The danger of hardening your heart, Hebrews 3:7-19

I would like to ask you a rhetorical question today, but one nonetheless I want you to consider carefully in your hearts.  The question is this; does God care about orthodoxy?  Now a few churches that perhaps are no longer really orthodox may have co-opted that word as part of their title.  And that is not the kind of orthodoxy I am referring to.  What I mean by orthodox is that which is right, or true.

So the question is does God really care about what is right or true, or does He just want people to think about Him in some sort of generalized way, with some sort of sentiment or affection, and He likes it when we bring up HIs name and He gets especially happy when we say nice things about Him.  And that is all that really matters to God.  All the other stuff, such as truth, righteousness, justice, holiness, doctrine and so forth is not really what’s important to Him.

Well, I said it’s a rhetorical question because I am going to give you the answer.  And the answer is found in the words of Jesus in Matthew 15:8-9 “THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME. BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.’"  

Now I could give you dozens of other texts to support this argument, that God cares about orthodoxy, but I will just give you one more, one that I probably quote every week, which John records Jesus as saying in John 4:24  "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”  So clearly, there is truth, and God wants us to worship Him in truth, that is, in orthodoxy.  

As I said last week, God is not obligated to accept worship that is not in alignment with His truth.  Cain and Abel are good examples that are given right at the outset of the scriptures, in which both offered up worship to God, and yet Cain’s offering was rejected and Abel’s offering was accepted.  

Our text that we are looking at in Hebrews is part of an ongoing sermon or message that we are just looking at a part of today.  And it proposes a difficulty because each segment is built upon the preceding passage, and so it helps to have knowledge of what was said previously.  However, I don’t have the time to review everything up to this point.  I will say though by way of context that in this passage, there is a contrast, or comparison between Jesus and Moses.  And the author is saying that Jesus is superior to Moses in every way as the spokesman of God, and as the minister of God.  And in continuing that comparison, he is giving a warning to those who have heard the word of Jesus and turned away, and he uses an illustration of the Israelites who rebelled against Moses as an warning for us.

Now it’s interesting that in regard to the question of orthodoxy, in regards to our worship being in Spirit and in truth, the author gives us in vs7 a quote from Psalm 95, which he attributes as authored by the Holy Spirit. Vs. 7 begins, “Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says…” He is going to quote from Psalm 95, but we know that David is the human author of Ps.95, but Hebrews is saying that the author of this scripture is from the Holy Spirit.   This fulfills Jesus statement concerning worship perfectly, doesn’t it. Scripture is of the Spirit, so we can be assured that it’s the truth of God.  So we find the truth about God, the truth about worship, from the word of God.  

And that’s such a basic doctrine of Christianity that it should go without saying, but unfortunately in this day and age there is a tendency to think that God reveals himself in other ways, and they often take precedence over the word.  But Jesus said in John 17:17, “Your word is truth.”  We need to be on guard against people that are speaking as if they speak for God, as well as those people who think that God speaks to you in an audible voice in your head.  God has spoken in His word.  Back in chapter 1 vs2, it says that in these last days God has spoken to us in His Son.  And we have the word of God made more sure in the inspiration of the scriptures, as 2 Peter 2:21 says, men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.  

So first and foremost, if we are to know the truth about God, so that we may worship the Lord God in Spirit and in truth, then we must go to the source of truth, which is the Holy Scriptures. 

Notice also that vs 7 says, “The Holy Spirit says, present tense. Not said 2000 years ago, though He did speak then, but He also speaks now, present tense.  He says to you now, ““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, WHERE YOUR FATHERS TRIED Me BY TESTING Me, AND SAW MY WORKS FOR FORTY YEARS. “THEREFORE I WAS ANGRY WITH THIS GENERATION, AND SAID, ‘THEY ALWAYS GO ASTRAY IN THEIR HEART, AND THEY DID NOT KNOW MY WAYS’;  AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH, ‘THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.’”

Now as I said this is a quote from Psalm 95.  And it’s interesting that there are two parts to this Psalm, the one quoted here is preceded by a call to worship.  Just to give you a sense of it, in verse 1,2 and 6 it says, “O come, let us sing for joy to the LORD, Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. ... Come, let us worship and bow down, Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.”  So Psalm 95 is clearly a call to worship the Lord.  And in that context, the Psalmist continues under the direction of the Holy Spirit to call God’s people to worship and then warns against disobedience as illustrated by the Israelites in the wilderness.  So worship and disobedience are contrary to one another.  

Notice also the emphasis on “Today.” “Today if you hear His voice…” Today emphasizes the urgency of the word of God.  Today is the acceptable time.  Today while it is still today.  He equates putting off until tomorrow or until a more convenient day is the means of hardening your heart.  Today is the day God calls you to repentance.  Tomorrow may never come.  Some of you here today may never again hear the gospel presented to you as you have heard today.  Last Friday a family was on Route 1, I believe, heading home from vacation and a car came across the median and hit them and 5 of the 6 family members were killed.  So there is an urgency to the message because we do not know the day or the time when we will die, but also there is an urgency to answer the message because to resist it, or put it off until tomorrow is the means of hardening your heart against God. And that is exactly the purpose of this illustration, as it says “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS.”

Now we can identify the exact situation the Spirit is referring to here, by the use of the words, “WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME, AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS, WHERE YOUR FATHERS TRIED Me BY TESTING Me, AND SAW MY WORKS FOR FORTY YEARS.” He is referring to two events, one at the beginning of the exodus of the children of Israel, and the other at the end of their journey, when they were ready to enter the Promised Land, the land of Canaan. The first is recorded in Exodus 17, when the children of Israel came from the wilderness of Sin, and they complained and grumbled against Moses because they were thirsty and said, and said, “Why, now, have you brought us up from Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”  God told Moses to strike the rock, and water came out.  But what they did was displeasing to the Lord, so that Moses named the place Massah and Meribah, which means test and quarrel, because they tested the Lord there.

So they grumbled, they complained, and they were even ready to stone Moses. Many people who have become Christians have feelings like this. Sometimes there are problems in the family. Sometimes there are problems in the business. I’ve heard Christians say, and I can sympathize with them, “Ever since I’ve become a Christian. My whole life is turned upside down. And now I’m really suffering and going through all kinds of trials.” And sometimes they wonder if “maybe I made the wrong decision.”  

The problem a lot of times is that we have the wrong perspective as Christians.  We have a temporal perspective instead of an eternal perspective.  We expect as Christians that God is going to take away all the earthly trials and tribulations so we can enjoy an abundant life.  The problem is the same as that of the Israelites.  Our focus is not on how we may serve God, but on how He needs to serve me.  So when God doesn’t meet my temporal, fleshly expectations in the time and manner that I want to be served, then I lose patience with Him.  We’re ready to disown God, because we are convinced that He must not love us if He allows us to go through difficulties.  We even go so far as to think God is a liar, that He doesn’t keep His promises.  And that’s exactly what the Israelites did in the wilderness.  That pattern of rebellion continued, and culminated in their refusal to enter into the land of Canaan.  And so God brought judgment against them and said this generation would not enter the land, but they would wander in the wilderness for 40 years until they all had died.

Then 40 years later, the Israelites do the same thing all over again.  This time it’s found in Numbers 20.  The entire generation of their fathers had died in the wilderness.  This is the second generation. And they come to the very same place, Massah and Maribah, that their fathers had complained about, and this time they do the very same thing.  They complain and say, “If only we had perished when our brothers perished before the LORD! Why then have you brought the LORD’S assembly into this wilderness, for us and our beasts to die here? Why have you made us come up from Egypt, to bring us in to this wretched place? It is not a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, nor is there water to drink.” And once again God brought water from the rock to supply their need, but again God was displeased.

I found myself just the other day comparing my life with those who don’t even know the Lord.  And from my perspective at that moment, it seemed that the unrighteous lived lives of ease and plenty.  But the lot of my life was learning to do without, and facing all sorts of trials.  And I think it’s very common for us to start to compare ourselves with others when things don’t go exactly as we would like them to.  And we become disgruntled in our faith. Even worse, in our hearts we start to turn away from the Lord.

So because of their hardened hearts, their testing of God, and provoking God to anger, He says in vs 10, “THEREFORE I WAS ANGRY WITH THIS GENERATION, AND SAID, ‘THEY ALWAYS GO ASTRAY IN THEIR HEART, AND THEY DID NOT KNOW MY WAYS’; AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH, ‘THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.’”

Notice that God is concerned about the heart.  He said first, “Do not harden your hearts.” Now He says, “they always go astray in their hearts.”  The heart is the soul of man, the seat of the will, the intellect and the emotions of man.  The scriptures say that the heart is deceitful and wicked and unknowable. But God will disclose the secrets of the heart.  Man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.  Thus, as we said at the beginning, Jesus who knows the hearts says “THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME. BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.’"  

David said in Psalm 51:17 “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”  The essential necessity then for worshipping God in spirit and in truth is that we first have the right heart.  Salvation is an appeal to God for a new heart and it is promised as a result of our conversion in Ezekiel 36:26-27 "Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”  When we receive a new heart, that is a new mind, new attitudes, and a new will, we will find that we have a desire to be obedient to the Lord, and the old things will pass away, and all things become new.  That’s the essence of salvation that is missing in many church goers today.  They may intellectually believe in God, but they have not had a transformation from God, a new birth that results in their conversion.  And that is a supernatural act of God to give you a new heart.  

Without that transformation of the heart, you cannot please God.  You cannot enter the rest that God promises, because your heart is not aligned with God.  And so the author of Hebrews says in vs12, “Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.”  Notice now there is a further progression of a hardened heart, and that is an evil, unbelieving heart.  

Now that word used for falling away is the same word we get apostasy from.  I won’t try to pronounce it in Greek, but it sounds very similar to apostasy.  Apostasy is a serious sin.  It’s a sin of renouncing God.  And there have been many people that perhaps were brought up in a Christian home, or a Christian church, and then have gone on to renounce God altogether and become an atheist. That’s becoming apostate.  I’m not sure that is what this verse is talking about.  I think it has to be taken in context with the next two verses, and in that regard I think it’s talking about someone who is withdrawing from church, they have drifted away from fellowship with God.  After all, that is what chapter 2 vs1 warned of, the danger of drifting away. That tendency to go astray leads to a second danger, that is the danger of hardening your heart.  And I think it’s saying that happens by withdrawing from the fellowship of believers.  

That’s why the next verse, 13, says, “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.”  The antidote to falling away is to get together with other believers day after day and encourage one another. The enemy is always trying to get the Christian alone.  But like an ember in a fire, when you draw it out of the fire pit and put it off by itself, it begins to go out and grow cold. 

But to come together in assembly, to fellowship with one another, we stimulate and encourage one another so that hardness of the heart does not happen.  A few chapters later, in Hebrews 10:24-25  we read, “and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds,  not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”  So the falling away He is warning us of comes often through isolation, where the enemy is able to wear us down through trial and temptation, and thus get us to sin against God.

And that idea of harboring sin is endemic to hardening of the heart.  Notice it says in vs.13, “so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”  Sin results in hardening your heart.  Sin is deceitful.  The enemy tells us that a little sin doesn’t matter.  That God will forgive you.  That you’re just human.  That a man (or a woman) has to do what a man’s gotta do.  That’s the deceitfulness of sin.  It’s the lie that your sin will have no consequences.  But don’t forget the verse that I quoted last week from Galatians 6:7 “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.”   Do not think that you can live in unrepentant sin and not have to worry about it because God doesn’t care about it.  That’s a lie of Satan.  God is not mocked.   God will not be tested as the Israelites tested God in the wilderness of Sin.  God reproves and chastises those who are His. 

So a hardened heart is that heart that holds onto sin. And true worship of God is impossible if we continue in sin.  But the evidence of our salvation, the evidence that we are children of God, is that we continue in our faith.  And that continuance of our faith is what our sanctification is all about. That perseverance in faith is the means by which we are able to participate in all that Christ has promised us. Vs.14, “For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end.”  To become partaker of Christ is to partake of His nature first, and His ministry, and then His inheritance.  That’s our goal, to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. A heart that is cleansed and holy through faith in Christ, receives the fullness of the indwelling Spirit of Christ, who helps us to live like Christ, so that we might one day be raised like Christ, to be like Christ because we shall see Him as He is, and then to reign with Christ.  That’s what it means to be partakers with Christ.  That’s what it means to be sanctified through Christ.

And that perseverance of faith in trials, that continuance of faith to the end, is something that happens day after day, even today, as long as it’s today.   I like that quote from Winnie the Pooh, in which he asked, “What day is it?”  And Piglet squealed, “It’s today!”  And Winnie the Pooh squealed in return, “My favorite day!”  I think Today is God’s favorite day as well.  Today is the acceptable day of salvation.  Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me.”  No matter which day of the week it is, if you’re alive it is always today.  Today is the time to turn to the Lord in repentance and faith.  Tomorrow may be too late, but there is time today.  Do not harden your heart today.  But call upon Him today while He may be found. 

Isaiah 55:6-7 “Seek the LORD while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the LORD, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.”

So"TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS, AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME.” Then the Spirit asks in vs16 "For who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses?” In other words, it was those who had come out of captivity.  In the church age that would indicate that we who are Christians who have been brought out of captivity can provoke the Lord to anger by hardening our hearts.

Then the Spirit asks another  question in Vs. 17 “And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?”  To continue the parallel with the New Testament church, then that would correlate with Paul’s admonition to the church at Corinth, who were coming to church to eat the Lord’s Supper with unconfessed sin and the indication is that God put them to death.  Listen to 1Cor. 11:29-32 “For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly.  For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged.  But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world.”  God will bring discipline to bear on His children that harden their hearts in disobedience.  And that discipline can even progress to the point of God taking your life, so that you are judged in the body, but saved in the spirit. (1 Peter 4:6) (1Cor.5:5)

And then one final question in vs18 “And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient?  So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.”  So there is a progression here which the Spirit warns starts with a hardening of the heart, which leads to going astray in your hearts, which results in an evil, unbelieving, disobedient heart, which brings about the judgment of God. 

Now I pray that no one here today hardens your heart against what the Holy Spirit is saying.  I’m not saying it.  Roy Harrell doesn’t know your heart.  I may see some outward evidence that indicates a condition of the heart, but I don’t know your heart.  But God knows your heart.  The good news is that God is willing and able to give you a new heart, to replace that heart of stone with a heart of flesh. To put His Spirit within you, so that you will keep His statues and walk in HIs ordinances.  So that you might walk in the truth, that you might walk in the Spirit.  And it’s available to all who call upon Him in faith and repentance.  David called out to God after His sin, and prayed, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”  Pray that prayer today, while it is still today, that  you may know the forgiveness and cleanness that God can give.  If you confess your sins, God is faithful and just to forgive your sins, and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.  Today you have heard His voice. Do not harden your heart.  Call upon Jesus today and enter into HIs rest.  

Consider Jesus, Hebrews 3:1-6

The book of Hebrews is a very challenging book to preach from, if not the most challenging of the New Testament, with the possible exception of Revelation.  Part of the difficulty in preaching it is that it is itself presented as a sermon, and so to bite off a passage and try to present it as a stand alone message is difficult.   The passages are designed to build upon the previous passage, and the whole book is series of arguments built one upon another, which reaches it’s grand summation in chapter 12.  

But if there is a constant theme to the book it would be to consider Jesus.  To look at Jesus intently.  To study Jesus.  He is the Message, He is the Messenger, He is our Creator, He is our Savior, He is our Redeemer, He is our High Priest, He is our example that we are to follow, and He is our Lord, to whom we must bow in obeisance and obedience.  He is the source of life, the source of wisdom, and the solution to all life’s problems.  So we must consider Jesus.

We have been looking in the previous two chapters at many of the characteristics of Jesus, and we will see even more this morning.  In the essence of time I’m not going to review all that we have said in previous messages, but I will point out that in the first word of our text, “therefore”, we know that this passage is built upon the previous arguments of the last two chapters.  You can read those chapters for yourself, or if you’re really industrious, you can read my previous messages on our website, thebeachfellowship.com, and you can hopefully learn all that “therefore” refers to.

In today’s passage, the Holy Spirit is telling us that Jesus is superior to one who was considered by the Jews to be the greatest prophet of all time, who was Moses.  And I’m afraid that some in the church might not be all that familiar with Moses and his ministry.  I’m afraid that a lot of people’s theology is informed by a movie called “The Ten Commandments” starring Charlton Heston who played Moses, or perhaps for our younger generation learned of Moses from an animated movie called the Prince of Egypt.  

And I would just recommend in passing that in cases of where Hollywood has attempted to portray some person or event in the Bible on film, I would highly recommend that you skip the movie and read the book.  I have yet to see Hollywood represent the Bible accurately.  And if you’re basing your theology on some movie you have seen then you are probably sorely misinformed.  So I urge you to read the Bible, of which the entire book, from Genesis to Revelation, teaches Jesus.  

But as my Dad used to say, I’ve stopped preaching and gone to meddling.  So let’s get back to our text.  However, if we are to understand the significance of what the Holy Spirit is saying in comparing Jesus to Moses, then it behooves us to know a little about Moses.  So as a refresher, let me say at the start that the Jewish people highly revered Moses above all other historical figures.  He was the man to whom God spoke face to face. He was a man who saw the glory of God. 

In Exodus 33 and 34 you may remember Moses saw the glory of God and it was reflected in his countenance so that when he came down from the mountain, his face shone so brightly that he had to put a veil over it. He was the one who led Israel out of Egypt. He was God's chosen instrument to liberate His people from captivity. But beyond that, Moses was the one who gave the law.  Moses and the law were synonymous, and he is considered to be the author of the first five books of the Old Testament, called the Pentateuch. 

And as I said earlier some Jewish rabbis  even taught that Moses was greater than angels. Usually in the Old Testament we see that God spoke to prophets in visions, but to Moses, He spoke face to face. In Numbers 12, when God rebuked Aaron and Miriam for their jealousy of Moses, God said, "Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, shall make Myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream. Not so, with My servant Moses, He is faithful in all My household;  With him I speak mouth to mouth, Even openly, and not in dark sayings, And he beholds the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid To speak against My servant, against Moses?”

God spoke to him in the burning bush. He spoke to him out of heaven. He spoke to him on Sinai and wrote the commandments with the finger of God. God spoke directly to Moses almost daily in the Tabernacle. The hand of God preserved Him as a baby, and the hand of God dug his grave at the end of his life. And between these two points of his life, there is nothing but one miracle after another in the life of Moses. During the greatest time of Israel's history, it was Moses through whom God worked and God spoke. It was Moses who led the nation of Israel out of Egypt. It was Moses who led them through 40 years in the wilderness. It was Moses who instructed them from the mouth of God.  And so no man was more highly regarded among the Jewish people than Moses, and arguably, no one more highly regarded by God.

Yet the Holy Spirit says through Hebrews that we are to consider Jesus as worthy of more glory than Moses. This word, “consider” is made up from the Latin term sidus which means, a star. In fact, combined with the “con” means to “observe the stars,” consider.  That’s the English translation. Now, the Greek word is different. The Greek word is katanoeō, which means to fix the mind upon.  The word means set your mind to gaze intently on Jesus. Consider Jesus.

The world, even the so called Christian world, offers us many things for our consideration. There are many things constantly battling for our attention.  Things that are appealing to us in our flesh. There are so many possible topics that I could preach on this morning which would find a greater interest perhaps in the congregation.  Things like “How to live your best life now.”  “10 steps to fulfillment.”  “Dealing with family problems.” Etc, etc.  But the problem with those kind of topics is that while they are appealing to us, they are all about us.  And oftentimes it is nothing more than spiritualized self help doctrine. 

This kind of self interest doctrine  is kind of like having underdeveloped taste buds.  Good taste is an acquired thing.  The world offers up all kinds of things for us to taste, to eat of.  But what the world offers never really satisfies.  It offers up sweet things that may give you a sugar rush, but in the long run will leave you searching for more.  The things of God are an acquired taste.  You have to be taught to appreciate them.  But the more you consider the things of God, the more you appreciate it. And the more you grow spiritually mature.  The more you feast on spiritual food the less you find you have an appetite for physical things. 

When you’ve got problems, when you’re discouraged, when you experience broken relationships, when you’ve got health issues, whatever the situation, whatever the heart ache, the answer is not to consider yourself, but to consider Jesus.  Set your mind on Him. There used to be an old hymn that we sung at church when I was a boy, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus.” And a line in particular promised that when you turn your eyes upon Jesus  “ the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”  Turn your eyes upon Jesus.  Fix your gaze upon Jesus.  Consider Jesus.

Hebrews 12 teaches that as believers we are running a race. And the key to running the race and finishing it well is to get  your eyes off yourself.  Fix your gaze on Jesus, and stay the course.  That’s what this author is really saying here, especially at the end of vs6.  Finish the course.  Stay focused on the author and finisher of our faith.  Run the race with patience and endure to the end.  Keep you eyes fixed on your captain. He has gone before us, so we can follow in His footsteps.  We know where to run, and how to run, by keeping our eyes on Jesus.

Now in instructing us to consider Jesus, the Spirit is going to say that Jesus is superior in His office, superior in His work, and superior in His person as contrasted to Moses. Superior in His office, He is the apostle and high priest, whereas Moses was just an apostle.  Superior in His work, because He is the builder of the house, whereas Moses was a servant in the house.  And  superior in His person, because He is the Son whereas Moses was a servant.

Now let’s look at each point in a little more detail.  First of all, the Holy Spirit says Jesus is superior to Moses in His office.  Hebrews has said in the previous 2 chapters that we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for just a little while. He said that He's the captain of salvation. He said that He's the sanctifier.  He said that He calls us brother. He said that He destroyed Satan and death. He said that He could deliver us out of bondage.

Now He gives Him two titles and this is where we're going to see His office. He says that we should consider Jesus because He is the Apostle and the High Priest of our confession.  But in getting to this point, the author incidentally gives us three things that characterize us as believers.  And I don’t want to brush over these, because I think that they are instructive. Notice first that He calls us three things; holy, brethren, and partakers of a heavenly calling.  

Let’s consider what it means to be called holy.  We are considered holy because we are considered righteous.  Justification by grace is that God has counted our sins towards Jesus, and transferred His righteousness to us, that by faith we might be righteous, holy towards God.  But as we said last week, being holy refers to being consecrated, sanctified.  All of those words simply mean set apart.  God has set us apart from the world, to be used for worship in the heavenly tabernacle.  

In the tabernacle of the Jews, the utensils and instruments used in priestly service were first of all sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifice, which made them holy, set apart for temple service.  It was no longer to be used for common things, but holy things.  That is sanctification in a nutshell.  It is being set apart by our justification through Christ’s blood for holy things.  

And because we are sanctified, Jesus is not ashamed to call us His brethren.  Heb. 2:11 “For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one [Father;] for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren.” Jesus also was sanctified or set apart for the work and purpose of God.  He came not to do His own will, but the will of Him who sent Him.

So Jesus’s work of redemption has made it possible for us to be part of the family of God.  Brothers and sisters of Christ. Children of God.  And that leads to the third characteristic that we have, which is partakers of the heavenly calling.  That means partakers of salvation.  We have answered the call of God by faith in Christ, and received the inheritance of the kingdom of God.  Now all of that comes through Jesus Christ.  Christ working for us, and in us, and through us. 

So seeing all that we are and will be in Christ, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession.  He is the  Apostle, in bringing the message of God to us, and He is the  “High Priest,” bringing us before the Lord God and guaranteeing our acceptance.  Apostle simply means sent one.  Jesus sent out 12 apostles to preach the gospel.  But Jesus was the foremost Apostle, sent from the Father to bring the message of the gospel, the word of God.  John 12:49 "For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment [as to] what to say and what to speak.”

And as our High Priest, Jesus is God’s representative to man, manifesting the exact nature and character and truth of God, and He is man’s representative to God, having become like us in all things, yet without sin.  He is the bridge from man to God, and from God to man.  Moses, you will recall, was God’s man through whom He spoke, but Aaron was the High Priest.  Jesus is better than Moses in that He fulfills both offices perfectly.  So Jesus is superior in His office.

Secondly, in vs2, the Spirit says that Jesus was superior in HIs work.  And here is a simple comparison of the work of Jesus with that of Moses to show Jesus is superior.  The most obvious conclusion is that Moses was a type of Christ, a picture of Christ, whereas Jesus is the completion of that picture.  He is the fulfillment of all that Moses prefigured. 

Notice first that He says in vs2, that Jesus was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house.  Jesus was faithful to His mission from God.  John 6:38 “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” Jesus always did the Father's will. He was faithful unto death.  I believe that we will be judged on our faithfulness.  I think one of the marks of sanctification is faithfulness.  Faithfulness in little things is a big thing in the eyes of God. Jesus said in Luke 16, if you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in great things.

It’s interesting that Moses is not compared to Jesus on his weakness, but on his strength.  He says that Moses was faithful. For 40 years, Moses was faithful to God as he led the children of Israel in the wilderness. And so the author compares Jesus to Moses in a favorable light, that both were faithful to God.  

But notice that it says Jesus was faithful to Him who sent Him, as Moses was faithful in all his house.  What is meant by all his house?  It means household. It speaks of the household of God, the believers. The Old Testament believers of Israel. Moses was faithful in God's household. He was a steward or the keeper of Israel. It says in 1 Corinthians, "Moreover brethren it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.” Now a steward is somebody who doesn't own the house, he manages it for the owner. God owns the house of Israel, Moses ministered to the house. He was in charge of dispensing the word of God to the people of Israel. And Moses was found faithful. 

And Christ  also was faithful to His house. Who is Christ's household?  The answer is found in Ephesians 2:19. "Now therefore you are no more strangers and sojourners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God." The household of God then is the  church. We're the house of Christ.

1Peter 2:4-5 “And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God,  you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”  

What a tremendous thing it is to be a part of Christ’s household.  To be a part of the family of God.  We are made holy, righteous, even a holy priesthood, so that we might offer up spiritual sacrifices which are acceptable to God, all because of what Jesus has done for us.  So Jesus is superior in HIs work because His work is superior to that of Moses.  Moses was faithful to his house, Israel, but Jesus is faithful to the church universal.  And that’s far superior.

If Jesus has done a mighty work in you, that you have been made part of a royal priesthood, offering up sacrifices to God, then I trust that it might be said of you that you are faithful in your house. You are faithfully employing the gifts and resources that God has  given to you as  spiritual sacrifices to God.  

I am reminded of the story of DL Moody.  Moody was a poorly educated, unordained, shoe salesman who felt God's call to preach the gospel. Early one morning he and some friends gathered in a hay field for a season of prayer, confession, and consecration. His friend Henry Varley said, "The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through and in a man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him." Moody was deeply moved by these words. He later went to a meeting where Charles Spurgeon was speaking. In that meeting Moody recalled the words spoken by his friend, "The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through and in a man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him." Varley meant any man! Varley didn't say he had to be educated, or brilliant, or anything else. Just a man! Well, by the Holy Spirit in him, Moody determined to be one of those men. Then suddenly, in that high gallery, he saw something he'd never realized before.  It was not Mr. Spurgeon, after all, who was doing that work; it was God. And if God could use Mr. Spurgeon, why should He not use the rest of us, and why should we not all just lay ourselves at the Master's feet and say to Him, "Send me! Use me!”? D. L. Moody was an ordinary man who sought to be fully and wholly committed to Christ. God did extraordinary things through this ordinary man. Moody became one of the great evangelists of modern times. He founded a Bible college, Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, which sends out men and women trained in service for God.  And my prayer is that you too might be a person that is wholly consecrated to God, that He might do a mighty work through you.  

Thirdly, Jesus is superior in His person. His person is superior verses 5 and 6.  Verse 5, “Now Moses was faithful in all his house as a servant.” In Exodus 40, eight times it refers to Moses’ obedience to do all that God commanded him. That's pretty amazing.  In Exodus 35 to 40, 22 times it refers to Moses faithfulness to obey all that God commanded him. Can you say that about your life? Could God say of you that He obeyed all that I commanded him or her to do?     

That’s the key to sanctification, by the way.  It’s obedience.  Obedience to the word of God. Rom. 6:19 “For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in [further] lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.”  Obedience to righteousness results in sanctification. 

So Moses was faithful. Moses was faithful as a servant to the house.  But Jesus is faithful because He is the builder of the house. Vs.3, “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.For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.”  And so we see that Hebrews declares that Jesus is God, and thereby greater for He created all things.

Notice verse 5. “Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later.”  In other words, Moses was faithful as a testimony to those things which were yet to be said in Christ.  Moses was a type.  Jesus was the fulfillment.  We can learn a lot about Jesus through Moses.  But not completely.  Jesus is the completeness of the picture we see in Moses.

Jesus said Moses wrote of Him.  John 5:46, “For had you believed Moses, Jesus said, you would have believed me for he wrote of me."  And so it is that the word of God tells us in Hebrews 3:5 that Moses was only a servant who pointed to something which would come after that. He was a steward of another's house.

Verse 6, "But Christ," "not a servant, but a Son" over His own house, whose house are we." Do you know who Christ's house is? You say this church  building or that church building is the Lord's house. No, a building is not the Lord's house. "Whose house we are.” We are the Lord's house. We are built together, Ephesians 2:22 says,  for an habitation of the Spirit. We are the Lord's house. 1Cor. 3:16 “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and [that] the Spirit of God dwells in you?”

How can we be sure that we're really His house? Verse 6, "whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.”  Now this statement causes some concern to those who may not be familiar with the full teaching of scripture in regards to salvation.  But the truth of salvation is that you couldn't save yourself, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.  Salvation is by grace.

So in the same manner, you couldn't keep yourself saved. If your salvation depends on you keeping yourself saved then none of us have a hope.  What is it saying then? It's saying this, "whose house are you if you hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.” That simply means that the continuance of your faith is the proof of the reality of your faith.The continuance of your faith is evidence that you are really saved. Falling away is evidence that you were never of the faith. 1 John 2:19 it says, "They went out from us, but they were not of us." Listen to this, "For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us, but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not of us.”  You may stumble from time to time, you may get off track from time to time, but the fact that you continue to follow after the Lord is evidence that you are the Lord’s.

Now in addition to that premise, remember what I said last week about salvation.  We are justified, sanctified and glorified in our salvation.  All three elements are essential.  And in a kind of subliminal way I think this passage today we’re looking at is speaking of sanctification.  Sanctified is the second stage of salvation.  I think it’s possible to be saved, and yet fall away from our purpose, from our salvation, not to eternal destruction, but to a lost reward.  Not to losing our citizenship in the kingdom of God, our place in God’s family, but in losing our purpose; our sanctification.  And that is going to result in our being saved, yet though as by fire.

And part of the sanctification process is that God will discipline those that are HIs children, that they might be obedient, and that they might be kept from destruction. Heb. 12:6-8, 11 “FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES."  It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom [his] father does not discipline?  But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. ... 11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness."

So discipline is the means by which we bear fruit.  John 15:1-2, "I am the true vine and my Father is the vine dresser. Every branch of me that bears not fruit, He takes away. Every branch that bears fruit, He purges it that it may bring forth more fruit.”  So the goal of sanctification is that we might bear fruit, that we might be faithful, that we might be obedient and fulfill our calling in Christ Jesus. 

So in conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, consider Jesus.  Consider Him first of all as your Lord and Savior.  If you have not truly become part of the household of God by faith in Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and to be made holy and a child of God, then I urge you today to receive Him as your Savior.  Salvation is the free gift of God.  Call on Him to forgive you, to remake you, and convert you, to adopt you into the family of God.  

Secondly, to you who are Christians already consider Jesus. Learn to live your whole life with your eyes on Him.  As we look steadfastly upon Jesus, the things of this world start to grow dim.  And we find that He is sufficient for every need.  He is superior to every temptation, to every trial.  He is worthy of our worship and our service.  He is worthy of all glory and honor.  Let us give Him our all, and may we be found faithful when He comes.

Christ, the captain of our worship, Hebrews 2:10-18

I presume that if I were to ask you why you came to church today, you would answer something along the lines that you are here to worship God.  The next question though I would ask is, what is worship?  And to that I suppose I might get a great variety of answers.  Worship seems to have a rather loose description today in ecumenical circles. 

I had a friend that recently passed away, and she had never been to our church, but she had heard of it.  She lived outside of DC, but never came to this area to the beach.  However, she did visit Naples, Florida during the winter a few years ago and while there she saw an ad for a worship service on the beach.  So being familiar in theory with what we do here, she decided to go and try it out.  And she said that it was a lot of fun. She said that during the service they had some music playing and a giant beach ball that the congregation kept bouncing up in the air.  

Now, I guess that might be entertaining.  But I doubt that qualifies as worship.  I commonly hear people asking, “What is the worship style of your church?” People tend to think that there are a variety of flavors available, such as at Baskin Robbins, and you just need to pick the kind that you like.  However, our worship should not be about pleasing us, but pleasing God.  The quality of your band, the quality of your meeting place, the quality of your congregation, or the quality of your speaker is not indicative of the quality of your worship.  God is the judge of what worship is acceptable to Him.  Cain and Abel both came to worship God.  But God accepted Abel’s worship, and not Cain’s.  It’s important that we know what is pleasing to God.

And by the way, that shows that sincerity is not a guarantee that your worship will be acceptable.  Jesus said, “God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” So it’s essential that our worship is according to God’s truth.

Another question is what happens when we worship?  What is Jesus doing as we worship? I think this passage today reveals that Jesus is engaged in His High priestly ministry. In chapter 8:2 Jesus is described as a minister in the tent which God erected. “We have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,

a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man." The Hebrews used to have a tent, a tabernacle, and then a great, beautiful temple, but in the New Testament they had someone’s living room, a river bank, or a beach.   But Hebrews tells us that this new covenant is far better than the rituals and ceremonies of the old temple service.

How is that possible?  How is this spiritual worship better than the pomp and ceremony, the costumes of the priests, the burning candles and incense, the aroma of burning sacrifices? The difference is as the author of Hebrews told us in vs.9, in spiritual worship we see Jesus.  We look at Him, we study Him, we obey Him, we serve Him.  We worship Him.  He is the physical manifestation of the nature and essence of God.  And the Spirit of Jesus is in the midst of the true tabernacle, His church.  He said, “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there  in their midst.”

So the first aspect of true worship is that Jesus is the worship leader; He is the Chief Shepherd, or the chief pastor of the church.  He is the captain of the church.  He leads HIs children into the presence of God.  To come before God we must be holy, righteous.  And we are made righteous by the author of our salvation, who is Jesus Christ. Vs10, “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.” Only by representative suffering may man regain his purpose of fellowship with God. It is necessary that our debt be paid and our Lord has paid the debt. And by paying the debt, God is freed to give to men what he has determined to give them, adoption as children of God, and by extension the inheritance of authority and kingship over the earth.

Conceivably, God could have engineered a way to save us that did not require the suffering of the Son of God. But it was fitting for Jesus to save us at the cost of His own suffering and death. This is the ultimate illustration of the fact that real love, real giving, involves sacrifice. As David said: “I will not offer to the Lord that which costs me nothing.”  (2 Samuel 24:24). God’s love for us revealed  itself in sacrifice and God could not make a substitutionary sacrifice unless He added humanity to His deity and suffered on our behalf.  And in like measure, our worship requires sacrifice. Love requires sacrifice. Worship without sacrifice is just empty flattery.

There is a principle of hermeneutics which is called the principle of first mention.  That is, if you are trying to understand a word of scripture, then it is often a good idea to go to the first place in the Bible that the word is used, and as you study it’s usage in that context, it will usually be an indication of how you should interpret it in later passages. 

And it’s interesting that the word worship is first used in the Bible in reference  to sacrifice.  Abraham, you will remember, was obeying God by taking his son Isaac to the mountain that he might sacrifice him to the Lord.  And as Abraham is considering what must have been the horror of that thought, that he would put to death his son, in hope that God would raise him up again from the dead in order to keep his promises to Abraham, he turns to his servants and says, in Genesis 22:5, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.”  

Can you conceive of the word worship being used to convey the idea that you would offer up your son in obedience to the Lord in a sacrifice?  And yet that is the context of the word worship.  And I would suggest that sacrifice is what God requires of us in worship today.  Consider Romans 12:1,”Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, [which is] your spiritual service of worship.”

So the author of Hebrews says, it was fitting for God, from whom are all things, and to whom are all things, to perfect the captain of their salvation through suffering.  Why was it fitting?  Because Hebrews 9:22 says that  without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. Because before the grace of God could be expressed, the justice of God had to be satisfied. Thus it was fitting that Jesus had to pay the ultimate price for our transgressions, so that we might receive the grace of God.  God couldn’t and wouldn’t wink at sin.  God didn’t stop counting our sins in the church age.  He just counted them against Jesus.  He punished Jesus so that we might be made righteous and holy.  So that we might become adopted into the family of God.

Notice that word “perfect.”  In no way does that infer that Jesus was not perfect.  He was perfect in all things, without sin, blameless, otherwise He could never be the spotless Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.  But perfect in this sense means complete.  He completed our salvation by becoming obedient unto death.  He completed the Father’s plan, He was faithful.  He persevered even unto death. He added something to His nature which made Him the complete, perfect Savior.  And that was human nature.  He became like us, that we might be made like Him. That we might be His brothers and sisters in God’s family.

And that leads us to another characteristic of worship which is presented here in this passage. 

Jesus is gathering us into worship as God’s family.  “For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren,.” We are all of the same human family, so Jesus is not ashamed to call them (that is, us) brethren. He could not be our brother unless He was also human like us.

So that is what He means when the author quotes from Isaiah, “I will put my trust in Him.”  Jesus put His trust in God, that because of His righteousness He would not allow His holy One to see decay, that God would raise Him from the dead.  So we as His brothers, put our trust in God as well, that God will raise us from the dead because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ which He applied to us.

The next verse is another quote from Isaiah; “Here am I” says Jesus, “and the children you have given Me.”  The church of Jesus is designed to become family.  The principal perspective of  New Testament worship is that the church is a family.  That is how we impact one another, as family. We are to love one another as we love a family member.   Worship is the assembly of the family of God.   

We are coming to God our Great King, in all HIs glory, but we are coming as HIs children.  Accepted into the family of God by the atonement of Jesus Christ on our behalf.  Church programs can not change us, but our adoption changes us. Col.1:13 “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.”  We have become children of God. Made like Jesus, with His nature, clothed in HIs righteousness, conformed to HIs image.

And that act of being conformed to His image is indicated in the phrase, “sanctified.” Sanctification is essential for worship.  I think it is really better to read it, “For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one…”  Jesus sanctifies us, but we are being sanctified.  Sanctification is a progression.  We are justified by faith in Jesus Christ.  But we are sanctified, or set apart to righteousness in obedience to our profession, as we follow in the footsteps of Jesus.  Eph. 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

Sanctified means to be consecrated, holy, set apart for service to God.  It was used in the temple worship to describe vessels used in service to the Lord which were first sprinkled with blood, and then set apart to only be used for holy service.  That is what we are to be; holy to the Lord. Set apart, consecrated.  We are no more to be consumed with common things, worldly things, but to be set apart for good works. 

Going back to Romans 12, after it says we are to present our bodies to the Lord for service, which is our acceptable service, it then follows, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”   Our worship then requires sanctification, being set apart from the world, to be ministers of God.

Not only does Jesus sanctify us for worship, but Jesus leads us in our worship.  The writer quotes from Psalm 22. “I will proclaim your name to my brethren, In the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.”  Notice first that our relationship to Jesus is emphasized again. Jesus did not divest himself of his humanity because he had finished his work on earth.  He was raised in that humanity, and ascended to heaven in his humanity, and remains in his humanity that he might forever be our brother. 

And then notice two things in this verse that Jesus does to lead us in worship.  He proclaims or preaches the name of God to His church, and Jesus leads the singing in the congregation. The word congregation there is the Greek word “ekklēsia” which is the word we get our word church from.  It means “called out ones.”  Ties right in with being sanctified, doesn’t it?  We are called out from the world, into the adoption of sons, that we might be the family of God.  And in that family, Jesus leads us in worship of God.  His word is proclaimed, and HIs songs are sung.

It’s interesting to remember that the songbook of Jesus was the Psalms.  That is what the book of Psalms was for the Jews, it was their hymnbook.  And everywhere you turn in the New Testament the Psalms are being quoted or referred to.  Jesus quoted the Psalms extensively.  

Paul said be filled with the Spirit as you are singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.   Our access to understanding the emotional life of Jesus is found in the Psalms.  This is where David expresses Christ’s personality and His emotions. Consider this Psalm that Hebrews is quoting, Psalm 22.  We find Jesus quoting from this Psalm while suffering on the cross.  Vs.1, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?”  The whole Psalm goes on to describe the sufferings of the cross. It’s interesting that the author just finished saying it was fitting for Jesus to have suffered, and then quotes from this Psalm to show our relationship to Him.

What’s important for us to remember about the Psalms is that they are scripture.  And so though we don’t often sing the Psalms today, but it remains that when we sing songs, we need to be singing scripture, and teaching doctrines of the gospel, even as the Psalms do.

I’m afraid that all too often our popular songs we sing in the church today do not really reflect the complete gospel as taught in the Psalms.  Some folks must think that for a song to be praise to God, it must be joyful and upbeat.  But I would suggest that is not what a study of the Psalms teach. The Psalms express worship in all aspects of life; not only in exuberance and cheerfulness, but also in fear, anxiety, heartbreak, loneliness, brokenness,  and repentance.  Unfortunately the church has abandoned singing the songs that Jesus sang.  But ironically the author of Hebrews talks so much about the new and better era of the church, but uses the Psalms to tell us about Jesus.

In God honoring worship, not only is Jesus the worship leader, but Jesus does the preaching of the word.  “I will tell of your name to my brothers.” In the preaching of the gospel it is Jesus himself who speaks.  In the power of the Spirit of Christ, Jesus preaches as He is preached. Romans 10:14 “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?” 

It is oxymoronic that we can claim to worship God without the preaching of the word of God.  1Cor. 1:21 “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.”  To know God, is to worship God.  Jesus proclaimed the name of God means that He proclaimed the attributes of God, the wisdom of God, the plan of God. 

In Ephesians 2, Paul says that Christ preached to those who were near, and those who were far off. Those near were those who heard Him, those far away are those who heard the apostles preaching. For instance, Christ preached in Ephesus through the preaching of Paul.

Another aspect of worship is that Jesus delivers us from the power of sin and death and the devil. [Heb 2:14 “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.”  We can’t worship the Lord if we are held captive by Satan.  

David said in another Psalm, “if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.”  Our bondage to sin keeps us from fellowship with God, which is the heart of worship. Jesus died on  the cross not only to deliver us from the penalty of sin, which is death, but also the power of sin. Romans 6:8-11 “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.  For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

The second part of this principle is found in our text in vs15, “and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”  Sin is addictive, is it not?  All sin has an addictive quality to it.  And whatever you are addicted to, you are enslaved to.  The unsaved person lives a life of sin because they believe this life is all that they can count on.  “Eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”  The theme song of the 60’s generation was expressed by a band called the Grassroots, with a song called “Let’s live for today.” Sha la la la la la live for today, Sha la la la la la live for today, And don't worry 'bout tomorrow, hey“ Live for today.  That’s the motto of the world.  As John Lennon said, imagine there is no heaven, there is no eternal life.  Get as much as you can because you only have one life and it’s going fast.  But Christ has come to show us a better way, a way to eternal life, a way to be set free from the lies of the devil.

The final aspect of worship is that Jesus has come to help us in our need.  The goal of worship is not to meet our needs, but the wonder of worship is that when we worship Jesus, He also meets our needs.  Vs16 “For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendant of Abraham.”  I said last week that angels are not offered salvation.  Those angels who rebelled against God are condemned to eternal punishment.  But God has made it possible to reconcile man who rebelled to come to Him.  

And specifically that is those who are descendants of Abraham.  We are told in the scriptures that to be a descendant of Abraham is to be of the faith of Abraham. Galatians 3:7 “Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham.”

Jesus is able to help us because He is One of us, He is fully human and fully God.  He is able to help us because He suffered in all things as we have suffered, yet without sin.  Vs17 says, “Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.  For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.” 

When we come to Jesus in worship, believing in Him as our Lord and Savior, coming to Him in our time of need, in our time of loneliness, or abandonment, or suffering, or sickness, or temptation, or depression, or anxiety, coming to Him no matter what the trouble may be, we can find in Him an ever present help in time of need.  He is able to empathize with our weaknesses, having experienced the same temptations and trials of humanity that we experience.  Yet because He is also the sinless Son of God, our great champion who has defeated the enemies of mankind,  He is able to help us, to be our faithful High Priest, to be our Mediator.  Because of the surpassing greatness of His atonement, God has adopted us as sons, and we share in the inheritance of sons, even in the inheritance of Jesus Christ.  

Romans 8:32 “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”  We have a tremendous inheritance, in which God has promised good to us, He has promised life to us, even eternal life, and an eternal inheritance in glory with God.  

The final question for you today in light of all this, is are you a son or daughter of God?  Have you been made holy and righteous through faith in Christ Jesus?  Have you received the adoption that is offered as children of God?  Worship of God is only possible as we have been made holy by faith in what Jesus has accomplished for us.  Trust in Him today as your Savior and Lord, that you might be made a child of God and receive all that God has desired for us.