Dr Greg Bahnsen - Proverbs: Proverbs 3:11-12 (Wisdom Welcomes God's Chastening) (Part 7)

At the beginning of the new year, we will be returning to Proverbs 3, 9, 10 having to do with the honoring of God with our substance. This morning, however, we turn to Proverbs 3 and take as our text verses 11 and 12, considering the theme of how wisdom welcomes God's chastening Proverbs 3, 11, 12. Hear now God's word, my Son, Despise not the chastening of Jehovah, neither be weary of his reproof. For whom Jehovah loveth, he reproveth, even as the Father, the Son, in whom he delighteth. Thus far the reading of God's Word it's awfully hard to arrive at the point where we become Calvinist. In theory, it's hard to come to the conclusion because it's so contrary to our natural bent, to our natural desire to see that God is sovereign in the affairs of men. It somehow is difficult because we can't understand all the mysteries involved, to believe that God predestines whatsoever takes place. We need to humble ourselves, to learn that what we consider fair is not what in fact is fair before the eyes of God. God does not owe salvation to all men, and therefore fairness is not the question. Mercy is the question. And therefore predestination is something accepted when we see the grace of God and we humble ourselves that he should deign to change the hearts of any. I say it is hard to come to the point where of believing in what is called the Calvinist outlook on Christian theology to have a reformed view of God. In theory. But it's not nearly enough. Hard, yes, not sufficient. Much harder. Much harder and much more important is to come to an understanding of Calvinism in practice. You see, those who are Calvinists have mastered the idea that God is in control of all things. In theory, we've mastered the idea that God in fairness, owes nothing to anyone. In theory, we have the idea that our salvation comes from God and we thank him for everything that comes from his hand. In theory. But Calvinism, that's only in theory is a very cold and a very inadequate thing. The Calvinism that practices is a wisdom that sees the chastening of God in your individual life as a blessing from him as well. When we come to Proverbs 3, 11, 12, we find out that the trust which verse 5 had required of us is not something mindless and naive. How often have I heard sermons and meditations on this Trust in Jehovah with all thy heart, and lean not upon thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he will direct thy paths. And I preached on that last Lord's day. We talked about trust as being foundational to showing tender hearted kindness to people, being truthful in all of our affairs and honest. That trust, however, is not the sort of thing that naive and mindless people can exercise. The book of Proverbs shows us that the trust God wants is a trust that's mature and hard won, something which is accompanied by patience and humility before God. We come in verse 11 to a new My Son exhortation. My Son, despise not the chastening of Jehovah. Now this exhortation we will see toward the end of this morning's message is quoted in the book of Hebrews, chapter 12, verses 5 and 6. There the author of Hebrews cites this proverb entirely and lays great stress upon the significance of the word Satan. Son, notice that God treats you as sons when he chastens you. The suffering which Christians endure shows that they are truly sons of a heavenly father. And so Hebrews will seize upon that word son, and really milk it for all that it's worth in terms of the application to our lives. Well, this exhortation as we find it in Proverbs would have us recognize that even those who serve the Lord sometimes meet with hardship. And the reason why that has to be said is because thus far in the book there have been any number of general promises made of security and prosperity for those who are wise, those who submit to God, those who will run their lives on his principles and in terms of trusting him, prosperity for those who know God, security for those who know God. And then you say, in fact, it was brought up in Sunday school a number of times, and I've been asked, but what about these exceptions? What about when affliction comes into our life? What about when there is hardship and distress? What about when there is trouble to be dealt with in my life? Well, in fact, the immediately preceding text that I'm going to come back to later says that if you honor Jehovah with your substance and with the first fruits of all your increase, your barns will be filled with plenty, your vats will overflow with new wine. Here's this promise of abundant blessing from God. Security from God. Prosperity from God. What do we do then when there is trouble? What do we do when there's hardship? What do we do when our lives are not working out well, when we aren't seeing prosperity, when we aren't well, when things are strained in our social relations or in our marriages? What do we do when hardship comes into our life. This text tells us how we should not be estranged from God in days of adversity, even as the preceding text had called upon us not to forget God in days of prosperity. The prosperity and the adversity of God have their work to do in our lives. And so this passage is seeking to show us that proper attitude that we should have toward difficulties. And it is seeking to give us an explanation of the misfortune that that comes into the lives of God's people. Now, am I talking to you about anything you're interested in this morning? Is this something that touches on your life at all things ever gone poorly for you? Have you ever had a hard day? Maybe this week, maybe this morning? Are you ever inclined, like the writer of Habakkuk or like David the psalmist, to cry out, God, why? What's happening here? This doesn't seem to fit the picture. This isn't what I had expected. This certainly isn't what I want. Why are you doing this to me, God? Why don't you let things go well for me? Why don't you give me carefree days and happiness and prosperity? Why don't you make it heaven on earth for me? Right now I want a rose garden. I don't want these thorns. Why are you doing this, God? No, I think this is a text which touches each and every one of us. In fact, it touches us more personally, more extensively, perhaps more sensitively than almost anything else we could talk about. Why do our lives sometimes seem to have these down moments? What's God doing? My son, don't despise the chastening of Jehovah, neither be weary his reproof. The word despise here is probably better taken in the sense of reject. It's the same Hebrew word that's found in 1st Samuel 15, where it says, because Saul rejected Jehovah, Jehovah rejected him. It wasn't so much despising each other as a rejecting of the ways of one another. My son, do not reject the chastening of Jehovah. You know, the natural inclination to hardship is not really despising. It's not contempt. Yes, we don't like it, but contempt is not what we naturally do in the face of hardship. We resent it, and resenting it, we reject it. I don't want this. I'm not going to accept this. I'm going to do everything I can to escape this. This isn't me. This isn't my plan, and I don't like it at all it's resented, it's rejected. And the author of Proverbs comes and he reasons, with you as children who are to have teachable hearts. And he says, my son, don't reject the chastening of Jehovah. And don't be weary, it says as well, neither be weary of his reproof. To be weary means to shrink away from it. Referring to an estranging of ourselves from God due to his discipline. Let me talk very personally to. I know, as a matter of fact, in my own life, and I would imagine in your lives, too, that we often have days when things are going poorly and. And we say, God, I don't need this. And we get kind of put out with God. And we want to turn our back and say, well, if this is what you had in store for me, no, thanks. And we estrange ourselves from God. I'm not going to read my Bible. I'm not going to be charitable to others. I'm not going to exercise myself to godliness and trustfulness and humility. Why should I put myself out? Look what I'm getting. It doesn't feel very good. No. We tend to shrink away then and become weary of the chastening of the Lord because we don't want his discipline. And when these two antagonisms. The one is emotional, resenting God's chastisement. And the other is volitional, shrinking away and turning our back on God when he treats us like this. When those two antagonisms take over, then the discipline of God is useless to us. The wise Christian, however, is the one who learns the acceptance of divine reproof. I want you to think for a minute here of the pianist or of the artist or an Olympic athlete, if you will, Perhaps a successful salesman or a budding scholar in any number of walks of life. Think of these people. All of them are in a position to be corrected in their labors. And it is never humanly easy to be corrected. Never. But, you know, the one who excels at playing the piano and the one who excels at being an artist. The one who excels at being an Olympic athlete or a successful salesman, the budding scholar who becomes brilliant. Those who excel are those who are responding properly to chastening. You see, it's not by resentment and rejection of discipline that they get ahead. It is rather by the mature acceptance of correction and using it to improve rather than rationalizing that they need not to improve at all. I want you to think of the chastening of the Lord as What a football coach does when a player isn't doing what he's supposed to in a game. Now sometimes football coach can get pretty angry about that, it's true. But you know, when a player comes over from in the game to the sideline and the coach is telling him, remember, this is what we taught you to do in practice. He's not doing that because he wants to bring some kind of final judgment on the player's life. There's a big difference between being a coach and overseer and being a judge of one's final worth. Likewise, if you're practicing the piano or working on your studies or improving your sales technique, when someone comes along and says, you know, this is what you need to do this correctly, this is how you've gotten off track. When we don't take that chastening and discipline and improve our lives by it, we become stubborn, hard hearted, and you know, it does not improve us at all. The discipline of the Lord is intended to mature you, to improve you, to show you his fatherly care that you come along to where you should be. And when you stand there stubbornly saying, no, thanks God, I resent this, I'm not going to have you treat me this way. Then obviously you aren't seeing what lies behind the chastening of God. You aren't seeing his attitude and you aren't noting how your best interest is in mind. What when these hardships come, you see, the troubles that come into our lives are a way used by God to discipline those whom he loves. The Bible says, for whom Jehovah loveth, he reproveth. That is, this is the proof of the favor of God toward us. As in so many areas of Christian theology, you see the irony where the natural reason of man would say, things are going bad, God's against me. The man who has wisdom, the man who has true faith and trust in God, who has matured in his Christian walk, says, things are going bad, God loves me. Wait a minute, that's not right. Things are going bad. God loves me. Exactly. That's the reasoning here of the book of Proverbs. For whom God loves, he reproves. If he didn't love you, he'd let you go your way. He'd give you up, he'd let you destroy yourself. But it's in favor that he gives affliction and hardship and grief and trouble to you. Job 5:17 says, Behold, happy is the man whom God reproves. Therefore, do not despise the chastening of the Almighty, the similarity between that expression and what we're reading here in Proverbs shows that the thought was a common one in Hebrew wisdom and instruction. It's the sort of thing that the teachers of wisdom were saying all the time, apparently. And why were they repeating this over and over again? For the same reason I've got to preach this kind of sermon over and over again. It's hard for us to accept. We all need to hear it, and we all need to hear it and hear it and hear it. And so we find it commonly in the Bible. And this is not simply an Old Testament perspective. The harsh God of the Old Testament who is overbearing and chastens his children. No, if you turn to Revelation 3:19, you'll see Jesus himself, our Savior, saying that he chastens as many as he loves. Chastening means love, not disfavor. And so Proverbs says, even as a father, even as a father chastens the son in whom he delights, even as so God chastens us. In Proverbs 13:24, we read that a father who refuses to chasten his son hates him. No, it doesn't say, a father who refuses to chasten his son isn't doing well by him or neglecting him or is letting down on his duties. He says a father who refuses to spank his son when his son is out of line hates his son. Hates him, Hates him. That's a strong word, and the Bible uses it. We need to sit up and take notice. Fathers, you hate your children if you don't discipline them. You know, you've probably, you know, in your neighborhoods, in your schools and so forth. You've realized there's a great contrast between the various parenting styles that are available in our. Our society. And we sometimes talk about that in our own home. And we make note of, you know, that in such and such a home, they don't believe in spanking their children, or they never get punished by their parents and so forth, or they don't get punished in this way or what have you. And we've tried to teach our children that. That shows that those parents don't love their children. So, boy, that's pretty judgmental. Well, it's pretty biblical, too. It's the judgment of God's word that a parent that will not train up that plant give discipline to it and nourishment to it to make it be strong and disciplined, sturdy, following in the right ways. That parent doesn't care for the child. It's called hatred. I want you to stop and think about it. If that's what God wants us to know about our human parenting. What should we think about God as a heavenly father? You know what the book of Hebrews will say when we come to read it later? It's very strong language. If God doesn't chasten you, then you are in fact bastards, spiritual bastards. You have no father. If you're able to get away with everything and your sin is not hemmed in, if your lack of trust is not worked on, if God doesn't force you to endure and to grow up in the faith, and then you are bastards. You don't have a father. You don't have one who loves you. You are hated. So, my son, don't despise the chastening of Jehovah. Don't be weary of his reproofs for whom Jehovah loves. He reproves even as a father, the Son in whom he delights. You know, it's as difficult for the believer to accept the disciplining of his heavenly father as it is for a child to receive the discipline from his earthly father. I'm convinced of that. I look at myself and I look at the counseling I have to do. I really think the parallel is a lot more than just some kind of vague resemblance. It's very close. You see, in both cases, the person who is being disciplined usually cannot believe that the father is doing it out of love for him. Children struggle with that. I want you to think of yourself and what went through your mind when your father would spank him. At the time the spanking was being administered, it was hard to believe that Daddy was doing that because he loves me. We thought of that as a real downer experience or something that alienated us from our parents. And sometimes, you know, spankings lead to a real huffy attitude in the part of a child. Turn and say, you obviously don't care for me. You say, well, but children have to grow up. They'll learn. They'll become parents. They'll find out that spanking isn't always done in wrath. Often spanking is done for the sake of love and discipline. Well, we say that of our children. What do we say about ourselves? What goes through your mind when God sends testing and hardship or sickness or grief or troubled times into your life? How do you respond to that? Now, I don't mean what would you say if you were asked right here on the spot to stand up in the congregation and give your Christian testimony about it? Because then, you see, we'd all be hypocrites, wouldn't we? We'd all say, oh yeah, we know, we're Calvinists, God's in control, all this is for our good. And we'd say that. I want to know what goes through your mind when it's happening to you. You see, we're like children. We need to grow up spiritually and we need to see things in a much wider and less present oriented perspective. We need to have a less feelings and self centered perspective on our lives to realize that when we're going through these tough times, God hasn't forgotten about us. God hasn't momentarily turned away from the universe. God hasn't somehow decided that he could welch on his promises to us when tough times come into our lives. God's saying, I love you, I love you, I love you. Now grow up, do what you should be doing. Get in the right ways. Trust me all the more. God is saying, I'm disciplining you as a sign of fatherly affection. Don't be huffy. Don't be like the child who says, you don't love me because you spanked me. No, spiritually we need to do better than that. The wise of heart will see that whom Jehovah loves, he reproves even as a father, the son in whom he delights. Well, why does God do it? Why does God chasten us? Why does God put us through tough times and deep waters? I'm going to give you seven reasons. We could go on and on, but if you need a reason besides just trusting that God's doing it for your good, let me give you seven of the reasons why God chastens us. You can look these up as your homework this afternoon. In the first place, the psalmist says that God's hand was heavy upon him to lead him to repentance. Psalm 32:3 5. Sometimes God weighs us down because God knows that we're becoming careless in our sin. And God wants to turn us around and make us stop and think, what's wrong with my life that things are going so poorly? And now be a Calvinist in practice, you see, don't say now wait a minute. Yeah. I grant I've always got things I can improve on. There's always sins I need to work on. But why is God doing this to me? He's not doing it to my next. My next door neighbor's not even a Christian. My next door neighbor is a womanizer and an alcoholic. My next door neighbor is a violent man. My next door neighbor uses foul language. He's getting along fine. Why is God doing this to me? You're a Calvinist. Calvinist knows that God does not in this life distribute on the basis of what we consider fair. You know why God hasn't done something to your next door neighbor? Because God is not showing love to your next door neighbor. He's letting your next door neighbor go his willful way to hell. And God's holding on to you and pricking and pushing and holding down and weighing upon you so that you'll finally look up and say, oh yeah, I'm wrong. I need to change. Don't start comparing your life to someone else and saying, God, you're not fair. That's not the reformed faith. That's not a belief in the providence of God. God's hand is often heavy upon you to bring you to repentance. Secondly, the Bible says he is often heavy with us to keep us from being condemned with the world. Look at 1 Corinthians 11:32 in that regard. Paul was very concerned that the Corinthian Church learned this lesson. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord that we may not be condemned with the world. As I just said, God sometimes is pricking us so that we won't go the way of the world and end up being condemned by it. Thirdly, God sometimes brings adversity into our life to humble and prove us. Read Deuteronomy, the eighth chapter this afternoon. God says, I led you through the wilderness all these years and I put you through grief and trial to try your heart, to see whether you would humble yourself before me, to see what you're made of, to see what kind of spiritual profession you really have in practice. Fourthly, the Bible says God sometimes brings adversity to us to refine away our impurities. We had a series on First Peter some time ago, and you may remember in chapter one of that Epistle, verses six and seven, Peter says, the trial of our faith is precious in the eyes of God. Even as silver is refined and gold is refined so that the impurities will be burned away. So God brings adversity and persecution and trouble into our lives so that those things which hinder our faith will be burned off. The only thing that will remain through the tough times is a heart that's set on God. That's another reason why he doesn't, and that in itself makes it worthwhile. Fifthly, though, God sometimes brings adversity to us to return us to obedience. Read the 89th Psalm. David says God did these things to me. God afflicted me and my children when we turned from the ways of his commandments. God sometimes wants to remind us of the right way in which to go. Sixthly, God does this to strengthen us in patient endurance. James 5, verses 10 and 11. I'd like to consider that just briefly because James mentions Job, which is part of the wisdom literature that we've been studying all these months. James says, take brothers for an example of suffering and of endurance. The prophets who spake in the name of the Lord, behold, we call them blessed that endured. Ye have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the end of the Lord. How that the Lord is full of pity. Merciful God strengthens our endurance by putting us through tough times. And seventhly, he increases our faith to be solely in him. The 38th Psalm and the 77th Psalm both take that as their themes. That God puts us through hard times. We'll realize we can't rely upon circumstances. We can't rely upon men. We can't rely upon pleasant relationships with others. We can't rely upon money. We can't rely on anything. But and you know, one of the reasons why we living in Orange county, enjoying so many blessings, material, social, psychological, spiritual, we enjoy so much in our lives. The reason why God sometimes has to put us through tough times is to remind us that we don't live for the sake of all those things. We live for the sake of God. He has to remind us that our trust is to be in Him. So you're asking, why is God taking away this thing that I enjoy so much? Why is God giving me so much trouble in this part of my life that is so important to me? Maybe it's because God wants you to stop and look up. God wants you to remember him. Let's read Hebrews 12, 5, 11 before we stop this morning. Because the book of Hebrews takes this specific passage in Proverbs and applies it to the tough times Christians were having in the days of the early church. The author of Hebrews says, don't misread the hardships and afflictions of your life. Hebrews 12 at the fifth verse. And you have forgotten the exhortation which reasons, with you as with sons, My son, regard not lightly the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art reproved of him. For whom the Lord loves, he chastens and scourges every son whom he receives. It is for chastening that you endure. God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom his Father Chastens not. But if you are without chastening, whereof all have been made partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons. Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us, as seemed good to them. But he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness. All chastening seems for the present to be not joyous, but grievous. Yet afterward it yieldeth peaceable fruit unto them that have been exercised thereby, even the fruit of righteousness. The thrust of this passage, if you're sons, God cares for you. And if God cares for you, he afflicts you. He afflicts you so that you'll share his holiness, so that even though it's grievous for the time afterwards, you look back on it and see it produced the peaceable fruit of righteousness in my life. That's why God's doing this. That's why you've had a tough time this week. That's why you were so down and so low. That's why you were so bothered. Because God loved you. And God said, you need to repent, don't you? You need to be saved from going the ways of the world, don't you? You need to be humbled and proved as to what your true character is. You need to have some impurities refined out of your life. You need to return to the path of obedience more purely. You need to be strengthened in endurance. You need to show that you have faith solely in me. And so I've put you through tough times, child, because I love you and I know you don't like to be spanked. But you're going to grow up someday and you're going to look back on this and say, look at the peaceable fruit of righteousness it produced in my life. Nowhere is our spiritual character more manifest than in our reaction to being under God's rod. When God brings the rod of chastisement upon us, then we see what's really in us spiritually. A truly good and mature life as a Christian requires that we learn to submit to God's discipline and to appreciate it. Hardest thing in the Christian life to say, thank you, God. I needed to be brought low. And nowhere is the liveliness of our faith and our trusting of God more insightful than in our reaction to the adversities he sends us. You see, it's Nothing less than. Than what we would expect from a father who loves us. Yeah, Calvinism in theory is hard to come to. I don't even think it's half a step toward what God really wants, though. And that's Calvinism in practice, the Calvinism that says, I know my heavenly Father is in control. I know that he is fair. I know that whatever he does is for my good, even these tough times. And that's why when your pastor calls on you and you're having a tough day, you'll hear him say, sometimes, practice your Calvinism. Practice your biblical faith in the sovereignty of God. In the year 1552, there were five young students who were imprisoned in Lyon, France, awaiting martyrdom. And they wrote very touching, tender words to the Church in Geneva that had taught them the Calvinism, the sovereignty of God, which I have spoken this morning. And these are the words they wrote. We testified that this is the true school of the children of God in which they learned more than the disciples of the philosophers ever did in their universities. They went on to praise God for giving them by his grace. Listen to these words. Not only the theory of His Word, but also the practice of it. May God make us students like that, students in adversity. To see that God is educating and disciplining us for our good. Let's practice the Calvinism we so often profess. Let's pray. God, we are humbled this morning by our inconsistencies, our lack of faith and our sin that we have professed with loud mouths often that we have faith in you, and yet when you put it to the test, we have shown how wayward we are and how we lean on our own understanding. Oh, God, forgive us for our bitterness and forgive us for trying to forget you when things were not going well. Forgive us for wanting a Christianity only when it pays off in the way we had expected. Give us true and living faith this morning, enduring faith, persevering faith, faith that looks to a heavenly Father and in the midst of the most dire emergencies and most dreadful extremes of life, can say, thank you, Father, I needed your chastening. Help us to turn the troublesome times of our lives into opportunities for sanctification, for growth and faith and love and endurance. Indeed, help us, even like our Savior Jesus Christ, who went through such great adversity, humiliation and despair, to endure those things for the joy that is set before us as well, the joy of seeing peaceable fruit unto righteousness produced because you have loved us enough to spank us. We thank you for that, Father. In Jesus name, amen.