Hebrews - Educating, Exercising, Encouraging

"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 by it. Wherefore, lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed."

You see, God's purpose is chastening. He wants us to grow. He wants us to mature. Hebrews 12:10 states it this way: "that we might be partakers of His holiness."

God wants obedient children. He wants children who walk in love, who walk in the light. God will not tolerate sin in our lives. God rebukes us, then God chastens us, sometimes God even scourges us. But even apart from that, when we are walking with Him, when we are obedient to Him, God wants to build us. Chastening is not simply corrective; sometimes chastening is perfecting. He is perfecting our lives, helping us to mature in Christ.

Now this means that we have to cooperate with Him. We have to do our part if chastening is going to accomplish anything. Chastening is not automatic. God does not automatically build His children simply because they go through chastening. We have to cooperate and work with God. Now this means we don't faint and we don't fight.

Hebrews 12:5 says: "My son, despise thou not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him." You see, if you despise His chastening, if you treat it lightly, you miss the opportunity for growth. You are fighting God. If you faint under it, you are not cooperating with God. The answer is to endure, to let God work, to submit to Him. We ought to submit to the Lord and allow His chastening program to work in our lives.

Now we have a threefold responsibility to the Lord as we are involved in this matter of chastening. First of all, before the chastening, we have the responsibility of educating ourselves. During the chastening, we have the responsibility of exercising ourselves. And after the chastening, we have the responsibility of encouraging ourselves and others.

Now can we remember these three responsibilities that we have? If we will fulfill these three responsibilities, then chastening will build us. If we don't fulfill these three responsibilities, chastening will break us. And then we have to start all over again building our Christian walk.

First of all, before the chastening comes, we have the responsibility of educating ourselves, learning the Word of God. Hebrews 12:5: "And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto sons, 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—or punisheth—every son whom He receiveth."

Now this is a quotation from Proverbs 3:11-12. These people had forgotten the Word of God. Now this doesn't surprise me because they had become very sluggish in their Christian life. They'd been drifting away from the things of the Word of God and they had gotten into a condition of spiritual dullness. We often hear about dull preachers; well, how about dull listeners?

Hebrews 5:11: "Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing." You see, if I start neglecting the Word of God, if I start losing ground in the Word of God, then when chastening comes, I'm not ready for it.

Well, going backward does not win the race. He's called us to win the race, to run with endurance the race that is set before us. It can be done. About the time you think it can't be done, read Hebrews 11 and see what God did for Noah and for Abraham and Sarah, for Joseph and for Moses and for all the other great heroes of the faith.

Before the chastening, we must be educating ourselves in the Word of God. By the way, when you start neglecting your Bible—and I'm not talking about simply listening to preachers over the radio or television; I mean your own personal time with the Lord—when you start neglecting your Bible, God starts to chasten to bring you back to the Bible.

When Mr. Epp started this ministry many years ago, that was his great concern: to get people back to the Bible. There was a lot of preaching going on and a lot of churches were being started and growing, but get back to the Bible.

Psalm 119:67. I want you to look at that verse. Psalm 119:67: "Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept Thy word." Look at Psalm 119:71: "It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn Thy statutes."

Well, if you'd learned the statutes before, you might not have been afflicted. God wants us to study His Word. This is what prepares us for the times of trouble. Oh, how we need the Word of God. Our first responsibility with reference to chastening is simply this: before the chastening, educating ourselves, knowing the Word of God.

Now you don't learn the Word of God secondhand. Don't be man-taught; be Spirit-taught. Even while I am teaching you the Word of God, if the Holy Spirit doesn't make it real to you, you'll not get it. You and I must depend upon the Spirit to teach us.

Now God uses human teachers. God has given to people a gift of teaching and we have the privilege and responsibility of sharing the Word of God. But don't be people-taught; be Spirit-taught. Let the Holy Spirit write this Word upon your heart.

The responsibility of educating ourselves. Secondly, the responsibility of exercising ourselves. This is what we do during the chastening. Hebrews 12:11: "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 by it."

The Greek word exercised is gumnazo, which gives us our English word gymnasium. In other words, you're in the gymnasium. Now, the chastening comes. Don't give up. Don't go to sleep. Exercise yourself. Paul wrote to Timothy and said, "exercise thyself rather unto godliness," 1 Timothy 4:7. Be like an athlete.

Now let's talk about that. If you're going to be a successful athlete, then you must have stated times of practice, exercise. There must be discipline. You have to watch your diet. You've got to watch your sleep and your rest if you're going to be a successful athlete. You know, sometimes we have gotten so free in the Christian life. We talk so much about our liberty, we forget the need for discipline.

Sometimes we criticize the old saints of God who talked about their disciplines—up early in the morning to read the Word of God and to pray, disciplined in their associations, disciplined in their ambitions. They had stated times set aside for prayer and meditation. We say, oh, that's legalism. No, it isn't. It's good sane, sensible Christian living.

We need more discipline today. God wants us to exercise our faith. He wants us to exercise hope, to realize that afterward there's going to be that peaceable fruit of righteousness.

Now God doesn't expect us to rejoice every time we hurt. He says here, "no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous." Now it can be joyous as we realize the future. The Lord Jesus Himself, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross. But the cross hurt. He felt every bit of it. There are some saints who have the idea that we are supposed to be immune to these things. No, chastening hurts. If it didn't hurt, it couldn't help us.

Right now you are going through war and trial, but you're going to have peaceable fruit. Right now you are struggling against sin, but you're going to have the fruit of righteousness. Right now you are exercising yourself and you're having to strain every spiritual muscle, but one day you're going to have that rest that comes when the goal has been reached. And then you start running all over again. Oh, He says, exercise your faith and exercise your hope and exercise your love. For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth.

How do you grow in faith? By exercising it. How do you grow in hope? By exercising it. How do your muscles grow and get strong? By exercising them. How do you develop skills in athletics or music or whatever? By exercising them.

And too many saints of God are sitting around doing nothing when they ought to be in the gymnasium exercising themselves. Some ought to be setting their alarm clocks a half hour early and getting up and exercising themselves in the Word of God and in prayer, in intercession for a needy world.

Exercise love. God wants to mature us. He wants to—He wants to deal with us as sons and daughters, not as little babies. Oh yes, you can love a little baby, they're so cuddly and so cute, but they can't love you back. They have to grow and learn how to love.

How do you learn how to love? By exercising love. Love that is willing to suffer. Love that is willing to submit. The Christian life is not passive. I hear people saying, well die, die. Well, we do need to die to self. We do need to be raised from the dead and then exercise ourselves in the things of the Lord.

Responsibility number one: before the chastening, educating ourselves. Responsibility number two: during the chastening, exercising ourselves. Responsibility number three: after the chastening, encouraging ourselves and encouraging others.

Look at Hebrews 12:12: "Wherefore—here's the application—Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees." He's saying to us, don't stand there like a bunch of dropouts. My, you can just see these runners standing there. The hands hanging down. The picture here is of weariness, absolute weariness. They need to be propped up. Oh, they're going to quit. They've just had all they can take.

Now, when the chastening is over, lift up those hands that are so weary and lift up those paralyzed knees. That word translated feeble gives us our English word paralysis. Here are weary hands and paralyzed legs. Well, how can you run that way?

Now He says, get encouraged. Be encouraged. Level the path for your feet. Don't be running on hard terrain and on crooked terrain. Make straight level paths for your feet. That word paths means tracks. It's the tracks of the runner. When you run, leave tracks that will make it easier for somebody else to run.

I have a friend who prays daily that he might not add to anybody's problems. That's a good prayer. I don't know when God's going to call me home, but I hope whenever that happens—and I trust it'll be the Rapture, but if it should happen before then—I hope that I'm going to leave behind some tracks that'll make it easier for others to run the race.

I don't want to add to their problems; we all have enough problems of our own. I don't want to put obstacles in the way of other people. And so He's saying to us: encourage yourself and encourage others, your teammates. Leave behind tracks where they can run and it'll be a lot easier for them.

Are you making the Christian life easier for your wife or your husband, for your children? Are you making your Christian life an example to others? Does your pastor have an easier time or a harder time because of you? Does your Sunday school teacher have an easier time or a more difficult time because of you?

We should after the chastening be encouraging ourselves and encouraging others. "Make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way." Now a lame person has a rough time running a race. If the track is not level and clear, a lame person's going to run out of the way, turn out of the way. He says, "but rather let it be healed."

As you run the race, God heals. He's not talking about physical healing here; He's talking about spiritual healing. You say, oh, I can't run the race, I've got a problem. God says, you start running by faith and I will give you the healing that you need.

Are you an encouragement to others? When you go to church, are you an encouragement to the people of God? When you go to board meetings, when you go to business meetings, are you an encouragement? Or do you come limping in with your hands hanging down and your knees paralyzed and you're discouraged and despondent?

Well, that means you've not been exercising yourself or educating yourself. Because when you are educating yourself in the Word of God and exercising yourself in the love of God, you have no problem encouraging yourself in the grace of God. You see, He tells us in Hebrews 12:15: "looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God." Now the grace of God is not going to fail, but we fail of the grace of God.

How do you lift up discouraged hands? By the grace of God. How do you strengthen paralyzed legs? By the grace of God. How do you make straight paths that are level and clear? By the grace of God. Paul said, "by the grace of God I am what I am." He giveth more grace. And Hebrews exhorts us to come to the throne of grace to find grace to help in the time of need.

Hebrews 12:14-17 simply tells us that we as believers must live and work and run as a team. Let's read these verses together.

Hebrews 12, beginning at Hebrews 12:14: "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and by it many be defiled; lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it with tears."

The idea of Christian teamwork is not found simply in Hebrews 12. In the book of Philippians twice the Apostle Paul talks about Christian teamwork. In Philippians 1:27: "Only let your conversation—your behavior—be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel."

Now the Greek word translated striving together is composed of two words. The first means with—S-U-N, it's a prefix—and it's at the beginning of the Greek word athleo, which gives us our word athletic. So what he is really saying is striving together as an athletic team. It could also mean striving together as soldiers in the battle. But fundamentally, it is an athletic image.

You have the same thing in Philippians 4:3: "And I entreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women which labored with me in the gospel." Now there it is. The same Greek word sun-athleo, which means to strive together, to be athletes together. One translation says they were team members with me in the work of the gospel.

Now there's too much emphasis these days on individual Christianity. So many books that come out and so many sermons that are preached have to do with the individual Christian. Now it is important that I develop my Christian discipline. It is important that each team member run by the rules and follow the instructions. But it's also important that we learn how to work together.

He tells us in Hebrews 12:14-17 that there are two essentials for effective Christian teamwork, being able to strive together, to run together, to win the race together as teammates. They're very simple. Hebrews 12:14, he says we must have dedicated determination. Hebrews 12:15-17, we must have diligent discernment. Determination, discernment. That's what it takes if we're going to be good members of the Christian team.

Hebrews 12:14: "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." Now that word follow means to pursue, to exert effort. It's the picture of the runner going down the racetrack. There must be dedicated determination if we are going to win the race.

This same word is translated "I press" in Philippians 3:14 where Paul is talking about pressing toward the mark to win the prize. Now what are we to pursue? To what are we to be dedicated with determination? Well, he tells us we have two goals in mind. Number one, peace with all men. And number two, holiness without which no one can see the Lord.

Now, are you and I good teammates? It's not enough that we do our exercises, that we follow our diet. It's not enough that we run the race by ourselves. We are a part of a Christian team. And therefore we need to be good teammates. This means dedicated determination. Pursue peace. Don't be a troublemaker. Pursue holiness. Obey the rules.

And then there must be diligent discernment. Beware, beware lest any teammate fail of the grace of God, or turn away from the love of God, or like Esau become a worldly and profane person. We make it easier for others to run the race if we'll follow these instructions.

That's all we have time for today. It's wonderful to have you with us each day. Be sure to come back again tomorrow for more wisdom from God's Word.