Reject Not God's Discipline #3

Introduction: The Command and Its Objects

0:06 I direct your attention again to Proverbs chapter 3, verses 11 and 12, which have come into the course of our regular verse-by-verse exposition of this fascinating book of Proverbs, Proverbs 3, verses 11 and 12. 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. The division of this text is a very obvious one.

0:44 Verse 11 is the command, verse 12 is the reason annexed to the command as to why we ought to obey the command. Do this, my son, for this is true. And we have spent two Lord's Day evenings bearing this command set before us in verse 11. And we've looked at three things as we've considered the command.

1:08 We have first of all seen the objects of this command. They are the true children of God. Solomon, speaking by the Holy Spirit, addresses himself to his son. But Solomon's greater son, the greater than Solomon, speaks to all of his own people.

1:26 And we are warranted to put that into the word son in the light of the Hebrew. In the Hebrew's passage, you have forgotten the exhortation which dealeth with you as sons. My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord. And so this is a word directed not to all men in general or to the creatures of God in a general sense, but it is a word directed in a peculiar and an exclusive sense to those who are the true children of God.

1:57 Those who have been born of the Spirit. Those who have, who have embraced Jesus Christ as He is offered in the Gospel. Those who are being led by the Spirit. These are the various descriptions in the word of God of what a son of God is.

The Subject Matter and Directives of the Command

2:15 Then we consider in the second place the particular subject matter of the command. And the subject matter is found in these two words, chastening and reproof. The command has to do with the reaction of a true child of God to God. To God's chastisement and God's reproving.

2:35 And we have defined chastisement as God's afflictive dispensations. And I thought that was original with me until I was reading in John Brown the other day and I came across the phrase afflictive dispensation. So I don't know if it got into my head by way of John Brown imperceptibly and I recognized when I saw it or whether we just happened to come up with the same terminology. So if you're reading John Brown on Hebrews and you find the phrase, please don't accuse me of plagiarism without the evidence.

3:04 I'm very, very careful about giving acknowledgments. And I say to you young preachers, always be careful. Say another man of God is said or another servant of God is said. Don't give any semblance of originality where you are consciously borrowing.

3:19 The borrowing is all right. Just make it evident that you have borrowed goods in your hands and in your tongue when you're thus trafficking in them. But nonetheless, the subject matter is God's afflictions. Afflictive dispensations.

3:33 Those circumstances in the lives of God's people when they are conscious of affliction. Conscious of the things that James calls the manifold trials. The things that Peter calls the fiery trials which try us. Those things which bring an impingement to our fleshly and carnal comforts.

3:54 Those things that frustrate our plans. Those things that seem to be a block in the pursuit of our legitimacy. Legitimate goals. What is the child of God to do when such comes to him?

4:06 That's the subject matter of the text along with God's corrective communications. A reproof is a correction, a verbal correction coming with authority and with firmness. And God gives us those corrective communications by His Word and also through His ordering of providence and through His servants, through His children. This is the subject before us.

4:31 And then in the third place we've considered the specific directives of the text. We are not to despise these chastenings. My son, despise them not. We are not to grow weary beneath them.

4:44 We are not to despise them. That is, we are not to regard them lightly. Fail to see the afflicting hand of God. Fail to acknowledge the sin or the virtue that He's seeking to work in us by that affliction.

4:58 Failure to bend. That is to despise His chastenings. What is it to grow weary beneath them? To become despondent.

5:06 I love the language of Hebrews 3 to Hebrews 12. To let the hands hang down. What's these? You've thrown in a towel, you've quit, you're finished.

5:15 And all you're doing now is breathing God's air and existing. You have lost all sense of direction and purpose. He says, don't grow weary. To grow weary is to act as though there's no hope.

5:25 To despair. To act as though there's no reason behind the affliction. To act as though there were no love. And with that, we're going to be able to live.

5:31 We're going to be able to live. We're going to be able to live. In the wisdom, in the timing, and in the duration, and in the circumstances which have become God's rod upon us. Child of God, don't despise God's afflictions.

The Moving Cause of Chastisement: God's Filial Love

5:43 Don't grow weary beneath them. And now we come tonight to verse 12. The reason why we should obey that command. Why should we not despise God's corrections?

5:56 Why should we not grow weary beneath His reproofs? Well, the reason is given. The reason is given in verse 12. For.

6:04 You see, it's a connective word. Don't do this. For. Here's the reason.

6:10 The reason is simply stated, Whom the Lord loveth, He reprooveth, even as a father the son in whom He delighteth. Now, to think our way through the text, this is what I propose to do. First of all, to expound the central idea of verse 12, and then go to Hebrews 12 for two additional verses, that the writer to the Hebrews bases upon this text. This is a preacher's paradise.

6:38 When you have an Old Testament passage expounded and amplified in the New Testament, you feel you're on tremendously safe ground. Rarely do we have that luxury so abundantly as it is before us in this passage. Now, in giving you this basic structure, there will be three points that we consider. The moving cause for our chastisement is God's filial love.

7:01 Love, verse 12 of Proverbs 3. Secondly, the practical goal of our chastisement is our progress in holiness, Hebrews 12. And thirdly, one of the fringe benefits of our chastisement is the confirmation of our sonship. So we have the moving cause of our chastisement, the practical goal of our chastisement, and the fringe benefit of our chastisement.

7:29 First of all, then, chastisement. Child of God, you are not to despise God's chastening rod. You are not to grow weary beneath His reproofs because the moving cause of your chastisement is God's filial love. For whom the Lord loveth, He reprooveth, even as, equal sign, a father, the son in whom He delighted.

7:57 Now, what does the word filial mean? It means of or pertaining, to or suitable to the relationship of a son or a daughter. Filial affection is family affection. The peculiar affection that exists between a son and daughter and the father and mother and between father and mother and son and daughter.

8:20 And we find that affection described in the two words of the text, for whom the Lord loveth, He reprooveth, even as a father, the son in whom He delighted. Now, the word loveth, used in verse 12, is the general Old Testament word to describe that deep and principled affection which seeks the good of its objects. But when you add to the word love, the word delight, you have another ingredient that shows it's a particular kind of love. It's not a general love.

8:56 It is a peculiar, a distinct, a distinguishing love. This word, pleasure, or the son in whom He delighteth, to take pleasure in, is the word used when Isaiah speaks of God the Father's relationship to the servant of Jehovah, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says in Isaiah 42, in verse 1, Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delighteth. Same word.

9:29 I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. Now, this is obviously a reference to Messiah, to the Lord Jesus. And we see this fulfilled in a beautiful picture at His baptism, when the Father speaks from heaven and says, This is my Son, my Beloved, in whom I am well pleased.

9:51 I delight in my Beloved, my only begotten Son. Now, think with me for a minute. This is not a matter, of just fine distinctions that should be for professors. This is for your well-being, Christian.

10:05 What are you going to do under the rod? You better understand this distinction, or you won't know what to do. It's just that practical. In certain situations, we may and we must love without delighting in the object of our love.

10:20 God says, love your enemies.

10:24 Set upon them that principled affection that will seek their well-being at any cost to yourself. But God nowhere commands, me to delight in my enemies. It's psychologically impossible to delight in those who are my enemies. But I can love them, and I must love them.

10:41 You see, that's why this whole idea that love is purely an emotional thing, it'll just cripple you from obeying the Bible. I can love my enemies by the grace of God, but God nowhere calls me to delight in my enemies. But when you have love joined with delight, you have what the old writers would call a love of complacency. Not a love that does nothing, but a love that rests, as it were, in the glow of its object.

11:11 It's the kind of love that I see when I visit the hospitals when one of our couples has had a baby, and you go by the nursery, and you see all the papas lined up, and they're looking in, and they've got the most gushy-mushy kind of love, and they're looking down, you know, their heads are always this way, because the little ones, you know, in those little rolling, what do we call them? But anyway, you know what I'm talking about anyway, because I've been there too. And they're cranking their head over, and you can see fellows who maybe have come straight from the shop with grease all over their hands and all the rest, but all that look, as they look down at that little one, their eyes just gushing over with what? With a love that is delighting in its object.

11:53 This delight is the kind of thing you see when some guy's sitting in the stands at the local little league game, and his kid's just knocked a home run in the last half of the fifth inning with two men aboard. And everybody around Panama, he's trying to look humble, you know, but he looks down at his kid, he looks down at his kid in his eyes, his whole countenance filled with what? He's delighting in his son. Now God says, My son, don't despise the chastening of the Lord, because all of God's chastenings have as their moving cause in God's heart His filial love, His love that has advanced to the place of delight in us. The moving cause in God's heart is always His love. Therefore, don't despise what is an expression of such love, and don't grow weary beneath it, for if He thus loves us, He will never bring upon us anything that is too much for us to bear. Now if that's the teaching of the passage, and I believe it clearly is, there are several things by way of application that we need to understand and need to reckon with.

Applications of God's Filial Love in Chastisement

13:12 If we are not to despise His chastening, not to grow weary beneath His reproof, because the moving cause is His filial love, then number one, let us learn to submit to the rod of God without fear and suspicion of the God who wields the rod. Let us learn to submit to the rod of correction without fear and suspicion of the God who wields that rod. You see, one of the peculiar characteristics of biblical love is that it always seeks the good of its object. It takes knowledge of the condition of the object, and it seeks its good. Does God know my condition? Read the 103rd Psalm. He knoweth our frame.

14:06 He remembereth that we are dust. He never afflicts without full loving cognizance of my frame. So in the midst of the most severe affliction, I must learn as a Christian, if necessary, wrung through bitter tears, to fall upon my knees and look into the face of my God and say, God, one thing I know, that whatever has come upon me for whatever reason, as far as what you are trying to teach me and do to me, this I know, you are afflicting me because you love me. You have my good at heart.

14:48 You see, the minute the devil can get us suspecting the genuineness or even the presence of God's love, the whole focus in the midst of affliction is shifted. From a confident compliance with the rod and its intended end, we begin to have a controversy with God and doubt His character, doubt His love, doubt His faithfulness. No wonder people despise, even unto resentment and abhorrence, God's affliction, if they begin to think the rod is wielded by a hand of justice instead of a hand of love. Remember this, punishment is always rooted in God's love to justice.

15:31 Chastisement is always rooted in God's love to persons. In the day of judgment, God's love to His own justice will cause Him to punish the wicked with eternal destruction. And if you're here tonight as an unconverted person and you go to the judgment unrepentant and unbelieving, God will show the deep love of His justice by saying to you, one of His creatures, depart from me, He cursed, into everlasting fire. Love to His justice, but no love to your person.

16:03 Thank God to His children. Chastisement is always rooted in love to the person, the son in whom He delighted. Let us learn then to submit to the rod without fear and suspicion of the God who wields it. Secondly, let us learn from God's dealings with us how love expresses itself.

16:28 God's love to us as those in whom He delights is such as to cause temporary pain in order to secure long-range blessings. You want to learn what it is to love? You learn to love after the pattern of God's love. God's love to those in whom He delights is such that He willingly inflicts temporary pain to the attainment of long-range blessing.

17:00 And holiness is likeness to God. Parent, do you love your children? And let it be God-like love, love that will willingly inflict temporary pain to attain long-range perspectives. That's why the writer to Proverbs in chapter 13 in verse 24 said, He that loveth his son chasteneth him betimes, or chasteneth him frequently.

17:26 He that spareth his rod hateth his son, but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes or diligently. God says it's utterly impossible to love your children with Biblical love and not to wield the rod of correction. And I say in the face of anyone, I care not who he be, there is an evidence of the absence of Biblical love if you do not chastise your children. You may have some kind of a gushy, unprincipled sentiment that will cooperate with the devil in sending them to hell, but it's not love.

18:03 Now do you see the kind of love the church is to have? What kind of love? A love that says, oh well we can't judge people and we're all sinners and we'll just love people out of their sins. They may be church members, they may be guilty of the kind of sin that warrants discipline, but discipline is an unheard commodity in the average evangelical church today. Why? We love people too much. Do we love them? To let their sins cripple them and ruin them and infect others? No, we hate them.

18:37 The church that has no discipline over its membership is a church that is not walking in the love of God. It's walking in carnal sentiment that destroys and cripples and damns. Oh let us learn from God how love expresses itself. Then in the third place, let us learn the true role of a father as the disciplinary head and administrator of government in his home.

19:07 You see that's what's so wonderful with these biblical perspectives. They begin to reach out their tentacles in so many directions. You see the writer to the Proverbs assumes that he was using an illustration that would bring a common experience before the minds of his people. He says don't despise God's chastening. Don't grow weary of his reproof. For whom the Lord loves he chastens. You people know just like every father who has a son that he delights in, he could assume that these people could call to mind home after home and family after family where they had seen a father not only stand at the pane of glass in the nursery and look goo-goo eyed at his child. Not only a father who cradled that child perhaps awkwardly if it was his first one in his arms and looked down with that look of the delight, but a father whom they had seen taking the administrative head of discipline and direction in the home. He assumes that that was

20:01 something common currency in their thinking. Oh may God return the day when it's common at least amongst those who profess to believe the Bible. I don't speak to those who claim to have as their God and as their Bible the latest so-called insights of psychology. I have no evil things to say to them.

20:23 I pity them in their blindness. But within the professing church where people say the word of God is regulative, I can almost count on two hands the homes where fathers, fathers, not mothers, fathers take their role as the disciplinary head and administrator within the domestic framework. That's why Paul says in Ephesians 6 for fathers rear your children in the chastening and admonition of the Lord. Whatever part the mother has she has in subservience to and in cooperation with and in harmony with the perspective set by the father as the head of that home. Well in the fourth place let us learn why only the true children of God are envisioned in the text. You see God chastens only the sons in whom he delights. This is what the text says.

21:24 Despise not his chastening for whom the Lord loves he chastens even as the father the son in whom he delights. Now in whom does God delight? Absolutely he delights only in one son his only begotten. God has an absolute delight only in one son. There is only one upon whom he could look from the first drawn breath in those moments of afterbirth to the last breath when he cried into thy hands I commend my spirit and the father could say of that son every thought every word every action every motive every deed my son in whom I delight and there is a real sense in which the only person in whom he delights is the one whom he sees clothed in the perfect righteousness of that one son for that is what happens when we become the sons and daughters of God by faith in Jesus Christ we are joined to Christ

22:30 we are accepted in the beloved one and the father then delights in us because he beholds us in his son who is made unto us wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption so this is why only the true children of God are envisioned in the text in the fifth place let us learn that the father's love and the father's chastisement are inseparable look at the text for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth love and chastisement are inseparable he loves he chastens if you're loved chastening is going to be your lot Hebrews 12 6 picks up that aspect of thought and says for what son is there whom a father chasteneth not he assumes that everyone would understand this that parental filial love and filial chastisement are inseparable indispensable commodities so child of God you just better accept the fact that if you want to be loved of God you're going to be chastised of God and if you want to get out from underneath the rod then you better start trying to get out from underneath his love because you can't get out from under one without getting out from underneath the other and if you want to be under the canopy of his love you just better settle it as an absolute rule of the Christian life you're going to be under the restraints of his rod and if you get so

23:57 weary you don't want the rod then ask yourself would I like to give up the love that's behind it I don't know any Christian who'd go that far well then just remember that next time you get itchy to get out from underneath the rod remember if you get out from under that you're out from underneath the canopy of his love and then in the sixth place learn the particularity and the distinguishing nature of the love of God if God loves all men in the same way then this verse makes no sense makes no sense whatsoever oh my son he says dealing with us as sons and daughters don't despise his chastening don't grow weary of his reproof for whom he loves he chastens and if God loves all men in the same way I say this verse makes no sense thank God God does have a general love to all men in so far as they are his creatures I'll even go so far as to use the language of Acts 17 all men are the offspring of God and don't accuse me of being a liberal Paul used that language in Acts 17 we are his offspring and God doesn't treat his offspring as junk it is sinful offspring yes defiled corrupt fallen depraved offspring but we are not dogs we are not beasts we are not animals we are the offspring of God in that sense he bears a general love to all of his creatures but here is distinguishing discriminating love

The Practical Goal of Chastisement: Progress in Holiness

25:26 which is the portion only of those who have been effectually called by his grace into the family of God whom he loves what kind of love a love that delights in us and that is true only of his own so then the next time the rod lies hard upon your back the next time the reproofs of God come with stinging incisiveness to your spirit and you are tempted to treat it lightly you are tempted to abhor it you are tempted to grow weary beneath it remember this principle the moving cause of this discipline is God's filial love despise not neither be weary for whom he loves he chastens and reproves each of his sons now then turn to Hebrews the last two points not only must we realize that the moving cause is his filial love but secondly we must understand when we are chastised or will faint that the practical goal of our chastisement is our progress in holiness verse 12 9 to 12 furthermore he is introducing another thought and therefore I pick up the train of thought without too much regard to the preceding

26:54 thought furthermore we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us and we gave them reverence why does this generation despise its parents and give them no reverence because it is a generation that didn't chasten the children a generation that says to the kids it doesn't matter to us what you become or do until it gets so bad that it embarrasses us and then we'll look at you with a look of incongruity and say what didn't we do we've been telling the kids all you don't matter enough what you are what you become what you do doesn't matter for us enough for us to regulate it to discipline it to give counsel to give reproofs to give rebukes to give chastisement and when you've said that long enough the kid gets the message and says to his parents in well then if you don't care why should I he says no we had parents that were considered straight laced and puritanic but we gave them reverence 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 for they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed good to them even though their goals may not have been clearly defined at times even though they may not have had the intelligent purpose that God has they in chaste chastened

28:22 us for a few days as it seemed good to them but he God for our profit that we may be partakers of his holiness all chastening seemeth for the present not to be joyous but grievous yet afterward it yieldeth peaceable fruit unto them that have been exercised thereby even the fruit of righteousness now you take these two phrases he for our profit that we may be partakers of his holiness and then the parallel phrase at the end of verse 11 the fruit of righteousness now let's just look at those two phrases for a moment partakers of his holiness what is God's holiness it is the rectitude of his own nature he thinks he wills he thinks that he performs that which is right and good God's purpose is that we may be partakers of his holiness that we shall think his thoughts after him that our wills shall be conformed to his will that our moral choices conform to his that's the goal of chastisement to deepen to extend our progress in holiness and then he uses the phrase at the latter part of verse 11 the fruit of righteousness that

29:50 which is right that which accords to the law of God so that holiness is the conformity of heart and mind and will and thought and attitude to the absolute standard of God's law that's gospel holiness by the power of the spirit driven by gospel motives to be conformed to that standard of absolute righteousness therefore the child of God must learn to say in the midst of the rod upon him not only oh God you love me and it's your love which is the moving cause of bringing the rod but he must learn to say oh God you're molding me and shaping me and fashioning me into the image of your son I bend to that gracious design and child of God if you don't keep this before you it'll be difficult not to despise and not to grow weary beneath the rod of God you must learn to say as an intelligent conviction rooted in the revelation of God's mind and will in scripture oh God your purpose is revealed in scripture at this point I can't make sense out of this affliction but Lord you've told me what your goal in the affliction is I submit to it work it out any way you see fit Lord I strike

31:19 in as the old writers would say with the purpose of your own heart and I give myself up to this affliction to perfect in me that aspect of your character which you know needs some working on now since every true Christian is in the pursuit of holiness verse 14 follow after peace with all men in the holiness without which no man shall see the Lord no such thing as a Christian who is not basically committed to a course of holiness the desire may be stronger at times than others some may be more evidently committed than others but a Christian in whom there is no longing unto holiness is a monster not recognized in the Bible you can give them any kind of name you want all of these professing Christians to whom holiness is not a conscious pursuit God says they're not true Christians they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh and the minding of the flesh is death they that are after the spirit do mind the things of the spirit if ye by the spirit do mortify the deeds of the flesh ye shall live to be carnally minded is death now that being true as a true Christian I am committed to a course of holiness then it's no little consolation for me to know that the fruit of this trial this afflicted dispensation this corrected communication is going to be my advancement in that which is my great

32:48 longing while I walk upon the face of the earth to be more like my savior you see Christian it's easy to say in a moment of rapturous intimate communion with the Lord on your knees oh God I long to be holy and the Lord says is that true my child let's see how much you long to be holy and then the rod falls upon us then the corrected communication comes to us to what end answering our prayer answering our prayer for you see it's not going to come as we sit in isolation and just get wonderful feelings flooding over our souls as we're reading some great devotional passage of the word of God it comes to put it in the concrete as the father sees that there is the grace of patience that is not yet worked in sufficient measure commensured with the development of other graces in your life and so the father who's heard your cry make me more like your son then providentially orders that you shall have to take your position at work next to a person that is the most difficult trying person you've ever met the kind of person who exhausts every last ounce of your supply of patience the first five minutes you're around them and you begin to chafe and you begin to start praying and whimpering to God in your devotions Lord this is more than a

34:14 you forgot what you prayed the day before you forgot what you prayed the day before you see you've prayed Lord for the grace of how do you learn the grace of patience in isolation no in living contact with that which shows you that your own resources aren't adequate that your present development in grace is not sufficient and it drives you back to the Savior drives you to that fountain head of all grace and all mercy and you plead with him Lord crucify in me slay in me put to death in me these attitudes that are contrary to your word see these things just don't come to us in isolation and so when the afflictive dispensation is upon us how blessed to know the practical goal of this chastisement is my progress in holiness the Christian must learn to reason along these lines what is this discomfort to my flesh if my spirit is sanctified what is this frustration to my plans if what he has planned in eternity is realized and in eternity he predestined that I should be conformed to the image of his son what is this thwarting of my desires if his desire is realized and what is his desire to see the family likeness in all his children what is the withering of my dreams if his eternal counsels are realized

35:43 so Christian don't fight the chastisement as though it were your enemy when holiness is your enemy then chastisement is but not until then and if you're a Christian in your right mind you'd never say holiness was your enemy that's why he says he for our profit that we may be partakers of his holiness we profit only to the extent that we become more like him happiness blessedness and holiness are wedded in God's dealings with his creatures sin and misery are wedded when we turn from the biblical pattern willingly submit all the blessedness of submitting from the heart that God's purpose may be realized and I want us to look at a couple of pictures of willing submission to God's chastening rod these two examples are particular chastisements with reference to particular sins committed and remember we said not always does the chastisement come for a particular sin it may be no sin is there but a grace needs to be worked out a virtue needs to be cultivated let us look first of all at 2 Samuel chapter 12 you remember the setting of this passage David has grievously sinned as a Christian as a child of God and he has been under the power of this sin for

Illustrations of Submission to Chastisement

37:10 two months guilty conscience afflicted miserably read Psalm 32 and Psalm 51 but God has graciously sent his prophet the prophet has announced to David or indicted David for his sin and then he announces this chastisement that is going to come to him David acknowledges his sin but now Nathan says in 2 Samuel 12 13 David said to Nathan I have sinned against the Lord Nathan said to David the Lord hath put away thy sin thou shalt not die how be it because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the child that is born of thee shall surely die Nathan departed into his house and the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bare unto David and it was very sick David therefore besought God for the child and David fasted and went in and lay all night upon the earth the elders of the house arose and stood beside him to raise him up from the earth but he would not neither did he eat bread with them and it came to pass on the seventh day that the child died and the servants of David feared to tell him that the child was dead for they said behold while the child was yet alive we spake unto him and he hearkened not to our voice how will he then vex himself if we tell him that the child is dead but when David saw that his servants

38:39 were whispering together David perceived that the child was dead and David said to his servants is the child dead and they said he is dead then David arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and changed his apparel and he came into the house of the Lord and worshipped came into the house of the Lord and worshipped then he came to his own house and when he inquired they set bread before him and he did eat then said his servants unto him what thing is this that thou hast done thou didst fast and weep for the child when it was alive but when the child was dead thou didst rise and eat bread and he said while the child was yet alive I fasted and wept for I said who knoweth whether the Lord will not be gracious to me that the child may live as he was under this afflicted rod how did he regard God as an angry frowning judge a gracious father who knew his frame see it he didn't look upon this rod as the rod of an angry judge he says who knoweth whether God will be gracious I know the heart of my father he will not always chide neither will he keep his anger forever he knows our frame perhaps I can prevail with him to spare the child he said that's the view I had of God while he was under the rod and the child's life was hanging in the balance he never once thought mean thoughts

40:05 of God do you get the lesson child of God some of you ought to weep at the mean things you think about God every time a trial comes to you so you will think God's frowning at me again God's up there big bully is that how you've learned God's character in the scriptures and in particular in his son shame on us that we think such hard thoughts of him David didn't after the terrible sins he committed who knoweth whether the Lord will not be gracious but now he is dead wherefore should I fast can I bring him back again can I resurrect him he said of course not I shall go to him he's gone to the grave and that's where I'm going but I can't bring him back to me do you see the beautiful picture of someone who realizes that the practical goal of chastisement was his own progress in holiness to learn lessons from God that could be learned no other way what a beautiful thing to see a man worshipping while they're carrying his child off to be buried not one hard thought of God not one mean thought of God the recognition of the purpose of God in his chastisement another example in the life of David from the 16th chapter of 2 Samuel 2 Samuel chapter 16

41:32 and let's begin the reading at verse 5 and when King David came to Behurim behold there came out thence a man of the family of the house of Saul whose name was Shimei the son of Gera and he came out and cursed still as he came and he cast stones at David and at all the servants of King David and all the people and the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left thus said Shimei when he cursed begone begone thou man of blood and base fellow the Lord hath returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul in whose stead thou hast reigned the Lord hath delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom thy son behold thou art taken in thine own mischief because thou art a man of blood you get the picture this heckler apparently not close enough to actually hit David with the stones but symbolically off at a distance cast stones in the direction of David and curses and pours out all this venom upon him how is David to regard this verse 9 then said Abishai that summons Uriah unto the king why should this dead dog curse my Lord the king let me go over I pray thee and take off his head well he's already David give me leave take his head off and the king said what have I to do with you ye sons of Uriah because he curseth and because

43:01 the Lord hath said unto him curse David who then shall say wherefore hast thou done so David said to Abishai and to all his servants behold my son who came forth from my bowels seeketh my life how much more may this Benjamite now do it let him alone and let him curse for the Lord hath bidden him maybe that the Lord will look on the wrong done to me and the Lord will require me good for his cursing of me this day so David and his men went by the way and Shimei went along on the hillside over against him and cursed as he went and threw stones at him and cast dust the king and all the people that were with him came weary and he refreshed himself there I'm indebted to this illustration to one of the elders who spoke to me last week and reminded me of this and I said I would seek to incorporate it now in what sense in what sense did David say the Lord is the author of this man cursing does God forbid cursing in his word yes or no yes would God ever stir up a man's spirit to pour out this kind of venomous cursing no God was not the author of Shimei's cursing either by his precept directing into it or by his spirit stirring him up to it well in what sense was God the author of it I want to read John Gill's beautiful composition of this that's why I brought this

44:29 big tome if you wondered what in the world I was going to do with that I'm not starting in page one going through to the end which reminds me of a little incident that happened recently we were having our family worship after supper as we normally do and one of Joel's neighbors came and said Joel you're coming out he says no we're having devotions he said what's that he said well we read the bible and the kid went you'll never be out tonight if you're going to read the whole thing yes I'm not going to read the whole thing or you wouldn't be out tonight or tomorrow seriously now the exposition of this phrase because the Lord had said unto him curse David explanation not by way of command or a precept of God for to curse the ruler of the people is contrary to the word and law of God Exodus 22 28 secondly nor by any operation of God's spirit moving and exciting him to curse for the operations of the spirit are to holiness and not to sin did God order this afflictive dispensation here's the answer but by the secret providence of God ordering directing and overruling all circumstances relative to this affair Shimei had conceived enmity and hatred to David God left him to the power of this corruption in his breast opened

45:58 away in providence and gave him an opportunity of exercising that attitude upon David it was not a bare permission of God that Shimei should curse David but it was his will and he ordered it so in providence that he should do it which action was attended with the predetermined concourse of divine providence so far as it was an action though as a sinful action it was all of Shimei and sprung from his own heart instigated by Satan but as a correction and a chastisement of David it was by the will the order and the appointment of God and as such David considered it and quietly submitted to it I tell you dear ones that concept once grasped can be a liberating thing for you as a Christian the present affliction I may have to bear is evidence not of God stirring up someone by his word and spirit but of the pourings forth of an unregenerate heart or of carnal nature how can I regard this as God's rod thank God he is sovereign so that even the expressions of men's corrupt hearts are directed by his own providence to accomplish his own ends in making me more like his son and when you get hold of that then you're going to stop fighting

47:26 that difficult ungodly person that God's put you next or may have put into your own home you're going to stop fighting these rods of correction which God is bringing by the most unlikely means if you had stood on the sidelines and witnessed all of this as we did in the reading of it who would have ever said shimmy I is God's rod of affliction to David to humble him but David so interpreted it you'd say there's an enemy of God and we ought to pray for the Lord to drive him out in the woods somewhere that's the attitude one of David's companions have off with his noggin no no he said this is of God so because the practical goal of our chastisement is our progress in holiness don't fight the chastisement as though it were your enemy learn to submit to it and then in the third place oh may God burn this home to your heart and mind remember that the form and the degree and the duration are ordered by him in love to the end that I may be made more like his son the form the degree and the duration are ordered in love to this end to make me more like his son you better go right on expecting chastisement until you don't need any more holiness and if I read my bible rightly that won't be until he comes

The Fringe Benefit of Chastisement: Confirmation of Sonship

48:55 again we shall be like him when we see him as he is until then everything that's unlike him is being worked on by the spirit and one of the means that he uses is chastisement so as long as he loves you expect chastisement while chastisement is still needed and it's needed in this period of our tutelage until we graduate and we enter into his presence and then in the last place and we'll touch on this very briefly we must learn not to despise God's chastening nor be weary under his reproof as we think in the midst of chastisement the moving cause is fatherly love the practical goal is my advancement in holiness but thirdly consider that chastisement born patiently has as its fringe benefit the confirmation of our sonship Hebrews chapter 12 verses 7 and 8 the confirmation of our sonship I believe there's a biblical doctrine of confirmation it has nothing to do with bishops laying hands on your head when you're 12 years old it has to do with God confirming what he has wrought in our hearts and lives by his grace in making us all the more certain that he has thus wrought it Hebrews chapter 12

50:22 verses 7 and 8 it is for chastening that ye endure God dealeth with you as with sons for what son is there whom his father chasteneth not but if he are without chastening whereof all have been partakers then are ye bastards and not sons if he are without chastening whereof all have been made partakers ye are not true sons you're illegitimate sons now what does he say well let's start by asserting what he's not saying he's not saying that all who are afflicted are the sons of God affliction is the lot of most men so you don't base whether or not you're a Christian on the presence of affliction now you must base it on other biblical principles have I received the son of God as he's offered in the gospel John 1 12 as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God am I indwelt by the spirit of God he has sent forth the spirit of his son into our hearts crying Abba Father do I have that filial access to God am I being led of the spirit as many as are led by the spirit of God these are the sons of God the foundation of my knowledge that I'm a son of God a daughter of God is not based on whether or not I'm afflicted it's based upon other things however what he is saying is this the people there to whom he writes had confessed these things that they had embraced the son of God as preached in the

51:50 gospel that they had received the spirit of adoption but this embracing of the son of God led them immediately into tremendous afflictive dispensations and this was their mentality if you serve God everything will go well if you serve a false God everything will go poorly that was the whole mentality of the Old Testament remember God says you worship me I'll send rain upon your lands the field will give its fruit your wives will not miscarry and all of this great material blessing obey God great blessing and that mentality was so ingrained in their thinking though there were hints of this full blown New Testament doctrine in the case of Job from which this text originally comes and indications as we've seen with David by and large the structure in the theocracy in the Old Testament economy was serve God and all is well serve a false God and trouble will come so they began to reason wait a minute everything was going fine when we were going up to the temple bringing up our bullet bringing up our land doing what a good Jew supposed to do everything was going fine bills were paid friends would smile greet me on the street hello everything was fine no problems but now we've embraced the gospel and we say we have Christ the true priest we have Christ the true lamb the true sacrifice and now they frown at us they throw stones at us they try to pilfer our goods and they abuse us we must be serving the false

53:19 God they tell us that this Jesus of Nazareth was a false God he was an imposter he wasn't a true Messiah maybe there's some semblance of truth to what they say maybe we ought to go back and that's the mentality so what does the writer to Hebrews says he said hey wait a minute rather than chastisement being an evidence that you're not the sons of God the total absence of chastisement would be the evidence that you were not his sons for every son whom he receives he chastens hence he let the presence of chastisement afflicted dispensations as those who have embraced the gospel who say they are the sons of God through faith in Christ let chastisement be a confirmation that you are indeed true sons of God those whom the father has taken into hand in whom he has begun to fashion the very likeness and image of his own dear son so then to every person who has embraced the Lord Jesus as he's offered in the gospel who has the spirit of filial access who is led of the spirit God says you should be confirmed in your confidence that you're a true son or daughter by the fact that God has you in the orbit of that distinguishing love that purposes to make you like his son and he's ordering all the events and circumstances of providence

54:48 the events and circumstances of governments and nations all things to the end that his people may be made more and more like the Lord Jesus who has redeemed them so the third thing we need to remember in the midst of chastisement is if the rod is lying heavy upon my back this is no evidence that I'm not a child of God it confirms me in the conviction that I'm a true son he's not letting me run willy nilly he says if you're without chastisement you're a like illegitimate children the thought either being they have no legitimate father present to care for them and discipline them and hence he says it's a curse to be without that influence or your illegitimate sons in the sense that there is no family framework no no he says the fact that the rod is upon you is proof that you're in the family and there's a father who loves you and he only loves with that distinguishing love his children be assured of your sonship be assured that you're in a state of grace and so I submit to you as God's people don't