Apostasy, Esau And Jesus - [Matthew 12:15-17]

This morning I'd like to talk to you about apostasy. It's a scary word because it's real. People apostatize from the truth. There are some words that are scary, but there's no reality behind them. Apostasy, though, is frightening because it actually happens, and the results are eternal.

Jesus said this,. Now the parable is this, the seed is the word of God. The ones along the path are those who have heard. Then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts so that they may not believe and be saved.

And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root. They believe for a while, and in a time of testing, they fall away. They apostatize. Paul said in 1 Timothy 4, The Spirit explicitly says that in latter times, some will fall away or apostatize from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.

The writer of Hebrews preached, Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away or apostatize from the living God. This morning I'd like to preach about the subject of apostasy, spiritual defection, falling away.

People revolting or committing treason against not just the country, although that would be horrible, but against the only God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. What is the definition of apostasy? I'll give you a few different theologians' definitions.

Apostasy is the rejection of Christ by one who has been a, air quotes, Christian. Apostasy is generally defined as the determined, willful rejection of Christ and his teachings by a Christian believer.

People profess Christ, but when troubles come, when trials come, when difficulties come, they fall away. One man said apostasy is the antonym of conversion. It is deconversion. When people deliberately and willfully turn their backs on the Lord Jesus Christ.

They say they're Christians, but when time and troubles come, they depart. If you take your Bibles, please, and turn to Hebrews chapter 11, we're going to see what Hebrews says about apostasy. And I'd like to do two things this morning.

Number one, I'd like to warn you about apostasy. And number two, if you're a Christian, I want to make sure I comfort you, because some of you with tender consciences will think that because you sin, you're committing apostasy.

So we're going to look at apostasy and see what the writer of Hebrews says about it. And then I want to talk to you about temptations and trials that some Christians give into. They could confuse as apostasy, but are not.

In other words, I'd like to warn people against apostasy, and I want to encourage Christians to keep believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, when you come to any book of the Bible, it's good to just give an overview.

What is Hebrews about? We know it's a sermon. If you read this book out loud, it will probably take you about 40, 45 minutes. And that doesn't mean every sermon should be 40 or 45 minutes. But you get the idea that this is a proclamation.

It's a word of encouragement, Hebrews 13 .22. And he's trying to exhort the people to keep believing that Jesus is, in fact, worth believing in. And of course, he's writing to Jews, Hebrews. And so he's trying to say, you know what?

Based on what you had, Jesus is better. Don't go back to what you had. Don't go back to Moses. Why? Jesus is better. While Moses was a great man, Jesus is better. Don't go back to old covenant sacrifices and types and shadows.

Jesus is here. Philip Hughes said about Hebrews, It was to arouse just such persons from the lethargic state of compromise and complacency into which they had sunk, and to incite them to persevere wholeheartedly in the Christian conflict.

That is why this letter was originally written. It was a tonic for the spiritually debilitated. We neglect such a book to our own impoverishment. What a great description. What a great reason to study this book.

If you're already on fire for the Lord, as it were, this will keep those coals kindled. And if you're kind of sauntering through life, and you're lethargic, and you just feel tired, and you don't know if the race is worth running anymore, this is a great response.

Because both need the majestic, superior Christ Jesus who has been raised from the dead. One man said, This book talks about the absolute supremacy of Jesus, and it is true. Angels might be great, but Jesus is better.

The Old Testament prophets, they might have been wonderful, but Jesus is better. Everything about this book is, Jesus is better. The earthly sanctuary, impressive, but Jesus is better. Sacrifices for sin, well, they certainly weren't adequate, were they?

Jesus is the only one whose sacrifice was adequate. So we come to this section here in Hebrews chapter 12, verses 12 and following. And the one thing we saw last week is, there's lots of plurals. It's addressed to the congregation, this corporate gathering, and it's important.

And he says, the writer, it's important to run well for others. We've seen that Jesus ran well, and now, therefore, it's your responsibility, and mine, as a Christian, to run for others as well. Do you see it in verse 12?

Therefore, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, and see the others part right here, so that what is lame, when you've got friends at church who are struggling, may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.

Other people are watching you, dear Christian. You want to run well for the honor of the Lord Jesus and for other people. Then he also talks about running well, not just for others, but with others. Do you see in verse 14?

Strive for peace with everyone. This is corporate. This is everyone. Be a peacemaker. Sounds like Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. And for holiness, strive for holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.

We talked about that at some time last week, and I'll focus especially on it next week. But there's this corporate desire to say, God the Son has set me apart. He sanctified me, and therefore I'd like to live a life in honor of him.

We know this cannot be teaching, that unless there's a certain amount of holiness in your life, you know, you can't measure up to God's justice. No, we realize Christ's death was sufficient. And that is to say, when we're justified based on Jesus' work, there will be a desire for sanctification, but my levels of sanctification don't keep me in, nor get me in.

It's very simple. Christians want to honor the Lord by living a holy life. And here, if you say to yourself, there's no holiness in my life at all, what does verse 14 say? You won't see the Lord. But he moves on, and it's tied together with verses 14, verse 15 is.

You see what verse 15 says? And it's plural as well. See to it, that's for the congregation, 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.

Today, we're going to look at Esau and apostasy. And by the way, when we look at these passages, I want you just to step back for a second and say, the opposite of Esau is who Jesus is. Everything about Esau, you're going to say, you know what?

Just pick the opposite, and you'll think, here's who Jesus is. And so what we're going to do is I'm going to first make sure we understand that we've got this plural here, that this is the responsibility of the congregation to make sure other people who seem like they want to apostatize, that we come alongside of them and say, don't.

In other words, think about this big picture. Two great commandments, love God, love your neighbor. So for you to love God, you say, you know what? I want to run the race, I want to finish, I want to walk by faith, I want to make sure I strive for peace, I want to make sure I'm living a holy life, I want to make sure if other people look at me, I'm running well.

That would be the first commandment's response. The second great commandment is love your neighbor. When you're running the race, you need to look out for other people. It's just not you and the Lord, it's the bride of Christ that the Lord bought, and you need to be responsible to one another.

And so here's the very interesting thing. In the ESV, it says in verse 15, see to it. That is where we get the word Episcopalian. He is saying to every Christian, you need to be an Episcopalian. Not capital E, but Episcopalian means an overseer.

Scope inside the word Episcopalian is the word scope. Think about microscope, think about telescope, think about... I don't know, can you think of another scope word? I see all these faces now, some are real and some are papier-mâché.

Some have yarn for hair. The word scope means to see, and epi just means upon, to see upon, to look upon. You have dermis and you have epidermis upon the dermis. And so you say, you know what? My responsibility according to this writer is, I need to look out for other Christians.

I need to watch out for other Christians who aren't running well, who feel like stopping. You need to exercise oversight over other Christians. This is not just for leaders, this is not just for elders, this is for everyone.

Because apostasy is real. And he says in verse 15, see to it, it's present tense. I could put it this way. Don't you want everyone at Bethlehem Bible Church to finish well and make it to heaven and be around the throne of God and sing with the angels and the other members of the church one day?

Worthy is the lamb who is slain. Don't you want everybody here at the church, and of course, don't you want everybody in the world, but specifically thinking about a local church. Don't you want them to talk about the blood of Jesus that ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation?

Don't you want your fellow Christians to go to heaven? Of course you do. You don't want them to go to hell. You don't want them to say, you know what? I was a fake Christian. I was a false convert. I apostatized.

No, the congregation needs to all look out for one another because you want everyone to sing that song in heaven to him who sits on the throne and the lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever.

I know you want that. I want that. So he says, congregation, be concerned about other Christians' souls. Am I my brother's keeper? Answer? Yes, you're your brother's keeper. There's a faith that doesn't save.

There's a faith that doesn't strive for peace. There's a faith that doesn't strive for holiness. And the text says, without which you won't see the Lord. You want to make sure you come alongside of those people.

This is a warning. This is not people who think they have the spiritual gift of rebuke. This is not people who think they're so self-righteous that nobody can measure up to them. This is not, I have the ministry at church.

What's your ministry? Confrontation. No, this is the ministry of the Lord Jesus where there's someone who's struggling and he comes alongside of them. And that's what you're required to do as well. What kind of people should we look out for?

And here's the outline for this morning. I'm going to give you three particular kinds of people that seem like they're apostatizing so that you can recognize them and come alongside of them. Since every Christian is required to love other people, especially his brothers in Christ or in the local church, you need to be on the lookout for others who struggle.

Three particular types of people. And then there's a P .S. at the end. You say, Pastor, how'd you get your outline? Well, if I was a Baptist, every outline's three points in a poem, right? I guess if it's Song of Solomon, it's a poem and three points.

But there are, there are, it's three here because if you see in your text, that, that, that. See to it that, verse 15, that no root of bitterness, that no one is sexually immoral, verse 16. And in the Greek, actually, it's that no one, that no one, that no one.

There's three kinds of people that as you're running the Christian race, you look out for like a good Episcopalian, like an Episcopal, like an overseer. Number one, dear church, be a bishop and look out for people who give up.

Number one, look out for people who give up. Verse 15, see to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God. Remember the metaphor here? It's running. And people are running to the end. And some people in a real track race might just get a cramp and quit.

Other people might just say, it's not worth the race. I don't want to run anymore. Remember, there's persecution and trials and temptations. And all of a sudden you go, this Christian life, I don't want to do it.

It was easier before I was a Christian. Remember the passage with chastening and discipline earlier in chapter 12? You know what? The discipline that the Lord gives in these trials, the training that He gives me, it's not worth it.

I don't want to run any longer. People stop running. And it is our responsibility to come along inside and say, keep running, keep believing, keep trusting in Jesus, keep walking by faith. It's worth it.

He's worth it. Look at who He is. That's the idea. He's obviously not saying you can lose your salvation and, you know, you were saved and now you lose your salvation. Jesus' sacrifice was enough and no longer, it's no longer enough.

He's saying there's some people who say they're Christians and they don't run well, and you come alongside of them. And He's also giving the warning saying, you know what? There are some people who are Christians and they get tired.

You come alongside of them as well. Mutual oversight. Strangely, one day I was in Santa Cruz riding a bicycle and the Dallas Seminary Conference had a musical guest for the week and it was Steve Green.

And Steve Green's a bicyclist and he had his piano player or some accompaniment friend with him and they were both going to ride their bikes in Santa Cruz in the mountains and so I wanted to ride as well.

And I guess behind him I could have sang, all who come behind us find us faithful or something like that, but we're riding the bikes in Santa Cruz. And my friend Jeff, he's probably 130 pounds wet and he can go up these hills so fast because downhills you need the weight, uphills you need no weight.

And so Steve Green's piano player had a hard time going up this very steep incline. And I still remember Jeff coming up behind Steve Green's piano player. I'd like to be known as that for the rest of your life.

What's your name? I don't know. You're Steve Green's piano player. Steve Green, by the way, is a Christian singer. And Jeff came up as he's pedaling and put his hand on the back of that guy's jersey and pedaled and pushed him all the way up the hill.

I thought that's exactly right. Somebody's about ready to quit and you come alongside. I can put it this way. Jesus finished the race. So you finish and you help other people finish because there are some people that want to give up.

Not only that, there are some people who give out. They give up and they give out. Now, what do they give out? They give out bitterness. Look at the text. That no one fails to obtain the grace of God, they give up.

Now, they give out that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble and by it, many become defiled. What do people do? They're like, you know what? I don't want to be a Christian anymore. I don't want to follow Christ anymore.

And one of the first things that begins to come out of them is bitterness. Listen to Deuteronomy 29 from where this quote comes, root of bitterness. Make sure there's no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations.

Make sure there's no root among you that produces such bitter poison. People become mad at the Lord. I can't believe you brought me this trial. I can't believe you took my son. I can't believe this person got sick.

I can't believe I lost my job. I thought Joel Osteen was correct that if I follow Jesus and trust him, my life will be great. My life is not great and I'm going to make sure everybody knows how bitter I am against God.

Spreading trouble, spreading doubt and disloyalty and grumbling, causing trouble. That doesn't help unify. That doesn't pursue peace and holiness. This is bitterness. This is a gangrene where resentful people are now like a contagious person.

We have to social distance. These people don't social distance. They try to infect. The setting in Israel was simple. The setting was this. If you've got a family member or person in your tribe or clan and they got involved in idolatry, that will spread because people worship something and people say, well, I don't want to worship Jesus anymore.

And how can this be true? And then they want to affect other people and they proselytize. There's this root that gets in there. We move from running a race to agriculture. And the word bitterness is a very onomatopoetic word.

It's the word that it says, it's picria. It's, I don't know if you ever take a lemon and chop it into a little wedge and then give it to a little kid to taste or you taste it maybe. And that look that those kids have, they think it was going to be ice cream, you know, and now it's this lemon.

This is this idea here, this bitterness. God, your providence is no good to me. From my mind, I don't care any longer and I'm going to tell other people, your providence isn't good and kind. This is a bitterness.

So what's the point? The point is if you see people here in this congregation and you're around people, say, you know, I don't want to run anymore. You need to come alongside of them, keep believing. You see people who are bitter because they're bitter about other people or bitter about the Lord.

They're causing trouble. That's what the text says. They cause trouble. You need to come alongside of them as an Episcopalian, as a bishop. Bitterness wants fellowship. It wants other people to kind of nurse its hurts.

J. Vernon McGee said, I remember when I was a boy, my mother would always tell me when I cut up a chicken, be careful and don't break the gallbladder. You'll ruin the whole chicken if you do. McGee, she was right.

You could spoil the entire fowl if you broke the gallbladder. God wants you to get rid of that gallbladder of bitterness in His church. So you look around and you think, I don't want church to be defiled.

You see the text, and by it many become defiled. I thought Jesus came to make pure and spotless and holy His bride. And then this gets into the church. And what does it do? It pollutes, it makes dirty, it stains, it contaminates.

We don't want that. These words use kind of like as a dye. It's almost like, remember that old, my mom used to get that Rit dye. And she would make t-shirts with Rit dye and you take rubber bands. I think the kids still do it now.

And they take rubber bands and put it around a white shirt. And then you could dip it into dye and tie dye. This dye pollutes and tinges and stains everything it touches. You have to be on the lookout.

For years I loved to study submarines. And I always wanted to go on a submarine. I've been in submarines but not underwater. There was a submarine called the USS Tang, T-A-N-G. And when I think of Tang, I think of other things.

Astronaut drinks, space sticks too. Did anybody ever have a space stick? Some did. That picture over there of John Makarowski smiling, he had a space stick. The USS Tang launched in 1943, sank 33 ships, received the Medal of Honor for her last two engagements, equipped with eight torpedoes on one particular run, her last run.

She fired seven missiles on target. The eight was launched and it headed toward the target, deviated, came back right to their ship, and the Tang received the death blow from its own torpedo. Seventy-eight men lost, nine survivors picked up by Japanese and taken to prisoners of war camp.

This will defile a lot of people. You say, well, you know, this is the leadership's responsibility to deal with this bitter person. Sometimes we don't even know about those bitter people, but you do, and so you ought to see to it that they are confronted and that you deal with it.

Think about Israel. You ever read Numbers? And after you get first eight chapters finished maybe, the complaining and the bitterness, it spread like gangrene. Many were defiled. Think about the Lord Jesus.

If anybody deserved to be bitter and defile people, well, certainly, I don't even want to talk that way. But when you look to Jesus, the perfecter and author of your faith, for the joy that was set before him, he runs with joy.

We ought to run with joy. The opposite is bitterness. He loved those he ran for, especially the father. So you need to be a bishop for people who give up and who give out. And, uh-oh, here comes the third one, who give in or who are given over.

Verse 16, that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. The bottom line with this man Esau, he doesn't care about divine things. He doesn't care about transcendent things.

He doesn't care about God. He cares about what's in front of him right now. He wants immediate satisfaction. I don't care that it's temporal. I don't care that it's passing. I don't care that it's instant gratification.

And then there's a later. I want it now. And so you see this language here, sexually immoral and unholy or profane is a good way to translate it. So you can see what's happening. People who say, you know what, I'm tired of running for the Lord Jesus and I'm not really a Christian.

I'm going to come alongside and kind of infect people with bitterness. I'm going to give up. I'm also going to just indulge myself because if I don't have to give an account to the Lord, if I don't have to live a life commensurate to my calling, I'm just going to go for it now.

You see people like this all the time. I don't think it's a descent or a gradient into, well, you know what, I'm not going to run. I become bitter and I become sexually immoral. These three can pop up at any time.

And this is the one that we see very often. People say they're Christians and for sexually immoral, godless things, they just stop running. Now the word sexually immoral is where we get our word pornography.

It just means sexually immoral. It means a fornicator, an adulterer. It means homosexuals. All underneath one big category. And here's the question. Is this literal or is it figurative? Was Esau really a fornicator?

Was he really an adulterer? Or was it a figurative prostitution of the God of the universe and following him? Now those that say it's literal, they say, well, you know what? He, Esau, married Judith and Basmuth, the Hittites, Genesis 26.

They say, do you know what? Jewish tradition says that he was a fornicator. Jewish lore says that his libido was off the charts and he just ran around like a crazy person. The Old Testament doesn't say he's a fornicator, he's an adulterer for marrying these.

The scripture doesn't condemn that man. So I tend to lean toward the second option, that is, it's more figurative, spiritual adultery. Does that sound familiar to you in the life of Israel? That language should sound very familiar to you.

Often this word, immoral, is used in the Old Testament to talk about, I don't care about God anymore, I'm going to be an idolatrous person. I think that's what's happening here. That no one gives in, no one gives out, no one gives themselves over.

Now you say, well, you know what? I see people that go live sexually immoral lives and it shows that they never were a believer. That 1 Corinthians 6 says, fornicators and adulterers, God will, what? Judge.

They're not going to be going to heaven. Do not be deceived. But either way, if it's figurative or literal or both, you need to run from that and you need to see when other people start doing that, living for today, not thinking about tomorrow, they need help.

If you study the book of Proverbs, here's a good way to think about a fool. F-O-O-L. They don't care about tomorrow. What's in it now? And the sexually immoral people literally will say, I want what I want now, I don't care about later or what God thinks or Judgment Day.

Sexually immoral in terms of a figurative idea, metaphorically speaking, I don't care about what God wants because I'm going to turn my back on Him and commit adultery with other idols, which includes sex often.

But either way, this writer is saying, when you see people that are self, self, self, self, self, self-gratification, often sexually, of course, who will give up everything for now and they forget about the later, you ought to come alongside of them.

Sensual, godless people, you ought to come alongside of them. And could there be something more ugly than what Esau did? Sold his birthright. That was a position of religious leadership. He sold his birthright.

Look at the text too. It's like the death knell for a single meal. How dreadful. What an act of folly. How base, how ungodly that is. And by the way, that's where we get the word unholy. I think it's a bad translation in the ESV.

It's not the typical word holy with an un in front of it. It's godless. It's profane. It means you can't go over the threshold of the temple. No access to God because you do the things that are opposite to God.

That's where we get the word profane, profanous, outside the temple. You can't go into the temple. Why? Because you're profane. You're contaminated. And Esau, what does he do? He has the birthright. It's underneath the Abrahamic covenant.

It's all his religious leadership and more. It's a religious thing. And he says, you know what? I don't care. I want it now. That's what godless is. Westcott, quote, The man who recognizes nothing higher than earth, for whom there is nothing sacred, who has no reverence for the unseen.

And if you see people like that, what do you do? Ah, they can't make it around here anyway. No, no. You come alongside and say, no, it's worth running. First sell me your birthright. Behold, I'm about to die.

So what use then is the birthright to me? First swear to me. So he swore to him. And Esau sold his birthright to Jacob. I don't care about God's order. I don't care about God's gifts. Dear friends, apostasy is real.

If people turn their back on the Lord Jesus, there's no hope because He's the only Savior. When you see people around you and they're very bitter, they're very sensual, they're very ungodly, they don't want to run anymore, you need to come alongside of them.

That's what he's saying. See to it that you come alongside of these people. Everything about Esau despising his birthright shouts, that's not the way Jesus did it. Jesus is the one who became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

He humbled himself and he becomes humble. Jesus looked to please His Father. I love what John 4 says, My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work. For Jesus says it wasn't just sensual, temporal pleasure.

No, it says in Hebrews, Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book. Be a bishop, dear people, to those who give up, give out and give in. And there's a PS.

Do you see it in verse 17? There's an after. Proverbs says, Fools don't think afterwards, but there is an afterward. 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. Oh, Dad, please give me my birthright back. Please give me my blessing. It was taken from me deceitfully. I want it back. Please, please, I'm full.

I ate. I want it back. But do you know afterward, he could not get it back. He might have cried. He might have had tears. He might have been sorrowful, but he wasn't repentant, and he turned his back.

Spurgeon said he could not get his father to change his mind. Disastrous reminds me of Judas. Sad, but not repentant. Dear Christian, you ought to look around, and when you see people stumbling and falling and having bitterness in their hearts and wanting to turn over to sensual pleasures, you need to point them back to Jesus who did exactly the opposite.

He didn't quit. He endured till the end. It is finished. He didn't give out bitterness for the joy set before him. He didn't indulge himself. He denied himself. I look at the text, and it says he was rejected.

And, of course, for us as Christians who are trying to run the race, we know we'll never be rejected because he was rejected for us. The stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief cornerstone.

This came about from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes. You say, well, you know what? I've sinned this week, and I'm in some kind of pattern of sin, and I'm really struggling. Am I an apostate?

Now, here's what I want to make very clear. There are people that say they're Christians, and they apostatize. And out of love, we the church, when we see that, we ought to come alongside. But just because you sin doesn't mean you're on the road to apostasy.

I'm not saying sinning is good, obviously. But what do you do with people who are saying, you know what? I'm tempted. Am I an apostate? I've sinned. Am I an apostate? Let's put it this way. Do you want to run the race and honor the Lord?

Who gave you that desire? Satan? No. The world? No. Yourself? No. Your own gratifications and lusts? No. CNN? Did they give you that desire to run the Christian life? Who gave it to you? The Spirit of God did.

You say, well, I'm sorry for my sins, and I'm repenting for my sins. I'm confessing my sins. I'm trusting my sins. Just think about the person and work of the Lord Jesus. How does He deal with sinners who acknowledge their sins?

I think about those men who totally just turned their back on the Lord Jesus. Jesus now is resurrected. And what does Jesus say to them? What's the ongoing refrain that Jesus gives to sinful people who follow Him by faith?

On that evening, the first day of the week, the doors being locked, and the disciples were in fear. The Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, what did Jesus say? You sinned one time. You're apostate.

Now what's He say? Peace be with you. When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw it. And Jesus said again to them, Peace be with you. As the Father sent Me, even so I'm sending you.

If you have your Bibles, turn to Matthew 12, and I have some encouraging words for Christians. If you're not a Christian, of course, the response is to repent and believe. If you say, you know what, I don't care about anybody or anything and I'm just going to go live my life for a single meal, then you need to be born again.

But if you're a Christian who struggles with sin, and you have that thing that goes through your mind, this never-ending loop, I've sinned, I'm not a Christian. I've sinned, I'm not a Christian. I've sinned, I'm not a Christian.

I could direct you to many places. Romans 7 would be good. The cross would be good. The words of Jesus would be good in John 10. But here I want to go to Matthew 12 and just remind you, dear Christian, because I know there are some Christians in this dear congregation that think when they sin, that means they're apostate.

What does Jesus do? I want to direct your attention to this Jesus who knows what weak people are like. He knows what you're like. If you're an apostate, repent. But if you're a Christian, look at the Lord.

Matthew 12, 18. This is all from Isaiah 42, by the way, the servant songs. Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased, I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall proclaim justice to the Gentiles.

So here, of course, we have God the Father speaking. He's pleased with the Son. Could He be more pleased with the Son? Of course not. And by the way, what has happened just before this passage? Jesus, the compassionate Savior, heals a man with a withered hand.

And in light of that, the Father says, I love my Son. I've chosen my Son. He is the One, His chosen One. And the text says, my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased. This is the greatest love of all, the intensity of the love of the Father with the Son.

His delight is in the Son, in every aspect of His mediatorial, redemptive work. I will put my spirit upon Him, and He shall proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not quarrel. No revolution here. Nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets.

And then we come to Matthew 12, 20. A battered reed He will not break off, and a smoldering wick He will not put out. Don't read that too fast. You're a Christian, you're struggling with sin, you have a tender conscience, and you think, you know what, could God ever forgive me?

I want you to know that the God of Christians, the God of the universe, is gracious. He is merciful. And you know what else He is? He's gentle. He's gentle. Think about it. A battered reed. What's a reed?

Reeds were a dime a dozen. Reeds were plentiful. Reeds were everywhere. What would you use a reed for? Well, one of the things you'd use a reed for was a flute. You think about a reed on a saxophone? It's the same kind of thing.