Stirring Up The Assembly (Hebrews 10:24-25)

Now, if you will, please find your place in Hebrews chapter 10, beginning at verse 19.

We're gonna read together 19 through verse 25. Hebrews chapter 10, beginning at verse 19.

Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place 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 in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean 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.

Let's pray and ask the Lord's blessing before we begin. Fathers, by your mercy that we are able to be here and by your grace that we have your word, and we now pray that you would extend grace to us in understanding your word, that you would illuminate our hearts and our minds by the ministry of the

Holy Spirit, so that we may know and understand your word and how it is that we are to live in light of this word, that you would grant us hearts able to hear and ready to obey, that Jesus Christ may be glorified through us and in his church, both now and forever, we pray in Christ's name, amen.

Amen. Well, we are back to the book of Hebrews and we are in the middle of these exhortations that we find in verses 22 through 25.

The three of them, they all begin with let us, let us draw near, let us hold fast, and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds.

And these three exhortations all come as a sort of a summary of the doctrinal section, which has come before this.

And the doctrinal section ends with chapter 10, verse 18. I shouldn't say it ends, but the doctrinal emphasis kind of is drawn to a close there at the end of verse 18.

And though the rest of the book is doctrinal, it is also very heavily practical. And so these three exhortations that sort of fall on the heels of that very deep theology regarding the sacrifice of Christ and his priesthood and all that that means, it introduces us to this later section of the book of Hebrews, which is more practical.

It's filled with applications and exhortations and commands and things that we are to do in light of these great truths.

And we always need to be careful when we say that one portion is doctrinal and one portion is practical, because that can tend to make us think that that which is doctrinal is not practical, and that which is practical is not doctrinal, but that's not true.

So we always need to be careful. There's a theological emphasis in the beginning of the book where he lays out these theological principles, but now for the rest of the book, he's beginning to apply these in some very specific ways for the rest of this book.

And of course, these three exhortations come right before a warning passage that begins in verse 26.

And I just wanna draw your attention to this, because as we've mentioned, as I've mentioned previously, the warning passage comes after these exhortations because these exhortations are to keep us from falling into the trap that the warning passage warns us about, namely apostasy, walking away or falling away or shrinking back to destruction.

And so when we draw near to God and we hold fast to him, our confession, and when we consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, these are all very practical ways to avoid going on and sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth.

And these three exhortations have, as we've noted before, both an individual as well as a corporate dimension. You remember that?

The drawing near to God is something that we do personally and individually as we approach God through the sacrifice of the

Lord Jesus Christ. It is also something that we do corporately as we gather together here as God's people, and we draw near to God as a group, as a body of believers together.

The holding fast is something that we do both individually as well as corporately. There is a holding fast to a common confession, something that all of us hold to.

So this is obviously a corporate activity as well as an individual activity. And this idea of doing these things corporately sort of hangs over the whole passage.

You can see from verse 25 that he specifically addresses not forsaking the gathering of ourselves together as is the habit of some.

And so this idea of an assembly and doing these things as we are gathered together, it casts its shadow over all of these exhortations.

The first two are really things that we do individually, specifically, primarily individually. We draw near personally as well as holding fast, but they're also things that have a corporate application, a corporate way that we obey those commands.

But this third one, to consider how it is that we are to stimulate one another to love and to good deeds, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, obviously the author has in mind here the corporate gathering of believers in which all of these exhortations are obeyed in some measure or another.

So this idea of an assembly and gathering together as people assemble, as we gather together, we're doing these things, drawing near, holding fast, and encouraging one another, these are all things that find their ultimate expression of obedience in the public, physical gathering together of God's people, known as the church.

Namely, what you are doing here this morning, as well as other gatherings together with God's people.

So here's the outline for verses 24 and 25. As we've looked at each of these three exhortations, draw near, hold fast, the outline was basically we have an exhortation and then we have an explanation of the exhortation.

And we saw that with the first two exhortations. Let us draw near and there's explanation of it. We are to do so with hearts that are sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and a sincere faith.

We are to hold fast to common confession. How is it that we are to do this? Without wavering, steadfast, not bending one way or another.

And then how is it that we are to consider ways in which we are to encourage one another in love and in good deeds?

That's the exhortation. Let us consider how we are to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, that's the exhortation.

How is it that we do that? Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the habit of son, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

So there's the exhortation and then the explanation of that exhortation and then as with the second exhortation, there's a bit of a motivation there at the end.

We are to do this all the more as we see the day drawing near. There is a day drawing near us.

And if it was near back then, it is nearer still today. There is a day drawing near that should motivate us to obey the injunctions that are here in this passage.

Verses 24 and 25. Look again at verse 25. Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds.

Now that's the exhortation. That word consider is the word kata noeo and you might recognize the

Greek word noeo there which has to do with the thinking and the mind, the consideration, what goes on in the mind.

Nuos is the word for mind in the Greek. Metanoia, it has also that root word in it which means it's translated as repentance and it has to do with the changing of a mind, a change in the way that you think which obviously would also affect one's behavior.

That idea of repenting or turning, it affects the way that you think. Metanoia describes that, it's the changing of a mind.

So this word describes considering something or contemplating something. It means to think carefully, to give deliberate, intentional, specific, focused concentration to something.

It means to set your mind on something, to take notice of it, to observe it, to perceive it, to give careful and deliberate consideration to it.

In the NASB, this word variously used in other places in the New Testament, it is translated as notice, observe, look, detect, contemplate, and of course here, consider.

So to obey this command, to consider how it is that we are to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, this obviously requires a diligent effort.

It requires an intentional application of our mind that directs itself to the good and the welfare of our fellow believers.

This is not describing the accidental stumbling onto a way that you can encourage somebody. This is describing the deliberate, focused, considered giving attention to how it is that I can show love to somebody.

How is it that I can encourage another person? It's the deliberate, intentional giving of ourselves to this task.

He's not simply saying go to church and wait for an opportunity to sort of fall across your path. He is saying before you go to church, to gather together with the assembly of people, give consideration as to how it is that you can stimulate others to love and to good deeds.

This requires the application of your mind. How can I serve others by motivating them? Now I want you to notice how countercultural this is to how most people approach church in our day.

You notice that? Most people in our day approach church as if the church is a service provider. What they think of when they think of going to church is is the parking convenient?

Are the facilities nice? Are the facilities new? Do I like the sound? Do I like the arrangement of the chairs?

Does it have all of the ministries and the functions? Is there something there for my toddler? Is there something there for my teenager?

Is there something there for my great aunt? Does it have the services on the right night of the week? Does it have all the things that I might pick and choose?

Kind of like a buffet. Most people when they are thinking of church and what a church means, they're thinking of a buffet.

I wanna go there and I'm gonna see what it is that I can pull out for me, what I like, and I'll take those things and then

I'll walk away having consumed a product. That's how most people approach church. Or they approach church as if it's simply a filler activity.

If there's no sport on TV, on radio, on the internet, on a rerun, anywhere in our town that my kids are playing in or that I'm obligated to watch or that I'm anyway interested in at any time, or if the weather is disagreeable to me and kind of keeps me from doing all the things in my yard and my garden that I wanted to do, or if it's not springtime when

I'm doing the work to prepare for summer, or not summertime when I'm out enjoying the only two months of the year that are pleasant in North Idaho, or if it's not falltime when

I'm getting ready to do all my work for winter on the weekend, or if it's not in the wintertime when I'm up enjoying the ski hill and being outside enjoying the snow and all that that brings, if it's not any of those seasons so that I have anything else to do and there are no sports on TV and nobody else to get together with and none of my friends are doing anything else that might in any way draw or attract me away from church, then

I can go to church. Church is treated like it's a filler activity. It's something that you do on a

Sunday if you got nothing else that competes with it. I would suggest to you that everything else in life is a filler activity around the gathering of God's people.

Those are the things that fill up the rest of our week. Church and the assembling of ourselves together, if this is not the highlight of your week, something is wrong.

It's the highlight of my week, and not just because I get to be up here. Quite frankly, I'd rather not be up here most

Sundays. I'd rather be sitting in the back row with one of you observing what goes on here, but church is the highlight for me, not because I'm up front and not because I know everybody here and everybody looks at me as the pastor.

That's not it at all. Church is the highlight of my week because everything I do, I look forward to being here with the assembling of God's people in worship and in fellowship and in being with my church family.

So everything else is filler. Everything around that, I work everything else around that so that this can be my priority.

And I know it's easy to say, well, Jim, you just say that because you're paid to be here every Sunday. Well, I'm not paid to be here every

Sunday. I'm paid to work all week long so that when I get here on Sunday, it doesn't look like I wasn't paid to be here on Sunday.

But this is the highlight of my week for that reason. It's not a filler activity. How many people who view church, how many people in America do you think woke up today and thought to themselves, my brothers and sisters in Christ, people who are bought by the same blood that I'm purchased by, that will share my inheritance for all of eternity, that worship the same

Lord that I worship, they are gathering together in this location. I wonder how it is that I can go there and stimulate others to love and do good deeds.

How many people do you think approach church that way? It's few. Now, I think that this congregation, from what

I've observed, has a higher percentage of those people than probably any other place that I've ever been around. But most people don't approach church that way.

Most people approach church with an entirely different attitude, rather than, let me give some thought and some consideration as to how it is that I can plan to motivate someone else to love and to good deeds.

That word stimulate, it's the word paroxysmos. Paroxysmos is only used twice in the New Testament. It's a very interesting word and it's a pretty, kind of a graphic word.

Here it is used in a positive way. It's used one other time, but in a not so positive way. It's used in the book of Acts chapter 15 by presumably a different author.

I don't think Luke wrote Acts, but it's used by presumably a different author in a bit of a different context. In Acts chapter 15, you may remember the story after Paul and Barnabas had made their first missionary journey and gone up through the regions of Turkey and Asia Minor, they came back down, they had the

Jerusalem Council in Acts chapter 15, and then Paul had this idea, hey, Barnabas, let's, you and I go back and let's visit all the churches that we visited and we founded on our first missionary journey.

And Barnabas said, I think that's a great idea, Paul. Let's do that. I'll give John Mark a call and see when he was free to leave.

And Paul said, what you talking about, Willis? John Mark, the same John Mark that left us on the first journey?

I don't think so. And Acts 15, 39 says, there occurred such a sharp disagreement, that's the word, such a sharp disagreement between Paul and Barnabas over this issue, that they parted ways.

Paul took Silas, Barnabas took John Mark, and they separated ways, and according to the New Testament, they never worked together again,

Paul and Barnabas. There's no other indication that they ever crossed paths or came together in any kind of a joint enterprise after that.

There occurred such a perixmos, a sharp disagreement. The word, the root word of that is used to describe a sour wine, something with a biting and cutting edge, something that was sharp.

And so you can kind of see how some of the different translators translate this word to bring out this agitated and provocative nature of this word.

The NASB translates it, stimulate, that's a bit mild. It's a bit mild, stimulate.

I think you could, I think the NASB could have done a little bit better than that. The King James translates it, provoke unto love and good works, provoke.

You've ever been provoked? How do you feel when you're provoked? We use the word provocative to describe something that what, agitates us.

Well, that was a bit provocative. It agitates us, it stirs us up, it gets us going on the inside. The New King James translates it, stir up, and the

NIV, spur one another. And the NIV in that translation kind of catches the idea of that poking, that prodding, that sharp edge to something.

We are to spur, to provoke, to agitate, to incite one another to love and good deeds.

Now that's kind of an interesting word to use in that context, is it not? Have you ever been incited to love and good deeds?

Typically, we don't use words like that to describe that affection that we have, being stirred up in that way, being provoked in that way.

What this is describing is a lively interest in the affairs of other people, but not in a busybody way.

So if you have a busybody gene in you, this is not your verse, this is not describing that. I was told to go walk around provoking people.

Not in that way. We are to have a lively interest in the affairs of other people, the spiritual affairs of other people, to the end that we are agitating them, stirring them up in an aggressive and passionate way to love and to good deeds.

It seems as if it is an awfully negative word to use to describe such a positive activity, isn't it?

It just seems out of place. And I will explain to you why I think the author used that word here in just a moment.

But I want you to understand that he is not describing here any kind of negative behavior on behalf of the believers.

As if you were to say to your spouse on the way home, look, I had a conversation with that Sunday school teacher.

And I'll tell you what, I had it out with her and I provoked her to love and good deeds. She'll be much better next week than she is this week because of what she did.

And he's not describing here the painful part of this. Like I gave that deacon a tongue lashing and I told him you better get on it or get out of here.

And so he's gonna be a lot better in his duties as well. That's not, it's nothing, it's not a negative activity. The word is describing the excited nature of this endeavor.

It's not describing the negative connotations of it, but rather the agitated and provocative nature of our interest in other people.

And of what our interest and our motivating of other people should do. People should respond to us considering how to stimulate one another.

The response of people to us should be so provocative in a good sense that we think, wow, who lit a fire under them?

And if you trace it back to who it was and what it was that was the fire, you would say that was the best possible thing for them.

Somebody really gave some thought as to how to be so invested in that person in a spiritual way, in a positive way, that the result is like this person just exploded, but not in anger, not in incitement, not in a provocation, but in joy and love and in good deeds.

So it's not a negative thing that we're doing, even though it is a bit of a negative word. Now, I would, let me tell you why it is that I think that the author would have chosen this word.

And I didn't come up with this myself, I kind of gleaned this from a couple of other commentators who suggested this.

First, it's possible that some in the congregation to which this author was speaking or writing, that they had been provoked by those who were on the outside of the church.

That they had been provoked by others on the outside of the church. Now remember, this is a group of people who had left all of their

Hebrew and Judaism and the sacrifices and everything else to the temple. And some of them were suffering soft persecution from their friends and their loved ones as a result of the commitment that they had made to Jesus Christ.

That's why the author, look at it in verse 32, says, "'But remember the former days, "'when after being enlightened, "'you endured a great conflict of sufferings, "'partly by being made a public spectacle "'through reproaches and tribulations, "'and partly by becoming sharers "'with those who were so treated.

"'For you showed sympathy to the prisoners "'and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, "'knowing that you have for yourselves "'a better possession and a lasting one.'"

Now how had some of those on the outside, their former acquaintances, friends and family members, employers and employees, how had they responded to their commitment to Christ?

It was soft persecution. Some of them had their property seized. Some of them were, in the words of verse 32, enduring great conflict of sufferings.

They were made public spectacles. They were reproached, had suffered tribulation, and become sharers with those who were so treated.

There were those on the outside who were provoking those new Christians to leave the Christian assembly.

And some of those inside the Christian assembly might have thought to themselves, you know, every time I get together with my family for Levi's birthday, this issue of my commitment to Christ always comes up, and it is always fraught with this conflict, this sharp disagreement.

They think Jesus was a liar and deceiver. I think he was the Messiah, and I know of my salvation, but they don't get this.

And so it's always an issue of conversation when our family gets together. Or in my neighborhood, when I'm out at the community potluck in our neighborhood, the issue of my commitment to Christ comes up, and why

I haven't been attending the sacrifices at the temple, and why I haven't been bringing a lamb on Passover, and why

I haven't been attending all of these other Judaistic activities that were part of my old life. It always comes up, and there's always this conflict, this provocation.

This whole commitment to Christ has ended up provoking me, and others are provoking me to leave the congregation.

And the author here would be saying, it is our duty to provoke others to stay in the congregation, to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, but rather to be provoked to further our commitment to Christ and our adherence to him.

That's why I think the author is using the word provoking. They were used to being provoked by others who were trying to provoke them to leave.

He's wanting those in the congregation to provoke those same people to stay, and to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.

It's also true that some of us can be provoked by those on the inside. It's one thing to be provoked by those on the outside, to say, no, your commitment to Christianity, it's ruined your old life, you're no longer one of us, you don't see things the same way.

It's this constant state of conflict when we get together as a family. But it's another thing to be provoked by the person that's across the aisle from you, right?

Sometimes we can provoke one another in a bad way within the congregation. And if there's any kind of strife within the body here, the author might be trying to address that fact, the fact that there was some provoking going on as people were rubbing against each other.

This is what happens when sinners get together and live life together. This is what happens when sinners get together and worship and serve one another together.

Sometimes there can be conflict and strife and we rub each other the wrong way. All that needs to happen for that to happen is for us to be us, that's it.

You do you and I do me, and that's a recipe for disaster. And so when that happens and there is strife and conflict, it might provoke some people to just say, well,

I'm not coming back, I don't need those people, I'll just stay home and worship. I can watch the live stream. I don't need to sit there next to those other sinners and listen to that kid or listen to that person or listen to the old man who can't hear anything say.

What does he say? I don't have to put up with all of that stuff, all the irritants of gathering together as a people. I can just stay home.

No, don't let anything provoke you to leave. Let one another provoke you to stay and to hold fast, to draw near, to hold fast, and to encourage others to do the same.

Those are the three exhortations. Why such a negative word to describe something so beautiful and positive? Because number one,

I think it describes the effect that we are to have upon people. Stirred up in such a passionate way, but not to leave, but to draw near and hold fast, and stirred up in such a passionate way that when you look at them, you think, man, they're just pursuing love and good deeds.

Somebody must have provoked them to that. What a beautiful word, provoked. And we are to do this with the goal, the end in view of love and good deeds.

Provoke one another to love and good deeds. Notice that both of these are categories of things, nothing specific. They're categories of things.

They're things that we can love. They're things that create love within us. We can love God, we can love Christ, we can love the church, love others, love the truth, love the lost, a lot of things to love.

Love has a number of expressions. Love can be created and stirred up by a number of things. There are a number of different ways in which we love others and show our love for others.

And so this is just a category of things where to be stirred up to love, it is somewhat specific, but it also kind of encompasses a whole bunch of other things, and notice that good deeds is a very broad category, isn't it?

What does he mean by that, good deeds? That could be serving others, that could be just remaining faithful. A good deed could just be obeying the simple commands of Scripture.

Those are the good deeds. And notice that not only are these categories of things, but notice that there is a connection between love and good deeds.

These two things do go together because love is the motivation that motivates all the good deeds that we do. It's not just that we are to be stirred up to do good deeds, but that we are to do so in a loving way.

We have to consider, give thoughtful consideration to how it is that we can be an instrument in the hand of God to motivate somebody else to love and to do good deeds, and how to best do that in a way that they are provoked to express the faithfulness to Christ through good deeds and their love for Christ in serving others.

And notice the third thing here. There's a triad of virtues, and this kind of stood out to me, and I've been waiting weeks and weeks and weeks to point this out till we got to the end of it.

Notice, you know what the Christian triad of virtues is? Love, faith, and hope. 1 Corinthians 13, Paul says that these things remain love, faith, and hope.

No, faith, hope, and love. Whatever the order is, it's those three, okay? 1 Corinthians 13, notice that all three of those are present in these three exhortations.

Let us draw near in full assurance of faith. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope, and let us consider how to stir one another up to love.

Faith, hope, and love. All three of those are present here in the text. You say, what do I do with that? What does that mean?

I don't know. I think it's a great observation. These three things, faith, hope, and love, they are central aspects, central themes throughout all the

New Testament. And they are certainly all present and all central to the body life of a local church.

There has to be faith by which we draw near to God. There has to be a hope to which we aspire and we confess, and there has to be love that is to mark and characterize our relationships and our interactions with one another.

And they all come together here in this passage, these exhortations, as he is encouraging us to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as is the habit of some.

Now, how do we do this? This is the point where I could say, okay, here are the 10 things that you need to do this week in order to obey this command.

But you'll notice that the passage is not specific in terms of its application, is it? We are to stimulate one another to love and to good deeds.

Now, the idea of stimulating here has a parallel in verse 25, the encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

Obviously, it has something to do with our assembling together. But the writer does not give us a list of things that we are to do.

I think specifically because the application of this and the way in which this will work itself out will be in many ways gift -specific, gift -specific.

I'm talking about spiritual gifts. In other words, this is gonna look a lot different when I do this as it does when somebody else does this.

Somebody else's spiritual gift is gonna cause them to look at the kids in their Sunday school class and write encouraging notes to each one of those kids or send them a gift or to remember people's birthdays.

Another person's spiritual gift is going to cause them to go out and make sure that the doors are open and that the driveway is plowed and that they can help in somebody who gets around with more difficulty or has a wheelchair.

Somebody else's gift is gonna be to make sure that the whole place is clean for the assembling of the saints. Somebody else's gift is going to be to run this service or to run that service and to stimulate one another.

This way in which we do this is gift -specific. So it's gonna look different for each and every individual.

I'll tell you what this looks like for me. No, well, no. I won't finish that sentence.

No, I will. Here we go. No, I'll finish the sentence. Here's what it looks like when I try and do this for other people.

I give thought all week long to how I can study Scripture and be an encouragement to other people in my handling and treatment of Scripture.

So I believe that my gift makes me stimulate, stir up other people to love and good deeds in the teaching of Scripture and in the communicating of that and in counseling and in sharing and sometimes meeting with people and helping people through different issues and answering questions.

That's how I'm geared. I'm not the guy that writes, I don't know if any of you, my wife will get a note on your birthday, but there are people here who do that all the time.

There's somebody here who, when somebody's going in for a surgery, he knows about it and before they started kicking people out of hospitals, he would go to the hospital and pray for the person who was having a surgery while they were going through that whole procedure and no matter how many hours it was, eight, nine, 10, 12, whatever it was, he would stay there and he would be praying the whole time with the people who were waiting in the waiting room for that.

You know what that does? That just stirs you up to love and good deeds, does it not? When you see the example of somebody else who does this, you see other people doing this, it motivates you to do it and when you do it, it motivates other people to do it and so in that way, we're all like a big agitator in the bottom of a washing machine.

We're all going around and around doing this one for another stirring everything up and stirring other people up. You do it, when you do it, it stirs me up.

When I do it, it stirs you up. When you each do it, it stirs other people up. They see it and they think, man, that motivates me. I should be more like that individual in doing that.

I should give my time and attention to that. That person is so considerate. I should be more like that. That person is so thoughtful. I could do the same thing if I just had the time.

I should really do that and in that way, we are motivated to use our spiritual gift and the expression of this is going to look different depending on the giftedness and the unique capacities and time, skills, talents and abilities that the

Lord has given to each and every one of us and it is to a mutual effect. You should notice that this is the work of the whole body, not just the pastor.

Because I'll tell you right now, I cannot. I cannot. I do not have the mental, emotional, spiritual, physical capacity to do this to every single individual on a personal basis.

I cannot do that. You cannot do that. Nobody here can do that. That's why this command is given to the entire body, right?

And when you're doing this for several other people in the congregation, several other people in the congregation are doing this for other people in the congregation, then everybody is involved in this, giving thought as to how they can motivate others to love and to good deeds, to use their spiritual gifts in the benefit of others, to help others along and to motivate them and encourage them, to draw near, to hold fast and to encourage others to do the same.

This just creates a dynamic body life in which all of us are doing this together, one for another, out of love.

This is the good deed that we do out of love to motivate others to good deeds and to love. And it's a beautiful thing.

And this requires, obviously, the gathering of ourselves together, does it not? There are people watching right now on livestream, but they have almost a complete inability to be here and to do that to you personally.

You are not really able to do this in the fullest extent to those who watch remotely.

You just can't do it. This is something that can only be fulfilled in the physical, literal, regular gathering together of God's people.

It's the only way this can be fulfilled in its fullest sense. You can send somebody an email and encourage them, yeah, you can do this, but listen, the more separate you are from people, the more difficult this is to fulfill.

That's just the nature of reality. It is in meeting together, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, it's in that meeting and in our gathering together as I get to know you, you get to know me, we all get to know each other, we take an interest in one another, we learn, we hear from one another, we understand what the struggles are and the difficulties are, we understand what the needs are.

This is something that is only fulfilled in its fullest sense when you are vitally connected to a local gathering of people known as the church.

This is something that can only be done when you are involved in the lives of others and others are involved in your life.

And the more distant you keep yourself, the more separate you become from this very good grace of other people stirring you up to love and good deeds.

And the further away you keep yourself from other Christian people, the more alienated you become, the less able you become to do this in the lives of other and the less able they are to do this in your life.

So our willingness or our wanting at times to keep our distance from other people and to stay out of accountability circles and to stay out of other people's lives and to keep other people's out of our lives, you cut yourself off from this very grace.

This is the grace of God in your life. The church, the gathering of the saints locally by which all of this is fulfilled, us meeting together and encouraging one another, this is

God's gift to you. Millions of Christians today are not enjoying what you get to enjoy here.

You know how graced we are? You know how blessed we are to enjoy this, to have this? This is almost, for millions and millions of Christians across the ages, what we get to enjoy here on a

Sunday morning is so rare to them that they don't get to have any of this. And to think that in our culture, we just wanna keep everybody at a distance.

No, no, I'll attend once in a while, but keep those people, I don't get to know any of those people. I mean, I know the people in front of me and behind me, but those people in the other section against the wall,

I mean, they are, that's the loony left for a reason. They're over there. I don't wanna,

I mean, look at the people, listen, right? You cut yourself off from the grace of God.

This is his gift to us, and we have to embrace this. So let us give considered, deliberate, focused intention as to how it is that we can provoke other people in the best way possible, with the result being that we will be encouraging in them love and good deeds, obedience to the commands of Christ.

Do you see how this keeps apostasy at bay? When we do this for one another, and we see other people who are heading in a certain direction, and we stop them, and we grab them and say, hey, no, that's not the right way to go, that's not what you should be doing, looking.

Listen, I want to encourage you to do this, or when we find some way to be an encouragement to them, some way to bless them, some way to serve them, some way to encourage them, provoke them to not forsake the assembling of yourselves together.

Provoke them to love and good deeds. Provoke them to obedience to scripture. That becomes a guard against apostasy.

It becomes a guard against us leaving the faith and walking away from the truth. This is something that all believers need.

No matter how old you are, no matter how mature you are, it's something that all believers need, because spiritual sloth is a real danger.

We get apathetic, and we get apathetic easy. Especially when we live in a country that, at a time, not just a country, but at a time when all of our needs are met and we become just, we almost are awash in prosperity and ease of life.

We have it easier than anybody else has ever had it. That slothfulness, spiritually speaking, can creep in and can strangle your soul.

Spiritual deception is a real danger. At a time when it's so easy, it's very easy in getting slothful to let down the guard and to open ourselves up to being spiritually deceived by false teachers, by well -meaning people who would lead us astray.

Spiritual deception is a real danger, and the slothfulness, and becoming spiritually weak, and we don't wanna do any of that.

What is it that keeps sloth, the deception, becoming spiritually weak at bay? What is the remedy for that? Give careful, considerate attention, thoughtfulness as to how you can be provocative to others in the best way possible, with the end, not to be an irritant to them, not to be a busybody, but to encourage them to love and good deeds.

If we all do that, that helps guard all of us against being deceived, against falling away, against apostasy, against being weak, and against slothfulness.

Now, what do we do with this command in verse 25? This is the explanation. We are to do this, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the habit of some.

And what is, at the end of verse 25, this day that is drawing near? What is that day, and how is that to motivate us to do this even more?

You see, there's something coming that when we look at that, we should say, oh, I better get busy doing this, because something is on the horizon, and when that hits, my time to do that will be over.

What is that day? We'll look at that next week. We'll look at the explanation of this in verse 25 next week. Let's bow our heads.

Father, we are grateful to you for this body of believers, for this church. The church was your idea to create a people of Jew and Gentile people from all nationalities, ages, and ethnicities, to gather together and to worship

Christ and to glorify him, and to be saved and redeemed in that new covenant by the blood of your Son.

What a marvelous idea it is, and you have, by your grace and by the working of your Spirit, you have brought us into that reality in Jesus Christ.

And we thank you for this grace in our life and for the blessing that it is to be here at this time in this body with these people.

We pray that you would give us grace to know how to thoughtfully and considerately and deliberately provoke one another in the best sense possible.

Help us to apply this as we look forward to and look for the interests of others, as we seek that out and pursue that, not considering ourselves as more important than another, but other people as better and more important than ourselves.

Help us to selflessly give ourselves in this endeavor and to do this for the good of others, and then to receive the blessing that comes to us because of our obedience to that.

May you continue to strengthen us in this body of believers through your word and through the work of your Spirit amongst us.

May you continue to unite our hearts in love and in unity and affection, not only for one another, but also for your word, for the truth, and for Christ our

Lord, in whose name we pray. Amen. One of the things we gather together as God's people is to observe the ordinances, the

Lord's Supper, and that's what we're gonna do now. The elements that are before us, the bread and the wine, or the bread and the juice, sorry,

I didn't mean wine if you're a teetotaler, but the bread and the juice that are before us, these things are symbols of a spiritual reality.

They are symbols of what Christ has done for us in giving his body and his blood on the cross so that we might have eternal life.

There is nothing inherently salvific in these elements. In other words, by eating and drinking this, you do not become a believer, nor do you become more sanctified, nor are you raised to another level of your spiritual progress or your spiritual growth.

These are symbols that remind us of the one thing that unites all of us. Those of us who are in Jesus Christ are in Jesus Christ because he died on a cross to pay the price for our sin.

He was buried, and on the third day, he rose again for our justification. And those who have come to faith in Jesus Christ by the working of the spirit are those who have repented of their sins, their iniquities, their transgressions, and they have turned and believed savingly upon Jesus Christ and been born again.

And if you are not in that camp, if you have never trusted Christ for salvation and you're not born again, that I would discourage you from partaking of these elements because scripture says you eat and drink judgment to yourself.

So instead, as believers, we eat and drink only after we have examined ourselves first, and that is that we prayerfully examine our own hearts, confessing our sin, our unworthiness, and our iniquity, and we come to the

Lord to partake of this as a symbol of our union with one another, of our unity, and of that which has made us one body under that one blood of the

Lord Jesus Christ. And so I will ask you to bow your heads and we'll have a moment of silence, and then

I will pray and we will confess our sin together, and you can examine yourselves with your heads bowed, and then

I'll ask the ushers to come forward. Let's bow our heads. Our Father, we are wholly unworthy of any grace that you have bestowed upon us.

We don't deserve your mercy. We don't deserve forgiveness or salvation. We don't deserve to be in your church, in the body of Christ.

We don't deserve to have all of our sins washed away, and we don't deserve the righteousness that you give us in Jesus Christ.

None of these things are merited by us. Because of our sin and the great weight of our transgressions, the sacrifice of Christ was necessary to atone for our sin.

And so we thank you that you do not mark or number our sins. We thank you that you have cast them far behind your back.

As far as the East is from the West, that you remember our sins no more. We thank you for the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

We confess with great humility, and oftentimes with sorrow, the sin that weighs us down, and the sin that we still have to battle.

And we thank you that you have provided for us full and complete atonement and forgiveness in Jesus Christ. We truly have erred and we sin each and every day.

We are in these bodies of flesh, and we cannot escape this flesh that we are tied to.

We shall not until we are dead. And we go to be with you, but we thank you that our hope is complete and total glorification, and someday the complete deliverance, not only from the penalty and the power of sin, but also from his very presence.

We thank you that you will, because of what Christ has done, make us fully like him, and that we rest sanctified and righteous in your son.

Thank you for these graces, and thank you for that forgiveness and for that righteousness.

In Christ's name, amen. Will the ushers come forward and help serve communion? All right, let's pray together before we do.

Father, you sent your son to take upon himself human flesh so that he might live a perfect life, and in giving of his body to die on that cross and to die a perfect death in our stead.

And the bread that we enjoy is just a symbol of that offering and that sacrifice. So we thank you that you provided a body for your son and that he gave it on a cross in our stead.

We ask your blessing upon this, our communion, which is to follow in Christ's name. Take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you.

Do this in remembrance of me. In the same manner, after supper, he took the cup and said, this is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for so perfect a sacrifice, so perfect a life, and so perfect a righteousness provided by that life and that sacrifice.

In him, we have perfect and complete forgiveness of sins, and we thank you for it in the name of your glorious and gracious son, amen.