"Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end." Hebrews 3:12-14
Because of the eternal significance of the gospel, the Lord in mercy has called us to be a part of the church. Where we can be equipped, encouraged, challenged, corrected, built up, and live in relationship in such a way that we are sent out to adorn the gospel of Christ (Titus 2:10).
The maturation of the believer is carried out, in part, by the joy of being involved in relationships in the way of the Lord.
“The greatest need in modern civilization is the development of communities-true communities where the heart of God is home, where the humble and wise learn to shepherd those on the path behind them, where trusting strugglers lock arms with others as together they journey on.” Larry Crabb, Connecting
"There are two ways in which a practical moralist may attempt to displace from the human heart its love for the world — either by a demonstration of the world’s vanity, so that the heart shall be prevailed upon simply to withdraw its regards from an object that is not worthy of it; or, by setting forth another object, even God, as more worthy of its attachment, so that the heart shall be prevailed upon not to resign an old affection, which shall have nothing to succeed it, but to exchange an old affection for a new one... From the constitution of our nature, the former method is altogether incompetent and ineffectual, and the latter method will alone suffice for the rescue and recovery of the heart from the wrong affection that domineers over it." Thomas Chalmers, The Expulsive Power of a New Affection
• The assurance of salvation is a joyful reality in the life of a believer. How can I continually “work out my salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12-13)?"
• Am I trusting in Jesus alone as the one who died on the cross for my sins? As my substitute?
• Do I desire to be pleasing to God out of gratitude for His tender mercies?
• Do I make life adjustments as I encounter the living God in the scriptures? The sobering teaching of Matthew 7:21-23.
The potential of drifting, which results in a hardened heart:
“The believer may, through the temptation of Satan, and of the world, the untamed corruption of indwelling sin, and the neglect of the means. of their preservation, can fall into grievous sins and continue in such a state for a time. In this reality, they incur the Father’s displeasure, grieve the Holy Spirit, are deprived of their joys, happiness, and comfort, experience a hardened heart and a wounded conscience. They bring sorrow to other believers and temporal judgments upon themselves.” Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 17-3
Applications
1. Make your calling and election sure, and the joy of the assurance of your salvation.
2. Hardening of the heart happens by a refusal to listen to the Lord and His people. Coupled with the determined desire or a desire to drift into wretchedness/vomitous feasting state (2 Peter 2:22).
3. Sin is deceitful (fraud and trickery versus the glory and joy of the living God.)
“[Senior demon to a junior demon] God is a hedonist at heart. All those fasts and vigils and stakes and crosses are only a facade. Or only like foam on the seashore. Out at sea, in His sea, there is pleasure and more pleasure. He makes no secret of it; at His right hand are ‘pleasures forevermore’. (Psalm 16:11) UGH! I don't think He has the least inkling of that high and austere mystery to which we rise in the Miserific Vision… Everything has to be twisted before it's any use to us.” C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, Letter 22
4. We are to exhort one another day after day (come alongside to comfort, encourage, build, plead).
5. We are chiefly concerned about two periods of time: "today" and "that day" (the revelation of Jesus Christ).
Questions for Discussion
1. How does a believer drift into a wretched state?
2. Why is it important to center our exhortation in large part upon the reality of Christ and the call to follow Him and the understanding that eternity awaits?
3. “We need to be graphic in our description of sin because the Bible is graphic.” Agree/disagree?
4. Who are you exhorting, and who is exhorting you? What small group of exhorters have you linked with?