Hebrews 12:14-17
...be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. 16 See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. 17 Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done.
When we hear that a pastor has been removed or has stepped down due to sin, what do we assume? He has been caught gossiping? He has been greedy? He plagiarized a message? He lied about his age? No, we assume he has had an affair and usually with good reason. Pastor after pastor fall to sexual temptation and it isn't just the pastor. Sexual sins run rampant throughout the Church and cause the body to be unholy and therefore as verse 14 would say, "No one sees the Lord". The body won't see God move because of sin in the camp and certainly unbelievers will see the Church as a joke as they view our scandalous behavior, which is scandalous even for unbelievers, and they won't see the Lord.
Isn't it interesting that Esau is used as an example here when his sin was not a sexual sin. What is the author getting at here? When Esau sold his birthright, he was in effect saying "I don't care about the long term, even eternal consequences. My flesh is hungry now and I need to satisfy it." Isn't that what sexual sin is? It says, "I don't care about my kids and how they will turn out as adults, I don't care about my marriage lasting 50 years, I don't care about visiting 4 sets of grandparents on holidays, I don't care about a sexually transmitted disease that I may carry the rest of my life, I don't care that I'm going to be considered a hypocrite and lose my testimony the rest of my life, I don't care about my Church fracturing, I don't care about the other person's spouse and family going through counselling for years, I don't care how my spouse will feel - that's all future - I want to satisfy my flesh now!" And isn't that what Esau did?
And what were the ramifications? 1) It destroyed his family. He and his brother hated each other, the mom and the Dad lied to each other and chose sides, the mom had to send away Jacob and she never saw him again, and unbelieving spouses were brought into the family which made Rebekkah's life miserable. We don't read of any of Esau's future children being followers of God, actually quite the opposite. (was Ruth in Esau's line? Maybe I'm wrong there?) Sexual sin destroys families! 2) Loss of blessing - Esau could not receive the blessing no matter how desperately he tried. When sexual sin creeps in, the blessed life you are experiencing now and the hedge of protection from the evil one disappears. Look at the carnage in David's life. Look at the blessed life before Bathsheba and look at the turmoil after Bathsheba. It's night and day. 3) Eternal consequences - loss of rewards in Heaven and even the question of eternal damnation. Jesus said "If you love me you will obey my commandments". "Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord', and don't do what I say?" If you know something is wrong and say "I don't care what God thinks, if there is a God anyway, I'm gonna do what I want to do.", are you really saved? If you are unrepentant, were you really born again? Is Esau in Heaven? I don't know the answer to those questions but what I do know is that the Bible says, "He who endures till the end will be saved." Paul says that his walk with the Lord was extremely disciplined so that he won't be disqualified from the prize. If Paul was concerned, shouldn't we be?
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