Suffer like a Christian - Brandon Scalf

All right, well if you would grab your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Hebrews and this time

I do mean the book of Hebrews and Specifically turn to Hebrews chapter 12

Hebrews Chapter 12 and I know it took us an hour and 28 minutes this morning to get through two words

But I'm going to attempt to do 14 verses this evening

Hebrews chapter 12 verses 1 through 14 1 through 14 and the title of this message is

Suffer like a Christian suffer like a Christian So if you would please stand with me for the reading of God's holy and all sufficient word

And I will begin reading in verse 1 This is the

Word of God therefore since we have so great a cloud of Witnesses surrounding us laying aside every weight in sin, which so easily entangles us

Let us run with endurance the race That has set before us fixing our eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of faith

Who for the joy set before him endured the cross despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God for consider

Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself so that you will not grow weary and fainting in heart you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood and you're striving against sin and You have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons

My son do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord Nor faint when you are reproved by him for those whom the

Lord loves he disciplines and he flogs 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 than you are illegitimate children and not sons

Furthermore we had earthly fathers to discipline us and we respected them shall we not much more or rather be subject to the father of spirits and live

For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us For our benefits so that we may share his holiness

And all discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful but to those who have been trained by it afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness therefore strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble and Make straight paths for your feet

So that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed

Pursue peace with all men and the sanctification Without which no one will see the

Lord Grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever. Amen Amen, go ahead and have a seat and look back with me at Hebrews chapter 12

As I look around this room and I Contemplate the truth that lays before us in these 14 verses.

I am Convinced that I do not have to make an apologetic for the existence of suffering

Suffering is part of the human experience and if you've lived longer

Than a couple weeks, you know that to be true now, of course to some degree others in life suffer more

Than others, but everyone suffers because we live in a fallen world.

We are fallen creatures and it is hard to live in a world that is governed by the world

Influenced by the devil and A praise on our fleshly

Nature that exists apart from Christ, but even as we grow in Christ likeness, we are still

Not immune to suffering in fact The text that lays before us shows us that if we are

Christians, we should expect suffering Not only should we welcome it

Not only should we think it's not strange when we meet it, but we should

Understand that it is a promise That God will give us suffering luckily in the form of discipline, but suffering none

The less and when we meet Suffering When we hurt

When life hurts when people hurt us when we hurt others and relational tensions Manifest the reality is that we don't always meet those types of things with the disposition that we ought for instance we often react and respond very poorly out of the recesses of our

Wicked hearts Out of the old man's way of thinking and feeling we oftentimes blame other people we blame circumstances

Or most erroneously at times we find ourselves blaming God Why God are you allowing this to happen?

Why are you doing this to me? standing in judgment over him and his

Sovereignty so my aim as we look at today's text and to be fair, it will be a cursory glance we won't have time to get into every my

My new detail but but my aim and and looking at this text is not to convince you as I said

The suffering is real nor is it? to ask you to look at your past suffering and and see how

Christ has been faithful to you in those moments And and and spur you on to consider the past because if God has been faithful in Christ in the past He will most certainly be faithful and true in the future.

And and while that's true And while that's something we can hold on to I'm not trying to do that either

What I want to do is I want us to look at these 14 verses and ask the question

Not so much. How do we get through suffering? Not to gain a better understanding about suffering right because then that's just catering to our fleshly desires our

Fleshly innards and it's giving us Essentially a play -by -play playbook a play -by -play playbook

Say that three times fast on how to do something in our own strength, even if it's to look at the example

Of other people for God even what we want and what we're after is

I Want to ask the question and seek to answer the question. How how do we honor and glorify

God? while We suffer in other words.

What I'm asking is how can we in the light of this text? Suffer in a distinctly

Christian way because I don't know if you know this or not The suffering looks different For the

Christian than it does the non -christian At least it should Your life as a

Christian should not only look different in suffering but has a different perspective

Wow Suffering is raining Down What I'm after is for us to be able to say as we walk out these doors along with Samuel Rutherford I hang by a thread

But it is of Christ's spinning but of course the

Bible Tells us how we can get there And what might be surprising to you is the answer to how to suffer like a

Christian is not a 12 -step program as a matter of fact the

Bible doesn't want you To do anything The Bible has no action steps for you to do in this regard

We simply have to do Some heart work You can't do better and try harder yourself out of suffering like a non -christian

You have to have a new set of eyeballs with a a New perspective that is informed by Something altogether different than getting to the other side of bleeding.

So what must we do? on the light of our text I'm going to make the argument that in order for us to honor

God and glorify him In and through suffering we must consider the treasures

Hidden in the Lord Jesus Christ The beauties found in him.

That's the fuel to endure Whips and chains will not bring you through the fiery furnace

You need Christ and you need to see Christ and his beauty You need to see

Christ in his glory and you need to see Christ for Christ's Christness if you are going to Get through anything

Suffering sure, but but but even just the everyday tasks as we are frail

And we are finite So in Hebrews, we have a situation a context right and that matters the context in Hebrews is simply

Well, not simply. I mean there's a lot going on here. But the context is Paul, of course or You know,

I have to make sure I nuance that properly we don't know who wrote the book of Hebrews You know, there's a lot of people who say it was

Paul church history kind of says it's Paul there's a lot of reason to believe that Paul didn't write the book because of Vocabulary Grammar syntax that sort of thing people believe it to be

Barnabas people believe it to be Luke people to believe it to be I Mean, there's probably there's honestly probably a theory out there for just about anybody you can think of You know, but you know, a lot of those theories are

Trash and you just ignore them. I think it makes the most sense to consider the reality that Luke wrote it and it was a sermon preached by the

Apostle Paul now, that's You know my opinion. I have no proof of that and I'm willing to be wrong

I'm like probably am wrong, but that makes the most sense to me given The grammar the syntax and so on and so forth and some of the other background stuff

But we don't have time to get into that now, but for the sake of argument I'm probably going to say Paul quite a few times is the author of Hebrews and I just want you to know

I know What I'm saying and what I'm not saying Just vibe with me if you will But the author of Hebrews You know, you know the

Apostle Paul through the pen of Luke is Addressing a group of Hebrews who are in a world of hurt you could say they are being persecuted for their faith both

In regard to the world but also in regard to their own religion and their own

Family you see they have Transitioned as it were now, of course, we know Jesus to be the fulfillment of Old Testament scriptures

But a lot of Hebrews at the time they didn't see eye -to -eye with that reality. And so for them to follow

Jesus I would have meant a lot of Trouble a lot of relational trouble not to mention the pressures that were coming in Around them

From the pagan societies not only that but people were getting sick people were dying There was an ambiguity and I think this is a big one as to how they ought to worship

Now, of course the Bible is clear the Apostle Paul did not lead anybody into darkness or confusion

But but I mean think about it. It's weird, right like Jesus has come he's done away with the sacrificial system

And you're told that now you worship him and you no longer have to participate in You know the sacrificial rites of of Judaism because Jesus has in fact been the sacrifice once and for all and yet, there's still this temple where all that stuff's going on that has been a big part of your life and People are still going to it and then some people are trying to say oh, you know, you could kind of do both

You can kind of be a Jew plus a Christian and all these other things and there's so much confusion and so much pressure

Going on in this climate that the book of Hebrews needed to be written right to clarify

Not only the person in the work of Jesus Christ, but how he relates to and fulfills the

Old Testament To put a little bit of steel in their spines as it were.

I don't hear what I'm not saying. There's some Right rebukes and and pointed applications and things like this

But but they wanted the author here the dual team Luke and Paul, you know their own types of Sons of Thunder, but you know, they they were writing this down and They were trying to get at the heart of the matter.

What what is Jesus? Doing what has he done and and how does that affect you now?

And how does that you know cause you to think about the way in which he used to worship

God in? the past and How does that help you get through what you're going through right now?

and of course there were other things going on that we could get into but I just want you to think about that that there Was this huge bubble of just suffering that was happening in regard to these people

They needed to be lifted up and what Paul did not give them is, you know, this is wrong on List of things to do but rather he points them

At least in our text to consider some things to consider

Some things namely Jesus Christ, but he does it in a threefold manner so the first thing that I want you to see as we look at our text today is

That if we want to suffer like a Christian the way that the

Apostle Paul would have us Do we must first?

Consider the Saints of old and how they look to Christ We must consider

The Saints of old look with me at Hebrews chapter 1 it begins by saying therefore Therefore since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us

Laying aside every weight and sin which so easily entangles us. Let us run with endurance the race

That is fixed before us the author of Hebrews has injected himself into This admonition and he's saying we've got a race to run

In other words, we've got some Christian life to live We've got some some

Jesus to chase and we need to do it and we need to do it

Understanding first and foremostly that there is a cloud of witnesses Surrounding us and then if we understand that then we can begin to chuck off some of this unneeded weight

That's going to help us run the race to the set Before us so the first thing that we want to do and it's not the most important as a matter of fact it's probably the least important out of the three that we will discuss but it is one nonetheless that is

Extremely Important consider the Saints of old

Where do I get that because you're thinking what in the world I see therefore since we have so great a cloud of witnesses That this therefore is very helpful here

Children what why What do we do with the word therefore when we see it, right?

We have to ask why it's therefore as Is common in almost every single sermon that that comes to the forefront that has a connecting word

We are understanding that this therefore here is connecting The previous part of the argument and the previous part of that argument is all of chapter 11 well, really all of Hebrews, but specifically chapter 11 and chapter 11 is like You know, if you don't know chapter 11, you're not shopping at Mardell's.

I mean Chapter 11 is like the chapter for you know faith lovers faith

Believers we have a definition of faith We have all these men who did all these crazy and wild things

Because of their faith and and we want to emulate these people this great cloud of witnesses this great

You know Hall of Faith if you will but it deserves some attention maybe with a fresh perspective even but no doubt faith is

That thing in which they had namely in the coming of the Messiah the promises of God that they would in fact

Interest and be saved and there's so much more that goes along with that in the book of Hebrews That they would receive a reward that they would eventually

Inherit a city that was Made with God's hands my man's hands it says in Hebrews chapter 11 verse

One that faith is the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen and and what is true is

They did not see Christ in the way that we see Christ and yet they persevered in their faith that Christ would come that God would be faithful to his promise to redeem his people and They by faith did lots of things.

That's that's the point of chapter 11 of Hebrews that that by faith

These men did amazing Things and the reality is this is a good case study as to why you should probably read more of your

Bible because It's gonna tell us essentially the entire history of the Bible, you know, it just in these 40 verses at least the

You know peaks, you know It's going to show us Characters and and and how they engaged with God and and how

God used them in redemptive history I mean, it's almost

Kind of musical Right because you start looking through here and you see in verse 3 by faith

We understand that the worlds were prepared by the Word of God So that we what a scene was not made out of things which are visible and then verse 4 it goes right into some of These Patriarchs the faith able offered to God a better Sacrifice than Cain through which he was approved as being righteous

God approving his gift by faith Enoch verse 5 Verse 7 by faith

Noah the verse 8 by faith Abraham You know and you just keep going on and on and on Verse 20 by faith

Isaac verse 21 by faith Jacob verse 22 by faith

Joseph the verse 23 by faith Moses and I'm not going to recap all of these stories for you

I would love for you to go back and and look at that on your own time But what I want you to understand is that these men

Did what they did? Because they were looking not to what was in front of them, but what was promised and we see that as we get to the end of verse 23

Verse 24 rather it says by faith Moses when he had grown up refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy

The passing pleasures of sin at this point. We're seeing all this happening by faith And we should be asking the question what in the world was driving all these men to do all these things before God and what is enabling

Moses here to reject Power prestige money favor

To be treated as a slave Rather to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.

He would rather Be in the dirt with his people Why? So not only does suffering like a

Christian look like living by faith, but it looks like at times welcoming even by choice

Suffering that might come Your way so long as it is pleasing unto God and it is done with Jesus on the other end of your gaze

Why first 26 he was looking to? the reward

If your theology doesn't make room for rewards You should get a new one.

Of course. We know that the greatest reward is Christ himself What I find most interesting about this entire passage

I mean it keeps going and talks about the walls of Jericho falling and Rahab the harlot doing this that and the other and and And and he even goes on to say

I would love to list more people, but that would just be kind of pointless I don't have time to do that verse 32 and what more shall

I say for time will fail me if I recount gideon barack samson jeffa as well as david and samuel and the prophets who through the faith conquered kingdoms

Now at this point I want you to notice something As we're looking at these saints of old there's two kind of ways in which god is using those people who are living by faith welcoming hardship trial and suffering and he and god chooses providentially to use them in two different ways the first way is that he chooses to Build them up make them influential and completely

Build up their legacy to the point where you are reading about them all these thousands of years later looking at them going wow

Wow You see christian theology

Is not necessarily Loser theology like to be a good christian.

You don't necessarily have to be Maybe Hidden in the dark somewhere not being used of god to do powerful and mighty things like maybe god wants to use you

Like he used these people in mighty Ways it's the same faith

But it's faith that god uses and wields And it's faith to endure the different type of heart.

It's hard To have influence it's it's hard to create legacies that matter

It's hard when people actually care about what it is that you're doing and what you're saying.

It's hard to lead kingdoms It's hard to lead churches. It's hard to lead businesses. It's hard to be used of god in mighty

Ways the question is how are you going to get through it faith? It's the same way that you get through the second way right

It was through faith that they conquered kingdoms verse 33 Performed righteousness obtained promises shut the mouths of lions now that You know that that that's on a mardell sweater somewhere right like faith that'll shut the mouth of lions like I got that right

That's really funny to me. I wish you guys thought that was funnier, but it's it's true right like like that's that that'll preach

Okay Because we can do all things through christ, right? Yeah, you got you see what i'm saying here, right

But seriously god does do that. He does actually use people in mighty and magnificent ways

He he does use them as they trust him by faith to shut the mouths of lions to conquer kingdoms to as 34 says

Quench the power of fire escape the edge of sword being that is by being mighty in battle, right?

Uh being being made strong from weakness, right? They're not strong for strength's sake, right? They're strong in their weakness.

In other words, they're strong in their dependence on jesus christ

And the promises to come not to be sure It was a shadow of a promise but How much more should our faith be when it is more revealed?

Than what these people had and and that will become more clear as I move on these these people became mighty in war put foreign armies to flight

And some women by their faith received back their dead by resurrection Now what in the world does that mean?

Ha ha we don't have time to get into that Yeah, but it happened right so they received back their dead from resurrection speaking of these old testament men and women of god

You know you can think of Elijah and elisha when they were doing their ministry and they raised the dead of the young boy for the mother

That could be what it's talking about here maybe not but We know that the faith is

Is how god used? that Now for the non -mardel sweater wearing bunch of us

This hebrews 11 takes a hard left turn and this is what's left off the coffee mugs and off the sweaters

But shows us that faith the same faith that enables men to do all of these great things for the god in his name

Is the same? that enables us To be destroyed to be ground to powder for his namesake for his glory

I want you to see this because not many people see this And not many people not only see this but they don't actually understand that, you know, it's actually probably better Than the alternative it's better For you if you're the one who's ground to powder than if you are the one who is leading

These armies and putting them into flight and doing all these sorts of things, right? Because it goes on in 35

Others were tortured Whoo, that's that's a hard left turn right all these people did all these amazing things

Some received back their Dead by resurrection. Oh, by the way, but others were tortured not accepting their release

So that they might obtain a Better resurrection. What resurrection is that?

That's the resurrection of the crisis purchased for his people And others experienced mockings and floggings yes also chains and imprisonment they were stoned

They were sawn in two they were tempted they were put to death with the sword they were

Sent about in sheep skins and goat skins being destitute afflicted and Mistreated wandering in desolate places and mountains and caves and holes in the ground and All these having gained approval through their faith did not receive what was promised because god has provided something better for us

So that apart from us they would not be made perfect Now I skipped over A very important phrase and the reason

I did that is because I wanted you to take notice of it It says of whom the world was not worthy

The world is not worthy of such men who love jesus so much

That they are willing to suffer like That's a faith.

That's unshakeable That's a faith that shows off christ

Like no other and here's the deal. They didn't even get what was promised to them Then But you do and they're waiting for us

And if you want a better explanation on this I preached at the first of the year specifically on verses one and two of hebrews

And I go into great detail as to what this means But they're waiting for us

So that god in the consummation of all things can make all things new or will be resurrected to our glorified bodies in the new heavens

And new earth where jesus will reign and rule forever Comforting us loving us and telling us

Race wasn't too bad was it? So we look to these men these old men these old saints not imitating them by trying to be them or trying to seek after influence and legacy or seeking

Destitution Death and harm but but Looking at what they looked at looking at them

To look at what they were looking at Which was christ The reward the city

That is built without hands. The second thing that I want you to consider Is that you must consider not only?

The saints of old but the author and perfecter of faith who is the christ so so these

Saints were viewing christ, which was the fuel for the race our race

That we are now running is running with them alongside us as it were through their stories and encouragement and perspective and and now we're going to turn our gaze to Our author and perfecter of that very faith

Who is the christ it goes on to say? As we need to run the race

We need to verse to fix our eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter or you could translate that pioneer, which

I actually like that a lot better But unfortunately, no translation uses that Though they should it's the author and perfecter pioneer

Finisher Finisher of faith he is the author of faith that is that he is

The one who Orchestrates faith, but he's also the perfecter of faith

That is he lived by faith And he perfects our faith And it was for the joy who was set before him that he endured the cross despising the shame and and it is him who has sat down at the right hand of the throne of god and for And and he is the one who has withstood

And endured hostility by sinners against himself And so it's him that we are to fix our eyes on as we run this race.

It's him that we are to consider It's him that we are to gaze at this a very simple story that john flavel tells in his

Treaties on the meditorial work of christ and it's a beautiful story and you know

If there was a theobro in the room, he won't like it, but that's okay. We'll we'll move on past it anyway but he tells the story about a woman whom

He went to a wedding with um, or who was there with him?

I don't think he was just like going out hanging out with another woman who wasn't his wife But but he happened to be around her and be with her and he asked her like You know thinking that the groom

Was wearing something fabulous or something very um provocative,

I mean, I don't I don't actually know or remember exactly what the Reason was but essentially he wanted to know if she had noticed this bridegroom of the wedding and She of course turns to john flavel and says um, actually no,

I I did not Actually notice the bridegroom at all And the reason I didn't notice the bridegroom is because the only man that I saw

At that event was my husband And john flavel marks that makes the argument that that that's what the christian life should be like There's other things going on.

There's other things to worry about there's other priorities as it were but what you're noticing is

Like she noticed Her husband. He's the only one in the room And so the bible makes the argument.

Sorry dudes Uh that christ is our heavenly husband. The puritans talked about this a lot

And the idea is our gaze our eyes our affections Everything should be focused on him so much.

So that everything else Is peripheral everything else is in the background.

Everything else is governed by him Not the other way around your circumstances ought not in other words if you're suffering

Given the context of the of the passage and what we're talking about Should not influence how we view christ but our view of christ should influence how we see these other

Things our affection for christ should influence how we view these other

Things and so how can we very practically do this and I know i'm always up against the clock here, but I want to step outside for a second

Of this text while also looking at this text, but I want to be clear i'm i'm i'm definitely

I'm definitely uh You know Being somewhat puritan -esque in the way that i'm going about this

Which on the surface can feel Disjointed but if you just bear with me,

I think maybe it will prove fruitful first How do we how do we consider jesus firstly you consider the sufferings of christ when you're considering jesus

We're considering his suffering right when we look here we see That there was a joy set before him as he endured the cross enduring the cross

This suffering despising The shame means that he Was either right there's a shame of this happening

And he despised that shame instead of giving into that shame And he sits sat at the right hand in of power

Essentially, right? He transcended that situation because he had this joy

Of the salvation of his people before him and the glorifying of almighty god, but he suffered

He suffered greatly But not only did he suffer greatly he suffered greatly when he didn't deserve it when he didn't have to and when he had

No Blame in any of the situation, right? most situations We can at least chalk up to it's potentially partly or maybe all of our fault

I mean, even if you back all the way up to we just live in a sin marred world Well whose fault is that that's ours for sinning

Right. We brought sin into the world So even that that is somebody else sitting against me like it's still like it's still kind of our fault

But none of that is true about jesus he suffered As a lamb to the slaughter innocent his sufferings

Were great they weren't just chains and whips. It was the wrath of god and yet he endured

And he endured and rose above it and did not grow weary and faint -hearted but stood his ground as The christ

Verse three it says for consider him who has endured such hostilities by sinners against himself

So that you will not grow weary and faint In heart all of his suffering was

External and he still stood his ground So we must fix our eyes on him if we want to run our race and and seek to suffer like a christian

And we need to do that by considering his sufferings we also need to do that by considering his strength or his power which is

Made evident and clear by his throne sitting That's the right hand of power that's where edicts comes from That's where rule and reigning comes from that's where the scepter is waved about And put forth and he sat down The imagery there is in victory

And when we understand christ then to be this powerful full of strength one

Then we can throw ourselves on him his promises and his balm with a type of dependency

That will enable us to move through suffering and Consider the presence of christ as he sends his spirit

That enables us then to walk through suffering through the furnaces of affliction and of course that is

Outside of the scope of this text and I know that but but it's important to consider as well as consider the perseverance of christ

Now that is present in here to some degree. He he kept going Until it was finished.

He kept going. He endured the cross, which means he went Through what was required of him.

He endured it. He went through it He took it on And he persevered so when you consider jesus you can consider your perseverance.

You can't make it through this suffering Look to jesus Look to the look at to the old saints

And what what the author of hebrews is doing here is trying to get you you are not the only one to suffer Jesus didn't even not suffer

Suffering is a part of the christian life so much so that even the son of god didn't get out of suffering

So do not think it's strange but consider him And consider the prayers of christ, which also is not in this text

But throughout the gospels and as he's heading to galgotha He prayed for for for for his disciples and he prayed for you and and for me and he in his

Mediation prays for us now He ever lives the book of hebrews says to make intercession for us he prays that we would be one

That we would see his glory that we would be sustained in the fight against sin

This is jesus prays for us and he has purchased for us god's answer of yes to his prayers and consider

Christ and his communion with his saints. He he desires to commune And consider christ and his eternal

Plan the eschaton where all things as the book of ephesians has already taught us

Where all things will be summed up In christ and if you have christ before your eyes through suffering and all of these things you will be able to suffer like a christian lastly and finally

Consider god's providential purposes and suffering. So christ the second point here towers the rest

But this one here is really helpful

Piece of information balm For the wounds. I don't know about you, but hebrews chapter 12

I I could live in and in in my early christian days Especially when I was coming out of the army and different things like this.

I I just lived here and I just think that you know,

I the lord had to and continues to have to uh, just drop kick me because Uh, you know,

I I I am a sinner And I need drop kicked and I need discipline and I need to suffer

So that I can as j .i. packer Has has called sanctification. Um uh, so it means

I could be sanctified but but so that I could as j .i. packer has said about sanctification that You know, my fingers need to be ripped from the things of this world

And we all need that and so when you get to hebrews 12 it's like Some very uncomfortable truth

But but truth nonetheless that will rock you if you believe it and it will change the way you suffer

And it will change the way you experience the world and people Around you why?

Because it shows us that god has a providential purpose in our suffering especially as it relates

To christ He goes on in hebrews chapter 12

You have not resisted to the point of shedding blood and you're striving against sin argument jesus did though, right?

You think you've resisted sin No, you haven't You have not

Friends hear me on that. You think you have resisted sin you have not

At least not to the level that jesus christ. By the way, that's how he helps us

You know so many people say well How can he come to the aid of those which is what hebrews chapter 2 says right? Of those who were tempted because he was tempted in every way that we were except for without sin

How is how how in the world can christ so identify with us if he never ever sinned, right?

That's the argument The answer to that question is because he experienced the temptation of that sin

He experienced the sinful world and people sitting against him and he didn't fail He didn't give in you did the reason jesus can come to your help is because he's gotten to the other side of that thing

He's gotten to the other side of that temptation and he knows what it looks like to stand his ground

And to resist Is the god name? jesus christ Righteous, but that is not the point that I was trying to make this is you've forgotten your exhortation, which is addressed to you as sons like My guess is he's probably asking the question of like, you know, um, you know

Maybe he's hearing that they're complaining about their suffering or maybe he's seeing that they're not suffering Well, and and he's like it seems to me you've forgotten

You seem to have forgotten some things, right? some very important truths

And those truths are these my Son, this is a quotation from the old testament He says you've forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons

How does it? Just random people as sons of the most high god My son do not regard lightly the discipline of the lord

Nor faint when you are reproved by him for those whom the lord loves he disciplines and he flogs or as the new american standard says scourges, which

I I just Just know that internally. It's hard for me to use flogs.

But but flogs is good too, right scourges every son Whom he receives now

That's another one. You won't find on a mardell sweatshirt But it should be

And it should be because if you understand that Then you can suffer

Like a christian you can suffer like someone who's looking and fixing their eyes on jesus.

And what do I mean by that? Well, here's the argument. You are a son of god If you are in christ, you are a son of god if you have been saved by christ

You are a son of god and god's sons bleed and they bleed

Precisely because they are sons of god and god sees to it that they will in fact bleed

And if they don't bleed which is the argument that's about to uh present itself. They are not sons suffering

Suffering Or as it's presented here discipline Right because christians don't actually suffer christ did that for us now, of course if you want to get into the minutia what the word suffer means and uh, you know get to the bottom of the

Etymology there in and all these sorts of things we could probably find a way to say sure Yeah, we still suffer but the reality is ultimate suffering has already been handled by the one whom we are in Everything else is disciplined.

We are not punished and we do not suffer We get discipline so every time you suffer god is

Disciplining you that doesn't mean it's not sufferable But you're being pruned you're being chiseled and molded into the image of the of christ

And you have to have a big enough theology a big enough god and a beautiful enough christ to be able to Not only believe that but love that to believe that every tear

That will ever pour forth from your face was produced by the devil

No By the working of almighty god upon your life

It is his sovereignty that ordained these things to come to pass for your good

Believe that love that or wrangle with god and continue to be disciplined over the course of your life

The thing that you understand that this is teaching is that suffering and discipline is good for us

Right is verse 7 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're without discipline of which all have become partakers, you are illegitimate children. There's the argument, right?

You're not even sons if you're not bleeding furthermore We had earthly fathers to discipline us and we respected them

Shall we not much more rather be subject to the father of spirits and live right? We respected our earthly fathers when they disciplined us and we listened

You know, why in the world would we turn a blind eye to the lord? Jesus christ when he's trying to fix our eyes further on jesus and Enabling us to grab towards him and be more dependent on him so that we might rid ourselves

More fully of sin and be able to bask with him for eternity in the house of the lord for ever

For they disciplined us for a short time which seemed best to them verse 10 He disciplines us for our benefits so that we may share his holiness

And all discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful but sorrowful But for those who've been trained by it afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Here's the deal about suffering or Experiencing discipline It's not fun

Right and I think you can you can get away with uh Saying a lot of weird things about this text and people don't really challenge you on it per se

You know, but one of the things that that is done when this text is preached is that you know

You can walk away with this. Yeah. Yeah suffering's not gonna be that bad if I if I have my eyes fixed on jesus Yeah, no, no, no, nobody's making that argument right

Like fixing your eyes on jesus helps you suffer like a christian. It doesn't make suffering easy

It doesn't make it not hurt. It doesn't make it less challenging. It makes it purposeful

You see what i'm saying And that's what's going on here, right discipline is enacted by an earthly father to produce something in you that otherwise was not already there

You discipline children, for example, right if you get in trouble, it's because your parents want you

To do something different than what you had done to get in trouble in the first place that required that discipline

And that is the same with his children Here So it's sorrowful

But if you are trained by it if you continue to give yourself over to it and you don't try to escape it you

Will yield peaceful fruit of righteousness Which is the goal

Which is why verse 14 says pursue peace with all men and the sanctification without which no one will see the lord the reality friends is the reason that we suffer is so that we could be made to look more like christ share in his holiness and produce and yield peaceful fruit of righteousness

That the spirit has worked in us and the best way to do that is suffering just like the best way

To Create maybe the only way to create a diamond is under pressure the best way for you to grow is

In christlikeness and to be dependent on him is to continually

Bleed And it's beautiful Because in that we get

Jesus We see jesus and we're made to look more like jesus

And we get to glorify jesus as we endure the not so fun stuff the hard stuff

And we make jesus look all the better for it

The thing the puritans used to say It gets me every time

I read it Is this? Christ's sheep are like bells

The harder god hits them The more beautifully they sing to catch that christ's sheep are like bells

The harder god hits them the more beautifully

They sing you need to consider the men of old you need to consider

Christ the author and perfecter of our faith and the Providential purposes to which we are given over to suffering

And it's that we might See Have our affections swell

For and sing of the excellencies of the lord jesus and if that doesn't sound like a good time to you, it's

Maybe time to ask yourself. What? Why am

I? Worried about now when this jesus has purchased for me eternity when he walks with me and and walks for me and Has paid the ultimate price and has suffered on my behalf and How can

I not walk through suffering fixing my eyes on him? So if you want to suffer like a christian if you want to get through suffering

You have to stop thinking about getting through suffering and start thinking start considering jesus

That's the way forward. That's the way to run your race