As we left our story last week, the Emperor and Darth Vader had devised a plan to turn the young Jedi, Luke Skywalker, to the Dark Side. While we were gone, Darth Vader revealed his true identity as Luke's father, Anakin Skywalker. Luke has now been captured and is ready to face Darth Vader, not just as his enemy, but also as his Father.
We have been in a series of messages called "The Dark Side". I remind you again that what Star Wars calls "The Dark Side" the Bible calls "sin". There really is a dark side. Just as there is an evil for every good, there is a "light side" just as there is a "dark side". Now we have to come to an important distinction as we talk about entering into the dark side.
This may surprise you, but both a follower of Jesus Christ and a non-follower of Jesus Christ can enter into the dark side. Both a child of God and someone who has no relationship with God can enter into the dark side, but here is the difference. The child of God cannot enter into the dark side without God confronting him and disciplining him and punishing him until he leaves the dark side.
It is like a young boy I heard about that went off to one of these extremely expensive universities. His freshman year the bills were coming in monthly to these parents and they were struggling to keep their head above water, doing everything they could to give their son a good education. One day his mother received a letter from him that read like this:
Dear Mom,
I am writing to inform you that I have flunked all of my courses. I had an
accident and totally wrecked my car. I owe the clothing store in town $3,000
and I have been suspended for the next semester because I "borrowed" a
classmate's car for a joy ride. I am coming home - prepare dad.
His mother wrote a one line letter back to him that just said this:
Dear Son,
Dad is prepared – prepare yourself!
Today, I want to share with you how God is prepared to deal with His children whenever they decide to enter into the dark side. Let's just imagine for a moment that you are indeed a child of God and you enter into the dark side. God can do one of three things.
First of all, God could condemn you and kick you out of His family, but if God did that He would be breaking His own word. The Bible says in Romans 8:1, "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:1, NASB)
On the other hand, God could just condone us. God could just stick His head in the sand and ignore our sin and overlook it and pretend it didn't happen or just let it go. If God did that He wouldn't be God, because He is a holy and righteous and a just God that cannot let sin go unpunished.
The third way that God could deal with us and the way He does deal with us is this – He can confront us. Let me tell you how God deals with His children when they enter into the dark side. He doesn't deal with us legalistically meaning you mess up one time that's it your out. On the other hand, He doesn't deal with us liberally where He just says sin is no big deal and lets it go. He deals with us lovingly. Jesus said himself in Revelation 3:19, "As many as I love, I rebuke and discipline." (Revelation 3:19, HCSB)
I want to share with you how God confronts us and I am talking about His children when we enter into the dark side.
I. God Confirms That We Are His Children Even In The Dark Side
I want you to understand something. When God confronts you about wrong doing in your life about crossing over into the dark side it is not meant to discourage you; it is meant to encourage you. Hebrews 12:5 says, "And have you entirely forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you, his children? He said, ‘My child, don't ignore it when the Lord disciplines you, and don't be discouraged when He corrects you.'" (Hebrews 12:5, NLT)
When you enter into the dark side as one of God's children and your conscience begins to hurt you and you begin to get miserable, emotionally, spiritually and maybe even physically that should not discourage you; that should encourage you, because it confirms that you really are one of His children.
Listen to verses 6 and 7. "For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives. It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?" (Hebrews 12:6-7, NASB)
One of the marks that you are a child of God is that God will confront you and discipline you when you do sin. Understand this – God only confronts His children.
If you are a parent you can relate to this. If your kids are playing in the yard with the neighbor's kids and they begin to misbehave and get into a fight, whose kids do you discipline? You certainly don't discipline the neighbor's kids. If you are smart you discipline your own kids.
I know some parents are like the mother who brought her little boy to school one time and she said to the teacher, "Now Johnny is a little nervous and a little hyper-active, but if he misbehaves you just slap the boy sitting next to him and he will straighten up."
God does not whip the devil's children. He only whips His. He does whip His and He does so, because they are His children.
You may be sitting there saying, "I don't understand this. I have gone over to the dark side or maybe you are living in the dark side right now and you say, "I don't feel bad about it. As a matter of fact, I am kind of enjoying it." I hate to tell you, but there is a simple explanation for that - you are not a child of God.
I can tell you right now with 100% confidence if there is in your life unrevealed, unrecognized, un-repented sin that has not caused you either guilt or grieve, then you are not a child of God. Listen to what He says in verse 8. "If God doesn't discipline you as he does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children after all." (Hebrews 12:8, NLT)
I am speaking spiritually when I make this statement. In the church there are illegitimate children. What I mean by that is there are people who claim to be children of God, who even may think they are children of God, but they are obviously not children of God. When they enter into the dark side and even when they stay on the dark side, it never bothers them and it never troubles them.
You remember that I told you at the beginning of this series that nobody gets away with sin. It doesn't matter whether you are a child of God or not. It doesn't matter whether you know God or not. You may get away from your sin, but you will never really get away with you sin.
The reason why God confronts His children is because He loves them. One of the marks of a parent that truly loves his children is that he disciplines them when they do wrong. When God disciplines you, when you do wrong and you enter into the dark side, it is not a sign that He doesn't love you; it is a sign He does. Listen to verse 6 again. "For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines." (Hebrews 12:6, NASB)
I heard a story years ago about a family that use to go to church. In fact, at one time they were very active, but they kind of loss interest and just quit coming. They really did know the Lord, but they had kind of gotten away from God and they were kind of sticking their toes in the dark side.
Some concerned members went to talk to the dad and his three sons named Jim, John, and Sam about their condition, but they didn't have any success at all. Then the pastor went to visit and they didn't listen to him either. Then some other church members went to try to get them to come back, but each time they were rejected.
One day, when all the boys were out in the pasture, a large rattlesnake bit John. He became very sick. They called the doctor. He examined him and said, "There is nothing I can do, but all you can do now is just pray" and the doctor left.
This father immediately called for the pastor and he asked him to come and he told him how sick John was and he said, "Pastor, would you please pray for my boy that he would be healed?" I want you to listen to how the pastor prayed. He said, "O wise and righteous God, I thank You that in Your wisdom you have sent this rattlesnake to bite John in order to bring him to his senses. He hasn't been inside the church for years and it is doubtful that in all this time he even felt the need for prayer. Now I trust that this will be a valuable lesson to him and it will lead him to get right with You and be back in the house of God. Now dear Father will you send another snake to bite Sam and another one to bite Jim and a big one to bite the old man? We have been doing everything we know for years to restore them back to the church, but nothing has worked. It seems that all of our combined efforts could not do what this one snake has done. I conclude that the only thing left that will do this family any good is more rattlesnakes, so God sent them bigger and better rattlesnakes in Jesus name."
Quite frankly that is a little bit ludicrous, but it does illustrate a point. Whether it is a snake or a scorpion, God will use anything to discipline His true children and to bring them back to where they need to be in their spiritual walk.
II. God Convicts Us As We Enter The Dark Side
I have shown you why God confronts us, but how does God confront us? How does God deal with us when we enter into the dark side? Listen to verse 5 again. "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him." (Hebrews 12:5, NASB)
The word "reprove" also means to "rebuke". What that means is simply this - when we begin to enter into the dark side, God will immediately begin to convict us that we are going where we do not belong.
If you are truly a child of God, you can relate to this. We have all had the experience of doing something wrong or saying something wrong and immediately feeling a little twinge of guilt; a little pin prick on the conscience. Immediately you knew you had said something you shouldn't have said and done something you shouldn't have done and that God was not pleased - that is how God convicts us.
I believe God begins by speaking to us in that still small voice in our heart to let us know when we fall out of fellowship with God and quite frankly, that is the way God prefers to discipline his children.
That is the way any good parent likes to discipline their children. Wouldn't you much rather be able to just say a word to your kids and have them do what you want them to do than to have to spank them? Isn't is great when you can just speak to a child and see that child come to a place of repentance and come to a place of apology and ask for forgiveness?
We all know that many times, kids won't listen. They just won't hear you. You tell them to do something and they make up their minds they are not going to do it and that is when you have to take the next step. We read about this in verse 6. "For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines." (Hebrews 12:6, NASB)
The word "discipline" refers to training a child by punishing a child or maybe spanking a child. That is the way God operates - first God speaks and if we don't listen then God spanks.
God has all kinds of ways that He can discipline us when we enter into the dark side. For example, He can refuse to listen to our prayers. Psalm 66:18 says, "If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear." (Psalm 66:18, NASB)
When you cross over to the dark side, God just shuts down the communication line. He is not going to hear your prayers until you get out of the dark side, back to where you belong.
Sometimes God can just make you miserable by filling you with so much guilt that you can't even look yourself in the mirror. Sometimes He can go to even greater extremes such as cause you to lose your job, bring trouble into your business, or all out discord come into your family.
What a lot of people sometimes call "bad luck" is really God's discipline. I want you to understand, I am not trying to say that every time something bad happens to you God is disciplining you or God is trying to punish you. On the other hand, anybody here knows that when you are spanked, you feel it and you know it. I never, ever, received a whipping from my dad that someone had to tell me I was getting one.
If that doesn't work then God goes to the third stage. "He scourges every son whom He receives." (Hebrews 12:6, NASB) The word "scourge" is a very strong word and it literally means to "flog with a whip". It refers to a pretty painful beating. This is the most serious type of discipline that God inflicts. There does come a point when God realizes that His discipline is of no effect and sometimes the only other step is death.
Did you know a child of God can get so deep into the dark side and so determined to stay in the dark side that God will just take his life? Why do you think verse 9 says this - "Shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?" (Hebrews 12:9, NASB)
The Apostle John said in I John 5:16 something very interesting. He said, "If you see any Christian sinning in a way that does not lead to death". (I John 5:16, NLT) The clear implication is that a child of God can sin to a point where God just takes his life.
In the church at Corinth, there was a man who was living in an adulterous and incestuous relationship with his step-mother and the church had not done anything about it. I want you to listen to what Paul said to that church. Here are the instructions. "...deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." (I Corinthians 5:5, NASB) In other words, Paul said, "God is going to let Satan kill him so He can go ahead and take him to heaven.
A dear friend of mine, Rick Stanley, was Elvis Presley's step-brother. Rick Stanley firmly believes that is exactly what happened to Elvis Presley. He believes that Elvis truly knew God and truly had had an experience with Jesus Christ, but because he had gone so far over to the dark side that God took his life. I don't know if that is true or not, but I do know this and I'll say it again. When you enter into the dark side, God convicts you if you are one of His children.
III. God Corrects Us So We Can Leave The Dark Side
God loves us so much that He wants the best for us in this life. He knows the best does not include living in the dark side and that is why He corrects us. The question is - How are you going to receive God's correction? If you think about it, there is only one of two ways you can respond.
First of all, you can reject it. Listen again to verse 5, "My Son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord." (Hebrews 12:5, NASB) You can get bitter when God disciplines you. You can get mad at Him. You can ignore it.
It is like a little girl who disobeyed her mother and she put her in the closet to discipline her and it got very quiet, so the mother went in to check on her and she said, "What are you doing?" She said, "Well, I spit on your shoes, spit on your coat, spit on your dress and I am just waiting on more spit!" You can react that way to God's discipline if you want to, but that won't remove the discipline.
Or - you can receive it and that is what you ought to do, because as He says in verse 7, "As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. Whoever heard of a child who was never disciplined?" (Hebrews 12:7, NLT)
When God confirms you and convicts you and corrects you when you enter into the dark side, you need to ask yourself this question, "Lord, what are trying to teach me?" The purpose of discipline is not primarily to punish us; it is to train and teach us.
Verse 11 tells us, "All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness." (Hebrews 12:11, NASB)
The word "train" in the Greek Language is the word that gives us our English word "gymnasium." A gymnasium is a place of training. When God confronts you in the dark side, He is trying to teach you some lessons; lessons about character, lessons about making the right choices, lessons about making the right decisions to keep you from doing harm to yourself.
IV. God Continues to Love Us After The Dark Side
There are some great things that happen to us even if we enter into the dark side if we experience the discipline of God when He confronts us. First of all, God restores peace to us - the peace of knowing that we are once again right with Him. Listen again to verse 11. "All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness." (Hebrews 12:11, NASB)
If you are child of God, you can live in the dark side or you can have peace, but you can't do both. The most miserable person in the world is not the person who does not know God. The most miserable person in the world is the person who does know God, but is out of fellowship with God.
God also confronts us in the dark side to bring us out of the dark side, so we can once again be productive. As He says in verse 11, "We can yield the peaceful fruit of righteousness." (Hebrew 12:11, NASB)
Think about it. When God forces you to leave the dark side, you not only stop doing what you ought not to be doing; you start doing what you ought to be doing. I want you to listen to what the psalmist said in Psalm 119. He said, "I use to wander off until you disciplined me; but now I closely follow Your word. The suffering you sent was good for me for it taught me to pay attention to Your principles." (Psalm 119:67, 71, NLT)
God wants you to have peace and God wants you to be productive.
Then God wants you to be pure. Verse 10 says, "He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness." (Hebrews 12:10, NASB)
God is not overly concerned with your happiness. He is not primarily interested in your health. God is totally preoccupied with your holiness. When you go over into the dark side, God will do whatever is necessary to bring you back to that point where you are indeed pure and holy before Him.
There was a little boy who was floating his boat on a pond when the boat floated away. A man came by and saw the boat out on the pond and began throwing stones on the far side of the boat. The boy said, "What are you doing?"
The man never said a word he just kept throwing stones on the other side of that boat. The boy then began to watch in amazement as something very interesting began to happen. As the stones hit the water beyond the boat, they created ripples which pushed the boat back toward that boy. The man kept disturbing that water until the boat was back into the hands of that kid.
That is exactly the way God operates in our lives - when we drift away from Him and we sail off into the dark side He will begin to throw the disturbing stones of His loving discipline sending out ripples of love, pushing us back to where we ought to be.
He does that because He loves us and He loves us too much to let us stay on the dark side.