Let's turn together to Hebrews, Hebrews chapter three. After our communion service last week, we come back to our studies in Hebrews. Chapter three, we're gonna read the whole of Hebrews three. We've already dealt with verses one to six, having to do with a comparison with Christ and Moses, and Christ as the greater mediator than Moses. But having brought up the subject of Moses, brings the writer to the idea of the wilderness and Moses' ministry in the wilderness and that is what takes up the last part of the chapter and that's what we're covering today. So Hebrews chapter three, we're gonna begin to read at verse one. Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him who appointed him, as Moses also was faithful in all his house. For this one has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who built the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but he who built all things is God. And Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward. But Christ, as a son over his own house, whose house we are, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested me, tried me, and saw my works 40 years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, and said, They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways. So I swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest. Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. but exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end. While it is said, today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion. For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? Now with whom was he angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who did not obey? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. We'll end the reading there at verse 19 and look to the Lord today to give us light and wisdom, to open our hearts and minds to his truth and to speak to us where we are, what we most need. So let's now ask him for that, let's pray. Oh Father, you're a good and a gracious God, how we thank you for your mercies. And Lord, among those mercies are the wonderful grace that you give us by telling us what we need to hear. Father, we don't often enjoy the warnings of scripture, but Lord, they are so needed, and we know that, and we thank you that it is out of your love and faithfulness that you give us these warnings. And so we would ask you today that as from the heart of the most loving Father in existence, that today we will hear your word, we will take it seriously, and that we will, oh gracious God, be blessed, be benefited for eternity by your word. We need the help of your spirit, Lord. We need your spirit to write this truth on all our hearts. We need him to interpret it into our own particular lives, our own particular way of walking and living, so that it meets our need. And so we are asking now that the spirit of God will open this word to each of us. So thank you for your faithfulness, oh God, and now hear our cry and answer abundantly, we pray. In the name of our Lord Jesus, amen, amen. Well, as we continue the studies in the book of Hebrews, we have emphasized that the theme is the superiority of Christ, but with a point, the superiority of a Christ who is worthy of our faith. And it boils down to this, that in every sense of the word, Jesus is better. Everything that would compete in your life, your heart, and mine, Jesus is better. And this is not only in this great sense of from Old Testament to New, which is very much at the forefront in this book of Hebrews, but in the sense of anything else that the devil would make competition for the grace of Christ. But to understand what's being said here, we have to remember, and I've just emphasized it again and again, but once again, I wanna lay it as a foundation here, especially for this chapter. We have to remember that this is written to Jewish believers who profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, but they're under attack, they're doubting and struggling. And as a result, they're contemplating leaving the Christian faith altogether. So the author of this book, who's preeminently the Holy Spirit, again and again gives warnings on the one hand and encouragement on the other to help these struggling people. He wants to show them on the one hand in the most solemn way that he can how much they are risking, hence the warning. And on the other hand, how much they are missing. And we'll see more and more of that as we go on. As we have been studying the first couple of chapters, we saw that in teaching the superiority of Christ, it said that as a revealer of truth, Christ is greater than the prophets and greater than angels. We come to chapter three, as a mediator, Jesus Christ is greater than Moses. And we saw this comparison to Moses in the first six verses, which we've studied already. And that this comparison is that Christ is fundamentally superior to Moses as the builder of a house is to an occupant of the house. As the redeemer of God's people is to one of the redeemed among God's people. Because you see, the one is Christ and the other is Moses. But we have to take in that this is Moses. And he's writing to a Jewish audience. Moses is revered. Moses is held to be, well, they said we're Moses' disciples. We're Moses' disciples. But Moses existed, as we saw, to point to someone greater, to point to the Lord Jesus Christ. But dealing with the life and ministry of Moses leads the writer here, to a very serious warning among ones we've already seen, and to a very strong exhortation. You see, he takes an Old Testament passage, Psalm 95, this is what he quotes in verses seven to 11, and again in verse 15. He takes an Old Testament passage, and he takes an Old Testament example. He's gonna go back and look at these Israelites wandering in the wilderness, why? 40 years, why are they wandering in the wilderness? Why did so many die never having seen the promised land? He's gonna deal with that text on the one hand and the Old Testament example on the other to teach some really solemn lessons to anyone who is reading, meaning to those professing Jews as well as to you and me, giving us truth that we need to hear. And basically saying this, if you're not careful, These wilderness people, that could be you. That could be you. So I want us to consider today the lessons of the wilderness. And he works through these lessons by giving instruction, which leads to a warning, a very serious one, and then leads to exhortation. So we're just gonna work through that. And let's begin with the instruction. And it's really important teaching here, and right from the very beginning, because the first words in verse seven, this new paragraph after this comparison with Moses and Jesus, the first words are in verse seven, therefore, as the Holy Spirit says. So the first thing he is establishing is authority. He's establishing authority here. He is saying, look, this is God speaking and you want to hear. You are his creature, you want to hear. And so, he emphasizes this, and by the way, later on in Hebrews 10, he's gonna do the same thing, where he's gonna take an Old Testament passage and says, the Holy Spirit is speaking here, nobody less. And so, God is speaking here, and here is God, in this case, interpreting the wilderness experience. Because you see, in Psalm 95, it's going back and commenting on something centuries earlier, all right? So it's interpreting this wilderness experience. But then what we have in Hebrews, is in a sense a use of that Old Testament interpretation of that Old Testament experience. See, of that particular example. And so the point here is God is speaking. For us, for a New Covenant audience, he is saying, let me tell you, there's a lesson to be learned in what happened and in what God had to say about it. Now I want you to note here in verse seven, therefore as the Holy Spirit, it doesn't say said, as the Holy Spirit says. I think that's significant because what is that saying to you and me? He's speaking now. He's not finished speaking. He didn't say something and it's there in an archive, you know, that it's something just for historical perspective. He is speaking to you now, and especially when the reason he's speaking is he's taking something in scripture and saying, you gotta see this picture here, and you gotta hear these words, because they're saying something to you that you cannot afford to ignore. So the Holy Spirit is speaking now and he's speaking to you and to me. And that's the point, is that God has written a book, it's like no other. And I don't think I have to tell anybody here that if you set yourself to try to regularly read the word of God, all hell will be arrayed against you in that effort. You will find things that you, you know, the night before you had plenty of time, you know, and you chilled as the saying goes. You know, you didn't do anything, but now it's time to pray. And all of a sudden there are a hundred things that need to be done in the house and in the yard and in your life and things to be thought of and worked on. You know why? Because he wants desperately to keep you from hearing the God who is speaking now. desperately to do that. But that's the thing we have to remember, that we may hear the voice of God. He speaks to us, and He speaks to us exactly what we need to hear. That's one of the most amazing things about the Bible, that in the beginning, the middle, and the end, three different passages, the Lord says, don't add a thing to what I have written here, and don't take anything from it, because that is all I have to say to you. It's what you need to hear, it's what you need to understand, for your never-dying soul. But I want you to look at one other thing here, under this heading. The first words that he quotes are these, today, if you will hear his voice. If you will hear his voice. Now that's a big if. That faces us with this question, are you listening to God each day? Are you listening to God through the day? Is the guidance you get, you know, as you walk through life, is that coming from a speaking God? You see, that's the value of this book. I may meet him here. He may become real and alive and true and powerful if I will open this book and hear him talking to me, you see. And then, of course, what happens, too, is that the Holy Spirit then uses that truth to talk to us apart from when we're reading the Word of God, to bring things to our minds. And you don't know how many times that I have read the Bible on a particular day and kind of been a bit disappointed because I felt like I didn't get anything out of this today. You know, just nothing grabbed me, nothing encouraged me, nothing did anything, you know, that was noteworthy or striking. And then later in the day, you know, something happens and something I read that morning, bam! or I'm talking to somebody on the phone and trying to encourage them or comfort them or instruct them or help them in some way, and bam, what I read that morning that didn't mean that much at that point is all of a sudden just the right word for my need. So again, today, if you'll hear His voice, the Holy Spirit is speaking, He is talking to us, and this is a great question. Are we hearing His voice and are we asking for it? Are we asking for it? The older I get, the more grieved I get that I would attempt anything in this life, and I don't care how small it is, without asking God to guide me in that, without asking Him to empower me, without asking Him to instruct me and help me. Because I have learned just by 60 years of hard experience that every time I go it alone, I mess it up, you know. There's not anything too small for me to need His help and His grace and His guidance. So Holy Spirit, I don't wanna go my way. I don't wanna decide what I'm going to do next. I want you to guide me. I'm asking you for that guidance. I'm asking you for the protection of truth around everything I do and everything I say. And so again, we begin this instruction with authority. God is speaking, he has something to say. And if we hear nothing else on the planet, we wanna hear this. We wanna hear the word of God. But also I think we need to note in this instruction the urgency of it. And it is strongly emphasized. Verse seven, today if you will hear his voice. Now you could look at that and just say, well that's okay, that's just a word that's used in the context here. But the Holy Spirit goes down to verse 13 and says this, based on that truth, exhort one another daily while it is called today. In other words, he's taking that word and saying that word is meant to say one thing to you. This is an urgent need. You want to hear this now. You want to pay attention to it now. And it goes on to say, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. We'll come back to that in a minute. but it is saying there is a reason why this need is so absolutely urgent. And of course that need is because of what is at stake. Look at verse 11. So I swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest. Now, in the example that's being given, that meant that there were a whole lot of Israelites who died in the wilderness and didn't get to taste and see how good the Lord was in the promised land that they'd been looking to for hundreds of years, that their forefathers had been telling them about. And so it was a serious thing not to enter into that rest. But in this context, in this new covenant application, not entering into His rest is not entering into heaven. is not living forever with Him in His presence. And so, again, it's serious. And we come down then to verse 19, kind of a summary statement in the very last verse of the chapter. So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. So this is an urgent need because your soul, your life is absolutely at stake. But if we step back and say, all right, let's think about this example that's being given for a minute. There are a couple of other things that should kind of drive home how solemn this warning is. They're scary. One is the percentages involved. You know that he emphasizes here that it was, look in verse 16, who having heard rebelled, indeed was it not all who came out of Egypt led by Moses. In other words, all these people, all these tribes, those who were 20 years old and older because of their unbelief didn't get to enter into the promised land. There were only two exceptions, Caleb and Joshua. Now, I mean, we would be well below 1% if we actually knew the exact numbers that we're dealing there. Two men? Between one and three million people, two men? Now, that's scary. You know, again, that says, straight is the gate, narrow is the way, and few that find it, and broad is the road to destruction, and many go in there. It says to us, you cannot take this lightly. Let him who thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall. So that is one part of this picture that is pretty solemn. But the other thing that's pretty solemn is that the people involved in this unbelief, had seen and experienced things that you and I can look at each other and say, oh, if I ever saw a pillar of cloud and fire leading me and guiding me, I would never doubt again. If I was fed by God food, manna, every day, I would never doubt. If I walked through walls of water, through the Red Sea, I would never doubt. If I saw one of the 10 plagues, I would never doubt. These are the people who doubted in mass with only two exceptions, you see. So this is a passage that is saying to us, do not take this lightly. Do not make this something you'll get to eventually. There's an urgency here. And the entire passage uses various things to show us how high the stakes are. It shows us what we're capable of. Look at the language of verse eight. Do not harden your hearts. We are capable easily of hardening our hearts. Verse eight. Verse 12. So I swore in my, no, verse 12, beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. That basically, our hearts are capable of looking at God and saying, I don't need you, goodbye. Departing from the living God to whom, as scripture says, we owe life and health and breath and everything. in whose hand is the soul of every living creature and the breath of all mankind. And we can thumb our nose at him. So what we are capable of is pretty solemn here. Verse 14, likewise, for we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end. We can not hold that confidence and become those who don't partake of Christ, who don't consider him needed. Not only that, and I said I'd be coming back to it, but this language of verse 13. Lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. It's deceitful. It is deceitful. In other words, it has this ability To waylay us, this ability to blind us to the consequences of things. This ability to fool us into thinking that what God says you don't want is exactly what we do want. And what God says you do want is what we're not interested in. Now that's deceit because that's God speaking, you see. And so the deceitfulness of sin according to the Holy Spirit, it will waylay you, it's deceitful. And you know how it, one of the things that you learn in life experience is, and I've made the point, you know, sometimes the devil's not going to say to a child of God, go murder somebody. Go commit some egregious crime. No, it's gonna be, you can read your Bible tomorrow. You don't need to pray today. It's going to be something small and incremental and slow, but that is going to be followed by something a little more and something a little more. And so maybe over many weeks and many months, this drift has taken place where suddenly we're not even conscious that we are very different than we were those months back. And so he knows how to use, the devil does, this slow process of blinding. And remember, scripture says part of his deception is to transform himself into an angel of light, to appear, and don't we see this, we laugh sometimes at our capability of rationalizing things, rationalizing wrong things and making excuses for them, and taking good things and making them unnecessary. But again, it's part of this blindness, part of this deceitfulness of sin. And of course, we have a heart. According to Jeremiah, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? It's deceitful, so it matches very well with this deceitfulness of sin and then with Satan, the arch deceiver, who is a liar from the very beginning. And of course the world fits right in because being deceived they are really good at wanting the camaraderie of you being deceived as well. And they will suck you right in, hide the cost of sin. So you see in all this way the deceitfulness of sin again is this solemn warning that don't you dare think it can't be you. Don't you dare think you're immune. Don't you dare think because you're older that you're past the point of any serious temptation. Don't you think that way, because it's not true. That's the very heart of the deceitfulness of sin. But then one other thing that underscores this urgency, and that is who we're dealing with. Verse 11, God says, so I swore in my wrath. We're dealing with him. They shall not enter my rest. Verse 12, beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. Verse 13, exhort one another daily while it's called today lest there be in you, lest there, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin for we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end. So we're dealing with the living God. So all of that tells us this, that There's a solemn warning spoken by God. That solemn warning is an urgent warning. But then also one other issue to look at here in this instruction, and that is the centrality here of what is being dealt with. The issue is faith and its fruit, or the lack of faith and the fruit of the lack of faith. Look at verse 12. Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. That's the thing that we ought to fear, this heart of unbelief. Verse 19, conclusion. So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. And so the passage is teaching us this unbelief is the thing that disconnects us. from God, disconnects us from Him. It makes us depart from the living God. Verse 18. If you look at verse 18, I think some of you have an authorized version. Well, if you have an authorized version, a King James version, I'm reading in the New King James, you would read this at the end. It says, to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest but to those who believe not? whereas what I have is to those who did not obey. So you have different translations. Now why is that? Well, it's that way because this word unites both ideas, you see. For instance, in the authorized version, the Greek word here translated obey, nine times it's unbelief, seven times it's disobedience. Okay, so you see how close they are, but the idea is this. You see, if you trust him, then you believe him when he tells you something is good for you, and when he tells you something is bad for you, and you act accordingly. You believe his love for you and his desire for your good, and that's why it's so tightly connected with obedience, you see. Because that faith looks at him and says, I can trust him. Why, you know, the one who has existed from all eternity, the one who's omniscient and sees and knows everything, the one who is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his wisdom and his faithfulness, his love, his goodness, why would I ever doubt him, you see? And it looks at him. And then says, Lord, if this is what you want me to do, even if I can't understand it, I'm doing it. He gives us the heart of Job, though he slay me, yet I will trust in him. I will trust him. You see, and so that's why it's so tightly knit to this whole idea that faith and obedience, they go together. You see, when you trust him, you do what he says out of love and gratitude to him on the one hand, and out of a good desire for your own welfare on the other. You say, this is the pathway that I want. Maybe I don't see exactly how it works out, but I sure know he does, and I'm gonna trust him. I'm gonna lean on him. So this passage then, in these three ways, it gives us important instruction so that we feel the weight of the warning and then the power of the exhortation. Well, let's come very briefly to the second thought, and that is the warning. And we've talked about it already, hinted at it in every way, but the text that says it is verse eight. Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. You do not want to do that. I warn you, let not your heart be hardened. Don't let unbelief overtake you. Then in verse 12, beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. And then verse 14, and again, we've talked about this several times already, but think now, step back from it. And I emphasized this a couple of weeks ago when we took verse six and verse 14 and the whole if issue and looked at what that means, what the sweep of scripture says to us with regard to our faith, and how we walk in this life. Well, here in verse 14, we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end. So it takes the long view, it's the big picture. And what we learn is what Ezekiel especially emphasizes, with God it's not how you start, it's how you finish that counts. That is the issue, how you finish. And so the only time to believe in Jesus is right now. It's not something, well I got my membership card here. I belong to a church. I had some people say I was a believer and I talked to you about George Mueller and how he wouldn't, he just didn't use the language of oh we know he's saved or she's saved or they're saved. He would say we are hopeful of salvation. We are thankful to God for the fruit that we see but it's a long way from the end of the story. It's a long way. And scripture bears out that perspective. With God, it's not how you start, it's how you finish that counts. And so, as we look then at these warnings here, and again, the example is pretty powerful, from verses 16 to 19, when it tells us, goes specifically through who these people were who did not believe you know, implies that they, you know, here are the people who were led by none other than Moses himself. And yet they were unbelieving. And of course the point of the warning is could this be you? Let him who thinks he stand take heed lest he fall. But then that brings us finally to the exhortation. And the exhortation, the passage is pretty clear in the sense that verse 19 gives a summary. So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. So if the problem here, according to verse 19, is unbelief, then the answer is faith. The answer is trusting. The answer is staying connected. The answer is, you see, seeing Him. And this is borne out in so many ways in scripture. I could go to 50 passages, but let me just give you a handful here. First John 5.4, this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith, our faith. Ephesians 6.16, above all, going through the armor of God, above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. First Peter 1.5, you, you believers who are kept by the power of God through faith. ready to be revealed in the last time. You are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. It's faith that keeps you there. And then the tremendous words of Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, so much larger than their context, sweep Old Testament anew. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths. And as I say, so many other passages just like this. But let's ask this question as we come toward a close. How is that faith stirred up? grown, fed, nurtured, cultivated, whatever you wanna use. What can I do that that faith be strengthened so that I don't fall into any of these categories, departing from the living God, not being a partaker of Christ, rebelling and not entering into his rest? How do I do that? Well, I think first of all, by understanding what the faith is and what it is not. You see, faith is not a feeling. It is a conviction, a commitment, a stance on God's truth. Now, do you understand that? And I just have to tell you, most of my early years, I so linked, in my own heart and mind, faith with a feeling, that that was it. You know, that if I wasn't feeling encouraged at the time, or strengthened in some way spiritually, it was if my faith did not exist. But you see, there came a point when I began to see, when God tells me fear not, I don't have to have goosebumps or just feel euphoric or whatever. My feeling is irrelevant because it's not even real. It's just a feeling. But I can say, okay God, I'm taking my stand on this and I'm going forward. Lord, I renounce fear. I don't care what the feelings say. When it says, be anxious for nothing, but let your requests be made known unto God, I can just obey. I don't have to feel great, you know, and as I say, euphoric, but I can just say, Lord, you said this, I didn't say this. I'm really tempted right now to be very anxious about this particular thing and you told me the way to deal with it is just to tell you what it is. It's just to identify what it is that scares me about this and ask you to intervene. Ask you to do what I need to be delivered in this situation. And so I'm just gonna take you at your word. Now folks, that's faith, you see. It doesn't have to have goosebumps. It doesn't have to be followed with euphoria or anything else. It can just be, God, I am living in a way that is owning what you say to be more true than what I feel. It's reality, because you said it. And far more worth living my life on than anything that I feel. Faith in actions is this. It says, I don't care what I feel, I declare before you, oh Lord, that I trust you as the God who cannot lie. You say fear not, you say be anxious for nothing, so there must be, if God said it, there must be nothing to fear or be anxious about. So I take my stand there and I say I am in your hands and I commit to follow you with all my heart. Feelings or no? That's where we take our stand. But there's something else here. We see it here in verses 12 and 13. That is how we are gonna feed, encourage, and nurture this faith. And it is the most direct exhortation here. Verse 12, beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God, but exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you, any of you, any single person, be hardened through the deceitfulness of sins. You realize what this is? This is an exhortation to exhort. This is an exhortation from the word of God to be exhorters to one another as the people of God. We need that. And I think it's one of those things, was it this Sunday that I put Paul Tripp in the, yeah. Paul Tripp, I would encourage you to read the entry here in the bulletin today. It's called Jesus and Me, Christianity. And the point that he is making above all other points is just this, is that if you think you can be a vital, living, growing, productive, temptation-free, or at least succumbing-free believer without the body then you're mistaken. You are setting yourself up for failure and you may be right in the middle of that period of decline that I talked about earlier and just not know it. And more and more you just, you back away from other people, you don't really need them, you're doing fine. And yet you do need them. And they need you. And when 1 Corinthians chapter 12 paints this picture of the body, it does it this way. It says there's not a single person in this congregation who is unnecessary to the welfare of every other person in this congregation. You need me to be what God intends me to be and is gifted to me to be, and I need you to do the same. And I need your prayers, and I need your exhortation, and I need you watching over my life. You know, there are some churches, and I've always thought this was a powerful thing to do, and maybe someday we can do it in our church, but when members are brought into the congregation, into membership, they go through a process, they meet with the elders, and they do various things, and they share their testimony. But when they're actually brought into the congregation, some churches, they will do something where they give a charge to this new person. This is what you are undertaking to do. And there'll be something that they have to say, I do, or I will to, that you are undertaking to be faithful in this church to these obligations. But then in many of these churches, what they will do then is there's a charge to the congregation. And that charge to the congregation says to the rest of the congregation, will you love these people? Will you be on the lookout for their souls? Will you be faithful to them to pray for them and uphold them? And if you see things that are destructive and harmful in their lives that are gonna be a course of self-destruction, will you love them enough to tell them that and not to just go complacently along talking about them but not talking to them? And the congregation must say, I will. I will. This is part of being the body, you see. We have to today exhort one another. because the need is great, because the danger is that great. In other words, this is telling us we stir up our faith corporately as a body, and we stir up our faith individually as well. And folks, this is a test of obedience. It is something, and I know it's not easy, it is not easy. If somebody has done something that offends you or bothers you or worries you that you see, It is not easy to go talk to them about it, you know? And believe me, the devil's going to oppose you with everything in you, because he wants them. And he certainly doesn't want you to stop the course that he has begun. But you'll say, the devil will whisper this to you, or you'll know. They might not like me. They might react angrily at me. They might be unhappy with me because I'm bringing up something. They might take this as the opportunity to say, who are you to talk? There's this, this, this, this, and this in your life. But are you willing to risk that? Folks, every kind of love, including the love of the body in the church of Christ, involves risk. You can't love anybody without taking risk. And yet in the body of Christ, that risk looks like this, exhorting one another daily, exhorting one another, encouraging them, strengthening them, helping them, and at times calling into question things that they're doing or believing. because you love them. And so this asks us the question, will we sacrifice our own comfort for love's sake to speak to one another about our weaknesses and needs? Will we be humble enough before this solemn warning to acknowledge that every one of us is weak enough to be right here in this passage? And therefore, we need this exhortation, and we're willing to hear it. And of course, I have spent most of my time talking about being on the end of you be the one talking to somebody else and sharing the need with, but what about if you're on the end of being talked to? Are you humble enough? Are you in deadly earnest enough to be ready to hear that? To take it, and even if it's not true, Even if I have been talked to at times about things that I just on hindsight didn't seem to be true, but I was glad they said it. I was glad they did what the Word of God said to do. Now sometimes I've been talked to and I've smarted. It has not felt good. And I've had to heal from that smarting. But I have tried to heal from that smarting because why? The alternative is so much worse. I could be doing something or going somewhere in a self-destructive course. that is not doing me good and is hurting other people. I could have blind spots that are glaring to everybody else and I just don't see them. And I want people to tell me those things. I want them to share that with me. That's the best thing for me, you see. So are we also a people humble enough to take whatever is said to us with grace, to receive it? And I'm not saying all these things have a negative nature. You know, sometimes those exhortations are, you know, brother, let me share something with you the Lord shared with me. It so encouraged me. And I think if we were in tune to the Holy Spirit and asking him to give us those words in season, you know, we've got, well, I tell you, I look around, maybe there aren't any of us that aren't going through very heavy, deep, difficult things. And what God, and this is how 2 Corinthians says God works, that he comforts others with the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. And it just may be in the middle of your very serious battle that God's gonna give you a word of comfort that is just the word that that person or that person or that person needs. That just as it lifted you when you couldn't see any light anywhere, God may use that to lift somebody else too. So I'm not saying the exhortation is by any means always negative. In fact, it ought to be by percentage a very small negative in the midst of a whole bunch of positive encouragements and exhortations. But we have to do that. We've got to take this passage seriously. We have to say the stakes are high and the risks are great. And we have to say every single one of us could be the one to stumble. And we have to therefore take this word and live it out, apply it. Folks, it's a long life. It's a long life. I was just saying I turned 60, but Joey and I laugh at each other because she's pretty conscious of the age situation, and sometimes I think she thinks we're almost dead. And I'm saying, I got 30 good years. I'll probably go 15 years before she does, but the whole point, though, is that life is long, and the devil never tires of tempting us, and we're so weak to begin with, and so here's a warning that we've gotta heed and take seriously, and love one another enough to warn one another, exhort one another, and then feed our faith every day with everything in us. Folks, the picture of the wilderness is a graphic one, right? Wandering, there's a promised land and it exists, and instead, we're wandering around. want not enjoying that promised land, not enjoying that land that God said would flow with milk and honey. And so this is a graphic image. So let us, by God's grace, be the people who say, yes, I want to believe with all my heart. I want to walk with the Lord. I want to grow in how good and great and gracious and loving he is. I want worship not to be something that's only for Sunday. I want it to be a part of every day. I want to fill and encourage and strengthen and lift up my heart by again and again finding out more of how good he is. This is what I want to do. This is how I want to live. And so may God give us grace then to heed these warnings for ourselves, but to heed them for others, and then to live as this passage teaches us, to exhort one another daily, today, today, and encourage our hearts and our own faith every single day. May the Lord make it so. Let's bow in prayer. Let's all pray. Father, we are so thankful for your grace, your goodness, and your faithfulness. And Lord, I just ask you that you will, in your tender mercies, just open your word to our hearts. Father, I have no idea what this needs to look like in each person here, but you know exactly. And I just ask you, Father, in mercy, that you would Just guide every person in hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit as to how to translate this into their lives. And so, Father, undertake, I pray, by your grace, and I ask you that you will in each of us give us hearts of faith, hearts so confident in your goodness, your love, in the price you have paid for us in our Lord Jesus Christ, that Father, we know there's nothing better than to walk with you, than to enjoy your presence and goodness. So Father, work these things in all of us, we pray, and thank you for your everlasting mercies, in Jesus' name, amen.