Introduction and Overview
three incentives given by the author to promote such a run. And the first incentive we already considered, that great cloud of witnesses, those men and women that make up Hebrews chapter 11, the rest of, I just turned it on. the rest of the people of God and the history of the Church, they're not up there simply cheering us on, they're not up there simply as spectators, but rather they witness to the faithfulness and to the goodness and the consistency of God Almighty. So let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. having this great cloud of witnesses. The second incentive is found in verses 2 to 4.
Obviously, we are to run looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith. And then the third incentive, as I mentioned, is found in verses 5 to 11, the purpose of the Father, specifically in view, is His paternal or His fatherly discipline over us. In other words, when we're running with endurance this race that is set before us, it's not going to be easy. It's not going to necessarily be just a downhill smooth run all of the time.
No, rather, God the Father has His purpose in bringing discipline and chastisement upon his runners upon those who believe the gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Scripture Reading: Hebrews 12:1–11
So I'll just begin reading in chapter 12 at verse 1 and we'll read to verse 11. Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted the bloodshed striving against sin,
The Problem: Forgetfulness
and you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons. My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him. For whom the Lord loves, he chastens and scourges every son whom he receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons.
For what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the father of spirits and live?
For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but he for our prophet, that we may be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful. Nevertheless, afterward, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Amen.
The Race and Its Three Incentives
So again, the duty stated. It's not an imperative, strictly speaking, but it is an exhortation with imperatival force at the end of verse one. Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. That is primary in the author's mind.
That's what he wants to exhort the people of God the audience to whom he is writing. We had seen in many instances where they had become sluggish, where they had become stagnant, where they are forgetful, and these things all help to promote apostasy or falling away from this confession of faith. So one of the themes, at least on the horizontal level, that the Apostle takes up in this book of Hebrews is to warn the people of God and to encourage the people of God that they continue on, that they do not let the earthly trials and the difficulties and the persecutions and those things weigh them down or cause them to stop this running race. So he states the duty, then he highlights these obstacles to lay aside.
We are to lay aside every weight, every hindrance, everything that would keep us from running successfully this race. It may not necessarily be sin in and of itself, but if it doesn't help us in this running race, we need to set it off to the side. We do necessarily need to lay aside the sin which so easily ensnares us. We don't run this race with endurance while we continue in patterns of sin.
And then the manner specified, we are to do this with endurance. Notice that word comes up several times in the context. We are to run with endurance. We are to look to Jesus who endured the cross.
We are to look to Jesus or consider Him, verse 3, who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself. And then in verse 7, if you endure chastening. So you see that repetition. of that particular Word. He wants them to endure.
He wants them to persevere. He wants them to go forward in the fear of God Most High. So the cloud of witnesses, the example of our Lord Christ, and then the Father's purpose in dealing with His children are three incentives as to or to promote this faithful running, the race that is set before us.
The Presence of Paternal Discipline
So tonight as we consider the purpose of the Father, we'll consider two broad categories with several considerations under each. The first is the presence of paternal discipline. And paternal simply means fatherly. Maternal means motherly.
Now that we've all been educated in the use of those particular terms, the presence of paternal discipline is laid out in verses 5 to 10a. And then secondly, we have the purpose of paternal discipline in 10b, So that's where we're going this evening. The first section, the presence of paternal discipline, we notice there was a problem. That's what is being addressed in verse 5.
And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to signs. This is a bad thing. Forgetfulness in the Christian life does not help you. Forgetfulness in the Christian life only hinders you.
Forgetfulness in the Christian life may ultimately destroy you. I think it was Dale Ralph Davis who says that amnesia promotes apostasy. Forgetting the promises of God, forgetting the warnings of God, forgetting the encouragements of God, is never a good thing. The verb is used here to indicate that they had entirely forgotten.
Notice, you have forgotten. He's already reproved them, he's already rebuked them, for instance in chapter 6, of having become complacent or stagnant. These people started off, and now they're starting to lag. They're starting to turn back to the Mosaic Institute.
They're going back to the Levitical priesthood. They're going back to the temple, and in that they're defecting from the truth as it is in Jesus, and so the author wants them to stop. He wants them to recall. He wants them to remember.
He wants to fill their minds and hearts with the Holy Scripture. That's what he's doing here specifically in this appeal to the Book of Proverbs. They had a specific problem when Christians interpret difficulty, hardship, and trial as evidence that God has abandoned them. Remember, these people were suffering.
Go back for just a moment. to chapter 10. Chapter 10 at verse 32, but recall the former days in which after you were illuminated you endured a great struggle with sufferings, partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated. For you had compassion on me and my chains and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods. knowing that you have a better and enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. So initially they interpret this in the right way, we're suffering as Christians, let us persevere.
Perhaps it starts to set in among them, hey, if we're God's people, why the trouble? If we're God's people, why the difficulty? If we're God's people, why are we... nice as we are, suffering these hardships for the cause of Jesus Christ. And so he's appealing to them with the scripture to remind them that this is, in fact, God's way with his children.
O'Brien says the members of the community may have wondered why God's people suffer insult, rejection, and persecution at all. These experiences are enough to make them doubt God's love and loose heart. Remember, that's the emphasis in the section. Verse 3, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.
A steady diet of trial, a steady diet of persecution, a steady diet of hardship without scripture, without a Godward perspective, without interpreting things according to the revealed will of God can lead to discouragement. And so he doesn't want that to happen. He wants the suffering runners on this race that is set before them to consider the faithfulness of God, to consider the plan of God, to consider the fatherly or paternal care of God Almighty. Philip Hughes says the discouragement of the recipients of this letter is attributable, at least in part, to a false reading of the situation in which they find themselves.
Such hardship and affliction as they have had to endure in consequence of their profession does not mean, as some seem to have assumed, that God is unconcerned for their welfare and has left them without his aid and support. In other words, When tough times befall us, what is one of the tendencies or the temptations? It is to interpret it as if God has abandoned us. Now, maybe that's not true of you, but there's people I know that this is true of.
A steady diet of trial and persecution and difficulty and hardship can lead some believers to the conclusion that God has left them. The author says the absolute opposite is what is true. The presence of trials does not mean the absence of God. The presence of trials means the presence of God.
Isn't that beautiful? See, God's logic is completely topsy-turvy to ours. I'm not saying he's illogical. I'm just saying we don't jump on the same logical connection that he himself does.
Notice this word of exhortation. I love this. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons. See, highlight it.
Proverbs 3. Proverbs 3 is the exhortation that speaks to the Christian church as to sons. I cannot stand that mindset that has no time for the Old Testament. Now, I'm not suggesting that if you haven't read your Old Testament today, you're a horrible person.
But there are people, professing Christians, that want to have nothing to do with the Old Testament whatsoever. Why? It's the word of exhortation that speaks to you as to sons. This is a letter from God Most High, your Father, who has given this to you.
The word or the living word of the Old Testament speaks with authority to the new covenant people of God. One commentator says the writer regards Proverbs 3 as God's personal word to those who enjoy sonship through the mediation of Jesus, who inaugurated the new covenant. Another man says the utterance of scripture is treated as the voice of God conversing with men. It's a high doctrine of scripture in scripture.
Scripture doesn't treat scripture the way we, unfortunately, treat scripture. You have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons. That's the problem.
The Appeal to Proverbs 3
Notice, secondly, the appeal to Proverbs 3, 11, and 12. My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him. For whom the Lord loves, he chastens. and scourges every son whom he receives." What better thing could there be than that? Don't interpret the presence of trials as the absence of God.
Better, as a professing Christian, interpret the presence of trials as the presence of the father who is about conforming you to the image of his beloved son. You see, sanctification doesn't happen when we're sitting under palm trees. I was in Southern California, in Irvine specifically, and there are palm trees everywhere, and they're beautiful. But sanctification rarely takes place when we're sipping iced tea underneath a palm tree.
It is when we run with endurance the race that is set before us. Hebrews citation of Proverbs 3 shows that divine discipline and sonship go hand in hand. These are bedfellows. These are companions. discipline, and sonship go hand in hand.
Note the assumption of the father-child relationship. Note as well the command to not despise God's chastening hand. Now, I don't think that means that if you lose your arm in farm equipment that you say, praise God that he took my arm. I think that'd be psychologically difficult to do.
I really don't think a man could do that. Thank you, Lord, for, you know, hacking off my arm in this whatever it is. But don't despise God's ways. Don't speak ill of God's ways.
Don't call into question God's ways. Christians do this all the time. Oh, I don't know why this is happening to me. I don't know why the Lord is doing this to me.
I don't know why I keep having to go through these sorts of things. That means you're despising the way of the Lord. Do not despise the chastening of the Lord. When you spank your kid, The last thing you want from him is to say, I can't stand you and I can't stand the fact that you just spanked me.
What will that cause you to do as a responsible father or mother? Hit him again. We should say, spank him again so we don't go to jail. Yes, we do not. encourage such things in our children.
And yet, as the children of the living God, we seem to have little trouble despising the chastening hand of the Lord. So this is what the Apostle doesn't want. He doesn't want you to despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him. Remember the context.
Lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. What happens when you're discouraged in your soul? What happens when you're discouraged by the chastening of the Lord? You tend to leave off the Lord, don't you?
When discouragement settles into the heart, usually the first thing to go is Bible reading, and then praying, and then church attendance, and then sermonaudio.com, or whatever it is that you use to feed your soul. And this is what the author doesn't want. When you're running with endurance that race that is set before you, when discouragement sets in, the answer is not give in to it. The answer is to run with endurance looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher 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.
You mustn't become discouraged. You need Christ. You need the promises. You need the Bible.
You need prayer. You need fellowship in the church. You need the ordinances. You need those things that God has given for the good of your soul.
Do not despise the chastening of the Lord. Do not become discouraged when you are rebuked by Him. Far too often when God's chastening comes upon us, we reject it and we reject Him as well and conclude that he is not for us. That's absolutely wrong.
And I'm preaching to me here. This happens. We get discouraged. We interpret all things around us as if God is not somehow for us at this particular time.
Isn't it? Maybe you guys are all at a place of maturity in your faith that you don't need this exhortation. Well, suffer us another 35 minutes, and then you can go home and thank God that you're not like other men. This is the Christian life right here, run with endurance, the race that is set before us.
Notice. We are not to be discouraged by his rebuke. And this is not an isolated theme in scripture. Do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him.
And then notice the specific reason given in verse 6. For, isn't this beautiful? It doesn't just say don't despise the chastening, don't be discouraged when you are rebuked by him. Sometimes as parents we do that, right?
Don't this, don't that. They say, why? You don't need to know, just do what we say. God gives us the why.
This Father in His paternal care over us not only tells us don't despise nor be discouraged, but He gives you the reason why you're not to, and that is verse 6, for whom the Lord loves He chastens. So in other words, when you feel the swat from on high, praise God that he loves you. Praise God that he is your father. And he scourges every son whom he receives.
And as I mentioned, this is not isolated. We already saw this in Deuteronomy chapter 8. I mention it as if we just saw it last week. It's probably been a little while since we are in Deuteronomy.
Deuteronomy 8.5, you should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you. Have you ever been anywhere and there's an undisciplined kid around you? Have you? It's obnoxious, isn't it?
It's terrible. I remember when I first got converted, I loved the Proverbs. And somebody told me, hey, if you want to learn how to raise your children, read the Proverbs. OK.
Proverbs speak about the rod and reproof. And I thought to myself, we used to go to the laundromat. We didn't have our own washing machine. We'd go to the laundromat.
And I don't know why, but the kids there were just like terror on wheels. So I printed up the list of proverbs that dealt with child rearing. And just how arrogant and wicked this was. Excuse me, it looks like you need some help on how to rear that child.
I think the Bible could be of some benefit. And I would give them this list of proverbs. I'm sure they just love that and thanked me for it. But when we are around undisciplined children, it rises up in our heart to discipline them.
I shouldn't want to spank your kid. You spank your kid. This is common. This is nature.
This is general revelation. These are no-brainers. For whom the Lord loves, he chastens. And every son he receives, he scourges.
We know that in the earthly sphere, which the author is going to appeal to in just a moment. But for now, suffice it to say that if you're around an undisciplined child, he is obnoxious. If you're around a Christian that's never ever tasted the chastening hand of God, hopefully they're not obnoxious. But there's a dimension to their Christian experience that they haven't yet entered into.
And so this is what God through Moses on the plains of Moab. You should know in your heart. This isn't something that you should say, wow, I can't believe that our God would chasten us. No, you should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so Yahweh, your God, chastens you.
This is something common in the scripture. Peter T. O'Brien defines it this way. He says adversity, suffering, and hardships are the means that God uses to bring His people to faithful obedience.
Now, we may not have designed it that way, but God did. And I suspect that we would too. Because as you know, if you've reared children, if you only ever give them what they want, you only ever give them what they desire, you only ever give them sweets and no vegetables, they're obnoxious. You must discipline them, you must scourge them, you must chasten them in order to mold them into that image-bearer of God that they ought to be, right?
So the Lord God has purpose that suffering, adversity, trial, and hardship is the common school that all of Christ's runners must go through. Now, if we are curious about this, Hebrews 11 should have already answered this. I mean, look at the end of Hebrews 11 and what our dear brothers and sisters went through in their Christian faith. We've read it.
We should read it again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Verse 36 of chapter 11, still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword.
They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us." So you see, the saints of Christ have gone through this school. The old covenant saints.
Abel knew what it was like having a brother that ultimately murdered him. Enoch knew what it was like living 365 years with lots of kids and lots of sons and daughters. Noah knew what it was like living in a perverse, corrupt, violent society. Abraham knew what it was like.
Sarah knew what it was like. All of the patriarchs, all of the saints of Christ know what it's like. But above all, Jesus Christ went through this particular school as well. In Hebrews 2.10, for it was fitting for him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons to glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering.
Jesus, the man, Jesus, the son of man, was made perfect through sufferings. Hebrews 5, 7, who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with vehement cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death and was heard because of his godly fear, though he was a son, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. You see, for Christ it was this that he travailed that fit him, that perfected him. Again, the man Christ.
And if that was the case with Jesus, and it was the case with our forefathers, And it's going to be the case for you and I as well. And the admonition is beautiful. Do not despise the chastening of the Lord. Do not be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him.
For whom the Lord loves, He chastens, and He scourges every son whom He receives. Philip Hughes refers to five young students that were imprisoned in Lyon in 1552. He says, five young students, imprisoned and shortly to suffer martyrdom, wrote to the church in Geneva. They said, we testify that this is the true school of the children of God in which they learn more than the disciples of the philosophers ever did in universities.
They say, and they praise God for giving them His grace, not only the theory of His word, but also the practice of it. Benjamin Morgan, a theologian in the 1800s, a southern Presbyterian, made the comment. He saw several of his daughters die. They preceded him to the grave.
He said he learned more theology at their deathbed than he did in all of his books. Now don't take that and say, I don't need to read books. I'm going to go visit deathbeds. Read books and visit deathbeds.
The point is this. It is the school of suffering that very often is the means, well, that is the means that God uses to conform his children to his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. So the problem is addressed in verse 5a. There is an appeal to Proverbs in verse 5b and 6.
The Proof of God's Fatherhood
Thirdly, there is the proof of God's fatherhood in verses 7 to 8. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate, not sons.
That is proof that God is in fact for us. The presence of divine chastening and rebuke is not the demonstration of his absence, it's the demonstration of his presence. You want to know that God is for you? Look at your misery.
Not your misery. Your misery is taken care of by the grace of God. Look at your trials. Look at the afflictions.
Look at the difficulties. Why do you think James tells us in James 1, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. Notice what James does not say. Count it all joy when you find a sack of money on your way home from work.
Count it all joy when you get a promotion at work. You see, we don't need to be commanded in that vein, do we? We don't need to be commanded, count it all joy when your wife makes your favorite meal. Count it all joy when your husband brings you flowers.
No, that's something we've got down. We need to be told. We need to be commanded. We need to be exhorted by James to count it all joy when we fall into various trials.
Again. not the trial in and of itself, thank you God for taking my arm, but the fact that in the midst of the trial we learn patience. We endure. We understand. We interpret things properly.
We see that growth is in God's plan for us in that particular instance. The presence of divine chastening and rebuke is the demonstration of God's fatherhood in the life of the believer. Proverbs speaks to this. Again, these are passages that are analogous to the relationship between the father in heaven and his sons on earth.
Proverbs 13 and verse 24. He who spares his rod hates his son. You don't spank your son. You don't admonish your son.
You don't correct your son. You don't exhort your son. You don't love your son. That's what the Proverbs say.
He who spares his rod hates his son. But he who loves him does what? He disciplines him promptly. He doesn't allow that rebellion to fester.
He doesn't allow that lawless nest to grow. He drives it out of him. He understands that the rod and the reproof, they give wisdom. So we're going to help you, son, to learn this lesson of wisdom.
Proverbs 22.15. Proverbs 22.15. Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child. The rod of correction will drive it far from him.
That's what God does with us. He knows that we are foolish. He knows that we are prone to wander and prone to leave the God we love. So he applies this rod of correction to drive that folly from us so that we will not depart.
Proverbs 23.13, do not withhold correction from a child. For if you beat him with a rod, he will not die. You shall beat him with a rod and deliver his soul from hell." Now, he's not suggesting that you take a bat and you beat your son on the head. God designed the human anatomy in such a way that there is a place where you can lay some blows and it will not sustain any permanent damage.
So deliver those blows so that you deliver his soul from hell. This is what the Proverbs tell us. Do not withhold correction from a child. Do not let that lawlessness and rebellion and that foolishness just fester.
It's not going to go away. It's not going to magically disappear. God says to earthly parents, you need to take these implements that I've entrusted to you, and you need to apply them in love, in kindness, in graciousness, but you need to apply them. Discipline in the father-child relationship is a given.
If a person lacks this divine discipline, the implication is clear. Notice. But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. I've met people like that.
See, things are going pretty well right now. I wonder if God loves me. I better sprinkle some ashes in my seat. Don't do that.
I mean, there's seasons. There's ebb and flow in the Christian life. It's not every single day God heaps this trial and affliction upon you. God's good, right?
God's kind. As parents, not 5 AM, you're shouting in your son's ear, get up, get out of bed, make your bed, clean your room. No, you let him sleep till 5 30. You're kind.
You're gracious. You're good. I'm just kidding on that. You're probably thinking, man, the parenting skills of Jim Butler are pretty nasty.
You know, interestingly enough, we spanked our children. I've asked my children, are you emotionally scarred? Are you damaged? Have you been hurt?
Do you need the psychiatrist's bed? Do you need therapy to undo the wretched parenting that your father and your mother inflicted? No. They're not delicate little sensitive geniuses.
They're sinners who have foolishness bound up in their heart and God has said, hey, this is a way to drive it from them. You do that and God blesses nine times out of ten. So notice, what we find here is this analogy, and by nine times out of ten, I mean at times, unfortunately, there are Esau's and there are Ishmael's in this world, in God's sovereignty, in his decree, in his election, in his plan, all of those sorts of things. But if you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons.
For what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons." Now don't go home and say, wow, things are going pretty well, I mustn't be a Christian. Things are going swimmingly. I just got a promotion, my wife made my favorite meal.
What's happening here? I must be in a boss state. Don't do that. We can thank the Lord for a good stake and a promotion and rejoice and all that sort of thing.
Don't, you know, go to the other extremes. I mean, there's people out there that say if your church is big or if it's not big, then you've got a problem. Others say if your church isn't small, you've got a problem. Live the way God calls you to live, be faithful, and the Lord will take care of the rest.
Chrysostom, that silver-tongued preacher, in 347 to 407 says, See, it is those very things in which they suppose they have been deserted by God that should make them confident that they have not been deserted. The trials, the afflictions, the sufferings, and the persecutions are proofs of God's presence. Now, don't be one of those guys that say, wow, I must have the presence of God because I'm so terribly afflicted. You don't know what my life...
I mean, there's those people too. Oh, I've been pressed. I've been vexed. I've been pushed.
I've suffered. That's a form of boasting. That's not good either. That's just not godly, brethren.
Whenever we boast in anything, save the cross of our Lord Jesus, we've got problems. The point is, you are to run with endurance the race that is set before you, all the while enduring the chastening hand of God, which is calculated to keep us on track and to partake of His holiness. You see, that running race, that chastening comes because if it didn't, we would run off the track. Right?
Have you ever prayed, God give me this and I'm sure I'll use it for your glory? And you never got it? God knew you wouldn't use it for his glory. If you found a sack of money, you might think that you'd write checks for all the missionaries in China.
But God knows better, right? So we need to understand the Lord deals with us in this manner as a father deals with his son.
The Analogy of Earthly Fathers
And then there is that analogy drawn out specifically by the apostle in verses 9 and 10a. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us and we paid them respect. But when your father disciplines you, you ought to thank God that he loves you. You ought to thank God that your father cares for you, that your father cares enough not to let you run off the track, that he cares enough for you not to let you run into crack cocaine usage or pornography or whatever it is.
You're thankful that your father had the wherewithal or your mother to administer the rod and reproof to keep you from these paths of lawlessness. And notice what he says. We have had human fathers who corrected us and we paid them respect. You don't hate your father because he wants to do good things for you.
You don't despise your father because he has restrained you from engaging in evil. Notice the implication. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the father of spirits and live? To be subject to the Father who is the source of life is indeed to live.
To turn away from Him is to turn away from life. If we are subject to an earthly Father who disciplines us, then certainly we ought to be subject to our heavenly Father who disciplines us. What's the point? Not only should you not be weary, not only should you not be discouraged, not only should you not despise these things, but you should subject yourself to His good and gracious rule and governance over your life.
Don't try to tell Him how it's best for you. Be subject to the Father. Has that ever happened? You know, Lord, I think that if I found a bag of money, I'd be more holy.
You know, Lord, I think that if you work things this way, it would prove better for my sanctification. You know, Lord, if you would just open up to this recommendation. That's not saying we can't pray. Lay your petitions before the Lord God Almighty.
But praying is not manipulation. Prayer is not technique. Prayer is not a holy horseshoe. You don't come to prayer to try to get God to do the things that you want him to do.
No, you pray to worship, to cast yourself wholly upon him, and to be submissive to his rule in your life. Isn't that amazing? You ever been pulled over by the police or seen someone pulled over by the police? Everybody wants to tell the policeman how to do his job, doesn't he?
Have you ever done? No, I don't want you to go like this. Why aren't you catching bad guys? I've got to say, that rises up in me.
When I come down an off-ramp, and there's a policeman there seeing if we have seat belts on. I'm thinking, aren't there crack dealers and pedophiles you can go after? The point is, I want to tell that man how to do his job. I was in the military police, and they used to like to tell me how to do my job.
You don't do that with your doctor. You don't do that with your nurse. You don't say, well, you know, I think this may... No, no, they just stick you.
We do that with God. Lord, I just don't think the way you're doing things is right. Unbelievers do this all the time. Unfortunately, believers fall into this as well.
You know, God, if you just did it this way. Our human fathers corrected us, and we respect them for it. When our heavenly father corrects us, we ought to respect him for it, subject ourselves to him, and realize that He has predestined us to be conformed to the image of His Son. Romans chapter 8, 28 to 30.
Those whom He foreknew, He predestined. He predestined in order to be conformed to the image of His Son. The ones He predestined, He calls, He justifies, He glorifies. But just seeing justification and glorification there and missing the conforming to his son, we miss something.
How does he conform us to his son? Through adversity, through trial, through difficulty, through chastening. Our fathers, our human fathers, chastened us for a few days. Notice in verse 10, for they indeed for a few days chastened us.
I doubt any of our fathers are coming over to our home and spanking us because we didn't pick up our socks. Usually that's just a small time in the life of a human being, right? When you're a child, a toddler, and then you're, you know, whatever that phase is there, that's when your father does his thing. But there comes a point when your father no longer does that.
We need to understand, with your heavenly father, we're his project for as long as we're alive. It's not like, OK, I'm 18 now, Lord, you're going to just let me alone. No, they, indeed, for a few days, chastened us. Notice, as seemed best to them, there were instances where our earthly fathers imperfectly disciplined us.
There might have been a time when it really was your brother, but your father spanked you. Give them a break. That's the point. I love this.
This is realism. For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them. Your earthly fathers tried. There's going to be inconsistency.
There's going to be times of neglect. There's going to be times of overemphasis, all those things. You hear a sermon about discipline. You run home and you spank your kid.
And then that sort of wears off, and you hear another sermon, or you listen to a certain audio, or you read a book, or whatever. Yeah, honey, we need to tighten down. There's an inconsistency. There's an imperfection about the way our earthly fathers dealt with us.
They meant well, but they didn't always successfully carry it out. What's the implication? And what's the statement following? But he, for our profit, there's no imperfection in his discipline.
There's no inconsistency in his discipline. There's no lack. There's no over. It is absolutely perfect and wise, according to his plan, what he puts upon his children in order to conform them to his son.
So this discipline that we receive is, in fact, applied by God for our profit.
The Purpose of Paternal Discipline
And then that brings us to the second broad category, the purpose of paternal discipline, verses 10b to 11. Notice that we may be partakers of His holiness. that we may be partakers of His holiness. Why does He apply this discipline? Why is there trial?
Why is there affliction? Sometimes people say, wow, I really need a lot from the Lord, or He's given me a lot. I must be a tough nut to crack. Sometimes that's the case.
I'm sure that if you've reared several children, there's been a tough nut to crack in the midst of those several. You might have one child who, at the thought of getting a spanking, falls to pieces. You have the other child that after several spankings doesn't fall to pieces. Some of us are tough nuts to crack, but it's for our profit so that we may be partakers of his holiness.
There is a purpose. There is a result. God doesn't just heap affliction upon his people as sort of a game. Oh, let's see how much this guy can take before he breaks, before he cracks.
No, God applies this in order to conform us to his son so that we might be partakers of his holiness. That's the end game with God's discipline and chastening over his people. Now,
Chastening Is Painful but Fruitful
notice in verse 11 some real practical observations with reference to the purpose of paternal discipline. Now, no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful. Please don't miss that. It's painful, isn't it?
Does this mean that Christian life is health, wealth, and prosperity 24-7? No. This means that the Christian life, at times, is painful. It's difficult.
It's full of affliction and full of trials and full of hardship. And it hurts. It's not wrong to take that hurt to the Lord your God and say, Lord, I'm hurting. Please relieve some of this.
Or grant me the grace so that I may sustain this. I remember years and years ago when we were reading one of the prayer letters concerning the persecuted church. I think it was in China. The brother said, don't pray that we won't be persecuted, pray that we'll be able to stand up under persecution.
Don't pray for its removal necessarily, pray that we will be able to persevere in the midst of the trial and the travail. In other words, don't take the burden off my shoulders, Lord. Strengthen my shoulders so that I may carry this burden and partake of your holiness. But we need to understand that.
It hurts, it stings, it causes pain, discomfort, and agony. You've had children and you've spanked them. Usually they don't sing zippity-doo-dah in the midst of getting corrected. They don't say, thank you.
That was awesome. It felt so wonderful. Please administer more. For the present, it is not joyful, but rather it is painful.
And notice where he wants to come. Nevertheless, afterward, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. We are to partake in His holiness, we are to be conformed to the image of His beloved Son, and the peaceable fruit of righteousness is going to be yielded, notice, to those who have been trained by it. This isn't just a one-time seminar.
This isn't just one class. This isn't a two-hour web chat. This is a lifelong training mission where God the Lord comes to us and conforms us to the image of his Son. Pain is involved.
At the time, it will not seem to be joyful, but we need to realize that afterward, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by this discipline.
Conclusion and Application
So brethren, that is the third incentive to running with endurance the race that is set before us. When you're running that race, and trials come, and afflictions come, and hardships come, do not conclude that God is absent. but rather conclude that God is present and that he's using these things as I run this race to make me more like his beloved son, to make me a partaker of his holiness, to make sure that the peaceable fruit of righteousness is being yielded. in this particular process that we call sanctification. He then moves into this specifically in terms of the people that he's writing to. Verse 14, pursue peace with all men and holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
God uses discipline to bring this about in the lives of His people. So brethren, do not despise, do not be discouraged. Realize that whom the Lord loves, He chastens and He scourges every son whom He receives. Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Our Father, we thank you for your word and we thank you for your fatherly care and we thank you for your wisdom and your kindness and your mercy. And God, even as we consider these things, as we undergo these things, may you cause us to do so in a spirit of joy, to take James' admonition to heart, to count it all joy when we fall into various trials, knowing that you are working good in our lives, knowing that you are causing us to be partakers of your holiness and to promote or produce righteousness in our lives. Help us, God, to take these lessons to heart and to remember the scripture, to listen to the word of exhortation that comes to us as sons. And we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.