Christianity and Discipleship (1961)
Part two of a four-part series from Urbana 61by Lawrence Love
"No person has ever received Jesus Christ into his heart by faith, trusting Him to save him from his sins, while at the same time repudiating His Lordship. It is impossible."
Before we look into the Word of God, it is my privilege to call to your attention a significant book. I have not read the entire book; it came into my hands a little late for that. But I have read parts of it, and have scanned the rest, and I am convinced that it can be used to bring real blessing and inspiration and challenge to all our hearts. Essentially, it is a book on the biblical basis for missions. It sets before us a very practical challenge, and examines our motives in the matter of missions.
The title is Man's Peace, God's Glory, and the author is the Rev. Eric Fife. I can commend the book to you, because I know the author and am sure that his book was the result of prayerful, careful, thorough consideration of the Word of God with regard to missions. So I commend it to you most heartily. It is published by Inter-Varsity Press and is available, of course, in the bookstore. Put it down as a must while you are here - Man's Peace, God's Glory. It will be a blessing to you.
Now this morning, we want to read from the Word of God a very familiar portion found in the Gospel according to Mark, chapter 10. Yesterday we read from Matthew, chapter 10, and while our message was not an exposition of that particular portion, the Scripture constituted a background for the message. We considered in the light of it the demands of discipleship implicit in the fact of man's redemption and imperative in the face of man's ruin.
This morning we want to consider further our theme, "The Demands of Discipleship," and we want to see what such demands necessitate. Again, as a background for our thinking, or a basis for it, we want to read from the Word of God, the Gospel according to Mark, chapter 10, beginning with verse 17.
And when he [the Lord Jesus] was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God. Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother. And he answered and said unto him. Master, all these have I observed from my youth. Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.
Let us look to the Lord for a moment of prayer. "Our Father, we acknowledge before Thy presence our utter and complete dependence upon Thy Holy Spirit. No word of ours will suffice to meet one single need in any individual heart. We need desperately to hear Thy voice. And so our expectation is from Thee. We ask Thee, for the sake of Thy dear Son, for the honor and glory of Thy holy Name, and for the furtherance of Thy gospel, that Thou shouldst in these moments speak to us. Speak in a voice so unmistakably clear that no one of us will fail to hear Thee. Our God, we pray that Thou wilt so deal with our minds and hearts and wills that there may be on the part of each one of us that response which will gladden Thy heart and cause to be fulfilled in and through us all that is Thy purpose for us. We ask for Thy presence and Thy power and Thy glory in our midst, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
There are certain things that are absolutely necessary if the demands of discipleship are to be met by those of us who profess to believe in and belong to our Lord Jesus Christ. At least some of these we purpose, by God's enabling grace, to set before you. I trust that as we consider them, you will recognize that they are not new, that this is not some new approach nor new idea, but rather that we are together considering that which is old and fundamental, reliable, trustworthy, and relevant.
Christians Are Disciples
By way of background, I want to remind you once again that it is God's purpose for every life - for you, for me, as believers in Jesus Christ, that we should be disciples. Unfortunately, for a great many years, a very popular and acceptable heresy in regard to this has been propagated throughout the evangelical Church of Jesus Christ. It has been deadening and devastating. It is popular because it appeals, first of all, to our desire to preserve and maintain the doctrines of grace, and secondly because it appeals to the flesh. That heresy is that to be saved is one thing, and to be a disciple is another; that to receive Jesus Christ as Savior is one thing, but to acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord is another.
Now I do not want to split hairs, nor be unfair. I think all of us would readily recognize that an individual may sincerely receive Jesus Christ as Savior in response to the moving of the Spirit of God, and may rest upon Him and Him alone for salvation, as He is offered to us in the Gospels, without understanding the full implications of this step. And it may be that, at some later date, he may feel the full force of what he has done, and in consequence renew his response, reaffirm his faith, confirm his allegiance, and dedicate and submit himself to divine authority. But I want to tell you this. Everyone who has ever been saved started right. No one has ever come to Jesus Christ with deliberate, known reservations. No person has ever received Jesus Christ into his heart by faith, trusting Him to save him from his sins, while at the same time repudiating His Lordship. It is impossible. It is utterly impossible to receive Jesus Christ into the heart by faith and rest upon Him for salvation while deliberately, knowingly rejecting His sovereignty.
But this has become a popular concept. I've heard it countless times myself - definitely, precisely stated in these terms: To receive Jesus Christ as Savior is one thing, but to acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord is another. And I've often wondered if the courtesy demanded by our culture has not been, at such times, an enemy of the Cross, when, out of deference to it, I have refrained from protesting on the spot.
I want to tell you on the authority of the Word of the living God, that to be a believer in Jesus Christ is to embrace the principle of discipleship. It is to come under the gracious sovereignty of the Son of God. And I would remind you that the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. The term may have been used derisively, in a derogatory sense, but it was used of those who by reason of their discipleship were obviously under the gracious sovereignty of the Son of God. They were so taken up with the Lord Jesus, so devoted to Him, so faithful in their response to Him, that men said they were Christ-ians. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. And no one has a right to regard himself as a Christian, in the Bible sense of the term, who is not in purpose and principle, desire and intent, a disciple of Jesus Christ.
Discipleship Demands Commitment
We said yesterday that the demands of discipleship are implicit in the very fact of redemption. The Cross demands that we become disciples. Now, against that background, let us examine at least three things that are necessitated by the demands for discipleship as set before us in the Word of God. First of all, there must be commitment to Jesus Christ. There must be commitment to Jesus Christ. Not in the sense that we somehow approve of Him, and that we acknowledge His way as best and right, but in the sense that we are separated from all else save Jesus Christ Himself.
This young man who came to the Lord Jesus was a very good young man, upright, moral, exemplary in character and conduct, and humble in spirit. If such had not been the case, he would not have knelt at the feet of Jesus Christ in such a public place as the roadway. This humble, sincere, and godly young man came to Jesus Christ and said, "Good Master, what must I do that I may inherit eternal life?" To put it in somewhat more familiar terms, he said, "What must I do to be saved? What must I do that I may be absolutely sure that I am in a right, living, eternal relationship with Almighty God? What must I do to be sure that I am on the side of God? What must I do that I may inherit eternal life?"
The Lord Jesus said, "Thou knowest the commandments." And He enumerated all those that had to do with this young man's relations with his fellows and his family. The young man could answer quite conscientiously, "I have kept all of these from my youth up. Lord, I have never knowingly, deliberately, disobeyed them." The Lord did not question the accuracy of his answer or his integrity at this point. Matthew tells us that the young man went on to say, "But what lack I yet? Lord, I have kept the commandments from my youth, I have sought to observe what I have known to be right, I have obeyed the law of God; but still there is no satisfaction in my soul, no peace, no assurance, and no confidence. What lack I yet?"
The Lord said, "You lack just one thing. Go and sell all that thou hast, and give it to the poor. And don't worry about it; you won't lose it, you'll have treasure in heaven. Go and sell all that you have, and give the proceeds to the poor, and come, take up the cross, and follow Me."
Commitment in this particular instance involved the young man's separation of himself from all that he owned. Now the Lord did not deal with all men alike, but in principle His answer was always the same. It always had to do with self. Jesus said to this young man, "Go and sell all that you have." For you see, the young man did not have great possessions; his great possessions had him. He was all wrapped up in what he had. There is nothing sinful in being wealthy. Abraham was a very rich man. You remember that Abraham could raise an army of at least six-hundred able-bodied soldiers from among the servants in his own household. Abraham was a wealthy man, but he wasn't attached to what he had. The only thing he really regarded as his own was the Cave of Machpelah, a place in which to bury his and Sarah's bones. No, there is nothing intrinsically wrong in possessing wealth, but there is something wrong in being possessed by it. This young man was so wrapped up in what he owned, that it was absolutely necessary that he be separated from it.
You say, "I don't have that problem." But could it be that your aims and your aspirations, your ambitions, your goals - those you've fixed for yourself - have so obsessed you and so demanded your interest and attention, your talents and time, that you are given over to them and they stand between you and the will of God? Consecration, to be sincere, must be entire. The Lord Jesus said, "Go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast; get rid of it all."
Are you separated in principle, and thereby committed personally to Jesus Christ? Are there any ties that bind you to that which is other than the will of God for your life? Are you committed in such a way to other things that, if the call of God were to become clear, you would be hindered by them; or are you free? The Apostle Paul could say, "Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord?"
Paul was utterly free to be what God wanted him to be. He was committed in principle to the will of God. Discipleship begins with absolute and total commitment to Jesus Christ, with recognition of the right of God to reign upon the throne of your heart. Are you committed in a total sense, without any quibbling, without any equivocation?
Some years ago it was my privilege to be speaking one summer at a youth conference at Ben Lippen, down in North Carolina. God met us in a very real way that week, and I am confident that a lasting work was done in many hearts. We had a testimony meeting, and during the course of that meeting a young girl, very gracious, very attractive, and very brilliant, was among those who testified. She stood before that group and said to them: "I have here before me God's plan for my life, and I want to share it with you." She held up a sheet of paper that was completely blank, except for her own signature at the bottom. She said, "Here is the will of God for my life. I am committed to it. I don't know what it is, but here it is. I signed up to do it, come what may."
Are you willing to give the living God a blank sheet of paper, so to speak, and say to Him, "Write upon it what You will. I'm committed to it, not knowing what it is." Are you so committed?
I do not mean, have you stood up in some meeting and said, "I want to dedicate my life to the Lord." That's good, but that's not the answer. Bengel says that the highest worship is in the will. The question simply is this: Are you committed in a total sense, without any reservations or equivocations? Are you committed to Jesus Christ? Have you said deep within your soul, "My Lord and my God"?
When Saul of Tarsus met Jesus Christ on the Damascus road and saw Him to be the Lord, you remember he said, "Who art thou, Lord?" The voice came from heaven, "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest " And the immediate response from the heart of the Apostle was, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" That was committal. Discipleship in its true sense demands a complete committal of life to Jesus Christ. And involved in this is the severance of one's self from all other interests and ties that might in any way stand between us and the will of God. It is laying aside every weight, as well as the sin which does so easily beset us, focusing our attention solely and simply upon the Person of Jesus Christ, saying, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" Discipleship necessitates utter and absolute committal to the will of God in Jesus Christ.
Discipleship Demands Confidence
The second thing we want to say is that discipleship necessitates confidence in Jesus Christ. Remember the Lord as He was moving among men. He dealt with them in various ways; He listened to their questions, and He gave them answers, commenting on things that were relevant. But we read concerning our Lord that He did not commit Himself unto them. Why? Because He "knew what was in man." He could not commit Himself to men because He knew what they were. But on the cross, when He hung between the earth and the sky, bearing in His own body your sins and mine, suffering in that inscrutable mystery of the atonement the wrath of Almighty God by reason of the sin that He bore, in that awful hour, when a veil was drawn between His face and the Father's, when He who was and is eternally one with the Father was separated from Him by reason of the sin which He became, and He cried, "My God, my God, why?"-nevertheless, the answer came from His own soul, born of confidence in the faithfulness of God, and He said, "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit."
He believed that the Father would not leave His soul in hell nor suffer His Holy One to see corruption. Though in that hour He could not see, He could believe, and He did. He said, "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit." He would not commit Himself to men because they were not worthy of His confidence; but He could commit Himself to God, because God was worthy.
The demands of discipleship necessitate an absolute, unswerving confidence in the ability and faithfulness of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul could say, "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." Paul could say, in writing to young Timothy, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day."
On one occasion Paul stood on the storm-tossed deck of that little craft that was doomed to destruction, and in the midst of all the fear and apprehension that had gripped those on board, he could say, "Sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God." Complete commitment to Jesus Christ involves, necessarily, an absolute confidence not only in His ability but in His faithfulness.
Notice what the Lord Jesus was asking this young man to do. He said, "I want you to go and to sell all that you have. Get rid of everything upon which you have leaned all of your life, which has in a very real sense become the focal point of your interest and affection and your very existence. I want you to separate yourself from that upon which you have leaned. I want you to commit yourself to Me." That is what Jesus Christ demands of you and of me this morning. And this can be done only when we have absolute confidence that Jesus Christ is dependable.
I think perhaps the two most familiar and best loved portions of the Word of God are John 3:16 and Psalm 23. We learn them very early in life. They are referred to on countless occasions, because the one contains the promise of salvation and the other the assurance of God's sustaining grace and power. I know you know the Twenty-third Psalm, but do you believe it? What does it say? It says, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want." The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. To commit your life totally, without reservation, to Jesus Christ, resting not only the matter of your salvation, but your present destiny in the nail-pierced hands of the Son of God, necessitates an absolute confidence in Him, that He is able, that He will keep, that He will direct, that He will provide. What a glorious thing it is to live under the gracious sovereignty of Jesus Christ, believing that He is able to keep that which we have committed unto Him against that day, that He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, that He is able to make all grace abound toward us, that we, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work!
Let me ask you this morning: Do you have unreserved confidence in Jesus Christ that confidence that will allow you to sever yourself deliberately, as an act of obedience, from every relationship, every interest, every aim, every objective, and every ambition in your life, that you may launch out in faith upon the will of God? Total commitment requires total confidence, and none can be a disciple without both. The Lord Jesus was saying to this young man: "I want you to be shaken loose from all the moorings and removed from your own foundations. I want you to forget yourself and enter by faith into an entirely new relationship, where the only One on whom you can depend is Myself." Total commitment requires total confidence in the One to whom we commit ourselves.
Discipleship Demands Cooperation
But there is one other thing to take into account, not an entirely different thing, but perhaps a different aspect of the first thing that we've considered; that is, there must be cooperation with Christ. And may I say parenthetically, God does not need your help, or mine, in order to get the job done. In order to do what needs to be done in your life, God does not need your help. He does need your cooperation, and cooperation involves a bit more than commitment. Commitment is that deliberate presentation of ourselves to the living God wherein we regard ourselves as being not our own, but the personal property of the Son of God, being confident that as we so present ourselves, He will keep that which we commit unto Him and will order our steps. But cooperation is volitional in character; it involves a response in deliberate, consistent obedience as the plan of God unfolds before our eyes.
Often we hear that simple chorus which has a wonderful truth, but stops short perhaps of being the whole truth: "Let go and let God have His way." That does not mean that we sit on pink cloud number nine with our feet hanging over, plunking on a harp. Oh, no. Commitment to the One in whom we have confidence places us in a position where we may now respond in cooperation with our God. Multiplied thousands of young people, all across our land and in other lands, have stood to their feet at mission conventions and said, "I am willing"; and that's as far as they ever went. They were willing, but they didn't do anything about it. They made no effort beyond that particular point to move out in the will of God. They said, "We commit ourselves. We entrust our lives to Jesus Christ." But they did not deliberately, faithfully, and unceasingly seek to discover the will of God in order that they might do it.
There is one word that best describes the life of discipleship - conflict. Much more will yet be said about this, I trust, for conflict, in a very real sense, is the heart of the matter in our day. But if there were not battles to be fought and victories to be won, sacrifices to be made, sufferings to endure, the whole impact of the Word of God concerning these matters would be irrelevant and meaningless. We are told to be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, to endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, to fight the good fight of faith. We are told to press on toward the mark. Where there is true discipleship, there is movement, response, activity. When we begin to discern the will of God, we meet every demand of God upon our lives with a total response, and we move out and up and on. You do not volunteer to be a missionary. You do not volunteer to be a doctor on the field, or a nurse, or a radio technician.
The true volunteer commits life and all life involves into the nail-pierced hands of Jesus Christ, saying, "What wilt Thou have me to do?" And then from his very soul he seeks to discern the will of God. As he discerns it, he trusts God for wisdom to show him how this goal may be reached, and he moves out in response. We begin to cooperate with the Holy Ghost, to cooperate with our sovereign Savior who reigns upon the throne of our hearts; and we move as He directs. But there is movement. Response is not passive; it is volitional in character. I think so often of what Vance Havner says: "Most of us are singing about standing on the promises, and we're just sitting on the premises.
There are needs, there are opportunities, there are challenges, and we say, "Lord, I am willing" but we never will. There needs to be an intelligent Spirit-directed and Spirit-enabled response to the claims and directions of the Holy Ghost. There needs to be, on my part and yours, constant, complete cooperation with Jesus Christ. What did He say to this young man? He said, "Go and get rid of the things that stand in your way. Come and place yourself at My disposal; and when I move out, you move with Me. Follow Me."
Of course, it may occur to you that where the Lord is leading is not the place that you had decided to go! That's where the test of reality comes in, isn't it? You see, we make our plans, and we set our goals. We have our own objectives, our own ambitions and aspirations, perhaps all of them good in themselves; and we say to the Lord, "Lord, bless me," and then wonder why He doesn't. He can't, because to be other than utterly committed to the will of God, cooperating moment by moment in faith with the One in whom we have placed our confidence and trust, is to be out of the will of God. It is to be in the place where no blessings can come.
May I ask you: Are you as a professing Christian committed to Jesus Christ? Can you say from your very soul this morning, as before the presence of Almighty God, "Jesus Christ is my Lord"? Is it your confidence that as you have placed yourself at His disposal, He will direct your path? And is it your purpose and desire, despite every obstacle in your path and every weakness within your spirit, that by the grace of Almighty God, you will cooperate with Jesus Christ?
When the Son of God cried upon the cross, "It is finished," it was not the despairing cry of one who had reached the end of his rope. It was the triumphant proclamation of the holy Son of God that His assignment was now complete. The objective had been reached; the goal had been attained. The job was done, and the gates of heaven were open to men.
Is it your purpose to cooperate totally with Jesus Christ? Does the "Well done" of our Lord and Savior mean more to you than life itself? If not, may I beg of you, may I plead with you this morning: examine before God your relationship with Him. It may not be real, for to be a Christian in the Bible sense of the term is to be committed to Jesus Christ with confidence in the Son of God, and with the purpose of following wherever He leads. Anything less than this falls short of the demands of discipleship placed upon us by the fact of redemption.
Let us pray.
Our loving Father, we recognize that Thy Word alone can penetrate our minds and hearts and wills, and bring to pass that which will glorify Thyself and make us a means of blessing to a lost and dying world.
Our God, we ask Thee that, beyond and above all that we've sought to say, Thou, by Thy loving Holy Spirit, wilt speak to our hearts. And may no one of us turn away sorrowing, but may there be within our hearts a glad response to Thy Son, the Lord Jesus by virtue of which we shall say from our souls, "My Lord and my God."
May this be the dawning of a new day of discipleship for many of us, for the glory of Christ and the furtherance of the gospel. We ask in His precious name, Amen.
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