So for the last several weeks, with a couple of messages in between, we've walked through Proverbs chapter 1 verses 1 through 10. And the exhortation is that the son of this one writing, presumably Solomon, would not forget the law of the father, would incline his heart unto the commandments of his father, because within this, all things being equal, is a general degree of well-being. He says in verse two, length of days and long life and peace shall they add to thee. And then we got into the commands themselves. And the first command that we considered was, let not mercy and truth forsake thee. So the idea of the truth and love, as we see it in Ephesians, that we minister both in truth and in love, that we don't minister truth outside of love, which if we were to be candid is the temptation of our circles. of fellowship, and then that we would not minister the love outside of truth, which would be the opposite end of the spectrum from our type of church. They would recognize love, but they would do so in a willingness to compromise truth. And at the end of the day, that's not love at all if you're not giving the truth, and it's not truth at all if you're not doing it in love. And so we sought to pair those two and bind them together to, as the scriptures say, bind them about our neck and to write them upon the table of our heart. Then we talked about trusting in the Lord with all of our hearts. Acknowledging the Lord in all things, knowing thus that he will direct our paths. A very important concept, trusting the Lord, allowing the Lord's decisions, allowing the Lord's methods, allowing the Lord's teachings to be our vision, to be the forefront of our minds, to be our blinders, to direct the way that we should go when we don't understand we follow the Lord. Then we considered after that the idea that we be not wise in our own eyes, and that was last Sunday morning. And this is the idea of not being wise in our own eyes, not being wise in our own conceit. A recognition of what we don't know, and what we don't know we don't know, and a determination that we are going to instead fear God and depart from evil, that we are going to be humble. that we are going to be careful, that we are going to be considered, that we are going to be obedient. And then last Sunday night, honor the Lord with thy substance and with the first fruit of all thy increase, and recognizing first off, of course, the biblical teaching as it relates to finances and giving and such, and then secondly, also recognizing on top of that, that the focus is not the money, It's not the possessions. It's not that God is sitting up there saying, wow, if so-and-so doesn't give their first fruits to me, if so-and-so doesn't tithe to me, then I don't know how I'm going to do this. It's not as if God's work is going to go bankrupt. But it is about honoring the Lord. It is about acknowledging the Lord. And this is one of the ways that we honor the Lord. And in doing so, as we read from Samuel, the one who honors the Lord, the Lord will honor. This is a principle, and the firstfruits is a means by which for us to honor the Lord with our substance, so we do so. We come to the final exhortation in Proverbs chapter 3, within this kind of chunk of exhortations here, and we find this in verses 11 and 12. And in verses 11 and 12, the Bible says, My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, neither be weary of his correction. for whom the Lord loveth he correcteth even as a father the son in whom he delighteth. Very well-known verses, verses that perhaps you've memorized, verses that have their roots in New Testament teaching as well as we'll see in a few moments. The exhortation being that we're despised there literally to reject or to refuse. Don't reject, don't refuse, don't belittle, don't reject the chastening hand of the Lord. Don't be weary of his correction. Don't get to the point where you refuse his correction because you are tired of it. Because God's correction is an expression of his love. in the same way that a father's correction is an expression of his love toward a child, and we all know that's true. Now as we think about evil, as we think about bad things, as we think about things in this life that we don't like, and remember when the Bible uses that word evil in our King James Bibles, it is not speaking of wickedness as we would think of evil. oftentimes. It is speaking of bad things. It's speaking of negative things. It's speaking of things that we are not, that we don't like, that we don't want in our lives. That is the idea of evil. And when we consider this idea, evil has any number of sources, right? Bad things have any number of sources. The most prevalent of these, as we think of them, is the world, the flesh, and the devil, right? That the world, the flesh, and the devil, from them come evil, that sin has brought about evil in our lives, whether that be illnesses that you're struggling with, this illness that is around us, the various illnesses, the number of people that die every year from cancer and from heart disease and from various viruses and sorts. All of these things, these evils, they are originated, they're derived from the reality of sin. The fact that sin is in this world, and with sin comes suffering, with sin comes degeneration, with sin comes a breaking down. of that which is naturally right, that which is naturally functional. And so we see sin, and we also see, of course, the flesh, and that of the decisions that we make, that not only is sin influencing us from without, as we think of pain, and as we think of sorrow, and we think of suffering, but sin is influencing us from within because of our old man, because of our flesh. And so we have this flesh within us that is fighting to get its way, and this flesh works within us death. My flesh would desire to not forgive, but if I don't forgive, I'm going to be in a place of both physical and emotional anguish. My flesh wants to be angry, but with that anger will come any number of emotional and physical dangers and problems. And so the flesh works within me these things, these things that are, quote, natural. My flesh compels me into lust, but that lust brings leanness to my soul when it's indulged. And so this leanness, this death that is worked in me, through the indulgence of my own sin nature, through the old man, to the extent that that old man is allowed to operate within me. And, of course, we say the old man only within the context of those who have a new man, those who are born again, those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. If you have not accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, then that doesn't apply to you. You only have the flesh. That is you. That is your identity. Well, I'm a good person. Well, I do good things. Well, I try to avoid lust. I try to avoid anger and such too. Yes, but that is your identity nonetheless. It is only in those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior that they are born again, that old things are passed away, all things become new. They are ushered into a brand new identity that is apart from the flesh, that is apart from that man of sin. And so we have the world, that would be the sin that is around us. We have the flesh, that would be the sin that is within us. And then we have the devil. We think of this from Job, where God allows Satan to afflict Job, and so Job goes through a process of trial and temptation, where the devil is seeking to accuse him, which is the name, right? The great accuser, he is seeking to accuse him, he is seeking to see Job fail. And then we have another source of evils. of things that aren't the way we would want them to, and that other source is divine. The Bible speaks of trials and temptations. Now, these would go part and parcel oftentimes with satanic attack. We find that the trials and temptations that Job was going through were brought about by Satan, but were allowed by God. That God ushered or allowed those. God uses the world, the flesh, and the devil. He opens us up to various afflictions of the world, the flesh, and the devil as a means by which to try us, as a means by which to test us. We see such things in Romans chapter 5, verses 1 through 5. And the idea that the trial of our faith worketh patience, and that's from James chapter 1. And so we find in James 1 and Romans 5 these expressions of reality as it relates to God trying us and testing us. And the trials and the testings that God brings into our lives are for our best good. And then the Bible speaks of chastening. And chastening is in fact a different subcategory of evils. from trial and temptation. When we think of chastening, I often distinguish between, that there's a difference between chastening and punishment. And parents, I think this is something that you would do well to understand as it relates to your children and the way that you interact with them on a punitive level. that there are certain things in life that incur punishment. That regardless of whether or not I feel sorry about something that I've done, it doesn't change the fact that I did it, and it doesn't change the fact that there needs to be a measure of consequence for what I have done. And so when I break the law, it doesn't matter that following that I I am truly repentant, there's a debt that I owe to society and I need to pay that debt. And so there's a natural punishment that comes from breaking the law and that punishment forms the basis of a measure of hindrance or a preventative measure to keep people from doing things that are wrong. And so there is this idea of punishment, the natural consequences of wrong, so that when I do wrong, when I sin, there are natural consequences that the Lord has built into this world. And then as we look into the Old Testament, we do see that God was proactive in various divine punishments from time to time, such as Sodom and Gomorrah, such as Nineveh, and the like, where we would see Babylon, and then, of course, Israel, where we would see there a process by which God says, no, you have done this thing, this is the natural and expected effect of what you have done. But a large number of punishments, particularly within this time of grace that we find, are natural. That as we look into Proverbs and we see all of the consequences of doing wrong, we see that there is a natural punishment, a natural consequence for those things. But there's a layer on top of that, parents. There's a layer on top of that, Christian. And that's the idea of chastening. And the nature of chastening is the nature of refinement and the nature of repentance. So chastening, the chastening hand of God, is intended by God to bring us to a place of repentance and alignment. And the chastening hand of God will continue in the life of a person until such time as they do repent and they align. Now, just because I've repented and aligned doesn't mean that I won't naturally face the consequences, perhaps in the future, of the time, of the season that I spent in sin. And yet, once I have repented and aligned, there is a direct measure of chastening that will stop, because the chastening has accomplished its purpose. There is no reason for me to continue chastening my child if my child has aligned his heart. Now, it may be that there still needs to be a natural punishment for the time that they spent in rebellion, and there may be a loss for that, but the chastening does not have to continue. The process of me actually proactively bringing about in their lives some negative circumstance by which to bring them into alignment, to break their will, not their spirit, but their will, and then bring them into alignment with me. That process ends at the point that they align with me. And that's what we speak of when we consider this idea of chastening. The object of chastening is repentance. The object of chastening is alignment. And when God sees that repentance and God sees that alignment, then the object is complete and the chastening can stop. And so, in Proverbs chapter 3, verses 11 and 12, the exhortation is that we would not despise or reject or refuse the chastening of the Lord, and that we would not be weary of His correction. that we would recognize that the chasing hand of the Lord is a net positive, a net good in our lives, a means by which God operates to keep us in line and to bring us in line and to give us the perspective by which we are able to mature into God's design for us. Now there are any number of places where this concept comes up within the Old and New Testament. We do see it in Job chapter 5. And this is a very interesting one. Anytime we deal with Job, you need to be careful. Job is Hebrew poetry. Those of you that have been around on Tuesday nights know a little bit of what that means. And the reality of it being Hebrew poetry means that there's metaphor, and there's flowery language, and all of the elements that come with poetry. And it needs to be carefully interpreted. Job perhaps more so than any other, even of the poets. Job is maybe the most, you have to be the most careful as it relates to interpretation within the whole of the Bible. And the reason why is because Job is written very, very much like a play, very much akin to something like a Shakespearean play, a drama, and a drama that exists within kind of a live audience type of format. And the idea there is that we as the reader know things that Job and his companions do not, right? We know from chapters 1, 2 and 3 that God has allowed Satan to bring certain things into Job's life. And that because God has allowed Satan to bring certain things into Job's life, Job is suffering the consequences. We know that Job had done nothing wrong. We know that Job had not sinned. We know that Job is not under chastening in that sense. We know that Job is under trial and testing. Testing and trial do not necessarily speak to anything that I need to repent of in my life. It speaks to something that I need to grow unto, or it's an exercise of my faith, it's an exercise of my spirit, and it may bring about things in my life that I have to repent of, depending on how I handle the testing and temptation. But, in and of itself, that's not the object of it. The object of testing and temptation is growth, that I would progress in my faith. The object of chastening is to repent and to realign as I've fallen aside. And so, when we know that, we understand that Job is not going through a chastening of sorts, but that is not what Job knows. Job feels as though he knows this because he believes he's right with the Lord. But he doesn't know it in that sense. And then Job's comforters come and they believe the exact opposite. They believe that this is chastening. They believe that God is bringing about a measure of chastening and that the moment Job repents of whatever it is that he has done wrong, the moment that he realigns with the Lord, the Lord can thus remove from him this chastening and he can be fine again. And Job says, look, I didn't do anything. There's nothing to repent of. And his friends are saying, that's not true. You're obviously a sinner. You're obviously doing wrong. You're obviously some terrible wicked man. We didn't think that that was you, but obviously that is you. And so you need to repent. And then there's a back and forth the entire time about this concept until God steps in and he settles the situation toward the end of the book of Job. And it's within the scope of this that Eliphaz, the Temanite, speaks up in chapters 4 and 5, and he speaks to Job about these things. And he says in chapter 5, verse 1, And he goes on to speak of seeing the foolish in their afflictions and their evils. And He says, as He speaks of God, verse 13, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness, and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong. They meet with darkness in the daytime, and grope in the noonday as in the night. But He saveth the poor from the sword, from their mouth, and from the hand of the mighty. So the poor hath hope, and iniquity stoppeth her mouth. Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth. Therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty, for he maketh sore, and bindeth up, he woundeth, and his hands make whole. And so Eliphaz here is saying, don't despise this, don't despise the chastening of the Lord. God is wounding you that he may heal you. This is the idea that we see from the shepherd, the idea of the shepherd who has a sheep that regularly wanders away from the flock, and at a point of time, in order for the sheep to be well cared for, the shepherd might break his leg, bind it, carry him around for a while, and thus in doing so, as it heals, reinforce the need for the sheep to stay close to the shepherd. And there are any number of times where even I as a parent will allow my child to go through something, will allow my child to get a bump or a bruise, will allow my child to struggle a little bit, My children, when they're crawling, they might crawl underneath a chair and get themselves kind of contorted, and they'll start to cry, and they'll start to fuss. And depending on the situation, as long as there's not any permanent damage, danger, or anything of the sort, I will look at them and say, no, I'm not going to help you. You got yourself in there, now you get yourself out. And the reason why I'm doing that is to help my children learn a lesson, help them to become a little more self-sufficient, help them to become a little stronger. help them to think through how to get out, but also to think through whether or not they should put themselves in such a situation the next time. If I always shield my children from dangers, if I always shield my children from difficult events, then they're not going to learn how to be discreet, how to be wise, how to be careful, and how to assess a situation before plunging headlong into it. So we see this situation with Eliphaz, and so while we need to be careful, and Eliphaz is actually not speaking toward Job's situation at all, really, yet we can learn something as we compare scripture with scripture as it relates to this principle. We also see this principle come up in Revelation chapter 3. I've preached through the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, and in Revelation 3, verses 14 through 19, God is speaking to the church of Laodicea. Laodicea, of course, is that great church that we would think to be the worst example of any of the churches as it relates to Revelation 2 and 3, and the letters to the churches. And this was the lukewarm church. And in chapter 3, verse 14, we read this, unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would that thou wert cold or hot. So then, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou saith, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and knowest not, that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve that thou mayest see. Notice verse 19. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. Behold I stand at the door and knock. If any men hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and will sup with him and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith. unto the churches." So we have this situation where the church of Laodicea is doing wrong. They are in the wrong way, and God says that because He loves them, He is rebuking them and chastening them, lest they continue in their nakedness, not even knowing that they're naked, lest they continue in their depravity, not even knowing their depravity, lest they continue in their blindness not even knowing their blindness. So God says, much to the contrary, I am going to rebuke you. because I love you. I'm going to chasten you because I love you. Those of you who are fathers understand this concept well. Understand just how important chastening is to love. And we know this. We live in a society that denies this. We live in a society that has become so emotion-centric, so feeling-centric, and we live in a society that, through its own sinful choices, has become so blind to reality and has become so degenerate in their mindset and thinking that they are convinced that any sort of chastening, any sort of negative, any sort of rebuke, anything that would bring about in someone a compulsion of a need to change something in their behavior or in their thinking is actually wrong. That if I tell a person that they cannot change from male to female, that somehow I'm in the wrong there, even though that's the most loving thing I can do for someone, is try to right them to reality. That if I tell a person that there is such thing as sexual perversion, and that inordinate lusts and licentiousness, and that the pursuit of evil and wickedness as it relates to sexual desires, whether that be toward heterosexual relationships or sodomite relationships, that if I tell someone that their natural lusts and desires are not in accordance with God's design, That somehow that is me being unkind to them or fearing them or hating them, rather than what it truly is, which is telling them the truth and seeking to help them because, as we learned and talked about last week, as we've talked about a number of times, because there is an intrinsic degree of connection between the spiritual and the physical. And if a person wants peace, health to their navel and marrow to their bones, And they need to be rightly aligned with God's design. And the same with lying and stealing and cheating and whatever else it might be. That just because a person thinks that they're doing something okay doesn't mean that they are. And for me to confirm them in their error is not to love them. For me to confirm my children in their errors, for me to ignore my children in their errors, is not to love them. It is to set them up for a fall when the consequences are so much greater. And all of this leads us to the most comprehensive teaching that we have on this in the scriptures, and that's in Hebrews chapter 12. We'll spend the bulk of the rest of our time in Hebrews chapter 12. Of course, Hebrews 12 comes right on the heels of Hebrews 11, and for those of you that were here during our Hebrews 11 Tuesday night series, several months ago, you know that within the scope of Hebrews 11, that's what we often call the Hall of Faith, and it's exemplifying all of the different people who exercised faith, faith being the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, recognizing that without faith it is impossible to please God. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. And so we see all of these examples of faith, and some of them in people who we would not necessarily hold up as great examples to our children, and yet they are in the Hall of Faith. They are in Hebrews 11 as an example of those who believed God and it was counted unto them for righteousness. And at the end of this discussion we have a wherefore in chapter 12 verse 1. Be very careful with transitions between chapter breaks. The chapter breaks are not inspired. They were added much later on. They were added by editors. They are not something that God gave to us. And remember that many of our New, especially our New Testament elements, they're epistles. They're letters. They're meant to be read as they were written, which is one kind of continuing idea. There might be transitions. There might be direct transitions where you can say, OK, now we're moving to something new. Everything that was before doesn't really factor into what we're talking about now. And those things do happen. But like with any letter, those things are made rather clear. The book of Job is another good example. As it is a play, you want to be careful how you're reading it to make sure that you're not losing context. So in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 1, the Bible says, Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. That is those that have gone before. That's the legacy of faith. That is those who have exercised faith before us. Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." Obviously I could spend a message just on these verses. There's so much there, but the idea being that because we have this great legacy of people who have done this, who have gone before us, and who have exercised this faith, so too should we. So we set aside the weights, and we set aside the sins, and we run with patience the race that is set before us. Now, God helps us with this. We look unto Jesus who accomplished this. Not just He is accomplishing it in us, but He accomplished it in Himself. He is the author of our faith. He is the finisher of our faith. He's the one that derived it. He's the one that defines it. And then He is the one that helps us and brings about in us its completion. When we stand before God one day, holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight, it will be to the extent that we have been clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, right? It will be Christ's righteousness that makes us unblameable and unreprovable in God's sight. He is the finisher. He is the perfecter. It is the image, it is us in the image of Christ that is acceptable in the sight of God. So verse 3 says, For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Why would you be wearied and faint in your minds? Because this life is hard. Because the race is not easy. Because you're going to sin. And you're going to struggle. And you're going to deal with your flesh. And it's going to be miserable. And you're going to hate it. Because you know that you're a sinner. And because you don't want to be a sinner. But you are a sinner. And because you're tired. And because the sin of this world and the people of this world and the deceits of this world bombard the door of your hearts. And because you see other people walking in the darkness of the deceit, and you want to call them out of the light, but they won't listen, and that's hard. And all of these things are hard, and they wear on you. And you deal with the consequences of sin in this world. Consequences of sin from you. Consequences of your sin on your children. The consequences of your parents' sin on you. The consequences of another person's sin on a loved one. The frustration of seeing one person's sin affect other people. All of these things, they can be burdensome, they can be frustrating, they can be heavy. But we consider him that endured these things, lest we be weary in our own minds. We consider a man named Jesus who, though he was sinless, submitted himself to parents who had sin, submitted himself to parents who were not sinless. and followed their exhortations, their counsel, and obeyed them, though they were not sinless as he. Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be weary and faint in your mind. Then verse 4, you have not resisted unto blood striving against sin. We've talked about this before. You know what he's saying there? He's saying, you know, sin hasn't killed you yet. The battle hasn't killed you yet. You haven't resisted unto blood. Now, for some, be that the martyr or be that the greatly deceived, it does, right? That the sins of others brought Jesus to the cross. And yet, to those who read this exhortation, look, the battle is still here to be fought. You're not dead yet. You've still got a battle to fight. He says in verse 5, And have ye forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children? My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him, for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he of whom the father chasteneth not? Do you see that a part of this endurance is not just the endurance of having a sin nature, but it's the endurance of the chastening of God that comes with having this sin nature. It's the endurance of recognizing not just the fact that I am in this flesh and I want this flesh gone, but also of recognizing and even being able to love and rejoice in the fact that God is going to chasten you, that you have a God who's not going to let you drift into sin without having something to say about it. This is a part of your comfort. This is a part of that which you look to. And again, if you have children, this is not a surprise. I've had, there's one child particularly that comes to mind and this particular child does not, is not happy, cannot get over their mood until they get spanked, until they get their consequence. And it's amazing that they will be terrible and rotten and I will give them grace and I will seek to reason and I will do all of those things that I would first desire to do because I don't want to give a consequence to my children. I don't want to have to go through that. But they will not. be pacified until such time as they get their consequence. And then once they get their consequence, boom! Just like that. It's done. Now it's over. Now they're right with dad. Now they're right with mom. Now they're back where they need to go. And now they can move back on with life. That's sort of an idea where we recognize the value of that which God will do and is doing in us unto repentance. Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as sons. For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons. This is very important. If you aren't chastened of the Lord, you are not a son You're an illegitimate. That's what that word bastard means. You're an illegitimate child. You are not actually a child of God. We're not all children of God, right? But as many as received him, John 1 says, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. So the scriptures tell us that one of the blessings of chastening is that it reminds you that you are God's child. It reminds you of God's love. This is one of, generally speaking, what we would identify as five evidences that a person is a believer. There are any number of times where when a person says, how do I know that I'm a believer? Well, do you remember when you accepted Jesus as your Savior? Well, that's wonderful, and I hope that you do. Do you have a date? Well, okay, if you do, that's wonderful. I'm glad you have a date where you made that decision to follow Christ as your Savior. But those are very shallow evidences. My memory can play tricks on me. I can reason myself into and out of any number of things. Well, these are the things that I would hold to, right? The fact that I remember the day that I called upon the name of the Lord, or I have a date written in my Bible. All fine, but let's use the biblical standard here. The Bible gives, generally speaking, five evidences. that a person is a believer. 1st and 2nd are both found in 1st John. The Bible says that if we love God, we'll keep His commandments and that this is the love of God that we keep His commandments and His commandments are not grievous. A general desire to obey the Lord. Not just a general desire to be moral, but a general desire to obey God's Word. To read God's Word, to believe God's Word, and to obey God's Word. This is an evidence of salvation. also a love for the Brethren, from 1 John. That if we love God, we also love the Brethren. So as I feel and recognize a particular outreaching of love toward the Brethren, a particular unity among the Brethren, a desire to unite among the Brethren, a recognition of that shared spirit among the Brethren, this is an evidence that I'm a believer. Bearing the fruit of the Spirit, from Galatians chapter 5. If any man have not the Spirit of God, he has none of his, Paul writes in Romans, chapter 8. So if you don't have the Spirit of God, then you're not gods. And if you are gods, then you have the Spirit of God. There is no second blessing whereby the Spirit comes upon a person that wasn't on him before, though he was a Christian. That's not found in the Bible. We do see a moment in the Book of Acts where that happens, but that is directly related to the institution of the church. It has nothing to do with salvation. The Bible never says it has anything to do with salvation. So as it relates to salvation, when a person accepts Jesus Christ as their Savior, they receive the Spirit of God. And that Spirit of God is within them crying, Abba, Father, acknowledging this relationship with the Lord. And there is the fruit of the Spirit that is born in the hearts of those who submit themselves to the Spirit of God. When you bear the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance, that's an evidence that you're a believer. Also, that you are illuminated, that you are taught by God. Jesus told his disciples while he was on this earth, it's reiterated by the apostles, that the Spirit of God teaches those who have the Spirit of God. That no man can understand the things of the Spirit except that they have the Spirit of God within them. That the Spirit of God illuminates the Word of God to us so that we can understand the things which are spiritual. That as a man understands spiritual concepts, that as he can actually understand the Word of God. Many people have described it when they've accepted Jesus Christ as a veil being lifted from their eyes and finally They understood the Word of God as it was written for the first time and things started making sense and all the tumblers began to fall into place and such. That is an evidence of the Spirit of God within you. That's an evidence of being saved. And the final evidence that we speak of is this idea of conviction and chastening. You might be able to break those off into two, but this idea of conviction and chastening. That when I am convicted, Different from guilt, right? Guilt holds me down and says, you're not good enough. Conviction seeks to call me onto a right relationship with God. So when I sense and recognize that conviction, say, how do I know the difference between guilt and conviction? Because they're going to kind of feel the same. Well, here's the thing. You repent, you get right with God. If it goes away, it was conviction. If it stays, it's guilt and you need to ignore it. You need to resist it. You need to refuse it because that guilt is not right. Biblical, healthy, it's not a part of a relationship with the true and living God. Conviction is. Conviction is when I'm doing something wrong, I'm being chastened of the Lord, I'm being drawn back into Him, and when I realign, when I get right, there's a relief, there's a freeing, there's a unshackling of my spirit. A lifting of a weight. Because I'm right. And so we have this concept. And when I feel this, when I experience this, this is an indication that I am a believer, a child of God. When I see God's chastening, when I feel God's conviction, while I don't want it, it's a good thing because it reminds me that I'm His. You know, I would chasten my children in ways I don't chasten other people's children. Because other people's children aren't as important to me as my own. And so I'm going to put time and effort into my children, and my children first and foremost, because they are mine, and I love them, and they're my responsibility. So we see these concepts here. Verse 9, Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence. For shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For if they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. And so Paul writes here and he says, look, you're thankful that your father's chastened you. You're thankful for their correction and not even all their correction was for your profit. Some of it was just for their pleasure. And yet you were thankful for it. How much better will God's chastening be for you? How much more can you trust that God knows best what you need? And then finally, he says, Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous, verse 11. Nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. It doesn't mean you're going to like it. But even though you're not going to enjoy it, can you see its value? You know, when I exercise, I don't necessarily always like it. You kind of get to the point where you might. There's a point when I was particularly heavily exercising and running and lifting and all of those different things where that burn that you would feel, that your muscles would burn, you kind of get to want that feeling. It's kind of a good feeling. It doesn't feel good, but you are interpreting it as good. And that's the same idea here. When those muscles burn and when I'm sore the next day, that soreness and that muscle burn indicates to me that my muscles were used, that they were worked, and that through that working and through that using, my muscles are going to be stronger. And so I interpret that feeling as a good thing. Oh, good. I'm sore today. That means that I accomplished my purpose. That means that all of that effort yesterday was not in vain. When I feel that burn from running, I know that things are happening the way they're supposed to happen. And it doesn't feel good, but it's working the thing that it's supposed to work. Therefore, I interpret it as a good thing, even though I don't like it. It's the same with with chastening. I don't like it, but can you see its value? Can you interpret in it the reality of what it's doing, of how it's shaping you? Children, I hope you get to the point where you can do this with your parents, where you interpret their chastening of you as their love for you. And you don't like it, but you appreciate it. You want it because you know you need it. And this isn't how we regard chastening, is it? It's so hard to be corrected by someone else. It's so hard to be submissive when others are telling me things that I know I need to do but I'm not doing because my pride gets riled up. And then I try to divert from the fact that they're right about what I'm doing by blaming them or getting angry at them for the fact that they told me. and finding all the ways, well, how dare they say that to me when they're doing this too? All of that's the flesh. Despise not the chastening of the Lord, neither be weary of his correction. For whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth. We could go on. There's a number of verses here going all the way through verse 17 that I'd like to talk about, but I simply don't have the time this morning to do so. And so as I have presented all of these things to you, and as we've read the Word of God this morning, the question is, how are you doing? And I want to kind of start practically here, before we get into the God part. Children, I want to talk to you directly for just a moment. Children, the picture that is given here is of a father who loves his child, therefore he corrects him, and that's the picture that is supposed to help us understand this as it relates to God. Any number of ways that your father or mother or your parents are intended to represent God in these ways, and I hope that they've done that well for you. But, children, can I encourage you not to despise chastening? It's so good for you. You need it. And the more you accept it, receive it, and work through it now, the better it's going to be for you later. Parents, may I encourage you not to avoid chastening your children. Because one way or another, reality is reality. Your children aren't going to be able to avoid it. Society is trying wholesale to avoid it. They're trying to live in a completely fictional world, but it doesn't work. It can't work. A leopard can't change his spots. The world that we're going into, your children need to be positioned for, which means you need to chasten them into an understanding of reality. But let's take this then into the spiritual. We talked about all the various places that evil can come from, and the question has come up before, well, pastor, am I being chastened? Is the reason why I'm going through this health crisis or this emotional crisis some measure of chastening? And I say this, well, search your heart. Pray that prayer from Psalm 139, 23, and 24. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. See if there be any wicked way in me. Lead me in the way everlasting. Ask the Lord to impress upon your heart the things that are wrong with you and him. And if they're there, repent of them, change them, get right with them. Does the circumstance go away? If not, well then it's not chastening. It may be a consequence for something in your past that you're just going to have to deal with. It may be a trial or temptation, either a temporary one or like with Paul's thorn in the flesh, one that God is going to leave there because His grace is sufficient for us and His strength is made perfect in weakness. Or it may be that it's just the unfortunate circumstances of a sin-sick world. But we can know Because chastening is unto repentance. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten, be zealous therefore, and repent. Paul said to the church of Laodicea, why? Why? He connected chastening to repentance. Rebuke to repentance. If you rebuke at your chastening, if you're rebuked and you're chastened and you repent, then I don't have to rebuke or chasten you anymore. How are you doing today? Have you been despising a measure of chastening when you should be delighting, thanking God, and then repenting? And you know, that doesn't mean that you're gonna be right the first time. And so you're gonna fail again and God's gonna chasten you again. And he's gonna do that again and again and again because he loves you. As with each one of these commands, most of these commands are a little bit more proactive, right? Mercy and truth and trusting in the Lord and whatnot. This one in Proverbs 3 verses 11 and 12 is a slightly different, but no less important, as a measure by which to regard and honor the Lord. My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, neither be weary of his correction. Because remember this, whom the Lord loveth he chastens, just as a father the son in whom he is well pleased. If you're going through a measure of chastening today, you know the solution. As we all, and will continue to go through this degree of chastening in our lives, let us be careful that we are not despising it, we are not rejecting it. It is God's safety measures put into the lives of His children in order to protect us and preserve us. Let it not be a point of weariness and contention with us. Let it be a point of improvement and a true recognition of just how much your Father loves you. Let's close in prayer. Father, I pray for God's people. I ask that you would help us not to despise the chastening hand of the Lord. Help us not to be weary when you correct us. Help us to see it as your love. Help us to work all the more to align. May you be honored with our response this morning, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.