Harden Not Your Heart

But exhort one another every day… that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

(Hebrews 3:13 – ESV)

Some people have become so hardened against going to church that they don’t realize any of the benefits of being there. That is to say, they will not receive some of those benefits at all, because they cannot be had elsewhere, certainly not in isolation from the local church. Lets take a look at these verses from the third chapter of Hebrews and apply them to this situation.

Hebrews 3:12-13 – the deceitfulness of sin is what hardens you into unbelief, and you depart from the living God. He tells us how to avoid being hardened to unbelief, and how to help avoid the deceitfulness of sin, by exhorting one another daily, this means we need to be in church, and to fellowship with other saints! Of course if you aren’t plugged in to a local church, you aren’t plugged in to a fellowship whereby you can exhort your friends in Christ, and you in turn are not exhorted. You don’t make calls to them, you don’t visit them, and you don’t meet with them weekly in worship.

Hebrews 3:14 – If we have really become partakers of Christ, if we have really heard His voice, we will hold the beginning of our confidence (assurance) steadfast to the end. But it isn't enough to leave the matter at "if you are really saved, you will endure"; realize that God uses these warnings and appeals to our will as His appointed means to get us to endure; we work in accordance with His decrees (Philippians 2:12-13 / Colossians 1:29). How is it that church attendance, a thing you once considered important, is no longer a priority?

Hebrews 3:16-19 – it is not enough to make a good beginning (Mark 4:16-17). The difference between holding fast and departing from the living God is an evil heart of unbelief, which happens when the heart is hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, which we combat by exhorting one another daily, by prayer, and by being bold and boasting only in Christ (Galatians 6:14). Friends, this CANNOT happen if we aren’t in a local fellowship with like-minded believers. We won’t “enter in” because we won’t yield to God and what He is trying to do for us and through us and to us through the local church.

My exhortation to you: receive it; don’t harden your heart.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©