Forsake the Tube, Not the Gathering
Text: Hebrews 10:23-25
Church, what I’m going to be talking with you about this morning is very important. Of course I believe that when God’s Word is being exposited, it’s ALWAYS important. But what we’re talking about today is something that has become extremely relevant to us in this present day and age that we’re living in. So let’s not waste any time. Take your Bibles and open them up to the Book of Hebrews and follow along with me as I read our text - (READ Hebrews 10:23-25).
Ok… let’s break this passage down together.
It’s the Book of Hebrews… we aren’t sure who the author of this book is, but we know that ultimately it’s inspired by the Holy Spirit, and prior to this chapter, the Author has been spending most of His time explaining how Jesus Christ is better than Moses, better than Abraham, better than David, better than anything that has come before… that Jesus Christ is the One true God, that He is God’s Son, and that He is the only hope for salvation for man. And then… in chapter 10, in the verses before our text this morning, the Author makes it very clear that the animal sacrifices of Judaism were just a type and shadow… just a picture of the ultimate Sacrifice offered up by Jesus. His death paid the penalty for sin, once and for all, and because this sacrifice was made by Christ Himself – it is more than enough to justify us before the Father. And then He comes to our text… and He begins by saying – So, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering…” In other words, don’t back track on your confession of faith… don’t lose that hope of salvation. Why? “Because He who promised is faithful.” What that means is that God will bring it about… God will finish what He started. He is faithful. But then look what our text says, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.” So we need to be encouraging ourselves, we need to be stirring one another up… reminding each other that we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love our neighbors as ourselves. We are to love our brothers and sisters in Christ, because we are all part of the Body, and we are all part of the Bride. How can we now love the Bride of Christ? So that’s important. And then… and this is what I want us to really look at today… this is the way we do that. What He says next is how we stir up one another to love and to good works. Verse 25, “Not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, BUT… encouraging one another, and ALL THE MORE as you see the Day drawing near.”
Now did you catch that?
We as followers of Christ are supposed to stir one another up to love and good works… and the way we do that is by gathering as THE CHURCH. And then we are told – do not neglect that gathering… I still like the way the New King James said it. “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, as SO MUCH the more as you see the Day approaching.” That seems pretty clear to me… Don’t forsake the assembly! Don’t stop gathering with the Church! That’s what this verse says. It doesn’t say, “Watch it online.” It says WE MUST GATHER. And then it adds this little tid-bit. ESPECIALLY as you see THE DAY drawing near. Now what “Day” is it talking about? It’s talking about the Day of the Lord. The Day that Jesus returns and calls us to Him. So let’s be really clear here.
The Author of Hebrews, inspired by God the Holy Spirit clearly says to His Church, “DO NOT STOP ASSEMBLING TOGETHER AS THE CHURCH – ESPECIALLY AS YOU SEE THE DAY OF THE LORD DRAWING NEAR!”
So we should ask ourselves? Do you see that Day drawing near? What signs does the Bible give us, that it might be? Well here’s a few from Jesus – He says that “Nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom, there will be earthquakes, famine, pestilence, as well as signs in the sun and moon, and the stars…”
The Apostle Paul says some of those signs will include “Wars, famine, disease, persecution…” He says, “Men will be lovers of their own selves, covetous, proud, boasters, blasphemers, children will be disobedient to their parents, people will be unthankful, unholy… they will be without natural affection (that’s homosexuality). There will be false accusers, people will despise what is good, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.” The Bible tells us that the time will come when “Men will not put up with sound doctrine, instead they will heap upon themselves false teachers because they have itching ears.” And the Book of Revelation tells us that people will “rebel against God, they will not repent of their sin, they will worship demons, they will engage in idolatry, they will be addicted to drugs, sexually immoral, and wicked.”
Now I think that if we’re honest, we all see those signs. We see them, we see them increasing more and more. Our country needs serious help – we need revival. We need repentance. We need Jesus!
But… those are the signs of Christ’s return – and we see those signs. Unless our head is in the sand. So what does our text tell us we’re supposed to do?
NOT FORSAKE THE ASSEMBLING OF OURSELVES.
KEEP COMING TO CHURCH.
Now, this is where I’m going upset a whole lot of folks… but let’s be faithful to Scripture.
Think about those signs of Christ’s return. Wars, famine, persecution… PANDEMICS! Yup, that’s one of the signs. Pestilence and disease. And what are we told to do? Stop gathering as the Church, and stay home? NOPE. The Bible – God’s Word – tells us to keep gathering. Keep assembling as the Church. Sure, we can be smart about it. We can take precautions to keep ourselves healthy… but one option the Bible doesn’t give us is to stop gathering with the Church. But the government says we can’t… But the state says we can’t… But Dr. Faust… er… I mean Fauci says we can’t.
Acts 5:29 – “We should obey God rather than men.”
If you look through the pages of Scripture, you’ll see how God’s people, reacted when the state… and I mean the government, kings, rulers, the powers that be, told them they couldn’t worship God. I just quoted the Book of Acts, but what’s the context of that verse? Well if you remember, Peter and John had been out preaching the Gospel, and the rulers of Jerusalem commanded them to stop (You can read that in Acts 4), they even threw them in jail (which is happening in Canada right now… Canadian pastors and Christians are being jailed for obeying God rather than men… in Australia it’s gone completely 3rd Reich – they are putting people in camps… it’s bad… we need to pray for them more than ever). So the Apostles got thrown in jail for obeying God, and during the night, an angel of the Lord set them free, and told them, “Keep on preaching boys!” And do you know what they did? They kept on preaching. They got pulled before the Council again, and the Priests told them, “Stop preaching!” And that’s where Peter said it, “We must obey God rather than men.”
All throughout history, the governments of the world have been opposed to the Kingdom of God. We could look at Egypt, and how they enslaved God’s people. We could look at Babylon and how the king told Daniel not to pray… it was just for 30 days (today we’d call that a temporary mandate), but still he was telling a child of God, not to commune with his Heavenly Father. Daniel opened up his windows and prayed even more fervently. And yes, he got thrown into a den of lions. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were told to bow down to an idol… they said, “Nope” and got thrown into a fiery furnace. The Apostle Paul eventually gets his head chopped off because he will not bow the knee to Caesar… Christians were fed to lions, and publicly executed because they refused to say, “Kaiser Curios” – “Caesar is lord”. That may sound like a simple thing… but to them, it was worth dying for.
To them – JESUS IS LORD, not Caesar, not the state, not the government, not the politicians, not the kingdoms of this world… Because they knew, this world and all that is in it is perishing… They knew that this world and all that is in it is opposed to God and His Kingdom. 1 John 2:15 says, “Do not love the world, or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
Now please hear me… I get it. I’ve been there myself… I’ve even said it : “I can hear amazing preaching on YouTube.” Or on the actual website of certain pastors or ministries. I myself am partial to Alistair Begg, and John MacArthur, Voddie Baucham, and Paul Washer… I like going back and listening to R.C. Sproul’s sermons. And you can hear some amazing preaching by watching it on video, or livestream.
But the Bible is clear – DO NOT FORSAKE THE ASSEMBLING OF OURSELVES TOGETHER.
We must gather as the Church.
Why?
To exhort one another. To edify one another. To love one another. To encourage one another. To equip one another for the work of ministry. To keep each other accountable. To pray for one another. To sing praises to God as one Body. To fellowship with one another. To comfort one another. To take Communion together. And to collectively hear God’s Word preached and taught.
Sometime when you have the time, just go through the New Testament and underline… or take note of all the places in Scripture where it says, “one another”. You’ll be surprised at how many there are. We are supposed to be like a city on a hill, and not hide our light under a basket. We are supposed to show Christ to a lost and dying world. Jesus said, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, that you have love for one another.”
My point is – it’s hard to do all those “one anothers” if we aren’t gathering as the Church.
And I don’t have time today to go back through history and go over all the instances where the Lord’s Church faced pandemics and plague. That’s a multi-week study if you ever want to take up that task. But I will tell you that when the Black Plague ravaged Europe and ended up wiping out 1/3 of the population, many of God’s people believed that it was the end… that the Day of the Lord was at hand… and we see countless stories where they continued to gather as the Church, and remained faithful to the command of God. Martin Luther and his wife even opened up their own home to treat and minister to the sick and dying. They trusted in the Lord. It’s only in modern times, where we’ve come to believe that our number one priority is to be safe, comfortable, and happy, that we see the Church closing its doors for things like this. But what we need to do is remember that African proverb - "If the Lord is not finished with me - I CANNOT die." Now on the flip side of that, we might say, "If the Lord is finished with you, there is nothing you can do to preserve your life for one more second. You might run and hide, and isolate yourself, but if God says it's time, it's time."
So I’ll close, with the words of Hebrews 10:35-39, “Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For, ‘Yet a little while, and the coming One will come and will not delay; but My righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him.’ But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.”
LET’S PRAY
CLOSING
