My friends, do we possess the
birthright? Do we possess the evidence in
our hearts, in our souls, that the Lord Jesus Christ has indeed
died upon Calvary's cross to redeem our soul? Has the Holy
Spirit shown to us our failures, our failings in so many ways. And as He's shown us perhaps
the great sin of indwelling sin and how we cannot rid ourselves
of it in and of ourselves. But as the earlier verses in
this chapter direct us to the secret And the secret is here,
in the second verse, looking unto Jesus. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of our faith. If God has begun a good work
in our hearts, it will be evidenced in our life by our desire to
follow the great and glorious pattern that we have set before
us in His Word. And we won't be satisfied with
ignoring it. We won't fall under that snare. Some people seem to glory in
such a statement by saying, well that of course is my besetting
sin. Well it may be, but you and I
should never glory in it. We should always seek earnestly. It might be removed. Looking
unto Jesus, the author, see if that great and glorious God has
begun that good work in our hearts, has given us the glory of the
true birthright, then you see, He will finish it. He will finish it. He will give
us grace. to turn away from concentrating on the poor things of time and
bless us with true godly repentance if we have fallen you see it's pertinent to recognize that here
was Esau he did come and he did apparently repent and seek for
forgiveness because we're told for he found no place of repentance
though he sought it carefully with tears you see we can analyze
this as being just a fleshly repentance he didn't want to
lose out naturally he wanted to gain naturally And there may
have been tears. People can sometimes force tears almost. Force tears
almost. Yes, I can remember when I was
a lad and there was an old lady who, as far as we know, there
wasn't any real work of grace in her hearts, but she would
often cry. tears run down her face doesn't
mean to say there was any true work of grace within and so here
we have this statement looking under Jesus the author and the
finisher of our faith that means that we possess true godly repentance
that's we truly come before God and plead for mercy you see we're
not told that Esau pleaded for forgiveness we're not told that
Esau sought for mercy no he just was told he repented and wished
perhaps that he hadn't sold his birthright because that was naturally
of great value but it is of course in a spiritual way it is also
of great value and we should not think to throw away turn
our back upon the things of God perhaps deny the things of God
it's very solemn isn't it to deny the things of God and you
know you can deny the things of God perhaps not in direct
words but in in the way that you and I react you and I react. I don't know. But it may be perhaps
that we face at school or at work people that may come and
criticise us and perhaps mock us in the things that we believe. And if we're not careful we can
try and avoid difficulties. by just changing the conversation
by turning the attention away from ourselves so we don't in
actual fact have to answer perhaps a very pertinent question you
see what we're really doing is we're denying the Lord denying
the Lord we are pleasing ourself it's more important to satisfy
our own selves, by people thinking well of us, rather than people
thinking evil of us. But the great question is, as
to what God thinks of us. It doesn't matter, does it, really,
what men think of us, because men will be dead in a few years,
but our soul lives forever. Well, what a mercy if you and
I are able to follow the great and glorious pattern set down
before us here, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith. And you see, this is the wonderful
blessing. God has set before us a wonderful
example. A wonderful example. And we're told what his example
was. Who for the joy that was set
before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set
down at the right hand of the throne of God. That's the glorious
picture we have of the Saviour. And then what's the instruction
to us? Four. Consider Him. Consider Him. If you and I are faced with a
difficult situation, consider Him. Consider Him. Don't, therefore, concentrate
on the poor things of time, a bowl of pottage. Yes, you see, the
devil convinced Esau that it was more important, this bowl
of pottage, than his birthright. My friends, let devil not convince us the poor things of
time is more important indeed our own position well says the
Apostle consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners
against himself lest you be wearied and faint in your minds the devil
doesn't give up don't forget we may sometimes feel faint in
our minds that the opposition's too great. It is a battle. Life is a battle. It's a continual
conflict right down to our dying breath. And he says, ye have
not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. There is
a striving, you see. striving against sin yes well
you see here was Esau gave in gave in to his flesh and ye have forgotten the exhortation
which speaketh unto you as unto children my son despise not the
chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou rebuke of him for whom
the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom
he receiveth well we've read this already this morning so
we won't go through it again but there are wonderful words
of direction to us in this chapter to guide and direct us and to
remember the terrible thing of Esau despising his birthright. My friends, let us never despise
the things of God. Never think they are irrelevant. Never think they are unimportant. The devil will always endeavor
to turn us away. But you see, if you are brought
into this time of temptations, as we no doubt will be, the Word
of God has this great and glorious view. In such a position, what
are we to do? Consider Him. Consider Him. Look to Jesus, that great and
glorious Savior, look what it cost him to redeem our souls
and what are we called in the day and age in which we live
to endure by comparison very little it's always good if God
gives us grace to consider him the devil won't want you to but
it's a place of refuge a refuge for sinners, the hymn writer
says, the gospel makes known it is found in the merits of
Jesus alone. It's a good place to consider
him. And so may you and I be found
following this great and glorious word of exhortation by the apostle. And it's good, you know, to ponder
this epistle to the Hebrews. It's a glorious book. It's well
worth reading. I know I've told you before,
but I'll just tell you again. When my grandmother died, she
died when I was five, and when I was a little bit older, I remember
her Bible was still on the side. And I looked at the edge and
I could see that there was a section which was very worn. You know,
the pages were all kind of rough on the edge. I thought, that's
very odd. And I opened the Bible and it
was the Hebrews. Quite clearly, the Hebrews had been a great
blessing to her. And quite clearly, she often,
often turned to the Hebrews. Well, it's good for us to realise
the relevance and the importance of the Hebrews. So may we ponder
these comments this morning and realise the relevance of the
truth of God, that heavenly birthright which the Lord gives and not
to despise it. and not counted as of little
value. And so we read, lest there be
any fornicator or profane person, as he saw, 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. Amen.