Discovering that hardships can be an expression of divine love may challenge everything you've been taught about faith. Our latest episode explores the transformative power of God's loving discipline, revealing how it is not only an act of correction but also a sign of His deep affection. We uncover the truth that God's rebukes are reserved for His children, a concept that might discomfort some but offers a profound sense of belonging to those who embrace it. Through scriptural wisdom and heartfelt discussion, we shed light on the nature of divine chastisement and its role in preparing us for the life to come.
As we navigate the often turbulent waters of faith, it becomes clear that the presence of trials is not an indication of divine abandonment but rather of God's active involvement in our lives. In a candid conversation, we dismantle the myths surrounding Christianity and worldly success, emphasizing that true spiritual growth often comes through enduring challenges. The episode becomes a source of encouragement, equipping you with the perspective to see God's corrective love as an intimate, nurturing force rather than a punitive measure.
The prospect of hearing the words "I never knew you" is a chilling reminder of the importance of recognizing God's love through His correction. We delve into the stark reality that not everyone falls under the category of God's children and the implications this holds for our spiritual identities. Addressing the dangers of idolatry and the severe consequence of God's withdrawal, the episode serves as both a warning and a call to gratitude for the discipline that confirms our place in His heart. Join us as we confront these truths, seeking to deepen our understanding of and relationship with the divine.
Discovering that hardships can be an expression of divine love may challenge everything you've been taught about faith. Our latest episode explores the transformative power of God's loving discipline, revealing how it is not only an act of correction but also a sign of His deep affection. We uncover the truth that God's rebukes are reserved for His children, a concept that might discomfort some but offers a profound sense of belonging to those who embrace it. Through scriptural wisdom and heartfelt discussion, we shed light on the nature of divine chastisement and its role in preparing us for the life to come.
As we navigate the often turbulent waters of faith, it becomes clear that the presence of trials is not an indication of divine abandonment but rather of God's active involvement in our lives. In a candid conversation, we dismantle the myths surrounding Christianity and worldly success, emphasizing that true spiritual growth often comes through enduring challenges. The episode becomes a source of encouragement, equipping you with the perspective to see God's corrective love as an intimate, nurturing force rather than a punitive measure.
The prospect of hearing the words "I never knew you" is a chilling reminder of the importance of recognizing God's love through His correction. We delve into the stark reality that not everyone falls under the category of God's children and the implications this holds for our spiritual identities. Addressing the dangers of idolatry and the severe consequence of God's withdrawal, the episode serves as both a warning and a call to gratitude for the discipline that confirms our place in His heart. Join us as we confront these truths, seeking to deepen our understanding of and relationship with the divine.
Christians. Good evening For those of you who are listening, glad you could be here. I want to talk about something that many of you may find disturbing on some level, but then again, the whole purpose of my profile is to provoke and to persuade. That being said, it is important that when we look at scripture, it is important that, when we look at scripture, that we do not shy away from the clear word of God in order to hold on to some view or perspective that we were just told and that we just took it on face value. It was true. Now, the subject that I want to talk about is the subject of discipline, disciplinary actions, for example. We are told in the word of God that if we spare the rod, we spoil the child. God is the one who tells us to discipline our children with an end for correction, the end being correction. Now, we all know that we must discipline our children and correct them, and we also know that God is the one who has given us the directive to do so. However, what we need to understand also is that God has his children and he disciplines and corrects and chastens them, and those that he corrects and chastens and disciplines are those of us who believe. But, as I stated, when it comes to our children, god disciplines and chastens his children and us. Correcting our children is that very often we have our children who we correct and even in spite of our correction, we will find that they will disobey us and that they will go contrary to what our correction was aimed at. However, when it comes to the chastening or the correction of the Lord, when the Lord disciplines, it is effectual. The correction that he expects from his disciplining of us is effectual. In other words, it yields the result that he intends. When God corrects his children, they are corrected. When God disciplines his children, they learn and they grow and they endure and they do not weary under his correction.
Speaker 1:So to begin, I'd like to take my text beginning out of Revelation, chapter 3. Revelation, chapter 3. And John is getting a message from the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, in his post-resurrection state, at the right hand of God. And in this message, in Revelation chapter 3, he is speaking to the angel of the church of Laodicea. And then he says, in verse 18, after giving counsel to them and giving them his assessment, he says I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed and anoint your eyes with eye salve that you may see. Here comes the big statement. Listen to this. Here comes the big statement. Listen to this Christ says in verse 19,. He says I rebuke and chasten. Therefore, be zealous and repent. Christ says something astounding. He says something that is amazing In this statement. Look what he says as many as I love, I rebuke and I chasten.
Speaker 1:Now, what is does it mean to chasten? It means to purify, to make pure, to take measures To purify the child, to clean up the child. Chaste means pure, to chasten means to correct, with the end of bringing purity. Chastening of the Lord is the means through which he rids us of our sinful inclinations. This is what it means to be chastened. To be chastened means To be chastened, means to be made pure or to purify, and as long as we are in this flesh, as long as we are in this flesh, we are going to be purified. If we are believers, god is always working with us, purging us from our old ways.
Speaker 1:Now the issue is God's chastening. So here is the question that I hold out to you and the answer is in the text. So it's not a trick question. It's not a trick question. It's not a trick question. The issue is who is it? Who is it that God chastens? Who? Who are those whom God chastens? Good to see you, foreign, spice, glad to have you? The text makes it very clear exactly who it is that God chastens.
Speaker 1:Listen to what it says. This is the words of Christ. He says the following as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. He says. He tells you exactly who it is that he chastens. He tells you exactly who it is that he disciplines. He tells you exactly who it is he corrects. So now, god being our father and we being his children, it is not unreasonable. In fact, it should be a. It should be par for the course in our understanding that we are going to be corrected, we are going to be chastened by God Christ here.
Speaker 1:He's the one who is speaking in Revelation 3, verse 19. But he tells you not only that he chastens, but he says who it is he chastens. Let me state this, let me say this, and I want to hope that this really hits a chord with you, strikes a chord with you. He says that he chastens as many as he loves. Let that sink in for a second. Now there are some people who are going to read in to my thoughts and anticipate what I'm saying, what I'm saying and somehow try to undermine the true meaning of what Christ is saying. And what he's saying is very simple he chastens those whom he loves. Christ says it, so we can assume it is true. He chastens whom he loves. Look at verse 19 of Revelation, chapter 3.
Speaker 1:So what does this mean? It means several things. It means that he is not interested in chasing anyone whom he doesn't love. Furthermore, it implies that there are those that he doesn't love, because there would be no need to say that he chastens those whom he loves if he loves every single person. Because you have to remember, when God corrects, when God chastens, when God disciplines, he gets the results. He gets the result that he intends. He's not like human parents and his children are not like human children. His children are super natural children, super human children, if you will.
Speaker 1:When God corrects, his outcome is his desired outcome, his, which is to purify. To purify, to purge sin, to purge willfulness from the sinner who is a believer. He says that he chastens. He chastens as many as he loves. He doesn't chasten everyone. He says he chastens as many, as many as he loves, as many as he loves, so one we know. From this statement alone, it should be enough for us to understand that God loves his own, and he loves his own only in a very special, elevated way. He loves them with an enduring love that he had for them before the foundation of the world. Everyone that God loves will be saved, and the reason why everyone that God loves will be saved is because it is he who will be chastening them, leading them down the path of correction, always, always, so that they end up where he expects them to be, which is with him, if Christ loved.
Speaker 1:And here's the thing. I started off this message by saying there are going to be many people who are going to have a problem with what I am saying, and the problem is yours, not mine. The problem that you may have with what I'm saying is a problem that you need to take up with the Word of God, a problem that you need to take up with God himself. He says as many, as many as he loves, he rebukes and chastens, and then he says so be zealous, therefore. Be zealous, therefore, and repent, meaning that when he brings you under his rod, he is saying smart, under his rod, take it when God chastens you. He is telling you to take it. Be eager to take it and repent. When the chastening of the Lord comes your way, he is saying be zealous to take it and repent. That's what he's saying. He's saying take it when he breaks out the belt, so to speak, or the rod. When he breaks out the rod, or the belt, so to speak, or the rod. When he breaks out the rod or the belt. He's telling you to take it, to take it, smart, under it, bear under it, because it is for your good.
Speaker 1:Now, I know a lot of you have been running around with all these, you know preachers that want to tell you everything is rosy when you come to Christ, that your life is going to be rosy, that if you have faith, you can have everything. You can have wealth, you can have power, you can have your home, you can have the guy, the girl you can have, you know, good children, you can have good jobs. But I know that so many people are accustomed to being taught this, but Christ is saying as many as I love. In other words, he is saying if I love you, I'm going to correct you. If I love you, or if you are among those, if you are among those whom I love, I am going to correct you, I'm going to chastise you. This is what the chastening of the Lord is.
Speaker 1:Now, as I said, he says at the very first, the very first of this verse as many as I love, I rebuke and I chasten. He chastises but only those whom he loves. He doesn't chastise everyone. He doesn't chasten everyone because he doesn't love everyone. Now, this should not be bad news for you. Some people aren't going to like what I just said, but I didn't say it. It's the word of God that says it, in Revelation 3.19. And I'm going to go to a couple of other places to put more color on the point, but here, listen to this the purpose of God in chastising his people is to correct, and it is important to understand that when God corrects, the correction takes.
Speaker 1:When God corrects, correction takes. In other words, when God corrects you, you will be corrected, you will be corrected. So what does this mean? This means that all people universally are not going to be chastened by God. The greater part of mankind is not going to be chastised or disciplined by God. You know why? Because they are not his children. He chastises only his children. The people that love him are the people he loves. The people that he loves he loved beforehand, before the foundation of the world, and in time. They come to him in faith and when they do, they live the remainder of their life being chastised by the Lord when needed To keep them on the path of righteousness and faithfulness and enduring in the faith.
Speaker 1:Because of it, we should look forward. If you are a Christian, you should be thankful that God has put his rod upon you, that God chastises you. If you are a Christian, you should be thankful In fact, you should be looking forward to this with great expectation, especially for those things that you do against God, that you don't realize you're doing. We need to be chastised, even for the sin that we commit, that we don't know we committed. But it's important for you to understand that Christ does not chastise everyone, because if he did chastise everyone the way he does for his children, if Christ were to chastise every single person the way he does his children, then every single person would be his child and every single person would be saved. You and I, we both know, we all know all people are not saved, in spite of what the universalists want to believe in, that they want to believe that the Lord Jesus Christ came here to save every single person.
Speaker 1:This verse does not comport with that perspective because right here, the Lord Jesus himself, out of his own mouth, he says that he chastises and rebukes only those that he loves. He says as many as many as he loves, he rebukes and chastens. This may be a very bitter pill to swallow for many Christians. In fact, I believe that most people who are not Christian, who may not believe in God, they might be willing to agree that if God did exist, which he does, but these are saying if there are those who say that God does not exist, I'm sure that many of them will not argue against the idea that if God does exist, he checks, he chastens and corrects and rebukes his people, and they are corrected without fail. They are effectually corrected, progressively growing in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, progressively leaning in on their faithfulness to the Lord, progressively leaning in not expecting more than what God's will has set aside for them.
Speaker 1:Now the point that I want to make on this first verse before I go to the next one. There's two points. One, that Christ chastens all of his people yields the result or the fruit for which God intends to bring about in that person's life, which ultimately leads to salvation eternal. Now the second point that I want to make sure is understood. Christ himself says as many as I love, I review as many as he loves, implication being that he does not love all, because if he did, he would not have to say as many as I love. He would just say I chasten all of all people, I correct all people. But he doesn't say that he says as many as I love, I correct and only as many as I love. Now turn with me, if you will, to Proverbs chapter three, for those of you who have your scriptures with you. In Proverbs chapter three, in Proverbs chapter 3, we see the same theme playing out again In Proverbs chapter 3, verse 11 and verse 12,.
Speaker 1:Solomon writes my son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor detest his correction, for whom the Lord loves, he corrects, just as a father, just as a father, the son in whom he delights. Here we go again. Notice what the word says. God is saying this, my son. He's talking to his children. He's talking to his sons and daughters. He's talking to his sons and daughters Son is taken for all of those who have put their faith and trust in Christ, his children. That's why he says my son. And he says do not despise the chasing of the Lord, nor detest his correction, for whom the Lord loves he corrects. So let's start with this. Let's start with this. He says my son. Now somebody else here just wrote in and says Christ didn't write this, though.
Speaker 1:This is ridiculous. It's the word of God. The word of God belongs to Christ. He himself is called the word of God. He is the embodiment of everything the word of God says. So everything that is said in the word of God is the words of Christ, because he himself is God manifest in the flesh. So enough of that silliness, enough of the silliness. If you don't like what you're hearing, then your problem is with the word of God Now. So let's move on. Let's dispense with the foolishness.
Speaker 1:Christ says in his word my son. So who is he talking to? Should be obvious His children, his children. Not the reprobate, not the unbeliever, not the person who despises godliness, not the person who chooses sin over righteousness, but he's talking about despise the chastening of the Lord. In other words, when it comes, when the chastening of the Lord comes our way, he's telling us to bear up under it. Take it, don't despise it. Take it. Don't think that because you're going through a hard time in your Christian life, that God is against you. He's not against you, he's for you. His chastening hand is to correct you. It is to make you better. It is to prepare you for what happens when we leave here. It is to make you a better servant while you are here. It is to shape your perspective and it is to hone in your longings and to put what you long for in perspective and keep you on that path.
Speaker 1:When the Bible tells us here that my son, do not despise the chasing of the Lord, he is saying take it. This is what you need. What you need isn't the wealth, it isn't the power. What you need is not the fame, it is not the job, it is not the car or the house, or the model or the jewelry. It is not all those things. Because so many people? Because they don't have those things, because there seems to be no process whereby they can see those things coming their way. All they see is trial, tribulation, affliction, persecution. These things are the chastening of the Lord and he is saying to us don't despise it, don't think that God has turned his back on you, because, as evidenced by what you're going through, going through hard times is the chastening of the Lord. Persecution and affliction is the chastening of the Lord.
Speaker 1:Look at our country now. Look at the number. Look at the people who have amassed massive quantities of wealth. Look at people like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk and Warren Buffett. All these people, all these super, uber rich people, filthy rich people. Everything goes their way. They get the money, they get the beautiful wives or the powerful husbands, they get the jets, they get the yachts, they get the mansions, they get the beach homes and the mountain homes, they get the cars. They get all these things. They are healthy. They live old age, they have many kids and their kids are healthy. They have the best of everything. They lack nothing. They lack nothing. They lack nothing. Being wealthy bores them and we look at them and we think man, god gave them everything. No, he did not. God withdrew his corrective hands, or I should say withheld, not withdrew, withheld. He didn't chasten them, he's not correcting them.
Speaker 1:There will be very few people that have lives like that that ever know Christ. These people have no desire to please Christ. In their mind, christ is for the poor, christ is for the uneducated, christ is for the weak-minded, needy people. This is what they think. So they have everything they could ask for, so they don't need Christ. They don't in their. So they don't need Christ In their minds. They don't need Christ. What can Christ do for them? They have everything that the world offers. They don't know that there's something beyond the world that they need to be seeking.
Speaker 1:But God has taken foolish people of this world like myself and all the rest of us who believe, and he called us to believe and to trust in him and us. We are the ones that he chastises, we are the ones he corrects. And some of you might be going. Why am I always getting it? Why am I always getting it? Why am I always having it so rough? Why is it always so tough for me? What did Jesus say? He said in Revelation 3.19, it's happening because as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. You are going through it, christians. You are going through it because he loves you. The fact that you are going through it is evidence that he loves you.
Speaker 1:Those other folks who don't have a trouble in their life, who never have grounds to shed tears, who can't help but amass wealth no matter what they do, these people who fail upwards. Even when they fail, they're successful. This is how the world is. But you can't have two masters. You can't have two masters. You can serve many, but you can only have one master. But you need to understand something Christians, so many of us, when we're growing up as young believers, so many people believe. So many Christians believe that when they come to Christ it means that somehow everything is supposed to turn around. Everything is supposed to get better, but it doesn't get better. But it doesn't. And if it doesn't it's because God is showing you his love for you. Sappy, I know, but true, I also know.
Speaker 1:He says in verse 11 of Proverbs, chapter 3 my son, don't despise the chastening of the lord, neither be weary of his correction. In other words, no matter how long he burdens you with his corrections, with his correction, no matter how seemingly egregious to you his chasing may be, he says don't weary of it, don't let it wear you out, don't be tired. He says don't despise it, take it. Take it, it is for your good, it is the pathway to bring you home. To me. This is what he's trying to teach us To smart under his rod. Smart under his rod, take it Because he says that for whom the Lord loves, he corrects.
Speaker 1:People who are not corrected by God are not loved by him, and this may be a bitter pill for a lot of people to swallow, but if you are a Christian, it should be a blessing you. A lot of people to swallow, but if you are a Christian, it should be a blessing. You need to understand it as such. He corrects whom he loves. It's no coincidence that we see this in Revelation, chapter 3. Jesus says as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. So likewise here in Proverbs, chapter 3, verse 11, he says I'm sorry, verse 12,. For whom the Lord loves, he corrects. He corrects who he loves.
Speaker 1:If your life is what so many of you want it to be, I am sure that the goal that you have for your life doesn't involve correction, discipline and chastisement by God who prays? How few of us pray for God to chastise us. In fact, I don't know if I could ever recall having that very specific prayer. Even though we ask for God's will to be done in our lives, we don't always know that what we're asking for is to be corrected and to be chastised. So in that respect, I can say that I, like many of you, have asked for God to correct us.
Speaker 1:But we don't necessarily put it in that way. We don't beg God for affliction. We normally ask God to give us things that we want or that we think we need, and sometimes what we want aligns with God's will for us. Sometimes what we need aligns with God's will for us, but there are sometimes what we think we need and what we want are not in alignment with his will. And when we have expectations that go contrary to God's will and start pursuing that, we find ourselves in a process where we discover we're being chastised, we're being corrected.
Speaker 1:God is saying this is not the way I want you to go. You want to go here, but I'm going to have you going over here. You want to go here, but I'm going to have you going over here. But he says, my son, I must chastise you. Why, father? Because I love you. It is a spectacular revelation when you come to Christ and you realize that he loves you. Now, I'm not one for these syrupy, sugary, sweet messages when I'm always talking about the love of God, and perhaps I should talk about that more often.
Speaker 1:But the problem is so many people misconstrue God's love and they think that his love is actually syrupy and sugary and just sweet all the time, that God is just here to do your bidding, that he's some kind of a spiritual Santa Claus. But we need to understand that there is seriousness in God's love for us. There's something serious about it. It's not just about giving us what we want or giving us what we need. It is those whom God loves. They are an exclusive society, they're his church, they're his people, they're his church, they're his people, they're his foreordained, predestined souls to salvation, souls that are also predestined to be chastised, to be rebuked, to be corrected. Like one sister says, he's daddy, abba, father, my father, my daddy, and he is not everyone's dad. He's not everyone's dad.
Speaker 1:Jesus told the Pharisees in John 8, 44, he goes you are of your father, the devil and the deeds of your father. You will do. Father the devil and the deeds of your father you will do. Those who are never to be chastised by God are not his children, they are Satan's children, those who are never to be chastised by God. They are treated as bastards. They are not his people, they are not the object of his affection.
Speaker 1:I know that it is common. Since the 19th century, since the, you know, from the 18th to the 19th century, I know that it has been commonplace to believe that God loves everyone indiscriminately when he does not. The first two verses that I've given you tonight proves that. It may seem the pinnacle of benevolence, from your standpoint, to believe that God loves and set his affections on everyone, but the scriptures bear out a very different story. He does not, he does not, he does not. Jesus is the one who said it as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. In Proverbs he says For whom the Lord loves? He corrects For whom he loves. If he loved everyone, what's the point in saying for whom he loves? What would be the point? What does it mean? For whom? He's talking about an isolated group of people who he deems and has designated his children. They believe, and they believe because they love him and they are chastised by him because he loves them. So, for the Christian, this message is great news for you.
Speaker 1:If you wanted an explanation for the trials that you're going through, it is because he loves you. There are people that the Catholic Church, christians, that they killed millions of people, millions of Protestants set them on fire, and you know why those people who were believers, you know why they underwent such a tragic, horrible death. I'm going to tell you why Because God loved them. Now again, I sound crazy. You might think I sound crazy, but the word of God sounds crazy to the carnal mind. That is enmity against God. The fleshly mind can't embrace what I'm saying, that God shows his love by making you pass through the fire, by making you undergo affliction, tribulation, persecution. God takes us through these things. Why? Because he loves us. It builds obedience.
Speaker 1:One brother says even Christ learned obedience by the things which he suffered. Yes, this is exactly what I'm talking about and this is such a great message, chill House. Thank you very much, brother. I appreciate that this is something I need to speak on a little bit, so I want to thank this brother for bringing this up. Listen, christ.
Speaker 1:According to John, paul and Peter, they said about Christ he did no sin. He knew no sin and in him was no sin. And yet God put his wrath on his son. On our behalf, christ underwent the humility not only of being born in human flesh, not only in being born in human flesh and giving up his prerogatives as God, but he underwent the humility of subjecting himself into the hands of wicked people and allowed himself to be crucified, even to the death of the cross. Christ underwent all of that because God loves us and because God loves his son.
Speaker 1:Think about that. See, the world says that the love of a parent is expressed by what they give you. This is why parents are always talking about leaving legacies. We judge the love that our parents have for us based on what they give to us, based on how much they spoil us. They give us cars when we turn 16. They buy us school clothes every year. They feed us every day. They send us on trips around the world this wasn't my parents, but maybe it was yours they pay for the education. They give us down payments for our homes. When we struggle in our lives, they come and bail us out and then, when they are on their deathbed, they leave these wills, leaving us all the things that they worked so hard to obtain for themselves. We think all of this is an expression of their love, and true enough. To some degree it is.
Speaker 1:But my point is this we all know and have witnessed children that have not been disciplined, where the parents refuse to discipline them. In fact, we live in a society right now where society condemns the disciplining of your children because Satan wants to promote wickedness. So you and all of us have fallen into this trap, no-transcript, and some of you are willing to discipline your kids, but you are afraid to because you don't want to go to jail for correcting your children. And then society blames your children when they end up in jail for doing the most vile, heinous, egregious acts known to man. And then we want to tell them that it's a psychological reason. It's psychological. No, it's not psychological. It's because that child didn't get his butt spanked. I'm telling you, my mother did not spare the rod with me and my three siblings, and where we grew up it was necessary that she did not spare the rod. So none of us ended up in jail, none of us ended up on drugs, and we all lead productive, meaningful lives.
Speaker 1:Some might not think that what I'm doing now is meaningful and productive, but I do. Might not think that what I'm doing now is meaningful and productive, but I do, but here's what I'm saying. My mother kicked our collective rear ends. Sorry to be so blunt, but she did. She did not hold back. My father left when I was about five years old.
Speaker 1:Six years old, my mother filled in the gap nicely when it came to discipline. Could she provide everything that a father is supposed to provide? No, she can't. Mothers can't, no mom can. No mother can provide the aspect of discipline that is expected to come from my father. I'm sorry, I know some of you women out there are super women, but you're not super men and I hope you understand what I'm saying. There is a certain aspect of raising a child that a mother cannot do, only a father can do, and vice versa. There's a nurturing aspect that a mother can provide her children that a father just can't do. It's different. We look to our parents for different things, we live to our parents for different things.
Speaker 1:But what ought to be happening in families today, which the nuclear family is all but disintegrated, but what ought to happen, is that the father should be the disciplinarian, the father should be the disciplinarian. The father should be the disciplinarian, but we live in a day and time where you got these weird notions of what it means to raise a healthy child, and discipline is not part of it. Giving someone a timeout is not discipline. Taking away the phone or the iPad or the computer screen from your child is not discipline. Telling your kid that they cannot have dessert is not discipline. Telling your kid to stand in the corner for a timeout is not discipline. It's silly. It's silly, it's silly. A kid, a child, needs to understand that when you give your child a directive, that they are to respond to it immediately. And if you have to tell that child two or three times before they do it, you've just trained them that they have two or three times to disobey you before you do anything they know.
Speaker 1:But the one thing that would make me reluctant to have a child today is the fact that there would be no way on God's green earth that I would not spank my child and discipline my child. No way that I wouldn't do it, no way. So there's probably a good reason why maybe I shouldn't in today's day and age. So now God he disciplines us If he expects us to discipline our sons and daughters. What should we expect from him? But correction, discipline and chastisement. He does it because he loves us. He does it because he loves us and the pain that we go through when we do the things that warrant his chastisement. The next time we are encroaching upon that scenario that warranted the chastisement in the first place, we're going to think twice. We're going to think twice, we're going to think twice. And so, God, the difference between the Father, god the Father, the difference between what he does when he disciplines us and us when we discipline our children, is that he never fails to get the return on what his discipline is designed to get. In other words, whatever it is he has set out to accomplish, whatever result he expects through his disciplining of us, he gets it. His discipline, his chastisement is effectual. But some of us have children that, no matter how much we discipline them, no matter how early in age we started, some of them are just born to be children of hell. Some people are just like that. But when God gets hold of you, he gets the result that he expects. Yes, my brother says never returns void. God's word never returns void, and neither does his chastisement.
Speaker 1:I have another verse for you. This is in Hebrews, chapter 12. In Hebrews, chapter 12. Starting in verse 5. It says and you, you all, have forgotten the exhortation which speaks unto you as unto children my son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, do not despise the chastening of the Lord. And then he says neither faint when you are rebuked by him. And now he tells you why. So he says my son, listen, listen to what I'm telling you. He says, my son do. He says do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are rebuked of him. And now he tells you why. For whom the Lord loves, he chastens and he scourges every son whom he receives. You know what the scourge is? The scourge of God is a whip, the whip. The whip they use on Christ, the whip they use on Paul. He uses the exact same language here in Hebrews. For whom the Lord loves, he chastens and he scourges every son whom he receives. Now look what he says here. Look what he says here. Hold on, I got to take a drink of water because I got to make this point. Listen, he says this for whom the Lord loves, for whom the Lord loves.
Speaker 1:There are so many of you that believe that God loves every single person, that God loves every single person. I've already showed you in the first two verses that I showed you in Revelation 3, 19 and in Proverbs 3, verse 11 and 12. But now I'm showing you in Hebrews, in verse 6 of chapter 12, the writer of Hebrews says for whom the Lord loves, he chastens and scourges every son whom he receives, whom he receives, not whom you receive or not whom you bring to yourself. God says that those whom he loves. Let that sink into your mind. Whom he loves, he chastens Whom he loves, he corrects Whom he loves. He rebukes those whom he doesn't love. He does not correct, he does not chasten, he does not scourge. Let me put it to you this way. Let me put it to you this way. Let me put it to you this way If you were my next door neighbor and I had children and you have children and our children, our kids, play together.
Speaker 1:Well, if we see our kids get into a fight or doing something they shouldn't be doing and I see it I already know what I need to do with my own kid, but what I also know is that I'm not going to touch your kid, and you know the same thing. You're not going to spank my child, I'm not going to spank your child. But if we're both quality parents, we're going to take our kids home and we're going to deal with them individually. You deal with your kids, I deal with my kids. God has his children, his children. He disciplines His children. He chastises Because they're his children. Satan's children don't matter to him, the devil's children don't matter to God. He cares about correcting his children.
Speaker 1:Hence the expression we've seen it three times already For whom the Lord loves, he chastens. And then he says here in Hebrews, verse six, and it says that he scourges every son, that he receives Every son, son, son, son, meaning his offspring. Who are his offspring? Who are his sons? Those who have been born from above, those who had been born from above or born again. But when we say born again above or born again, but when we say born again I cleared this up in a message yesterday Born again means born from above.
Speaker 1:Christ said that except a man be born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God. So if you would be a son of God, it means that you had been born from above. Now you have a supernatural existence, your body is the same after you believe in christ, but your soul has been changed. The old man that animates your body has died. Died and through the new birth, being born from above, you have been made a citizen by natural birth. You've been made a citizen Of God's kingdom Through a natural birth To God. So it is a supernatural, spiritual birth. That's who you are Now If you are a true believer Of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:In Revelation 3.19, christ says in his own words as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. In Proverbs 3, verse 11 and 12, or verse 12, it says for whom the Lord loves, he corrects. In Hebrews 12, verse 6, the writer says for whom the Lord loves, he chastens and that he scourges every son that he receives. I don't know how many other ways to put it and I certainly can't improve upon the word of God, certainly not. I am hoping that in my fragile expression of these things, that many of you begin to embrace who God really is when we look at these themes in the Bible.
Speaker 1:God only disciplines his children, he only disciplines those whom he loves, and if he loved every single person. Connect the dots, people please. Connect the dots Every single person. Connect the dots, people, please connect the dots. Listen. If God loves. Let me start over again, because I want to make sure I convey this in the best possible way that I can articulate it. The Bible says so far, I've shown you three places.
Speaker 1:God, whom he loves, he corrects. Correction is always effectual when God is doing the correction. In other words, if God has an end result in correcting you and he always gets that result in correcting you, and he always gets that result. So if God loves every single person in the world, that means he would correct every single person in the world and that means that that correction would be effectual in every single soul that has ever lived. And if that happens, that means that every single person that was ever born, ever born, would be saved. That's what that would mean.
Speaker 1:But that's not what the Bible teaches and the word of God has made it clear In several instances that he only Corrects, rebukes, scourges, chastises, disciplines those whom he loves and the rest of these people that run around unrepentant, living their lives of perfidy and rebellion against the Lord Jesus Christ. They are spoiled, rotten children of the evil one and his deeds. They will do and they don't mind, Because as long as they get what they want, just like a little kid. When they get what they want, they're happy. They believe that is good.
Speaker 1:But Christians, we, we are to do what we are told in scriptures, and that is to accept the correction from God when it comes, to embrace it, to be zealous for it and to repent when it happens. We're told to look for it. We're told to not despise it. We're told to welcome his correction, to smart under God's rod, to embrace it, not to sit back in the corner crying and whining and moaning and murmuring and complaining, like the Jews of in the old Testament, who are always complaining about not having something, not having water, not having bread, not having whatever. They were a type of what all of us are as individuals. Inwardly, we complain and we murmur. We want something.
Speaker 1:We always feel that, because we have embraced God and we've come to Christ, that now we have some sort of entitlement, that now we have some sort of entitlement Jews and Christians alike have been bred to believe. So many of them have been bred to believe that they are entitled, and the fact of the matter is, none of us are entitled to anything except God's absolute justice, which results in death. We don't deserve eternal life. We don't deserve the goodness and the compassion of God. We don't deserve his forbearance and his patience with us. We don't deserve his mercy. We don't deserve propitiation and redemption. We don't deserve his sanctifying grace. We don't deserve to be a warehouse for the Holy Spirit that exists within us. We don't deserve any of these things. If men understood that we deserve nothing, it would make it much easier for lost souls to embrace the love of Jesus Christ. The reason why men reject Christ is because they don't see a need for him. They are not those who see themselves as sin sick. They don't need a physician. They see themselves as well. All is well with them, but their end will be a bitter end Will be a bitter end.
Speaker 1:There is A Passage that I want to close with and it states it states what I want to convey here About God's involvement In disciplining people. In Hosea, chapter 14, ephraim is a person who is always, says to Ephraim. It says about Ephraim in Hosea, chapter four, verse 17, and I'll close here. God says Ephraim is joined to idols. Notice this last part.
Speaker 1:Ephraim is joined to idols, and then God tells his ministers let him alone. Let him alone If to me when Christ says, on the day of judgment, depart from me, you workers of iniquity, because I never knew you. I never knew you. I never knew you the four scariest words that any sinner is going to hear on the day of judgment I never knew you. And this is a judgment.
Speaker 1:After the resurrection, after the return of Christ, he's going to tell people I never knew you. And they're going to be shocked to the core, because what Christ is saying is that it's not that he doesn't know everyone. He created all of mankind, he himself. So what does it mean? When he says I never knew you, he is saying I never set my affections upon you. And because I never set my affections upon you and what he's saying is, when I never knew, you knew means I never loved you. You were not my child, you did not belong to me, you weren't one of the ones that my father gave. You were not one of my sheep that I was a shepherd over. Because had you been one of my sheep, I would have gone after you and brought you back to the fold. I would have left the 99 to come get you, but I didn't. You know why? Because I never knew you. I don't know you. Imagine the Lord of glory telling you to your face not only do I not know you, but I never knew you. Never knew you. If that's bad, that's bad enough.
Speaker 1:But in this life, the worst thing that we can ever have God tell his ministers, the worst thing that God's ministers can ever be told to do with relation to those who are lost, is to let them alone. In Hosea 4, verse 17,. God tells the servants, his servants and prophets Ephraim has joined himself to idols. Let him alone. God is saying I'm not going to discipline him, I'm not going to chastise or correct him. He cannot be corrected, so let him alone. He's wicked. He serves idols, so let him alone. He's wicked. He serves idols. He worships sports, he worships celebrities, he worships entertainment. He worships his job, his boss, his money, his homes, his wife, his kids. They worship everything but him. And God says to his servants let them alone. He will never say let him alone to someone that he loves.
Speaker 1:So I want to encourage all you Christians don't look to all of the what you call blessings, which is all the good things, because I hope this message has conveyed one thing to you that what we ought to be doing is being grateful for his chastening, for his correction, for his disciplining of us. This is what we should be thankful for. This is why we should appreciate him and this is how we know he loves us. It is not all the things that we want that makes us know that he loves us. It's the correction, it is the chastising, it is the chastening that makes us know that he loves us. Be provoked and be persuaded, and may God bless you all.