Hebrews chapter 3, verse 1, please. Three verses, the first three. Hebrews chapter 3, verses 1, 2, and 3. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, in so much as he who hath builded the house hath more honor than the house. For this man, I read that already, didn't I? All right, my mind's straight. Did I read all three verses? Okay, let's read it again. Everybody together. Wherefore, holy brethren, brethren, oh, you don't have your Bibles, do you? All right, let's spread them out. Try it again. Wherefore, holy brethren, I want you to read it out loud with me. Come on, holy brethren, let's go here. All right. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honor than the house. Any preacher could preach it, if he could read the text. It's a homiletical natural. Three words. Number one, consider him. Verse two, consider his faithfulness. Verse three, consider his glory. Number one, consider him. Consider Jesus Christ. This word consider doesn't mean to give passing glance or feeding thought. It means to zero in. It means to bear down. It means to think of the magnitude of what has happened. Consider the birth of Jesus Christ. This man was virgin born. I used to think that the Catholics really honored Jesus because so many churches bear a title in their denomination which bespeaks the virgin birth. The church of the divine incarnation, the church of the immaculate conception, the church of divine conception. But in discussing this idea with Catholic theologians, I have discovered that the emphasis is not on the divinity of the incarnate Christ. The emphasis is upon the virgin mother. Then the emphasis is on the wrong place because the emphasis of the virgin birth is not whether Mary was or was not a virgin. She might have had 10 ,000 husbands. That is not the basic question. Although I believe she did not and she was a virgin, the impetus must be placed on this question. Who was the father of Jesus Christ? That's the touchstone. That's the question. And the Bible says, that that is conceived in her womb is of the Holy Ghost. When my wife and I went yonder to England for the first time, the only time as a matter of fact, when we landed in London, we saw a headline. I was very anxious to read my first British newspaper and the titles of the newspaper said, 15 British women claim virgin births. Well, I found that very interesting, very impossible. But with God, all things are possible and that God in Christ was reconciling the world unto himself is not only the possible, but the imperative to the Christian doctrine. He must be part God and part man. God incarnate in human nature. God wrapped in swaddling clothes, laid in a manger. God living, eating, breathing. God tabernacled among us. For God had to identify with us, take a part of us, if he was going to save us. The captain of a ship was sailing along one day. A young man came and said, Sir, my dog has fallen overboard and will drown. Stop and rescue him, I pray. He refused to do it and said, Sir, this ship does not stop for a dog. He said, Captain, if it were a man, would you stop? He said, I certainly would. And the boy himself jumped overboard and rescued the dog and the captain had to stop and save them both. In the exact same way, Jesus Christ went overboard from the ship of heaven, identified himself with us, became a part and parcel of us. He became in the same condition that I was, that he might die on the cross for me. He understood me. He comprehended me. He was like me. He was tempted as I. He lived as I. He faced the problems I faced. He was God, but he was God incarnate in human flesh, just as much man as though he were not God, just as much God as though he were not man. Consider the birth of Jesus Christ. Consider his life. I'm glad that Jesus lived like I live. Now it is difficult for men to comprehend that Jesus Christ never sinned. It is difficult for him, for us to conceive of his being tempted in all points like as are we, until we remember that unless he understood and withstood our temptations and our problems, he could not give us succor and strength in being able to deal with them. But then we need to realize that temptation is not sin. All have sinned, but Jesus Christ never sinned. Yet he was tempted. Yielding to temptation is sin. The devil can come and knock on the door and invite us and tempt us, but we need not open the door. We can see he's there and slam the door in his face. To be tempted was as Christ, but to not yield to the temptation makes one divine. Jesus Christ tempted in all points like as are we, yet without sin. Consider his perfect life. He who was misunderstood, rejected, criticized. He defended little children. He defended his heavenly father. He defended the word of God, but he never defended himself. He never answered when he was rebuked. He never spat upon those who spat against him. The Bible says he was reviled by those who hated him and despised him. He gave his face to the smiter. He gave his cheek to those that would scoff and ridicule and hit him. But because he was so inculcated with human love, it was impossible for him to hate. He hated sin, but he loved the sinner. He hated the devil, but he loved men that had given themselves and sold themselves willingly to slavery in the service of the devil. Consider the beautiful magnanimous life of Jesus Christ. He never saw a funeral. He didn't break up. He never saw a child. He didn't love. He never saw a sin. He couldn't forgive. He never saw a teenager. He didn't challenge. He never saw a problem. He couldn't solve. He never saw a temptation. He could not defeat. He never saw an enemy that he could not win. Consider the life of Jesus Christ. Consider his death. Forsaken by his friends. Only those who stood by the cross were the women. Thank God for those blessed women who loved and revered him when the men forsook him who stood and watched him die. Consider the fact that he bowed his head and said it is finished and builded once and for all a road of salvation to heaven by which guilty men may still cross and prod Calvary's bloody way. A road to which man cannot add. A work to which man cannot contribute. It is done. It is finished. He has done all that can be done to provide for salvation. Consider his death defying resurrection. Consider his imminent return. Consider his reign. That's going to be a wonderful experience. The Bible says the government shall be on his shoulders. Jesus Christ is coming again to this world. Now he said that's not for you to know the times and the season. Don't be worrying about when. But ye shall be my witnesses. Do what you can do. Get busy about telling the story of Jesus Christ. He is coming. Thank God the Savior is coming again. Number two. The second verse suggests that we consider his faithfulness. Consider his faithfulness to his father. He was not an ambassador from God. He was God. And yet in a very mysterious way he must be faithful to his heavenly father. Now I cannot comprehend the trinity. Theologians have wrestled with it for years. I do not understand. Neither do you. Neither does anybody else. Nor will you ever understand it. So forget it. But just suffice it to say that our God is an omnipotent God. Not restricted. Not confined to the limitations of the flesh. He can be in all and above all. For he was before all and thank God is beyond all, and after all, and over all. But Jesus Christ had to be faithful to his heavenly Father, for man has always asked and will always ask the question, what is God like? What would God have me do in this situation? What is the will of God for my life at that point? And for 33 years, as the New Testament canon was recorded, and won canonical status by the mere oral tradition of what those men saw in the life of Christ, what they heard him say and do, and faithfully recorded under the power of the impetus of the Spirit of God, for 33 years, man was getting a picture of God. He would be the faithful, habitual, consistent manifestation of God on the earth. So what is God like? What was Jesus like? What would God have me to do? What did God have them, what did Christ have them to do? What would God do in this situation? What did Jesus do in that situation? He was faithful to his heavenly Father. Consider his faithfulness to his task. He was the world's great philosopher. He was the world's great philanthropist. He was the world's great sociologist. He was the world's great preacher. He was the world's great healer. But he said, for this cause came I when he faced the cross. This is why I came. I came not to condemn the world, but to save the world. His disciples would fight for him. They would, by physical restraint, forbid him from going to the cross. He said to Peter, get behind me, Satan. Thou savorest not the things of God. This is why I came. Thou art an offense to me. And anything that Satan would throw in his way as he set his heart toward the cross, he said, this is not of God. This is not the will of God. I came to die. And not all of the power of hell, not all of the Satans, not all of the demons and devils of this world could sway him from going to the cross. Jesus Christ had a date with destiny. He had to do for us what we could not do for ourselves and what none else could do for us in his death on the cross. Consider his faithfulness to his task. Consider his faithfulness to man. I raised the question, where would you be without Jesus Christ? A Chinaman was converted and came to this country. He was going about giving his testimony. And as he did so, one night someone challenged him. And he tried his best to explain what had happened to him. He said, I do not know a lot of theology, but I know this. It's sort of like I was over there and I had fallen down into a great ditch. That ditch was sin and despair and defeat and death and loneliness. Confucian came along and his philosophies were very astute. And he said to me, you're not really in that ditch. You just think you're in that ditch. And he said, I tried to think, but I was still there, emaciated in Satan's dark grip. He said, Buddhism came to me. And Buddha said, if you can come up these seven steps of the ladder, I can get you the rest of the way out. But he said, as hard as I would strive, I could not lift myself by my moral bootstraps. He said, Mohammedism came to me and Mohammed said, come but half the way and I'll lift you out the rest of the way. But he said, I was spiritually dead. I could generate no spiritual life. Then Jesus Christ came from heaven. He saw my dilemma. He didn't advise. He didn't give suggestions. He didn't give advice. Jesus saw my dilemma. He lay aside those regal robes of royalty, stepped to the earth through the womb of the virgin, went to the cross and died, slipped into that grave of sin, got under me and lifted me out himself. Thank God from sinking sand, he lifted me. Jesus did it for me. Consider his faithfulness to his task. How would you have been saved? Consider his faithfulness to man, to us. Where would be me tonight? With all of the education and affluence and astuteness and all of the theology and all of the education and intellectualism of this world, but not one in a ingrained power to forgive us in, to resist the temptation, to lift man out of themselves unto him, from death to light, from darkness to salvation. If it had not been for Jesus Christ, you and I would still be down there. Consider his faithfulness to Satan. Satan started a rebellion in heaven. He was banished from heaven, and he came to earth. Jesus Christ, seeing the dilemma of the human race, came to the earth with not a moment's hesitation. The angels of glory must have gasped as he thought of the Savior coming from heaven's gloriness to earth. Gloriness to die on the cross. But Jesus Christ had a score to settle with Satan. The Bible says that we were his slaves. He said of the Pharisees, you're of your father, the devil, and the works of your father ye will do. But he said that in the cross, Hebrews writes, he became the champion of our salvation. Jesus Christ meant Satan head on. And defeated him, and has won the case. Where would you be tonight? You may laugh at Satan. You may ridicule his power. But the Bible says beware. Be sober. Be vigilant. For your adversary the devil stalks about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. And Jesus Christ confronted him head on. He was faithful to Satan in our behalf. He won the battle in our stead. The last word is this. Consider his glory. The third verse speaks of the glory of him who we consider. Where shall I start? Consider the glory of his book. Consider the glory of the Bible. The Bible has one scheme of redemption, one unity, one scarlet plan of salvation. It presents Jesus Christ as the bud and the blossom in Genesis and the finished fruit in the book of Revelation. The Bible is a book about Jesus. The Old Testament saints were saved by looking forward to the cross. We are saved by looking back to the cross. Consider its influence. Consider its unity. The Old Testament promises Christ. The New Testament presents Christ. The Old Testament is Christ contained. The New Testament is Christ explained. The Old Testament veils Christ. The New Testament unveils Christ. The Bible is a book about Jesus Christ. Consider the glory of his book. Consider the glory of his people. Consider the glory of his church. The Bible says the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church. This does not mean that we are to stand idly by, hanging on for dear life. The church was never in trouble. It was never fighting for its life. The church is to be marching in to battle. The church is on the aggression. The church is moving a mighty, militant, conquering organization. And the church that has lost its sense of conquest, the church that has lost its sense of urgency, its fight, its vision, its challenge, its urgency to go and to conquer yet unknown worlds for Christ, is a church that is dying. You do not stand still, for the world marches on. And unless you are on the move in a world that is on the move, to that degree you come and get farther and farther and farther behind. Consider the glory of his church. Consider the glory of his name. Consider the glory of his name. The Bible says, At the name of Jesus, Every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father. Pronounce it Jesu Christo. Say what you will. In a thousand languages, still no song sounds as sweet. Still no word charms the restless heart. Still no name in all the world brings the fondness to the dissident chord of human nature, like the beauty of the name Jesus. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Oh, how sweet the name. Jesus, every day the same. Jesus, Jesus. Let all saints proclaim the matchless name of Jesus. Consider the glory of his name to save. For whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord Jesus shall be saved. Consider the glory of his name exclusively to save. For there is none other name under heaven given among men. Whereby we must be saved. Consider the glory of his name eternally. He said, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. They asked him, did the Pharisees, What is thy name? He said, My name is I Am. How long have you been around? Before Moses was. I am. He didn't say he was. He didn't say he's going to be. For there is no dimension of time. For 33 years he stepped into the empirical realm. But he has always existed. and even that is not right to say. There is always the present tense in the life of Christ. You can't say it. You just have to say he am. He always am was. He am now. He always am going to be. He just am. All hail the power of Jesus' name. Let angels prostrate fall, bring forth the royal diadem, and crown him, Lord of all, that with yonder's sacred throne we at his feet may fall. We'll join the everlasting throne, encircling the throne of God, and crown him, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Lord of all. Oh, how it'll be to walk the streets and see David and Jonah and Noah. I'm going to ask old Jonah if he was really in the whale's belly, and he's going to say yes, and I'm going to look down across the heaven's precipice at all the skeptics and the liberals, and I'm going to go, I'm going to tell him, I told you so, and that's going to be great. I'm going to ask Paul about those rats in the dungeon. I'm going to ask him about that night they tore the jail bars away, and he came triumphantly forth, and the poor jailer was the first convert from the revival over there. That's going to be wonderful. I want to hear the songs of David. I want to walk around Zion and hear how Joshua conquered and battered down the gates of Jericho for the glory of God, but I'll tell you that'll all come in infinity. I'm going to spend the first 10 billion eternities looking at Jesus, listening to Jesus, singing the praises of Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know, hails my levery longing, keeps me singing as I go. Do you love him? Do you know him? Do you trust him? Do you live for him? Do you live for him? If not, give your heart, your life, your all tonight to Jesus. Let's stand and bow our heads. Our Father, we thank you that in the midst of the dark and deep, profound theology of Hebrews, whose very authorship is uncertainty, with whom theologians have wrestled through the years, there is a grand insert, a grand parenthesis where thou hast inserted to us a reminder of him who is our Lord, of him who is our grand high priest, our God. Oh God, give us a new glimpse of his person, his power, his presence, his glory, his faithfulness. Thank thee for Jesus, rock of ages, cliff for me. And may souls come and say, oh God, by faith I hide myself in thee. In his name we pray, in the name of Jesus, our precious Savior. Amen.