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This morning I'd like us to continue our journey in the book of Hebrews, and if you have your Bibles, turn with me to Hebrews chapter 12.

Now in my family, there is something: an item, an equipment that is very important. It is so important; we bring it everywhere we go. It is right here on stage by the way, it's right here, it is something very simple, something very cheap, it's relatively inexpensive; it gives my family peace and joy. It used to be very easily found, but it's very difficult to find nowadays. I'd like you to guess what that item or equipment might be.

Anyway, this is the instrument: the tool, the equipment that I find very useful in my family. Whenever we travel with my kids - now, of course if I travel with my wife, I don't bring it lah. But when I travel with my wife and my kids, we would always pack one in our luggage. Now this is very cheap, but it's very useful. In fact, in case we lose it or we break it, we have three of this at home and you can see this one is used quite well, it's even taped up, broken before, taped back and this is something we value because it helps our family have peace and joy.

Of course, I don't enjoy disciplining my kids, but it brings us joy, knowing, that when this is used properly, it brings growth and discipline to my children. Now we need this, we need this because even though my two boys look like angels. Shawn and Matthias, sweet, cute boys but really, they are natural, born sinners. They are very naughty, they are very mischievous, they are very disobedient and they are very rebellious. Give them the right environment and provocation and you will see the rebellious man in them. And the Bible tells us in Proverbs that it is the rod that drives rebellion from the heart of a child. So I think it's very important. I'm sure all of you as parents will agree that we may be able to discipline our children.

In fact, I think it is unloving not to discipline your children, or in fact, even irresponsible not to discipline our children and it is the same for God to us.

For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives. (Hebrews 12:6 ESV)

That's why the Bible says, 'For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives'. God disciplines and God chastises. Now the word chastises in the ESV may not be so graphic. If you have been in Gospel Light for many years, you will know that we read the King James and the King James puts it across more strongly. The King James uses the word - so not many of you are from Gospelight 20 years ago, is it? The word that King James uses- the word ‘scourges’, and I think it is accurate because in the Greek, it literally means to flog with a whip - to scourge.

In other words, God inflicts pain on His children and not just pain, but great pain because that's what the whip, the scourge is a picture of. So this morning we're going to look at a very painful subject - divine discipline.

But I want to say to you, this is not a message to discourage you nor to crush you. This message from Hebrews is a message to encourage you and I hope at the end of this sermon, strangely but truly, you would have a sense of uplifting and blessing and encouragement from the Scripture itself.

So let's look at divine discipline: how our Father disciplines all of us as children. So as sermon illustration, I'll hold this cane for the rest of the message and if I see anyone fall asleep - oh no, I'm kidding, I can't do that to you. Alright, let's look at divine discipline.

The first thing I want to share with you is to tackle the question 'Why?' because that's really what most people will ask. We ask the question 'Why does bad things happen to good people, why would a good God inflict pain or great pain upon His people?' So let's look at the reason for divine discipline.

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1. The Reason

Most of us would think that when God inflicts pain on us, it's because we have been naughty and He doesn't like us, we would think that God now is angry with us, we would think that God now hates us. So, He does a cruel thing into our life. He disciplines us, He punishes us, and that's how we think: God is angry with me, God doesn't like me, God hates me and therefore I am being punished.

But that's what we think. But what does the Bible say? The Bible says the Lord disciplines the one He hates. No.

For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives. (Hebrews 12:6 ESV)

The Bible says the Lord disciplines the one He loves and chastises every son whom He receives, the word receives means He acknowledges. He receives; He chastises every son whom he acknowledges as His own. So the Bible tells us the opposite is true, God does not give us pain because He hates us as His children, but He loves us.

Wow! Even this pain that God gives is because He loves me?

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?(Hebrews 12:7-8 ESV)

Yes, just in case it's not clear, let's look at verse seven: 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? Now the word discipline is not punish, or in our modern day vernacular here in Singapore, tekan (punish; treat harshly in Malay language). God is not here to tekan us, God is not here to punish us, God is not here to to pour out His vindictive wrath on us. The word discipline simply means to train as a child, or child training.

He's training us, He's teaching us, He's correcting us. Why? Because He treats us as His sons and he does this because He loves us.

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 are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. (Hebrews 12:7-8 ESV)

He goes on to say: if you are left without discipline, without teaching, without correcting in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children, you don't belong to Hm. Now I discipline my kids, but if I see naughty kids in a shopping mall or in a hawker center, I don't discipline them because they're not my kids! I don't love them the same way I love my kids. How do you know Shawn and Matthias are my kids? Because I discipline them. It shows my love for them! So, it's a very simple reasoning here. The author is saying God gives us pain because He treats us as children; He treats us as children because He loves us.

So let me give you a paradigm. This is the way we look at things. Let's look at pain. When you think about pain, what do you think of? Number one, I think about this is BAD. Pain is a bad thing. Nobody here says, "Yay! I'm suffering" no, pain is not a pleasant thing. You'll read that later on. Pain to us, we read as a bad thing. And so we think that because we suffer pain, God must be punishing us and He punishes us because He is my judge and He is angry with me, in fact, I would say, downright, He hates me. Now this is the way we think when we suffer pain. This is the flow of thoughts for us intuitively, but what if I were to tell you this line of reasoning is not the only line of reasoning. In fact, this line of reasoning is not found in the Bible for the child of God. So let's come out with the alternative line of reasoning.

Shift this the one side and let's start from the bottom, let's look at the Gospel truth. The Gospel truth is that God loves me. How do I know that? He gave His Only Son to die for me. Now if He could give His Son for me, nothing will separate me from the love of God. Nothing. So the Bible and the Gospel informs us, God does not hate me if I'm truly his child, He loves me, and that love is strong and robust and eternal and will never be changed. Nothing shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Well, that means when I sin, God is not angry with me as if He hates me, but He's angry with my sin, sure! There's a distinction there and then my God is not dealing with me as if He's a judge sentencing a criminal but He's my father, not punishing me, but correcting me.

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Now, I realize, from a biblical point of view, pain is not a bad thing, although I feel that is a bad thing, but now I know, I've been taught it is a good thing. This is the line of reasoning by the author in the book of Hebrews.

Bad thing                Good thing
Punishment            Correction
God my Judge            God my Father
God is angry with me    God is angry with sin
God hates me            God loves me

I say to you if you are a child of God, the left hand side doesn't apply to you, doesn't. God does not deal with you as a criminal, God does not condemn you, God does not hate you,

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.(Romans 8:1 ESV)

because the Bible is very clear, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. If you are truly born again, if you're truly a Christian, if you are truly a child of God, He will not damn you nor punish you as if He hates you. No condemnation.

So Pastor, quite confusing. Can you simplify it further? Sure, let me help you. For the Christian, God does not condemn us, very clear in Romans 8:1.  However, don't jump to the conclusion: because He does not condemn us, He is okay with us sinning, He's happy with us continuing in sin. No! He does not condemn us, but neither does he condone us. Real grace is not a license to say, "Please, carry on sinning. I'm okay with that". No, He loves us too much to let us continue in sin. Sin destroys us, sin ruins our lives.

So, God loves us, He does not condemn us, He does not condone us, but this is what He will do for us, He will correct us. That's how I deal with my kids; I'm never going to be the judge for my kids. I'm never going to punish them because I hate them, but I love Shawn and Matthias too much to let them carry on in their rebellious ways. I will correct them, and that's all because I love my children.

Your Father loves you and so pain that came.  The rod, the scourge, the flog is necessary to correct us from our foolish, sinful ways.

For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives. (Hebrews 12:6 ESV)

So, the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises every son. I want to say to you, this tells us that God is the active mover, you see that? He's the initiator. He's the one who chastises, it's not as if something bad has happened and then God last-minute came in to say: Let me salvage the situation for you. No, no, no, no. He's not an after-thought; he does not come late into the scene. From the beginning of your pain, He has designed it to correct you.

Someone said this well, "God is not a A&E Doctor who stitches you up after you have a cut from a freak accident, but He is the wise and loving and skillful surgeon who plants the incision in your body to remove the cancer of sin. You see, the A&E doctor could only repair what is a misfortune - an accident, but the Surgeon from the beginning, although he inflicts pain, he's very intentional in serving you, helping you, blessing you.

And our God disciplines us like this. So, my friends, if you today are going through pain: The doctor has just told you you've cancer, you will need many months of chemo, radiotherapy and surgery. Maybe your family has a breakup, maybe your business is failing, maybe you are being persecuted and sidelined in your office because of your faith in Jesus Christ.

It's all so painful to you, and you start to wonder, "Is this the devil? God, could you come into my situation now?" Let me say that, that's not the prayer to make. God has always been in your life and He's not an A&E doctor trying to repair something that's a mistake, he forgot about it, but He's the sovereign, wise and loving Father who is always working out all things together for your good.

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This is our God, not someone who is blurred and didn't know, but someone who is the active, sovereign, worker and mover in your life. So the reason is not because He hates us. Now this really got to get into our system, because when in times of pain, you will forget this, all right. So right now, remember the word of the Lord. He disciplines the one He loves, and chastises every son whom He acknowledges. Now, if this is the reason and I think that's the most important point in the sermon really, you can switch off for now. (Laughter) But let me complete the exposition of this text to you.

2.  The Response
How do you respond? Because pain is something difficult to respond to. How do you respond? Well, the author here quotes from the Old Testament.

And 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.(Heb 12:5 ESV)

He says: And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be wary when reproved by Him.

He quotes from Proverbs chapter 3 verses 10 and 11, the author here is very wise. He's writing to the Hebrew Christians who were persecuted and tempted to leave the faith and say, "God does not love me". The author says, Hey, wait a minute; don't you remember what you have always known in the Old Testament? Haven't you read Proverbs 3? Have you forgotten what God says, and He's not saying this to enemies, He's not saying to people He does not love, He's addressing to you as sons. So, if you follow Jesus, you are His child, don't be surprised that you will face pain.

So he says there's two wrong ways to respond: Number one, you regard this lightly. In other words, you may go through the pain, but you do not take it to heart, you do not reflect upon your life. You do not examine your soul and you sort of, allow yourself to go through the suffering without saying to the Lord, "What is it that you are correcting me of?” "Don't do that" He says. When God gives you a pain, He is giving you a call to examine yourself. Now, I'm not saying that you should be paranoid that everything bad means, I must have done something wrong, but it does mean that every time you face a pain or trial or suffering, it's a wonderful opportunity to stand back and examine yourself, it's the responsible and right thing to do. Do not regard this discipline of the Lord lightly.

Number two, he says, do not be weary. Do not be discouraged. Do not despair. Do not feel like God has given up on you, because at the end of the day He's addressing to you as sons. Do not forget the exhortation. See, the key to responding well, is to remember God treats us as sons. And, He loves us. That's what I say to my kids all the time. You know, my sons definitely remember this. My younger son, Matthias, he's a very mischievous boy and he's also very good at wriggling his way out of things, sometimes. So when I want to cane him, when he's done something wrong, rebellious, it's time to be caned. I say, 'Come to the room.' I take out the cane, he already starts to cry, but he would try his very best to delay punishment or delay chastisement as best as he could.

I mean somehow as a child, you have the hope that if you delay it long enough, daddy, mummy may forget about it. So he tries all kinds of delay tactics. When I ask him to pull down the pants, he cries, and then the first thing he will say almost always, consistently, almost always- he tells me, "I want to pee". (Laughter) I mean, it's a very effective way because; I certainly don't want to piak (Psssst) to come out lah. Then it will be messy for me so I'll say "Okay", so I have learnt every time to expect this protocol lah, this SOP, when I cane, he has to go to the toilet first. Even if nothing- you go there. Then he'll come back and he'll ask me, "How many times?” Even though I'll tell him how many times already, he will still ask me how many times. I say: 2 times, 3 times- he says: I don't want 10 times, I don't want 9 times! He just tries to delay, and when I say: Okay, 2 times, 3 times, you say more, it's more times ah!

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And then when I'm about to whip him or cane him, he'll say: Daddy! Can we pray after we cane? (Laughter) I say: 'Yes, Matthias. We always pray. Get ready Matthias. 'Daddy! Can you hug me after we cane?' (Laughter) It's very hard to hit the first one, I tell you. Takes a long time. I share that with you because I want you to know that for my sons- they know that the cane is not used as if 'I hate you and I don't want to talk to you anymore.' No. They realize that as a representative of God, I have to teach them the way they should go and when I cane them it's painful on the buttock, but the father still loves them. The father is praying for them. The father will embrace them and the father will say, 'Matthias, daddy loves you. I cane you because I love you.'

And I find that up to this day, my sons do not get angry with me, they do not get bitter because they recognize this is all done with love. And it's so important because otherwise they may take this lightly or they may be discouraged. And the Scriptures here is telling us, don't you ever forget why God gives you pain. Not because He hates you, but He loves you. So, instead of being fainting- or frivolous, be faithful.

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? (Heb 12:9 ESV)

Be faithful to examine your life, to repent of your ways and to turn back to God, to subject to the Father, to live out the purposes He has for you. So when there is a pain in your life, it's a great call for you to draw near to the heart of God, to turn from your ways and to be reminded of His love, to turn back.

There's a story told of a family that has backslidden- they have not been to church, they are living carnal ways, and then one day, a venomous snake came and bit their oldest son and he was so sick- almost going to die, they called the doctor in and the doctor looked at them and shook his head and says: Son, I'm afraid there's nothing much we can do for you now. I think we can only pray. So, the father, being concerned for the son's life called for the pastor, the pastor came and he said, "Pastor, can you pray for my son please? He's going to die. He needs your prayer."

The pastor came and this is how he prayed: Our wise God and Father, thank You for sending this snake to bite John, they have not been to church for a long time and I'm glad that this snake has woken them up to the reality to draw back to you and God this is so good we can pray for them, and since You're at it, can you also send a second snake to bite Joel, and a third snake to bite James and send a real big one to bite the father, that they may turn back to you.’

Now of course I say this as a joke and if you ask me to pray for you, I probably wouldn't pray that, but it does make sense that sometimes God gives us pain that we may awake and return to Him. That's the heart of the Father.

3. The Result

Well let me say, lastly, the result of this chastisement- the result of this divine discipline. What's the outcome? The only reason why you can rejoice in this chastisement or this training is because you know that something good at the end of it all, just like a mother is willing to go through delivery, because she knows that there is joy at the end of it all, a baby is to be born. So what's the result, it's important for you to know. Otherwise, it's very difficult to go through pain and suffering in life.

he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness (Hebrews 12:10 ESV)

He disciplines us for our good that we may share His holiness, beautiful. Simple. Straightforward. Why does God discipline us? Because he loves us. Why? Because He knows that at the end of it all, it is for our good that we may share His holiness. See, the definition of good in the Bible is not comfort, nor ease, nor material prosperity.

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The definition of good is that we may be more like Jesus. In other words, God is more concerned for your character than for your comfort and sometimes the best tool to spiral you towards God is pain. So He disciplines us for our good. It's not nice, it's not pleasant, but it's good.

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.(Heb 12:11 ESV)

For the moment all discipline seems painful. Nobody enjoys being caned, right? My two sons never ask me: Daddy, please cane me, it feels good. Something is wrong if they think like that. All discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, that's reality. But, look at the key phrase: But later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

As we often say: No pain, no gain. And God gives you pain that you may gain. Gain what? Likeness to Jesus, sharing in God's holiness, becoming more like Him. I like the word here, 'trained'. The word trained in the Greek is the word 'gymnaso'. Doesn't take a genius to figure that out. The word gymnaso is the word from which we get the word, Gymnasium. It's where athletes train. So God gives you pain as a gymnasium to build you up in your spiritual life. That's what it is.

God is plowing new ground in my life. Let Him plow, He purposeth a crop.”(Samuel Rutherford)

I like this quote: God is plowing new ground in my life, it's painful, plowing I suppose. Imagine you're ploughed upon, it's painful, it rakes up everything, breaks up everything. It's disorienting but Samuel says, let him plough. It's painful, but let him plough. Why? Because He's purposing a crop, abundance of fruit and fruitfulness in my life.

"The devil usually tempts men in a paradise of delights, to precipitate them into hell; God tries them in the furnace of afflictions, to purify and prepare them for heaven.  (William Bates)

The devil usually tempts men in paradise of delights, how true that is. How true that is. How Samson and Delilah, how Jesus and the devil in the wilderness, illustrates for us how the devil usually tempts us: in a paradise of delights, to precipitate them into hell, but God tries them in the furnace of afflictions, to purify and prepare them for heaven.

A real father does not indulge his children. A real father does what is best for the children even when it sometimes looks very cruel and painful.

Philip Yancey is a man you might have heard about because he wrote a famous book called, 'What's so amazing about grace?’ One day he was in a Safari with his guide and he saw a strange scene, he saw a big giraffe kicking a small giraffe.  I mean just kicking the giraffe. The little giraffe is struggling. He tried to get up, but because it is very small, it's legs are not strong, it's wobbly, it's jelly-like and with that one kick, he falls back down, but the little giraffe does not give up, he gets up again and the big giraffe kicks again and he falls back down and this repeated itself several times, and so Philip Yancey was troubled.

He asked the guy: What's happening? Why does the big giraffe do that? The guy says: That big giraffe is the mother; the small giraffe is her baby. But the big giraffe has to do this because the giraffe knows that the only defense a giraffe has is the ability to get up and to run from its predator. If it cannot do this, it will die and so what seems to be absolutely cruel, kicking your child is the best thing you can do for the baby giraffe and that's how God deals with us, for the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields.

One more note or one more point before I close, and that is the word later- very important for you to grasp 'later'. Some of us, we say, alright pastor, I'm glad you are sharing with me that God allows pain in my life for my good, that I may change, that I may grow. It's not nice, but maybe pastor, I can bear with it, because I will change.

But if you don't understand the word 'later', you will still be discouraged, because you expect the result to be rather immediate. He disciplines me now, and tomorrow, I become apostle Paul. Eh, but tomorrow I'm still like the lousy Jason Lim.  Wah, don't want this pain anymore. See, this is the problem we have, we think that it must be immediate, but no, the key here is this is a botanical illustration. Nothing grows overnight, nothing good, or really, that beautiful grows overnight.

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Well, let me ask you: Why do you think durians are so expensive? Because of greedy people like us, lah. Well, that's one, but let me tell you why it's so expensive, it takes a long, long time for the seed sown to develop into a tree and to bear the ‘Mao Shan Wang.’ It takes a long time, right, and if you want to make a business out of durians, you better start 20 years ago, but those who sowed their seeds 20 years ago, today ‘towkay’ [boss in Hokkien language] liao loh, can kick his leg up and enjoy life, because his durians are bringing in the money. But it all started 20 years ago.

So today, if you're going through pain, it might not make sense to you today, it might not make sense to you three months down the road, but let me say this. For eternity to come, you can always look back and say: 'God, thank you, like a mother giraffe you kept kicking me, that I may be strong and I may share your holiness.' Main thing. That's the key. Trust Him. That's what it means to be subject to the father of spirits, to trust Him, to repent, to follow, to believe.

I just want to say one thing more and that is this: The Lord knows your sufferings. You know, when you read a passage like this, you might think that God is very distance and dissociated like, He gives you the pain and He walks away from it. Let me tell you, I hate to discipline my two kids. I absolutely hate it. If I could, I would pass it to my wife, but my wife says I cane harder, so she asks me to do it. No, but I seriously, I hate disciplining my kids. Now, the buttocks are ideally made for caning by the way, well padded, round, no important structure there- whack also ok.

God has designed it that way, but every time I whacked them, the strokes fall upon my heart really, because I don't like to see it, and in their afflictions, I am affected. I'm not a dissociated father, and our Father is not dissociated from our sufferings.

Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings (Exodus 3:7 ESV)

When Israel was in Egypt as slaves, the Bible says: I know their sufferings.

In all their affliction he was afflicted…(Isaiah 63:9 ESV)

The Bible says in Isaiah: In all their affliction, He was afflicted. God portrays Himself not as Someone distant and aloof, but He's intimately involved, and empathetic and feeling in our lives.

So, our father's hand will never cause His child a needless pain, you can trust God on that and may the Lord encourage you today as you go through the trials, the pains, the difficulties of life. This rod looks absolutely scary, but I hope you see beyond the rod to the heart of the Father who uses the road for your good. Let's bow for a word of prayer together.

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Maybe this morning, you know of someone, who is going through deep pain. Maybe this is a message you can share. Someone told me after the first service that they had a family, that they knew of, whose daughter died at 27 years old. I mean, how do you comfort someone like that, except to point them to scriptural realities. But maybe, this is not just for your friend, this is for you because today you are going through hardships and pains and you are tempted to give it all up. I'm not surprised that in a room like this, some of you might be saying- I'm really thinking of quitting on God because I'm tired, because I'm discouraged, because I'm despairing, I don't see any reason why I should go through this pain and maybe God doesn't love me anymore- maybe God hates me, maybe God doesn't want to give me the right things and best things in life anymore.

But my friends, I want to encourage you to look to Jesus. Jesus suffered. It is God's plan, that through pain, Jesus will be perfect as our great author of salvation. So, maybe this morning, it's a message for your heart, that you'll keep pressing on, you'll keep believing. It's not easy, it looks so slow, but that's a principle of the harvest: Whatever you sow, you will reap. And if God has sold chastisement in your life, you will reap righteousness in time to come.

Maybe this morning, you are here with us for the first time and you do not know Jesus, but you're here because you have gone through enough hardships of life and you ask: Why is life so hard on me? Maybe this morning, God is saying: I'm trying to get your attention, don't you see? I'm trying to show you, you need me in your life.

This morning I'd like to encourage you, if you're not a Christian, you're not a believer of Jesus Christ, maybe God is drawing you to Him. He's showing you that you are a sinner separated from God and there's nothing you do that can save yourself. But this is His love, He sent His Son Jesus to die for your sins on the cross, not because you deserve it, but because, simply He is love, and He's calling you today to respond. You say: How can I respond to this love on the cross? How can I receive this salvation, this forgiveness? The Bible says: Repent and believe. Turn from your sin and believe in Jesus Christ, God's Son who died and rose again for you.

So, I pray this morning, right here, right now in the quietness of your heart, you respond to God, whatever it is that He's speaking to you. Every joy or trial falleth from above. Traced upon the dial from the Sun of love. We may trust Him fully, all for us to do. They that trust Him fully, find Him only truly. Stay it upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blest, finding as He promised, perfect peace and rest.

Father, we thank You for this morning, for Your Word. Lord, it is simple and I pray you make it real. When in pain, it's easy to forget all of this. So I pray by Your Spirit, anchor it in the depths of our hearts. We pray you'll bless each one here, once more, either to return to your heart, or to repent and believe in Your Son. Thank you; You are our Abba Father, our good Father, who loves us. We pray all this now in Jesus' Name, Amen.


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