Let's go ahead and open our Bibles to the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 12. Let's stand together. Out of our love and respect and honor for the word of the Lord, let's ask the Lord's blessing upon the reading and preaching of it. And then I'm just going to read verse 14 through 17. Let's pray together. Our blessed God, how wonderful you are and how you have revealed yourself clearly in your word and what is required of us. We pray, oh Lord, as we come to this passage of scripture on bitterness, we would be careful, mindful. We would be receptive to your teaching, Lord, that we would, with the eyes of faith, receive it, but look to our hearts as your word, opens us up that we might recognize it in ourselves and kill it with your Word and Spirit. We pray, O Lord, that your name would be hallowed and magnified in our lesson tonight, and that this church would be strengthened through the preaching of this Word, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Beloved, look with me in your Word, verse 14, and I'll read through verse 17. Pursue peace with all men and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many are defiled. That there be no immoral or godless person like Esau who sold his own birthright for a single meal. For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected. For he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears. And thus ends the reading of God's Word. Please be seated. Brothers and sisters, I think This is a very good place to say a little bit about enculturation, a little bit about worldliness, a little bit about how the culture around us affects us. We'd be naive to think we're not enculturated. be naive to think that in many ways and in various degrees that we're not affected by our surroundings, our education, our upbringing, the things we're around at work, the advertisements, the billboards, the books we read, the social media, Facebook, anything we do, anything we put our minds to, anything we put our fingers to, our hands, has some effect upon us, the way we think, how we view things, what we are, some process that we go through. I gave a definition at the conference, I think it's applicable here, because oftentimes we want to ask the question, you know, how enculturated are we? It's hard to tell really. And none of us can have an infallible answer to that question, but I think there are some things we can at least acknowledge. First of all, if we are not pressing the crown rights of Jesus Christ, promoting his righteousness, promoting his kingdom, promoting his word, promoting his truth, if we are not dedicated and committed and active in those areas to that degree we are enculturated. To whatever degree we are not bringing to bear the word of truth, the crown rights of Christ, the promotion of his kingdom, the war against sin, However we neglect that, to whatever degree we neglect that, whether it be in our own thinking, whether it be in our homes, our marriages, our child training, our education, our church, jobs, whatever the case may be, wherever we fail, at bringing to bear the truth of scripture, the glory of Christ, we are to that degree enculturated. We are affected by the word, or I should say infected by the world. And that's going to look differently for all of us, isn't it? I think it's applicable here particularly because we have an illustration here that is given to us about bitterness or an example of bitterness and the person of Esau, a very immoral person. Beloved, how do we address this small warning? This is the smallest of all the warnings and yet, personally, I think it's one of the most important. bitterness, that attitude that expresses itself in a degree of maliciousness that seeks to pollute and to defile all those around it. Have you ever known a better person? Have you ever seen a better person? You can usually spot them. They are usually very recognizable. One of the things you do recognize about a bitter person is joylessness. They have no joy. They have no joy because they have habituated themselves for so long to anger, to malice, to avarice, that their joy now is only found in the condemnation of others. In the complaint of others. in the defiling of others. Bitter people usually suffer physically over time. There's such anguish and anxiety and bitterness in their hearts. It's all over their face. They age faster than everybody else. They are not only marked by joylessness, but they will be identified as well by their contempt. They will be contemptuous. They will be someone who is constantly bringing up contempt and contentions. And I like what John Owen had to say in his commentary upon this passage of scripture. Because one of the things he recognized, he said, there have been many a home and church brought to ruin because of bitterness. Many a marriage has been destroyed because of bitterness. And we have seen ourselves the effect of bitterness upon a congregation. And it truly does spring up and spring up overnight and defile many. Let's take a few minutes and let me walk you through some verses and then stop at our text and begin to just expound on it for our brief time tonight. Look at the very first verse of Hebrews 12. Let's look at this context. It's rich, it's worthy of certainly a few minutes walking through the verses. Because I think Paul is bringing us to this sort of this. climax to the bitter person so that we would make sure, number one, we would look at ourselves, number two, look at the person sitting next to you, and number three, make sure that we do everything we can possibly do to see that that is not true of us, of our families, or of our church, of our connections. Notice what he says, and notice verse one of chapter 12. Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Let me stop there. Paul is using this athletic language in order to describe exactly how those saints in chapter 11 made it to the end of the course. How did Abraham make it? How did Moses make it? How did these Old Testament saints persevere? And he tells us this. He tells us this in verse 1. He says, they laid aside every encumbrance and sin that so easily entangled them. And he's telling us to do the same thing. He's telling us that if we're going to be like those saints in chapter 11 that persevered unto the end, we are going to have to be active in laying aside sin. Laying aside, taking it seriously. Notice what it says, laying aside every encumbrance in the sin which so easily entangles us. Let me say this. Every one of us have certain sinful propensities. You know what yours are. You know them. You know what they are. Maybe it's anger. Maybe it's a temper. Smart mouth. Maybe it's laziness. Maybe it's just slothfulness. Maybe it's lust, greed. But you know what it is. And that's the point. That's the beauty of the sort of setting up the stage. You know what your propensities are. Lay them aside. If You want to persevere. If you want to receive that crown of life, if you want to receive the reward for all of your spiritual labors in the Lord Jesus Christ, you not only must begin the race by faith, but you must end the race by faith. It's not how you start. And beloved, we've been in Macon, Georgia long enough now, and we've seen many people start the race, Don't let it be true of you. Don't let it be true of you. I'm old enough in the faith now, I have seen more people fall away than I can count, and it saddens me. I can give you names, I can tell you families, and I can even tell you the path they took to get there. The thing you must understand about the book of Hebrews is there's no secrets to Christian faith. There's no secrets to the Christian life. There's no secret pill. There's no secret seminar. There's no secret book. There's no secret pastor that you must go to. It's about perseverance in the Lord Jesus Christ, starting by faith, walking by faith, and ending in faith. There's no secret to this life, beloved. None. Forget all your Christian gurus. Forget all the ones that have all the secrets in the book. Those books are worth burning. They're not worth setting on fire, yet they need to be burned. What you need is that clear perspective and vision of Jesus Christ, and that's what he says in verse two. He says, fixing our eyes on Jesus, just like Moses, just like Abraham did, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Again, in verse three, for consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. That is faint. You won't become faint-hearted. That's what the word there means. To lose heart is to be faint-hearted, weak. Consider Jesus. What does that mean? To think deeply and habitually about Jesus Christ. Beloved, I said this this morning that I'm not about theology and about thinking and meditating upon Jesus. It's not easy. It's not easy. It's not easy to meditate. It's a work. It's a deed. It's an action. It's a means of grace and we must be willing to apply our minds and our hearts to do it. because that's what's necessary. How are we going to consider Jesus if we never think about him? How are we going to consider the suffering and what he endured upon the cross for our sakes if we don't spend time praying to him, meditate upon him, and reading and ruminating over scripture? How? How, beloved? You tell me. You can't. And that's why so many people fall away, so many people lose heart because they take their eyes off Jesus. Going back to inculturation. Beloved, when you take your eyes off of Christ and you begin putting your eyes upon your surroundings, you are slipping off into sin. You are slipping, you are allowing the pressures of this life to have a negative impact upon you, and then you're going to begin to respond sinfully to those providences, to those situations. Let me give you an example. Notice with me what he says in verse four. Notice this, in verse four down through verse 10, he's gonna address discipline. Discipline. Now let me set it up with this. When we are disciplined by the Lord, we're gonna read the text, but I want you to listen to me. When we are disciplined, that is when we fall under God's stern providence, when we fall into various stern circumstances where we are being providentially chastened by the Lord, if we do not have our eyes upon Jesus, we're going to become bitter about it. We're going to think we don't deserve it. We're going to think He's not listening to us. We're going to think He doesn't understand our weaknesses and frailties. We're gonna wonder why these things are happening to us. But if we keep our eyes focused upon Jesus, how did he set up the text? He said, listen, why don't you consider his suffering? Why don't you consider the cross he bore for your sake? Why don't you consider that? Why don't you keep your eyes on Jesus? Because if you would keep your eyes on Jesus, now how does that, what do I mean by that? You children probably wonder what Pastor Stanfield's talking about. Let me help you, Blayne. I don't mean walk out into the yard and stare up into heaven. That's not what we're talking about. What we're talking about is looking by faith into the revelation of God where his son is revealed. We're talking about looking into the word of God. and seeing Jesus Christ as he is displayed on every page of scripture and learning how to feast and digest doctrine and theology. Because remember that warning in Hebrews 5, what happens when we cease being willing to meditate, ruminate, and be actively progressing in our faith? We become like little babies. We become like little babies. Now let me tell you something about little babies, spiritual babies. When Paul said, I've got a lot to tell you about Melchizedek, but you're not able to bear it right now because you used to know these things, but now you can't hardly even listen to a good theological sermon. You've become like children. Then he gave him a warning. And then what did he do in chapter seven? Well, he began to tell him about Melchizedek. He says, I got a lot to tell you about Melchizedek, but you are so dull you can't understand what I'm telling you. He rebuked them, told them they were like children, and then he told them to press on in the faith, gave them a warning, gave them encouragement, and then what did he do? He expounds Melchizedek. What does that tell us? Grow up. Grow up. I'm going to tell you about Melchizedek, but even though it's going to be hard for you. I'm going to stretch you, I'm going to press you, I'm going to push on you. I am going to expand your heart and expand your mind because you cannot digest Jesus Christ and not have a feast. You can't. Beloved, you cannot. If you think coming, you think Pastor Stanfield preaches a long time. You think it's hard to come in here and concentrate for two hours a week. Is that a commentary where you are spiritually? After how many years? Please, beloved, understand these are the warnings. Now for the one who comes to these chastening providences, chastening providences, these are the things that the Lord uses to scourge and discipline His people. Notice what He says in verse 4. He says, You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin, and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons. My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him. For those whom the Lord loves, He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives. It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with sons, for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us and we respected them. Shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits and live? That is, this discipline produces life. For they disciplined us for a short time, as seemed best to them. But He, God, disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. For all discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful. Yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness." And that peaceful fruit of righteousness is what Esau lacked. Now let's just make a few comments about discipline. We're not going to be able to cover all of this tonight. It's not my intention. But can I provoke you to further study? Provoke you to further meditation and reading of these things? Beloved, we all understand hard circumstances. And we probably understand responding to these difficult circumstances, not in faith, but in unbelief. responding sternly to the providences of God, questioning God, questioning his loving kindness, questioning his purposes. Why me? Complaining after complaining and after complaining, all the while, every time we have a complaining moment, hardening our hearts, indulging our spiritual senses. When the book of Hebrews, he's trying to help us. He wants us to understand. He goes, do you not understand why you're going through this difficulty? It's to reprove you. It's to train you in righteousness. It's to help you understand this. Oh, yeah, I love it. It's to help you understand God loves you. And he does have an amazing life prepared for you. And that life that He has prepared for you is full of all kinds of chastenings. That life, that wonderful, that splendid, that beautiful life that God has prepared for you is filled with many times when the Lord is going to come to you and show you how much He loves you by reproving. See, this wonderful life that the Christian has isn't all the warm and fuzzies and we can just do whatever we want and our Lord, our God, our Heavenly Father would never speak a harsh word to us. You know, we live in a day and time, but it's almost a crime to raise your voice to your children, yet God does. In fact, God says, I'm angry with you. I was not happy with you when you challenged me. You spurned my reproof. I was angry, and that's why I killed a bunch of them. Are you sure that's the same Christian God I've been taught? I don't know what Christian God some people have been taught, but I can tell you this is the God of Scripture, the God of the Bible. Beloved, notice again, emphasizing that In order that the whole purpose of this discipline is life. Life. Our heavenly father puts us in circumstances to look so that we might learn how corrupt we are and how much we need him. But the purpose of it is life. Life. He brings to us these difficult circumstances because He wants to train us in righteousness. Now, let's look briefly at the next following verses. Notice the therefore. Again, all these things are stacking on top of each other. We have Hebrews 11, this roll call of the saints of old, therefore, watch out, get rid of these sins that you know that your propensity These sins that you have, these propensities, these sins that you may be inclined to, make sure you address them. He deals with the suffering of the Lord Jesus, then he deals with our suffering as sons. Being disciplined by God is not fun. It's not fun. He says, no. We know it's hurtful. It's sorrowful. I mean, it hits us hard. You know, the kind of discipline we're talking about, of course, these Hebrews were under the culture of persecution. They had grown fearful. They were weary. They were thinking, this Jesus isn't worth following anymore. I'll just go back to Judaism and it'll all be OK. And he says, you can't do that. Your father, your heavenly father, has put you in the first century, just as he has put you in the 21st century. He puts you under the reign of Nero, just like you're under the reign of Obama. He puts you in a very pagan culture, just like he puts you in a very declining culture. You see, beloved, who are we going to complain to when he is saying, I'm using these things not to dull your senses, but to awaken them? so that you may keep your eyes focused upon me and so that I may train you in life. How does he do that? Well, first of all, beloved, we have to look around us and we don't see a culture of life. You young people have a problem with this. You look out there and you see all the glitter and the glamour, all the oohs and the ahs, and you go, oh, my mom and daddy are keeping me away from so many good things. What you need to train yourself to do is say death, death, In fact, you know what? What about 99.9% of every movie you see, won't you just go to death? Death. Death. Yes, it's entertainment, but it's death. Has no value whatsoever. Death. Take all your social media. So what? How would you live without Facebook? How would you live without the snapshots, whatever that thing's called? Clip shot. It's nothing wrong with posting pictures, nothing wrong with doing these things, but you know what we've done? We train ourselves on those things better than we are trained in the Word of God. We don't take it to the Lord of Glory, we take it to Facebook. We don't take our bitterness to God, we take it to Facebook so everybody can read about it. We stop, beloved, going to God. in many ways, and we take it to Facebook. We must pay attention to these things where we are in our day. Verse 12 tells us the answer. He says, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble. Make straight paths for your feet and the limb which is laying may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Let's deal with those two verses. First of all, notice what he says. Strengthen the things that are weak. What's weak in your life? Where are the weakness in your life? I know you know some of them. You don't need to go hire a counselor. You don't need to spend a lot of time looking in the mirror and saying, I know what my weakness are. I guarantee you can come up with a few of them right now, can't you? And what's he saying? What's the remedy? Well, first of all, let's address the weaknesses. The idea of verse 12 and 13 is that which is useful. Strengthen. Where are your weaknesses? Pastor, my weakness is reading scripture. Well, maybe it's not reading scripture. Say, Pastor, I read scripture, I just don't understand it. We can remedy that. You know, we've gone back, I want to say it again, we've gone back and we've dealt with, we've got the Bible everywhere. I mean, we have it on our phones. Did you ever think we'd say that? We've got, not only do we have the Bible on our phones, the things we call people, we've got commentaries on it. We've got Greek and Hebrew commentaries on it. We've got lexicons on it. I mean, we've got everything right there on a phone in the 21st century. I'm sure it would stagger the first century Christian. Stagger him. What are y'all complaining about? You got the word of God on these devices. Strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble. Make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather healed. He says, okay, you're weak. Okay, you've got these areas you need to deal with. That's what he's dealing with here. You run the race, you're weak. That's what you get. When you run the race, you get tired. Your legs get tired. Your knees are sore. You've been pounding the pavement. Your arms are tired from holding them up and you've been running for miles and miles and miles and miles and miles and you've grown tired and weary. He says, OK, don't give up. You can't stop. But you're going to have to support yourself. What do you need to do tonight, beloved, to strengthen those areas in your life that are weak? You say, well, Pastor, every week, every Sunday, I leave church. And I'm planning to do X, Y, Z. And you know what? I get back to church on Sunday, and I go, I'm planning to do X, Y, Z. And you know what, pastor? The last year of my life, I've been planning to do X, Y, Z, and I've never done it. Gets you an accountability partner. Find somebody in the church, young ladies, not your mama, young ladies, Joanna, Kristen, Jennifer, Miss Susan, mamas, Susan, You need an accountability partner. I mean, you got Dr. Steve, you got Chubb, Will. Get you a partner and say, will you hold me accountable for at least doing this this week? Will you call me? Will you check on me? Will you ask me if I'm doing at least X this week? I want to read 10 pages in this book I bought at the conference, Pastor. Call me on Wednesday. I want to read 10 pages by Sunday, I need at least, you know, make sure I'm at page five by at least Wednesday. Find you an accountability partner, beloved, but begin to take seriously these weaknesses in your life that need to be addressed. Why? Why? Well, it's important because if you don't, what's the result? Apostasy. See, it's not professing Jesus. It's possessing him and persevering in him. It's not how you start that counts. It's how you end that counts. Let's keep on. Notice what else he commands us, these imperatives. Pursue peace. Be concerned about each other. Pursue peace with all men and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. The sanctification is the same word we get our word holiness from. That is without any relationship to holiness in our lives. You're not going to heaven. You're not going to see the Lord. You're not. If you don't take these areas in your life, you're not strengthening the holiness and the righteous things in your life. Sin is going to continue to encroach and encroach and encroach and encroach. And that's why that's what John Owen said. He said, don't you know, it's better to cut down a tree when it's a sprout? When it's just a twig coming out of the ground, before it becomes that great mighty oak tree that's out there in the yard. I can tell you this, Will, you can have all six of your boys go out there with an ax on that mighty oak and they're not cutting that tree down. It's too big. It's too strong. It's way too mature for them. And that's what happens with sin. It overwhelms us. It overtakes us and then we lack the experience, the knowledge and understanding to deal with it because it has become such an ingrained in our character. We must pursue peace with one another. I think there is an element here not just to pursue peace with all men, obviously we need to do that. We need to live at peace with all men, as Paul says, as much as it concerns us. What does this mean? Well, let me tell you what he does not mean. He doesn't mean neglect God's commandments and word to live at peace with men. And that's the way some people are going to read this. Some people are going to read this and they're going to say, look, The Bible tells me to pursue peace with men. So therefore, I'm going to trump all of God's commandments about holiness, about righteousness, about brotherly care and concern, and I'm just going to live at peace with these reprobates, these rebels. And the Bible says that's not what I meant. These professing Christians who live like heathens. That's not pursuing the kind of peace that he's talking about here. He was talking about the same peace that he did over in Romans 12, when he says, listen, as much as it depends upon you, as much as you bring to bear God's word, God's law, God's commandments upon your whole relationships, be at peace. And if your enemies won't live at peace with you, that's on them, not you. That's on them. I can tell you what else John Owen said in his commentary, and he said, The sad state of so many churches that have made peace with rebels. Peace with rebels. They cease being churches in time. Over time, what happens to a church that ceases pressing people in holiness, that ceases condemning sin, ceases inciting the congregation, young and old, rich or poor, to holiness? What happens when they become Just a hub for all of those reprobates and rebels that will not be rebuked, corrected, or changed. They cease in time being a church. That's what's at stake. You can even say, well, that's apostasy, isn't it? Yes, it is. That's where the church begins to give over itself to these things. The word pursue, beloved, is a mighty, powerful word. It carries the idea in the original language of a hunter pursuing its prey. That's how eager you need to be about to be at peace with all men. And let me tell you this. Let me give you a little tidbit about peace. Go to Galatians 5. This kind of peace is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. It's the peace that can only come through righteousness. Righteousness. You got peace in your heart? You don't have peace in your heart if you're not pursuing righteousness. And neither can you promote peace with men. Sermon on the mount. Blessed are the peacemakers. You can't promote peace if you don't have peace. The only people that can promote peace are those who have. That righteousness of Jesus Christ, those who have had their sins forgiven and through the blood of Christ has removed the wrath of God. They have peace with God, Romans 5. They have peace with God. And because they have peace, they can be at peace and they can extend peace and they can promote peace. But that peace has a foundation of righteousness to it. The righteousness of Christ in your righteousness. I can tell you right now, if you're not promoting righteousness in your home, there's a battle isn't there? Because if you're not promoting the righteousness of Jesus Christ, you're promoting your own righteousness and that's going to cause a conflict. Notice verse 13, make straight paths for your feet. These are things we should be doing and we're Presbyterian, right? We believe in God's sovereign election. We believe in his sovereign power. What's this mean? We also believe in making decisions for Jesus. We also believe that in God's eternal security, there is a doctrine called the perseverance of the saints whereby we share in his glory by what? Persevering ourselves. We demonstrate in our perseverance, Blaine, that we are connected to Christ, that we are secure in Him. And because we are secure in Him, we persevere. We fight sin. We keep on raging in the battle. We don't give up. When we give up, we repent of sin and we keep our eyes focused on Jesus. So when we come to one another and we say, pray for me, brother, help me, brother, help me, sister, help me, but don't let go. Don't let go, because if you let go and this church lets go of me, I will go to hell. That's what's at stake, life and death. That's why that discipline, the whole purpose of God's discipline in your life is to promote life. Young people, you can spurn it. I'm not just looking at my children. I want to be an equal opportunity offender here. I want all of us to understand You grow bitter at God's harsh providence, you are on the path to hell. That's one of those steps. That's one of those exits. You're not falling from God's grace. You can't fall from God's grace. You've proved that you've come short of it. See, you might have come that close. You've come this close, but you never actually partook of the grace of Jesus Christ. But what kept you from taking it? Your own self-righteous selfishness. I love it. John Owen said this, he said, you know what keeps men out of heaven and throws them into hell? Themselves. Themselves. We keep ourselves out of heaven. by loving the things we should not love, by doing the things we should not do. You say, Pastor, I'm a Christian. Let me tell you something, Christian. You keep dabbling in sin, you dullen your senses, you're hardening your heart, you're offending the God of grace, you're trampling under your foot the blood of the cross. You are crucifying to yourself again the Lord of glory. Does that not bother you? Does that not offend you? Because your sins and my sins offend Him. They offend Him. Now let's deal with this. See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God. That no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble and by it many are defiled. Notice he says in verse 15, coming short. Oh, so many people come close. Esau was a covenant child. Esau was born in a pretty strong family, wasn't he? I mean, Esau was born, I mean, his daddy had the blessings of God upon him. God spoke to his daddy. God talked to his daddy. But Esau came up short. Why did Esau come up short? Well, let's think about it in a couple of ways. Notice what it says here. See to it that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled. This is a teaching right out of Deuteronomy, chapter 28, verse 18, where it talks about a person. A person or a family. There are many applications to this root of bitterness. This root of bitterness, I do not think, is a teaching. I don't think that's the primary application here. This root of bitterness is a person. It's a person. It's a person, family, or even a church in a denomination. Whatever the case may be, it's personal. It's personal. See to it that no one come up short of the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springing up that ideas overnight. Have you ever met somebody that all of a sudden you thought you knew them, but then all of a sudden you didn't think you realized you didn't know them at all? That's the idea here. One day they're one way and the next day they're completely different. This root of bitterness, it springs up overnight, it's sudden, but yet we're told to be on the lookout for it. Be careful of what springs up, causes trouble. Now notice it, I like what Owen said, it causes trouble for everybody. Some people it defiles. That means some people it actually rubs off on. Some people are actually brought into their state of unrighteousness because they are defiled by that person so much. Beloved, let me tell you something. Be careful about taking up other person's offenses. Be careful Careful, careful that you don't take up other people's offenses and plead other person's causes that you have no idea what you are talking about. Because if you are not careful, you are going to be contaminated and polluted by their unrighteousness. Now, here's the scary part. You may not recover. Who's to say you should recover? Who's to say you have the right to recover? Who's to say you're going to make it back? Because once you start down that slippery road of bitterness, when you've been defiled and you start defiling many yourself, when does it stop? Oh, it's a grievous sin. It's a terrible sin. And listen, John Owen even said, it's a sin that many people will find it hard to recover from. They find it very hard to recover from the sin. Be careful. Be careful. See to it, verse 16, that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau who sold his own birthright for a single meal. Bitterness, Malice, that poison, that's what bitterness is. It's just a poison that goes, that spews out of either a person. I mean, you can have a person that, what do they do? They're constantly spewing out this poison to discourage, to question things of God, to tempt you. It could be a family. It could be a family in a church. It could be a person. It could be a family. It could be a church. bitterness and immorality and godlessness go hand in hand. Why? That's a good question. Why? What's a common link here? What's a common denominator? Well, I think a couple of things. Number one, if we go back into Genesis and look at Esau, we would see that he was a godless, immoral man. He loved women. He was a polygamist. And the Bible tells us that his choice of wives grieved his mother because these weren't godly women. Man, these were the hot gals of the place. These were the women that everybody wanted. He had them. He was a wealthy man. He was a wealthy man. He was part of a prestige family, a prestigious family. He longed for the things of the world, not the things of God. And he got it. He could not control himself. He could not discipline himself, beloved. He refused to put a bridle upon his lust. He refused to tell himself, no, no, no. I will not look there. No, I will not think about this. No, I'm not going to go there. No, I'm not going to listen to you. No, no, no. He couldn't tell himself no. That's the point that it makes here when it says that he sold his own birthright for a single meal. Wow, we know the story, right? He comes in famished. Oh, I'm hungry. I've been out hunting all day. I can't wait to eat. Feed me now. I tell you what, I'd give you my birthright. I'd give you what is precious, valuable for a bowl of soup because I'm so undisciplined. I can't wait 30 minutes to cook my own bowl of soup. I want it now, and I want it the way I want it. Give it to me. Does that sound like any of us? It can, can't it? I mean, we can easily say that, can't we? We refuse to discipline ourselves, we refuse to tell ourselves no. We want it our way, we want it how we want it, and nobody's gonna tell us otherwise. That's exactly like Esau. Esau wanted it his way, he got it his way, and what did he do? Oh, he talked about how he grieved his mother. Oh, what does Proverbs say about the rebellious child? Proverbs 10.1, oh, how they are a grief to their parents. Esau was a grief to his godly parents. He grieved them, because when they looked at him, they saw a covenant breaker. They saw an undisciplined, self-centered, selfish, self-righteous covenant breaker who was spurning the grace and the mercies of God. He lived in the context of the church of Jesus Christ, and he did not want it. He wanted something else. He was willing to trade his soul. He was so selfish and self-centered and undisciplined. He would trade his soul for a bowl of soup. You know why? Because it's just about the moment. And that's what sex is all about, this immorality. You go looking at these billboards and you got these half-dressed women on there, won't cover up their bodies. What they're trying to tell you to do to get your satisfaction out here all day long? Say yes. I was driving, I think we were going, I think it must have been when we were driving up to Virginia. I meant to point this out, but everybody was asleep but me. I was such a servant, driving my family to Virginia. But there was a, I remember laughing to myself because there was a junkyard, a billboard displaying a junkyard, and guess what was on the billboard? A half-dressed woman. Talking about, you know, come and get your parts. And I got to thinking, I mean, here's this woman on a billboard advertising junk cars, because they know you're going to look. Because we won't tell ourselves no, will we? We won't tell ourselves no. It's the satisfaction of the moment. And the moment is greater to a fool than eternity. Esau was a fool. How was he a fool? Well, I can't stay on this tonight, and I was just wanting to pull up a few things to help us, but notice verse 17. For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, this blessing that he rejected, he was rejected. For he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears. Let me address this. Notice Esau changed his mind. He said, well, I've been a fool. You know what? I just traded my inheritance, which is valuable, for a bowl of soup. That was stupid. But guess what? He demonstrated more foolishness because he did not go to God. He didn't go to repent of his sins. Remember what I just told you about John Owen says? Who keeps us out of heaven? We do. We do. I keep myself. by the choices I make every day, either proving my perseverance or proving my hatred to the covenant. Notice, he says, for even afterwards when he desired to inherit the blessing, does it say, let me rephrase it, look at your Bibles, let me rephrase it. For you know that even afterwards when he desired to inherit the Lord, he was rejected. Did he desire to inherit the Lord or the blessing? Did he want God or did he want the blessings of God? Which one did he want? He wanted the blessings. He wanted all of the cake, but never wanted the responsibility of self-discipline, self-denial, and perseverance. See, he wanted all of those things, but he did not want God because God wants, wanted Him and He wants you to persevere and to be disciplined. He wants you to keep your eyes focused on Jesus who disciplined Himself to the cross, who suffered the temptations, who suffered all of those temptations that we face with yet ten times more than you'll ever know because He was the Son of God. He sought the blessing. Listen to me, Kevin Children. There's a lot of blessings. A lot of blessings, Nate. You want the blessing? You want God. Blessings of God. Choose God. Don't be like Esau. who was a godless, profane person, an immoral person. He was rejected. Why, God, here he is wailing. Notice what it says, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears. Sounds like a contradiction, doesn't it? It sounds like God's being mean to Esau. Beloved, listen to me. Let's use some theology. The Bible tells us that no man that seeks after Christ is rejected. No man. No man. I'm going to tell you something, young people. I'll tell you something, parents. If you seek after Christ tonight, you realize your heart's been rent and torn asunder, and you don't have Jesus Christ, you call upon Him right now. He'll save you. But I'm going to tell you this. If you seek the blessings of Jesus without Jesus, He will reject you. You cannot have the blessings of Jesus Christ without Him. To have Jesus is to have it all. But to seek the blessings apart from Jesus There's no forgiveness. There's no forgiveness. I don't care if you cry a sea of tears. I don't care if you wail all night. I don't care if you flog yourself. I don't care if you throw yourself out on the cold floor. I don't care how much penance you do. I don't care what you do. I don't care how many possessions you sell and give to the poor. You will be rejected by God because you never wanted him anyway. And those who reject him, he rejects. Beloved, I'm sure young people, and myself included, have wept tears, not over sorrow for righteousness sake, but just out of just sheer guilt and misery. That's not repentance. Out of just plain old selfishness. I've wept. That's not repentance. Repentance is turning from sin to God. It's rejecting and dying to yourself and picking up the cross and bearing the cross of Christ, responsibility, discipline. Accountability. Identification. This Jesus suffered. You must suffer. I must suffer. We must be chasing for our sins and not grow bitter. You know, young people have a tendency to grow bitter with their parents. Don't grow bitter. That bitterness will lead to immorality. It will lead to all kinds of ungodliness. Don't seek the blessings of a Christian home. Seek Christ of the Christian home. If you are not pressing the crown rights of Jesus Christ upon your home, your marriage, your children, upon this culture, whatever ways you're not doing it, and God's gonna chase him. If you are sons of God, he's gonna chase you. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for these strong words, these words that cause us as Christians to shake and tremble. May we take it to heart. May we not be found bitter. May our hearts, Lord, if there's bitterness tonight, would you grant us grace and repentance? Would you cure us from that poison? And we pray, oh Lord, that we would not be used of the evil one to spring up and to sprout up and defile many. Lord, keep us from immorality. Keep our eyes pure, our minds pure, our hearts pure in a decadent, immoral age. Help us not be profane like Esau, who just could not discipline himself. Oh, he loved the blessings, but he did not love you. Oh, Lord, I pray that that would not be us. Anyone here? Lord, let us Be showered with light tonight. Grace to repent of our sins and the perseverance of faith. Lord, grant us that. Give it to us. Lord, as you are the author and finisher of our faith, help us to finish the race that we've begun in Jesus Christ. Thank you, oh Lord, for your love and kindness to us. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Beloved, let's rise and be dismissed with a benediction.