Thorns That Hinder & Thorns That Help
INTRODUCTION:
Genesis 2 tells us, “And the LORD planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed.” The name Eden means delight. I don’t know, but from what we read there was no such thing in that world as pain as we know it. Oh, I have wondered if Adam felt the scar from which the LORD took the rib to form his wife. But we imagine that there was no twinge of pain for there were no thorns. There was no death. Of the next world, the Revelator says, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death' or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away" (Revelation 21:4 NIV). But in our present world, we do not know what life is like without pain. Along with the fall came pain. Pain in childbirth. Pain in work. Pain from thorns and thistles. What began in a garden of delight now bears the results of sin – pain. It is our constant companion from the moment we are born when the light strikes our eyes and the cold nips at our naked skin, to the times we stumble as we attempt to walk, or when we skin our knees falling from our bike. Pain is our constant companion. It is a friend that warns of danger when we have snuck away from a parent and stuck our hand in the fire on the stove, or the jolt of electricity when we stuck that fork in the wall receptacle. It is a friend that causes us to stop the things that hurt. And sometimes the pain comes from others. Sometimes because of love when we were young our parents disciplined us to keep us from running in the street. No parent is perfect and some even hurt intentionally… But our text reads.
TEXT:
Hebrews 12:5-10
5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him:
6 For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.
7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness.
NIV – They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in His holiness.
1. GOD IS HOLY
God is holy. Holiness is not something we completely understand. It first-of- all means to be separated from something else. When we say God is holy we are speaking first-of-all of the truth that God is wholly other than the rest of Creation. As I read yesterday and studied the opening verses of the Gospel of John I was once again struck by the truth that God is completely outside and other than anything in the created universe. John 1:3 says of the Word that “All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made.” Merrill C. Tenney writes of the phrase “all things”:
Relates to the universe, its elements and its systems of law. “Came into being” implies a crisis, a transition from what was not to what is. The tense of the verb (aorist) implies occurrence without relation to elapsed time, and event, not a process. By the use of this tense the interest is not centered in the method of creation. It contrasts with the word was in the first [three phrases of John 1] which presupposes duration. The [Word] exists eternally; the material universe, temporally.
Everything owes its existence to this One. This One says in Isaiah
• 44:24, “Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself.”
• 44:8, “Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any.”
• 45:5, “I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me.”
This God is the source of all power and all light! He is the Supreme Judge of all. He is holy!
2. GOD’S HOLINESS ATTRACTS AND REPELS
This holiness both attracts and repels us. All throughout the Scriptures, we find when men encounter God they fear and tremble. So many feel they will die. When Moses encountered the One who dwelt in the burning bush we are told “And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God” (Exodus 3:6). Later when he encountered God on the burning Mt. Sanai we are told, “And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake…” (Hebrews 12:21). There are some things that are so alien to our sinful nature that they cause us to want to run and hide like Adam when God came walking in the garden in the cool of the day. We have a fear of discipline, of judgment, that the holiness of God will somehow consume us because of our sinfulness. There is something inside of the human consciousness that screams justice. The conscience says we are wrong and it is painful. Isaiah experienced it in chapter 6
1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” 4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. 5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”
He felt he would die in the Presence of God’s pure holiness.
When Peter encountered the Lord Jesus, even with His glory veiled in the limitations of human existence, he once found himself like the patriarchs of old – the Lord had sat in Peter’s boat all day long teaching. Once He had done speaking Luke tells us in the 6th chapter:
“He said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. 5And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net. 6And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake. 7And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came and filled both the ships so that they began to sink. 8When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord. 9For he was astonished, and all that were with him”
He felt the sting of his own sinfulness in the Presence of Holiness! There is something about the holiness of God that sometimes makes us uncomfortable. Sometimes there are things that just are not right in our lives, and God has the light blaring. He is The Blaring Light! His holiness illuminates the world in glory. Glory is the effulgence of God’s light – shining out from Him! When we want to see deeper we use deeper light, x-rays, and Cat-Scans, light that penetrates who we are physically, but God’s Holy Light penetrates to the very core of our human existence and experience – to the spirit – to the soul. It can split deeper than atoms. Oh, the Light of this God! Romans 2 says that God’s judgment is according to the truth, that He will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ. He brings hidden things to light. Sometimes it is painful when the light comes on! When we really see God for who He is there comes along with that knowledge a revelation of our deep need of Him! We have no light or life in and of ourselves. We need a source of light from outside of ourselves, outside of the world in which we live, if we are ever to see ourselves! It is a holy light! The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. In each of the instances, we mentioned it did not end with a revelation of God’s holiness compared to Moses’ sinfulness, or Adam’s sinfulness, or Isaiah’s sinfulness, or Peter’s sinfulness, or Paul’s sinfulness… God told Moses, I am having this encounter with you because I want you to go and deliver Israel from Egypt. To Isaiah, the LORD sent a seraph with a lump of burning coal to cleanse him and then asked “Whom shall I send and who will go for us?” Isaiah said, “Here am I, send me!” To Peter, he said, “Fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men!”
The relationship of human life to God has such a drastic change when we obey the gospel. When we encounter God’s glory and we respond in obedience and begin to walk in the light as He is in the Light. We are told that He sends forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts crying, Abba, Father. We know God as our Father. This attracts us to Him and Peter tells us that we become participants in the divine nature. God is not stingy. While He is holy and will not give His glory to another in the sense of ever allowing there to be another God, He will and does allow us to participate in His Divine Nature – we are made partakers of His Holy Spirit. This God who is supremely holy became what we are so that we might become like He is! The Word was made flesh! And those who embrace and accept and receive Him he gave the authority to become the sons of God! Sometimes, coming to this place is painful. There are probably some in this building tonight who have stories of hitting the proverbial “rock-bottom” before crying out to Heaven for help. Others know the pain that drove them to seek out God. For some it was an emptiness inside – a dull pain that whispered there has to be something more! For others, it was a discomfort of another sort, but God began to shine His light on you and light Saul of Tarsus it blinded you, it knocked you to the ground, and left you asking, “Who are you Lord?” and “What wilt thou have me to do?”
This pain. This place where we were pricked in our hearts led us to ask “What shall we do?” is not the end, it is the beginning! We enter a relationship with God!
The old song said, it was grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved.
3. SOME PAIN GRACE RELIEVES, AND SOME IT INFLICTS (EXPOSITION OF TEXT)
Thorns, those sharp painful companions of the beautiful rose were introduced to the earth that God cursed for Adam’s sake in Genesis 3:18, “Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth…”
In our back yard are two citrus trees, one lemon, and one pineapple orange. These trees are the decedents of the first citrus trees that the LORD planted in the garden of Eden. Their foretrees knew nothing of what our trees have experienced at times. There are times when I have taken a stroll in the yard and looked at the trees. Sometimes to see if there is any fruit, and they're like the tentacles of some strange monster are thorns that have grown up around the small frames of the tiny trees attempting to choke out the life and rob them and me of their fruit. There are thorns that hinder our growth, painful things that sometimes we don’t recognize, and sometimes we do. I read this afternoon from a small book by Chuck Swindoll called “Killing Giants, Pulling Thorns” something I think might help us:
a. THORNS THAT HINDER OUR MATURITY
In the parable of the sower in Mark 4, Jesus talks about four types of soil as the various types of lives who hear the Word of the gospel and how they respond. One of the most troubling is those whose hearts are like thorny ground. As you read, notice that the thorns were already there. They didn’t grow up like those that attempt to choke my citrus trees. Fell among thorns. The thorns were already there.
Some of the thorns in life are those that we choose. These can be deadly to our growth and maturity as Christians. We will not reach maturity when these types of thorns are allowed to constantly grow in our lives.
• The worries of this life
• The deceitfulness of riches
• The desires for other things
The Lord does not say that these things might cause trouble, nor does He suggest that they have been known to hinder us. He says that they…enter in and choke the Word, and it becomes unfruitful (v. 19). (Chuck Swindoll). These thorns slip slyly into our lives, growing ever so slowly. Left unattended they will choke the life out of the Word that is growing in our hearts. Are you a compulsive worrier? Has money made you greedy? Do you find it impossible to be satisfied in your present situation? If so, these words are nothing new to you—you’ve been stuck by those thorns since your soil first received God’s seed…and if the truth were known, you inwardly enjoy their presence. After all, it’s risky to abandon your entire life to God by faith. You’d rather worry, possess, and complain, than rest, release and enjoy. Thorns inject powerful anesthesia. Why do so many Christians live among thorns? Because we have a quiet, respectable, secret love for them. I know. I’ve got the ugly scars to prove it. Each one is a mute reminded of years trapped in the thicket. And, periodically, I still have to yank out a few. If you are on any type of social media you are aware that there is a day for everything. National Sibling Day, Donut Day, Hotdog Day, etc. Some of us need to declare a Thorn Pulling Day. We may bleed and it may hurt…but, oh, the beauty of a thorn-less day! There are some thorns that...
b. THORNS THAT HELP US GROW
The discipline of our earthly parents is only for a few days = our childhood, but the discipline of God helps us to become partakers of that which is permanent. Partakers of His Holiness = and live! The discipline of earthly fathers is according to what they think is best, which may not always be what is best, but God is Supremely Good and His discipline is for our profit. He wants us to be partakers of His Holiness. It is possible that the trials we experience can last a lifetime. But the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Paul experienced a thorn in the flesh. We don’t know what it was and probably with intention the Spirit caused him to record simply “the thorn.” There are some people who suffer for a lifetime, but it is for their profit. It is so often hard to understand, but when we are living in the hand of God by faith we trust that God is good and whatever He allows is for our benefit.
2 Corinthians 13:1-6
1 It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. 2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. 3 And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) 4 How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. 5 Of such an one will I glory: yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities. 6 For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool; for I will say the truth: but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me.
There are times when our pain is not a curse, but a gift. If we are doing what we know to do. Seeking God. Praying. Applying the principles of the Word to our pain, and there is still no relief, we may need to change our view. We may need to lean more heavily on the grace of God – and grow!!!
Isaiah 57:15
For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
