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.

I was listening to a broadcast from John Piper, the Pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church. It was a Monday morning. Mondays are usually down days for pastors. We all look back at our Sunday and count the numbers that came. We ask ourselves “What should I have said”? We worry about those who missed the services. Some of us – I do this every week – send bulletins or call missing members. What particularly made me hurt on Mondays was going to my office and having people come in to visit me asking:

“I wonder where so and so was?”

Piper was talking about the missing from the flock when he brought this scripture verse up. It touched a nerve. But it also blessed me. Hebrews chapter 3 addresses the subject of Christian faithfulness. Christians are called to be faithful. To fail to be faithful to God is to invite disaster.

Now let me quickly say that I believe in the eternal security of the Saints. I hate the phrase “Once Saved, Always Saved”. I think this phrase is flippant. Instead I prefer to believe in the Sovereignty of God over the will of man. My God is sovereign. My God is …

Ephesians 3:20-21 … able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, 21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

I believe that what God has saved, God can keep. But hear what I say. This does not mean that we who are saved are on autopilot as we fly our way towards Heaven.

We Are Accountable – God Holds Us Accountable

God rewards those who are accountable and act accountable. God punishes those who fail to be accountable. You are accountable to God in how you live for Him. You are accountable to God for what you do with the salvation you have been given. You are. And you are accountable to encourage and, if necessary, to rebuke your fellow believers as you together follow the Lord.

We are in this thing together.

As we come into Hebrews 3 we read:

Hebrews 3:1-2 … Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; 2 Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.

What does that verse say? First it addresses the audience by calling them holy brethren. If you are saved by faith in Christ you are holy brethren. You are holy, hagios, made separate from the world and adopted into the family of God by faith in Christ. You are brethren – brothers and sisters together – because of the Blood of Christ. As holy brethren we are to consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus. He is the One we set our clocks by. He is the pattern that we follow. Christ Jesus, the only Begotten Son of God (John 3:16) and the first born from the dead (Colossians 1:18). He is the Apostle and High Priest of our profession. We do not have a pope. We have a Savior and a Lord. What did Christ Jesus do?

{Jesus} was faithful to Him {the Father} that appointed Him,
as also Moses was faithful in all his house

Jesus was faithful. Jesus didn’t have to be pursued to do the things that God the Father called Him to do. At the age of twelve Jesus was “about His Father’s business” (Luke 2:49). What does it mean to be faithful? It means to DO what God says WHEN God says it. Jesus was faithful. Moses was faithful. Moses was faithful in leading Israel, and Christ is faithful in leading the Church. Our text goes on and says:

Hebrews 3:3-4 For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honor than the house. 4 For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God.

The word MAN is italicized in the King James to show us that this word is not actually in the original text. Jesus was a man – a perfect Man – both God and Man in human form. He was not “man” as you and I are “man” or “woman”. He was virgin born.

Jesus Christ is GOD the Son!

And yet, Jesus was faithful to do all that the Father and the Spirit set before Him to do. Moses was faithful, too, but Jesus was more faithful. Moses built the House of Israel. Jesus Christ built the House of God. Moses presided over a people governed by Law written on stones. Jesus presides over a people governed by law written in our hearts. God ordained both Moses and Jesus to built two houses – two kingdoms – two governments. Both are built of and protected by God. Both will endure because God wills it. The Church will endure, and Israel will endure. Both heads of these two great Houses were faithful, but Jesus was MORE faithful.

As Moses was faithful, as Jesus is faithful – we who believe are called to be faithful.

Hebrews 3:5-6 And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; 6 But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.

What is the difference between Jesus and Moses, and between Israel and the Church? They are two separate houses or governments overseen and ordained by God. Moses was a servant of God, but not a son of God. Why? Because Christ had not yet come to die for our sins. Moses would be saved after Christ went to the Cross. How do I know this? Because Jesus revealed Himself to the Old Testament faithful. He told the Pharisees:

John 8:56-58 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. 57 Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? 58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.

Abraham would enter into glory, and become a son of God after Christ rose from the grave. Until then he was a servant. But Abraham saw Jesus’ day – rejoiced in it – and I know that Moses would have known about the lord as well.  It is Jesus Who saves us, and tells us:

John 15:14-17 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. 15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. 16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. 17 These things I command you, that ye love one another.

Jesus calls us “friends”. And what does the Father call us? The Apostle said:

Galatians 4:4-7 … But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. 6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. 7 Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

Moses and all Israel were servants of God. The Law of God can only make servants. But we of the House of God, the Church of Christ are no more servants but sons; and if sons, then heirs of God through Christ.

God is our Father, Christ our High Priest and elder Brother, the Holy Spirit our Enabler, with
Heaven and glory our destiny.

Hebrews 3:7-12 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, 8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: 9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. 10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. 11 So I swear in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) 12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.

God calls His people – Israel or the Church – to be faithful. The Bible says Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith. God applied a standard to Israel, and He will apply the same standard to His Church. God saved all of Israel. God saves all of His Church. God has a plan for His Israel. God has a plan for His Church. What happened with Israel? They Hardened their hearts toward God. They thought that because God saved them that He would bless them.

Beloved, salvation is entirely of Grace, but blessing is entirely of faithfulness.

I love you enough to tell you this. We are to – going back to our focal text:

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.

We are to exhort one another daily. The word translated exhort is the Greek compound παρακαλέω parakaléō, (pronounced par-ak-al-eh’-o) which literally means “to call alongside or near to yourself so that you can encourage, pray for, or invite another”. Those of you who are faithful are called by God to parakaléō those who profess Christ that they be faithful. You are called to remind them that what God did to Israel, He can and will do to us. As Christ is faithful, we are to be faithful.

“But” you say, “if I’m faithful, what business is it of mine that my fellow Christian be faithful? As long as I’m serving God as a son of God what does it matter to me?” That’s a good question. Why don’t we ask MOSES why we need to encourage one another to faithfulness? Why don’t we ask Joshua and Caleb why we need to encourage one another to faithfulness? If you’ll remember your Bible stories, Moses, Joshua and Caleb was forced to wander aimlessly in the wilderness for forty years until that first generation of Israel died off. God the Father said:

I swear in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest

I remember as a young boy wanting to go to the movies one Saturday and Mama saying “You can go if you and your brother clean up your room”. I cleaned up my side of the room while my brother did little to nothing. Inside myself I was grinning. I had done my part, and I would get to go to the movies by myself, without having to look after my little brother. What happened? I called mama and when she came in I said, “I cleaned my side of the room. Can I go now?” Mama looked at me and my brother and said, “Neither one of you are going. You were both supposed to clean the room. You’re the elder brother. You should have encouraged him to do what I asked”. Though we went on and cleaned the room later there were no movies for either of us that Saturday. I didn’t understand it when I was younger. I thought it was terribly unfair. But as I’m older now I understand completely. As Evangelist Bob Pitman told us recently, “God is always RIGHT but He isn’t always FAIR.” Those of us who are older in the faith and supposedly more mature need to encourage the younger believers to be faithful. We are to:

exhort one another daily, while it is called To day

We should talk to our friends and family who are faithless. If we are wondering where a believer has gotten off to, then we should call them alongside of us and encourage them to faithfulness.

Believe it or not, we are all in this TOGETHER. Let’s work TOGETHER for the glory of God our Father. Let us do it because this is the only way we will ever inherit the blessings God wants us to have.

Let us not anger our Father. That never works out right.

May God grow His Church through this His message. For Christ’s glory. Amen!