Discipline or Training (Part 2)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth and this is a simulcast. This is not only for the radio show, No Compromise Radio, but it�s for the No Compromise Radio closed group.

I don�t really think anybody watches, but it�s probably good for me to do this because then I have to realize what it�s like to preach into a camera on Sunday mornings, which is awful, but it is the best we can do.

You can always write me, info at nocompromiseradio .com, or Mike at nocompromiseradio .com. We do get some questions and we try to help people. I think over the years, the number one question has been probably a theological question, you know, is this right or wrong, whatever I�m, you know, this particular thing that I�m thinking about.

And then the second question is probably, do I stay at the church that I�m at? And I�ve tried to be very careful when I answer that question because just because you disagree with something doesn�t mean you leave the church.

There would be nobody here. My wife would not attend. So I want to be very careful not to just say, ah, just, you know, rip your pastor and go to someplace else. But there are times to leave a church.

And I just try to help people work through that. So those are probably the two main questions. And the third question is, do you know of a good Bible teaching church in my area? And that is very, very difficult.

By the way, I�m not talking about Bethlehem Bible Church folks here today, but all the others. If you have a Bible teaching pastor and you have a good, solid church that talks to you about the excellencies of Christ Jesus and your response to Him, you ought to be very, very thankful.

You can drive around the country. In the old days, you could fly around the world and to receive solid teaching week in and week out. Not a man-centered gruel, but real Bible teaching to help you not only be convicted, but then encouraged in the work of the Lord Jesus.

That is difficult, hard to find. And so, again, I�m not asking the people at Bethlehem Bible Church to do this. But if you�re at a church, not at this church, but other churches, you ought to thank your pastor.

You ought to send him some little note saying, �Thank you. Maybe you get the kids to write a little note during this big virus shutdown and say, �Thank you for teaching me the Bible. The pastors are far from perfect and they sin, but when they tell you about the sinless one, the Lord Jesus, that is a gift from God.

Discipline as Loving Training in Hebrews 12

Well, on No Compromise Radio, I�ve been in Hebrews chapter 12. I�m talking about discipline. I don�t know when�s the last time you received a spanking, but I used to get spanked quite often. And I think my mother spanked me more than my father did.

Dad pulled hair. Maybe that explains this lack of hair today. And dad kind of slapped a little bit. And I�m glad it was just a little bit because he was 6 '4", 240, a boxer. And when he pulled our hair or he slapped us, like on the thigh I�m talking about or maybe on the bottom, he usually had been drinking a little bit.

He liked Schlitz. He liked Old Milwaukee. His favorite was Falstaff. He grew up in Nebraska and you just buy the cheap stuff, I guess. Who knows? Probably Budweiser was a premium beer to him. But I got spanked a lot.

And I don�t know about you if you got spanked a lot, but ask yourself the question. If you had a really good father and he spanked you, he disciplined you, he corrected you, why did he do it? Because he loved to do it?

No good dad loves to do that. But he loves the outcome. And dads, mothers as well, they discipline their children and there�s a wide variety of ways to discipline a child. But they discipline their children.

Why? Because they love them. Right? It�s out of love. And therefore, if you love your children, you discipline them. If you don�t discipline them, Proverbs says, it�s essentially like you don�t love them, like you hate them.

You know, you don�t technically hate them, but the actions are as if you hate them. So if you go to Hebrews chapter 12, you�re going to see the writer to the Hebrews quoting Hebrew scripture. Proverbs chapter 3 is what he�s talking about.

And here�s what the text says when we�re thinking about discipline. Now why is this important? Because when trials come into your life, God is the one who has ordained the trial, allowed the trial, sovereignly, providentially put the trial in your life, and he wants you to respond rightly to the trial.

He wants you to walk by faith through the trial. To use the language of Hebrews 10 and Hebrews 12, he wants you to endure the trial. So if you find yourself in a trial, you ought to say to yourself, �Do you know what?

I need to Hebrews 12, 1 -4, keep my eyes on Jesus, right? I don�t want to look to scientists and to economic advisors and to other people or to myself. Of course, we can get wisdom from some of those people, but ultimately, I�m running this race with endurance.

How do you do that? Keep your eyes on Jesus because of what he did and the greater-to-lesser argument, how great he suffered, can�t we suffer some? The suffering son, Jesus, has followers who suffer, so keep your eyes on Jesus.

We�ve been talking about that the last three shows. And in addition, accept discipline from your heavenly Father. When trials come, take them as your Father loves you, not, �Hey, I�m in this trial. God doesn�t love me.

He says in verse 5 of Hebrews 12,. �And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives.

It is for discipline that you have to endure. So God takes the trial that you�re in, and of course, it could be all kinds of different trials. And we all have different God-ordained trials. And God is going to use those trials for the Christian to say, �You know what?

How do you endure? Well, I�m going to use this trial to train you to endure till the end. If he who endures till the end shall be saved, and you�re justified, you will be glorified. And how do you get from justification to glorification

Well, of course, it�s the work of the sanctifying Holy Spirit. And your response is going to be guided by and directed by and sovereignly governed by the hand of God who gives you these trials so that you can build up for other trials.

So let�s think about it in the race metaphor. You have a coach and you have a mentor, and he�s pushing you to do sprints and 440s and climbing the stairs and doing burpees and doing two-a-day practices.

Why? So that you�ll finish the race when it�s actually race time. I�ve only ran one marathon in my life, and I think it was �86, 1986. I just got a book, How to Run a Marathon, and for the 12 weeks leading up to it, whatever it said to do, I tried to do that.

So I think we got up to maybe running 50 miles a week, and then it would say on week 9, run a 20-mile run. Because if you can run 20 with adrenaline and just a desire to finish the marathon, you could run another 6 miles.

And I had this training program. Because the training program, even though it was hard, even though I didn�t like it, even though it was sweat and toil and nobody had a finish line yet, to say, �Hey, good job and here�s your fake little medal, and there�s some snacks at the end.

It helped me. So think about it. God is, of course, more than a coach, more than a mentor. He�s a loving Father, and He�s helping you. He�s helping me. He helps every Christian as He sovereignly places trials in your life to work through these trials so you�re ready for bigger trials and you can endure until the end.

If you say, �I�m in this trial and so let�s just make it specific, �I�ve lost my job because of COVID issues. I have lost relationships because of this because everybody�s all strained. I have lost a loved one.

I know somebody who�s lost a loved one to the virus. I�ve lost this, that, or the other. Well, I�m sorry that you�ve lost those things. But if you say, �You know what? God doesn�t love me. You�re a Christian and you say that.

You ought not to say that. You ought to repent. That�s not the way to talk. Instead, you should say, �God does love me because I know what He did when it comes to the Lord Jesus Christ in Hebrews 8 to 32.

He didn�t spare Him. And for God so loved the world that He sent Jesus into this world to die on my behalf. I should have been the one who died eternally. But the Lord Jesus loves me, and therefore everything else He does will be done out of the hand of love.

God is not punishing Christians. God is not angry at Christians. God is not mad at Christians. God is not making them pay for their sins in a legal way. Why? Because that�s been all poured out on Jesus.

There�s no double jeopardy. Jesus gets punished and so do we. So I think the correct kind of language to think about this theologically is, �God is chastening me. God is disciplining me. God is correcting me so that I will, A, honor Him, and B, endure to the end.

The writer of Hebrews is saying, �You�re in a difficult spot. Keep your eyes on Jesus and accept discipline from a loving Heavenly Father. Now, doesn�t that sound like it could be apropos for today?

How do you respond? Who do you look to for news and all these other things? The list could go on and on. If you�re watching or you�re listening today, you need to read the Gospels every day. Keep your eyes on who Jesus is.

Or you could read the Revelation, right? Revelation is of Jesus. You could read epistles that talk about the theological implications of Jesus�s work. You could read the Old Testament that talks about Jesus with types and shadows and prophecies and predictive things.

But you need to keep your eyes on Jesus. And two, you need to make sure you say, �God�s teaching me something in this. God�s helping me through this. I don�t want to grow weary or tired. I don�t want to be bitter.

I think if you say to yourself, �You know what? My dad spanked me and I got mad. He whacked me all the time. He drank and pulled my hair. And therefore, when he disciplined me, I was bitter. That�s probably true, right?

That�s probably true in my life. But this Father, capital F, the Heavenly Father, He doesn�t pull your hair in this frenzied, drunken behavior. He loves you. He knows exactly what you need to endure to the end.

And He puts these things into your life. He�s sovereign. Okay? If you want to be less Calvinistic, He allows them. He permits them. If you want to be more biblical, then you say He ordains them, right?

He purposes them. He plans them. And He wants to strengthen your character. And He wants to help you grow in grace and godliness. And He wants you to be ready for the next time. So if something comes up, you can even stop some behavior that maybe you would have done this time in terms of grumbling or complaining or losing your witness.

I see Mike and Anthony online. I�m glad to see some background comments there. It�s easy to forget this. Why? Because we�re getting bombarded with all these trials. And now we�ve got our head down in temporal things, the worldly things, earthly things.

And so the writer says what? Have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? Don�t forget that. You�re a son, a son of the Father. No wonder the Lord Jesus taught people to pray, �Our Father.

That is amazing. You ought to be encouraged. You ought not to be full of bitterness and angry, �How could God do this to me �What�s He going to do But no. He wants you to endure. And if you�re a Christian, you will endure to the end.

And He does it through corrective discipline. Because He only does it for people He loves. What�s the text say? The Lord disciplines the one He loves. Now when my children were growing up, I�d regularly say to them when I would discipline them, �Does Daddy discipline everybody down the street?

Does Daddy discipline all the other children at church I want to. I want it to. No, Dad doesn�t discipline anybody but you four, the four children that are mine, that God has given me. Why? Well, I generally love them, right?

A kind of like a common love. But I love you. And I�m responsible for you. And so, it�s not because I don�t love you, it�s because I do. And I�d always say to the children before discipline, �Daddy�s not mad at you.

Daddy�s not angry. By the way, make sure you aren�t before you discipline them, right? Cool off, think about things, pray. But Dad�s not mad at you. Daddy�s not angry with you. Dad wants you to go through this trial and think about things so the next time your sister takes something, you don�t hit her, or whatever I would say.

Because that�s not the way to go about it. And I want you to know that there�s consequences. And so, when you do something that�s wrong, there�s a consequence. And I actually also tell the kids, �And if Daddy doesn�t discipline you, then the Lord�s going to discipline me.

And I don�t want that. He chastens every son whom he receives. This is an ongoing thing. And now, I don�t know, nor can you know. Well, this is a direct chastening versus this is just a fallen world and it�s affecting me.

I don�t know the difference, right? So, if you have a Christian friend and they�re going through a big trial, you ought not to say to yourself, and to them especially, �Oh, secret sins. Something�s going on.

They�re battling something. They�re responding wrongly and God�s, therefore, chastening them. And when you read Hebrews 12, 5 -11, that�s very obvious that this is not necessarily some direct way we could figure out, �Oh, this is why they�re going through all that stuff.

It�s just this general thought. There are trials. There are problems. There are issues. And God is going to use them to help His children and to prevent things in the future, to correct them, to discipline them.

And He does for every one of His sons. By the way, He did it to His son, not to discipline him for sins, of course, but He did have a son that suffered all the way up to the cross and then at the cross, obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

And so, if you read Isaiah 40 -59 and see the suffering servant, the suffering son, you�ll realize, you know what? This is the way God does things. If even His blameless, spotless son suffered, well, then certainly, as I sin, I am going to suffer.

The ultimate example of sonship and suffering is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you�re a son, He�s not going to spare the rod. We have that slogan that�s not biblical, but it�s not in the Bible, but it�s pretty true.

Spoil the rod. That�s not very biblical either. Spoil the rod. Hey, if you�ve got a rod that�s spoiled, you�re going to be in bad shape. Spare the rod, spoil the child. But the text actually says in Proverbs 13, �He who spares the rod hates his son.

It�s like you hate him. You don�t really hate him, but it�s as if you do. The consequences are the same. Don�t forget, dear Christian, God�s not punishing you for your sins, but He is training you and teaching you.

Spurgeon said, �Affliction is the best bit of furniture in my house. Now let�s just stop for a second and ask the question, when do you really learn things? What kind of lessons have been the most impactful for you?

The show isn�t about me, but I�m the one talking. When my mom died, that was impactful. Well, of course, because I lost my mother. But also afterwards, and even during, and even in the room when she died, I could not get away from the authenticity and the veracity of God�s Word.

Words like, �To live is Christ and to die, gain. I always believed it, but it became alive, not in some neo-orthodox way, but it just became more personal. You go through troubles with people. Somebody stabs you in the back and you read Psalms about, �This person was my friend and now they�re my enemy.

These trials affect you. They call me up and they�re like, �You�ve got cancer. I mean, why did God do that? He didn�t love me. God doesn�t love me, therefore I got this prognosis. It�s the exact opposite.

Don�t forget that. That�s the point. Affliction is the schoolteacher, right? What did Luther say? Every theologian, what affects them? Prayer, the Word, and suffering. By the way, I know it�s just a general statement, but I think it�s true.

When I was younger, I�d always think, �You know what? That�s a really neat man. That�s a really wonderful woman. That couple there is so neat and tender and kind. I just love the way they act and they�re measured and they�re patient and they�re encouraging.

They�re Christ-centered. I would watch those couples. You know what was true about almost every one of those people? They really suffered. They really suffered. And they saw, even in their suffering and tears, that the Lord was faithful.

So those kind of people then come alongside of younger people and say, when there�s the miscarriage or the baby dies or someone gets sick or there�s some kind of tragedy, and there�s all kinds of tragedies, are there not?

They�re the ones who, with tears in their eyes, because it�s real and it really hurts, but God�s faithful. And I remember when Luke was born, he�s healthy now and 23. We didn�t know if he�s going to make it, right?

They have Apgar tests and they test all the stuff, you know, what do they look like and how are they breathing and everything. And I don�t know what the good Apgar number is, 10 or something, 8. It was like he was in negative 5 or something.

They were like, �Here�s your baby. Say hello. Give him a kiss and he�s got to go to NICU, off to a neonatal intensive care unit. Like, is this kid going to make it, man? What�s going on? Well, what do you do in the midst of those trials and tests and how do you go through those?

Well, of course, the Lord, He, the Holy Spirit�s a wonderful comforter. The Word is important. Yes, I�m not saying those things aren�t. Those are the most important. He and the Word are most important.

Yet, the Holy Spirit, through the Word, had helped other people. And they could come alongside and say, �You know, you can still trust the Lord, even though He slay me or my son. I get emotional thinking about it.

�Yet, I will trust in Him. Therefore, God is teaching. God is correcting. God is training. And He wants to make you into the person who is just like His Son. Right? Think about eternity past. The Father gives the Son, the elect, the bride.

And He says, �I want you to go redeem them. And then I want you to go make them like yourself and then hand them back to Me. It�s just a beautiful picture. When you read this passage, there are two words that pop up over and over and over in Hebrews 12, 5 -11.

And if you see those recurring words, you can put them together and go, �This is what the passage is about. It�s the word �discipline, discipline, discipline, discipline, discipline, discipline. And then it�s the word �sons.

Sons get disciplined. And it�s not because the Father hates them. And if you say, and again, I know probably some do, �My Father did it out of hate and anger. Okay, that�s true. I�m not talking about that Father.

I�m talking about this Father, the Heavenly Father, the Holy Father, our Father who art in heaven, Father. That�s who I�m talking about. God corrects, molds, perfects His children so that they might go through trials and endure to the end.

How do you endure? You look to Jesus and you accept this discipline from a loving Father. Now, if I said to you, �Love of God, what goes through your mind Probably you�d think, �For God so loved the world.

Maybe you�d say 1 John 3, �See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us. How about this? Jesus� words in Revelation 3, �Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline. We don�t know all the purposes of God in our suffering, but we know it is done out of love.

For whom the Lord loves, He reproves. God doesn�t spoil His children. God doesn�t train up children in such a way they�re left to their own. I�ve seen enough, and so have you, a bunch of spoiled brats.

And I say to myself, yes, it�s their fault, and they have to take responsibility. But you look back and you go, you know what? They didn�t get disciplined. They didn�t get corrected. They had lax, lazy parents who let the children run the asylum.

And it�s a shame. The text says in Proverbs, it�s a shame, right, when these children act that way. It�s shameful to the parents that the children act that way. So if God didn�t discipline us out of love for our good, then it would be a shame on Him.

But it can�t ever be a shame on Him because He disciplines us. My favorite teacher when I was growing up was Dan Sanfilippo, fifth grade teacher. A while ago, I tracked him down via the internet and called him and thanked him.

And he even said to me, don�t you have a sister named Marcy and a brother named Pat? How are they? How many kids did he? Fifth grade. It�s amazing. And I just said, I want you to know that of all the teachers I�ve had in school, you�ve been the one that was most impactful.

And I remember fondly and want to say thank you. And then I did say, here�s what I�ve gone on to do and some books and a doctorate, blah, blah, blah. But I wanted to just try to encourage him. Who�s your favorite teacher?

Well, if we are honest with ourselves in Hebrews 12, one of our favorite teachers should probably be God�s discipline, where He teaches us in the valleys more than we could ever learn on the mountaintops.

Why? Because we�re just crying out. We have nowhere else to go. Oh, God, help. Right? And that�s really what Abba Father is. Abba Father is a child screaming out, Daddy, help me. It�s a pregnant woman�s scream.

Crying out, loudly, I don�t have anybody else to help, but please help me. And I think it is amazing. And I will go with William Cooper�s hymn, God Moves in a Mysterious Way. So, dear Christian, you�re going through a trial, aren�t we all?

Keep your eyes on Jesus, number one. Number two, accept discipline from a God who loves you enough to correct you and chasten you. My name is Mike Abendroth with No Compromise Radio Ministries.

Or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.