I’m going to try to do two things today that are probably inadvisable.  The first is that I’m going to attempt to cover the entire chapter in this sermon.  It’s only 14 verses, so it’s not impossible, just probably not advisable.  The second thing I’m going to do is attempt to exegete it in reverse.  I’m going to start with verses 11-14 and then afterwards I will do 1-10.  Now I do that because even though I may not be following the text chronologically, I think I am honoring the sense of the text.  I think that the author of Hebrews has been giving this great theological treatise, a sermon really, on the superior merits of Christ above every other institution or agency, and perhaps he senses a danger at this point that his audience is starting to get bored.  And so in vs 11, he suddenly diverges from his message, and gives a word of exhortation, that they need to sit up and listen and learn.

Now I echo that sentiment today, because I think that this is tremendously important material that we need to know if we are going to have the full effect of our salvation in operation in our lives.  I think there is a dumbing down of the gospel in our age, in an attempt to make it relevant, in an attempt to hold people’s attention, or in an attempt to be entertaining, and the end result is that the average Christian doesn’t really understand neither his salvation, nor God’s purpose in saving him, and consequently has no clue as to what he is supposed to do now that he believes.  I’m afraid many people don’t even know what they believe.  They just have been told to believe in Jesus, that he died on the cross, that He loves us, and so we just believe, and now we don’t have to worry about going to hell anymore, and we can have a good life because God loves us and wants us to have a good life.  That’s the sum total of most people’s doctrinal understanding.

But the author of Hebrews is spending a lot of time and effort in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit  to tell us about the magnificence of who Jesus is, and what He came to do, and what He continues to do.  And it’s important to know all we can know about who Jesus is, because that is the basis for our belief, for our faith.  Also it’s important because the more we know about Jesus, the more we will love Him, and the more we love Him, the more we will be moved to live lives that are pleasing to Him.  It’s just like a relationship with a man and a woman when they are dating.  They start to spend time together.  She wants to know all about you.  She wants to know your past, your future, your plans.  And as you learn more and more about each other, your love grows for one another.  Thus it is important that we learn all we can about who Jesus is and what He did and continues to do.  Because that knowledge is what we base our faith on.  And our faith is the basis for being granted salvation and all the attendant benefits of salvation.  And our knowledge for God produces our love for God, which is the motivation for our obedience to Him.

So the Holy Spirit in vs 11 interrupts the theological treatise to reprimand the audience for their ignorance. And by extension, He is upbraiding the present audience here today as well for our ignorance.  Notice, He says, “Concerning him we have much to say, and [it is] hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.”  Concerning Him, I believe, is speaking of Jesus.  It could be that he is saying, concerning Melchizedek we have much to say.  And of course, he does have a lot to say about Melchizedek in the upcoming chapters. But this book is not about Melchizedek, it’s about Jesus. And so I think he saying we have a lot to say about Jesus, but you’ve become dull of hearing.

As I’ve gotten older, I have become dull of hearing.  I blame it on years of surfing.  There is something called surfer’s ear that affects us guys that spend too much time in cold water.  The ear canal builds up cartilage to protect itself from the cold water and wind, and eventually it closes up the ear canal.  So you can’t hear very well.  That’s my excuse, at least.  

But I don’t think the author has in mind surfer’s ear.  I think he’s talking about lazy listening.  I think we are not tuned to the things of God because it’s much easier to listen to music, or some sort of entertainment or a nice sentimental story.  The opposite of dull hearing would be sharp hearing.  It’s like Maggie my dog.  She hears some things a lot better than others.  She can hear me open a package of bread from the other side of the house and be there in a flash with her tail wagging.  She loves bread.  But she can’t seem to hear me when I tell her to get off the couch.  She seems deaf as a post then. 

I wonder if some of you have the same problem.  You can hear a couple of measures of the beginning of a song and tell me immediately what the name of the song is and who the author is, but you can’t find a verse in the Bible with a concordance. You’ve become dull of hearing because you haven’t trained yourself in the things of God. To use another analogy, you haven’t developed a taste for spiritual food.  That is what is said there in vs14, “But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.”  The key is training.  The more you train your voice, the better sense you have of being on pitch or in tune.  The same is true of spiritual things; it involves practice, training your senses so that they are not dulled by the things of the world, but trained in the things of God, so that we may be in tune with God.

Some of you have been Christians a long time.  I hesitate to ask for a show of hands, but I assume that many of you have been saved since you were children, or young adults.  And so vs 12 says to you, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.  For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.  But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.”

The problem with some of you is that maybe that your home church only gives you milk, and never feeds you solid food.  Some churches just serve whipped cream.   I love whipped cream.  I like it when my wife makes homemade whipped cream to go on chocolate cake. And it’s ok to have some every now and then.  But a steady diet of whipped cream is not good for you.  And furthermore, its not going to have the nutrition that you need to grow and maintain your body as it should be.  

Children, especially spiritual children, need to be fed milk at first, but then they need to move on to solid food, so that their body can mature and grow stronger.  And so it is with us.  Otherwise we remain “babes in the woods” so to speak.  And we cannot discern the difference between good and evil.  We end up being taken in by false doctrine, and by the deceit of the devil.

Now then, let us eat some solid food this morning, that we might move on towards maturity in Jesus Christ.  And one of the roles of Jesus Christ that we are considering is His position as High Priest of our faith.  And perhaps this is difficult because we can’t relate to this position of high priest.  We don’t see that sort of position in the church today and so we can’t relate to it.

But think about it this way for a moment.  If we accept the fact that God exists as He has disclosed Himself in His word; that He is the maker of the universe, the ruler of the world, the judge of the earth, in whom all righteousness and holiness dwells in inapproachable light, and we exist and live and breathe by His permission.  If we accept that premise, then what is our response?  To ignore Him?  That will hardly do.  To try to placate Him? How?  What are we to do? How do we approach Him?

Well Jesus gave us the answer in John 4:24  “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” So we must worship God.  He is Spirit, therefore He cannot be seen, so we must worship Him in spirit, and worship Him in truth.  We must worship Him as He wants us to worship Him, according to what He has revealed.  And in ancient times, God ordained priests to facilitate that worship.  They represented God to man, in revealing His truth, and they represented man to God, in offering sacrifices and gifts to God which was the way in which God wanted man to express his worship.  And among the priests, there was the office of the High Priest, who was the chief of priests, and He served a special function on the yearly Day of Atonement, in going before God in the Holy of Holies to offer the sacrifice for the sins of the people.

Now that’s what this author says in vs 1, “For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.”  Notice, the high priest is taken from among men, to act in the appointed role on behalf of men in things pertaining to God.  He is a man, appointed by God to act on their behalf.  And God appointed him to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.

So Holy, Righteous God, required that priests act as intermediaries by offering sacrifices and gifts for the sins of man in order to be accepted by God. Man is a fallen creature, born in sin, with a sinful nature, and as such is estranged from God and cannot approach God.  The sacrifices and gifts could not of themselves atone for sin, but they showed man’s repentance over his sin, which God accepted, and He therefore provided a substitute animal to bear their punishment.  The priests facilitated this system of sacrifices and gifts to God.

Now such a priest had a dual responsibility.  To man he could, in vs 2, “deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness.”  In other words, since the priest also is a man, he has the same weaknesses and temptations that men have, and thus can have compassion on them.  

And because of his weaknesses, because he is a man born in sin, with a sinful nature even as they, vs. 3, “he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins, as for the people, so also for himself.”  So he has to offer sin sacrifices for himself, and then for the people.  He is an intermediary, but a flawed one.  And if you were someone who went to a priest in those days, hoping to have him intercede for you to God, then you would have to hope that he had been faithful himself to offer sacrifices for his own sin, so that your prayers might not be hindered by his weakness.  

Another important characteristic of priests is that they did not designate themselves priests, but that designation came from God.  Now that’s important, because then as also now, many people are running around claiming to speak for God, when in fact, God has not appointed them.  I will never forget it was during Hurricane Sandy, I believe, which narrowly missed us here in Delaware but pounded New Jersey and caused more damage than any other storm to date in that state.  And I remember reading something just before the storm hit that a group of religious leaders from some sort of denomination that specialized in miracles and prophesying, had sent out a statement saying that all these preachers had been praying and formed a prayer chain or something like that around the Mid Atlantic region, and somehow God had told them that the storm would turn away and we would be spared of any sort of direct hit.  And I got an email from one of their followers to that affect as the storm was bearing down on us.  And I usually just bite my tongue and delete that sort of thing.  But I couldn’t help myself that day, and so I sent the guy an email reply with this quote from Jeremiah 14:14 Then the LORD said to me, “The prophets are prophesying falsehood in My name. I have neither sent them nor commanded them nor spoken to them; they are prophesying to you a false vision, divination, futility and the deception of their own minds.”  I never got any more emails from that guy again.

So God appoints those who truly speak for Him, and He appointed the high priests, not man, not some denomination, not some seminary, not some pastor search committee. And it says here that God appoints the priests. And now the Spirit uses that designation to extol the virtues of Jesus Christ as our Great High Priest in vs.5 “So also Christ did not glorify Himself so as to become a high priest, but He who said to Him, ‘YOU ARE MY SON, TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU’”.   So quoting from Psalm 2:7, God speaking to the Messiah, appointed Him as His representative, as His Son.  And then quoting from Psalm 110, vs4, “YOU ARE A PRIEST FOREVER ACCORDING TO THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK.”

What greater appointment for man’s High Priest could be imagined, than God in human form, Jesus Christ incarnate, being made forever to be our High Priest after the order of Melchizedek.  Now there will be much more to be said about Melchizedek in the passages ahead.  But suffice it for now that you know that in Genesis 14:18 he appeared to Abraham as both king of Salem, which was an ancient name for Jerusalem, and also he was designated as priest of God Most High.  And Abraham recognized him as the priest of God and gave him his tithes.  Now this event preceded the law of Moses concerning priests and the order of Aaron, the High Priest of Israel by several hundred years.  Melchizedek seemed to appear out of nowhere, without any precedent.  And Psalm 110 is quoting God as saying that the Messiah is a priest forever, not after the order of Aaron, not of the Levitical priesthood, but after the order of Melchizedek.

So Jesus was appointed High Priest by God.  The other characteristic that you will remember though of priests is that they were taken from man.  And vs 7 speaks to His humanness, or the days of His flesh.   “In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety.”

Many commentators think this speaks particularly of His suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane, but I think it doesn’t have to be restricted to just that incident, but throughout His whole life, He was constantly in communion with His Father and dependent upon doing His will.  Some of the hardest trials you will go through, and some of the deepest sorrows you may experience are not always associated with suffering pain and injury, but in doing what is right.  Going against what the flesh calls for, going against what the world calls for, and the loneliness and sense of desolation that evokes is reason enough for loud crying and tears.  

What this is referencing is the qualification of a priest that He is able to sympathize with those whom He represents, that is mankind.  Christ suffered all the things that we suffer, and much more than we could ever suffer.  He did what was right before God, without sin, suffering even until death. His faithfulness unto death qualifies Him even more than any earthly priest, who shared the same weaknesses of the flesh as his fellow citizens, because though He shared in the sufferings and temptations and trials of men, yet He was victorious over them in righteousness.  And because of His righteousness, or as it says because of His piety, God delivered Him from the chains of death, and He rose again from the grave victorious with the keys of death and Hades in His grasp.

In vs8, it says, “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.”  Now this verse has caused a lot of confusion, because we can not imagine how Christ could learn obedience.  But I think it needs to be understood this way, “although He was a Son, (that is the Son of God, deity), even though He had a right to do what He wanted,  He learned obedience from the things He suffered in the flesh (that is in the things He suffered as a human.)  In other words, He humbled Himself and practiced obedience to the Father’s will in His flesh, in His humaness, even while suffering, which made Him qualified in experience to be our representative.  Even though He was omniscient, in His experience of suffering there was a sense in which He learned experientially what it was to be human.

And we learn to be obedient through suffering as well.  Unfortunately, we tend to learn more from our disobedience.  The way most of us learn is by learning the hard way.  We disobey, and suffer the consequences, and we end up learning through our disobedience.  It’s much smarter to learn though example.  It’s so much smarter to learn through obedience to what God has said in His word, rather than to think we have to figure it out for ourselves.  That goes back to the exhortation about being children that we looked at earlier.  Children learn through experience. And that’s why discipline is such an important part in a child’s upbringing.  But as you grow older, and more mature, you should be able to learn from other’s experience.  That’s wisdom.

And then vs 9 says, “having been made perfect…”  Once again, people have trouble with this idea that Christ had to become perfect.  But the best way to understand that word is to translate it as “complete.”  So He became complete by suffering in His flesh.  He became the complete, perfect High Priest because He was not only fully God, but fully man, and suffered all things in the flesh as a man, yet without sin, preserving His righteousness. 

Back in chapter 4:15 we read, “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as [we are, yet] without sin.”

So having suffered in the flesh, having been appointed by God, having been ordained after another order of priests, having been the righteous and Holy Son of God, we therefore have such a Great High Priest, who has became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation.

Listen, we just read that Jesus learned obedience from the things which He suffered and was saved from death through His piety. Is it not just as appropriate that the obedience of the redeemed results in their salvation? Is it so inappropriate to think that obedience and faith go hand in hand? Listen, you cannot have faith without obedience. Faith is not just a head knowledge, but a heart repurposed.  Remember the admonition of Jesus in Matt. 15:8-9  ‘THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME.  ‘BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.’”

Or perhaps we need to remember His warning in Matt. 7:21-23  “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven [will enter.]  “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’  “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’”  Notice the emphasis on doing God’s will, and then the opposite of practicing lawlessness which is a hallmark of lip service.  So then, practicing righteousness, obedience to God,  is hallmark of true worship.

The final qualification of our Great High Priest is that to all who obey Him,  He is the source, or the author of eternal salvation, being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.  Peter said in Acts 4:12 “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”

He is not only the author of our salvation, but also the finisher of our salvation.  Hebrews 12:2 “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of [our] faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

The fact that He is eternal, sitting eternally on the throne of God, interceding for His people, means that our salvation is eternal.  It’s eternal because the source of our salvation is eternal.  It’s eternal because HIs sacrifice is eternally effective, once for all accomplished, never to be repeated and permanently valid.  And it’s an eternal salvation because Jesus Christ, our Great High priest ever lives to make intercession for us, to help us in our time of need.  He is always available, ever working on the behalf of those who have put their trust in Him.  

I hope everyone here today has become a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Are you trusting in the sacrifice of Himself on your behalf for your acceptance with God?  There is no other way to God, and no other source of eternal life.  Trust in Him today as your Savior, Lord and King, and in HIs work as our Great High Priest. 

As we begin this study today in Hebrews, I think it may be important to ask the question, what is a priest?  Practically all religions utilize a priesthood.  And yet in the Protestant Evangelical tradition we don’t use priests.  We have a pastor.  We have certain officers such as deacons.  But we don’t have priests officiating in the sanctuary.  And so it might be necessary to explain why, and explain what the Bible says about priests, as a precursor to our study today.

According to the common understanding of both Greeks and Hebrews of the time when this epistle was written, priests were men who offered sacrifices and in general  busied themselves with sacred rites in a temple or sanctuary.  They were considered go betweens, or mediators between man and God.  They were considered holy in that they were consecrated to their work.  They were not concerned with profane things, but holy things of God. In Judaism especially, the religion of the Israelites, it was considered a sacred profession that was the birthright of the Levites. In other words, you had to be born a priest.   And they worked in the temple daily, performing their sacrifices and sacred rituals.

In addition to that position, you also had a high priest.  These were men who came from the ranks of the Levites, who originally were  selected by God to officiate as a priest, but as the leader of the priesthood, and who would enter once a year into the Holy of Holies to offer the sacrifices on the Day of Atonement.  He was often called the chief priest, because his position was foremost of the priests.

Now as I said, we don’t have priests officiating in the church today at least in most Protestant evangelical churches.  And the primary reason is that we no longer have sacrifices to offer.  Hebrews 7:27 tells us that Jesus has offered one sacrifice for all time.  On the day He was crucified, you will remember that God tore in two the veil separating the temple from the Holy of Holies, rending it from top to bottom, signifying that the way to enter the Holy of Holies was open to all through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  Thus, we no longer need a priest, or even a high priest from the order of the Levites, to act as an intermediary for us.

But on the other hand, the book of Hebrews is going to spend a great deal of time telling us that Jesus is our great high priest.  And so if we are to understand Jesus, then we need to understand the function of the High Priests among the Jews, but particularly we need to understand how Jesus fulfills that office.

And by the way, in this new covenant, we that are saved are the new priesthood.  Peter said in 1Peter 2:9 “But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR [God’s] OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”  That’s what our job is now that we have become saved, to function as priests of God, as Romans 12:1 states, “presenting our bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, which is your reasonable service of worship.  John declares the same thing in Revelation 1:6 “and He has made us [to be] a kingdom, priests to His God and Father–to Him [be] the glory and the dominion forever and ever.”

And what the author of Hebrews is telling us in this passage is that we have a Chief Priest over us, who has gone into the heavenly holy of holies, and is officiating at the heavenly altar, so that we might have access to God and find help in time of need.

Now in chapter 3, vs 1 we were told to consider Jesus.  And so we have been doing that, considering Jesus in contrast to angels, to prophets, and to Moses, He is superior in every respect.  And today we are considering Jesus in light of His office as a High Priest, that we might better understand our position and the promises that we have in Him.

I could focus on a variety of human problems today with hopes that I might engage at least a few of you folks’ attention, in that you share a similar situation in your life.  But in the wisdom of God, I prefer to follow the teaching of this book, to fix our eyes on Jesus, and when we do that, we might find that he is sufficient to meet every need, whatever the need may be. Rather than focus on the problems, let us consider the solution to every need, which is Jesus.  And it is in His office of Great High Priest that we see Him most sufficient.

Now this idea of a Jesus as our Great High Priest has already been introduced to us in two other places.  The first was in chapter 2, vs17, “Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.”  The second mention is in chapter 3, vs1, which says, “Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.” 

Now then let us consider Him as our Great High Priest. In chapter 4, vs 14, it says, “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.” 

But before we parse the rest of the verse, I want to point out the words, “we have.”  Let’s not overlook the little words in scripture.  It’s not that we just know about, but we have, we possess, or we belong to, such a great high priest.  We have a part in Him.  We have appropriated His work on our behalf.  That is really what constitutes our faith in Him, and what makes our faith efficacious. He has become our Lord and Savior and our Great High Priest by virtue of our faith and trust in Him.  He is ours, and we are His.  So let’s not overlook that important distinction.

A good illustration of that proprietary relationship to  the high priest is that in ancient Israel the high priest wore the names of the tribes of Israel on their breastplate, as part of their priestly garments.  They were identified with those who they were representing.  So it is with Jesus as our High Priest.  Our names, the Bible says in Isaiah 49:16, are written on His hands.  So He has become a man like us, one of His brethren, so that He might be our representative, our faithful high priest.

So now we have learned what it means to be our high priest, but what is indicated by “Great” High Priest? There were many high priests after the order of Aaron, but none of them were ever called great.  So what is meant by that title?  Well, I believe if we follow the order we have seen so far in Hebrews, it is quite simply that He is superior to every previous high priest. He is greater than every high priest that has ever come before.

And if you turn ahead a couple of chapters to chapter 7,  starting in vs 16, we see some characteristics of His greatness.  First it says that He became a priest not on the basis of ancestry, He was not of the tribe of Levi, but of Judah. He was appointed by God and not by man. And furthermore it says that He became a priest forever because of His indestructible life.  In other words, all Levitical priests eventually died and were buried, and thus their ministry ended.  But Jesus’s ministry continues forever, because He rose from the dead and as our text indicates, He ascended into heaven where He continues to intercede for us.

Secondly, He is our Great High Priest because His temple is greater.  In chapter 9 vs 24 we read that “Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.”  So He is greater because the earthly high priests officiated in an earthly holy place which was only a type of the one in the heavens, but Jesus has entered to the heavenly tabernacle, into the very presence of God’s throne, which is clearly greater.

And thirdly, He is our Great High Priest because He is not only human as all the other priests were, but He is also divine, as no other priest could claim.  And we see that illustrated back in our text, in vs 14, in HIs name and title.  Jesus is His human name.  It was a rather common name, Joshua in Hebrew, but Jesus in the Greek.  And it meant, “Jehovah is salvation.”  The angel said to Mary when he announced His birth, “And you shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.”  So in His humanity, He is able to represent His people, and He is able to be the substitute for mankind.

But He was not only fully man, but fully divine, which is represented in His title, “the Son of God.”  John chapter 1 tells us that He was in the beginning with God, and that He was God.  Jesus claimed that He came from God and He was going back to the Father.  Jesus always called God His Father.  Only as the Son of God, equal in divinity, but separate in roles, could He atone for the sins of the world.  And only as God could He be the Great High Priest who passed through the heavens and sat down at the right hand of the Father.  

Now let’s just clarify that phrase, “passed through the heavens.”  Generally speaking, when the Bible speaks of the atmosphere, it refers to it as the heavens.  It includes the immediate atmosphere around the earth, as well as the sun, moon and stars.  But the passage is not so much describing a geographic location as it is describing the act of Christ entering or passing through the veil that hides the heavenly realm, or the spiritual realm.  Ephesians 2 says about us Christians in vs 5-6 “even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),  and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly [places] in Christ Jesus.”  

That’s talking about something that happens upon salvation. Upon salvation we are vicariously seated in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.  But for that to be true of you and me it must be true spiritually.  And it is in that spiritual realm that Jesus has passed through.  That was typified in the earthly high priest who once a year went into the Holy of Holies, by passing through the veil.  And so Christ has gone before us, passing through death, being raised incorruptible, and passed into the heavenly realm, the spiritual realm,  into the very presence of the Father. In that spiritual realm, He is above all power and authority, outside of time and space, and not confined to earthly limitations.  Thus He is greater because the scope of His ministry is spiritual, and not limited to the physical.

Now this faith in Jesus Christ, as the Son of God, this faith in HIs work of atonement, this faith that appropriates His office of High Priest over us, is called in vs14 our confession.  And the Spirit says through Hebrews that since Jesus is our Great High Priest, we must hold fast our confession.  Now what does it mean to hold fast?  It means to secure it.  To make something fast is to secure it.  It actually refers back to that idea of possession.  We appropriate these truths and secure them, trust firmly in them.  To have unshakeable faith in who Jesus is, and what He has done, and what He ever lives to do.  It’s the same idea as standing firm in your faith.  Be confident, be assured in who He His and what He will do.  So we must stand firm in our confession of our faith, holding fast to His promises.  “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,” according to Hebrews 11:1.

And faith is the means by which all that Christ has done and will do is appropriated by us.

Now vs 15 says that we can have that confident confession of our faith because Christ  sympathizes with us, in all our weaknesses, in all our temptations and trials, because He has been tempted and tried in all points like we have, yet without sin.  Jesus, in His humanity has suffered in every thing that we suffer.  Vs. 15 “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as [we are, yet] without sin.”  To sympathize is to relate to, and have compassion on, and He does so because He has shared similar experiences.

But our confidence comes not just because He has suffered the same things that we suffered, but that He did so without succumbing to sin.  A fellow human can commiserate with you in your suffering, but offer little help in overcoming temptation and trial.  Jesus, suffered in all things as we have, yet He triumphed over them, by not succumbing to sin.  I believe it was the theologian FF Bruce who said, “Such endurance involves more, not less, than ordinary human suffering.”  In other words, the suffering that Jesus endured without sin, is far greater than our suffering.  Thus, in overcoming it, He shows that He is able to help us in our suffering. Jesus withstood all temptation, He withstood all the strategies of Satan, all the pitfalls of the world, He withstood all the weaknesses and indulgences of man, and emerged the victor.  And because He is the victor over death and sin and the world, He is able to save to the uttermost those that trust in Him. We can hold fast our confidence because He overcame the world, and He is able to come to our help and defense.  Because He was sinless.  HIs sinlessness is an important attribute of His effectiveness as our Great High Priest.

I need to speak to something at this point that may offend some people here.  And I would say that I do not go out of my way to be offensive.  But just the other day I picked up a  silver medallion and chain.  I bought it just because it was in the junk jewelry section of a thrift store and I saw it was marked sterling silver, so I knew it was worth more than what they had it marked for.  It was a good deal.  But the medallion was commemorating the Virgin Mary. And around the outer band of the medallion was engraved the words, “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.”

Now folks, I must tell you that in no place in scripture is it indicated that Mary was conceived without sin. Romans clearly states that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. They have taken one of the essential attributes of Jesus, the Son of God, that qualifies Him to be our Great High Priest, and given it to someone else.  Mary was blessed among women for she was chosen to bear Jesus as her child.  But sinlessness is the attribute of God, not any man or woman. And Mary was only a woman who had the same weaknesses that we have.  She had the same need for a Savior that all men have.  Mary was a sinner just like you and I are sinners.  Mary was saved by faith in Jesus Christ. But in no way was she born without sin. And the scripture no where teaches that.

Then, on the reverse of the medallion is a large letter M, which symbolizes that Mary is the Mediatrix, which means she is the mediator between man and salvation, and that Jesus bestows graces through her.  Once again, this false doctrine is taking away from Jesus the characteristic that He only provides.  He, and He alone,  is the mediator between God and man.  1Tim. 2:5 says “For there is one God, [and] one mediator also between God and men, [the] man Christ Jesus.” 

And furthermore, to show how insidious this doctrine of Mary is, it is based on the idea that she was assumed into heaven, bypassing death, because she had never sinned.  So once again, the fact that Jesus passed through the heavens has been appropriated to Mary as well, which puts her on the same plane as Jesus Christ.  I would just encourage you to see for yourselves if there is any mention of such a thing in scripture.  There is none. It is a false doctrine that leads to a worship of Mary, and a perversion of the intercessory doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ.  The whole point of this passage before us today, is to say that we have a Great High Priest, Jesus Christ, who has passed through the heavens, who was tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin, and now lives to make intercession for us, to help us in our time of need, because He has experienced what we experience, and because we are His people, and He is our High Priest, who represents His people before the Father.  And as such people, who belong to Christ, we are to body enter into the throne of grace to find help in time of need.  We don’t need to go through other human intermediaries. In fact, such people can never help us.  We don’t need to appeal to other humans who have passed into death to speak on our behalf.  Jesus performs that role for us, and He performs it perfectly, because He is the Great High Priest.  And to try to put another person in HIs place, or to make you go through another agency to get to Jesus, is to put a stumbling block before you, and diminish the work of Jesus Christ by saying that it was not sufficient.  Let me assure you, Jesus is sufficient. He and He alone is able to save. He alone is able to know our hearts.  He alone is sinless.  Consider Jesus!  Don’t be deceived into looking at any one else but Jesus.  He is sufficient.

Now the last verse in our text sums up our response to our confession of faith in all that Jesus has accomplished and will accomplish as our Great High Priest.  It says in vs. 16, Therefore, [since all these things are assured concerning Jesus as our Great High Priest,]  let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Therefore, since all these things are assured concerning Jesus, we can come boldly to the throne of grace. A throne speaks of authority and power, while grace conveys the idea of compassion and provision. These two thoughts are combined in Jesus Christ. He is the God of infinite power, Creator of the Universe, Judge of the Earth, sitting on His throne after all authority in heaven and earth have been given to Him.  And, yet He welcomes us in complete and utter sympathy with us. Because He is one of us, and we are one with Him. We can come boldly because we are confident that He is ours, and we are His, by virtue of the atoning sacrifice which He made on our behalf.  His sacrifice for us is more than sufficient so that we may be bold to enter the throne of grace.

Notice what He provides to those who come to Him; mercy and grace.  Mercy is not getting what we deserve.  Grace is getting what we don’t deserve.  Christ doesn’t just give us mercy, but He gives us grace.  He not only forgives the penalty of our sin, but He gives us His righteousness and eternal life. He gives us complete and perfect access to God. Mercy and grace, and they are offered by our Great High Priest, who offered Himself as an sacrifice for our sin.  No other priest could make such a sacrifice, because no other priest was without sin.  And furthermore, because no human priest could take away sin.  Only Jesus Christ can forgive sins.

The author concludes that we might find help in time of need. I don’t know what needs you may have today.  But one primary need I know is applicable to every man and woman here today.  We all need to receive Jesus Christ as our Savior for the remission of sins.  Only through faith in Jesus Christ can we have eternal life.  As I quoted earlier, there is only one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.  Jesus said, no one comes to the Father except by Me.  Jesus became our Great High Priest so that those who believe in Him would find mercy and grace in time of need.   I hope that no one comes short of the grace of God by not accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord.  Only through faith in Christ can we say that He is our Great High Priest, and only by His intercession can we find help in our time of need.  He stands ready to help you in your need.  Come to Jesus, He is mighty to save.

I hate to give the devil his due, but I think it was the Rolling Stones who said, “You can’t always get what you want, but you get what you need.”  That statement is true here this morning in regards to our subject before us.  It’s perhaps not what we would want to hear, or would want to consider on this Sunday morning, but it’s what we need to hear. It’s like when we feed our children, we don’t always give them what they like to eat,  we sometimes need to give them what they need.  What is good for them. 

In the next chapter of Hebrews, the author accuses the Christians there of having a nutritional deficit.  As it says in chapter 5:12-14 “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.  For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.  But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.”

Now I think that sentiment is behind a lot of what the author of Hebrews is writing in the passage before us today. He’s writing to Christians, I believe, but Christians who are lagging in their spiritual development. 

Some commentators distinguish between the intended recipients as either Christians, or in some passages, non Christian Jews.  But I think that it actually is written to all Christians, but perhaps particularly to immature Christians, who might stop short of entering into all that their salvation was intended to produce.  And in that respect, I think it is very contemporary.  Because I think there are a lot of Christians today who are at risk of falling short in terms of spiritual maturity.  

And so far the epistle has given three warnings to Christians.  The first was a warning against drifting away in chapter 2.  The second was a warning against hardening your hearts in chapter 3.  And now we see a third, which is the possibility of not entering God’s rest in chapter 4.  All of which are speaking primarily to believers.  I think the author is exhorting Christians to continue to be strong in their faith and not come short of all that God has designed our salvation to produce in us.

Now  one of the great benefits of our salvation is peace, contentment, and rest.  That is one of the promised blessings of salvation.  Jesus said in Matthew 11:28  “Come unto Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”  And again in John 14:27  “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.”

That sounds like something that we could all use, doesn’t it?  Peace and rest.  I suppose that’s why many of you came to the beach, to seek rest, to try to find some peace out of all the hustle and bustle and stress of the world that you may have been caught up in all year.  Peace and rest are great blessings that God has promised to His children, and yet if we are honest, most of us would probably admit that is not our daily experience.  And so this passage we are looking at today is dealing with rest.  How we can enter that rest that God has promised us.

The passage starts on that premise in vs1, “Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it.”  That is something to be feared- that we should come short of this rest that God has promised.  That would be a tragedy, that we might have rest available, but yet fail to appropriate it and experience it for ourselves.  The good news is that it is obviously intended for us to have it now.  It’s not something that  was only available to the early church, or as the preceding chapter indicates, it was not a rest exclusive to the ancient Israelites who had been wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, waiting to enter the promised land, the land of rest.  But God’s rest is available to us today.  It is a blessing of salvation, and furthermore, it is an essential element of salvation.

Let me explain it in regards to salvation this way. Salvation is composed of three elements, all of which are necessary.  First is justification, second is sanctification, and the third is glorification. Justification is the defeat of the penalty of sin.  Sanctification is the defeat of the power of sin. Glorification is the defeat of the presence of sin, and that happens when we are resurrected to new life with a glorified, sinless body.  

But it is in fully realizing and appropriating all the victory that is available in Christ that we are truly set free. It is only when we appropriate all that salvation offers, that we truly can have peace and be truly at rest.  

I think this idea of rest is best illustrated by the idea of a flock of sheep that are under the care of the shepherd.  Jesus likened Himself to a shepherd, even the door of the sheepfold, and he who enters in by Him will go in and out and find pasture.  Rest is not sleeping, nor some sort of eternal bliss, but it is a life under the care and comfort of the Good Shepherd, a life that has peace knowing that He is guiding and providing all that is good in life.  That life in Him is abundant life, fruitful life.  Fully trusting and following and living under the authority and direction of the Shepherd produces the rest that the sheep must have if they are to grow and mature and have the abundant life that God wants for them to have.  Sheep must have that rest if they are to be healthy and flourish.  They can’t survive on their own outside of the care of the flock. So this rest which is provided by the Shepherd is essential to their life.  All the comfort and security and peace that the sheep need in order to thrive is found in complete submission to the Shepherd’s care and direction.

What Hebrews is warning against, and exhorting us to, is for Christians to fully enter in to all that their salvation promises.  So many Christians come short in that they are happy to receive justification, but they come short of sanctification.  And without sanctification, they will fail to receive the rest and blessings and spiritual development that their salvation is designed to produce..  They want  justification, but then they want to live in the flesh.  But sanctification is learning to live in the Spirit’s control. 

Now the author goes back to the former illustration which he used in chapter 3, which is that of the Israelites who wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, and were not able to enter God’s rest because of unbelief.  He says, in vs2, “For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.”   The disobedient Israelites then are to be a warning for us, in that they had the good news preached to them, they had the promises of God, and yet they failed to enter all that God had promised them.  In the same way, he is saying we have had the good news preached to us, we know the promises of God for rest and peace, but if we are not careful we will forfeit them by failing to continue in our faith.

I want to make sure that you know what he is talking about here though.  He uses some words or phrases almost interchangeably.  For instance, in vs2 he says their hearing the gospel wasn’t profitable because it was not united by faith. In chapter 3:19 it says they were not able to enter His rest because of unbelief.  In vs18 it says they were unable to enter because of disobedience. In chap.4 vs 6 it says they  failed to enter because of disobedience. In vs11 we’re warned “let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.”  So it’s clear that unbelief and a lack of faith and disobedience are all ways of speaking of the same thing. A lack of faith is a lack of believing in what God has promised, and because you don’t really believe the promises that results in disobedience to the truth of God, which prohibits you from experiencing the rest of God.

When the Israelites refused to enter the land, it was an act of disobedience, as well as fundamentally a lack of faith.  So we see that disobedience is a lack of faith, and a lack of faith results in disobedience.  Faith is not just an intellectual thing, or an emotive quality. Faith is action.  Faith is doing what God says.  Disobedience is acting on your own wisdom, according to your instincts.  Faith is never inactive, but active.  Thus James says, faith without works is dead.

We sometimes camp out so strongly on salvation is by grace and not works, which is true, but in so doing often neglect to emphasize that faith produces works.  James says in chapter  2:20-22, 24 “But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?  Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected; … 24 You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.”  

Now if James can say that man is justified by faith and works, then it certainly is true that man also is sanctified by faith and works.  It’s not just the hearing of the gospel but by the appropriation of it,  the doing of it, by which we receive the profit of our salvation.

So, he says in vs3, we who appropriate the promises enter that rest.  We who act on the promises in faith, enter into the rest of God. But what exactly is this rest of God? Some people have traditionally thought of the rest as referring to the hereafter, the rest of heaven.  But I believe that what is really meant here is the rest that God promises to His people is the rest that He himself enjoys.  And that’s illustrated by the author’s reference to Genesis 2:2. , where God is said to have rested on the seventh day from His work of creation.

I noticed something about creation in studying this that I have never seen before.  In each day of creation, the Bible is careful to say about every day that it is an actual 24 hour period.  And in each case it says, and it was evening and morning, the first day, or the second day, etc.  Evening and morning is given for each day, until you come to the seventh day.  And no mention is made of evening and morning.  And the reason for that is because it symbolizes that God’s rest is continuing. It is a rest that is meant to be shared with His people who respond to Him in faith and obedience.  

That’s why in the previous chapter the author quoted from Psalm 95, in which God warns that they shall not enter His rest. He says today do not harden your hearts in disobedience, and thus forfeit the rest that God has promised.  That was a promise and a warning to the Israelites under Joshua, and it was a promise and a warning to the Israelites under David who were by then living in the land of promise, but still had not come to that rest, and it’s a promise to us, who are Christians under the Lord Christ, who are being warned not to come short of that rest.  God’s rest has been open to His children since the time of creation, but it can be forfeited by disobedience.

Therefore, it says in vs6, it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience.  But the rest of God remains open for us to enter.  The promises of God are still in effect. And in fact, the Holy Spirit urges you to enter it today.  Today, He says, do not harden your hearts. To put it off is to harden your heart.  Today is the acceptable day.  Do not harden your hearts by the deceitfulness of sin.  That’s from vs 13 of the previous chapter.  That’s what it means to harden your hearts.  To follow your own wisdom, to reject the word of God, to think that you know better than the Lord.  That’s the deceitfulness or the lie of sin, and it ends up hardening your heart to even further disobedience against God.  Today repent of your rebellion, repent of your unbelief, and God will give you His rest as you follow Him in faith and obedience.

Vs.8 says, “For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.” Now what day is that? It’s not Saturday, it’s not Sunday, it’s not sometime in the future, it’s Today.  It’s not sometime in the past, or in the future, in the sweet by and by, but it remains available, and it is today.  Today do not harden your hearts, but enter into His rest. God’s rest is available today.

So what is the rest, that God promises to us?  I believe it is the rest from our works, and allowing Christ to work in us.  It is the rest from our purposes, and allowing God’s purposes to work in us.  It is the rest from the insistent desires of our flesh, and Christ living in us through the Spirit. It’s not relying on our strength, but relying on God’s strength. It’s not confidence in our wisdom, but confidence in God’s wisdom.  Here it is in a nutshell; vs10 “For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.”  

It says in Psalms 46:10, “cease striving and know that I am God.”  The peace of God is found in peace with God.  Cease striving against Him.  And allow Him to be Lord of your body, soul and spirit.  Matt. 11:28-30 “Come unto Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.  “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS.  “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

In our flesh we say, “Oh, the way of God is too hard.  It’s not much fun to be a Christian.  I have too many things I want to do.  I want to live life to the fullest.”  But God says the way of the sinner is hard, but the way of the Lord is easy.

So now we know what God’s rest is, the next question is how do we appropriate it? How do we enter it? Well, we’ve established it’s through obedience, but obedience to what?  The answer is obedience to the word of God.  Vs.12. “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

The word of God, the word that I am preaching, is not the word of man, but it is a living, effective, diagnostic, cleansing agent of God, which probes into the inner parts of man, to his very soul and spirt, to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.  The word of God reveals our motives.  The word of God is like a cleansing agent which scrubs away the sin which darkens our understanding and veils the light of God.  It is the living agency of the Holy Spirit which brings us to repentance, which reveals the secrets of the heart.  In Isaiah 55 God says that HIs word will not return void, without accomplishing His purpose.  It is the path of sanctification.  It is the way of life, it is the source of truth. In it we find rest.

And the word of God, likened to a two edged sword cuts and pierces the hardness of our heart. It is the tool that God uses to circumcise our hearts.  And when this agent of God is employed from hearing the word preached, from reading and studying the word, then we can start to experience the rest that God has promised, as it informs our faith, and encourages our faith, and washes our hearts and minds in the word.  This is where we get God’s perspective.  The world hammers it’s perspective at us relentlessly, through media, entertainment, advertisements and all sorts of daily activities.  But the word of God is powerful. Romans 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”  The word of God is the power of salvation to everyone who believes.  You want the power of God to work out your salvation in your life?  Then spend time in he word of God and follow it’s instructions and live according to it’s direction.

And just as the word of God distinguishes the thoughts and intentions of the heart, so God knows our hearts.  There is nothing hidden from Him.  He knows our motives.  He knows how we really feel.  He knows when we have sin in our heart that we are holding onto.  Vs.13, “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.”

Since God knows our hearts, then why don’t we then open our hearts to Him, and ask Him to come in, and take all the rooms of our heart as His own.  To occupy all of our heart.  That’s the secret to sanctification.  Our loves, our life, our devotion, our feelings, our minds, all of our being we surrender to the Lord.  And when we do that, we will enter into His rest.  He will cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  He will change our hearts, and renew in us a right spirit, that we might do the things which are pleasing to Him. 

There remains available a time for us, a day for you, to enter that rest. And today is the appointed day that God wants you to come to Him.  Come to Jesus today, and enter that rest.  Jesus says, “Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” 

I would like to ask you a rhetorical question today, but one nonetheless I want you to consider carefully in your hearts.  The question is this; does God care about orthodoxy?  Now a few churches that perhaps are no longer really orthodox may have co-opted that word as part of their title.  And that is not the kind of orthodoxy I am referring to.  What I mean by orthodox is that which is right, or true.

So the question is does God really care about what is right or true, or does He just want people to think about Him in some sort of generalized way, with some sort of sentiment or affection, and He likes it when we bring up HIs name and He gets especially happy when we say nice things about Him.  And that is all that really matters to God.  All the other stuff, such as truth, righteousness, justice, holiness, doctrine and so forth is not really what’s important to Him.

Well, I said it’s a rhetorical question because I am going to give you the answer.  And the answer is found in the words of Jesus in Matthew 15:8-9 “THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME. BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.’”  

Now I could give you dozens of other texts to support this argument, that God cares about orthodoxy, but I will just give you one more, one that I probably quote every week, which John records Jesus as saying in John 4:24  “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”  So clearly, there is truth, and God wants us to worship Him in truth, that is, in orthodoxy.  

As I said last week, God is not obligated to accept worship that is not in alignment with His truth.  Cain and Abel are good examples that are given right at the outset of the scriptures, in which both offered up worship to God, and yet Cain’s offering was rejected and Abel’s offering was accepted.  

Our text that we are looking at in Hebrews is part of an ongoing sermon or message that we are just looking at a part of today.  And it proposes a difficulty because each segment is built upon the preceding passage, and so it helps to have knowledge of what was said previously.  However, I don’t have the time to review everything up to this point.  I will say though by way of context that in this passage, there is a contrast, or comparison between Jesus and Moses.  And the author is saying that Jesus is superior to Moses in every way as the spokesman of God, and as the minister of God.  And in continuing that comparison, he is giving a warning to those who have heard the word of Jesus and turned away, and he uses an illustration of the Israelites who rebelled against Moses as an warning for us.

Now it’s interesting that in regard to the question of orthodoxy, in regards to our worship being in Spirit and in truth, the author gives us in vs7 a quote from Psalm 95, which he attributes as authored by the Holy Spirit. Vs. 7 begins, “Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says…” He is going to quote from Psalm 95, but we know that David is the human author of Ps.95, but Hebrews is saying that the author of this scripture is from the Holy Spirit.   This fulfills Jesus statement concerning worship perfectly, doesn’t it. Scripture is of the Spirit, so we can be assured that it’s the truth of God.  So we find the truth about God, the truth about worship, from the word of God.  

And that’s such a basic doctrine of Christianity that it should go without saying, but unfortunately in this day and age there is a tendency to think that God reveals himself in other ways, and they often take precedence over the word.  But Jesus said in John 17:17, “Your word is truth.”  We need to be on guard against people that are speaking as if they speak for God, as well as those people who think that God speaks to you in an audible voice in your head.  God has spoken in His word.  Back in chapter 1 vs2, it says that in these last days God has spoken to us in His Son.  And we have the word of God made more sure in the inspiration of the scriptures, as 2 Peter 2:21 says, men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.  

So first and foremost, if we are to know the truth about God, so that we may worship the Lord God in Spirit and in truth, then we must go to the source of truth, which is the Holy Scriptures. 

Notice also that vs 7 says, “The Holy Spirit says, present tense. Not said 2000 years ago, though He did speak then, but He also speaks now, present tense.  He says to you now, ““TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME, AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS, WHERE YOUR FATHERS TRIED Me BY TESTING Me, AND SAW MY WORKS FOR FORTY YEARS. “THEREFORE I WAS ANGRY WITH THIS GENERATION, AND SAID, ‘THEY ALWAYS GO ASTRAY IN THEIR HEART, AND THEY DID NOT KNOW MY WAYS’;  AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH, ‘THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.’”

Now as I said this is a quote from Psalm 95.  And it’s interesting that there are two parts to this Psalm, the one quoted here is preceded by a call to worship.  Just to give you a sense of it, in verse 1,2 and 6 it says, “O come, let us sing for joy to the LORD, Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. … Come, let us worship and bow down, Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.”  So Psalm 95 is clearly a call to worship the Lord.  And in that context, the Psalmist continues under the direction of the Holy Spirit to call God’s people to worship and then warns against disobedience as illustrated by the Israelites in the wilderness.  So worship and disobedience are contrary to one another.  

Notice also the emphasis on “Today.” “Today if you hear His voice…” Today emphasizes the urgency of the word of God.  Today is the acceptable time.  Today while it is still today.  He equates putting off until tomorrow or until a more convenient day is the means of hardening your heart.  Today is the day God calls you to repentance.  Tomorrow may never come.  Some of you here today may never again hear the gospel presented to you as you have heard today.  Last Friday a family was on Route 1, I believe, heading home from vacation and a car came across the median and hit them and 5 of the 6 family members were killed.  So there is an urgency to the message because we do not know the day or the time when we will die, but also there is an urgency to answer the message because to resist it, or put it off until tomorrow is the means of hardening your heart against God. And that is exactly the purpose of this illustration, as it says “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS.”

Now we can identify the exact situation the Spirit is referring to here, by the use of the words, “WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME, AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS, WHERE YOUR FATHERS TRIED Me BY TESTING Me, AND SAW MY WORKS FOR FORTY YEARS.” He is referring to two events, one at the beginning of the exodus of the children of Israel, and the other at the end of their journey, when they were ready to enter the Promised Land, the land of Canaan. The first is recorded in Exodus 17, when the children of Israel came from the wilderness of Sin, and they complained and grumbled against Moses because they were thirsty and said, and said, “Why, now, have you brought us up from Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”  God told Moses to strike the rock, and water came out.  But what they did was displeasing to the Lord, so that Moses named the place Massah and Meribah, which means test and quarrel, because they tested the Lord there.

So they grumbled, they complained, and they were even ready to stone Moses. Many people who have become Christians have feelings like this. Sometimes there are problems in the family. Sometimes there are problems in the business. I’ve heard Christians say, and I can sympathize with them, “Ever since I’ve become a Christian. My whole life is turned upside down. And now I’m really suffering and going through all kinds of trials.” And sometimes they wonder if “maybe I made the wrong decision.”  

The problem a lot of times is that we have the wrong perspective as Christians.  We have a temporal perspective instead of an eternal perspective.  We expect as Christians that God is going to take away all the earthly trials and tribulations so we can enjoy an abundant life.  The problem is the same as that of the Israelites.  Our focus is not on how we may serve God, but on how He needs to serve me.  So when God doesn’t meet my temporal, fleshly expectations in the time and manner that I want to be served, then I lose patience with Him.  We’re ready to disown God, because we are convinced that He must not love us if He allows us to go through difficulties.  We even go so far as to think God is a liar, that He doesn’t keep His promises.  And that’s exactly what the Israelites did in the wilderness.  That pattern of rebellion continued, and culminated in their refusal to enter into the land of Canaan.  And so God brought judgment against them and said this generation would not enter the land, but they would wander in the wilderness for 40 years until they all had died.

Then 40 years later, the Israelites do the same thing all over again.  This time it’s found in Numbers 20.  The entire generation of their fathers had died in the wilderness.  This is the second generation. And they come to the very same place, Massah and Maribah, that their fathers had complained about, and this time they do the very same thing.  They complain and say, “If only we had perished when our brothers perished before the LORD! Why then have you brought the LORD’S assembly into this wilderness, for us and our beasts to die here? Why have you made us come up from Egypt, to bring us in to this wretched place? It is not a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, nor is there water to drink.” And once again God brought water from the rock to supply their need, but again God was displeased.

I found myself just the other day comparing my life with those who don’t even know the Lord.  And from my perspective at that moment, it seemed that the unrighteous lived lives of ease and plenty.  But the lot of my life was learning to do without, and facing all sorts of trials.  And I think it’s very common for us to start to compare ourselves with others when things don’t go exactly as we would like them to.  And we become disgruntled in our faith. Even worse, in our hearts we start to turn away from the Lord.

So because of their hardened hearts, their testing of God, and provoking God to anger, He says in vs 10, “THEREFORE I WAS ANGRY WITH THIS GENERATION, AND SAID, ‘THEY ALWAYS GO ASTRAY IN THEIR HEART, AND THEY DID NOT KNOW MY WAYS’; AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH, ‘THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.’”

Notice that God is concerned about the heart.  He said first, “Do not harden your hearts.” Now He says, “they always go astray in their hearts.”  The heart is the soul of man, the seat of the will, the intellect and the emotions of man.  The scriptures say that the heart is deceitful and wicked and unknowable. But God will disclose the secrets of the heart.  Man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.  Thus, as we said at the beginning, Jesus who knows the hearts says “THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME. BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.’”  

David said in Psalm 51:17 “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”  The essential necessity then for worshipping God in spirit and in truth is that we first have the right heart.  Salvation is an appeal to God for a new heart and it is promised as a result of our conversion in Ezekiel 36:26-27 “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”  When we receive a new heart, that is a new mind, new attitudes, and a new will, we will find that we have a desire to be obedient to the Lord, and the old things will pass away, and all things become new.  That’s the essence of salvation that is missing in many church goers today.  They may intellectually believe in God, but they have not had a transformation from God, a new birth that results in their conversion.  And that is a supernatural act of God to give you a new heart.  

Without that transformation of the heart, you cannot please God.  You cannot enter the rest that God promises, because your heart is not aligned with God.  And so the author of Hebrews says in vs12, “Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.”  Notice now there is a further progression of a hardened heart, and that is an evil, unbelieving heart.  

Now that word used for falling away is the same word we get apostasy from.  I won’t try to pronounce it in Greek, but it sounds very similar to apostasy.  Apostasy is a serious sin.  It’s a sin of renouncing God.  And there have been many people that perhaps were brought up in a Christian home, or a Christian church, and then have gone on to renounce God altogether and become an atheist. That’s becoming apostate.  I’m not sure that is what this verse is talking about.  I think it has to be taken in context with the next two verses, and in that regard I think it’s talking about someone who is withdrawing from church, they have drifted away from fellowship with God.  After all, that is what chapter 2 vs1 warned of, the danger of drifting away. That tendency to go astray leads to a second danger, that is the danger of hardening your heart.  And I think it’s saying that happens by withdrawing from the fellowship of believers.  

That’s why the next verse, 13, says, “But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”  The antidote to falling away is to get together with other believers day after day and encourage one another. The enemy is always trying to get the Christian alone.  But like an ember in a fire, when you draw it out of the fire pit and put it off by itself, it begins to go out and grow cold. 

But to come together in assembly, to fellowship with one another, we stimulate and encourage one another so that hardness of the heart does not happen.  A few chapters later, in Hebrews 10:24-25  we read, “and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds,  not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”  So the falling away He is warning us of comes often through isolation, where the enemy is able to wear us down through trial and temptation, and thus get us to sin against God.

And that idea of harboring sin is endemic to hardening of the heart.  Notice it says in vs.13, “so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”  Sin results in hardening your heart.  Sin is deceitful.  The enemy tells us that a little sin doesn’t matter.  That God will forgive you.  That you’re just human.  That a man (or a woman) has to do what a man’s gotta do.  That’s the deceitfulness of sin.  It’s the lie that your sin will have no consequences.  But don’t forget the verse that I quoted last week from Galatians 6:7 “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.”   Do not think that you can live in unrepentant sin and not have to worry about it because God doesn’t care about it.  That’s a lie of Satan.  God is not mocked.   God will not be tested as the Israelites tested God in the wilderness of Sin.  God reproves and chastises those who are His. 

So a hardened heart is that heart that holds onto sin. And true worship of God is impossible if we continue in sin.  But the evidence of our salvation, the evidence that we are children of God, is that we continue in our faith.  And that continuance of our faith is what our sanctification is all about. That perseverance in faith is the means by which we are able to participate in all that Christ has promised us. Vs.14, “For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end.”  To become partaker of Christ is to partake of His nature first, and His ministry, and then His inheritance.  That’s our goal, to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. A heart that is cleansed and holy through faith in Christ, receives the fullness of the indwelling Spirit of Christ, who helps us to live like Christ, so that we might one day be raised like Christ, to be like Christ because we shall see Him as He is, and then to reign with Christ.  That’s what it means to be partakers with Christ.  That’s what it means to be sanctified through Christ.

And that perseverance of faith in trials, that continuance of faith to the end, is something that happens day after day, even today, as long as it’s today.   I like that quote from Winnie the Pooh, in which he asked, “What day is it?”  And Piglet squealed, “It’s today!”  And Winnie the Pooh squealed in return, “My favorite day!”  I think Today is God’s favorite day as well.  Today is the acceptable day of salvation.  Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me.”  No matter which day of the week it is, if you’re alive it is always today.  Today is the time to turn to the Lord in repentance and faith.  Tomorrow may be too late, but there is time today.  Do not harden your heart today.  But call upon Him today while He may be found. 

Isaiah 55:6-7 “Seek the LORD while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the LORD, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.”

So”TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS, AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME.” Then the Spirit asks in vs16 “For who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses?” In other words, it was those who had come out of captivity.  In the church age that would indicate that we who are Christians who have been brought out of captivity can provoke the Lord to anger by hardening our hearts.

Then the Spirit asks another  question in Vs. 17 “And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?”  To continue the parallel with the New Testament church, then that would correlate with Paul’s admonition to the church at Corinth, who were coming to church to eat the Lord’s Supper with unconfessed sin and the indication is that God put them to death.  Listen to 1Cor. 11:29-32 “For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly.  For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged.  But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world.”  God will bring discipline to bear on His children that harden their hearts in disobedience.  And that discipline can even progress to the point of God taking your life, so that you are judged in the body, but saved in the spirit. (1 Peter 4:6) (1Cor.5:5)

And then one final question in vs18 “And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient?  So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.”  So there is a progression here which the Spirit warns starts with a hardening of the heart, which leads to going astray in your hearts, which results in an evil, unbelieving, disobedient heart, which brings about the judgment of God. 

Now I pray that no one here today hardens your heart against what the Holy Spirit is saying.  I’m not saying it.  Roy Harrell doesn’t know your heart.  I may see some outward evidence that indicates a condition of the heart, but I don’t know your heart.  But God knows your heart.  The good news is that God is willing and able to give you a new heart, to replace that heart of stone with a heart of flesh. To put His Spirit within you, so that you will keep His statues and walk in HIs ordinances.  So that you might walk in the truth, that you might walk in the Spirit.  And it’s available to all who call upon Him in faith and repentance.  David called out to God after His sin, and prayed, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”  Pray that prayer today, while it is still today, that  you may know the forgiveness and cleanness that God can give.  If you confess your sins, God is faithful and just to forgive your sins, and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.  Today you have heard His voice. Do not harden your heart.  Call upon Jesus today and enter into HIs rest.  

The book of Hebrews is a very challenging book to preach from, if not the most challenging of the New Testament, with the possible exception of Revelation.  Part of the difficulty in preaching it is that it is itself presented as a sermon, and so to bite off a passage and try to present it as a stand alone message is difficult.   The passages are designed to build upon the previous passage, and the whole book is series of arguments built one upon another, which reaches it’s grand summation in chapter 12.  

But if there is a constant theme to the book it would be to consider Jesus.  To look at Jesus intently.  To study Jesus.  He is the Message, He is the Messenger, He is our Creator, He is our Savior, He is our Redeemer, He is our High Priest, He is our example that we are to follow, and He is our Lord, to whom we must bow in obeisance and obedience.  He is the source of life, the source of wisdom, and the solution to all life’s problems.  So we must consider Jesus.

We have been looking in the previous two chapters at many of the characteristics of Jesus, and we will see even more this morning.  In the essence of time I’m not going to review all that we have said in previous messages, but I will point out that in the first word of our text, “therefore”, we know that this passage is built upon the previous arguments of the last two chapters.  You can read those chapters for yourself, or if you’re really industrious, you can read my previous messages on our website, thebeachfellowship.com, and you can hopefully learn all that “therefore” refers to.

In today’s passage, the Holy Spirit is telling us that Jesus is superior to one who was considered by the Jews to be the greatest prophet of all time, who was Moses.  And I’m afraid that some in the church might not be all that familiar with Moses and his ministry.  I’m afraid that a lot of people’s theology is informed by a movie called “The Ten Commandments” starring Charlton Heston who played Moses, or perhaps for our younger generation learned of Moses from an animated movie called the Prince of Egypt.  

And I would just recommend in passing that in cases of where Hollywood has attempted to portray some person or event in the Bible on film, I would highly recommend that you skip the movie and read the book.  I have yet to see Hollywood represent the Bible accurately.  And if you’re basing your theology on some movie you have seen then you are probably sorely misinformed.  So I urge you to read the Bible, of which the entire book, from Genesis to Revelation, teaches Jesus.  

But as my Dad used to say, I’ve stopped preaching and gone to meddling.  So let’s get back to our text.  However, if we are to understand the significance of what the Holy Spirit is saying in comparing Jesus to Moses, then it behooves us to know a little about Moses.  So as a refresher, let me say at the start that the Jewish people highly revered Moses above all other historical figures.  He was the man to whom God spoke face to face. He was a man who saw the glory of God. 

In Exodus 33 and 34 you may remember Moses saw the glory of God and it was reflected in his countenance so that when he came down from the mountain, his face shone so brightly that he had to put a veil over it. He was the one who led Israel out of Egypt. He was God’s chosen instrument to liberate His people from captivity. But beyond that, Moses was the one who gave the law.  Moses and the law were synonymous, and he is considered to be the author of the first five books of the Old Testament, called the Pentateuch. 

And as I said earlier some Jewish rabbis  even taught that Moses was greater than angels. Usually in the Old Testament we see that God spoke to prophets in visions, but to Moses, He spoke face to face. In Numbers 12, when God rebuked Aaron and Miriam for their jealousy of Moses, God said, “Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, shall make Myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream. Not so, with My servant Moses, He is faithful in all My household;  With him I speak mouth to mouth, Even openly, and not in dark sayings, And he beholds the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid To speak against My servant, against Moses?”

God spoke to him in the burning bush. He spoke to him out of heaven. He spoke to him on Sinai and wrote the commandments with the finger of God. God spoke directly to Moses almost daily in the Tabernacle. The hand of God preserved Him as a baby, and the hand of God dug his grave at the end of his life. And between these two points of his life, there is nothing but one miracle after another in the life of Moses. During the greatest time of Israel’s history, it was Moses through whom God worked and God spoke. It was Moses who led the nation of Israel out of Egypt. It was Moses who led them through 40 years in the wilderness. It was Moses who instructed them from the mouth of God.  And so no man was more highly regarded among the Jewish people than Moses, and arguably, no one more highly regarded by God.

Yet the Holy Spirit says through Hebrews that we are to consider Jesus as worthy of more glory than Moses. This word, “consider” is made up from the Latin term sidus which means, a star. In fact, combined with the “con” means to “observe the stars,” consider.  That’s the English translation. Now, the Greek word is different. The Greek word is katanoeō, which means to fix the mind upon.  The word means set your mind to gaze intently on Jesus. Consider Jesus.

The world, even the so called Christian world, offers us many things for our consideration. There are many things constantly battling for our attention.  Things that are appealing to us in our flesh. There are so many possible topics that I could preach on this morning which would find a greater interest perhaps in the congregation.  Things like “How to live your best life now.”  “10 steps to fulfillment.”  “Dealing with family problems.” Etc, etc.  But the problem with those kind of topics is that while they are appealing to us, they are all about us.  And oftentimes it is nothing more than spiritualized self help doctrine. 

This kind of self interest doctrine  is kind of like having underdeveloped taste buds.  Good taste is an acquired thing.  The world offers up all kinds of things for us to taste, to eat of.  But what the world offers never really satisfies.  It offers up sweet things that may give you a sugar rush, but in the long run will leave you searching for more.  The things of God are an acquired taste.  You have to be taught to appreciate them.  But the more you consider the things of God, the more you appreciate it. And the more you grow spiritually mature.  The more you feast on spiritual food the less you find you have an appetite for physical things. 

When you’ve got problems, when you’re discouraged, when you experience broken relationships, when you’ve got health issues, whatever the situation, whatever the heart ache, the answer is not to consider yourself, but to consider Jesus.  Set your mind on Him. There used to be an old hymn that we sung at church when I was a boy, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus.” And a line in particular promised that when you turn your eyes upon Jesus  “ the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”  Turn your eyes upon Jesus.  Fix your gaze upon Jesus.  Consider Jesus.

Hebrews 12 teaches that as believers we are running a race. And the key to running the race and finishing it well is to get  your eyes off yourself.  Fix your gaze on Jesus, and stay the course.  That’s what this author is really saying here, especially at the end of vs6.  Finish the course.  Stay focused on the author and finisher of our faith.  Run the race with patience and endure to the end.  Keep you eyes fixed on your captain. He has gone before us, so we can follow in His footsteps.  We know where to run, and how to run, by keeping our eyes on Jesus.

Now in instructing us to consider Jesus, the Spirit is going to say that Jesus is superior in His office, superior in His work, and superior in His person as contrasted to Moses. Superior in His office, He is the apostle and high priest, whereas Moses was just an apostle.  Superior in His work, because He is the builder of the house, whereas Moses was a servant in the house.  And  superior in His person, because He is the Son whereas Moses was a servant.

Now let’s look at each point in a little more detail.  First of all, the Holy Spirit says Jesus is superior to Moses in His office.  Hebrews has said in the previous 2 chapters that we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for just a little while. He said that He’s the captain of salvation. He said that He’s the sanctifier.  He said that He calls us brother. He said that He destroyed Satan and death. He said that He could deliver us out of bondage.

Now He gives Him two titles and this is where we’re going to see His office. He says that we should consider Jesus because He is the Apostle and the High Priest of our confession.  But in getting to this point, the author incidentally gives us three things that characterize us as believers.  And I don’t want to brush over these, because I think that they are instructive. Notice first that He calls us three things; holy, brethren, and partakers of a heavenly calling.  

Let’s consider what it means to be called holy.  We are considered holy because we are considered righteous.  Justification by grace is that God has counted our sins towards Jesus, and transferred His righteousness to us, that by faith we might be righteous, holy towards God.  But as we said last week, being holy refers to being consecrated, sanctified.  All of those words simply mean set apart.  God has set us apart from the world, to be used for worship in the heavenly tabernacle.  

In the tabernacle of the Jews, the utensils and instruments used in priestly service were first of all sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifice, which made them holy, set apart for temple service.  It was no longer to be used for common things, but holy things.  That is sanctification in a nutshell.  It is being set apart by our justification through Christ’s blood for holy things.  

And because we are sanctified, Jesus is not ashamed to call us His brethren.  Heb. 2:11 “For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one [Father;] for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren.” Jesus also was sanctified or set apart for the work and purpose of God.  He came not to do His own will, but the will of Him who sent Him.

So Jesus’s work of redemption has made it possible for us to be part of the family of God.  Brothers and sisters of Christ. Children of God.  And that leads to the third characteristic that we have, which is partakers of the heavenly calling.  That means partakers of salvation.  We have answered the call of God by faith in Christ, and received the inheritance of the kingdom of God.  Now all of that comes through Jesus Christ.  Christ working for us, and in us, and through us. 

So seeing all that we are and will be in Christ, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession.  He is the  Apostle, in bringing the message of God to us, and He is the  “High Priest,” bringing us before the Lord God and guaranteeing our acceptance.  Apostle simply means sent one.  Jesus sent out 12 apostles to preach the gospel.  But Jesus was the foremost Apostle, sent from the Father to bring the message of the gospel, the word of God.  John 12:49 “For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment [as to] what to say and what to speak.”

And as our High Priest, Jesus is God’s representative to man, manifesting the exact nature and character and truth of God, and He is man’s representative to God, having become like us in all things, yet without sin.  He is the bridge from man to God, and from God to man.  Moses, you will recall, was God’s man through whom He spoke, but Aaron was the High Priest.  Jesus is better than Moses in that He fulfills both offices perfectly.  So Jesus is superior in His office.

Secondly, in vs2, the Spirit says that Jesus was superior in HIs work.  And here is a simple comparison of the work of Jesus with that of Moses to show Jesus is superior.  The most obvious conclusion is that Moses was a type of Christ, a picture of Christ, whereas Jesus is the completion of that picture.  He is the fulfillment of all that Moses prefigured. 

Notice first that He says in vs2, that Jesus was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house.  Jesus was faithful to His mission from God.  John 6:38 “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” Jesus always did the Father’s will. He was faithful unto death.  I believe that we will be judged on our faithfulness.  I think one of the marks of sanctification is faithfulness.  Faithfulness in little things is a big thing in the eyes of God. Jesus said in Luke 16, if you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in great things.

It’s interesting that Moses is not compared to Jesus on his weakness, but on his strength.  He says that Moses was faithful. For 40 years, Moses was faithful to God as he led the children of Israel in the wilderness. And so the author compares Jesus to Moses in a favorable light, that both were faithful to God.  

But notice that it says Jesus was faithful to Him who sent Him, as Moses was faithful in all his house.  What is meant by all his house?  It means household. It speaks of the household of God, the believers. The Old Testament believers of Israel. Moses was faithful in God’s household. He was a steward or the keeper of Israel. It says in 1 Corinthians, “Moreover brethren it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.” Now a steward is somebody who doesn’t own the house, he manages it for the owner. God owns the house of Israel, Moses ministered to the house. He was in charge of dispensing the word of God to the people of Israel. And Moses was found faithful. 

And Christ  also was faithful to His house. Who is Christ’s household?  The answer is found in Ephesians 2:19. “Now therefore you are no more strangers and sojourners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God.” The household of God then is the  church. We’re the house of Christ.

1Peter 2:4-5 “And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God,  you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”  

What a tremendous thing it is to be a part of Christ’s household.  To be a part of the family of God.  We are made holy, righteous, even a holy priesthood, so that we might offer up spiritual sacrifices which are acceptable to God, all because of what Jesus has done for us.  So Jesus is superior in HIs work because His work is superior to that of Moses.  Moses was faithful to his house, Israel, but Jesus is faithful to the church universal.  And that’s far superior.

If Jesus has done a mighty work in you, that you have been made part of a royal priesthood, offering up sacrifices to God, then I trust that it might be said of you that you are faithful in your house. You are faithfully employing the gifts and resources that God has  given to you as  spiritual sacrifices to God.  

I am reminded of the story of DL Moody.  Moody was a poorly educated, unordained, shoe salesman who felt God’s call to preach the gospel. Early one morning he and some friends gathered in a hay field for a season of prayer, confession, and consecration. His friend Henry Varley said, “The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through and in a man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him.” Moody was deeply moved by these words. He later went to a meeting where Charles Spurgeon was speaking. In that meeting Moody recalled the words spoken by his friend, “The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through and in a man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him.” Varley meant any man! Varley didn’t say he had to be educated, or brilliant, or anything else. Just a man! Well, by the Holy Spirit in him, Moody determined to be one of those men. Then suddenly, in that high gallery, he saw something he’d never realized before.  It was not Mr. Spurgeon, after all, who was doing that work; it was God. And if God could use Mr. Spurgeon, why should He not use the rest of us, and why should we not all just lay ourselves at the Master’s feet and say to Him, “Send me! Use me!”? D. L. Moody was an ordinary man who sought to be fully and wholly committed to Christ. God did extraordinary things through this ordinary man. Moody became one of the great evangelists of modern times. He founded a Bible college, Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, which sends out men and women trained in service for God.  And my prayer is that you too might be a person that is wholly consecrated to God, that He might do a mighty work through you.  

Thirdly, Jesus is superior in His person. His person is superior verses 5 and 6.  Verse 5, “Now Moses was faithful in all his house as a servant.” In Exodus 40, eight times it refers to Moses’ obedience to do all that God commanded him. That’s pretty amazing.  In Exodus 35 to 40, 22 times it refers to Moses faithfulness to obey all that God commanded him. Can you say that about your life? Could God say of you that He obeyed all that I commanded him or her to do?     

That’s the key to sanctification, by the way.  It’s obedience.  Obedience to the word of God. Rom. 6:19 “For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in [further] lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.”  Obedience to righteousness results in sanctification. 

So Moses was faithful. Moses was faithful as a servant to the house.  But Jesus is faithful because He is the builder of the house. Vs.3, “For He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house.For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.”  And so we see that Hebrews declares that Jesus is God, and thereby greater for He created all things.

Notice verse 5. “Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later.”  In other words, Moses was faithful as a testimony to those things which were yet to be said in Christ.  Moses was a type.  Jesus was the fulfillment.  We can learn a lot about Jesus through Moses.  But not completely.  Jesus is the completeness of the picture we see in Moses.

Jesus said Moses wrote of Him.  John 5:46, “For had you believed Moses, Jesus said, you would have believed me for he wrote of me.”  And so it is that the word of God tells us in Hebrews 3:5 that Moses was only a servant who pointed to something which would come after that. He was a steward of another’s house.

Verse 6, “But Christ,” “not a servant, but a Son” over His own house, whose house are we.” Do you know who Christ’s house is? You say this church  building or that church building is the Lord’s house. No, a building is not the Lord’s house. “Whose house we are.” We are the Lord’s house. We are built together, Ephesians 2:22 says,  for an habitation of the Spirit. We are the Lord’s house. 1Cor. 3:16 “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and [that] the Spirit of God dwells in you?”

How can we be sure that we’re really His house? Verse 6, “whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.”  Now this statement causes some concern to those who may not be familiar with the full teaching of scripture in regards to salvation.  But the truth of salvation is that you couldn’t save yourself, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.  Salvation is by grace.

So in the same manner, you couldn’t keep yourself saved. If your salvation depends on you keeping yourself saved then none of us have a hope.  What is it saying then? It’s saying this, “whose house are you if you hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.” That simply means that the continuance of your faith is the proof of the reality of your faith.The continuance of your faith is evidence that you are really saved. Falling away is evidence that you were never of the faith. 1 John 2:19 it says, “They went out from us, but they were not of us.” Listen to this, “For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us, but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not of us.”  You may stumble from time to time, you may get off track from time to time, but the fact that you continue to follow after the Lord is evidence that you are the Lord’s.

Now in addition to that premise, remember what I said last week about salvation.  We are justified, sanctified and glorified in our salvation.  All three elements are essential.  And in a kind of subliminal way I think this passage today we’re looking at is speaking of sanctification.  Sanctified is the second stage of salvation.  I think it’s possible to be saved, and yet fall away from our purpose, from our salvation, not to eternal destruction, but to a lost reward.  Not to losing our citizenship in the kingdom of God, our place in God’s family, but in losing our purpose; our sanctification.  And that is going to result in our being saved, yet though as by fire.

And part of the sanctification process is that God will discipline those that are HIs children, that they might be obedient, and that they might be kept from destruction. Heb. 12:6-8, 11 “FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.”  It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom [his] father does not discipline?  But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. … 11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”

So discipline is the means by which we bear fruit.  John 15:1-2, “I am the true vine and my Father is the vine dresser. Every branch of me that bears not fruit, He takes away. Every branch that bears fruit, He purges it that it may bring forth more fruit.”  So the goal of sanctification is that we might bear fruit, that we might be faithful, that we might be obedient and fulfill our calling in Christ Jesus. 

So in conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, consider Jesus.  Consider Him first of all as your Lord and Savior.  If you have not truly become part of the household of God by faith in Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and to be made holy and a child of God, then I urge you today to receive Him as your Savior.  Salvation is the free gift of God.  Call on Him to forgive you, to remake you, and convert you, to adopt you into the family of God.  

Secondly, to you who are Christians already consider Jesus. Learn to live your whole life with your eyes on Him.  As we look steadfastly upon Jesus, the things of this world start to grow dim.  And we find that He is sufficient for every need.  He is superior to every temptation, to every trial.  He is worthy of our worship and our service.  He is worthy of all glory and honor.  Let us give Him our all, and may we be found faithful when He comes.