Disciplined Sons – The Stamp of Legitimacy – Part 2

Father God’s desire and design is that we be fruitful reproducers. This requires maturing us from children, to sons, to reproducing Fathers. In order to do this He disciplines us! Fruitful disciples are produced by their faithful response to Father’s disciplines.

I. Our Heavenly Father Disciplines Us According to His Infinite Wisdom – Hebs 12:11

The English word chasten is the Greek word paideuo and is variously translated: KJV: chasten; NIV : discipline; GNB : punish; JB Phillips : correct, chasten, discipline; Amplified : correct, train, discipline, chastise; Living Bible : train, correct, punish; The Message : educate, train discipline (emphasizing that it is not punishment).

A. His Disciplines Reassure Us – Discipline is primarily God’s proactive commitment to mature us, and not His reactive response to punish us! Discipline is not an evidence of sin that needs punishment, but of a son who is being matured to become a reproducing spiritual father.

B. His Disciplines Refine Us – Hebrews 12:10, “For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.”

God’s sons are no losers by afflictions. They lose nothing but their dross and tin. They do not lose the love of God; nor their interest in the covenant of grace; nor the presence of God; nor grace in their own hearts; nor spiritual peace and comfort: on the contrary, they are real gainers by them; their graces gain by them fresh luster and glory; they obtain a greater degree of spiritual knowledge; and a larger stock of experience; and are hereby restored to their former state, duty, and zeal; and become more conformable to Christ. (John Gill)

Jesus said in John 15:2 “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bear more fruit.” The branch that gets the most attention is the one bearing the most fruit. By the way, do you know where the most fruitful place is located? Out on a limb with Jesus!

Discipline is not pleasant. It does not fit our agendas or appetites. Father’s disciplines tend to rub us the wrong way, frustrate our wills and try our patience. His disciplines often bring pain to us emotionally, spiritually, physically or simultaneously in all three areas.

C. His Disciplines Reveal Us – Hebrews 12:7, “It is for discipline that you have to endure.”

It is not the attitude of “enduring chastening patiently or of bearing up under it”,  but the act of being a recipient of “being chastised or corrected by God.” The affirmation does not relate to the manner of bearing up under discipline, but to the fact that we are disciplined. Father’s disciplines reveal that we belong to Him and for this reason He does not cast us off and regard us as if we were in no way related to him.

However there is a very sobering reality that we need to be reminded of — All who face Father’s disciplines don’t survive! The gospel always gathers more than it keeps! Father’s pattern for farming seems to fall along these lines: breaking, sowing, gathering, and then a winnowing or sifting to reveal us. A case in point: Mark -1:1″And in a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy; and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away.”

1. His Disciplines Demonstrate Whose We Are – Hebrews 12:5-8, “And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.”

The attention Father gives toward His sons shows that He sustains the relation of a father to them. If they deserve correction, he corrects them; if they need challenges to exercise and grow them in grace, then challenges come; if they need demonic attacks to learn to deploy the authority that has been given to the sons of God, then they are loosed on them like a flood! Just as we receive such attention from an earthly parent, we ought to expect to receive similar notice from our Father in heaven. So to receive Father’s discipline confirms our sonship, authenticates us as a part of Father’s Family, and proves that we are loved of God in a very special way! One other reminder, Father’s disciplines are incessant – all the verbs in Hebs. 12:5-8 are present tense, continuous action verbs.

2. His Disciplines Display Where We Are – John 15:2, “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”

Which branch gets to feel the pruners knife the most? The ones who are bearing fruit. So the fact that I am drawing the sharp edge of the vinedresser’s knife is proof that I am a fruit-bearing son of the Father.

3. His Disciplines Develop What We Are- Hebs. 12:11, “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

His disciplines develop what we are provided we respond to them from a grace-reborn and grace-filled heart. A grace-less heart will only be exposed for lack of real faith.

One pastor relates an example of how discipline reveals a person’s heart: A pastor’s son became a Buddhist. While being stationed in Japan, he married a Japanese girl. She gave birth to twin boys with severe birth defects, both died. He lost his job and was quickly reduced to poverty. During this time he prayed to God and tired to get his wife to become a Christian so she could join him in praying. She said you pray with me to Buddha for 30 days and if there is no answer, I will become a Christian. On the 29th day, he was offered a very lucrative job. He told his pastor father, “I prayed to your God and all I got was more problems, pain, and poverty. With Buddha I got health and wealth!” Remember a grace-less heart will be exposed for lack of real faith.

(Read Part 1 · Part 3 · Part 4)