Embracing God's Discipline - Part 1 (Hebrews 12:4-5)

Hebrews 12 and the Call to Embrace God’s Discipline

Hebrews chapter 12. Now that you found your place there, let's pray before we begin. Father, we gather now before your word. We come to you with a confident expectation that you will speak to us through the written word of God, that you have been preparing our hearts this entire week to be here today and to hear this.

You have been preparing the preacher, you have been preparing us as a body for this, and we pray that you would now accomplish all of your purposes that you have ordained for this, that you would open our eyes and our hearts and make us obedient hearers of the word, and we pray that you would work your grace within us so that we might embrace your purposes and discipline and lovingly respond to all that you are doing in our lives for the glory of Christ, in whose name we pray, amen.

Well, discipline, that is a word that probably conjures up in a lot of your minds a lot of negative images. Perhaps there is in your mind some negative memories that are associated with the idea of discipline.

You had parents who didn't do it properly or didn't do it lovingly. It is certainly a concept that is abused in our fallen world and a concept that is misunderstood in our fallen world, and sadly, it is misunderstood even within the church.

When we hear the word discipline, we typically think of pain and discomfort, right? How many of you think of pain and discomfort when you think about discipline? Think about something that is sometimes horribly painful, or you may be thinking of an abuse of authority, somebody who used quote-unquote discipline in order to justify their abuse of authority.

Perhaps you think of punishment for wrongdoing. Oftentimes, that's what people associate discipline with. If I do something wrong, then I have to endure the discipline. This is a punishment for something that I did wrong, or maybe in your mind, you conjure up the ideas of anger and hatred and violent wrath that is unleashed against you whenever the matter of discipline comes up because that is what you have experienced in some sense or at some time during your life.

There certainly is an element in discipline that is admittedly difficult for us to endure. The author is honest about that. In Hebrews 12, look at verse 11. 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.

The author admits discipline is not an easy thing, and in the moment, discipline, whatever he's describing here in this passage, in the moment, discipline is not a joyful thing. It can often be very sorrowful.

Not all things that we associate with discipline are painful or necessarily sorrowful. For instance, sometimes discipline, as we use this term, is not painful at all, really. It's just uncomfortable. So for instance, not eating every sweet thing that was put before you over the holidays, that takes discipline.

That is not painful. If you think that that is painful, you need a reality check. That is not painful. Shoving ice picks underneath your fingernails is painful. Passing by the cookie plate a couple of times in the holiday season is not painful.

It might be uncomfortable. It might be difficult. It might take some mental and emotional and spiritual focus, but it's not at all painful. Or not filling your plate to overflowing every single time you dish up, even for seconds.

That is not necessarily painful. It might be uncomfortable for you. It might be difficult, but it's not painful. Going to the gym and exercising is not painful. You say, Jim, you don't know what would happen to me if I exercise.

No, it's not painful. It might be uncomfortable. It might make you sore, but it's not painful. It makes you uncomfortable. Turning off the TV so that you can spend more time reading, it's not painful, it's just uncomfortable.

Getting up extra 30 minutes early on a workday so that you can read scripture, it's not painful. It is uncomfortable. These things are not painful, and they just involve saying no to some things so that we can say yes to other things.

Those things make us uncomfortable, but they do not cause us pain, and we need to think clearly in terms of the difference between pain and discomfort. We need to think clearly, in fact, in terms of saying no to some things so that we can say yes to other things, and in many instances, that is the heart and soul of discipline.

Some discipline is educational. For instance, if you want to acquire a new skill, say the ability to play a musical instrument or some new bit of knowledge or some new craft or some new art, it's gonna take some discipline.

It's gonna take some practice and some sacrifice and some repetition and muscle memory, and all of that goes into disciplining yourself so that you can pick up a new skill. The point of that discipline is instruction.

It's training in some way. In all of these cases, these things are not joyful in the moment. Even in the case of enduring discipline for the sake of acquiring a new skill, in the moment, during the practice, it involves sometimes sweat.

It involves sometimes a focus. It involves a sacrifice of time. It's not necessarily enjoyable in the moment, but the reason we discipline ourselves for certain things is so that we may enjoy the fruit of it, right?

You go to the gym and exercise so that you can enjoy the fruit of that exercise. You pass by the cookie plate so that you can enjoy the fruit of passing by the cookie plate, which is sometimes not as delicious as enjoying the cookie plate, but there is a fruit or a thing to be gained at the end of that.

That's why you discipline yourself. Now, my objective, and I'm going to be honest with you here right at the beginning of this, what we might call a mini series of sermons on the subject of discipline, my objective is to disabuse you of all of the false and wrong notions of discipline that you might have lodged in your mind.

There are a lot of them, and I'm not going to give them to you right now, but by the time we get to the end of verse 11 and actually into verse 12 and 13 that deal with the body's response to the discipline of God in the lives of God's people, by the time we get through the end of 11, 12, and 13, I am hoping that you will see the need and have a love for embracing God's discipline.

Did you expect anybody to ever say that in your life, to embrace God's discipline? Because it is something that we ought to embrace, and it is something that we ought to love, and it is something that should be of great encouragement to us.

Not because we enjoy the discipline itself, as verse 11 says, no discipline in the moment is joyful. We don't enjoy it in the moment, but those who have been trained by it enjoy the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

So that's why we embrace God's discipline. Not because we're masochists who love pain and discomfort, but because we enjoy and love and long for and delight in the fruit that God brings into our lives through that discipline.

So I'm going to challenge your understanding of discipline over the next few weeks. I wanna dispel any unbiblical and worldly notions of discipline that have crept into your thinking, remove some of the misunderstandings of it and bring some clarity to what it is and what it isn't and the ways in which God disciplines us so that we can see the hand of God in our lives as he brings discipline into our lives, and then we can gladly embrace that and be encouraged by it.

We're encouraged by it because then we know this is evidence that I am a son, and this is evidence that he loves me, and if he has brought this into my life, then he will do something profitable and fruitful and glorious through it, and so therefore I can embrace it and I can be thankful for it.

The Fourfold Outline of God’s Discipline

So here's our outline. We're in chapter 12, verse four. Here's our outline. For those of you who like sermon outlines, I know there are some of you who do. You know who you are. More importantly, I know who you are, and so I'm gonna give you a sermon outline here for chapter 12, verses four, all the way through the end of verse 11.

There are four things in these verses that you and I must understand about God's discipline. First, in verses four and five, we have to have the proper perspective on God's discipline. Verse four, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your 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. Second, we have to understand the proof of discipline or know the proof of discipline, that it proves that we are his children and that he is our father.

Verse six, 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 with 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. That's the second thing. Third, we have to understand the purpose of discipline in verse nine.

Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good so that we may share his holiness.

That's the purpose of it. And fourth, the product of discipline in verse 11. 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.

The proper perspective on discipline, the proof of discipline, the purpose of discipline, and then the product of discipline, what discipline produces. Now, I have an advantage that guest speakers do not have, and that is that I don't have any obligation at all to fit all of that into one sermon.

And I don't feel any obligation at all to fit all of that into one sermon. And I'll be honest with you, I'm not even gonna try to fit all of that into one sermon, and my lack of trying is gonna become evident to you very quickly into this sermon.

I don't know how many weeks it is gonna take to get through all of this passage, but we will get through all of it, and I will be referring back to that outline from time to time as we do. We're not gonna rush this, because I think that there's something, I think that there's a number of things in this passage that will equip us for life and for godliness, and I'm confident that God is gonna do things in our hearts through this passage as we understand the purpose and his intentions and discipline.

Now, I want you to see some of the contextual connections that are here. It is tempting for us to think that when we get to verse four, we're switching subject matters. Verses one to three was what? It was the race analogy, right?

Run with endurance, the race that is set before us, the purpose of the race, how we're to persevere through it, the example that we have, Jesus, who did it by faith. Verse three, we're to consider him who endured such hostility against himself at the hands of sinners, so that we will not lose heart and we will not faint.

And then we get to verse four, and it says, you've not yet resisted the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin, and you've forgotten the encouragement that is addressed to you as sons to do not despise the discipline of the Lord.

Get to verse four, and they, okay, so the author now, he gets to the end of verse three, and now he's just switching, he's changing gears, he's turning a corner, now he's gonna start talking about discipline.

That is not true. Discipline is essential for an athletic contest, is it not? You must be trained in the race, you must be trained how to run the race, you must be trained and disciplined yourself so that you might be competitive in the race.

So the author, switching to the subject of discipline, it's really not a switching, he's simply now addressing another aspect of running the race, which is the discipline that we endure from the Father, which equips us for the running of the race.

There is a different analogy that is pictured in verses four through 11, that of a father and a son, it's the family analogy, but in verses one to three, it's the race analogy, it's still really a race that we're talking about as we talk about the discipline that equips us and trains us for the race, but now he brings in the father-son analogy in the family, the father disciplines his son simply to show that the discipline is necessary and simply to show that the discipline is an evidence of God's love for us and simply to show that the discipline is an evidence of our sonship with him.

So it's not a different analogy, it's kind of an analogy layered on top of another analogy, which was really still the race metaphor that he began in verses one through three. There are some important themes that are consistent through the entire passage and I wanna highlight four of them for you.

The first one is considering Jesus. There is a comparison in verse four, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood. Who might he have mentioned right in the immediate context, who in his striving against sin shed blood?

It's Jesus in verse three. He's just simply continuing the comparison that he began in verse three as he moves into verse four and begins to apply it to us, showing us that there is something that we are to consider in our consideration of Jesus who endured that hostility, we are to consider and remember that we have not yet shed our blood in our striving against sin.

Jesus in his faithfulness did. The second theme that is woven here through verses four through 11 that we've also seen in the context is that of striving against sin itself. Look at verse four, you've not yet resisted the point of shedding blood and you're striving against sin.

Look back up at verse one, we are to lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us. So in both the race analogy as well as in the discipline analogy and talking about discipline and in talking about the race, there is a sin issue that is at the heart of all of this.

Why is discipline necessary? Not to punish us for our sin, but to purge us of our sin. That's the point of discipline. Again, we'll get into this more next week, it is not punishment for our sin, it is purging us from our sin.

So we have an obligation, a moral obligation to lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us to fight that fight, to wage that war, to go to battle against it, that's our obligation.

But here's the good news, we have a father in heaven who loves us enough to do something to us to make that really easy, purging ourselves from sin. That's where discipline comes in. The next theme is also that of losing heart.

Look at verse five. He says that we, my son, look at the quotation from Proverbs chapter three, my son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord nor faint when you are reproved by him. That is the idea of losing heart, of losing spirit, of sort of collapsing within, it's a notion there.

That was also up in verse three. We are to consider him who endured such hostility against himself at the hands of sinners so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. See how he's continuing the same idea?

Right, we are to run our race and we are to do it with endurance and with faith to persevere, to look to Jesus so that we don't lose heart. And then we have the father who disciplines us for that purpose and we are to embrace that so that we don't what?

So that we don't lose heart. The theme of enduring is also here. Endurance is a theme that has been present with us in Hebrews for quite some time. Verse one, sorry, I looked down at verse seven in our passage, it is for discipline that you endure.

Have we heard about discipline anywhere in, or sorry, endurance anywhere in this context? It is for discipline that you endure. Look at verse one, we are to run with endurance the race that is set before us.

Verse three, we are to consider him who endured such hostility against himself. In fact, the theme of endurance goes all the way back to chapter 10 at the very end where he says, you have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.

So from back in chapter 10, he has been talking about enduring in the face of hostility, suffering, affliction and difficulty, just as the saints at Hebrews chapter 11 did and then you are to do it, chapter 12 verses one to three.

And then we have the father disciplining us to enable us to run that race so that we don't lose heart and it is for discipline that we are to endure. So the theme of endurance traces all the way through as well.

Then in verse 11, notice the reference to training it to those who have been trained by it, that is discipline. Afterwards, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. The idea of training is core, it's central to the athletic metaphor.

It fits the athletic analogy in verses one through three. So the author's not radically changing course at verse four, I want you to see that. He's taking the same things we've been talking about really since the end of chapter 10 and now he's weaving them through chapter 11 and he's bringing them to an applicable conclusion in chapter 12 verses one through 11.

We're to run our race, not lose heart, persevere through it because the father in heaven is disciplining us, training us to enable us to do the very thing that he has called us to do. It is safe to say that the discipline that God wisely and lovingly brings into our lives is intended to work in us those things which will strengthen us for the race.

The purpose of discipline is to strengthen you for the race. It is to train you for the race so that you will lay aside the sin that sometimes causes the discipline and you will look to Jesus and run the race that is set before you and carry you across the finish line so that you can receive the reward.

Our job is to run, the father's job is to discipline and train us so that we can run. Now if the father knows perfectly and precisely and wisely, infinitely so what is necessary to bring you and I home to our eternal glory and to give us that reward, if he knows everything that is necessary for that to happen, why would you not embrace that, right?

If he has called you to run and then he knows exactly what is necessary to take you across the finish line and bring you to that reward and give it to you, why would you not embrace that thing that he has planned for you?

Why would you not embrace that process and do so lovingly? Listen, especially if you know that it will for all of eternity infinitely increase your joy and your reward. You would embrace that, wouldn't you?

The Proper Perspective on Discipline

So now let's jump into verses four and five. You say, Jim, that wasn't the first point? Not even close yet. The proper perspective on discipline. Remember, I want to challenge you to embrace God's discipline in your life and to cooperate as it were with him in the discipline and through the discipline so that it may accomplish what it is that he has designed for you in the difficulty that he has brought into place.

The proper perspective on discipline, verses four and five. And this deals with our thinking, our mindset. We need a proper perspective on it so that we can think of it rightly. And when we think of it rightly, then we were more likely to embrace it.

So we have a mindset here that is being described for embracing God's discipline. The mindset is in verse four and the beginning of verse five and then the manner in which we are to embrace God's discipline is in verse five, the quotation from the Proverbs.

So here's the mindset. You've not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood and you're striving against sin and you've forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons. There's a mindset there that we are to, a way in which we are to view our afflictions and a way in which we are to view our relationship with the Lord.

And then the manner in which we are to embrace this discipline is in verse five. My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord. In other words, don't despise his discipline. And then second, don't despair in that discipline nor faint when you are reproved by him.

There are two errors that we can make when God disciplines us. One is to despise it and the other is to despair underneath of it. These are two opposite errors. One is, they're both folly in some regard.

One of them is really caused by a vain selfish pride and the other one is caused by a foolish misunderstanding the purpose of discipline. So we wanna have the right mindset for embracing discipline. That's what we're looking at today, the mindset that we have.

And we're to remember two things. So if you're keeping track of your outline, those of you who know and like your outlines, here it is. Verse one was the purpose, understanding the proper purpose of discipline.

Under that is two points, okay? If you're keeping notes, two points. Number one, we are to have the right mindset and then the right manner of embracing discipline. Under the first point, there are two points.

Number one, the afflictions that we endure are less than we deserve. And second, God disciplines his children, not his enemies. Those are the two things that affect our mindset. So this is two points.

Today, we're gonna deal with the first of the two points under the one of the two points, which is under one of the four points.

Did you catch that?

Okay.

It's really much more simple than I make it out to be.

And there are some people,.

Let me just say this real quick. There are some people who think that you have to spend all four of your homiletical points in one sermon. I don't believe that at all. I'm gonna milk all four of these points so long, you're gonna think that there's a Jersey right here in the middle of the sanctuary and we're gonna take our time going through it.

So if you're not keeping track of the outline, then wake back up. This is where we jump into verse four. Our mindset, we are to remember that the afflictions that we endure are less than we deserve. This is verse four.

You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood and you're striving against sin. Now notice that the author is aware of their affliction. He's aware of their suffering. He admits it, he knows it, maybe because he has experienced some of what they have experienced.

Do you remember back at the end of chapter 10, verse 32? Turn back there if you don't remember what they endured through. I'm gonna read it, verse 32. But remember the former days when after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated.

For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one. They had endured all of that affliction and he recognizes at the end of chapter 10, their suffering was real.

Their affliction was real. Their pain and agony in all of that was real. And from what the author describes here, it looks as if it is only in his mind about to get much worse. And he is equipping his readers to deal with that affliction.

So he recognizes at the end of chapter 10, then in chapter 11, he reminds them that this is not at all uncommon for the saints of God. You go through the catalog of the heroes of the faith. They all sacrificed something.

They all endured something. It wasn't easy for any of them. There were good times and there were bad. Yes, but some of them, you remember, they were sawn in two, they were stoned. They wandered about in caves and holes in the grounds, trying to find a shelter.

They endured all of those things so that what they were enduring was not out of the ordinary in terms of God's saints. And then in chapter 12, he counsels them to run the race with endurance just as the heroes in chapter 11 have done.

So at the end of chapter 10, you're suffering. Hebrews chapter 11, what you're enduring is the same thing that all the saints of old have endured. How do you handle that? Chapter 12, verses one to three, you're to run your race with endurance that is set before you.

Do so looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith. So that's the theme of what the author has developed. But listen, he has not answered one key question that anybody with two brain cells to rub together in that congregation would have been asking.

They would have had a very pressing question. Why do I endure these things? Why am I going through these things? If I am the object of God's love, his infinite and unbounding love, then why do I suffer?

That's a good question, isn't it? Why, if I am elect, and I have been granted grace in Christ from eternity past, and the plan of salvation was hatched with me in mind, and the son came to live in my place, and to die in my place, and to rise again in my place, and then to bring me to himself, and to secure me everlastingly, and then to pour out upon me his infinite grace and love for all of eternity, if that is the plan, and if that was the object of my salvation, if all of those things are true, then why is the heavy hand of God upon me in this life?

It's a very good question. If I've been granted all of the blessings of the new covenant, and the blessings of the new covenant, and the spirit are mine, and the word of God is mine, and salvation is mine, then why do I feel like God is against me in this life?

Why do I suffer? Why does it feel like I'm being punished for my sin? If all my sin was laid upon Jesus Christ on the cross, then why now do I feel like I'm being punished for the things that I have done?

See, that's the question the author, up to this point, has not answered. I've been adopted into God's family. Can I not, at least in some way, enjoy some of the family comforts? There are saints who ask themselves these questions.

I'm in the new covenant, and I have received the fullness, and yet I suffer persecution, and hatred from the world, and ostracization, affliction, and pain, and trials, and tribulations, and temptations.

This is my lot in all of this life. Why is it? Why is it that it always seems as if God's enemies have the upper hand? If you've never asked yourself that question, you're not watching the news. Why is it that it always seems as if God's enemies have the upper hand, and we have to suffer the afflictions?

He answers that question in verses four through 11. The Father is doing something through these things that is for your good. It is a proof of his love. That is why you are enduring these things. You see how the author, since chapter 10, has been building to this point?

Now you get to chapter 12, and you realize, okay, the reason I endure the seizure of my property, the trials, the tribulations, the mockery, and the insults, the hatred of the world, being pushed out of polite society, the reason that people hate me is the Father has allowed these things.

Yea, even ordained these things for me and for my good. And that's not just to talk about the affliction and suffering that you experience because other people just hate you, and you're a Christian, but these things apply also to the physical disabilities that plague us in this life, the way that life sometimes just falls out, and it's not anybody's fault.

It was just a result of living in a sin-cursed and fallen world. God ordains these things for us as well.

Why?

Because he loves us, and because we are his sons. And the afflictions that we endure in this life are far less than we deserve. He is calling us in this passage to a proper estimate of our sufferings.

You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin. Notice that they were striving against sin, and they were resisting temptation, and they were engaged in a great conflict, and they had paid a price for their faithfulness.

We know all of that, but not to the point of shedding blood. What does the author mean by that? He means that it has not yet cost you what it might and could end up costing you. The fight against sin could be more intense than it is.

You've resisted, yes, but not to the point of shedding blood. Okay, so this helps frame the mindset in which I must view my war against sin and my struggle in this world. It hasn't cost me. The temptations always could be worse, right?

The struggle always could cost me more than it has, right? That's true. Temptations can always be more acute, more severe, and more long-lived. So yeah, I've resisted, but not as much as I might have resisted had things turned out differently.

Their fight for their faithfulness and their endurance had not cost them yet everything. They had not shed their blood. It had not yet cost them their lives. They paid a price, but they hadn't paid the ultimate price.

These were their lesser sufferings, and by this time, by the way, remember in church history, by this time that the author's writing this, they would have been familiar with saints who had shed their blood, who had been faithful unto death.

Already Stephen in Acts chapter seven and eight had been stoned. Already by this time, James, the Lord's brother in Acts chapter 12 had been pierced with a sword and killed. So they're familiar with saints who had shed their blood and had paid the ultimate price.

And this is a needful corrective. Yeah, you're striving. Yes, you're enduring. Yes, you're persevering, but it has not yet cost you what it has cost others. It has not yet cost you the ultimate price.

The great faithfulness of others ought to motivate us to our own faithfulness, by the way. I want you to catch this. Others had endured more and suffered more and sacrificed more. And you and I always, when we look at what we are afflicted with in this life, we can always look at somebody else and say, yeah, but that hasn't happened to me yet.

And if you can't find any example in any of your life or in all of church history where you can say of that person, yes, I may be afflicted, but that hasn't happened to me yet, then you just need to read a little bit more church history.

You need to meet a few more people. And if nothing else, you need to look at Jesus Christ and realize that has not happened to me yet. So I've resisted, but not yet to the point of shedding blood. The great faithfulness of others motivates us to faithfulness.

And friends, it is shameful for us to faint under lesser degrees of suffering. You can always know others who have endured more. And when we look at others who have endured more, and then we say, yeah, but I just can't endure anything else.

I can't endure more. It's a shameful thing for us to faint under sufferings and afflictions that are less than what others have endured. What have others endured? Some of them have shed their own blood.

By the way, don't miss this encouragement. The most that they can do to you is shed your blood. That's good news. That's the most the world can do is take your life. The most they can take from you is your blood.

Once they have shed your blood and killed you, that's the most they can do to you. You say, Jim, that means that they've taken everything. Oh no, they haven't taken everything. Not even close. They can't take your forgiveness.

They can't take away your justification. They can't rob you of your eternal reward. They can't remove your status as sons and daughters of God in Christ Jesus. They can't take away from you the new heavens and the new earth and your resurrected body.

All they can do is shed your blood. That's the most price that you will ever be asked to pay in this world and you're striving against sin. Just your life. I promise you, no more. Just your life and no more.

That's the most you'll be asked to pay. And I would suggest to you that that is a small price to pay when you realize that the alternate is to spend eternity suffering for your own sins. Then you realize my life is not that much, really.

After all, it's just my blood. I've got a whole body full of it, at least I think. Got a whole body full of it, so I can shed that. I can lose that. And if I'm asked to lose that for the sake of the truth, is that really that big of a deal?

That's all they can take. Jesus said something similar when he said, don't fear those who can kill the body, but fear those who can cast both body and soul, or fear the one who can cast both body and soul into hell.

That's his point. The worst they can do to you in this life is take your life. Notice also from verse four that God himself appoints our afflictions. You've not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood.

There's a recognition there that others had shed their blood and you have not. Who determines that? Who determines that somebody else suffers more than you or that you suffer more than somebody else? There's only one being in all of the universe who has decreed that and determined that, and that is God himself.

So he is the one who appoints our suffering and our afflictions. Not everyone dies a martyr. Not everyone sheds their blood in striving against sin. Remember that Jesus said of Peter, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.

Jesus in that moment is saying of Peter, the devil has asked permission to come after you, to attack you, to sift you like wheat, but I am praying for you. And if you were Peter, you would want to know the answer to this question.

So did you give the devil permission or not? He's asked for permission from me and I'm praying for you. Okay, the prayer's good, Lord, but there's another question we need to deal with. Did you say yes or did you say no?

But the point is not whether he said yes or no. The point of that temptation, the point of Peter's trial is to show us, number one, that there is nothing that the devil could do to Peter that he was not given permission to do.

Same thing with Job, remember Job chapter one. And the second point of that trial is that Jesus preserved Peter all the way through that denial and all the way through to his restoration, then used him greatly afterwards.