Proverbs 21:11-12 (KJV)
When the scorner is
punished, the simple is made wise: and when the wise is instructed, he
receiveth knowledge.
The righteous man wisely
considereth the house of the wicked: but God overthroweth the wicked for their
wickedness.
I am currently listening to a lecture course from Yale on Roman History.
This particular course concentrates on that period of Roman History that was so
heavily influenced by Christianity.
In his lecture on Augustine’s
Confessions, Professor Paul Freedman observes that the heart of the debate
between liberals and conservatives is the issue of the “perfectibility of man.”
· Liberals believe that man can be perfected if but given the
chance.
· Conservatives believe that man is by nature sinful and, if
given the chance, would become more sinful.
A conservative then,
believes in intervention against sin.
Given that definition,
the Bible is, without question, a conservative book.
It teaches us:
· The nature of sin
· The sinfulness of man and provides us with
· The instrument to restrain sin – punishment, chastisement,
judgment
Based on this
passage, I want to preach to you on the value of punishment.
I. THE
PUNISHMENT OF THE WICKED
Proverbs 21:11-12 (KJV)
When the scorner is
punished, the simple is made wise: and when the wise is instructed,
he receiveth knowledge.
The righteous man wisely
considereth the house of the wicked: but God overthroweth the wicked for
their wickedness.
· From the original sin of Adam and Eve
· To the judgments of the Flood and of Sodom and Gomorrah
· To the civil laws of Moses
The Word of God:
· Demonstrates
· Instructs upon and
· Urges
justice.[1]
The whole basis of being
righteousness is built on the concept of merited punishment.
If a judge heard a case,
was convinced of a man’s guilt, and let him free without some punishment equal
to the crime, we would call that judge, “unjust.”
As wonderful as it is to
know and trust that God’s mercies are new every morning, God’s mercy would be
meaningless unless we expected “justice”, the punishment we deserve.
If there were no
justice, no punishment of sin
· Mercy would be meaningless
· Grace would be valueless and
· The number of crimes would be measureless
II. THE
INSTRUCTION OF THE SIMPLE
Proverbs 21:11 (KJV)
When the scorner is
punished, the simple is made wise: and when the wise is instructed, he
receiveth knowledge.
God allowed Anita and I
to raise two boys.
(We had two other
children, but it was not the Lord’s will for us to watch them grow up.)
We did get the
opportunity to watch my two sons grow to adulthood, and to see the
differences in them.
Don’t get me wrong – I
think both of my boys are perfect.
They are not perfect
people but they are perfectly my children and I love them both with every fiber
of who I am.
But they are different.
From the day my oldest could stand up he was openly defiant.
· He would see something on the coffee table
· We would tell him not to touch it and
· He would look us in the eyes and touch it
As he got older he would announce to us things like,
· “I’m going to tear the wallpaper off the wall now!”
· “I’m going write on the wall with a crayon now!”
· “I’m going to throw a ball through the window now!”[2]
When he got older still he would tell he and his mother when he disapproved of our choices when
they impacted him in ways he didn’t like.
Consequently my oldest son got, shall we say, loads of spankings.
· Multiple times a day
· Almost every day
Sometimes he would get
out of bed with an attitude that I knew was going to lead to a spanking.
I would spank him before
he had technically done anything wrong because I knew it was just a matter of
time before I would need to spank him anyway.
my youngest son, on the other
hand, was a totally different child to raise.
· The oldest did not sleep the first three nights of his life.
· TThe youngest slept soundly from the day he came home.
Our youngest son was always
quieter.
But that did not mean he
was any better.
Anita called him,
“Silent but deadly.”
· The oldest would announce he was going to tear the wallpaper
of the wall.
· The youngest would sneak into the room and tear it off while you
weren’t looking.
My boys now
admit that the oldest got into a lot of trouble that, really the youngest started.
But this one thing
became very evident as they got older – my youngest saw those things that got his brother into the most trouble, and he avoided doing those things – at least
so that we would find out about it. J
To aggressively discipline
wrongdoing has the value of instructing others and preventing them from doing
those same wrong things.
Used to be capitol
punishment was not only more frequent but also always executed publicly.
The idea was prevention;
to teach others not to do what these people had done.
The first value of
punishment is justice upon the sinner
The second value of
punishment is that it instructs the wise.
III. THE
MINISTRY OF THE RIGHTEOUS
Proverbs 21:12 (KJV)
The righteous man wisely
considereth the house of the wicked…..
I want to execute a
sudden shift of temperament in the message now.
· Punishment
· Justice
· Sentence
All of them have a sense
of vengeance and retribution.
But there is a side of
punishment that is much more charitable. Everyone who is suffering, even those
who are suffering justly, are in need of God.
Often times, the
greatest good that comes out of merited punishment is the humbling of the
punished so that they are sensitive to hear from God.
Even if the offender is
not willing to hear from God, they invariably have family members and friends
who now suffer because someone they love is under punishment.
· A son in jail leaves a mother and father who need grace
· A husband in prison leaves a wife in financial as well as
spiritual need
· A dad incarcerated leaves his children in need to role
models, mentors and direction
And all of that provides
Christians opportunities to be ministers for the grace of God.
Brother Clayton told me
a story I think might be appropriate right now. He said he can remember when,
as a little boy during WWII, the teachers would call all the school children to
get on their knees in the front of the classroom and pray for our soldiers.
He said America was
scared.
We were at war with not
one, but two of the most powerful countries in the world at the time and no one
knew for sure if we could win.
So teachers would urge
their school children to pray.
The Battle of Midway, he
said, was a turning point in the war with Japan.
The Japanese fleet had
an armada on its way to Midway, attempting effective domination of the Pacific
Ocean.
The Japanese admiral
knew the United States would resist them and he had planes out scouting the
Ocean for the American fleet.
They spotted one of our
Aircraft carriers and sunk her.
But the Japanese admiral
knew there had to be others.
It was crucial to how he
would fight Midway.
· If there were other Aircraft carriers, he would use
torpedoes in his attack.
· If there were no other American aircraft carriers at Midway,
then he would bring his heavy bombs to the deck of his ships and start bombing
Midway.
America did have other
aircraft carriers out there and a Japanese reconnaissance pilot had spotted
them. But his radio did not work so the Japanese Admiral did not get his
message.
The Japanese had all
those planes and bombs on the deck of their aircraft carriers when the American
pilots arrived. Those bombs went off and the Japanese navy lost in what some
historians call the most decisive battle in naval history.
Brother Clayton said God
blocked that Japanese pilot’s radio signal in response to thousands of school
children praying for their US soldiers.
And the school children
prayed because their teachers, their country was afraid.
What I am trying to say
is that when punishment is fairly and consistently administered, whether it be:
· A parent chastening his children
· A judge sentencing a criminal or
· A nation defending liberty
People are humbled,
afraid and in need to ministry.
Conclusion
The lessons from this
message then would be
· Despise not the chastening of the Lord
· Listen to the rebukes of authorities in your life and
· Reach out to minister the grace of God to those who are under
discipline
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