If you would, let's open our
Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. 1 Corinthians chapter 11. I'd like to welcome the Thacker
family here, minus the big man, Kevin. They are in the process
of selling their home in New Jersey, moving to San Diego,
where Brother Kevin will be the pastor at San Diego Grace Church
there. We pray God's richest blessing
be upon you. He go with you. I also heard
from Tommy Thompson that Scott had his brain surgery at Ohio
State, I believe it was on Thursday, and came through that surgery
very, very, very well. They feel like they've gotten
all of the tumor. He did not even have to go to
a neurological intensive care after the surgery, so that's
good news. I'm just going to read one verse
here, 1 Corinthians 11, Verse 32, But when you are judged, we are
chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with
the world. If the chastening of the Lord
makes it so we're not condemned with the world, I believe one
of the things we ought to be thankful for is the Lord's chastening. Don't you reckon? Alright, we'll
look at that in some more detail in the message this morning,
but now let's stand together as Mike leads us in singing our
call to worship. Once more we come before our
God, once more His blessing us all may not do. May we receive the word we hear,
each in an honest heart. ? Hoard up the precious treasure
there ? ? And never let it part ? ? To thee be all our hearts
disposed ? ? To each thy blessing soon be given ? and let the seed
thy servant sows produce a heavenly crew. Revive the parched with heavenly
showers, the cold with warm divine Thank you. You may be seated. Turn now to page 53. Page 53 in our great hymns of faith. How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
in a believer's ear! It soothes his sorrows, heals
his wounds, And drives away his fear. Dear name the rock on which I
build my shield. That hiding place, My never-failing
treasury, Filled with boundless stores of praise. Jesus, my shepherd, brother,
friend, my prophet, priest, and king. My Lord, my life, my way, my
end, accept the praise I sing. is the effort of my heart, and
cold my warmest thought. But when I see thee as the Lord,
I'll praise thee as I ought. with every fleeting breath. And may the music of thy name
refresh my soul in death. Thank you. Let's turn back to
17. Page 17. One of our favorites. Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy praise. Dreams of mercy never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above. Raise the mount, I'm fixed upon
it, Mount of Thy relieving love. Here I raise mine heaven and
desert, Hither by thy help I'm come, And I hope by thy good
pleasure Safely to arrive at home. When a stranger, wandering from
the fold of God, Need to rescue me from danger, Bitter post is
precious blood. O to grace, how great a debtor,
daily I'm constrained to be. Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee. Come to leave the God I love,
If my heart won't take and seal it, Seal it for thy courts above. Let's open our Bibles to Hebrews
chapter 12. Hebrews 12, we'll read the first
11 verses. Wherefore, seeing we also are
compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, 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,
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, 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. For consider him that endured such contradiction of
sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your
minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto
blood, striving against sin, and ye 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. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth
every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God
dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father
chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement,
whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore, we have had our
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 heed
for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness.
Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous. but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yielded
the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised
thereby." Let's pray. Our God and Father in heaven,
we thank you for this day. Thank you for this opportunity
once again to gather in this place. Lord, we thank You that
You brought us here this morning. Lord, it's by no accident that
we're here. Lord, You brought us here to
this place. Lord, we pray You'd bless us with Your presence.
We pray for our pastor as he stands to proclaim this which
You've laid upon his heart. Lord, speak through Your servant
here this morning. Bless the hearts of Your people.
Lord, we thank You for Your many blessings, Lord, for Your care,
for your protection, Lord, for your keeping, and Lord, all that
you've done for your people. Lord, above all, we thank you
for the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for our righteousness.
Thank you for salvation, which is of the Lord. Lord, how we
thank you that the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world to
save sinners. Lord, bless us again this morning,
we pray thee. Lord, we pray for this congregation,
Lord, this gathering of believers, Lord, that You would continue
to bless and keep and protect. Lord, we pray for our brethren
out in San Diego. Lord, we pray for Kevin and his
family. Lord, what an amazing thing that
You would, Lord, call men to pastor Preach to your people. Lord, bless him. Bless him mightily
and his family, Lord, as they make this move. Lord, as You
move them. And Lord, bless that congregation
there richly. Lord, we thank You for these
many children You've blessed us with. Lord, we pray for their
care, Lord, their protection, Lord, that You'd watch over them
in this world. Lord, above all things, that
You'd be merciful to them. save their souls, or that you
would cause them to fall at your feet, and Lord, that you would
be merciful to them. Lord, for those of our number
in a time of trouble and difficulty and sickness, Lord, there's so
many. Lord, you know the needs of your
people. Lord, you've brought them to this place, wherever
it might be. Lord, cause us always to look
to thee and to rest and be for all. Now again, we thank you
for your many blessings. Thank you for this day. Thank
you for this opportunity to gather together and worship you. Or
give us a time of worship here this morning. Again, we pray
you'd bless us with your presence and Lord that you would give
glory to your name. For it's in his name we pray,
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray and give thee
thanks. Amen. All things together work for
good, By God's all-wise design, To those who love their Sovereign
Lord, The call by grace divine. My God, before the world was
made, predestinated all. And nothing happens in this world
beyond my God's control. He chose me in eternal love,
Redeemed me by His blood. He called me and He gave me life. and He will do me good. My God, I trust Your providence. Your will, not mine, be done. Content I wait to see your grave. and bow before your throne. My life, my all, I now resign
to you, my Lord and God. Nothing I ask or seek except
the glory of my God. All right, let's open our Bibles
now. The passage Brother Eric just read for us, Hebrews chapter
12. Our text begins in verse 5, Hebrews
chapter 12. And you have forgotten the exhortation
which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son, despise not
the chastening of the Lord, for faint when thou art rebuked of
him. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth
every son whom he receiveth. I want to speak to you this morning
on a very daunting subject, correcting children. First, I want to speak
to you about parents, to you parents, correcting your children. And then second, I want to talk
to you about how God, how and why God corrects His children.
Now, I have been at this long enough to know this already.
that if right now you're not already correcting your children,
as Scripture tells us to do, you're probably not going to
listen to what I have to say right now and start doing it.
But a faithful pastor will say it anyway, teach God's Word to
you anyway. I can tell you this, I promise
you, you will be better off and your children will be better
off if you'll listen and you'll do what Scripture tells us to
do as parents. I remember, well, how many messages
have you heard in your lifetime? How many messages have I heard
in my lifetime? But there are two messages I remember very,
very, very, very distinctly. Janet was pregnant with Holly,
and Bob Coffey and Henry Mahan, while she was pregnant, later
on in her pregnancy, as a matter of fact, both preached messages
on parenting that deeply impacted our lives for the better and
made us better parents. And that's what I pray for you
this morning. And if you choose not to do what
scripture commands parents to do, you do so at your own peril,
at the peril of your own children. This is the way God says children
learn. I don't care what modern day psychologists say is the
way children learn. This is what God says, the best
way for children to learn. Then I assure you it's the best
way. And as much as we think of our children, I assure you
our children are not the exception to the rule. I know people today
say spanking is outdated. There are states that even want
to outlaw spanking. If you follow along those lines,
I want to ask you a question. Are you so full of yourself you
think you know a better way than God does? If that's outdated,
we better start picking through this book and picking out what
else is outdated. That's pretty serious, isn't
it? And no matter who you are this morning, I hope you'll listen
very carefully to this instruction. I believe I will make it applicable
to every person in this room. If you are a child under your
parents' roof, I want you to listen because it'll help you
understand what your parents are doing when they correct you.
If you're a parent, I pray that you'll listen to me and that
you'll discipline your children, you know how to discipline your
children, and teach them to be better children. and teach them
how to become better adults. And if you will one day be a
parent, I hope you will listen very carefully. Maybe the Lord
will do for you what he did for me, Janet, and help you be a
better parent someday when the time comes. And if you are done
raising your children and you are a child of God, I hope you
will listen very carefully. I got something for your heart
this morning. I got something for the hearts of God's people.
This will comfort your heart and give you assurance when our
Heavenly Father corrects us. Now, in Scripture, it talks about
correcting our children. It means to spank them. It doesn't
mean put them in a corner in a timeout or, you know, it doesn't
mean take away their devices. It means spank them. I mean,
you can do those other things too if you want, but the word
chasten the writer uses here means to chasten with blows,
not with words, with blows. The word scourgeth means scourge
with a whip. Now look back at Proverbs chapter
13. My recommendation is you don't use a whip on your children.
You know what I'm saying? I've heard it said to parents,
don't use your hand in spanking your children. Use a belt or
a paddle or something. Use your hand to love on them.
I don't mean to take that for what it's worth. Proverbs chapter
13. Let's look what the wise man,
under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, has to say to parents
about this matter of correcting our children. Proverbs 13 verse
24. He that spareth his rod, hateth
his son. He that loveth him, chasteneth
him betimes. Now a parent who will not spank
their child hates that child. That's exactly right. They hate
that child. I've heard people say, oh, I don't want to spank
my child. I love him so much. That's hogwash. That's what I
got to say about that. I mean, I'm sorry. You don't
spank your child because you love yourself too much. That's
exactly right. You care more about that child
liking you and being your friend than you do teaching that child
the way God tells you to teach them. Now, that's just so. Your
children don't need another friend. Your children need you to be
their parent. That's right. and not spanking
a child is just being a lazy, unloving parent. That's all there
is to it. It's hard work. Being a parent
and disciplining your children is hard work. You're tired, it's
the end of the day, they act up, they do something, they've
got to be corrected, and it's hard work to get up out of your
chair and go do it. I understand, but I've done it.
I've done it. But you'll do it if you love
that child. My parents were strong disciplinarians. I mean strong
disciplinarians. And when I was a boy, there was
nobody I loved or admired more than my dad. Oh, my goodness.
I mean, I wanted to be just like him. Today, we call it allergies. When I was a little boy, they
called it hay fever. My dad had hay fever. And you
know I wanted to have hay fever. I mean, I just and now he said,
no, you don't. I said, oh, yes, I do. And now
I got like, oh, what was I thinking? I mean, there wasn't there wasn't
one way, not one single solitary way. I did not want to be just
like him. He was my hero. But I was afraid
of him. I'm telling you the truth. I
was afraid of my father because I knew his punishment would be
swift. It would be certain and it would
hurt. And that was good for me. It was good for me. I think about
being a teenager, times I was right out there on the precipice
of doing something. I'm telling you, I can think
of several times I didn't do something because I was afraid.
That's why he was good for me. I was afraid of him. And I still
loved him and respected him more than anybody I knew. So you don't
have to worry about your child not loving you if you spank them.
And I can tell you this, this is so. When they're an adult,
they're going to love you more. because you loved them enough
to discipline them. All right, Proverbs chapter 19.
Verse 18. Chasten thy son while there is
hope and let not thy soul spare for his crying. Don't let your
child talk you out of spanking. Don't let their crocodile tears
and fit throwing make you stop spanking them. That kind of fit-throwing
is disrespecting you. It's not that they're hurting
so bad they're flailing their arms and like, no, that's disrespecting
you. And spank them for that, too. I mean, don't let them disrespect
you. Just spank them. They'll be fine.
I'm telling you, they'll be fine. And let me be, I kind of mentioned
this earlier about the whip, the scourging. Let me be very
clear about this. When you discipline your children and you correct
them, you spank their little bottom. Don't you ever abuse
them. Don't strike him in anger. If
you're angry, send him to the room. Wait, wait a minute. Oh,
that was the worst. That was the worst. Go to your
room. I'll be in there a minute. That was the worst. Just wait till
you calm down. You know, got control of yourself.
And go in there and spank him right. And remember spanking. Spanking is done not to harm
your child, not to embarrass your child. It's to teach them. It's to teach them what not to
do. And if you love them, you'll do it right. You won't abuse
them, but you'll do it right. All right. Proverbs chapter 22. Proverbs 22 verse 15. Foolishness is bound in the heart
of a child, but the rod of correction should drive it far from him.
Now children act foolishly. And you know why that is? I mean,
scripture tells us foolishness is bound in their heart, their
children. And you know, a lot of foolish,
childish things, especially when a child is little is fine. It's
fine. It's cute. It's fine. They're,
they're childish play and those kinds of things. I mean, I reckon
you could say, you know, having a, having a tea party, I reckon
you could say that's foolishness, but I kind of like it. Don't you? That's not what this
is talking about. This kind of foolishness is the
foolishness that's bound in our heart, in the heart, in Adam's
nature. We have to teach our children,
we have to correct that foolishness so that they know how to be wise
adults. They become wise adults. You
know, children foolishly think that they do not have to obey
their parents and they won't unless you make them. foolishly
think they do not have to obey their parents. A child, I'm talking
about a two, three-year-old, foolishly think they know a better
way than mom and dad. And you've got to drive that
foolishness out of them with the spanking. You make your children, mind
you, the very first time you speak, I mean the very first
time, no counting, no one, two, three, no warnings. You make
them, mind you, the very first time you speak. And if not, you
spank them. They'll learn to obey you the
first time you speak soon enough. Eventually, they will. If you
don't teach them that, someday, a police officer's going to do
it. Police officer's not going to count one, two, no. Police
officer's going to cuff them, put them back in the seat of
his car, and take them downtown. And this is something I remember.
Oh, I remember this. This just gripped my heart when
Janet was pregnant with Holly. It was what Brother Bob said. Teach your children to mind you
the first time. Could be God will speak to him once. Get him
in the habit of obeying the first time. Look up here at verse 6,
Proverbs 22. Train up a child in the way he
should go. And when he is old, he will not depart from it. Brother
Marvin Stoniker brought an outstanding message on this verse here earlier
this summer on the spiritual application of this. There's
something else I got from Marvin about this verse. I don't believe,
I don't remember it so much, but he went into as much as message,
but this is really, really good. That phrase, the way he should
go, the marginal reading says his way, his way. If we don't
teach our children that their way, his way, the way that's
bound up in his heart is a foolish way. If we don't teach them that
by spanking them, They will never learn that their way is a foolish
way on their own. They're not just going to learn
it someday on their own as an adult. If we don't spank that
out of them when they're children, they're always going to want
to go their way. Now, how's that going to work
on the job? How's that going to work out in the community?
How's that going? It's not, is it? We've got to teach them better
than that. Teach them the way they naturally
think is right is wrong. We've got to teach them that.
Children foolishly think that the world revolves around them.
Now, I reckon when you're alone with your children at home, if
you want to make it revolve around them, that's fine. But not out
in public, not all the time, not all the time. You know, children
foolishly think that they can just interrupt their parents
while they're talking to other adults anytime they want to.
Now, parents, it's your job to teach your child better than
that, to teach them more respect for authority than that. If they
insist on interrupting what adults are talking and they want to
make themselves the center of the show so that the adults in
the room can't have a conversation, you drive that foolishness out
of them with a spanking. I'm telling you, the sooner our
children learn the world does not revolve around them, the
better off they'll be and the happier they'll be. Teach your
child the wisdom to know how to conduct themselves. That doesn't
come naturally. It's your job to teach your children
that. Teach them what to do and what
not to do. And oh, I wish you'd make this
one of your goals. Don't let your child be the child
everybody hates to see coming. I hear this all over the place
about, oh, here comes this person with their child, you know, to
the nursery or to the gathering. Don't make your child, don't
let your child be that child. You love your child, don't you?
Well, teach them to be a child your friends and neighbors and
other adults are going to be happy to see coming. I'm telling
you. And if they think they got to
get the attention in the room by screaming and yelling, you
spank them with the rod to drive that out of them. Now, I mentioned
the rod here is used in the text. Think about this, the shepherd's
rod. Shepherd, they carry a rod with
them, don't they? One thing they use that rod for
is to keep the sheep on the straight and narrow. They don't use it
to harm the sheep, they use it for the sheep's good. The sheep
starts wandering off, they could fall off the cliff over here
and the shepherd goes, with the rod, get back over here. Best
thing ever happened to that sheep, wasn't it? You use your rod the same way
to keep your children going, doing the things that they're
supposed to be doing. That's what the rod of discipline is for.
All right, Proverbs 23. Verse 13. Withhold not correction from
the child, for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not
die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod and shall deliver his
soul from hell. Now correcting our children.
will not save their soul. And that's not what Solomon's
writing about here. Not at all. And I don't want
to discourage it, but correcting our children will not guarantee
that our child won't go up and go to jail, you know, or they
won't grow up being constant trouble or they're, you know,
they'll never be able to hold a job very long because they still
think the world revolves around them. If you correct your children,
that's not going to be a guarantee. that they're going to be a good
husband or good wife or good neighbors and co-workers. That's
not what this is teaching. And you know it's not because
we've all seen parents who are good, wise parents who do the
right thing in raising their children and their child gets
to be an adult and they still don't know how to conduct themselves.
That happens. This is what Solomon's teaching
us here. It's much more like that a person will suffer in
this life if their parents never made the effort to correct them
and discipline them and teach them how to act by spanking them.
If you don't spank your children and discipline them, teach them
how to act and how not to act, it's much more likely, much more
likely that they will suffer in this life because you never
made them learn to govern their own behavior. I'll give you a
good example. Eli's sons. Eli did not discipline
his sons. He didn't restrain. They were
evil men. They grew up to be evil men under
the cloak of religion. They grew up to be evil men.
And you want to know why that is? Scripture tells us why. It's Eli's fault. Eli didn't
restrain them. He didn't discipline them. And
God killed him for it. That's not Frank's advice. That's
what God's word says. I mean, you see, you're not getting
Frank's advice here. You see, everything I've said
comes from God's word, right? All right, one more scripture
on this, Proverbs 29. Verse 15. The rod and reproof give wisdom,
but a child left to himself, left to his own ways, his parents
didn't spank him, didn't teach him his way was wrong. Bringeth
his mother to shame. Verse 17, correct thy son and
he should give thee rest. Yea, he should give delight unto
thy soul. Now teach your child, teach your
child by correcting them, by spanking
them. Robert Hawker is fond of saying that this is so obvious,
this is so obvious, I don't need to swell the words of this message
with more words on it. It's obvious. A parent who does
not spank their child is going to end up with shame because
they produced a foolish adult. And a parent who does spank their
child is going to enjoy the results of a wise child that they produced. And both parents and children
will be happier if parents have the love and exercise the wisdom
to take the time and the energy to correct our children with
the spanking. the very first time there's disobedience. How often have you been out in
public and seen a parent tell his child quit it? Quit it. Quit it. I said quit it. Quit
it. You better quit. One, two. Quit it. Quit it. And the child, you know why the
parent keeps saying that? The child's ignoring them. You
know why? He knows he can. He knows there's no repercussions.
What his parent is saying does not matter. That kid knows he
rules the roof. And finally, the parent blows
up and screams and yells and everybody in the mall can hear
him. And now, the parent's the one
that really needs to be corrected, not the child. The child knows
he's in control. If the child knew that he would
be spanked on the very first act of disobedience, there'd
be none of that. And if that parent just took
that child and spanked him calmly, there'd be no need for a big
blow up, and there wouldn't be this acting up in the first place.
And I'll give you an example of that. Janet, when Holly was
a little thing, was in the grocery store with little Holly. And
she'd gone through the grocery store, filled that buggy up with
groceries. And Holly wanted something. You
know how they see stuff at the store, and they want something.
Janet told Holly no. She started throwing fit. Jan
said, you quit that. She didn't. Jan didn't say one
more word. She just calmly pushed the buggy over. She found the
manager. She told the manager, she said, I am so sorry. You
can take this buggy, put it in the cooler or something. I'll
be back to get it later. If you've got to put it up, I
understand. I'll come back and fill up another buggy. But I've
got to deal with this. And the manager said, OK. Then
Holly realized what was going to happen. She said, oh, Mommy,
no, no, no, Mommy. I won't do it again, Mommy. No,
Mommy, I won't do it again. And Jan said, I love you. This
is not going to happen. And she took her and wore her
out. Not one time ever again, ever did Janet have to deal with
that situation in a store, ever again. Our little baby turned
30 years old this fall. She still remembers that spanking.
And I'll check with Doug, but I bet you she still don't throw
no fits. She was happier. All the rest
of her life, when she went to the store with her mama, she
was happier. No one don't go fit. And Janet was too. You see,
there's so many reasons a child should be happy. Children, listen
to me. If you have a parent who loves you enough to discipline
you, be happy. Now, I was a child. I remember very well what it
was like to be your age. I remember very well. And I remember
those spankings. Oh, they hurt. I hated it. But
you be thankful. You be thankful. It's best for
you. Now, let me give you five reasons
a child of God is thankful for the correction, the chastening
from our heavenly father. If you want to know how to be
a parent, think how our heavenly father deals with his children.
Now, back in our text, Hebrews chapter 12. Number one, these
are reasons to be thankful for our father's correction. If the
father chastens us, That means we are truly a child of God. Verse 5, the writer says, And
you have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto
children. My son, despise not the chastening
of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. Now this
exhortation here is not something that's thrown out there to tell
you what to do. It means comfort, comfort. This is a reminder to
comfort the hearts of God's children. When God chastens his children,
it's not a rebuke. This is not meant, this exhortation
is not a rebuke to God's people. It's a comfort to the hearts
of God's children. The writer tells us, don't despise
the chastening of the Lord. Don't despise when the Lord spanks
you. Why not? Because God only chastens
his children, his children. He never chastens those who are
not his children. Verse 7, he says, if you endure
chastening, God deals with you as with sons. For what son is
he whom the father chasteneth not? But if you be without chastisement,
if God doesn't correct you, spank you, whereof all his children
are partakers, then are you bastards. If God just leaves you alone,
you're a bastard and not a son. But God corrects his children. God doesn't deal this way with
his enemies. It's His children. And more than anything, I want
to be a child of God. I'm more than anything I want,
don't you? Well, then I shouldn't be despised. God's chasing me.
I should be thankful for it. Because if He chases me, that
means I'm His child. I'll give you an example. Some
of you older folks heard this before. Our younger ones haven't.
Walter and Betty Groover raised four children on a mission field
in Mexico. And they hadn't been there all
that long, and they adopted a little Mexican girl. She was the baby
of the family. And they all, I mean all six
of them, they wanted to love that little baby. They wanted
to love her and take care of her and show her all this kindness
and give her a good life that she couldn't have had, you know,
otherwise. And they didn't want to discipline that little darling.
I'm telling you, her behavior was bad, despite all the love. All the attention they gave her,
her behavior got worse. And it got worse, and one day
Walter said, I've had enough of this. He took off his belt,
he took her another room and wore her out. And in her tears, she said, now
I know you love me. Now I know I'm really your child. I'm really a part of this family,
because you're treating me like all the rest of them. And our father corrects us through
our tears, We can be thankful. That means I'm a son. And a believer
wants this. Children don't know it, but they
want discipline. They want to know where the lines
are. A believer does too. The last thing I want is to be
left to my own devices to go to the way I think is the best
way to go. I don't want my own way. I want
God to teach me His way. I want God to teach me to walk
as a child of the king. I don't want to walk as a foolish
son of Adam. I want God to give me some wisdom.
I want to know God. I want to know his way and I
want to know his word. And our father teaches us that
through his corrections, his chastisement. And I make good
on that. You know what the prophet David
said? It's good for me that I've been afflicted. And we quote
that and we say, it's good for me. I've been afflicted. And
usually that's, but all we quote, but you know why David said that
it's good for me that I've been afflicted that I might learn
my statutes. I might learn by word and by
way. Now, what are our father's chastisements? Well, it's never
punishment. It's never punishment. Our sins
already been punished in Christ, our substitute. So the father
never punishes his children for their sins. but he corrects us
to teach us. And this chastisement, it doesn't
have to be sickness or pain or death or loss or financial troubles. You know, a lot of times people
think, well, I've lost a loved one. This is God's chastisement.
Wait a minute. Everybody you love, your dear
husband, your dear wife, your dear parents, we're all going
to die. So when somebody dies, it doesn't
necessarily mean this is God's chastisement to you. It's a trial,
isn't it? If you're God's child, you're
going to learn something from it, but that's not a chastisement. God's chastisements
usually, most often, are something we hear in a message that pierces
our heart and corrects us. Brother Wayne Kennell, I love
the way he says this. He says that Wednesday service
is a midweek service. He said that's an attitude adjustment.
You go out in the world. I think when he says, I think
about that old country song, I got an attitude adjustment
on top of the head. Maybe that, maybe that's what it is. I don't
know. The Lord whacks us on top of the head to get our attention.
But you think about starting tomorrow morning, you're going
to go back out in the world and you're going to be inundated
in it. And whether it's work and school and places you got,
you're going to be inundated with this world, with the world's
ways. And you know, you're out there
in the world. You got to make your way in it. I mean, you're going
to be inundated with it. But you come in here on a Wednesday
night, and you hear the gospel preached, and you get a reminder. The pastor's not up here trying
to beat you with the rod. He preaches Christ to you. And oh, you get
a reminder. Oh, that's what's really important.
And you set your eyes back on the Savior. Oh, I see now. That's God's correction. You
parents, have you ever taken your children to the mall? Especially
at Christmas time. I don't know why we did this
when the kids were little. We felt like we ought to take
one trip to the Huntington Mall at Christmastime. And that place
was before Amazon and stuff. I mean, the place was packed.
I mean, you couldn't move through that mall without touching somebody
all the time. I hated it. Oh, I hated it. But
we thought, you know, good memories for the girls. And we did it.
But boy, we gave them a lecture now. You stay right with us. You hold our hands. You stay
right with us. Don't you go. Now we'll lose sight of you. And you're going through the
mall. They've got all kinds of stuff to attract kids' attention.
And they see something, they just start going. And you say,
ah, right here. That's the Wednesday night service.
When God sends a message to correct it, he says, ah, right here.
It's in my face. Look to Christ. That's God's
correction, isn't it? I'm thankful for it. It don't
have to be more than that if I obey the first time, does it?
Don't have to be more than that. I'll tell you another chastisement,
and this is the worst. This is the worst for a child
of God. Our father hides his face for
a time. Oh, my goodness. Oh, it's awful,
isn't it? The heavens seem like brass to
your prayers. You try to read. You think, oh,
I'm doing something wrong. You try to read. You think, oh,
if I read my Bible, God will be happy with me. Can't find
nothing there. You're reading it for the wrong
reason. You can't find nothing there. You come to the service,
you can't seem to hear anything. This is the most painful experience
for a child of God. But for a child, that'll correct
us, won't it? That'll correct us. It reminds
us how dependent we are on our Father. How much we love Him,
how much we need Him. And it will make us earnestly
seek His face. then mission accomplished. The
father has corrected us and made us seek him and him alone. See,
that's what our father does for his children. The rest he just
leaves to go their own way. All right, number two. If the
Lord chastens us, that means he loves us. Verse six, Hebrews
chapter 12. For whom the Lord loveth, he
chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Oh, how
precious, how precious is God's love, his love to his people. Now, the Lord does not love everyone.
I mean, I don't know how somebody can say the Lord loves everyone
and read that verse. The Lord only chastens those he loves. He only loves his elect, his
children. And since he loves them, he loves
his sons and his daughters. He spanks them, he cracks them.
And if he does that, He's only doing what's best. He's not doing
it because He hates me. He's doing it because He loves
me. Now the love of God means something. No one God loves will
ever perish. No one God's love loves is going
to go off their own way and depart from Christ and fall into hell.
Never. Because God's love means something.
He's going to keep them and He's going to correct them. I want
God to love me. I mean, more than anything else
that I want, I want God's love. Well, then I can be thankful
for God's chastisements, can't I? Because that means God loves
me. Look back here at Proverbs chapter
3. The writer here is giving us
a quote from Proverbs chapter 3. But he doesn't quote it exactly
like Solomon wrote it here. Proverbs 3, verse 11. My son, despise not the chastening
of the Lord, neither be weary of his correction. For whom the
Lord loveth, he correcteth, even as a father the son in whom he
delighteth. He delighteth. If the father
loves you, he delights in you. He delights in you. and you having
the best. The Father delighted in you. He chose to save you. Even though you'd never do anything
to deserve Him, He chose to save you. Almighty God loves you enough,
He delighted in you. So much so, He agreed to suffer
and die for your sins. He loves you so much, He comes
and gives you life and dwells in your heart. And He loves you
enough to teach you by correcting you too. God's children are thankful,
thankful for his love. All right, thirdly, back in Hebrews
chapter 12, if the Lord chastens you, that means you will live,
you have eternal life. Verse nine, furthermore, we have
had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them
reverence. Should we not much rather be
in subjection to the father of spirits and live? Like I said
a little while ago, a child will be much less likely to end up
dying in prison or suffering throughout his whole life because
he can't figure out how to, you know, make his way in this world if
his parents spank him. It's no guarantee, but if they
don't spank him, much more likely he's going to end up suffering
those things. And a child will be much more likely to have a
good life and know how to get along in this world if his parents
teach him by spanking God's children already do have eternal spiritual
life. God's already given it to them
in the new birth. And one of the evidences that we have spiritual
life is if the Lord chastens us, if he chastens us to keep
us from going our own way and going away from God. And a child
of God respects and loves our heavenly father. for caring enough
to do that for us, to correct us. Like I said, I don't want
to go my own way. And I will. I do. I'm thankful
that my father corrects me, keeps me from leaving him. Grown children
often thank their parents for disciplining them when they were
little. Because now they see. Now they see how I had to learn.
Now I see why this was going on. I see the importance of it.
The same thing is true for God's children. Whatever it is that
God uses to chasten us, whatever it is, it's painful to go through. But in the end, we see, oh, I
see now that was the best thing for me. That was best for me.
And we respect our father for that. And here's the last thing. Oh, I'm sorry, the fourth thing. If the Lord chastens you, That
means you're a partaker of his holiness. Verse 10, for they
barely for a few days, chastened us after their own pleasure,
but he, for our profit, that we might be partakers of his
holiness, that children are born from their parents. So they're
partakers of their parents' nature. There's similarities often between
children and their parents. Our fathers were just like them.
Our fathers disciplined us according to their pleasure, according
to what they thought was the best thing to do and the right
thing to do. And they weren't perfect. They weren't perfect.
Of all the spankings I got as a child, too many to count, I
can count the ones I did not deserve. There was one. There was one. Just one. And
my father corrected me the way he thought was best. And he told
me why he was doing it. Through my tears, he told me
why he was doing it. So I learned how to be a man.
Well, God's children are made partakers of the divine nature
of our heavenly father. We're born from his seed, the
seed of his word. And our father disciplines and
teaches his children perfectly. He never makes a mistake. He
always does it for our profit so that we learn to act like
his children, to conduct ourselves like his children, to not bring
embarrassment upon his name. And he doesn't do that to make
us children. You see that we're already God's children through
the new birth. We've already been given a holy nature in the
new birth. So you're not doing us, not correcting
us to make us holier, to make us his children. He corrects
us so that we learn how to act like his children. We need to
remember this. Our conduct reflects upon our
heavenly father. And if we forget it, he doesn't.
So he teaches us by correcting us. All right, now here's the
last thing. The result of our father's chastisement
is peaceable fruit. Verse 11. Now, no chastening
for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless,
afterward, it yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness under
them which are exercised thereby. Now, no spanking is pleasant.
While it's going on, it's never pleasant for the child or the
parent. Children, I don't know if your
parents say this to you, that they say this is going to hurt
you more than, or it's going to hurt me more than it does
you. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know about
that. There were times I received spankings
that hurt me worse than it hurt my mom and dad, I can tell you
that. And there are spankings I intended to give my children,
hurt them more than it hurt me. But afterwards, it's not pleasant,
is it? Not pleasant. But afterwards, it produces a
good fruit. A spanking will produce a peace
and a calm in your home and your relationship between you and
that child. Because that child has learned. And after it got
spanked and threw its teeth, then it got loved on. After you
spank your children, hold them up in your arms and tell them,
I love you. I did this because I love you.
Let them feel your love. That's our Father's correction.
Our Father's discipline. It produces good fruit. It produces
the peaceable fruit of the Spirit. It produces in us more love,
more joy, more peace, more long-suffering and gentleness, more goodness,
more faith and meekness and temperance. And I'll just be real honest
with you, I don't want no more spankings. You? I don't want
any more. They're not pleasant. But I am
thankful for them. I'm thankful for those corrections.
It's made me a whole lot easier if you get along with me. It
really has. God's corrections produce love. Love for God, love
for you, joy, peace. God's corrections makes me more
patient. Oh, it makes me more patient
with you. Things that go on around me makes it easier if you get
along. It makes me more meek, makes
me more humble. And those chastisements increase my faith and teach me
to depend more upon my father, to trust him, that he's doing
what's right with me. So while we don't want any more
correction, spankings from our Father, I hope God's children
see and take comfort in this, that we see plenty of good reasons
to be happy, to be thankful that he's giving us exactly what we
need for our good. All right, let's bow together
in prayer. Our Father, we bow before you as your children,
before our Father. How thankful we are that in infinite
mercy and grace and love, you were deemed to make worthless,
sinful, rebellious sons of Adam like we are to be your sons,
your daughters, your dear children in whom you delight. We're thankful. How we thank you for your mercy
and your grace. Oh, how we thank you. And Father,
we thank you too for your correction. that You teach us to continually
look to Thee and to depend upon Thee, to not go our own way. Father, make us obedient children. Make us obedient that doesn't
require severe spanking, to make us turn from our willful way
and to follow Thee. And Father, make us to be good
parents, obedient children, that we might might get along better
in this life, that we might learn something of obedience to our
parents, that we learn something of obedience to Thee. Father,
bless us for Thy great namesake. Use Your Word to bring glory
to Your name and apply it to the hearts of Your people to
comfort us and to instruct us. All these things we ask in the
great, precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Now just
like Wednesday night, Recovering from a bit of a cold, and I'm
not going to try the best I can not to infect you with it. So
I'm not going to go to the door, not because I don't love you.
I don't want to give you what I got. So I'm just going to stay
down here, and I pray the Lord bless you. Let's turn to 267. 267 stand as we sing for you. All things work out for good,
we know, such is God's great design. He orders all our steps
below for purposes divine, for purposes divine. This is the faith that keeps
me still No matter what the test And lets me glory in His will
For well I knowt His best For well I knowt His best So now
the future future holds no fear, God guards the work begun. And mortals are immortal, until
their work is done, until their work is done. Someday the path He chose for
me will all be understood. In heaven's clearer light I'll
see All things worked out for good. All things worked out for
good. But the last one, it is, but
the last part of it, we're coming.