Ministry of Chastisement
Ministry of Chastisement
STRANGE MINISTERS
Ron Dunn
Hebrews 12:5-17
Open your Bibles to the book of Hebrews 12. I am going to start reading with verse 5 and read through verse 17. The people to whom the author is writing are having spiritual fainting spells. Much of the book of Hebrews deals with trying to encourage these Hebrew Christians, trying to cure their disheartenment because of trials and tribulations and sufferings and difficulties that had come their way. In the passages preceding this one, he has been giving reasons why they should not be disheartened because of adversity. You remember that chapter 11 is that great faith chapter. There the writer is pointing to them as examples. The faith of these great men was wrought out through suffering and trials and adversity. In chapter 12 he uses the example of Jesus as one who suffered; therefore, they should not be disheartened when they suffer. But there is a third reason that they suffer. Much of their discouragement and disheartenment is a result of their forgetting a primary truth in the spiritual life. In verse 5 he picks up this third reason that Christians suffer. This thing that they have forgotten has led to some doubt and frustration, which in turn has caused some disheartenment in their Christian life.
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; or as seemed good to them. But God chastens us 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 he 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.
One of the greatest mysteries that face Christians is this mystery of suffering. Why do Christians suffer? That used to be one of the most favorite sermon topics. Let an evangelist come into a church for a week and announce that he was going to preach a message on why Christians suffer, and there was immediately a built-in audience. None of us is exempt from asking that question. Why is it that after I have given my life to Jesus Christ (not in a nominal way but have really given to him the obedience of my life, and as much as in me is have acknowledged him to be the Lord of my life and strive in all ways to please him) that so much trouble comes into my life as a Christian? You will not read very much of the Bible until you discover that a great portion of God's Word struggles with this mighty mystery of divine providence and human suffering. Why do Christians suffer?
David almost backslid; well, as a matter of fact, he did because he said, my feet were in the well and I slipped because I became envious at the wicked. I look at the wicked, that man who cares not a thing about the Lord, and he seems to have it made. Everything goes smooth for him. There seems to be no problem surrounding his life. David said he knew nothing but trouble, sorrow, and tears. I began to think I was serving the Lord for nothing, that I was making a fool of myself.
I think there are three reasons illustrated by three biblical characters as to why Christians suffer. Some Christians suffer like Job who was a perfect man, and God allowed the devil to afflict and inflict him as a test of his faith. 1 Peter, chapter 1, says that God is going to test or try our faith so that the Father might be glorified through our stability of believing. So many times a Christian will suffer as Job suffered. Job illustrates that kind of misfortune and tragedy and sorrow and suffering that falls into a Christian's life in order to exhibit that this man's faith is sound and firm and steadfast—and to increase this man's faithfulness and stability in the Lord. God allows this to happen. Paul, the apostle, and his thorn in the flesh is another example of the Job-type of suffering.
Then there is the Jesus-type of suffering. Jesus suffered simply because he was godly. Jesus suffered because he was truth. Peter says again in chapter 4: don't be surprised when you suffer as Jesus suffered. In John, chapter 15, Jesus said: if the world has hated me, you know that it will also hate you. In Matthew, chapter 5, as he was giving the beatitudes, Jesus said: when you are persecuted for my sake, rejoice and be exceedingly glad. Christians suffer like Jesus suffered simply because Jesus was obedient to the Heavenly Father. He was identified with the righteousness of God, and the world reacted towards that with suffering and chastisement. Christians suffer like Jesus suffered simply because they are identified with Jesus. When a Christian suffers this way, the Bible says he ought to be happy because it identifies him with his Lord.
Then there is a third kind of suffering—the Jonah kind of suffering. Jonah suffered not as a test of his faith, not because he was identified with the righteousness of God, but Jonah suffered because he was disobedient and rebellious to his Lord. The Bible calls this chastisement and discipline. The Hebrew Christians had forgotten that, and the writer is saying that some of you are suffering like the heroes of faith suffered—the Job-kind. Some of you are suffering like Jesus suffered—simply because he was righteous. Beginning in verse 5 he says some of you are suffering because of your disobedience, because of the sin that is in your life. You are experiencing the Jonah-kind of suffering.
The message this morning is the Ministry of Chastisement--or the ministry of discipline. The Bible very clearly teaches that God is going to discipline his children. God has a right to do it as any Father has a right to chasten, whip, spank, or discipline his child. As far back as the book of Deuteronomy, God warned the people that this would be. In Deuteronomy 8:5 he says, Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee. Again in 2 Samuel 7:14 the Lord says, I will be his Father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men. God says, I am going to be a father to you. If you commit iniquity, I am going to chasten you. Just as any father chastens the son that he loves so the Heavenly Father is going to chasten us.
Not every time that suffering comes is it an indication that I have sinned. It is not always chastisement. This is why it is important for you to live right with God so that when adversity and difficulty come, you will be able to know whether or not this simply God trying your faith, or is it God punishing you, chastening you, disciplining you because of sin in your life.
We are going to look at the ministry, the manner, and the message of these verses. Follow along as we study what God has to say about this matter of chastisement.
First of all, let's look at the ministry of chastisement. God not only has a right to chasten us; he has a reason. God never does anything without a purpose. Notice in verse 10 that he is using a contrast between our earthly fathers and our Heavenly Father. He says our earthly fathers chastened us for a few days. That means while we were living with them, under their tutorship. After their own pleasure is an unfortunate translation. That doesn't mean that the dad got a kick out of doing it. I say this because I have a feeling some young people are sitting here thinking: I knew it all along. Now I have Scripture to prove that the only reason my dad spanks is because he enjoys it. That is not a good translation. Sorry about that. What it means is that they chastened as seemed right or as seemed good to them. The writer is saying that they were not always correct in doing it. Any parent knows that there are times when he chastens a child for the wrong reason, more because he is angry than because they have disobeyed. Sometimes they are punished wrongly. I could write a list of times I got spanked for something I didn't do. But I could make a longer list for the times when I did something and didn't get caught or get a spanking for it. I have no right to complain about those times that my father and mother misjudged and misinterpreted the circumstances and perhaps punished me wrongly. It didn't happen very often. Actually, they were just catching up for all the things I did they didn't know about. This is what the writer is saying. An earthly mother and father are human. They will err. They chasten us as seems good to them, and once in awhile they make a mistake. But he says, God never makes a mistake. The Heavenly Father knows all things, and he chastens us for our profit, for our good. He chastens in order to make us better, and in order to perfect his purpose within us.
There are basically three reasons the writer gives why God chastens a Christian. There are times in a Christian's life when God is going to lay the rod to you. Chastening is not the everyday trial you just fall into by circumstance. This is something that God lays on you. This is something God instigates. This is something the Lord inaugurates. He does it. He takes up the whip, the rod and chastens his children.
1) It is proof of our sonship
The ministry of chastisement proves our sonship. Over and over again in this passage he says that every true child will share in this chastisement. Verse 8 says if there is no chastisement, then we are illegitimate children. Back in the New Testament days if a man had an illegitimate child, he never gave that child any love, nurture, or care. He felt no responsibility toward that child. He completely ignored and neglected it. The book of Proverbs says that if a man spares the rod and doesn't chasten and discipline his child, he hates that child. Sometimes I've heard parents brag about the fact that they never discipline their children. The Word of God says you don't love them. Do you know what you love? You love yourself. You love taking the easy way. The difficult way is to take the responsibility and to discipline, to become unpopular with them, to incur their anger and misunderstanding. You must do it because you love them, and you want them to grow in the way that God wants them to grow. The parent that does not chasten his child treats his child as an illegitimate child whom he neither loves nor feels any responsibility towards. God says you are my son.
If you are without chastisement, then you are not my son. I think you need to stop just a moment. Preacher, I've listened to you preach for six years. You've said we are supposed to live certain ways and be a certain kind of people. I want you to know that I will live any way I want to. I do as I please. I come to church once in awhile if it pleases me. I live my own life. I do my own thing. I am my own boss. And I want you to know that God has never chastened me. Then, friend, you classify yourself according to verse 8. You are not a child of God. If a church member can persistently rebel against the will of God, the way of God, and suffer no chastisement, it is evidence he is not a child of God. He has never been saved. He is an illegitimate child, spiritually speaking.
I may walk out in the front yard, and there are two boys standing out on the street corner, both of them cursing. One of them is my son; the other is the neighbor's boy. I'll go out there, and I'll punish my son. I won't fool with the neighbor's boy. He's not mine. I may go out in the back yard, and there are two children and both of them are telling lies. One of them is my child; the other is the neighbor's child. I'll leave the neighbor's child alone. I have no responsibility for that child, no right to chasten that child. I will only chasten my child. The explanation why some people can live a godless life--a careless life, and never have any kind of chastening or adversity--is that God never chastens anybody but his own children. The chastening is a proof of our sonship. It ought to be a warning because you are not going to be able to persistently rebel against the known will of God in your life without suffering the chastening rod of God. Some of you have already felt that, and some of you are going to feel it. If you are a child of God, you are going to be scourged and chastened when you willfully, knowingly, and deliberately persist in your rebellion against God. It is proof of our sonship.
2) It purges us from our sin.
Look at verse 10:
For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit that we might partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seems to be joyous (That's an understatement if I ever heard one.), but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
God chasten us to purge us of some unrighteousness in our lives. Jonah is the great illustration of that. If God had not laid the rod of chastisement against the back of Jonah, he would never have repented, never have become obedient, never have preached to Nineveh. Nineveh would never have repented. The whole city would have been lost forever. God had to chasten Jonah in order to purge out that sin of rebellion. Is there some sin in your life that you continue to hang on to, cling to, and love to practice against all the warning of God, against all the gentle reproof of God? What you are doing is forcing God to pick up the rod and lay it to you in order to purge you from your sin.
3) It promotes our sanctification.
Look at verse 10: But he chastens us for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness. It goes on to say without holiness no man shall see the Lord. When you came to Jesus Christ and received him as Lord and Savior, God said, here is my plan for you. My plan for you is not to take you to heaven but to make you holy. Heaven is thrown in as a dividend. Heaven is a fringe benefit of salvation; it's not the main thing.
I read in Ephesians, chapter 1, where he says that he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy before him in love without blame. We should be holy. I thought God predestined me to go to heaven. No, he predestined you to be holy—to be like Jesus—to be a sharer in his holiness. God is going to see to it that you are whether you want to be or not. I don't think we have ever realized this. When you come to Jesus Christ, you are locked in. In other words, if you have been saved, you are going to heaven whether you want to go or not. If you have ever been saved, you are going to be holy whether you want to or not. You say, I will stiffen my neck, harden my heart, refuse to be exercised by the chastening of the Lord. All right, then you are forcing God to do more. You are his child. Our Heavenly Father is not like these sweet, namby-pamby, scared, weak parents we hear so much of today who are afraid of their own children. God isn't afraid. God is going to see to it that you become a partaker of his holiness. He wants to make you like Jesus. He knows that only as you are holy are you going to be happy.
The most miserable person is that true born again believer who is outside the will of God. I emphasize that true born again believer because a professing church member can be just as happy outside the will of God as he can be inside the will of God. God chastens us and lays the rod to us in order to promote our sanctification. That's the purpose for which he saved us. He uses every means available to make us holy. The indwelling Spirit, as we yield to his guidance and leadership, makes us holy. Many times we will not yield to that gentle pressure, friendly persuasion of the Holy Spirit who indwells, us so God must take up the rod. He says I want you to be a partaker of my holiness. I am not going to allow you to dishonor my name. You belong to me. You are my son; I am your Father. I love you. I am going to chasten you in order to promote your sanctification. That is the ministry of chastisement.
Let's look briefly at the manner of chastisement. In verses 5 and 6 he uses three different words to describe the discipline of the Father. Do not faint when thou art rebuked of him. The rebuke is one manner of God's chastisement. That is the easiest, the gentle kind. The word of rebuke. Rebuke means to reprove or convict. How many times when we kneel in prayer all of a sudden God begins to chasten us with a word of rebuke. He begins to convict us and bring upon us the sorrow for our sinfulness. I believe God always uses this method first. God first uses the gentle word of persuasion--the word of rebuke from the Bible, from the pastor, from conscience, from the indwelling Spirit, from the feeling of conviction.
He moves on. My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord. We get our word education or teaching from that word chastening. It means to correct. That is a little bit more severe than just a word of rebuke. Sometimes the word of rebuke is not enough. There has to be some discipline. Some measures have to be taken. Some penalties have to be erected.
In verse 6, he uses the word scourge. For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. There is nothing gentle about scourging. There is nothing tender about scourging. When the gentle word of rebuke will not bring us into line with God's holiness, when the correction and chastisement will not bring us into line with God's holiness, then God is forced to pick up the scourge, the rod. Many times God rebukes us with just our thoughts or emotions. Then God has to resort to more severe means with physical illness, and even death.
Preacher, do you really believe that God will remove a Christian from this world and take him to be with himself. I certainly do. There is no doubt in my mind about it as I study the Word. Listen to Paul in 1 Corinthians, chapter 5. There was a problem in that church. There was a man living in immorality, and he would not repent. Moreover, the church wouldn't do anything about it. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5:4-5, In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my Spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. He is not talking about the spiritual flesh. That was crucified on the cross two thousand years ago. He is talking about physical flesh—a man's life. Paul says this person who is living in persistent immorality will not get right. The church will not do anything about it. In the power of the Lord Jesus Christ we will turn that one over to the devil for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
Again in 1 Corinthians 10:8, Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt (means to see how far we can go and sin before God does anything) Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.
In 1 Corinthians 11:28 he is talking about the wrong use of the Lord's Supper. They are taking it lightly. It says, but let a man examine himself, and let him so eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. There is physical weakness and illness because they were blaspheming the Lord's table. How? They were taking of the Lord's Supper with unconfessed sin in their lives. Not only this, and many sleep. For this cause—what cause? Eating and drinking the Lord's table unworthily, without spiritual examination. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. That doesn't mean they fell asleep; that means they are dead.
I read in Acts 5 that when Ananias and Sapphira came in and they had lied to the Holy Ghost and were trying to deceive the church, immediately they fell dead. God's judgment. God's chastisement upon them. You ask, do you really believe that God will remove a Christian from this world, take his life? I most certainly do. God wants you to be a partaker of his holiness.
I pray God will impress upon you the seriousness of this. In verse 5 he says, don't despise the chastening of the Lord. That word despise means don't treat it lightly. You had better not treat lightly the chastening of the Lord. When a child of God persists in his backsliding, in his rebellion, in his disobedience, God reproves and rebukes him. He doesn't take it. Then God chastens him, and he isn't corrected by it. God scourges him, and he does not repent. The Bible teaches in many cases that God in order to spare his Holy Name will take that child unto himself and deal with him at the judgment seat of Christ.
Several years ago I heard a minister illustrate it this way. He said, I go and visit someone, and I take my child with me. While we are sitting in the living room, my child begins to climb on the coffee table, knock over a lamp, and color on the wall with crayons. I tell my child, don't do that. He still persists in it. After awhile I say, if you do that again, I am going to spank you. He continues to be unruly and disobedient so I take off my belt and spank him. After awhile he is still unruly and rebellious. Finally, I cannot control him. It is embarrassing to me and to my host. I cannot control them. I say, get up. I can't do anything with you. I'm going to take you home. I believe that is what God has to say sometimes to some Christians. I believe he has to say, I have tried every way I know to make you behave yourself. I have loved you, nurtured you, given you every good thing, rebuked you, chastened you. I can't make you behave yourself. I'm just going to have to take you home in order to save my Holy Name. This is why he says, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord. Don't you treat it lightly!
Lastly, what is the message of discipline? What is God trying to say to you?
1) It is a word of comfort.
Verse 6 says, for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth. The scapel that cuts into us is held by the hand of our Heavenly Father who loves us. No chastening for the present seems to be joyous. We misunderstand just as a child misunderstands his father's correction and thinks that the father is correcting him because he doesn't love him or because he just enjoys seeing him mistreated. It is only afterward, years later, that the child understands had it not been for the correction, the discipline, imperfect as it may have been, of the father, he would not have grown up and understand and know how to behave himself in society. Afterwards we understand that God is doing this for our good.
I praise the Lord for the chastening he has dealt out in my own life. If God had not laid the rod to me and chastened me, I wouldn't be here this morning. I thank God that he loves me, and knows what is best for me. The message of chastisement is a word of comfort. It is always the image of a father-son relationship that moves all the way through this passage. It's a father who loves his son.
2) It is a warning against carelessness.
Notice verse 12:
Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; And make straight paths for your feet.
Verse 16:
Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For he 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.
The message of chastisement is a warning against carelessness, against careless living. The Father loves us and chastens every son he receiveth. He scourges us. There is a ministry of chastisement, and many times God must use the chastening rod to my own personal life. I do not believe that God will chasten you for something I have done. I do not believe that God will hurt you for something I have done. When God chastens, he chastens me personally. In order to make my faith stronger, to order to have the Job-kind of suffering, he might allow something to happen to a loved one in order to teach me and strengthen me. But when there is iniquity and rebellion in my heart, God chastens me, not someone I love. He chastens me. He breaks my heart. He puts the rod to me because of my iniquity.
Many of you could give testimony of God's chastisement. Many of you are going to, in later years, be able to say God chastened me. God had to do it. I forced God to do it by my rebellion. This is the message that I want to leave with you today: a word of comfort and a warning against carelessness. Dear Christian, teenager, adult, don't force God to chasten and to scourge. Take the gentle word of rebuke and conviction.
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