Constellation, brother, we still get confused from time to time. If you have a Bible, I encourage you to turn in God's Word to Hebrews chapter 10 this morning. Hebrews chapter 10. Our text that we will be looking at is verse 24 and 25, familiar verses, I'm sure, and preached on more than once for this congregation. Listen now to the Word of God as I read it to you, and then we will once again seek the Lord in prayer. And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near. Let us once again pray. Our Father and our God, we bow before you this morning Confessing that we are a needy people. Lord, we will always remain a needy people as long as we are in this world. So, Father, we pray for the Holy Spirit to give us ears to hear a mind that is fixed and seeking to understand the scriptures as they are unfolded to us today. And then, Lord, would you grant by grace the faith to obey the love and desire to do it all for your glory we might fulfill Your will in the life of the church and the life of each one of Your children. For Christ's sake, Amen. This particular section of Hebrews concerns how we're to live as Christians in light of all that the writer had previously been giving us in the course of the previous ten chapters or nine and three quarters. There is much there. You ever had one of your previous elders go through the book of Hebrews, or you yourself have studied it and read it, you know it is a deep book. In fact, I was listening to some lectures of Pastor Al Martin a week or so ago, and he was saying he himself has not yet gotten enough, I'm not sure what the word he is using, unction or whatever, or courage might be the best word. to go through the book of Hebrews for his own people. And I thought, wow, if he says that, I messed up by going through it myself. But we can glean and get as much as we can. And as I went back over this particular text, I saw so much more than when I first reached through it. But there's so much that Christ has revealed to us about himself in this particular book. They concern much of the privileges that we have as Christians concerning what they had in the old covenant versus what we have now in the new covenant. The realization of Christ having sacrificed himself to be our sin bearer, that he then paid the debt that we all owe if we are Christians, and that he is our great high priest who ever lives to make intercession for us and his work continues on for his people. that He has secured an everlasting hope giving us eternal life. And we could go on and on in tracing these massive and glorious and awesome privileges that are ours in Christ in the New Covenant that I think sometimes we take for granted. Based on what our Savior has done for us, has redeemed people, this is how we ought to live. In verse 19, going back a few verses, He says, Brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he inaugurated for us through the veil, that is his flesh, since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us, and this is the first of three, let us, let us draw near with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water, second one, Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without waving, for He who promised is faithful." Glorious promises. High privileges. We didn't have to come this morning bringing animals to sacrifice as faint offerings or sin offerings. That we didn't have to have another man stand before God to pray for us in our place. We didn't have to have priests And the list could go on and on of the great and awesome privileges that we as new covenant believers have. And the Bible teaches us, the Holy Spirit teaches us that we are to view these high privileges and they are to cause us to be highly motivated toward obedience. Much of what Hebrews teaches is this idea of persevering in the faith against all the enemies of the soul. Our own flesh, the world, and Satan. Christ gave Himself for His people. We are very highly privileged. And the Bible does this in other places. We know of Romans. Paul writes this book. And there's these glorious doctrines which flow through. The justification by faith alone. And how we love chapter 6, 7, and 8. And the great crescendo of chapter 8. We get to the golden chain of redemption. And then how it ends with nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Old Testament saints did not fully comprehend that. great love. And so he concludes, as it were, after getting all that, not really concluding, but going further on in the practical application of all this glorious doctrine in chapter 12, he says, therefore, perhaps the greatest therefore in all of the Bible, therefore, I beseech you, brethren, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable act of service or worship. The Bible gives many of these privileges to motivate us. Well, of course, we know it also commands disobedience. Matthew 16, 24, our Lord Jesus said that if anyone wishes to come after Him, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow Him. There is this idea that if we have to come to Christ, that there is to be an abandonment of self in order to live for him alone. Peter said in 1 Peter 4, 1 and 2, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. I love that. I don't quite get the depth of that, but I want to cease from sinning. And the text says, if we suffer in the flesh, he who suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, and we won't take another sermon to do that right now, but, that he no longer, listen, should not live, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lust of men, but for the will of God. That you exist as a Christian for the will of God alone. There's another psalm. That you have your job, you do your job for the will of God, your family, all for the will of God. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5.15, he died for all that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again. But the text before us today, I believe Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews is seeking to convey a motivation to obedience based on glorious privileges. The text has a lot in it. And I want you to see that these exhortations are connected to the function of the church. These connections, these exhortations are connected to the function or the spiritual function of the church, also known as the body of Christ. You'll note that the usage of the plural pronouns, us and we and our, and used throughout the verses I just read up to verse 23, And then there's the term one another also the term assembling together make it very clear that the Holy Spirit has in mind the corporate gatherings of God's people. That's my title the spiritual function of the church. Perhaps a better title may be a spiritual. It's not the only spiritual but I use the spiritual the term spiritual in the sense of being alive to God through Christ by the Spirit. In other words the church is a living entity. It is supposed to operate by faith, guided by the Word of God. Therefore, the function of the church must be carried out through the power and work of the Holy Spirit living in and through us. And so as you look back at the text, in verse 24, the writer of Hebrews in his third let us, let us consider how to stimulate, I'm reading from the New American Standard, updated version, one another to love and good deeds. The word consider, a lot of words in here, I went back and re-studied a little further. Means to fix one's eyes and mind upon intentionally. In fact, earlier on in Hebrews, it says to consider Jesus. Consider Jesus. So that would not be a sort of little just fly-by consideration. It's an intent. Consider. Think upon. There's the idea of there's some labor involved. All of this, being spiritual work, is going to be contrary to the flesh. The spirit loves against the flesh, the flesh against the spirit, so you can always do the things that you wish. So the spiritual function of the church is going to take effort from all its members in order to fulfill the scriptures and how we are to do them, and how we are to live as a church family, corporate church. Now the key word, and there are a lot of key words here, or at least a lot of good key words, in verse 24 is the word that you heard me read out on your American Standard is stimulate. Stimulate. It's translated perhaps maybe a little better, I'm not sure, as the word provoke. Let us consider how to provoke one another in the King James. Those of you who have the ESV, it's translated to stir up one another. The word in the Greek is very interesting in that it usually has a negative connotation to it. For example, it's used in Acts 15 of the argument that went on between John, Mark, and Paul. Paul's going on a missionary journey. He doesn't want to take Mark with him. He's a little upset with him. And it says in Acts 15, 39, and the contention, same word, and the contention was so sharp between them that they departed asunder one from another. They were provoked. Now, obviously, the writer of Hebrews does not want us to think in a very negative and provocative manner, but I do think he's saying, do not be passive about stirring each other up toward love and good deeds. It's a very serious matter, and it's a very neglected matter. Obviously, the writer here is wanting us to consider these things in intent. It would be nice to be able to spend some time in just giving some examples. Perhaps we'll look at some along the way. But this is to be a continual spiritual function of the church, the body of believers. As I said earlier, it's neglected labor. It is a neglected spiritual function. I believe there's a great lack of seriousness among many evangelical churches to carry out this exhortation. Most people in churches simply want to be left alone. Some of them will tell you. I've had members of my own previous churches tell me, don't visit me. Okay. Would you like to come over for dinner? No, don't want to do that either. So we've come to a place in American Christianity where the main focus is on the function of the individual Christian instead of the function of the corporate body. We see it in American culture when you watch television or listen to the radio, read particular books, the pronouns I and me are everywhere. But notice when you read your Bibles, the author uses words like us and we and one another. Listen to the way God calls his people to think in Philippians 2.3, do nothing from selfishness or impotency, but with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves. How often do we do that? That takes effort. The same attitude or duty, if you will, is what is laid before us in these verses. In verse 24, notice that the love and good deeds are the fruit of each of us considering how to stimulate each other to do these things. In John Brown's commentary on Hebrews, he writes that the consider one another, unquote, act means that we are to attend to each other's wants, infirmities, temptations, dangers, and to administer suitable assistance, advice, caution, admonition, and consolation. So in order for the church to do this, I would like to point out, in order to fulfill the passage, a couple of things need to take place. And they're not very deep. Number one is that we simply have to figure out a way to spend more time together. In the early church, you were able to meet with each other if you were in horse and buggy distance, or donkey and camel distance in their case, perhaps. But the distance that our cars can go allows us to live far apart from one another. But it also allows us, unfortunately, to stay away a long time without being together all week long. If we're going to fulfill this passage, if we're going to stir one another up toward love and good deeds, there has to be a method by which we can biblically, not pragmatically, but biblically try to figure out ways to get our bodies, our fellowships together more often. Yesterday at Boone's Mill was just one of many opportunities that, well, at least one opportunity that was created in the church to do that. Oftentimes, over the years, as we would have workdays at our own churches, at the churches that I was privileged to be pastor of, I told them that every workday had nothing to do with the work. It was just another God-given opportunity for us as brothers and sisters in Christ to be together. The work was just the product, the outflow of what we needed to do. But it was all about being together, down in the ditch, working together. And as we're working together, we're talking about Scripture. We're talking about Christ. We're ironing, sharpening iron. And you get through the day, you didn't even realize it was a work day. Second thing that would have to happen would be this. We have to force ourselves to think about the well-being of those around us in the church. It doesn't come naturally. You and I do not naturally wake up and think, I wonder how Brother so-and-so is doing today. Galatians 6.10 says, so then we, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people and especially those who are of the household of faith. Now, once we have, to some degree, accomplished these two preliminary things, we then can come up with actual ways to try to stimulate each other toward love and good deeds. And understand these two things are not mutually exclusive and that one is separated somehow from the other. They're not. They work together. Galatians 5, 6 and Christ Jesus need a circumcision or uncircumcision means anything but faith working through love. What should be some ways we could do this practically? Well, obviously prayer is a major one. praying for one another. As you pray for one another, you begin to think about the other person's needs. In the text of Philippians 2, just mentioned to us how to think of somebody else more important than yourself. When you're praying for them, that's what you end up doing. And the Holy Spirit begins to put things on your mind about how you can provoke or stimulate a brother or sister toward these things called love and good deeds. And then you have to literally force yourself mental work, mental labor, to think of ways in how you can help each other, to stimulate one another toward love and good deeds. And remember that rather than all of it, we're called a sacrifice. Your body is a living sacrifice. This is our motivation. I beseech you by the mercies of God. It's the parable of our Lord when the one was forgiven all that debt, but then he went out and was forcing the other man who owed him very little to give him his. And the king was very mad. We're supposed to be motivated by the mercy we've received. Perhaps there is an opportunity someday for a convalescent ministry. You might ask yourself, you plan on going, you plan on supporting it, but you think, well, so and so probably wouldn't like to go, but you would have them over and you would say, In Hollywood, you just say, well, you know, be a nice thing for you to be to come and serve the Lord and love on these people. But see, the word goes further than that. There is a provoking involved. So look, we need to be serving God. Don't you want to serve God? Come on, go with me. You don't do it in a mean way, but I think the writer of Hebrews is saying, go a little bit further than just being really nice about it is in a sense of some flowery words of Where are they going to just get let loose from your asking them to go so easily? You're backing them in a little bit of a corner, as it were. Not to provoke them towards something bad. You're trying to provoke them towards something that's good. Loving on seniors who need loving. Now, notice But the spiritual function of the church in verse 25 also concerns our need to encourage one another. The author had already addressed this issue back in the third chapter. If you'll turn back there, I think it's important to notice it in the third chapter in verse 13. Again, the word we find here, and you understand it, is the courage. He says, but encourage one another, and look at this very clearly now, but encourage one another, how often? Day after day. Not Lord's Day to Lord's Day. As long as it's still called today. And as last time I checked, it's still called today. So that none of you, why? What is our motivation for this? So that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. See, the ministry of coming together, the ministry of provoking one another toward love and good deeds, what is the value of it? The value of it is that our hearts will not be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. The fact remains is that the more we are apart, living in our own little quarters of life, of the areas that we live, and we're not spiritually together more often, you have the more propensity to drift into dullness and hardness of heart. I am completely convinced that after I first was converted, that the thing that kept me from going back to my old pagan ways was the Lord's Day evening service and the morning service as well. But my battle always started in the afternoon. I'd go home, I'd have lunch, and my unsaved family would go around and do their normal unsaved things in the afternoon, drink beer, play horseshoes. And for me, well, Church tonight, I don't really have to go. Nobody will know if I miss anyway. But I forced myself to go. I'd come back, 30 mile drive. I'd come back rejoicing like you would not believe that I had gone. Rejoicing. It should be a sincere desire to lift each other up every time and every way we can. And I don't know what that means in the practical sense of what A congregation can do to be together more often, as almost every church, its members do live far apart. And sometimes it can be taxing and it can be expensive for those who are on tight budgets as much as gas. And I know all the reasons why sometimes it's hard to get together. I don't see why we can't add a few things. Now, as I've already alluded to, there is simply no way to obey these things and to carry them out, the spiritual function of the church, as God's revealed it, unless we get together. Verse 25, so what do we see? Not forsaking our own assembly, or assembling together, as in the habit of some, but encouraging one another all the more as you see the day drawing near. The word forsake is a very strong word. We must not think that it means just to skip church occasionally. There is lexicon that says it means to totally desert, to completely abandon. Sounds a little stronger, doesn't it? And so the author of Hebrews is equating forsaking the assembly, i.e. what some think of just sort of skipping from one time here and there, no big deal. But the author of Hebrews says it is an act of abandonment to the assembly. It's going to go further than that in just a moment. I remember when I first became a pastor and I had to struggle in a little Southern Baptist church. You know, I had these 20, they would always show up, and then the other 20, 10 of them would be gone, one in Lords Bay and the other 10, they would take turns. I wonder if they called each other up and said, we'll be gone this week, you go next week. So I would go to my Bibles, I would find me some verses, Lord, to preach on. Don't forsake. Come to church. Be faithful to church. And the only way to find was Hebrews 10, 24 and 25. You can only preach it so many times and they'll think that you only have part of a Bible. But I began to realize, brethren, that people who are truly born again have passed from life, from death to life, and they love the brethren. True God-fearing people want to be with other God-fearing people. And you don't have to force them. And you don't have to lay guilt trips on them, which I used to do in my earlier church. And being as green as I was, you know, I don't know whether I was purposely trying to lay guilt trips or not, but it kind of felt like that's what I had to do to get them all to stay faithful. And I got tired of doing it. And what does the Bible teach me about this message? Those who pass from death to life love the brethren. You have the Holy Spirit. You're going to want to be there, because we're two or more or three or together. There I am. Don't you want to go see Christ? Don't you want to see our Savior as He works in the midst of the congregation? It became a burden. Whatever does become a burden, brethren, for someone to come to church, they really need to consider their own spiritual and evaluate their own spiritual condition. Are you really saved? It's such a hard thing. It's just, you know, sure it is in the flesh. Every one of us at times or at times perhaps get up, we don't feel that great and it looks so appealing just to rest that one day and what have you. But you overcome that. There's that still burden. You don't find joy in the word preached. You don't find joy in the song. I was seeing my wife this morning as we sang that last song and the words of it were just All three of them blessed my soul today. It's worship. It's joy. And if you are saved, you see the church gatherings and the worship of God's day is something that's not as important to you as I'm making it out to be this morning. Maybe it's because you've become inwardly focused. You just may not recognize it either. Sometimes we don't want to admit this truth. And so then we get the excuses. As a pastor of 17 years, and I really, really wish they could have all been as Reformed pastor, but be the case, I'm still a pastor, I have heard a lot of the excuses. Reasons why people forsake the assembly of the saints. And no doubt some of them are real. I myself have had to miss as a pastor because of illness and flu and things of this nature. But some excuses, brethren, just simply do not pass the smell test. For instance, my former church, the one in Florida, especially happened quite frequently. I've had people come to me once a month it seemed like, various individuals coming to me. I won't be able to be here next Sunday because I've got family coming in out of town. Well, what's that got to do with it? Bring them with you. If they don't want to come, give them the key to the house and you come. But I never understood why somebody coming in from out of town was a reason to not be in the house of God on the Lord's Day. One of them that used to really bother me perhaps more than any, and perhaps they all should bother me equally, How folks that use the excuse of missing church, certain perhaps physical illnesses, but they dare not miss work on Monday. It's an amazing thing. You know, I think Monday mornings is a healing day. I have people come to me that, you know, they would have sniffles and they wouldn't come. We wouldn't give anybody else our sniffles. Go to work on Monday morning with 103 temperature. Dare not miss that job. Don't want to miss that work, but you know, worship for the Lord's sake. He understands that, but my boss doesn't understand. Now the author of Hebrews obviously was experiencing the same issues in his own day. There's a certain number of these Hebrew Christians who began to lay off coming to worship and to be with God's people. Perhaps they were weary from the persecution. Perhaps there was some worldliness creeping in. Perhaps there was a spiritual latheness creeping in. We're not told. But we are commanded in this text to what? Not be like them. It says, whoever they are that are forsaking God's command to gather for worship and fellowship. And in verse 25, we go back to it. It says, not forsaking our own assembling And that's an interesting word there, too, and I don't have much time to deal with it, but it's only used one at a time, 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 1, where it's translated as gathering. It has a prefix on the front of it, ephe, which I think means greater or higher, but the word itself is the word for synagogue. And I'm just kind of wondering, I haven't checked the history of it, Whether it's sort of like we think of America today, a lot of people, we understand the church and the Bible means the ecclesia, the calling out ones, right? And now in America, it's the church with the steeple on it. That's the church. Well, maybe it started that way before the Jews. A synagogue had simply been a gathering place and the Jews would gather there. And it later became known as, of course, the house or the building that it came to be. But he's talking here of the higher gathering, the greater gathering. As he speaks to these Hebrews, now he's writing to Hebrews, Jews, many of them coming out of that Old Covenant way of worship. He says, I'm telling you to not forsake that greater gathering as a habit of some, but encouraging. That's our word now, encouraging one another. Now the word encourage is also an interesting word. It's exhorts in the King James. It's not simply talking about using some sort of positive, tampering conversation where you just come along and say, well, we've missed you for several Lord's Days this year. Hope you can find a way to overcome it. No, no, the word encourage is a lot more stronger than that. Interesting enough, it's the same Greek word used in Romans 12.1 where Paul says, I beseech you, brethren. There is an incitement to it. It's not just, well, I'd like to encourage you to come to church. No, I want to incite you to be faithful. I want to beseech you. It's the same word. And this is not an easy thing to do. I heard Brother Lee McKinnon give a message here on pastoral oversight. Marvelous message. The more I listen to his sermons, the more I feel like I need not be in the ministry. Lee McKinnon is a dear brother, a friend of mine, and a great sermon. And I believe in pastoral oversight. But in studying this text, I found out something else, brethren. There's such a thing as Christian to Christian oversight. If you see your brother sinning, it's sin. You see, encouraging one another. But it's not easy. We don't like to do this. I don't like to do it. And my flesh hates it in the flesh, but it's an idea of being obedient to it, and then God brings the blessing and the joy of having been obedient. None of us wants to go up to another Christian who we see who's maybe been a little lax in attendance, or maybe they've been a little lax in some other area. Maybe we see something going on that's not proper. We also would encourage them when we see them doing something good for the Lord as well, but it's not an easy thing. And this is why it's so neglected, this is why people don't want to do it, because we live in the society today where everybody wants to be left alone. But listen to what our good friend A.W. Pink had to say about it. He says, to exhort one another, and this is by the way on his commentary on Hebrews. To exhort one another is a duty to which all Christians are called. Alas, how rarely is it performed these evil days. Yet from the human side, such failure is hardly to be wondered at. The vast majority of professing Christians wish to be petted and flattered rather than exhorted and cautioned. Most of them are so hypersensitive that the slightest criticism offends them. One who seeks grace to be faithful to act in true love to those whom he supposes are his brethren and sisters in Christ has a thankless task before him. So far as a man is concerned, he will soon lose nearly all his friends, sever the fellowship which exists between him and them, but this will only give a little taste of the fellowship of his sufferings." Hebrews 3.13 is still God's command. Was Ada telling us, hey, it's not easy, but you don't do it just because it's not easy. And it teaches us, it will drive you to prayer. I want to talk to this brother. I want to talk to this sister. Oh Father, let Your voice speak through me. I want to do it obediently, but Lord let me go so that every word I have is seasoned. And that my demeanor and my way of approaching them is not brash. But that they know that I come in sincere love for their care and their soul as another brother, as another sister. Recognize now that verse 25 is actually a transitional verse for the writer of Hebrews. He goes from speaking about the need to persevere in the faith and he gives us all these glorious motivations of Christ and the new covenant, what greater and better things have come to us through him, to all of a sudden he's going to start talking about apostasy. And I want to, some of you have already heard this probably, maybe everybody else in here already knows about it. But I came across it and it floored me, it kind of just took me back. And maybe some of you brothers can check this out and maybe I'm going down the wrong path here, but I'm going to give you the path and then I can be corrected if I'm wrong. But it says here in verse 25, not forsaking our own assembly together, as is the habit of some. Now, as we go to verse 26, there's not a new subject being introduced completely. He's not going down a different, completely different avenue. There is what my wife tells me this morning, a subordinate conjunction. I said, honey, is for a conjunction? I think it's a subordinate conjunction. Whatever that is, that's what I'll tell him tomorrow or today. He says for so what is he saying that the statement, the thought is continuing on for if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there is no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of fire, which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severe punishment do you think he will deserve? Who has trampled underfoot the son of God? His regard is an unclean, the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has insulted the spirit of grace. I ask you, brethren, what sin? If we sin willfully, what sin? Well, the text obviously points open to us that any sin that you willfully commit, but the only sin I can find in the context of my Bible is the sin of forsaking the assembly. This is the one he just mentioned, isn't it? Are there any other sins in the preceding verses that he speaks about that may relate to the idea that connects it to apostasy? The only one I can find is the one who is forsaking, the assembly. For if we go on continuing sinning willfully, i.e. like forsaking the assembly, If we keep forsaking the assembly, what a terrifying expectation of judgment. If we keep forsaking the assembly, how much severe punishment do you think you will deserve and trampled under the foot of the Son of God? When you forsake the assembly regarding as an unclean thing the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and insulted the Spirit of grace. That's what we do. I think that belief, that's what the Bible teaches us we do when we forsake the assembly. Could you imagine an Old Testament priest just deciding just one day to skip his duties at the temple? And what greater light do we have in the New Testament? You see, Nadab and Abihu were early examples of God telling his people. You remember what happened. They offered strange fire to God. They decided that The way God had it set up is boring. I don't know what they were thinking. Honestly, I don't know what their motivations were. But I do know what God's judgment was. Fire came out and consumed them. And what was the message to be told Moses after this? Why did God do this? Leviticus 10.3, by those who come near me. God says, I will be treated as holy and before all the people I will be honored. How serious is God about the assembly? They had assemblies in the Old Testament. We have assemblies in the New. God is very serious about the assembly. Because when you forsake the assembly, brethren, you forsake God. Jesus said, where have you done the least of these, my brethren? You've done to me. When Paul is persecuting the church and Christ shows up on him that day in Damascus Road, Christ doesn't say, Paul, why are you persecuting my children? No, he says, Paul, why persecute thou me? Me. When coming to the end of the text of verse 25, Notice the enormous motivation the author gives his readers to not be like those who treat the assembly of the saints with such trivial attitude, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near. Now, the writer does not allude to what is meant by the day. It could be the second coming. Matthew 24, 20, 44, for this reason you also must be ready. The Son of Man is coming in an hour when you do not think he will. The early church, the Jews of the early church who heard and found out through the apostles Christ's prophecy on the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D. that was coming, many of them were looking for that and they thought the two were synonymous, some of them. that the event like that, it must be that the end of all is coming. So maybe the day that's spoken up here is Jerusalem 70 AD, I don't know. If neither of these are intended here, then most assuredly we could assign the reality of our own soon coming death, can't we? Romans 13, 12, do this, knowing the time that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep, for now our salvation is dearer than when we first believed. So whatever the day is referring to, the application remains the same, doesn't it? Brethren, carry out the spiritual function of the church. As God has revealed it in the text, to assemble, to worship, to not forsake, to incite, to provoke and encourage one another to remain faithful. It doesn't say to encourage, to incite your own self to love and your own self to good deeds. It says to do it to incite others to love and good deeds. And I don't know what that looks like in just a very, getting it down to just very detailed practical things. But I believe if we start praying about it and thinking about it and looking for it, we'll see what it is. The spiritual function of the church is for me to consider one another. Constantly considering one another. How to stimulate with love and good deeds. It's neglected. It's not easy. It's spirit work. The only way we'll ever see it being accomplished in any congregation is when we have bathed it in prayer. both privately and corporately. Encouraging and exhorting until He comes. And that is the end of the text. All the more as you see the day's drawing near. A day's drawing near, whether it's the Lord coming back. Obviously, we've passed 70 AD, but your day and my day on this earth is limited. It's coming. A day of reckoning when we will stand before the Lord God and give an account And I can promise that all the excuses you gave pastors will not pass his smell test either. He's serious about being worshipped. He's kind. He's good. He's loving. He's merciful. But he's still God. And he deserves our very best. Let's pray. Our Father, we pray that you would take these words, your words. Lord, let them not be out there for the ravens to come and to pick up. Let these things, Lord, grow deep within our hearts. We might begin to grow in our love for the brethren. We might begin to grow in our desire to be more a part of the lives of our fellow sisters and brothers in the church. That for love's sake and for Christ's sake, we would stimulate one another toward love and good deeds. You tell us in the Old Testament, in the Proverbs, Lord, if a wise man is rebuked, he'll love us still. While we pray that we might be those wise people who can stand a rebuke. who can stand in exhortation, because we all have weaknesses. We all need someone to tell us about the stains of our hearts, that we might clean them up, that we might repent of them, and you're faithful and just to forgive them when we do. I pray, Father, your blessings upon this congregation, that indeed, even as Paul would tell the church at Philippi, that their love one for another would continue to grow even as they already do love one another. For Jesus' sake we pray, amen.