Welcome to our program. Today
I'm going to be preaching from the book of Hebrews chapter 12
and the title of the message is God's Loving Discipline. God's Loving Discipline. Now
the Apostle Paul is writing in the book of Hebrews to Hebrew
believers, Christians, who are going through some hard trials
and afflictions. Some of them were going through
very painful experiences because of their testimony of the gospel
and their identification with Christ and the church. And that's
one reason why the apostle is encouraging them and trying to
give them the encouragement of the truth of the scripture to
persevere in the faith. Don't faint. Don't quit. But
keep on in the faith. We know that anybody who perseveres
in the faith, they do so by the preserving grace of God. You see, if salvation were conditioned
on our perseverance, we would not be saved, would we? Because
we're sinners, and we would fail at every turn. But God preserves
us, but he does so by means. And he does so by the means of
prayer. He does so by the means of the
fellowship of God's people, the preaching of the word, growing
in grace and in knowledge of Christ. But another way, another
means that God uses to preserve his people are trials and afflictions. And these trials will come at
God's good pleasure. They will come in his time, in
the wisdom and power of God. And the Bible says that God will
never afflict or put his children through a trial or test in which
he does not give them the strength to endure. And after they endure
that hardship, that trial, that test, then they always come out
glorifying God and thanking him for Christ and his blood and
his righteousness to save us and secure us and to keep us
to the end. Now, the apostle here is encouraging
them. He says, I want to begin by reading,
just reading the first three verses of Hebrews 12, which I
preached on last week. But he says, wherefore, verse
1, seeing we are also are encompassed about with so great a cloud of
witnesses, that's the Old Testament saints who suffered greatly for
the cause of Christ, for the cause of the gospel. He says,
let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily
beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set
before us. Lay aside everything that would
hinder us in the race of grace. As we run the race that God has
set before us, God has predetermined that course. We don't determine
our own course. We who know Christ are on a course
that's been predetermined by God and not by ourselves. And we're to lay aside everything
that would hinder us in running that race, and the sin that so
easily besets us is unbelief, doubts and misgivings concerning
God's sovereign grace. We who run the race of grace
are to be assured that God saves us, that He keeps us, and that
He'll bring us to glory, to the end of the race, to the finish
line, through Christ. by His blood, by His power and
His goodness. And we run the race, verse 2,
by looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Christ
is the author, the beginner of our faith, and He's the completer
of it. It's not conditioned on me. It's
not conditioned on you. It's totally conditioned on the
Lord Jesus Christ. And how can I be so sure? If
I'm running this race, how can I be so certain that I'm going
to finish the course? I'll tell you how. It's not because
I'm so good or I'm so powerful or I'm so determined. I hope
that I end those things as I strive to be like Christ. But that's
not the reason I know I'm certain to finish this race. The reason
that I know I'll finish the race is because Christ has already
finished it for me. He's my forerunner, the scripture
says. We read about that back in Hebrews
chapter 6. Christ is the forerunner who's
already crossed the finish line. He finished the work on the cross
of Calvary. He drank damnation dry, satisfied
law and justice, and he is now seated at the right hand of the
Father, making intercession for his people. So because he's there
already, I know if I look to him, and rest in him, and keep
my eyes and my heart and my focus on him by the grace of God, I'll
finish also." And it says, "...Christ, 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." Verse 3, "...for
consider him." Now, that's a good way to run this race. Run it
considering Christ. Think on the things that Christ
has accomplished. set your mind and your heart
and your affections on things above, consider him that endured
such contradiction of centers against himself, lest you be
wearied and faint in your minds." So as we go through the Christian
life, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,
we consider him. Now, whatever trial or test or
affliction that I'm going through, I can always consider Christ
who suffered the greatest trials and afflictions that anyone ever
faced, and He did it for the joy that was set before Him,
and that is the glory of His Father, His own exaltation, and
the salvation of His sheep. Christ died for his people, and
they shall be saved. And he endured the contradiction
of sinners, those we who called him a malefactor, a criminal,
a blasphemer, the only one who never sinned. What a contradiction. Yet he did this in order to save
us from our sins. Now, from verse 4 on, the Apostle
begins to talk about God's loving discipline. And he mentions the
word chastisement. Now, that word chastisement is
a very interesting word. When we think about chastisement,
normally we think of punishment. And that's okay, but you have
to understand what the Bible teaches about the subject of
chastisement. For example, in one sense, there
is no way in which God's children, saved by the grace of God, cleansed
by the blood of Christ, clothed in His righteousness, there is
no way that we are punished for our sins in the way of legal
payment for the sins. Somebody says, well, if you do
this, you'll have to pay for that sin. Well, in God's sight,
our sins are already paid for because Christ paid for our sins
by the shedding of His blood on the cross of Calvary, and
we'll never have to pay for them legally before the law and justice
of God again. We sing a hymn in our church,
it's called, Jesus paid it all, all the debt I owe. Sin had left
a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow. So in the legal
sense of the word payment or punishment, there is no way that
God's children will ever have to pay for their sins. You see,
God, if we have to pay for our sins in a legal way, we've got
to understand this. God requires perfect satisfaction. to his justice. Partial payment
will not do. The debt has to be paid in full. So when we speak of chastisement,
we're not talking about paying a legal debt. But here's what
we are talking about. It may come in the form of punishment,
but it's discipline. We who are in Christ are called
disciples. To be a disciple, we have to
be a learner. And that's what chastisement
is. The best definition I ever heard
for chastisement is this. It is correction in the way of
instruction. What is God doing when he chastises
his children? Just like you parents, you have
children and you love those children. And when they do wrong, you don't
make them pay for their wrongdoing in a legal sense, but you chastise
them. You punish them in a loving way
because you love them. so that they can learn from what
they've done. And that's what he's talking
about. Now, verse 4, he says to the Hebrew believers here,
he says, you have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against
sin. Now, what he means by that is this. You have not yet been
faced with physical death as you strive against sin. You're
striving against sin. But you've not yet been martyred
for the faith. Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ,
died in a legal way on the cross of Calvary. He shed his blood.
But he says here, you've not yet come to that point where
your life has been threatened, and you're going to have to give
up your life striving against sin. And he says in verse 5,
and have you forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto
children? Now, an exhortation is an encouragement. It's a commandment, and it's
instruction, but it's an encouragement. It would be the opposite of brow-beating. It would be the opposite of just
beating somebody down. So he's talking about an exhortation
here, which speaketh unto you, and here's the key, as unto children. Not enemies of God, but children
of the Father. Now listen to me very carefully.
All who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. All who have been born
again by the Spirit of God. Christ said you must be born
again or you cannot enter or see the kingdom of heaven. All
who are miraculously by the sovereign power of God born in life, born
again, regenerated, converted. All who have the Spirit of Christ
dwelling in their hearts. They're not enemies of God. their
children of God. He's adopted them into his family. The Bible says in Romans 8 that
God has not given us the spirit of bondage unto fear, legal fear,
but he's given unto us the spirit of liberty whereby we cry, Abba,
Father. That's a special name that describes
the relationship, the gracious, loving relationship between God
and his children. And so we're children of God.
Now, without Christ, without Christ, God is your enemy. Without
his blood to cover your sins, your sins are still against you.
And they're still on the books. And you owe that debt. Without
Christ, you have no righteousness. You have no right relationship
with God. God is a consuming fire. That's
why you need to run to Christ. That's why you need to believe
on him, whom to know is life eternal. He is our salvation. So he's saying here, you've been
going through these trials and afflictions, and they're hard
trials, they hurt, they're painful, they bear us down, but you've
not yet resisted unto blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation,
the encouragement, which speaketh unto you as unto children, My
son, God says, and he's quoting from Proverbs here, My son, despise
not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art
rebuked of him. In other words, don't hate these
trials and look upon them as legal punishments for sin. But
a believer, a child of God, one who's looking unto Jesus as the
author and finisher of his faith, you're to look at these trials
and afflictions as the loving chastisements of your heavenly
Father. In fact, these chastisements
we're going to see are one of the main evidences of God's love
for his children. Have you ever heard this, that
the parent who will not discipline his child does not love his child? And that's true. We'll see that.
Here he says in verse 6, he says, For whom the Lord loveth, he
chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Now, a
very plain way of putting that is this, if God loves you and
you're in Christ, he'll whip you. He scourgeth every son whom
he receiveth." He's received you as a son. You have a permanent
abiding position eternally in the household and family of God
through Christ. You can't lose it because Christ
gained it for you. You see, if God gives it to you
and Christ earned it for you, you can't lose it. So whoever
the Father loves, He corrects. He's going to correct you. And
he corrects us by these trials and afflictions that we go through
in this life, specifically here over our testimony of the gospel.
You remember the Lord said to his disciples in Matthew chapter
5, the Sermon on the Mount, he said, blessed are you when men
persecute you for righteousness sake. I believe that refers to
preaching the gospel. Paul, the apostle, Peter, James,
John, we can think about Stephen in Acts chapter 7. They all preached
the gospel and they were persecuted for it. Now, it's easy for us
in the flesh to look and say, well, I'll just stop preaching
the gospel. This thing's not working. And
therefore, if it were working, everybody would be loving me
and treating me kindly. But you see, that's not the way
it is. The gospel of God's grace is offensive to the natural man. The natural man wants to be lifted
up in his own works and his own self-righteousness. But the gospel
says that's no good. You must look to Christ. Salvation
is the act of a sovereign God who elected a people, gave them
to Christ, and sent Christ into the world to save them from their
sins. And that's offensive to the natural
man. And therefore he's offended and he will persecute the people
of God. Well, how are we to look at those
persecutions? He says it right here. Whom the
Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth."
Now, he says in verse 7, look at this, he says, if you endure
chastening, if you endure this correction and instruction from
the Father, God dealeth with you as with sons. You see, these
chastenings, these trials and afflictions that come for righteousness'
sake, that's God dealing with His children. He deals with you
as sons, not as enemies. So when these trials come, the
Apostle is saying here, don't look up and say, God, why me?
Am I your enemy? No, look upon them as this is
the love of my Father correcting me, chastening me. And he says,
for what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? And he goes on,
look at verse 8. He says, but if you be without
chastisement, wherefore all are partakers, then are you bastards
and not sons. Now think about what he's saying
here. He says, For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth
not? There's no child of God. There's no son of God that the
Father does not chasten. And if you don't have this chastening,
this that comes for righteousness' sake now, he's not talking about
punishments and afflictions that are common to everybody without
exception here. He's talking about those that
come to the children of God for righteousness' sake. for their
identification with Christ and the church and the gospel. And
if you are without that chastisement, whereof all of God's children
are partakers, then you're bastards and not sons, and that means
you're an illegitimate child and not a true child of God.
Every child of God participates in the fellowship of these sufferings,
these afflictions, these chastisements. And in verse 9 he says, furthermore,
We have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave
them reverence, that's respect. Shall we not much rather be in
subjection unto the Father of spirits and live? Now there he
takes the chastisements of earthly fathers, parents, to their earthly
children, and he compares them to the chastisements of our Heavenly
Father. And remember, I asked you this
question, you know, you've heard people say, well, what about
those parents who won't discipline their children? You ever been
around children who are not disciplined? You just can't hardly stand to
be around them. And you wonder, why doesn't mom
and dad, why don't they correct their children? Well, we conclude
that if a father or mother refuses to correct their children, they
don't really love their children. And that's what he's saying here.
We've had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, chastised
us, and we gave them respect. I'll guarantee you, the child
who is corrected rightly and lovingly by his parents, or her
parents, will respect and love those parents. The one who is
not corrected, the one who is not disciplined, will not respect
their parents at all. In fact, they'll take advantage
of them. But we were corrected. We were disciplined by our parents,
and we respected them. So how much more should we be
in subjection to the God of Spirits, the Father of Spirits, our eternal
Father? That's what that means. And live. In verse 10, he says, for they,
verily for a few days, chastened us, our earthly fathers. For
a few days, just the time of our youth, they chastened us,
they punished us after their own pleasure. That doesn't mean
they took pleasure in the pain. That just means that in their
wisdom they knew when to punish and when not to, when to correct
and when not to. But God, he, that is our Heavenly
Father, for our prophet, that we might be partakers of his
holiness. What is God doing when he chastises
his children? He's conforming them to the image
of Christ who is their goal. We're not holy in ourselves,
but we should aim for holiness. And we're to grow in grace and
in knowledge in Christ. And that's the goal of chastisement.
Now look at verse 11. Now it comes to reality. Now just because we recognize
these chastisements when we're afflicted, when we're punished,
not legally now in the way of payment, but disciplined, when
we're corrected, Just because we look at these things as the
loving acts of our Father doesn't mean that they don't hurt. It
doesn't mean that we're to go around here acting like we enjoy
the pain. That would be false. That would
be pretentious. When I'm corrected by my Heavenly
Father, when I'm chastised, it hurts. I sorrow. And this is
what he's saying in verse 11. He says, Now no chastening for
the present, that is, when you are going through it. seemeth
to be joyous, but it's grievous." You know, I've heard preachers
say that a Christian ought to be happy all the time. Well,
you don't find that in this book. You look at the believers in
this book. Oh, there is a joy and a peace
that passes understanding within. But we experience pain just like
anyone else. Sorrow. Our Lord was called a
man of sorrows. He was acquainted with grief.
He was smitten and afflicted of men. And those things aren't
joyous when we go through them. We're not to go through life
acting like that, acting like we're happy when we're not. We're
going to have our moments. And he says, when you're going
through this chastisement, this punishment, it's not joyous,
it's grievous. But look here, verse 11. He says,
nevertheless, afterward, that means after it's over, It yieldeth,
it produces the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which
are exercised thereby." When we go through these things, and
after it's over, what do we conclude? It yields the peaceable fruit
of righteousness. That means this. It means that
I know now, I know by God's dealing with me that He loves me. that
he's accepted me in Christ, that I have a righteousness that answers
the demands of God's law and justice, not my own, it's Christ,
it's mine by imputation, and I receive it by faith, and it
gives me peace and happiness and joy, and hopefully I've learned
something from the experience, hopefully I grow in grace and
knowledge. So here's the exhortation in
verse 12, wherefore, or for this reason, lift up the hands which
hang down, and lift up 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." In other words, when you go through
these chastisements, And afterward it yields the peaceable fruit
of righteousness and you realize what it's for. Realize that it's
not a sign of God's anger and that he's an enemy, but that
it's his love. It's an evidence that we're disciples
of Christ, that we're truly in him. Then don't go around with
your hands all hung down, your knees all, lift up and be joyous.
Afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness. Now verse
14. He gives a commandment here,
he says, follow peace with all men. I want you to notice this.
Now, believers, those who are in Christ, the church, we are
to be peacemakers. A lot of this affliction that
he speaks of, and the trials, comes from the unbelieving world
when they hate the gospel we preach. And that's why I quoted
Matthew chapter five there, when Christ said, blessed are you
when men shall persecute you for righteousness sake, for the
gospel, for your identification with Christ. They'll persecute
you, they'll revile you, they'll say all manner of evil against
you. Paul said all those who live
godly in this world will suffer persecution from the world. Satan
and all of his followers will attack the church. But we're
not to be men of war. men of division and derision,
we're to be men of peace. We're to seek to follow peace
with all men, seek to be peacemakers. We don't go out looking for war
and fighting and disputes and affliction and persecution. But
look here, verse 14, follow peace with all men and holiness. In other words, strive to be
peaceable with everybody, but don't compromise the glory of
God in order to get it. Don't compromise the gospel.
Follow holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." And
that holiness there, I believe, is what we have in Christ, not
what we have in ourselves. Verse 15, "...looking diligently,
lest any man fail of the grace of God, or fall from it, lest
any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many
defile you." In other words, if these trials make you bitter
and make you quit, then all that does is prove you never were
a child of God. And he mentions Esau here, he
says in verse 16, 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. Now that speaks of
Esau. You know the story of Jacob and
Esau. Esau sold his birthright. His birthright was his right
as the firstborn to be the spiritual head of the family, and it showed
his value for the gospel of Christ, the promise of God's salvation
by grace. And when Esau sold that birthright,
what he was saying is, I don't believe the gospel. I don't care
about spiritual things. I'm a man of the world. And when
a person goes through affliction and trial, and it causes them
to quit, then they're no more better off than that fortificator
and profane person like Esau, who rejected God's promise of
salvation. And he sought, he sought it with
tears, he sought repentance with tears, but it wasn't godly sorrow.
He was just upset because he couldn't get his daddy to change
his mind. And that's why he cried. He wasn't really seeking repentance.
You see, it's the goodness of God that leads to repentance. But the goodness and love of
God comes in many forms, even in trials and affliction. God's
loving discipline. Well, I hope you've enjoyed this
message. And I'd like to take this opportunity to invite any
of you who live in or near the Ashland, Kentucky area to visit
us at our church, 13th Street Baptist Church. We have worship
services on Sunday morning and Sunday, and we have a Sunday
school at 930 on Sunday morning and have a preaching service
at 1015 on Sunday morning. And Sunday night we have a 630
worship service, preaching service. And then on Wednesday night,
we have a 730 Bible study, a worship service. And we'd like for any
of you to come and visit with us to hear the gospel preached
and study the