Oh, Hebrews 10, as we have been, as you recall, I hope you recall, just a few verses. Hebrews 10. Let me start at verse 22 and read through. Verse 25, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water, let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful at promise. Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so the much more as he see the day approaching. God bless to our hearts his word. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for the kindness that's been exhibited to us in life and the privilege to bring forth the word even as it has been laid before our feet at many, many times. and to feast upon it, and to find it a delight, a sweetness to the soul, something that we would hunger and thirst for even more and more each day. Thank you that it provides great light and understanding in the dark world that we live, and thank you that it's here for us even this morning. We pray that Christ would be honored and glorified in it all, in your servanthood, in Christ's name, amen. Well, we come to our third and final of our Lettuce Remember lettuce, heads of lettuce passages? Kind of finished them off and not necessarily that we deal with the food, but more so with the understanding. Those three lettuces could often be referred to as admonitions, an admonition. How many of you could give a good definition for the word admonition? If I offered $5, could there be any? If you can't, you'd have to pay me for that one. A good biblical definition for admonition is a loving attempt to correct someone's behavior or attitude through verbal confrontation. A loving attempt, right desire, a right heart in doing it, to make an adjustment, a correction in somebody else's attitude or their behavior or their actions, and you do it verbally. Obviously, in this particular case, it's a written text, but it is verbal. We're not talking about taking a club and whacking someone and saying, now do you understand? Now let's get this corrected. It's the attitude of the heart that is in need to be changed. I think parents very well understand what it is to admonish a child. And sure, that admonition may not necessarily bring joy to the child's heart, but it's necessary and it's for the child's good. Similar thing could be said of a school teacher, maybe even a police officer or even a judge. A verbal admonition, doing it because there's a need here and I want to make a change in your life and the way you think and the way that you have an attitude about certain things in life. As you study the Bible, you see that the Lord God admonished his children throughout Scripture. Old Testament, it was mostly for the most part, as you'd read it, Israel, His beloved Israel, and He admonished them through the prophets. As we read through the Word, we see those sometimes stronger than others, but they were there. The New Testament, we see Jesus admonishing in a number of instances. One that comes to mind, and they're in the storm in the Sea of Galilee, And Jesus admonishes them for their lack of faith. Where's your faith in this situation? He wasn't angry with them, but he wanted them to find more trust in the words and the things that they have seen and heard from him. And then there are many admonitions given by the authors of our New Testament letters for various reasons. Paul did it. Peter did it. John did it. And we come to Hebrews 10 here, and we find that the author saw some concerns in the life of the brethren. And he presents to them corrections, helps, because of their thinking, because he saw that they were a tendency, possibly, to go back to the Old Testament ways, fall away from Christ. There was pressures on them, threatenings in other situations, and so he speaks to them about these truths. He admonishes them that they forget not all that had been accomplished for them by Christ. His death upon the cross, the redemption that he provided, and then thinking of the passages that we had read earlier, the idea that he is now the great high priest for them. They have privileges and joys and blessings because of what Christ has done. Don't throw that out. Don't go back to the way it used to be. And so he began with that first admonition, which was found in what verse? 22. 22, remember? He says, let us draw near. Let us. That first head of let us. The idea of drawing near. You have access to him. Find the joy in bringing such access. Confidence that they could approach God in worship. And I mention that this morning simply because every approach that we have to God is worship. There's obviously the corporate worship of the body here in the sanctuary in the Lord's Day morning or Wednesday or Sunday evenings, wherever the believers gather together. But every time I come before the Lord, it is worship. I just don't casually throw out some, Lord, I need some help here, you know, and not consider it that I'm worshiping him. Think of my relationship to him, my position to who he is and how insignificant I am and therefore everything that I do for him and asking of him and coming before him is worship. He reminds them that they can draw near to the one who in times past was unapproachable. Remember the Old Testament? The only way they could come into the Temple, the tabernacle, was through the high priest, and once a year, the Day of Atonement, and those sacrifices were made. They could offer up through the priest various things, but their approach to God was unapproachable. But now what Christ has done says, now that is gone. The veil in the temple was torn. Now through his flesh, you can go to him. Why not do it? Be bold about it. Be strong in doing that. This is, I think, a matter of the heart. What's the great commandment? Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. Heart first. He desires our heart, our heart's attention to be upon him. The focus of our heart is to be on our God. I don't think there's any clear admonition, any more appropriate instruction or better counsel given in God's word than to draw near to him. It's his will that we draw near to him. It's his will that we draw closer to him in all that we do. Second admonition was in verse what? 23, thank you. Let us hold fast to the profession of our faith without wavering. We saw when we looked at this verse that we need to Maintain the things that we profess. What we say, what we hold forth as being truth, my relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ, my relationship to God's Word, my eternity, everything that's involved in my spiritual life, maintain it. In other words, hold on to it. Don't let it go. Don't let it slip through your fingers. These are things that we believe and that we should be strong in. This I believe, and as we saw in this passage, this is my hope. And we're admonished not to waver from such a hope because he is faithful. He is trustworthy to us, always, his word, he never lies. Don't turn there, but you turn over to the next chapter, to Hebrews 11, and you find a whole list of people, some familiar, some not so familiar, some with no names mentioned. And the principle behind all of the names that are in there is that they were people of faith. We could almost substitute in there they were people of hope. He says, let us hold fast to the profession of our faith without wavering, to hold fast to our hope, the solidity of such. Everybody in Hebrews 11 did such. Listen to one verse here, verse 13. It says, these all died in faith. not having received the promise, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. They didn't get the, God promised them, he promised them, promised them, and they took him at his word, having not received it tangibly in that time. But they said, his word is good. They had a maintaining of that truth. And that's what we're expected to do. Maintain it. Hold fast to the profession of our faith. Again, these are admonitions given to guide the believer in making course changes. And it was obvious in that time it was written, those course changes were needed. And they are surely needed in the day in which we live. Now, third admonition is from verse what? Verse 24, take a look at that. And let us consider, consider, think about it. But it's just not a matter of thought because I know even in church we can have a thought go in and go in one ear and go out the other, you know. Amen? Let's hope not. It's a continual, it's the idea in the Greek here, it's a continual thinking. It's a process of what I think and what's come before me, and I don't let it go. Continue your thinking on this, put it in your minds, focus on it, constantly giving careful attention. It's brought before me. To what? What are we to be carefully considering, continually thinking about? What's the text say? To one another, to one another. In other words, the author admonishes them to watch out for each other, to look out for one another. This isn't sticking your nose in somebody's business because you're a busybody. This isn't just, what's going on here, what's going on, for information's sake. But there's a heart concern and attitude change that needs to be made from an Old Testament life to this New Testament life. And he says, I want you to have a continual attitude of caring for each other on a regular basis. I care what's going on in your life. I'm concerned about what's taking place. Remember the reality of opposition to Christ and his followers. And remember, this church was, in essence, in its infant stage. And every believer, they were first-generation believers coming out of Judaism, or some who were not Jews, Gentiles. They were all in the very beginning stages of it. And I believe the temptations and the trials that they were experiencing would become fertile soil for seeds of discouragement, or despair, or doubt, or potentially falling away. In other words, what they're receiving in life, maybe a rejection of jobs, we're not going to buy from you anymore because you're a Christian, because of the way you're going to, you're not worshiping with us anymore, we're going to cut you off, whatever it is, those things can surely be soil, fertile soil for doubt and discouragement and despair and just like, I'm just going to give up. So therefore, there's a need for care that has to be made for each other. So because of that, believers are to give careful attention to each other for the purpose of what? What texts say? For the purpose of to provoke unto love and good works. Provoke. Are you good provokers? More often than not, it's kind of a negative thought, isn't it? It's kind of a negative idea, and actually, even in the scriptures, it does both. Ephesians 6, 4, and ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath. Paul says, dads, do not be an irritant in your children's life, you know? Tim's been doing that with Noah, and he's beaten him on that leg for so long, it finally gave up, you know? Don't be an irritant in their life. Don't provoke in that very real sense. and at times we stick our nose in others' business and negatively provoke them. We poke the bear and the results are, they're understandable. It happens. But the word provoke can also mean to stimulate, to encourage. It's a similar idea, but with a positive attitude. Kenneth Weiss translates this verse this way, and let us constantly Be giving careful attention to one another for the purpose of stimulating one another to divine and self-sacrificial love and good works. On a regular basis, view the lives of others, and he's talking about other believers, carefully evaluating them and having them in front of your heart's attention and stimulate them to divine love, divine sacrificial love and good works. It's not consider how to love each other and do good deeds. That's biblical. Learn how to love each other and do good deeds, but that's not what he's saying. He's not presenting that truth. In reality, he's saying consider how to stimulate each other to love and good deeds. Focus on helping others becoming loving people. Stir them up to be understanding that they can do good works, good deeds for the profit of all. Scriptural principle of iron sharpening iron. Aren't those the hallmarks of the Christian faith? Love and good works. It's obviously been abused by liberals. but in the truest sense found throughout the life of Jesus Christ and throughout his teachings and the principles that are there, love and good deeds that flow out of a heart of love should be the hallmarks of what the believer is in all that he does. Jesus says, a new commandment I give unto you. In other words, this is not something that you heard or were taught in Old Testament theology, basically. that ye love one another, as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this, by loving one another, shall all men, qualifying? No. Anybody who looks, anybody who sees, anybody who's observing you, shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. We teach and we train and we encourage our children the principles of godly love and Christian service of good works. In the earliest days, you know, and some children, you know, it takes a little bit longer, but we do that. But there is an age limit to this. Is there an age limit to learning how to love and have good works? No. We're constantly afforded those opportunities and necessities in life. So the question is, how do we provoke or how do we positively become an irritant in somebody else's life to bring them to that place? How do we act on that? I got four things just as an understanding of this. First of all, pray. Well, Pastor, we pray all the time, but specifically pray. with a person in mind, with a specific, poignant attitude in mind, to see them understand what selfless love and what sacrificial good deeds are. When you do, God will answer in His time, as with all things. The Apostle John says, and this is the confidence, just not a hope, this is the confidence that we have in Him, in the Lord, that if I ask anything according to His will, He heareth us. And if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desire of Him. Isn't God's will that love and good deeds are a part of the believer's life? Of course! And if I ask the Lord for this particular individual, or family, or group of people, that there is a need in this to grow, is God going to say, well, I'm not necessarily so sure about them. You know, I'll hold off on that. The Apostle Paul writes of the church at Philippi, and he begins his prayer with these words. And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment." He offers up these words to open a prayer pointing to them, and I can see his mind going to all of the people of Philippi. All of the names, he spent time there, taught them, brought the Lord before them all. And you can almost see him going through all of these people's faces and all of the names, husbands and wives and children. And he begins the prayer, I'm praying for you that your love may abound. Yes, they had love. You read the book of Philippians and understand the joy that was in there. But he's saying it needs to grow. And we can all find that relationship understanding provided for us. Secondly, be an example. Not only the responsibility to pray to provoke somebody to those proper attitudes in the Christian life, but to be an example. Provoke others to love and good deeds. People may not necessarily say very much to you, but they watch us, they observe us. Any place that you're with some group or whatever for a long period of time, and not a lot of interchange going on, but boy, if you catch them late on, you know what I saw them do, you know how I saw them act, and they evaluate the things that we are in life, and what we say and how we do things. They read our actions and they interpret how we love and how we value our deeds. Paul's words to the Corinthians, be followers of me, even as I am also of Christ. Paul says, follow me. And as believers, we would like to say, follow me. But Paul's clarifying thought was, as I follow Christ. Paul had warts and everything. I'm sure everything that Paul presented in the word, which we would acknowledge as far above our spiritual abilities, His attitudes, his zeal, his love for the Lord, and everything there. But I'm sure there were things that Paul says, don't follow me there. That's not me. We are living a gospel, a chapter a day, by deed that we do, by word that we say. Men read what we live, whether faithless or true, say, what is the gospel according to you? What is it? Example is a lot. And you have had people, I've had people in your lives, who set the example for, and in a good sense, of how the believers to live. And you say, boy, if they could do it, if they could do that, I can also. The third one is the Bible. The Word of God is our basic primer for love and good deeds. The texts are replete, Old Testament and New Testament, of God's provisions, of God's promises, what he offers us, what he commands us, the various passages that directly are pointing to an individual or a group of people in dealing with these very things, truths that need to be digested and applied. And when we feed upon them, We allow them to have our minds renewed and transformed. All of a sudden, the Word of God does make a change. People see it. We talk about being an example. How did that change? How was that change real in you? Well, it was the Word of God, the Spirit of God working in me. When Millie and I first came back to Western New York, neither one of us were believers, and we were sitting in church, first time in a church, and my mom and dad went there, and my brother, But Pop came in and he sat us in there and I thought, what are you supposed to do? It was kind of a fearful thing. This little guy comes up to me, his name was Herb Grover, and he sits down and he says, Keith, Millie? I said, yes. He says, I've been praying for you. My name's Herb. And he was just, sweetness just exuded from his pores. Well, as the years went on, I came to find out that Herb came out of a sales business type of association. He was retired at that time. But he was known as the gorilla. He was a mean man. He was cutthroat. But Christ came into his life, and he referred to it as, I got to know him more and more. He says, as more I got into the word of God, it changed my life. And people observed the gorilla all of a sudden becoming the sweetest of men. And how could that have happened? But it had to be by the power of God, through the Word of God, to make that attitude change. And that's how the prophet came out of his life and really benefited us. Then the fourth one is a matter of encouragement. There's a verbal spurning that we often go through with the words of encouragement, but sometimes it's really necessary. William and I have both been blessed by falling into the hands of some people who have given us, as individuals or as couples, and talked to us encouraging words. Maybe it didn't mean much to them at the time, but it really was something. At a low point in life, we were visited or revisited at our home church, and we were preparing to go to the mission field, I recall there were other missionaries there, one young man who ended up, forget that. In any case, he was leaving a little devotions and we're sitting in the room here and he says, any of you discouraged? And I was, that day I was slapped on ugly, it was just heavy on my heart. And so he went through his devotional and he had a little book for Chuck Swindoll, it was called Encourage Me. And it's still available, it's got to be umpteen years old. But he says, I says, I am. And he gave me the book. That book and going through it, the principles of encouragement during discouragement and so forth, just picked up my soul. There are times when you can say, what can I do for you? Or how you doing? We don't just say that simply because, oh, we just went and exchanged pleasantries. And hey, how you doing? Well, what if the person said, you know, I'm really having a bad day? Well, you can pray for it. How can I encourage you? And it doesn't mean it's going to happen, but it's a seed that takes us all of a sudden to shift my heart attitude, because that's the Lord's desire to edify, to build up. Paul writes that in many places in his lessons in the scriptures to the Thessalonians and to others, he says, to edify, to build up, and you read through the New Testament letters and you'll find that referred to many times, because Paul recognized the struggles of early believers in the things that they went through in life, and so encouragement was necessary. Using those principles and our heart's attention can provoke, can poke at, can encourage, can incite a person to love. and to good works, and it may take some time, but those things are there. Back in our text, let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works. Where do we find the most effectual place to provoke to love and good works, to receive the same? You know? So what does he add here? And again, the authors didn't write in paragraphs and text and verse, it was all one. And all of a sudden, verse 24 really could be attached to verse 25. Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is. Why? Because what better place to provoke unto love and to good works by the scriptures, by the example of other believers, by the prayers of God's people, and so forth. And these surely could have had legitimate reasons for it. And it doesn't mention how many people that were here, but he says some were doing it. It was by habit. And it could be because of persecution. Persecution was legitimate, not anything that we've ever experienced. Could be like today, well, I'm just not interested. Or some maybe felt that these types of gatherings weren't necessary. I ask Christ into my heart as my Savior and I don't need to go through whatever the excuses are. That's what was presented. But no reason is given in the text for their desertions. But it seems like it was regular. I found a pastor writing about his hometown in Austin, Texas. And he says, in my town, nearly 50% of the population could be listed on the call of being churched people. And I've heard that many times. You ask, how many of you are churched, which is a broad spectrum. But nonetheless, that's how he presents it. He says, some folks become absentee churchgoers, choosing instead to attend Bedside Baptist, or Church of the Holy Comforter, or Church with the Inner Springs. to name just a few churches have chosen instead of the rather traditional gathering for believers. But whatever the reason, what better place? And you know there are times when you just have a struggle and a hard time of making those decisions and choices, and it affects your week. It affects life. What better place to be at? He says, but exhorting one another. And again, here's this interchange with believers. And so much the more as you see the day approaching. The day approaching. No specific reason for what is mentioned here. It could be of anything. But notice that the author is not writing to church leadership. He's not talking to the pastors, the elders, the deacons, the church board or whatever. He's talking to the entire body of believers. And although pastors love to do these very things, that's not the direction of his encouragement, his admonition. He's basically saying it's the responsibility of every believer to be an encourager. It's the responsibility of every believer to be a provoker. And I mean in the right sense. We're all provokers at times, but in the right sense of it. Getting others excited about showing the love of Christ and being involved in good works. For there is a day coming when this grace will end. That time will come. Listen to Ephesians 4. Paul says, And I gave some, and he gave some, apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. for the perfecting of the saints, meaning God gave positions, responsible authority positions, of apostles, and they have disappeared. Prophets, they've disappeared. Some evangelists are still here. Some pastor-teachers, they're still here. And the reason God did that was for the perfecting of the saints, that Christians may have every possible advantage in becoming complete in love and good works. The purpose of not only the pulpit ministry, but the purpose of the office of pastor, of elder, is to work in the lives of believers, to fashion them, to work in them, to bring about truth in them, that they can perform the duty responsibility. He continues. Why? He says, for the work of the ministry, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Every believer is a responsible person. One day we'll all have to give an account, what have I done with you? Well, pastor never taught me that, you know. The book becomes an empty book. I've told you before, when we lived in Apollo, went to the library, had a book sale one day. And pastors always love to go book sales. And where's Mrs. Proberta? She understands that. And here I saw on the edge of the binding, it was a Bible. And it was a nice, thick one. I said, well, it's got a lot of stuff in it. And I pulled it out. And it was red on the bottom, the page edge, and red outside, but on the top it was sun-bleached, you know, pink, you know. And so I opened it up and with great care, you know, and it's like it has never been opened. And in the front flyleaf, it was from 1953, from Uncle George to, you know, Susie Q, whatever it is, you know. The book had never been touched, you know. The provision of God's Word remains the lifeline to all, for the feeding of the soul, for the perfection of the ministry, for the edification of the body, and it remains a closed book. So he says, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till, until the time when all come to unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, unto the perfect man, unto the measure, the stature, the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and the cunning craftiness whereby they lie and wait to deceive." If I'm not doing it, what's happened? All of a sudden there are all these fishhooks that are pulling me there. What happened to that church? What happened to those people? What happened to that family? Well, they just didn't, and all of a sudden they found this, and then pretty soon they were here, like, you know, the butterfly going from this flower to this flower to this flower. They're never satisfied, never understanding. The doctrine's just kind of just, well, this one appeals to me today, or this one appeals to me tomorrow. And all the basic, Paul says, the necessity for believers to edify the body, to edify, strengthen, encourage each other in those principles of love and good deeds, is necessary for all of us to be involved in it. Do we not live in a world where people are being pulled every way? This doctrine and that doctrine? The world is full of deceptions everywhere around. He continues in this passage, by speaking the truth in love, may grow up unto him in all things, which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body is fitly joined together, compacted by that which every joint supplieth according to the ecclesiastical working of the measure of every part, maketh increase in the body unto the edifying of itself in love. That's the work together, as it works together. Until you see the day approaching. Who knows what that day is, but I'll tell you, it would surely seem, within our purview of our generations here, that that day is coming pretty fast. You know the rollercoaster, you get, and all of a sudden you're like, it's there, it's there, worldwide. And God's hands are not tied, but all of a sudden we become the responsible parties to continue to edify the body, to strengthen the body, to poke and pervert, pervert, to profit in learning love and good works, good deeds, in order that we would grow. We talk about spiritual health. This is a key to it. Draw near to God, cling to the truth, and reach out to others. Let's pray. Father, we've gone through a lot in just a very short period of time, and yet these are truths that were pertinent to the time this book of Hebrews was written, and it's been pertinent to the lives and the generations of people since then. It's appropriate for us to feed upon it even today. Father, we confess that we have not been people who have drawn closer to you as we ought when given opportunity. We've not been people who have always held on to the truths that have been presented to us, that we say we believe, and we've not always been people who have provoked others, parts of the body of Christ, to love and to good deeds. We haven't expressed that, and that has not been our intent. And yet, Father, it's laid before us. Forgive us. And may, Father, we find delight in coming to you and allowing you to be graceful. We receive at your hand grace, that which we don't deserve, simply because that is your nature and we've requested it. So, Father, apply such in our hearts even this day. thanking you for what's been done and what you're doing now and what you shall do in the future for Jesus' sake. Amen.