Hebrews chapter 3, and then we will pray.
Pray about everything the Bible says, right?
How we need to be praying today.
Praying men and women.
So let's do that.
Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this
opportunity to gather tonight in your name, Jesus.
You are the King of kings and the
Lord of lords, and it's our desire to
honor you with the best of our praise,
with the best of our worship, with the
best that we can give you, Lord.
And you said the sacrifices of God are
broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, oh
God, that you will not despise.
So Lord, we give you our hearts tonight,
our very heart, to you, because you gave
your heart for us, Lord.
We love you dearly, we long to see
you, and again, I pray your blessing upon
this church, Lord, and upon your people here,
that you would keep them encouraged in the
midst of suffering, in the midst of trial,
in the midst of tribulation, in the midst
of our wilderness journey here, here at Calvary
Chapel right now, Lord, that we would see
you in everything.
You told us to fear not, especially when
we're in the wilderness, Lord.
And so we choose to heed, not only
to hear, but to heed your word and
your voice tonight.
Bless our time in your word, and Lord,
minister to us.
It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Okay, are we taping?
Not yet.
Okay.
TV.
Chapter 3 of Hebrews is a...
Is this a great...
The book of Hebrews is an incredible book.
It talks about, really, Jesus Christ.
When you read the book of Hebrews, look
for Jesus.
You'll see him everywhere from chapter 1 all
the way to the very end.
He is the culmination of everything that Hebrews
is really writing about.
And the last few weeks we've been learning
in our study that the overarching theme, the
main theme of the book of Hebrews is
Christ is better.
Jesus Christ has a better name.
Jesus Christ is better than the angels.
Jesus Christ is the greatest messenger.
Jesus Christ has the greatest message.
Jesus Christ has a greater salvation.
Jesus Christ is a greater savior.
Jesus Christ is the greatest sacrifice.
And tonight we're going to see that Jesus
Christ is the greatest high priest and that
Jesus Christ is the greatest apostle.
Capital A.
The greatest apostle.
And that Jesus Christ is even superior to
one of the greatest and most reverenced of
all Hebrew men and leaders.
And that's who?
Moses.
Moses was an incredible, incredible man of God.
A man to be admired.
A man to be followed.
A man to be listened to.
An incredible man of faith.
An incredible man of God.
But he was not God.
He was still a man.
And he was fallible and prone to failures.
And we're going to see tonight that Jesus
Christ is even greater than Moses.
So he's definitely up there.
Literally up there.
So really, Jesus Christ is better.
He's greater than anything in our lives, isn't
he?
Greater than anything.
Greater than anyone.
Jesus Christ should be the supreme person and
love of our life.
The Lord of our life.
The love of our life.
He is our life.
Amen?
If you took Jesus Christ out of the
equation, out of your life, where would that
leave you?
Where would that leave me?
It would leave me wretched and poor and
blind and naked and just dead in my
sin.
But Jesus Christ is the light of my
life.
He is the light of your life.
He is not only our eternal life.
He is that abundant life living within us.
Aren't you glad Jesus is living in you?
That's how you know you're a Christian.
That's how you know there's something different going
on.
The living Lord of the universe is not
just sitting at the right hand of the
throne of God.
He's sitting on the throne of our hearts.
Paul the Apostle said, Christ in me the
hope of glory.
That's one of the mysteries revealed in the
New Testament that the living Lord would come
to dwell within his people.
Incredible mystery that it's no longer, the word
is out.
In a sense, the word is in.
The word is right in here.
The living word of God, right?
That's Jesus Christ.
Now, since the book of Hebrews is grounded
in the Levitical priesthood and understanding of the
book of Leviticus is really important to understand
the book of Hebrews.
We know that Israel's sin had continually interrupted
God's fellowship with his chosen people.
Therefore, he graciously established a system of what?
Of sacrifices, right?
That symbolically represented the inner repentance of sinners
and of God's divine forgiveness.
However, the need for sacrifices never ended.
Why?
Because the priests, the people, and the priests
continued to sin.
Couldn't get around that.
So the need of all mankind then was
for what?
Was for a perfect priest and for a
perfect sacrifice that would once and for all
actually remove sin which the priests nor the
sacrifices could do.
They could only temporary cover sin.
Temporary forgiveness, not eternal forgiveness.
But God's provision for that perfect priest and
for that perfect sacrifice is found in and
only in Jesus Christ.
That is the central message of Hebrews.
And as you're reading through the book, you
need to be reminded, be reminded of that
fact.
The book of Hebrews, therefore, is a study
in contrast between the imperfect and the incomplete
provisions of the old covenant given under Moses
and the infinitely better provisions of the new
covenant offered by the perfect high priest, God's
only son, and the Messiah, Jesus.
Included in the better provisions are, it talks
about this word better.
It says we have a better hope.
It says we have a better testament.
We have a better promise, a better sacrifice,
a better substance, a better country, and a
better resurrection.
All because of Jesus.
As Pastor Pat mentioned over the weekend, the
book of Hebrews was written primarily to young
persecuted Jewish believers who attempted to do what?
They were tempted to go back to the
old way of doing things.
They were tempted to go back to the
old covenant that God had made with them
in the wilderness after their deliverance from Egypt
when they received the Ten Commandments from Moses
on Mount Sinai.
They were tempted to go back to the
rituals.
They were tempted to go back to the
sacrifices.
To go back to the keeping of the
old strict Mosaic laws.
They didn't want to let go.
Remember, as Pastor Pat was talking about, they
didn't want to let go.
Didn't want to loosen their grip on the
shadows of the old covenant and to now
keep holding on to the substance of the
new covenant, the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ.
The Old Testament were shadows.
You couldn't quite see the Lord, but yet
nevertheless, he was coming.
And when John the Baptist came and said,
behold, the Lamb of God, which takes away
the sin of the world, the shadows were
gone and the substance was right there standing
before them.
God in the flesh.
Promised.
The promised Messiah after thousands of years had
come.
God was true to his word.
Let God be true in every man a
liar, the Bible says.
God is true to his word.
His word is sure.
It is true.
It's powerful, sharper than any two edged sword.
And if we'll hold on to his promises,
especially in the wilderness times of our lives,
he will see us through.
And we won't have to want to go
back to Egypt like the Israelites wanted to
do.
Jesus was the perfect fulfiller of the law.
He was the perfect keeper of the law.
He was the perfect standard of the law
of God.
They were having a hard time grasping onto
that fact.
Again, that everything in the Old Testament was
pointing to to Jesus Christ, who, by the
way, fulfilled over 300 Old Testament prophecies.
And that is impossible for any human being
to do.
Literally.
Jesus had to be the son of God.
And he is the son of God.
Now, their longing to hold on to the
old way of doing things was causing some
real problems.
It was setting them up for some real
discouragement because they were trying to keep the
letter of the law instead of trying to
keep the spirit and the heart of the
law that had now come in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We can get hung up with that too,
right?
Trying to keep the letter of the law.
I gotta do it, gotta do it.
It's my duty, it's my duty, it's my
duty.
Versus wanting to keep the law out of
devotion because I love him and I worship
him.
That's, one is religion, the other is relationship,
you see.
And we can get hung up with all,
I've got to do this, and I've got
to do this, and I've got to do
this.
No, we get to do that, not gotta
do it, we get to do it.
It's a privilege, it's an honor to worship
and walk with Jesus Christ.
The minute you fall into duty and obligation,
you're falling back into religion.
You're falling back into the old way of
doing things.
You need to let go, let go of
that grip, and then just hold on to
Jesus and enjoy him.
Marvel at him.
He is alive.
He is alive and well in us tonight.
John 117 says, For the law was given
through who?
Through Moses.
But grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
But doubting at times that Christ was the
fulfillment of everything in their Old Testament way
of doing things, this led to some problems.
They started to drift, drifting.
Drifting then led to dulling of their hearts.
The dulling then led to despising of the
very word of God itself.
Which ultimately would take them down the dangerous
path of departing from the living word of
God.
Doubting, drifting, dulling, despising, departing are also very
serious warnings for those of us today.
We're serious about our Christianity as well.
It is possible for the Christian to backslide.
You can do a study on that in
the Old Testament.
On that word of Israel, they were a
backslidden people.
They had slid back into the old ways
of doing things.
They had compromised and slid back into intermarriage
with some of the pagan cultures around them
that weakened their faith.
It is possible for a Christian to backslide,
not lose his faith, not lose his salvation,
but to turn from God temporarily and get
hung up in the flesh and self-dependence
again.
And taking God for granted.
Taking his blessings for granted.
Taking his provisions for granted.
And believe me, Israel took God for granted.
He did miracle after miracle after miracle.
And they still had hard, stubborn hearts.
So let's get to verse 1.
And let's read.
Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling.
Thank you.
Even though these folks were prone to falling
away.
These brothers.
See that word brethren there?
It means brothers.
These were believers.
He called them holy brethren.
And I think at times when we see
our brothers struggling in the Lord, we tend
to want to give them the right foot
of fellowship.
Hey, this brother is falling back in some
of his old ways.
We tend to be judgmental.
It's very quick to judge a brother, isn't
it?
And so I like that the writer here
put the word holy in there because that
word means set apart.
Set apart for God's exclusive use.
No matter what, their salvation was intact.
God still loved them.
God still cared for them.
Although they were having some problems.
He still calls them holy brethren.
And let's be reminded of that when we
see brothers who are struggling around us.
A lot of us have come out of
very strict and legalistic churches, haven't we?
And it's taken us months, maybe years, to
really come out of the old ways.
Some of the bondage that we're in of
can't do this, can't do this, do this,
don't do that within the churches that we
came out of.
And let's be gracious to the brethren who
are coming into Calvary Chapel and need some
time to overcome some of those obstacles and
not be quick to judge, be quick to
encourage them and say, Hello, holy brother.
How are you?
Welcome.
Set apart for God.
We love you.
We want to help you and encourage you
and pray for you.
He goes on to say there that they
are partakers of the heavenly calling.
Isn't it incredible that God called you and
God called me.
There was a day where you heard his
voice.
That day where he called out your name.
And wasn't that awesome that he would even
think of you and think of me to
call us to himself.
Jesus said, no one can come to me
unless the father draws him.
The father was drawing us to the son
by the convicting work of the Holy Spirit.
And then he said, Mark, Candy, Ray, BJ.
He called out our names.
And he said, come partake of the waters,
the living waters, the waters of eternal life.
Come partake of the forgiveness I have for
you, Mark.
Drink and be forgiven and be cleansed.
We're partakers of that.
A partaker is someone who's who has taken
part of something, taken it and made it
their own.
And that is our salvation.
That is our that is our inheritance.
Now it's become our own.
We're partakers of the heavenly calling.
We got a call from heaven and thank
the Lord that we heeded that call.
You know, God is still calling today.
God is not willing that anyone perish, but
that all would come to repentance.
Right.
God is calling.
But who is listening?
We heard and we heeded.
We realized we came to a place, a
choice, a decision in our life that, yes,
that I that I am a sinner, that
I do need a savior.
Jesus is the way.
He is the truth.
He is the life.
I can't get to heaven on my own.
I receive you as my my Lord.
Jesus, come into my heart by faith.
Make me your child.
Make me your son.
I don't deserve it.
But thank you.
That's what grace is, undeserved favor.
And so thank the Lord.
He started this whole process.
He called us.
We didn't choose him.
He chose us.
The Bible says, right.
Let's be reminded of that as Christians.
We can be so content in our Christianity
at times that we forget about that calling
that he initiated.
He initiated this whole love process.
We never would have loved him.
The Bible says we loved him because he
first loved us, not the other way around.
Doesn't that keep us humble?
Right.
Doesn't that keep us broken?
Doesn't that keep us thankful?
That he loved us first.
He's an incredible Savior.
It says there in verse one, consider, consider
the apostle and high priest of our confession.
That word consider means focus your thinking on.
It means to deeply ponder and meditate on
wholeheartedly investigate.
That word consider is used again in the
book of Hebrews and in other places.
Deeply ponder on the person of Jesus Christ.
Consider, investigate, meditate on, on the apostle and
high priest of our confession.
Notice that the word apostle there is capitalized
and the word high priest is capitalized.
It's referring to the person of God when
it's capitalized.
Jesus is God.
What does the word apostle mean?
The word apostle means a sent one, a
sent one.
One who has the rights, power, and authority
of the one who sends him.
That's an apostle.
One who has the rights, power, and authority
of the one who sends him.
And Jesus was sent to the earth by
who?
By the father.
Jesus himself said in John 5 36, but
I have a greater witness than John's.
For the works which the father has given
me to finish, the very works that I
do bear witness of me that the father
has sent me.
He himself proclaimed that the father had sent
him.
So Jesus was the first.
He was the greatest.
Better, superior to all the 12 human apostles
that were commissioned by Jesus to spread his
gospel.
Right.
Jesus is the apostle above all apostles.
Not only our advocate, 1 John 2 declares
Jesus Christ is our advocate.
He is our defense attorney.
He's our defense lawyer in heaven.
When the accuser of the brethren throws his
lies to the father, Jesus Christ is standing
there saying, now wait a minute here.
I am marked.
I'm Kennedy's.
I'm raised defense attorney here.
And those are all a bunch of lies.
And I have the nails scarred hands to
prove it.
So he's not only our advocate.
He is our apostle.
Our great apostle in heaven.
Jesus Christ is also greater and better and
superior to every priest and to every high
priest who's ever lived.
You know that he is the greatest of
all the priests.
Capital P.
And I think in our world today, we
definitely need to point that out because many
people today have an inordinate amount of attention
and affection for a human priest.
Jesus said to be very careful not to
give them worship, to give them adoration, to
give them praise.
When we lived on the island of Guam,
very heavily Catholicized country like the Philippines.
The priest would come walking through the villages
periodically and the people would run out and
bow down to them and kiss their hands
and would venerate them and exalt them.
The Bible says, call no man father, but
call no one father, but one, right?
And that's our heavenly father.
So this whole thing of the of the
priesthood today, it can be very dangerous thing.
And we need to be putting our attention
and our focus on our great high priest,
Jesus Christ.
Because although in great positions of authority over
the people, even human priests, you know, have
needs to confess, don't they?
They have need to repent and be cleansed
of their sins.
Yet Jesus Christ as the heavenly high priest,
he is perfect.
He is sinless.
He is spotless.
Therefore, he has no need for any forgiveness.
He is the forgiver, not the forgivee.
Hebrews chapters 4 through 10 will give greater
detail to the supremacy of Christ in his
office as role as our great intercessory high
priest.
So as apostle, what does Jesus Christ do?
Jesus Christ pleads God's cause with us as
believers.
And he represents God to men.
As high priest, Jesus pleads the believers cause
with God, but represents men to God in
heaven.
That's his office.
That is his present work right now.
That is the doctrine of Christology.
Who is Jesus?
What does Jesus presently do?
What has he done in the past?
What is he doing in the present?
What is his future work for us?
Christ is always at work, you know that?
God never sleeps and God does not slumber.
The father, the son, the Holy Spirit are
constantly active in the life of the believer
and constantly active in the world today in
drawing lost sinners to himself.
Heaven is a very busy place.
We tend to forget about that.
There's lots of work to be done through
heaven on earth.
God has a plan and that plan is
being worked out perfectly according to his sovereign
will.
You can read the newspapers and watch the
TV and panic, panic, panic and freak, freak,
freak.
But remember that God is sovereign.
He's in control.
All things are going exactly as God has
planned them to go in his perfect timetable.
Nothing is out of kilter.
Okay, God is not worried up in heaven
and you know, you know, ringing hankies and
handkerchiefs and oh my gosh, the world's out
of control.
What am I going to do?
God knows exactly what he's doing according to
his perfect timetable.
So we don't need to worry.
The Bible says be anxious for nothing because
our great high priest is interceding for you
right now.
He's called our intercessory high priest.
He's praying for you.
He's taking your prayers that you pray to
the father.
He's your advocate.
He's your high priest.
He's your intercessor.
He's all of those things for you right
now, this very minute.
And he never stops working on your behalf.
He's incredible.
The incredible king of kings and Lord of
Lords.
And that's why we bow down and worship
him and worship him alone.
The Bible says you shall have no other
gods before me.
And Jesus Christ is our God.
We bow down and worship him and him
alone.
Those two concepts of the apostle and the
high priest also bring about the the doctrine
of mediator, right?
Jesus is not only our advocate, not only
our apostle, not only our high priest, not
only our intercessor, but he is also our
mediator, right?
What is 1st Timothy 2, 5 through 6?
All of you should really put this one
to memory.
It's a very crucial verse in the Bible.
Doctrinally speaking, when it comes to sharing your
faith with others, especially those within the Catholic
religion and other and other religions like that.
There is one mediator between God and man.
The man, Christ Jesus.
There are not many mediators.
There is one mediator.
Mary is not the mother of God in
the sense of being the mediator.
Okay?
She needed a savior herself.
She even declared in her magnificat in Luke
chapter one.
God, my savior.
She knew she needed cleansing from sin.
And she knew that her son was not
only her son, but her savior as well.
And so.
The idea that Jesus Christ is our one
and only mediator.
1st Timothy 2, 5 through 6.
There is one mediator between God and man.
Mediator is a go-between, right?
A go-between between two parties at odds
with each other.
Two parties at war with each other, right?
A holy God, unholy man.
Okay?
Well, there is a great gulf in between.
How does that gulf get fixed and taken
care of?
Through Jesus Christ.
He mediated the battle for us.
He mediated the war for us.
He did what we could not do.
We could not approach God on our own.
We could not have direct access to God.
That is why they had to go to
the priest in the Old Testament.
So he could go to God for the
people.
And atone for their sins once a year
in the Holy of Holies.
But it all symbolically pointed to Jesus Christ.
Every lamb, every bull, every goat, every dove.
Everything that was sacrificed all pointed to Jesus
Christ.
The whole sacrificial system in the priesthood all
pointed to Jesus Christ.
That great mediator.
The blood that was spilled pointed to the
blood of Jesus Christ.
Without the shedding of blood, the Bible says
there is no forgiveness of sins.
And all that blood was stained.
But Christ's blood is perfect and pure.
And God accepted that one sacrifice for all
the sins of all the world.
For all mankind forever.
That one sacrifice Jesus Christ made.
The Father accepted that sacrifice on your behalf
and on my behalf.
Isn't that wonderful?
Awesome, incredible office and work of Jesus Christ.
I encourage you to do a study on
the person of Christ.
And to dig into what you believe about
Jesus.
And why you believe in the doctrine of
Christology.
Especially when the Mormons come knocking on your
door like they did at my house this
past weekend.
And as the Jehovah's Witnesses knock on your
door.
What will you tell them about the Jesus
you believe in?
Why is he different than the Jesus they
believe in?
And there is a difference, let me tell
you.
And I had the Mormon girls, sweet girls.
My heart just went out to them.
Flatly tell me, yes, that Lucifer is the
brother of Jesus Christ.
And my heart just went out.
I said, how can you believe that?
It's because they believe Jesus is something less
than creation.
Lucifer was a created being, an angel.
And that's kind of what they teach about
Jesus.
He's something less than God.
On equal par, positionally in a sense, as
Lucifer when it comes to creation.
Sad, but I was able to get some
of the word to them.
They had some good questions.
And they wanted to sing a song for
me.
And I said, no, but can I pray
for you?
And neither one of us were able to
accomplish either one of those things.
And they went to my neighbors and my
other neighbors.
And we stopped and we prayed as a
family for them.
Working their way to heaven in a lot
of sense.
Works righteousness.
A lot of the hang up here that
some of these Jewish brethren wanted to go
back into.
The external, outward, works righteousness.
Oh wow, I got to attain my salvation.
I have to maintain my salvation.
Boy, that sure brings anxiety in your life.
If you've got to attain it and you've
got to maintain it, you're in trouble.
Right?
None of us can attain our salvation on
our own.
None of us can maintain our salvation on
our own, can we?
It's impossible.
Jesus Christ attained our salvation for us.
And he's maintaining our salvation for us right
now, folks.
I mean, without the Lord's work on our
behalf right now.
As high priest, as intercessor, as advocate, as
apostle, as all these things, we'd be toast.
He's got us covered, folks.
He's got us covered.
And that generates worship within us.
I tell you, when you do a study
on the person of Jesus Christ.
You're going to fall more in love with
him.
You study the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and
John.
You can't help but to fall in love
with Jesus all over again.
It's like meeting him again for the first
time.
Meeting your first love again for the first
time.
Be like meeting my wife again for the
first time 21 years ago.
You know, she just floored me.
I couldn't believe how beautiful she was, and
still is.
And Jesus is the same way.
When we read through the Gospels, it's like
meeting him again for the first time.
And we're floored all over again.
We say, Jesus, I love you.
You're amazing.
And I love Easter time.
I love, I know it's very difficult for
us to, we're not going to get through
this whole chapter tonight.
But, I love to see the passion of
Christ.
Not just the movie, but we already have
the movie in a sense right here.
We have all the word pictures right here.
You can read all the accounts of the
resurrection and marvel at what Christ did that
week.
On Sunday, when he walked in, they said,
Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna, the son of David is
here.
He laid down the palm fronds, Palm Sunday,
right?
And then he went through that week, and
he was attacked by the Pharisees and the
scribes and the Sadducees.
And eventually, you know, he had the Passover,
his last Passover meal.
Got down and washed their feet.
Broke bread with them.
Symbolic of his body and his blood.
And then he would go and be arrested
falsely in the middle of the night.
You know, they didn't normally hold court in
the middle of the night.
Why do you think they did it to
Jesus?
Because they knew he was trouble.
He was there to disrupt their whole pharisaical
outward religious righteousness works thing.
And they had gotten the people wrapped around
their fingers, and they didn't want to let
that go.
They had a good thing going.
Those priests back then.
They had a good thing going.
And Jesus came and disrupted everything they had
done for the last 400 years.
He was a threat to them.
And so we need to get rid of
this guy now.
And so they raised up false accusers against
him.
Those crying out, crucify him, crucify him.
Half of them maybe were paid to say
that.
Who knows?
Couldn't have been part of the same crowd.
Maybe saying, Hosanna to the son of David.
Who's this crowd now saying crucify him?
But some of them were paid.
You know, they paid people to mourn back
then and to wail at funerals.
And they would pay.
People would do anything for money like they
would today.
Whether you're in religion or you're not.
Whether you're in church and you're not.
People still do it in church today too,
folks.
Hey, if they pay me enough, I'll do
whatever it takes.
I don't care if it's true or not.
If the money's there, hey, I'll compromise whatever
I need to do.
Unfortunately, sadly, we have some churches like that
in America today.
Money is the church's God.
It will never be that way at Calvary
Chapel, folks.
I can guarantee you that.
It will never happen.
Money will never be the God of this
church.
We trust in Jehovah Jireh, God our provider,
to meet all of our needs.
I don't know where I'm going with this.
Okay.
It says here, going on in verse 1,
out of 19 verses.
It says that Jesus Christ is the apostle
and high priest of our, what?
Confession.
Now, when I got saved, I didn't go
to some confessional and have to confess my
sins to some human, fallible, sinful priest.
That priesthood was abolished 2,000 years ago,
so why go there?
It's not biblical.
I can go to my great high priest
now.
He is the apostle and high priest of
my confession and of your confession, of our
confession.
What does the word confession mean?
It means to agree on something, right?
We have agreed with God's word and agreed
with the facts of scripture, what?
That we're sinners.
That Jesus Christ is our only possible savior
from sin.
We have confessed that.
We have fessed up to that, haven't we?
We have fessed up to the fact that
I am nothing in and of myself.
We've confessed that privately to our high priest.
I'm on our knees and we have confessed
that publicly to others, right?
If you confess with your mouth, Jesus as
your Lord and believe in your heart that
God raised him from the dead, you will
be saved.
Romans 10, 9 and 10.
If you confess with your mouth what you
believe in your heart, Jesus Christ, the Lord
God raised from the dead, you will be
saved.
How many of you here have made that
confession tonight?
If you've not, you need to make that
confession this evening.
Because today is the day of salvation.
If we're all saved here tonight, awesome, wonderful.
Let's go out and spread that good news
to others though.
Because the clock is ticking on this dying
world.
You know that?
The time is short.
The return of Jesus is near.
His coming is near.
We need to get the good news out.
But he is the high priest of our
confession.
I haven't confessed anybody else to be my
savior.
I haven't confessed Mohammed.
I haven't confessed Buddha.
I haven't confessed Confucius.
I haven't confessed Jim Jones or Marshall Applewhite
or the Heaven's Gate cult.
We just had the anniversary of that, right?
30 some people took their lives in suicide
following some wacko who's putting his faith in
the Hail Bob comet to come along.
We're going to catch a ride if you
just trust in me.
I know the way.
We catch a comet ride.
We're on our way to Nirvana.
I can guarantee you they're not in Nirvana
right now.
They're in eternal damnation right now.
That's a scary thing.
You put your trust in folks.
How do you know they're the real deal?
We know Jesus Christ is the real deal.
One thing ultimately primarily, and that's his resurrection
from the dead, right?
Otherwise, or as the saying goes, liar, lunatic,
or Lord.
Jesus is one of the three.
Josh McDowell wrote in his little book, right?
More than a carpenter.
Liar, lunatic, or Lord.
And he proved he was the Lord when
he rose from the dead.
Otherwise, where is Mohammed today?
Where is Confucius?
Where is Buddha?
Where are these guys?
They're dead.
Jesus Christ is alive.
Matter of fact, he showed himself to over
500 people at one time.
You know, in a court of law, the
more witnesses you bring in, the greater case
you have, don't you?
And Jesus Christ appeared to the apostles.
He appeared to the women at the tomb.
He appeared to them in the upper room.
He appeared again to over 500 people at
one time.
And appeared to even Paul as an apostle
born out, the least of all the apostles
born out of due time, right?
So he made the statement that he is.
He's alive and well, and they watched him
ascend into heaven.
That's our wonderful Lord.
And that ties into verse two.
Which says of Christ Jesus, who was faithful
to him who appointed him as Moses also
was faithful in all of his house.
The sun was faithful.
Remember that.
If you remember anything tonight, just remember that.
The sun was faithful.
Faithful to what?
Faithful to the task.
Faithful to the commission that God, the father,
had given and appointed him to do.
You know, they didn't have some board meeting
up in heaven.
And Jesus said, well, I'll think about it,
father.
And I'll get back to you when my
schedule permits.
We'll chat a little bit later about it.
They didn't do that.
He didn't shrink back, did he?
From leaving the glories of heaven.
Now, if it was you or me and
we saw the alternative, OK, perfect heaven, sinful,
rotten, wretched, wicked earth.
I wonder which one I'll choose.
I think I'll stay here in heaven.
It's a bit more comfortable here.
Jesus Christ did not shrink back from leaving
the glories of heaven.
The glory he had with the father, the
fellowship he had with the father from all
eternity, from eternity past.
That's a long way, isn't it?
Can you think back to eternity past?
That's how long they had been having fellowship
together in heaven.
The Godhead, the father, the son and the
Holy Spirit.
Perfect fellowship.
No need for us.
Why did they even create us?
In the beginning, God created the heavens and
the earth, right?
Elohim, the word in Hebrew, the plurality within
the Godhead.
Yes, the word Trinity is not used in
the Bible.
Let me tell you, it's implied from Genesis
1 to the end of Revelation.
We are Trinitarian in our beliefs.
Many churches are not.
But there they were in heaven.
They came up with this incredible plan of
salvation.
Let's create man in our image.
Yes, man will fall.
We will save fallen man.
We'll show them how.
And Jesus left the glories of heaven.
And he came to this earth.
He didn't run from the task appointed him.
Jesus didn't complain.
He didn't gripe about the work given him
to do.
To leave the comforts of heaven to come
to this messed up planet as a man
and then die for our sins.
He was faithful.
He didn't fight with the father.
He didn't argue with the father.
But he humbly, willingly, joyfully came to give
us a chance to be saved through him.
Philippians 2-7.
You're familiar with that verse says that Jesus
made himself of no reputation.
Right?
Made himself of no reputation.
Not like some religious leaders today who seems
that they live to make for themselves a
reputation.
You know, to be honest, folks, I don't
care to have a reputation.
I just want to be known that I
was a lover of God and a liver
for God.
I live for God.
I don't want a name on my door.
I don't want a name on the pulpit.
I don't want my own parking space that
says Pastor Mark in the parking lot.
Like the church that Pat and I came
from had.
We don't want any of that.
We don't want any reputation.
Jesus made himself of no reputation.
It says taking the form of a bondservant.
So instead of reputation, what do you choose?
Be a bondservant.
Be a slave.
Be the servant of all.
That's what being, that's true greatness, by the
way.
That's true greatness.
Was your ability to lay down your life
for others.
That's what I want to be known for.
That's what I want on my gravestone, on
my tombstone.
That Mark loved his God and loved his
family and loved this fallen world.
And P.S., God gets all the glory.
Because without him, I couldn't have had that
epitaph on my tombstone.
And that's going to happen, folks.
The day's going to come when we're going
to say goodbye to this world.
What impact are you going to leave here?
Jesus, it says, turned the world upside down
in the matter of three and a half
years.
You know that?
And his apostles.
Twelve men.
One man gave his life, poured his life
into twelve, and they in turn turned the
world upside down.
Don't you think we could do that with
six or seven hundred adults here at Calvary
Chapel Escondido?
Couldn't we turn this town upside down for
Christ?
We could.
And we can.
And we will.
By his grace.
Jesus made himself of no reputation, took the
form of a bondservant, and coming, he came
in the likeness of men.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself and became obedient to the
point of death, even the death of the
cross.
That's incredible.
That he would become like one of us
and then be crucified.
And if you saw the movie The Passion,
the term crucifixion, I don't know about you,
has brought new depth of meaning to me.
I don't think I could have took more
than another two minutes of watching that movie.
It was so brutalizing that every lash, every
nail, every hit was hurting me.
Because I realized he was doing it for
me.
He was taking the punishment that I deserved.
And I didn't think I could handle much
more of that.
What love?
I deserve that.
I'm the criminal.
I'm the one who sinned.
I'm the one who failed God.
I'm the one who walked away from the
Lord.
I should, I deserve all that punishment.
Jesus took it all for me and took
it all for you.
If that doesn't cause you to fall more
in love with him, I don't really think
anything will, folks.
That's why, again, I love reading the gospels,
because it just brings out what God, the
depths God went to for you and I.
Hebrews 12, 2 says, looking unto Jesus, the
author, the finisher, the originator, the perfecter of
our faith, who for the joy set before
him endured the cross, despising the shame, and
is set down at the right hand of
the throne of God.
So even though Jesus was despised and rejected
by men, he didn't turn his back on
us.
Did he?
He didn't turn his back on us, but
he turned his back to his oppressors, didn't
he?
You see, instead of turning his back on
us, he turned it the other way to
those who were his enemies.
Even though Jesus cried out in the garden
of Gethsemane, remember the story?
If it be possible, Lord, let this cup
pass from me.
The cup of what?
The cup of suffering that he was about
to go through.
The wrath of God that was being stored
up for you and I.
The rejection of God.
The wrath of God.
The punitive part of God's wrath came upon
his only son, for you and for me.
If it be possible, Lord, let this cup
pass from me.
But then nevertheless, he said, what did he
say?
Not my will, but your will be done.
Humanly speaking, Jesus Christ saw the agony that
was coming.
Humanly speaking, he didn't want to go through
that.
But he said, nevertheless, Lord, your will be
done.
I will take the stripes.
I'll take the 39 lashes, 40 lashes minus
one for them.
I'll take the nails.
And ultimately, he'd suffocate for us on that
cross.
That's what crucifixion is.
You die by suffocation.
You cannot breathe.
I play in the men's basketball league here
at the church.
It's a dangerous thing to do.
Most of you may not know this, but
I literally almost died a few years ago
playing basketball.
And maybe this is wrong to compare myself
with what Jesus went through here.
But I got a small taste of that
because I took a charge.
You know what a charge is?
It's when you stand there like a brick
wall and invite the man to run through
you.
Not too smart.
But that's what I did.
And on this elevation of his dribble, his
knee caught my hip just perfectly.
The bone in my hip.
And it drove up into my rib cage.
And broke three ribs and bruised my liver.
Now at that point, I thought I was
just slightly injured.
You know, I'm a macho man.
You know how guys are with that.
And ego and all that thing.
I'm okay.
And I got up and I continued to
play in the game.
And I went actually a whole week.
And it was throbbing and hurting.
But I thought I just had bruised my
ribs.
Well, I played again eight days later.
Or a week later.
And in that game, I felt some more
pain.
Intensified pain.
And I was sitting out here the following
day on the eighth day.
And Pastor Pat walked by me and he
says, Mark, you look terrible.
And I said, thank you, Pat.
And we have a great relationship.
We can say these things to one another.
And he says, I think you need to
go see a doctor.
Have you been to see a doctor?
No, Pat.
Shame on you.
So I went to the doctor.
And got an x-ray.
And sure enough, the doctor looks at me
and says, what do you think you're doing,
young man?
You have a couple of broken ribs.
And you need to go home and lay
down.
And so I did that.
And the following day was my day off
Thursday.
So this is about nine days after the
initial impact.
And I was in my kitchen at the
sink.
My wife was just about to leave.
My kids were off to school.
Thank the Lord she was still there.
And I went to move a dish.
And when I went to move the dish,
I heard another crack.
And another one of my ribs that was
hanging there broke.
And that was the third rib that broke.
And it pushed up against my lung.
And I immediately went into shock.
I turned white as a ghost and began
to tremble and shake.
And I walked over to my wife very
gingerly, of course.
And I said, Bronwyn, I think I've injured
myself.
And I think I need to go to
the hospital.
And she looked at me kind of strange.
She goes, are you sure?
I said, yeah, I think I'm in trouble.
And I said, let's go get in the
car.
And I tried to walk to the car.
And I could not make it to the
car.
And I collapsed on my couch and began
to hyperventilate because my lung was collapsing.
And I thought I was going to die.
And I had her call 911.
And they were out within five minutes, three
or four paramedics looking me over.
And they were talking about giving me a
tracheotomy and slicing my neck open so I
could breathe.
I'm going, great, I'm going to die in
my living room.
And right in front of my wife and
these fine gentlemen.
And this is not the way I want
to go out, Lord.
But I have never experienced so much pain
in my life.
I have broken bones.
I have been in car accidents.
I tell you, I thought I could not
breathe.
Have you ever been in that point where
you can't breathe?
It's a very frightening thing.
Now, that was nothing compared to what Jesus
Christ went through.
Comparing my agony and pain to his was
nothing.
But I got a little bit of a
taste of the sufferings of Christ.
The Bible says, you know, that we are
partakers of his sufferings.
That's not a favorite verse for a lot
of the faith teachers within our community today.
But nevertheless, it's true.
You know, it even says that Jesus learned
obedience through the things that he suffered.
That's a hard one to grasp, isn't it?
He learned obedience through the things that he
suffered.
He learned to depend on his father more
than he ever had before while here on
earth.
And let me tell you, I was depending
on God a lot that day.
When they got me to the hospital, they
gave me a CAT scan.
The doctor walked in, shaking his head.
He says, Mr. Turner, you are a very
lucky man.
And I went.
I had nothing to do with luck, sir.
Thank you.
God loves you.
He says, you have three broken ribs and
your liver is bruised.
The liver almost hurt more than anything.
So my lung did not puncture.
It did not collapse.
It came close.
But all these things were going on.
And it took me quite a number of
months to heal.
And the Lord taught me some wonderful lessons
of humility during that time.
And keep praying for me because I'm still
playing basketball.
But the Lord, the Lord is, the Son
was faithful.
Even more than Moses was faithful.
The Son was faithful.
The Son is faithful.
Jesus has been faithful to forgive us.
Jesus has been faithful to walk with us.
Faithful to talk with us.
Faithful to love us.
Faithful to listen to us.
Faithful to live in us.
Faithful to never leave us.
us and to never forsake us.
You know, it says that in Hebrews 13,
five, he will never leave us and never
forsake us.
That's faithfulness, isn't it?
I love that word never, because it means
just that never, what don't we understand about
never?
The minute you doubt him, the second you
doubt him, just remember Hebrews 13, five, he
will never, ever, ever leave you or forsake
you.
You may feel forsaken.
You may feel forgotten.
The children of Israel felt that way in
the wilderness, so we're not going to get
into tonight.
Pastor Pat and Joyce may be feeling that
this evening after getting the news today that
percentage wise, you know, the percentages, the odds
aren't real good that are that are 90
percent that she will get another tumor.
That's the news that came out today for
Pat and Joyce.
They're walking through the wilderness.
Their faith is being put to the test.
And but the Bible says, count it all
joy, embrace your trials as friends, because the
trying of our faith produces what?
Patience and endurance, and that's what he's trying
to produce in their lives right now.
I don't understand why I'm not going to
try to explain why.
I don't know why, but God's taking him
to the valley right now.
I love Psalm 23, Yea, though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I'll fear no evil for you are with
me and your rod and your staff, they
comfort me.
Isn't that encouraging?
When David is being pursued by his enemies,
those who wanted to kill him, wanted to
murder him, put him out, put him, take
him out.
He said, Yea, though I walk through the
valley, I see shadows of death all around
me.
I will fear no evil.
You're with me.
And God is with Pat and Joyce right
now.
Like the footprints poem, right?
The darkest hour of their life.
They see what they look back and see
what set of footprints, whose footprints are those
folks, the Lord's Jesus, he's faithful to carry
them through this time.
So many scriptures in the Bible say, fear
not.
I encourage you to do a word study
on that phrase, fear not.
That's the that's what we're praying for Pat
and Joyce tonight.
Fear not, Pat and Joyce.
God is with you.
He will never leave you.
He will never forsake you.
Moses was faithful in all of his house,
he was faithful to lead the children of
Israel out of Egypt, faithful to love them,
faithful to lead them.
But Jesus was greater than Moses in all
of that.
Wasn't he?
Don't look to men, look to God.
Tonight.
I love Psalm 118, eight, you know, well,
I gave it away.
The very middle verse of your Bible, this
is a fun fact, biblical fun fact to
know.
Psalm 118, eight, the very center of your
Bible.
Says it is better to trust in the
Lord than to put confidence in man.
It is better to trust in the Lord
than to put confidence in princes.
It's better, Jesus is better, that was the
theme tonight, wasn't it?
Christ is better.
That's what we started off with, Christ is
better.
I love Hebrews 13, eight as well, says
Jesus Christ, the same yesterday.
The same today and the same forever.
That means if he was faithful yesterday, he'll
be just as faithful today and just as
faithful tomorrow.
If he is just as loving yesterday, kind
and forgiving, then he will be today and
he will be tomorrow.
He never changes.
That's called the doctrine of immutability.
God is immutable, right?
God never changing.
Isn't that something to put, isn't that a
rock?
Isn't that a refuge for us to put
our trust in?
You see, that's what God is designing for
us, folks.
No matter what he brings our way, and
he's going to bring joy and suffering our
way, you may as well accept it.
You can't get around it.
I try to get away from it as
much as I can, and God still nails
me with adversity.
It's going to come.
The question is, how are you going to
handle it when it comes?
You know, trust in the Lord, trust in
princes, trust in men, trust in intellect, trust
in programs, trust in political heroes, military heroes,
social heroes, cultural heroes.
Israel did that.
Oh, we have Abraham, you know, to look
to.
We got Moses.
We got David.
We got Solomon.
Oh, we got all these guys that were
really non-Gods.
I said, hold on, wait a minute here.
You need to trust in me because I'm
standing in your midst now.
You need to depend on me fully, solely,
wholly for your salvation.
Okay, we got through four pages of nine
pages of notes.
Let me close with something from the Daily
Bread that was from March the 4th.
Happy adversity with question mark, happy adversity, it's
kind of like a oxymoron paradox.
James 1.12 is the verse, count all
joy when you fall into various trials.
On the back of a wedding anniversary card
were some wiggly lines drawn by our three
-year-old grandson.
Alongside was a note from our daughter explaining
that Trevor told her what he had written.
He wrote, I'm writing a letter for your
love and happy adversity.
Trevor's mistake, quote unquote mistake, has become our
watchword because happy adversity embodies the biblical principle
of facing difficulties with joy.
Count it all joy when you fall into
various trials, knowing that the testing of your
faith produces patience.
From our perspective, adversity is anything but happy.
We have the idea that the Christian life
is supposed to be trouble-free and we
see little value in hardship, but God sees
it differently.
J.B. Phillips' translation of James 1.2
and 3 reads, when all kind of trials
and temptations crowd into your lives, my brothers,
don't resent them as intruders, but welcome them
as friends.
Realize that they come to test your faith
and to produce in you the quality of
endurance.
Hebrews 3.6, but Christ has 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.
That's the proof of our salvation, you know
that?
Evidence that you're a Christian is perseverance and
endurance in the midst of hard times.
Affliction does not come as a thief to
steal our happiness, but as a friend bringing
the gift of staying power.
Through it all, God promised us his wisdom
and strength, so don't be offended if I
wish you happy adversity today.
Life's burdens are designed not to break us,
but to bend us to God.
Let me say that again in closing.
Life's burdens are designed not to break us,
but to bend us toward God.
Unfortunately, children of Israel got all bent out
of shape.
They wouldn't bend toward God, they wanted to
go back to Egypt when the trials came.
Although God led them with a pillar, a
cloud by day, a pillar of fire by
night.
Although he rained down manna from heaven.
Although he gave them meat to eat, water
from the rock, their shoes did not wear
out for 40 years.
They murmured and griped and complained, and wanted
to go back to Egypt because they didn't
want to be in the wilderness.
Didn't want to learn the lessons God had
for them, and that generation all died in
the wilderness.
They did not enter into God's rest, which
meant the promised land, the land of promise
that God had for them.
Even Moses didn't, because he took some of
the of God's glory for his own when
he struck the rock.
And what was it, Mount Horeb that he
that he died on?
No, thank you Nebo.
He got to see it, but he didn't
get to go in, didn't enter into God's
rest.
And tonight, there is a rest for the
people of God.
There's a rest for you tonight.
That rest is utter dependence upon the Lord.
Who are you depending on today?
Yourself or the Lord?
Trust in the Lord with all of your
heart.
Lean out upon your own understanding, and all
of your ways of knowledge, and he'll direct
your paths.
Trust it.
Without faith, the Bible says it's impossible to
please God.
You want to be a God pleaser?
Walk by faith, not by, we walked by
faith as we sang this past weekend.
I love that song.
It's true.
Are you walking by faith tonight?
Are you trusting in, relying upon, and clinging
wholly, fully to the Lord?
Like if you were out in an ocean
drowning and going down, and somebody came by
and thought life was over to you.
What would you do with it?
If you grabbed it and held on for
dear life, then you're, that's faith.
You're trusting in something to hold you up,
to keep you from going under, to rescue
you.
Christ is that life preserver.
He can carry you through every storm.
And again, I lived on Guam for many
years, and went through many typhoons.
In the middle, every single one of them,
the outer destructive winds come and pound, and
they pound, and they pound, and they pound
some more for three or four days.
Knock out your power for a week, and
so forth and so on.
But when that eye passes over, every storm
has a, has an eye in it.
Right?
There's perfect calm, and it's how, that's, that's
weird.
But it's such a good example.
It's a good spiritual principle there.
The storms are going to come.
Jesus Christ is the calm in the eye
of the storm.
No matter what you're going through tonight, no
matter what it is, He'll give you the
faith to get through it, if you lean
on Him, rest in Him.
Let's pray.
Lord, thank you for the time we could
gather tonight, and I just pray that there's
been some words of encouragement, and comfort, and
exhortation here for all of us, including myself.
Lord, we, we love you with all of
our heart, mind, soul, and strength.
Now help us to love one another, love
our neighbor as ourself.
Help us to put into practice, Lord, what
we're hearing.
And Lord, if we're in the wilderness tonight,
Lord, we know there's a place of rest
for us.
We, we, just help us to implicitly trust
you, God, that you know what you're doing,
even though we don't understand, Lord.
We're frail, we're fragile, we're but dust, Lord,
we're clay pots.
We don't, we cry out to you, Lord.
We hold on to your scripture, which says
that the trial of our faith be much
more precious than gold that perishes, though it
be tried by fire, might be found to
praise, and honor, and glory at the appearing
of Jesus Christ.
So Lord, turn up the heat, if that's
what it's going to take.
Burn away all the dross.
Burn away all the, all the self-dependence,
all the self-effort in our life, everything
of self, Lord, burn it away.
That we'd be totally, fully, utterly dependent upon
you, that we could enter into that place
of rest tonight, Lord.
There is a rest for the people of
God.
You're the Prince of Peace, Jesus.
We love you.
It's in your name.
We pray, amen.