Discipline | Hebrews 12:1-11
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[00:00:00] Good morning again. Uh, if you would, turn in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. We are gonna read the first 11 verses. So again, if you're able, one more time, please stand, and hear this for what it is, the words of the Living God. Hebrews chapter 12, and we're gonna read the first 11 verses.
Therefore, since we have so great a throng of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
For consider Him. Consider [00:01:00] Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin. And you have forgotten the exhortation which has addressed you as sons. "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of Yahweh, nor faint when you are reproved by Him.
For those whom Yahweh loves, He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives." It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, you are illegitimate children and not sons.
Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them. Shall we not much [00:02:00] rather be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful.
Yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. May God bless the reading, the hearing, and most importantly, obedience to His Word. Please be seated.
We're gonna start chapter 12 today of the Book of Hebrews, and we are at a transitional point. Chapter 11 was a transitional chapter. It was kind of the bridge chapter. And what chapter 11 did for us is we moved from the more doctrinal section of Hebrew, what we ought to believe about Christ and His finished work, to the application, or what could be called the [00:03:00] praxis.
And you're familiar with that word because, uh, the book Acts of the Apostles, literally in the Greek it's called Praxis of the Apostles, or the Practicing of the Apostles. And it's basically, it's Jesus discipled these men for three and a half years, and He sends them out. What did they do? How did they live their lives?
So the same thing happens in the various epistles in the New Testament. We learn theology, and then we need to apply it. So I thought as we begin to look at chapter 12, I would do a very quick review. And kids, this is in your outline. Only kids, I made a mistake, and I forgot to blank out some of the words.
So I want you to listen to my voice, and what I want you to try to do, kids, is I want you to circle the key word in all the statements. But what have we learned in the Book of Hebrews? We have learned, number one, that Jesus is superior to everything. Jesus is superior to everything and everyone. In the very first chapter, we learned that He is God and, kids, [00:04:00] Savior.
That Jesus is God and Savior. He is Redeemer. The second thing we've learned in this book is that He is our new and perfect high priest. Jesus has replaced all of the Old Testament ceremonial laws. Jesus has demonstrated, as the Old Testament has made clear, that the ceremonial laws were always meant to be temporary.
They were always meant to be a tutor to lead us to Christ. And Jesus has replaced all those laws, and here's what is very important, and here, sadly, is what is missing in the evangelical church today. There is no going back. There is no going back to the ceremonies. In fact, the author of Hebrews makes it very clear, to turn back to the ceremonies is to commit the greatest of apostasy.
I dare say blasphemy of the Holy Spirit
But if we're honest, probably one of the most popular [00:05:00] eschatological views in the evangelical church today believes that we're gonna rebuild the temple and reinstitute sacrifices. I don't know how you end up there once you've studied this book. Jesus has replaced the ceremonies, and there's no going back.
Number three, Jesus has secured salvation for His people. And here's another thing that's really important and something that comes out in this book crystal clear if you simply let it speak. Jesus is Savior, and God does not share His work. Jesus is Yahweh. He is Savior. We are recipients. Jesus has done all the work.
Jesus has secured salvation for His people. He has not made it possible, and yet that is the gospel that you will hear most often today, that Jesus has made it possible. You need to take that last step. No, Jesus has secured it for the people for whom He has died. And yes, there's a human [00:06:00] side to it. Yes, there's the drawing.
Yes, there's the evangelism, but Jesus will draw His people. Jesus will give them the gift of faith and repentance. Jesus is a complete and a successful and a perfect Savior, and we learn this in the Book of Hebrews. Therefore, it would be foolish and ultimately sin, apostasy to reject Him. And last but not least, that brings us to where we're at.
We must run with endurance the race that is set before us, and that brings us to Hebrews 12:1. So hopefully you're still there, and in your bulletin, there's a handful of things, some of which we're not gonna get to today, but there is a fill-in-the-blank sermon outline, and number one on that outline is the passion of the Christ, the passion of the Christ.
And just so you know, and passion is a word that's used in Hebrews 2:10, "For it was fitting for Him," speaking of Christ, [00:07:00] "for whom are all things and through whom are all things, He is God, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through suffering." The Father is God. Jesus is God, but Jesus is also man.
And Jesus was perfected in His suffering, and the Greek word there is in His passion. And so number one on your outline, the passion of the Christ. Look at chapter 12 verse 1, "Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses," so great a throng of witnesses surrounding us, and kids, this is a fill-in-the-blank verse for you, "let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us."
And we spent some time looking at that part of the verse last week, and I gave you no less than five different things that we can do to put off sin. We're never gonna be perfect in this life, but we can certainly sin less in this life, and we ought to sin less as we grow in [00:08:00] Christ. But then the author adds this, and it is in an athletic analogy, and he's gonna stick with this analogy through verse 4.
"Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us." Let us run with endurance. And this word for endurance, and this is really important that we understand this word, it simply means the capacity to hold out, the capacity to not give up, the ability to put up with difficulties and keep moving toward the goal, to be patient, to be steadfast.
You are going to have difficulties in your life. Things are going to happen. Not only various trials that we'll talk about momentarily, but Demons don't like us. Demons don't like what we're doing. And yes, I believe in the spiritual realm, and there are still fallen angels out there, and they're still trying to wreak havoc.
And things will happen in your life to try [00:09:00] to get you off track. But the author of Hebrews says, "Run with endurance." We looked at a lot of different characters in, uh, Hebrews chapter 11. We didn't get to all of them, but I'm not ready to give up on all the characters, so I wanna share one more with you, and that is Samson.
And the reason I wanna share with you Samson is because I think he is a picture of endurance, okay? Let's face it, Samson is probably, and, and boys listen up, but Samson is probably every little boy's favorite Bible story. And if we're being honest, many a man's favorite Bible story. I mean, if we're being honest, think of Samson, long flowing hair.
No need of any product. It just flowed Popular with the ladies. In fact, we'll see that in the life of Samson, like the life of so many men in the Old Testament, he had lady problems. He didn't [00:10:00] have to wear a shirt unless he wanted to. Okay, this is Samson. And honestly, as I think about Samson, many of his acts are misunderstood.
We talked about Samson when we went through our Old Testament survey, and I think many things that he did are somewhat misunderstood. I don't have time to go into that, but I do see Samson as a picture of endurance. I s- he's the little choo choo. I think I can, I think I can. He tried to do the right thing often.
He just didn't do it right. But he tried. He wanted to do what was right. Think about his life. He's a type of Christ. He has a miraculous birth in Judges 13. The story of Samson is found in Judges 13 through the 16th chapter. He has a miraculous birth. He's a type of Christ. His mother is barren, a type of virginity.
His mother is barren. An angel comes and announces Samson's birth, and Samson is de- is declared to be a [00:11:00] special child. He is to be dedicated to Yahweh from his birth. And so Samson comes into the world in a way that pictures, typifies Christ. And what does he do? He grows up, he marries a Philistine woman.
He marries a Philistine woman, and while he's at the banquet celebrating the wedding, he attends the men's breakfast. And at the men's breakfast, he tells a riddle. And he's gonna make a lot of money. He's gonna get 30 pieces of clothing if they don't get this wi- riddle, and the guys know it, so what do they do?
They pressure his wife. They pressure his wife. His wife caves. She tells him the riddle. Samson gets angry, and he kills 30 Philistines. And that's where he gets the clothes he owes them. And earlier in the text, interestingly enough, the Bible tells us God was using all of this to create havoc with the Philistines.
God wanted to make them mad. They had conquered God's people. They were harassing God's people. They were oppressing God's people. Samson leaves the banquet [00:12:00] angry, and his father-in-law gives his wife to a friend. Does that not sound like Judas, a betrayer? Samson is a type of Christ. So Samson, in return, burns the Philistines' produce.
He bu- he burns their crops and their vineyards. The Philistines get mad, so the Philistines burn down the house of Samson's bride and father-in-law with them inside. Samson gets very angry, and the Bible simply says that he strikes the Philistine, the Philistines with a great slaughter. And then he runs off.
He wants to be isolated. He wants to be left alone. And then the men of Judah, his own brethren, the men of Judah find him, and they tie him up, and they deliver him to the Philistines. And then we have the famous story, and most of you will know it, the jawbone of a donkey. Samson takes a jawbone of a donkle-- a freshly killed donkey, probably something he shouldn't have touched, and he takes this jawbone, and the Bible says he [00:13:00] killed a thousand men.
Literally, the Bible says heaps upon heaps And then he's thirsty. He's dying of thirst. He feels like he's gonna die, so he cries out to God, and water comes out of a rock. Another type of Christ. And Samson is refreshed. And then Samson, always trying to do the right thing, falling all the time, Samson visits the city of Gaza and he visits a harlot, and he spends the night with her.
And the men of Gaza, they know he's there. They're keeping an eye on him. Samson isn't worried about it. He wakes up in the middle of the night, and according to the text, he tears off the doors of the city gate, the two posts, along with the bars. And young men, we don't know for sure how much that ray-- that, that weighed, but based on archeology and things like that, scholars have determined that anywhere from 300 to 1,000 pounds.
And Samson teared all [00:14:00] that off, put it on his back, and run, ran uphill and planted it on top of a mountain
And then the story of Samson and Delilah, and you all probably remember that. I'm not gonna rehearse it in detail, but it would seem, as I've already said, Samson had a problem with the ladies. He's probably too attractive. It's a burden. No. Um, just making sure you're listening And you, you remember the story that Delilah tricks him, he tells him the secret, she shaves his head, and listen to this, young men, the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes.
And then they tied him, uh, in prison to a grinding wheel, and he would just walk in circles and, and grind the wheat. And basically, what they were trying to do is humiliate him because that was woman's work. They gouge out his eyes. They give him woman's work to do. They want to humiliate him. However, in verse 22, one of the most exciting verses in all the Bible, believe it or not, [00:15:00] we read this: "However, the hair of his head began to grow again."
And if you're familiar with the story, you start to get excited 'cause you know God's gonna do something with Samson, and sure enough, He does. Samson is brought into the house of Dagon, the pagan god of the Philistines. He's led in by a little boy, and he tells the little boy, "Take me to the main pillars."
And he gets up between the main pillars, and he reaches out and touches the pillars. Moms, keep an eye on your sons today. You will catch them in this position sometime today. Wives, watch for your husbands today. It will probably be in front of a mirror. This is, this is how I would've done it, okay? But he, he touches those pillars, and he shoves them down.
And the Bi... Oh, the famous prayer, "God, let me die with the Philistines." And we read in Scripture, in Scripture that Samson killed more Philistines in his death than in his life. Samson was a man that kept getting up, [00:16:00] kept seeking God, kept falling down. He'd get up again. He'd seek God. Samson is a complicated biblical figure, but I believe he was a man of endurance.
And we have been called to run this race with endurance, with steadfastness, not giving up, not being sidetracked. Fixing, verse 2, "Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."
You see, even as I was preparing for this, we see-- we, we tend to forget that Jesus was a real man. We think of him as God, and we should, especially after the resurrection and the ascension. But on Earth, he was a man. Yes, God, but he set [00:17:00] aside those prerogatives, and he lived as a man, and Jesus exercised real faith.
If you wanna know what real saving faith looks like, study the life of Jesus. How many times did Jesus get up early in the morning or stay up late at night to simply go and spend quiet time with his Father, to pray, to be alone with God?
And the author says, "Fix your eyes on Jesus." And the idea there is a laser focus to direct your attention and not to get distracted I wish I could tell you in all honesty that I wake up every day and that's the first thing I do. I know it's what I wanna do. But do you fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith?
He was a real man. He exercised real saving faith. He is the giver of faith. He is the sustainer of faith. Listen to the [00:18:00] words of Luke in chapter 22. Luke 22:31-32. Peter is going to deny Christ. Listen to what Jesus says to him, "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers."
And what do we read in the Book of Hebrews? On a daily, regular, eternal basis, He stands before the Father interceding for us, praying that same kind of prayer for our faith, because He is the giver, the granter, the perfecter of faith. Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame.
You see, something missing in the church today is we do not have a heavenly mindset. [00:19:00] So often our mind is focused on earth, and, and it's, it's, it's a fine line because as I've said a couple of weeks ago, we need to have a heavenly mindset while still being earthly productive, while still being earthly useful.
We've been commanded in Scripture to leave a legacy, to leave a legacy of faith, to leave a legacy of money. The Book of Proverbs in Proverbs 13 says that, "The godly man leaves an inheritance not just for his own children, but for his grandchildren." But are you heavenly-minded? You see, Jesus was heavenly-minded for the joy He knew was coming.
He knew He would resurrect because He was in cr- control of laying His life down and picking it up. He knew He would ascend to the Father. He knew He would be given a kingdom. He knew He would rule the nations. He knew He would be successful. He knew He would save His elect, I believe countless of [00:20:00] people.
And it was because of that joy, because of His heavenly mindset, that He endured the cross, and it was a shameful, humiliating death, despising the shame. And literally, that word for shame is disgrace. And Jesus got His reward He sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. We need to have a heavenly mindset.
Look at verse three. Actually, before you get to verse three, just, just listen for a minute, 'cause I wanna make sure that you haven't missed the structure of what's going on here. In chapter 12, the verse, verse, we're told to lay aside every encumbrance. Whatever is interfering with our walk with Christ, get rid of it, and we're to lay aside the sin which so easily entangles us.
And the next question in your mind should be, "How do I do that?" And we discussed that in depth last week. But then the author kind of repeats himself [00:21:00] in the second half of verse one, "Let us run with endurance the race set before us." And what I don't want you to miss is he tells you how to do that. Do you wanna know how to run the race with endurance?
He tells us how to do that. First, by fixing our eyes on Jesus, by being laser-focused on Jesus. And then in verse three, "Consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself." And this, this word for consider, it's a different word than, than focus on Jesus, but it's a word that means basically use logic.
Think through this carefully. Think about the life of Jesus. Consider Jesus. What did He do? What were His spiritual habits? Consider Jesus. Think about Him. Reason. Carefully deliberate. That's what that word means. Think logically about Jesus, who has endured. He's mainta- He maintained His focus. He maintained His belief, and that's what we're supposed to do.[00:22:00]
And He faced all kinds of opposition. In fact, it's very interesting, for consider Him who has endured such hostility, and this word for hostility can certainly be translated hostility. It can also be rebellion. But you wanna know what the word literally means? Anti-logical. We're told to think about Jesus in a logical manner, and what they did to Jesus was anti-logical.
It was against reason. It was sin. It was rebellion. It was darkness. It was blindness. It was not grounded in rationality And so they were hostile to Jesus. Listen to the words of Acts chapter 3, beginning in verse 14. And this is Peter addressing the crowd of Jews. And he says, "But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One."
Words used of Yahweh in the Old Testament. You disowned the God you say you believe in. You have [00:23:00] disowned Yahweh, and instead you asked for a murderer, Barabbas. You remember the story. "You asked that a murderer be granted to you, and you put to death the Prince of life."
The one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses. Now this, this phrase, "You put to death the Prince of Life," it literally means the ruler of life, the sovereign of life, He who controls life. You were so blackened, you were so dark, you were so thick-skulled, you so abandoned Yahweh, that you crucified the one who literally gives you life, both physical and spiritual.
In Acts chapter 4, in the, uh, 25th verse, Peter and John and a group of Christians are praying, and they address God as Lord and Creator, "Who by the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of our father David, your servant said," and they quote [00:24:00] Psalm 2. That's our hyperlink. "Why did the Gentiles rage and the people devise futile things?"
And this word for rage, it's a fascinating word. It means to rage, it means to be furious, to fume. Literally, it is a description of an angry bull who's about to charge, and he's snorting. Donkeys do that. Horses do that when, when horses... Our dogs used to make the, the, the donkeys mad that lived next door to us, and you'd hear them snort, and they'd start to bare their teeth, and that's what this word is.
The Gentiles snorted against Christ. They devised futile things against Christ. The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers were gathered together against Yahweh and against His Messiah. "For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles, the people of Israel."
The [00:25:00] world was gathered against Christ. And this particular text doesn't look at the spiritual realm. Think of the hatred and the anger and the outpouring of wrath in the spiritual realm. S- Satan himself possesses Judas. Satan himself causes Peter to deny Christ. The spiritual realm was up in arms, gathered against Christ, the entire world, the entire universe, physical and spiritual.
But listen to the last verse. The world was gathered against the Christ, "To do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur." The entire time, God was in control. The entire time, Yahweh, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were in complete and absolute control. But the world raged
And then the [00:26:00] author reminds his readers, and it's a reminder that we need to hear as well, in verse four, "You have not resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin." And hopefully you'll remember the words in chapter 10. In chapter 10, beginning in 32, he writes this about his readers: "Remember the former days when after being enlightened," when after you became a Christian, after you made a profession of faith in Christ Jesus, "you endured a great conflict of suffering, partly by being made a public s- spectacle through your approaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers of those who were so treated.
For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one." At least at this time, the readers have a he- had a heavenly mindset. But this is something the church needs to hear today because long story short, evangelicals have [00:27:00] given up without a fight.
We have surrendered so much ground without a fight, and I would urge you, I would beg you, start praying that we would have the mindset of the early church. The, the early church knew they were supposed to win. Multiple times in the letters in the Book of Revelation, they're commanded to conquer, to overcome, and they expected to conquer and to overcome.
They expected it. We expect to lose. The early church expected to win so much, and I'm not saying we should do this, in fact, I think it was wrong, but they wanted to be martyred. You can read in the early church writings. It was considered a badge of honor to be martyred, and many of the saints who weren't martyred were actually depressed about it, and many of the saints would actually turn themselves over to be purposefully martyred for the sake of Christ because they knew [00:28:00] that Jesus was gonna build his church on the backs of the martyrs.
We don't have that mindset anymore, and yet there is no one in this room that has resisted to the point of death, to the point of shedding blood. We get upset when somebody makes fun of us. We get upset when the guys at work are mean 'cause he believes in Jesus, and he thinks the world was created in seven days.
No, I think it was created in six days, but you get the point
Brings us to number two in your outline, a father's love. A father's love Look at verses five and six. And as is his custom, he's gonna bring the readers back to the Old Testament. "And you have forgotten the exhortation." And in this particular passage, that word for exhortation can also mean encouragement, and encouragement is probably a better understanding here.
It is a command, [00:29:00] it is an exhortation, but I think it's meant to encourage. "You have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons: 'My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of Yahweh, nor faint when you have been reproved by Him. For those whom Yahweh loves,'" listen to those words, for those who are loved by God, "He disciplines, and He scourges," a very strong word, the same word used of Jesus when He was scourged by Pilate.
"He scourges every son whom He receives." Now again, the hyperlink here is Proverbs 3:11-12. And if you're new here and you don't know what I mean by hyperlink, any time a New Testament author cites scripture or alludes to scripture, he's alluding to the entire context, to, to the entire passage. It's like a hyperlink that we find on the internet, and we need to go back [00:30:00] and we need to do some reading.
And that's why we read Proverbs 3 at the beginning of the sermon. But I want you to understand some of these words because this ought to be your expectation in life. You are not perfect, and God is in the business of making us perfect, and so He disciplines us, and that's the first word that we need to understand, and this word for discipline, it means guidance to responsible living.
It means training. It means instruction. And where do we get this discipline? In the Word of God, at church, from the pulpit hopefully, from going to the table, but it's instruction in righteous living. And if you go back to the Old Testament and you read the original, it's the same thing. It focuses on instruction.
Discipline is instruction. Discipline is education. But discipline, in the Old Testament the word used can also mean chastising, a physical form of punishment. The New Testament is gonna use a different word for that. "Do not [00:31:00] regard lightly the discipline of Yahweh, nor faint when you are reproved." And to be reproved is to somehow experience a penalty for wrongdoing.
There are consequences to our sin And you may think you can hide it, but you can't. And you may be able to hide it from those around you, but you will experience the consequences of your sin, and that's being reproved. It's punishment. It's bringing a person to the point of recognizing wrongdoing. And who is behind this discipline?
Who is behind this punishment? God Himself For those whom he loves. Stop and think about that, because if you're like me, I hate it when things don't go right. I, I g- I have a vehicle issue right now. Drove me nuts. I had a hard time going to sleep last night. God, everything was going really good, and now my vehicle's messed up.
And yet the text says expect this, [00:32:00] because you're not perfect and things are gonna happen
Because he loves you God disciplines, God chastises those who are loved. If you don't experience speed bumps in life, you're not loved. Think about that. If you don't experience various trials in life, you're not loved because God promises that those whom He loves, He's gonna bring things into their life.
He's gonna discipline them. He's gonna chastise them
For those whom Yahweh loves, He disciplines, same word, and He scourges. And this is a word that means physical punishment He scourges every son that he receives
More to say on that, but verse seven. And verse seven is variously translated depending on what version you have. It's, it's kinda difficult. It's just two words here, [00:33:00] and they're trying to make sense of it. But the New American Standard puts it this way, "It is for discipline that you endure." And literally, I think the best way to understand it is something along these lines.
It is because of discipline. It is in light of discipline. It is with a view of discipline. I like the because of. I think it brings it into English in a way we can understand it. It is because of discipline that you endure. If God did not discipline you, you'd give up. You'd walk away. Do you realize that?
What happened every time things started going well for the Israelites? They walked away. And I'm not saying there's not victory in Christ, 'cause I believe there is victory in Christ. But it's still gonna come with discipline, because it is in light of discipline that we endure. And we see that in James.
And we'll look at this verse at the very end of the sermon, but in James 1:3, "Testing produces faith, faith produces endurance." Testing is the same as discipline. When we're [00:34:00] disciplined, when we're trained, when we're tested
God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? And I want to point out something here, dads, and I'll, I'll make a point of it when we get to the end of the sermon. Note the emphasis, fathers provide the discipline. And yet we live in a world where most fathers advocate that role to their wife.
I go to work, I make the money, you take care of the child-raising and the discipline. And yet nowhere in the Bible are you not gonna see fathers emphasized. It is always fathers, and even in this verse, it is fathers
For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? Verse eight. But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers... Now I'm gonna stop there because I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. The Bible is often cleaned up for the more sensitive readers, [00:35:00] but I'm gonna read this uncleaned up so that you understand the gravity of what's being said But if you are without discipline, of which you have become, of which all have become partakers, then you are bastard children and not sons.
That is what the Greek literally says. If God does not discipline you, you are not sons. You are not children Most of you know I worked for the fire department for a long time, and anytime we got new guys on, we, we called them booters. Okay? And they weren't even socks, they were just boots. They were just booters, and we would give them a hard time.
I re- I remember one time, uh, we got these new air packs, and typically the air pack would sound an alarm when you were starting to run out of air. But these new air packs would sound an alarm if you didn't move for two minutes. And we made this new guy wear the air pack all day, which meant he couldn't even sit for two [00:36:00] minutes, and he had to move around so that the alarm wouldn't go off.
And we would do all kinds of silly, stupid things like that. But I also trained the new recruits, and here's where the... Here's, here's my point. One of the things I would tell the new recruits, "If we're not making fun of you, if we're not testing you, if we're not giving you a hard time, it simply means we don't like you."
What does God say? If you don't experience discipline, if you don't experience chastisement, rebuke, I don't love you. Because God disciplines His children out of love. Listen to the words of Proverbs 13:24, "He who withholds his rod," and just to make things really simple, that's a spanking instrument He who withholds his rod hates, and that's the Hebrew word, ill will, aversion, hates his [00:37:00] son.
But he who loves his son disciplines him diligently. God disciplines His children, and if you don't receive discipline, you're an illegitimate child. Furthermore, verse nine, "We had earthly fathers," there's the emphasis on dads, "We had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them. Shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits and live?
For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them." They did their best, but they were fallible, and they made mistakes. I don't know of any earthly father that doesn't regret something in bringing up their children. Mistakes have been made For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them according to their thinking, is what the text says, but He, God, disciplines us for our good.
Kids, there's a question in your [00:38:00] outline. Is discipline good for you? Is discipline good for you? God disciplines us for our good. And what's the result? So that we might share in His holiness, to become holy, to be transformed, to become more like Christ. And listen to verse 11, "All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful."
And there's a, an interesting play on words here because in the earlier verse it says, "Fathers disciplined as seemed best to them," and literally fathers disciplined as they thought best. Here, it's the same word. All discipline seems. We think that it's a bad thing. It seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful.
Listen to this last phrase, "Yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness." Now. You experience righteousness now. [00:39:00] You live a better life now. You serve Jesus better now. You love God more now. The peaceful fruit of righteousness. It brings peace in your life.
You're not experiencing a guilty conscience because you're disciplined, and that discipline results in repentance and strength in faith and endurance and a turning to Jesus and a trusting in Jesus. Listen to Paul's words in 2 Timothy 4:8, "In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness."
We have the now and not yet. We have the fruitful peace of righteousness now, and if we endure and we stay faithful, we receive a crown in heaven. Listen to some of what Paul wrote, "For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison."
Paul writes again in Romans chapter 8, "For I consider the [00:40:00] suffering of this present time," there will be suffering both because we live in a fallen world and because God is working on our lives. There will be suffering. "I consider that the suffering of this present world, this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us."
Do you have a heavenly mindset? Do you have a heavenly mindset? Now I, I wanna bring it home and I wanna make it very practical. You see, God disciplines us in a way that we should discipline our children. Fathers should discipline their children. So I just wanna give you six principles on the disciplining of children, and they all, I- hopefully they will help you understand.
I know that when Stacy and I started having kids, maybe the first time in my life I truly understood the love of God
Number one, [00:41:00] in terms of principles for disciplining children, God requires obedience. God requires obedience. And parents, I would write these down because you should go, when you go home today, discuss this with your children. And all of this can be backed up by Scripture. But from Adam and Eve, God required obedience, and He either disciplines His people or punishes the unbeliever when He doesn't receive obedience.
And here's the thing with obedience that we sometimes miss, especially when it's our children, our little angels, the person we love, because we want to be gracious and patient, and yet God's obedience is immediate. God requires immediate obedience. Some call it first-time obedience. That's the standard.
That's the standard we should have for our children. There's no counting. There's no second chances. We require immediate obedience. That's what God requires. Number two, discipline is from love. Let me say that again. Discipline is [00:42:00] from love. Listen to the word... Well, we already, we already read Proverbs 13, "He who withholds his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him diligently."
And in the book of Hebrews, this chapter, verses six and eight, "Those whom the Lord loves He disciplines. And if God does not discipline you, you are an illegitimate child." Discipline is an act of love Third principle, discipline includes, though it is not limited to, but discipline includes physical punishment.
God scourges His children. There are all kinds of discipline that we find in the scriptures. Instruction, correction, example, imitation. We are to be the example for our kids. Our kids should be able to imitate us. Reward, encouragement, praise, but there's also the rod[00:43:00]
In Proverbs chapter 22 verse fif- 15, "Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child." And there are different words used for foolishness throughout the Book of Proverbs, and this is not speaking of a sinner, it's speaking of an ignorant, immature child. Children are born into this world, and we've, we've covered this, sinful.
They are born fallen. They inherited Adam's sin, and their default position is to sin. You did not give birth to an angel. You gave birth to someone too small to kill you And they will sin
"Foolishness is bound up in the heart of the child. The rod of discipline will remove it far from him." "Do not hold back discipline," Proverbs 23:13. "Do not hold back discipline from the child. Although you strike him," and that's what the word means, you strike the child, "with a rod, he will not die." [00:44:00] And you will find weird translations because this word for strike can mean beat or kill.
That is not what it means in context. And we have words like that in English that give us no problem, but when we go to the Bible, all of a sudden we're freaked out because it can mean something else. What about the word cleave in English? It can mean to hold tight to or separate. What about the word sanction?
It can mean to approve or disapprove. What about dust? It can mean to clean or sprinkle material on. What about left? It can refer to people that are still here and people who left the building, and we don't get freaked out by these words. Yes, the Bible presents corporal punishment. Number four, the fourth principle, discipline is for our good.
Kids, did you hear that? Discipline is for our good. Remember Proverbs 3. We read that at the beginning of service. Just three different verses, verse two, four, and eight. Discipline will, [00:45:00] will add length of days and years of life to your children. And you have to ask yourself, "Do I believe that? Do I believe that?
Because if I did believe it, I would be willing to go to bed tired every day because I'm disciplining in a loving, consistent way my children, just as God disciplines His children." Length of days and years of life, peace. Do you want your children to grow up and live peaceful lives? Discipline them now while they're bendable, while they're pliable.
Favor and good repute, good reputation, good understanding, success, verse four. Healing to the body, verse eight. Health. Proper discipline can actually result in health. If nothing else, in our world, mental health. Depression is on an incredible rise today, and it's mostly young women and young mothers.
[00:46:00] Discipline can help avoid all of that because discipline is for our good. And again, there are different ways to discipline. Instruction, correction, example, imitation, reward, encouragement, praise, and the rod Number five, discipline hurts. If you pay attention to the context, discipline hurts, but it produces fruit Verse 12, or chapter 12 verse 11, it seems not to be joyful but sorrowful, and yet it produces holiness in our life.
It produces righteousness. It produces peace. If you go back to the Proverbs, it produces wisdom. Throughout the Bible, it produces life, longer life. That's what discipline does. And my last principle, number six, discipline must correlate to the offense. And what I mean by that is the punishment should fit the crime.
And it's interesting because the writer of Hebrews does a comparison, and I put it in your bulletin, you can look at [00:47:00] it later, but he says, "Shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits?" Even though we respected our fathers who simply did their best, fallibly did their best, should we not trust God who does it infallibly with omniscience, with love?
God who sent His very Son to the cross to die on my behalf, and now He promises me holiness
Now, I don't wanna be, I don't wanna be misunderstood, and we're gonna close with this. I don't wanna water down what the text is saying. Making application to parents, I believe, is perfectly appropriate, but here are the big takeaways. If you're gonna write anything down, here's what you need to get in your memory: God disciplines those whom He loves.
If you're not disciplined, logic says you're not loved. God disciplines those whom He loves. If your [00:48:00] life were perfect, if there were no bumps in the road, if there were no trials that you fell into, that's an indication you're not loved. You're not one of God's. He promises discipline and trials for His people, and discipline and trials take many forms and many varieties, and you can't compare yourself to the person sitting next to you.
It doesn't look the same because God is omniscient, and He knows what you need, and what you need isn't gonna work with me, 'cause my skull's thicker, so He's gotta give me something else. It's not gonna look the same, but it's gonna be present in our lives. So hear the words of James, and I don't have time to do it, but James uses so many of the same words that the r- author of Hebrews uses.
"Consider it all joy," happiness, blessing, "my brethren, when you encounter various trials," various tests, "of your faith." And literally the way the Greek is, you're walking along, and it's as if you fall in a hole. You weren't expecting it necessarily. [00:49:00] "Consider it joy, my brethren, when you consider various... when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing," the discipline, "of your faith produces endurance," the same word used by the author of Hebrews.
And you may wonder, because I bring this up quite often, why am I bringing it up now? Because of the text, but also because I need to hear it. I need to continually be reminded, and that makes me assume, I think biblically so, that you need to hear it. We need to be reminded that when bad things come into our life, God has not started loving us less.
But maybe at that moment, if it were possible, this is a bit of a hyperbole, but if it were possible, maybe at that moment that He brings something through, into our life, He's loving us more, because He disciplines the children whom He loves. Let's pray. Father in heaven, help us understand this text. Help us understand [00:50:00] discipline.
Help us understand how God disciplines us so that we can translate that into how we would discipline our children, those who work for us, that we would understand how to respond to a boss at work, a supervisor
Father, help us not to be afraid of discipline. Help us not to shun discipline. Help us not to, in any way, shape, or form, try to get out of it, try to avoid it. May we embrace it May, may we em-embrace it out of ignorance and it's not out of a haughtiness, out, not out of a purposeful sin. But Spirit of God, thank you.
Thank you that you love us. Jesus, thank you that you went to the cross and you're not done. You will never be done with us. You will bring us into eternity, and you are a good, perfect, good, good Savior. Father, may we believe that with all of our hearts so that we would be willing to go out [00:51:00] with courage to serve you.
For Lord, I ask all of this in your Son's name. And all of God's people said, amen. Take your bulletins
