Hebrews 12:3-17 | The Discipline of God

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Covenant Reformed Baptist Church Tullahoma TN Pastor Jeff Rice

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All right, if you would open your Bibles with me to the book of Hebrews Chapter 12 we will consider verses 3 through 17
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Our Father in God Lord once again, we come to you at this moment when we open up your word and I attempt to correctly articulate it
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Please in the name of your son Jesus Christ Use me this day
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I pray In his name. Amen So our theme for this
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Lord's Day is not a popular title, right? Like it's this is something like if you were skipping around trying to find something to preach.
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This is not it Our theme is the discipline of God Because we are committed to expository preaching we do not skip
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Over verses we preach the books of the Bible verse by verse Trying to explain what
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God's Word has to say to us And what I aim to show you today is that the discipline of God is of his grace and of his love
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That's what I Attempt to show you today that his discipline for his children is in his grace
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It's it's in his love that the discipline of God can come in many forms
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And if you will allow me your time, that is what I intend to show you In our outline today, we will see the reasons behind God's discipline.
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It's a point number one Why we need discipline point number two
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The means by which God uses for discipline and point number three the purpose
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For discipline so why we need discipline the means by which God uses for discipline and the purpose for discipline
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And as we transition into that last week, we saw that living by faith is
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Indeed a race, right? That's what we walked through last week We saw that it was a race that we had this great cloud of witnesses and their their life that they lived was witnessed against the recipients of this letter as well as you and I today and It's not a race to where you and I are competing against one another to see who is doing better in their
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Christian walk Right, we're not competing against one another But instead we are running this race to where we want one another to be with us in this race
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This race that we're running looking to Jesus Christ And I gave an analogy of a dog race the the
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Greyhounds that race that right before the Greyhounds take off in this race that a robotic mechanical propel
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Rabbit pops up and it's propelled in front of them and they let the dogs go and the dogs are running
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Trying to catch the rabbit the whole time that they're running their eyes are focused on this mechanical rabbit
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They're not looking at the lines. They're not looking at the other dogs. They're not even worried about what place they're in They're not concerned about things like that.
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They're not even looking at the crowd of people and their cameras around them They're focused on the rabbit and I said that this race this
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Christian race That's what it's like for you and I we're not to be focused on the outside world what people have to say
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We are to be focusing on one another in the sense that we want each other to be in this race But our gaze our focus is to be on Christ Like those
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Greyhounds and they focus on that rabbit we are to focus on Christ And so now we're going to see what happens when we stop looking at Christ Point number one why we need discipline
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So this is taken from Hebrews chapter 12 verses three and four
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Hebrews chapter 12 verses three and four verse three says consider him speaking of Jesus Who endured from sinners such hostility against himself so that you may not grow weary or faint -hearted and Your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood
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So the question is is why do we need discipline?
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And the answer is because we sin Last week one of the let -us statements that we saw so there's seven let -us statements in the book of Hebrews And one of the let -us statements is in the context of where we're at.
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Well the writer included himself It's verse 1 section B of verse 1.
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He says let us also lay aside every weight in sin which clings so closely
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To the heart of sin The writer seems to be drawing a Drawing out the hitting and confess sins the sins that we have not repented of and he it's calling them wait
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He he gives them this visual saying let us also lay aside Every weight the visual of sin here is weight
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And I gave you that analogy of back when I used to run all the time
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You know three to five miles a day and sometimes I would have a weighted vest man. I could hardly move in that thing but once I took that vest off I Could fly right
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Like force I you know I ran like the wind But while that vest was on me
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I was unable to do so I was way down the
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Bible gives us clear definition of this because like whenever we have you know you know
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While I have this vest on I cannot run at my full potential. I cannot run the race at full speed and So while we're in this
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Christian walk while we're supposed to be looking to Christ running this race if we are Carrying sins with us.
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We are not going to be able to run on our full potential at full speed And so the writer is calling it weight telling us to shed this weight
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And the Bible gives a clear definition of what sin is And we've looked at it several times, and we'll look at it again today first John chapter 3
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Verse 4 tells you what sin is I use this verse quite often as I witness to people
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Verse 4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also
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Practices lawlessness Sin right here is Lawlessness Sin is breaking
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God's law God has given a law when we break it whether we're lying whether we're stealing
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Not obedient to our parents not worshiping God the way he we ought to we are sinning breaking
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God's law is sinning When you and I are unrepentant living when you and I have unrepentant sin what we are doing is that we are living
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Not just that we have broken it, but we are living our lives in lawlessness total rebellion against God and As believers as followers of Jesus we are to confess our sins we see this in chapter 1 of 1st
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John verse 9 chapter 1 verse 9 if we confess our sins
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He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all
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Unrighteousness, so this will be in the context of John John deals with two sins one is hating the brothers
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You know the Jews that were not receiving their Gentile brothers in the church, and then you had
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The idea that some people some Jews did not believe that Jesus was the Christ whether it be
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He was not the Christ or that the Christ did not come in the flesh And so these are the the sin that first John is dealing with But specifically here in verse 9 it's them hating their brother, so they were not welcoming to their brother and He said if we confess our sins if we confess that we're not welcoming to our brother
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Repent of these things Christ is faithful to forgive us of all sins Confession of sins and forsaken of sins is in fact what
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Christians are to do if you're a Christian This is what you are to do listen to verses 5 through 7, and you'll kind of see that that context come out clearly
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John writes, and this is the message that we have heard from him speaking of Jesus so verses 1 through 4 right here
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It's talking about how he was an eyewitness of seeing Jesus the Christ in the flesh
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Right that he actually did come in the flesh He says and this is the message that we have heard from him and proclaimed to you that God is light and in him
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There is no darkness at all Verse 6 if we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness we lie and do not practice the truth
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Verse 7, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship with one another
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Jew and Gentile With one another and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all
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Sin now listen to verse 8 and we'll skip 9 and tackle 10 if we if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and The truth is not in us look at verse 10 if we say we have not sinned
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We make him a liar and his word is not in us We are called to walk in the light and we are called not to walk in darkness
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And yet we see that the Bible tells us not to sin But it says that when you do sin confess your sins and never say that you don't sin every one of us sin
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But the one who lives in lawlessness walks in darkness While the one who confesses his sins is forgiven of his sins
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You see the difference there's a difference between Committing a sin
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Confessing it to God to your brother, whatever, you know, keep me accountable. I'm struggling with this help keep me accountable
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Confessing it to the Lord versus someone who is sinning outright and does not recognize their sin
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That person is walking in darkness the scripture says They don't care what?
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What anyone thinks they're gonna do what they want to do this is scripture says they're walking in darkness
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They're claiming to be Christians, but they're walking in darkness in the case of the context
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It would have been them hating their brother not receiving the Gentile as their brother and in our text today
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Hebrews It's still in the context of looking to Jesus as the founder and the perfecter of our faith
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Last week, we looked at the word perfecter, which is the Greek word telly oot Which means finisher and in the
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Greek it combines a statement a sentence if you will and I read this to you last week as well a what it means a perfecter who has in his own person raised faith to its perfection and Has set before us the highest example of faith
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That these great cloud of witnesses that we read about in chapter 11 who lived their life by faith
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That is not the greatest Example of faith, but the greatest example of faith was
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Jesus Christ Living the life that we could not live and taken upon himself our punishment
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Being crucified buried for three days and rising from the grave. This is the greatest act of faith
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That's why we are to look to him as we're running this race We're not to look at the great cloud of witnesses, but we're to focus on Jesus Christ now with that in mind, let's read again our text just the first two words verse 3 of chapter 12 consider him speaking of Jesus Pointing to the founder and the perfecter of our faith right here.
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It tells you verse 2 Who for the joy that was set before him? Endured the cross despised in the shame and assidued at the right hand of God It says to consider him who endured
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From sinners such hostility what hostility right here in verse 2 the spies in the show
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Endured the cross despised in the shame He endured from sinners such hostility against himself so that right here you
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Them you and I today May not grow weary or fainthearted
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He did this for us Right here. It says in your struggle against sin. You have not yet Resisted to the point of shedding your blood this could have definitely two meanings
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One would be that you have not been martyred persecuted another one could mean that you know that Their blood cannot forgive sins, right?
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The writer here is given a comparison and This time it's not Jesus versus Moses as we see in chapter 3
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It's not Jesus versus the great cloud of witnesses as we see in Chapter 11, but it's
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Jesus versus them and versus you and me Jesus is the one who shed his own blood for our sins.
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We have not yet shed it blood Again, like I kind of allude to I believe the writer is reminding them of the once and for all sacrifice that we saw from from from chapters 8 to chapters chapter 7 through chapter 9
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That was made by Jesus Christ that you and I have not shed it blood meaning that We cannot forgive sins that the blood atonement had to be by one who was perfect Spotless the spotless
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Lamb of God John the Baptist sees Jesus He says behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world as we transition
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This is not about punishment the discipline of God is not about punishment
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But rather about discipline there's a difference that I hope to hash out Romans 5 8 tells us this it says but God Shows his love for us and while we were still sinners
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Christ died for us. He took our Punishment Christ took our punishment
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Christ took our punishment, but because there's remaining sins in our life
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We need discipline And that leads us to point number two so point number one
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Why? We need discipline because of our sins our remaining sense point number two the means by which
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God disciplines And so I have two subheadings. The first is the church and the second is sickness and death
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Again you're going to see why this is not such a popular message if you're just you know
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Cruising the Bible trying to find something to preach This is one of those tips. It's one of those texts where you just yeah,
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I'm gonna skip that one I'm not gonna worry about that one. So the first subheading the church and I don't know who was all sitting with us
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But during our lunch last week a few of us were speaking about church discipline. I know
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Robert was with me I believe Shelby was there and Dawson I don't remember who all was around us
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But the the conversation came up about church discipline that the fact that God has given to the church
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The power to execute discipline and church discipline is not for those who?
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confess and forsake their sins But it's for those who live in lawlessness those
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Who walk in darkness? Notice it's not the discipline of God Directly, but for you know the church to actually come down and remove a member from something
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Robert pointed out last week. I Could have said it different than how
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I wrote it down, so I'm not doing an exact quote So, please forgive me Robert if I miss quote you, but he mentioned that it's a built -in mechanism to root out unbelievers
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The church heaven God using the church for discipline is a built -in mechanism to root out unbelievers
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You said well, why is that because no one wants to be disciplined? Right it's it's it's hard to accept discipline right
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I mean, I mean discipline is good, but it's hard to receive it I can again. I remember me being a child and listen.
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I was Not such a great child. You know especially my teen years. You know I did a lot of bad things
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And in receiving discipline was not something easy for me to receive But I want to show you in the scriptures
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God's clear direction for church discipline and a lot of y 'all y 'all know this, but we're just gonna look over it and Maybe open some minds real quick so on Matthew chapter 18
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There's a portion of here first 15 through 20 that we will examine real quick And we'll do this look at verse 15, then we'll look at verses 16 and 17 and then verses 18 and 19
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All right
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So verse 15 if your brother sins against you go and tell him his fault
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Between you and him alone if he listens to you you have gained your brother read that again if Your brother sins against you
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Go and tell him his fault between you and him
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Alone not between everybody else. It's not gossip between you and him alone if he listens to you
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You have gained your brother Verse 15 is a clear indication of spiritual maturity
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Spiritual maturity is when you approach your brother or sister about their sin and they agree with you and They turn to God in repentance
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Spiritual maturity verses 16 and 17
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But if he does not listen Take one or two others along with you still not gossip
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You're taking other people along with you to settle the matter but if he does not listen take one or two others along with you that Every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses
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If he refuses to listen to them tell it to the church and if he refuses
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To listen to even the church let him be to you as a Gentile or a text collector verses 16 and 17 give a clear indicator of spiritual immaturity
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Spiritual immaturity or even a sign that the person was never Truly a
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Christian When one is unwilling to repent of open sin
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Even when confronted by the church if you are so this means that you didn't gain your brother, right?
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You have come to him by yourself. He refused to listen you you brought members from your church particularly and probably an elder
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Because in the context where it says we're two or three or gather this is speaking this has a an elder routine here
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You're going to him you're speaking to him. He does not See his sins, or she does not receive her sins.
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She does not receive this as discipline But outright denies them
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This is a sign of spiritual immaturity Or sign that they may have professed faith with their mouth, but they do not possess faith
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They have not been born again verses 18 through 20
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Truly I say to you Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven
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Now there's a lot of theological debate here We won't get into that today and again
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I say to you if two or three Agree on earth about anything they ask
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It will be done for them by my Father in heaven for where two or three are gathered in my name there
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I am among you them so verses 18 through 20 we see that wherever two or three persons come together as the church and agree concerning church discipline
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It is honored by God Says there I am
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Among you God has given to the church
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Discipline and that the church can and we'll look at it deeper here remove someone
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From the table the Lord's table We have the right to remove someone from the fellowship.
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Well. We do not have the right to do is anything above that Right We do not have any civil
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Magistrate ruling Authority and we'll see that in our next
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Chapter we'll look at 1st Corinthians, please turn with me to 1st Corinthians Chapter 5 1st
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Corinthians chapter 5 I'll read verses 1 through 13 real quick now.
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There's going to be a little bit of Hard to hear language Please forgive me It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality
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Among you and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans for a man has his father's wife and You are ignorant ought you not rather to mourn let him who has done this be removed from among you for though Absent in body
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I am present in spirit And As if present
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I have already pronounced judgment on the one who has done such a thing When you are assembled in the name of the
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Lord Jesus and my spirit is present With you in the power of the
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Lord Jesus you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh
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So that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord You're boasting is not good.
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Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump
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As you really are unleavened for Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed let us
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Therefore celebrate the festival Not with old leaven
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The leaven of malice and evil but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth
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I Wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexual and moral people
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Not at all meaning that the sexual and moral of this world so he's not saying don't don't associate with the sexual and moral of this world or The greedy or the swindlers of the adulterers since then you wouldn't need to go out
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Since then you would need to go out of the world. So if you're not allowed to Associate with sexual and moral people outside the church, then you wouldn't be able to walk outside the church
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You'd have to stay inside the church But now I am writing to you
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Not to associate with anyone who bears the name brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed or is an adulterer reveal a reviler drunk or swindler even
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Not even to eat with such a one Right here verse 12 for what have
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I to do with judging? Outsiders, is it not those?
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Inside the church whom you are to judge God judges outside Purge the evil person from among you.
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I think it's very clear We are if my neighbor is committing adultery on his wife.
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I can't go and remove him from the church He's not a part of the church
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But if any one of you are sleeping around on your wife or you're sleeping around on your husband and I confront you with First me then
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I'll bring someone else and you are unrepentant You will be removed from the church. I guess what the scriptures tell us to do and if you ask me
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That's a downfall in Christianity today The the Revelation calls the church the lampstands and then when you read the book of Revelation Jesus gives warnings and talking about removing the lampstand from the church
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And there's so many churches that claim the name of Jesus, but let me tell you something if they don't practice church discipline
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They probably don't have the lampstand Jesus walking among them
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It's very important for that the church to issue church discipline because God uses church discipline
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To bring the person back if you're not calling someone to repent they're not going to repent
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And so one of the sadness one of the things that breaks my heart about the American church is that they don't
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Have church discipline. This is one of God's use for discipline
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So heading number two sickness and death now, this one is really hard to hear You think the first one was hard to hear
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Let's look at 1st Corinthians chapter 11, this should be near to us since every week we take the
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Lord's Supper We'll look at verses 27 and 32. We'll just give it a quick read chapter 11 verses 27 through 30 32
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Whoever therefore eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in a unworthy manner
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Will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord but a person examined himself then so when a person examined himself then and So eat the bread and drink the cup
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If anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself
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This is why many of you are weak and ill and some have died
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But if we judge ourselves truly We would be not we would not be judged
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But when we are judged by the Lord We are disciplined
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So that we may not Be condemned along with the world even this illness
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Even death is a discipline so that we may not be condemned with the world
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The Supper for us. I mean the supper Not not just for us, but for all people the supper is for the broken
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Right. It's not for the perfect. It's for the broken But with that said it's for the broken those who confess their sins and turn from their sins
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Not for those who openly live in rebellion if you are walking in darkness the supper can be used as a judgment upon And so he warns us
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If you're walking in darkness if you're living in rebellion Don't take the supper if the church knows that you're walking in darkness and living in rebellion
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They have to give a warning like we do before You know before we have the
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Lord's Supper this supper is for those that are in Christ And as we transition
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Let us not forget Ananias and Sapphira chapter 5 of Acts they sewed a piece of their property they told us the
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Apostles that this is the amount of money that they received for the property and they wanted to give them all the money that they
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Received knowing that they actually kept back money and in discipline
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God kills them dead because they lied to the Holy Spirit They fell dead
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Now you might say that's an extreme case and yes, it is that's an extreme case But too often when bad things end up happening to us people seem to blame the devil and not their own evil actions
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All the devil did it the devil's coming on me bad things are happening the devil must be riding my back no
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You need to repent right? You need to repent God is putting discipline upon you
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People don't want to admit their own sinful behaviors and when discipline comes they blame it on the devil point number three the purpose of discipline
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Hebrews chapter 12 verses 5 through 17. This is a large portion, but we'll get through it real quick Now as I stated earlier discipline is not punishment
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Christ has taken our punishment Discipline is for those who God considers to be a son
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Revelations chapter 3 verse 19. Jesus says these words to one of the churches. He says to whom
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I love I Reprove and discipline. You say that again to whom
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I love. This is Jesus. I Reprove and discipline so Be zealous and repent
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Turn from your sins as what he is saying You might be thinking to yourself, well, what about sickness and death and with that let me say it could have been worse
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You said what's worse than sickness and death? How about your body and soul soul thrown into hell?
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Death is not the worst thing that can happen to you as a citizen Sunday school earlier I mean not Sunday, but I was having that meeting that if I die trust
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I'm dancing where angels tread If there was some way that you can come to me and say hey Jeff, you want to come back?
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I'd be like no way Cuz as good as this is it's nothing on what we will experience in the presence of God There's worse things than death
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Now although this is a longer portion But it has to do with the purpose of God's discipline.
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So I Had to put it all together. So we didn't do the purpose of God's discipline two weeks in a row
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He gives an analogy of a father and a son in Hebrews chapter 12 I mean chapter 12 verses 5 through 9 because it deals with sonship but let's just read verses 5 and 6 to start with Hebrews 12 verses 5 and 6 and You have and have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons my son
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Do not regard the Lord Regard lightly the discipline of the Lord or nor be weary when approved by him for the
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Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastens every son whom he
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Receives now if you're going under discipline right now, you should be thanking God I can remember and I've probably told you this before I was outside I probably look like a wild man
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God was disciplined me and I saw someone doing something that I was being disciplined for and I literally looked up and said how can he do this and I can't and this verse came to my mind and I began to weep and well and And just celebrate that God has received me as a son verses 5 and 6 is a quotation from Proverbs chapter 3
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Verses 11 and 12 and we'll quickly walk through the context verses 1 through 12
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Proverbs chapter 3 1 through 12. This is something that should be very familiar with you It says my son do not forget the teeth my teachings
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But let your heart be but let but let your heart keep my commandments
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For the length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you
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Let not steadfast love and Faithfulness forsake you bind them around your neck and write them on the tablets of your heart
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And we know under the New Covenant that this is what Jesus has performed for us. Jesus kept the law of God We are in the
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New Covenant by faith in him. He has written his law in our hearts This is not something we do.
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We don't have to bind something and write it on ourselves Jesus has done this for us through the New Covenant Verse 4 so you will find favor and good success in God's sight and man
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Trust in the Lord with all of your heart Do not lean on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your path
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Be not wise in your own eyes fear the Lord Turn away from evil it will be healing to your flesh and a refreshment to your bones honor the
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Lord with your wealth and With the first fruit of all your produce Then your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will burst with wine
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My son do not despise the Lord's discipline or be weary of his reproof
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For the Lord reproves him Whom he loves as a father the son in whom he delights
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The Book of Proverbs is teaching us to honor the Lord by keeping his commandments and by giving of our wealth
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And first John back to first John First John chapter 2 verse 3 tells us that this is how we know that we have come to know him
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So if you want to know how you've come to know him it tells you right here is that we keep his
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Commandments whoever says that he knows him speaking of God and does not keep his commandments is a
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Liar and the truth is not in him and a lot of false Theology is being built around this a lot of cults bring this up When all you have to do is read keep reading keep reading
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You come to first John chapter 3 verse 23 And it says and this is his commandment so in first chapter 2 or talks about his commandments
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This is what this is addressing in chapter 3 verse 23 And this is his commandments that we believe in the name of the
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Son Jesus Christ and love one another Just as he has commanded us
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How do we fulfill the law of God we believe in the name of the Son and we love our neighbors as ourselves
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We keep the commandments by believing in Jesus And loving our neighbors.
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How do we do this? Well, you hear the gospel you put your faith in Jesus you live your life as that Like that greyhound running the race looking at that rabbit.
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We live our lives as Christians living our life Looking to Jesus Christ the author and perfecter of our faith, and we love our neighbors as ourselves
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God has given us the fruit of the Spirit in order to be gracious to our neighbors And he has commanded us to forgive our neighbors when our neighbors are not gracious to us
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We give of our wealth and our tithes and offerings to the church me included every one of us
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It's what we're called to do There's things that the church has to We have to have money in order to we have to pay rent
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We have to we have to you know, pay for the light bills Like, you know, we want to be able to send money to missionaries overseas
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We want to have money for missions in our own neighborhood, right? So we we give so we can have these things so we can we can minister to people those near us and those afar from us
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We want to have a place where we can gather. We we give money we give of our wealth to the church
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We believe that God blesses that And listen if you are not doing these things if you're not looking to Jesus Christ if you're not loving your neighbors if you're not giving of your wealth and These things this discipline comes upon you be grateful be grateful
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Because he only disciplines those whom he considers to be a son If you're not looking to Jesus you're not loving your neighbors and you're not giving to the church and nothing's being done to you fair fair fair Because something worse than death
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Can occur to you I hope y 'all see how this is such a like this is something you just don't decide to preach, right?
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But we are committed to the exposition of God's word Verses 2 verses 7 through 9.
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Let's read that real quick It's still an idea of sonship It is for discipline that you that you have to endure
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God is treating you as Sons for what son is there whom the father does not discipline?
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If you are left without discipline in which you have participated Then you are an illegitimate child and not
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Sons besides this we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them
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Shall we not much more be subjected to the father of spirits and live?
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There were most likely at this time has as the writer is speaking this or most likely people
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We know that they were going back to the temple that they were committing sins that they were not supposed to be committing
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But most likely there were people these people that were doing these things some of them were not being disciplined
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Some of them were not being disciplined for going back and making Sacrifices after Christ has made that once and for all sacrifice
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Some of them was probably able to live in some adulterous sin and not feel any kind of discipline
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They were not looking to Jesus. They were not loving their neighbor. They were not giving of their wealth and Nothing was happening.
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The writer is saying listen, ladies and gentlemen, this is not a good thing Stop looking at them thinking that they're lucky.
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This is not a good thing They're illegitimate children If you and I can name the name of Christ Like consciously if you and I can name the name of Christ and our conscience allows us to live
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However, we won't the writer is saying you are an illegitimate child Because children are to be
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Thankful to be grateful for the discipline of God Hebrews chapter 12 10 through 14 deals with our holiness 10 through 14 for they
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For they discipline speaking of our earthly fathers for they disciplined us for a short time as seen best to them
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But he God disciplines us for our good that we may share in his holiness
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For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant But later it yields a peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it therefore lift your droopy head strengthen your weak knees and Make straight the path of your feet so that what is lame may not be put out of joint
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But but rather heal strive for peace With everyone and when and for the holiness without which no one will see
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God So the Lord's discipline is for our holiness
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He disciplines us for our good that we might share in his holiness. Notice the the text says his holiness verse 10 being
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But he disciplines us for our good that we may share in his
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Holiness not our holiness that we may share in his holiness And I got here written in my
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Bible if the Lord does not discipline you You will not share in his holiness
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Holiness comes from the discipline of God and look at verse 14 strive for peace with everyone and For the holiness this that we receive in discipline when we're being disciplined
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We need to repent this that brings holiness and without which no one will see the
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Lord Without this holiness that we get in discipline No one will see the
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Lord if you are not in this life sharing in the holiness of God You will not see the
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Lord The only part of God you will see is
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His judgment and verse 11 tells us what we gain from this discipline. It tells us that we gain
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Peaceful fruit of righteousness read it with me for the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant
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But later it yields a peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it now the
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Greek word here for train is Ganazo now forgive me as I translate this for you, okay
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Forgive me Ganazo means to train naked or to train in a loincloth
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This points us back to verse 1 of chapter 12 be Where it says let us lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely to us
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Let us lay aside means let us take it off as We're running this race not our real clothing, but the sins that beseech us
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So well do we run naked well no Romans 13 14 tells us to put on the Lord Jesus Christ and to make no provision to satisfy the flesh
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What are we putting on we put on Christ the picture the scriptures give us a picture of his
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Righteousness by believing in him the righteousness of Christ covers us
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This is how you put on Christ and you live your life not planning to sin Sin happens, but you don't make plans for it and when it happens you repent you confess
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Training means that we strip ourselves naked from sin by the discipline of God which yields a peaceful fruit of righteousness
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Which is the purpose of his discipline is our holiness
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So to close with this last little bit Hebrews 12 15 through 17 It deals with our repentance
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See to it that no one falls by this Fell excuse me see to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble and by it
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Many become defiled That no one is sexual and moral like or unholy like Esau Who sowed his birthright for a single meal
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For you know that afterwards when he desired to inherit a blessing he was rejected
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For he found no chance to repent though. He sought it with tears the text gives us two sins sexual immorality and Unhooked and to be unholy like Esau.
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Let's look at the first one sexual morality. This will be real quick Chapter 6 of 1st
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Corinthians, we'll look at verses 15 through 20 We'll just read them verse 15
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Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take a member of Christ and make them a member of a prostitute?
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Never or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her
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For it is written. The two will become one flesh But he who is joined to the
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Lord becomes one in spirit with him I hope you caught that but he who is joined to the Lord becomes one in spirit with him flee from Sexual immorality every other sin a person commits is outside their body
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But sexual and moral person sins against his own body Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the
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Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God You are not your own for you were bought with a price
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So glorify God in your body and listen when you glorify God in your body
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You are glorifying God through the body of Jesus Christ we are individual temples when we gather we gather as the body of Christ as Believers we are one body in Jesus Christ filled with the
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Holy Spirit Therefore because that is true. We are his temple. We are one with Christ and if we are not honoring the temple of God We are going to be disciplined by God and therefore we must repent
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The second sin was to be unholy like Esau and the text here is speaking plainly
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It's just referring to him not considering his birthright worth anything So he sewed it for a single meal.
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The context would be you have Jacob so Abraham Isaac and Jacob so Jacob would have been
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Esau's twin twin brother So Jacob has and with his right what
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I mean Isaac has with his wife Rebecca Esau and Jacob a lot of times we'll say
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Jacob and Esau but Esau was the firstborn but Jacob received the blessing because right here
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Esau did not Consider his birthright.
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He did not respect the blessing that was going to come to him So he sewed it for a single meal and so we see how
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Jacob Ended up, you know putting fur on them and stuff like that and taking the birthright right from under his feet
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He was able to do that because he sewed it for a single meal He considered him being the firstborn of Isaac as nothing.
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It didn't mean anything to him Him being born of Isaac meant nothing. He'll be the firstborn meant nothing
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So he sewed it So later on when he realized what he had done, he sought repentance with tears, but he was not given it
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He was not given his birthright back He was not given the blessing
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Jacob was given the blessing. So the question is is what do we do with this? and the answer is
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You and I we live our life. We live a life of faith Right, we're taking it back to chapter 11.
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We're running the race We're looking to Jesus Christ. We're turning from sin and not despising our election
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If you are a Christian you have been chosen before the foundation of the world to be a Christian to serve
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Jesus Christ Do not despise your election like Esau despised his birthright and Listen if you're in sin confess repent
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Do not live your life in sin The gospel is simple. Jesus Christ has lived the life.
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We could not live. He has died the death that we should die He was buried and rose again on the third day and after he rose again on the third day
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He ascended to heaven He's at the right hand of the father right now on the right hand of the father on the throne of David ruling and reigning
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Putting all enemies under his feet and if you're a Christian here today, you were an enemy and you've been footstooled
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Right alongside of me through that message. We broke God's law
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We have sinned God has paid our fine by sending his son and he's called all men everywhere to repent and to put their faith in Jesus Christ Ladies and gentlemen, if you're here today,
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I pray you've done that I'm available to anyone who wants to speak pastor
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Cal Josh as well Join me in prayer Father Lord, we love you.
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We thank you for all that you have done for us. We thank you for your word Lord, I thank you
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For those who are here today who heard this message what I pray that was fruitful to them
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I know it's a hard message to preach Lord, I'm so grateful for the words that are in here
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I know that they have that you have used them in my life to turn from sin and to seek
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Christ by faith to turn to you in Christ by faith Well, I pray right now as we prepare ourselves to partake in the supper
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Lord that you are preparing your people Lord I pray that they are looking into themselves in a worthy manner.
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There are confessed in sins before they approach your table. We love you We pray that you will be gracious with us today in Jesus name.