The Loving Discipline Of God

We're getting to a point in the book of Judges now where the stories are getting longer,

and that's allowing us a unique opportunity.

In fact, this particular text, these 10 verses, allow us to have a very narrow focus on something

that up to this point we've only really dealt with in passing, and that is the loving discipline

of God.

In each and every one of the stories of this book, the judgment of God is present.

That's very clear.

You don't have to look very far to see that, but there is a uniqueness to how it's addressed

here at the start of the Gideon cycle, which would be the next judge that we'll cover.

Not only are we confronted once again by the reality of God's judgment, but here in these

10 verses, we begin to gain a clearer understanding of God's intentions with judgment.

What His purpose is in it, and I think that we'll find it to be quite instructive to consider

the nature and the process and the purpose of God's disciplinary action.

So up to this point, we've taken the stories really in larger sections, and to give you

a bit of a reprieve this morning from an hour-long sermon, we're going to take just a small section

with a narrow focus, and I think that it will be helpful for us to think about God's discipline.

In chapter 3, I spoke briefly about distinguishing between two dynamics of God's judgment.

On the one hand, we have what we would call retribution.

Retribution is God's punitive action against those who persist in sin and unbelief.

So it's purely punitive. You know what I mean by that? It is really just focused on punishment.

It is you did this, therefore you deserve this, and I'm going to give you the fullness of that consequence.

That's what we're thinking about in terms of retribution.

In the Gideon story, the objects of God's righteous retribution, his punitive action,

is this Midianite coalition. We're just introduced to them here, and we're going to get to how the

story unfolds in the next three or four weeks, but what we find right here, what we at least

need to acknowledge, is that Israel is not the object of God's retribution. Midian is.

And Midian receives the retribution, the punitive action of God, by ultimately being destroyed.

Okay, so that's what we see unfolding in their lives.

Being outside of the covenant relationship with God, Midian faces the Lord's retribution,

which we would say is judgment apart from grace and mercy.

But as we read through these ten verses, we find that God's judgment against Midian stands in stark contrast

to God's judgment of Israel, who is, in fact, in a covenant relationship with God.

Israel is not destroyed like Midian is, though they do endure a tremendous amount of hardship,

more hardship than we've seen them face at any point in Judges up to now, which is, that's saying a lot.

But they're not destroyed. God doesn't deal with them in the same way that he deals with Midian.

They were even guilty of the same kind of sin as the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east.

But instead of facing God's retribution, Israel faces what is best described as God's discipline, his discipline.

Barry Webb is helpful here. He describes these distinctions this way.

This is on the screen if you want to follow along with the quote.

Retribution, he says, which is pure punishment, unmitigated by grace,

is for those who are and remain outside of his covenant.

And he quotes Ephesians 2, they have no hope and they are without God in the world.

But within God's covenant with his people, a different kind of judgment takes place.

The most appropriate term for it is discipline, because it's corrective rather than retributive.

And it is always tempered by grace.

It can be severe, but its aim is always to reclaim rather than to destroy.

That's an important distinction that we need to understand.

Now, what unfolds in terms of God's judgment in these passages,

we need to realize on the surface, is purely physical.

Israel and Midian, they are real historical nations.

The judgment they are facing in Judges 6 is a physical form of judgment

that's related to their existence as a nation and their flourishing as a people.

So we need to keep that in mind.

What God is doing to them, it's purely physical at this point.

But the physical judgment that is recorded here is meant to point us forward to a more significant

and eternal spiritual judgment.

Like these two nations, all of us are guilty before God.

As Romans 3 says, we have all sinned.

We've all fallen short of the glory of God.

Solomon even says in the Old Testament,

there is no one who does not sin,

which means that there is no one who doesn't deserve the retribution of God's righteous anger.

That's all of us.

And God must judge our sins.

If God doesn't judge sin, then God isn't truly holy.

He's not truly just.

And what we must determine, and the question that we must ask ourselves this morning,

is to which of these two groups do we actually belong?

Do we belong to the group that is outside of God's covenant?

The group that is destined only for God's eternal retribution,

his anger, and his wrath in eternal hell?

Is that the group that we belong to?

Or do we belong to this group that is inside the covenant,

represented by Israel here?

That isn't perfect and still falls and still disobeys

and still even faces the discipline of the Lord to some extent,

but they are still safe within the covenant,

having their judgment put on the sinless Son of God instead.

I want you to just think about that for just a second.

Just contemplate sincerely in your heart for just a moment.

If the Lord were to return today,

and we were to all stand in that final judgment before God,

do we stand in the line with the people that are in the covenant?

Or do we stand in the line with the people who are outside of the covenant?

Eternal retribution comes to those who,

through sin and unbelief,

are and remain outside of a relationship with God.

Their destiny is eternal hell,

a pure punishment,

unmitigated by grace,

in the words of Barry Webb.

And of course, we find this all in the Scriptures.

We find it especially in Revelation chapter 20.

Revelation 20 · chapter mention

John says that the lake of fire,

what we often refer to as hell,

or our concept of hell,

is the second death.

And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life,

he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Now what does John mean

by a name being written or not written

in the book of life?

It's just a different way of saying,

you're in the covenant,

or you're out of the covenant.

You belong to God as his child,

or you are an enemy of God,

left in your sin and unbelief.

Which leads us to an important question, doesn't it?

If being in the covenant is what determines whether or not I face ultimately the retribution of God's wrath,

or whether I just experience to some measure the discipline,

the corrective discipline of the Lord in this life,

but ultimately I'm justified,

and heaven is my home,

and I've been forgiven,

and mercy.

But if the covenant is what matters,

then the question is,

how do I get in the covenant, right?

How do I get there?

Who wouldn't want to be in the covenant with God?

And here's the awesome thing about it.

We've seen it in so many different passages already today.

The way you get in the covenant

is by faith.

This is why Jesus is so important.

We understand our sin.

We understand that God must judge our sin.

We understand that the wages of sin is death.

The second death.

The lake of fire.

So why does Jesus matter so much to us?

Because Jesus, the sinless son of God,

comes to this earth,

willingly lays down his life,

in order that he might take

that retribution for us.

That's what's amazing about it.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians,

God has made Christ to be sin for us

so that in Christ,

we might receive his righteousness.

There's this exchange that takes place at the cross

where Jesus, the righteous one,

is imputed unto him.

Your sin.

Your sin.

Your sin.

Is imputed unto the sinless son of God.

And in return to that,

when you come to Christ by faith,

his righteousness is then imputed unto you.

So that when you stand in that judgment

on that great day of the Lord,

the final judgment after the resurrection,

when you stand before the Lord on that day,

the question is not,

did you do your best?

The question is not,

did you try your hardest?

The question is not,

did you go to church and did you give money

and did you remain a good little virgin

until the day of your wedding?

That's not the question.

The question is,

are you paying for your sins

or did Jesus pay for your sins?

And God invites us into this covenant of grace.

And he invites us into it through faith.

Isn't that what Jesus said?

He said,

I'm the bread of life.

We just read it.

I'm the bread of life.

If you're hungry,

spiritually hungry,

if you're spiritually thirsty,

just come to me.

Believe in me.

It's the will of the Father

that the Son be lifted up

and that all who look to the Son

and believe will have life.

It's amazing.

You say,

well,

how do you know that

Jesus' death 2,000 years ago on a cross

is actually that significant?

How do we know that his death

actually does provide forgiveness

so that we should believe in him?

I'm glad you asked.

Because three days later,

he rose from the dead.

The resurrection changes everything.

Literally,

it changes everything.

Peter says in Acts chapter 2

Acts 2 · chapter mention

as he's preaching on the day of Pentecost,

he points to Jesus

and he points to Jesus' resurrection

who at that point,

people couldn't deny.

There's too many witnesses at that point.

They're trying to come up with reasons

to explain it away.

But the truth is,

they knew something was fishy going on

and the disciples were saying,

no, he's alive and we've seen him.

Peter says,

the grave could not hold him.

Why?

It had no claim on him.

Why did the grave have no claim on him?

Because he had no sin.

The resurrection of Jesus proves

that his death was a sufficient payment for ours.

It proves that God was appeased

in his wrath

by what Jesus did

on the cross.

You say,

I don't want to face the retribution of God.

How do I get into the covenant?

You believe Christ.

You trust him.

You trust what he's done.

You turn from your sin.

You cry out to him.

You follow him as Lord and Savior.

Jesus himself said in John 3,

we quote this verse all the time,

don't we?

God so loved the world

that he gave his only son,

that whoever believes in him

should not perish,

should not die,

but instead should have eternal life.

For God did not send his son

into the world

to condemn the world,

but in order that the world

might be saved through him.

Whoever believes in him

is not condemned,

but whoever does not believe

is condemned already,

he says,

because he has not believed

in the name of the only son of God.

What's the significance here?

What else we do?

Believe.

Believe.

Just turn from your sin and believe,

and he will give you this life.

Now,

all of that being said,

the focus of our attention this morning

is not on God's retribution.

The focus of our attention this morning

in this text

is actually on the nature,

process,

and purpose

of God's discipline

toward those who are

in the covenant.

We would say,

in New Testament terms,

those who are Christians.

That's what we're really focused on,

and looking at how the Lord

worked in and through Israel,

we can more clearly understand

how he works in and through us,

and I think you'll find this instructive.

Just three main points

that I want to point out to you

as we go through.

The first thing is this.

I want you to see the nature

of divine discipline.

The nature of divine discipline.

And I have three things

underneath this, okay?

The first one is this.

Here's what you need to acknowledge

about divine discipline.

It is real.

Divine discipline is real.

Look at verse one.

The people of Israel

did what was evil

in the sight of the Lord,

and the Lord gave them

into the hand of Midian

seven years.

All right?

It's very simple, isn't it?

Israel sinned,

and God corrected them.

He gave them

into the hand of Midian.

Now, here's the thing.

We face hardships

and difficulties in our lives,

and so many Christians

interpret every hardship

in their life

as one of two things.

They'll either say,

this is Satan

that's just really

on my back right now.

You heard people,

maybe you've said that before.

You've heard people say it.

You say,

how's your week been,

John?

And John might reply,

well, you know,

Satan's just really been after me.

It's been a tough week.

Right?

We make statements like that.

Or we would say,

we wouldn't necessarily

blame Satan

for the hardship

that we're facing,

but we would just say,

well, you know,

this is just life

in a fallen world, right?

And maybe I'm just

going through it right now

because it's just,

I'm going through it,

and that's all

that there really is.

Now, here's the problem.

It's not that those things

aren't true.

They are true.

They actually have a role

to play in our lives.

The problem is,

we always try to,

as Christians,

we seem to always

take the hardships

and the difficulties

that we face

and put them into

one of those two boxes.

But the fact is

that there's a third category.

And a third category

for our hardship

and our difficulty in life

or our circumstances

is that God does actively

discipline his children.

He disciplines us.

Now, I want you to notice it

in the text in verse one.

Notice that nothing

about Israel's circumstance

was coincidental.

No.

It's not coincidental.

This wasn't just bad luck.

Right?

This wasn't,

that what they were facing

with Midian

was not just the result

of living in a fallen world.

That's not what's happening

with Israel here.

Neither is Satan said

to have been involved

in the process.

This is not an oppression

that they are facing

similar to what Job

dealt with in the book of Job.

You remember,

it wasn't that Job

had sinned against the Lord.

It's that the Lord

was testing him

and he was allowing Satan

to actually do this work

to test his servant Job.

Okay?

That's not what's happening

here either.

What's happening then?

Their circumstance

was the direct result

of them doing

what was evil

in the sight of the Lord

and God himself

delivered them

into the hands of Midian.

It's clear as day.

They did what was evil

in the sight of the Lord

and the Lord

gave them

into the hand

of Midian

for seven years.

And here's my point

with all of that.

Divine discipline

is a reality

that we need

to acknowledge

if we're ever

going to grow

and mature

as God's people.

If you never

acknowledge the fact

that God actively

disciplines you

in your life,

how are you ever

going to learn

to turn away

from the sinful behaviors

that he's judging you for?

If everything we face

is just automatically

put in one of those

other two boxes,

how are we going to grow

and mature as Christians?

Answer,

we won't.

We need to acknowledge

that God's discipline

is a reality.

The next time

you're tempted to say

that the devil's

been on your back,

stop to consider

whether or not

it's actually God

who's afflicted you.

Number two,

divine discipline

can be severe.

So we're underneath

the nature of divine discipline

still.

Okay, sorry about that.

First,

divine discipline is real.

Second,

divine discipline,

it actually can be

quite severe.

Verses two through six,

look at it with me.

the hand of Midian

overpowered Israel.

Because of Midian,

the people of Israel

made for themselves

the dens that are in

the mountains

and the caves

and the strongholds.

Whenever the Israelites

planted crops,

the Midianites

and the Amalekites

and the people of the east

would come up against them.

They didn't camp against them

and devour the produce

of the land

as far as Gaza

and leave no sustenance

in Israel,

no sheep,

no ox,

no donkey.

for they would come up

with their livestock

and their tents.

They would come like

locusts in number.

Both they and their camels

could not be counted

so that they laid waste

the land as they came in.

And Israel was brought

very low

because of Midian.

And they cried out

for help to the Lord.

Divine discipline

can be severe.

Look,

the discipline of God

in this text,

it is far more

than a slap on the wrist.

This is not a slap on the wrist

kind of judgment.

It was the shortest

time frame

of judgment

that we've seen

thus far

in the book of Judges.

But it's also

the worst oppression

that we've seen

so far

in the book of Judges.

There's this coalition

of eastern nomadic tribes

led by

the Midianite people.

They differed

from all of Israel's

other enemies.

They didn't seek

to occupy

and conquer the land

as the others had done.

Instead,

they functioned

like marauders.

For seven years straight,

they entered Canaan

with more people

and camels

than could be numbered.

This is a show

of force

that would be foolish

for the simple

Israelite people

to attempt

to fight against.

That's what this is about.

The writer says

that they came in

like locusts.

If you study

other parts

of the Old Testament,

you'll see that

locusts is often

a judgment

from God.

When these waves

of locusts came in,

how is it normally

described?

You see this described

even in modern times.

It's like the sky

darkening.

There's so many of them,

right?

When they finally

pass through

and leave,

what's left?

Nothing.

That's how the author

is describing

this Midianite coalition.

Every year

for seven years straight,

harvest time comes

and guess what?

Israelite knows.

It's like clockwork.

More people

than they can count.

They come into the land,

they set up their camp,

they steal all their food,

they steal all their sheep,

they take all their donkeys,

they take all their oxen,

they leave nothing behind.

The Israelites

have to abandon

their homes,

they have to go live

in caves.

This is a miserable

existence

for seven years.

Kicked out of their houses,

left nearly to starve.

So that in verse six,

the author just says,

they were brought

very low.

They're brought very,

very low.

And it was all the result

of God's discipline.

God did this

to Israel.

God did it to Israel.

You see,

sometimes divine discipline

can be severe.

Sometimes we go through

circumstances in our lives

that we would never,

never really understand,

never really quite fathom

exactly or imagine

how hard things

have actually gotten

in our lives.

Sometimes it's severe.

Sometimes God has to bring

us very low

to get our attention.

Third thing underneath

the nature of divine discipline,

it's real.

It can be severe.

Divine discipline,

this is going to blow your mind,

you're going to disagree

with me at first.

It's offensive,

isn't it?

Divine discipline is loving.

It's loving.

How in the world

is that actually possible?

Look at how difficult

and miserable

their lives were.

You see,

it's a misunderstanding

of love

that leads many people

to conclude

that love

and discipline

are incompatible

with one another.

This starts

when we're just

really young kids,

doesn't it?

From very early

in our childhood,

we equate love

with expressions

of affection,

don't we?

Harper, come here.

Harper, if you were

to come in today,

Harper's my daughter

if you don't know,

I'm allowed to do this,

and I just walked in,

you didn't say anything

to me,

and I just said,

Harper, you know what?

Come give me a hug,

I just want a hug.

Now, why would I do that?

Because I love you.

Now, if you came in

and I immediately

spanked you instead,

what would you say?

Why don't you love me

anymore, Dad?

What happened

to the hugs, Dad?

What happened

to the fun things

that we did, Dad?

Why are you harming

me now, Dad?

Where'd the love go?

Right?

You can go sit down,

sweetheart.

When we're kids,

we start to equate love

with expressions of affection,

and then as we become teenagers,

it gets even worse, right?

Because now we actually

start to say things

like, I hate you,

and you don't love me,

you never did love me,

you're just a big liar,

and all the kinds of things

we say those things

as teenagers, right?

And then we get to be adults,

and we do the same thing,

don't we?

It's so hard for us,

even when we're adults,

to recognize that sometimes

authentic love

involves confrontation,

sometimes it involves

disagreement,

sometimes it even

involves carrying out

the consequences

of an action.

Remember years ago,

someone in our church,

our previous church,

they had an adult daughter

that was just really struggling

with a lot of drug addiction,

and stealing,

there's just a lot of things

going on in her life,

and over and over and over,

her parents just kind of

bailed her out,

and finally she got caught again,

and they said,

you know what,

we're just going to let her

sit in jail now.

You know,

that was a loving act

on the part of those parents.

We don't think of it

that way often,

do we?

So it's not surprising

that when facing hardship,

we're tempted to question

the genuine love of God.

We go through something difficult,

we get really terrible news,

or we find out that there's an issue

in our bodies maybe,

we're sick,

or we find that

something's just not going right

in our marriage,

or it's not going right

with our kids,

or something's not going right

with our finances,

or our home,

or whatever it is,

and we think,

God,

why don't you love me?

You're supposed to care about me,

why are you letting

these things happen

to me?

And really that comes

from a misunderstanding

of what love really is.

We need to understand

that God disciplines us,

not as a cruel tyrant,

but according to the scriptures,

he does this as a loving father.

Proverbs chapter three,

my son,

do not despise

the Lord's discipline,

do not be weary

of his reproof,

for the Lord reproves

him whom he loves,

as a father,

the son in whom he delights.

It's God's love

that drives his discipline,

it's his desire

for what's best for us

that brings about his reproof,

and if you face his discipline

as a believer,

rejoice,

he treats you as a son,

not an enemy.

Wouldn't you rather be Israel?

The Midian in this circumstance?

The nature of divine discipline.

Number two,

the process of divine discipline.

Now God does something

really weird here,

doesn't he?

Verse seven,

when the people of Israel

cried out to the Lord

on account of the Midianites,

look what the Lord does,

this is so weird.

The Lord sent a prophet

to the people of Israel.

Don't you find that curious?

He sent a prophet

before he sent

a savior.

A sermon

before salvation.

This is like the talk

that you get from your parents

when you get in trouble

as a kid.

This is the worst part of it,

isn't it?

Isn't the worst part

about being disciplined

by your parents?

It's not the actual

disciplinary action mostly.

It's when you're forced

to go and sit down

in the living room

across from them

in the other chair

and for an hour,

two hours,

however long it is,

you just gotta listen.

You just gotta hear

why you're wrong

and why it was wrong

and why you need to change

and why you shouldn't

have done that

and all those.

Isn't that the worst part of it?

It's painful, isn't it?

We just want to take

our punishment.

We want to be relieved

of the punishment

and move on with our lives.

But good parents,

they take time

to expose

and confront the error

that led to the consequences,

right?

In God's plan,

what we see unfolding here,

in God's plan,

the consequences

are meant to get us

to that conversation

where we have to actually

deal with the issue

of our sin.

Israel comes to God

and they say,

Lord, help us.

Send us a deliverer.

And so God says,

okay, here's a prophet.

Listen to a sermon first.

It's so important

for us to understand

the necessity

of this part

of God's process

because we're typically

only interested

in our circumstances

getting better

and so we attempt

to leapfrog

God's message

to get what we think

will be a quick

and easy solution.

You know,

the times that

we're really struggling

with sin in our lives

are going through

a difficulty,

you know,

often those are

the hardest times

to go to church,

aren't they?

Those are the hardest days

to open up your Bible

and have a private

devotional time

with the Lord.

Those are the hardest days

to pray sometimes.

Those are the hardest times

to actually be around

other Christian people.

You know why?

Because we know

what's going to happen.

We know that

to actually have to

sit across the table

from the Lord

with the word open

means that we're going

to have to be confronted.

We're just going

to have to deal

with what we've done.

We don't want to deal

with what we've done.

We just want to get

to the solution,

right?

We need pastors

to help us view

our circumstances

through the lens

of God's word.

That's what this is about

in application.

We need pastors

and elders

to help us

see our lives

not just simply

through our perspective

but through God's perspective

through the word.

We need mature

Christian friends

in our lives

who will use

their Bibles

to lovingly say

to us the things

that are hard to hear.

Because often

it takes a prophet

to point us

toward the Savior.

Often it takes

a sermon

to get us

to the true message

of salvation.

We desperately

need to be confronted

by God's word

in this process.

We can't overlook it.

We can run to lawyers

when things are going bad.

They'll just take

advantage of our pain.

We can run to a therapist

when things

aren't going very well

but they're not going

to deal with the

heart of the problem

of our pain.

We can run to

unbelieving friends

because we know

that they're probably

going to justify

our decisions

no matter how bad

they actually are.

But what happens

when we come

to the word

and to other people

of the word?

It's hard.

It's a struggle.

But it's best.

Of course we can't

discount the Bible's

role in simply

helping us to

evaluate our

circumstances.

See there's another

layer to this

isn't there?

In this text

we're referring

to corrective discipline.

You know there's

another type of

discipline that

belongs to God?

There's corrective

discipline.

That's mainly

what we think about.

There's also

what we would

call formative

discipline.

Formative discipline

is what the

athlete does

to prepare

their body

for competition.

They go to the

gym every day.

They're like

Brian Baker.

They're up at

like 3.30 in the

morning to go

pump the iron

or whatever it

is and they

go to the gym.

They punish

themselves not

because they've

done something

wrong.

They're disciplining

themselves aren't

they?

Why?

So they can be

stronger.

So that they can

perform better.

There is a type

of discipline

that the Lord

takes us through.

It's not corrective.

It's formative.

Sometimes this is

what James was

talking about in

James chapter 1

James 1 · chapter mention

when he said

count it all joy

when you fall

into various

trials and

temptations

because the Lord

brings us through

difficult times

sometimes.

Sometimes he

allows us to go

through really

hard things in

order to make

us stronger,

in order to make

us more faithful.

There's a formative

kind of discipline

that the Lord

takes us through.

Now, formative

discipline and

corrective discipline,

what comes as a

result of those

things often look

the same, don't

they?

If we're just

trying to evaluate

it on our own,

how are we going

to know whether

or not the Lord's

just trying to

build me up right

now through formative

discipline or there's

actually something in

my life that he's

trying to get my

attention about?

How will you know

unless you have a

pastor or a

Christian friend or

somebody you can sit

down with who

will take the

Bible and help

you look at your

life and circumstance

through the lens of

God's word?

We need the prophet

before we need the

deliverer.

We need the sermon

before we need

the solution.

The process of

divine discipline is

not complete without

a confrontation from

God's word.

And we need to stop

trying to circumvent

God's process.

There's the nature of

divine discipline,

the process of

divine discipline.

Finally, and this is

the best part, there's

the purpose of

divine discipline, the

purpose of it.

Look with me at

verses 8 through 10.

The prophet said to

them, thus says the

Lord, the God of

Israel, I led you up

from Egypt and brought

you out of the house

of slavery.

I delivered you from

the hand of the

Egyptians and from the

hand of all who

oppressed you and

drove them out before

you and gave you

their land.

And I said to you, I

am the Lord your God.

This is an identifying

marker.

I am Yahweh your God.

You shall not fear the

gods of the Amorites in

whose land you dwell, but

you have not obeyed my

words.

Now if you'll hang with

me, this gets good here,

okay?

I want to summarize God's

message in two simple

statements, okay?

Here's what God is

saying to Israel through

this and what I believe

he's saying to believers

through this, through his

discipline.

Number one, he says, you

are mine.

You're mine.

Look at it.

Thus says who?

The Lord.

This is the covenant name

of God.

This is Yahweh.

And then what does it

say?

How is Yahweh described?

The God of Israel.

Look again at verse 10.

And I said to you, I am

the Lord, your God.

First thing God says

through corrective

discipline, he says,

you're mine.

You belong to me.

I belong to you.

This is that covenant

relationship, right?

Notice that God's

correction is based on his

relationship to Israel.

He does not deliver a

message like this to

Midian.

He delivers it to his

people.

And twice he reminds them

that he is their God.

They are his people.

God chose them.

He revealed himself to

them.

He delivered them from

bondage in Egypt.

He fought for them as

they journeyed into the

land of promise.

That's what he says.

He says, you're mine and

remember what I have done

for you to make you mine.

Their relationship with God

was the foundation of his

correction.

And it should have been the

motivation for their

repentance.

Is this not how God

intends to speak to us

through discipline?

Is not his discipline of us

who are in Christ, is not

that discipline rooted in his

relationship with us?

Just like Israel, he chose us

by his grace.

Just like Israel, he revealed

himself to us in the person of

Jesus Christ.

He delivered us from the bondage

of sin through the power of his

Holy Spirit.

And he fights for us as we

journey on our way to the

ultimate promised land, to the

heavens in this life.

His discipline is his way of

saying, hey, you're mine.

And look what I did to get

you.

Look at my son.

And it should serve as a

motivation for us to obey.

But it's not the only thing he

says here.

This is important.

He says, you're mine, but it's

only because they're mine that

he can now say this next thing

to them.

He says, and you've sinned.

You've sinned.

Verse 10, I'm the Lord your

God, is what he had told them.

And you shall not fear the gods

of the Amorites in whose land

you dwell.

But you have not obeyed my voice.

You know, I don't feel all that

bad about disobeying some people.

But there's a uniqueness to the

times in my life when I've

disobeyed my dad.

It feels different, doesn't it?

Ashlyn and Harper, I would say,

probably are a bit embarrassed if

one of you were to ask them to do

something and they were to disobey

that instruction.

They would probably feel embarrassed

by that, but they wouldn't feel all

that bad.

You know, when they disobey me,

though, it carries a different

weight, doesn't it?

God says, you're mine.

You've sinned.

This is the modern, this is the

ancient equivalent of, I'm so

disappointed in you.

At the heart of Israel's sin was

idolatry.

They were following after the gods

of the Canaanites, conforming to

their culture in ways that God had

expressly forbidden.

In fact, everything that they faced

here with Midian is exactly what God

said they would face in Deuteronomy

28.

You can read that later if you write

it in your margin.

Deuteronomy 28, 29, and 31.

God sent his messenger to the people

so that they would understand that

their enemy ultimately wasn't Midian.

Their enemy was their sin.

And a military victory wouldn't finally

solve their problem.

Only repentance could do that.

Thus, we discover the purpose of divine

discipline is this.

God disciplines us in order to lead us

to repentance because it is through

repentance that our fellowship with the

gracious God is restored.

Isn't that why all of this is rooted in

their covenant relationship?

He disciplines to lead us to repentance

because it's only through repentance

that the sweetness of fellowship and joy

inside the covenant is restored.

Now, to go all the way back to the beginning

now, if you try to pass off every hardship

of your life as either bad luck or the work

of the devil, and God is actually disciplining

you to bring you to repentance, you're never

going to experience the fullness of fellowship

and joy within his covenant that you could.

If you never get to the word, how will you

understand the dynamic of your sin?

How will you understand the love of God?

So that when you do come and confess your sins

to him and turn from your sin to experience

that, how will you know?

This is what it's about.

In the end, discipline is grace.

It's grace.

It's loving.

A loving discipline of God, it's not only a reality,

it's a necessity.

It's never easy.

But for a Christian, it's always good.

It's always good.

And understanding the nature and process

and purpose of it is what will move us from

a position of despising the discipline of the Lord

to rejoicing in the discipline of the Lord.

Hebrews chapter 12.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

He disciplines us for our good

that we may share in his holiness.

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.

Don't despise it.

Rejoice in it.

God doesn't treat you as an enemy.

If you're in Christ,

he treats you as a son.

His son.

Rejoice in his grace.

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