by others, but we ourselves are individuals who know nothing of it. The Christianity that is faithful to the scriptures is one that holds both these truths in tandem. In other words, on one hand, there is that historic aspect. Christ died, is purchased, the price for my sin. And then there's also that which is experiential, that says, here I am, the life that I am living can only be lived this way because the grace of God has visited my life. I am a recipient of it. In the passage that I have just read to you, the author of Hebrews is primarily leaning onto the second side. And by leaning there, he is not denying the historicity of our Christian faith, that it is something that took place in terms of our salvation on the cross when Jesus Christ died there. He's not denying it, but he's seeking to deal with this whole aspect of Are you, as an individual, someone who is currently in an ongoing way experiencing something of the grace of God in salvation? Now the reason why we have the words that we are looking at this morning from verse 12 to verse 17 about failing to obtain the grace of God, The reason is because of what I spoke about last week concerning the fact that the Hebrew Christians, the church that was there at the beginning of the Christian church within the context of Jerusalem and Judea and so on, they were suffering intense persecution. First of all, by the Jewish leaders themselves, and secondly, by the Romans. And so, there was a growing number of those that were backsliding. Individuals that were basically saying, look, there must be an easier way to make a living. This is becoming too costly. And consequently, heading back to Judaism. And the author here has been seeking to show in the earlier chapters that Jesus was more superior than the angels, more superior than Moses, and then he went to town, so to speak, showing that his priesthood was more superior than that of Moses. any of the previous priests that were there in the history of the Israelites. And therefore, it did not make sense for anybody to want to go to the inferior, abandoning the superior. But he goes a lot beyond that and one of the things that he does in chapter 11 of Hebrews is to show the reality of those who have lived by faith. He began all the way from the beginning of the Bible, really, in Genesis, when he speaks about Enoch, for instance, he speaks about Abel, and so on, and all those are right at the beginning. He spends a lot more time speaking about Abraham, the father of faith, or the father of the faithful, and then also of Moses. But towards the end of this list, and that's where I want us to go now, in verse 32, what he does is basically to say, look, the list of these heroes of the faith is so long that I don't have time to go through all of them. And then he summarizes them. And what I wanted to notice in this summary is that he divides them into two camps. The first camp, he speaks of those who lived by faith and achieved glorious feats in the name of God. And then he goes on to look in the second group of those who also lived by faith. but then their lives were those of intense suffering. And the thing I want you to notice is both groups living by faith, both groups can be called heroes of the faith. Let's read this. And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David, and Samuel, and of the prophets. who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. We men received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release so that they might rise again to a better life. And notice as that list begins to go forward. And nothing to do with that deacon, C.H. Zesko. So if you live in Zambia, I'm sure you appreciate the difficulties there. But let's go on, verse 36. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sewn in two, they were killed with a sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute. afflicted, mistreated, of whom the world was not worthy, wandering about in deserts and mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. Clearly what we have there are people who live by faith. Some of them you can admire and want to be like them, and others you pity and say, Lord, please don't take me that way. But the author of this book is seeking to show that whichever way you look at it, God sanctifies his people through frowning providences. And so he says in chapter 12 there, that beginning with this one, therefore since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, he's just given us a display of them, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance, there it is, run with endurance, with perseverance, let us run. And it is the rest that is set before us. The rest that God himself has put before you, which may be different from the rest that he has put before you and before that brother and before that sister. God does not give us the same path to go through. But each one of us is expected to play his part, to run with endurance, to run with perseverance. And so a little later, he puts it this way in chapter 12 and verse three. Consider him, referring to Jesus, who endured from sin as such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary and faint-hearted. in your struggle against sin. So there you are, within the context of trials, of temptations, in this life, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. It is in opening up this subject of how you handle trials, difficulties that come into your life because you are in a fallen world and God has an agenda for you. that we find ourselves in verse 12, going downwards, where we are told about ensuring that people don't fail to obtain God's grace, that they don't fail to obtain God's grace. How does the writer develop this thought? Well, first of all, he uses imagery, picture language, in order to convey the sense of personal responsibility in this matter. Personal responsibility. Look at the way again he puts it in verse 12. And you'll notice he is using picture language there. Verse 12. Therefore, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees. and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed." The point he is making there is related to the picture he had already used earlier in verse 1 when he said, run with endurance the race that is set before us. So he's imagining an individual who is running the Christian race. And that makes sense, doesn't it? It's a picture that is often used with respect to the Christian life as a race. So he's imagining this person, and then, in the midst of all that, he is getting weary. He is getting tired. He is, to borrow the phrase in verse 3, yet you may not grow weary and faint-hearted. That's the way he is beginning to feel as he is running. And if you're an individual who's ever been involved in any of these long races, you know that somewhere along the way, you have to begin speaking to yourself to keep going. that in the end, giving up now is not an option. Let's keep going, trying to get energies in all kinds of places in your soul and also in your body. And that's the picture that is being brought out here then. Lift your drooping hands. Strengthen your weak knees. Make straight paths for your feet so that you don't end up stumbling. Make sure that you are keeping on the straight course, he's saying there. And if in the process, you've developed a limb, he is saying that that place may not be put out of joint. So in the process, you don't end up with an actual fracture or an injury or something to that effect. But rather, the way in which you are running, the way in which you are maintaining the race is such that in due season, you even get healed. Obviously, what he's talking about here is the fact that life will have its persecution. Life will have its difficulties, the Christian life that is. But should that mean that you can now become one who is just seated in the background? Someone just saying, well, let the Christian faith just continue. You know, this has been hard. And in the process, even justifying allowing sin to come into your life? The answer is no, you mustn't. You must take personal responsibility. You must speak to yourself that although the situation, the environment has become such that I feel like giving up, I cannot give up now. Strengthen, make straight, Heal what is lame. Now, it's not just in the field of sports that this happens. You can also speak to somebody who has been at the mercy of physiotherapists. And they will tell you that the physiotherapist will talk to you, but they will not do the exercises for you. Not at all. They will give you the weights, they will ask you to lift this and lift that, bend over, and so on. And in the end, you must do everything so that you may not be lame anymore, so that you may be healed. They want you to restore the optimum wholeness of your body. And in that happening, all they do is they keep telling you, keep on going again and again and again. And somewhere along the line, obviously you end up saying enough is enough. And that's really again the picture here. It's one of you taking personal responsibility of ensuring that those difficulties that are coming in your life don't end up being the ones that produce out of you a shipwreck, a total failure. Don't allow that to happen. This obviously goes against the philosophy of the modern deliverance movement, where somehow the man of God does it all for you. He does it all for you. Doesn't matter what it is that is the aspect of failure in your life, it is blamed on some kind of spirit and all you need to do is come and he will lay his hands on you and get that spirit out. You simply sit, he does the rest, and you must give him the money, of course. The author here is saying, come on, get up, strengthen that which is weak, lift up your drooping hands, and get back there and run with perseverance. The rest that is marked out for you. Well, the author doesn't end there, he goes on now to summarize in the plainest words possible what he actually has in mind. And we see it in verse 14. When he says there, verse 14, strive for peace. with everyone, and for holiness without which no one will see the Lord. And obviously that's what he had in mind when he was talking in terms of lifting and strengthening and making straight paths. It was the aspect of striving pressing on, the actual word there refers to an earnest, diligent, continuous pursuit of something. And you can understand if somebody's in a marathon, that that's the kind of language that makes sense. earnestness, diligence, continuous pursuit of something. And in this particular case, it's two things. First of all, it is peace. Peace with all who are around you. Day it is again, strive for peace with everyone. And secondly, for holiness. And with respect to holiness, he even adds that if you don't have holiness, you will not see the Lord. Now at this point, I'll come back to this in a moment, because he actually opens it up. And it is in the opening up of these two that I want us to spend the rest of our time. How does he open this up? First of all, he makes it a communal responsibility. So it's not just me, myself, and I, among the people of God, making sure that I am living a life of peace and of holiness. It is our communal responsibility with one another. And hence, he uses the phrase, see to it, Sit to it! no one fails to obtain the grace of God. The phrase situate is basically the same phrase that we use for a bishop. It is the phrase episkopos. It is enabling us to, it's the same phrase we get telescope or all these other scopes, microscope, a stethoscope and so forth. It is enabling us to see more closely into a situation. And that's what he's saying there. He's saying, brethren, look into it that no one among you fails to obtain the grace of God. Now that might be a little bit of a difficult phrase to process, because a strange statement, because grace is free. So how does anybody fail to obtain the grace of God? It's free. Well, thankfully we don't need to guess. He gives two examples, one to do with peace, and the other to do with holiness. Let's quickly look at the two examples and you will see what he has in mind. The first is to do with peace. And he points out that allowing a root of bitterness to grow destroys peace in the context of God's people. Let me read that to you. 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." That phrase, root of bitterness, at least in my version, is in quotation marks. The reason is because it is really borrowed from the Old Testament, from Deuteronomy chapter 26, rather 29, so if you could just turn with me there. Deuteronomy chapter 29. It's a rather long passage. I'll try and chop off some sections for the interest of time. But if you do have time afterwards, verse 16 to verse 28. We read there, Deuteronomy chapter 29. You know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed. And you have seen their detestable things, their idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold, which were among them. And here is the warning, beware The warning, beware, lest there be among you a man or a woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the Lord our God to go and save the gods of those nations. Now, before I read the next statement, I want us to capture this. Here are people in transit from captivity heading ultimately to Canaan. And as they are traveling, they are going through nations. The nations are not sort of saying, hey, hello guys, okay, we can see you are in transit, may you travel well. No, no, no, no. They are treating them as enemies. There are fights they are going through. And as they are going through, these nations are idol worshipers. Now, let's go on. Beware, lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit. What is this? It's obviously an individual whose entire attitude towards the things of God is wrong. And listen to this, therefore. One who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses, not God, blesses himself in his heart, saying, I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart. So he is not listening to God as Moses may be declaring the words of God and the law of God and the covenant of God. He is not interested whatsoever. What he is interested in is himself as he is among the people of God. And despite the fact that he knows he is living in sin, he knows he is in stubbornness of his heart, he is saying to himself, I shall be safe. It will still be alright with me. And that is the root that then gives birth to bitterness. Why does it give birth to bitterness? It is because in the process, an individual like this, is somebody who to a large extent thinks that life revolves around him. Yes, life revolves around him. It is this sense that I am at the center of the universe. And therefore, when I begin to suffer in one way or the other, My bitterness towards God is the one that grows. I begin to murmur. I begin to complain. And in the process, my entire stance spills out to those who are around me. And many others get defiled. And as a result, the worship of God is abandoned. The worship of idols takes over. And so we are told there in verse 20, 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. And then he develops it all the way to the end of this chapter. The point there, therefore, is the root of bitterness is essentially a bitterness against God. And yes, it spills out in terms of other people because of this sense of entitlement. I am entitled to a good life, a soft life, a blessed life, a happy life. I'm entitled to all this. And God is now failing me because he hasn't given me this, and he hasn't given me that, and he hasn't given me the other. And therefore, when I am with other people, well, that is my regular talk, and it spills over to them. And of course, you enter into fighting mode, not just with God, but with anybody who is still representing the voice of God, the Moses as it were, in your life today. You become bitter enemies with such individuals. Well, that's the first aspect, that therefore, instead of being at peace with the people around you, you actually are filled with anger and blood all around you. You are no longer at peace with the people. You are constantly accusing almost everyone around you for your own miserable life. But it doesn't end there. He goes on to speak about holiness. Let's go back to our text. Hebrews chapter 12. It says, 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. And then verse 16, that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. We'll come to Esau in a moment. But let's stick to this second aspect. Remember there was peace with everybody and there was holiness. Without holiness no one shall see the Lord. And the author here picks on one area of lack of holiness and it is sexual immorality. Sexual immorality. It is the utilizing of the gift of God but utilizing it without the boundaries that God himself has given. So it is God's gift. But again, your sense of entitlement is one that says to you, well, it doesn't matter what God has said. I want it, I want it now, I must have it. and you forget that the God of heaven is one who demands that because he is holy, his people should be holy. In fact, it doesn't just say sexual immorality, he also adds, oh unholy, that no one is sexually immoral, oh unholy. The word sexually immoral is the word poneo, which simply is one that we've taken for pornography. It's all forms of sexual perversion. But then he adds unholy. Bebelos, and all that phrase means is it describes a person who fails, who is so secular minded that he fails to appreciate spiritual reality and spiritual things. And as a result, treats them with contempt. Treats them with contempt. And then he gives us the example of Esau. The point I wanted to see before we even get to Esau is this, that ultimately it is a person who again makes his own appetite his God. He still says, this is who I am, this is what I want, and nobody is going to stand in my way. and therefore is dropped by his own falling appetites into a path that despises spiritual things. Well, that's what happened to Esau. And I want us to just quickly go there. In Genesis 25 and then Genesis 27, The point I need to bring out there, first of all, is that Esau was not guilty of sexual immorality. That's not the case. So why does the author here use Esau as an example? Well, it's the principle. The principle is this. Esau had an appetite. That appetite could not be satisfied at the point at which he was. And in trying to satisfy that appetite, his brother said to him, said Euphrat, exchange what I'm about to give you for your birthright. I want you to notice his attitude. Chapter 25 and verse 29. Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field and he was exhausted. And Esau said to Jacob, let me eat some of that red stew for I am exhausted. Therefore, his name was called Edom. Jacob said, sell me your birthright now. Esau said, I am about to die of what use is a birthright to me. Now, let's pause there for a moment. He wasn't about to die. Nobody dies because he's missed breakfast. Nobody. He was hungry, there's no doubt about it. But you see there was that exaggerated sense of I must have this and I must have it now. That he now exaggerates what will happen to him if he doesn't have it. And because of that, he says, this birthright, and birthright basically means you're the first son in this family, and therefore when your parents die, you get to have your share, like everybody else, but times two in your case. You are the firstborn. You are the heir to your father's position and possessions and throne and whatever else belongs to your dad. But it's something you wait for. You wait for your dad to die. And the man is saying, no man, I've got what I think is a need, and it's a need now, forget this thing about the future, forget it! I must have it now! And of course, Jacob is not a fool, so he says in verse 33, swear to me now. So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went on his way. And listen to this, thus Esau despised his people. He despised. It's like you trying to get a job and then somebody says, well, yeah, I can make sure I get this job. but you need to give me so much money, or if you're a female, you need to sleep with me." And then he starts saying, look, I think let me go ahead. And then he says to you, but are you not a Christian? Yeah, but you know this Christianity, you know, how can somebody survive in this world with this Christianity without a job? So you're basically selling your birthright for a plate of soup. So the author here says, who sold his birthright for a single meal. Now, there are two words there that we need to take note of. First of all, when it says who sold his birthright, the emphasis actually there includes the word his own birthright. It's the emphasis that it was his, it was his. And squeezing in that English word brings out that emphasis. But also, the phrase single is emphasized in the original Greek. Single, it is showing the absurdness of the situation. That here is something that is huge, your birthright. It's a great inheritance. It's the pride of anybody who knows what awaits him in the end. That God brought me into this world as a firstborn son. There is an honor that awaits me. that I should be willing to sacrifice anything for because it's a glorious and I honor my parents, I honor my clan, I honor my tribe, I honor whatever else it might be. A single plate of soup. And then you start saying, if I don't eat this, I will die. It's your appetite, your bodily appetite that is screaming. that you ought to be saying no to. The moment your brother says, this is the cost for you, immediately, you just say, I might as well go outside and become a cow and eat grass. Then for me to sell my birthright, my birthright, my entire inheritance for a plate of soup, Are you mad? No, that's not what he did. He despised his brethren and he went for it. Isn't that what we do when we are thus unholy? When we are filled with a secular mentality? that that which God promises us as our eternal reward, with tragedy in the mind, forget about it. Because my bodily appetite now, now is offering me something. And Christianity, goes out through the window. Well, chapter 27, the father came now to pass on the blessing. In some strange way, he ended up, well, you know the story at the beginning here, being tricked into it, but he ended up giving his blessing to Jacob instead of Esau. Esau was obviously mad with his brother. He promises to kill him. We read that afterwards. But the section I want you to notice is from 34 to verse 38. And it is the way in which he was pleading with the father to change his mind. And the father refused to change his mind. Verse 34. Maybe let me begin with verse 33. Then Isaac trembled very violently and said, who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me and I ate it all before you came? And I blessed him. Yes, and he shall be blessed. As soon as Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry and said to his father, bless me, even me also, O my father. But he said, your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing. Esau said, is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated me these two times. He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing. Now, first of all, this is not fair. No. He did not deceive you and cheat you and take away your birthright. He gave you an offer and you took it. You despised your birthright. It's you who said this thing, it won't do me any good. I want this and I want it now. It's you. All he did was to make sure you swore, because he knew you could easily come around the next day and say, me, I never did it. So he made sure you swore with it. But anyway, that's not the point. The point is, it goes on to say, have you not reserved a blessing for me? Isaac answered and said to Esau, behold, I've made him Lord over you. And all his brothers I have given to him for servants. And with grain and wine, I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son? Esau said to his father, have you but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice and wept. When he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent. Now some people think he was the one failing to repent, and I respect them for their thinking, but really it was the father who was not repenting in terms of changing his mind. That's what repentance means, to change your mind. And even though he beseeched his father with tears, his father did not change his mind. And therefore, he failed to obtain the grace of God in that sense. Now brethren, the reason why I'm taking you to this is because, as I said last week, I've lived long enough as a Christian to know that that's one of Satan's evil schemes, to offer to you that which now, now, now will satisfy some appetite of yours. But you know that if you were to really live the Christian life, this is not an option. But the tendency is to still go the route of throwing the Christian faith under the bus. and then somehow still hope that in the end, God will say, well done, good and faithful servant. Well, they're coming. Well, when at the point when it mattered the most, and whenever that happens, you throw the Christian faith. So what the author is saying here is that God's grace is one that is reaching out to all of us. It comprises a promise that we don't deserve, a promise of eternal life, a promise of eternal life in the future, but an actual life that we begin to enjoy today. And he's making the point there that it is our responsibility as Christians to make sure that we are watching over one another. And when we begin to see our brethren, at least they claim to be brethren, who are living with this sense of entitlement that in the process produces bitterness towards God and defiling others, we ought to quickly come in and help one another in that respect. or an individual who again claims to be a Christian, but is beginning to live a life of sexual immorality, and not just that, in a general sense, beginning to compromise over their Christian faith in order for momentary acquisitions and momentary experiences and pleasures and so on. at the expense of that which is the true Christian life, that we who are the brethren should come alongside them and help. See to it. Ensure. But I want to close by turning it around and speaking to you directly. Perhaps you are in those same shoes. Perhaps you are suffering. Maybe you've been excluded from school for lack of funds. Maybe you lack a spouse or you lack children. Or perhaps you have lost employment or have lost an actual loved one. And it has come crashing on your sense of entitlement. And as a result, you are in that position of getting tired of this so-called Christianity, getting tired. That perhaps you have now reached the point where you have become bitter, bitter towards God because you think he has not given to you what you think you are entitled to. And like Esau, perhaps you've reached the point where now the Christian faith is quickly traded for anything, anything, anything. The warning is this, beware that you do not fail to obtain God's grace in two senses. Number one, It is the fact that we are living in a day when God is actually dispensing His grace in Jesus Christ. A grace that transforms lives. A grace that makes you a person who so loves God and the things of God because you are transformed from the inside, that you are willing to suffer and sacrifice and die for the Christian faith, for the Lord himself. That's the kind of grace that he is giving. Has that grace reached you? Has it? Have you obtained such a grace? Is it real in you? Is it? Remember I said the Christian faith has these two realities. This is the second. Is this real? Can you say so? that this grace of God is one that I've actually obtained experientially. This is me, not because I have done something great, but it's because God has changed me. That's the first sense. And then the second is that promise that is in the end. which again Esau felt in the end. He was reminded bitterly in the end when he now needed at that very, very, very last moment to get the blessing and who realized the guy I sold it to got it and is gone. It's gone. And I'm the loser. And in the end, he weeps and weeps and weeps. Friend, it doesn't matter. The trials, the temptations of life, make sure that your Christianity is the real thing. It's the real thing. And if for a single plate of soup, You are willing to throw what you have under the bus. It's not the real thing. Go to Christ and say to him, what you've done for others, let's turn them into people who are willing to suffer, to sacrifice, even to die for you. Lord, do this for me as well. Do this for me. Then I may have the real thing. before I find myself on the very last day wailing my heart out because it's too late to go back and change anything. It's too late. That's my plea. Don't be satisfied with something that runs short of the real thing, don't. Go to the cross. Go to the cross of Christ and let him really, really, really save you. Amen. We will pause at the end of that preaching for a moment and then we will pray together after singing our last song. Let's pause. Okay. What's that?