Michael Crosswhite // Hebrews 1-3 // Christ has been established, by his death and resurrection, as supreme, and his reign encompasses the total life of the Christian.
Emmanuel Tuscaloosa
The Supremacy of Christ for All of Life
The following audio is brought to you by Immanuel Baptist Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. More information about our church can be found at ImmanuelTuscaloosa.org. Hebrews 1 verse 3. Hear this, "He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power after making purification for sins." He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. Chapter 2 verse 1. "Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard lest we drift away from it," and then down to chapter 3 starting in verse 1. "Therefore holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who is faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God's house. For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God." Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confession and our boasting in our hope. I've never been the captain of a ship, nor have I ever sailed to seas. I'm actually terrified to get out on the ocean. I would absolutely be scared to death. I wouldn't even want to get on a cruise, no thank you. I don't even like seafood, all right? I don't start with me. The best thing you can say about seafood is it doesn't taste like seafood, right? That's what everybody says. Oh it's good, it doesn't taste like seafood at all. Yeah, beef doesn't either, you know. But even with as little as I know about boating, I still know the purpose of an anchor. It keeps the ship tethered to the ocean floor so that it doesn't begin to drift away. Could you ever imagine a ship's captain pulling up to shore and saying to his deck hands? You know what? The sea looks really calm today. I don't think we need the anchor. Let's just get off the ship and we'll come back later. Of course not. When they come back to the boat it would be miles and miles adrift away at sea. As it turns out the anchor is vital. If the goal is for the boat to stay in the same spot, because without the anchor drift is a veritable certainty. The anchor is crucial for keeping the ship steady amidst the unpredictable and often treacherous conditions of the sea. Well in the same way the author of Hebrews is making the argument that Christ is the anchor for the Christian. As even the logo for the sermon series through the book of Hebrews will attest. It comes from a passage in Hebrews that we'll get to much later on that Christ is the anchor of our souls. The author of Hebrews is urging us and urging his audience that he's writing to in the first century to recognize that Christ is not just supreme over certain areas of our life. But you can't just compartmentalize Jesus into particular aspects. You can't pick and choose what you like and what you don't like but he is sovereign over every single aspect of your life. And when you're anchored to his word and his completed work only then will you find stability and purpose and rest no matter what kind of storms you face. Today as we revisit the opening chapters of Hebrews we'll see how the supremacy of Christ provides the firm foundation that we need as Christians to remain at rest in spite of the many challenges and how his work is sufficient to secure us in every aspect of our journey. Now on January 7th of this year we started this study through the book of Hebrews and we saw us covering from January to May we cover the first three chapters of the book and then we took a break for the summer as as our tradition we started going through 10 Psalms during the summer and now it's time to pick up where we left off in the book of Hebrews. However I also recognize that it's been a few months as we've been there and it's probably unfair to you and most of the people in this room to just pick up where we left off like you remember everything that was said before now. Some of us in this room are new we weren't here for the first three chapters the rest of us have slept since those sermons were preached some of us slept during those sermons being preached and so I thought it would be good to just have one sermon that in some ways is sort of a review of the first three chapters reminding us of what has been said up to this point but then also is sort of a preparation for what is about to be said in chapters four and following in the weeks to come and so well some points that I want to say today are familiar I've made some of these points before I think it might help us to remember what has been said and what difference it actually makes that the writer of Hebrews expects this this doctrine of Christ to actually make in our life so remember we don't know who wrote this book we come to the book of Hebrews we don't know who wrote it many believed it was the Apostle Paul it seems more likely that it was someone in Paul's orbit someone around Paul someone influenced heavily by Paul perhaps even sponsored by Paul in the writing checked off by him maybe so maybe somebody like Luke or maybe Apollo's or or maybe Barnabas or maybe someone else entirely and so you'll frequently hear me calling him the author of Hebrew simply because we don't know who wrote it but what is clear about the letter that we're reading is that the goal of the author is to make his way through all the fundamental parts of Judaism to go one by one through every aspect of Judaism and demonstrate how each of those elements of Judaism fail by comparison to Jesus Christ who is superior and supreme and has surpassed all of them by his work on the cross and his resurrection from the dead and his hope in this whole letter is really to persuade his audience who are formerly Jewish not to abandon the Christian gospel in return to Judaism now it seems that for the audience that's receiving this letter what has initially happened is that they became Christian and shortly after becoming Christian they endured intense persecution and persecution because they left Judaism and went to Christianity and so what happened as a result of the persecution is that now a kind of spiritual lethargy a laziness has begun to set in even to the point where some of them are contemplating fleeing Christianity and Christ altogether and returning back to Judaism because there I didn't face persecution there it wasn't hard to go to synagogue there it wasn't hard to be a follower of God or to be faithful to God but here under the banner of Christ it is difficult it's a challenge and so they're contemplating leaving him all together and so the author's appeal in the book of Hebrews is really to ask a basic question what are you going to turn to if you're turning away from Christ what are you going to turn to that offers you anything any better here is how Christ is better than Moses here is how Christ is better than the priesthood here is how he's better than the prophets and so on and so forth all through every aspect of Judaism but a common theme that we're going to be focusing on for some weeks now is how the Christian because of Christ can now be at rest the Christian can now be at rest the end of chapter three where we left off in May the author was telling us that there were plenty of people who were journeying with Moses through the wilderness and when they came to the land of promise the land that promised them peace and rest many were left out and were killed in the wilderness during Moses day why because they did not believe God they were left out of his rest they failed to enter his rest but now going into chapter four the Christian is going to be encouraged to believe so that he will be at rest so that you can remain at rest and then not only that you will in the end enter into the final rest that he has prepared for us so that you don't like those journeying through the wilderness get left out of the celestial city that you're not left out of the kingdom of heaven that is promised to them that believe so through the first three chapters we have seen why it is to the Christian that our souls must be anchored to Christ and the first thing that we see is that Christ work alone has secured our rest so if we look at chapter one verse three we're going to see that Christ work alone has secured our rest so the author of Hebrews begins he opens the book by declaring that Jesus Christ is the ultimate revelation of God to man so in the past he spoke to men through prophets he put his word in the mouth of the prophets the prophets turned around to the people and they said thus saith the Lord they are repeating they're conveying exactly what the Lord has given to them the exact words that he's told them to say but now he says he has spoken to us finally and authoritatively not through a prophet but through his son and so he goes on to explain how the son has cosmic significance the son surpasses the prophets in every way he says he is the heir of all things he's the creator he has the radiance of the glory of God he's the exact imprint of his nature he upholds the universe by the word of his power this makes God's revelation through the son superior to everything that he's given to us before in the prophets but now the focus shifts from his cosmic significance this is who he is as compared to the prophets to his practical significance to you okay i get he's up here he's majestic what difference does that make to me when this vast god became human what impact does it have on you and he answers that with the 17 words at the end of verse three starting with the word after look at what he says after making purification for sins he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high after making purification for sins he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high now when he says that the son made purification for sins he's referring to the son's role as high priest whose biggest responsibility was to go before the lord on behalf of the nation of israel and make a sacrifice for the purification of all the sins of the nation on the day of atonement one day a year he goes before the lord on behalf of an entire nation and makes a sacrifice for purification for their sins that they have committed for the past year all of its looking backwards for the past year that's his job now on that particular day the day of atonement there's a number of animals that are going to be sacrificed there's a bull there's a ram there's two goats and all of them are supposed to be sacrificed and the priest is going to put on his holy garments but he's told not to come into the holy place you can't come in yet specifically you can't come behind the veil before the mercy seat this is often referred to as the most holy place in the tabernacle but it's important that you see why why can't he go behind the veil into the most holy place leviticus 16 2 gives us that reason it says this and the lord said to moses tell erin your brother not to come at any time into the holy place inside the veil before the mercy seat that is on the ark so that he may not die for i will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat so erin is given specific instructions not to go behind the veil before the mercy seat that's sitting on top of the ark of the covenant and you see that word for there in the passage there in leviticus 16 2 because god is saying the reason is because i'm going to be over the mercy seat and if erin walks behind that veil i'll kill him now that's a pretty strong warning i think the the message is clearly communicating erin's the high priest he's supposed to make a sacrifice on behalf of the nation he's supposed to do that before god before the ark of the covenant before the mercy seat but you have to understand erin is also a man and as such erin also has sins his sins the sins of his family and those sins have to be atoned for before he can make atonement on behalf of the sins of the nation of israel so the stakes couldn't be higher his own life is on the line that one high priest is bearing his entire life and the life of his family on his shoulders every year now you can imagine the kind of fear and trembling that that produces in the heart of the high priest every single year he has to go before the lord and do everything exactly right or else he'll be killed before erin can make atonement for the nation he's got a tone for his own sin and the sins of his household so he doesn't bear the sins that he has committed for the previous year before the lord and before his the most the mercy seat in the holy of holies so then and only then after he is a tone for his own sin at that point he can then make an offering on behalf of the people and so he had two goats essentially that he was dealing with the first you find in verse 15 where it says of Leviticus chapter 16 verse 15 he says he shall kill the goat of the sin offering that is for the people and bring its blood inside the veil and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull sprinkling it over the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat so the first goat dies and it makes a sin offering for the sins of the people then he has another goat which is called a scapegoat and on this goat he confesses all the sins of the nation and they take this goat and they run it out of town somebody is there in charge of making sure the goat goes and doesn't come back right that's the last thing you want is to confess all the sins and put it on the scapegoat have him go out there and run back into the town so someone takes him out the high priest who performs all the sacrifices and the one who takes him out they all have they have to come back they have to be ceremonially cleansed again some of their clothing they have to burn they got a richly bathed before they can ever even enter the camp again so you're seeing hopefully a picture in the Old Testament sacrificial system at how serious sin actually is how seriously God actually deals with it we sing the song only a holy god but what does that mean it means that he's so holy that sinful man even to enter into his presence would die even if that man was given the charge once a year to go before the Lord and make atonement for the sins of nations well if you just do this haphazardly you're going to be killed so every year once a year the priest as a representative of the whole nation goes before the Lord performs these ritual sacrifices to atone both for his own sin his household sin and the sin of the nation for the previous year but what you have to understand is that all of that is just a stopgap it's not a permanent solution it's not intended to go on forever it's just a stopgap it's a half measure so what the author of Hebrews will later tell us is this in chapter nine verse 13 the blood of goats and bulls sanctified for the purification of the flesh that means the out that process of the sacrificial system is only meant to cleanse the person outwardly from the sin as a temporary remedy to keep God's people alive as they met with him it did nothing for their souls in other words it inclines them from within only an external cleansing as it were but there's a significant problem with this remedy if you look in the next chapter of Hebrews in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 4 it says for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins and then in verse 11 and every priest stands daily at his service offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins you see the problem that he's senior as long as the day of atonement has been with us these are merely only external forms of cleansing that's it there's no actual lasting ability to purify the sinner's soul from sin that's why the cleansing that took place was all looking back in the past this is all for the previous year this does nothing for the sins that they're about to commit in the future but all of that the author of Hebrews tells us in our passages this morning is long ago at many times and in many ways when God spoke to our fathers by the prophets but what has happened now that the son has come what happens now that the son has made purification for sins i want you to notice something that's already different in our passage you see where it says after making purification for sins some translations say when he had made purification it tells us something different about the son's sacrifice than what we already saw and what we see as the priest is gathering for his sacrifice for the atonement of the sins of the nation it says the priest stands daily offering repeatedly the same sacrifices but that's not the case with the son he's going to tell us that the son's purification is different than what the priest had accomplished in the Old Testament and it comes to us in chapters nine and chapter ten look at chapter nine verse 11 he says but when christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come then through the greater and more perfect tent not made with hands that is not of this creation he entered once for all into the holy places not by means of blood of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood thus securing an eternal redemption. Hebrews 10 verse 14 for by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified so when the son became the high priest the big difference here is that he made one sacrifice and that was himself and when he offered his own blood as a sacrifice for the sins of those who are being sanctified he perfected them look at what it says in 10 14 he has perfected for all time that's not only past that is future in fact when he did it if you're looking at just me it was all future your life was entirely in the future when he did it he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified means that right now in the current moment they don't feel sanctified they are being sanctified but in reality behind the curtain he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified in other words he is secured as it says in chapter nine an eternal redemption for them so what significance does the son then have to you look at the next phrase in verse three this is after making purification for sins he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high now god is spirit he doesn't literally have a right hand he doesn't literally have to sit on a throne he's omnipresent these are all metaphors meant to tell you what Jesus is doing at this current moment the significance of what he has done by his sacrifice on the cross the work of the priest is that he stands daily repeating time and again those sacrifices but not Christ what Christ has done is once for all his work in other words is finished every priest stands daily at his service why does he stand because he's offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins but this is why he says that the son sat down at the right hand once the son as your high priest made purification for your sins he sat down he rested because his work was finished he had paid for the sins of his people and there was no more work left to do so now because he has paid for the sins of his people anyone that is a follower of Christ now shares in all the righteous rewards that Christ has purchased for him totally 100% by his grace as a gift to you so the benefit of Christ's offering once for all to you is that now you're sharing in the rest that he enjoys so when Christ died he calls out on the cross it is finished and the gospels record that the curtain that separated the rest of the temple from the most holy place tore into from top to bottom now i want you to think about that for just a second this is a curtain that allowed Aaron to live this is a curtain that kept Aaron from encountering the holy god with sin and thus being killed right we just read that in Leviticus and now because of what Christ had done the curtain tore from top to bottom you understand this is more than a nuclear bomb sitting on the other side of this curtain the only thing protecting the priest from this nuclear bomb is a curtain and because of what Christ had done securing an eternal redemption for his people the veil the curtain was torn from top to bottom the thing that separated God's people from God is God Christ's work is finished he sat down and so now the kind of rest that we enjoy is the kind of sweaty is it rest from the kind of sweaty work that the high priest was doing before then making atonement for his sins but now if you go forward to chapter two we'll see from the first verse of chapter two that it's Christ's word that tethers the Christian to Christ's work Christ's word tethers the Christian to Christ's work look at verse one therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard lest we drift away from it if you look at the end of the first verse I want you to see the author's concern for us what's his concern there at the end of verse one that we would drift away from what we've heard see this is the problem that is of great concern to him and it should be of utmost concern to the rest of us what is it that we've heard what are we concerned about drifting away from well what we've heard is this gospel that has been preached to us and handed down from people who were eyewitnesses to this resurrection of Christ this good news of the gospel that was passed down to us this word that was spoken finally and authoritatively through the sun that was handed down to us that is the supremacy of Christ over all things the good news of eternal life in Jesus Christ alone that he's the radiance of the glory of God the exact imprint of his nature that he upholds the universe by the word of his power that after making purification for sins he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high we've heard the message of salvation that can only be through Jesus Christ we've heard the good news of the gospel we've heard the truth about God now there are a lot of nautical metaphors in Hebrews as we've seen and he uses one here at the end which is captured in the phrase drift away it's used boats like I said at the very beginning that are out to sea that dropped anchor they either drop anchor or they drift away there's only two options here all of that seems pretty straight forward but I want you to think deeply about what he's implying here by saying that we must be anchored and by using this metaphor drifting away from Christ is the default position of the human heart in other words unless you are tethered by God's word to Christ you will drift away there's no question we can see that here in his text by his warning that something must be done by you or else you will drift away from what has been said that's what he means when he says less in order that you not in other words so unless you're active in doing this thing that he's commanding you to do you will drift away from what you have heard because that's what your heart is prone to do by default so what's his proposed solution to keep you from drifting away look at the first half he says we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard he's wanting his readers to focus closely on what he's telling them for that matter he wants us to pay close attention to what is told to us in all of God's word not just what he's saying to us we are not in short supply of churches and denominations that are encountering a theological drift you can see this no matter where you look you can turn on the news you you'll find this from time to time entire denominations moving away from the word of God pastors pulpits everything drifting away from the word of God but it's is it a mystery as to why this happens it's not it's actually told to us very clearly right here in this verse as to why it happens and the first thing that disappears every single time from pulpits when there is theological drift is close inspection of God's word and instead of gathering together as a church and opening the word and paying careful attention to the words on the page and explaining what those words mean and why they matter preachers instead present watered down psychological self-help lectures with several bible verses sprinkled in as proof texts and occasionally there's not even that but what's amazing is we can actually walk away from those kind of self-help lectures feeling better about it and thinking that we're closer to God because of it all the while drifting slowly out to see but it's not just churches and denominations that drift it's christians too it's sort of a chicken and the egg situation because christians have also started to demand less and less of the bible being taught in fact demanding less demanding more and more something else besides the bible being taught because they think it's wooden and stodgy and difficult to understand and for Pete's sake just cut to the chase youth groups are created to turn kids into their programs and just turn into kind of drop-off programs and and studying the bible with them and answering life's most difficult questions all of a sudden is exchanged for arcade games in my day video games nowadays movie nights because we got to get kids attention or else we'll lose them to the culture but you understand that in an effort to get their attention and keep them in a building we failed to actually teach them to pay much closer attention to what we've heard and they came for the video games and then there's a bait and switch on the other end this says let me sprinkle in a few verses here and there well that was back in the 80s and 90s and all of those youth have now grown up and where it once was biblical illiteracy we didn't know what the bible was teaching that has now grown into biblical apathy see back then we didn't understand the bible at all but now we believe that it has nothing to say to us in today's world it morphs it changes it drifts now it is deep out to sea and so we live in the town of vanity and we frequently visit vanity fair every single week i've got TikTok videos and Facebook posts that are always changing in front of me based on the algorithm of things that i like keeping everything new and fresh for my short attention span so drifting preachers who are now far a field feel the need to change their preaching algorithm to meet the needs of their audience and soon the sermon becomes another product being sold at vanity fair is it appealing enough to you is it attractive enough to you is it engaging enough to you but you understand what the author of Hebrews is wanting for his audience is for them each and every single one of you to have your attention fixed on the word of god have it anchored have it tethered to christ because by tethering your mind to the word of god the word of god then tethers your soul to christ and that's the goal the word of god is a conduit to tether your soul to christ lest you drift far a field from him which brings us to the third and final point from chapter three holding fast to christ is the only hope of maintaining that rest holding fast to christ is the only hope of maintaining that rest Hebrews chapter three starting in verse one therefore holy brothers you who share in a heavenly calling consider Jesus the apostle and high priest of our confession who has who was faithful to him who appointed him just as Moses also was faithful in all god's house for just for Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself for every house is built by someone but the builder of all things is god now Moses was faithful in all god's house as a servant to testify to the things that were to be spoken later but Christ is faithful over god's house as a son and we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope and we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope he's illustrating that the people of god sorry he's illustrating the people of god with this this image of a house he's depicting you as a house over which the son is the ruler and he's comparing the way Moses ministered to god's people in the Old Testament with the way Jesus is now over god's people and the difference is that Moses is a faithful servant to god's people but he's a servant like someone that is appointed to serve in a house but he was just that he was a servant Jesus on the other hand you see the difference there he is the son of god and that means that he's the owner of the house not merely as he appointed to serve the house but to build it to keep it he's the one chiefly responsible for it and this is the driving force behind the whole book of Hebrews up to this point it's encouragement it's not just a theological book that's filled with deep meanings of course it is that that are difficult to understand of course it is that too but it is a letter of encouragement to god's people that Jesus Christ is worth holding fast too that he's the object of your faith that you want to maintain your confidence and you're boasting in your hope he says which happens as we pay much closer attention to what we have heard so that we don't drift away from him see if it is Christ that has secured this rest for his people if he is the one that has gone behind the curtain and he has secured an eternal redemption for them by faith and if it is god's word that then tethers you to your faith to Christ then it stands to reason that he wants you to pay very careful attention to the word of god so that you can hold fast your confidence and your hope to the end and enter into rest you understand when you peel back the layers of all the theology of the book of Hebrews at the end of it this is what he wants for you he wants you to enter into the kingdom of god he wants you eternally to be at rest every page of this book is designed for you to be encouraged to keep going here is a church a group of people a group of Hebrews formerly Jewish now Christian who have turned to Christ and once they turn to Christ receive nothing but persecution so now they have everything within them is telling them turn back this is for the birds why would you want to stay here look at what you get for this and every page of the book of Hebrews is saying no keep going we must not be like the group of Israelites that wandered through the desert for 40 years and all died off and failed to enter the rest because they did not believe and trust in god instead Christian continue to trust continue to hope i know it looks bleak i know the storms of life never get easier they are always hard every single day it seems that it's harder than the day before and there's reason to be pessimistic and there's reason to be despairing and there's reason to lose hope it seems hold fast your confidence to the end notice he says in verse six that we are his house currently we are his house if conditionally indeed we hold fast we are his house if we hold fast in other words what he's saying because you think how can those two things be true how can i both be his house and it be conditional that i am his house and the answer is that the faith that you have in christ is evidence that you are a member of his house so here's the picture as a member of the body of christ you get beaten and battered each way by the winds of the world and yet today you woke up a christian that alone is evidence that you are part of his house our goal together as a body of christ is to maintain that confidence to the end and the only way it's going to happen the only way we will make it across the finish line is to faithfully give ourselves to the word of god that means privately that means corporately when we meet together that means we teach it to our kids the only way we're going to make it is if we continue to hand this down from generation to generation if we as parents learn from it ourselves but herein lies the challenge the book of Hebrews is setting Jesus Christ as supreme over all your life not over little portions of your life he's not to be compartmentalized holding fast to christ doesn't begin and end on sunday it's monday through saturday as well jesus is atoning work on behalf of his people is finished evidence by the fact that he sat down he didn't tone for your sunday he atoned for your monday through saturday too so paying close attention to what we've heard and holding fast to this good news of your salvation is not just paying attention during the sermon so it is that it's not just paying attention during the worship service and then going home and checking out every aspect of your life matters as it contributes positively or negatively to your growth in christ and so there's a tension that i hope you're beginning to see already forming in this book some that i've mentioned this morning have already happened some things have already happened christ work is already finished he has done that but then he says we are present tense his house if we may we hold fast our confidence to the end in other words there's some things that have been done we live in this tension as i mentioned last week this world that we walk in of the already and the not yet in one world we rest in what christ has already purchased for us and the other world we walk in says there's still work to be done but here's what we can do as christians to rest in what christ has already purchased for us we can right now at this very moment begin our lifetime of rest our eternal rest instead of constantly running this race trying to finish first and it starts by remembering that your identity your worth is not based on your accomplishments but on christ's work for you how do i begin right now to rest to not feel like my righteousness is like the righteousness of that sweaty priest going behind the veil beads a sweat dripping down his forehead for fear that he might die well it's by remembering that your worth and your identity is not based on your own work and your own righteousness but on christ's work on your behalf you see this that idea alone clankers workaholism the workaholic reasons but i must continue to work because i've got to provide for my family i must continue to work because i've got to please my bosses at work i must continue to work to demonstrate to my employees that hard work pays off because i want them to work hard but you understand when the christian rests when christ finished work on his behalf he understands that god alone is his provider but the one he works for is not his bosses he works for christ the one he works to impress is not his employees it's christ so all of a sudden now because of christ a finished work i'm freed from the burden of workaholism i can work hard yes i can work as unto christ but my identity is not based my worth is not based on what my accomplishments are or what somebody else thinks about me instead now i want to hand off this kind of rest and ease and security that i have i want to hand that off to my employees i want to hand that off to my bosses but i also want to hand that off to my wife and my kids too and those are part of my responsibility as well your life up to this point has been filled with storms and yet the anchor that has held you is christ you're not going anywhere and there's a deep comfort in knowing that your salvation and your security and your standing before god is anchored in the finished work of christ and when i go before him in prayer he's not looking at me as an angry god but as a pleased father does he correct me does he discipline me like a father yes he does but when i go before him in prayer he's not scowling not because of what christ has done he's happy but this rest in christ also calls for village vigilant faith he's urging us to pay close attention to the gospel message this is how we tether our heart to the gospel of christ it's not in a compartmentalized faith when we leave here on our monday through saturday should look like we actually belong to christ too our employees should see that our bosses should see that our spouse and our kids should see that are you holding fast to him or have you begun to drift the supremacy of christ for all of life means that every part of your existence is under his lordship but it's also infused by his grace so it applies to everything that we think everything that we do sunday through saturday let's pray heavenly father we're grateful for your word we're grateful for the book of heber's we're grateful for a reminder to continue to maintain faithfulness to christ but we're also grateful that while we strive in faith while we want our heart to remain tethered to the anchor of christ we're also comforted by the fact that you it is you who hold us fast that it is by the finished and accomplished work of christ that we remain christians to this day we're grateful for that we pray that we might be able to apply that even to our lives we pray that your spirit would work in us and through us to apply that to our lives please do that lord through your spirit and jesus name amen thanks for listening if you live in the tuscaloosa area and are looking for a church we'd love for you to visit our service times our sunday mornings at 10 30 and wednesday nights at 6 15 [BLANK_AUDIO]