All right, let's look back at
Hebrews chapter 12. The title of the message, as
you see in the bulletin, is Our Father's Loving Chastisements. Last week, I spent my time on
the first two verses of Hebrews chapter 12, showing how God the Holy Spirit guided, inspired
the writer of Hebrews describe the Christian life, the life
of a believer, a sinner saved by grace, as a race. It's a race
set before us, he says. And he says, lay aside every
weight, the sin that so easily besets us, which I believe is
specifically talking about unbelief. Run with patience, endurance,
that's what that word means, endurance, perseverance. The race that is set before us,
and then he tells us how to run the race. In verse two, looking
unto Jesus. Not looking to ourselves, not
looking at each other, but looking unto Christ. Who is the what? The author. That means the origin,
the beginner. This thing didn't begin with
us. Didn't begin with us making any decisions, it began with
Christ. And not only is He the author, He's the finisher. It's
not gonna end with us. We'll be part of that finishing.
But He's the one who ended it. And will bring it to its final
fruition in glory. Grace, grace, grace. All the way through. And it says,
who for the joy that was set before Him. What joy? His Father's
glory. His own exaltation. the salvation
of his people, and what did that joy inspire him? To endure the
cross. Think about the suffering that
Christ went through. Despising the shame, the shame
of it, he didn't enjoy the shame of it, but he endured it and
is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Now what
is he doing? He's at the right hand of the
throne of God ever living to make intercession for his people. Some while back, I preached a
message on the keys to Christian living. And I summarized those
with three words. Number one is our standing before
God in Christ, standing. We have been in Christ before
the foundation of the world. God chose us in Christ, adopted
us in Christ, justified us in Christ, sent Christ to redeem
us. We were redeemed in Christ. sent
the Spirit to bring us to be united to Christ spiritually.
So our standing before God, what does that mean? That means that
I am forgiven of all my sins based upon the blood of Christ.
I stand before God forgiven. And I stand before God righteous
in His sight, made right with God, righteous based upon Christ's
righteousness imputed to me. And that standing has never and
will never change. Even when I didn't know anything
about it, even when I was a lost sheep, a rebel, even a God hater,
that was my standing before God. And so that's the first key.
We have to understand that. How do we know that? We believe
it looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And
the second word was state. Our standing before God is in
Christ, that never has changed, never will. But our state before
God in this world starts out as lost in our sins. Blind, spiritually dead, and
that state has to change, doesn't it? And it changes when God brings
us under the preaching of the gospel and gives us life by the
Spirit in the new birth. And then our state, we go from
darkness to light. We go from unbelief to faith
in Christ. We go from unrepentant to repentance. We go from a life lived for our
own glory to a persevering life to the praise of the glory of
His grace. And so our state now, we start out fallen in Adam,
born dead in trespasses and sins, no different than the children
of wrath, the scripture says, but now having been brought under
the gospel and given ears to hear, eyes to see, hearts and
minds to understand, now our state is a sinner saved by grace,
born again people. Now that doesn't mean we're sinless
because the next word is struggle. Our standing never changed. Our
state has changed. We live as born-again people. And then, once that happens,
when that state here on earth changes, then it's a struggle.
And we can talk a lot about that struggle. It's a warfare. We
struggle in our inner warfare constantly, the warfare of the
spirit against the flesh. It's an everyday struggle now.
You say, when's it gonna quit? When you die. That's when it'll
quit. Sometimes the struggle is harder
than other times. But it will never defeat us because
Christ, who shall deliver me from this body of death? I thank
my God through Jesus Christ my Lord. We struggle with the world. The unbelieving, God-hating world. We struggle with the devil. That's
why we're told to put on the whole armor of God, that we might
withstand the wiles of the devil. And then we struggle under another
situation. We struggle under the loving
chastisements of our Heavenly Father. And listen to what he says here,
verse three. Consider him, that's consider Christ, that endured
such contradiction of sinners against himself. Now the natural
man has some notion, to some degree, that when one becomes,
quote, or quote, becomes a Christian, unquote, that everything after
that is supposed to be pretty easy, pretty good. Now some take
it farther than others, you know. Your best life now, you heard
that guy, you know, that's false prophet, all that kind of stuff.
If you're sick, it's because you're not believing enough,
you're not doing enough, you've got some things blocking the
channel between you and God and all that kind of stuff. But you know, when we suffer,
we have a tendency to think, well, that's a contradiction.
I'm a Christian. Especially we preachers, boy,
we've got it bad. We've got an extra dose of that
pride and puffed up kind of thing. I'm a preacher, why you putting
me through this? But you know what, that's not
a contradiction at all. But when Christ suffered from
sinners, that was a contradiction. The Holy One of God, who in himself
did not deserve to die. Now, let me make sure you understand
it. Christ got just what he deserved
on that cross, not because of any sin in him, but because of
the sins of his people charged to his account. God was just
in punishing his son for our sins imputed to him. But he in
himself, he had no sin, knew no sin, did no sin, and yet it
was sinners who called him a blasphemer. What a contradiction. They were
the blasphemers. It was sinners who said he had
a devil. He didn't have a devil, they
did. It was sinners who accused him of being an insurrectionist.
He wasn't an insurrectionist. He kept the law perfectly. They
didn't. But he suffered that contradiction,
it says. Now consider that. Now when we
suffer, we're just getting what we deserve. That's right, even
the consequences of sin. And so he says in verse three,
consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against
himself, lest you be wearied, you get tired of it, and faint,
you quit, and notice the last three words of verse three, in
your minds. In your minds. You know so many of the exhortations
in the Bible. for us to live like children
of God, to be what we are as sinners saved by grace. So many
of the exhortations have to do not so much with how we act,
but how we think. Did you know that? Now don't get me wrong, there's
plenty of exhortations about how we ought to act, they're
there. But I think people have a tendency to major on those
without or to the neglect of these exhortations about how
we're to think. Should I try to be an obedient servant of
God? Yes. But listen, I've got some
scriptures here I want to read to you. Don't try to turn to
them because I'm not going to give you time. But if you want
to know them and if you want to study them, write them down.
Write these down. The first one is Proverbs 23
seven. Proverbs 23, 7. It says here, talking about man,
it says, for as he thinketh in his heart. Now that shows you
the heart is not just our feelings, not this organ here, it's not
our emotions. The heart is the mind, the affections,
and the will, and the conscience. It's the inner man, it's the
whole man, the whole person. So whenever the Bible talks about
the heart, it doesn't exclude the mind. It's not talking about
just taking a leap into the dark. So he says, for as he thinketh
in his heart, so is he. You are how you think. That's
what he's saying. Now this is not the mysticism
of mind over matter, no. It's not even the power of positive
thinking. Now I'm all for the power of
positive thinking if the positive thinking is turned towards Christ.
Think positively of Christ. I can only think positively of
myself as I stand in him. You see? But listen to this,
this is Matthew 22. Here's a situation where unbelievers
were asking the Lord some questions and trying to trap him. And he
put them all to shame, of course. And at the end of that session,
he said, I've got a question for you. Matthew 22, 41, that's
what this one is. While the Pharisees were gathered
together, Jesus asked them, verse 42, saying, what have you done
for me lately? Now y'all, you're not even blinking
an eye. That's not what it says, is it?
He didn't say, what have you done for me lately? He said,
he asked them this question saying, what think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? What do you
think of Christ? Let me tell you something. The
biggest part of Christian living is the right answer to that question.
What think you of Christ? Well, preachers should not be
out here doing this and doing that, not doing this, not doing
that, maybe. I don't know what you're talking
about, but whatever it is. But here's what I want. The Pharisees
were busy people. The Jews were religiously busy. People today in churches where
the gospel's not preached, they're busy, busy people. They've got
activities, meetings, I'm telling you what. I don't see how the
kids even make anything in school. But here's the question. What
think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? Who is Christ? What did he accomplish on Calvary?
And you know what that involves? That involves doctrine. Right
doctrine. Let me give you this one. This
is Romans 7 verse 24. Paul's talking about his struggles
with the flesh. And he says in verse 24, O wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
In verse 25 he says this, I thank God through Jesus Christ our
Lord, so then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with
the flesh the law of sin. Now you know what he's saying
there? In my mind it is my full intention to serve God, to be
a servant of God, to be an obedient servant of God, to be perfect,
But in the flesh, I serve the law of sin. I can't do, and he'd
already said it back up in Romans 7 and verse 15. He said, the
thing that I want to do, I can't do. I want to be like Christ.
Here's another one. This is 1 Corinthians 2.14. It says, but the natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness
unto him. Neither can he know them, because
they are spiritually discerned, spiritually judged. Assessed
and listen to verse 15. He says but he that is spiritual
judgeth all things Yet he himself is judged of no man in other
words if if God the Holy Spirit has given you life and knowledge
You can make proper judgments on these things issues of eternal
life now But The natural man we're judged
of no man that the the world doesn't know what a Christian
is I'm telling you this now and The world will not know us. When
the world judges a Christian and a non-Christian, it's not
biblical. But look at verse 16, he says,
for who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct
him, but we have the mind of Christ. We have the mind of Christ.
Do you think you have the mind of Christ? If you're a believer,
you do. Does that mean your mind is perfect
and you never have any sinful thoughts? No, it doesn't mean
that at all. Now his mind was perfect and he never had any
sinful thoughts, so how can it be said that I have the mind
of Christ? Well, what's he talking about? He's talking about right
judgment. I know what it means to be saved
now. I know what it means to be lost.
And how can I say I have the mind of Christ? Well, I have
his word right here. This is his mind. This is the
revelation of the mind of God. Did you know that? I judge things the way he judges
them now. Accept your righteousness. Exceed
the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. You shall
in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven. You know what that
really means? That means pick out the best
people that you can think of here on earth. And if your righteousness
doesn't exceed theirs, you can't enter the kingdom. What kind
of righteousness do I need? I need Christ. I need his blood
and his righteousness, you see. Second Corinthians 10. This is
verse four. Paul writes, the weapons of our
warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down
of strongholds. What does that mean? Does that
mean we should go out and buy an arsenal and start attacking people? No. Verse five, casting down
imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against
the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought
to the obedience of Christ. How I think my thoughts should
be captive to the obedience of Christ. That's his person and
his work. We could go on. Let me give you
one more. Philippians. He says in verse
eight of chapter four. Finally, my brethren, whatsoever
things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things
are just, Whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely,
whatsoever things are good report, if there be any virtue and if
there be any praise, think on these things. And incidentally,
you know what the word think there is translated many times
in the New Testament? It's translated impute. What
do you mean impute? It means that when we do our
thinking, we should take an assessment, an account, of what's really
worth something and what's not worth anything. I've seen people who claim to
be believers get at odds and argue over things that aren't
worth a grain of sand. Did you know that? But they blow
them up. As one preacher said, they major
on minors and minor on majors. And we always say they make a
mountain out of a molehill. And then I've seen people who
claim to be believers just slough over the real important issues,
like how God justifies the ungodly. Now think on that. Put a right
judgment assessment on those things. When we're encouraged to think
rightly, that doesn't diminish or deny the importance of our
actions at all. Faith, it's an act of faith,
our thinking. You know what faith is? Faith
is knowledge revealed to you by God and believed by you as
a gift. It's an act of the mind. Do you
believe that faith without works are dead? I do, the Bible says
that. But you know what the Bible also
says? It says that works without faith are dead, too. Dead works. And the precedent is here, and
this is what this chapter's really teaching us about these chastisements. It's showing us that unless we
think rightly, we cannot do rightly, cannot act rightly. Look at these verses again. A
glorious consideration, for consider him, Thank on Christ. Make a proper assessment of His
worthiness. Who He is. God manifest in the
flesh. What He has done and accomplished.
The redemption of all for whom He died. And He endured such
contradiction of sinners against Himself. He didn't weary and
faint. He didn't quit. In the Garden
of Gethsemane, He wasn't quitting when He said, if it be possible
for this cup to pass from me, he was simply going under the
experience that he in his humanity had never experienced before,
and it was hard. It was tough. It was rougher
than anything I've ever gone through, or you too. But he said, nevertheless, thy
will be done. And now he's accomplished it.
Verse two, verse three. Consider him who endured that.
And then consider this. You have not yet resisted unto
blood, striving against sin. In your struggle with the flesh,
the world, the devil, you haven't been killed yet. You haven't
died yet. Now some of these might have
had to face that later on. Considering Christ and the glory
of his person, the power and value of his word, lest we think
on trials is contradictory to our position before God in Christ
and our state in this world as blessed above all people, think
about him. Lest you be wearied, you get
tired. You say, I'm just so tired of
it. And I just wanna quit sometimes. No, don't do that, he said. Christ
suffered death for our sins and he went to the end, he's the
finisher, you see. And you've not yet even experienced
half or an iota of what he went through. So he continues here beginning
at verse five, showing us as believers how we're to think
about trials. How we're to think about the
rough times. You say, well, are there any exceptions? Well, no,
not for a believer. And how are we to think of these
things? Listen, I'm not saying that we should act as if we enjoy
when we go through rough times. I don't enjoy it, and if you
do, there's something wrong with you. Pain hurts. And not only pain, there's mental
pain too. There's emotional pain, there's
loss. But here's the way we're to think
about them. Look at them. For a believer now, not for an
unbeliever, but for a believer, there are father's loving chastisements. He says in verse five, and have
you, you have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto
children? My son, despise not thou the
chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him.
Now let me say this, chastisements are testings and trials sent
to us from God our Heavenly Father. That's what they are. Some chastisements
may come as a direct result of particular sins. That's possible. I always use the example, if
you get caught speeding, you'll get the ticket if they catch
you. They don't let you off. You say, well, why am I being
punished for that, Lord? Because you sped. You broke the law. That's not
hard to see. You don't have to be an Einstein
to figure that one out, do you? Others may come for other reasons
that we don't even know. Not necessarily for any particular
sin. Read the whole book of Job. Job was chastised sorely of the
Lord, not because of any particular sin. In fact, the three men who
were trying to comfort Job, that's what they were thinking. Their
thoughts were this way. Job, there's got to be a reason
you're suffering like this, some sin in your life, and we gotta
figure that out and take care of it. That's what his three
friends were saying to him. And you remember what he called
them? Miserable comforters. Job wasn't suffering because
of any particular sin. And here's the case when it comes
to the chastisements that we suffer. Most of the time, we
don't have the wisdom or the knowledge to know the difference. So be careful about looking at
a brother or sister in Christ who's being tested or being chastised
and trying to judge their situation. Be careful with that. Just love them and pray for one
another. Try to encourage each other. But here's another thing
we need to understand about chastisement. Chastisements are in no way payment
for sin. David was sorely chastised for
the sin that he committed with Bathsheba. And it was directed
right there. And the prophet of God told him,
he said, for that reason. And I heard a man say one time
in a message, he said, but boy, David had to pay for those sins.
No, he didn't. You know what the, there's only
one payment for sin in the Bible. Do you know what it is? Death. The wages of sin. And we don't
pay that debt. We can't. Only Christ paid for our sins.
Now we may suffer consequences for them. But that's not payment. You know what payment is, that
means that equals the crime. The only thing that equals the
crime is eternal damnation and death. We don't pay that. Christ alone paid for our sins
with his death on the cross as our substitute, our redeemer,
our surety. He paid for them. So how are
we to think of these things? Look at verse six. He says, for
whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom
he receiveth. If you endure chastening, God
dealeth with you as with sons, children. For what son is he
whom the father chasteneth not? These chastisements are evidence
of God's love and evidence that we are his children. You know,
parents who really love their children discipline their children.
And it's for our good. It's for our learning. That's
what chastisement is. It's correction for learning. And it's a means of God's preserving
us and causing us to persevere in the faith. Because these chastisements
ultimately are meant to cause us to look more to him, to drive
us to his word so that our thinking's right. They're not an evidence of being
lost. We stand before God, righteous in Christ, that'll never change. Our state in this world is children
of God, sinners saved by grace, born again by the Spirit, looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And as long as we live in this
world, we'll struggle in some way or another to some degree
or another. All believers experience these chastisements from the
Father, all believers. We're all sinners saved by grace,
but still sinners in ourselves. We're imperfect in ourselves.
Now we're perfect in Christ, based on his righteousness imputed.
We're washed clean from our sins in his blood. God will not hold
them against us. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? There's no condemnation for you
who are in Christ, for any of us who are in Christ. But we're
not yet perfect in ourselves. And while on this earth our Heavenly
Father teaches us, corrects us, rebukes us, guides us, sometimes
with a firm hand, sometimes with a gentle hand, always for His
glory and our good. Look at verse eight. But if you
be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, all children
of God are partakers, fellowshippers, participants, then are you bastards
and not sons. If you don't have these chastisements,
you're an illegitimate child. Now think about this. Now you
know all people suffer at some point in time on this earth,
believer and unbeliever. The true believer in Christ is to
think of this as the chastisements of our loving Heavenly Father.
But those who live and die in unbelief, the reprobate, no matter
what he or she thinks on these matters, those punishments and
sufferings and all that, they're manifestations of God's wrath.
Let me read you this scripture. This is John 3, 36. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. Now no matter what he goes through
in this life, whether he's suffering or whether he's at a time of
ease, he has everlasting life. And he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life. That's talking about a reprobate.
That's talking about a person who'll never come to a knowledge
of Christ because they shall not see life. The wrath of God
abides on him. So everything that person suffers
is a manifestation of the wrath to come. What does that tell
us, preacher? It tells us that without Christ,
we are in a mess. Without God's grace, we're doomed. Without a righteousness that
answers the demands of God's law and justice, which can only
be found in Christ, we're damned forever. The wrath of God has never abided
on God's chosen people. Did you know that? I'll prove
it to you, Romans 9.22. What if God, willing to show
his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering
the vessels of wrath, fitted or made up to destruction? Verse
23, and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the
vessels of mercy which he had afford before, before the foundation
of the world prepared to glory. Even when we were in a state
of unbelief, God dealt with us as his children, chosen in Christ,
justified in him, even though we didn't know it. But our thinking
at that time when we were unbelievers was no different than the thinking
of the children of wrath. But God was still dealing with
us as children even though our thinking was wrong. God brought
us to faith in Christ, didn't he? Everything in my life before
God brought me to faith in Christ was guided by God. He had his protective hand over
me and over you. And it was in his appointed time
that he brought us face to face with the gospel of Christ and
gave us life through the Spirit and brought us to believe in
him and to repent of our dead works. And our thinking changed. You see, believing in Christ
does not make us children of God. Believing in Christ just
reveals that we are always children of God. At one time we were lost
children, lost sheep, but now we've been found. And then look
at verses nine and 10. Furthermore, we have had fathers
of our flesh, which corrected us. That's parents. We gave them
reverence, the respect to fathers. Shall we not much rather be in
subjection under the father of spirits and live our heavenly
father who gave us life, the father of spirits. That's what
that means. He's the father of life and live. For they, that is our earthly
fathers, verily for a few days chastened us while we were young.
After their own pleasure, now that doesn't mean they took pleasure
in whipping us and all of that, it means they did it when they
thought it was necessary, that's what that means. But he, our
heavenly father, God, for our profit, that we might be partakers
of his holiness. Fellowshipers of His Holiness.
Now that phrase I'm going to deal with next week, Lord willing.
Partakers of His Holiness. What that's talking about is
our separateness as children of God. We're in fellowship with
the Father and with the Son We have a sure and certain savior
and mediator. Our standing before God is always
the same. It never diminishes, never improves,
doesn't have to improve. It's perfect in Christ. And now
we're in this state of grace and we struggle through this
world. And that shows that we're partakers of His holiness. What separates Him separates
us. And we'll deal with that next
week. Okay.