Putting Value in the Church by Exhorting One Another

Our focus this week has been Putting Value in the Local Church.  We have been discussing many of the “one another” commands of Scripture because as we obey them we will not only find the local church valuable, but we will make it more valuable to others.

Today we continue in Hebrews 10:24- 25.  Hebrews 10:24–25 (NKJV)

^24”And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works,

²⁵not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”

Yesterday, we were challenged to “consider one another in order to stir up love and good works.”  Vs. 24   Today we are going to move into verse 25 and see that we are to be “exhorting one another”.  This exhortation “implies speaking in God’s name and with the Spirit’s power.” ^[1]  In order to live lives that are worthy of the gospel we need to be challenging one another as we speak God’s Word  as Paul did the Philippians in Phil. 1:27.

The reason given for the importance of this is because “the day approaching.”  The day is the “glorious appearing of our Great God and Savior Jesus Christ” referred to in Titus 2:13.  Just like the passage in Titus 2, Hebrews is challenging us to have lives that reflect the image of Christ in order to have a spotless bride ready for the bridegroom. 

Yet, believers are not often open to exhortation and having areas of their lives revealed that must be cleansed and changed.

Think through this illustration with me.  If you were at a wedding and were sharing the last few minutes with a bride before she walked down the aisle and you noticed a big blotch on her dress, would you say something?  Of course you would.  And when you said something she try to figure out anything possible to get that dress clean.  She would never say, “Oh be quiet; it is none of your business what is on my dress.  Just keep your mouth shut and mind your own business.”

Yet, it is not unusual when believers are challenged by others about a spot in their life that would not reflect a “spotless” bride. 

We indeed are called to exhort, what is interesting is that the same root word for “exhortation” is also translated “comfort.”  The manner of our exhortation is important so that an individual is not blown away by it; but the fact that it must be done remains because we are looking for that Day when Christ returns, and we want to reflect that spotless bride as we await the Bridegroom. 

The video version of this is available at www.youttube.com/churchoflittleton    FW # 36

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^[1] Gerhard Kittel, Gerhard Friedrich and Geoffrey William Bromiley, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 1995), 781.

God's Rewarding Grace: Titus 2:11-14

Titus 2:11–14 (NKJV) ¹¹For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, ¹²teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, ¹³looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, ¹⁴who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.

In this passage there are a few aspects of God’s grace: His redeeming Grace, His reforming Grace, and His rewarding Grace.

In this edition we will take the time to look at God’s rewarding Grace.

God loved us enough to send Jesus Christ to pay the penalty of our sin.  This was God’s redeeming Grace.  Yet he does not just leave us to ourselves after salvation.  He begins to conform us to the image of his son, that is His reforming grace.

¹³looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,

For those who know Christ as Savior as who escape physical death their great hope is the reward of Jesus Christ’s return.     This is further explained in 1 Thessalonians 4:14–17 (ESV)  ¹⁴For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁵For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

¹⁷Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

The privilege of being in the presence of our God and Savior Jesus Christ is only a hope for those who have placed their trust in his shed blood for salvation.  For those who have never asked forgiveness of their sin believing that their sin can be cleansed only by Christ’s blood to see Christ will not be a hope.  It will be a fear as they face the judgment of the king of kings and Lord of Lords.

My hope is that each one who has a chance to hear this will put their faith in Christ that they may one day experience this blessed hope as Jesus Christ returns.

The video version of this is available at www.youtube.com/churchoflitteton  FW #31