Title: The Disciplines of a Disciple of Christ, part II
In part I we mentioned Robert Baxter and what he said concerning the materialistic direction of people and the church. Let’s look at that again.
"It is a most lamentable [regrettable] thing to see how most people spend their time and their energy for trifles [unimportant things], while God is cast aside. He who is all seems to them as nothing, and that which is nothing seems to them as good as all. It is lamentable indeed, knowing that God has set mankind in such a race where heaven or hell is their certain end, that they should sit down and loiter [linger, loaf, waste time], or run after the childish toys of the world, forgetting the prize they should run for. Were it but possible for one of us to see this business as the all-seeing God does, and see what most men and women in the world are interested in and what they are doing every day, it would be the saddest sight imaginable. Oh, how we should marvel at their madness and lament their self-delusion! If God had never told them what they were sent into the world to do, or what was before them in another world, then there would have been some excuse. But it is His sealed word, and they profess to believe it."
Now, with that in our minds, let’s look to the rest of Hebrews to tell us “The Disciplines of a Disciple of Christ.”
7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? 8 If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.
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 our spirits and live! 10 Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 11 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.
Are you being trained by God? Verse 8 says that if you are not being trained by God then you are not His son, you are not His daughter. Verse seven says we need to accept this training, this education, this discipling that He is performing in our lives because He is treating us as sons and daughters.
I remember when I was growing up my father spanked me very infrequently; probably three times in 18 years. Now, does that mean that I was a very good child? NO. Does that mean I always listened and did the right thing? NO. Does that mean my parents had given up on me? No, it was very much quite the contrary. You see I thought the world of my father. I believed that he could do anything, except spell. People looked up to him, even though he was only 4’11”. (150cm). And, in my mind and heart, it was enough that he would be disappointed in me when I failed, or made a mistake, or did something wrong. It was enough that I had not listened or heeded his teaching, his bringing me up, and his training me for life.
The training was always ongoing. The disciplining (education, instruction, and teaching) was always constant. It only stopped briefly when I closed my eyes at night. Through my childhood and well into young adulthood I learned a myriad of different things. And, try as I may, some of those things continue to be with me today. Even if I tried to forget them, they were written and re-written with indelible ink on a young, impressionable mind that needed to hear such things about life, living, and dieing. The list is endless:
When do you plant and how far apart do you plant corn, potatoes, onions, okra, or tomatoes?
What’s the right mixture of fertilizer for sudan hay, or alfalfa hay?
How do you pull a calf?
How do you weld or use an oxy-acetylene cutting torch or the TIG?
What’s double-clutching and a two-speed back axle?
How do you get a 1200 lbs. boar hog with four inch tusks to go up into a trailer?
What’s a water gap used for, and how’s it built to withstand small floods but break away for big ones?
Have you ever been creek wading, swimming with water moccasins, or smelled a copperhead?
These are good things; these are things that need to be remembered for they are indeed the parables of life that taught me the meaning of life, the meaning of death, and the meaning of living right, and right living.
Have you ever had something or someone die in your arms? Have you ever had something born right into your hands?
These are things that are never forgotten. They are forever and always coming back to that childhood part of your brain that is reserved for savoring those sweet memories and smells. Especially are these memories aroused when you drive by that sight, or sniff that particular smell that you remember from your childhood. The love of God can be conveyed in so many different ways, can’t it?
Again,
Are you being trained by God? If you are not being trained by God then you are not His son. If you are not being trained by God then you are not His daughter. Accept this training for it will save your life. Accept this education because it will teach you how to live right. Accept this discipline because it will save you from death.
These verses when viewed in light of the world around us point out a problem. And that problem is that the world has no training going on in the home. Parents are not training their children. What does this do? Well it does two things.
The first one is it teaches a lack of respect. When children are not being taught in the home, they first feel neglected, and then they begin to disrespect their parents.
The children don’t respect their parents anymore. If you were to do a survey across the United States, I would estimate that at least half of the children there would say that they respect their teachers in school more than their parents. Why do I think that? Because there is no training, there is no discipling, there is no education going on in the home, and the children have lost respect for their parents.
I once had a young man, about 19, tell me to my face that he was taught that a person had to earn his respect. He said that he didn’t believe in the phrase, respect your elders. He said he wasn’t taught that way. He was right, he wasn’t taught that way, because if he had been taught that way he would have had more manners and not have gotten into trouble with the Army chain of command that was over him. If he had been taught a general respect for other human beings, and to respect his elders, he wouldn’t be in jail right now. If he had been taught to respect himself, he wouldn’t have put all of those drugs into his body. If he had been taught to respect others, he would have been properly trained and properly readied for the world. But, he wasn’t and his life is wasted.
What’s the other problem that a lack of training in the home kindles in our children? A lack of training could indicate to your children that you don’t care and that could trigger apathy in our children.
When a person is receiving training, discipline, education, or instruction there are boundaries within which they are permitted to operate. Step outside that boundary, and you break the rules. Additionally, when a person is receiving training, discipline, education, or instruction there is usually some kind of reward system, something that they are working toward. Stay within those rules, or those boundaries, something is received. Whether it’s simply feeling good about yourself for keeping His rules, or receiving a blessing or material reward which makes a person ultimately feel good about themselves and that there is attention and care being given out.
If there are no rules, then there is no reward system, and there is no feeling good about oneself. Actually there is no feeling whatsoever and the child begins to lapse into a, “Whatever” kind of attitude that will ultimately carry them right on into their teens, their twenties, thirties, and the rest of their life, while they stand in line at the welfare line. They don’t need that, and you don’t need that.
The Father of heaven and of your spirit is telling you to submit to His training and to His discipline. Yea, it might be painful. Yea, it might be difficult, or embarrassing, but He tells us that it is worth.
The seed of discipline that is planted now is multiplied in the harvest.
(Prov 13:24 NIV) He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.
The seed of discipline that is planted now grows to fruition at the harvest.
(Prov 22:15 NIV) Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far from him.
What harvest is that? It is the harvest of righteousness and peace. And, only those that submit to it will be trained by it.
These verses, speak of a child. And so they should for we are all children of God.
(Proverbs 23:13 NIV) Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish him with the rod, he will not die. 14 Punish him with the rod and save his soul from death.
We are admonished by scripture to discipline our children. And, since it was God that wrote that scripture, it applies to Him as well. Meaning: He doesn’t withhold discipline from His children, that is us, either.
10 Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 11 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.
Many of you have heard the father say to the young boy right before he gets ready to spank him, “This is going to hurt me more than it will hurt you.”
I’m sure that is exactly how God feels when we are being disciplined, especially if we’ve done nothing wrong but we need the training to build up our perseverance.
Now I know there are probably some are thinking, “Why discipline at all if we’re not doing anything wrong?” Remember, discipline doesn’t mean simply to punish, but to train, to instruct, or to educate. We need this discipline, because ultimately, as it says in verse 10, we are going to share in His holiness. We need it for our own good. Our minds and bodies need to be disciplined, they need to be brought under control or we would run away crying every time there is just a little bit of a problem.
Verse 11 says that no discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. This means, of course, that sometimes it isn’t pleasant to be educated or trained by our Father in heaven. But what about this, “no discipline at all is pleasant right now, but what will the result be later?”
This means two things, and one of those we’ve already had. The one we’ve already discussed is that if we’re not being disciplined, then we’re not a child of God. Additionally, if we are not trained or disciplined by God, there can only be one result, and that is death. Because if we are not trained by God, if we don’t have the hand of God on our lives we will simply rot and ferment in our own self-righteousness until someone puts us in our place or puts us in prison.
But it doesn’t have to be that way, and God tells us in verse 11 what His training and discipline brings to our lives. Sure, we’ll grow up right. Sure, we’ll be nice to people and open up doors for people and say nice things to people. But these are only symptoms of God’s work in our lives. Most importantly, what it brings to us is a harvest of righteousness and peace, and in not so many words it brings to us LIFE!
How do we prepare ourselves to receive the training and discipline of God that will ultimately bring us a harvest of righteousness and peace, and the words of life?
12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees.
Get up off your butt and do something…read your Bible, serve, and
2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
13 "Make level paths for your feet," so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.
Get out there and, through Him, work on your life to make your life easier, pleasant and righteous.
14 Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.
Take the initiative in every relationship to be good, holy, and to have the mind of Christ. These are things that you must do to harvest righteousness and peace, and to be holy, for without holiness you won’t see God.
15 See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. 16 See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. 17 Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears. 18 You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; 19 to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, 20 because they could not bear what was commanded: "If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned." 21 The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, "I am trembling with fear." 22 But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, 23 to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, 24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. 25 See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? 26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, "Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens." 27 The words "once more" indicate the removing of what can be shaken--that is, created things--so that what cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our "God is a consuming fire."
In summary:
Throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and run with perseverance the race marked out for you. God has a plan for each and every person that turns to Him. God has special arrangements for each and every person that calls on His Son as Lord and Savior. He has a course that is marked out for you. It will show you exactly how to get from point B (birth) to point H (heaven). Where is it found?
First, it’s found in a solid relationship with the Son of God and the Spirit of God working in and through you.
Second, it’s found in the Bible. In the Bible you’ll find sound doctrine and instructions for living life right, and right living. It’s no big wonder why someone turned the word BIBLE into this:
Basic
Instructions
Before
Leaving
Earth
In John 15, it tells us
15:1 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
Jesus said this while He was training the apostles. He said essentially that the Father in heaven is the planter, the sower of the seed, and the keeper of the garden. And, he said essentially that the Son is the vine that grows in that garden.
Jesus told them that He was only doing what the Father, the gardener, wanted. Additionally, He told the apostles that those that have put their faith in Jesus, but bear no fruit will be cut off. Then, finally, He told them the Father will prune [which is another word for discipline] those branches that produce fruit so that they would produce even more fruit.
Why are you a Christian? John 15:1-2 says that you are to produce fruit. That is the sole purpose of the Christian, to produce fruit. And, putting that together with Hebrews 12, there won’t be any growth, any fruit, unless there is training, education, instruction, and teaching.
