THE BOOK OF HEBREWS CHAPTER 3 While It is Called Today A man was walking along the beach one day when he came upon another man and his dog. The owner of the dog was very proud of his pets newly mastered talent, so he announced to the man that had just arrived Watch This He tossed a piece of driftwood far out into the sea. His dog immediately ran on top of the water, across the waves, picked up the piece of driftwood and brought it back to his owner without breaking the surface of the water. The visitor just stood there shaking his head in unbelief. The owner of the dog repeated the procedure twice. Finally the owner of the dog asked the visitor, Did you notice anything unusual about the way my dog fetched that stick? The visitor responded, Yes, your dog can t swim can he? Sometimes, no matter how compelling the evidence is, people will just not believe. Chapter one of Hebrews we were introduced to the fact that God has spoken to us through Prophecy, through Angels, and finally in these last days, He has spoken to us through His own son. Chapter 2 of Hebrews, We learned that certain opportunities in life only present themselves to us ONCE. God has spoken to us concerning what is required to get into heaven. The opportunity to accept His plan is an opportunity that may not be available tomorrow. Chapter 3 of Hebrews this morning is about the overwhelming evidence available to us to prove to us God exists, Jesus is the only way to heaven, and that all of us are making a decision for or against Jesus every day of our life. 1 Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, 2 who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His house. How many of you this morning would consider yourselves: Holy Brethren? Page 1 of 11 Pages
For most of us, our definition of Holy is someone who is without sin, does right things. The Greek word for Holy helps us understand what is means. Gr: Hagios (hag -ee-os) Is Blameless. Without the capacity to attach any blame to a person, means they are Holy. If you are In Christ Jesus this morning, The Bible says that you are Blameless, no one can charge you for any sin that you have committed because Jesus has removed every trace of them. The reason that we do not consider ourselves Holy, is because we associate Holiness with perfection, or sinless ness. We miss the fact that anyone that has given their life to Jesus, has been cleansed from every sin they have ever done, or ever will do. We often attach worth to ourselves or other people, based on how good we or the person is or how nice they are. C. S. Lewis No creature that deserved redemption would need to be redeemed Jesus came, lived for you, then died for you, and today lives again for you. He didn t do any of it because you deserved it, he did it because He is Merciful Partakers of the heavenly calling I think that we forget who we really are and what we really are going to be someday very soon. Matthew 16:26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? Most of the people on the earth, spend their entire life, trying to gain as much of the present world as they can. If you are not also trying to gain as much of the world as everyone else, you are considered very strange. Jesus asks the really important question: Suppose you do gain all of the wealth, pleasure and experiences of the whole earth, but in the process you loose your eternal life, was it worth it? Will a person trade 70 years of earthly wealth for Eternal, time without end, wealth, Joy, Peace, Beauty, Satisfaction? Again, if you have given your life to Jesus, then the whole universe is already yours, why in the world would you want to settle for just a few things of this earth? Page 2 of 11 Pages
So, As begins this morning: If you are Holy this morning, and are a partaker of the Heavenly calling, have you considered the faithfulness of Jesus? 3 For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house. 4 For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God. You know, the most amazing thing happened to Elsie and I. After our house in Heber burned in the Arizona wildfires June of 2002. We went out to Ames Acres here in Winslow, and this big ole tan brick house had just suddenly grown up out of the ground out there by sheer chance! Is that how houses come into being, they just suddenly appear all by themselves? No, of course not, if you have a house, SOMEONE HAD TO HAVE BUILT IT, right? Here, Paul is making the case that Moses truly was a great man, as was many great men that have lived on the earth. But even as great as Moses, or any other great man or woman was, ONLY JESUS is the builder and maker of All things Colossians 1:16 For by Jesus all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible I think that many times we fail to teach, talk about and discuss just how great Jesus is, in regards to some of the things that He has made One of the areas that we look at many times in our verse by verse studies of the bible, is the areas of the largeness of the universe that Jesus has made. According to Space.com, July 22, 2003 Astronomers announced that there are an estimated 70 Sextillion stars in the Visible Universe. That is 70 thousand Million, Million, Million. That is a 7 followed by 22 zeros. 70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 We know that the Milky Way Galaxy that we live in, is a Spiral Galaxy that depending on which Astronomer you talk to, has between 100 Billion and 200 Billion Stars Like our Sun. Page 3 of 11 Pages
Our Sun There are another 100 Billion Galaxies like our Milky Way, that also have from 100 Billion Stars to a Trillion Stars in them. The Milky Way is about 100 Thousand Light years across. That means that traveling at the speed of 186,000 miles per second, the speed light travels, it would take you 100,000 years just to cross our own Galaxy. The Universe, just in shear size, is beyond the realm of us being able to imagine. Just as Amazing though, is the microscopic world that most of us never see that is going on around us all of the time In the microscopic world of Bacteria, there is a whole other world that we have not even began to imagine. There are more living organisms on the skin of a single human being than there are human beings on the surface of the earth Every square inch of the human body has an average of 32 million bacteria on it. 10% of human dry weight comes from bacteria Your own Body is Fearfully and Wonderfully Made There is an amazing tiny world that Jesus created inside of you, that you are not even aware of. In one square inch of our hand we have 9 feet of blood vessels, 600 pain sensors, 9000 nerve endings, 36 heat sensors and 75 pressure sensors. Blood Capillaries, that are so small that it takes 10of them to equal the thickness of a human hair. One square inch of human skin contains 625 sweat glands The DNA helix that has the coded information for who you are, measures 80 billionths of an inch wide. On that DNA is coded information that would fill 10,000 Books with 1,000 pages in each book. All of that within just 80 billionth of an inch. Every month you grow a brand new outer layer of skin..."a new you!". Page 4 of 11 Pages
The Microscopic world that is as real as the world we can see, has some amazing little creations, that confirm that an Intelligence is behind all living things. There is an amazing little motor inside bacteria that causes that bacteria to be able to move. Now, remember that the size of this bacteria we are talking about is just 40 Nanometers wide by 60 Nanometers high. Oh, a Nanometer is 1 Billionth of a meter. The Motor that propels the arms of the Bacteria, has the same kinds of parts in it that you find in machines that human being have built. The motor has O Rings between the inner and outer Membranes of the Bacteria. It has a tiny Drive Shaft that propels the Arms of the Bacteria. The Bacteria has a Stator, which is the Motor or generator around which the Drive shaft rotates. Science has confirmed that there is no possible way that evolution could ever have developed the components of this motor. The reason: Take just one component out of this motor and it doesn t work. Evolution is the process of trial and error over the span of Billions of years. In this motor, If you didn t have all of the parts together at once, it could not work. Therefore bacteria could not exist, therefore life could not exist. (In her review of Darwin s Black Box by Michael Behe (See Darwin's Black Box), Dr. Millen, described the tiny, amazing motor which powers the flagella of bacteria for movement) It is not even in the realm of possibility that these motors could have developed by the random chance that Evolution calls for. In this microscopic world that we don t see, therefore don t know, are overwhelming evidence that an Intelligent Designer created them. This morning, the Book of Hebrews is telling you who this Intelligent Designer and Creator is: JESUS! Page 5 of 11 Pages
4 For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God. There are some of here this morning that have never been made aware of these kinds of facts about Jesus and what He has Created. Paul is making the case for us this morning, that if we have not seriously considered who Jesus really is, we need to begin today to do so. If you miss understand who Jesus is, or what it is that He came for, you will MISS OUT ON THE MOST IMPORTANT PIECE OF INFORMATION IN THE UNIVERSE! Here in our study of Hebrews, is where we get some real practical information for our consideration. The Book of Hebrews was written to the Hebrew Christians in Israel that had come to a saving knowledge of Jesus. They were struggling with their new trust in Jesus and the Old Religion as Jews, because some of the teacher of Judaism had told the new believers that they needed to keep the Old Testament Law and Believe in Jesus if they wanted to really be saved. There are churches today that will tell you that you have to keep their church laws and traditions and believe in Jesus if you really want to be saved. Well, Paul said here in Hebrews that Jesus plus anything else was a lie, and the same Is still true today, Jesus plus church tradition and laws is a lie. All you need is Jesus, It is not Jesus Plus something you need to do, it is Jesus and there is NOTHING THAT YOU CAN DO, except believe and live for Him. He will save you this morning, if right there where you are, you just ask Him to come into your life and forgive all of your sins. The example that Paul uses here in verses 3 and 4, about Moses and Building the House is for the benefit of the Jewish or Hebrew Christians. The Jews held in very high honor, Moses and the law that Moses wrote. Here in verses 3 and 4, Paul makes the argument that Moses was a member of the House, but NOT THE BUILDER OF THE HOUSE. Jesus is the Builder of ALL THINGS, so He deserves the highest place of honor. 5 And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, 6 but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. So, surely Moses was faithful, that is, he continued to serve the Lord and the people all of the days of his life. Even so, Jesus as the Son of God, was also faithful to submit His life to the Father for our benefit, all the days of His life, being faithful even to His own death. Page 6 of 11 Pages
So, that is why this morning we do not look at 1. Our present situation, 2. We do not look at our past failures. 3. We don t look at what people have done to us. 4. We don t look at the impossibility of how things seem. Hebrews 12:2-4 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. 4 You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. :6 6 but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. You are already a member of Jesus Household, if you have given your life to Him this morning, IT IS A DONE DEAL! But notice that we must Hold Fast, that is Keep the truth of what we have been taught about Jesus Fresh and Alive and Living Everyday in us. We must Hold onto the Confidence that we have placed in Jesus. We must Hold on to these FIRM TO THE END. Teddy Roosevelt, President of the United States once told the soldiers in the army, I want to see you shoot the way you shout This morning, as we here about what Jesus has created, His mighty power and His awesome Love for us, we Get so excited, we sometimes feel like we could SHOUT, how much we love the Lord. Well, this morning, you are going to leave here, go back out into your life, this world that is going to do everything in it s power to deflate your excitement as soon as you walk out these Sanctuary doors. Shoot, the way you Shout Live your life, like you really believe Jesus is Lord and Creator of everything. Don t be afraid of anything, Jesus can take care of those things. Don t allow doubts and fears stop you from Living your life in total victory because JESUS HAS ALREADY WON THE WAR FOR YOU, you are already a CONQUEROR! Romans 8:33-37 33 Who shall bring a charge against God s elect? It is God who justifies. Page 7 of 11 Pages
34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: Today, if you will hear His voice, 8 Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness, 9 Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, And saw My works forty years. 10 Therefore I was angry with that generation, And said, They always go astray in their heart, And they have not known My ways. 11 So I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter My rest. Consider this morning, The Lord delivered Israel out of the slavery of Egypt through the most amazing miraculous events we could imagine. The Lord Fed more than 2 million people every day, while they were in the desert for 40 years. According to the Quartermaster of the Army, 1. It would take more than 1,50o Tons of food per day to feed 2 million people. 2. This would require 2 Freight trains over 1 mile long, with more than 100 freight cars to hold this much food, EVERY DAY! 3. At one point the Lord fed them Quail everyday. To feed a family of 5 with 1 quail per person per day, it would take 750,000 quail to fly into Israelis camp Every Day! 4. The water that it would take to quench the thirst and take care of the necessities of 2 million people in the desert, would require 11 million gallons per day. 5. This would require 18 more 100 car freight trains, that is 1,800 tanker cars filled with water EVERY DAY! 6. Where did they get the wood out in the desert, to start the fires needed to cook the food everyday? 7. It would take 4,000 tons of wood each day. A couple more freight trains, also each having 100 cars, just to supply the wood! How about the crossing of the Red Sea at night as the Lord delivered them from the approaching Egyptian army. 1. For 2 million plus people to march through the Red Sea, marching 2 across, the line would be 800 miles long and take 35 days. Page 8 of 11 Pages
2. This means that there had to be a space in the red sea 3 miles wide so that 5,000 people at a time could walk abreast to get across in 1 night. How many of you think that Moses sat down and figured all of this out before they left Egypt? How many of you think Moses didn t have a clue? Moses just trusted the Lord, and the Lord took care of all of the things the people needed. How much more so this morning, you who have given your life to Jesus, will He also not take care of all your needs. You need Ten 100 car freight trains to line up at your door to take care of your problems, NO PROBLEM, THE LORD WILL DO IT! 7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: Today, if you will hear His voice, 8 Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness, 9 Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, And saw My works forty years. 10 Therefore I was angry with that generation, And said, They always go astray in their heart, And they have not known My ways. 11 So I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter My rest. And yet, Hebrews reminds us that even though they saw all of this amazing miracles, and how the Lord was able to take care of them for 40 years, They Always went astray in their hearts So, the Lord, because of their constant complaining and constant doubting of His Love and Power, He did not let one of those complainers enter the land that He had promised them. All of those who had doubted the Lords Love and Power, he let that whole generation die first, their kids were the ones that entered the land. 12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; 13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called Today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Page 9 of 11 Pages
By the mere fact that the Holy Spirit Showed us this example here in the Old Testament of Israel s Failure, and by the fact that the Holy Spirit warns us to not let it also happen to us This means that it can, and it will happen to us also. You can allow Bitterness, Discouragement, Doubts and Fears to stop you dead in your tracks this morning, from FINISHING WITH JESUS. You can fall away from Jesus in just a single day, IF YOU ALLOW IT TO HAPPEN. You have the same choice today that Israel had in the desert. You think Those miracles were totally awesome, as the Lord took care of all of their needs every day. You are saying If I saw the Lord work that way in my life, I would never have a problem believing the Lord and Following Him Right!, You and I have seen a greater miracle in our life, than any of those things that the Lord did for Israel. John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life That the Father would allow His Own Son to come and Die for your sins. Then raise Him from the dead. Offer to you complete forgiveness. Offer to you Eternal life. Free of Cost to you. All you have to do is believe it. This is a far greater miracle than anything the Lord did for the 2 million people in the desert for 40 years! 14 For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, 15 while it is said: Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. 16 For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? 17 Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? 19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. If we hold on to our fervent love for Jesus If we keep living for Him everyday. Page 10 of 11 Pages
If we Keep trying to serve Him by Serving people. If we don t quit. If he comes and finds us still trying and serving We will finish well, and here Jesus say to us: Well done good and faithfulservant, you have been faithful over the little things, I will make you ruler over the greater things, enter into the Joy of your Lord Communion Page 11 of 11 Pages