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Vidalia Georgia
Thoughts on Discipleship Elder Joe Nettles
Our Lord Christ in Matthew chapter five taught his disciples of the holiness of the Mosaic law when viewed through spiritual eyes and affecting our lives because of a spiritual heart. Please remember, Christ is here addressing his disciples who had separated themselves from the throngs of men to hear his holy and gracious words on the mountain high. Verse one of our chapter declares, “And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him..” The import of these instructions can only be of spiritual value to his regenerate disciples who have the spiritual capacity to discern his instruction. It was this manner of hungry soul that followed the Savior up despite inconvenience and rigor. We need always remember the difference between a follower and a disciple. A disciple is always a follower, but a follower is not always a disciple. In John 6:26, Christ refers to those who followed him only because they had their bellies filled with loaves and fish when he said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.” These referred to were only followers. Their bellies had been stretched, yet their hearts were still rigid! Unfortunately, this manner of follower didn’t expire in the days of our Lord. They have ever been present to serve as dead weight in the congregations of the Lord’s church. You’ll find them sitting in the pew of practically every meeting house in this world, yet they have never entered in to the kingdom. They will be quick to follow to the entertainments, to the lunch tables, or to the activities that may focus the attention on them. However, they have never been a disciple. On the other hand, a disciple is wholly different. True, he is a follower. He has to be or he will cease to be a disciple. Yet, he follows in the godly manner. Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines the term disciple as “A follower. An adherent to the doctrines of another. One who receives or professes to receive instruction from another.” Yes, verily, he follows, but as a sheep follows the shepherd, staying close and seeking out his familiar voice as it rings out over the fields. A disciple strives to adhere to the doctrines. He readily professes the source of his conversation and knowledge. The very term disciple reveals what is absolutely necessary to be one - discipline! I would to God that all of his regenerated flock would exercise the discipline required to be a disciple! Some may exclaim, “What, Brother Joe?! Are you trying to teach that all of God’s born-again subjects are not disciples?” My reply to them is a flat-footed “Yes!”. That is exactly what I teach and will, Lord willing, till breath ceases. My heart’s desire is that all of God’s children (myself included) would fall in line lockstep with gospel obedience. How wonderful that would be! Yet, even if I chose to preach that doctrine, it would not make it so as the scriptures won‘t allow it. Should I dare preach a message to the comfort of an unscriptural delusion at the expense of inspired scriptural truth? God forbid. God’s word soothes and caresses our very souls as that is one of its purposes. However, don’t forget that it also serves to slap us into reality! It oftentimes paints a picture of His redeemed as carnal, errant, fallible, and wholly dependant on Christ’s persevering grace! Please don’t think that I would dare preach that the rebellious and disobedient of the redeemed have the same assurance as true disciples do. No, I won’t do that. Yet, we must needs maintain the separation of the entities of the fact of salvation and the assurance of salvation. The twain are not the same! The extent of the former can only be known by gazing upon the entries in the Lamb’s book of life. The extent of the latter is revealed through a veil of fallen flesh subjectively and seen through a veil of fallen flesh objectively. As to the former, God clearly, eternally, and infallibly knows who all of the redeemed are. Yet , as to the latter, we are left with evidences, glimpses, and notions. As to the former, God depends on no one for his knowledge of the redeemed in Christ. However, as to the latter, we are left to tremulously and fallibly plead for the discernment spoken of in Matthew 7:7, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you”, all the while hoping that our asking, seeking, and knocking finds our Lord’s approval. Salvation is sovereign, assurance is dependant! Please, ministering brethren especially, don’t attempt to bring the fact of salvation under bondage to the assurance of salvation. To be a disciple brings greater assurance. Both discipleship and assurance of salvation require discipline! Some claim that God will work in you all the discipline necessary to follow in persevering righteousness till you die. They will attest that if he works it in you, then you have no choice but to do accordingly. I find this to be a baseless assumption and wholly unscriptural. Granted, all that is necessary for us to exercise discipline to discipleship God gives in the new birth of his sovereign design. Conviction of conscience, spiritual discernment, love, spiritual edification, etc., must all come “from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights..” (James 1:17). He is truly our “Alpha and Omega“ (Revelation 1:11). No doubt in him “we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28). The disciple “can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth ..” him (Philippians 4:13), and without Christ “ye can do nothing” (John 15:5). However, having the rudimentary capacities for discipleship and exercising them to obedience and discipleship are two different issues altogether! Common sense constrains us to know that discipline requires active, purposeful, conscious decisions and choices. In the absence of choice there can be no discipline, hence there can be no disciples. I’ll try to give some examples to elucidate. Have you ever tried to lie perfectly still pretending to be asleep? You could behave normally, sitting in a chair or going about your business, but (for whatever reason) you choose to lie perfectly still. Something that is seemingly so simple requires a lot of effort, doesn’t it? Very soon you desire to change positions, blink your eyelids, or scratch your nose, but you dare not lest you tip your hand that you’re actually conscious. Some performers are expert at it. Some boys who don’t want to get up and mow the lawn are uncannily good at it. In all cases it requires some degree of discipline. Now, consider the same activity in an unfortunate soul that has suffered a brain injury and is comatose. He lays there day after day in the same state. He may have no conscious awareness of his situation or, even if he does, he can do nothing about it. It would be wholly improper to stand at his bedside and laude his discipline in the matter as you would someone in the first scenario. Why? What makes the difference in the situations? The lack of choice, of course. No choice or decision of paths, no discipline. What about in the discipline of our children? I discipline my children. That means I have to make a conscious and most-times agonizing decision to discipline them when they are disobedient. I hate to paddle my children. It really makes me heart-sick to do it. Yet, I have choices to make. I can either let them run amuck to my own transient relief in that I don’t have to paddle the little dears, or I can choose to steel myself and correct them so in the long run they will be disciplined and pleasant. I choose to correct and teach them. I discipline. Now imagine that I have dropped my kids off at some poor soul’s home and let it be known in no uncertain terms that in my absence they are not to be corrected in any way. No paddling. No verbal rebuke. No “time-out”. No denial of snacks or affection. Absolutely nothing. Yet, I tell the sitter to discipline the children in my absence. This would be a foolish request as I leave the sitter with no choice but to let the kids run amuck. As poor as these examples are, I believe that it is clear to see that outside of choice, there can be no discipline. The choosing to obey rather than disobey, to confess rather than abstain, to learn rather than laze about, to follow rather than stray constitutes discipline to discipleship! Multiple scriptures are given to prove the necessity of active, purposeful, conscious decisions to discipleship. Just a few follow.
II Peter 1:8-10 “For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall.”
Some points to notice in this passage: 1. There are clearly two sets of God’s children here, those who abound and those that lack. We are informed that diligence is required to go from one state to another (vv. 5 and 10). Diligence requires active, purposeful, conscious decisions.
2. Verse 10 uses the term “rather”. This of necessity means that choice is to be exercised. How dare I ask, “Would you rather have chocolate or vanilla?” when only vanilla is at hand! The term indicates to us that both are possibilities, but one is truly superior. It requires active, purposeful, conscious decisions.
3. There can be no doubt that he that abounds is redeemed. There can also be no doubt that he that lacks in this context is also redeemed as the verse plainly declared that “he was purged from his old sins”. The blessed Apostle Peter didn’t try to mitigate the import of the statement. He didn’t try to qualify the statement as referring solely to national Israelites or the such. He just plainly declared the security of God’s redeemed despite their sometimes lack of diligence. How could one be so proud as to despise God’s faithfulness in spite of our failures? Should we have the attitudes and doctrines of Jonah on the hillside?
Philippians 2: 12, 13 “Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”
1. Please notice that obedience is conspicuous in the exhortation. This requires active, purposeful, conscious decisions. Some may reply, “But Christ was obedient unto death. Would we dare say that he had a choice to do otherwise?”. Granted, Christ was obedient to his Father as is written in verse 8 of the same chapter. Christ also made active, purposeful, conscious decisions to the saving of his sheep. However, the scriptures are clear that he and the Father are one, with the same will, perfection, impeccability, divinity, and essence. There never was a possibility of Christ not doing the right thing. How, then, “being in the form of God“ and thinking “it not robbery to be equal with God” (verse 6) can it be said that he was obedient? Well, in the context of the eternal covenant of grace, he became obedient, took upon him the form of a servant, and humbled himself. You see, in the structure, if you will, of the covenant of grace conceived in eternity past there required the offended, just Father unto whom the elect must be reconciled or suffer eternally; the subservient sacrificial Lamb to shed his blood in representing and redeeming lowly man; and the Holy Spirit to apply the merits of that blood to the redeemed vitally. The eternal Son of God has never been any less God in existence, but willingly became obedient and subservient to the Father in the context of his office in the blessed covenant of grace. However, we have the nature of Adam still hung about our necks and are unable to declare as Christ did “I do always those things that please him” (John 8:29). Therefore, till the glorious day when we will be wholly conformed to the Lord’s image, we must exercise active, purposeful, conscious decisions to obedience. Having established this, let it be known that anything you do that is not of your own volition and power cannot be considered obedience. If, for example, you are waiting in a long line at the bank and there is some ruffian behind you who wants the line to advance more quickly and he trips you into the people ahead of you. The line suddenly surges forward due to your stumbling into them. Can it be rightly claimed by the ruffian that you obeyed his commands? No? Why not? The line did move per his desire and he used you to do it. Why can’t this be considered obedience? Naturally, because of your lack of choice and volition. Big Ben in London strikes at the hour, not in obedience, but because it is an automaton. It has no choice. We often point to the actions of the sheep in Matthew 25: 31-40 and use them to prove the point that the righteous acts of one of God’s regenerate children come naturally to them. They come naturally, that is, as a result of the spiritual nature as opposed to the Adamic nature. But just because they come naturally doesn’t mean that they didn’t require obedience. Let’s look at it briefly from something that comes naturally in our Adamic nature. Our Adamic nature tends to gossip. But, when we act accordingly to that nature and talk about our neighbors’ affairs on the phone to another gossip, can it be said we acted accidentally? Absolutely not. That disobedience required active, purposeful, conscious decisions to succumb to the natural urges, pick up the phone, dial the number, and initiate the gossip. By the same token in the sheep, God’s Spirit compelled them from within and they acted accordingly in obedience to that compulsion. Should we be led to believe that the sheep always acted accordingly? This brings us to the next point on this scripture…
2. The command is to work out that which is first worked in you. Some take verse 13, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure”, and run it to an extreme. They’ll preach that God is going to work by his Spirit in you to the extent that you can’t help but make enough right choices, do enough right acts, say enough right things, display enough humility, and suffer enough persecution so that you can’t help but be always manifestly seen by others as an elect child. If that is indeed what is taught here, I have a question to ask. If God is pulling all the “perseverance” strings and our disobedience to the frustration of the salvation referred to is not a possibility, why wouldn’t God “persevere” us to much more sanctity, holiness, sobriety, and faithfulness? I mean, what could hinder God from doing above and beyond? Why wouldn’t God just “persevere” us right on to perfection till the end? Do you see the extremes to which this can run? God works in us “to will and to do of his good pleasure”. If our active, purposeful, conscious decisions don’t enter into the equation, then why don’t we always do his good pleasure? Paul wrote that God works in us “to do”, not “the doing”. God gives the will, desire, vision, compulsion, ability, and scriptural commands. It is incumbent upon us “to do” accordingly.
3. We are exhorted to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling”. Anything you “work out” requires active, purposeful, conscious decisions. Whether it be an equation on the blackboard, my muscles in the gym, or the rows of the garden, they all call for active, purposeful, conscious decisions. There were many days in my youth that I was expected to work out the garden. I had to overcome dread, laziness, ants, itchy okra, heat, thirst, rash, and inconvenience to be obedient to my Dad’s commands. I knew the consequences of disobedience and sometimes risked it to go to the swim hole. Unfortunately, in working out our own salvation we sometimes skip off to the swim hole!
Titus 3:8 “This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men.”
This needs to be affirmed constantly. We are to be careful to maintain these works. The Greek word from which careful is translated means “to exercise thought, be anxious, be careful”. Why be anxious and careful? Naturally, because the alternative is dreadful. This requires active, purposeful, conscious decisions.
Hebrews 3: 12,13 “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”
1. Here Paul addresses disciples who are in danger of backsliding into being followers. He addresses them as “brethren“. Some would scoff at my interpreting that term of endearment to mean something more than filial relation. However, we have good scripture on which to rely. I have no cause to believe that Paul’s usage of the term “brethren” in verse 12 should be disjointed from his usage of the terms “holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling” in verse 1. The address is to the same group under consideration. To advocate that Paul here addresses reprobates is ludicrous! He goes on in verse 1 to say, “the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus”. Paul places them on the same footing as himself in the validity of profession and intercessory merits of the Lord Jesus Christ.
2. I fear not enough is said of the simple little English word “lest”. It displays the possibility of more than one consequence. This cannot be denied without injury to our beautiful language. To my mind, the most reliable dictionary to use to see the primary meanings of words in the King James translation is the Webster’s 1828 Dictionary. Looking under “lest” we see the definition being “That not; for fear that.” The examples given in the dictionary are scriptural. From Genesis 3:3, “…Ye shall not eat of it , neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die”. Mr. Webster’s commentary states “..that being removed or not observed, the fact being not so, ye will die.” Again Mr. Webster refers to scriptural example when he alludes to John 5:14, “..sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.” His commentary from the definition states, “Sin no more; that fact not taking place, a worse thing will happen to thee.” It should be obvious from the clarity of language and sentence structure in the verse at hand as well as the vast number of other scriptures that exhort us to do something lest something else happen that active, purposeful, conscious decisions must needs be made to obedience and discipleship. Certainly implied in the exhortations is the fact that we may not perform said action(s) to judgment and harm.
Please don’t go away from this little epistle thinking that I advocate that someone born of God’s Spirit may live their whole life without ever displaying fruit of the Spirit because they decided to be disobedient. This is not the issue at hand. Discipleship is the issue. Lot had to have displayed fruit during his life. He is declared in scripture as a righteous, just man. However, he was no disciple! He chose to follow his desires to the well-watered plains and to dwell in Sodom rather than serve the living God. II Chronicles 16:12 tells of good king Asa who lived his reign a disciple, but died (yes, he died in this state) a backslider because he refused to look to the Lord for healing and relied on the physicians and their mysticism. In II Timothy 2: 17-19, Paul writes of those poor souls whose faith had been overthrown by Hymenaeus and Philetus. They ceased to be disciples, yet redemption stood sure having the seal that the Lord knoweth them that are his! Are you a disciple? Is it a joy to serve the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you thrive in Spiritual comfort and boldness in gospel obedience? Is the thought of turning tail and running from the church of the Lord Jesus Christ unto carnal comforts odious to you? How do you respond daily in the manifold active, purposeful, conscious decisions that you make every day? Do you see opportunity in every situation to bring glory to your Redeemer? The answer that our heart and soul gives us in response to these questions will give us an indication as to whether we are just a follower or a true disciple! And, if a true disciple, an assured child of the eternal King!
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