Lessons from the Past - 10

I'm sure you've heard it said that those who fail to learn from history are destined to repeat it. That in essence is what the writer of Hebrews is saying to us today in our text in Hebrews 3, 12 through 15.

The Christians who fail to learn from the failures of Old Testament Israel will almost certainly fall into the same errors and divine judgments as Old Testament Israel. Modern man usually imagines himself to be superior to those who have gone before him in the past. We are evolving, we are improving, we are getting better all the time. So we like to tell ourselves, though the evidence does not seem to point in that direction. But the truth is that human nature is exactly the same through all the centuries and millennium. We're certainly not any better than our forefathers and we probably aren't any worse either.

We're the same. The same human nature, the same fallen human nature, the same needs, the same propensities to sin. The same need to hear the Word of God and the same propensity to ignore it. That's what our text for today is telling us because failure to recognize the truth that I have just declared will make us even more vulnerable to error and to the mistakes of our forefathers. And so lessons from the past in Hebrews 4, 12 through 15. And herein we will see four things. Number one, a warning. Number two, a remedy. Number three, an insight.

And number four, a reminder. And the warning begins in verse 12. Beware, brethren. Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. A warning.

The warning, of course, does not come out of nowhere. It comes against the background of what has already been said. And in chapter 3, you recall, the writer of Hebrews begins by comparing Moses to Christ and shows us that though Moses was great, he was a faithful servant in the great responsibility that God gave to him. Called here Moses' house, Moses' household, that tribe, that nation of people that Moses led out of Egypt and into eventually the promised land. But though Moses was a great man and faithful in his responsibilities, there's one who is greater and that is Jesus Christ. He is not only a servant of Jehovah, and indeed he is, the Old Testament calls him that, but he's more than that, he is the son of Jehovah. He not only is over a house, a household of faith, but he is indeed the builder of the house. And therefore Christ is superior to Moses.

In fact, Christ is superior to any and every other person. And so Christ was a faithful son, the builder of the house, the builder of a family of faith, the builder of a household of which we are told we are members. We who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are members of this household built by Christ himself if, and that's the big if, and that's the whole point of this text today, we are members of the household of faith if we do not fail to believe. Beware brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.

We are members of this household if we truly believe. If we believe, truly believe, we will persevere in the faith. It's not if we persevere we will become a member or we will come to salvation or come to heaven someday, but if we persevere we evidence that we have true saving faith.

If we don't persevere we are revealing that our faith was surface, it was superficial, it was an outward profession, it was not an inward reality, and that's the danger that the writer is talking about here. And so he talks about Israel in the wilderness by referring to Psalm 95 that also refers to Israel in the wilderness and to their failures, where they heard the voice of God speaking to them in the wilderness, but they hardened their hearts against the word of God and therefore against the God of the word, and thereby forfeited their promised rest. The promised rest was not an unconditional promise no matter what. The promised rest was I will bring you into the land of promise if you believe me. If you follow my word, if you receive my word, if you worship and honor me you will be given this promised rest, but for the most part most of them did not believe and therefore they failed to come into the promised rest. And all of that is a picture, it's a type, it's an analogy for us because for us the promised rest is heaven and we too have a wonderful promise if we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ we shall come into that eternal rest, but there is the danger that we shall profess a faith which is not real and will not truly obey the Lord because we do not truly believe the Lord and therefore will fail to come into the promised rest.

For the promised rest is promised to those who believe, not to those who profess to believe but do not truly believe. And this text makes clear that unbelief is manifested by disobedience, which is another way of saying disobedience is the fruit of an unbelieving heart. We're not saved by our works but we're not saved without them either. We're saved by faith but the faith that saves is always accompanied by works and likewise the counterpart of that is that unbelief is manifested by disobedience. We're not condemned to eternal darkness by our disobedience or because of our disobedience, because all of us are disobedient there's no such thing as a perfectly obedient Christian, but those whose disobedience is persistent and unrelenting and of which there is no acknowledgement and confession are manifesting that they have no true saving faith. They are manifesting the true nature of their heart.

Obedience manifests a believing heart, disobedience manifests an unbelieving heart. That's a truth that many people do not understand today. Many people sitting on pews in churches or chairs as the case may be do not understand today. I saw online just on the last day or two the inside of a church building where I have been a good number of years ago. Beautiful, beautiful building which used to have beautiful, beautiful pews, but they've taken out all the pews and put in chairs. I don't know why.

I'm sure they can tell you. But it doesn't matter whether you're sitting on a pew or sitting on a chair. The question is are you receiving the word of God? Are you believing it? And is that belief manifesting an obedient response from your heart? So that's the warning of verse 12. Now the application of all of this which was gone before is given to us in verse 12. Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you, like there was in those Old Testament Israelites, lest there be in any of you an evil part of unbelief and departing from the living God. This warning is addressed to brethren. Doesn't that mean that he's addressing Christians?

Well, no, not necessarily. Some think he's talking here in terms of Jewish brethren. Throughout the book of Acts you find a number of the speakers who address Jewish people as their brethren. They are fellow Jews to the Christian Jews who are preaching to them and they call them brethren. That doesn't mean they're born again believers, but there is that commonality of the Jewish nation, the Jewish ethnicity.

Nation. So some think that's the way that the writer of Hebrews is using the word brethren here. However, I'm more inclined to think he's using the word brethren according to the profession of those who are there. When you are preaching to a church congregation, you call people brethren. You give them the courtesy of addressing them according to their profession, but knowing that there are no doubt some there who, though they profess faith in Christ and though they consider themselves brethren, they have not truly been born again.

And that's what the warning is all about. Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. An evil heart, that is a sinful heart, which is a heart that has not ever been cleansed from sin. An unbelieving heart, another way of describing the evil heart. An evil heart is an unbelieving heart. An unbelieving heart is an evil heart.

And what is the result of that heart? Falling away from the living God. Falling away is the way my Bible translates it.

Most versions translate it that way, but there is, I'm told in the Greek, an element of rebellion. It's not just falling away, but it is rebellious falling away. It is falling away by rebelling against God and against his word.

Falling away, it denotes rebellion. This is not talking about a saved person who loses their salvation. It's talking about a professing Christian who eventually evidences the true nature of his heart that never was a saved heart, never was a new heart given to him by the Holy Spirit of God. This is falling away from a Christian profession.

This is talking about unconverted church members of which there are some. Some have already fallen away, people who used to sit on these pews, and they have manifested the true nature of their heart by falling away. Some here today may fall away in the months and years to come. Undoubtedly some will.

I wish it were not so. I wish I could say that none of you are going to fall away. I can say this, none of you who are truly born again are going to fall away.

I can say that with absolute assurance. But I can also say there are no doubt some of you who have not truly been born again, you're only professing something that you do not possess, and in time you are very likely to fall away. You will if you stop listening to the word of God and depart from him.

You will be in great danger. But if you are in that condition, here but not truly born again, but nevertheless identified as a Christian, if you continue to listen and continue to respond to the word of God as you hear it, there is almost certainly salvation in your future. I don't know when and how that will come, but the Holy Spirit is going to use that word as you seek God in his word to bring you to a true saving knowledge of Christ. But beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.

That's the warning. Now secondly, we see the remedy that's given to us in 13. But contrary to that, to avoid this falling away from the living God. But exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Here's the remedy, and it's not what we might have expected.

We might have expected him to say, be careful. Beware, brethren, lest you fall away from the true and living God. So be sure that you read God's word in private.

That is highly recommended. Be sure that you engage in regular prayer where you confess your sin and petition God for help and praise and thank him in the worship of prayer. Be sure you keep up a strong daily devotional life, and that too is highly recommended.

But that's not what he says here. He says, but exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. The remedy that God has given in this text against the danger of falling away is mutual edification. Exhort one another. It is regular mutual exhortation daily.

It is timely edification. Do it while it is called today. That is while you have opportunity, while God is still speaking to you, while you still have the opportunity to hear and respond to the word of God. Do this now, immediately, regularly, daily, because the condition we are trying to avoid is, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. This is the remedy against that. Exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. We are vulnerable when we are in isolation. We are vulnerable when we try to live out our Christian life by ourselves, thinking that it is entirely a private matter, when in fact the Bible indicates that it is both a private as well as a corporate matter, a healthy soul.

American individualism tends to emphasize the individual aspect. My parents can't believe for me. I have to believe for myself. My parents can't obey for me. I have to obey for myself. That's all very true. And so my Christianity is basically between me and God, my reading scripture privately, my praying to God in private, my commitment to obey Him, but the exhortation, the remedy against the danger is not in the area of the private.

It's in the area of the corporate. Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief and departing from the living God. But, but exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

The general response that I've heard over the years, and I think I've even been taught at times, generally counselors at Christian camps and so forth will be taught if you're talking to somebody and they're struggling in their Christian life. So you ask them, are you having daily devotions? Are you reading your Bible? Are you praying?

Nothing wrong with that. But maybe a better question is, are you plugged into a healthy local church? Are you involved in that church?

Are you benefiting from the interaction of believers in the church as designed by the Lord Jesus Christ? That may be equally, if not according to our text today, we might consider even more important. You can't say one's not important.

You can't neglect one and only hold on to the other. Only involvement in church without Bible reading, without prayer, without personal devotion to God is not the answer, but neither is personal devotion to God apart from an active participation in a body of believers a very important part of the remedy. And so the statement of verse 13 implies certain things. It doesn't spell them all out, but it says, the remedy to departing from the living God is exhorting one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

What does that imply? Well, that implies, if not even, I think maybe I could say it states, the importance of regular fellowship among God's people. Not even weekly. We have the Lord's Day for the appointed corporate gathering of the church, and that's very important. But this is not simply a matter of what we do weekly. This is a matter of what we do daily. And what we do daily is not just private devotions. What we do daily, according to our text, is exhort one another. Do you even understand anything like that?

Do you have anything to relate to that in your own life? It certainly implies regular fellowship among God's people, including, of course, attendance at the appointed assemblies of the saints for exhortation through preaching and teaching. That's an important part of it. And when we come together to worship God, that's a central part of what we do. We open the Word of God. We listen to the Word of God. We consider the meaning of a portion of God's Word that is said before us. This is important, the public preaching and teaching of God's Word that we get when we assemble with the people of God, as well as the exhortation of psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

I don't know that we understand the full importance of this, but the Bible puts a lot of intention upon this. I take the text in Colossians 3.16. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.

That's what we want, isn't it? The Word of God dwelling in us richly. That will keep us from having a hardened heart, turning from the living God, if the Word of God is dwelling, living within us richly. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom.

Well, how do you maintain that? Well, here the text says, teaching and admonishing one another. There's this idea of exhorting one another. Teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

Now, it's a little difficult sometimes to know exactly how to apply all that, but it's important that this is an important part of it. It's not obvious that this is an important part of it in our exhorting one another. It is in the singing of psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. When we come together in the assembly of the saints, one of the important things we do is to sing good hymns. And that's why we take this very seriously in trying to select good hymns, in trying to select hymns that are going to teach you something, that will exhort you, that will help you, that will reinforce spiritual truth, Bible truth within your souls. We don't pick hymns because I like the tune. We don't pick hymns because it makes me feel good. We don't pick hymns because it makes me want to dance and jig. We pick hymns because it meets the biblical criterion of teaching one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Teaching, teaching, teaching one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. I don't know how many years ago it has been now, but quite a while ago when our dear brother, now with the Lord Jerry Gerald, brought to church a man who had started working with him in the office at the Thomas Bus Factory in Thomasville, who was a computer guy, as Jerry was. This man was from India and his background was Hindu and he wanted to learn about Christianity so he came to church. Jerry's invitation came several times and he came to me probably after his third or fourth time and said, Could I purchase a hymnal? And we said, Well, we'll give you one.

But what do you want to do with it? He said, I have figured out that if I will read the words of the hymns you sing, I will learn what Christian doctrine is all about. It'll teach me what Christianity is. I think that's the quickest way I can understand what the Christian religion is all about. And so he purchased a hymnal and he took it home and started reading the words of the hymns. Could you do that with the hymns that are sung in every church in America?

I hope so, but I doubt it. But it's important that we sing solid truth, teaching one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. This is part of how we exhort one another.

There certainly is a corporate element to this, as well as an individual element, a conversational element, but there certainly is a public element involved. We do teach one another from the pulpit and in the classes. We do teach one another as we sing good hymns, as you sing them and read the words, as the congregation sings with you and the people around you are singing the words and are singing them with obvious delight and with the evidence that they believe this truth and want to proclaim it.

This has a powerful effect. Hymns and spiritual songs, psalms and hymns and spiritual songs that are sung to you. I think this validates the idea of choirs ministering psalms, hymns and spiritual songs to the congregation. We are teaching one another through psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

We are taught as we listen to the preaching of God's word, we are taught as we are listening to the words of good music that are sung to us by others. And this evidently has a powerful God-designed effect. We've got to do this to exhort one another.

It's important. But this practice also goes farther than that. It indicates close relationships with other believers. Simply Sunday morning attendance at worship services, zip out, don't really build any relationships with anybody else is not going to get this done. Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief and departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, not weekly, daily, while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. We need to build close relationships with other believers. We need to have regular conversations about spiritual matters with other believers. This is an intended function of a healthy church, a biblically ordered church, more than attending meetings, more than casual relationships as we flit in and out of the public gatherings of the saints. But mutual edification and accountability with one another in the body of Christ.

And what is the result of this? It prevents the hardening of hearts. It prevents the deception of sin. Exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Sin is a heart-hardening agent. It is active. It is doing something to us.

This is passive. Lest you be hardened by an outside force. And this tells us what that outside force is. It is sin. The deceitfulness of sin that will work upon your heart to harden it against the living God. It's deceptive is sin. It deceives us into thinking that everything is okay with our soul when it is not.

It deceives us into thinking that small disobedience are harmless, that only the big ones count. That's the deceitfulness of sin. It's deceitful when it tells us that sin brings joy and satisfaction. Actually, the Bible says it does for a short season.

But the season is mighty short. And then the heartache begins, usually a great deal of it in this life. But oh, the heartache that comes in the life after death is so much worse than anything we can imagine. We better say, oh Lord, keep me from the deceitfulness of sin. Keep me from having a hard heart. Keep me from loving sin more than I love your word and more than I love Christ because I know that if that's my lot, then that sin is going to deceive me and harden my heart.

And I have got an awful future ahead of me. It deceives us into thinking that we have become so sophisticated that we have been removed from danger. Yes, when I was a new Christian, I had to be careful. Yes, those poor believers who don't really know Reformed theology like I do, they really are in danger, but I have arrived. Huh, the deceitfulness of sin, the deceitfulness of intellectual pride.

And what's the remedy? Exhort one another daily while it is called today. That brings us number three to an insight in verse 14. It's almost a parenthetical insertion between verses 13 and 15 where 15 takes up what is said in 13. But in verse 14, we have a very important insight. It says, for we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end. This is an important insight about the essence of salvation as well as an insight about the evidence of salvation.

What's the essence of salvation? To become partakers with Christ. Some translations say partners with Christ.

That's legitimate, but what does this mean? Partakers with Christ, that is, partakers of his redemptive work. If we are partakers with Christ. It means partakers of his divine life. Peter tells us that Christians have the divine life within them. That's a mystery to be sure, but that has something to do with a new birth, something to do with the indwelling Holy Spirit, something to do with true salvation, something to do with new life, eternal life. We are partakers with Christ.

We have this. It means we are partakers of his heavenly kingdom. We go where he goes. We are partakers with Christ. We're partners with Christ. If he's in heaven, we're going to heaven.

Wherever he goes, we are going. That's the essence of salvation, to be joined to Christ. What's the evidence of salvation? If we hold fast the beginning of our assurance until the end. Some will read that statement and mistakenly think that this is speaking about the cause of salvation or the cause of saving faith. We shall be saved if we hold on. We get saved, but then we might lose it, so we have to hold on or we will not make it.

That's a wrong reading of the text and certainly that's clear within the whole context. This is not the cause of saving faith. It is the result of saving faith.

This is not the cause of saving faith. This is the evidence of saving faith and what is it? Persevering faith. Persevering faith is the evidence of genuine faith. If we hold fast the beginning of our assurance until the end. So what is the beginning of our assurance? Where does our assurance of eternal life begin?

Well, it begins when we believe in Christ alone for salvation. Christ plus nothing else. Not Christ plus my good works. Not Christ plus my baptism. Not Christ plus my church membership. Not Christ plus the good I do for my neighbor. We come to understand that all of these things are filthy rags when they're done by ourselves in our strength.

They have no merit before God. Christ alone. And when we come to understand that and place our confidence, our faith, our trust in Christ alone, that's the beginning of our assurance. We understand from the gospel that now we are a child of God. The beginning of our assurance is faith in Christ alone. It is assurance that Christ has fully paid my sin debt.

I couldn't pay it, not one little bit of it. But Christ has paid my sin debt. It is assurance that Christ has earned my required righteousness. It does actually take good works to get to heaven. But perfect works, and I don't have them.

Where can I get that? From Christ. He's the only one who lived a perfect life, a sinless life, who obeyed the Father perfectly in everything. If I can get that righteousness credited to my account, I'll be okay. I'll have assurance of salvation. Yes, assurance in the beginning is trusting in Christ alone that he has fully paid my sin debt. It's trusting in Christ alone that he has earned my required righteousness and imputed that to me. It is assurance that those who trust in Christ are eternally saved. We get that assurance usually at the beginning of our salvation, maybe not the day we believe. Sometimes we have to wrestle with this for a while until we understand the gospel a little better, but eventually we come to understand what we call assurance of salvation.

I'm assured of eternal life because I'm trusting Christ, because of who he is, because of what he did, because of what he has given those who trust in him. That's the beginning of our assurance. What's the end of our assurance? It says we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end.

What's the end of our assurance? Unwavering faith in Christ alone. Persevering faith in Christ alone. Foundational faith in Christ alone. We never get beyond this, no matter how long we've been saved, no matter how much we learn, no matter how much theology we know, no matter how many Puritans we have read and how many theology books we have read, and how much we can teach others about theology. If we ever get beyond the simple truth that salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ and him alone, if we ever think we've gotten beyond that, if we ever get over delighting in that and thinking about that and resting in that and repeating that, and as some say preach the gospel to ourselves every day, if we ever get beyond that, then we're out in left field. But if we continue to trust in Christ alone and joy in Christ alone and thrill in Christ alone and hold on to Christ alone to the end, we have both the beginning and the end of the assurance of our salvation. In other words, it is as we continue to trust Christ that we evidence that we are not stony ground hearers or thorny ground hearers. That parable by Christ of the four soils is so important. It's so powerful.

It's so revealing. Remember, there were four soils. The sower went out to sow. Some of the seed fell on impacted soil. The seed didn't even penetrate. Nothing grew up.

There was no response. But three of the four soils that received seed produced something, but only one of them continued to grow and bear fruit. But in one case, something sprang up, but it withered because it was on stony ground and it couldn't put roots down, and so it withered and died.

In another case, something sprang up, but the thorns came along and choked it out, and it withered and died. And that's a picture of people who profess faith in Christ. When something happens, they start out doing something Christianly, but it doesn't continue. Again, our Arminian brothers and sisters, God bless them, God love them, think that people like that lose their salvation.

They had it, but they lost it, but that's not it. This is telling us that it's possible to have something that might look like salvation in the beginning, but it's not. And what evidences that is when we don't continue to believe, don't continue to hold fast to Christ, don't continue to love Him, don't continue to love His word, don't continue to look to the Gospel from the beginning to the end.

This is great insight into the true nature of salvation. But that brings us number four to a reminder in verse 15. While it is said today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your heart as in the rebellion. This is repeating the previous warning that we saw earlier in verses 12 and 13.

And it is repeating in a shortened quote the same things that were quoted earlier in the same chapters from Psalm 95. And it's a reminder that there is danger in delay. There's danger in hearing the truth and not responding to it.

There's danger in hearing the truth and pretending to respond to it, but not really responding to it. Today, if you will hear His voice. That's the third time this has been said in the chapter. It was said in verse 13. While it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

It was said in verse 7. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, today, if you will hear His voice, three times in this chapter, today, today, today, the importance of immediately responding, the danger of delaying in true, believing response. Today, if you will hear His voice while God is still speaking to you. Today, if you will hear His voice while you have opportunity to hear, believe, and obey.

Today, if you will hear His voice. Please note, this is quoting Psalm 95, from the Old Testament, spoken about Israel's experience in the wilderness. But it speaks to us today just as much as it did to them. Today, if you, the ones that the writer of Hebrews is writing to in the first century. Today, if you, the ones that are hearing me say this today, as the Holy Spirit has included this in the New Testament scriptures for us today. Old Testament words spoken to Israel are still speaking to us today. Because this is God's word, not man's word, it's God's word. And so, today, if you will hear His voice, you better respond.

Because the results of delay are disastrous. Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion. The rebellion in the wilderness, and we talked about this several weeks ago when we opened this chapter. And talked about how the people complained to Moses because they didn't have water. And they weren't trusting God, who had already showed Himself mighty and willing to provide all their needs.

And that was rebellion. And they did the same thing at the end of the 40 years wilderness wanderings. Did it again, complained once again about lack of water, and had complained about a myriad of other things all the way through their wilderness wanderings. They delayed in believing the word of God that came to them. They delayed in believing the God of the word. They delayed in believing that God had made promises to them that He would keep. Hadn't He showed them that with the miracles that brought them out of Egypt? Hadn't He showed them that with the crossing of the Red Sea on dry ground? Hadn't He showed them that by giving them man in the wilderness?

And on and on and on it goes. But it didn't matter how much they heard the voice of God and saw evidence of God's power and love and promises and assurances to them. They didn't believe it. Remember I said to you two or three weeks ago, the unbelieving heart can never get enough proof. The determined skeptic will never get enough proof to overcome his unbelief, his skepticism. It doesn't matter. You can raise people from the dead. He still won't believe. Well, do it again. Raise more.

It's never enough. It's an unbelieving heart. Do not harden your heart. Now the hardening of heart is in the active voice, not the passive. Before it was your heart's be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Sin will act upon your heart to harden it. But here in this text, verse 15, it talks about you doing the action to harden your own heart.

It's an active hardening. It's an individual activity. It's a personal responsibility. When you harden your heart against the word of God, you are held accountable to God for that action of hardening your heart against him. But there's also collective unbelief, just like there is a collective help, exhort one another daily. There's also a collective unbelief because we are told here, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.

That was a rebellion of virtually the whole nation of Israel in the wilderness. What is that telling us? It's a collective unbelief, a collective rebellion, a collective response.

It has something to do, in part, with the community's influence upon the other individual members of the community. A healthy Christian church will help you. An unhealthy Christian church may hurt you, may harm you, may encourage you in unbelief. Well, what are the lessons we should learn from this passage? First of all, lessons about the assembly of the saints. Church. It's not what saves you.

We know that. But your relationship to the local church manifests something about your heart. Do you have a love for the saints of God? Do you want to be with the people of God? Do you obey the word of God and what it tells you?

Your relationship to the local church evidences a spirit of disobedience or obedience. Your relationship to the local church evidences whether you believe that the Bible teaches, as we've seen in this passage this morning, that this assembly of the saints, this collection of the saints coming together, is designed by God for our spiritual good, our spiritual welfare. It is a powerful tool that God has given as a means for growing in grace and knowledge. It is a powerful tool given by God to keep us against satanic deception. And there is no substitute for this divinely designed operation, this divinely designed institution, this divinely designed church.

There's no substitute. As I've already pointed out, private devotions are not a substitute for interaction with the people of God, being involved in the assembly of the saints. Media ministry is no substitute for the assembly of the saints. We're grateful for the advances in our day that allow us to have access to media in a wonderful way, which is wonderful that you can access that when you cannot be in church with God's people.

It's wonderful that you can access that at other times than the appointed assembly of the saints, but it's no substitute. Media presentations are good for when you are unable to attend, but not so good for those who choose not to assemble, who deliberately disobey the command to not forsake the assembling of yourselves together and choose instead. I'll watch it on live stream. I'll watch it on media. I don't come, but I'm listening, I'm watching, I'm there.

You're disobedient and you're in danger of a hardened heart. The assembly of the saints and God's plan for it. I think we also learn an important lesson about the missing element in many churches, and we need to think about this carefully ourselves. Churches should have a word centered focus.

The public ministry of the word should be central. It's not all we do, but that ought to be an important part of what we do. But beyond that mutual edification, exhortational input with one another.

That's what it says. Exhorting one another daily while it is called today. Exhortational input with one another. My computer didn't like the word exhortational. It underlined it in red as if it were a misspelling.

So I backed it up. Exhortation it would accept, back it up. Exhort it would accept, exhortational.

It didn't have that in its vast dictionary of words, but I kept it in my notes anyway because that's what this is talking about. Exhortational ministry, mutual edification within the body of Christ. Our church covenant, which as members of this church we have read and agreed to and signed, says in paragraph four, sentence one, we further engage to watch over one another in brotherly love.

Just one sentence, simple, but it's what this text is talking about. We further engage, we promise to watch over one another in brotherly love. Pretty hard to do. If your only involvement with the assembly of the saints is sitting home watching it on live stream, pretty hard to do if your only interaction with the assembly of the saints is when you show up once in a while, maybe once or twice a month. It's not even easy to do if your only interaction with the assembly of the saints is once a week, daily while it is called today. And a large missing element in many churches is developing this strong interaction, mutual accountability, fellowship in a spiritual sense, not in talking about sports or the weather or fishing or hunting, nothing wrong with that, but conversations about truth, about the Bible, and about our own spiritual health. We need to be willing to open up and say, I'm struggling with this.

Will you pray for me? So that we can mutually encourage one another in the body of Christ. And finally, I close with what this teaches about the contemporary relevance of scripture. God does still speak today, so we don't need anything new.

Some Christians act like we've got to have something new. The Bible's outdated. No, it's not.

No, it's not. It's still speaking to us today. We don't need anything new. Some Christians act like, well, there's some good elements in it, but it needs to be tweaked. It needs to be modernized. It needs to be made relevant. No, it doesn't. It is relevant.

It's the word of the living God. It's relevant. We don't need to make it relevant.

We need to declare it because it is relevant. Did this speak to you today, which was written 2000 years ago? Did this speak to you today that was quoting something that was written 3000 years ago? Did this speak to you today? Is it relevant today? I think I stepped on a lot of toes today.

It's relevant today. Don't harden your heart. Don't toss it over your shoulder. Don't sit there with stony face and say, you can't tell me what to do. But God can. I'm His messenger telling you what His word says.

Did I tell you anything that is untrue? Don't harden your heart. Receive it.

Believe it. Obey it for the welfare of your soul. Let's pray. Father, help us to hear and heed your word as it comes to us today. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.