God's Loving Hand of Discipline

GOD’S LOVING HAND OF DISCIPLINE Spring Valley Mennonite; May 3, 2020; Hebrews 12:4-11 I know after seven weeks of being apart we are eager to worship together, but at this time it looks like we will not be gathering until the 17th of this month. On a positive note, we have added a number of visitors on our Facebook page and many are watching these sermons on the YouTube channel. When we resume on-site meetings, I will post our decision on social media and put it on the call chain for our members. If you have found us on YouTube or Facebook during the lockdown, and you are within driving distance, we invite you to join us in person! We are excited about the new contacts we have made! God always puts a silver lining around the dark clouds of adversity. My plan at present is to continue the video recordings of our Sunday services, even after we are meeting in person. This pandemic has shaken our individual lives, but God promises that if we are His children, we will not be “Greatly shaken” (Psalm 62:2: He only is my rock and my salvation, My stronghold; I shall not be greatly shaken.) All of us have been inconvenienced, and some have suffered the loss of income. By God’s grace, I haven’t heard that any from our congregation have become ill. We all will continue to make adjustments to a new normal. The older I get the less I like change, but change is inevitable, even in our Christian life. We are to “Grow in the grace and knowledge of God” and growth means change. God has a plan for each one of us, and as we learned last week, the goal of the race we are in is Christlikeness. God has many tools or ways to produce that Christlikeness, to conform us into the image of Christ, and to produce holiness in His children. One of His most effective tools is the subject of our passage today. I speak of how God uses discipline in our lives to shape and mold us. I am speaking today to my fellow Christian brothers and sisters. Discipline is a family matter. I must admit that when I hear the word “discipline” it makes me uneasy. My Dad was not overly strict, but I knew there were boundaries I dare not cross. I grew up knowing the feeling of my Dad’s hand of discipline applied to my seat of learning! This didn’t happen often, but it made an impression on me. My behavior was shaped by the knowledge of what would happen if I crossed the line. There were definite standards of right and wrong, informed by God’s Word and reinforced in our church community. As a parent, I soon learned that the truth of Proverbs 22:15: “Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will remove it far from him.” Such disciplinary measures are part of the responsibility of a parent. Again, in Proverbs 13:24, “He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him diligently.” Our Heavenly Father passionately loves us, and consequently, He disciplines His children diligently. This is the truth we find in Hebrews chapter 12. Read Hebrews 12:4-11. I. WHAT IS THE GOAL OF GOD’S DISCIPLINE? Back in chapter 10, we saw that these believers had experienced persecution in “former days.” Even though this persecution was described as “a great conflict of suffering” which involved public reproach and confiscation of their property, they had not yet shed any blood. The implication was “as did the Lord Jesus.” Note that the persecution came from “striving against sin.” Although the perpetrators of this opposition might have been human, the motivating force against believers is Satan, the author of sin. This brings to mind what Paul described as a spiritual battle against spiritual forces of darkness in the unseen world. We fight not against enemies of flesh and blood. It is a spiritual war, fought daily. And it is successfully fought with spiritual weapons, the most effective being the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. We are at war with outside forces, but also with the principle of sin within ourselves. It has been said, “We have met the enemy, and it is us!” We have been delivered from the penalty of sin through the cross work of Jesus, but we deal with the power of sin every day. One of the most crucial principles of the Christian life is how we deal with these sins when we do yield to temptation. This is basic Christian living. When (not if!) we sin, the indwelling Holy Spirit convicts us. If we deal with that sin through repentance and confession, that ends the matter right there in accordance with 1 John 1:9 (If we confess our sin He is faithful and just to forgive us that sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.) But…if we do not deal with that sin in a timely manner, God begins using His tool of discipline. The reason for this process of godly discipline lies in God’s passionate love for His children. Often, we forget or misunderstand, as verses 5 and 6 state, that God’s discipline is always motivated by God’s love. God hates sin, for it is the direct opposite of everything God is. God is light, sin is darkness. God is holiness, sin is unrighteousness. God creates, sin destroys. God is a God of order; sin creates only chaos. God hates sin and what it does to us. So, for our protection, and out of His great love for us, God has established boundaries, moral laws that for believers are inscribed on our hearts. When we cross those boundaries and fail to recognize it or ignore the Spirit’s voice, God seeks to correct us through the application of discipline. I think it was Adrian Rogers who said, “When God gives us a commandment, it is like saying, ‘Don’t build a fire in your living room!’” Such forgetfulness, or “regarding lightly” the discipline of the Lord can have disastrous implications for the Christian’s life. Consider a believer whose life is continually in turmoil. They seem to always be in some sort of crisis or dealing with some overwhelming problems. While it is dangerous to jump to conclusions about someone else’s problems, might it be that they have disregarded the gentle voice of the Spirit’s conviction and are experiencing the increasingly heavy hand of God’s discipline? I found this information about the word Scourges in verse 6: (It) “refers to flogging with a whip, and was a common Jewish practice (Matt. 10:17; 23:34). It was a severe and extremely painful beating. The point of Hebrews 12:6b, and of Proverbs 3:12 (from which it is quoted), is that God’s discipline can sometimes be severe. When our disobedience is great or our apathy is great, His punishment will be great.”1 But the goal of this discipline is the peaceful fruit of righteousness. I want to address one issue related to God’s discipline, and that is-- II. HOW DO WE RECOGNIZE GOD’S DISCIPLINE? This question is more complicated than it seems on the surface, for the methods God uses for discipline can closely resemble the every-day trials of life. The trials of life like disease, financial setbacks, natural disasters, strained relationships, as well as the natural results of aging are the results of the principle of sin. We live in a broken world where things go wrong. God gives us strength and wisdom in navigating these natural trials, and as we trust God through them, we grow and mature. James 1:2-4: “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” But while God uses the trials of life to mature us, the same sort of trials may come into our lives as godly discipline. Consider the case of the Corinthian believers who were misusing the Lord’s Supper with selfish and sinful hearts. 1 Corinthians 11:28-30: “But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason, many are weak and sick, and a number sleep. But if we judged ourselves rightly, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord in order that we may not be condemned along with the world.” Clearly, weakness, illness and even death can be God’s hand of discipline. Likewise, financial setbacks, relational issues, and personal injury may be things God is using to bring us back to the pathway of righteousness. God has all the resources of the universe at His disposal to turn me around and correct me. When we fail to respond to the gentle prompting of the Holy Spirit to confess our sin, God moves to His method of discipline. So how do we distinguish between the ordinary trials of life and God’s hand of discipline? How about simply asking God? When something happens in our lives we should pray and ask the Holy Spirit to shine His light upon our hearts and reveal anything that might be causing the problem. Is there a conviction of sin? The Holy Spirit is completely capable of speaking to us; He wants us to be rid of anything sinful. If there is no conviction of sin, we can have confidence that the trial is something God wishes to use to mature us. We can begin to look for the silver lining around the cloud. We can face such trials with an attitude of joy, realizing God is working in our lives to mature us. What are the results of-- III. THE RESULTS OF GODLY DISCIPLINE There is a story of a young man interviewing the president of a successful business. One of the questions he asked was, “What is the key to building a successful business?” The reply was simply, “Making good decisions.” “And how do you learn how to make good decisions?” was the follow-up question. The president smiled and said, “Through making bad decisions!” We all grow in faith as we learn and instructed by the consequences of our bad decisions. Many years ago, I received a phone call—out of the blue-- from a very persuasive stockbroker about a “wonderful opportunity” to invest in a stock which was guaranteed to double in worth in a matter of weeks. You can imagine the end of the story: instead of doubling in value, it went the other way, and I lost most of my investment. I learned a lesson from my mistake. When God disciplines us, His goal is to teach us the foolishness of our mistake. I have learned how unpleasant and painful God’s discipline can be, and I actively now seek to avoid it. Discipline trains us. It educates us in the way of holiness. As you have been out in public, have you ever observed a child throwing a tantrum? We all have thought, “If that were my child, I know how I would resolve that issue!” But after we walk out of the store, we soon forget the episode. That child is not my responsibility. We only discipline our own children, and perhaps others to whom we have been given that responsibility. A very positive implication of God’s discipline is that it proves we are His children! Look at Verses 7 and 8: (READ). Could it be more clearly stated that if God does not discipline us, we are not His child? All men are subject to God’s punishment; only God’s children receive His discipline. A problem is that often discipline feels like punishment, but we must realize that Jesus bore all the punishment for our sins on the cross. We will never be punished for our sin, but we will be disciplined out of love. We never will face the eternal wrath of God, as Jesus bore that on the cross. This is why the Father turned His holy face away from the Son, prompting Jesus to cry out, “Father, why have You forsaken Me?” Verses 9 and 10 tell us that God’s discipline produces two things: life and holiness. In exploring what is meant by “life”, I wonder if the author is calling to mind the penalty under the Mosaic Law for a rebellious son who would not respond to correction and discipline: he was to be stoned to death! This was extreme, but it demonstrates how seriously God considered obedience to a parent. God is our “Heavenly Parent.” Referring again to the passage in 1 Corinthians 11, the result of continual disobedience was that some of them died. We remember the account of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5 who lost their lives because of lying about the sale of a property. Continuing in rebellion to God, rejecting His correcting hand of discipline, may result in a premature death of a believer. In God’s eyes it is better to remove a believer than to have them continue in this life. Discipline produces life, and I would add, life more abundantly! It has been stated like this: “You do not know what victory is until you have fought a battle. You do not know the meaning of freedom until you have been imprisoned. You do not know the joy of relief until you have suffered, or of healing until you have been sick. You do not know what living is all about until you have experienced some problems and hardships.”2 Discipline also produces holiness as verse 10 states. God wishes to share His holiness with us, as Ephesians 3:19 states, “…that we may be filled up with all the fullness of God.” This is God’s desire for each of His children, but this requires that we accept His loving discipline. Note again, that discipline is a function of God’s goodness, “He disciplines us for our own good.” A final word about God’s discipline: it seldom is pleasant. Often it is downright painful! But it will not last forever. When we realize the wonderful results of it, that it will result in life, holiness and the peaceful fruit of righteousness, we will accept the discipline with submission and obedience. May God give us the discernment and wisdom to respond to God’s love when He applies His loving hand of discipline. And, may we first respond to the gentle voice of the Holy Spirit to deal with our sins promptly, avoiding the necessity of discipline.