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Perhaps we can start reverse 3?
Hebrews chapter 12, verse 3.
For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself. Bless you, be wearied and faint in your minds, if not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin, and yet forgotten. The extrication which speaketh unto you is unto children. My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him for whom the Lord loveth, and chasteneth, and scourge with every son whom he receiveth. If you endure chastening, God dealeth with you as His sons.
For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not?
But if you be without chastisement, where of all our partakers then are you ******** and not sons? Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh, which corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live for they barely for a few days chasing us after their own pleasure, but He for a prophet, that we might be partakers of His Holiness? Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous.
Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceful fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down in the feeble knees, and make straight pause for your feet last night, which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness bringing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled, lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one more morsel of meat sold his birthright.
We know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place of repentance, so he sought it carefully with tears. We are not come under the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, and earned the blackness and darkness and Tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words, which voice they that heard and treated that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. But they could not endure that which was commanded.
And if so much as a beast touched the mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust through with the dirt. And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. But year come on to Mount Zion, and under the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels the General Assembly and Church of the first born, which are written in heaven. And to God the Judge of all, into the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling.
That speaketh better things than that of Abel. See that you refuse, not him that speaketh.
For if they escape not who refused him that spake on earth much more? Shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven, Whose voice then shook the earth? But now he hath promised, saying yet once more, I shape not the earth only, but also having it.
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And this word yet once more signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receive a Kingdom which cannot be moved. Let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire.
Verses three and four continue to give us instruction as to the perfect leader.
Of faith and the race of faith, and we find in considering him.
Instruction and understanding and that can be applied in our own personal lives for the race by it says here consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself.
We would like to think that when we do right, when we're righteous, when we're loving, when we're caring, that those to whom we show this are going to respond properly and appreciatively and so on. The Lord Jesus perfectly showed these things. And what was the result? They hated Him. They hated Him, and it's not that we.
Necessarily need to go into the details of all of why they hated him.
But he endured that contradiction of sinners against himself. And as another has said, can you expect better treatment than your master? If you walk in obedience to Him and His will, then you expect a better treatment than He got, knowing that He was perfect. And we're often imperfect in the way that we do it.
And so it helps us if we consider him in that way.
Because two things. Because again, it's in a marathon race. Two things that are difficult is.
Weariness and faint. We we get weary, we run out of energy, if you will, spiritual energy sometimes to keep going when there's the constant negative response to that which is pleasing to God and seeking the blessing and good of others.
And walking in obedience to the Word. But if we consider Him, we have one that teaches us how to be.
One that could resist the weariness and the faintness of mind that often comes when day after day after day, unrelenting trial can come, perhaps at work or wherever it may be that is against the path of faith. And then in verse 4.
You've not resisted on the blood.
Pretty obvious you wouldn't be in the room if you had. This is talking about the Lord Jesus and the Lord Jesus striving against the working of sin against him, gave up his life. That's what's meant here when it says you have not resisted under blood. He resisted on the blood He resisted and it cost him his life and we haven't done that.
There are many we appreciate their lives who have done it often in their in missionary service. We or something like it. We call them martyrs. They often have resisted unto blood and they'll have the martyrs crown. They'll have the coming joy of the Lord's well done for having done so. And so it is with the continued teaching of part of having your eye on the Lord Jesus as having him as an object.
But also we need to consider his life and study it that we might learn from it. One final comment in that direction. They're talking about loneliness and meekness.
And the Lord said to those that needed help in that direction in Matthew 11 Comes on to me and I, I can just add my own word, come down to me either weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. When there is loneliness and meekness, that's a low place. And we often have to go down in order to get the help that we need in a matter of loneliness and weakness.
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There's a, there's a process that takes place.
With what we have here with ourselves and I'm.
Like to perhaps an illustration that we have in the book of Deuteronomy, if you could turn there for a moment.
Look at Deuteronomy.
The 25th chapter.
What Moses is doing here?
Is he's referring back?
To an instance that took place in the book of Exodus in Exodus 6 to 17. And there's a detail here that we don't see an Exodus going in Deuteronomy 25.
The reference is in verse 17.
He says remember.
But Amalek said unto me, by the way, when you're come forth at Ephesians, how he met me, by the way. Now here's here's the detail. It says he smoked behind most.
I'll be even all that work behind these. So if you can picture what happened in in Exodus 17, the details are not there, but they are here. So what was happening in Exodus 17 when Joshua was there with Moses and her Amalak was was focusing on those that were lagging behind. We see that here it says all that were feeble behind thee, those that were lying behind and then notice the next statement it says.
When now us Here's the same words that we have in the verse that we've just been looking at in Hebrews, but now was faint and weary.
And what happens when we're faint and weary, We start to lag behind, and that puts us in a position where we're a focus for the enemy. And So what he says here in Hebrews, this has been a struggle with me, maybe not anybody else here, but in Hebrews it says here in our verse.
A considered hammock, as Mr. Arby says. Consider well him that endures such contradiction of sinners against himself. Yes, he be worried and faint, but then it adds here.
In your minds.
In your minds a few weeks ago I was having a.
I'm having a a wrestling match with the Lord. I don't know if you've ever experienced that.
I'm not we're not in the same weight class. I never knew very well and it was over the this very thought that we have of getting weary and in in Corinthians, there's a challenge that the that the apostle Paul puts with the Corinthians, he says bringing into captivity.
Every thought to the obedience of Christ.
That's a real challenge to me. When we think of our brothers, is bringing before us the thought of prison experience, our thoughts. They don't want to be taken captive, they don't want to be in prison. They have a tendency to go various different directions that are not good, especially when we get faint.
And once we get weary.
And that's what our thoughts they.
Just get crowded out with with things that are not good and.
The apostle brings before the Corinthians that they need to take these thoughts and they need to be brought into captivity.
Well, what happens, I think it is as we have seen in Deuteronomy, that when there's faintness, when there's weariness, there's a lagging behind, and it puts us in a position where we're an object of the enemy of our souls.
Tim has mentioned that aspect of the joy.
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That the Lord had was the joy He had with his Father going through it, if I understood you right, not just what was in front.
And there is a joy and to illustrate that many of you know that the famous missionary Eric Liddell that went to China before he did, he was a runner and he ended up running in the Olympics.
As he became well known in Scotland.
He began to win races and England started looking at him and seeing this strange kind of fellow who won all the races. He ran and he ran with his face lifted up. Normally you look ahead and it was not good form and he had a smile on his face in a conversation with his sister.
She was concerned that he was getting too involved in sports.
That maybe he was taking his mind off of the fact that he had told his family and his parents and others that he felt a call to go to China as a missionary. And he said, oh, no, no, no, I'm going. But he said, God has given me a heart to preach the gospel and go to China. But he made me fast. And when I run, I feel his pleasure and I'm smiling because I'm looking up.
Literally as he ran his races.
He was in the joy of his Lord.
Well, that would apply to day-to-day things. I think your job or school or whatever that you're participating in. He had learned to take pleasure in that as he ran.
I found that quite interesting. You said I feel his pleasure. So when the news people ask him about it, he shared the gospel. He often shared the gospel. When the news people gathered around and the crowd came, they didn't like it much, but he preached the gospel nonetheless. But he felt the Lord's pleasure and he hurt, got out of breath, his legs got tired, just like anybody else. There's one.
Particular moment as he began to be famous many of the top runners.
In the I guess the British Empire were at a race and he fell.
And everybody passed.
He got up and he ran them all down.
And a reporter watching it said I've never seen heart like that in my life.
Well, even in the thing he did, this sport he was involved in, he wasn't running for himself. He had his eyes on something else. And I find that remarkable. You know, we may have a job or be involved in something that is pretty weary and maybe it's not a lot of fun, but we can actually learn to lift up our eyes and have some joy in the middle of that experience along the way.
And it's true. I know for a fact that.
Brother Doug Buchanan, right, his tractor across the field has joy.
And enjoys the Lord as he goes across.
Last time I was visiting, he invited me to come up and ride with him. I wasn't up for that.
You can do whatever you're doing and experience some of that joy during the process you're going through.
Back in Isaiah for those that.
Our faint and weary.
And it's all about waiting upon the Lord. And this is what it says. I'm looking at Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 28, Isaiah 4028. I know it's been an encouragement to my own heart. We all know what it is to get tired and get weary and faint.
But we find here in verse 28 says, hast thou not known?
Hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainted not He doesn't faint, neither is He weary. There is no searching of His understanding. He gives power to the faint, and to them that have no might He increases strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and young men shall utterly fall.
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But he that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.
And I noticed the margin in my Bible for Renew. It says, Change their strength. They shall mount up with wings as Eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint.
I wonder when it says renew the margin says change.
Sometimes we are going in our own strength.
But we look to the Lord in the situation and He can change our strength into His strength. And you know His strength is made perfect in our weakness.
And I just found encouragement in this because sometimes we find ourselves in situations where we just don't feel perhaps that we can take another step.
But then we find the Lord comes in in a remarkable way, and he gives us the strength we need to keep on keep an eye.
But it's all about looking to Him in this chapter, looking unto Jesus.
Here in Isaiah, waiting upon the Lord.
There are two important principles, and I think they're reflected a number of other places in Scripture, and perhaps other brethren can find a few that that is established here in Hebrews 12 and 2nd Corinthians chapter 4.
2nd Corinthians 4 and verse 7. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the Excellency of the power may be of God, not of us. We are troubled in every side, and not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed, always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus.
That the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus sake. That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. That's God's purpose. That the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our mortal flesh. And then in chapter 6.
Verse.
For Second Corinthians 6:00 and 4:00 But in all things, approving ourselves as the ministers, God wants each one of us, not just someone with a degree, or an advanced degree, or some letters, or some position. God wants us to be ministers as the ministers of God. And much patience, and affliction, and necessities, and distresses, and stripes and imprisonments in tumults, and laborers, and watchings and fastings, by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness.
By the Holy Ghost, by love and fame, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report. As deceivers and yet true, as unknown and yet well known as dying. And behold, we live as chastened and not killed, as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, as poor, yet making many rich as having nothing.
And yet possessing all things, but you know, there's a cost. Nothing is free. There's a cost to things. So what are we called for? It says.
In verse 17, wherefore come out from among them and be separate. Set the Lord and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you. There's a lot of unclean things and they're so accessible today, more accessible than they've ever been. It used to be you'd have to go to the dregs of a of a big city to find some of the unclean things, and now they can be in a person's home.
We need, says in touch, not the unclean, and I will receive you, and I will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, said the Lord Almighty, having therefore these promises. Dearly beloved, let us, this is so, so, so important. Let us cleanse ourselves from all the filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. There is a path, there is a way, but there's a cause.
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Every 2nd 105 You have forgotten. The exhortation which speaketh unto you is unto children. My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor fame. There's that word again, when thou art rebuked of him.
When you think about an athlete who is going to have a race.
He trains for it, goes through a lot of practice sessions and so on, and then comes the day of the race.
Stop since the race we're in the same.
We get to have a lot of practice sessions before it started.
No.
We're learning to run at the same time we're in the race, and that's pretty important to understand because God has a purpose not only in the end and view of the race, but what He's going to teach us in the race that is going to be for our eternal benefit.
We learn about ourselves, the children of Israel when they started across the desert.
Lord told him ahead of time what was going to happen. He said yes, you're going to go in the wilderness, and I'm going to humble you and prove you and see what's in your heart.
They passed that test very well. No they didn't. They were humbled because the Lord put them to test that would prove what was in their hearts, was their belief, was their faith, was their unbelief.
Sadly, even in the wilderness there was some that turned side to idolatry, the worst of all sins really. And so it was a humbling experience and life and what we have in this chapter is going to prove to be a humbling experience. But the blessing of it is is in the end we'll know his heart better and will also be thankful that he exposed our hearts.
In that process. And so he takes up in verse 6.
The Chastening.
I thought we were running a race.
The race involves chastening. The Lord is going to put His hand on your life and mine. Because as we see in the chapter, God always acts in perfect consistency with what He is and who He is. He never lowers the standard of His own character to accommodate us. And so the race of faith, He expects holiness, He expects our life, and He shows that in the verses that follow. He expects us to run that race in a holy way.
And if we don't, he's going to chasten us.
He's going to chasten us, to teach us.
And why does he do it?
If you go over to a little later on.
I don't know if I can quickly find it, but it says the grace of God.
In the chapter he he acts because it's grace of God.
To chasten us, if needed, for our blessing and benefit.
We would not like naturally this side of it. We like all the verses that give us encouragement.
But there are more verses in this chapter that are teaching us the lessons that we need to learn in order to, at the end of the race, enter into the blessing and full enjoyment. Your capacity and mine to enjoy the Lord in eternity is being formed right now.
Right now, in the path of life, your heart is being enlarged. In the trials of life, that is enlarging your capacity to enter in in fullness of joy when you get to the end.
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Like just bring up you don't have this.
This the Lord dealing with his children without a sense of relationship.
And several times in this portion where we have the training, we have the relationship, it's sons. So that implies.
Father and so, yes, we are.
Going to endure the training and the the pain of having to learn things and sometimes we have to learn it the hard way, but we we don't want to lose sight of the fact that we are in a relationship with God.
As our Father and our Lord there is there is authority there, but I think sometimes we we go into this without a sense of how much we love.
Whom the Lord loveth, he chases and encourages every son that he received.
So the Christian life is the life constant correction.
You can learn a fair amount about a person when you see them corrected, say in school or in the workplace.
And the professor, the teacher, the boss correct something when when the people come together to review what has been done and you see all different responses.
Some people, they seem rather humbling, but when they get corrected they they kind of flare up.
And the correction isn't well received. Some people go the other extreme and you, you, you give somebody doing doing a good job and you say, well, we can make this even better. And they hear the correction and they just you can see literally the hands cough and the head drops and Oh no. And both of those two sides of things and plus one other good one are in this chapter to despise chastisement.
Which is a privilege that we have. As the brother was saying, chastisement is a family privilege. You're not in the family. You don't have that privilege from God as your father. You're just allowed to run.
And and so to despise it, it is just to think that the circumstances of our life are just random and just just, you know, things happen, stuff happens to people, you know, it's just a chance. No, it's not that way for us as believers. It's our intelligence. One of the aspects of it to be exercised. We'll get to that, Lord willing, later. But the the exercise by what is allowed in our life. The other thing, of course.
Not to fame and now our abuse of him, but I have found it helpful and I've heard this from older brothers years past. The Christian life is a life of cost of correction. You drive your car, your truck down the road and you don't even realize you're doing it, but you're constantly tweaking the steering wheel to keep it right where it's supposed to be. The car is not complaining about that. It it keeps it going properly. And this is a part of Christian life that is an inward part.
That is, it is very, very important. In Psalm 16, we read that expression. My reigns also instruct me in the night seasons, in the quiet times when we lay down or we're just doing something routine in our work or driving along, and the Lord speaks to us in those times. Those are important times because it's important to receive correction.
A rebuke entereth more into a wise man than 100 stripes into a fool.
And correction is something we should value, as painful as it can be, and appreciate it, as a brother was saying. It comes, as we see further on in the chapter, from the Father of spirits preparing us not just for tomorrow, or not just for the next year, but for, but for our destiny to be with and like Christ throughout all eternity. Very.
Quite a privilege.
Quite a bit about a person too, by the way. They respond to persecution and reproach, and we might wonder why is it that?
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You're the apostle. He's speaking about the contradiction of sinners and the persecution, and the next thing is we're talking about chastisement.
And chastening. Do these two go together well? I always recall one time when.
I went to an individual.
While I was three or four sitting at a table and I passed the gospel track to this person sitting at the table.
And he said buzz off.
That's what his reaction was. And you know, within my own soul, there was a reaction that wasn't good. I felt like saying the same thing to him. But I'm thankful I held my tongue and I just backed off. But you see, that sort of thing can show us what we are. God had something to shoot. Tell me.
And so I think it's very important to realize that we don't meet the flesh with the flesh. It's not going to work out. And the apostle Paul in writing to Timothy, and he was in the prison there, you know, and all those in Asia had turned away from him. He could say to Timothy, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
And we really need to keep in mind the grace of God that's been shown to you and to me. It's undeserved favor. None of us deserve any good treatment, really. But the grace of God has reached out to us, and we ought to be demonstrating that grace to others too.
So bad things happen in our lives.
How do we do we consider every bad thing to be a chastening of the Lord?
I can think of some other.
They asked the Lord and move about the tower that fell those people, which would probably be something like a massive disaster.
Something like the situation of Joe, where it wasn't something he'd done individually, but it was the Lord received speech, several different reasons why something bad may happen in their lives. Is there a way, or maybe I'm thinking about that wrong? Is there a way we can kind of figure that out?
I still copy what you have this meeting. Am I supposed to consider that like there's different ways besides the natural consequences to our actions. If I don't study for a test and I fail, I can't see them towards chasing me. So how can we kind of look at these situations and get the clarity of what's happening in our lives?
I just would like to say thank you for the question.
I'd like to just offer this, which is in the full answer to your good question, down in verse.
Down in verse.
11.
No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous with grievous, nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which understand why the chastening was given.
Right. So I read that totally wrong and to me it's been very encouraging that it says unto them which are exercised thereby.
Something untoward happens. A wrinkle happens in your life, a speed bump. Or maybe it's things are totally, totally turned upside down.
How many sorrows there are in life, and you see them in your life, you see them in others Disappointments of life.
We can be exercised about it and we get the after years. There's an old brother where I was first saved and gathered to the Lord's name. He had leukemia when I met him.
And he was in constant fever and headache and all that. He had been a woodsman and he was reduced to a small stature and just but we all went to his house all the time because we just wanted to absorb his his spirit really. And he said to me at different times, she says, brother, I'm just looking for the actor yield. He didn't know why the Lord had allowed that leukemia in his life, but he was exercised about it and he got the blessing.
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So I find that comforting because there are things that happen in life.
And just shake your head.
Why now? Why with him, or why with her?
And those are hidden things. And it's going to be wonderful at the judgment seat of Christ when the Lord explains the love and wisdom behind all these things. But meanwhile, even without the answer.
Exercise the body, take it to heart. The Lord is allowed this. He's speaking to me, to us somehow, and I want to hear. And that's the exercise file. I don't know if that helps or not, but it has helped me.
Telling us what the brother was looking for. I just missed the last word on it. Be after you.
Yes, it's from the verse.
No chastening for the present statement to be joyous, but grievous.
His disease was grievous, nevertheless afterward it yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. And he said, I'm looking for the after you. That's the way he often put it, the after yield. He wanted the spiritual fruit out of the affliction that he was going through. You probably met him, Wally. It was like Whitney.
Hear the word. That's all. Thank you.
We need to realize that often there's a chastening and it's it's got a preventative aspect to it.
We don't even see. So I think it's good for us to realize that that not all chastening is it has a punishment major.
Well, we have the man that was healed of his blindness. Who? The disciples asked. Well, what's the reason? It ends up being that the reason was for that very moment.
So Jesus could come along and heal him and God would be glorified.
That guy wasn't. How old was he when he got healed?
20 Something like that. He waited 20 years for the purpose, for his blindness to be revealed. And it was that God might be glorified in that moment when the Lord Jesus would come along and heal him. And he had this experience and he came to know the Messiah and his his story is written down in the Word of God for eternity.
There was a purpose in that. One of the things that I like what's been said very much, but one of the things is generally if it's chasing where we have.
We've made a misstep. Generally you will on. You will know it before long.
But that doesn't mean that God always tells us all of those things.
The experience of Joseph and the experience of Jacob, we we experience both those things well. What happened with Joseph?
Why did that all happen? Was that chasing?
God is preparing to save the nation of Israel and the brothers. You know, He says later that all of this was intended for evil, but God intended it for good. The whole pathway. Do you think he was crying when he was down in the pit? He was a rich man, spoiled kid probably. What am I doing down here? But he did not throw away his faith. He had learned enough from his Father to have faith through all of those steps.
And he believed what he had been told in the vision, that one day he would be raised up and that his family, including his father, would bow down before him. He believed that and through all of his experience, that none of that could have been fought. And being accused of trying to rape Potiphar's wife and then later in prison, you know, I mean, he, the Lord, raises them up to positions, but that couldn't have been fun or enjoyable.
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But his faith endured through it all. That little track or whatever it is that BP has that says this thing is from me.
That has been a great help to my soul. I know many others as well. That no matter what it is, whether it's chastening or not.
Understanding that the Lord has brought it takes the sting out of it. And generally, like I said, if you've done something and you need to be corrected where you're off, you've taken a misstep. You've missed the bar. You asked the Lord and He'll tell you.
But it might be, as our brother was saying, what does a coach do when he's training somebody? You make a mistake or you do something and he'll say run 10 laps, do do 20 push-ups or whatever. But why does he do that? The guy, the, the, the athlete may think it's punishment, but actually he's trying to get the the athlete ready for the game. So that, as you said, preventative or preparing for the future. Sometimes the difficulties we go through are preparing us for down the road.
Not just Brother Don was talking about even the capacity for eternity, the enjoyment we will have down the road. But down the road you go through a difficult experience now and you make it through and you've learned from it and you you get the after and then down the road you face something that you're prepared for because you went through that.
And that happens with time. If you're 10 years old, you probably haven't had a lot of that in your life. If you're 15, you probably haven't had a lot of that, but you probably have begun to experience some of that. And you'll look back and go, what happened to me over here has helped me today to face what I'm facing today. There's a lot of that going on. But what Bruce said about the steering wheel, Have you ever watched a father and a son work on a project that has a good relationship, as brother Phil was talking about, maybe.
Building something or doing something, there's little suggestions. If you hold it this way son, it works better.
You know, if you hold the hammer, choke it up a little bit and you'll get a better, you'll hit the nail better. All you watch that. You watch dad the son work together, that has a good relationship that's going on all the time.
And if they misbehave then maybe there's a Willow switch. That's what I used to get or develop.
My father took me into the bedroom.
And he said take your belt off and takedown your pants.
And I got the rod of correction.
Was it joyous? No, not at the time.
But when I look back at my father, it's one of the areas that I most appreciate about my upbringing was that he, as my father, recognized the consequences down the road if I didn't get the correction I needed. And he even emphasized it by using the very belt that I wore so that.
When I put it back on, I'd have it to remember when I was doing other things. And that to me is a little example. There's no question that there was chastening. It was very obvious, the apostle Paul.
In Acts 16 was not being chastened at all. His reaction to his circumstances. He didn't say, What am I imprisoned for? How did this ever happen?
To us he was singing and praising the Lord and the Lord was going to use it, but when the apostle Paul and another part of his life went to Jerusalem after he had been told several times not to go, he went and he ended up in prison.
And he did not have at that point immediately the sense of the Lord with him in his circumstance. And that exercised him. And he could say at first he, he was using all the skill that he had as a man to deal with the authorities. You don't have a right to do what you're doing to me right now and so on. But then he could say later, the Lord stood by me.
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And he learned that the Lord's hand was upon him. And the bigger point of it is to use the Lord Jesus as the perfect example when he was facing all these things. His response proved the state of his heart. And the response often in US is what we have to sometimes deal with, as chasing the Lord could say to those who hated him.
Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. That was a perfect response of his heart. Not words but a response of his heart. Here in the chapter it says if any man fail of the grace of God.
And if I fail the grace of God, what's there going to be the root of bitterness? And if there is the root of bitterness, then I realize that the Lord has put His hand on me. And if we cannot go through a trial with the sense of the Lord with us in it, and if we can, we can say thanks for it, then there may be something specifically that we have to consider as to why.
Is my reaction not what it should be? And it's if the war doesn't hold His hand back from us, then we may have to consider if the Lord's put His hand on us in some way, that there's something that has to be corrected and we need to be exercised as to what it is and why it is. But a lot of us would find we find enough things in our life that we do understand. We don't have much time left over to try to figure out the ones we don't understand.
Question. We've been Speaking of chastening in the individual sense primarily. Is there an aspect of chastening of the Lord that is corporate or is that more the thought of judgment or government as far as in a corporate sense?
I don't know if you can call it specifically chasing, but there are 7 assemblies.
In Revelation 2 and three and the Lord puts his hand on all the seven with the words, and he says if you don't respond correctly, this is going to be the consequence. And those seven are all corporate.
When I was saving maybe a year, I was delighting, of course, in the Lord. I was in my early 20s and I had laid hold of all kinds of verses that basically were on the lines of all things are made new.
And I felt like brand new start, clean slate, everything. I'm on my way to heaven. I could die tomorrow and my life would be a success.
Then I was in Otter Lake and Gordon Pearl, who many in here would know were kind of like parents to my sister and me and and I must have said something along those lines in the kitchen there. And and Gordon and his in his way that you that, you know, he kind of he kind of tilted his head to one side and smiled and he says, well, there is such a thing as the government of God. And I think my jaw must have dropped open because I was horrified.
At that thought that you mean there's actually going to be some some issues with how I live like a prodigal. And the answer was yes, but he made this comment that I that I remembered over 40 years or 45, whatever it is, he said yes, but he said there is this wonderful fact that there is the grace of God to shore us up.
And to comfort us while we experience the government of God.
And I thought that was a wonderful sight of it to also remember, because this is his brother was speaking about Joseph, how these things and Jacob, they're so woven together. What's of faith? What's God's counsel from the very beginning? And what's chastisement in the government of God? It's it's all woven together. And in the account that Dawn was recalling with Paul when he goes to Jerusalem, it said, I just looked it up and it says there that.
He's thrown into the into the castle. He's he's rescued. But then it says the night following the Lord stood by him. He let him Stew in his juices for a night. He must have felt terrible. As if, you know, I just used the flesh, you know, hitting these guys against those guys. And, you know, it's just what am I doing here? I should you can imagine all the the story, the tape that would have run in his mind.
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And the Lord just let him Stew in that. And then it says, The night following the Lord stood by him beautiful, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul, And notice this, as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must out bear witness unto also at Rome.
He could have thought I made a mess of things. What a horrible example I was. I haven't listened to the Lord here I am the Lord says you testified of me in Jerusalem and he says you're going to bear witness to me in Rome too. And we we see the fruit of that in some of his epistles where as the brother was saying today on the prisoner of the Lord, I'm not the prisoner of Rome, I'm the prisoner of the Lord. So it's wonderful that as as.
The brother was saying about the relationship. We're chastened by our father. He's the father of spirits and he has a deep, deep interest in us and he's going to make it happen. And it's fatherly chastisement. I had a wonderful father and.
It's just easy to read these passages and to just think of occasion after occasion, some of the some of the belt type and some of the other type. But but what a wonderful thing that he has higher aspirations of us indeed than we have for ourselves and he's going to make it happen.
We'll have to look at a different portion, Mr. John, I've lived that we're very familiar with.
Up in what you're saying, you know what happens here.
Lazarus gets sick and Mary and Martha send word to the Lord what has happened and he delays purposely, doesn't he? And you know, it gives us a hint at the very beginning.
There it gives us a hint of the story, John 11 and verse four, when Jesus heard that this this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. So we get the real reason of the story before we read it, don't we?
But look at what happens. Just look at Martha in verse 21. Then said, Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hast been here, my brother had not died. And then look at Mary in verse 32. Then when Mary was come where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hast been here, my brother did not die. But look at what the Lord answered.
Both of them there in verse 40, you know, it's really what he's trying to prove and to teach him. And Jesus said unto her, said, I'm not unto thee, that if thou wouldst believe, thou should see the glory of God. And can't we say that a lot that God is doing is for this very purpose, isn't it? The end is in view, isn't it? And if we knew ahead of time that this was going to be for the glory of God, we'd say.
Lord immediately, wouldn't we? But it's the part that we have to trust Him, don't we? And that's another thing that He's teaching us, isn't it? Is that in every circumstance we can trust Him.
I want to say that there's two things here in verse 6 chastening his instructions. Perhaps a difficult time would be instruction, but chastening is in more instruction. The scourging is the the actual application of of the punishment. And so chastening could be.
It could be. It could be the.
Could be any part of that, that instruction that God gives to us and if there you look in First Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 13.
It says 1 Corinthians 10/13 there has no temptation taken you.
But such as is common to man, but God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above what ye are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that she may be able to bear it. And so there's a way. There's a way to escape. I think that goes back to what Bruce was saying in verse 11.
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Then which are exercised thereby. And so there's a way of escape when we're exercised by those things that happen to us.
Are we exercised by it? Do we learn from it? There is a way of escape sometimes the Lord. I like the example of the Apostle Paul also in another setting here in Second Corinthians chapter 12.
Apostle full head, what he calls a thorn in the flesh. There could be any sort of thing that would affect us. We could call it chastening if you would, but it's not. It's not punitive. But he says here.
We're scanning lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations. There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan, to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure for this thing. I besought the Lord three times that it might depart from me. He's like so he's, he's praying. Lord have mercy on me. Lord said, no, I'm not going to have mercy, but I'm going to give you grace. I'm not going to take it away from you, but I'll give you the grace.
To go through it, he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee. My grace is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure and infirmities and reproaches and necessities and persecutions and distresses for Christ sake. For when I am weak, then am I strong. And so the apostle Paul.
This may be part of the chastening of the Lord and guiding him and directing him and keeping him and protecting him. It's all part of God's working with us to guide us, to instruct us, to teach us. And so sometimes we're not going to get over our affliction that the Lord has allowed us to have, but He'll give us the grace to go through it, grace to be able to serve him in spite of our affliction and our difficulties.
Think about.
You have a thought I'd like for you. You go ahead.
I enjoy the thought about the father of spirits. I, I, to me, this takes care of the whole question of understanding why you're being corrected, which part of discipline that is. And there are different kinds of discipline for different reasons. And this is another one that you mentioned, Paul. So Paul to bring more fruit and you see him, his attitude and the end that bought him glorying in those things.
Whether he understood it at all, not the right reaction came out of him, and I think that's the point.
You know, most of us have grown up and and received this kind of chase me. Hi, I don't think I want to mention what my dad did to me sometimes, but it's very humbling to think what had to be done. But we all probably have questioned the reasons why.
As.
To the chastening, sometimes thinking it was unrighteous or unjust.
Also.
Those of us have parents. I think most of us have probably come to the point to realize our inability to know how to be chasing when we need to.
It's difficult. What do you do in this kind of a situation? The father of spirits?
He never makes a mistake. He understands us through and through. We've heard about Joseph and the complicated life of Jacob.
It was perfect. The story is perfect.
Sorry.
The chastening that we have in this passage seems to be.
Rather short, short lived experience of God teaching us lessons. I can't think of a father who would chasing his child for very long.
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And it's a it's, it's, it's, it's an action that takes place because a lesson needs to be learned. And we see the process here of of the spirit in which we experience chase. What are we, what is our attitude we have? We can despise it in verse 6.
And in verse five, we can despise it. We can faint.
But we in verse seven speaks of we should we should endure it. So there's blessing in it.
We should be in subjection to it in verse nine, should be exercised about it in verse 11.
But I I want to caution us in thinking that all of our tribulations that God chooses in our lives.
Would be considered chastening.
I think we kind of lose the sense of relationship. Let's say someone, let's say the Lord allows us to have to go through years of pain. He doesn't want us to.
Be thinking through those years of pain that this is a constant correction of our Father.
And it is it is a tribulation and he's going to teach us how to be able to rejoice in it. I just bring out those thoughts are rather disjointed, but.
I think of the instance that our brother Bruce brought out of the apostle Paul, the Lord allowing him to sue for a day. The next day he brought him comfort. But if you look throughout the rest of the book of the Acts, that failure of the apostle Paul never comes up again. God never reminds him that he made a misstep, never rubbed it in. It's never recorded or.
It was a lesson he needed to learn and God was screwed and he was done teaching him.
I just think of this verse is probably something you do. I think, you know, it just comes to mind when we think of the chastening.
Proverbs 22 and verse 6.
Says to train up a child in the way he should go when he is old. We will not depart from it. I believe a lot of this chastening we're Speaking of is training us up so that we can go on in a way that's pleasing with Him. And as we had in verse eleven of our chapter, that afterward it yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness, that we might walk in the fruit of righteousness before him while we're here waiting for Him to come to take us home, where we'll still enjoy those things, as Mr. Rule pointed out.
And so also I think when you speak of Paul in that aspect that you brought up there is the part that, you know, he is training us up to serve him too. And I don't think that's necessarily a part of this chapter, but it is that we might be vessels fit for the masters use. So we can keep that in mind as well.
It's the suggestion that correcting is how painful.
There is a correction that isn't. We're just trying to keep us on like you said with the steering wheel. God does correct this a lot, but it's not all painful.
You know, if we listen to his voice, a son can say, dad, I know how to do it. Leave me alone. I've seen that, too. Well, if you just have a good relationship and you're listening and you're learning how to do carpentry or use a chainsaw, something dangerous, you listen and you learn how to do it. And there's little corrections. There's no pain in it. But a faithful, loving father corrects his children. And if it needs pain, like our brother Don said or Doug.
Then he brings that to because he loves us.
That's a good note to end on the expression Father of spirits occurs here. We father glory, we know Father of lights. We know that the prodigal son returned to his father and says they began to be married and then in John 1724, Father I will that they who now has given me, be with me where I am. Our Heavenly Father wants us to be with and like his well beloved Son for all eternity. Can we sing him 209?
209.