"Rooting Out the Root of Bitterness" (Hebrews 12:15)

"Rooting Out the Root of Bitterness" from Hebrews 12:15 was preached by Dr. Mark McElreath at the City Baptist Church of Atlanta on August 2, 2026.

Find out more about the City Baptist Church of Atlanta at www.citybaptistchurch.com.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to the City Pulpit. Bible messages from the pulpit ministry of the City Baptist Church in Atlanta. Please take your Bibles with me. Let's go to the book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. When we come to Hebrews chapter 12, we'll begin reading in verse number 12. And coming right after this famous chapter, Hebrews 11, the Hall of Faith. The penman here is speaking of looking unto Jesus, and he speaks here of chastening of the Lord and many things in this chapter. We come down toward the middle of the chapter, we'll begin reading. In verse number 12, the Bible says, Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. 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 you 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. Would you mark this phrase in verse 15, three words, root of bitterness, and we'll take for the theme of the Bible message this evening, rooting out the root of bitterness. Rooting out the root of bitterness. Bitterness very simply is a lasting mood of resentment, hurt, or anger caused by a bad event or seemingly unfair treatment. It's holding on to hard feelings instead of letting them go. And how often do we go through this life and we have to deal with, as the definition here is, unfair treatment or a bad event, or resentment or hurt. And the question is not whether we have been wounded, but rather will we bind it up and allow it to heal, or will we leave it wide open and allow it to fester? That's really what's going to happen here. We all suffer unmet expectations, but we do not have to give in to bitterness, which will undoubtedly fight against us. This account, though, in the book of Hebrews, chapter 12, is inextricably connected to a person. It's connected to the person of Esau. In fact, would you hold your place here? And look, he gives us a little bit about Esau here in verse 16. He says that Esau was a fornicator and a profane person. And then he says in verse 17, For you know that afterward when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected. So it's speaking here of an account in the book of Genesis. Let's hold our place here, go back to the book of Genesis, get a little context. Genesis chapter 25. Genesis chapter 25, we find Esau has a brother, his name is Jacob. They're twins, and they have a father, Isaac. We come to Genesis chapter 25, we find that Esau, having been the firstborn, just by a few moments, because they were twins, he has received a birthright. But we see that he's gone out of the field, he's been hunting all day, and if you look down with me in Genesis chapter 25, look at verse number 27. It says, And the boys grew, and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field, and Jacob was a plain man dwelling in tents. And Isaac loved Esau because he did eat of his venison, but Rebecca loved Jacob. Look down verse 29 of Genesis 25. And Jacob saw a pottage, and Esau came from the field, and he was faint. Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage, for I am faint. Thereof was his name called Edom. And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright. And Esau said, Behold, I'm at the point to die. What profit shall this birthright do to me? And Jacob said, Swear to me this day, and he swear unto him, and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils, and he did eat and drink, and rose up and went his way, and thus Esau despised his birthright. We find that Jacob, whose name means deceiver, and he really is a deceiver all through his life, he swindles his brother Esau for just a bowl of soup, in essence, for his birthright to the family inheritance. We find later, if you go with me two chapters later to chapter 27, we find that Isaac is getting up in years, and it's time to give the blessing. We find in Genesis chapter 27, verse 33, it says, And Isaac trembled very exceedingly and said, Who? And what's happened is Jacob has come in, and he's disguised as himself. He's put a hair on his arms, make him feel like his brother, who's a hairy man, he being a smooth man, he's changed his ways, and he's come in, and he's deceived him for the blessing. Look at verse 34. And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me even me also, O my father. And he said, Thy brother came with subtlety and hath taken away thy blessing. And so this account in Hebrews chapter 12 about the root of bitterness is connected to this man Esau, right here in this passage. Was Esau done wrong? Yes, you could look at the life of Esau and say, Yeah, Jacob really did. He took his blessing, he took his birthright, he took, really, it was not his to take. He cheated him out of it. Now we could also see that Esau was not living the kind of life he should have lived. The Bible calls him here a profane person, literally a person living without regard for God, a fornicator, he says here in verse 16. But here's the point for all of us. We may not be cheated out of a blessing, may not be cheated out of a birthright, but there's going to come a point in all of our lives, it may be multiple points in all of our lives, where we will be done wrong. And here's the question. Are we going to allow root of bitterness to grow up in our hearts? Let's make note of some things here, this root of bitterness, what the Bible has to say about it. Number one, would you write this down? The root of bitterness begins easily. It begins easily. The root takes hold easily if we give it enough fertile soil. Look with me in verse number 15 here of Hebrews chapter 12. It first says, looking diligently. Now, why would we need to look diligently after this root of bitterness to make sure it doesn't take hold? Because it can come up so quickly and so easily. One offhand remark, one sharp glance, one thing that didn't quite turn out the way we thought it would, and what begins to happen? That root begins to take hold, right? Now we've got to make sure we're not giving it the sunshine and the fertilizer and the soil that it can take root. But he says, looking diligently here, watch with diligence, because it can grow so quickly. We keep up with the grounds here. We've got a little bit of property here at the church, and if we don't stay on top of it, it just snowballs and it gets so big you can't keep up with it, right? The same is true of the root of bitterness. It takes hold so easily, it begins to put down roots that if we're not careful, it will grow bigger than we can handle. He says here, looking diligently in verse number 15, lest any man fail of the grace of God. Now God's grace does not fail, but we can fail to take advantage of it. I think the point that the human penman here is making in verse number 15 is that God's grace has been offered for the forgiveness of wrongs. But we fail when we don't offer forgiveness for the wrong ourselves. God has already offered. His grace already falls upon everything that'd be done against us. But will we accept that grace against the person that has done us wrong? God's grace has moved on, and so should we, is really, I think, how they're saying here. Failing of the grace of God. Hold your place here with me and go to the book of Ephesians. If you look at Ephesians chapter 4, Paul is writing here to this church at Ephesus. And he says in Ephesians 4, we'll look at verse number 22, he's speaking to them, and he says in verse 22, that you put off concerning the former conversation the old man. And then he says in verse 24, that you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. I marked in verse 22 of Ephesians 4, put off, and I marked in verse 24, put on. Alright? So you put off the old man, replace it with something. What? We're replacing it with the new man. Okay, we're created, as it says here, a new man in righteousness and true holiness. And then Paul gives us this list here in Ephesians 4, instructions for what this new man looks like. He says in verse 25, that we're putting away lying, speaking with every man truth. Alright? That's a characteristic of the new man. He says in verse 26, be ye angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. He's saying, if you get mad about something, don't go to sleep on it. Take care of it that day. That's true of the new man. It's a good point. He says in verse 28, let him that stole steal no more. Alright, right. If we're a new man, then we should, yeah, we should not be stealing, right? Look at verse 29. He says, Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. Alright? So he's just covering everything, right? The way you talk is affected if you're a new man. He says in verse 30, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you're sealed unto the day of redemption. He says, if I missed anything, just keep in mind, if it grieves the Holy Spirit, that's not a characteristic of the new man. And then he says in verse 31, and let all what? Bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. And be ye kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. What does he throw in there? Get rid of all that bitterness. If you're a new man, you put off the old man, you've taken on this new person, you're a new person in the Lord Jesus Christ, then there is no place for bitterness in your life, and there's no place in bitterness in my life. You know what all this is connected to? I think the key of this entire passage in Ephesians 4 is verse 27. Neither give place to the devil. That's really what's happening when we're allowing bitterness to take root in our own lives. We're just giving the devil a place. I heard an old preacher say one time, he said, the devil will walk past the door of your heart as long as he has to, back and forth, back and forth, just to find it cracked one time. And you know what leaves it cracked open? The root of bitterness. And then what does the devil do? He just gets a little place. You see, it says here in verse 27, it doesn't say, neither give dominion to the devil, neither give a fortress to the devil. No, neither give place. Just a small thing, seemingly, neither give place to the devil. And what is one way you and I can do that day in and day out? Just allowing bitterness to take hold in our own life. Because it begins so easily. We've got to ask ourselves, are we allowing a root of bitterness to begin growing in our lives? Go back with me to Hebrews chapter 12. Let's look at verse 15, because he says here, looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God. And then would you make note of a second thing? Not only does the root of bitterness begin easily, secondly, it grows internally. It grows internally. Here's what it says in verse 15 looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you. Springing up here shows this initial phase is one that cannot be seen. The shoot that begins to spring up affects us on the inside. It says here, it troubles you. Now, usually people are like, well, I can control it. I can keep it from going so far, right? We always think that our sin, and root of bitterness is included in that, we always think our sin will only take us so far. I can hold this back. Old saying is sin always costs us more than we're willing to pay, holds us longer than we're willing to stay, and takes us farther than we're willing to go. And that's really what is happening here. It is springing up in us, it is troubling us. This word trouble here is the same word used in Luke 6, 18, where it says there were those who were vexed with unclean spirits. This root of bitterness literally vexes us as an unclean spirit, as an evil spirit with us. It is troubling and vexing us. It is also in similar accounts used of people being sick or ill. And I don't think that's just in a spiritual sense. I think that's very true in a physical sense. If you're holding on to bitterness, it will eat you away physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Now, up to this point, the growth has been contained and has been kept inside, but it never stays there. I think about here on this property, we had some crepe myrtles. I say we had because that's past tense. Because I don't ever plan to let a crepe myrtle ever grow on this property ever again. Every crepe myrtle at 425 10th Street Northwest will always be a past tense crepe myrtle. Because we had some crepe myrtles right back here in the back of the building. And they had roots on them. And you couldn't see the roots. We never saw any of the roots. But eventually we began to see the effects of the roots. Why? Because they got down underneath some of our sidewalk and they began to get into some drains. And they began to tear up some drains and they began to fill up some drains to where eventually water that ran off didn't run off anymore. You know what they did? They clogged up all those drains. You know, I think bitterness does the same thing in each and every one of our lives. Things that should drain away, it causes to stay in. Keeps it inside. When we have bitterness here, things that should drain away, things we should let go of, bitterness says, why don't you hold on to that a little longer? Bitterness says, why don't you keep that around here? That's exactly what happened. Think about the example of Joseph in Genesis chapter 50. Joseph sold by his brothers into slavery, sent down into Egypt, lied about in Potiphar's house and thrown in jail, forgotten in jail. Think of all of the things. For over 20 years, Joseph has lived a life of everyone forgetting about him, lying against him, and throwing him in jail. And then in Genesis 50, God has raised him up to the second highest powerful man in Egypt. He's taken care of him, he's preserved him, he's given him a family, he brings his brothers back, he restores his brothers, he restores his father before he dies. And Joseph says in Genesis 50 and verse number 20, Ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good. Because for over two decades, Joseph never allowed one little root of bitterness to take hold in his own life. You could look at his example and you would think, well, if anyone would be justified in being bitter, it would be Joseph, right? And yet he understood, oh, it grows so easily. And it begins to take hold internally. You can go on this property. I think about it because I helped keep up this property. Now think about it, right out here in the front, we got a little place, we cleared out some things, we put some mulch down, and every week I should get out there, and I don't get out there every week, but I should get out there and I should pull up those little pieces of grass that start growing up out in that mulch. You know why? Because if I don't pull them out every week, you know what's going to happen? They're going to start getting bigger, and the root system gets thicker, and they go down deeper, and then it's harder to pull them up by the root because you don't just want to pull it up by the stem. If you just pull the top of the grass up, it's just going to sprout back up, right? You've got to pull it up by the root. Same is true of the root of bitterness. The longer we let it fester, the longer we let it grow, the deeper it goes, the more work it's doing on the inside, until eventually, would you make note of a third thing? Not only does it begin easily, and it grows internally, make note of this third thing, it destroys fully. Look what it says in our verse, chapter 12, verse 15. Looking diligently, lest any man fail the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you. And then look at this last part, and thereby many be defiled. That's where the root of bitterness leads. We think this is just mine that I'm going to hold on to, but eventually it leads to the many being defiled. It destroys fully. Eventually what has been hidden will be made known. You know those crepe myrtles I talked about? They grew for a long time, years and years and years and years, and it didn't seem like there was any issue until one day water starts backing up into the basement. What was going on underground, what was going on without anyone seeing, eventually was made known. Eventually it was made manifest. That's what the root of bitterness does. It will grow so long inside of us you can't keep it inside. It will manifest itself on the outside. It says here, and thereby many be defiled. Think about the case of Esau, which we looked at at the beginning of the message. His entire ancestral line would be tainted by his violence and apathy toward the things of God. The Edomites would come from him. The entire book of the Bible would be written. Obadiah would preach against the Edomites. He'd be a prophet that was sent to try to set them right. The Edomites would persistently be the enemies of God. We have to ask this question: who else will suffer the consequences of our bitterness? Who's suffering the consequences of the bitterness of Esau? We still feel those consequences today. To this very day. We see here that bitterness is like an acid that destroys the container that holds it. The story of Nelson Mandela is so intriguing. He stood against apartheid in South Africa. He was imprisoned for 27 years altogether. 18 of those on an island called Robin Island, where he withstood fierce hard labor, scant conditions. He slept on a thin mat for years on his back, some of that solitary confinement. And he was released in 1990. And in his biography, he makes this statement. He says, As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I'd still be in prison. He could have been outside the walls of the prison. But he says, I would have still been imprisoned in my own bitterness and hate if I did not leave it behind. Why? Because it destroys fully. And he would go on to become elect, he would be elected as the president of South Africa in 1994. I don't think he would have gotten there. If he hadn't released all that hate, all that resentment, all of that bitterness behind. The story is told of a man who kept a drawer of letters written to deeply wound him. Every few months he would open the drawer up and he would pull the letters out and he would read them just to let the wound fester again. Probably the person that read them after years had forgotten he ever read them, moved away, had no contact with them. And eventually a friend came back to the man and he said, Who are you really punishing when you reread the letters? It's a post we like to get on and look back up and read over and over and over again. No one is hurt by that more than we are. And it is allowing the root of bitterness to get a little more water and a little more fertilizer and go a little deeper and grow a little stronger. Are we allowing a root of bitterness to destroy our life or the lives of others? Because we don't get to choose how far that root of bitterness goes. We don't get to choose how deep it runs, and we don't get to choose what destruction it causes in the end. Now there is another option. Would you hold your place with me to go to Ephesians chapter 3? Because in Ephesians 3, Paul shows us there's another route that can take place. Ephesians chapter 3, would you look with me please at verse number 17? The Bible says that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. That ye being rooted and grounded in what? Love. There's another route that we can allow to take hold in our life. And it is the root of love. Now you say, Pastor, you don't know that person that did me wrong. They're unlovely. I'm not talking about love for them. Here's what the rooted in love is. It is told to us in verse number 19 to know the love of Christ. That's the love it's speaking of. That's the root that roots out the root of bitterness. That's the anecdote for the root of bitterness. That is the antipathy to the root of bitterness. It is rooted and grounded in the love of Christ. He actually says here in verse 18 that he may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and the length and the depth and the height. That's a big root, by the way. And when the love of Christ encompasses all the breadth and length and depth and height of your heart and my heart, there is actually no room for a root of bitterness to take hold. There is no place for a root of bitterness in a heart that is given over to the love of Christ. He actually says in verse 19, to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that you might be able to be filled with all the fullness of God. He says in verse 20, now unto him that is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us. You say, I can't get this bitterness out. Oh yes, because the one that is doing exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think is at work in this case. He goes on to say in verse 21, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. You know what he's touching on here? He's touching on a spatial idea. If the love of Christ is abounding in your heart, there's no room for a root of bitterness. And he's also speaking in a historical idea here. He's saying, throughout all ages, world without end. That going on in the future, and anytime we look back in the past, if the love of Christ has taken root in your heart and my heart, it will take care of the root of bitterness. Again, all of us done wrong. We cannot go through this life without disappointment. We cannot go through this life without being let down. We cannot go through this life without someone doing something that is against us. I can't change what they've done, and you can't change what they've done. But we can affect how we react to it. And we will either allow the root of bitterness to take hold, or we will seek out to be rooted and grounded in the love of Christ. That is the only real medicine for that illness. It begins easily. Are we allowing a root of bitterness to begin growing in our hearts and lives? It grows internally. Are we allowing a root of bitterness to grow unimpeded? Are we happy to let it take hold? And then it destroys fully. Are you and I allowing a root of bitterness to destroy our life and eventually the lives of others? Because once it comes to that point, it's too late. Too late many times to undo the damage. God help us not allow root of bitterness to take hold, but rather be rooted and grounded in the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for listening to the City Pulpit. For more information about the City Baptist Church of Atlanta, please visit www.mycitybaptist.com.