DO IT NOW !!!

May 23, 2013

Thursday

Do it now!

Hebrews 3:7-15   (KJV)

7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:

“Today, if you will hear His voice,

8 Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,

In the day of trial in the wilderness,

9 Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me,

And saw My works forty years.

10 Therefore I was angry with that generation,

And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart,

And they have not known My ways.’

11 So I swore in My wrath,

‘They shall not enter My rest.’”

12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; 13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, 15 while it is said:

“Today, if you will hear His voice,

Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

Keyword definitions:

exhort = encouraging others to commendable conduct   

deceitfulness = Behaviour, in words or actions, which is deliberately intended to make people believe things that are not true.   

sin = disobedience of God’s law  

(Open Bible, Bible Encyclopedia)

Encourage soberness:  Titus 3:1

Titus 3:1-8    New King James Version (NKJV)

3 Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, 2 to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men.3 For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, 5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.  8 This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men.

What God is saying to the believer is that we are to continue to exhort and encourage each other.   Moreover, according to the book of Titus, Paul is writing to a young pastor named Titus and giving him words of encouragement.  The believer is to follow these instructions:

● be subjected to rulers and authorities

● to obey

● to be ready for every good work

● to speak evil of no one

● to be peaceable, gentle

● be showing all humility to all men

● be careful to maintain good works.  

In essence, the believers are encourage to do good and abhor evil.

Furthermore, the Hebrew people walked around in the wilderness for forty years.  It should have only taken them 14 days.  But they were so stubborn and stiff-necked that they refused to listen to Moses and to God.

Are you going to be like the Hebrew people who refused to listen to God?

Are you so self-centered today that you will  refuse to heed the voice of God?

Is your heart so hardened that you cannot hear what the Spirit is saying?

What this means is that we should not be like them because they were so incredibly self-centered and stiff-neck that they spent forty years in the wilderness.  We are to listen to God’s ministers whom He has sent to us.  WE can see from the writings of Paul that the Hebrew people is setting the precedent.

We don’t know who wrote the book of Hebrew, but  Paul is writing to Titus this message of exhortation.  “Today...today...listen to the voice of God.  Don't take forty years like those stubborn people.  Be spirit-filled and spirit-directed.  Right now, today, harden not your heart.”   

Beware of false prophets   Col. 2:4

Colossians 2:1-10  

For I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, 2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and[a] of Christ,3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

4 Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words. 5 For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.   6 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it[b] with thanksgiving.  8 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

The apostle Paul was writing this epistle to the Colossians church. He starts be commending the church.  Then he gives a warning.  Epaphras, a native of the town and possibly a convert of the apostle solicited Paul’s help in dealing with false teaching which threatened the church.  These false teachers had undercut the major doctrine of Christianity which was Jesus’ deity, His absolute lordship and the sufficiency of Christ.  They were promoting the heresy that Jesus was not fully God and fully man, but merely a semidivine being that bridged the gap between God and man. (Hayford)

Paul wrote this epistle with a four-fold purpose:

1.  to expose and rebut the heresy

2.  to instruct the Colossians in the truth and alert them to the danger of returning to pagan vices

3. to express personal interest in the believers

4. to inspire them to promote mutual love and harmony.

(Hayford)

Paul is saying to the church to beware of these false philosophy and empty deceit.  These are all of the world.  None of it is of God.  He is saying to the Colossians know that Jesus Christ is enough.  He alone is all sufficient.  If you believers have Christ in your hearts and you hold on to Him, you have the fullness in Christ.  You don’t need outside teachings from the world.  Those teachings are from hell.  

Today, there are still many, many false teachers who preach heresy.  And they are right inside the churches.  They stand on the pulpit every Sunday morning and they preach false doctrine with empty deceit.  One of the false doctrines is  “once saved always saved.”   This is false because in the book of Philippians chapter 2, we are instructed to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling.”  This means that we are to work it out  with the Lord Jesus every single day.  Confessing Christ as Lord and savior is only the beginning.  Yes, we are saved by faith through grace, but once we are saved, we are to work to keep our salvation.  For if we return back into the world, to darkness, to sin, we can lose our salvation.  Many believers think that because they said “yes” to Jesus, they are all good and now have the ticket to heaven.  So they continue to live for the flesh and in the flesh and pay no attention to what God said in His word.  True conversion will cause the believer to change: to forsake old ways and follow the way of Christ.  If there is no outward manifestation of inward change, that so-called believer was never saved to begin with.

And so as Hebrews 13 is saying, many ministers fail to exhort or admonish believers to continue in the faith.  Such ministers do not preach the urgency of warning against false teaching.  And so, if the teaching is of God, it should bring conviction to sin.  The hardening of the heart through the deceitfulness of sin is the result of idolatry.  What makes a person’s heart hardened is because they have embraced and accepted some other gospel and they treat sin as okay.  However, there is a remedy.  There is a way out from this bondage to false false teaching.  Peter said to the multitude,

Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  (Acts 2:38)

So if a minister has the Holy Spirit and preaches a message of Jesus Christ, it should cause and effect a similar thing that happens when Peter was preaching to them.  When these Jews heard the message, their hearts were pricked and they were convicted and did not know what to do.   

37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37)

The deceitfulness of sin through false teaching cause the heart to be hardened so that it cannot hear God.  They can only hear the false prophet.  But if God sends His ministers due to sin issues and these ministers are full of the Holy Spirit and are anointed in Christ, they will bring healing and salvation.  And so today, if anyone is attending the local church without the power and the anointing of Christ, beware of the deceitfulness of sin.  

Hebrews 3:7-8  (NKJV)

7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:

“Today, if you will hear His voice,

8 Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,

In the day of trial in the wilderness,

Thoughts of foolishness - Proverbs 24:9

Proverbs 24:9  (NKJV)

9 The devising of foolishness is sin,

And the scoffer is an abomination to men.

What God is saying to the believer is that those who plot evil action sins.  It is bad enough to sin, but it is worse to devise it.   To think thoughts of evil means that evil was in the heart to begin with.  Just the thought of evil, even if it goes no further is sin and it is detestable and offensive to God.  (Henry) Solomon writes according to Proverbs 23:7

Proverbs 23:7

For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he:  Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.

Therefore, whatever a person thinks in his heart, whether good or evil, will indicate the condition of his heart, whether good or evil.  Good or evil stems from the heart.  Just as a good tree cannot bear bad fruit.  A bad tree cannot bear good fruit.  

Do you know that a white lie is a sin, though it may appear innocent?  There are many believers in the church who tells white lies all the time and they think it is okay because it is not hurting anyone.  It hurts God because God hates lying.  He told us so in the book of Proverbs 6.  It is one of the six things that God hates.  

Proverbs 6:17-19

These six things the Lord hates,

Yes, seven are an abomination to Him:

17 A proud look,

A lying tongue,

Hands that shed innocent blood,

18 A heart that devises wicked plans,

Feet that are swift in running to evil,

19 A false witness who speaks lies,

And one who sows discord among brethren.

So when a pastor or a minister makes light of sin issues, brushes it off, and excuses it in front of the congregation, he is down-right lying.   WE are to confront sin, deal with it, expose it, repent of it, confess it and get rid of it.  If not, we are embracing sin and condoning it in our lives.  Light and darkness cannot co-exist.  Either you are with God or with the devil.  When we have sinful thoughts: thoughts of foolishness, malice, revenge, envy, wickedness, we are with the devil at that moment and not with God.  

In Philippians 4:8, we are instructed to meditate on these things:

8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.  (Phil 4:8)

Therefore, if our thoughts does not line up with these things, we have sinned.  

If vain thoughts lodge in the heart, they defile it (Jer. 4:14), which is a reason why we should keep our hearts with all diligence, and harbour no thoughts there which cannot give a good account of themselves. (Gen. 6:5.)  (Henry)

So therefore, everything stems from the heart.  So guard your heart with all diligence.

In conclusion, we are to encourage each other to stay in the word so that we will not be fooled by sinful, corrupted people.    We are to have regular fellowship, breaking of bread, apostle’s doctrine, and prayer.  When we do this, we will surely exhort one another so that we will not harden our hearts and fall victim to the deceitfulness of sin.  

Poem:

We may think its safe in church

That all that was spoken and was heard

Must be sent from God above

for it was beautifully illustrated through His word

But sometimes we are unaware and fooled

by heresy that may sound nice and good

we swallow it without discerning its truth

We buy the pitch because we think we should

Oh Lord, help us always to heed Your voice

Not just all the clamor and the noise

when it is false teachings to disagree

Open our eyes so that we may see

May we encourage each other to be on guard

and only with God’s truth comply

May we harden not our hearts

So that we will not be deceived with lies  

Byword:  If we fail to embrace that which is sound, the devil will step in to take us down.

Work cited

Matthew Henry Commentary, http://biblecommenter.com/proverbs/24-9.htm

Hayford, Jack W., Spirit filled Life Bible NKJV, Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1991.

Publisher , The Open Bible Expanded Edition. Nashville: Thomas Nelson publisher,

         1985.

Bible Encyclopedia, http://topicalbible.org/dbt/6145.htm

Aldwin and Wendy Naruse

The Body of Christ Jesus Fellowship

Makaha, HI USA