Please take your Bibles and turn to the book of Hebrews. We returned to the book of Hebrews last week. We took a break and preached a special Reformation sermon on the five sullas of the Reformation. I know we have a couple visitors with us. If you weren't here and you want to learn more about what we actually believe, it might be good to listen to that message just from last week. But we do preach through books of the Bible. Even when Pastor Steve preaches, he preaches through, works his way through a book. We believe that there is great benefit in understanding an entire book by the time we complete it, rather than just topical messages on random things that we may want to address. And we've thoroughly enjoyed our time in the book of Hebrews, and we find ourselves in chapter 12, and our text will be really 9 to 11, but it's really the second part of verses 5 to 11, and that's the section that I've entitled, The Loving Discipline of the Father. The Loving Discipline of the Father. The doctrine of the sovereignty of God is great comfort for us, especially when we go through trials and difficulties, and knowing that God is sovereign in all things. And just as we were leaving our house, I received a text that my Uncle Larry has passed away. So thank you all for praying. And we're praying that that gospel presentation indeed took root, and I'll be talking to his wife, Bonnie. My first aunt had passed away and he remarried, and so as soon as we get home today, and hopefully there'll be additional opportunities there. But I wanted to say, well, why couldn't I have got that yesterday? Why couldn't I have got that tomorrow morning when I have time to really process that and adjust to this new truth and now feeling a greater burden for my three cousins? Well, God is sovereign. The Lord reigns. He's in control. His timing is always perfect. All trials and afflictions that occur in your life are for your good. And you have to believe that as a child of God, or you will get bitter towards God. In our retirement home ministries that we've done many years past, so many people that I would meet that are older, they're mad at God. They even grew up in the church, and that's a sad thing. Trials serve to bring you nearer to God, and ultimately He is preparing you for everlasting glory to be with Him. Read a story this week of a young boy that had made a boat and it was floating in the pond and he's just kind of keeping one hand on it and near the shore there. Well, the boat started to drift out towards the middle of the pond and he asked this bigger boy, can you help me get my boat back? Without a word, the older boy takes a rock. He starts throwing it. It looks like he's throwing it right at the boat. And then the little boy became mad. I said, help me get it back, not destroy it. That's what's going through the little boy's head. But soon, he noticed that every stone that was thrown was with precision just beyond the boat. So the ripples, one by one, slowly brought it back to shore. And so too with us. It's every trial that God brings, He allows these circumstances in our life that maybe in the midst of them seem like they're harming us. Maybe in the midst of them seem like, is this really for my good? And we can doubt God. But we may be sure that through the waves of trials, they're intended to bring us nearer to God, to encourage our minds to think on things above and not the things of this earth. Because we are prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it, the hymn writer says. Because we are prone to drift away from Him, the Lord must discipline us and bring these difficulties to draw us back to Him. So, I'm going to read Hebrews 12, verses 5-11, and I just ask you to stand for the reading of God's Word today. I'll begin at verse 4. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood, and you're striving against sin. And you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons. My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him. For those whom the Lord loves, He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives. It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them. Shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time, as seemed best to them. But He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share in His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful. Yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness." Our Father, we pray that you would indeed help us to run this race well. Lord, that we would be those that long to follow you. that we would be those that fix our eyes on Christ so that we might better endure when this discipline and when these difficulties come. Give us understanding, Lord. Thank you that we each have a copy of your inspired scriptures. This is God's breathed word to us. Thank you for the men that bled and died in the preserving of the written Word of God. So Lord, give us understanding. Send your Spirit, we pray in Christ's name. Amen. You may be seated. Well, we spent several months in chapter 11, Hebrews 11. We looked at all those heroes of the faith. It was a blessed study. Really, I kind of nicknamed it an Old Testament survey because we're going back and we're learning about Abel. We're going back, we're learning about Enoch and all of that. primarily in the Pentateuch there, but it was a rich study. And then he says in chapter 1, just by way of context, because this discipline section is very much connected to those first couple of verses, "...since we have so great a cloud of witnesses..." Let us run with endurance. That's the main phrase. And he says it's a race. It's an agony to run in this Christian race. It's a huge endeavor. It's an intense athletic contest. It's the force of the Word. And so he says because it's an intense contest, lay aside anything that would hinder you. Take the coins out of your pocket. Little boys, take the little pet rock out of your pocket. Maybe take off the outer garment. Run, lay aside everything, even legitimate things, and especially the sin that so easily entangles us. And he says, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. And then he says, consider Him. It's like a deep, complex, mathematical calculation. Consider Him. His incarnation. His birth. His sinless life. His dying on the cross. Him being the God-man. Him being the mediator between God and man. All of those things are encompassed with that in v. 3. Consider Him who endured such hostility. And then in verses five to five and six, primarily, we focused on last time, therefore, my son, don't regard lightly the discipline of the Lord. A quote from Proverbs chapter three, as we said, this word discipline occurs, I think it's eight or nine times in this section right here. And it's a word that means literally the rearing and guiding of children towards maturity, but it also involves this training and instruction. And I think our microphone might be giving us troubles again today, but that's God's providence and we'll submit to it, right? So it's a very comprehensive word. It's the whole training. preparing us positively the commands, the admonitions, the instruction, negatively the reproof, the corrective discipline, and the punishment, and we're tempted to forget that. But discipline, we need to realize, and you fathers can attest to this, is not the mark of a severe and heartless father. It's the mark of love. Those whom the Lord loves, He disciplines. I read this last time, C.S. Lewis, God whispers in our pleasures, He speaks in our conscience, but He shouts in our pains, and it is a megaphone to arouse a deaf world. And so the purpose here in verse seven, it is for discipline that you endure. You notice that that was the theme of the first few verses, that you run with endurance. It's discipline that you endure. That's really been the goal of the author of the book of Hebrews, is to persevere. Don't go back to the synagogue, the temptation, the persecution that's intensifying. The Romans hate you for being a Jew, but the Jews hate you for being Christian Jews, and so persecution from within, persecution from without. Wouldn't my life just be so much easier if I just went back to the synagogue? That was a temptation, and so perseverance and endurance is a key theme of this letter. And then this padeia in the original there, the discipline, I'm using the term discipline, instruction, training, trials, afflictions, all interchangeably. So let's look at this under two simple points, the reward of divine discipline, verses 7 to 10a, and then the result, the fruitful result of divine discipline, and that's 10b and 11. And so we'll just work our way through it. The reward of divine discipline is that you have assurance that you indeed are a son of God. You have assurance of your adoption, that you've been adopted into the family of God. It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as sons and daughters, right? Sons and daughters. This word endurance means to stay in place and beyond an expected point of time. And the second half of 7, it's a rhetorical question, for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? Right? Sadly, many in the US, many sons are growing up without fathers. It's a terrible thing. God has allowed Satan to bring some accomplishment in breaking up families so that there's so many who are being raised in single-parent households. You could perhaps remember a time, and you children maybe remember something recently, but remember a time when you were a child and you hurt yourself in some way. Maybe you wrecked your bicycle, skinned your knee, or something like that. I remember when I was five with my friend, three doors up, Joey Katenbrink, riding down this big hill. We lived at the end of a street, and it was a pretty steep hill on our bikes. We'd just gotten bikes. and we both wrecked, and we both needed stitches in our head. But when we wrecked, we're crying out for help. Mom! Dad! Mom! Dad! And so too, when we incur these trials, we cry out to our Father. That's precisely what God says. As I'm coming, you're safe, I'm on my way. And these life wounds that come to us, that cause deep pain, we instinctively cry out to God. And it is then that we hear Him and feel His presence so clearly. It's in the midst of tragic circumstances that we know that God is near. In fact, it's in the midst of severest trials that we have the closest communion with the Lord, because we've removed the obstacles and we are longing for His presence to commune with Him. Our faith becomes more fully real. We experience more assurance than normal. In verse 9, he goes to the next step in his argument. Notice the furthermore there in the NSAB. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us and we respected them." So that's a right response. We respect the fathers to discipline us children. Hopefully you respect your fathers and mothers when they discipline you. But look at the second half of the argument there. We respected them, shall we not much rather, or much more, be subject to the Father of spirits and live? We respect our earthly fathers to a certain point, how much more? our Father in heaven, to submit. And the goal of parental discipline, and I hope this is your goal, fathers and mothers, is not external conformity, but it's heart submission. It's shepherding the heart of the child. And really, this verse, it's an argument from the lesser to the greater, right? We have earthly fathers, we respect them. How much more, right? Our heavenly Father who is in heaven. Sweet, compliant disposition and submission is the goal of parenting through heart transformation. To be subject to, to submit to, is the idea. And Matthew 7, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, if you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him? That's actually Matthew 17, not 7. That's not in the Sermon on the Mount, I don't think. Verse 10 makes it clear that earthly fathers only disciplined for a certain amount of time. Look at the first half. For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them. You see, us earthly fathers, our parenting is temporal, isn't it? It's for a short time. It comes to an end at some point. The goal is to bring boyhood into manhood, and a little girl into womanhood. There's a goal of maturity that's there. But the reality is, is that we, who are not the divine sinless God, can make Poor judgment calls. We can be wrong sometimes. You see, our discipline and training is stained by sin. It's stained by human judgment. Ill-moderate behavior, sometimes unfair. In a word, it's fallible, right? Our parenting is fallible. We've made plenty of mistakes, ask me or my wife, we've made plenty of mistakes in all these years of parenting. It's fallible, but God's purpose in disciplining us is to get more out of the world out of us and more of heaven into us to prepare us for glory. Earthly discipline is temporal and it changes. For example, eventually, the rod of discipline, which is the biblical method of disciplining, especially younger children, gives way to admonishment, right? You don't spank your 19-year-old son. I hope you don't try to do that, right? So the rod gives way to more of a verbal admonishment and instruction, a verbal instruction that would bring glory to God. Earthly fathers are fallible. I remember one time years ago, one of our sons, there was an incident that happened after church, on church grounds, and it was a situation to where we talked to the other parents, we talked to the other person involved, we talked to our son, and it was an all-day thing, several hours after after we got home and everything, after having thoroughly investigated, and we disciplined him. We deemed that he was lying, and we disciplined him. And years later he came to us and said, you know that incident? I just want you to know I really didn't do that. And so we had to seek his forgiveness. Now, I will qualify that that was in a season of this particular son, that he was in a habit of lying and deceit, and so our judgment was maybe swayed by these past behaviors, but it's fallible. It's not going to be perfect. By God's discipline of us, we can resolve. It's always right. It's always perfect. We don't ever have to ever question it. What He does is right. Our Heavenly Father, the text says, disciplines us for our good. Our good. That's a beautiful thing. God alone has full knowledge, intimate love, pure unstained love for us. He has all wisdom in every situation, doesn't He? And He does all things perfect, and so it is for our benefit. London Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon has said this, The heavenly Father's heart is never angry so as to smite us in wrath. It is in pity and gentleness and tenderness that he afflicts his sons and daughters. You in faithfulness has afflicted me. See what a blessed state this is to be brought into, to be made the children of God, and then our prayers to be praying not like serfs and servants, But as children crying, Abba, Father, we can trust that He indeed is our loving Father. And so we have confidence that we are the children of God. We have the privileges of sonship to be in the very family of God. The Spirit Himself, Romans 8, the Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified with Him." Also, we have an inheritance, right? 1 Peter 1, he says that we have an inheritance which is imperishable. There's no expiration date. Don't you hate that when you're really craving something and you go to find it in the back of the refrigerator and it's, man, six months outdated. It's probably still good. Or if it's that dish and it's got that putrid smell where you absolutely know it's so good. This inheritance is imperishable. It is undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you. That word reserved is the idea it's guarded, it's locked, it's secure, it's guarded for you. And so we, as sons and daughters, are called to live up to our royal status as sons and daughters. We are a royal priesthood, Peter says one chapter later, which is terminology speaking of the high priestly work, right? were to show childlike reverence and love and zeal to our Heavenly Father for everything. We must obey and imitate our heavenly Father on earth and love fellow image bearers just as He loves all. To love fellow image bearers, but to also strive to be holy. To strive to be like Him, to strive to be holy just as He is holy, which He'll mention. We're gonna see that in a moment, and then we'll see it in next week's sermon as well. The father who neglects his duty to train and discipline is not doing his job, but God is faithful. D.A. Carson said, there is a certain kind of maturity that can be attained only through the discipline of suffering. Would you agree with that? If you imagine, in your Christian life, whether you've been saved one year, five years, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, When do you learn the lessons that stick the most? It's from the hard times, isn't it? It's not when the wind's at your back and everything's going well and you're getting raises and there's no conflicts and everybody loves you and applauds you and all of that. It's not those times where you're learning the real lessons of the Christian life. It's when difficulty comes. a certain kind of maturity that can only be attained through the discipline of suffering. I hope you believe that. It's a good quote. But then the promise too. 1 Peter 5.10, After you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you. Perfect. It's the idea of complete. It's the idea of mature. Confirm your sonship is solid. Strengthen you to endure, right? And then to establish, to plant both feet down so you're ready and you're not going to be blown over easily. So that's the reward of discipline. Let's look now at the fruitful result of divine discipline and trials, and that's the second half of 10. That's 10b to 11. I'll just read 10 again. For they disciplined us for a short time, it seemed best to them. Notice the but. Here's a contrast. He disciplines us for our good. Why? so that we may share in His holiness. So that we might share in His holiness. All of our suffering and discipline has this purpose and view. It's the end goal. And the second half of 10 and 11 are the benefits of discipline to us. Sinclair Ferguson said, if you do not value holiness, you will not welcome discipline. Right? Let's face it. I mean, we're not eager to just discipline me. Our flesh doesn't really enjoy the discipline. We'll see in a moment that it's sorrowful. It's sad to go through that, right? But the end result is that we share in His holiness. The whole sphere of redemption and salvation is one of holiness. What does holiness mean? It's the idea to be set apart, right? When you go to that office supply store as a minister or a pastor, let's say, and there's 45 desks to choose from, and you go down the second aisle to the fourth one down, and you choose that one, and that desk is then shipped to your study, and that desk is gonna be set apart for what? studying the Word of God and the preparation of pastors. So it was just one of many desks, but it has now been set apart for divine and holy purposes. So too in our salvation. When you've been saved, there's something unique about that. You are set apart for Him, and you are to be holy as He is holy. God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. And we've seen this word turn back to chapter 10. I don't have time to rehash the entire context, but verse 10 of chapter 10, by this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all. By the work of Christ, He has set us apart once and for all. Back to chapter 12, but we'll sneak peek into next week, 12.14. Pursue peace with all men and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord." Very strong statement. Sanctification, think holiness, right? And without holiness, no one will see the Lord. There's no such thing as a carnal Christian. As Christians, we can act carnally, right? We can act fleshly, but there's not three categories. Unbeliever, carnal Christian, and then a true, mature Christian or whatever, I don't know. Some people would actually teach that a carnal Christian is actually a Christian. No, you haven't been set apart! You're not manifesting the fruits that are necessary to be recognized as a true child of God. Listen to what Spurgeon says of how he welcomes discipline. I owe everything to the furnace and to the hammer. I've made no progress in heavenly learning except when I've been whipped by the great schoolmaster. The best piece of furniture in my house has been the cross. So he welcomes it, he sees that. And then another fruitful result is Christlikeness, being conformed into the image of Christ. In chapter 5, in verse 7 of Hebrews, he says, even speaking of Jesus, in the days of his flesh, he offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the one who was able to save him from death. And he was heard because of his piety. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered. And having been made perfect, he became to all those who obey him the source of eternal salvation. We should not be surprised by persecution in this world. We're experiencing some of it, some of our families, and even in this church, in this world, you will have persecution. We shouldn't be shocked by it, right? The world hates us. The world system hates us. How easy it is to set aside a desire for holiness when the things of this life are so smooth and trouble-free in the midst of prosperity and all of those things. How needful then is our Lord in bringing difficulties and trials, the uncomfortable things that our flesh recoils to, that He brings these things to get our attention, to teach us, don't rely on yourself. Apart from me, you can do what? Some things? Nothing! Nothing profitable at least in that John 15 context there. He wants us to look to Him. To seek Him and help. To find help in time of need. Hebrews 4. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." That time of need in the original has the idea of just at the right time. to draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, in the midst of difficulties, that we may receive that mercy and find grace to help at just the right time. It may not come in your timetable, but in God's timetable, it will come at just the right time. Hugh Latimer, one of the Oxford martyrs from the 1550s, under wicked Queen Mary, speaks of sufferings as delicate, delicious sauces that generate taste. And he says this, for like sauces that give flavor to the stomach, so affliction stirs up desire for Christ. So we hunger and thirst after Him that we might feed upon Him. When there is wealth and prosperity, we become slothful and we do not long for Him. But the goodness of God will soon bring the sauce of tribulation. That's why we read Psalm 119, the psalmist there, a beautiful chapter on the Word of God. We certainly could read that for a Scripture reading someday. We've done it before, years and years ago. It's about 22 minutes, but you could do it. Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep Your Word, the psalmist says. Verse 67, later in verse 71, it was good for me to be afflicted that I may learn Your statutes. Our closeness to God and sanctification and holiness become more real for us in the midst of these difficult episodes in our life. J.I. Packer has many great books, one of the best, Knowing God. Hopefully you've all read it. If you haven't, I thoroughly commend it to you. Listen to what he says as he, at the end of this quote, he quotes the verses in our text. In this world, royal children of kings, he's meaning, have to undergo extra training and discipline which other children escape in order to fit them for their high destiny. But it is the same for the children of the king of kings. The clue to understanding all his dealings with them is to remember that throughout their lives, he is training them for what awaits them, and the chiseling them into the image of Christ. Sometimes the chiseling process is painful, and the discipline irksome. But then the Scripture remind us, whom the Lord loves, He chastens. He scourges every son who He receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as sons. No chastening for the present seems to be joyous but grievous nevertheless. Afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness." That takes us to verse 11, this peaceful fruit of righteousness. You see this contrast here. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful but sorrowful yet. Yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness." This idea, seems, means your initial impression, right? It's not joyful, it's sorrowful. It's the idea of pain in the mind or pain in the spirit, a grief that you have, and It's never joyful when you're going through it, but we need to remember that these difficulties that are sorrowful, that are painful, are ultimately temporary, right? Paul, in 2 Corinthians, puts it like this, for momentary light affliction is producing something, an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. You see that? It's producing something in us. It's far beyond any comparison. And so what he says is, look at your affliction with the scales of eternity, right? Look at it through the lens of Scripture. They're temporary. They're preparing you for something, this eternal weight of glory. It's only in bringing these afflictions into comparison with the eternal glory that they begin to dwindle into insignificance to where we can endure them by His grace. And then notice he says here, yet to those who have been trained by it. Now there's a training word. I don't know how many of you have gym memberships. We won't take a show of hands. Or how many of you work out regularly? But this idea of training is actually gumnazo. In the original, just like it sounds, it's where we get the word gymnasium from. It's a place where you train and you undergo discipline. Paul uses it in the pastoral epistles. Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. Gumnazo means to exercise bodily, as described by an athlete in a gym, but figuratively it means to exercise so as to discipline yourself in morality and ethics. Does that make sense? To exercise vigorously in these ways, either with body or the mind. It describes the rigorous, strenuous, self-sacrificing training an athlete would undergo. So you think of the PX90 or the TRX home gym and all of these kinds of things, or boxing or whatever. It hurts when you're doing that for a full hour, right? especially the first couple weeks, but that's the idea. Discipline ourselves for the purpose of godliness. Training in this context, then, it's to persevere in the training in holiness. Those who have been trained by our Heavenly Father, those who have submitted to His training, said, nevertheless, not my will, your will be done. Having learned from that training and that discipline, you've, in a sense, been exercised by a loving, heavenly Father. When you understand the training process, you then bear fruit. And he says here, a peaceable fruit, right? Romans 8, 18, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time, here it is again, the same idea, is not worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed to us. But sometimes this fruit comes about by what? Painful pruning. Did you hear the scripture reading when Joshua read it? That John 15 section there, every branch in me that does not bear fruit is taken away. Every branch that bears fruit is pruned so that what? Will bear more fruit. Pruning involves cutting. Cutting hurts, doesn't it? It hurts, but we must look forward to the harvest that awaits. And then, what is this peaceable fruit of righteousness? This word means to be conducive in a harmonious relationship. This particular word for peaceful is not the normal word for peace that's all over the Scriptures. It only occurs in one other place. And James applies it to wisdom. Wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, harmonious. That's the idea. So, afterwards. By the way, what is that afterwards? Is that like, you know, when you discipline your son, let's say maybe you have some instruction, or your daughter, you know, you're shepherding their heart and all of that. Hopefully in the span of a short time, the discipline is administered, the instruction is given, and the relationship is restored, right? And you move on. Well, sometimes this discipline can last a long time. Certainly from the concept of thinking of difficulties and trials and even physical ailments, afterwards might mean the next day, it might mean in five years, it might mean when you get to glory, right? So it's a very open-ended thing. But we know this, the real sense. I think the psalmist brings this out. Weeping may last the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning. Psalm 30 and verse five. We can be peaceful and settled and calm and knowing that what is in store, what's the end, is what the heavenly Father has for me personally. The NIV actually has this as a harvest of righteousness, which I kind of like that. I'm not a big fan of the NIV, but I'll give a shout out to the NIV there, but I like the terminology of the modern versions as well. Charles Spurgeon one more time. Affliction really does to the Christian, when the time comes, bring forth fruit. This is the object of Christ in sending it. In his sweet prayer for the elect, he prayed that his people might bring forth more fruit. He said, He assured them that every branch of the true vine that brought forth fruit would be purged and pruned that it might bring forth more fruit." So far as the world is concerned, God gets His glory out of us, not for being Christians, but for being fruitful Christians. Aristotle said, the roots of discipline are bitter, but the fruit is sweet. So that which is produced by this training, this gumnazo, this training for holiness and godliness, really comes about where we will actually eventually see Him face-to-face. And the only way you'll see Him face-to-face is if His righteousness has been imputed to you as He died on the cross. So this peaceful fruit of righteousness. We will see Him face-to-face. Beloved, now, it's 1 John 3, 2, Now we are the children of God, and it has not yet appeared as yet what we will be, but we know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. But in this life, we're being chiseled, we're being conformed into the image of Christ. We're being prepared for that day when we will see Him face to face. then we will be less inclined to respond with resentment when this discipline comes. F.F. Bruce said that this provides fertile soil for the cultivation of a righteous life, responding to the will of God positively. Cultivation of a righteous life, submitting to Him and what He brings. Well, a couple points of application as we end. First of all, we have to be resolved to believe Romans 8, 28. Number one, it's Holy Scripture, but sometimes we can be practical atheists when that trial comes. Oh yeah, I know He works everything together for good for most of this stuff, but not that! No, we have to believe, right? We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those that love God and are called according to His purpose. So let us resolve, brethren, instead of recoiling from discipline, difficulties, to receive it as something that's valuable, something that's going to benefit us in our walk, something that's beneficial for us. Your current trials and disciplines are God's loving hands training you and forming you and preparing you for what's to come. No, we really need to have the resolve of one woman I heard that spoke of the cancer tumors in her body as God's little gifts to me. Remember that quote by Fanny Crosby who wrote thousands of hymns, right? Great is thy faithfulness, blessed assurance, all of those. And I didn't fetch the entire quote, but she was asked if this blindness could be taken away. No! This blindness has enabled me to see more of Christ than ever if I had my eyesight. You see that instead of recoiling, receive these things as valuable. Trust God that the benefits of your suffering will surely surpass the pain that you might be going through today. The benefits are gonna surpass that, what you're going through. Elizabeth Prentiss, the wife of a pastor, most of her adult life was in severe pain and an invalid. And after their two sons died, it was the greatest sorrow in her life. And during this time, she cried out to God, asking Him to minister to her broken spirit. It was as a result of that that she penned this hymn, and we've been singing it for well over 100 years as the body of Christ. Once earthly joy I craved, sought peace and rest. Now thee alone I seek, give what is best. This all my prayer shall be, more love, O Christ, to thee. Let sorrow do its work, send grief and pain. Sweet are thy messengers, sweet their refrain, when they can sing with me. More love, O Christ, to thee. Can you embrace suffering like that? Sweet are they messengers. They sing the same refrain. More love, O Christ, to Thee. We're going to sing in a moment. Be still, my soul. It says the Lord is on your side. Bear patiently the cross of grief and pain. Leave to your God an order to provide. In every change, He faithful will remain. Be still, my soul. Your best, your heavenly friend through thorny ways leads to a joyful end. There's a lesson here for parents, I'd be remiss to not, I've sort of been touching on it, but it's sad that so many parents are failing to discipline and instruct their children. We're seeing the fruit of it with this younger generation, aren't we? Fathers, if you love your children, you will discipline them. You have a responsibility before the Lord to build character in them so that they might be able to face a wicked world and make a difference in this world. And some of you here have not had the blessing of discipline because you're not sons, you're outside of Christ, you're not a Christian. You don't know what it's like. God may be sending difficulties into your life, but it's not for the purpose of preparing you for glory, because the only way you can go to glory is if you repent of your sins and you trust in Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for sinners. Every sinner that would cry out to Him to be saved will be saved. He is the only way of salvation. Your good works will only sink you deeper into hell. So if you're outside of Christ, flee to Him today. Confess your sins. He knows them all anyway. He knows what you did last night. He knows what you did in the last month. He knows what you've done your entire life. Confess them to Him, turn from them, and embrace Jesus, and He will save you. Let's pray. Oh Father, help us as a body of believers to be those that submit to difficulties and discipline in our life. But Lord, we pray, as most of us can testify, that to the degree that we have done this, you have made us steadfast, you've increased our faith, You've used us and enabled us to endure. And so, Lord, we pray that You would continue to refine and grow us. We pray, Lord, that You would help us to be concerned about holiness and living a life that's pleasing to You. We thank You so much for the book of Hebrews, and thank You for this time in Your Word. In the precious name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.