Hebrews 3 verse 1, the apostle
writes, wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling,
consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ
Jesus. Now Paul says wherefore, he's
continuing the thought that he had in chapter 2, the end of
chapter 2 that we looked at last week. Wherefore, because our
Redeemer is God's Son, because God's Son became a man. He humbled
himself to become a man so he could be our high priest, so
he could be our substitute. Because he's able to comfort
us in our weakness, because he clothed himself with our flesh,
he knows the weakness of our flesh. Because the Lord Jesus
Christ took all the punishment that we deserve so his people
can go free, Paul says, consider him. Set your affection, your
mind, your eyes, your heart on him. Now, who's he telling us
to consider the Lord Jesus Christ? He says, holy brethren. That's
who he's talking to, holy brethren. Now, we know we're not holy because
we were born that way. You know better than that. And
we can't be called holy brethren because we do something or our
actions are holy even after conversion. We will never experience holiness
as long as we're in this flesh. was conceived in sin and shaped
in iniquity. It's corrupted by sin. And as
long as we're in this body, we're going to carry around that old
dead carcass, that old dead man. So that will prevent us from
ever experiencing holiness in this life. I want to tell you,
this title that Paul gives the brethren here, holy, is not a
meaningless title. He's not using meaningless words
in God's Word. Every believer is actually made
holy in the Lord Jesus Christ. That new man that's created in
you is holy. Look over in Ephesians chapter
1. We're holy because God the Holy
Spirit makes us that way, makes his people holy. In Ephesians 1 verse 4, According as he, God the Father,
hath chosen us in him, in Christ, before the foundation of the
world, that we should be what? Holy and without blame before
Him in love. So that's who Paul's talking
to here. Holy brethren. Made holy by Christ. And he calls
us holy brethren. God's people are part of the
same family. We have the same Father. We have
the same Savior. The same older brother. The same
new nature. We're washed in the same blood.
We're part of the same family. And we're to love each other
like family. This is the family that God's
given you. Now be thankful for them. And he calls these holy
brethren partakers of the heavenly calling. Now this heavenly calling
is a whole lot more than just hearing a preacher talk. It's
a whole lot more than just hearing me say something. There is what
the old timers call a general call of the gospel. When you
hear a man preach the gospel, you're hearing that general call.
That's just a call that anyone can hear with the natural ear.
But this heavenly calling is something a whole lot different.
This heavenly calling is a special call. The call of grace from
God Almighty. The call of God to your heart. This is a gracious call. You
think of the grace. that God Almighty would call
a sinner like you and me. This is a gracious calling. This
is a calling that conquers His people. It puts us in the dust
like Saul of Tarsus. Say, Lord, what would you have
me do? We're conquered. We're His willing, loving bond
slaves. It's God's call. So it's a call
from heaven. And this call also calls us to
heaven. Makes us heirs of the glory of
heaven. But you know, this call also
calls us to enjoy glory, to enjoy glorious things right now. You
don't have to wait for all of it in the future. He gives us
glorious things in this life. What we're doing right now, opening
God's Word, reading God's Word, hearing the Gospel preached,
that's glorious. This is the best day of the week
because of what? This is the time we meet together.
in the presence of God, like Jason prayed, and worshiped.
My friends, this is glorious. This is what He's given His children.
This heavenly calling calls us from darkness to light. It calls
us from death to life. It calls us from sin to holiness. And it calls us from self to
Christ. So consider Him. That's what
Paul's saying. Consider Him. Look over 2 Timothy
1, just back a few pages. It calls us from self to Christ. In 2 Timothy 1, verse 9, speaking
here of God who has saved us and called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to His own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus. before the world
began. By God's grace, that's the calling
that we've been made partakers of. So consider Him. And this
phrase, consider Him, means to observe fully. Just observe the
Lord Jesus Christ fully in all of His attributes. Just look
at Him from every side, from every facet of His glory. Not
just one part, but all of it. To fully observe Him. To behold
Him. And you've got plenty of time
to just behold Him. Just consider Him. It's to perceive
Him. The Lord gives His people some
understanding to perceive the Lord Jesus Christ, who He is,
what He did, why He did it, where He is now. Just spend time considering
Him. Consider who He is. He's God's
Son, manifest in human flesh. You'd never be able to comprehend
that, but spend some time considering it. That's a miracle. Consider
who He is in His glory. His Majesty. The Prince of Glory. And consider how far He condescended
to do something for us. The amazing grace of God Almighty
that God would become a man. He became a man, took on Him
the form of a servant so He could be our substitute. so He could
redeem us from the curse of the law, so He could suffer the justice
and wrath of God for our sins, so we can go free. Now, consider
that. Spend some time considering the
unspeakable love of Christ. He loved His people, so He agreed
to be made sin for them. And we can't imagine the horror
of the Holy Son of God being made sin. But He willingly agreed
to do it. Why? He loves His people. He's not going to see them damned.
He loves His people. He's going to do what it takes
to redeem them. He agreed to suffer for us and suffer death
for us, suffer separation from the Father for us, so we can
live and so we can be brought into the presence of the Father.
Now consider that love. Just spend time considering that.
Our Lord told His disciples, greater love hath no man than
this. The man laid down his life for his friends. And you're my
friends, he said. And he showed it by suffering
death for us. Consider his righteousness. The
righteousness of this one man, the God-man, imputed to the unaccountable
host of his elect, makes us righteous in the eyes of God Almighty.
I can spend time considering that. That's a miracle. Consider
his blood. Precious, life-giving blood that
actually cleanses a sinner from all guilt and sin. And consider Him as He's revealed
in the Scripture. Now don't get off somewhere by
yourself and just start conjuring up some image of God out of your
mind and consider that. Consider Him as He's revealed
in His Word now. In the Word. And I know everybody
is not a theologian. I thought this morning, I'm not
sure I know anybody that actually really is a theologian. People
just can't sit down and read the Word and grasp what's being
said there. I know that. But here's my suggestion. Take the pastor's text this morning
and this afternoon or tomorrow sometime. Sit down and read it
again. Think about the things that the Lord gave him to tell
us and chew on those things. Now, I tell you this, if we preach
Christ, you'll be considering Him. Just chew on those things
and consider Him as He's revealed in the world. Have Him in your
thoughts as you go through your day. Don't ever let it get out
of your mind that He's the first cause of everything. That we're
serving Him as we go through our everyday life. A man that has an office next
to mine at work has got a boss that's one of the worst bosses
I have ever seen in my entire life. He couldn't do it worse
if he tried, honestly and truly. And Friday, I went and told him,
I'm sorry. That's horrible. I'm so sorry. And he said, Frank, I'm upset
about it, but this is what this man told me. He said, he's my
boss. And if I can't submit to his
authority, I can't submit to God's authority. And I told him,
I'm so humble. I'm ashamed of myself that that
wasn't what was on my mind first. Now consider him. We're his servants. This is his people. And consider
him. Don't get caught up thinking
about yourself. I do that. There's no comfort
in thinking about myself. Consider him. Oh, consider Him. Set your affection on the Lord
Jesus Christ. It'll increase your faith. It'll
increase your happiness. It'll increase your comfort,
your calmness. Consider Him. Consider Him because
Paul says He's the Apostle of our profession. This word Apostle,
I looked it up. It means He that is sent, a messenger. And that's who Christ is. He
was sent of the Father. to bear witness of the Father,
to be the messenger of the Father, to reveal the Father's will in
the redemption of His people. He's the messenger. Now, there
are twelve men we call apostles who were given the title of apostles,
and they were sent, weren't they? They were sent by Christ into
all the world to preach the gospel. And that was the extent of their
calling as they were sent. They were just sent to preach,
weren't they? And that's enough for any man to be sent to preach. The apostle of our profession
was not only sent to preach the glad tidings of the gospel, he
was sent to be the glad tidings of the gospel. He was sent to
obtain eternal redemption for us. There'd be no glad tidings
without him, the apostle of our profession. There'd be no gospel
to preach, no blood to apply, if it wasn't for Christ, our
great high priest, or our apostle. So consider him. He's the apostle
and he's the high priest of our profession. The job of the high
priest primarily was to offer sacrifices to God for the people. And all the high priests in Aaron's
line, they lived a life of futility. I mean, you think about they
offered sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice. It was never
done. They never offered one sacrifice
that put away one sin. It just seemed to be totally
in vain. Other than it being a picture
of Christ. Other than it finally teaching
people these animal sacrifices are not enough. This is not where
salvation is at. As far as putting away sin, totally
useless. But they were pictures of Christ
our High Priest. The High Priest of our profession.
He didn't offer many sacrifices. He offered one sacrifice for
sin forever. He sat down, because that one
was enough. He put away the sin of his people.
And every day, I suppose, but particularly on the Day of Atonement,
that high priest was the most important man in Israel. The
whole nation of Israel had to be waiting with bated breath
to see what happened when that high priest went in and offered
sacrifice for them. Their lives depended on it. Their
lives depended on the fact that He'd do everything just right.
So God's wrath wouldn't come upon them. They needed the Lord
to accept that sacrifice that He was offering for them. Christ
is the most important man in spiritual Israel. Our lives depend
on Him. And He offered a sacrifice on
the great day of atonement. where sin was actually atoned
for, and he went behind the veil, behind that darkness of veil,
into heaven itself, into the presence of the Father, and he
offered his own body as a burnt offering for our sins. He offered
his blood as payment for our sins. And our life depends on
the Father accepting that transaction. And the glad tidings of the gospel
are, He said, I'm well pleased. I'm well pleased with this sacrifice. Now consider him, the high priest
of our profession, Christ Jesus, who, verse 2 says, was faithful
to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all
his house. Now Moses was a faithful servant
of God. The Lord called Moses, gave Moses
the responsibility to lead that whole nation of Israel. And Moses
is a type of Christ. The Father gave Christ the responsibility
of all spiritual Israel. He gave Him the responsibility
to lead us out of bondage to sin. He gave Him the responsibility
to feed us in waters and clothe us. He gave Christ the responsibility
to bring us to the promised land, to promise glory in Him. And
the Lord Jesus Christ was a faithful servant. He accomplished every
minute detail that the Father gave Him to do. He left nothing
undone. He was so faithful. The Father
put His trust in His Son that He would accomplish the redemption
of all of His elect. And I'm telling you, He wasn't
disappointed. Christ was a faithful servant.
Fully pleased His Father. And you know, we put our trust
in Christ too. And I'm telling you, He will
never disappoint His people. You put your trust in Him, you'll
never be disappointed. Now Moses, he messed up a time
or two, didn't he? He smoked a rock when he should
have spoken to it. He threw those tables of stone
at the law and broke them in anger. He messed up a time or
two. Christ never. He never. makes a mistake. That's what gives us a perfect
standing with the Father. He's faithful to accomplish everything
that God requires of us, and he's faithful to give it to us.
He's faithful to make us what we have to be to come into the
presence of the Father. He's faithful to impute his righteousness
to us. He's faithful to wash us in his
blood and make us clean. He's faithful to his promise
to send his Spirit to give life, to comfort, and point us to Him. He's faithful to give all of
His people faith in Him and repentance towards God. Faithful. And verse
3 says, For this man, Christ Jesus, was counted worthy of
more glory than Moses, insomuch as he who hath builted the house
hath more honor than the house. Now Moses, you know, was held
in very high esteem by these Jews and lived at this time.
It's funny, the Jews who were alive when Moses was alive, they
wanted to do away with him. They were all the time wanting
to replace him and leave him and go back to Egypt, weren't
they? But after he's dead, oh, everybody loves Moses. You know,
he's the pinnacle. And Moses is worthy of Samaria. Now, don't mistake anything here. God called Moses to be his servant. God called Moses, told Moses,
didn't tell anybody else this now, told Moses, you'd go to
Pharaoh and tell him, let my people go. Now, there's honor
in being God's servant. He chose Moses to lead the children
of Israel through the wilderness. He chose Moses. He didn't tell
everybody to come up to the mountain. He told Moses to come up to the
mountain. And he went back down and told the people what God
said. Moses got to see God's glory. And God made all His goodness
pass before him. Proclaimed the name of the Lord.
That's an honor. Moses got to talk to God. Now, there's some honor involved
in that. But how much greater is the Lord Jesus Christ? Just
infinitely. Christ was the glory that Moses
saw. That glory that Moses saw was
Christ Himself. He is the glory. Christ is the
one that Moses wrote of. Christ is the one that Moses
worshipped. He is that prophet that would come Moses prophesied
of. Now, Moses did give the law to the people as he received
it from God. But Christ, he brought grace
and truth. Wouldn't you rather have grace
than the law? Moses led the people free from Egypt. Great deliverance. But you know, over the course
of their history, they went into bondage again and again and again
and again because of their rebellion. Christ gives deliverance from
sin. Satan, hell, death and the grave. And you'll never go back into
bondage with that again. Now, if Christ sets you free,
if Christ sets you free, you're free indeed. And Christ and Moses
here are compared to the builder and the building. Now, you might
see a building that's very glorious, spectacular. But when you see
that, all the praise goes to the builder. to the architect
and then go to the building. The building's got nothing to
do with how glorious it is. It's glorious because of the
builder and the architect. And Christ is the architect.
He planned the building. He's the builder. He built it
up. He's the foundation of the building. He holds it up. He's
the chief cornerstone. And he himself is in each stone
in the building that builds up the walls. Moses is just one
of many stones, but Christ is the chief cornerstone. And Moses,
Henry said this in the outline, Moses, and I would add any servant
of God, has absolutely no value if he gets out of his proper
place as God's servant. As soon as you get a man out
of his proper place as God's servant now, he's no value to
you. Remember that. And that's what
this trap that the Jews fell into with Moses. In verse 4,
Paul says, For every house is built by some man, but he that
built all things is God. Now, no house builds itself. Somebody's got to plan. Got to
draw up the plans. Somebody's got to dig a footer
and lay the foundation. Somebody's got to actually construct
it. And the planner and builder of everything is God. Everything
in creation, He planned it. He purposed it. He willed it.
He built it. He spoke it into existence. But
especially in His church. Christ is the builder. He's the
glory of His church. Look over Matthew chapter 16. Christ is the builder. In Matthew
16 verse 15, our Lord's been talking to His
disciples and He asked them, Whom do men say that I am? You
know, men had many, many, many different answers. But he asked
them in verse 15, but whom say ye that I am? Now here's the
question, who do you say he is? Who is Christ to you? And Simon
Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the
living God. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah. For flesh and blood
hath not revealed unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven."
He understood that because he's a partaker of the heavenly calling.
And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this
rock, now you know it's not on the rock of Peter now, it's upon
the rock of Christ Jesus. Upon this rock, on this profession
that he, Christ, is the Son of the living God, I will build
my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against me.
Christ is the builder. And the greatest of believers,
whether it's Peter or Moses or anybody you think of, the greatest
of them all is never any more than a living stone that's been
put in the building, put in the body where Christ put it. That's
all. That's the most there'll ever
be. There'll never be anything more. And Moses was a humble
man. Moses never, ever would have
allowed himself to be compared to Christ. He never would have
allowed himself to come between anyone and Christ Jesus. He never
would have allowed that because Christ is infinitely higher.
And that's what we want to do. I heard Cody Gruber say this
one time. We want to preach the gospel and get out of the way.
That's what Moses would have wanted to do. Don't set your
affection now on some preacher. It's Christ. Christ himself.
Consider him. Verse 5, Paul says, And Moses
verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony
of those things which were to be spoken after. Now, without
question, Moses was a faithful servant. He served the Lord sincerely
with a pure heart of love and recklessness. I have no doubt
about that. And Moses' entire ministry was to testify of Christ. He wrote those first five books
of the Bible that are just filled with pictures of Christ. He wrote
of Christ. You can't read those first five
books and not know somebody's coming. He's writing of someone
else. Moses wrote of the seed of woman
that had crushed the serpent's head. He wrote about that ark
that saved eight souls alive from God's wrath. He wrote about
that smitten rock that gave all life-giving water to Israel.
He wrote about all the sacrifices that pictured Christ. He wrote
about all the details of the priesthood that pictured Christ,
the high priest of our profession. Moses wrote of the tabernacle.
He constructed that tabernacle just exactly like God told him
to on the mount. And every detail of that tabernacle
tells us Christ is coming. This is another facet of who
He is. He wrote about the brazen serpent
looking later. That's Christ. He wrote about
those cities of refuge that the manslayer could run to and be
saved. He wrote about the Passover land, the blood shed and the
blood applied. Sam and I were talking this morning.
She's teaching our little ones this morning the Passover land.
She says she always looks forward to it. The kids always get it,
always have some interest in it. Oh, what a great picture. Christ, the Passover lamb? Moses
wrote of that. That's how we have that written
down for us. Moses did. And when Christ came,
all those years later, everything he said, everything he did, agreed
completely with the writings of Moses. He said, if you believe
Moses, you believe me. Because Moses wrote of me. And everything that the apostles
preached, everything we preach today, completely agrees. with
the writings of Moses. It will if we preach Christ,
because that's who he wrote of. And Moses should have a certain
amount of respect. Now he should, just like pastors
and elders, teachers today should have a certain amount of respect.
But we need to remember this now. Moses was faithful, Paul
says, as a servant. As a servant. He was never anything
more than a servant. He can only ever say The things
that the Lord gave him to say. He can only ever do what the
Lord gave him to do because he's a servant and he could do no
more. Moses never owned the deed to the house. God never gave
Moses the keys. Those belonged to the son. Moses
was a servant. That's all any of us will ever
be. The master is greater than the
servant. See verse 6? But Christ Now,
as opposed to Moses the servant as a son over his own house,
whose house are we if we hold fast to confidence and rejoicing
of the hope firm unto the end? Now, Christ is the eternal Son
of God, and He's not son by birth or adoption like you and me.
He's son by nature, and it's only right that He rule over
the house. It's only right that He have
all the glory and reverence. It's just right. He holds the
keys and the deed. He's the Son over His own house. He rules over it. And this Son
who rules over His house, who's got the keys and the deed, became
a Father's servant for a time. Imagine that. He became a servant. The Prince became a servant.
And that doesn't take away from His glory. That just gives Him
more glory. Because what did He accomplish
when He became a servant? He accomplished the redemption
of His people. So now, not only does He have
glory for who He is as God's Son, He has glory for what He's
done. He's accomplished the redemption
of His people. Moses never did anything like that, did he? Not
even close. See, Moses and every believer
is just part of the house. Peter calls it living stones.
And we're called living stones because Christ dwells in us by
faith. Gives us life. And this house
is going to last forever. It will never fall. Paul says,
if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope
firm unto the end. Now that's not a condition that
we have to meet in order to keep salvation. You remember this. No part of salvation ever depends
on something we do. Not even after the Lord saves
us. No part of salvation is conditioned on us. It's all conditioned on
the Lord Jesus Christ. So this is not a condition. It's
an evidence. It's an evidence of salvation.
No son will ever leave God's hands. Now, we might have a rebellious
son. God doesn't. God has no rebellious
sons. They're going to stay forever.
These stones are going to never crumble and fall out of place.
They're never going to leave Christ. Because true faith that's
God given will last forever. Because it's of God. It's just
that simple. Henry said this, and it's good. Living stones, he says, will
continue. If Christ is in you, you'll continue. Because he will never fail. But
imitation stones, they'll crumble and fall away. Because they're
imitation stones. Look over at 1 John chapter 2
and we'll quit. 1 John 2 verse 19. They went out from us, but they
were not of us. They were never a living stone.
For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued
with us. But they went out, that they might be made manifest,
that they were not all of us." But you're not that way. Not
if you belong to Christ. Not if you're a partaker of the
heavenly calling. You're not leaving. You're not
falling away. And it's not because you're so
wonderful, or I'm so wonderful, you won't fall away. Because
we've got a faithful high priest and he'll never let you go. So
consider him. All right. I hope that's been
a blessing.