Hebrews chapter 12, and this is going to be the second message in a series about when Christians suffer. And about a month ago, we talked about simply being prepared for trials. And that's simply recognizing that trials will come, that they will be part of our lives, even as believers. And being prepared spiritually so that we're prayed up so that we're studied up, we're close to God so that when the trials come, we're able to respond. That's really the purpose of of this whole series of messages is to be able to help us recognize what trials are for. what God's role is in each trial that we face, and then how it is that He wants us to respond. What we can produce or learn or gain from each trial. And so we want to focus on that. Well, this message is about chastening trials. Chastening trials. And we'll talk about what that means and how to recognize those and respond to them in our lives. But most of you probably already have a pretty good idea what it means to be chastened. and what a chastening trial might be. It's kind of simply just the idea of consequences. And all of us from a very young age, we learn what consequences are. In fact, it's probably maybe clearest in the kids' minds what a consequence is. We usually think of that as something that's done by authority to correct us when we do something that we shouldn't. So we're familiar with these ideas. If you're not, I'll give you an example. A kid growing up, until I was about 12 years old, I lived across the street from a middle school yard. And up in Wisconsin, middle school is 4th, 5th, and 6th grade. And many days, if my school was done, by about the time the middle school across the street from me got out then my brothers and I would go across the street in the schoolyard and as kids came out from the schoolyard we would play games of pickup football or other games with the school kids and one kid who almost always played lived across the street from me. His name was Jordy Miller and I remember one day at school I'd gotten out and kids were starting to congregate and pick teams. Jordy just was walking by with his backpack just looking down and seemed like he was heading for home. So I said, Jordy, aren't you going to play football today? I can't forget his response. He didn't look up, but but looking at the ground as he continued to walk, he said, no, I can't play football. My parents have grounded me for the rest of my life. And boy, did I feel bad for Jory. The question that was on my mind was, wow, what did you do? Because it was obvious by his countenance that he wasn't upset about this. He wasn't mad at his parents. He was he was disappointed. He was sad. Whatever the consequences for he had deserved it. So felt bad for Jory. Never saw him again. The best of my knowledge, he might still be grounded at home. Hopefully, he got out early on good behavior. I don't know. But hey, he recognized there was a consequence for some action that he had done. And we recognize that too. There are consequences. And sometimes as believers, we face consequences. If it's helpful, I want to look at a chart. Once again, you'll have it up on the screen that we looked at last time. And this is just an effort to kind of categorize trials. You can't really do it quite as neatly as what you'll have on the screen here. Hopefully, this will be a little bit helpful, even though it's not an end-all. On the beginning level, we have chastening trials. That's what we're going to talk about tonight. That's God correcting the straying believer so that he or she will obey. A level up from that we have what we might call refining trials. And that's God purging that obedient Christian so that he or she will be faithful. And a level up from that is persecution trials. where God wields that faithful believer so that he or she can be Christ-like. And then finally, proving trials. When God tests that Christ-like believer so that he or she can glorify God. And of course, that's our ultimate purpose in life. That's the reason we've been placed here on earth. So that ought to be our goal. That ought to be our focus. That through life, we could glorify God. And if it takes trials, so be it. One purpose of trials are the ultimate purpose as you look toward the top of the ladder here is that we could glorify God through our faithfulness and through our obedience. And then kind of below that is kind of a catch all category and that's what we might call simply natural trials natural effects of living in a sin cursed world. Hey there are some things that will come to you in life that aren't necessarily designed to teach you a lesson. We can probably learn something from every life experience, but sometimes trials aren't because of of God specifically interacting, but they're more simply because of our sin. Maybe not my own sin that I'll face some trials for, but sin in general. And of course, I have a part of that in my sin. But sin in general causes us to have to experience trials. So whether it might be that loved one that dies, we have to recognize that's going to happen in life. It's inevitable. That's a natural trial. Anything down to a small trial when I spill food on my clothes, which I do fairly often, That's not because God is trying to teach me something necessarily, but that's just an effect of sin. Hey, you might get the chicken pox. That's just part of living in a sin-cursed world. That's not necessarily something that we need to overanalyze and dig into to see what we're trying to learn from that. But trials are part of life. Sometimes I think we struggle simply with that concept. Because this series of messages, you'll see specifically when Christians suffer, and that might sometimes seem a little weird to us. If I'm God's child, if He cares about me, if I've been redeemed from sin, why must I continue to suffer and face trials? And even tonight, perhaps many of you are facing significant trials. Some that are very open. Some that maybe only you know about. That is a difficult trial for you. And trials can be one of the biggest stumbling blocks between mankind and God. Between Christians and God. And even between the unsaved and God. Because suffering on this earth can really damage our perspective and blind our eyes to bigger truths. So outside the church, one of the biggest objections to God and to church and to God's Word and something that leads many people to claim to be atheists or agnostic is simply this fact of trials. Why is there suffering? Why is there pain? Why is there death? Why do the innocent seem to suffer? Well, the guilty seem to go free. How could a God who is loving and who is powerful allow these things? And even within the church, some people begin to ask those questions and say, I've tried to serve God, but it seems that trials rather than blessing comes and it's just not worth it. Or people will read God's Word and be confused by things they read. Like, how could God allow cities to be wiped out with innocent men, women, and children? Or, how could God give instructions to Israel to how to treat slaves? That doesn't seem appropriate to us. So, we see that type of suffering and we start to question God. Well, a lot of our questions will be answered or really just thrown out by recognizing one simple thing, and that's the simple thing. I'll form it as a question. If we consider this thought, what do I truly deserve? And what do you truly deserve? Because you see, from God's perspective, biblically, truthfully, what you and I deserve is death. Eternal separation from God in judgment is what I deserve, and it's what you deserve. So every day God allows me to live on this earth as a gift of grace. That child that dies at five, what a tragic thing, and we hate to see that happen. It's again, it's because of sin, but that's five more years than I deserved. And if I got what I deserved, I would have been called to judgment the first time I sinned, or at least the first sin after what we might consider the age of accountability. And so, we have to remember what we truly deserve and recognize that everything we get is not as bad as what we deserve. If we got what we deserved, we would sure wish we hadn't asked. So it's remembering what we deserve, and it's also remembering that, hey, this earthly timetable is nothing compared to eternity. And we see injustices and what we see in our mind as injustices sometimes really is unjust on this earth. But remember, God in eternity will judge every sin and reward every righteous deed. So, if it's all made fair in eternity, things that are allowed to be unfair on this earth, in perspective, really shouldn't be a stumbling block for us. It always will be a point of difficulty, simply because we're human and pain hurts. But try to keep those things in perspective, what we truly deserve, and then God's eternal timetable as opposed to our earthly timetable. By way of chastening trials, we have to recognize one other thing, and maybe you've never considered it in quite this way before, but again, I'll pose this as a question. Does God ever punish Christians? Once you think about that for a few moments, would God punish a believer if you've accepted Christ the Savior? Once again, this message is for four Christians. If you've never accepted Christ the Savior, certainly hope that you'll get that settled today. But really, this message has to do with Christians responding to trials. Has God ever punished a Christian? I would say based on Scripture that he does not. Because if I was punished for my sin, I couldn't bear that. Christ took the punishment on Calvary. He paid the debt. God poured out His wrath on Christ so that when I accepted that by faith, I became one of His children. And now every sin that I have ever committed, every sin I might currently be committing, and every sin I will commit in the future has already been punished. So when I sinned, it's not necessary for God to punish me. And if He did punish me, I couldn't reach heaven. Now, does that mean that God lets us just run willy-nilly and sin to our heart's content if there were such a thing? and live freely on this earth. No, God does correct us. He does chastise us. He does even scourge us and give us a correction that might be painful, but it's not designed as a punishment. A punishment deals out justice. A correction brings one back to the path that God has for them. Let's look at verses 1 and 2 of Hebrews 12. It says, wherefore, seeing also we are compassed about with so great a 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. So the end of verse 12 tells us that we have a race that's set before us. You and I, each one, have a path that God has put in front of our feet, a path for us to follow. That includes things that we ought to do for him. That includes things that he will do for us and provide for us. And that path, that race that God has set before us, is our maximum position of blessing and usefulness. So God has that race for each one of us. He says run it with patience. But what happens to you and to me because we're sinful is that we will stray from that straight and narrow path that God has for us. It's an interesting conflict in the Christian life is that even though the Holy Spirit has come to live within me as a believer, and motivates me to do right, and convicts me against sin, I still have a fallen sin nature. And even though the eternal victory has been won over that sin nature, I, because I'm fallen, will still give in to it. And so God has a straight and narrow path set for me, a race set before me, but every time I choose to sin, I will veer from that path. Now when I veer, God, in love, will correct me. He won't punish me, but He'll correct me to point me back toward that path. And it starts with subtle corrections. It will be something used in a message to speak to you that says, hey, you're going the wrong way. You need to get back on track. It will be something you read in God's Word that says the action you're doing is not what Christians should do, and you need to turn around. It might be a person coming along and saying, hey, I'm concerned about the decisions you're making. But God will start with those subtle things, and as we continue to go down the wrong path, He will give us a correction that involves pain, and that's called chastising. And that correction involves pain not to hurt us, not to make us pay, not to get even with us, but because we've already demonstrated we won't listen if it doesn't hurt not to. And so God corrects us in a painful way for our good because He realizes, as we have demonstrated, that we won't get back on the right path unless it hurts a little bit or a lot not to. And the more stubborn we are and the more set on our sin we are, the more painful that chastisement might have to be to correct us and to get us back on the path that He has for us. Well, with those things in mind, there are a few things I'd like us to notice about chastening trials tonight. Number one is that chastening trials are easy to identify a one of the purposes of this series of messages is just to help us recognize if you're facing a trial. I want you to be able to categorize what type of trial that is because that will help you determine what God is trying to teach you through it and how you are to respond. Chasing trials are very easy to recognize. When Jerry Savinsky the evangelist was here for revival meetings he told a story about how he one time accidentally spanked the wrong child for a sin that someone else had done, and how he had to apologize and make that right. I don't have any stories like that. Every time I got a spank in, I deserved it times two. I got a lot of them. I deserved every one of them, and probably some more. And in the midst of that, each time I was punished, I never got a spanking and then I had to turn to my parent and say, now, what was that for? What did I do to deserve that? No, I always knew very clearly because that's how parents operate. They don't want you to punish you and make you have to guess what it was for. I've heard people tell stories about how they had parents that would just wind the kids all up once a day and spank them on general grounds. I mean, I don't know. If it was a kid like me, I'd have probably done enough that day to deserve it anyway. But that's not how God operates. Sometimes we get so backwards. We have this picture of God like He's up in heaven looking around at Christians going, squish. Smack. Burn. Now, you just try to figure out what that was for. No, of course not. God would never do that. That wouldn't be a useful correction. So why would we ever face a trial and turn toward God and say, oh, God, what was that for? God, what are you trying to punish me for? What have I done to deserve this? Many times Christians respond that way to trials, but that's not how God works. I'll give you a couple of biblical examples. Jonah didn't question, why this storm, Lord? Remember Jonah chapter one, God tells Jonah go to Nineveh, Jonah goes the opposite direction, goes down to Joppa, boards a ship to Tarshish and as they're out at sea, the worst thing you want to see out at sea back in these days when there's no Coast Guard is a storm come up. The storm was so bad the sailors were throwing their livelihood overboard never to see it again in an effort to save their own lives. Joan, you know for all everyone on board. It looked like death. This was a serious trial Jonah didn't turn to God and say God what's this for? What did I do to deserve this storm? No, he recognized immediately and he told the sailors as much this storm is because of me All right It was very clear to him that that chastisement was clearly connected with his sin with his wrongdoing Second example might be David second Samuel in chapter 12 David had sinned with Bathsheba The child that was born as a result of that immorality was taken by the Lord by the most serious chasing that we can imagine that David had to endure. David never questioned in his mind, Lord, what was that for? First, that child wasn't punished. That child got to go directly to God's presence without enduring the trials of this life. But David had serious suffering, but it was connected very clearly with the sin in his life. Now again, that wasn't punishment for David. That was to correct him and get him back on path. I believe that God wasn't doing that to make David suffer just to get even or to make him pay. God recognized that it would take a painful chastisement to help David return to the wrong path because of the nature of fleshly sin that starts to grasp a hold of our hearts and take us away from God faster than we ever thought possible. God knew David needed a severe chastening trial. I believe from that point on, I would have to say if God hadn't chastened David in that way, just based on God's character, probably David would have continued in a line of sin. Because since God interacted, that's what that tells me. Since God interacted in such a severe way. But from that day forward, because of the way God interacted. I believe any time that David was tempted to look with lust or even to consider in his heart the act of immorality the pain of that loss of that chastisement came immediately to his mind and kept him for the rest of his life on the path he ought to go. But for David, it was very clear. It was obviously connected to his sins. So don't charge God foolishly. Don't turn toward God and want to blame Him for every trial in our life. You'll have a verse up on your screen. It's James 1 verse 13. Let no man say when he is tempted, I'm tempted of God. For God can't be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man. So don't want to blame Him first every time bad things happen. There's this problem where people are so quick to take credit for accomplishments and blessings, but then blame God for anything bad that happens. Don't be that way. Don't question every trial and say, now what am I being punished for? No, if we are being chastised, it will be very clear and it will be very evident. So number one, chastening trials are very easy to recognize. Number two, chastening trials are inevitable for the straying believer. Verse 6 says, Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son he receiveth. Every single Christian will experience chastening trials. In fact, if you can sin and stray from the straight and narrow path and continue to do wrong and not be chastened, It might be an indication that you're not a child of God, that you are not saved, because here in verse 6, God scourges every son that he receives, whom the Lord loves, he chastens. So, for those of you who are saved and you're sure of it, be ready, because those chastening trials are inevitable. for the straying believer. Who's the straying believer? Well, it's all of us. Because we continue to sin even after salvation, don't we? The pastor touched a little bit this morning on the total depravity of man. What that doctrine means is that we're totally depraved. We're so depraved that we're bent on sin. We're unable to do anything holy in God's eyes without His help. We've all gone out of the way. We're all unclean. and all our sinners and come short of the glory of God. Total depravity means that we're bent on sin as long as we're on this earth. Now God gives us victory and gives us strength, but it will always be a struggle. Some of you sat under the teaching of Dr. Moritz, Dr. Fred Moritz, and I sat under his teaching in seminary up at Maranatha. And I'll never forget one thing he liked to say is when we talked about sin, he'd say, man, we not only believe in total depravity, we practice it. And he would kind of chuckle when he said that, but with a serious tone because we recognize, hey, I'm if the more mature you are as a believer, it won't be the more holy you look at yourself will be the more critically you look at yourself and see how sinful we really are. Hey, people have been sinning ever since the Garden of Eden for thousands of years in every way imaginable. And I'm still inventing new ways to this day because that's how sinful we are. So that chastening needs to come. What happens? Why would God chasten his children? What happens to a child that's never chastened? That's never corrected? You know what happens with kids? They come into the world as angels, right? And then by age two, from age two to four, they're terrorists. And then from ages 5 to 7, they're monsters. And then by age 8, they're the devil. That's the progression that kids take. Now that angel is still in there, some more than others, but if there's no correction, it's the monster. Those of you who have kids probably have maybe caught a little glimpse of that. Those of you who don't have kids, you've seen it in Walmart, so you already know. You already know. Hey, if there's no correction, monsters flourish. That's what happens. This is a bit of a rabbit trail, but I want to share a verse with you from the not so Old Testament. That's not in your Bible, so you'll have it on the screen. 2 Joel 1, verse 6. But if you be in the market, and thine child shall create a tantrum, straightway leave than card and take the child to the car where he may be chastised fully and return to the market and purchased by good. Amen. So take that to heart. That's not really in the Bible. Some of those principles are, and if it was written today, maybe it would have been put that way. But from now on, rest in that I promise all the verses I share really are in the Bible. Chastening trials are inevitable for the straying believer. Number three, chastening trials are not to be taken lightly. And this is a point that really needs our attention. When it comes to chastening trials, one thing you really need to remember, don't take it lightly. It needs to be taken very seriously. We're told three times, at least in Scripture, not to despise God's chasing. And we're despised was used differently back when the King James was translated than it is today. So it doesn't mean to hate or to strongly dislike. We're despised as used. When it's used in the Old Testament, it's a word that means to reject, to refuse. And in the New Testament, it means just to regard lightly or to care little for. So, for example, in Genesis 25, we're told that Esau despised his birthright. That doesn't mean that he hated it, simply that he didn't value it. He didn't consider it highly as he ought to have. Well, there's three times in Scripture. Number one, Job 517 says, Behold, happy is the man that God correcteth. Therefore, despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty. Very similarly, in Proverbs 3, verse 11, it writes, My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, neither be weary of His correction. Now here in Hebrews 12, verse 5, the author quotes that Old Testament verse and says, Have you 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." So three times in Scripture we're told, don't despise, don't think lightly of God's chastening. There are two ways we can despise God's chastening. Number one, it's the sinner who is straying from God's path. God gives him the subtle corrections. He ignores that. She ignores that. Continues to stray down that wrong path. Continues a habit of sin. And God brings a chastening trial. Now that sin is causing painful, trials, painful correction, and that person continues that sinful habit even in spite of painful correction. That's despising the chastening of the Lord. That's taking it lightly. That's having little regard for God's chastening. Hey, if you're in that position, You better watch out. You better be very careful. Because after the subtle corrections come the painful corrections. And after that is not a place you want to be. We're told in Scripture of a man who was delivered to Satan for the destruction of his flesh because he had failed for so long. to be useful on earth. We're told that the ranches that don't bear fruit are pruned away by the Creator. So, don't despise God's chasing. I don't know what course it might be in someone's life here tonight that they started to take that's following the flesh, that's following sin instead of the straight and narrow path that God has for you. It might be something like a relationship at home. where you started to just kind of withdraw yourself and not fulfill the role that you're supposed to, that you're meant to at home. And you just kind of let some of those responsibilities slide by. And as your family members try to get you to do what you're supposed to do, you just ignore those things. Or it could be more aggressively that you've started to slander in the home or say things that are designed to cause others pain and relationships have started to be broken. Maybe it's between spouses, between a parent and a child, between siblings. That relationship that has started to become fleshly and it's starting to hurt. There's starting to be some painful chastisement where God is causing the brokenness of that relationship to cause that hurting in your heart. But because of the bitterness that's built up, instead of listening to God's chastening, instead of letting that correct you back onto the path He has for you, you regard it lightly. And you're so engulfed in that fleshly sin that you continue to mistreat people in your home. And continue to let that relationship remain broken. Maybe waiting for that other person to apologize or to change. and you despise God's chasing. Maybe it could be fleshly sin or sensual sin where you stopped guarding your eyes the way you should, or stopped guarding your interaction with someone else the way that you ought to, and that fleshly sin has started to take hold. And even though you see that it's causing consequences, that it's hurting relationships, that it's robbing your time, that it's robbing you from the Spirit and quenching Him in your life, That painful trial comes, but that sin has a grip on you and you despise that chastening and continue to sin. That's a very dangerous place to be. I encourage you, if you've started a pattern of sin, don't wait to get back on track. Don't wait to get that right with God. And if you've already gone far enough down a path of sin that it's started to incur some painful trials, some chastening, then that's a wake-up call. That's when you really need to get back on track. Come back to God. There's another way we could despise trials. That might be you're not even that far down the path, but you've just started to sin, or you've just started to become lax in an area, or just started to lower the standards a little bit, or just started to dabble in something that you know you probably shouldn't. And that painful trial hasn't come yet, but you're just kind of disregarding it. You're thinking lightly of it. You're despising God's chastening since you haven't seen it yet. And it seems like that sin really isn't hurting anyone. Don't despise God's chastening. Get on that path that He has for you. And the way the devil tempts you to stray away from that path needs to be corrected. as soon as possible. Hey, I hope you'll settle that tonight if there's something in your life that is drawing you away from that path. Don't despise the chastening of the Lord. They're not to be taken lightly. Number four, chastening trials are a sign of God's love. And this passage is intended to be encouraging. We've kind of seen the negative side of some things, but we have to recognize it is all love. It is God's love that causes Him to chasten us. Do you remember what we read in verse 6? For whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth and scourges every son whom He receiveth." If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons. For what son is He whom the Father chasteneth not? So when we see those painful corrections for sin, we can be thankful for that because that's a sign that God is working in us. That God cares for us. See, the parent who doesn't correct his child or her child doesn't love that child or at least isn't expressing that love the way they ought to because sometimes punishing is difficult. Sometimes correction is difficult. But where there's truly love, there will be correction to keep someone from going down that path that will cause their destruction. And that's wrapped up really with number five, which we'll discuss quickly and be done. Chasing trials are designed to produce obedience. And this is where God's grace really comes to surface in this category of chasing trials. Again, it's not designed for punishment. It's not designed for vengeance. It's not designed To say for God to say you made me look bad now see how bad you look when when you've done wrong. No, it's actually For our obedience and it's for our benefit. Let's look at chapter 12 verses 10 and 11 For they that is earthly parents for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he God for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness. Now, no chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." Hey, if you're in a chastening trial, that doesn't seem to be joyful. That's grievous. But as you look back on the other side of that and see how God used that to get you back on track for where you ought to be, you will take joy in that. You will recognize that's what God needed to do in my heart at the end of verse 11 to help me produce those fruits of righteousness. And I love the way it's put at the end of verse 10. He, for our profits, that we might be partakers of His holiness. The reason God directs us back to that path is because He recognizes that we will destroy ourselves over here, but here on His path is the only position for blessing, is the only position for His protection, is the only position for His provision, is the only position where we'll have happiness, where we'll have joy, where we'll have satisfaction, where we'll have fulfillment, is on that path. And God recognizes that and cares about us so deeply that He brings us there, even when it hurts us, for our profit, for our benefit. Aren't you thankful for that? Aren't you thankful for God's love and for His grace that even those things that hurt us are done for our profit once you're a believer, once you're saved, once you're in His family? That's a bond of love. So, there's a sense in which we can be thankful. We ought to be thankful for chastening trials. As verse 11 says, it's not easy to be thankful for it while you're in it. But maybe if you're not in one today and you're recognizing one will come someday, or as you look at the way God has corrected you in the past and interacted in your life to get you back on that track, that's something to be joyful about, to be thankful for, because God recognized that was how we would produce fruit and be partakers of His holiness. I hope it's an encouragement to you to see how easy it is to recognize a chastening trial and to see what God designs it for and how he wants to use it in your life. But I hope it's also a warning sign, because Hebrews 12, these first 11 verses really are meant to be a warning sign. Don't take that lightly. Hey, if there's something in your life that's got you off of that race that God has set before you, I hope you'll get that settled tonight. I hope you'll listen to the leadings of the Spirit that are trying to get you back on track. Or maybe if you're on that track, I hope you'll take it seriously and recognize one false step away from that position of God's chastening. Stay in the Word. Stay in prayer. Stay close to Him. Keep your heart in tune with Him. So that when those chastenings come, that you'll be quickly back onto that path. Let's have a word of prayer. Dear God, thank You for the clarity of this passage. Thank You for telling us that chastening is about love. Thank You for telling us that it's for our profit. Lord, I pray if there's someone here that's not taking it seriously as they ought to, that You would use this warning, this exhortation to direct that person's attention back toward holiness, back toward a life that is apart, separated from sin and focused on pursuing You, on pleasing You. Lord, that's our desire for each person that meets with us here tonight. We pray Your blessing in Jesus' name, Amen.