More Glory Than Moses (Part B)

We don't need science. We benefit from it as far as proving points from scripture. But many Christians have gone to their martyrdom and not simply gone home to the Lord without all of these proofs of things, simply by the Word of God and the facts that it shares.

It helps out to anyone who will stop to listen to them. I did not come to Christ through science. I came through the presence of Christ. Now here's Pastor Rick with part 2 of his study called More Glory Than Moses in Hebrews chapter 3. We'll be robbed if you cheat God of the praise that he is worthy of, of the love that he asks for.

So, with a sober mind, we consider these things. God wrote, finished, over all of Moses' religious observances and ways and practices. And this is what they had to face. This is what Paul worked so hard to convince the Jews of, that Messiah had come. And that if they retain this Old Testament view, they could never be the light of the world.

They could never reach outside of their Judaism. And he was right. John's Gospel chapter 19 verse 30, when Jesus had received the sour wine, that last taste of this sinful life, he said, it's finished. Bowing his head, he gave up his spirit. No one does that. No one gives up their spirit. You'll never meet a person that says, you know what, I'm tired of this life, goodbye, and just shut off. Oh, they can do it.

They'll have to, you know, jump in front of a train and take something, do something to make that happen. But no one can just stop living. Christ did. Because his work was finished. And now the Mosaic law was obsolete. He says, inasmuch as he who built the house has more honor than the house itself. Well, the Creator is greater than the created.

Part of the thing can't be greater than the thing itself. Jesus is the builder and maker of the house, and he's telling his audience this, that Moses is not the builder, Christ is. The house which Moses served was built by Jesus, and everything else is. John's Gospel, chapter 1, verse 3, all things were made through him, that is, Christ.

Without him nothing was made, that was made. That pretty much covers it, comprehensively. Colossians 1, 16, for by him all things were created that are in heaven, and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions, principalities or powers, all things were created through him, and for him, the end.

It doesn't say the end. But that's the end of the argument. We don't need, we don't need science. We benefit from it, as far as proving points from scripture. But many Christians have gone to their martyrdom, and not simply gone home to the Lord, without all of these proofs of things, simply by the word of God, and the facts that it shouts out to anyone who will stop to listen to them. I did not come to Christ through science. I came through the presence of Christ. His presence came upon me, reading his word. The first thought was, uh-oh, that was it, I'm a sinner.

I didn't think I was. What would have happened if I died before this moment? I would have been in hell forever, instantly like that. God communicated that. He communicated the same thing to these Jews. But as Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, the Bible tells us that Satan left him for a while. And he does that to us too. Don't think that if Satan pulled such a trick with, or stunt rather, with our Lord, that he's not going to pull it with us.

You've overcome something? Good. Get strong, because he's going to bring it back your way again. It may take decades, but he's going to.

And you should be ready, post guards, be ready. He is not guaranteed to succeed. Now the next verse confirms that Jesus is God, because the two verses clearly state that Jesus built the house, and now this verse is going to say God built the house. Can't be both unless they're the same. Verse four, for every house is built by someone, but he who built all things is God. And so there again, another statement of deity in the scripture.

There's so many of them that it leaves readers without excuse to reject this knowledge. There are no chance forces in the universe spontaneously creating something, except in the rhythm of the creator casting them into motion. In other words, you can mix two created elements to make another one.

Two women named Esther, you have polyester. All right, back on course. But you know, you mix chemicals and you come up with things, plastics for example, but you're working with created elements. None of those elements created themselves. None of them just appeared. And this is the basic, a little child can refute the most intellectual evolutionist, by just this one question. Well, where'd that come from? Until a person is cornered with no answer.

Well, it just, fortuitous concurrence of events. Shut up. It's just a stupid response.

But yet they've told themselves they're the smartest people in the earth and you cannot disagree with them because they're right all the time and they really believe it. And there, there is the war. You know, you're just picking one.

No, I'm not. That's our fight. When you come across people who reject Christ, they believe the reasons why they reject him. Just like you believe the reasons you receive him. So that's the battlefield. One of many.

That is a battlefield. To get them to understand that they believe the wrong things. Now many, many aren't going to budge no matter what you're doing.

You knock the dust off your feet, you move on to the next one. Don't get caught in that quagmire. But it says back to our text, verse 4, He who built all things is God. Now, this is not an additional person, but rather an additional mention of his essence. It includes him. The builder of verse 3, which is Christ, is the builder of verse 4, which is God, because, of course, Christ is God the Son.

And Hebrews 1, verse 2, Through whom also he made the world. So it shouts out over and over, God built, built by God. If you get a house built, even if you get a renovation, what does the contractor want to do? Don't answer that.

Let me answer that. They put a sign outside, and it says that they're doing the work. They're claiming that I'm built by.

And you can buy stuff that says, made in China, or wherever else you get it. God has put a label on creation, built by God, and only a fool can deny it. So, seeking to be wise, many have become fools, because they've not sought to be submitted. Verse 5, And Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward. Moses, the faithful servant. Again, is how the Holy Spirit remembers this man.

Numbers, chapter 12, verses 6 and 7. I love to be able to stand up here and cross-reference scripture verses with you. Then he said, Hear now my words. If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision. This is God speaking to the people. I speak to him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses.

He is faithful in all my house. So again, with the magnitude of the man, the writer to the Hebrews is saying, Christ is superior to Moses, but Moses was not an enemy of God. He was a great champion of God. He was not without his own majesty among men, because God did it for him. But still a servant.

He's still inferior. You know, no matter, if you have success in Christ, it's almost instant that the flesh rears up and wants to take some of the credit. Yeah, well, God used me, but of course, because. Because what? Because he's God. Not because, oh, look at that, here's so-and-so over here and they have such a talented, such a talented singer.

I'll use them. God has chosen the fullest things of the world to confound the wise, the weak to bring to nothing to strengthen the mighty. He can use someone who is gifted, but it is still his gift. And there are those that know it. And they live that way and they are blessed. And Moses was one of them. Moses, his name appears over 870 times in the scripture, in every major, in every section of the Bible.

Your Bible is divided into the Torah, the first five books, and then the Jewish law, history, pardon me, and then you get to the poetic books, and then the major prophets, the minor prophets, then your New Testament, you have the gospels, the biography and history of Christ on earth, and then the history of the church in Acts, the precepts in the letters, and then history, future, and revelation, and Moses shows up everywhere. Servant of God is referred to 22 times. The man of God, five times.

I'll take one. I'll take God calling me a servant of God, a man of God, just one time. Even after his death, God referred to him as his servant. He says to Joshua, Moses, my servant, is dead. Joshua 1, 2. Now he says it that way. He's getting Joshua to face facts. You're the leader now. You can't go with your problems to Moses and let him sort them out.

Now you are the one that they will come to for you to sort them out, and I will be with you so long as you are with me. This book of the law, he tells him, don't depart from it. Don't turn to the left or to the right. That's what these Jews were doing.

They were turning to the left and to the right, and not staying straight and narrow on the course, and this is what Satan wants to do to you also. Interesting, this word for servant is not the standard word translated servant in the New Testament. It's mainly two words, diakonos and doulos.

Doulos is a slave. Diakonos, when we get our English deacon, is an errand boy essentially. We get the meanings of how ancient Greek writers used the words and also the compound of the word. The word is often taken from two Greek words to make one, and that's how we get a better understanding of how these Greek words were used. Your New Testament is originally written in Greek, a very rich language. This word, this Greek word, they're apon, is not doulos or diakonos, but it is an attendant, a steward.

Lesser in rank than the one they are attending, but a steward nonetheless. And there is in that stroke from the writer that Moses is to be respected. Servants of God are to be respected.

And while again he is telling them Christ is superior, he is not at all attacking Moses. When Jesus did this with the law, he said, don't think that I've come to destroy the law, but to fulfill the law. And it is masterful stroke of God for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward.

I probably lost a context for you, again looking at verse five, and Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward. Moses' work, that afterward, this testimony afterward, his work pointed to Christ. All these symbols that are fulfilled and now obsolete because you have Christ now, they spoke of his coming as the lamb of God. And these were promising revelations that the people were receiving. Sin separates sinners from a holy God. And this, these symbols are telling humanity that God has a solution.

He will solve this problem of separation. And these animals that are being slaughtered and these offerings that are being brought to me, they're speaking about how I'm going to solve this issue. That I will have a servant who will fulfill with these things, communicate to you, to your thinking, your mind. In Hebrews 10, verses one and three, and then verse 10, for the law having a shadow of the good things to come.

Now that law he's talking about is the testimony of Moses that we're reading here in verse five. And not the very image of the things can never with these same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year make those who approach perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? The worshipers once purified would have had no more sin. So he's saying all these sacrifices brought, they could not take away the sin or else they would have stopped offering them. Not in the sins taken away. No sins to offer another one.

But they didn't. Dearly the priests would have to offer them. People would have to bring their offerings to God.

Yearly the high priest would stand on behalf of the nation with the blood in his hand. And that's his argument to these Jewish people. He continues in verse 10, by that we have been sanctified.

We covered that last session. Set aside. Through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Jesus scooped up all those offerings and said I'll handle this.

I will fulfill what they promised. And that's the testimony of Moses and those Jews listening to him are listening to him say Christ has fulfilled the offering of lambs. Don't you dare go back down to that temple and bring God a lamb or anything else. Not even a grain offering.

Nothing. It's done. In verse 6. But Christ has 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 see that is a heavy hit.

Firm to the end. If Christ the son. In contrast to Moses the servant. Moses my servant.

Christ my son. Moses was faithful over the house of Israel. God's house of Israel. Christ over his own house. The church. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 21.

Having a high priest over the house of God. First Timothy 3 15. These words will go on the building and when we get it built.

They will go on the front of the building. That you may know how you ought to conduct yourselves in the house of God. Which is the church of the living God. The pillar in the ground of truth. Now we're not going to use all those words. But we're going to get that pillar and ground of truth in for sure. How many churches have no interest in being a pillar and ground of truth?

Because they've put people ahead of God. You know you're feeling you're going through tough times in your life. Your marriage. Your health. Whatever it is you're going through. Well that is paramount.

We've got to tell you why you need to feel good about the future. When that begins to happen it erodes the meaning of the church. The pillar in the ground of truth. God is first. Seek you first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. And in between, in between the seeking and the adding is a lot of suffering and pain under the curse of sin.

You mothers know the curse is alive and well. When you give birth you feel it and some more than others granted. But the pain is there nonetheless as promised by God. But one day there'll be no more pain nor tears nor sorrow for the former things will be wiped away.

For who? For those who sought them. Seek you first the kingdom of God. When Moses and Elijah appeared on the mount of transfiguration Peter and John and James they were so excited.

Let's build three a temple said Peter. He was the most vocal and excited. And the voice from heaven above said Matthew 17 5 suddenly a voice came out of the cloud saying this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him. You see even before the cross he had eclipsed all by his coming.

He was greater than all. And so he said as if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. So warning don't fall short.

Don't give it up. In the context again the Jews wanting to go back to Judaism mingle it with Christianity one of the both or some kind of combination. He says don't do it. He's going to warn them in verse 12 and verse 14 and in the first verse of chapter 4 he's going to hit them with this again. You cannot exchange the if here of this verse for sense or any it means if it's conditional. If you remain firm to the end and that that is the context firm to the end that makes that if that keeps it in context Romans chapter 11 verse 22 therefore consider the goodness and severity of God.

That's what we do. Not only his goodness but his severity on those who fell severity but toward you goodness if you continue in his goodness otherwise you also will be cut off. There's nothing there's nothing to guess about that kind of language and yet and I've committed myself not to waste time dealing with Calvinistic influences and teachings. Hopefully this will be the last time I bring it up through our study in Hebrews because we're going to slam their teachings not on purpose. They've got on the wrong side.

That's their problem. Sounds quite well I mean it just I'll just mention this once you lock on to a man-made doctrine and spend your time defending that man-made doctrine you cannot read the scripture on that issue for what it says any longer. You now have to spend your time defending what you think it doesn't say. It clearly says if you continue in the faith.

The word apostate means one who has fallen away they were once there they no longer are. The problem with this why so many Christians are so uncomfortable with this is because they're not comfortable with their own faith. They're so afraid there's a sort of spiritual paranoia am I ever going to be stop being a Christian am I ever going to lose myself if so parent that's not who we're supposed to be. There is such a thing as blessed assurance Jesus is mine. Oh what a foretaste of glory divine. Heir of salvation purchase of God.

This is our story. This is our story as Christians we're not walking around paranoid about this. And those who do are victims of those who are otherwise quite proficient and intelligent and godly men are taking away from them.

Some of you are sitting here going huh good let's keep that but I've gotten it out of the way for some of my radio audience I don't want to hear letters about you know five points of you know daisies or any other kind of flower. If you choose to follow the Calvinistic line because you like the men that teach it you have added but I'm going to handle the word of God as it speaks right out to me. So as it says here if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end is speaking to believers.

And in any other circle of thought you would say that means this verse means if you don't hold if you opt out of Christianity then you get what others who have opted out get also. And so moving forward if we hold fast how long will Christ hold you? Because your salvation you are kept by God. How long will you be kept by God?

It's a very simple answer and it's a very sweet answer as long as you want. Should it be any other way? Should God say no I'm keeping you I don't care if you don't want to. You're stuck. You've become a Christian and now you can't get out.

The mafia does business like that. Not God. God wants love and love requires will.

You must want it. And so you are saved as long as you what is wrong with that? Why are Christians so paranoid about that?

How long do you want to be held? John 15 if anyone does not abide in me he is cast out as a branch and is withered and they gather them and throw them into the fire and they are burned if you don't abide. Now I'll close with this. It is not sin that causes a soul to be lost. It's the rejection of Jesus Christ. It is that sin. That is a sin. That is the sin that damns the soul. So the Christian thinks well I've sinned and now I need to be eternally secure to get past this.

No you have to just believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Love in the Lord. Receive what he has done that he has died on a cross for you. That he's risen again. That he's coming again. That he is here right now. That he wants you in heaven or else he would not have died for you. That you do not have a fragile faith.

That you have a free will and that free will is the only way love can operate and you should have blessed assurance. You've been listening to Cross Reference Radio the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville, Virginia. As we mentioned at the beginning of today's broadcast, today's teaching is available free of charge at our website. Simply log on to crossreferenceradio.com That's crossreferenceradio.com We'd also like to encourage you to subscribe to the Cross Reference Radio podcast. Subscribing ensures that you stay current with all the latest teachings from Pastor Rick. You can subscribe at crossreferenceradio.com or simply search for Cross Reference Radio in your favorite podcast app. Tune in next time as Pastor Rick continues teaching through the book of Hebrews right here on Cross Reference Radio.