[This is part of a series of sermons on the topic of "One Another". To access previous messages, please click here.]
"God used two unchangeable things, His will and His word to secure the promise of our salvation as He gave it to Abraham.
We talked last week about exhorting each other for righteousness’ sake. When we studied Matthew 5:6 (sermon here), we found that the Christian craves righteousness. The Christian begins more and more to despise the sinful temptations of the world. The Christian gathers around them pure righteousness and draws upon the power of God to shun evil. The Christian looks forward to the freedom from a sin-tainted world. The Christian wants to exhort other Christians to holiness, godliness and spiritual purity that come from a life lived before the face of God through the Son and in the Holy Spirit every day. We seek relationships that encourage righteousness. These relationships with other believers exhort and encourage us to purity in Christ. Our fellowship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is celebrated every time we gather for worship, have a covered dish, open the scriptures for Bible study or just find one another wondering around town. Just seeing a fellow believer encourages and exhorts us. Why is this exhortation and encouragement to purity and righteousness so important? Each believer should be able to appear before the Lord in confidence and not in shame when He comes (Heb 10:25, 1 Jn 2:28).
Folks, I pray you realize how powerful this is. We are talking about Christians helping Christians be Christians through Christ in each of us. We are talking about the brilliant, pure white beam of light emanating from each Christian in the form of the Holy Spirit. This light dispels all darkness that attempts to shroud our testimony, darken our day, or dampen our spirits. We are talking about the power of God in each of us. We are talking about an all-powerful God who uses us and speaks through us to others to encourage and exhort them to righteousness and purity. What a privilege and honor it is for us to be in such a position!
Where last week we discussed leading the horse to the water, this week we talk about how to get the horse to drink this life sustaining liquid, then use that sustenance for God’s glory. How do we get a Christian to love as a Christian, and work for God? This week we take the next step. We move from discussion to action. From encouragement and exhortation to actually getting a believer to love and move or work for God. We learn to actively love one another and work for God.
Please look at Hebrews 10:23 with me. Though our concentration verse is 24, we will take in 23 to understand what the scriptures have for us today. The question we must ask is: How do we change and what does that change do to affect others? What principles should we place into effect from our scriptures today?
Have you ever reminisced about a championship game where your team won? I remember belonging to two champion softball teams in one year. I was privileged to play softball for both Bob Jones University and Hampton Park Baptist Church in Greenville, South Carolina. In both instances, we played against other teams developed across the organizations. At Bob Jones, I played for the Campus Store team. At Hampton Park I played on, I believe, the blue team (Pastor Mike Cruice’s team). I played a variety of positions from third base/short stop to right field and second base. About the only position I did not play, was pitcher. The Lord permitted me to make a few good plays and get a few key hits. I remember playing for Peoples Baptist in Frederick, Maryland, where we took second place in a county league. That was equally as exciting. We did that from the loser’s bracket too. I remember one key play I made with Hampton Park. A guy was on first and I was in right field. The batter hit a line drive that I was sure was going to be a single, and so was the base runner as well as, by their reaction, everyone else. I charged the ball, caught it for one out, and from about midfield threw out the runner before he could get back to first. Double play. I was blessed to make a relay play to home to get a runner in a game for the Campus Store. I was at shortstop, a relay came into me deep in my position, I wheeled around and threw the ball as hard as I could to the plate and got the runner. I was blessed with my first home run while playing for Peoples in the county league. It was an in- the-park hit, but I ran the bases (I might note I didn’t have the luxury of jogging, I had to run!).
These types of things are not meant to be a boastful, but just to illustrate a point. We remember those great shining moments that we have in life. They are an encouragement to us. We remember when we have done well for the team. Our efforts spur on our teammates to new heights of performance. Many people made many good plays and key hits in those games.
In our scriptures today, we find this kind of reminiscence and the necessity of it in the Christian life. These memories and the joy they bring to us are the tools we use to stimulate one another to love and good works. We will consider being steadfast in our hope, rejoicing in a faithful Lord, and how these two things stimulate us to this love and good works.
I. Being Steadfast in our Hope (23a)
Like the championship game-winning home run or fabulous defensive play; we should remember even more, why we call ourselves Christian! We have seen the risen Lord. We have laid our souls in His hands and He resides in Heaven! We have heard His gentle voice and He has said, “Be not afraid!” We rejoice in a hope of our risen Savior and His return for you and for me. Our hope should be bolstered repeatedly as we reminisce on our acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Savior. We should recount repeatedly the great salvation of our soul and His great work in our lives, or the lives of other believers around us. We rejoice at miraculous healings or preservation. We rejoice at deathbed salvations and souls saved after 20 or 30 years of prayer. We reminisce about God’s great work in our own lives and how that work has changed us to be like Him.
Our hope is in the Lord who gave Himself for us. We rejoice in His sacrifice and our confession of that great sacrifice for us. We recount the many times we rejected Him and we know how unworthy we are. We remember our pride, our outright denial of Him and His Son and our sins and we wonder how great, majestic God Jehovah could have us in His glorious kingdom. How can we live in such a hope? We hope simply through the shed blood of Jesus Christ who died for all of us.
The writer of Hebrews has already noted other reasons we have to be hopeful. In 3:1 we are to partake in the heavenly calling, therefore we should rejoice (3:6)! God is love; God is faithful and He promises to have better things for the Christian. We should hope for these things (6:10-12). God used two unchangeable things, His will and His word to secure the promise of our salvation as He gave it to Abraham (3:17-20).
Ladies and gentlemen, we have won the championship game of eternal life! We have not only won that game, but we did so because a God who loves us made great defensive and offensive plays for us in our lives! He chose the best times for our success and permitted failure at the perfect instance that would draw us to Him. He also did all these things while coaching us through life guiding us to Him. We are privileged to be on the winning team of all the centuries past and eternity forward! Wiersbe wrote:
“When a believer has his hope fixed on Christ, and relies on the faithfulness of God, then he will not waiver. Instead of looking back (as the Jews often did), we should look ahead to the coming of the Lord.”
We should reminisce about our great successes in the Lord and share those memories. God loves us and He puts us into positions on the playing field that we can achieve, and that best benefit His kingdom. We should be excited about the opportunity of being an encouragement to others.
Not only should we rejoice in our hope of eternity in Heaven through Christ’s salvation, we should rejoice that our God is faithful and will do that which He promises. He is a faithful Lord in whom we should rejoice.
II. Rejoicing in a Faithful Lord (23b)
God is immutable, that is to say He is the same today, yesterday and tomorrow (Heb 13:8). When the writer of Hebrews makes this point, he specifically points to the eternal consistency of God. He does not change. In this instance, the writer refers to Jesus Christ and the implication is clear. Jesus Christ is God and He is immutable just as Yahweh is immutable; they are one. Therefore, once we are saved, once we have accepted Christ, once our salvation is secured in the Lord, it too is immutable, unchangeable. We should rejoice in a God who is consistent in all He does for all His children.
It is a sin to doubt God. Sin dishonors God. When we believe we must be in control, or that we have to know everything in order for anything to work, we doubt God’s ability to affect all things to the good for those who believe (Rom 8:28). We only actuate Romans 8:28 when we do not doubt God, but lean upon Him, trust in Him, believe in Him and exercise faith in Him. When we actively believe and give up control, we exercise faith. We should be able to rejoice in our Lord and His sovereignty. We should be able to do this whether the circumstance is good or bad, whether we understand or not. It is not important that we understand all things, just that in all things we have faith in Him who saved us. We should not trust only in our ability to understand or exercise control (Prov 3:5).
How do we encourage other believers to greater heights of love and good works? By bringing the times when our faith freed us into remembrance. We stimulate others into action when we tell them of the great provision of God in our lives. When we recount times where God is faithful to us, we help others see His sovereignty. We should remember we only do this when we focus upon God and rest in Him.
Rejoicing in God’s faithfulness is certainly one aspect of Christian encouragement. However, in this instance it is more an act of faith and encouraging faith. We are still helping the horse drink the water and not necessarily putting the life giving fluid to use. We need to learn to activate this faith in a productive manner. Put the water we drink to good productive use.
III. Stimulating One Another to Action (v. 24)
Ladies and gentlemen we might take notice that all this activity only takes place around other believers. We can only encourage others with our actions and words. This means others need to see or hear us. The only way others can see or hear us is if they are around us. We worship and fellowship together for the purpose of stimulating one another to love and good works.
In the time of Paul, the synagogue was the place of worship. It was not just a place where you went in, paid your tithe, bowed once and got out. It was a place where others accepted you as a fellow believer in Yahweh. It was a place to recount the history of Moses, Abraham and Joseph. It was a place where you went to worship in many forms including fellowship and group prayer. It was a refuge from the unbelieving world controlled by the Romans. It was a place where you were encouraged to keep the law in the face of great adversity.
Today we have the church and other believers. Truly, the church is people, people gather in a building, and this building is called a church. However, the church to the Lord is the assembly of believers that make up a body. Each body has many parts. As a whole, the entire body of believers across the globe makes up what theologians call the visible church.
Consider the word “provoke” for a minute. This word normally has the connotation of irritation or exasperation. It is a word better associated with a negative event or circumstance. Its use here then is even more striking in terms of functionality. The use of this word is as if we were to verbally abuse someone to motivate them. The verbiage is vibrant and abrasive. This is probably the most poignant part of the text – that we might take extreme measures to motivate other believers into loving one another and doing good works. These measures may mean we are down right blunt at times. Jesus called Pharisees vipers. Paul talks of the lost Jewish teacher as an individual whose throat is an open sepulcher.
Verse 25 from last week shines through in its importance when we consider how to encourage or provoke one another. None of this activity takes place when a Christian attempts to worship alone. When a Christian isolates himself and creates his or her own little individual monastery, there is no growth and there is no encouragement. Believers are supposed to attend church with people for the purpose of receiving and giving love and to encourage one another to good works. Believers gather to reminisce about God’s great provision and to spur others on to newer and greater heights of faith, love and service.
To encourage one another you must first be a believer. You must first trust in God for all things. You must give up your propensity to control and give your life and all that you desire over to the Lord.
Secondly, you should remember these things. We should remember and share the wonderful blessings God gives us when we step out of the way and let God do His work among people. The challenge for every believer is that we still have a sin nature that wants to control life for ourselves. What we have to face is that we have made a mess out of our lives, and the lives of others. We should face the fact that we need to step back and turn ourselves over to God.
Comments