Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Prayer Meeting Lesson Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/pm/pm20110706.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Hebrews: The Superiority Of Christ To Errant Religions
Part VI: The Response Of Faith To Christ's Superiority, Hebrews 11:1-13:19
H. Living By Faith Applied, Hebrews 12:1-13:25
2. The Exhortation To Be Optimistic In Trials Of Living By Faith
(Hebrews 12:3-11)
  1. Introduction
    1. Sometimes the trials we face in living by faith in the promises of God's Word tend to be so big and painful that we wonder how we can ever deal effectively with them.
    2. The recipients of the epistle to the Hebrews faced such trials, so the author of Hebrews gave invaluable insight on effectively dealing with such trials in Hebrews 12:3-11 (as follows):
  2. The Exhortation To Be Optimistic In Trials Of Living By Faith, Hebrews 12:3-11.
    1. Our trials of faith are not impossible to handle, for as long as we are still alive, we can face them, for Jesus' trial of faith is our example, and He was faithful unto His death on the cross, Hebrews 12:3-4.
    2. Our trials of faith are not impossible to handle, for we can be spurred to face them properly by recalling God allows them to occur to discipline us unto greater righteousness in living, Hebrews 12:5.
    3. Our trials of faith are not impossible to handle, for the discipline that God allows us to experience in them indicate He loves us as His true sons, Hebrews 12:6. Thus, discipline by trial should cause the believer to appreciate God's love and value of him (Hebrews 12:7), for the lack of chastening indicates a lack of true spiritual sonship with God, Hebrews 12:8.
    4. Our trials of faith are not impossible to handle, for we know that if our earthly fathers disciplined us as children, and we respected them for it, then when our Heavenly Father disciplines us under trials, we surely must respect Him, Hebrews 12:9.
    5. Our trials of faith are not impossible to handle, for when God uses them to discipline us, unlike our earthly fathers who disciplined us for a limited time that we might do what they willed though they were imperfect men, our heavenly Father disciplines us in pure righteousness as an ongoing experience of our Christian lives so that we might partake of His holiness with great side benefits, Hebrews 12:10. Thus, we should not only respect God as we would an earthly father, but rejoice in His discipline that is so wholesome for us, a truth expounded more fully in Psalm 19:9b-11 (as follows):
      1. Psalm 19:9b indicates that God's "judgments," the mishpath, or the "due administration of judgment" (Kittel, Biblia Hebraica, p. 990; Robert B. Girdlestone, Synonyms of the Old Testament, 1973, p. 101), are "reliably true" (emet, Ibid., Kittel) and "all together righteous" (tsadqu yahdav, Ibid.) Every single discipline of God, and thus all of His disciplines taken together, are fair, accurate and upright!
      2. Psalm 19:10 thus indicates those disciplines are to be desired over gold, even over much pure gold, and that they are sweeter than honey, even than raw honey from the honeycomb in its wholesome goodness.
      3. Furthermore, Psalm 19:11a reveals God's judgments warn the believer to correct his way lest he get into greater punishment or loss to himself by continuing in a course of life that is unwise and errant.
      4. Finally, Psalm 19:11b NIV claims that "in following the dictates of" (beshamram, Ibid., Kittel; B. D. B., A Heb. and Eng. Lex. of the O. T., p. 1036-1037) God's judgments there is "great gain, reward" ( eqeb rab, Ibid., Kittel; Ibid., B. D. B., p. 784!
    6. Thus, though our trials may initially seem sorrowful (lupas, U. B. S. Greek N. T., 1966, p. 774; Arndt & Ging., A Greek-English Lex. of the N. T., p. 483) versus joyful ( charas, Ibid., U. B. S. Greek N. T.; Ibid., Arndt & Ging., p. 883), since they yield "the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it" (Hebrews 11:11 ESV), we must offset our initial negative feelings about the trials by focusing instead on the righteous, peaceful effects that obeying God in our trials of faith will produce.
Lesson Application: To offset the negative thinking we are tempted to have of difficult trials of living by faith, we must recall that God allows them to occur as disciplinary training exercises in His love for us, a love from a Heavenly Father Who is infinitely better at parenting than were our earthly fathers who disciplined us, and whom we respected, and Who has only the most wholesome result in mind for us.