Hebrews 3:13
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I want to start off tonight with a thought exercise, and I want 100% participation. I'm going to give a scenario, and I want you to take a second and imagine that you are actually in that scenario, and try and register the thoughts and emotions that it brings. Really, really try and put yourself in it. Okay, here's the scenario. You're back in school. Your teacher has just told you that the final that is going to determine your grade in the class is a group project.
Okay. Take a second. Just imagine you're actually in that class hearing it. What do you think? What do you feel? Okay. Now, I would imagine that very generally, I could divide you into two groups based on your response. two groups, very generally. You're in group one. If right now you're feeling a little bit anxious and you're thinking something along the lines of, great, this is going to be a ton of work that I'm going to end up doing by myself in order to get the grade that I want to get in this class.
That's group one. You know who you are. I'm Brandon Schaefer. By contrast, some of us, some of you, are not feeling anxious. We're thinking something like, if I play my cards right here, I can get away with not doing much work and still get a pretty good grade in this class. That's group two. And if you aren't in a group because you didn't pay attention or didn't care to do it, you're not in your own group, you're also in group two.
Okay. That's silly, but here's my connection. In our text tonight, the Holy Spirit, through the author of Hebrews, is not giving us an individual assignment. He's giving us a group project that requires the efforts and commitment of all of us as a body of believers. Turn with me in your Bibles, or look at the front of your bulletin, and we'll read our text tonight. Hebrews 3.13. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
Let me read it again. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. I think the main idea of this passage is this. If you are a follower of Jesus, you are required to exercise Christian care and watchfulness over each other and faithfully give and receive warnings, rebukes, and admonishments as the case requires. I think that should be familiar to you if you're a member of Third Avenue Baptist, but let me say it again for those of you taking notes. If you are a follower of Jesus, you are required to exercise a Christian care and watchfulness over each other and faithfully give and receive warnings, rebukes, and admonishments as the case requires. We're going to think about two applications from our text tonight, and those will serve as the points of my devotional. So application one, sin hardens your heart and prevents you from trusting the promises of God.
Sin hardens your heart and prevents you from trusting the promises of God. Application two. Giving and receiving exhortation and encouragement helps us persevere. Giving and receiving exhortation and encouragement helps us persevere. So point one. Sin hardens your heart and prevents you from trusting the promises of God. So, in our text, when the author of Hebrews uses the word harden in our verse, he is pulling it out of and applying it from his quotation of Psalm 95 in verse 8, which reads, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion on the day of testing in the wilderness where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for 40 years.
Psalm 95, as Jared excellently preached this morning, is David explaining to us what happened at the moment when Israel was faced with a decision to enter into the promised land or not. They're deciding between two things. On one hand, Moses has told them that the God who delivered them from Egypt has promised that he will give them the land and fight their battles for them. On the other, they have a report from the scouts that the land is filled with big, strong people who aren't just going to roll over.
What David says is that they hardened their hearts and gave in to fear. They gave in to fear and they refused to trust God. And then if we work backwards to our text, the author of Hebrews says that it was the deceitfulness of sin that hardened their hearts. So what do we learn about sin from that? Sin isn't just deceitful because it's tempting to us, although it is. sin is deceitful because it causes us to forget and ignore the reality of God and his promises Israel didn't have some tempting third option it wasn't the promised land in front slavery in Egypt and back and oh wait here's a great you know unoccupied fertile land off to the side Egypt wasn't tempting to them because they thought it was better than the promised land it was tempting because they thought they were going to die if they entered.
They were deceived by the strength of their enemies and their own weakness into believing that God wasn't worth trusting. They were afraid that God isn't who he says he is. Fear and sin often, maybe always, go hand in hand. So how do we fight the deceitfulness of sin? By not letting our fear control us. By being brave and trusting that God will do what he says he will do. I have a friend who is afraid of having children.
He was terrified of multiple things. But he was mostly afraid that he wouldn't be a good father. And that if he did have children, something terrible would happen to them. But he read in the Bible that children are a good gift from the Lord. And that his God was a God who identified with his people in their suffering. and that he did not spare his own son. So, despite his fear, by God's grace, he and his wife have had children. That's Christian bravery.
That's trusting in the promises of God over fear. There's so many things that we could talk about with Christian bravery. We confess our sins despite our fear of looking bad because we trust that God is faithful and just to forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. We do the right thing even when people might take advantage of us because we trust that God is in control. We follow the commands of the Bible even when it seems like we will miss out because we trust that God ultimately will not withhold any good gift from us.
Jesus, our example, was brave when he went to the cross. He trusted that obedience to God was better than the suffering that he would endure. He knew that God would be more glorified and sinners would be saved if he was humiliated and murdered. He had the power to save himself, but he chose not to use it, but instead to take our place in the punishment that we deserve. So Christian, take courage. Be brave like our example, Jesus. If you trust in him, like him, you will be raised from the dead to everlasting life.
So do you want to fight sin? Cultivate bravery. Cultivate Christian bravery in your life. Cultivate courage. Live like God is more real than the momentary decisions and afflictions in your life. Live like Jesus really got up from the dead. How do we cultivate courage? That brings me a second point. So point two, the giving and receiving of exhortation and encouragement helps us, or the giving of courage helps us to persevere.
So this is our group project. So remember we talked about the two responses to group work. I know it's a silly example, but I think it can help us think about this command. We have a tendency as people and as Christians to either put our confidence in ourselves and our ability or our confidence in other people and their ability. You might find yourself sometime throughout your life in both positions. you know what both those objects of confidence have in common they will at some point both let you down if you trust in yourself you will let yourself down you'll need help don't be afraid to ask for it and be willing to accept correction exhortation and help so john pentecost a supported worker from this church told us this summer that when he went to pastor the church in Izmir, he thought he was going to teach the congregation how to love and serve each other by loving and serving them. But due to some health problems his family had, the way he taught them how to do it and how
to serve was by being very needy. If you're in that position, recognize that God can still use you to build up his church. On the flip side, if your confidence in the Christian life is in other people, I need to warn you that they will let you down. When Israel was standing there outside of the promised land deciding whether to go in, I can imagine that there were some people there thinking, I'm pretty confident in my ability to fight. I could see how that God could use me to deliver us from our enemies. But that scrawny guy over there, not going to happen. You know what the most impressive thing about us is as members of Third Avenue? That Jesus has saved us from our sins. You shouldn't be faithful. You shouldn't be a faithful member of this church because you think that God has assembled a super team of Christians. You should be a faithful member because God has commanded us to love each other like he has loved us. It's not something that we earn.
Regardless of what group you find yourself in, the responsibility of encouragement and exhortation is for all Christians, not just the pastors or deacons or home group leaders or people who consistently have their quiet times. We're all called to encourage each other. So how do we do that? It's very simple. We remind each other of the truths of Scripture. Oftentimes, what we need in order to fight sin or to see a blind spot or get perspective on some hardship is not some deep psychoanalysis of our problem, but simply a Christian reminding us of some truth that we already know. Don't be afraid to do that or to receive it. Don't worry that you're being simplistic when you refer people to biblical truths. It's what we need to hear.
When I was in college, I had a pastor who liked to talk about the ministry of attendance. And at the time, I thought that was bogus. Surely the best ministry was wise advice or a great sermon. But over time, I've been very encouraged by a lot of you all just seeing the same people over and over at church, at home group, for coffee. It reminds me, it reminds us that we're not in this alone.
Whatever goes on during the week, I know that there are other believers out there who are also trying to follow Jesus. We need reminders today. So, do you want to be a faithful Christian who faithfully encourages others? Show up. Make it a priority in your life to be around other members of this church. Remind people by your presence and by your words that you are following Jesus. The ministry of encouragement isn't reserved for people who are eloquent speakers.
It's for any Christian who trusts the truths of the Bible and is committed to living them out and sharing them with others. Sin is deceitful and hardens our hearts. So we need to remind each other and give each other courage about the reality of our good God. Take courage and trust in the promises of God and commit to reminding each other of them. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that you are a trustworthy God.
We thank you that despite our weakness, that you have accomplished everything that we need to be saved through your son, Jesus. We pray that we would faithfully remind each other of those truths and that we would live like we believe them. We pray in your son's name. Amen.