Discipline or Training (Part 1)

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. Welcome in the middle of this worldwide shutdown. I guess we can still do radio podcasts. You know, it�s funny, when I was on the actual radio, then people kind of gave me some street cred, but since we�re just a podcast, I mean, like everybody else, we�re just a podcast, so that doesn�t seem to count, does it?

It�s just a podcast. And you know what? Truth be told, it�s just a podcast. I think we were coming up on finishing 10 years on the radio, five days a week. That doesn�t mean I do all those shows, because Monday�s a sermon and Friday�s, we turn that into kind of a rerun, but anyway, it�s still a lot of shows.

Anyway, what do I have here in front of me? This is an old Dallas Morning News blurb, but still, it�s fascinating to me. Before we get into our topic at hand, Ernesto Hernandez, 20, of Dallas, Texas, was fatally wounded after a fight broke out at a baptism party.

Mr. Hernandez was with family and friends when an argument started late in the evening. He was shot during the argument and died at a nearby hospital. I�m sorry he died. I�m not laughing at that. I mean, this is, I think, a 30-year-old story, but there�s a little snippet underneath it in this magazine, and it said, �One should never bring up the immersion versus sprinkling debate at a baptism party.

Fascinating. You can go to weddings and funerals and baptism parties, and still, our hearts are so wicked. We can turn that into fighting. I would bet, what do you bet, that there was alcohol involved?

It�s hard to imagine that there wasn�t alcohol or drugs or something like that. Anyway, that was just here in front of me, and I thought, aren�t you happy that I did? The other thing that�s in front of me before we start is there�s a famous quote by Rolf Emerson.

Emerson said a lot of things, and of course, I�m kind of interested in him only to the extent that he was from New England, a Massachusetts guy, et cetera, et cetera, lived here. He was very good to his house.

He wrote an essay, first series, called Self-Reliance, and there�s a very, very famous quote. If you ever want to quote Emerson, I want to make sure you fully quote him because usually people give the abbreviated quote of Emerson.

It's theologically related, just in case you were going to tune out. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. I hear that said quite often, that little minds really aren�t consistent, and they have ideas, but they�re not related.

That serves as kind of like an evil hobgoblin always after them because they can�t run from it. I mean, how often do you say hobgoblin? But that�s not the full quote because there�s a comma after that, and of course, as good Bible students, we know that like Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1, there is a comma in your English text because chapter 12, verse 2 continues the sentence, and so we don�t want to take things out of context now, do we, hermeneutically.

Therefore, here�s the full quote, and it�s to my shame. He�s after me. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, comma, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines, end quote.

Now, that�s not Dan Devine, the old Packer coach. I think he coached Notre Dame football and the Green Bay Packers. Remember, I had a bumper sticker when I was a kid, the Packers Divine with a D-E, not a D-I.

Hey, divines that are, you know, theologians, Bible people that teach, they�re inconsistent too. So, anyway, a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by statesmen, philosophers, and divines.

There you have it. My name is Mike Gabriel. This is No Compromise Radio. Today, I want to talk about our continuing series, Endurance and Running the Christian Life in Spite of Difficulties. Now, lots of people, because of the virus and all this other stuff, they have talked this way and they have made mention of ways to deal with issues.

Some people are home and they�re anxious or they�re fearful or they�re not content to be kind of in lockdown and they�re suffering hardships. Others, there are the trials of they�ve lost their job, and what about the income that they�re going to have?

Some have, I know personally, lost loved ones from the virus. There�s all kinds of different ways that people have dealt with the trial that we find ourselves in today. And trials in general up to and including persecution for the Christian faith.

How do we work through this? Now, what we�ve been looking at here in Hebrews chapter 12, verses 1 and 2, is that you need to keep your eyes on the Lord Jesus and you need to make sure that the trial you�re experiencing, make sure you realize that it comes from the Father who loves you and who gives this trial meaning because He�s using it to help you grow in your Christian faith and maturity so that you endure.

He uses trials like a coach would use training days to equip the runner to run the race well. No one wins some race without some kind of training, I guess, unless you�re Bo Jackson. And he could win a lot of races without training, but at the highest level, he couldn�t win without training because you just need to do that.

You need to prepare yourself physically for those extreme trials. Well, the trial here happens to be a spiritual trial at the highest level. The audience in Hebrews, they were Jewish people, hence the word Hebrews.

And the writer, probably Paul. Some days I say that, probably not Paul, other days, but it�s an apostolic message and of course it�s divine author. We need to think about divine author more than we normally do, and he uses a human person to write it, but think about the divine author and he wanted these Hebrews not to go back to Judaism because Jesus had already come and he wanted them to run a race of endurance that just shall live by faith.

He talks a lot about looking to Jesus in verse 2, consider Him who this Jesus is, this author and finisher, and how you haven�t bled yet or died yet for your faith. He's writing to them. I mean, some people, of course, that he talked about in chapter 11 had, but we run the Christian race by keeping our eyes on Jesus and realizing that the heavenly Father disciplines us, trains us for running this race that we might have endurance.

And so, don�t take that training, don�t take the trials that God uses for training as, you know what, God doesn�t love me. That�s what happens a lot. Somebody has a trial, and I can speak very generally and vaguely, you know, you watch these false teachers on TV and there�s somebody out there that�s got a bad back and he�s healed.

It�s vague enough and general enough that it�s got to apply to someone, but I�m going to let that steal the thunder from, �Oh, you�re in a trial whatever that trial might be, after this virus thing is all over, and it could be even trials of prosperity.

But here, the suffering that these Christians were going through, God said, you know what? Essentially, I�m in charge, I�m a father who disciplines sons, and I actually had my son, capital S, suffer. So for you, small s, adopted in a family based on the work of Christ, it shouldn�t surprise you that you�re going to suffer.

Discipline as Loving Training Rather Than Punishment

So Hebrews chapter 12, verses 5 through 11, talks about discipline, and it�s very fascinating because we are an undisciplined people left to ourselves. America is fairly undisciplined. You can look at people, how they eat, how they work, other things.

I think we�ve lost the art of discipline. You can watch children and parents and say to yourself, �I wonder if those children ever get disciplined. I wonder if those children are ever set aside and have said to them, �You know what?

You�ve lost your privileges. These are the consequences of your behavior. And I�m not just talking about spanking, I�m talking about some kind of parental discipline instead of spoiling the child and the child is in charge.

I�m not after any particular person. I�m not thinking of any person particularly. But I know children who are two years old and they run the house. They are in charge. I�m thinking, the dad, he�s what?

Six foot, 200 pounds. I don�t know. That�s just, that�s me. And what? I�m going to be ruled by a two-year-old? Of course we want to love and we want to care for, we want to have fun, and in one sense our children are the center of our worlds, proverbially speaking, and they take a lot of our time and we�ve got to care for them in so many ways, shapes, and forms, and most of it falls on the mother as she�s home raising the children.

Of course we love our children, but they�re not in charge. And actually, sometimes when we are helping them with chastisement and discipline, they don�t even really know and can�t comprehend everything.

But what I do want them to comprehend is it�s coming from a loving father or sometimes from the loving mother, or more often instead of sometimes is probably what I should have said. A father disciplines his son.

Why? Well, let�s ask the question, why doesn�t he? Well, he�s lax, he�s lazy, he�s had a hard day at work and that�s the last thing he wants to do is come home and deal with kids� issues. There�s lots of reasons like that.

But what I�m thinking about is good fathers don�t punish their children as enemies. They discipline their children as sons or daughters. God wants to make you, Christian, more like Christ. How does he do that?

Well, you look at the Word and the Word, like 2 Corinthians 3, verse 18, transforms you into Christ-likeness. Right? It�s a powerful Word that does its work in those who believe, Paul said, in the Thessalonican Church.

He uses other means too. You could say, well, it�s Word and sacrament and means of grace. He uses discipline. I�m not saying discipline is necessarily technically a means of grace, but I am saying he uses discipline to help us.

It�s not to hurt us, it�s not to punish us as enemies, it�s to chasten us. I always try to make it clear with my children when I was doing something to them that is in a form of discipline. Daddy loves you and this is why I�m going to do this, because I�m trying to help you.

I�m trying to train you to be a functioning adult and realize there are things that happen when you have bad behavior. There are consequences to your actions. God is not trying to do less than a human parent would.

He�s the ultimate Father and He doesn�t try to discourage you through all these things and beat you down. No, but every son that He has, He scourges. He disciplines. He wants to make sure He takes care of us by training so that we might endure.

The key here at the end of chapter 10 in Hebrews 11 and early on in 12 is endurance, because it�s hard to run the race. It�s hard to keep going. What are my motivations when trial after trial after trial?

There are good days that are just, you know, you�re just loving everything about life and before you know it, you�re like, �I am in this trial. How did I get in this trial, and I don�t think I�m going to get out of it anytime soon.

So, if you�re a Hebrews recipient, this letter sermon, it�s not going to surprise you that the Old Testament is quoted, right? Because that�s the Bible they had. There was no New Testament at the time.

Of course, the person of Christ and the life of Christ, He, Jesus, existed and was exalted, and we have the book of Hebrews, probably pre -70 A .D., because the temple, I think, is, with present-tense language, the temple is still up, therefore, what books do we have?

James? Galatians? Do we have Matthew yet? You know, there are questions like that to be asked, but the Old Testament is quoted. That�s my point. �Have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons

Hebrews 12, 5. Then he quotes Proverbs, Proverbs 3, and, of course, most of the Proverbs early on, the first, I don�t know, nine chapters, is it? Start off pretty much with �My son or my sons and Solomon is teaching divine wisdom to his sons.

Of course, all of us, it will follow along. �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.

Now the ESV says �every son whom He receives. You might have a different translation, but the point is still the same. I don�t know if you said to yourself, �When was the last time I was spanked

I�m trying to think of the last time I was spanked. I know for certain it wasn�t pleasant. My dad was 6 '4", 240, and probably spanked me when he had been drinking quite a bit. I remember having handprints on my leg, on my thigh, where he hit me with his hand as a spanking kind of thing.

I don�t think I ever got a belt from him, that would have been bad. I don�t think I ever got a paddle, I think it was just his bare hand. And then when I got older, it was not this formal thing, it was just a whack.

That�s why we always wanted to sit behind dad in the car, and we would say, �I call the seat behind dad. There wasn�t much room back there, but it�s hard to have dad swing his arm back and hit the person behind the driver.

So the poor person in the middle, Marcy, and the other side, Pat, they got it all the time. And he would just swing his hand back there. Now if he ever did get me, sometimes he would grab my hair on my head and just pull, and then you would just kind of like, it would just fall out over the next 15 minutes as he�d give you the hair pull.

Why did he do that? Well, of course, human dads can sinfully discipline, but that�s not here. That�s not here at all. Don�t regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be wearied when reproved by him.

That could be an option, right? You�re mad, you�re angry, you�re weary. This is done in love. �Oh, I�m in a trial, God doesn�t love me. No, I�m in a trial. God loves me. And he�s going to use this trial to build me up, to help me, to understand what it�s like to suffer and come to the other side and see the faithfulness of God and all this, to imitate the Lord Jesus who suffered as a son.

The suffering son has followers who suffer. So don�t forget this. It�s easy. Verse 5, �Have you forgotten Don�t forget that. It�s easy to forget, right? You�re heads down, you�re trying to plow through, you�ve got family issues, medical issues, financial issues, social issues, health issues, all these kinds of issues, and you forget and now the writer is saying, �Don�t forget, there�s a Father who loves you.

Not that long ago I had a procedure and they gave me some Versed, some medicine that makes you have no pain and no memory. And they could tell you to roll over, do this, that, or the other, and you would, but you can�t remember what happened.

And something, I can�t remember exactly what happened, but I�m in the room, before they gave me the medicine, somehow I said something like, �Oh, that hurt like�, you know, they gave me the IV and I said, �That hurt like purgatory or I can�t remember what I said.

Something about purgatory. And then I said, �Well, I don�t believe in purgatory, but I just use that as a, you know, I don�t want to say it hurt like itchy, you know, double toothpicks or something like that.

Just throw around words, you know, I�m not afraid to say the word hell. And I think about eternal destruction and damnation, but I don�t want to just use it as some kind of like slang word. So I�ll use purgatory instead.

Anyway, I said, �You know what, by the way, before you give me the medicine, I�m a Bible teacher. If you want to ask me about purgatory and why it�s not in the Bible, just ask me after you give me the medicine.

I said, �I think I�ll still give you the right answer. I didn�t get to talk to those nurses there in the room afterwards. I just got the post-op nurses. They were just nice. I said, because I hadn�t eaten for a day and a half, and they gave me some soda and some Lorna Doon soft bread, not soft bread, shortbread.

And so I ate that little packet, and I said, �May I please have another one How can you have a colonoscopy and then gain weight? I think the answer is Lorna Doon. My daughter picked me up. Of course, now they can�t stay in the waiting room or anything, and so they take me out and all the masks and everything else.

So then I said to my daughter, �Let�s go to Dairy Queen, because I haven�t eaten for a day and a half, right It was Easter Sunday when I had to do the cleanse, and so the only thing I had for our special Easter dinner was pineapple Jell-O.

You can�t have the red Jell-O. You have to have the pineapple Jell-O. There was some orange Jell-O. I just couldn�t take it. You�re also allowed to have honey. What else? Broth. I had some broth with ghost peppers on it just to spice it up a little bit for our resurrection Sunday dinner.

By the way, it was hard preaching just on Jell-O. I had a protein bar in case I had to do it. I�ve got some kind of visual migraine sometimes that I�ll get, and just got the flashing eye thing. I mean, when that happens, you�re preaching, and it�s hard enough to preach anyway.

But anyway, that was my first pineapple Jell-O sermon. It was probably not my best. Tuesday guy Pastor Steve said, �If I was a senior pastor, I would have been not preaching and my associate would have.

Do not forget, no compromise radio listeners, that you�re a son or a daughter because of the work of Christ, right? If you�re a Christian, that�s true. When you go through trials, don�t forget this.

It�s easy to forget, �Oh, I have a Heavenly Father, and He loves me, and He�s the one allowing this. He�s the one ordaining this. He�s the one that brought this into my life. He could have kept this from coming into my life.

And I need to respond rightly. I need to realize that God�s not mad at me. He�s not angry with me. I might be doing things that are wrong, and He needs to discipline me and chase in me. But this is not punishment of an enemy.

This is the reproof for a son that He loves because He wants to help us to grow into the image of Christ�s likeness more and more and more. And how does that happen? God, the Father, loves His children.

So, when you receive these trials, I guess you could get tired. That�s what the text says. You could become bitter. But Samuel Rutherford said, �Faith learns to kiss the hand of her striking Lord. That�s exactly what�s happening.

Remember that this is from the Lord, whatever the situation is. God could have prevented the virus. He could have done this. He could have given a vaccine. The list goes on and on and on. But we realize, okay, what will the Lord do in the midst of this?

Not just to other people, but what�s He doing to you and through you? God cannot be angry with and wrathful toward His children because that would minimize what Jesus did. Jesus is the propitiation for our sins.

He, the Righteous One, is a propitiation. He assuaged God�s wrath for us, not only for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world. Jew, Gentile, all those who would believe in Him. Remember, in this is love.

Not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. He is not doing this because He hates you. He loves you with an everlasting love. He loves you as He loves His Son, the Lord Jesus, because you�re in union with Him.

So don�t fall for that trick, �Oh, God hates me. This is the loving hand. By the way, what do we really deserve anyway? We deserve hell, and we get heaven, and we don�t even deserve fatherly correction, but He gives that as well.

That�s incredible. Thomas Brooks, the Puritan, said, �He who has deserved a hanging has no reason to charge the judge with cruelty if he escapes with a whipping, and we who have deserved a damning have no reason to charge God for being too severe if we escape with a fatherly lashing.

That�s interesting. That�s wonderful. Don�t say, �I�m going through this trial. God�s getting me back for all my sins. God�s punishing me for my sins. God�s angry because of all my sins. Remember, you stand before God legally, the judge, as forgiven, as righteous, because the Son has earned that for you, and now you�re getting disciplined.

This is not a matter of legal standing. This is fatherly love. And any good father who loves his children will discipline his children. Why? For their own good, for society�s good, for the family�s good, and for also to teach them how to grow up and how to live when they�re older the right way in this world with consequences.

And so the Father�s helping everyone endure through these trials. How do you endure? Well, the answer to your No Compromise Radio listeners is, one, keep your eyes on Jesus, verses 1 -3, or 1 -4 of Hebrews 12, and then accept fatherly discipline out of the loving Father�s heart.

Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio.

No Compromise Radio, with Pastor Mike Abendroth, is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. 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.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We�re right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.