#2 The Urge to Encourage: A Matter of Life and Death

Context

Jesus is better. Better than Moses.

As great as Moses was, he was a servant in God’s house. Jesus is a Son—he has the privileged seat in God’s house. Moses was only able to point people to the glory of God, and they disobeyed. Jesus is the glory of God.

By God’s house, we mean the church, God’s people:

1 Timothy 3:15 ESV

15 if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.

Read verse 6

We are God’s house if we’ve built our house on the Rock

Luke 6:46-49

A genuine believer’s faith is not shaken. Some people think that their house is steady and can handle anything, while the truth is that their house has no foundation and is built on sand, it will end in great ruin when God judges the cosmos.

This is what the author in Hebrews is trying to show us in Chapter 3. He doesn’t want us to be deceived in thinking that we will enter God’s eternal rest when we actually don’t trust in Christ.

Warning: Do Not Harden Your Hearts

He’s quoting Ps 95:7-11.

“Today”

Look at how he is using this Psalm. Something that is written sometime around 3000 years ago, he’s saying that it also applies to his audience, and that it also applies to us. The Holy Spirit spoke it in the past and now, as long as it is “Today”, as long as someone is hearing this, we are to take heed. This warning from Psalm 95 is also for us.

He warns us by telling us that those who have hardened their hearts towards God will not enter his rest.

As in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness (verse 8)

The author is referring to the Exodus people, the people who Moses led out of slavery in Egypt.

These people witnesses the plagues, killed the Passover Lamb and had the angel of death pass over then, has the Egyptians literally hand them their riches as they were leaving Egypt, were led by God in a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night, crossed the Red Sea on dry land. All amazing miracles done right before thier eyes

The author says that they hardened their hearts and did not enter God’s rest, and that we should learn from what happened to them.

How is it possible that they could not trust God after all they had seen him do?

“So they were unable to enter because of their unbelief? (verse 19)

What does he mean by unbelief? (Verse 17-18)

The Exodus generation (Exodus 17 and Numbers 14)

God delivered them and then they complained and grumbled against him and questioned whether God was among them. God wasn’t enough for them. They would have rather gone back to slavery in Egypt so that they could have food rather than be with God and trust that he would fulfill his promises. They even made a golden calf and worshipped it.

English Standard Version Chapter 1

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they obecame futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 pClaiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and qexchanged the glory of rthe immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Now this should be a little disturbing. Although they knew God...A sign of unbelieving heart is grumbling and complaining against God. Unbelief leads to hardness of heart...

they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped the creature (themselves) rather than the Creator. Their salvation was not sweet to them anymore. Their desire and satisfaction was in other things.

So I ask you, is your salvation in Christ still sweet to you? Is God still satisfying to you? Or are you dabbling in what you did “before you were a Christian”? Do you no longer see Jesus as your soul-satisfying treasure, but you see your sin as sweeter? Although you “know God”, do you honor him and give thanks to him, or do you grumble and complain that he isn’t giving you this or that when he’s given you the opportunity to have him and cherish him.

The Urge to En’curge-How to Endure to the End (3:12-14)

The author then tells us what we are supposed to do so that we don’t follow in their footsteps of unbelief:

Watch out each other.

How to watch out for each other (sort of like the safety check on an airplane) Is this thing going to fly and get me to where I want to go?

Watch out for each other.

Notice, in verse 12, that he isn’t commanding one person, but his whole audience…brothers and sisters. “All of you who identify yourselves as Christians...”

I think the NIV better captures the sense of this verse when it says:

See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God (NIV)

He’s saying, you, you, you, you, you… make sure that all of the rest of you don’t have hearts like this.

“You and you and you and you make sure that none of ya’ll have an evil unbelieving heart.”

There is both personal and communal responsibility.

Now notice what he says about unbelieving heart...A heart of unbelief leads you to fall away from God.

Take care that there is not unbelief among you. Why? Because unbelief leads to people falling away and...

1 John 2:19 ESV

19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

If you fall away from God’s house, it means you weren’t a part of the building to begin with. The author doesn’t mean that you believed and trusted in Christ and then one moment you didn’t anymore. It means that you thought you trusted in Christ, but you actually were deceiving yourself.

The primary exhortation here is to TRUST IN CHRIST. KEEP TRUSTING IN CHRIST.

How is it that we can even be deceived into thinking we are saved when we aren’t?

Mark 4:14–20 ESV

You may have received it with joy at first you faced some sort of trial or persecution and it wasn’t joyful anymore.

You may have thought you trusted but the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things choke out the effect the the word of God has on you.

Now, this is not to discourage those of us who struggle with our faith. Doubt is not the opposite of faith—pride is. In fact, the testing of our own faith often comes from the opportunity that doubt presents.

Doubt says, “God I know you said this, but I’m struggling to believe. I believe, help my unbelief.”

Pride says: I know better than you God. I know what I need to be fulfilled and happy, not what you say God.

Think of Abraham and Isaac...Circumstances like this reveal where we turn to in times of need.

Hebrews 11:17–19 ESV

17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 18 of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

Romans 4:20–21 ESV

20 No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

It’s not about focusing on the amount of faith you have, but what the object of your faith. a smoldering wick, he will not quench.

Pride (or the flip side—insecurity) focuses on how strong or how weak one’s faith is. A humble heart, softened by God’s grace knows to look to Christ.

Where do you look when you struggle? Do you turn to other things? Porn? Food? Social Media? Set your eyes on Christ, repent of your sin, and turn to him, and show yourself to be true. And also know that if you continue down that path and you don’t turn back to the lord, you may shipwreck your faith.

Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. When’s the last time you repented of something? Or is your heart hard.

How to watch out for each other—The way to prevent this happening among us (3:13)

Like a Navy seal unit works together to cover each other. We are on the same mission together. And we have a very real enemy—our sin. Each of us is on watch for one another. If we hear the snap of a twig, we are ready to help defend each other so that we reach the end with no casualties.

Do what?: exhort, encourage one another

When?: every day as long as it is called today. I think that could regularly, or every day.

Why? What is the purpose of this encouragement? What is the goal?: that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

If the goal is that none of us would be hardened, how should we exhort one another?

With the Word:

Hebrews 4:11–13 ESV

11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Sin is deceitful, so we need something that cuts through the deceit and exposes what is really in our hearts…the Word of God

sin is deceitful: Our sin tries to deceive us into think that we’d be better off without God and his benefits. Sin tries to deceive us to worship something other than God…to worship idols.

If you are a Christian, remember where your sin brought you in your former life:

Our hearts were made to worship. And our hearts are deceitful. They lead us to worship things that we have created ourselves. We worship the created rather than the Creator. We make good things god things.

We can see in this passage that sin deceives our hearts into trusting in things other than God. Sin deceives us into thinking that we can do it on our own. We depend on things that can’t deliver us. Then when we believe the lie, our sin blinds us so that we cannot see the truth and understand and see the foolishness of what we are doing. Our hearts lead us astray, and we cannot deliver ourselves.

Remember, the author is not saying here that if you are a Christian that you can lose your salvation. He is warning us that if our hearts go down this path, and we again worship idols rather than God, and then deny the glory of Christ, we weren’t real Christians to begin with. One of the tools Satan uses is making us thinking that we are good with God when we actually aren’t. Genuine believers do not become hardened.

Christian Exhortation Prevents Hard Hearts

Can we pause and take that in for a second...human agency is indispensible in divinely holding our original confidence firm to the end. God uses the exhortation of Christians as the means to enduring the faith of other Christians.

God uses us to keep each other’s faith enduring to the end.

God uses you to keep others faith enduring to the end.

God uses others to keep your faith enduring the the end.

What does this mean?

We have the responsibility to do this for one another.

The Nature of Christian Exhortation

I want you to notice that the primary focus of this passage is that you are to focus on doing this for others. Why is that? I think because God also uses our exhortation of others as a means of enduring our own faith because we experience the power of God working in his to preserve others. This is how to body works---building one another up.

Here’s an example:

Hebrews 10:23–25 ESV

23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

I think this is exactly what the author is doing here.

Gospel Centered: Hold fast. Why? Because he who promised is faithful.

Regular: Exhort one another every day as long as it is called today. Now that at the very least means regular, if not as often as daily.

How do we do that? Well, you can’t do that with a very big group of people, can you. It has to be few enough people that you are able to check in with another and know one another well enough to do so.

Intentional: Exhort one another, consider one another, encouraging one another,

You need to know what each other are facing, what are your joys, your struggles, your challenges, your propensity to sin. Involved interceding for one another specifically.

Word-saturated: The Bible is essential to this being successful. Now, this doesn’t mean that all you should do is to read the Bible together. We need to be so saturated in the Word ourselves that we speak it to one another.

When one person is struck by the Word, he speaks it to others. God has willed that we should seek and find His living Word in the witness of a brother, in the mouth of man. Therefore, the Christian needs another Christian who speaks God's Word to him. The Christ in his own heart is weaker than the Christ in the word of his brother; his own heart is uncertain, his brother's is sure. -Dietrich Bonhoeffer

With an eternal perspective: Hold out confidence firm to the end, all the more as you see the Day of judgement drawing near. Sometimes we can get bogged down in our current circumstances. “How am I going to look at this 10,000 years from now?”

I want you to notice that the author here is explicitly encouraging you to put yourself in spaces where this can happen for you, though that is certainly true.He is primarily saying:Do this for other people!Watch out for each other!Consider one another!I believe we can glean something here. He is not saying to consider yourself first, but to consider others first.

For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

Conversations that may come up from that… I see that as a good sign.