The title of the message this
morning is, The Children's Consolation. And we begin here in Hebrews
12, in verse 5, and it says, Have you forgotten the exhortation,
which speaketh unto you as unto children? And this is taken from
Proverbs. It says, My son, despise not
thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked
of him. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth
every son whom he receiveth. Now, about chastening, the Lord
corrects his children not in wrath or anger or vengeance,
but in love. The chastening spoken of here
is loving correction. The chastisement of our peace,
the chastisement of the peace of God's children was laid on
Christ our Savior. And for the true child of God,
when Christ bore our stripes in His own body on the tree,
God the Father poured out judgment in wrath and in anger, avenging
His holy justice in our substitute. Now, towards those in whom He
sent forth His Spirit, towards those whom He's made willing
to trust Him, who have the Spirit of God, whereby we cry, Abba,
Father. And this chastisement is not
a... It's not wrath. It's not God
won't execute His justice upon His children a second time. He
satisfied that in our substitute. This chastening is faithful,
loving correction of a father to his child, not as a judge
upon the wicked. And therefore, it's important
for you and I, as children of our Father, you that believe
Him, to understand that our Father knows best how to deal with His
children. It's not for you and I to take
the place of Job's friends like they did and say, well, it's
because of something you've done is the reason that you're going
through this. You remember what the Lord said when he called
on Satan to consider Job? He said, there's none like him.
He didn't bring that trial upon Job because there was something
in Job that needed to be corrected. He said, there's none like him.
He does good. He eschews evil. There's none
like him. But his friends came and they
said, you've done something and God's angry with you. That's
not the case. But we don't allow our own children. Do you allow your children to
discipline one another in your home? We do teach our children
this. We teach our children that if
they see their sibling needing correction or needing help, to
come to their father and ask him for help, to encourage them
to go to their father. We teach them that, don't we?
That's what the Lord teaches us to do. Encourage our brethren
and try to help lift up their hands that hang down and their
feeble knees. and direct them to the Father
and pray to the Father for them. But we're not to chasten them. He chastens them. He's the faithful
Father and He knows how to deal best with each of His children
in ways we don't have any idea. And then listen to the instruction
here. It says, Despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor
faint when thou are rebuked. For whom the Lord loveth, He
chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth." It's
impossible to despise the Lord's correction without despising
the Lord. When you correct your child,
do you allow them to cry out in anger? No, because they're crying out
against you. We tell ours all the time that
they can cry, but they got to stifle that cry. They might be,
they might be standing up on the inside, but they're going
to be sitting down on the outside. If you see a child of God, then
you know, or if you're a child of God, then you know that God,
the father loves you. God, the father everlastingly
loved you. He chose you in Christ to put
you in Christ. It cost His precious blood to
redeem His church, to buy them to Himself. He sent forth His
Spirit to call us out. He preserves us in this evil
world. He keeps us. We consider the
great love of God. We know something of His love
towards us in the fact of what He did in giving us His Son. to redeem us and to purge us
of all our sin and to make us holy and accepted in Him. And
so then we know that whatever He does to correct us is done
in love as well. Everything He's done for us has
been for our good, hasn't it, so far? Because He loves us. And so whatever the affliction,
whatever the trial, however the Lord rebukes me by His Word or
by His Spirit or in providence, As Dr. Pink says, we do better
to humble ourselves beneath His mighty hand. Job asked the Lord
what it was. He called on the Lord and asked
Him to reveal to him what was it. What did he need to be corrected
of? And that's where we need to go. We need to go to Him. Look here
in verse 7. If you endure chastening, God
dealeth with you as sons. For what son is he whom the father
chasteneth not? But if you be without chastisement,
whereof all are partakers, then are you bastards and not sons.
Just think on that truth. God dealeth with you as with
sons. The holy God of heaven and earth
deals with you as with a son. Those who are not His sons are
under the just condemnation of God. And if God won't allow you
and I to go the way of illegitimate sons, to go the way of this world,
of this sinful world, if He won't allow us to do that, and that's
what His correction is, is Him keeping us from going that way.
If He won't allow us to go that way, Paul told the Corinthians,
when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord that we should not
be condemned with the world. When we're judged, when we're
chastened of the Lord, it's so that we shall not be condemned
with the world. Isn't that a good thing? Isn't
that a loving father dealing with you as with a son? He won't
let you be condemned with this world. That's a marvelous thing
to ponder, to think about, that he won't let us be condemned
with this world. Now he gives us a scriptural
illustration here in verse 9. Furthermore, we've had fathers
of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence.
Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of
spirits and live? For they verily for a few days
chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our profit,
that we might be partakers of his holiness." In Proverbs 22.6,
we're told, train up a child in the way he should go. And
when he is old, he will not depart from it. Our earthly fathers
had rules. And those rules, you think about
this. You have rules in your household,
laws, that's what they are. But those laws are not brought
up. Those laws are not needed for
you to love your father, for you to serve your father, for
you to commune with your father, for you to walk before your father. Those rules are not needed at
all. You know when those rules are needed? When you disobey
your father. That's when those rules apply.
When the law applies, if we're in the way, walking in the way,
we don't need those rules. It's when we stepped out of the
way that the law of God applies to us. Isn't that who it was
made for? For folks that disobeyed Him, that's what the law was
made for. But we don't have to have that
law to know how to love our Father. We don't have to have Scott,
your children don't have to have your rules. When they come in
to snuggle up to you and to hug up on you or when you're out
with them somewhere and enjoying a day together, they don't have
to have those rules to enjoy your company and for you to enjoy
their company and for you to commune with one another and
fellowship with one another and enjoy the love of a father and
a child. It's only when they step out
of that. and disobey you. Let those rules apply and bring
you back. Show you you're guilty. You can't go that way. Well,
the Father's way, your rules for your children is the good
way. It's the way that you're training
them up that they should go. Right? Well, our Heavenly Father's
way is the right way. The way that we trained up our
children to go, it may be the right way. We hope it's the right
way, but it may not be the right way. But the way that He trains
us up to go is the right way. It is the right way. And when
we've strayed out of the way, that's when our Father brings
us back into the way. And Christ Jesus, the Son of
God, is the way. He is the way. And He's the way
in which God the Father is training His children up to go. All God's Word has its end where? In Christ. Everything God says
to you and me in this Word has its end. It's in purpose to put
His children in Christ the way. When He quickens you for the
first time, when He sends forth His Spirit and gives you life,
when He grants His children repentance, you know what He does? He turns
His children from a false way to Christ the way. And every time He corrects us,
every time He chastens us, He's turning us from a false way to
Christ the way. Every time. Every time. The faith He gives His child
brings us into this way. And we behold Christ whom we
would have never discovered had He not given us this grace and
this gift of faith to behold Him. And when we need chastening,
when we need our Heavenly Father's correction, it's when we begin
to lose sight of Him and to look in another direction, to look
out of the way. We need to be turned back into
the way. And that's what He does when
He corrects us. This life we're running, the Hebrew writer says,
is a race. And it's the race the children
of God begin running when the Holy Spirit puts us in the race
of faith. And it's a race we run following
the way, the path that Christ has laid out for us. And we're
told here that it's the race we run with our eye fixed on
Christ, looking straight ahead to Him. And we're not to look
to Christ sometimes, but all the time. That's what we're instructed
to do. And away from everything else.
away from everything else. And when we grow weary, and when
we come to the point where we're about to faint, and we're exhorted
to do what? To consider Him. To consider
Christ the way. We're told to look diligently
to Him as we run this race. We're told to consider Him. And
now we're told, and don't forget this great consolation, that
if you turn from Him and look another way, Your father's faithful. He's going to turn you back to
the way. Now, when you're rebuked and when you're chastened, just
realize he's not going to let you turn from the way. He's turning
you back into the way that you should go. Is that not what you
and me do for our children? What we try to do for our children
on a daily basis? Do we not think that our father
is faithful and wise to do the same for his children? Sure he
is. And though the Lord give you
the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet shall
not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more. But thine
eyes shall see thy teachers, and thine ears shall hear a word
behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when
you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left. During his prayer in John 17,
who did God the Son pray to to keep His brethren from the evil? He asked the Father, didn't He?
And you know what the Father does? Through His Word, through
His Spirit, through His providential dealings with His children, He
keeps us from the evil, from the left or the right, and He
keeps us in the way. saying this is the way, walk
ye in it. Now look here in Hebrews 12, 11. Now no chastening for the present
seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth
the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised
thereby. I never did once remember enjoying
my father's correction. I don't remember one time enjoying
that. And so far, I don't think I've ever seen a time when I
could tell you that my children enjoyed it either, have enjoyed
it either. But afterward, there's great peace and great joy in
knowing the right way. When you know how to get from
point A to point B. You're out there somewhere on
a vacation in a place you've never been and you're trying
to get from the hotel to some tourist destination you're going
to. When you know the right way to go, you ride along at peace
and everybody's happy and everybody's smiling and can't wait to get
there in the car. But when you lose track of where
you are and you don't know how to get there anymore, what happens?
It just becomes unpeaceful, doesn't it? Tension starts to mount and
things, you get kind of crabby with one another, don't you?
But when you know the way, when you know the way, there's peace
in it. You stop, you got all that turmoil
going, you stop and you ask somebody, can you tell me how to get there?
And they give you directions right there. And you head out
down the road and now everybody's just quiet. You know the way.
You know how to get there. Well, when we're in that in that
place where we're looking some other way. We're trying to run
the race, but we're not staying on the track. We're trying to
run the race, but we're not looking to Christ. We're considering
what everybody's doing to us, looking at how we're being treated
and how a contradiction of sinners is being waged against us. And
we're looking at that, and we're not considering Him. We go through
a trial of chastening from our Father because He's faithful
and loving to correct us. And it's not joyous. But once
we get back on the path, and He puts us back in the way, and
He points us back to Christ, and we behold Christ, and we
stop looking at ourselves, and we start considering Him. Afterwards,
peaceable fruit of righteousness. You know the way. I know the
way. I see Him now. So we go on that way, and those
who've never been exercised or made to walk in the way they
should go, they might say that's a bunch of nonsense. But I've
had some friends in my life that, honest enough to talk to me and
be honest with me, that had fathers that would not correct them,
would not exercise them in the way they should go. And every
one of them have told me they would have given anything to
have a father that would have corrected them. We probably, most of us remember
at some point or another, when we were under our father's roof,
we thought, boy, I can't wait to grow up and get out from under
his roof. Get out from under his rule and
under his dominion. The child of God starts out way
out in the wilderness. And he finds us and brings us
under his roof. And He teaches us all the time
that we're going through this wilderness and He's bringing
us home. He's bringing us back under His roof. We teach our
children to grow up, move out. God teaches His to grow up and
move in. He's bringing them to Himself. Hebrews 12, 12, 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. This
comes from Isaiah 35, verse 3. And the word here is really,
Strengthen ye the weak hands. Confirm the feeble knees. Say
unto them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not. Behold,
your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense. He'll
come and save you. Wherefore, knowing we have this
faithful father, knowing that he deals with us as sons, as
children, knowing that he is all wise, seeing what great things
he's done for us in his son and knowing that he's faithful to
keep us in this way, that's good reason to lift up the hands that
are tired and weary and those knees that begin to wobble and
that are faint and make straight paths. Listen to this. This is
from Proverbs. Let thine eyes look right on,
and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. Ponder the path
of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. Turn not
to the right hand, nor to the left. Remove thy foot from evil. That's where this comes from.
Where it says, make straight paths for your feet. You ever
seen somebody that's walking along, looking at their feet,
and they're oblivious to anybody being in the room? Or you ever
see somebody at your workplace that come out of their cubicle
or out of their office or go from one place to the other,
from one part of the store to the other and they're just walking
along at a steady pace and there's nothing, everything just going
by them and they don't see anything. Because they got their mind fixed
on something. They know right where they're
going and they're not turning to the left or to the right. They
know where they're headed. That's the word here. Make straight
paths for your feet. Instead of running this way or
that way. when a trial comes, instead of looking here or there.
Instead of thinking back of all the mistakes I made. Where did
I mess up? What did I do? Where did I mess
up? How did I? He stopped telling us to look
back. Paul said, forgetting those things which are behind, look
to Christ. Don't try to bring up, don't
try to dig up skeletons. Look to Christ. Look to life.
Look straight ahead. That's what he's telling us.
When Peter began to look at the waves, what happened to him?
He began to sink down, didn't he? But when he was looking at
Christ, he was fine, wasn't he? When he took his eye off of Christ
and looked at the waves, he began to sink down. Any other path. that we take is going to result
in us being lame and it's going to lead to more sickness, more
weakness. It's going to turn us out of
the way. If we continue looking to ourselves,
if we look to our obedience or our disobedience, if we look
to our past, to our sins, if we continue looking for some
sign of assurance in something we've done or something we can
do to get ourselves out of this, will continue to be lame, turned
out of the way. That's not the purpose of the
trial. That's not the purpose of the Lord's correction. It's
to turn us to ourselves to get ourselves out of it. It's to
look to Him. That's what He's doing. Some
of you have called me and you've talked to me and you've asked
me to pray for you for various things. I spoke with a man this
week I've never spoken to. He called me and we were talking
and the man was very concerned about his soul. And he asked
me to pray for him. And I will gladly, and I do,
for you and for him. But this is what I encourage
you. Whenever trouble sets in, whenever
trials are upon you, Make a straight path to Him. You do that. I'll be glad to pray for you,
but you make a straight path to Him. He doesn't tell us here,
make a straight path to your brethren. He doesn't tell us
here, make a straight path to the church. He doesn't tell us
here, make a straight path to anybody but to your Father. Make a straight path to Him. You have access through Christ
into the very throne room of God, into the very presence of
your Father. How much love would it be? How
much love would it show you as fathers if your children were
suffering and under your faithful correction? And they wouldn't
come to you. They wouldn't come to you. They
went to their brothers and sisters, but they wouldn't come to you.
They went to your bride, but they wouldn't come to you. How much love is it to show to
go to our brothers and sisters, or to go to Christ's bride, the
church, but not go to our Father? And verse 14 says, And follow
peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see
the Lord. This word holiness here, it's
not that holiness that God gives, that God makes His children in
Christ. It's separation. Follow peace
with all men, and be separate from sinners. That's what He's
saying. Without which no man will see the Lord. If you walk
through this world pondering the path of your feet, I guarantee
you, looking to Christ, I guarantee you, you'll lead a peaceable
life with men and you won't join in the sin and rebellion against
God. An old man used to tell me, spend
50% of your time minding your own business and the other 50%
of your time leaving the other fellow's business alone and you'll
get along fine. lead a peaceable life with men
and be separated from sinners. Don't join in with them. And
if asked of your confidence and your hope and why you're so steadfast
in walking this way, tell them. Tell them, you might be the one
the Lord uses to strengthen their weak hands, to lift up their
hands that hang down, and their weak knees, to where they begin
to look straight ahead to Christ by His grace, and follow Christ,
and walk in the way that He would have them to go, rather than
in every other false way. That's what we're being taught.
Without which, if you turn without, if we go out of the way without
which, If we're joined in with this world and we're one with
this world and we're partaking of sin and with sinners and we're
going to find that it's not going to be peaceful. The Lord says,
follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man
will see the Lord. We've got to be separate from
sinners. We've got to be in the way, following Christ and separate
from this world. That's what we're being taught.
And it says here, 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. Here we go again, looking diligently. Looking where? Where do we begin
this thing? Verse 2, looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith. Looking diligently. To Christ, how? Constantly, continually. Why? Because in Christ is the
grace of God. If we look anywhere else, we're
going to fail of the grace of God, because in Him is where
all grace is. We'll be looking elsewhere, but
if we're looking to Him, we won't faint, that's what He says. We
won't be weary, that's what He says, because His grace is sufficient
for you. There's a difference between
the root of bitterness and the fruit of righteousness. There's
a big difference between the root of bitterness and the peaceable
fruit of righteousness. You notice here, the Lord uses
metaphors dealing with plants a lot. The root of bitterness
springing up. But afterwards, after he's corrected,
it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness. That root of
bitterness, that's all our cultivation. That's all our husbandry. That's
of our old nature and our old man. And that's all we'll produce
if we look away from Him is a root of bitterness. There'll be no
peace in our heart. There'll be no peace with our
fellow man. We'll join in the sin and rebellion against God
with them. It'll be a root of bitterness springing up. Big
difference there. And then He gives us one last
illustration I want you to see. Verse 16. Lest, and here's what
happens when we get out of the way, lest there be any fornicator
or profane person. You know what fornication is,
you know what profanity is, but listen to this definition of
fornication and profanity. 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.
Rejected by Isaac. For he found no place of repentance. Isaac wouldn't change his mind.
Though Esau sought it carefully with tears. Esau was looking to himself.
Esau worshipped the God of his belly. And for one momentary
craving, for right now, He dishonored his father. He showed he cared
nothing about taking his father's name and honoring his father's
name and his father's household and his father's children and
his brethren. He sold his right to all of that,
to all future inheritance for one bowl of stew, which he sat
down and ate in one sitting. That's what it is to truly be
a fornicator and a profane person is to turn our backs on God the
Father for the fleshly, selfish gratification of these filthy,
stinking bodies of death. And then when he went back bawling
his eyes out to Isaac, he didn't really care about having what
Jacob had. He just wanted it because he
couldn't have it. Yesterday, Will came to me. I thought this is a good illustration
of why folks rebel against the sovereign God of electing grace.
He came to me and he said, Daddy, I don't want to go in Emma's
room, but I don't want her telling me I can't go in it. I don't want to go in it. I said,
well, why do you care, Will? He goes, I don't want her telling
me I can't. This is what the Lord says. What
God has done for us, let us do for one another. When the Hebrew
writer came to these weak and lame brethren who were almost
ready to faint, how did he lift up their hands that hang down?
How did he give strength to their wobbling knees? From Hebrews
chapter 1 all the way to right here. He talked about the excellencies
of the person of Christ Jesus, the Son of God. He lifted Him
up before them as their prophet, priest, and king. He spoke to
them of how He was the fulfillment of the law, how He had entered
into the very throne room of God and made intercession on
their behalf, how that He was their advocate with the Father.
He went through Hebrews 11 there. We saw how He said, there is
a very dense, thick cloud of witnesses who will tell you,
if you'll just pick up His Word and read it, they'll tell you,
you can trust our Father. We've been where you've been.
We've proven He's faithful. You can trust Him. You can trust
Him. And He said, now therefore, as you run this race, don't look
anywhere else. Consider Him. And know this,
if you endure chastening, your faithful father is putting you
back on track, looking at him in the right way. That's how
we're going to help one another. Isn't that what you teach your
children to do? Son, if your brother has a problem,
if he gets in trouble, come get me. Just come get me. I'll take
care of him. But if he does something he's
not supposed to be doing, don't you take the rod and whip him.
You come to me, son. And that's what the Hebrew writer
did. He took him and he said, now
go to him. Go to him. Go to him. That's
what he does all through this book. If we'll point sinners to him,
I guarantee you as we're pointing to others, our brethren to him,
we'll be making a straight path to him ourselves. And he'll bless
us in it just as much as he blesses our brethren in it.