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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/gordon-williams/holy-brethren/
Hebrews chapter 3, please. Hebrews chapter 3 and verse 1. Hebrews 3 and verse 1, Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.
God will bless to us the reading of his word. I'd like to leave with you very quickly, please, three little thoughts out of verse 1 of the Hebrew letter. We began this morning with these lovely thoughts as our brother Murray led us through chapter 2, thoughts of Christ.
Now we've been privileged to enjoy the remembrance of Christ. Wherefore, holy brethren, I want to think of that little word brethren, it was introduced in chapter 2, and give you these three things in relation to it.
Number one, the character of these brethren. Will you notice that they are holy brethren? Could I ask you to notice the calling of these brethren? It's said to be a heavenly calling. And then thirdly, it mentions the consideration of these brethren, and the consideration of the brethren is given in a twofold way, the Apostle and High Priest and Christ Jesus.
Holy brethren, in our Bible you will appreciate this. God is holy, and if we follow through our Bible we learn this, that the word holy, it carries with it the thought of something that is set apart. We'll find not only is it that God is holy in the Bible, but things that are set apart for God are often called holy things.
When Moses went to the burning bush, it was called holy ground. I don't suppose the ground itself might have been any different from ground elsewhere, but God was there and that made all the difference.
In the tabernacle you'll read of holy vessels and holy sacrifices. What's for God is holy because it's been set apart. Wherefore, holy brethren. This is written to New Testament believers. Our brother reminded us this morning, there were those out of the realm of Judaism, the Hebrew people, there are believers in view.
I don't doubt the letter itself encompasses the nation, but it's written to believers. Holy brethren, we come this morning and every one of us should be so thankful for these two words, because they tell us what God has done for us.
Holy brethren, God has set us apart. He has set us apart for himself, but Christians, just for a moment, how has God set us apart? In doing so, remember, he gave the dearest and best that he had. God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten Son.
How has he set us apart? He set us apart by salvation. He set us apart on the basis of redemption. He set us apart on the basis of the shed blood of Christ on Calvary's cross. Remember, we are purchased by that infinite, that thing of infinite value, the precious blood of Christ.
You remember, we're bought with a price. A threefold way in your New Testament, you'll see redemption in relation to the believer. Redeemed, Peter would tell us, by the precious blood of Christ. Redeemed, we find in the little letter to Titus, from all iniquity.
Redeemed from the curse of the law, you'll find in the Galatian letter. We, these are holy brethren, and no matter what you and I think of ourselves, remember, because of what Christ has done for us, we're set apart.
In what way are we set apart? We're set apart from what we were, and what were we? We were sinners on a road that led to hell. Now we're set apart in that we're saints on the road to heaven. We were individuals in a kingdom of darkness.
Now we were put into the kingdom of light. We were in the realm of sin and death and destruction. Now we're brought into all the blessings that are ours in heavenly places in Christ. It's written to holy brethren.
It's written to you, and it's written to me. Partakers of a heavenly calling, you will remember that Paul, writing to Timothy, will use the word holy calling. In the Philippian letter, Paul would speak of it as a high calling, and here it is, the heavenly calling.
That little word calling, incidentally, it's used 11 times in our New Testament. In all but one of them, 1 Corinthians 7 will give you a threefold way in which the very same word is used of a believer's position in life, whether marital, social, or religious.
But in all of the others, it has to do with the calling of God in relation to what we call salvation. Pick it up in Corinthians, will you? You know your calling, brethren, and it goes on to say, not many noble, and so on.
Thank God for the calling of God in salvation. Incidentally, the little word calling here, the little Greek word that's used, it's klasia. If you put the ek in front of it, you have the church, the assembly, the outcalling.
That's the word that's here. But a heavenly calling, I suggest to you again, it's a holy calling because it's of God. It's a high calling because it's far above anything of this earth. But when you come to the heavenly calling of Hebrews, just remember, it's heavenly in contrast to earthly.
Israel's calling was an earthly calling. Israel's calling was from one country to another. Our calling is from here to glory. Our calling is linked with Christ. It's a heavenly calling. We should be so thankful that we are holy, brethren, because of the blood of Christ.
We have a heavenly calling. It comes from God. It comes from heaven. It comes from outside, and it's a wonderful thing. One day, we're going to be taken right up there to be with the Lord Jesus. But we not only have the character of the brethren, the calling of the brethren, the consideration of the brethren, and the consideration is Christ.
Christians, this has been mentioned at the conference, we need the spiritual food of the Word of God. The only thing that's going to keep us as believers is the Bible, God's Word and God's truth. I am impressed with the number of young people that I've seen at this conference and the Stout Conference.
But I will say just now to you preachers and elders, it is the Word of God that individuals, that Christians need. Not entertainment, but the spiritual truths of the Word of God. And if we lose sight of that, we are in trouble.
The believer's consideration is Christ. What have we got in Christ in this lovely book? The epistle to the Hebrews is Christ all the way through. Our little verse starts with the word wherefore, holy brethren.
You've all heard this cliche a thousand times likely. Whenever you'll see a word wherefore or therefore in your Bible, ask yourself, what's the therefore therefore? And the epistle to the Hebrews will open with two chapters that give us a two-fold presentation of Christ.
Then the development of Christ from chapter 3 on over to chapter 13. I sometimes enjoy this little thought that the book of the Psalms will start with a two-fold presentation of Christ. The blessed man of Psalm 1, remember, is Christ on earth, Christ in life.
And then thou art my son, Psalm 2, is the rejected king who sits now at God's right hand in glory. So the Psalms will start with Christ on earth and take him to glory in Psalm 2 and then give us the beauty of the Psalms as you go onward.
But Hebrews will start with Christ in glory and bring him to earth. And so when you pick up the letter to the Hebrews, then our brother Murray mentioned this this morning, you'll remember, please, he is the Son of God in chapter 1.
He is the Son of Man in chapter 2. He is greater than the angels in chapter 1. He is lower than the angels in chapter 2. You have the supremacy of Christ in chapter 1. You have the manifestation and humiliation of Christ in chapter 2.
You have Christ as the Apostle, the one with God, coming from God in chapter 1. You have Christ the priest in chapter 2. He comes from God to man. He goes from man to God. We have all the lovely things of Christ as we look at him in these two chapters at the very beginning.
But I just want to quickly leave with you this, in the consideration of Christ, that the Spirit of God in the epistle to the Hebrews will develop the theme of Christ from chapter 1 all the way through.
Did we not notice this morning that in a sevenfold way in chapter 1, seven little quotations out of the Old Testament, the scriptures that the Hebrews would know, that the Jews would appreciate. Seven little passages are lifted to show that the S-O-N of the Old Testament is superior to all of the angelic realm.
In fact, he created them all. The S-O-N is greater. The marvel of it all is that the sun became lower than the angels for the suffering of death. He's greater than the angels in chapter 1. That'll be the theme that runs through there.
When we come to chapter 2, could I repeat to you that he's greater than Adam. You'll have four lovely things said about Adam in his creation, but you'll know this, that Adam failed and Christ never failed.
You'll know that Adam was entrusted with something. Because of disobedience, disaster came into this world. And it's a whole new theme, but younger believers, pick it up, will you? You can go into 1st Corinthians 15, go into the book of the Revelation, and you'll find this, that whatever came in that's wrong as a result of Adam.
Ah, in Christ that wrong is done away. Did death come through Adam? It did. But life comes through Christ. Did sin come through Adam? It did, but righteousness comes through Christ. Did the sorrow and the curse and the crying and the tears and all of these things come through Adam?
They'll go out with Christ. He's taken them away. That's why when you go to the book of the Revelation, you're into the no more sections, no more of these things. That's why I said in 1st Corinthians 15, the contrast between Adam and Christ.
Christ is greater than Adam. He's greater than the angels, chapter 1. He's greater than Adam, chapter 2. You come into chapter 3 of the Epistles of the Hebrews. What do we have now? We have Christ greater than Moses.
What has Moses done? Moses, you will remember, is the Savior. Moses is the Deliverer. Moses is the one that God sent from the outside to Israel. I'm saying that deliberately. Sent from the outside to bring Israel out.
What did he bring them out from? He brought them out of the kingdom of Pharaoh. He brought them out of the bondage, the slavery of Egypt. He brought them out from all of their sorrowing and groaning and cries unto God.
He brought them out. I tell you, listen, we come to Christ. He's greater than Moses. In chapter 3, it's not the house of Israel that's in view, but a different house altogether. And we deal not with the servant in the house, but the Son over the house.
What has Christ done? He's brought us out, not from the land of Egypt, not from under the bondage of an earthly king, but he's brought us out from a different kingdom, I would say to you, picking up the Colossian language.
He's brought us out from the darkness that we were in, in our despair and our sin, and on that downward road. He's brought us out from bondage all right, but it's a spiritual bondage. He's brought us out from the awful doom of what we were in our sins and linked with the awful man who is in control of this world, Satan himself.
Oh, Christ is greater than Moses. When you come to chapter 4, you'll notice this. Christ is now greater than Joshua. What did Joshua do for them? Why. Joshua would have taken them from the wilderness into the land of milk and honey.
Joshua would have taken them across the Jordan River. Joshua would have taken them in to possess what God had put before them. What has Christ done? Oh, Christ has taken us Christians into something far better.
You will remember we're brought into the blessings of heavenly places in Christ Jesus. There'll be no battles to be fought in heaven. There'll be no enemy to contend with in heaven. There'll be no famines, no obstacles in God's heaven.
Christ has brought us into something that Joshua couldn't do. When you go to the Hebrew Epistle, then come to chapter 5. If he's been seen as greater than the angels, greater than Adam, greater than Moses, greater than Joshua.
I tell you now in chapter 5, he's greater than Aaron. Aaron, the priest of the Old Testament, you remember, had a work that was ongoing. On a daily basis, there are offerings to take. On an annual basis, there's atonement to be made.
Aaron's was an unending work. Aaron's was a work that would never make the comers thereof perfect, never give peace to the conscience. But look at the Lord Jesus. All Christians, when he came, unlike Aaron, Christ was a priesthood.
Christ was a work that would be once and forever done when he goes to the cross of Calvary. Christ was a work that can give peace to a needy soul. It gives peace to a conscience. You and I, we can put our heads on the pillow at night and we can say all this well between ourselves and God.
Oh, when you think of Aaron, chapter 5, Christ is greater than Aaron. It's been sometimes said Aaron never could sit. And of course, in Hebrews, you'll find Christ sitting. It's just symbolic and reminding us of that unending work of the old, where's the finished work of the new.
Christ saves to the uttermost. But there is another lovely way you might contemplate Aaron for a minute. When Aaron came out on the day of atonement, he'd been inside the veil. When he came out to meet the people, you remember there's a whole process that's going to start again for a whole new year.
I would tell you our great high priest, Christ, one day is coming out from inside the veil. When he does, he'll do something that Aaron never did and never could do. He's going to take his people inside the veil to be with them.
Aaron never did that, could never do that. Christ will. He'll take you and me one day when a shout will be given and a transformation takes place, right inside the veil of heaven itself, into the very presence of the glory of God.
Christ is greater than Aaron. You move on in Hebrews, you'll find Christ is greater than the offerings. Back to the Old Testament, you look, there are the different categories of offerings, five chapters of them at the beginning of Leviticus.
And even if you go into the five different realms of offerings, there are different ones within. If you look at the burnt offering, you've got the bullock and the goat and the lamb, the turtle dove and the pigeon and so on.
And all of them are different shades of meaning, all of them are different purposes, lovely truths associated with them, all of them pictures of Christ. But Christ is the completeness of it all. Christ is greater than the offerings.
So that when we come to the epistle to the Hebrews, this man, when he had offered one sacrifice for sin, forever sat down at the right hand of God. The greatness of Christ is all the way through the epistle to the Hebrews.
Could I mention just quickly again, 13 times in this little letter, the word better, I think our brother mentioned that this morning, 13 times the thought of better and greater. 13 times in this letter, the word angels is mentioned.
13 times in this letter, the word Christ is mentioned. 13 times in this letter, the word Jesus is mentioned. And younger believers always watch in your New Testament. When we say Christ, when we say Jesus, you know who we're talking about.
One is a name, call his name Jesus. The other is a title. Jesus is Christ. There is no doubt about it in our Bible. Christ means the anointed one, the promised one of the Old Testament scriptures. Jesus is the Christ.
Or as the Apostle Paul would tell us, Christ is Jesus. But he's also Lord Jesus Christ. So when in Hebrews we read the word Jesus, remember this. It's giving, as our brother mentioned, his earthly name to show us that the one who walked here upon earth, he's now the priest in the glory.
All these 13s, there are 13 chapters to the epistle to the Hebrews. The 13th chapter, if you go to the 13th verse, has 13 words in it. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp bearing his reproach.
We consider Christ wherefore holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ the one from God, Jesus the one of earth, and our places outside the systems, outside of it all.
As the sin offering was taken outside the camp, Christ was led outside Jerusalem to Calvary, and our place is outside of everything with the Christ of God. May God bless his word.