Turn with me again to the book
of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 3. Hebrews chapter 3. We've been going through this
book. Remember in the first chapter we dealt with Christ's deity. Christ's deity who is the express
image and brightness of God Himself, upholding all things by the word
of His power. And we know this, that He by
Himself purged our sins. But in order for deity, in order
for God to purge our sins, He Himself must become a man. He Himself is better than the
angels because He made the angels. He sustains them. And when He
came into this world, He came and took not the form of an angel. But we read in the second part
of the second chapter of this, that it behooved him to be made
like unto his brethren. And remember that word behooved.
It means obligated. In a covenant of grace, Jesus
Christ obligated himself to be made like unto his brethren. Made a little lower than the
angels for the purpose of suffering. We read that in chapter 9, Jesus
made lower than the angels for suffering, crowned with glory
and honor that He by grace should taste death, experience death. God could not experience death,
but as a man God could. The Son of God experienced death. And for what purpose that He
might be the Successful Savior. Christ did not come down in order
to make salvation possible. He came as a man to accomplish
salvation. Chapter 2 and verse 17, Wherefore
in all things it behooved him, he obligated him, he made like
unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful, and faithful high
priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for
the sins of the people. That's what he came to do, is
reconcile sinners to God. And not only was he a savior,
a successful savior, He is also a helping Savior. We read that
in verse 18. For He Himself hath suffered
being tempted. He is able to help them, restore
them, revive them, refresh them that are tempted. And so we know
this, that all God's people suffer testings. The faith that we have
must be tried. It must be tested. And you know
what? I need help. I constantly need
help in this. I know this. I could not believe
on my own. I could not do it. He has to
continually give us strength and faith. And therefore, we
come to chapter 3. He says, Wherefore, holy brethren,
partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high
priest of our profession, Jesus Christ. who was faithful to him
that appointed him. Now tonight I want us to preach
on the faith and faithfulness of Jesus Christ. Scripture says
he was faithful. He was faithful. And I want us
to see the two offices in which he both exercised faith and faithfulness. in this apostle. He was an apostle
of God and he was a high priest of God. Now, by way of introduction,
this text is written to believers. How do we know this? Look at
that text. Wherefore, holy brethren, wherefore, Because God, because
the Son of God has condescended to become a man, because the
Son of God was obligated Himself in an act of love and grace to
be a faithful high priest, to reconcile us of our sin. Wherefore,
holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, Because of
this, you that are believers in Christ, consider, we were
by nature not holy. What if I just walked up to you
and said, holy Kathy. We scoff at that, we smile at
that because that just don't sound right. That's what he's
saying. He's calling you who have heard
at the heavenly calling, you who have believed. Listen, you
are holy brethren. Holy brethren. We weren't that
way by nature. We were subject to bondage of
sin and fear of death all our lifetime. We were sinners without
hope of ever pleasing God by any works of the flesh. That's
what we are by nature. That's what we are. But now,
by the grace and power of the Holy Spirit, to us who have believed
on the Lord Jesus Christ, we have been forgiven. We have been
pardoned of all our sins because of the blood of Christ. The scripture
says he hath purged us. He hath purged us of all our
sins. It's because God, this is the
only reason you and I could be called holy brethren, is because
God had taken our sins and charged them to Christ. Because God hath
made Him to be sin for us. And He suffered the wrath of
God for our sins. And now His righteousness, the
righteousness of God, has been given to us. Has been given to us. Has been
given to us in the new nature. You are born again of the Spirit
of God. We've been given a holy nature. So then we are in our heart,
our new heart, holy and righteous before God. Is that how you feel? Do you
feel holy and righteous before God? Let me ask you, do you act
holy and righteous? Why is that? Simply because the
old man of sin still remains in us. The old man of sin, what
is called the flesh, is still as evil as the day he was born,
and he will not get better. This is why we are exhorted to
mortify the deeds of the body. Why? Because it doesn't get no
better. How often have you need of mortifying
the deeds of the body? Are you finished with that? Have
you stopped mortifying the... Why is that? Because it doesn't
get any better. Therefore we who are truly holy
brethren struggle against sin. Do you not struggle against sin?
We do. The spirit and the flesh are
opposed to one another. flesh lusteth against the Spirit,
and the Spirit against the flesh. These two are contrary one to
another, so that you cannot do what you would. What would you
do? On the flesh you would leave. If left to the will of your flesh,
if you were left to the will of your flesh, you would have
gone long ago. So you can't do that. Isn't that
great? I'm thankful for that. But it's sad in this sense, we
would be holy. We would be without sin. And
yet what do we find? We cannot do that either. Oh
wretched man that I am. The question is, who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? So we struggle, yet we are holy
brethren. What is the answer to this struggle,
this continual grief and sorrow that we face? How can we be faithful
to our God and Savior? Paul has the answer. I thank
God through Jesus Christ our Lord. There's the answer, isn't
it? Isn't this the answer to the struggle? Even though with the mind I myself
serve the law of God and with the flesh the law of sin. So
what's the conclusion to the stalemate? Here it is. There
is therefore now no condemnation of those who are in Christ Jesus.
You struggling? When I say, when I call you holy
brethren, you struggle with that? Listen to what he says. There
is therefore now no condemnation. There is therefore now no condemnation. There is therefore now no condemnation. You know who's not condemned?
Holy brethren. That's the only people that are
not condemned. Sinners are condemned. There
is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. And this is the comfort given
to holy brethren because we are partakers of a heavenly calling. This is why we are holy brethren. We are holy brethren because
we are partakers of a heavenly calling, a divine calling. This divine calling is not an
audible voice, but rather it is the power of God unto salvation. It is the Spirit of God creating
in us a new heart, giving us an understanding of our need
of mercy. Do you know anything about a
need of mercy? You know anything at all about
your sin, about your inability to please God? Do you know of
God's justice and judgment that demand your holy perfection? You know anything at all about
that? This is the power of God's calling to show us our need. gives us an understanding of
this. He gives us then faith to believe in the only remedy,
the only source of mercy, Jesus Christ. He is the only source
of mercy. Jesus said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man comes to God but by me. I got an email the other day
from a brother and he said, to the to the brethren in the narrow
way. Yeah, I'm in a narrow way. You
know what that means? It doesn't mean I'm walking a
tightrope to heaven. That's not what that means. It means a singular
way. Used to call Christians that
people of the way, the only way Jesus Christ is the only way
to God. You're not going to find God
any other way. Come to God by Jesus Christ. And when we receive
this heavenly calling, I want you to see that it is this, it
is a resurrection from the dead. The only way you can describe
it, the way God describes it, it's a resurrection from the
dead. We who by nature were only always sinners, could not come
to God, would not come to God. Defied God in every way. Yet God gave us life. In doing
so, this is the heavenly calling to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Have you been called? And listen what he says. Wherefore,
you holy brethren, you that are made partakers of the divine
nature, consider. Consider. What in the world are we to consider?
Are we to consider ourselves? Is that what we're to consider?
That's what religion wants you to consider is yourself. You
holy brethren, consider how holy you are. You holy brethren, consider
what you're doing. Stop doing this and start doing
that. No. What does He tell you to
consider? Consider the apostle and high
priest of our profession, Jesus Christ. We are to consider Jesus
Christ. Jesus Christ. Isn't this the
rule of our life, you who believe? What's the rule of your life? The just shall live how? How
shall the just live? Those who are justified, those
who are holy brethren, how should we live? By what rules should
we follow? The just shall live by faith. If you're living by faith, then
you are always considering the object of your faith, Jesus Christ. We are to walk by faith in Jesus
Christ. And so Paul, tonight, he says,
consider Consider Him. Consider Him. There are two aspects
that I want us to consider. He says, Consider the Apostle
and High Priest of your profession, Jesus Christ, who was faithful
to Him that appointed Him. I want us to consider, first
of all, His faith. We're talking about Christ. He
became a man, and as a man, He lived by faith. He lived by faith. And his faith was not just a
mental ascent, it presented itself in faithfulness. So these two
things, his faith and his faithfulness. When it comes down to the root
of faithfulness, I know this, I am not accepted of God, forgiven
of sins or given eternal life because of either my faith or
my faithfulness. Faith is necessary, friends,
and those who have faith are faithful. But my acceptance with
God is not dependent upon my faith or my faithfulness. Consider
that for a minute. What if your eternal soul depended
on your faith or your faithfulness? You would never ever have any
assurance or hope whatsoever because our faith is constantly
fluctuating. Our faithfulness, oh my, can
it be called that? Can you actually look at your
faithfulness and say now that's what people should be doing right
there. You guys get right behind me
and you follow and do what I do. Can you say that? No. So our faith and faithfulness
is not what we look to or consider. But rather, the object of our
faith and the cause of our faithfulness is His faith and His faithfulness. His faith. Consider the faith
of Jesus Christ. Look at what Paul says in Galatians
2. Galatians 2 and verse 20. Paul said that I am crucified
with Christ. Oh, what a union. What a union. Paul's in faith looking to that
union, isn't he? He said when he was crucified,
I was crucified with him. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless,
I live. I live, yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me, and the life that I now live in the flesh, I live
by the faith of the Son of God. What's the cause of your life,
your spiritual life? What's the root cause? Your faith
in Christ is evidence of that cause, but it's not the cause.
This is this very important, because religion tells you your
faith is the cause. And because of your faith, it
generated something, it did something now. My faith is a result of
his faith, of what he did. So he said this, I live by the
faith of the son of God. That's the cause of my life.
That's the root generation of my life. That's why I'm constant.
That's why I'm living today. It's because of His faith. His
faith. Only because of His faith and
faithfulness to God are we quickened, are we made alive and accepted. Now look at the faith of Jesus
Christ. The righteousness of Jesus Christ. The righteousness
that he obtained as our representative man was obtained by his faith
in God in all things. You and I have some understanding
of what it is to believe God. I just believe in God. A lot
of people believe in God. We believe God. We believe God's
Word. We believe God. We believe Christ. But our righteousness, our righteousness
was obtained by His faith, His obedience. Romans 3.22, but the
righteousness of God which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. You see where it comes from?
Where your righteousness is generated, it comes by His obedience and
faith in God. The illustration of that was
when He was tempted, when He was hungered, when he was starving,
as it were starving to death. Now he would have never starved
to death, but he felt all of the pains of starvation. And
Satan comes along, if thou be the Son of God, make these stones
bread. And he said, no, I will trust
God for my provisions. Could you do that? Could you
believe God so much? I'll tell you what, God makes
me to suffer just for a few minutes and I'm already doubting. Christ
didn't do that, he didn't doubt. He believed God. He trusted God to prove his deity. The saint said, if you'll be
the son of God, throw yourself off a mountain and then show
everybody. He said, no, God will show everybody who I am. He'll
show his people who I am. Christ's faith in God. He knew
God would call out His elect. And so then, the life we now
live, in the flesh we live by the faith of the Son of God.
His faith was perfect. That even when our sins were
charged to Him, even when He was made sin for us, do you still
believe, see this, He trusted in God? He said that, my God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He was still crying to God,
still believing and trusting God while he suffered for our
sins. Secondly, I am accepted of God
because of his faithfulness. Consider the great faithfulness
of Christ, not only to believe God, but to perfectly, completely
do what God had given him to do. Everything God gave Christ
to do, he did everything and he sums it up in these two offices. Consider the faith and faithfulness
of Christ as an apostle. And the faith and faithfulness
of Christ as a high priest. The faith as an apostle. Now,
what's an apostle? What is that? Simply a messenger. Someone sent with a message. That's what Christ was. He was
the apostle. The messenger. Someone once said
a prophet. So I think it was that the root
word had to do something with a mouthpiece. That's all it is.
A prophet was just a mouthpiece. used of God to declare His Word. This is what Christ was. He was
sent of God with the Word of God. And in this text, you'll notice,
go back to your text, you see this, he starts using Moses as
an example of this. Moses was an apostle. Moses was
a prophet. Moses was one son of God. Everybody
that was reading this, you have to understand, everybody that
was reading this held Moses in the highest regard. Moses was a faithful prophet. He had a faithful message. What
was his message? It was a message of law. That
was his message, and he was faithful to deliver it. He was a prophet
of God. But you know what this prophet
Moses said concerning Christ? He said, God's going to raise
up a prophet like me, but better than me. Look at this in Deuteronomy. Listen to what Moses said about
this prophet, this apostle that would come. Deuteronomy chapter
18. Deuteronomy chapter 18. Look at verse 18. He said, I will raise them up
a prophet. from among their brethren, likened
to you, Moses, likened to thee, and will put my words in his
mouth. And he shall speak unto them
all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass that
whosoever shall not hearken to the words, to my words, which
he shall speak in my name, I will require of him what the prophet
which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have
not commanded him to speak, or to speak in the name of other
gods, even that prophet shall die. And if thou say in thine
heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not
spoken? When the prophet speaketh in
the name of the Lord, if the things follow not, nor come to
pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken. The
prophet that has spoken it presumptuously, thou shalt not be afraid of him. God's going to raise up a prophet.
And he said, listen, you're going to listen to him. How do we know
this guy? How are we going to know it?
He said, listen, if he comes, if he says something and it comes
to pass, that's my man. That's the one. This was speaking
of Jesus Christ. He is that prophet. That apostle. Moses was a faithful
prophet, but Christ was to be a prophet likened to Moses, yet
better than Moses. Worthy of more glory than Moses. And he uses these illustrations
to prove it. He said, you know, you got a house. Man, some man
built a house, and it's a beautiful home. Now who gets the praise? The house or the builder? The
house deserves no praise. It was built. And so it is with
Christ. Moses was just a servant in the
house. Christ was the ruler of the house. And as Moses was a mouthpiece
of God, how much greater then was this prophet, Jesus Christ,
who was sent to preach the gospel, to make it plain. All of the
Old Testament scriptures testified of Him, pointed to Him, He said,
He's coming, He's coming. This is what He's going to do.
This is how it's going to be. But it was all kind of vague.
It was in shadows and pictures and types, killing lambs and
goats. There were furniture and tabernacles
and all sorts of things that spoke of Him, made a shadowy
picture of Him. But when He came on the scene,
everything backed in and made it clear. He was to come to fulfill
all those things. And when he came, when I thought
of this, when I thought of him being an apostle, I just thought
of his first message. Go to Luke, look at his look
at his first message that this apostle came. He came with the
word of God and he declares in Luke chapter four and verse 18. He declares unto them the message. Listen, what God said about this
apostle, you better listen to him. What did this apostle come to
do? What he said, he said, he read this prophecy, he said,
the spirit of the Lord is upon me. Because he had anointed me
to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken
hearted. to preach deliverance to the
captives and recovery of the sight to the blind, to set at
liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year
of the Lord. And he closed the book and gave
it to the minister and sat down, and all the eyes of the synagogue
were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them,
This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. Jesus said, I'm the one the Spirit
sent to without measure, and I came to do this, to preach
the gospel. To preach the gospel. My friends,
Jesus Christ was faithful to preach the gospel. He was faithful
to give sight to the blind. He was faithful to deliver the
captives. He was faithful to set at liberty
them that were enslaved to the law and sin. And notice that
in verse 19, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. You know what
that has reference to? Year of Jubilee. The year of
Jubilee. It's just a wonderful thing.
In Leviticus chapter 25, you read of this law, the year of
Jubilee. Now, if a Hebrew had become a slave. He would lose everything he's
he's in a debt he can't get out of, and he enslaves himself. So that he might pay the debt,
but that never happens, you can't you can't pay that debt through
slavery, so because he loses everything, what is he going
to pay with? But yet God had made provision for these slaves,
these Hebrew slaves. He said in the 49th year, in
the 49th year on the very specific day, on the great day of atonement,
you shall sound the trumpet, the year of jubilee, and every
Hebrew slave was immediately set free and all that he lost
was restored to him. I suppose the slave felt. Was
that not a good year? You know who the slave is? It was me. I was bankrupt. I had nothing to pay. I lost everything. In Adam, I
lost everything. I was enslaved to the law of
God. I was chained to my sin and I could not break free. I
couldn't do it. No matter how hard I tried, no
matter what I did, religion, it only added to my chains. It
did not help. I found out I was cursed. But then, Christ, through the messenger,
preached to me the year of freedom, the year of jubilee. Christ preached
to me, and His message was a message of an acceptable year of the
Lord. You that are lost in Adam, when Christ called you, you were
given double of what you lost. What did you lose in Adam? You
lost your life. You lost your life. When Christ
preached to you, what did you gain? You gained life. Not just
life, you gained eternal life that no man can take from you.
And then what Christ says, I give unto them eternal life and they
shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. Isn't that better? I like that message. In ourselves, we lost all hope
to please God in my flesh. Well, it's no good thing. There
is none righteous, no, not one. But in Christ, what did we find?
We found hope abundant. We found acceptance with God.
I found all the provisions that I needed to be accepted with
God. I found righteousness. You need
righteousness? Well, Christ has abundant righteousness. Do you need an acceptable offering?
Christ's offering is perfectly acceptable with God. So I found in Christ all that
I could not provide for myself. We were blind in darkness, we
could not break the hold of our sin, but Christ came to give
us understanding. He opened our prison doors and
the chains of our sins fell off. And this is the same message
I preach to you, a message of Jubilee. A message of Jubilee. The gospel of mercy and grace I preach to you about the faithful
apostle, the one who first preached this message. I'm only going
to preach what he preached. Why? He's the faithful apostle. And if you don't hear him, God
will require it of you. But how can this be possible?
How did he, who was faithful to preach the gospel to sinners,
accomplish the gospel Poor sinners. That's one thing if he just came
and preached to you and left. Right? What if he just preached
all this stuff and he didn't do anything? It wouldn't be any
good, would it? Christ didn't come just to be
an apostle and tell you of the gospel. He himself came to accomplish
the gospel. To finish those things. And how
did he do that, Luke? As a high priest. as a high priest. Consider him
who is the apostle who told us of salvation. He is also the
high priest that accomplished salvation. Let me ask you this. Do you suppose
God could ever forgive sin or free captives without justice
being satisfied? We're talking about liberty.
to set at liberty them that are bruised. How in the world could
God set you, who are guilty, at liberty? Could He set aside
His justice? Could He set aside His law? No, He could not. God is of pure eyes and to behold
evil. God will by no means clear the
guilty. So then, the guilty must then
have a mediator. This is what a high priest is.
High priest is someone to stand between you and God and offer
to God what you can't. That's what a priest does. In
every religion, consider that, every religion on Earth has some
kind of priest. Isn't that something? Why? Because men by nature know
they don't have it. Gotta have somebody. But this is the only high priest
that has ever offered to God an acceptable sacrifice. Chapter 2 and verse 17, it said,
Wherefore, in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his
brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God. We, by nature, being carnal and
dead in sin, could never approach unto God. We could never offer
an acceptable sacrifice. Cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.
You see, there's nothing you can do. There's nothing you can do. Bring
what you will. Remember Cain and Abel? What
did Cain bring? He brought the best of the fruits
of his labors. I imagine that he really believed
that his work, the sweat, the labor that he put into that fruit,
that that would be pleasing to God. You know what God says? It's not pleasing. Not pleasing. You know what God says about
your best works? Not pleasing. Not enough. But consider Christ, who is faithful
high priest, because he offered the only acceptable sacrifice
for sins. The law required blood of bulls
and goats. I've often thought of how much
blood have you ever thought about how much blood was shed? Over
the centuries. You realize how much sin that
blood. Atoned for. None. None. He didn't offer the blood of
bulls and goats that can never take away sin. He didn't offer
as the pagans the blood of others. But this high priest offered
to God his own blood, his own blood to satisfy the just demands
of the law of God. And the apostle says the law
of Moses in which Moses was faithful. Moses was faithful to give that
law. But you know what that law did not provide? An offering
acceptable to God. There was no acceptable sacrifice. All the law do is condemn us.
It could only picture what Christ would do. Therefore, consider
how much more faithful Christ was as a high priest to obey
the law and offer a sacrifice acceptable to God. He being the only righteous man
could only offer an acceptable sacrifice. Now, the year of Jubilee,
and I want you to understand it happened on a specific day,
the Day of Atonement, the great Day of Atonement. You remember
the the ceremony of this. There were three things necessary
for this. You need a high priest. I needed two goats. I get this. All three of these
pictured Christ. He was the high priest, He was
the scapegoat, and He is the all sin offering. He's all three
of them. Needed three things to picture
the one man, what the one man did. So Jesus Christ He is a
picture of this great day of atonement. And he as the high
priest offered himself as the scapegoat. Remember the scapegoat?
The high priest would take the head of the goat and he would
confess all of the sins on the head of that goat. And there would be this big strong
man. He would come and pick up the goat in his arms and he would
carry him away. carried him further and further
away. He was supposed to carry him
into a land that no man ever inhabited. He carried him further
and further away until until what? Until he was gone. That's what picture what Christ
did with my sin. Christ. He's the goat. He's the priest. He's a strong
man. And he carried my sin so far
away that not even God would ever see him again. How did he
do that? By the second goat. Whose blood
was shared. And brought into the very presence
of God, that's what God Christ did. Christ. Offered himself
his own blood, brought his blood into the presence of God and
God says accepted. Send paid. You know why I'm going
to heaven? My sins have been paid. I'm not
going to get in by the skin of my teeth. I heard somebody I
really respected for a certain period of time. He said, you
know, he believed in progressive sanctification. He said, you
know, you're going to get progressive holier and you're going to get
better and better and so forth. And, you know, when you get to
heaven, you'll have more. And he said, what about the person
that just believes like the thief on the cross? He said, well,
those guys get in by the skin of their teeth. I'm not going
to get in by the skin of my teeth. No, I'm going to have the righteousness
of Christ. Is that the skin of my teeth?
Are you going to have a better righteousness than me? No. Are
you going to have a better offering than me? No. Because Jesus Christ is the blood
offering, and he offered himself as our sin offering and paid
in full the justice of God for my sins. Consider his priesthood. And believe me, the apostle is
going to expound and expound on this priesthood throughout
the rest of the book. The priesthood of Christ is vital. Christ is
the faithful apostle. Yes. Who preached the gospel
of deliverance to the captives. But he is also the high priest
who actually delivers the captives. Who mediates between us and God. And so then, you who have been
called of God, seeing that Christ is the faithful
apostle and high priest of our salvation, who then can separate
you from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus? What is it you suppose you could
do to ruin that perfect offering? Nothing I did to earn it, nothing
I did to merit it, nothing good in me that caused me to receive
it. He freely gave it. In fact, He gave it while I was
yet a sinner. He didn't wait for me to get
better. And he swears to me, to everyone
who has him, that no one can pluck us from
his hand. No one can separate us from the
love of God that's in Christ Jesus. So tribulation or famine
or nakedness or peril or sword, angels or principalities or powers,
things present, things come, nor life, nor death, nor any
other creature. Paul says, I'm persuaded that
none of these things can separate me from the love of God that's
in Christ Jesus. Why? Because he's the faithful apostle.
He's the faithful high priest. He's all my salvation. I'm free. I'm free. Free from what? Free
from the law. Why? Because he already obeyed
it. I don't need to add anything
to him. See how liberating that is? I
learned it. He's a faithful high priest.
He's the faithful apostle. If you don't get anything, get
that and believe on him. Not in your faith, not in your
faithfulness, but in him. I pray you will, and let's stand
and be dismissed in prayer. Gracious Father, bless us with
your spirit. Point us to Christ. Open our
eyes as we see him. Confess our sins and flee to
him. Turn from our sins. Turn to him. Faithful apostle, believe his
words. and trust His offering, in Jesus'
name.