Proof of Your Adoption – 2

Hebrews 12, we’re going to read again the opening 11 verses. We didn’t get finished last time as we were looking at verses 7 through 11, so this morning we are completing that message. Again, my desire is as we look at the Word today that you would be more fully assured of your position in Christ, that you would be more confident that you belong to Him, and that some of the things that may threaten that confidence would be set aside because of what we learn here today. So, may the Lord bless our meditation, our consideration of His Word.

Hebrews 12 verse 1: “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.”

We’ll end the reading of God’s Word at verse 11.

What you have heard is the Word of the eternal God, which you are to receive, believe, and where necessary, obey. And the people of God said, Amen.

Let’s pray.

Lord, give help now. So much hangs upon this, primarily that we might be preserved from ourselves, and from the world, and from the devil. We therefore ask that the Spirit would be at work, firming up the walls of our salvation, as it were, strengthening us in the inner man, making us strong in Christ Jesus, granting that we would go from strength to strength, enjoying grace upon grace. We plead that thou wilt settle in our hearts that thou wert speaking through thy word. Give us ears to hear, give us a will to respond, subdue our passions, deliver us from evil, and grant, O God, that there would be advancement to thine own kingdom here in this place today. If one be without Christ, save them, and for all thy people, feed them. This is thy work to do. Help us now. We take then in Jesus’ name the promised Holy Spirit for Christ’s sake. Amen.

Am I really God’s child? That was a question we sought to answer last week as we began looking at this section of Hebrews 12, 7 through 11. And we discovered that the very experiences that make us question our adoption may actually be the strongest proof that it exists. That the things that make us wonder, “Am I even saved? Am I truly a Christian?” are the very things that God has appointed to teach us truly we are His.

It’s so important for each believer to understand the difference between the essence of faith and the assurance of faith. While this is not the occasion in which to further develop that, it’s important for you to grasp it, that the essence of faith is that faith, regardless of how weak, takes an omnipotent Christ at His word—and the language of our confession, accepting, receiving, resting upon Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life. That’s the essence of faith.

And it may be really weak, barely existing, yet it holds on to an omnipotent Christ who will save to the uttermost all who believe. Assurance of faith, on the other hand, relates to our sense of that union. A person may be adopted and have the rights of a son without yet knowing the joy of sonship—knowing you’re part of the family. But the apostle Paul wants you to know that you’re a child of God. The apostles never labored to keep you in a position of uncertainty. They don’t believe it’s sin to have assurance.

There are quarters of Christianity in which doubt is elevated as an expression of piety, not always intentionally. But that certainly has been an effect of some of the manner in which they have conducted ministry. So that to be doubtful is to be more pious. To be more lacking assurance or questioning, “Maybe I’m not really a child of God,” is in some way to avoid presumption and therefore to show forth a true sincerity. And it’s not true. Nowhere in God’s Word is there to be an elevation of doubt as a form of pious expression, and I’ve seen this firsthand.

Earlier in this epistle, the apostle admonished the Hebrews repeatedly regarding unbelief. Now, as we enter into the more practical section of what I think is really originally a sermon by the apostle, he warns of misinterpreting circumstances in such a way that would facilitate unbelief. And he is fighting against that, fighting for the faith of the people of God.

We use that term, fighting for the faith. We often use it in the context of going against all the opposition and making war with the world outside. But every Lord’s Day, when you gather in this fashion, your pastor, whoever here is sincere in bringing the Word to you, is fighting for your faith—the ongoing trust in the personal work of Jesus Christ. This is what the Apostle is doing.

You remember in Hebrews 11, it gave us many examples of those who had this real faith, this faith that pleases God. And Paul is driving that home. These believers should get rid of the sin that so easily besets them, verse 1 of chapter 12. They are to look to Jesus who endured suffering, even to the death of the cross, and is now crowned with honor at God’s right hand. Look to Him, he says, verse 2, and also verse 3.

And building on our Savior’s example from verse 3, the apostle focuses on the need to persevere through life’s difficulties. As I’ve said repeatedly, we live in a world of headwinds, forces pushing you back. Sometimes it’s persecution from an unbelieving world. Sometimes it’s from family within your own camp. Sometimes it’s just the walls of providence that seem to hedge your way and make life more difficult.

But whatever it is, there are these headwinds as we live in a fallen world in which things are not easy. There are many reasons to be sorrowful, many reasons to shed a tear. And these things affect us, discourage us.

Paul uses three illustrations to help in this aspect of Christian perseverance. He deals with parental discipline in verses 3-11. That’s where we are right now, specifically in verses 7-11, which we hope to finish today. He then returns to the imagery of the Christian race as running and the danger of growing faint in verses 12-13. And then he finally draws from the negative example of Esau, who despised his spiritual inheritance in verses 14-17. And all of this is really—he’s putting his arms around these various aspects to push them to keep going on. Keep enduring. Keep persevering. Don’t let up. Do not quit. He knows the challenge.

Now we saw last week two tremendous truths. What I titled the message, and it’s the same, this is just part two for this morning, “The Experience That Proves Your Adoption.” The experience that proves your adoption.

And we noted last week, first of all, that there is in this section we’re dealing with, verses 7 through 11, a revelation. Verses 7 and 8. There is a revelation there, just read it again. So there’s a revelation here.

God intends—follow me—God intends his people to be instructed. That’s the idea behind the word chastening. The primary idea of chastening is instruction, it is education. Now that takes on various forms and comes in different ways, but that’s the primary idea—you’re being taught.

A father’s role is to oversee the instruction of his children. Moms, of course, play into that massive role. But just looking at this in this way, classic understanding of the family environment, the family economy, dads must take responsibility. Yes, moms are involved, moms are encouraged, maybe appointed to homeschool or whatever the case might be, but fathers are to take seriously the appointment that is theirs to instruct their children. And that’s what the chastening is—a form of instruction.

And you’re to note in your mind the connection between discipleship and discipline. When you trusted in Christ, you said, “I want to be a disciple of Christ.” Discipleship is you following God. Discipline is God forming you. Discipleship is you following God. Discipline is God forming you. He is at work in your life. And these are not separate paths. They are two sides of the same, what we may term, classroom of grace. He’s brought us into a classroom. He’s instructing us diligently that we might achieve the ultimate goal.

However, since it can be a difficult classroom, it’s not easy, and many classrooms are like that, you will know. You come into certain classes, certain subjects, and it’s hard. And so it is with our Father’s classroom. And so sonship is revealed through endurance, like college classes. I heard that those—most of the, you go to do law and study law, that one of the things that they do is they try to weed you out in the first year. There’s a weeding out process. I’m sure there are many college classes and so on that are set up like that. Let’s not waste time. Let’s weed out those who are never going to make it right out of the gate. And this is what happens.

The Lord brings people into a classroom, and those who are still there at the end are His children. Endurance is the passing grade. It is the fact that you keep going on that gives evidence that you are truly His. True believers will not drop out, and that’s part of, again, what’s being pushed here in this epistle.

Now, in doing that, of course, there’s an element of suffering. This teaching brings suffering, and that’s what’s hard about it. It’s not just learning nice ideas and getting, in some ways, some philosophical insights into things. It’s real tough, it’s practical, and it’s hard, and we struggle with it. And in so doing, at times we can therefore conclude that suffering—suffering’s the tool that is necessary to make men holy. But we need to be careful with that.

Suffering doesn’t inherently make people holy. If that was the case, hell would be the perfect place to make men holy. And it’s not. Men still curse God in that place of eternal torment. But the key is how we respond to suffering, how the Spirit of God enables the child of God to suffer.

And God then brings us into this classroom, and it’s difficult and it’s hard. But that’s why we must understand what is going on. Because if we just look at it, “Well, I’m just to suffer in some blanket fashion,” that’s not the goal. We are to see through the suffering the hand of God in it all. That’s what the passage is revealing here. God sovereignly governs over our lives to shape us and to teach us.

Now something I didn’t notice until I was meditating and reviewing and reading over this section again. Go back to chapter 11, verse 36. I don’t know why I missed this. It just completely escaped me, but I was thankful that I had a part two where I could come and go back to it. But the language, the language of verse 36, where the apostle summarizes in terms of the great triumphs and the trials of the people of God.

Verse 36: “And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings.” Note that word. And then you have it again in chapter 12, verse 6: “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.”

Now, pulling together the same root words is intentional. It’s not happenstance. It’s not accidental. The apostle is doing this intentionally. The word scourging is there repeatedly.

You don’t have chapter divisions in his epistle, not in his sermon. He doesn’t preach chapter 11 and then we go for a break or come back next week. That’s not the way it was. It was delivered as one unit of thought. And he uses the same root word so we can tie something in, that these evil men who persecuted believers in chapter 11, even to the point of scourging them—he takes that same language and applies it to what goes on in the life of the believer so that we see this is not coincidental, this is a revelation of divine providence that God is sovereignly behind even the persecution that believers go through, which is the context of Hebrews.

The trial is persecution. They’re struggling with the persecution. They’re losing family. They’re losing economically. The world seems to be coming against them. Increasingly so. And in the midst of that persecution is the trying of their faith and he draws from those who we look back on and suffered scourging and triumph through the trial. He says, as you go through something like this, God’s hand is in it.

Chapter 11, evil men. Chapter 12, God. Same thing going on. God is behind the persecution. When wicked men raise their hands against believers, they become unwitting instruments in the father’s instruction of his children. That doesn’t make the perpetrators less guilty. They’re still sinning and they’re going to be judged for it, but it does mean this, and this is the bottom line, that no suffering in a believer’s life is random or meaningless. No suffering in the believer’s life is random or meaningless.

Now, if you can get a hold of that, it opens up to you a completely different understanding as to the nature and experience of hardship. The greatest example of this, which I can’t take time to go into—I have referred to it before—but it is in the life of our Lord Jesus and the suffering he experienced. By wicked hands, he suffered, and yet the Father was behind it all. Every stroke, whether from a human hand or other circumstance, serves the Father’s loving purposes for His children. That’s the revelation, verses 7 and 8.

We also saw a comparison. I’m just building on—I’m adding some additional thoughts here that came to me as I reviewed over this. Verses 9 and 10: “Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.”

So you have here a comparison, a comparison between earthly fathers and our heavenly Father. God’s discipline, therefore, we are told, surpasses all human correction.

But this comparison gains deeper meaning when we understand that the Apostle is drawing from Proverbs 3. Now, I want you to go back there. We didn’t do this before, but I want you to go back to Proverbs 3 because I want you to see something about the Apostle when he quotes in Hebrews 12 from Proverbs 3. And he’s building his argument.

Again, this is what we said for those who haven’t been here. When the apostle was making his Christological argument, when he was arguing that Jesus is the Messiah through the earlier part of this epistle, on each occasion he would go back to the Old Testament to make his point. And what he was doing was arguing, going against what the Judaizers and the non-believing Jews were pressing against the believing Jews.

And the example I keep giving particularly is, for example, that the—if he is going to be a priest, if Jesus is a priest of his people, well, the priests are all come from the tribe of Levi, and he doesn’t come from the tribe of Levi. And the apostle argues, well, the Messiah is to come from a different order, not of Levi, but after the order of Melchizedek. And he argues all these things. So he’s arguing from the Old Testament. There’s lots of Old Testament quotations.

Now, in the midst of the experience of suffering, he does the same thing, because the mind thinks that suffering means something’s wrong. The mind inclines, especially for the believing Jew, they tend to look upon the passages that give a hope for prosperity and ease. And in the midst of the hardship, the question comes, “Maybe we’re not the people of God. The unbelieving Jews are still protected by Roman law. We’re increasingly coming under persecution for being a different sect, a different group, believing Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah. And is this a sign that we’ve got it wrong?”

Go to Proverbs 3. There’s a section in Proverbs 3 here that some of you will know well. So look at verse 5. So, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart”—just to summarize—and what’s the result? He’ll direct you. That’s the wisdom that Solomon has gained. Generally, as he looked on life, as he observes and he passes on his observations to his son, he says, if you trust in the Lord, you’ll see that he’ll direct you.

Verses 7 and 8: “Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.”

So fear the Lord, depart from evil, what’s the result? “It shall be health to thy navel.” You will see it even in the very physical, your physical life. You will tend to see, this is a general observation, those who depart from evil—those who take God’s Word to heart, fearing Him, going away from evil, fearing evil, shunning evil, abstaining from the appearance of evil—those who do that tend to enjoy even natural health. Again, it’s general observation.

Verse 9. Again, this is a general observation. As Solomon has seen in life, those who put God first in their giving, that the first thing on the line item of the budget is God first. Nothing intervenes there. That’s first. God first. Then from there, this is what he observes. Generally, you see the barns are filled with plenty and so on.

So there are these things. And then what follows is the quotation we have in Hebrews 12: “My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of his correction. For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.”

And this fits in, but it’s the only one that has, in a sense, an explanation. An explanation is given in which there’s chastening, and correction, and the explanation is, “Here’s why, because the Lord loves.” And it has to be explained because our natural sense is to think that something’s wrong, or this doesn’t meet our expectations.

And so, the principle again of what Solomon’s observed amidst all this prosperity and all this—he said, also God will chasten His people. God will chasten His people. He teaches them. He instructs them, sometimes through fires of tremendous difficulty. So amidst all these things, trust in the Lord and God—run from evil, life will be good. Give to God first, you’ll have enough and more. And amidst all of that, God reserves the right to test, to teach, to instruct His people in ways that are difficult.

So this is hard for us. We don’t easily come to this, and that’s what we’ve been considering.

If you go back to Hebrews 12, you need to learn this—is in this, and as they had gone through their suffering, gone through their hardship, he is saying to them, this isn’t a sign that you’re not God’s child. Rather, this fits with what God has always done in the life of His people, that is, that they are taught. Sometimes it’s hard.

Which brings us to the third point, a transformation, which is in verse 11. Transformation.

Hebrews 12, verse 11. We’re told: “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.”

There is an expectation of transformation here. Here we see God’s ultimate purpose in the trials, in the schoolroom, in the classroom, in the hardship. God has a purpose. Two things: chastening begins with grief, and chastening results in growth. It begins with grief, it results in growth.

The apostle anticipates an objection. It’s grievous. This is not pleasant. Even though we know—even when we know—they had forgotten it. Again, you go back. Verse 5: “And ye have forgotten the exhortation.” You’ve forgotten Proverbs 3. But even when you remember, even when you know, it could be true of you right here, you’re hearing a message about God being behind all of your circumstances. And still, the weight of your trial is real. It doesn’t diminish.

So Paul knows this. He knows it through experience. And though suffering is not the mere will of our enemies, or just happenstance in the world, but is the will of our Father, and though it signals His love, yet there’s a need for honesty. This kind of education hurts.

You notice what he says in verse 11. “Now no chastening”—no education, no experience of being taught in this way. “For the present”—for the present. Acknowledges the immediate moment of the hardship. In the immediate moment, discipline, chastening feels like anything but love, feels like anything but good.

When you’re in the furnace, when you’re in the heat of suffering, when you are under such relenting or unrelenting pressure that it may leave you with tears in your eyes, sobbing on your pillow at night, when you’re going through that, it doesn’t produce joy. It’s grievous. It feels grievous, it feels heavy.

Now there are two things you need to grasp. First, our father’s instruction has an appearance. And our perception of that appearance often isn’t true. And second, our perception often isn’t true because we can only see the present. We have a perception of what he’s doing. That often isn’t true. And the reason why is because we only see the present.

And this is why so many believers struggle with doubt during trials. You know God loves you in your head. You know it. And yet what you feel may be a sense of abandonment. “Why do I feel this way? Why do I feel cut off? Why has God appointed this for me?” And you go through that process of analyzing your past, scrutinizing your present. “What did I get wrong? What am I suffering? Am I suffering because of this, or that, or the other?” We try to put pieces together, imagining God’s put all these pieces into a box and called it a jigsaw. And you can put them all together, you can solve it. And he didn’t.

Those parts of your life are not a jigsaw to be put together by you. You’re trying to make it all fit, so it paints some kind of a picture that you can understand. And this piece from 25 years ago, maybe it fits into what’s going on right now. “Maybe that’s why I’m going through this.” And mostly, in most instances, you’re going to get that completely wrong.

The apostle does not rebuke—I think this is important. He does not rebuke the feeling of the classroom being grievous, being a struggle to us. And I think it’s important that the fact that our experience of discipline may feel grievous does not mean that the feeling is sinful.

I don’t think it’s a stretch—in fact I think it’s biblical—to say that our Lord Jesus found His experience grievous. Gethsemane was grievous. Sweating to the point of blood coming through the skin, out of the capillaries, mingled with the sweat, in an agony few have ever experienced. It’s not joyous. It’s grievous. Yet, as we learn back in Hebrews 5: “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.” That’s what’s going on in your life. You’re learning obedience.

Your grief and trial doesn’t displease God. The fact that you feel that way doesn’t displease God. He sees it. He understands it. He doesn’t despise you for feeling it, but the sorrow that you feel is not evidence that something is wrong. It’s evidence that something significant is happening.

The grief in the trial is evidence that you’re in the classroom. As your faith keeps pushing forward into those headwinds, whatever description they may take, you’re in the classroom. God is at work. In every grief, God is at work.

Now, some of our lives are a bit like the interstate between here and Winston-Salem. They’re always working at it. It never seems to end. And that’s how it can feel. “Am I always in this classroom? Is it always going to be hard?”

In the hardship, as you keep pushing forward, believing—verse 2, looking unto Jesus—verse 3, considering Him who suffered such contradiction of sinners against Himself, as you keep looking and keep considering and keep pushing, you’re proving your sonship. The father has you in the classroom. You have not been expelled. You’ve not flunked. You’re not tossed away. You’re still there and he’s teaching.

In every grief, you may say, “God is at work.” In your grief right now, this minute, you can say, “God, my father is at work.”

Chastening begins with grief. But also chastening results in growth. It results in growth. “Nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.”

Grief is not the end of the story. It’s not where it ends. There is an afterward. That’s what it says. “Nevertheless, afterward.” There’s an afterward coming after the suffering. Afterward means that our present season has an expiration date. There’s going to be an afterward to this. It’s not eternal.

The scourging, the chastening, whatever its context, is temporary, but the effects are meant to be lasting. “It yieldeth”—as the language used, “yieldeth” suggests a depiction of harvest. There’s a harvest going on. And just as a farmer endures the hard work of plowing—he has his eye on the harvest—so our Father through the present pain and the suffering, He sees the crop. You don’t see it. The present is all you see, but He sees the crop. He’s going to yield something of worth and value, and He permits, indeed He ordains the pain because He sees the coming crop.

Go back to verse 2. Christ, “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross.” It was appointed that before the enthronement, before the glory was a path of suffering, before the gathering in of sinners, before there would be that confidence that sinners can be saved through the merit of Christ, there had to be the suffering that would go along with that which our Savior endured. So there is a yielding. Your experience is linked to Christ’s in that way.

And there’s a sense in which it’s not all left to the future. A lot of it may be. I think there’s a lot of the joy that we will reap in the harvest of this experience that God brings us through in life. A lot of it will be left to the end. I believe some of it just remains a mystery and we won’t be able to reap here and now the joy of the harvest. But sometimes you do. Sometimes.

Sometimes you’re Joseph. Sometimes you go through the hardship. Your brothers hate you, reject you, throw you in a pit and sell you. Want to sell you as a slave. And you end up in Egypt. You work hard, and yet you’re accused of something you never did. You end up in prison in a foreign land, despised and rejected. And you’re wondering, “What is going on?” And then you turn to a new chapter—raised to a position of authority, sees his siblings come seeking for corn amidst the famine, God orchestrating it all. And he’s able to say at the very end, is he not, “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good.” He saw the harvest. “God meant it unto good,” all of this, “working together for good.”

And what do you yield? What does this harvest bring? Peaceable fruit of righteousness. This language is likely drawing from Isaiah 32, 17. The passage refers to Messiah’s peaceful reign following divine judgment, that there will be peace for his people. It has an eschatological hope, what we anticipate. And it indicates the fulfillment of what our Savior taught us to pray. When you’re saying, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,” you’re praying with eschatological hope. “Thy kingdom come”—more of thy reign. “More of thy will be done.” It’s a powerful prayer. Should be prayed every day. Should be prayed every day. Not just for the world out there, but for you. His kingdom come more on you. His will be done more by you.

And this is what is hoped for, that the reign of God in the heart of the redeemed is to tame the lusts of our rebellious nature in order to establish peace and righteousness. Remember the goal stated back in verse 10: “that we might be partakers of his holiness”—that we might be more conformed to the image of His Son, Romans 8:29, Christ’s likeness. More of that. Now you pray for that. You pray for that and God says, “Good, I’m glad you pray for that. Here’s the classroom.” And he’s achieving his goal.

What does it include? Just touching, just mentioning a few things. That this classroom, this peaceable fruit of righteousness, this harvest that is being produced in you, by you—a deeper knowledge of God. You can’t go through it without a deeper knowledge of God. Older saints here ought to have a deeper knowledge of God than younger by virtue of being in the classroom longer. You should. You should. And so you’re more patient with suffering. You’re more capable to endure because you’ve had all these other classrooms leading up to it. And so you’re not just learning about God from books, but from experience and from the classroom He’s appointed in His providence—a deeper knowledge of God.

A greater capacity for compassion. You will, through this classroom, have a greater capacity for compassion. 2 Corinthians 1, that having been comforted, you’re able to comfort others with the comfort wherewith you’ve been comforted of God. So as you learn in this classroom, you’re able to then apply that learning and be more compassionate toward those around you. You’ve been brought into the classroom so you start instructing others in a helpful way.

You’ll have a stronger faith. A tested faith is a proven faith. It’s going to be stronger. It can’t not. You’re going to come to the last great enemy. You’re going to face it should our Lord tarry in His return. You’re going to face an enemy. And you have no power over it. And He is bringing you through a classroom so when you get there, “Oh, we’re going there. You do realize that, don’t you? You’re not living here in America forever. It’s going to end for some of us sooner than we imagine.” And He is bringing you through suffering and He’s bringing you through all so that when that day comes, you are entering in with the hope expressed in a way that is unwavering and palpable and public. “I am going home. Nothing can separate me from the love of God. For me to live is Christ, to die is gain.” It’s the classroom that brings you there.

You’ll have a more Christ-like endurance, the ability to bear future trials with hope. We go through things early in our Christian life and despair sets in so quickly, so rapidly. One little thing is off kilter. Right. “It wasn’t meant to be this way.” And we’re despairing. “All these things are against me.” Like Jacob. But we go through the classroom. We keep going. The Father keeps teaching. And the harvest that is produced, this peaceable fruit of righteousness, enables us to maintain hope through it all. Hope through it all. “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. And I know that there’s a crown of righteousness laid up for me, and not for me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. I know to be absent from the body, present with the Lord.” Christ-like endurance, maintaining hope through it.

A deepened contentment in a fallen world. Oh, how we need this. Deepening our contentment in a fallen world, taught to find satisfaction in God rather than circumstances. Ah, you’re needing to be weaned off that. This is a big part of the classroom. It’s like, this world, this is all you’ve ever known. You just clamor after all of it, the good, the bad, and the ugly. And God brings you into the classroom and says, “Nope, not that. No, no, no. You need to pry that out of your fingers.” And some of it we hold on with white knuckles. And we don’t want to let go. And God says, “I am taking that from you. Because it’s not a help.” And we learn. My contentment is my settled position in Christ that can never change.

There’s a qualifier. This fruit comes only “unto them which are exercised thereby.” You need to be exercised thereby. Not everyone who suffers grows. Underline that in your mind. Not everyone who suffers grows. Many people suffer who do not grow. The difference lies in our response. We are to be exercised. This word is where we get our concept of a gymnasium. The trials are to exercise us.

Five things. Exercising our conscience to be tender. Through the trials. You know this because that’s what it does, doesn’t it? You start assessing your heart, examining your life through the trial. “Oh, this has been a complacency that’s set in and the trial comes and it just puts you right,” keeping the conscience tender. Exercising our conscience to be tender, exercising our confidence to be Godward, exercising our communion to be sincere, our conversation to be edifying, and our character to be loving. These are just some ideas. It’s exercising this.

And those who are truly growing, they’re being exercised in these ways. We don’t become holy merely by experiencing trial. It’s like any classroom. You ever go to a classroom and the teacher says, “What you get out of this depends on what you put into it”? That merely showing up for class is not enough. You show up to throw yourself into it. It’s the same here. People go through trials, they don’t learn anything. God’s children are meant to learn. They’re meant to be attentive, listening, learning, imbibing, applying what they’re learning, hearing from the Father and responding in faith and repentance.

We must actively cooperate and submit in faith to God’s work. To exercise the right means to see God’s hand in the experience, to submit to God’s will in the experience, and to sing of His covenant mercies despite the experience. Yes, exercised, that’s what’s gonna happen in me. I see his hand, it’s him. I submit to his will, he’s wiser than me. I sing despite all that’s going on.

Yes, we’re not passive victims in the chastening, we are active students. Pay attention to what God’s doing in your life.

This morning we are called upon in his providence to dine upon the one who modeled this for us, our Lord Jesus. He was literally scourged by his enemies. And yet behind their cruel whips and lashings was the Father’s loving plan, which he submitted to—could have called legions of angels to deliver him. But He submitted. And the plan was for your redemption, His exaltation.

And when you’re tempted to doubt, whether trials prove God’s love or His anger, you look to the cross. And you stay in the shadow of the cross until things make sense. And I don’t mean to say you’ve got it all resolved. That’s not what I mean. When you’re going through the chastening, when you’re in the classroom, get to the cross until you have a sense of peace with what is going on. You may not understand, but I have said this to you before, I say it again, you take a leaf out of Job’s book. When the calamities came, he fell on his face in worship. And I don’t think the context gives us what may have happened there. I may be wrong, I stand to be corrected, but I have a feeling in what is revealed to us—and I’ve said this many times—that he falls on his face and worships, and he may have worshiped for a period of time.

His whole life has been turned upside down, and he worships. Then, in the clarity of worship and submission, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” God gives and He takes and He is to be blessed. That’s the classroom.

Some of you may be feeling the challenge. Your faith needs to be rising here at this table. Your faith needs to be rising to see an omnipotent governing hand behind even the actions of wicked men. A faith that embraces the hardship as a form of loving discipline which proves your adoption. A faith that seeks to be exercised by the trial. Not just enduring, but learning from them. A faith that remembers there’s an afterward that is of more value than whatever is lost in the present. There’s an afterward. There’s a harvest. And it’s more valuable than what you perceive you’re losing.

As we commune with Christ this morning, let us bring—oh, let us be open about it before Him. Bring our suffering, bring our grief, bring our trials, and receive fresh assurance, listen, that none of this you’re going through diminishes this fact. I am loved as Christ is loved. You’re loved as Christ is loved. When you get your head around that, and you realize a standing that is yours, that you’re loved because of Christ, because of your union—this standing allows you to rest, knowing I am loved by the Father as Christ is.

May the Lord bless His Word. Let’s bow together in prayer.

I understand there may be some of you that have a long journey and you may need to leave. Our communion will be 20 minutes, maybe 25 minutes at the most. So if you’re able to stay, please do. But for all of us, let us assess where we are, resign our hearts to discern the goodness of God in our trials, accept His wisdom and confess, if need be, the sin of rebelling and kicking against what He has appointed for this season of our lives.

Lord, bless. Bless us with strength to respond as would honor Thee. Deliver us from a petulant spirit, from kicking against thy providence. Though we may acknowledge that these things may be grievous, we pray the eye of faith will behold the afterward and we would see the harvest in our own lives and even beyond. As we sit now at this table, sober our minds, give us the help of the spirit to reflect, And above all, as we take the bread and the cup, grant us grace to feast on Christ. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.