Hebrews chapter 3. We'll continue our exposition in this book. Hebrews chapter 3. I believe that one of the greatest threats facing the church today is in the near, almost silent reaction that the church has in regard to those who make a profession of faith, and yet by their lives, by their speech, by their affections, by their wills, they show themselves to have no possession of Christ. Yes, there are wheat and there are tares. And they will be raised together until the end of the age. And we are given clear instruction to not attempt to take the tares out. It's almost as if the church has today abandoned the biblical truth that there are those who are in our midst who may not be among us. It's as if we're afraid to warn. That simple profession of faith may be nothing more than that. We are entering a section in Hebrews where out of divine love, God is presenting to us a warning. A warning that we must heed. A warning that we must consider. It's a warning that we as parents must plead with our children. To not rely on a profession of faith made at a certain age or look back to a day of being baptized as the day of salvation. But we must encourage our children, we must encourage our spouses and our parents and one another that salvation is identifiable. And I would encourage us in the next few weeks to examine ourselves, to see how we're doing. Not just in our own personal life, but how we react to our children and to our loved ones and to our neighbors and to our co-workers. Ours is a day, if you profess it, it's true. But that is simply false. In our text this morning, we see that Jesus is greater than Moses. And Jesus is far superior than that Old Testament figure named Moses. In the book of Hebrews, if you remember, he is already showing the superiority of Jesus over angels who were the spiritual mediators of the law. And now he proceeds to talk about Moses, who was the human agent of the giving of the law. And he says, look to Jesus, who was much better than Moses. And it is in this text that we are given the solution to our problem. And it is in showing that Christ is better than Moses that we see our appropriate response to Christ for those who believe in Him. And what is that appropriate response? Let's read our text this morning. Hebrews chapter 3 verses 1-6, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God's house. For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses. As much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone. But the builder of all things is God. Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant to testify to the things that were to be spoken later. But Christ is faithful over God's house as a Son. And we are His house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and are boasting in our hope. Have you ever noticed that there are those in the church who persevere in their faith, and those who begin and who fade? Have you noticed those in the church who are indeed in Christ, and yet they seem to have a better ability, if you will, to endure trials, face temptations to persevere in their Christian life, maybe to a greater level than we ourselves do. This text here gives us how we are to live our lives so that we can respond to temptations, we can respond to trials, so that we can live our lives in joyful, obedient perseverance. So let's look at this today. If you're taking notes, let me give you our first point that we're going to look at. The first point is the Christian's consideration of Jesus. The Christian's consideration of Jesus. And you see this in verse 1. Look at verse 1 again. Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus the Apostle and High Priest of our confession. Let me just say up front, before we start looking at this verse, that your consideration of Christ will be to the level that you are able to face temptation, and to face trials, and to persevere in your walk with Christ. Look what it says, verse 1, therefore. Therefore points the reader back to what we have seen. Let me say that Jesus is better than the angels. That Jesus is the founder of our salvation. That Jesus is our elder brother. That Jesus is the destroyer of the devil. And Jesus is our great High Priest. And I do believe that it is including all that has gone before, but I believe in particular that therefore is pointing us primarily back to verses 17 and 18 in chapter 2, that Jesus is our Great High Priest. And there's a reason why, if you remember last week we said that from chapter 2 verse 17 all the way into chapter 10, at the end of it, we are considering Jesus who is our Great High Priest. And in this, there are warnings in between about us in our need to persevere in our faith. And around our perseverance of faith is Jesus as our great High Priest. So therefore, considering Jesus as our High Priest, now here's the question. You can see that this verse tells us to consider. But who is to consider this? The call is for those who share in a heavenly calling. The call to consider is for Christians. Now, the word heavenly is used two other times in the book of Hebrews, and let me point your attention to them. The first that I'll refer to you is in chapter 11 of Hebrews, verse 16. 11, verse 16, where it says, "...but as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared for them a city." In other words, Those heroes of faith in Hebrews chapter 11, they weren't looking for a better earth, they were looking for a better country, a better country that is a heavenly one. And because they want the heavenly world, the heavenly city, God is not ashamed to call them their God. And then you see the same idea in chapter 12, verse 22, where it says, But you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels and festival gatherings. So here you see that we have come already to the heavenly Jerusalem. So what you see is there's this call for those who are partakers of the heavenly calling, and we who are partakers of the heavenly calling long for our heavenly home, but we realize at the same time, we've already come to the heavenly Jerusalem, have we not? Heavenly refers to Christians and to a place. Christians have a heavenly calling whereby we have become citizens of heaven. We are partakers of a heavenly calling in that we have come to the heavenly Jerusalem. And yet, as we have experienced the initiation to the heavenly Jerusalem, what do we long for? That heavenly country, don't we? Our heaven. Why? Why is it that we long for heaven? Because it is there that we will worship our triune God without sin forever. And if you're like me, you come from Sunday to Sunday, and there are Sundays where you know that you have laid aside the distractions and you are worshiping Him in spirit and truth, and you don't come to a sense of fulfillment. But you come to a sense of, I want more of that. In other words, even in our lives today, in the greatest worshipful experiences in spirit and truth, it only produces in a true believer a desire to do it better, to do it with more spirit, to do it with more truth, to where sin will never invade us again. We want to be where our Savior is. Now in chapter 3 here, as it goes on actually in chapter 4, it's going to talk about a resting place, a place of rest that we need to make sure that we enter into. And it's contrasting Joshua going into the land where he was going to get rest, and it says basically that they didn't get it, because if it did, there wouldn't be another place of rest to offer. This is all part of this context. So I want to read this quote to you from Jeffrey Wilson. He writes this, The earthly rest of Canaan only faintly reflected the reality of the heavenly inheritance which Christ calls His people to share. As much as we can enter into an experience with Christ today, It is nothing compared to what it will be. And those who partake in a heavenly calling desire a heavenly home. Now, please note this. The writer of Hebrews has no notion of the modern error of having a heavenly mindset in relation to being earthly faithful. In other words, We live in a day and age where it says something like this, the more you think about heaven, the less faithful you will be on earth. That is unbiblical. Not only is it unbiblical, but it also betrays the one who would say such a thing. Because what the writer of Hebrews does in the entirety of the book is this, In order to persevere in your life as a Christian in faithfulness today, you have to get your gaze toward heaven. Faithfulness on earth is in proportion to the Christians longing for heaven. Do you want faithful and vital Christianity preserving on earth today? then you need to dwell where Christ dwells. You need to consider where Christ dwells. You need to think about heaven, where He lives, and then our faithfulness will persevere. So, in this, we see that this call to consider is in relation to the high priestly ministry of Christ, and that we who are Christians do share in a heavenly calling. So what is it that we're to consider? Before we answer that, let's answer this. What does it mean to consider? Consider means to pay attention. It means to observe. It carries the idea of continuous observation. Considering means to apply one's mind diligently to the subject under consideration. It means to set your mind on something perpetually. How do you persevere? By constantly, perpetually, diligently setting your mind on Christ. This same idea is set forth in Colossians 3, verses 1 and 2, where it says, If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth. Remember Paul says in 2 Corinthians, those things which are visible, are temporal, but those things that are invisible are eternal. What your gaze, what your consideration is, will determine whether you persevere or not in the faith. So we are to have a diligent, perpetual application of our minds to Christ or on Christ. As Christians, Christ is to be kept as the object of our thoughts and as the object of our affections, and as He is the object of our thoughts and our affections, He ought to move our wills to obey Him. Beloved, Christ gained your redemption. He deserves your attention. We cannot... We cannot understand God to the level that He intends for us to understand Him. If we merely give Christ temporary, occasional, indifferent glances, He must have our full focus. And I believe this is why so many Christians are stunted in their growth. They have a mixture of their minds. Too much of the world and too less of Christ. Jesus is to be the conscious object of our thought life. See, Christians have a heart for Christ and He is our heart. So we think about Him constantly. We are to meditate on Him. We are to reflect on Him. We are to just meditate on the person and work of Christ. And I probably could go around today and ask you, how well do you think of Christ? How much do you think of Christ? And I imagine from almost all of you, the answer would be pretty positively. But let me ask you this question in your positive answer. Are you thinking your thoughts about Christ, or are you thinking about God's thoughts about Christ? See, that's the issue, isn't it? See, we all can make Christ in our own image. My job in considering Christ is not to consider the Christ that I want Christ to be. But my considerations are to bow into the objective or under the objective truth of God in what He has revealed about Christ. It is one thing to say we think about Christ, it is another thing to actually think right thoughts about Christ. In fact, this really is a test of one's salvation, isn't it? Do you think about Christ? And secondly, do we think upon the Christ of the Scriptures? Does Christ of the Scripture control your thought life? Now, I want you to notice one more thing before we look at what aspect of Christ we're to consider. I want you to notice one more thing. Observe that this call before us is centered around our solidarity in Christ. Look what this says. Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, understand that this call to consider Christ is not for some Christians. It is for all Christians. This is not for some aspect of the church in which there are more mature believers or others. This is if you are a Christian, you are to think heavenly thoughts. It is for all of us, whether you are an adult or a child, whether you are entering into adulthood, or you're ready to enter into the promised land. Christ is to be the consideration of all who partake of Christ. Now, we ought to, beloved, be able to run into each other throughout the week, as we're in swains, or we're doing this, or we're doing that, and say, hey, brother or sister, where did Scripture lead your thoughts today about Christ? And yes, I understand we have jobs. And I understand we have careers. And I understand we have lives. And I understand we have issues in life. But understand something, that Christ is over all that. And Christ should be in all of that. So even as you are working, and even as you are doing your errands, Jesus Christ should permeate all of your life, so that when somebody bumps into you, they ought to have Christ coming out. You ought to be able to share to them, you know what, I just read this in Scripture, my mind has gone to hear Scripture has said this about Christ. And we ought to be able to respond in that in communion with one another. In other words, beloved, we serve both Christ individually and corporately. So let's test this this week, why don't we? We run into each other this week, I want you to ask one another. So what are your thoughts on Christ right now? What an amazing test that will be, will it not? And doesn't it produce a little bit of accountability for us? And those who love Christ want that, don't we? We want that accountability. So with that said, what are we to consider? Look what we're to consider at the end of verse 1. The Apostle and High Priest of our confession. We've already spoken about High Priest, let me just mention the Apostle. Jesus is the apostle of our confession in that He was the one who was sent by the Father. He is the one who was sent by the Father to secure our salvation. And it is in what He has secured that we believe in, that we trust in, that we have our confidence in. Now look down to verse 6. This is so important. Look at the end of verse 6. And we are His house if indeed we hold confidence Excuse me, hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope. So here, the first verse says, He's the high priest of our confession. The last verse says, if we hold fast our confidence. See, Jesus Christ is the one who has gone before us. He's the one that was sent out by the Father to secure our salvation. And it is in what He has secured that we believe. But beloved, our belief will persevere, won't it? It does not come and go like a flickering light. It is to be steady. It is to be steady. It is to be steady. When people run into you, you ought to demonstrate the validity of your faith by your life. It has been said by one that Jesus, quote, is the first apostle, the great apostle, and the source of all other apostleships. In other words, what Jesus Christ has secured, the other apostles that He sent out were under His authority. They were under His commission. They were not doing their own work. They derived their calling of their apostleship from Jesus, the apostle of our confession. Let me read this quote to you from A.W. Pink. He wrote, as prophet, Christ is God's representative to His people. As priest, He is their representative before God. As apostle, He speaks to us from God. As our high priest, He speaks for us to God. And so you see that Jesus Christ is the apostle and high priest of our confession. Before we move on in the sermon, I want you to notice again that Jesus is the Apostle and the High Priest of our confession. Our faith has content. Our faith has objectivity. We live in a day and age where doctrine doesn't matter, but life matters. The emotions, Experiences override for many the reality of God's objective revealed truth. Jesus Christ is the great apostle and the great high priest of our confession. Beloved, when we say we are in Christ, we are making certain affirmations, are we not? And when we make certain affirmations such as Jesus Christ is the only way to the Father, we're also at the same time making a denial. If Jesus Christ is the only way to the Father, what is the denial? That every other way is false. Our confession isn't what Christ has secured for us. Our confession is in Christ, and our confession is because of Christ. Now I want you to think about the context in which we read this. Remember, the writer of Hebrews is writing to a group of people who were struggling. They were struggling with the temptation to forsake the call of Christ and go back to Old Testament sacrifices, where they want to go back to the law and to the temple. Because, beloved, when they confessed Christ, they said of their siblings, and perhaps their parents, they said of their neighbors and their friends, You are wrong. This does not save. Brothers mad at me. Friends mad at me. Sisters mad at me. Alright, maybe I should go back. When they confessed Christ, they said that others were wrong. Beloved, in our identification of truth, we also identify error. And when we consider Jesus Christ, the great apostle and the great high priest of our confession, we have to understand that we're saying the vast majority of this world is wrong. And it puts you on the wrong side. of the popular vote. But if you're not careful to continuously, perpetually set your mind on Christ, you will, as they did, go back to what you knew and forsake the faith that is alone in Christ. So what's at stake again if you forsake your confession? Look at the end of verse 6. We are His house if indeed we hold fast our confidence in our boasting and our hope. You lose your confidence, you lose your confession, you show yourself to never have been a believer. Again, remember the recipients of this letter were suffering persecution. So what does he do? Same thing we ought to do with one another. When we're suffering persecution, when we're suffering period, the writer of Hebrews does not come along and say, oh yes, you have it bad, Johnny. Yes, that persecution from your family, from society is really bad. I understand that you are now friendless. No, they do not do that. They do not look to their problem to find encouragement. They look to Christ. to find encouragement. He does not point to their problems. He points to Jesus Christ, the Apostle and High Priest of their confession. Do you want relief from your problems? Don't look at your problems. Don't look at your difficulties. Don't look at your circumstances. Look to Christ and let Him interpret your issues in life. One pastor wrote that the writer of Hebrews, quote, knew that it's people's survival lay in turning their eyes away from their trials and fixing them upon Christ, their apostle, who accomplished His mission and their high priest who prays for them. This is what all of us need above everything else. Lack of this is why so many Christians are sick and useless and they're falling by the way. They need to cultivate the desire, the concentration, the discipline and time to fix their eyes upon Jesus. In other words, what enables you to persevere in the midst of trials and suffering? Look to the one who's already finished. and who has gone through sufferings and his temptations and yet managed to do so without sin. So why would, according to this text, why would Christ deserve your gaze or deserve your consideration? Let me give you the second point if you're taking notes, that Jesus is more glorious than Moses. Jesus is more glorious than Moses. For economy of time, let me just say that we're going to be just talking about verses 2 through the first part of verse 6. I'm not going to read that again for you. But quite interestingly, the writer of Hebrews at this juncture introduces Moses to us. He introduces Moses to the reader at a... what might seem a rather odd time. You just said that Jesus secured our salvation, that He is now our elder brother, that He destroyed the devil, that He made us as Gentiles offsprings of Abraham. He is now our high priest. You just told us to consider Him. Why would you bring up Moses? What does Moses have to do with Christ? Now remember, the recipients of the letter were struggling in their faith. They had come to a knowledge of the Savior, and now that knowledge and that quote-unquote faith was being tested to go back to what Moses in their minds represented. Moses, as we'll see, had a fantastic place in Old Testament history. In fact, His place in Old Testament history is second to none. This text says that both Moses and Christ were faithful, doesn't it? However, they were faithful in different ways. Let me highlight this for you. Moses was faithful as a servant. Christ was faithful as a son. Moses was a part of the house or household. Christ was faithful as the architect or the builder. See, Jesus builds the house while Moses only led the house. Jesus builds the house. Moses is part of the house that Jesus builds. Christ builds the house in accordance to the decree of the Father. And Moses' service was only part of that plan. The faithfulness of Moses was finite and temporal. The faithfulness of Christ is infinite and eternal. Moses was serving within the house as a servant. Christ is over the house as the Son. The service rendered by Moses was on behalf of Christ, as Moses served in the house that Christ was building. Everything that Moses taught pointed to Christ the Builder. Christ is better than Moses. Christ is better than Moses. Now, let me mention something here, because I want you to see this. Where it talks about Moses as servant, in verse 5, for example, it says, now, Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant. I want to mention something about that word servant. The word servant there is not what you think it is. In fact, it's the only time that Greek word is used in all the New Testament. It refers to a servant who is far above a slave, but is still a servant. It denotes an honored or noble position of service. It speaks of service freely given. In other words, you look at Moses' life and you can see the little argument going on at the burning bush, can't you? But overall, the ministry of Moses, the service of Moses was freely rendered to God. Now I want you to think about Moses for a moment. Moses was the human author of the first five books of the Bible. Moses led Israel out of Egypt. He received the Ten Commandments from God. In fact, even in the New Testament, the Ten Commandments are referred to as the Law of... Moses and you can see this for example, just give me give you two references Luke 2 verse 22 Luke 2 verse 22 and John 1 45 Now I want you to consider the following passages about Moses Numbers chapter 12 verses 6 through 8 Numbers 12 verses 6 through 8 we see this and God is speaking to the people He says if there is a prophet among you I, the Lord, make myself known to him in a vision. I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. When I speak, or with whom I speak mouth to mouth, clearly and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the Lord, why then were you not afraid to speak against My servant Moses?" He's making a contrast between Moses and the other prophets. Prophets, I speak to them in dreams, not with Moses. With Moses, I speak to him face to face. Deuteronomy chapter 34 verse 10, And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. Exodus chapter 33 verse 11, thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend. In Numbers 12 verse 3, now the man Moses was very meek or gentle, more than all the people who were on the face of the earth. Now those are pretty high statements about a man. Pretty incredible. And I think we can look at those and say, you know, I wouldn't mind that to be characteristic of my own life. See, Moses is very important in the history of Israel and in the progression of redemptive history. In fact, many people, and I find this so fascinating, many people actually see Moses as the apostle and high priest of the Old Testament. See, Jesus Christ is the Apostle and High Priest of our Confession, but many people, and I think they're right, see Moses as the Apostle and High Priest of the Old Covenant. And you might be thinking to yourself, okay, I might say the Apostle part, but High Priest? How does that work? Because who was the High Priest initially through? Aaron, his brother. So how does that work? Well, let me ask you this. Who did most of the acting, or who did most of the ministry on behalf of Israel to God? Was it Aaron or Moses? Moses did most of it, didn't he? Moses was the most public, notable, faithful advocate for Israel on behalf of God. Was it not Moses who interceded on behalf of the people? That's why F.F. Bruce wrote this, it was his brother Aaron, and not he who was high priest of Israel, so far as title and investiture were concerned. But it was Moses and not Aaron who was Israel's true advocate with God. When you look at Moses, you see a man, yes, imperfect. But you see a man whose faithfulness is unquestionable. You see a man who has a place in the history of Israel and in a place of redemptive history that is undeniably essential. Now I want to ask you a question. Did you see how the writer of Hebrews elevates Christ over Moses? There's a reason why I just went through all these verses. He did not elevate Christ by lowering Moses. He simply stated the relationship of Moses as servant to God and his Christ relation as son to God. They're both faithful. One was as a servant, one was as a son. One was as part of the building, the other was the builder. See, there is no need to deny such truth that Moses was the man of the Old Testament. So the writer says so. The writer of Hebrews, though, does not need to demean another to elevate Christ. I think there's much less in here for us, isn't there? See, Christ's glory and Christ's preeminence and superiority can stand on its own. We don't need to demean a man or a woman or a child to show the glory of Christ. You can show man in all of his God-given glory, in all of his God-given talent, in all of his God-given position, and Christ is still infinitely more glorious than the greatness of that man. See, Christ does not get glory when we destroy another. He gets glory when we are honest and truthful about that person. But He is so much infinitely more glorious than the greatness of that man to begin with. This is why I think the ESV Study Bible states it right when it says this, although Jesus is superior to Moses, Moses still receives significant respect which elevates Jesus all the more. Let me put it this way, the writer of Hebrews shows the superiority of Christ over Israel's top man. The writer of Hebrews writes this letter to remind them of the superiority of Christ over all things in the Old Testament, including Moses. In making this statement, we must keep in mind there is continuity between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Go down to verse 5. Go down to verse 5. Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant to testify to the things that were spoken, to be spoken later. See, Christ is superior to Moses, but such a superiority has It's superiority in the fulfillment of what Moses prophesied about. You could say that Christ is the flower of the bud that Moses spoke about. See, what Christ is in His superiority, we see that Moses testified to about things that would be post Him. It's just like the temple of the Old Testament. Where did they get the idea of the temple from the Old Testament? They got the temple from heaven. So here in the Old Testament, they get the temple which Moses gave them. The temple in the Old Testament was from heaven. And the Old Testament temple was a foreshadowing of Christ from heaven. See, it's not different. It's the same seed. It has what we call an organic unity to it. A unity exists in Scripture that is often missed when we simply break down the parts and we don't put the parts back together. The superiority of Christ over Moses and all that he stood for is not a superiority of a different plan, but of the fulfillment of God's eternal decree. Now, I want to read to you John chapter 1 verse 45. John 1, verse 45, to whet your appetite for a second. John 1 verse 45 says this, Philip found Nathanael and said to him, we have found him, speaking of Christ, we have found him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. We found Jesus whom Moses in the law wrote about. Now here's the question that might come up at this point. How much did Moses know about Christ? Well in one sense we have to be honest with ourselves, we really don't know. But in another sense we have to understand that I believe with all my heart that he knows a lot more than we give him credit for. And I'm going to prove it to you right now. Turn to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. And let's look at verse 24. Hebrews 11 verse 24, by faith, Moses, when he was growing up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin, he considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. In the life of Moses, he knew who Christ was. He followed Christ. He obeyed Christ. He had an affection for Christ. He considered Christ. And he said of Pharaoh, you can destroy me. You can persecute me. You can cause suffering in my life. I would rather suffer for Christ. Then have all your riches. Beloved, Moses knew Christ. Because he not only knew Him, but He also told us of who He would be. Luke chapter 24 verse 27, And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, Jesus interpreted them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Him. Now I want to ask you a question. When you go back to the Old Testament, do you clearly see Christ there? If you're reading the Old Testament by itself, you may not see Christ, but if you're a New Testament believer, you have to see Christ there. The New Testament helps us in understanding that Christ is there. And so I want to encourage us to understand that when you come to the New Testament, and you come to Christ as better than Moses, He is fulfilling that which Moses prophesied all the way back in the first five books of the Old Testament. Go to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 1. By the way, who gave the law again? Who was the human agent? Moses was. Look at this, for since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come. Moses knew they weren't the reality because where did he get it from? The reality from heaven. He knew that the Old Testament temple and sacrifices were only a shadow of the things to come. Beloved, John chapter 5 verse 46, slam dunk, listen to this. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me. But do you know what the verse says right before that? Christ says, I'm not going to stand up and judge you on the last day. Moses will. Moses is going to stand up and condemn you because you do not believe the writings of Moses. Beloved, if you are to understand and to believe the Old Testament, you have to understand that Christ is there. And they speak of Christ. And what we see is in Moses and in the Old Testament the outworking of God's plan for us. Christ is better than Moses. So the writer of Hebrews says, look to Christ, not to Moses. And I would like for you to see this next and last final point we're going to look at today. The Christian's confidence. The Christian's confidence. See, we are to consider Christ the Apostle and High Priest of our confession. We're to see that Jesus is better than Moses, and that we are to understand that the Christian has been given a confidence. Look at the end of verse 6. And we are at His house if indeed we hold fast to our confidence and are boasting in our hope. When you were looking at this passage and you saw that Jesus was the builder of a house, when you read the word house, were you thinking of a building? Because the idea isn't a building, the idea is you and me. The building is people. The building is the church. The building is the people of God. The building is Christ is building His house. And we are, verse 6, we are His house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting and our hope. I'm going to introduce a thought here that we're going to be looking at in the next several weeks. What is contingent upon us being part of God's house according to the end of verse 6? If we continue. If we continue. If we hold fast. If we hold fast. I want you to turn over to chapter 4 verse 14. Since then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens. Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. Go over to chapter 10, verse 20. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. I would like you to look at verse 24 and 25 of Hebrews chapter 10. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and to good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near. So we see this, we're to hold fast our confession, and right after that we see this need to be with one another. This need to encourage one another. Go back to chapter 3. Hebrews chapter 3. You just see this in verse 6. And we are His household if indeed we hold fast our confidence. Verses 7-11 gives us a quote from the Old Testament where it says, Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts. Verse 12, take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day as long as it is called today. I find it very interestingly that in Scripture there is a connection to your perseverance of your faith to the way you respond to meeting together with other believers. Writer Hebrews makes it very clear. You cannot be part of God's house if you do not persevere in faith. But you persevere in faith by these means that I've given you. Gaze on Christ. Consider Christ. Set your mind on Christ. And be willing to encourage one another and to be encouraged by one another. Listen, if you are forsaking the assembly of one another, you will not stand in the house of God permanently. Because these are the means in which God has given us. I want you to understand that this is going to introduce us to some pretty tough teaching in the next few weeks. I'm going to talk about it here in a minute. I want you to see this again. And we are His house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting and our hope. This is talking about if we don't persevere, we are not in Christ. This is not saying that our perseverance saves us. They're saying that saving faith perseveres. As salvation is by grace, so perseverance is by grace. And we know people who profess to be in Christ, they have no fruit, they have no heart, they have no knowledge, they have no desire for God. And mom and dad, some of you... I'm getting ahead of next week's sermon, but I'm going to say it anyway. Repetition is good. Mom and Dad, some of you are holding on to a childhood profession for your child, which is bringing you assurance and hope, but is bringing your child damnation. Because you will not tell them that they have no heart for God. You're not telling them that their life does not match up to the truth of God's Word. Listen, today we are going to, by God's grace, baptize six young people. And this is what I told three of them this morning. When you're 20 and 25 and 30 and when you're 50 and somebody comes up to you and says, are you a Christian? Don't say, yes, I was baptized on that day. Because that does not save you. When we baptize people, we're not saying you are saved, we're saying based upon what you're telling me about your faith, we're going to baptize you. Beloved, perseverance happens when you are saved by the grace of Christ. But when you are saved by the grace of Christ, He gives you the means to persevere. If you are not thinking, if you are not meditating on Christ, if you are not meeting together, you will not persevere in Christ. You will show yourself to not have known Christ. And listen, some of you young people, you're just starting off your marriages, you're starting off your life, your college, you're starting off whatever you're doing. Do not get so preoccupied with this world that the world crowds out your thoughts of Christ. It is not worth it. Your soul is worth more than the earthly distractions that you are pursuing today. Jeffrey Wilson writes this, those who fail to continue in the faith do not overthrow the doctrine of final perseverance of the saints. They simply prove that they were never really part of Christ's house. One pastor wrote this, all true Christians will continue in the faith until they are gathered to God, but it is also true that true Christian faith is proved only by steadfastness under trial. We are saved by faith alone, but the test of our faith comes through our willingness to persevere under difficulty and persecution. As a Christian, beloved, we will be called to demonstrate the validity of our faith. In those times, it is through pain, it is through suffering, it is through difficulty. Listen, when you get a raise, there is no temptation except to hoard the money or spend the money. The world expects you to be joyful when you get a raise, when you get a job. But when you lose your job, when you lose a loved one, When a relationship does not work out, that is when you show that Christ indeed is real in your life. And that's when you show the reality of the grace of God in your life. It shows that there is truthfulness to the profession that you have been making. Yes, life is difficult, isn't it? There are many pains and trials that enter our lives. But it is in such times that the believer will persevere. Let me give you one warning though. Your perseverance of faith is not in your ability to pull up yourself by your own bootstraps. Just as you can do nothing apart from Christ, your perseverance only comes in Christ. This is why the writer of Hebrews starts off by our consideration. Who are we to consider? Christ, before He gets to these warning passages that if we do not persevere, we are not in Him. See, the Scripture connects His working of grace in our life to our gaze on Christ. So I've got a question for you. Does Christ or work? Does Christ or your relationships Does Christ or your security, does Christ or your entertainment slash recreation get your attention? What holds your thoughts? If we were able to, which I'm glad we can't, if we were able to digitally display your thought life in the last 24 hours through the screen, What percentage is Christ there? And in that percentage of Christ, how much of Christ is biblical? I'm not saying this or asking this to make you feel bad. I'm saying this because I want to be faithful to the text and because I love you. There are some in this room who think they're saved that are not saved, and I don't know who you are. And I say that based upon the truth of Scripture. We must persevere, but we cannot persevere by our own doing, only by the doings of Christ, as we consider that Christ is the founder and the securer of our salvation, that He destroyed the devil in His work, that He is our brother, and He has made us offspring of Abraham, that He is your faithful High Priest. And in looking at Him, we find strength, we find courage, we find stamina, and we find the help that we need at the moment of need. Beloved, we must see Christ, the One who has won the victory, as He urges us on in this Christian life. That's the end of the sermon. However, I want to encourage you in the next week or two to come prepared. I would suggest to you, not because of your pastor's eloquence or ability, but because of the message itself, And because of the message in the context of the American church, next week will probably be the most important message you've ever heard. And I would encourage you that if you are planning not to be here, that you be here. I'd encourage you that if you are planning to stay up late on Saturday night to do whatever you do on Saturday, that you would not do that. but that you would come prayerfully, meditatively, ready to receive what the Word of God says about our perseverance in the faith. And what happens if we find out that we're really not persevering and the eternal consequences of not paying attention? Let's pray. Our gracious Father, we thank You so much for Jesus Christ. We thank You, Lord, that it is by Him and Him alone that we are saved and that we are sustained and that we have this hope of glory. I pray, Father, that if there is any in this room right now who does not know Christ, that You would open their hearts to trust and believe in Christ alone. I pray, Father, if there's people in this room right now who have been deceiving their parents and deceiving themselves or deceiving their children, that they are in Christ and they are not, that You would open the eyes of their heart, that You would open their lips to confess Christ as Lord. For today is the day of salvation. I pray that today we would not harden our hearts, but that we would ask You to soften them. Ask You, Lord, to make our hearts pliable to Your will. I pray for those of us in this room who know You, who love You, who serve You faithfully, God, that You would give us the ability and the strength to consider Christ more. Not simply for our own soul's well-being, but because there is nothing worth more thanking upon. He indeed is the pearl of great price. And Father, we so long desire to sell all that we have so that we would have Christ. Lord, we thank You for grace. We thank You for Your mercy. We ask God now that You would bless our time together afterwards, that we would be stimulating one another to love and to good deeds. We pray this in the name of Jesus, our great High Priest. Amen.