The Training Manual

take your Bibles and turn to
the book of Hebrews once again Hebrews chapter 12 Hebrews chapter
12 we know now that Having heard of it since the beginning of
this study that these believers, these first century Jewish converts
to Christianity living in Jerusalem, we know that they’re in trial.
They’ve been in trial. They had been in trial from the
earliest moments of their Christian profession. Persecution broke
out upon Christians almost immediately, as you’ll recall, focused initially
on men like Peter and John and Stephen. But as time went on,
persecution became more general, more widespread and more acute. Now, in addition to their ongoing
harassment from their countrymen, believers along with the Jews
faced a new and common threat, a threat from the Romans. who
were preparing to overthrow this chief city. The church in Jerusalem
had weathered the violent storms of persecution which they had
met in the earliest years of the church. But advancing nearly
40 years forward, now a new threat was facing them, a far worse
threat than the hatred of the religious Jews, the threat of
conquest by the Roman government. The entire political climate
had suddenly changed. Nero had lost his patience with
both Christians and Jews. There was a dark cloud gathering
over the region of Palestine. Those who had seen and heard
Jesus, both Jews and Christians, knew well of his words. the forewarning
of destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, where he said, not
one stone would be left which will not be torn down. We know
now that those words saw a literal fulfillment in 70 A. D. And in
all likelihood, we are just months, if not weeks or even days from
that faithful date. The entire city of Jerusalem
Jews and Christians both could feel the tension. And so this
writer has sought to comfort and warn and instruct and exhort
the believers in Christ in that city. He knew well that the city
would be largely destroyed. The temple would be utterly ruined.
People would die. It was one of the most cataclysmic
events of human history. and it’s about to unfold. But
beyond the loss of property and the temple and the city and of
the lifestyle itself, God and this writer were more concerned
about the weak and failing faith of some of these Christians.
The greatest concern of all was that some of these believers
who had so ardently and boldly professed faith in Christ were
now apt to abandon that faith entirely. And so, as trial piled upon trial,
and as with most believers, the nature and purpose of trials
became to them fuzzy, bewildering. God’s people were not able to
make sense of their predicament. Trouble mounted. Concern gave
way to anxiety. Doubt set in. Had God abandoned
them? Was he even still in control?
Did he care? These sufferings seemed to make
absolutely no sense. And so what these believers needed
was perspective. biblical perspective, God’s perspective. They needed to discover God’s
plan for this whole predicament. They needed desperately to gain
the divine understanding of the purpose of trials. What they
needed was a course on suffering, a guide for understanding God’s
discipline. What they lacked was a manual
about training. A training manual. And that’s
exactly what our faithful writer provides in these verses in chapter
12. Read along with me, if you would,
beginning in verse 4 of Hebrews 12. You have not resisted to
the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin, And
you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as
sons. My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor
faint when you are reproved by him. For those whom the Lord
loves, he disciplines, and he scourges every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you
endure. God deals with you as sons. For what son is there whom his
father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline,
of which you have all become partakers, then you are illegitimate
children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers
to discipline us, and we respected them. Shall we not much rather
be subject to the father of spirits and live? For they disciplined
us for a short time as seemed best to them. But he disciplines
us for our good so that we may share his holiness. All discipline
for the moment seems not to be joyful but sorrowful. Yet to
those who have been trained by it afterwards, it yields the
peaceful fruit of righteousness. Therefore strengthen the hands
that are weak. the knees that are feeble and make straight
paths for your feet so that the limb which is lame may not be
put out of joint but rather be healed. We have looked at this approach
to Hebrews for many weeks looking at the admonitions, and they
are enduring admonitions. And he’s given many over the
course, I’m not going to review the entire list, but he began
with the exhortation that if we are to glorify Christ in a
great trial, we must listen to the one who is greater than the
angels, chapters 1 and 2. In chapter 5, he admonished us
that we must become spiritual adults if we’re going to glorify
Christ in the midst of this trial. We have to cultivate a relationship
with the Holy God in chapter 10. We must fulfill our obligation
to the body of Christ, 10, 23, and 24. We must persevere to
the salvation of our souls, chapter 10, verses 35. In 39, last two weeks, we spent
our time looking and being reminded that if we are to glorify Christ
in a great trial, we must strenuously live out our Christianity. Chapter
12, verses 1 through 3. And so we come to this section
and the model is the same. These are enduring admonitions.
They are every bit as much for us as they were for those first
century Jews facing an invasion by a foreign army. We face our own trials. And if
we are to glorify Christ in the midst of great trial, number
nine, we must embrace God’s discipline as a blessing. We must embrace
God’s discipline as a blessing. And so what the writer provides
here for us is a training manual on discipline, a training manual
on the whole issue and matter of trials. And what he gives
us is not an exclusive word on discipline as we’ll see, but
he does give us a survey. He doesn’t just make one point,
but he rather gives us a full spectrum of consideration of
the matter of discipline. He gives us four keys. to spiritual discipline, to the
characteristics rather of spiritual discipline. First of all, he
gives us the welcome of discipline. He tells us that discipline should
be welcomed. Look at verse four, you have
not resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving
against sin. You’ve forgotten the exhortation,
which is addressed to you as sons. Throughout this letter,
this writer has not repudiated the concerns of these believers. He has not invalidated their
trials. He has not downplayed them. He
has not made light of them. In fact, remember in chapter
10, verse 32, remember the former days when after being enlightened,
you endured a great conflict of sufferings. He acknowledged
them and partly through being made a public spectacle, through
reproaches and tribulations, becoming shares with. They looked
for opportunity to come alongside those who were in the crosshairs
of both the Jews and the Roman government. The trials that they
faced and the trials that they are now facing are real. He doesn’t
downplay them. They are substantial and they
are legitimate. And we have the ability now to
look back in history and to discover just how great the devastation
was that they were facing. More than 80,000 soldiers had
surrounded the city of David and had begun to slowly squeeze
the life out of her until they attacked and destroyed it. in
July and August of AD 70. The destruction of the temple,
you may remember, was so thorough that Jewish historian Josephus
remarked that one couldn’t even tell that there had been a structure
on the site, let alone one of the grandest structures of that
period. But these believers were acting
like so many chicken littles. Racing about the yard squawking
that the sky was falling. The truth is the sky is not falling. Things are difficult. The future
does look grim. Trouble has come. Just as it
has to our nation. But these trials that they are
facing are for their good. They have been ordained by God. They serve a divine purpose,
namely the eradication of sin. But even here, our writer doesn’t
minimize the pending doom they’re facing. He does put it in perspective
when he says, you have not yet faced, pardon me, you have not
yet resisted to the point of shedding blood. Jesus, their
great example in the faith, had done so. They had not. He had just reviewed the great
hall of faith where many of their predecessors of the faith had
suffered this ultimate end. They had died. Please know that
the writer here is not ignorant of the immediate history of Jerusalem. He knew that not only had the
Savior been crucified, scores of other believers had been martyred,
beginning with Stephen. But he’s talking to them. He’s
not suggesting that there had never been a murder in Christ’s
name in the history of Jerusalem. Only that they personally had
not suffered that fate. They had been harassed and mistreated
and maligned and hated and mocked. And some of their friends in
Christ had indeed suffered and suffered the ultimate cost of
their faith in Christ, but they had not yet. And as delicately as he can,
he does not suggest to them for a moment that martyrdom could
not happen. What he says here, he says, you
have not yet Resisted to the point of shedding blood, he leaves
the door wide open. He very, very delicately leaves
the door open to God’s sovereign plan. Godly Puritan John Brown said
very well, he said, it is of great importance if we would
remain faithful in times of trial, that we habitually keep in mind
the worst evils. that we can be exposed to. Think
of the worst possible thing, martyrdom, that could be done
to us. And that puts it immediately
in perspective, what we’re facing. This will preserve us, he says,
from being shaken or surprised by the less evils which may befall
us. And instead of murmuring that
the burden laid on us is so heavy, We have reason to be thankful
that it is not heavier. Those are good words. And so
they must therefore continue to strive against sin. This writer,
this faithful friend has been alternately instructing and encouraging
and warning and exhorting these readers all along. They need
encouragement because they are in the midst of a battle. They are contending and they
must continue to contend. But the battle is not against
some person. The battle isn’t even against a group of persons
or even against the devil himself. Their battle is against their
own flesh. Sin. He has repeatedly appealed
to them about that. Remember Hebrews 3, just listen,
you’ll remember this. Encourage one another day after
day, as long as it’s still called today, remember that? So that
none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
Their sin had been paid in full by the only one who had been
tempted in all things as we are yet without sin. And he had only
just now in this chapter, in the first three verses of this
chapter, he had already addressed sin here. Let us lay aside the sin which
so easily entangles us, he urged. Lay it aside. Identify those
areas in your life as sin and eradicate it. Strip it off like
a worthless, smelly garment and cast it away from you. God’s grand method of eradicating
sin in a believer’s life is discipline. And it’s not like God turns us
over His literal knee. Instead, He graciously, lovingly,
sovereignly sends trials. These trials, in turn, call us
to a self-examination, which often leads to the recognition
of some sin This, as we all know, leads to repentance and to a
mortification of sin through repentance and a wholesome application
of God’s ever-available grace. That’s God’s way. Trials are
God-designed, God-ordained, God-given for the purification, for the
progressive sanctification of the believer. They’re for our
good. It’s exactly what James says,
right? Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter
various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces
endurance. Peter said it likewise, in this
you greatly rejoice, you’re happy. Even though now for a little
while necessary you’ve been distressed by various trials. Trials are
for our good. But please look again here at
verses 5 and 6, because he tells us something that is common to
all of us. We forget. And whether it’s translated here
as a statement, you have forgotten, as it could be, or as a question,
which it could be, have you forgotten? We get the point. We forget.
They forgot. We forget. We had it handled
at one point. We understood the principle,
we applied God’s grace, we overcame some spiritual struggle, and
then we forgot. We forgot how deceitful our enemy
was. We forgot how weak our flesh
is. We forgot how clear and beneficial
God’s principles are. We forgot. Look at the passage. You’ve not resisted to the point
of shedding blood and you’re striving against sin and you
have forgotten. You forgot the exhortation. You
forgot a simple principle of the Lord. God presented it to
you so delicately, so clearly. And the writer goes on to quote
verbatim here nearly from Proverbs 3, 11 and 12. Every good Hebrew would have
read Been familiar with these words? Proverbs 3, my son, do
not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you
are reproved by him. For those whom the Lord loves,
he disciplines and he scourges every son he receives. How quickly we forget. And so
in reminding them of this verse, he gently reminds them of some
of the basics of Christian training. Corrective training is provided
by God himself. This didn’t just happen to you.
A loving heavenly father provided
you discipline. He calls it discipline of the
Lord. Trials are no proof of God’s
anger towards you as a child of God. Instead, they are proof
of his affection. for you. God disciplines every
child for whom he lovingly cares. Do you realize that? Such a sign,
such discipline is a sign not of his disdain for you, but of
his affection, his love for you. He desires your spiritual growth
as long as you live Do you recall that this is exactly what God
said to the Church of Laodicea as he called them to repentance?
Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline. Therefore, be
zealous and repent. Because of that, if you profess
Christ, expect it. Expect to be disciplined. Expect
to be chastised. Expect trials. And our writer
proceeds because these corrective measures are from God. We are
not to regard it or treat it lightly. Or as the original has
it in Proverbs 3, do not reject the discipline of the Lord. Why should Solomon put it that
way? Here’s the progression that causes his concern. Sin happens. That’s a given. It entangles
the believer and it becomes an unnecessary, unwelcome, unprofitable
part of our life. God sends trials to expose that
sin to the believer for the sake of bringing about repentance.
Now the best case scenario is where the Christian receives
it in its design, he welcomes this trial, repents of his or
her sin, and applies God’s grace, victory. But it doesn’t always go that
way, does it? We see trials as unwelcome trouble. We deem them as unfair. God is
capricious or these trials are purposeless. And we begin to
doubt and doubt leads to despair. So he says that we are not to
downplay trials. We are not to dismiss or ignore
them. We are not to misunderstand discipline. Nor are we to act like a bunch
of babies when it’s applied. He calls it fainting or swooning. as if God were trying to kill
us in these trials. This is what happens when we
get so despondent in response to God’s discipline that we,
as one shepherd put it, sink into a state of criminal inaction. Remember those bugs? They got the shield built into
them and you tap them and they roll up into a ball. That’s how
most Christians function When they face even the lightest trial,
they recoil. They sink into a state of criminal
inaction, unfit for the discharge of active duties like a bunch of babies. We have this tendency, this sad
tendency just to puddle up and dig in our heels and degenerate
into an unproductive pouting in the midst of a trial. So there’s
got to be a right way to handle chastisement. There is. It’s by faith. It’s by faith
that the believer continues to flourish, continues to glorify
God, even under exacting circumstances. Charles Bridges, who I consider
to be the gold standard in commentary on Proverbs, said this at this
particular juncture. Faith understands the reasons
of the discipline, acknowledges it as a part of His gracious
providence and the provision of His everlasting covenant.
They see God’s purpose in it by faith. Well, the psalmist,
the psalmist had come to that place. You know this passage, when he
wrote the words of Psalm 119, he said, I know, Lord, that your
judgments are righteous and that in faithfulness you have afflicted
me. That is some perspective. The
writer here introduces us to a word that he will utilize again
and again and again in this section. He introduces us to the word
in verse 5 by way of this quote of Proverbs 3, but he mentions
it again in verse 7, again in verse 8, again in verse 9, 10,
11, and that’s why we’ve called this the training manual on discipline. The word itself refers to corrective
training provided here by the Lord Himself. God has an infinite
supply of varied trials and that is supported by an unbounded
creativity as to which means to apply to each individual.
And that is focused by the particular sin of the particular individual
that he is correcting. But Even though the means greatly
vary, the trials greatly vary, God’s aim in the implementation
of discipline is always the same. To eradicate some kind of sin
in a believer’s life. Discipline. That’s what we need. The word has literal reference
to the developmental training of children. Well, that’s appropriate,
isn’t it? Because we are a bunch of untrained spiritual kindergartners. The word referred to the instruction
of children. Especially with regard to corrective
measures, chastening, discipline, and we need that, don’t we? We
only wish it were as easy. as reading a principle in God’s
Word, an exhortation, reading it once, and then immediately
applying it and living it out until the Lord returns. It just doesn’t happen that way,
does it? Not very often. We need training. We need instruction. We need discipline to effect
the necessary change in our lives, don’t we? James 1 12 said, Blessed
is a man who perseveres under trial. For once he has been approved,
he will receive the crown of life. It doesn’t just happen. We can’t just read it once. And so in this training manual
on spiritual discipline, God’s discipline of his Children, we
see a second characteristic. Not only the welcoming of discipline,
but the blessing of discipline. We need to see it as a blessing,
as we’ve already intimated. We find this truth in verse 7
through 10. It is for discipline that you
endure. God deals with you as sons. For what son is there whom
his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline,
of which you have all become partakers, then you are illegitimate
children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers
to discipline us, and we respected them. Shall we not much rather
be subject to the father of spirits and live? For they disciplined
us for a short time, as seemed best to them. But he disciplines
us for our good. so that we may share in his holiness.
What you have here in these verses is a beautifully crafted illustration
where he compares God’s discipline, the heavenly Father’s discipline
and chastisement with an earthly Father’s chastisement. The whole idea of spiritual discipline
is lost on many Christians, but it’s not a foreign concept to
scripture. Ephesians 6, 4. Fathers, do not
provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline,
same word, and instruction of the Lord. 2 Timothy 3, 16, the same word
is used of our spiritual life. All scripture is inspired by
God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction,
for training. in righteousness. Now while those
verses speak of discipline in its most profitable settings,
the discipline of a loving father, the discipline for the sake of
gaining godliness, there is a darker side to this word that really
implies punishment. Paul speaks of it. He uses the
same word to speak of two gentlemen named Hymenaeus and Alexander,
whom he says he had handed over to Satan so that they would be
taught, disciplined not to blaspheme, severe chastening. That’s not
the use of the word that the writer intends here. It’s not
for punitive purpose that the discipline is given here, rather
it’s for the purposes of training. Luke used it in this manner,
recording Paul’s testimony in Acts 22. He recorded Paul as
saying, I am a Jew born in Tarsus of Cilicia, brought up in this
city, educated. trained, disciplined. I had to take tests under Gamaliel. I had to do recitations. I had
to do homework. I was trained. I was disciplined.
You know what? Paul went on to use that same
word to tell Timothy, you know what the role of a pastor is? You know what the role of a shepherd
is? With gentleness, correcting those
who are in opposition. It’s training. And so in these
verses 7 through 10, there is an interplay here. There is a
back and forth comparison where he begins with God’s example,
allowing trials by using them to discipline believers. God
is dealing with them as a faithful father would his own son. There’s an immediate and appropriate
comparison, isn’t there? The very idea of a deeply biblical
principle. The loving discipline of a child
by his father is a biblical mandate. Deuteronomy 8.5, thus you are
to know in your heart that the Lord your God was disciplining
you just as a man disciplines his son. It’s expected. Proverbs 13.24, he who withholds
his rod hates his son. but he who loves him disciplines
him diligently. And so he says, it is for discipline
that you endure. Recognize your trials, he says,
as discipline to be faithfully and patiently endured. The child
of God must look to a loving God and call for grace to embrace
the trial as having been designed especially for him. And having
established that in administering this discipline, this corrective
training, God is only doing what a loving father would do. Look
again at verse 7. He drives his point home here
in a rather alarming manner. What son is there whom his father
does not discipline? The very idea is unthinkable
to let little junior just go do what little junior wants to
do. Of course a father wants his
son to be fully trained in order to function in the world so as
to glorify God. It’s proof of being part of a
family. Enjoying the shepherding of a
loving parent that a young person should be so disciplined. It’s so true is this, that he
proceeds to the opposite extreme, to an individual who is not disciplined.
Look at verse eight. If you are without discipline,
you are illegitimate. Not sons. Did you get that? I
mean, that is alarming. The absence of God’s corrective
training, discipline, afflictions in a person’s life must necessarily
raise the question of whether the individual is really and
truly part of God’s family. You know what? This is exactly
the opposite of the health and wealth theology, isn’t it? They
say if you’re not rich and blessed and happy, well, there’s something
Your faith isn’t what it should be. Such a person with no care from
a father is a dreadful sign. Such a person with no care from
a loving father, no concerned and faithfully applied training
is no better off than an abandoned and wandering child left to his
own devices. It is a graphic image. What a
sad image. And so he implies here that discipline,
being a good thing, should be welcomed as from a loving Heavenly
Father. Believers, all believers are
partakers, they’re sharers of the Father’s discipline. And
at the end of verse 9, he reminds them that discipline does not
destroy the father-son relationship, it grounds it. Look at it. Our fathers disciplined us and
we respected them. That being the case, shouldn’t
we much more respect and revere our heavenly father who loves
us enough to correct us? Shouldn’t we be, as he says,
subject, humbly respectful of the father? Instead of lamenting and growing
discouraged and becoming despondent and even lashing out verbally
at God, the Christian is to flourish in his reverence for God. He or she is to exhibit by God’s
grace a childlike faith in their peaceful and trusting yieldedness
to such training. One faithful Puritan put it this
way, it denotes an acquiescence to his sovereign right to do
with this what he… A lot of people talk about God’s
sovereignty until trouble hits them. People will preach to you
about God’s sovereignty when you’re going through it, not
so much when they’re in the midst of it. It teaches us a renunciation
of self-will, an acknowledgement of his righteousness and wisdom
in all his dealings with us. A sense of his own care and love
with a due apprehension of the end of his chastisements. In
other words, he says it makes us to look to God for his purposes. There’s one last comparison that
the writer makes here. between a father’s discipline
and God’s discipline. He contrasts the nature of the
discipline. This is just masterful. An earthly
father does the best he can. You get what you get. Even the
best father is close to being a miserable failure compared
to Almighty God. But he does his best. That’s
what it says, he disciplines as it seems best to him. He can do no better. He’s not
God. One faithful commentator rhetorically
asked, what parent can perfectly estimate the offense and the
circumstances, or above all, with true insight, gauge the
temper and the nature of the child he chastens to know exactly
how to fit the punishment? the admonition, the chastisement
to the particular child. An earthly parent cannot fully
know the child’s heart. We don’t know their motives.
And a parent’s limited view prevents him or her from knowing just
how much discipline is enough. And to make matters worse, plug
their ears if you need to, parents are fellow sinners. They react
emotionally at times. No parent can provide a life
of perfectly applied discipline. It doesn’t happen precisely because
they’re not perfect. And so it’s a good thing that
this discipline is temporary. He says for a short time, for
a few years, you’ve got these guys, right? A parent is not
God. He’s not omniscient. He has to
do the best he can. And it is thankfully for a short
and limited season. A few days compared to a lifetime
of God’s training. God, on the other hand, his discipline
of those he loves is for the life of the believer and for
the believers good constantly. Charles Bridges, here again,
says, nothing more distinctly requires divine teaching and
grace than how to preserve in our behavior the just means,
and I take that as the balance, the balance between hardness
and despondency. Who can do that perfectly but
God? But because it’s God, when you get a trial, it has been
perfectly designed for you. He chooses the fittest time,
the surest means, the most considerate measure, the most effective instruments. God knows what he’s doing when
he chastises you. God knows how to discipline.
God knows how to correct the ones that he loves. God knows
the best purpose of discipline, and he cultivates in the child
of God the best end, holiness. When we speak of God being holy,
his attribute of holiness, it has that twofold reference of
not only of being apart from the world, holy in that sense,
but morally holy, unstained by sin. So when we speak of holiness,
what he’s imparting to us as believers, there is not only
this moral separation from sin, there is a wooing, a consistent
removal from the world. There must be. Paul told the
Corinthians, when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord
so that we will not be condemned along with the world. And God is ever at work little
by little resting us away from the world and away from sin.
And he always has our best and highest end as his reason for
doing this. So God’s ultimate purpose and
discipline is so that we might share in his holiness. Do you
get that? I don’t think we do. Because
this is so much grander than it appears on paper. God is imparting
to us his holiness. One faithful man of God, when
I was reading this quote, I had to read it out loud. He said this, the holiness of
God consists in his mind and will being in perfect accordance
with truth and righteousness. God is perfect. God is perfectly
holy. And so to become partakers in
His holiness is to have the mind brought to His mind, the will
brought to His will, to think as He thinks, to will as He wills,
to find our enjoyment in that which He finds enjoyment. To
partake of His holiness is to enter into His joy. Just remarkable. And as He is omnipotent and supremely
wise. He knows precisely what corrective
training to administer to you, to me. Each one is custom fitted
to each believer. The process of cultivating holiness
in us is, of course, as we’ve seen before, the doctrine of
progressive sanctification. But it’s a process. It’s a process
that God begins and finishes in every believer. So you have
to learn to expect this trial, at least until you’re perfect. The same God who saves is the
same God that begins the work of sanctification in the believer,
and that process lasts as long as the believer’s alive. And so as our training manual
teaches us not only to welcome discipline, to see the blessing
of discipline, he wants to show us the purpose of discipline.
Verse 11, the purpose of discipline. All discipline for the moment
seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful. Yet, to those who have been trained
by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” You can take a poll. Ask any
kid, do you enjoy spankings? Universally, you’re going to
get the same answer. No. Duh. Spankings are not enjoyable. That’s the point of the activity.
And that is precisely the point of trials. God’s means of discipline,
corrective training, we’re not supposed to like it. It’s not
supposed to feel good. It’s not supposed to be a joyful
experience. In fact, he says it’s downright
sorrowful. It hurts. It’s painful. Suffering is not pleasant. When
it’s happening, chastisement or discipline is not enjoyable. But in time, in time, once it begins to bear
fruit, once the result of the training begins to present itself,
the implication is the joy begins to set in. I remember once a long, long
time ago hearing this in a gym. No pain, no gain, right? Well, there’s a similar sentiment
here with regard to spiritual training. Without the pain of
trial, the child of God will not develop. The training of
the child usually gives way and bears fruit in time. Bad behaviors,
bad attitudes are changed in time. And there’s usually great
relief, joy, in the heart of the parent when that happens,
right? But when God’s discipline bears fruit, look at it here.
It produces what is called the peaceful fruit of righteousness
in the believer himself. The believer himself must rejoice
at that. I absolutely love the way, you’re
gonna have to sit up on this one. I absolutely love the way
one Puritan pastor put it here. He said, One of the excellencies
of Christian morality is its suitableness to the essential
principles of our nature. Did you get that? You said, okay,
whatever that means, bear with me. Because he goes on and he says,
there is nothing impracticably rigid in its principles. God
is never out of line when he applies chastisement to you. There is nothing impracticably
rigid in its principles. It makes war with nothing in
human nature but with its depravity. It proves itself the work of
him who is at once intimately acquainted with and who tenderly
pities the weakness of humanity. God knows what he’s doing when
he applies wisdom to you and I. God knows us and he’s perfectly
capable of giving us exactly what we need in order to produce
the pleasant results that he so desires. So when the believer can remember
that corrective discipline comes custom designed from a God who
loves them, that this provides the necessary heart of welcome,
He or she rejoices because this long season of bearing the guilt
and shame of some sinful habit, and then the long season of having
that sin slowly exposed by means of an exacting trial, finally gives way to life as
God intended, the life of righteousness. And it’s various and plentiful
and precious fruit. So that we can say with Paul,
Romans five, we exalt in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation
brings about perseverance and perseverance, proven character
and proven character, hope and hope does not disappoint because
the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through
the Holy Spirit is given to us. There’s a closing chapter in
our little manual. One last point that the author
wants to impart to us in this survey of discipline. Not only the welcome of discipline
and the blessing of discipline, discipline and the purpose of
discipline, but the fourth point here, the exercise of discipline.
This is where we actually begin to do it. This is where we actually
begin to apply it. Look at verse 12, therefore strengthen
the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble and make
straight the paths for your feet so that the limb which is lame
may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. The final chapter
in our training manual provides us with instruction on how we
are to proceed. A writer has told us that we
should embrace trials, welcome discipline, that blessing of
discipline is a divine blessing. It is given for the purpose of
our growth in grace. And he chooses, he closes rather
with this illustration by informing his readers of God’s expected
response. Get in shape, he effectively
says. Strengthen the hands that are
weak, feeble knees. We are to shore up those areas
of our lives, not just knees and hands, but by spiritual disciplines,
prayer and the study of God’s word. Those areas of our lives
that are weak. The second piece of encouragement
that he provides here is that they make straight the path for
their feet. Essentially, he tells them here
to get back on the narrow way. get back on the path of righteousness,
get out of the weeds, get out of the brambles, get out of the
shrubs. You know, the word that he uses
here is so incredibly graphic. Paul uses it three times. 1 Timothy
1, he says, some men straying from these things, they wandered
off the path, have turned aside to fruitless discussion. Later
on in that same epistle, chapter five, he says, some have already
turned aside. They got off the path, wandered
into the weeds. The weeds became brambles. They’ve
turned aside to follow Satan. Second Timothy four speaks of
those who in time will turn away their ears from the truth and
will turn aside. They got off the path. And so
this image of the path is that of this kind of hilly, undulating,
overgrown, and therefore treacherous walkway. This is a path, if you
can even call it such, which at least causes sluggishness
and difficulty and hesitation in a believer’s life, but at most produces unproductiveness
in our Christian pursuits. Because of sin, the believer
is sidelined and encumbered on a pathway that really is no pathway. This one is blazing a trail that
leads to nowhere good. Such a person who finds himself
off the trail is in peril, real peril. Their Christian growth
is not merely slowed It’s near to being choked off by the cumbersome
bind weeds of sin. What the believer must do when
he says by making one’s path straight to press on. Welcome
and endure trial. Examine your heart. Await its
blessed fruit. Persevere in God’s grace by staying
on the safe and safely traveled footpath of righteousness. And
watch for others who are wandering off the path. Would you close
with me in a word of prayer? Our merciful King, How often
we like so many spiritual babies have wondered and lamented the
trial that we’re facing. Lord, we thank you for these
words to us that serve as a training manual for exactly that. The trials, chastisement, discipline
should be welcomed as from your hand, your loving hand as a blessing. And Lord, we see it as a blessing
when we understand that the purpose is developing in us righteousness,
holiness. Lord God, we do pray that you
would grant us the grace to strengthen ourselves for the exercise of
discipline, Be glorified in us, we pray. It’s in Jesus’ name
that we ask. Amen.