Hebreus 12:15-17

DISCOURSE: 2338
THE DANGER OF DESPISING OR DISHONOURING THE GOSPEL

Hebreus 12:15. Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

UNSEARCHABLE are the riches of the Gospel, and freely imparted to all who seek them by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet they quite mistake the nature of the Gospel, who imagine it to be inconsistent with solemn warnings. It offers every thing freely; but it does not dispense with the exertion of human efforts: it promises every thing fully; but not in such a way as to supersede the need of care and watchfulness on our part. In fact, it abounds with warnings and exhortations, to which we must take the utmost heed; and by attending to which we are to secure the blessings which it holds out to us. Nothing can be conceived more consolatory than all the foregoing declarations, that sufferings of whatever kind, and especially those inflicted on us for righteousness’ sake, are permitted by our heavenly Father for our good, and shall be overruled by him for the advancement of our best interests. At the same time we are warned, that “without holiness, radical and universal holiness, no man shall see the Lord:” and we are cautioned to “look diligently,” lest, by coming short of the requirements of the Gospel, we fail to attain a possession of its blessings.
The caution here given us is two-fold:

I. Not to come short of the Gospel in embracing it—

By “the grace of God” I understand “the Gospel of the grace of God,” or that “grace of God which bringeth salvation.” And by “failing of the grace of God,” I understand, a falling short of it: the first part of our text being exactly parallel with that expression in the fourth chapter of this epistle, “Let us fear lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it [Note: Hebreus 4:1. ὑστερηκέναι.].” Now we may come short of the Gospel,

1. By not submitting to its humiliating doctrines—

[The Gospel views all men as in a lost and perishing condition. Its provisions are made for all mankind without exception. It knows nothing of persons so good as not to need salvation, or of persons so bad as to be beyond the reach of the salvation which it provides. It requires all to view themselves as “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked; and counsels them to come to the Lord Jesus Christ for eye-salve that they may see; for gold that they may be enriched; and for garments that they may be clothed [Note: Apocalipse 3:17.].” It suffers none to bring any price in their hands, but requires them to receive every thing “without money and without price [Note: Isaías 55:1.].” Nor does it merely require this of men at their first conversion: it prescribes the same humiliating system to the latest hour of our lives: whatever our attainments be, we must renounce them all in point of dependence, and place our whole dependence on the Lord “Jesus Christ for wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” We must have no more in ourselves than the branch of a vine has; but must receive every thing from the stem into which we have been engrafted [Note: João 15:5.]. We must “receive every thing out of the fulness that is in Christ [Note: João 1:16.],” and must “live altogether by faith in the Son of God, who has loved us, and given himself for us [Note: Gálatas 2:20.].”

But all this is very humiliating. Proud man does not like to be brought so low, as to depend wholly on another, and not at all on himself. We wish to have something of our own whereof we may boast. And to be reduced to a level with the vilest of the human race, so as to acknowledge ourselves as much indebted to Divine grace as they, is a humiliation to which we cannot endure to submit. Could we be saved in a way more congenial with our own feelings, we should be satisfied: but when it is said, “Wash and be clean,” instead of accepting the tidings with gratitude, we spurn at them like Naaman, and go away in a rage [Note: 2 Reis 5:10.].

To this however we must “submit [Note: Romanos 10:3.]:” for there is no other way of salvation for any child of man [Note: Atos 4:12; 1 Coríntios 3:11.]: and, if we will not come to Christ upon his own terms, we must remain for ever destitute of the blessings he has purchased for us [Note: Romanos 9:30.]

2. By not obeying its self-denying doctrines—

[Though the Gospel gives salvation freely, it does not leave us at liberty to neglect good works; on the contrary, “it teaches us, that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.” Indeed, the sanctification it requires of us is as offensive to our carnal and worldly hearts, as the humiliation it imposes on us is to our pride. The object of the Gospel is, not merely to save men from death and hell, but to bring them back to a state of holy allegiance to their God, such as Adam experienced in Paradise. For this end it requires us to give up ourselves as living sacrifices unto God, and to be as entirely dedicated to his service as the burnt-offerings were, which were wholly consumed on the altar [Note: Romanos 12:1.]. It enjoins us “neither to live unto ourselves, nor die unto ourselves;” but both in life and death to be altogether at the Lord’s disposal, for the accomplishment of his will, and for the promotion of his glory [Note: Romanos 14:7.].

Now to this measure of holiness we have by nature a deep and rooted aversion. We have many earthly and sensual appetites, which plead for indulgence: and when we are required to “cut off the right hand, and pluck out the right eye,” and to “be holy as God himself is holy,” we reply, “This is an hard saying; who can hear it?” To “mortify our members upon earth,” and to “crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts,” is a work, which, as the very terms in which it is expressed intimate, is painful to flesh and blood: and to be told that without this we never can be Christ’s disciples, is most grating to our ears [Note: Gálatas 5:24.]. But nothing less than this will suffice for the approving of ourselves upright in the sight of God.

I beseech you then, brethren, to “look diligently” to this matter, and not to come short of what the Gospel requires of you; for if you comply not both with its doctrines and its precepts, you can never partake of its privileges and its blessings.]
But respecting this Gospel, we are further cautioned,

II.

Not to dishonour it after we have embraced it—

We are in danger of dishonouring it,

1. By heretical opinions—

[It is to these chiefly, though not exclusively, that I suppose “the root of bitterness” to refer. The expression is adopted from the Old Testament, where Moses cautions the Israelites against any “root among them bearing gall and wormwood,” and operating to the production of idolatry [Note: Deuteronômio 29:19.]. Such sprang up very early in the Christian Church; even as St. Paul forewarned the elders of Ephesus to expect: “I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them [Note: Atos 20:29.].” Some there were who blended the Mosaic rites with the Gospel; others, who “denied the resurrection, saying that it was past already;” others “denied the Lord who bought them:” and great was “the trouble,” and extensive the defilement, which these heretics occasioned in the Church of Christ [Note: Gálatas 5:7; 2 Timóteo 2:10; 2 Pedro 2:1.].

Such teachers there have been ever since in the Church, even to the present hour: and there is need of the utmost care that we be not drawn aside by any of them “from the simplicity that is in Christ [Note: 2 Coríntios 11:3.].” Nothing can be more simple than the Gospel, when it is received in a humble child-like spirit. It requires nothing but a life of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and a life of love both towards God and man for his sake. The whole is comprehended in those words, “faith working by love.” But men are fond of making the Gospel a theatre for disputation; and they care not how far they divert the minds of their followers from “the truth as it is in Jesus,” if only they may but prevail upon them to receive their dogmas. This is the true root of all the heresies which have distracted and defiled the Church of God in all ages.

But be ye on your guard, brethren, lest any such “root of bitterness” spring up among you. It is well called “a root of bitterness,” for nothing that ever yet divided the human race has caused more “bitterness” than that which calls itself religion, but which, in fact, is only some partial or erroneous view of religion, which conceit has propagated, and bigotry enforced.]

2. By ungodly practices—

[Grievous have been the falls of many who have professed religion; and shocking the scandals which have at times prevailed in the Christian Church. Evils, which obtained amongst the ignorant and licentious Gentiles, were indulged, and vindicated, by them after they had embraced the Gospel of Christ; and many, like profane Esau, bartered away the inheritance of heaven for some worthless perishable good.
Thus it is at this day. Many things are pleaded for, which are as opposite to the holy nature of the Gospel as “fornication” itself: and the vanities of time are yet daily exchanged for the glories of eternity. In vain are we reminded how bitterly Esau at last bewailed his error; or how fruitless were his efforts to remedy the evil he had committed. We see nothing in his example which speaks to us; nor have we any ears for the instruction it conveys to us. The influence of temptation is too strong for us: our earthly and sensual hearts will plead for gratifications which the Gospel of Christ does not allow: and thus multitudes relinquish all the blessings of eternity, through their undue attachment to the things of time and sense.
But let not such be found amongst you. It is melancholy to see that Demas, after being twice united with Luke in the salutations of St. Paul, should be found, “through love to this present world,” “making shipwreck of faith and of a good conscience.” But such instances occur in every age of the Church: and it requires continual watchfulness over our own hearts, and over each other too, to prevent the more frequent recurrence of similar apostasy. To all then I would recommend the example of St. Paul, who “kept his body under, and brought it into subjection, lest, after having preached to others, he himself should become a cast-away [Note: 1 Coríntios 9:27.].”]

The solemn hint with which our text concludes will furnish us with matter suited to enforce the preceding subject—
1.

Think what will ere long be your views of your present conduct, if you neglect the cautions which have been now suggested—

[Lightly as Esau once thought of his birthright, he saw at last that it was worthy to be “sought,” yea, to be “sought carefully” too, and that “with tears.” And what will be your views of heaven when you are lying on a bed of sickness, or, at all events, the very instant that your soul enters upon the invisible world? Will an obedience to the Gospel then appear so hard a condition, that all the glory of heaven could not recompense you for complying with it; or the mortification of some forbidden lust so insupportable a task, that hell itself, with the indulgence of that lust, was a better portion than heaven with the mortification of it? No: the pangs of Esau will be your pangs, when you find how bitter are the consequences of your folly, and how irreversible the doom that has been pronounced.

Not that repentance, provided it had been genuine, would have been unavailing for Esau as far as related to his eternal state. Isaac had, though unwittingly, conferred the rights of primogeniture on Jacob; and he would not reverse his word, notwithstanding all the bitter cries with which Esau importuned him to do so. And this is what is meant, when it is said, that Esau “found no place for repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.” Had he repented before God, he might have obtained pardon with God: as we also may do, through our Lord Jesus Christ. But, if we do not turn to God through Christ with our whole hearts, we shall find ere long the door of mercy shut against us, and in vain implore admission to that bliss which now we have despised [Note: Lucas 13:24.]

2. Yield to the Gospel, without delay, the obedience which it requires—

[Infinite are the blessings which it offers to us. And what are the sacrifices which we are called to make? — — — Be they ever so difficult or self-denying, they are not worth a thought in comparison of “the grace that shall be brought unto us at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” The wise merchantman parted with all for the pearl of great price. Do ye the same: and determine through grace, that whatever it may cost, you will not come short of it by refusing to make the sacrifices, or suffer either men or devils to rob you of it.]