Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to the book of Hebrews. Hebrews
chapter 3. We'll read from our text, verses
12, 13 and 14. Hebrews 3 from verse 12. Take heed, brethren, lest there
be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from
the living God. But exhort one another daily
while it is called to day, lest any of you be hardened through
the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of
Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto
the end. Hebrews 3 verses 12 through to
14. What is upon my spirit is the
preventing of backsliding. Backsliding is a very real thing. We read in Jeremiah chapter 3,
of the tribes of Israel and how the Lord had a controversy with
them. You remember the ten tribes,
the northern tribes, were taken into captivity by Assyria and
Judah and Benjamin, the remaining tribes, they saw what had happened
And they saw the idolatry, the calves that Jeroboam made to
prevent the children of Israel, those tribes, going back to Jerusalem. But though they saw that, they
didn't turn themselves and they did even worse and went back
even further. In the book of Hebrews, often
is used the example of the children of Israel as a warning. So, instead of it being Judah
looking at the other tribes and learning from them, in these
Gospel days we look back and we see Judah and we see the other
tribes, all of the tribes of Israel. We see how God chastened
them, we see how God had blessed them, brought them out of Egypt
with a powerful hand, and yet they went back from him. And
so soon, too, at Mount Sinai, going back with the golden calf. And we have the same nature. We have the same fallen nature. They saw greater miracles than
we have seen with our eyes, if you might say, with all what
happened in Egypt and going through the Red Sea. And yet they turned
back. They went away from the laws. They didn't go to nothing, they
went to idols, they went to worship other gods. And the Lord reproved
them for it. He charged them that they should
return and that though they had worshipped other idols and other
gods, that he would receive them if they repented and if they
turned back. But so often as the case with
In medical things, it's the same. Prevention is better than cure. And it's better with a machine
to maintain it than to wait until it breaks and then have to repair
it. And it's better to prevent, in
the very first place, a departing and going from the Lord. It is
a great blessing that should we fall, should we depart, there
is a returning and the Lord will have his people back. That is
the blessing of the gospel and the blessing to those that he
has called, that he will never forsake them. He will not forsake
the work of his own hands. But the way of transgressors
is hard. And if we are the Lord's people
and depart, then we can only expect sorrow and tribulation
and to lose the comforts and blessings of the gospel. If we
are not the Lord's, in departing we shall be left to completely
go away and to never be found again in the ways of the Lord. And so our text is addressing
this. It is giving the warnings and
preventatives to backsliding. It speaks of a beginning of confidence
or beginning of assurance and belief in the Lord. It is a great
blessing that when the Lord does work in a sinner's heart, they
are given that hope, assurance and comfort that they are the
Lord's. And where the Lord begins, it's
a blessed thing to have that confidence that is in him, given
by the grace of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. There are reasons for backslidings
and in our text we have both reasons and we also have ways
of preventative. And so I want to look firstly
at a soul that is brought to be with the Lord. If we are to be talking about
backsliding or departing from the Lord as it is in our text,
then there must be first to be brought to be with the Lord from
our position of alienated from Him and fallen, God brings the
people to be with Him. And then secondly, that which
leads to departing from Him. And we have those things set
before us in these verses. And then lastly, the three preventatives
to departing from the Lord that are mentioned in the text. But firstly, we have a soul brought
to be with the Lord here below. May we never overlook that great
blessing that you who were alienated and far off by wicked works,
he hath brought nigh by the blood of Christ. Our Lord says, no
man can come unto me. except the Father which sent
me draw him, and I'll raise him up at the last day." The whole
aim of the Gospel is to do the opposite of what was in the Garden
of Eden. After the fall, man was driven
out from that garden. His fellowship, his communion
with the Lord was broken, and he was separated. And it is the
gospel, it is the Lord Jesus Christ as the mediator of the
new covenant, as the provision of God to reconcile, to make
those friends that were enemies by wicked works are brought to
be friends of God. Abraham, it was said, was a friend
of God. And so it is the work of God's
sovereign grace to first make a way back, and that is through
the Lord Jesus, through his atoning blood, through him taking the
wrath of God in the place of his people, enduring that wrath,
his making peace. You might say, does God need
to be pacified? Does he need to have his anger
taken away? Yes, he does. Because without
there to be the debt paid, without justice being satisfied, without
there being that proper reckoning, then God is as just as a holy
God, cannot show mercy, cannot show any kindness, give any grace
to a sinner. The debt must be settled, must
be paid, and then there can be the blessings flow. And so in
the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ is the first great act,
an act from God. And remember the portion that
we read of Jeremiah 3, it was God that was reaching out to
his people And as one of the Lord's dear servants here said
once in preaching, God instigates salvation. God brings it about. You know, if two people on earth
are separated, something has come in between them, it nearly
always is the case that one needs to instigate that bringing of
friendship again. Quite often when one instigates
it, then the other is willing and embraces that opportunity
that there be a reconciling. In the way of salvation, it is
always the Lord. I passed by thee when I was in
thy blood and bid thee live. It is the Lord sending his own
Son. God commendeth his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. It is in the promise of the coming
Messiah, the promise of the Gospel, that the Lord himself is showing
that willingness and that he is ready to receive those that
come unto him. Those that come unto him as a
humble, broken-hearted sinner, he will in no wise cast out. And right through the Word of
God is set forth this willingness of the Lord. But the language
of us by nature is depart from us. We desire not the knowledge
of thy ways. It is just like even Israel.
They didn't want to hear the prophets. They didn't want to
hear the Lord's voice through the prophets. They would rather
go on in their own way. But where there is the work of
God, Not only does He provide, as He has in His Son, a substitute,
pay the debt, endure the wrath of God, and make a way of escape,
but He also makes the people willing. Thy people shall be
willing in the day of my power. It is those who feel their sinnership,
feel their distance from God, feel that if God were to send
them to hell, He would be just. It is those that need to be assured
that it is God that welcomes, as the father did the prodigal
son when he was returning. He saw him afar off. He went,
he embraced him. He didn't need to come all the
way back. The willingness of the father
to receive the son was so evident. And again, it is assuring those
that live to feel their need that feel their sinnership, that
it is the Lord that has wrought that in their hearts, that he
will welcome poor sinners. He will embrace those poor sinners
and bring them to himself. He will welcome them home and
bring them nigh unto himself. May we remember this, the goodwill
of him that dwelt in the bush, remember with the children of
Israel, who instigated bringing them out of captivity, out of
Egyptian bondage, not them. It was God that remembered his
promises, God that remembered his covenant, and God that appeared
and brought them up out of Egypt. And so a soul brought to be with
the Lord is a precious thing. Instead of fighting against him,
they desire to walk with him. Be ye yoked together, come, all
ye that have elated, take my yoke upon you. The Lord Jesus
said, when he puts forth his sheep, he goeth before them,
those sheep are with him, and they hear his voice. Instead
of walking contrary to the Lord, they desire to walk with him
and to fall in with his will, to fall in with his words, to
be with his people, to be with where he is, you think of Ruth's
language, thy people, shall be my people, thy God, my God, where
thou dwellest, will I dwell, where thou diest, will I die,
and there will I be buried. She clave unto Naomi. Here was one soul who was brought
to be with the Lord, with his people. Those that say that they
love God, they are to love Him that they are begotten of Him,
as well as God that begets His people. And so, if we are with
the people of God, and we say as Ruth did, or like the apostles,
being let go, they went to their own company, where we have been
far off, but the Lord has brought us near. This is the salvation
of the Lord. This is how the Lord works, how
the Lord shows who are his people by drawing them to himself and
to his other people. There are people being formed
for his praise, formed for glory, and gathered together out of
the lands from the east and from the west and north and the south,
and again they are brought To be with him, unto him shall the
gathering of the people be. Where two or three are gathered
together in my name, there am I in the midst. And the Lord
prays and makes intercession. Father, I will that they whom
thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold
my glory. So when we're thinking of a departing,
There must also be a thought first of the great miracle and
wonder of a people that were enemies and far off, but that
have been brought nigh and brought near. And of course this is where
it comes as to the beginning of the confidence, he which hath
begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus
Christ. This is what is spoken to the
churches in Asia who had left their first love, they'd gone
back from their first love. And so the whole idea of departing
is to realizing what it is to be with the Lord And what the
Lord has done, thou shalt remember all the way. The Lord thy God
hath led thee these forty years in the wilderness. The Lord had
been with them. The fiery, cloudy pillar had
been with them. God's presence was with them.
That's what Moses so desired, that except thy presence go not
with me, carry us not up hence. He wanted the Lord's presence.
To our solemn later on with the history of Israel, they departed
from the Lord's presence. And there is a reason why. The
things that they did, the path that they took, that made it
that they departed from the Lord. But may we think then in this
first place, have we been made to feel by nature our distance
from the Lord? And has he brought us nigh, has
he made us to partake of the blessings of the gospel, fellowship,
communion with the Lord and with his people, a love to him and
his people. We know that we have passed from
death unto life in that we love the brethren, that we've been
favoured to have answers in prayer, that he has given us eyes to
see his hand in providence, that we've been able, like David,
to perceive that the Lord was with us and that his blessing
has been upon us, that we have noticed when the Lord has chastened
and corrected us, as he does his children, that we have those
evidences that though we were once far off, we have been brought
nigh. And the Lord Jesus Christ has
been precious. His blood has been precious.
And there has been that desiring to be near the Lord. How the disciples wanted to be
with the Lord. God's people want to be with
Him. A prepared people for a prepared
place. But then here below, there's
those things that will drive a wedge. Satan is a whisperer
that separates his chief friends. And Satan is all the time trying
to drive a wedge and separate between the Lord and his people
if he can. We are not ignorant of his devices. Sometimes he's a roaring lion,
but other times he's an angel of light. But this evening I
want to look at the context that is here. Those things that lead
to departing from him. There are three things in these
verses of our text. The first one is an evil heart
of unbelief. We all have a heart that is deceitful
and desperately wicked. And we are never to think that
unbelief is ever a virtue. Some would almost seem to think
that it is. But unbelief is not a virtue,
it is a sin. And it is a reason of going back
from the Lord. The children of Israel, when
they came the first time to the Promised Land, they did not believe
that God was able to deliver them and to overcome those of
the Canaanites. And because of that, they were
driven back for 40 years in the wilderness. It is through unbelief
that they couldn't enter in and they perished in the wilderness.
And it is through unbelief that all of those in hell will perish
and all that perish. He that the commission was, go
into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature, he
that believeth in his baptizer shall be saved, he that believeth
not shall be damned. And so unbelief We think of John
Bunyan's Holy War, and when Mansoul was taken, or when Mansoul was
being restored, then their strategy to take it, to retake it again,
was to send forth thousands of doubters, make them to doubt,
make them to not believe the Lord, not believe his promises,
not believe the work that he had done, not believe the love
that he commended to them in that while they were sinners,
Christ died for them. And this evil heart, unbelief
is spoken of as an evil heart of unbelief. And we might think,
well, there's no harm in giving place to unbelief or nurturing
unbelief. And the devil might show us many
things and say, well, look, if you were one of the Lord's children,
then you wouldn't have done this or that. And look at how you've
acted there. And you would have been blessed
in this way or that way. And he gives many, many reasons
to fuel this unbelief. and to make us go against the
Word of God. So the Word of God says one thing,
but our unbelief says another. The Word of God assures us in
one place, but we disannul that assurance. And all the time it
is going against the Lord. May you always think of this,
that one of the reasons for going away from the Lord, one of them
for departing from the Lord, is unbelief. You say, but what
about presumption? What about presumption? And presumption
is just assuming that the Lord is for us and the blessings are
for us when we do not have a warrant for it. The children of Israel, we are
told that it was presuming and presumption When the Lord had
chastened them, told them to go back into the wilderness,
and then when they realized what it had cost them, then they said,
no, we will go up then. But Moses said, no, don't go
up. The Lord is not with you. But
they presumed to go up. They thought they would do it
anyway, and they were put to the worst before their enemies. Presumption is acting. or taking
a comfort or a belief in our interest in Christ without a
scriptural warrant for it. But belief is to view what God
has done and to believe it and hold fast to it. When the Lord
appeared to Moses in the wilderness and sent him to the children
of Israel to lead them forth out of Egypt, then this was one
thing that Moses objected and said to the Lord. He said, they
will not believe me. They will not believe me. And
so the Lord gave him signs, miracles that he should do before them.
And when he did those before them, they believed. They rejoiced
that God had appeared for them. Later on, when they got all of
the taskmasters on their back, their
burdens got heavier. It didn't look like God was really
going to deliver them. They weren't being set free. were thinking, no, this wasn't
the Lord, he wasn't going to do it. When Moses started to
reassure them and to comfort them, they were so burdened with
their burdens, they wouldn't even listen to him. But the Lord
in mercy, in spite of their unbelief, in spite of all what they're
going through, he brought them out. But we have with the Lord
Jesus Christ a real comparison, because Moses said, a prophet
shall the Lord thy God raise up unto thee, thee like unto
me, him shall you hear. When our Lord came, he didn't
just work three miracles. He worked countless miracles,
raising the dead, opening the eyes of the blind, causing the
deaf to hear, and those that were lame to walk. Those miracles,
they all testified of who he was, and the words that he spoke,
the prophecies that were fulfilled. Some believed, and some did not. But the unbelief will overcome,
as it were, fight against the belief. There were those that
heard the gracious words that proceeded out of his lips, but
then they said, this is Jesus, the son of Joseph, the carpenter's
son. And they wouldn't believe. They
didn't believe. But what is said before us here
specifically is those that have been brought nigh, been with
the Lord, and then they have been left to follow in the way
of unbelief. last words in this chapter and
he's speaking of those that the Lord was grieved with those 40
years in the wilderness whose carcasses fell in the wilderness
to whom swear he that they should not enter into his rest but to
them that believed not so we see that they could not enter
in because of unbelief And so when the Lord calls a
soul, when He blesses a soul, He gives them those things that
they have believed. We think of the word we know
in whom we have believed. That we are not to cast away
our confidence which has great recompense of reward. Those things
the Lord has given us that we have seen that we've understood
that maybe he's wrought in providence, blessed his word to us through
the ministry, given us answers to prayer, changed our heart,
drawn us to himself. Every one of those things, as
if the Lord would say to his child, this, this is a token. This is a token of my work. This
is what your foundation is to be built upon, your hopes not
on your works but upon mine. What I have done for you is why
in the ordinance of the Lord's Supper we remember what the Lord
has done for us, remember his shed blood, remember his broken
body, remember it is Christ that died and rather risen again. And so When we think of the evil
heart of unbelief in this context, it is especially relative to
those who have been brought nigh and the things that the Lord
has done to bring them to assurance, to bring them to trust in Him,
to bring them to hope in His salvation. It is those things
that we once believed in took comfort in, the Lord had given
us, those are things we are not to then turn and not believe. Do you think of the children
of Israel and those saying to the golden calf, these are the
gods that brought thee up out of Egypt? Really? Is that what
they sung, the praises at the edge of the Red Sea? Of course
it was not. So they departed from the true
God, whom they'd once accredited with these things, and now ascribing
it to something else. Are you ascribing to something
else the sovereign work of God in your heart? You say, it was
just chance. Well, the devil says, well, it
might have happened anyway. And it's not really a true token. But where it has been first received,
when it's been first given, It's those things that we are not
to then turn around and disbelieve. You think of our first parents,
you think of the fall. It was said to Adam, of the trees,
fruit of the trees of the garden they most really eat. But of
the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, In
the midst of the garden thou shalt not eat thereof. In the
day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. And that
was God's word to them. And no doubt they believed it.
But when Satan comes and he says, Hath God said? He says something
this evening. You come to the house of God
and there is Satan saying, Hath God said? You've had a promise. You've had a hope. You had something
that you've had comfort in and trusted the Lord was truly working
in your heart and in your life. But now it is, hath God said? Was it really God? Was it really
His hand? Unbelief. You've got a deceitful,
evil heart of unbelief. And you say, well, shouldn't
I really test these things? Isn't my soul really valuable? Isn't eternity long? Shouldn't
I really examine myself? Yes, we should examine ourselves. But that should not then lead
us to unpick or disbelieve what the Lord has said, to not believe
his promises, not believe his word, not believe what he has
done on Calvary, not believe what he has done for us. To be mindful of this would set
before us very much central in this passage, and going back
to the children of Israel, that an evil heart of unbelief is
one of the things that leads to departing, not leads, unbelief
not leads to the Lord, but departing from the Lord. The second thing
that's set forth here is being hardened through the deceitfulness
of sin. Sin is a transgression of the
law of God. We have around us a world that
makes light of sin. And we see it, we look at it,
day by day, hour by hour. And we have a heart that loves
sin, a deceitfully wicked heart. And the more we look at it, the
more we're accustomed to it, the more hardened we become.
There are many of us that can perhaps think back many years
when in seeing things or hearing things, we recoiled from it,
what wickedness, what evil, How horrible that was. And then we
suddenly realize that maybe we're not reacting the same anymore.
We kind of see it and we just accept it. And what's happened? We become hardened, insensitive,
desensitized to sin, accepting of it. It's gradually happened
in society, more and more accepting of evil practices. And we can
be just the same. And it's spoken of here as being
hardened. Instead of soft and tender and
teachable, instead of fleeing at the approach of sin, instead
of repulsing every evil thought, instead of being horrified at
suggestions that come into our mind, We cease to be horrified
and we start to embrace them, or think on them, or go in that
way, and we're hardened. It doesn't say just harden through
sin. It says harden through the deceitfulness
of sin. Satan always comes in a very
deceitful way, making it look virtuous, making it look right. making it look as if it's a good
thing. I think in the evangelical times,
or no, I think it is probably another one of the societies
that warned against the current trends. And one current trend
in the churches was not sympathy, but it's empathy with the people
around us with the misguided thought, well, we're to be kind
and understanding to these people, that then there is embraced all
manner of wickedness and brought into churches and churches, instead
of standing for the truth, are now standing with all manner
of evil. And so you see churches with
the pride rainbow over them, with complete departures from
the truth, and it comes under the deceitful banner, well we've
got to be kind to people, we've got to draw alongside them, you've
got to understand them in all of their troubles and all their
trials, and Satan is very successful in deceitfully taking a people
that naturally you might say would be compassionate, But compassion
without truth and holiness is not compassion. The Lord's goodness
to his people is that he chastens for sin. He corrects from sin. He doesn't just say, well, I'm
going to be kind to you. I'll just let you go your way
and just let you do what you like. And so we have to remember
that sin is deceitful. Anyone who goes fishing, They
know that if they're going to catch a fish, then they're going
to put some bait on that that fish likes. Something that attracts
them to it. And unaware that beneath the
bait there's the hook, there's something that is going to take
them. And so, sin will always have
that. There'll be something that attracts
and you can be sure It does attract our old nature. Don't just think,
don't listen to Satan. So when he says, well, look,
you are attracted, don't you? You must own that you are attracted
to that sin. You say, yes, I am. I'm a fallen,
sinful creature. But just because my old nature
is attracted to it doesn't mean to say that I should go after
it. The apostle says, the thing that
which I do, I hate. The good that I would, I do not.
The evil that I would not, that I do. But he's very clear about
what he hates and what he likes and what he's resisting against.
That sin, the manner of it, that which leads to departing is when
we are hardened. May we be mindful when our hearts
are being desensitized, hardened in sin. The third thing that
leads to departing is losing our confidence in the Lord. You
may say, well what does that mean? A soul that is brought to Christ,
their confidence is not in themselves, not in their own works, not in
keeping themselves, but in the Lord, that he which hath begun
a good work in you will perform it unto the end in the day of
Jesus Christ. As soon as we lose confidence
in the Lord, as soon as we say with Israel that God is not able
to do this, how can he do it? where they limited the Holy One
of Israel. Those who are brought nigh unto
the Lord, they are brought to have that confidence in Him,
their assurance, their trust is in Him, that He is able to
do exceeding far above all that we can ask or think, that our
confidence is in the Word, the inspired, infallible Word of
God, You think how much that is undermined amongst churches
today, that they'll unpick the Word of God, they'll be like
the king with his penknife, cutting it about, and so that poor sinners
can't trust in the Word. You think of the many different
translations that there are in the English language. That is one of Satan's devices
with Adam and Eve. Hath God said? Undermining their
confidence in the word of God and in what God has said. If
we have not confidence that every word of God is pure and that
from Genesis to Revelation it is inspired in fallible God,
the word of God, then that is on the road to departing from
the Lord. May we remember that. Our confidence is in his word,
our confidence is in his work, he which hath begun a good work
in you, in his intercession in heaven, in the efficacy of his
precious blood, that sin has been put away, that he has died,
he has risen again, he has given assurance unto all men, in that
he has raised him from the dead. Confidence, assurance, hope,
these things are vital for the child of God. And if the devil
comes, and if man comes, and he starts to unpick their confidence,
their hope, their assurance, their trust, then it leads to
departing from the Word of God. Remember years ago, actually
through the TBS, when we were brought up, we were rightly brought
up to believe every word of God is pure, that we could hold in
our hands infallible Word of God. And then when heard from
the TBS, well no, it's only the original language that is infallible
and pure. And, well, where is the original?
Well, it doesn't exist anymore. Yeah, but we have the Hebrew
Masoretic and the Greek Received Texts, and they've been kept
pure by God through his providence through the generations. So we believe that is the infallible
Word of God. And we know with the Confessions,
that the last resort always goes back to the original languages.
But for a while that really shook me. But then to realize the Lord
himself quoted from translations. And when David says that thy
word have a hit in mine heart, thou might not sin against thee,
that wasn't in a, couldn't be in a different language. It was
in the language he understood. And if we are to take that same
language, then the word that we have in our Bibles is the
infallible word of God. And though it has come through
translation, we may say God has always, always meant that the
word of God come through to the nations through a translation.
It doesn't mean we're to be careless, we're to be very careful. Watch
the providence of God in bringing any translation to a people,
and we're to compare scripture with scripture. That always is
the case. There are translations that are
very loose, that openly, not word for word, but just the translators
read the passage, say, this is what it means, we'll write in
our own words. And those translations, they're
not the exact words of God. We bless the Lord for a faithful
translation of the Word of God. But our confidence must be when
we receive the Word of God, we receive it as the pure Word of
God, in which we can truly trust and rely on. Our confidence is
in that. The Lord said, Heaven and earth
shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away. Hath he
said, and shall he not do it? And when he says, my sheep, they
hear my voice. That is the voice of the Lord
through the scriptures, speaking to us in the word of God. If we lose that confidence in
the Lord, then we will depart from the Lord. not self-confidence,
not confidence in ourselves, not confidence in man, not confidence
in translators, but confidence in the Lord that gave the Word.
Great was the company of them that published it, and the Lord's
purpose right to the end of the world, that His people should
have and hold in their hands the very Word of God, and that
those works that the Lord has done Every work he's done is
known in heaven. If the Lord says to the children
of Israel, they're to remember all the way what the Lord has
done, won't he remember it? The Lord does not forget. He
doesn't forget his people, he doesn't forget their work at
all. So remember these three things,
an evil heart of unbelief, being hardened through the deceitfulness
of sin, and losing our confidence in the Lord, these things will
lead to departing from the Lord. So what are the three preventatives
to departing? Well, in our text, the first
words, take heed, brethren. Taking heed, lest there be in
any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living
God. Sometimes we can be very careful,
careless, loose, just go through and not really taking notice
of things that are going on in our heart, notice of what the
devil is attacking, not really noticing that it is really unbelief. He might be putting it down to
some other names, but we're to take heed. This is the first,
preventative. The second one is exhorting one
another, not just every now and again, but daily, exhorting one
another. Very much to do with this, and
of course in the, here in Hebrews is exhorted to not forsake the
assembling of one another together. And it is as we gather together
we are encouraging one another. That is what the exaltation really
is. In Acts they exhorted them to
continue in the faith and to hold fast and added to that and
that through much tribulation you must enter the kingdom. If
someone doesn't have tribulation or trouble in their lives, you'd
think that wouldn't be much encouragement or much of an exhortation to
help. But if we've got a brother or
one with us in the church that's going through trouble and tribulation,
then to be able to say to that soul, dear brother, continue
in the faith. Remember, it is through much
tribulation we enter the kingdom. And what a reassuring and helpful
word that is to one that is passing through tribulation. We have
endued that we are to exhort to earnestly contend for the
faith once delivered unto the saints. When we see the doctrines
and the faith of God undermined in every way, we are to contend
for the strengthening one another in those doctrines of our most
holy faith. In Hebrews 12, when one is under
chastening, the chastening hand of God, then we are to come alongside
them and to exhort them and to remind them that it is those
that God loves that he chastens, that every son whom he chasteneth,
and that if we're exercised thereby, though it is a bitter thing,
Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness."
And so encourage those that are passing through that way not
to be discouraged, not to cast away their faith, not to think,
well, the Lord is against me, but know this is a mark of sonship. And then there is the exhortations,
especially that Paul writes. See, Paul writes to many, to
churches, but also to Timothy, to Titus. We think of those in
the Thessalonians that he writes there in 1 Thessalonians 5, 14. And he says, now we exhort you,
brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble-minded,
support the weak, be patient toward all men. See that none
render evil for evil unto any man. And so the body of Christ,
the church of God, is exhorting one another. Again, he writes
his second epistle to the Thessalonians and he exhorts them to work with
their own hands and to Be diligent and with quietness that they
might work and eat their own bread. We have the exhortations
in Timothy unto prayer, encouraging one another to pray. Sometimes
we might have an email, a WhatsApp message or what, and a brother
is low, is discouraged, is feeling that they're ignorant and that
they don't know anything. You remind them of what the Lord
has done for them, and what he's taught them, and that he that
has begun will continue it. And when one is low, then to
be able to lift them up, to be like Manoah and his wife. His wife, when he was low, he
was saying, well, we have seen God, then we shall die. But she
said, if the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have.
shown us these things, done these things, such as this. Sometimes
we can see in looking on what a brother or sister in faith
cannot see. And if we see them struggling
and low, then though we have the Holy Spirit as a remembrance,
we can be the remembrance. So do you remember that time
the Lord helped? Do you remember that when the
Lord answered our prayers? And this is The exhortation is
encouraging, building up and strengthening the people of God. And this is one of the remedies,
the remedies to the unbelief, remedies to departing, remedies
to losing our confidence in the Lord, exhorting one another daily,
looking out for other believers to encourage them in the Lord. It's a great thing to be known
as an encourager of the brethren. It's easy to be the opposite,
with perhaps some unadvisable words, to cast down or to discourage,
but to be an encourager. And that is used to keep the
people of God with the Lord. The third thing is holding the
beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. Verse 14, for we
are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our
confidence steadfast unto the end. It is not just blind confidence,
but it's holding fast what the Lord has done. The word says,
see that no man take thy crown. to hold fast to Him. You think
of how much the Jews, the Pharisees, tried to take from the man that
was born blind, the blessing that he had. He says, one thing
I know, whereas I was blind, now I see. Don't let any take
from you that one thing you know, and what the Lord has given you
and done for you. If you think back to former days,
and when you did love the Lord, when you were blessed, when you
were favoured, When you believe, when you had joy and peace in
believing, when you had a visit from the Lord, then don't lose
that. Hold fast to that confidence. Cast not away your confidence
which hath great recompense of reward. Despise not the day of
small things. The Lord doesn't, and we are
not too. So in this portion, there is
this warning. are departing. And there's three
things, three flags as to what leads to departing from the Lord.
And there are also three remedies or preventatives so that we do
not depart from the Lord. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing
by the Word of God. This, this evening, is the Word
of God that we have brought before you, and may it be a help to
you and to me. so that we do not depart from
the Lord our God. Amen.