So first Corinthians eleven thirty two. Just one verse for our consideration this morning in our time in God's word. The apostle Paul writes, but when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. So reads the word of the living God. You may be asking yourself, why a sermon on discipline on Mother's Day?

Well, I happen to think about from time to time. Subject of discipline. Maybe it's just because I have sympathy for the mothers who a lot of their life and job is disciplined, and maybe even disciplining their kids today, maybe even right now. I don't know. The real connection in my mind is because I think mothers, more than anyone else, at least in terms of just volume, mothers, more than anyone else, shape how we receive discipline.

Both discipline from parents and discipline from the Lord. Mothers are constantly teaching their children how to respond when they don't get their way, when we suffer the discipline of God. Here's how one mother shepherded her daughter through suffering. 03/22/1758, Jonathan Edwards died. He had taken sort of an experimental version of the smallpox vaccine and passed away from it.

It took a couple days for word of his death to get to his wife, Sarah Edwards. And so on April 3, after hearing about the death of her husband, Sarah wrote the following letter to her daughter Esther, quote, My very dear child, what shall I say? A holy and good God has covered us with a dark cloud. Oh, that we may kiss the rod and lay our hands on our mouths. The Lord has done it.

That daughter, Esther, would go on to pass away herself just in a matter of days from receiving that letter, and that letter would then pass down to her son, Aaron, who would become the third vice president of The United States, Aaron Burr. Oh, that we may kiss the rod. Sounds a little like Job, doesn't it? Job thirteen fifteen, though he slay me, yet I will hope in him. Or like David in Psalm 23, your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

Or Psalm one nineteen verse 75, I know, oh, Lord, that your rules are righteous and that in faithfulness, you have afflicted me. Moms, you maybe more than anyone else, you will teach your children how to receive suffering. You will teach them how to interpret suffering in their life. What will you teach them? Will you teach them to kiss the rod or to despise it?

One of the ways you do that is by your own example, both mothers, fathers, and everyone else. How do you receive the discipline of the Lord? Do you when trials and hardship come into your life, do you get mad at God? Shake your fist at heaven? Or do you just start complaining to anyone who will listen?

Or do you submit your will humbly to the will of your heavenly father and thank him for it? These are hard truths and it's what the Apostle Paul wants us to see in this text. Really, what he's after in this one little verse is that we would appreciate that although discipline is painful, because of course it is. Discipline is always painful. That's kind of the point.

Although discipline is painful, the discipline of the Lord is also wonderful. And you could tell just by looking at this text, that's what this is about. He says, but when we're judged by the Lord, we are disciplined, right there in the center, disciplined, so that we may not be condemned along with the world. Really, the way this sentence functions in its context, Paul is addressing a problem in the Corinthian church where they're coming to the Lord's supper, and it was like a meal for them. And some people are coming early, and they're eating all the food and drinking all the wine.

Paul says some of them are even getting drunk before anyone else shows up. They're disregarding each other, not paying attention. He says it's an unworthy manner to take communion. And so he says they should examine themselves. And then he says in verse 31, if we judged or discerned or examined ourselves, then we would not be judged.

But then it seems like the apostle Paul wants to clarify. He's saying, yep. If if you got rid of that unworthiness, then the Lord wouldn't judge you. However, verse 32, you need to understand that believer, even if the Lord is to judge you, it is good. It is a kindness and a blessing.

It is not condemnation. It is discipline. Paul wants to remind them and us that even if we do face the Lord's judgment, it is gloriously for our benefit and not our destruction. In other words, when you face suffering in your life, the discipline of the Lord, Paul does not want you to get angry at God, or to despair and think, well, God's angry at me. I'm not going to heaven because I'm experiencing this suffering, which some people think.

No. If God brings suffering into the life of a believer, Paul says, they should learn not to reject it as His wrath, but to receive it as His rod. We need His discipline more than we realize, and so we should receive it. And that's what we'll look at in three parts in this verse this morning, three reasons to receive the rod, three reasons to receive the rod. And the first of them is because it is from the one who disciplines us.

It's from the one who disciplines us. Look back at the verse, verse 32. It says, but when we are judged by the Lord, notice that little phrase, by the Lord, we are disciplined. You may notice that in the ESV, little footnote seven, there's an alternate way of rendering this where by the Lord could be modifying judged or it could be modifying disciplined. And grammatically, it could work either way.

Either is an acceptable way to render the verse. I tend to think that discipline being the main verb in the sentence is probably what by the Lord is modifying, especially because what Paul is saying here is, listen, if you're facing judgment, you should not think that it's just any old person doing something horrible to you. It's not fate. It's not random chance. It is the Lord himself disciplining you like a father to a son.

We're not disciplined by someone else in God's judgment. We're disciplined by God himself. The way we'll sing it after this sermon, the protection of His child and treasure is a charge that on Himself He laid. Meaning, God does not contract out your discipline. He doesn't put you under angel management to take care of you and disciple you and to grow you.

No. It's divine tutelage. You're His and He is intimately and personally involved in your life through discipline. Let me ask a complicating question about this passage. Which person of the Godhead does this describe, this discipline?

It says, by the Lord, we're disciplined. Which person is that? Father, Son, and Spirit? Well, in this context, I think what he means is the Son, the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, because he says in verse 27, will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. There's only one member of the Trinity who has body and blood.

That's the one who became incarnate, Jesus Christ. Or he says, verse 26, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. There's only one person of the Trinity who died. That's the son. And Revelation chapter three verse 19, Jesus himself says to the churches, I reprove the one that I love.

So Jesus, the son, is the one who disciplines us. Jesus disciplines the Corinthians even at the dinner table. However, scripture also teaches that the father, god the father disciplines us. Deuteronomy chapter eight verse five, as a father to a son, the lord disciplines you. Proverbs three verse 11 to 12, my son, do not despise the lord's discipline or regard lightly his rebuke, for the lord reproves the one he loves as a father, the son in whom he delights.

Or if those analogies aren't convincing, Hebrews chapter 12 verse nine, a passage about the Lord's discipline says, shall we not be subject to the father of spirits? So God the father is disciplining us as well. Even more than that though, Jesus tells us the Holy Spirit is involved in our discipline as well. John 16, he says, he's the one who convicts us. He applies the discipline to our hearts so that we would receive it.

So while Paul has in view here the discipline of Christ in his church, the reality is that the whole trinity is involved in your discipline, believer. And that is really good news because though the suffering in your life may seem inexplicable and mysterious to you, you know the one who has brought it. You may not be able to read his mind, but you do know his heart. The one who brings discipline into your life is doing it not out of capriciousness, not out of an arbitrary will, not out of wrath, but out of love for his children. And he is wise, he is patient, he is kind, he is gentle, even if it doesn't seem like it in the moment.

And parents, you know why this is important just by way of contrast, don't you? Because sometimes your kid is just being a pill, and you get angry, and you discipline him anyway. You know you shouldn't. I don't wanna discipline in anger, but you're just so fed up, you lose your temper, and you discipline them anyway. Or on the opposite side, your kid's being a problem, and you're just like, I've had enough.

I can't do it. I'm I'm not I know I should discipline this kid, but I'm just not going to. I'm just getting out of here. You realize that is never God's disposition towards you, believer. God doesn't fly off the handle.

God doesn't get fed up with you. No. Even in the deepest moment of your sin, God ever extends toward you gentle, patient, caring, fatherly love. The God who holds the rod, Father, Son and Holy Spirit loves you. You know David writes about his experience with the Lord's discipline in Psalm 32.

He said, The Lord's hand was heavy on me. My strength was dried up like a potsherd. And so he confesses his sin to the Lord and he receives forgiveness and then he turns around he says, so let me give you some advice. Don't be like a donkey. Don't be like a mule, like a horse that has to be curved with bit and bridle or else it won't stay near you.

He says this, many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord. Samuel Rutherford, Scottish Puritan said, I pray you learn to be worthy of his pains who correcteth, and let him ring and be ye washed for he hath a father's heart and a father's hand who is training you up and making you meet for the high hall. Beloved, you know the one who is disciplining you and he loves you. That's one reason why you should receive the rod. The second reason is because of the way He disciplines us.

So far, I have just been sort of assuming a definition of discipline that I think now I need to spend a few moments defending. The word discipline in this text says, but when we're judged by the Lord, we are disciplined. That word, you may be familiar with this word, paiduo, it has to do with more than simple correction, though it certainly includes that. It's whole life formation. It's it has to do with bringing a child to maturity, instruction, rearing of a child, training of a child.

That's important because I think when we hear the word discipline, we just think spanking, don't we? And certainly, correction is part of what God does in our discipline. There's sin in our life and he corrects us for it. That's not all that he's doing. It is corrective, but it's bigger than that.

I'll just put a slide on the screen here just to show you. Here's just all the passages I could find that have some sort of explicit reference in the Bible to the Lord's discipline. And I show you this not since you write it all down, but just so that you would get a sense for the massive scope of how big this is. This is all over the bible and it is so varied in different cases. Just a couple examples.

Psalm one nineteen verse 71, it is good for me that I was afflicted that I might learn your statutes. There's a sort of education from the discipline. Deuteronomy four verse 36, out of heaven he let you hear his voice that he might discipline you, meaning to to make them fear him, teaching us the fear of the Lord. Or Jeremiah ten twenty three to 24, I know, oh, Lord, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps. So correct me, oh Lord.

There's a kind of directing element to the Lord's discipline. There's another Scottish Puritan named you you know what I read, named Thomas Boston who wrote a book called The Crook in the Lot. And it's about this topic and he outlines a bunch of different aims in God's discipline of his children. And I sort of codify them together. One would be revealing, that that God is revealing more of who we are on the inside and who he is, removing removing worldliness from us, reminding reminding us of his promises and and our safety in him, Rebuking, rebuking us for sin so that we might repent and turn from it.

Restraining, meaning keeping us from sinning in a way that we haven't already. We're reviving, giving us a new breath of life and a new grasp onto the glories of heaven. I mean, there's so many different things that God is doing in any given moment in the suffering in your life. Discipline, therefore, is discipleship. It's training.

It's growing us up. How does God do that in your life? What does this discipline actually look like? Well, it looks like, according to scripture, providence, and in particular, painful providence. God's sovereign, intentional ordination of all events and all things down to the smallest molecule, That's how He disciplines His children.

God's discipline is the school of suffering. That's why the Bible uses words like discipline or rod or strike to describe it because it hurts because it's painful. It is a severe tutelage. Just as an aside, this is one of the many reasons why I despise the whole gentle parenting movement. This like you got a tantrum toddler and you just sort of reason with him.

That is ridiculous. Number one, it is anathema to scripture which teaches us spare the rod, spoil the child. You hate your kid if you do that. You do violence to him. But second of all, it is not what God does to us.

God, in his wisdom and love and care and gentleness, will strike us, will smite us. Just some examples. First Corinthians 11, in the context, he says, some people coming to communion are getting sick because of their sin, and some are even dying. Leviticus 26, all of the covenant curses of Israel, exile, famine, all of that is the lord's discipline. Habakkuk one twelve, a a Babylonian army destroying Jerusalem is the Lord's discipline.

Psalm 39 verse 11, loss of property. Deuteronomy eight two, hunger. Job thirty three fifteen, nightmares. Hosea ten ten, warfare. I mean, god just uses all of it to discipline and to train you.

Isn't it interesting that god does not just say, well, if you wanna grow, just read your bible. Of course, he does. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. But he does not simply do that Because our sin is so deeply embedded, we can hear sermon after sermon after sermon and ignore it entirely.

And so God brings pain, suffering, discipline into your life like a thunderclap to wake you up and to force you to deal with the spiritual realities at play. Meaning all of God's sovereign orchestration of the pain in your life, believer, is His discipline, His training, His maturing. Now, two cautions from this. One would be, do not then draw a one to one correlation from some kind of suffering in your life and a particular sin in your life. It may be the case that those things are directly correlated.

If you are to drink and get drunk every night for years and years and you get cirrhosis, those things are related. Of course. Of course, they are. But it is not necessarily the case that some suffering in your life is the direct result of some sin in your life. It's bigger.

It's broader than that. So you can't do that. It's more mysterious. Remember, that's what Job's friends are trying to do. That's why you're suffering because you sinned.

That's, like, kind of the whole point of the book of Job is, no, he didn't. He was righteous. You just know that all pain is meant to be productive. So the question is not, what did I do? But what must I do?

Do you see the distinction? It's it's not necessarily what's the particular sin that God's really getting at me for, but it's how do I need to grow? And that may be that you need to repent of a particular sin. Second caution, beware of only ascribing to God happy twists of providence. The way that we tend to do this, even in the midst of suffering sometimes, is that we kind of just look for the silver lining, some good thing that's happening in the midst of hard things, and we say, that's a God thing.

And of course, it is. Of course, that's true. You say, the promotion, that's a God thing. You say, the near miss in an accident, that was a God thing. But so is the layoff.

So is the car accident. So is the diagnosis. So is the graveside. All of it is the Lord's doing. Job two ten, shall we receive good from God and not also receive evil?

Or the way we sing it sometimes, judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence, he hides a smiling face. You realize that Paul's language of discipline here, it's a metaphor. He's chosen this metaphor, as do other biblical authors, as a way of saying, this pain in your life, God meant this. And he meant it like a father means it.

This isn't arbitrary. This isn't fate. This isn't capricious. This isn't random. This isn't the universe doing something.

This is God designing your suffering for his purposes in your life. What are those purposes? That's the third point. We embrace, we receive the rod that God brings into our lives because of who he is, because of how he does it, and because of why he disciplines us, why he disciplines us. And this really is the heart of this verse.

This is where we've been heading. God has two purposes in his discipline. The first is to grow us. This is what Hebrews chapter 12 says. It says, all all discipline seems painful for the moment, but it's for our good that we might share in his holiness.

And afterwards, the one trained by it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. That's what God is doing in your suffering and in your pain. He's growing you, believer. Hebrews chapter five verse eight and nine tells us, even Jesus was perfected by suffering. Says he learned obedience through suffering.

Was it because of his sin? He had none. How much more then will God perfect us through suffering? Samuel Rutherford again, he says that a lot of christians think we deserve two heavens. One here, one there.

He goes on to say, the one will suffice. If even our Lord Jesus Christ had to suffer the slings and arrows of men and the pains and aches of this life in his path of obedience, brothers and sisters, how much more than we? It's not summer yet. Class is still in session. We are still being taught.

The teacher is teaching. The question is, will we grow from it? So that's the first thing God is doing in his discipline. The second thing, and what this passage is particularly concerned about, is not only does he grow us, but he spares us. Look at the verse, verse 32.

When we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. There's three different words that are all kind of the just different versions of the same Greek verb in this passage. They're translated discern, judge, and condemn. Judge is just sort of broad judgment, could mean a whole lot of things, making a separation, making a distinction, bringing a sentence. Discern is a sort of evaluation, looking at myself.

And then the last one here, condemned, only used once, it means eternal condemnation. And Paul's argument, look at the word in the middle of the sentence there, is that he disciplines us so that we would not be condemned along with the world. Meaning, that God disciplines you in order to preserve you. Or let me say it this way, that God, if he did not discipline you, would send you to hell. His discipline is part of how he keeps you.

Our sinful hearts would drag us down to perdition time and again if it were not for the mercy of God turning us back. His discipline towards us keeps our aimless feet on the narrow path. That's why some in the scriptures pray this way, Psalm six verse one. Oh, Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath. Or Psalm one eighteen verse 18, the Lord has disciplined me severely, but he has not given me over to death.

Jeremiah ten twenty four, correct me, oh Lord, but in justice, not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing. Or or this fascinating verse, Isaiah 27 verse seven, has he struck you as he struck those who struck you? Do you get the logic of the sentence? Has He struck you as He struck those who struck you? Meaning, God deals differently with His children than with those who are not His children.

He disciplines His sons, and the rest get wrath. One of the astounding sovereign dynamics of the lord's discipline then is that the exact same suffering happening to a believer and a nonbeliever can, on the one hand, be motivated by the love of God for the believer, and on the other hand, be motivated by the wrath of God towards the unbeliever. One love, the other wrath. One can be the means by which God gloriously preserves us and brings us to heaven, and the other, just the first embers of the lake of fire. How do you know which it is then?

Providence is different than the Bible. You can't read providence the way you read the Bible. So how do you know which it is? If you're experiencing suffering in your life, how do you know this is a father's discipline to me, or this is a judge condemning me? And the answer is the fruit.

What does it produce in your life? Romans chapter one says, when god is wrathful towards mankind, you know what he does? He just lets them continue in their sin. He delivers them over to their own desires. So if you're experiencing suffering, and your responses just get angry and mad, and nothing about your desires change, you don't repent, you don't love God more, you don't grow in holiness, then you should be afraid.

But if, believer, when you encounter suffering in your life, you see over time the sweet blossom of the fruit of righteousness, the changing of your desires, to be more conformed to His, then, oh, how sweet is that suffering? What did Jesus say in his greatest hour of agony? Not my will, but yours be done. Thomas Boston says, the truth is the crook in the lot is the great engine of providence for making men appear in their true colors, discovering both their ill and their good. The same sun that melts the wax hardens the clay.

One example of that would be Sarah Edward's son, Aaron Burr, who after receiving that letter then went on to have a daughter and that daughter died young and his response to that was to leave religion altogether. He plunged himself into a sexually immoral life and eventually, towards the end of his life, told people, Jesus is just a fable. If you want to know how to receive the Lord's discipline, just look at how Jesus received suffering in His life. He humbly offered up all that He was to His Father. How do you receive the Lord's discipline?

If you're suffering in this moment, believer, this is the perfect time to cry out to your father. God, help. Teach me. Shape me. Mold me.

Bend your will low. Be broken. Repent. Return. And ten thousand years from now, when you look back on all of those long nights, those hard days of suffering, you know what you'll say to the one who holds the rod?

He has done all things well. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, teach us humbly to receive the sun and rain of your sovereignty. May we bow our hearts low before your discipline and rejoice to receive your fatherly hand. Give us wisdom and joy in believing.

Teach us, oh lord. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. And now for a parting word from pastor Jesse Johnson. If you have any questions about what you heard today or if you wanna learn more about what it means to follow Christ, please visit our church website, I b c dot church.

If you want more information about the Master's Seminary or our location here in Washington DC, please go to tms.edu. Now if you're not a member of a local church and you live in the Washington DC area, we'd love to have you worship with us here at Emmanuel. I hope to personally meet you this Sunday after our service. But no matter where you live, it's our hope that everyone who uses this resource is involved in their own local church. Now may God bless you this week as you seek Jesus constantly, serve the Lord faithfully, and share the gospel boldly.