Christ's Cure for Lukewarmness - Brandon Scalf

Every year, some 2 ,000 people die from a medical condition called

DVT. DVT stands for deep vein, and I think

I'm saying this right, thrombosis. Thrombosis.

Deep vein thrombosis. Now, what that medical condition is, is it is a blood clot that begins in your leg.

But over time, it travels up into your body, and the fear is that it would wind up in your heart and cause a heart attack, or it would wind up in your brain and cause a stroke.

And this particular medical condition that kills so many people every year is so tragic, not just because it kills individuals, but because all you have to do to die from this particular medical condition is nothing.

And what I mean by that is, this medical condition is not caused by eating too much, drinking too much, eating the wrong things, drinking the wrong things.

It's not caused by doing anything dangerous with your body. No irresponsible behavior to speak of is found when they are looking at how this particular medical condition came about.

No, the only way that this thing gets you is you literally being inactive, not doing anything.

Lounging around the house, not doing any sort of physical activity. Sins are much like this.

There are sins of omission and sins of commission. Sins of commission are those sins which we outright do against the will of God.

We look at the Scriptures, it says, thou shalt not do this, and we say, we will go ahead.

Despite the fact that the Word of God says that, we're going to let our affections govern us, our disordered affections, and engage in said sin.

But the sins of omission are those sins where we neglect to do the right thing.

Now, of course, when we blatantly do those things that God forgives, forbids, that is, the sins of commission, we expect that there might be serious consequences to that.

But because sins of omissions are subtle, that is, we're just not doing the right thing, we tend to think of them as benign.

Nevertheless, sometimes it's the person who lays around and does nothing, or neglects to do the right thing, who faces the gravest danger.

You see, when we look at today's passage, we're actually looking at, even though it doesn't seem like it, a warning passage to those of us who call ourselves

Christian, God's people. And it's a warning passage that it's going to warn us not to neglect certain things.

Not to neglect trusting in a beautiful confession of faith, not neglecting to stimulate one another to love and good works, and most importantly, not forsaking assembling with the saints and encouraging them.

See, as a pastor, as a Christian, I have seen many people walk away from the faith.

People who once stood in pulpits are now married, quote -unquote, to men.

People who have walked away from their loving marriages. People who are now engaged in all sorts of debaucherous behavior and reject the

God of the Bible. And the reality is, those people, not one of them, decided overnight that they weren't going to be

Christian anymore. They didn't walk from the pew to the brothel, so to speak.

It was a slow, habitual thing that began with not being engaged in the

Word, not loving the truth, and then forsaking God's people and His church until eventually the reality that they never truly were saved was put on full display.

In other words, they found themselves not to be

Christian because of their continued lukewarmness that ended itself in potential apostasy.

But there is a way to guard against lukewarmness, and there is a way to guard, as it were, against apostasy.

And that is to start with the end in mind, and to start with what God has for us here and now.

But first, we have to understand that we are weak and we are needy, and we need to hear from God.

If we are to guard against such things, and if you think, well, I came on the wrong Sunday because I'm immune, that's the wrong heart posture, friends.

That's the wrong heart posture. So if you would, please stand with me for the honoring and reading of God's holy, infallible, and all -sufficient

Word. As I said, I will begin in verse 19. This is the

Word of God. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful, and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever. Amen? Amen. Go ahead and have a seat.

As I said, this passage of Scripture is going to help us guard against lukewarmness and apostasy by showing us how we ought to live now in light of the end.

The first thing that I want you to note as we look at this passage by way of how to guard against lukewarmness is to hold fast to the truth.

If we want to, in other words, guard ourselves against lukewarmness, we must hold fast to the truth.

Look with me at verse 23. It says, Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope, comma, without wavering.

Now, of course, we are beginning this sermon kind of in the middle of an argument, not kind of, where I've already spent 10 chapters deep into this book, and of course we are in the middle of a clause that begins with therefore.

So it's a continuation of the argument that's been building, and the argument that's been building is essentially this.

Jesus is better than Judaism. It's better than everything that you think if you lived in this time period and are either falling prey to falling back into Judaism or coming from Judaism.

That is, those who rejected Jesus as the Messiah. Jesus is the better prophet.

Jesus is the better Moses. Jesus is the better priest.

Jesus is the better Melchizedek, so on and so forth. Jesus is

God, and Jesus is worth living and dying for, and we're kind of in the middle of this argument here that Jesus has not only come as the better priest and prophet and so on, but that he has essentially dismantled the entire sacrificial system.

He is now that sacrifice who has come to do away with the ceremonial sacrifices of the

Old Testament because his blood was better than the blood of bulls and goats. Namely, that it is one sacrifice that is good for all who would trust in him for all time.

And it's because of that that Christians can come to God's place of worship, into the holy of holies, the holy places, because he has cleansed his people of their sin and their evil consciences.

And so, in other words, what has been happening here is Paul has been telling the Hebrews that they need to believe some stuff about Jesus.

And now he's here to say, I want you to do some stuff in light of that stuff that you believe.

And Paul's argumentation here, if it's Paul who wrote it, which we don't know, some people say it's Barnabas, some people say it's

Luke, some people say all kinds of crazy things. I personally think it is written by Luke, but it was a sermon preached by Paul.

You don't have to have that opinion, but that is an opinion that has historical and I believe biblical validity.

But it has been argued about for a very long time. But regardless, the author here is trying to get the

Hebrews to live in light of the doctrine that has been laid out.

And he does this repeatedly, not only in this book, but if we assume it's a sermon of Paul in other books.

The doctrine always influences our duty. If we are just doing for the sake of doing, it's just behavior modification, and any religion can help you do that.

But if Jesus is really Jesus, then that changes the way that we think about everything that we do.

It changes the way that we think about life. It changes, and hear me on this, in light of this sermon, it changes our priorities.

It changes how we do life. Where we go, how long we're there, and so on.

Who we engage with, and how we engage with them.

And so he begins in verse 23 with this imperative. Let us hold fast.

Now, of course, this seems soft, because he says, let us, and he doesn't say, hey, you listen up.

So sometimes we can think, maybe he's not actually giving us an imperative. No, this is certainly an imperative.

This is clear in the Greek, but it's also clear in the English. He's just including himself in this command.

Let us. If these things are true, we must do these things. Let us hold fast.

In other words, let us cling to this confession of our hope, he's going to say. Let us grab hold of it.

Let us wrap our arms around it. Let us just continually be absorbed in it, promote it, and love it.

Let it be the chain, as it were, around our necks. Let us hold fast.

Let us continue to believe the confession of our hope.

Now, at this juncture, we must pause. And we must pause to ask the question, what does it mean that we must hold fast or grab hold of or cling to the confession of our hope?

Is it talking about the 1689 confession? Of course it's not, because it didn't exist. And by the way,

I am aware of the textual variant that exists here. In the King James and the other translations that favor that manuscript family, it says confession of our faith.

But I don't have time to get into why in which this translation has chosen to use hope.

But I do believe that hope is the correct word being utilized here. So it says, let us hold fast to the confession of our hope.

Now, this is not the first time in the book of Hebrews, nor is it the only place in the

New Testament that speaks about a confession. For instance, in Hebrews chapter 414, the author of Hebrews says,

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the

Son of God, let us take hold of our confession. So what is this confession?

Well, we know according to this, because of its modifier, that it's a confession of hope. But what is the confession?

Well, the confession is the truth that has been laid out for the people of God about the person of Jesus Christ and the work that he has accomplished on their behalf.

It is the stewardship that is being passed down from the apostles to God's people.

Now, I know that as soon as we start talking about this, there are countless liberal scholars and Christians alike who essentially would scoff at the idea that there is actually truth out there in the world.

Evangelical Christianity in today's affluent Western culture is noteworthy for its cavalier treatment of truth.

We will readily trade our doctrines in order to get along with others to create more impressive sense of unity.

But the reality is, truth is objective, it is real, and it is there.

It is not left, in other words, up to interpretation. The Bible has an aim, and that aim is to promote truth.

Truth namely about Jesus Christ, but many other things too. And all that the

Bible says, it is completely true and trustworthy.

That's why we believe that the Bible is not only inerrant, but that it is infallible and that it is sufficient.

In all that it contains, it is completely and utterly true.

If you remember, children, I have often said, if we come to the

Bible and we feel like something's not true, we need to assume what? That the problem is not the

Bible, but us. And so we must hold fast to this confession.

Now, it's becoming increasingly true and increasingly clear that we need to hold fast to this truth.

But it was exceptionally clear and explicitly clear to the Hebrews that they needed to. The Hebrews, who the author was writing to, they were struggling.

They were struggling because they were stuck between two worlds. The temple was still standing, they were still offering sacrifices, but Jesus had come.

And he had come, as the text says here, as the veil and the flesh to take away the sins of the many.

And so there were many people who were trying to take the sacrificial of Judaism and kind of merge it into Christianity, or they had family members that rejected the

Messiah and were trying to say, hey, Jesus is gone, come on back, or Jesus is never coming back.

Come on back, come back home to Judaism. And so the author of Hebrews here is saying, in light of that reality, friends, hold fast to what you have already been told is true.

And the same is true of you, heritage. The world is going to pressure you, not necessarily to reject the

Messiah in favor of Judaism, but in light of their religion, and make no mistake about it, everybody is religious and everybody is trying to make you a proselyte of their religion, whether it's true or not, whether it's man -made or not.

And Paul's admonition, once again, if you think it's written by Paul, is to continue to cling to the truth and do it without wavering.

Do it without compromise. Do it even when it costs you something.

Friends, truth is truth, no matter if someone thinks it's true or not. That means there is a right answer and a wrong answer.

Now, I can be wrong about that or you can be wrong about that, but it's there. And the

Bible is clear about what is true regarding the person and work of Jesus Christ. This is what the

Reformers and the Puritans used to call the perspicuity or the clarity of Scripture. And so the things that we confess are true.

And this is all the 1689 is, friends. And I bring this up only because, one, I'm going to bring up particular parts of it later, but then secondly, because you know that we're a confessional church, that we hold to the 1689 confession.

All the 1689 confession is is a confession of beliefs about what is confessed to be true.

And the Bible. And so we don't hold the confession as another Bible, but as guardrails that help us understand what the

Bible teaches. And we just happen to believe that people who lived long ago, who were dead, who are dead and now buried, happen to know some things about some stuff, namely the

Bible. That they thought about it long and hard, and they were not distracted by their phones and their internet.

And that they mined the Scripture for the gold that's found in it. And they wrote it down.

And we read it. And we bask in the treasure that is the confession.

But we are concerned about the truth. The confession is concerned about the truth.

And we must hold on to it without wavering, without compromise, regardless of what will happen.

And friends, things might happen. But there is no doubt that in the future years to come, that it will be costly to be a

Christian. In some circles it already is. And the question is, what will you do on that day? Will you hold fast to the confession of your faith?

One that is filled with hope? Or will you shrink back in fear?

Which is precisely what the author of Hebrews is trying to get the Hebrews not to do.

Which is why in Hebrews 3, 6, the author says, But Christ was faithful as a son over his house, whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope.

And in Hebrews 3, verse 14, just a little further, he says, For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast to the beginning of our assurance, firm until the end.

To be Christian means to hold fast. It doesn't mean to be wishy -washy. It doesn't mean to think something's important one day and then turn around and say that it's not all that important another day.

It means to continually be grounded in the truth. Is that not what the church is for?

Right? Paul says that the church is the pillar and the buttress of truth. This place does not exist apart from the truth.

Therefore, we must, in fact, hold to it without wavering.

So if we are to protect ourselves against lukewarmness and apostasy, we must hold fast to the truth.

And lest we think that maybe that's the wrong thing to do, is to trust in that truth that is based in the hope of our sins being forgiven and ultimately the resurrection of Christ in our own bodies.

Verse 23 ends by saying, For he who promised is faithful. Now, we could be wishy -washy.

We could maybe distrust this truth if we had a God who wasn't all that faithful.

But we have a God who is completely and utterly faithful.

We have a God who is completely for us.

And we have a God who cannot and will not tell us a lie.

He who promised is faithful. So how do we persevere? How do we persevere in the

Christian lives, in our pilgrimage along the way? We hold fast to the truth that is grounded in hope and a

God who has promised to sustain us and to persevere us.

Children, would you look at me for just a second? As you grow older, there are going to be tons of things that you want to do, tons of things that are going to beg you, essentially, to take them more seriously than you take

God's truth, take more seriously than the Bible. But I want to tell you today, in case you haven't heard it before, which

I'm sure you have, but there's nothing more important in this life than the

Word of God. There's nothing more important than believing what's in the pages of the

Word of God. Because in it, God tells you what He wants to know about His Son and salvation, and He is trustworthy.

And no matter what the world tells you, if the world tells you that God is not real, if they tell you that God is a liar, that God is evil, know that this

Word, this God -breathed Word, says that He is good, that He is faithful,

He is loving, and He is trustworthy. So give your time and your task to knowing the

God of the Word, in the Word of God. God is faithful.

God is faithful. And we have seen this in the book of Hebrews. If we look around, we can look at His promises that He has given, that He has made evident in the

New Testament church, namely, that He has written the law on our hearts, Hebrews 10 .16. That He has promised to work in us, and most certainly

He does, in Hebrews 13 .22. He promises to remember our sins no more, according to the gospel in Hebrews 10 .17.

That He would never leave us or forsake us, in Hebrews 13 .5. That Jesus was made the single sacrifice for all time, in Hebrews 10 .14.

Friends, the reality is true faith perseveres through trials and temptations, relying on God's faithfulness to His promises, because He is faithful.

When we rely on the one who is faithful, we can guard ourselves against lukewarmness, apostasy, and can persevere in the

Christian life. And now that we have seen the first thing, I want you to now see the second, which is to consider the brethren, or consider the brothers, if you need a more up -to -date translation.

Consider the brethren. He goes on in verse 24 and says, and let us, another imperative command, consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds.

So once again, we have the first thing, hold fast to the confession of hope.

Second, consider one another. These are the two things that you, at this point, must do if you want to guard yourself from lukewarmness and apostasy.

Now this is an interesting phrase here, and it's even more interesting in the Greek, but we'll get to that in a second.

But he goes on to say that we must consider how to stimulate one another.

This word, consider, is somewhat of an obscure word, but it's used one other time in the book of Hebrews.

It is used in Hebrews chapter 3, verse 1, when the author of Hebrews tells the people of God this.

Therefore, holy brothers, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our confession,

Jesus. So the people of God are to consider. They are to meditate on.

They are to completely be enthralled by Jesus. And now, the same word is employed to say consider the brethren.

Consider how to stimulate one another to love and good works.

Now you might be saying, why do I say consider the brethren instead of saying how to consider, how to stimulate?

Is that not what the text is saying? Yeah, kind of. Some translations render it somewhat differently.

But one of the interesting things about this is that in the

Greek, it's front loaded with one another. Now, it says in the

Greek a more rendering, but you can't really carry it over in the English very well.

Consider one another to the end that those brothers, right, consider one another to the end that they get provoked, that's gonna be my translation, but we'll get that in a minute, to love and good deeds.

So you're not considering just how to stimulate, you're considering one another to the end that you can stimulate them to good works.

So what does it mean to consider? Well, we saw in Jesus' case, it means to meditate, to understand.

But one commentator that I read said that the way to best understand this is to consider or to study people, to study one another.

To know so much about the other person that you can actually stimulate them or spur them on or provoke them to good works.

Here's what this means. You've got to know the people around you.

Like, not just their names, not just what part of town they live in, not just when they're gonna have their baby, not just when their birthdays are, not just when their kids' birthdays are, but you've got to know them.

How can you consider one another enough to be able to help one another with that stuff that they have?

But what do I mean by this? Well, this word stimulate or stir up in some translations is quite honestly too weak of a word to use.

I wish they wouldn't have used this word. The reason I don't like that they use this word, though I understand why they did, is because it's just too tame for the meaning that the

Greek word symbolizes. For instance, it's used two times at least in the

Old Testament and in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, it refers to, if you're looking at the Septuagint, an intense emotion, and it's often of a negative kind, such as anger.

You can look, for instance, in Deuteronomy 29, verse 28. But one of the most famous places it is used in the

New Testament is there's a strong disagreement about the ways in which Paul and Barnabas want to do ministry.

They get into a heated argument in Acts 15, verse 39.

And it says this, and there was such a sharp disagreement and that word that they translate from this word is sharp.

And there was such a sharp disagreement that they separated from one another and Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus.

So maybe a better way to translate this word, stimulate, would be provoke or agitate.

To provoke or agitate. So what we need to do is not only hold to a confession of faith, but know and love our brothers and sisters in the church so well that we can provoke them or lovingly agitate them toward what?

Love and good deeds. And that means what? That you have to know who they are. You have to know what they struggle with.

You have to know what makes them happy, what makes them sad. You have to know what makes them tick. You have to know them like their family because guess what?

They are. They are. They're your family by virtue of Jesus' blood and you being a child of God.

You have to know them. You have to know them because it is your job as a

Christian to provoke them to godliness. And that's all that it's really saying here.

To love and good deeds. A Puritan I was reading says it like this.

Each by the other, as that Christian excellencies be observed to mutual inflammations of endearments, where they are, that Christian principles and affections may be awakened, invigorated, advanced, where they are dormant, idle, or decayed.

Now I know that was a really wordy way to basically just say this. That it is your job as a church member, as a

Christian who should be a church member to awaken, invigorate, and advance the cause of Christ and the lives of the people around you.

It's a tall order. But that's your job because there are areas of each of our lives that are dormant, idle, or decaying.

Why? Because the Christian life is one of movement. You are either moving forward in Christ -likeness and Christ -conformity or you are moving away from it.

There is no middle ground. And we need one another to see. Why?

Because we're blind. Right? I try hard to repent of my sin and to trust on the

Lord Jesus Christ every single day. But I am not the best judge of myself.

You are not the best judge of you. Most of us have really inflated egos and we think that we are really awesome and that the world revolves around us.

But the reality is, and what this text is teaching is, we need one another and God's grace to be other people focused and we generally do not like that.

We don't. But we have to if we want to guard against lukewarmness and apostasy because the quickest way to run from Christ is to run away from His people.

To not be engaged with His people. So we must.

And we must do it lovingly and winsomely but provokingly and agitatingly.

And we must do it with our words and with our life knowing the people whom we live in front of and speak to.

Let me ask you this question. Does your life or the way you handle yourself provoke others to take

God seriously? To take His word seriously?

To take the confession of our hope seriously? Are other people looking at you and saying, what's going on with that guy?

What's going on with that woman? What's going on with that family? Which you shouldn't be thinking that way but hypothetically speaking they are.

Or are they thinking, how do I love Jesus like he loves Jesus or she loves

Jesus? How can

I see things in my life the way that they see things in my life? How can

I be that loving? How can I be that truthful? How can I be that studied?

Because that is what God is calling us to be. We are to consider, to know others very well in order to stimulate or to provoke each other to love and good works.

Firstly, love to God, right? And by the way, this little phrase here, love and good works is essentially a summary of the

Ten Commandments. We are to love God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength and we are to love our neighbors as ourselves.

And as Paul has said in the New Testament, and when answering the question, how do you fulfill the law?

He does it by saying, love. If you've loved, you've fulfilled the law, you've done good deeds.

So love to God, love to other, love to others, that is what we are about.

After all, in John 13, 34, Jesus says, first John 13, 34, a new, sorry,

John 13, 34, it says this, a new commandment I give to you,

Jesus says, that you love one another. Even as I loved you, that you also love one another.

Now, of course, it has always been the truth of the Bible that we are to love God's people. But Jesus gives a new commandment that you are to love people like I love people.

And how did Jesus love people? He died for them. He died for them.

Are you dying for the people that bear the name of Christ? If you won't do it figuratively or metaphorically, you're not going to do it if it's called upon you later in history, actually.

And friends, this loving one another because of God's love is the work of our lives. This is why Paul can say in 2

Corinthians 12, 15, so I will gladly spend and be fully spent for your souls.

If I love you more, am I to be loved less? He says he would gladly spend and be fully spent for your souls.

I can't love them in this capacity because it will take too much of my time, too much of my effort, too much of my money, too much...

There's no argument in the Bible for a love that gets in the way. We should be gladly spending all that we are, which is why he says again in 1

Thessalonians 2, 8, in this way, having fond affection for you, loving you, in other words, we were pleased to impart to you not only the gospel, truth, which is of first importance, but also our own lives.

Friends, we are to love one another in the church in such a way that we give them not just time, energy, money, frozen meals, but our very lives.

Our very lives. But lest we think that Christianity is all about fuzzy feelings, and by the way,

I don't think I've given that impression, or that it's an emotion. Well, I need to feel that way.

No, it also manifests itself in good works, that is actions, words, or thoughts that align with God's law and his teachings.

So we need to study people, as John Piper says, so that we might provoke one another to love and good works, to godliness.

Now, what that doesn't mean is that we went around being little legalistic busybodies, tallying up everybody's sins, right?

Oh, he didn't do a good work there. He didn't do what I think he should have there. He was really acting ungodly in that area.

Well, let me tell you, no, that's not what it means. It's not an invitation for us to be judgmental, making the lives of others a burden.

But it does mandate that we take seriously a very self -sacrificing interest in the affairs of other believers, especially those in our midst.

We are to study, another commentator says, and implement schemes that motivate one another in godly living.

Not so that we would be loved more by God, but because God loves us and has given us the gift of a son who has caused there to be no condemnation for those who are in him, and now we can now begin to live free, we walk in a newness of life.

In other words, you get in each other's business. You have to know, and you have to know each other to get in each other's business.

And I want to ask you this question before moving on. How are you doing in that department?

In many ways, this is the job description of the Christian. Are you taking your job seriously?

Do you do this for others? Do you get so involved in their lives that you could actually help them walk in a more godly manner?

Well, some of you are ready to say amen to that, and that's good. But let me challenge you further and ask this question.

How many of you are allowing others to do that to or for you?

We're a lot better at the pointing and a lot less good at the receiving end of it. See, Christians are givers and receivers.

They give counsel, they receive counsel. They give love, they receive love. And we need to be both givers and receivers.

We need to understand that there is a mutual responsibility. And if you will not be a part of this,

I think it might reveal, and this is going to hurt some of you, that you actually are more consumeristic in nature than you think that you are.

You might be more individualistic than you think you are. And you're giving yourself over to isolationism, which is why you won't become members of a church.

Because you want to get, but you do not want to give. Well, the church is not doing such and such and such or this, that, and the other.

Okay, how are you helping in a godly way to spur other people to godliness? How are you help filling that gap that you see?

By the way, this should awaken us all to the very real reality that if church is to be this way, one that promotes the truth and enables or commands one another to be so involved in each other's lives that we can carry each other's burdens and we can get in each other's business and spur one another to godliness, that the internet church, as awesome as online sermons are, just will not do.

Sitting at home and listening to the live stream simply will not do. You've got to be here, and you've got to be here every time the door opens, because why?

You can't get to know people when you see them one hour a week, but lucky for you, Heritage has four opportunities a week for you to get to know your brothers and your sisters.

Two services or gatherings for Corey on Sundays. What else?

What else do we have? We've got on Wednesdays, fellowship group. We've got every other

Monday, Shepherds Institute. That's at least four, but there are many other opportunities that pop up during the week.

Just a few brothers and sisters the other day helped a brother in our church move, and we've done that before, or helped build something.

We've done that before. There are many ways for us to get involved and to get to know each other as we pilgrimage through this world.

Now, we have seen that if we want to guard ourselves from apostasy and lukewarmness, we must first hold fast to the truth.

Second, we must consider the brethren. Thirdly, what I want you to see is that we must encourage.

We must encourage one another. Verse 25 starts off with a negative example to show us a very real reality, namely that you can't do number one and you can't do number two if you reject number three.

He says that we are to consider how to stimulate one another to love and good works. Verse 25, not forsaking our own assembling together.

Not forsaking our own assembling together. That is not neglecting together as a people.

Now, some people will take this passage and they will say, well, see, actually, what's being said here is because you're trying to make the argument that we shouldn't neglect meeting corporately as a body.

That it's saying that if we just don't come to church at all, it's those who are in danger.

It's those who are being warned. Well, that would be a perfectly fine argument if the author of Hebrews didn't keep going.

Namely, he says, as is the habit of some. So there's two classes of people being talked about in this verse, whether you readily identify it or not.

It is those who are faithfully and habitually, the pattern of their life is that they come and they assemble with God's people and there are those who make a habit of doing otherwise.

And it starts off here and there. And the thing about habits is they grow and they tend to expand.

Namely, you have a situation like,

I have to take social media off my phone. Embarrassing thing to admit, but I have to do it. When I'm around a group of people,

I have to just take it off my phone. Because if I don't take it off my phone, I'm going to put it in my face. Because when

Facebook first started, I thought, oh, I'll check that every once in a while. And then I started posting things and I started posting things. And then

I wanted to be in the know about all the theological stuff that's going on. I wanted to know what was going out there, what people were arguing about, what the new scholars were saying about this, that, or the other.

And before you know it, I just always wanted to be on it. If it's near, I pick it up. If it's near, I pick it up. I don't even have to think about it.

I'm not even thinking, man, I really want to grab my phone. So when I take off the phone apps or I have Corey put a password on it just so I can't pay attention to what's going on in the world so that I can do the things that I need to do in front of me,

I feel very strange because, not because I want to get on the internet. I actually don't care. But I don't have that habit.

Some people have quit smoking, for instance, in their lives. And they weren't even addicted to the nicotine, but it was just a habit of grabbing something or going out with friends.

Habits are something that happen because you do them so often that it just becomes a natural part of your life.

As I've been trying to lose weight and get in the gym, the same thing is told to me over and over by people who are in super good shape.

Just start going until it becomes a habit and then you won't even think about it anymore and it'll become a part of your life. The same is true about church and living in community.

The more you do it, the more you'll want to do it and the more you make excuses not to do it, the more you won't do it until eventually you're walking out the door and you want nothing to do with God's people and then you want nothing to do with Jesus either.

The reality is people who are not committed to the church are not really all that committed to God because God tells you that you need to be a part of the church, that you need to be plugged into the church.

It's not an option. This entire section of Scripture is caked between what it says about Jesus and his coming judgment, friends.

So in context, what it's saying is if you neglect to meet with the people of God, the judgment will find you.

How do I know that? Well, verse 26.

But before that, 25, because he ends by saying you should do this all the more as you see the day drawing near, but we'll get to that in a minute.

But then he goes on to verse 26 and says, four, that's a connecting word for those of you who like to think about the grammar.

He's continuing his argument. Four, right? Do not forsake gathering with the assembly but keep doing it, encouraging one another all the day, all the more as you see the day drawing near.

Four, if we go on sinning, so it's a sin. It's not just a preference.

If we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of fire which will consume the adversaries.

The reality is we must assemble with the church and we must assemble with the church because it is the earthly counterpart to the heavenly congregation of God's people, the ecclesia of God's people.

Thomas Schreiner says that this passage, this very admonition to not forsake gathering with the church, becoming part of the body implies that people who deliberately and persistently abandon the fellowship of Christian believers are in danger of repeating the sin of Israel and abandoning the

Lord himself. Why? Because Jesus so identifies with his church that when

Paul becomes a Christian and Jesus kicks him off his horse, he can say to Paul, why are you persecuting me?

When you act like God's church and the assembling of his people is no big deal, what you're doing is acting like Jesus is no big deal.

You cannot love Jesus and neglect his bride. You must give yourself to the church and there will be all the reasons in your mind not to join the church, not to assemble with the people.

There will be many people in the world telling you why that would be stupid. You've got all the excuses that are flooding you from the enemy.

Charles Spurgeon says it like this, Satan always hates Christian fellowship and church membership.

It is his policy to keep Christians apart. Anything which can divide saints from one another, he delights in.

He attaches the far more importance to... He... Sorry. He attaches far more importance to godly intercourse, that is being together than we do.

If you can't say amen is what he probably says, you got to say ouch. The devil cares more and puts more importance on the

Christians gathering together than most Christians do. Which is why he works tirelessly to keep us isolated, individualistic and consumeristic saying what can

I get not what can I give. And friends, before anybody starts getting confused, what

I'm not saying is you're in sin unless you come to church. I'm not necessarily saying that. What I'm saying is you are in sin if you refuse to be the church.

But you can't be the church unless you're in church. So I guess in some ways that's what

I'm saying but only as the logic plays out. They are certainly tied together because you have to be here in order to love one another.

You've got to be a fellowship group in order to love one another and push them to good deeds and love.

But not only that, those who neglect assembling together cut themselves off from the very means whereby

Christ feeds, assures and protects his people. That's why he goes on. As is the habit of some but encouraging one another.

Encouraging one another. Friends, did you know it is your job not just to correct your brothers and sisters and push them to godliness but to encourage them along the way?

A lot of people push their chest out and a lot of people pretend like they're not weak and feeble but the scriptures tell us every one of us has weak knees and we are weak and we are feeble and we need encouraged.

We need encouraged. Which is why the author of Hebrews says in 3 .13

but encourage one another day after day as long as it is still called today so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

You see, Jesus is building, sanctifying, purifying, protecting and propelling his church but things get in the way like our feebleness and according to this text our sinfulness.

And if we are not encouraged to godliness, encouraged in walking with Jesus we'll be hardened by sin and we will want nothing to do.

Another way you could translate this word encouraging and it is in some translations is strengthening.

It's your job not only to be involved in the lives of people so much so that you can push them to godliness knowing them personally and intimately but that you would also strengthen them as they persevere in this world with Jesus in discipleship with him.

This means walking alongside people in life. Very practically it means showing up to things like events that we have here for various different things for motherhood, for fatherhood.

It means encouraging people as they're having children by going to baby showers.

It means just being involved in people's life strengthening them and pulling them up.

You can handle this. You can be godly. You can and you are and I'm seeing you grow right before my very eyes but you can only do that if you are not neglecting being with the saints.

In other words not only is this how to guard yourself from lukewarmness and apostasy but this is how to live the

Christian life and it must be the priority. Not a priority.

It's the priority. You must give yourself over to God and to his people and let everything else fall underneath it in importance.

I see this cheesy meme all the time but it's so good I'm going to say it. Part of me hates to but I love it secretly and now openly.

It says church should be the thing that you miss everything else for not the other way around.

You see many of us will say oh we can't get to that because we got to do this or I got to do that but God says no this actually is the most important thing because this is the only thing that's eternal.

This is the only thing that's going to keep going. This is the only thing. Look Charles Spurgeon as I was reading a commentary he wrote he said he says it like this dearly beloved as Charles Spurgeon would say you are not just Christians for a time with one another but you are

Christians for eternity with one another and we are all walking this road together and we will be together in eternity and you might say well hold on a second if we're going to be with them for eternity shouldn't we care about these other no because he goes on and you should do this all the more in other words as you age and grow older as you continue to walk the

Christian life you should not be doing this in a way that is decreasing in nature but one that is increasing in measure all the more because we need it all the more as we grow older because the

Bible makes clear and reality makes clear the older you get either the more bitter you get or the more you love

Jesus and the people over here are being strengthened are being encouraged are being loved by one another are loving one another and I used to go to a seminary and there was some younger guys who taught and some guys who probably were too old to be teaching still and the guys that were too old to be teaching still had a disposition about them that you like I can't even like I just wish

I'll be that way when I'm like 90 just jolly but like in all the best ways like not a care in the world you know wanted to work for Jesus even though they could barely walk but welcome the day of the

Lord to return and for them to take him home they just every single person that they saw it was like they just met the most famous person in the world like Michael Jordan showed up and they were like oh my goodness you know how are you doing?

how is God working in your life? why? because they have been being strengthened over the course of their entire life they have held the confession of hope they have trusted the

God who is faithful to fulfill his promises and they have been stimulated and they have been stimulating others to love and good deeds and they are all the more increasing in doing so and it's not just because the

Bible told them so although that's good enough reason it's not just because the fruit that it bore out in their life it's also because of this

Paul shows us the motivation as you see the day drawing near as you see the day drawing near friends what this is speaking of most certainly is the judgment day of Jesus Christ the coming of the

Lord Jesus at his second coming but some of us won't be there so whether it's speaking of that last day or your last day there is coming a day where you will stand before the

Lord in judgment and there is coming a day where you will either be rewarded for Christ's righteousness by your faith in him or a day that you will be judged for your evil deeds in the flesh and the idea here is that there's urgency in spending time with God's people here now so that you can be made ready for that day friends we are so lucky having been on this side of the cross being the ones whom this age has this age has dawned on and we get this small taste of heaven as we are here in the church and we should encourage one another because the reality is this present world the way that it is now the means for which

God has for it namely to conform us to the image of Christ will not last and we will either breathe our last or see

Jesus come who knows which one will come first but when that day comes will you have been made ready and will you have been making others ready for that great day and will you be able to stand in front of the

Lord Jesus and say I have made my priority your priority I have made you my priority or will you stand in shame or will you now begin the habit of being

God's people God's way in God's place holding fast to the confession considering one another and not forsaking the assembling and encouraging friends very pointedly

I want to ask you how can you do what this text says how can you fulfill the

Christian life how can you guard against lukewarmness and apostasy as it is defined by scripture if you are not taking the church seriously if you are only coming when it's convenient for you or neglecting assembling when something else pops up how can you be the church to other people when you are showing up late leaving early how can you get to know people when you are the first one out the door how are you going to be the church and grow in and help others grow in grace if you don't make gathering with the brothers and sisters throughout the week the priority and not like I said as a priority among many but the priority because what we are doing here the church assembling with one another gathering has a weight and significance that nothing else does in your life for you for your children for your brothers and sisters in Christ because of him because of what he's doing because he is purifying a bride ready for you now and let me say something that you should take to heart and if it pricks it was meant to if it is drudgery to be here if it is drudgery to meet with your brothers and sisters throughout the week and it is not your priority what makes you think heaven is a place that you will even want to be what makes you think you're headed there objectively because the church is like climbers roped together on a steep mountain and it's like soldiers teamed together on a battlefield we must keep track of one another and we must work together and love one another if we are to meet our objective goal safely perseverance is a community project and as we engage that we look not around at ourselves but to Christ who will stand before us on the last day so in closing those who abandon the fellowship of the

Christian church by failing to attend are in danger of the final judgment as this text makes clear perseverance is not merely a private matter it is reflected in whether believers meet corporately with one another and refusing and failing to meet regularly with one another corporately calls into question whether someone truly belongs to God it is not simply a nice thing for Christians to do it is necessary preparation for the day of judgment and the question becomes will you say how dare that pastor or will you say am

I giving myself over to holding fast to the confession of truth am

I considering how to stimulate one another and allowing others to stimulate me to love and good works am

I forsaking or leaning into the assembling of the saints making that a habit and encouraging one another and causing that to increase all the more for the glory of God for the good of his people and because Jesus has made us a people by his merit and his blood and friends there is no more beautiful reality than to be his and to be one of his alongside his amen amen would you pray with me father we thank you we thank you that you have given us the church and we thank you that you have enabled us to meet to assemble to have accountability with one another and I know in many ways

I'm preaching to the choir as I know a lot of these faces are here week in and week out but lord even they need to hear this truth lest they drift away and so lord