That's just the way it is, but
with regard to that hymn, I don't know anything in that hymn that
could be said better. Would you turn back to Hebrews
chapter four? I've entitled this message, The
Movement of Faith. The Movement of Faith. Now, there is certainly a sense
in which faith must not move because it's grounded on the
foundation, the immovable foundation of Christ. And I think of that
passage of scripture in Colossians chapter one, verse 23, where
he says that we're presented holy, unblameable, and unapprovable
in God's sight if We continue in the faith and be not what? Moved from the hope of the gospel. Now our object of faith is immovable,
isn't he? And therefore that faith cannot
move. Man is justified by faith without
the deeds of the law. That being said, faith is not
stagnant. Faith is not static. Faith is
not stationary, but powerful and operative. The Lord said
all things are possible to him that believeth. You look at Hebrews chapter 11.
By faith, Noah moved with fear. There's movement. By faith, Abraham
went out to a place in which he would afterward receive for
an inheritance. That's movement, isn't it? Moses,
by faith, forsook Egypt. That's movement. If you go throughout
that 11 chapters of the great hall of faith will see the movement
of faith. Now look in Hebrews chapter four.
I want to read verses 14 through
16. I'm going to bring a whole message on these verses next
week, but I kind of want to use this as a springboard into this
phrase, let us therefore. And let us therefore describes
the movement of faith. It's in the book of Hebrews,
some 14 or 15 times. Verse 14, seeing then that we
have a great high priest that has passed into the heavens.
Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast our profession for
we have not an high priest, which cannot be touched. with the feeling
of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we
are. Yet without sin, let us therefore
come. There's the motion. Let us therefore
come boldly under the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy
and find grace to help in time of need. Let us therefore. In chapter four, verse one, let us therefore fear lest a
promise being left us of entering into his rest. Now there's where
the motion of faith takes you entering into his rest. Let us fear. Therefore, lest
a promise being left us of entering into his rest. Any of you should
seem to come short of it for unto us was the gospel preached
as well as unto him, but the word preached did not profit
them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it for we,
which have believed do enter. Now there's movement in it, do
enter into his rest. Now the first description. of
the movement of faith has something to do with entering in, and oh
my God give me and you the grace to do that even now, of entering
in to his rest. Look in verses nine and 10 of
this fourth chapter. There remaineth therefore a rest
to the people of God. What do you want me to do? Rest. Rest. For he that's entered into his
rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from
his. How did God cease from his works?
When he finished creation, he rested. There was nothing left
to do. And here is the first motion
of faith. It's to enter into his rest. To cease, right now, cease from
your own works. Just forget him. Somebody says,
well, I could believe if I, forget that. Cease from your own works
and enter into his rest. He actually says in verse 11,
let us labor therefore to enter into that rest. You know why
he says that? Because the hardest thing in the world to do, as
a matter of fact, it's impossible to do it unless God gives us
grace to do it, is to rest. The hardest thing to do is to
do nothing. To rest in him. But this is the first direction
of motion I see with faith. Resting. Look in verse 14. Seeing then that we have a great
high priest that's passed into the heavens, Jesus, the son of
God, let us, there's that word, let us hold fast our profession. Now, what kind of motion is in
that? Well, if I'm holding fast my profession, I'm trying to
knock away anything that comes in contrary to that profession,
that confession. Now, what is a confession? The
word means, it's sometimes translated profession, it's sometimes translated
confession, but it's the same word. It means to speak the same
thing. You know what our confession
is? It's what me and you agree on.
There will be absolutely no disagreement with any believer regarding the
confession of their faith. And Hebrews chapter 10, verse
23 calls it the confession of our hope. Now, what is my hope? I have a hope to be in heaven
and I'm, I'm holding this fast and I, and I'll tell you what,
I'm, I'm going to stay right there and I'm going to try to
fight against anything that would knock me off this hope. Aren't
you? What is that hope? Well, it sounds something like
this. If God be for me, if God be for
us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own son. Think about that for a minute.
He spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all.
How shall He not? What would possibly prevent Him
from freely giving us all things? Now there's my hope, that because
God did not spare His Son, there's nothing that will possibly prevent
Him from freely giving me everything I need. Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? There's no accusation that can
be brought against me. How come God justified me? Who is he that can condemn? Bring
it on. It's Christ that died. Now my
hope My, here's my profession, this is my confession, this is
what every believer agrees completely with this. My only hope of being
saved is that Jesus Christ died for my sins and put them away,
and gave me his perfect righteousness, and I stand before God sinless
because of what he did. Period. That's my hope. And we hold fast. tenaciously to that hope. Now
there's, we're not, somebody says, well we can agree to disagree.
No, no we can't. We're in agreement here. This
is the believer's hope. Now look what he says in verse
16. He says, let us therefore come boldly under the throne of grace. Now
that is motion, isn't it? You know, coming to Christ is
spiritual motion, isn't it? You move spiritually, you don't
move Muscle physically, but spiritually coming to Christ is a spiritual
movement. And he says, let us, therefore
the us is every believer. Everybody who has this confession,
let us therefore come boldly come with confidence, come cheerfully. And where are we coming to a
throne? It's a throne. You don't come
presumptuously. You come with fear. It's a throne,
but it's a throne of grace. Salvation is by grace. And because it's a throne of
grace, there's no conditions that have to be met because it's
a throne of grace. We can come with this boldness.
If it's a throne of grace. If salvation really is by grace,
and let me give you a scripture that tells how much salvation
is by grace. Ephesians 2, 4, and 5 says, but
God, who is rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he
loved us even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together
with Christ. You know what that means? When
Christ was raised from the dead, I was raised from the dead. That's
how complete this salvation is. He hath quickened us together
with Christ. And Paul says, here's what I
mean by all of this, by grace are you saved. That's why we come boldly. Look
in Hebrews chapter six, verse one. Therefore, leaving the principles,
the ABCs, the elements, the rudimentary principles, the first things. Therefore, leaving the principles
of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection. That's
movement, isn't it? Let us go on unto perfection. I need to say some words about
this. Does this mean that once we get the ABCs down, let's just
go on to something else? Doesn't mean that at all. What
he's saying is we shouldn't have to always be laying again these
foundational principles. They ought to be automatic to
you. There ought to be something you're grounded on that are just
so automatic. You think this way, you breathe
this way. You realize this. You know, if you have to be rebuilding
the foundation, superstructure's never gonna go up, is it? These
are these first principles you ought to be grounded in. You
ought not have to have them talk to you over and over again like
you've forgotten. No. He says, therefore, leaving
the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto
perfection. Perfection. Now somebody may
think, does that mean we can be perfect? Well, we ought to
be. That being we are, you know that, you know why you're listening
to me because of your sinful nature that you'll never be perfect
in this life. Oh, you look forward to absolute sinless perfection
in the life to come. But in the different translations
I've read of this, most say, let us go on unto maturity. Let us go on to spiritual maturity. Not laying again the foundation,
and he named six things that ought to be automatic with every
one of us. And the first thing he mentions
is the foundation of repentance from dead works. Any work before God birthed me
into the kingdom of heaven is a dead work. No saving value. You know, it always troubles
me when people talk about their experience And they speak of
being saved before they ever really heard or believe the gospel
of grace. Uh, that means you haven't repented
of your dead works is what that means. You're still holding on
to dead works until that is, is repent of your dead works. Look to Christ only. And then the next thing he mentions
is faith toward God. This ought to be so automatic.
Without faith, it's impossible to please God. For he that cometh
to God must believe that He is. You believe His isness. And you
believe that Jesus Christ is God. When you have faith in God,
you have faith in Jesus Christ. He's God. That's why He can save
you. That's why He's able to save
you, because of who He is. Be grounded in He's the Savior. Your faith is in Him, not yourself,
not your experience, not your understanding. It's in Him. Faith toward God. And then he says in verse two,
we ought not have to be laying in the foundation of the doctrine
of baptisms. Now, when he says this, he's
not talking about the mode of baptisms. Well, I've got the
proper mode of baptism. I know it's baptism by immersion,
and I know baptism oughta only been done by believers, not unbelievers. You shouldn't sprinkle infants.
I got all that down. That's not even what he's talking about.
When he's talking about the doctrine of baptisms, what does baptism
teach? Union with Jesus Christ. When I'm baptized, here's what
I'm saying. When Jesus Christ lived, I lived. I'm united to him. His obedience
is my personal obedience. When Jesus Christ died, I died. All my sins were paid for. I
was united to Him. When Jesus Christ was raised
from the dead, I was too. That's union with the Lord Jesus
Christ. And until I have some, I know
that we can't comprehend all the intricacies of union with
Christ, but this is our hope, that I'm united to Him. And that's
why God deals with me as a son, because I am a son in Him. Now,
if I'm not grounded there, I'll never reach spiritual maturity.
And the next thing he mentions, the fourth thing in verse two,
is the laying on of hands. Now, let me assure you, this
is not talking about when preachers lay their hands on people and
all of a sudden they supposedly have some kind of experience
and jump backward and they have the Holy Spirit and so on. That's
not what that's talking about. He's talking about Aaron. going
into the Holy of Holies and laying his hand on that scapegoat. And
symbolically, it doesn't say symbolically, it says the sins
and the iniquities and the transgressions of Israel went to that scapegoat. Now, the laying on of hands is
simply this, the transference of sin and the transference of
righteousness. That's what that represents.
Now, if my sins were transferred to Christ, you know what? I don't
have any more. And if his righteousness is transferred
to me, I'm the very righteousness of God. May God ground us in
that to always have to be laying again that foundation. And then
the fifth thing he mentions in verse two is the resurrection
of the dead. Now, there's three resurrections
spoken of in the scripture. It's so simple. Jesus Christ
was raised from the dead bodily. And when he was raised from the
dead, the scripture says he was raised for our justification.
When he was raised from the dead, God said, I'm satisfied with
him and everybody he died for. And then there's the spiritual
resurrection. When somebody dead in sins lives,
they hear the gospel. God the Holy Spirit gives them
life. And then there's that final resurrection when the dead shall
be raised incorruptible. Oh, what joy there is. What grounding
there is. What maturity there is in just
seeing the glory of the resurrection. And then the last thing he mentions
is eternal judgment. God's eternal. And everything He does is eternal.
And that judgment is eternal. That means it never began and
it'll never end. It took place in eternity. Christ
is called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
And while I can't understand all the implications of that,
I love it that way. He's the eternal God. He goes
on to speak of eternal salvation in the next chapter. Eternal
salvation, not temporary salvation, not salvation that had a beginning
and an end, but eternal. Now, you and I will go on to
maturity, spiritual maturity, if we're grounded in those. You know someone who's not grounded
in those? They make a work out of everything.
They're just babies. We love babies. We love babies. We don't want to stay in babies,
do we? I mean, what if we're changing diapers when they're
19 years old? That's a real problem, isn't it? We don't want that.
Let us go on unto maturity, not laying again the foundation of
repentance from dead works. Hebrews chapter 10. Verse 19, this is similar to
verse 16 in chapter four, having therefore brethren boldness to
enter into the holiest. Now there's motion having there
for brethren boldness to enter into the holiest. by the blood
of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he has consecrated
for us through the veil, that is to say his flesh, and having
an high priest over the house of God, let us draw near. That's motion, isn't it? Let
us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Now, what am I fully assured
of? Well, I'm fully assured that verse 14 is so by one offering.
He has perfected forever. Them that are sanctified. I'm
fully sure of that. I'm not looking anywhere else.
My perfection is in Christ and I'm perfect in Christ Jesus.
I'm fully assured of that. Where of the Holy ghost is a
witness to us. After they said before, this is what the Holy
Spirit testifies to us. This is when we have Holy Spirit
conviction. When he makes known through the
preaching of the gospel, through the reading of his word, this
is the covenant that I'll make with him after those days, saith
the Lord. I will put my laws into their hearts and their minds
while I write them. And their sins and their iniquities
will I remember no more. Now where remission of these
is, There's no more offering for sin, so don't try to bring
one. Now here's some motion you don't wanna do. You don't wanna
try to bring an offering for sin. Well, I sin grievously. I need to wait till I feel a
little bit better and then I'll come into God's presence. No,
don't do that. Don't do that. Come right now
boldly into the very holy of holies
by the blood of Jesus. That is what every believer is
called upon to do, to come with boldness into the very Holy of
Holies by the blood of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Verse 23 of the same chapter
10. Let us hold fast the profession
of our faith. Once again, when I think of movement
there, I think of trying to knock away anything that would move
me from that. The profession of our hope. We hold it fast. We hold it tenaciously. This
is not something we're indifferent about. We hold this tenaciously.
Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering.
That's the motion we don't want. For he is faithful that promised
and let us consider one another. Let us consider one another to
provoke and to love and to good works. Now there's some movement
involved here in considering one another to provoke a response. Let us consider one another to
provoke, to love and to good works. Now I'm called upon to
treat you and you're called upon to treat
me in such a way that you're provoked to love me and I'm provoked
to love you. What's that mean? If by the way I treat you, I treat you the way I want to be
treated, if I'm not judgmental toward you, If I'm not trying
to manipulate you, to try to get you to do what I want, if
I love you, if I don't look down my nose upon you in pride and
arrogance, if I treat you with respect, if I'm genuinely interested
in you and your best interests, you know what? You'll be provoked
to love me. you'll be provoked. If you treat me that way, I'll
be provoked to love you. Provoke one another to love and
good works. You know when you're provoked
to love me, you know what you're gonna do? You're gonna do good to me. For
the glory of Christ. Out of love to him, but you're
gonna do good to me. If you provoke me to love, I'm gonna do good
to you. You know, this thing of doing good as much as anything
else, it's being merciful, being gracious. Provoke to love and
to good works. Hebrews chapter 12, verse one. Wherefore seeing we also are
compassed about, with so great a cloud of witnesses. Now he's
talking about the witnesses mentioned in Hebrews chapter 11, beginning
with Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph,
Moses, Joshua, Rahab, Samson, Jephthah, Samuel, David, and
the prophets in light of the faith that God gave these men
and the motion we see them going because of that faith. He says,
let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily
beset us and let us run with patience. That's motion, isn't
it? Let us run with patience. The race that's set before us. Seeing we're compassed about
with this cloud of witnesses, he speaks of in Hebrews chapter
11 what a cloud it is. Let us lay aside every weight,
every hindrance in running this race. Now, if you run a race,
you don't have heavy stuff on, do you? And let us lay aside The sin
that so easily beset us. Now, most people, when they think
of besetting sins, they think of constitutional sins. What's a temptation to one person
is not so much a temptation to the other person. And some have
more problem with this sin. That's not what that's talking
about. The definite article tells me the besetting sin is unbelief. It's the mother of all other
sins. And let us run with patience. Patience. God's on the throne.
No point worrying. No point in getting upset. Let
us run with patience the race that God set before us. We all
have a race to run. God's given you a race to run.
God's given me a race to run. I don't know how long we're going
to run it. We'll run it until he takes us home. But let us
run with patience, believing God's on the throne." No worries. No worries. And here's how this
race is to run. Be run, verse two, looking unto
Jesus. In this race set before us, here's
what we're always doing, looking unto Jesus, the author and the
finisher of our faith. He's the author of it. He's called
the author of eternal salvation. He's the author of it in the
sense that he purposed it, he purchased it, he applies it,
he's the author, and he's the one that's gonna make sure it
goes all the way to the end, he finishes it. who for the joy
that was said before him endured the cross, despising the shame.
Look in verse 28 of this chapter. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom
which cannot be moved. Let us have grace. And my marginal
reading says, let us hold to grace, whereby we may serve God
acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a
consuming fire. Now, we've received a kingdom
that can't be moved. If it was something created,
it could be moved. But this is the uncreated kingdom
of God that can't be moved. Oh, we're so safe and secure
in this kingdom. Now seeing that we have received
this kingdom, the king of the kingdom, the Lord Jesus Christ,
let us hold on fast to grace. that we may serve God. There's
movement in that. Serve God acceptably with reverence
and with godly fear. Now, let me say this. If you
have any reverence toward God, you're gonna hold on to grace.
If you have any fear of God, you're gonna hold on to grace.
I mean, it's all you have, the grace of God. And to not hold
on to grace is to have no reverence and no fear of God. And there
is no acceptable service without holding on to grace. Let us therefore hold on to grace. Grace is a charming sound, melodious
to the ear. I love the Lord's name best of
all, but my second favorite word is grace. Let us hold to grace. Chapter 13. Let brotherly love continue.
Now there's motion in that word, isn't there? Continue, continue,
continue. Let brotherly love continue. That point about provoking one
another to love and good works, Keep it going. Paul said, make
love your aim. Make it your aim. Let brotherly
love continue. And he goes on to say what that
means. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers. For thereby some have
entertained angels unawares. Remember them that are in bonds,
that are suffering for the gospel sake as bound with them. And
then would suffer adversity as being yourselves also in the
body, like you're suffering it. Marriage is honorable and all
in the bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers, God will judge. Let your conversation be without covetousness. and be content with such things
as you have. I love that scripture. If you have Christ as all, what
is there to covet? In what way could you not be
content? Content with beholding his face. My all to his pleasure
resigned. No changes of season or place
would make any change in my mind. When blessed with a sense of
his love, a palace, a toy would appear. prisons would palaces
prove if Jesus would dwell with me there. Verse 9 of chapter 13. Here's
the movement we don't want. Be not carried about with diverse
and strange doctrines. We don't want that kind of movement,
do we? not carried about with diverse and strange doctrines,
for it's a good thing that the heart be established with grace."
Anything opposed to grace is being carried about with diverse
and strange doctrines. Verse 9, It's a good thing for
the heart to be established with grace and not with meats, which
we have not profited them that have been occupied therein. We
have an altar, where if they have no right to eat what serves
the tabernacle, those will have been equal priests. We have an
altar to eat of that they are forbidden to. For the bodies
of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by
the high priest for sin are burned without the camp. They didn't
burn them inside the walls of the tabernacle or in the camp
of Israel, they went outside You know who was outside the
camp? Leopards and the unclean. That too is without the camp.
Wherefore Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with
his own blood suffered without the gate, let us go forth therefore
unto him without the camp bearing his reproach. Let us go to him
outside the camp. You know, there's a couple of
things that really hit me about this. Outside the camp of accepted
religion. You know, I have no desire at
all to be identified with man's religion. I have no desire to
be identified with what is called Christianity in our day. I don't
wanna have anything to do with it. I'm ashamed of religion and
I don't wanna be identified with it. And I don't apologize for
that. I don't wanna be identified with it. I wanna be outside the
camp. And you know who's outside the camp? Lepers and the unclean. You know what, that's the people
I wanna be with. Sinners saved by the grace of
God. That's who he's with. That's
who I wanna be with too. Now for the last one, verse 15. By him therefore, let us. There's that language, by him
therefore, Now, I love the way the writer says this. He doesn't
say, let us offer the sacrifices of praise to God continually.
He says by him, therefore, I don't want to do anything on my own
to you. So in this, in this kind of motion, I want to make sure
I'm only in him. So this sacrifice that I'm offering
up is him doing it by him, by him. There's so much of that
in the writings of scripture by him. By him, therefore, let
us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the
fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. Oh, what a beautiful
motion, giving thanks to his name. Now, somebody says, you need to think
about what y'all to be thankful for. Everything in everything,
give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning
you, whatever it is, give thanks for it. It's the will of God
in Christ Jesus concerning you. That's a good thing. But to do good verse 16. But
to do good and to communicate, forget not, for with such sacrifices
God is well pleased. Now this is a part of that giving
thanks to his name. He tells us what not to forget.
This is a part of that spiritual motion to do good. Every one of us ought to be very
zealous of good works. And we ought to be very zealous
of doing good to others and being merciful toward others. And you
know what? There's sacrifice involved in
that. There's sacrifice. You're gonna
have to deny yourself to do that. But isn't it joyful? Well, as
soon as I said that, my mind goes, well, how do you know if
you've ever done it? I don't know, but I hope to. Maybe after
this. To do good and to communicate. That means to give, to give. Don't forget to give. What a
privilege, what a blessing it is for the Lord to allow us to
give to his cause. Now, to do good, and to give,
communicate, forget not. For with such sacrifices, and
it is a sacrifice, but through Christ, God is well pleased. Faith has motion, doesn't it?
Faith has movement. Yes, it's grounded and can't
be moved, Because Christ can't be moved. He's the foundation
that can't be moved, but oh, that we would have the movement
described in these verses of scripture. Let's pray. Lord, give us the grace to enter
into your rest, to come boldly under your throne of grace. Give
us the grace to have the movement of all these aspects of faith.
Lord, that's your work in us, and we pray that you would do
your work in us, that you would work in us that which is well-pleasing
in your sight. I bless these words for Christ's
sake, in his name we pray, amen.