How many of us cringe when watching a parent unjustly spank his child in public?
(Is God this type of parent? I mean, why would He discipline us for no reason?)

05 / 05 / 07
(NIV used)

FIRST THOUGHTS:

Last week we studied about what sin was, is, and will always be (Man can say all that He wants, but God say His Laws are eternal, so we need to be practicing God’s Law … NOT to gain salvation like many of the Jews were trying to do, but out of love of God!). How many of us have heard cliché’s like:

- “It doesn’t matter if we sin, because God will forgive us anyway.”
- “Since He takes our sins away, it no longer matters if we sin.”
- “We just have to love our neighbor as ourselves, and since we already love God … well, we stand in righteousness before Him since all He sees when He looks at us is Christ’s righteousness!”
- “If that’s what you believe, then great for you, but I show God I love Him by merely praising Him.”
- “Jesus obeyed all those laws so that we don’t have to.”
- “The Law was for the Jews in the Old Testament; they didn’t have grace like we do today.”

If the above cliché’s are true (and they are not, as they are quoted), then why would God discipline those He loves? For what reason? Does God have bad days and simply takes out His heavy work load on us poor and helpless creatures? You know, like going home and kicking the dog to get your anger out. I think not!! I don’t know about you, but the reason that I discipline my children is when they do not obey me. I do this to train them because I love them. How much more does a loving and just God do so with His children? What is the standard that we must follow in order to avoid discipline, though? I mean, I do not discipline my children without letting them know what it is they are to obey, do you? God has already given us His standards (His Laws, commands, statutes and decrees) and He has given us an example of how to obey them (His Son, Yeshua (Jesus)) and He did not stop there! He also gave us His Spirit to teach us His Laws! We have no excuse!

Right here, let me say:

- I have learned that He is serious about honoring His Sabbath. I learned this fact through trials and errors, by things just not going right … being disciplined by God.
- I have learned that my Father is serious about what He desires me to eat. How? By being disciplined by Him who loves me (I ate sand when I was a child, although my Mother told me not to. She explained that it was not food. I thought it tasted pretty good, though! My Mother would discipline me when she found out that I disobeyed her command.).
- I have learned that He is serious about all of the Laws that I now enjoy, because of being discipline by God. Discipline can be painful, but I knew that God had my best interest in mind.

I do not like it when I am disciplined. It does not feel good, and sometimes I rebel. But when it is done righteousness (obedience) is the result, and I look more like the One who gave His life for me. Then, on to the next sin!! “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” (Hebrews 12:11)

WHY WOULD GOD DISCIPLINE US IF THE LAW IS NO LONGER FOR US?

- “Do not bring a load out of your houses or do any work on the Sabbath, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your forefathers. Yet they did not listen or pay attention; they were stiff-necked and would not listen or respond to discipline.” (Jeremiah 17:22-23) (I will use only one verse out of the Old Testament, although it is FULL of God’s love and mercy as He repeatedly tries to make them turn towards Him and obey Him.)

- “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent.” (Revelation 3:19) (To repent means to turn from one’s sin and obey God. We must make sure that our sorrow over sin is godly and not worldly though!! “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” (2 Corinthians 7:10) We have all seen worldly sorrow … “oops, I got caught. I must be more careful next time to hide my deeds more secretly.”)

- “And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not make light of YHVH’s discipline, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you, because YHVH disciplines those He loves, and He punishes everyone He accepts as son.” Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.” (Hebrew 12:5-8) Did you catch that last part? They are claiming to be sons and daughters, but since they do not accept discipline, they are not truly sons and daughters. I do believe that the majority of “Christians” are not saved but merely deceived. The gate is small and path is narrow and only a few find it (Matthew 7:14). These devotions are only for those who are trying to figure out God’s ways and know that the church is not “where it is at” in most cases. I often was confused when I saw a “self proclaimed Christian’s” life going along at ease and never in pain. They never acknowledged God’s Laws, nor did they desire to. “Why, Father?” The response was clear: “You are always righteous, O YHVH, when I bring a case before you. Yet I would speak with you about your justice: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?” (Jeremiah 12:1)

- “When we are judged by YHVH, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world.” (1 Corinthians 11:32)

- “If we deliberately keep on sinning (I cannot emphasize more about there being a big difference between deliberate, intentional sin, and truly not knowing, which is sinning unintentionally.) after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the Law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. HOW MUCH MORE SEVERLY do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that SACNTIFIED him, and who has INSULTED the Spirit of GRACE?” (Hebrews 10:26-29) Again, by saying that we don’t have to obey God’s Law, we are treating the blood of the covenant as unholy. For His Spirit is supposed to be writing God’s Laws on our heart, so that we can obey them. By saying some of those cliché’s at the beginning, we are insulting the Spirit of grace. Even Paul addresses this: “Do we, then, nullify the Law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the Law.” (Romans 3:31). So when we say that we are saved by grace and no longer have to obey, this insults the grace that God is extending to us.

- True children of God should be appalled by the acts of those who are not obeying God. Take special note of the last part of the following passage. The unrighteous are not punished now, their time is coming! They follow their own desires of being in charge of their own lives and despise God’s attempt to have authority over them by giving them rules to obey. “(for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard) – if this is so, then YHVH knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment. This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority.” (2 Peter 8-10a)

- When a sin is revealed to a child of God, that child of God despises that sin and desires to rid it from His life. THAT is freedom and shows that we are slaves to the Spirit who is sanctifying us. It also shows God that we understand what He is asking of us. Now to those who continue to say there is freedom from God’s Law, they are not free at all, but are slaves to sin that controls them. Yet, “They (leaders) promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity – for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Yeshua Messiah (Jesus Christ) and are again entangled in it (Corruption, or sin) and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”” (2 Peter 2:19-22) Unlike what we may been taught, this is NOT God’s Law that we were entangled with … it is SIN!! For me to start disobeying the Sabbath, now that I have known the sacred command, well, I would have been better off never knowing it in the first place. I tasted the goodness, yet would be turning against the Spirit! He died for that sin, and when I realized the truth, He forgave me and all the times I sinned against Him by not obeying it out of my ignorance to it! To go back now, well … ) “It is impossible for those who have been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Sprit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting Him to public disgrace.” (Hebrews 6:4-6)

- This next passage may be a hard pill to swallow. You may want to cut it in half. We all say it, but do we believe it? The Son of God was 100% man (and also 100% God). By being 100% man, though, how did HE learn obedience? “During the days of Yeshua’s (Jesus) life on earth, He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverent submission. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from what He suffered and, once MADE perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him.” (Hebrews 5:7-9)

LAST THOUGHTS:

Just think about it! We now know what sin is. So, when the Law of God says, for instance, to stand up before the gray haired person, does it become utterly sinful when you do not? Or is sin like a buddy to you? “So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good. Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment, sin might become utterly sinful.” (Romans 7:12-13) (How would we know what sin was, unless there was a Law that said so?)

“Let those who love YHVH hate evil, for He guards the lives of His faithful ones and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.” (Psalm 97:10) (Of course, this is nothing new: obedience by faith.)

I just hate when He uses that big paddle … I try to avoid it at all costs.