Let's open our Bibles again to
Hebrews chapter 3. I titled the message this morning,
Consider Christ Jesus. I began working on this message
two weeks ago and I got to the word consider and couldn't get
beyond it. So last Sunday we looked at those
eight or nine things that God's word tells us to consider. And
this morning I want us to consider Christ Jesus. I got just a little
bit further than that word. Consider we're going to consider
Christ Jesus, which is exactly what the writer tells us to do
here. Hebrews three verse one. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers
of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of
our profession, Christ Jesus. First, there's about five things
I want us to consider about Christ Jesus this morning. And the first
one is this consider who Christ Jesus is. Consider his dignity,
his, his honor, his greatness. He is both the apostle and the
high priest of our profession. Now we hear the word apostle.
We all think immediately of the 12 apostles. The apostle had
to, he had several things that qualified him to be an apostle.
He had to see the Lord Jesus in the flesh and he had to get
his gospel straight from Christ. So there'll never be another
apostle, just those 12. Those 12, we think of Peter, James,
John, Paul, but Christ Jesus is the apostle, the apostle. He didn't just see himself in
the flesh. Christ is the apostle because
the son of God came in the flesh. Christ didn't just get his message
from himself. Christ is the message of the
gospel. I say this often, I never want
us to forget this. Now, the gospel is a person. The gospel is a person. The gospel
is not only a set of doctrines. Now, please understand, I am
not degrading, not emphasizing the importance of doctrine. If
it's the gospel, the gospel must contain a certain exact set of
doctrines or it's not the gospel. It's either the gospel or a lie.
If somebody's preaching and don't preach this set of truths, these
doctrines, it's not the gospel. But, you know, a person can preach
those truths, talk about those doctrines and not preach the
gospel. But if we preach a person, we preach Christ as he is, we'll
always preach those doctrines correctly. The gospel tells us
who Christ is. We're going to preach the gospel.
We have to tell who he is. He's the son of God in human
nature. The son of man. Come down. Like
Kevin told us, come down to save sinful men and women. Well, that's
the doctrine of representation. That's the doctrine of salvation
in a substitute. Christ became a man. God became
a man. So he could be our representative.
So he could be a sacrifice for us. The gospel tells us what
Christ did. What did he come here to do?
Well, the angel told us he shall save his people from their sins.
That's the doctrine of election. Who did he come to save? His
people. Did he come to save everybody? Did he come to say he loves everybody?
No, he came to save his people from their sins. That's the doctrine
of election. And that's also the doctrine
of salvation. It's the doctrine of righteousness
imputed to God's elect because their sin was imputed to him
at Calvary. That's how Christ saved his people from their sins.
He took it away from them and put it away under the blood of
his sacrifice and made them righteous in the end. And the gospel tells
us why did Christ do it? How often do you hear children
say, why? Why is that? What is that? Why
is that? Well, the gospel tells us why Christ did it. When we
preach Christ as he is, we're going to declare the character
of both God and man. Christ came to save His people
from their sins because they can't do it. They can't do anything
for themselves. That's the doctrine of total
depravity. We're completely lost in sin,
dead in sin, so we can't do anything to save ourselves. We need Christ
to come do it. That's why He came. And He came
to save His people from their sin so that God would be just
and justifiable. That's the doctrine of who God
is. He's just, if God's gonna save
sinners, he can't overlook their sin. So he sent his son to put
it away by the sacrifice of himself. See, if we preach Christ, we'll
preach all those other doctrines and truths. And here we read
that Christ Jesus is the apostle of that gospel. Christ came to
reveal that gospel to his people. Now the word apostle here, it
means an ambassador or messenger of the gospel. Well, Christ came
as the messenger And before he came, it seemed like the salvation
was, was, was in the law or in the types. It was, that's what
people thought because the gospel was hidden and all those types,
all those shadows, all those ceremonies. But when Christ came,
he made it obvious. Salvation is in healing. Salvation
is not in the law. The law is given to point us
to Christ. Salvation is not in the ceremonies. Those ceremonies
are given to us, given to point us to Christ. Salvation is in
him. And once he came, he made, it
was so obvious. What a preacher he is. What an
apostle he is. He speaks to the hearts of his
people. Now I see, now I see. And Christ Jesus is the high
priest of our profession. Now, what's our profession, our
confession? Kev, it's like you were looking
at my notes this morning. He covered this already. This is what we
confess. This is what we profess. This
is what we'll tell everybody about our salvation. Christ is
all. That's our profession. He's all
of it. Christ is our great high priest who offered the sacrifice
to put sin away. Christ is the lamb who was sacrificed
to put the sin of his people away. Christ is the altar on
whom that sacrifice was offered. We have an altar, Christ Jesus. And Christ is the mediator who
lives to apply that blood, to plead the blood of his sacrifice
for the sins of his people. And he lives to apply it to the
hearts of his people. Christ is everything to his people. He is all of our salvation. It's all him. That's why the
gospel is a person. Now the writer tells us, consider
him, consider who he is, considering he's all, he's everything. Now
come to him, run to him, believe on him for salvation. He is the
one who accomplished the salvation of his people. And he's the one
who reveals it to him. He's the apostle and high priest
of our profession. He's everything. Then to consider
this, consider his faithfulness. Verse two. who was faithful to
him, that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his
house. Now look back here at Numbers
chapter 12. This is where the writer gets this statement from. And this is something that was
important to deal with to the Jews who would read this letter.
The Jews loved Moses, didn't they? Oh my. How often did they
say, we're all right in our religion. We got Moses. We got Moses. Well,
Moses was a faithful prophet. Absolutely. He was. I know he
was because the Lord said he was looking at numbers chapter
12, verse one and Miriam and Aaron spake against
Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married for.
He had married an Ethiopian woman. Now let me stop and, uh, and
say something here in the spirit of, uh, Bible school. What my
Bible school teacher told me often miss Sandy says, no, you
get this for free. The scriptures really do tell
us everything we need to know. They really do. The scriptures
even tell us that racial bigotry is wrong. Here, his brother and
sister are speaking against him because he married an Ethiopian
woman. And that brought God's anger. Look here at verse 2.
And they said, hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses?
Hath he not spoken also by us? And the Lord heard it. Now, the
man Moses was very mean. above all the men which were
upon the face of the earth. And the Lord spake suddenly unto
Moses and said unto Aaron and unto Miriam, come out ye three
under the tabernacle of the congregation. And they three came out and the
Lord came down on the pillar of the cloud and stood in the
door of the tabernacle and called Aaron and Miriam. And they both
came forth. And he said, hear now my words. If there be a prophet among you,
I, the Lord, will make myself known unto him in a vision, and
will speak unto him in a dream. But now my servant Moses is not
so, who is faithful in all my house. God said he's faithful.
With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, clearly,
not in dark speeches. And the similitude of the Lord,
shall he behold, he's going to see the Lord. Wherefore then,
were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? And
the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, And he departed. Now the point of all that was
this. The point we need to get from
all that is this. Moses was God's faithful servant. God said, I'm
going to speak to him mouth to mouth. I'm going to speak straight
to him. And we should honor that. Moses
was faithful. He was faithful to serve Israel,
faithful to lead Israel. And God made him so, didn't he?
God's the one who made him faithful. But now let's not get too carried
away with old Moses. Moses wasn't always faithful, was he? Moses
struck the rock twice. He didn't speak to it the second
time, he smote it, violating the picture of Christ. And for
violating the picture of Christ, God wouldn't let him in there
and promise him. Oh, how much greater punishment on us. Not
just violating the picture, but refused to believe on him. Moses
was not always faithful, but Christ is better than Moses.
That's the point of this passage we're looking at this morning.
Remember, all of the book of Hebrews tells us Christ is better.
Well, this passage shows us Christ is better than Moses. And you
put anybody else's name in there too. He's better than any other
prophet, any other preacher, any other mere man. Christ is
better. And Moses was faithful. But Christ
Jesus is always faithful. Perfect faith. Look over at Galatians
chapter two. And this is, why is it so important
that Christ Jesus, our savior, had perfect faith? Because the
salvation of God's elect was accomplished through the faithfulness
of Christ. Not just faith in Christ, but
the faithfulness of Christ. The faithfulness of Christ had
to come first. Look here at Galatians two verse 16. Knowing that a man's not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not
by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified. And here's what Paul's telling
us. Salvation is not in our faithfulness, our faithfulness to obey the
law. Salvation is in Christ's faithfulness, his faithfulness
to obey God's law perfectly. And we receive that. salvation,
we receive that righteousness through faith in Christ. The
faithfulness of Christ earned it, and we receive it through
faith in Christ. He tells us the same thing, verse
20. He says, I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live,
yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now
live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me. Christ earned eternal
life for his people by his faithfulness. And we receive that life through
faith in him. Now, I'm very interested in that
because a sinner like me needs Christ's faith to be perfect.
I need his faithfulness to be perfect because I'm not perfect. I need him to do everything for
me. Everything that's required to
save my soul, I need him to do it all. So I need his faith to
be perfect Well, it is. It must be perfect to be accepted.
And Christ was perfect. As a man, he always trusted his
father perfectly. And if I'm in Christ, I do too,
because he's my representative. As the perfect apostle, oh, aren't
we thankful for God's faithful servants, faithful preachers,
faithful to always preach God's word. For the apostle of our
profession, is perfect. He was faithful always to make
God's way of salvation known to his people. Christ Jesus as
a man was faithful to do everything God required to save God's elect
from their sin. He was faithful to obey God's
law perfectly. He's faithful to give that obedience,
that righteousness to his people to make them righteous. He was
so faithful that he was perfect in every situation. He was tempted
in every point of the law. Tempted just like we are, yet
without sin. He was faithful to obey every
point of the law. He was faithful to do every thou
shalt of the law. And he was faithful not to do
every thou shalt not of the law. He's faithful. And then when
that obedience was perfect, when it was completed, he was faithful
to offer the sacrifice. that would put the sin of God's
people away. He was faithful to offer the sacrifice that ended
all sacrifices. He's our perfect, our faithful
high priest. When that sacrifice was over,
he was faithful. He, in faith, trusted his soul
to the father. Father, into thy hands, I commend
my spirit. He is faithful to trust him.
Even in his dying agony, he was faithful to trust his father.
And that faith is the faith of his people. I love to read about
that. I love to think about that because his faithfulness, his
perfection is mine if I'm in it. And that faithfulness of
Christ, it really did get the job done. It's not just pretend. It's not just something we'll
have someday. It really did get the job done. He saved his people
from their sin. Look what the writer says here.
Don't just It's easy for us to pass over these words and not
realize the power of what he's saying. He says, wherefore, holy
brethren. Holy? How did you get holy? In Christ, in his faithfulness
to make his people holy by his obedience to the law. And he
says here, holy brethren. We've been born again into God's
family. All of God's people are His children.
We've been adopted into His family. We've been born again into His
family. We're holy brethren. Christ was faithful to make God's
people part of His family. To give them a table at God's
seat. Just like David did with Mephibosheth,
Christ did for all of His people. Lay Him on both feet. Down there
in the land of no bread. Sorry. Descendant of the enemy. Christ
our high priest. Our prophet. Apostle was faithfully
come to him, give him a seat at God's table, the table of
his grace. And he says here, he's made his people partakers
of the heavenly calling. Christ made his people partakers
of his righteousness by giving them his righteousness. Christ
made his people partakers of the holy nature. by causing them
to be born again with a new nature, a holy nature, a nature that
can't sin because it's born from the holy, incorruptible seed
of the word of God. The word partakers, it means
exactly what you think it means. It means sharers. Everybody has
their portion, as much as you want. Partakers. Christ made
his people to share in, to have a part in everything that he
is and everything he's done for his people. Aren't you thankful
for a faithful Savior? Faithful apostle, faithful high
priest. In Christ Jesus, our Savior,
nothing's changed. He's still faithful. He's faithful
to always make intercession for his people before the Father.
He's faithful to come to comfort the hearts of his people, comfort
their hearts with his presence. And he's going to be faithful
one day. come back and receive his people to himself. He's either
going to do it individually in the death of these bodies, or
he's going to do it all at once in his second coming. But one
way or another, he's coming back to get his people. We need to
consider that. And we need to remember that. Brethren, this is not all there
is. This life is not all there is. We get all tore up about
what's going on in the world, the political thing. We were
talking about that this morning. All the ice caps melt. Take care of the earth. You're
a sharecropper on God's earth. Take care of it. Don't worry
the sun's going to go out. This is not all there is. Just
don't get too bent on shaking about this thing. This life's
not all there is. He's coming again. Aren't you
glad? He's coming. He won't be late. He's faithful. He's faithful.
Now consider this. Consider the faithfulness of
Christ. We don't have time to just really stop and silently
consider these things. I hope you'll do that this afternoon.
Go home, get a nap, and then consider these things. Christ
is faithful. Perfectly faithful. You know
what that means? We can trust Him. I can trust
my eternal soul to Him because He's faithful. We can put all
of our confidence in Him. Now, what do you need? What is
it that you need? Christ is faithful to be that
for His people. You need righteousness? He's our righteousness. Are you
so ignorant you can't understand that you need wisdom? He's our
wisdom. Need to be made holy? He's our
sanctification. You need to be redeemed from
your sin? He's our redemption. He is faithful to be whatever
it is his people need. Then what are you waiting on?
Huh? What is a needy sinner waiting on? Come to him. He's everything
you need. He's faithful. He will not let
you down. There has not been one needy
sinner that ever came to him and was turned away. You won't
be the first because he's faithful. Thirdly, consider this, consider
the glory of Christ Jesus. Verse three, for this man was
counted worthy of more glory than Moses in as much as he had
builted the house, hath more honor than the house. And every
house is builted by some man, but he that built all things
is God. Now, you could use several examples
on this point, but the writer here talks about a house. And
we've all seen a beautiful house. The way that they're built is
just spectacular. The way they're maintained and
landscaped and things is just something. And whenever you see
that, you don't go around praising the house, do you? You don't
go start talking to the house and say, house, look how wonderful
you are. No. You say, who built this thing? Who designed this thing? We praise
the person who builds the house and the person who maintains
it. Often, when Jan and I go over in the evening to Jonathan
and Stacey's house, Jan looks around and says, yep, Stacey's
planting something new, and she's out there watering her plants
and just making this thing look so beautiful. And there's two
things I never do. Number one, I don't say, Jonathan,
boy, you're doing a good job, because I know he didn't do it.
And the second thing I'd never do, is I'd never go up to those
plants and those flowers and say, oh flowers, you're so pretty,
look, look. No, I'd say, Stacy, wow, look at what, this is great,
you'd make this place look so beautiful. I'd do the same thing
with paintings. I'd go up to spend the night
at Marvin Stoniker and he's got, you've seen his paintings, he's
got these originals hanging in his house. I've seen him before. I just can't get over it. And
I never talked to that painting and say, painting while you're
really something, you know, look at all you people in this painting,
you're beautiful. No, I said, Marvin, I just, I'm amazed. I
don't know how you did this. This is amazing. Now do the same
thing when we look at everything God's made, even his son. Now honored whom honors do Moses
with a faithful prophet. But now we all not praise Moses.
No honored whom honors do let's not praise him. Let's praise
God who made Moses faithful. Let's praise God who gave Moses
a message, a message of Christ for us to hear. We don't praise
Moses for all the wonders in the wilderness. I mean, you don't
praise Moses for taking his rod and smiting the Red Sea and it
parted. We praise God for that. He did that wonder. The manna,
we don't praise Moses for that. God sent the manna. We don't
praise Moses for getting water out of that rock. God did that.
We don't praise God for bringing Israel into the promised land,
for Moses for bringing them to the brink of it, or Joshua for
bringing them into it. We praise God for doing that.
He promised that land to Abraham, to his descendants, and God gave
it to him. We praise God for doing that.
See, that's a picture to us. When Moses led the children of
Israel through that Red Sea, we don't praise Moses for that.
And that's not just a story of some amazing thing God can do,
that he can make water stand up like walls. That's given to
us as a picture of deliverance through the sacrifice of Christ.
Deliverance through his power. God bringing the people to the
promised land. That's a nice story. God fulfilled
his promise and I'm thankful for him. And all those enemies,
they fell before Israel. But that's given to us as a picture
of something far greater. What God gives every one of his
people. They had rest and Israel came
into that land, had rest in the land. Well, that's a picture
of God giving his people rest in Christ Jesus. Rest, freedom
from the law, freedom from the burden of guilt, freedom from
having to keep up all these ceremonies, indulge in religious stuff, freedom. Christ is all. He took it all
away from his people. So consider the glory of that.
Consider the glory of Christ Jesus. That's a mighty big subject,
his glory. Let me give you just a couple
of things to consider. Consider His glory and creation.
Moses built the house. Moses built the tabernacle. Some
of you kids, you studied that in Bible school. Moses built
that, didn't he? With the instructions God gave him. But Moses had to
take things the people gave him. He had to go get wood and gold
and all the things, the linen. He had to gather all that stuff
together. Somebody had to make it all and put it where it belongs.
That's something else. I mean, wow. But consider the
glory of Christ. He spoke, everything came into
existence. He didn't take things that already
existed and put them together into something. He spoke where
there was nothing. And suddenly there was a world.
He spoke where there was nothing. And suddenly there's trees and
animals. He spoke where there was nothing. And suddenly there's,
uh, whatever else he created, everything he created, there
was light. There was this glory. There is the power of
his voice, the power of his word. Consider His glory and providence.
He rules everything that happens in His creation, all to bring
His people to Christ. And then, to bring them to glory. He keeps them, He preserves them,
He protects them. And one day, He's gonna bring
them all to glory. That's His providence, His will
for His people. And that's so glorious, we can't
even begin to figure that. And then consider this, when
you think of the glory of Christ, consider what God said is his
greatest glory. God said his greatest glory is
sovereign mercy. Sovereign mercy. Now we read
earlier, Moses was a humble man. He was a meek man. He knew he
wasn't a big deal. He knew there was no glory in
him. And he knew he'd seen some power of God, but he knew he
hadn't seen the real glory of God. He said, God, would you
show me your glory? And God said, I will. I'm going
to proclaim my name to you. I'm going to show you who I am.
I'll be gracious to whom I will be gracious. I'll be gracious to whom I will
be gracious and I'll show mercy on whom I will show mercy. Now
consider this. This is God's greatest glory. This is what God delights in,
to show mercy to sinners. We need mercy. Come to him. He delights in it. This is his
greatest glory. Consider his glory and salvation.
David said in Psalm 21 verse 5, his glory is great in thy
salvation. Honor and majesty is now laid
upon him. The glory of Christ in salvation,
the greater condescended to say the lesson. kindness and pity
and compassion, the greater condescended to save the lesser. God sent
his son to save his enemies, to save those who were opposed
to him and make them his children. Now that is so glorious, we'll
spend eternity thanking God for it, never fully comprehending
all of it. Christ made sinners saints. He
reconciled enemies and made them friends and brought them to God.
And then consider this, His glory in calling His people through
the preaching of the gospel. You know, there are people who
believe this. They say, well, you just, you
don't know who God's elect are. God has elect people, those people
being glory, but you can't know who they are until you wake up
in glory. Now, number one, that don't give
God the glory. That's just an excuse to live
however you want in this life. That's exactly what that is.
But second, aren't you glad it's not that way? God's revealed
his glory to his people through the preaching of the gospel.
He doesn't leave you in doubt. He calls you. He reveals himself
through the preaching of the gospel. And if you're one of
God's, you're going to hear. You're going to hear. A person
can hear the gospel a thousand times. 2,000 times. I mean, thousands
of times you hear the gospel and it's just words. I mean,
you see, yeah, that's probably true. You know, you can understand
what's being said. One day you hear. One day you
believe that and you can't not believe it. You can't make yourself
believe. That was my experience. I tried for so long to make myself
believe I couldn't do it. One day, I don't know what happened.
But one day I thought, I believe him. I could not believe him. What happened? After all that
line upon line, precept upon precept, God gave ears to hear. He has power. He gave life and
you believe. Or it could be the opposite.
It could be you just gone about living your life how you do,
you know, how people do. You've got to go to work. You've
got to get money. You've got to get a new car. You've got a bigger
house. You've got to get all this stuff. And something happens. Maybe it's
a, maybe it's a girlfriend and says, why don't you, I want you
to come to worship service with me. Come to church with me. Could
be the very first time you hear the gospel. You never heard anything
about Christ before. And if you did, maybe you thought,
well, he's just wants to save everybody. He loves everybody.
So he wouldn't hurt anybody. So I'll deal with him, you know,
later. And the very first time you hear the gospel, that's it. I see. That's the power of God in the
gospel. The power of it, the glory you
saw, you heard because of the glory of Christ in the gospel
that declares who he is. God spoke to your heart, whether
it's the thousandth time or the first time, God gives his people
a heart that hears, a heart that believes. He made them partakers
of the heavenly calling. You didn't get a calling from
a preacher begging you to come down front. This is a heavenly
calling, calling from God in heaven. And you heard, you believed. Oh, what could be more glorious
than the infinite God, the eternal God calling a nothing like me? What could be more glorious than
that? Look back at John chapter 1. Consider this. That Christ Jesus is God's glory
personified. And what that means is it's personified.
All that means is this. That Christ is God's glory in
a person. In a person. John chapter 1 verse
14. And the word was made flesh and
dwelt among us and we beheld his glory. The glory is of the
only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. Christ
is full of grace and truth because he is grace and truth. Look over
verse 17, for the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth
came by Jesus Christ. When Christ came, grace and truth
came because he's grace and truth personified Now that verse ought
to make it obvious to us, Christ is better than Moses. Oh, he's
so much better. Moses represents the law. God
gave the law through Moses. He gave it to Moses and Moses
came down and gave it to the people. Christ brought grace. You know, the law, God gave Moses
the law, wrote it with his finger on those tables of stones. The
law didn't even make it back down to the people off the mountain
before Moses broke it. The law was not safe in the hands
of a man. So Christ came and he brought grace for his people.
Grace to save. Salvation by grace. Not by trying
to keep the law. Not by having to be obedient
to some rules and regulations some man made up. But salvation
by grace. Free grace in Christ. There's
nothing more glorious than that. And I can promise you this. Every
sinner here this morning thinks that's glorious. Salvation by
grace, that God just give it to me freely because Christ earned
it for me. That's glorious. And when we
preach, we preach a person. We preach the glory of Christ
as best as this tongue can declare it. We declare the glory of Christ. You've heard of his glory. I
grant you, it's just barely scratching the surface, but you've heard
of his glory. Now come to him. That's why we
consider, consider this about him and come to him. I'll show
you the illustration of that. Genesis chapter 45. Genesis chapter 45 verse 13. This is another lesson. Some
of our children heard about Bible school this week about Joseph
as a type of Christ. And here's a, a wonderful type
of Christ in Joseph. Genesis 45 verse 13. This is
after he'd revealed himself to his brothers. This is what he
tells him. And you shall tell my father
of all my glory in Egypt and of all you've seen. Now, what
are you going to do when you've heard of all my glory? What are
you going to do when you tell, tell my father, everything you've
seen, you shall haste and bring my father down hither. When we
hear the glory of Christ and consider that this is why we
preach it. that you come to Christ, that you come to him, consider
his glory and come to him. All right. Fourthly, consider
the sonship of Christ. Verse five. And Moses was very
verily faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony
of those things, which were to be spoken after. What that simply
means is that Moses, he was faithful, but all he was was a picture
of somebody who's coming, of something that's coming afterwards.
But verse six, but Christ has a son over his own house, whose
house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing
of the hope firm unto the end. Now Moses was faithful, wasn't
he? But all Moses was, was a servant.
And you know, if you're a servant, you ought to be faithful, shouldn't
you? That's all Moses was, was a servant. But Christ Jesus,
he's the son. He's the son of God. Now consider
this. Consider that he is the son of
God and the son of man. That's a greater miracle than
we can ever understand. But here's what we should consider.
Why? Why did the son of God become
the son of man? So he could redeem his people
from their sin. Look over Philippians chapter
two. Consider why he came. And consider
how far down he came to become a man so that he could be one
with his people. Philippians 2 verse 6. Who being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God. It wasn't robbery
for him. He wasn't stealing something
that didn't belong to him to say that he was equal with God. Because he is God. That's something
else Kevin told us this morning. So look how far down then he
came. He's equal with God. So look how far down he condescended
to save his people. Verse seven. But he made himself
of no reputation. He had all glory, all honor,
and he made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of
a servant and was made in the likeness of men. And being found
in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath
highly exalted him. and given him a name which is
above every name, that the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the
earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. That's how far he
condescended to save his people. He got the job done. And now
he's given a name which is above every name. Now we respect the
name of Moses. Moses was a faithful servant.
But the son, the son of God has a name which is above every name.
He became a servant to save his people from their sins, but no
longer is he a servant. No, now he's the son ruling over
the whole house. He rules over everything. He
rules over all creation. He rules over every man, woman,
boy, and girl on this planet. Whether you know it or not, Christ
is your ruler. He rules over everything. He
rules there because He's God. Remember that back in Hebrews
1 verse 8? But unto the Son, He saith, thy
throne, O God, is forever and ever. The Lord Jesus Christ has
to be God because the Father called Him God. So He rules over
all of creation as the Son. He's God. I wish I could just get the ear
of false religion and they'd really hear this. The Lord Jesus
Christ is God upon the throne. He's not up there begging anybody
to believe him. He's not begging anybody to do
anything for him. He's sovereignly commanding and
calling his people to come to him and they come. He's not up
there wondering and worrying, oh, nobody's going to believe
me. I love all these people and nobody's going to believe me.
No, he's not up there wondering what's going to happen, wondering who's
going to accept him, who's going to reject him. He's not wondering
that at all. He's on the throne of heaven performing his will
and his people shall be saved. Now that's how he rules over
all of creation. But now as a son over his house,
how he rules He loved. Men, let me just, this is something,
I'll just give you this for free too. Won't charge you a thing
for it. What does the apostle tell us?
Men, you husbands listen to me. And you boys who will be husbands
someday, you listen to me. The apostle tells us, husbands,
love your wives. Love them. Because Christ loved
the church and gave himself for it. He didn't give us a great big
list of what to do, what not to do, does he? He just said,
love your wives. Well, that'll pretty much cover
everything, won't it? That'll cover every interaction
you may have. It will. So, you gonna rule your home
with an iron fist? Does Christ love the church?
The son rules his house in love. Where else would you rather be?
Because he rules his house in love. All of God's people are
his children. They're the sons and daughters
in the home. Christ, how do we get there? Christ made us brethren.
That's what we saw in verse one. Now Christ Jesus, we're sons
and daughters of God. Christ Jesus is the son, the
only begotten of the father. And since he's the son, it all
belongs to him. Everything belongs to Christ. Everything the father possesses.
That's everything in it. It all belongs to Christ. He
can use it as He sees fit. It's just right, the Father gave
it to Him. Yours to do with as you please. He uses it as He
will, gives it to whomever He will. Christ our Savior, in love
to His people. He's not stinchy, He gives them
everything He's got freely. Look over at Romans chapter 8.
He gives them everything He has, everything he is. Romans 8 verse 16. And the spirit himself beareth
witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And
if children, then we're heirs, heirs of God. And here's the
key joint heirs with Christ. If so be that we suffer with
him, that we may be also glorified together. We're joint heirs with
Christ. Through union with Him, we have
everything He has. Now, He's the ruler. He rules
over His own house. Nobody can make Him do anything,
yet He freely gives to His people everything He has. Now consider
that. Consider the sonship of Christ,
that He's the ruler in God's house. Well, what is it that
you need? Do you need forgiveness of your
sin? Do you need grace? Do you need mercy? Do you need
peace? Do you need life? Do you need
comfort? Go to Christ. He's the Son. It's all His. And He freely gives it to His
people. Again, just like Joseph in Egypt. When the corn ran out
and the people were starving, they went to Pharaoh and said,
we need corn. What did Pharaoh tell them to do? Go to Joseph. He's got it all. And they went
to Joseph and what happened? Joseph opened the storehouses.
People had everything they needed. What is it you need? Go to Christ. Go to the Son. It's all His. And He freely opens the storehouses
of His grace. At last, I want us to consider
this. Consider Christ's house. He's
the Son over, but now consider His house, verse 6. But Christ
is the Son over His own house, whose house are we. If we hold
fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope, firm unto the end. Now consider the glory of Christ's
house. Every house is built by somebody,
isn't it? Christ built his house all by himself. He came as the
servant. He built God's house. And the
glory of that house, that house stands to the glory of our Savior.
Christ's house honors every attribute of God. It honors God's wisdom
in planning and designing. It honors Christ's skill in making
it and keeping it perfect. It honors His love in making
His house so welcoming, so warm, so comfortable. What a house! Boy, the architect gets all the
glory for it, doesn't he? And then consider the materials of
the house. You know, if you're building a house and money's
no object, boy, you're going to get the best of everything
from all over the world, aren't you? will consider the materials
of Christ's house. That's his people. It says, whose
house are we? It's not a physical building,
it's his people. Now, no house ever made itself beautiful, did
it? No, and God's people are the same way. They didn't make
themselves beautiful. Actually, what do we do to ourselves?
In Adam, we made ourselves ugly by sin and rebellion against
God. But here's Christ's glory. He took those dead people. and
made them living stones. He gave them life. They were
ugly by birth, but he made them beautiful in him and his beauty,
which he put on them. It's he that made us, not we
ourselves. So he gets all the glory for
it. And then he puts his people in the exact right spot to make
the most beautiful church that there is. And he did it all for
his glory so that his people in that house would praise him.
And then consider this about this house, who built it, the
materials. All right, how long is it going
to last? How long is this thing going
to be here? It's eternal. It'll be here forever. Now look
at the end of verse six. He says, if we hold fast the
confidence and rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. And I'm
not going to go through these six verses preaching grace and
then ruin it right at the end of the verse. This is not a condition
of salvation. This is not a condition you have
to meet. Now, Christ already met every condition of salvation
for his people. He's already done it all. Salvation
never, ever, ever depends upon the sinner in any way. Never. So this is what this is saying.
It's telling us, how can I tell if Christ has saved me? How can
we tell if Christ has put us in his church? Well, here's how
you can tell. If Christ is the one who saved
you, you're going to hold fast that profession forever. You're
never going to let him go. Now, you know the what makes
salvation sure. If he's got you in his mighty
hand, he'll never let you go. No man can pluck you out of his
hand. And that's my hope. That's my confidence. That's
what makes it sure. I'll tell you this. With what little grasp
I got, I'm hanging on to him for all I got to. Oh, I want
to be close to him. I want to feel him. I want to
hang on to him. If Christ has saved you, you'll never let him
go. and you're rejoicing will always be in Christ Jesus. It'll
never be any confidence in your flesh of what you've done, what
you didn't do. You don't have to do anything. This will always
be your profession. If Christ has saved you, you
don't have to do anything to get yourself saved and you don't
have to do anything to keep your salvation. Christ is all. He's
all of it. Now, if that's your confession,
if that's what you, that's what I believe in my heart, that's
my salvation. Then Christ has saved you. It's
eternal. A few years ago, I was in Mexico
with my brother Rick Williams. Rick is a carpenter and builder. We were going around looking
at these buildings, these stone buildings. Some have been there
over 2,000 years. We saw one that had a thing.
I don't know how they knew when it was built, but that thing
had been there 3,000 years ago. Somebody laid the foundation
for that thing and built it. It's still there. And I asked
Rick, I said, how many things are we going to build today that's
going to be here 2,000, 3,000 years from now? He said, Frank,
we're not going to build a house today that's here 100 years from
now. I mean, nothing's built like that anymore. Well, that's
the quality of everything we build, materially or physically. That's the quality of everything
we build. If we build it, it's not going to be here very long.
It's going to crumble quick. So consider that. Consider that. If we build our hope, our confidence,
our refuge, it's going to get swept away. But Christ is the
one who saved us. Christ is the one who's given
us faith and built us up in it. If Christ is the one who's put
you in his body, you're going to be there forever. Because
that house is going to stand there forever. Salvation in Christ
is eternal. It's both purposed, it was accomplished,
and it's kept by his power and his grace. The only conclusion
I can draw from considering all those things is I'm going to
Christ again. I'm coming to him again. I hope
you do too. By God's grace, I hope he'll
enable us to do that. Let's bow again in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you
for the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for this faithful
and glorious apostle and high priest of our profession. Father,
I pray that You take Your Word that has been preached today,
that You cause it to glorify the name of Your Son. Father,
enable us, Your people, enable us to consider these things.
Enable us to consider Christ our Savior. Father, enable us
to see Him by faith. Enable us to believe Him, lay
hold upon Him, to look to Him, to rest in Him, to depend on
Him for everything we need. What a sure hope. a sure foundation,
how we thank you for salvation for sinners in Christ our Savior. Let this message be preached,
let it be considered in our hearts for his glory and his praise. It's in his precious name we
pray and give thanks.