Whose House Is It?

Evangelist Herman E. Wesley III

WHOSE HOUSE IS IT?

Hebrews 3:2-5

PRELIMINARIES

In the wonderful name of the Lord Jesus, it’s good to be here. We’ve been having a good time here in Kansas City, all the lectures have been encouraging and many have been enlightening, and the fellowship that we are able to nurture, preacher to preacher, church leader to church leader, is very refreshing. To brother Gerald McGill, our fine host minister this week, and his lectureship committee...we commend you for a job well done, in preparation and in fulfillment of the goals and objectives for this year’s lectureship.

We bring you greetings from the State of Alabama, the capital city of Montgomery, and the saints of the NorthPointe Church of Christ where I have been called to labor with some of the best folk in God’s kingdom. I know that some of you are praying for me, and I know that those prayers are getting through. If you’re ever in Montgomery, we extend to you a hearty invitation to come by and worship with us...and if you can’t get to us, we’ve done everything possible to get to you. You can share in our services from anywhere in the world now by accessing us on the world wide web! Our internet address is www.northpointechurch.net

Now the subject assigned to me comes from the third chapter of the book of Hebrews, verses 2-5, however, I’m going to take homiletical courtesy here, and pick up verse 1 and 6 as well. If you have the Word, let’s read it aloud, together, shall we?

"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. For every house is builded by some man;

but he that built all things is God. And Moses verily was faithful in all his house,

as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; But

Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the

confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end."

INTRODUCTION

The subject that I have been assigned really comes to us in the form of a question:

WHOSE HOUSE IS IT?

And after much thought and consideration, I have come to believe that this is a very good question. Honestly, I had my doubts about it when I first received my letter. After all, what in the world am I going to say to a group of Gospel Preachers as it relates to this subject, "Whose House Is It?" Surely there can be no dispute that the "house" referred to in this passage belongs to the Lord. I thought, with myself, what a royal waste of everyone’s time to be given a subject like this. Even if this room were filled with denominational preachers, there would not be much dispute as to Whose House It Is? However, after contemplating on this subject, allowing it to marinate in the juices of my mind, experience and background, I began to see the hand of God being revealed in this text. Now, what I want to do is share some background information with you concerning the text, and then I want to pull this whole concept forward as we stand on the brink of a new millennium. Ya’ll got time for this?

In answering the question, WHOSE HOUSE IS IT? I think it best that I start out by telling you whose house it is not!

I. IT IS NOT MOSES’ HOUSE

These six verses present the doctrine on which the exhortation of the rest of the chapter is built. In order to understand the exhortation, we need to understand the premise; and to understand the premise, we need to review what the Jews of that day thought about Moses. To appreciate how, why, and to what extent Jesus is better than Moses, we need to see how important Moses was even before this. Even before this, we need to ask why it is necessary to prove that Jesus is better than Moses.

Moses was esteemed by the Jews far above any other Jew who ever lived. God had miraculously protected him as a baby and personally provided for his burial. Between those two points in his life are miracle after miracle after miracle. He was the man to whom God spoke face to face. He had seen the very glory of God and, in fact, even had this glory reflected in his own face for a brief while. After he came down from Sinai, the word says: