Our scripture reading this evening is Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews 12, wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. Now referring back to all of the saints in chapter 11, that's the cloud of witnesses. 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 sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin, And ye have 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 whom the Father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh, which corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live? For 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. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward, it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore, lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled. lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words, which voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more. For they could not endure that which was commanded, and if so much as a beast touched the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart. And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. But ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven. and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh, for if they escaped not, who refused him that spake on earth, Much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth. But now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken. as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire. " So far we read God's holy word. The text, I should have alerted you to before, but we will read it now again. Verses four through 11. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. I'm sorry, the text starts at verse five. And ye have 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 whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live? For 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. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. " There ends the text for the sermon. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, this book is written to Hebrews, Hebrew Christians who were persecuted because they had left their Old Testament way of worshiping God and they confessed that Jesus is the Messiah. They are persecuted and they are discouraged. And the Holy Spirit takes great pains to encourage the Hebrew Christians to persevere in their faith in Jesus Christ and in their walk of obedience. They have endured reproach and rejection by their own families and their friends. Some of the friends that had confessed Jesus have now given it up, and they no longer go to church. They no longer worship Jesus, but have returned to their old religion. And so the Spirit encourages them in many different ways. In chapter 10 already, They are admonished not to forsake the assembling of themselves together, as the manner of some is. Some have stopped going to church. Don't do that. Keep going to the assembling, to the worship service. They are reminded of the past when, by the grace of God, they had endured persecution even cheerfully. And the writer Reminds them that they can persevere only by the power of faith. And then what follows is chapter 11. All these examples of those who persevered under great distress by faith. They persevered by faith. And now here in chapter 11, in verses one and two, he sets before the saints here, the Old Testament saints and says, they are like a cloud of witnesses. You're running a race and you're entering into the amphitheater, and now all of these Old Testament witnesses are cheering you on. Run the race, run the race that is before you. Look to Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith, and press on in your race. More encouragement follows. Verse four, you are not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin. And he reminds them, this has been the lot of the church, persecution, great trouble in the church because the world hates the church. And many times they have been put to death for the sake of their faith in Jesus Christ. He said, that's the lot of the church and you aren't even there yet. You haven't arrived at that point where you are being put to death. And then you have the text. Verses 5 through 11, he addresses the matter of their attitude. They must have the proper understanding and they must understand that behind all of their suffering is God. God. This is nothing new, he points out. He quotes from Proverbs. 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. That's what God has done all through history. God is in control of your persecution, the writer sets before them. He's the one that's sending the persecution, and God is doing all things well. He's doing this as your father who loves you. I bring this word to you tonight in the hope that it will encourage you as a congregation. You have endured many trials and many sorrows in the last few years and none greater than the tragedy of a few months ago that bring great burdens on you as a congregation. And having been with the council and church visitation not so long ago, it was obvious that the burdens are still great. And discouragement is a very real possibility. We can wonder why the Lord is visiting this congregation with so many troubles and trials, going back years now. Is this the Lord's doing because there's something we're doing wrong, or are we in need of this more than other congregations, and we mustn't think that way. We mustn't think that way, and when people talk that way, then I always say, Did Job need the chastisements more than other people in his day? Was he walking in some great wickedness? And the answer is obvious, no. That's not why the Lord was sending him his afflictions. So we mustn't think that. And yet, why does the Lord bring these heavy burdens upon us? The text answers that. And the text will show us how we ought to respond as well. So let's consider these verses under the theme, admonish to submit to the Lord's chastisement. Admonish to submit to the Lord's chastisement. We'll notice, first of all, the fatherly correction. Secondly, the proper response. And thirdly, the gracious blessing. Chastisement is the Father's correction. Try to understand what chastisement is. God bringing pain and trouble and sorrow into the life of the elect believer. God bringing pain, trouble, and sorrow. But now we must be very, very clear on a major difference between punishment and chastisement. This is so crucial because you understand that the form of punishment and chastisement can look exactly the same. And there are times when God brings a punishment which is exactly the same kind of thing he brings as a chastisement. So we can't look at the nature of the trouble and say, oh, now I understand what this is. What is the difference between punishment and chastisement? Punishment is God acting as judge out of wrath and hatred to destroy his enemies. Punishment is God acting as judge out of hatred to destroy his enemies. That's punishment. Chastisement is God as a father acting out of love for the correction of his children. One is a judge. One is a father. One is acting out of hatred. The other is acting out of love. One seeks to destroy. One seeks to correct and draw closer to Him. Punishment is only on the reprobate. Punishment is never on God's people because Jesus bore the killing wrath of God. He bore our punishment that we deserve. And so the child of God never, never has the punishment of God. I know we can use the phrase, we can use the word rather without thinking punishment, but that's so crucial to understand the difference. The people of God do not receive punishment. The words that are used in the text perhaps will help us understand what chastisement is a little bit more. First of all, it is a rebuke. Verse five speaks of a rebuke, and a rebuke is expressing a negative judgment. It is saying what you are doing is wrong or what you have done is wrong. It is a rebuke. It can be a scourging. You children know what a scourging is. Pilate scourged Jesus. That's terrible. That's painful. God scourges sometimes. Very, very painful. It speaks in the text of sons and of fathers. So that puts it in a certain context, fathers and sons. And then the word chastening. Eight times in these verses, chastening or chastisement is used So that is a crucial word then. What does chastening mean? The root idea of chastening is instructing. Instructing. But it includes the idea of a rebuke or even a scourging. All these words are related to teaching children, teaching children. That's what chastisement is all about. So chastisement then is a form of instruction. It's a form of instruction that gives direction and includes rebuking and even an act which causes pain. Persecution, which the Hebrews were enduring, is definitely an example of that. The Hebrew Christians were suffering, and the text is intended to encourage them in their suffering. It starts out by reminding them, you've forgotten. You've forgotten the word of God from the Old Testament that he always does this with his children. Persecution was a chastening from the Lord. What should we consider chastisement? Well, it's any pain or sorrow or difficulty that God brings into our lives. Perhaps someone has a severe back pain. Is this chastisement? Yes. Now keep in mind, that doesn't mean that you're walking in some terrible sin. It doesn't mean that God is angry with you. But is it chastisement? Yes. Perhaps someone is diagnosed with cancer. Is that a chastisement? Yes. Did you lose your job? Is that a chastisement? Yes. Is there conflict in marriage, trouble there? Is that chastisement? Yes. Perhaps you go on vacation and everything goes wrong. The car breaks down and the place that you want to visit has a fire and then one of the children falls and ends up in the hospital with stitches. Is that a chastisement? Yes. Is there trouble in the congregation? That's chastisement. A child disobeys his parents and is spanked, that's chastisement. Any trouble, any sorrow, any hardship, pain that's brought into our life is from God. And it's not punishment, but it is chastisement. It is. God as our Father is teaching us through all those things for our instruction. We are children, and children require instruction and discipline. There is so much for a child to learn about living, about reading, about understanding, but there's one thing that a child does not have to learn, and that is how to sin, because that is a part of his nature. He's prone to it. Proverbs 22, 15 says, foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child. It's there already. That child, that newborn baby that's brought into the world, foolishness is already there in the heart of the child. and only the rod of correction will drive it far from him." Proverbs 22, 15. So learning for a child is not merely setting before the child a whole bunch of positive things and, well, he'll just automatically go in a positive way. It requires discipline. Without correction, the child will go in the way of iniquity and will perish in his sin. Every child needs chastisement. And even though we as parents do not relish that, we wish we didn't have to do that as we're raising our children, God requires it of us because our children need it. So serious is that matter that Proverbs chapter 13, Verse 24, Proverbs 13 verse 24 says this, he that speareth his rod hateth his son, but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes. Proverbs 13, 24. If God does not care, If he doesn't care about someone, then he can and will often just let that person go farther and farther and farther into his sin until it destroys him. That's the one described in the text. That's a bastard. That's not a son of God. God doesn't care about him. He is the wicked described in Psalm 73, where Asaph is looking at the wicked and they're rich and they're living in pleasure and they have everything that heart could wist, but they're on their way to destruction. God deliberately gives them all of those things without any trouble or sorrows in their life. They're on their way to destruction. but whom He loves, He chastens." So the question is not, does God chastise all His people? The answer to that is obvious. Yes, He does. The question that we struggle with is, why? Why does God chastise? There's no doubt that chastisement is associated with sin. We often associate chastisement with a particular sin. The parent warns, if you hit your brother, I will spank you. The teacher warns, if you cheat on your assignment, I will give you a zero. You'll have to do it over. These are chastisements for particular sins. But is God's chastisement of His people always for a particular sin? So that if you have some trouble or pain or sorrow in your life, you can say, well, okay, that must be because there's a sin over here and I have to find that sin. And the answer is no, God's chastisements are not always for particular sins. When a wise father disciplines his child, He does not simply hit the kid on the head and then walk away and let the child figure out, why did I just get hit? What did I do? What did I say? Is it an hour ago? Is it something I just did? What am I being disciplined for? A wise father will tell him the rod and reproof. explaining why are you being disciplined. That's what a wise father will do. God in heaven is the wisest father, and if he is disciplining one of his children for a particular sin, he will make that person know, this is what I'm disciplining you for. He will make us know. He is wise. Some things are very obvious as God uses authorities to chastise a man who steals, maybe fired from his job. That's obviously a chastisement. The student who rebels against the teacher and receives a detention, that's clearly a chastisement related to a particular sin. One who is addicted to drugs and ruins his body and his mind, this is a chastisement that is connected to the sin. God makes it plain. He connects the sin and the chastisement in such a way that that individual cannot miss the message. But it's very important to keep in mind that if the chastisement is for a particular sin, God will make that individual know this is the reason, this is the sin. Outside observers must be extremely cautious about identifying a chastisement with somebody else's sin. Extremely cautious. We might think we have a clear vision about the sins that a person has been committing, and then the chastisement that comes upon that individual, but we are not God. and we do not know his purposes, and we do not know the heart of the individual. Recall Jesus' reply to his disciples when they pointed to a man that was born blind, and they said, Master, who sinned? His parents or this man? Who sinned that he was born blind? And Jesus said, Neither. Neither one. He is born blind. for the glory of God, and that Jesus would make him able to see again. The disciples immediately concluded, somebody must have sinned here if this man is born blind. And Jesus said, no, you're wrong. If we tell a fellow believer, this is the reason why God has visited this upon you, you know, this is the reason. That may be done sometimes by office bearers who are working with a man and they can see that he's destroying himself with his sin and God is visiting judgments on him and the office bearers very clearly say, do you not see God's judgment? But in other situations, we must be silent. God will convict that believer of the connection between the sin and the chastisement. And keep in mind, if we are wrong, then we are like the friends of Job, who are saying, Job, I know why you're having all your trouble. Let me tell you why you're having all your trouble, and accused him of all kinds of sins, which he had not done. So you see the danger. We don't have to tell someone. God will make that clear. if the chastisement is for a particular sin. But if the chastisement is not for a particular sin, then why the chastisement? And the answer again is because we're all sinful children, every one of us. We are very worldly. We are earthly minded, not heavenly minded. We are prone to every evil. We are rebellious from our birth. Our desires are sinful. Our motives are evil. Our thoughts are corrupt. And then we say, why would the Lord chastise me? God therefore sends general chastisements, not for a particular sin necessarily, though we can. But he sends general chastisements to raise that to our consciousness, that we are sinners, that our whole life is full of iniquity. He reminds us of that. And then the chastisement is sent to draw us out of our casual sinfulness, to draw us out of the world, to draw us closer to God, And we'll talk about this more in the third point, the blessings. But hear the word of God. God chastens every son whom he receives. Everyone. That's his promise. He loves us. What then is the proper response to God's chastisement? That's the second thing we look at tonight. From a negative point of view, there are two responses that we are warned against. And that's right away at the beginning there, quoting from Proverbs. Despise not the chasing of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him." A despising of the chasing of the Lord is to take it too lightly, to ignore it, to murmur against it, and simply keep on going without turning to God. Do not despise it. But the other is that we faint, that we despair, Jesus used the word, and that kind of illustrates what the word means, too, in a physical way. He used it in Matthew chapter 15, verse 32. He called his disciples, Matthew 15, 32, he called his disciples under him and said, I have compassion on the multitude because they continue with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And I will not send them away fasting lest they faint in the way. And you can just, you see the people, they haven't had anything to eat for three days. They're weak. They could fall over. They could faint on the way. But it's used more directly in this very chapter in Hebrews 11, Verse three, consider him that endured such contradiction, consider Jesus now, endured such contradiction of sinners against himself lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. And so that's the word that's used in the text, that you do not faint. The idea is that a person is completely overwhelmed by it. So weak that he cannot go on. Physically, it can be from extreme hunger or from thirst or overexertion. But one gives up in discouragement. What's the use of going on? Psalm 73, Asaph was extremely discouraged. Why do the wicked prosper? And why am I who cleanse my hands every day? Why am I having all these troubles? I'm afflicted every day. And when that happens, the believer then begins to doubt God's wisdom. Why? Why is God doing this? This doesn't seem right to me. Or a believer may even begin to doubt that he is a child of God. Do not faint. Do not faint when you are rebuked of God. So not disregarding it. Not fainting, but there are two words that express how we must respond, and the first is endure, verse seven. It's translated in the King James, if ye endure chastening, but the form could very well be a command, and that's the way I see it too. Endure chastening, endure it. God dealeth with you as with sons. The word is used in verse two that Jesus endured the cross. Now you think of what that means. The word is closely related to patience, and patience is a patient endurance that no matter how heavy the weight is that is put upon you, you do not rebel. You press on, you move on, you go forward in obedience to God. That's endurance. You do not give up. Endure the pain, the trouble, and the sorrow patiently without murmuring. It's captured by 1 Peter 5, verse 6. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God. That hand of God that can press upon us so Tremendously hard. So the first response, positive response, is endure. Endure patiently. The second is submit. Submission is the very opposite of rebellion and disobedience. Submission involves consciously putting yourself under someone else, putting yourself under wives, submit to your husband, children, submit yourselves to your parents. It means you consciously put yourself under them, you love them, you honor them, you obey them, you are faithful to them, that's submitting. submit to the chastening of the Lord, not screaming in protest over the chastisement." I have heard children, and probably most parents have children, that scream when they are chastised. Not a scream because the pain, but because the parent had the audacity of disciplining. And they're furious. They're furious. The child may lash out, may take a swipe at the parent. Definitely will not be changed in his attitude, but will continue to misbehave. He's angry and violent, he's bitter. That's the opposite of submission. That's a picture of what we can be sometimes when the Lord visits us. Over against that, the calling is to submit. to humble oneself as Job did when his wife said, curse God and die. Why are you putting up with this? And he said, shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil? It's the same hand of God that sends good and we rejoice in that. Shall we not also receive properly when he sends evil? Or it's David who is told of his terrible sin and said, yes, I have sinned. Or it's Paul falling to the ground on his way to Damascus. Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? When the Lord chastens, we are to submit. Whatever that may be, whether it's back pain or cancer or marital strife or losing a job or trouble in the church. Our response must be a prayer that we will humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. Not faint, but endure. Not despise, but submit. The text gives us many reasons why we ought to submit. And it all is falling under the reality that God is our Father. And He loves us. That's what lies behind chastisement. That's what we want to do as fathers. When we chastise our children, it's not that we want to destroy them. That's not why chastisement is given. God chastises in love. Everything God does with his people is in love. He chose them eternally in Christ in love. He redeemed them in love. He quickens them in love and he chastises in love. In fact, his love is most on display in chastisement. This is brought out by the comparison in verse nine. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the father of spirits and live? These fathers chastened us. We read. In verse 10, they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure. And that's not the best translation. It isn't that they did it because they enjoyed it. It's not that they were capricious. It's not as if they disciplined at the moment however they felt. That's not the idea. But more literally, and that's why it's difficult to translate, they verily for a few days chastened us as it seemed, as it seemed. Okay, now that needs interpretation, doesn't it? As it seemed. And the idea is, as it seemed right to them at that moment, they chastened us as it seemed right to them. Of course, they were not omniscient. And they did not always have all the knowledge. And sometimes they had wrong knowledge and they were disciplining according to the wisdom that they had at that moment in their life. They may have had even wrong knowledge. They were not perfect even in the manner that they did it or in the amount of discipline as compared to the sin. They did not do it perfectly. Every father here will testify to that. But how different with God. God who always chastises for our profit, for our profit. The all-knowing and all-wise God with perfect judgment every time He disciplines. having the perfect goal set before him. His chastisement is never arbitrary. It's performed out of a good motive and purpose and for our good as a father who loves us. He has in mind, reading verse 10 now, The Father's disciplined us, but He, for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness. Partakers of His holiness. Which is to say that God, through chastisement, is sanctifying us. Sanctifying. Again, we are sinners. He commands elsewhere, be ye holy, for I am holy. And that can only be because God makes us holy. The Spirit definitely uses the means of chastisement to sanctify us. He certainly does. We sing, do we not? Affliction has been for my prophet. Why? That I thy good word might obey. God perfect. in all his judgments, perfect in all his chastisements. And that's part of the gracious blessings then that we need to speak of. And that's the third thing, third point. There is spiritual profit. God corrects us to turn us from a wrong direction in our life. I found very interesting that Paul writes of this in 2 Corinthians 12, where Paul points out this. In chapter seven, or rather, 2 Corinthians 12, verse seven. And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. Paul had been brought to heaven. He had heard things that no one in the world has ever heard. And God gave him something. to keep him from becoming proud. It wasn't that Paul was being a proud man, saying, look at me, I've been to heaven, no one else has ever been there, no. He said, God gave me this to keep me from becoming proud. A thorn in the flesh, something that not a little pricker, a stake that one would drive in with a hammer into his side that Satan was using to buffet him. Truly a scourging. God was giving that to Paul for his good to keep him from falling into the sin of pride. Or James. James chapter one, my brethren counted all joy when ye fall into diverse temptations, that is trials, trials counted a joy. Why? Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. And so it goes on. He tries our faith, he perfects our faith. He makes us spiritually stronger. That's what chastisement does. It draws us closer to God. You understand He's our Father and the whole idea of the covenant is clearly before us here. It's our relationship with God that is being discussed here. We can so easily move away from God, be all involved in the earthly. When we are chastised, then our relationship to God is very much now in focus. And it begins to improve. We turn to the Word of God and we read it carefully and for profit. We become zealous for the preaching. We cannot wait to hear the Word of God. The prayers become warm and meaningful and something that we look forward to talking with God. Not that this happens immediately with a chastisement, of course not. The chastisement can be hard. It's a rebuke sometimes. It is even a scourging, as verse 11 points out. No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous. It's painful. It hurts. But we all know that when we are chastised, we are being drawn closer to God. He is drawing us closer. And that because God is looking for fruit. The end of verse 11 says, Nevertheless afterward, so it's grievous when we're going through it, nevertheless afterward, it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. The peaceable fruit of righteousness. Fruit. Fruit is one of the goals of God's saving us through Jesus Christ. John the Baptist preached, bring forth fruits, meet for repentance, bring forth fruits. Jesus emphasized the importance of fruit in John chapter 15 when he said, I am the vine, ye are the branches, and the branches are to bring forth fruit. They could do that only as they were rooted, as they were united to Jesus Christ by faith. If a branch does not produce fruit, then it is cut off and cast into the fire to be burned. It must produce fruit. And if a branch did produce fruit, then would the husbandman, who is God, Jesus says in that chapter, he would purge the branch, purge it. And that, of course, refers to what every man who knows anything about an orchard or a vineyard, the man would go through and cut away many, many branches, some that were dead, some that were just not fruitful. In order to make the one main line to be extremely fruitful, that purging is done by chastisement. The fruit is righteousness. And we use righteousness in a number of different ways. We can speak of God's attribute of righteousness. We can speak of our righteousness in Christ that is imputed to us. But there's a third way that the Bible uses it, and that is to refer to a godly lifestyle, that is, righteous according to the law of God. That's how Zacharias and Elizabeth were described, righteous, walking in all the commandments of the Lord. Or Job, who is described as upright, righteous, who eschewed evil. The fruit that God desires from us is righteousness, obeying the righteous law of God. That's what Jesus said, too. Obeyed in me, and if you are abiding in me, you will keep my commandments. You will. The peaceable fruit of righteousness. We've talked about fruit, we've talked about righteousness, about the peaceable fruit of righteousness. It's peaceable because it is the life where fellowship with God is enjoyed in peace. As in a family, when children are obedient to their parents, there is peace, there is joy, there is good fellowship around the table. And so it is with the believer's relationship to God. When God's children walk in rebellion, When they stray from God and are attracted to every kind of sin, their life with God becomes not peaceful, but separated and even unpleasant. But when their lives are characterized by righteousness, there is peace and joy and fellowship with God. That is what God's aim is. This is emphatically God's work. It's evident from the fact that the word yields in verse 11 is a word often translated recompense or reward. It is God that gives a recompense, it's God that gives the reward, and that's exactly what he does here. And the Belgic Confession article 24 describes it when he says, God gives us grace to walk in obedience And then when we walk in obedience, He actually crowns His gift with more grace, more grace. And when we walk in obedience in righteousness, He gives us more grace to obey Him all the more. This is God's work because it's for His glory. all of it for His glory. God determined salvation and the covenant. He chose His people in Jesus Christ. He redeemed them through the blood of the Son. By His Spirit, He gives them faith in Jesus. They produce fruit out of that faith. And then by His loving and wise chastening, He strengthens the spiritual life of His people. and they produce more fruit, more fruit. And then there is even greater peace and joy in the covenant. It's all of God. Beloved people of God, hear the admonition. If you are being chastised, then understand that God is dealing with you as his children. There is no son of God that ever goes through this life without chastisement. Everyone whom God loves, he chasteneth, even scourgeth. Do not despair, do not despise, but submit, keeping that in mind, God loves you, and someday, We will understand far more what His plan was. Amen. Let us pray. Father in heaven, we Thy children bow before Thee. Our understanding is very limited. and we have a corrupt nature that is constantly rebelling against thee and thy way. We thank thee for the faith that unites us to Jesus, that we cannot be lost. We thank thee for the understanding that the Spirit gives us as we are instructed from thy word. Increase our understanding, and by the faith that thou hast given, cause us to take hold of this, that we may have hope, that we may have courage, that we may have joy, even in our sorrows and suffering, knowing that Thou dost love us. Hear us in mercy, we pray, for Jesus' sake.