Well, if you have your Bibles this morning, and I hope that you do, I invite you to turn with me again to the book of Hebrews as we continue to make our way through this wonderful letter written by the anonymous pastor authored, of course, by the Holy Spirit. I was out last week as some this week I was quarantined and so appreciate James on about five hours or so notice filling in last weekend and taking over at verse three and so we're going to do a little we'll share some verses here last week or course couple weeks ago. Maybe three weeks ago we started chapter twelve taught Jesus being the founder and perfecter of our faith. I think time eludes me. I think it was four weeks ago that we started Chapter 12. I don't know how long it's been. But however long ago it was, Chapter 12, let's just remind ourselves of this beautiful truth found in these first few verses. In Hebrews 12, 1, Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely. Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." And so a couple of these themes will continue as we talk about endurance, especially as we continue in chapter 12. And so last week, James picked up verse 3 and said, who endured from sinners such hostility against himself. And so as the author of Hebrews is talking about endurance and running the race and facing suffering and going through trials and going through all the difficulties that they are not only facing then, but will face as they continue following Christ. How do you do this? Consider Him, consider Christ. He endured so much hostility against Himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. And so we see this theme about not losing hope, not growing weary, not giving up, but enduring and pressing forward. And then in verse four, it's kind of this transition verse. It says, in your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. Now that's, you can read that in a couple different ways. In a way that I kind of read it because sometimes I can be somewhat, how do I say this? It sounds so bad for a pastor, but some would probably agree. Sometimes I can come across not as sympathetic as I would like to come across pastorally. And so what he's saying here, which you can kind of hear this author saying, that you are enduring so much and you're going through so much, you're gonna struggle with so much, but it could be worse. You're not, you haven't given your life yet. You haven't laid your life down. You haven't suffered by losing your own blood. You haven't, so it could be worse. So in your struggle, it not just can get worse, but likely will get worse. And so a situation, a context in which we, as the Western church today, find ourselves in. We talk about struggle, we talk about adversity, talk about difficulty, but it could be worse. And it may get worse. And so his point here is regardless of the circumstance, regardless of how bad it is, we must endure that we've been seeing since the beginning of chapter 12 here. And so now he's going to turn our attention to how we endure in the sense of what this suffering is going to look like. So he says, you haven't suffered to the point of death yet, it's going to get worse. And so now he changes this discussion, if you will. He shifts it as he starts talking about discipline. So in your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted the point of shedding your blood. In verse 5, we'll start there. We're just going to read verse 5 through 11, then we'll come back. 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. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises 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 the 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 respect to them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father, the Spirit, and live? For they discipline 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. Let's pray. We come again to you in need of you Lord as we turn our attention to Hebrews 12 5 through 11 would help us to see your truth by your spirit. Would you? Bring clarity and conviction to us father Would you impress this truth in our hearts and our minds? Would you help us to see Christ exalted through it? In His name we do pray, amen. So as we come to this verse, this five through, especially we're gonna start with five through six here, the writer of Hebrews is very intentional. You know, because he talks about two things almost exclusively. There's two words he uses, a total of 15 times. He uses the word discipline nine times. As you read this passage, you can count them. If you're using the ESV, it's nine times. and a little more than that if you use a couple other words like discipline, but about nine times he uses the word discipline. But he also uses the word son six times. He uses the word son six times, and so he is connecting these two thoughts, these two ideas of discipline and sonship. And so at the very beginning of his, we'll call it argument, his understanding of what discipline is in the believer's life, he starts it not with just a theological understanding of, okay, God's just gonna discipline you, But he starts with who we are. Go back to verse five. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? Now, we're going to give them credit as being Hellenistic Jews here. They probably have not forgotten this word that is found in the book of Proverbs, I believe, chapter three. They know this word. They have committed this stuff to the heart and memory. But he's saying is, have you forgotten this truth? Have you let this slip from your mind? Have you forgot that Scripture, that God's Word, that God Himself addresses you as sons? And we're going to say sons a lot, but it is fair to say sons and daughters. And so let's not get hung up on sons. And I may say sons and daughters half a dozen times, but we say sons, the sons and daughters of God. And so, have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons and daughters? And so he quotes this proverb. He says, My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives. And so it is so important that we get this, that we understand that before we even talk about discipline, that we understand who we are. We talk about this so often on Sunday mornings here at North Hills, about our identity and who we are in Christ. But it's so important that we see ourselves not just simply as children of God. That can be such a generic term, right? The children of God. everyone in essence the child of God is created all human beings but his sons his daughters the true children of God are those who are found in Christ are those who have repented of their sins have turned to Jesus and his righteousness has been imputed to them and they're no longer their own but they're now Christ so this is the sons and daughters of God not just Those who are born, not just those who were created, but specifically, and only those who are children of God by faith. And we talk about this so often, yet we get kind of callous to that truth, do we not? That we are sons and daughters of the King, and not just a king, the king, the creator of the universe. This is sustainer of all life. We are that son. We are in the family of God. The family of Christ. Who is seated in verse two at the right hand of the throne of God. And we didn't just wonder into the family of God did we. We didn't just will ourself into the family of God. I don't think a good family to belong to. I think I'll go be a part of God's family. We haven't been in a while. Go with me to Ephesians chapter one. It's just so appropriate as we think about who we are, especially as sons and daughters of God. Ephesians chapter 1, verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. that we should be holy and blameless before him. That's our end goals, we'll get to in a minute. In love, why did he do it? Because he loves us, he predestined us, and some can have struggles that worry, but there it is in scripture, it's clear, he's predestined us for what? For adoption, that God has adopted us as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ. according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace with which He has blessed us in the Beloved who is Christ. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of His will according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him things in heaven and things on earth and so Ephesians 1 is just such an incredible reminder it is so crystal clear that we didn't just walk into the family of God and we didn't just prayerfully will it we didn't just but God has adopted us God has chosen us. God has called us. God has selected us. God has elected us. And, you know, we can have theological conversations over these words, but at the end of the day, it is such a scriptural truth that we are God's. That Jesus came to save his. And he says, I will not lose a single one. I will not lose a single one. So we are sons and daughters of God. It is clear that through Christ, because of Christ, we are sons of God. We are the true children of God. And you really can't talk about the discipline of the Lord until you understand our right relationship with Him. That who we are in Christ, we are His. We are sons and daughters of the King. And so continuing in Hebrews, as sons, rightfully, we encounter the discipline of God. we encounter the discipline of God, this word that is used so often here in this text, nine times specifically. Now, what is discipline? Now, discipline is one of those words that you can say and it can mean many things to many different people. Some may think of it as personal disciplines or habits or good habits, but most of the time we probably think, especially if you're here and you're still living at home with your parents and you're a teenager or a child and you think discipline, you may kind of choke up a little bit. You may kind of tighten up. Oftentimes we see and understand discipline with a negative connotation. We think punishment, retribution. As a pastor, I've had this question many times throughout the years. Is God punishing me? I feel like God is punishing me for this. Something's happening in my life and I feel the punishment and ultimately the retribution of God. And if you're honest with yourself, maybe you have felt that at some point in your life. But this is not the discipline of God to his children. It is not a negative connotation. It's not a retribution. It is not a punishment. It's not, I'm gonna get you because you did this. That is not the heart of a loving father. God's discipline of his children is not one of cold-hearted punishment. It's so important we understand that. God's discipline of his children is not one of cold-hearted punishment. because he has displayed his wrath. He has poured out his wrath on sin on the cross to the person of Jesus Christ. And so his wrath has been poured out. His wrath, his anger, his hatred against sin has been poured out, and the penalty of it has been paid. And so it's not this cold-hearted punishment. It's not this retribution against sin. He's not out to get us, but quite the opposite. Through love, He disciplines us. And yes, He does discipline us. And at times, that discipline, it does come in response to sin in our life, without a doubt. In those moments, His discipline is meant to lead us to repentance and restoration. As we'll see, one of the responses here in just a moment is to think of the discipline of God too lightly. And so we don't think of the discipline of God too lightly. We don't dismiss it. We recognize that His discipline indeed at times come to us because we have sinned in our life. But it's not a cold-hearted, vindictive discipline to get us, but it's in love to restore us to repentance and restore us to a right relationship with Christ. because he loves us. We see this all through Hebrews 12 here, that his discipline is motivated and fueled and carried out by love because he loves us. In the context of Hebrews here, discipline is more synonymous and likely, really, with all of us even today, with suffering, with trials, with difficulty. And so as he talks about discipline, what's he talking about? As we see, especially in Hebrews 12, we see that they're struggling, this constant encouragement, exhortation for the church to endure, for the church to not grow weary, for the church to continue on in the faith. And so this discipline, this walk through suffering, this walk through trials, this walk through tragedy, this walk through this thing we call life. Someone said that Hebrews often is overlooked because Hebrews is a book that's really meant for those who've experienced life, for those who've experienced hurt, for those who've experienced suffering. And so it's a book that if you haven't walked through that, if you haven't walked through suffering, if you haven't walked through these moments of great difficulty in our life, then maybe we haven't gone to the book of Hebrews. But if you go to the book of Hebrews, we see so much hope, so much encouragement, so much truth that God loves us and cares for us and walks us through these things. As believers, as we said a couple weeks ago, we will face suffering. It's a promise of Jesus. In this life, you will have suffering. You will endure it. So as believers, we will have suffering. And rarely, if ever, will we know for what reason the suffering comes into our life. But it's always our first question, right? We go through something, we go through a difficulty, we struggle, we suffer, something happens in our life. Why? What did I do? What caused this? What is God up to? And rarely, if ever, we ever have those questions. It's not for us to know the what, the reason, but it's for us to know the who. That who is behind it, that who is over it, who is sovereign over it is our loving Father. It's God Himself. It is Christ who sits at the right hand of the throne of God in full majesty and full power. in full sovereignty, who looks upon His children, His sons and daughters with love. It is God that allows every moment of suffering into our life. And He does so for the purpose of godly discipline. Does so for the purpose of godly discipline. Discipline simply means to teach and to train. If you look at the word that we have here in the Greek, it means to teach and to train. That's what it means. It doesn't mean to get back at you. It doesn't mean to swatch you. It doesn't mean to punish you. It means to teach and to train. And so godly discipline is meant from the Lord to teach and to train and everything that happens in our life is allowed by the Father. Every single thing. There's not been a single accident in your life that God is over all of it. There's so much trust there that we can look to him. We can trust him. And that after those initial moments of when our head is spinning, that we can remember who we are and whose we are. We can look to Christ and we can be full of hope. I don't have to know the why. I don't have to know for what reason. I don't have to know all these questions, but I can trust Jesus. Discipline simply means to teach and to train. Therefore, discipline can be considered the why of all suffering that we experience. So as we experience suffering, as we experience difficulties, as we experience tragedy, as we experience life and it's not pleasant, as we're reminded of here in verse 10 and 11, as we experience that which is not pleasant, If we understand that the why is discipline, training us and leading us and instructing us in righteousness, then it totally changes how we see our difficulties. It totally changes how we see loss and tragedy. Through suffering, we are taught and trained to look to Christ, to trust God's hand, to repent of sins, to humble ourselves, and to walk by faith. That's what tragedy does. That's what suffering does. And discipline is God's way of bringing us through that. He doesn't waste these moments. He doesn't waste these hurts. He doesn't waste these pains. He uses all of these. so that we might look more like Christ, we might become more like Christ, as we see at the end here, that we might produce the peaceful fruit of righteousness. As it says in verse 10, that we might be shaped in the holiness of God. Man, I just wanted my suffering to go away. I just wanted to go through this. I just want to get to the other side of it. But there's so much that God uses in those moments. And I would dare say uses those moments more than probably anything else in our life to point us to Christ and to shape us and to conform us under the image of Jesus. Through suffering, we are disciplined to be more like Christ. And really, if you look at the root word there, disciple, that we follow, that we are made into the image of Jesus, and all these are tied together. And the reason that God does this work in us is because He loves us. How does He love us? He loves us as a father loves his son in a perfect love. His discipline is not motivated by wrath. His discipline is motivated by love. Job said this, and we can gladly echo his words. Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves, or God disciplines. Therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty, for he wounds, but he binds up. He shatters, but his hands heal. So often we don't want to attribute the difficulties to the Lord. But Job reminds us that whatever happens to us, whatever difficulty, whatever shattering there is, whatever wounds there are, that the loving arm of God is there can heal. So then, suffering is the circumstances in our lives that are difficult to walk through. Yet we do so because we recognize that they are from the Lord and He uses them as discipline to make us holy and to produce righteousness. So I want us to kind of have that backdrop of discipline. That's really the heart of this. We think about discipline. So with that backdrop, with that understanding of how God uses discipline in our life, let's walk through. these verses. Verse five, it points us to two responses of discipline. It says, my son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. And so we see these two responses, and we can probably relate to these. And the discipline of God comes that we either make light of it, and we don't think much about it, we don't meditate on it and pray on it and say, Lord, what do you want to do through this? I'm going to submit to you and trust you. Or we take the opposite approach, and we worry, we have anxiety, we are overcome. But it says, do not be weary when reproved by Him. So in the midst of any suffering, in the midst of any difficulty, the reminder here is don't be wearied from it. Don't give up. Don't lose hope. Don't be saddened. Don't think that you are alone. And so often in the midst of our discipline, in the midst of our suffering, in the midst of our trials, we feel alone, but we are never alone. For not only is Christ there present, but He is there active. He is there working in us and through us to go through this trial, to go through this difficulty that God is using as discipline in our life to train us and to teach us to be more like Christ. And don't take it lightly. We shouldn't take it lightly because it is from the Lord and he has a specific purpose of every discipline in our life. It's a specific purpose for every suffering, for every pain point, for every moment in our life. God has a plan for and God will use that. We see that as we walk through Genesis, however long ago that was, I lose track. Walk through Genesis and you see the life of Joseph, and we see it time and time again, that what the enemy meant for evil, God meant for good. And this is a beautiful truth, it's a beautiful reminder, as we'll look to again in just a moment. for the Lord disciplines the one he loves again is motivated by love and he chastises every son whom he receives every son not just some believers not just some sons and daughters but every son every child of God every son and daughter of God he will discipline he will chastise he will teach us and correct us and mold us into the image of God and in verse 7 I love this it's kind of really the heart of this section It is for discipline that you have to endure. So he's been talking about endurance, not just in chapter 12 and chapter 10 and so many times in Hebrews so far, he's talking about endurance and running the race and not giving up. And so it is for discipline that you have to endure. So as you're going through discipline, that's when we want to give up, right? You see, later on in a few verses, it's not easy. It's not pleasant to go through discipline. But it is for discipline that you have to endure. The reason we, if there was no purpose in our suffering, we should just give up. If there's no purpose in it, just lay down. But if there is purpose, if there is a divine purpose to all of our suffering, then we endure so that God can do a work in us and that God can do a work through us. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom the father does not discipline? And he says in verse eight, if you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Think about that. It is a litmus test of true Christianity. That as we are walking through suffering, as we are experiencing the discipline of God, we should rejoice in that, that I am His. Because if you didn't experience discipline, if you didn't experience suffering, if you didn't experience these things that we call life, these things that are difficult, and we see the discipline of God, and if we didn't see that, it says we're illegitimate children. We're not children at all. But we are His children. So you could say these these first few verses that we have we've been given this theological argument For for the understanding that discipline is for our good from a loving god So he gives us this gives us scripture and proverbs and we can point to other scripture and we can have this this solid theological understanding Of discipline this solid theological understanding of why and how god uses discipline in our life But then it turns to more of a personal argument if you will for our need of discipline He says in verse 9, 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." And so he turns to this very personal, practical analogy, if you will, and he could have said, you know for those who are fathers and if you have children in here you understand you know discipline you understand the need of discipline he doesn't do that he turns to more of an example that almost everyone can relate to those who have fathers those who who have experienced being raised up by a dad that you know that you've been disciplined and we could talk about different kinds of dads and how they discipline and he talks about this and we could go in kind of a greek mindset especially in Rome here, how just vastly different it was for fathers who raised their sons. I mean, there was no, that kid's gonna run around, is that dad ever gonna get him? It's like, wow, that Roman dad was always gonna discipline his kid. Not just when he was a child, or not just when he was a teenager, but for his whole life. A young man in the culture of Rome here would never leave the discipline of his dad. His dad would always have a firm hand in his life. So they understood, as they looked at their fathers and their relationships, they understood the discipline of dad. They understood the father's role in shaping them and forming them to how they should become young men. And so the writer of Hebrews here, knowing that these Hellenistic Jews, these Jews who are in this Greek culture, as they know this and understand this, they make this easy connection. if these earthly dads, if these dads who likely didn't even know the Lord, if they understood discipline, if they understood the consistency of discipline, the purpose of discipline, and they committed to discipline, and I love what he said, and if they did the best they could, right, they did the best they could, isn't that the hope we need sometimes as dads? We don't know what we're doing, but the best they can. They're sitting there, apparent talk here, but we can use a little hope there, a little help. They said they were doing the best they could to raise their children and to bring discipline into their lives. How much more, how much more with a loving father, a perfectly loving father who does no wrong, who makes no mistake, how much more than when he used that discipline in your life? And especially if you had a godly father and you look back on your godly father and you see that, man, I didn't like the discipline at the moment, I didn't like all the stuff I had to endure when I was a kid. Man, I can see that, I can see the beauty of it and the need of it, I see how it shaped who I am today. How much more then does the discipline of a perfect father with perfect love and consistent Discipline, how much more does it shape us in to who we are supposed to be? It says, for they disciplined us for a short time. Seems like forever, right? When you're a kid and you're growing up and the kids are here, if you're listening, if you haven't checked it out completely, it seems like forever. As you're in the, as you're growing up, mom and dad, it seems like forever that you're living under their discipline, but it says for a short time. for just a short time it seemed they did the best they could but he disciplines us for our good and wise will get to in just a second to share in his holiness so he gives us not just this theological argument but this personal argument and then finally for the sake of time The last verse there gives us a spiritual argument. We'll kind of pick up the last half of verse 10 that we 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. So here is the ultimate goal. Here is the end game, if you will, of discipline, of God's discipline. It mentions two things. It mentions holiness and it mentions righteousness. That the point of discipline is to make us holy and to make us righteous. Now we know We know that we're as righteous as we can ever be. The righteousness of Christ is applied to us. We give that. We know that we're as holy as we could ever be because we receive the holiness from Christ. It's not us working up to a certain amount of holiness or a certain amount of righteousness. But as we're living this life on this side of heaven, as we are walking through the discipline of God, and the discipline of God produces in us righteousness and wholeness. It conforms us into the image of Jesus. It shapes us. It turns us. It conforms us into Christ. It makes us more like Jesus to walk through the discipline of God. And I love the honesty there, the acknowledgement that it seems difficult, it seems painful. Just because we can understand this theologically, just because we can understand the Word of God and how God uses it, doesn't mean that it's not going to not be painful the next time you go through God's discipline. It doesn't mean it's not going to hurt. It doesn't mean it's not going to cause us even to maybe doubt in a moment. It doesn't mean it's not going to cause us anxiety. It doesn't mean it's not going to cause us these emotions, but we bring those emotions. We bring our heart and we bring our mind in check, recognizing that it is painful. Romans 8.28, which we go to all the time. If we're not careful, we misremember it. That's to say all things are good. It says all things work together for the good of those who love and trust the Lord, who are called according to His purposes. And what's His purposes? For us to become holy and righteous. And so don't make a mistake, not everything in our life is good, but all things work together for the good. God is using all things. He's using all suffering, all difficulty, all tragedy, all pain, all hurt. And through the process of godly discipline, He is shaping us that we might be holy and righteous like Christ. So we see this theological argument and this personal argument and this spiritual argument. Let us not fear the discipline of the Lord. For us as Christians, as gospel-centered believers, may it not be a byword. Let's not fear the discipline of the Lord. Instead, let us welcome it, knowing that it reminds us that we are sons and daughters of God and produces in us the fruit of righteousness. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for this morning. I thank you for your word. Thank you for your truth. And Lord, we thank you for discipline. that you use it in such a way that we can't even imagine as we're going through it. And so, Lord, if there's some here who are walking through that right now and need encouragement or may they be encouraged by your word today. If there's some who are here who are listening or online father this morning who. They don't know your discipline, they never felt your discipline, or maybe they are illegitimate children. Maybe they're not truly yours, and Lord, I pray that by your spirit you would convict them and lead them to a place of repentance and trust. They would repent of their sins and trust in the work of Christ and turn to him. As we come to the communion table now, Lord, I pray that we can begin reminded this week of what Christ has done for us, that his body was broken, that his blood was shed. So that his righteousness and holiness could be given to us. So as we come to the tables, we sing, Lord, as we leave this place, may we do so in faith. In Christ's name.