CHASTENING AND DISCIPLINE

W.Chesterfield

Hebrews 12: 5-11; Revelation 3: 14,19,20; Malachi 3: 1-4; Hebrews 11: 5

It is evident, dear brethren, that the thought of chastening and discipline is in mind in these passages we have read. I think if we take account of the condition among the saints at the present time we shall be impressed with the amount of discipline there is. So many things are current which we should say are naturally adverse, such as sickness and bereavement and disappointment and other things, including church sorrows and some under assembly discipline. We think of all these matters as coming alongside the rich ministry that we are receiving, wonderful ministry, as rich perhaps as ever the saints have known, and alongside of it these testing matters which it is divinely intended that we should all feel and feel together, because body feelings are promoted as these things are rightly felt. It says "If one member suffer, all the members suffer with it", (1 Corinthians12: 26). So these three passages have been read as referring to the discipline of God, perhaps the Father in the first one and the Son in the second and the Holy Spirit in the third. God may help in saying a word on these passages.

The first is something that is general among the saints as we come to the knowledge of God as Father through the gospel, because He deals with sons. It says "Who is the son that the father chastens not?" It is a great matter to come to sonship in that way in the gospel. "Ye are all God's sons" it says in Galatians "by faith in Christ Jesus", (Galatians 3: 26). God is pleased in the gospel to set forth His thought for man that he should be brought into the relationship of a son with God. That is the idea of the Father in grace. Not only meeting all our need in the way of our sins and guilt and condition in the precious death of Christ, but bestowing upon us this place of privilege and relationship as sons. So that this scripture contemplates what might be called the early experience of chastening. And so it says "Who is the son that the father chastens not?". We must look for chastening, which is the confirmation of the relationship, God confirming His love to us, because it is not only the relationship He has in mind to bring us into and in His grace bestows upon us as a matter of light in our souls, but He has in mind a state of holiness so that He can have pleasure in His sons.

So chastening comes in and it says "My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord nor faint when reproved by him; for who the Lord loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives". This is quoted from the book of Proverbs (chap 3: 11) but the idea of scourging is added, something severe, showing the intensity of the love that would bring about conditions that are pleasurable to God and suitable to Him. "In order to the partaking of his holiness" it says. So that when we come to the New Testament there is this additional thought of love's severity - which we may say indicates love's intensity. The Father has not only come out in grace, that is God has come out in grace as Father to secure us and give us a place of sonship, but that we might be in accord with Himself and be partakers of His holiness - a wonderful thought and a great substantial thought. The note says 'the quality itself', what God is Himself in His nature in holiness, He is set to secure in each of His saints. But then the scripture indicates the matter of how we may regard His dealings. We may faint under them or we may despise them. There seem to be three things in the passage, firstly that we might despise them, that is we are indifferent. God may be bringing things in upon us to test us and discipline us but we may despise them, or ignore them and go on in our own self-will. That is one danger. The second is that we may faint, may be crushed under things, attempting to bear them in our own strength and not connecting them with the love that would chasten. We find that if we attempt to bear things ourselves and fail to get to God about them, we get crushed and faint, ready to give up. But the third and the profitable attitude is that we are in subjection to the Father of spirits and are exercised, for it says "No chastening at the time seems to be matter of joy, but of grief; but afterwards yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those exercised by it". So that these great matters of holiness and righteousness are to mark the saints, and the blessed God as Father in His consideration for us in the intensity of His love, would secure them in us - those great qualities that characterise Himself so that we might not only be pleasurable to Him but rightly represent Him as His sons. So what an appeal it is to us. "Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live?" It is all in view of our living spiritually and also being intelligent. The Father of spirits, I take it, would suggest to us that God would have us understanding His ways so that we are not despising, we are not fainting but we are understanding, being intelligent in what He is doing and are with Him in it. As we are in communion we shall realise the need of the discipline that comes, the particular discipline that we need in view of the end that He has before Him so that we should be understanding and that in result we might be characterised by righteousness and holiness and truth - the traits of the new man. (Eph 4: 24).

Then in the passage in Revelation the Lord Jesus is the speaker, speaking to His assembly "These things says the Amen, the faithful and true witness". It is remarkable that the discipline of the Lord comes in in the closing phase of the church's history. As we well know the last four churches go on together, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea. We know that Laodicea means indifference. It is the view of the assembly in carelessness and indifference, especially to the Lord. He says "I would thou wert cold or hot". It is a question as to His feelings, as to whether we are really with Him in warm affection. The Lord speaks here of what is lukewarm, of what is nauseous to Himself in the responsible body, but He is concerned with each individual each one in the midst of the profession. The Lord knows His own and so He says "I rebuke and discipline as many as I love". I understand the word used for love here is the word 'phileo'. It means a certain attractiveness in the one loved and how touching that is and beautiful, that there is something in each saint, though mixed up with this condition of the assembly that is distressing to the Lord, (and which He will eventually spue out of His mouth) that has at some time or other responded to Him. So He takes such a one in hand for discipline so that they might be zealous and repent, get warm in their affections, judge themselves and get clear of this system of indifference.

He presents Himself as standing at the door knocking. "If any one hear my voice" He says "and open the door, I will come in unto him and sup with him, and he with me". There seems to be a suggestion of the Lord's supper. How the Lord would nourish our affections and draw us to Himself as we partake of the Lord's supper. How wonderfully it has been recovered in its true character and conditions in our day. So that He would bring us into what is positive and stir us up, and as being zealous and repenting He would draw us into His own company. I believe it is that He would recover us to the position of witness. He presents Himself to that assembly as the faithful and true witness. What a need there is at the present time of faithful and true witness when we think of the state of Christendom, the indifference there is to Christ; His name taken in profession and with this world, but the witness is first of all a separate person and the Lord would bring us into separation from all that is contrary to His name, so that as revived and nourished by His grace we might be able to stand with Him as the faithful and true Witness, standing by every feature of the truth. A wonderful position the Lord takes up! If the assembly has failed, He Himself maintains everything at its full standard, every item of the truth is maintained in His blessed Person, as Paul says "as the truth is in Jesus" (Eph 4: 21). He is not only the faithful and true Witness but another scene and order of things altogether has its beginning in Him; He is the "beginning of the creation of God". So that He would secure us to stand with Him and to witness for Him in the time of His absence and His chastening service in love is to help us in this way. What precious words! "I rebuke and discipline as many as I love". So let us be encouraged for chastening is an evidence of the Lord's love, as it is also an evidence of the Father's love and an evidence of the love of the blessed Spirit.

In Malachi we have very testing conditions described. There is divine activity in chastening. One ventures to connect this with the blessed Spirit, "the Angel of the covenant", it says, "will suddenly come to his temple". It is a matter of the service of God here and the Spirit's discipline in order that the service of God might be recovered and maintained in its purity. It is a searching matter and the very language used shows how very searching a matter it is. The idea of fire is brought in first of all. "He will be like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' lye. And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and he will purify the children of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver; and they shall offer unto Jehovah an oblation in righteousness". It is obvious that the saints here are viewed as in the service of God, the tribe of Levi was especially entrusted with the outward service, they were given to the priests to carry out the outward side of the service. And so it is with the saints as such that the Holy Spirit is engaged in this matter of refining and purification. What great and precious thoughts are in mind in the Spirit's service to us on the line of chastening. We are made to feel how much there is to be removed from us. You get the value of the saints - their value is there, the gold and the silver - but there are conditions that call for cleansing, call for refining and purification, two great and precious thoughts that we believe the Holy Spirit is really bringing about among the saints, a pure and refined condition of things among the Lord's people, the children of Levi, in view of the service of God being recovered and maintained. The very end conditions are depicted in this book. We have had it much before us in ministry but see how far things have departed, God being robbed and so on, but think of the Spirit's service, how He has come into view come in amongst us and made Himself know a peculiar way universally, but His coming in has brought in much in the way of discipline, the refining process, the process of purification, but how we should welcome it because it is an evidence of the intensity of divine love to bring about these refined and purified conditions among the saints so that the service of God might be pleasing to Him. Think of God being able to say the oblation of Judah and Jerusalem shall be pleasant to Him. It points to the recovery of features of Pentecostal and Pauline days, Think of the service of a divine Person to bring this about so that God might have His pleasure. I believe all these instances of chastening are in view of in divine pleasure, God is set to bring about what is pleasing to Himself in the saints.

This links up with the passage in Hebrews 11 which we read as to Enoch. It says of him that "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him; for before his translation he has the testimony that he had pleased God". We think of Enoch, his name means 'disciplined' or 'chastened'. What a man he was, standing out in that list in Genesis 5 of the descendants of Seth, a man of another order. How pleased God was with him! The idea of divine pleasure and God appropriating, so to speak, the man that could walk with Him and enter into all His thoughts. What adjustments and discipline there must have been for Enoch. He represents one who walked with God in the ordinary circumstances of his life and pathway, a family man, yet walking with God and I believe he represents one who was fully disciplined, indeed his name means that, 'disciplined' or 'chastened' 'taught', because there is divine teaching in the chastening. God would teach us, He would have us fully educated in His own thoughts and in the truth and the idea of walking involves communion. Enoch was one who walked with God and as the passage in Hebrews tells us "Before his translation he has the testimony that he had pleased God".

Well, dear brethren, if the present discipline is an indication that God is working quickly at the end to translate the saints, it is a stimulating and encouraging thought for us, by way of the many sorrows and trials, church sorrows especially. Think of all the chastening and discipline that comes in into such places as we have recently heard of, what distress for the saints! how great the tendency to faint in or despise it. We all want to get the gain of it, to take it home each to ourselves, to get the good of the chastening and teaching so that we might learn how to take things up in the power of the Spirit of God, whether it be in our own pathways or circumstances or households, or whether it be in the service of the blessed God, so that we might qualify for the Spirit's commendation before translation that we have been pleasing to God. May the Lord help us to have this before us, to accept the discipline, to understand, to come into the gain of it so that the blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit may have His pleasure in us and in all His saints.

LONDON

4 September 1956