The Truth, Terms, Test of Discipleship

Matthew chapter 10. Matthew chapter 10. Matthew chapter 10 in verse 37.

I've called this chapter the chapter of the tough disciple. Chapter 10 in verse 37. The Lord Jesus has just spoken previously to this about who to fear, the fear of God, the importance of that.

And then when we go to verse 37, he that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me.

He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. Now we're going to go over to Luke chapter 9. Luke's Gospel chapter 9. And some of those very words will be echoed in chapter 9. It's interesting that the what has preceded this of course is the the idea of those sent out to represent him and so on. And now we're going to come to verse 22.

It says, the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be slain and be raised the third day. There's tremendous amount of information in that statement, but it's clear that the Lord Jesus is telling his course that there is rejection involved, there's suffering, there's reproach. It's going to be by the governing body of men, by those that were ruling in the days, so that you take your place with him.

You are going to be the object of ridicule and hatred. And it will not be from the unimportant, it will be from the important. At least what the world deems important.

And then, but at the end that statement, and he shall be raised the third day. So that there's hope, there's encouragement for those who follow. Now let's go down to verse 57 or in that section here.

Let me just move down a little bit. Verse 57. And it came to pass that as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.

And Jesus said unto him, foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head. And he said unto another, follow me. But he said, Lord suffer me first, me first, to go and bury my father.

Jesus said unto him, let the dead bury their dead, but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. And another also said, Lord I will follow you, but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. Jesus said unto him, no man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.

Discipleship. We don't hear much about it today really. And yet, it really is the cost of our love.

Devotion, discipleship, the measure of that devotion and the display of it is not garnered and displayed in material things or whatever, but it's the umbrella of a life of display of devotion is found in discipleship. It really is the one thing that will define all of us as we express what we are to him, what we are for him. Disciples.

The summation of what we are in this world were to be his disciples. The Lord Jesus says, ye are my disciples. There was something touching about that.

When he was ready to go back to heaven, ye are my disciples. If ye do whatsoever I have commanded you. He's ready to leave and go back.

So he's passing the torch as it were. He is going to do what only he can do. That's the cross.

And then he's going to put into our hands what he wants us to continue to do. And that is discipleship to reflect him in this world. We talk about words sanctification.

And I thought of that when I was praying. We're set apart. How is sanctification in your life practically accomplished? I know there's positional sanctification.

And then there's progressive sanctification. There will one day be permanent sanctification. But sanctification, the setting apart in your life of God making you his disciple, that's how it's worked out.

By discipleship. The more we are devoted to him, the more the Spirit of God has his way with us. And so these are important things.

It's interesting. We have gospel meetings. I was there a few weeks.

We have gospel meetings, and rightly so, for what might happen. I wonder if we need discipleship meetings for what has happened. To remind us of the importance of that.

Someone has said that every indicative, I think it was William MacDonald, every indicative in God's plan of redemption carries with it an imperative. So God doesn't just give us a statement about what he's done without a follow-up statement to what he wants us to do. So the doctrinal is always followed by the practical.

We were hearing about doctrine yesterday by Brother Scott. An excellent word was given. And so that doctrine isn't just truth that's just thrown out there into the air in some nebulous, cloudy way.

But that truth that has been handed down and passed on from God himself to men is expected to be practically displayed in our lives, in our gatherings. Doctrine leads to duty. It has really impressed my own heart that we hear messages, and I wonder how much we're listening and we're listening, but do we have a desire when we hear messages like this, like what we're going to hear, like what we heard yesterday, and put that into practical shoe leather in our life? That's discipleship.

It touched my heart. I was reading the book of Acts a little bit, and the word disciple is found in the plural and in the singular. It's found over 200 times in the plural.

It's found one-tenth of that in the singular, because it's easy to be a disciple among other disciples. It's a lot tougher to be a disciple when you're one. The other thing is that when it comes to plural, it's the idea of association.

When it comes to the singular, it's the idea of education. And the last time you read in the Bible of the word disciple is in the singular and in the plural, both together, but it's an old man. His name is Manan, an old disciple.

And the idea of the word old there is not so much his age that he was an old man, because he could have got saved the day before, but the idea is that which is from the beginning, that which is left over. In other words, this is a man that started long ago, and he's continued. I thought of that when our brother Murray was speaking yesterday, too, about older men and women, that God helped them to continue as disciples, as those who are disciplined in life.

If we are not disciplined in life, we will be ineffective as disciples, and that means that we need to have the Word of God mold our lives, channel our lives. It's not a matter of just if we'd like to, if we want to, because those statements that the Lord Jesus makes are very, very strong. If you don't bear your cross, don't follow me, and he links it with a cross, you cannot be my disciple.

It's not a matter of, well, if you do most of the things. Discipleship is an all-or-nothing thing, and we don't realize that, and we like to pick and choose, and this has really spoken to my heart quite a bit. For example, we hear in meetings about giving, and yet we don't give.

We keep so much of it for ourselves, speaker included. We hear about forgiveness, and yet we hold grudges against certain individuals that we don't want to forgive. We hear about headship.

We don't hear about headship too much, but we hear about headship, and whether it's the hair on a sister that God has given you for your glory, and we hear about, and people sit unmoved by that. They don't change, it doesn't matter, and they just keep going on the way they're going, even though God says, it says right there the Spirit of God has given us. Her long hair is given her for our glory.

It's a creatorial truth, but we just sit there, and we remain unmoved, because you know what? We are going to do what we want to do, and we remain unmoved. We hear about reverence, and we stay casual. Casual in our attitudes, but we have to speak on subject.

I was thinking about it yesterday. Sometimes at conferences, we actually, people speak about things that are so low, and I'm not saying that in the sense of dress. What a simple thing.

A simple thing. Attendance at meetings. We're speaking on things that, when it comes really to the truth of who we are linked with, and the cost of what he paid to buy us out of the slave market of sin, they are so low and mundane, and yet we have to remind ourselves, because you know what? We want to take our own course.

And then the amazing thing, the tragic thing. We hear about commitment. We hear about study.

How many times we talk about people studying your Bible. Do you study your Bible, and do you study it, men and women together? Do you study it with the aspect of, I want to learn what God is saying to me. I want to learn about his word.

Do you study the Word of God? These are basic things of basic discipleship Christianity, and yet then we actually expect God to bless and strengthen our lives and our assemblies. We wonder why we have so little strength. We wonder why we have so little power.

Because we are not living out what it says there. What the Lord Jesus himself says, unless you take up your cross, in fact one gospel says, he says daily, to die again, and again, and again. I know that's not doctrinal in a sense, but the word is bringing before us there the reality of that it is a continuous thing.

I wonder here really, how many of us are really willing to do that? We hear words like that, and we just relegate it to, well that's the Gospels, that's what he told those people. We'll tell sinners at a gospel meeting, and we'll sing it out lustily, have you counted the cost? I just wonder, have you counted the cost to be a disciple? Have I counted the cost? What it means to deny self, to have that attitude that I am not alive, it's not me. I died, crucified.

So we'll look at just a few things here, but I want you to notice too, the cross is not some, people talk about, well it's my cross to bear. The cross is not some physical infirmity, or some mental anguish that we go through. These things are common to all men.

Unsaved people have those type of things. Unsaved people have physical issues, and mental issues, and so on. The cross is a pathway that's deliberately chosen, and it is a path of dishonor, reproach, and rejection.

Understand that. It means that we are going to be reproached by the world for the life that we live. Not simply questioned, not simply wondering, well there's a man that's a Muslim, I wonder why he does those things, and there's a man that's, he's a Jew, and I wonder, no.

This is something that in the world in which we live, that is energized by Satan, and the propulsion system is sin, that the world looks at you as a sister, the world looks at you as a brother, and there is a reproach for the sake of Christ. For how we live, for how we talk, for what we display, because what they did to Christ when he was here is what they will do to us when we're here. That's the idea.

So I want to look at three things very quickly, just a few minutes. The truths. The truths of discipleship, the terms of discipleship, and then the tests, very quickly.

The truths. Discipleship always links with devotion. Go back right even to the Old Testament.

God gave them his law on Mount Sinai, and that law, I think Brother Allen used that inflexible, the law was inflexible, and the law was biting, and the law, and you say the law, but what follows the law? Exodus 20, the law is given. You know the very next chapter after the law? We're introduced to the Hebrew servant in Exodus 21. That's very touching, because duty and devotion go hand in hand.

Because the Hebrew servant is saying this, I love my master. I will not go out free. Now he says that on the heels of getting the law.

He doesn't say that on the heels of the manna being rained down on them. He doesn't say it on the heels of God extending them and changing the water, and look what I've done. He has that on the heels of the law.

You know what he's recognizing? That all of this, the good and the bad, as I can put it that way, comes from God, and nothing is going to dissuade him, because he says, I love my master. I love my wife. I will not go out free.

So really, what it comes right down to is gratitude. Gratitude for what God has brought us into in its fullness, in every aspect. A story is told, there's a missionary years ago, his name is J. Alexander Clark, and he saw a lion, he was a missionary in Africa, he saw a lion attacking an African.

Reading this account is quite a thing. He grabs his gun, and he kills the lion. Now the man had been mauled.

Kills the lion, saves the man's life, takes the man to a hospital, a local hospital, where they cared for him, and then he cared for him for a while, and he was well enough to go back to his tribe. Two or three months later, this missionary Clark is sitting on his veranda, and he hears all of a sudden this commotion of noise. Hens clucking, ducks quacking, there are sheep bleeding, men and women and children talking, and he looks and he sees, here is this tall African man, and he's leading a parade of livestock, of sheep, of animals, of children, everything.

And he comes up to the veranda of this man. The man that had saved him from the jaws of the lion. He falls at the missionary's feet, and this is what he says to him, Sir, according to the laws of my tribe, the man who has been rescued from a wild beast no longer belongs to himself.

He belongs to his savior. You have saved me. All that I have is yours.

My animals are yours. My servants are yours. My children are yours.

I am yours. And he bows before him. It was just a matter of simple gratitude.

How thankful are we to the Savior? We will never be in hell. We will be in heaven. We are his in a world that is so dark and dismal and twisted.

We know what's right, and we should live right, but right not simply as a step above the world, not simply as a good neighbor, but live according to the truth of the word of God that puts me into its mold, that allows me and makes me live like the Savior that was rejected and reproached. That's the truth. It's basically gratitude.

The terms of the disciple? All. Death cannot be my disciple. Listen to those words.

The Lord never compromised his message. He never compromised the consequences of it either. It's as clear as the gospel, and if we misrepresent it, then we are giving less than he did, and we're compromising.

What does the Lord Jesus say? He shall be heeded. You shall be brought before councils. Someone said, I think it was William MacDonald, he says, the Lord is not looking for numbers, but followers.

The Lord is not looking for the crowd, but the committed. He's not looking for us to mingle with the world, but to follow him to the cross. You know why? Because he not only wants companionship, but he recognizes what this world is and what we are to be.

Supreme devotion. That's what the Savior is looking for. First place.

First place in our lives. Does he have first place in your life? Does he have first place in mine? Unless he does, he says, unless he bears his cross, takes up his cross, follows me, he cannot be my disciple. What does it mean to have first place? It means that every decision you make, every action you take, every step you walk is dictated and determined by the word of God and testimony for Christ.

The life you live, the appearance you have, the words you say, the actions you conduct, you are a representative of Christ living out his word. And for that, you will be reproached. It's not a matter of mingling with the world to gain their acceptance.

People say, that's not only an individual life, that's an assembly life. We need to make the world feel at home here. He never felt at home here.

Why would we think that the assembly should be a place to make the world feel at home? And if it is, then there's something wrong. The world should never feel at home, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't at least make them feel welcome. There's a difference.

Let them know they're loved, but there is a definite distinction, the terms of discipleship. It doesn't mean that, you know, the Savior isn't looking for men and women who will give spare evenings. I have this free evening that I think I might go to meet him.

You know what, I haven't read my Bible in a few days. I think I'm going to read it tonight. He's not looking for people or weekend warriors.

That's another one, weekend warriors. And when they'll go to church, or I'll give years of retirement. I remember when I was going to go into the work and I had been struggling with it.

And there was an older believer and one of the elders in the assemblies where I was in fellowship up in Canada. And he said, so Frank, he says, well, you know, what's the problem? I said, well, you know, I said, it's my children. He says, you don't think, he said, the Lord can take care of your children.

Well, I know, I know, I know he can, I know he can. Then he says, you know what, Frank, he says, then, you know what, give the last years of your life to the Lord. I felt like I got punched.

And then he put his arm around me. What are you waiting for? To give him first blood. What are we waiting for? Is he not worthy? Is he not deserving of it? And he said, I think that is so significant.

It wasn't through the words of Paul. It wasn't through the words of a Peter, his own words, unless you take up your cross daily and follow me, you cannot be my disciple. It's an all or nothing self denial.

It's not about me. That man said, how many times? Me first, let me first, me first. You know what the greatest opposition to discipleship is? Me first, me.

That's why Paul says, I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. The tests of discipleship very quickly, losing your sight.

These three men here that the Lord spoke to, follow me, follow me. There are three dangers. One is generalization.

Generalization is this, to be a disciple at large and not at length. We're all disciples, right? Isn't that what the meaning is there? Well, it means that every believer is a disciple. That's more than that.

It's not just a matter of being a disciple as a generalization. Being one at large, it's being one at length. That's the idea when it comes to disciples.

Then there's another danger, not only generalization, but procrastination. I have to get this in order. I have to get that in order.

If I had more money, I could give more to the Lord. If I had more materials, I could do more for the Lord. If I had this, if I had that, if I was in a better assembly, if I was in a bigger assembly, if there wasn't so much opposition, if there were people that understood me, I could do more.

I could be more. God knows exactly what you can be personally and what he wants you to be. And what he wants you to be is all you can be for him through the word of God.

And when there is unreserved obedience, that's the key to discipleship. Obedience. And obedience allows him to be God.

The last one is rationalization. Generalization, procrastination, rationalization. Real things and real relationships become more pressing in the priority.

Real things. Legitimate things. There's nothing, someone has said, if a house is on fire, it would be a sin to go into that house and straighten the pictures out.

Now any other time, that's a good thing to do. Any other time, straighten the pictures out. It bugs me to no end when I see a picture that's crooked.

I stop looking. But listen, at that moment, when the house is on fire, when there's a far greater pressing priority, forget about the pictures. We're at a time right now when there's a far greater pressing priority.

We are on the cusp of the Lord's coming. And you know what? You say we've always been that way. Exactly.

Because the priority has always been discipleship. Living for him. May God help us to do so.

Because there's a great priority. The first priority is Christ himself. He's watching.

The next, the world at large. Sinners perishing. The next, the judgment seat of Christ.

These things loom large. Forget about straightening the pictures. Think about all that I can give.

All that I can do. If I see something, read something, do it. I'll leave you with what Mary said to those men.

Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.