Better Than Religion - Part 3

You know that we're in a series called Better Than Religion. It's all about Hebrews, we're up to chapter three. And so we're gonna dive in now and talk about Hebrews and the supremacy of God's grace. We start in Hebrews chapter three, verse one. And it says, "Therefore, holy brethren, "partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus "the apostle and high priest of our confession." I love those two words, consider Jesus because that's what they needed to do in a pretty serious way. And that's also, of course, what we need to do every moment, every hour, we consider Jesus. Who else might they consider? Well, watch out because there's a competition for their attention. They might need to consider Jesus instead of Moses. We're gonna find out. They might need to consider Jesus instead of angels. We've already seen. They might need to consider the new covenant instead of the old covenant. That's their predicament. He's worried, the author is worried that these folks are gonna be distracted and that they're actually gonna miss the gospel. Now, I would love to just fill your head with how this letter and this portion of the letter is all about you. Oh man, that would make an easy sermon.

If I could just say it's all about you and me and how we need to apply this and how we need to be careful about this and how Hebrews is warning you and me about this. But I'm actually gonna do the opposite. I'm gonna take a risk here and teach what it actually means. And what it actually means is that this is not for the believer. This is not a warning for believers. This is a warning for Hebrews across the board, for humans that are Hebrews that might be distracted. They might be so distracted by mom and dad's religion that they miss the gospel altogether. They might be distracted by the practices of the temple, the animal sacrifices, the giving of the law on Mount Sinai and the pomp and circumstance after Moses and all those that followed, built a tabernacle and built a temple and funded it well and put all of their reputation on the line or traipsing about in robes and religious garb that was mandated at that time by God. But now that all the pomp and circumstance has come to a close, now that it's time to disrobe from old covenant religion, there's a warning. And that warning is not for Christians. And I just wanna say that because again, the other will preach, that other will preach man. I could quote some verses from here and then try to scare you to death. But scaring Christians is not ministry.

And so we need to do good Bible study and see what's really happening here so that later, get this, later when we go to Hebrews, chapter six and 10 and we see some more warnings, we start realizing, oh, this is about unbelievers. This is evangelistic. This is talking about how important today is because today, if you hear his voice, don't harden your heart, but hey, Christian, you don't have a hardened heart. You have a new heart. Jesus lives in your heart. You're not in unbelief, you're a believer. Sure, you might struggle up here with unrenewed thoughts, but down here, you are a believer at the core. God cleaned house and moved in. You are a new creature, a child of God. And we gotta know that in context, so we get it right, so we're not quaking in our boots, but instead, we're celebrating Jesus to the fullest. And that's the whole point. Consider Jesus. Not yourself, not your track record, not your recent performance. Consider Jesus, he's your compass. And if you're a child of God, he's already said to you in the past chapter or two. I'm not ashamed of you. I'm proud of you. You're in the family.

I call you my own. You're a gift from the Father to me. He said all these things about us. So how about we believers consider Jesus and he's got nothing but goodness to share with us. Amen? Amen. That's good Bible study. Here we go with verse two. He was faithful to him who appointed him as Moses also was in all of his house. Now, you might've noticed we're already bringing Mo in. I mean, we brought Moses in and it's verse two. Well, here's the reason, because we just finished comparing Jesus with angels. Remember Jesus versus angels, because the angels brought the law and Jesus brought grace. The angels brought the old covenant and Jesus brought the new. So we've already had a comparison in the past chapters. In this corner, the angels created beings, mediators of the law. And in this corner, Jesus Christ, the son of God, deity, and he has brought something greater. Now we're bringing in Moses. Why? It's simple, the same reason. Moses spells law.

Jesus spells grace, right? We read that in the scriptures. The law came in through Moses. Grace and truth came in through Jesus Christ. So this contrast is here in verse two, to show us Jesus is the perfect ambassador. He's from God, he is God, he was faithful. Just as Moses was faithful, but guess what? The time for Moses is over, and we gotta graduate to Jesus. Now, the elephant in the room and maybe online, and as you're watching this broadcast, is you're probably a Gentile. Most likely, if we look at the planet, most of the planet is known as Gentiles in this New Testament that we read. Now that means that you're not Jewish. You're a Gentile. You might be from Africa or Asia. You might be from Scandinavia or Canada or elsewhere, but you're a Gentile if your family, your forefathers are not from Israel. Now, why do I bring this up? Because let me say it loudly, you were never given the law. You were never given the law. So every Gentile theologian, get this, every Gentile theologian that is arguing about law and grace was never given the law to begin with. It's grace or nothing.

It's the new covenant or nothing. Ephesians teaches this. The book of Ephesians says you had no covenant, no law, no prophets, no lineage, no heritage. You're Ephesians, look at you, no history with Yahweh. Nothing, you were excluded, it says. Excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, but God, it says next, but God intervened, invited you, called you in, said here's this beautiful gospel through the apostle Paul extended to you. So why is this important? Because for the Hebrews, for the Jews, it's take off the old, put on the new. For the Gentiles, it's put on the new. You got nothing else. Do you see the difference? Why are we debating law and grace if we were never given the law to begin with? Now, Romans takes care of this by saying, hey, Gentiles, yeah, you're still up a creek. Yeah, you got no law, but the conscience is killing you. You got no law, but the requirements of the law are seared on your conscience. And you ever said, my conscience is killing me? Well, that phrase can be taken literally when it comes to the Jew Gentile problem. The Jew has tablets of stone that condemn them. The Gentile has a conscience that condemns them. Either way, you need grace. But here's the point.

If you're watching and listening right now, we can appreciate the struggle. Mom and Dad are Jewish here. Mom and Dad's religion is tugging at me, and I'm gonna be rejected in my society. I'm gonna be pushed out. I'm gonna be the weirdo, the guy that's over there at the home church, the little ragtag group at somebody's house when there's a multi-million dollar temple over there with animal sacrifices. And as I said, all the pomp and circumstance and history and lineage, we are the true church. We have tradition. Sound familiar? And then today, there's still the same choice, isn't there? We are the true church. Tradition, this is the way it's always been done. And our calling is to fix our eyes on Jesus, not tradition. Because he's a game changer. He's a renegade. He turns furniture over in church. He shows up and puts an end to the law. Christ is the, And so we see this comparison, Jesus and Moses. Jesus wins, preview of coming attractions. I'll let you know how it scores at the end of the game. Jesus wins, right? But for now we're in it. We're in the thick of it, Jesus and Moses. Verse three, "For he has been counted worthy

"of more glory than Moses by just so much "as the builder of the house has more honor than the house." Okay, so you know, it's like imagine you go over to somebody's construction site and you just say, "Oh, what a great house." I mean, look at the lines on this. Whoa, modern and flat roof and long over-hanging eaves and beautiful patios and lots of glass and it's gorgeous and then you just go home, praise in the house. Well, what you don't know is that that's a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. And so you forgot about the architect. You're praising the house, but you neglect the architect. Don't neglect the architect, you know what I'm saying? That would be Frank Lloyd wrong. So what we're saying, that was free. What we're saying, no charge. What we're saying is you gotta understand the architect and the builder versus the structure itself and the author of Hebrews is saying that exact thing right here. We got Jesus, we got Moses. Guess what? Jesus is God. He's the architect of everything. Moses is just a servant. Jesus is divinity. Don't neglect the obvious. Verse four, for every house is built by somebody,

but the builder of all things is God and the implication is, and Jesus is God. Hello? So you see the argument, it's just like Jesus and the angels. Now it's Jesus and Moses. This is the signature on the painting, right? I mean, you got this beautiful structure. It's gonna be known as the new covenant. It's gonna be awesome. And it's signed by the master architect, the designer of everything. My wife and I were recently shopping for art. We went, of course, to target. And then we went to home goods. Now home goods had a line that was over an hour and a half long. So we left immediately. And we went to other options, significant options like back to target. And so when you're shopping for art, we were looking for some classic pieces by Monet and Picasso and Renoir. But we didn't wanna pay more than 1999. So where do you go? You go to Tarje, right? And yet there's always, even in the fake stuff. Even in the 1999 stuff, there's always a little signature there. And that's the cool part because it's a copy, but it's the signature of the one who created everything. Jesus has signed this new covenant in his blood.

He's the artist, he's the architect, he's the creator, he's the authority, he's the one, he's the real deal. In the Old Testament, they had copies and pictures and shadows, the reality is Christ. He's the real deal. So he's about to share in this letter some incredible things about your forgiveness and your access to God. And he's basically signed it up front and said this is greater than angels, it's greater than Moses, it's the best thing you ever heard. It carries more weight, more authority than you could ever imagine. So let's dive in. Verse five, now Moses was faithful in all his house as a servant, keyword servant for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later. So he's gonna say in the next verse that Jesus is a son. Notice the contrast, a servant and a son, which would you rather be? And that's a real question for you to consider because as we look at law and grace, there is a difference between being a servant and being a son. Moses was a servant, Jesus is a son. You're a child of God. You're no longer a slave, you're a child. We read that from the Apostle Paul, he pens it in Galatians, he shows the difference between a servant and a son.

So this is not just about Moses and Jesus, it's about your attitude. What is your role with God? Are you his servant or are you his kid? And that really helps us define the two different ways, the two different covenants, you're a son, you're a daughter, you're a child, you're born of him, born of his spirit, you're in the family, you're invited to feast on his goodness, he's invited you in and said, you have my last name. And so we see here that Moses was faithful as a servant, it says, and that's pretty good. And the Hebrews go, oh, Moses, remember Moses, oh, he led us out of Egypt toward the promised land, they forget the part where they're in the wilderness for 40 years, because they won't believe, but oh, Moses, wasn't he great, wasn't he special, wasn't he important, and he was at the time and the role he played, and it was God's plan, but the whole point of Hebrews is there's a greater plan, there's a greater mission, a greater covenant. And again, it's staring us in the face, but everybody you ever hear today that is mixing law and grace, they're mixing a servant with a son, they're mixing the old with the new, they're offering you a wilderness experience, no promised land, stock 40 years in the wilderness when we mix law and grace, we experience wilderness.

Verse six, but Christ, see the contrast, but Christ was faithful as a son over his house. Who's, I love this, whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and boast of our hope firm until the end. Now, this is two times he's gonna say an if, and this if could scare you if you don't understand the Hebrew journey out of Egypt, into the wilderness, where did they need to go next? The promised land, but they got stuck, they took a little detour, they were eating off of the manna menu for a long time in the desert. So as we look at this situation, we have got hitting the pause button because of unbelief, God's plan was there, they hit the pause button, God's plan is there, they delay. And so when he says, if we hold fast until the end, you gotta get there, you gotta get to the promised land. Don't be like your forefathers. Now, side note, if you're in Christ, you're in the promised land, but Hebrews, some of you are not, today, if you hear his voice, today, how about you get saved? Today, how about you put your hope in Jesus? Today, don't get stuck in the wilderness. You left Egypt, you're in the middle, some of you, you're realizing maybe it's not Moses, but you haven't decided it's Jesus, that he's Messiah, grab hold of the gospel.

And in another verse, coming up, he's gonna say, if you're truly in Christ, you're one of those people that endures to the end, you're not going back. Think about it, hear this, if you hear anything today about these hold fast verses, and if you continue, what is he worried about? He's worried about you flirting with Jesus, and then going back to mom and dad's temple religion. This is not about a Christian losing their salvation. It is about a Hebrew tasting the message of Jesus, getting an appetizer, a sample of the message of Jesus, and then going back, not holding fast, going back to mom and dad's temple Judaism. And they will not find forgiveness there. They will not find life there. They will not find righteousness there. There's no hope there. So don't get caught just outside the perimeter of Egypt. Don't get caught halfway to the gospel. Make sure you've taken hold of total forgiveness, new life in Jesus, righteousness as a gift. Have you understood it? If not, then enter God's rest. Make every effort to get it. We have spelled it out a thousand ways. Have you seen that everything is free, free for the taking? Have you taken it? Have you received him? Have you called upon him?

Because if you have, you are in the Promised Land. Now squeeze some fruit, look around, climb a tree, get some panoramic views. You're in the Promised Land, notice where you are. Verse seven, "Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, 'Today,' notice that word, 'today,' if you hear His voice, 'do not harden your hearts as when they provoked me, as in the day of trial in the wilderness.'" So this is a warning again. It's like, last night, there were storms here. There were storms all over Irving, Las Colena. I'm sure all over Dallas, really. And some of you might have gotten that warning on your phone. Sometimes your phone, when there's a hail or there's a tornado warning, you get that beep on your phone. And the most logical thing to do is look at it, swipe on it, open it up, see what it is. That's what the author of Hebrews is saying. You got a warning today, and guess what? I'm going to ping you tomorrow, and I'll ping you the next day until you swipe and look at the warning and realize what is at risk here. It is your very soul. This is evangelistic. Don't harden your heart today. Notice the Holy Spirit, His favorite deadline is today. And then tomorrow, same deadline, be called today. But eventually, they'll run out of days. But He's new every morning, and He's ready, and the deadline is today.

So today, if you hear, oh, no, you're too far gone. That's not what Hebrew says. Hebrew says today. Paul says today is the day of salvation. So it's never too late until you're gone. It's never too far gone until you're gone. And that's what he's saying, his favorite deadline today. Also, I want you to notice, he's bringing in that wilderness analogy. This is not me or you. I mean, this is their history. They know this story well. You provoked me. Remember the wilderness? Remember when you had manna hanging out of your mouth and you were complaining because it didn't taste as good as you'd hoped? Remember when you were saying, I neglected you, and I was doing miracles and raining food from heaven? And so, he's made the offer. Don't be like your forefathers. Don't go back to bondage. Don't get stuck in a wilderness. Verse 9, where your father is, what if they do? He says right here. They tried me by testing me and saw my work for 40 years. Ouch. That is a really long time to delay, right? And you'll notice the delay, and then there's hardening, and there's delay, and then maybe there's further hardening.

It's like cement. I mean, concrete, right? Concrete has to set. And if you don't get the fast setting kind, you're really in for a journey. You can stare at it. It's like watching paint dry. You can stare at it for quite a long time while it sets. What's different about this situation is that the legalist might say at this point, watch out. You've got to concrete hard. It'll set, and then you can forget any chance of salvation. No, no. The Holy Spirit cuts through that and says, uh-uh. I got a jackhammer. I got a jackhammer because today is the day of salvation. Oh, you're going to deny and reject another day? Well, tomorrow I'll be there, and I'll bring tools. Today is the day of salvation. Again, and tomorrow, same deal. So the offer still stands. And even though in the Old Testament you see they miss it, and they go decades, the whole point of the letter is don't let it get that far. Don't be like them. You learned your lesson, didn't you? Why would you be like your great, great, great grandpa? Why would you act like you saw where they ended up? It wasn't pretty. They had their passports stamped for the promised land,

and they ended up in graves in a desert. Therefore, verse 10, "Therefore I was angry with this generation and said, 'These people, they always go astray in their hearts, and they did not know my ways.'" So is this just some, you know, you think about Israel. Is it always just like some, we're going to rebel riots in the streets, this God? suspicion. I'm not sure about this God. Is he really good? Is he really gonna take care? Sure, he did this and this, but will he continue to look after us? Could we go up against an army and trust him? Could we enter into a promised land and he would really give it to us? Could we? Is he really? It was suspicion, a slow suspicion that crept in and just froze them. They ended up frozen like a deer in the headlights for 40 years. They stalled and then they died. Don't be like them spiritually. Again, do you see this is like the greatest evangelistic pitch you could ever give a Hebrew? Have you learned your lesson? Look at Ma and Paul. Look what they went through. Look at your ancestors. Don't be like them. Messiah is here. Don't get stuck in a spiritual desert. Now again, there's another way to preach this and it goes a little something like, "Hey Christian, if you're not to tryin' hard enough, you'll be in a desert." You're in the promised land. Not gonna tell you otherwise. You're not in Adam, you're in Christ. You're not in the flesh, you're in the Spirit. You don't always walk that way, you don't always think that way, you don't always celebrate that way, you're not always squeezing the fruit or climbing a tree to see the majestic views, but you're in the promised land, you're in Christ. So we need to know our place. You don't have an evil, unbelieving heart. You got a new heart with Christ living in your heart by faith. We got to know what we're reading and why we're reading it. That's good Bible study. That other stuff, it'll preach and it'll scare Christians, but it's not the truth and it's not ministry. So he's angry in the Old Testament with those who go astray in their hearts. You can't go astray in your heart. Hear this, as a Christian, you cannot go astray in your heart, you can go astray in

your mind. You can have a bad attitude, you can deny, you can live in denial up here, even though the Savior is here, right? So they, in the Old Testament's a different story, they're unregenerate, they're in Adam, right? They leave Egypt, they're, they were in denial, you might say. That was an Egyptian joke, but they were also in denial, that was free. They were also in denial of God's goodness and his provision and his love and his kindness. And so we see there is this invitation to an unbeliever, a Hebrew, a Jewish person, to not get stuck flirting with Jesus. Verse 11, "As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest." I was 16 years old. I was in a Bible study. In Virginia, there were 20 adults and me. I was the only teenager. I was interested. The topic was Hebrews. This exact verse came up. The leader stood up and he said, "I got a question for you. Is this salvation entering God's rest? Is this salvation or is this a second experience?" I raised my hand, 20 adults, 16 years old. I gave the first answer and I was wrong. I was wrong and it cost me. I said, "This is a second experience." And then I chased it. I pursued it. I tried to get it and keep it, whatever it was, and it nearly killed me. Literally, I was out on the streets of Greece and Italy. I was in halfway houses, jails, prisons, street evangelizing, got hit in the face with a two-by-four by a drug dealer, kicked to the ground, trying to get the second experience through commitment and dedication and holy effort. And it cost me because I had decided there was something else beyond that I needed to get or enter into. That is why it is so important for you and me today to see that entering God's rest is entering Jesus, entering God's rest is entering the promised land. And if you are in Christ, welcome. roots deeper, but you are in the land of milk and honey." You see it? And it is sweet. And there is no second experience to go chase or pursue or get or sustain or maintain your in. So decide what it means to be in Jesus because, "Oh, it is some good stuff." You see the difference? Shopping and begging and pleading and hoping and waiting for more. "Oh, it's great that you're saved. Now you need the Spirit. Oh, it's great that you're saved. Now you need this gift. Oh, it's great that you're saved. Now you need a second blessing. Oh, it's great that you're saved, but now you need to be a true disciple." We can phrase it however we want, and then Christ alone

is no longer sufficient. We can phrase it however we want and make people chase and pursue, but at the end the truth still stands. You are complete in Christ. You have every spiritual blessing in Him. You have been given everything you need for life and godliness. That's the truth. So take a look around. Enjoy the milk and honey. Enjoy the sweeping picturesque views, but you are in the land. Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. Oh, oh, falls away. That's got to be a Christian. No, the Jews called themselves brethren. Jewish brethren, I'm writing you my brethren. Take care because I'm not sure, but there might be one of you who's not yet saved. There might be three of you. I don't know. Is there anyone in which there is an evil, unbelieving heart? I hope not, but there could be, but I hope not. Do you see? Are there still unbelievers among them? That's what he's asking. Take care. Be careful. Go to the promised land. Don't get stuck. Go all the way. Jesus is Messiah. You need Him right now. Today, today is the day of salvation, so make up your mind. Now, I don't know if you've noticed, but as the true context of this chapter unfolds, so does Hebrew 6, and so does Hebrews 10, and so does the heart of Hebrews. This is that scary book of the Bible that maybe you've been unsure about. Oh, be careful. There's no sacrifice left. Oh, watch out if you keep on sinning. In context, it's unbelief of unbelievers who are in a spiritual wilderness, and they're sinning in unbelief. And notice they have an evil, unbelieving heart. Did you notice the evil equals unbelief? That's the evil. If this letter were to gentiles, oh my goodness, it would read differently. You evil sleeping around people. You evil or jihaven people. You evil adulterers. You evil idolater. See, that's Greek stuff. That's gentile stuff. The Jewish sin is unbelief in Messiah. That's the core issue. Verse 13, "But encourage one another day after day as long as it is still called today so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin." Now, again, I want you to notice the sin in them. We just saw evil is unbelief. Now, we're seeing the sin has to do with deceit and not getting the truth. Watch, because again, we're going to see it over and over that they don't enter because of unbelief. I want you to also see the flip side. What's our job here? Why am I here? Why are you here? Why do we do what we do? Why do we hang out as believers? Why do we talk about Scripture? It's staring us in the face right here. Encouragement. This is preventative medicine because you're going to hear lives. You're going to hear untruths. You're going to hear the Scripture twisted. You're going to turn on the radio or television or read a book or hear somebody talk.

You know, just recently I heard of one believer in our grace community really denigrating the other and it's because they don't know the truth of the gospel. And so we guiltown each other and condemnation on each other because we don't know the truth. So we gather, Verse 14, here's the other tricky one I wanted to tell you about. You know the hold fast thing. Verse 14, "For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end." Uh-oh. Now does it say you will become partakers of Christ? If? No. That's not what it says. It says you have become partakers of Christ if. So true partakers of Christ endure. It's not a you get to be someday, oh, if you will just hold on tight, you get to be someday. No, no, no. This is if you're in Christ, partaking of Him, sharing of the Spirit, enjoying life in Jesus, then guess what? You will endure to the end. It's who you are. It's who you are. And I don't want you to forget because I bring an evangelical or a Protestant or some people bring a Catholic or a modern set of glasses to this passage. Don't forget the context. It was three steps. Egypt, desert, promised land. Where are you? Hold fast from the beginning to the end. And if you're in, you endure forever. That's the context. That's the story. This doesn't say, oh, Hebrews, you were saved, you were in dwelt and then you just lost your grip. No, no, no, no. We read that into it. That's not here.

It's a salvation pitch and it's a good one. While it is said, again, look at the context. I love it. He explains himself. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked me. What's it? What's it question here? The hardened heart versus the receiving heart. Verse 16, "For who provoked him when they had heard and deed did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses." So again, we got that picture, step one, Egypt, step two, desert, step three, promised land. What's their problem? Are they sinning too much? As we say in Texas, too much sin in their life? Is there just too much sin? It's the sin of unbelief. I'm not making this up. Let's discover it as this passage comes to a close. Grab it, take hold of it, look at it. And with whom was he angry for 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned, circle that word sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? Well, what kind of sinning were they doing, Lord? Lying and cheating and stealing hubcaps? What were they doing, Lord? Well, read the next verse. And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest but to those who were disobedient? Okay, but how did they sin? How were they disobedient, Lord? And God says, read one last verse with me. Read one last verse, here it comes.

How did they sin? How were they disobedient? Here it comes, wait for it. So we see that they were not able to enter because of, say it with me, unbelief. Oh, they were disobedient. What kind, the unbelieving kind? Oh, they were sinning. What kind, the unbelieving kind? Oh, so now Hebrews makes sense. If we keep on sinning, there's no sacrifice left. Yeah, if we keep on unbelieving, there's no sacrifice left because we're saying no to Jesus and he's the only sacrifice. Where would you find another? Oh, the whole thing comes full circle. The spotlight comes on. The truth sets us free. You can't lose your salvation. But if you haven't responded to the gospel, here is a sincere warning. Today, if you hear his voice, don't harden your heart. But Christian, look at you, a shiny new heart, a beautiful heart. That's the truth of the gospel. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for clarity, for truth and freedom. Wow, the freedom. It's always there. You never disappoint.

The freedom. It makes sense. There's no verse where we just hang and go, oh, it ruined the gospel. The truth is the truth. Thank you for this beautiful truth. We love you Jesus. We thank you for your finished work. In your name we pray. Amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]