Lord, take us, bless us, break us, and distribute us, that it may be unto the praise of Thy glory.
Lord, may Thy Holy Spirit breathe upon Thy Word. Make it living. Thou art the living Word, and it is Thou Thyself to Whom we are opening our hearts. O fearless Lord, glorify Thy name among Thy people.
Be merciful to us. Take away all the resistance that is in us, the hidden spots. Lord, make us wholly yielded, completely abandoned unto Thyself. Teach us how to rest in Thee. Thou art our resting place.
Thy will be done in us, as it is in heaven. Once again, Lord, show forth Thyself to us, that we may see Thee and none else. Lord, if we see Thee, we cannot withhold. God-worthy, we worship Thee in Thy precious name. Amen.
Just to start with, I would like to read a passage from Matthew—Matthew Chapter 28, from Verse 16 through Verse 20.
But the eleven disciples went into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed them.
And when they saw Him, they worshipped Him; but some doubted.
And Jesus came to them and spake unto them, saying, All authority hath been given unto Me in heaven and on earth.
Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit;
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the completion of the age.
We mentioned last night that when our Lord Jesus walked on earth, one thing He did was call people to Himself to be His disciples.
This was not only what our Lord Jesus did when He was on earth. After He had accomplished the work of redemption, after He was raised from the dead, and before He ascended to the Father, He gave a great commission to His disciples—those who had already become His disciples while He was on earth.
And the great commission that He gave to His disciples is simply this: “Go ye, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.”
In other words, even when He was ascending to heaven, His last word to His own disciples was, “Go and make disciples of the nations.” And of course, when His disciples went out to make disciples of the nations, they did not make disciples of the nations to themselves. They were sent forth to make disciples of the nations to Christ.
Throughout the ages, this is what the church has had to do, and is doing: to make disciples of the nations.
The Lord is not thus content with us merely to be believers. There is a difference. So far as truth is concerned, there is no difference between a believer and a disciple. A believer is a disciple, and a disciple must be a believer, because otherwise no one can follow the Lord.
And yet, as a matter of fact, we find there is a difference between a believer and a disciple. To be a believer is to believe in the Lord Jesus, to receive Him as our personal Saviour, and to enjoy the salvation that He has provided for us. That is a believer. We get much from Him.
But what can He get from us? It is altogether the other way around.
To be a disciple is to hand our lives over to Him, to yield ourselves to Him, and to surrender our will to Him—to put ourselves in His hands and let Him do anything He likes with us; to be trained, to be moulded, to be fashioned according to His will. And that is to be a disciple.
The Lord is not able to fulfil His full purpose with us if we do not respond to His call as disciples.
When the Lord Jesus was on earth, there were disciples of John the Baptist. We know that John the Baptist was sent by God as a forerunner. He was a voice in the wilderness, calling the nation of Israel to repent, for the kingdom of the heavens was at hand.
Many received the baptism of John, and those who received the baptism of John were called disciples of John. But it was not John’s intention to retain these disciples as his own.
You remember when two disciples of John were with him—probably these were two of the best disciples of John—and when John saw the Lord Jesus passing by, he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, Who taketh away the sin of the world.”
And his two disciples heard him and followed the Lord. Was John the Baptist jealous because of this? Not at all.
When his disciples came to him and said, “Look here, people are going to the One of Whom you testify. People are going away from you and going to Him. What about that?” you remember John said, “I am glad. I rejoice, because I am just a friend of the Bridegroom. It is the Bridegroom Who takes the bride. He must increase; I must decrease.”
One day, some came to the Lord and said, “We are disciples of Moses.” But the Lord said, “Moses testifies of Me.”
The Lord is calling for disciples. But remember: to be a disciple is to have a personal relationship with the Master.
To be a disciple is more than just a matter of sitting in a class, listening to a lecture, gathering some information, or learning some skill. To be a disciple is to have a personal relationship with the Master.
You are a disciple of the Master. You ought to be one with the Master. You are to be so identified with the Master that, my friend, discipleship is fully realised. You are a reproduction—not that you are able to transform yourself, but that the Master has transformed you.
To be a disciple is not to be attached to a cause. It is not to be related to a skill. It is not to be related even to a work. To be a disciple is to be related to a Person, and that Person can be none other than our Lord Jesus Christ.
In the whole New Testament, there is only one place—though there are variations in the original manuscripts—in which some are called the disciples of Paul.
If you go through the New Testament, you will find that, aside from people who were disciples of John, there are no disciples of men. The disciples of John were disciples of John only as a preparation, not on a permanent basis but on a temporary basis. John would introduce them to Christ so that the disciples of John might become the disciples of Christ.
In Old Testament times, there were disciples of Moses. But to remain as disciples of Moses, and not come to Christ, would be a grave mistake. In the whole New Testament, we are called to be disciples—but disciples of Whom? There is only one Man: the Lord Jesus.
As I say, in the Book of Acts there is one place: Acts Chapter 9, Verse 25.
But the disciples took him by night, and let him down through the wall, lowering him in a basket.
According to certain Greek manuscripts, it is said, “But the disciples of his took him by night and let him down through the wall.” In other words, they were disciples of Paul.
I wonder whether this is a correct translation, because you remember Paul at that time was a new prisoner—very young in the Lord. I wonder if he had already collected disciples to himself.
It is true that later on we find Paul saying, “Be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ.” But he was always trying to point people to Christ.
Dear brothers and sisters, do not be disciples of men, but be disciples of Christ. There is only one Master Whom we serve. No one can serve two masters. You will either despise the one and respect the other. You cannot serve two masters on earth.
How true it is in our spiritual walk with the Lord that it is the Lord Jesus Who is calling us to be His disciples.
How are we to be His disciples? In Matthew Chapter 28, you find something very special: “Make disciples of the nations.” How? Baptising them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
What has baptism to do with discipleship? Why must a believer be baptised? We often say, “Well, if we are saved, why should we be baptised at all?” But here you find the Bible says, “Make disciples of the nations, baptising them.” As it were, baptism is the initiation into discipleship.
If you know the meaning of baptism, baptism is to be identified with Christ. We are baptised unto Christ—that is, baptised unto His death. We are to be identified with His death, with His burial, and with His resurrection.
We are to be identified with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We are to be completely yielded to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. By baptism, we belong to the Father, belong to the Son, and belong to the Holy Spirit completely.
It is not just a few sprinklings on your head, but the whole being is immersed. That is to say, we belong to the Lord absolutely, completely, and permanently. That is baptism.
We are baptised unto His death. The call of discipleship is the call to die.
The call to be a believer is a call to live. Sinner, you do not need to die; you can live if you only repent and believe in the Lord Jesus. God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked.
But after we have come to Him and live, then the Lord says, “Come, follow Me. Come after Me. Go to the cross and die.” The way of discipleship is the way of the cross.
It is a call to be identified with Him in His death. What He died for, we die to. What He was buried to, we are buried to. And then, thank God, we are raised together with Him from the dead.
So now we are completely in His hands. By baptism, we belong to Him. We are His. We are initiated into discipleship.
From hereafter, it is no longer we who live; it is He Who lives in us. It is no longer our own will or our own way. We are in His hands, as clay in the potter’s hands, to be moulded according to His pleasure.
So, dear brothers and sisters, what is discipleship? We are called to follow Him. We are called to deny ourselves, to take up our cross, and to follow Him. We are called to the way of the cross, because the way of the cross is the way to abundant life. The way of the cross is the way to resurrection. It is only in resurrection that we may be conformed to Him.
We mentioned last night: unless you know the Lord, you are not able to follow Him. A scribe came to the Lord and said, “Teacher”—notice, he did not say, “Lord.” He knew Jesus only as a great teacher.
“Teacher, I want to learn from You. I want to follow You wherever You go.” And you remember the Lord said, “The foxes have holes, and the birds have nests; but the Son of Man hath nowhere to lay His head.”
You want to follow Me? It is not a matter of going to a class and learning something mentally. It is a way of life, and the way of life is the way of the cross. It is lower than the birds; it is poorer than the foxes. Are you able to go that way? I doubt it.
But to another, the Lord said, “Come, follow Me.” That was His disciple. And he said, “Oh, I have to bury my father first before I can come.” The Lord said, “Your priority is wrong. Let the dead bury the dead. Come and follow Me.”
Can we respond to the call of discipleship? It is an impossible call. Do not think that to respond to the call of discipleship is easy. It is humanly impossible.
It is only when you see that it is impossible that God can make it possible. If you think it is possible with you, you will discover that it is impossible. He will make it so hard that you will drop out before you join.
But with God all things are possible. What the young ruler could not do, Zacchaeus voluntarily did. It is grace.
So, brothers and sisters, it takes grace to answer the call of discipleship. And I do believe that the grace of God is here with us—with every one of you, even with the most timid and fearful ones. His grace is sufficient for you.
If you only go to the Lord and say, “Lord, I do want to follow You. I do want to commit myself to You completely. I do want You to take me in Your hands and do anything You like with me. I do not know what will happen to me.”
Just like Abraham: when he was called, he did not know where he was going, but he knew one thing—he was in the Lord’s hands. “Lord, I am willing, but You do the work. You take me, and after You take me, do not let me go. Be patient with me.”
This evening, we would like to go on. After we have come, after we have committed ourselves to Him, and by faith we know He has accepted us, does it mean that we have now completed the course? Have we now arrived?
You are just initiated. To be initiated is very different from being graduated.
Now you have committed yourself to the Lord. Now, by faith, you have identified yourself with His death, burial, and resurrection. What will He do with you now?
In that great commission in Matthew, you find, “Baptising them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Now you have been baptised. You belong to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. You have committed yourself to Him. You are one with Him now. Then what?
The second thing is this: “Teaching them to observe all the things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you until the completion of the age.”
To be baptised is the initiation, but to be taught in all the things that Christ has given to us, and to observe them, that is the process—the process of discipleship, the progress of discipleship.
After we have committed ourselves to the Lord, then the Lord will begin to teach us.
You remember in Matthew Chapter 4, which we read last night, the Lord was passing by the Sea of Galilee, and He saw the two brothers, Peter and Andrew. The Lord said, “Come after Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” They left everything and followed the Lord.
A little distance later, you find the Lord saw the two sons of Zebedee. He did the same thing: He called them, and they left everything and followed Him. So here you find the Lord began to have disciples.
But He had not only disciples; He had a great crowd too. Among the crowds, there were some disciples. Most of the people followed Him because they had seen wonders; they had seen signs. They were attracted, so a great multitude came to Him.
And you know what the Lord did? He did some mountain climbing. When He saw the great crowd gathering around Him, He began to climb the mountain. Our Lord must have been a good climber, because He was there first.
As He climbed the mountain, you find all the great multitude began to climb too. But it so happened that His disciples followed Him very closely. So, as the Lord had gone up the mountain and found a place where He could sit, He sat down, and the Bible says His disciples came to Him.
And He opened His mouth. Now, this is the so-called Sermon on the Mount. I do not know whether you are familiar with the Sermon on the Mount—Matthew Chapters 5, 6, and 7.
To whom was the Sermon on the Mount given? Not to the multitude. When He saw the multitude come, He climbed the mountain. His disciples came to Him, and He opened His mouth to teach His disciples.
The great crowd standing by overheard what the Lord had told the disciples. But remember, it was to these disciples that our Lord was addressing Himself.
After you have committed yourself to the Lord, then the Lord will begin to teach you. What is the use of teaching a person if he is not committed to the Lord?
When the teaching becomes a little hard, you will say, “Who can accept these things? It is too hard.” You drop out.
Do you sometimes wonder why the Lord does not teach you? Because He knows that if He teaches you, it will be a waste. You have not committed your life to Him yet.
If you have committed your life to the Lord, He will teach you. How will He teach you? He will teach you by words. He will speak to you, just as you find in Matthew Chapters 5, 6, and 7.
Sometimes people say this is Christian ethics—the highest ethics in the whole world. Who can keep it? If people cannot keep the law of Moses, if you find the Ten Commandments too difficult to keep, who can keep the Sermon on the Mount? Nobody. Impossible.
But this is what it is: because it is impossible, it is possible. It is impossible with me, but it is possible with God. If you are His disciple, if you are in His hands, He will make it possible.
Do not try to do it yourself. You will not be able to. But just leave yourself with Him, and you will find it is done. It shall be done.
In Matthew Chapter 5, the Lord begins to show us the spiritual nature of discipleship. If you want to be His disciple, if you are His disciple, what kind of inward character, what kind of inward nature, will you have?
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
How different this is from the world. The teaching of the world is that happy are those who are rich in earthly things, because they shall inherit the world. But the teaching of the Lord is just the opposite: “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”
Poor in spirit does not mean that you really have nothing in your spirit. It means there is a humility there. Even though you may have a lot, yet you know you have nothing.
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
One thing that characterises our Lord is a deep humility. Even though He was equal with God, He emptied Himself and took upon Himself the form of a man. And after He had become a man, He humbled Himself to die, even the death of the cross.
Humility. Dear brothers and sisters, to be a disciple of the Lord is to manifest the same inward characteristics of the Lord.
You know, even in human history, when you know a little, you are very proud of what you know. When you know a little more, you think you know everything. But if you begin to know much more, you begin to realise you know nothing.
How much more this is true in the kingdom of the heavens. Blessed are the poor in spirit.
Our Lord Jesus was willing to empty Himself completely, to humble Himself. The Lord gives grace to the humble, but He resists the proud.
In Matthew Chapter 5, you find the Lord trying to teach the disciples what kind of spirit, what kind of inward condition or state, His disciples must have.
We do not have time to go through the whole three chapters. We could spend a long time together going through Chapters 5, 6, and 7. But I think we will just say this much: after you have committed yourself to Him, then He will begin to teach you.
You will find that He is telling you what kind of inward state you must be in—just like His. It is not a matter of outward appearance. It is not a superficial thing. It is something of the heart; it is something in the spirit that He is trying to mould and perfect.
The Lord says, “Unless your righteousness surpasses the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you cannot enter into the kingdom of the heavens.” Strong words.
The Lord does not say, “Unless your righteousness surpasses the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees.” The Lord says, “Unless your righteousness surpasses the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.”
Did the scribes and Pharisees have a kind of righteousness? They did. Even though most of the scribes and Pharisees were hypocrites, there were some who were real. For instance, Nicodemus. Saul of Tarsus said, “I am a Pharisee. So far as righteousness according to the law is concerned, I am blameless.”
According to the letter of the law, he was perfect. Even the rich young ruler said, “I have kept all these from my childhood.” As to the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, dear brothers and sisters, sometimes we do not even have that righteousness.
Do not look down upon the scribes and Pharisees. They had a righteousness that the world did not have. They had a righteousness that even we cannot match. Yet the Lord said, “Unless your righteousness surpasses the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you cannot enter into the kingdom of the heavens.”
The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees was righteousness, though it was superficial. It was righteousness according to the letter. The Lord demands that His disciples be righteous according to the spirit.
Thou shalt not kill.
And a Pharisee says, “I do not kill.” But the Lord says, “If you are angry with your brother without cause, if you call your brother a fool, if you call your brother Raca, you shall be judged.”
It is your heart; it is your spirit. The teaching of our Lord Jesus is spiritual. It reaches into us. It is not just on the surface—superficial. Who can do that?
In Chapter 6, the Lord is trying to tell us that His words, His teaching, are heavenly. It is not only spiritual, but it is heavenly. It is a heavenly relationship with the Father.
When you give alms, do not give as the Pharisees often did, seeking to be seen of men. The Lord teaches us to give before the Father, rather than for public recognition.
And when you fast, do not put on a gloomy appearance. Anoint your head and wash your face. Do it before the Father.
Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
The Lord’s teaching is not only heavenly; it is very practical. It must be lived out.
He who hears My words and does them is like a wise man who built his house upon the rock. The rain descends, the floods come, the winds blow, and the house stands.
But if you hear the word and do not do it, the house will collapse. It is not enough for the teaching to remain in your mind. It has to become life.
Lord, keep us in Thy sight. Before Thee, we realise how searching Thy commandments are.
We all like, in a general way, everything that the Lord says. We are willing to give Him, as it were, a blank cheque. But when we are faced with the teaching in a practical way, the matter becomes very real.
The Lord says, “You cannot do it.” You must tell Him, “You do what You want.” Can you do it? Nobody can.
We come to hear the Word of God, but how shall we respond? May the Lord give us grace.