Sermon: Fleeting Pleasures

Let's pray before we open God's word this morning. Hebrews chapter 12 verses 15 through 17. Lemme pray for us.

Father, we are thankful that you are God who speaks.

We're thankful that you have spoken a word that it's not just good for a moment. It was not just good in the past but a good word for us and our day on into eternity. And even as we hear the word red this morning, that this is a living word and it is the most true word that we will hear spoken the entire day. And so would you give us ears to hear this morning?

Would you give us hearts that are responsive?

We might know that we have heard your voice and that you have spoken to us. We pray all of this and the strong name of Christ. Amen. Hebrews chapter 12 verses 15 through 17. This is the holy iner sufficient word of God.

See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root to bitterness springs up and causes trouble. And by it many become defiled and no one is sexually immoral or unholy like he saw sold his birthright for a single meal. But you know that afterward when he desired to inherit the blessing he was rejected for he found no chance to repent. Though he sought it with tears, though the grass withers and the flower fades.

The word of God is forever. Thanks be to God. Amen.

This is the last hard text in the book of Hebrews. We've seen a number of these as we've gone through the book. This is the fifth of them. And before we do so and before we jump into what is the fifth kind of warning passage here in the book of Hebrews, I want to to stay once again very clearly as we've tried to do and each of those passages that God's grace keeps, those who are his my favorite passages and all the scriptures is, is John Tin, that account

where Jesus is preaching and he is speaking about the good shepherd, that he is the good shepherd and he knows his sheep and his sheep know him. And as he speaks about it and he speaks about laying his life down for the sheep, he speaks about the sheep are in the palm of his hands and that none are able to snatch them out of his hands. And he says, not only are we in his hands, we are in the father's hands and none are greater than the father.

And so he says nothing, no one, nothing is able to snatch us out of the father's hand. If we are gods, we are gods. He keeps those who are his. It is also true that those who are his keep after God, both things are true. The greatest sign that you and I have saving faith, the greatest sign is that we finish in the faith, that we cross the finish line, that we persevere to the end. Remember again, this is the context for the writer of Hebrews.

He has been talking about how you and I, if we are in the faith that we belong to Christ, that we are running a race and he's concerned that we go over the finish line. He's just talked about in Hebrews chapter 11, oh of those saints that have gone before us that finish their race. And then he begins chapter 12 and he says that you and I are to look to Christ. We are to keep running, looking to Christ as author in this perfecter of our faith.

And we are to keep striving. We are to keep going.

He keeps us and we keep after him. Ff Bruce rightly said about this passage, he said, if nevertheless some of them fall short of the grace of God, it is not because his grace was inaccessible but because they would not avail themselves of it and have therefore failed to reach the goal which is attainable only by his grace. So let me say it another way. If you are a Christian, you could not be safer. You are safe before the foundations of the world.

Before you ever existed, God chose you, the father and the son covenanted together to purchase you. The son of God came into this world and he lived and he died that bloody and death upon the cross. For you you're safe. It's a guarantee you did nothing to secure your salvation and you can do nothing to sacrifice it. An old Princeton theologian, one of my heroes of the faith, Samuel Miller once said it this way, when the sun

can cease to be almighty, when his atoning sacrifice and prevailing intercession have no more efficacy, then the humble follower of Jesus may be afraid. But until then, he stands upon a foundation which nothing can destroy. Nothing shakes world without end. When does the sun cease to be almighty? Never. When does his intercession cease to be efficacious? Never world without end.

So before we begin this passage, let me say again, if you are in Christ, you are secure in Christ.

And yet this is a real warning.

I want to look at it under three points this morning. Our responsibility, our century duty and the final warning. So our responsibility, our century duty and our final warning, the final warning, first our responsibility. The rider of Hebrews has told us positively how we are to keep going, how we are to run this race. He he did that in the verse we looked at last week. The immediately proceeding verse verse 14. He says it in the positive, we are to strive

for peace with everyone. We're to strive for the holiness. Now he takes the negative approach. If this is what you and I are to pursue now, this is what you and I are to avoid. Or if we were to put it in Paul's language, if this is what you and I were to put on, Paul would say, this is what you are to put off. It begins by saying this, see to it, see to it. It's an interesting command. It's in the plural, meaning he is speaking

to everyone in the church.

And the word that is used is a present, present. Participle knowing, noting that it's an ongoing activity. We could say it this way, see to it and keep seeing to it still more interesting is the word. It's a form of the Greek word Episcopal and you can hear it. It's a word we get Episcopalian from the word that we often translate in the New Testament as bishop.

That is that there is to be oversight, there is to be a looking over. And so let's put these three things together. All of you, all of you, there's a collective responsibility that he enjoins upon everyone in the church. What is it? See to it. Keep on seeing to it all of you. And what do we need to see to what is our responsibility? Our responsibility is one another. Keep seeing, keep overseeing one another.

That's our responsibility. Why? Because the inference is, is that we belong to one another. We belong to one another. We are not in a casual relationship in this church.

Lemme say it this way, universe reform church is not simply a gathering of uninterested individuals for this moment on Sunday morning. We are not that. We are much more than that. We belong to one another. As Paul says in Romans 12 or one Corinthians 12 or Galatians four, we are all members of one body. We belong to one another. And as he says in one Corinthians 12, the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you.

The hand cannot say to the arm, I cooperate without you. Here there's belonging. We belong to one another. This is at the very core of what it means to be the church.

And that is why like this morning we sang together. That's why we prayed together. That's why we confessed together. That's why we take membership vows. When you join this church, not just to God, you're taking vows to one another together. That's why when a child is baptized here as a covenant child, the congregation then stands and it vows that it will come alongside of these parents to help raise this child. Together we, we've been put together.

It is why we cannot and must not simply punch our church attendance cards, sneaking in and sneaking out each Sunday, at least not for an extended period of time.

We belong to one another and thus we have responsibility for one another. See to it collectively, all of us are to see to it. The writer says that no one fails to obtain the grace of God. Am I my brother's keeper? And the answer is an unqualified yes. If you are a Christian, Yes,

Don't you just treat this church as just another small part of your life. This is not like your gym membership. This is not like belonging to the girl scouts. This is not even like belonging to those people that you work with day in and day out. This is unique. We have been placed together by God in this God instituted family for one another to help one another. Finish the race, see to it

don't live casually in this body.

This is why it is no small thing to join a church, a local church. And this is why it should be absolutely a gut wrenching decision to ever leave your local church.

He placed me here.

It isn't only about me.

Would you say that in your head to yourself? This isn't just about me, it's about us. Us See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God. His concern here is apostasy, that we don't lose any of us.

He's expressed his concern four other times. This is the fifth time, as I said, he gave it in chapter two. He expressed his concern in chapter three, verse 12. He gave it again as a warning in chapter six. And yet again in chapter 10, verse 36, it's on his mind and his heart. Why? Because it happens. And it can, and it does happen here. It happens here.

A month or so ago, I texted, uh, a family that had left URCA half dozen years ago. Uh, it was a family, the husband, father I had spent a lot of time with and he was on my heart and my mind. For some reason I thought maybe the Lord is prodding me to reach out to him. And so I texted him and uh, he replied very quickly with a text. He some nice pleasantries to start with. And then he said towards the end of the text, he said,

I just want you to know that we have moved beyond Christianity now.

And then in kindness, he said,

I struggle whether to share this with you 'cause I just didn't wanna discourage you.

Well beyond discourages me.

It's a failure on my watch.

If they continue on this path, we failed. I failed. See some in our midst, obtain the grace of God to finish the race. It's more than discouraging.

We have a responsibility, responsibility for everyone that is here.

Not just those like me, not just those who are my family. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, meaning everlasting eternal peace with God. Every child, every retiree, every extreme introvert, every boisterous person, every college student, every scholar, every mother, every young professional, every sick and tired person, every fitness, yoga, loving, vegan Pilates advocate, all don't lose one of them.

They all concern us. So we keep challenging one another. We keep speaking into each other's lives. We risk being offended by each other. We grant each other forgiveness. We, we pray for one another. We seek to serve one another. We aim to pour out our lives as the apostles Paul said, as a drink offering for the sake of one another,

all so that not one of us fails to obtain the grace of God.

Now we can't control it. Demas was a disciple of Paul, and yet he apostatized for goodness sakes. Judas was a disciple of Jesus and he apostatized we can't control it, but we do all that we possibly can with all of the means of God's appointment, all of the gifts that he has given to us, all of the resources, all of our energy, all of our time that we can muster with our schedules. Everything that we are, we seek as much as we possibly can

to see that not one fails in our midst. This Christian life is about much more than me.

It's about us,

which leads to our second point, a second point of our text, our century duty.

We are to be on guard and he gives us two particular things to be on guard against. The assumption that I make and I'm making when I come to this text, this warning is I think that these two things are on the forefront of his mind because it is these two sins in particular that often cause so much disruption in the church. I could say that the C to it is implied in both of these C to it. Verse 15, that no root to bitterness springs up

and causes trouble c to it. Secondly, that no one is sexually immoral. And then he notes his concern. His concern as of spread through the body by it many become defiled. And it is true of both of these sins. These two sins may be more than any others. They, they tend to just multiply and spread through a body. There is bitterness when there is sexual immorality. A writer probably knows this from experience of not history

that sends spreads. It doesn't adhere to boundaries. It cannot be contained. These two especially,

we will, uh, never forget in the middle of Covid. It was at the beginning of it, the early days of it. And, uh, everyone was anxious. And I remember going to Kroger to the grocery store, but like Indiana Jones going out at that point. And I remember going into Kroger and you know, everybody had to wear a mask. Everybody I saw besides myself was wearing gloves. And it was at the time where you could only walk down an aisle one way

and then the next aisle you would have to walk up the next aisle a different way. And you were to maintain 10 feet, feet of separation from everybody. And people were going home and washing their vegetables and their fruit before they brought 'em inside. I was walking up an aisle and I made a mistake. I was supposed to walk down that aisle and I turned the corner and there was a man in that aisle still 10, 15 feet ahead of me.

And he immediately fear was in his eyes and he just lurched into the shelves like he was gonna hide in the shelves in case I passed him by.

And that thought has often gone through my mind since then. He, he, he was scared that, that I had a contagion that would spread to him. And I thought, if only I, if only you, if only we had, it's such a response to sin in our lives,

was that hateful of it and that afraid of it spreading to me or me spreading it.

We often think we can control it. We can put boundaries around our sin that I can do this in secret, I can do it in quiet and nobody will see it. And really I can keep it where it doesn't affect me too much and it won't affect anybody else because I keep it under wraps. But you can't control sin.

And my sin always, always affects others.

It doesn't stay nicely in boundaries. And so what he is saying is that you and I, we need to exercise century duty. So no sins springs up

is two sins in view here, bitterness, sexual immorality, simply representative. But it seems like maybe these two, because they so easily spring up so easily spread bitterness. We feel hurt, we feel disregarded, we feel neglected, we feel injured. Maybe we did not receive what we think we should have. I'm, I'm forgotten here. I I I'm not quite the core of the church. It always feels like I'm on the outside.

I'm looked past here. The leadership made the wrong decision there. That person was my friend, but now looks like they like that person better than me. It's bitterness, resentfulness. It takes root, which often leads to anger and anger to conflict and conflict, if not outwardly leads to hatred and more. And it disrupts our bond with one another. It causes trouble as the writer of Hebrews says here.

Can I ask you, is there any root of bitterness

you're wrestling with this morning?

The question you should regularly ask yourself in the church, there any root of bitterness that is sprouted up? I've allowed to take root.

It's not to be nurtured,

be lifted up from the roots and disposed of though, and said, we either be killing sin or sin will kill us. And I don't just do it for my own soul, but for yours. And you need to do it not just for your own soul, but for mine.

Be on guard. He says,

no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau who sold his birthright for a single meal. Sexual sexually immoral. It's the word pornos. The word that we get pornography porn from the picture is of a person who only sees what they desire and they're just motivated by what is right before them. They, they're beastly in their appetites and so they go after it. They have become like Esau unholy.

We don't have evidence that Esau was a sexually immoral man unless we attribute his marrying two daughters of the same father Heath in Genesis 26 as being sexually immoral. And yet there's a large testimony outside of the scriptures in Jewish literature that Esau was a man who had all kinds of illicit relationships with women. That he, he was a true man of the flesh that he couldn't control himself and he had this unsatiable appetite for women

that were not his wise. Regardless. The, the rider's concern here is for sin in their midst, sexual morality, un holiness.

And then he tells the account an account that many, if not most of you will be familiar with in Genesis 25, when Esau comes in from the field and he is tired, we are told he is exhausted and he is famished. And he saw the firstborn of Isaac sees Jacob, the second born of Isaac and Jacob has, has created a pot of stew of red stew. And he saw once to eat of that stew and Jacob ever the conniver ever trying to figure out how

to get one up on someone says to Esau, I will give you the pot of stew if you will sell me your birthright in Esau, we are told in Genesis chapter 25, and driven by his appetites, by momentary pleasure, he says, I'm about to die of what? Use as a birthright to me. And so he sells what would've been his blessing as the firstborn for a pot of stew.

My kids were little, I think Ethan was probably six or seven. We did this accountant family worship obviously one night because a few nights later he came running down the stairs and he said to me, he said, daddy for a teddy bear. And he was just laughing what he said for a teddy bear. I said, what? He said, Grayson sold me her birthright for a teddy bear. He was listening, mother, a teddy bear or a pot of stool, a stew.

It's foolishness,

but it's the same temptation offered by the instant pleasure of clicking on that website or drinking that next drink or bringing home that co-ed spreading that gossip. It's the same foolishness were to be on guard century duty with one another.

See to it that no one is sexually immortal.

Do you see how good our Lord Jesus is?

I think it is one of the greatest signs of his goodness that he has given us one another. That you don't have to run this race by yourself. You can't run it by yourself. That he gives us each other, how lonely and hard, harder this path would be if we didn't have one another. But he puts us together, all together, fitting us together in in his beauty and goodness into this one body where we get to come alongside of one another

and help one another so that when you are running and you, you begin to tire, I can yell in your ear. It's worth it. You gotta keep going, keep going. And when you see me stumble and you see that I'm beginning to fall, you can come behind me and help pick me up and say, Jason, I got you. Let's do this together. Let's finish this race.

But we're just coming alongside of one another and helping one another. We're on century duty with one another. We say, oh, I brother, sister, I, I see the sin in your life and let, let me help you let, let's fight through this together.

It's an incredible gift.

Speaks of such goodness of our savior.

We see that sin in one another. We are because we are on guard together. We are to graciously, we are to patiently, we are to humbly but courageously we're to speak into each other's lives, to help one another.

Someone said to me after the first service, they said, so what you're saying is that we're just a mess together and we're to help each other in our messes. I said, that's it. You're a mess. I'm a mess. And we do this together by the grace of Christ

on guard centuries watching over our souls and over the souls of those in our camp. And this is our camp, this church,

because of our final point, the final warning that he gives Verse 27 for you know, that afterward he desired to inherit the blessing he was rejected for. He found no chance to repent though he sought it with tears told in Genesis 27, verse 38 that he saw cried with a loud voice and he wept, but he did not receive the blessing. He wept for the fact that he had given up his blessing of being the firstborn. He wanted that blessing back.

He sought that blessing back with tears.

It was not his. He didn't receive the blessing back again. The concern is apostasy. It was reflecting upon something I'd shared with you some time ago when we were in the gospel of Matthew and we were walking through the account of Peter at the end of Matthew. And it's pointing out to you that Peter was a sinner. Judas was a sinner. Just as every one of us in this room is a sinner. And just as Esau here is a sinner, Peter denied Christ.

Judas denied Christ. Peter was convicted of a sin. Judas was convicted of a sin. Peter wept. Judas wept just like Esau. Here Peter confessed. Judas confessed. But here's the one significant difference between Peter and Judas. Peter then churned in repentance and faith to Christ. That's the difference.

Esau never churned. We have no evidence in the scriptures that he returned to the Lord and repentance.

He never returned to repentance. He hated that. He lost that blessing of that inheritance. But there was no true repentance.

The writer says he found no chance to repent.

For whatever reason, his heart had become too hard.

Wrong guard duty, century duty against sin because sin can lead to apostasy. Again, let's be very clear, those who are actually in Christ are kept by Christ. We are to rest in that, but we never, we are never to presume upon that by entertaining sin, we have to keep killing sin. The greatest sign that you and I are actually in Christ is that we finish our race now. We are going to sin over and over. And so we return to him in confession,

repentance over and over. And he will keep us if we are His, but we also keep after him if we are his.

But the apostate apostate will too often think that there is more time, that there's more opportunity to confess or to repent. Their sin is pleasurable. It costs too much to get rid of the sin. And surely I will have next week or I will have next year, or I can do it when I am old and gray. But you are never ever promised tomorrow,

none of us are promised tomorrow.

Clinging to that sin show that we love it more than Christ. And the writer is pointing out, this isn't a risk that is worth taking Because You're gambling with eternal life.

There was a man or a woman that was a friend of yours that this week you found out they were mortgaging their house. They had sold their cars, they'd cashed out their entire retirement account and they were putting it all down on the team that they thought would win the NCAA tournament this month in the middle of March. Madness. You would say that's madness. That's that you don't know that they're going to win. That's not, that's not a risk worth taking.

You could lose everything.

And yet that everything that they could lose though not easy, it's replaceable.

Turn of life is not replaceable. It's not worth the risk.

You don't risk this.

If you have a conviction of sin this morning, don't even think about leaving this room without confessing it and returning to Christ and repentance in faith.

You don't know you're gonna make it out of this room. It's not worth the risk.

If you have never placed your faith in Christ, you don't risk it. You come to him humbly this morning and you confess your need for a savior because you are a sinner. Just like Esau, just like Peter, just like Judas, just like me, just like every single person in this room and you are in need. You cast yourself at his feet and you let him know your need for him. Be my savior. I submit to you. You are my Lord. You walk out faith and repentance

and if that is where you are at, then he keeps you. He keeps you forever.

No threat of being lost.

This passage is a real warning. We don't do anybody any favors by not treating it like a real warning. It is. It's a real warning. It's like a, the writer of Hebrews has done this five times. He's just taken a cup of cold water and he's throwing it into our faces in case we are slumbering through this. He wants to awaken us. Don't lose everything.

It's not worth it.

And he wants us to be watchful for each other. See to it, we're all sinners in need of Christ. See to it, we're all to labor together. See to it. We all want to finish this race together. See to it, we all want to obtain the grace of God eternally. See to it. So we keep ruining the race together. See to it. Let's put us together for this reason. Let's finish together. Let's Pray. Let

Father, we are thankful.

Thankful for your exceeding grace and giving such a great savior, exceeding grace and giving us the church. And oh Father, how I pray that there is not a soul. There is not one who fails to obtain your eternal grace in this room.

There not be one lost.

Keep us. Help us to keep keeping you and we pray all of this in the strong name of Christ. Amen.