If you will take your Bible and
turn again with me to Hebrews chapter three. Hebrews. Chapter three, we'll be looking
at verses 12. Through 14. Title, the message this morning
is a warning and encouragement. I like the way the apostle does
that throughout this this particular book of Hebrews. He warns, and
then he encourages. And then he warns and he encourages.
It's throughout this book, and I pray that God would bless the
message today. Let's read this together again. Hebrews chapter
3 and verse 12 says, Take heed, brethren, lest there be any of
you, in any of you, an evil heart of unbelief in departing 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. For we are made partakers of
Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto
the end." Now, we as believers in Jesus Christ, we know the
Scripture teaches the preservation of We know that everyone that
God has chosen in eternity, that Jesus Christ has come and redeemed
them by His blood offering. And we know that the Holy Spirit
will come and gather them by regeneration, by the new birth,
to faith in Christ and everyone who is regenerated of the Spirit
of God, everyone who is a true believer in Christ, they will
be preserved, kept by the power of God unto salvation, Peter
said, ready to be revealed. Ready. We know that as believers
in Christ, we have assurance. And this morning, I want to tell
you that when we are looking at warnings or exhortations or
anything like that. It is not to disturb your comfort
in Christ, but rather it is to encourage it. Because just as
true as the saints will be preserved, so must the saints persevere. If you are a believer in Christ,
yes, you will be kept. But it is also just as taught
in the Word of God that we must persevere in faith. In faith. Believing Christ. Believers in Jesus Christ are
warned here. Take heed! He said, Wake up! Wake up, you brethren! Holy brethren! That's what He
calls them in verse 1. Holy Brethren, believers in Christ,
partakers of the divine nature, you who profess faith in Christ,
take heed, lest there be in any of you, any of you, an evil heart of unbelief. Friends, the heart, Jeremiah
said, is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? If you're a professing believer
in Jesus Christ, let me ask you, do you know the depravity of
your soul? Of your nature? Do you know the
depths of your depravity? We've got just a small... If
God were to reveal that to us, it would crush us and kill us
immediately. We would die of despair. But how many millions of people
in this generation alone that are calling themselves Christians,
that are professing to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, doing
really good things, feeding the hungry, building houses, doing
all kinds of good things, but are deceived by their own wicked heart. Deceived that their unbelief
is faith. And I'll tell you this, you're
not going to be able to tell them different. You won't be able to convince
them otherwise. How many more in all generations have been
deceived? How many more? How many do you suppose close
their eyes in death expecting to see the face of Christ smiling? But instead, they open
their eyes to a frowning Christ, angry. They open their eyes,
being in torment. You see, death, when it comes,
it's immediate and final. It's final. Christ said, they that are righteous,
Let them be righteous still, but they that are filthy, let
them be filthy still." That rich man, he trusted in
the fact that he was a Jew. Do you not think that he was
not surprised to be there? He was surprised. Go with me to Matthew chapter
7. Matthew chapter 7. Verse 21, now these are the words
of our Lord Jesus Christ concerning this very thing. Matthew chapter 7 verse 21, Not
everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into
the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father
which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied or preached in thy name? And
in thy name cast out devils, and in thy name done many wondrous
works? And then will I profess? You see, they made a profession,
didn't they? They made a profession of faith. But their profession
of faith was false. Because Christ now professes
something. He said, I profess. I profess
unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you that work
iniquity. All those wondrous works. Christ professes our iniquity. and those who professed Him to
be their Lord. He said, I never knew you. I never knew you. Do you not suppose that would
be a dreadful thing? It would be a terrifying thing. And there are many who will be
deceived. This is why every one of us,
every one of us who profess faith, we should take heed. We should
take heed as not to be in that group. The illustration that the apostle
uses in our text is found in Numbers chapter 14. Flip over
there. Numbers chapter 14. He uses the illustration of the
Israelites after they had come to the border of the promised
land. And the spies went over and two
of them, Caleb and Joshua, they said, let's go. Let's go. We
got this. God said we had it. It's ours.
Let's take it. And the other spies said, no,
there's giants in the land. No, we'll be defeated. Surely
we won't survive this. But rather than believing the
word of God, these Israelites began to murmur and complain. Look at this. Verse 2, verse
1, let's go to verse 1. And all the congregation lifted
up their voice and cried, and the people wept that night. And
all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron.
And the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we
had died in the land of Egypt, or would God we had died in this
wilderness. And wherefore hath the Lord brought
us unto this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and
our children should be prayed?" Were it not better for us to
return into Egypt. And they said one to another,
let us make captain and let us return to Egypt. After all they had been through.
After all they had seen, after all the blessings and benefits
that God gave them, after giving His law, after saving them from
those fiery serpents, after making the bitter waters of Mara sweet,
after doing all of these things, promising them the land, go and
take it, go and take it, it's yours. And yet they entered not because
they did not believe. They did not enter in to God's
rest, but rather desired to go back and die in the wilderness. Be careful what you ask God for.
He just might give it. And he did to these. They did
die in the wilderness. God said, I'll watch your carcasses
fall in the wilderness. But I swear, God said, I swear
you won't enter into my land. They began to murmur. And I know
that's where it begins. They murmured against God's man.
And then they were so emboldened, they murmured against God. And so it is true of everyone
who does not hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto
the end, you will not enter into God's rest if you do not continue
in the faith. The scripture says, He that endureth
to the end, the same shall be saved. There is no true believer in
Christ who will begin in faith and finish some other way. We will believe unto the end. We will. until faith is lost
in sight, God's people will believe. They will believe. These Israelites,
like many false professors, they trust God to get them to the
threshold. They'll trust God to get them
right to the point of crossing into the promised land. But then they'll begin to trust
their own power, their own strength. to finish. That's exactly what
some of them did. They said, God said, don't you
go in. You go in, you're going to die. And they said, oh, we
sinned. Oh, Lord, please forgive us.
Please forgive us. And you know what he did? They
died. They went in against those people
and they slaughtered the Israelites. They slaughtered them. How many
people wait to the end of life to make some kind of profession? You know, I'll tell you, not
many, not many does the Lord say that way. And for you to
put all your hope on that, I feel for you. False professors always will
lean back on their own works eventually. Eventually. These
Israelites, they look not to the promises of God. They looked
not to the power of God to destroy their enemies. Instead of faith
in God, they trusted in themselves. They looked at themselves. Now
surely, if you were to look at that little ragtag bunch of Israelites,
they were not soldiers. These were slaves. And surely
you would not pit slaves up against a vast, experienced army That's
carnal. That's carnal understanding.
Surely, in any carnal imagination, we wouldn't do that. But God
is not carnal. God is spiritual. And God said,
Go! I'll take them. I'll give you
the land. But instead of looking to God,
they looked at the circumstance of tomorrow. Instead of looking
to Christ today, They looked at the circumstance of tomorrow. And so it is with everyone who
is not looking at Christ alone today. Believer in Christ, take
heed. Don't look at the impossibilities
of tomorrow or even the blessings of the past. Believe today. Now. Today is the day of salvation. Not yesterday. Not tomorrow.
Today. Tomorrow never comes. All you
have is today. Believe on Christ today. Praise God for the things He's
given you. Praise God that we have a hope that we can look
forward to. But we don't rest in what we
don't have. We rest in Christ now. We rest in Christ now. Today,
we must take heed unless we find our faith to be a lie and deception
of our own hearts. So then today, right now, I exhort
you. Paul says, I beseech you. I beg
you, believe Christ now. Forget about what you've done.
Believe Christ now. Always present faith. That's the faith that counts.
That's true faith, is believing now. Today, if you will hear His voice,
If God opened your ears to hear His voice, harden not your heart. Well, pastor, how in the world
can you tell me to take heed? I'm so faithful. I'm just so
dedicated to Christ. I love Christ. I'm so really
assured of everything. I'm alright. I don't need to
take heed. Don't harden your heart. Don't harden your heart. to think
He couldn't be you. Wasn't that the heart of the
disciples when Jesus said that one of you betrayeth Me? They
said, Lord, is it Me? Is it Me? Am I going to leave? You see, they didn't know. God's people confess that if
God does not keep us in the faith, we will not stay in the faith. We believe that all our righteousnesses
are filthy rats. And I don't trust myself. I don't trust my salvation to
My faith. I don't rest on my faith. I rest on the object of my faith. I believe Christ is all my righteousness. I believe that God died, that
Christ died for my sins, being the God-man, the only God-man
mediator. The only one to stand between
me and the almighty wrath of God is Jesus Christ, the man,
the God-man. You see, my faith is in Him. And I'm not resting on something
I'm going to do. I must believe now, today, and
not harden my heart today. Yield in faith. That Jesus paid
it all. That Christ is all. Christ is all. We confess that it is by grace
that we believe and we will believe all the days of our life and
not depart from the living God because of His grace. Yesterday's faith is gone. Don't count on it. Isn't that what it is to depart
from the living God? To build up all those years saying,
I've believed, I've believed, I've believed, and in the end
say, well, I'm trusting in something else. I'm trusting in my faith I had
all those years. Christ say to you, depart from
me, you that work iniquity. Your faith is as unbelief, if
that's what you're trusting in. Believe on Christ. Trust Christ
today. And as we trust Christ today,
if you are a believer in Christ, you will take heed. You will
hear His voice. You will not harden your hearts.
You will bow down and worship. You will serve Him while it is
called today. Today. But I also see something else
in this chapter. Go back. Take heed, brethren,
lest there be any of you with an evil heart of unbelief departing
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. Exhort one another when? Am I to wait till tomorrow to
exhort you? To encourage you in the faith? No. While it's called today. While it's now. I'm encouraging
you right now. Believe! Trust now. Believe now. Well, how do we
exhort one another? Well, first of all, we exhort
each other by love. Scripture says provoke one another
to love. Provoke. Usually, I'm agitating my son
to be angry or something. I'm usually just picking at him,
trying to provoke him to get a little upset at something. Provoke not to anger, but love. I want to provoke you to love. I want to do things that would
encourage you to love. This is the result of true faith.
This is the result of the love of Christ and the love of His
sheep. There is only one Lord, Jesus
Christ. Only one. There's only one faith. There's only one baptism. There's
only one church. This is a local group of believers
who have assembled to worship the Lord Jesus Christ who is
in our midst, who is in our presence. We worship Him in faith. But friends, we are not all there
is. Praise God, He has His church, which is one church. One body. That's what the Scriptures call
us who believe. We are as one body. I don't know about you, but I
love my body. Not out of looks. I'm just saying
I love it when I care for it. I try to care for it. The other
day I was nailing something back here. And I hit my thumb, and
I guarantee you my whole body reacted to try to care for my
thumb. My whole body stopped what it
was doing and focused itself on the hurt part. We are the
body of Christ. And as a body, we are one body,
but many members. Now, what part of the body you
are, I don't know. I don't know. But you know what?
My thumb did not take precedence over any other. The other parts
of the body didn't take precedence over the thumb. In other words,
when this thumb got hurt, my body's reaction was not to chop
it off. It was to care for it. You see, we're believers in Christ.
We may be different in what we're doing. I'm called to preach. You are given gifts, and God's
Word says, the gifts of a man will make room for it. You want
to know what gifts you have? Bow down and wait. Trust Him,
and He'll open the door for your gifts. Don't try to make your
gifts. I've seen people try to make
themselves pastors or preachers. That's like the foot trying to
be the hand. It's not natural. Whatever God has given us to
do in the church, do that. Do that. And do it with all your
heart as unto the Lord in love. And by this you encourage one
another. By your conversation, by your
life, by your actions, you care for each other. I mean, you don't say, well,
I'm the head, I'm the mouth, and the mouth's just better than
the foot. No. Friends, there's one church,
there's one body. God may have called me to be the pastor, but
I'm not more important than you. We're one body. And so as we believe in Christ
and trust, we should exhort one another by our love for one another,
our care for each other. Yesterday, I went over to Connie's
house and they had a big Thanksgiving meal yesterday. And for a moment,
I sat back and I watched all the believers in Christ and how
they were happy. They just were rejoicing and
thankful. And you know what? That made
me rejoice. And they didn't even know what
they were doing. But that's true. When you watch
other believers commune with each other and fellowship with
each other, you know, when you speak of the gospel together,
it just thrills my heart. It does. It provokes me to love
you more. Just when I think I can't love
you anymore, you provoke me to love you more. It's wonderful. And when are we supposed to do
this? Today. Today. Right now. Encourage each other
to believe on Christ while it's called today. By our love. And we exhort one another by
our faithfulness. Is it not encouraging to have
someone you can count on? I would rather have somebody,
to be honest, and tell me that they're not going to do something,
rather than tell me they'll do something and not do it. I mean,
I know that we've all experienced that. We've probably been the
one that's been unfaithful, or we've probably been the one that's
mad at one time or another, I'm sure. We're not as faithful as
we should be. But I know this, we exhort one
another by being faithful. I don't know how many times I've
sat where you're sitting, in the church where I was raised,
and my pastor preaches his heart out, and I was so tired, I couldn't
hold my eyes open. I had worked all that night,
went to school all that day, and I had been exhausted, and
I felt like I was a discouragement to him. Actually, I found out I was just
an encouragement by him being by being there. They know. Friends, it's not for a servant
to be found good, found faithful. It's for a steward to be found
faithful. And I'll tell you by your faithful.
By your faithfulness, you that are faithful, you encourage me
to love. You provoke me to love you. It's
wonderful to my heart. As I preach the gospel to you,
Paul said this, be ye followers of me even as I follow Christ.
I hope and pray God gives me grace to be faithful to preach
the gospel to you all the time. And you should pray for me that
God would give me a grace to be faithful. But as I am faithful,
if I am counted faithful to deliver the gospel to you, brethren,
would it not be just right to be faithful to hear it? When you miss the gospel message, you don't think about it, but
it's not that you're an island by yourself. You affect the whole
body. You discourage the body. If I follow Christ faithfully
to preach the gospel, Be faithful to hear it. I'll tell you what, that's the
first outward sign of apostasy. Now apostasy usually begins somewhere
in your home, in your own private study, your own private prayer.
You leave that off first. But the only way it's really
manifest to anybody else is when you leave off worship. That's
where it begins. Take heed today. Today. Follow Christ today. So when you get up and it's time
for worship. Isn't it today? Isn't it called
today? Yes. Then provoke one another
to love today, encourage one another in the faith by being
faithful, by loving. By not forsaking the assembling
of yourselves together, be faithful to Christ, Now, let me ask you
that believers in Christ, is that grievous to you? Is that harmful? Not if you hear his voice. If
you hear mine, you could be offended. But if you hear his, don't harden
your heart. Confess. Believe. Encourage. Today. May God help us. God help us to do these things. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed
in prayer.