 So let's begin reading at verse one together. I'll read two verse six and we'll get into our study this evening. Hebrews chapter three, beginning at verse one, reading to verse six. The writer writes, therefore holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him who appointed him as Moses also was faithful in all his house. For this one has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, in as much as he who built the house has more honor than the house, for every house is built by someone, but he who built all things is God. And Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things which would be spoken of afterward. But Christ as a son over his own house, whose house we are, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. Now as we've been looking at the book of Hebrews, remember with me that the author, the writer of Hebrews, has been using the word better and has used it several times already. He actually uses the word better some 13 times as we go through this particular book together. And he's been using that word in order to emphasize how great Jesus Christ is in comparison to everything else. And so as we looked at this and looked at the different ways that he's been speaking, he was speaking of Jesus Christ as being greater than the prophets and he also spoke about Jesus being greater and better than the angels. Now in this particular chapter he begins to speak to us concerning how the Lord Jesus Christ is better or greater than Moses. And that's what we'll see here in chapter 3 as we look at this together tonight, that Jesus Christ is greater than Moses. Now this is extremely important because Moses is the greatest hero in the nation of Israel. He was recognized as their great deliverer, he is their great leader. Moses is the law giver and God had done a great work through Moses and all the children of Israel who were schooled in the Word of God knew the things about Moses. Moses had been born during a time when a Pharaoh had arisen in Egypt and the children of Israel had been there in Israel, rather in Egypt for a number of years. And a Pharaoh had arisen who didn't recognize or regard Joseph, the work that Joseph had done on behalf of Egypt many years before. And when he had arisen and came to power, the first thing he wanted to do was subjugate the Jewish people who were there. He hated them and so he began to persecute the nation and gave an order that the Jewish boys would all be put to death once they were born. And so because that was something that was against the moral grain of the Jews, what happened was Moses' mother gave birth and had a beautiful son and she hid him, she hid him in the bulrushes and as she hid him there in this river the daughter of Pharaoh came out and she was there to bathe and one of her handmaidens, as she was there, the daughter of Pharaoh, sees this little basket in the water and sends her handmaid to go and get this ark or this basket and bring it back and she looks at the baby because the baby is crying and she has compassion and Moses' sister Miriam is there and she sees this all taking place and when she sees the daughter of Pharaoh looking at the baby with this compassion, you know the story, you know that Miriam approaches and says, would you like me to get a mother to nurse this baby and she sends her off on the task of getting a mother and obviously she takes Moses back to his own mom and Moses' mama nurses and not only does she nurse him but the daughter of Pharaoh actually pays her a wage to do so and how wouldn't you ladies have liked that if you'd have gotten compensation for that duty. But anyway, and so she begins to nurse him and they wouldn't nurse their children for a month or two months or five months they would nurse them for some time and so Moses was able to be with his mother for a period of years in reality until he was weaned and in doing so was able to be raised with a conscious knowledge that he was Jewish and so when it was time for him to go back to live with Pharaoh and Pharaoh's daughter, he was raised as the son of Pharaoh and grew in stature, wisdom, eloquence, and might there in the nation of Egypt. The children of Israel were familiar with this. Now on one occasion, Moses was out visiting his brother and the Jewish people when he saw an Egyptian who was manhandling one of the children of Israel and when he saw this take place the Bible says he looked one way and then he looked another and then he promptly slew the Egyptian and buried his body. Now that may just rush past you as you consider those words that he slew him and buried him and when you read in the book of Exodus how he did that it's just a very short statement. I mean basically I quoted it. He looked one way, he looked the other and he slew the Egyptian. But you need to understand that the task masters during the time of the Egyptian domination over Israel were amongst the most ferocious men in Egypt. They were like WWF wrestlers if you will. They were giants, they were powerful, they were schooled in warfare, they were fierce and they caused the Jewish people to have tremendous fear because of how bad they were. But the Bible doesn't even indicate that Moses even thought for a moment about it. He just looked to the right, he looked to the left and he killed him. That gives you some insight into how powerful a figure Moses really was. He was a warrior, schooled in all the wisdom of Egypt as well as the military martial arts. And so he dusted him, he killed him, buried him and thought he had gotten away with it. Well the next day as he's there in visiting once again his people he sees two Jewish men who are having an argument so he approaches them and says you are brethren, why are you fighting amongst yourselves? The one who is in the wrong though looking at Moses says what are you going to do? Kill us like you slew the Egyptian yesterday? And so we find it interesting to note that the word had already gotten out about what Moses had done. Now when you consider the fact that there was nobody there other than the Egyptian taskmaster and the one who was being hurt, it causes you to understand that the person who was speaking to Moses more than likely was the one who just the day before had been delivered by him. But he didn't want to hear what Moses had to say in a word of correction and therefore he says well what are you going to do? Kill me like you killed the guy yesterday? Moses knowing that it was known became fearful and the word went out that the Pharaoh was going to have him put to death. And so he fled. He went to a place called Midian. Midian would be east of where he was there in Egypt and it's in what is modern Saudi Arabia, it's south of Jordan and that's where he went. And he was in the backside of the desert and as he was in the backside of the desert there he came across some young women who were taking care of the sheep for their father and he actually helped them because some shepherds began to threaten them. And as a result he drove the shepherds off, he watered their sheep, they went home and spoke to their dad and their dad said what happened and they told him. He said well where is the man that delivered you? And they said well we left him out there. He said bring him home so that I can feed him and show him hospitality for what he's done. And so Moses ends up going to this man's house. His name was Rual. He's also known as Jethro. And he went to his house and ultimately married one of his daughters, a woman by the name of Zipporah. Now as Moses is there and he's now herding sheep, he has gone from the age of 40 when he originally delivers, actually slew that Egyptian. He's now there in the backside of the wilderness and he's been there for some time. And the Bible says that God called him in an extremely unique way. You can see this in chapter 3 of Exodus verses 1 through 4. Let me read that to you. It says Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert and he came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked and behold the bush was burning with fire but the bush was not consumed. Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn. So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, I'm getting out of here. No, he said, here I am. And so that's the call of Moses and the children of Israel were familiar with that. Moses ultimately is sent by the Lord back to Pharaoh. And as he goes back to Pharaoh, he says, thus saith the Lord God, let my people go. And he refuses, as you know the story, and continues to refuse until God begins to bring plagues on the nation of Egypt. And ultimately, after the plagues are continued and concluded, he delivers the nation of Israel from Egyptian bondage. And as he leads them out, he is known as the leader of Israel, the law giver, the one whom God used and is the greatest of all the Jewish people. And so as we look at chapter three here in Hebrews, he wants to speak to us concerning the superiority of Jesus Christ. Now Jesus Christ is superior to prophets. Jesus Christ is superior to angels. And yes, Jesus Christ is superior to Moses, the greatest figure in Jewish history. And that's what he's pointing out. Moses is great, but Moses is not as great as Jesus Christ because Moses actually pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, God used Moses to write the first five books of the Old Testament. And in his writings, he actually has prophetic words that relate to Messiah who is to come. The very first prophecy that you have concerning the Jewish Messiah, Jesus Christ, is found in the book of Genesis, a book that was written by Moses. And in Genesis chapter three, verse 15, the Bible says, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. So Moses had spoken concerning Messiah who is to come who was going to conquer Satan. Later on in Deuteronomy in chapter 18, verse 15, Moses said, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear. And so he was writing concerning Messiah who was to come. Now the early disciples recognized and knew that. Because in John's Gospel, chapter one, verse 45, the Bible says, Philip found Nathaniel said to him, we have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. In John 5.45 and 46, Jesus said, do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you, Moses in whom you trust. Had you believed in Moses or believed Moses, you would have believed me for he wrote of me. And so Jesus Christ quotes the fact that Moses in the Old Testament had been pointing to one greater than himself and that one who is greater than himself is Jesus. And so this is what we're looking at here in chapter three. As we begin in verse one, he begins by saying it this way. He says, therefore holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest who was faithful to him who appointed him as Moses also was faithful in all his house. Now he begins by saying that they are holy brethren. Notice that, therefore holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling. Now when he calls them brethren, he's not speaking racially. He's not saying as a Jewish person to other Jews, I am saying this. What he is speaking is spiritually. He's saying, my fellow believers, the Jewish believers during this day obviously needed this admonition because it was a new thing for the Gentiles to actually be folded into a relationship with God. Even as we were looking at Ephesians today, I was pointing out that the world was divided into Jew and Gentile. And the idea that the Gentiles would actually receive the promises of God was really a foreign thought to Jews. As a matter of fact, it was the kind of thing that would actually get them mad enough to kill you. When the apostle Paul was stating the fact that because the Jews were resisting the gospel that he was now going to the Gentiles, they rioted over that. Because the idea of having the Gentiles in the covenant promises of God was a foreign thought. And so when he's speaking here, he's saying, listen, you are holy brethren, not Jewish people alone, but you are people who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you are fellow believers. And you have a relationship with God through him. And he says, therefore holy brethren, you are also partakers, notice of the heavenly calling. Now this speaks of the origin of salvation. It is heavenly because the call originates in heaven and heaven is its ultimate goal. The call to salvation does not originate on earth. The call to salvation originates with God. And God is the one who initiates it. God is the one who gives the message. God is the one who gave his son. God is the one who did all the work. And the heavenly calling, the calling to salvation, starts with God and ends up with God. Because when that message is proclaimed here on earth, it's intended to draw people to a saving knowledge of God who dwells in heaven and takes us to heaven when we close our eyes here. And so we have a relationship with God because God initiates that, God originates that, and therefore we are partakers of a heavenly calling. Now these are holy brethren. Now that's something that I really think that we should spend a couple moments looking at because when he speaks concerning the fact that they are holy brethren, because God has a heavenly calling, we ought to have a holy life. When you have a relationship with God, that relationship with God ought to do something to provoke us to pursue him in order that we might have earmarks of godliness because we pursue the things of the Lord. So a person who actually has a relationship with God has a transformed life. Their life is changing. I can still remember when I was a brand new Christian. My friends said, listen, now that you're saved, there are a few things you need to do. You need to read the Bible. You need to learn to pray. You need to enjoy Christian fellowship. And you need to tell somebody about what God has done in your life. As a matter of fact, the day I got saved when we were in the back, I was speaking to a man who was a follow-up counselor. And the day I got saved, he said, these are the four things you need to do. If you want to walk firmly with Christ, he said, you need to begin to read your Bible. Because in the Word of God, you have spiritual food and you're going to learn the ways of God. You need to learn to pray, because that's your communication to God. That's your conversation with him. In the Word of God, God speaks to you. In prayer, you speak to him. And when you dialogue with the Lord through his word, you have conversation and it's called prayer. So he said, you need to get into the Word and you need to pray. He said also, you need to understand that your friends that you have are the greatest influence in your life. They're the ones who encourage you to do good or to do evil. Therefore, you should choose people that are influencing you to do the right thing. So hang around with Christians, especially believers who love the Lord Jesus Christ. And also, if you're going to heaven, the worst thing you can do is go by yourself. So encourage other people to go with you and take this message out and share what you've learned. These are the four basic things that I was taught to do the day I got saved. Those are the four basic things I've been doing now for 35 years. The same thing, getting in the Word, learning to pray, fellowshiping with Christians and telling people about the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I can still remember when I was a new Christian, obviously I knew absolutely nothing once I was blind, now I see, once I was lost, now I'm found. But I didn't know, what could you know after being a Christian for a week or two or a month? I mean, you know very little other than just some very basic things. And a lot of it for me was Holy Ghost goose bumps and I'm changing, I feel good inside and I've got something I never had before, I have peace with God and I'm getting along with my parents, some very basic things, but there was no real depth in me. So I didn't know Scripture even though I was starting to read it and absorb it, but my friends say, you got to go out and you got a street witness and now I'm not a street witness, sir. I'm not able to do that and it's odd to me because I can stand in front of a lot of people and speak like this but one on one, that's just not my gift. I'm able to stand next to you while you do it and then if there's an argument then I can step in and do the debating one on one, but I'm not somebody who can just walk up to a stranger and say, excuse me, do you want to go to heaven? You know, I'm just not able to do that and no, you don't think go to hell. I can't do that kind of thing, that's just not the way I am but they're telling me you've got to go out and you've got to share and so I can still remember trying to learn to do that, to go out and to talk with people and to say, you know, can I speak to you for a moment about something that's happened in my life? Can I share with you? And during that time there were quite a number of young people who actually were really open to that and I began to learn that but I also began to learn that if my life isn't growing and beginning to line up with the things of Scripture that I actually undermined the message of the gospel because of a poorly lived life. I still remember I was on Whittier Boulevard in Whittier and there were actually two places you cruised and some of you are old and maybe you remember this. You had Whittier Boulevard in Whittier and that's where all the surfers hung out and you had the hot rods and they would drag race up and down Whittier Boulevard so I'd hang around there and then every once in a while I'd go to East LA. East LA is where all the low riding took place and you kind of drove real low so somebody couldn't shoot you and that was in East LA and so Whittier Boulevard was actually divided into two cruising kinds of places. I used to hang around in both but especially in Whittier and while we were in Whittier walking in Whittier Boulevard we went to a place called Bob's Big Boy on Whittier Boulevard and I walked up to some people my friend Bill and I were there and he said we've got to share about Jesus and I was all nervous. I was only a Christian for a week or two. What do I know? And so I said well I'll go with you and he says well come on and so we're walking and we walk into Bob's Big Boy into the parking lot and I walk up to this car and there's a friend of mine and Jeff is there in the car and we walk up to him and Bill said oh it's Jeff I said okay we can share with him about Jesus he's a friend it makes it a little easier I thought the Lord was just being kind to me by giving me a friend and so I walked up to Jeff and I said hi Jeff how are you doing? And he just smiles and nods and I went to high school with him I knew him for four years and then I had graduated and also I'd known him for several years how are you doing? I'm doing fine I said look it I want to talk to you about where he looked at me and he was so totally drunk you know I hadn't noticed it first but Jeff was absolutely blitzed and as I was looking at him he says oh I already know Jesus like that you know he's just totally drunk and so I remember that very well and I thought wow how interesting and we had a little bit of conversation you really can't reason with a drunk person at all you know but I remember that very well and that was part of my early Christian life and I realized well I'd better seek the Lord to live a life that is separated because I'm not saying Jeff did or did not know the Lord he could have backslidden that I don't know all I know is that he wasn't in any place to share with me anything about the Lord and so that's when I really started thinking about how am I living what kind of life do I live and do I live a life that is set apart you see the word holy when he speaks of them as being holy brethren the word holy means set apart once you're the ones who have been set apart for use by God in this context you are citizens of heaven and because you have a heavenly calling and it's a holy calling well then you need to let go of earthly things especially those things that fall short of Jesus Christ so don't hang on to earthly rituals don't hang on to symbols and miss what God has for you he says consider in verse 1 consider the apostle and high priest of our confession Jesus Christ the word consider means pay serious attention to carefully study him Jesus Christ is the one that you are to look at carefully he is called an apostle because an apostle is one sent from God as a messenger to man so Jesus is God's highest messenger to man he's referred to as our high priest because he makes intercession for us we will see this in more detail as we go through the book of Hebrews but he's letting us know that Jesus Christ is God's messenger to man who has a role that he performs in our life he is the high priest he says of our confession that's our confession of faith in him unto salvation so consider this one consider Christ Jesus verse 2 who was faithful to him who appointed him as Moses also was faithful in all his house now when it says in verse 2 who was faithful that word faithful means trustworthy he was trustworthy to the one who appointed him as Moses was also faithful in all his house all God's house so Jesus is faithful to the father and he was faithful to perform the work that he was called to Jesus completely performed the task he was sent to perform and what was that task Jesus came to perform the task of salvation he was totally faithful in accomplishing that Jesus is the one who laid his life down for us he laid down in order that he might take it up again and so Jesus did exactly what his father had said he was a faithful one to the call of God but not only was Jesus faithful Moses was faithful also Moses was faithful in all his house so there's a comparison that's being drawn between Jesus and Moses because of the admiration that Israel had of Moses now notice how he says Moses was faithful in all of his house in all of God's house that's confirmed in the Old Testament in Numbers chapter 12 verses 6 through 8 he said listen to my words when a prophet of the Lord is among you I reveal myself to him in visions I speak to him in dreams but this is not true of my servant Moses he is faithful in all my house with him I speak face to face clearly not in riddles he sees the form of the Lord why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses the Lord God says he is faithful in all my house so Moses was faithful to the one who appointed him and so was Jesus Jesus is the only one who ever did the entire will of his father completely he never did anything that was contrary to what his father desired in John 8 29 he said he who sent me is with me the father has not left me alone for I always do those things that please him on one occasion in John 8 46 which of you can convict me of sin and if I say the truth and why do you not believe me so Jesus Christ was faithful completely Moses is declared also as being faithful to the Lord and he speaks in verse 3 in this way he says for this one has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses Moses received honor because Moses is great Moses received honor because he was faithful but Jesus Christ receives more glory and there's a reason why because it says he who built the house has more honor than the house Moses was only a member of the household of God he didn't own that house he was only a steward he didn't build the house he didn't own the house he simply took care of the house on the other hand Jesus Christ is the one who built the house he's the builder of all things he's the owner of all things turn your Bible for just a moment to chapter 1 I want to refresh your memory Jesus Christ is the owner of all things he's the builder of the universe in Hebrews 1 remember how it says in verse 1 and 2 God who at various times and in different ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets has in these last days spoken to us by his son whom he has appointed heir of all things through whom also he made the worlds Jesus Christ is the creator of all things Moses is part of the things that were created by him and because Moses is only part of the creation and not the creator Jesus is better than Moses even though Moses is the law giver Moses wrote concerning Messiah Jesus even though he was a great deliverer Jesus is the one who delivers us all the way to heaven Jesus Christ is superior to Moses because Moses is a servant in the house but Jesus built that house and because he built the house and owns the house he is greater in John 1 verse 3 the Bible says all things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made in Colossians 1 16 Paul said by him were all things created that are in heaven that are in earth visible invisible whether there are thrones or dominions principalities or powers all things were created by him and for him Jesus Christ is greater than Moses because Jesus created all things Moses was a servant in the house of God but the house of God is owned and built by Jesus Jesus built the church that's the dwelling place of the spirit of God and because he created us and dwells within us he is superior to anything Moses has to offer he is the builder of all things now when it says there and says in verse 3 he who built the house is more honored than the house the person who is the builder is the one who equips and furnishes it's the one who prepares or makes something ready it's a word that is used concerning to the one who makes anything ready for a person or a thing it's the piece of constructing something with the idea of completely adorning and equipping it and so Jesus Christ is the one who planned and built all of this he's greater than any of his tools including Moses now verse 4 to me has been a scripture that I've known for many years by heart it's a powerful scripture for every house is built by someone but he who built all things is God there are those who believe in in alternate ways for this universe to have come into existence and they think that it requires too much faith to believe that there is an uncaused cause to be a first cause they think that it is too much of a leap of faith to believe that there is an infinite mind who can create all things but here in verse 4 it's almost a common sense thing every house is built by some some man you know you don't drive by an empty lot and then the next day drive by and see a house that's completely been just constructed that came out of the ground it just makes sense there was an architect somebody designed it somebody went constructed it that's the point he's making and that builder is God I used to work just down the street from here at a place called I believe it was FMC just right up the road I used to work there and I had a friend of mine his name is Chewie and Chewie used to work in this place and he constructed street sweepers I'm sure that you guys have seen FMC logos on a lot of the street sweepers FMC was constructing street sweepers at that time and probably still do and I used to work just down the road from here and a friend of mine was there in the department that put him together and Chewie is a believer and Chewie was sharing with one of the guys on one occasion and was sharing about Jesus Christ and as they were talking and Chewie was witnessing the guy says to him I just can't believe in God and so Chewie says and how do you think this universe came into existence and the man said well I think it just basically exploded into existence Big Bang Theory and he says you really think that and he goes yeah that makes some sense to me and so as they were working Chewie turned and pointed to a street sweeper and he says how do you think that got here and he says well we constructed it I know how that got there and Chewie says you're wrong he says it actually exploded into existence and the guy says I see your point everything is built by someone and the universe didn't just happen to exist and that's the point that he's making here every house is built by some man but he who built all things is God there is a designer to all things and the one who designed all things has an infinite mind so much beyond ours and he is the greatest he's the one who built all things and Jesus Christ is superior because Jesus Christ is God in the flesh Jesus is the one who is doing all of the work and that's the point that he's making here you see when the scripture says all things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made we know that it's God who created the heaven and the earth and therefore it's pointed to Jesus as that creator we know that Jesus is the one who did all of that for scripture points very clearly to us that he did and so Jesus is the one who built all things and therefore is greater than Moses verse 5, Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things which would be spoken of afterward but Christ as a son over his own house whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end here's a great example of a man who was submitted to God but he wasn't equal to Jesus Christ God's son Moses indeed was faithful but here's something for you he wasn't completely faithful we remember that the Lord God had spoken to him and said to him on one occasion when he was leading the children of Israel there in the wilderness and they were thirsty God had spoken to him and said smite this rock and from it will proceed water and you can use it to drink sometimes when I originally heard that story I'm thinking of a small rock of some sort that Moses hit and all but I failed to think that the water had to be sufficient there had to be enough to water the needs for over 2 million people plus their cattle and so when that rock was smitten it wasn't a small rock more than likely it was probably large and as it split open and the water naturally came out it had to flood a certain area so all of the livestock had to drink and so it was an incredible thing and so when he did that and he smote that rock it was demonstrating that God was able to provide for the children of Israel water to meet their needs in a wilderness well later on the children of Israel are once again complaining against Moses and all and he gets very angry and the Lord says to him speak to the rock and from it will proceed water well here goes Moses and Moses is in the flesh and so as he goes to the children we smite this rock and produce water for you and he hits the rock now God had said to him no you're to speak to the rock Moses didn't speak to it in fleshly anger he strikes it a second time and because of that that was not perfect obedience and thus he never had the opportunity to enter into the promised land God allowed him to look into it from the other side but he never entered in himself and the reason he never entered in himself is because of disobedience he had misrepresented God you see that rock according to Paul when he writes to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 10 that rock was Christ and it was a picture of Jesus Christ who was smitten for us and produces living water but he was only smitten once he was not smitten twice he died one time for all time and so rather than striking him twice he was to smite him once as a demonstration of salvation coming through the death of Christ and then speak to him the second time he did not know what God intended to do and thus he disobeys and in doing so was not completely faithful on the other hand Jesus Christ was completely faithful there was never a single thing that he did recorded in Scripture that was wrong or out of the will of the Father so Moses was faithful but not completely faithful he was a faithful man and God remembers him as faithful but we know the full story and we know that he didn't completely honor God in everything in this house and he is used as a testimony of those things which would be spoken of afterward but Christ as he says in verse 6 is a son a son over his own house whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end we are the house we're the church the church is our bodies it's not the building because the church doesn't need a building to meet in the church meets in various places throughout the world at any given time you go to Hawaii and they meet out there in parks they're not meeting in any buildings they're meeting in parks sometimes the church will meet in an industrial an industrial building sometimes it meets in a sanctuary like this it can meet anywhere it can meet in houses it can meet anywhere as the body of Christ gathers together but what the church really is is all bodies as we gather together as the temple of the Spirit and we worship God together and so we are the house we are the temple we are the body of Christ that has been gathered throughout the world and has been brought together in him and we demonstrate that we are his house because we continue in Christ because we have relationship with God in one another and the Lord would have us to do that I find it interesting to know how he says it now notice in verse 6 again Christ is a son over his own house whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end there are some who receive the word of God with joy but when they begin to go through hard times fall away they don't have a real genuine conversion experience so much as they're accommodating their life to certain things that they appreciate that they have read in the Bible that they think sound true the real mark of somebody who is truly born again is continuing it's hanging on there going through whatever it is that we go through through thick and thin hanging on to Jesus Christ when you read in Matthew chapter 7 how the Lord God speaks concerning two men, two builders one builds their life on sinking sand and the other builds it firmly on a rock and the winds come and the rains come and the storms hit and they hit both of those dwelling places but one falls and the other remains strong and the reason one falls is its foundation was shoddy it was built on sand the other remains firm because it was built on the rock your life is built on the rock Jesus himself you do go through storms don't you we all do it's just something that happens to the believer and the unbeliever alike the storms and trials of life hit us all equally yet some of us remain firm and strong because we're hanging on to Christ we built our life on a rock others will say well I gave it a shot it didn't work for me I don't want anything to do with it anymore I once was a Christian but I'm no longer one in reality Jesus had said if you drink of the water that I give to you you will never thirst again if you eat of my flesh speaking of partaking in my life you will never hunger again if you drink of my blood you will never thirst again in other words if you fully imbibe who I am if you are totally regenerated and if you pursue me as a born again individual life is within you and you'll never hunger for anything else I have found that to be absolutely true as a Christian I have met many people over the years who began well but didn't continue then you discover that in reality they had never really committed their heart to Christ in the first place one of the most true stories I can give you about that is the guy who was influential in me coming to Christ his name was Bill he was the guy who when I had gone to his house and he wanted to take me to the Hollywood Palladium to go and hear this Christian concert and speakers and I had gone to Bill's house and said you know I don't want to go with you but I'll go with you some other time it was Bill who prevailed on me and said you need to go because we prayed and God said you have to go and so I went with him and it was Bill who really wanted and encouraged me to come to faith in Jesus Christ and it was at his house that I began to learn the Bible it was at his house that I began to learn to worship it was at his house that I began to learn to pray and it was with Bill for the first three months of my walk that I learned the steps that they eventually became my life and we went into the military both he and I went in together on the same day we went on what was called the buddy plan and Bill and I went into the military and it was Bill who said to me make sure you bring your Bible and bring a couple of Christian books and all because when we're there in the army your faith is going to be challenged and so I brought my Bible and I brought some Christian books and all and we went through basic training together got separated after the eight weeks of basic he went off to one place we got out of the service and by the time we got out of the service Bill had walked away from the Lord and then I saw Bill a few years ago now and he actually had called me and said David he said I want to ask you a question and he said I was listening to some TV preacher and he was talking about the book of Revelation and Bill out of nowhere called me at my house and wanted to ask a Bible question and I hadn't heard from him and I don't know how long and then together he and I were part of a friend of mine's wedding and prior to that Bill had said you know I hear you on K wave I turn on the radio sometimes and I've listened to you speak Dave and I said really he goes yeah I told Bobby this friend of mine he said I told Bobby that he ought to turn on K wave 107.9 1130 you're on the radio and I said is that right I had known Bill since I was five years old and he and I lived right across the street from one another it was my best friend from most of my life in many ways we're very close and almost like brothers at one time and then the last time I saw him he says to me you know Dave he said I heard you on the radio and I heard you bring my name up and I heard you say how that we together used to go to Bible study and he says and I want to tell you something I don't remember any of that not a single thing of that I don't remember that at all see Bill is a trainer he's a lieutenant in the Los Angeles police department now he was in the vice squad for many years and he's seen the underbelly of society and he walked away from God a long time ago how interesting it is to me how somebody can actually be used by God to bring somebody else to Christ when that person doesn't even know Christ themselves and Bill doesn't even remember when he used to go to Calvary Chapel he doesn't even remember how I got saved through his invitation to go to a Maranatha concert and so a long time ago I learned that people can rejoice in all initially but it's not rejoicing at the beginning it's rejoicing of the hope firm to the end that demonstrates that you're truly saved it's not just that initial thing because the Jesus movement and the Jesus people and all of that you know 30 some years ago was an exciting time in the history of the American church but there were so many people who started to finish they didn't finish and so it's always to me as I read scriptures like that a warning a warning to remain firm with Christ to rejoice in him not just in the good times but through the rest of my life holding firm until the very end abiding in his word demonstrating that we truly are his disciples