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 (41).
• 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 312-19

• 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 312-19

• 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 (411).
• 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 116
2 Timothy 215

• 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 (414).
• 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 (416).
• 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 (61).
• 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 Gods 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 (1022).
• 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 422-24

• 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 (1022).
• 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 (1022).
• 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
  (1023).
• 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 (1024).
• 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 (1024).
• 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 (121).
• 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 (121).
• There are some things not wrong in and of
  themselves that will be more problematic than
  helpful in ones 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 (121).
• 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 (1228).
• 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 15-11

• 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 15-11

• 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
  (1313-14).
• 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 ones back on
  the family religion.

25
Matthew 1034-39

• 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 1029-30

• 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 (1315).
• 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?