What Is a Christian 05 Child Needs Discipline

So be much in prayer regarding this meeting, that only we as God's people may be fed spiritually, that we may see him and know that joy is present, but that we may see men and women and young people may be born again by the Holy Spirit. Know we are born that we may reproduce, that we might be reproducing Christians, and that's what I'm longing for more and more, to see this reproduction of the life of Jesus Christ. Now we're going to sing dear accordion, shall we? That's right, to you who believe it's precious in having not seen me last, you've got a way of singing this that no one else can really sing it, so just sing good part of the palm start, giving well thought.

You're going to sing it once more, and I thought all the good singers must have gone north again, but that's not listening to you. Let us have it once more. Lord, make my heart thy temple, where thou can dwell within.

Thou who has given thine own precious blood, cleanse thou thine altar there. Lord, make my heart thy temple, filled with the fragrance of prayer. It's a lovely chorus, and I think you'll like it.

You and Mr. Ernest Woodhouse here, great man, dear Ernie and David Clifford and I used to work as a team back in Britain, we worked all over the British Isles as a team, with a big marquee, during the summer months. David was in charge of the crusade, and I remember at the back, just a few books there at the back, we always had a box on a little desk for anyone wanting to have fellowship to do so, and every night after service, our next morning would probably come together early morning prayer meeting, David would say, poor message last night, why not much in the offering, but it was a great message, a big offering, wonderful message last night. Reminds me of the Methodist preacher speaking at one of those old-fashioned camp meetings, games back in Britain, and we met someone on the way home, one of Society's stewards, and he said, how did you get on with the meeting? Oh, wonderful camping, one of the best we've ever had, you know, it was wonderful, the largest offering we've had in the history of these camp meetings.

It was a wonderful camp meeting, it was a wonderful offering. I wanted tonight to think for a few moments of a Christian. A Christian is a child of God.

When Dr. Ape was speaking the other night, I was strangely moved as he ministered. He told an illustration regarding a sacrifice or a contribution. It reminded me of the dear little boy during the war years back in Britain, his little dog, his little pet dog, and you know, the meat was rationed then too, and his little dog is putting down the good morsels of meat, the very best meat is given to the dog, quite underneath the table, you see, but his mother spotted him doing this.

So, look here George, that meat's not for the dog, that's the very best meat, and that meat's for you to eat, and don't you give it to your dog. So, the boy was very upset. So, that's all the meal was over.

They got all the sinew, and all the fat, and all the girls couldn't burn, and put down in the dish. Said, now look, that's for the dog, and not the good meat. The little boy answered.

The little boy was overheard saying, he put his arm on the dog, poor old Bobby, I want to give you a free will offering, but I've only given you the collection. Got it? May I help you tonight? As we look at this term, child, the child of God, we've been thinking, as we did so last night, that the child needs care, a child needs a home, and as more we emphasize the point, the child needs instruction. Then we found a child needs love, and a child needs discipline.

Isn't that true? A child needs discipline. So, let us just open our Bibles again, this time to Hebrews, and chapter 12. I am not going to go into this in detail, because I want to get tonight to a Christian as a near of God, and a joint heir with Christ.

My good brother, you know, is amazing, and there's wonderful choirs of hymns, and at very first thing tonight, we're reminding us, not only are we children, but we're joint heirs with Christ. So, here's Hebrews chapter 12, reading at verse number 5. You got Hebrews 12? Keep your finger there, and go back to Proverbs chapter 3. The woman's privileged to change her mind, but I'm changing mine. By the way, that's why a woman's mind's so clean.

She changed her mind so often. Now, verse number 11, verses 11 and 12, are the third chapter of Proverbs. We're reading the first thirteen-thirds of the fourth chapter this morning, and I did so before coming up to the chapel.

I notice verse 11 and 12 are the third chapter. See what it says now. My son, despite not the chastening of the Lord, neither be weary of his correction.

For whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth, even the father of the son in whom he delighted. Now, I may read those two verses again before we go to Hebrews 12. Proverbs 3, verse 11.

My son, despite not the chastening of the Lord, neither be weary of his correction. For whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth, even the father of the son in whom, and notice this, he delighted. Now, Hebrews 11, Hebrews 12, and verse number 5, through verse number 11.

And ye have forgotten exhortation that speaketh on this wife as unto children. My son, despite not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou are rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourges every son whom he receiveth.

If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with son. For what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? There's something positive about that, by the way. But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not some.

Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be a subject unto the Father of Spirits, and live? For they very for a few days chasten us after their own pleasure, that he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now, Lord, chastening for the present seemeth a bit joyous, but grievous.

Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Notice, beloved, it speaks further up the same chapter of being partakers of chastening, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now, this is very vital.

We're dealing with the question, what is a Christian? We found a Christian is one who belongs to Christ, who witnesses for Christ, and who suffers with Christ. A Christian is a child of God, and we become a child of God by faith in Christ Jesus, and by receiving Christ by his Spirit into our hearts. That means we are a child of God.

They may think we were noticing that children need care, a child needs a home, a child needs instruction, and a child needs love. But notice here now, sometimes love is not mere sloppy, nor sentimental. No, my friends, love is very practical, and love is not real love unless it is practical.

Now, when it comes to chastening, sometimes we're inclined to chase under it, you know, but there are three things we can do with chastening. We can resist it, we can despise it, or we can be exercised by it. Believe King George V was having a very special set of china made for him in Stamford, in England, a city where I was born so many years ago, not quite so many, but there's where I was born in Stamford, in England, and the lovely potters there, the Royal Dalton, Wedgwood, and many others.

And so George V was having a set of china made for him, and it was to be done in gold, in the gold leaf. He went down one day with some of his attendants into the pottery, and they had just brought the gold leaf on to the china, the clay. He was just about to touch it when the manager said, please don't touch it, your majesty, you'll spoil it.

Even the finger of his majesty would have spoiled the unfinished article. Now, that is a great lesson for us as God's beloved people. Never interfere when God is working in another's life.

Let us pray, and pray unbelievingly, but don't let us interfere. How often we try to suggest, and advise, and counsel, and all the time the Lord is at work. Let the spirit of God do his own work in the believer's life, or in the unbeliever's life.

Sometimes we see a person under conviction of sin, we can exercise and try and point that soul to the Christ, and my friend, sometimes we do more harm than good. Let the dear one go through a deep trial of conviction, and when that person comes through for Jesus Christ, he's a real trophy, she's a real trophy, God's matchless grace. Now, we try to interfere when the spirit is working, the human element comes in, and we do more harm than good.

Not long after this, a girl came up with a pot of black lacquer, and she lacquered all over that set of china. The king's wife, she's falling, she's making a mess of it. The manager said, wait your majesty, till you see the finished article.

Now, with all black lacquered over, she was putting the brick kiln into the oven at a certain temperature, and it was baked. All the black was burned off, and all the gold was burned right into that clay. She made a beautiful set of china, beautiful.

May I also make a pair of vases? Vase, vase, vase. Oh, that beautiful English language, eh? If he gives you to say the vase is the cheap one, the vase is the dear one. So, there they are, then we'll call them vases, shall we? There you have the pair, made of the same clay, put in the same oven at the same temperature.

The one came out beautiful, just like the china. Someone came out ugly, disfigured, and just absolutely awful to look at. What's the lesson? The one took the fire, responded, and came out beautiful.

No resisted the fire, and came out ugly. Beloved, when the Lord places you or me into the crucible, or into the oven, it is all the draught might be consumed, that the pure gold of its own nature may be burned right into your life, that we may be transformed more and more in the glorious image of our beloved Lord Jesus Christ. But may I respond again? The one resisted the fire, resisted the testing, and came out ugly.

Haven't you often found people just like that? Whilst they're into a time of testing and real chasing and correction from the Lord, they've taken from the Lord's own blessed putrid hand, and have recognized that nothing can touch them without first touching his hand, and he will not allow it to pass unless it's going to be for their good and all for his glory. I like that, you know, don't you? My friend, I want you to get this tonight, that if we resist God's correction, then we get ugly, we get sour, we get critical, we get bitter. May I say this? The way we respond in the hour of temptation and testing either advances the gospel, or retards the gospel.

An illustration, fact two. In the city of London, Ontario, visiting a Victoria hospital one day, there was a lady, and I met the Lord Jesus. I did not know about it, by the way, until she applied for baptism, and she told the brethren when she was saved.

She came all the way from Holland, and was dying of cancer at the early age of 46 years. I used to visit her most days. She's a brilliant lady, very clever woman, three lovely children.

This particular day, I went to see her. The lady in the next bed said, I can understand what Mrs. Vanderswan's got. That woman's stomach is cruciating pain, yet she never complains.

She never calls for the nurse. She doesn't want to cause them too much trouble, and she's always got a cheering word for anyone that comes to see her. The doctors think she's a marvel.

What has she got that I haven't got? I got the same trouble. She got peace and serenity. I looked and said, Mrs. Vanderswan's got the Lord Jesus Christ as the life of a life, and he means everything to her.

Well, if that's the case, I want to know him too, and I had a joy following that woman through to the Lord Jesus before she too fast into the presence of the Lord Jesus. Mrs. Vanderswan advanced the gospel. She received, my friend, this as from the hand of the Lord Jesus, with his great big heart of love warmed up to her perfectly.

Now, I'll never forget the day. Standing by a bench side, she says, something like these. She said, you know, Mr. Basel, I love my husband Jake.

I love my three children, and she said, you know, I would willingly go to be the Lord Jesus, but you know, it's just a thought of leaving them. I looked at her, knowing the condition, and said, are you putting Jake and the children before the Lord? Do you love them more than you love him? Would you rather be with them or be with him? Oh, she said, I would rather be with the Lord Jesus. Next day, when we visited her, she know what she said? She said, you know, I surrendered Jake.

I surrendered the children. I've given them all into the hands of the Lord Jesus, and I said, Lord, I am willing to take me home. During that afternoon, Jake and I stood by her bedside while the Lord took her home.

She was exorcised thereby, and it brought forth the peaceable fruits of righteousness. In the same hospital was a young man, a young chartered accountant. Jake got nervous exhaustion.

His nerves were completely frayed. He sent for me, and I went to see him. As I stood there in that room, he asked to be excused for a moment, but another man in the room turned around and said to me, does that fellow know God? Is he supposed to be a Christian? I said, oh yes, he's a Christian.

Well, where is his God? Is he moping and groping and complaining all the time? Where is his God? Now notice, the one advanced the gospel, the other retarded the gospel, and how we react, my friend, in the hour of testing and trial either brings glory to him or dishonor to him. And if you're a child of God, we all have to pass through a time of testing one way or another. It may not be, my friend, my physical illness, but in some way you and I have to pass through.

He chastens, corrects every son who may receive it, and he does it all in love. He brings up the Urim element here. He's an earthly father, and he corrected you, not because he hated you, but just because he loved you.

It's what we call child training, or character forming, how necessary it is. I remember a few old men back in Scotland many years ago saying to me, when I was youngster, he said, Jimmy, if you don't break their will when they're young, they'll break your heart when they're old. He said many a time my arms were heavy and weary and tired by carrying them around, but Jimmy, he said, my heart is sore tonight, not my arms.

May some heart here in your heart's fore tonight, that boy your great hopes for and great great desire for, he's not meeting the requirement, not coming up to your standard for him, and though you may never say a word to anyone about it, deep down in your heart and life, there's a terrible burden, a real yearning, a real longing. You have such ambitions for your boy, such desire for him. You want to see my friend full-time ministry to him, going on and developing, maturing, listening to God.

You want to see that daughter of yours, and going on triumphing in the son of Jesus Christ, probably land across the sea as a missionary, and doing a work for God, but it's not happening like that. Dear one, there's one who understands your heart, and one who understands my heart tonight, and he that knows the worst about us, is the one who loves us best of all. There's only one who loves like this, and Jesus is his name, his wonderful name.

Do you know something? There's not a pound that rends the heart, but the man of sorrows shares the part. Here's one, my friend, whose arms are never weary, whose arms are never aching, whose arms are never sore. This one, my friend, God has just chilled up into them.

He presents them to his own tender heart. His love never changes, because all is the same, warm, loyal, sincere, and true. That love is conquered in your breath, and whatever he's allowing to come into your life or into my life, he's allowing to come just because he loves you.

It's not always easy to understand this, is it, my friend? For this God is a God's love. He is our Father, and my friend, listen, he never gives us more to bear than we can possibly bear. He never asks us to shed an unnecessary tear.

Always understanding, sympathetic, compassionate God, he is your Father. He is my Father. Now, you may start to question, why? Why did you create your child? Was it because you hated that child? It's because you love that child.

Way back yonder, in a little village called King's Kettle, in Fineshire, the Kingdom of Fife, there was a woodshed, and I got a stepfather. My mother married him when I was about five years of age. He had three boys of his own, three teenage boys, because I was not the, uh, the perfect child by any means.

Now, I got in the middle of a scrape. My stepfather said, I'll meet you out in the woodshed, and in that woodshed was an old razor strap. You know those old razor straps, you know? Yeah, it's one of those leather straps of theirs, and over the razor strap was written a word, I need thee every hour.

My stepfather came out, he said, Jimmy, this is going to hurt me more than it hurts you. Now, I didn't believe a word of it. Not one word of it.

He said, you know, Jimmy, I'm going to do this because I love you. I didn't believe that either. I didn't believe that either.

We've got a little granddaughter. She's four and a half years of age. Maybe just about three and a half.

I'm getting on for four years. Her daddy and her mommy have got great ideals about child psychology and training the child, you see. They've got two, of course, now.

But Peter is going to crack his child. He's going to excise her for something. She turned around and said to him, Daddy, I advise you not to do this to me.

How do you consider the effect you have on me? Three years of age. May I pause here, my friend? That didn't stop him from going on doing it, mind you. But often we try to say, don't, don't hit the child in a fit of temper.

You reason with the child, you tell the child why you're going to correct them, tell them why you're going to do it, and then go on with the job. Beloved, you sometimes think of someone, and that person used to be running way onto the Lord Jesus. Maybe he's active, my friend, in gospel ministry, probably in Bible teaching.

And that person, my friend, comes upon his life, and he's gone right back into the world. And even my friend, denying the truth, he won't profess the preach. He's conceived the secret truth, and he's turned his back upon that truth.

And that man goes back. He proffers, he gets on the world, nothing seems to clog his pathway, he's a villity, and my, he's a wonderful man. Another Christian, I mean a Christian, will go back.

He'll backslide. But a real born-again child of God will never take the Lord's name in vain. And I find events that make it as drunk as a piper.

But my friend, that man, even though he's in drunken stupor, he'll stick up for the gospel. And suddenly you'll find him preaching the gospel. You let anyone, my friend, say anything against the gospel or the gospel chapel, he'll fight for it.

The man's a backslider. And God, my friend, comes in with a lot of correction. And He corrects this one, in one way or another.

And as God sees best for this man's life and for this man's correction, He'll come in, He gives him time to repent of his sins, to defend my friend against fantasy, to judge it, and finish with it. He says, let a man examine himself. And He says, we've got to be given to self-discipline, to self-judgment.

If we judge ourselves, then we will not be judged, says the Holy Scripture. But if we go on, and we do not judge ourselves, and deal with that sin, and put it away, then He as a Father, not as a judge, He as a Father comes in, and He corrects us. And He uses a rod in correction, and in that hand there is the rod, but in the hand there's a hand of love, a hand who cares, a hand that understands, and there's a heart behind it, my friend, for stating in love and understanding sympathy.

He comes in, He corrects. And if we don't respond to that correction, sometimes correcting is heavier, and then sometimes He takes the person home to heaven. One Corinthians 11 comes in here, for this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and some flee.

And God sometimes comes in, my friend, and removes the believer out of the way. They're not fit to live in heaven because their testimony has been blighting, and so He removes them out of the way altogether, the wonder of it all. What about this man here? Why has he gone on and prospered so well? You know why? He's not a child.

He's not a child, he's a bastard. That's what the word of God says, if you're not chasing, you're a bastard and not a son. Dear Mr. Ernest Chatham and I were ministering sometime in Goodwill, and he brought this up so clear and distinctly.

Here's a man coming face to face with the truth, and it's apostasy. He turns away from the truth, and he goes back into Goodwill, and God, my friend, leaves him alone. He's not his child, so he goes on without correction.

If you tonight profess once more the Lord Jesus, and properly you've preached, and you've turned your back upon the truth, and you've never known the law of correction, I ask you lovingly examine your heart to see if you're in the faith or not. Because if you're a child, friend, you're going to suffer persecution. You're going to suffer the law of correction.

It's because He loves you. He wants you to come back to Him with all the love. I was conducting a funeral service for a young man in Toronto some time ago.

This young man was a brilliant young fellow going through for medicine. He was university. He was my wife's university in London, Ontario.

He was then president of the Inter-varsity Fellowship Group. I knew him as the president of the Inter-school Christian Fellowship while in high school. And this young man swam the Swedish Bull fourteen times.

Someone said to him, Mark, can you swim it underneath? Oh yes. So that greatly strong fellow fight and seek, he swam it underneath. He turned around and swam underneath again backwards, did a brain hemorrhage, and he went down to the bottom.

I was asking sometimes, where's Mark? And they just saw him lying there, the black shadow there in the bottom. They pulled him out. They tried every way to restore him, but he had gone.

As a funeral service, it was a very large service, they go and give liberty in that particular meeting that day. And I told him as I knew him, I'm very fond of acrostics. And I introduced his name, Mark, in acrostic form.

Went down through this, turning away from the grave. Another fellow from the meeting, in another meeting in Toronto, came up and said did you hear what's known, sir? He passed away this morning. The young man I'm referring to, my friend, was only twenty-one years of age.

There's another young man was twenty-three years of age. And the very same month, another young man, twenty-seven years of age, a miserable son, all went to heaven. Mr. Colin Anderson is now in Uganda.

Very fine brother. Said to me some days after that funeral service at the gym, how well did you know Mark? Well, I know him as I knew him. The boy in high school, and I knew him from university.

He said, did you know he was living in sin? Pardon? Did you know he was living in sin? He had that long beard he had, and that conformity he had to the world, that was all cover up. He said that young man was living in sin, and we believe God took him home to heaven with his own child. And he said the others have gone home to heaven too, because they're not fit to live on earth.

God in his own love, and his own wise way, removed him to heaven. You're his child, and oh the joy of being a child of God, and my friend of an honor, and of a responsibility. I wonder what about you? Are you tonight in a backslidden condition? See, I don't know your heart.

And often I find behind a smiling face is often a breaking heart. Maybe such a heart here tonight. And God by his Spirit has been dealing with you during these days of confidence.

One fear has come along after another, and the Spirit of God has reached you, and you haven't done anything about it. But it may be this very night, in the quiet of your own heart, you sit there in that seat. You're going to cry, Lord, Lord, you're speaking to me.

I hear your voice, and you're talking right to me, Lord. Lord, you're my Lord. Lord, your love never changed.

Your love's warm, and loyal, sincere, and true. Lord, your love's ever toward me. Lord, it's my love that's changed.

My love's grown cold. Lord, I've allowed other things to come in, and robbed me of the rightful praise of Lord in my life. Other Lords have come in, Lord, and the reigning supreme in my life.

And Lord, your love upon the throne of my heart. Lord, that dearest I live known, whatever I will be, help me, dear Lord, to tear it from my throne, and worship only thee. Are we willing for this tonight? Are we willing for this? Is there another God in your life? Psalm 16 comes in at verse number four.

There sorrow shall be multiplied, and hasten after, exchange me for, offer gifts to, another God. I dare cry, other Lord, of hell's dominion over my soul. In a small group like this, I may put up a blackboard, ask a question.

Is it God's popularity? Is it God's preaching? Is it God my position? Is it God my possession? Is it God my home, my house proud? Is it God my automobile? Is it God my sweetheart? Is it God my garden? Is it God my dog? Is it God my TV or my radio? Oh, beloved me, I ask you very lovingly, did I mention it right there? You know something? It's that very thing you're thinking of now. It's that very person that passed through your mind as I was going down through that list. That's the very thing, the very person looming large before you, that one, my friend, coming right in between you and the Lord Jesus.

Oh, may you from your very heart turn your eyes upon him tonight. Your eyes upon the Lord Jesus, seeing all his glory and beauty. And my friend, you wonder why? Lord, why is this? Why the next thing coming into my life? Why your aliveness? It's because he's pointing out something in your, some area in your life that has not been fully committed, fully surrendered to him.

Please don't go away tonight and say, why that Jim Boswell came all the way from London, Ontario, to tell me I'm not to have a good position. I'm not to love my wife, or to love my husband, or to love the children, or to have a nice home. Oh, no.

All I measure legitimate in your life and in my life, but listen, they must all be subservient to Christ. He must come before the wife. He must come before the husband.

He must come before the children. He must come before the job. He must come before my money.

My friend, he must be Lord of all. And the Bible's crystal clear, that if he is not Lord of all, then, beloved, he's not Lord at all. May I very lovingly say this, the Lord Jesus will not be a spare wheel in anyone's life.

He must have the steering wheel. Now, are we willing for this? Beloved, a spare wheel just for an emergency, and our many want the Lord Jesus for an emergency. They don't want to go to hell when they pass away.

They want to be in heaven. I saw the meager prophets of faith in Lord Jesus, and they've given a place in their heart, but then they want to run their own little life. They want to control their own little affairs, and all the time Christ is in the heart, but he's just over threshold.

There may be a Lord there during the conference. They've given a prominent place, but, oh, beloved, he doesn't just want a place, not even a prominent place. He must have the preeminent place.

He must remain Lord Supreme without a rival in your life and in my life. Oh, will you pray tonight with me? Reign over me, Lord Jesus. Reign over all within.

Make me a loyal subject to thee in everything. Have thine own way, Lord. Have thine own way.

Hold, Lord, my being and persuade. Fill with thine spirit to all to see. Christ owe me always living in me.

A child needs discipline, and we as God's beloved people, too, as his children, because we are his children, we, too, are disciplined. The God is a God of love, the Father of mercies, the God of all consolations, who understands us perfectly, knows exactly, my friend, how much we can stand. He never gives us more to bear than we can possibly bear.

He knows something. He knows all about you.