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Specifically verses 3 to 11, 
but I'll begin reading in chapter 12 at verse 1. 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 our 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 to bloodshed, striving against 
sin. 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 profit, 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. Therefore, strengthen the hands which hang down, and 
the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that 
what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. Pursue 
peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see 
the Lord. looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace 
of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and 
by this many become defiled. Lest there be any fornicator 
or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold 
his birthright. For you know that afterward, 
when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for 
he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently 
with tears. Amen. Well, let us pray. Our 
Father in heaven, we thank you for the written word and we pray 
now for the ministry of the Holy Spirit. God, we acknowledge our 
absolute and utter dependence upon you. Apart from Christ, 
we can do nothing. We cannot study the Bible, we 
cannot worship you, we cannot do anything you call us to. So 
we pray that you would supply him to us now, that you would 
guide us as we consider this passage of Scripture on a topic, 
a situation that many of us find difficult when we go through 
trials and when we go through afflictions. Very often we forget 
that word of exhortation that the Apostle calls us to remember. 
We pray again for the forgiveness of sins and all unrighteousness 
and we pray for cleansing in the blood of the Lamb. And we 
would pray, God in heaven, that your word would find its mark 
in our hearts and that you would see us through to the very end, 
cause us to reflect upon your purpose for our lives. And may 
we indeed be partakers of your holiness. And we ask through 
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Well, if you remember, 
a few weeks ago, we considered the command that was given by 
the apostle, the specific duty stated, let us run with endurance 
the race that is set before us. That's the author's concern. 
There had been some sluggishness, there had been a tendency to 
drift away, there had been stagnation in the churches that he's writing 
to, and so his primary concern is to call them to faithful perseverance 
to the end. Run with endurance the race that 
is set before us. He surrounds this particular 
imperative or command or duty with a whole host of incentives. 
The first is this great cloud of witnesses. We need to reflect 
upon the runners who went before us and listen to their unanimous 
testimony that God is indeed faithful. But as we run, we're 
not looking unto Abel, we're not looking unto Enoch, we're 
listening to their testimony, but we're looking unto Jesus. 
And Jesus is described in a whole host of blessed ways for our 
consideration as we run, as we look in faith to Him. He highlights 
the person of Christ, the work of Christ, the resolve of Christ, 
the suffering of Christ, and the exaltation of Christ. This 
is the primary incentive for you as you run the Christian 
race, looking unto Jesus. And tonight, as we consider, 
thirdly, the purpose of the Father. We are to run with endurance 
the race that is set before us, remembering God's will for us 
as His people, remembering God's disposition toward His children. That's what's covered for us 
in verses 3 to 11. And in light of this, the therefore 
of verse 12 comes with an invigorating freshness. Therefore, based on 
these things, strengthen the hands which hang down, and the 
feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that 
what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. He wants 
them to run, He wants them to be faithful, He wants them to 
endure to the end, so He calls them to consider this cloud of 
witnesses looking unto Jesus and remembering what God's purpose 
is in their lives. So I want to look at verses 3 
to 11 under three considerations. The preliminary consideration 
in verses 3 and 4. Secondly, the presence of divine 
discipline in the believer's life, verses 5 to 10a. And then the purpose of divine 
discipline in verses 10b and 11. But note first this preliminary 
consideration. Based on what he has said in 
terms of looking unto Jesus, describing who Jesus is that 
we are to look unto, notice that he gives another duty, verse 
3. Four, consider Him. That's what we need to do. We're 
looking unto Jesus, and it's not just what we have been told, 
but we also need to consider Him. We need to consider Him 
who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself. The 
believer must consider the One who endured. The believer must 
look to Him and consider how He endured. He did so faithfully. 
He did so perseveringly. He did so with faith in the Father 
and in His promises and in His purposes. And note the specific 
reasons the apostle gives for this consideration. Consider 
him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself 
in the first place, lest you become weary and discouraged 
in your souls. He wants to promote spiritual 
stamina. spiritual stamina, something 
that we need a great big dose of because it's very easy after 
a season of difficulty or hardship or perseverance or endurance, 
we want to just give up. We get battle weary, we get beaten 
down, we get bruised and broken and we want to go with Elijah 
and we want to sit under the broom tree and we want to say 
to God, take us out of this mess, I cannot continue. The Apostle, 
however, says to us that you, or I want you to consider Christ, 
lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. Again, this has 
already happened, such or has already happened in this particular 
book. In 2-1, 4-1, 5-12 to 14, and 
6-11 and 12, the author is cautioning the people of God from falling 
prey to this weariness and discouragement in the soul. Does anybody relate 
to this? Do you ever get spiritually weary? Do you ever get spiritually discouraged? Do you ever get to the point 
where you feel like you cannot go on any longer? Well, you're 
not the only one. These Hebrew Christians were 
facing something like that, and so the apostle takes pen to paper, 
he sets forth the superiority and the supremacy and the majestic 
excellency of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then he calls the 
people of God to look unto this Jesus, to consider Him who endured 
such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary 
and discouraged in your souls. In other words, consider what 
Christ went through. Consider how Jesus stood up. Consider the fact that He persevered, 
that He endured, that He was, instead of being praised and 
worshipped and glorified as He ought to have been, He was slapped 
and He was spat on and He suffered and He died and He was mocked 
and He was... all these things. And so the author is pointing 
us to Christ, not only to His person and to His work, but as 
well to the manner in which He endured these particulars, so 
that we don't become weary and discouraged in our souls. And it is as well, he wants to 
promote a sober assessment. Look at what he says in verse 
4. You have not yet resisted the bloodshed, striving against 
sin. This is an interesting statement. Again, remember the context. 
Chapter 12 is not divorced from the rest of the book. He's already 
highlighted the fact, turn there for a moment to chapter 10, that 
they had suffered for their commitment to the Lord Jesus. Notice in 
verses 32 to 34. says, you have not yet resisted 
the bloodshed striving against sin. The actual language employed, 
you have not yet resisted, indicates that they had suffered some, 
in some sense or other. It was not to the point of bloodshed, 
but they had indeed suffered. So he's causing them or calling 
them to sober assessment. You need to reflect upon the 
past. Notice in verse 32 of chapter 10. But recall the former days 
in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle 
with suffering. 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 companion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted 
the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better 
and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. You see 
what he says? They had had their goods plundered. They had had their stuff taken. 
They had known something of the suffering involved with identification 
with the Lord Jesus Christ. But the way that he says, verse 
4, you have not yet resisted to bloodshed, that also gives 
them cause to reflect on the future. You have not yet resisted 
to bloodshed, But the possibility of such a thing may be in your 
future. You've not yet resisted the bloodshed. That point, that trial, that 
difficulty, that hardship may be coming down the pipeline in 
your life. You see, brethren, it's not just 
the fact that we have suffered in the past. It may very well 
be we will suffer in the future. If suffering is not your thing, 
then Christianity is not your thing. Because when we sign the 
dotted line by God's grace to join with Christ, to join the 
kingdom of God, part and parcel of our existence in that kingdom 
is a degree of suffering and trial and tribulation. And we 
see that God has a purpose in this, and we'll unfold that as 
we move along tonight. But very specifically, He says, 
you have not yet resisted the bloodshed. The potentiality, 
the reality, the possibility of such a thing exists. But then 
notice what He says, striving against sin. Striving against 
sin, Owen says, it was not their persecutors directly, but sin 
in them that they had to conflict with all. In other words, we 
always have that issue, whether we have persecutors, whether 
we have this sort of bloodshed in our future in terms of the 
physical, we always have this striving against sin in our future. So the preliminary consideration. 
Consider Jesus, the one who endured such hostilities from sinners 
against himself. Now notice, secondly, the presence 
of divine discipline. Several things we ought to observe 
here. First, the problem. Secondly, the appeal. Thirdly, 
the demonstration. And fourthly, a comparison. Note 
the forgetfulness of God's people. Verse 5, and you have forgotten 
the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons. You see, this 
is a problem. We often forget what God's Word 
says to suffering believers. I mean, it's amazing how all 
our knowledge, all our information, all the data, all the sermons, 
all the Bible reading, all the Spurgeon we have read, goes out 
the door as soon as trial hits us. We just flounder, and we 
flail, and we say, I don't know what's happening. Well, really? 
Haven't you read Scripture? Haven't you seen what happened 
to Jesus? Haven't you seen what happened 
to Paul? Haven't you seen what happened to Israel in the wilderness? 
Haven't you reflected upon the reality that the ones whom the 
Lord loves, He chastens, He scourges, He disciplines? Paul here, specifically, 
highlights the problem of God's people. You have forgotten the 
exhortation which speaks to you as to sons. The verb with the 
preposition indicates they had forgotten entirely. This is one 
of the primary reasons that runners in the Christian race want to 
give up. As soon as trials come, as soon as difficulties come, 
as soon as our goods get plundered, as soon as the potential for 
bloodshed becomes a reality, we forget what the Bible says. 
It's because we get preoccupied with ourselves, we get preoccupied 
with our circumstances and with our situation. The very point 
of passages like these is to cause us to reflect upon God's 
Word. Do not forget Scripture. Be like 
the psalmist in Psalm 119, who's able to muse and say, it was 
good for me that I was afflicted. Because prior to my affliction, 
I was going astray from the Lord God. But as soon as that affliction 
came my way, I turned back to Him. This is the emphasis of 
the apostle here. You have forgotten the exhortation 
which speaks to you as to sons. 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 lose heart. Now, you don't 
need to raise your hand, and you don't need to sign a card, 
and you don't need to stand up and say, yeah, that describes 
me. But when affliction comes, or when trial comes, or when 
difficulty finds you, are you ever tempted to say, well, where's 
God? What's God doing? How come God isn't seeing me 
through all of this the way I think He should? Why isn't God delivering 
me from all of these hardships and these heartaches? Why isn't 
God just causing me to ascend into heaven without any difficulty 
or any rebuff along the way? Brethren, this is something symptomatic 
of God's people and the Apostle addresses it here. You have forgotten 
the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons. 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. This is Philip Hughes. In other 
words, they are in this situation for various reasons, but one 
of them is they've forgotten the exhortation. They have forgotten 
the written Word. They have forgotten what Deuteronomy 
says. They have forgotten what Proverbs 
say. They have forgotten the lessons that they have learned 
in their study of Scripture all along the way. And if this describes 
you, brethren, then you need to study Scripture, you need 
to hide Scripture in your heart, so that when trials befall you, 
you do not forget the word of exhortation. You ought to be 
able to pull from your memory banks those texts that deal specifically 
with the heartaches and the situations you face. This is why the book 
of Job is provided, you know, a world of comfort to God's people 
throughout the ages, because it speaks to suffering saints 
in the midst of trial and difficulty, and it gets their eyes off of 
circumstances to behold their God. Isn't that ultimately where 
God leads Job at the very end? I mean, the end of it all is, 
Job, behold your God. That is the tonic for suffering 
saints in the midst of their trials and their difficulties. 
Hughes goes on to say, such hardship and affliction as they have had 
to endure in consequence of their Christian 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 comfort. So the problem 
is the forgetfulness of God's people. And don't you love the 
way the author speaks in verse 5? You have forgotten the exhortation 
which speaks to you as to sons. Do you understand the import 
of that? Proverbs 3 speaks to you as to 
sons. Proverbs 3 speaks to you as to 
sons. God's word to you as sons, and 
of course daughters, if you happen to be of the feminine persuasion. I don't know if that's accurate. 
If you happen to be female, I want to say feminine persuasion, that 
could be open to interpretation in our society. So I don't want 
to do that. But you see, the scripture speaks 
to you. The scripture is for you. Therefore, 
don't forget the word of exhortation. If God goes to the trouble, and 
it's not trouble with God, but if God uses Solomon to pen the 
Proverbs, He does so for a particular reason, so that you won't forget 
that word of exhortation that speaks to you as to sons. One 
man 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 says, the utterance of 
Scripture is treated as the voice of God conversing with man. Do not forget that Word. There's 
a lot of things you have perfect liberty to forget. You can forget 
some of the things you read today or some of the things that you 
heard today, but you're not to forget the voice of God as it 
comes to you in the Scriptures. You're to take it in. You're 
to recall it. You're to keep it at ready access 
for those instances when you suffer. So in the first place, 
the presence of divine discipline, He addresses the problem. Note 
secondly, the appeal to Proverbs 3, verses 11 and 12. You have 
forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons, and 
then he highlights 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. Several things we ought 
to consider. In the first place, the author assumes what believers 
often forget, the father-child relationship because of grace 
through faith in Jesus. I think that's something we tend 
to do. As soon as something goes wrong for us, we forget that 
God is our Father. God's against me. God's got a 
problem with me. God's angry with me. God's getting 
me. He's your Father. He's the Psalm 103 God. He knows your frame. He pities 
you. He knows that you're but dust. As a father pities his children, 
so our Father pities us. The author wants them to remember 
that father-son relationship they have because of the grace 
of God. As well, the author reminds the believer what is oftentimes 
forgotten. The Father disciplines His children. That's just a reality. Again, 
this is something that we don't embrace. We need to understand 
that God disciplines us, and it's tough, isn't it? If you're 
a new believer and you haven't gone through this, you know, 
bully for you. Just stick around, you're going to have some difficulties 
somewhere down the line. I'm not a prophet and I'm not 
the son of a prophet, but I know what Scripture says, and all 
those who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. There will be trials, there will 
be difficulties, there will be hardships. But you need to look 
through the trials, you need to look through the difficulties, 
you need to look through the hardship to the Father who has orchestrated 
these things for your good. This is the point of the passage. 
This is what Proverbs 3.11 and 12 indicate. This is what God 
says to Israel in Deuteronomy 8, after highlighting the fact 
that man shall not live by bread alone. Deuteronomy 8, verse 5, 
You shall know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, 
so the Lord your God chastens you. This is a given, this is 
an assumption, this is the word of exhortation that speaks to 
you as to sons. Remember that divine relationship 
or that relationship that you have with the divine Father through 
the mediator Christ, and realize that the Father disciplines His 
children. As well, the author instructs 
the believer on the appropriate response. Do not despise it. I think it's just here as well. 
I think this passage, in many respects, I think finds at least 
some of us out. Do not despise the chastening 
of the Lord. What do we do when the chastening 
comes? We despise it, don't we? We get upset. We get grumpy. We get gloomy. We get downcast. We get sullen. We get bitter. 
This is probably what was happening in the context of these Hebrew 
Christians. And the author says, don't do 
that. Do not despise the chastening of the Lord. Do not rail against 
Him who does all things for His glory and for your good. Adversity, 
suffering, and hardships are the means that He uses to bring 
His people to faithful obedience. This is a primary emphasis in 
Scripture. We see it with Jesus in Hebrews 
2, verse 8. We see it in Hebrews 5, verse 
8. He learned obedience through 
suffering. If Christ learned obedience through 
suffering, then we will learn obedience through suffering, 
and we are not to despise the chastening of the Lord. And then 
notice what He goes on to do. Verses 7 to 8, he demonstrates 
God's fatherhood. From Proverbs 3, 11 to 12, he 
highlights the reality that whom the Lord loves, he chastens, 
he scourges every son whom he receives. And now notice in verses 
7 and 8, if you endure chastening, note that word, it comes up a 
lot, doesn't it? Run with endurance the race that is set before you. 
Christ endured the cross. We are to consider Him who endured 
the hostility of sinners, and we are to endure chastening. If you endure chastening, God 
deals with you as with sons. The presence of divine chastisement 
is the demonstration of God's fatherhood. If you take one thing 
home tonight, take that home. Take Proverbs 3 and what he says 
after home. The presence of divine chastening 
is the demonstration of God's fatherhood in your life. If you 
are not being disciplined, if you are not being tried, if you 
are not engaged in some sort of difficulty in your life, then 
note what he says, you are illegitimate and not sons. You see, the believer 
oftentimes interprets trial and difficulty and hardship as a 
sign that God has abandoned him. The apostle, however, says that 
trial and difficulty and hardship is an evidence and a manifestation 
that not only has God not abandoned you, but God is present and God 
is even inflicting this upon you so that you will be conformed 
unto the image of His beloved Son. He has a plan for you. He will conform you unto the 
image of His Son, and that oftentimes involves discipline, hardship, 
scourging, chastening, trial, suffering, and pain. You see, 
we interpret God's chastening hand as the absence of God. Paul says the chastening from 
God is the proof and demonstration of His love for us and His fatherly 
concern. Chrysostom 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. You are to run with endurance 
the race that is set before you. You are to be looking unto Jesus, 
and all the while there's going to be this hardship along the 
way. Don't immediately conclude that God is not with you. If 
we listen to our Apostle accurately, when those hardships are there, 
we will immediately conclude that God is with us. That God 
is doing something in the midst of these trials and difficulties, 
and that God is about exercising his love toward us. Now, note 
the comparison with earthly fathers. I love his argument in this whole 
section. Notice in verses 9 and 10. He 
says, furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us 
and we paid them respect. That's counter-cultural, isn't 
it? For a man or a woman to discipline their children is just a terrible 
invasion of the privacy and the beauty of that. No, we respect 
those who love us enough to do hard things. We respect those 
who love us enough to discipline us and to tell us when we get 
out of line. Faithful are the wounds of a 
friend. And this is the emphasis here. We have had human fathers 
who corrected us and we paid them respect. What's his point? If we paid our earthly father 
respect because he loved us enough to scourge us and chasten us 
and keep us from the sorts of wickedness that we would have 
happily pursued, shall we not render respect and love and adoration 
and honor to our God? Shall we not much more readily 
be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? If we kiss 
the rod inflicted upon us by our earthly fathers, not literally, 
but metaphorically, we embrace the reality that they have done 
this for our good, and we have indeed respected them for this, 
why do we get so upset about God? Why do we flip out and flail 
about and say, I can't believe this is happening. I can't believe 
you're doing this to me. If we understand the argument 
righteously or we understand it correctly, we will say, thank 
you, Lord God, most high. It was good for me that I was 
afflicted. It was good for me that I had 
this difficulty. It was good for me that I had 
this hardship. What does Paul do in 2 Corinthians? He has this thorn given to him. He pleads to the Lord to take 
it away, and he then rests content in the reality where God says, 
My grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made manifest 
in your weakness. You see, we need to honor the 
One who does things for our good. Our human fathers corrected us 
and we respect them for it. Notice, he says in verse 10, 
for they indeed for a few days chastened us to seem best to 
them, but he for our profit that we may be partakers of his holiness. 
They do it for a few days, don't they? I mean, from the time, 
you know, whenever you start disciplining your children, the 
father said, break their will when they're young. If you don't 
have their will broken by age two, you've lost them. Did you 
know that? That's what they said. That's 
what they said. But it's from 2 to, you know, 
they get married at 18 or 19. It's a few days. Right? That's how they operate. That's 
what earthly fathers do. For they indeed for a few days 
chastened us, as seemed best to them, but he for our prophet. 
God chastens us now for eternity. It's not just for this temporal 
life, but it's unto our place in heaven. And notice, our fathers, 
our human fathers, chastened us as seemed best to them. I've 
always taken great comfort in this particular clause, as a 
human father who has had to discipline children. And kids, look at that, 
what he says there. Your fathers chasten you as seemed 
best to them. Sometimes they make mistakes. 
Sometimes they do error. Sometimes they don't actually 
catch the culprit and they might punish the innocent. But they 
do their best, right? I mean, you don't write off your 
dad, you don't write off your mom because they made a mistake. 
No, you understand, they did as seemed best to them because 
they're imperfect creatures, they're fallible beings. I don't 
know if this goes on in a six-year-old, but this is how you should think. 
They did it as seemed best to them, right? Take heart, parents, 
you don't always do everything perfectly. You have creaturely 
and sinful limitations. You will never do all things 
perfectly. It's just the nature of the case. But you do things 
as seem best to you for this few days of chastening. But God's 
chastening is perfect, consistent, and always right. He doesn't 
make mistakes. He doesn't mess up. He doesn't 
inflict a trial or a scourge or a chastening upon some poor 
slob and then, oh, I meant that for the other guy. I just don't 
know what I was doing there. That's not what God does. Anything 
you get comes from the hand of a perfect God. Anything you get 
comes from the hand of a perfect Father. He does it for our profit, 
is what the Apostle says. Now notice, in the third and 
final place in terms of the overarching concern of the passage, verses 
10b and 11, note the purpose of divine discipline. 10b, that we may be partakers 
of His holiness. See, this is why God does what 
He does. This is why we suffer. This is why there's chastening. 
This is why there's difficulty. This is why there's trial and 
hardship. It's so that we may be partakers 
of His holiness. Again, Romans chapter 8, specifically 
in verse 29, for those whom He foreknew, He predestined to be 
what? To be conformed unto the image 
of His Son. If the Son of God learned obedience 
through suffering, then the sons of God will learn obedience through 
suffering. We will grow in our pursuit of 
holiness. We will be partakers of His holiness 
as a result of His chastening of us. That's the emphasis in 
this passage. That, we may be partakers of 
holiness. Notice, we need to be reminded 
that divine discipline is painful. Verse 11. Now, no chastening 
seems to be joyful for the present, but painful. Just love it. It's just true, 
right? You're not running through this 
race and you get smacked on the rear end and you just have a 
big grin on you. Yeah! No, it doesn't seem joyful 
for the present, but painful. It hurts. I'm not minimizing 
and I'm not suggesting that we, you know, paint on a big phony 
smile when difficulty sees us in our lives. We understand God 
loves us. We understand that He scourges 
us. We understand that this validates or demonstrates the father-son 
relationship that we bear to Him. We need to keep it in our 
mind, brethren. I think I tried to bring this 
out this morning, at least in the confession study. Sacrifice 
implies pain. or deprivation in some sort or 
other. In other words, when you sacrifice 
something, that means you're depriving yourself of its use 
and benefit and giving it to someone or something else. Well, 
the same is true with discipline. It implies pain, doesn't it? 
There's a hurt. There's a soreness. There's a 
trial involved, and we need to be reminded of that. Now, no 
chastening seems to be joyful for the present, painful. Turn to John 15 for a moment. John 15, where Jesus teaches 
essentially this message to his disciples using the analogy of 
the vine and the branches. John 15 and verse 1, I am the 
true vine and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in 
me that does not bear fruit he takes away and every branch that 
bears fruit he prunes that it may bear more fruit. Now, for 
those who have been here for some time, I preached John's 
Gospel many years ago, and I think it was at this particular place 
that I used a personal illustration of my ability to prune. We rented 
a house in Palmdale, California, and in the backyard it was overgrown 
with rose bushes. I'm not talking about a little 
you know, a little bit of a bush. I mean, there was just, as long 
as the wall was, there were big, meaty rose bushes just full of 
branches and thorns and just a whole horrific thing. Now, 
the manner in which I pruned those rose bushes was with a 
chainsaw. I took a chainsaw in the heat 
of the day and I went out there and I just started hacking. I 
had never been trained on pruning. I don't still think I struggle 
with the concept. I think I understand it at least 
in terms of the theory of it, but in terms of practice, I took 
the chainsaw and I hacked as many particular branches off 
of those bushes. I know my brothers who are in 
this field are going, no, you don't do that with a chainsaw. 
But it was overgrown and it needed pruning. Now I like to think 
that somewhere out there some lady has a bonnet on on that 
same beautiful sunny day and she has her little clippers or 
nippers or whatever they call those and she's out there pruning 
them delicately and talking to them as she does it and spraying 
them with water as she goes about it. You know what Jesus is saying 
here? Every branch in me that does 
not bear fruit, He takes away. And every branch that bears fruit, 
He prunes that it may bear more fruit. Now, I illustrate this, 
or I use this illustration to suggest this. There are times 
in our Christian race There are times in our Christian life, 
there are times and seasons where it is the case that God deals 
with us as that woman who's wearing the bonnet, using her snippers 
to get away the rough patches of the branches that are no longer 
fruitful in our lives. Other times, he sends a man with 
a chainsaw to take and to hack away particular branches that 
are faulty, particular branches that are restricting growth. 
The same purpose is in view, the same trials are, or the same 
end result is in view, but the trial and the pain associated 
with that pruning might differ in degrees. The chainsaw causes 
more and the snippers less. And I think we need to appreciate 
about the Christian life. God doesn't always just prune 
us with these little snippers. Sometimes it takes a chainsaw 
to get our attention. I'm not suggesting God actually 
brings a chainsaw and starts hacking our lives up. But there 
are trials and there are difficulties, brethren, that you have to confess 
or have to acknowledge that seem a bit more difficult than others, 
but we have to remember that God's purpose remains the same. That we may be reminded that 
divine discipline is painful, no chastening seems to be joyful 
for the present, but painful. And then he goes on to say, and 
end the section, nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable 
fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. 
This is God's purpose for your life, is to be training you for 
the peaceable fruit of righteousness. It is to produce growth. It is 
to cut away dead branches so that you may indeed bear fruit 
and bring glory to God, honor to the Savior, and happiness 
to your own situation. Well, in conclusion, as we survey 
this larger section, 1 to 11, there are reminders with reference 
to the Christian race. The believer must act upon the 
command to run with endurance the race that is set before us. 
If you have been lazy, if you have been sluggish, if you have 
drifted away, you need to get renewed in your vigor to run 
with endurance the race that is set before you. You need to 
run with endurance the race that is set before you, listening 
to the consistent testimony of the Old Testament saints that 
declare God is faithful. And when you run with endurance 
this race, you need to be looking unto Jesus, the author and the 
finisher of our faith. The One who, for the joy that 
was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and 
He has sat down at the right hand of God. And you need to 
consider the purpose of the Father. The presence of discipline in 
your lives does not mean the absence of God. The presence 
of discipline in your lives means the presence of your Father in 
your life. It's a blessed, beautiful concept that we need to wrap 
our minds around. As well, the believer must guard 
against becoming weary and discouraged. Notice in verse 3, lest you become 
weary and discouraged in your souls. You know what one of the 
big sins the apostle deals with in Hebrews is? It's called apostasy. Apostasy means an utter falling 
away from faith in Jesus Christ. It means to defect from, or to 
turn away from, or to turn back from following Jesus Christ. 
Do you think it happens that a man, a woman, a boy or a girl 
professes faith in Christ, wakes up on a Tuesday morning and defects, 
apostatizes or rejects everything they've ever heard about Christianity? 
Not typically. Not ordinarily. Do you know what 
the precursors to apostasy are? There are things like weariness. There are things like discouragement. There are things like bitterness. 
There are things like, you know, not appreciating God's purpose 
for your life. We need to understand that the 
first uprisings toward apostasy are to be dealt with severely. If you're weary, get some rest. If you are discouraged, get some 
encouragement. And this is absolutely necessary 
for Christian runners. If you are weary, God doesn't 
yell at you to take some rest. What does Jesus say to His disciples? He says, come apart and rest 
a while. What does God give you at least 
one of each and every week to rest you, to refresh you, and 
to help you? God is all for this, and we need 
to embrace it. If there's a weariness that is 
settling in, if there is a discouragement that is settling in, Do not entertain 
it. get some rest, get some refreshment, 
get some things that will help energize you so that you may 
run with endurance the race that is set before you. I love that 
scene when Elijah, the Tishbite, engages in this great victory 
over the prophets of Baal. In the next scene we see him, 
we see him under the broom tree, and he is discouraged. He is 
cast down. And I don't think it's a sign 
of mental inability or incompetence. I think there's some other things 
going on in that passage that we really haven't reckoned with. 
And, you know, if you stay here on Wednesday night, someday we'll 
get to 1 Kings chapters 18 and 19. It's going to be a little 
while away, but the point is that when he is discouraged and 
when he is weary, what does God do? He feeds him and tells him 
to get some rest. Isn't that beautiful? Isn't the 
fix in the Christian life so often so simple that we just 
completely neglect it? Oh, I'm so weary. Then get some 
extra rest. I'm so discouraged. Then read 
Spurgeon. You know, there are simple fixes 
in the Christian life that we oftentimes neglect to the detriment 
of our souls. The answer to weariness isn't 
just throw it off, neglect it and pretend like it's not there 
and just keep running. The answer to weariness may be 
taking a nap. The answer to weariness may be 
seeking refreshment with some food and some rest. The answer 
to discouragement is not to give in to it, not to start whining 
and sniveling and crying, but to actually seek, by the grace 
of God, to encourage your heart in the Scripture. And as well, 
a reminder with reference to run the race, we must listen 
to the exhortation which comes to us as to sons. And then finally, the purpose 
of the Father. The difficulties we face are ordained by God for 
our good. See, Romans 8.28 means to get 
off of the refrigerator magnet and into the heart. Romans 8.28 
means to get off the bumper sticker and into our heart. God does 
work all things for good, to those who love Him, to those 
who are called according to His purpose. That is a settled reality. 
That's why the psalmist says what the psalmist says in Psalm 
119. In a context where he's dealing with his own affliction, 
what does he say? You are good and you do good. 
He affirms that theology proper because in the midst of affliction, 
one of the things that goes out the door is our understanding 
of theology proper. So we need to appropriate Romans 
8.28. We need to keep it near and dear 
to our hearts. Secondly, the discipline we undergo is designed 
to conform us unto Christ. Romans 8.29. He conforms us unto 
the image of his Son. The presence of discipline, thirdly, 
confirms that God is our Father. Hebrews 12, 7. If you are not 
being disciplined, then arguably you are illegitimate. But if 
you are disciplined, don't conclude God's not with you, but realize 
that this is God's means for your life. And then fourthly, 
the process of discipline is not enjoyable, but the fruit 
of it is good. The actual process, the difficulty, 
the pain involved and associated with it. We don't say, thank 
you God, may I have another. Lord, just keep pounding me. 
No, that's not the way that persons respond. But we need to understand 
the peaceable fruit of righteousness is yielded by it. And then finally, 
and I think very necessary, the believer must resist the tendency 
to despise discipline. The believer must resist the 
tendency to despise discipline. This is what Solomon says, my 
son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord. Do not rail against 
him, do not complain against him, do not argue with him. do 
not begin to rebuke Him, but realize that He has your best 
purpose in view, and as a result, He will take you to the woodshed 
as necessary to scourge you in order to conform you unto the 
image of His Son. Well, let us pray. Our Father 
in Heaven, we thank You for Your Word and we thank You for Your 
purpose in our lives. And we pray, God, that You would 
help us to take these things to heart, help us to listen to 
the word of exhortation that does come to us as to sons. And 
may we reflect upon these truths. And if it's the case that now 
we don't have much by way of trial and difficulty, may we 
nevertheless hide these things in our heart for such an occasion. 
And may we see that your purposes are most glorious and most wondrous 
and most excellent. And may we embrace these things 
for your glory and honor and praise. Go with us now and watch 
over us in this coming week and we pray through Jesus Christ 
our Lord. Amen.