Episode Transcript
It's 10 o'clock.
I wanted to be sure the mic was on.
That's why I said it again.
Job chapter 5, verse 17 is our new text this morning.
Job chapter 5 and verse 17.
I've been encouraged lately to see new faces come into this church.
I always am.
And some of those new faces come back, which is even better.
So they're not new faces anymore, are they?
They're just faces.
And the Lord added the Huffacres to our number last week.
That was wonderful.
And if He wills it, others will be added to this church.
And our church has been so blessed And following up on something Brother Fulton mentioned last week, we only want to add those who are saved to the membership roles.
We welcome everybody.
We want lost people to come to the church and hear the gospel and be saved.
But we certainly don't want to add somebody to the membership who's not saved.
And that's why we have a class for them next door.
So that's our Genesis to Jesus class.
And we don't get in a hurry to see people converted.
Because conversion is God's work.
And our work is to teach the scriptures, to teach the truth, to help people understand the Bible from Genesis 1:1.
To the work of salvation there at the cross and the resurrection in the Gospels.
So, those of you who are here And those who are tuned in on the internet, if you're having trouble with salvation, not knowing for sure whether you're saved or lost.
Then I want to encourage you strongly to attend Brother Fulton's class next door.
And those of you online can watch those classes online.
I've gone through the Genesis since I've been here, I've gone through the Genesis to Jesus class twice online.
I'll put it on while I'm working out and in the middle of hoisting all of that tonnage.
I'm being fed the scriptures as well.
So if you have any questions about that, talk to Brother Fulton or me, or you can message us online, and we'll be glad to point you in the right direction.
Now we ended our last lesson learning how iniquity stoppeth her mouth and what that meant.
And now we're moving into a verse that when you read it, it might puzzle you just a little bit.
Perhaps you've come across this verse or these words.
There are more than one place in the Bible.
And it says, Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth.
To remind you, this is Eliphaz speaking to Job in the middle of Job's trials and tribulations.
As he sits on the ash heap with boils from head to toe, having lost family members and servants and livestock, and his life's been turned upside down and he doesn't know why.
And what does Eliphaz say to him?
Happy is the man whom God correcteth.
And more often in the Old Testament, that word happy is translated as the word blessed.
Or blessed, we say as well.
So he is blessed, or blessed is the man whom God correcteth.
They mean the same thing.
And we may not have a true picture of what this word happy means in a biblical sense.
And that's common for us.
We use words today, and they may be the same words we see in our Bibles. but they mean something different.
Either they have a more narrow definition or a broader definition or sometimes even a different definition than what they were originally intended.
And you know, when you hear, happy is the man whom God correcteth, it might make you furrow your brow a little bit.
A smile is a wonderful thing to behold on a person's face.
I like seeing smiles.
But I know the difference between a forced smile and a smile.
Maybe you've heard this.
If you don't smile with your eyes, you're not really smiling.
You can smile with the corners of your mouth, but if your eyes aren't showing it, there's something else going on in there.
I'm not a mind reader.
But I am a face reader, and that's part of what I did for a living and still do: read nonverbal communication from people.
And it's very helpful to have that skill.
But a smile is a wonderful thing to see on a person's face.
But a smile does not make you happy.
A smile does not mean you're happy.
My three-year-old or my number three granddaughter, who is three, is an empath.
If you know what that means, if someone else cries, she's going to cry with them.
You may not know why they're crying, but that's just what she does.
And she's a sweet little girl, but she's also quite emotional at times.
I'm sure none of you women were ever like that.
But she is.
And remember, a three-year-old is just a smarter two-year-old.
That's all they are.
And whenever she's upset about something, Her face will crumple up and those tears will start flowing.
Now, when my little girls used to do that, I'd tell them, straighten up.
But when my granddaughter does it I try to rescue her from the evil parent that made her cry, the evil that has so easily beset her.
And she has a poster on the wall of her game room, and it has all the drawings of the faces that we make.
There's a happy face and a sad face and a grumpy face and one that is worried and so on.
So when she's sad, I try to distract her and I'll say, Wren, what face are you?
And she'll say, sad.
And boy, she can say it more sad than anybody I've ever. known she can say the word sad and it almost makes you feel sad.
So then I'll ask her, which face is Tee Paw?
That's what she calls me.
That name came from a mispronunciation of the word grandpa by my first granddaughter, and it stuck.
And so I'll say, which face is teapot?
And she'll say, happy.
And just the act of saying the word happy when she's sad.
It starts turning corner for her.
She turns the corner.
And before you know it, she's back to playing again, forgetting the grudge that she might have had before.
And for those of you still mad at me for saying I told my little girls to straighten up when they were doing that, I sometimes did that, but I never did it when they were truly sad.
I was very loving with my daughters, and I didn't like to see them sad.
Now, a three-year-old probably doesn't understand what it means to be biblically happy.
And maybe you don't either.
So let's look at its alternate word, the word that is also translated from that same Hebrew word, and that word is blessed.
So, when you hear me read blessed, think happy.
When you hear me read happy, think blessed.
They mean the same thing in the Hebrew, and you'll find out also in the Greek, in the New Testament.
Psalm 33, verse 12 says, Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.
Now we're using this to learn about our text in Job 5:17, which is where we began this morning.
You could put the word happy in there.
Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.
When you see celebrations that happen in our country, and the one that came to mind during my study was Mardi Gras.
You might think, boy, everybody seems to be so happy.
Look at them celebrating and doing all this stuff.
And yet, for many who attend such a display of debauchery and drunkenness and immorality, they're not happy at all.
They may be hooting and hollering and carrying on and having what they believe is a good time, but for the majority of them, their God is not the Lord.
And for the nation whose God is the Lord, that nation is happy even when there is no celebration.
That nation is happy when there's tragedy.
Not because of the tragedy, but when there's tragedy, or when there's famine, or pestilence.
Or something else that overshadows them.
As they cry out in pain, physical pain in many cases, in misery, they're happy in the Lord.
The Apostle Paul said this about himself in Colossians chapter 1, verse 24.
If you're taking notes, Colossians 1, verse 24.
Speaking of himself, he said, Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church?
Now, how can a man rejoice when he is in affliction?
How can he be happy during trials and tribulations?
I seriously doubt the Apostle Paul had a big old smile on his face when he was being beaten with rods and shamefully treated and falsely accused.
But as he wrote, he rejoiced with a happiness that can only be found in those whose God is the Lord.
Another great example of this truth about biblical happiness or biblical blessedness is found in Matthew chapter 5. during the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus is teaching his disciples.
Matthew 5 is sometimes called the Beatitudes.
You actually don't see the word Beatitudes in the Bible, but that's sometimes what they're called.
And you'll hear the word blessed throughout those first few verses.
And as I mentioned a moment ago, the Greek word.
Translated blessed is also translated as happy in the New Testament.
Here's one, Matthew 5:4.
Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Now, this verse really drives it home.
That's what we think of as happy is not how the Bible teaches it.
After all, The average man on the street would not admit to being happy when he is in mourning.
And the word for mourn means to wail.
So this isn't just having a droopy face.
This is anguish.
It's intense.
But notice how the verse is written.
It says, Those who mourn are it says they're going to be comforted.
And people who mourn are naturally sad.
But they're also happy because of what will happen in the future.
And what will happen in the future, as the verse says, is they shall be comforted.
They shall be comforted.
This is a promise to those who mourn.
There's comfort awaiting the mourner.
It's the only hope we have.
Because in this life, We see sickness and tragedy and death and evil and every other consequence of sin.
And without the hope of comfort, there's no hope.
And for those who trust in Jesus, That promise of comfort is found in the person of the Holy Spirit.
Write down John chapter 14, verses 26 through 27.
John 14, 26 through 27.
Which says, and this is Jesus speaking again, but the comforter which is the Holy Ghost Whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you.
Peace I leave with you.
My peace I give unto you.
Not as the world giveth, give I unto you.
Now there's the difference right there.
Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
How can a man be happy when he is in mourning?
He can be happy by embracing the promise. of the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, who lives within the believer.
And this is the comfort Job has, even though he mourns the death of his children and his servants.
Now going back to the word blessed in Matthew 5 there that I just read you, there's another verse that Can help you reorient your definition of what it means to be biblically happy or biblically blessed.
It's Matthew 5, verses 11 through 12.
He said, Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely.
For my sake, rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven.
For so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
Now this one is even harder to understand.
But we're going to learn about it right now.
Let's compare this passage with the one before that says the mourner will be comforted.
When a Christian loses a loved one to cancer, not only does he have the promise of God's comfort, But it's frequently the case that people offer their comfort as well.
In fact, almost every case.
You go to a funeral home whenever there's a visitation for a person who's died, and you'll see the survivors there, and then you'll see family members and friends coming in from time to time to Hug their neck, shake their hand, tell them, I'm so sorry.
Is there anything I can do for you?
And that's across all cultures, all religions.
That sort of thing happens.
And sometimes the warm embrace of a friend or relative can ease some of the anguish you feel after you bury a loved one.
People will write cards, put Facebook posts, make other expressions of their condolences, and that means a lot to us.
But can you imagine having people turn against you when you most need comfort?
Can you imagine trying to be happy, to be blessed, when it seems that most of the world hates you and reviles you?
Well, that is the case in the verses I just read you in Matthew 5:11 through 12.
When people revile you, that means they defame you, they taunt you.
And when Christians are persecuted for Jesus' sake, unlike being comforted at a funeral, we may not be able to count on anyone to comfort us.
We probably won't enjoy the warm embraces and words of condolence offered to us when we're mourning the death of a loved one.
Jesus told his disciples their persecutors would say all manner of evil against them falsely Because of him, for his sake.
So, all the newspaper articles, all the Facebook and Instagram posts, all the rumors.
About you and the community will be false, but they'll spread anyway.
Even some of your family members, the ones who might otherwise offer you comfort at a funeral, will turn against you.
Matthew chapter 10, verses 34 through 36, Jesus guarantees this, what I just said.
Matthew 10, 34 through 36, he said, Think not that I am come to send peace on the earth.
I came not to send peace, but a sword.
For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
Now that's a sobering, hard truth.
Jesus, the same one who said men are blessed are happy When they are persecuted, reviled, and slandered, that same Jesus is telling us the sword he sends, which we've learned is the Word of God.
Will separate even family members.
Imagine being a persecuted Christian and being thrown into jail.
And while you're in jail, you call your unbelieving father on the phone and say, Daddy, I've been locked up in jail for preaching the gospel.
And if your father's an unbeliever, he may say, Well, that's too bad.
You should have kept your mouth shut and just gone along with the crowd.
Or you call your unbelieving brother, and he says, Well, what a fine mess you've gotten yourself into now with all that holy roller Bible-thumping religious talk.
Now, these are the people who are supposed to comfort you.
And Jesus said they won't.
He said, His sword will separate them.
With his sword, That will set a man at variance against his father, a daughter against her mother.
Now I can't think of a And these are the same people who held you at the funeral, who comforted you in the days after your loved one died.
After you mourned over the death of your child, they were there for you.
But in some cases, they now revile you.
And I can't think of a worse case to be in.
I can't think of a time when such a Christian would need comfort, but he finds no one on this earth to give it to him.
But it is to that man Jesus said, Blessed are ye, happy are ye.
Now, I went through some of those different examples in the Bible in hope that you would understand that biblical happiness cannot be truly understood.
Until you've known it during the trials and tribulations of life.
It cannot.
I'll tell you the times, and I'll bet, Brother, in fact, I've heard Brother Fulton testify of this too.
The times when my faith has really grown is when I was in trouble.
It's when I was grieving, or when I had really messed up, and God didn't take me out of this world.
That's when I really my faith really grew.
Every time he got me through the grieving process after one of my coworkers was assassinated by some thug on the streets.
Every time I lost a family member, every time one of my friends passed away.
And God got me through that.
He brought me to the other side, my faith increased.
And so I know He'll do it the next time it happens.
Let me show you one more example of this truth, not just being preached.
It'd be easy enough for me to just stand up here and say, You're going through tribulation, happy are ye.
But the one who I'm going to read about right here, in fact, Jesus did it too.
But with Paul, he lived it out.
He didn't just preach it, he lived it out.
Jesus lived it out.
He said the birds of the air have nests, the foxes, or the foxes of the foxes have nests.
Anyway, the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.
He came unto his own, and what did the Bible say?
His own received him not.
He knew what persecution was.
Well, so did the Apostle Paul in Acts chapter 5.
In Acts chapter 5, Simon Peter and the other apostles were being persecuted by the chief priest and the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
And the crime of the apostles was preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The consolation of Israel, the consolation of the very people who were persecuting the apostle, the Savior who came from their own nation.
And whereas they should have received comfort, the apostles should have received comfort from these Jews, their fellow countrymen.
The apostles were instead condemned by them.
And even though one Jew rose up, Gamaliel, and he defended the apostles, he said, Hey, Leave them alone.
If this work be of God, you can't overthrow it, lest you be happily found to fight against God.
And of course, these Jews agreed with it, and right after they punished the apostles anyway.
And I'll read from Acts 5:40 through 41, and I want you to listen to the response of the apostles.
After this happened.
And to him they agreed.
That is, to Gamaliel the chief priests, Pharisees, and Sadducees agreed.
And when they had called the apostles and beaten them, They commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.
And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer for his shame.
It's one thing if a man preaches that you are blessed, that you're happy when men persecute you and revile you. and speak all manner of evil against you falsely.
But Jesus, but the apostles not only preached it, they lived it out right in front of our eyes in the Bible.
They walked their talk.
They took the beatings, the shame that goes with it.
And they rejoiced.
No, no, there's no doubt they suffered greatly under the whip.
No doubt.
I'm sure it was excruciating having their flesh torn from their bodies, enduring the humiliation and the mocking and all of that.
But listen, their rejoicing, their happiness was not tied to whether a man approved of their gospel.
Not at all.
Because those religious Jews did not approve of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
They beat him and they flat out said, Do not go out here and preach that man's name again.
In fact, it wasn't tied to whether man believed their gospel, and it wasn't even tied to whether the religious leaders of that day approved of their gospel.
By God's grace, we don't stand up here and say, well, we're preaching this because other churches are preaching this too.
This is what most churches are preaching, and so we're preaching it.
That has nothing to do with what we preach.
But their rejoicing, their joy, their happiness was produced by the fact.
That they were counted worthy to suffer for Jesus' name.
Now, that's how you know they preach the true gospel, by the way.
Because all they had to do was go about Jerusalem and say the same thing the Pharisees were saying, get their sermon notes from the high priest.
They could have gotten their sermons from the synagogue and had them signed off on by the Sanhedrin, and they would have avoided all this trouble.
But not only did they not do that, they preached the pure gospel.
Not one that was watered down, not one that was mixed with works or legalism.
And not one that catered to what the people wanted to hear.
So now we understand how a man is blessed or happy.
Under such circumstances, and let's return to our text in Job 5:17, and let's see the circumstances of the blessed man of whom Eliphaz spoke, because it's a specific kind of man.
He specifies a particular kind of man who is happy, and this also makes no sense to the carnal mind.
He said, Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth.
That means to punish.
Now, if our If I were to say something grammatically incorrect up here and after the service, somebody said, Brother Andy, when you use the subjunctive form of the verb is, you said was, and it should have been were.
Okay, well thank you.
I'm glad you got something out of the message.
If you do correct me for something like that, that's not what this word correcteth means.
This word means punish or to discipline or to reprove.
All of those words are correct.
In fact, they're used in the Bible.
And so this really challenges our definition of happiness, doesn't it?
Because you say, well, that's kind of what the Apostle Paul went through there.
No, the Apostle Paul wasn't being corrected by God.
He was being persecuted by man.
He was correct, and that's why he was being punished.
And you may have been able to see.
That a person whose God is the Lord is blessed, is happy, as the psalmist wrote.
But it seems a little harder, to me, at least, to understand.
How a person whom God is disciplining could be happy.
And once again, we have to reshape our thinking.
When it comes to the words the Bible uses, that's why I read from the passages in Matthew and in Acts a few moments ago.
We can't be satisfied to define words in the Bible by the way they're used today, at least, not in all cases.
In some cases, it's the same.
And remember the person whom Eliphaz is addressing here when he says this: it's Job, the one who's in mourning, the one who doesn't understand why his children died.
Why his servants died, why his livestock were either stolen or killed.
He doesn't understand why his wife told him to curse God and die instead of retaining his own integrity.
Job doesn't see behind the scenes like we've been allowed to.
So he very well may have felt like he was being corrected for some sin that he wasn't aware of.
And in telling Job, happy is the man whom God correcteth, it would seem like Eliphaz is strongly suggesting Job.
You're being corrected right now.
That's what all this is: is God correcting you.
Now, we know that's not the case because of what the scriptures told us and will tell us.
But the truth of this saying can't be lost because it is a true statement.
Happy is the man whom God correcteth.
I'll again give an example of the parent-child relationship here because that is the relationship God has with us.
He is our Father.
We are His sons or His children by faith in His Son.
When my children were little, we had a rule in our house that you're not allowed to run inside the house.
We had a backyard where running was allowed.
We had a sidewalk where running was allowed, as long as you didn't run into the street.
Now, running, but inside the house, it was a walking zone only.
And for a little kid, running is a lot of fun.
You notice when little toddlers go from that controlled stumble to a dead run, they have the biggest time when they do that.
They run and they'll giggle and laugh.
They have no idea how dangerous that is for them because they don't have brakes yet.
All they have is an accelerator.
The brakes are whatever they run into or when they trip and fall on the floor.
But running is dangerous.
And in our house, probably like yours, we had hard coffee tables with sharp corners, glass windows, solid door frames that had corners on them and didn't move.
We also had other people walking around, so running into someone at full speed could cause an injury to both the child and the adult.
So when my children ran, I scolded them.
And if you looked at their little faces when daddy got on to them, you'd think they weren't loved.
You surely wouldn't think they were happy.
And one day, my Lauren, who was about three years old, was running into our living room, and before I could say a word, she ran straight into the corner of the door frame, headfirst, and it knocked her backward.
And it raised a large goose egg on her forehead, and her mom and I were scared to death.
So we called the doctor and said, Here's what we got.
Yes, it's us again.
Ms.
Jeremy saying, Amen, I know what that is.
It's us again.
And she said, if the swelling is on the outside and then not on the inside, we're good to go.
And so we were fine.
But I was terrified because I heard that awful thud of her little head against that unforgiving door frame.
And I wish to this day I could have protected her from that collision.
And I held her, she cried, and then I put, I don't think you have to get a prescription for this to this day, but I put boo-boo bunny on her head.
Do y'all know what booby?
Anybody know what boo-boo bunny is?
It's a little pink cube, girls.
Little pink cube that's got a liquid in it, and you freeze it.
And then there's a little wrap around stuffed bunny.
And it allows the child to put that on their head without it making their hand cold.
And for some reason, it works better than just a plain old ice cube because it's boo-boo bunny.
Well, I put that little boo-boo bunny on her forehead.
And you know what?
I didn't have to scold her because she suffered the consequences of disobeying dad's rule against running.
And unfortunately, she learned the hard way.
That her daddy's correction before this time was for one reason, and that was to protect her because I loved her and I didn't want her to get hurt.
And she didn't know it, but she was happy when I corrected her in some area that kept her safe.
And now she has children, and she fully, and I mean fully understands how happy she was because of her father who corrected her.
I can't imagine anyone loving their children more than I love mine, but I know most of you probably feel the same way about your children.
So we're all in a tie for first place, aren't we?
But God, our Father, loves us more than we could ever love our own children.
In fact, the Bible says twice in 1 John chapter 4, God is love.
And everything God does for us is out of his love for us.
In fact, he so loved us that he gave his only son to die for our sins.
Therefore, when he corrects us, he does it out of love.
Now, when you Tell your little child, I love you, sometimes they'll get a big smile on their face because they like hearing that.
But sometimes when you show them you love them, they don't always have the smile.
Now, with that being understood, hopefully, that we can be happy when God corrects us.
In fact, we are.
If you are His child, you're happy when He corrects you, even though your face may not show it.
Let's look at a passage about God correcting us.
We actually studied it on a Wednesday night many moons ago.
Proverbs chapter 3, verses 11 through 12.
I'll not reteach it, but I will read from it.
Proverbs 3, verses 11 through 12.
And you may remember Solomon wrote the Proverbs and that he's a type of Jesus writing to his children.
But here he says, 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.
Hebrews chapter 12, verses 5 through 7.
Hebrews 12, verses 5 through 7.
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?
And then if you skip down to verse 11 in that same chapter in Hebrews, verse 11 says, 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.
So that passage makes it understandable for us.
Don't despise God's chastening.
The Bible clearly tells us that He does that because He loves us.
In fact, he chastens every son or believer.
It's not just the men, it's the women too.
And if you've been here when we've taught about The word son or sons in the Bible, it's not always referring only to the male.
Sometimes it's referring to the entirety of the offspring from that particular person or from God.
But he chastens every believer whom he receives.
Nevertheless, when he does chasten you, it doesn't seem to be joyous at the time.
In fact, the Bible says it is grievous.
It is painful.
It doesn't make you feel too happy at that moment, the way we define happiness.
But what it yields is a good thing.
It yields fruit.
It yields peaceable fruit.
And that peaceable fruit is the fruit of righteousness.
God chastens his people because he loves us and he wants us to produce righteous fruit.
And Eliphaz goes on to tell us how we should not feel when it comes to this chastening.
We read in some other passages that same thing.
But look back in your text.
In Job 5:17, he said, Therefore, Despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty.
The word, therefore.
Relates this command to despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty.
It relates that command with the first part of the verse.
Because God corrects you, you ought to be happy.
And because you're happy, because God corrects you, you should not despise that chastening.
Now, in the flesh, if something makes us happy in a carnal sense, we don't despise it.
If you win first place in some sort of contest, You don't despise the blue ribbon or the trophy you receive.
You're happy you won.
We might say, I'm happy I won.
If you lose, you won't be happy about losing.
In fact, some people don't handle that very well, and most of them are adults.
Just go to a little league game.
Boy, adults know how to mess up kids' games, don't they?
The day adults got involved in pickup baseball games and turned it into a league was a sad day for children.
But anyway, I'll leave that one alone.
If you want more on that, you can see me later.
But that's how fleeting earthly happiness is, by the way.
It's often determined by whether the Dallas Cowboys won their game on Sunday or not.
And I bet you've worked with people.
I hope you weren't one of them, but I bet you've worked with people or been around people.
And when they come in Monday, they're mattering a wet hen.
And you say, What's wrong with you?
It's just Monday.
Are you mad because it's Monday?
No, the Cowboys got killed yesterday.
They played terrible.
And I mean, they're serious.
It has really affected them.
It stressed them.
It kept them up all night.
Over a silly game.
So, because a man whom God corrects is happy.
Then he should not despise God's chastening.
Now, what does it mean to despise?
It means to reject it, to disdain it, to Lightly esteem it to say, eh, it's no big deal.
You know, I've heard people tell me I just can't get my child to respect me.
He's out of control.
No, he's not.
He's in control.
He's in control of you, of your spouse, of your house.
They say, well, I've tried spanking him and that doesn't work.
Well, you're not doing it right.
If you discipline your child, make it memorable.
Make it an impactful event, one that they will not lightly esteem.
I'm not talking about child abuse because that's never done in love.
That's done in anger.
I'm talking about godly discipline, chastening.
The kind God's word describes when your teenager leaves the house in his car without telling you, without your permission, take his keys away and make him walk or catch an Uber at his own expense.
To school.
That'll make an impact.
And he will not lightly esteem your chastening.
He will not despise it.
And that's what the word means in our text.
And I'm afraid, as we close, I'm afraid some parents have become so mealy-mouthed that when they're trying to get their children to obey them, I've seen it in a supermarket.
I've seen it in the home.
I've seen it in the church.
I've seen it out in public and other places.
The mother tells her little girl, I'm warning you, get back over here, I mean it.
And the child never even acknowledges her mother.
Do you know why?
Because she despises her mother's chastening.
I'm going to count to three.
Let me tell you something.
God doesn't count to three, and neither did I.
I counted to zero.
If I said do it and it didn't get done, then we went to step two.
And yes, he is long-suffering.
But he means what he says.
He doesn't mince words.
When he told Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
He didn't say, Well, don't do it again, or else.
If you do that one more time, no, he'd already told them clearly one time.
And he told them exactly what the consequences would be if they disobeyed.
He warned them because he loved them.
He chastened them because he loved them.
He made them robes of animal skins because he loved them.
And because God chastens us out of love, we should never despise his chastening.
And with that, we'll close.
Father, thank you so much for the good attention for the people who are here and for those who've tuned in online.
Father, we thank you for your word today and what it means to us.
And I pray, Lord, that rather than being stiff-necked and hard-hearted, we learn from it.
And if we need to change something we're doing in our own lives, if we need to change an attitude that we have about when you chasten us, help us to do that today in Jesus' name.
Amen.
