Ron Dunn Podcast - Ministry Of Chastisement

Episode Date: November 17, 2021

Ron Dunn continues in the series "Strange Ministers"

The book of Hebrews chapter 12. I'm going to begin reading with verse 3 and read through the 17th verse. Hebrews chapter 12 verses 3 through 17. The people to whom the writer was addressing himself were having fainting spells, spiritual fainting spells. And much of the book of Hebrews deals with trying to encourage these Hebrew Christians, trying to cure their disheartenment because of trials and tribulations and sufferings and difficulties that had come their way. And in these passages preceding this one, he's been giving reasons why they should not be disheartened

because of adversity. Remember chapter 11 is that great faith chapter. And the writer is there pointing to them as an example. These great men of faith, their faith was wrought out through suffering and trial and adversity. And then in chapter 12, he uses the example of Jesus as one who suffered. Therefore, they should not be disheartened when they suffer. But there is a third reason that they suffer, and much of their discouragement and disheartenment is a result of their forgetting a primary truth in the spiritual life. And in verse 5, rather, I said verse 3, we want to begin reading with verse 5.

In verse 5, he picks up this third reason that Christians suffer. This thing that they have forgotten, which has led to some doubt and frustration, which in turn has caused some disheartenment in their own Christian life. So let's begin reading with the fifth verse and read through verse 17. And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourge of every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons.

For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence, shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their pleasure or as seemed good to them. But God chastens us for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous.

Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore, lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but rather let it be healed. Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled, lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing,

he was rejected, for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. One of the greatest mysteries that faces Christians is this mystery of suffering. Why do Christians suffer? That used to be one of the most favorite sermon topics among Christians. You let an evangelist come into a church for a week and announce that he was going to preach a message on why Christians suffer. And there was immediately a built-in audience because not any of us is exempt from asking that question. Why is it that after I have given my life to Jesus Christ and have done that not in a nominal way, but have really given to him the obedience of my life and as much as in me is, have acknowledged him to be the Lord of my life and strive in all ways to please him,

why is it then that so much trouble comes into the life of a Christian? And you'll not read the Bible very much until you discover that a great portion of the Word of God struggles with this mighty mystery of divine providence and human suffering. Why do Christians suffer? You know, David almost backslid. Well, as a matter of fact, he did because he said, my feet were in the well and I slipped because I became envious at the wicked. He said, I look at the wicked, that man who cares not a thing about the Lord, and man, he seemed to have it made. Everything went smooth for him. There seemed to be no problem surrounding his life. But he said, I knew nothing but trouble and sorrow, tears. And he said, I began to think that maybe I was serving the Lord for nothing, that I was making a fool of myself.

Well, why do Christians suffer? I think there are three reasons illustrated by three biblical characters why Christians suffer. Some Christians suffer like Job, who was a perfect man, and God allowed the devil to afflict and inflict him as a trial, as a test of his faith. And 1 Peter chapter 1 says that God is going to test, that God is going to try our faith so that the Father might be glorified through our stability of believing. So many times a Christian will suffer as Job suffered. Job illustrates that kind of misfortune and tragedy and sorrow and suffering that falls into a Christian's life in order to exhibit that this man's faith is sound and firm and steadfast

and to increase this man's faithfulness and stability in the Lord. Many Christians suffer as Job suffered. And God allows this to happen. Paul the apostle and his thorn in the flesh is another example of the Job type of suffering. Then there is the Jesus type of suffering. Jesus suffered simply because he was godly. Jesus suffered because he was true. And Peter says again in chapter 4, don't be surprised when you suffer as Jesus suffered. John chapter 15, Jesus said, If the world has hated me, you know that it will also hate you. In Matthew chapter 5, as he was giving the Beatitudes,

Jesus says, When you are persecuted for my sake, rejoice and be exceedingly glad. And so Christians suffer like Jesus suffered, simply because Jesus was obedient to the Heavenly Father. He was identified with the righteousness of God, and the world reacted towards that with suffering and chastisement. And so Christians suffer like Jesus suffered, simply because they're identified with Jesus. And when a Christian suffers this way, the Bible says he ought to be happy because it identifies

him with his Lord but then there is a third kind of suffering and that is the Jonah kind of suffering Jonah suffered not as a test of his faith not because he was identified with the righteousness of God but Jonah suffered because he was disobedient and rebellious to his Lord. Now the Bible calls that chastisement and discipline. The Hebrew Christians had forgotten that. And the writer is saying some of you are suffering like the heroes of faith suffered. You're suffering the Job kind of faith. Some of you are suffering like the heroes of faith suffered. You're suffering the Job kind of faith. Some of you are suffering like Jesus suffered simply because he was righteous. And some of you are suffering the Jesus kind of suffering.

But now in beginning in verse 5 he says, But some of you are suffering because of your disobedience, because of the sin that's in your life. You are experiencing the Jonah kind of suffering. The message this morning is the ministry of chastisement or the ministry of discipline. And the Bible very clearly teaches that God is going to discipline his children. God has a right to do it, as any father has a right to chasten and to whip and to spank and to discipline his child. As far back as the book of Deuteronomy, God warned the people that this would be.

He says in Deuteronomy chapter 8 and verse 5, Thou shalt also consider in thine heart that as a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee. Again in 2 Samuel chapter 7 and verse 14. The Lord says, I will be his father and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the children of men. God says, I'm going to be a father to you. And if you commit iniquity, I'm going to chasten you. Just as any father chastens the son that he receives, the son that he loves, so the heavenly Father is going to chasten us. Now, not every time

suffering comes is it an indication that I have sinned. It's not always chastisement. This is why, dear Christian, it is important for you to always live right with God so that when adversity comes and difficulty comes, you will be able to know whether or not this is simply God trying your faith or is it God punishing you, chastening you, disciplining you because of sin in your life. The ministry of chastisement. We're going to look at the ministry, the manner, and the message out of these verses. You follow along as we study what God has to say about this matter of chastisement. First of all, let's look at the ministry of chastisement. God not only has a right to chasten us, but he has a reason. God never does anything without a purpose. Notice in verse 10,

he's using a contrast between our earthly fathers and our heavenly father. He says our earthly fathers chastened us for a few days. That means while we were living with them, while we were under their tutorship, they chastened us after their own pleasure. Now that is an unfortunate translation. That doesn't mean that the dad got a kick out of doing it. And I say this because I have a feeling some young people are sitting there saying, I knew it all along.

I knew it all along. Now I've got Scripture to prove that the only reason my dad spanks me is because he enjoys it. Well, that is not a good translation. Sorry about that. But what that means is they chastened us as seemed right or as seemed good to them.

And the writer is saying, now they were not always correct in doing it. And any parent knows that there are times when he chastens the child and he chastens them for a wrong reason, more because he's angry than because they've disobeyed, and that's a sin. And sometimes they're punished wrongly. I could write a list of times I got spanked for something I didn't do. But I could also make a longer list for the times when I did something I didn't get caught and didn't get spanked for. So I really have no right to complain about those times that my father and mother misjudged me and misinterpreted the circumstances and perhaps punished me wrongly. It didn't happen very often. But I have no right to complain about that because actually they were just kind of catching up for all the things I did they didn't know about. This is what the writer

is saying. An earthly father, an earthly mother is human, they will err. They punish us, they chasten us as seems good to them. And once in a while, once in a while, they make a mistake. But he says, God never does. The heavenly Father knows all things. And he chastens us for our profit, for our good. He chastens us in order to make us better and in order to perfect his purpose within us. Now, there are basically three reasons the writer gives why God chastens a Christian. There are times in a Christian's life when God is going to lay the rod to you. Now, chastening is not the everyday trial that you just fall into by circumstance.

This is something God lays on you. This is something God instigates. This is something the Lord inaugurates. He does it. He takes up the whip. He takes up the rod, and he chastens his children. Three reasons. First of all, to prove our sonship. What is the ministry of chastisement? It proves our sonship. Over and over again in this passage, he says that every true child will share in this chastisement. Verse 8 says that if there is no chastisement, then we are illegitimate children. Now back in the New Testament days, if a man had an illegitimate child,

he never gave that child any love. He never gave that child any nurture. He never gave that child any care. He felt no responsibility towards that child. He completely ignored and neglected it. You know, the book of Proverbs says that if a man spares the rod and doesn't chasten and discipline his child,

the Bible says he hates that boy. He hates that child. And sometimes I've heard parents brag about the fact they never discipline their children. The Word of God says you don't love them. You know what you love? You love yourself. You love taking the easy way. The difficult way is to take the responsibility and to discipline

and to become unpopular with them and to incur their anger and their misunderstanding. But you must do it because you love them and you want them to grow in the way that God wants them to grow. And the parent that does not chasten his child treats his child as an illegitimate child whom he neither loves nor feels any responsibility towards. God says, you're my son. And if you be without chastisement, then you are not my son.

Now, I think you need to stop just a moment. You say, preacher, I've been listening to you preach for now six years. And you preach this and you have taught this. You've said we're supposed to live certain ways and be certain kind of people. He said, I want you to know that I live any way I want to. I do as I please. I come to church once in a while if it pleases me. I live my own life. I do my own thing. I'm my own boss.

And I want you to know God has never, God has never chastened me. Then, friend, you classify yourself according to verse 8. You're not a child of God. If a child of God can persistently rebel against the will of God, the way of God, if that professing church member can persistently rebel against God and suffer no chastisement, it is an evidence he is not a child of God. He's never been saved. He's an illegitimate child, spiritually speaking. I may walk out in the front yard and there are two boys standing out on the street corner,

both of them cursing. One of them is my son, the other is the neighbor's boy. I'll go out there and I'll punish my son. I won't fool with a neighbor's boy. He's not mine. I may go out in the back garden. There are two children and they're telling lies, both of them telling lies. One of them is my child. The other is the neighbor's child. I'll leave the neighbor's child alone. I have no responsibility for that child. I have no right to chasten that child. I will only chasten my child. And the explanation why some people can live a godless life, a careless life, and never have any kind of chastening, never have any kind of adversity, everything runs right for them, the explanation is God never chastening, never have any kind of adversity. Everything runs right for them. The explanation

is God never chastens anybody but his own children. And the chastening is a proof of our sonship. And it ought to be a warning because, dear Christians, you are not going to be able to persistently rebel against the known will of God in your life without suffering the chastening rod of God. Some of you have already felt that. Some of you are going to feel it. If you're a child of God, you're going to be scourged. You're going to be chastened when you willfully, knowingly, deliberately persist in your rebellion against God. It is proof of our sonship. Secondly, it purges us from our sins. Look at verse 10. For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present

seems to be joyous, and that's the understatement if I ever heard one, but grievous. Now notice, nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Why does God chasten us to purge us from some unrighteousness in our life. To purge our sins. Jonah is the great illustration of that. If God had not laid the rod of chastisement against the back of Jonah, Jonah would never have repented. He would never have become obedient. He would never have preached to Nineveh.

Nineveh would never have repented. The whole city would have been lost forever, and God had to chasten Jonah in order to purge out that sin of rebellion. Is there some sin in your life that you continue to hang on to, cling to, to love, to practice, to participate in, against all the warning of God, against all the gentle reproof of God, then what you're doing is you are forcing God to pick up the rod and to lay it to you in order to purge you from your sin. Third reason, God chastens us in order to promote our sanctification. Now look at that 10th verse.

But he chastens us for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness. For it goes on to say, without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. Listen, when you came to Jesus Christ and received him as Lord and Savior, God said, all right, here's my plan for you. My plan for you is not to take you to heaven, but to make you holy. Heaven is thrown in as a dividend. That's fringe benefit. Did you know that? Did you know that heaven is a fringe benefit of salvation? It's not the main thing. Did you know that? I read in Ephesians chapter one where he says that he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy before him in love

without blame. That we should be holy. Well, I thought God predestined me to go to heaven. No, he predestined you to be holy, to be like Jesus, to be a sharer in his holiness and God's going to see to it that you are whether you want to or not. I don't think we've ever realized this, that when you come to Jesus Christ, you're a lost in. In other words, if you've ever been saved, you're going to heaven whether you want to go or not. And if you've ever been saved, you're going to be holy whether you want to or not. You say, I will stiffen my neck, and I will harden my heart. I will refuse to be exercised by the chastening of the Lord. All right, then you're forcing God to do more.

You are his child. You are his child, and our Heavenly Father is not like these sweet, namby-pamby, scared, intimidated, weak parents we have so much of today that are afraid of their own children. God isn't afraid. And God is going to see to it that you become a partaker of his holiness. He wants to make you like Jesus because he knows only as you are holy are you going to be happy. The most miserable person in this building this morning is that Christian, that true born-again believer who's outside the will of God. Now I emphasize the fact that that true born-again believer, because a professing church member can be just as happy outside the will of God as he can be inside the will of God. And God chastens us and lays the rod to us in order to

promote our sanctification. That's the purpose for which he saved us and he uses every means available to make us holy. The indwelling spirit, as we yield to his guidance and his leadership, that makes us holy. But many times we will not yield to that gentle pressure, that gentle, that friendly persuasion of the Holy Spirit who indwells us. And so God must take up the rod. He says, I want you to be a partaker of my holiness. I'm not going to allow you to dishonor my name. You belong to me. You're my son. I'm your father. I love you, and I'm going to chasten you in order to promote your sanctification. That is the ministry of chastisement. All right, let's look briefly at the manner of chastisement. In verses 5 and 6, he uses three different words to describe the discipline of the Father.

Do not faint when thou art rebuked of him. The rebuke is one manner of God's chastisement. That's the easiest. That's the gentle kind. The word of rebuke, the word means to reprove or to convict. How many times when we kneel in prayer, all of a sudden God begins to chasten us with the word of rebuke. He begins to convict us and he begins to bring, to bear upon us the sorrow for our sinfulness. Now, I believe God always uses this method first.

The word of rebuke from the Bible, from the pastor, from conscience, from the indwelling spirit, from the feeling of conviction, God, first of all, uses the gentle word of persuasion. Rebuke, conviction.

But he moves on. My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord. Now we get our word education, our teaching from that word chastening. It means to correct. And that's a little bit more severe than just the word of rebuke. Sometimes the word of rebuke is not enough. There has to be some discipline. Some measures have to be taken.

Some penalties have to be erected. And then he uses in verse 6 the word scourge. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Now there is nothing gentle about scourging. There is nothing tender about scourging. But when the gentle word of rebuke will not bring us into line with God's holiness, when the correction, the chastisement, will not bring us into line with God's holiness, then God is forced to pick up the scourge, the correction, the chastisement will not bring us into line with God's holiness, then God is forced to pick up the scourge, the wrath, and he scourges us. Many times God rebukes us with just our thoughts, our emotions, and then God has to resort to more severe means with physical illness many times. And yes, even death.

You say, preacher, do you really believe that God will take a Christian, remove a Christian from this world and take him to be with himself? I most certainly do. There is no doubt in my mind about it as I study the Word of God. Listen to what Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 5. There was a problem in that church at Corinth. There was a man living in immorality and he would not repent. And moreover, the church wouldn't do anything about it. So Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 verses 4 and 5.

In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together in 5, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together in my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Now he's not talking there about the spiritual flesh that was crucified on the cross 2,000 years ago. He's talking here about physical flesh, a man's life. Paul says this person who is living in persistent immorality will not get right. The church will not do anything about it. In the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, we will turn that one over to the devil for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved

in the day of the Lord. All right, again in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, here are some illustrations from the Old Testament. Verse 8, neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed and fell in one day 23,000. Neither let us tempt Christ, and tempt means to see how far we can go in sin before God does anything. Neither let us see how far we can go with Jesus, as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now again in 1

Corinthians chapter 11, he's talking now about the wrong use of the Lord's supper. They're taking it lightly. He says, But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you. There is physical illness and weakness because they were blaspheming the Lord's table of health. They were taking of the Lord's supper with sin unconfessed in their lives. But not only this, and many sleep.

For this cause, what cause? Eating and drinking the Lord's table unworthily, without examining, without spiritual examination. For this cause, many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. That doesn't mean they fell asleep. That means they're dead. I read in Acts chapter 5 when Ananias and Sapphira came in and they'd lied to the Holy Ghost and they were trying to deceive the church, that immediately they fell dead. God's judgment, God's chastisement upon them. You say, do you really believe that God will remove a Christian from this world, take his life?

I most certainly do. God wants you to be a partaker of his holiness. And I pray that God will impress upon you the seriousness of this. In that fifth verse he says, My friend, don't despise the chastening of the Lord. And that word despise means don't treat it lightly. You better not treat lightly the chastening of the Lord. When a child of God persists in his backsliding, in his rebellion, in his disobedience, and God reproves him, God rebukes him, and he doesn't take it, and God chastens him, and he isn't corrected by it, and God scourges him, and he does not repent,

the Bible teaches in many cases God, in order to spare his holy name, will take that child unto himself and deal with him at the judgment seat of Christ. Several years ago I heard a minister illustrate it this way. He said, I go and visit someone. And he said, I take my child with me. And while we're sitting in the living room visiting, this child begins to climb on the coffee table and knock over a lamp, get crayons and color on the wall,

and I tell that child, I don't do that. Well, they still persist in that. And after all, I say, if you do that again, I'm going to spank you. And they continue to be unruly and disobedient. So I take off my belt and I just lay it to them and I spank them. And after a while they still are unruly, they are still rebellious. Finally I cannot control them and it's embarrassing to me and to my host. I cannot control them.

So I say, all right, get up. I'm going to take you home. I can't do anything with you.. I'm going to take you home. I can't do anything with you. I'm just going to take you home. And I believe that's what God has to say sometimes to some Christians. I believe he has to say, I've tried every way I know to make you behave yourself. I have loved you. I have nurtured you.

I've given you every good thing. I have rebuked you. I have chastened you. I can nurtured you. I've given you every good thing. I have rebuked you. I have chastened you. I can't make you behave yourself. I'm just going to have to take you home in order to save my holy name. This is why he says, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, don't you treat it as something lightly. Now lastly, what is the message of discipline? What's God trying to say to me? Well, first of all, it's a word of comfort. It's a word of comfort. Verse 6 says, For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. The scalpel that cuts into us is held by the hand of our Heavenly Father who loves us.

And no chastening for the present seems to be joyous, and we misunderstand. Just as a child misunderstands his father's correction and thinks that the father is correcting him because he doesn't is correcting him because he doesn't love him or because he just enjoys seeing him mistreated. And it's only afterward, years

later, that the child understands, had it not been for the correction, the discipline, imperfect as it may have been, of the father, he would not have been the child that he was. He would not have grown up to understand and to know and know how to behave himself in society. Afterwards, we understand God's doing this for my good. I want to say this morning, I praise the Lord for the chastening he has dealt out in my own life. If God had not laid the rod to me and chastened me, I wouldn't be here this morning. I thank God that he loves me. He knows what's best for me. And the message of chastisement is a word of comfort. It is a father. You

notice it always says father. The image of a father-son relationship moves all the way through this passage. Not some unknowable, unreachable, uncaring, unfeeling fader God. It's a father who loves his son. But there's also a warning against carelessness. A warning against carelessness. Notice the twelfth verse. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the the feeble knees and make straight paths for your feet. Verse 16, lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau who for one marshal of meat sold his birthright for you know how that afterward when he would have inherited the blessing he was rejected for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

The message of chastisement is a warning against carelessness, against careless living, against careless living. Because the Father loves us and he chastens every son he receiveth and he scourges us. There is a ministry of chastisement. And God, many times, must use the chastening rod to my own personal life. I do not believe that God will chasten you for something I have done. I do not believe that God will hurt you for something I have done. When God chastens, he chastens me personally. Now, in order to teach me, in order to make my faith stronger, in order to have the Job kind of suffering, he might allow something to happen to a loved one in order to teach me and strengthen me. But when there's iniquity

in my heart and sin in my heart and rebellion in my heart, God chastens me, not someone I love. He chastens me. He breaks my heart. He puts the rod to me because of my iniquity. And many of you here this morning could stand up and give testimony of God's chastisement. And many of you this morning are going to, in later years, be able to stand up and say, God's chasing me. God had to do it. I forced God to do it by my rebellion. And so this is the message that I want to leave with you this morning.

A word of comfort and a warning against carelessness. Dear Christian, teenager, adult, don't force God, don't force God to chase and discourage. Take the gentle word of rebuke and conviction. The Ron Dunn Podcast is available only for personal edification, not to be duplicated, uploaded to the web, or resold without prior written consent. It is managed and operated by Sherwood Baptist Church. If you would like to listen to additional Ron Dunn messages,

visit sherwoodbaptist.net slash bookstore and search Ron Donne. For more Ron Donne materials, including sermon outlines, devotions, and scanned pages from a study Bible, please visit rondonne.com.