I want you to turn to Hebrews
10. We've got a couple of weeks before I start Philippians, so
I'm going to go into some areas that I feel like would be an
encouragement to us as well as edify us and then encroach upon
our belief systems a little bit. I preached through Hebrews eight years ago 72 sermons. And I know a lot of times we
go through specific teachings, we go through some books and
letters and things, and I say this a lot, and I repeat myself
over and over again. We just go, and when we're done,
we put them away and say, we've got our Bible study ready to
go, and we just move on. Friends, there's a tragedy in
our world today when it comes to our faith. It stands in the pulpits of our
so-called congregations that that man who in some sense or
another is supposed to look out for the sheep and their souls
just does his job. It's wicked. It's satanic. We
don't have to get a sermon together. We have to consider the people
to whom God has given us care for. Anybody can hear a sermon. Anybody can preach a sermon.
The thing is, has God placed the sermon that you're hearing
today on my heart for your good or for me to just get done? The error of our ecclesiology
in America, I think, is bound up in the fact that not only
has the authority of God's Word eroded, Many a man who'd stand
and say, the Bible is authoritative, it is the Word of God, but we'll
not live it, and we'll not teach it, and we'll not shepherd people
under it. And I think it's high time that
we stop being silent about that. When our brothers and sisters
in the faith who are searching for all sorts of things, who
are looking to land themselves in a particular type of ministry,
or season of ministry, or whatever it might be called. What is it
called? Gosh, what am I looking for?
I don't know. our priority or our likes or
our dislikes, the things that we care about the most, what
we're really looking for is this. When our brothers and sisters
are seeking after everything but the gospel and they're finding
everything but truth. No matter how much you love each
other, no matter how much you care for each other, no matter
how much you serve each other, if the Word of God is It's not
there as taught, as written. We're worthless. Because at best, it creates a
joyful idolatry. How's that? I just love my church. I just love my people. I just
love my brother and I love my sister. Oh, they love me. Well,
there's nothing wrong with that, is there? No, not at all. But
how do you love them? For what purpose do you love
them? In what way do you love them? Well, they take care of
me and we have fun together. When I was down, they visited
me. Good, that's required of us. So where's the awesomeness? It's required of us. We don't
get praised for doing that which we're supposed to do, right? If the Word of God is not being
fed to you because you are in the scope of care for a people
who are together by God's hand, then you are not being shepherded.
I can read Spurgeon every day. I can listen to one of the Johns
who preach all the time. They're all named John. I'm going
to change my name to John. Good preachers are John, Jesse. I like that idea. Best book of the Bibles, John. But they don't concern themselves
with your soul and they're not growing you as a whole to do
the work of the ministry, to see the glory of Christ and to
grow as a community of faith. Then there is no shepherding.
I often have said to many people before that you love to be preached
to, but you don't want to be pastored. You love to hear the
sermon, but you don't want to be held accountable to its application.
You want to get your Christian duty out of the way, but you
don't want to see your brother or sister come along and say,
now what are you going to do with that? You want the benefits
of fellowship, but you don't want the authority of the Scripture
to govern your attitude toward the issue. In other words, even
in something like this, you want to be taken care of when you
suffer, but you don't want to be called that your pity is sin. You want somebody to meet your
needs when you have them, but you don't care anything about
dying to yourself. You don't care anything. And
I'm saying you. It's just the way we do as preachers. We just
get off, we, they, whoever they are. I got called out on that
years ago. I keep talking to us so negatively.
Put yourself in there. But you know what I'm saying. Even if it's good theology, if
it's not for you, if it hasn't been labored in prayer for your
heart and your soul and your life together as a family, it's
not your sermon. And it may be the same sermon
that someone else could preach, but it may bless your soul and
equip you, but if it's not equipping you for the sake of how it's
going to land in the face of the body of Christ that you're
a part of locally, it is a worthless sermon. Because there's no application. Do you realize that the entire
New Testament was written to the body of Christ collectively
and then individually, corporately? I know there's a lot of oxymorons.
No. Collectively to all the saints, but then individually to the
congregations in Laodicea or to the congregations in Damascus
or to the congregations in Philippi. And then most specifically, as
it filtered itself through, as the elders of those cities disseminated
that information and laid it out and copied it and wrote it,
and they gave it to the other shepherds and the other deacons
of the other places where people met and gathered together. That
was the purpose of the church staying on earth and gathering.
That it may be equipped to do the work of the ministry, to
the praise of His glorious grace, that as the world looked upon
in awe, They would see a people who by no natural means had a
commonality and a love and a service and a worship and a holy lifestyle
that was just bar none. Are we seeing that in our churches?
Are we seeing that as the church? I don't know, I guess it's just
a way of reminder for myself and for us, is that we need to
recognize that the only ministry that lasts is the ministry of
the Word. In Ephesians chapter 4, we'll
just remember this now, about a year or so ago, it says that
Christ gave gifts. And the gifts were the apostles
and the teachers and the preachers Those who ministered the Word
of God. Now there's a lot of gifts. You're
a gift to the church. But the only way you function effectively
to the praise of the glorious grace of God, the only way you
function in knowledge with zeal, is that you are under the teaching
of the Word of God together as a body. That we, all of us, including
those who teach it, are actively doing that which we are being
taught. We've got a problem in our world
today where we think that the man behind the podium is the
expert teaching us all that good stuff he knows. No, we learn
it. And then we share what we've
learned. Well, you preached Hebrews eight years ago. That don't mean
nothing. I'm eight years behind in the
application if I don't bring it back. And so what I want to
do this week and next week is I want to deal specifically with
a couple of things. And Jesse and I have talked about
it. Many of you have talked about it over the last few months.
It's that the grace of God is only given through the local
church. I want you to hear that. The grace of God is given only
through the local church. Now let me give you a caveat.
I want to warn you. That's what that means. Warning.
Don't hear what I'm not saying and don't paste an entire absolute
doctrinal implication about what I've just said to throw out everything
else that you know is true. I'm not saying that God's Word
is not the vehicle for grace. But what I'm telling us is that
it's not going to grow and plant churches. when God's word is
just laid out on a urinal for somebody to stumble upon. Or
in a drawer with the phone book at the hotel. God uses that. One of my mentors was saved just
by reading a Bible. But the first thing that he did,
the very next morning, is to find a church. Because the Holy
Spirit of God in him that saved him in the middle of the night
in his college dorm, when he read the whole New Testament,
was that he needed to be around other Christians. Now. Not, I
need to find me a church. He just drove to the one he could
find. I've shared that with you. Because that's the way God continues
to give grace to His people. Through the Word of God as it
is taught and learned and applied with the local church. Remember
when we went through Titus? Tiny Titus? Remember some of
the things that we talked about? And one of the sermons, I think
it might have been in Titus, if it wasn't, it should have been,
was that the church has a face. Who are your fellow Christians? Who is your body? Who is your
church? Not where and what. Who are the
people who are representative of these chairs? Who are the
people who are out of town because of a death in the family? Or
because of a work schedule? Or because of illness? Or because
of sin? Who are they? See, are they on
our minds this morning as we gaze around this room and say,
okay, we see who's here, we minister, we love those who are here, but
where are those who are not here? Are they out of mind, out of
sight, out of mind? Or are they top of mind? Because
what they need, just like what we need, is the Word of God.
As we're equipped in the Scripture, then God's grace is given to
us and builds us more and more. Then we can then take that which
we've been given and give to others. We need not psychology
and therapy and money and food or clothing. We don't need those
things in the long haul of life because at the end of it all,
we leave it all behind. It's all for nothing. Even the
resurrection of the dead in the New Testament brought people
back from that eternal hope. Lazarus, come out! Bummer. But you know what's great
about that? Lazarus was chosen by God to
die so that he could reveal the glory of Christ. So I guess there's some benefit
there. Because I tell you what, that brother, that brother knew
what he was going for. And he couldn't wait to die again.
But I bet you he preached like a fool until he did. I mean,
his sister Mary poured out a year's salary on the head and feet of
Jesus. It cost what most families made
in a year to get that nard. You didn't know that, did you? That's why they were so upset
that she poured it out. And of course, the thief, he's
like, Judas is like, man, we could have given that to the
poor. He's thinking, I could have sold that at the pawn shop. So the point I want to make is
that God's grace is given through the local church. I'm not talking
about Romanism. I'm not talking about the fact
that the church does, but the church as its function is to
be together as a people who govern themselves under the Word of
God according to the Word that's given to them, according to the
commands that's given to them, according to the hierarchy that's
given to them and the structure. So let's look at Hebrews chapter
10. Now Hebrews chapter 10 is a very loaded text. It's the
place where we go to understand that the high priestly
office of Jesus Christ is sufficient, not only sufficient, but satisfying
and finished. His work is done, but yet He
continued to intercede on our behalf because of His finished
work, because of the atonement. And there's a lot of implications
that come through this understanding of the atonement, of the finished
work of Jesus Christ. In other words, Jesus is not
still satisfying the judgment of sin. He's satisfied it already.
So then we have to ask, and I'm not going to get into this today,
we have to ask, what therefore is the applied atonement? How is it effectual in the life
of people? It's effectual in the life of people because of
faith. but it was applied way back. So how do we see it? It's accomplished as the title
of the book, justification or accomplished and applied. We
know that Christ accomplished justification. We know that Christ
accomplished it. But then also we know the Holy
Spirit continues to apply it to those to whom it is given. So when we see the writer of
Hebrews talking about Jesus, He says that there are some who
are taking the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and rejecting it. You
know what that's called? Rejection of the gospel. And if I were
to really preach all of this, it would take some time because
it's a very difficult text for us to hear. It's very simple
to understand, but it's a very difficult text for us to gather
into our hearts. But ultimately what we see is
that God doesn't take pleasure in the wrote religion. He didn't take pleasure in the
sacrifices of goats and rams. It didn't satisfy him. And I'm
going to put this as anthropomorphism. I'm just going to give God a
humanistic trait. It gave him something to remind
him of what was coming. So as God looked at Israel and
saw their sacrifices and saw their worship, it wasn't satisfying
to Him. What was satisfying to Him is
that He saw that and went, this is nothing but a shadow of what
I'm about to do. I'm about to do it. They're working like bees.
Look at them. God bless them. I love them all.
I'm going to show them what real redemption is. It points to it. It's a shadow, but it's not true
redemption. There was never a man ever atoned for by the blood
of a goat. There's never a man ever been
atoned for by a sack of flour. Never. And so, when we get there,
then the writer of Hebrews talks about some people. He says there's
some folks, there's two sets of folks. There's folks that
say they're in the faith, but by their actions they're not living
there. They continue to go on deliberately sinning, as we'll
see. And then there's other folks, like us, who have been redeemed,
who have hope. We put our hope in the confidence of the finished
work of Jesus Christ. So let's look right here. In verse 23, it's hard for me to figure out where
to start. So I'll just start verse 23 in Hebrews chapter 10. Let's
go. Let us hold fast the confession
of our hope without wavering. For he who promised is faithful. and let us consider how to stir
up one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet
together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another
all the more as you see the day drawing near. Now you know what
verse 26 and 27 and 28 and 29 and 30 say. Now let me talk about those verses
and then we go to the text. You see where I'm going? Verse
25, 24. In the latter part of this text,
the writer here begins to talk about if we go on sinning deliberately,
there's no longer a sacrifice for our sin. For we've spurned
the Son of God. But it's not just those who are
ignorant, though it's still death. It's those who have tasted in
the heavenly gift, who have experienced the power of the kingdom to come,
who have heard the word of God, who by all faculties go, absolutely,
this is absolutely true. This is real stuff. We know that
Jesus has satisfied the wrath of God. We have a knowledge of
all the doctrines of grace, but yet our lives continually rebel
against Him. The writer here is saying that
person is not able to be saved when God seals them for destruction. Now, where do you get that? There no longer remains a sacrifice
for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment. Anyone who has set
aside the law of Moses died without mercy. How much worse punishment
do you think will be deserved by the one who has spurned the
Son of God, who has profaned the blood of the covenant by
which He was sanctified and has outraged the Spirit of grace?
Friends, we've got to be very careful to understand that this
is the antithesis, this is the counter of the instruction that
this writer gives us in verse 24 and 25. Now, you may go, that's a little
bit of a stretch here, and if you haven't caught what I'm about
to do, you'll see it. The writer here is saying that
there's a deliberate sin when we don't assemble together. There's a deliberate sin when
we avoid the body of Christ. It's a deliberate sin. Why? Because
we're saying, we're saying we're okay by ourselves. But the blood
of Christ has bought a people, not a person. And that's just
in a vague sense. Let's look at directly what happens
in the context of being together. This is the picture. If you want
to slip back over to Acts 2, listen to these words, or you
can roll there or you can listen. Acts 2, verse 42. Here's the
picture. Because you can't really get the picture from Hebrews,
can you? You just get the instruction. Here's what we're supposed to
do. This is what it looks like. Here's the picture in verse 42.
And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, and to
the fellowship, and to the breaking of bread, and to the prayers.
And all... came upon every soul, and many
wonders and signs were done through the apostles, and all who believed
were together and had all things in common. They were selling
their stuff and distributing it to all as any had need. And day by day, attending the
temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received
their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having
favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number
day by day those who were being saved. So you see the picture
there. We'll come back to that in the
end. So what the instruction of Hebrews is, is that we are
to what? We are to do something and we
are to be doing it together. Look at the directions they're
giving in verse 24 specifically. And let us consider how to stir
up So here we've got some things. First, that the writer is teaching
the whole church, the body of Christ. He said, hold fast to
our confession of hope. Let us draw near. Let us hold
fast without wavering. Then let us consider. And so
part of being able to hold fast is that we hold fast together.
We hold fast together as we consider something. So what does it mean
to consider? Let us, number one, is that there's
a plural there. This is not an apostolic letter
written to an individual. This is an apostolic letter written
to the body. And so he's not saying, Timothy,
I want you to take out the laundry or the garbage. He's saying,
hey, you Christians, I want you to consider together how you
can stir each other up to love and to good works as you wait
and see all the more that the day of the Lord is approaching.
So let's break that down. So us gives us an understanding
that there is a plurality and an inclusivity. The apostles
are saying, let us, let us. And it's not we should or you
might think about or it will be best as. It's actually a command.
Let us consider. So the command here is to consider
something. Well, if we're supposed to consider
it, what are we supposed to do? We're supposed to give precedence
to it. I mean, purpose to it. We're supposed to give time to
it. We're supposed to give an attitude of going, we need to
give time thinking and purpose thinking to something. So if
we're to consider where we're going to eat today for lunch,
what will we do? We'll think, well, I had this
yesterday. We'll go through some things. We'll contemplate it.
That place is too high. That place is too loud. That
place stinks. And we'll think through it, won't we? How come
it's often the case that we think and consider more about what
we're going to eat for lunch than we do how we're going to
stir each other up to love and good deeds? And then call that fellowship. And I think it is fellowship,
but we're forsaking one to do the other. And then as we're
together, are we considering? You know why many people, well,
I just don't know how to shepherd people. Because you're not thinking about
it. We're not thinking about how we're supposed to shepherd
each other. The Scripture says that the Word of God, actually
in chapter 4, the same thing, is living and breathing. It's
sharper than any two-edged sword. And it's effective. It cuts bone
and marrow and soul. You see that? And we know that
Scripture sharpens us. So that when we have Scripture,
we sharpen each other. What does the Old Testament say?
As iron sharpens iron, so does one man sharpen another. And
God Himself has said through the prophets that my word does
not return to me empty, void, vain, worthless, but does that
for which it was sent. So is the Word of God coming
to you today, brother, sister, so that you can sharpen someone
else? Or do we take the Word of God
as our little special package? Do we take the preaching of the
Gospel and the preaching of the Word, do we take our church service
attendance as our little special time for us? Is it our little
pill of happiness to get us through the next few days? Friends, let's
don't be wasteful. Let's don't be hoarders. Let's
understand that we're not here today so that we can grow into
the great little singular person that God wants us to be. We're
here today so that God can grow somebody else through us. I mean,
that's the point. But in America, it's all about
me, myself, and I. In the New Testament, the only
thing I see is about each member of the church being part of a
body so that it may do the work that it's supposed to do for
the sake of the good of the body. Even in those hard-headed Corinthians,
Paul teaches them that. That even what you go through,
what you have, the gifts that you have are for the greater
good, not for you. So what that you can exegete Scripture if
you're not teaching it, you're worthless? So what that you have a gift
of discernment if you're not around people to give discernment and
wisdom, you're worthless? So what if you have the gift
of hospitality and you never open your front door, you're
worthless? That's the argument. So when we learn together, yes,
we do benefit personally, but our heart as it's driven by the
Holy Spirit of God is that we will take that which God has
given us and plant it in somebody else. We don't think, let me
sit this on the shelf now with all my trophies. We don't want
trophies. We want to impart truth in each
other's lives. And most of the time, most of the time, ministry
and truth is harder than it is easy for us and the recipient. People think they know the kind
of ministry they want. But if you just do this for me, but you
know what the Bible teaches here? I'm going to do that for you
and I'm going to give you instruction to go with it. It's a hard pill
to swallow. And I don't care how many teaspoons
of sugar you get, it doesn't go down any easier. Mary Poppins
reference, for those of you who are old enough to get it. So we're to stir each other up.
But in order to do that, we have to consider, are we considering
how we're supposed to do that? Do we give time to it? When we
think of people, I mean, all of us in here probably think
of people every day, throughout the day, and they come to mind
and we go, oh, I want to pray for them. Let's add to our prayer, God,
how am I to consider, how am I to help stir them? Because
ministry to each other is not about getting us out of the squalor,
getting us out of the financial problems, getting us out of the
things that we might can. It's just short term. Is it not? It's just short term. We get
it out today. You give it a little breathing
room. Where's the power that stays? Where's the ministry that
sticks? Where's the Holy Spirit of God
moving in our lives during that type of ministry? So, the harder
ministry is to say, okay, this is what they think they want.
This is what I know they need. I'm going to give them what they
need. It's hard for us. Because we like the bouquet of
flowers. It's no problem. I'm not talking bad about flowers.
You see, when I say, don't hear what I'm not saying. It's okay.
It's good to give flowers. It's nice to give cards. A good
little text or an email or a phone call. It's awesome. Do it. But
it feels good when somebody says, that is so sweet. Oh, I love
you so much. Thank you so much for those flowers.
And then they open the card and it says, repent, wicked man.
And you've already gone. You see how that works? And I'm
not saying we've got to be nasty. But what if the ministry that's
needed is you need to quit whining. Do all things without grumbling
and complaining. Do you know God has given that
suffering to you? God, before the hands of time
were begun, God wrote the script of your life that you might glory
and have joy in His wonder. And part of the story He's written
for you has nothing to do with what you do. Because the outcome
of God's purpose is going to be fulfilled, period. And if
I change my mind twelve times over, that's the script of God.
And it's my free will in the hand of a mighty sovereign God.
But the reality is when we give ministry to each other, to stir
each other up, what does that mean? Sometimes it's hard. It's hard to go and tremble at
somebody's door and you ring the doorbell and, you know, they've
been hiding. You say, what are you talking
about? People that escape church. That's what I call it. They're
not just AWOL. They are escaping. It's like
we've locked them up and they've finally burst out the window
and they're, whoa, we've got to go find them. We've got the
spotlights and the dogs. We catch them home one day at an obscure
hour. Because we've gone by a few times, we've left notes, we've
called, we've sent emails. When we see them, we just pass
them on the street. Oh, they're so-and-so. We turn
around, follow them to their house. They go inside, knock
on the door, ring the doorbell, nobody's home. Lights start going out. You hear the parents going,
shh, shut up kids. And I actually had one person
that we had just pursued and pursued and just wanted to love
and share the gospel, and we missed them, we loved them, and
they just wouldn't. And we showed up, and the lights went out,
and one of the dudes with me says, we hear y'all in there!
And I rang the doorbell a few more times, and finally a voice
goes, nobody's home! So when they get back, tell them,
pastor came by, we'll do it. Left. It was so funny, we actually
talked to him a few weeks later. But I mean, you ever have people
run like that? You know why people run from truth? Because they
know they're guilty of ignoring it. You know why people run from
the church? Because they're guilty of hating,
reproof, correction, and even worse, love. People don't not
want to be loved. Yes, they do. They don't want
to be loved sometimes. They don't like it. They don't
like the fact that they are vulnerable in front of people. And so why
don't we need stirring up anyway? Aren't we all supposed to just
have this and we get together? You know, we do our devotion.
We're doing Spurgeon in the morning and Oswald Chambers in the evening.
We've got a little TV, radio going on. We're always in the
Word of God. That's good, but are we taking that application
to somebody else? Are we sharing that ministry
to others as we go? Are we thinking of someone else
in our fellowship that we can actually give that to and stir
them up? Because you know what I've got
on my prayer list more than anything? More than sickness, more than
finances, more than marriage problems? It's people whose faith
is just dwindling away. I don't see any evidence of spirituality,
any evidence of growth. I was sharing with the brothers
this morning right before service about a guy that left his Bible
on the front pew of the church and put it on the table back
there. And the next Wednesday he didn't pick it up. Next Monday
he didn't pick it up. Sunday, Wednesday, Monday, that's
when we had church services. And I just took it and put it
in my drawer. Weeks, months. And he'd come in wanting to counsel,
and the first thing I asked him was, what are you reading in
your Bible? He told me all sorts of stuff he was reading. I said,
well, what Bible do you use, you know? You got a couple of
different versions? No, I ain't got but one. This
one. You know, he didn't like that.
He thought I was digging in his business. I was digging in his
business. I was digging in his eternal life. I was digging in the depths
of his heart. just crushed, and he hated life,
and he hated his marriage, and he hated his children, and he
hated his job, and he hated everything. He'd come to church to try to
get his fix, but the point was he would hide from the brethren.
He'd hide from us. He wouldn't want to say, well,
can we get together today? No, I'm busy. I've got a lot
going on. Find out he's fishing. Find out he's at the movies.
But then when it was all at the end of his rope, and all he had
to do was tie it off and hang himself with it, then it was
time for counsel. And you know the counsel I gave him? The problem
with you, bro, is you're a sinner, and you've been saved by the
blood of Jesus, but you failed to stay in His Word. That's what's
wrong with you. That's why you feel the way you
do. That's why you hate your life. That's why your family
is going to hell. That's why your marriage is going to hell.
That's why your job is disgusting you because you think more about
you than you do about God's purpose for you in the life of others.
And he didn't like that. He fussed a little bit and took
his Bible. But that's ministry. That's love.
And that's an extreme case. What about just everyday life?
You think everybody in here? I mean, y'all know some of the
people who are out. You know what they're going through? Cancer.
Grandmother passed away. Sister's sick. I mean, who doesn't
have problems? We all do. The question is, are
we really giving each other the stirring that's needed to be
given? And what does it mean to stir?
What does it mean to stir each other up? Well, here's the real
cool thing. You can't stir that which you
can't put your hands on. I know some people who can't
stir even when they have their hands on something. In the sense
of a cooking pot, they stir it all out of the pot. But in reality, when we're trying
to stir each other up, how can you spur me on if you don't see
me? How can you stir? How can you
be stirred if you don't contact somebody? How are we to stay
connected? And in a world like today, it's
almost ridiculous that we can't at least leave messages, at least
send emails. But is that really what the Bible
is talking about here? Just, you know, send a note?
No. Face-to-face time. We've got a problem. I thought
about even preaching on that, but it just seems like a waste
of the pulpit every now and then. We've got a problem when it comes
to using all the social media and
calling it ministry. Ministry can take place and ministry
happens and we can build an encouragement. Some of us just don't know if
we can stay connected. But it's not the answer. It's just a tool
to get us together. It's just a tool for us to get
to the place where we can be together so we can stir each
other up. But what does it mean? I've asked that question four
times already. It means to motivate. Stirring each other up means
to spur, to motivate, to push, to encourage, to drive someone
to. So you stir them up. What do
you think, other than cooking when stirring, or a drink that
you might be mixing, or putting some milk in your coffee, or
whatever, what do you think when you think of stirring? In the
sense of taking something that's at rest, and docile and agitating
it. So when we stir each other up,
we agitate something. What are we agitating? The person?
No, we're agitating the passiveness. We're agitating the apathy. We're
agitating the unbelief. We're agitating the poor discipline. We're agitating. It's like seeing
a beehive or a hornet's nest. Have you ever seen one hanging
from a tree? And you think, wow, that thing's buzzing with activity.
It is. You want to see it really move?
Whack it. And then they'll see you really move, because they
will hunt you down, and they will catch you, and they will
sting you. I always liked the teenager, you know, all of us
growing up out there in the country, and it was always the cousin
that thought he was the most humorous thing. He'd find a hornet's
hole. See, hornets around here, they
can live in holes, and stick a stick in it, and just stir
it all around and leave the stick. Well, he doesn't realize there's
another exit. There's another exit and you hear... And it's
just, oh wow. Why are you comparing stirring
up hornets and wasps to stirring each other up? Because it's in
the same vein. We are to not allow each other
to get complacent in our walk. And that includes the ones who
do show up to church because they can't be stirred if they're
not here. Much less those that aren't here. We've got to go
find them and stir them. And I think it's okay to continually
drive the point, you need to be in fellowship, brother. I
love you and I can minister to you, but there's going to come
a day when the ministry to you outside the body of Christ, outside
the gathering together is going to stop because this is the most
important thing. And what you need is God's Word,
and you can read it, and you can look at it on your tablet,
and you can hear it on the radio, and you can share it with your
family, and you can teach them, and they can teach you, and your
neighbor can come over, but that's not the purpose that God intended
for the body of Christ. We don't just become our own
shepherds, and we don't become our own churches. We don't become
our own congregations. God has saved every individual
that is born again through Jesus Christ for the sake of investing
in the local church so that the local church can continue to
grow in holiness and in wisdom and in worship. We need to be stirred because
we battle the flesh. We battle the flesh. There's
sin there. There's deliberate sin, which if we could continue
in this text, we'd see that there's a difference. There's self-reliance. I can make this happen. I'm good.
I got it. Lying to each other. I mentioned
that a little bit last week. We lie to each other. We say,
everything's great. I need nothing when we go home
and have the greatest of needs. We become isolated. That's a
sin to be isolated. We need stirring because of sadness,
because of the facade of everything being good. We also need stirring
because we should strive toward Christ. We should be striving
toward Christ in love and in good deeds or obedience. We should
be pressing into the gospel that we have held on to without wavering. How do we do that? Have you ever
been out of fellowship of the body for a couple of weeks out
of necessity and then just felt like, I don't even want to go
back because, I mean, it's just, things are different. You ever
been like that? Or you ever thought about, well, you know, I don't know what's wrong, but
I just don't feel right. You know, I get a lot of that.
I don't feel right. Well, you know, it's not about how we feel, is it?
Feelings change like the wind, like the weather. It was 50 degrees
in here an hour ago. Now it's about 70, maybe 60. But it changes. Our feelings
will change. Our minds will change. Our emotions
will change. Our thoughts will change. Our
belief systems will change. But what remains? The Word of
God. How are we to be protected and stirred? If I come up and
said, you know, well, man, I was reading the Bible today and God
really showed me this. I've shared this with some of
you before. And I've shared that with a brother before. And I
called him up and I'm like, man, you wouldn't believe what God
showed me in this text. He said, that's really a great
truth, but that's stupid because the Bible doesn't teach that
there. Oh, I'm sorry. I don't want to be told that
what I'm thinking is stupid, but I'm glad he said it before
I got up and taught it in the church the next week. See, so
how are we even to be protected in that way as we strive to truth
and strive to the gospel and strive toward Christ with love
and good works if we're not together? We have to be together, church.
And when we are stirred or motivated, we're motivating each other.
So even as we're stirring our brothers and sisters, that stirring
on our part in turn stirs us. So if we see somebody that's
just like a bump on a log in their spiritual life and we stir
and they get excited, their joy and zeal stirs us. It's not about
sitting down and saying, okay now, in 1 Corinthians it teaches
this. I mean, that's part of it. But
most of the time it's sort of organic. We're thinking. We see
something and we think, well, Lord, what am I going to do?
But because we're in the fellowship, because we're in the Word, because
we're praying in the Spirit, the Lord brings to mind the Word.
He says, okay, share that. You know, when I went through
this, the Bible, the Scripture taught me this. And then I go,
oh, hallelujah! Maybe it's not then, but maybe
a few days later, a week later, a month later. And then they're
encouraged and their life and their joy encourages us. And
we ended up getting a greater blessing than they did. Did we
not? And then what does that do? It's
like a domino that never, it just falls and stands back up
and just keeps going. It's the way God has purposed
the church to live. And the two things that we see
there that we're to continually stir each other up to is to love
and to good works. So if we're to love each other
and to do good works, what does that look like? Well, we know
what love looks like, but I'll tell you what love looks like
in the context of Scripture. Love says that we give of ourselves
at the cost of ourselves. I mean, if I want to just break
it down in a simple way, the Scripture teaches that love is
sacrificial. Love is really not, I mean, anybody
can love in an emotional way. I just love them. I just love
them. I just love But the guy that's
coming to your door that you go, who is that? Oh, that's the guy that cursed
me out last week. What's he coming to my house
for? And you can say, well, I love him. He's God's creature, like
an ant. Is that really how we love? No. You open the door, you invite
him in, you feed him supper, you send him out with some packages. That's
what love is. And the whole while you're sitting
there going, I don't know why I'm doing this. I can't believe it. But that's
what love is. Love is easy when they're lovable.
When they're unlovable, it's difficult. So do you think it
was easy for Christ to love us in our wickedness? No. That's why he had to die. So
that our judgment would be satisfied. So we love the way Christ loved
and we do good works and we're to spur and stir and motivate
each other as we give continued purpose thinking toward that
thing. So if we've got to stir each other up toward love, how
do we do that apart? How do we do it? Is it just osmosis? Is it attaboys? Is it handshakes?
Is it hugs at the door? No. It takes even beyond this. It takes even beyond the fellowship
of the saints together. But it starts here. It starts
with the Word of God. Friends, if you want to know
how to love each other, you've got to understand how God has
loved you. For God loved the world in this way that He gave
His only Son. We love God because God first,
what does John say, loved us. This is love. There is no greater
love than this. You know these texts, that a
man would lay down his life for a brother. You know what, laying
down sometimes is just as simple as being discomforted by the
fact that we've got to give reproved correction or comfort. And sometimes
it's just dying, physically. physically. We're to love and we're to do
good works, and I believe the good works starts with service
to the church. In Acts chapter 2, verse 42,
where I read just a minute ago, we saw that they daily devoted
themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the breaking of bread, to
the fellowship, to the prayers. Together. The word fellowship
there in the Greek, it means all things in common. all things
in common. And so if we've got all things
in common, how will we have things in common if we're not together? It's difficult. But we've gotten
into the mentality in our culture that we go to church and we do
church and we plug into church. That's nowhere found in Scripture.
Nowhere anywhere. I would say that even the format
of how we do things is not even, I'm not saying it's unbiblical,
but it's not biblically mandated. What is mandated is that we're
together with the teaching of the Word, with people who have
been called by God as a life to shepherd that people. And it is the ministry of the
Word, first and foremost, given to the church, that the church
may have the grace to continue to give it to others. And you see what that looks like. You see what that looks like
in your own life. Good works, obedience, service. I would say
that, let's say that the foundation of good work is devotion. Devotion
to learning the Word of God. Devotion to praying for each
other. Devotion to feeding each other. Devotion. Devotion to
each other. That's what Acts 2 gives us a
picture of. So that's what the picture looks like. But what's
the product? What's the end? What's the outcome
of all of these things? Well, let's continue to look
in Hebrews here. He says, "...and let us consider how to stir up
one another to love and good works, not..." Here's the negative. "...not neglecting to meet together." What I'm saying is true because
it's written in the Bible. That you cannot, no matter how
much we think we can, we cannot stir each other up if we're not
together. It's not possible. It's impossible. So, we don't
neglect to meet together as some are in the habit of doing. or as it is the habit of some,
but encouraging one another. So what is that? Stirring, building,
all-encompassing. We're encouraging one another
as we wait and look forward to the day of the Lord. So how do
we do that? Is God going to ring every one of our doorbells and
say, okay, now, James, time to come? He's going to call His
body. He's coming for His church. for
the body, so that we'll be together in eternity, forever, as one
body. Well, I don't like the idea.
You sound like me. I'm just going to be like a little spot on the
screen or a number. You are the adopted of God. You are the justified of Christ.
You are those who have been purchased by the blood of Jesus. And your
individual self is vital to the success or to the worship. That's
what the success of the church is, is true worship. is to the
success of the church as a whole. And if our hearts are wanting
to be more important than we are, we miss the point of the
gospel. You think it's more important to be the preacher or the teacher
than it is the hearer? No. What good is one without
the other? Who would I be preaching to if
there were just chairs? Who would I be praying for if
there were just chairs? That's why I don't buy this web
church junk. These men are not called God.
I hate to say stuff like that, but I can't find any justification.
Oh, I'm a member of so-and-so internet church. It's there. There's a lot of young people
doing that. And I watch it on TV. I watch it on the internet
every week. It's live, so it's right. What's that got to do
with anything? Do not neglect to meet together.
There are some who are in the habit of that, and those are
the ones who deliberately keep on sinning. Those are the ones
who, because they're not together, by the fact they don't want to
be together, are really defaming the gospel. They're saying to
themselves that the power of Christ's sacrifice, the power
of the cross is not effectual in me. I'll be saying today,
Lord, give me the ability to walk and live as you've saved
me to live. Help me walk in Your ways. When
Your Word was hidden from me, when my heart was not even able
to hear the Word of God, Your Holy Spirit came and woke me
up and I saw and I believe and I'm a new creature. So as I'm
a new creature, help me walk in the statutes of Your holiness. Together with my brothers and
sisters. We have to encourage each other.
We can't do that if we're not together. And we do that in the
context of waiting until the day of the Lord. What does that
look like? Have you ever thought about that? If our encouragement and our
stirring is to love and good deeds, then I believe our love
and our good deeds, which go hand in hand, are in anticipation
of the culmination of this. Great redemption. That we do
these things together with the hope and the promise and the
confession of our hope in Him who is faithful that we are waiting
when we will all be transformed and glorified. We are pressing
individually and collectively and stirring each other up to
that end. Are we not preparing for eternity?
Isn't that what we're for? Isn't that what the church is
all about? to display the manifold wisdom of God, to project the
face of Jesus Christ as we suffer with joy together, as we do all
things that are unnatural to the man, or to humanism, or to
humanity. We do all things contradictory
because we've been created as a new people. and despite our
ethnicity, or our gender, or our financial stability, or our
expertise, or our intellect, we are all one in the body of
Christ. We are the body. Christ is our head. And so the
church is not this Western phenomenon that we have made it to be. The
church is a bride who is being prepared to be spotless, without
blemish, And the outcome of that is endurance. Look. Well, I've got to go back to
Acts. Hold on a minute. No, I'm not. Right there. 35. Look down at verse 35 of Hebrews
chapter 10. It says, Therefore do not throw
away your confidence. which has a great reward. Verse 36, that's
what I was looking for. For you have need of endurance,
so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive
what is promised. So what is the real end of the
body together? Is that all that we do, as we
are together in this journey of faith, We do it that we may
hold fast. That holding fast is enduring.
We endure. And the examples that Hebrews
gives is that people joyfully accepted the plundering of their
property. For they knew they had an abiding reward. How did
they know that? They learned it and then went
off on their own? No. They learned it and continued to learn it
and continued to be reminded of it. And when one man would
lose his home and his family and his belongings due to persecution... See, these were Hebrew people
who came to the Gospel. And they got it bad. It was bad. The government took their land,
took their house, kicked them out and said, go or die. So they were dispersed as nomads. And as one brother would go home
and Rome was in there and people liked Paul, Before his conversion,
they were just ravaging everything, taking everything, burning stuff
down, seizing it for the government, just selling children off. And this guy says, I have come
to see Christ. Why? Oh God, where are You now? You see that? And his brother puts his hands
on his shoulder and says, come on, bro, you've got a better reward
than that. That's nothing but garbage. Let's go. Endurance. Because we see the parable of
the sower, there's many people who joyfully receive the Word
of God, but when the weeds come and choke it, the concerns of
the world choke it, they reject it. They walk away. If you're
the body and you're not with the body, you may not be the
body. And the test will come is that
when the Lord's Word comes to you and gives you a a quickening
of joy for fellowship and for growing and for enduring and
for encouragement. You will not throw away your
confession. You will press into it. So what's the application of
it all? Well, we have a common life. We praise and worship.
But I want to leave you... Go back to Acts for a second.
I keep making you flip back and forth. But look at verse 42 and
43 again. I want to read it. And then I'm done. And they devoted
themselves. Who were they? Those 3,000 souls
that came to faith the day before. Plus daily, more and more and
more. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching. That's
the Word of God, the New Testament as we know it. They didn't think
it was the New Testament. They didn't call it that back
then. It was just the apostles' letters. They devoted themselves
to the apostles' teaching. and to the fellowship, that's
the commonality, all things in common, and to the breaking of
bread, the Lord's table, but they did it in the context of
a meal, not just like we do. And prayer, verse 43, here is
the end. And all came upon every soul. Now stop there for a second. So many professing Christians
in our world today, they don't live in awe. They don't live
in awe. They live in expectation and
entitlement. Or they live in pity, putting
a mask on and living a facade. If we are not in fellowship together,
the grace of God is not given to us as it should be. and we
will not endure, and we will not worship, and we will not
minister to each other, and we will not be in awe. Do you want
to be in awe? Well, even when I'm by myself
and I'm in awe of God sometimes, the outcome of that is to share
it with you, to share it with my neighbor, to share it with
my brothers and sisters. That is the point of today's sermon,
is that we should not forsake gathering together as some are
in the habit of doing, but encourage each other, stir each other up,
consider how we might to love and to good deeds as we await
for the culmination of our all and our wonder. And I pray that you find yourself
in that body today. I pray you find yourself in Christ,
that you are indeed the body who has been purchased by His
blood. The only hope you have is faith
in Jesus. True, unreserved, absolute belief
that He alone is the only way you will have eternal life. There's
nothing you can do. There's nothing you can say.
There's nowhere you can go. There's nothing you can get. You just have to believe. Let's
pray. Father, you amaze me every day more and
more. But you amaze me that you allow
us to assemble, that you put us together that we may have
love for one another, that You saved us out of darkness
and sin and rebellion, that You transformed us from death to
life. And as we wait in this world,
we do as we should, longing for the day when we will see You
face to face and be like You. So God, until that day, would
You press in us in our hearts a supernatural affection for
each other, a supernatural purpose to think and consider how we
might minister to each other. Lord, a heart for Your Word and
a heart for the souls of the lost. Lord, plant all that you need
to plant in us today, that it may grow and turn a reward hundreds
and thousands fold. We pray these things in Christ's
name. Amen.