Sermon #64 Miscellaneous Sermons

Title: "The Loving Father’s Rod"

Text: Hebrews 12:5-11

Subject: Divine Chastisement

Readings:

Date:

Tape:

Introduction:


We live in a world full of suffering. The problem of suffering is a part of reality. On every hand we see sickness, bereavement, poverty, and disability, and we have the sure testimony of the Word of God, and the evidence of history, that so long as the world stands these things will be with us. The longer we live, and the more we experience, the more agonizing real the problem of suffering becomes.

This problem is particularly difficult for the Christian. The man of the world has to face pain as well as we do, but his attitude is different. For him it is a question of luck. If his child is born with a severe handicap, or one of his family is permanently injured by an accident, it is "bad luck". In the face of these circumstances he either becomes bitter and cynical, or he shrugs his shoulders and tries to cope with fate with as much cheerfulness as he can muster.

But for the child of God the difficulty lies at a far different level. It is not simply that we have to cope with the same basic situation as our non-christian neighbors, but we are faced with questions which arise from our faith in God. We believe that God is almighty, that he is the One who "works all things after the counsel of his own will." Futhermore, e believe that God is love, and that by adoption and grace the child of God has been brought into a relationship where he knows God to be his Father. Therefore, when a Christian looks into the face of a subnormal body, as he sees his teenage boy or girl maimed by some accident, as he holds the weak hand of a dying companion, as he thinks about the whole of human suffering and misery he cries from the depth of his tortured soul, "Why, O Lord, Why?" "Why do the righteous suffer?"

The problem of suffering is sometimes aggravated by the apparent indifference of God. The heavens seem silent and empty. We cry out in dispair with the psalmists, "Why dost Thou stand afar off, Oh Lord? Why dost Thou hide thyself in times of trouble?"

Through these trials of suffering the reality of our Christian faith is proven. If Christianity is to be a success, if Christ is to save completely, there must be a provision, sufficient and efficacious, to prevent suffering from causing discouragement or defeat, to transform it into blessing and help.

If it can enable us to rejoice in tribulation, to glory in infirmities, and to pass unharmed through trial, it will indeed be the religion which man needs in a world of suffering.

God has made such a provision. First of all, he gives his own Son as the chief of sufferers, to show us how close the relation is between suffering and his love, suffering and the victory over sin, suffering and perfection of character, suffering and glory. He has provided us with One who can sympathize, who can teach us how to suffer, and who as the Conqueror of sin through suffering can breathe his own life and strength into us. Thus, he comes to us, in the portion of Scripture before us as our Father to shed his light on our afflictions and to teach us the lessons his providence contains.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,

The clouds ye so much dread

Are big with mercy, and shall break

In blessing on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,

But trust Him for His grace;

Behind a frowning providence

He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast,

Unfolding every hour;

The bud may have a bitter taste,

But sweet will be the flower.

I have entitled my message The Loving Father’s Rod.

Proposition:

Affliction, in some form or other, is allotted by God to every individual, whom he regards with peculiar favor, as the necessary means of promoting their spiritual improvement; and is, therefore, to be considered as a proof of his parental love.

Divisions:

1. The blessed promise (5-6).

2. The believer’s performance (7-8).

3. The beneficient purpose (9-10).

4. The bright prospect (11).

I. The Blessed Promise (5-6).

Chastening is a part of a father’s training, and is one of the marks of sonship.

A. The son’s exhortation (v. 5; Prov. 3:11).

Here the apostle tells us that we are in danger of doing two things when we are under God’s disciplinary rod.

1. We are in danger of dispising his chastisements.

a. By murmuring.

b. By failing to amend our ways.

c. By despising those whom God chastens.

2. We are in danger of fainting at his rebukes.

a. How does God rebuke us?

(1.) His Word

(2.) He Spirit

(3.) His servants

(4.) His providence

b. How are we in danger of fainting?

(1.) By giving up our Godly efforts.

(2.) By doubting God’s goodness to us.

(3.) By over estimating the trouble and its length.

B. The sons’s evidence (6).

It is an evidence of God’s love to be disciplined and scourged by him (Psa. 94:12, James 1:12, Rev. 3:19).

II. The believer’s performance (7-8).

As believers we must learn to submit beneath the Father’s rod, because submission to chastening forms and proves the truly child like character of the heirs of heaven.

A. The best of God’s saints need chastisement.

1. Abraham

2. Job

3. David

4. Peter

5. Paul

6. John

When we are chastened it is no sign of God’s wrath.

B. Believers are required to endure chastening.

1. The perseverance of the saints.

2. The proof of the sons (James 1:12).

C. Those who are without chastisement are not sons.

NOTE: Not all who suffer are sons, but all sons do suffer. The wicked suffer because of their impenitence, the righteous for God’s glory and their good.

NOTE: Bastard – one born of an unfaithful, adulterous wife, or child of fornication.

III. The beneficient purpose (9-10).

God does not chastise his children without a purpose. He designs our good through suffering.

A. God’s purpose in chastisement –

1. Negatively

a. It is not arbitrary.

b. It is not for his satisfaction – Punitive or judicial.

NOTE: Parents have the right and the duty to punish their children, and children owe their parents love and respect in this. But parents sometimes do it in anger and haste with no purpose but their own satisfaction, God never does.

2. Positively

We suffer in order that our faith may be refined and our eventual maturity in holiness gained (Lev. 19:2; Psa. 119:65-72).

NOTE: Job did not understand his sufferings, nor the purpose of God in them, until they were over (Job 42:6).

B. God’s providence in chastisement.

There is no field of Divine revelation or human experience in which the sovereignty of God is so apparent as it is in the realm of suffering on the part of his people.

1. Though God is not in the least degree affected by evil, yet, in his infinite holiness and wisdom he holds the government of all evil in his hands (Psa. 80:5; Isa. 45:7).

2. Through sufferings he makes us like Christ (Rom. 8:29).

Example: Peter’s denial and repentance.

Quote: "By affliction God separates the sin which he hates from the soul which he loves." John Mason.


"God’s commandments are best read with eyes wet with tears." C. H. Spurgeon.

3. In his providence God often brings outward wrath that his people might pray for mercy (Hab. 3:3).

IV. The bright prospect (11).

A. Our present sadness (I Pet. 1:6-9).

B. Our temporal peace (Phil. 4:7).

C. Our eternal joy (2 Cor. 4:16 5:1; Rev. 7:14; Rom. 8:18).

Application:

1. When Job was afflicted he adopted at first the attitude of self-pity (3:3), his three friends proposed the attitude of self-accusation; but God demanded the attitude of self-surrender!

Thy way, not mine, O Lord,

However dark it be;

Oh lead me by Thine own right hand,

Choose out the path for me.

2. When you are tempted to dispair, and complain, remember God’s faithfulness (Lam. 3:21-23; Isa. 63:9; 1 Cor. 10:13).

3. Sinner, look at our afflicted Lord, and trust him.

 

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Don Fortner