to the book of Proverbs chapter 3 for our Old Testament reading. If you don't have a Bible with you, we do have Proverbs chapter 3 printed in our liturgy. We'll read the whole chapter. Proverbs chapter 3. a fitting reading as we consider the discipline of our children and raising them in the faith. My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments. For length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart so you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all of your heart. Do not lean on your own understanding. In all of your ways, acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your produce. Then your barns will be filled with plenty. Your vats will be bursting with wine. My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline or be weary of his reproof. For the Lord reproves him whom he loves as a father, the son in whom he delights. Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, the one who gets understanding. For the grain from her is better than gain from silver. and her profit better than gold. She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire could compare with her. Long life is in her right hand, and her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her. Those who hold her fast are called blessed. The Lord, by wisdom, founded the earth. By understanding, he established the heavens. By his knowledge, the deeps broke open and the clouds dropped down the dew. My son, do not lose sight of these. Keep sound wisdom and discretion, and they will be life for your soul and adornment for your neck. Then you will walk on your way securely, and your foot will not stumble. If you lie down, you will not be afraid. When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet. Do not be afraid of sudden terror or of the ruins of the wicked when it comes, for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught. Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due when it is in your power to do it. Do not say to your neighbor, go and come again. Tomorrow I will give it when you have it with you. Do not plan evil against your neighbor who dwells trustingly beside you. Do not contend with a man for no reason when he has done you no harm. Do not envy a man of violence and do not choose any of his ways. The devious person is an abomination to the Lord, but the upright are in his confidence. The Lord's curse is on the house of the wicked. but he blesses the dwelling of the righteous. Toward the scorners he is scornful, but to the humble he gives favor. The wise will inherit honor, but fools get disgrace." Now turning with me to the book of Hebrews chapter 12. I'm going to call a last minute audible. It says that our New Testament reading will begin in verse 3. We'll actually begin reading in verse 1, although our sermon will focus on verses 3 to 11. Again, in the liturgy, it says we'll go through verse 17. I was way more ambitious on Monday than I was last night. Hebrews chapter 12, verses 1 to 11. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, Let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. Have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons, for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you're left without discipline in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them. He disciplines us for our good that we may share in His holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Our gracious God and our Father, we do thank you for your word that you have given to us. to instruct, to rebuke, to discipline, and to comfort us. As we are confronted with all of these things in your word this morning, we ask that we would hear our Savior speak from heaven, that you grant clarity to our understanding what your word teaches regarding this special passage, that we might continue to grow in holiness all of our days for the sake of Christ our Savior, in whose name we pray. Amen. I don't know if any of you have ever played a sport or learned an instrument or have taken up, for instance, woodworking or learned any particular trade, any real skill that you set your heart to perfect, of course, we all know requires discipline of one variety or another. Of course, we all admit that certain people are more adept at particular skills and learning a new trade than are others. I was much more comfortable with learning the bass guitar than I was with playing baseball in high school. You can just ask my junior high gym teacher. But whether it is clarinets or cabinets, to master either of these takes skill. It takes time. It takes endurance. And such is the case with the Christian life. Our passage this morning considers the discipline of endurance and the fact that we are being disciplined as sons. So I'd like us to consider this passage, verses 3 to 11, from only two particular vantage points. First, I'd like us to consider Christ as the example of endurance in the midst of hostility in this passing world. But then in light of that, I'd like us to consider the benefits that come with discipline in the midst of endurance as we seek as pilgrims throughout this earth to make our way together as children of the living God to the heavenly Zion. So two points, the example of endurance in verses 3 and 4, and then the benefits of discipline in verses 5 to 11. And as you recall for the past several months as we worked our way through chapter 11, the preacher of Hebrews, remember Hebrews is likely a written sermon, has called us to consider the endurance of the saints, the testimony of the saints of all those who have gone before. But now he urges us to consider not just the testimony of the Old Testament saints, but to consider the testimony and the example of Christ himself, perhaps, even, I shouldn't even say perhaps, even as our chief example. As it says here in verse 3, consider him, consider Christ, as we see as the broader context of verses 1 and 2 bring us to realize. To consider Christ and all that he endured at the cross. We have to remember, as 1 Peter chapter 2 tells us, Christ died for us as our substitute, and this is something that the book of Hebrews has been very intent on bringing home. Christ is, in fact, our sacrifice and our high priest. But he is not simply our sacrifice and high priest. As 1 Peter 2 tells us, Christ died for us, leaving us an example that we might walk in His steps. These two things are not to be pitted against one another. And now Hebrews chapter 12 brings into view the example that Christ has set forth as He is the pioneer and the trailblazer, right? The archagon, the one who has gone on before us, leading the way that we might follow in His path, that we too might take up our cross daily and follow Him. Here's our Savior, as we read the gospel accounts, who was falsely accused, who was hated for no reason at all, one who came to his own, love itself, and yet was despised by those to whom he came, one who was ridiculed and made fun of, one who was beat up, humiliated, and one who was executed. And he didn't retaliate. He didn't raise his voice like a sheep that was led to the slaughter, Isaiah 53 tells us. So Christ, too, went to the cross, bearing our sins, but also leaving for us that great example. I think we've all been the victims of gossip. I don't think there's anybody who hasn't gone through junior high or high school has not been the object of malicious slander. Consider how difficult it is to show up to school knowing the whispers that are taking place in the halls and behind your backs. We're here to stood the son of God and during the same thing, but at a much deeper level. The one who is himself sinless, the very sinless Son of God, yet declared by the religious authorities, the professors, the celebrities of his day, declaring him to be the blasphemer, the one who has gotten God all wrong. And yet Christ never gets bitter, but rather continues to pray. even His final words hanging upon the cross, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. He entrusted himself to the one who judges and does all things justly. And now Christ is given here as our example for us to do the same thing, that we might follow in his steps. That as he was called to walk the path of suffering, so too are we as the church of God called to walk. What is it that Christ tells his disciples in John 17? Because I have called you out, because you are not of the world, therefore the world hates you. And the world will hate you. even without cause, because they can't control you. And so an example has been set before us, not only to walk the same path of suffering, but also to walk in the same manner of suffering. As it says here in Hebrews, consider him who endured such hostility so that you might not grow weary. As wearying as it may be to be the subject, the object of ridicule and scorn, we know that we are walking in the footsteps of our Savior Do not grow weary. Why? Well, now here, the preacher of Hebrews makes a very pointed observation. It's just because you have not bled yet. You have not bled like he has yet. Remember the context for this particular church at the end of chapter 10, where the context of their suffering has been given. Here's a church whose, among the members of the church, their property has been seized. Several have been thrown into prison, persecution for sure, but their blood has not yet been spilled. They have not yet died for the faith. There is suffering and it has been intense and it has been hard, but it has not been yet ratcheted up to 10. You think of what the Lord says to the prophets of old, If you can't run with the horses, how could you ever expect to contend with the mighty men of war? It might perhaps get worse in this life before it gets better. And so he asks, are you already tapping out for the count? Are you already considering walking away when the worst perhaps has not yet even come? Again, he's not trying to lessen the seriousness of the suffering. We all recognize, even 1 Peter 4 recognizes, that being made fun of by peers for not even getting drunk at the local kegger is considered a form of suffering for the Christian. The New Testament does not say, well, that's not suffering, but this is true suffering. No, it recognizes that there is a spectrum to suffering. But it recognizes that if Christ is our example, And he submitted wholeheartedly in obedience to the Father, obedience even to the point of death, even death on a cross, as Paul says in Philippians chapter 2. And that sets the model and the standard by which we are to walk. It might get worse for the people of God before it gets better. Of course, when the pressure mounts, it's very easy to struggle with these sorts of doubts. I think for us, who I think growing up in the West, where Christianity has been taken for granted in so many ways, perhaps not in every way, it is easy to see the Christian life as almost the given for a broader context in society. And so that when suffering does come, it kind of leaves us disoriented. In so many ways, where we're left asking, why is the Christian life so painful? Perhaps even asking, has God abandoned me? Or is this all really worth it? As you notice here for the past chapter, chapter plus, the author of Hebrews has been using sporting metaphors to highlight discipline in the arena. This whole imagery of running a race. You think of the discipline that's required to run a race. to play football, or basketball, or to box in the ring. All these things take a certain amount of endurance and discipline. But now he shifts the metaphor ever so slightly as the focus is now not only on discipline in the arena, but also on discipline in the home. as a way for us to understand why it is that believers are undergoing these various trials. And now he begins to bring into focus at least five particular benefits to discipline. I remember when I was in the fourth grade, I ended up getting detention. I just want to say up front that it was not my fault. The teacher stepped out of the room and told nobody to talk. I feel like I'm having to justify myself right now. And the teacher stepped out. Of course, my student sitting next to me tried to ask me a question. I said, shh, we're not allowed to talk. And of course, I said that just as the teacher walked in. And so I was the one who got detention. And Josh Atkins, sitting next to me, did not. And I remember my dad picking me up from school that morning. It was a 45-minute ride home from school to the home I lived in, kind of the sticks outside of Jacksonville, and having to tell my dad I got detention. My dad said, all right. He was very calm. He said, when you get home, go to your room for five minutes. Wait. At the end of five minutes, I want you to come to my room, and you'll get a spanking. And of course, then he spent the next 45 minutes ratcheting up how awful an experience is going to be for me as kind of psychological discipline. Yes, it's really going to hurt. And in hindsight, I could tell he was having a lot of fun with that. I was not having fun at the time. I remember going home and waiting in my room. And my parents, of course, had this big cast iron bed. I remember walking into my parents' bedroom. at the baseline of the bed, this big iron base. Here's my dad with the belt practicing on the base. And he turns around, he goes, oh, Charles, I'm so glad you made it. My shoulder's feeling really loose today. And it was the most frightening experience of my entire life up to that point in the fourth grade. And let me just say, I never got in trouble ever again. I remember my dad, as he was about to spank me, he said, Charles, this is going to hurt me way worse than it hurts you. And then he paused and said, who am I kidding? This will hurt you way worse. Again, I never got in trouble ever again. Discipline worked. It made me a better man, or at least a better fourth grader. Well, the author here cites Proverbs chapter 3 to bring out this very point. Discipline is not in itself a bad thing. It is, in fact, a good thing, though, from one perspective, it doesn't feel like that. It has a particular purpose in mind. How in the world can suffering be good? Well, we see here in verses 6 to 11, verses 5 to 11, five benefits to discipline. It's given to strengthen wearied hearts. First thing that we notice in the benefit of discipline is that it is, in fact, a badge of sonship. You see that here in verse 6. The Lord chastises those whom he loves. My dad did not go around disciplining other people's kids. He didn't care about them. He cared about me. And look, notice here, it's not that you're being disciplined in order that you might be sons. Rather, you're being disciplined because you are, in fact, sons. Even as we heard earlier with the baptism, what does our baptism signify? It signifies our identification with Christ and all the benefits that come with Christ. And one of those benefits is the benefit of adoption. That we, though children of wrath by nature, have been adopted and received into God's family. One of the benefits of adoption is that God now actually treats us as sons, and that includes discipline. So when you think of discipline, don't think of it as you trying to earn your, even as a kid, as if discipline was an attempt to earn your earthly father's good favor by your good behavior. Perhaps you had an earthly father who was like that, but not so. with your Heavenly Father. Here we see with our Heavenly Father that these trials do not earn our sonship, rather they manifest it. Second advantage to discipline is that it promotes endurance. You see that here in verse 7. So interesting, both Augustine and C.S. Lewis both talk about this, but the fact that either their parents as a kid or their private tutor growing up in school forced them to learn Greek and both say this is one of the most miserable experiences of their entire lives. How fun could it actually be learning how to conjugate verbs and decline nouns when all you really want to do is go outside and play? But after all the discipline of undergoing all the conjugations, the verbs, the memorization of vocabulary words, there comes a day when you're actually able to read Sophocles, or a day in which you're actually able to read the New Testament in Greek. And then you realize all of this discipline surely was worth it. There is a reward here at the end that far outweighs the discipline of having to learn. You think the same thing with any other subject, be it math or even basic English grammar, the diagramming of sentences. I remember my grammar teachers in junior high and high school making us diagram sentences. But you know what? It helped us. It helped me to understand how to read more carefully in ways that I wouldn't have been able to were it not for those long nights and hours of homework. Third advantage here is that if you're not being disciplined, it proves that you're not a son. King James Version actually uses strong language that I think would hurt the ears of so many of us today, that you're not sons, you're illegitimate. If you read through the book of Proverbs, the lack of discipline is indeed seen to be a bad thing. Fools hate reproof. It is the ones who despise correction that are cursed. But the righteous man, it does not say that the righteous man is perfect. It is the righteous man who loves reproof because he wants to grow in holiness. You know, on the one hand, scripture mitigates against exasperating your children. You see that in Ephesians chapter 6. Nobody ever loves an overbearing parent, so don't walk away thinking that, you know, the key to discipline is being more aggressive. That's not the point. In fact, on one hand, it's not even lessons in parenting, though I think there might be side applications to that. But on the other hand, we might have to say, that even though scripture warns and mitigates against over-exasperating your kids, here the focus is on the fact that if you're not disciplining your kid, if you're just letting them do what they want, it might look like love, it might feel like love, but it's not love. Love involves discipline, and anything less is not love. Verse 10, Hebrews begins to push the analogy even further. It says, look, our fathers disciplined us, and we feared them. I know I did. I remember once as a kid, I was in kindergarten, I believe, I sparted off to my mom once. She said she was going to spank me. And I remember in all my wisdom as a 10-year-old telling her, however old I was, that's OK. It doesn't hurt when you give me a spanking. To which my mom responded quite wisely, just wait till your father gets home. And my ears perked up and I learned that in fact, perhaps, I should shut up. We respect our parents for disciplining us. I'm glad my parents disciplined me. But why don't we do that with God? Why is it that we speak about our earthly parents with such reverence for when they disciplined us, and yet when our Heavenly Father disciplines us, somehow we turn in some ways into giant crybabies, as it were? Why is this happening to me? Does God really love me? See, discipline does not expose God as being unloving. I think that's an important apologetic point. Discipline, I think, really exposes our own rebelliousness. We're just not happy that we are not getting things done the way we want them to get done. See, God loves us enough to discipline us and to conform us to Christ, even when we don't want to be conformed to the image of Christ. And so we see a fourth advantage to discipline here in verse 10. It is, in fact, sanctifying. That is the purpose. You see that here. That we may share in God's holiness. We need to think how robust our doctrine of salvation truly is. Of course, when we repent and confess our sins and turn to Christ in faith, we are reckoned, we are declared to be forensically, legally, not guilty. We are imputed with Christ's righteousness. We are, in fact, justified. It is something that cannot be taken away. It cannot be added to. You will not be more justified on the final day than you are today if you have put your hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. But just as God has declared us to be righteous in His Son, He does not leave us there to go on about our own way. Even as he's declared us that we ought to be righteous, so now he begins the process of making us righteous. Something called sanctification or growth and holiness. God does not simply pardon our sins only to let us live how we please. He is here to make us holy. And if he is not making us holy, if he is not disciplining us, then we are not his children. We have to remember all the benefits that we have in Christ come to us. They're distinct and inseparable and simultaneous. God justifies those whom he saves. Those whom he justifies, Paul tells us, he also sanctifies. So if he is not sanctifying us, if we are not being sanctified, then we have to ask, are we really justified? Again, they are inseparable. They are distinct matters, distinct benefits of our union with Christ. But it is a package deal. If God has justified you, he will make you holy, even if you do not like it. So God disciplines us to train us to walk the path of righteousness. God's law has given us a guide for how we are to live. And finally, there's a fifth and final benefit here in this passage regarding discipline. It's the fact that discipline is, in fact, painful. But it is only temporary. You'll return back to discipline as a sporting metaphor in verses 12 to 17, but perhaps we could say it like this. If the Christian life is a race, that race is not forever. But there is a finish line in sight. Mile number 24 to the marathon might be excruciating, but it is almost over. So the significance here that we see this morning is that we are being disciplined indeed as sons. And we need to let that sink in that God has in fact adopted you as His own. And so discipline is simply proof and part of what it means to be treated as His own. If adoption is a benefit of our union with Christ and discipline a benefit of our adoption, then these present trials ought to encourage us that we in fact belong to him. Painful as odd as that may seem to be, to rejoice in our sufferings that as first Peter tells us, that the Lord uses these sufferings to purify our faith as gold being refined in the fire so that the last day our faith might be presented to our Savior as a precious treasure. Think of what John himself says in his first epistle. See what manner, see what kind of love the Father has lavished upon us. That we should be called the children of God and surely discipline is one of the ways in which God treats us as sons. And so we are. And as the Father of holiness has adopted us, so he trains us to walk the path of holiness. He has given us Christ as our example. but he's also given us a spirit to enable us to walk in his ways. It's one of the great benefits of the new covenant. As we've seen in the book of Hebrews, as we saw about a year, year plus ago, working through the book of second Corinthians, that the spirit has been lavished and poured out into our hearts, enabling us to walk in as long as that law has now been engraved in our very hearts. So that we being pilgrims seeking a better country, might walk together towards our heavenly destination. Let us pray. Our gracious God and Father, we do thank you. Though our present afflictions and discipline may be painful, we thank you that it is proof that you still have set your eyes upon us, that you are disciplining us and conforming us to look like Christ, that we might share in Christ's holiness Give us the strength, we pray, so that we might not grow weary in the midst of rebuke and reproof and discipline, that we might endure faithfully to the very end. Preserve us that we might persevere. We ask these things in Christ's name, amen.