HAPPY CHASTENING

I want to begin this morning with the story of young Bible character.

We know very little about him personally. What we are aware of is that

·   He came from promising stock – one of the sons of King David.

·   He would have grown up with prestige, comfort and every advantage for the future.

But the Bible does give one shortcoming this young man experienced,

1 Kings 1:6 (KJV)

And his father had not displeased him at any time in saying, Why hast thou done so? and he also was a very goodly man; and his mother bare him after Absalom.

Adonijah’s one downfall in life was that his father had never disciplined him or told him no.

Now David is old and near his death.

David had many sons and one of them was certainly going to be king.

·   Without conferring with his father

·   Without considering the will of God

·   Without acknowledging that some other plan had already been in play

Adonijah, who had never heard “No” from his father, assumed the role of king for himself.

But Adonijah was not the son God had in line for the next king and David knew it.

Solomon was crowned, and – before everything was said and done, Adonijah was ordered executed by his own brother.

I want to ask you, did the lack of discipline, of chastening, of correction from his father make Adonijah happy or not?

Open your Bible’s to Psalms 94:12 (KJV)

Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD, and teachest him out of thy law;

(PRAYER)

I want to speak on an unusual subject this morning but one that is biblical – happiness through chastening.

I will begin by simply saying that this is

I. BIBLICAL TEACHING

Psalms 94:12 (KJV)

Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD, and teachest him out of thy law;

I don’t imagine I would get many raised eyebrows to this verse this morning.

Most of us would acknowledge that there is blessedness that comes from discipline or chastening.

But, as I have said repeatedly this year, the word blessed means happy.

I think there is good reason the Bible says blessed instead of happy.

We would probably forget the spiritual component to happiness if that is the word the Bible used all the time.

We want to be happy so badly that we will do about anything to be happy.

But we can be less willing to be blessed.

In this case, the Bible itself gives me adequate demonstration that the word blessed and happy are related.

We have Psalms 94:12 (KJV)

Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD, and teachest him out of thy law;

And we have a parallel, almost word for word passage found in Job 5:17 (KJV)

Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty:

I don’t remember the first time I heard it, but I heard it again last Sunday when Pastor Pettipiece said, “God said, that settles it.”

What you hear most of the time is a version that goes instead, “God said it, I believe it, that settles it.”

Truth is, it doesn’t matter if I believe it or not or agree with it or not. What God says is true – period.

Now, what I want you to notice right away in our text is that there is a Bible truth here but necessarily a reason for it.

It’s just, “Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD, and teachest him out of thy law;”

I want to tell you that this should be all we ever really need.

We, who are the children of the Lord ought to just trust God because God says something.

·   We ought not need an explanation

·   We ought not have to have a reason

God is God.

The entire reason people need explanations and reasons is because, in the corrupt nature, we view ourselves

·   as authorities,

·   as judges of good and evil,

·   as god

Just believe and trust God.

You will be happier for it.

On the other hand, the God who allowed Eve and Adam to be tempted in the Garden, often seems to honor our thirst for answers.

So the Bible takes us beyond just accepting that the happiest people are those disciplined people and give us secondly some,

II. BIBLICAL EXHORTATIONS

Proverbs 3:11 (KJV)

My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction:

We saw this same exhortation in Job 5:17 (KJV)

Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty:

·   The first thing I ought to do with this Biblical teaching that the blessed man is one whom God chastens.

·   The second thing I ought to do then is to “despise not” that same chastening.

I hear arguments like this fairly often:

“I know that the Bible says this. I know that it is what would be best, but it is not what I want.”

·   “I know I should wait for the mate God has for me, but I love this guy right now”

·   “I know I should get the kind of job that honors God, but this one pays very well”

·   “I know I should only live where there is a good church to attend, but I have this opportunity to be promoted there”

·   “I know I should obey my parents, but they don’t understand me”

In this case it would sound like, “I know that I will be happier if I submit to the chastening of the Lord, but it’s not pleasant so I am going to run from it.”

Hebrews 12:5-11 (KJV)

And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, 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 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.

Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.

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 thereby.

From this New Testament expansion of Proverbs 3:11 we learn that,

A. Chastening is an act of God’s love

The very fact that God chastens us is an indication both of His care for us and His relationship to us.

When my kids were growing up, Anita and I were quick to

·   correct,

·   discipline and even

·   punish

them when they got out of line.

It was frequent enough and often enough that there were people who challenged us to back off –

·   It was unpleasant for them

·   It was they thought unfair to our kids and

·   It was convicting to them because they didn’t discipline their kids like that

We took our training of our boys seriously.

·   We didn’t back down

·   We didn’t let them off the hook

·   We didn’t take our eyes off of them

They were our kids, our responsibility and we loved them.

On the other hand, we never disciplined other people’s kids, at least not anything like we did our own.

In effect, the way Bohannan and Caleb could tell I was their dad is because I freely took them into another room for a good licking!

If you aren’t saved, you aren’t a child of God and He doesn’t chasten you.

If you are saved, you are His child. He loves you and you can be thankful that He chastens you.

B.  Chastening doesn’t last forever

The happiest people in the world are those whom God chastens.

But that doesn’t mean that we are happy about the chastening.

It’s not pleasant at the moment it happens.

Thankfully it generally only happens for a moment.

The chastening has an end.

C. Chastening has a positive purpose

…“afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness…”

The reason blessed people are those people who are chastened by the Lord is because the chastening produces “the fruit of righteousness.”

Psalm 119 gives us two fruits of chastening

III. BIBLICAL RESULTS

A. Psalms 119:67 (KJV)

Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.

Can you agree with me that the affliction the Psalmist speaks of is a type of chastening?

Before the affliction, before the chastening he said he went astray.

·   He couldn't stay on focus

·   He couldn’t keep from backsliding into sin and flitting around from this sin to that

But he said that after he was afflicted, he kept God’s Word.

I see a ton of people who claim to believe God’s Word and from time to time will walk a little bit with God. But they are like a kid who can’t keep in his seat, pretty soon, they jump around like they have had too much sugar.

Sooner or later, if they are God’s children, God brings some sort of affliction into their lives – that chastening helps still their mind and discipline them to get serious about the things of God.

B. Psalms 119:71 (KJV)

It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.

The words correction, chastening and discipline are related to one another and the relationship all has to do with learning.

In education

·   Mathematics is a discipline

·   Philosophy is a discipline

·   Grammar is a discipline

It is a course of study.

One of the keys to understanding the Word of God is discipline.

Before we can ever really

·   walk with God and

·   trust God, we have to

·   submit to God

Conclusion

I began this message with the Bible story of a son who was not disciplined enough.

Allow me to end the message with another Bible story. The Bible says of Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God,

Hebrews 5:8 (KJV)

Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;

Jesus was not chastened in the sense of being corrected from wrongs He had done, but He was chastened in the sense of suffering affliction and learning obedience through it.

Would you agree that Jesus was a blessed and eternally joyful Person?

In fact Jesus said,

John 15:11 (KJV)

These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

Jesus was so filled with joy, that His desire is that His disciples would have His joy.

You will never be happier than you are when you have:

·   submitted yourself to God

·   committed your soul’s salvation the Lord and

·   learned God’s statutes through His discipline in your life.