Have You Considered Jesus?, Part 5

If you have your Bible, Hebrews chapter 3, Hebrews chapter 3, verses 1 to 6, cons Jesus The life's most quintessential quest Oh, the joy and the beauty, the responsibility of understand the depth and the breadth of Jesus Christ Our Lord Once you begin the study of what it means to consider Jesus, it's hard to end the study of considering Jesus because it's endless, it's limitless And so we are trying to help you understand what it is, why it is we are to consider Jesus Christ Our Lord

The Bible says in Hebrews 3, verse number 1, Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consid Jesus Because you are a child of God, having been called of God, you are to think deeply about the Lord God What about the Apostle, his prestigious mission, the high priest of our confession? His priestly min It says down in verse number six that Christ was faithful as a son That is, you are to consider his pro Messiahship

Three points that we have covered for you already, three more to cover with you, that you might understand what it means to consider Jesus. how it is we are to do that So today we find ourselves in Hebrews 3, verse number 2 All right, as we rapidly move through the book of Hebrews, trying to finish sometime before the year 2030, it says, he was faithful to him who app him Him We'll stop right there He was faithful to him who appointed him In other words, We are to consider of the Christ His person mot His personal motive

Our Lord had one motive when he came, and that was to do everything that was asked of him That is, he was to fulfill the will of his father in heaven There was never a time where our Lord sought glory for him, only that he might glorify his Father who is in heaven That is his person motive To do that, he would have to be faith to the one who appointed him Faithful to the one who called him And most certainly, he was just that He was absolutely faithful

Now it's interesting to note that the Bible says in Hebrews 3, verse number 2, these words: He was faithful to him who appointed him, as Moses also was in all his His house That's an interesting contrast because Moses wasn't considered faithful as Christ was faithful But Christ was considered faithful as Mos was faithful That's a very interesting contrast Because to a Jewish mind, Mos was the most faithful Jew that's ever existed But Jesus Christ is greater than Moses Jesus Christ is more faithful than Moses

And yet the Bible says The Bible says in Exodus chapter 40, eight tim Moses was faithful Wow In fact, it says between Exodus chapter 35 and Exodus chapter 40 22 times That Moses did all that the Lord had commanded him Can you imagine that? 2 times in five chapters, it says that Moses did all that was commanded him That is the Lord giving his commentary on the life of Moses Yet we know there were times Moses was unfaithful He was unfaithful when he struck the rock instead of speaking to The rock We know that Moses was unfaithful when he killed the Egyptian So we know that he wasn 100% faithful

But Jesus is faithful as Moses him was Faithful In other words, faithfulness was the pattern of the life of Moses Now, it wasn't perfect as Christ's life was perfect But the contrast is unique And next week, we'll help you understand why that contrast is the way it is But today, I want you to consider Jesus In his personal motive to do everything that God said Now, remember, the context is the book of Numbers, 12th chapter, when Aaron and Miriam, the brother and sister of Moses, began to question the leadership of Moses

Remember that? They began to question why isn't God can't use us? Why just Moses? Why can't we lead? We're just as committed to God as Moses is Why does he get all the glory? And the Lord became angry with Miriam and Aaron And the Lord said, This, hear now my words Numbers 12, verse number 6 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 Wow That's the Lord's commentary on Moses He's 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 Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant against Moses? So the context of Hebrews 3 is God saying that Moses himself is faithful in all of my household And the writer of Hebrews is going to use Moses as a springboard to demonstrate the faithfulness of the character of Christ But we need to understand that, but that's not going to be until next week This week, you need to understand The faithfulness of Christ

If we're to consider Jesus, if we're to think deeply about the Christ, if our minds are to penetrate the depths of Scripture to understand the faithfulness of Christ, the faithfulness of God, we Must see it in all of its splendor and beauty because we are to proclaim his faithfulness Now, note this, that the Hebrew word for faithful and the Hebrew word for true or truth had the same ro word Because, in order to be faithful, you must be true Because if you're false, you can't be faithful So they're rooted together

That's why, that's why, in the book of Revelation, Christ is called The faithful and true witness Revelation 3, verse number 14 In fact, when he comes again on his robe, he will have the words, faithful And true Why? Because he is truth We know that He is faithful And if you're going to be faithful, you must be trustworthy Therefore, everything you do must be based on truth That's why Joshua said these words in the book of Joshua, the 23rd chapter, the 14th verse

He's about to die, and it says. I am going the way of all the earth, and you know in all your hearts and all your souls that not one word of all the good words which the Lord your God spoke concerning you has failed All have been fulfilled for you Not one of them has failed In other words, everything God said came true Why? Because God is a God of truth So everything he said came true And not only is he true, he is faithful to what he said

So he goes on and says, It shall come about that just as all the good words which the Lord your God spoke to you hath come upon you, so the Lord will bring upon all the threats Until he has destroyed you from off this good land, which the Lord your God has given you, when you transgress the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you And go and serve other gods, and bow down to them Then the anger of the Lord will burn against you, and you will perish quickly from off the good land which He has given you

So, Joshua makes it very clear as he's about to die that everything God said has come true Why? Because he's faithful He is absolutely trustworthy You can count on him He's dependable He's reliable Therefore, he's credible Everything he said was going to happen happened Now, note this, he says, if at any time you transgress the covenant, all the words that God has spoken, that too will come to pass Because God is faithful to do exactly what he said he's going to do Let me illustrate that for you in a New Testament phrase in 2 Timothy chapter 2

If you got your Bible, 2 Timothy chapter 2, listen to what Paul says to young Timothy. 2 Timothy 2, verse number 11 This is a trustworthy statement Remember, there are five trustworthy statements Three in 1 Timothy, one in Second Timothy, and one in the book of Titus Five of them all in the pastoral epistles And this is number four And Paul says, this is a trustworthy statement In other words, this is axiomatic Everybody knows this Okay? This is nothing new to anybody in the church Everybody knows this This is an absolute truthful statement It says

For if we died with him, we will also li with him That 's true, right? If any man came after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me So if we have died with him, we also will live with him Paul says, I am Crucified with Christ Nevertheless, I live yet not I, but Christ lives in me If we endure, we will also reign with Him That's true, right? If we endure the perseverance of the saints, if we persevere all the way to the end, we will reign with him Why are we able to persevere? Because of the power of God in our lives That note, if we deny him, he also will deny us Wow

Did not Christ say, if you confess me before men, I will confess you before my Father who is in heaven But if you deny me before men, I will deny you before my Father who is in heaven So, Paul says this is an axiomatic statement Everybody knows this He says, if we deny him, he also will deny us If we are faithless, Okay? He remains faithful For he cannot deny himself Faithful to what? In other words, if we deny him, we demonstrate that we are faithless Therefore, he is faithful to do what? To deny us People say, well, you know, even if I'm faithless, God's still faithful

That's true, but that's not what this verse is talking about In context, this verse says, if you deny him, he's going to deny you If you are faithless, meaning you've denied him, He is faithful to his word to deny you because he cannot deny himself His words are absolutely true And so, what you come to realize when Joshua makes a statement way back in Joshua chapter 23, he says, All the good words that the good Lord has said have all come to pass because he is faithful and he is true

So, Joshua says, remember this: if you deny the words of the covenant and you live contrary to those words, You will reap the repercussions, the negative repercussions of all your disobedience because God is true to His Word Wow, that's important We need to understand that because we need to understand the faithfulness of God Listen to what it says in the book of Isaiah, the 11th chapter, the fifth verse: right shall be the belt of his loins And faithfulness, the bel of his waist In other words, faithfulness is a part of who he is, it's a part of the garments of God

He is a faithful, true, and loving God And because the word for truth and the word for faithfulness have the same root word, because the two actually do go together He is faithful and he is absolutely tr If we are to consider how Jesus is faithful to the one who appointed him, we must understand the faithfulness Of the character of Almighty God Remember way back in the book of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy chapter 7, the Lord talks about why He chose Israel

It says, verse 7 of chapter 7: The Lord did not set his love on you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all people But because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which he swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God Why did God choose you? Well, He chose you because He loved you And that love encompasses the faithfulness of God to His word

God is so credible and reliable that when He says He's going to do something, He doesn't So now Moses says, This is the faithful God Now, listen to what he says: he says, who keeps his covenant and his loving kind to a thousandth generation And those who love him And keep his commandments But we praise those who hate him to their faces To destroy them, he will not delay with him who hates him He will rep him to his face Therefore, you shall keep the commandment and the statutes and the judgments which I am commanding you today to do them Moses says the same thing that Joshua said

He says it earlier, though He says, Listen, God is faithful God is true You are here because he made a covenant with your forefathers He has kept his word He is so true to his word that if you turn your back and walk away from him, then all the negative repercussions will come upon you as well because he is faithful to everything he has said He is so absolutely true So Moses puts the warning in there Joshua puts the warning in there Paul puts the warning in there to show you that God is absolutely faithful to everything He has said

We need to understand that if we're going to consider Jesus Christ Listen to Isaiah 49 Isaiah 49, verse number 7 It says, Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One To the despised one, to the one abhorred by the nation, to the servant of rulers, kings will see and arise, princes will also bow down because of the Lord who is faithful The Holy One of Israel, who has chos you again Isaiah reminds the people of the faithfulness of the true and living God Psalm 119, verse number 86, says these words Psalm 119, 86, all your comm are Faithful Why? Because his word is true

Therefore, they are faithful to be fulfilled And then it says in verse number 138 of Psalm 119 And your commandment, I mean, you have commanded your testimonies in righteousness and exceeding faithfulness In other words, your comm are tr and they are filled with faithfulness The Bible says over in Isaiah 25, verse number 1: Thy counsels of old are f and tr Thy counsels of old are faithful and true So the Bible says in Psalm 33, verse number 4, For the word of the Lord is right, and all his work is done in faithfulness

The commandments of the Lord, or the word of the Lord, is right, and all his work is done in Faithfulness Now, if you're here today and you're here because I can see you, therefore, who here believes that all of God's work is done in faithfulness? Raise your hand You all believe that, right? All of God's work is done in faithfulness Are there any exceptions to that? Is there anybody here that would doubt that? That's good Because listen to what the psalmist says Psalmist says in Psalm 119, 75: In faithfulness Thou hast afflicted me

Now, anybody want to go back and say all God's work is done in faithfulness? See, all of his work is done in faithfulness Every work that he does is a by of his character, right? His faithfulness Because faithfulness is the belt around his waist Faithfulness encompasses who he is So, if all of his work is done in faithfulness, the psalmist can clearly say, in faithfulness, thou hast Afflicted me In other words, affliction is part of the work of God in the life of his children And it's all done according to the character of God that is faithful and true Now, no, the psalmist also said this

Psalm 119, verse number 6 Thou hast afflicted me that I may keep your word Okay, so the psalmist knew that in faithfulness he was afflicted And the reason he was afflicted according to the faithfulness of God is so that somehow he might keep the word which is true Psalmist also said in verse 71, he was afflicted that he may learn the statutes of his God That's good You see, there's so much about God's faithfulness that we don't even begin to understand

We want to sing the song Great Is Thy Faithfulness, which we'll look at in a moment, because when Thomas Chisholm wrote that song was based on Lamentations chapter 3, but you have to understand Lamentations chapter 3 to understand the s Most people miss Lamentations 3, they miss the understanding of the song So you need to be able to come to grips with the fact that God, in his faithfulness, afflicts his own because he wants his own to keep his word He wants his own to learn the statutes of God, the truth about God

And the best way to do that is to allow affliction to come into their lives, to teach them about the character and nature of God Peter would understand that, and so in Peter's first epistle, fourth chapter, verse 19, he said this That those who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right Isn't that good? If you're suffering according to the will of God, then what you need to do is to entrust your soul Give your soul as a safe deposit into the arms of God because He is a faithful creator

In other words, He is so true to creating the right environment that he created your situation so that you now would be able to grow in your walk with him You need to deposit your soul to the faithful creator, the one who originated that situation, so that now And now you can trust him for all that he says and all that he does because he is the creator of the ends of the earth That's why the Bible says in Isaiah chapter 40, Isaiah chapter 40, these words, because Israel had asked the question

Why, God says to Jacob, why do you assert that my way is hidden from the Lord? Why do you say that I'm that I don't see you? Why do you say that I don't know what's going on in your life? Why would you even begin to think that I have no recollection or no idea about what's happening to you personally or nationally? He says, and the justice due to me escapes the notice of my God

Why would you say that? Why would you say that there is no justice for me? That somehow God has missed it? Do you not know, have you not heard, the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth? Isaiah uses three titles for God He is everlasting He is Lord He is Creator You need to know that He's always there He's permanently present in your life because He is the everlasting God

So, why would you say my way has escaped the notice of my God? Why would you say that my way is hidden from my God when he is always there, he is perpetually present in your life? And this one who is per pres is parenthally p because he's the Lord He is the Almighty Does the Lord no good to be in your situation, but powerless to deal with your situation Well, Isaiah wants you to know that this is who he is And then he says this: that he is the creat of the end of the earth Who never becomes weary or tired, his understanding is inscrutable In other words, he has a per plan

The God that's always present, the God that's all-powerful, has a plan that includes you So, why would you even begin to say, The Lord must not understand my situation? The Lord does not come to grips with my loneliness He does not understand my financial st He doesn't understand my physical ailments My situation must have escaped his notice No, no, because he created everything He did On top of that, he is powerful enough to handle every situation because he's actually present in your situation He's actually there He never wearies nor tires

He never says, Can you call tomorrow? I am worn out because I help this side of the auditorium today So if you call me tomorrow this side of the auditorium, I can help you But these people wore me out Never says that He never goes weary He never tires His understanding is inscrutable It's beyond all comprehension That's our God And so you go on to say, He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks mighty increases power

And though youths go weary and tired and vigorous, young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the Lord, those who wrap themselves around this C, this Lord, this everlasting God, those who wrap themselves around him, they'll gain new strength They won't mount up with wings like eagles They will run and not get tired They will walk and not become weary So, if you're walking and becoming weary, if you are tired and worn out, you haven't wrapped yourself around, you haven't trusted in This God, who is everlasting, who is almighty, and who is or has a perfect plan for your life

That's what Isaiah says to the nation To encourage them to run to their Lord and trust your souls to a faithful Creator He's faithful And that's why the Sal says all of his work is done in faithfulness Even though the psalmist said, In faithfulness thou hast afflicted me, I need to learn to keep your word. I need to learn your statutes. I can't, Lord, without you See that? That's why we need to understand this faithful Christ Because even though the right of Hebrews compares his faithfulness to Moses, Christ is greater than Moses because he was perfectly faithful

To all that was assigned to him, all that was given to him, because he is the true and might God Now, why is this important? If you don't understand the faithfulness of God, you are going to starve to death spiritually Okay? If you don't understand the faithfulness of God, I guarantee you are going to starve spiritually How do we know that? Psalm 84 Got your Bible, turn to Psalm 84 Psalm 84, verse number 11 Nope, that's not the one I want. I want Psalm 3 Psalm thirty-se Verse three tr In the Lord Now we read you what Isaiah said

Those who trust in the Lord shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, right? They shall wrap their trust upon him, they will wait upon the Lord So trust in the Lord, the psalmist says Do good Dwell in the land, are you ready for this? And fe on faithfulness Cultivate it Feed on it It's a Hebrew word, it means to eat it Feed on faithfulness Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart Commit your way to the Lord Trust also in Him, He will do it In other words, we need as our daily food to be able to feast on the faithfulness of God

Why? Remember, every word of God is true, right? Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God And because God is true, He is faithful. I am to cultivate faithfulness in my life. I am to feed off of that faithfulness because my God is the one who is faithful His faithfulness sustains me from day to day Knowing that my God is so credible and reliable to everything He has said, that's the only thing that allows me to get up in the day In the morning, and face the day with great vigor and vitality because I know my God has a plan It's a perfect plan

And I know my God is powerful enough to change the plan, to rework the plan, to organize the plan, to do whatever he wants to do, because he is the creator of the ends of the earth, and he is always with me Because he's true to his word, I'm going to feed on that faithfulness. I'm going feed on it day in and day out It's my food That's why we say if you don't understand the faithfulness of God, you're going to starve to death spiritually each and every day Because you're going to question a lot of things about what God does But you never question anything God says Because he speaks truth

And he's faithful to everything he has said, he will do So the psalm says, feed on faithfulness You delight yourself in the Lord He will give you the desires of your he Those who delight in him will only have one desire, and that is for him Those who delight themselves in him will only have one legit desire, and that will be a desire for him Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him He will do it He will do it It becomes our food And now you can turn with me to Psalm:, for it says, For the Lord God is a son and a shield, He is a provider and a protector

And no good thing does the Lord withhold from those who walk uprightly No good thing In other words, God is so faithful that those who walk upright to Him, those who honor Him, He will honor He will withhold no good thing from those who walk uprightly Now God is faithful and true, and therefore he'll be true to everything He has said this need to be a lesson every one of us learn because there's so much in scripture concerning the faithfulness of God, right? So much in scripture And so we need to be able to exclaim and proclaim loudly about God's Faith

Psalm 8 says this, verse number 1 It says, I will sing of the loving of the Lord forever to all generations. I will make known your faithfulness with my mouth For I have said, loving kind will be built up forever In the heavens, you will establish your faithfulness Verse 33: I will not break off my loving kind from him, nor deal falsely in my faithfulness In other words, the psalmist knew that he was to proclaim loudly The fact that God was faithful and tr to his word So when Thomas Chisholm wrote That great hymn, Great is Thy Faithfulness

Speaking of the fact that God's mercies are new every morning, it was based off of Lamentations chapter 3 Lamentations chapter three For there it says Verse 22, the Lord's kindnesses indeed never cease, for his compassions never fail They are new every morning Great is your faithfulness The problem is that every time Jeremiah awoke, he didn't see new mercies He saw heartache, p, difficult, because his people, Israel, were in Babylonian captivity It was harsh It was painful It was horrific But because he knew God was faithful He could believe in the faithfulness of God

It says in verse number 19: Remember my affliction and my wandering, the warm word and the bitterness Surely my soul remembers and is bowed down within me This I recall to the My mind Therefore, I have hope What's my hope? I knew. I know This is what I'm looking forward to This is what I know is going to happen Although it might not be happening today, I know it's going to happen tomorrow because the Lord's loving kind indeed never ceases His compassion Never fail, they are new every morning

Great is thy faithfulness. I know that my God is faithful. I know that we will be brought back from this captivity. I know what's going to happen But if I had not recalled it, I'd have died of my despair But I know it's coming Because that's the mercies of God He's going to bring us back And Israel knew they were where they were because of the faithfulness of God They had transgressed the covenant of God They had transgressed the commandment of God And God says, Listen, if you don't obey me, you're going off to captivity They didn't obey Sure enough, off they went

Jeremiah knew they were there because of their disobedience God was true to His word But He also knew that God's a faithful God and His mercies are new His loving kind is what will sustain them He knows exactly what's going to happen So he hoped in the promise, the truthfulness, the faithfulness of God How about you? What situation do you find yourself in today? What turmoil is uppermost in your mind? What's going on in your family? What's going on with your health? What's going on in your situation? Like Jeremiah, your hope needs to be in what God's going to do

Because in faithfulness, He has afflicted you So that you might learn his word, you might learn his statutes, and be able to exclaim, as a psalm did, the loving kind and the faithfulness of God From gener to gener So when the writer of Hebrews says very clearly these words He, who's he, the apostle, the high priest of our confession, was faithful to him who appoint him He was tr He was reliable He was dependable He was absolutely committed to doing everything his father in heaven said Because faithfulness is who he is It's part of his character

And that doesn't even begin to touch the topic of the fact that we too need to be Faithful, right? Absolutely We too need to follow in His footsteps to walk like Him, to be like Him, to be as faithful as He was faithful But if we look at his personal motive, it was simply this: to do everything That was appointed for him No matter how negative it might seem on the surface, how harsh it might seem on the surface He would do exactly what was commanded of him because he was faithful to him who app him Let me pray with you Father, we thank you for today a chance once again to look into your word

What a joy it is for us to study the truth You are a faithful God You are so incred rel to everything you've said You said one day you're going to come again We believe that We trust in that We know what your word says We live in anticipation of that We also know that each and every day we are to feed on the fact that you are true and faithful and that you always fulfill your word as you've said We need to hang on to that, Lord We need to feed on that every single day that we might learn to delight ourselves in you That we might receive the des of our hearts

We pray this in the name of our soon coming King, Jesus Christ our Lord Amen.