Good to see you all. Glad to be here this beautiful Lord's Day. On this October morning, what a blessing. What a blessing to have God's Word. Let's go to him to ask him to bless our time now and then we'll. We'll look at the scriptures. Father, we love you and bow to you now with grateful hearts that you are our father and you always deal with us as a father in love. Thank you for giving us your word. Thank you for your nearness and your presence. We call upon you now. to draw near by your spirit in and through the teaching of your word, that you would reach hearts, that you would minister much-needed grace today. Give me grace, Lord, give me wisdom, the love of Christ in my heart, the grace to be truthful, and may Christ be glorified. In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen. So Hebrews 12, we're journeying on in this great epistle. Hebrews 12, today's focus will be on chapter 12, verses three through 11. So a little bit larger of a swath of scripture here, but I believe it's one cohesive thought. that the author's laying out. And so, let's read it together here. Hebrews 12, three through 11. The author continues and says, consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or faint hearted. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 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 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." Amen. It's the word of the Lord to us today. Now He had just exhorted us, the author of Hebrews that is, to look to Jesus. Look to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of your faith. Or you could say the author and finisher of your faith. Look to Him who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Keep that truth always in the forefront of your mind and of your heart. And earlier, you know, in chapter three, he had told us also to consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him. He was faithful to God in all things and all that he did. And he was faithful over the house. So if we're gonna be saved completely by Christ, our need is to constantly to be looking to Him, to be listening to Him, to be obedient to Him, anchored to Him, considering Him. You see how central He is in the Christian life. He's everything. Jesus is the author and perfecter of your faith. He is the finisher. Not you. He is. If you're going to finish, it's gonna be because of Him and His work in you. This is the message to us. This is the truth coming through. In our own strength, in our own striving, in our own willpower, whatever, we're going to grow weary and faint. I think that's a lot of what the men's retreat was about. Weakness. Weakness, human weakness, but the strong one is Christ. And we're seeing the same truth here. He's the finisher. And he gives grace and strength to finish. The Apostle Paul, even as he started off his letter to the Romans, talked about, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God to salvation for all who believe. And he goes on to say that salvation, this salvation is from faith to faith. From faith for faith, it starts and ends with faith. You see, our salvation is the fight of faith. Seems like a book's been written about that. It's a fight of faith, not willpower and human ingenuity and strength and all of it, it's about faith. So it starts and ends with faith. That's what all of chapter 11 was about, wasn't it? But our faith has an object. And it's Him, Jesus. And we're to consider Him. Now, this word consider, interestingly, the English translations grapple at times with Greek words to get the concept out to us readers who only know English. But this word consider in verse three, chapter 12, it's the only time this word's used in the New Testament. And it's the word It has got the word analog in it, so that helps me pronounce it. Analogizomai, analogizomai. It kind of gives you the idea of something of an analog or analogous. And so this, you know, chapter three, when it used the word consider, it was a little different. It was more along the lines straight out, consider, consider the apostle and high priest who is faithful as a son and who is the owner of the house. And then now here he's speaking of something a little different. It's more of Jesus as your sympathizing, faithful companion who has actually endured hard things. He's endured hard things, right? That's what the scriptures show us. He, of all people, has endured the hardest of all things. So He's your companion when it comes to endurance and enduring through hard things in life, hard trials. He's with you. We're to consider Him in that way. We're to think of Him and look to Him in that way. This patient endurance against these hostilities against Himself. Don't forget that. that this is who he is. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with much grief, wasn't he? And this is God's means of preserving us from being weary and fainting. And that doesn't mean just getting sleepy and like, oh, I fainted. No, it means you don't make it. It means you basically, I'm not gonna call it a euphemism, but it almost is for apostasy. So this is God's means, this is what he says right here. This is God's means, this is God's way of giving you both courage and patience that gives you that endurance. It's considering Jesus in this way. He faced the worst, the most cruel, the most malicious attacks from the enemy, so to speak. He faced it all. It was, you know what sadism is? S-A-D-I-S-I-M, sadism. It's like this cruelty that's enjoyed to be cruel for cruelty's sake. You know, he faced sadistic cruelty, endured it for you and me. And this is the same enemy, though, that the author's saying, you're gonna have to consider him, because we got the same enemy. And weariness and faithlessness or faintheartedness in the spiritual journey are deadly. They are deadly. And Jesus said wonderful things in his I am statements to us. He would say things like, I am the bread of life. That means we're gonna need nourishment, we're gonna need strengthening. I am the way, I am the light of the world. So we need to consider him. And he endured these hostilities from sinners and he's the way, the truth, the light, he's the encourager, the strengthener, the one who empowers us. So he moves into this truth now in verse four, because this is a progressive thought. He's taking this, what may have been a young house church, maybe not a lot of people, trying to encourage them not to turn away, remember? So now he says, in your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. So they had already been through some things, we saw that. They had been through some pretty hard stuff. They had faced mockings and ridicules and struggles and sufferings of different kinds, even imprisonments, confiscation of their property. And he said, you did it joyfully. Now, could you get your property confiscated joyfully? So they had actually endured some of that. And now it appears that the author is, he's alluding to something that is coming. For the first century church, and throughout church history, even up until this day, some of these things happen. And it's blood. It's blood. You've not yet endured, or you've not yet struggled against sin to the point of resisting and shedding your blood. I think it's coming. It's coming. And they need to be ready for it. And that's the truth for any of us. I know it's the extreme, but it's the truth. And we know it happens. We're watching this in our family devotional, this Eleanor Young videos that HeartCry has put out. It's fabulous. But there are some faithful men, no one knows their names. Let's just call them Phil and Sam, these men were, y'all are laughing, what were their names? You don't remember? Did I get it right? Anyway, these men who went before Eleanor, they went to the same place she went to and they were filled with arrows. Hundreds of arrows, because one guy got shot up with arrows and actually survived the attack, got home, got better, and went back to the same place. And the tribal people were so scared of that guy that they didn't shoot him with a few arrows. They loaded him down with hundreds of arrows to ensure he died. See, this happens. This was not that long ago. And what he's trying to do is encourage them. And we're to be prepared for a severe fight. A severe fight. And we're to arm ourselves with the whole armor of God, right? That's what the apostle says in Ephesians 6. That we may be able to stand. To stand. And it's, as Owen say, it's a dishonor to go down or fall in the cause of Christ and the gospel under lesser sufferings. Because didn't he say there were others that had less light than you? They didn't have the greater thing, the promise. And yet they got sawn in half and lived in the woods and all this stuff. So for you to go down with lesser things is a dishonor. It's a rebuke. Others died not having received the better thing. And the great enemy, The enemy himself, I said, was the same enemy. The enemy is named here, and it's sin. The enemy's name is sin. Sin. And it's sin in other people who are the attackers, the persecutors. It's sin from the spiritual forces of evil. Call it demons, whatever, principalities of darkness. Sin there on its attack, and then it's sin from within. The indwelling sin he had talked about. You better lay aside the things that so heavily weigh you down and the sin that so easily besets you. So sin's the enemy. And we have a worthy cause and honorable task to be at battle with and at war against sin. And everyone in this room who names the name of Christ is in that war. So why is it so important And what's at stake? It's our souls. Our souls. I don't think sin just wants America. It wants your soul. And that's what's being fought for. And sin will spare no pains or hazards to win them. It's, I think the word slimy, grimy, some of that was used about the enemy in our men's retreat. Crafty, subtle, some of it's overt, but it'll spare no pains, no means. And that's why, you know, the internal sins, the Apostle Peter would say very directly, I urge you as sojourners and exiles in this world to abstain from passions of the flesh, which do what? wage war against your soul. See, your soul is what's at stake, your soul. What did Jesus say about how valuable your soul is? What is a man gained who gains a whole world but loses his soul? So your soul's at stake, and God's word gives us all the ammunition we need, and protections, and instructions, and that we need to arm ourselves and be prepared. Owen says, we cannot deceive ourselves and hope to preserve our faith in times of trial without the utmost watchful diligence against the assaults and impressions of sin. So the assaults, those outward attacks, they're coming, the fiery flaming arrows, but then there's the internal stuff. You have this impression, inclination, or a desire Those are attacks too, and equally as deadly. And we can't deceive ourselves, because he goes on to say, we shall be surprised, we shall be wounded, and at last destroyed by our enemy. Don't you hate those surprise attacks? I mean, it's that serious. And that's what we're talking about here in Hebrews 12. And then now, now look what he does when he moves into chapter 12, verse five, five and six. He's gonna quote the Proverbs. He quotes Proverbs 3, verses 11 and 12 right here. And what we have is in the following verses, seven through 11, is he's a Bible expositor. He's expositing and expounding on Proverbs 3, which is awesome. You get a firsthand experience of an inspired, divine, Bible expositor from the Scriptures on display. So we're getting that right now in Proverbs 3, because he quotes it saying, you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? That's more of a direct statement. It's put in question form in the ESV, but it's like a rhetorical, you know the answer. You have forgotten. You forgot Proverbs 3. Isn't that amazing? When you read your Proverbs, do you view them as that important? You forgot Proverbs 3, 11 and 12. That's what he's saying to the Hebrew audience. And notice again, he's saying the Proverbs are the same thing as God speaking to and exhorting his children. That's what Proverbs is. It's God speaking to you as his children. The Scriptures speak, they're God's words to us, they're the voice of the Lord Himself to us. So we ought to read the Proverbs that way, shouldn't we? And cherish them that way. Man, I need to hear from God. You don't ever want to say, like, oh, I wish God would just speak to me. If I could just get a word from God, God, just speak, just tell me something, anything. When you have it, look right here. This is him really speaking to his children. So the reason we're so often ready to fall or faint is because we've not paid close enough attention to the directions and the exhortations, the warnings in the word of God. It's like, did you forget what Proverbs say about this and this and this? You have forgotten. That's why you're living like this. And that's why you're also in trouble or potentially in trouble. Oh, and again, he said, it's the height of pride and ingratitude to not comply with God's entreaties. Think of that. He didn't say it's just prideful. It's the height of pride and ingratitude to not comply with Proverbs 3, 11 and 12. And that's what we need to be asking ourselves. It's like, you know, getting defeated in a battle while being so loaded and equipped with protective equipment and mighty shields and weapons. You're going down with all these weapons and shieldings. I thought of maybe a helpful illustration. Imagine you're a jet fighter. You're gonna be trained to be a fighter jet pilot, okay? We can all imagine this, picture this, as far-fetched as that might seem. And your training instructor, your flight instructor said, now you see this button right here? You know what this does? When you push this, it's going to send off these flares behind you. So when an enemy fighter is shooting missiles at you, it's going to throw out all these flares, and the missiles hit those, and not you. Don't forget about this button. Don't forget. That's the exhortation, that's the teaching. And you get in this, all of a sudden, in a skirmish or a fight. Enemy jet comes up, they're behind you, beep, beep, beep. Your alarm's going off and you're trying to do all you can. I can't get away. And the missile hits you. And you could never use the excuse, well, I forgot. I forgot about that button. Because what's gonna happen? You're gonna go down regardless. You die. This is a sinful forgetfulness, and it has dangerous consequences. That's what he's saying, you forgot Proverbs 3. And the warning is to not despise this disciplinary action from God towards us or to faint under the strain of it. He corrects, he chastises and disciplines, and this is different than punishment. I know there's a fine line between punishment and discipline or chastisement, but if I could draw that line, I would say that punishment comes from a love of justice in the law, not from a love of the person. Chastisement comes from a love to the person. That's the difference. Yes, it's upset with the sin, does not like that sin, but it's gonna address it, but out of love. That's chastisement. That's the discipline we're talking about. And God does chastise us. God will be honored as your father. If he's your father, there's the question. If he's your father, he will be honored as your father, and he will deal with you as children. One way or another, he will be. And here's a fundamental fact in life. This may step on toes, I'm gonna step on my own toes. An undisciplined child is very unpleasant to be around. Can I get some of these? And I know that by experience. I know that there were occasions and have been in times where my child's not very pleasant to be around with our guests or company, and that's on me. That's because they've had a lack of discipline. And I acknowledge that, but this is a fact. This is a fundamental fact. An undisciplined child's very unpleasant to be around. Even worse, they can do great damage, and they can bring shame to their mother. That ought to hit a man in the heart, shouldn't it? They can do worse than that. They can hurt or kill people. They can do great damage in society and all of this. And the Proverbs say, also the rod of correction is to spare the child from what? Sheol, this realm of death. You know, the Proverbs 23, 13 and 14, we know probably by heart, says, do not withhold discipline from a child. If you strike him with a rod, he will not die. Now you know what the reverse implication is? You know what will cause him to die? If you don't discipline him. See, if you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol. That's the proverbial principle at hand. Now, this is God speaking to us as parents in this proverb. Do you not think that He will abide by His same exhortations to us? He will, and He does for His children. Psalm 94, 12 says, blessed is the man whom you discipline. Blessed, O Lord, in whom you teach out of your law. This is a blessed person whom God disciplines. You're actually blessed from this discipline. This is the only way to true blessing or true happiness from God. You're experiencing God's love for you in the discipline. That's what he's telling us. I mean, some of you, are you struggling with assurance perhaps? Need assurance? This is a big way to find it, I believe. Are you under this discipline, this heavenly chastisement? Because this is the companion of all those who are on their way to heaven. This heavenly chastisement, this discipline from God. Some of these pressures are different things, or trials, or challenges. These things are our companion by God on the way to heaven, and only those on the way to heaven receive it. Because the psalmist and others can ask, why do the wicked prosper? It seems like they just have it easy. Things go so great with them at times and all this. How is that? Well, they're not receiving discipline. And we need this correction and discipline from the Lord, every bit of it. This will be a reality for all of those that God accepts as His children. We need this teaching, this education, this conformity, these hard lessons. Because He's going to shape us into the ways of His family. And He's going to work in us. Now, I want us to notice the warning is against two things, and these two things would be two sinful responses that could lead to the fainting that's warned against, or backsliding, or even worse, this danger of falling away from God. Two sinful responses are drawn to our attention. He says, one, to not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, and two, to not be weary when reproved by him. Now these are two sides of the same coin, but they're opposite ends, or opposite responses. So I want to talk about this for a minute. Number one, do not regard lightly. Now basically this means to esteem lightly, or think little of. In the Old Testament, in the Hebrew, if you read in the Proverbs, the word means to reject or despise, or refuse. Now, if the Lord brings a disciplinary word, or events, or trial into your life, to have this attitude is on the way down. Like, it's bad. I mean, you think, oh, it's a light thing. It's not that big a deal. It's something to blow off. I don't really need to pay attention. Or like water off a duck's back, right? You get the idea. This indicates something that you really don't care about. You actually despise it. And when I say not caring, it's not because you're apathetic or just disinterested. No, it goes to the heart. It speaks to the fact that you're not caring. It's a not caring that's rooted in a distaste or a disgust or contempt. And what this looks like is someone simply disregarding the discipline. Not giving it another thought, right? It's like just throwing something away, in one ear, out the other. Now this kind of discipline usually comes when the discipline comes in the form of a verbal or spoken something from God. Like a parent trying to talk to their children. I'm trying to talk to you, listen. And you ever have some kids that get so stubborn, they're like, Like, I'm not gonna listen to that. This is the idea. When all they're trying to do is speak to you, they're not spanking you yet. They're trying to talk to you. And this can come in the form of teaching or preaching. This can be a form of discipline in God's life. And you're just like, in one ear, out the other. You've committed this wrong, regarded it lightly. Okay, that's problem number one. Problem number two is do not be weary. Do not be weary. It's the other side. It's the equal danger. It's the other end of the spectrum. This means to grow discouraged or depressed under God's discipline. It's a heart, an attitude of despair, losing heart. Your heart just shrivels towards God, or truth, or His people, or hardens. So what could this look like? Because of the hard trial or season in life, maybe, or because of the great disappointment or the shattered dream, or the failed expectations, the unexpected turn of events, you know, things turn hard, or the constant difficulties, or afflictions. What you do in this problem is you basically give up and quit trusting God. You fall into despair, depression, discouragement, and you quit trusting God. You grow tired of it. You don't want to strive or press on. And what's the key word here in this passage? It's endure. You're ready to quit. You don't wanna keep going on. You may have this sickening dread come over you, the thought of hearing from God again, or preaching, or going through something else, or something like that. You see, holding on to your confession as a Christian becomes a wearisome thing. And letting go seems to become more and more appealing. This is the other side of the fence. So you can regard lightly or you can do this, fall into all this discouragement and depression stuff. When all that's going on is God disciplining. Proverbs 3 goes on to explain, for the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives. Isn't that amazing? God's saying to us that His discipline comes to us because He loves us. God's love and God's chastening are inseparable. It's like if His love's coming towards you, you're like, yay, His discipline's also coming right behind it. That's a fact. You see, He's treating you as sons, not like sons, as sons. He really is your Father, and you really are His son or daughter. And He's gonna treat you like that. And faith lays hold of this and realizes that God does all that He does towards me because He loves me. He loves me. Love precedes all of this discipline. It's conforming me to the image of Christ. And this is the reason we're to consider Christ. Or consider Jesus, to run our race looking to Him, and considering Him and what He went through, what He endured. And He says, it is for discipline that you have to endure. Isn't that quite a statement? I think the Christian standard got it in a way where I at least grasped the concept a little better. And it says, it is that you have to endure suffering as discipline. So are we enduring suffering as discipline? That's the question, because that's what it is. Those whom the Lord, this priest king risen in heaven, those whom he intercedes for and bled for, they will be getting the fatherly discipline from God, every one of them. The pagan, the unbeliever, the idolater, the false convert, those in love with the world, the enemies of the cross, those at enmity with God, do not have this blessing of discipline upon their lives. That word chastise, it's a very strong word. Maybe a little stronger than our English word chastise. It carries the notion of being scourged. Scourged. These are heavy, painful blows. A scourge. This is somewhat above the ordinary, so to speak. This is God's way. And by faith in Christ, we are God's children. We are adopted into the family. And you're as much His child as Christ is, by faith. We're in the family and he's our father and we have peace with him and are reconciled to him, but he's not passive towards us. If we're his children, he loves us and protects us. He's saving us from death. So often this comes in the form of discipline. It's as a father, not as a judge. Right, not as an enemy, it's coming as a father. All forms of this come, all these things. So when God disciplines us as children, this is one of the most clear signs or evidences you're his. It should help our assurance. This is one aspect of what you could call experiencing the presence of God. We often, we want that, and that's real. And so often we think an encounter or experience with the presence of God will bring some warm or euphoric or moving sensation or emotion of the heart, and this is just so wonderful, and that's one piece of it. But have you considered this reality? On this other hand, His reproof, His discipline, or even His scourgings, hard things, it's also a clear sign of His love for you and His nearness to you, His presence with you. You're experiencing the Lord's discipline and you're experiencing the presence of God in your life and His love for you. Now, isn't that how one of the hardest lessons a child has to learn? Like, son, I'm doing this because I love you. They think, it hurts, how could you love me? But is this not the truth? This is what we're experiencing. A child knows his father loves him when he hugs him, sweeps him up, kisses him, and he feels that. But he equally feels it when he's receiving the discipline. It is equal love to do both of these. And that's the hardest thing as a father to learn, honestly. Man, I don't wanna do that. But we got to, why? Because we love them. So these heavy blows are absolutely necessary for our endurance in this race. They gotta happen. The Psalm 118, verse 18 says, the Lord has disciplined me severely, but, Now, you gotta love this, but he has not given me over to death. Now, let me ask you, which one do you prefer? Do you wanna be treated as God's child and disciplined by God's child, no matter what that looks like or how that feels? Or do you wanna be delivered over to death? Now, that's the thing. He does not want you to die if he's bringing these things. Verse eight makes it clear that if you're without this discipline, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Meaning you are not children of God, but children of who? You know, in John eight, Jesus talked about this openly. with some of the religious leaders saying, God is my father. And he said, no, he isn't. Basically, if God were your father, you'd love me. If Abraham were your father, you would be doing the things he did, but your father is the devil. So not all people are children of God, that's a fact. And there are parables about this, you know, the sower sowed the good seed and the enemy came at night and sowed his seed in the same land. So these are the people who are in fact given over to death. And that's a dreadful thought to a true believer. The reverse implication that, wait a minute, he doesn't love those whom he doesn't discipline, hands them over to death, they're not children. That's a dreadful thought to a real child. Now, he doesn't love them in I don't know what sense, but maybe in the sense that he just doesn't discipline and bring them to heaven. He may love them in a sense otherwise, where he gives them air and rain and food and all that. But this is the reality, and he's moving somewhere on in this truth, in this exposition of Proverbs 3 right here. It's for your life and salvation. See, every parent wants their child to live and see good days, every one of them, and that includes God. And every decent parent, that's what the second half of verse seven's saying. Like, what son is there whom his father does not discipline? And he's talking about a decent father, a normal father, not some derelict, abusive, awful, pagan, evil father. He's talking about the normal, decent father. They love their children and want to discipline them, and they do the best they can because they love them. And since I'm a father myself, I've always found verses nine and 10 very helpful because I know that I fall short in ways as a father, but God doesn't. See, that's the point of these verses. It's another argument that's shown from the lesser us measly fathers to the great father of spirits. There's a comparison. Our earthly fathers or parents did the best they could or what as seemed best to them. Now, that's what I find so helpful as a parent. God knows you can only do what seems best to you. He knows that. He knows you can only do your best to discipline and train up your children, and that's all he expects. He knows your judgments and your parental discretions are imperfect, flawed, limited, right? There's an element of uncertainty in all human training and discipline. There just is. This is what this verse is showing us, that we as parents so often feel like we have failed our children. And no doubt we have it to some degree. And maybe some of the hard things or disciplines from God in life will now come as a result of that. But, however, we should still see that as God's love in our lives. that we're grieved by this, we're bothered by this. It's so easy to either go one way or the other on those two opposite routes, right? And usually this one's discouragement-depression route. And I'm so down because I've blown it with my kids, or maybe I've blown it with just one of them. Right, and they're evil, or they're no longer in church, or they're in jail, or they're this or that, and they're no longer walking with the Lord, or they're not living in a way that honors us or the Lord, and I'm grieved. Or they're on the streets, who knows? But I believe God's word to us right here today is you can do one of three things. It's like you've come to a three-way fork in the road. Maybe right now. And you can, number one, you can turn left and despise the discipline of the Lord, okay? You can veer to the right, number two, and you can sink under weariness, lose heart, fall into depression and cave and buckle and grow hard-hearted. Or number three, you can go straight forward, keep going, press on in faith, And perhaps let this scourge of God draw you closer to Christ and press on. That's all you can do. And the author's arguments, he expounds this proverb, is that if our view of decent fathers was, hey, I respect my dad for doing the best he could, right? How much more should we respect the father of like God for doing what he does? He operates in perfect wisdom. This is a sharp contrast between him and human parents. And the subject to, that's the big idea. When the furnace of affliction comes, or the discipline, or the chastisement from God, will you be humbly submissive to Him, subject to Him, trusting Him? Because what He's telling us is that we are to share His holiness. What an inheritance, that's what you're getting in on. Belonging to the kids or not, failed here or there or not, done this or not, he's gonna now bring the scourge or bring the pressure, bring the heat, the disciplines to continue on by grace that you share his holiness and you make it to heaven. So is it worth it? The author is saying it is. If it's blood ahead, it's worth it. If whatever, it's worth it. So the final thing I want to address in the last two minutes, give me two minutes here, because it may be the question on your heart or mine right now, and it's this. How do I know some of these hard things or trials or challenges are in fact the discipline of the Lord for me? And I'm not just being handed over, like the Proverbs say, the way of the transgressor is hard. So how do I know I'm not just one of those transgressors finding it hard in life and will eventually end up in hell? How do I know? And I think verse 11 is the answer. He says, for the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant. Rather, but later, but later, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Do you hear the answer? All discipline of its nature is painful, all of it. Yes, it hurts, and there are various degrees of suffering, trials, challenges, pressures, situations that are just awful or hard, but look at what it yields. What does it yield? What's it producing? Because in due time, God's sovereignly at work producing something. In due time, it will always bring forth this peaceful fruit of righteousness. Our Lord tells us, you'll know the tree by its fruit, remember? This peaceful fruit. As I understand it, this means you've come through this discipline from God. And in a way, it proves you're a child when your heart and attitude have changed for the better. And some of these graces and fruits, maybe not all of them at once, but they start cropping up. Oh, I'm finding myself more patient. with people that struggle with this, or I'm growing in godliness, or love for God has increased, or I have a deeper, more abiding peace now than I had before, or I'm more of a peacemaker than I used to be. You see, I have more joy now. I'm more tender-hearted and kind. I'm more gentle with those who are struggling with the same sins that I do or used to. See these key words? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness. Are these fruits cropping up out of the pressures, the disciplines, the struggles, the disappointments, the heartaches, all this self-control? I didn't realize I had that kind of self-control to not say what I really wanted to say. Or, you know, you see how this works? That's evidence it's really God disciplining your life. You're being trained in this way because God loves you. Now, he moves next into the evidence you're not, and that's that root of bitterness. All these pressures, all these challenges, all this affliction, all this disappointment, all this and that that's just bad. It's making me bitter, hard-hearted, angry. I'm lashing out more, I'm all this more, I'm that more. That's the aggressive side, and there's a flip side of that coin, and it's this just wanting to drift away, withdraw, sink into depression. I'm done, that kind of attitude. If any of these things are happening, today's word from us is that we need to repent. You need to repent and cry out to God to help you and give you grace to endure suffering as discipline. Okay, so this author and Bible exposer just blessed us with something beautiful. So let's receive it. I mean, he brilliantly went through these verses 11 through, or seven through 11, the necessity of a father's discipline, the appropriate response on our part, and then the benefits he laid out, we're gonna share in his holiness. Father, bless this word of your people now. We look to you to do your good work in us. For your glory, may we leave here loving Christ more, trusting you more. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.