| |
| Home |
| About Our Church |
| Events |
| Sunday Sermon |
| Pastor's Corner |
| Missions |
| Youth Group |
| Pastor Steve |
| Pastor Don |
| Photo Album |
| African Journal |
| Glorybound |
Hebrews 12:4-11
God's Soverign Purpose
Diamonds in rough, with polish become of great value. Authentic, real.
So it is with us.
4-8 The Endurance of discipline
9-10 The contrast of discipline
11 The End of discipline.
I. 4-8 The Endurance of Discipline
Recall last time we spoke concerning how much they had endured, “yet not to blood?” Now Christ in his endurance of the hostility of sinners suffered death, so too did some heroes of the faith in chapter 11. But those who received this letter had suffered some major, severe persecution, but had not yet been called upon as Christ was, to seal their witness with their own blood.
I recall missionaries in Hong Kong before it returned to the rule of China teaching their churches how to live under a communist regime. Perhaps that will be our lot one day, but for now we are like these people, save that the persecution level has not risen to the VOM status yet. It is increasingly the anti Christian bias that is emerging. NOT just for being twits either. Other faiths are welcomed other non-biblical viewpoints are popular, and if you DARE disagree you are a hater. But not yet to blood.
These people in the near future would, some of them, go on to suffer death, but this was no time to be discouraged when they think of others who stuck it out despite greater trials. They needed to realize that their present trials were a token of the heavenly Father’s love for them and the means to make them shine as jewels .
In verse 5 he reminds them of Prov. 3: 11 ff. If they will pay heed to that bit of wisdom they , and we ,will be able to look with a clearer perspective at our trials.
These words remind those who would be really wise that when hardship comes their way, they/we need to see God’s hand. God’s training, disciplining hand and to know it as a token of God’s Fatherly care.
A Real dad would spend much time and patience raising a son. Real care, training love, involves discipline, for without learning proper discipline a child can not receive proper honor. So do not despise God’s training, his discipline, chastening, It is proof he’s your Father. Do not faint when you are rebuked by him, because, v 6 says: God always allows hard times to come because he is more interested in our holiness than our mere happiness. Not in our physical wealth as much as in our spiritual health.
v.7 “If ye endure chastening, which MAY be what your hard times are, then GOD is dealing with you as a Father - but if you are not ever chastened no matter what you do….then LOOK. No chastening? Not God’s child.
If you can live a life of continual sin and rebellion and not have God’s chastening then the book says you are illegitimate, not a son. So endure discipline with the joy of knowing it is God’s hand.
Now note secondly in vv 9-10 THE CONTRAST OF DISCIPLINE.
Here the writer likens God’s instruction (translated chastening also) to an earthly father. V9: Our earthly fathers disciplined us for a time, the time that preceded us coming of age. But our heavenly Father continually works with us to make us (Look at v 10) partakers of his holiness.
v. 10 They chastened us according to what they thought was right, but HE chastens according to what HE knows is right for our profit.
Verse 9 says if we were subject to our earthly Fathers and gave them reverence, how much more must we be subject to out perfect heavenly Father and live.
So as you reverenced Dad, respond to God, endure, hang in there and learn what he is trying to teach you. As God is a greater Father so we have a greater responsibility for service and endurance. Because God isn’t just aimlessly chipping away at us, HE sees the jewel we are meant to be. He removes from us all that stands in the way of having that jewel be a flawless one, shining. And chipping hurts, it doesn’t FEEL profitable but look at verse 10: God does it for our profit. Rom. 8:28...future
So we’ve see the endurance of discipline, a contrast in discipline. Now let’s see the END OF DISCIPLINE. Verse11
Chipping hurts…no chastening, training seems to be joyous. This isn’t an excuse for not being thankful in our trials, but it is painful.
Psalm 119:67 and 71 Psa 119:67 Before I was afflicted I used to stray off,
but now I keep your instructions. 71 It was good for me to suffer,
so that I might learn your statutes.
Jesus told his disciples “rejoice when you are persecuted for righteousness sake because the Kingdom of Heaven is yours (Matt 5:10&12) Paul told the Thessalonians in 1:4 that their trials are a token of God’s righteous judgment IN ORDER THAT you may be counted worthy of the Kingdom of God for which ye suffer.
C.S. Lewis wrote in “The Problem of Pain” “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts to us in out pain: It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
BUT suffering must be rightly perceived . Moffat comments “The writer might be throwing out a hint (in verse 11) to his readers, that suffering was apt to render people irritable, impatient with one another’s faults. A later record showed that even some martyrs quarreled in prison. It is important that suffering be accepted in the right spirit or it will produce the wrong sort of fruit. Only those who exercise themselves in godly discipline will endure and yield fruit.
God places a high value on holiness. HE will allow trials, “Chipping” in order to make us what? Holy, Holy that we might be partakers of his holiness. But for the present it is not fun being chipped away at, but notice verse 11 said: “ Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
Is God exercising you? Are you becoming more holy because you realize his place in your life, HIS plan? Can you notice the diamond appearing more and more as the dross is chipped away? Are you allowing trials to refine you, or do you just drag your feet and complain and grumble and ask “why me?”
Jim Eliot gave his life in service to God (1956 Auca) HE had a poem that he loved and it helped him in trial as he strove for his AUG degree.
Amy Carmichael of India wrote it and I share it here.
Hast thou no scar?
No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?
I hear thee sung as mighty in the land;
I hear them hail thy bright, ascendant star.
Hast thou no scar?
Hast thou no wound?
Yet I was wounded by the archers; spent,
Leaned Me against a tree to die; and rent
By ravening beasts that compassed Me, I swooned.
Hast thou no wound?
No wound? No scar?
Yet, as the Master shall the servant be,
And piercèd are the feet that follow Me.
But thine are whole; can he have followed far
Who hast no wound or scar?
August 22 Devotions F.B. Meyer
GOD'S DELAYS ARE NOT DENIALS
"Therefore will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious unto you, and therefore will He be exalted, that He may have mercy upon you; for the Lord is a God o f judgment; blessed are all they that wait for Him."-- Isa_30:18.
THERE ARE many illustrations of this Divine method in the Word of God.
Too often we have misinterpreted God's dealings with us. When He has tarried beyond the Jordan, in spite of our entreaties that He should hasten to save Lazarus, we have concluded that He was strangely neglectful. But, in fact, He was waiting, at no small cost to His heart, till we had come to the end of ourselves, and the way was clear for Him to work a more astounding miracle than we had dared to hope.
God's delays are not denials; they are not neglectful nor unkind. He is waiting with watchful eye and intent for the precise moment to strike, when He can give a blessing which will be without alloy, and will flood all after life with blessings so royal, so plenteous, so divine, that eternity will be too short to utter all our praise.
