Here are some notes from last Sunday’s sermon on Hebrews 3:7-13:
Hebrews 3:13 But exhort one another daily, while it
is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
Psalm 95:7 For he is our God; and we are the
people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his
voice, 8 Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the
day of temptation in the wilderness:
“But
exhort one another daily….” The call
here is for mutual exhortation or mutual admonition. The same verb is used later in Hebrews,
probably with regard to those who had stopped attending the Lord’s Day meetings
of the church:
Hebrews 10:25 Not forsaking
the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and
so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
Compare:
Proverbs 27:17: Iron
sharpeneth iron; so a man
sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.
Notice
also the frequency. Exhortation is
encouraged not “annually” or “monthly” or “weekly [each Sunday]” but “daily.” Compare:
Luke 9:23 And he said to them
all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and
follow me.
Where
can we get daily mutual admonition? From husbands and wives in Christian
marriages, from interactions in Christian homes, from Christian neighbors, from
Christian friends, from reading Christian authors (living and dead), and, in
this internet age, from listening to sound Christian sermons and teachings online.
Matthew
Poole notes that what is addressed here is the Christian’s private duties to be continually stirring up, persuading, and
encouraging perseverance in the Christian religion and putting away an evil
heart, but, he adds, it also refers to public
duties, “by the regular ministration of the word and ordinances of the
whole society of Christians, as they are personally obliged to it, being
members of one another.”
Finally
the inspired author brings it back to Psalm 95.
Engage in mutual exhortation, “while it is to day, lest any of you be
hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”
Don’t
be like those rebellious Israelites of old who wandered forty years in the
wilderness. Do not become hardened to
the things of God. Do not allow yourself
to be deceived by sin. Sin rarely looks
wrong. It deceives us by making itself
look right.
Let us
exhort one another daily.
Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle
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