Turn to Hebrews chapter 12. The title of the message that I'd like to give now is the Father Who Disciplines Sons. Hopefully you have an outline of where I'm headed in this message and I first of all want to speak about the reality that we have a Father who disciplines sons, and I'm going to take you to 30 different places in Scripture quickly in order to help us just recognize something about God. And secondly, I would like to speak about the rarity of discipline in the modern church. Thirdly, I'd like to speak about the dangers of ignoring church discipline.

And fourthly, to speak of recovering from where we have fallen and how we might do that. And fifthly, to speak just briefly of the purposes of church discipline. Sixth, the necessity of it and seven, the blessings of it. So this will be a brief flyover to this subject and then we'll get into the subject in greater detail in the coming afternoon and then throughout the weekend. One of the things that has occurred to me over the years is that God has changed my view of His discipline in my life.

And I've been insensible often, particularly in my early days as a Christian regarding his disciplines. Misunderstanding it, having different wrong views of myself, having over exalted views of myself and my goodness and not recognizing the ways that God was disciplining me. I think that God has disciplined me many times and I didn't even recognize it. And so I feel like I'm on a journey in understanding the discipline of the Lord both in my life and also in the church. It's so critical that we understand this doctrine.

There are many passages of Scripture ahead of us to deal with. I was struck by Thomas Brooks and some of his words in commenting on this text of Hebrews 12-6. You can find this book, The Mute Christian Under the Smarting Rod. It's back in the back. Chapel Library publishes this.

It's free and they brought extra copies. I'm going to quote from the very first page of this pamphlet. There cannot be a greater evidence of God's hatred and wrath than His refusing to correct men for their sinful courses and vanities. Where God refuses to correct, there God resolves to destroy. There is no man so near God's ax, so near the flames, so near hell, as he whom God will not so much as spend a rod upon.

Revelation 3 19 as many as I love I rebuke and chasten be zealous therefore and repent." Thomas Brooks continues, God is most angry when he shows no anger. Who can seriously meditate upon this and not be silent under God's most smarting rod. And then he speaks about how the rebukes of God in this world have a design. He says, all the hell that you shall ever have is in God's discipline. Consider Christian that your trials and troubles, calamities and miseries, crosses and losses, which you meet with in this world are all the hell that you shall ever have.

Here and now you have your hell. Hereafter you shall have your heaven. This is the worst of your condition. The best is yet to come. Lazarus had his hell first, His heaven last.

But Diocese had His heaven first and His hell last. You have all your pangs and pains and throes here that you shall ever have. Your ease and rest and pleasure are yet to come. Here you have all your winter nights. Your summer days are yet to come.

Here you have your evil things. Your good things are yet to come. Death will put an end to all your sins and all your sufferings. Death will be the inlet of those joys, delights and comforts which shall never have an end. Who can seriously meditate on this and not be silent under God's most smarting rod.

I read that because I think we often have to have a mind change. We have to think differently about things in order to to deal with them properly. If the church has a wrong view of discipline then it will find itself confused and discouraged in many ways and this conference is designed to help us change our minds or to shift our understanding so that we begin to think about God's discipline the way God thinks about it and it's very helpful. You know one of the things that has happened in our church as a result of the preaching of the word here is that we're going through the book of Isaiah. In the first 39 chapters of the book of Isaiah, it's a testimony of God's wrath toward His church.

It's judgment, and it's judgment on every page almost. And when we were going through the first 39 chapters of Isaiah, it felt like we were getting an advanced degree in the judgment of the chastisements of God. And you know what happened to the people in our church? Their thinking shifted. And they had always so hated the thought of God chastising them and there were shifts.

Well I don't think any of us relish the idea of God chastising us. Our people were looking back on they were saying I see how he chastised me here and I didn't know it. I see how he chastised me here and it was so good for me. There was a shift that was going on in our church as we were getting an advanced degree in the judgment of God in chapters 1 through 39 of Isaiah. And I think that the environment that we live in today really requires a refresh of thinking.

That we would return to the scriptures and think about the discipline of God in the way that He has spoken of it. Now in this first point I'd like to speak about this reality that we have a Father who disciplines sons. I'm going to give you 30 examples and here's why I'm going to do this. I'm going to go very quickly. My motive for doing this is to help us consider the next time we go and read our Bibles that we're considering the examples, the situations that are in Scripture that teach us about God's judgment and His discipline toward us.

That we would in one way read the Bible with new eyes rather than self congratulating eyes that thinks that we just don't deserve or need any discipline, but to see how God has disciplined His people. You know in His discipline He's bringing many sons to glory. He's also exposing the true and the false professions of faith. But God is always striking His people in love in order to humble them and to help them to turn their heads. In Isaiah chapter 1 God says to the people, why should I strike you again?

You'll rebel more and more. In other words, God is saying he struck his people many times and they were insensible to it. And he says, why should I strike you again? But this is what God does. He does continue to work with his people.

So here are some examples. Adam and Eve were ejected from the garden. Their expulsion was for their disobedience to the Word of God. Number two, God destroyed the earth by a flood because the people were only doing evil continually. Number three, Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire.

Number four, in Genesis 32 25 God puts Jacob's socket out of joint. Number five, He subjected Abram and Sarah to childlessness. We also just should recognize that some of the highest profile women in Scripture were barren as well. You know, I remember when my wife Deborah had endured, I can't remember if it was her fifth or sixth miscarriage, She turned to me and she said, Scott, I so dearly want to pass this test. I was so grateful for that spirit in her.

Number six, God made his children slaves in Egypt. Number seven, God cast Joseph into prison. Number eight, the children of Israel were disciplined in the desert and an entire generation was killed off of those who had departed from Egypt. Number nine, he led the children a longer way through the wilderness than was necessary. Exodus 13 17 records this.

They did not want to go God's way which was the short way and as a result God chastised them and he took them the long way, 40 years. Number 10, He subjected them to fiery serpents in the wilderness. Numbers 2 6. Moses' sister Miriam was disciplined severely for her pride in her censorious and slanderous spirit toward Moses. You learn this from Numbers chapter 12.

God chastised her by having her flesh consumed and then Moses praised for her for her deliverance. Number 12. God gave the children of Israel manna every day in the wilderness and when they grumbled he disciplined them severely. Number 13, God killed a man for working on the Sabbath. Number 14, you should consider the reproofs of the Word of God.

Proverbs 6 verse 23 says, "...reproofs of instruction are the way of life." This is perhaps one of the most wonderful and blessed ways and easy ways that God reproves His children is through His Word. Number 15, If you go to 1 Kings chapter 8, you learn about the discipline of the Lord through Solomon's prayer as he was bringing the ark of the Lord up. And he speaks of the disciplines of the Lord as a result of sinning against your neighbor and being defeated in battle and why God would give no rain, why He would give famine and siege and pestilence and blight and mildew. All of these are part of his prayer. Solomon understood the discipline of the Lord.

Number 16, the godly and gifted king Uzziah, very near the end of his life, became proud. And he desired to usurp spiritual authority. He felt better of himself than God did, and he went into the temple to offer sacrifice. 80 priests followed him to try to stop him, and he wouldn't stop, and he threw them off, and God gave him leprosy right there on the spot. Number 17 in Isaiah 19 1 through 24 there's an illustration of how God strikes the people of a nation in order to heal them.

In that passage it speaks about how God will control the economy. He'll take down the fishing industry. He'll unravel the textile industry. And He'll deal with the political organizations and collapse them. This was God's judgment.

And what we learn from that passage is that it all has a design. The design was that God would hurt so that He would heal. He would condemn before He comforts. He would wound before there's a recovery. Number 18 in Isaiah 38, 9 through 22, Hezekiah falls ill.

And in that passage, you see what he learns from his troubles. You know, everyone learns something from their troubles, hopefully. Troubles always change you if your eyes are fixed upon the Lord. Hezekiah says, indeed, it was for my own peace that I had great bitterness. This is the way God works.

Number 19, we shouldn't forget Judah's judgment at the hands of Sennacherib and how God brought a pagan kingdom down upon Judah and God said Assyria is my rod. Assyria is the rod of my anger. God appoints a foreign nation to come in and wreak havoc and then God comes and judges that nation for wreaking havoc on his people. And this is a pattern of Scripture. Number 20, Isaiah chapter 60 verse 10 shows how God smites His people and then restores their lives.

It's amazing that God would do that. Those who spit in His face, He's willing to bless them if they turn. Number 21, Perhaps one of the highest profile judgments of God was Israel's judgment at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar as he came in and destroyed Judah and took her people captive. Number 22, Nebuchadnezzar rises up in pride and he was turned into a beast. God desired to deal with his pride.

What you find as a theme running through most of the discipline of the Lord is that God is dealing with pride. Number 23, God killed Ananias and Sapphira in the book of Acts. This husband and wife who misrepresented their gifts to the church. Number 24, Paul's thorn in the flesh to keep him from exalting himself. We don't know what the thorn in the flesh was.

We have no idea what it was. We don't know if it was some physical thing or if it was some person who was driving him, You know, mad. We just don't know what it was. And it's a good thing that we don't know what it was. Because God is teaching us something.

The smitings of God are almost always designed to deal with our pride. To keep us from exalting ourselves. You know, how many times has God smitten you because he was dealing with your pride? You know, when I think back, I think if I had been more attentive, My pride would be less than it is today if I had really seen it. God was trying to keep Paul from exalting himself.

Number 25, God disciplines for self-sufficiency. Psalm 30 verse 6, David says, In my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved. And God gives him a piece of his rod to teach him that he's not self-sufficient. Number 26, the wisest man who ever lived was disciplined by the Lord. In 1 Kings 11, particularly in 11 through 25, you see Solomon and such prosperity, such success on every front.

And because his heart had turned toward pagan gods, there's this phrase in 1 Kings 11, God raised up an adversary. God raised up an adversary. Verse 11 in chapter 11 of 1 Kings says, "...therefore the Lord said to Solomon, because you have done this and have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant." And then verse 14 says, Now the Lord raised up an adversary against Solomon, Hadad the Edomite. He was a descendant of the king of Edom. If you skip down to verse 23, And God raised up another adversary against him, Rezon the son of Eliadad, who had fled from his lord, had Adezer the king of Zobah.

He was an adversary of Israel all the days of Solomon. And he aboard Israel and reigned over Syria. God raised up adversaries in the form of nations. Number 27, God disciplined the northern kingdom through various deprivations. In Amos chapter 4 we learned that He deprived them but they would not return.

Often our deprivations are designed to keep us from exalting ourselves. Verse 6 in Amos 4 says, I also gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities and lack of bread in all your palaces. Yet you have not returned to me says the Lord. I also withheld rain from you when there were still three months to the harvest. I made it rain on one city.

I withheld rain from another city. One part was rained on, and where it did not rain, the part withered. So two or three cities wandered to another city to drink water, but they were not satisfied. Yet, you have not returned to me, says the Lord." You know the people of this world often misunderstand the droughts and the hurricanes and the calamities and the earthquakes that take place. And they think that somehow there's just been some natural disaster.

And the truth is, God brings these things about to discipline His people. In that same chapter, God disciplines through various natural disasters, blight and mildew and locust and plague and then He overthrows some of them. Number 29, God raises up those whom He chastises. This is why we read in Hosea chapter 6 verse 1, come let us return to the Lord, for he has torn, but he will heal. He has stricken, but he will blind.

God tears and he strikes. This is what God does. Behold your God. We need to think rightly about God and one of the problems that we have in our modern environment is that because people have so lost a sense of God that they have no sense of the discipline of God. And the final text, Hebrews chapter 12, number 30, God disciplines sons.

You know Hebrews chapter 12 begins with a word to calling them out, not to lose heart, but to look unto Jesus. To look apart from the things of this world that are happening and look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. In some ways to look away from the trials, to look away from the circumstances and look to Jesus Christ in the time of discipline. He gives the example of Jesus Christ Himself in verse 3, for consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted bloodshed, striving against sins.

And then verse 5, which really is the basis for this whole gathering. "...And have you forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as sons? My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him. For whom the Lord loves, He chastens and scourges every son whom He receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons for what son is there whom a father does not chasten but if you are without chastening of whom you all have become partakers then you are illegitimate and not sons and then in verse 9 in the very next verse we learn what the discipline produces.

Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us and paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?" It produces life. And then secondly, it produces holiness. In verse 10, For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. That's the reason for God's striking His people, is for their holiness.

So that their heads would turn toward Him. They would trust Him and stop trusting in themselves. And then in verse 11, we see that it's Painful at present, but blessed later on. Now no chastising seems to be joyful for the present, but painful. Nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

It's a blessing. Thomas Brooks speaks of it in this pamphlet, the mute Christian under the smarting rod. He says this, then the scum appears. Few Christians see themselves and understand themselves rightly. By trials God reveals much of a man's sinful self to his pious self.

When the fire is put under their pot, then the scum appears. So when God tries a poor soul, Oh, how does the scum of pride, the scum of murmuring, the scum of distrust, the scum of impatience, the scum of worldliness, the scum of carnality, The scum of foolishness, the scum of willfulness reveal itself in the heart of the poor creature. Trials are God's looking glass in which His people see their own faults. Oh, that looseness, that vileness, that wretchedness, that stink of filthiness, that gulf of wickedness, which trials show to be in their hearts. Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver.

I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." Isaiah 48 10. Psalm 119 verse 71 is quoted, These are God's gems and jewels with which he decks his best friends and to me they are more precious than all the gold and silver in the world and now the psalm it is good for me that I have been afflicted it is good We even learned that the Lord Jesus Christ was taught obedience through his sufferings in Hebrews 5 verse 8. And that's why Paul said in Romans 8 18, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God." So this first point that God is a God who disciplines sons. Read your Bibles maybe through a different lens.

Secondly, the rarity of discipline in the modern church. There are many reasons I think that the church does not engage in church discipline very much anymore. First of all, it's always hard and confusing. Second, it causes angry departures, accusations, church splits, and even apostasy. Third, it's so easy to make mistakes.

We see through a glass darkly. You know Andrew Fuller writing about the difficulty of it. He says there are two great errors to be avoided in church discipline. First of all, false leniency. Secondly, unchristian severity.

Fourth, we have a false view of Christianity. We think that Christianity is all sweetness and light and once you're saved You don't need to deal with sin anymore. There is no scum, but actually there is scum. Fifth, the relational church is dead in most places. People don't know one another anymore.

They don't live with one another in community, and they don't live in community long enough to know each other's sins and so people can live in anonymity and thus discipline never happens. Sixth, the worldly congregation does not want any rebuke. Isaiah 29 15 speaks of this, woe to those who seek deep to hide their counsel far from the Lord and their works are in the dark. They say who sees us and who knows us. And then verse 21, they make a man an offender by a word and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate and turn aside the just by empty words in other words people don't want to hear it one problem you have is you have the unconverted in your church and they're afraid.

That's one reason why we don't do church discipline and the church doesn't have courage to do it. There are those who are walking in sin and they're fearful. They fear exposure. They fear that if discipline is practiced with one person they might be next. Often when you do church discipline people will leave your church and many times it's because they think they're next and they've departed.

Let's talk about the dangers of ignoring church discipline and then the third point in your outline. There are tremendous dangers. A church without discipline may indeed have ceased to be a church, even though it might be preaching a true gospel. They might be doing faithful exposition of Scripture. But it's a gospel that's devoid of discipline and may be found to be a false gospel.

John Calvin believed that ignoring church discipline would result, quote, in the entire dissolution of the church. He said, as the saving doctrine of Christ is the soul of the church, so discipline forms ligaments which connect the members together and keep each in its proper place. Whoever therefore either desire the abolition of all discipline or obstruct its restoration, whether they act from design or inadvertently, they certainly promote the entire dissolution of the church. Calvin, you know, writing over 500 years ago, it's as if he's writing about today because we do we do have those who would despise it or abolish it or try to modify it but a church without discipline may have ceased to be a church at all. Number four, recovering from where we have fallen.

First of all, I think that churches and their leaders often have to go through a process of instruction where the church somehow comes to the realization that the practice is right and it's good and it must be a part of any true church of Jesus Christ. I found that you know many people need to turn a corner in their thinking. They have had such a wrong view of discipline that they despise the whole idea. They feel that it's bigoted. They regard it as legalistic.

They believe it's harsh. And this is usually because they've grown up in a world that hates the law of God and has successfully indoctrinated them to hate any idea of discipline at all. And Secondly, they need to shift their thinking in terms of their own involvement. You know, most people would rather say, let the elders handle it. Or they say, hey, I'm glad I'm not an elder.

I don't have to deal with these things. In reality, God has called them to participate in the process. We'll be talking about that more later on. Church members who say they would rather not be involved actually are disengaging themselves from something that is part and parcel of biblical church life. And they'll need to understand the depth of the matter.

They'll need to understand that they're responsible as church members. That they're not simply bystanders. Rather, they are not only part of the processes, they are also judges. The Apostle Paul chided the early church for not being able to judge matters. The Corinthian church was like this.

Number five, the purposes of church discipline. I'm just going to very quickly read some of them. This is not a comprehensive list. This work by Hal Martin is available here, Corrective Church Discipline, which he just wrote, which I think this is the first time this little book that's been out. Jeff Pollard made this happen and Nate down at Chapel Library.

I'm very grateful for it. But he has some really good points here. I'm going to give you five purposes. Number one, restoration. Matthew 18.

Number two, fear. 1 Timothy 5 20. If you have a truncated view of church discipline, you think there's only one goal of restoration. That's not God's only goal. One of God's goal is to strike fear in the church and that may be the reason why he's brought it out.

Not for restoration at all. Number three, the removal of leaven. Leviticus 22 1 through 3 in 1st Corinthians 5. Number four, for purification. 1st Corinthians 5 17 number 5 hallowing God Ezekiel 36 17 through 26 in that passage we learned from the prophet Ezekiel that God scattered his people.

He disciplined them that he might hallow his name. They were engaged in impurity. He struck them so that he would not be unhallowed in the eyes of the nations. The people were looking at the church and saying, God must not be holy. His people are not holy.

And so God strikes often to hallow His name. Restoration is not the only goal in the Bible and we need to you know have our minds clear on the matter. Let's talk about the necessity of church discipline. Ezekiel chapter 3 verse 17. I'd like you to turn to this passage.

This is very important. Ezekiel chapter 3 verses 17 through 21. God is going to the house of Israel. The city is being torn down and destroyed because the watchman did not say anything. Verse 17, Son of man I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel therefore hear the word from my mouth, and give them warning from me.

When I say to the wicked, you shall surely die, and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. Yet, Verse 19, When a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die because you did not give him warning. He shall die in his sin, and his righteousness, which he has done, shall not be remembered, but his blood I will require at your hand. Nevertheless, if you warn the righteous man that the righteous man should not sin and he does not sin he shall surely live because he took warning also you will have delivered your soul this is a picture of the church not saying anything. And the discipline of the Lord often works where the church says this is sin, this is destruction.

God has given to the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ to speak of coming destruction. And church discipline is part of that. Let's talk about the blessings. Blessed is the man whom the Lord chastens. O Lord, and teach him out of thy law." Psalm 94, 12.

I'm just going to read from Thomas Brooks some of these blessings. All the chastening in the world without divine teaching will never make a man blessed. That man who finds correction attended with instruction and lashing with lessening is a happy man. If God by the affliction which is upon you shall teach you how to loathe sin more and how to trample upon the world more and how to walk with God more, your afflictions are in love. If God shall teach you by afflictions how to mind heaven more, how to live in heaven more, how to be fit for heaven more, then your afflictions are in love.

If God by afflictions shall teach your proud heart not to lie, your hard heart how to grow more tender, your censorious heart how to grow more charitable, your carnal heart how to grow more spiritual, your froward heart to grow more quiet, your afflictions are in love. And then he concludes with these words, When God teaches your thoughts as well as your brains, your heart as well as your head, any of these lessons, your afflictions are in love. Where God loves, He afflicts in love. And whenever God afflicts in love there, He will sooner or later teach such souls such lessons as shall do them good to all eternity.