Jun 25
29
Pre-Introduction
The context for our Old Testament reading is this: The Hebrews had been redeemed from Egyptian bondage by the mighty hand of the Lord. The Lord then led them through the wilderness and brought them to Sinai, where he made a covenant with them. This covenant was built upon the covenant God made with Abraham hundreds of years before. In that covenant, the Lord promised, among other things, to give Abraham’s descendants the land of Canaan. After the Lord entered into a covenant with Isarel through Moses at Sinai, he led them through the wilderness to the border of Canaan. In Numbers 13:1, we read, “The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a chief among them” (Numbers 13:1–2, ESV). Numbers 13:25-14:35 is about the return of the spies and the report they brought to the people of Israel.
Old Testament Reading: Numbers 13:25–14:35
“At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh. They brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. And they told him, ‘We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. And the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.’ But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, ‘Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.’ Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.’ So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, ‘The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.’ Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, ‘Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! Why is the LORD bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?’ And they said to one another, ‘Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.’ Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the people of Israel. And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh [yef·oon·neh], who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, “The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. If the LORD delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them.’ Then all the congregation said to stone them with stones. But the glory of the LORD appeared at the tent of meeting to all the people of Israel. And the LORD said to Moses, ‘How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.’ But Moses said to the LORD, ‘Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for you brought up this people in your might from among them, and they will tell the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you, O LORD, are in the midst of this people. For you, O LORD, are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them and you go before them, in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. Now if you kill this people as one man, then the nations who have heard your fame will say, ‘It is because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to give to them that he has killed them in the wilderness.’ And now, please let the power of the Lord be great as you have promised, saying, ‘The LORD is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.’ Please pardon the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt until now.’ Then the LORD said, ‘I have pardoned, according to your word. But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD, none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it. But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it. Now, since the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valleys, turn tomorrow and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.’ And the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, ‘How long shall this wicked congregation grumble against me? I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against me. Say to them, ‘As I live, declares the LORD, what you have said in my hearing I will do to you: your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and of all your number, listed in the census from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me, not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh [yef·oon·neh] and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have rejected. But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.’ I, the LORD, have spoken. Surely this will I do to all this wicked congregation who are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.’” (Numbers 13:25–14:35, ESV)
New Testament Reading: Hebrews 3:12–19
“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. As it is said, ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.’ For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.” (Hebrews 3:12–19, ESV)
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Please excuse any typos and misspellings within this manuscript. It has been published online for the benefit of the saints of Emmaus Reformed Baptist Church, but without the benefit of proofreading.
Introduction
After preaching that sermon last Sunday on Luke 21:34, wherein Christ commands us to “watch [ourselves] lest [our] hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life…” (Luke 21:34, ESV), this question came to my mind: While it is clear that Christ is here commanding us to keep a watch over our own hearts, lest our own hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, what obligation do we have to watch out for one another in the Lord? In other words, do fellow disciples of Jesus Christ, and especially fellow church members, have an obligation to look out for one another, and, if so, what shall we do?
Hebrews 3:12-19 came to mind. Let me explain why.
Exhort One Another
At first, this passage sounds just like Luke 21:34. In Luke, we hear Christ speak to his disciples, saying, “But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap” (Luke 21:34, ESV). And in Hebrews 3:12, the Apostle says, “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God” (Hebrews 3:12, ESV).
Notice, firstly, that both passages begin with a command. Christ says, “But watch yourselves…”, and the Apostle says, “Take care…” The word translated as “take care” means “to be ready to learn about future dangers or needs, with the implication of preparedness to respond appropriately—‘to beware of, to watch out for, to pay attention to’” (Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 332.) So you can see that in both passages, watchfulness or alertness is commanded.
Notice, secondly, that both passages address disciples of Jesus. In Luke 21, Christ spoke to those who followed him into Jerusalem and the temple. In Hebrews 3, the Apostle speaks to “brothers”, a term used to address followers of Jesus Christ, male and female. So then, this warning is for those who profess faith in Jesus and follow after him. “Take care, brothers”, the Apostle commands.
Notice, thirdly, that both passages are about keeping the heart pure. Jesus said, “But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with…the cares of this life.” The Apostle says, “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart…” (Hebrews 3:12, ESV).
Fourthly, notice that both passages are meant to keep Christ followers from spiritual ruin. The concern of Christ is that those who follow after him be ever ready for his return. Keep your hearts pure, he commands, “lest your hearts be weighed down… and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap” (Luke 21:34, ESV). The concern of the Apostle is similar. “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God” (Hebrews 3:12, ESV). To fall away from the living God is to fall away from trusting in God and following after him in Christ Jesus.
Will all who have true faith in Christ persevere in the faith to the end? Yes. Stated negatively, will any who have authentic faith in Christ fall away from the living God? No. But how will they persevere? By God’s grace, they will persevere by obeying the command of Christ and the Apostle! They will, by God’s grace, watch themselves lest their hearts be weighed down. They will take care lest their hearts grow evil and unbelieving. No doubt, God will preserve his elect in Christ Jesus. And he will preserve them by graciously enabling them to obey this command: “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God” (Hebrews 3:12, ESV).
So far, the warning of Hebrews 3:12 sounds very much like the warning of Luke 21:34, but in Hebrews 3:13, we find another command. “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” (Hebrews 3:13, ESV). This second command takes this passage in a slightly different direction when compared to Luke 21. In Luke 21, the responsibility is placed on the individual disciple of Jesus to keep watch over their own heart and to tend to the garden of their own soul, lest their own soul be overrun with the thorny weeds of the desire for riches, pleasures, and the cares of this world. But here in Hebrews 3:13, Christians are commanded to look out for other Christians and to exhort them. In other words, Hebrews 3:12-19 does not have individual Christians in view, but the Christian community, that is to say, the church. Brothers and sisters in Christ are to be on the lookout for one another, lest there be any in their midst whose hearts are growing evil and unbelieving, leading them to fall away from the living God. Brothers and sisters in Christ are here commanded to “exhort one another”, so that none may be “hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”
What does it mean to exhort? To exhort is to encourage strongly. To exhort is to appeal to or plead with someone to do something. This Greek word behind the English word, exhort, appears 109 times in the New Testament and is translated using a variety of English words: urge, comfort, encourage, beg, appeal, implore, entreat, and plead. The word is used again in the book of Hebrews in chapter 10, verse 25. There the Apostle says, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:24–25, ESV). The word translated as “exhort” in Hebrews 3:13 is translated as “encourage” in Hebrews 10:25. Christians are commaded in the Holy Scriptures to exhort and encouarge one another “lest there be in any [in their midst] an evil, unbelieving heart, leading [them] to fall away from the living God” (Hebrews 3:12, ESV).
[There is a point of application to be made here. Brothers and sisters, the Christian life is clearly to be lived, not in isolation, but in community with other Christians. Our confession puts it this way: Those called to repentance faith in Christ are commanded by Christ to “walk together in particular societies, or churches, for their mutual edification, and the due performance of that public worship, which he requireth of them in the world” (Second London Confession, 26.5). This can be proven from many passages of Scripture in the New Testament, including the one that is open before us today. Exhort one another. That is the command of Holy Scripture. How can you possibly exhort someone you do not know? And how can you be exhorted by someone if you are not known? This passage assumes that Christains will be members of a local church. More than this, this passage requres Christains to be good and involved members of a local church—to obey this command, you must know your brothers and sisters in Christ, and you must be known by them.]
“But exhort one another… that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 3:13, ESV). That is the command. I have five subpoints to present to you this morning. Each of them is meant to clarify how we are to go about exhorting one another in the church. The five points are these: Exhort one another (1) lovingly, (2) carefully, (3) consistently, (4) in and unto Christ, and (5) until we enter eternal rest.
Exhort One Another Lovingly
First, Christ followers must exhort one another lovingly.
Being motivated by love.
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” (1 Corinthians 13:1, ESV)
In a loving way.
Follow the example of the Apostle: “Take care, brothers…” Notice the tenderness of the Apostle. Notice the familial language.
“Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ…” (Ephesians 4:15, ESV)
Exhort One Another Carefully
Is exhortation needed?
Is it your place to deliver it?
What kind of exhortation is needed?
“And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.” (1 Thessalonians 5:14, ESV)
Is the time right?
Is the place right?
Is your heart right?
“How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.” (Luke 6:42, ESV)
Is my tone and delivery right?
“Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.” (1 Timothy 5:1–2, ESV)
Exhort One Another Consistently
“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.” (Hebrews 3:13, ESV)
“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:24–25, ESV)
Exhort One Another In And Unto Christ
Exhort one another because we are united together in Christ.
“For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.” (Hebrews 3:14, ESV)
Exhort one another unto Christ.
Encourage one another to trust in Jesus, to walk in his ways, and to obey his commands.
Exhort One Another Until We Enter Eternal Rest
“As it is said, ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.’ For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.” (Hebrews 3:15–19, ESV)
Conclusion
Interesting observation. Christ warns against hardness or heaviness of heart, and then the celebration of the passover. The pattern is this: redemption, wilderness wandering, possession of the promised land. We are wilderness wanderers. There are spiritual dangers in the wilderness. Watch yourselves and look out for one another. “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.” (Hebrews 3:13, ESV)
