The Discipline of God (Hebrews 12:5–11)

Hebrews chapter 12 verses 5 to 11 talks about the discipline of God, what God does to
get His desired results in the life of a Christian. God uses the picture of a father and his
son. a father disciplines a child in order to bring about a certain kind of result. And God
is busy doing certain things in our lives that stretch us, that exercise us, to make us the
kind of sons He wants us to be in the same manner that a father disciplines his children.

Peter talks about this act of discipline that God brings in the 5th chapter of 1 Peter in
verse 8. He says, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, like a roaring
lion, walks about seeking whom he may devour: whom resist steadfast in faith, knowing
that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren and that are in the world.”
Everybody’s getting attacked by Satan. “But the God of all grace, who hath called us to
His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, make you perfect,
establish, strengthen, and settle you.”

In other words, God allows suffering as an agency by which you are strengthened, and
established, and settled, and made mature. That’s part of God’s plan. That is the issue
here. In James chapter 1, “The testing of your faith works patience, and let patience
have its perfecting work,” so that God brings these things into our lives to make us
mature, to make us perfect, to bring us to the place of maximum potential.

Now let me read from verse 5 through 11 as a setting for what we want to say. And this
should come in the form of a question: 5 Nakalimutan na ninyo ang salitang
nagpapalakas ng loob sa inyo bilang mga anak,

“Anak ko, huwag mong ipagwalang-bahala ang pagtutuwid ng Panginoon;

huwag manghina ang iyong loob kung ikaw ay kanyang sinasaway;

6 sapagkat ang minamahal ng Panginoon ay kanyang itinutuwid,

at ang bawat itinuturing na anak ay hinahagupit.”

7 Magtiis kayo alang-alang sa pagtutuwid. Mga anak ang turing sa inyo ng Diyos;
mayroon bang anak na hindi dinidisiplina ng kanyang ama? 8 Kung hindi kayo
dinidisiplina, at lahat naman ay dinidisiplina, kayo'y mga anak sa labas, at hindi tunay
na mga anak. 9 Bukod dito, tayo bilang tao ay mayroong mga magulang na
dumidisiplina sa atin, at sila'y ating iginagalang. Hindi ba dapat na tayo'y lalong pasakop
sa Ama ng mga espiritu upang tayo'y mabuhay? 10 Dinidisiplina tayo ng ating mga
magulang sa maikling panahon ayon sa kung ano ang sa tingin nila ay mabuti sa atin.
Gayundin naman, dinidisiplina tayo ng Diyos para sa ikabubuti natin, upang tayo'y
maging banal ding katulad niya. 11 Lahat ng disiplina habang dinaranas ay tila hindi
kanais-nais kundi masakit; subalit pagkatapos, ito ay magdudulot ng mapayapang
bunga ng katuwiran sa mga sinanay dito.

So this idea here is to train and educate childrens of God. And it speaks not just of
spanking your child or disciplining your child in that sense, but is a very broad word that
would speak of anything that an adult would do to cultivate the soul of a child toward
proper maturity, toward proper godliness. It does include any kind of corrective
methodology. Any kind of effort to correct a mistake or curb the normal passion of a
young person would be involved in this word. From the negative end turning to the
positive, it speaks of anything that you would do to interest your young person in virtue,
or to increase their life virtue.

So it doesn’t just have the idea of punishment, but it has the idea of setting a pattern
which both negatively says, “You can’t do that,” and disciplines that; and positively says,
“This is what you should do,” and pushes the child into that area. It signifies then the
totality of training for a child. And as a father this is what we are doing/we should do to
our children

There are three reasons why God disciplines the believer. Three reasons why God
forces us within some limitations. Three reasons why God says you can’t do that, and
you must do this.

Number one is what I call retribution. Number two is prevention. And number three is
education. Now, we’re going to look at those three: retribution, prevention, and
education. But before we do, I want to remind you of one thing. There is a very
important difference that you want to make in your mind between divine punishment and
divine discipline. While there is a sense in which discipline incorporates punishment,
they are not the same; and particularly are they not the same in terms of a biblical view.
And let me tell you why I say that. As far as we are concerned, there is no sense in
which God punishes us in the strong sense of condemnation. There’s no sense in which
God literally punishes us for our sin, and the reason is because someone has already
been punished for our sin. And who was that? Jesus Christ.

Christ has borne all of our sin; and not only did He bear all of our sin on His body, but
He bore all of the punishment for our sin in His body. Consequently there is no
remaining punishment, and that’s why Romans 8:1 says “There is therefore, now, no
condemnation” – or no judgement, no final punishment for those who are in Christ,
because Christ Himself has borne it all. And John says “The blood of Jesus Christ, His
Son, cleanses us from all sin.” He has borne the punishment of everything. And so
neither the justice of God requires it, nor does the love of God permit it that we should
have to pay again for what Jesus has already paid for. So there’s no sense in which the
believer pays for our sin. And you have to recall that. You have to remember that,
because it’s important to our entire study.

As far as position is concerned before God, our sin is totally paid for. We couldn’t do
anything to pay for our sins. We couldn’t pray to do it, you couldn’t say some beads in a
Catholic church, you couldn’t by penance and do it. There is no thing you can do to
atone for your sin, it’s been done, paid in full. But though God does not punish us in an
ultimate sense for our sin, though there is no punishment that comes to us, there is the
fact that God is engaged in disciplining us, which sometimes brings about His loving rod
of correction. But note, it is a corrective and not a punishment in terms of definition.

1. Retribution. - God is reacting to our sin. And when God sees that we are sinning, He
will bring chastening into our lives. God wants some consequence to come to bear so
that we’ll know you can’t do that and prosper.

1 example is David and his sin with Bathsheba. Not only the sin of immorality and lust,
but the sin of murder, and in response to that, God brought retributive chastening to
David. It wasn’t that David could atone for his sin by all of his agony, it was that David
learned that you can’t do that and be blessed by God. And that lesson, beloved, is
written in the Word of God, so all of us, by the retribution of God in David’s life, might
learn the same lesson and not be so foolish as to fall into the same sin.

God told David. He said, “The sword shall never depart from your house.” “David, from
now until you die, there’s going to be a sword hanging over your life.” And it was right.
The rest of David’s life, he knew the pain that God brought in the consequence of sin;
and yet all the way through it, David is seen as a man after God’s own heart.

1 Corinthians 5, having sexual relationships with his father’s wife, his step-mother. The
apostle Paul says “Turn him over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.” In other
words, let him go the way he’s going to the rock bottom, but his soul will be saved,
because God never lets go of His own.

So there is a time in which God may discipline us in retribution, not so that we pay for
sin but so that we learn that we must not do that if we’re going to conform to the image
of Christ. And usually it works. It works in the family. If you spank your child for doing
something long enough, they’ll know they’re not supposed to do that; and they’ll lose the
desire to do that, because of the consequence.
2.Prevention. Let's look at 2 Corinthians 12, and I’ll give you an illustration of it. Now,
Paul had a problem; he had a thorn in the flesh.and whatever it was, it was just a very,
very distressing thing; and apparently throughout many of the years of his ministry, he
was unrelieved in terms of the pain and the anxiety and the discomfort that this terrible
thing caused him.

But whatever it was, it was a great burden on his heart. And he says in verse 7, at the
end of the verse, “This was given to me as a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan,
to buffet me.” And he says in verse 8,Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away
from me.

Well, at the end of the three times, Paul became aware that there was a reason, and it
was a prevention. In verse 7.because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore,
in order to keep me from becoming conceited. Listen, Paul had so many revelations
from God. He had so many incredible visions of Christ himself. Three times he had seen
Christ. Once in this chapter he says he was caught up into the third heaven and say
things that couldn’t be uttered. He had so many marvelous revelations that in order to
keep his perspective and humility, God gave him something that kept him humble. It
was a preventative. It wasn’t because he was proud that he got it, it was because he
had it that he didn’t get proud. I guess God brings some things like that into our lives, all
of us, at some time, to humble us.

“God was teaching us that His grace was sufficient and, Paul says ‘My strength is made
perfect in weakness,’ was the message He wanted us to learn.” And so there is a sense
in which God will chasten us, not in retribution, but in prevention. And some of the
problems we have, beloved, are to keep us on our knees - do you understand that? -
and to keep us plugged into the source of real spiritual strength.

3. Education, Just to teach us something. In other words, it’s designed to teach us

something about the experiences of life, so that we can understand somebody else, so
that we can have a sense of comradery, a sense of sensitivity to those who are going
through troubles. I thank God for troubles in my own life that educated me, so that when
somebody else has those troubles, I’m a little more sympathetic, right? And sometimes
God brings things along just for that purpose.

Let's look at Job. Satan had told God that Job was only a faithful man because
everything went well. Then God says, “All right. Things won’t go so well.” So God let
everything happen to Job imaginably. Would have been a benefit if Job had died, but he
wasn’t so fortunate - everything short of death. He tasted every kind of suffering that
could fall to humankind. He lost his family, he lost his property, he became very ill –
bodily disease; but in the end, he got a marvelous education, marvelous. He got an
education about problems, by which he could help others, and he got an education
about God.

And at the end of the book of Job, chapter 42, “Then Job answered the Lord and said ‘I
know that You can do all things’” Where’d you learn that Job? “Oh, I learned that ‘cause
I had so many problems, and God took care of all of them and I know he can do
everything.” “Who is this that hides words of wisdom without much learning?’ I have
said things that I did not understand, things too great for me, which I did not know..”
Hear now, and I will speak. I will ask you, and you answer Me.’ 5 I had heard of You only
by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees

Listen, through all this troubles, he got such a view of the majesty of God that coming
along with it, commensurate with that view of the majesty of God was a terrible sense of
his own unworthiness. Beloved, let me tell you something. The two greatest lesson
you’ll ever learn is who God is and who you are; and then the marvelous miracle of
salvation will mean something.

And then the 10th verse, 42 of Job: “And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he
prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.” But you
know what else? He prayed for his friends. He learned about God, he learned about
himself, and he learned how to pray for the needs of his friends. You know how he
learned all of that? Because God gave him trouble, chastening, discipline.

So, beloved, God may discipline us because of sin. He may discipline us to prevent sin.
He may discipline us with trouble just so that you can learn more of Him, more about
your own lowliness, and more of how to minister to the needs of others. Now, as we
think about those three things, let’s quickly just glance at this text. We’re not going to
spend much time on it, I just want to share with you some key thoughts.
Hebrews chapter 12, verse 5. “He says,” – now remember that these people to whom
the author is writing, and we don’t know who the author of Hebrews is. We just have no
indication in the book who it is. But remember that he’s writing to some people who
were undergoing some serious persecution. They had really suffered. In chapter 10,
there is a comment about their suffering, verse 32: “You endured a great fight of
affliction. You were made a gazing stock by reproaches and afflictions.” I mean, they
were going through it. They were really suffering. And so they were beginning to
complain a little bit about it, about all the troubles. And so he says in verse 5, “Have you
forgotten the exhortation which speaks unto you as unto sons?” And what is that
exhortation? It’s a quote of Proverbs 3:11, “My son, despise not thou the chastening of
the Lord, nor faint when thou aren’t rebuked of Him.”

He says “Have you forgotten Proverbs 3:11? Have you forgotten that God is going to
chasten His children? Have you forgotten that’s the promise of God? Let me remind you
of it.” And then he says, “Let me remind you of several things.” And he gives them -
watch this - two perils in discipline, two proofs in discipline, and two products.

Panganib (internal and external) sa pagdidisiplina ng Dyos

“My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked.”

1. Despise - Hamakin - nagagalit tayo sa Diyos(in old testament israel people)

2. Faint - Panghihina - nagtatampo tayo nanghihina tao at parang iniwan tayo ng
Diyos

Mapapatunayan

6 sapagkat ang minamahal ng Panginoon ay kanyang itinutuwid,

at ang bawat itinuturing na anak ay hinahagupit.”

1. God loves us
2. We are the true sons of God.

Listen, if nothing’s going wrong in your life, verse 7 and 8 should be considered. “If you
endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the
Father chastens not? But if you be without chastisement, of which all the sons are
partakers, than you are an illegitimate child, not a son.”
Listen, we see God’s love. We see God’s calling us sons in His discipline. It’s His love
that makes us like Christ. It’s His love that takes us as children and pushes us to
conform to His standard.

2 purposes in discipline

9.Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them
for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! 10 They
disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good,
in order that we may share in his holiness.

1. To experience the fullness of life

a. James says, “You better receive the Word, which is able to save your
lives, because if you don’t, the Lord may take your life.” But more than
that, when we respond to God, you enter in the fullness of life. And so the
first product in discipline is to live a full, rich, meaningful spiritual life
2. To become holy
3. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it
produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained
by it.

“But He for our profit that we might be partakers of His holiness.” Our fathers(earthly)
did the best they could, and sometimes they were wrong. But God always does it for our
profit, and He always does it with holiness in mind to conform us to Christ, to make us
righteous, to make us holy. And so, beloved, God wants you to really live, and God
wants you to know real holiness, and so he disciplines.

And you can respond to that discipline by saying, “Thank you, God, that you love me
this much. Thank you, God, that I’m Your child, and this is evidence.” Or you can
despise it and faint under it, and miss the point.

He concludes in verse 11: “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful” If you
look at it from the present, you’re going to have trouble. “ but what’s next? “Later on,
however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been
trained by it

The people who use it to develop their spiritual muscle will find out that it has incredible
benefits; that’s the key. If you understand that the discipline of God is like spiritual
weightlifting; it’s just making you stronger, and stronger, and stronger, and stronger, that
you might be more the man that God wants you to be. So we see the discipline of God.

Rejoice as we experience trouble and discipline because God is always in control of all
things. And God loves us as we are His sons, true sons of God.
Two perils; let’s look at 5 again. “Have you forgotten?” he says. “Have you forgotten
that this is par for the course? Have you forgotten that the chastening of God is to
conform you to Christ? Have you forgotten the word of Proverbs?” And then in that
verse he introduces the two perils in discipline:

"My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked.”

There are two perils in discipline. One is you would despise, and the other is that you
would - what? - faint. One is lashing out, and the other is crawling in. One is an external
reaction, and the other is an internal reaction. There are always those two dangers, and
you can think about them.

Number one, look at the despising. You know, there are some people who get angry at
God when He chastens. Pretty foolish. All God is doing is conforming you to Christ.
Have you tried to discipline your children sometime and found that they were angry with
you? And you try to get the point out, “Hey, Kid. This is for your benefit. This is for your
good.” Well, that’s God’s position.

And so he says, number one, the first peril in discipline is that you would despise what
God is doing. You know who did that so often in the Old Testament? The children of
Israel, didn’t they? Whenever God would chasten them, they would gripe and complain
and holler at God, and get angry at God. There are a lot of people like that. They get
sick, and they begin to blame God. “Well, I don’t know why I have to go through this,
and I don’t know why the Lord does this to me.” They fret and fume at God.

Arthur Pink says “God always chastens twice, if we’re not humbled by the first time.
Remind yourself of how much dross there yet is among the gold, view the corruptions of
your own heart, and marvel that God has not smitten you more severely.” He goes on,
“Form the habit of heeding His taps, and you will be less likely to receive his raps.

We can complain, and gripe, and lash out, and get angry, and question God. That isn’t
what he wants us to do. He wants us to learn where the limits are to conform to Christ.

Or we can faint. You know, some people, when they get under pressure, “Oh!” You
know, they just wilt. “It’s all over!” This is the breakdown inside. “Poor me!” You know,
they’re going around seeking sympathy. They give up. They forget, you know, that
Psalm 34:19 says, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous.” They forget that they’re
not alone. They give way to unbelief.
Psalm 42:5 says, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted in me?
Hope thou in God:” - and then in the Psalm it says - “I will yet praise Him.” There’s no
reason to get mad at God, and there’s no reason to faint. Both of those are perils in
discipline; and if you do either, you’ve missed the point.

And then, secondly, there are two proofs in discipline, as well as two perils. Verse 6, two
things are proven. When you’re disciplined, it proves two things; and this is so great.
When you’re disciplined, it proves two things. Number one, “For whom the Lord loves,
He chastens.” What’s the first thing it proves? He loves you. Second, “And scourges
every,” – what? – “son.” It proves, one, He loves you; two, you’re His son. It’s great, isn’t
it?

Listen, God is never more near to you than in those times. People say, “Oh, God’s so
far away in my trouble.” No, no; God is there. We cry with the afflicted one in Psalm 10,
and we say, “Why standest thou far off, O Lord? Why hidest Thou Thyself in my time of
trouble?” And the Lord doesn’t seem like a very present help in time of trouble, but it’s
just at that point that we have to believe He is.

And there are two great things we learn when we’re chastened. Number one, He loves
us. Boy, that’s great. You know, if I didn’t have problems, I’d worry. If I didn’t get sick
sometimes, I’d worry. If I didn’t get tired sometimes, if I didn’t have to fight the hassles of
life, if I didn’t have to beat my body into subjection, if I didn’t have to struggle against my
own ignorance, if I didn’t have all those troubles and anxieties, I’d be worried; because I
want to be like Christ, and I want to know that God wants me to be like Christ; and I
know I’m a long way from that, and I expect some trouble getting there. So it’s a
welcome friend.

But you know what? I could tell you something wonderful. I don’t see it that way
anymore, even though it keeps coming. I really think I understand what it means to
count it all - what? – joy, because I, anymore, don’t get any different reaction from a bad
thing than a good thing, because it’s all a part of the process. But I think every Christian
has to come to the place where you say, “Whatever the price, whatever it is, make me
the way you want me to be.” And when I see Him doing it, I am assured that He loves
me. Boy, that’s exciting.

Listen, if nothing’s going wrong in your life, verse 7 and 8 should be considered. “If you
endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the
Father chastens not? But if you be without chastisement, of which all the sons are
partakers, than you are an illegitimate child, not a son.”
Listen, we see God’s love. We see God’s calling us sons in His discipline. It’s His love
that makes us like Christ. It’s His love that takes us as children and pushes us to
conform to His standard. Look at the word “scourge” in verse 6; mastigoi in the Greek.
It’s the act of flogging somebody with a whip. You say, “You mean God actually flogs us
with a whip?” Well, it’s a spiritual sense. But God really lets us have it to make us the
way he wants us to be.

You know, I can remember as a little boy, and so can you perhaps, being spanked so
many times. I was spanked constantly. My dad used to say that he had a guilty
conscience the whole time he was raising me because he had to hit me so many times.

You know, one day I was directing traffic on Colorado Boulevard when I was five years
old in the middle of an intersection, and I got it. I got spanked for a couple days. One
time, the guy next door collected pigeons, and I opened all the cages and they all flew
away, and I got spanked. One time I got up in the morning and broke all the dozen eggs
that were delivered by the milkman on the floor with a hammer, and I got spanked. My
life goes on, and those are daily incidents.

And I know those times were acts of love, and acts of a father to a son. And that’s all it’s
saying in the text. He says, “What son is he whom the father chastens not?” humanly
speaking. So it proves sonship, and it proves love.

In fact, to know that God is chastening me is the greatest possible indication that I’m His
child. You ever gone into a market and seen some really poorly behaved child, really
bad? And, of course, you’re going down every aisle right behind this lady and her child.
And finally she starts to wail on this kid. One thing you know immediately: that’s her
child. You don’t spank other people’s children. That’s essentially what God is saying to
us here. It’s the illegitimate child that the father doesn’t care about. True child, He loves
and disciplines.

So we find two perils then. You can despise God, or you can faint. But two proofs in
discipline: He loves you, and you’re His child. And lastly, two purposes in discipline -
two purposes, two things He wants to accomplish. Verse 9: “Furthermore we had
fathers of our flesh who corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much
more be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?” “We responded with reverence
to our fathers physically. Should we not do the same to our Father spiritually, who is
God,” - now notice the first thing - “and live?”
What is the product that God wants in our lives? What does He want to produce? Life;
really living; full, meaningful life. It may be that life here means being alive as opposed
to dead, because if we don’t ever respond to God’s discipline, He might just take us
home, right? Like James says, “You better receive the Word, which is able to save your
lives, because if you don’t, the Lord may take your life.” But more than that, I think he’s
saying when you respond to God, you enter in the fullness of life. And so the first
product in discipline is to live a full, rich, meaningful spiritual life. And I’m telling you, the
more things you go through, the richer your life becomes.

And the second thing; not only life, but holiness. In verse 10: “For they verily for a few
days” – or a short time, that is - “chastened us,” – this literally means as they saw fit, or
as they thought best. They did the best they could. “But He for our profit that we might
be partakers of His holiness.” Our fathers did the best they could, and sometimes they
were wrong. But God always does it for our profit, and He always does it with holiness
in mind to conform us to Christ, to make us righteous, to make us holy. And so, beloved,
God wants you to really live, and God wants you to know real holiness, and so he
disciplines.

And you can respond to that discipline by saying, “Thank you, God, that you love me
this much. Thank you, God, that I’m Your child, and this is evidence.” Or you can
despise it and faint under it, and miss the point.

He concludes in verse 11: “I realize no chastening for the present seems joyous.” If you
look at it from the present, you’re going to have trouble. “It all seems grievous.
Nevertheless” – what’s the next word? “afterword it yields the peaceable fruit of
righteousness unto them who are exercised by it.”

The people who use it to develop their spiritual muscle will find out that it has incredible
benefits; that’s the key. If you understand that the discipline of God is like spiritual
weightlifting; it’s just making you stronger, and stronger, and stronger, and stronger, that
you might be more the man and more the woman that God wants you to be. So we see
the discipline of God. And as the bee sucks honey out of the bitter flower, so your trust
in God can suck blessing even from trouble.

I always think about Mary when I think about this text. Mary stood at the empty tomb.
She cried her eyes out. And you know what? She was weeping over the very thing that
should have brought her, and finally did, the greatest amount of joy. Jesus was alive,
but she couldn’t see that; she saw the pain of the moment.
We’ve got to see the afterward. We’ve got to see what Jesus meant when it says that,
“Because He could see the glory that would be revealed, because He could see the joy
that was set before Him, He endured the cross, knowing what it would accomplish.”

Beloved, if it’s retribution or prevention or education, let God do His perfect work. And
after He has done it and you have suffered, He will strength, establish, and settle you;
and that will be to conform you to Jesus Christ.

Our Father, we thank You tonight for our time of sharing in just these thoughts. We’re so
very grateful that your Word is so rich; so grateful that it’s so simple in its richness that a
wayfaring man, though he be a fool, need not err therein. We’re so thankful, Father, that
You’ve called us together as children, and You love us enough to discipline us, to make
us into what You want us to be. Do that, Father. Do it, whatever it is, that we may be all
that we can be for Your glory, in Jesus’ name. Amen.