Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, April 2nd.
Discipline is an essential part of life, yet it's something we often resist. Join us as we explore how God uses correction to shape us for good. I'm Charles Stanley. Welcome to the In Touch Podcast. I'm Charles Stanley. Welcome to the In Touch Podcast. I'm Charles Stanley. Welcome to the In Touch Podcast. I'm Charles Stanley. Welcome to the In Touch Podcast. I'm Charles Stanley. Welcome to the In Touch Podcast. I'm Charles Stanley. Welcome to the In Touch Podcast. I'm Charles Stanley. Welcome to the In Touch Podcast. I'm Charles Stanley. Welcome to the In Touch Podcast. I'm Charles Stanley. Welcome to the In Touch Podcast. I'm Charles Stanley. Welcome to the In Touch Podcast. I'm Charles Stanley. Welcome to the In Touch Podcast. I'm Charles Stanley. Welcome to the In Touch Podcast. I'm Charles Stanley. Welcome to the In Touch Podcast. I'm Charles Stanley. Welcome to the In Touch Podcast. I'm Charles Stanley. Welcome to the In Touch Podcast. I'm Charles Stanley. Welcome to the In Touch Podcast. I'm Charles Stanley. Welcome to the In Touch Podcast. I'm Charles Stanley. Welcome to the In Touch Podcast.
I'm Charles Stanley. Welcome to the In Touch Podcast. and circumstances, we do choose to sin against God. So in light of that, let's talk about this whole idea of divine discipline and how to avoid it, because you see, sin always does two things. Sin always leads us away from God, never to Him.
And secondly, sin, whatever its form it may come in, always hinders God's work in our life, which ultimately is to conform us to the likeness of Jesus Christ to make us like Him. So anything that leads us away from God, He's going to deal with. Anything that hinders our being conformed to the likeness of Christ, He's going to deal with.
Now the question is, how can we deal with it so that He will not have to deal with it? Well, let's look at this whole idea for a moment and to say simply in the very beginning that divine discipline has as its purpose personal holiness. Now look, if you will, back to Hebrews for a moment, and notice what He says beginning in this ninth verse. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them. Shall we not rather be subject to the Father that is our heavenly Father? For they disciplined us for a short time, as seemed best for them, but He disciplines us for our good that we may share His holiness, that is, God's purpose for discipline, for correction in our life, getting us back on the right path, back in the center of His will, in His direction, doing His work, His way, His purpose for doing that, He says, divine discipline ultimately is personal holiness, that is, that we are holy and that our conduct, our conversation and our character is personal holiness.
Our conduct, our conversation and our character exhibits holiness, that is, the holiness of God. Does that mean we're going to be perfect? No. Does it mean we're sinless?
No. But godly character, Christ-like character is holy character. And so what He's saying is that God is willing to send correction into our life in many forms in order to create that kind of attitude, that kind of spirit within us, that desire for holiness, obedience, yieldliness to Him. But there's a second thing, if you'll notice, in the next verse, He says, all discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful, yet to those who have been trained by it. Afterwards, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness.
Now, there's no such thing as peace apart from righteousness. And He says, one of the fruits of a divine discipline when God begins to work in our life, He says, here is the peaceable fruit of righteousness which brings about holy living. And so you'll notice He says, first of all, His purpose is ultimately holiness. Another secondary purpose is that it's part of God's training.
It is indeed God's training in holiness. And if you'll think about our Heavenly Father in this fashion, God our Heavenly Father is exactly what He claims to be our Heavenly Father. And who are we? Exactly who He identifies as to be His sons and daughters.
We're His children. And so no matter whether you are saved at five or saved at fifty five, whether you're a hundred or whether you're ten, it doesn't make any difference, all of our life long, our Heavenly Father is in the process of training us, working in our life, sifting and sanding and sculpturing and chipping away, pulling out, bringing us to the realization of those things that are foreign to His character and to His likeness in our life. All of our life we are being trained by God for holy living. And it should say to us, be encouraged because we do fall, we do falter, we do sin, we make mistakes.
God's attitude is not slap them down, but God's attitude is, here's one of my children who needs training in this area. He says His ultimate goal is personal holiness and His method by which He does that is the training process that goes on. Now, when you think about His goal and how He goes about that, let's think about, for example, what should our response be to this whole idea of discipline?
Well, Hebrews chapter 12, go back there, if you will, and if you'll just put something in these passages so you can get back and forth quickly. He says, this is the attitude which you and I should have. This is the way you and I should look at divine discipline, God's correction in our life.
Now, we're going to talk about how He does at the moment, but we're talking about the process here now. What should be our attitude? Look, if you will, in verse 5. He said, my son, or my daughter, do not regard it lightly. That is the discipline of the Lord.
First of all, what's my attitude? I'm to take it seriously. That is, get serious about whatever is going on in your life that could possibly be God's disciplinary hand to correct something in our life that needs to be corrected.
So first of all, He says, you're to take it seriously. Secondly, He says, when it happens, He says, don't faint. That is, endure, be courageous. I don't mean by that defiant to God, but He says, don't faint. Don't get discouraged and just give up.
Because the next thing I want you to notice, He says, for those whom the Lord loves, He disciplines. So I am to respond by taking it seriously. I'm to respond courageously. That is, not getting discouraged and just giving up because I don't want to quit. And thirdly, I'm to respond in this attitude that my heavenly Father is expressing love to me, though it is painful, though I don't like it.
I'd like to shut it down, cut it off, run, escape, whatever I could do to get away from it. But I know that it is coming from a heavenly Father. He said, well, how could a heavenly loving Father do things like that? Well, why did you correct your children? Why did you discipline them? Why did you deprive them of things that you knew that they were going to do as a method of correcting them? Because you were looking at their future as well as their present. You were looking at the way they were going to grow up and you didn't want them to grow up as rebels and undisciplined and crude and cruel and harsh and life ruining and wrecking their own lives along with wrecking the lives of other people.
So you corrected your children. He says here, it is a loving heavenly Father who's doing that. And He says, next, and He scourges every son whom He receives. Verse seven, it is for discipline that you endure, God deals with you as with sons. And what He's saying here is this, that our heavenly Father in the whole perspective here of discipline, He is treating us as a loving heavenly Father.
So I'm to respond by taking it seriously. I'm to endure it. I'm to realize that it is a loving heavenly Father who's working in me and that I am a child of God. And this is what a child gets from a loving heavenly Father who disobeys the Father because He's looking out for my best interest. Verse ten, He says though, the discipline for a short time has seen best of them, but He disciplines us for our good.
So I know it's for my good no matter what I may be feeling here. Then He says we ought to expect it really. He says our earthly fathers and our earthly parents disciplined us and so we can expect our heavenly Father to do the same.
They did it for our good and He certainly does it for our good and for our personal wholeness so we can expect it as a part of our life. Now He says also when it comes, submit. Look at this. He says in verse nine, be subject to the Father of spirits. Don't fight against the discipline. Don't try to escape it.
Don't run from it. He says submit, yield, surrender. Don't argue with God about the whole idea, but He says submit. And then if you'll notice, He says we ought to remember something. He says in verse eleven, all discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful but sorrowful, yet to those who've been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness. He says now God's holiness is going to be the ultimate result of God's discipline in our life.
So we don't like it, but what is our response to be? He says this is the kind of response we are to have when we come to these difficult times and we don't know maybe sometimes, we're not really truly aware of all that God is in the process of doing. If there's something going on in your life and things aren't working or if there's something going on and you feel the pressure of God, if there's something going on that you just can't seem to deal with, ask yourself the question, God, are you in the process of getting my attention?
Are you in the process of training me? Are you doing something in my life that is an act of discipline to correct something that needs to be corrected? God, what is the source of it?
Now let me say, I'm going to say two or three things again and again. Number one, let me say that all hardship, all difficulty, and all trials are not necessarily God's disciplined hand. Sometimes he sends these things into our life to teach us how to endure hardship, to strengthen our faith, not simply because we are sinning.
As we noticed in the 15th chapter of John, he said, even the branch that bears fruit, he prunes it that it may bear more fruit. And so there will be hardship at times that is not the result of sin. But we're talking about primarily in this message, the result of some form of disobedience, some form of rebellion, something going on in our life that absolutely should not be. So how are we to respond?
He says, this is where we respond. Taking it seriously, enduring it. Remember that it's coming from a loving Heavenly Father. It is for our good. It is going to result in the peaceable fruit of righteousness so that everything that's going on, all the pain, all the heartache, all the suffering, ultimately when we get through it, we're going to be able to look back and see that was good.
Now listen to me very carefully. The intensity of the pain of the discipline will be in proportion to the blessing that God has on the other side when we come through it, if we come through it correctly. And so that's why we need to learn to respond correctly. God will honor our proper response even to his discipline, though we're the ones who caused him to have to discipline us. When we respond correctly, God's going to honor that.
He is a loving Heavenly Father. Now, when I think about our loving Heavenly Father and think about the wrath of God, sometimes people say, well, you know, the wrath of God is going to come upon you. The wrath of God and the condemnation of God are assigned to one group of people, and that's unbelievers. God never responds to believers in the form of wrath or condemnation.
Condemnation is a judgment, a decision, an unfavorable decision rendered by the judge of all judges. That is, God the Father, when he condemns, that condemnation brings with it the wrath of God. He doesn't send condemnation wrath upon us.
He has something else in mind. And so we think about the kind of God we serve. Look, if you will, in Psalm 103. Psalm 103, and usually we think about God. We think about him in different ways of being a God of justice and holiness and righteousness.
But he's also a God of just pure goodness, not just goodness, but he's a God of goodness. So when you think about the kind of discipline that sometimes you may go through, look in Psalm 103 and listen to this description of God. He says in verse eight, the Lord is compassionate and gracious. Now watch this, slow to anger and abounding and loving kindness.
Now watch that verse because I'm coming back to it. Slow to anger and abounding, he says, in kindness, loving kindness. He will not always strive with us, nor will he keep his anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his loving kindness to those who fear him.
As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. Just as the father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. For he himself knows our frame. He is mindful that we are but dust, which is just a little passage here, just a brief passage in the Old Testament to describe how loving and kind and gracious and good God is. Now go back to verse eight and notice what he says, slow to anger and abounding and loving kindness.
Because that brings me to something I want to mention here about this whole idea of God. While God is angry over sin, God is angry at what happens to us. God is angry over the consequences, the things that go on. But because you and I, his children, and because we've been saved by his grace and because we're in training, he can deal with us. This is the grace of the New Testament. He deals with us not in anger, knowing that our disobedience is going to bring hardship and consequences that we don't. He knows that we're not going to want to face.
God in his loving kindness and tender mercy brings down our disciplined hand very strongly. And so we think, well, God's angry at us, God's mad at us. And so what we do, our response to this whole idea is that we think he's angry and mad.
Well, he's not. God is committed to daily training you and me, daily discipline. We don't like it, but you know what he's doing? He's saving us from ourselves. He's protecting us. What God is doing in our life is indeed for our good. Thank you for listening to How to Avoid Divine Discipline. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, visit us at intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
