Sermon Transcript — August 30, 2003
Good afternoon, everyone. Pleasant Sabbath greetings to you all. This afternoon what I'd like to do is to discuss a subject that does not ring right in the minds of many people today. It's a subject of discipline. Now we're going to look at it because the BIBLE has a lot to say on this subject.
Discipline strikes a negative cord in the minds of many people today simply because they equate it always with possibly punishment, and I'm going to be punished, therefore I don't want any part of it, and therefore it is producing a problem in the lives of many people. What it is producing is an undisciplined way of living life, because they reject it, they resist it. They don't want to hear anything that sounds like it's going to discipline them to change their behavior in some way, shape, or form. And because of that, what it is doing, it is creating a tremendous amount of self-inflicted hurt in the lives of many people, and it is spawning negative attitudes by the millions.
People are suffering terribly simply because, first of all, they have forgotten some basic rules of living life; that life requires a disciplined approach to living it. And then when you bump it up on the higher level as we're going to do today, we're not only talking about the physical level of discipline; there is a greater level that must be understood. And that is the spiritual level of discipline that we must all seek and discover, and that comes with the help of God's Spirit.
You know human beings can discipline themselves physically in some ways very well. There are some people who can discipline themselves extremely well, and that's only on a physical level, but when you ask the spiritual, as to what God requires in the realm of discipline, without the help of God's Spirit, nobody can achieve that kind of discipline that is necessary. And so it is a battle of overcoming that the BIBLE talks about. It's something that you and I have got to do. It is something we must understand how it impacts on us on the physical everyday life and also how it impacts on the spiritual level. So in the time remaining we're going to ask God, "How does the word of God address this matter, because it is an important area that God is concerned about for His sons and daughters."
How can we, as men and women seeking to please God and walk in the ways of Jesus Christ, the son of the Living God, how can we understand this subject of discipline and apply it in our lives in the way that God intends? So we're going to look at it in two phases. We're going to look at the purpose and the goal for discipline, the purpose and the goal for discipline because God speaks about this, and He wants us to understand it very clearly.
Join me if you will please, first, this afternoon in the book of Hebrews, chapter 12. And here we see beginning in verse 5 God's admonition regarding this subject. He mentions here, He says that it's important that we don't forget, because He says here:
Hebrews 12:5 - "You have forgotten the exhortation which speaks unto you as children" - because we're all children, and what do children need? All children need to learn discipline. It is a very important part of living life. When you see a little child, a little baby, what does that child want to do? It wants to do anything and everything. It wants to go where it wants to go, do what it wants to do, and it's just exploring in all areas and what does a mother and a father... What is their commission? What is their responsibility? To provide a loving discipline, guidance, and sometimes correction to serious things that the child could get into that might hurt the child. And so this is a very important concept that God goes on to say, "Here, that this is a remembrance that we are all children." Even though we're grown adults, we're still children in the eyes of God. Remember God called ancient Israel "the children of Israel," because when it came to certain understandings they were just children. They just did not understand, and they needed help and guidance, and God was going to provide that for them.
And it says, "My son, despise not the chasten or the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are rebuked of him:
Verse 6 - "For whom the Lord loves He chastens and scourges," or disciplines (every son) and those "whom He receives." Now,
Verse 7 - "If you endure (chastening)" that discipline, "God deals with you as sons" as well as daughters, and "what son is he whom the Father (chastens not)" disciplines none.
Verse 8 - "But if you be without chastisement or discipline, wherefore are you all partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.
Verse 9 - "Furthermore we have had fathers in our flesh who have corrected us and we gave them reverence: shall we not much more be in subjection unto the Father of spirits" or the living Almighty Father in heaven above? And that is a very, very important message that the scripture is addressing, that the concept of discipline as portrayed in the BIBLE is one of being positive.
It is not a negative concept put forth in the scriptures. It is very positive, and that has to be brought into the mind of a child growing up on a physical level as early as possible, that this is done to help, so that the child learns that there has to be restraint in living life. Today we see what happens when so many individuals are throwing off restraint, and they don't want to be disciplined. And what happens? We see terrible things transpire. Self inflicted hurt, negative attitudes, and it effects not only the young teens and so forth, and young adults; it can affect older people as well.
Look what happened recently with this man up in Chicago who just went berserk, and he just refused to discipline himself, and he got into a negative frame of mind, and what did he do? He went out and he created havoc on the workplace with his fellow employees, and he was shooting people, and what did that prove? What was that going to accomplish? It was an act of terrible, terrible, unbridled lack of discipline. It showed no concern for others. He was just all wrapped up in his own undisciplined world of problems and difficulties he was going through.
Well, in this particular case the concept of discipline pertains to a very important aspect of our ultimate goal of what discipline it is to produce, and then ultimately what the relationship comes forth out of that discipline. We're going to see that in just a moment. Turn now with me if you would to I Timothy 4:7. Here we are told that we are to do something. There is a positive proactive response on our behalf. We are told that we must:
I Timothy 4:7 - "Refuse profane and old wives' fables, and (we are to) exercise (y)ourselves." Now exercise is an important part of living life, even healthwise. They tell you that you should have some form of exercise in your individual life so that we don't end up all becoming just so sedentary that it creates all kinds of health problems for people. But it says, "Exercise yourself rather unto godliness.
Verse 8 - "For bodily exercise profits a little," or for a little while as your marginal reference says, "but godliness," godliness now does what? When we take exercise, and we bump it up to the higher level of seeking godliness, it says, "Godliness is profitable unto all things, having the promise" (notice) "of the life that now is (in other words it will affect your life now) "and of that which is to come." It will also have bearing on your future in the Kingdom of God if you exercise the discipline that God's Word outlines for each and every one of us. This is very, very important to keep in mind.
The goal of discipline then, is the fruits not only of this life but also the life to come. That's what we're exercising or disciplining ourselves and striving in the battle of what the scripture calls "overcoming". We have to overcome certain things that stand in the way, that cause problems for us, that inflict hurt and pain, and the BIBLE guides us in some of this critical area.
So let's take a look at the first facet of it. We want to look at the purpose of this thing of discipline. Why it is spoken of in the scripture, why you and I need it. Why it is imperative we teach children at an early age the importance of discipline, because frankly we are living today in a world that is casting off all discipline. The rules are falling by the wayside. They advertise it to us constantly, such as "Outback Steakhouse," where you can go and it says, "You know, you can go there, 'no rules, just right.'" See there's nothing there to discipline you. If there's no rules then I can just sit any way I want to sit, do anything I want to do. Well, they really don't want you to do that, but you know what I'm saying. The implication is that you can "have it your way," like Burger King says. You know, just tell us what you want. You can have it all your way. There's no restraints anymore, but that's not what makes people happy, just pulling all restraints and throwing caution to the wind.
The BIBLE makes it very plain and we'll go here now to the book of Deuteronomy 4:36, and here we'll see one of the very important reasons God was dealing as He was with ancient Israel. He was talking to them, and He says in:
Deuteronomy 4:36 - "Out of heaven (notice, this is the particular how it is being recorded here), out of heaven He made you to hear his voice, (This is Moses, telling the Israelites why, for what purpose) that He might instruct you." That instruction is a very important part of living a disciplined life. He was working now to discipline and instruct Israel in what they should do in terms of keeping His law and doing His commandments and the things that He outlined for them in the Old Testament relationship of that covenant. It said, and "upon earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the midst of the fire". Yeah, and it so scared the daylights out of them they said don't let God talk to us, let Moses talk to us. We can't handle this. This is just too scary; God is too scary. Well, God was trying to impress upon them the fact that God is an awesome God, and He is a God to be revered. He is a God to be respected. He's a God not to be taken and placed on the back burner when you live life. The Israelites needed instruction - "All these things happened to them for admonition upon whom the end of the age are come," we are told in I Corinthians 10:11.
So here we see a clear example that instruction plays a very important part in the purpose of disciplining not only physical life but also the areas and realms when it comes to spiritual things such as prayer, study, fasting. These are important keynotes that we know we should do, but unless you practice discipline and you cry out to God. If you have trouble praying, you have to ask God for strength so that you force this flesh to go in the direction in which it needs to go. You deny yourself your own self-will, and you yield to the will of God. This is something that we all struggle with on a day to day basis. That's why it's called overcoming.
Notice Jesus; He prayed; He practiced. He not only lived a physically disciplined life; He led a spiritually disciplined life. He did not come to do His own will, He said, He came to do the will of the Father and when it uses the term deny yourself, it means to utterly put down anything that gets in the way and disrupt that relationship with the living God. That's how important it's got to be to us, and of course you know as well as I do that's a daily struggle. Some days you do that better than another days. It's not an easy battle. It's a life-time battle; but that's what the scripture shows, and it is to be understood in the context that you have a positive, powerful helper at your disposal called the spirit of God. And when we are in trouble at any given time, we're lacking discipline in any given area, we can cry out to God and come before the merciful throne of God to find help in time of need. And that is the wonderful affirming of the scripture.
Now take a look at Revelation 3:19 if you would. Here we see something, a group of individuals toward the end of man's day in a world that's been defined as Laodicean. It's a world that is filled with a rich and increased attitude in terms of the individuals in it. They see that they have need of nothing, whether it be spiritual or physical. They're complacent in many ways and they are counseled to wake up and remember something that is very, very serious in this area.
Verse 19 - "As many as I love," God says, and God does love these people who have fallen into this "Laodicean" category. It's just that they have a serious problem now that has to be in a sense burned away through some more severe discipline of a more punishing matter, and it says there that they're gonna have to go through, it says, "gold tried in the fire." And the fire many times is mentioned as persecution. And this is not going to be an easy time for many of these individuals. But He says, "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten" (or discipline.) He says, "Be zealous therefore," In other words, embrace the things of God with renewed feeling and hold them in a sacred manner in which they were meant to be held.
That's why God is a jealous god. He's not jealous in the way we human beings get jealous over physical things. You know you look at someone and you're jealous over this person or you're jealous over something they have. That's not God. God has the standard of righteousness whereby He lives, and He is jealous and He safeguards that at all costs. Nothing is ever going to erode that. That's why He says, "I am the Lord God. I change not."
This is the standard of right and there is no other standard that can even come close to what I have outlined. This is the way, and this is the way we must learn to walk in. So this is the zealousness, He's saying these people, in other words, have gotten sloppy in living the way of life. I would phrase it this way. They have become influenced by the lack of the discipline in society and their lives are kind of laid back, taking it easy and they don't live in a disciplined manner whereby they should be mindful of the overcoming that is needed for all of us in a day to day basis. It's just a warning to those people who might fall into that category, so we should all look at ourselves and ask ourselves, "am I falling down in any area like that? If so, I really need to get on the stick while there's still time."
All right, let's go to Proverbs 3:11-12, and here we find something very interesting written for our learning. It says:
Verse 11 - "My son, despise not the chastening" (or the discipline) "of the Lord, and neither be weary of His correction." You see, it's positive. We all need help in everything we do in living life. This is part of what a parent's job is in working with a child.
Helping them bring the child to young adulthood so they can handle themselves in an adult world. For example, if you were going to drive a car, say you're sixteen, suddenly get your driver's license and say, "Hey, I'm ready to go, I can drive a car." And yes, you can drive a car, but there's one thing you don't have yet going for you. You don't quite have the experience under what circumstances a car should be used. For example, you might say, "Oh, I love this. I'm going to go eighty-five miles an hour in a thirty-five mile per hour zone." Oh, no you're not! Rrrrrrr (sound of a siren). He's watching for you, why - because you are driving in an undisciplined manner. If you're going to go on the highway with other human beings like yourself, and you're going to use a motor vehicle, then you'd better drive it in a disciplined fashion or you will be classified as the loose nut behind the wheel, and that happens all too often. And that irresponsibility is what sends cars flying off the road, crashing into one another, because again, people are not driving in a loving, disciplined manner.
They are undisciplined, and they don't want anybody telling them what to do. Years ago it used to be in the driving manual. If you see someone in front of you having a particular problem you could tap your horn and honk your horn to let them know there's a danger. You don't dare honk your horn today, unless you're responding to that sign, you know, "honk your horn if you love Jesus." They sometimes do that (Ha Ha), but I don't know if that's what you want to do either, because you never know what people are going to do anymore. They get upset. They go crazy! "Who you honking your horn at? What did I do?" They think you're the one who's causing the problem.
Well, anyway, lack of discipline has caused many a young teenager to go to their grave prematurely, and that's sad. I've had to perform funerals in the past over that. A young teenage girl who got wrapped around a tree, went around a corner too fast, too quick, late at night, didn't see an oncoming car. She should have led a full life. She never made it to twenty. Those are sad things. Sad things to have to encounter. Those are not pleasant things and when you see that it makes you realize why God said, "these things are self inflicted upon people because they do not choose to be physically disciplined in living life."
Israel had gotten so out of whack in Old Testament times when they were under Egypt. They had been disciplined to an Egyptian culture, and now God was having to pull them out of that and discipline them to His way of true God-fearing culture of what the right way was - the Sabbath, the holy days, and the things that He revealed to them as spoken of in scripture.
Well now, we see very plainly here that for whom the Lord loves, what does He do? He corrects. If there are things that need to be corrected then God lovingly helps us in this matter, even as a father. The son in whom He delights, God delights helping us, not beating us over the head. But His love goes so far that if somebody starts straying so far off course, He might take more drastic action to pull that said individual back in line because He doesn't want them to go too far, and then it's too late.
God's love is incredible, and He lovingly bends over in His love for us to go to nth degree to help us in every way, shape and form. Let's move to Proverbs 19:20 and we'll see another important response factor here. It says:
Proverbs 19:20 - "Hear counsel," in other words, make sure that your ear, you're listening very carefully to what is being said. It says, "hear counsel and receive (notice) instruction." So instruction, discipline, chastising, correction, it all interfaces together, and it is in the context of a loving God that this is administered to us and He shows very clearly, He says, "That you may be wise in your latter end." In other words, as you live life you'll see the benefits of it, and it will produce wisdom in your life that you wouldn't have if you lived life in an undisciplined manner.
Now, taking that into consideration, let's go back to Proverbs 13:1 and see what it says. It says:
Proverbs 13:1 - "A wise son (as well as daughter, does what) hears his father's instruction, but a scorner hears not rebuke." In other words, somebody who is not going to listen, not pay attention; they're going to continue to live in an undisciplined manner. Now that becomes very, very important to us because you and I are told that we don't want to be regarded as what the scripture says in Proverbs 19:27. Let's go to that scripture, in which it says:
Proverbs 19:27 - "Cease, my son," stop, my son, stop, my daughter, "and to hear instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge." Another way of phrasing that is this, and some of the other translations put it this way. Stop listening to things that contradict the word of God. Don't listen to this kind of garbage that says the Garden of Eden is a myth; that Adam and Eve never really happened; that there never was a universal flood. God's word stands absolutely veracity minded, you can't get away from it. Christ said, "The scripture cannot be broken."
We have to make a daily choice in our lives, to say, "Do I want to listen to all this claptrap that they're shooting at me out there, trying to telling me this, tell me that? Or do I want to listen to the word of God?" The word of God instructs us; it disciplines our minds, and tells us that we should not listen to that kind of thing.
Proverbs 13:18 - It says that: "Poverty and shame shall come to him that refuses instruction," that doesn't want to live a disciplined life, which bears now a very important aspect here that in anything you do in living life, any area you want to talk about in this physical life, it requires learning a discipline. You have to learn to corral your thoughts and concentrate as to what it is you want to do, whether you want to be a carpenter, a plumber, an electrician. Whatever it is etcetera, etcetera that you might have in mind.
If you want to be a sports athlete you have to learn what is required of you, and then you must allow yourself to be instructed and we call it "the disciplines." You learn to discipline if you learn to play the piano or a musical instrument. You must discipline yourself. You must practice your chords; you must learn the chromatics and what's involved. So that you can, you just can't sit down and do it. You wouldn't want an airplane pilot - you know, you get on an airplane and the first thing you say, "Ah, how many flights have you had, captain?"
He says, "Oh, this is my first one, first one."
"Well, you mean you don't have many hours flying?""Oh, I just thought this would be the greatest thing. I thought I'd come along for the ride."
He start talking like that, you'd say, "I think I'm gonna change planes." You don't want to get on in a hurry. Why, because you don't have confidence in an undisciplined person. You want that man to be a man you have confidence in. How much more do we have confidence in God, the Father, and Jesus Christ because they are the most disciplined beings in the universe. They demonstrate that discipline. They live life that way.
Remember the old saying, "he who is governed best is governed least?" Almost doesn't happen any more. You let people go unchecked; they go running all over the place, but our forefathers understood that when this country was founded, that it was designed to be what? It was a nation that was to be governed by law, of a devoted, moral and disciplined people. They had to be a disciplined people and a morally strong people. And when you throw morality to the wind, when you throw discipline to the wind, what have you got? I submit you've got chaos in the street and it is growing on a day to day basis. We see it and I submit to you, dear brethren, I believe that is one of the strong indications why it says, "the love of many is waxing cold." Because they see terrible things happening, and it's really beginning to get to a lot of them, and they just can't seem to understand what is happening.
Well, the purpose of discipline, on the goal as we see here, is two fold. Let's go to I Timothy again, if you will, please. I Timothy 4:7 and we see that we are told to be "exercising" ourselves "unto godliness." So the purpose of discipline is to help us in living this life, but in the spiritual goal of overcoming we're all striving for is to reach for godliness with the help of God, and it tells us that that -
Verse 8 - "Bodily exercise profiteth for a little while," so living in this physical life; being a disciplined person, is going to be beneficial to us is what God is saying. "But godliness," our goal reaching for the spirit of God and for the kingdom of God, it says "is profitable unto all things"- to everything, it covers everything. So here we see very plainly then, that the purpose with regard to godliness is the first and important purpose of this very, very needful thing in all of our lives.
Now interwoven with instruction from time to time, comes correction. A more severe application of discipline, and yet it is one that is done in the context of gentleness. Let's notice II Timothy 2:25. It says we are to involve ourselves in meekness, instructing or disciplining could be another application of that - those who oppose themselves, people who are struggling, having difficulties. "If God perhaps will "give them repentance to acknowledging the truth,
Verse 26 - "that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who has taken them captive at his will." Now every one of us, at one time or another, has been captured by the devil. Every one of us at times has found ourselves trapped, and we were opposing ourselves and we didn't know it. But God, out of love and mercy and correction through His word, through sermons, through other individuals whom God would be working with that touched your life as an individual. You began to realize that there was a terrible need for a change, and you cried out for change, and you began to discipline yourself in a way that you hadn't done before. You started disciplining yourself to keep the Sabbath and to keep it holy because you didn't know about the Sabbath before, and you didn't know how to keep it holy. Then you understood about the holy days and how their great plan and purpose began to unfold before your eyes.
Seeing yourself in that, you started realizing, "I need to pray a whole lot more," and it required discipline because your mind runs in a million different directions. And your flesh says, "You don't need to do that."
The Spirit says, "Oh, yes you do."
The stomach says, "I want to eat."
The Spirit says, "You need to fast."
You begin to get the picture? You've got a choice to make in each one of these situations. There is a physical side of things; there is a spiritual side, and we must understand here that a guide to living a disciplined life and avoiding self-inflicted problems and difficulties can be avoided if we do what? If we listen to what God's word says. That God would grant us repentance; he'd pull us out of this problem and difficulty, whatever it is that we're struggling with, and he shows that the manner of restoration can be found in II Timothy 3:16. You're familiar with this scripture, very, very powerful scripture in its magnitude. It says,
II Timothy 3:16 - "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, it is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction" (or discipline) "for instruction in righteousness," showing how to live righteously. That's what it's all about, and the more we listen to it and the more we follow that admonition, then what we end up doing is, we benefit from it. We benefit in this life, and we benefit with the understanding that the life to come is also going to be affected by it.
God is not going to place anyone in His kingdom who is going to be an undisciplined child and one who will not walk humbly with the Lord their God. It's just that way, and just like a child must learn to be in subjection, that's what the BIBLE tells us. You know none of us have perfect children, but they are to be in subjection. When you call them, they come. So the response factor is this, that we have a goal and the purpose first of all, the purpose of discipline is to do what? Produce godliness in our life, and the ultimate goal of that is to create an everlasting fellowship with God in the Kingdom of God.
Those are the two benefits. The first one again is to create what? Godliness, that's the overcoming. We benefit the physical blessing but we're striving for godliness in the spirit. Jesus constantly in the gospel accounts refer to things of this nature. He says the flesh doesn't profit the spirit, it is life. It's where you want to go. It's where the godliness is. It's the character that you need. Jesus said, "I didn't come to do my will, but to do the will of Him that sent me." So all of that is in the example of Jesus Christ.
Now, what we have to do then is do our part. God instructs, but we must respond to that instruction. He corrects, he disciplines, but we must respond. How does a child respond when you discipline your child? Sometimes a child, "Rrrrrrr," they don't like the discipline do they? Sometimes it's, "sniff, sniff," "I'm sorry mommy, daddy, I won't do that again." Sometimes you can just look at them and that's enough and the child's ready to go. Some children, they look you eyeball to eyeball, and you've gotta do what? We're gonna see whose will will stand, theirs or mine. And you as a parent have to exercise your ... and lovingly just say, "Child, come here," and you've got to let your voice have a cracking timbre, and the child knows, "I think I may have gone too far." A child picks up on that very quickly. But if you don't mean it, the child says, "Ah hah! Got away with it." That's why God cannot allow anyone to get away with transgression, because He says, "Be not deceived, I am not mocked."
Children mock their parents in physical life. They think mom and dad don't know. God knows everything. He sees everything. He records everything. He writes it here for our learning process, and He shows very plainly that you and I have got to follow the example like the apostle Paul.
Remember the apostle Paul who said:
I Corinthians 11:1 - "Follow me as I follow Christ?" Let's take a look at something else he said.
I Corinthians 9:24 - He calls upon the day and age in which he lived which people could identify with. It was called the Olympian games and the Greeks in Corinth understood. They could relate what he was talking about. And so he said,
Verse 24 - "Know you not that they which run a race run all, but one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain." What Paul is saying there is he's saying, "Look, there's no place for second place here; run as a winner. If you were born to be a winner in this case, go for it. No, don't take this kind of haphazard approach, if I'm fifth place that's good enough." You don't want fifth place. You want to be the best that God can develop within your character. You want to be first place in God's service. Now it says in -
Verse 25 - "Every man that strives for the mastery is temperate" (or in other words is exercising self control) "in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown..." Now back in those days when they did, they sewed these leaves together, laurel leaves, kind of like in a semi-crown. You've seen the Caesars wear those rings, but theirs were gold, made out of gold because he was supposed to be the representative of the gods. Caesar was "god." Well, the physical Olympian, they would beat themselves into all kinds of conditions to win these games that they would play in the Olympian games, and the winner would get this little laurel leaf stuck around his head. They would only last a couple, three days, and they would flop and disintegrate and fall apart. Verily, they had their reward, and it was as he says, "Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible." In other words we're in the same kind of disciplined state of affairs as these athletes were in. It is a race. It is a life's race in which we cannot afford to be haphazard and undisciplined.
We must take seriously the things that apply in our physical life, and we must most certainly realize the far-reaching implications of the spiritual life. He goes on to say,
Verse 26 - "I Therefore" (because of this) "so run not uncertainly" in other words he didn't, "now why am I here?" He knew why he was here. He knew where he was going, he understood the plan and purpose of God, and he says, "So fight I," - Yes, he was fighting the good fight of faith day to day. He says, "Not as one that beats the air." "I'm not out here shadowboxing and wasting motion." He says, "I know where I'm going and I know what I've got to do. God has shown me! I've got a mission in life and I've got to make this mission count." He goes on to say, "But because of it," he says,
Verse 27 - "I keep under my body," in other words, he was striving to hold himself in check. He says, "And bring into subjection this body," he says, "less by any means when I have preached to others I myself should be disqualified." (A castaway) In other words, he would be disavowed and disallowed. He no longer could serve in that capacity just like anyone else who doesn't stay disciplined in his or her profession in life, they cannot be sufficient in that any longer.
In other words, if the individual is not a topnotch doctor, then what is it? He's disavowed. He has to be taken to the side. Why, because he's no longer doing his profession properly. A lawyer, anyone else; they lose what they say is their credentials, because again they've been disavowed. And Paul is saying, "I do not want to be disavowed in the service of the living God. I keep myself under control in check. I don't want self to get in the way and block me in my relationship with God's purpose." And what is that purpose? One, godliness and two, everlasting fellowship with God, the Father, and Jesus Christ and all the saints for all eternity. This is the awesome plan and purpose of God.
Now the modern translation, the modern language translation says, "You must practice," Paul would say here, "I practice." You must practice every day, what? Discipline in your life. When you sit down to play a piano you're doing what? You have to practice.
The child says, "Oh, no do I have to practice today?"
"Oh, yeah you've got to practice. Practice makes perfect." We all grew up hearing that: "practice makes perfect."
God says, "You've got to practice the disciplined way of life, or you're going to inflict upon yourself things you don't want to come back on you." So it becomes a very powerful message.
Now taken one step further, the Living Bible says this, it says, "You have to deny yourself many things that would keep you from doing your best." Ooh! That's beautiful; that's beautiful. There are a lot of things you could do because you're a free moral agent, but you have to have the discipline to deny yourself and it means literally the word deny, like Jesus says, "If you're going to follow me you have to deny yourself." It means utterly deny yourself. Now how is that to be understood? Is that to live a life of asceticism deny? Is that what he's saying? No, it's exactly what He said when He walked. He said, "I didn't come to do my will, I came to do the will of the Father." In other words I am doing what, I am disciplining myself to do the Father's will. I am not here to do what I want to do. I'm carrying out what the Father has told me to do. That's what we are governing in our own lives. We are disciplining ourselves to do that very same thing.
Consider if you will - we're told to be ...endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. Have you ever seen what happens when a soldier is not disciplined? He's a mess. He won't last long under combat conditions. God inspired Paul to use that very same term and he says, "Endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ." Because the first thing they do in military training on the physical level is to teach a discipline, and if you don't follow the rules of discipline, you won't last long when the enemy starts shooting at you. And so God is telling you the same thing. You're not going to last long in this battle against Satan, the devil because if you think you can handle, take him down you got another think coming. You're gonna need my help big time and you're gonna need all the discipline and strength you can call upon, not only from your own self, but also from the Spirit of God. It's gonna be absolutely necessary, because we fight a ferocious enemy.
All right then, the final thing that we need to keep in mind, we see that godliness is the goal. The goal then of discipline is fellowship with God not only now, gathering for what purpose? What is the purpose? Jesus said very plainly, He says, "Gather" ... for what purpose? "To worship Him in spirit and in truth." Because that's what the Father's looking for. He's looking for this fellowship with those who are willing to discipline themselves, respond to His love, to remember His Sabbath, and "He has created us," Ephesians 2:10 tells us, "unto good works." And we are told in other aspects also that He has given us the wonderful understanding in I Corinthians 11:31 tells us - Passover time, we study this -
I Corinthians 11:31 - It says, "If we would discern (or judge) ourselves," take the opportunity to discipline ourselves, we wouldn't have to be punished sometimes. We could stop it, as we say, "nip it in the bud," but if we don't, and we let it go too far, then obviously there are lessons to be learned, and that's what life is all about.
Three quick areas as we move toward conclusion now, these three areas are areas that God uses to impart discipline. In the world we live in he has appointed governments, authority figures in various states and locales for the purpose of keeping order in society. Romans 13:1 deals with that all the way through verse 7 and we are told to be praying for these individuals. We should be praying for our president, praying for those who are in positions of power so that we don't have individuals who get in there that abuse that power and cause problems for the masses. We want the right type of leadership. So government is there, as it says, as -
Verse 4 - "an avenger on behalf of God, that when people do evil, (bangs on podium-whmmm) government comes down." The problem today we see is that government isn't doing their job. They're not coming down on the criminals and the evil one, and they're letting them get off, and many times the law abiding are the ones getting punished. And this wreaks havoc in the minds of many people as a result of that. But government was intended to provide the right kind of correction and discipline to keep society in check.
Then God intended also there to be discipline in the home. This is where the fifth commandment comes in where mom and dad play a big part. We have children on loan from God. They are His heritage. He gives them to us, and He expects us to carry out our responsibilities as fathers and mothers and outlines these things in the scripture, and we are told that in Ephesians 6:1-4.
Ephesians 6:1 - "Children, obey your parents, for this is right," and this is good. And you're supposed to do that "in the Lord." That's God's desire for you, but it also warns fathers:
Verse 4 - "be careful fathers, don't overstep your boundaries and discourage them, but bring them up in the fear, nurture and (that word nurture is the discipline of God.) But do it in a loving way, the way God does it because again, if God was just rattling us every time we turned around, who would want to be in the kingdom of God? If He's beating our brains all the time, you'd be running from God. You wouldn't want to go through, you would never believe the subject that God is love, but when you read the BIBLE, you see that's just what comes at you at every direction. It's just in increments; it just grows stronger and stronger. God says, let your heart be easily entreated. If you're quick to listen and hear what God has to say, wow, that correction can be just very minimal. If you're a little, as we say, hardheaded Israelite might be a little bit harder to get through and so God has to apply a little bit more. Parents know that. Some children, they can just get a quick response. Other children, they have to take more severe measures with to get that child in line. Well why do you do that - because you love that child. And God says, what you see there is only a small, small scale of what I am doing on a grand scale with all mankind.
The third and final area that is referenced is the church itself. In the Church of God, Galatians 6:1 tells us that if we see a brother or sister in a fault: we see there's something wrong; we want to help them. It says many times God can discipline us through another, a brother or sister in Christ. Sometimes it may come from the ministry; it may come from the pulpit. It may come from personal counseling. It may come from these different situations, but gentle admonition is given. It says, if you are going to do so, be sure you're in the right spirit and attitude before you go to somebody else and say, you know, you're wrong here, and you need to change this. Be sure you're standing on proper ground, otherwise what you're doing is: you could be going over here and saying, "Hey, you know, you've got this beam in your eye, this little seed in your eye, and here you've got a big plank in your own." We don't want to be caught that way. It's says that can backfire, that can come back on you and you don't want to do that.
So the bottom line is this, dear brethren. God is telling for all of us that we have a responsibility of being disciplined in the Lord. That's what the word of God is all about. That's why you and I have this instruction book. That is God's way of doing it, and then he manifests that in the many ways we've discussed today.
But the second part of that is this: how you and I respond to that discipline is the rest of the story. Do we reach for that discipline? Do we appreciate that discipline from God? If we do, we are advancing the cause of godliness in our life, and we are showing God that we hunger and thirst not only now in fellowship. Because our fellowship, it says, is with God and one another as we gather on the Sabbath. We love to be with one another because God is working in all of our lives this similar, wonderful truth. He's bringing us to godliness and to an eternal fellowship in the kingdom of God. You and I know that it's called "first fruits" unto the glory of God. Oh, God speed that day! The most important thing you and I must remember, are we willing to receive that discipline? We must work on it in the physical realm, and we definitely must be giving ourselves to full attention to the spiritual realm.
May God help us all to be the disciplined sons and daughters that He is training us to be for His glorious kingdom of God.