Great Is Jesus' Faithfulness - [Hebrews 3:1-6]

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Why don't you take your Bibles, please, and turn to the book of Hebrews. The book of Hebrews, we're going through verse by verse, and we've come to chapter 3.
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I could start off the sermon maybe another way. When someone's hurting, how do you comfort them? Someone's going through a trial, how do you come alongside of them?
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Maybe somebody's getting persecuted for their faith in Syria, and maybe you Skype them, what would you tell them on Skype?
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What if you met Christians in Lebanon, and their houses are being taken from them? What kind of advice might you give them?
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And it's fascinating, because in the book of Hebrews, that exact thing is happening. People are losing possessions, and they're on the run.
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And the author gives advice, but it's interesting advice. It's counterintuitive advice.
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Here's the advice. Let me remind you about Jesus. Think long and hard about Jesus.
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Let me remind you of the author of your salvation, the captain of your soul.
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And you can imagine, if you're in a trial, or you're in a temptation, or something's going on with you, we instantly kind of bear down, and we focus on that problem.
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How do I get out of it? I need relief. Where's the ejection seat?
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But it's interesting, in the inspired Scripture in the book of Hebrews, the focus is primarily on who
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Jesus is. I could ask you another question, maybe put it this way. What's the difference between faith and faithfulness?
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Is there a difference? If I say, what is faith? You might say, well, this is how I respond to the
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Lord, and what I do. But that's faithfulness. Faith has an object, and faith isn't faithfulness.
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If faith is, I'm kind of working through how I respond to God, then what's faithfulness?
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Faithfulness is responding to God. But faith is focused on the object,
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Christ Jesus. And that's exactly what the writer of Hebrews wants. He wants you to get a picture of who
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Jesus is. So in the midst of persecution, and then anything lesser, you say to yourself, if my focus turns inward on me and my faithfulness first,
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I'm going to fail. If it starts with faith in Jesus, he's faithful, he won't fail.
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Then out of the view of my Lord and Savior, looking to him, then faithfulness will follow.
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And that's what happens in Hebrews. So if I want to summarize it again, when you have a view to the faithfulness of Jesus, you will respond with faithfulness.
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Faith yields faithfulness. And so the writer says, let's just take a good, long look at Jesus before we give you any practical how -to steps.
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I mean, I'm very interested just between us, as my dad used to say, just between us girls.
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He'd always say that to me and my buddies. Why? I guess it's okay now because you can be a transgendered person and win the wrestling match for the state, but that's another sermon.
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I like that sound because I'm trying to think what I was going to say. I went to the wrestling match thing and forgot my train of thought.
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What was it again? What was I talking about? Somebody help me. Faith and faithfulness. What? Between us girls.
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I know I got that part, but just before that. I know. Oh, I've got it.
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I've got it. This is live radio. I'm interested to find this out.
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It's going to take us several years to get through the book of Hebrews. I wonder how many will make it through in terms of staying here at the church and attending when week in and week out from the book of Hebrews, you simply get a view of who
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Jesus is. The way to grow a church with numbers is to talk about marriage this week, child raising next week, finances the week after, repeat.
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That's how you grow a church and you also fix the parking lot. That's how you grow a church. But for the writer of Hebrews, he just will not stop talking about the supremacy of Jesus.
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That's all he'll discuss. They're getting persecuted. They are struggling more than we are.
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But he wants to remind them over and over and over. You think angels are great? Jesus is better. You think
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Moses was great? Jesus is better. You think Aaron was a great priest? Jesus is a greater high priest.
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And it keeps going on and on and on. We had some visitors to the church this morning.
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I said hello to them. And then I said, if you love Jesus, you'll love this church. If you want something more than Jesus though, you're going to be disappointed.
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And so as we come back to the book of Hebrews, the focus is early on faith, that is in the object of Jesus, which then in later chapters will yield faithfulness.
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And what you're going to see is for you practically, when you're dealing with issues and trials, whatever they may be, instead of focusing on the problems, your initial focus needs to be, and remaining focus needs to be, on Jesus's faithfulness.
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Because friends, we realize even though we're Christian people, we're far from faithful.
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If I come to your deathbed, would you rather have me say to you, let me remind you about Jesus's faithfulness and what he did for you, how he was your advocate and is your advocate, and how he's your friend, and how he died for you, and how he'll never break his promises, and how he will never cast you out, and how he's the same, and his love could never change for you.
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Let me remind you about Jesus. Would you rather have me talk that way, or would you rather have me say to you,
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I know you've been sick, but have you been praying like you should on your deathbed? Have you been evangelizing all the nurses?
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Are you anxious at all? Are you content? Now, of course, it would be good to pray on our deathbed, and we probably will, and it will be good to evangelize, and it will be good to try to be faithful.
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But we realize we've fallen short. Wouldn't you rather have me talk to you about the faithful Jesus?
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And that is the difference between walking by faith or walking by faithfulness.
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And the writer of Hebrews will say there is a place for faithfulness, of course, but it stems from, it's a fruit of, it's an evidence of faith, because faith isn't faithfulness.
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Faith has an object, and he is the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, as you know, chapter 1, just to catch us up, it's been several weeks since we've been in the book of Hebrews.
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Chapter 1, Jesus is greater than angels. Angels are great.
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You'd probably fall down and want to worship them if you saw them, but Jesus is greater because he's the
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Son. And then it says down in verse 14 of chapter 2, which is really the launching pad for chapter 3, because chapter 3, verse 1, starts off with a therefore.
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I want to remind you of the great Christ Jesus in verse 14 through 18 of chapter 2, which ends with a veritable bang.
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2 .14, Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.
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For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation or assuage the wrath of God for the sins of the people.
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For because he himself emphatically has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
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And now we move to chapter 3. And chapter 3 is very simple. There's an exposition of Jesus' faithfulness.
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Moses was faithful, but Jesus is more faithful. And then he gives a warning. Let's take a look at that.
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This is very Pauline. This is very much in line with the author of Hebrews as well.
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There's an exhortation and then there's a ground for the exhortation. There's some imperatives and then there's a reason why the imperatives are given.
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Verse 1 of chapter 3. I think it'll be good for us to read this, so you can just see where he's going before we go back to verse 1 and dive into it deeply.
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Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider
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Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all
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God's house. For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses.
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As much more glory as the builder of the house has more honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is
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God. Now, Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant to testify to the things that were to be spoken later.
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But Christ is faithful over God's house as son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confession and boasting in our hope.
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So this morning, we're going to look at Hebrews chapter 3 verses 1 through 6.
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And the clear focus is with these two words.
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Do you see it in verse 1? Consider Jesus. That's the imperative.
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Everything revolves around this. Consider Jesus. If you wanted me to summarize my sermon this morning, it would be this.
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A determined consideration of Jesus Christ encourages you to faithfulness, even in difficult times.
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A determined focus on Jesus drives you to faithfulness, even in hard times.
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I could flip it around. Unbelief leads to spiritual train wrecks. A focus on self, a focus on circumstances, a focus on getting out of your trial is not going to help you in your sanctification.
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Now, the outline is basically several considerations about Jesus, but before we get into that, let's look at the word consider and see what's happening because everything revolves around this in verse 1.
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Consider Jesus. This is the key imperative driving everything.
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This is the command. And actually, this is the remedy. This is the solution.
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This is what He's after. You're suffering. You're getting persecuted. You're thinking maybe you might want to go back to your old religious system of Judaism or maybe you're here today and you're thinking, you know what,
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I used to be in the Catholic Church. I'm not in the Catholic Church anymore, but I sure hear the siren song of Catholicism beckoning me back.
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Maybe I should go back to that. The remedy is a meditation on Christ and His work,
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His person, His redemptive work. Now, this word basically means to think, but when you add a prefix to the
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Greek word, it gives it intensity. And so, this is the word to think. It's to use your mind.
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But then it's got this word in the front of it. And so, it's to think. And the front word is down, think down, bear down.
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Concentrate. It's almost like you're looking up, but to think hardly about this, to consider.
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You've got to kind of focus down in. And that's the word here, to think, fix your thoughts.
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To notice, to see the observations. Many times in this church, I've used the illustration of, remember 20 years ago, they had those books and it looked like just a bunch of random stuff.
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And if you thought about it, if you considered it, if you bore down on it with your mind, you could see something emerge.
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Write a 3D book, you kind of look through it and you're like, that thing's kind of coming out at me. What were those called, by the way?
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What did you say? Magic eye? Pagans. Magic eye.
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It's like the Greek magic eye, you know. Well, they were called that, but they're technically called stereograms.
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And you would look, but you'd have to look. And you can just, remember the first time you did it? It took a long time of concentration.
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And for us, it's so easy. I mean, I do it all the time. Of course, I remember Jesus. And I'm in a trial and I remember Him. And I'm not going to deny
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Him or anything like that. But here, you're struggling. It's time to batten down a little bit.
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It's time to take time to meditate. This is not just like, kind of throw it up there. This is a consideration about the faithfulness of Jesus.
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This word is used when Jesus said, consider the lilies of the field.
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Consider the ravens, remember? And the birds, they don't work. So if I look outside my window today, and I did, and I see a bird,
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I'm just observing, oh, there's a bird. There's a cardinal. There's a blue jay. There's that rabid pheasant
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I see again. That's not consideration.
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Because if I just look at the bird, I don't think, you know what? God is so good, He even takes care of birds.
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They don't have U -Hauls. They don't have storage places. They don't have refrigerators. God just feeds them.
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How do I begin to think that way? By considering. By asking questions.
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By observing. By wondering. That's the word consideration. I know you because I am one of you.
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If I'm in a trial, my gut instinct is to focus on how do
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I deal with that trial? That's why the command has to be given, consider Christ.
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God already is going to know, okay, we're going to think about all that. And I'm not going to try, hopefully this will just be, you know, in the rearview mirror soon enough.
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But I will share this particular thing because it's so apropos, because I just do this. I am a cancer expert.
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In the short time of three months, I'm a prostate cancer expert. You want to know about Gleason scores, 3 plus 3, 3 plus 4, 4 plus 3.
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You want to know about pathology. You want to know about core biopsies. You want to know about active surveillance. You want to know about radiation, brachytherapy, open prostatectomy, da
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Vinci prostatectomy. I know it. Because what happens? You're in a trial and it's like you bear down on, you think down on all this stuff, all the research, all the
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YouTubes, all the books, all the people sending you things about nutrients and nutrition and everything else.
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And you are focused and you are all in. At least I am or was. And then there gets to be a time where you just go, you know, do
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I focus on the cancer or do I focus on who Jesus is? And it's time to just get rid of all the cancer books, get rid of all the cancer videos, get rid of all this, that and the other and, you know, let's get rid of the cancer too.
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But that's another sermon. And to focus and to meditate. These people in Hebrews were on the run and they were losing a lot.
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They hadn't lost their lives yet but that was coming. And you can just imagine thinking, all right, what shall
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I focus on? If somebody comes busting through that door, where's our escape plan? If we do have to run, who in that other city down the way can give us food?
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How am I going to get my kids? What should we take from the house? And the list goes on and on and on.
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It is normal and it is natural and it's right for us to say, you know what, we have health problems, let's get the right kind of medical attention.
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But the focus here is not spent on self -analyzation. It's consider
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Christ. Luther said, when I think of what Christ suffered, I'm ashamed to call anything that I've endured suffering for His sake.
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Spurgeon. He carried His heavy cross but we only carry a sliver or two of it.
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He drank His cup to the dregs and we do not sip but a drop or two at the very most.
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Consider Him. Consider how He suffered more than you can ever suffer. And how
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He is now crowned with glory and honor. And so you are to be like Him. Descend like Him into the depths of agony, that with Him you may rise to the heights of glory.
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The writer of Hebrews is talking about faith. Focusing on the object of your faith.
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He goes on to write in chapter 11, now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
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When you focus on the faithfulness of Christ, it will lead to your faithfulness.
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If you focus on your faithfulness, you will see soon enough that you're not faithful and then you spiral down.
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True or false? The just shall live by faithfulness. The just shall live by faith.
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That's what's true. That's the very point of Romans chapter 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.
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And it is good news for people who are less than faithful. You say to yourself when you're walking by faith and you're in a difficult situation.
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I know that through this trial, something that's sure. The outcome might not be sure.
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The predicament might not be sure. But I know this is sure. I'm right with God.
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He loves me. I could stand before Him blameless with great joy as Jude says.
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He's doing this for my good. He's promised me that if He didn't spare His Son, He won't spare anything else.
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He's promised me that He works everything out for good. I'm right with God. And you know, of course, we realize that every person in the universe has a personal relationship with Jesus.
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Either of Savior or Judge. But you've got a personal relationship.
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People who are unbelievers might say, well, I'm not at war with Jesus. Well, friend, if you're not a believer, He's at war with you.
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How would you like that in the middle of your trial? You've got family problems and health problems and all these other kind of problems.
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And then you're like, and yeah, and God's my enemy. But for the Christian, Christian friend, no matter what's going on, you're thinking.
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I can trust God because He's faithful. And I'm right with Him because of the righteousness of Christ Jesus.
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I'm right with Him because of God's faithfulness. And a life of faith doesn't say, I've just got to be more faithful.
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Well, that will come later in Hebrews. But the life of faith says, I'm going to take God at His word now that He is who
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He is. And He's done what He said He's done. I think too often when
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I say the word faith, we think of us instead of the object of our faith. If I said to you, are you a person of faith?
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Somebody at work comes to you and says, are you a person of faith? And you go, yes, I am. What would you do to explain yourself?
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Yes, I'm a person of faith. If you say things like this,
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I go to church. I'm a member. I evangelize.
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I go to Bible studies. I pray. I recognize Good Friday and Easter.
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That's not a person of faith. That's a person of faithfulness.
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Those are good things. Don't get me wrong. But a person of faith, if somebody says to you, are you a person of faith?
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Thank you. I'm glad you gave me that low, slow, underhand pitch. Because we're at a Unitarian Universalist church and we're knocking it out of the pews.
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Are you a person of faith? Hebrews, are you people of faith? If you respond, why, yes,
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I am. Thanks for asking. Jesus Christ is Lord. He died on the cross. He lived a perfect life.
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And God vindicated Him by raising Him from the dead. And I take God at His word. I believe that Jesus, everything
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He said was true. And He's the sin bearer. And He's my substitute and my representative and my high priest.
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Jesus is the one. Yes, I'm trusting in that Jesus. I am a person of faith. And it's interesting, in 1517,
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Luther nails the 95 Thesis, 500 years ago. And while he wasn't saved yet at the time, he was on his way.
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God drawing him and bringing him to understand that faith means it's outside of us.
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Pietism means it's all inside of us. The focus of the Reformation said, Roman Catholicism, Pietism, it's all in the inside.
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And what you do to contribute to God, to be faithful. God has done His part. You do your part. Here's the sacraments. Here's this, that, and the other.
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I contribute. It's part of my faithfulness. And Luther came along, and then Calvin, and basically said, listen, it has nothing to do with that.
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It's external. Jesus died on a cross. Jesus was raised from the dead. Years ago,
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I was in a car with Sinclair Ferguson, not to drop any names or anything like that. And he asked me about the ministry here, and I told him.
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And he said, you know, you're writing some books? I said, yes, and giving it a try. And he said, oh, what are the books about?
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And I said, well, the first two books are about Jesus. He's a great preacher, and he's the sovereign king.
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And he goes, they'll never sell. Thanks. And I just picked up the
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Ruth Christ, you know, bill at the steakhouse. What do you mean, they'll never sell?
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He said, Christians don't want to read books about Jesus. They want to read books about what they should do. And you know what he's essentially saying?
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They don't want to study the object of their faith. Consider him. They want to talk about all the stuff they need to be faithful.
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Friends, if you're not in a trial, you're going to be in one. Say to yourself,
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I know my initial instinct will be, how do I work through all this issue? But then remember, consider him.
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He's the subject of your meditation. He's the prophet, priest, and king.
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One writer said, consider means to observe or consider carefully and attentively.
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The idea is to think about something very carefully or consider closely, which denotes the action of one's mind apprehending certain facts about a thing so as to give one the proper and decisive thought about the thing considered.
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You study the facts about someone, the historical details, the theological implications, so then you can set everything rightly in your mind to apprehend.
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Putting your mind down on Jesus, that's what faith is, which then leads to faithfulness.
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Consider Jesus. Thinking more about the
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Reformation, sola fide, faith alone. The great five solas, one of them was not faithfulness alone, because how would you fare?
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How would I fare? Bold trust in the grace of God found in Christ Jesus alone.
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Galatians 2 .20, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.
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Listen, and the life I now live in the flesh, what? I live by faithfulness in the
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Son of God. Is that right? See the difference? Faith is not faithfulness.
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Faith has an object of the faithful one. Faithfulness responds, I live by faith in the
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Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. Habakkuk 2, the righteous shall live by faith.
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Romans 1, the righteous shall live by faith. Galatians 3, the righteous shall live by faith.
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Hebrews 10, the righteous shall live by faith. These men and women in Hebrews were getting persecuted.
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They knew who Jesus was, and you can just tell their eyes are starting to go off of Jesus.
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Yeah, but what about the sacrifices? What about the incense? What about the priests?
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What about the music of the temple? What about the gold in the temple? What about the marble in the temple? What about that sweet -smelling, savory sacrifice that I could smell?
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What about all that? It just beckons. Actually, this is why many people these days are in evangelical churches, and they're leaving churches to go to Greek Orthodox churches,
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Russian Orthodox churches, and Roman Catholic churches. Why? Because of the liturgy. Because of the robes, and the vestments, and the pomp, and the circumstance.
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And here these people are in the book of Hebrews, getting persecuted in some little basement or cave, and they're like, yeah, but those were good days, and I like all that, and I could see things, tangible, and tactilely experience something.
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And the writer is saying, listen, if you have all that and you don't have Jesus, you've got nothing. But if you've got
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Jesus, your high priest, and you don't have any of that, you've got it all.
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You would not believe how many people are leaving evangelicalism to go back to essentially Judaism, but it's called
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Roman Catholicism because it's just external. One writer said, many
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Christians are spiritually weak and struggle with worry and anxiety, because why? What do you think the writer is going to say?
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Lots of people have anxiety, and they go through worry because of what? Interesting.
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Many Christians are spiritually weak and struggle with worry and anxiety because they don't know the depths and riches of Christ Jesus.
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Jesus promised rest for our souls when we learn of Him, Matthew 11. Do you really enjoy your
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Christian life? Is it so exciting you can hardly stand it? That's how it ought to be.
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Does the fellowship and presence of Jesus Christ thrill you? If not, perhaps you don't know
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Him as well as you might. Consider Him. Paul wanted to know
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Jesus more, Philippians 3, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and may share
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His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death. The New Testament uses the word consider in a variety of different places.
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Let me just read some to you. And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye but don't consider the log that's in your own eye?
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Acts 7, Moses saw the burning thorn bush and approached it to consider it more closely.
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Romans 4, Abraham's careful consideration of his own body and Sarah's dead womb, yet accepting by faith
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God's promise. And this one's interesting, James 1, of the one who looks at his natural face in the mirror or considers it.
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So you go to the mirror and you just kind of give yourself a once -over, or you walk to the mirror and you're like, okay, do
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I have food in my mouth? What do I have going on here? What do I have going on here? And you just check yourself thoroughly.
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That's the word consider. But let's think about it a different way.
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Hebrews is saying, consider Him, this great high priest. What do you think happens when we don't consider
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Him? Well, I think your mind is always going to be in drive, so you're going to consider your circumstances, you're going to consider yourself.
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And an unhealthy preoccupation with self leads to anxiety, immaturity, insecurity.
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So the writer is saying, focus on Christ. The object, Jesus Christ, saves alone.
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There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
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Here's my problem. I have earbuds. I can be so busy
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I never have time to just think. Never have time to take a walk and just kind of think. Always plugged in.
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But here, take time to think. Let me just make it as easy as I can for you. When you get up in the morning and you have a nice big cup of Peet's Coffee French Press, open up your
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Bible, and have a little notepad there with a pencil or pen, and then as you think of things, just write it in your notebook.
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And here's a great thing. If you're reading your Bible at all, Jesus said, all of the Bible speaks of me, at least on the grand scale.
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When you're reading the Bible, you'll be reminded about the Savior, and who He is, and His faithfulness. Turn to Revelation chapter 3, please.
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I just want to show you this concept elsewhere. There's a church in Revelation, and it's dead, and so what's the remedy for a dead church?
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The remedy for a dead church is very similar to the remedy for these people who are tempted to go back to Judaism, or escape their trials.
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It's the exact same thing. There's a paradigm in the New Testament. Revelation chapter 3.
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Verse 1, This is
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Jesus talking, by the way. There's all kinds of data that you can get if you're a church leader.
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You can pay people to visit your church, and then give you a little survey. So we pay someone to come visit
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BBC, and then they send us. We don't do this, but what if we did? And then they give the leadership, nice, talk two, three times, given a gift, told to move from their favorite pew chair, whatever, they give the list.
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My favorite thing is when we have visitors, and they don't know where to sit, and they come sit on my seat up here. Jesus shows up at Sardis, and he writes this letter.
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What would Jesus say if he came to the church? He came to Sardis, and he said, here's his report card.
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I know your works. And here's the gulp. You have a reputation of being alive, but you are stone cold dead.
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The reputation of jewelry, and you can get purple dye there. You used to have to go get them in a little seashell at the bottom of the sea.
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Now you can get this plant. You think you're alive. Your church is named
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Living Hope Church, New Life Church, Life Abounding Church, Eagle's Nest Living Church.
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They used to have a website that you could just say, I am a Reformed, Baptistic, Cessationist, such and such.
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Click, and it would give you a name for their church. It was quite interesting. Sardis is dead.
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A dog to whom the butcher had thrown a bone was hurrying home with his prize as fast as he could go. He crossed the footbridge, happened to look down, saw himself reflected in the water like it was a mirror.
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The greedy dog thought he saw a real dog carrying a bone much bigger than his own, dropped his bone, sprang into the river.
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And the moral of the story is, it's very foolish to be greedy. Aesop's Fables.
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Aesop was from Sardis. And these people in the church are dead.
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You think you're alive, but you're dead. Lifeless profession. It's like Pharisees, dead men bones.
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You've got a full church calendar, but you're not born again. You've got committee meetings, but it's all done in the flesh.
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Westminster Abbey, they have famous dead people buried under the floor. One man said that the difference between our church and Westminster Abbey is that they bury their dead under the floor while we set up our dead in the pews.
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So what do you tell these people? Verse 2. Here's what Jesus says. Wake up. Strengthen that which remains and is about to die.
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For I have not found your works complete in the sight of God, or in sight of men, yes, but it's time for the picnic to stop.
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Start the funeral. Wake up. And then he says in verse 3, isn't this interesting? Remember.
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I could just have said the word consider. Remember then what you have received and heard.
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Keep it. Repent. And if you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at all what hour.
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I will come against you. Remember. Guard. Twice in Sardis' history, they didn't guard their city, and the people came and sacked the city.
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Cyrus II and Tychus III. Yet you still have a few names. Verse 4.
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In Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, without going into too much detail.
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He's talking about dead people in churches and what happens to people after they breathe their last.
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But there are some people that haven't soiled their own garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.
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The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name. There's no possible way
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I'll erase it out of the book of life. Instead, I will confess his name before the Father and His angels.
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Now here's my question. Verse 3 where it says, Remember. What are they to remember? There's a lethargic church, a dead church, a spiritually needy church.
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What's the solution? Remember. What are they supposed to remember? Well, it's found back in chapter 1.
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What's already been told to them in chapter 1. Right?
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There's seven letters, and you've got seven runners, and the runner comes to Sardis, and he reads the letter.
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What did he read to them? What did he tell them? My point is this. For us in the book of Hebrews, it's considered a hymn.
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For the church at Sardis, it is the same thing. The glories of Jesus, found in verse 5.
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And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, ruler of the kings of the earth, to Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood.
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He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father. To Him be the glory and dominion forever and ever.
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The focus is all about the Lord Jesus and who He is. In the middle of their trials, that is the solution.
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Turn to 2 Timothy 8, please, and let me show you the same concept there.
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Paul is on his deathbed. He's writing to Timothy. How do you encourage pastors? What do you tell them to do?
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Oh, there's plenty of exhortations for faithfulness, but tucked right here in the middle is the most essential thing, and that is faith.
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And here we have the word, remember Jesus. 2 Timothy 2, verse 8. The focus for the
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Christian cannot be, I got saved via the gospel. I've got that now done and pat, and I'm moving on to bigger things.
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Remember Jesus Christ. See the word Jesus is humanity. Christ is deity. Risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which
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I'm suffering, bound with chains as a criminal, but the word of God is not bound. In everything,
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I mean, it is so obvious that I almost don't want to repeat it because it seems so, oh yeah, there it is in Scripture.
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But in the middle of all the trials and circumstances, the focus has to be on the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Let me show you one other example. 1 Thessalonians 4. What do you tell a weary Christian who's lost a loved one?
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I think sometimes we might say a variety of things. We're trying to tell our friends we love them, but just odd things come out of our mouth.
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But Paul here, under inspiration, what does he tell someone who's suffering? It's just all about who
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Jesus is. The key to the Christian life is faith, not faithfulness.
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Faith will lead to faithfulness. We're not lawless people, but we can't conflate faith and faithfulness and make them both the same thing.
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1 Thessalonians 4. We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep.
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That's the word we use for people who have died in Christ. That you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.
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For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep.
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For this we declare to you by a word from God, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the
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Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with the cry of command.
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The voice of the archangel and with the sound of the trumpet of God. The dead in Christ will rise first.
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And those who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
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Lord in the air, so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore, encourage one another with these words.
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No matter what the trial, the focus is, let's get our mind stayed upon Jehovah.
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To quote the song. The Belgic Confession is a wonderful confession.
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And here's what it says about justification. We believe that our blessedness lies in the forgiveness of our sins because of Jesus Christ.
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Therefore, we cling to this foundation which is firm forever, giving all glory to God, humbling ourselves, and recognizing ourselves as we are.
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Not claiming a thing for ourselves or our merits, and leaning and resting on the sole obedience of Christ crucified, which is ours when we believe in Him.
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Faith, faith, faith, faith. That is enough to cover all our sins and to make us confident.
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Freeing the conscience from the fear, dread, and terror of God's approach.
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And just in case you're wondering, does Mike focus on faith so much that we forget about faithfulness?
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The very same confession says, therefore, far from making people cold toward living in a pious and holy way, this justifying faith that is in the object of Jesus, quite to the contrary, so works within them that apart from it, they will never do a thing out of love for God, but only out of love for themselves and a fear of being condemned.
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So then, it is impossible for this holy faith to be unfruitful in a human being. Seeing that what we do not speak of an empty faith, but what the
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Scripture calls faith working through love. Friends, this week, would you take some time to consider
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Christ Jesus? Henry Ford said, thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason so few engage in it.
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Emerson said, what is the hardest task in the world? To think.
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George Bernard Shaw said, only 5 % of people think. Only 15 % think they think.
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The other 80 % would rather die than think. I didn't say, what does
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Jesus make you feel like? I didn't ask you about emotions or sentimentality.
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I asked you what you believe. What about considering Jesus? Someone said, it's anonymous,
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I know why, and you'll know why after I give you the quote. The probable reason some people get lost in thought is because it is unfamiliar territory to them.
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No wonder Alan Bloom writes this book called The Closing of the American Mind. People just don't think anymore. And the writer of Hebrews says,
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I just want you to think. Take some time to think. Bear down. It's the kind of thinking where you look outside and you go, okay, now
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I have to have these other questions. I just can't be about my life and business. I'm sure it's
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Satan's plan to get us so caught up we never think. Remember in Deuteronomy, Hear, O Israel, the
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Lord is our God, the Lord is one, and you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, and might.
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But then what did Jesus say? Moses said, heart, soul, and might. When one of the scribes came to Jesus and they were arguing with him and they said to him, what commandment is foremost of all?
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Jesus said, the foremost is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and you shall love the
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Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and all your strength.
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Was Jesus adding to Moses? No, Jesus was making what was implicit in Moses. Use your mind, make it explicit in the
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Greek. To think. Not to go inside like subjective mysticism or Roman Catholicism or Schleiermacher or any other theologian, but to focus on Jesus.
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Karl Boberg, he had it right. And when I think that God, His Son not sparing, sent
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Him to die, I scarce can take it in. That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing,
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He bled and died to take away my sin. And friends, does faith lead to faithfulness?
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For this writer it did. Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee, how great
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Thou art, consider Jesus.
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Let's pray. I thank You, Father, for this day. I thank
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You that Your Son, Jesus, is the Apostle and High Priest of our confession who was faithful.
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Father, maybe it's just me or some of the folks that I know here, but we just confuse these.
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We think faith is about our faithfulness and then we forget about Jesus' faithfulness and it just melds together.
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Would You help us to have this passage encourage us that we might think about Jesus and then respond versus just mixing the two together?
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We are weak and we are sinful people and we have all kinds of trials, some self -imposed and others just because of the fall.
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Would You help us to respond to You properly by considering Your Son and how
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You didn't spare Him? You have demonstrated Your love toward us and constantly do that while we were yet sinners,
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Christ died for us. Help us to rest in that and believe it and believe it by faith.