Hebrews chapter 3. We'll read the entire chapter. Hebrews 3, beginning in verse 1. This is God's Word. Please, therefore, give careful attention to its reading. Hebrews 3, 1. Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in the heavenly calling, consider Jesus. The apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses was also faithful in all God's house. For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses. As much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. for every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. Now, Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son, and we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, verse seven today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion on the day of testing in the wilderness where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for 40 years. Therefore, I was provoked with that generation and said, they always go astray in their heart. They have not known my ways. As I swore in my right wrath, they shall not enter my rest. 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, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said, today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion. Verse 16, for who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt, led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 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 unable to enter because of unbelief. Thus ends the reading of God's word. May he add his blessing to it. Please be seated. Let's pray and ask God to bless our time in his word heavenly father. This is your word We do pray that you would bless us as we open up this text this evening this afternoon We do pray that you would give us eyes to see ears to hear hearts to receive hands to apply feet to walk it out All in the strength and the power of your spirit Pray these things in Christ's name Well, today, this afternoon, we continue on in our study in the book of Hebrews, and we've been going every month or so, five or six weeks, through Hebrews. And just a reminder, or perhaps hearing this for the first time, that Hebrews is written to a struggling church or a number of churches, house churches, maybe 20, 25, 30 people. And the people in those little house churches, perhaps in Rome, are thinking about leaving Christ, thinking about leaving the church, thinking about going back to Judaism. This is probably written before the temple was destroyed, and you still have the sacrificial system. You still have priests that are offering up animal sacrifices in a physical building in Jerusalem. And these people, have gone through a lot for their faith. They have struggled, they have suffered, they have gone through the loss of possessions, the loss of relationships, being shunned, mistreated by others around them, friends, family, others, and it's hard. And what they've said is, it's not worth it. Going to church, serving and following Christ, It's not worth it. They've made a calculation, and they've decided it's not worth it. And so with that being said, the author, probably somebody that Paul knew, probably a travel companion of Paul the Apostle, he writes a sermon. You read this out loud, it's 30, 35 minutes. It's a sermon. and he's sending a sermon to be read, to be preached to the congregations about why they should not forsake Christ, why they shouldn't go back to the old ways. The book begins with a number of sections where Jesus is said to be better than. In Chapter 1 and 2, he said to be better than the angels. The Old Testament, People of God really were into the angels and they were wonderful beings. They helped give the law at Mount Sinai, it seems. They were in all kinds of different places in the scriptures doing mighty things. And so for two chapters, chapter one, chapter two, the author says, Jesus is better. Now in chapter one, Jesus is superior. He's above because he's, He's God. He sits on the throne of God. Then in Chapter 2, he's actually made a little lower than the angels. He's better for that reason too. Why? Well, because he's made lower than the angels so he can suffer death for your sins and for mine. The God-man can live for us and die for us that we might live forever in God's presence. That's an amazing reality. Now as he comes to Chapter 3, He says that Jesus is better than Moses. And remember, Moses is the one who wrote the first five books of the Bible. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, the Pentateuch. Moses is the one that led the people out. And you read the end of the chapter here. He led the people out to the verge of the promised land, out of Egyptian captivity and bondage. God did the 10 miracles. The 10 plagues were done through Moses and his ministry. He was a great man. And the author here says, granted, he was a great man, but Jesus is better. Jesus is superior. So I just want us to kind of work through the passage quickly. It's a long passage and it says a lot of different things, but I want us to think about a few key ideas as we go through. First of all, just right off the top, the idea here in verse one, Is to consider jesus Consider jesus This is always good advice It's always good advice to get our gaze upon our lord jesus christ And there's nothing there's no one superior to jesus and there's nothing better than Looking upon our savior There's nothing better than in a worship service on the Lord's Day, but also day by day in our lives considering Jesus it's um It's easy to drip, isn't it? It's easy to get our gaze on other things It's easy to be deceived into thinking we'll talk about the deceitfulness of sin in this passage It's easy to be focused on the things that seem so urgent that seems so immediate, that seems so necessary. And it's easy to lose focus on Jesus. And our author wants us to know, the Holy Spirit wants us to know, that we need to consider Jesus constantly and continually. What does it mean to consider Jesus? It means to apply our minds. It means to give attention and continuous observation Jesus who he is what he's done what he's brought us out of What he's doing in our lives now and where he's taking us to throughout the eternal ages consider Jesus And it says here that we are the holy brethren therefore three one Holy brothers you who share in the heavenly calling consider Jesus and I love the idea here What does it mean to be holy? I think sometimes we misunderstand that word. To be holy doesn't mean to walk around with a holier-than-thou attitude. It doesn't mean that you look like you've been sucking on lemons and you just ignore everybody like you're better than they are. To be holy means to be set apart. To be holy means to be set apart from something and to something, and that's what the Lord does when he calls us to be his people, brethren. right? Relationally adopted into the family of God. Little brothers and sisters to the Lord Jesus Christ before our heavenly father. And we are called to be adopted into his family. We are set apart for his service. And that means that we have a heavenly calling. There's a calling that comes down to us from heaven as God calls us. And there's a heavenly calling that, in the other sense, is calling us toward heaven. Heaven is your calling. Again, so often when we get fixed on other things, or get our hearts and minds fixed on other things, we forget where our true home is. As the book goes on, it'll talk about the fact that these heroes of the faith in chapter 11, they're okay with whatever comes their way because their hearts are set on the heavenly city whose builder and maker is God. This world is not your home, you're just passing through. It's temporary and this world is meant for the church in one sense for us to grow and for us to mature but it's also meant for us to Utilize our gifts and talents and abilities and send them ahead to our heavenly home Jesus says store up your treasure in heaven Well, I like to store up my treasure on earth Then I get all freaked out because Roth and must run Maz and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal Jesus you can't take it with you. It's gonna be destroyed while it's here But you can use the gifts and talents and abilities that God gives you to invest in your heavenly home Are we thinking that way as Christian believers? Are we thinking that way, that what we have is not so that we can just simply amass more? By the way, that's what the world does. The world wants to amass more so they can make other people say, well, you're amazing. The world wants to amass more so they can have comfort in the things that they possess. The world wants to amass more for any number of reasons. But the Christian trusts and believes that God will provide everything that we need. God will take care of us day by day that the birds of the air are taken care of They don't have barns They don't store up their treasures, but it's your father's good pleasure to take care of them and provide for them day by day So just this first verse thinking about the fact that we are holy that we are the brethren of that we have a heavenly calling and we're to consider Jesus. What about Jesus specifically here? Well, that he's both the apostle and high priest of our confession. And it's a strange way to think about Jesus because you just don't see it anywhere else. This kind of terminology bracketed together, but it's beautiful as you think about it, as you parse it out. First of all, as the apostle, like he's the capital A apostle. He chose 12 apostles, and then there's a sense in which there's more apostles in the book of Acts. There are kind of unofficial apostles. And there's another sense in which we're all apostles in some most basic sense. And an apostle is one who is sent. And Jesus chose his 12 to be sent out. And he really chooses all of us. As he's been sent, he sent the 12 and then sends us all out with the apostolic doctrine. with the apostolic gospel, with the opportunity to do ministry toward people outside of the church, as well as to do ministry towards those that are inside the church. And we'll talk about this again in this chapter. But he's the capital A Apostle in the sense that he's sent by God to represent God to man. At the beginning of chapter one, he's God's final revelation. And the Old Testament times, in various ways and various methods, God spoke. But in these last days, he's spoken to us through his son, the capital A Apostle, the sent one. So he represents God to man in the most ultimate and excellent way. He also turns around as high priest and represents man to God. That's what a high priest would do. A priest would represent man, men, people before God. And that's what Jesus does. Again, he's perfect in his ways, isn't he? He represents God to man and then turns around as he comes and takes on our flesh, he turns around and represents us back to God. That's why he's the mediator. That's why there's one God and one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ, Jesus. And it says here that he's faithful to him who appointed him, speaking of the father, Here's something that's a little bit troubling or a little bit, I don't know, perplexing, just as Moses was faithful. The author puts Moses on the same level, at least in this term, in this phraseology here in verse 2, and it's a little bit of a head-scratcher. I think Jesus was more faithful than Moses was. But let me point something out before I go and make the next point. If you read through the Old Testament accounts, Moses made quite a few mistakes. Like there were times when he, God says, speak to the rock and he would strike the rock and God got really upset with him. There were things that he did that he shouldn't have done. But you know what? God says he was faithful. Like the Holy Spirit says he was faithful. And I think it's an encouraging word that although you, me, we are sinful, we can still be faithful to God. We're still called to be faithful to God. We're not called to be perfect. God knows that we're not. And if you think you are, you know, you make God a liar, as 1 John 1 says. But we are called to be faithful. Now, he was faithful. On the same par in some sense that Jesus was but in another sense as you read on Moses was faithful in verse 5 in all God's house as a servant and Notice he testified to the things that were to be spoken later and he was a he was a prophet that spoke of the coming Christ He spoke of Christ who was to come and then verse 6 Christ is faithful over God's house as a son Going back to that theme that he's mentioned before. He's the son of God. He's God the son So Moses is faithful as a servant in the house is one of God's people that Christ is faithful over God's house who is the son who the house belongs to and so the scales are different and But again, faithfulness is important. Are you pursuing faithfulness as a Christian believer? Understanding there's forgiveness for you in Christ Jesus for every sin that you commit, but still pursuing to live uprightly for the Lord, to live uprightly before the Lord, to serve Him appropriately in your life. That's what God calls us to do. And it's just a reminder also that even though we're called to be faithful, we sin, we fail, we fall short, faithful shepherds, Faithful pastors are still sheep. Preachers of righteousness still need to be forgiven. Preachers of repentance still need repentance themselves. You get the idea. I guess what I'm saying is that the best of men are men at best. But it never gets us on the hook. We're still called to press on. We're still called to persevere. We're called to be disciples. And according to verse six, how do we know that we're true disciples of the Lord? I mean, I think that there's a massive problem in the church in our country today, and it's kind of an easy believism, where you make a profession at some point in time, You say you believe in Jesus, and then you walk away. You don't go to church anymore. You don't serve the Lord anymore. You don't do anything that looks like a Christian life. You don't live a life in any way, but you feel like you have fire insurance. You feel like you're okay because you prayed a prayer at some point in time, or you were baptized and were going to church for a while. But the scriptures make the point that the important thing is continuing on. What is the test of true discipleship according to Hebrews? How do we know we're for on the right tracks? verse 6 by our continuance Are we still walking are we continuing on with Jesus somebody said the continuance in the Christian life is the test of reality Continuance in the Christian life is the test of reality Christ is faithful verse 6 over God's house as a son and we are his house members of his household members of his family notice if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope if if if Now where's our confidence to be? It's certainly not in ourselves right It's certainly not in me that I'm gonna make it through that. I'm gonna do it on my own Where's our boasting to be? Well, it's certainly again not in me and we're never called in scripture to boast in ourselves but our confidence and our boasting are in our Lord in the Savior not in our work for him, but in his work or Us but there is this this Conditional clause it's important that we pay attention to and in Hebrews There's this great balance that we need to think about in this sermon between the believers security and then the necessary perseverance and I think sometimes in our circles we can get confused about these different things, but we are called To persevere to press on and we're able to do that precisely because the Lord is preserving us and And it's about the perspective. The scriptures call us to persevere. From our side, as we look at the human responsibility, we are called to press on. We are called to continue on with the Lord day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year. But we never then praise ourselves. We never say, look at how solid I am. Look at how faithful I am. We look at the other side of the coin, and we point to our faithful God. We have confidence and we boast, and we boast in His greatness, His reliability, His continuing on with us. And so on our side, we are very humble. At least we should be. We should be very humble because left to ourselves, we would fail and we would walk away, we would run away. but we understand and know that the Lord has us, not because of anything good that we have done, not because of anything that we deserve, but because the Lord has simply decided. He has chosen to love and call us to himself and give us the ability to do what he calls us to do. And so there's this call for this like humble Christianity, this humble orthodoxy, somebody said at some point in time. What's also amazing to me sometimes when people understand and come to embrace the doctrines of grace for the first time, so often you see people that go through this kind of, they call it a cage stage thing, where they're angry about everything, and they're very prideful and arrogant about the doctrines of grace. That's exactly the opposite of the way it should be. When people understand the grace of God, people understand the mercy of God, The fact that God has come to do great things for us, it should humble us to our very core. It should make us loving and approachable and patient with others who God hasn't yet reached out to. And we should be prayerful for those people. So the continuance in the Christian life is the test of reality. If you continue on in this confidence, trusting, believing that the Lord is good. Verse 7, we turn a corner, and we won't spend much more time on this, but in verse 7, there's this statement of the Holy Spirit quoting from Psalm 95. And I love the idea here. It says in Psalm, or verse 7, speaking of Psalm 95, the Holy Spirit says, today if you hear his voice. Now, this is written, I don't know, 1,000 some odd years before Christ. It was speaking to the people The spirit was speaking to the people of God and then 2,000 years ago or thereabouts. I The author here is quoting this verse, these verses in Psalm 95, and the Spirit is speaking to the people of God. And then 2,000 years later, as this verse is being quoted and read, the Holy Spirit is speaking to the people of God. And the point I'm trying to make is that every time the Word of God is opened, the Holy Spirit is speaking to the people of God. The Spirit of God is speaking to you today. Don't ever forget that the Word of God is living and active, that the Word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, and it cuts, and it divides between soul and spirit, joint and marrow, and it is the discerner of the thoughts and the intentions of the heart. That's Hebrews 4.12. That's another very next chapter. We'll cover that next time we're together. The Word of God is speaking. The God of the Word is speaking. The question is, are you hearing? Are you listening? Are you receiving? As I stand up here this afternoon, and you look at me, and I see everyone looking, does it sound like Charlie Brown's parents? Is it just kind of a, I know a lot of you don't understand that, some of you do, does it just sound like a wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah? When will this guy be done saying words? Or do you recognize that the true and the living God is speaking to you? That the true and the living God through his word written thousands of years ago is still ministering to you today. And you are to receive in the words of James, you are to be hearers of the word, doers even more of the Word. Not just hearers, but hearers and doers, so you're not self-deceived. My question to you, in your own heart, what are you going to do with the Word of God that you hear today? What are you going to do when you leave this place today with it? Just leave it in the seats behind you? Or are you going to take it with you? Are you going to think it through? Are you going to meditate? Are you going to ponder? Are you going to reflect? I'm guessing at least something is going to land if you're listening. Something is going to hit home. Something is going to need to be addressed as you leave this place today. Are you going to do business with God? Are you going to allow God to do business with you? It's the million-dollar question. So the Holy Spirit says today, if you hear his voice, verse 7, don't harden your hearts. As in the rebellion, the day of testing in the wilderness where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for 40 years therefore God was provoked verse 10 with that generation and Said they always go astray in their hearts. They've not known my ways as I swore in my wrath They shall not enter my rest Listen the people the Old Testament people that were in Egyptian captivity and bondage saw God due to the ten plagues God do the miraculous things that he did God part the Red Sea where the Israelites walked through so as on dry ground and then the waters closed and on the Egyptian army, they walked through the other side, and then shortly thereafter were grumbling and complaining against God, wondering if he was real, wondering if he cared, wanting to go back and get the leeks and the onions of Egypt. He wanted them to go into the promised land. He sent the 12 spies in. 10 of them came back with a bad report and said, we're like grasshoppers. We can never go in there. And only two came out. and said, we can go in and we can take the land if God is with us and for us. If God is with us and for us, it doesn't matter how big they are, how strong they are, how many they have. If God is with us and for us, we can win the victory. Two people said we can. Ten people said and got the attention of everybody else and said we can't. And guess, by the way, guess who went in to the promised land? Out of that whole first generation, out of those thousands and thousands of people, guess who went in? Those two people. because they had faith, because they took God at his word, because they believed the promises of God. Guess who died in the wilderness? A 40-year death march. Everybody else in that first generation. Just think of the carnage. Think of the carnage of these people that God said, you know what? You're not going to take me at my word. You're not going to believe what I say. You're all going to die out here in the wilderness. And they all did, that first generation. This is the point that's being made. Don't harden your heart when God speaks. When God makes promises, believe them. Take him at his word. And you say, if you're honest with yourself, you say, that's really hard. I need some help. I need the Holy Spirit to help. And what you should also say is, I need some other people to help as well. And that's exactly what he says here. Notice in verse 12, take care, brethren. Take care, brothers. Take care, church. Lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. And by the way, you don't go from one day you're going to church Receiving the preaching of the word and you're opening up the scriptures and praying and then the very next day you walk away It never happens that way. It never does it's a gradual process It's you getting alone. You go through a hard thing. You just stop Focusing you stop listening. You stop paying attention you get alone with your thoughts when you go through a hard thing and You get alone and you get separate from the church of Jesus Christ. One of the things that always puzzles me is when things are hard for people that claim to be Christians, why do they absent themselves from the church? Why do they do the exact opposite thing that would be good for them to do? Notice what it says here. What's the antidote to an evil, unbelieving heart? What's the antidote to walking away or falling away? It's the exhortation from the brethren in the body of Christ. Notice, take care lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, verse 12, leading you to fall away from the living God, but instead, exhort one another every day, as long as it's called today. By the way, statements like this that are all over the New Testament scriptures are very practical, but they also make the point very clearly that there's no place for Lone Ranger Christianity. You cannot be a Christian by yourself. You have to be a part of a local church. You have to be around other Christian believers, by the way, not just sitting shoulder to shoulder on Sunday, but face to face on other days of the week as well, talking about the things of the Lord, not just sports, not just the weather. Those things are fine. But talking about the things of the Lord. I did a class on evangelism. when the Pasadena OPC Church was still just kind of in its Bible study stage, I was asking the young people that were there, you know, what was their experience? you know, reasons why they don't evangelize other people. And one of the young ladies that grew up in one of our larger churches said, I don't evangelize because I never actually learned how to talk to other believers in the church about Jesus. So how would I take that next step and go talk to other people that don't know Jesus outside of the church? Those are both problems to me. We should be able to talk to people about the things of the faith in the church and then turn around and go outside the walls of the church to talk to unbelievers about the things of the faith. But we have to start by talking to each other. We have to exhort and encourage and build one another up in the faith. And so, exhort one another daily. What's the antidote to hardening our hearts, listening, fellowshipping, talking, encouraging the brethren, Finding out what's going on in their lives and pointing them to Jesus Helping them to consider Jesus while they help you to consider Jesus And again, I think I say this every time I'm here, but there's nothing more important than life Many things feel more urgent. I've said it before this today. I've said it week by week many things feel more important there's nothing in time and for eternity more important than than keeping Jesus at the center of our life. There's nothing more important than sitting under and receiving the Word of God in church and opening the scriptures in our homes as individuals and as families together. There's nothing more important. Why? Because of the deceitfulness of sin. Notice that in our passage. The deceitfulness of sin. Exhort one another daily as long as it's called today, that none of you may be hardened, the end of verse 13, by the deceitfulness of sin. Sin makes you do things that you think are logical and reasonable that are exactly the opposite. They are not logical and they are not reasonable, but because sin is sin, it contorts. It makes things look differently and makes you feel differently. They're like carnival mirrors, sin is. Don't overestimate your ability to see clearly by yourself. Bring yourself to the Word of God. Bring yourself to the God of the Word, and let other people do the same. And when the Spirit of God convicts you, when a brother or sister in Christ points something out to you, receive it. This may be completely obvious, but when It's not as easily understood as it should be. When the Spirit convicts you of sin, repent. See, our tendency is to excuse. Our tendency is to rationalize. Our tendency is to blame somebody else. When the Spirit of God convicts you of sin, repent. knowing that the grace of God is sufficient to catch you. The work of Christ is sufficient for you to be forgiven. That's the sweet spot, brothers and sisters. You don't have to be self-righteous on your own. You don't have to reach a standard of righteousness yourself. You're worse than you know. How do you feel when you hear that? Is that okay? If you're trying to keep your own standard of righteousness, that's really going to hurt you. But if you're leaning on the righteousness of Christ, that'll be okay. That'll be okay. So the passage tells us to press on. The final verses talk about the fact that those people rebelled. They were led out of Egypt by Moses. but they were, God was provoked for 40 years and they sinned and their bodies fell in the wilderness, verse 17 says. Who did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but those who were disobedient and they were unable to enter because of unbelief. And so Moses was unable to lead them into the promised land, which speaks of our heavenly rest and reward. We'll talk about the next time we're together. Don't you feel like though, the better than Moses? The one that wasn't just a servant but a son can lead you in? He certainly can. And he certainly will. Remember, he's seated at the right hand of God. He's the final word of God to us as people. And he loved us so much that he became like us in every way, sin accepted. He took our hell so that all that was left for us was His heaven, so that we might be His brothers and sisters who are with Him through all eternity. Consider Him. Stay focused on Him. Walk with Him today and always. Let's pray. Father, thank You so much for Your Word. We thank You so much for the fact that even though we sin and fail and fall short every day, You are still with us and for us, and you will never love us anymore, and you can never love us any less. Thank you that your love is perfect and complete toward us in Christ. Thank you that there is no condemnation for those that are in Christ, because Christ was condemned for us. Thank you that you gave us that perfect righteousness that we could stand in your presence, robed in that righteousness, to be yours with you forever and ever and ever. And thank you, Lord, that you provide for us everything that we need today and every day until you receive us home to glory. We love you and we praise you in Christ's name. Amen.