Jesus Over Everything: Why Faith In Christ Surpasses Law, Ritual, And Every Rival

We explore Hebrews 3 to show why Jesus is greater than Moses, greater than every rival love, and why unbelief keeps people from rest. A simple gospel rings out: Jesus plus nothing equals everything, and today is the day to trust him.

• God’s limitless love and the true meaning of Valentine
• Jesus as apostle and high priest, superior to Moses
• Builder versus house and why glory belongs to Christ
• Types and contrasts between Moses and Jesus
• Modern idols that sneak into first place
• Salvation by faith alone, not performance
• Warning against unbelief and hardened hearts
• Israel’s provocation as a mirror for us
• Exhorting one another daily to stay tender
• Invitation to respond today with trust

“Let’s pray together… Today, if you will hear His voice, harden not your heart.”

Transcript

A Love Bigger Than Ours

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If you have your Bibles this morning, turn and join with me in the book of Hebrews, chapter three. I hope that you feel loved by him this morning. I hope you know that God loves you in a way that, one, I can't explain, and two, that you can't comprehend. His love is without limit and fathomless. Let me just tell you this. He knew you on your worst day, and then decided to go to the cross on your behalf. You're not some wild disappointment to him that, you know, he thought, well, I don't think that was worth it. No, the love of God is greater than we know.

The Story Behind Valentine’s Day

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And this weekend, you know, yesterday was what day? Valentine's Day. That's right. And I don't know if you know, it is a great love story. Mr. Valentine was a priest. He was a Catholic priest. And Claudius Gothicus, the second, third century Roman emperor, forbid marriage because he was having military campaigns all over the world, Asia, the northern part of Africa, up into uh the Norwegian parts and European areas there. And he forbid marriage because, you know, wives, they just get in the way. And so he said, No marriage, I need soldiers. And Valentine was secretly marrying young couples like Cam and Ash, who got married yesterday. God bless you. That's all right. And well, he was thrown in prison for this. And he kept doing it over and over again: stop marrying people. And biblically, he said, no marriage is right. And a man shall leave his mother and father and cleave to his wife. They threw him in jail. The story goes, the history of it goes, is that the judge who put him in jail had a blind daughter. And that Valentine prayed for her, laid hands on her, and she received her sight. That's the story. And that's why the Catholic Church has canonized him and given him sainthood because of this miracle. And well, they fell in love. And she got a job in bringing him meals to his cell there on death row. And she would bring him meals and she would sneak love letters into his food. And he would write love letters and sneak them back to her, and he would always sign them, Love your Valentine. So that's where that comes from. And then he was decapitated. Isn't that romantic? It just makes me so warm and fuzzy feeling when I think on it. And so now he's the patron saint of young couples, married couples, engaged couples, beekeepers, and those with epilepsy. So I don't know why, though, but that's I looked it up. That's what the Google said.

Jesus The Superior To Moses

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Beyond that love story, I want you to know there is one who loves you perfectly. He loves you in spite of your flaws. I can tell you there are some days my wife has to dig deep to love me. I know you're going, I can't imagine that, believe it or not. She loves me well, but someday it's not easy. I want you to know you do not put him off. He loves you. He's the greatest lover of all time. He's the lover of our souls. And I want to tell you, he's better than anyone else. In fact, that's the theme of today's message, and the theme of Hebrews entirely is that Jesus is superior and he is the premier and he is better. Look in chapter 3 of Hebrews, and we'll read our scriptures together. Let's read the first, say, six verses together. He says, 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. So there's going to be a comparison for the Jewish audience that this letter, the Hebrews was written to, between Jesus and Moses, the conclusion being that Jesus is superior to Moses, and in their minds, ain't nobody better than Moses. Verse 3 For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house is hath more honor than the house. That makes sense, right? The builder gets more credit than the house itself. For every house is builded by some man, but he that built all things is God. Moses verily was faithful in all of his house, as a servant, for a testimony to those things which were to be spoken after. But Christ, as a son over his own house, Christ, okay, but Christ, whose house are we. By the way, if you're of the house of Christ, say amen. If we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope, firm unto the end. We'll pause our reading there for a moment, and he just wants to clarify the beauty of Christ next to the beauty of Moses. Now, Moses is beautiful, Moses is great, he is the pillar of the Hebrew people. You see, he's the one by which God led the children of Israel out of Egypt. So when it says in Exodus chapter 20, when God gave the law, the Ten Commandments, it says, This is the word of God. So it didn't come from Moses, came from God. The one who led you out of bondage, the bondage of Egypt. He classifies it. Now, who does he do that by? He uses a man. His man, his name is Moses. And he's great, and God works miracles through him, and he's faithful, and he's good. And to the Hebrew people, he's the be-all and the end-all. And I want to tell you this one thing this morning. Don't you dare replace Jesus with something that is superficial or less than.

Types And Shadows: Moses And Christ

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We should never, and by the way, that's all that the devil offers us. All that the evil one offers us is everything that God made, good and perfect and beautiful. He just makes a knockoff version of it and says, mine's just as good, and mine's easier, and you want mine. And by the way, God can't give you what you really need, so you should have my knockoff Timu version of whatever it is that you think will satisfy your soul. That's the lie of the evil one. You see, most and some of those things are good things, but they don't deserve the place of honor in our heart that Jesus does. Let me just tell you: do not worship your children. They're wonderful. I know most of them. I love them. Okay? Jesus has got to come first, mom and dad. Do not worship your spouse or your job or your bank account or your vacation time or your hobby or your athleticism. Or, ladies, your beauty, as beautiful as you are. It's You ain't Jesus. Or your health. We should hold all of these things correctly. Josh Shapiro is an author. He compiled a book some years ago, The 100 Most Infamous and Influential Jews of all Time. He he wrote this. You could look it up right now, and I think I can get it mostly in order. The hundred most influential Jewish people of all time. And I thought for sure, I'm thinking the fame most famous Jew of all time has gotta be Jesus. It's not. It's Moses. Are you looking it up right now, Jeff? I saw you speak texting. Lord have mercy. Hey, let me check it out. It's this right here, I bet. It's gonna be Moses. Jesus. And then you think Abraham, Abraham's like four or five. I don't know how that happened. Mary is somewhere like six or seven. I mean, it's it's a it's a beautiful list, and these are great, wonderful people who've made great contributions, but I'm just telling you right now, that list is wrong. I don't know about you. I worship a Jewish man. I worship Jesus Christ. I worship him and him alone. On that list, Mr. Shapiro says that Moses is the most influential. And yes, if you're a Jew and you don't love Jesus, that's probably true. But I'm telling you, in terms of greatness and worthiness, it's Jesus. Look at verse two of our text here. I want to read this to you. He was faithful. Who was faithful? Moses was faithful and appointed him, who as also Moses was faithful in all of his house. Let me give you a comparison between Jesus and Moses, because Moses was a type of Christ. He was a foreshadowing of Christ. Let me give you just a few of those ways that he fulfilled that role that God gave him. Moses being a foreshadowing of Christ, both were born

Why We Settle For Knockoffs

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during times of royal persecution. Both escaped infanticide by the ruler of the time. Pharaoh tried to kill Moses, remember, and his mother? They lied and they hid the baby, put him in a basket, put him in the Nile. Pharaoh's daughter found him and she couldn't raise the child. She had no milk. And this, he goes, Hey, you got a new baby there. I bet you need to feed it. Let me find you someone to feed it. Runs home. This is Moses' little sister, runs home, grabs Moses' mother, and says, Hey, Pharaoh's daughter needs you to nurse this baby. She's gonna pay you, and it's her own baby. In the same way that Jesus was born, and an angel came and warned them in a dream to get to Egypt for Herod was out to, and he was absolutely, and he did, he did slaughter all the children to and under in Bethlehem. Both the same in that way. Both were hidden as babies, and later they were called out of the wilderness back to where they would deliver their people. Both fasted 40 days in the wilderness with the Father, both delivered the Word of God, both performed miracles. Moses in the Red Sea, Jesus walking on the Sea of Galilee, both fed multitudes in miraculous ways. Both were described as prophets in the Scripture. Both were mediators of the covenant. God spoke to Moses, and then Moses spoke to the people in the same way that we speak to Jesus, directly to Jesus, and Jesus goes to the Father on our behalf. In fact, Hebrews will later come on to say, He ever liveth to make intercession for us. In fact, it was so terrible, the people were so terrified at Sinai, where God spoke to Moses, and God's presence came down on top of that mountain. The people said, Please, whatever you do, don't let God talk to us. Let him talk to you, and then you come talk to us. They were terrified of the presence of God. In the same way, Jesus is the only way we can enter into the presence of God and do it without dying. Both were shepherds, Moses the shepherd of Israel, and Jesus the shepherd, the great shepherd, John 10, 10, of the whole world. That's a simple and a quick list, but there's also some contrasts, some differences. Look in verse 3. It says, For this man was counted worthy of more glory, Jesus, than Moses. Inasmuch as he who hath builded the house is more, has more honor than the house itself. You see, Moses was faithful. He was a faithful servant in God's house. Jesus is the Son of God over God's house. You see the difference there. Moses was human and needed salvation. There's

Jesus Plus Nothing Equals Everything

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a difference because Jesus, though was human, was also God and provided, needing no salvation. Moses led people to a promised land earthly. Jesus leads his people to a promised land heavenly. Moses was used to build the house of God, and Jesus built the house, and he's ruler over the house. In conclusion, Jesus is better. So I don't think any of you came to church today going, well, thank God, John, that you sorted that out for me. I was really struggling with who to worship. I'd been praying to Moses half the time, and I just felt I don't think any of you were doing that. You see, but in the context of who this letter was written to, it was a real struggle. People coming out of Judaism, coming out of the Hebrew tradition, they were really struggling with Jesus is the be-all and the end all. And if you come to Christ, you don't even need Moses. That was almost blasphemy. And if you don't need Moses, you don't have to keep the feast days, and you don't gotta sacrifice these animals, and you don't gotta roll out the unleavened bread and pour in the oil and the salt and bake it and sacrifice it unto the Lord and killing the animals. None of that is necessary, but that's the law, and they were so committed to it. Jesus comes, fulfills the whole thing. And the new covenant says, All we need is Jesus. And so they're struggling. I wonder if maybe you're struggling in a similar but different way. Because I want you to know all you need is Jesus. The gospel is the good news of what Jesus is and Jesus has done on your behalf. And it's not Jesus and the cross plus your good works, it is Jesus, you help me, plus nothing equals everything. That's exactly right. So it's not that we come to Christ and pray at an altar and we receive salvation as a free gift of God. We're not gonna be like the Galatian church where we're gonna get up and now we're going to earn our salvation with good works and church attendance, and you just name the list right on down. No, it's gonna be all of Jesus, none of you. Jesus is the more appropriate mediator. He's the only way to the Father. In fact, Jesus told his disciples the night he would be arrested. He says, I go away to prepare a place for you, and if I go, I

The Warning Against Unbelief

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will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. Oh, God bless him. Thomas said, Lord, we do not know where you're going, and how can we know the way? Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life. And what does he say at the end? No man comes to the Father except by me. You see, you have to come by the way of the cross. You've got to come by Jesus. Yes, there's a comparison, yes, there's a contrast, and he wants to make it clear, Jesus is the only savior. In this book of Hebrews, you'll see it as we work through it, and you've already seen it in chapter two. Last week, the first point of the sermon was, and I don't expect you to remember these things, you've been a hundred places and heard a thousand, you know, things from from then till now. Last week, the first point was there is a warning to us about our faith. And the warning is how can we, if we neglect so great a salvation? How can we be right with God if we squander our time here? By the way, you just have a window of time here to get to know the Lord. Amen. And that window is closing for people on a daily basis. Well, here's another warning that he wants to give us here in verse 7 of our passage. Look there with me. We'll spend the remainder of our time here. Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith, Today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation. I'll tell you what that means in just a second. In the day of temptation in the wilderness, when your fathers tempted me and proved me, and saw my works forty years, wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in their hearts. Always, they constantly. They don't trust me, they don't love me, they they're constantly, and they have not known my ways. I swear in my wrath they shall not enter into my rest. So here's the warning. Take heed, brethren. Do you see that? This is a warning for us. Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of what? Unbelief. That means not believing that the cross was sufficient for you, and that God is good, and that he knows. Maybe you believe that maybe he's not good, or he doesn't know what you need, or he's insufficient to provide what we need. That's what grieves God. What pleases God is in the midst of our difficulties, in the time of testing, and by the way, you're all there right now. You're all there right now. Everything's a test. I'm sorry. Everything's a test. In the testing, we do the trusting. In the testing, when we can't hear the Lord, I can't see the Lord, all I can see is the rain coming sideways in my world. Lord, I know you're there. I know you're still good.

Israel’s Provocation And Our Hearts

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I know you still love me. I know you still know. I know that you're aware. I know that when I cry out, you hear me. Here's the warning, church. In the testing, don't stop the trusting. He's worthy of our He's worthy of our confidence. He's worthy of our trust and of our faith. We are to walk by faith. Take heed, brethren, verse 12, lest there be in you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. So here's the warning. But exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginnings of the confidence, our confidence, steadfast unto the end. While it is said, today, if you hear his voice, harden not your heart as in the provocation, says it again. For some, when they had heard, did provoke, albeit not all, that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was gr he grieved 40 years. You see, there was an entire generation of Israelites, Hebrews, that died in the wilderness. They would not believe, they would not trust, they would not stop complaining, they would not stop accusing God. And God says, You're not going in. He goes, I'm gonna let your kids go in. And that whole generation had to die off. Can you imagine being one of those older people? And they're just waiting for you to die. How you feel? Feel good? You look a little peaked. You sure you don't feel peaked? You look peaked. Golly, it'd be terrible. Verse 18, and to whom swear he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believe not. You see, church, that's the only thing they didn't believe. So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. I had a girl tell me this week that uh a man approached her and uh she said, I'm moving in with my boyfriend. By the way, don't do that. That's not biblical, it's not right. Don't and the man said, Oh, don't do that, you'll go to hell. And she told me about it, and I go, No, that will not send you to hell. Okay. Smoking weed won't send you to hell, drinking beer don't send you to hell. Cussing a little or cussing a lot don't send you to hell. Not believing in Jesus is the only way to hell. Do you hear me this morning? I was in Vietnam, I did terrible things. Okay,

Faith, Not Rule-Keeping

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the grace of God is sufficient. Now, if you don't believe me this morning when I tell you these things, I can't help you. But if you will believe that God is greater than Moses, he's greater than Abraham, he's greater than Isaac, he's greater than Jacob, he's greater than every soothsayer, he's greater than Mary, he's greater than Muhammad, he's greater than anybody you want to put, he's greater than anybody on Josh Shapiro's list, then you can go to heaven. I'm telling you this morning, it is based simply on belief. Whosoever shall believe, the same shall be saved. This is what the Bible says. He says, I want to warn you, and they did this. It was awful. It was awful. They come out of Egypt. They've been out of Egypt like 11 minutes. All 10 plagues. God delivered them. I'm talking hail, lice, Nile turned to blood. There was storms, there was plagues, there was boils, there was the death of the first one. It was a whole terrible thing. Then they go out of there and they're literally encompassed by a wall of light. It's the Shekinah glory of God. Then the Egyptians were coming, and the Lord opened up the Red Sea and they went across on dry ground. As soon as they all got across all night long, the Shekinah glory lifted, and the Egyptians came running with their horses and chariots. They all got in the middle of the Red Sea, and the Lord said, Turn around, watch this. Swallowed them. Would any of you have a hard time with faith after that? Yeah, you would. Because look at it's not more than 35 days after that. Moses goes up into the mountain. Hey, Aaron, make us a God that we can worship him. Okay. And give me your jewelry. And he hammers out this thing, and it's this golden calf, just like the one they had seen in Egypt. Moses comes down Ten Commandments. What are you doing? Well, you see, it'd been seven minutes and you didn't come back. So we thought. We thought that God was no good and we should make our own God. Has anything changed? It's almost like a dog that you leave at home, and dogs have no concept of time. So whether you go to the mailbox and come back, or go away to work for nine hours and come back, it's the same. Oh, I'm so glad you were here. I thought you were never coming back. Like they can't, you know, you were gone, Moses, for 40 days. We thought for sure we should make a golden cow and bow down to it. That seemed to make sense. No. What should we do? Believe God? Then you see the sea, didn't you see the things? And then for 40 years, all the manna. Oh, this manna's the worst. We've deep fried it, we've boiled it, we've cooked it in the air fryer, we've roasted it, we put it in the ground, we we've eaten it raw, uh, so man, and all you just whine and complain. Every morning, God literally rained down bread on the ground for them. Every single day. He brought water out of rocks and watered millions of people. We're talking two and a half to three million people coming out of Egypt. And did they say thank you or complain? Did they trust God or despise his word? And this is the day of provocation, where he says, Beware that you harden your hearts is in the day of provocation. In fact, when the water was an issue and they said, We need water, God literally broke out water out of a rock. And the people said, Is God even among us? Is he even real? It got bad, church. It got really bad. You see, the sin of unbelief. Like you can doubt me, you can think things about me, bad things, and you're probably not too far off. But we can never doubt the goodness of God. He

Today If You Hear His Voice

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took my father, he took my daughter, he took my, yeah, but got it. He's always good. Don't you dare demean his name. The sin of unbelief. Let me read to you from Numbers 14 as we close. Numbers 14 and verse 20. The Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word, but as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, because all those men which have seen my glory and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and the wilderness, have tempted me. Now these ten times and have not hearkened to my voice, surely they shall not see the land which I swear to their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it. By the way, God is patient, isn't he? Isn't he long-suffering? Some of you need more patience than others. I'm with you. And God is so kind and so good. And yet, who's the one getting fed up? Who's the one? Should we be fed up with him or should he be fed up with us? Let's just be real here this morning. God has never failed you, not one day in your whole life. God has been faithful every minute of your existence, from conception to this moment. And for these people, God showed him themselves. And they rejected him. But it doesn't have to be that way with us. It doesn't have to be that way with us. You're you're on a faith journey right now, and you're you're exploring what this book means and if it's real and if God is real. I want you to know it's what you hear about it. It's good, it's real, it's true. The story of them does not have to be the story of us. He says it again in 1 Corinthians 10, 1 through 13. All the people who would not believe, and this sin, this wicked sin, this damnable sin of unbelief. It does not have to be that way with the Corinthian church, Paul says, nor does it have to be with the Woodhaven Church. Let me just finish by reading you that few verses there in the middle. Wherefore, verse 7, as the Holy Ghost saith, today if you will hear his voice, did you hear me? Harden not your heart. Today, if you'll hear him, today if you'll call upon him, today if you'll say, Lord, I don't have all the answers, I don't know it completely, I don't understand it. A lot of this is very new, it just but if you will lead me, I will follow, if you will save me, I'll be saved. I'll trust you. That's all it is, church. You've been doing it your way. I think we should do it his way. You're the sinner, and he's the savior if we will take him at his word, simply to believe. Let's pray together. Would you stand? Father, we give you honor and glory and praise that you've come to us with a simple gospel to trust you

Prayer And Invitation

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and to obey. Father, would you help us this morning? Lord, as we struggle to believe, we want to believe. Father, we say, like that centurion who prayed over his sick daughter, I believe, Lord. Help thou my unbelief. And Father, would you have your way among us and speak and draw as only you can? We pray it in Jesus' name.