Reject Not God's Discipline #2

Introduction: The Setting and Subject of God's Discipline

0:00 As we have already indicated, our attention tonight will be directed to the book of Proverbs chapter 3 and verses 11 and 12. You ask, why should we study those verses? Well, for the simple reason that they are the next verses that follow after 9 and 10, and we are working through verse by verse at least these first few chapters of the book of Proverbs. I am not sure precisely how long we shall go on.

0:29 with this study, but we've been engaged in it for a number of months now. I believe if my reckoning is correct, this is the 31st in our series of studies in the book of Proverbs. My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, neither be weary of his reproof. For whom the Lord loveth, he reproveth, even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.

0:57 In our first examination of this passage last week, I sought to do several things as together we focused our attention upon it. First of all, we said a word about the setting of the passage. The two previous directives concerned the relationship between godliness and good health, verses 7 and 8, and then the relationship between honoring God with one substance and material prosperity. And Solomon underscores a general principle that, generally speaking, there is a direct relationship between a godly life and a healthy body, between honoring God and material prosperity.

1:43 But lest we absolutize the general principles into inflexible straight jackets by which we bind God in his dealing with his people or bind ourselves in trying to interpret God's dealings with us, we have immediately following the annunciation of those two general principles this very necessary word, My son, don't despise the chastening of God. This same God who has ordained that, generally speaking, there shall be a very close relationship between a godly life and a healthy life, between a life that shares the good things of God and a life that enjoys the good things of God,

2:29 we must never think that God's primary concern is to have us physically healthy or materially prosperous. God's biggest concern is our character namely making us into the likeness of his dear son and oft times the tools that are most efficient in accomplishing that goal are just the opposite of good health and material prosperity and God then has at his sovereign disposal every germ, every virus, every circumstance that can cripple our health every circumstance that can bleed away our wealth in order to make us more like his dear son. And I think it's very significant that Solomon places these words

3:14 by the direction of the Spirit precisely where he places them. Then we looked at the main division of the text. Verse 11 is obviously the command issued. My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord.

3:28 Do not be weary of his reproof. Verse 12 is the reason why we should obey the command for whom the Lord loves he reproves even as a father the son in whom he delights. Now as we began our study last week we began by looking at the command and we noted first of all the object of this command. To whom does this command come?

3:51 Well Solomon begins with these words of intimate fatherly affection. my son despise not the chastening of the Lord. And the writer to the Hebrews picks up that thread of thought. You remember when we read the passage a few minutes ago he said you Christianists have forgotten the exhortation which deals with you as with sons so that it is only the true sons and daughters of God to whom this exhortation comes.

4:20 It does not come to all men indiscriminately though trouble and affliction are the lot of all men upon the face of the earth. Trouble and affliction are not chastisement to any but the true children of God. Those who have been born of God's Spirit. Those who have received God's Son.

4:39 Those who have been adopted into God's family by grace. Then we looked at the subject of the command and I ask you to look at it again. The subject is this matter of chastisement and reproof. And after looking at a number of scriptures, we came to the conclusion that chastening here can be aptly described as God's afflictive dispensations.

5:10 That is, the circumstances which God arranges, which put the squeeze upon us, upset our normal state of affairs. They become pincers upon our flesh. They become disruptive to our spirits. God's afflictive dispensations.

5:30 The many trials of James. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse trials. The fiery trial of Peter. Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you.

5:44 The afflictions and tribulations arising because of the word in the parable of the sower. All of these are related terms dealing with this one basic principle. the subject in hand is what do I do as a Christian with God's afflictive dispensations. They may be for specific sins, as in the case of the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians chapter 11.

6:09 They may not be for specific sins, as in the case of Paul, whose thorn in the flesh was given not because he was proud, but to keep him from being proud. These are God's afflictive dispensations, which may be specifically related to specific sins committed, for which God is chastening us, or they may be part of His overall training of us into the likeness of His Son. Then this matter of reproof are God's corrective communications. A reproof is a rebuke.

6:41 It is a sharp reprimand which always deals with something that I've done wrong. When your father reproves you as a child, he is rebuking you. He is reprimanding you sharply for a misdemeanor. And isn't it interesting that this is supposed to be one of the main functions of the Word of God.

7:01 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for teaching for what? Reproof. And I'm amazed. I have the reputation in various places for being a preacher who deals with sin.

7:13 Well, my friend, no preacher is preaching the word who doesn't deal with sin. For all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for reproof, for correction, than for instruction in righteousness.

7:32 Likewise, Timothy, preach the word. How? Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching. Well then, these are God's corrective communications.

7:45 And the subject of the text is, what is a Christian to do with afflictive dispensations and corrective communications? And then we close our study by asking the question, who is the author of these things, God or the devil? And the text is very clear. My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, neither be weary of his reproof.

8:06 For whom he loves, he reproves. And this whole idea that afflictions are from the devil, resist them in the name of Christ, plead the blood of Christ over them is sheer foolishness. It has no foundation in the word of God. The author, no matter what the means may be, Paul sees behind the messenger of Satan that afflicts his flesh.

8:29 He sees the gracious, chastening rod of his loving Lord and says, most gladly will I glory in it. and I say it is a narrow unbiblical perspective that fails to see God as the author therefore I'm humbled that he knows I yet need correction should humble me but that as a father he's only corrected me and not damning me should give me great encouragement and then we closed our study by considering what is the goal of this affliction the subject before us is affliction his chastening his reproof and it's always didactic, that is to teach us, always therapeutic, that is to heal us, always soteric, that is to carry on his work of salvation.

9:14 Chastisement and reproof of God to his children is never judicial or penal or judgmental. He broke the rod of penal judgment upon his son and he has no such rod for his beloved children. Now in the light of all that, We said how foolish it is to promise carnal ease and personal tranquility to people if they'll come to Christ. We said how foolish it is to make a shallow, giddy joy the test of our sanctification.

9:47 How foolish it is to measure the grace in a man by his material prosperity, his ease, and his health. That's our review. Now we come tonight to the third area of thought as we look at the command. We've seen the objects of the command, the children of God, my son.

Directive 1: Despise Not the Chastening of the Lord

10:05 The subject of the command, chastening and reproof. Now tonight, the special directives of the command, despise not, neither be weary. Despise not the chastening of the Lord. That's a negative way of saying, regard it rightly.

10:23 Neither be weary of his reproof. That's a negative way of saying, bear it with due patience and perseverance. Let's look at them then in that order. First of all, the special directives of the command, despise not the chastening of the Lord, or positively stated, regard the chastening with due reverence and attention.

10:46 Now this word despise is one of two main Hebrew words used for despise, and this is the stronger of the two. The first word means to disesteem. You do not esteem something as highly as it ought to be esteemed, and therefore you are said to despise it. The second word means positively to loathe, to spurn, to abhor.

11:12 Let me illustrate. The king has announced that he is going out to visit a certain hamlet in his kingdom on a specific day. The word goes out and the men who run with a message. I want to say couriers, but that's not the word that I want.

11:27 But you know who I mean. The messengers. Not heralds. It's another word who come to me halfway through the sermon.

11:33 But anyway, they've gone out and they've worked up a lather as they've run to the village and made the announcement the king is coming. And it's expected that when the king and his regal entourage make their way into the village, all the villagers, no matter what they're doing, will line up along the streets. mothers will for a moment as it were forget that they have children and hold them quietly at their feet or behind them or in their arms so when the king passes by they can give him due attention and say long live the king well as the king comes into the town there's a certain man who's over at his workbench and he hears all this noise and all this commotion and he says hey what's going on they say have you forgotten the king is coming today he looks up from his workbench and he says oh yeah the king's coming just turns his back and goes right on working

12:20 and the king passes through the town and never once does he lay down his tools lay down his piece of wood and his other things that occupy him and give the king the attention of which he's worthy we could say that that man despised the king he did not give him the esteem of which he was worthy as the king makes his way through the town there's another fellow he leaves his workbench throws his tools down gets as close to the king as he can and with a look of venomous hatred in his face as the king boils by and everyone is saying long live the king long live the king he spits upon him now he's despised the king too but you see the difference in the two kinds of despising one of those despisings was a failure to give the king

13:06 all the esteem of which he was worthy the other despising is a positive loathing and abuse of the king And you have those two words used in the Old Testament. And in this particular context, what Solomon says to his son is this. My son loath not. My son spurn not.

13:29 My son abhor not the chastening of the Lord. But now lest we press that to too far an extreme, when the Holy Ghost picks up this passage in the New Testament, You know what parallel word he uses from the Greek language? Not the strongest word to loathe, but the word to disesteem.

13:53 Hence you have the translation in the American Standard Version, regard not lightly, I believe is the terminology that's used. Yes, my son, regard not lightly the chastening of the Lord. So you see the word used then takes in the whole spectrum of just being indifferent to the chastening of the Lord all the way to a downright loathing and despising in an active sense the chastening of the Lord. So then the meaning of the phrase should be clear to us.

14:26 It is a directive couched in a negative way implying that we ought to have just the opposite attitude. Do not abhor or treat lightly the chastening of the Lord. Do not spurn it, but welcome it as the loving messenger that it is. Embrace it, give it its due regard and its due response.

How Believers Despise God's Chastening: Failing to See His Hand

14:51 So the specific directive of the text is, despise not the chastening of the Lord. Now having opened up the meaning of the word, Let us address ourselves in the second place to this question, how do the children of God despise the chastening of God? And let me suggest three or four things. First of all, we despise the chastening of the Lord when we refuse to consider that God's dealings with us are His chastening hand.

15:23 Or to state it another way, we despise the chastening of the Lord when we fail to see His hand and hear His voice in the act of chastisement.

15:36 You see, God's chastisement comes most often by secondary means. Take, for example, the Hebrews 12 passage. What does the writer to the Hebrews regard as the chastening of a loving father upon these Hebrew Christians? Was it that God was thundering out of heaven directly to them and reproving them for certain sins?

16:03 No. It was their fellow Jews who were giving them a rough time.

16:08 And all they were seeing was the fact that their fellow Jews were making it hard for them. They didn't see beyond the treatment of their fellow Jews to see the hand of God that was governing even the treatment of their enemies against them. And he says, you've forgotten the exhortation which deals with you as sons. My son, regard not lightly the chastening of the Lord.

16:32 And they were despising God's chastening by refusing to consider that behind these secondary causes, the hatred of their fellow Jews, the opposition, the destruction of their goods, the persecution the libeling of their characters and all of this He said all that you would see behind it is the hand of your loving Father who is using all of this to make you more like your son You see, our problem is we reason like this. We say, well, trouble is the lot of all men. The Bible says man is going to be full of trouble as the sparks fly upward. And so we say trouble, everybody has his share of it.

17:18 and so I'm not going to be any different. But you see, there's an element that enters with a Christian that you haven't considered. God has said of the Christian, not of the non-Christian, we know that all things are working together for good to them who love God, to them who are called according to His purpose. And what is that good? Verse 29, whom He did foreknow, He did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son.

17:44 You see the external circumstances may change very little if at all But the moment a man comes into the orbit of God's grace All of those circumstances are now ordered by a specific and detailed providence In order to make this man like the Lord Jesus Christ And we despise God's chastening when through secondary means He brings afflicted dispensations, He brings corrective communications, and we never see His hand in it. We just go plowing right on like this is just life with its share of troubles. Happy days, bad days, good things, bad things, and we just sort of stoically rock along

18:30 and take things as they come. Oh, child of God, despise not the chastening of the Lord. despise not his rebukes by failing to see his hand in it Joseph did not thus regard God's dealings ye meant it for evil selling me as a slave putting me in a pit treating me as you did ye meant it for evil but God meant it for good he saw that behind their bitter envy and jealousy behind their terrible treatment was the hand of God at work sanctifying these things to his own profit. Paul could see the hand of God

19:15 behind those afflictive dispensations. I have learned in whatsoever state I am in therewith to be content. But you see, the Corinthians didn't. Here were some people chronically ill.

19:32 Here were some other people chronically weak, spiritually, physically. Here were some people cut off in the midst of their years. And Paul interprets it for them in 1 Corinthians 11. Look at his words.

19:44 Apparently they didn't have a clue that this was the reason behind these things. Well, sickness, we've got a lot of it in Corinth this winter. So, a lot of sickness, we get our share of it, that's it. Paul says, no, in the case of many of you Corinthians, verse 30 of 1 Corinthians 11, For this cause, they were sinning in abusing the table of the Lord.

20:10 And God was sending afflicted dispensations. God was sending corrective communications. And they weren't listening. They weren't heeding.

20:19 They weren't getting the message. And he says, for this cause, many among you are weak and sickly and not a few sleep. But if we discerned ourselves, if we would honestly search our hearts and say, O God, am I indeed coming as I ought to the table of the Lord? Are these afflictions due to my carelessness in the ordinances in my Christian life?

20:41 If we discern, if we judged, if we examined ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened to the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.

20:55 Then there's a classic example in the Old Testament that I want us to look at, 2 Chronicles 16. Here is a man who despised the chastening of the Lord He refused to see the hand of God In what happened to him 2 Chronicles 16 and verse 7 And at that time Hanani the seer Came to Asa king of Judah And said unto him Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria And hast not relied on the Lord thy God Therefore is the host of the king of Syria Escaped out of thy hand Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubim a huge host with chariots and horsemen exceeding many. Yet because thou didst rely on the Lord, he delivered them into thy hand. For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth

21:41 to show himself strong in the behalf of those whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly, for from henceforth thou shalt have wards. Then Asa was wroth with the seer and put him in the prison house. He was in a rage with him because of this thing.

21:59 And Asa oppressed some of the people at the same time. Behold the acts of Asa first and last. Lo, they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. And in the thirty and ninth year of his reign, Asa was diseased in his feet.

22:12 His disease was exceeding great. Yet in his disease he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians.

22:23 Despise the chastening of the Lord. I got something wrong with my feet. He never once thought to go to his face and say, Oh God, is this an afflictive dispensation because of the state of my heart? He was impervious to the rod of God.

22:43 Now I tell you, child of God, that's a frightful thing. That's a frightening thing. I wonder are you despising the chastening of the Lord by failing to see His hand and hear His voice in those afflictions that are upon you this very night?

23:06 The psalmist again is a beautiful positive example of one who looked behind his afflictions to see the hand of God and hear the voice of God listen to his words in Psalm 119 beginning with verse 67 before I was afflicted I went astray but now I observe thy word thou art good and doest good teach me thy statutes down to verse 71 it is good for me that I've been afflicted that I may learn thy statutes when affliction came he went to his face and said Lord apparently there's a message you haven't been able to get through to me in my state of health you've got something to say to me in my affliction Lord give me ears to hear so when the affliction was over

How Believers Despise God's Chastening: Refusing to Bend

23:51 he could look back and say thank you God it's good for me that I've been afflicted are you despising the chastening of the Lord? the directive of this verse is Christian don't despise his chastening by failing to see his hand and to hear his voice in the midst of it secondly we despise his chastening when we refuse to bend before the specific purpose of God in the chastening, or to state it this way, failure to bend before His hand and voice. You see, there are some people, they get beyond that first stage. They're not indifferent to the voice of God and the hand of God, but seeing His hand and hearing His voice, they stubbornly go on in the very course of action

24:37 for which they know God is chastening. And in so doing, they're despising the chastening because they're not allowing the chastening to have its God-intended purpose accomplished in them.

24:52 What a terrible thing it is to a parent when a child will not bend by the discipline of the father but goes on stubbornly in his own way. He sees the area of disobedience. He admits it. He knows that it's the father's rod and the father's voice that has come to him because of it.

25:08 But he goes on stubbornly in his own way forcing the father to continue to lay the rod upon him until he breaks.

25:16 And I tell you, that's no pleasant thing. I thank God for the most part my children have been responsive to the rod. But I've seen one dear parent came to me, a preacher, and he was distraught. He said, I don't know what I'm going to do.

25:29 He said, my son looks me right in the eye, says, yes, I did that. I know I shouldn't have, but I don't care. And he lovingly chastised him again and again and again until you'd laugh if I told you the measures he had to go to to see the will of that little boy broken. I've never seen anything like it but if that father was determined that he was going to have a submissive son though it broke his own heart he'd keep at it till he broke the will of that child and God have mercy on any parent who doesn't do it my son despised not the chastening of the Lord don't stand stubborn and adamant when you know that he's afflicting you for that specific sin when you know that He's chastising you to work that particular grace in your life,

26:20 don't try to prove that you can hold out against God. It's losing business. So often I've told God's children, as I've had to tell myself, capitulate. It's losing business, fighting God.

26:33 Because you see, God never softens and backs off because of our whimpering.

26:38 You can go right on slobbering and whimpering until your eyeballs have no more tears to give out. and God will say, look, I don't want your tears and your slobbering and your whimpering. I want you to bend. And he'll keep the rod upon us until we bend.

26:53 And apparently the Bible teaches that if a person's a true child of God and won't bend, God's so determined they won't clutter up the world bringing reproach to him, he'll take them right out of it. For this cause many are weak and sickly and some sleep.

27:06 That's a frightening thing. Christians dying before their years because God's so determined that Christians who are here will bring glory to Him if you're determined to plant your feet in a given area and say, I won't budge. God will say, alright, I'll make you budge. I'll take you right off the scene.

27:24 And that's a frightening thing. Despise not the chastening of the Lord. What's the result when we despise it in this second sense? We know why the hand of God is upon us, but we won't bend it.

27:37 Well, let's look at the example of a man who was in that condition. Listen to his own testimony in Psalm 32. The same David who says in the 119th Psalm, I've heard the voice of God and I've been to it and I've been blessed. This wasn't always the case.

27:54 What he says in the 32nd Psalm, verses 3 and 4, When I kept silence, that is the silence of non-submission, non-repentance, non-confession what happened? my bones wasted away through my groaning all the day long for day and night thy hand was heavy upon me my moisture was changed as with the drought of summer what misery and he knew what the cause of it was he says the hand of God was upon me and traditionally this psalm is connected as with the 51st psalm with the sin with Bathsheba David is saying that during that whole year until God sent as it were

28:44 that thundering voice through Nathan and the reproof came through a prophet's direct message and finally pushed him over the hill during that time his conscience was still awakened to his sin He said the hand of God was heavy upon me Day and night Until I felt that there was nothing but rottenness in my bones Until I could cry no more My moisture was changed as with the drought of summer And what was the whole problem? He would not bend to God's rod That's all He would not bend to God's rod I wonder if I'm speaking to some Christians tonight Who are the essence of misery because you won't bend to God's rod. And you may have been running around

29:31 to Christian psychologists and Christian counseling centers and taking up the time of pastors and all the rest when the real problem is you're despising the afflictions of the Lord. You're despising His reproof. This is what happens. Here's the picture of such a man.

29:48 God does not delight in the repeated disciplinary measures but He's determined to have His way with His children. Look at Jonah. wasn't enough that God should give him his word and God says alright I'll send a storm I'll make it a violent storm look at all the trouble God went to had to create a great fish and had to create a situation which a man could live in the belly of that fish for three days and then he had to tickle the fish at the right place at the right time to get him to burp up Jonah he said I'm going to have my way Jonah and I'm bigger than you are and you're my child and I've taken you in hand and I'm not about to just give up on you.

30:32 But oh the misery, oh the misery we bring upon ourselves and often upon those in our most immediate circle. David was no fountain, or no, not a fountain, I was thinking of the John 7 passage. David was no man described as we find the believer described there, one out of whose innermost being flow rivers of living water. In those days when he was inwardly dried up Anything that came near him felt the dryness.

30:59 God have mercy upon children who are living with a Christian father who knows the rod of God is upon him but won't bend. A Christian mother who knows the rod of God is upon her but won't bend.

31:12 You're a blight to your family. You're a blight to your fellow church members. You're a blight to everything you touch.

How Believers Despise God's Chastening: Resenting the Rod

31:20 There's a third way we can despise the chastening of the Lord. not only failure to see his hand and hear his voice or seeing his hand and hearing his voice failing to bend before the hand and the voice but we despise his chastening in the third way when we resent the rod in rebuke or failure to welcome the chastisement as in our best interest.

31:44 We grudgingly acknowledge this is God's rod. We grudgingly acquiesce to the intention of that rod but we do it from a motive of self-pity. I'm so tired of the rod upon me I'll do anything to get the smarting off my back. And we yield a grudging acquiescence to the discipline of God.

32:07 Isn't that Jonah all over again?

32:10 God's just finally convinced him. I'm figuring you are. But he still didn't have a right attitude. He's out there pouting under a board.

32:19 Isn't that what he's doing? Building a little tent sitting there sulking. God just might have mercy on these bunch of Gentile dogs. Well, he's where God wanted him.

32:27 He was doing what God told him, but he sure didn't have his heart in it. So the Lord continued to deal with him and sent a worm in his gourd.

32:37 It's just wonderful that God is so persistent, isn't it? If he weren't, I wouldn't be here tonight. Nor would you. But the real spirit that we ought to have under discipline is beautifully described in Hebrews 12.

32:50 Look at it. And then we'll see an example of it in the Apostle Paul. Despise not the chastening of the Lord. Don't embrace it.

32:59 Recognize it. Submit to it grudgingly. But with delight as being in your best interest as well as to God's glory. Hebrews 12 states it this way.

33:09 Beginning with verse 9. Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live? You see what he says?

33:25 Subject yourself lovingly, willingly, gladly to the Father of spirits. For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed good to them. Notice, but he for our profit that we may be partakers of his holiness. He for our profit that we may be partakers of holiness You see the life of holiness towards which God is moving us by His discipline and reproof is not only for His greater glory, but for our best interest.

34:05 Holiness and happiness God has wedded. It is the lie of the devil and the perversion of our minds by sin That says happiness is to be found in the way of sin God says no, true happiness is in the way of true holiness And so when God is disciplining us He is doing so that we may be partakers of His holiness Therefore we must go beyond merely saying Lord I see your chastisement And I bend you it grudgingly we must reach out and embrace the rod to our bosoms and say this is for my good. Classic example, the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. Look at it.

Embracing the Rod: The Example of Paul

34:47 Very familiar ground, but it applies so vividly here. 2 Corinthians chapter 12.

35:01 Verse 7. by reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations, that I should not be exalted over much. There was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, that I should not be exalted over much. God said I have to give so much light to my servant Paul.

35:20 It be easy for him to begin to get drunk with the heady wine of his great privileges as an apostle to whom I am giving special and peculiar and exalted revelations. and lest he be crippled by that pride and wound himself and bring reproach to me, I will allow this messenger of Satan to buffet him. Whatever it was, its effect upon Paul is opened up in the next verses. Notice.

35:47 Concerning this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me. Lord, this thing is an enemy to my usefulness. Take it from me. Sought the Lord thrice.

35:58 And I don't think he means there. he had three little sentence prayers in the space of 30 seconds. I believe he's talking about three intense, concentrated seasons of intercession. Probably with fasting.

36:12 Probably. Can't say dogmatically because the text doesn't. But here was an intense seeking of the Lord. You see, he wasn't despising God's dealings.

36:21 He's praying about it. Lord, this messenger of Satan, I'm seeking your face as far as I can discern. It's militating against my usefulness. God said, Paul, I appreciate your sentiments, but you've looked at it all wrong.

36:34 And he hath said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my power is made perfect in weakness. And the Greek word for weakness is physical weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Wherefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in injuries, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses.

37:03 For Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then am I strong. Is this a man saying, all right, Lord, you say this is for my good, then I'll accept it. But grudgingly, no, no. He says, most gladly, therefore, will I glory in my weaknesses.

Application: Self-Examination on Despising Chastening

37:21 see the glad embrace hugging it to his bosom saying this is my messenger of grace not my enemy my messenger of grace now let me ask a very pointed question to you tonight several questions dear Christian what has God brought upon you to correct you what has he said in the way of a corrective communication an afflictive dispensation is there a certain grace that you lack that is a deformity in your character and God has surrounded you with circumstances and people and events that are constantly bringing into focus your terrible weakness in the cultivation of that grace

38:09 have you gotten the message or are you despising the chastening of the Lord don't you see any pattern in God's dealings you're lacking in compassion and God is putting unlovely people in front of you at work in your neighborhood he's drawing you providentially into close relationship to such people in this very assembly don't you get the message? don't you get the message? you're despising the chastening of the Lord God has brought chronic failure in certain areas perhaps financially every single thing you've tried and you thought was going to go has only turned the dust in your hands. You've just been looking at it as bad luck.

38:54 What a pagan concept. What a pagan concept. There is no blind fate ordering your present financial stress. It is a loving father perhaps chasing you, disciplining you.

39:08 Child of God, don't you know how to recognize the loving rod of your father? despise not the chastening of the Lord or the next question what do you have which you know is God's rod and God's voice but you won't bend as we said earlier it's losing business it's losing business why go on I say it reverently causing God grief when he has to keep the rod upon your back he takes no delight in doing it the picture the psalmist had of him in the 103rd Psalm is He will not always chide. He knows our frame. Yeah, but He also knows His purpose for us too.

39:51 And He's far more concerned with His purpose than our frame. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep. Because the purpose of God is being at this point resisted in your own heart and life. Then the third question, perhaps you're one of those who sees the rod of God and you're bending to it.

40:13 but not from the heart. This is why some of you have got tremendous emotional problems, because you are not embracing the rod from the heart. And there is a root of bitterness. There is a root of cynicism.

40:29 All the fragrance of Christ that will begin to exude from your life if you kiss the rod, hug it to your breast, and then the fragrance will pour forth. There is nothing more fragrant than an afflicted saint hugging the rod and blessing the God who wields it. You think of the saints in whom you have sensed most of the fragrance of Christ and you'll notice that almost without exception they were saints who had learned what it was to hug the rod and to bless the God who laid it upon them.

41:09 My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord. Very quickly then, the second aspect of the directive, nor faint when thou art reproved of him. Faint not, despise not, faint not, positively stated, bear his reproofs with patience and endurance. Now what's the precise meaning of the word faint?

Directive 2: Faint Not When Reproved of Him

41:35 well it obviously is in the field of growing weary with something regarding something too seriously until it overpowers us there's only one other Old Testament use of the word but it gives a good description of its meaning in Genesis 27 and verse 46 Genesis 27 and verse 46 you remember the problem of some of the sons of Jacob marrying I'm sorry this is yes this is Rebecca speaking to Isaac sorry and thinking of the problem of some of the relationships

42:20 and the in-laws and the marriages that were made and she says of this I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth such as these of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life be to me? You get the picture? I am harassed. I am tormented to the point where I've become weary.

42:40 I've lost my heart to live. The New Testament word used in the Hebrews passage is the word used in Matthew 15, 32 when Jesus speaks of the multitudes who've been following Him for days and He says we must not send them off lest they faint upon the way. What happens to a man who hasn't had sufficient food? He faints. He grows weary. He loses his heart.

43:03 Same word in Galatians 6.9. Be not weary in well-doing. There's the word.

43:08 Don't be weary in well-doing, for in due season will reap if we faint not. If we continue to persevere in gospel plowing, gospel sowing. So the whole idea of the word is to lose heart, to lose spirit. The Hebrews 13 passage, Hebrews 12 passage gives you the picture.

43:27 Here's a man with his hands hung down. Have you ever watched this in a race? The guy's out running the mile race, four laps, on a quarter mile track. And he's out there and he's running and he's going.

43:38 And suddenly he gets about one quarter of a lap away. And he stops. And what's the first thing he does? He drops his hands.

43:47 If he's got a stitch in his side or if he's got a cramp or if he's just plain pooped and can't finish. He drops his hands. His shoulders hang loose. And you don't need to say a thing.

43:55 Everything about him says, I've had it. I've quit. No more running races for me. Well, you see, the Hebrews 12 passage begins, Running the race!

44:04 And here's some people, the shoulders were sagged and the arms were at the side, and they had it. Quit before they broke the tape. That's the whole picture. My son, don't faint beneath the chastening of God.

How Believers Faint Under God's Reproofs

44:18 Now, what does it mean precisely to faint under God's rebukes and God's chastisement? Well, let me suggest a couple of lines of thought. Number one, it's to act as though there's no hope. And God was angry with us.

44:31 You see, the first problem is not taking the affliction seriously enough. The next problem is taking it too seriously.

44:41 And saying, well, if God's afflicting me and God is reproving me and God is rebuking me and it seems like He's relentless in His dealings with me, what's the use of going on? Even God doesn't love me anymore. The world's against me. Circumstance is against me.

44:56 And now God's against me. I might as well throw in the towel. So the hands hang down. He said, Oh, my son, faint not beneath the rebukes of God.

45:07 You want to see the picture of a man who was fainting beneath God's rebukes? Look at him in the 73rd Psalm. Thank God for these wonderful pictures of these attitudes in the Scriptures. Psalm 73.

45:20 He's looked at the wicked and everything's going all right, but he hadn't been doing too well.

45:27 He hadn't sent off for his pact of plenty to T.L. Osborne, promising that if he'd give him five dollars a month, he'd be driving Cadillacs and having big bank accounts.

45:39 Verse 13, Surely in vain have I cleansed my heart, and washed my hands in innocency. I've been seeking to be a holy man, inwardly and outwardly. I've been no fake. I've been cleansing my heart.

45:55 That's the mark of a true Christian. He's concerned about his heart. Because he walks before God. He knows God knows his heart.

46:02 He's concerned to make the inside of the cup clean first. And then the outside will be clean also. For all the day long I've been plagued and chastened every morning.

46:16 You say, what's the use? The more holy I try to be, the more God puts the rod on me. His hands were hanging down. Why should I bother?

46:25 Get something in his spirit? That's what it means to faint under God's rebuke. To act as though there were no hope, no purpose. God is angry with me.

46:34 No prophet. O child of God, faint not under the Lord's afflictive hands. Second way in which we faint, we act as though there's no reason to press on.

46:46 God is giving the affliction to purify faith, and the devil in the afflictive circumstances seeks to destroy our faith. God seeking to try it and purify it. The devil seeking to annihilate and to obliterate it. And when you've grown weary, you act as though there's no reason to press on.

47:05 Thirdly, you act as though God's timing is unreasonable, unwise, and unloving. Lord, how long? Read those Psalms. Lord, how long?

47:13 Lord, how long? That's growing faint under God's chastisement. Lord, I don't mind the rod, but Lord, there's got to be so many stripes. I don't mind the rebukes, but Lord, does it have to be so repeated?

47:26 That's fainting. As though God didn't know your frame when He says, I do know your frame. I know what you can bear. That's fainting.

47:35 In short, let me read the summary of John Brown, and this is classic. John Brown says, when you faint, this is what you do. To faint when we're rebuked of God is, under the influence of despondency, to sink into a state of criminal inaction. Isn't that a vivid term?

47:55 Criminal inaction to become unfit for the discharge of our active duties. Now Christians should not thus faint under afflictions, for they are the rebukes of a Father, of one who loves them, and who rebukes them, not to depress them, but to stir them up. Let our afflictions rouse our spiritual energies. The thought that we need rebuke, and that he who rebukes us is infinitely wise and good, should equally prevent us from sinking into a state of desponding, helpless inactivity.

48:29 In this case, we directly contradict the design of God in these dispensations, which is to quicken us and to animate us. Do you know what it is to be brought to sinful and criminal inactivity? Because you said, what's the use? That's fainting.

Practical Directives: Remember, Pray, Rejoice

48:47 And God says, don't. Faint. Faint not. Well, you say, it's alright for you to say that, preacher.

48:55 But how do we do it? Well, may I close tonight with some practical, very Puritan directives. Three words. Remember, pray, and rejoice.

49:07 Remember what? Well, remember who you are. My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord. Oh, much of our problem is we just forget who we are.

49:20 How many days this past week did you get up and even have some devotions and pray without once saying, Oh, Lord, the wonder of it, that I'm a son of God. I'm a daughter of God. I've been adopted into the royal family. I have royal blood coursing through my veins.

49:38 No wonder you got despondent when you were chastised. You forgot who you were. Remember who you are Isn't that the thrust of the exotation? You have forgotten the exhortation Which deals with you as sons My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord Secondly, remember who God is He's your father You're a son He's father Oh, thank God He's the infinite, exalted, majestic Sovereign of the universe Of consuming fire Of pure eyes than to look upon iniquity He charges even His angels with folly Seraphim veil face and feet I am not in any way negating all The Bible tells us about Him As the majestic, exalted, transcendent God But if I'm a Christian, He's my Father

50:26 You take all the genuine love That's ever existed in the heart Of every single father that's ever lived Love that would cause Him to bear With His son and His daughters love that would cause him if necessary to give his life the love of all that ever been found in every mother and take all that love and put it into one place and that but a drop of water compared to the ocean when we think of the love of our father heart Oh, child of God, remember who you are and remember who he is. Remember this, under the rod, he's my father. And then thirdly, remember what God's purpose for you is. his purpose is not that you might have a big fat bank account and that you might be the picture

51:12 of what every health food store would like to have as its end product after five years God's got bigger purposes than that this is the curse of this whole idea that says good health was purchased for us in Christ and if you're ever sick then resist it as some foreign intrusion that is entirely unbiblical It is heresy.

51:38 You can quote anyone and tell me I said that. Tell them I said it, and I can prove it from Genesis to Revelation. A God who is not big enough to take sickness and affliction and make it subserve His purpose of making men holy. It's not the God of the Bible.

51:53 It's good for me that I've been afflicted. God knows that's what I needed to be made more like His Son. Remember what God's purpose for you is. His purpose is not just to make you a Christian and then float you through this world shouting glory, glory, glory all the way.

52:12 My friend, He's determined to make you like His Son and His Son had to learn obedience by the things which He suffered.

52:20 That's biblical realism. There may be some of you tonight who've come into this meeting with a heart as heavy as a lead.

52:28 All remember, He's going to make you like His Son who knew what it was to have a heart as heavy as lead. Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say, Father, save me from this hour. But for this hour I came forth.

52:43 Jesus groaned in His Spirit. To be like Christ means that I not only share His rejoicing, He rejoiced in His Spirit and said, Father, I thank Thee. It means that I groan over the things that made Him groan.

53:00 Remember who you are. Child. Who he is. Father.

53:06 Remember what God's purpose is. Second key word. Pray. Pray for what?

53:12 Pray for sensitivity to recognize the rod and reproof when they come.

53:19 How long has it been since you prayed? Oh God deliver me from hardness of heart and thickness of eardrums. That I wouldn't recognize your reproofs and feel your rod. What a terrible thing to get calluses so big you can't feel God's rod anymore.

53:37 Pray for sensitivity. Lord, give me that spiritual perceptiveness to know when you're afflicting, to know when you're rebuking. Secondly, pray for light to understand the purpose for which the rod has come.

53:54 Lord, I believe this is your rod. What are you trying to tell me? What are you trying to do for me? Lord, give me light.

54:00 To understand it. That's what Paul was doing. Here was an affliction. He didn't run around to a hundred different people.

54:05 Say what do you think about it? He said I sought the Lord. I sought the Lord. I sought the Lord.

54:14 What was Asa's problem? He sought to the physicians and not to the Lord.

54:20 Have you cultivated the habit? First time illness, sickness comes. Going first to the Lord and saying Lord are you trying to say something? That doesn't mean every sickness.

54:28 is a peculiar messenger of God, but it may be. How are you going to know unless there's the sensitivity and the seeking of God's face for light to know His purpose? And then thirdly, pray for grace to submit to its activity. Lord, help me not on the one hand to despise it, help me on the other hand not to faint beneath it, but to embrace it and hug it to my bosom until its purpose is accomplished.

54:54 Pray for sensitivity to recognize the rod. Pray for light to know the purpose of the rod. Pray for grace to submit to its activity. And then thirdly, in the midst of affliction, rejoice that you are loved enough to be disciplined.

55:15 You see, Paul lived in the day when apparently there was still enough common grace that any father who didn't discipline his son was regarded as not loving his son. Remember his question, for what son is there whom a father does not chastise? In our day, you'd have to say there are about 99 out of 100 of them.

55:34 And people say, I love them too much to discipline. No, you love yourself and you hate your son, for the Bible says,

55:42 that the man who does not discipline his son hates him, but he that loves him, chastens him, be times or diligently. Thou shalt beat him with the rod and deliver his soul from hell A son left to himself causes his mother's shame And we need in the midst of God's disciplines To rejoice that he loves us enough to discipline us He's not letting us run helter and skelter As the writer to Hebrew says Like the illegitimate son who nobody wants to claim Who's an object of shame and no one there to train him, to discipline him, to govern him, to guide him. He says, if you're without discipline, you're not God's child. He doesn't have children and just let them run loose like little bastard children.

56:28 No, no. All the children brought into his family come into the orbit of all of his sovereign control over heaven and earth. And everything is governed in order that in them the likeness of Jesus Christ might be increasingly perfected. rejoice that you're loved enough to be disciplined secondly rejoice that your discipline is added evidence of your sonship well a child of God he'll know he's a child of God by having joy unspeakable and full of glory right?

57:01 yes that's right but he'll also be known that when he's under the disciplining rod of God there is heaviness as the writer to Hebrews says no chastening for the present seemeth joyous if my children looked up and laughed and giggled when I was putting the rod on them brother we'd change affairs somehow quick and anyone who can say he just goes through life his Christian life just rejoicing in the sense of smiling and being externally bubbling and effervescent no no there are times when the rejoicing is through tears And we say, oh God, though I feel the stroke of your rod, it assures me that I'm yours.

57:48 Because you're so determined to make me like your son, you won't let me have my own way. Thank God for the frustrations of his rod. Hedging up waves, blocking up avenues down which we would carnally move. And then thirdly, rejoice that the time is coming when you aren't going to need the rod anymore.

58:08 when you feel the rod the hardest rejoice there's coming a time when even the father won't see one thing in you concerning which he says that needs the rod imagine the father himself will look at us and say there's nothing about them I need to reprove anymore so when the rod is most bitter and you feel it sting most hurtfully rejoice and say oh God this is not forever Jesus is both the author and the perfecter of my faith and when he's done perfecting it I will be made into his own likeness and in the midst of all these things the remembering, the praying and the rejoicing never forget the little phrase

58:54 that is found at the beginning of the Hebrews 12 passage looking unto Jesus he said you Christians beginning to grow faint under God's afflictions He says you've not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin. Look at your Savior. Look at your Savior who underwent not the disciplinary rod of God but who underwent the penal rod of God. Underwent that rod of judgment that broke upon his head until he poured out his life's blood.

59:24 For what purpose? Not to have a bunch of irresponsible giddy people running around saying I'm saved and I'm on my way to heaven glad and want you to know it. But a group of people who, believing that they're saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, recognize they're saved unto holiness, and who adopt God's end as their end and say, Lord, I want to be made a holy man, a holy woman at any cost. Now deal with me to that end.

The Revealing Nature of Affliction and Call to Unbelievers

59:52 That's no child's play, friend. The Christian life is serious business. That's why the Christian road, pilgrim's pathway, is strewn with wreckage. Because affliction and tribulation are the great revealers of the genuineness of the work of grace in the human heart.

60:11 Remember the parable of the sower? You had that stony ground here. Receive the word with joy. Hallelujah.

60:17 Praise the Lord. Sins forgiven. On the way to heaven. One way.

60:21 All the rest. Okay.

60:24 God says the burning sun of affliction rises. And what happens to that plant? Because it had no root. What happened to it?

60:30 It withered and it died. And Jesus interprets the sun. He says, when tribulation and persecution arise because of the word, they wither and they die. Matthew 13, 21.

60:42 You see, affliction, tribulation are the revealers of the genuineness of the work of grace in the human heart. And all those who jumped on the Jesus bandwagon to get irresponsibly happy, but never had a heart made new unto holiness, when the going gets rough, they jump off and say, I've had it.

61:03 I've had it. Whereas the child of God says, Lord, left to myself I've had it. But to whom else shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.

61:14 Though he slay me, yet will I trust him. That's Christianity. Everything else is a bogus product. How about you, my child?

61:26 You, professing child of God, are you despising the chastisement of the Lord are you fainting beneath his reproof look unto Jesus look unto him for the grace necessary that you may no longer despise his chastening no longer faint beneath his reproof but recognize these principles that we've looked at and God willing in our next study we'll consider now the greatest encouragement not to faint and not to despise. We are the loved ones of the Father. Verse 12, For whom the Lord loveth, He reproveth even a father, the son in whom he delighteth. But I would be no doubt speaking tonight

62:14 to some who are not the children of God. You can't make any sense out of the problems that enter your life because all they do is give you another treasury of bitter memories and you see nothing happening but a greater well of bitterness and disillusionment. My friend, it's a terrible thing to live in this disordered world full of grief and sorrow and not to know that you're within that orbit of God's gracious dealings that all these things are for your good and His glory. It's an awful thing not to be a Christian.

62:49 Just to face life in all of its ugly, seamy side and not be a Christian, that's a terrible thing. Am I talking to someone who says, Preacher, you're describing me. How can I get into that framework, into that orbit, where I know that all my afflictions and trials are ordered of a loving Father for my good, so that I can rejoice? Well, you must become a son or a daughter of God.

63:14 The only way you can do that is by having direct dealings with that God through His Son. Because the Bible says, As many as received His Son, to them gave he the right to become the children of God even to them that believe on his name you've got to start taking seriously the gospel what the Bible says about you is a sinner who by nature is not a child of God but a child of the devil a child of wrath and who can become a child of God only by grace and if you leave with nothing else tonight I hope you leave with that thought burning in your consciousness if I'm ever to know what those people know and to have what they have and be able to do what they do in the midst of afflictions, I've got to know their God. And I know I can't know Him unless I find Him in His Son. And I'll never find Him in His Son unless I begin to take seriously the message of the Bible.

64:03 You start searching the Scriptures. You start crying to God for light to show you who He is, who His Son is. You have the promise that He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. Let us pray.

Closing Prayer and Benediction

64:20 Father, we again thank you this night that we have this sure word from heaven these infallible words of Holy Scripture without which we could have no basis of understanding life in its great complexity in its dead-end streets in its foreboding and ominous clouds how we thank you for the written scriptures that teach us that everything that touches us as your children touches us with meaning and with purpose. Oh Lord, help us that we as your people may learn how to regard your chastenings and your reproofs.

65:10 We would corporately confess our sins of despising your corrections, of growing weary beneath your reproofs. Forgive us for this sin and help us by your grace to make progress in rightly receiving all of your afflictive dispensations and all of your corrective communications. Teach us what it is to obey this precept in the strength of Christ and to the glory of Christ. now our Father we come at the close of this Lord's Day to thank you that you have been with us again thank you for the new understanding of yourself and of your ways that you've given us

65:57 as we've looked into the word together thank you for the peace of conscience that has come as we know that when we praise you with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs we're pleasing you that when we pray for grace for ourselves and others we are honoring you as the giver of all grace. And so as this day comes to its close, we thank you for its foretaste of that eternal Sabbath. Oh, hasten the day when our Lord Jesus shall come and we shall be like Him, when the rod will be needed no more, when the reproofs will be forever silenced. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

66:40 but if it please you to leave us here to live out our three score and ten oh help us to be light and salt to be holy men, holy women to be instruments in your hands to reflect the likeness of Jesus to be mouthpieces to speak forth the word of Jesus use us in our respective spheres of responsibility this week for some who go back to unusual concentrations of the rod of affliction and the reproof of correction. Help them. Help them in the midst of all of your dealings to know your grace, which is sufficient for them. Our Father, we've asked much of you,

67:26 but we thank you that you're a great God, and we believe that you can do not only what we've asked, but even exceeding abundantly above all that we've asked or could even think according to the power that works in us. Hear us then and receive our praise. Dismiss us with your blessing. Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

67:49 Amen.