Command, as you're being seated, you may find it a little unusual that we sang that hymn in the middle of the service. Typically, that is a hymn that we open with. We gather together. It's a hymn of praise, a psalm, if you will. Our message today reflects on the very truth that this hymn sets forth, that there are times when we, as children of God, go through suffering, trials, tribulations, battles, And we have the promise, he forgets not his own. Amen? Regardless of where we may be in our walk with him, he forgets not his own. This morning we focus on that truth as we consider his divine discipline of his children, his divine discipline of his children. In Hebrews chapter 12, we read earlier from Proverbs chapter 3, The way that this particular text, beginning in verse 5, opens, we'll consider by way of exposition, verses 5 through 11 this morning. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. The Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastises or scourges every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons for what son is there whom his father does not discipline. If you are left without discipline in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, We have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them. But he disciplines us for our good that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant. But later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it." Here we see one group of people more broadly described and a second group of people less described. Legitimate children and illegitimate children. I think we need to keep that in the back of our minds as we remember the reason that this entire letter was written. It was written to a group of people, Hebrews, Jews who had become Christians, who had professed the name of Christ, who are now being influenced to go back to the old ways, to go back under the old covenant law, to live according to the festival days and everything that was associated with that, to go back to Egypt, so to speak. And yet, they who fell away, who never truly had Him, would be the very illegitimate children that are spoken of here. They thought they were children of God, but please take this in the right way because it is the Greek. They were bastard children. They called themselves children when they were not children at all. Over against that, we see the grace and the mercy and the love of God in His divine discipline of His children. Last week I opened, I believe, I've preached so many different times from Proverbs and Hebrews now with this idea of suffering and difficulties and how often men tend to flee to one extreme to another, how to explain suffering by God. We are suffering a time of coronavirus and it's beginning to affect more and more of our world. And I did blog last week that you could just wait. You can hear it coming, just as with any other tragedy or suffering that exists in the world, there will be this flight to one side or the other concerning God. Just in the days of HIV and AIDS, when it began in my earlier days. Why do bad things happen to good people is usually the way the question is asked. And one side emphasizes the judgment of God. that when HIV and AIDS came, it was God's judgment against all homosexuality. Remember? And now the coronavirus is God's judgment on China. The disease itself being the judgment. And so they emphasize the wrath of God. The other side, guarding against that, says, well, you know, we're not certain why it's happening, but this we know. God is not behind it. And in an effort to emphasize the love of God, and they're not doing it rightly, they're trying to get God off the hook. Because the mindset of people is that suffering is against God, that God doesn't want His people to suffer. So if suffering exists, we don't know why it happened, but God's not behind it. And in those two extremes, we see one actually taking the character of God's wrath and diminishing it. We see the other side emphasizing the love of God and wrongly doing so as well. Well, this morning I want to begin by showing that there are four reasons that God has ordained, decreed, before the foundation of the world, these things that would come to pass. I'm going to repeat that again. This doesn't catch God by surprise. And to say he's not behind it is to diminish the character of God. He ordains everything that comes to pass. And when we see suffering in our world, there are four different ways that we can look at this. Two, he ordains toward unbelievers. Two, for the believers. The first reason that suffering exists in the world toward the unbeliever is a punishment under God's wrath. It is his pouring out what they deserve, his judgment and his fury for their sinfulness. They are getting what they deserve. They are condemned already. So, sometimes, any type of suffering that exists, personal or otherwise, toward the unbeliever is God's punishment. It is an exercise and a picture of his wrath for them. The second is also toward the unbeliever, but it's used as a means to turn that unbeliever from their sinful ways to salvation in him. It's a way to show them their need for Christ and Christ, who alone is the remedy for their need, and has earned them the glorified God. When I shared this with Brother Brian the other night, I just asked him to raise their hand. How many of you were in a deep, deep ditch of suffering when you cried out to God for your salvation? And almost without exception, every one of those men raised their hand. God uses suffering in that way to turn a rank, heinous, unbeliever who may have entered into a hotel room to take his life and end it all. And suddenly he stumbles upon a Gideon Bible. He takes the Gideon Bible out and he reads John chapter three and he's converted on the spot in spirit and truth. Amen. God uses not always, but he uses suffering at times to draw an unbeliever like that unto himself. The other two are for the believer. Yes, believers suffer. One is as a means of God's divine discipline to lead the believer to repent of their sin, confess their sin, and be restored to full communion with Him. It's a picture that we see in Judges with the people of God. How over and over and over again, when they had a ruler, they were fine. But the moment the ruler was gone, they went back to the error of their sinful ways. God intervened. He showed them their sin. They confessed their sin. And God gave them a leader again. There's this vicious cycle, this demonstrative of the human heart. He demonstrated in the captivities of both Israel and Judah, the people of God suffering so that they might repent and confess of their sin. And ultimately, in the believer, in 2 Corinthians 7, verse 10, we read of a godly grief, a godly struggle, a godly suffering that leads or produces repentance. That's for the believer. And then, fourthly, suffering exists as a means to test our faith as believers. 1 Peter 1, verses 3-19. You can read those later. It's to get rid of all the junk in our life that comes to the top and what remains is pure. It's to test the faith. It's Job in chapters 1 and 2, who did not sin in either of the allowances that Satan was given in his life. Now, Job did not remain sinless. The last of Job 2 says, in all that he said he did not sin. And then in Job 3 he speaks. And by the time we get to the end of Job, Job is led to repent. So sometimes that test, that suffering may begin to test our faith and we fail. And in our failing, the suffering continues so that we might repent and confess our sin. Those are broad strokes, but I can assure you that any type of suffering that you or any of your friends or any people corporately have ever been through falls under one of those four things. This morning, the focus is on the third of those reasons that suffering, trials, tribulations might enter into our lives. It is a means of God's discipline, divine discipline, to lead the believer to repent and confess their sin and be restored in full communion with Him and His saints. In other words, the goal is the Father wants His children to display His glory and His likeness. And when we don't, He disciplines. And He does so out of His love. That's what we consider this morning in our text in three ways, where we'll see first the rationale that we see for discipline. Why does discipline even exist? What is going through the writer's mind under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit where he sets forth the rationale, the foundation for discipline itself? Then we'll consider responses, two responses that men often have to God's discipline. Sometimes they like it, sometimes they don't. And that's what we'll consider in this text as well. And then he gives two particular reasons why discipline comes into the life of his children that we'll consider by way of closing this morning. First, then, the rationale for discipline. First and foremost, foundationally, The reason or rationale for discipline is that it reflects God's love for His children. It reflects God's love for His children. And we see that in verses 5 through 7. It would do us well this morning to remember that God is not an absentee father. I grew up in a household with an absentee father. I know what that looks like. I know what being left to have a mother who loved the Lord and loved her children, and I'm grateful for her. But it's tough on a single mom to raise two teenagers. My father was not involved in our lives. We'll come back to that in closing. But hear this. God, as the father of his children, is never absent. He's always there. Yes, we do well to emphasize the transcendence of God, how sovereign he is over all things. He is not like us. His thoughts are not our thoughts. His ways are not like our ways. But he's also near us. It's called his imminence. He is here with us. He is our father who's never absent. When Jesus told the disciples he would never leave them, and they would be with them to the ends of the earth. That promise is as much for us as it was for them. The trouble is, just like the Hebrews, we forget that, don't we? Just like the Hebrews, we need to be reminded we've forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons. the wonderful privilege that we have of being the adopted sons of God through Jesus Christ. No one else in the history of humanity has that privilege but you as a believer and the child of God. We tend to forget whose sheep we are and who our great shepherd is. We need to be reminded, though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, he is what? with us. He's there. He ordained the darkness. He ordains the way. And He's with us. We're not called the children of God for no reason. God is our Father. We're the only ones that can go to Him in prayer, praying, our Father who art in heaven. That is exclusive to the child of God. And at times, He treats us as sons, even in disciplining us. He says the Lord disciplines the one who He loves. Conversely, He does not discipline those whom He does not love. He chastises, scourges. The Greek word there is literally flogs. Guys, listen. Discipline doesn't feel good. Let's just get that out there right now. If we want a discipline that somehow just lets us skate through and it really does nothing for us and we never feel it, it's not really discipline. He scourges every son whom he receives. God is treating you as sons, he says in verse 7, for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? And so we see that God's love is reflected through discipline of his children. Now, there can't be a clearer picture to understanding what discipline as part of a fatherly love looks like toward his children. Again, Proverbs, that we read earlier in chapter three, reminds us a father who does not discipline his son doesn't love him. But it expressly states it in Proverbs 13, 24. Whoever spares the rod hates his son. Hates him. A father who does not discipline his child. And again, it's up for debate. What does he mean by rod? Was that just to know? I'm not going there this morning. But if you as a father do not discipline the son, the proverb says you hate him. And he goes on to say, but he who loves him is diligent, and I might add consistent, in disciplining the child that he loves. Now, on some occasions, when applying discipline as a father to our children, we might tell them, and I have one of my children here this morning, I wish I could tell you I never had to discipline her, but I did. And she's heard me say before, I'm doing this because I love you. And in fairness to my daughter, who's here this morning, I can remember as a child growing up when my father, when he was present, disciplined me, he would use those same words. I'm doing this because I love you. And I can remember in my mind thinking, well, you have a really funny way of showing it. And then would come the words, this is going to hurt me more than it hurts you. Now, that doesn't apply here. Let me just get that out of the way. It applies from an earthly perspective because, again, my response was, well, I'd willingly go out and trade places with you. It doesn't hurt God. And he's not intending to hurt us. We'll come back to that in a moment, but that's punishment. That's not discipline. God's character never changes. He doesn't hurt when He disciplines us. It's to glorify Him in disciplining us. How can we say it hurts God the Father to discipline us if it's glorifying Him, you see? And so, as we mature as children, under earthly discipline of our fathers, we begin to understand more what those things mean. As children, not so much. We don't get if they're trying to protect us and lead us on a right path. But then we begin to understand the older we get, if our parents disciplined us, they really loved us in doing that. But, someone might ask, and rightly so, if it's true that Jesus Christ has dealt with all of our sins, we've been fully justified by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, from that perspective, all true. You're not guilty. Then why does God, and they often use this word, punish his children? And this is where I interject. God never punishes his children. He punishes the wicked. He disciplines his children in love. He punishes the wicked in wrath. God took God's wrath of punishment on himself for our sins who know him and are his children. For him to punish us again would be duplicity and make the punishment that God Christ took for us to mean nothing. So at the very heart of justification is this truth that he does not punish us as his children because he already punished his son for our sins so that we are not condemned or justified or stand in the courtroom for all eternity already declared not guilty. He disciplines his children in love. He punishes the wicked. in wrath. You see how distorting the wrath of God and the love of God as we open can be dangerous? We don't know often, particularly when it's a cultural or society suffering, why God is doing what he's doing. In fact, he could be doing it for all four of the reasons that we suggested in opening, both toward the unbeliever and the believer. We see this borne out in what we've already considered in Hebrews and what we will consider next week, Lord willing. Esau, in Hebrews 12, 17, if we're able to get there next week, says, You know that afterward, when he, Esau, desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected for he had no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears. He was punished. He was cut off. And the entirety of the book of Hebrews has been these warning passages to those who presume to be children of God, but in fact were not children of God, who live as if God was their father, when in fact he was not their father. And they said, the longer you live in that condition, saying you're a child of God, when you're not really a child of God, you will fall away from something that you never had truthfully in the gospel. Christ was punished for us who know him. Our punishment was put on him. Samuel Bolton, the Puritan London minister in the 17th century, actually preached a sermon. It's a book for us. The True Bounds of Christian Freedom. And in that book, he explains this very clearly. He said, it must always be remembered that although Christ has borne the punishment of sin, and although God has forgiven the saints for their sins, yet God may fatherly correct his people for sin. Christ endured the great shower of wrath, the black and dismal hours of displeasure for sin. That which falls upon us is a sunshine shower, warm with wet, wet with warmth. of his love to make us fruitful and humble. That which the believer suffers for sin is not penal. There it is. It's not a punishment arising from vindictive justice, he says, but it's medicinal, arising from a fatherly love. It is his medicine, not his punishment, his chastisement, not his sentence, his correction, not his condemnation. A loving father disciplines his children. And that's what's reflected in these verses. And that's foundational in the rationale for discipline. But flowing from that, purposeful, that we'll come back to in a moment, is it remedies sinful practices of his children. It remedies the sinful practices of his children. In a word, discipline serves to root out sin. He says the Lord disciplines the one he loves, chastises or scourges every son whom he receives. And that word discipline can mean both corrective or instructive discipline. Chastise refers to a punishment inflicted, in this case, due to sin. For us, it's a discipline received. In other words, the writer says God is treating you as sons. In doing so, he's continually moving and working in your life so that all that is needed for you to be a reflection of who he is. That's the goal. The father wants his children to display his likeness. Kent Hughes divides discipline into corrective, preventative, and educational. I would maybe change the word educational there to formative. But regardless of review, he's right in saying that discipline corrects sinful behavior. It remedies sinful practices in children. Its goal is to prevent us from getting into sinful practices. There is the protection or the preventative. It prevents us or disciplines us when we're in those sinful practices. There's the correction. And it educates us on what sinfulness of sin really is. And dear friends, that's a lifelong part in the life of the believer and his sanctification. It never ends. Discipline seeks to set forth everything that is opposed to the holiness of God. Reveal that in His children so that they might turn and repent of that sin, confess that sin, and again be restored to full communion with Him. In Revelation 3.19, in one of the revelation of the churches given to the Apostle John, We read the words, those whom I love, I reprove and discipline. So be zealous and repent. There's the purpose. That we might have a holy zeal for God, not be overzealous like the Jews, not be underzealous like many professing Christians today, to have no zeal for God, but that our zeal might be placed fully on Him. with a laser focus, and also when we know the sin, that we repent of that sin and be restored and made holy in Him. So we say we must realize in these verses how seriously God as our Father takes the fight against sin in our lives. All that He does, has done, and continues to do so that we might be made holy. We shouldn't be surprised when the Lord disciplines us. I mean, let's face it, as earthly children, we know that when Daddy finds out, we shouldn't be surprised if we get the ride. The same is true with God as Father. He already knows. So it shouldn't surprise us when we encounter these days of discipline. He brings those experiences that are hard again. Discipline is not easy, but which are designed to help us grow in grace. May we receive it in the way that he gives it. Phil Newton said, divine discipline affects our taste buds. And he goes on to describe many years ago, and I'm thankful that I never had to endure this, but some of you might have. A way of disciplining some years ago was the parent would make their children drink castor oil. Anybody ever had to do that? But you know the practice existed. Doug, you did? You were a bad, bad boy. Some years that I'm more familiar with, removed from that I suppose, was a bar of soap. Some of you may know the movie The Christmas Story, right? how the ivory soap, I'm presuming because, life boy, okay, stuck in his mouth. I never had that either. But that's the idea that we get. It's the idea that Newton was trying to get across in saying that divine discipline affects our taste buds for sin. It should so repulse us, like drinking castor oil or having our mouth washed out with soap, that we would think not once, not twice, not three times, but four times before we would ever do that again. That's the purpose. It should be bitter to us. and yet turn us to the joy of God in his discipline. It's a good illustration. So here we see the rationale for discipline. It's reflecting the love of God for his children, but it's also remedying sinful practices of his children so that we might repent and confess our sin and be restored to full communion with him and his saints. But secondly, notice responses to discipline. And he gives two. In verse 5, one, in verse 7, the other. In verse 5, we see what we might call an unfavorable response to his discipline. He gives two extremes under that. In verse 5, he says, my son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord. This first one is sort of a nonchalant, kind of roll your eyes, apathetic approach to the discipline of the father. The second is, nor be weary when reproved by Him. Becoming overwhelmed or frustrated, that can lead to a bitter response to God rather than letting it shape and mold you for the purpose of holiness. And so think about your own life when you've been disciplined by God. Now, if you hear this morning and you say, I've never been disciplined, what does the author of Hebrews say? You're not a child of God. It's clear. Now, we may not recognize it as discipline all the time, but I often tell our people, when you're going through a time of difficulty, it's for one of two reasons in the life of the believer. It's either to get you to repent of your sin, confess your sin, turn back to him and be restored to him and the saints, or he's testing your faith to make you pure. But at the end of the day, cry out to God. Why am I enduring this? Not questioning God's purpose in it, but truly desiring to know. And especially, God, if this is sin in my life, would you make it crystal clear? Would you make it so plain? Would you make me so miserable until I do cry out to you in forgiveness. It's hard to do, isn't it? Let's face it, one of the hardest prayers that we pray is, Father, help me to know me better than I know myself. We cry, give me pure hands and a clean heart, but sometimes we don't want to endure what He does to accomplish those things in our lives. Listen, suffering hurts. We don't like it. Even Paul said it was given and it was a momentary, he calls it light, affliction. But it's affliction nonetheless. So when we're going through these times, do you truly investigate, God, why is this happening? Do you ask Him to reveal that sin that might be rooted in your life? Do you ask the Lord to build a greater personal discipline in your own life, to guard against these things? Or, on the other hand, do you kind of just shut your eyes to it, close your ears, it's not that big a deal, desura sera, you react in dismay, who is He to discipline me? I'm already forgiven at the cross. Do you get faint? Frustrated? The Puritans called it weak need under the disciplining hand of God. Dear friends, I can assure you, if you get frustrated, and it is God's discipline, if you get weak need, frustration will lead to bitterness, will lead to hatred. You will hate the very God. He's pouring out His love and discipline towards you. We must remember that even though all suffering isn't necessarily related to sin, we are all sinners. And once we begin there, I am a sinner. I do offend my God at times. I do offend my Father. It will be much easier for us to receive discipline for our sin when it comes. And when we know it's our sin, repent of it and kill it. Run from it. Root it out. This is the purpose of discipline. To prevent you from entering into it, when you're in it, to bring you out of it, and to keep you along the way. There's a second response, and that's favorable, in verse 7. And again, this is twofold. Two particular words are found in verse 7 and then again in verse 9. It is for discipline first, he says, that you endure. That word endurance has pretty much been the theme since the end of Hebrews chapter 10. In fact, in 10.36, he says that they needed endurance because endurance keeps us walking in the will and the purposes of God. And then he gives all of those people in Hebrews chapter 11 who endured, who were commended for their faith, who stood strong in the midst of all sorts of suffering and maybe God's discipline and whatever the case may be, they pressed on. So he wants us to see the big picture of what God was doing, not just for them, but for us in endurance. James in James chapter 1 verse 4 says, let endurance have its perfect result. Now again, we know endurance is hard too. We can't endure without discipline, but discipline, no pain, no gain. We work out, we train with a goal in mind, and that's to win the race or to win the battle. And along the way, it's hard. It takes discipline. He used both the race as well as the boxing ring, if you will, to demonstrate that in the beginning of Hebrews chapter 12. Endurance always aims at that result, which James says is to be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. It aims towards spiritual maturity. And so the first response of a true child of God, when they're disciplined by God, is to see it as appointed by God, as a means to strengthen us, and to give us courage, and to mature us, so that we're not battered by the world, that we're not led astray by every little temptation of our flesh, and that we're not overcome by everything that the devil puts in our way. In other words, we'll learn to stand firmly in the discipline of the Lord. But then second, he uses an argument of the lesser to the greater. He says, uses this illustration of earthly fathers and heavenly father, or father of spirits, as he puts it. He says, besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Now, I always had a little caveat. Well, I may not have respected them at the moment. Most of us probably don't. But as we mature, we understand. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? And again, here's this contrast between God as our Father and our earthly fathers. They, if they were loving fathers on this earth, discipline us. We respected their discipline, knowing that it did come out of love for us. Imagine where we would be today if we had parents that never disciplined us. And by the way, even at the moment, if a parent's disciplining out of anger, which we know is not the right approach, that is punishment. But at the end of the day, even in that, why are they angry? I would argue because they love you. Now, sometimes they're angry because you've cripped their style and you've messed up their pride. That's another story for another day. But even if they discipline out of anger, I think there's an element of love there. But even so, if they'd not disciplined us when we needed to be disciplined, where would we be today? Proverbs tells us to train up a child in the way that he should go. Not in the way he would go, is the implication, but in the way he should go. Discipline's a part of that training, is it not? And so here, in comparing godly to the earthly, there is this broad idea of where would we be without discipline, without restraint from those who know better. in hopes of transforming our little hearts and our little minds so that we live right on this earth, how much more should we appreciate the love of God our Father, who's not just transforming our little hearts and minds to live on this earth, but to be with Him for all eternity. He tells us to be subject, submit to, joyfully, like, the discipline of our godly Father. Yield yourself into His hands. Believe that He's doing what is best for you. That's what He's doing through discipline. The third thing we note in closing is the reasons, two in particular, that are given for discipline. Why does God discipline His children? Now again, we've all had overindulgent parents who give their children anything they desire, whenever they want it. There's no discipline whatsoever, and they do nothing to restrain their rebellion. And we know those type of children grow up to be difficult along the way. Some commit crimes. Some leave their families. They contribute nothing to society. They end up selfish, greedy. often unruly. Our prison cells are full of such children. Now again, don't misunderstand. There are kids in prison, men, women, that were disciplined along the way. But just look. Their lives end up tragically marred because either a discipline that was not consistent or a discipline that was not out of love or a discipline that was not given at all. But that's not the case with our Heavenly Father, who loves us. Every trial has its purpose. Every adversity is given to purify. Every opposition, every affliction affirms His love for us, and it is given to shape and mold us and conform us to the image of His Son. We've already seen in Hebrews 5a that if Christ endured such things for His obedience, Where we read, although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he what? Suffering. How much more us? Suffering is given for our obedience. And true two primary purposes are given here. The first is to make us holy. He says, for they, earthly fathers, disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them. But He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness. He's not angry. He's not wrathful. He's not mad. He's doing it out of love to more shape us into holiness. Consider what the word good means here. He disciplines us for our good. There's never a hint of bitterness with him. Anger, resentment, hatred. It's for our good. It's never given with ill intent. Again, we read earlier in Proverbs 3, 5, the bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower. I'm sorry, that's the hymn of William Cooper. In Proverbs 3, 5, trust in the Lord and lean not on your own understanding. We may not understand why we're going through it. We trust Him. It's for our good. Then, William Cooper, in God Moves in a Mysterious Way, the bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower. There is a mystery undergirding divine discipline, but that doesn't give us license to try to figure out every jot and tittle of who God is in giving that discipline. We must trust in his goodness and discipline. It's not that opposition and adversity come at all times by man or the devil, but as William Bates wrote, the Puritan, the devil usually tempts men in a paradise of delights to precipitate them into hell. The devil, he says, usually tempts men in the paradise of delights to precipitate them into hell. Conversely, Bates said, God tries them in the furnace of afflictions to purify and prepare them for heaven. That's a pretty good distinction between the devil's purpose and God's purpose. The writer of Hebrews tells us that without sanctification or holiness, we will not see the Lord. So here, we're assured that through discipline, God works so that we may have or share in His holiness. And that word holiness refers to God's holy character. We are being shaped and molded into the character of God. Without discipline, there is no holiness. And then a second reason given, not only to make us holy, but that we would bear fruit. Here's where he does say that for the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant. And I think we would agree. But later, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it, by those who don't rebel, by those who don't bow up against it, by those who understand and trust that this is from God, and we may not know all there is to know about it, but we're going to receive it, whether it be to get us to confess our sin or to purify our faith, whatever the case will be, for those who receive it, though they may not understand it at the moment, it will produce the fruit of righteousness by those who are trained by it. Again, the athletic term, discipline, training. so that we might be fruitful believers in the end. In contrast to trials and adversity that we go through, what is the light at the end of the tunnel? The fruit of righteousness. Being made holy for his namesake is what the desire of his discipline is for us. How are we to respond then to divine discipline in our lives? Let me close with a quotation from John Piper on this text. He said, in other words, in your pain, you are not being treated as a slave or an enemy. You are being treated as a loved child of God. The issue is, will you believe this? Will you let the word of God settle the issue for you? so that when suffering comes, you don't turn on God and put him in the dock and prosecute him with accusations. He probably will not tell you why it is your turn, or why it is happening now, or why there is so much pain, or why it's lasting so long. But he has told you what you need to know. It is the love of an all-wise father to a child. Will you trust Him in that? It's hard, isn't it? We're going through those times when we're hurting, whether it's physically, emotionally, spiritually, mentally. We just want to get out and we be patient and understand that God has His purpose and may we seek that purpose. Now, some of you this morning did not grow up in the best of conditions. I can remember hearing a sermon totally taken out of context, all emphasizing the love of God for all the people all the time, how your father, and quote, he said, God is all people's father. And he never desires you to suffer, and he just went off on a tangent. I can remember sitting there as a 10 year old. Thinking. I don't like this phrase. I've told the guys at Brother Brian, but it's often used. Hell on earth. There's no such thing. We can't fathom what hell is going to be like. But as a 10, 11, 12, 13 year old, life was not good in my household. I didn't have a father that I could take Hebrews 12 or Proverbs 3 and compare the way that the author of Hebrews does here. You may be that way this morning. Some of you may never know your father. Some of you may have a father that severely abused you. God forbid, but it happens. And our prayers are for you and for your father if he's still living. We know we live in a world as such. We have children that I take into our homes. Foster parents take children from abusive situations. So that when they read a text like this, all that they can see is the misery and the hatred and the fear that they had in that household. Hear this. I used to think that way. And I was gripped by Matthew chapter 7. Turn there if you will. It's a sermon on the mount. And it was just, God used it as such an encouragement to me. Matthew chapter 7. And we'll close with this. Again, there's this comparison with earthly fathers and a heavenly father. In Matthew 7, verse 7, I'll begin. Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives. The one who seeks finds. The one who knocks, it will be opened. For which one of you, if his son, ask him for bread, will give him a stone? That's abuse. What kind of father would do that? Or if he asks for a fish, we'll give him a serpent. Verse 11. If you then, who are what? Evil. And then he says, know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more will your father who's in heaven give good things to those who ask it? My purpose here is the lights went off for me. I was in bondage to hatred to my earthly father. And I was released at that moment when I realized that every earthly father, some demonstrate sin on much greater levels than others, some abuse, some beat, some hurt, some refuse children eating, whatever the case may be. And then there's the normal, ordinary sin. But regardless, all earthly fathers Jesus called what? On their best days, evil. On the best day, the best men are at best still what? Men. Not so with God. Amen? There it is. So I realize that it's hard sometimes to take these comparisons in Scripture. You want to step back and say, Pastor, you don't get it. Jesus does. God does. And if you truly are his child, he has promised, yes, he will discipline you, but not like that. Not like that. He will never leave you or forsake you. He's always there. He will never beat you or abuse you, but he will take care of you. That's the source of our hope. And if you are here this morning and you grew up in a household where you had the nuclear family, one man, one wife, two kids, a dog, a cat, and a car, right? And they sought to bring you up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, don't forsake that. God has given you that as a gift. But if you're here this morning and you didn't have that, don't blame God. Just turn to Him. Cry out to Him because on the promise of God, He will be good to you all the days of your life. Let's pray. Father, we confess this morning that it is most often difficult to endure discipline. We don't like it. We would rather be comfortable in our sin than uncomfortable in your discipline. Help to grow us. Sanctify us. May we not grieve or quench your spirit. May we know more the sinfulness of sin in our lives so that, yes, we desire your discipline. That we look for it when we have gone astray. That we do endure and stand fast in times of testing. realizing it is for our good and for your glory. Give us strength, give us courage, and help us to remember what Christ endured for us so that we might have life and have it more abundantly. It's in the name of Christ we pray. Amen. Regardless of what we go through, and we do go through it at times, We're closing with a hymn of promise. If He be your God, if He be your Father, not your judge, but your Father, He will hold you fast. Let's stand together, the handout. He will hold me fast.