Exhort One Another
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Hebrews 3:13
Scripture Reading
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:
“Today, if you will hear His voice,
8 Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
In the day of trial in the wilderness,
9 Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me,
And saw My works forty years.
10 Therefore I was angry with that generation,
And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart,
And they have not known My ways.’
11 So I swore in My wrath,
‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”
12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; 13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, 15 while it is said:
“Today, if you will hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
16 For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? 17 Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? 19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
Introduction
Introduction
As you a church, you have the wonderful opportunity to be working through the one another commands in Scripture as your pastor is away on Sabbatical.
These commands form an extremely important part of our life and faith together as believers. They show the importance of community. The demonstrate for us the importance of inter-dependence. We as Christians cannot live isolated and insulated lives. Rather, we are to be practicing our faith as a community.
The One Another command that we will be considering this morning is to “Exhort One Another.” Or, translated differently, to “Encourage One Another.”
As I’ve studied and prepared for this message, I’ve been personally challenged with the importance and significance of our life together as a community.
The reason is that this one another command speaks to the core of our identity in Christ, and our support and encouragement of one another in the context of a Spiritual battle wherein Satan is striving to draw people away from the faith.
This command is exceedingly important, and I trust that we will see something of that through our study of this passage this morning.
To set the picture in our own minds, and to start from a place of truly understanding the weightiness and significance of this command, I would like to remind you of a number of prominent Christian leaders who have recently abandoned the faith, who have left the church.
One notable Christian is the Hillsong songwriter, Marty Sampson. He wrote:
"Time for some real talk… I'm genuinely losing my faith… Christians can be the most judgmental people on the planet – they can also be some of the most beautiful and loving people… but it's not for me. I am not in anymore."
Another very prominent Christian leader and pastor, Joshua Harris, who was probably more highly esteemed in our own circles recently renounced his faith and divorced his wife. He said:
"I have undergone a massive shift in regard to my faith in Jesus. The popular phrase for this is 'deconstruction,' the biblical phrase is 'falling away.' By all the measurements I have for defining a Christian, I am not a Christian."
Dave Gass, the former pastor at Grace Family Fellowship, pastor at Covenant Church and Cedar Community Church, took to social media and announced:
"After 40 years of being a devout follower, 20 of those being an evangelical pastor, I am walking away from the faith. Even though this has been a massive bomb drop in my life, it has been decades in the making."
And then also very recently, one of the contributors to John Piper’s Desiring God website announced on Instagram that he was renouncing his faith. He said:
"What I really miss is connection with people. What I've discovered is that I'm ready to connect again. And I'm kind of ready not to be angry anymore. I love you guys, and I love all the friendships and support I've built here. And I think it's important to say that I'm just not a Christian anymore, and it feels really good. I'm really happy. I can't wait to discover what kind of connection I can have with all of you beautiful people as I try to figure out what's next.”
Now, whenever we hear of these so-called “high-profile” Christians falling away from the faith, particularly when they’ve some kind of profound impact on our own lives, we can become unsettled. How does this happen, we may ask? And that is indeed a valid question.
Now, more importantly, however, is the fact that it is not only high profile Christians that are tempted to fall away from the faith. It is the everyday, ordinary professing believers that experience crises of belief, and can quite easily fall away. Sometimes that is a sudden and outright rejection of the faith, but very often it is a slow and subtle drift, as questions and concerns arise over time, or the worries of this world weigh a Christian down and lead them to forsake the faith.
Satan is the great deceiver, and his mission in this world is to either keep people who are lost in darkness where they are, or to draw those who are redeemed back into darkness. And while theologically we may say “once saved, always saved,” we need to understand that it is yet by the grace of God that we truly are saved and not self-deceived.
And further to this, we need passages such as the one we will consider today to continuously remind us of the perils of drift. We need passages such as these to exhort us and remind us of our weighty responsibility towards one another to ensure that we continue to exhort one another as a community. It is as we engage in our God-responsibilities that He is pleased to continue His work in our midst.
As we begin today then, let me ask at the outset.... Where are you in your faith?
Are you encouraged? Or are you facing a season of doubt? Perhaps you’re in a place where you’re just trying to hold on… afraid of the consequences if you lose faith…
I pray that today you would be encouraged wherever you are. I pray that you would be encouraged to stand firm. To encourage one another. To be encouraged if you’re facing doubt.
I pray that even if your faith has only begun to show signs of weakness; perhaps you just have a coldness or coolness in your faith; perhaps you’re tolerating small sins, or slightly bigger sins in your life; perhaps responding sinfully to circumstances; I pray that you would be awakened to the seriousness of this condition, but also to the wonderful joy and blessing of community as a means of God’s grace to you.
We are going to consider this passage under three main headings…
The Danger
The Historical Example
The Call
1. The Danger (v.12)
1. The Danger (v.12)
In verse 12 of this passage, the writer to the Hebrews issues a warning to the church. He writes...
12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God;
Brethren / Brothers
We must see immediately from this verse that this warning passage (as with the others in Hebrews) is addressed to Christians. It is not addressed to only "professing believers" - thus trying to warn those who are self-deceived. Rather, it is really addressed to those who are true believers in the faith. It is these true believers in the faith that need to hear these warnings.
Now, immediately we consider this, the question in our minds may be, is it thus saying that true believers can fall away… and thus they need this warning? And my response to that would be, I do not believe so.
Rather, what I believe to be the case here is that true believers need to hear these warnings and cautions to be careful of an evil heart of unbelief, and that God uses that very caution in order to preserve His elect. In other words, the elect of God, true born-again believers, will hear these warnings and they will stir up in their hearts a righteous and holy fear of falling away, and God by His Spirit will keep His elect.
Obviously, those who hear such warnings and fall away will show themselves to not have been true believers.
As Christians then, our responsibility is to heed the warnings, and to put into practice the exhortations.
Evil heart of unbelief
The concern of the writer here is that these Hebrew Christians may be led down a path of unbelief.
In seeking to understand his concern, the context of Hebrews is important. The Hebrew believers were, for the most part, Jews who had turned to Christ for salvation. They were Jewish Christians. As Jewish Christians in the early church, they were facing intense hostility from those Jews who rejected Jesus Christ as God’s chosen Messiah.
They were being attacked for having “abandoned the Jewish faith” and for following Christ. They were under intense pressure to reject the call of Christ to follow Him, to abandon their profession of faith, and to return to the Jewish traditions.
At its root, their faith - their belief in Christ, the Son of God was being attacked. It was their obedience to what Christ taught that was under attacked.
They are tempted to move away from faith to what the writer calls an evil heart of unbelief.
That leads us to consider, secondly…
2. The Historical Example (vv.16-19)
2. The Historical Example (vv.16-19)
Verses 16-19 of this text present a series of probing questions to the Hebrew believers. The questions are presented in such a manner as to lead the Hebrew believers to consider their own state, and not to rely on any so-called profession of faith without sticking the course. The questions are based on the quote from Psalm 95 that we find in verses 7-11 of our passage. Let us read those verses together briefly for context.
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:
“Today, if you will hear His voice,
8 Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
In the day of trial in the wilderness,
9 Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me,
And saw My works forty years.
10 Therefore I was angry with that generation,
And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart,
And they have not known My ways.’
11 So I swore in My wrath,
‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”
With that quote of Psalm 95:7-11 in mind, the writer to the Hebrews begins his questioning in verse 16.
Israel Rebelled Against God
16 For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses?
The first question is posed in order to lead these believers to consider precisely who it was that provoked God. It was not those who had known nothing of the saving works of God. It was those who had seen the power of God at work in delivering them from slavery in Egypt. They knew the salvation work of God.
There is a parallel text in this regard that it would be for us to consider briefly.
1 Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, 2 all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.
In writing to the Corinthians, Paul states very clearly that when the Israelites were delivered from captivity, and led in the wilderness under the leadership of Moses.
“Being under the cloud,” “passing through the sea” and “being baptised into Moses in the cloud and the sea” are all written to point the Christians to the fact that they had been baptised into Christ. While the Israelites witnessed the power of God through Moses, and were in that sense baptised under his leadership, Christians are in fact baptised in the name of Christ Jesus, the true deliverer. Christians have not merely been redeemed from physical slavery in a land, but from slavery to sin and death.
We are those who have experienced a great salvation. Christ is our spiritual food and spiritual drink. If anything, our spiritual food and drink is far more glorious than that of the Israelites.
Now, the writer to the Hebrews, as Paul to the Corinthians, is telling these Christians that those who rebelled were those who had participated in the blessings of redemption, having witnessed God’s powerful working. It was those very people that had rebelled.
Applying to Christians, he’s saying that they should not sit back and take life easy simply because they know these truths, or have tasted God’s goodness through the Gospel work and their own redemption and baptism in the name of Christ.
As glorious as these truths are, they are not merely to sit back and presume upon them.
Israel Angered God
The next question and answer is found in verse 17…
17 Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness?
Notice that the writer to the Hebrews has moved beyond their deliverance which was certainly a glorious reality, to their wandering the wilderness for forty years. Now, all of those who were in the wilderness had been delivered. The idea is still in the writer’s mind!
But he writes that God was angry with those whom he had delivered. The reason that they were in the wilderness in the first place was for their testing. God had led them there in order to test their hearts.
2 And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.
God was testing them in the wilderness for forty years. He had graciously redeemed them, and now they were on the path to the promised land. But this was a time of testing for them, to see if their hearts were devoted to him.
The question was, would they obey him. Would they submit to him. And would they do this, even through hardships and trials. The sad reality with the Israelites was that they would not obey or submit to him through these difficult years of wilderness wandering.
The writer to the Hebrews says that instead of obeying they sinned. What they did in the wilderness, both through rebellion and grumbling about their circumstances, is called sin against God.
They rebelled, and they grumbled and complained against him.
In terms of the Hebrew believers, the writer was warning them once again that they were to be careful to not turn away from God. They were being cautioned to not fall away from the faith, which would amount to sin before God.
Let us just bring that further into our present context. Our lives as Christians in this world is akin to the wilderness wanderings of the Israelites. We live our lives in this world as aliens and strangers.
1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
NASB...
1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen
This world is not our home. We are journeying to the Promised Land, the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Further on in Peter’s first epistle he writes:
11 Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul,
It is in this period of wilderness wandering that Christians are called to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.
The Israelites suffered under the wrath of God and fell in the wilderness because they sinned against God. The Hebrew Christians were being warned to take the caution from the lives of the Israelites.
Taking this one step further, the writer to the Hebrews says in verse 18…
18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey?
The rebellious actions and the lack of faith of the Israelites amounted to disobedience before God.
They continued to grumble and complain against God because of where they were. They grumbled because the trials of the wilderness were weighing them down.
They despised the fact that they were facing these struggles. They said that they’d rather be back in slavery in the land of Egypt.
They despised what they were having to endure, and the result was that they fell in the wilderness.
We see this clearly outlined in Numbers 14:26-30
26 And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 27 “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who complain against Me? I have heard the complaints which the children of Israel make against Me. 28 Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you: 29 The carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above. 30 Except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I swore I would make you dwell in.
Further on in the book of Numbers 26:64-65
64 But among these there was not a man of those who were numbered by Moses and Aaron the priest when they numbered the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Sinai. 65 For the Lord had said of them, “They shall surely die in the wilderness.” So there was not left a man of them, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.
Now, we should not think that the writer to the Hebrews was ignorant of Caleb and Joshua who were spared. They were examples of those who would inherit the Promised Land because they acted in faith in God.
However, for the most part, the Israelites acted in unbelief. This is confirmed in verse 19...
19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
I would like us to briefly consider the nature of that unbelief. What is it that is referred to when speaking about “unbelief?”
We find in Scripture that their unbelief was demonstrated in various ways, through various sins that they committed.
6 Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. 7 And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.” 8 Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell; 9 nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents; 10 nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer.
From these verses, Paul outlines various sins that the Israelites committed in the wilderness. They lusted after evil things. In the context of the Israelites, the lusting after evil things was not so much that what they wanted was evil, but rather that they were discontent with what God had provided for them, and were lusting after more. We find this in the book of Numbers...
4 Now the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said: “Who will give us meat to eat?
Their lust (intense craving) was after meat.
34 So the name of that place was called Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had been greedy.
1 Corinthians 10:7 then goes on to address the issue of the idolatry of the Israelites. No sooner had they departed from the promised land, Moses was up on Mount Sinai receiving the law by which they were to live from God, and they indulged in idolatry, making a golden calf, and bowing down to it and saying that this was the God that brought the up out of Egypt (Exodus 32:1-20).
Here was the sin of idolatry among the Israelites. They displaced the worship of the true and living God with the worship of a graven image (even though they actually acknowledged that they were worshiping Jahweh).
We are told also in verses 8-9 of 1 Corinthians 10 that they indulged in sexual immorality. The specific incident referred to there is found in Numbers 25:1-9. I will read just the first three verses so that we can gain a better understanding of what took place. .
1 Now Israel remained in Acacia Grove, and the people began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab. 2 They invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. 3 So Israel was joined to Baal of Peor, and the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel.
The Israelites committed immorality with the women of Moab. (Context: Balak, king of Moab called Balaam to pronounce a curse).
As a consequence of their sin, a plague broke out among them, killing the 23,000 in one day that is spoken of here.
These are the examples of sin that are presented in terms of what the Israelites indulged in. They were led astray by the sins of lusting after things, desiring things that God was not providing for them. They were indulging in the sin of idolatry, worshiping images of God rather than the true and living God. They were involved in sexual immorality. They were uniting themselves with those who were not worshipers of God, after God had already told them that they were to keep themselves pure.
Let me briefly pause here and say that none of us are immune from the sins that Israel had indulged in. Certainly, the sin of greed and lusting after things that God has not provided for us is an ever-present reality. When a discontentment about life and our circumstances sets in, it is a demonstration of our lack of faith in God and his provisions in the moment.
When it comes to idolatry, we tend to think that this is something reserved for other false religions that are far removed from us. There is a tendency to think that we’re kind of immune from that. But we need to be careful that we don’t miss the fact that there are things that we replace God with in our hearts. In other words, we can look to these other things of the world and believe in them to be our “deliverer.”
2 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 3 “Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts, and put before them that which causes them to stumble into iniquity. Should I let Myself be inquired of at all by them?
Very clearly here they were not bowing down to a physical idol, but rather they were setting up some form of idol in their heart, something that led them to stumble and not place their full trust in the True and Living God. The next two verses from Ezekiel read…
4 “Therefore speak to them, and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Everyone of the house of Israel who sets up his idols in his heart, and puts before him what causes him to stumble into iniquity, and then comes to the prophet, I the Lord will answer him who comes, according to the multitude of his idols, 5 that I may seize the house of Israel by their heart, because they are all estranged from Me by their idols.” ’
Now, to give some further understanding of the kinds of things that they would put their trust in, we can look at Ezekiel 7:19
19 ‘They will throw their silver into the streets,
And their gold will be like refuse;
Their silver and their gold will not be able to deliver them
In the day of the wrath of the Lord;
They will not satisfy their souls,
Nor fill their stomachs,
Because it became their stumbling block of iniquity.
In that situation, Ezekiel was warning the people of Israel that if they thought that they could be delivered by silver or gold, they were going to be surprised. But what’s important to note is that the trust in silver or gold to save them from the hand of an enemy amounted to idolatry.
When we bring that into the New Testament context, we find very much the same idea. For example, in Colossians 3:5 we read…
5 Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
The idolatry is in the covetousness, the greed, thinking that gaining more will make me satisfied. I need to be delivered from my dissatisfied situation by having something. That is in essence heart idolatry.
In Psalm 33:16-17 we read…
16 No king is saved by the multitude of an army;
A mighty man is not delivered by great strength.
17 A horse is a vain hope for safety;
Neither shall it deliver any by its great strength.
When you begin to place your trust in the military powers, or the political powers, or one party over another to deliver you from a situation that you do not like or agree with, you end up setting up an idol in your heart.
When you trust in the next job to bring you the satisfaction you’ve always lacked in your present job… and you think that contentment will be found there… you’re setting up an idol in your heart.
Why? Because it’s always trusting and believing that deliverance from particular circumstances will be bring about the freedom and contentment you long for.
Our hearts need to come to the place where they are resting fully and completely in God, despite our circumstances. Where we find our hearts and peace and rest because they are fully trusting in God, even in the midst of trying circumstances.
This leads us to consider the last sin that Paul speaks of in the context of the warnings from Israel’s history, and that is grumbling and complaining.
10 nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer.
The Israelites had started grumbling and complaining against Moses and Aaron. They remembered the food that they had in Egypt. They remembered the comforts that they had. Now, everything was taken away from them. Yes, sure, they had stopped labouring hard for the Egyptians, but the price that they had to pay now was just too much, in their view.
2 Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. 3 And the children of Israel said to them, “Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
I mean, their gripe was severe hunger!!! That’s a pretty essential need!! But they failed to act in faith in God who had so graciously delivered them. In other words, their eyes were fixed on these present circumstances, and all they could see in the moment was this desire for satisfaction now. They wanted food now, and they said that it would have been better for the Lord to have killed them in that land… rather than to have been delivered by God and then endure these difficult situations of hunger.
The immediate craving was more important in their minds than the big picture of God’s redemptive hand, and His leading them on a journey to the promised land.
Now, our deliverance from bondage to sin and death under the hand of a heavy task master, Satan, is a glorious deliverance. Our Promised Land - a future with King Jesus, the perfectly holy and righteous King who will rule with all power and authority, is a glorious promised land. But the temptation is that we lose the big picture in our minds, and we begin to focus intently on our present physical cravings. And what Paul is saying (and what the writer to the Hebrews is saying) is that this craving amounts to unbelief. It is a lack of faith in God. It is sin.
Now, any time that our hearts are found in a state of discontentment, and we find that the circumstances leading to that discomfort are continuing for any kind of prolonged period, we may find that we begin to grumble and complain about our circumstances.
We’ve tried to have the circumstances changed by taking every measure that is reasonly and physically within our power. We’ve done all that we can do, but somehow our terrible lot in life persists. Or our really difficult circumstances just don’t want to go away. That is a time when we are in danger of the sin of unbelief. We are in danger of turning our backs against God through our grumbling or complaining.
Now, the record and reminder of what happened to Israel was written for our warning. We need to hear these warnings and respond accordingly and appropriately.
With all of that in mind, we can now come to...
3. The Call (v.13)
3. The Call (v.13)
I do trust that the context is now clear in your minds. I trust that you see weightiness and the gravity of the situation. Particularly, I trust that you see how serious sin is, and how easily we can be led into a state of unbelief.
Let me read the call (which is in verse 13) but I’ll include verse 12 just to get the context and flow based on what has already been considered…
12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; 13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
As we consider this call, we must begin by noting...
3.1. The Call Itself (v.13a)
3.1. The Call Itself (v.13a)
"But Exhort one another"
The word that is used here is "Parakaleo." It carries the sense of a strong, or urgent call to another. It can even be translated "Beg".
As an example of this…
12 So all the demons begged Him, saying, “Send us to the swine, that we may enter them.”
41 And behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue. And he fell down at Jesus’ feet and begged Him to come to his house, 42 for he had an only daughter about twelve years of age, and she was dying.
But as He went, the multitudes thronged Him.
We see from these verses that the word carries in it the sense of urgency and weightiness. It is a call that is urging and pleading.
The word can also be translated as “Encourage.” Some translations translate it in this way in Hebrews 3:13. The call then is to “Encourage One another.”
Some examples of where this is used elsewhere in Scriptures:
Context = Barnabas arriving in Antioch...
23 When he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad, and encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord.
40 So they went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia; and when they had seen the brethren, they encouraged them and departed.
The sense of the call here in Hebrews 3:13 then becomes quite clear. It is to call people, even with a sense of urgent pleading, to walk in humble obedience to God, and to walk and live by faith.
From the context of Hebrews 3:13, and brought into our present circumstances, it is a call for us as Christians to exhort, encourage and urge one another to continue our walk of faith in full trust and obedience before God, to persevere through trying and difficult circumstances in this life, and to not forsake the faith. Rather, to not live in a state of unbelief.
We need to keep in mind that the sins that Israel committed at various points (which we considered from 1 Corinthians 10) were all evidences and pictures of unbelief. They were different sins that were committed. They arose out of different circumstances. But they were all expressions of unbelief. They were demonstrations of a lack of faith in God, and placing trust in something else for satsifaction, meeting present needs, etc.
And the writer to the Hebrews is saying here, in light of the potential for unbelief, it is a critical facet of the church that we as Christians be exhorting one another to persevere in the faith, to keep our trust and our hope fully in God, and not to lose sight of what God is doing in our present circumstances.
3.2. The Frequency (v.13b)
3.2. The Frequency (v.13b)
What is the frequency with which we should do this? "Daily, while it is still called "Today." The writer to the Hebrews is linkind directly back to Psalm 95:7 when he picks up on the word “Today”.
“Today if you would hear His voice...”
Every day that the Lord gives to us, we have an opportunity to be encouraging one another. I would suggest to you, we ought to be using every single day to encourage one another.
We must keep in our minds that Satan is using every opportunity he gets to bring us down as believers, and to lead us to a place of unbelief.
8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
We are to live our lives with a daily vigilence in terms of our spiritual well-being. In other words, we should not let our spiritual guard down.
In the context of exhorting or encouraging one another, it is important that there is regular, meaningful engagement with one another as a church family so that we will be able to meaningfully live out this command.
I will come to some further practical application in a moment. But before I do, one last comment from verse 13 and into verse 14…
3.3. The Reason (v.13c-14)
3.3. The Reason (v.13c-14)
“...lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”
Here is the reason that this is so important.... sin is exceedingly powerful and blinding.
9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, 2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron,
13 But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
Dear friends, deceit will not stop. It will continue to be the order of the day. Satan will continue his work of seeking to deceive people. He will use imposters. There will be powerful delusions.
24 For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.
This is the reality. Satan would seek to lead people to turn away from God, to turn to all manner of sinful conduct, to turn away from a deep and true faith in Christ.
That is a very real and present danger.
One further comment is worth making on verse 14…
14 For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end,
In other words, we need to persevere in our faith. If we are professing believers, we need to be sure to continue steadfast in that faith, not wavering in our faith, not turning to the right or to the left, not allowing sin to overcome and take root in our lives, not allowing discontentment to lead us to a state of grumbling and complaining against God. Our faith must stand firm.
Now, I do believe that it is God that will bring us to the end. But we have a responsibility here. Jude brings this out quite clearly in fact.
20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
We are called as Christians to “keep ourselves in the love of God...”
But just further on, we read that God is the one that will ultimately keep us.
24 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy,
The exhortation to us as Christians is that we would continue in the faith, steadfast and unmoved, and that we would exhort one another daily, so long as it is called “Today” so that we would not become hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
Implications / Applications
Implications / Applications
In closing, some practical encouragements.
Expect Trials
The context has made it clear that we as Christians are as the Israelites were in the wilderness... we are presently in our wilderness journeying. This is the season of testing. As it was difficult and trying for the Israelites in the Wilderness, so it will be for us in this life.
Satan will most certainly seek to kill and destroy.
But God will also use all kinds of trials to test our faith in order to see that it is genuine. (James 1:2-5)
Community is Essential
If this command to exhort one another daily is God’s desire for us, then we need to be cultivating and working hard at a deep sense of community.
24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.
The purpose of gathering regularly is to exhort and encourage one another. We must be meeting. It must be considered a vital part of our spiritual well-being.
But more than that, this sense of community must be developed through knowing one another well, and deeply.
We need to know where we struggle in our faith. What are the temptations that each of us are facing. What are the particular areas of our lives that we’re tempted to place our trust in something outside of God? Where are we tempted to gain hope or contentment outside of Christ? And then at those places, we need to graciously, tenderly, lovingly (and sometimes quite firmly) exhort.
So, know others, and be known…
What Dangers do we face?
False Anthropology
Conflicting Philosophies of the World
8 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.
20 O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge—21 by professing it some have strayed concerning the faith.
Grace be with you. Amen.
There are endless philosophies in this world. There are endless explanations of who man is, what life is about, why we exist. We need to be aware that in our day, secular humanism abounds. Human reason and wisdom is used to describe everything. Man is described and viewed outside of the context of God.
As Christians, we have the Word of God, perfectly describing man and his place and purpose in this world. We have the word of God perfectly describing why this world is in the state that it is, why there is so much suffering and pain, and what the remedy is. We don’t need all kinds of alternative philosophies and systems to guide and lead us in the right way… we need the Word of God, revealed by the Spirit of God, so that we may humble ourselves in the True worship of that comes from a heart transformed by the Gospel
With that in mind, let me close with this encouragement.
If you want to encourage / exhort one another well, saturate yourself in the Word of God.
Apply yourselves diligently to the study of the Word.
Grow in your understanding of the Word and how it applies to life.
And then, graciously apply that Word to unique circumstances and struggles that are facing your Brothers and Sisters, and allow them the grace to do the same to you.
May you all be built up and strengthened in the faith as you seek to do that.