we're looking at hebrews chapter 12 this morning continuing our study in hebrews 12 and we're reading today through verse 13 we looked at the first three verses last time we'll pick up at 12 1 to set the contacts and read through verse 13 this is the word of the lord found on page 1196 in your bibles in front of you hebrews chapter 12 as we've been working through this book let's give our attention to the lord therefore to the word therefore since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us looking to jesus the founder and perfecter of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God consider him who endured from sinner such hostility against himself so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted in your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood and you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons my son do not regard lightly the discipline of the lord nor be weary when you are reproved by him for the lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives it is for discipline that you have to endure god is treating you as sons for what son is there whom a father does not discipline if you are left without discipline in which all have participated then you are illegitimate children and not sons beside this we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits and live for they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them but he disciplines us for our good that we may share his holiness for the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who've been trained by it therefore lift up your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees and make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed and we'll end the reading of God's word there. Well, J.I. Packer said years ago on this passage that God wants us to feel that our way through this life is rough and perplexing so that we may learn thankfully to lean on him. Therefore, he takes steps to drive us out self-confidence to trust in himself. So that's that's a really remarkable statement by Packer that at times that God wants to make us feel that this life is rough and perplexing that it's challenging and difficult a life rough and perplexing that we would learn to trust him that we would learn and that he takes steps to ensure that that will be the case so this is an important concept as we come today to Hebrews chapter 12 and we continue our our study in this book especially now as we move to the concept of of discipline what we have been considering in hebrews chapter 12 is that the life that we have received from god that he gives us as those who've been purchased that we are no longer our own that we are bought with the precious blood of jesus christ and that means that god has a special interest god has a special interest in each of your lives to conform us to the image of christ to complete the work that he started to finish the product and what we have not yet appreciated about the christian life is that he is directing every aspect of our lives that we would exhibit the same faith as we have been studying from hebrews chapter 11 these past weeks those who have gone before us that he is growing us in sanctification and that he is continuing us in the walk of our faith so we looked at remember we made distinctions about faith there's justifying faith where that receives and apprehends the righteousness of christ but then there's the walk of faith which he's really been concerned about to think about here and that he has decreed all of life that everything that comes down our paths he is guiding and even the sufferings and hardships of this life he is deeply concerned the author here that god's children would walk by faith he is deeply concerned that whatever he's appointed for you you'd trust him psalm 131 with childlike resting and trust but what is it that goes wrong in these hardships What is it that causes so many problems for us? What is it? And what is God's response to that? And that's what I think he wants to move us to today to think a little bit through, that we would have a good understanding of the Christian life, how the Christian life works. I think that's so important for us because I think we've struggled with that. That's what I said earlier. And what God is doing to preserve us to the end. And that has everything to do with divine discipline. Divine discipline. That we are considering today a really important concept. And we're sort of breaking it down in these three ways of receiving God's discipline and understanding God's discipline and then enduring in God's discipline. So we're looking at this theme of discipline. And we'll begin here with this really important point of receiving it. This is where we are in Hebrews 12. You remember last week we had this great illustration, this great help to us of what the Christian life is. It's a running race. He compared it to a running race, which was common to all the literature of the day. A running race where all the appointments of the hardships in the race are come from the Lord. And the common denominator in all of this is that no matter how different everyone's race is, no matter how many different challenges each one of you face, the common denominator is we are all to run the race with endurance by faith. You have your race to run. All those ones in Hebrews 11 you studied ran their race, and they're a cloud of witnesses to the faithfulness of God's promises and the future glory. now you run now it's your turn run like they did certainly but remember there were certain things that are hindering our race well we talked about the reading of the law one is the the weight of the world the weights that in that that that bear down on us and and make running difficult and then sin that ensnares us entangles the feet in the race so we stop running well the author encouraged them to look to christ remember last time who for the joy that was set before him what did he do he endured the cross for you he went all the way to the cross in joy for you were his reward i mean what a remarkable thought and he wants us to keep our eyes fixed on jesus well now we turn to god's way of helping us through the race he told us the problems you got weights on you and you got sin that's ensnaring you that's a real problem sin's pretty powerful well what is god going to do about that and this is why the the text now helps us to understand what's going on in the race the text is helping us understand your life as a christian so look at verse four he says in your struggle against sin you've not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood he's helping them put things in perspective isn't he he's really helping them to understand the christian life he he could say to these christians none of you up to this point, now think of how this applies to you, none of you up to this point have had to shed your blood in your struggle in this Christian life. That's perspective, isn't it? Especially and never like Christ shed his blood in actually atoning for sins. None of you have to do that. It's just generally true. You know, none of you in the struggle of life up to this point have had to shed your blood in your struggle of the Christian walk. God has really given us a good go of things. In general, that's true of God's people. How many people have really had to face martyrdom? There's a lot of martyrs. It could be that He's appointed you for that. But the general truth is, most of you have not had to do that. Isn't it? That's perspective. What's surprising about the statement is what it doesn't say. To me, at least, as I was looking at it this week. I couldn't get this out of their head. What was their problem? If you asked any Hebrew Christian in the first century, they would have said, our problem's Rome. Our problem's the government. It was that Rome was beginning to persecute them. Remember in chapter 10, he rehearsed some of this. Their property was being taken. They joyfully had accepted the plundering of their property at one point. Their goods were being plundered. So I would have expected him to say, if I were writing this, here's what I would have expected him to say. I would have expected him to say, in your struggle with the government, none of you to this point have shed your blood. And that would have been powerful enough. I wanted to say this to many Christians in COVID. knock it off you are not shedding your blood and resisting the government over mask mandates but the fight against the government could have led to a lot of what sin sin and it did expose a lot of sin now notice what he said in your struggle against sin you've not come to the point yet of shedding your blood have you here's what happened the government was coming down on them and what were they doing well the problem was they were not thinking right about the appointed hardship i mean this is just general when people have hardship if they don't understand the sovereignty of God and they don't appreciate and their faith is not very deep at all it's very surface they haven't grown even you can raise in the church it just has it's it's a surface level faith people get mad at God or they get angry at God and and they don't understand that all of life has appointed hardships in the race that God is doing that we would run the race by faith like they did I mean some were sawn in two in chapter 11, and some were stoned, and some conquered kingdoms, common denominator faith. What's happening here? In their struggle with the government, they were turning from Christ. That's the problem. That's the sin. You know, when there's no perspective about trial and hardship and that all your life is owned by Jesus, you realize you are a purchased possession. It's so precious, isn't it? When these trials and hardships come, many people fall apart. And that's why in this later, in the next section, let's mention bitterness. Bitterness is mentioned. And what do people do? What people do is, the sin is, that they don't turn to the Lord. They don't trust the Lord. Instead, what do people commonly do in hardship? They run away from the Lord. That's just evident. Running often to idolatry and to whatever form you want to get to here. Sexual morality, alcoholism. That's what they're running to as solutions in their life. Your struggle's not with the government. Your struggle's not with the government. Your struggle's not with flesh and blood. your struggles with sin that's what he's saying and it's in this context that this concept of discipline comes in god in your is so involved in your life and because you're not looking at things correctly at all you're not thinking correctly about what it means that your life is no longer your own and that all this path God has appointed for you and you're running away from the church and you're running away from the kingdom and you're running away from the scriptures and you're doing your own thing and you want to be entertained to death. You want to do all that stuff. This is why discipline is necessary. That's what he's saying. This is why God's discipline in your life is necessary. What he is saying is your striving is against sin. but sin is so powerful i mean sin is powerful and sin makes you stop running and and so what does god do god disciplines he's invested in that nothing was going well for these hebrew christians um the writer clearly believes here that they're under some form of chastisement for for the path that they've taken and the apostasy treats them as christians but he wants them to understand god is god is chastised he's coming after them and this is probably why these christians in the first century felt like everything that was happening everything was going wrong at once it was was what do they say um pain added to the injury of all this and i think the author did say here you need to evaluate why to understand this point we don't want to make the mistake of becoming job's friends i understand this to think that appointed hardship or suffering indicates god is angry or disciplining us when something goes wrong in our lives that that let me make that really clear up front that is um that is not the way that the author here is treating it treating discipline of the lord God has appointed sufferings for you God has appointed hardships for you and that's already planned and mapped out that's life but in that appointment you can choose sin in that appointment you can choose sin as a response and God wants you to know he is that invested to complete the project he started in you he's going to discipline you and keep you that's pretty awesome and so he explains this by citing proverbs 3 11 and 12 my son you've forgotten the exhortation that speaks to you sons and daughters understand he says sons he's thinking of all the children of the lord you've forgotten the exhortation my son do not despise the chastening of the lord and listen nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him for whom the lord loves he chases and scourges every son whom he receives now i chose a word there that you would hear that that last word is really important for six as chastises it really does have the effect of, in the word here, of scourging. Scourging. What he's essentially saying is, don't draw the wrong conclusion in your life. You may not always see sin in your life, but God as your Father, and since you are His children, is so invested in your lives since you were bought with the precious blood of his son that he and his providence is ever present to keep you and to correct you not as an angry father not as an angry father he will preserve your going out and your coming in forevermore that's his promise to you this is heavenly child care discipline is a hard word for us though i understand this you know writing this this week discipline is a hard word for us because effectively we live in a culture that has abandoned the practice of corrective discipline and we're we're seeing the consequences of it everywhere i mean this is the reason one of the great reasons society has fallen apart there's no corrective discipline notice two things here he scourges it's it's the word for whipping not as we understand whipping of course not as a sort of in our imagery as an angry master beating his slave that is that is so far from this that is not what he's talking about at all our whole conceptions have to come down when we even speak of discipline today because it's been so robbed by the culture that we don't even understand it we don't even appreciate it the lord scourges the sons and daughters he loves the lord does this so so in general we have an appointed hardship that he marked out for us but then when we when we choose sin in our lives and and sin shows up and we're not trusting in him and we're running to idols and we're ruining life something falls he may scourge or to correct us he may bring us back with chastening hardships this is why the old writers calvin and them talked about the scourge of god at this point i think he knew the response of people maybe throughout the centuries the author i don't know like god is being cruel and vindictive or just angry with his children and the author would say you're not listening to me the exact opposite is true god so loves his children that he disciplines them god so loves his children that he disciplines them the author wants us to understand god's discipline what you are facing in his scourge he is dealing with you as sons and daughters he only does this for sons and daughters do you understand that he only does this for his sons and daughters his adopted children in other words if we despise this then we despise his electing love if we despise this we despise his electing love because he leaves those who are not his children alone to do whatever they want to do. Unless his restraining hand is on it. But he gives people over. What a terrible option, isn't it? To say, you know what? Ah, just go do whatever you want to do to his children. God doesn't do that. God doesn't do that. And he presses us with asking this important question, which I think greatly implicates our generation. Couldn't get away from this this week in thinking about this. For what son is there or what daughter is there whom a father does not discipline? Well, that depends if you're raising children in post-60s America. He wants to draw a comparison of a healthy scenario. a good scenario, the righteous scenario, where even in what is natural, natural law in just society we see in general, that in a healthy father-son relationship, a father who truly cares about his child corrects him. A father is so involved in the son's life that he is willing to correct him. And the result of someone who does this is that there is great respect i mean you know this the just take boys and girls your teachers and i don't want to implicate any teacher but if you've ever had a teacher who is no discipline and has no class control and does whatever they want and you can get away with whatever you want you don't respect that person do you who do you respect you respect the teacher who has principles and doesn't fly off the handle i understand that but who is so principled he's willing to tell you the truth and willing to correct you when you go down the line those are the ones those are the teachers that made the difference well we besides this we've had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. In the ancient world, it was understood that the duty of a father was to do this and that it was a really, really, really bad sign if a father refused to discipline their children. It meant he didn't love them. Spare the rod, hate your son. See, we're running up against something so contrary to our culture. I understand this, that loving discipline, not angry beating is what I'm talking about. You understand that. This is loving discipline, loving correction. But today, the strange reversal is that the good parent in society, if I look at this, the good parent in society is viewed as the one who would never discipline the child. The good parent in society would make the child the center of the universe. The good parent would give the child everything they want. The good parent would never miss an event. Would be at every single game, every award ceremony. That's the good parent of society. They would make the child the center of life. And most people would say that's ideal parenting. I think that's the worst form of parenting. The comparison is that a good parent has their eye on the child and is lovingly instructing him and cares to correct him when he falls into sin. Because the neglect of correcting sin means, hear this, they will never truly understand who they are and what they need. You've elevated them and made them your perfect little child. But you have not taught them about sin because you have not corrected it. Without discipline, a child is never taught to hate sin. Without discipline, a child will never take sin seriously in his own life. And here's the great encouragement. God's committed to do this for you and your children. even when parents won't parents if there is no discipline of our children or even if older age if we support them in sin listen to me we're not being like god we're not loving them that's a kind of abuse but what does god do for you what does god do for you and your children well you're his children this is really good news they want to abandon jesus you want to walk away from jesus as a child of god well they want to give up in the hardships and he won't let him he won't let him do it he loves them that much that every ones of his sons and daughters that are truly his sons and daughters he is going after them like that one sheep that's walked away from the fold the 99 i think this is just beautiful he is doing this for our prophet that we may be partakers of holiness he says we'll come back to that next time if you're hearing me today this is the best news ever this is really good news of god's involvement in your life we as parents fail i have failed trust me and some of you might feel great guilt that you have not properly cared for your children and that's where they need to see from us a willingness to admit our faults and even ask for forgiveness that we're not that hard to say we haven't messed up but god is committed to properly do this and he goes and gets our wondering ones he's done it in your own life that's why you're here today whom he loves he chastens and scourges maybe your trust as a parent is that you would so lean and trust him that you would pray if your child is wondering you might pray Lord may your loving hand and chastening and scourging hand fall upon my child to bring them home maybe that's an important prayer that needs to happen what is the passage calling us to endurance in discipline endurance he knows this is hard for people this is this is hard to understand this is hard to process and so what does he say in verse 11 for the moment all discipline seems painful i know that. The author's very pastoral. He knows it's hard rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who've been trained by it. That's just a wonderful verse. Think of Romans. Not only that, we rejoice in our sufferings knowing that the suffering produces endurance. Endurance produces character. Character produces hope. Hope does not put to shame because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit whom he's given to us. Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, James. For when he stood the test, he'll receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. For, 2 Corinthians, this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. The point is, is that even in God's discipline, it has the purpose of building godly character. Isn't that wonderful? It's sometimes the scourging hand of God that when exercised has the effect of strengthening us, isn't it? And in hope trains us to live by faith, to bring us back on the path. And here's a great encouragement. I've seen this in the church where people have walked away for 40 years and come back. That's the Lord. Isn't that beautiful? Fell into alcoholism, fell into drugs, fell into awful things, and God brought them back. See, this is God's way. We typically define a blessed life only outwardly, right? If things are going well and there's no trial, no hardship. Does the time of our eating and drinking and being merry really drive us to stronger faith? Wish it would. Not good for Israel. When you build your houses and you live off the fat of the land and everything's going well, you're making a lot of money, and then you forget the Lord your God said. God says, I'm not going to let you forget me. i'm going to build true godly character in you i don't want to root a bitterness springing up in you and hardship that takes you into sin i want you to understand the purpose of all this i want you to understand that i'm strengthening you i'm preparing you for glory that there is a glory to come that you have a race to walk right now of endurance by faith and i want you to be encouraged in this short life it's a training ground and i love you so much that i gave my son to complete this work and i'm not gonna let that great investment and that blood be shed for nothing i'm not doing that says the lord and that leaves us with a powerful admonition at the end therefore any of you discouraged lift up your drooping hands strengthen your weak knees and make straight the paths for your feet that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed you know where that comes from it comes from Isaiah that comes from Isaiah 35 strengthen your weak hands and make firm the feeble knees say to those who have an anxious heart be strong and fear not behold the lord your god will come and deliver you and save you you're running a race god is committed to keep you on the track when you're weary and discouraged in your souls verse three remember the exhortation that speaks to you as sons and daughters the lord is directing your life he's not leaving it to you to keep yourself because you will run into sin he who keeps you does not slumber nor sleep psalm 121 go with the words of the heidelberg i trust god so much that i do not doubt that he will provide whatever i need for body and soul and will turn to my good whatever adversity he sends upon me in this sad world god is able to do this because he is almighty god he desires to do this because he is a faithful father are you discouraged today know that he's preparing you for glory that he's committed to your sanctification he's committed to guard and keep you and whatever he's appointed for you so we close saying you haven't come to the point of shedding blood in your struggle against sin not the government don't forget the exhortation today that speaks to you as sons and daughters. I'm demonstrating my love for you so that you will continue to run to my son, the author and the accomplisher of your faith, who after this momentary affliction, Psalm 73, afterward, he will receive you into glory. That's the kind of perspective he wants you to have through what he has for you in the race that he's assigned to you to live by faith. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us perspective on your ever-present hand in our lives. We are so thankful that you care and how wonderful it is that the great form of discipline happened right now, that You would rather, instead of a scourging hand, demonstrate through the voice of Your Word, the restoring Word that would bring all Your sheep back to the throne of grace and on the race of life with endurance. Bless us and help us and keep us, O Lord, from sin that we might serve You and glorify You and remember who we belong to in life and in death. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.