Celebrating The Feast
1 Corinthians 5:8
September 28, 2014

Over the last few weeks we have been studying
The purpose for why we gather together.

There are very definite reasons why we come here on Sundays together.
There are very distinct purposes we are seeking to fulfill.

• EXALTATION – We come to praise God.
• EXHORTATION – We come to encourage each other.
• EXPOSITION – We come to hear God speak.

This is why we gather.

Well this morning I want to touch on one more thing
That is sort of heavy on my heart in this regard.

I’m not giving another reason why we gather,
But rather an important reality for us to remember when we gather.

This morning I want you to think about the SINCERITY
With which we do all these things we’ve been talking about.

It is possible to meet as a church and go through all the right motions.
• We can come and all sing…
• We can come and encourage…
• I can come and preach…
• You can come and hear what God has to say…

But obviously it is more than just checking those things off the list.
All of these things must be done in a sincere heart.

If they are not, we are really nothing more
Than the Pharisees who so often drew the disdain of Jesus.

Matthew 15:7-9 “You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you: ‘THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME. ‘BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.'”

Or
Matthew 23:23-24 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. “You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!”

Obviously none of us would want to have Jesus say that
About our gathering this morning.
It wasn’t that the Pharisees were engaged in wrong behaviors,
It was that they completely missed the point.
“They just didn’t get it!”

And I guess you could say, that I just want to make sure
That even though we all know what is expected when we come,
That we do all these things in a sincere heart.

In order to deal with this issue I chose one verse.
1 Corinthians 5:8 “Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

What you and I must understand here is that
The Corinthians had a sincerity problem.

They were doing all the right things when they gathered,
They just had a sincerity problem.

1 Corinthians 14:26 “What is the outcome then, brethren? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.”

• Lack of singing…
• Lack of exhortation…
• Lack of preaching…
Those were not the problems of the Corinthian church.
They had plenty of people willing to step into those roles.

The problem was that in their active participation
They were still missing the point.

And Paul wanted to encourage them to make sure that they worshiped in “sincerity and truth.”

When you study this 5th chapter of the book of 1 Corinthians
You can easily trace back their lack of sincerity
TO A FUNDAMENTAL FAILURE TO UNDERSTAND WHO THEY WERE.

And let me tell you who they were
(something they didn’t understand)

1 Corinthians 5:7 “Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.”

Now that verse tells the Corinthians explicitly who they are.
“you are in fact unleavened.”

WHAT IN THE WORLD DOES THAT MEAN?
Before God we “are in fact unleavened.”

Leaven in Scripture was most commonly used as a symbol of sin.
And the point being now is that we “are in fact unleavened.”

If you want to talk about who we are, the answer is “we are pure”.
• Do we still sin? Yes
• Do we still blow it? Yes

But before God we are considered absolutely clean and pure.

WHY?
“For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.”

Notice Paul says that Christ is “our Passover”

What does that mean?
Hopefully you are familiar with the final plague that God sent on Egypt in order to force Pharaoh to release His people.

• It was the death of the firstborn.
• Every Israelite was to take the blood from the Passover lamb and paint it on
the doorpost of their house.
• And when the death angel came to that house, if the blood was there, he would
“pass over” that house and not kill the first born.

Paul says “Christ [is] our Passover”
It is not a sheep, it is not the blood of a sheep.

It is Christ who causes the wrath to pass us over.
On the cross Jesus Christ appeased the wrath of God.

1 John 2:1-2 “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.”

1 John 4:10 “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

Christ is our appeasement before God.
And Christ “has been sacrificed”

That is the payment for sin.

Now, why did Christ do that?
He did that to purchase our pardon, but ALSO TO PURIFY US.

This is the often overlooked aspect of the death of Jesus.
When most people think of Jesus death,
They think only of redemption.

But in order to redeem us He had to make us Holy
(For holiness is all that God accepts)

HE DIED FOR OUR PURITY
Ephesians 5:25-27 “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.”

Titus 2:11-14 “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.”

Hebrews 1:3 “And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,”

When Jesus died, He didn’t just die to save you, but to purify you.

Now that is what Paul is saying here.
Because Jesus has died, and made pure in God’s eyes.
Why don’t you live pure?

“Clean out the old leaven…just as you are in fact unleavened.”

In other words.
• Become what you are.
• Be who Christ made you to be.

Christ died to make a pure bride, to make a clean church.
So let’s honor His sacrifice and see that purity through.

That was what God expected of the Corinthians,
That is what He expects of us.

AND THAT WAS THE PROBLEM WITH THE CORINTHIANS.
They were gathering together surely enough, but they were missing the whole point of what Christ intended them to be.

If you are familiar with 1 Corinthians 5
You know it is a chapter ABOUT A SINNING BROTHER.

1 Corinthians 5:1 “It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife.”

Now that is bad enough, but that wasn’t even the real problem.
The real problem was how the church at Corinth was responding to it.

1 Corinthians 5:2 “You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst.”

Paul emphatically called the Corinthians “arrogant”
Because they had tolerated sin that should have never been tolerated.

WHY IS THIS ARROGANT?
Because they were pardoning someone God was condemning.

And let me tell you that is arrogance.
Who are you to pardon someone God condemns?
Who are you to say something is permissible when God says it isn’t?

And so Paul told them what they had to do.
1 Corinthians 5:3-5 “For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present. In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”

Admittedly those are harsh verses.

I think we can even go so far as to say that modern day Christianity probably thinks those verses are “UnChristian”

TOLERANCE IS THE VIRTUE OF THE DAY

And the motive behind it is something like this.
“If we’ll just tolerate other people’s sin, then they will feel more loved, and it will strengthen the bond of fellowship in our church.”

That’s a popular notion.
Be the church that accepts everybody and everything, because we don’t want to be labeled a judgmental or unfriendly church.

Those are common views aren’t they?

That was no doubt the view in Corinth.
AND PAUL SAYS THAT IS ABSOLUTELY MISSING THE WHOLE POINT
OF WHO THE CHURCH IS SUPPOSED TO BE!

By tolerating that man and his sin you are gathering and going through the motions sure enough, but you obviously don’t get it at all.

In fact look at what Paul says next:
1 Corinthians 5:6 “Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?”

And certainly you understand Paul’s analogy there.
Sin is like leaven and the chief characteristic of leaven is that it spreads.

So does sin.
If you think you can let a sinner live in sin in your church
And it won’t affect others, you are naïve and greatly mistaken.

Someone could walk in this sanctuary with the flu and you’d all avoid them like the plague, but someone can walk in living in blatant immorality and most people will simply overlook it.

But trust me the sin is just as contagious and far more deadly
Than the flu ever thought about being.

It will spread
• Others will see that it is accepted
• Your children will learn of it
• And over time it will completely change the face of your whole church

And the reality is that by tolerating sin the Corinthians
Were actually undoing what Christ did on the cross.

He died to make men more holy, and the Corinthians
Were allowing them to go the other direction.

Paul says – CUT IT OUT!
1 Corinthians 5:9-13 “I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler — not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, God judges. REMOVE THE WICKED MAN FROM AMONG YOURSELVES.”

It is important to note that Paul was not talking about avoiding sinners.
Jesus ate with sinners and tax collectors

Paul is talking about avoiding the “so-called brother”
• This person who calls himself a Christian
• Paul said not to even eat with that person

“Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.”

Now the goal is simply to remove sin from the congregation.
Unfortunately some people hold so tightly to their sin
That the only way to remove the sin is to remove the brother.

It’s like cancer.
You want the cancer gone and unfortunately sometimes parts of the body have to go fully eradicate the cancer.
Paul said that this man has to go.
He is to be “handed over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh”

• He is to be removed from the protective bubble over the church
• He is to be cast into the wilderness
• He is to be handed over to reproach and judgment
• Until he learns to hate his sin

We are waiting for this brother to have a “pig-pen” moment.

Remember the prodigal?
Luke 15:14-19 “Now when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country, and he began to be impoverished. “So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. “And he would have gladly filled his stomach with the pods that the swine were eating, and no one was giving anything to him. “But when he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger! ‘I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men.”‘

That boy finally hit rock bottom

That is why we remove the sinning brother.
• To definitely protect the church
• To hopefully save the “so-called brother”

So Paul said:
(7) “Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.”

SO DO YOU SEE THE CORINTHIANS PROBLEM?

• They were meeting in church sure enough…
• They were singing sure enough…
• They were teaching and preaching and encouraging sure enough…

BUT SOMETHING WAS STILL WAY WRONG!

That had failed to understand the whole point of being the church.
• The church is simply those who have been redeemed.
• The church is simply those who have been set free from sin.
• The church is simply those who have been made holy.
• The church is simply those whom Christ has washed and made clean.

But the Corinthians had failed to see this very important reality.

They thought as long as they did all the things a church was supposed to do, that it didn’t matter if sin was present or not.

But this endangered the church and disregarded the reason Christ died.
• What good are your songs…
• What good is your encouragement…
• What good is your preaching…
…if you miss the whole point of being
Who the church is supposed to be while you do it?

And from there we come to the verse I wanted to focus on this morning.
It is the heart of this chapter.

1 Corinthians 5:8 “Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

Now let’s look at that verse
And I want to give you two points this morning.

#1 CELEBRATE THE FEAST
1 Corinthians 5:8a

That’s simple enough isn’t it?
“Therefore let us celebrate the feast”

• What exactly does that mean?
• Is Paul saying that we should all be participating in the Passover?

No, that is not what Paul is saying.

Paul just said in verse 7 that “Christ [is] our Passover”

We don’t travel once a year to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover
And remember Israel’s deliverance from Egypt.

We celebrate our Passover every single day of our lives.
WE CELEBRATE THE PASSOVER EVERY TIME WE GATHE HERE.

Now I don’t believe Paul is saying that you have to take the Lord’s Supper every time you come (although I certainly have no problem with that)

What I do believe Paul is saying is that
When you gather you should celebrate your Passover.

• We gather to sing the praises of Christ!
• We gather to remember His cross
• We gather to spur one another on to be who He called us to be
• We gather to be equipped for His service

But we are to gather to “celebrate the feast”

Jesus Himself took the Passover and completely changed it:
1 Corinthians 11:23-26 “For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”

He was speaking to some traditional Jews who had been taking the Passover their whole life and always focusing on the bondage of Egypt and their deliverance.

But Jesus said, whenever you do this,
Don’t think about Egypt any more, think about Me!

From now on, eating this bread and drinking this cup isn’t about the Passover angel and the Exodus…from now on eating this bread and drinking this cup is about Me.
When you come for this, celebrate Me!

And that is what we now do in everything.
• We celebrate His birth
• We celebrate His holiness
• We celebrate His teaching
• We celebrate His death
• We celebrate His resurrection
• We celebrate His ascension
• We celebrate His intercession
• We celebrate His promised return

• He is our Deliverer
• He is our Redeemer
• He is our Substitute
• He is our Savior

Isaiah 53:4-6 “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.”

And because of that He deserves celebration.

Our gathering here, our very lives,
Is a celebration of “Christ our Passover”
Who has caused God’s wrath to pass us over.

Romans 5:6-11 “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”

• Don’t fail to “celebrate the feast”
• Don’t fail to celebrate “Christ our Passover”

Really that is what we’ve been talking about over the last few weeks.
Praise and Encouragement and Listening to the words of God
Are extensions of us celebrating Christ.

So we get that.
It’s this second point that I want to leave you with.

Celebrate the Feast
#2 CONSECRATE THE FEAST
1 Corinthians 5:8b

“not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

Now based on this chapter we know exactly what Paul is talking about.

We know exactly what that “old leaven” is.
That “old leaven” is the sin of that immoral brother.

It is all the sinful deeds of our life before we were saved.
It is all the immoral behaviors of our unredeemed nature.

And Paul is very clear that when we come together to celebrate Christ
That we should not do it “with old leaven”

He goes on to say, “nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness”

• “malice” would be the attitude
• “wickedness” would be the actions that result from that attitude

Don’t come to church and go through all the right motions,
But do it with sin in your heart and sin in your life.

And as a church, don’t come with the attitude that
Tolerating such attitude and action is ok.

Christ came to make us holy
Christ came to save us from sin
When you come to celebrate Him, then celebrate without sin.

If you’re gathering and celebrating because He made you unleavened, don’t you find it somewhat hypocritical to celebrate while tolerating leaven in your life or church?

Make this gathering celebration something special!
Make this congregation something real!
Celebrate “with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

I love this word here

“sincerity” translates EILIKRINEIA (I-lay-kreen-I-a)
It means “unalloyed or pure”

AN IMPORTANT DISCTINCTION
It doesn’t mean diluted, it means unmixed

If you were to use that word in a reference to wine,
It speak of wine that has not been mixed with another substance,
Not necessarily wine that is diluted with water.

APPLYING THAT TO A CHRISTIAN,
We are not talking about a diluted Christian, you know the Christian that should be more than he is.

We are talking about a Christian who is contaminated with sin.

We are not talking about a diluted Christian,
We are talking about a defiled one.

If you’ve read the letter to the Corinthians you could easily say that all of the Corinthians were diluted and not what they should be.
But one of them was flat out defiled and had to be removed.

And that is the point here.
• We’re not saying if you aren’t perfect then you don’t belong.
• We’re not saying if you aren’t perfect then don’t come.

What we are saying is that if you aren’t sincere
Then you are not celebrating the feast the way it should be celebrated.

• We are talking about the importance of holiness.
• We are talking about the importance of sanctification.
• We are talking about the importance of truly honoring Christ’s atoning work.

And that is what I want to leave you with this morning,
As we approach the table of the Lord.
We know why we gather
We know our purpose

I just want us to make sure that when we perform the actions
That we do it with a sincere heart.

That we do it with an unmixed heart
That we are not contaminated in our worship
And the best way I know to do that is to come to the table of the Lord.
• Look into the sacrifice of Christ
• Look at what He suffered to make you holy
• Look at what He endured to purchase your pardon

AND THEN CELEBRATE THE FEAST
• He deserves the truest praise
• He deserves that we encourage one another to be holy as He intended
• He deserves that we will hear His word and be equipped to serve Him

And we do those things with a sincere heart
• Not a heart that harbors sin
• Not a heart that tolerates sin
• Not a heart that goes through the motions

We are here to “celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

This morning we take the Lord’s Supper.

1 Corinthians 11:27-32 “Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world.”

So let’s have a time of preparation
And then we’ll partake of the Lord’s Supper.

 

The Purpose of Assembling Together – Part 3
Ephesians 4:11-13
September 21, 2014

As you know, over the last couple of weeks we have been taking a break from our study of Genesis to answer what I believe to be a very important question.

WHY DO WE ASSEMBLE TOGETHER AS A CHURCH?

We are not asking the purpose of the church, that is a completely different question.
We want to know the purpose of our gathering together.

In a day when church attendance is definitely not the norm,
We do good to ask ourselves why we continue to do this.

Furthermore we do good to examine the Scriptures to see if we can
Figure out what sort of things we are to be doing when we do gather.

Otherwise our assembling is absolutely of no value.

And this morning we are going to conclude this small study with our final purpose in gathering together.

We’ve already seen two.
1) EXALTATION – We meet to Praise God

And really there couldn’t be a higher calling for assembling than this.
We serve a God who is worthy of praise,
And who better to give it to Him than those He has redeemed?

Psalms 100 “Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth. Serve the LORD with gladness; Come before Him with joyful singing. Know that the LORD Himself is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving And His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name. For the LORD is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting And His faithfulness to all generations.”

When we enter His courts, it is with praise.
And this is not just an emotional response tucked away in our heart,
The praise God deserves is an outward, vocal response from our mouth.

Hebrews 13:15 “Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.”

We meet for the purpose of EXALTATION

If you then participate in the assembling of God’s people,
But fail to praise God with your mouth,
You have missed the very purpose for why we gather.

2) EXHORTATION – We meet to Encourage One Another

Hebrews 10:24-25 “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.”

We fully understand that we are in fact our brother’s keeper.
We are all in this thing together.

And the fact that most of us are less likely to be obedient on our own,
Requires that we help each other out.

We are to “stimulate one another to love and good deeds”
With our words, our example, and even our discipline

The important thing to realize however is this:
YOU CANNOT DO THAT EFFECTIVELY
IF YOU FAIL TO ASSEMBLE WITH OTHER BELIEVERS.

Don’t get into the habit of not gathering with other believers.
They need your encouragement and you need theirs.

1 Thessalonians 5:14 “We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone.”

So, not only do we meet to praise God,
But we meet to encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ.

This means that if you gather today, but fail to encourage your brother to true Godliness, then you also failed to fulfill your purpose in coming.

So, after two weeks we should all understand better why we meet,
And after we leave this place, God should have been abundantly praised,
And each life in here should have been encouraged to be more like Christ.

Well this morning let me show you the final reason.

And that is EXPOSITION – We come to hear the very Words of God

And for this we are going to examine Ephesians 4:11-13

I always like to give you a little surrounding context to a passage if I can, so let me give you just some brief direction to what is happening here.

Ephesians is a letter often referred to as “Our Spiritual Bank Account”
Paul writes this letter to let them know what is theirs in Christ.

Ephesians 1:18-19 “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.”

And Paul spent 3 chapters outlining all the blessed realities of being “in Christ Jesus”
But as is common in all of Paul’s letters, he spends a section on doctrine,
And then he spends a section on expectation or application.

And Ephesians 4 is the beginning of the application section.
Paul is now telling the believers what God expects of them
In light of all the blessings he has bestowed upon them.

And chapter 4 deals with this expectation.
God expects His church to be unified
Through a proper understanding of the truth.

And this morning I’m just going to cut the heart out of this chapter
And show it to you, so we’ll look at verses 11-13.

Now there are two main points here, and then we’ll expand them a little more.
#1 GOD’S PROVISION
Ephesians 4:11

This verse is actually one that Paul begin to explain back in verse 7.

Ephesians 4:7-10 “But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says, “WHEN HE ASCENDED ON HIGH, HE LED CAPTIVE A HOST OF CAPTIVES, AND HE GAVE GIFTS TO MEN.” (Now this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.)”

If you read the first 6 verses of the chapter you find that
Paul is calling for the unity of the church.

• In fact in verse 3 we are to be “diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”

• And the means by which God helps us do that is by the fact that “He gave gifts to men.”

Paul quotes Psalms 68:18 as a fulfillment of Christ’s ascension
And subsequent outpouring of the Holy Spirit
Through whom Christ gifted His church with spiritual gifts.

And in case you are not familiar with spiritual gifts,
Let me give you a quick explanation.

A spiritual gift is a unique way in which the Holy Spirit
Chooses to manifest Himself in the life of a believer.

• He uniquely equips a believer with a spiritual ability for the purpose of
building up the body of Christ.

• Every believer gets one, they don’t all get the same one, and the
purpose is always to build the body.
1 Corinthians 12:4-7 “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”

So as believers we each get a spiritual gift
And it is meant to be used to build up the body.

There are different ones which we won’t go into detail about right now.
Just know that in order to make the church all He intended her to be,
Christ equipped the church with spiritual gifts.

And that is essentially what Paul said in Ephesians 4:7-10

Now, when we get to our text Paul lists several of those gifts specifically.
(This is not all of the gifts, but here Paul lists a specific type)

Each gift Paul lists here has to do with the handling of the word of God.

“And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,”
Paul actually lists 5 different gifts there,

1) Apostles Apostles REVEAL God’s word.

This was a unique office in the New Testament,
Qualifications: Appointed by Christ
Witness of His resurrected life.
Ability: Speak with Authority
Reveal the Word of God

John 20:21-23 “So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. “If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.”

Since they had no New Testament to stand upon.
They were given the authority to reveal God’s truth.

God gifted apostles to first reveal the word of God.

2) Prophets Prophets PROCLAIM God’s word.

In the O.T. you see real quickly that to these guys black is black, and white is white.
They are not fence riders, they do not dabble in uncertainties.

Their only mission in life is to clearly and accurately
Proclaim exactly what God has said.

2 Peter 1:20-21 “But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”
3) Evangelists Evangelists CARRY God’s word.

These are the men who take the “Good News” to those who have not yet heard.

These are the missionaries, these are the ones who spread the gospel.

Romans 15:20 “And thus I aspired to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named, so that I would not build on another man’s foundation;”

4) Pastors Pastors APPLY God’s word.

This is called being an “overseer” or “shepherding” God’s flock.
They take the truth and lead people to live according to it.

1 Peter 5:1-3 “Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed, shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness; nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock.”
They help others submit to God’s word.

5) Teachers Teachers EXPLAIN God’s word.

2 Tim. 3:16 “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;”

These are the ones who make the difficult truths seem simple.
They take the mysteries of God, and explain them.

Now, as I said, these are not all of the gifts,
But all that Paul lists here are all distinct to the purpose of
Disseminating the word of God to the church.

And you should probably notice that of all the gifts God gave,
5 of them were reserved for the purpose
Of making sure the church understood what God had to say.

In short God intends for His word to be revealed, proclaimed, shared, applied, and explained to His people.

God has much to say and He made sure that His people would understand it by spiritually gifting men to handle it.

And thus we know that one of the reasons we gather
Is to have God’s word proclaimed and explained and applied to our lives.
• We don’t come to hear sermons from the preacher’s imagination
• We don’t come to hear stories or historical facts or amusing tales
• We don’t come to be enamored with the smoothness of the preacher

We gather to hear what God has to say.
Jeremiah 23:28-29 “The prophet who has a dream may relate his dream, but let him who has My word speak My word in truth. What does straw have in common with grain?” declares the LORD. “Is not My word like fire?” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer which shatters a rock?”

The public worship gathering has never been a time
For one man to get up and share his thoughts with the people.

It has always been a time when men, gifted by God,
Use their spiritual gift to make sure that
God’s people know what God has to say.

2 Timothy 4:1-5 “I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”

We are to “preach the word”
God’s word – the Bible

We are not even to fancy into the grandiose land of
“God told me to tell you”.

That may or may not have been from God,
But the Scripture is certainly God’s word,
And this is what is to be proclaimed and explained and applied
In the gathering of the saints.

1 Timothy 4:11-16 “Prescribe and teach these things. Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe. Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching. Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed on you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery. Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that your progress will be evident to all. Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.”

Paul says that the Scripture alone has the power to ensure the salvation So Timothy is to take great pains in making sure the flock understands it.

He is to read it, study it, proclaim it, explain it, take pains with it,
And make sure that everyone understands it.

THIS IS WHY THE CHURCH GATHERS.
They gather to hear the very words of God,
And God has gifted men to be able to help in that purpose.

Now it is important to understand that
The preacher is not the only person responsible for fulfilling this role.
God also equipped teachers for this purpose.

2 Timothy 2:1-2 “You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”

Titus 2:3-5 “Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.”

We also love Sunday School and other gatherings,

But the purpose is still the same.
Take the gathering and make sure that
You are explaining the word of God to the people.

That is why God gifted men with the ability to do it.
When the church gathers together it is intended that
God’s word will be proclaimed, explained, and applied.

2 Timothy 3:14-17 “You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”

Timothy was to proclaim the word so that God’s church would be “equipped for every good work.”

And that serves as a good transition to the second point.

We know that the church gathers to have God’s word proclaimed.
WHY?

God’s Provision
#2 GOD’S PLAN
Ephesians 4:12-13

These two verses explain why God intends to have His word
Proclaimed and explained and applied to His people.

1) TO PREPARE THE SAINTS
“for the equipping of the saints for the work of service”

Now I hope to point out something to you in this verse
That you may not have previously realized.
Somewhere along the course of the American church,
People starting assuming that the only duty of the Christian
Was to go to church.

All of that other stuff was really the job of the paid staff.

“We’re busy, but we pay the preacher to do that.”
(Now granted not everyone views it like this, but a fair number do)

But that just isn’t the case.
This may shock you, but “the work of service”
Is not the job of the preacher or pastor.

Every day ministry is not the job of the preacher or pastor.
• Personal evangelism
• Benevolence ministries
• Visitations
• Etc.

Those are not the job of the pastor.
Those are the jobs of the saints.

WELL WHAT IS THE PASTOR’S JOB?
“the equipping of the saints for the work of service”

Now I’m certainly not going to completely absolve myself of all Christian duty,
I want to be a part as well.
But you must understand that where the burden of preaching falls on me, the burden of ministry falls on you.

Adrian Rogers, “It’s not my job to fill the pews, it’s my job to fill the pulpit.”

The ministry of the church is far too big for one person,
It is the job of every Christian.

The job of the pastor is to make sure that you are equipped for that job.
• That you’ll know proper doctrine…
• That you’ll accurately understand the gospel…
• That you’ll know why Jesus is the sole way of salvation…
• That you’ll understand God’s purposes and intentions…
• That you’ll know what God expects of you…
• That you’ll know that God can use you to do it…

This is why I told you at the outset of this study that one of the main purposes of the worship service is not evangelism.

If all the preacher ever does is evangelize from the pulpit,
Then he is doing a disservice to the saints
Who need to be equipped for the work of service.
• You are to “go into all nations”
• You are to be “salt and light”
• You are to “visit the widows and orphans in their distress”
• You are to be the hands and feet of Christ.

I am to equip you to do that by teaching you the word of God.

So obviously you see another very important reason
Why we gather together as the church.
We assemble so that you can have the word explained.

Does that mean you can’t read it on your own?
No, you certainly can (and should)

But the necessity of gathering is found in the fact that
God specifically gifted some to proclaim it,
And while we certainly learn God’s word on our own,
We do understand the value of those spiritually gifted to explain it.

SO WE GATHER TO HEAR IT

So God’s plan in gifting men to proclaim His word is TO PREPARE THE SAINTS
2) TO PERFECT THE BODY
“to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.”

God’s intention is that the church be perfect.
The means by which God does this is the corporate study of His word.

So what does a “Perfect Body” look like?

DOCTRINAL UNITY
“until we all attain to the unity of the faith.”

• If 50 people study a passage on their own, there is a decent chance they’ll all get close to what it means.

• But if 50 people study it together they come out unified in what the Scripture is teaching.

And that is what Paul is referring to here.
Come together to corporately study God’s word
So that you can be unified and perfected.

God doesn’t want a church that is theologically scattered.
• There is “one faith” (vs. 5)
• It is “the faith”
It is not up for debate.
Jude 3 “Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.”

We are not looking for a doctrine we can agree on,
We are looking for the very truth of God,
And then we’ll all unify around it.

That is why we must come study together.

A perfect body is a body with doctrinal unity,
Only achieved through corporate study.

INTIMATE KNOWLEDGE
“and of the knowledge of the Son of God”

Again, this is why we study the Scriptures,
Because in the Scriptures Christ is revealed.

• If you want to know Christ
• If you want to see Christ
• If you want to hear Christ
• If you want to meet Christ
• You’ll meet Him in the Scriptures!

And so we don’t just personally go out on our own personal voyages
To find out who Jesus is to me.

We come and study together that we can together
Gain an intimate knowledge of who the Scriptures say Christ is.

We meet to study to obtain doctrinal unity and intimate knowledge

I’ll give you another aspect of a perfect body
SPIRITUAL MATURITY
“to a mature man”

In other words, no longer a child.

What does that mean?
Ephesians 4:14-15 “As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ,”

A mature body is a body that is no longer easily deceived.
They are not gullible like a child.

They know better than to take the candy being offered by the preacher on ch 27

How did they get so mature?
How did they get so discerning?
Well, they gathered together weekly for the study of God’s word.

And as God’s word was systematically explained by those gifted to do so, they found themselves growing in wisdom and knowledge.

And now they know better than to fall for the smoke and mirrors.

A perfect body has doctrinal unity, intimate knowledge, spiritual maturity
CHRIST LIKENESS
“to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.”

In short, the perfect body looks more and more like Jesus every day.

How does that happen?
The more you look at Jesus, the more you become like Him.

2 Corinthians 3:18 “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”

That mirror is the word of God, and the more we look into it,
The more we are transformed into the image of Christ.

Romans 12:2 “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

God’s word transforms us to be like Christ.
That is why we come together to study it.

And so I hope this is all making sense.

• We gather to praise God
• We gather to encourage one another
• We gather to have the Scripture proclaimed and applied and explained

And as this occurs we grow in unity, we grow in our knowledge of Christ,
We grow in spiritual maturity, and we grow to be more like Jesus.

THAT IS WHY WE MEET!

You should never settle for a congregational gathering
That is void of praise, or void of encouragement,
Or void of preaching that explains the word of God.

That is why we gather.

Now, again, let me take this one step further.
• We gather for EXALTATION – so praise God when you come
• We gather for EXHORTATION – so encourage each other when you come
• We gather for EXPOSITION – so when God’s word is explained to you, DO WHAT IT SAYS!

James 1:22-25 “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.”

This makes sense doesn’t?

• If you are coming for the purpose of praising God then by all means praise Him!
• If you are coming for the purpose of encouraging your brother, then by all means do it!

And if you are coming to hear the word of God explained
That you may be better equipped for the work of service and may grow into a perfect body, then by all means obey what you hear!

If you aren’t going to do what God says in His word,
Then why did you come to hear it?

• If you don’t want to praise Him, why did you come?
• If you don’t want to encourage your brother, why did you come?
• If you don’t want to hear God’s word and obey it, why did you come?

I don’t know why you did come this morning,
But I know why you should have come.

EXALTATION
EXHORTATION
EXPOSITION

From here on out, let’s make sure that
We are real enough to make sure we always cover the basics.

• When we praise, let’s raise the roof!
• When we encourage, let’s stimulate our brother to be like Christ!
• When we sit, let’s proclaim God’s word and do what He says!

That is why the church gathers.

The Purpose of Assembling Together – Part 2
Hebrews 10:24-25
September 14, 2014

We are currently taking an extended break from our study of Genesis,
Which we will resume shortly.

However, during my time away from the church, as I attended various other churches,
I was able to sit back and sort of observe other congregations
And see why they meet and what they seek to accomplish in doing so.

And really without critiquing or analyzing them to closely,
It really caused me to think more about why we assemble together.

And as I told you last week, I don’t presume to judge why you come,
Or why you came this morning, after all, I can’t see your heart.

Since we can either please or displease God in the way we come,
I thought it beneficial to take a few weeks
And at least examine why we should be coming.

I don’t know why you came, but I know why you should have come.

And this is a very important issue, because it appears to me that
Across our land people are very confused about this issue.

It’s apparent that church attendance is no longer a priority across our land
And maybe that is because people don’t understand the purpose for it.

There was a time when “going to church” was the norm.
There was a time when it was morally expected.

Certainly all those who claimed to be “Christians” went to church, and really it was only those who adamantly wanted no part of it who failed to participate.

But my how times have changed.
Church attendance is not the fad of the day.
And this is a tragedy

On one of our mission trips to Sanyati we studied a sermon serious by John MacArthur called “Fundamental Christian Attitudes”
(I believe Judy Williams’ class has done it as well)

One of the sermons or fundamental attitudes he highlighted
Was the attitude of “Contentment”

And in that he began the sermon by highlighting
How this lack of contentment has directly affected church attendance.

In fact he outlined four reasons why people who call themselves Christians have quit coming to church.
1) OUR CONSUMER MENTALITY
He makes the statement,
“We have a consumeristic view of the church. It’s sort of the mood of the mob in this particular time in which we live in our culture. People have about the same commitment to the church they do to the mall. If there’s something there that interests them, they’ll go there…They look and say, “Well is there something there that I can get?”…I’m willing to go there if they offer me something.” http://www.gty.org/resources/sermons/90-125/Fundamental-Christian-Attitudes-Contentment-1-of-2?Term=contentment

And that is true.
Churches today have spent so much time
Trying to offer people what they want that now people come to expect it.

• And if you can’t stay cutting edge, trendy, and relevant…
• If you can’t hold their shortened attention span…
• If you can’t prick their curiosity…
They’ll go do something else that interests them more.

2) OUR PRIVATIZATION OF SPIRITUALITY
“We live in a time which basically rejects authority as such in favor of personal rights. We don’t want to submit ourselves to an authority, we want to make sure that we have the personal right to do and be and believe and act in any way that we want…By that what I mean is I’m the person who will define for me what my spiritual life is going to be. I’ll pick and choose, I’ll assemble my own Christianity with a proliferation of tapes and books and radio programs and Christian TV and all of this…And the idea is that my personal relationship with Jesus Christ and my personal spiritual life transcends any compelling corporate life that a church might oppress upon me or hold me to.” (ibid)

In short, people don’t want someone else
Telling them what to do or believe or think,
And they sure don’t want someone else holding them accountable.

But as you will see today,
That undermines one of the very purposes for which we gather.
We need the instruction, insight, encouragement, correction,
confrontation, discipline, and accountability of other believers.

But in our country people have privatized spirituality to the point where church attendance has seemingly become less and less necessary.

3) DISILLUSIONMENT WITH CHURCH LEADERSHIP
“Christianity is full of people who have been deeply hurt and wounded by church leaders and that contributes to their distance from the church and contributes to their indifference to submitting themselves under the authority of teachers and leaders. They’re reluctant to do that because they have been exposed in the past to false pastors and false teachers and false leaders who were either unholy in their conduct or unholy in their teaching, or both.” (ibid)

Certainly this is a big one.
People don’t trust those in ministry leadership.

And this distrust grows into a bitterness
That keeps people away from church altogether.
4) UNREALISTIC EXPECTATION
“I think another think that contributes to the people’s indifference toward the church is some kind of expectation for perfection that is really unrealistic. The expectation that the church should be everything that the Bible says all the time without any failures leads people to a certain kind of disillusionment. People leave a perfectly wonderful church…because of some perceived weakness…or some perceived failure…and they wander away.” (ibid)

It is that person who is looking for the perfect church,
And if you hold any church up to the N.T. you’ll find inconsistencies.

One would do good to ask the question about the New Testament.
• What do you suppose the people of Ephesus did?
• What do you suppose the people of Corinth did?

They only had one church, if it wasn’t perfect, people had to pray
And seek to make it better, because there were no options for a new one.

But I share all that with you because he hits the nail on the head
And it is apparent that for reasons just like this,
People are no longer concerned about attending church regularly.

And this is a shame.
Not only did God intend for us to gather together,
And there are definite purposes we are to fulfill when we do.

I told you that I’m going to give you three here on Sunday Mornings.
(I’m actually giving a fourth on Wednesday nights)

1) EXALTATION – “To Praise God”

This we covered last Sunday.
We don’t meet for social advancement or personal satisfaction.
We meet “to proclaim the excellencies of Him” who has saved us.

Certainly there is more to worship than just praise,
But I can confidently say if you refuse to praise God then your worship isn’t much.

Hebrews 13:15 “Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.”

Psalms 150:6 “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD!”

And we know that we are to do this praise
In the midst of the assembly of believers.

Psalms 100 “Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth. Serve the LORD with gladness; Come before Him with joyful singing. Know that the LORD Himself is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving And His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name. For the LORD is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting And His faithfulness to all generations.”
Don’t let God catch you coming to this place and refusing to sing
HE DESERVES IT!

2) EXHORTATION – To Encourage One Another
(which we will look at this morning)

3) EXPOSITION – To have the word of God explained

(On Wednesday nights we are studying a fourth which is
INTERCESSION – we gather to pray)

But this morning let’s examine that second reason we gather,
Which is EXHORTATION, and to do that let’s look at Hebrews 10

These two verses do not comprise the complete thought
Of the author of this passage.

In reality his encouragement is much broader
Than just that the church should encourage one another.

He has just proven his doctrine that Jesus is a faithful high priest
Who successfully atoned for our sin,
And has granted access for us before the Father.

He then writes (based on this fact)

Hebrews 10:19-25 “Therefore, 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, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; 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.”

We want to study the last part of that command,
Namely verses 24 and 25 about encouraging one another.

Our culture wants to Privatize Spirituality
This morning let me show you why that doesn’t work.

Now there are three points to be made here this morning.
#1 WE HAVE A BROTHER TO ENCOURAGE
Hebrews 10:24

If you study the passage as a whole you will recognize that
This is the third of three “Let us” statements.

And here the requirement is crystal clear.
“Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds.”
It’s really quite clear isn’t it?
The goal of the Christian life is that we have “love and good deeds”

If you lose either one of the two
You are off the course that God intended.

Love without deeds is an empty emotion and sentiment.
John 14:15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”

Deeds without love is a hypocritical action meant only to serve self.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.”

The Christian must live his/her life with “love and good deeds”

But the reality is that you are far less likely to achieve it
Without the help of other believers.

Let’s face it we are all prone to wear blinders
In regard to our own personal spiritual condition.
If given the opportunity I will see myself in a better light than is probably reality.

We all have a little bit of that Pharisee in us, to whom Jesus said:
Matthew 7:3 “Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?”

It is really odd that we can at times so easily see our brother’s fault,
And yet at the same time be so blind to our own.

Well, that’s why we need the discernment of our brother.
We can help him and he can help us.

We each need someone to continually remind us of what is expected.

Here the word is “stimulate”
We are called to “consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds,”

The Greek word here is a word that actually means
“provocation” or “sharp disagreement”

The NIV translates it “spur one another on”
And that paints a better picture for us.

A person uses spurs on a horse to make them move and go.
It certainly is not pleasant, but it is effective.
It is implied in that often quoted verse:
Proverbs 27:17 “Iron sharpens iron, So one man sharpens another.”

If you’ve ever sharpened iron, you know it doesn’t’ happen without a little friction.
It may not always be pleasant, but it is always necessary.

And that is the idea the writer carries here.
You need to “consider how to stimulate one another”

You need to figure out how to get your brother or sister in Christ
Moving in the right direction.

Your brother is your responsibility, you figure out
How to spur him on to being what he is required to be.

We are to “consider how to stimulate one another”

And this call for encouragement saturates the New Testament.
1 Thessalonians 5:9-11 “For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him. Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.”

1 Thessalonians 5:14 “We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone.”

Philippians 1:27 “Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;”

Paul called for the Philippians to have “one mind” and to strive “together”
He spoke of mutual prodding, mutual spurring, mutual encouragement.

It is necessary.
He even gave a specific need for this later in his letter to them.

Philippians 4:2-3 “I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to live in harmony in the Lord. Indeed, true companion, I ask you also to help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel, together with Clement also and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.”

There were two women who could not get along.
Not only did Paul command them to get over it,
But he commissioned this “true companion” to help them get over it.
That is he was to encourage them in the right way.

The call for a Christian to push his brother forward is a serious call.

HOW DO WE DO THAT? (“consider how to…”)

VERBALLY We take the truth of Scripture and use it to confront, correct, encourage the lives of others.
Titus 2:11-15 “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you.”

Paul told Titus that he was not to let anyone
Ignore the requirements of a true Christian,
And that he was to “speak and exhort and reprove with all authority.”

Now, it isn’t always negative or confrontational.
At times we also encourage the down-trodden brother.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

So one of the main ways in which we “stimulate one another”
By verbally Instructing, Challenging, Correcting, Comforting one another.

EXAMPLE
2 Corinthians 9:1-2 “For it is superfluous for me to write to you about this ministry to the saints; for I know your readiness, of which I boast about you to the Macedonians, namely, that Achaia has been prepared since last year, and your zeal has stirred up most of them.”

The Philippians were moved by the example of the Corinthians.
Our example is very powerful.

It’s hard to push someone to “love and good deeds”
If you don’t walk there.
So talk the talk, and walk the walk.

DISCIPLINE
2 Thessalonians 3:14-15 “If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of that person and do not associate with him, so that he will be put to shame. Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.”

And we are all aware of what Jesus said
About confronting the sinning brother.

The reality is that sometimes verbal encouragement,
And even a modeled example still do not succeed
In pushing that brother or sister to the required behavior.
For those moments, discipline is in order.

It is not pleasant, neither are spurs, but we as believers are commanded to “consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds”

We have a brother to encourage, it is a mandate, it is a requirement.

That is clear enough to see, but preacher, WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH US COMING TO CHURCH?

Brother to Encourage
#2 WE HAVE A CHURCH TO ATTEND
Hebrews 10:25a

“not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another;”

And all of a sudden the writer’s intention is coming more into focus.

He intends for us to encourage our brother,
And one would do good to ask the question,
“How do you do that consistently if you are skipping church?”

The believers this writer was writing too were persecuted for being Christians.
It was certainly easier to keep your faith private
And just not participate in the public assembly.

But the writer is adamant when he says, “not forsaking our own assembling together”

“forsaking” is a Greek word I can’t pronounce
Which means “to leave behind” or “let remain over”

It is the idea of just not caring and overlooking it.
(Like when I leave dishes in the kitchen)

And the writer is adamant that you should not do that
In regard to the assembly of the church.

Church attendance is not something to disregard
Church attendance is not something to ignore
Church attendance is not something to let slip away

And we have to state it plainly because this “is the habit of some”

It is a tragic reality, but church attendance
Routinely comes down to what is your habit?

There are many people who do love the Lord, and who do love the church,
And who do love to praise God,
But the fact of the matter is that they just got out of habit.

What once was the normal routine
Has now been pushed aside or forsaken.

And the writer is adamant that this should not be the case.

We are not to forsake assembling,
But rather to be “encouraging one another;”

So let me remind you again of why we gather together in this place
On Sunday mornings and Sunday nights and Wednesday nights.

Without a doubt the first reason is to praise God.
We enter His gates with thanksgiving and we enter His courts with praise.

But we also come to be an encouragement to each other.

Listen, I hear it all the time
“I don’t believe you have to go to church to worship God.”
“I believe you can worship God anywhere.”

Now, in a very basic sense, that is true.

Carrie actually came home two Sunday’s before I did,
But you didn’t know it because she had sick kids
And wasn’t able to come to church.

So she watched FBC Lubbock on television and Adrian Rogers.
• Could she learn the word that way? Yes
• Could she praise God that way? Yes
• Could she be equipped for the weekly ministry? Yes

But one thing she couldn’t do
Was encourage any one of you to do the same.

If the only person’s spirituality that you had to be concerned about was your own, then there would be no need to assemble, but it isn’t.

You are also charged to “stimulate” your brother
“to love and good deeds.”

AND HOW DO YOU EXPECT TO DO THAT AT HOME ON YOUR COUCH?

I fully realize that there are times in your life when things are going good.
• Your relationships are at peace
• Your marriage is great
• You’re learning from the word in your private devotions
• And flowers are blooming and birds are singing

And it may be that you just don’t feel like you need church all that much
And so you wake up on Sunday and decide not to go.

And you may even have a great Sunday.
(Now first off you’ve disobeyed the call for corporate praise)
But let me tell you what else you didn’t realize.

While your life was great there was a man whose life wasn’t great.
• His finances are shot, and he doesn’t know what to do
• He has a loved one who is sick and he’s worried about them
• And he works with a man who challenges Christianity at every turn and he
doesn’t know how to confront him.

That man woke up this morning and came to church
Because he was in desperate need of something.

He needed help, he needed encouragement, he needed answers
He needed you

But you didn’t come because your life is fine.

Or there is that sister across town, who has been pretty faithful to come to church, but she is living in sin.
• She comes out of habit, but she wears her iniquity in public.
• She needs to be confronted
• She needs to be corrected
• She needs to be spurred on

But you didn’t come and so she didn’t receive it

Beyond that, think about the Sunday School teacher who spend a week preparing a lesson, volunteering his or her time, wrestling with the hard truths of Scripture, giving of themselves to give the word to you.

And then you didn’t come,
And now they wonder if it is really worth the effort.

If you’re wife keeps cooking meals that you keep skipping how long do you think it will be before you start getting a steady diet of hot dogs and tuna fish?

DO YOU GET MY POINT?

You need to be in church because your brothers and sisters in Christ are there and they need your encouragement.

They need what only you can supply.

• That sinning brother needs to be confronted
• Euodia and Syntyche need to be told to get along
• The Thessalonians need to know they haven’t missed the day of the Lord
• The Corinthians need to be shown that the resurrection is real
• Those tax collectors who wandered in need to feel loved
• That widow struggling with debts needs to be supported

And you can’t do that if you get in the habit of coming.
And so at this point I hope you are getting a reoccurring theme.

• You don’t gather here for just for you.
• You gather for the glory of God
• You gather for the encouragement of your brother

You have a Brother to Encourage You have a Church to Attend
#3 YOU HAVE A LORD TO MEET
Hebrews 10:25b

“and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”

When I say “You have a Lord to meet” I don’t mean that you meet Him here in worship, although hopefully you do.

What I mean is that someday He will return
And you will answer for how you lived,
And for how you encouraged your brother.

The day of the Lord is nearer now than it has ever been,
And what a tragedy for Christ to return and find
That your brother was in disarray and you weren’t doing anything about it.

Christ is returning and we are accountable for our brother,
And since with every second His return draws nearer,
We should continually make our brother a greater priority.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians:
2 Corinthians 11:2 “For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin.”

And that explains why Paul took such an interest in their lives.

It mattered to Him how they looked when they met Christ.
That is the mindset we should all have for one another.

It’s not just a concern for personal holiness,
But a concern for corporate holiness.

We certainly want to walk in “love and good deeds”
But we also must “consider how to stimulate one another” as well.

You’ll never do that if you forsake “our own assembling together”,
Because that is one of the main reasons we gather.

And let me take this one step further this morning.

If we gather to praise, but you don’t praise did you fulfill your purpose in assembling? No

And so if we gather to stimulate one another and encourage one another, but you don’t do that, did you fulfill your purpose in assembling? No

It’s not enough just to come
You come for a purpose

You come for EXALTATION
To Praise God for excellencies
You come for EXHORTATION
To encourage your brother to be all that Christ intends for him to be

That is our purpose in assembling together

SO ENCOURAGE ONE ANOTHER
• Do it by your example, live the life others can follow
• Do it by your words
• Confront the sinner
• Comfort the hurting
• Spur on the lazy
• Build up the weak
• Do it even by your discipline

But make sure when you come to this place you don’t leave
Until you have encouraged someone else “to love and good deeds”

For when Christ returns that is what that will matter.

1 Thessalonians 5:14 “We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone.”