turn this morning in the scriptures to the last section of the book of Hebrews. We have for some time been in this book. We conclude this book today. That's found on page 1198, looking at the benediction today. I'm going to read at verse 20 to the end of the chapter. Let's give our attention this morning to the Lord's holy word. Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. I appeal to you, brothers, bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly. You should know that our brother Timothy has been released, with whom I shall see you if he comes soon. Greet all your leaders and all the saints. Those who come from Italy send you greetings. Grace be with all of you. There's the reading of God's word. Well, today we conclude our preaching series through the book of Hebrews. And I didn't realize when I started this book so long ago, as many of you know, I didn't realize how important this book is for the church today. They're all important, but this speaks in a special way to the church today about certain emphases so that we would be kept and upheld by keeping our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. we took some time to get through this there's there's no doubt i laughed out loud when i read verse 22 i appeal to you brothers bear with my word of exhortation for i've written to you briefly really i mean nobody thought i was brief in this series did you this is a year and a half now we've been through this series to think that this would have been read and that this would have been a sermon in the first century that they were to follow the whole way through i won't go after the church today on the state of things I can find many things wrong but it does make the point I justified for longer sermons right it at least makes that point so um I've been preaching this on a year and a half and such a pastoral book isn't it that last benediction captures something so beautiful today it has this great goal you know that this book has this great goal of keeping you from apostasy. That danger that lurks of turning away from Jesus Christ, the one sacrifice that accomplishes everything that we need to behold the face of God. That's what the beatific vision is. That's what's held out for us, the hope of the resurrection. There's been a lot said to us in this book. I mean, we have really traveled through a lot of territory looking at the Old testament and seeing how the entire old covenant studying all those emphases of the old covenant with all the sacrifices and offerings how they all were intended to lead people to christ and that that was the perennial problem of the jews is that there's been a blinder still to this day there's a veil they can't see in these things jesus that's what made him shocked about these first century christians because they see jesus we see jesus we hear jesus and this book has helped us with capturing so much and helpful to us this call to live by faith but the danger lurks the danger lurks which is i think the author was somewhat shocked about in his work through helping these Hebrew Christians, that that can merely be a surface commitment if we're immature and lightweight Christians. In other words, it's revealed that among them, the threat of persecution, the hardships they were facing, the difficulties, it was revealing true colors in some of them. Many of them had come into Christianity and embraced these things, but as soon as things got difficult and they were being hated for their faith and they were being despised and rejected like their Savior, it revealed a problem that many of them were simply fair weather fans. Now, that's serious. On a more light note, it would be like following the Padres when they're actually winning. Well, anyone can be justified this week for dropping the Dodgers, I'm sure. On a serious note, though, this is never so with Christ. This is never so with Christ. And the culture that many of them were raised in, it really was a cultural phenomenon that they were struggling with. They were used to a culture. They were used to a certain culture in Judaism. And that was proving, in the face of difficulty, that was proving a stronger commitment to Christ than to Christ. And that problem is just as alive today as ever. cultural commitment to Christianity is exposed when things get hard. When it's just about the culture and just about our blood relationships, that could all get very much exposed in the midst of a culture turning on us. That's why this book is so important for today. Because at the heart of it was a calling for these Hebrew Christians to, verse 13, go outside the camp and come to Christ and bear his reproach. Because here we have no continuing city. That is such an important verse. I think a crucial verse to the entire book. We've got to go outside the camp, the camp of respectability, the camp of popularity, The camp of whatever is accepted. And you've got a million camps today. You have to leave those camps and come to Christ and bear that kind of shame and reproach that he did. Because we're not saving the earthly city. We're not even saving America. We've got something so much better. We've got a continuing city. We've got an everlasting city prepared for us. That's what Abraham's faith was all about. our Savior bore shame and reproach, we must recognize that while we're here in this sort of brief stay in this world, we too will be reviled. We too will be hated for following Christ. And that's a hard pill to swallow when your family members are turning on you for following Christ. See? That's what happened. Their family was turning on them for doing what was right. This was most likely written, remember, to Jewish Christians living near Rome. The church there was facing great opposition from their Jewish blood brothers and sisters for actually having convictions and actually following through on what all the types and the shadows were pointing to. And they were getting great pressure. And so I guess I could say today that both sermons that we're concluding, both series today, of Hebrews and of Joshua tonight, come with a serious call. Choose you this day whom you will serve. That's where we end in Joshua. It's a similar sort of thing. But the book ends here on a beautiful note. One of the most encouraging notes at the ending of any book in the New Testament. A benediction to encourage us that God has the power and will continue to give us peace. That's what we need to hear today. God has that kind of blessing for his church and his people and that God has the power to give us this peace in whatever comes at us for the future in our following and commitment to jesus christ so the heart of it today this is the heart of it strength comes from the lord that's the heart of this passage so that we would look to him to fulfill our commitments that we've made to live by faith in this present evil age to live by faith that nothing that happens to us in this life can shake us from this unshakable foundation. This benediction is absolutely beautiful. Encouraging us that God has a good word for us. God has a good word for us. His last word in this book was given to preserve and to keep his sheep. And that's the heart of the message that we leave this study with. It's the same message for us. A benediction means that. It means a good word. And you know, last time we kind of went through the liturgy and explained that. Think of what happens in worship. The pastor doesn't at the end of this simply say, you're all dismissed, be blessed and do well. No, no, he pronounces a benediction. This is what's been done in the whole history of the church, right from when Jesus at the resurrection, you remember at the end of Luke, he raised his hands and he pronounced a benediction upon his people and his church. That's exactly what we have here. It's a good word from God to us. A word to send us out. A word to send us out back into the world with this kind of blessing, with this kind of good word from God. And that is, this here before us today is one of the most detailed and powerful benedictions that we have in the scripture. At the end of every service, this is what we do. God sends us out, not with a harsh word. Have I ever stood up and said, the wrath of God be on you? You're so used to the good word, aren't you? Yes, stop and consider it. Do you think about it? Do you meditate upon it? That's where we are today in this wonderful section. How much is displayed here of how God loves his church, how God loves his people, through, expressed through the author here to give you a word of blessing, a word of benediction. This is the very disposition of God toward you. Listen carefully to him today. After all this epistle, after all the hard things that he had to address, what is God's last word? You'll notice here that the first thing that's emphasized in this beautiful little benediction is that God is a God who gives us peace. Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the everlasting eternal covenant. What a what a what a packed little statement that could take many sermons today to explain but what is being communicated here This is the good word that God wants to leave you with. This is the good word that God has for you. God desires, hear me carefully, for you to enjoy peace in this life. He's the God of peace. He's with the very words that Jesus gave right out of the resurrection. My peace I leave you with. My peace I give you. Peace. what's their problem well we learned in the whole book they're not at peace rome has become unfavorable to them it will be their fellow jews are persecuting them and troubling them nothing seems to be going well and think of the world today on all these causes and all these divisions that are happening in front of you i mean we are living in nothing but separation discord fighting jealousy fits of anger wrath all these things are what we know in the world and we've become accustomed to and what we've lived with. This is how we know life. As one pastor said, we have had in all of history, we've had enlightenment, we've had democracy, we've had communism, we've had fascism, we've had secular humanism. Have they ever accomplished true and lasting peace? Any of them. We're living in one of the least was greatest nations ever on the face of the earth. Who's at peace? Think about it. Who's at peace? Where is peace? What is peace? Where is peace found? This is quite an ending to this. Do our politicians ever bring it? Have you thought about this, that after every Sunday gathering, you come and you meet with the Holy God of heaven and earth who made everything, and He desires to send you out and to bless you with a true and lasting eternal peace. It's the most important peace that could be had in this life. You're not getting it anywhere else. You kind of see why church is so important here, don't you? You see why you want to be in church. If we come with the attitude to church of a drudgery and just having to do this, you really think your mind is prepared to receive peace? Such peace is explained. What did God do for you? He raised his son from the dead. Who brought up again from the dead our Lord Jesus. When the angels were announcing the incarnation and the coming, what was so celebrated was the first thing they said is, listen to the whole earth, giving it to lowly shepherds, not the nobility. To the lowly shepherds, we bring you glad tidings of peace. This is precisely a fulfillment, beloved, of what the entire Old Testament promised, captured in something that Ezekiel said when he said he will make a covenant of peace with us. And he raises that here. He ties that together here where he says, through the blood of the eternal, the everlasting covenant. Did you notice how it's referenced? So before you were even born, before you were even in existence, God the Father and His eternal counsel spoke to His Son. This is what we call in sort of classic Reformed theology, the covenant of redemption. God the Father spoke to His Son saying, a terrible thing is indeed to happen. This good creation that I will make will be ruined by sin. and there will be no hope for anyone born and justice will demand that their rebellion be punished in eternal separation from us and God's son in the eternal council before you ever existed said I'll go I'll go do it I will go down there and I will take on a human nature adding it to my divine nature and I will save them and the father said well son every demand of that law will have to be kept our righteous holy law and then payment will have to be made and the son says enjoy I'll go and I'll save every last one of those you give me I won't lose one I'll pay for every last one of their sins and then I'll fulfill, I will fulfill all righteousness for them I'll satisfy it all send me, I'll go the father says son I love you i agree to this this is an everlasting covenant it cannot be changed you understand the marvel of the gospel that's proclaimed to us whenever you're confused about things and often we're confused confused about god's love confused of the terrible things that happen in this life You know, in just this community, a student at Calvin, who was a student at Calvin, was just killed in a car accident. All these things that happen. All these terrible things. All these frustrations. God has told us the whole way. Are you listening to me? The wages of sin is death. Do you think you're promised a good go of it in this life? This can happen to any one of you. This can happen to your children, your grandchildren, today. And we just go on. Life will always continue. And God says, but I made a covenant. Are you hearing me? Whenever you're confused, whenever you're disturbed, whenever you're confused about all the things that happen, look to the cross. There's the solution. God gave His Son, the Father, out of His great love with which He loved you and put His Son there to solve all this sorrow. Are we awake? Some of you live deeply every day struggling with failure. Who doesn't? Maybe falling back under that sort of terrible scrutiny of the law that what says all that you do constantly is such a failure. You ever wonder if God's really included you because the sins that have been committed are really so bad? Or that your sins are so great that God cannot accept you? Do you hear what the benediction is saying? So again, placement here. I'm going to send you out with a good word. The good word is, I gave my son for you before you were ever born. Knowing fully every sin that you would ever commit. Knowing the depths of the depravity of your human heart. Every last one of them. I gave him and the son said cheerfully, I will go to pay for them all. We would have no peace. I would have no good message today if this covenant had not been made. You would be hanging, and go to the Edward sermon, indeed, like a string over the pit of hell. Ready to be dropped in any moment. Forever. The God of peace who made this eternal covenant with His Son. You notice the inclusion in this? It comes with another great benefit. Notice what it says. that great shepherd of the sheep. How could you not think of Psalm 23? The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He is constantly watching over us. He is committed to constantly care for us. He is committed to provide for us and to keep us in the valley of the shadow of death and whatever sorrow that we are to walk, whatever's appointed in his providences, whether the bright providences or the dark providences, He is with us and He is shepherding us the whole way. It's a good word I'm sending you with. I'm shepherding you. You don't lack anything. And you understand this. And you understand how marvelous the Christian gospel is. The benefits that He wants you to enjoy. You understand that that peace that is given to you is something He means for you to carry with you every moment of your lives. We have some most important questions today. Are you enjoying peace? Do you know peace? In the face of all the evil and hardship and suffering and death, he's not a God of wrath to you who live by faith, but of peace. Pastors have to figure out all these different sort of ways to say this, you know, to sort of like shake up and wake up the people to it. It's just so wonderful. it gets even better. Now may the God of peace equip you with everything good that you may do His will, working in us that which is well-pleasing in His sight. Here's something to believe. Here's a good word to take with you today. The Lord is not under delusions about you. He's not under delusions about your abilities, brothers and sisters. He doesn't say, oh, wow, I can't believe they can't do this. I've said many times, many challenging things in this series. I've preached the law, as you know, as a pastor's called to preach the law, and you remember the challenges that come with that, that at times you feel, who can do this? Well, you should feel that. But he's under no delusion that you have some kind of ability, in and of yourselves, to do what his law calls you to do, apart from what he said a little bit ago, that your hearts are established by grace. I think many times we listen to God this way and this becomes a sort of out for people. This is just all impossible. This is all impossible. At every point we seem to fail. We have huge failures in keeping the law. And I think some of us probably maybe at times feel like responding to God, like that man in the parable who was given talents and he went and buried him and he came back to the landowner and said, I thought you to be a hard man. Who can do this? So I buried it. You're harsh. What kind of benediction is he sending you out with? Does this sound like a harsh God to us? A God who is under delusions about the problem of sin. Well, that law is preached, as the Heidelberg says, pointedly so that we feel the weight of it. There's no doubt. But that's why the gospel is then preached. Jesus responded harshly to that mentality. that views God as just an angry taskmaster who's constantly yelling at us and angry at us. Oh, He's wrathful. That's why you need a Savior. That's why the Son came. So that the servants who understood grace, understood the goodness of the landowner, came back and said, look what we've done. We've doubled our talents. Entirely different relationship there. Beaming with joy because the master's disposition was one of blessing to them. The debt's been paid. The relationship is one of peace because of a covenant. The God of peace gives you a good word today. He will, listen, equip you with everything good everything you need to fulfill his will for you think of all that he's given to us you know it's just it's overwhelming to contemplate all the good things god has done for us all the encouragement from the scriptures a ministry that continues to to bless gathering to be blessed to hear his word giving you an avenue of prayer to talk to the king right to the into the throne room to receive help from him gives you the grace of his holy spirit the spirit who works in our hearts to do the works that were prepared beforehand that we should walk in them he equips us and he says i will enable you to do what is well-pleasing in my sight what a verse this is my commitment because of this everlasting covenant i'm not under delusion i know very intimately that what i ask of you to do you cannot do in your own strength there's a reason when jesus said without me you can do nothing he meant that you have no power to do what you want to do this is our great problem for it's not that that once redeemed we lack a desire to do what we want to do we lack true power to do what we want to do this is paul the things that i don't want to do those i keep on doing that's a power issue And the very same power, Ephesians 1, that raised Christ Jesus from the dead is given to you. This is such a beautiful section on benediction. You know, you may not think that even giving a cup of cold water in his name matters much. That's him working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight. he enables us to stop thinking of ourselves it's a lifelong process we're all narcissists he enables us to stop serving ourselves to spend only on ourselves to live only for ourselves he anything that you have ever done for his glory his evidence of Him equipping you to do His will. And that's what He's committed to do. You hear that? He ends on this important note. He does all this because the glory of His Son who covenanted to do this is at stake. The glory of His Son. He's not going to dishonor His Son. The Father is not going to dishonor the Son. The Spirit bears witness of the Son. The Son went to the cross to pay for all of your sins so that you would be His reward. That's the point of all of this. He's not giving up. He does this through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs all the glory. That could never be said if all this rested on you. It would be said that it would have to be that the glory would be for you, but it's not. He does this so that glory would be to the son who died for you and precisely because he doesn't fail in what he did. I think he says something powerful to follow. This appeal, bear with my word of exhortation. I've written to you briefly. I think you all should say, keep going at this point, right? It's that good. The book ends with an interesting inclusion. Timothy's been released, whom I shall see that if he comes to you soon, he's going to come to you soon. Whoever the writer is, he was intimately involved in the ministry of Paul and Timothy, but it's somewhat surprising to me to read that Timothy was released. I don't really have any other data in the scripture to know, was Timothy in prison? I don't see how you understand it in any other way Timothy had been imprisoned and God released him to send him back to them so that the very apostles who were suffering for the gospel and giving their lives for the gospel and dying for the gospel might be an encouragement to them to say God is continuing to bless this ministry to you can't you see it he's coming what an encouragement all this is to us today beloved this epistle ends by saying greet your leaders and all the saints those who come from italy greet you what's the final note that this epistle ends with grace grace be with you all amen my unmerited favor the grace in which you stand the grace that upholds you, the grace that keeps you, the grace that cannot be taken away, may it be with all of you. That establishes your hearts, the coming of Christ, that grace. I will not leave you nor forsake you is the promise of the covenant of grace. The great shepherd of the sheep has said that to you. So, we have been given everything. A city that is promised to us. A city that has been built for us. Do you hear the calling of the book as we leave it? So therefore, don't leave Christ. He's your everything. It's all for His glory. Remain with Christ. Hold fast to Christ. In Him, He is the way, the truth, and the life. You have no other access to heaven. So receive this gift of the covenant of redemption and grace to you. For He who promised is faithful. And He still is speaking to us from heaven. And by that word will preserve us. That's what the book of Hebrews has been all about. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for blessing us today and encouraging us with such a fatherly benediction of your steadfast covenant love. It's good to meditate and reflect on something like this because sometimes we simply hear it in passing and think little of the marvels of what's being said to us. Keep us by Your grace, O Lord. Let us enjoy peace. Shepherd us in Your care. And equip us, for this is the desire of our heart, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to do everything that You have for us that is well-pleasing in Your sight. May we walk by faith and trust You in these times, even though we don't see Jesus reigning. He indeed is. And is seated far above all principalities and powers so let us continue to hear his voice through the ministry and thank you oh lord for sending us this day on from this epistle with a good word from heaven in jesus name we pray amen