Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Hebrews chapter 3. Hebrews chapter 3.
Let's read verses 13 to 19. try to preach tonight on the
subject of an exhortation to faithfulness. But exhort one another daily
while it is called today, 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. While it is said today, if ye
will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard,
did provoke, howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
But with whom was he grieved forty years? Was it not with
them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to
whom swear he that they should not enter into his rest, but
to them that believe not?" So we see that they could not enter
in because of unbelief. Our Father, This evening, we're so thankful
that we can be here. Lord, we realize that it's by
your eternal purpose, compassion, and mercy that you've allowed
us to assemble ourselves together in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Lord, help us. Oh, let this not just be another
time of meeting together and going through the motions. Lord,
help us to hear. Help us to worship. Oh, how wonderful
it would be if we could truly worship in spirit and truth. We're not able to drum it up
or work it up. Lord, if you don't give us That
spirit of worship, we just don't have it. We ask these things
for Christ's sake. Amen. Paul the Apostle, under the inspiration
of the Spirit of God. Now think about who wrote these
words. Who wrote these words? It was the hand of a man. Yes,
I do understand that. But all Scripture is given by
inspiration of God. And God Almighty said in verse
12 that we looked at last week, Take heed, brethren, lest there
be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from
the living God. I read those words again just
a few minutes ago, and my heart just made aware, heavy, concerned. Concerned for myself. Concerned
for you. Concerned for all of us. Brethren, you know, we're given
some great and precious promises from our Lord. Think of this promise right here. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and he that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. Boy, what a promise! I have loved you with an everlasting
love. Therefore, in loving kindness
have I drawn you. We are given these exceeding
great and precious promises that we might not despair. But we are also given Great warnings
against carelessness. An apostasy that we might never
presume on God. I mean, here's two immovable
truths. Almighty God is sovereign. He
does as He will in the army of heaven, among the inhabitants
of the earth, Somebody asked David one time. They were, I
don't know, they looked at their little gods and it made them
a little god. And it was, you know, they carve
them out of wood. They make them out of stone.
They make them one out of this, out of the other. You know, set
them up. And they set them up on a shelf. And they look at
them. Of course, they can't hear because
they don't have ears. And they can't see because they
don't have eyes. But they're sitting there looking at them
right there, you know. Here's our God. Where's your God, David?
Where's your God? He said, My God is in the heavens,
and He has done whatsoever He pleases. Oh, what a precious, precious
truth. God Almighty is sovereign. But
here's a truth that's just as subtle and real. Verse 14, and we're going to
look at it in just a minute. Verse 14, For we are partakers
of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto
the end. I'm telling you, this is an exhortation
to faithfulness. God's people are not insensitive. They're not robots. makes them willing in the day
of His power. And He keeps His people by grace,
by His power, by His mercy, kept by the power of God through faith. That's so. And God's people are
faithful. That's so. They want to be faithful. I'm telling you this is a truth
that we absolutely bow to. Now, exhort, verse 13, but exhort
one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you
be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Exhort one another. Give attention to stir up one
another to obedience to Christ. They cause by nature we're dull,
drowsy toward Him, prone to wonder. Lord, I feel that. I know something
about it, and you that believe do too. You know something of
it. The bride in Song of Solomon
5-2 says, I sleep, but my heart waketh. I feel the dullness of
my Oh, heart, but I know I'm awake. I know I struggle. A believer is going to respond
to the Spirit of God. He's going to respond to the
words of comfort, encouragement. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing
by the Word of God. Exhort one another daily. Don't you enjoy Number one, don't
you enjoy being encouraged? I do. And don't you enjoy encouraging
another? I was talking to one of my kids
the other day, and they had a problem. I don't know how old your kids
are, but they're always your kids. And I'm telling you, they
always have problems. And one of them told me, he said,
Dad, I thank you that every time I talk to you, we talk about
Christ. I said, well, that's the only
hope I've got, because I've got enough problems to sink a battleship. Exhort one another. Exhort them to be in the faith. Stay in faith. The Scripture
says that Paul and Barnabas over in the book of Acts exhorted
the believers in Antioch to continue in the grace of God. I thought
about that and I thought, you mean you'd have to encourage
somebody to stay in the grace of God? Do you need that? I do. If that wasn't a real need,
the Spirit of God wouldn't have written that. in Lystra and Iconium and Antioch,
they exhorted them to continue in the faith and that through
much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God." It's needful
for us to encourage one another. Needful. As I said, if it wasn't
needful, the Spirit of God wouldn't have put it in there. And obviously, the Lord blesses
that encouragement. He blesses it. I'm telling you,
you find somebody and they're going through some trials and
tribulations and troubles. Exhort one another daily while
it's called today. This life is short. Life's a
vapor. We may not have an opportunity
tomorrow to encourage them. I mean, it's coming a day when
the trump of God is going to sound or when the Lord says,
for this one, it's time. And you take that last breath.
Exhort one another daily, lest any of you be hardened through
the deceitfulness of sin. Oh, how deceitful is sin! And
I'm a sinner. That's what Paul the Apostle
said. Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners of
whom I'm chief. Sin is deceitful. Lest any of you be hardened through
the deceitfulness of sin. Sin is going to manifest itself
in a dress that's different. than its true nature. Covetousness will cloak itself
under the guise of, well, you know the kids may need something. I wish I could help, but you
know, just in case of a rainy day, the deceitfulness of sin. It's deceitful. It sets forth
itself in such a way that that's not what it is. A believer in time will prove his faithfulness.
He struggled, struggled, struggled. But an unbeliever will prove
himself to by the hardness of his heart against God's means
of preservation. Sin deceives him. And it's slow. It's slow. It's not all at one
time. It's deceitful. It's just a slow
process. But oh, how surely does that
deceitfulness manifest itself. Exhort one another. While it's
called today, lest any of you be hardened, made stubborn."
That's what that means. Made stubborn and resentful and
disrespectful through the deceitfulness of sin. If it hit me all at one
time, I'd catch it. I'd catch it right now. But you see, when it's real slow,
And I didn't really pick up on it. I didn't realize. You know
what? It just kind of slipped up on
me there. Before I knew it, we're all prone to weakness. But thanks
be unto God that we're kept by the power of God. The Spirit
of God will steer us. Oh, the means of God's blessing
to His people. How does He keep us? Send a preacher. Sit down, he'll study. Study
God's Word and ask the Lord for God's message. Ask God to manifest
Himself. Set forth the Lord Jesus Christ.
He does it through preachers. He does it through one another,
exhorting one another through prayer, through tribulations
and trials. God Almighty is going to keep
His people. A believer experiences the loneliness
of missed fellowship, not able to be there, and he misses it. I was talking to, again, one
of my kids the other day. Obviously, I talk to my kids
a lot. And they were out of town, and one of them told me, they
said, they got up on Sunday morning, and they looked at each other,
No vacation. I mean, you know, it's understandable. You know, you go on vacation.
But she said, we just woke up and looked at each other and
thought, it's Sunday. It's Sunday. I said, I know. You miss the
fellowship of hearing the gospel. You miss the fellowship with
other believers. fellowship with him in prayer,
the study of his scriptures. And a believer exhorted while
it's called today, exhorting one another, they hear that exhortation by
the Spirit of God because it's the voice of Christ that they
hear when you exhort one another. And they hear that The drawing
of God's Spirit to do the first works. That's what the Lord told
the church there in Revelation. I think it was Laodicea, but
He exhorted them to do the first works. What was that? What were
those first works? To love Him, to hear Him, to
believe Him. A believer is sensitive. and
longs for the fellowship of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, I don't
want to be disrespectful to you. I don't want to miss having time. We are made for takers of Christ
if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the
end. Almighty God has given, we talked
about this great and precious promise, were made partakers
of Christ. There's a lot of people in this
world that will take this Bible and they apply the great and
precious promises of Christ to themselves. But you remember
this, the promises from Almighty God to His people. Only are to those that fit the
description of the promise. You know what I'm talking about? I'm talking about Almighty God
promises mercy, grace, compassion to those that fit the description
of that promise. So this is this, for we are made
for takers of Christ. But that's not the whole sentence.
If we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the
end. Don't despise the word if. It was put there by the Spirit
of God. God the Holy Ghost moved upon
the Apostle Paul to put that word there. were made for takers
if an Almighty God fits those that
He gives those promises to, He causes them to be conformed to
that which He has set forth in describing His people. God's
people, they have a heart that longs after faithfulness. Lord, I love you. I love you. I want to be where
you are. I want to hear your word. I want
to be with your people. I want to hear your gospel. I
want to hear your voice. Lord, help me. Keep me. I know I can't keep myself. I
know that. Confidence, steadfastness, firm
to the end. Yeah, but somebody says, well,
man, don't you ever fall? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I do. Listen
to Proverbs 24, 16. A just man, a justified man,
falleth seven times and riseth up again, but the wicked shall
fall into mischief. Do you ever stumble? Yes, I do.
What do you think about it? I don't like it. What do you
do? I get up. How do you get up? Well, He picked me up. And He keeps me. And He teaches
me. And I smarted for the fall, believe
me. I pray I learned something through
it. I didn't like it. I didn't like it. It didn't feel
good. You like it when you disappoint
your wife or your husband. You like that? You like it when
you have a little broken fellowship there? You know you're going
to make up. You know you are. Boy, I'm telling
you, that little time of Broken fellowship right there.
That hurts. I hate that. I hate it. Especially when I realize before
Almighty God that I'm the cause of it. I'm the one that did it. He's always done me good. He's
never forsaken me. That's what He told me. He said,
I'll never forsake you. I'll never leave you. Verse 15, "...while it is said
today, if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts as in
the provocation." Obviously, we do hear His voice. Today,
if you will hear His voice, how do you know one that hears the
voice, truly hears the voice of the Savior? They don't harden
their heart against God. They don't. They don't. They're
not stubborn toward Him. Oh, I know. I know we struggle. Believe me, I know we struggle.
We have two natures. A believer has two natures, and
anybody that says they don't is wrong. He said, I'll put a new heart
in you. Paul, go back and read the seventh
chapter of Romans. Look at Paul talking about himself. Here's what he said, Gary. He
said, I see in me. Now, this is me now. This is
me. There dwells no good thing. Now, there's an old man there.
I see in me there dwells no good thing. The will is present, but
how to accomplish that? He said, with my flesh in that
old nature, Carl, I serve the law of sin, but with my mind,
the law of God. I bow to God's Word, God's promise. And there's a struggle going
on there. There's a war, a fighting. Yeah, yeah. There's a tendency to walk away
from Him. He keeps me. And I want to be
kept. I know people would listen and
they'd think, man, I'm telling you, you people that claim to
know what you're talking about, about sovereign grace, you're
all the most inconsistent people I've ever heard. I'm just telling you what Scripture
says about a man. We know something about him,
don't we, Neil? If you have ears to hear him
preached in the gospel, you hear Christ, You don't harden your
heart against Him. You agree with Him. When I sang
that song a while ago, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Man,
I agree with that. Prone to leave the God I love.
I agree with that. And I don't want to. And I see
myself doing it, and then I... Lord, help me. I'll perish. Lord,
help me. For some, verse 16, when they
had heard, did provoke, howbeit not all that came out of Egypt
by Moses. The apostle makes mention of
that exodus that came out of Egypt. And these Hebrews, they
knew what he was talking about. They knew the exodus he was talking
about. He makes mention of those who did not persevere in the
wilderness. to warn them, to be watchful,
to guard against the hardness of heart. Be aware of it. If we didn't need to hear this,
the Lord would not have put it there. But we do need it. We're warned. And I'm telling
you, when we're warned, we hear it. Lord, I hear it. I hear it. You'd warn your kids. Why? Because
you love them. You love them. I don't want anything
to happen to them. I don't want them to get hurt.
Don't you all go over there and play around with those cars.
Don't you go on that street. Uh-uh. Don't. Uh-uh. Don't go
out there. Uh-uh. Why? Because I don't care. I
care. Look at verse 17, 18, 19. But
with whom was he grieved forty years? Was it not with them that
had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? To whom swear
He that they should not enter into His rest, but to them that
believe not?" So we see that they could not enter in because
of unbelief. The sin of unbelief. Oh boy. And how much do I see of that
unbelief in me. Thanks be unto God that He has
put away the sin, the guilt of that unbelief,
but I still have the presence of it. And it's a grieving thing. It's a struggling thing. There's
not a believer in this congregation tonight that would foolishly
say, you're not going to find any unbelief in me. Or you talk about evidence something.
No, every one of you is struggling. Unbelievers evidence that that
stony heart that's never been dethroned, they evidence by total
unbelief. Whenever they were in the wilderness
there, Paul was writing about them. That last verse right there,
they couldn't enter in. They could not. They could not
enter in because of unbelief. You know, I thought about this. He didn't say they didn't enter
in because they had Aaron build them a golden calf. They didn't
enter in because They murmured against God and they didn't have
anything to drink. Or they complained because all
they had to eat was manna. Is that all you've got? Is that
all you've got? We loathe this light bread. I'm getting so tired of eating
that. And they were eating. They were eating. Didn't bring up anything. He
summed it up right here. They could not enter in because
of unbelief. Unbelief. They were not able
to enter in because they would not believe God. Oh, I think to myself, Lord, help me. Turn with me to Mark.
I'm going to wrap this up. Mark chapter 9. Mark 9. Mark 9, verse 17. And one of the multitude answered
and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath
a dumb spirit. And wheresoever he taketh him,
he teareth him, and he foameth and gnasheth with his teeth,
and pineth away And I spake to thy disciples that they should
cast him out. And they could not. And he answereth
him and said, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Bring him unto me. And they brought
him unto him. And when he saw him straightway,
the Spirit tear him. And he fell on the ground and
wallow and foam him. And he asked his father, How
long is it ago since this It came unto him, he said, of a
child. And oft times it hath cast him into the fire, into
the waters, to destroy him. But if thou canst do anything, have compassion on us and help
us. Jesus saith unto him, If thou
canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
Now listen, I'm going to read this next verse in one second,
but I want you to realize something. I'm telling you the heart of
this came alive to this Father. My boy's got a demon, and that
demon is wearing him out. And I've come to the Master,
and this is what the Master said, If thou canst believe, All things
are possible to him that believeth." And all of a sudden, that dad
realized, this is my boy. And the Master has said to me,
if you can believe me, all things are possible. Now, you stop and
you think just for a second. Wherever you are, whatever the
state of your body, your family. I mean, I know, I know that His will
is going to be done. I know that. I know that salvation
is not of blood, it's not of the will of the flesh, it's not
of the will of man, it's of God. I know that. I know that. If the doctor said something
to me about having a disease or something, I know that there's
a Scripture that says that leper came to him and said, Lord, if
you will, you make me whole. And here's the Master. He said,
If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And all of a sudden, this man
realized something of the seriousness of believing God. the seriousness,
the weightiness of believing God. We think so lightly of believing
God, and straightway, the father of the child cried out and said
with tears, just broke his heart, Lord, I believe. Help thou my unbelief. Just broke
his heart. Unbelief shut out the vast majority
of the nation of Israel from Canaan. The next few weeks I'm
going to talk about this rest. What the rest in Canaan actually
represents for us today. But there was a promised land
called Canaan. Unbelief shuts out a sinner from
Christ. Not your unworthiness. Not your
unworthiness. Christ Jesus came to the world
to save sinners. It's not a man's unworthiness. I'll tell you what, it's his
self-righteousness and unbelief. Paul said in that twelfth verse,
we look, take heed, brethren, Accept a man on his profession.
If he leaves, let him leave. Don't you drive him out. Encourage one another. At verse
13, exhort one another daily while it's called today. Hebrews
10, 24, I'll read you this in closing. Let us consider one
another to provoke unto love and good works. Let us consider
one another. Let us consider each other, men
and women, having like passions and firmities just like I got.
Consider one another. You're just like I am. You're
struggling just like I am. Who's sufficient for these things?
I don't see myself sufficient to be standing in this pulpit.
I struggle. Consider one another. Make allowances
for one another's weaknesses. We don't excuse false doctrine.
We're not going to do that. We exhort one another. Look to
Christ. Believe to Christ. Believe Him. Trust Him. And by the grace of
God, the power of God, we do. Not of ourselves. I know that. You know me better than that. You know this. I know that without
Him, I can do nothing. I can't even believe Him, Fred.
I can't do that. Exhort one another. Those that
are partakers of the grace of God, exhort them, encourage them,
consider them. Those who believe and love and
are faithful to the gospel of Christ, consider them. Those
redeemed by the distinguishing grace of Christ. Provoke unto
love. Brotherly love. Stir it up. Because
there's a tendency for it to wax cold. Provoke to love and
to good works. Not for justification before
God in order to procure your salvation by that which you've
done. You know better than that. Provoke to love and to good works. that Almighty God might be glorified
by the evidence of faithfulness. Do you realize how honoring it
is to Him to see the faithfulness of His people? To hear the encouragement
from believers in the midst of trials and tribulations and in
trouble, to hear them say, His grace is sufficient for me. That
just encourages me. And I think, you know, it's obvious
the Lord's done something for him. Maybe he'll do something
for me. Maybe he'll settle my heart down.
Maybe he'll teach me something. Provoke to love and to good works
that the gospel might be adorned, that the mouths of the gainsayers
might be stopped. People will say, there ain't
nothing to that. Y'all just going through the motions. No, no,
I ain't going through the motions. I mean it. I'm struggling with
it. I'm struggling with it. I've
been struggling with it since he first revealed himself to
me, and I've got a pretty good idea. I'm going to struggle with
it all the way home. This is the way it's going to
be. I'm going to struggle all the way. But thanks be unto him. He keeps me. And I'm still here
tonight. And I'm glad for that. I'm here
one more time by the grace of God. And I pray by His grace,
by His power, and by His mercy, I'll be here Sunday, lest He
calls me home. Lord, I believe. Help mine unbelief. For Christ's sake and for the
the glory of Almighty God in Christ to His people. Amen.