I invite your attention back
to Hebrews chapter 12. This is a glorious chapter of
Scripture for it teaches us a great deal about our life in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And as I was reading these first
two verses of chapter 12, something jumped out at me that I never
really considered before. I can't tell you how many times
I've read these verses. Verse 1 ends with us running
patiently, the race set before us, having set aside every weight
and sin that so easily beset us. And we look to Jesus, the
beginning and the finish line. He's the author and the finisher
of faith. We run with patience, but the race is already won.
One of the meanings of the term way used when Jesus Christ said,
I am the way, It means a road, a journey. It means the means
to make the journey, but it also means the distance. So if you
are in Christ, you are there. You've run the race. The race
is over. The race is over as far as God
sees it. Now I preached from this passage
about chastisement, I think probably around ten times in the thirty
years that I've been here. One time I got a call from a
fellow who said he wouldn't be back because he didn't believe what
I said or what the Bible says actually about chastisement.
The last time I preached this was in our Bible study on Hebrews
in September 2008. And I returned to this subject
this morning by request, and gladly so because of the frailty
of our being and our natural bent to look at chastisement
as a legal remedy and a penal action of God against us for
something that we have done. Now we often refer to chastisement
as being taken to the woodshed or laying on the stripes, and
I don't have any real difficulty with that. In the Psalms it says
our Lord will visit our transgressions, but that doesn't say He'll visit
us, it says He'll visit our transgressions, which He did on Calvary's tree. It is difficult, first of all,
for the rational mind to perceive pain as anything other than punishment. It's almost impossible for our
flesh to do that. So it's difficult to perceive
pain as anything other than pleasure, just as it is a function of the
rational mind to perceive pleasure as some reward. Neither of those
are necessarily true. But that way of thinking, that
way of thinking is based on the rationale that we get what we
deserve. And in the realm of grace, nothing
could be further than the truth. This passage is about the Bible
doctrine or teaching of chastisement. Let me say at the outset that
chastisement has to do with sin, no doubt about that, but sin
as it is identified and defined by God in His people, but it
has nothing, nothing to do with punishment. It has to do with a particular
sin, however, or in what form that sin may be manifested. Christ
bore the punishment due our sin on Calvary Street. Not some of
it, not all, but that we had before belief, but somehow we're
going to have to take care of what happens after belief. All
our sins, From the moment we breathe our first breath until
the day we die, we're taken care of and finished on Calvary's
tree by the substitutionary, successful accomplishment of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Scripture declares that He put
away our sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Scripture declares
that God remembers our sin no more. Now if chastisement is
punishment of sin, then that means that God has not truly
forgotten our sin, and the Bible is not worth believing. Everywhere
throughout Scripture, God views the sin of his elect as sickness,
or ailment, or frailty, or weakness. And in this particular case, childishness. Childishness. And he doesn't
view it in anger, but he views it as a thing to be pitied, not
punished. As I said, our substitute bore
our punishment, and our Father pities our manifold incapacitations. Turn over to Psalm 103. David blessing the Lord for all
his benefits. what God had done for me. This
is the life of the child of God as He lives in the world. It's
a life of thanksgiving and praise for all His benefits. The work
of the Spirit according to 1 Corinthians 1 is to take that which is in
God's mind and teach it to God's people. And what He teaches is
all the things that have been freely given to us in the Lord
Jesus Christ. David says this beginning with
verse 10 of Psalm 103. This was Winnie's favorite psalm. I remember many times going to
her bedside when she was in the hospital and sitting down with
her and she'd say, read Psalm 103. She loved this psalm. And I know why. Because Winnie
was a sinner saved by grace. Verse 10 says, He, God, hath
not dealt with us after our sins. He not dealt with us. Now, He
dealt with Jesus Christ, our substitute. But He has dealt
with us after our sins, nor has He rewarded us or recompensed
us according to our iniquities. Now, just the thought of that
ought to make us jump up for joy, the fact that God doesn't
deal with us after our sins, nor reward us according to our
iniquities. For as the heaven is high above
the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. Now
that mercy is giving us or keeping us back from what we deserve.
That's what mercy is. As far as the east is from the
west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his
children, So the Lord pitieth them that fear Him. Why? Because He knows our frame. And He remembers that we are
nothing but dust. What a great benefit that David
is talking about here. Now this is not the language
of a judge, but rather it is the language of a loving Father.
The believer, though grown up naturally, is always a child
before God. As babes desire ye the sincere
milk of the words. We'll always be a child. Now,
we need to view this passage in light of that fact. If we don't, we'll mess up and
we'll miss what's going on here. Sometimes, That reference to
us does not make us happy. If you were to say to me, you're
so childish, that would probably make me mad. I probably wouldn't
like it because it's probably true. It would make me upset. But it is the sweetest of things,
the most precious of things for God to teach us and to treat
us as little children. In our study in 1 John, how many
times did John say that? My little children. My little
children. One of the marks of childhood,
and the teachers here and the teachers assistants and the former
teachers can vouch for this. And if you have children, you
can vouch for this. One of the marks of childhood
is lack of an attention span. Isn't that right? I've taught children for 17,
18 years in karate. The hardest thing to get them
to do is focus. Now, we've invented names for
all that sort of thing and made them into diseases to some degree.
We've got ADD and ADHD, and all that has to do with attention
deficit. But one of the marks of a child
is attention deficit. You say, well, I'm a grown man.
Before God, you're not. And that's what is being addressed
in this passage of Scripture. As children, we drift and measure
our focus on the most recent circumstance that has befallen
us. That's what we do. Whatever's happening at this
moment, that's what our focus is, because we're children. We're
children. Thank God that He remembers that
we are dust and has not and does not deal with us after our sins
or reward us according to our iniquities. We are His little
children and He lovingly chastises us to bring us back to focus
on what is important. Chastisement flows from love
and it is for our good. It does not flow from wrath as
a form of punishment because of our sin. Chastisement is loving
correction to get us back on track and recover us Because
we are little children with an attention deficit. If you'll notice. Verse 5 begins
with the word and, which connects this passage with about chastisement
to verse 4. Now he's talking to those on
how to run the race of the Christian life. And he's talking to those
whom he has admonished to look Focus! Pay attention! Put your mind here, looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy
set before Him endured the cross, discounting the shame, and now
sits at the right hand of the Father on high. It begins with
and, but it has to do with what goes before. It's basically verse
4. He says of those who are running
the race, you've not resisted unto blood. You haven't put your
nose to the grindstone. You haven't stood in the breach. You haven't done anything striving
against sin. Why? We don't pay attention. We don't pay attention. Our context
addresses the issue of resisting sin, and not in a general sense,
but in a specific reference to the sin of unbelief. Belief,
the sin of taking our eyes from Christ, is that sin that besets
us, weighs us down, and halts us in our race. Our life lived
as a child of God. Because these believers have
not striven against sin, the Lord will most certainly bring
them back to the feet of the Master. That just makes sense.
What's their problem? They're not looking. What's he
going to make them do? Look. What's he going to make
them do? The manner that he employs is
called chastisement. Chastisement. Those that hold
that chastisement is a form of punishment or judgment designed
to so injure the recipient that he will be forced to crawl back
in shame, defeated, back to the door of mercy, misconstrue the
facts. Generally, the erroneous assessment
of chastisement occurs at the moment of pain or anguish. And because we are what we are,
we cannot immediately see the why of a thing. And our focus
is on what hurts. Normal. That's us. Pain almost always translates
in our minds to punishment. Because we have a very short
attention span. And in our childish minds, we
can't get away from the boo-boo. Our dear Lord has clearly declared
that punishment does not result in one being brought back to
God. It never does. Men preach about hell and preach
about wrath and hold the law over men's head thinking that
men will go to God. They won't go to God. They'll
go to themselves. Our Lord said, I punish you to
Israel in Isaiah chapter 1 and verse 5. He said, the more I
punish you, the more you rebel. And that's always the case. Religious
men not only believe that chastisement is penal, but they believe that
they are arbiters of it. Such folks use the Word of God
as an instrument of punishment, a veritable blunt instrument,
and seek by religious censure to bring about what they deem
to be correct and moral behavior. Listen to me very carefully.
Forced morality, forced by threat of punishment, or morality produced
under duress or threat of punishment, is just another way of spelling
self-righteousness. That's all it is. Chastisement
is neither punishment nor is it judgment. Christ suffered
all the judgment that was due the elect in his great substitutionary
sacrifice. Chastisement is the loving correction
of a child who has strayed from the correct path, who can't pay
attention by a father whose singular interest is in the welfare and
safety of the child. Its design and its result is
that those upon whom it is exercised will turn their eyes to the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's what it's designed to
do. And for the child of God, it always works that way. You
think of your experience. Chastisement never comes without
cause. And the cause is always addressed
in the remedy, isn't it? Now you think about that. You
go to a doctor. When he gives you a remedy, it's
because he knows a cause. And the cause is always addressed
in the remedy. If there's something wrong with
your liver, he's not going to give you pills for your heart.
He won't give you pills for your liver, because that's the cause
of the problem. If the remedy is looking to Christ,
as it says in verse 2, then the cause must be that our childish
eyes have lost interest and been distracted and have been looking
elsewhere because of our childish attention deficit. Chastisement
is a gracious act of our loving Father that causes us to know
who we are by grace. Who are we? His children. And remind us of what we have
abundantly received. All spiritual blessings in Jesus
Christ. And part of our happiest state
is to be the recipient of such love. It is due to the chastisement
that our Lord took in our place. He was, what does it say, back
in Isaiah chapter 53 and verse 5? I thought I could quote it, but
as I get older my memory fades sometimes. He was wounded for our transgression,
He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace.
Now, that's kind of an odd phrase in the middle of that, because
part of that is talking about His work on Calvary's tree in
being wounded for our good. But the chastisement of our peace
is something else altogether. It's another part of the Lord's
work. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him. Or the chastisement that brings
about our peace was upon Him. Since chastisement is not punished
for us, this form of substitution relates to the Lord and to us
in His office as our sympathetic High Priest. Look what it says
in chapter 4 of Hebrews in verse 15. For we have not a High Priest
which cannot be touched, with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted or tested likewise ye are, yet
without sin." The chastisement of our peace was upon Him. The affliction and infirmity
that attends chastisement is borne by our Lord as it is borne
by us. Like everything that comes our
way, chastisement also works for the good of all who are called
according to God's purpose. Is chastisement somehow outside
that loop? Is it not included in that grand
truth? We know all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them that are called according
to His purpose. We know that. Now is chastisement a thing?
It's a thing. So it falls into the umbrella
or in the parameters of all things that work together for good.
The particulars of the chastisement are not given. Probably, because
the writer is addressing many who have not striven against
the besetting sin of unbelief. And the Lord deals with His people
individually, not collectively. The fact that they are being
chastised is being addressed in the words of verse 5, and
to make that they've forgotten the reason for it, as well as
the cause. Ye have forgotten the exhortation
which speaketh unto you as unto little kids, My son, despise
not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art
rebuked of Him. The fact that they are being
chastised is being addressed. Whatsoever sorrow attends them
is because they are objects of God's love. They are objects of God's love. Turn over to Proverbs chapter
3. This is what the writer of Hebrews is referring to when
he says about the word or the exhortation that they've forgotten. Proverbs chapter 3. Verse 11, My son, despise not
the chasing 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. Now chastisement
is not for everybody. It's only for God's children. Only for God's children. Verse
6 says that, For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth
every son whom he receiveth. It's only for the children of
God. Though it is not for everybody, it is exercised upon every believer. There is a popular religious
notion that when you become a Christian, that if you use the tools available
to you, no trouble will come your way. If no trouble comes
your way, listen very carefully, if everything is pie in the sky
for you, no trouble comes your way, it only proves one thing. You're not a child of God. You're
not a child of God. Verse 7 is not speaking to your
wherewithal when he says, If ye endure chastening, God dealeth
with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Lord
chasteneth not? It's not speaking of your wherewithal
or ability or your willpower to endure. It's not about your
endurance. This simply speaks that if chastisement,
if chastisement is exercised upon you, it is God dealing with
you as a child. Chastisement is defined by its
recipient reaching a specific end. Many name every trouble
as chastisement of the Lord. But if the trouble that comes
your way does not result in returning your eyes to Christ, then those
troubles are merely the result of being a human being in a world
full of sin and not chastisement. Chastisement involves the relationship
between a father and his child. Verse 7 and 8. If ye endure chastening,
God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom
the Lord chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement,
whereof all sons are partakers, then ye are bastards and not
sons. In the realm of natural humanity,
the concept of chastisement is commonly understood. by loving
parents, parents who love their children. Of course, this has
to do with a father who loves his children. Cruel punishment
that provokes a child of slavish fear and anger and resentment
is not the result of a loving relationship, but rather is the
result of a parent seeking to satisfy his own wrathful aims. The result of every correction
that flows from a loving intent to help a child and aid a child
will eventuate in setting him on the right track and will eventuate
in reverence for the father who exercises such loving correction. Their pleasure does not refer
to the vindictive judgment, but means that they exercise it according
to their best judgment of the need. Verse 10 says, For they verily
for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure. That's not
talking about vindictive pleasure. It does it for our profit. that
we might be partakers of His holiness. Now we're talking about, in human
terms, an ideal that very few of us, that none of us, have
ever fully realized. I have chastised my children. I regret that sometimes I punish
them. rather than chastise them. And
what I did was because I was mad and I wanted some satisfaction
from my anger. And I regret that. Every time
I did it. I didn't do it much. My children
will tell you. Of course, they'll act like I beat them every day
with a stick. They could count all the actual
spankings they got probably in their whole lifetime on one hand. I know it's ideal. It's an ideal
scenario, because we all know that the discipline that we've
administered or failed to administer as parents was not always done
out of love. If, however, in that ideal scenario
of chastisement, the result is reverence, how much more would the child
of God reverence him who the child knows acts out of love
for him? That's what it says in verse
9. Furthermore, we, if fathers of our flesh have corrected us
and gave them reverence, shall we not much more be in subjection
to the Father's spirits and live? Now the holiness referred to
here is not God's essential holiness, but refers to the result of the
chastisement of the Lord spoken in verse 11. Now no chastening
for the present seemeth joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward
it yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which
are exercised thereby." It's righteousness and holiness. What
is that? What is our righteousness? Christ. What is our holiness? Christ. God has made Him to be
unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, holiness, and
redemption. So the end of this chastisement
to be partakers of His holiness will simply mean that our eyes
have been refocused on Christ, which was just designed to begin
with. Though the divine process employed to bring us to the feet
of Christ is hardly pleasant to the flesh, and it's indeed
grievous. It is. I know somebody, well,
you know, I'm a Christian. I bear up under all that stuff.
I don't have a problem. I'm strong. I'm a super Christian. It pain hurts. Sickness hurts. Depression hurts. Heartache hurts. Treatment for various ills are
painful. They hurt and they're grievous.
And we don't bear up well under them. We don't. Most of the time our
mind is fixed on them. And sometimes we even begin to
question Was this something I did? But we're really saying, well,
if I'd done differently, would this not have happened to me?
That's work salvation. It's still in us. But no matter what, how grievous,
how unpleasant it is, the employment always has the same result. Our
eyes are returned to Christ. who bore the chastisement of
our peace. Who is our peace and our righteousness
and the fruits born of that relationship are peaceable to everyone who's
chastised of the Lord. That's the way it always ends
up. Isaiah chapter 32. Verse 17, the work of righteousness shall be peace. That's not your
work. That's Christ's work. And the effect of righteousness,
His quietness and assurance forever. Now do you always have that?
No. When do you have it? Just think now. Children of God,
little children, us little pranksters and toddlers, whose attention span is limited.
I guarantee you, we'll forget more about this sermon, and I
will too, before the day over and I will remember about it.
I guarantee it, because my mind flits and so does yours. Think
about this. When do you have that peace? and calm and assurance when you see Christ. And only then. When do you not
have it? When you're looking somewhere
else. Chastisement is the loving grace
of God to grab us by our chin and set our eyes back where they
need to be. The struggles of our life are
but the sweet, loving corrections of our Lord, and praise His name,
they will bring us to the Savior. They make us to grow in the knowledge
of our undeservedness and thankfulness for His loving, piteous grace. Chastisement is designed to bring
us to the happiest state described in verse 2, looking unto Jesus. the author and finisher of our
faith. Pity. I've told you this story
many times, but it's one of my favorite stories. Henry Mahan.
True story. Doris told it. Came home from
a preaching trip. Doris had one of those plates
that you display. It's real pretty. And they put
it on a little metal rack. You know, you get them as souvenirs.
Henry walks in the door and the plates slam on the floor in a
hundred pieces. Just busted all the pieces. And Henry, if you
know him, got a real booming, powerful voice. He said, Who
broke this plate? Doris said, Your grandson Luke.
Henry said, Well, bless his heart. That's chastisement. We take our eyes off Christ all
day long. And God says, Bless his heart. I'm going to bring
you back home. Father, bless us to understand
and pray in Christ's name. Amen. God bless you.