Sermon: Gracious Discipline

As you take a copy of God's word this morning as we turn to the book of Hebrews, and we are continuing in Hebrews chapter 12 this morning.

Hebrews chapter 12,

we are going to turn to Hebrews chapter 12 verses four through 13.

Let's go ahead and pray before we open the word together this morning.

Our Father, we Are thankful that you speak into a world of suffering and trial and tribulation.

We're thankful that you are God of order and not disorder.

And we pray even this morning that we would hear a word outside of ourselves

and it would be of comfort to our minds and our hearts. Help us to receive it as the comfort that it is and to be able to fix our eyes upon you. A God who reigns over all of heaven and all of earth give us ears to hear hearts, to receive spirits that are willing. We pray this in the strong name of Christ. Amen. Hebrews chapter 12 verses four through 13. I'm gonna back up to verse three though this morning for a little context.

This is a holy in, err, sufficient word of God.

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself that you may not grow weary or faint hearted than our passage this morning. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood and you have forgotten and have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons, my son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves

and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons for what son is there whom his father does not discipline. If you are left without discipline in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them, shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits

and live for they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for a good that we may share his holiness. For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees and make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be put out of joint

but rather be healed. Now, the grass withers and the flower faiths, the word of God is forever. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Hebrew Christians had believed upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and now they are going through a time of persecution and suffering as they do so. And maybe like many, when we come to know Christ, we think, well, when we come to know Christ, there will be less suffering, there will be less trials. And often it is just the opposite. There are more trials and there are more sufferings, and it's often during such times that as the writer

of Hebrews said back in verse three, often what happens to us is in the midst of that, when these trials come though we've been warned about them and we are to expect them, that as they come, we find ourselves, as he says, growing weary and growing faint hearted in verse three. And the great temptation in the midst of that is to think, well, we, we've been abandoned by God. He's left us. He doesn't care any longer for us.

And questions begin to form in the mind about God. And as often as the case, those questions morph into accusations. And often those accusations morph into a, a kind of bitterness. And often is that bitterness that leads to faintheartedness, that leads to weariness. And eventually when there is enough faintheartedness and a weariness, you, you just, you just kind of collapse. And we stop as he is saying. And you remember what we looked at last week, that you

and I, when we come to know Christ, we enter into this grand race of the Christian life and we are to keep running. And what can happen is as you and I just faint become weary hearted and we just fall the ground and collapse maybe the imagery, if we continue that from last week, let's consider that we are in a race. And as we are in this Christian race, as we continue to go along, there is a large mountain now that we have

to traverse in our race. And that mountain or that trial, you begin to run. And as you run up that mountain, you grow more and more weary and want more and more faint hearted. And what eventually happens is that your knees buckle and you find yourself weak and you eventually collapse. What happens when you collapse? Well, then you begin to crawl. And what happens when you're crawling, while your face is looking down at the mountain?

You no longer see the summit, you only see the trial. And so what the writer of Hebrews is doing here is he's lifting the heads of these, these Hebrew Christians a little bit. He, he just wants to give them a little bit of perspective in the midst of their trial and their suffering that they are going through. We say, uh, here at the very outset, uh, he is addressing their particular suffering. And there are all kinds of sufferings

and different trials that you and I go through, uh, in this life. He has in view here that God is aimed at our holiness as we'll see. And we can't address every trial, every kind of suffering that is experienced and work it out this morning. But he here has iue their suffering for the sake of Christ, the persecution that they are enduring and this great trial that they are experiencing and more that is on the horizon.

And so he is giving them some perspective and he does so in two ways. First, he wants them to recognize what they have not experienced. And second, he wants them to recognize what they are experiencing, the first, what they are, not, what they have not experienced. And second, what they are experienced, a little perspective. First, what they have not experienced. Verse four, in your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

Remember he says this on the heels of chapter 11, they are suffering. He isn't denying that. He isn't pushing that to the side. He isn't saying that this isn't a hard providence that is in your life, but what he is doing is he's pointing out that they have not suffered like their savior suffered. Verse three, consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself. He suffered to the point of shed blood. His blood was shed as he was beaten, his blood was shed as

that thorny crown was placed upon his head and the blood droplets fell down his face. He, his blood was shed as he was pierced in his sight. His blood was shed as the nails were driven through his hands and through his ankles, his feet. He's saying, you have not yet suffered as your savior suffered. He's worthy of your faith, but it's not. It's not only that. He also remember this is on the he the heels of Hebrews 11.

And so what he is doing is he is recalling to them that you have many brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the generations that have suffered to the point of shutting blood. Hebrews 1136, others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated. These his Hebrew Christians, they are suffering,

but they have not suffered like that for their faith. And my guess is, is none of us in this room have either. He's giving us a little perspective.

It is interesting to me that how often throughout the scriptures that the scriptures will point the Christian backwards to, to look back at history for a little perspective. And that's what he's doing here. When hard times come look back. Why? Because history helps us to deal with tragedy and trial in the present like few other things. There's a reason, at least I think in my mind that in American culture, we have seen an increasing

reluctance to teach the humanities and in particular to teach history. And I don't think it's any mistake that we have an entire generation of young people now that our dealing with more anxiety, they're dealing with bits of depression like no generation before. They are outraged like a few generations that have come before them. It isn't correlation. I think it's one of the causations now I grant you, it's one of them.

I think it's a true causation. Why? Because history grants perspective, you haven't been afflicted like this. The writer of Hebrews is arguing

as Ken Hughes said, he seems to be saying, cut the melodrama. I don't see any bodies lying around, and this is a good word for the church in the west today. We aren't suffering like so many before us. Take a breath, have a little perspective, keep the faith, keep running.

Don't grow faint hearted. He's saying now that he's given them a little perspective regarding what they have not experienced. He now gives them a little perspective on what they are experiencing. And it boils down to one word for the writer of Hebrews. It is discipline verse five, and have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? And then he quotes from Proverbs, my son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord

nor be weary when reproved by him, meaning discipline for the Lord, disciplines the one he loves. And he chastises disciplines every son whom he receives. What you are experiencing, he is saying to them is discipline. That's the perspective. And that perspective, it helps to combat the, the two concerns that he has for them. The writer of Hebrews has for them, the writer of Proverbs had for his generation that in the midst

of this, when you are being disciplined, two concerns is that either you disregard that discipline or you're discouraged by that discipline. So he is going to address both of those when experiencing discipline, do not disregard it and do not become discouraged by it. Stop for a second though and note that things don't just kind of happen in this world. We believe in a sovereign God. We believe in a God who is over all things

and all things happen according to his decree, according to his will. And so this means that you and I, we can't control our circumstances. And the very first things you realize as a Christian, right, I I I'm not in control. Uh, and because we can't control our circumstances, what the writer of Hebrews is concerned about is you and I are a response in the midst of our circumstances for the Christian. This is ever important.

And it's to be a dominant emphasis in our lives. How, how we respond, the things that are happening around us, to us. He says, do not disregard that discipline and do not be become discouraged by that discipline. We see the disregard as he says, do not regard lightly the Lord's discipline. Here's the temptation, right? Discipline comes and we just push it aside. We, we pay it. No mind, like the person who has those parking tickets,

they, they, they're car, car dashboard is just piled up with them. They get another ticket and they just throw it in their car. They get another one. And it doesn't really matter to the one before, didn't matter to the one before. That didn't matter to the one before. That didn't matter. They're just gonna keep throwing it in their car. They disregard it. He's saying Don't disregard it. Don't act like who cares. It is a good habit constantly to be asking ourselves,

especially in the midst of hard things. Is the Lord trying to teach me something? Is this possibly the discipline of the Lord where he's seeking to teach me something

or even to cry out is a good prayer to cry out regularly? Oh Lord, what is it that you want me to learn that should be a constant prayer? Sons and daughters of the heavenly Father

do not disregard, do not dismiss any of us. Do not hear the Lord speaking in the midst of our sufferings in our trials because we refuse to listen. CS Lewis said it this way. He said, God whispers to us in our pleasures. He speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone. Roused a deaf world. You are to be roused, want to be aroused,

but some frankly don't care. They disregard it. That is, that is one end of the spectrum and that's one of his concerns. The danger on the other end of the spectrum is that, that we respond with discouragement. He says verse five, when discipline comes, do not be weary. When reproved, I was with a brother recently who was telling me that he and his wife going through a very hard providence in their lives and he was saying, Jason, we, we just got to the point

where he said, we were saying to one another. It seems like the Lord no longer defends us. He doesn't care for us. And he said, we, we got to this point. What, what, what was he saying? He was saying, we found ourselves just so discouraged,

discouraged in, in the midst of this that we began questioning whether God cares and whether his love is aimed at us and whether goodness is still in the building or whether it has gone out the door and the writer knows, he, he knows that, look, this isn't, this is almost normative thinking. It is not a strange thing to have that thought. Almost every single one of us that has been through difficult providences and hard things in this world, we've had that thought.

He knows this. So he clears up any such discouraging thought in verse six for the Lord, disciplines the one he loves, chastises every son whom he receives, and then he exhorts us in verse seven, God is treating you as sons again, just giving us a little perspective. Let's take a step back a little bit from the mountain face and look up.

Now let's think about the argument here. It says, do not disregard the discipline of the Lord nor be discouraged by the discipline of the Lord. Why? Because it is an act of the Lord. He is saying, who loves you perspective. His argument is God has not abandoned you. No, just the opposite. As you go through trials and as you go through these different sufferings, it's not evidence that God has abandoned you, that he hates you, that he doesn't love.

You know? In fact, it's evidence of the fact that he is with you and that he loves you. Remember Hebrews five, eight, he said, even Christ as a son of God and flesh, he quote, learned obedience by what he suffered.

Many of us have endured trial and we thought, huh, I think he hates me.

I think he's punishing me.

Again, I, I think that's just part of living in a foam world and wrestling with the flesh and with the accusations of our adversary. But you see, that can never be a right accusation.

It's actually never to be a thought of a son, daughter of God.

He can't hate you. He, he can't punish you because he sent his son into this world to live for us and to die for us. He is our substitute. He took our place upon that cross and all that. You and I deserve all of that punishment. Do you deserve punishment? Absolutely, but no longer because it was meted out upon him.

He can't punish you because Christ has already been punished for your sin. He can't hate you because you are in his son.

It would be double jeopardy for him to punish you. He would have to deny his very self to punish you.

Spurgeon said, there is no displeasure in his heart. Even though his brow may be ruffled, there is no anger in his breast. Even though his eye may have closed upon thee, he hates thee not. He loves thee still he cannot. And he will not do anything other He won't, not hatred. Love, not punishment. Discipline. Let's think about discipline together because it is vastly different from punishment. There are two primary kinds of discipline.

One is corrective and the other is preparatory or educational. I would call it one or the two in corrective discipline, the Lord is rooting out of us. Sin that contagion that is in us. He, he is rooting that out of us. You might think of Jonah, where Jonah is being disciplined by the Lord. Why? Because in his disobedience, he refused to go to Nineveh. And so he is in the midst of a storm upon the sea, and then he is thrown over the sea into the water,

and then he is swallowed by a fish. Why all of that to root out of him that sin of disobedience?

Or maybe you think of David and after he has committed adultery with Bathsheba and after he has schemed, uh, murder Uriah than severe discipline, and it's severe discipline that comes into his life, why to root out that unfaithfulness, that murderous spirit, that adulterous spirit.

And David will say, I mean it's been corrective for him. He confesses as much in Psalm 51. Before I was afflicted, I went astray. But now I keep your word. He concludes in Psalm 51. It is good for me that I was afflicted that I might learn your statutes corrective discipline.

But let's be clear, not all discipline from the Lord is corrective, not always because there is, there is sin that he is seeking to root out. Sometimes it is preparatory, it is educational, hard things coming to the lives of God's children so that we might grow. So we might be better equipped for the things that we will need to endure in this life and so that we might be grown and encouraged and prepared for the life to come.

Think about Jesus on the sea. When he goes out on the sea of Galilee with the disciples, he knows that a storm is coming. He doesn't avoid it for them. He doesn't warn them about it. In fact, he gets in the boat and he falls asleep and doesn't tell 'em it's coming.

And they find that their faith is wavering in the midst of the storm. They're absolutely scared to death. And their faith is so wavering that Peter will shake Jesus awake in the the boat and he will say to him, do you not care that we are perishing?

Now, why Jesus is sovereign. He's the God man. He knows. He knows there's going to be a storm upon that sea because he directs it.

They could have avoided it. He could have at least warned them. He could have at least not fallen asleep. Why? To prepare them because greater trials awaited them that would test their face. Greater few wills, storms going to come into their lives. So it was preparatory, it was educational discipline. I played football in high school. We had this awful drill, awful where the coach would have us line up on the goal line

and then you would run to the 50 yard line back to the goal line. You'd run to the 40 yard line, back to the goal line, run to the 30 yard line, back to the goal line, and all the way down. Makes me tired to think about it.

I can remember there would be Mondays and Tuesdays. We would come to that first practice after the game on Saturday and he would say to us, you guys look tired on Saturday. Oh no, we didn't. Right, because you're gonna run. And we'd run that drill. It, it was corrective. He was rooting out of us the tiredness that he supposedly saw in us.

But there were also times previous to the season in the summer that we would run those same drills and why it was preparatory, he was getting us ready for the season that was coming so that we didn't suffer more pain in the season so that we could actually have some oxygen when we were playing down the road. It's preparatory. Sometimes the Lord is correcting us in discipline sometimes. He's preparing us for what is coming in discipline.

God knows what we need. He's absolutely worthy of our trust. He's our father, father who loves us.

God knows what we need. Discipline is love. It's not always pleasant in the moment, as the writer says, but it is love. Parents know their children and they know better than their children. And the writer is asking in verse seven and following, if this is true with an earthly father, how much more does our heavenly Father know what is needed as a writer says in verse 10, for they discipline us for a short time as it seemed best to them,

but he disciplines us for our good. So finally, with all this, this new perspective, uh, let's see this, that our, that our father has an aim in view. This isn't just discipline for the sake of discipline. He, he's, he's aimed at something. He says, earthly fathers disciplined upon what they think is best,

but let's be honest, sometimes they are just wrong.

I think about myself and I've made a lot of mistakes as a father disciplining my children. Sometimes I've been too lenient. Other times I've not been lenient enough. Sometimes I've misjudged the situation sometimes just because of my own irritable spirit in that moment. I just reacted quickly.

I've made mistakes. Some in this room though our earthly fathers didn't simply make mistakes. They were cruel in their discipline.

They were incredibly harsh in their discipline. Believe me, I understand that

that discipline is excessive and anything but love. But here's something that you and I have to do this morning and think of this morning with this text. Our heavenly Father is never like that.

You are not to see him through the lens of the mistakes and the sins that your earthly father committed. Because he never strikes out in wrath to his children. He is never irritable with his children. He's never harsh with his children. He never makes mistakes with his children

as bad as your earthly father was. And he may have been horrific. He may have been a horrific person.

Your heavenly Father is a good person.

It means his discipline is always accurate, means it is always purposeful, always necessary. It's never an angry impulse, never a swipe in wrath. He's tied together his glory and our good. What is he aimed at? He's aimed at something principally he's aimed at or good. That's what the writer is saying. He's aimed at our good.

What? Good? Well, he tells us verse 10, so that we might share his holiness. He is holy, holy, holy.

And our father is aimed at our good. He disciplines us so that we might share his holiness. And that is so very good.

Now, it doesn't immediately feel like that.

Writers honest about that. Verse 11, for the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant. That's just reality. But he's saying, look, it's worth it because as he says later, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it or Father has an aim in his discipline are good. We might share in his holiness.

That is a gift, that is grace, that is perspective.

So let me ask you about your perspective.

What's your perspective in life?

It makes a lot of difference. What are you aimed at? What are you really aimed at?

Remember first or second year of marriage? Um, I had an older person of the faith say to me, uh, Jason, you are to be concerned with Leah's Holiness, my wife, Leah. You're to be concerned with her holiness, not her happiness.

It was helpful in one regard to me. I would change what that person said to me. Now, all these years later, I would say this, that my responsibility as her husband having care for her in being her head, is that I am to be principally concerned with her holiness, which leads to true, true lasting happiness. I want my wife to be happy. I want that. And I know the greatest way for her to be happy both in this life and in the life to come is holiness.

When Jesus gives a sermon on the Mount in Matthew five, the very beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, what does he do? He, he lists all of these things that mark the children of God. These are the virtues that mark them and they're all things of holiness. And he says this, blessed are blessed, are blessed. Are blessed are that word blessed is just happy. Happy is happy. Is happy is happy is holiness is the ground. It's the catalyst.

It's the foundation for happiness, both in this life and in the life to come. What is your perspective?

What are you Christian? What are you aimed at?

Is it holiness?

Is it growth in Christ? Is it looking more like the one that that you love? We sang it this morning. You sang it. You said that whether word or deed do all for your glory.

We want that to be more than words. We, we want that to be The motivation of our hearts is that your aim, if your aim is holiness, then what happens is, is when the discipline of the Lord comes in your life, you have perspective. You all of a sudden can receive it as grace that is flowing from a father's hands.

Paul Barnabas, when preaching the gospel in Acts 14 said this, through many tribulations, we must enter. We must enter the kingdom of God. These are trials. They are refiners. Fire. A gracious heavenly Fathers removing the draws from our lives and these glowing fires of tribulation that you and I walk through the impurities of our lives arising to the surface like draw so that they can be scooped off. And so James can exhort us count it all joy,

really all joy. Yes. Count it all joy my brothers. When you meet trials of various kinds for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness and let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect, complete, lacking in nothing. The psalmist can say in Psalm one 19, it was good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes. And you know this, if you have lived as a Christian for any period of time, you've been through hard things,

some of you and some of us through very hard things. And you look back and you say, I would never ever want to go through that again. I wouldn't even wish that upon my worst enemy. And yet on this side of it, you say, that's what formed me. That's what shaped my character. That's what drove me to Christ. That's what made me more than anything look more like him.

I remember as a young Christian, uh, hearing an interview with Joni Erickson taught a, when Erickson taught a as a young lady, she dove into a swimming pool and there was a lake, I don't remember. And she broke her neck and became a quadriplegic.

And in this interview, the man that was interviewing her said to her, I wish I could go back to that day, change it for you. And her response was immediate. She said, I would never want that.

I remember hearing that as a young Christian thinking, that's nuts. So world.

But you know, what she was saying is it's through that through and she has had to live her entire life in the severe trial. It has been through that, that I've experienced more of my savior. It's through that that I've been refined to look more like him. It's through that that I have come to know his grace and his mercy and his goodness more so

she wouldn't trade it for anything.

All this discussion so he can exhort us again just to keep running. He returns to that imagery. Imagery we saw last week in verse 12 to close us out. He says, therefore, that is in light of this knowledge, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees. That is don't be faint hearted drone to grow weary. Stop your crawling, lift your head. Look up to me. The hard providence you are in is not evidence that I don't love you, that I've abandoned you.

In fact, it's evidence that I love you, that I'm with you, that I will keep you. Keep going, keep going in faith, pray

our Father, we are thankful

you are a God who is aimed at our good.

You are more gracious and generous to us than our earthly fathers.

And we keep our eyes fixed upon you in faith, and we found ourselves surrounded by your love till we are brought home and are basking in your love for all of eternity. Thank you for being our father. In Christ's name, amen.