Music
Amen. Let's sing the song 252, Sweet Hour of Prayer.
Song number 252, Sweet Hour of Prayer.
Let's sing it together on the first.
Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer,
That calls me from a world of care,
And bids me at my Father's throne,
Make all my wants and wishes known,
In seasons of distress and grief,
My soul has often found relief,
And oft escape the tempter's snare,
By Thy return, sweet hour of prayer,
Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer,
Thy wings shall my petitions bear,
To Him whose truth and faithfulness,
Engage the waiting soul to bless,
And since He bids me seek His face,
Believe His word and trust His grace,
I'll cast on Him my every care,
And wait for the sweet hour of prayer,
Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer,
May I thy consolation share,
Till from Mount Pisgah's lofty height,
I view my home and take my flight,
This robe of flesh I'll drop and rise,
To seize the everlasting prize,
And shout while passing through the air,
Farewell, farewell, sweet hour of prayer.
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
Psalm chapter 73, verse 26.
On our inside page, we have our service times.
1030 in the morning for our preaching service on Sunday morning.
Sunday evening, 3.30 p.m.
And Thursday Bible studies at 6.30 p.m.
We're in Hebrews chapter 3 tonight.
And I'm going to try to cover the whole chapter.
Our sowing times are list below.
We had sowing tonight. Anybody have a salvation?
No? Okay.
Well, we were in a very rich neighborhood.
So, I thought there was a couple people to talk.
So, it's kind of nice.
But anyway, thanks for everybody for going out sowing tonight.
And there's some more opportunities tomorrow at 3 p.m.
Saturday at 12.30.
Of course, we have our Sunday sowing at 1.10 p.m.
that meets here in the auditorium.
All the other places are on location generally.
So, if you're running late, please make sure you
let the group leader know in the WhatsApp group.
And if you look at our praise report,
you can see the salvations, baptisms, and atensils from last week.
And so, Ian has seven baptisms now.
He had another one last week.
And we've had some salvations this week.
How many salvations did we have so far?
Anybody have a tally on that for this week?
Sunday we had two.
Monday was three. That's five. That's it.
Okay. Not like that's it. That's pretty good, right?
So, yeah, that's all.
You know, I'm just kidding.
No, that's great.
So, we're doing really good in January for our sowing
and we'll have some more opportunities before the month's up.
And speaking of that,
we're getting close to the end of our New Testament challenge.
Well, I am anyway. I'm one day away from finishing.
So, I hope everybody's still trying to continue to get that done.
There's going to be a prize at the end.
I know that there's three people have emailed me and said they're done.
That's it.
So, if you've finished, please make sure you email me the church email address.
And we had a nice time with Pastor Burzins here last Sunday.
Preached some really good sermons.
The 17th was the sowing class.
Heard it was a real success.
And, let's see, the 24th is the homeschool activity at Furstenberg Gym.
We're going to rent the gym, excuse me, at 9.15 a.m. for two hours.
So, you need to be there on time.
If you want to get your full two hours in,
please see or tell Ms. Rachel Woods that you're planning on going.
And it's best suited for ages three and up.
So, we don't want little two-year-olds getting hit in the face with basketballs.
It's always a bad look, right?
So, they always think they can play with the big boys and big girls.
But, yeah, it's not a good idea.
So, anyway, you can obviously take them there,
but I would just make sure that you're, you know,
making sure that they're not getting trampled by the older kids.
So, January 28th, we have the viewing of the Preserved Bible.
That's the documentary film that Pastor Shelley made.
And he's just putting the finishing touches on it.
I talked to him tonight, and they're doing a few revisions.
And we should have the film in hand next week.
And we're going to have the viewing on January 28th.
And if you're in the WhatsApp group, then you know where and when.
And if you're not in the WhatsApp group, just talk to me,
and I'll make sure that you get added to the list of those that are planning on going.
So, please see me after church if you plan on going to the viewing.
And I'll just give you a hint. It's not in the afternoon.
So, there's already people whining about the time.
So, hey, it is what it is.
So, it's not like it's at 6 a.m. in the morning or something.
Come on. Come on, people.
Anyway, but some people are from out of town, so it would make it difficult.
But anyway, I'm very excited about the film.
We're going to have, afterwards, we're going to have some testimonies,
maybe some movie reviews or whatever, only positive only.
Pastor Shelley gets enough one-star reviews on his Google page.
He doesn't need ones on his film.
So, anyway, I'm sure it's going to be good.
They spent a lot of time on it, and anything about the Bible is good, amen,
as long as it's correct.
So, correct Bible.
But anyway, so that's coming up.
The 29th is going to be the Pop Blessing meal after the morning service,
and we'll have a men's preaching night.
So, that's not this weekend, but next weekend.
So, the men will be able to preach.
If you're a man and you want to preach, come see me.
If you've never preached at a men's preaching night,
and I'll be happy to allow you to preach,
but there are some rules that we have in place about that,
so I would just want to talk to you about that.
So, anyway, February 11th is the Married Couples Sweetheart Banquet.
That's at 5 p.m. It's an Italian theme,
and so, obviously, we're going to have Italian food.
But if you want to sign up for that,
I don't know if we have a sign-up for that yet,
but we probably, maybe after this weekend, need to put one in the group.
So, hopefully, we have a lot of people that are coming,
but you do have to be married.
That's the prerequisite for being able to come, all right?
Pastor Mahi is going to preach a short sermon that night,
a challenge for married couples,
and we're going to play a game that challenges you even further in your marriage,
which is the Not So Newlywed Game.
So, you know, maybe just do some practice before,
just like, hey, when did we meet? Where did we meet?
You know, what's your favorite ice cream?
You know, just kind of, you know, because we try to pick new things
for people to totally forget about, and, you know, sometimes it gets ugly.
So, just, you know, know your spouse, and you'll do well during the competition.
So, you know, it's always fun, isn't it?
But then, February 12th, Pastor Mahi will be here preaching for us
on both services on Sunday from FWBC LA,
and he'll have his wife and his children with him.
So, it's going to be a blessing to have him up here preaching for us.
That's just in a few weeks, and March 5th through 9th,
we're taking a van down to the Verity Baptist Church First Next-Gen Youth Rally,
and the dates of the rally are the 7th and 8th,
so if you plan on just taking your own children or whatever,
please make sure you sign up.
I think that that's one of the things he really wants people to do is sign up,
and the new IFB is notoriously bad about RSVPing and signing up for things.
Shame on you people. No, I'm just kidding.
But if you're going to go or if you're planning on going,
please let Pastor Mahi know.
I think you just go on his website, and maybe there's a tab for it or something,
and you can just sign up your family that's going.
It's geared for children 13 and up, 13 to 19,
but it's obviously family integrated, so you can bring your whole family.
Just make sure that you realize that kids under 13 are not going to be able to participate in some of the activities.
So anyway, then off in the distance we have the Detroit Sewing Part 2.
So last year it was very successful.
This year we're going to head back and see if we can repeat history and have a great trip.
And so if you're wanting to just go to a place that's very receptive,
then plan on going if you can.
And then May 25th we're going to have a conference here at our church.
It's the King James Conference, and that's going to have Pastor Shelley opening up our first night.
That'll be Thursday night.
Pastor Anderson will be preaching Friday night.
Pastor Jimenez will be preaching Saturday morning.
Pastor Jones Sunday morning will be preaching in the evening.
And that's all I have for the upcoming events.
Obviously we're a family integrated church.
Remember to silence your cell phones and all that good stuff.
You all know the rules.
If your children become too distracting, please take them to the mother-baby room or dad-baby room,
and when they come out they're more than welcome to come back into the service
as long as they're not screaming and crying.
But obviously you can take them out there to do whatever you need.
You know, feed them, change their diaper.
The rooms have comfortable seating, and you can still listen to the sermons and things like that.
And I would just say this.
Please be aware that there are people in there that are still trying to pay attention,
so it's not time to just chit-chat and gab and all that kind of stuff.
So it is a place for training.
Obviously you should be training your children at home, and it's kind of an in-between.
It's for children that are too young to sit in a service without making a big fuss.
Obviously it's a training thing, tool that we use so that they can participate and be in the services.
So anyway, more rules here.
That's pretty much it for that.
And then remember to, I think we have a meal train going for the Ritchie family,
so is that like being delivered here and then they're going to pick it up or something?
No? Okay. Well, you all got it figured out.
Anyway, I just oversee it from afar.
But anyway, I think the meal train is rolling.
And remember to congratulate Evan and Nikki on the birth of Nathan Lasugas Ritchie,
and he was weighing in at seven pounds, eight ounces.
And I think that's all we have for announcements.
Let's go ahead and sing another song, and then we'll receive the offering.
Alright, our next song is song number 374, My Anchor Holds.
Song number 374 in your blue hymn books, My Anchor Holds.
And we'll sing it out together on the first.
Though the angry surges roll on my tempest-driven soul,
I am peaceful for I know, wildly though the winds may blow,
I've an anchor safe and sure that can evermore endure.
And it holds, my anchor holds, blow your wildest then, oh, gale.
On my box so small and frail, by His grace I shall not fail,
for my anchor holds, my anchor holds.
Mighty tides about me sweep, perils lurk within the deep.
Angry clouds or shade the sky, and the tempest rises high.
Still I stand, the tempest shocked, for my anchor grips the rock.
And it holds, my anchor holds, blow your wildest then, oh, gale.
On my box so small and frail, by His grace I shall not fail,
for my anchor holds, my anchor holds.
I can feel the anchor fast as I meet each sudden blast.
And the cable though unseen bears the heavy strain between.
Through the storm I safely ride till the turning of the tide.
And it holds, my anchor holds, blow your wildest then, oh, gale.
On my box so small and frail, by His grace I shall not fail,
for my anchor holds, my anchor holds.
Troubles almost wound the soul, griefs like billows or me roll.
Tempt or seek to lure astray, storms obscure the light of day.
But in Christ I can be bold, I've an anchor that shall hold.
And it holds, my anchor holds, blow your wildest then, oh, gale.
On my box so small and frail, by His grace I shall not fail,
for my anchor holds, my anchor holds.
Amen. Brother Ramon, could you bless the offering for us?
Amen.
Thank you.
Good evening.
If you would turn with me to Hebrews chapter 3.
Hebrews chapter 3 tonight.
As is our custom, we'll read the entire chapter starting in verse 1 of Hebrews chapter 3.
I thought it looked a little blurry.
All right.
Hebrews chapter 3, the Bible reads, wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling,
consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him that appointed him,
as also Moses was faithful in all his house.
For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honor than the house.
For every house is builded by some man, but he that built all things is God.
And Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after.
But Christ as a son over his own house, whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.
Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost sayeth, today if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness.
When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years, wherefore I was grieved with that generation,
and said, They do always err in their heart, and they have not known my ways.
So I swear in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest.
Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.
But exhort one another daily, while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end.
While it is said, Today if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation, for some, when they had heard, did provoke.
Howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses, but with whom was he grieved forty years?
Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness?
And to whom swear he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?
So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
Brother Brandon, would you pray for us?
Father, thank you for the opportunity to encourage us.
I guess we've got Papa John's coming.
We're never going to give it up.
Whoever is at the door, just make sure you deter them.
They might be sent to Tucson or some other church.
Anyway, let's move on with the service here.
So Hebrews chapter 3, the title of the sermon tonight is Jesus is greater than Moses.
As a matter of fact, he's greater than every other person in the Bible.
But that's the title of the sermon and there's a lot of focus on that.
But we're going to take a big chunk of this service to focus on that.
So let's look at verse number 1 where it says,
Wherefore holy brethren, who's it talking to? Save people, right?
Partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.
So notice it says that he's the apostle.
So obviously he had apostles that were under him, but he's the apostle.
There's a difference.
So Paul was an apostle, an apostle.
You know, all the other apostles were apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ,
but basically an apostle just means a messenger sent forth.
And so obviously the apostles were sent forth by Jesus,
but Jesus was sent forth by God the Father, right?
As he says multiple times in the book of John.
And it also says, and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.
So he's not just an apostle, but he's also not an apostle.
He is the apostle and he's also the high priest.
And so in the Old Testament they had high priests that were human beings
and when those guys would die then they would pick another one
based upon their family and lineage and all that stuff.
And they would be the high priest until they died.
So Aaron as the high priest, brother of Moses, was the high priest
and then when he died one of his sons took over and so on and so forth.
But Jesus Christ, you know, the Bible doesn't talk about a high priest coming out of Judah,
but yet that's one of the changes in the New Testament.
The Levitical priesthood is no longer happening.
So there's no longer a sacrifice of animals that needs to be taken place
because Jesus was the lamb that was slain from the foundation of the earth
and when he died for us he was the lamb of God.
And so he's taken on a lot of different titles and names
and so in the first verse it tells us he's the apostle and high priest of our profession.
So look at verse 2, it says,
Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.
So remember this book is being written to the Hebrews and it's being written by the apostle Paul.
And the apostle Paul is trying to help them understand that there's been changes made in the law
and he's trying to go through everything pretty systematically,
but Paul will mention things in one chapter and then bring them up at another chapter
and he does that a lot in the book of Hebrews.
So there's concepts that will be in this chapter that will carry on into other chapters
and then he'll even bring it up again in another chapter after that.
But the main theme of the Hebrews is for the Hebrew people,
the ones that are the remnant or whatever,
that they need to come away from that Old Testament, Old Covenant,
because there's a new covenant when Jesus Christ died and the veil was rent in twain.
And so we live in the New Testament.
So our church focuses on the New Testament.
So that's just, you know, why do we promote the New Testament in the New Year?
Well, because the New Testament's the testament that we live in today.
We're not under the Old Covenant.
Now, a lot of the things that are written in the Old Testament are for our admonition
and things that we can learn. We can learn a lot of spiritual application.
The Old Testament's way bigger than the New Testament.
The New Testament, you know, and especially the book of Hebrews,
tells us a lot of the changes that were made.
So now it's going to compare Christ to Moses in verse 2.
It says, who was faithful to him that appointed him,
as also Moses was faithful in all his house.
And remember, Moses was the one that brought the Old Testament,
really, you know, because you had the book of Genesis,
which explains the patriarchs and things like that,
but when the law was given, who was it given by?
Moses. That was the Old Testament.
So at the time it was going on, it wasn't called the Old Testament
because it didn't get old until we got the New, right?
So, and it says in verse 3,
For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses,
inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honor than the house.
So what is the Bible saying here?
Who built the house? Jesus built the house.
Moses is like basically saying that he's better than Moses because he's God.
That's what it's saying.
He who builded the house hath more honor than the house.
Now obviously today you'll probably know buildings around the world
through architecture and you're like, well that's a famous building.
But you might not necessarily know who the architect of that building was.
You just know that somebody famous did it,
but maybe you're just not up on architecture.
And I'm definitely not one of those people that are up on who built whatever buildings,
but there are some that I know.
And the architect of a house can become more famous than the house itself,
and really it should be more famous,
because the person that build the house should have more honor than the house itself.
But in antiquity we don't learn,
when you think about the Roman Colosseum, who was the architect of that?
Does anybody know?
I didn't think so.
But you know about the Roman Colosseum, don't you?
But obviously things are backwards in this world,
and people here, they want to praise and give honor
to all these different things that men have built,
but really they wouldn't even have the building materials,
the mind to build anything,
the mind to come up with the engineering for these places
if God didn't give them that, because God created all things.
He created the human body, He created man, He created female,
and were curiously wrought by God,
and everything exists because of Him.
And I've already preached that sermon,
but we understand that God is the architect.
I mean obviously the Bible doesn't say architect here,
but whoever builds a house, they are the ones that built it.
It didn't build itself, like the atheists want to say.
It just made itself.
Oh, it just blew up.
A little dot blew up, and here we are.
Now, there is design to this universe that we live in,
and universe means single spoken sentence, by the way.
God said, let there be, and it was.
Amen.
So, there's a lot of famous architects out there today,
and obviously who could name even one modern architect
right now that you know is famous?
Anybody?
I didn't think so, because nobody cares.
But you know what?
God is the one that built all things.
That's what it says.
He has more honor than the house.
Moses was a very famous and well-respected man.
He was faithful in his own house,
and that's the comparison God is giving.
It's helping us to understand that Moses was a great man,
but Jesus is so much greater, he has more glory,
because he's the one that built the house.
There wouldn't be a Moses if it wasn't for Jesus Christ.
It's not like Jesus Christ just came at the end,
and he was kind of just helping Moses out or something.
No, Moses was helping him out.
Jesus called to him from the burning bush, right?
So, anyway, I looked up the architect,
and I remember reading the story about the Vista House,
and the Vista House is a famous building.
It's in the Columbia River Gorge.
Isn't that Crown Point?
Is that what it is?
Okay, so it's called Crown Point.
When you're driving through the gorge on the Oregon side,
you can probably see it from the Washington side also,
but it's just this...
I've never actually been up there,
but is it round?
It's kind of round.
But anyway, this architect,
it used to be like a Catholic monastery or something?
I don't know.
I don't know a lot about it,
but I do know that the guy that built it
was some famous architect.
He was born in Maryland, but he kind of lived in Portland,
and he built some cool places.
I've been to the Heppner Courthouse that he designed.
It's pretty nice.
But obviously, he's just like one famous architect
from around, but you can go...
Buildings are cool to look at.
Sometimes there's some really cool buildings,
and people have brilliant minds
that make these buildings and build them,
and you think about famous buildings
like the Acropolis or the Eiffel Tower.
People design those buildings,
and they're like,
what do you think of when you think of Paris?
You think of the Eiffel Tower, don't you?
Or people that eat frogs.
Anyway, I was going to say something.
I'm going to be nice.
Cheese-eating surrender monkeys.
That's what the British call them.
But anyway, sorry, French people.
I still love you.
So the Sistine Chapel,
it's a very famous building that the Pope
kind of resides in or whatever,
and he was built, it was built by,
who knows who built the Sistine Chapel
or designed it, anybody?
Michelangelo, one of the Ninja Turtles,
one of the four Ninja Turtles,
and then St. Paul's Cathedral
was built by Sir Christopher Wren.
St. Paul's Cathedral isn't as famous,
but I've been to London,
and I took the tour or whatever,
and it's a pretty cool building.
Those things are going to crumble someday,
aren't they?
But famous people made those buildings,
but nobody's greater than God.
So the comparisons like who built the building,
the person that designed and built the building
is better than the building.
Now turn to John chapter five verse 43,
John chapter five verse 43.
So this concept that Jesus is greater than Moses
is spelled out for us in some different places here,
and Moses himself preached Jesus in the Old Testament,
but first we're going to look at what Jesus says
about Moses in the New Testament here.
It says, and he mentioned it multiple times,
but I'm just going to turn to this one.
Verse 43, John chapter five,
it says, I am come in my Father's name,
and you receive me not.
If another shall come in his own name,
him you will receive,
talking about most likely the Antichrist.
You know, they don't want to receive Jesus,
but the Antichrist are going to be like,
oh yeah, come on in, yeah, come to the Holies,
the Holies, yeah, yeah, it's good, all right.
Anyway, it says, verse 44,
how can you believe which receive honor one of another
and seek not the honor that cometh from God only?
Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father.
There is one that accuseth you,
even Moses in whom you trust.
So what's he saying to them?
He's saying you trust in Moses.
They didn't say you trust in God.
They said you trust in Moses
because the Jews basically worshiped Moses.
It's probably why God hid his body,
so that they wouldn't worship that too,
like they worshiped the brazen serpent on the pole.
But it's probably a good reason why he did that
because you know for sure
they would have been like kissing his bones
and doing what all the orthodox Greeks do
and kissing pictures and having all these weird,
this is the bone of John the Baptist,
and you know just weird stuff that people do,
but that's what they would have done.
But he says if you had believed Moses,
you would have believed me for he wrote of me.
So Jesus now is claiming if you actually believe Moses,
which he's basically saying in this,
you really don't believe in him, right.
They say they trust in Moses,
but he said if you would have actually believed him,
you would have believed in me because he wrote of me.
But if you believe not his writings,
how shall you believe my words?
It's really interesting because
the Jews will claim to believe in the Old Testament.
They'll claim to believe the first five books of Moses,
the Torah is what they call it.
They'll claim to believe that,
but if you ask a modern Jew any questions about the Bible,
they don't believe any of it.
They believe in evolution.
They don't really believe the writings of Moses.
I'm sure there's some orthodox out there
that does believe in it or whatever,
but I mean if you watch the movie, the film Marching to Zion,
if you haven't had a chance to watch it,
we have DVDs of it over there,
and basically there's what,
five rabbis or something that are interviewed in that,
and they don't believe anything that Moses taught.
I mean didn't he write Genesis?
He wrote Genesis,
and they don't believe in the six day creation?
So tell me what you do believe that Moses said,
and Jesus is saying hey,
you say you trusted Moses,
but if you actually believe Moses,
you'd believe in me because he wrote of me.
Now let's turn to where he wrote of him,
and obviously he wrote of him multiple times,
but this is probably the most famous part
where he's prophesying about Jesus.
Now turn to Deuteronomy 18,
Deuteronomy chapter 18 verse 15.
Deuteronomy 18, 15, the Bible says,
the Lord thy God shall raise up unto thee
a prophet from the midst of thee of thy brethren.
So where did he say the prophet would come from?
The midst of thee of thy brethren like unto me.
So what was Moses like?
He was a strong leader.
He did miracles.
He was a hard preacher.
People listened to him,
and they respected him,
and it says unto him ye shall hearken.
What else did he do?
He led the children of Israel out of the promised land,
or into the promised land,
well not into the promised land.
He led them out of Egypt, okay,
and into the wilderness,
and then we'll learn more about that,
that they just mess it up themselves,
even though they had a strong leader,
not everybody's gonna hearken to him, right?
But look what it says.
It says, again, it says,
God will raise up unto thee a prophet
from the midst of thee of thy brethren
like unto me unto him ye shall hearken.
Hearken means what?
To listen to what he's saying, right?
And it says, according to all that thou desireth
of the Lord thy God in Horeb
in the day of the assembly,
saying let me not hear again
the voice of the Lord my God,
neither let me see this great fire anymore
that I die not.
And the Lord said unto me,
they have well spoken that which they have spoken.
I will raise them up a prophet
from among their brethren like unto thee
and I will put my words in his mouth
and he shall speak unto them all
that I shall command him.
And it shall come to pass
that whosoever will not hearken unto my words
which he shall speak in my name,
I will require it of him.
What does that mean?
Well, you know, he's saying
that there's gonna be a prophet like he is.
The other thing that he has in common is that Moses,
again, set up the Old Testament covenant, okay?
So this prophet that's like him also, Jesus,
is gonna set up the New Testament covenant, okay?
So he's like him, he also does miracles,
he's a great preacher, he's a great man of God,
but again, Jesus built the house,
he's better than Moses.
I mean, Moses existed because of Jesus himself,
but he did say, if you don't listen or hearken
unto his words, he's gonna require it.
What does that mean?
He's gonna require your soul, that's what it means.
He's gonna require your life
because he already said he was gonna speak to them
through this other prophet
and the Jews in the last verses,
we were saying they don't even believe in him.
Jesus said, if you would have believed Moses,
you would have believed me,
but if you received not his writings,
how shall you believe my words?
So he's saying that you're not hearkening unto me.
You know, he is that prophet
that the Bible said was gonna come.
So whosoever will not hearken unto him,
he's gonna require it of him.
Now turn to Matthew chapter 12.
So not only is Jesus greater than Moses,
and Moses even said this himself,
that he's gonna be like unto him,
but he's greater than all the prophets
and Jesus actually says this himself
in a couple different verses.
These are two of them here,
Matthew chapter 12 verse 41.
It says, the men of Nineveh
shall rise in judgment with this generation
and shall condemn it
because they repented at the preaching of Jonas
and behold, a greater than Jonas is here.
So what's he saying?
He's greater than Jonas.
Jonas got the whole city of Nineveh saved basically
and he was a great prophet
even though he was kind of a jerk.
You know, he was racist,
but he's still got a lot of people saved, right?
But Matthew chapter 12 verse 42 says,
the queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment
with this generation and shall condemn it
for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth
to hear the wisdom of Solomon
and behold, a greater than Solomon is here.
And that would have been a very bold statement
to say at that time to these Jews
because Solomon is known as a really great king,
very wise, but you know who's wiser?
The one that made Solomon.
The one that allowed Solomon
to have the knowledge in the first place
because God gave that to him as a gift
because remember Solomon was basically given
three wishes or whatever,
or one wish, three options
and he chose the right one basically.
He chose to have wisdom to rule
and govern his people Israel
and then God gave him all the other stuff,
the riches and everything else that he didn't ask for,
but Jesus Christ is better than Solomon.
He's greater than Solomon
because he's the one that gave Solomon that power
and that intellect in the first place.
Turn back to John chapter eight.
John chapter eight verse 51.
And you know Abraham is known as
the one that started three,
that basically from Abraham
came the three great religions in the world.
The other two religions are not great
because they're false.
There's only one great religion
that came through Abraham.
The covenant of faith came through Abraham
and that was before Moses was set up
and so the Jews will go back to Abraham
and say he was their father
and Abraham was a great man.
He was a friend of God
and he was really great,
but look what it says in verse 51.
It says,
Verily, verily, I say unto you,
if a man keep my saying,
he shall never see death.
Then said the Jews unto him,
Now we know that thou hast a devil.
Abraham is dead and the prophets
and thou sayest,
If a man keep my saying,
he shall never taste death.
Isn't that also harkening
unto the things that he's saying?
So art thou greater than our father Abraham,
which is dead,
and the prophets are dead,
whom makest thou thyself?
Now they're asking him,
How are you better than them?
Who are you saying you are?
Because they want him to say,
I'm the Messiah.
But obviously he's not going to say that to them
because Jesus doesn't have to answer these people
and Pastor Burzins kind of showed us that
very clearly that we don't always have to answer
everybody, all the enemies
when they're asking us stupid questions
or questions that trip us up.
But anyway, verse 54,
Jesus answered,
If I honor myself,
my honor is nothing.
It is my father that honoreth me,
of whom ye say that he is your God.
Yet you have not known him,
but I know him.
And if I should say,
I know him not,
I shall be a liar like unto you.
That probably made him mad.
But I know him and keep his saying.
Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day,
and he saw it and was glad.
So what is he saying now?
Well, he's saying that he was around
at the time that Abraham was around.
And that Abraham wanted to see the day
when Jesus was going to come,
which is this time right now in the Bible.
And it says,
Then said the Jews unto him,
Thou art not yet fifty years old,
and thou hast seen Abraham.
Jesus said unto them,
Verily, verily, I say unto you,
before Abraham was, I am.
And there's no mistake in what he's saying there.
He's saying he is the great I Am.
He is Jehovah God.
He is God himself.
And how do you know that that's what he's saying?
Well, look at verse 59.
Then took they up stones to cast at him,
but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple,
going through the midst of them,
and so passed by.
Why did they pick up stones to cast on them?
Because he's saying that he's God.
That's why.
So he's better than Abraham too, right?
He's greater than Abraham.
He's greater than the prophets.
And that's what they're asking.
Do you think you're better than Abraham?
He's like, Abraham, rejoice to see my day.
You know, there's a lot of people
that are gonna miss the kingdom.
They're supposed to be from,
you know, people will worship Jews these days,
and let's support Israel and all this stuff,
but those are fake Jews.
They don't believe on Christ,
and so they don't even really belong there
in the first place.
But it's really not about the land anymore, is it?
One day it might be about the,
that's where the base of operations is gonna be,
but what difference does it make?
You know, people,
God didn't lead the children of Israel
back into the promised land,
and they all believed in Jesus Christ.
That's not what happened.
All those people over there are imposters.
They're not really the children of God.
They say that they're children of Abraham.
They say that they believe in Moses,
but they don't really believe.
And people get really mad about this,
but here's the thing.
If you don't believe in Jesus,
you're going to hell.
If you don't believe in Jesus,
you're not saved.
How are you God's chosen people
if you're not even believing in Jesus?
This is what he was pointing out to them.
He was pointing out that Moses preached about him
and said if you don't hearken unto that prophet,
then I will require it of you.
That requirement is your soul is going to hell.
So it doesn't matter what bloodline you're from,
what the will, what your will is,
or how many works you do.
God is the one that saves people,
and he says you have to believe me by faith.
That's how you get saved.
And so there might be a bunch of people over there.
There's a nation called Israel over there,
but if they don't believe in Jesus,
they're not saved, period.
Now let's turn back to Hebrews 3 verse 4.
I know I got a lot of work to do here,
but I really want to show overwhelmingly
that Moses and all these other prophets
are nowhere near what Jesus Christ is.
And the three religions that they say
that Abraham started was Judaism, Islam, Christianity.
But there's only one right out of there.
It's Christianity.
It's the New Testament.
So the Arabs or the Muslims,
they don't believe that Jesus,
they believe in Jesus that he was a prophet,
but they don't believe he was the son of God.
They say that Allah has no son.
So what are they saying?
They don't believe in the son.
What's gonna happen to all of them?
They're gonna go to hell.
Right?
So the Jews rejected Christ.
They said his blood be upon us and upon our children.
So where are they going?
They're going to hell.
This is what Jesus was trying to tell them.
So Hebrews 3, 4 says,
for every house is builded by some man,
but he that built all things is God.
You can write this back in the back of your Bible,
your soul-winding Bible,
if you want to show,
people like to ask for proofs
or maybe you want to show people proofs
where the Bible's calling Jesus God.
Well, if it's talking about Jesus
and then it says that he's greater than Moses
and has more glory than Moses,
and then it says,
basically it's telling us that he is the one
that built the house.
He's greater than that.
He's greater than Moses because he built the house.
And then it says,
and he that built all things is God.
So what is Jesus Christ?
He's God.
So verse 5,
and Moses verily was faithful in all his house
as a servant or a testimony of those things
which were to be spoken after.
So again, it's alluding to how faithful Moses was.
He was a great man of God, no doubt about it,
but when you're comparing him to Christ,
Jesus Christ is greater than him.
So verse 6,
but Christ as a son over his own house,
whose house are we,
if we hold fast the confidence
and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.
So just like Moses was faithful,
Christ was faithful.
And obviously, again, Jesus greater than anybody else.
So verse 7,
wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith,
today if you will hear his voice.
So verse 8,
harden not your hearts,
as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness.
So what's the Bible saying?
Well, we should hearken unto the Son of God today still.
And again, he's preaching to save people, right?
So is it possible for Christians to harden their hearts?
Yes, it is.
I preached a sermon about it not too long ago,
that it is possible,
even the disciples and the apostles had their hearts hardened
because they didn't get a break one day.
Miss Sheila, can you turn that heater down, please?
Or somebody?
Thank you.
I feel like I'm slowly roasting over an open fire here.
Not really that cold.
All right.
So it says,
it says, harden not your hearts,
as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness.
Now the apostle Paul's taking us back again
to things that happened in the Old Testament,
talking about Moses specifically.
So what happened in the wilderness?
Well, the children of Israel were hardening their hearts,
and a lot of them weren't even saved,
and a lot of them did not go into the promised land.
Obviously there's always going to be a remnant.
There's just not a place where everybody's always saved.
There's a remnant.
So obviously even today there's a remnant
of the children of Abraham or whatever,
the quote-unquote Jews, there's a remnant.
But it says, when your fathers tempted me,
proved me, and saw my works forty years,
it's specifically talking about when God said,
all right, you're going to die in the wilderness.
I'm sick of all your whining and complaining and your murmuring.
And it's specifically talking about a couple of different,
there's a lot of different events.
The children of Israel were always messing up,
and God finally got really irritated with them
after the spies came back from Canaan,
and they were going to go into the promised land,
and then they came back,
and the ten were bad, two were good, right?
Joshua and Caleb were good,
and they were like, no, let's go take it right now.
And then the rest of the guys that went there,
they were like, there was big giants and they were scary,
and we can't take them, we can't win.
And it discouraged the hearts of the children of Israel,
and then that's when God finally just said,
okay, anybody that's, I think it was like 20 years old and up,
that was alive at that point was going to die.
And then anybody that was underneath that number
was going to be able to go into the promised land.
So anyway, they were constantly murmuring,
they were constantly complaining,
they were constantly unthankful,
they were constantly unholy,
they were idolatrous at times.
I mean, Moses is up getting the Ten Commandments,
and they decide it's time for the club party to happen.
They're playing music, they're dancing,
and they're making two golden calves
that they're worshiping and saying,
these are your gods, O Israel.
I mean, they were just quick to get into mischief.
They were rebellious, they fornicated,
22,000 people died in one day,
and they were constantly rising up against Moses
and Aaron multiple times.
Multiple times they wanted to stone Moses and Aaron,
and multiple times, at least one really big major time,
Korah went against him,
and then there was a big rebellion
that tried to overthrow the leadership.
And obviously these are pictures of our spiritual life.
Once you get saved, once you come out of Egypt,
then comes the hard part of following after Christ.
And a lot of times people fall in the wilderness
because they can't hack the Christian life.
And then once you go into the promised land,
of course that would be enjoying
your heavenly life afterwards or whatever,
but obviously those are just pictures for us to see.
But look at verse 10, it says,
Wherefore I was grieved with that generation,
and said, They do always err or err in their heart,
they're always wrong in their heart,
and they have not known my ways.
So I swear my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest.
So again, the picture is Canaan,
they're told to go into the promised land,
and then God makes sure that all those people drop dead.
That whole generation dies before anybody can move forward.
This is what the Apostle Paul's helping us to remember.
If you have read the Old Testament,
then you know these stories well.
But after that generation died out,
then they all followed Joshua
and did what they were supposed to do
and conquered and won the promised land.
So verse 12, Take heed, brethren.
So again, talking to Christians, right?
Lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief
in departing from the living God.
Because ultimately the picture of the children of Israel
in the Old Testament was as a saved and holy nation.
That doesn't mean that all of them really were saved,
but that's the picture, right?
They're the children of God.
They were the nation of Israel.
They were supposed to be holy and blameless before God.
But he's just saying to apply this in the New Testament,
take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you
an evil heart of unbelief.
It's not talking about being saved here.
I don't believe it's talking about being saved.
It's talking about when you get to the point
where you stop believing God's promises,
you stop following after him,
and you depart from the living God.
Because, look, we're supposed to take up our cross daily
and follow after him, but that is hard.
It's not easy.
And it's not something that we all do every single day.
And we fall, and we get back up,
but he's saying that, okay, you're like,
okay, well, I'm just gonna stop believing
that I'm supposed to be doing
whatever the Bible's saying I'm supposed to be doing.
I'm just gonna go and do things my own way.
And there's a lot of people that fall.
They fall from their steadfastness,
and they depart from the living God.
So this is, again, you know,
people will twist things like this and say,
well, this is talking about losing your salvation.
It's not talking about losing your salvation.
How is it talking about that when he's saying, brethren?
Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you
an evil heart of unbelief.
He's like comparing that Old Testament thing
with New Testament Christianity.
Obviously, you cannot lose your salvation,
so that can't be what it's talking about.
Just because something seems something on the surface,
we have to base our beliefs on clear scripture.
You can't just take something that seems to say
what you want it to say and go,
see you, look at what happened here.
You have to base it on, what's everlasting life?
Last forever.
So if you lose everlasting life,
then it wasn't everlasting.
So that's not possible.
God is not a liar.
And so God is not, if he says,
I give you the gift of everlasting life,
psych, you sinned this week.
That's stupid.
So you can't just take something out of context
and try to make it seem, you know,
apply it to your stupid belief
that you could lose your salvation.
You can't lose your salvation.
Look, let's see.
So I mean, I think that the Apostle Paul's
just trying to tell us here
that we need to take stock of our life.
It's good from time to time to examine where you're at,
where your heart is at,
and where you're at in the Christian life
because it can change from day to day.
You can have a really good week
where you're really spiritual,
you're reading your Bible, you're praying,
you're going soul, you've gone soul winning three times
or whatever, you're just having a really great week,
victorious Christian living,
and the next week, you just, you blow it.
You know, you're just not that spiritual.
I notice that when I read really big chunks of Bible
that the resistance in my flesh
is to not want to read the Bible the next day.
Those are things you have to overcome and conquer.
Those are the things that are hard in the Christian life
is that, you know, you notice a lot of times
when there's great spiritual victories,
there's big spiritual defeats.
You know, Elijah kills all the prophets of Baal,
he wins this great victory for God,
and then he's running for his life
from this painted up witch.
You know, he's running from a woman that says
you're going to be dead by the end of the day or whatever
by this time tomorrow,
and he's running for his life and he gets depressed,
and he's out in the wilderness and birds are feeding him
and God's just like, hey Elijah, it's going to be okay.
You know, he goes to the cave, he's feeling sorry for himself,
he's like, I'm the only one that's left
that's really believing like I should be.
You know, and God speaks to him in a still small voice,
and he gathers him back, but you know, we just have,
you know, he goes from this big giant victory
to really serious defeat.
And our lives are a lot like that,
so we have to always be taking stock.
Am I pleasing God?
You need to always be examining yourself
and having self-reflection.
It's a good thing to self-reflect on how you're doing
because we like to deceive ourselves.
We like to think, well, I'm super spiritual,
whatever, whatever, but how are you really doing?
See, only you know the real answer to that.
And so are you, here's a good example,
or a way to gauge yourself,
are you a hearer only and not a doer?
Do you sit and listen to the sermons
or you say, that's a good sermon,
or you know, I really like that, that was great,
and then you don't apply it to your life at all?
Then you're a hearer and not a doer.
So you're supposed to be a hearer and a doer.
You hear what the Bible says,
you hearken unto the voice of Jesus,
and then you do what he asks you to do.
If you're already saved,
he's got things that he wants us to do.
He wants us to do good works.
He wants us to follow his rules and laws.
And the Bible says his commandments
are not grievous unto us.
So they shouldn't be grievous like,
oh, you really want me to stop stealing Jesus?
I mean, that shouldn't really be a thing
that's hard for you to stop doing.
Really you want me to stop using your name
as a cuss word, God?
I mean, you're taking this Christianity thing
way too seriously.
It's like, no, those are things that just should be,
things that you just start to get out of your life
immediately.
If Jesus was your favorite cuss word to go to,
and when people say it like that,
they're blaspheming God.
When people are saying God
and they put the DA, you know, afterwards,
they're blaspheming God.
They're using God's name irreverently.
And if you're a Christian, you should not do that.
And if you used to say it a lot,
when you get really upset or something,
you might even say it in your heart
without even uttering it out of your mouth.
But you know what?
We're supposed to take, you know,
every thought captive, aren't we?
So we're supposed to take every thought captive,
so we need to just really harness ourselves
because if we let, you know,
you let the restraints off,
and your flesh is gonna go do what it wants to do.
We gotta be very careful.
And you know, here's another way to gauge.
Have you shut off, not only are you not doing
what the Bible says,
but have you shut off the hearing too?
Are you here right now and you're just like,
what's he saying?
It's like, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah.
You know, is it eight o'clock yet?
I hope he doesn't go over to 810 like he always does.
If that's your attitude, then like, why are you here?
You know, we should, you know,
if you're coming to church,
you should love the word of God.
You should love to apply it to your life.
And you know, despite who the preacher is,
if the preacher's preaching the word of God to you,
it's not me that you're following.
I mean, you follow me as I follow Christ,
but it's the word of God that we need to focus on,
and that's what's gonna get us right in our lives.
So have you taken inventory lately
on how you're doing as a Christian,
because it's something that the Apostle Paul,
he'll start talking about all this stuff,
but then he'll just go back and challenge us spiritually
like he does at the end of this chapter.
So are you doing without hearing?
That's a valid question.
So are you doing things in your own power
and not through the Spirit?
Because we can work really hard for God,
but if God isn't in that, then what's the point?
If you're just doing everything in the flesh,
you know, obviously we need the Spirit of God
to give us power,
and we're not gonna be instantly filled with the Spirit
every single day, every single hour.
That's why the Bible says to be filled with the Spirit.
It gives us the commandment.
And how do we do that?
Well, we sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
We do things that are spiritual
so that we can walk in the Spirit.
But if you're just constantly feeding your flesh
all the time, no matter what that is,
you're gonna walk in the flesh also.
So we need to get a bridle on ourselves
and take and examine where we're at
in our Christian life sometimes
because we might think we're doing well,
but when the Bible tells you something different,
when the Bible speaks to you like that,
you should pay attention to the leading of the Spirit of God
because, you know, sometimes you'll hear a verse
and it'll just like, it'll smoke you
and you're just like, I'm not doing that
or I am doing that and I need to change.
But if you just say that in your heart
and you never do it,
you never try to change or get better,
we should be constantly just trying to get better as Christians.
We should never go backwards.
We should always be going forward.
So it says in verse 13,
But exhort one another daily.
While it is called today,
lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness
of sin.
It's a really powerful verse here
and, you know, he's talking to, again,
to the brethren, verse 12.
And it says to exhort one another.
It's not just my job to exhort you.
You all should be exhorting each other.
And if you're never here at church,
how are you going to, you know,
and exhort means to strongly encourage someone to do something.
And when you're talking about things of God,
you're strongly encouraging someone to do something
that is good, good works.
Exhort one another daily.
So if you have friends in church,
you should be exhorting them.
And if there's a day that the church is open
and you're not here just because of whatever dumb reason
you're not deciding to come to church,
I'm not saying that there isn't valid reasons to miss church.
There is.
But one thing that I was listening to Pastor Anderson's sermon last night
and he said that Pastor Jimenez, when he was 20 years old,
said there's people that are always late
and people that are never late.
But I would say, I would add to this,
there's people that are late sometimes.
That's me.
I'm not always late.
I used to be always late, but look, you can change that.
But how about, you know, someone that just,
they're at church sometimes, but not all the time.
They just pick and choose whatever they feel like going to church.
Look, you're in a dangerous spot then.
Why do we have three services a week?
Because we need to get spiritually kicked in the pants
three times a week.
You probably need it seven days a week.
But if I did seven days a week, Baptist church,
you know, it'd be tough, right?
Obviously we have work, we have our lives outside of church
and things like that, but it is good.
You know, why do we have a midweek service, so to speak?
Well, so that we can recharge our batteries
and get something spiritual in the middle of our week.
Why do we do it twice on Sunday?
Well, because that's usually the day that most people have off.
And, you know, sometimes people live far away.
And, you know, you make a day of it.
At our church, a lot of people make a day of it.
But, you know, there's some people that come to church every service
and there's some people that miss church all the time.
And look, I'm not trying to just pick on anybody in particular.
I'm just saying, you know, Pastor Burgess brought this up on Sunday
about, you know, that we're not supposed to forsake the assembling of ourselves together.
Because how are you going to encourage somebody?
How are you going to exhort someone to do good works?
How are you going to encourage someone to stay in the faith?
How are you going to encourage someone not to get this evil heart of unbelief?
How are you going to encourage someone to not get hardened through the deceitfulness of sin
if you're not even there to encourage them?
And how good of an example is it when you get someone coming to our church
and then you're not here and they are?
I don't understand that.
Do you not hold some kind of responsibility to yourself
that if you, you know, you're like, yeah, I come to church, it's a great church.
And then you're never here?
Are you kidding me?
That is a shame.
If someone, you know, invites you, you invite people to church
and then you're not, they're here and you're never here, that's a shame to you.
And, you know, it's really kind of, it's, you're not progressing that,
they're like, hey, I hope so-and-so's here.
They invited me and they're like, where are they at?
I don't know.
They're not here.
Why?
I don't know, there's milk in the fridge?
One excuse is just as good as the next.
Well, my milk was going to expire today, so I decided to stay home
and make sure I drink the last glass of milk before midnight or whatever.
It's just like, people just have any stupid excuse to not come to church
and, you know, maybe I'm just bitter because I'm the pastor
and I have to be here every service or something, but I want to be here.
I don't want to find an excuse to not come.
I want to be with the people of God.
I want to exhort people and encourage people
and I don't want to set an example that I'm never here.
Yeah, you come to church, but I'm never here?
And if I'm not here, I'm probably in another church preaching somewhere else.
It's not like I just, hey, I'm going to have a vacation.
Nobody knows where I'm going to be.
Is he going to be at church?
I don't know.
You know I'm going to be in church.
I'm going to be in church.
So why aren't you?
I don't know why I decided to beat up the hardly attenders,
but it's just, I just think, you know,
how much more people could encourage other people
if that person was there with them that invited them in the first place?
Maybe they look up to you and then you're not even there to even look up to?
Look, I know we're supposed to look up to Jesus,
but we should also be good examples and, you know, hey, I'll come to church, get baptized,
but I'm never going to be there.
It's just, I don't understand it.
Anyway, let me move on.
Verse 14, you can all breathe a sigh of relief now.
Verse 14, for we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence.
What does it say there?
Steadfast unto the end.
That's why it says, you know, in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 25,
so much the more as you see the day approaching.
It doesn't say so much the less.
Well, I'm saved by grace, so it doesn't matter if I'm in church or not.
I'm saved by grace, so it doesn't matter whether I'm soul winning or not.
I'm saved by grace, so it doesn't matter if I show up to my responsibilities or not.
No, that, you know, grace gives us more responsibility.
I think of this story, I think it was in a Jack Heil sermon.
I can't remember what the sermon was,
but he was visiting like an old member that had been a member of his church for a long time.
I don't remember all the details of the story,
but I'll never forget that, you know, Jack Heil is talking about how the fact that he's at his bedside
and he's about to die.
The guy that has been, I think he was like a deacon or something at his church for many years,
very supportive, good church member, always there.
And one of the things he said, you know, before he died,
you know, he said, Brother Heil's, keep preaching.
And he just kept saying it over and over again, keep preaching.
Now just say this, keep coming to church, keep soul winning,
keep coming to church, singing the hymns, keep praying, keep reading your Bible, steadfast until the end.
That's what he was telling Brother Heil's.
Now maybe it's not your lot to be a preacher or whatever,
but you know what it is?
Any person in this room could go preach door to door.
The children can learn to preach the gospel and get more people saved than I will in my whole life
because they started early.
They got saved early and they were serious about it.
You can read more Bible, you can memorize more scripture.
But you know, woe unto us if we're not steadfast until the end.
Steadfast means what?
Unmovable.
No matter what's going on in our lives, no matter what's going on with our cars,
no matter what's going on with our, I mean obviously there are reasons, okay, let me caveat that.
But if you're having health problems or whatever it is, you can still find a way to be steadfast until the end.
Obviously when you're 90 years old, you're not going to be walking and knocking double decker apartment complexes.
I understand that.
But can you use your power scooter and knock the bottoms for us?
You probably can.
But look, people need to get serious.
You know what's frustrating to me is when a church is filled with false prophets,
they're preaching a false gospel, they're preaching work salvation,
their parking lot's completely full and we can't even get our members to show up for church.
Just irritating.
We should be the ones here all the time.
They're doing it for salvation.
We're doing it for sanctification.
We're doing it so we can encourage each other to be in church where we're supposed to be.
So we can do the work so we can be sent out to preach the gospel.
Alright, verse 15.
While it is said, while it is said, today if you will hear his voice,
harden not your hearts as in the provocation.
See the apostle Paul is saying again, he's repeating things for us.
Moses was faithful in his house.
Harden not your heart.
Listen to the spirit of God.
Don't harden your hearts as in the provocation.
For some, when they had heard, did provoke.
Albeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
So there were some people that were faithful.
Of course Joshua and Caleb and many other people.
But most of the people had turned, hadn't they?
Even though they had one of the greatest leaders in all the Bible.
Even though they had one of the greatest preachers of the Bible.
Arguably one of the greatest men that ever lived, Moses.
They still spit in his face.
And by spitting in his face, they're spitting in God's face.
Pastor Burgess has talked about how he set the tabernacle outside of the camp.
So that people wouldn't just be able to go, you know, roll out of bed with their fuzzy slippers on
and roll into the tabernacle or whatever from their tent.
They actually had to get up and wake up on time and go to the assembly.
Go to the congregation.
So it says, for some, when they had heard, did provoke.
Okay, verse 17.
But with whom was he grieved forty years?
Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness?
Now again, I'm going to teach you a little Sunday School song real quick before we're done.
I'm almost done.
But I started thinking about this because I thought of the ten, the twelve spies that went out.
And the Sunday School song goes like this, and I'm not a good singer.
I'm not going to try, maybe I won't even try to sing.
I'll just read it to you.
But it says, the song goes like this.
Twelve men went to spy out Canaan.
Ten were bad, two were good.
Anybody ever heard that Sunday School song before?
What do you think they saw in Canaan?
Ten were bad and two were good.
Some saw giants big and tall.
Some saw grapes in clusters fall.
Because, you know, they had the big grapes.
Some saw God was all in all, that's the two, right?
Ten were bad and two were good.
So, there you go.
You can rewind that on the sermon.
I got the notes right here if you want to sing that with your kids.
But it's a good way to teach them the story about that.
But it made me think about that because that's what he was grieved about.
It wasn't the two that were good.
He was grieved with the ten that were bad.
Bad examples.
Disheartening the people.
Not being there, not encouraging one another.
Instead of them all being united and saying, let's go!
You know, how many disciples did Jesus pick?
The twelve, right?
Twelve spies went into Canaan.
Ten were bad and two were good.
Look at verse 18.
And to whom swear he that they should not enter into his rest,
but then that believe not.
So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
So that's the end of the chapter there, but
they could not enter in because of their unbelief.
And now, again, he's talking to save people,
but we can have evil hearts of unbelief.
We can have where we just stop believing the promises of God,
stop believing that God's doing right for us.
Because sometimes it seems that way.
Like you're going, why am I going through hard times, God?
Everybody goes through hard times.
We're in a fallen and sinful world.
We all have death in our lives.
Every person you ever know is going to die.
Everything that you've ever owned
is going to be given to somebody else someday.
Your kids can fight over that little knick-knack
that your granny gave you or whatever.
Look, everything, we're only going to take with us
what we brought into this world, and that's our body.
And even that is going to go into the ground first, right?
We can't take anything with us.
So we need to be here to encourage.
If you just get one thing out of this,
we need to be steadfast into the end,
and we need to be here to exhort and to encourage each other
in this life because this life is really hard.
It's very hard.
But we don't have to pitch tents.
We don't have to care for animals.
We just have to go to WinCo or whatever
and get your pork chops and applesauce there
or whatever you want to get.
We're actually, if all the supply chains fell apart,
we'd be in a lot of trouble.
At one point, I'm thankful that we don't have to do all that stuff,
but at the same time, if things go bad,
you think you're going to live off your garden
that you have in your backyard?
It's not going to happen.
It's going to get ugly.
I mean, hopefully that never happens,
but we should be thankful for what we have,
thankful that we're living in the time that we're living in.
Yeah, there's a lot of bad, but there's also a lot of good.
Let's pray.
Lord, we thank you so much for the Word of God.
I pray, Lord, that we would not harden our hearts
like the children of Israel did in the provocation
where they provoked God to be angry with the children of Israel.
Lord, pray that you'd help us to not be ones
that would provoke people to quit church
or to not come to church or to not go soul winning.
Lord, I pray that you'd just help us to be people
that would exhort people and encourage people to do what's right.
And Lord, there's a lot of responsibility given to churches like ours
that actually teach the Bible
and actually go by what the Bible says as best as we can.
Lord, pray that you'd help us to appreciate what we have
and, Lord, we would get involved and not have backslidden and hardened hearts.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
All right, our last song will be song number 39,
Crown Hymn with Many Crowns.
Song number 39 in your Blue Hymn books, Crown Hymn with Many Crowns.
Song 39, let's sing it out together on the first.
Crown him with many crowns,
the lamb upon his throne.
Hark how the heavenly anthem drowns,
all music but its own.
Awake my soul and sing of him who died for thee.
And hail him as thy matchless king through all eternity.
Crown him the Lord of love,
behold his hands and side.
Rich wounds yet visible above,
in beauty glorified.
No angel in the sky can fully bear that sight,
but downward bends his wandering eye at mystery so bright.
Crown him the Lord of life,
who triumphed o'er the grave,
who rose victorious to the strife for those he came to save.
His glory's now we sing,
who died and rose on high,
who died eternal life to bring,
and lives that death may die.
Crown him the Lord of heaven,
one with the Father known,
one with the Spirit through him given,
from yonder glorious throne,
to thee be endless praise,
for thou for us hast died.
Be thou, O Lord, through endless days,
adored and magnified.
Amen.
Good singing.
Brother Brandon, could you end us a word prayer?
Amen.