12:5 And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son." HEB 12:7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? 8 If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.

Last week was about Christ's suffering and the oppositions He endured. This week's message is about the suffering and oppositions suffered by the saints. The main difference between the two is that Christ never suffered because of His own sins or problems, while we suffer because of our own doing.

The Old Testament spoke often about discipline from the Almighty, but in the New Testament, only Hebrews 12 gives a complete treatment to this topic. Every single human being would have been disciplined in one form or another by our parents. Without exception, every person would have had been disciplined by our parents, although we may resent it. Dr Tong believes that this discipline would constitute a form of the many sufferings we go through in life. The key thing about suffering would be to move from feelings, into understanding. If in the midst of our suffering, we are stuck at the level of feeling lousy about sufferings without having gone into the state of understanding about suffering, we would not be able to mature spiritually. The Christian Bible's treatment of the topic of suffering far surpasses that of any other faith.

The Bible tells us that there are many sources of suffering. Some came from our sins, some came from other evil doers against us, some came from natural catastrophes; all these came from the natural consequence of the fallen world. Some sufferings also come from God wanting to mould us. Here, the suffering came from the discipline of God due to the mistakes that we have made. As parents, we set goals for our children. In the same manner, God sets goals for us. Not reaching our goals grieves God, and that is sin, which simply is man not meeting God's goal; what the original Greek 'harmatia' means.

The question is whether the goals are reasonable or not. As parents, we often set the wrong goals for our children. We want our children to score full marks in school when we have never done so ourselves. This is injustice. Some parents set goals that are so very high that children can be pressurized. The Indonesian President Sukarno once said that we should set for our children goals that are as high as the 7th heaven, so that if they cannot reach it and reached the 1st heaven, at least they are in heaven. Dr Tong however, points out that the child may feel inferior all his life, not having met the goals set for him.

Carlos Kleiber is considered one of the greatest conductor in the world today. But this person rarely performed, mainly because his father often criticized Carlos for being without any talent, and that affected him for the rest of his life. He conducted rarely, only enough to feed his family, but his work was so good that they are well-sought after today. His father's influence was so strong that it affected Carlos' life. Dr Tong recalled that when he first came to Singapore in 1968, he lived with a family with a handsome teenager. The teenager's father expected his son to always be in the top three of the class. When the son finished his high school, he was seventh in class, and so he hung himself. This tragedy came about because the goals and expectations of the parents were way too high for the child to fulfill.

But our heavenly Father is not like us. 2CO 8:12 says, "For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have." So the LORD will set goals in accordance to what we can achieve, not based on what we do not have. So our responsibility is to always search ourselves to find out what are the talents and gifts that God has given to us, and fulfill our responsibilities. Romans 12:3 says "Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you." In other words, we are not to look down on ourselves as well. Based on the faith that He has given to us, we ought to respond to Him and do our very best. Luke 12:48 "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked."

When we do not fulfill our responsibilities, we may have committed the sin of arrogance, or not fulfilling our responsibilities due to our laziness. When this happens, the LORD's chastisement will come. There is a difference between discipline and punishment. Discipline is meant for the children, while punishment is for the outsiders. Discipline is meant for us to reach a goal, while punishment is for the sake of justice. God disciplines us to reach a goal. All of God's thought for us must be good, which means that we need to be assured that His discipline would be good for us.

The LORD's plans for us are such that we are going to be guided towards an achievement greater than our expectations. Jesus Christ called Peter to be fishers of men, to accomplish goals much larger than he had ever imagined. This means that we are never meant to remain the same person as we are today. So long as a tomorrow, God wants us to be that person tomorrow, always growing towards perfection. The first step is for us to be obedient towards this goal. When we are disciplined while heading towards this goal, we need to be humble and accept it positively. Dr Tong said that this is the hardest lesson to learn. Those who cannot accept this discipline would never grow, while those who can would grow quickly, and continue to improve.

We can test ourselves easily. When we hear sermons that contain harsh words, do we welcome it, or get angry with it. Do we think that sermons are meant for others and not ourselves? If we see ourselves being the target of a preacher's rebuke, we will grow. Woe is to be with those who keep thinking that the rebuke is for others. Our responses to God's discipline would determine many things.

Saul and David were two kings who had many human flaws. In fact, David probably had more flaws than Saul did. But the difference between the two person rests in their reactions to the discipline from God. Dr Tong spent a lot of time relating how David was extremely close to God, and was known as a man after God's own heart, so much so that mysteries relating to Christ was revealed to him. But the key thing was how he responded to God when his sins were exposed, as compared to Saul.

King Saul took some of the loot after one of his battle for himself, against the command of God to destroy everything. When the prophet Samuel pointed this out to him, he attempted to lie to Samuel, who told him sternly that he could hear the stolen animals. Saul then defended himself and said that the animals were meant for sacrifices to God. Samuel then told Saul a very important biblical principle, "To obey is better than sacrifice." (1 Samuel 15:22) Dr Tong said that many Christians today give to God money that have been made through unethical means, forgetting that God does not need our help. He admonished his own co-workers that they should never think that they have come to church to help, or to contribute to the church; but that they should always remember that they have come to church to serve, and to learn. Samuel told Saul that the God who does not change His mind has rejected him as king, a paradoxical proclamation. Saul was so unrepentant that even after he has admitted to his sins, he wanted to save his face and asked Samuel to follow him back so that he can be honoured before his elders.

We need to give thanks to God if we have a pulpit that speaks out against sin, or preachers and church leaders who dare to stand up against unrighteousness. These people are the ambassadors of God, and are people the world is not worthy of.

In contrast, when the prophet Nathan pointed out the sins that David had committed, his reaction was completely different. David did many wrong things in his life, including the taking of the census of the people. When Moses did that, we have the book of Numbers. But when David did that, he was punished by God. Why the difference? The key lies in the heart, and the LORD is one who knows the deepest motive a man can have. Some people may seem to be very fervent for the LORD superficially, but only the LORD knows what is in the human heart, and that was why He was displeased with David's census.

In the matter of adultery and murder with Bathsheba, the prophet Nathan acted both as a prophet and a wise man. Dr Tong explained that there are differences between the priest, the prophet and the wise man. The priest does routine duties in the temple, representing man before God, and God before man. The prophet spoke with the passion and the will of God; while the wise man tells stories before revealing the truth of God. So Nathan acted as a wise man first with David, telling him an illustration of a poor man and his lamb, before revealing David's sins with the authority of a prophet.

David was immediately repentant on both occasions. He wrote great psalms of repentance like the 32nd and the 51st Psalms. He understood the ultimate issue relating to sin, in that the most damaging thing about sin is that one has sinned against God, a "I-Thou" relationship (Psalm 51:4). Dr Tong said that when one sins, it does not necessarily mean that God would not use that person. The key factor is that one must be willing to submit to God's discipline. Peter and Judas both denied Christ, but Jesus Christ restored Peter, but not Judas; so there is still hope after discipline.

It is important to note that there are 4 principles relating to God's discipline:

1. Sovereignty of God: We are being disciplined by our LORD, whose sovereignty we are under. So we need to tell Him that He is LORD, and be submissive to His lordship.

2. Relationship: We are disciplined because we have a relationship with God. Without that relationship, there is no love, and no need for God to bother about disciplining us. Dr Tong spoke about how he disciplined his daughter, who could not understand the discipline when she was young, but appreciated it when she grew older.

3. Righteousness: When we are being disciplined, we must understand that this stems from the righteousness of God. The love of God, and the righteousness of God are two parallel lines running for all eternity together. When the Bible says that God has regretted, it simply means that He is moving from one line to another.

4. From feelings to understanding: When disciplined, we will feel bad, but we must not stay in our feelings alone. We must move beyond our feelings into understanding why God has allowed the discipline. Without understanding, we will never progress spiritually.

After the service was over, Dr Tong retired to the side chamber and a Chinese physician who was attending the preaching came to see him because he was coughing quite violently on stage. He actually put two acupuncture needles into his right hand, and another two into his forehead, and told him to remove the needles only after half an hour. So Dr Tong left the church with needles poking out of his head and hands... quite a sight.... The physician did say that for a man of his age and doing what he does, Dr Tong is surprisingly fit (actually he is fitter than I am). So lets continue to uphold the servant of God in our prayers.

Disclaimer: This summary does NOT represent the official position of STEMI (Stephen Tong Evangelistic Ministry International), and is the personal opinion of the author, expressed without prejudice. Expressed opinions are meant for academic discussions only.