Repentance, Not Regret (Heb. 12:14-17)

INTRO

We’re moving toward the end of the letter to the Hebrews, and the writer has been imploring the believers to endure to the end, not to grow weary. We know that God disciplines his children to keep them moving in the path of righteousness.

What we’re focusing on today flows out of that context.

Two commands: Strive and See to it. We’re told to strive for 2 things; we’re to see to 3 things.

Strive for peace.

Strive for holiness.

See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God.

See to it that no root of bitterness springs up.

See to it that no one is sexually immoral or unholy.

One example: Esau. Esau is the example of one who did not endure, one who was not faithful in the way God ordained.

Realize that v.17 in particular is a difficult verse. Lots of discussion on this one.

Through these commands, I hope to be clear about one main thing today: we are to repent, not just regret our sin. Repentance, not regret. That’s what we should go after in our lives.

Holiness is required to see God the Father. That ought to tell us that we have no hope of seeing God in Heaven without trusting in Jesus Christ.

We are not naturally holy; we are naturally sinful. We have no hope of heaven apart from Jesus.

Because what Jesus did for us, you might hear described as a triple imputation: (impute means to “apply to one’s account”)

Adam’s sin —> All people

Our sin —> Jesus

Jesus’ righteousness —> The redeemed

We are deemed righteous or holy only because of Jesus Christ’s work on the cross; not of anything we’ve done. We are justified—declared righteous. But the Holy Spirit continues to teach us and direct us in this life more and more to becoming more like Jesus in all we do. This is called sanctification, where we are becoming more like Christ—growing in holiness.

Holiness is required to see God the Father.

Strive for peace. Strive for holiness. Are you doing that?

Or do you seek division? Do you act flippantly in the face of unrighteousness?

As the writer continues, he commands believers to see to several things. See to is a way to say “persist in this task”— the KJV says looking diligently. What we are to see to are ways to keep the body of Christ moving toward holiness.

Look diligently that no one fails to obtain the grace of God.

This is not an evangelistic meaning in the sense of the grace of God being applied to a person’s soul in a salvific way.

This is written to believers, and is referring to continued ministry of God’s grace in our lives.

Every believer has a constant need for God’s grace.

Yes, it’s by grace through faith that you are saved. But Romans 5:1-2: “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” (Romans 5:1–2, ESV)

We continue to stand in God’s grace. Without it, we’re hopeless!

We have a responsibility daily to minister the grace of God to each other. We shouldn’t want anyone to miss out on living in God’s grace through whatever they are experiencing. In times of...

Trouble

Celebration

Loneliness

Confusion

Pain

We need to encourage one another and help one another always stand in the grace of God, glorifying Him through all experiences of life.

How can you help a fellow believer experience God’s grace today?

One of my concerns through this pandemic and the different ways we’ve had to live as a church— In some ways, we’ve stripped back church life to exclude much of the fellowship and contact of our members, to where some people might start thinking that the church and our faith is just a one-time meeting each week that doesn’t affect any other part of life. Living in true Christian fellowship is still possible, but we have to be even more intentional about it now. Calls, cards, visits on a front porch if needed.

Look diligently that no root of bitterness springs up.

It naturally would lead to this next command— we have to be careful that no bitterness springs up.

The context is the body of Christ— bitterness springs up and many (group/body) can be defiled.

Bitterness can spring up when some in the body feel neglected. We’ve all been guilty of not caring like we should for others.

But the bitterness here could be a reference to false teaching coming in to the church, taking root, and then growing to cause problems. That happens in churches today.

The writer could be recalling the similar words we find in Deut. 29:

“Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.’ This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike. The Lord will not be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the Lord and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and the curses written in this book will settle upon him, and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven.” (Deuteronomy 29:18–20, ESV)

This sounds strong, but this is the effect that pagan gods and false religions have on the followers of God. If one rejects God and pursues these false religions, the Lord cannot forgive them, because they’re not seeking Him.

So in all of the experiences that we walk through, we need to minister the grace of God to each other. Because it is easy for a person to feel neglected, and it is easy for a person to become influenced by unrighteous thinking. Think about the opportunity for false teaching to influence a person in times of

Trouble

Celebration

Loneliness

Confusion

Pain

We need to look diligently that no one fails to obtain the grace of God. We need to look diligently that no root of bitterness creeps into the body of Christ, and we need to

Look diligently that no one is sexually immoral or unholy.

We have Esau’s example that we’ll get to in a minute, but we are to see that no one is sexually immoral or unholy. We’re to hold one another accountable. We’re to warn those who are moving in these directions.

First, we have no record of sexual immorality in Esau. It could be that the sexual immorality is not just referring to him, but the unholiness is. Sexually immoral or unholy like Esau.

Esau certainly acted unrighteously.

So if we are to move people toward holiness, what does Esau’s example teach us?

A reminder (all of this starts in Gen. 25): Abraham had a son named Isaac, who married Rebekah had twin sons named Esau and Jacob. From the womb, there was enmity between these brothers. Esau was a hunter and Jacob was a quiet man who stayed home. Esau came in from the field famished. Jacob was making a stew and gave it to Esau, the oldest, if he would give Jacob his birthright as the first born. Esau did.

Then later, Jacob acted on this birthright when it came down for his dying father to give a blessing to his oldest son. Isaac tells Esau to go hunt and then make a delicious meal from what he gets. While he’s out, Jacob tricks his father into blessing him instead of Esau. So Jacob gets the blessing as the firstborn instead of Esau.

Turn to Genesis 27:34. When Esau finds out, what kind of cry does he let out? Bitter.

Twice (v.34,38), Esau says “Bless me, even me also, O my Father.”

Here’s Esau’s unholiness— Esau was more concerned with the blessing than with God’s sovereign plan.

Esau was born first— that is God’s sovereign plan. God is the giver and taker of life, and he has an eternally sovereign plan. Esau had no regard for God’s plan; he just wanted the blessing that could come from it.

He wasn’t concerned that his stomach was more important than God. He threw away God’s blessing for a bowl of stew.

Before you think any more of how foolish Esau might have been, just take a moment and think about your own life- what have you chosen over God? There probably are some foolish things on that list.

Heb. 12:17— Esau desired the blessing, but was rejected, for he found no chance to repent.

This can be tricky, but remember what repentance means— literally means to change the mind.

3341. μετάνοια metánoia; to repent. A change of mind, repentance.

Even when Esau sought the blessing from his father, there could not be a change of mind about it— it couldn’t happen, because Isaac already gave it to Jacob.

It couldn’t be taken back. No change of mind. No repentance in this case.

God had a sovereign plan; Esau disobeyed it and lost his chance for what could have been. He is an example of why we must

See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God.

See to it that no root of bitterness springs up.

See to it that no one is sexually immoral or unholy.

Because we should not want to miss out on what God would do through us.

Here’s a great lesson for all of us— Esau showed regret, but not repentance.

He was grieved for what he lost; but there was no indication he was truly repentant and wanting to turn to God.

The Bible talks about the difference between worldly sorrow and godly sorrow, or we could even say regret vs. repentance.

“For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.” (2 Corinthians 7:10, ESV)

A spirit of...

Regret= I’m sorry I got caught and have to suffer consequences.

Repentance= I’m sorry I disobeyed God.

Metanoia, repentance, means a change of mind. Explain repentance.

Romans 9 says the difficult words of Jacob I have loved, Esau I have hated. Many would wonder how God could say such a thing. Charles Spurgeon supposedly replied to a lady who was struggling to understand this— he said, “My trouble is to understand how God could love Jacob.”

We need to be clear about something— neither of these brothers deserved God’s grace. Esau was unrighteous and careless toward the sovereignty of God. But Jacob was a scoundrel! Jacob would become Israel and be the father of God’s people, the Jewish people, through whom the Messiah would come— Jacob didn’t deserve that! But that is the grace of God.

From the beginning, God’s grace is on display.

It’s the grace that every sinner needs for salvation.

It’s the grace that every believer needs to keep standing in throughout all of their experiences.