Sons And Discipline - [Hebrews 12:3-11]

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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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

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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.

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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

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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

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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. I don't know if you remember the runner

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Jim Fix. Remember Jim Fix, he was overweight at 35, a smoker, and he began to run.

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He was a writer, he was in the Mensa club for high IQ people, and he had all kinds of books about puzzles and games and things like that, and then he started to run.

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He'd been through a divorce, and he began to run outside, jogging, and wrote a book about how to run.

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I remember getting that book before I was training for a marathon, and just whatever he said to do, I wanted to do. Jim Fix, this runner, one day,

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July 20th, 1984, at 52 years old, he was running on Vermont Route 15 in Hardwick, and what had happened?

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He fell over dead of a heart attack. The autopsy wasn't because he ran a lot, but because he was just genetically predisposed, had all kinds of coronary artery issues, blockages, and he fell over dead.

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Why do I use that as an illustration? Well, I was thinking today about running, running with endurance, training, trying to make sure that you can run a 26 -mile race with endurance, and today,

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I want to talk to you about a spiritual race that every Christian is in, and so if you take your Bibles and turn to Hebrews chapter 12, we're going to look at the author of another book who lost his life during a race, but it's not from a heart attack.

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We know the Lord Jesus died of crucifixion for his people out of love for the

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Father, and we're going to look at Hebrews chapter 12 today, how to run the Christian life when things are difficult.

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I guess that sounds apropos for today, doesn't it? It's not kind of relevant. That's the great part about God's Word.

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It is trans -chronological. I guess it's trans -chronological, too.

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It is everything from authoritative to sufficient, and we will look at Hebrews chapter 12 today, so we can see how

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God has ordained through his messenger, probably Paul, but the writer of Hebrews, so that we can run with many pains, many trials, many hardships, many difficulties through the end.

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God's Word gives us instruction on how you can finish your life well, how you can run with endurance, in spite of troubles that might tempt you to go back to your old ways of life.

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Hebrews 12 is going to be a great instruction. We're going to look at Hebrews chapter 12 essentially today with some review, verse 1 through verse 11, and it's going to be a very, very simple outline.

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How does a Christian run their life when there's difficulties? One, you look to who

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Jesus is. Two, you accept discipline from a loving Father. Super simple.

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Instead of saying, you know what, I'll look to myself, I'll look to other people, I'll look to politicians, I'll look at economics,

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I'll look at the internet, I'll look at the other things, no, number one, keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, and number two, accept discipline.

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Instead of saying to yourself, you know what, God must not love me because I'm in this trial.

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God must not care for me. Why God? Can't you see I'm your child, and why would you do this to me, put me through this trial?

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No, today we're going to see simple instructions. Keep your eyes on who Jesus is, and accept a trial from a loving, heavenly

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Father who wants to conform you to the image of his Son. Verses 1 through 4 talk about looking to Jesus when we're in this race.

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Therefore, since we're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

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Christian, you have to strive to run, you must sweat to run, you must try to run.

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Once in a while, my Nebraska background comes out, and my dad would probably say something like this,

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Mike, this is no time for lollygagging. Remember that phrase, to lollygag?

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I think that's how kids maybe sometimes clean the house, or sometimes how I might mow or trim the yard, with a lollygagging kind of fashion.

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No, no, he is saying, Christian, in light of what God has done, remember for the first 11 chapters, this high priest has been painted before you that he would be worthy to serve, it'd be an honor to run a race for him.

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If he were to have you be his emissary, you'd say, for him, I would do anything, and so now the response section of Hebrews comes up, and the response is not just laying back and letting

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God, or kind of coasting, you are in a race, so act like you're in a race. And he gives encouragement here, because he knows it's not easy.

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So he says, take off any kind of weight that you have, you don't want to run in a tuxedo or a wedding dress or formal attire, you need to strip down to the basics, and so for us probably today it'd be tennis shoes and some light shorts and a light tank top or something.

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Here he says, I want you to get rid of things that maybe aren't sinful, notice the text, every weight, and things that are sinful, the sin that clings so closely.

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Sometimes people could get so absorbed with the Christian liberty, maybe it's gardening, maybe it's hiking, maybe it's whatever that would be good, but it consumes their walk with the

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Lord Jesus, and he says, you know what, get rid of that weight. Incidentally, that word weight is where we get our word oncology, because oncologists deal with tumors that have weight.

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Get rid of every kind of weight that would drag you down. You watch runners, and they actually try to make sure they don't have any weight in their arms, they try to stay as thin as possible, because they know they're in a long distance race.

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An old Christian Brethren author said, is what you're doing a weight or a wing? But not only

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Christian liberty do you have to make sure doesn't consume your life so that you aren't running properly, but also sin, the sin which clings so closely.

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From pornography to pride to self -righteousness to covetousness to wanting to make a name for yourself, every kind of sin, you can just hear 1

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Peter 2, you're like a newborn babe longing for the pure milk of the word, but before you come to that word, you put away all guile and deceitfulness.

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Run the Christian life well by getting rid of every kind of weight and sin. John Owen said, let not that man think that he makes any progress in true holiness who does not walk over the bellies of his lusts.

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And as you're running, it says verse 2, don't forget that this is one complete sentence verses 1 and 2.

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As you're running, you're looking to Jesus. Human name for Jesus, he really ran this race, and how well did he run?

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What did he do when he ran? He's called the founder and perfecter of our faith.

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Isn't that great? He's the founder. He's the one that leads.

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I like war stories. I'm glad I never had to go into war, but I've met people who have been in the jungles of Vietnam in World War II, in the

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Vietnam War, and they have machetes and they're chopping through the jungle and the foliage, and you're the guy behind that leader.

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That's the kind of idea here. Jesus has gone through, he's went ahead, he's the forerunner, and you follow him.

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You keep your eyes on him. Remember when Peter saw Jesus walking on the water, and he didn't know what was going on.

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And Jesus said, take heart, it is I, do not be afraid. And Peter answered him, Lord, if it's you, command me to come to you on the water.

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And Jesus said, come. So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. And then what happened next?

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Think about running. Think about not looking at the right person. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and beginning to sink, he cried out,

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Lord, save me. Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him saying, oh, you of little faith, why do you doubt?

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You're running, you keep your eyes on Jesus. It's so easy to be distracted. It's almost like the writer is saying, you know what?

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Why don't you have those blinders? You know, you put the blinders on the horse so they can't get scared, seen to the left or to the right, run, look into Jesus.

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The author, this trailblazer, and not only that, the perfecter, our finisher. How many times people don't finish.

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I can tell you this, that while I love to read, I don't finish books very well.

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Why? Because I just keep starting new ones over and over and over. I think I'm literally reading 50 books now that there's probably a marker in there someplace and it's not finished.

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The bad news is I don't finish really any book except all at once. If you finish all 50 at once, you kind of think, oh, wow,

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I got all that done. Is there anybody that could finish the Christian race? Is there somebody that won't get to the very end and just kind of drop the ball?

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Well, here it's the Lord Jesus. He's the author and perfecter. Follow him all the way.

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Moses drops the baton. Abraham drops the baton. David drops the baton. Isn't there anybody who's going to race all the way to the end?

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Because if I start looking at these other men of faith and women of faith, they drop the baton. They fumbled.

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But no, here the Lord Jesus perfected, finished. And what did

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Jesus run for? The joy that was set before him. You can just imagine the

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Father's pleasure. Well done, son. Great race. You became obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross.

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And therefore I will highly exalt you. Race well run. Looking to Jesus.

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So it's not just a matter of I have to get rid of sin in my life. I get rid of sin in my life as I look to Jesus.

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Looking to Jesus. By the way, if you're an unbeliever, the advice is still the same.

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Look to Jesus. Believe in him. I remember the story about Charles Spurgeon, the great

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Baptist preacher. How did he get converted? It was a snowy night. The pastor wasn't there for whatever reason.

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He stumbles into this little chapel and there's only about 12 people there, 10 or 12 people. He sits up in the balcony.

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Well, they had a replacement for the preacher. And I think it was a deacon, if I remember rightly.

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And he didn't really have much preaching experience. So what did he do? He just went to a passage and just kept repeating the passage over and over and over again as young Spurgeon sat up in the balcony.

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This was his passage. Look unto me, all the ends of the earth, and be ye saved. Look unto me, all the ends of the earth, and be ye saved.

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The account says that he looked up to Spurgeon, the preacher, in the middle of the sermon and said, you look miserable.

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I only have, let's see, one, two, three, four, about six or seven people here today. I'll try not to do it to you.

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You look miserable, Spurgeon. He didn't know his name. Look unto Jesus. And Spurgeon said, that was it, converted through a frail preacher talking about looking to the

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Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Dear friends, when we come from Hebrews chapter 11 into 12, looking to Jesus, every one of these people listed in Hebrews 11, that's what they were doing.

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Now, Jesus hadn't arrived yet, but they knew about the messianic promises. And so David was looking for the

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Messiah to come. Abraham's looking for the Messiah to come. They're running the race. They all are not in this chapter 11 because they're so faithful, but they're looking to Jesus.

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And of course, when you do that, then the response is a faithful life, and certainly God had them do faithful things.

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Some are shown here, but it stems from faith in Jesus. They're looking to Jesus.

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And since they had less about Jesus to look to, new covenant people have more to.

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If they could run the race, why can't we? In addition, if you ever preach

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Hebrews 11 and you just say, be like David, be like Sarah, without saying David is only to be looked at because he's looking to the greater

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David, you've dropped the ball. Otherwise, we just turn into moralism.

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What if I preach to you something like this? Are your sacrifices acceptable to God like Abel's? Are you walking with God like Enoch?

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Have you been faithful for 120 years like Noah? Do you imitate Abraham because wherever God calls you, you go?

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Are you like Sarah, trusting in the impossible? That's the wrong way to preach. We don't preach, dare to be a

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Daniel. We preach that Daniel had a great object of his faith, the Lord Jesus Christ, even though he didn't know his name was

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Jesus yet, the son of God exalted. How do you endure the Christian life?

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Keep looking to Jesus. He says in verse three, something similar. Consider him, think about it, reflect, calculate, get your notepad out, take time to consider him who endured from sinners.

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You are supposed to endure. I'm supposed to endure. Keep your eye on the one who endured. And he endured from sinners a lot more than what

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I'm going to go through. Such hostility against him. For what purpose did he do this as a trailblazer?

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He did it in this particular regard so that you, dear Christian, might not grow weary or faint hearted.

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I can't take this anymore. I'm throwing in the towel. I quit. I just going to have to coast.

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I'm going to go back to what my old religion used to be. I brought up in some kind of religion where it was just so much easier just to take communion every week and just have the mass every week and do this every week or the golf course every week.

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I can't take it anymore. You're looking at the wrong place for consider him.

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What did Jesus have to go through? And we won't submit to do something lesser.

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He says, I want you to think about it, because Christ has triumphed.

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One writer said we can conquer his cross is the sign of victory. It's almost like, you know, when you're running, you think,

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OK, what do I have to do? So at mile 20 of the Boston Marathon, I don't bonk. Remember that term bonk where you just kind of like all the the glycogen stores are out of your liver, liver and muscle.

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By the way, for those people who think bonking or hitting the wall came about because of running or some kind of mixed martial arts or something like that.

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No, no, no. Bonking came out of bicycling. British transport films in the mid 1950s realized when cyclists didn't rest or eat, they would hit the wall and bonk.

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And they said it was a feeling similar to getting head hit on the head, bonked on the head. So you're running and you kind of bonk out.

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What do you do? What causes spiritual bonking? I can tell you. Morbid introspection, looking at self, morbidly looking at others, thinking about what they do, what they don't do, morbidly looking at the world and it's seen without thinking about the sovereign

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God behind that. Without focused on who Jesus is, that's why he has to tell us what to do, because we need the command, consider, meditate, think about who

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Jesus is, careful estimations. Spurgeon said he carried his heavy cross, but we only carry a sliver or two of it.

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He drank his cup to the dregs and we sip a drop or two at the very most. Consider how he suffered more than you can ever suffer and how he is now crowned with glory and honor.

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And you are to be like him, not just in descending into agony, but also exaltation.

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He's the forerunner. He's the perfecter. And he suffered and was exalted. Christian, you're going to suffer, but you will be exalted.

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So don't grow weary. Don't grow fatigued. Don't be discouraged. This is the cure for a weary heart.

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The Lord Jesus. Now, I have some notes that I don't know if I wrote or somebody else wrote them, but I.

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I think they'll touch your soul. Christian. Consider Christ, who was your substitute, he died in your place,

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Christ, the substitute bore your punishment that was rightly do you. Your guilt was credited to him in such a way that he representatively bore your punishment.

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Dear Christian, consider Christ, he redeemed you. You were in the slave market of sin and he purchased you with his own life, with his own blood from the marketplace of sin.

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You were enslaved and held in prison. And by virtue of a payment of another, the

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Lord Jesus, you have been released and all the satisfaction that God requires on law keeping

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Jesus did in your place. The purchase price for your freedom and the release from your sins was the death of Jesus.

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You now, Christian, belong to Christ. You're Christ alone. You've been bought with a terrible cost.

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Out of love. Consider Christ, who's reconciled you to God. Do you know, Christian, God made peace.

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The son made peace with the father for you. You were God's enemy and God of the son brought you into communion with God by the power of the

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Holy Spirit at the direction of the father. There is this awful sin barrier between you and the father and you were hostile toward God.

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And what was worse than that is God was hostile toward you. But through Christ, that entity and the wrath of God was removed for you.

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You couldn't do it. He did it all for you. Did you know that Jesus Christ satisfied the wrath of God for you?

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God is so holy. God is so righteous. He can't overlook any sin, including yours, not just one, not even one.

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He was so angry with your sin. But so loving that he provided propitiation satisfaction by punishing his son in your place.

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Dear Christian, did you know Jesus forgave you all the charges on the ledger against you?

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God removed your debts were nailed to the cross and Christ atonement was freely given to you for the forgiveness of sins.

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You'll never be judged for your sins again. It's that kind of thinking where you think if he did that for me, well,

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I need to keep running. I might stumble a little bit, but Lord, I'm going to just keep running because I've considered

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Christ. Well, not only that, it says in verse four in your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

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He's writing to the original recipients and they had been thrown in jail, but they haven't been martyred yet.

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But even up to the point of martyrdom, which could come, that shows you the extent of what you should do in this race.

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In this struggle, we've moved from running to war, running to fighting.

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And I think probably some Christians don't even think they're in a battle. Some don't think they're in a race. Some don't think they're in a battle. You can imagine,

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I don't know what your favorite World War Two story is. A bunch of soldiers standing around Bastogne smoking cigarettes, not even thinking that there's people shooting at them because they don't think they're in a war.

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This is a battle striving against sin. To what degree?

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Up until death. Shedding blood. Calvin said, for Christ will have no discharged soldiers, but only those who have conquered death itself.

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How do you endure this race? Number one, look to Jesus. Number two, accept training from your heavenly father.

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Discipline your heavenly father who loves you. Verses five through 11. Now I'm going to read verses five through 11, and I want you to ask yourself the question, are there repeated words?

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One of the best ways you can find out the meaning of a passage is to look for the repetition of certain words.

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And there's two words that are repeated a lot, and I will give them emphasis as I read, and then you'll know what this whole section is about.

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Hebrews 12, five to 11. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

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My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be wearied when reproved by him.

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For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastens every son whom he receives.

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It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons for what son is there whom his father does not discipline.

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If you are left without discipline in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

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Besides this, we all 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?

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They disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our own good that we may share in his holiness for the moment.

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All discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields a peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

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You don't have to be a Bible scholar to go to this passage and say, I think I know what it's about. It's about what discipline and about sons.

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Sons get disciplined. By the way, the word discipline contains the word child in it. So we could almost weave all these things together.

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Discipline. That's the key word discipline of sons. Why does a dad discipline his sons?

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That's a good question that kind of can unlock all what's going on here in this passage and it's not to harm, but it's because he loves his son.

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And I said it earlier. And I want to say it again. If you're falling into the trap right now, I'm going through this trial.

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I've lost a loved one because of the virus. I've lost my job. I've lost my hope. Uh, our families aren't getting along.

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Cause we're all under one roof and this, that, and the other. And what about the economy? What about this? It could be a thousand different things.

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And you say to yourself, you Christian say to yourself, God doesn't love me anymore. See, he doesn't love me.

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Well, then you ought to think differently. You ought to repent because that's not the point of discipline. You say, well, my dad used to discipline me out of anger and see,

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I just, I just transport that and project it all on who God is. I mean, my dad's six, four, two 40 golden glove boxer.

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And we didn't mess with dad. And by the way, my brother and sister, Marcy and Pat, we all had to run to the car and call the back seat behind the driver.

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Dad, I call the seat behind dad. Why? It wasn't because he was six, four and needed to put his chair all the way back his seat, because then we had no room, but he couldn't reach back there to hit us in anger.

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Right. And sometimes if he did grab you, I've told you the story. He just grab our hair and just yank really hard. And then like for the next five minutes, it'd be like this.

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That's why I am what I, why I am this way. Lots of times he drink too much and he disciplined us.

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And I have these big welts on my leg and it shaped like a hand. So, well, you know what?

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This whole discipline thing. My dad was angry, sinful, drunk. That's how he disciplined me. This is a father who loves you.

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How much does he love you? You think, well, wait a second. When I think of the love of God, I think about for God so loved the world.

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He gave his only begotten son. And I think about the love of God. Behold, what manner of love this is.

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We're called children of God. When I think of love, I think about God doesn't spare his son for us. And it's from that same loving father that he disciplines you.

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This is the holy, perfect father that never, ever disciplines out of wrath and anger.

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Dear Christian, if you think the discipline that you go under and go through and the trials that God brings to your life have no purpose, you've missed everything.

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There are many, if you knew there was meaning to suffer, to suffering, you'd go, okay, I want to learn this lesson.

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If God is going to teach me something, might as well learn the lesson. So the suffering doesn't go on longer. Et cetera.

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A father disciplines his son, not because he wants to hurt, not because he is some kind of ogre.

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And by the way, if you're the author of Hebrews and you're talking to a bunch of Hebrews, what do you think you use to try to help them along the path to understand truth?

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Answer the old Testament verse five. Did you know verse five and six in parentheses there, right after you, have you forgotten the exhortation that there's two sons?

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This comes right from Proverbs three, all kinds of child raising stuff in Proverbs and discipline from Proverbs.

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When I say discipline, there's all kinds of forms of discipline. He uses Proverbs chapter three.

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This is wonderful. My son do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him.

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For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastens every son whom he receives.

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When my kids were little, I'd often say to them in the midst of all our discipline in,

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I'd say, uh, does daddy discipline the kids down the street? And I would name them by name. Oh no, you don't.

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Should I know why? Well, I generally love them, but I love you.

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I want to discipline you to help you. The thing about this is this is a easy truth to forget.

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Why do you think he says in verse five, have you forgotten? Because you're in the trials, you're in the trouble. Your head goes down and you're like, you know what?

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I can't see up. I'm not walking by faith. It's easy to forget this. You get the news from the doctor.

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You're like, does God love me? This is easy to forget. So he says, please,

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I want you to know your father loves you. If you're a Christian, your heavenly father loves you with an everlasting love.

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He loves you as much as he loves the son, Jesus, because you're in Christ. You have union with Christ.

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So therefore, when you receive discipline from a loving heavenly father, the response can't be,

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I quit. The response can't be, I'm bitter. The response can't be, you know what?

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I'm just done with this. Samuel Rutherford said, faith learns to kiss the hand of her striking

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Lord. God's purposes are good for you. Romans eight 28 is true.

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God's not mad at you. God's not angry with you. Remember, because all the anger and wrath was poured out on the sun.

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There's no double jeopardy with a just God. I think when I think of, of discipline, I make sure

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I have a category, anger, wrath, punishment, and then discipline and correction.

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You Christian receive the second, not the first, because Jesus is the propitiation for our sins.

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First John two, first John four in this is love. Not that we love God, but he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

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We aren't disciplined by an angry father and we don't receive punishment from our wrathful father because we have a heavenly father who have a relationship to now as a son.

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And by the way, whatever discipline we get, I thought Thomas Brooks made a viable point. It's a lot less than we deserve.

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Thomas Brooks, he was deserved to hanging, has no reason to charge the judge with cruelty. If he escapes with a whipping and we have deserved a damning, have no reason to charge

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God for being too severe. If we escape with a fatherly lashing, that is so true.

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Christian. Don't say God's mad at me. Don't say God doesn't love me. And don't say God is punishing me for my sins.

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Jesus has been punished for you, but you could say. He's disciplining me.

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Why do we discipline to correct? Why do we discipline to educate? Why do we discipline to prevent things that happen in the future?

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I can remember telling my children, you're going to feel a sting. And when you feel a sting, I want you to know there are consequences to your behavior, cause and effect.

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I want you to know that the next time you want to do that thing over there that I told you not to do, that there's going to be an effect that will happen if you keep doing that.

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Pink said in divine judgment, a punishment. God is a judge in divine chastisement. He's a father.

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Objects of divine punishment are his enemies. Objects of divine chastisement are his children. Divine punishment is retributive.

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Divine chastisement is remedial. So don't forget that dear Christian. When you go through troubles and trials, here's what's happening.

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God disciplines you so that you grow and mature and that you can endure.

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What's the whole point to all this endure, endure, endure, endure at the end of chapter 10, endure chapter 11. These people endure how they endure by looking to Jesus and not turning back.

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So how do you endure? Look to Jesus and realize then when God disciplines you, he's making you fit for the race to finish.

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God ordains the end. You will be glorified. He ordains the means. Keep looking to Jesus and accept these trials that are in your life now because there are probably bigger trials in the future that you'll be ready to go through because God is working on you or you'll be ready to help other people through the path to endurance is by looking to Christ and then saying,

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I will accept his chastisement. The Lord disciplines the one he loves.

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Verse six. It's not a lack of love. It's a sign of love and chastens every son whom he receives.

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Now, you have heard me probably preach often about these ideas and child raising and discipline and everything.

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And by the way, if you say, I'm a woman, am I a son? I could call you a son or I mean, I could call you a daughter just as easily, right?

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This is for all believers, sons and daughters. But what about this idea of not disciplining?

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What do you think about parents that don't discipline? God says he disciplines every one of his sons, every one of his daughters.

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You ever meet somebody who doesn't discipline their kids? I have. And by the way, when they're here at church and they're new and they don't discipline their kids and I'm trying to think, you know what?

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Let the oxygen thing come down and let's get the parents first. Then we'll deal with the unruly kids because the issue isn't really the kids.

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It's the parents. And we're trying to do all this stuff. I'm thinking there's nothing more chaotic in this world than a bunch of spoiled bratty kids who don't get any discipline.

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True. Can I get an amen for that? Uh huh. There, there's some amening going on here. The tech says you, you let people have their own way.

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They're ashamed to their mother. They're ashamed of their father. God, God's not going to be shamed because he says, you know what?

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I just love my children too much to discipline them. Or when I discipline them, it doesn't work. I could give you thousands of reasons why it's an exaggeration.

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I can give you a dozen reasons why people say I don't discipline my kids. Uh, it doesn't work. Uh, psychology says such and such.

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Dada, dada, dada, dada. Every son or daughter that the

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Lord has through faith in Christ. Jesus is going to get disciplined because he cares for you.

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Think about it. The son, Jesus, Jesus Christ suffered on his way to Calvary and at Calvary.

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Then he was exalted. Do you think little Christian little

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Christ Christian, do you think you as a son aren't going to suffer when

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Jesus, the ultimate son suffered? Do you think Jesus, when he never sinned at all, still suffered?

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We sin. Don't you think we're going to suffer? That's why this kind of message is a rebuke, a slap in the face, a, a, a, a cold, a frigid rejection of any kind of prosperity teaching.

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Everything in your life is going to be great. And by the way, spiritually, everything in your life is great. If you're a

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Christian, but that's not, we're talking about here. God reproves, God corrects.

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God gives discipline. Sons and discipline go together. Sons and daughters and discipline go together.

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The ultimate example of sonship is Jesus Christ. The ultimate example of suffering is Jesus Christ. And so these people who got this letter, they were suffering.

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He says, just make sure you keep looking at Jesus. And by the way, while you can't read providence and say, what kind of suffering is this?

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Is it because of the fall? Is it because of other people's sin? Is it because of my own sin? Here's what

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I do know. This wouldn't be coming about in my life unless God ordained it. God has ordained this trial.

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Now, if you're not really thinking about a high view as God as much, okay, then use these language, use this language.

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God has allowed this. God has permitted this. I think it's better to say God has purposed it.

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God has ordained it, but he could have stopped all this stuff going on in your life. Why didn't he? For many, many reasons.

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But one is he's going to use this to train you so that you might endure so that you think, you know what?

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He's preparing me. He who spares the rod hates his son. True or false? Proverbs 13.

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It's true. You say, well, these people don't hate their kids. No, but the net effect is I hate you.

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Just run off on your own. I won't correct you at all. The opposite is true. He whom he loves is careful to discipline, and this is easy to forget.

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That's why he says in verse five, don't forget that. Don't forget this. When do you learn the most?

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You're a Christian. When have you learned the most? And for some of you that are younger, maybe you haven't gone through these things, but I'll tell you when you're going to learn the most is when you're in those trials and when the doctor calls and when the baby's born and they have to take him off to the

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NICU and when there's the miscarriage and when they call with the

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C word cancer, you'll learn the most. Then that's how God teaches us. That's how

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God gets our attention. One writer said, I'm afraid that all the grace I have got out of my comfortable and easy times and happy hours might lie on a penny, but the good that I have received from my sorrows and pains and griefs is altogether incalculable.

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What do I not owe to the hammer and anvil and fire and file? Affliction is the best bit of furniture in my house.

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I used to always say to myself when I was younger and I'd meet someone at Mount Herman, one of grandma

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Evie's friends that had been a Christian for 60 years. Some people here, I remember meeting Dave Jeffries and Deb and I'm thinking, why are they the way they are?

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Why, even though they suffer and have trials? Are they so steadfast in their trust for the

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Lord? Why, why are they not saying God? How could you God? I hate you, God. Why, why, why, why? Why are they having that, that tearful trust in the

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Lord? I like the way they are. I want to be that way. I see the way they act. How does

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God make those people? And what I didn't know at the time was it's through suffering. They've all suffered.

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Show me a wonderful, godly Saint. They've been through this life because every son gets disciplined.

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Every son and daughter gets disciplined. And one sense is kind of scary because then when you're younger, you're like, what do

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I have to go through in life so that God can make me into who I need to be? But know this, it comes from the hand of a loving father.

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If your dad corrected you and your mom corrected you and discipline you with any amount of love in their heart, and I'm sure for most, they did.

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How much more for the father? Discipline is a privilege because it affirms sonship.

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See, this is not stuff we just come up on with our own. It has to be revealed. And when you think about the love of God, dear

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Christian, besides Jesus, besides Calvary, I want you to think of discipline. Jesus said in Revelation three, these are

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Jesus's words. Those whom I love, I discipline. He said that to the church in Revelation three, we don't know all the purposes of God, but we know it's out of love.

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The same love that sent the son disciplines. God doesn't spoil his children. I went through my mind the other day and I thought, who's my favorite teacher growing up now, for those of you that are homeschooling, it's probably your mom, right?

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Or your dad or both. That's a tie. But I went to public school for quite a while. And my favorite teacher was my fifth grade teacher,

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Dan Sanfilippo. I just remember Dan Sanfilippo. He made it fun to learn. Math is exciting.

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Science, all this stuff. Dan Sanfilippo, I'll never forget him. And I thought, you know what? I'm just going to type in Dan Sanfilippo teacher,

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Omaha, Nebraska, uh, high school, junior high, dah, dah, dah, dah. And I found his number and I called him and I said,

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Dan Sanfilippo, my name is Mike Ebenroth. I don't know if you remember me, but I just was thinking you're my favorite teacher of all time.

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And I just wanted to call and say, thank you. And he said, well, Mike, thank you for calling. Did you have a brother named

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Pat and a sister named Marcy? I thought that is the reason why you're the number one teacher.

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Even though you embarrassed me when we had those electronic, uh, those kind of electrodes and we all held hands and then the final two people held the electrodes and he kind of generated this frequency of electricity and we all had to hold and we would shake.

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And then if you dropped out, you were out in this circle gets smaller. And that means the electricity through our arms got higher and higher.

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And it was down to just two people and, and the, and the electrodes, Alice police and Mike Ebenroth, the boys were chanting for Ebenroth, the girls chanting for Alice police.

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She was already, you know, fully developed and older. And I was like, you know, I didn't even have my teeth yet.

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I had my baby teeth and I'm holding on Dan Sanfilippo. I dropped. Oh, but you're still my favorite teacher.

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Every Christian here should have a favorite teacher. And it's the rod of God, the discipline of God, because it comes from love.

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It's something that he did to the son. And then you say, he's my father.

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I know I'm loved because of this is what he does. It confirms sonship.

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Do you see it in verse seven? It is for discipline that you have to endure. It's all about endurance.

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How do you endure till the end? You practice on Saturday for the game on Sunday.

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So you're ready for the game. Here's what you're practicing for to endure. God is treating you as sons for what son is there?

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Whom his father does not discipline. There's not a one you're illegitimate. If that's the case,

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God gives you what's your best, what's best for you. Rather endure hardship.

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Jesus endured. They go together. Psalm 119 before I was afflicted,

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I went astray, but now I obey your word. It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.

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Psalm 119, 67 and 71. Job learned from God.

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He got disciplined and he responded with, I retract and I repent in dust and ashes. I now see things clearly.

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Jesus learned obedience from what he suffered and once made perfect. He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.

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Hebrews chapter five. What's the point? God ordains suffering.

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God ordains this so that you might trust in him so that you might respond. Verse eight.

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If you're left without discipline in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

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You know, back in these days in the Roman world, if you had a son who was blood, you would give him an inheritance and you would discipline him.

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But if you had illegitimate sons, you might give them money, uh, to your concubine to raise them, but you would never go discipline them.

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So Christian, when you go through trials, don't be discouraged. God's treating you as his children.

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Don't forget that. Besides this verse nine, think about the comparison, the lesser to greater.

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If we had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them, shall we not much more be subject to the non -earthly father called here the father of spirits in contrast to earthly father, father of spirits and live.

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I know I didn't parent perfectly, but I think my children have a respect for me because I disciplined them.

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Matter of fact, I know they do because we talk about it when they're older and if they respected me, sinful, frail dad, how much more do we respect the father?

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Instead of saying, I'm bitter. How could you, I'm going to complain. I didn't get what I deserved.

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No, the fear, spiritual father, the father of spirits, he wants you to live.

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This has got an echo of the fifth commandment in Exodus chapter 20. And then he goes on to say, finally, our last two verses for the disciplined us for a short time.

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Is this discipline going to last forever? Well, when you were a kid, did you get spanked 24 hours a day?

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I mean, there was a day that you finally got older and you didn't get spanked, right? Well, I hope that's the case.

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Remember once Luke was 15 or 16, I said, do you think you're too old to be spanked? Cause if you do think so that, you know, just keep doing what you're doing and we're going to kind of correct that.

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At least I can talk about spanking now because the, the, um, um, statute of limitations is over.

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It was a mental spank. They disciplined us for a short time, right?

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I don't know from two to 12 or whatever the frame timeframe is as seem best to them.

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They didn't even know sovereignly what was going on. They're just like, well, cause and effect. I think I'll try my best.

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By the way, this is great parenting advice. Be a Christian, ask God for wisdom. There you go.

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Because godly Christians train their children. Well, as seem best to them, they did it with less than omniscience.

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They did it with less than, um, no wisdom, but he disciplines us for our good that we may share his holiness.

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So we're conformed to the image of Christ so that one level of glory to the next second Corinthians chapter three, verse 18 would happen.

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Why does he discipline us? This is fascinating. Verse 11 for the moment, all discipline seems painful and it should.

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I mean, we're not running around, you know, going, Oh wow. Great pain rather than pleasant, but later see here's the payoff.

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It yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained.

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I can hear Paul say not only that Romans five, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that the suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope.

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And hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy spirit who has been given to us.

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I can hear James, the half brother of Jesus say, count it all joy. My brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, knowing that the testing of your faith produces what endurance steadfastness and less steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing.

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What's the point of discipline. It's for fruit, peaceful fruit of righteousness.

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So you can endure till the end. That's the point harvest of righteousness, peace,

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Shalom wholeness. So dear Christian friend, you're running a race and you're going to have to run that race until the

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Lord returns. Or you die. And it could be in one day, either of those could happen or it could be 50, 60 years.

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And when things get difficult and even when things aren't difficult, I think the strategy is the same.

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Keep looking to the Lord Jesus and accept the discipline from the father because he loves you enough to conform you to the image of his son.

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And the good news is it's going to happen. It's going to happen because God will glorify you. And in response to all that, how to run the

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Christian faith is simple. Look to Jesus, accept discipline. Let's pray.

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Thank you father for our time in your word today. I pray that those who are watching who are unbelievers, that you would have them look to the

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Lord Jesus, the risen savior. And for all those that are here in this building and those watching online who are

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Christians, I just pray that you would help them to see things rightly. We need to use our minds and to calculate not only about who

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Jesus is and how he loves us, but also how to see trials, how to see suffering, how to see difficulties in our lives the right way.

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We need to know. So give us hearts this week, father, to study your word. Would you give us a real desire to study the book of revelation that shows

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Jesus a desire to read the epistles that show the theological ramifications of who

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Jesus is. Father, would you help us to read the gospels that teach us about Jesus who forgives, who raises people from the dead, who is out of the tomb, who grants forgiveness.

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Would you help us to read the old Testament with every type and shadow and pattern, every echo and illusion pointing to the

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Lord Jesus. Help us to be people of your word as we go through this trial.

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And we know it's because you love us. Thank you for loving us. Thank you even for this trial we're in now as we have to be quarantined.

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How much less a quarantine is than the one who suffered such hostility against himself.

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That is sinners. We thank you in Jesus name. We pray. Amen. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

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Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston.

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You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.