Great Is Jesus' Faithfulness (part 4) - [Hebrews 3:1-6]

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1689 London Baptist Confession Of Faith (part 5)

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Well, there are many new syndromes that psychologists are discovering.
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Here's a newer one, maybe you haven't heard of this particular syndrome. I'll describe it first and then maybe you can tell me what it is.
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Quote, an obsessive -addictive disorder in which a person becomes overly involved with the details of a celebrity's personal and professional life.
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The quote goes on, psychologists have indicated that though many people obsess over film, television, sport, and pop stars, the only common factor between them is that they are all figures in the public eye.
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CWS, Celebrity Worship Syndrome. To some degree,
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I understand it, and I think you do as well. We are born worshippers.
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God has made us in His likeness and His image. And God, Ecclesiastes says, does it not, in chapter 3, that God has set what in our hearts?
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Eternity in our hearts. Problem is, we're fallen creatures, and that means we, instead of worshiping the
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Lord God, we set up idols. And Calvin was right, he said, our hearts are like idol factories, assembly lines making up idols.
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And if you don't worship the Lord Jesus Christ, you in fact will worship someone or something.
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We must worship. The question that we have at hand this morning is, the object of your worship.
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Who is the object of your worship? Sometimes I think, even in Christian circles, we begin to worship celebrities.
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We begin to think about Christians as the object of our worship. Maybe your favorite Christian singer.
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Maybe your favorite Christian preacher. Maybe your favorite Christian missionary. And what we're going to learn this morning is going to be a great truth,
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I believe, from the book of Hebrews. When you see someone in Christian ministry that you want to look up to,
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I want you not only to look up to them, but I want you to look past them to the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And today in Hebrews 3, the writer wants you to look at Moses and then look past Moses to Jesus.
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So let's turn to Hebrews chapter 3, as we continue to march through this great book, the book of Hebrews.
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He's not going to say anything badly about Moses. He's going to say, when you think of Moses, use
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Moses as a springboard, as a pointer, as a sign, as a telescope to look beyond.
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And the argument of Hebrews 3, 1 to 6 is, how much more? If Moses is to be revered in the sense of esteemed and saying this is a model of godliness, then we need to keep going.
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Moses was to point even to a greater prophet, the Lord Jesus Christ in Deuteronomy chapter 18.
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So we're going to think today very carefully about heroes of the faith all pointing you to Jesus.
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If you say, I love Adoniram Judson, great. Look past him to see the
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God that he promoted. You say, I love Mary Schleser. I mean, who can't love Mary Schleser of Calabar?
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If you have not read about her, the Scottish lady who goes to Africa to basically preach the gospel.
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And what they would do is they would set twins out in the wilderness. Because if you had twins, they must be demonic.
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And so they would leave them out to the animals and the panthers and other things to eat. And she would rescue the twins, 51 sets of twins,
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Mary Schleser rescued. And you think, that's wonderful. And we love to read biographies. And Luther stands before the
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Pope and the world. We read about William Carey and we're just caught up and rightfully so.
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But the principle doesn't stop and the focus must not stop with them. They were preaching about Jesus and we need to use every one of these heroes of the faith.
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Whether they're Moses or Paul or John the Baptist to point to the
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Lord Jesus Christ. The last book in the Bible, Revelation 22.
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I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me.
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And if you ever met an angel face to face, you would be tempted to do the very same thing. And so would
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I. But what did the angel say? Bow a little lower. Genuflect a little bit more.
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The angel said to me, you must not do that. I'm a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets and with those who keep the words of this book.
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And then he said two words, very apropos. Worship God. So when you study someone like Moses, he would tell you, worship
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God. When you have Catholic family who adore and worship and venerate
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Mary. We need to go past these people to the Lord Jesus Christ. When you study
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Polycarp, can you imagine? Please, we don't want to burn you for the faith, the soldiers said.
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We've got orders to burn you. Just recant. We really won't hardly tell anyone. Polycarp fed them the meal and gave them great hospitality.
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And then he said, 86 years have I been Jesus' servant and he has never done me wrong.
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How then can I blaspheme my King who saved me? And then he dies in the flames.
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Amazing. Wonderful. But Polycarp was preaching someone and he wasn't preaching himself, 2
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Corinthians 4. He was preaching the Lord Jesus Christ. As you know, the book of Hebrews talks about Jesus to a group of Jews who were tempted to just give in and go back to Judaism.
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Some were real Christians. Some were playing the game of Christianity. But the message to both was the exact same.
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Let me put before you again the person and work of Christ Jesus. And that particular advice is good for anyone.
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I don't care what trial you're going through. You don't have to be persecuted like these Jewish people. What needs to be done is a clear view, a reminder, a biblical exhortation.
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Who is Jesus found in the text? Now when Kim and I were in New York this last week, it was fascinating.
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I sat in this doctor's office for an hour before we saw him. I was happy to be there. And in our particular waiting room, it's very interesting.
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They have like these stages for waiting rooms. And we were in waiting room 1 and there was 2 and 3. Well, we got to be in the waiting room with the 2 rabbis.
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And they were speaking English and I was glad for that. I don't know Yiddish or Hebrew that well.
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I think he had a little commentary or something like that. And he was talking. It was a father and a son, both rabbi and family members.
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I was reading this. I have my sermon on my phone. And I'm thinking, I've got to study.
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I'm taking a few days out to go do this. I'm behind. I'm studying, Moses is great, but Jesus is greater.
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That's Hebrews 3. When you think of Moses, keep going. Moses is not the end all.
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Actually, Moses is going to damn you just with the law. And you'll realize, yes, I'm undone, but he can't help you.
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Moses didn't die on the cross for anyone. Moses wasn't sinless. Moses wasn't the eternal son.
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Moses was great, but Moses was fallible and sinful. And I just kept looking at them.
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You know, my wife is very shy and everything. And she's like, honey, you've got to talk to them.
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Then I just pulled a kind of selfish card, you know. Well, I'm the sick one, you know. Such a contrast.
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Moses, Moses, Moses, Moses. Moses was fine. Moses did his part for God.
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By faith, Moses. But he's pointing to someone else.
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Moses sinned, but the writer here in Hebrews is way too smart to say to the
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Jews, look at sinful Moses. He doesn't need to do that because Moses was a godly man who pointed to the
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Messiah. So look at Moses and look to whom he points to. The spotlight has to be on Jesus.
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The question for every one of you this morning is, who are you trusting in this moment?
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Who are you thinking about? Who's the object of your faith? That's why I love these worship services on Sunday morning to be reminded again, although we have trials in our lives,
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Jesus Christ is faithful. Now, next Sunday I preach in London.
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And any guesses on what passage I'm going to preach in London? I can't get out of Hebrews 3. I will be preaching
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Hebrews 3 because it extols the Lord Jesus Christ. John Brown was correct, the
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Scottish writer, it is because we think so little and to so little purpose on Christ that we know so little about Him, that we love
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Him so little, trust in Him so little, so often neglect our duty, are so much influenced by the things seen and temporal, and so little by things unseen and eternal.
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So as you know, Hebrews 3, shortly following, of course, chapter 1 and 2 about Jesus greater than prophets, greater than angels, even as a human, more than a human, but as human, even greater.
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And now we move to chapter 3, Jesus is greater than Moses. And if He's greater than Moses, by the way, the writer eventually will talk to us about how
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He's greater than Mosaic law. Jesus is superior and He wants, the writer wants everyone to think about Jesus.
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And remember, it says in the focus here, with this imperative in chapter 3, verse 1, consider
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Jesus. That's the key. Fix your eyes on the one who's more than an example, although He was a great example.
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He was the Redeemer. He was the purifier of our sins. He was the one who sits at the right hand of the
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Father. The remedy is thinking about the earthly Jesus. Even in Matthew, we're told the angel of the
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Lord appears to Joseph in a dream. Quote, Do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the
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Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.
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Faith has an object. Faith is the... Somebody's got their
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Bible program opened and now I'm hearing Hebrews preached back to me. That's good. I like that.
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At least it's not the celebrity music star that they worship. Faith has an object.
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And faith's object is the Lord Jesus. And faith itself isn't salvific, because faith puts its hope in the object.
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Faith doesn't die on a cross. Faith doesn't live a perfect life. Faith's not raised from the dead. But we're trusting in, hoping in the
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Lord Jesus, walking by faith. What's the worst sin in the world?
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What's the worst possible heinous sin ever committed? You can think about a lot of sins that are out there, but the worst sin in all the world is unbelief in the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Not believing God. Not taking
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God at His word. Do you see it in chapter 3, verse 12? Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living
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God. What we need is to think rightly about God and trust in Him.
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So the writer says we want you to consider Jesus. And I particularly am focused on considering Jesus these last several weeks, not going too fast, because I want you to not only understand the
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Lord and be reminded of Him, but I want you, believer, to have assurance. How do you get assurance of salvation?
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Now most of the time, and I know for many years, I would focus on the secondary way of getting assurance.
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Does my life match up to some degree with what the Bible says Christians do and what
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Christians are? And you can go to the test in 1 John and do Christians confess their sins?
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Do they confess Jesus as Lord? Do they love not the world? Do they love other Christians? And do they love God? Those are subjective.
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And the thing is, when we focus on ourselves, sometimes assurance will really wane because how faithful are we really in the
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Christian life? What the writer of Hebrews does, and other writers like Paul, assurance, if you want assurance more than any other way, it's not found inside of you, where our works are tainted.
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It's found first, primarily, objectively, in the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Bruce Demarest said, assurance is, quote, the confidence of believers in Christ that notwithstanding their mortal sinful condition, that they are irrevocably children of God and heirs of heaven.
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Irrevocably Christians. And so what happens is, even if you think about the Reformation 500 years ago, can you know you're really a
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Christian? And the answer for the Roman Catholic was, you could never know. And the answer of the
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Protestant was, you could know. The Catholic said, look inside and see what you do and how faithful you are.
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And the Protestants were saying, look externally, look to the Lord Jesus Christ, consider Jesus.
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How do you know if you're a Christian? And does it even matter? Richard Sibbes, the Puritan, said, if you really want to live a life of joy and thankfulness, how could you do that if you don't have assurance?
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Quote, there be many duties and dispositions that God requires which we cannot be in without assurance of salvation on good grounds.
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What is that? God bids us be thankful in all things. How can I know that unless I know
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God is mine and Christ is mine? God says rejoice, and again I say rejoice. Sibbes, can a man rejoice that his name is written in heaven and not know his name is written there?
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Alas, how can I perform cheerful service to God when I doubt whether He be my God and Father or no?
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When you look internally, assurance is fleeting. If you look to the
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Lord Jesus, assurance is sure. I don't know if you know much about Joan of Arc.
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She had a trial in 1431 and stood condemned. What was one of the charges against Joan of Arc?
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She thought you could not lose your salvation and that you could be sure that you had it. The judge said against Joan, this woman sins.
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When she says she is certain of being received into paradise, as if she were already a partaker of glory.
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Seeing that on this earthly journey, no pilgrim knows if he is worthy of glory or punishment, which the sovereign judge alone can tell.
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See what's happening there? How dare she say she knows she's going to heaven, because who could be worthy of such a calling?
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My question to you is, is anybody worthy of such a calling? Could anybody be worthy of such a calling?
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Well, yes. If I'm sinless, then I could be worthy of such a calling.
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No wonder you're under the weight of all that. And then you think, you know what?
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I get Luther now. When Luther, before he was a Christian, he's dealing with this kind of idea and this kind of Roman Catholicism.
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They ask Luther, do you love this God? And what did Luther say? This stern judge who requires perfection, and that's actually true that he's requiring perfection, but none of the grace.
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See, that's what's lacking with this whole idea of lack of assurance and Roman Catholicism, this lack of sovereign grace.
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Luther, not seeing sovereign grace early on, said, love God? I hate Him. And when he would go to the church in Wittenberg, can you imagine walking under that city church?
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There's a big carved statue there of Jesus. And it's described this way by one writer,
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Christ seated on the rainbow as judge of the world, so angry the veins stand out, menacing and swollen on His forehead.
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But the second Luther realized that God is not only righteous, but He gives
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His righteousness because He's merciful and gracious. And Jesus by name means
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He comes to save people. He condescendingly has compassion on people. Then he realized,
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I don't rest in my own righteousness because I'd have to be sinless. I'm resting in a righteousness outside of myself, the sinless
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Jesus. My faith isn't in my faithfulness. My faith is in the object, the
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Lord Jesus Christ. So we saw last week in Hebrews 3 several considerations that drive you to faithfulness, focusing on the
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Lord Jesus will help you hold fast. Chapter 3, verse 6. What were those considerations?
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In review, quickly, number one, the first consideration, Jesus made you holy.
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As a position of holiness, in chapter 3, verse 1, therefore, holy brothers. He's made you holy brothers.
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He cleansed us of our sins. He's sanctified us, to use the language of 1
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Corinthians. He by His own prerogative, not by bull's blood and goat's blood, not by sprinkling of external blood of a heifer, but by the blood of Christ, Hebrews 9, verse 14, made us cleansed.
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Not only that, we saw the second consideration, Jesus gave you a heavenly calling. The focus is all external.
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Who is Jesus? What am I to consider about Him? He's made you holy brothers. He's given you a heavenly calling.
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Who share, chapter 3, verse 1, in a heavenly calling? God, the triune
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God, calls us by His initiative. He's not responding to us. He initiates that heavenly calling and He brings us to the destination of heaven.
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So this is both by initiation and by destination. Paul says, for consider your calling brothers.
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Number three, we saw that He was an apostle, a sent one. Jesus, chapter 3, verse 1, remember, the apostle and high priest of our confession.
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The apostle there just means sent. The Father, as we saw last week at some detail, sends
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Jesus. He is the one who has been appointed by God the Father to go rescue the elect.
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It's the same root in 1 John 4. In this the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent
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His only Son into the world. That's apostle language. So that we might live through Him. In this is love.
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Not that we have loved God, but He loved us and what? Sent, He apostled
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His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Fourthly, the fourth consideration is that Jesus is high priest.
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Think about Jesus as high priest. And notice all this language is what God has done to us.
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He made us holy brothers. He gave a heavenly calling. Jesus is the apostle who was sent for us. And now
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He's our high priest. The high priest of our confession. He talked about being a high priest in chapter 2 and He just expands it a little bit more and reminds us of who this great high priest is.
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Prophets stood and preached for God, represented God, told people what God expected and priests stand before man, in between God and man, to minister on behalf of others.
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If you want to think about the two easiest way to consider a priest, they sacrifice and they pray.
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That's what Old Testament priests did. They sacrificed and prayed. And of course Jesus, He Himself was the sacrifice and He intercedes for us.
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He has our interest. And we didn't see last time, this is breaking new ground, our confession.
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You notice that He's a high priest of our confession. This is the content of the confession.
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Some confessions in Acts chapter 5, Jesus is the Christ. 1 Corinthians 12, Jesus is
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Lord. 2 Corinthians 4, Jesus is Lord. Acts 9, Jesus is the
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Son of God. Romans 1, Jesus is the Son of God. The content of a confession.
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These people knew what the confession was. My guess it had something to do with Jesus as the Eternal Son. But there's a confession.
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And it's reminding these troubled people, troubled Christians and those who aren't Christians yet or are wondering about it, remember what we have confessed.
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We've all said the same thing about this. All of us make this confession. And we're not confessing
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Moses, we're not confessing Aaron, we're not confessing our own good works, we're confessing Jesus as priest.
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An old Reformed writing says this, But this mediator Jesus, whom the Father has appointed between Himself and us, ought not to terrify us by His greatness.
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He's talking about Jesus the high priest. So that we have to look for another one, according to our fancy.
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For neither in heaven nor among the creatures on earth is there anyone who loves us more than Jesus does.
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Why find a different intercessor if you can find no other person who loves you as much? The quote goes on,
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Suppose we had to find another intercessor who would love us more than He who gave
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His life for us, even though we were His enemies. And suppose we had to find another intercessor who has prestige and power, who has as much as these as He who is seated at the right hand of the
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Father, and who has all power in heaven and earth, and who will be more readily heard than God's own dearly beloved
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Son. Do you see the logic? If you had to have another intercessor to pray for you, who would you pick?
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There's nobody who loves you more. There's nobody who has more power. There's nobody who's more exalted. So, listeners to the sermon and listeners to the letter, don't go anywhere else.
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Consider Jesus. You're tempted to kind of wander away and think about other intercessors and other people.
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Number five, what's the fifth consideration? Consider Jesus' faithfulness. The faithfulness of Jesus.
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And for you blue -collar construction guys and gals, this is your language now.
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This is the language of house construction. This is the language of rebar.
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This is the language of rivets. This is the language of... I don't know, John, help me.
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Something. The house analogy comes into play as we move to chapter 3, verse 2 and following with a much more argument.
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Verse 2, "...who was faithful to Him who appointed Him," talking about Jesus, "...just as Moses was also faithful in all
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God's house." And he introduces the house language right here. Not Moses' house.
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We're talking about God's house. The people of God. In this particular verse, in the Old Testament economy,
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Jesus was faithful to Him who appointed Him and Moses, it doesn't say he sinned or did anything wrong.
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Actually, this is right from Numbers chapter 12. Here's Numbers 12 .7, "...my servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house."
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You could just imagine the listeners. Let me tell you about Moses, the writer said. Moses was faithful to do everything that God called him to do.
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And Jesus was faithful. And this much more argument comes into play. They received their calling from God.
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They had special places, of course. But Jesus is the new Moses. Remember Deuteronomy 18, "...the
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Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers."
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Now, chapter 1, we talked about angels some and they have a place of elevation, but even above the angels,
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Moses was seen. A higher place than angels. Angels had intimacy with God, but Moses, he's greater than an angel, some traditions said.
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Even today, you talk to a Jew, Moses, Moses, Moses, Moses. And even back in Philo's writing, first century
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AD, said Moses, he gave the law, but he also was functioning like a high priest. Jesus was faithful,
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Moses was also faithful. Yes, Moses was great, but Moses was just a person.
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And he wants these people to think, who discharged their duty? They would all say, Moses discharged his duty.
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How much more did Jesus discharge his duty? And what the writer is trying to come across with is this.
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Moses didn't pick up the baton from God and say, You know what? This is my own deal. I'll run with it.
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God gave him the baton, he appointed Moses to the task, and Moses ran. By the way,
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I just was talking to Spencer the other day, and I guess the film people, they know I only move from here to here, so they keep the camera zoomed in a certain way.
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So I'm just going to make an illustration here. Moses didn't say, I do what I want.
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God gave him a responsibility, and he ran with it. Similarly, Jesus is given the task from God, and he was appointed, and then he ran with it.
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That's the point. Plus, I was also keeping your attention. Look at chapter 5, verse 5 of Hebrews.
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They don't take these things upon themselves. Nothing derogatory is said about Moses. I could tell you where he struck the rock, and he shouldn't have, and all that, but that's not even the point here.
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Hebrews 5 .5, So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him,
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You are my son, today I have begotten you. Neither Moses nor Jesus took this office upon himself.
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And by the way, if you fast forward to Hebrews chapter 12, Jesus didn't drop that baton either.
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He finished the task. He always does what's pleasing to the Father. Jesus was faithful.
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Moses had opposition. He was faithful. Jesus has opposition. He was faithful. No matter how you look at it, both of these men were faithful, except Jesus is more faithful to a higher degree, because he's a greater person.
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Moses was faithful. Christ was more faithful. Christ is faithful. Now he develops this a little bit more.
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And we're going to keep going in verse 3. Consideration number 6. Consider Jesus as the builder of God's house.
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First we have the comparison. Faithful Moses, faithful Jesus. Now comes the contrast.
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Compare and contrast. Verse 3, we have the contrast. All driving you to think
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Jesus is greater than Moses. Or by the way, let's just pick any person who's a historical person.
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Any person. Gandhi, you think maybe he was great. Jesus is greater. Buddha, Jesus is greater.
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Muhammad, Jesus is greater. Just pick anybody. And look at the house language continues.
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Verse 3 and 4. For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses. As much more glory as the builder of the house has more honor than the house itself.
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Parenthetically, every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. Now as an old
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Southern Baptist, he dealt with a lot of word studies and theological concepts, and his name was A .T.
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Robertson. And most seminary students know about him. I could say it in my own words, but he just has a way with words and just simple.
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The architect is superior to the house, just as Sir Christopher Wren is superior to St.
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Paul's Cathedral. What's better, the house or the architect or builder of the house?
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Moses was faithful, that's for certain. But he didn't build the house. He's part of the house.
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Jesus is better as the exalted Son. You say, yeah, but Moses stood face -to -face with God, as it were, and spoke to God face -to -face.
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Has not the writer, even in chapter 1, talked about the effulgent glory that Jesus Christ is?
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Moses had glory upon Him. Jesus was Himself the glory.
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Christ is the builder in this analogy. The people of God is the house. The builder has more honor than the house.
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It doesn't take you long to think in a New Testament fashion, when Jesus said, I will build my what?
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Church. The gates of death will not prevail. True or false?
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Moses built the nation of Israel. You have to say false.
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He did not. God built the nation of Israel. Moses we revere and we look up to, but he's pointing to someone greater.
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God starts the people of Israel back with Abraham, not Moses. Moses was an
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Israelite. The ultimate builder is a Trinitarian God, not
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Moses. Jesus is the one who gets more honor.
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Verse 4, what a great verse about the deity of Christ. Every house is built by someone, the builder of all things.
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We're just talking about the builder being Jesus is God. Jesus the builder. Jesus the architect.
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Jesus the faithful architect. You might know of a construction worker who's not faithful and didn't finish the job, but Jesus finished the job.
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He didn't take it up on His own. He received the commission from God. And He, the glorified Jesus, is now
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Lord, of course, over the church. Consideration number 7.
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See, once we got out of verse 1, now we're moving. Feel like we're going somewhere now? Now we're on a fast pace to get through this passage.
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I actually have had people the last two weeks say, Pastor, your sermons have been too short, so I will rectify that today.
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I've told you the story, but it's so funny anyway and just gives us a break to think about some things.
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Whenever you go to another church, you say to the pastor or the leaders, How long does your pastor normally preach?
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So this week I asked Pastor Tom in London, How long do you normally preach? And he said, 60 minutes. He said,
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But it's Communion Sunday, so 45 will be great. I said, Okay, thank you. So I went to a church in south -central
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L .A. and I asked the pastor, How long should I preach? And he said, As long as you want. I said,
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Yeah, I know, but... He said, Well, I usually preach 92 minutes. I said,
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Really? He said, 92. That's what the people expect. So I had to take two 45 -minute sermons and put them together.
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You know, my notes are 200 pages, you know, stuck together. I said,
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Now, you know, I'll do whatever you want. I'm a man under authority, but why 92 minutes? He said,
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Well, I've got 90 -minute cassettes that are technically 46 minutes on each side, easily 92.
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So when you're 46 minutes in, look over at the guy in the sound room. Tell him to go like that.
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He puts the cassette in the other way, hits record, and you're off and going. Deal. 92 minutes.
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My question to Charlie is, What's a typical reel -to -reel hold, minutes -wise? Four hours.
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Yes. How about some kind of 8 -track? Not so much.
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I'm sorry, I hate 8 -tracks, because I think we got one of those free Captain and Tennille 8 -tracks in that just would never stop playing.
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I just thought, This is purgatory. It's just, I never get any better on my own.
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What makes this book so apropos is, even though we're not running for our lives and our houses being taken away like what's happening to these people, if Jesus is the remedy for a great trial like that, then he's a remedy for a smaller trial as well.
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And so the focus is back on Jesus. We normally and naturally, sadly, focus in on ourselves.
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And so the writer of Scripture wants to make sure we think externally and outside of ourselves, which certainly helps worship the
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Lord and helps us with our assurance. Consideration number seven, Jesus as Son.
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Consider Jesus as the Son. Now, he's talked about it a lot in chapter 1 and 2, but it comes up again now.
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What's greater, a servant or a son? We know the answer, and that's what is shown in chapter 3, verse 5 and 6.
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Now, Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant. He was a hired hand.
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Nothing wrong with that. I'd be happy to be a servant in God's house, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later.
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But, here's the contrast again. Christ is faithful over God's house, not as the greatest servant, although he was a servant.
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Here, the imagery is, he's over the house as God's Son. You've got to move past Moses, because Moses, although faithful, he didn't design the house.
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He's part of the house, and he's just a servant in the house. He's not the Son. Yes, you get honor if you're a faithful servant in God's house, but how much more honor do you get if you're the faithful Son of the house?
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You get honor if you're Moses, and you're entrusted with the leadership of a nation. But if you're the
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Son, and you're entrusted with the whole universe, how much more glory is received?
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Moses didn't die on a cross. When those people were complaining, and God said to Moses, you know what,
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I'm going to kill them, and here's how I'm going to kill them. I'm going to send poisonous snakes to bite the people, and they're going to die.
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Many snakes, you get bit, you're dead. If God sends a poisonous snake to bite you and die, these are the most poisonous kind, and people begin to die because they're complaining against the good hand of Yahweh.
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Moses does what? He prays. He intercedes on behalf of the people.
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And God said, I want you to do this. Moses, I want you to construct a cross. I want you to get a pole and put it in the desert, and I want you to go up on top of it.
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And Moses, you can get nailed to it when it's on the ground, and then they can put it straight up, or you can just put your feet up there, kind of like one of those
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TV crosses where the guy's feet are put on there, and then Moses, you're up on the cross, and when everybody looks to you and they believe in you,
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Moses, they will be healed. Is that what happened? Moses didn't die on a cross.
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Moses wasn't the sin bearer. Moses was sinful, so he couldn't be our sin bearer.
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Jesus is sinless, and Jesus is the Son of God, so he has an infinite amount of righteousness to give to anyone who will believe in him.
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So he just keeps comparing, and he's not bashing Moses. He's saying, how much greater is
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Jesus than Moses? Moses was faithful. Jesus is more faithful. Moses was a servant.
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Jesus is Son. Moses, I could say even furthermore, he prepared almost like John the
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Baptist, prepared the ways of the Lord, make his paths straight, make these roads straight.
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John the Baptist comes in before Jesus similarly, but before John the Baptist, Moses does the same thing.
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He prepares. He gives a testimony of what was to be spoken afterward, the
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Scriptures say. Even in John chapter 5, Jesus said, for if you had believed
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Moses, you would have believed me, because he what? Wrote of me.
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Even Moses. Moses had to kill the Passover lamb.
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Jesus is the Passover lamb. Moses would have to have a high priest go into the mercy seat,
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Jesus is the mercy seat. Moses is great, but Jesus is greater.
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And by the way, as I said at the very beginning, that is a good reminder, when you study someone, they're your favorite music artist, they're your favorite missionary, they're your favorite preacher.
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Every one of them, if they're thinking rightly, would say, don't worship me, I'm pointing you to the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Same with Moses. And Christ is faithful, verse 6, over God's house as Son.
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First time, by the way, Christ is used as a title here in Hebrews. He is the
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Messiah. And so what's the response? What's the so what? When preachers preach, there has to be a so what? It's the end of verse 6.
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When you consider Jesus, the human, the eternal Son, who makes you holy, who gives you a heavenly calling, who is the apostle, who's the high priest, who's faithful, who's the builder, not the house, who's the
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Son, not the servant, what do we do? We are His house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and boasting in our hope.
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If you stand fast and believe in this Jesus, you have everything in the world to gain.
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And if you see this Jesus who's painted before you in Scripture, and you go, I'm going to turn from that Jesus, I don't need that Jesus, I'll bear my own sins, you have everything to lose.
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And the writer has human responsibility here.
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Hold fast. He can't believe for you. I can't believe for you.
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You have to take God at His word and trust and believe. Faith in this faithful one.
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Christians are charged to keep on believing, keep on persevering. And he's not trying to say, by the way,
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I don't want you to have any assurance. He's not saying that at all. He's using a language to say, if you keep trusting, you should have great assurance.
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But if you're not going to trust, you should have no assurance. So the question is, are you trusting in Christ Jesus as your
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Lord and Savior? I would imagine there would be some young people here who have heard about Jesus their whole life, and now they want to kind of do things their own way.
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There's no hope for you if you turn to another, but there's all the hope for you if you hold fast to your confidence and boasting in hope.
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He's not saying be faithful. He's saying have trust in, confidence in the faithful one.
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Of course, it was true for Israel, and it's true for us as well. I think it's wrong if we make these exhortations and these warnings all negative.
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They are jarring, but they're to drive you to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, to keep believing, to keep on persevering, to have courage and believe.
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Now, it's fascinating when you think about the Reformation and Purgatory. It's set up in such a way that since Jesus' death essentially isn't great enough to cover all your sins, past, present, and future, which, by the way,
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Jesus' death is that sufficient, you say, well, we've got some cleansing that needs to be done afterwards.
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Calvin said, quote, Purgatory is a deadly fiction of Satan which nullifies the cross of Christ, inflicts unbearable contempt upon God's mercy, and overturns and destroys our faith.
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For what means this purgatory of theirs but the satisfaction for sins is paid by the souls of the dead after their death.
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John Henry Newman wrote a poem about Purgatory. It's called The Dream of Jeronatis.
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And it is pitiful. And it is sad. And I'm going to read it and then
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I'll ask you a couple questions. Here's what the soul in Purgatory says as it cries out for relief.
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Take me away and in the lowest deep there let me be.
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And there in hope the lone night watches keep told out for me.
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There motionless and happy in my pain lone not forlorn.
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There I will sing my sad perpetual strain until the morn. There will
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I sing and soothe my stricken breast which ne 'er can cease to throb and pine and languish till possessed of its soul peace.
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There I will sing my absent Lord and love. Take me away that sooner
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I may rise and go above and see Him in the truth of everlasting day.
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Do you want to know what's so sad about not seeing Jesus as an apostle and a high priest?
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I know Purgatory doesn't exist but this particular story of a soul in Purgatory has this attitude.
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If I'm just by myself for long enough and alone for long enough and isolated for long enough from God I'll be made right so I can be with God.
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I just need to get away from God then I'll be better. That was the heart cry of this person.
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And what that person does not get is how can you be made right on your own?
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How can you be transformed apart from God? How can you have anything good happen to you without communion with God?
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If you want to be cleansed and purified and made right in God's eyes you've got to have
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God. You don't want to get away from Him. It's communion with God.
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One writer said of this whole tragedy apparently absence makes the heart grow fonder even in eternity.
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How sad. What a train wreck. When you hear the
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Catholic Mass for the dead start this way. Day of wrath. Day that will dissolve the world into burning coals.
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What am I the wretch then to say? What patron am I to beseech when scarcely the just be secure?
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King of tremendous majesty do not lose me on that day. My prayers are not worthy but do thou good
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God deal kindly lest I burn in perennial fire. And sadly there again is our problem all too often.
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The focus is on self and what we do to get out of our situation versus the focus on the
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Lord Jesus Christ. The writer of Hebrews doesn't want you to go to the inside and to the internal and to the subjective for any kind of hope.
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We had John Debrine here 20 years ago our first conference I think Fred Maxine said something about John Debrine so we had him come here and he spoke and the sanctuary was flipped around and he was over there talking after one of the conferences
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Do you guys know John Debrine or no? All the salty old Cape Coders know
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John Debrine even his name salty Debrine John Brine He said
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Mike I had a heart attack not that long ago and when I fell down and I thought I was going to die
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I was not singing Shine Jesus Shine or he could have said
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This Little Light of Mine He said the only thing
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I could keep thinking about and now here's the external focus here's the one who's outside of us here's the one who loves us and gave his life for us here's the apostle here's the high priest here's the one who's made us holy brothers here's the one who's given us a heavenly calling here's the one who's greater than Moses here's the one who's the son he's not the servant here's the one that you're supposed to hold on to he said this
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My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness
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That is the book of Hebrews Thank you father for today
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Where else could we go? We know we can't hold on on our own
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It's a supernatural work of God So we'd ask for help
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I pray for Christians today They have great joy in their life and things are going really well
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I pray that in prosperity they would not stop considering Jesus I pray for the
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Christians who are suffering and going through trials that in spite of their trials and adversity that they would not stop considering Jesus and father
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I pray for the people here today who either think they're Christians and aren't or who know they're not
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I pray that they would consider Jesus Grant them father repentance and saving faith
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Give them forgiveness You're a mighty God who loves even rebellious sinners
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We are very thankful this morning that we don't have to fear the son as adopted sons and daughters but we can have joy
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Thank you that we're not enslaved to any kind of deceitful system that would require anything from us in purgatory or any other time to add to what your gracious son has done
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If we had to merit our own salvation and be worthy of we could never do it