Heb 12:15-17 Do Poke the “Bear”
Notes
Transcript
Last week we were studying v 12 to 14 where we saw the author of Hebrews, like a running coach, encouraging us to finish well the spiritual marathon we are running. The author was encouraging us through positive charges, to run strong, straight, and together while striving for peace and holiness.
Now the author of Hebrews continues his coaching by giving us 3 things that we should guard against.
15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;
The first thing that we should guard against is gracelessness
We should guard against:
1. Gracelessness v15
v 15a says “See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God.” Grace is the divine attitude of compassion God has toward his children. The image that helps me to picture this is that of an overflowing pitcher in God’s hand tilted to pour blessing on us. James says essentially this when he declares, “But he gives more grace” (4:6)—literally, “great grace.”
Thus we confidently know there is always more grace for the believer. Earlier in Hebrew 4:16 the author urged us, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
The unchanging truth is, that we can have no need that surpasses God’s grace, and we never will! Even if we fall into deep sin, greater grace is available, as Paul said: “But where sin increased, grace increased all the more” (Romans 5:20b).
A commentator said: “For daily need there is daily grace; for sudden need, there is sudden grace; for overwhelming need, there is overwhelming grace,” John Blanchard.
Because of this, what a tragedy gracelessness is—and thus the warning, “See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God” (literally, “falls short of the grace of God”)—the idea being that of “falling behind, not keeping pace with the movement of divine grace which meets and stirs the progress of the Christian.”
Gracelessness is the idea of forgetting or willfully not wanting to run to God for His grace. Why would anyone not run to God for grace?
First, unconfessed sin, without confession there is no recognition and repentance of sin. Thinking of grace as the overflowing pitcher in God’s hand, unconfessed sin and not wanting to repent. It is like putting up an umbrella to hide and keep yourself from being covered by God’s grace.
Secondly, one often misses the grace of God by a self-imposed famine of God’s Word. For thousands of years, God has poured His grace on His people through reading and meditating on God’s Word. If you don’t read or meditate on God’s Word, you are imposing on yourself a spiritual starvation and practically refusing to receive His grace through His word.
The third way to gracelessness is by refusing to get connected to a local body of Christ. God’s grace is poured out to us through the ministry of all believers through the local church. A section of Paul’s prayer for the church in Ephesians 3:17–19 explains the important truth that it is “together with all the saints” that we “grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ” and, indeed, go on to “be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
According to Paul’s prayer, our capacity to understand God’s Word and to experience his grace is necessarily linked to our participation in church “with all the saints.” It is in a rich community that we experience grace upon grace.
V15 starts with “See to it”, this is a command in the plural, meaning it is everyone’s responsibility to make sure no one misses God’s grace. The wording “See to it” it is an unusual word that gives the idea of oversight, overseeing.
This is telling us that it is our duty to be poking one another. If you have the prompting of the Holy Spirit to talk to a sister or brother in faith, then you are being encouraged to do so. The problem with the time and the culture we live in is that in the church we are not as nosey as we should be in each other’s lives. Therefore, we must involve ourselves within the Body of Christ, and be open to being poked and poking others lovingly. When someone comes to you in love, through grace, regarding a truth in scripture, it is our job to listen and then prayerfully take this to His Throne … allowing the Holy Spirit to complete the work he has set out to do in you. When we take this “poke” to someone in our church, it is our job to leave it with this brother or sister and intercede for them as we allow the Spirit to finish the work. See to it that no one fails to reach out to God’s overflowing abundant grace.
15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;
The remainder of v15 tells us the second thing we should guard against false belief.
We should guard against:
2. False Belief v15
You might say wait a minute, the second part of this verse says “that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;”
You might say if anything this verse is only talking about bitterness. Bitterness is a big problem. Bitterness is an attitude of extended and intense anger and hostility. It is often accompanied by resentment and a desire to get even. It is a result of not forgiving an offender and letting the hurt and anger grow until the pain and resentment sour the person’s view of life.
Bitterness can destroy your life, your family, and the church. A professor and pastor once told me a story of a member of his church who lived for 40 years with deep bitterness because of a small incident when a church member accidentally hit her mailbox when they parked in her driveway. Then due to forgetfulness or intentionally the church member did not fix her mailbox. Clearly it was a wrong done and the church failed to meet the need. It was a simple, and inexpensive fix. But if you let even a small, inexpensive thing, it can destroy your life, your relationships, and your testimony.
You might not have a physical mailbox issue, but you might have something more like the mailbox contents … a word that someone labeled you with that you are carrying in your heart for 10 … 20 … or even 40+ years and you just can’t let it go. Or you might have an empty mailbox … where you were awaiting or expecting someone to say, give or do something and they failed and you just haven’t been able to forget or maybe forgive such that you can see that individual in the same way.
Bitterness can only be conquered and defeated through forgiveness. Eph 4:31-32 “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
Yes, we should guard against bitterness, a nasty attitude that quickly corrodes our relationships.
But this verse goes so much deeper. False belief. Bitterness is a false belief … During this time period, the phrase, “root of bitterness” was a well-established expression meaning false belief that had its root in Deut 29:18, where the Lord formally warned his people against false belief saying:
“Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison.”
When the author of Hebrews says “root of bitterness” he is specifically saying holding a false belief. Most specifically a false teaching, false ideas about God, or things that are contrary to what God has revealed in His Word. This verse tells us that this is something that grows slowly, before “springing up” when time reveals it to us.
The call here is to be on the alert. First for our own hearts and the bitterness, but also for false teachings that have taken root in your mind and heart leading you away from the Truth found here in scripture. But, second, we are to be on the lookout for one another. We … we are to make sure that as we run strong and straight that together we stay on the course, that we do not deviate from the path God has for us by believing something false.
Speaking of false, verses 16 & 17 tell us of another falsehood that we must guard against.
16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17 For 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.
These two verses tell us that sexual or physical appetite can destroy one’s race. Therefore, we should not only guard against gracelessness, and false belief but also
we should guard against:
3. Appetites v16,17
Here the author of Hebrews states plainly that Esau was sexually immoral. However, when we look at this verse, especially the part of the story he brings back to memory this seems completely out of line … even false belief. Yet a second, and perhaps closer look at this account in Genesis reveals that Esau married two Canaanite women, daughters of Heth. And in Gen 26 it says that Esau’s wives made life miserable for Isaac and Rebekah.
While this still does not seem to equate to sexual immorality, there was a very early Rabbinical commentary, that depicts Esau as a man completely subject to his sexual appetites. One rabbi based on Genesis 25:29 describes him as coming home exhausted on the same day he sold Jacob his birthright and saying that on “that day he had committed five transgressions,” one of which was adultery with a betrothed girl.
This depiction of Esau as sexually immoral is not found in Genesis, but it is from early Jewish teachings. Here in the book of Hebrews we see this confirmed by the Holy Spirit that Esau was a sexually immoral person. In fact, Esau is someone who would fit right into our society today in the way he believed and ultimately acted. Because of Esau’s appetites, God was unreal and unnecessary. This is just what lust does to our hearts … it moves the glory from God to the creation.
We know from Genesis 25 that Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of lentil stew. Esau grew up to be a big, hairy, red-headed man whose focus was fun(hunting), food, and females, as Hebrews here asserts.
Big “Red” (for that is what his nickname “Edom” meant) came in from the field hungry after hunting and found Jacob cooking some lentil stew. So he motioned, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” (v. 30), to which Jacob made the incredible proposition, “First sell me your birthright” (v. 31), only to be followed by the even more incredible flip response, “Look, I am about to die.… What good is the birthright to me?” (v. 32). Unbelievable! Old sweaty Red chose a cheap meal over the divine promise. This is just what lust does to our hearts … it moves the glory from God to the creation.
We might look down on Esau and how he followed his appetites, but we are no different when we are having a mouthwatering dish and we allow our flesh to glorify the created dish instead of God and we take the third helping because our appetite was greater than our desire to honor God at that moment.
Esau was completely earthbound. All his thoughts were on what he could touch and taste. Instant gratification was his rule of thumb. He was void of spiritual values. He was godless, unholy.
Esau was like a living beer commercial, or most commercials, with two things on his mind: sexual pleasure and physical pleasure—food, drink, sport, and sleep. Esau lived out the modern saying “You only live once, so enjoy the ride.”
Like most people who devote their lives to accumulating riches or making a name for themselves, Esau found at the end that none of this satisfied or fulfilled his heart. How tragic and sad to waste your life just living for yourself.
In Esau’s pathetic case, he went on to lose his birthright and blessing. Later when Esau sought to change his decision, he found no chance to repent, even though he sought it with tears. In our “Disney” culture, we can catch ourselves feeling sorry for Esau when he loses his birthright when in reality we should have been angry at him for being so selfish and flippant when he threw it away for a bowl of soup. Esau was not the victim, he was the villain. He trampled on God’s grace.
One can come to the same place as Esau and repeatedly reject God, refuse Him, over and over. Until repentance can no longer be found, where your heart is set so much on your appetites that you love darkness, and you hate the light. And every action reveals your despise of God’s grace. So much so that God will hand you over to darkness, and like Esau, you will not be able to undo what was done and you will either live or ultimately die with the consequences.
The message from God here is very clear to all who are in this race. Pay attention, guard against the sexual and physical appetites, if you give it free rein, it will ruin your race. God told Cain: “sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it”
By God’s grace if we are in Christ, through the Holy Spirit we have the power to say no to sin. Through Him we have the ability to rule over it, to not let sin have dominion over us. We have been set free from the power of sin, we are not slaves of sin anymore, but in Christ, we are slaves to righteousness.
Therefore, as we run the race that God has set before us, we must keep our eyes on the prize, … Jesus, focusing on Him. We must watch out for gracelessness, false belief or bitterness, and our appetites. We must run strong, straight, and together, striving for peace and holiness.