Loading summary
Transcript5 lines
- [00:00]
A
You cannot accomplish God's will in your own strength. Here we have the assurance that his will will never lead us where his grace will not sustain us. He will equip us with everything good that we might do his will.
- [00:23]
B
We cannot come to God and live for him in our own strength. We need God to equip us from the beginning of the journey to the end. Hello and welcome to the Wednesday edition of Renewing youg Mind. As we consider some of the benedictions and doxologies that we find in scripture. Yesterday, Dr. H.B. charles Jr helped us consider God's ability. Today he will remind us that it is God who equips us.
- [00:52]
A
Welcome to this session of our study. In this session we'll discover great truth from a wonderful benediction in the final chapter of the Book of Hebrews. In the New Testament Hebrews chapter 13, verses 20 and 21 Many Christian worship services end with a benediction. Benediction is simply a blessing. Pastors have the privilege to of announcing prayerfully divine blessings on the people of God as they scatter from the place of corporate worship. The benediction is often announced simply by quoting the Scriptures. In my own pastoral practice, it is my custom to announce the benediction from Numbers 6, verses 24 through 26 the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord cause his face to shine upon you and be gracious towards you. The Lord lift his countenance unto you and grant you peace. But there are other passages that make wonderful benedictions, like Ephesians 3, 20 and 21. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us, or Jude 24 and 25 now to him who is able to keep us from stumbling and to present us blameless before his presence with great joy. For Second Corinthians, chapter 13, verse 14 the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. In this session. I want us to consider a benediction that might not be as well known as some of the others, but it is just as precious. In Hebrews chapter 13, verses 20 and 21, the writer declares at the end of this letter, 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. This deep rich Full benediction declares that there is power available in Christ to be all that God has called you to be and to do all that God has called you to do. They just said God helps those who help themselves. But that's not scripture, that's Ben Franklin. The scripture says just the opposite, that we are not able to help ourselves. But in Christ there is strength, power, help available from God to be all that God has called us to be and to do all that God has called us to do. Consider that your refrigerator dies. You have to get a brand new refrigerator. And since you've got to make this investment, you decide to get the best you can get. And you get one with all the bells and whistles. This thing could do everything but walk the dog and turn off the lights and lock the door. And when it arrives, you just want to see it full. You go grocery shopping and stock up just to see what it looks like full of food. Then you wake up the next morning and the food is spoiled, the frozen items have melted. This expensive refrigerator doesn't even work. You call up the company and you try to be as patient as you can, but you're frustrated and they're trying to help you figure out what's wrong. They cannot figure it out until finally the voice on the other end says, let's try one more thing. Open up the refrigerator and tell me if the light comes on. You do. It doesn't. Lean near the refrigerator and see if you can hear the hum of the engine. You do. You can't. One more thing. Look behind the refrigerator and tell me if it's plugged up. You do. It's not. And you want to save face. So you say, well, after all the money I spent, it should work anyhow. But unfortunately, this is the reality of how too many Christians live. Potential, but no power. But it doesn't have to be that way. It is not God's intention for the Christian life to be that way. He has made available to us in the Lord Jesus Christ all the help and strength and power available that we might be what he has called us to be and do what he has called us to do. That's the message of this benediction. In Hebrews 13, verses 20 and 21. It declares two great truths. One looks back and the other looks ahead. Looking back, the writer declares that God has done great things for us in Christ. Then, looking forward, he says, God will do great things for us in Christ. First he says, God has done great things for us in Christ. Verse 20 is just all invocation. He declares 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. In this invocation he gives us three reasons why we should trust God for the help that we need. Three reasons why we should trust God for the help that we need. Reason number one. God is the God of peace. He is the God of peace. Hebrews is written to at risk Jewish Christians who are tempted to walk away from their faith because of severe persecution. The anonymous author of Hebrews writes to exhort the readers to continue in the faith because simply what they have in Christ is infinitely better than what they had in Judaism. Having made that case, he now closes this letter to these troubled Christians, commending them to God's care. And in so doing he declares that God is the God of peace. What is peace? It is more than the absence of hostility and animosity and trouble. It is more than the absence of negative realities. The idea of peace in the Bible is wholeness and completeness and blessing and fulfillment. When in the Old Testament one would say to another, peace be with you, he's not saying merely, I hope you don't get into a fight today. It is a positive statement of blessing. May God's help and strength and favor be yours. Peace be with you. The question is, where does this peace come from? That's the emphasis here. He is saying that true peace comes only from God. God is the God of peace. Where there is God, there is peace. Where there is true peace, there is God. God is the source of peace. God is the substance of peace. God is the sustainer of peace. God is the supply of peace. Isaiah 26, verse 3. You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you. The one who runs to the cross and trusts the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation is a beneficiary of peace with God, says Romans 5:1. Having been justified by faith, we now have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Sin makes us enemies of God, but the blood and righteousness of Christ brings peace with God. But not only does the Christian have peace with God, he has access to the peace of God. Philippians chapter 4, verses 6 and 7 says, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your heart and mind through Christ Jesus. John Blanchard commented there that the peace of God is being grateful for past mercy, conscious of present mercy and certain of future mercy. God is the God of peace. Secondly, he says you should trust God to do for you what you cannot do for yourself, because God raised Jesus from the dead. This letter to the Hebrews is about the superiority of the Lord Jesus Christ. It focuses on his exaltation and his present intercessory ministry on our behalf as our great High priest. Interestingly, this 20th verse is the only direct reference to the resurrection in the book of Hebrews. Focusing on the exalted Christ, he assumes the resurrection of Jesus, but here he explicitly states that God raised Jesus from the dead. The Gospels emphasize the fact of the resurrection. The Epistles are emphasizing the significance of the resurrection, and this is what we find here. Proof that the Lord is able to help you to live obediently, to resist temptation, to suffer joyfully, is that he raised Christ Jesus from the dead. Romans 8, verse 11. If the Spirit of Him who raised Christ from the dead dwells in you, he is able to give life to our mortal bodies by that same spirit that lives in us. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the stress test of divine omnipotence. Whatever we face, if it doesn't require more of God than what it took to raise Jesus from the dead, we have guarantee that he is able to handle it. He raised Jesus from the dead. Here we are reminded that as Christians, we don't just believe in the fact of the resurrection of Christ. We live in the power of the resurrection of Christ. We are Easter people. We live as Paul says in Philippians 3 and 10, by the power of his resurrection. Speaking of this raised Christ, he parenthetically refers to him as the great shepherd of the sheep. John 10, verse 11. Jesus says, I am the good shepherd, and the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. John 10, verse 11 says, he is the good shepherd that died for us here. Hebrews 13:20 says, he's the great shepherd that was raised from the dead for us. In First Peter, chapter 5, verse 4, the apostle says, he's the chief shepherd who is coming back again for us. The little boy was reciting Psalm 23, verse 1 in the Sunday school program and couldn't remember it and just declared it, the Lord is my shepherd, and that's all I know. But if that's all you know, that is enough. He is the great shepherd of the sheep who has been raised from the dead after dying for our sins. There's one more reason why we should trust the Lord to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Because of who he is. He is the God of peace and because he has raised Jesus Christ from the dead. And then finally, in that bottom part of verse 20, we should trust God because of the blood of the eternal covenant. Really, interpreters don't know the relationship of this clause to the rest of what's being said here. It may be saying that he raised up Christ from the dead by the blood of the eternal covenant, or that going forward he equips you with everything good by the blood of the eternal covenant. Either way you read it, you get it right. It is interesting to note, though, that the resurrection here is mentioned before the blood. Of course, historically, chronologically, Good Friday happens before Easter. But here he says first that he was raised from the dead by the blood of the eternal covenant. Truth of the matter is, Good Friday is not Good Friday without Easter Sunday morning. How do we know that God was pleased with what Jesus accomplished at the cross? It is because he raised him from the dead in a real sense, as the language of the text says, he raised up the Lord Jesus by the blood of the eternal covenant. Can one lose their salvation? It all depends on what saved you. If you are saved by your own works, that is not going to save you. But we are saved forever by the blood of an eternal covenant. Do you hear the Lord Jesus in John 10, verses 28 through 30 declaring, I will give them eternal life and they will never perish, and no one can pluck them out of my hand. My Father who gave them to Me is greater than all, and no one can pluck them out of My Father's hand. I and the Father are one. So this benediction assures us that we could trust God to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Because God has already done great things for us in Christ. And it's as if he says his faithfulness in the past is his resume for the future. God has done great things for us in Christ. Verse 20. And then verse 21 teaches that God will do great things for us in Christ. Verse 20 is the subject. 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. Verse 21 is the predicate of the sentence. May that God, in all of his goodness, greatness and glory, 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. There is in verse 21 a prayer for equipment and a prayer for enablement. A twofold prayer There is first a prayer for equipment. This is the primary petition. May the God of peace equip you with everything good that you may do his will. This word equip is rich. It is the picture of soldiers being equipped with weapons for battle. It is the picture of a fisherman mending his net. It is the picture of a doctor repairing a broken bone. It means to make ready, to make fit, to mend. In fact, the picture of a fisherman mending his net or a doctor setting a bone is the picture of restoration that being used after it has been broken. With this rich term he says, may God, who brought again the Lord Jesus from the dead, equip you, make you fit, make you ready, make you prepared, even restoring the broken places of your life. May God make you capable and ready and equipped for what May he equip you with what? With everything good. James 1:17 says, Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of Lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. God is the source of everything good. But here he is not picturing God as the source of everything good. He is referring to here the comprehensiveness of God's good gifts. He equips us with everything good love and joy and peace, goodness and kindness and gentleness and patience and self control and any other good thing we need to resist temptation, live obediently, serve faithfully, witness boldly, suffer joyfully. He will equip you with everything good. For what purpose? That you may do his will. Notice he doesn't say anything here about finding God's will. God's will is not lost. He assumes God wants you to know his will. The emphasis here is that you cannot accomplish God's will in your own strength. Good intentions are not enough. Good works are not enough. Good effort is not enough. Here we have the assurance that his will will never lead us where his grace will not sustain us. He will equip us with everything good that we might do his will Proverbs 3 verses 5 and 6 trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding in all your ways, acknowledge him and he will direct your path. In a real sense, that proverb is saying, if you are on God's path, if you are obediently trusting and obeying him, even if you are on a path and it leads to a river in front of you, you can trust that God will either send the ship, build a bridge, or teach you to swim. He'll equip you with everything good that you might do his will. So there is a prayer for equipment and then there's a prayer for enablement. How does God equip you with everything good that you might do his will? The next phrase says, he does it by working in us. So in a real sense, God does not so much equip us with everything good as he equips us with Himself. God dwells within to equip us with everything good that we might do his will. He Himself is working in us that we might do what is pleasing in his sight. Is this not what Paul affirms In Philippians chapter 2, verses 12 and 13? Philippians 2:12 exhorts us to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. And then Philippians 2:13 assures us, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure. In fact, that's homework. Homework is to set Philippians 2:13 to memory and just learn how to rehearse that verse in the morning as you start your day. Just ask yourself questions and let Philippians 2:13 answer like, who can I count on to be with me today? Answer it is God. Where will he be today? Working? Where will he be working in you? How will he be working both to will and to work? That is, God shapes our desires and our ability. He shapes our attitude and our conduct. And why does God work in us? For his good pleasure. He equips us with everything good that we might do his will. But of course, this only comes through Jesus Christ. It only comes through Jesus Christ. Colossians 1:17 says, he's the one that holds all things together. It comes through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. And so this benediction actually ends with a doxology. The God who equips us, the God who enables us through Jesus Christ, is worthy of glory forever and ever. The one who is enabled and equipped by God does not have the right to remain silent. The psalmist declares, let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom the Lord has redeemed out of trouble. Amen.
- [24:54]
B
Amen. It's always an encouragement to hear H.B. charles Jr. Open God's word. Dr. Charles is our guest teacher this week on Renewing youg Mind, and you're hearing messages from his series Blessing and Benedictions and Doxologies in Scripture. If you'd like to add this series to your collection, request the DVD set when you give a donation at renewingyourmind.org or when you call us at 800-435-4343 along with the DVD, you'll have lifetime digital access to the messages and the study guide. In case you want to study this more deeply with your family or with a small group, simply respond now@renewingyourmind.org and we'll get this series to you. Thank you. Tomorrow, Dr. Charles draws our attention to Jude's closing doxology, explaining what it means that God is able to preserve us on Earth and to present us to himself in glory. Be sure to join us Thursday here on Renewing youg Mind.
- [26:09]
A
Sam.