Be Encouraged, Your Father Has A Purpose

Our Old Testament reading will come out of the book of Deuteronomy 8, verses 1 -5, which is on page 152 in your pew Bibles. If you would, please stand for the reading of God's Word. The whole commandment that I command you today, you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers.

And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.

And he humbled you, and let you hunger, and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know, that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

Your clothing did not wear out on you, and your foot did not swell these forty years. Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you.

The New Testament reading this morning comes from the fourth chapter of the book of 1 Peter. We'll begin reading in verse 12. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.

But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory of God rests upon you.

But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or an evildoer, or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God.

And if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And if the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner? Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will, entrust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good.

Please be seated.

Let's take the scriptures this morning and turn once more to Hebrews chapter 12. You follow as I read verses 4 through 13. Hebrews 12, beginning in verse 4. In your struggle against sin, you have not resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

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.

Endure suffering then as discipline. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time, as it seemed best to them.

But he disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Therefore, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. Father, now as we look into your word, help us.

We always ask this. We ask for clarity. We ask that your spirit would make it alive in our hearts. It would point out where we need to change. It will convict us. It will encourage us. Pray that your people be encouraged today as we look into this important passage for understanding our life under the lordship of Jesus.

We thank you now in Jesus' name. Amen. In 1972, that's a long time ago. In 1972, I was a senior in high school and I was playing on the high school football team. And I remember the very first team meeting we had with our coaches.

I remember them walking in and them saying to us, what's your goal for this season? What do you want to accomplish as a team? Of course, the answer was, well, we wanted to accomplish the conference championship.

And so that's what we said. Well, we didn't get the trophy the next day. And the coaches didn't come in and say, that's a great goal. Here's the trophy. Some things had to happen first. The coaches had to inflict a great deal of punishment on us.

Calisthenics, hitting the sled, drills, drills, drills. Running the plays until we knew them perfectly. And then lastly, the most hated thing of all, the wind sprints we had to run afterwards. And that wasn't the only thing.

There was more. We had to submit to that punishment for it to produce the desired result. We had to endure it. And if you quit the team, if you gave up on practice, then there was no way you shared in the joy of the trophy that we got at the end of the season.

Those who did stick it out shared in the joys of that. Now, God also has a goal for Christians in their suffering and in their persecution. The peaceful fruit of righteousness. That's his purpose. That's his goal for us.

But he doesn't hand it to you. He doesn't hand it to you. He imposes afflictions. Christians must endure if they would gain the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Now, the text before you was written to encourage you in suffering.

You remember the recipients of the letter had suffered and they were in danger of losing heart, of giving in, of giving up. So the question is, how can you keep from losing heart? How can you endure and not abandon Jesus?

And this is what he's told us. He says, recount the endurance of the Old Testament saints who lived by faith. Chapter 11. He says, fix your attention on Jesus who endured the suffering of the cross by believing the promises of God of joy and authority after his suffering.

And then the last thing he's told us here in verses 4 through 13 is embrace a different but encouraging perspective. And that perspective is that when hard things come your way, when you suffer persecution, when you suffer tragedy, when you suffer trials, whatever the case may be, you have to see it not as something random, but as the loving, caring hand of your Heavenly Father who's correcting you, who loves you.

Okay?

So recount the endurance of the Old Testament saints. Fix your eyes on Jesus and embrace this new perspective. That's how you're going to endure. That's how you're going to persevere. Now in our text, God develops that perspective by telling you that the persecution or any hardship has a goal.

God has a purpose in it. He's taking you somewhere with all the things that you're suffering. He's taking you by means of discipline. Now I want to say a word about discipline here. As we come to this text, you need to understand something.

God in no way says that you have hardship because you've done something wrong. Too many people have read this passage and said, well, when we go through hardship, that's God's discipline. That's God spanking us because we've done something wrong.

And so now he's given us this spanking. That's not what this text is saying. People often ask me, I don't understand. Why is this happening to me? What did I do wrong? That's not the thrust of this passage.

It's not what he's saying. Any hardship you experience is God intending to move you to the goal. He's saying you won't get to the goal, the peaceful fruit of righteousness, without pain, without discipline.

So it's not like, uh-oh, I've done something wrong. Therefore, that's why I'm suffering this hardship. That's not it at all. After all, why were the original participants suffering? What were they doing wrong?

They were doing what was right. They were following Jesus. That's the point. They were suffering because they were following Jesus. They were tempted to abandon him because they were doing what was right.

All right?

Now, it doesn't say that if you do something wrong, God's not going to discipline you either. What I'm saying to you is when you read this passage, do not think he's saying you've done something wrong, so this is what I'm going to do.

No.

Any hardship that comes into your life, whether for something you've done wrong or whether you're doing anything right, any hardship is intended to move you towards the goal. This is God's discipline.

Without it, you won't reach that goal. And so we need to understand that clearly. Now, let's read our text for this morning again, which is verses 7 through 11.

Okay?

Endure suffering as discipline. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time, as it seemed best to them.

But he disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Here's what God says to us. God commands you to endure discipline, verses 7 and 8. God explains to you his intention in discipline, verses 9 and 10. And God declares to you the design of discipline in verse 11.

So here's what he's saying to us. Having explained that God afflicts those whom he loves, verses 4 through 6, now he says God commands you to endure discipline. Endure those afflictions. Now, you notice I changed the translation a little bit, and I don't want to bore you with details, but in the Greek language, the imperative word looks exactly like the indicative.

That is to say, the indicative means what is.

Okay?

The imperative is command. They look exactly the same. So the context tells you whether it's indicative or imperative. I believe the context says it's imperative. He's telling you to endure affliction.

It fits with the whole flow. And so here we have God commanding you to endure discipline, to persevere, to stand your ground, to not give up. God commands you to stick it out, or you will not reap the benefits of that affliction.

You will not reap the benefits of that discipline. Now, what's the wrong way of handling affliction? We've already seen it in verse 5. There's stoic resignation. It is what it is, right? He says, regard it lightly.

Well, that's the way life is, but the only thing that does is harden your heart and produce bitterness.

All right?

He says, don't be weary. That is, don't lose heart. Have the what's the use and the give up attitude.

All right?

That causes depression, and you just dig your hole, you just dig yourself deep into self-pity when that becomes the case. Well, what does it mean to endure? Well, he's just told us. Look to Jesus. How did he endure the cross?

He knew the course set out for him, right? He prayed much. He determined to obey, not my will, Father, but yours. He trusted God to strengthen him for the task. He believed God would vindicate him. As Peter says in 1 Peter 2, 23, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

He concentrated on the glory and the joy that would be his on the other side of that suffering. And that's how Jesus endured suffering. So fix your eyes at your attention on him, and you do it. And so it is with you as you face ridicule and slander, and maybe even someday legal sanctions for your faith.

That's the way you must endure. It's the way you have to face anything that comes your way. That's hard and difficult. And you should endure, he says, because your father is treating you as sons. He's treating you as his children.

He says, face it. What son is there whom his father is not disciplined? Why are you surprised, right? What son is there whom his father does not discipline? The persecution or hardship is not a strange thing for believers, so don't fall into the self-pity.

Don't, because hard things happen to you. This is the normal course of father-child relationships. So, you know, don't get the why, I call them the why-me's. The why-me's, you know what that is?

Why me? Why me?

To those who say, why is this happening to me? God clearly says, look, affliction is the normal course of the father-son relationship. And if you do not suffer, obviously then, you're not counted as a son.

That's pretty strong, isn't it? You know what it says? If you belong to Jesus, you will suffer. You have to suffer, right? That's normal. That's normal. So there's no place for the why-me's here. Why me?

Because you're a child of God, that's why. That's why you're suffering this. And what he's saying here, when he says in verse eight, if you're left without discipline, which all participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

Now, a father would spend much care and patience on the upbringing of a true-born son. He would subject him to irksome, painful things because the son was an heir and he needed to be prepared for his responsibilities, his duties.

Now, an illegitimate son had no future, no future of position or responsibility or honor. He didn't have anything, right? So a king has an illegitimate son. If you read history, that's not unusual at all.

There were lots of kings with plenty of illegitimate children, okay? But if a king had an illegitimate son, he mostly ignored him. He's not gonna assume any royal duties, right? Only the legitimate prince would.

The illegitimate children would be ignored. They were not disciplined. They had no duties to assume. They had no responsibilities, right? So he would ignore them. Do you see what God is saying here? If you do not suffer, nothing would be gained and suffering is the lot of a true son.

He's treating you as a son, not as someone illegitimate, all right? He's paying attention to you. He's not ignoring you. He's bringing discipline into your life. So God commands you then to endure discipline.

Furthermore, he goes on, as we read, as long as we're talking about fatherly discipline, let's compare the discipline of your earthly fathers to your heavenly father. Let's run that comparison. And as you look at that comparison, note that God explains to you his intention in discipline.

God explains to you his intention in discipline. First of all, verse nine, what does he say? Besides this, we have earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them, shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits, he's referring to us, and live?

God intends to produce life. That's the first thing. Verse nine, when your earthly father spanked you, when he punished you, what did he produce? Well, he says he produced respect, right? Because of his discipline, we respected our fathers.

Some of you have said to me, you know, Pastor, my father was never a believer, and sometimes he was pretty harsh with us, but I respect him. I respect him. We honor our fathers, even though they might have seemed harsh.

We respect those fathers who were over us. How much more reason, he says then, to submit to your heavenly father, because when we do submit, he produces a certain quality of life in us. Now, do you remember what Jesus said in John chapter 17?

If you want to look at it, John chapter 17, verse three, what did Jesus say to us? He said, and this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. Here's life, here's eternal life.

What is eternal life? Knowing God and knowing Jesus. That's eternal life. Well, what is eternal life? We tend to think of eternal life in terms of quantity. It goes on forever. But I think the Bible emphasizes more quality.

Eternal life is a supernatural life, a life that is different in quality than normal life. And what is that life? It's knowing God and knowing Jesus. You know what? Here's the thing to remember about eternal life.

It's received by faith. It's developed by endurance. It's received by faith. It's developed by endurance. Suffering develops this life when we submit to it, this different quality of life. We are given a different quality of life that is developed.

It grows. So when you experience slander or even imprisonment and you endure, you will experience, for example, the joy of dependence on God. Have you ever known the joy of being absolutely dependent on God and knowing He's going to come through?

Or as you go through that kind of suffering, you come to know your Father in a more intimate way than if you had never gone through that suffering. When you find yourself crying out to Him, depending entirely on Him, you come to know God in a more intimate way.

That's eternal life. That's a different quality of life. Our present-day attitude, the attitude of our culture is quality of life is good when there is no suffering. And God instead says that He produces this quality of life through suffering.

All right?

We need to remember that. If we want to know deeper and deeper this eternal life, then we must submit. We must endure in the midst of affliction. That's what God tells us here. This Father, right? Our earthly fathers produce respect.

This Father develops eternal life in us. But that's not all. What else does He intend to produce? Verse 10,. For they disciplined us for a short time, as it seemed best to them. But He disciplines us for our good.

What is that good? That we may share in His holiness. Your Father intends to produce holy character. Now He says the discipline of our earthly fathers is temporary.

Right?

Until when we reach adulthood, or we leave home, or we achieve a certain amount of independence, our fathers don't discipline us anymore.

Right?

I don't discipline my grown children anymore. They're independent of me. Although I do have a trump card with my kids that you don't. I'm their pastor.

Nevertheless,.

I don't have authority to discipline. It's only temporary. And notice, they disciplined us as they thought best. With an uncertain goal. Uncertain goal in mind. They did what they thought was best.

All right?

But compare that to the discipline of our Heavenly Father. God disciplines or brings affliction into your life with a definite purpose in mind. A definite purpose in mind. And that is that you change.

That you assume more of His holy character. When the guys at work slander you, and persecute you, you must remember that God's fatherly hand is at work so that you become more holy.

All right?

Now look, I don't know, I know all of you pretty well, but there's probably some things going on in your life that are hard and they're affliction. And you know, when I sit down with folks and they're talking about a difficult marriage, they're talking about an incredibly hard work situation, they're telling me about different things, I can always say to them, God intends that you become more like Him because of what's going on in your life right now.

I can always say that. Let me be honest with you. Just this last week, Beck and I met with a pastor and his wife who are really struggling. And one of the things we said to them was this. This is really hard.

But God's doing something here. You can have hope because He wants you to change.

You see?

And that's why affliction comes our way. God wants us to share in His holy character. He wants you to endure, to submit to His discipline. He's helping you to change. So people are slandering you. People are doing awful things to you.

They're persecuting you. What do I say to that? Well, for example, let's just pull one example out. Matthew chapter 5, verses 43 to 48. Matthew 5, 43 to 48. You've heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?

You, therefore, must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. In enduring the slander and the hardship of what you're going through at work, you learn to love your enemies like God does. You assume more of His holy character as you endure.

You will share in His holiness. So when those things are coming your way, you must remember, God's using this to move me to the place where I assume more of His holy character. And that's good for you.

That's good for you. As a result of the hardships in your life, the suffering that you've endured, can you say, I have a different quality of life? Can you say, I have grown into a more holy way of life?

Those are the things that should be happening as you endure discipline by faith. So God explains to you His intention in discipline. Life and holiness, all right? Now the last thing. God declares to you the design of discipline.

What is that design? Simply put, it's this. Pain plus training, that is, the training of endurance, equals peace. Pain plus training equals peace. That's the formula, okay? Verse 11. For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it, to those who have endured through it, through the pain.

Now again, God restates, reemphasizes, repeats, yes, discipline is always unpleasant. It's painful, it's not pleasant. You know, ever notice how parents have a way of asking the silliest questions? Your daughter does something wrong and you say to her, sis, do you want a spanking?

What a dumb question. What's the inevitable response to that question?

No!

Well, why not? Because spanking is a terribly unpleasant aspect of life. That's why, that's why, that's why they're always gonna say no.

Like, they don't know if you're joking, they don't know if it's rhetorical, they don't know what's going on,.

But they know one thing, I don't want a spanking, right? Because that's painful. And God says that, discipline is always the painful, unpleasant part of growing up. It's necessary, though. But you see, that painful, that unpleasant thing produces something.

What does he say? He calls it the fruit of righteousness. The peaceful fruit of righteousness. Now, what's righteousness? Righteousness is conformity to Christ's standards of conduct. Conformity to Christ's standards of thinking, believing, acting.

It's conformed to his standards. That's righteousness. Righteousness is always conforming to what the standards are. That's righteousness. And when you do that, you're conforming that. Righteousness is produced, and when you bite into the fruit of righteousness, it always tastes like peace.

It always means peace. Because righteousness produces harmony and order. Think about this. If everybody in your household conformed to what Jesus said, they ought to be, they ought to think, and they ought to do.

What do you think life would be like in your house? There would be what?

Peace.

It would be wonderful, wouldn't it? It would be wonderful. Because peace always produces, I mean, righteousness always produces harmony and order. Even in trials, even if trials and losses and persecutions would fall down on you like rain, if you handled it God's way, you would have peace.

There would be peace.

Okay?

But that's only true of those who have been trained in their suffering. That is, those who have endured. How do we do that? How do we do that? Get this firmly planted in your mind. How can we endure in the midst of affliction?

Believing the promises of God.

Right?

Perseverance fueled by faith in the promises of God.

All right?

So the first thing is believing the promises of God. The second thing is embracing this perspective that God disciplines those he loves. Believing the promises, embracing that encouraging perspective.

That's how you'll be trained. That's how you will endure if you do those two things.

Okay?

By believing the promises and embracing the perspective, you can endure, you can persevere. However, if you do not endure hardship, if you treat it lightly or despair, there will be no righteousness and therefore there will be no peace.

So God's goal in all of it is that we have this peaceful fruit of righteousness. That's what he wants to produce in this affliction that he brings on us because he loves us and he's treating us as his children.

So then God declares to you then the design of discipline.

What is it?

Pain plus training equals peace. That's his design.

All right?

Now for some of you this morning, this has no relevance. You've not looked to the one who has suffered in the place of sinners who has paid the price for sin. You have not trusted him for the payment he made to the justice of God for your sin.

And so the hardships that fall on you are not, they are not the loving discipline of a father. Instead, they are warnings of a judge. They are warnings of a judge. The hardship that are falling on you are the warnings of a judge that says it's gonna be a lot worse if you ignore my son.

Those hardships are intended to drive you to Jesus. They're intended for you to say, I must have Christ. Until you're in Christ, those hardships are judgments, warnings. So why don't you trust Jesus? Those hardships then become meaningful to you.

They're God treating you well. Now Christian, God wants you to take inventory this morning. All of you have experienced suffering in one form or another. So have you endured like Jesus has endured? Another question.

Can you say that you've grown in holy character because of what's happened? Can you say that today you experience greater peace as a result? If you can't respond with a yes, and here's what I'd say to you.

Repent. Repent for ignoring the promises of God and the perspective that he gives you. Ask him to strengthen you. Ask him to teach you how to handle hardship and persecution. And you know what? If you ask him those things with a desire for it, he will answer and he will help.

Father, we're thankful for this encouraging perspective that you have given us that the hardships and the persecutions that we experience are not random events. They are not cause for panic. They are not cause for despair.

They are not cause for self-pity and bitterness. Rather, they're intended to drive us to the place where we will have life, a holy character, and peace. So Father, help us to embrace that so that we do not lose hope.

Help us to endure so that we will be trained. Help us, Lord, so that in the peace that you give us we will stand out as different from the rest of the world. So God, help us, we pray, to accomplish that for your glory.

In Jesus' name, amen.