and care have a CD you can get
for five dollars that's cheap and it's a real blessing they
just added a couple songs to it and if you ask Wilma she can
make you a copy she's got several copies Hebrews chapter 12 I've
entitled this message the chastening of the children the chastening Now, I'd like
to read verses 5 through 11 of Hebrews chapter 12. He says to
the Hebrews, and you have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh
unto you as unto children, children of the living God. And here that exhortation is.
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, whips every son whom he receiveth." If you endure chastening, God
dealeth with you as with sons. That sure is the way I want the
Lord to deal with me. For what son is he whom the Father
chasteneth not? But if you be without chastisement,
whereof all are partakers, then are you bastards, illegitimate. and not sons. Furthermore, we
have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave
them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in
subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days
chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our prophet
that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now, no chastening for the present
time seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward
it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness. unto them which
are exercised thereby." The writer to the Hebrews says to the people
he's writing to, you've forgotten about the fact that he's dealing
with you as children. You've forgotten that. Now there are many priceless
privileges of being a child of God. You're chosen of God. What a priceless privilege to
be the elect of God. I tell you who loves election?
The elect. They love election. To be chosen
of God. To have my sins forgiven. What a priceless treasure. To be justified. To stand before
God without guilt. Isn't that a treasure? To be
born of God. To be given a new nature. To
be redeemed. To have all my sins paid for. But I believe the highest privilege
is being a son. Being a son of God. There is no more high or priceless
privilege than that. Being adopted, that's God's great
end in predestination. Ephesians 1, 5 says, in love,
having predestinated us unto the adoption of sons. To be a son or a daughter of
the living God. Can you imagine a greater privilege. Not everybody is a son of God
or a child of God. The Lord said to one crowd, ìYou
are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father
you will do.î They were not children of God. But what an act of grace
when God takes somebody who is by nature a child of wrath, even
as and makes them his son or his daughter. 1 John 3, John
said, Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed
upon us, that we should be called sons of God. Now, we are sons and daughters
by God's purpose. He willed were sons and daughters
by virtue of union with the Son of God, the special Son. Turn
to Hebrews chapter 2, back a few pages. Verse 11, For both he that sanctifyeth
and they who are sanctified are all of one. for which cause he
is not ashamed to call them brethren. He is not ashamed to own me as
his little brother, a child of his father, saying, I will declare
thy name unto my brethren. In the midst of the church will
I sing praise unto thee, and again I put my trust in him,
and again behold I and the children which God hath given me." A child
by virtue of being one. with the Lord Jesus Christ. And
this is more than an adopted child. This is a child by nature
being born of God. To as many as received him, to
them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them
which believe on his name, which were born, which were birthed. not of blood, not of the will
of the flesh, not of the will of man, but of God. Now, this puts us in the highest
state that we can be, children of God. What is more glorious
than that? God as our Father. We have the
spirit of His Son, the spirit of adoption crying in our hearts,
The children are heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus
Christ. All that Jesus Christ has coming
to Him, all of His children have coming to them. We're members
of the family of God. We have His name. We have His
provision. We have His correction. And we
have His fatherly pity. As a father pitieth his children,
and I know how I pity my child. As a father pitieth his children,
so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. We have, as children,
immediate access into God's presence with boldness. I'm welcome there
right now. He says, come on in, son. We
have the promise of perfect conformity to the image of our Savior, the
Son of God, a child of God. Now, I want us all to be amazed,
awed by the fact that God would cause us to be his children. There is no greater privilege,
there is no higher honor than this. And he says, you've forgotten. The exhortation that speaketh
unto you as children. How can we forget something like
this? We have. How? Because we still have this
thing called the flesh. And how it drags us down. You
know that. You're sitting here hearing these
high privileges and you're realizing why I've gone pretty much the
whole week without thinking much about it. Isn't that amazing
that we can forget this high exhortation? Now, he quotes Proverbs
chapter 3, verses 10 through 12. I just opened the service
with this. My son, despise not thou the
chastening of the Lord, nor be weary of his correction. For
whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth, even as a father of the son in
whom he delighteth. Not the son who he's mad at.
Not the son who he is angry with and wants to punish. Never punish
your children in anger. Don't do it. The Lord never punishes
his children. He corrects. Thank God for that. And I want his correction, don't
you? But he never punishes his children in this sense. My sin
has already been punished, and God is not going to punish it
again. It was put away by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now look what verse 6 says in
Hebrews chapter 12. For whom the Lord loveth, he
chasteneth, and he scourgeth every son that he receives. Now all that the Lord loves. His elect, those He gave to the
Son, He chastens. And He wits. That's what scourging
means. Every son that He receives. You
see, you don't chasten other people's children, do you? You
only chasten your own children. You don't chasten somebody else's
child, and you don't have the right to do it. You only chasten
your own children. Now, whom the Lord loves, His
elect. Whom the Lord loves. Now that
passage of scripture tells me real clearly. Now I want you
to listen to me real carefully. The Lord does not love everybody. Whom the Lord loveth. He does
not love everybody. He makes this distinction. Whom
the Lord loveth, He chasteneth. Now, before you get mad, and
say, how could it be right for the Lord not to love everybody?
Hold on for just a second. When I make that objection, let's
cut away all the excess and the tape, and what I'm saying is,
is it's not right for the Lord not to love me. That's what that means. I merit
the Son of God coming down. and dying for me. Now, if you
believe something like that, do you have any idea what an
inflated view you have of yourself? That's evil. To charge God with
injustice over this. What if the Lord saved everybody
in this room and loved everybody in this room but me? Would it be wrong? Would it be unjust? No, he wouldn't. Now, I'm not
going to argue over God's special love, because really, this is
the assurance of the believer. Paul said in Galatians 2.20,
he said, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the
life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son
of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Now, did he love that person
in hell like that and give himself for that person in hell like
that? If he did, his love is meaningless. It doesn't mean
anything. No, his love is saving love. We need to understand that.
Whom the Lord loveth. And don't let anybody get upset
about that, because when we get upset about that, what we're
saying is, I'm married to God's love. Hey, you're out on a limb
there. Don't think that way. No, you
don't merit God's love. You merit being in hell. I merit
being in hell. Now, we do merit that. But as
far as the Son of God loving us, I'm thankful for His love,
though, aren't you? Whom the Lord loveth. He chastens. He disciplines. He scourges. or he whips, every
son that he receives, no exceptions. Parents, for you to not correct
and discipline your children when it is needed, there's only
one reason behind it. Lack of love to that child. We
just read that in Proverbs 13, 24, he that hates his son, he
that hates his son, spares the rod. It's love to your children
that will cause you to correct them and discipline them and
rebuke them. And it's lack of love. It's laziness. It's taking the easy way. It'll
cause you to just turn your head and act like it didn't happen
and just let it go on. Now, Walter and Betty Groover,
missionaries to Mexico, you know them. Now, they had five kids,
five biological kids. But while they were in Mexico,
some, I don't know how long ago it was, they adopted a little
Mexican girl. They actually adopted her and
put her in their family. She lived with their children.
And they were very sensitive about this little girl. And as
a matter of fact, they were afraid of offending this little girl
or being cruel to this little girl, attributing what they were
doing is cruel. So they held back on disciplining
her. They disciplined their own kids.
They'd correct their biological kids, but they would hold back
on this little girl because they didn't want to hurt her. Now,
as they held back, She kept getting worse and worse and worse, more
disobedient, more despising authority. I mean, she was just causing
all kinds of problems. And Walter finally said, I can't take it
anymore. He took that little girl and he wore her out. And she said through her tears,
now I know that you love me. True story. If you love your children, parent
them. Discipline them. Correct them. Make them do what is right. That is your responsibility before
God. And to not do so is to not perform
your responsibility before God. Love your children. If you love
them, you will correct them. Turn to Proverbs chapter 22. Lynn, I'm going to tell this
on her. She said when she was a little girl, she would pout
a lot. And she didn't get her way. She'd
pout. She wouldn't. She wouldn't speak
to anybody. And I know a little bit about
that. But she said when she was going through that, she would
say she would think about her parents. Why won't you whip me?
Why won't you spank me for this? Why are you letting me get by
with this? I think. Every kid. as long as it's not abuse involved,
wants their parents to correct them and to have their hand upon
them. Now look in Proverbs chapter
22, verse 6. It says, train up a child in the way he should
go. Train up a child in the way he
should go. And my marginal reading says
his way, his way. Let him go the way he wants to,
and in the end, he will not depart from it. Now, does that mean,
and I've heard so many people use this passage of Scripture,
if you raise your kids right, they're going to end up being
fine. Well, how many kids do you know that were raised right
that ended up being monsters? Been a whole lot of them. Now,
does that deny the meaning of this passage of Scripture? No,
it's a misunderstanding of what this passage of Scripture means.
If you let a child go the way he wants to go, and if you don't
restrain him, and if you don't correct him, and if you don't
discipline him, you know what? When he's old, he's going to
still be going in that way. And it's the responsibility of
the parents to train up, to discipline, to correct their child. Now,
if that simply means if you raise them right, they'll end up being
all right. That means if they don't end
up being all right, it's your fault. That's what that means. But that's
not what that passage of scripture means. But I've seen plenty of
kids raised right that went wrong. But if you don't correct them,
they're going to go in the wrong direction. Let me show you something
in 1 Samuel chapter 3. Hold your finger there in Proverbs.
We're going to look at a few more scriptures. But 1 Samuel
chapter 3, verse 11. And the Lord said to Samuel,
verse Samuel, chapter three, behold, I'll do a thing in Israel,
which both the ears of everyone that heareth it shall tingle.
In that day I'll perform against Eli, God's priest, all things
which I've spoken concerning his house. When I begin, I'll
also make an end. For I have told him that I will
judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knoweth, because
his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not. Now, they went in the direction
they wanted to go, and he did nothing about it. Therefore,
I swore unto the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house
shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering forever. Now, we've
already looked at Proverbs 13, but turn once there again. Proverbs
13, verse 24. He that spareth his rod. Now,
I'm going to get into the Lord's chasing in a moment, but it's
something for us to learn about the chasing of children. He that
spareth a rod. You know, I remember hearing
this once and I think it's very good. Don't ever hit your kids
with your hand. Your hand ought to be used for
affection and for love and for encouragement. When you have
to correct your children, it should be with a rod. Now what
all that means is switch, that doesn't mean abusive behavior,
that doesn't mean whipping him in an abusive way, drawing blood
and all that kind of stuff, that's abuse, not that at all. We are
to correct our children when they go wrong. It's our responsibility
to restrain them, to correct them, to discipline them with
the rod and to not do so. Look what it says in Proverbs
13, 4, 24. He that spareth his rod, he that seeketh, he that
withholds correction. What you do? He hates his son.
He hates his son. He's not really acting in love
toward his son. But he that loveth him, chasteneth
him, Early is what that means. Early. Proverbs 22. Verse 15. Foolishness is bound
in the heart of a child. These sweet little kids are totally
depraved. They are. Your children, they're bad kids.
I think of What Jack Shanks said when he was working and he was
in some kind of school and somebody called him up and said, I need,
Brother Shanks, I need you to keep my son away from the wrong
crowd. He said, Lady, your son is the wrong crowd. Foolishness is bound in the heart
of a child. But the rod of correction should
drive it far from him. Look in Proverbs 23, verses 13
and 14. Withhold not correction from
the child, for thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the
rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell. Now what that means
is, if you don't correct your child,
Your child's going to go in the wrong direction. And if you correct
him, if you correct her, you're going to deliver them from going
in the wrong direction. That's your responsibility to
do that. You ruin your children if you
don't. Let me show you something in
Ephesians chapter 6. Would you turn there? Ephesians 6. We'll get back to
Hebrews in just a minute, but I want you to see this passage
of Scripture in Ephesians chapter 6. This is so important. Somebody hears this because I
have seen parents. I'm sure in some respects I've
failed in this area. But teaching your children to
respect and submit to authority. Look in Hebrews chapter 6 verse
1. Children obey your parents in the Lord. For this is right. Honor thy father and mother.
Now look at this next statement, which is the first commandment
with promise. That it may be well with thee,
and that thou mayest live long on the earth. That's talking
about our life right here. Parents, teach your children to respect
authority. All authority. Teach them to
respect the law, the laws of the land. Teach them to respect
their teachers. Teach them to respect their pastor. You teach
them to respect authority. And you know what's going to
happen out of that? They're going to be successful kids. They're
going to do well in school. They're going to do well on the
job. But if you have somebody that's always having a problem
with authority, they're going to be failures in this earth. And you teach your kids to honor
authority, respect authority, and it's going to be well with
them. They're going to live better lives. They're going to do better
in school. It's just going to be better. And that's our responsibility
for our children. I turn back to Hebrews. Chapter 12. Verse 7, if you endure chastening, now
he's talking to God's people, if you endure chastening, the
fatherly correction of God, the discipline of God, the whip of
God, the rod of God, and I say this reverently, but there are
often times that we need to be taken to the woodshed by God.
Now, don't you want him to correct you when you're out of line?
I don't. Now, that doesn't mean I want correction. I mean, in
a sense, I don't want to be hurt, but I want the Lord's correction
of me because I want to be his child. Look what he says in verse
seven. If you endure chasing, God deals
with you as with sons. Isn't that the way you want God
to deal with you? I want him to deal with me as a son. God
deals with you as sons. For what son is he whom the Father
chasteneth not?" Chastening, remember, is not
punishment. Your sins have already been punished.
Chastening is correction from a loving Father who is too wise
to err and He is too kind to be cruel. Now, every son is chastened. But if you be without chastisement,
where of all, all of God's elect, every believer is a partaker
of God's fatherly chastisement. But if you're without chastisement,
then you're illegitimate. You're not a real son, because
the father always chastens his children. Verse 9. Furthermore,
we have had fathers of our flesh, which corrected us, And we gave
them reverence, shall we not much rather be in subjection
unto the Father of spirits, and live? Now, my father corrected
me, many times justly, a few times unjustly. Now, there's
many times when I didn't get corrected, because I didn't get
caught, but I can remember the few times in my experience where
I was accused of doing something that I didn't do. And I was whipped
for it. I can remember how my little
self-righteous soul felt such indignation that such injustice
was being done to me. But by and large, everything
I got, I had government. And I'm thankful for that. And
as a matter of fact, I'm thankful for my correction in the sense
that I was afraid of my father and not in a bad way. I knew
he loved me, but I was afraid I knew what would happen if I
disobeyed him. If I got out of line, I knew
I was going to Meet his correction. I'm only going to tell you how
that went. It was it was not good. But my dad was a fallible
man. Now, we reverence ourselves before
fallible men, but how much more should we reverence the heavenly
father, the father who's in heaven and reverence and be thankful
for his correction? Should we not all the more subject
ourselves to the Father of Spirits, the Father who's in heaven, and
live? And look what he says in verse
10. For they, our earthly fathers, they verily for a few days chastened
us after their own pleasure. I couldn't help but think about
this. After their own pleasure. I'm not sure what all that means,
but I remember sometimes before my dad would correct me and discipline
me. He'd tell me beforehand, he said,
it hurts me more to hurt you. And I always had a hard time
believing that. I just wasn't real sure about
that. But he corrected me after his own pleasure. That's the
way all, maybe the right reason, maybe the wrong reason, but he
corrected our earthly fathers, correct us after their own pleasure. But he, our heavenly father,
for our prophet, That we might be, and this is breathtaking,
that we might be what? Partakers of his holiness. That's why he corrects. Now in
this verse of scripture, we're given three reasons or three
things to understand as to why we should be subject, subject
ourselves to the father's chasing. First, there's an eternal benefit. Our earthly fathers just for
a few days after their pleasure, but He eternally. And they did
it for their pleasure according to their will, but He for our
profit, for our benefit, that we might be partakers of His
holiness. That is his purpose. You know, Peter said we're partakers
of the divine nature. Now that's what the Lord is doing
in chasing us, that we might be partakers, having a share
in his holiness. Now look at verse 11. Now, no
chasing him, for the present time seems to be joyous, but
grievous. If it's not grievous, if it's
not troubling, it's not chastening. If it's easy to get through,
it's not chastening. Why I got through that trial
well, wasn't much of a trial then. No chastening. For the present time seems to
be joyous, but grievous. Now what is God's chastening?
I think more than anything else, God's chasing is the hiding of
his face. That's his chief chasing, where
he hides his face from you and you feel like you're all alone.
His chasing is every trial he brings our way. I don't know
if it's sickness, if it's whatever, whatever it is, whatever it is,
every trial he brings our way. Now, one thing that's very important
for us to get hold of and thinking about the trials God sends our
way. If you see somebody going through a trial, don't be thinking,
wonder what they did. Don't think like that. That's
so foolish to think that way. But anything God sends your way,
realize he sent it for your good, for your chasing and for his
glory. And I was talking to John Chapman
this week, and he said something that really hit me like a ton
of bricks. He said, you know, the trials
that are easier to deal with are the trials we can't do anything
about. They just come on us, severe trials, but there's nothing
we can do about it, just endure it. The trials that are much
more difficult are where we're given a choice. You go in this
direction or you go in that direction. Those are the trials that are
vexing and grievous because in those trials I think that I thought
a lot. Lot made certain decisions in
his life. He pitched his tent toward Sodom.
He ended up living in Sodom. There was a progression of events,
of choices that he made, and look where it got him. Oh, he
was miserable all his life. He was a believer. The Scripture
says, just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked.
Yet the choices he made look at the direction it brought on
his life. What about there in 1 Samuel 11, when it speaks of
David, when the times when kings should be going out and fighting,
he decided to stay home. And he's walking around on his
roof. When he should have been out with the other men fighting
the battles, he walks around on his roof. He spies Bathsheba. And you know the story about
that. And the Lord said regarding that choice, he said, the sword
will never depart from your house. What about Mary? She's sitting
at the feet of the Lord, hearing his word. Martha is busy serving
and doing all kinds of things, and she's getting aggravated.
There Mary is, sitting there, just listening while she's doing
all this work. She says, Lord, don't you care that my sister
has left me alone to serve? Bid her help me. And the Lord
said, Martha, Martha, you're careful, you're troubled about
many things, but one thing is needful. And Mary hath what? Chosen that good part, and it
shall not be taken from her. And no chastening is joyous,
but grievous. You think it's something like
that? My only thought is, Lord, order my steps in your word.
Don't let any iniquity have dominion over me. Cause me to do your
will. Cause me to do the right thing. Lord, cause me to. Don't
leave me to myself. Don't leave me. I don't want
to. Lord, make this decision for me. Don't leave me to my
own thoughts and decision. Let your grace reign in me. Now,
no chasing is joyous but grievous. But look what it says next. I
love this. No chasing for the present time seems to be joyous
to be feel like you're alone, that you're isolated, that you're
cut off from the Lord, where you cry out and it seems like
he doesn't answer. You feel nothing but a silence
or you're going through some kind of severe trial or you're
faced with some kind of decision. No chasing for the present time
seems to be joyous, but grievous. You know, the Lord tempted Abraham,
didn't he? Scripture says he did. He tempted him. He said,
now you take your son, your only son whom you love, and offer
him up as a burnt offering to me. The Lord was trying. And
the Lord is going to try you and I. And that's a grievous,
tough time. But what happens out of this?
No chastening for the present time seems to be joyous, but
grievous. Nevertheless, afterward, it yields the peaceable fruit. of righteousness unto them which
are exercised thereby. The peaceable fruit of righteousness. Now, what in the world is the
peaceable fruit of righteousness? Christ's righteousness is the
only righteousness there is. Amen? That's the only righteousness
there is. His righteousness. His righteousness
imputed. His perfect obedience, His law-keeping,
His perfect life before God is imputed to the believer. My sin
became His. His righteousness becomes mine.
And there is the fruit of that righteousness imputed. Now, you
can call it many things. You can call it righteousness
imparted. You can call it the new birth. You can call it the
fruit of God the Holy Spirit. Same thing. The fruit of the
spirit, not the fruit of your works, not the fruit of your
efforts, not the fruit of your flesh, but the fruit of the spirit,
the new nature is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, the peaceable fruit. of righteousness. His reason for correction is
that we might yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness. Now,
I don't merely want to be exercised with discipline. I want to be
a child, don't you? More than anything else, I want
to be his child. Whom the Lord loveth, he chastens. And he scourges every son that
he receives. Now, what's my response to that? Here's my response. Our Father,
who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done. on earth as it is in heaven. Now give us, I'm praying for
myself and I'm praying for you, give us this day our daily bread and forgive us of our trespasses,
our sins, our continual sins. Is there ever a time when you
can pray when you don't have to pray forgive me of my sins?
Forgive us of our sins, as we forgive those that have sinned
against us. And, O Lord, lead us not into
temptation. Don't let me even be tried. Don't let me be tempted. Oh,
put a hedge about me. Put a hedge about me. Don't even
let me be tempted. Lead me not in temptation. Deliver us from evil. The evil one? This evil one,
the evil out there, deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and
thine is the power, and thine is the glory. Amen. And remember, whom the Lord loveth,
he chastens. and he scourges every son that
he receives. Let's pray together.