The book of Hebrews, as most
of you know, is a summary of the whole Old Testament. I started
studying for Sunday today, this morning, Exodus chapter 20. And we're going to look at that,
Lord willing, Sunday. And it speaks of an altar of
earth and stone. an altar of earth and stone.
I was so blessed in considering that altar of earth and stone.
I already gave it away. What do you think that might
be? We have an altar in Hebrews 13. And they are they which testify
of Christ, the Old Testament. And Hebrews is a summary of the
whole Old Testament. It's a glorious book, a marvelous
book. It begins with who Christ is. And all the way
through it talks about Christ being better, better than Moses,
better than the law, better than Aaron, better, better at sacrifice,
better, better, better. And so Hebrews is just a wonderful,
one of 66 wonderful books. But it's about Christ. It's all
about Christ. And this is an exhortation. Look
at verse 14 of our text. We are made partakers of Christ
if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the
end. So while it is said today, if you will hear His voice. Christ
said, My sheep hear My voice. I believe I've heard His voice. His sheep continue to hear His
voice. He keeps calling us. And this
is how you know that you're His sheep. He keeps calling you.
And you keep coming. To whom? Coming. It's not a one-time
thing. It's a lifelong thing. It's a
following, believing, it's laying hold of, and following Him, and
trusting Him, and looking to Him. It's a relationship with
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what this is. It begins,
well, chapter 2, look at verse 1. We ought to give the more
earnest heed to the things which we've heard. This is a vital
message, an urgent message. It's so much more urgent as we
see the day approaching. What day is that? The day of
our Lord's coming. Now, He may come for you before
He comes back to this earth for everybody. That's probably a
fact for many of you in here, in your 70s and 80s, even 90s. He's coming for one of us very
soon. Right? So it's more urgent now. Now is our salvation nearer than
when we first believed? It's nearer. And somebody asked
about where Peter said, that we hasten His coming. That means
you look forward to it. The more you think about it,
the more you meditate on it, the more you study, the more
you pray and call, and the more you want Him to come, and the
nearer His appearance seems to be. And He is. He said, I'm at
the door. Matthew 24, 25, I told you to
read those. And He tells everything that's
happening right up to the time that he come. He said, when you
see all these things, know this, he's at the door. It's real close. And he's at the door tonight,
right now, at the door of the church. He said, this is what
that means. Behold, I stand at the door and
knock. Amen. Open the door. Lord, please, I need to hear
from you. So this is an urgent message. so i mean here have not heard
his voice at your brother's prayer he says
today it's not the only time so that's it he bruised from
ninety-five today It means there may be no tomorrow. Right? Boast not thyself of tomorrow. You don't know what that day
may bring. There may be no tomorrow. So, today is the day of salvation. And the gospel is the power of
God and salvation. Alright, let's get into this.
And I hope we'll hear His voice today. Tonight. February 21st. Robert Montgomery's birthday.
Wouldn't that be something, Robert? This would be her birthday in
the glory. Verse 1, wherefore, holy brethren,
because we have this great high priest we just talked about who
took part of our flesh and blood. Holy brethren, holy, what's that
mean? You're holy. I don't feel it. Holy principally
means consecrated, dedicated, set apart by God. You don't make
yourself holy. He does. He does. Ephesians says
God has chosen us that we might be holy without blame. Sanctified. Set apart. Everything the scripture
speaks of as holy means it's for God. For God's glory. Okay? You're holy. David said that in the psalm
one time. He said, I'm holy. I'm set apart. My heart is fixed, he said. Set
on things above. Holy. Consecrated. Devoted to Him. His wife. Brethren.
Family. This is a family. Whose family?
God. Our Father. And our elder brother
Jesus Christ. We're brethren, aren't we? I
love that term. I love to call you brother. I
do. I use it more than I've ever
used it in my life. Brothers and sisters, I'd like
to address you as my brothers and sisters, my dear sister.
I love to write a letter, a note, that's sister, my dear sister. And my wife is more my sister
than my spouse. Isn't that what Solomon, our
Lord, called his beloved? My sister, my spouse. Holy Brethren,
partakers of the heavenly calling. For whom He did foreknow, He
did predestinate, and whom He predestinated, He called with
a, Scripture calls it a high calling. A high calling of God
in Christ. It's going to raise you high. I want to be raised high, don't
you? Already, Brother Kelly, I've already been taken off the
downhill. and set among princes. Well,
it gets higher. It's going to take us higher.
That's what Ephesians... This is a Hebrew. Do you remember
how this exodus started for the Hebrew children in Egypt? Do
you remember that? The first message was the Hebrews
in Egypt. And God said, I've heard their
cry and I am come down to bring them out, to bring them up into... How do I call it? Holy calling. Oh, I've spent all my life in
sin until he called me. Now I want to be holy. Don't
you? And it's called a heavenly calling.
Oh, it's heavenly. Heavenly calling. Consider, now
he said, consider. Meditate. Study. Give yourself
to thinking about. Think on this marvelous person,
the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.
Think on Him. Meditate. Consider Him. Give
yourself. Give your thoughts to Him. Set
your affection on things above. What things? Where Christ sits.
Consider. Consider the Apostle. Is our
Lord an Apostle? What does Apostle mean? Messenger. And Malachi 3, I was going to
turn, but I won't. It talks about the messenger
of the covenant. That's Christ. He came with a message from God,
didn't he? He's the messenger. And I barely believe that every
appearance of the Lord in the Old Testament was the appearance
of Jesus Christ. At those times like Noah, The
Lord came down and gave him the blueprints they are. What Lord?
I think it was Jesus Christ. Moses? At the burning bush? Who was talking to him? I think
it was Christ. Abraham? And Lot? That's clear. That's Christ.
He's the messenger of the covenant. He is the covenant. He's the
head of it. You know, if you've got a story to tell, you want
to tell it, don't you? If you and your wife ever been
with somebody and you had a story and you start to tell it, she
starts to tell it. She said, I want to tell this. I never
had to use it. But our Lord, this is his story.
He came down to tell it to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses,
and Noah, and all of them. He came down. He's the Word of
God. The apostle and high priest. High priest. of our profession. In our profession, we don't have
a profession of faith, per se. Our profession is person. We
don't go by a pamphlet with so many, you know, it's our profession. What does he say? He's our profession,
right? One time they asked Spurgeon,
I think it was, what body of divinity do you hold to? He said
Christ. In him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. that he's my body of divinity. So he's our profession, but he's
called the high priest. And the whole book of Hebrews
is about that. You've read it. High priest. Now there are millions
of people who find the need, who think they need a man to
be a priest to go to God for them. They think they need a
man to confess their sins to, to go to God. Where'd they get
that from? The Old Testament. The Old Testament. Those men
back then were sinners. And all men today are sinners.
And we don't need a sinner to go to God for that. Those men
went to God. I got to go on. We have a high
priest. We have a priest that's much
higher than Rome. He's in the heavenlies. High priest. In the Old Testament,
they were common priests. That's you and me. Cutting wood
and doing dishes and taking out the ashes. They don't offer anything
to God. They just serve the tabernacle,
the temple. There was one man chosen to take
the... for one purpose, wasn't it John?
That one man chosen of God, Aaron, was the high priest. He's the
only man that could go into the Holy of Holies, not without blood. And this whole book is about
that. That we have such a high priest. If he didn't go in, I've
got to go on, but I don't want to. He didn't go into the Holy
of Holies with the bloods of bulls and goats and lambs and
so forth, with His own precious blood. What did He do? He obtained
eternal redemption for us. By one sacrifice, forever, He
put away sin. I could dwell there a while.
Consider that. Take a lifetime. Christ Jesus. Now it goes on. in verses 2 through
5 to talk about Moses faithful in God's house. I listened to
my pastor today. That's the one I listened to
the most. More than any other. Sometimes exclusively. He's still
my pastor. I learned from him. And that's
who I listened to. And there's never been a better
one. And I listened to him preach on this today. He was going to
preach down to verse 14, but he didn't get past verse 5. That was all right. I was blessed.
But he talked about this house. He said, Moses, verse 2, was
faithful to God in all his house, God's house. And this man, Christ,
was counted more worthy of more glory than Moses because Christ
is the one that built the house. And my pastor said, Christ not
only purposed the house, the architect, author and a finisher. Not on purpose to have, but he
purchased the house. He paid for the house, right? And he built the house. And then
he lives in the house. I thought that was wonderful. I've built a few houses and some
of you have too, but I didn't pay for them, the bank did. But
Christ did it all. purchased it, purposed it, built
it. Christ said that. I'm going to
build my church on the rock, which is him. He says he has
more honor than the house. Verse four, every house is built
by some man. He that built all things is God.
Jeanette, right there is another verse that tells me Jesus Christ
is God. He that built all things is God. Didn't Christ say, I built my
church? Verse 5. Moses was faithful in
God's house. He was a servant. Just a servant. For a testimony, Moses wrote
of Christ. But Christ is the Son over His
house. He runs the house. He rules the
house. And he lives in the house. And
down in verse 6, it says, whose house are we? We're his house. We're his house. I call this
building the church house. But really, the church, we are
God's house. Not a building. God doesn't dwell
in a building, maybe. He dwells in his people. They're
the temple of God, the house of God. Whose house are we? I
want to be in his house. Scriptures talk about the house
of David, the house of Saul. The house of God. I want to be
of the house of God. And so, isn't that what David
said? He said, one thing, if I desire
the Lord and that's what I seek, I may dwell in the house of the
Lord all the days of my life. Whose house are we? Now look
at this big little word. If. If we hold fast to the contents
and rejoicing of the whole firmament of the heaven. Whose house are
we? If. Now, listen to me. Listen carefully. This is not
a condition that you must meet in order to be His people. To be His house. That's not what
this is saying. This is stating a fact. That
you're His house. If. You hold this beginning of
your confidence steadfast. If you die in deep faith, you're
His house. If you don't, you're not His
house. Right? If you forsake Him, you depart
from the living God, you are never His house. I remind you that many disciples
in John's Gospel went, John 6, went, left him and quit walking
with him. Thought no more with him. I thought
they were just disciples. Nope, never were. John said this,
1 John 2 did. If they were of us, they no doubt
would continue with it. But if they did not continue
with us, then it might be made manifest that they're not of
us. It can't. It can't. if we hold the confidence. Now look at that. The confidence
and rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. Look at verse 14.
We are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our
confidence steadfast unto the end. Confidence of what? Well, let me read to you in Hebrews
11 about this confidence. It says, Faith is the substance,
that is the ground of the confidence of things hoped for. The evidence
of things not seen. What is your hope of eternal
life? What is your hope of heaven, of being accepted with God? What
is your hope with God? All of God's people have one
hope. Jesus Christ. He is our hope, man. He's the
confidence. Our confidence, our trust, our
faith is in Him. Not in our faith. It's in Him.
Many people think, well, I'm just I'm going to keep on keeping
on. They're relying on themselves when they say that, aren't they? And faith is trusting Christ,
His faithfulness. Faith is looking to Christ for
all things, all our salvation, all our hope, all our pain, all
our acceptance, our holiness, righteousness and so forth. So
if we hold the beginning of our compass, we first came to Christ,
when we heard the gospel, we heard that God is holy, God is
just, God is righteous, God is angry with the wicked. We're
convicted of our sin by the word, by the gospel, by the Holy Spirit.
How can God have anything to do with this sinner? And we heard
the good news. One way, Christ. You come to Him. He's able to
save the uttermost. Then to come unto God by Him.
You come to Christ believing, hoping, trusting, looking to
Him as all your salvation. You're just a sinner. That's
how you came to Christ in the beginning. I'm an old sinner
and nothing at all. But all my hope is in Jesus Christ. What about now? You know, God's people are not
worse sinners now than when they began. They're not. But we feel
that way. Why? Because the more light you
have, the more you understand of God's Word, the more it opens
up your hearts, the thoughts, and the intents of your heart,
and your motives, and everything. You see, until finally, Paul
was a 60-year-old man when he wrote. A whole wretched man. He was 60. He'd been with the
Lord for 20 years. He said, Who shall deliver me
from this bodily pain? Paul, he said, I want to know
Him, win Him, be found in Him. Paul, don't you know him? Paul, you're the best man on
earth. Well, what is that? Every man at his best state.
No, he said, my hope is in Christ. Nothing less than Jesus' blood
and righteousness. So the beginning of our confidence
was in Christ. And you stay right there before
God, a sinner, Trust in Christ alone. He's saved
right there. Don't ever rise above that. And now look at this, verse 6.
And by the way, if you leave the gospel, that proves that
you're really not that bad after all. You really don't believe
God. You really don't believe, didn't
believe God at all. It was some kind of profession. It wasn't
the profession of a person. So, if we hold fast the confidence
and rejoicing of the whole firm of the hand. Do you remember
Jacob? When did Jacob first come to
know the Lord? I think it was when the Lord
came and wrestled with him. When a man wrestled with Jacob.
I do. Don't you? He changed, that's when he changed
his name. That's when our name changed, at our birth. New birth. But he laid, the Lord Jesus Christ
came and laid hold of Jacob and put him, made him confess who
he was and what he was. And what did Jacob say when they
were, the Lord was wrestling with him. What was Jacob doing
all this time? And John said, hold it on. That's
right. He's wrestling back. And what
did he say? I love him. The angel said, and
he's trying him. Our Lord's trying him. Let me
go. The day's breaking. He said,
I will not let you go unless you bless me. I'm not letting
go. And that's what we need to say
every day, don't we? In a prayer. Wouldn't that be
a good prayer every morning? Lord, I ain't letting go. Please
don't let go of me. If you really need Christ, if
you really believe Him, you won't let go. And you'll
find out the reason you didn't. Because He wouldn't let go of
you. He wouldn't let go of you. And this word, rejoicing of the
whole. When you first heard the Gospel, do you remember when
you first heard the Gospel? I do. I thought it was the happiest
day of my life. As Donnie Bell would say, it
was the happiest, most miserable day of my life. Miserable-est.
He said that. Miserable-est. Like old Bruce's English language. The rejoicing of the hope. God
forbid, oh Lord, don't ever let me quit rejoicing in Christ and
the gospel. Three marks of a believer. We
worship God in the spirit. Philippians 3, 3. We worship
God. God's people come to worship
God. They don't come for the festivities. They don't come
for the entertainment. They don't come for the fellowship where
they can see one another and eat food. They come to eat this
food. We come to worship God in the
spirit. That is from the heart. God's
not worshipped with all this crap. He isn't. He ain't in that. It's another spirit. It's not
the Holy Spirit. See all these out there on 220, this billboard
coming up shows people doing it? That's flesh! God's worshipped
in spirit and in truth. What's the truth? You can't worship
God without worshipping Jesus Christ. Christ-centered, He's the beginning,
the center, and the end, isn't He? We worship God in the spirit,
Rejoice in Christ Jesus. Rejoice in Christ Jesus. And
that gets back to being a sinner, doesn't it? Lepers and publicans
and harlots came to him every day then. And he healed them
all. Saved them all. He said to the Laodiceans, you're
rich and increasingly good. You don't realize you're still
wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. You need to come again
just like that. Lay hold and rejoice. Go away rejoicing. How firm a foundation. Let me
go on. Wherefore, you see, wherefore,
after hearing all that, As the Holy Ghost say it, today, talking
about holding fast, talking about rejoicing, today, tonight, right
now, if you'll hear His voice. Has anybody heard anything thus
far? I believe you have. You nod your
head. You act like you're enjoying
this. He said, my sheep hear my voice. It's not a one-time
thing. It's a continual. He keeps calling
His sheep. Why? Because they're prone to
wonder. He keeps calling them. Husband and wife talk to each
other every day. Don't you call? I used to tell
men, don't call me at the study. Act like I'm at work and you
can't get a hold of me. Well, it never did work. She's still
calling me. You know what? The older I get,
it doesn't bother me at all. That's the voice of my beloved.
And I try to answer. I try to answer, hey, honey,
what is it? You busy? No, not too busy for
you. What about our Lord? Call on
Him. Hear His voice. While on others,
call Him. Call Him today. Harden not your
hearts. He's telling us not to harden
our hearts. You can't blame this on God.
Pharaoh, God hardened his heart, but it also said Pharaoh hardened
his heart. What hardens our heart? Look down at verse 13. Today, lest any of you be hardened
through the deceitfulness of sin. What's that? It's everything. It's all that
is in the world. That's all that is in the world.
Sin. Isn't it? There's nothing in this world
that doesn't entice your flesh. That's what scripture said. All
that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the
eyes, the fire of the life, is not of God. Love not the world. Why? It will draw your heart
away from Jesus Christ. And that means the people. Again,
my pastor said this. And he said it from Scripture
and he said it from experience. He's seen many more people than
I have leave Christ. What for? Every time it's for
somebody or something out there. The two most dangerous things
for a believer in this world. The people of this world and
the things of this world. They will draw away your heart
from Christ. Harden not your heart. The deceitfulness
of sin. Who's the God of this world?
who's leading the people? He led the first woman away.
I know God said that, but He really didn't mean that. God
loves you. He has a wonderful plan. He wants
you to be like Him, so you just listen to Him. deceitfulness, sin, the great
deceiver, and evil men and seducers wax worse and worse, deceiving
and being deceived. And that includes women. Draw away your heart. Five words
I gave you as a title of this message, but in no certain way. Hear. You've got to hear. Faith,
come with my hearing. Now, if you're going to hear,
you can't hear two voices. You can't be listening to multiple
voices. They're not all saying the same
thing. Right? The voice of God is saying the
exact opposite of what the Word is saying. This book is saying
the exact opposite of what man is saying. You can't be listening
to both. You can't do it. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God. Turn away. They turned their
ears away from the truth. You turn your ears away from
the truth. I ain't going to hear it. Don't need to hear it. I've heard enough. I've heard
enough. So, hearing, hold, lay hold of the hope. You've heard, you've heard, you've
heard the truth. Lay hold, lay hold. Hope, hope
in Him. Put all your hope in Him. Don't
put your trust in princes or the son of man in whom there
is no help, no hope. People in this world are hopeless.
They're committing suicide by the droves. Why? No hope without God, without
Christ in this world. Now, Jesus, we've got a good
hope. We've got a good hope. Take heed, brethren. Take heed. Look at verse 12. Take heed,
brethren. I like that word, don't you?
I've always put the word hear and deed together. That's a good
way to think of it. Hearing, you hear it and you
do it. You've heeded it. I've heeded
the warning. I've warned you. Noah being warned of God, He
did the warning. What did he do? Moved with fear
and prepared that ark to the saving of his house. And when
the time come, he was in that. He never left. His whole life
was spent working on that ark, wasn't it? And telling his boys,
day in, day out, day in, day out, gotta be in that ark. Where's
the promise of his coming? Dad, he's coming. God's not slack
concerning his promises. He's coming. He didn't tell me
when. He didn't tell anybody when. He just said he's coming.
Rahab, you've been looking at that scarlet thread out the window
every day for the last six months. Is Joshua really coming? Yes,
he is. Don't leave home. Don't leave
the house. You've got to be with me in this
house. Is that all you want to talk about, Rahab? Yes, it is.
What else is it? Everything else is our hope.
He's our hope. Heed. Hearing and doing. Heed. Do what He says. Move with fear. Come to Christ. Stay in the ark. Stay in the
house where the blood is. Don't leave. He talked about many provoking
Him. Look at verse 12. Verse 10, I was grieved with
that generation. We just saw in Hebrews 4, didn't
we? It said, Grieve not the Holy
Spirit. Grieve not the Holy Spirit. It's
a grief when people don't come to hear the Word. And I'm not
taking it personally. I just fear for their souls.
Don't you? Those that observe Jonah 2.8,
those that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. Everything
is a lying vanity. If you observe or consider anyone
or anything else other than, it's a lying vanity. You've forsaken
your own mercy. Cutting your own throat. Destroying
yourself. Guys grieve. They do always air
in their hearts. Verse 11, I swear they won't
enter into my rest. Take heed, brethren. Verse 12,
lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief and departing
from the living God. Exhort one another. Have you
heard that before? How many times does Scripture
say that? Exhort one another. How do you exhort one another?
what you're doing right now. You being here is an exhortation
to those all around you. Right? You're saying, I'm waiting on
the Lord. I'm going to keep coming until He comes. And I'm waiting
on the Lord. I'll just wait with you. Exhort one another. Exhort one
another by coming to worship. Exhort one another by praying
for one another, encouraging one another, speaking to one another in psalms
and hymns and spiritual songs, exhort one another daily, daily,
while it is called today. Let's see, any of you be hardened.
Verse 14, we're made partakers of Christ. What that mean? If we hold the beginning of our
confidence steadfast unto Him. So, while it is said today, if
you'll hear His voice, harden not your heart. Harden not your
heart. Lord, use Your Word. Pray with me.