"Be" Sermon: Hebrews 3:12-14

“Be”

[Hebrews 3:12-14]

June 10, 2012 Second Reformed Church

            How are you?

            When we last left the book of Hebrews we were considering the author’s use of a text about the rebellion of Israel under Moses. Moses had led the people out of Egypt by the Mighty Right Arm of God.  They had seen the Egyptian army defeated in the Red Sea.  And God had provided for them with manna.  But now they were thirsty and they had come to another point in the wilderness where they could've trusted God, prayed to God, asked God for help. But rather than do any of those things, they turned on Moses and accused him of leading them out into the wilderness so he could watch them die of thirst.

            Israel had seen the Miracles of God. They had been provided for. They had been delivered from 400 years of slavery. But they didn't trust God.

            And now the author of Hebrews was writing to first century Christians who didn't trust God either. They were considering turning back to Judaism – back to the Law of Moses – back to the ceremonies – back to the priests. They were even considering joining in on the worship of angels. And so, the author of Hebrews quoted a text given by God the Holy Spirit. "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, on the day of the testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest’" (Hebrews 3:7b-11, ESV).

            The author of Hebrews was effectively saying: "Are you insane? Are you turning away from the One and Only Savior that God will ever send – for ceremonies and sacrifices that can never save – and to the worship of idols?"

            He continues in this morning’s Scripture, "Take care, brothers,"- Take heed! Beware! Watch out! The author of Hebrews was alerting them to a situation that they were soon to fall into if they didn’t take care and watch out and beware and look out and escape. 

And notice the implication: the author of Hebrews is not just saying that we ought to look out for ourselves. The author of Hebrews is saying that we ought to look out for ourselves and for each other. The author of Hebrews is telling us if we don't look out – take care – beware – and take heed of ourselves and each other – if we don't care about ourselves and each other as members of the Body of Christ, then we are not members of the Body of Christ.

Brothers and sisters, this is not a social club. We are intimately knit together as brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, as sons and daughters of God, as building blocks of His Holy Temple, as the members of His Body.  If we are Christians, we will love ourselves and we will love our fellow Christians – we will do everything and anything we can to make each other's lives better. We will do everything we can to help each other progress in holiness. We will do everything we can to keep each other from falling out of trust.

            He continues: "lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leaving you to fall away from the living God."

            And here we see at least three ways in which the author of Hebrews tells his readers to take care:

            First, he tells them not to engage in evil. This is more than just not doing evil. This is being on the watch for evil, knowing those things that tempt us, avoiding them, turning away from them.  This is not even taking the slightest touch of the hand of evil.

We all have those sins which we find most difficult not to pursue. We all have those sins which we most enjoy – the ones that we try to make excuses for time after time. We know what they are – we ought to be on the watch for them – we ought to be looking out for them. We usually know the times when they're likely to pop up.

If you're someone who tends not to know when to stop drinking – someone who tends to become drunk, stay out of bars. Don't buy alcohol to have in your home. When you go to a barbecue, ask if you can bring a nonalcoholic drink to share. Tell people you trust that you have a problem and you need their help. Ask those people to watch out with you, to turn you away from those instances where it might be too easy for you to drink too much.

If you're someone who, for whatever reason, believes that you are entitled to everything – you might need some friends around you to help keep you from stealing. Let us not be confused: if you take something that was not offered to you, it is stealing. If you take more than what was offered to you without asking, it is stealing.   And it makes no difference if you're stealing pencils from work, or flowers from the church lawn, or thousands of dollars from the bank.

We all have areas of weakness. We need to watch out for ourselves and for each other – and we need to ask each other for help. It is not possible to be a Christian alone – that's why we have the Church. God has given us His Church that we might be His people together that we might glorify Him – that we might mature and become holy, together.

Don't do evil. Don't sin. Know where your weaknesses are; know the sins you like to sin.  Watch out for temptation, turn away from temptation, avoid temptation, and seek out a fellow Christian who can help you.

Second, he tells them not to disbelieve. He tells the Hebrews to consider everything they had seen and heard about Jesus. Even if they had not met Him in person, there were many people alive who had known Jesus in the flesh. They had heard Him teach. They had seen Him heal and they had seen Him physically rise from the dead. So the author of Hebrews tells them not to doubt – not to be like Israel after they had seen all the Miraculous Works of God in the wilderness. Do not doubt what you know to be true about Jesus and the Salvation that He Alone brings.

He also wants them not to disbelieve what the Scripture says. We are told many things in the Bible:  things to do, things to believe. And there were people then and there are people now who want to suggest that we can pick and choose what we believe in.  But the truth of the matter is that we cannot: If this is the Word of God, then it is either all the Word of God or we have no idea if any of it is the Word of God. While it is true that we do not have to keep the Ceremonial or Judicial Laws of Israel, we do have to keep the Moral Law, and we have to believe everything God has told us.

Third, he tells them not to fall away from the living God. Now, salvation is about how to be right with God. And the answer to the question of how to be right with God is found in the answers to how we may be forgiven and how may we be righteous.  And the answer is Only through Jesus Alone. We can never do enough good to pay for all of the sins we have committed. And since we have committed sin, we can never make ourselves righteous.

The question we need to ask ourselves here is how can a believer fall away from the living God? Haven't we said before that it is impossible for someone who has truly believed in Jesus Alone for Salvation to lose that salvation – to ever turn away from God and the Gift of Salvation received through Jesus Christ Alone?

Jesus said, "When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the world, immediately he falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world in the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and proves unfruitful. As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case, a hundredfold, and another 60, and another 30" (Matthew 13:19-23, ESV).

The author of Hebrews is not contradicting anything that we've said before. He is saying the same thing that Jesus said: there are people who come into the church, grow up in the church, rejoice in the church, take part in the church, and then something happens, and they renounce the church – they renounce Jesus-because they never really believed.  There are people who are fans of Jesus in some way, but not believers.  These will all fall away – because they never truly believed.

Take care of yourself and others: do everything you can to keep yourself and others from sinning, do everything you can to make sure you understand and believe the Gospel and the Whole Word of God, and do everything you can to make sure that you and others have really believed. Make sure you understand what the Gospel really is: God came to earth in the person of Jesus, lived under God's law, died for the sins of everyone who would ever believe, and physically rose from the dead and ascended back to His Throne at the Right Hand of God. If you don't believe that, you are not a Christian.  You may be a nice person – a great person – you may love being with Christians, but you are not a Christian.

The author of Hebrews goes on to say that we are to “exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin."

Well, what does he mean to “exhort”? 

The word "exhort" means “to beseech, to comfort, to refresh, to revive, to console” – it’s having real care for another person. It's the willingness to expose sin for what it is – to show the horrible, evil reality of sin for the good of another person. It's to put the truth in front of a person that they would see it and know it.  It includes praying for wisdom to know how to care for another person.

And so we can see that exhorting is not merely being a cheerleader, and it's not merely saying “you did something wrong,” but it's about really caring for a person by taking part in their life – being involved in who and what they are in every aspect of who and what they are – acknowledging what is good and right and beautiful and helping to make clear where they are going astray.

We see one form of exhorting in Samuel’s confrontation of Saul:  God had told Saul to attack the Amalekites and to kill every human being and every animal and to devote all of their goods to destruction – but he did not, yet he thought he had done well. He needed Samuel to exhort him to show him where he had gone astray.

“And Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning. And it was told Samuel, ‘Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set up a monument for himself and turned and passed on and went down to Gilgal.’ And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, ‘Blessed be you to the LORD. I have performed the commandment of the LORD.’ And Samuel said, ‘What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear?’ Saul said, ‘They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the LORD your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction.’ Then Samuel said to Saul, ‘Stop! I will tell you what the LORD said to me this night.’ And he said to him, ‘Speak.’

“And Samuel said, ‘Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel. And the LORD sent you on a mission and said, “Go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.” Why then did you not obey the voice of the LORD? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the LORD?’ And Saul said to Samuel, ‘I have obeyed the voice of the LORD. I have gone on the mission on which the LORD sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal.’ And Samuel said, ‘Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD?  Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.  For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king’” (1 Samuel 15:12-23, ESV).

The author of Hebrews tells his listeners that we need to exhort each other every day. Every day we need to know that we are cared for. We need to have sin exposed for what it is. Every day we need truth to be put in front of us. Every day we need to pray for ourselves and for each other and for the wisdom to know how to exhort each other.

And again, he tells us that we ought to exhort each other every day as long as it is called today. Because the fact of the matter is this sinful, fallen world will come to an end – and when it ends, there will no longer be a chance to repent and believe in Jesus.  This life will end. If we love God and love each other, we will want to live this life well – obediently and in love and care for each other and to the Glory of God.

And he says the reason that we need to exhort each other every day as long as it is called today is so that we do not become hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. The devil rarely comes out and tells bald-faced lie. Sin is usually just a little bit off from what God has said to do or from what God has said to believe. What the devil does is he tries to deceive us by just changing the wording-just changing the command-just changing the teaching-a little bit. That's what Eve got in trouble over: what did the Serpent ask Eve? He didn't ask Eve, "Did God say not to eat of the tree of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil?" If he had asked her that, she probably would've said, “yes.” What the serpent asked Eve was "did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1b, ESV). Just a little twist. Just a little implication that God was denying something that she deserved. Just a little restating in such a way that her heart would harden by the deceitfulness of sin.

Did God say that we should really never pray for one another? It's okay to talk about what people said, about what they wore, about how much they ate, and so forth-as long as it's done so we can pray about them, right?

God wants us to receive the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper doesn't He? It doesn't really matter what the elements are so long as you celebrate the Sacrament, right? If you're out camping and you feel the Spirit move you, there's nothing wrong with celebrating the Lord's Supper with hot dogs and beer, is there?

Finally, this morning, the author of Hebrews writes "for we share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end."

What does that mean?

First, we need to understand that we share in Christ in two ways-we commune with Christ in two ways:

First, we believe the Gospel that He Alone brings. When we believe the Truth of the history of the Incarnation of God for the sake of His people – His Life, His Death, His Resurrection – we share with Christ, we commune with Christ, we are united with Christ – in that declaration – in that confession – in that Truth of the Gospel.

And second, we share with Christ, we commune with Christ, we are united with Christ-as the author of Hebrews has already explained-in the very fact that we have flesh and blood like Him. Or rather, that He has flesh and blood like us-Jesus is a real human being.

Why does that matter?

It matters for three reasons:

First, the only way for God to take our place in keeping His Law and in suffering the penalty for our sin was for Him to be a real, flesh and blood human. Only a real, flesh and blood human could take the place of a real, flesh and blood human. God would not be good or just if He just wiped away our sins without someone paying for them. And since the penalty for sin involves flesh and blood suffering, a spirit could not take our place – an angel could not take our place – no one but a real, flesh and blood human could take our place.

Second, in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, we have visible signs that we are spiritually meeting with Jesus. As we receive the bread and the cup we remember that God incarnate as the real flesh and blood person, Jesus, had His Body broken – like the bread – and His Blood shed – like the drink in the cup. As we receive the bread and the cup, we also remember and have the sure hope – as we read in the first chapter of Acts – that just as Jesus in His real flesh and blood risen from the dead Body ascended into heaven through the clouds, so this same flesh and blood real human Body will come down out of the clouds when Jesus returns. And as we receive the bread and the cup, we understand that even though Jesus in His flesh and blood Body is seated at the Right Hand of God – right now – sovereignly ruling over all of Creation, this same Jesus is spiritually meeting with us in the bread and the cup that we might receive grace to do what He has called us to do and to be who He has called us to be.

And it is in this sacrament of the Lord's Supper that we have proof that we have been adopted as the sons and daughters of God: our sinful broken flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, but risen, perfected, holy-yet-real flesh and blood – like Jesus – can and will inherit the Kingdom of God. Because Jesus has risen with a real flesh and blood human body, and we have the promise that He will raise all of His people like Him – in real human flesh and blood bodies – and we will inherit all of the Creation – the Kingdom that we were given to have dominion over.

And finally, we might ask how it is that our salvation seems to be conditional. In this text, we read that we will share in Christ if we hold our original confidence firm to the end. If we don't turn our backs on Christ permanently – if we believe His Gospel until the end. Then we are sure that He has stood in our place – that He meets with us now – and that we will be raised with Him – like Him.

We need to understand that our salvation is wholly the Work of Jesus, but He chooses to use means – our preaching and our working hard to accomplish His Work on earth. Our Salvation is complete and secure, but Jesus is still working it out through us until the day that He returns to restore the Creation.  What the author of Hebrews is saying is that we can't just say we believe the Gospel – and not live it.

Paul wrote, "therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12-13, ESV). And Jesus said, "and I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18, ESV).

We see then that the Work is wholly God's, but we are still called to work hard – not for our salvation, but in the living out of our salvation. God has already won; the devil has already lost. Yet we are called to work hard – and to fight hard – until the end.

So let us look out for ourselves and each other, turning from temptation and helping others to turn, for the Sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Let us exhort each other – let us encourage each other – building up areas where we are weak – and rejoicing and celebrating in the areas where we are strong, so that we will know that we are Christians – that we are sure of our faith in His Gospel, and we will not be deceived into hardening.

And let us understand that we share in Christ because He became flesh and blood.  We share in salvation – with Jesus our Savior and we the people He saved.  And we share in Him as we really commune with Him and are strengthened by Him through the Sacrament.  And we share in Him in fighting in His Name until the whole world confesses the Truth of the Glory, the Majesty, and the Victory of the Only Savior, our God, Jesus Christ.

Let us pray:

            We rejoice and give thanks to You for saving us.  Help us to live lives of holiness that others would come to You.  Help us to come to the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper expectantly and joyfully – to commune with You and receive power.  And by Your Grace and in Your Name, may we always stand strong on Your Gospel Alone.  For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.