Transcription
Open your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 3. Hebrews 3. We started out in our Part 1 of "Jesus Christ, the All-in-One." You're going to see tonight even more of how that is true as we pick it up in Part 2 of that same title. We are in Hebrews chapter 3, verses 1 through 6. I'll read the odd-numbered verses, if you'll pick up on the even-numbered verses. A wonderful, powerful, deep portion of scripture.
Hebrews 3, verse 1: "Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus."
Yep, verse 3: "For this one—notice this capital 'O' on 'one'—is speaking of Christ, has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house." It's awesome.
Verse 5: "And Moses indeed was faithful in all His—or God's—house as a servant for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward." Wow.
Father, we pray now, speak to us, Holy Spirit. We've got our Bibles open. Jesus, You promised that wherever Your name would be exalted, the Spirit of God would be there to teach us. First John tells us that we we need no man to teach us, for the Spirit will teach us. We have that anointing that John spoke about. So, Holy Spirit, instruct us in the word about Jesus Christ. We give You, Lord, our hearts in this time gladly. In Jesus' name, and all God's people said, Amen.
You can be seated. Church, I want to dive right into this with the time that we have. And, uh, such an important part of scripture. And very quickly, you guys, look to the screens. This is where we, uh, started last week. We ran through this. We looked at the first argument was found in verses 1 and 2. And that is regarding Jesus Christ being our, our all-in-one. That is that He is the sacrifice, He is the priest, He is the mediator, He's the redeemer. He's everything rolled up in one. We saw that it's all rooted in the fact that God loves us. That, number one, we saw that His plan for us is love. And we talked about the, the danger of you and I just brushing off that truth. Yeah, yeah, God loves me. Of course, God loves me. That's what He's supposed to do is love me. God's love. And we take it for granted. We better. We need to be careful about that.
So we looked also in the support of that love. That we're adopted. We found out that we're adopted into the forever family of God in verse 1. We learned in verse 1 also that we have a friend in heaven above. That it is the, the Lord Jesus Christ, who in John 17 announced to us. He said that He not only had the little flock that was in front of them, but there's others that will be added to the flock. That's us. And that He would be the one that from that time forward, as He would be heading back to heaven, that He says, "From this time forward, I call you friend." The magnitude of that, that Almighty God would speak to us and call us friend. And I said something, and I'm going to say it again. I just, I love the fact that He said it. That I don't have to make that up. I don't like walking around saying, "God's my friend." You know, I get really, I have to tell you, there's not much that offends me. But when I saw, when I hear somebody say, "Oh yeah, man, I, I know God. He's the," I'm actually, I remember somebody saying, "Yeah, He's the big dodger in the sky." And I cringed because God would never be a dodger. But to talk like that, I actually think that's a form of blasphemy to lower God to that level of, "Yeah, He's the big angel, the big, the big dodger, the big ram in the sky." No, don't even talk like that. No. He's not. Yeah. But you know, if we're friends, you know, I don't think I'd put it that way. If God says to His followers, "I call you friend," enjoy it. Receive it. Hug that truth and hang on. But don't treat them common. Be very careful about that. He is your friend. He is in heaven. Uh, He's also the eternal God. And, um, in a real, true sense, we are to have a reverential awe. That is a fear, a good fear, not to be afraid of God, but to fear His might, His holiness, and His awesomeness. My goodness, did you see the sunset tonight? It only lasted for a moment. It's very short. He did that. He just did that. He did that for fun. We cannot do that.
We also learned in verse 2 last time that His, uh, His commitment to us was and is complete. God is not going to go back on His word. He's not going to change His mind. And we saw that powerfully so. Church, here's where we jump back in now. We pick it up at that portion. It says in verse 2, "that who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was faithful in all of His house." Here in the scripture, friends, and listen, my Jewish friends, be patient with me as I tell you this. Because in the Jewish world, nobody's greater than Moses. Moses is it. I understand that. Look, I got to tell you, if Jesus wouldn't have showed up, and if there was no New Testament fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies, we would all agree with you. The buck stops with Moses. He's probably the most revered individual in the entire world of all time. Because Muslims revere Him, of course, Christians revere Him, Jews revere Him. He's the great lawgiver. If you go to Washington D.C., there's several locations where Moses is prominently acknowledged. One of them, by the way, is in the Supreme Court. In the Supreme Court, when those nine justices sit there, right in the middle of the room, opposite them, they've got to look at his face. His face is right in the middle. And it's Moses looking at the Supreme Court justices. Did you know that? Have you ever been in the Supreme Court? I mean, you know, you don't want to go to court. I wasn't, I didn't go to court there. I was on a tour. And Moses was there. I was happy to know that. But Christ, Moses was amazing. But Jesus Christ is better.
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Moses was faithful. Jesus Christ is more faithful. Moses experienced God face to face like no other man in all of human history. Jesus is God come to man. Moses is the one who said, "Listen, friends, Moses himself said, 'There is a prophet that God will send you in the future. Him you will listen to.'" That was a statement made by Moses signifying that there's a greater than Moses coming, right out of Moses' mouth. That's a huge statement. To my Jewish friends, powerful statement, tremendous. Listen, remember this now. As we look at this, we ended right at this portion of scripture. I want to pick it up right where we ended. If you were here last week, it's Romans chapter 10, verses 11 to 13.
"For the scripture says"—that's the Old Testament reference. When the, when, uh, the New Testament says, "the scriptures say," that's the Old Testament. So, "the scriptures say, 'Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.'" Verse 12: "But there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him." Verse 13: "For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be what, church?" Saved. That promise was never given through Moses or of Moses. You can call upon Moses, but he cannot save you. Agreed? Even, listen, even if you're a kosher Jew, a, a Jew tonight that understands his word, you know that Moses never claimed salvation would come through him. He was the grand custodian of giving the law. And we are so eternally grateful for that.
The Bible also tells us regarding scripture and its consistency. Listen to this. Acts chapter 16, verse 25. There the Bible tells us that at midnight, Paul and Silas were praying. Because that's what you do when you get arrested. They were arrested and taken to jail. And they're praying and singing hymns to God. And the prisoners were listening to them. Can you imagine? Got all these prisoners there, bound up, and these two guys start singing songs. And they're praying. I love the fact that they were praying, and then they broke out in song. That's a good chronology. That's what usually happens.
Verse 26: "And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's chains were loosed." Can you imagine? This is obviously a supernatural event.
Verse 27: "And the keeper of the prison, so that night, that poor jailer that was head, uh, duty that night, awaking from the sleep, uh, and seeing the prisoner doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself." He's a smart guy. Because if Rome would have gotten a hold of him for those prisoners getting loose, it would have been a very, very slow, painful death. This guy is saying, "Oh my gosh, this happened on my watch, and I'm not going to fall into the hands of my superiors. I'm going to be merciful and do this myself," is what he's thinking.
Listen to what happens. "And Paul called with a loud voice, saying to him, 'Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.'" Then he called for a light, and ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. And he brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" Every, listen, if you're not saved tonight, you need to be asking that. "What must I do to go to heaven? What do I need to know? What do I need to do? Tell me, tell me." Here's the answer.
"So they said, 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.'" Watch this. "You and your household."
Verse 32: "Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house." What does that mean? When you get saved, don't be surprised if your husband gets saved, or your wife gets saved, or your kids get saved, or your parents get saved. It doesn't mean if you get saved, they're saved. It means that if you really get saved, you're going to open your mouth about Jesus and tell people. You're going to be lit up to say, "Listen, I have a Redeemer. I've got a Savior, and you need to hear about Him." And when that reality takes hold of you, you actually, in your personality, right? And I don't, I'm not asking you all to jump up and shoot your mouth off somewhere, but according to your personality, be you, but let God speak through you. Amen? Right. That's what He wants to do. He wants to use you wherever you are.
Well, number two, to this, is in verses 3 to 5. And that is, His ministry toward us is superior than Moses. It's superior. Jesus' ministry is superior. We look at it this way. Look at verse 3: "Superior because of His position." "It's just for this one has been," or I like to say, "is counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He that is God, who built the house, has more honor than the house." I like that. I like the way that goes.
Now, I don't know about you, but in my mind, I thought about homes, houses, uh, the beauty of them. It depends, you know. But you know, it used to be, anyway, I've been there in years, don't plan on ever going back. But, uh, the last time we had friends come in from, uh, out of country, they would take us to, "Holy, we want to see those, the stars' homes." Look, I don't know if any native Californian has ever done that. It's not recommended. But they insisted. And it's just, anyway. So everybody's gawking at these homes. And those homes came into existence because literally the architectural design. I had a chance, I, um, I'll be careful because I don't know how the world is right now. I had a chance to fly with a certain law enforcement agency, uh, and with that agency, um, we were flying over some, some renowned homes in the Malibu, L.A. area. And so this house is this person's house, this house is that person's house, this house is, we don't know what happens in that house. That's why we're flying over this house. But what freaked me out was some of these homes where it's not the house that, that blew my mind. It's how did the, how did the person think that up? And the landscaping. When you look down from above, the landscaping is, how do they know how to plant that like that? And those things like that. You don't go running up and talk to the house about how great it looks. You want to know who the contractor was. You want to know who the architect was. You want to know who the landscape designers were, right? You don't honor the house when you're impressed by the house. You want to say, "Wow, who built that?"
Moses built a house, so to speak, as Israel as a nation in the law. You could only, though, in his part, be a servant of that house. Moses couldn't own the house. Moses was a servant in the house because Israel belonged to God. But that's not true about Jesus. Jesus not only owns Israel, He owns Canada, and California, and He owns it all. And He's the architect, He's the builder, He's the designer of all that's material. But it gets better than that. He is the architect and the builder of God's house. What is God's house? Well, I got news for you. Look around. This is not God's house. Oh, are you deflecting to, like, Notre Dame? No. Are you deflecting to St. Paul's? Or maybe St. Peter's Cathedral? Nope. The Crystal Cathedral? No. What I'm saying is that the house that Jesus built is not only the church. When I say church, it ain't made of stone and metal. It's you. The church is the house that He built. And don't you love the fact that at Caesarea Philippi, up in the north of Israel, Jesus said to the disciples, "I tell you this, the gates of hell shall not prevail against My church." And that had nothing to do about a building. You could put a, a cannonball through a church building and knock it down and turn it into dust. It doesn't affect God's church if it's a structure. It's man's church. The church of Joe, you know, if Joe built it, then it's the church of Joe, or Fred, or Barney. It's that's their church. But Jesus's church is a living, breathing organism. It's an entity because it's made up of all of you. Every day, everything that you and I do in our lives, in our callings and vocations, God's got His people everywhere. Man, I'm so grateful for that. Everywhere. Don't lose heart, Christian. I know the world looks like it's just absolutely gone crazy, and it has gone crazy. But God's people are everywhere. And He sees through that. Spectacular.
But the position of Christ being the very architect of it all, from Genesis to Revelation, you see the signature of God in the scriptures. Matthew chapter 13, we'll read this together. Matthew 13, verses 53 to 57: "Now it came to pass when Jesus had finished these parables that He departed from there. And when He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, 'Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works?'" It's not because they didn't know Him. They knew about Him. But what they were now hearing was off the charts awesome. And I love this. I hope you do too. They said, because they were puzzled, "Wow, what's going on? Is this not the carpenter's son? Is not His mother called Mary?" Okay, my dear Catholic friends, hang on now. I know you've never read this before. "And His brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas—not the bad Judas, this is the good Judas—and His sisters." Jesus had at least two sisters. Are you aware of that? I said, I don't get off on that, but I'm just telling you, Jesus had these are His, these are His, uh, stepbrothers and sisters mentioned in scripture. Have, is it, is it equity to say sibling or no? Is it siblings? Is that good enough? So these are, um, let's put it this way. They got the same mom. They got different dads. Are they not all with us? "Where then did this Man get all these things?" So they were offended at Him because He spoke truth. They didn't recognize who He was. They had somehow let the scandalous rumors for 30 years get out of hand, or get away from their remembrance, which was His mom was found to be pregnant before marriage, hello. And this guy was born in Bethlehem. And there's all these rumors about back then, 30 years ago, all these angels lit up the sky. They had forgotten all that, or they didn't take it seriously. Now they're saying, "Who is this guy?" And I love the fact that He's the son of the carpenter, as they view Him. He said, "Yeah, that's a reference to Joseph, right?" Yes, it is. But can I push it a little bit? In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. You want to talk about carpentry? God Himself is not only the carpenter, He's the architect. And listen, if you're not a believer today, and God, I'm just going to lay this out to you. Look around at stuff. Find stuff. Find something that has no design to it, that has no purpose to it. You'll find only one thing that does not have purpose to it. It will be something really dumb that man made up. Are you with me? I'm pausing for a fact. Everything that God has made has purpose, and it has His fingerprints on it. Everything. Man scribbles on things. God doesn't scribble. For Him to do what He did tonight with that sunset, arranging the angle of the sunlight to hit the clouds that way, causes the colors to take on the colors that they did. Where were some parts of the sky gray at the same time, other parts were orange, while some parts were pink and purple? God did that. The Bible tells us that we should give God praise because we are fearfully and wonderfully made. His very position. Yes, He's the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Yes, to all of that, of course. But the very fact that He is greater than the house. Moses was a servant in the house that he served in. Jesus is the architect and the creator of the very house that you and I are.
Look at verse 4: "Superior because of His pedigree." "For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God." You can circle that and have a wonderful theological discussion tonight into the wee hours of the morning, just on that verse alone. Verse 4. That verse, there's no way to unpack it other than this way. No matter who you might be, I don't care what seminary you go to, I don't care what degrees you have, you start working on verse 4, and you've got to all come to the same conclusion. And if you don't, you're in violation of the scripture. How's that? And it is this: Whoever built this stuff, and whoever the scripture is talking about right here in the context, is none other than the architect, who is none other than the one that's being compared to Moses, who is none other than God. We don't run around as followers saying, "Jesus is God. Jesus is God." To stir you up. It's a fact. Jesus said that when the Holy Spirit comes to minister, He will lead you into all truth, and He will tell you and remind you of all things that I have spoken. Isn't that awesome?
This is something for you to do later. It's not in the notes, but I'll just suggest for you to do it later. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. When you talk about pedigree, there's a lot of incredible, deep things about why there's four Gospels. There's a remarkable reason why there's four Gospels. But one of the things is this: Matthew. Matthew represents the kingship of Jesus throughout the Matthew's Gospel. It's all about Jesus being the King. The Old Testament passages that are cited by Matthew, of course, under the tutorship and the authorship of the Holy Spirit, it's all about His kingship. Matthew speaks about the King. What comes after Matthew? Mark. Matthew has a genealogy. Mark does not. Mark's the shortest Gospel with the most amount of miracles recorded. Why? Because in Mark's Gospel, Jesus is referred to as not the King. That's Matthew's business. Mark records Jesus as the servant. The servant. So Jesus performs more miracles in Mark's Gospel, shortest Gospel, most miracles. Jesus goes about serving the brokenness of humanity. In a sense, Jesus was the one pulling the load of man's brokenness and bringing in healing. So, genealogy in Matthew? No genealogy in Mark. Why? Because servants don't have genealogies. What's the next one? Luke. Luke has a genealogy. Luke records Jesus throughout the entire book as being the Son of Man. The Son of Man. Connected with Jesus. Luke is most concerned about Jesus's humanity and divinity at the same time. By the way, does anybody know that, uh, what occupation, what was Luke's degree in? A medical doctor. He became Paul's medical doctor and traveled on his ministry's ministry journeys. Luke uses more medical, scientific terms from the first century in his Gospel, of course, because he was an M.D., than anybody else. But he's got, he's got Jesus's pedigree or genealogy listed. Matthew does. Mark doesn't. Luke does. What's the next Gospel? John. So, watch this. John presents Jesus Christ as God. And John's Gospel has a pedigree or lineage. So, Matthew's Gospel presents him with his lineage. Luke's Gospel presents him with his lineage. And John presents him as being a direct descendant, made man, from God. It's just direct. By the way, this is fun. Before the throne of God, day and night, are these angelic creatures, Seraphim. And in front, they listen, they have, they have a head, but they have four faces. Is that awesome? And by the way, when they move, watch this. When they move, it says in Ezekiel that when they move in the presence of God, what they never turn left or right. All they do what they do is that if they want to go left, this face takes them this way. If they want to go back, that face takes them that way. In each direction. Are you with me in that heavenly realm? Those Seraphim, those remarkable creatures, are in the presence of God reflecting His glory. And note this: The Bible says that one of them, or each of them, have one face on one side of a man, on the other side is the face of an eagle, on the other side is a face of an ox. We're going to freak out when we get to heaven. I'm going to tell you right now. Nobody's going to be going, "Oh, is it almost over?" You're going to be freaking out when you get there. And on the other side is the face of a lion. Four faces, one head. Four faces. Why four faces? Four Gospels. What's the connection? Each of the faces represent the four Gospels. Matthew represents Him as King, the Lion from the tribe of Judah. Mark, the servant, the ox serves, pulls the weight of broken humanity, as it were. The man, Luke, Jesus is the Son of Man, the face of a man, reflecting the face of Christ. And the eagle, John's Gospel is the one that refers to Him as God. And throughout scripture, there's this concept in the Old Testament, "I will bear you up," for example, "on eagle's wings." And isn't that a spectacular representation? And I don't know why I brought that up. The word "pedigree" got me going down that route. So, I'm sorry for that.
Colossians chapter 1, verse 15, tells us this: "That He is the image of the invisible God. Jesus is the firstborn or preeminent one over all creation." This word "firstborn" doesn't mean there's going to be a second born. The word "firstborn" here, in the, for us, means the one that has received everything. It's the one that has inherited everything from His Father. Well, why is that true about Jesus? If He's the Creator? Because He came to earth as a man. He humbled Himself, became like us.
Verse 16: "For by Him, are you guys sitting down? Listen to this. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible." So, not only angelic things that are invisible to us, but think of things of the subatomic world. Yesterday, I was driving, and I don't know if I should tell you this because it's just too, I was having a great time driving with my hand out the window. And as you move your hand like this, remember, I've been doing this since I was about four. But you know, when you're driving, and if you're going fast enough, you know, if you move your hand, if you notice your hand goes up and down like, and it's, and I'm thinking, and I did this. I don't even know where I was going. It wasn't even important to me. This was important to me. And here's what was fun about it is if you put your hands straight out like this, you know, your hand goes back. And I was thinking, that is so awesome. It's so awesome. You know, come on. What's pushing my hand back? How do you know? How do you know? How do you know the air is pushing my hand back? You can't see it. Yeah, you can feel it. But something I couldn't see was pushing my hand back. See, we deal with this stuff every day, but we never stop long enough to say, "God, You're awesome." God, You flirt with us constantly about this invisible world. And those are just particles that we can't see. I've often told you that when you see an airplane go by, don't think that airplane is just, "Oh my gosh, look at that." It's just, "Oh my gosh." Don't worry about it. It's sitting, it's sitting on molecules that you can't see. It's amazing. Jesus did all that. He's the creator of it all. Just because you can't see it, God says, "I made it. I did that." Absolutely tremendous.
Verse 5, here in the book of Hebrews 3: "And Moses indeed was faithful in all his," or God's, "house as a what, church?" Servant. "Moses was a servant for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward." Meaning, like we learned on Sunday, things that are to come. These things are samples, types. These things are, uh, the shadow of the substance that would be coming. Moses was God's messenger, obviously, to call Israel out of Egypt. And he was faithful at doing that. Jesus was God's messenger, sent to earth to call us out of this world. The thing is, Moses points to the law, gives us the law, and that's as far as he can go. But he was faithful. And among the house of the Hebrews, he was the greatest. There's no doubt. We agree. But we must confess that there's one greater. It's the one Moses worked for. Moses and the burning bush experience. You remember what happened there? Moses draws closer up on the mount, and he draws near. And it's so cute because Moses is writing this, and he records it. And he says, "He sees a burning bush and he's curious." So he goes, he's got, he says to himself, "I have to see what this is." That's exactly what you would have said. "What this bush is burning, but it's not being consumed. What is this?" He goes there, and the voice of God speaks to him. And fast forward, God tells him, "Now you go down and tell the children of Israel who I am." And he goes, "That's the point. Who are You?" And he, and God says to Moses, "You tell them, 'I AM THAT I AM' sent you." Say that's weird. No, it's not. It is weird. It sounds weird in English, of course. The "I AM THAT I AM." The Greek is "Ego Eimi." It's the self-contained, eternal, existing one. "I AM the Becoming One." You go down and tell them that I'm eternal, and I become what you need. You go tell them that I'm all-in-one. You go tell them that. And Moses went down the mountain and told them who he had met up there and called the children out of Israel, led them across the wilderness, and God did all these great things. And the Bible says that God met with Moses face to face, unlike any other man that He had ever spoken to or would ever speak to again. I didn't understand that because the Bible does say that you cannot see God in reality face to face and live. Somehow, God put a filter either on Himself or on Moses' face. And even that wasn't enough. Because do you remember when Moses came down the mountain? He's glowing. His face is glowing. Like maybe those angels in His presence. Moses' face is glowing. And he didn't want to see, he didn't want the children of Israel to see the glory diminishing. That's not amazing? It's like, "Oh my goodness, the light is not as bright now since I left God." So he put a sack over his head so that the children of Israel, and when he would be in their presence, wouldn't see the glory diminishing after being in the presence of God. Hey, church, that's not all typology there, man. That's a real, that happened to him. If it happened to him, I'm not talking about you and I getting on our knees extra early tomorrow morning to get a suntan. I'm talking about if you and I seek Him early and seek Him more, I think spiritually in the invisible realm, I think we'll glow unexplainably to others. And it has to be that way without us knowing about it. So let the bag be over our own face so we don't see what God's doing through us, lest we get puffed up about it. Because you know how we are. "God just used me. I'm so amazing." Well, I hope you enjoyed it, because that was the last time He's gonna use you. You know, remarkable. But there was no doubt about it. He was so faithful as a servant.
Look at also this verse 5: "Superior Jesus is because of His priority." "Look at verse 5: 'And Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant,' as we just read a moment ago, 'as a testimony of those things which would be spoken of afterward.' But listen to John chapter 1, verse 16: 'And of His faithfulness we have all received, listen, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.'" Man, that's good news. That's a great verse to keep close at hand. It would be Jesus. It'd be like Jesus saying to you, "I have done everything for you that you need." And if you've read John's Gospel seven times, in John's Gospel, I say to you, "I AM." Just like I said to Moses in the burning bush. Did you know that? That's why, by the way, in John's Gospel, when Jesus said, "I AM," the Bible says, because you know, listen, people will say, "Jesus never claimed to be God." Oh, you are so wrong. You are so incredibly wrong. Because Jesus said that He was the "I AM." And the Pharisees heard Him say it. They flipped out. And they grabbed stones to kill them. And, and you could just see them. They look, good rocks in Israel. It's crazy because whenever it rains, it like they make rocks grow. That's where they grow rocks in Israel. So they didn't have to go far. Jesus says, "I AM." "The light of the world." Remember what He said on the mount? "Go down and tell the children of Israel, 'I AM whatever you need.'" We need light. People, we don't do good in the dark. We're either terrified of it, or we do stuff in it that we ought not to be doing. We don't do, we don't do well in the dark. He's the light of the world. He puts His light in us. He says, "I am the light of the world." And that's it. And they picked up rocks and they went to kill Him. And He said, "Wait. For what reason are you going to kill me?" "Is it the miracles?" And you could see them like this. Watch, everybody. You can see them with rocks. "Oh, the miracles?" "No, we, those miracles are amazing." "No, that's not why we're going to kill you." They said, "We're not going to kill you because of the miracles. We're going to kill you because you are a man, and you have declared yourself to be God. That's why we're going to kill you." So don't say, or don't anybody tell you that Jesus never claimed to be God. He claimed over and over again. And in John's Gospel, at least seven times, He said, "Listen, before Abraham was, I AM." His self-contained, eternal God. That's who the Jesus of the Bible is. Awesome. His priority, greater than Moses, tremendous.
Colossians chapter 2, verse 16: "So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ." You all hear that verse? Why do you guys go to church on Sunday? You're supposed to go to church on Saturday. Who says that? You're supposed to keep the Sabbath. Well, a Jew just told me in Colossians that the days don't matter. The point is, you should take a Sabbath. That's the point. Think about it. Are you with me? So, no, no, I keep the, I, I do this. Listen, God bless you. Knock yourself out. That's super great, fantastic. But don't make it some religious order. The scripture says, "Don't anybody judge you regarding Sabbaths or new moons or festivals. You've got to do this to be right." The Bible says, "No, you don't." Those things are shadows of the reality that's to come. And that reality, look at it. It says, "The substance is Christ." Man, that has set you free. And by the way, it's pretty cool because Christ sets you free, then you've got the right eyes to look at those types of things. For example, Paul the Apostle said regarding the Sabbath, he says, "One man esteems this day higher. This man esteems the other." Paul says, "Good for them." Paul said of himself, "I esteem every day the same." I, I, I want to go to his class. You want to know why that's awesome? Because Paul viewed every day as though the Lord had given you that day, and this is the day that the Lord has made. You should rejoice and be glad in it. Every day. God is God to the moment. He's not limited to the day. The point is, you should Sabbath. Did you know that? So, like, for example, Monday is my day off. That's my Sabbath. Whatever your day is that you really, you're supposed to take a day. I hope you take a day. We're Americans, uh, at least we, we're famous for not taking a day. We barely take vacations. Europeans think we're nuts. They get a month off, and we'll take three days off, and we think, you know, "Wow." As a Christian, my rest, your rest is to be in Jesus 24/7, all the time. You shouldn't be stressing out as a believer about what's going on in the world around you, uh, because God's got this. Listen, I'm telling you, you need to be here. You need to make plans to be here next Wednesday night, and you'll be completely built up and strengthened about, "God's got this."
Friends, uh, the world is swirling right now. There's no one on the planet, and he knows it. There's nobody on the planet that can stop Vladimir Putin right now, and he knows it. And so he's pushing people around in Iran, he's pushing people around in Lebanon, he's pushing people around in Syria, he's pushing people around in Ukraine. And today, he picked the fight with Sweden and Finland. Why? Because no, because exactly because he can. Nobody can stop him. And he's going for it, man. So we just announced in Europe, we got, I don't, you know this, we evacuated our embassy personnel and announced all Americans get out quick. And then the President of the Ukraine said today, "Why are you leaving so soon?" What's this? So cute. He goes, "Why are you leaving so soon? We don't see, we have at least maybe four weeks, five weeks before this war." But we're sending, um, we're sending a lot of hardware there right now. We've got ships heading in that direction in the world right now. Did you know that, uh, 200 million dollars? No, no. Is it 200 million or 200 billion? 200 million dollars worth of, is it a B or an M? It's a lot of money. We're sending in the way of armaments and, uh, missiles and defense aircraft are moving into the area. Why? Because the world, NATO believes, Ukraine believes that, uh, will be, or that part of the world will be invaded by Russia momentarily. What if that happens? Uh, listen, Jesus said, "If it happens in the last days, you can expect wars and rumors of wars." That's what it means. Besides, when, oh, it's so late now. We're not going to finish this. So just know this, that God's got this. And you need not fret. If you turn on the news tomorrow, and Russia is invading the Ukraine, and, and maybe even Israel helps out, because Israel is already helping out the Ukrainians right now against Russia, and amen, and many other nations, including this one. You could wake up tomorrow morning, and we're at war. What are you going to do? What are you going to process? What's, what's the thing? Well, this one thing I know, we're not the same America we used to be. So whatever the outcome is going to be, it ain't going to be what you think. God is doing something in the earth. He, he's raising up nations and He's taken nations down. Okay. So are you excited? Are you suggesting He's taking this one down? I am absolutely suggesting that He's taking this one down. He has still, it's not only prophesied in scripture that no nation will stand with Israel in Ezekiel chapter 38 when it's invaded, no nation, that includes the United States. That means somehow the U.S. will have to be so weak or so disabled that it cannot come to Israel's defense. You see, that's impossible. We'll always go to Israel's defense. That's a nice sentiment now, but it's not a reality anymore. And so God is moving nations like a chess player, moose pieces. And there's only a handful of nations that have been given promises that they'll last. And of course, the chief one is Israel. Amen. God says there's going to be an element of Egypt that will last. God says in scripture, there's going to be an element of Lebanon that will, that will last. Isn't that interesting? God mentions in Isaiah chapter 19, I think, that that when He restores Israel in the millennium, that there's a portion of what was the ancient Assyrian empire will last. But I got news for you. They ain't no America lasting in the Bible. He said, "What are we gonna do?" We're gonna do what we're doing right now. We're gonna trust Him who wrote the book. He's got your life, both physical and eternal, in His hands. Jesus is best. Jesus Christ is the one. And you and I are living at amazing times. Don't fret. Does that mean you should be naive? By all means, no. It's a dangerous world out there now, and you need to be careful about that. You need to be wise. I'm not kidding. You know, don't, don't go into downtown areas right now. It's just crazy. Don't do it. Look at the news. Stay out. And you need to be wise. I'm not just speaking to the, to the men. I'm not being sexist when I say this, because I know that there's many homes represented here tonight that there is no man under the roof. It's just, it's just Mom. You need to be able to defend your little ones. Gee, the Bible says if a man does not provide for his home, he's worse than a non-believer. And we live in a world that's very dangerous right now. And we've watched the news where police officers in Seattle and in Portland, and even Los Angeles, have said that we cannot respond to everything anymore. We just can't get there. We don't have enough. That's a very veiled public announcement saying, "You need to be smart." When you see these things happening, the believer is wise as a serpent. Jesus said, "We are as harmless as a dove." But we are commanded to protect our families and our homes. And we're to always trust God. He's got this.
And we end with this tonight. Do you have that anchor? I'm thinking of a, anybody know what a plumb line is? It's fixed at the end of a string, and it's firm. I mean, you can move it, but you know what? It keeps that string straight and tight. And by it, you can know that what you put up against it is exactly in line. Do you have that in your soul right now tonight? Do you know that? Do you know that that, you and I don't have the answers to everything? We don't have to. I don't understand. But we don't have to understand. But do you have this strength inside you that is not you, where it's God's got this? I'll do everything that is wise. David was wise. He got, prepared himself for battle. Joshua was wise. He prepared himself for battle. A farmer plants his seed, waters it. Why does he water it? Because he expects something to grow. It's not that we just sit there and say, "Oh, wow, the world's gone nuts. Let's go sit on the roof." It's a big roof up there. Let's sit on the roof and wait for Jesus to come. No, you're not going to do that. We are to engage the culture like you're doing. You're to be filled with hope because you should know by now that Jesus Christ died on the cross for you. He's the priest, not the priest down the street or in the cubicle or in the box. You don't need any man on earth to be the one to take care of your sins. Do you understand that? You, you know that's what the Bible teaches, right? That He's the one. And when He takes hold of your life, He takes hold of your home, He takes hold of your mind. He moves in. Can you say tonight personally in your life, as a matter of fact, that Jesus Christ lives in your house? Can you say, as a matter of fact, that He lives inside your heart? If tonight you don't know, or you're hoping, that's not good enough. God's word says, and I quote, "These things have been written unto you that you might know that you have eternal life."
Father, we thank You that in heaven above, we have this One who is the architect of salvation. No man can deny that. This Bible is a message system sent to us, perfect, describing, announcing, foretelling, and fulfilling all things regarding salvation. That You love us, that You died on the cross for us and rose again from the dead. And as we started this message tonight, "All those who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." So, friend, tonight, whoever you may be, will you call upon the name of Jesus? Will you tonight say, "Jesus, just as You showed Yourself to Moses, will You show Yourself to me? And whatever seems right to You, by whatever dynamic, will You reveal Yourself to my heart?" God, I want to meet You. Maybe some of you have been saying that for a long time, "God, I want to meet You. God, I want to meet You." But nothing's happened yet. Yeah, here's the reason why: You cannot come to the Father but through the Son. God said, "You want to meet the Father? You first meet the Son." Let Jesus bring you home.
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Let Jesus tonight take you by the hand and take you to the Father by you simply opening up your heart and your life to Him and asking Him to forgive you and to receive you. He will do it. He'll transform your life. And wonderfully, beautifully, you'll be living here in this world, but you will begin to sense an ongoing separation from this world, minus the anxiety. You'll be here, but you'll start feeling like a stranger here. You'll be here, but you'll be more keenly aware that heaven awaits. We want you to come with us, friend. We want you to turn your face to Him. He's waiting for you.
Lord, I pray that You'd bless these people this night. Watch over them and keep them as they make their way home. Some on their way to work after service. Keep them safe, Father. We give You our nation. It's beyond repair by man, but God, we submit ourselves to You. We thank You for all things. We bless Your holy name.