Heb No.23 Disciplining the Sons of God 12v1-13

When I was a student at my first college, I remember meeting a fellow student who ultimately became the head student of our particular institute, and he was one of the few men in my life to whom I had to look up to. He was six foot seven, and had been a member of Her Majesty's forces known as the Grenadier Guards. I always felt that the principle of our theological college showed uncommon discernment and wisdom in making this fellow head student.

No one ever dared to argue with him. And in more kindly moments, when he wasn't bossing us about, he would tell us a little about what he had to put up with in the guards. They use the word bull in the guards, and I believe generally in the army, to describe doing little duties, such as cleaning your shoes, and not only your shoes, but also the soles, and ensuring that everything just has a spit and polish look about it.

He used to tell us that the guards were obsessed with keeping things clean. In fact, there was a ditty in Her Majesty's Armed Forces which went something like this. Join the navy and see the world.

Join the guards and scrub it. Basic to being a guardsman was having a very disciplined personality. Basic to the special air service, of which we have heard quite a lot in recent days, particularly in that famous rescue of hostages from an embassy in London.

Basic to the SAS is the concept of discipline. Now it seems to me that when you read the epistles in the New Testament, and this one in particular, the point is emphasized that the man who really knows God's smile of approval on him is a disciplined man. In the previous chapter, which gained our attention a week or so ago, we were confronted with a catalogue of names of men, and references also made to ladies, who were of such quality that we are told God was not ashamed to be their God.

These were people of whom the world was not worthy. And if you go into the Old Testament, you have their life stories opened out. And they all have this tremendous common denominator.

They were men and women of a single mind. They were men and women who were absolutely disciplined. And when you move into the twelfth chapter of this epistle, it is the concern of the writer to say that what merited God's approval yesteryear pleases God today.

Christian people are called to a life of discipline. I am fascinated to watch these British milers as they break the world record for the mile. And both these men, who very often are featured in the sports columns of our newspapers, are men who are sold out to physical discipline.

Would to God that that stamina that they have and direct towards their sport was seen in our lives. I reckon that a lot of us would get further in the school of sanctification, would know more of the power of the Holy Spirit if we were disciplined people. I often quote those words that, as far as I know, first fell from the lips of that inspired preacher in the centre of London, the Anglican brother John Stott.

Doggered, daily discipline as being the life, a description of the life, to which Christians are called. Now, why am I saying this? Simply because in the first thirteen verses of Hebrews 12, it's the word discipline that stands out. It's almost illuminated in Scripture like a neon sign.

We have two particular pictures of the disciplined life. They're not the same, but they have the same common denominator. One is of the athlete, of the runner.

The other is of a father and child, and the relationship is investigated that exists between the two. And certain illustrations, or rather, certain conclusions are made as our writer describes this relationship. So let's look at the first illustration of discipline.

And that you find from the first verse right down to the third verse. But before we look at the concept of the runner pushing his way down the course, down the track, we're also told, we're also reminded that these people who lived in the Old Testament era have set an example for us to follow. The concept is of the amphitheatre, and we are to think of these people, Abraham and Moses and David and Daniel, as being spectators looking down upon spiritual athletes who are running the Christian race in this New Testament era.

And they're not passive spectators, because they have been the way before, and they have left us a good example. It's terrible to be faced with a good example and not to live up to it. If we had our Sunday night congregation here this evening, then what I say next would perhaps be more relevant, because some of you are not the sports addicts that some of our young people are.

But catastrophe broke out in the world of football yesterday. Norway beat England. That was incredible.

Such a tiny country as Norway, with six part-timers, beating the night of England on the football field. The Norwegian commentator, I heard just an extract of his comments on the news programme at five o'clock this evening, almost went mad when the referee blew the whistle to indicate the game was over and the Norwegians had won. And poor old Jackie Charlton, or Jack Charlton, who used to be the skipper of the English team that won the World Cup, was present yesterday and interviewed today on the radio, and he asked what he thought about it.

And, of course, he was very upset. Here was a team that wasn't able to equal the expertise of his footballing colleagues ten, twenty-odd years ago. And it's that sort of situation, you see, that confronts us when we open up the first two verses of Hebrews 12.

There are those who have run well. There are spiritual athletes who've gone on before. And now the race is left to others to continue.

And we're asked to look to their example, to emulate them, to be successful in the Christian race, as they were in the Old Testament era. So then, here are Christian runners. Here is yourself.

Here is myself, described in Scripture, ideally. And we are told that we are to run with patience, the last part of verse 1, run with patience the race that is set before us. Or, as the NIV puts it, run with perseverance the race that is marked out for us.

I personally don't feel that the Apostle Paul wrote Hebrews. But there are those who do. And they certainly would have a little bit of an argument, to their credit, if they were to say that the idea of athletics is quite common to the teaching of the Apostle Paul.

For example, he tells us when he takes his leave of the Ephesian elders in the 20th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles and in the 24th verse, that he is going to go to Jerusalem and he knows that hardships are in front of him, but he goes on to say, I consider my life worth nothing to me if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me, the task of testifying the gospel of God's grace. And you know so well that when Paul writes his final letter to the young Timothy at the end of his life, Paul says he's fought a good fight, he's finished the course, he's kept the faith. And as Paul is an illustration of a good Christian athlete, so we are urged also to run with patience the race that is set before us.

We are to see ourselves as long-distance runners, running in life for the Lord God Almighty, for His praise and for His honor. Well, what sort of advice can be given to runners if they are going to complete their course successfully? Well, look into the heart of the first verse again. And there we are advised, let us lay aside every weight.

The idea is getting rid of anything that might hinder. Have you ever seen a lady in a long dress try to run towards a taxi in London? It's a very interesting experience that I've witnessed once or twice when driving through London late at night as someone has come out from a restaurant or from a theater and they run towards a taxi. Very difficult to run fast when you've got a long skirt on.

I testify not through experience but because I've witnessed it. Now the idea is this, in the Christian life we are to get rid of anything that would impede our progress. Remember how the Apostle Peter says almost the same thing when he tells us to gird up the loins of our mind.

The idea of course was the shepherd from the Old Testament world or indeed the shepherds in the New Testament era who would have long flowing garments and if they had to run they would wrap them up around their middle. They would literally, and you could say this without being rude, they would belt up so that they could run very, very fast. And this is the idea, get rid of the weight that besets you.

Anything that would impede your progress. And the Corinthians in their races and indeed throughout the whole of Greece they would practice the custom of taking everything off and they would run naked so they could run as quickly as possible. Well, I don't know my dear friend what it is that impedes you in your spiritual life from making progress but yet to get rid of it.

The sin which doth so easily beset is the word or the phrase of the authorized version of the Bible when we're told to jettison, to cast away the whole of sin that might prevent us from making progress in the Christian life. Remember how the Apostle Paul when he writes to the Galatians he bemoans the fact that they did run well. How many people are like that? The early flush of enthusiasm as they committed their lives to the Lord they ran well.

Twenty years ago people ran well. Thirty years ago some of our friends have run well. But the decades have gone by and that first love, it seems to have lost its intensity and there's now not so much progress just shuffling along.

You did run well. Remember how the hymn writer puts it where is the blessedness I knew when first I found the Lord. Alright, analyze yourself, whatever it is whatever you've sold out for whatever is your mess of pottage then get rid of it and come back to the basics.

Strip down. But there's more to running than being fit. I always used to feel that if I was physically fit I would perhaps be able to achieve something in the area of athletics.

But as the English mile breakers were saying on the BBC when interviewed two or three weeks ago it's not just physical fitness it's mental concentration. You can have all the physical fitness in the world and if your mind is not trained then you've got problems. You need something to stimulate your mind and that's exactly the same in the Christian race.

So we're told in the second verse let us fix our eyes on Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. If we have stimulation by the thought of Moses and David and Daniel and all the greats of the Old Testament and the fact that they've run well before us how much greater is the stimulus that we find in looking to Jesus the greatest spiritual athlete of all time. I believe there was a book I've never read it or maybe it was a film I've never seen it if that's the case called The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner I haven't a clue what it's about apart from what might be indicated in its title but that would well describe our Lord Jesus.

You see my brothers and sisters we're called to run for God so to speak in this world but we run together. I thank God more than I can tell you for the fellowship of my brothers in this tabernacle who helped me so much in my Christian life and my sisters equally so. But for Jesus it was different.

He was on his own. It wasn't a nice long distance course. He wasn't able to go through the beauty of the countryside so to speak.

He wasn't able just to jog in an unconcerned fashion. He was to run for 32 or 33 years with loneliness knowing forsakenness and his race can you believe it? was to take him not immediately to a prize but to a cross. Consider Jesus the author and the finisher of our faith who for the joy that was before him endured the cross despised the shame and sat down on the right hand of the throne of God who would run to a cross.

I enjoy my runs on the sea front here in Worthing in the early hours of the morning. I can't think I've been doing this now for quite some time what it would be like not to have some physical exercise in the morning. I enjoy it.

Feel better for it. But if you were for example to put up a cross on Goring Green then I would be a fool to say that I would run with enthusiasm to that cross and to be pinned to it. But this is the amazing thing of the Christ.

He runs. He runs on his own. He runs with stamina.

He runs with strength. And he runs to the despised gibbet and there he's pinned. And why does he endure such suffering? So that ultimately he might offer the effects of his sinless life before God and his achievements on the cross and he might know the joy of being in heaven having achieved the wish of the Father and having brought an innumerable company of people into a faith relationship with the Lord.

I, says our writer you people who are called to run look to the Old Testament saints but even more so consider Jesus Christ and be stimulated by his example. We're called my friends to run well in the life, in the race of life. But more than that we are told that we are to receive discipline.

We're to receive discipline. Now in the fourth verse references made to these Hebrew Christians who've gone through a great deal of problems but none of them had yet paid the supreme price of dying for the faith. And some were reacting against the difficulties of their life and they were saying that they were going to throw overboard their commitment to Jesus simply because they were going through some harrowing circumstances.

And amazingly our author takes up their unpleasant experiences and he says, you know what you're reacting against? You're reacting against the disciplines of God. What has happened to you is not by accident it's by the predetermined choice of God. And if that sounds extraordinary if that is unacceptable then do you Hebrew Christians forget what God says through the writer of the Proverbs? My son, verse 5, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him for whom the Lord loveth he chastens and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

You've got to receive discipline to become a mature Christian. I was thinking a few moments ago in my vestry if you could apply that text in the New Testament all things work together for good to them that love God to those who are called according to his purpose to an Old Testament character who would you pick? If Paul, for example, had not been the author if we'd found that verse in the Old Testament scriptures who might have written it? Very good. Joseph might have written it.

And yet could you really say at the beginning of Joseph's spiritual pilgrimage as he starts to run his race that God is dealing in a joyful fashion with him that everything's working together for good sold as a slave ostracized, therefore, by his brothers considered dead by his father gets into an easier situation in Egypt than finds himself in jail ministers to Pharaoh's servants one says he'll remember him before Pharaoh and promptly forgets his promise spends years, therefore, in his imprisonment and then ultimately he knows promotion and at the end of his life, you remember or at least towards the end Joseph almost uses the words of the Apostle Paul when he speaks to his brothers you meant it to me for harm but God meant it to me for good here is Joseph recognizing the chastenings of the Lord it's one of the old Puritan commentators I forget his name who argues this that there will never be any chastening in the next world there can't be any chastening in heaven because nobody will need to be corrected there we'll all be perfect there can't be any chastening in hell because there can be no corrective procedures in hell that's a static state the only time when there can be chastening when God can correct his people is during their earthly lifespan have you ever thought of that? and so God chastens not as a judge, but as a father and he chastens with feeling Smith is not exactly the most uncommon surname in the English community but when you say the word Smith to me I immediately think of Mr. Colin Smith I'm sure he will never get this tape so I shan't be done for slander he was the Latin master at my grammar school now quite frankly I have never been very good at languages and unfortunately I followed quite a brilliant brother at school I never forgave my brother for being older than I was and I never forgave him for being much cleverer because he made my life at school very difficult because I was always contrasted with him and my Latin master used to feel that there would be some stimulation in my brain if having got all my Latin verbs wrong he wielded the cane towards a rather tender area of my body I can remember at the age of 13 thinking that it was most unlikely that suffering pain would make me any better at Latin but it wasn't so much the caning that hurt it was that little jibe you know sergeant this is really hurting me more than it's hurting you I never believed him, I still don't believe him but as far as the corrections of God are concerned they're offered with feeling they're offered for our advantage I felt that the disciplines of my Latin master were absurd because his punishment couldn't have been for my good couldn't have made me better at Latin but as far as God is concerned his corrections always have my supreme good in mind and so our author works out an analogy between the father God and his relationship to his children and an ordinary father and his relationship to his boys and girls the ordinary father, if he's worth his salt he will discipline his child it's a common denominator that a father will chasten a father will chastise indeed, says our author, and he's been very rigid with his logic here in the eighth verse if you are never corrected then in effect you're illegitimate it's almost like saying you haven't got a father if you've never been corrected it's a common denominator amongst good fathers to discipline their children and with our heavenly father the same obtains he disciplines those whom he loves that's the quotation from Proverbs but not only is an analogy of discipline worked out in comparing these two relationships but also the thought of reverence dropped down to the ninth verse how many of us who were blessed, as I praise God I was how many of us who were blessed with good parents don't thank God for every memory of them I know that probably doesn't embrace everyone in my congregation not everyone has been as fortunate as I have been but I respect the memory of my father there's a natural reverence now similarly when dealt with harshly at one level by our heavenly father instead of reacting with maturity we should accept the Lord only chastens those whom he loves he doesn't correct those who have rejected the gospel he corrects his children he chastens his children as an earthly father will do and there's a third common denominator why do earthly parents chasten their children and why do we as we look back honour, revere the memory of our parents well because there was a value in their chastening that's what the tenth verse is saying here there were certain benefits that came our way because our parents were not afraid to correct us they disciplined us for a little while as they thought best yes but the point is this my friend it was just for a little while what was the objective of my mother in bringing two boys up was it for them always to be dependent on her would she feel back home in the north of England that she'd been successful if my brother David and I were still going to her asking for permission if we spent that sum of money asking her for advice about things that we're perhaps more competent to handle ourselves now than she is what is the objective of a human parent it's to make his child independent not so with God the parental responsibility at the human level is short lived but at the divine level it's eternal at the human level it has benefits yes in boyhood and throughout the whole of life but it stops there really it's a limited benefit it's good it's not to be undervalued but there are limitations inbuilt but in the care of God over his children there are no limitations the value is eternal it's sharing in the very character of God that he has in mind for us as he corrects us as he disciplines us therefore we should accept his chastenings joyfully we should accept them recognizing that they are for our good the guards may have their bull and the soldiers may react against it but there's nothing that's superficial there's nothing that's purely cosmetic in the corrections of God as he deals with his children sometimes at one level harshly it's always with their ultimate good in mind Paul is right Joseph is right what God determines for us is for our spiritual well-being that's why, was it Isaac Watts I forget I'm not very good on author's names of hymns writes the words and praise him still through good or ill, whoever lives oh how easy some of those verses tumble out of our lips on a Sunday morning as we go to the first section in hymns of faith praise him still through good, yes that's easy but through ill when was the last time that you thanked God for bringing you into an unpleasant experience not easy but it's the beginnings of Christian maturity to recognize that God deals with us sometimes in a chastening fashion and he does so for our own good like our parents have done so you see our author has almost completed the logic of his argument in this section he's given us two thoughts he's given us the idea of the spiritual athlete who's moving down the track he's stripped himself of anything that would in any way interfere with his progress he then shows us the other picture of discipline of the father and the child and then in the 12th and 13th verses he has resort again to the book of Proverbs and the 4th chapter where we are told lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees make straight paths for your feet lest that which is lame be turned out of the way but let it rather be healed how would you summarize that? keep fit this is the message of this evening it's easy enough for you to take away forget everything else it's all encapsulated in those two words keep fit as a Christian when I was in Mexico City I had two or three spare days and I spent half of a day out at the University of Mexico remarkable place more than 100,000 students in it but just opposite from the main university buildings there is the Olympic Stadium and by sheer cheek we managed to get the guard to open the gate and to let us into the stadium my young colleague my interpreter and I and we went into that stadium it's a fantastic sight I imagine it must seat at least 100,000 do you know what we did? both of us went right to the point where you start the marathon race and we ran around the track and you know with a little bit of fanciful imagination you could imagine the auditorium full cheering people and there you were after completing 26 miles winning fantastic then we sort of staggered to the end of the race or to the end of the course with no one around at all puffing and panting like steam engines but oh friend not in the fanciful way of an athlete or a runner the Olympic Stadium in Mexico but with reality as a spiritual athlete to be able to run to run well to run with determination not flagging lifting up the drooping hands ensuring that there's no arthritic condition spiritually speaking that's come into our spiritual frame that would impede our progress running and running well for God wherefore says the writer of the Hebrews seeing we're encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses seeing that we have the stimulation of Old Testament athletes heroes of the faith seeing even more that we've got the example of the Lord Jesus Christ let's run and let's run well and let's accept the disciplines of the Father as Jesus accepted the disciplines of the Father God when He was on earth and ultimately achieved His Father's accolade with that of the whole of Heaven's hosts as they welcomed their hero back to the celestial realm we have need in this world for disciplined Christians may we be numbered in that category Amen Father we thought in our study of the loneliness of the long distance runner even Jesus the Lord you've called us to a race but we're not alone we thank you for that we thank you for one another help us to be able to stimulate and encourage each other and keep in front of us not the cross for that was only for the Savior but the crown which is for those who run well and selflessly down the road of life help us to be disciplined and to please you for our Savior's sake Amen