Jesus Better Than Moses - 8

Well, the bulk of Hebrews chapters one and two was a comparison of Jesus Christ with the angels, the setting forth of how He is much superior to the angels in every way, primarily with references back to Old Testament scriptures, but also with other thoughts that make this very, very clear.

And the reason for this is because the Jews of the first century to whom this epistle is written, Jewish people who had professed faith in Jesus Christ, but some of whom were being tempted to return to the old covenant. And these Jewish people esteemed angels very, very highly, much more highly than we are prone to do today. But they recognize that angels were a higher form of God's creation than were or was humanity. And that's made clear in the passages that are quoted in Hebrews chapters one and two, telling us that God made man a little lower than the angels and yet crowned him with glory and honor. And there's some some valuable information that's given to us in these first two chapters that reveal to us that though God made the angels of a higher rank and order than humanity, nevertheless, God ordained that in the final order, the new order, when Jesus Christ comes again, that men and women, born again men and women are going to rule the universe and not the angels.

They're not going to. In fact, Christians are going to judge angels. So it's a very fascinating chapter, but it tells us that Jesus Christ is superior to the angels. So having laid that one aside, a Jewish misconception about the angels who they some of them may have thought were superior to Christ, the writer of Hebrews now focuses in upon the man in Jewish history who probably received the greatest honor among Jews. And I had to think about this for quite a while, because my first thoughts would have been to think the Jews probably esteemed Abraham more highly than anyone else. God called Abraham out of the year of Chaldees. God made him many promises.

God promised his seed. Many, many things, and Jews were so very, very proud of their lineage back to Abraham, but from what I read, even Moses was esteemed more highly than Abraham because of several factors about Moses, and I'll mention a few. He certainly performed remarkable miracles, probably the most number of miracles and the greatest magnitude of category of miracles of anyone in Jewish history.

Abraham certainly didn't do that. He led the forefathers of these Jewish people out of slavery, and that was a remarkable achievement. This man Moses spoke to God face to face, and nobody else has done that. And Moses gave to the Jewish people their law, which they esteemed very highly and which they gave more credence to than they should have.

They gave it a higher position than God gave it in his order, at least many of them did, and that was their downfall. But nevertheless, it shows you how much they esteemed Moses because he was the one who did these things, at least a human vessel that God used to do these things. In fact, the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament Scriptures are more commonly called the five books of Moses because he wrote them, and the whole comprehension of Jewish law is contained in those books.

And one more. God used Moses to give to the people of Israel their covenant. The old covenant could also be rightly called the Mosaic Covenant. Now indeed, there is a covenant. I don't know whether I call it another one or an extension of or what that goes back to Abraham. There's the Abrahamic Covenant, which began it all, but that Mosaic Covenant, that was the one most of these people relied upon.

That's the one that most of them looked to. That's the one that most of them were trying very hard to fulfill through the works of the law, which of course was their mistake. But all of this spoke about Moses being such a great, great, great man that God had used so significantly in the history of the Jewish people. And as we know, because of temptation, some of these in the first century who had professed faith in Christ were now being tempted to go back to the old covenant, and back as it were to Moses, the one who had given them the old covenant. So it's not surprising that after showing them and us that Jesus Christ is far superior to the angels, that secondly, he shows them and us that Jesus Christ is far superior to Moses. Much, much, much better than Moses. And you can't go back to him.

You can't. Now in these six verses, we will see number one, Jesus the Apostle, verses one and two. Second, Jesus the Builder in verses three and four. And finally, Jesus the Son in verses five and six. First of all, Jesus the Apostle.

And that's a new thought. Really, if I hadn't gotten into the book of Hebrews, I don't think I would have ever given much thought to Jesus Christ being an apostle. But that's exactly what he's called here. Look at it again, verses one and two. Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him who appointed him as Moses also was faithful in all his house. Now, there's a bit of an introduction to this statement in the first part of verse one, connecting it to what has gone on in chapter two and even chapter one before, indicated by that word, therefore, that's a connecting word, to be sure. And it takes us back into chapter two and at least as far as verses 17 and 18, if not farther. But it was in verse 17 of chapter two that the writer of Hebrews introduced the term high priest for the first time in connection with Jesus.

And now we see in verse one of chapter three that he picks up that same title once again. Jesus is a high priest. In fact, the greatest high priest of all.

And we dealt with that last Lord's Day pretty extensively. But to that term high priest, he also gives the title apostle after addressing these people as holy brethren and partakers of the heavenly calling. And he said, those of you who have been called by God, the heavenly calling, those of you who have been set apart by God, holy, separate, set apart, belonging to God, consider very carefully this one. And he gives us actually a threefold designation. He is number one, Jesus. He is number two, a high priest. And he's number three, an apostle.

At least that's the order in which we'll look at them. Jesus, of course, is his human name. When that name is used, then our consideration needs to be upon Jesus the man, not Jesus, the eternal Son of God, although they, of course, can't be separated. But what we're learning here is that Jesus is superior to angels even in his humanity.

Jesus is superior to Moses in his humanity. It is this Jesus who was born of the Virgin Mary. This Jesus, the one whose name was given to him at his birth, indicating the one who took upon him human nature. It is this Jesus being considered as a man who is both apostle and high priest and we'll take them in reverse order because we've already dealt with high priest and we'll deal with it a lot in the book of Hebrews. But he is called the high priest, which in Jewish religion was one of, if not the most important position in all of their religion, wasn't it? The high priest. The priests were very important, but the high priest, the chief priest, the one who went into the Holy of Holies once a year, that was the most important position of all. And Jesus is our high priest, our mediator between God and man. He's the one who's bridged the gap between God and man. But he is also, and now we take up this new title, the apostle of our confession.

This is very interesting and very informative if we'll think it through. And we need first of all to understand what is an apostle because we are used to thinking in terms of the 12 apostles of Christ and sometimes nothing beyond that. But we need to step back for a moment and just consider what this word apostle means and just to use a simple dictionary definition, an apostle is a sent one, one who has been sent by another, and his importance therefore is attached to the one who sends him. If you or I send one of our children to the store to pick up something for us, we could call them an apostle.

They have been sent, they've been commissioned, they've been authorized, but probably nobody would consider that a particularly important position, though it is important to carry out a responsibility that has been given to you by a parent. But if you are an apostle of Christ, one of the 12 that were called to that position, now that's a whole different matter, isn't it? And if Jesus himself was an apostle, a sent one from God Almighty, then that becomes the most important apostle of all.

And so the term apostle, which means one sent, or one sent with a commission, and one sent with authority that has been given to him by the one who has commissioned and sent him, becomes very important if that one is an apostle of Jesus Christ, sent by Christ, commissioned by Christ, carries authority given to him by Christ, and if he is an apostle of God, as Jesus was, the only one who was sent in this way, commissioned in this way, in this unique way, then he came sent by God, commissioned by God, authorized by God, empowered by God. Now, Moses was, as we'll see in a moment, a servant of God, but he didn't have this level of commissioning and authority and power as Jesus had. And so we see this comparison that the author of Hebrews makes in verse 2 between Moses and Jesus when he says, Who, speaking of Jesus, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him, God the Father, who appointed him, Jesus the Son, as Moses also was faithful in all his house. It's interesting that Moses is here described very favorably and in this verse is described almost on a level of equality with Jesus.

This comparison is virtually an equal comparison. Jesus was faithful in his house as Moses was faithful in his house. Jesus was faithful to his assignment, just like Moses was faithful to the assignment that God gave to him. Moses was a faithful servant of God, and that's what he's called by God, faithful. You'll find these very words in Numbers chapter 12, and there's quite a bit here.

I'll summarize part of it. This is the occasion when Miriam and Aaron spoke out against Moses and said, You take too much to yourself. You're not the only one that God has spoken to. Other people can represent God, can speak for God.

You are putting yourself in too great a position. And in describing this, the Bible tells us that Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth. He was not exalting himself. God had exalted him. But then we read in verse five, The Lord came down in the pillar of cloud and stood in the door of the tabernacle and called Aaron and Miriam.

And they both went forward. Then he said, Now hear my words. If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, make myself known to him in a vision. I speak to him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses. He set apart different above all the other's prophets. Not so with my servant Moses.

He is faithful in all my house. I speak with him face to face, even plainly and not in dark sayings. And he sees the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? You see how God himself elevates Moses above all the other prophets. Yes, there are other prophets that God has spoken to others through dreams and visions, but only one has he spoken to face to face. That is until Jesus came and he came from the very presence of God. Talk about one who spoke to God face to face. He surely did. In fact, as a member of the Triune Godhead, he was God. But he certainly spoke to the Father face to face. But you see how highly God esteems Moses.

He raises him high. There are reasons, therefore, for Jewish people to esteem Moses so very highly above all other people. I think we could accurately say that Abraham was a prophet, but Moses was even in a higher category than that because God spoke to him face to face. And he was faithful in all his house.

It is a positive comparison. And yet, we would have to say, though the text in front of us doesn't say this, but we know this from other scripture, though he was, Moses was a faithful servant, he was not a perfectly faithful servant because we can read the record. And we know there was at least a time or two when his faith failed. Like when he struck the rock when he was supposed to speak to the rock. And the consequence of that was that he was no longer allowed to go into the Promised Land. He was forbidden to actually get into the Promised Land.

What he had spent all of these years preparing to lead the people to do and 40 years in leading them under great difficulty, great trial to his own faith and to his own energies. And after all of that, he is not able to go in because of this, we might say this one little slip up, but obviously God didn't consider it a little slip up. I told you to speak to the rock.

You struck the rock. You dishonored me before the people. You're not going into the Promised Land. We could probably pick out a couple of other things in the life of Moses. We could say, well, that wasn't perfect obedience. That wasn't perfect faithfulness. But I'm encouraged that God says he was faithful in all his house. God pronounces him faithful, even though we know he was not 100% faithful.

What do we make of that? Well, it's a relative comparison and it is that God regarded Moses as faithful even when he wasn't completely faithful, but he was mostly faithful. But God is gracious. And therefore, this should encourage us to realize that even relative faithfulness is commended and rewarded by God. Good thing, because there is no single one of us that can present to God a record of 100% faithfulness, can we? I can't.

Nor can you. But because God knows who we are, because God knows man is sinful, God knows that even redeemed men and women are incapable of perfect faithfulness until we are fully sanctified in the presence of the Lord. Therefore, God in his mercy will pronounce us faithful if we are mostly faithful and are depending upon Jesus Christ to forgive us of our unfaithfulness.

And that's the key, isn't it? Moses was mostly faithful. Jesus was perfectly faithful. Yes, he was.

Who? Christ was faithful to him who appointed him. We can't find the slightest deviation, the slightest disobedience, the slightest act of unfaithfulness in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. That was perfect obedience. So he, Christ, was faithful to him who appointed him as Moses also was.

And this is my little insertion. It's not what the scripture says, but as Moses was relatively faithful in all his house, but because Moses was trusting God, was trusting his word, was trusting Christ who would come in the future, was trusting in the righteousness of Christ to make him presentable before God, then the righteousness of Christ blotted out all of Moses transgressions. And in the judgment bar of God, as God viewed Moses through Christ, he was perfectly faithful like Jesus was. He was as righteous as Jesus.

He was as faithful as Jesus. And so are you. And so am I if we are two believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is amazing.

That is incredible. But that is wonderful truth. But what we learn in verses one and two is that Jesus was a superior apostle to Moses. Moses gave the old covenant. Jesus not only gave the new covenant, Jesus inaugurated the new covenant. He produced the new covenant. He created the new covenant.

He built the new covenant, a superior covenant to the old covenant. That's what those words house are in reference to. Moses was faithful in all of his house. That is his household.

That's a broad term. It speaks about the family of God. Moses was faithful to the family of God under his care. But Jesus was faithful to the family of God that he created by his death on the cross, by his inaugurating the new covenant. This cup is a new covenant in my blood.

This do as often as he drink it in remembrance of me. He inaugurated the new covenant. He created the new covenant, we might say, and brought it to pass, and brought into it all his elect people, all those who trust him by faith.

And here we are. And who could fail to say Jesus is a far, far, far better apostle, that is sent one, commissioned one of God, than was even the great Moses. Jesus is the superior apostle.

But now we move on to the second comparison. That is Jesus as the builder, verses three and four. For this one, capital O in the one in my translation, 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, for every house is built by someone, but he who built all things is God.

More glorious than Moses. In verse two, there was a relative comparison. Moses is presented as almost being equal to Christ, and yet we know not quite, but what the writer of Hebrews, guided by the Holy Spirit, is doing is tiptoeing, I suppose you might say, into this truth carefully, because these are people who esteem Moses so highly. So he starts out with this almost equal comparison. Moses was faithful in his household, his responsibilities in regard to the family of God, as Jesus was faithful in his responsibilities to the family of God, but now he takes it a step further and says, but don't you see, it's so obvious that Jesus is worthy of so much more glory, so much more honor than Moses, more glorious than Moses.

Why? Well, he explains it in the last part of verse three. It's this simple concept that all of us can understand. The one who builds the house has more glory, more honor, than the house. You look at a house, a beautiful house, a large house, a grand house, and you ooh and you ah. It's a wonderful creation, a wonderful production, and there are a lot of people involved with it, the architect who designed it and the builder who constructed it and all the people who worked with the builder to bring it to pass. But the architect's still out there. He can design a more glorious house. And the builder's still out there. He can build an even more glorious house. And as long as the architect is alive and has his creative juices working, he can still create more and more glorious things. It's obvious, therefore, that the architect who designed it and the builder who constructed it thoroughly and with skill and with quality is of more honor than the thing that was created, the thing that was built. The ones who did it are superior to the thing that they produced.

A simple idea that I don't think any of us could argue against. And if that is the case, then Jesus is more glorious than Moses because Moses was faithful in the house that God put together and put him in charge of, and yet Jesus was the one who built the house that he was in charge of. And so Jesus, the builder, is more glorious than Moses, who was not a builder. In fact, and here comes a more general statement, but a very important one in verse 4, Jesus is not only more glorious than Moses, he's more glorious than all.

Why? Verse 4, for every house is built by someone, but he who built all things is God. Another self-evident reality.

It's as simple as this. It's saying every house is built by somebody. We may not know who built it.

We may not know who designed it. I'm happy that I do know who designed the house that Marty and I have lived in for 30-some years. He's the same man who drew the plans for our church building, the first building we built. It was architect Vernon Lewis who was a real friend to us in those early years. And we were quite surprised when we found that out. We found the blueprints of our house that we purchased from somebody else, and lo and behold, it was designed by architect Vernon Lewis. It was quite nice to know that little fact. But it's evident that if the house exists, somebody designed it and somebody built it.

We may not know who. In fact, you can take that beyond houses, anything that exists is evident that somebody brought it into being. That is so foundational. How could anyone deny it? Every house is built by someone. If it exists, somebody designed it, somebody produced it, somebody brought it into existence. In fact, everything that exists has been designed and brought into being by someone, even if we don't know who that someone is. But the Bible will tell us who that someone is. We have this obvious truth that anybody can figure out. If it exists, somebody designed it and somebody manufactured it or brought it into being.

Or if we're talking about organizations, it's the same thing. Somebody had to put that together, even if we don't know who. But the Bible tells us who.

We're not left to wonder. It tells us very plainly, the last part of verse 4, He who built all things is God. That is the God that the Bible tells us about. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The God of the Bible is the God who made everything. He is the creator of the whole universe. If there is a universe, and who can deny it?

Here we are. Then it's evident somebody had to design it and somebody had to bring it into being. How foolish are those who deny it?

They're denying the obvious. It's clear. He who built all things is God. He is the ultimate cause of everything that exists. There is one ultimate builder, the God of the Bible. But in this text, it indicates that Jesus must be God.

Because Jesus, Moses was faithful in his house, but Jesus is more than that. This one has been counted more worthy, worthy of more glory than Moses. In as much as he who built the house has more honor than the house, for every house is built by someone, but he who built all things is God. Jesus built the house, he who built all things is God. Therefore, we could conclude that Jesus is God.

And you can't get any more honor and glorious than that. So Jewish Christians, Hebrews, don't go back, don't go back, don't turn back from Jesus. Moses presided over God's Old Testament, or Old Covenant house, but Jesus built the house. In fact, the truth of the matter is, he built the Old Covenant house, he built the New Covenant house, he built the whole framework of all the people who belong in the family of God, he built the universe, he built everything, he did it all.

And the fact that it's here is evident that somebody did that, and now we know who it was. It was God Almighty, and God Almighty is Jesus. Jesus is God Almighty. But then we move on thirdly to God the Son, or Jesus the Son I should say, in verses 5 and 6. And Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which should be spoken afterward. But Christ as a Son over his own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. Moses was a faithful servant, but he was only a servant.

Nothing wrong with that. We're all servants of the Lord Jesus Christ if we are his children. Moses was a servant. The word that is used here is of a high level servant.

It's a word that is not common. Most of the time when the Bible talks about a servant, it uses a word that means a slave, a bond slave. But here it means a free person, a person who serves willingly, voluntarily, but nevertheless is a servant.

He's under someone else. He's serving them. He's a servant. This probably could also be considered in New Testament terminology a steward. A steward is a high level servant who's been given a lot of management responsibilities by the owner of the household, but he's still a servant. He's the boss under the boss. He's the manager under the owner. He has a lot of responsibilities, but he doesn't own anything. He's a steward, and that's what Moses was.

A steward, a high level servant, but he's still a servant. But, but Jesus was a son. And furthermore, there's the comparison between Moses being in his house and Jesus being over his house.

Did you catch that? Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, verse 6, but Christ as a son over his own house. So Moses was in the house, the household, the family of God, and was a member of it, but was elevated to the highest position of administration in that house. But Jesus is a son. It's a different category altogether from a servant. Remember Abraham had a very trusted servant. He sent to get a bride for his son Isaac, but earlier on he went to the Lord and he said, Oh Lord, please give me a son or else this servant becomes my heir. He'll virtually be treated like a son because I don't have a son. But if I have a son, then he gets everything, and the servant remains a servant. There's a big difference between a servant and a son, a vast difference. The son inherits the father's estate. The son inherits all that is the father's. And the son is over his own house, but the servant is a member of the house. He's in it.

He is not over it. So Moses was in the house, the household, the family of God, and interestingly, I wish we had more time to develop this, but we're told that Moses testified to greater realities to come. That is the coming of the new covenant. Verse 5, And Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant. Notice this, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward.

Those who clung to the old covenant as if that were the final covenant weren't listening very carefully to Moses, the one they said they were following and honoring. In fact, Jesus said the same thing to the religious leaders of his day. He said, if you believed Moses, you would believe me because he spoke of me. But most of them missed that part.

But he did. Several ways that Moses did that, all of the religious ceremonies, sacrifices, everything that he gave to the people of God by the command of God, all pointed to Jesus. They were all picture symbols of the ultimate Lamb of God, the final sacrifice that would come and so forth. Moses in Deuteronomy said, there comes after me a prophet who's going to tell you more than I told you. He indicated that his revelation was incomplete.

There was more to come. And that's what the writer of Hebrews tells us here. But we're also told in the last part of verse 6 about this household that the son is over. We're told exactly what it is, whose house we are. Whose house we are. We're Christ's house who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are his household. We are his family. We are his creation. We are the ones whom he is over. But then there's that big if, and we get these coming up often in the book of Hebrews.

These warning passages, and they are just punctuated all through here. We are in his house if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. The big if.

We are part of Jesus' household if we're faithful to the end. Which tells us that perseverance is one of the most important marks of true saving faith. Those who don't hold out to the end haven't got it and then lost it. Those who don't hold out to the end are demonstrating that they never really had the real thing. There are believing believers and there are professing believers and they're not always necessarily one and the same.

And the fact that there is such a thing is falling away as a sober warning. But we're told here that Moses was a faithful servant, but Jesus is the eternal son. So before I wrap it up with my conclusion, just remember what we've seen. Number one, Jesus the apostle, a better apostle than Moses. Number two, Jesus the builder, a better builder than Moses. And number three, Jesus the son, the only son in this sense, Moses was a serpent.

But now, what do we see in conclusion? Let me quickly say something in regard to the apostles. We found an apostle here as a term used as a title for Jesus, quite surprisingly. But when we look at it, we realize that apostle is a general broadly used term, even though in our minds it usually is a narrowly focused term that applies to the apostles of Christ. But there are other apostles in the Bible and that will help us with some of the seeming conflicts and contradictions and paradoxes in the use of the word apostle. In the Bible you will find apostles of Christ, Peter and Andrew, James and John and so forth. You will find apostles of an apostle, that is those that apostles sent and commissioned to carry out a task for them. You will find apostles of churches, that is messengers, that churches authorize and send out. I would put missionaries in this category. Who commissions and authorizes a missionary to go?

You say, well, the Lord does, of course, but that's not all. He is recognized and commissioned and sent from a local church. He becomes an apostle of that particular church, a commissioned and sent one with the authority of that church to do his work.

That's an important distinction. In fact, we are all apostles in some sense and some of us may be apostles in more than one sense. We are all representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ commissioned to proclaim the gospel.

Do you agree with that? If we know the Lord, we are all apostles of Christ in that sense. We have been authorized, we have been sent, we have been commissioned to proclaim the gospel throughout the world. But some may be apostles in more than one sense. If a missionary is officially commissioned, some hands are laid on him and he is commissioned and sent out from a church, then he is an apostle in the same sense that all of us are and he is an apostle of the church in a sense that maybe not all of us are. Just a reminder that the word apostle can't always be narrowed down to one particular definition. And without having time to go into it now, I would say the same thing is true of the word deacon. You would eliminate a lot of the confusion that goes on in regard to the term deacon if you would realize the times when the word deacon is used in the Bible, it doesn't always speak of an official office, the office of a deacon.

The word simply means servant. So I let it go at that. Some of you will know what I'm getting at, some of you will not. But let me go on to a second application here regarding the existence of God. This section lays out what I think is probably the most powerful, irrefutable truth about the necessity of there being a God as you will find anywhere in the Bible or anywhere else. If something exists, it exists because somebody conceived it and somebody constructed it. And who is big enough to conceive of this universe, who is big enough and powerful enough to bring into reality, into being, creating this universe but the almighty God of the Bible? Everything that exists points to the existence of a creator. Nothing comes from nothing in spite of what some people say and believe. Nothing comes from nothing. And nothing ever will. Wasn't there a song that went that way sometime or another?

I'm not sure. Atheism, therefore, is contrary to logic. It's contrary to observation. It's contrary to known science. Science has never found anything that sprang into existence spontaneously.

It always comes from something. And it's foolish and stubborn to assert with no evidence that somehow there's at least something that came out of nothing. We've never identified in a laboratory or with a telescope or anywhere. We've never found anything like that in all the universe.

It's impossible. If something exists, then something greater had to bring it into existence. And I'm convinced that atheists assert what they and others know is not true. Why are they so determined to do this? Because they don't want to be accountable to God. And so to, in their minds, absolve themselves of accountability to God, they postulate there is no God. There's no evidence for God. Wake up, man!

Look at the world in which you live! Where did it come from? I did this on a Wednesday night. I'll take just another minute to do it this morning. I told some of you on Wednesday night recently, a good many years ago when I was in South Africa, I was called upon unexpectedly to speak to a grade school assembly, a thousand students, kindergarten through sixth grade.

What in the world am I going to say to them? And I reached in my pocket and I pulled out this pen that had been built by, had been constructed by, Doug Shropshire, who was a member of our church at that time, who is now with the Lord. He used to do these beautiful pens. You can probably see it there, beautiful wooden barrel. In fact, I pulled it out of my drawer. I hadn't seen it for several years.

It still writes. It's amazing. So I held that up to these thousand children sitting in front of me in this gymnasium. I said, how many of you would believe it if I told you that one day I was walking in the woods and a lightning bolt struck a tree in front of me and split it into a thousand pieces. And in the pieces standing in front of me was this beautiful pen. I picked it up and started writing with it. It just came out of that lightning strike. How many of you believe that's true?

Not a single hand went up. I said, how many of you believe that somebody had to make this pen and every hand went up? Because they understood at the child's level, if there is a pen, we may not know who made it, but somebody made it. And I said, now let me give you the piece of the information you don't know. I'll tell you who made it. Doug Shropshire made it.

You don't know him, but I do. That's what the Rite of Hebrews is doing here. It starts out by saying, if anything exists, somebody made it exist.

Agreed? All heads are nodding. He said, now let me tell you who made it exist. God.

That's the answer to the question. Therefore, for you to ignore him, for you to deny him, for you to put off listening to his word and his command for you to repent of your sins and believe the gospel, for you to delay embracing the Lord Jesus Christ with all of your heart and soul is the most foolish thing you have ever done. You can't do anything else that's more foolish, more dangerous, more stupid than that, because you may be the next one who has a heart attack and has no more opportunity to heed the word of the living God. Shall we pray? Father, teach us truth and may it grip our souls, we pray. Amen.