Well, good morning to everyone. Good morning. A little bit of a challenge getting here this morning. So, it's one of those lovely days when they have more snow down here than we do in Ironwood. So we always rejoice in that. I'm glad you all came out and made the trek through the snow this morning. It's good to see everyone.

We're going to be continuing our study in Hebrews 12 this morning. It's really an interesting passage. I think the key to understanding it is that the author is appealing to the group there to pay attention, to take heed, to oversee is what the word means, to look. The key phrase I want to hone in on this morning as we go through the text is, lest anyone fall short of the grace of God. That was the real danger in this community of Hebrews, that some would fall short of salvation, that they would go back to Judaism. So that's what he's talking about this morning.

Last week, we studied an interesting section of scripture together earlier in Hebrews 12. The text, along with Romans 5 and James 1, shows us the purpose and intention of trials and tribulations in our lives. The Hebrews to which the author writes this epistle did not understand that the persecution they were experiencing because of their profession of faith in Jesus was actually being allowed by God for the very purpose of chastening, teaching, molding, and shaping these believers into the likeness of Christ.

The author made a great insight in verse 11 when he said, "No chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful. Nevertheless, afterward, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it." I have to tell you that I decided this week that I will never preach on trials and tribulations again. God had me in major application mode on Monday and Tuesday, in particular. It seemed that just about everything that could go wrong did, and I was forced to apply the very things that I had been preaching on Sunday morning. And let me tell you, it didn't seem pleasant at the time.

But I have to trust and understand and believe and reckon what God says to be true. He's using trials and troubles, various and all kinds of trials, to work out His will in my life, to teach me to trust Him and depend on Him. He's working all things together for my good as my perfect loving Father. The question is, do I believe this truth? And am I willing to make application of it in my daily life when I am going through experiencing trials and troubles of many and various kinds? Can I count it all joy? And of course, this week I came to the next text, which includes trials and tribulations. I have to preach on that again, but we'll see how the week goes.

I think the key to being able to have a right perspective, which is really largely what it's about in our text this morning, is remembering my purpose, my desire, and God's will for my life. What is it that I really want? Why am I here? And if trials and tribulations are the means to which I can accomplish this goal, then I can rejoice when they come. But it isn't easy, my friends. It takes faith. It takes trust in Him and His word. And that's what this book of Hebrews is all about, especially these last couple chapters of applications.

Let's look to our text together in Hebrews 12, at verse 12. He writes, "Therefore, strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. Looking carefully, lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled, lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected. For he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears."

Well, I've given you four points this morning on your outline. First, persevere. Second, pursue. Third, purpose. And fourth, perversion. 

Well, the first word in verse 12 is "therefore," so we have to go back and see what it is therefore. He's just finished this great section on teaching about chastening, and how the trials and tribulations of this life, the very persecutions that they were experiencing, were God's work to conform them to Christ, to produce the peaceable fruit of righteousness in their lives.

So what he wants them to do now is to take this truth, to take this knowledge, and adjust their perspective on their trials. Rather than considering going back to Judaism and forsaking Christ in order to get out from under the pressure, they could now continue on. They could persevere in their faith, knowing that the persecution was proof of their sonship, their true relationship with their Father in heaven, and that this was God's means to producing holiness in their lives. The persecution was actually a positive. And they could rejoice that God was working through them, working for their good. And that's the very thing he wants them to do. He wants them to persevere. He wants them to continue, to be encouraged.

Look at verse 12. He says, "Therefore, strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed." What a tremendous picture of how this life, this world, can wear you down. Sometimes it's like being in a heavyweight bout. Your opponent just keeps jabbing at you, wearing you down. And every once in a while, a good right hook knocks you off your feet. 

What is a believer to do? What do we do when the hard times of life knock us back into the ropes or sometimes down to the canvas? I remember one of the first winters we were farming. We had a good number of animals. It was one of those really hard winters a few years back. You'll remember that. It was extremely cold for a long period of time. And things had been really hard. We had some problems with animals. Some had gotten sick. And we just had what seemed like an unending barrage of troubles.

It was March. We were looking for relief for spring. But it wouldn't come that year. It was excessively cold for March, dipping down to 30 below in the river bottom where we live. And this went on for many days. Then in the midst of this, we had a cow who was ready to have a baby. She was in the barn. She had lots of hay and bedding. But I remember going out every night two or three times a night to check on her because I was sure that she was ready to freshen. Night after night, I'd bundle up against the cold, put on my Nanook of the North coat, and choppers, and swampers, and military flight pants. I'd go out there and check on her at 11 o'clock, and 2 o'clock, and 5 o'clock. And there she would be, standing big as a house, chewing her cud, looking at me going, "What do you want? Nothing going on." And this went on for about 10 days.

I can remember the stars, how clear the sky was. It was so cold. So one night, I went out about 4 AM to check on her. And there was a calf up on top of the mound of hay where she'd piled it up. It was under a heat lamp we put there. It was steaming. And the steam was just pouring off of her wet, cold, little self. And there was the cow laid out flat like a dead deer in the bait pile. I scooped up the calf. And I ran to the house, taking her right in by the wood stove. And I was yelling all the while, waking everybody up. I called the vet. And he said it was milk fever, something we'd yet to learn about. Basically, it's a calcium-magnesium imbalance because of the milk production. And it renders their muscles useless. He said we had to get her upright, or she would bloat and die. And he would be there in about an hour and a half. 

So out Bobby and I went. We tried to push that cow up on her chest, an 1,100 pound cow. I'd push on the cow, and Bobby would scoot herself back against the cow, wedging herself in there. We got her up to a somewhat upright position. And Bobby sat there as a wedge, holding her up for an hour and a half until the vet came and could give her calcium. In about 20 minutes, she was up and feeding her calf. We named that calf Joy because weeping may endure for the night. But joy comes in the morning.

I remember I called a friend of mine that morning. And I said, I don't think I can do this anymore, you know? What do I do? He said, here's what you do. You keep going. You keep going. And we kept going. And there was snow on the ground that year till May 17th. It was a hard winter. Deer were crawling into our hog shelters and dying. Sometimes life is hard, really hard. Sometimes the cares and the troubles and trials of this old, cursed world become almost overwhelming. 

What is a believer in Jesus to do? Keep going, persevere. But how and why? Because we know that weeping may endure for the night. But joy comes in the morning. We know that God works all things together for good of those who love Him, those who are the called according to His purpose. Chastening is hard. It's painful. But it's God's work in your life to produce fruit, to make you like Christ. Therefore, be encouraged. Strengthen the hands which hang down and the feeble knees. And make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather healed.

The wording here speaks of a joint dislocated, like a shoulder or a hip. He says you need to pop it back into place. You need to be healed so that you can continue, that you can walk the straight path. Persevere, continue. That's what believers do. They continue. But those who are only professors and not possessors turn back. They forsake their confession in order to relieve the pressure. 

1 John 2.19 says, "They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out that they might be made manifest that none of them were of us." So the first exhortation that we see in our text is to get the right perspective. Be encouraged. Pop those dislocated joints back into place and get marching down the straight path, knowing that God is going to bring you through this and that you'll be better for it on the other side. It's working to accomplish the very desire of your heart that the Holy Spirit has placed there—to glorify God, to become like Christ in everything you do.

Verse 14, he says, "Pursue peace with all people and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. Looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled." 

We see the exhortation to persevere. And next we see an exhortation to pursue, remembering our purpose. Pursue peace with all people and holiness, he says. Romans 12.18 says, "If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men." This is a very instructive and practical exhortation. We are to be peaceable people in this life, in this world. We are to work with our hands and mind our own business and have something to share.

Jude says we are to contend for the faith, the body of truth, once for all delivered to the saints. We are to contend, but we are not to be contentious. We are to speak the truth, but we are to speak it in love. Notice Romans 12.18 says, "If it is possible," and "as much as depends on you." These are really important qualifiers, I think. Because the gospel is a stumbling block. It's an offense to the carnal man. And speaking the truth in love can bring an astounding amount of hatred. So we cannot always live at peace with men because of the truth, because of Christ. But we should pursue peace. We should desire peace, and we should seek only to offend at the point of truth, at the gospel of Christ.

The direct application here has to do with the attitude of the believing Jews toward those who were sliding back into Judaism, who were falling away. They should seek their restoration, their salvation and peace, not with a quarrelsome and contentious spirit. It's much like Galatians 6, to restore one in a spirit of gentleness. 

What's our motive? Why are we doing what we're doing? Holiness in this epistle speaks of drawing near to God with a cleansed conscience. Listen to Hebrews 10.22. "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." The word speaks of purity, which comes only with a right relationship with God.

The word translated "pursue" has a sense of urgency to it. We are to diligently seek after peace and holiness. And my friends, this works towards our purpose as well. Look at verse 15 again. "Looking carefully, lest anyone fall short of the grace of God." The exhortation here gets very interesting; the words "fall short" describe perfectly what was happening in this group of Hebrews. It literally means to fall back away from one position to a former position. The idea here is that they were to oversee, they were to look carefully after so that no one would fall back to the position of Judaism, of legalism. This was the very danger they were facing and it was real.

They needed to be diligently looking, carefully watching, overseeing so that no one would fall short of the grace of God and back into a works-righteous religion. How do you do that? What's the means for doing that? To keep someone from being taken in error. The word "root" speaks of an evil person within the congregation. Here, one who is predisposed to fall back, to forsake his profession, and most importantly, also to influence others to do the same. And this was happening. They were springing up; they were influencing others to go back to the temple. 

The author says be careful, watch diligently, oversee that the truth is taught and brought forth so that each one is encouraged to hold fast to Christ so that none fall short—they don't arrive too late— and so that no evil person springs up and causes damage to the many, the majority of the people in the fellowship. 

I find the most interesting application for believers here for us. How is it that we can look intently, that we can oversee first primarily for ourselves but also for our brothers, for our congregation, for our church? How can we be sure that those who are in our church or who are professors of faith are not led astray into false teaching? I often wonder about this concerning the evangelical churches today. 

I had a man stop by my home this week who attends an evangelical church that has gone the way of the world in many ways, and he said something I thought was most interesting. He said, "And the people there don't recognize error because they have never been taught." How true this is. If there's not good teaching, doctrinal purity, verse-by-verse exposition with a desire to say what God says, to know and apply the truth, then there's no growth and there's no discernment.

Turn over to Ephesians 4.11. This is a familiar passage, but this is God's plan for the local church. Speaking of Jesus giving gifts to the church in verse 11, he says, "And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastor-teachers, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ." How does God plan for this to happen? 

"Till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love."

This is God's plan for the local church. Doctrine, teaching, truth, the Word of God preached to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to keep them from being tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. 

So teaching and preaching are a great part of looking diligently. But this responsibility is for every believer in the church, not just the pastor. Every part does its share. We are here to be witnesses, we are here to be examples, to be the followers after peace and holiness and speaking truth, warning against error, in order that men might come to faith in Christ and be built up as believers. 

We've been studying some very difficult sections in the book of 1 Corinthians on Thursday night, and we've been through all the errors and moral shortfalls of the Corinthian believers, the amazing amount of sin that was occurring there, the tragedy of how believers had been led astray by philosophy and worldly wisdom. I think the core issue was that the believers did not understand who they were in Christ, their purpose for being here, and they had the completely wrong perspective. 

Paul addresses these issues of sexual immorality, selfishness, a lack of love, following after the wrong things, and in chapter 6, at verse 12, he says the most interesting thing. He says, "All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful or profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any."

I can't help but wonder about the amount of pressure that the Jews in the book of Hebrews were under. I can imagine that there were those who said, "Let's just go back to Judaism, you know, make mom so happy. It doesn't really matter that much; it's God gave us this religion. It's a true religion. It's what we practiced for years, come on!" There's no sense in fighting and causing all this trouble, let's just go back and love everyone. Can't we just all get along? 

We have these kinds of pressures in the church today, a lack of understanding about doctrine and a lack of perspective as to our purpose. Paul says, "All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable." So often I hear Christians ask the wrong questions. They say, "Does the Bible strictly forbid me doing this? Does the Bible say I can't do that? Doesn't God want me to be happy?" 

Paul says, "Under grace in Christ I am free. All things are lawful for me, but here's the key, all things are not profitable." Now we have to ask the question, profitable for what? What is my purpose? Why am I here? What am I trying to accomplish? Why did God save me? 

And our text says that I as a believer in Jesus Christ should be intently looking, watching, lest anyone fall short of the grace of God. This includes speaking truth, good doctrine; it includes a sincere heart, a desire for what is best for others, and it requires a diligent watching for those who would lead others into false teaching and practice. 

Paul says all things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. Not all things work toward my goal, my purpose of living a holy life, of edifying my brothers and sisters in Christ, and of leading men to faith. In short, glorifying God in all that I do. So the question should always be, what is it that furthers the gospel? What is it that leads me to holiness and to witness and salvation of lost souls? This is what I most deeply want for my life.

What the local church needs is a group of believers who are hungry for the Word of God, the truth, who are following after, diligently seeking to know the truth and to live it out, and who are committed to keeping away error and walking in truth as witnesses for Jesus in this world. 

And that's what the author is appealing to these Hebrews to do, to have, to understand their trials, to keep their focus on Jesus and His Word, His promises, and to root out any error in the evil person who would lead others astray. 

And in verse 16, we see that in the local church we must deal with sin as well. Look at verse 16, "Lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright." We see also in the Corinthian church there was fornication, even incest, where a man had his father's wife. And the Corinthians were not handling sin rightly in the church. They did not preach and teach against it; they did not deal with it or even really see it as a problem. In fact, Paul says in chapter 5, they were boasting about this sin which is not even named among the pagans. 

It's amazing how far we can fall, how compromised we can become when we are not willing to emphasize holy living, when we are not willing to deal with open, willful, and unrepentant sin in the church. Paul instructed the Corinthians to throw this man out for the destruction of the flesh. Now the motive is clear, it's purity in the church and it's witness. It's for the protection of the church and it is for the restoration of the sinner. 

Later in that chapter, he says that they should not even eat with a fornicator who is named a brother. Now in our text, it's probably speaking of an unbeliever, as we will see with the amazing illustration concerning Esau, but it is concerning one who is in the church, one who is called a brother, who has made a profession of faith. And what it says here is that our diligent looking, our overseeing in the church as believers should include a safeguard against anyone falling short of the grace of God and any root of bitterness springing up and causing trouble, and any fornicator or profane person among the congregation. 

Dealing with sin is important in the church, but it's hard. It's really hard. We must not have any perversion of truth in doctrine or practice if we are going to be sure that no one falls short of the grace of God and salvation. When we first read verses 16 to 17, it seems a little bit confusing, but it's actually an amazing example of what the author is trying to say. The word fornicator does not modify Esau, but rather he is referred to as a profane person. 

Look at verse 16, "...lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected; for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears." Ralph said this morning, I'm interested to see what you're going to do with this text. I think this was the part he was thinking about. 

The word profane means unhallowed or common. It's the opposite of the word holy, sanctified, set apart. Esau sold his birthright for a morsel of food. He did not care about the spiritual. He did not care about salvation, but only wanted to meet his physical needs and appetite. Let's go back to Genesis 25 and read that short account of this grave error that Esau made. 

Genesis 25, 29: "...now Jacob cooked a stew. And Esau came in from the field, and he was weary. And Esau said to Jacob, 'Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am weary.' Therefore his name was called Edom. But Jacob said, 'Sell me your birthright as of this day.' And Esau said, 'Look, I'm about to die, so what is this birthright to me?' This reminds me of your teenage son running into the house, 'I'm dying, feed me!' 

Then Jacob said, 'Swear to me as of this day.' So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. And Jacob gave Esau bread and a stew of lentils. Then he ate and drank, arose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright." Esau was only concerned with the temporal. He was only concerned with the physical. He was a profane, common, earthly man. He was all about the physical and keeping himself satiated. And he was willing to sacrifice his eternity, his birthright, his salvation for a bowl of soup just because he was hungry. 

The danger for these Hebrews was so similar. They needed to pay attention to the spiritual. They needed to desire to seek after holiness and drawing near to God, trusting Him, depending on Him, having a proper perspective on the persecution of their purpose and the plan of God for them. But some were only concerned with the physical. They were only focused on their physical needs and the alleviation of suffering. The author says, pay attention, set your focus, lest anyone like Esau bow to the physical need and forsake the spiritual realities. This was the exact danger they were facing in leaning back to the temple in Judaism.

I want you to listen carefully to Weiss' comments on these verses. He says, "But note how exact the analogy is. The birthright had been given by God to Jacob. Esau knew this. But in spite of it all, he claimed it and professed to have it. He sold what he did not have, but only professed to have, for a mess of pottage. These Hebrews who were in danger of apostatizing were not saved, but professed faith in Messiah. They were in danger of selling what they did not have, but only professed to have, for a mess of pottage—that is, freedom from persecution that they were enduring." The analogy is incredible.

There's the consistent warning found throughout the epistle here in verse 17. It says, "For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected. He found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears." We saw this in chapter 6, didn't we? If you turn back, if you apostatize, if you reject Jesus Christ with full knowledge, then there's no way to be renewed to repentance. The word seems to indicate that God was not willing to allow Esau to repent, but this is never the heart of God concerning salvation. The issue is always that man is not willing to turn to God in faith. And that was true of Esau as well, and it was a danger for these Hebrews.

There are two words for repentance. One is used of sorrow because of the evil consequences of an action. The other is used of sorrow leading—to a change of moral purpose. The clearest example is in 2 Corinthians 7, 9, you know this verse: "Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing."

Here we see that repentance was turning around, away from sin, into holiness. But the word used in our text speaks only of sorrow because of the consequences of his actions of selling his birthright. It's like when you catch your child doing something that he or she should not be doing, and they say, "I'm sorry," but they're only sorry that they got caught. They are not sorry unto a moral reversal or repentance, as Paul uses in 2 Corinthians 7.

Esau was not seeking repentance in the sense that he now wanted to turn to God in faith and receive salvation. He didn't care about that. He was only sorry; he was angry, really, that Jacob got the blessing, and he wanted a blessing for himself. The warning is not to forsake the eternal for the temporal. In particular, not to forsake Christ to get out from under the persecution.

So we see in our text the need to persevere, to continue in the faith, understanding rightly the trials and tribulations of this life, to pursue holiness and peace. We need to have a right perspective concerning our purpose to be a witness and an example concerning faith in Jesus Christ, lest anyone fall short of the grace of God. And we need to watch for perversion in the church concerning doctrine and practice, so that there would be no evil person springing up to lead others astray. This was the need of this fellowship, and my friends, it's the need today in the church as well. 

We need to set our focus on Christ; we need to look intently at Him, look off and away from ourselves and to Jesus only, seeking after Him, His truth, His Word, and His purpose and intent for our lives. This is the way to experience the peaceable fruit of righteousness and to bring glory to God each day. 

Let's close in prayer. Father, we're so thankful for Your Word, Your amazing, tremendous Word that teaches us so clearly and encourages us and helps us to continue. Thank You that You keep us by Your power, that You've changed us and given us a new desire in our heart to live for You, to lead others to You, to help us to renew our minds to these truths, to set our minds on these things and on Jesus, and to live a life that is fruitful, bringing You glory, in Jesus' name. Amen.