Do you care about those in the midst of the church whose outward appearance of faith may not be reflective of the true state of the inward heart?  In other words, are you burdened for the unbelievers that may be present in the church?  Surely every church has unbelievers in the ranks of those who profess to believe.  Perhaps there are more than we would expect.  Maybe there are less.  The point is that they are there and there souls are in danger.  They are in far greater danger in churches where the members are reticent to challenge each other, speak the truth in love, and confront sin.  In this environment an unbelieving professor of faith could comfortably survive until it is too late.  This is the context of the exhortation found in Hebrews 3:12-13.  The passage makes clear that there are those among us who are in unbelief and very well may fall away from the Lord.  It is also clear that there is something that we as a church can do about that.  How refreshing.

12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.  13 But exhort one another every day, as long as is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

 Notice that this is written to “brothers”.  This simply means that this is written to the church.  But there are those who appear to be “brothers” who aren’t truly brothers.  Appearance is not everything as most have learned in their Christian lives.  This is not a mandate to question everyone’s salvation, but to be aware that there are those in danger of judgment in our midst.  We cannot take for granted that everyone sitting in our churches, professing to be a Christian, or on the membership roles is a true believer.  Even those who can express the Gospel clearly and evidence some tangible fruit have been exposed later on as “having the appearance of godliness but denying its power”.  Only God knows with certainty the state of a person’s heart.  That is not to say that we cannot have relative confidence of what the new birth looks like in a person.  It is simply apparent here that there are people in our midst who could very well “fall away from the living God.”  The idea here is that they revolt or rebel against God.  And as Grotius says, “there are two kinds of unbelief, — The first the rejection of the truth when first offered, — and the second the renouncing of it after having once professed it. The latter is the more heinous sin.”  It is a sad and grievous day when someone who had all appearance of being a Christian walks away in rebellion.  Some of us have seen this and want no part of a Christianity that would increase the likelihood of this occurrence.

 In God’s grace, He has given a remedy for the church to avoid this sad occurrence.  This is a tremendous encouragement and a challenge at the same time.  Knowing that there are professing “brothers” and “sisters” in our midst who have an “unbelieving heart”, we are charged to “exhort one another every day”.  The remedy to prevent this “unbelieving heart” from falling “away from the living God”, is to “exhort one another every day”.  This is what much of Christianity is lacking.  This is the bold love that we all need, especially those in our midst without saving faith, but find so rare.  This is the ethos of being Christian.  Challenging each other to live for Christ, encouraging one another to stay in the Word, holding the Gospel before our faith family whenever possible, asking tough questions about one’s spiritual life, confronting someone who appears to be faltering with love, prayerfully considering how to speak a Word into a brother or sister’s life, sending a note of encouragement, and holding holiness, purity, and Gospel charges before one another are all ways in which we can “exhort one another every day”.  Surely, with a little bit of time, prayer, and thought you can come up with many more ways to “exhort one another”.  It is essential for the believer’s continued growth in Christ, but as we see in this passage it is essential for rescuing the professing Christian unbeliever who is in our midst.  There is a saving influence that comes through the church doing what the church is supposed to do, that God uses to move the professing believer to true faith in Christ. 

 This is an urgent call!  We must do it “as long as it is called ‘today’”.  Today is only today, today.  My three year old daughter often asks if it is tomorrow yet and I have to remind her that tomorrow was only tomorrow yesterday, but presently it is now today.  Did you catch that?  The point is simply that we ought not wait for a better time to exhort one another.  It is a daily need and a present need.  One of the reasons why there is such urgency is because of the “deceitfulness of sin.”  The subtle allurements and temptations are the most powerful.  The professor who does not truly believing is like the proverbial frog being boiled in the water.  On the negative side, the “deceitfulness of sin” can easily and gradually draw them away until they fall away and turn away from God.  On the positive side, as we “exhort one another every day” the truth of the Gospel, the power of God’s Word, and the faith of God’s people will have their impact on a soul, so that at some point conversion takes place. 

 So, let us express our love for the unbelieving professing brother within our midst by exhorting “one another every day…as long as it is called ‘today’.”  This is our duty, this is our privilege, and this will be our own blessing as the believers in the church, including ourselves, are also encouraged and strengthened by this kind of ministry to one another.