All righty, let's turn in our
Bibles to the fourth chapter of Hebrews. And I wanna, I'm
gonna read an article and it's a very lengthy article from Don
Fortner. He has put together a statement
here that I believe is just wonderful. And before I get into our part
of the study, which isn't too much. I want to read this for
you, so just bear with me for a moment, if you would, as I
read through. Open your Bibles to Chapter 4. There's four places
in Chapter 4 we're going to refer to. Don begins by writing this. He says, Hebrews 4 is a chapter
about faith and blessed rest of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet it is a chapter filled with
exhortations and admonitions, giving us very clear instructions
about our responsibilities. Faith in Christ is not a passive,
indifferent, or dormant thing. It is a vital, living principle
of grace. He says, when I was in college,
My professor of homiletics and pastoral theology used to tell
us something every preacher ought to always bear in mind. He repeated
it almost every time he talked to us about sermon preparation
and preaching. He said this, he said, men where
there is no summons, there is no sermon. Or in other words,
every sermon preached ought to call for action Not physical
action, but moral, spiritual action. And if a sermon does
not call for those who hear it, it makes some kind of response
to it. It is not much of a sermon. The same is true of written expositions. Now, Don goes on to say, he says,
four times in these 16 verses, we are given two words of admonition,
a call to action, as he just pointed out. Four times the writer
admonishes us with himself to do something to look at them,
and so look at them with me, he says. The first one is something
to fear. Here is something for us to fear.
It says in Hebrews 4.1, let us therefore fear, lest a promise
being left of us, entering into his wrath, any of you should
seem to come short of it. Don writes, he says, we ought
to fear missing Christ. Christ is the one thing needful,
folks, the one thing we all needful, or needful of. We must have him,
we must have him, we have all, if we have him, we have all things.
If we miss him, we miss all things. We must be washed in his blood,
robed in his righteousness, born of his spirit, saved by his grace,
united to him by faith. Something to do. There's something
to do to teach us. Look at Hebrews 411. Here is
something for us to do. Let us labor, it says. Therefore, to enter into that
rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
He says, Don writes, he says, let us labor that we may cease
from all labor. I know that doesn't seem to make
sense to some, but to those who know The grace in the Lord Jesus
Christ, that makes great sense to us. We understand that we
have to work towards resting in him. We have to think in our
mind how we can rest towards him, how we can put away those
thoughts that come into our minds from the flesh that say, what
must I do to be saved? What must I do to see that I
am saved? What must I do to prove to myself
that I am saved? We must look to Christ. That's
a labor. Let us labor, therefore, to seek
Christ, to look to him. That's what that's saying to
us. Next we see this, or Don says this, he says, faith is
ceasing from our works. To trust in Christ is to quit
trying to find acceptance with God by something we do. It is to rely upon him alone
for righteousness, finding complete and perfect justification, sanctification,
and redemption in him. Next, we see over in verse 14
of chapter four, we see something for us to hold on to, to grasp. It says, seeing then that we
have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus,
the son of God, let us hold fast. Our profession. You see the other
thing he's telling us that we can do? We can hold fast. We
can stand strong and I'm going to rest in the Lord. I don't
care what the rest of you are doing. I don't care what the
rest of you say. My rest is in him and in him
alone. Don says this was this we must
hold with a death grip for life and death are the issues here.
Eternal life and eternal death. Whatever we do, we must hold
Christ. And then we see, lastly, in verse
16, somewhere to go. Here is somewhere for us to go,
writes Don. Let us, therefore, come boldly. Let us, therefore, come boldly. Someplace to go. Unto the throne
of grace, that we may obtain mercy. and find grace. Come through the merits of Christ,
writes Don, to Christ Jesus our Savior. The merits of His blood
and righteousness and get the mercy and grace you need by the
power of His Spirit. Now that's the end of Don's statement
here and I wanted to bring that before you. I think that was
pretty good, don't you? That was a pretty clear description
on this subject of let us. And I want to add to what he
has said, and I don't mean to tear down anything he has said,
I don't think I have, but there's some other things that we see
here also. The phrase, let us, is used many
times in Old Testament word, and the majority is the instructions
on our walk with God. Many of those things say words
like this, and I'll give you three examples from Romans 13
and 14. You don't need to turn, I'll
read them for you. In Romans 13, 13, it says, Let us walk
honestly, as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not
in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envy. Another
place in chapter 14, Paul writes to the Romans, he says, let us
not therefore judge one another anymore, but judge this rather,
that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his
brother's way. or over in verse 19 of that same
chapter 14, Paul writes, he goes, let us therefore follow after
the things which make for peace and the things wherewith we may
edify one another. But I like this one. I don't
mean I don't like those. These are all things that we
strive for, folks. These are all things that we
need to strive for. God's Word tells us there's plenty of things
that we should be doing. I don't need to tell you what
to do. God's Word is telling you what to do. His Word is very
clear that we should do these different things. But listen
to this. This is one that leads to all
the rest being fulfilled. In Romans 13, 12, the night is
far spent. The day is at hand. Let us. You and I, let us. Let us therefore
cast off, put away the works of darkness. Now, folks, we all have sin in
our lives. We all have problems. We get
a little road rage once in a while. Some of you may not have this
problem, but occasionally a little white lie will slip out. Folks,
there are no little white lies. Every lie is big. Sometimes we
may stretch the truth. There's sin throughout our lives
over and over again. But the darkness that it's talking
about here is the darkness of following another God. Me. Following something of me. instead
of resting in this. Listen to this again. I'm going
to read the whole verse this time. The night is far spent,
the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the
works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. I like that. The armor of light. The protection of light. What
does that mean to me? That means Jesus Christ. He is
the light, is he not? Know what we read in John 8,
12? Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light
of the world. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Is that not
Christ putting on the armor of light? I can do that, if God
is willing to give me the reason, the ability to. And he does,
that's what he does. He comes to us in the new birth.
And he makes us willing in the day of power, in the day of his
love. to look to Him. That's what Don
was saying about everything he stated there. Look to Christ.
Put on the armor of light, the armor of Christ on your chest.
Put that on for your works. When we put on the armor of light,
we put off darkness of self, self-worth, self-righteousness,
self-satisfaction, and we take the yoke that is light Our glorious
Christ gives us rest. He gives rest to every sinner
who comes to him by faith. He says, come unto me, all ye
that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. I don't know who wrote this poem,
but I found this, and this is really good. I heard the voice
of Jesus say, come unto me and rest. Lay down, thou weary one,
lay down thy head upon my breast. I came to Jesus as I was, weary
and worn and sad. I found in him a resting place,
and he has made me glad. Oh, the Lord Jesus is given,
and he continually gives us rest in Christ. We have a perfect
rest complete in Him. Look over, if you would, at Isaiah
chapter 45. I want to go and look at a couple
of verses, if you would. Turn to Isaiah 45. This is the
promise of rest God has given to each and every one of His
people. The very rest that he talks about when he says, come
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. He says it here in the Old Testament, in Isaiah
45, look at verse 22. Look unto me. Look unto me, he
says, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. For I am God,
and there is none else. Verse 22. I'll read that again. Look unto me. and be ye saved. I am God, and there is none else. Turn back to the New Testament,
if you would, to Ephesians chapter 1. We read in verse 6, to the
praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted
in the Beloved. You see the peace? You see the
rest He gives us? When He points to His Word, He
says to the praise and the glory of His grace, wherein He hath
made us accepted in the Beloved." We're accepted in the Beloved,
in the Lord Jesus Christ, through His grace. We are saved by His
grace through faith, through believing in Him. Our Lord gives
us continual rest through perfect reconciliation. Allow me to read
for you from 2 Corinthians 5.17, where we read these words. Therefore,
if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are
passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. Another one, if you would allow
me to read from Colossians chapter 1, verse 20 and 21. I'll turn
there and read it for you. Colossians 1, verses 20 through
21. and having made peace through
the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things unto
himself, by him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things
in heaven, and you that were sometime alienated and enemies
in your own mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled. You see the peace that he gives
us, the rest he gives us through perfect reconciliation? Verse
22, and in the body of his flesh through death to present you
Holy! How are we presented holy? Through
the body of His flesh, through His death, and we're presented
unblameable and unreprovable in His sight, as it says. He
continually gives us rest with absolute security. in what he
has done and special privilege as we read in Providence in Romans
8, 28, and we know that all things are for our good. Now go back
to Hebrews if you would, and I want to have you turn ahead
in Hebrews to chapter 10. We're talking about let us, things
that God has instructed us to do. We just spent several moments
of time there considering the thing we can do by casting off
the works of darkness, our own works of this flesh, our own
thoughts of this flesh, casting those things off and putting
on the armor of light. The armor of light is resting
in Christ, looking to Him for all things, looking to Him as
our mediator before God, looking to Him as our high priest. Consider
these things in Hebrews chapter 10, if you would, verse 22. Let
us draw near, come near. Let us, again, put away, cast
off the works of darkness and draw near with a true heart and
full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an
evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water. Folks, that's Christ. That's
putting on the armor of light, turning to him. Look at verse
23, let us hold fast. Again, we see those verses, let
us grab a hold of something. Just as we saw there in Hebrews
chapter four, let us grab a hold of it and hold it fast to our
profession of faith without wavering, for he is faithful, it is promised. You can hold on to him. with
assurance because he who is God has promised it to his people.
And if he's promised it, he'll do it. One last verse, if you
would look with me at Hebrews 10, 24. And let us consider one
another to provoke unto love and to good works. Folks, the
word of God says this, it says, be ye holy, for our God is holy. Because grace abounds, should
we allow sin to abound even more? God forbid. God forbid. Lord, help us to turn away from
the sin that plagues our flesh. Lord, help us to turn away from
the doubt and the weakness of our faith. From looking to it,
to looking to Him. To putting on that armor of light
What do we rest in? We rest in Christ. We rest in
Him alone. His works are sufficient for
all of our needs. How can I encourage you? I can
encourage you this way. You know, when something pops
into your head, no matter what it is, weakness of faith, doubt,
anger, whatever you want to call it, look to Christ. Stop looking
at you. and turn to Christ, because that's
the only salvation we have. Amen.