Training Put to Use (Part C)

Rehoboam submitted to God, but he never got holiness. He just wanted the help from God. And as a result, the Bible tells us at the end of his life he did evil because he did not seek the Lord.

See, this makes it doable for every human being, no matter how weak or strong you may find yourself to be. You can seek the Lord your God. You're to love the Lord your God with your whole heart, soul, mind, and strength. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Hebrews.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. And now here's Pastor Rick with the conclusion of his message called Training Put to Use, as he teaches in Hebrews chapter 12. Now holiness, it includes purity, principles established by God. But some make holiness out to be sinlessness in men, and that is not the case in this life. If God said you have to be holy, and that meant you also have to be sinless, then we'd be done. But it does mean that we pursue holiness and sinlessness. We are fully given to that as best we can. We are totally on board with God.

We are not opposed to his requirements and his request. And when we fall or falter, it is not because we want to. The flesh does.

We understand. But the spiritual man totally knows it's wrong. Without that, you cannot have peace with God. Without that, there is no salvation. To be opposed to God's holiness and say, well, you know, I think that's a bit overboard.

I think that if two men want to get married, they can. This is not right. This is sin. And we're hated for saying we don't agree with you. You're there free to agree with us, and we're not free to hate them back. But they will disagree with us, and then you'll find even Christians caving on this. Oh, that's so mean.

Is it not? Look, if standing by what God says is mean, then I'm mean. If you want to carve your little definitions and play with your words to accuse me of being that which you think I am, then have at it.

But as for me and my house, we will side with the Lord. And this is something that it's not easy to communicate to the lost because on one hand you want to take them and shake them and say, are you out of your mind? And on the other hand, you want to say, look, I'm not trying to hurt your feelings. So how do you balance the two? Well, when I figure it out, I'll preach on it. I mean, it just comes down to sometimes you have to be right between the eyes with it, and other times you have to just be more sensitive.

Depends on, you know, you've got to find the right lid for each pot. But back to this, without which no one will see the Lord. That's rather forceful, wouldn't you say? That's rather, there's something eternal and final about that. If you don't get holiness, holiness is our relationship with God. Righteousness is our relationship with men based on our holy relationship with God. Holiness involves purity. It means we've filtered out all the things that we know God is very serious about and what He says, and we've accepted that against everything else. That's holiness. That's a portion of it.

And those who disagree with that suffer. Leviticus 10. Some of you know that just that chapter alone reminds you of Nadab and Abihu. Two of the first priests in Israel. The two eldest sons of Aaron, the first high priest of Israel. At the day God sent fire down to kindle the offerings, to bless the nation. But these two men decided to do something outside the box that God had put on the congregation that day. Leviticus 10, verse 3. Well, before I read the verse.

So fire came down from heaven and struck the two men dead. Aaron, their father and the first high priest of the nation, they are with Moses. Moses says this, and Moses said to Aaron, This is what Yahweh spoke saying, By those who come near me, I must be regarded as holy, and before all the people I must be glorified. So Aaron held his peace.

Because there was no comeback to that. As sad and tragic as that moment, I don't even want to try to imagine being Aaron at that moment. The point of the scripture, and where the writer of Hebrews is going, and they would have known that, without holiness, there's no relationship. By those who come near me, I must be regarded as holy, as pure, as higher than anything else. No auxiliary God.

No alternate gods. Jesus said it this way, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. How do you get a pure heart agreeing with Jesus? That's how you side with Him. And so some want help in this life from God.

This might illustrate what I'm trying to say better. Some want help from God, they just don't want His holiness. I just want God to bless me, but I don't want to have to abide by, you know, the Ten Commandments, for example. Thou shall not lie. Thou shall not covet. How about that one?

That gets everybody. Thou shall have no false gods before me, no other gods before me, pardon me. So this holiness, if you want God's help, it has to have holiness on it. Again, Wednesday night, Rehoboam the king, he wanted God's help.

When Shishak, the Egyptian king, came rolling up north into his territory to take all that he wanted, Rehoboam submitted to God. But he never got holiness. He just wanted the help from God. And as a result, the Bible tells us at the end of his life, he did evil because he did not seek the Lord.

See, this makes it doable for every human being, no matter how weak or strong you may find yourself to be. You can seek the Lord your God. You're to love the Lord your God with your whole heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Mark's gospel, it's all about Jesus Christ the Lord. That view only comes from a heart that's been born again and is in the holiness of God. And so, things for us to consider. Verse 15, he says, 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. Well, he is just rolling it out. This is just hitting them left and right. Looking carefully, lest anyone fall short of the grace of God.

Well, that's spooky. Who wants to fall short with God? Okay, so again, you're standing on a cliff, and there's another cliff, I don't know, five feet away from you, and there's something chasing you, and all you got to do is jump across to the other side. What happens if you fall short? You don't make it. That's what happens.

I mean, what happens if, you know, you're just a mile off shore, drowning, and you make it a half mile, but you don't make it all the way? Then you fall short. So when you read this description, we don't say, well, let's theologically make this fit our theology.

We look at it for what it says. Remember, these Jewish Christians, these Hebrews at this time, were looking to abandon Christianity and go back to Judaism, or mingle Judaism with Christianity. And the writer is saying, don't you do it, because if you do, you will fall short of the grace of God.

Just as though if you came out of Hinduism, and you said, I'm going to go back to Hinduism, or I'm going to mingle Hinduism with Christianity, or any other religion, you cannot do it and still have Christianity. You cannot expect to have salvation if you mix salvation with something else. That's not complicated, unless your theology says, I don't like that.

Well, then it's your problem. But the scripture makes it very clear. Looking carefully, lest anyone fall short of the grace of God. Galatians 5, Paul dealing with the same topic. He says, you have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law. You have fallen from grace.

Who wants to do that? What is grace? Ephesians 2, verse 8. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Well, what happens if I fall from that grace? Because I say to Christ, I don't want you anymore.

You reap what you sow. There's another fundamental in Christianity that is ignored so often. No Christian ought to be terrified by this, but we better respect it. To fall short is not something that is virtuous or to be encouraged at all.

I've never really worried about this. I've never come to this verse and said, I'm going to fall short tomorrow. I know that I am kept by the power of God as long as I want to be, and I happen to want to be forever. And so I've already put in my old paperwork, and I've got approval.

It's done. And without that blessed assurance, you can't function for the kingdom. If you're too worried about God judging you for something you don't even know that you did, you cannot serve. You must be free to understand the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin, that we're sin-abounded.

Grace did much more. Those are fundamentals of our faith. And if you have them, you are a terrorist from hell's perspective, and so you should be.

If hell finds a Christian that understands the grace of God, the holiness of God, he's going to have a very difficult time with you. It is doable for all of us. He says, let's any root of bitterness springing up. I don't know, I live out in the country and stuff springs up all the time. Constantly trying to take back what I've developed. This is the root of bitterness. It is a drain on life. It is the drain of resentment. It just sucks the energy right out of everyone.

The host and everyone in blasting radius that gets hit by bitterness. Deuteronomy 29, God says, therefore, Moses speaking, keep the words of this covenant. And this is the law of the Jews, which we know is the old part of the Old Testament at the time.

And do them. You see, do something with the word that you get, that you may prosper in all that you do. And then he says, so that there may not be among you man or woman or family or tribe whose heart turns away today from Yahweh, our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations and that there may not be among you a root bearing bitterness or wormwood, poisonous people. He's saying to the Jews, if you turn away from the faith, Moses, if you turn away from Yahweh, you're done. The writer of the Hebrews is saying, if you turn away from Yahweh, who is Jesus Christ in the New Testament, you've had it. So be careful.

Watch out for this. He says again, verse 15, looking carefully lest anyone fall short. Job, you know, in life, the stuff that piles up against us, it can make us bitter very easily if we're not careful.

And then what do we do? We feel justified in hardening ourselves against God. He took it away from me.

I had no right to do that. We might not verbalize it that way, but that might be what's going on. You young Christians, you just make sure you get this into your head so as you become older Christians and you face things in life that you didn't get and maybe didn't connect at some earlier message you heard from mine 10 years ago or whatever as you get older. Remember this, Job chapter 9, verse 4, who has hardened himself against him and prospered. Who has resisted God and come out on top? Who has benefited from resisting God?

Raise your hand if you think you have benefited from hardening up against God. And so it may prove to be more of a drive off a cliff than a drive into a dead end. Be careful. It says cause trouble. If there's a bitter root in someone, it's going to cause trouble. I mean, who doesn't like trouble?

Yeah, I'll take another please. I don't want to cause trouble. Not in an unjustified way. I mean, you preach the gospel to some people, they think that's causing trouble. I don't mean it that way, but I don't want to be a troublemaker. Bitterness, it forges resentment. It makes critics out of us. It causes us to withhold blessings from others. Again, making those snide remarks and walking away and leaving the other person with that time bomb.

Hurting someone's feelings. Where else are you going to hear this but the house of God? Oh yeah, you can get it from the other sermons online. I think there's other people who have messages online.

I'm not sure, but I know mines are online. So, this is not just part of the verse. This is what the Lord is saying. If you let this cause trouble in you, then I will have to take the scourge out because I don't want you to be that way.

And so there's the warning. He says, and by this, many become defiled. So, here's the writer to Hebrews. Evidently, he's been around Christianity a while. He's been ministering for a long time. And he says, many become defiled by this.

He says, I've come across these in the church. In Christianity, I've come across bitter Christians. Because they were not looking out for the grace of God.

They were not following the steps. Without holiness, unholiness is the result every time. Esau, he is going to be the man he uses. We'll get to him momentarily. He was a relatively good man of his morals go. We don't know of him committing any great moral sin. He probably was a very good neighbor to have. Like long walks on the beach, hot rod magazines, the finer things of life. But he had as about much spirituality in him as a warm bucket of gravel.

Or about 80 degrees warm. I don't want to be that guy. I don't want to be a person that is about as spiritual with Jesus Christ as a warm bucket of gravel or a coal bucket. Whatever the case may be. So verse 16, he brings Esau up. He says, lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. Now where it says, lest there be any fornicator, that part does not apply to Esau. That is just, that actually belongs to the verse above.

Where he says or profane person, that part now brings in Esau. Because we have no record of Esau being involved in illicit sex. So let's define fornication. Sexual relationships outside the bonds of marriage.

That is a quick definition. The difference between fornication and adultery is that adultery involves married people. And fornication can and cannot go either way. You can have married people involved in fornication, and that would be adultery too.

Or you can have, no, they can both be single and have illicit sexual relationships. And so the scripture warns, Paul in Corinthians said, they will be judged. Fornicators will be judged.

He's not a little thing here. You know, next to bank robbery is not that bad. Bank robbery, well anyway. So, spiritual fornication.

That is the worst of the worst. That is an illicit relationship with deity, fake deity, false gods. Revelation 14. And another angel followed saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all the nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. And Babylon is the emblem in scripture of spiritual adultery, spiritual unfaithfulness, and all that is against God. And so, he says, or profane person like Esau.

Now we come up to the man. The Latin word for profane has to do with before the temple, as in outside the temple. So outside the temple, things aren't holy.

You come in the temple, then things get holy. And we get our English word profane from that Latin word. But this is Greek, and it's not a different meaning at all. It's a proper translation to use the word profane.

The Greek means across the threshold. You trample it. And so, when it speaks of being profane in scripture, it is talking about trampling the spiritual things.

You can do that by just dismissing them, not being interested in them, because you cheapen them. Well, that's not worth all that. That was Esau's crime. 1 Timothy chapter 1, knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, those who trample righteous things. And so, as it was with Rehoboam, he was evil because he did not seek the Lord. You can say that we never hear the God of Esau. We never hear about Esau even mentioning God. We actually hear him getting out of conversations with Jacob about God. The Lord has blessed me.

Yeah, yeah, that's fine. Let me just show you something else. And so, let's remember that we know spiritualists, people like this. He says, for one morsel of food sold his birthright, but food was higher up on his list than faith, which is not a hard thing to do.

This is what Job had to say on this subject. I have not departed from the commandment of his lips. I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. Now, that doesn't mean when he got hungry, he chewed on the Bible. That's not the spirit of it at all, and we're all old enough and wise enough to be able to understand what is being said here.

That when push did become a shove, when it did finally come down to it, God's word was secondary, my carnal needs were primary. That is the problem. So, would you rather die than turn cannibal? I would rather die than turn cannibal.

Make sure I make that clear, because left room there for the other way. But to say, well, no, I got to live. Well, this is, I mean, where does this end? What if you like it and survive? Go back into society.

Who wants to share a seat next to you on the airplane? But anyway, he took spiritual things and he trampled them by running towards carnal things. Out of my way, Jesus, I've got to get that cheeseburger.

And essentially, that is what it is. Verse 12, 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, we are, for you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, it was too late.

And that's what he is trying to impress upon these Jewish believers. If you leave Christ, the time is going to come when it's too late. You're going to find yourself like Esau, who wept. In that section in Genesis 27, Esau begged his father for a blessing after he found out it was lost to Jacob three times, thrice. There must be a blessing for me. There must be a blessing for me.

And that's what the writer is saying here. He wanted to inherit the blessing. He was rejected. He found no place of repentance, though he sought it diligently. The repentance is not his repentance for sin, as it is usually used in the New Testament. The repentance here is Isaac not changing the blessing.

Isaac did not sin by giving the blessing to Jacob. He was tricked. But he could not say, Oh, wait a minute, Jacob tricked me.

Okay, here, it goes to you. He could not do that. In fact, we read in Hebrews that Isaac trembled at this time because he realized that God's will was something that he was opposing. And now it was becoming clear.

Where he should have been in his heart. And that caused Isaac great concern. He trembled at the blessing. And so Jacob received the blessing, which was both spiritual and physical. The birthright was physical and the blessing was spiritual. And Esau wanted those.

He got the second share. He got a blessing nonetheless, but it was not what it was supposed to be. Because earlier, he traded it with his brother because he felt, you know, spiritual things, what good is a Bible for me if I'm hungry and out of work? I don't want to go to church and hear a Bible study when I've got these needs.

I want the needs satisfied first. And so he warns them that you're moving into a dangerous area from which there is no return because Isaac could not undo it. And Esau suffered.

And Esau, you know, he wasn't all bent out of shape. Years later, he's jolly back to his old self. Without the blessing, what does that tell you? He should have set his life after that. Well, I'm going to start getting right with God. I may not get that blessing, but I'm going to get right with God and we never read about that happening.

And so I just want to review briefly the four concerns that he voices here. One, lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, by this many become defiled, lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau. Am I one of those Christians who always wants to hear how God wants to forgive me but never put me to work? Oh, say it ain't so, God.

I hope I'm not. I hope that the Lord finds me putting my education in Christ to work. You've been listening to Cross Reference Radio, the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville, Virginia. As we mentioned at the beginning of today's broadcast, today's teaching is available free of charge at our website. Simply log on to crossreferenceradio.com. That's crossreferenceradio.com. We'd also like to encourage you to subscribe to the Cross Reference Radio podcast. Subscribing ensures that you stay current with all the latest teachings from Pastor Rick. You can subscribe at crossreferenceradio.com or simply search for Cross Reference Radio in your favorite podcast app. Tune in next time as Pastor Rick continues teaching through the book of Hebrews right here on Cross Reference Radio.