I'd like for us to turn to Hebrews chapter 4, and we're going to take you through the book of Hebrews. And I may not get all the way through it tonight. If we get about halfway through this lesson, we'll pick it up Wednesday night and give you the rest of it. So I know that I can cover it in two. Well, I don't know, but I think I can cover it in two lessons. I want you to notice Hebrews chapter 4, verse 1, just the beginning point. It says, let us, I want you to notice those two words, let us therefore fear lest the promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. Verse two says, for unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them, but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith and them that heard it. In other words, the word has to be mixed with faith. But I want to center in on those two words, let us. There are 13 times in the book of Hebrews in 12 verses that you'll find these two words, let us. Now, the words let us seems to tell us that God is not going to force us to do things, but he's going to give us the opportunity. He's not going to force us against our will, but he tells us what we ought to do. And as we said, it occurs no less than 13 times in 12 verses in this book. And it seems to be saying that God is saying to us, I'm going to beseech you. Paul says, I beseech you therefore by the mercies of God. And I'm going to encourage you as much as possible to hear and to do what is your Christian privilege to do and what is your responsibility to do. And having this in mind, I want us to look briefly at each one of these words, Let Us. And the first thing I'm going to do is go through the book of Hebrews and point them out to you, and then I'll come back and deal with each one individually. And if you have a pencil, and by the way, if you don't, there's some on the back of the pews, a pen there, you just underline them and mark each one. And you'll have 13 places, or you could highlight them, whatever you want to do. So I'll give you all of these 13 times in 12 different verses that you'll find these words. And this will be the first one that I just read to you. Hebrews 4, verse 1, Let us therefore fear. All right? And drop down to verse 11. This is number two. Down to verse 11. Let us labor, therefore, to enter into that rest. This is all in the fourth chapter. The third one you find in verse 14. It says, Seeing then that we have a great high priest that is fastened unto the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. That's verse 14. And then verse 16. Let us, therefore, come boldly to the throne of grace. You got them numbered? And that's four of them, right? Okay, the fifth one is in chapter 6, verse 1. Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection. We need to go on to perfection. And then drop over to the tenth chapter now. The tenth chapter. In verse 22, in 23 and 24, by the way, but verse 22 says, Let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled with an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. And verse 23 says, let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful that promise. And verse 24, and this is the eighth one, by the way, if you're numbering them as you go along, you may just be highlighting them or underlining them. Verse 24 says, and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works. And then verse 28. No. No, that's not in the 10th chapter. We come to the 12th chapter. I beg your pardon. That's the last one in the 10th chapter. Now then, the next reference is chapter 12. We have chapter 12 and 13 to deal with. Chapter 12, and here's a verse, verse 1, that you find two times that it's mentioned. So let's read chapter 12, verse 1. It says, Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, now here it is, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us, there you have it again, run with patience the race that is set before us. So in 12, verse 1, you have it twice. Now then, 12, verse 28, what I started to get to a minute ago. Well, verse 28 says this, Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear. That was number 11, if you are marking them down. Now, chapter 13, you have two more. And it is verse 13 and verse 15. Verse 13 says, Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach, bearing the reproach of Christ. For here we have no continuing city, verse 14, but we seek one to come. Now the next one is verse 15. By him therefore, by him, that is by Christ, therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is the fruit of our lips. giving thanks to his name, connect verse 16 with it. But to do good and to communicate, forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." And all that's connected when we start teaching it, verse by verse. Now, we said we'd come back. We've given you all of those. I hope you have them marked down. If not, you can get them again as we approach each one individually, and we'll try to deal with them, and I'd like to get about at least halfway through tonight and then give you the other half of it Wednesday night, if the Lord wills it. So as we look at our Bibles, Hebrews chapter 4 verse 1, and we'll try to get some details about our study here. It says, Let us therefore fear lest the promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. Now, Israel came short of Canaan. Canaan was their rest, and they came short because of unbelief. And can you understand why that we could come short of our rest as a Christian? You know, there are a lot of rests spoken of in this third chapter. There is a rest that we have ceased from our own labors as far as salvation is concerned. We don't have to work for our salvation. in verse 10, for he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his." So when we enter into the rest of salvation that Jesus promised us when we come to Him, He gives it to us, and we do not continue to try to work to obtain it. If you remember, Jesus said in Matthew 11, I believe it's verse 28, He says, Come unto me all ye that labor, you're laboring for salvation, labor and are heavy laden. They're laboring for people outside of Christ, labor for many things. They labor because of the burden of sin. They labor because some of them are trying to earn their salvation, coming back But he says, come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. You're not going to earn it. I'm going to give it to you. And so the rest of salvation is freely given to us when we accept Christ. And then what did he say? The next thing applies to the verse we've been studying. Then he says, take my yoke upon you, that yoke represents service, and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest under your soul for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. So the rest of service is found. And people fail to enter into that rest. and come short of what God's blessings are because they will not try to find this second rest, we'll call it, Matthew 11, 28-30. He says, Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest unto your soul for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Now let's think of that for a moment. The first rest in that passage is given to us. I will give you rest. That's the rest of salvation. But then the rest of service is only obtained when we take the yoke of service upon us, we follow Jesus, and we're willing to learn of Him. And He says, I meet you lowly in heart. He's easy to learn of, isn't He? And He says, you shall find rest unto your soul, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. The burden you bear as a Christian in the service of God. And the children of Israel as a nation fail to enter into the rest of service because they were delivered out of Egypt, they were there in the wilderness, and Canaan was their final rest of their serving God, and He would have brought them into the happy land of Canaan, Canaan's land. But what happened? They were filled with unbelief, they would not serve God, they rebelled against God, and so they didn't enter into that rest, did they? They fell short. They fell short because of unbelief and because of a lack of consideration. of entering into that rest. Now, then, the same thing can happen to Christians. Israel was on the very border of Canaan. I mean, they were ready to go in. And Israel is spoken of in the Bible as our example in many ways. Good in 1 Corinthians, if you will, chapter 10. 1 Corinthians chapter 10. Now, I want you to notice what it says here. Let's begin reading with verse 5. But with many of them God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples. What? The things that Israel did and things that happened to them were our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted, neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them. And as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. That's when Moses came and had to break the commandments before them and so on and so forth. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand, twenty-three thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. But look at verse eleven. Now all these things happened unto them for in samples, and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." They were written for our benefit, our admonition. "...Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." So they failed to enter into that rest of Canaan's land because of these things that we've spoken of and read also in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. and many things that are spoken of here in Hebrews that we did not read in the third chapter of Hebrews. In fact, if you have Hebrews, hold your place in Hebrews. Go back to verse 12 of the third chapter. Look at that word again. Take heed. Pay attention. That's what we preached on this morning. Take heed. Give the more earnest heed. Take heed, 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 a day, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, that is, have fellowship with him on a continual basis, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. While it is said, Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation they provoked God, Israel did in the wilderness. For some, when they had heard, did provoke, howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was he grieved forty years? Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness?" Remember we said that all the adult generation from twenty years old and upward perished in the wilderness, were destroyed in the wilderness because of unbelief. and they did not enter into that rest that we're talking about. And verse 18 and 19, And to whom swear he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believe not. So we see then that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Let us therefore fear, chapter 4, verse 1, lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. Now Canaan is a picture of rest and blessings upon this earth. Did I say I was going to get this in two lessons? Okay, Canaan is a picture of the Christian's rest in this life. It's not the picture of heaven, because over in Canaan's land, Israel had to go in and fight for every inch of it. We don't have to fight for heaven. The Lord's going to take us there, and we're going to enter in. He's paid all the price of our salvation, our redemption, our eternal security, and our eternal blessings. But they had to go in, and every place the sole of their foot, would tread upon, they had to claim it. By faith, they had to claim it. Now, we're raised up, Paul says to the Ephesians, to sit together in heavenly places in Christ. And that's what we're to do. He's already, it says, who hath blessed us. Hath means already. Blessed us with heavenly places in Christ Jesus in the book of Ephesians. And all we have to do is rest in those blessings that the Lord has given us and continue in faith. and claimed them. Remember, Canaan's land was also where they had to fight all of the iths, every one of the ones that rose up against them. They had to battle. Well, in heaven, we don't have to battle for our heavenly home. We're going to be taken there. Jesus paid for it. He said, In my Father's house are many mansions, if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there you may be also. So up in heaven. And Paul said, we know that of earth the house of this tabernacle were dissolved, 2 Corinthians 5 verse 1. We have a building of God and house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. And he says, for in this, in this tent, in this tabernacle, we do groan being burdened. Not that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon with our house which is from heaven. And he goes on to tell that to depart this life is to be with Christ, which is far better. But anyway, back to this. However long it takes, we'll do all these. We've got one nearly heavenly. So we believers are not to fear lest we come short of heaven because human merits will not take us to heaven. Our human merits will not take us to heaven. But we're to fear lest we come short of the things in God's service and short of our heavenly rest upon this earth because of lack of faith. And in verse 2 it tells us that they did not believe. Look, Hebrews 4 verse 2. For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them. We have heard as well as they have. And it says here in verse 2. But the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. Think of that for a moment. The word preached didn't profit them. The word preached will not profit anyone if it's not mixed with faith. The word preached today has to be mixed with faith. It has to be believed. And faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. And the word of God can be preached unless the person in the pew or the hearer of it, whether it is here in the church or outside of the church, if they do not put their faith in the word of God and what He has said, it will not profit them. And so we talk about faith that does not profit unless it is mixed. The word that does not profit unless it's mixed with faith. So, you know, the preacher can get up here and he can preach his heart out. He can say everything that's true. He can preach from the Bible. He can read from the Bible. And unless the hearer says, you know, I believe what God says about this or that, whatever the subject is, and when they believe it's going to profit them. But when they do not believe it, it will not profit one iota, one bit. So God's word is to be heard and is to believe. Hebrews 10 verse 17 says, Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. And so when we hear God's Word, we must put our faith in exactly what God has said, what God has promised, what God will do. Just like when I was talking to Ryan this morning after the morning service, and I quoted the Scriptures to him, and I told him, I said, you know, the Bible says that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And I said, are you willing to call upon the name of the Lord for your salvation? And he was, and he wanted to pray, and ask God to take care of him, to save him first of all, and then that he would follow the Lord and try to live a Christian life by the grace of God. So all of these things enter into the picture. Faith has to be exercised, and we exercise it in various ways, but we're talking about here They fail to do that. Drop down to verse 11, if you will. Verse 11. Let us therefore, let us labor therefore, to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. The word labor means to strive diligently. You don't have to strive diligently and labor for salvation, do you? If it's talking about a rest of salvation, you don't do that. But you do strive diligently to labor in the rest of God's service. You'll find rest. Jesus said, take my yoke upon you and learn of me. A yoke, first of all, is a symbol of subjection. You have to subject yourself to Jesus. You have to be willing. And it's a symbol of obedience. You put the yoke upon an ox or a mule or a horse or whatever animal you're using, he has to be subjected to that yoke and to the one that's in control in order to accomplish anything. And so when we take Christ's yoke of service upon us, we're saying that we're in subjection to Christ, his orders. And we're going to be obedient. If he says plow, we'll plow. If he says go, we'll go. And we'll labor in his service. And these two rests that I've just mentioned, it says that in verse 11, let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. But now in verse 10, he's talking about the rest of another sort. In verse 10, he says, For he that is entered into his rest, he also has ceased from his own works as God did from his. Have you ever seen people that's trying to work for and earn their own salvation? And they have to quit that. There has to be a time that they say, I give that up. I can't earn it. and God is going to give it to them. Free gratis. You can't pay for your salvation in any form or fashion. Now, there's a lot of ramifications about all these rests that we're talking about here, and some of them have some implication as to the future. There's a past, present, and future rest spoken of. But anyway, what we want to get over is the ones that say, let us, and that's why we're dealing with these that we just gave you. I want you to look at 4, verse 14 now, if you will. Chapter 4, verse 14. Notice what it says here. It says, seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens. Now, who is it? Jesus, the son of God. And since we have this kind of high priest and he's identified here, not as a human priest, but as human and divine. He's Jesus. He's not only a great high priest being made like we are and of flesh and blood, but he is Jesus, the son of God. He's human and divine and says, let us hold fast our profession. let us, because of the high priest that we have, what are we to do? Hold fast our profession. Connect that with chapter 2 of Hebrews to prove what we just said about him being human and divine. Chapter 2, verse 16 says, For verily he took not on him the nature of angels, this is Christ, but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore, in all things it behooved him," the word behooved means that it was necessary, "...it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself has suffered, being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted." Because of his humanity, because he didn't take on him the nature of angel, he took on him the seed of Abraham. The Bible says he was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, but he was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness. So you see that who he is, back to verse 14 now, he's Jesus the Son of God, and because he is human and because he is divine, let us therefore hold fast our profession. Let's hold fast our profession on the basis of two things here. He's spoken of in this verse as Jesus the Son of God. But notice, it says Jesus, which is His name that means Savior, and it means that that's His name that identifies Him with you and I. Thou shalt call His name Jesus when He was born, for He shall save His people from their sins. And think of it in the fact that you have the twofold nature of the High Priest that we're talking about. Who is He? Jesus, the Son of God. Let's think of it in this way. Romans 1, verses 3 and 4 says, He was made of the seed of David, listen carefully, verse 3. He was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, that's humanity. And verse 4 says, and declared to be the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. So the word declared means decisively proven to be the Son of God by the resurrection. So He was born of a woman. He was made under the law. He came to redeem those that were under the curse of the law. And the Bible says that He took upon Him our human nature minus sin. He had no sin. in order that he could identify with you and I as human beings. But at the same time, he was Jesus, the Son of God, and so on the basis of that, Hebrews 4, verse 14, seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, he's already been upon this earth, he lived a sinless life, he went through the temptation in the wilderness, he died on the cross of Calvary and shed his blood to redeem us to God, and the Bible says, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, And then he passed into the heavens after he rose from the dead. He passed into the heavens, and he's now seated on the right hand of God. And so, therefore, on the basis of that, let us hold fast our profession. My, it doesn't take a whole lot to realize that we really have something to hold on to, does it? Because our profession is based upon some very wonderful facts, some very wonderful truths. that Jesus came down from heaven. He took upon Him our nature, minus sin, as we said. And yet, the incarnation, we call that. And then He was crucified on the cross and paid the penalty for our sins. And then He was buried in Joseph's new tomb. And He was resurrected from the dead the third day. And then He ascended back to the right hand of God. And He's seated on the right hand of God. There to ever live, he ever liveth to make intercession for all that come unto God by him. And that's in Hebrews 2. Also in Hebrews, the book of Hebrews 2. Not chapter 2, but it's in Hebrews also, I should say. All right. Now then, so let's hold fast our profession. We have a high priest who is greater than the angels. He's greater than Moses. He's greater than Aaron. Remember, Aaron was the high priest in the Old Testament. And he is the head of the priestly family, and then the tribe of Levi was separated to be priests. And he is Jesus, the Son of God, our great high priest, and he's passed into the heavens, into the presence of divine majesty. He's not ministering in an earthly tabernacle or temple like the priests of old. But he's in the heaven itself, now to appear, the Bible says in the ninth chapter of Hebrews, now to appear in the presence of God for us. His appearance in the presence of God is on our behalf. If you want to turn over to chapter 9, get there what I just said. Look, verse 24. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, that's like the temple or the tabernacle. which are figures of the truth, they represent the truth, but into heaven itself now to appear, this is his present office, in the presence of God for us. That s where he is now. So back in the fourth chapter, Hebrews chapter four, now let s look at verse sixteen. Let s read on down to sixteen and then we ll deal with verse 16 where you find the word let us. Let's read 14 through 16. 14 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. 15 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. 16 So we are told here, that we have one who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, that he was tempted in all points like as we are, yet he was without sin, yet without sin. Then it says in verse 16, Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace. Now, why could we come boldly? because we know that He is like us, that He was tempted in all points like as we are, that He was human, and yet He is powerful because He was divine. He is Jesus, the Son of God. Therefore, it should give us great boldness to come into the presence of one who is both like us and able to do all that we cannot do for ourselves. He is Jesus, the Son of God. So, therefore, we are encouraged to what? Come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. We are to take fast hold of our faith, our profession, and we are to approach because Christ is approachable, and we are to draw near to Christ in prayer and ask Him for anything that we have need of. Come boldly to the throne of grace. We have a high priest who became a partaker of our human nature, and we have a high priest who submitted himself to the trials and distresses of life, and he overcame all. He was tempted in all points. He was tempted by Satan in the wilderness. Remember, the devil said, if thou be the Son of God, you turn these stones into bread, if thou be. His words are always trying to produce doubt and fear. And Jesus said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God shall man live. He said, I want you to jump off the pinnacle of this temple. And Jesus said, It is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Thou shalt worship the Lord. Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Quoting again from Deuteronomy. Then he showed him all the kingdoms of the world. He said, all of this I will give you. By the way, it wasn't his to give really. It belongs to God. Everything belongs to God. But he said, I'll give you all of this. He was worshipping power over God at that time, trying to claim something he didn't have. But he said, this was a temptation anyway. All this I'll give you. If you'll fall down, look, fall down and worship me. And Christ's answer to him was, It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve. Worship and serve. And you know, it's never in the reverse order. It's never serve and then worship. We can't serve God unless we worship God, unless we are bowed down and submissive to Him. Unless we put Him first in our thoughts and minds and hearts. Just serving God. You know, the Pharisees went about, they encompassed land and sea to make one convert, one proselyte. So Jesus said, when you've made Him, you've made Him a two-fold more child of hell than yourself. That's what He said about their work, their service. They were really serving, but they were doing the wrong thing. They hadn't bowed down to Christ. They hadn't worshipped Him first. I think we gave you the illustration one time of Isaiah. Remember what we said about Isaiah chapter 6? It says, In the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah said, I saw also the Lord high and lifted up, and His train filled His temple. And he speaks of the seraphim. And he said, Each one had six wings, and with twain he covered his face, with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. Now what does covering your face represent? Humility and submission and worship? What do you do if you had two wings and it covered your feet? also would show humility and worship before the Lord. And with Twain, he did fly. That's the activity. So it takes twice as much to worship as it does to serve. And it comes first. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve, is what Jesus said. Worship and serve. And it's never in the reverse. Never in the Bible do you find God saying, You serve me. And then you can worship me. He says, you worship me and then you can serve me. And you have to put him first in worship before you can serve. So he says, let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace. It is a throne of grace. What does it mean, a throne of grace? That means that we do not deserve anything that we receive even when we come to this throne, but that we should obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. God is merciful, and He's going to show mercy to us. The Bible says that God, who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together in Christ. It says, by grace you're saved. That's Ephesians chapter 2. When we think of the mercies of God, remember David after he had sinned grievously, and in the 51st Psalm where he repents of his sin and confesses his sin. David said, Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness. Now listen carefully. According to the multitude of thy tender mercies brought out my transgressions. See what he said there? Have mercy upon me, O God. That's mercy. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies flot out my transgressions." So God not only has mercy, but He has a multitude of what kind? Not only mercy, but tender mercies. You and I, sometimes we try to show sympathy or concern or be merciful to someone, and yet Jesus has the most tender mercies. He knows how to deal with us in a very tender and loving and compassionate way. We need to follow the example and the ability of Jesus to do that. We're not going to have time to go any further.