Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him who approved him, as Moses also was faithful in all his house. For this one has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses inasmuch as he who built the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but he who built all things is God. And Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward. But Christ as a son over his own house whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. Therefore as the Holy Spirit says today. If you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion in the day of trial in the wilderness where your fathers tested me, tried me and saw my works 40 years. Therefore, I was angry with that generation and said they always go astray in their heart and they have not known my ways. So I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. Beware, brethren, Lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God, but exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. The epistle to the Hebrews was written to Jewish Christians who were undergoing persecution for their Christian faith and the persecution was largely coming upon them from their own fellow Jews who were no doubt shunning them and casting them out of their own society and certainly the synagogues and causing them grief. And these Christians were feeling discouraged and some of them were being tempted to go back into Judaism or at least compromise somewhat with the truth of the gospel. And so the author to the Hebrews does a couple of things in order to counteract this discouragement that was going on amongst the Jewish Christians. The two things that he does is, number one, he warns against apostasy. That is, he warns of going back He warns them of falling away from their profession in Christ, from being tempted to go from the full revelation that we have now in Christ back to the types and shadows of Judaism. Even if they were to do it outwardly, it would still be a falling away. And then he does a second thing in the book of Hebrews. He argues for the superiority of Christ over all the types and shadows of Judaistic religion. And so, in other words, he's saying this, he's saying, number one, don't go back. I warn you, beware. Don't you're going to be tempted to do this, but don't go back. But then he says, why would you want to go back? Why would you want to go back, leave Christ for the types and shadows? Why go to the types and shadows when we have the reality? Don't go back. And why would you want to? And it would seem to me, brethren, that this is even an applicable text for us today when we have so much pluralism around us and we have Protestant ministers with Jewish rabbis having combined worship services and so on, all claiming to be worshiping the same God. Notice how he says in verse 13 or verse 12. Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. According to the book of Hebrews, for a Jew who has become a Christian or has made profession in Christ to go back to the types and shadows of the Old Testament is to depart from the living God. You reject the son, you reject the father as well. But we need to notice the relationship between verses 12 and 13, and these are the two verses and predominantly verse 13 that I want us to consider in particular tonight. But notice the relationship between the two of them. Verse 12 is clearly a warning against apostasy. We find the very first word beware. And this is a warning, but verse 13, however, is describing for us or giving us something of a hint as to how apostasy begins. Verse 12 says beware of apostatizing, beware of falling away, beware of denying your profession, beware of departing from the living God. Verse 13 says. But rather exhort one another daily while this called today, lest any of you and here's how apostasy starts. Lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. So really, verse 13 is just an opening up of how apostasy begins. It begins through unmortified sin that hardens the heart and ultimately leads to a falling away. In fact, the. Word hardening, there is the Greek word scleruno. We get the word sclerosis from it. And you've heard of arteriosclerosis, the hardening of the arteries. This he is warning against. Cardiosclerosis, the hardening of the heart in a spiritual sense. And he is saying that is the thing that is to be guarded against because that is the very thing that will ultimately lead to you departing from the living God. Our outline tonight is very simple. Threefold, but as you know, probably from most of your pastors represented here that a three point outline usually means more like twenty one points because there's all those sub points underneath the main points. I stand condemned on that one. The three point outline is number one, a description. We find a description here given to us of the nature of sin. Secondly, the danger. What's the very real danger and effect of unmortified sin in our lives? And thirdly, we find a defense, our defense. What is it? What is prescribed to us in these verses as to how we might guard against sin, but how we might guard against sin, which leads to apostasy. So in a very real sense, it's what do we do to guard against apostasy ultimately? So if I had a title for the message tonight, it would be this the beginnings of apostasy. Where does it begin? It begins somewhere, just like a plant begins with a seed. Apostasy also begins somewhere. Now, before we even descend into those three points, I want to begin by reminding ourselves of five important truths regarding the whole subject of apostasy. It's important that we begin here because some of you might be thinking, I thought this was a Calvinist church. I thought this was a Calvinist preacher, and he's talking about falling away. He's talking about departing from the living God. What's going on here? And so it's important that we we refresh in our thinking that on the subject of apostasy, these five principles. Number one, the warnings and examples of apostasy serve as a means of perseverance to the true people of God. The warnings of apostasy in Scripture serve as a means of perseverance to the true people of God, the true people of God do not and cannot fully or absolutely fall away. They are kept by the power of God through faith, although apostasy, however, is our natural tendency. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, and isn't it interesting the man who wrote that him was an apostate, he became an apostate. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. All of us have the tendency to be apostate and to depart from the living God, though that is true, though we may fall as the true people of God. We are not utterly cast down for the Lord upholds us with his hand. And this is a truth that we can be confident in. And yet at the same time. A person might ask, well, if true Christians can't fall away. If they cannot apostatize, and I think the better thing to say would be they do not apostatize. It's not that they cannot. Because there's nothing inherently strong about their faith. There's nothing inherently strong about them. There's no axiom written in the heavens that once saved, always saved. The only reason we're saved, once saved, always saved, is because we're kept. Because if it were left up to us, we would fall away. Our faith would fail. Satan would have the victory. We must always keep in mind the intercessory work of our Redeemer and our mediator who keeps our faith alive. So the Christian does not fall away. So someone might ask, well, if the true Christian does not fall away, then why do the scriptures warn Christians about the danger of falling away? Well, that's a good question, isn't it? Well, I'm going to give you the short form answer, not the long answer. And the short form answer is this, that God is a God of means. He's not only ordained the end that we should persevere, but he has ordained the means to that end. And one of the means that he's chosen to keep his people on the narrow way. Is by warning them of apostasy. That's the means he uses and other means. A. Hodge put it this way, viewed in themselves, that is us looking at ourselves in and of ourselves. They are always, as God warns them, unstable and therefore, as he exhorts them, they must diligently cleave to his grace. It is always true also that if they apostatize, they shall be lost. But by means of these very threatenings, his spirit graciously secures them. from apostasy. I remember reading a long time ago something written by Lorraine Bettner. I'm not sure which one of his books it was written in but he gave a wonderful illustration of this very principle how God uses warnings against apostasy as means to keep his children from apostatizing. And this is how he put it. He said think about the parent who warns his child or her child not to play in the street. a small child. And that child's in the yard and the mother, the father are watching very closely, love that child, have no intention of letting that child play in the street. If the cars are going by, that parent's going to come right out there and grab that child the moment he sees any danger coming. But just because the parent is determined to save the child from any harm doesn't mean that the parent doesn't warn the child. Because ultimately, God's method of preserving his saints is to enable them to keep themselves in the love of God, as Jude puts it, to persevere in the faith themselves, to take personal responsibility for their own perseverance. God uses those means to keep his people. And so there's no contradiction here. We must not think that the warnings against apostasy therefore mean that it is possible for a true child of God to fall away. The second thing we need to mention about apostasy is that it is the duty of every professing Christian to take the warnings of apostasy seriously. God enables us to persevere but we must do the persevering. He is in us working and willing of his good pleasure, but we must work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. If you through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. We have a responsibility here to persevere, it's laid upon us. And this being the case, every command to persevere, we need to take that seriously. But what's the flip side of those commands to persevere, to fight the good fight, to press on, to put on the whole armor of God, all of those commands. If we take those seriously, we need to take the flip side seriously as well. The warnings that say beware of falling away, beware of departing from the living God. You remember when Jesus told his disciples at the Last Supper, One of you will betray me, he said. What was the response? Lord, is it I? Could it be me? Everyone was asking, is it me? Is it me? And that should be our response when we hear a message on apostasy and the dangers of it. We ought to be honest enough with ourselves to know. There's certainly the seeds of apostasy in me. Lord, is it me? Could I be the one? Could I be the one that eventually turns my back on you? Could I be the one that eventually falls away, bringing reproach upon your name and denying the faith? No one should feel above that. I don't care how strong your assurance is. Even the Apostle Paul said, after I have done all these things, buffeting my body, bringing it into control, I fear lest after preaching to others, I myself should be a reprobate, a castaway. If Paul, with all of the signs and the gifts and the wonders he had been granted, with all the exceeding great revelations that he'd received, did not get to a place where his assurance was so great that he did not see the very real possibility in his own heart in and of himself to apostatize. And brethren, no one here should read a passage like this and say, well, this doesn't apply to me. I know I'm a true child of God. I'm going to persevere to the end, so I don't really need to take this passage seriously. No, you do. And especially you, if any man thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall. Now a third thing about apostasy we need to mention apostasy can be both doctrinal and practical. The Hebrew people to whom the book of Hebrews was written the professing Christian Jews. Were people who were not only being tempted to forsake the living and true God in a doctrinal way. But they were also being tempted to forsake God in a very practical way. Maybe not even doctrinal. Some of them were not so much tempted to forsake Christ and deny the profession and deny the truth that they had been given. Some of them simply were growing weary and discouraged with the persecution they were facing. and the rigorous demands of the Christian life and some of the friendships that they had developed all their lives were now cut off because of the truth. They didn't like the unpleasant effects that truth brought into their lives because of that division that Christ's truth brought. And they were being tempted to draw back. They were being tempted to become closet Christians and outwardly and externally. They would put on the show as if they were just. Plain Jews exercising and going through all the motions of their old religion. It was more of a practical apostasy than a doctrinal one, though they really cannot be separated. But we need to realize that there are those even might we might continue to attend church. Who haven't outright denied the faith. But who inwardly and practically in their everyday lives are on the road to apostasy or who may have already apostatized in their heart. They have a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof. They're like Jude, the people that you describes clouds without rain, trees without fruit. People who draw nigh to God with their lips, but their hearts are far from him. There is Two kinds of apostasy doctrinal and practical. Let's not just think of it in terms of you denying the faith that you've been taught in an overt way. It could be something a lot more practical in nature. Fourthly, apostasy is always gradual. It's always gradual. It's the result of the gradual hardening of sin. Every sin in its nature. is a departing from the living God, you believe that every sin in its very nature is a defection and rebellion against God. And therefore, it can be said that the trajectory of every sin is apostasy. Therefore, we must look at apostasy is not something that just happens, you wake up one morning and you're an apostate. Apostasy is something that happens gradually. Unmortified sin gains more and more strength, hardens the heart more and more until the sinner left to himself falls into that ultimate departure from the living God. And then lastly, before we begin looking at our three point outline, which I originally mentioned. Number five, the beginnings of apostasy. Are deceptive and subtle. The beginnings of it are deceptive and subtle. He warns against the deceitfulness of sin which will talk more about in just a moment. The beginnings of that falling away from God are very deceptive and indeed the person who is falling away is rarely aware that they are. Our text tells us that the very first risings of this apostasy are deceptive, barely perceptible sin, which hardens is deceitful, and it will continue to harden. It will continue to put the person in a kind of spiritual stupor to where they don't even realize what's happening to them. Now, having outlined some of those truths concerning apostasy, let's now look at the description, the danger and our defense, which all are found here in verse 13 in particular. First of all, the description. What is the nature of sin as described here in our text? Verse 13. Well, the nature of sin is that it's deceitful. Exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. It's the same word that Paul uses elsewhere in Ephesians 4.22 when he talks about deceitful lusts. It gives a false impression. It lies, it beguiles, it tricks, it's crafty. Now, other places in the Bible we find mention of our deceitful hearts. It's the same thing. Our hearts that have sin in them are deceitful above all things who can know it. And here sin is being personified. It's a figure of speech, but the idea is the same deceitful heart sin within me is deceitful. Sin is deceitful. I think it's very helpful to personify sin because then we can clearly understand the enemy that is within us. And we can attack that enemy with more vengeance when we are able to personify it in that manner. Because after all, our sin, if we're the true people of God, will indeed be separated from us one day entirely. And we will be able to speak of it as though it were not even a part of us any longer. And right now, even as we look at it personified, we look forward to the day when we'll be free from it entirely. But the person who's undergoing this hardening of heart through sin is the person who's being deceived because sin is very deceitful. How does sin deceive us? I want to suggest a few ways in which sin deceives us. We must not be ignorant of Satan's devices, nor of sin's devices, our own sinful, deceitful hearts devices. Let me suggest just a few. Sin deceives us often by disguising itself. It disguises itself. It usually wears a cloak of reasonableness, plausibility. Maybe a cloak of Christian liberty. Maybe it wears a cloak of piety. It seeks to confuse, cloud the issue with all sorts of explanations, extenuations, exceptions and rationalizations. This is the way it deceives, it cloaks itself, it disguises itself. Licentiousness, looseness is often disguised as Christian liberty. Covetousness or stinginess is often disguised as good stewardship. Compromising truth is often disguised as Christian love and compassion. Pride is often disguised as zeal for truth. You know, the person who takes his Bible and goes around and hammers it over everyone's head because they've got zeal. Yes, but where's the love? Where's the meekness? Where's the gentleness? But their pride is often disguised as zeal and on and on. Of course, the list could go. We need to beware of sins. Remarkable ability to disguise itself as something virtuous. And if you find yourself having to argue with your conscience or argue with other people, justifying an opinion of yours, justifying an action of yours, justifying some plan that you've made that you're going to do. If you find yourself having to come up and really struggle with all kinds of extenuations and justifications, guess what? You're being deceived. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. If there's doubt in the matter, don't do it. If there's doubt in the matter, don't argue your conscience until it's tired of arguing back. You're probably being deceived, and you're probably, if you keep acting that way, you are going to deceive others with you. We can also say that sin deceives us by promising to be satisfied with a limited indulgence. Sin always says, just like that Kirby vacuum salesperson, and I hope I'm not offending anyone tonight. If you're a Kirby vacuum salesperson, I hope you're doing it to the glory of God. But I use them as an example. It's like the Kirby fellow that shows up at the door and all he wants is just a little time to come in and demonstrate. You know, he makes it sound like I'm only going to be here for a few minutes. It's all I want. I just want a few minutes. I'll just show you how this works. Drapes, carpet. And then before you know it, if you've let the guy in, you're there all afternoon listening to his thing. And then he gets angry at you and you don't buy it. This is the way sin is. Don't give place to it. Don't give it a foothold. It promises limited indulgence, it says to you, it's OK, just taste a little. That's all I'm asking. It's not a big deal. You're not going to go head over heels into this sin. And then slowly but surely, the things that you think were mere cobwebs become chains. The cobwebs become tighter and tighter until finally you realize or you even may not realize that you've been duped. Sin has told you one thing, but it's done another. I like the way Sinclair Ferguson put it. Sin cannot be reduced to manageable proportions. Don't think that you can tolerate even one little bit of sin. Known sin in the life needs to be looked upon the same way that a rat in your house would be looked upon. How many rats does it take for you to call the rat person? How many how many lice in your hair does it take for you to become alarmed? I'd only have to see one to become alarmed. And that's the way we need to treat sin. If it's if sin comes to you and say just a little. Then we need to realize it's deceiving us. One Puritan said the most deadly sins do not leap upon us, they creep upon us. In the third place, we can say about sin and how it deceives us, it deceives us by always pleading moderation. Moderation, it's OK to do that. Just as long as it doesn't become a habit. Once in a while, it's okay to be sloppy with your private and public means of grace because, you know, you've been so faithful all these years. You're spiritual enough, you can handle it. You can get sloppy with that a little while, as long as it's not a habit. It always pleads moderation. It's okay to indulge a sinful thought now and then. It's all right, because at least it's just a little thought and you're not actually acting out on those thoughts. The all things in moderation, by the way, does not mean all things, absolutely. All lawful things in moderation, a little bit of strychnine is not something you want to have in moderation. Sin also deceives us by suggesting the certainty of future repentance and forgiveness. Says, go ahead, you can always repent of it later. It's like the man who bought an indulgence from the from the priest back in the days of Luther. And he asked the priest, he said, will this indulgence forgive me of any sin? He says, yeah, any sin. It's a plenary indulgence. So he said, how much does it cost? It cost me this. So he gave the priest the money, he got the indulgence, and then he walloped the priest in the mouth with his fist. And he says, well, I hope it'll take care of that then. But all joking aside, if we find in ourselves that attitude that, hey, we'll just sin because we can always repent of it later. That's not the attitude of a Christian. Shall we sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. There's a couple of things about this argument that sin presents to us. You can always repent of it later. One of the things is that it's presumption and folly to think that repentance is some easy thing that you can just produce at the drop of a hat. It's a gift of God. Esau sought repentance with tears and it was not granted to him. And another thing is we must always regard every sin, no matter how little and small it may appear to us as heinous and damnable. We mustn't think of the sin, we must think of the one we are offending. And when we think of the one we are offending, then every sin takes upon it an infinite character. That is, it's an infinite offense because we've offended an infinite and holy God. Jerry Bridges said this very helpful thing. Sin is serious business to God, and it becomes serious business to us when we reflect upon the fact that every sin, regardless of how seemingly insignificant it appears to us, is an expression of contempt towards the sovereign authority of God. Sin also deceives us by accommodating itself to our individual temperament. Certain temperaments are more susceptible to certain sins. And that's because sin deceitfully weaves its way into the very fabric of our personality. And oftentimes we let this become an excuse. It may be an explanation for our behavior, but it's not an excuse. Those with more amiable of a temperament tend to be those who become mere men pleasers, not as forthright and honest as they ought to be at times. Those who are more analytical in their personalities tend to be overly critical, cynical, intolerant. Those who are more expressive in their temperament tend to be ruled more by their emotions. Those who are type A drivers tend to be those who are impulsive, insensitive, harsh, manipulative, controlling all of those negative things. Now, there's positive things, too. But sin weaves its way in to a person's peculiar temperament, leading to a kind of deception where the person says, you know, that's just the way I am. As if that's an excuse, as if all of a sudden everything's OK. You just yelled at somebody. You just belittled them into the dust. But it's OK, because that's just the way you are. That's just your temperament, your blunt person. Mortify your personality, brethren. Don't think that your temperament and your personality is somehow sinless and therefore can never be altered or tampered with. Sin is mixed with all that we do. This is just one of the ways it deceives us. And I'll suggest one more sin deceives us by promising that good events and effects will follow upon yielding to it. Nothing bad will happen to you. You'll be just fine. God will forgive you. The end justifies the means things will turn out better this way. Go ahead. That's fine. Does that sound familiar, by the way? When Eve was being tempted by the devil, you shall not surely die. If you eat this fruit, things are going to be better for you, Eve. And that's what God's keeping you from. He's keeping you from experience something that's even more glorious than you can even imagine. You'll be just like him. Things will turn out just fine. Sin is dangerous. And it always, even if it doesn't lead to full and final apostasy, always leaves a damaging, destructive mark on our souls. Which leads us to consider, secondly, the danger. Now, if you've lost if you're lost in the outline, we've looked at the description, first of all, the description of sin as it's given to us in verse 13. Sin is deceitful. OK, now now we want to look at the danger. What is the danger, the very real danger and effect of unmortified sin in our lives? This very sin that is deceitful? Well, in one word, it's the word hardened. Sin in its very nature hardens the heart. It renders the soul of a person insensible and stubborn to the things of God, the word of God, the worship of God, the people of God. All of it seems so wonderful at one time. And gradually, through the deceitfulness of unmortified sin, it becomes something of a ball and chain after a while. It becomes like something where you're dragging your feet to rather than rejoicing in. Rather than yearning and longing for time alone with the Lord in prayer and communion with him and reading his word and longing for the day the Sabbath day when you can be with God's people and worship in his house. All of it just seems like a real tedious matter. This is the beginning of a hardening of your heart. It already manifests a hardening. You become more dull. You've become More lazy with respect to the things of God and disaffected. And what normally happens to people that become this way? Is that instead, because they've been deceived? Instead of looking within and saying, you know, this is the heart of the problem is the problem of my heart. Instead of saying that, oh, no, they don't say that because they're deceived. What they rather say is, you know, I don't like the way the church does this. I don't like the way the church does that. I don't like the way the elders are doing that. And I'm I'm disaffected about this whole arrangement here. And they begin to miss church. It was happening here in the in the book of Hebrews, the author to the Hebrews addresses this in Hebrews 10. Forsake not the assembly of yourselves together as the manner of some is. And if you read on in chapter 10, you'll see that one of the very first marks of apostasy externally Is the forsaking the assembling of yourselves together? Forsaking the public means of grace, which indicates that there's already been a forsaking of the private means of grace, which indicates that there's already been the hardening effect of deceitful sin left unmortified in the heart. And it eventually shows up in the life. Let's note a few things about this hardening effect. First of all, this hardening effect of sin is certain. It will take place. John Owen put it this way. Either you're killing sin or sin is killing you. There's no neutrality in the Christian life. You're either progressing or you're regressing. You are either on the road toward the celestial city, or at best, you're on the road to the celestial city, but you're turned around and you're going the other way. There's no neutrality. You're either making progress or you are declining. If sin is left unmortified and the means of grace are neglected. You will be hardened. And that hardening is certain, it's also we could say about this hardening that it's gradual. It comes in degrees. It dulls, it sears, it leaves the heart more and more insensible. It's like a frog in the water being boiled slowly. It's certain, but it's gradual, and we could also say that it inevitably leads to apostasy. We're being we're being warned in verse 12 against apostasy in verse 13, we're being told how it starts, and so therefore, we're to guard against the very first risings of sin and do business with it there at the door before it's given any time to have its heartening effects on our hearts. I think it's appropriate at this time before we go to the third point to just simply ask yourself. What darling sin do you have in your life right now? What sin do you have in your life that you've made peace with? That you've thought mistakenly so that you can manage it. I can keep this in manageable proportions. It won't lead to apostasy. It won't even get out. People won't even know about it. I'll keep it under control. Are there any kind of sins like that in your life? You're being deceived. Sin is not a toy. It's a tyrant, and it's in the very nature of sin to dominate. And you might say, well, yes, but Paul told me in Romans six that sin shall not have dominion over me. Yes, but you know what? It's still in the nature to nature of sin to dominate. It will war against your soul. And it will bring you under its bondage slowly, but very surely, and it will harden your heart and it will send you packing on the road to apostasy quicker than you realize. One person said. Sin will. Take you farther than you want to go. And it will keep you longer than you want to stay. And it will cost you more than you want to pay. Now, thirdly and lastly, let's consider our defense. What does our text prescribe for us as to how we must guard against this sin? Well, we need to take seriously what it says, because if we don't, if the means that are given to us in the word of God are not taken seriously, then what does that say about us? That already says that we're being deceived. Because we think we don't need to pay attention to this. We don't need to be serious about this, because I know I had a wonderful quiet time this morning and I just know I'm a Christian. So why should I ever have to give any thought to apostatizing? If ever I love thee, my my Jesus is now and and I don't have to worry about these means. Well, yes, you do, because God is not only a God of decreeing the ends, he's decreed the means and he gives us here the means. What are we to do? In order to prevent and guard against this hardening effect of sin, John Owen bewailed the lack of seriousness in some of the people he observed who profess Christ. He said that the negligence and sloth of many professors can never enough be bewailed. They walk at all adventure as if there were no devil to tempt them. No world to seduce and snare or oppose them. No treachery in their hearts to deceive them. We mustn't be that way. We must take seriously these means. And there's two means that are listed here. Now, if we were to take the whole Bible, we could add to this list. And the scriptures teach about the means of grace in several in many places. But the two that are mentioned here, which will restrict ourselves to tonight, are these. Number one, for lack of a better word, circumspection. Circumspection. You know what that means? Spection just means to see, and circum means all around. Notice in verse 12, beware the Greek word blepo, which has the idea of not only to see, But to be aware, to beware, to take heed. In other words, picture someone who has eyes on the back of his head and in the front of his head, and he's always looking around. Like a security guard at the airport. That's how we are to be. This is one of the means. Check it at the door. Does a thought come up? Does an opinion come up? Does a goal come up? Does a motive come up? Does a desire come up in the mind, in the heart? Check it at the gate. OK, let me see your passport. Where do you have biblical warrant for even being here? How did you get in here anyway? What do you aim to do with this? Test it. Test the spirits. Try the spirits, whether they be of God. Test all of your notions and your imaginations and your emotions by the standard of the Word of God. Be circumspect. Beware. Take heed. Be alert. Don't be a gullible, naive person. And think that surely this must be a very godly motive. I just feel that it is. Don't trust your feelings. As one Puritan said, feelings come and feelings go and feelings are deceiving. The Word of God is our only rule. Not else is worth believing. You might feel good about it. Test it by the scripture. Be circumspect. Take heed. Know what your peculiar weaknesses are. Take special heed there. Put a double guard there. Guard the guard, the ear gate guard, the eye gate. And the second means that he gives to us in this passage is in verse 13, and that is exhortation. He says in verse 13, but rather exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, exhortation or encouragement. It literally means to call alongside or to come alongside someone. The very fact that this is a means given to us to prevent us from apostatizing shows us the deceitful nature of sin, because oftentimes we need someone else to point it out to us. We've already been duped. We can't see it. Somebody else can. The New Testament knows nothing of Lone Ranger Christianity. The New Testament knows nothing of someone who can divorce themselves from the covenant and community of the local church, because it's precisely in the context of that accountability that we're able to have things pointed out to us that we ourselves cannot even see. How how eager them and how grateful we ought to be when someone comes to us in the spirit of Christian charity and says, brother, I really think that you need to look at this area in your life. It's hard for the person coming to you. Don't think that they get their jollies doing that. Some people do. But it's not easy to exhort, and it's not easy to receive the exhortation. But brethren, even if that person's making a mistake, be grateful to the Lord that someone else is watching out for you. We are our brother's keeper. And it's a means of perseverance. Our exhorting must be direct. He says, exhort one another. Too often when we have a concern about another brother, we go to somebody else to talk about that other brother. Exhort one another. Go to the one who you're concerned about. It says exhort one another regularly, daily. Now, I don't think that this gives us permission to become busybodies and fruit inspectors. And on a daily basis, make sure that we make a list of all the things we see wrong with each other. I don't think that's what it means. What I do think it means is that we are to have a mindset that is always thinking about the spiritual welfare of our brethren and on a regular basis as a matter of course, not so much even reactive, but proactive, exhort one another and encourage one another. Be proactive. in doing this. Do it daily, which means you don't always have to come up with some kind of a list. Now you've got this wrong with you and this front. No, you don't know what's going on in that other believers heart and you don't know what's going in my going on in my heart. On the outside, everything might look just fine. We might have smiles on our faces when we're singing the hymns, but there could be something really wrong and none of us knows. That's why it's supposed to be a matter of course that we continually encourage one another, come alongside one another and tell one another, fight the good fight, brother, run the race. And a worded season oftentimes affects more than you can even realize. You may not even know that person struggles, and yet what you said to them as a matter of habit and course, because you love the brethren, was the very means God used to grab them out of that pit that they had fallen into or diverted them from that path that they were going to take. We need them to use the means that are prescribed for us. Circumspection, exhortation. We see now a description of sin, the danger of sin, our defense against sin. Perhaps God will use these considerations to alarm us to the ever present danger and the destructive effects of sin. Don't think of sin purely in terms of a lack of holiness. We oftentimes use the word grow, and that's a fine word because the scriptures themselves use it. We we think of our sin in terms of, oh, I need to grow more. I have a lack of holiness. Don't think of it that way as much. Rather, think of it as a very real and present danger, a rebellious defection from God, which in its very nature will lead you to apostasy. No sin ought to be looked upon as a small thing. If given room and not dealt with, it has the same trajectory as any other sin, which is a departure from the living God. When you think of perseverance, brethren, And all those verses that apply to it. And you take those seriously. Then think about apostasy and the warnings against it. If the promises which are held out before you. In connection with those commands to persevere, sometimes lose their luster. And you begin to grow discouraged in spite of the joy that set before you. In those times when those commands to persevere seem ineffective to your soul. Think about the warnings against apostasy. It's a backup motive. We need both. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for this gathering. We thank you that it is indeed a taste of heaven to be gathered together in your house with your people. We thank you for the Lord's Day for what it is to our souls. We thank you that you even put it into our hearts to be willing to come under the hearing of the word of God, no matter what portion was chosen. No matter if it was a portion of Scripture that warmed us or a portion of Scripture that warned us. We know that all scripture, no matter where we turn, is profitable. And we thank you for the profit of the scriptures, even this evening, we ask that you would bless it to our hearts and that it would remain in our minds. We would never forget the true nature of sin. We would be diligent to mortify it at its very first risings. Lord, we plead with you that no one here tonight who professes faith in the Lord Jesus Christ would ever depart from the living God. We pray that all of us would see each other at the gates of the celestial city, that not one of us will turn our backs on God. May we never outlive our love for you. Lord, we plead with you that this would be the case, that the warnings would be heeded this evening. And we pray also for those who do not know you, who have yet to enter the gate and to be on that narrow way. We pray that these things would stir them up to a sobriety of mind. That they would realize the eternal consequences of all of these matters, draw them in your own way to yourself, we pray. We pray that you would also protect us on our trips home as we leave this place, that you would gather us together again in your house next Lord's Day, and we ask your blessing on the fellowship to come. We give you praise and thanks for all of these blessings today. In Jesus name, Amen.