Text: Hebrews 12:12–17
Preacher: Pastor Brian Sauvé
Strength for Straight Highways
Man, it is good to see your faces over this pulpit instead of empty pews. And to everyone still at home who couldn’t make it, God be with you as well wherever you happen to be. In the interest of making up for lost time, how about we get right to work on this one?
If you have your Bibles, please turn with me to Hebrews 12:12. Lord willing, we’ll be making our way through to verse 17 this morning together. Let’s go ahead and get the text in front of us, then we’ll ask for the Lord’s help and get to it. This is the Word of the Living God:
“Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.”
-Hebrews 12:12–17
This whole text is an outworking of the first word in the text—the word “therefore.” And because it is an outworking of that word, it is an outworking of the section we dealt with in the last two weeks.
What did we see in Hebrews 12:1–11? We saw that, since we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses who have gone before us in faith, we ought to run after them with endurance, eyes fixed on the Lord Jesus, who goes before us all, and who strengthens us all for every inch of the race.
And we saw that we ought to consider the joy that Jesus suffered for and endured for, especially as we experience the suffering of God’s chastening and discipline. We need to remember that he is treating us as legitimate sons in disciplining us, that he is sharpening us for his mission out of love, not harming us.
So in our section this morning, we’ll see four applications of these truths on the other side of that “therefore”:
Therefore, don’t stray from the straight path we’ve been put on, but rather be strengthened for it by grace.
Therefore, strive for peace with one another.
Therefore, strive for holiness and refuse apostasy.
Therefore, walk as sons intent on the pleasure of God’s blessing, not rebels intent on the pleasures of sin’s false promises.
Now as that probably makes clear, this is a highly practical, applicational, go-therefore-and-sin-no-more kind of passage. And I hope that we, the people of Refuge Church, are equipped to handle that kind of text—not as bad news, as if instruction and correction were somehow outside of his grace for us—but as part of the good news of the gospel. That our Father is so good as to not only save us, but strengthen us and instruct us to fruitfully follow him in this life.
Therefore: Strength, not Straying
Therefore, put on strength for the straight path, not feebleness and straying. Verse 12–13,
“Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.”
-Hebrews 12:12–13
The Lord disciplines us—not so that we might lay down and mope and whine and let everyone know just how unpleasant the discipline was. No he disciplines us to strengthen us for the work. He disciplines us so that we might walk the straight path, not lay down in the ditch to the side of the straight path and feel bad about ourselves.
This straight path imagery is gloriously rich in the Scriptures.
Remember what John the Baptist’s mission was? To be the prophesied voice of the one crying in the wilderness from Isaiah 40, “Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”
The imagery is that there was an impassable way between us and the city of God—unconquerable deserts and wild places and impassible mountains. And the Lord Jesus made a highway through it for the nations to stream through to that city, the New Jerusalem, God’s own great city, to dwell with him.
And the Christian life begins when the Lord Jesus puts our feet on that highway and calls us to journey towards the city of God with him. But in our sin, we want to stray to the left and the right, to go back to our idols—just like these Hebrew Christians did, who wanted to go back to the Old Jerusalem.
And so what did we see last week? The Lord, in his great love for us, disciplines us. The word for that chastening in last week’s text is a strong word; it can actually be translated as flogs. So now, the Lord knows us, that we might want to lay down in discouragement from his chastening.
So he urges us here, “Don’t lay down! Walk the highway! Don’t wallow and feel bad for yourself. Do your repenting, your confessing, your coming to the throne of grace, and then keep your eyes set towards it and move.” He would strengthen us by his discipline, not have us stray.
Therefore: Peace, not Discord
Number two: Therefore, in light of God’s son-affirming, son-strengthening chastening, verse 14,
“Therefore… Strive for peace with everyone.”
-Hebrews 12:14a
This chastening love of God is meant to move us to familial unity, to peace with one another. Why? Well, the obvious reason would be that we ought to be at peace with one another, because we are family. We are sons together of this good Father who disciplines us in his love for us. This reminds me of something our brother Paul teaches us in Galatians 5:14–15. He tells us that,
“…the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.”
-Galatians 5:14–15
The opposite of peace isn’t just discord, it’s devouring. It’s picking and pecking and biting and consuming one another. This is a strong image, one that serves as a counterpoint for the imagery of fellowship in Scripture.
See, fellowship is often pictured as sitting down to the table together. Fellowship is captured, biblically, in the image of family seated to feast, to break bread together. Our whole language structure is so influenced by this picture that we derive our very word “companion” from the Latin compounding of two words com—which means together with—and panis—which means bread.
A companion is someone you come together with for bread. It’s someone you are in fellowship with, one who sits down and eats with you and shares in the same bread, to be strengthened by the same food, and to become in a very real sense, built of the same stuff.
This is why it is so marvelous that in the gospel, the Lord Jesus is the very Good Shepherd of Psalm 23, the One who prepares a table for us. He is the one in Revelation 3 who would knock at the church door, asking to come in and eat with us. He is the One who sets the wedding supper of Isaiah 65 and 66, of Revelation 21 and 22, before us and invites us to be in companionship, in fellowship, with himself.
Now think back to the picture of Galatians 5. What is the opposite of this neighbor-loving, bread-breaking, law-fulfilling love? Not sitting down to eat together, but rather in strife eating one another.
Evil! God is not honored when we devour one another. We are all sons, all adopted into his grace! And think: Part of that adopting grace involved the condemnation of all of us as sinners deserving of Hell. How dare we turn and make war among those whom God has made peace by way of his very blood!
Therefore: Holiness, not Apostasy
Number three: Therefore, in light of his adopting, chastening grace, strive for holiness, not apostasy. Verse 14 began, “Therefore… strive for peace with everyone, and,” verse 14b–15,
“…for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled.”
-Hebrews 12:14b–15
This is a reference that every Hebrew Christian would have immediately known, to Deuteronomy 29. Remember, Hebrews is something like a New Testament Deuteronomy—it is written to give direction and warning to the people of God on the brink of their invasion of a new, global Promised Land.
Just like Hebrews, to the generation living directly after God’s salvation had been accomplished: Deuteronomy, to the generation living after the salvation of the Jews from Egypt in the book of Exodus, Hebrews, to the generation living after the salvation of all of God’s people from sin in the gospels.
They both serve as key instruction to that people at this pivotal moment in their history. They’re moving from one controlling paradigm to another. For the Jews, the old paradigm was slavery in Egypt. For the Christians, that old paradigm was the Old Covenant and slavery to sin.
For the Jews receiving Deuteronomy, their instruction was how to conquer and dwell in the land that God was bringing them to after 40 years of wandering in the wilderness because of their parents’ unbelief.
For the Church of Christ receiving Hebrews, that instruction was how to evangelize the nations and live in the new global Canaan, the new global Kingdom of God after coming out of the 40 years of wilderness between Jesus’ resurrection and the utter destruction of the entire Old Covenant System with the destruction of the Temple—all as a result of their parents’ unbelief.
That 40-year period was also a time marked by unbelief and death, this time the unbelief and death of the majority of Israel, who rejected their Messiah; as Jesus’ prophesied, the way was narrow and few found it.
So the great aim of the book of Hebrews is to prepare a church on the brink of invading the world with the gospel to complete that work and live with God in this new global Kingdom.
It is no mistake, then, that the author alludes to Deuteronomy 29 here in chapter 12 of Hebrews. In Deuteronomy 29, Moses is warning Israel against apostasy, against abandon the Living God for idols. Deuteronomy 29:18–19 read,
“Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the LORD our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.’ This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike.”
-Deuteronomy 29:18–19
So what is it to warn these Hebrew Christians to strive “…for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord”? What is it to warn them to “See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no ‘root of bitterness’ springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled”?
Well, this is covenant language. It’s not telling us that we are saved by our works. It’s not telling us that when we sin, we fall from grace. No. It’s saying that there is a kind of sinning that is a fundamental abandoning of the covenant, a sin which actually reveals that you never were of the people of God inwardly, that you never had a circumcised heart, never had new birth.
See, the language of holiness is about purity from sin, but more than that, it is fundamentally the language of set-apart-ness. Something is holy when it has been sanctified for sacred use. That’s what Paul is saying in Romans 9, when he explains that God makes from one lump of clay vessels both for honorable use—that is, holy use—and for profane use, or common use.
So here’s the warning: Don’t abandon Christ for an idol. Don’t go back to the unholiness out of which God saved you and ransomed you. Don’t let roots of bitterness grow up, proving that you are not connected to the Vine, who produces good fruit, not poisonous fruit.
You might ask, “But how do I obey this command without falling into navel-gazing, morbidly introspective, constant fear of losing my salvation?” Here’s the answer, and it’s very simple:
“Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
-Hebrews 4:14–16
It is impossible to be doing that and to be falling short of the “…holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” What this text calls us to is repentance and restoration. It calls us to keep short accounts of sin, run from sin, slay sin by faith, and fight against idolatry—but to do so not by staring more and more into my own heart for my assurance, but by looking more and more to Christ’s throne of grace.
Listen: Will anyone see the Lord who doesn’t repent of sin, trust in Christ and run the race? Emphatically no. Hear me on this now, and don’t shut your ears: If you are harboring unrepentant sin, refusing the Lord’s correction and conviction, beware. Repent. Turn. And I mean now. Right now. Don’t dare to continue for one more second. Go to the throne for grace. Sin is never safe, and there is never safety in sin.
But will any who truly looks to the throne in faith fail? Emphatically no. He doesn’t lose his own; he finishes the work he begins.
Therefore: Sons, not Rebels
Finally, number four, he gets practical, even as he digs deeper into the overriding theme of covenant membership. Therefore, in light of his adopting and chastening grace, verse 16–17,
“Therefore… [see to it] that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.”
-Hebrews 12:12–17
Therefore, walk as sons intent on the pleasure of God’s blessing, not rebels intent on the pleasures of sin’s false promises. Do you remember Jacob and Esau from the book of Genesis? They were twin sons of Isaac and Rebekah, but Esau was the firstborn and thus the natural heir of the Promise to Abraham.
That promise included membership in the line of blessing through which the Lord Jesus would come. But Esau was a fool. He was a sexually immoral man, who lusted after and married pagan Hittite women. You can read the story in Genesis 25–27, but long-story-short, in a fit of hunger, Esau sold his very birthright in that blessing to his brother Jacob for a bowl of soup. And not even like a good meaty soup. For lentil soup.
And by nature of the type of thing a birthright is, there was no Indian giving. No taking it back. He couldn’t get it back, even though he sought it with tears, the text tells us.
The warning is plain, right? When temptation comes, don’t trade the covenant blessing of God for pleasures with an expiration date.
The text specifically calls out sexual immorality. Don’t too swiftly run past this warning. Paul warns us in 1 Corinthians 6:9–10 that the sexually immoral will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Do you hear that?
Fornicators, sleeping around without a marriage covenant, will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
Adulterers, forsaking their marriage covenants for the beds of others, will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
Pornographers, lusting after digital harems that would put Solomon’s to shame, will not inherit the Kings of God.
Rapists, abusing image bearers of God for their own pleasures, will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
Many of them will be like Esau in the end, too late to take it back once they see the freight train of God’s wrath coming down like brimstone on their heads. They will in the end wish that they could trade every lustful, momentary pleasure for the blessing of God.
Don’t be deceived, friends: Those who refuse to repent of these things are not Christians and are not safe.
Our country is presently terrified of a virus that might kill them, while millions of us are exult in pornographic filth when nobody is watching. Many are secretly harboring adulterous affairs, many have abandoned their spouses and divorced them, and even returned to church attendance elsewhere, thinking they are safe without repentance. That should scare us.
Yes, fear that which destroys the body a little, but infinitely fear the one who can destroy both body and soul in Hell. And don’t think the Lord Jesus is going to wink at this in the end; he’s the one who issued that warning.
Church attendance will not save the sexually immoral. Small group attendance will not save the sexually immoral. Oh-but-it-was-consensual will not save the sexually immoral. Objecting that it-wasn’t-that-big-of-a-deal will not save the sexually immoral.
What will? Only repentance and faith in Christ. These are not by any means unforgivable sins. Adulterers and pornographers and fornicators by the millions will sit down at the table of the Lamb of God by his grace. Paul says to the Corinthians after warning them,
“And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
-1 Corinthians 6:11
That, friends, is the point of this whole section: The New Covenant is infinitely good news, but it is infinitely good news that cannot be trifled with. It is not good news to be trifled with, rejected, or abandoned without eternal consequence.