Apostle, High Priest, and Faithful Son

Please stand for the reading of God's Word. The Old Testament reading today is from the book of Numbers, chapter 12, 1 through 7. And to Aaron and to Miriam, come out you three to the tent of meeting.

And the three of them came out. And the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the tent and called Aaron and Miriam. And they both came forward. And he said, Hear my words. If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision.

I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house.

New Testament reading can be found in John, chapter 5, starting in verse 39. You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. And it is they that bear witness about me. Yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

I do not receive glory from people, but I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him.

How can you believe me when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is no one who accuses you.

Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how then will you believe my words? Please remain standing.

The Superiority of Jesus and the Call to Consider Him

If you would, take your Bibles and let's turn to Hebrews, chapter 3. Hebrews, chapter 3. Before we look into the word of God, let's pray. O God, our Father, we come now asking you to open our hearts to the gospel that we find here.

Remind us again that of the superiority of Jesus, and that in that we would find hope and challenge. Open our hearts now to your word. Make it more than just the words on a page, than just a text that's preached.

Lord, bring it to bear on our hearts that we might leave here today determined and by your spirit this week able to do what you've told us to do. We pray this in Jesus' name. So you're at work and your friend says to you, as you're working on the line together, hey, can I talk to you?

I really need to talk to you. I've got some questions. And maybe we can do that at lunch. And you say, okay, I wonder what this is all about. So you sit down together and he starts asking you this. You're really stuck on this Jesus character, aren't you?

You go, well, yeah, I guess you could say that. And he says, okay, let's see if I got this right. Every other religion is wrong, right? You're saying that Islam is wrong. Buddhism is wrong. Hinduism is wrong.

Shintoism is wrong. The Mormons are wrong. Native American religion is wrong. Judaism is wrong. If I'm not mistaken, you even say Catholics are wrong. You're sitting there going, oh, man. And you say, yeah, I guess that's what I'm saying.

I guess that's what I'm saying. Jesus alone reconciles you to God. Jesus alone is the way to God. Jesus alone is the truth of God. All your confidence and all your hope has to rest in Jesus. And Jesus alone makes sense of the world.

So, yeah, it is what I'm saying. Now, how in the world can you make those claims? I'll tell you why. Because that's the theme of this book in the word of God, the book of Hebrews. This, as we recall, is a sermon written by a Hebrew pastor to his people.

And in it he says you must believe and understand the superiority of Jesus. All your confidence, all your faith must rest in Jesus. You must not trust any other person or any other system. Such trust or confidence lasts over the long haul.

The true kind of faith that we're talking about will never abandon Jesus. Now, in the next two chapters of this book, our Hebrew pastor will explore with us the superiority of Jesus and the nature of true saving faith.

That is what he deals with now in the next two chapters. Chapters 3 up through chapter 4, verse 13. The superiority of Jesus again is what he hits along with now the true nature of saving faith. Well, let's look at his introductory paragraph, if you will, the foundation that he uses to lay, that he lays down for us before he explores those two issues.

We're going to read the first six verses of chapter 3. Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider 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 God's house.

For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.

Now, Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant to testify to the things that were to be spoken later. But Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.

He begins by saying, therefore, what is that all about? If you look above, he says, he leads into it, verse 17 of chapter 2. 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 for the sins of the people.

For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. Therefore, he's saying, speaking of a faithful high priest, let me tell you something else about Jesus' faithfulness.

I've just mentioned he's a faithful high priest. Now let's move on and let's look at another angle. Let's think a little bit more about this faithfulness of Jesus. And so he compares two of God's messengers, both of whom are faithful to God.

Jesus' role as a faithful high priest now causes our Hebrew writer to move on to another important truth that you need to know. The first thing he says is verses 1 and 2. Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in heavenly calling, consider 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 God's house.

He says, first of all, consider Jesus. Consider Jesus. Now when our pastor writes, consider Jesus, he doesn't mean if you've got a moment, give a little bit of time to thinking about our savior. That's not what he means by consider.

The word means fix your attention on, fix your eyes on some subject. In fact, Jesus uses the same word in Luke chapter 12, when he says this, consider the ravens. They neither sow nor reap. They have neither storehouse nor barn.

And yet God feeds them. Now, when he says consider the ravens, what is he saying? He's saying, watch those ravens. Get your binoculars out. Study their habits. Observe them as they fly about, as they land, as they feed their chicks, as they do all that they do.

And you'll conclude that they don't have storehouses or barn to get all their feeding done. God feeds them. That's what you're going to conclude as you study those ravens. So Jesus then must become the object of your attention.

What is he like? What has he done? He's got to be the object of your rapt attention. He's not just someone that you consider periodically. He is something that you have to fix your attention on. How do you do that?

You do that, the most easy entry level, considering Jesus is sitting here on Sunday, listening to the word of God preached. Hearing it taught.

All right?

That's entry level. It's reading the word of God. It's reading the word of God. It's thinking about him. It's meditating on it. It's looking at what he says, what he does, and the conclusions that the apostles reach about all of that.

It means think clearly and make Jesus the object of your attention. He's got to fill your field of vision. Several years ago, I remember I'd been to Romania, which in those days, those trips were usually about 18 days, almost three weeks.

About three days before I got home, Beck went to Iowa to help with the family. I came home. When I got home, she was gone. We were going to meet in Chicago when she came back. It's been a little over a month since I've seen my wife.

I went to Chicago because she took the train. Train stops in Chicago for several hours. Well, shoot, I'm just going to go to Chicago. We can meet there. I can see myself sitting there, and I'm watching people get off the train.

I fix my vision on someone, and it looks like her. It's shaped like her. Her hair looks like her. Is that her glasses? Is that her? I mean, she was right in the middle of my field of vision. That's the woman I wanted.

That's the woman I was looking for. She is not. I was considering her at that point, which doesn't mean I'm just kind of, I wonder where she is. That's what he's saying to us. Consider Jesus. He's got to be the focal point of your field of vision.

He's got to be the one who you pay attention to, you fix your eyes on. By the way, later on he's going to tell us the same things, to fix our eyes on Jesus. That's a key here. Consider Jesus. Well, then you ask, who should consider Jesus?

And he mentions these groups of people. First of all, holy brothers and sisters. Who are they? Those whom Jesus had made a propitiation for. In chapter two, verse 17, he talks about those from whom he made a propitiation for their sins, a sacrifice for their sins.

Verse 11 of chapter two, those whom he has sanctified, those whom he has set apart, those who belong to his family, those who are related to him as human being to human being, those who are related to him by their shared human experience.

You remember in chapter two, he's hammered home the point. Jesus has been in every way, has lived life every way like we have. There isn't anybody here that Jesus can't say to you, I've experienced what you've experienced.

He can say that to every one of you sitting here. Except, he faced it without sin. We are his holy brothers and sisters. Who else are they? They are the sharers or the partners with Jesus in the heavenly calling.

The heirs of salvation as he's told us. The ones destined for dominion, to rule in the world to come. We are destined to rule the world that's yet to come. You remember Jesus has achieved the destiny that human beings were originally intended to have.

And that is to rule. He is now crowned with glory and honor. The glory and honor that we were originally crowned with in Adam and Eve, but which we lost. He has achieved it. We share in that heavenly calling of in the world to come, we will rule like God always intended us as human beings to rule.

And so as believers, our identity and our calling are bound up with Jesus. So we have all people ought to be the ones who consider Jesus. Of anybody in the world, we're the ones who ought to be thinking about Jesus.

Not in an offhanded way, but in a very focused, very important way. We ought to be thinking about Jesus. Well, what is it that you should see? When you look at him, what do you see? I think there are four things here that we can see.

First of all, you should see Jesus as God's apostle. You say, wait a minute. There were 12 apostles. Now are we thinking about 13 if we count Jesus as an apostle? What is that all about? Well, please note that it's not a capital letter.

And the word apostle simply means one who is sent. That's what the word apostle means. One who is sent. It was a common term. Everybody used the word, but it took on a technical sense with the 12 apostles.

They became the 12 especially chosen men sent by God for a special mission. Now we do the same thing with our words too. For example, the word ambassador. Technically, here's the technical sense of the word.

He is the ambassador to France. What does that mean? It means there's this one person who's been specially chosen as a representative of the United States to France to communicate our policies and our wishes of our government to that government.

But we also use it in a common way. When you say to your friend, hey, I come as an ambassador of peace because Sadie wants to reconcile with you. You're coming as a representative for Sadie. She's upset that you're at odds with her.

And so you say, I'm coming as an ambassador of peace. Now you haven't been, right? That's just a normal way of using that word. Here you find the common use of that word. Jesus has been sent by God. That's essentially what he's saying.

He has been sent by God to us. Sent to do what? He's already told us in chapter one. For one thing, he's been sent to reveal God to us. God spoke in many ways through many different means, right? In the past, but now he has spoken ultimately, finally in Jesus, okay?

He is the great revealer. But we've also seen that he's been sent as God's high priest. Has he not? And the book of Hebrews is gonna later on, is gonna really take that concept apart for us. But at this point, at least he's mentioned to us that Jesus has been sent by God as a faithful and merciful high priest.

He was made like us in every respect so that he would be a high priest in service to God to make propitiation for our sins. So Jesus is not just the great revealer. He's the great reconciler. God sent him to reveal him to us.

God sent him to reconcile us to us. And this is what we confess. This is the heart of our faith. This is our confession, he says, that Jesus is the apostle and high priest. So we see Jesus as an apostle.

We see Jesus as a high priest. Third thing, you should see Jesus as faithful. That's what he tells us here. Jesus has been faithful. Jesus never faltered in accomplishing his father's will. Have you ever thought that?

He never faltered in his mission. Never once did he stumble. Never once did he ever not do what God said. He proved faithful in accomplishing the task that God had set before him. He was faithful in it.

He never gave up. He was consistent, always. In fact, Jesus himself said, and this is a phrase that just really stands out to me, my food, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.

Right?

That's my food. I live on that. That's the very source of my existence, to do the father's will. And Jesus was faithful in that. He never, ever faltered in doing what God had told him to do. And the last thing I would point out as you consider Jesus is you should see him in relation to Moses.

That's what he does here. As we've read through this, you certainly notice that he's saying, consider Jesus as the apostle, see him as a high priest, see him as faithful, but see him in relationship, in relation to Moses.

Now we've already seen Jesus' relation to angels as we've gone through chapter one and two. We've already seen his relation to angels. He is superior to the angels and what he accomplished is greater than the work of any angel.

And now God desires to show that Jesus is also superior to Moses. Jesus is superior to Moses. Why Moses? What's that all about? Listen, you got to understand, Moses is like the George Washington of the Jews, okay?

Moses is the one who brought them to freedom. Moses is the one who established them, at least on a human level, established them as the people of God in covenant with God. Moses was also a revealer and a reconciler.

He revealed God's will to the nation. We heard in Numbers, God says, I talk to prophets and visions and dreams, but I talk to this man directly, right? I talk to him directly and he tells you what I want you to do.

He was the great revealer. He was the great reconciler. There's a couple instances in the Old Testament where God, I think in order to test his people, says, I'm going to wipe these people off the face of the map.

Who stepped into the gap? Moses did. And said, oh God, don't do that. He was the great reconciler as well. And listen, you get an idea of how the Jewish people looked at Moses when you hear Jesus say this in Matthew chapter 11.

Jesus said this, the scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat. Or they sit in Moses' seat. So do and observe whatever they tell you.

All right?

He goes on to say, but don't do what they do. Listen to what they say, but don't do what they do. The point is they sit in a place of authority. What's that place of authority? Moses' seat. So they have this exalted view of Moses.

So why the attraction to Moses? Why is he tackling this? Why even bring this up? Because they're under pressure. Remember, as we looked at the beginning of this book, these folks are under pressure. They've got pressure from family, pressure from ruling authorities.

They have pressure to abandon Jesus, okay? They are under pressure for following Christ. And one of the outlets for that, one of the ways of getting out of the pressure is to go back to the religion that God had revealed in the past.

I mean, after all, God had revealed it. This was what God told these people to do for centuries. The Old Testament is filled with what God told these people to do. So it's not like we're abandoning anything.

We're just going back to the old ways, to the ways that God revealed before. That's all. And why do that? Because it was the faith of their families. Have any of you felt pressure from your families because of your faith?

Right?

And because Judaism, here's another reason, Judaism was a legal religion when Christianity was not. The Roman Empire had made an exception for Judaism and said, okay, you can worship in that way. So you've got these pressures on them.

Hey, this was something, Judaism, that's something that God revealed. Why not just go back to that? God gave us that. And if we do that, the families will, well, they'll come to dinner now and the government won't give us any hassle.

Why not go back to the ways that Moses revealed from God? Why not go back to that, right? There's the pressure. And he's dealing with that. And the point that he's saying is, you must see that Jesus is superior and there's no going back.

You can't go back. He's superior. Now, that brings us to the next point that he brings to our attention. Consider Jesus greater than Moses. Consider Jesus greater than Moses. Now, what's Moses? Well, he already tells us in our text, let's read it again.

Just as Moses also was faithful in all God's house, for Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.

Now, Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant to testify to the things that were to be spoken later. But Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. Consider Jesus greater than Moses. Now, Moses, first of all, you have to see, Moses was faithful in God's house.

He was a faithful servant. In all of this, a writer is not in any way trying to say, ah, Moses, what a loser, right? No, to the contrary. He says Moses was faithful in all of God's house. Now, what's God's house?

He's not talking about a temple. He's not talking about some sacred building. He's talking about the people of God, the people of God in the Old Testament, those who were set apart from all the other nations, set apart as the people of the one true and living God, in covenant with that God, all right?

He was faithful in amongst those people. And Moses proved himself faithful for decades as part of God's house. He was the leader, but he was part of that house. He communicated God's will to his people consistently.

He consistently, for nearly a half a century, ruled them, led them, guided them. He consistently, year after year, in fact, he did it for 80 years, he led those people, 80 years. He represented the people to God.

God even said about him, you heard it this morning, and our writer is keying off, he's pivoting off of that Old Testament text that you heard this morning from Numbers chapter 12, where God says, not so with my servant Moses, he is faithful in all my house.

The writer has almost quoted that word for word, has he not? God, or Moses was faithful in all of God's house. Moses was faithful. He was faithful as a servant in God's house. Now Moses was probably the greatest leader, maybe excepting David, but Moses was probably the greatest leader and the greatest prophet in the Old Testament, but he was still a servant.

He was still a servant. And he was a servant according to our text here because he pointed forward to what would be spoken later. He pointed forward to what would be spoken later. Turn back to Deuteronomy 18 for a moment.

Here's a great example of that, how he's pointing forward to something that would be spoken later. In Deuteronomy 18, look at verse 15. This is Moses speaking now. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers.

It is to him you shall listen. So he's saying, someone's coming along who's gonna be a greater prophet than me. Drop down to verses 18 and 19. I will raise up for them a prophet like you. This is God speaking.

I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.

Great as Moses was as a prophet, one would come later with a greater message and would come later with a message with more authority, with greater authority. And did you hear from John chapter five this morning what Jesus said to the Pharisees?

Do you think that I will accuse you to the Father? There is one who accuses you, Moses, the very one that they held in such high esteem. Jesus says, he's the one who's gonna accuse you before my Father, why?

There is one who accuses you, Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me. And there's one example where he wrote of him. And so Moses is a servant because he's pointing forward to what was gonna be said later.

Moses then is not the goal or the end of God's revelation. He's the pointer to someone greater. So he's not the terminus. He's not the end. He's not the goal of what God is going to say. There's someone who is, and it's not Moses.

So he's the servant in the house. He's pointing to somebody else. He's not the end of all of God's revelation. In fact, Jesus is greater. Jesus is superior to Moses. Now, let's note this. Jesus is faithful like Moses.

That's what God says here. Jesus is faithful like Moses, but worthy of more glory. Both were faithful to their callings, yet they were not on the same level. Dale Johnson is a friend of mine. I've gotten to know Dale over the last couple of years.

Dale is the executive director of Association of Certified Biblical Counselors. And we had a board meeting the other day. And I look at the agenda of that board meeting, and I'm thinking, oh, my lands.

How does this guy do it? He proves his faithfulness at a much higher level than I do. Here's a guy who oversees a national organization, keeping an eye on the certification process, overseeing the certification of training centers, trying to get ACBC into the Spanish-speaking world now, planning conferences, meeting with donors, trying to figure out endowments, making sure ACBC is legally compliant with the law, doing a couple of podcasts a week, overseeing a staff that helps him, and then, of course, he's got to deal with the board.

And that's just the beginning. Like, he's also the professor of biblical counseling at Midwest Seminary, where he teaches in and oversees the doctoral program in counseling there. And then, of course, he's got to be a faithful husband to Summer, his wife, and a faithful dad to his five kids.

I don't know.

Maybe six kids. Is that you're over the line. You can't take on anything else.

I don't know.

But then I look at me. You know, I have to plan, counsel, and preach in a small-town church, and I have to be over a household that's composed of my wife and my sister. We're not on the same level, right?

He's faithful. Lord willing, I'm faithful. And it's not the same. That's what he's saying here. Jesus and Moses are both faithful, but they're faithful at different levels. Jesus should have more glory.

Jesus is faithful at a higher level than Moses and worthy of more glory. He is superior to Moses. And Jesus is not just part of the house, like Moses was, but he's the builder of the house. The builder of a house possesses more glory than the house itself.

Of course, we all know that. I remember several years ago, Becca and I were in Yellow Springs, and we were in awe as we walked through this unbelievably beautiful house that was built out of straw bales.

No lie. This house was built of straw bales. Straw bales were the walls of this house. But this house was unbelievable. It was so cool. But we applauded and heaped praise on the builders of that house, Lee and Bruce Parker.

They're the guys who conceived the idea, who came up with the plan, who chose the materials. I remember going there one time and seeing them sewing. You ever seen straw bales sewed? I mean, big needles like that.

And they got two people, and they're sewing these bales together, right? So that they're straight and they make a good wall. They incorporated a solar electrical system, plastered the walls, oversaw the workmen, executed their dreams.

Who gets the most applause, the house or the builders? Obviously, the builders. The house exists because of them. Moses, he's saying, did not establish the people of God since he was not the builder. He was a member of that house.

He was part of that house. He was a straw bale in that house, if you will. But Jesus is the builder. He's the one who built the house. He's the one who put together the people of God. And by the way, verse four, Jesus is not just some mere human being who formed the people of God, but he's the divine builder.

He is God himself. Remember, a writer has asserted that the son in chapter one is the heir of all things, who created all things. And in chapter one, verse 10, he lays the foundation of the world of the earth and he spreads the skies out.

This is Jesus that we're talking about. Jesus is the divine builder of God's people, not just a member of God's people. And so he is worthy of more glory. He is superior to Moses. Moses occupied the position of servant in God's house, but Jesus is the son.

Now, for several years, I don't know, about four, three or four times, a church in Asheville, North Carolina would ask me to come down and preach. And so we'd go down there and I would go down there and preach and I remember the girls came with us one time.

And every time we went down there, we went to the Biltmore Mansion. You ever seen the Biltmore? You ever heard of the Biltmore? It's this unbelievably beautiful mansion that was built by the Vanderbilts.

So it's called Biltmore, get it? Anyway, the Vanderbilts built it. These tycoons. In our trips down there, we became friends with Werner. Werner was from Germany. Werner Katzenberger. He worked at the Biltmore.

And all you kids, you've seen my walking stick with that old man carved on the top? Werner did that. Werner's the guy who made that for me. But Werner worked at the Biltmore. It's like, wow, you work at the Biltmore?

How did you ever land a job like that? Right, kind of a celebrity. And Werner would show up every day for work, right? He'd show up every day for work. A faithful employee for the Vanderbilts. He worked hard, good worker.

But what if one of the Vanderbilts walked into the house the same moment that Werner was walking in to punch in? Oh, wait a minute, you don't do that anymore. Just slide in, okay? Would anybody pay attention to Werner?

No, they'd be going nuts over the Vanderbilts. One of the Vanderbilts is here, right?

Why?

Because he's the son. He's the guy who has it all. He's the guy who owns the place. He's the one who's gonna get the most attention. We all know that. And so it is with Moses. Moses deservedly stands out as a faithful servant to God's people.

But Jesus eclipses that glory with his glory as the ruler of God's people, right? We all get that, we all understand that. And Moses as a servant foreshadows what Jesus is, but Jesus fulfills it. Jesus is the ruling son of God's people, and so he is worthy of more glory.

He is superior to Moses. And so consider Jesus, but consider him as superior to Moses. Now why does he go through all that in order to bring us to the last part of verse six? This is where we're headed.

This is what we need to understand. This is why he's told us these things. Last part of verse six. And we are his, that is Jesus, we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.

Holding Fast to Christ as the Comfort and Challenge of Faith

Consider Jesus your only hope. Don't consider him just superior to Moses, greater than Moses. Consider Jesus your only hope. In light of all this, God gives us the comfort and the challenge flowing out of the truth that Jesus is superior to Moses.

Now, I want you to keep those two words in your head. As we proceed through these two chapters and beyond, we're going to see that the good news of Jesus, the superiority of Jesus leads us to two things, comfort and challenge.

Comfort and challenge. All the way through. We got to get that in our heads. And now he tells us here the comfort and the challenge of this superior Jesus. What's the comfort? We are God's house. Not just those people long ago far away.

We are God's house. We are the people of God. That is, if we have confidence in Jesus, notice he says, and we are his house, if indeed we hold fast, our confidence, our confidence. We are confident that what Jesus reveals about God is true.

We are confident in his work as high priest. We are confident that he reconciles us to God. Our hope is in him. We are confident, right? We are God's house if we believe that he is our hope. Now there's a funny phrase there, and you're probably wondering about it.

Our confidence and our boasting in our hope. Boasting in our hope. He does not mean that we can boast or be proud of the act of hoping. Look at me. Wow, I got my confidence in Jesus.

Right?

That's not what he's saying. He's saying we boast in the object of our hope. Our hope is Jesus. Our hope is him. We boast in him. I don't have anything to claim. It's all him.

Right?

He is my hope. He is my hope. We boast. We are filled with confidence that Jesus can save us, that Jesus can make us part of God's house. Our hope is in him. We brag about him as our hope.

You see?

So that is the comfort of the superiority of Jesus. We can be part of God's house, God's people, God's family. That's us. That's us. Here's the challenge. If indeed we hold fast. There's the challenge.

If indeed we hold fast to that confidence and that hope, we can only be part of God's people if indeed we hold fast.

What does he mean?

He's saying having declared that Jesus is your only hope, you cannot go back to putting your hope and your confidence in what Moses gave you. You can't go back. There's no going back. If you do go back to the old way of being part of God's house, you'll end up not being part of God's house.

You can't go back. If Jesus is superior and you put your hope in him, you can't put your hope anywhere else. To do so means you are not part of God's family. Well, you say, you know, I don't think there's many of us here, Pastor Tim, who are, you know, are going to go back to putting our hope in animal sacrifices.

So what's the big deal?

Simply this.

It means you cannot declare Jesus as your hope and then abandon that hope for someone or something else. You can't do that. A saving faith is a faith that perseveres. It's not a one-time thing. Okay, I'm saved.

But ten years later, say, I don't believe that stuff anymore. You can't look at that person and say, oh, but you believed when you were 12, so you must be a Christian, even if you don't believe it anymore.