God’s Chastening of His Children.

“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.” Hebrews 12:6 – 8

All true Christians need to understand that our sins have been paid for in full by the blood of our Saviour. "To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;" Ephesians 1:6 – 7 A child of the Living God will never account for our sins, Jesus paid our sin debt in full. Sin is fully accountable for, and the punishment is not only death, but to suffer the full wrath of God on this earth and after death. The word wrath means the anger of God. God’s children are chastened, which means – as to train up a child, that is, educate by discipline which is punishment – it is like a parent training their child to do right. The word wrath means – a justified punishment by anger, indignation or vengeance – God said of this word, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;” Romans 1:18 A deep study of the scripture you will never see God “chastening” a lost person, nor see God executing His wrath against His children. Why not, because Jesus suffered our wrath during His beatings, His being shamed, and His time on the cross through His death. His punishment was all sufficient to the command of God for the sins of all Gods elect. A Christian have no unaccountable sins to pay for because God said we have been saved from the punishment of sin even God’s wrath through Jesus. “Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. Romans 5:9 – 10 The wrath of God is reserved for God’s enemies which are the lost whom God hates. “For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.”  Psalms 5:4 – 5 A worker of iniquity is any lost person who was not cleansed by the blood of the Lamb by the process of His crucifixion. Therefore, let us understand that God never hates His elect children for anything, never, ever because God has an eternal love for them from eternity past to eternity future. God never changes from eternity past, the time of this world never changes God, all the pleaser and will of God is executed in time as God elected.

Therefore, let us now look at God’s chastening of a child. God said, “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…” God will never deal with a lost non-elected person as a son, because God hates them. However, the saved are God’s children and that relationship is likened to an earthly father executing discipline to their child. A good father never executes wrath on their child because that kind of punishment would be classified abusive. Let us remember, the word “wrath” as related to God – is a justified anger – which means the law of God called for this punishment. With this being said, let us understand that our chastening or righteous discipline form of God is in love to correct not to punish. While the chastening of God can range from a spat on the hand to destruction of your earthly life and goods, and even death, it is still not wrath. So, why does God chasten a child if not for sin? God demands that we walk as children in our life walk, if we do not walk as God commands then we are disobeying our Father and are subject to our Fathers correction. God is showing His Fatherly love to us by correcting us to walk orderly, and the more a child disobeys the more severely the correction can be. But God’s correction is always in love, therefore we ought to praise God we are being corrected because it shows us that we are His child, and corrects our walk. “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.”  Proverbs 3:11 – 12 Remember obeying God is not an option, it is a demand, and refusing to do so could bring great pain or even death to a child. Paul told the church at Corinth that their disobedience to properly do things in order brought discipline from God on them. “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.” 1 Corinthians 11:30 – 32 This was brought on an entire church not just a couple of members, God demands churches do things decently and in order.  “Let all things be done decently and in order.” 1 Corinthians 14:40 The level of God’s chastening is in God’s choice but the way to avoid God’s chastening is to walk in the Spirit which is to walk in the order and command of the scriptures, the bible is a commandment not a suggestion! “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.”  Galatians 5:16 - 17     

God will protect us.

“No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.” Isaiah 54:17

As a young minister that had just surrendered to the call to become a minister, this is the first scripture I was introduced too. My Pastor and mentor Elder Harace Hammond showed me this verse and said, “never fear those that fight against you, although they be many and they be powerful, God is our sustainer” (paraphrased) God promised in Hebrews 13:5 “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” The sad part about this verse is that most Christians can quote the last 8 words and have no idea what the other part says. The last 8 words gives us strength and stability in the rest of the verse, “Let your conversation be without covetousness” meaning let your – style in deportment or character – the way we conduct ourselves in our Christian stability also as Ministers our ministry. Then the Lord continues “and be content with such things as ye have” If we are strong, steadfast, faithful, to the truth and God, we should be CONTENT it our service to the Lord, churches, and His word. Being content is not allowing anyone or any form of substance affect you. Never want more than God provides, if you do it will drive you to lust, and lust will cause you to fall from truth. Our entire life, ministries, and churches are built on the foundation of truth. We all must understand that God controls ALL, not a partial, nothing is out of God’s control. Therefore, how do we remain faithful to God and His word which is absolute truth, by understanding that God, “will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” These words are our entire foundation to understanding our security in our faith to God, His word of truth, and His church. It Christians, ministers, or churches, fall off this content foundation it could cause them biblical ruin. The absolute key to our success is being content with God’s work in our life, because desiring more only leads to failure. If you are poor, it is God’s will for you, if you are lacking in anything it is God’s will for you, if salvations have slowed it is God’s will, if churches are getting fewer and fewer it is God’s will, whatever it is in life it is God’s will, and we should be content with it. Being content, satisfied, and grateful, with what is in life, as a gracious gift from God thanking Him for what He goes give. God said, “Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?”  Matthew 6:25 That is, don’t worry about these things in life but be content and learn to live with what God has given you. God is able, He is not weak or incapable, He controls everything, and everything is His predetermined will.  “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.” Ephesians 1:11

Therefore, as Christians, churches, and mostly as ministers and pastors we can be faithful to God, His word, and the churches, even to God promised us that “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn…” Therefore, we can have the faith to stand firm, and accept that whatever happens is God’s ordained will for us. Let them have their weapons, let them use the, but in the end it will not prosper. Our success as Christians, churches, and ministers is not earthly rewarded but heaven rewarded, our standing firm is our victory. Our victory is that the world that hated Jesus crucified Him, without the crucifixion there is not victory for us. The death of so many Christians in our history is not a defeat to God or them, it’s a victory. And so can we have victory if we do not allow Satan’s weapons defeat us.

 

Redeeming the time.

"See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, (15) Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. (16) Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. Ephesians 5:15 – 17

The words “redeeming the time” means - Buying up the opportunity or to taking advantage of the time – it means to make the best use of the opportunities God gives us. Time has three elements, past, present, and future. We always live in the present never tomorrow or the past. Once today becomes yesterday we cannot change it, but today is our present, our space of working, tomorrow many never get here. As Christians and churches, we always need to be aware of our time and use it for the Lord, with the salvation of the lost as our main goal. God said, “because the days are evil.” Today we know this, we live in advanced evil time, people are very evil in their hearts. We always believe eviler than before, but evil has been on the earth since Adam and Eve. Remember Cain very horribly killed his bother Able and was very presumptuous when God questioned him about it. “And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?”  Genesis 4:9 We sometimes believe that evil is getting worse today than anytime in history, but the truth is while it may be more open, it is not. Evil in the world has always been very bad and anti-God and anti-Christian. There was a time in our history when tens of millions of Christians were absolutely slaughtered at the hands of people calling themselves “Christians” with the help of the governments. While we may not be able to declare today eviler than ever before, times are very evil, and more open that ever before. People today do not care about God, Jesus, the bible, or church, they are haters of God maybe more so than anytime before. Churches in America are shrinking to numbers that they are in jeopardy of closure. However, our focus needs to be steadfast on God, Jesus, the bible, church, and the salvation of the lost. The commission to the churches is to preach the gospel to the lost, and without concern to our times. “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”  Mark 16:15 Until this has been accomplished (and it never will be) our mission that God has appointed to us is not complete. We are in this battle together, while every church has their commission, they are all the same. The gospel message is the greatest message to the world today and tomorrow, but today is more relevant because for some tomorrow will not get here. God said, “We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. (1) (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.) (2) Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed:” 2 Corinthians 6:1 – 3 Our redeeming the time is now, today, never tomorrow, because Jesus could come before tomorrow, they could expire before tomorrow, and we failed to redeem our time. A saved person is not permitted to sin because their sins are covered by the blood, and we are not to use God’s sovereignty of saving sinners as and excuse to not redeem our time to the lost. God told us in verse 15 “See then that ye walk circumspectly” circumspectly means – perfect or complete – the Lord has ordered us to walk according to the scriptures because in failing to do so makes us walk as fools. We cannot be good redeemers of time if we are walking as the lost, why would lost people want salvation if there is no change in us. God said in verse 17 “Wherefore be ye not unwise” that is mindless or stupid but walking in the purpose that God has for you. Remember If God saved you, He has a purpose for your life, and you should discover that purpose and then guide your purpose in life accordingly. If we fail, then we are not redeeming our time but walking unwise and as fools. Verse 17 concludes “but understanding what the will of the Lord is.” We are all to search for God’s will for us, if we seek, we will find, and when we find we should do. Let us not walk as fools wasting valuable time, let us all redeem our time as God has elected for us.