"Let Us...."

1. "Let Us...." Spiritual Resolutions from the Epistle to the Hebrews

2. Spiritual Resolutions • As one year draws to a close and another dawns, resolutions - or pledges - are being made for the New Year. • Generally, most people resolve to do such mundane things as lose weight, break a bad habit or settle a dispute. • The Epistle to the Hebrews contains several divine admonitions, which - if we resolve to accept them - will have a much greater impact on our lives than things we might otherwise resolve to do.

3. Concerning Attitude • Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it (4:1). • This is a resolution to be more in awe of who God is, and of what it means to displease Him. • This Holy Awe will have a sobering effect upon our daily activities. • The facts the inspired writer had just related should produce this in us.

4. Hebrews 3:12-19 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.”

5. Hebrews 3:12-19 For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

6. Concerning Attitude • Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience (4:11). • This resolution is to make haste, which will be relatively easy to keep if we can only keep the first one, for it is Holy Awe that produces Holy Haste.

7. Hebrews 11:6 2 Timothy 2:15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

8. Concerning Attitude • Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession (4:14). • This is to resolve to be more stable in our claim to be Christians. • Holy Awe and Holy Haste produce Holy Stability.

9. Concerning Attitude • Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need (4:16). • This resolution is to allow Holy Awe, Holy Haste and Holy Stability to create within us a Holy Confidence that He will help us “in time of need.”

10. Concerning Growth • Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection (6:1). • It is impossible for us to make Holy Progress in our relationship with God if we are always discussing basic principles and failing to confront the difficult themes of God’s word. • Keeping the previous resolutions of Holy Awe, Holy Haste, Holy Stability and Holy Confidence will aid us tremendously in keeping this one.

11. Concerning Growth • Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water (10:22). • The acts of worship God expects of us are designed to draw us nearer to Him in Holy Fellowship. • But worship, to profit us, must be in harmony with God's word.

12. John 4:22-24 “You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

13. Concerning Growth • Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water (10:22). • Until our bodies have been washed with pure water - in baptism - and our hearts have been sprinkled from an evil conscience - in forgiveness - we are not qualified to engage in true worship.

14. Concerning Growth • Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water (10:22). • But, having thus qualified ourselves, we must still “draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.” • The proper acts of worship will not achieve their designed purpose unless they are accompanied by faith.

15. Concerning Growth • Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful (10:23). • This is a resolution to Holy Perseverance. • We cannot afford to waver in our worship or service to God for we could die, or the Lord could come, while we are wavering and we would have no chance to repent.

16. Concerning Growth • And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works (10:24). • This resolution is to give Holy Consideration to those who look to us for encouragement. • John Donne, the English poet said “No man is an island.” • This is a scriptural concept, inasmuch as the Lord, through the apostles, instituted the local church wherein Christians can and should be of mutual and reciprocal support.

17. Concerning Growth • And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works (10:24). • Let us be there for one another in 2007.

18. Concerning Fruit • Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us (12:1). • This resolution to Holy Surrender is preparatory to the next one. • We must surrender or forfeit everything that will either slow us down or ensnare us.

19. Concerning Fruit • Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us (12:1). • There are some things not wrong in and of themselves that will be more problematic than helpful in one’s living the life that he ought to live. • They are unnecessary weights.

20. Concerning Fruit • Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us (12:1). • This is a resolution to Holy Dedication, and can only be kept if, and to the extent, the previous one is kept. • “The race that is set before us” is the life that one ought to live morally and spiritually. • If one is to persevere he must “run with endurance.”

21. Concerning Fruit • Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear (12:28). • This resolution is to Holy Usefulness in the temporal kingdom of heaven, while it can and will be shaken, in order that we may enjoy the eternal kingdom of heaven, when it cannot be shaken.

22. 2 Peter 1:5-11 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

23. 2 Peter 1:5-11 For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

24. Concerning Fruit • Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come (13:13-14). • This is a resolution to Holy Sacrifice. • To the first-century Jewish Christians it involved leaving mainstream Judaism. • To Gentile Christians in the twenty-first century it could very well involve turning one’s back on the “family religion.”

25. Matthew 10:34-39 “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to 'set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law'; and 'a man's enemies will be those of his own household.' He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.”

26. Mark 10:29-30 So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel's, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time--houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions--and in the age to come, eternal life.”

27. Concerning Fruit • Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name (13:15). • This resolution is to Holy Gratitude, the natural response to the knowledge that Jesus has prepared us a continuing city in heaven above.

28. Are You Resolved... ...no longer to linger, charmed by the world's delight? ...to go to the Savior, leaving your sin and strife? ...to follow the Savior, faithful and true each day? ...to enter the kingdom, leaving the paths of sin? ...to be taught by the Bible? ...to be led by the Spirit? ...to walk the heavenly way?