Hebrews chapter 3, I'm going to be reading from verse 1 through 6. Hebrews chapter 3 verses 1 through 6. Therefore holy brethren, partakers of heavenly calling, consider Jesus the apostle and high priest of our confession. He was faithful to him who appointed him, as Moses also was in all his house.

For he has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but builder of all things is God. Now Moses was faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later.

For Christ was faithful as a son over his house, whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end. Let's pray. Jesus father we thank you for the privilege that we have to come and worship you, to call you our Abba father.

We pray that your living word will continue to guide and lead us. Our thoughts, emotions, all of it Lord God may be surrendered to your will. We pray father that as we search your word, that it would search us. And we pray father that what you have anointed through these words would have its effect on us this morning.

In Jesus name we pray, amen. As you guys know, many of you know today is the graduation day for many of our students and graduation for this whole weekend. So a lot of the parents were actually here this morning in the first service and they ended up going to the graduation afterwards.

And so whenever there is a transition in life, it causes us to contemplate and think what is coming next? What kind of job am I going to get? What's my future going to be like? Am I going to meet somebody? Am I going to get married in my 20s and my 30s?

And anytime there is a transition, it forces us to think because it's going to dictate where we're going to be headed. What the next stage of our life is going to look like. Today is Father's Day. And so I remember very distinctly the first time I thought about what kind of father I was going to be.

It was when I first got married. In fact, it was even before I got married. Knowing that I was going to get married and the Lord willing at some point that we're going to have kids, I invested in this video series from Hanna-Barbera. Some of you guys may remember that.

I don't think they exist anymore. But Hanna-Barbera came out with this video Bible series for children, cartoons. And it was VHS. I know some of you guys don't know what that is. But it was made out of VHS and I thought it was fantastic. It was like, you know, first time they made cartoon Bible pictures and all this stuff.

And so it cost us $700 and I think the video series may have about 20 videos. And before I ever had kids, I purchased it. Right. Now you have to understand at that time my full time pay was under $1,000 before taxes. I didn't have car insurance. So it was a lot, a lot of money.

In fact, Esther was very surprised that I spent that kind of money on that. And the reason why I did that is because I wanted to be a good father. And I thought if I had these video series that it would make it easier. You know, I grew up watching Andy Griffith Show.

Some of you guys may. Yeah, most of you guys don't know. OK. Andy Griffith Show. Basically, he was, in my view, the most ideal perfect father. You know, he was a single dad. The father, the mother passed away early. And so if you remember, if you know that show, basically the dad has always had the perfect answer.

You know, when his son would go and get into trouble, he would come down and have a wise conversation and his whole paradigm would shift. And, you know, he never loses his temper, always goes fishing with him. And so it's really that it was about the father who was a cop, but so much of it was about a relationship between him and his son.

And I remember growing up watching that thinking, that's the dad, kind of dad I would like to be. And so I thought that was a good investment. You know, so I purchased these video series, even though it was way out of my budget. And we got married and it took us five years to have our first kid.

And so by the time we had our first kid, we thought, yes, you know, like Jeremy's going to be able to watch this and we're going to bond. And then I didn't realize that it wasn't going to be until another three or four years later that he can actually watch it.

So from the time that I bought it until the time the kids can watch it, VHS was no longer working. And what seems so fantastic eight, nine years ago was so outdated. It was so cheesy. You know, it was like they had DVD, you know, and internet and all these things came out.

So I probably didn't even open two thirds of it. And SRI and I ended up watching some of it. And I don't think our kids even knew what that was. Right. It was obviously not a good investment. It was a huge chunk of the money that we had at that time, all because I just thought that that would make me a good father.

Right. The reason why I say that is because there are periods of life, especially as Father's Day, every single one of us. I don't know any father who becomes a father thinking that I'm going to be a bad dad. Right. I'm going to fail as a father. Nobody thinks that.

Everybody wants to be a good dad. You know, when you get married, you start thinking, what kind of husband do I want to be? What kind of father do I want to be? And then as life goes by, challenges come. You realize your limitation. You realize that you're not raising perfect kids.

And in that context, you struggle and wrestle. And then life kind of has a way of repeating itself. When these transitional periods of life comes, we automatically contemplate and think what we value, who we want to be, what are we going to invest in. Out of all the things that we contemplate and think about, there is no greater question than the question of who is Jesus?

Now when I ask that question, I'm not asking about a theological question. I'm not asking about what you learned. I'm not asking about what verse to quote. If you asked me that question before I became a Christian, I would have told you because of what I knew, because of being raised in a church, I would have told you that Jesus Christ is God.

That He died for my sins. He was resurrected on the third day. That Jesus is the truth and the way and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. Because I memorized those scriptures. I became a Christian in 1983. If you asked me in 1982 what I believed about God, it was all Orthodox.

My dad was a pastor. My grandfather was a pastor. I don't remember a single day missing church, ever. It doesn't matter how sick you were. We religiously attended church. I went to all the VBS, Sunday school teachings. So if you asked me in 1982, "Who is Jesus to you?" I would have been able to give you an Orthodox, a Biblical answer to who Jesus is.

But I wasn't a Christian. I didn't know Christ until 1983, December. What was the distinction? Jesus asked this very question to His disciples. Who do men say that I am? And they gave all kinds of answers. He's Elijah. He's the prophet. But Jesus was not concerned about what they were thinking.

He was asking them, "Who do you say I am?" And when He asked that question, He wasn't asking for only a theological answer. He was asking Him. He was asking the disciples. In Matthew 16, 16, Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Who is Jesus to us?

Who is Jesus to you? If we've been raised in a church, if you've been a Christian for a while, we know how to give the knee-jerk reaction. You've been taught the theological answers. You go to Bible study. You know, I mean, again, if you've been a Christian for any period of time, even your children, because they were raised in the church, even at the age of 10, ask them, "Who is Jesus, Son of God?

What did He do? He died for us. He was resurrected on the third day. And so because of what He did, what's going to happen? We're not going to go to hell? We're going to go to heaven?" They can give you that answer. But that's not what this text is asking us to consider.

The author of Hebrews is talking to a group of people who are beginning to drift away from the things of God and have taken their eyes off of Christ. And so in chapter 3, verse 1, he says, "Holy brethren, particulars of the heavenly calling, consider Jesus." When he's asking to consider Jesus, it's the same question.

Who is Jesus to you? Who is Jesus to you? The word "consider," "kata no'eo," the word "kata" is an intensifying word. The word "no'eo" means to think. So literally, it means to think carefully, intensely, to observe carefully, to contemplate, to meditate, to ultimately marvel at, to take some time to consider deeply who is Jesus to you.

Not who is Jesus, but who is Jesus to you? The text that we're looking at this morning is going to give us about four different reasons why we need to carefully consider Christ. The number one reason—now I'm not going to spend too much time on this because the author has been spending the whole chapter and chapter 2 talking about this—he says, first one, we need to consider carefully who Jesus is because Jesus is the apostle and high priest of our confession.

He starts the first verse by saying, "Therefore, holy brethren," meaning, in conclusion to everything that he's been saying in chapter 2, "Therefore." And so at the end of chapter 2, he says, "For since he himself was tempted in that which he has suffered, he is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted." An apostle literally means a messenger, someone who was sent from God.

A high priest was an individual who mediated between the sinner and the holy God. So he's been spending the whole chapter and chapter 2 discussing how Jesus is an apostle, but he's also the perfect mediator. Now, that alone should cause us to think carefully. If Jesus is the only way to get to God, and he is a sympathetic high priest, we should carefully consider.

He already mentioned that in chapter 2, so I'm not going to spend too much time on that. But the second part of why we need to carefully consider and meditate about Christ is also in that first verse. We need to carefully consider Christ because our calling is a heavenly calling in verse 1.

"Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider Jesus." Again, the reason why he emphasizes to them about this holy calling, this heavenly calling, is because the Jews that he is writing to were beginning to go drift back to their old life. And the reason why they were drifting back to their old life was because their new life in Christ was beginning to become difficult.

At the very beginning when they converted, the author says later on that you joyfully participated with those who were having their possessions being taken. You prayed for those and visited those who were put into prison because of their faith. And there was an excitement. Even in the midst of persecution, there was a great excitement.

But by the time this letter is written, it's about 30 or 40 years removed from when they first heard the gospel. We have second, third generation Christians who are in this church. And continuing on this path is difficult. I mean, we can all relate to that. It's one thing to experience trial, but it's another thing when the trial is constant.

And that was the problem that they had. The reason why they were drifting back to their old life was because as a Jew, it was much easier to live as a Jew. So they weren't outright denying Christ, they were just making some compromises so that their Christian life would be a little bit more easier.

Maybe if they just adjusted a few things. Maybe if they didn't say that Jesus Christ is Lord and he meant everything. If you just kind of tweaked a little things. And the whole reason why this letter is being written is because they're drifting back to their old life. The author is reminding them that Christ didn't come to make this life easier.

Christ didn't come to fix our financial problems. He didn't come because we have family issues. He called us to a heavenly calling. In Philippians 3.14, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, upward call of God. Paul is writing this sitting in prison.

Now you have to, we have to realize if our mankind's whole pursuit of life is to get ahead, to seek happiness, new adventures, going to prison means death. You may not physically die, but there's no opportunity to move ahead in prison. There's no opportunity to seek joy in prison.

There's no opportunity to have family, have children, retirement. So to be in prison, whether it was then or now, means death. He's sitting in prison and he hasn't given up. He said I am pressing on toward the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. The reason why he's able to say that is because his goal was not this life.

Philippians 3.1-2, "Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth." If your baptism meant anything to you, if you truly have been crucified and resurrected to new life, he said the natural thing to do is to set our mind on the things where he's at, not here.

I think the problem that we have is we try so hard to bring Christ to our circumstance, make him fit into our life, and then we meet all kinds of frustration when he doesn't help. When the calling to begin with is to call us out of this life, later on, we're not there yet, but later on he's going to say, "As Christ went outside the gate, he calls us also to go outside the gate." He didn't say, "You know what?

You have a comfortable life. Let me come and make it better." C.S. Lewis, in his book, "Mere Christianity," says this about this subject. "If you read history, you will find that Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The apostles themselves who set on foot the conversion of Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English evangelicals who abolished the slave trade all left their mark on earth precisely because their minds were occupied with heaven.

It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you will get neither." You know, the greatest thing that I learned, the greatest help that I have received being a Christian was that nothing in this world really matters.

This rat race, a wanting to have a certain kind of reputation, wanting to build something for the future, having a comfortable home for our children, all of these things, none of these things are sinful, but in the end it doesn't matter. That whether you live a life with a lot of money in a bank account or whether you live a difficult life with very little in the bank account, whether you live a long life or a short life, it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter because everything is temporary. Understanding that our call is an upward call in God, that no matter what you experience here, ultimately He's going to pluck us out of that to save us for eternity. And that lesson, the greatest thing that I've gained from following Christ is that none of it ultimately matters.

So it doesn't destroy your life when things don't go the way that you planned, when you didn't make a lot of money, when you weren't successful in the eyes of the world. None of that is sinful, but it just doesn't matter. That's what He's reminding these Christians who are drifting back because they were having a difficult time.

Why is everybody else having an easy life, a comfortable life? They're able to have business and not feel guilty. And so why not? Why can't we have that? And that's why they're drifting back and they're reminding them, don't forget your initial call. It wasn't to make heaven on earth.

It was to remind us to the heavenly calling. The third reason why we need to consider Christ carefully is that Jesus is better than Moses and deserving of more glory than Moses. You and I hear that. We know about Moses. We know who he is. He was a great leader to the Israelites.

And so for us, when we hear that Jesus is greater than Moses, of course he is. He's God. Moses is just a human being. It's not much of an argument. We don't need convincing. You have to understand who Moses is or was to the Israelites. Remember the transfiguration when Jesus takes the three disciples up to the mountains and he wanted to show Jesus' glory?

Who was there at the transfiguration? Moses and Elijah. Moses was not just one of many leaders. Moses was there in Jesus' glory standing and talking to Jesus. He was not just an ordinary man who just happened to be a great leader. Moses was the one that God used to deliver Israel from Egypt.

He was basically Abraham Lincoln and then some. God demonstrated his power to confront the Egyptian gods through Moses. He was the leader who stood between Israelites and God pleading that God would be merciful for the nation of Israel because God was so angry with their stiff-necked sin. It was Moses.

It was his prayer that preserved the nation of Israel. The law of God that the Pharisees were so proud of. It came through Moses. God revealed it to Moses and dictated and then he brought it to the people. The tabernacle, the temple, all of these things that the Israelites treasured so much.

The initial tabernacle was given to Moses. Everything that the Israelites valued was given through this man. He was not just any ordinary man. In fact, they esteemed him so highly, many of the Jewish rabbis actually said that Moses was higher than the angels. Now we can see why people would think that because again at the transfiguration, it wasn't the angels talking to Jesus.

It was Moses and Elijah, the greatest prophet. But of all the things that they knew about Moses, the greatest thing about Moses was that Moses had this intimate relationship with God that no other human being had. It's expressed in Numbers chapter 12, 6 through 8. He said, "Hear now my words.

If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord shall make myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my household. With him I speak mouth to mouth, even openly and not in dark sayings.

And he beholds the form of the Lord." In other words, Moses is closer to God than any other human being. And that's the reason why they thought that Moses was greater. Some of them thought he was greater than the angels. So when they hear that Jesus is like Moses, they needed some convincing.

How can you say, "If Moses is the greatest human being that we know and Jesus is like him, what are you saying about Jesus?" But that wasn't his point. The point wasn't that Jesus is like Moses. He goes even further than that. He says Jesus is greater than Moses.

He deserves more glory than Moses. Hebrews chapter 3, 5-6. "Now Moses was faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later. But Christ was faithful as a son over his house whose house we are. If we hold fast our confidence in the boast of our hope firm until the end." There's two things that we need to clarify here.

One, the word for servant that describes Moses is not doulos. I know our college students, you know, you have your serving team called doulos. What does doulos mean? A bond servant or more literally just slave. Majority of the New Testament, when you hear the word servant, it's doulos, majority of it.

The word that is used here is not doulos, it's therapon. And the word therapon also translated servant is only used in this text. The reason why is that the word for servant here is unlike the word bond servant. Bond servant is somebody who is obligated because of his position in life.

He may be an indentured servant or he may have been born a slave, but he's obligated by whatever the master tells him to do. That is not the word used here. The way the commentators describe this word, therapon, is not a subservient role. And the illustration that they give is like a physician who serves his patient.

The physician is not the subservient role, but by serving, he is actually greater. Moses is a servant of Israel, not because he is under them, but because he is over them. And that's the word that is being used here. So this is not to undermine Moses' dignity, he's actually elevating Moses, saying, "Moses served you, and he was a great man who was deserving of great honor.

So everything you know of Moses, it is true. But Jesus comes as the Son, as great as Moses is." No one spoke to God face to face. The Bible clearly says, "A sinful man who gets that close to God shall surely die." Every instance that we see holy men in the presence of God's glory, they bow down in terror, and yet God describes him as somebody that God speaks to mouth to mouth, face to face.

He is deserving of great honor. God used him in a fantastic way. But despite the honor that he deserves, he says, "He came to serve as a servant, yet Jesus Christ served as the Son." You notice here he says, "He was a house of servant for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later." In other words, everything that Moses did, everything that God used him to do, was for what purpose?

To set up for the testimony of what was to come. What was that? Christ. Everything that Moses did, as great as he is, as deserving of veneration as Moses deserved, all of that served as a testimony of the coming of the Son. He served, but Jesus comes and he serves as the Son.

It's his own household. The love that Christ has for us is so much deeper, so much greater than any other human being, even Moses. That's the point that he's trying to make. For the last 10 years, we lived in a rented house in Irvine. Now, we got in 10 years ago and it was fair to undervalue.

Our rent was pretty cheap compared to what other people pay. We were there for 10 years and the owner never raised rent. Part of the reason why he never raised rent was because I never called him. He said the previous tenant called him for everything. He said door hinge or a little leak and he actually asked me, "Do you know how to fix the little things?" That was his number one question when he asked me.

I said, "I could do some of that stuff." Unless it was really bad, I never called him. The garage door was constantly broken and all it needed was for me to yank something or tweak something and I would fix it and so he wouldn't have to come. They liked us so they kept the rent that way for 10 years.

It was never raised. Living in that house, I would have to fix a little hinge here or the door or the light bulbs or little electrical stuff. I did most of that stuff. But after 10 years, the gap between what the house was worth and where it was almost $1,000 difference.

The owner said, "We're going to raise rent and we're going to eventually get it up to the market value," and it didn't make sense for us to live and rent anymore. We ended up purchasing the house behind us, literally behind us. It was the house that we looked for 10 years, looking into that neighbor and saying, "Oh, they're having a party there.

Who lives over there?" Even my son, Zachary, jumped over the fence or the wall when he was in high school and he got yelled at by the old guy that lived in that house. That's the house we bought. We moved in. Some of you guys were there helping us out and we literally knocked down part of the fence and moved the stuff through the fence and we were there.

It's kind of weird because now we're at this house and we look into our old house that we were there for 10 years and they never closed their blinds. Our neighbors, so when I'm in second floor, I look down and I can see all the way through the front door and they never closed their blinds.

I could see, but every time I go there, we have 10 years of experience, 10 years of life. My youngest went in there as literally a one-year-old and he came out as an 11-year-old, so we spent a good chunk of time in that house. But now in our new house, I've become an old man.

Like I'm walking around the house and I tried to take care of their old house, but it wasn't our house, so I just fixed little things here and there. But now I catch myself in my new house doing gardening. When I go to Home Depot, before I would look for tools.

Now I look for plants. What flower is going to work? In fact, right after the first service, I had a conversation with one of our brothers about which flowers to plant. I walk around the house pulling weed, picking up trash, and I'm trying to take care of the house and I'm thinking, "Wow, now I understand why older people like gardening.

It's very relaxing." I think if I ever took a sabbatical, that's what I would do. I would spend all my time just planting stuff and watering. I know. That's what I do. The reason why I do that, the difference is that was my rented house. Even though I did my best to take care of it, it wasn't my house.

I'm not going to invest money into a house that doesn't belong to me. But in this new house, this is our place. We bought it. So every part of it, if something happens, I try to make it better. I say all of that is because that's exactly what the author is saying.

He came, Moses came and he did a great job and God used him greatly, but all of that was to prepare for the son to come because he's the owner. All of that is to teach us. He purchased us. We are that house. We belong to him and he cares for us because we are his.

That's why he says we need to contemplate and think carefully. Consider that this God did not spare his only, even his own son, that he came to us, the son himself gave himself, sacrificed for us. Should we not consider carefully who he is and what he is saying? Thirdly, he says he is greater because he is the creator.

Hebrews chapter 3, 3 and 4, "For he has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God." He's not only the son of God, he says he built the house himself.

He's the creator. John 1, 3, "All things came into being through him and apart from him, nothing came into being that came come into being." And Romans chapter 125 summarizes the rebellion of mankind. It says, "For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever.

Amen." Our natural tendency is to give our confidence and our weight to the things that are created rather than the creator. Because you and I have been raised in the church, or a lot of us have been raised in the church, or maybe some of us have been Christians, but we've been Christians for a while.

So the fact that you and I confess that Jesus Christ is God, it just doesn't have the same effect that it did maybe once before. Last night and this morning I was reading an article, and the article was stating that the government is acknowledging that there might be aliens.

Anybody read that article? Yeah, there was some picture that they took and they can't explain it, and Donald Trump, the president, basically came out and said, "Yeah, I was shown the documents. We don't know exactly what it is. It could be an alien." Interesting. It was on the front page.

Now the idea of an alien outside of us, in and of itself, that's not a Republican, that's not a Democrat issue, it's just people are just intrigued and interested. I'm sure all of you guys are going to go home and look that up. I didn't get to read the article.

I just read an excerpt of it. But people have been for decades and decades and decades have been asking that. They've been spending billions and billions of dollars trying to figure out, is there something out there? So much time contemplating and thinking and examining and studying just to see.

And if there is, could we make contact with this being? Think about that. Because there might be something out there. And yet, we have become so desensitized with this truth of who Jesus is that we don't spend any time other than Sunday and other than when we started the Bible that Jesus Christ is God.

Of course He's God. We've been told He was God. I've memorized He's God. I can argue with an atheist and tell you why He must be God. If He did nothing, if He never was incarnate, if He never came and gave His life, if He never was a high priest, if all we knew was that Jesus Christ is God, that fact alone would cause mankind to give everything that we have, everything that we have, to make this contact with this God.

If we make contact with an alien, with all the money and time and energy poured in, the end result is, that's interesting, the end. It's not going to change your life. The earth is not going to be fixed. It's just interesting. But if Jesus is God, it changes everything.

It changes everything. Because not only did Jesus say He was God, not only did He prove that He was God, He said everything that He said was true. In John chapter 5, verse 18, it says, "For this reason, therefore, the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God." They understood clearly.

Jesus was not simply saying that I came to represent God. He said Jesus is God Himself. In that same text, Jesus says He is equal with God. He has the ability to give life. That alone would have been blasphemous. But in chapter 5, verse 22, it says, "For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has no judgment to the Son." Jesus does what even the Father does not do.

Think how blasphemous that is. Jesus is clearly declaring He is God. In fact, in John chapter 5, verse 23, He says, "So that all will honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him." If you've ever read the Bible, whenever holy men confront powerful men or powerful angels, what do they naturally do?

They bow down and worship. And what is the response of these archangels and of these men of God? Fear. "Don't worship me. I'm a man just like you. I'm a servant. You're not supposed to worship me. In fact, that was the fall of all mankind. That was the fall of all these angels.

Do not worship me." And they're afraid to be worshipped because they know what's going to come if they step in those shoes of worship rather than to be a worshipper. And yet Jesus is standing here and saying, "If you do not worship me, you do not worship the Father." If Jesus was not God, He deserved more than stoning.

He deserved more than the crucifixion. Yet Jesus says very clearly out of His own mouth, "I do things that even the Father does not do. And if you do not worship me, you do not worship the Father." That fact alone should cause us to contemplate, to consider, to carefully think and meditate and marvel about Jesus.

Because no matter what stage you are in life, whether you are a graduating senior and you're about to get a new job or you're about to get married or you're going to have a child or starting a new business, wherever you are in life, this question of, "Who is Jesus to you?

Do you believe these things?" Completely changes everything. Because for a believer, it changes the way that we pursue life, business, how we raise our children, who we marry, what kind of job we get. The totality of our life is changed by this. That's why He's saying contemplate and think carefully.

But fourth and finally, we need to contemplate carefully about who Jesus is because Jesus is the only hope for our salvation. Hebrews 3.6, "Christ was faithful as a son over His house, whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end." Now, let's stop right here.

When He says, "If," you can read that and say, "Well, if you don't persevere, you're going to lose your salvation." Is that what He's saying? Or did He change His mind? Because He started chapter 3 by saying, "Holy brothers who participate in the heavenly calling." So clearly He's talking to Christians and yet in verse 6, He says, "Only if you hold fast the confidence until the end." So is He saying you can lose your salvation or is He saying that who He was referring to in verse 1 is different than He was referring to in verse 6?

What is He saying? We have to be careful and bad doctrine always comes from superficial reading of the scripture. Look what He says, "If you hold fast," to what? Our confidence. What is another word for confidence? Faith. Faith. If you hold fast your faith and boast of our hope firm until the end.

He didn't change. Salvation is not by, justification is not by works, and then not by, is by faith, and then we move to sanctification, it's by works. Justification, sanctification, glorification is all because of faith. So what He means by here is, if you believe that Christ was justified and you believe that and it is that faith that you continue to hold on to and it's that faith that causes you to persevere.

So the author hasn't changed anything, all he is saying is, if your confidence is true and real, if all that we hope in Christ hinges upon this faith, everything, our eternity, our relationship with Christ, if it all hinges upon this faith, shouldn't we carefully contemplate and ask, "Is this faith real?

Is this faith real?" Or is it something that you just learn to answer? You know how to give the answer, because you went to Sunday school, you were a Sunday school teacher, you were raised in the church, you were campus ministry, you may have even discipled other people, you may have even led praise for years.

But is this an answer that we give because we know how to give it? But is it coming from real faith? We all know the term peer pressure, right? We use that a lot when we're young. But as we get older, we naturally think that we outgrow that. "Oh, peer pressure is for children." The only difference between peer pressure when we're young and peer pressure when we're older is that the peer pressure come from different groups.

But that never changes. I remember back in high school when punk rock was beginning to take off, and the punk rockers would come and we're anarchists, right? We don't believe in any system, we're just in rebellion. But what was always interesting to me is they all rebelled the exact same way.

They all had the spiked hair, they all had the anarchist tattoo and the leather jacket and the spikes in their hand. We're anarchists. If you're an anarchist, you should be very, very different, right? I said, "No." But they all rebelled the exact same way. The peer pressure that they were submitting to were just a different set.

Don't fool ourselves. Peer pressure has a grip on all of us. In fact, there's a psychological term for that. They call it contagion norm. That's the technical term. If you took any psychology, that's what they call it. That term came out of a study in 1970, May 4th. There was a protest against the Vietnam War, against the government, that we shouldn't be in there.

A small group of students gathered together and they began to protest. The protest started growing and it became violent. The state troopers came in and in order to calm the crowd, it got out of hand and they ended up shooting. Four students got killed and many others got injured.

After everything was said and done, people came in to interview and see what caused this. They began to interview the students of why this happened and why did it escalate and why did the state troopers ended up shooting. The interesting thing was, the majority of the students had no idea why they were out there.

The majority of the students could not articulate why they were there. They began to ask them, "Then why were you there?" This small group of students who gathered together began to grow to hundreds and even thousands and that's why the state troopers were called. They said, "What happened was, there was a small group of students who came out protesting and it just happened that all the big classes were finishing their class right at that time.

As they were walking out, they saw the crowd and they just came to look. They began to chant. They got caught up in the moment. They began to chant and the group started to grow to hundreds. The word began to spread through campus and there's something going on over there.

So they started attracting all the students to this area and then that attracted the attention of the police because they were beginning to get concerned with the size of the crowd. And once the police came, the rock started to be thrown and in defense, it irritated some of the police and they began to shoot.

Patriotism is just a fancy word for peer pressure. None of us are exempt from that. None of us. If a student can be pressured without even knowing what they're doing to even risk their lives protesting something that they don't even understand, it's very, very easy to be at church all your life just doing what other people do.

That's why majority of the people's spirituality goes up and down based upon which church they're at, what is expected of them. Their holiness changes based upon what the church requires. And if our holiness, if our passion for God goes up and down based upon the kind of friends that you put around you, isn't that just peer pressure?

Maybe it's not, but there's a good chance that it could be. If all your life, your faith goes up and down, up and down based upon who is around you. This is why we need to contemplate, think carefully, meditate about who Jesus is. Who is Jesus to you? Not your friends, not your pastor, not your circle, not your parents.

Who is Jesus to you? Before you answer that question too quickly, everybody says, "Well, Jesus means this to me in my heart." We can say that, but if you want to know what kind of relationship two people have, you don't just ask them. One person says, "Oh, he's my best friend." It's like, "He's your best friend?

How come I never see you with him? How come you never talk to him? How come you're not there on his birthday?" You know? When's the last time you talked to him? It's like, "Well, he is, but we haven't talked for 15 years." That's strange because what you say, what you do don't match.

We have to ask ourselves. If that's the most important question in life, are we confident that this faith, this confidence that we have is real? I'm going to give you a preview of next week before I finish. All of this leads to this, this imperative. Consider him, Hebrews 3, 7, 8.

Considering all of this, therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked me, as in the day of trial in the wilderness." Our salvation is not by works, it's not by good intentions, it's not by being smart, but by having confidence in Christ and who he is and what he has done.

So again, as the author of Hebrews is challenging us and encouraging us, and I hope and pray because the whole book of Hebrews is about Jesus. The whole book of Hebrews is about considering and contemplating Christ. So I hope at some point you don't just say, "Enough. Let's talk about the Holy Spirit now." Or, "Give me something practical.

How do I become a good father?" I hope that doesn't happen because all the other questions will naturally be answered if you can answer this question. Who is Jesus to you? Jesus to you. Let's take some time to pray.