DISCIPLESHIP

J. D. Gray

Matthew 28: 18–20; 5: 16; 10: 38, 39; 13: 51, 52; 18: 1, 2; 24: 42

I want to speak about discipleship. It will be known to some here, but perhaps not to all, that in Matthew’s gospel there are five courses of instruction, each of which finishes by the words, “When Jesus had finished ...”. We have read a verse from each of those courses of instruction. He says in verse 20 of chapter 28, “teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have enjoined you”, that is what He had already taught. It is interesting to note that the instruction comes in this section from the Person of the Lord Jesus to whom all power has been given in heaven and upon earth. Christianity is not linked with any weakness, in its essence it is linked with a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ—who as a result of His death and resurrection, no matter that it is the day of His rejection by man, all power has been given to Him in heaven and upon earth. That should set our souls at rest, but it should also make us respect the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Saviour of sinners; He is the Saviour, I trust, of all here, and He gives direction; He has in mind that disciples should be made of all the nations.

That helps us in the present time in which we are, the gospel has come to us in the western world, but divine Persons had in mind all the nations, and that will come to pass yet because the scripture which we are reading goes on to the completion of the age, which, as I understand it, would extend until the appearing. We are particularly interested in matters up until the rapture, because that includes ourselves, but disciples being made of all the nations extends right up until the completion of the age, which involves the appearing. So there will be disciples made after the church goes, that is from among the nations, but I do not have in mind to go onto that in any detail.

What I had in mind to say is that Christianity is not a national thing; there is no suggestion from the Lord that He would be thinking of national churches. We live in a country where there are national churches, but that is not the divine mind; the assembly is not national nor marked by national customs nor national features. They are spiritual matters, moral matters that pertain to the assembly, but He has in mind that disciples are made. Now what drew me to this scripture was baptism. All here have been baptised “to the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”. Most of us were baptised when we were under the age of responsibility, perhaps not all, but most of us were. But the person who arranged for our baptism had in mind that we were baptised—“to the name”, one Name, the Name of the Trinity, and that we should come under the influence and rule of the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Believers in the Lord Jesus, as coming into the knowledge of Christ as Saviour, would understand that those who had arranged their baptism had in mind that they would come under the influence and the arrangements of the Trinity. That is an important matter—“the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”, is how God is known in divine Persons in the economy. They have established an administration on the earth, in the economy. The administration in Matthew’s gospel is known, as the kingdom of the heavens, that is the administration of the Trinity established here below. The life of a disciple is influenced by divine Persons, not only by the Lord, but by the Father and by the Spirit. Each Person in the Godhead has come into that arrangement, Father, Son and Holy.

Spirit, and baptism is to that Name. A child is baptised as belonging to a believer’s household and it is in mind that that child comes under the influence of an administration that is established by God, and will come into it practically in their life and, testimony here below.

So it applies to all of us this afternoon. Discipleship involves disciplined persons. The idea in Romans 6 is that you have been released from being bondmen of sin

and become bondmen of God, so discipleship involves discipline, so that there are no unruly features, but features of order.

The kingdom of the heavens is an ordered sphere of things; a rule that is beneficent. Job speaks, you will remember, of the sweet influences of Pleiades (see Job 38: 31), the idea is that the heavens have an influence upon the earth. The kingdom of the heavens has an influence on our lives here below, a beneficent influence. It is in mind in baptism that you come under that influence for good. The knowledge of Christ as Saviour, and the knowledge of Christ as Lord, are two matters on the way to that. Mr. Darby’s poem, The Call, is not without its significance. He speaks about the first time he heard the Lord’s voice; I suppose that was as Saviour, but then he speaks about another call, I suppose that was as Lord—

‘Blest Lord, Thou speak’st!

‘Twas erst Thy voice

That led my heart to Thee’.

He proved that in discipleship: first of all through grace as he knew Him as his Saviour, then the call of the Lord in relation to His Lordship involving the disciplinary side of things. The Lord Jesus has in mind that we should become disciples of His, but as disciples of the Lord we come under the influence of the kingdom of the heavens, which involves not only Christ as Lord, but also that divine Persons are known in the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The influence of each One over our lives is what is in mind in discipleship. You may become a disciple of the Lord, but you have still to be made, and I think it takes the processes of life under the hand of the Lord to make us disciples according to the fashion which the Potter has in mind. God is the Potter, He has in mind to fashion a vessel, according to what He desires, and He arranges life’s circumstances to bring that about as we are amenable to Him. We do not want to be like the horse that kicks the traces from time to time—how many times we have kicked the traces, God knows, but He arranges things with a view to discipleship

in the lives of believers. Each divine Person may be involved in that in some way. The Father is involved in it according to Hebrews 12, the Father who chastens us with a view to bringing out vessels that are more suitable to His pleasure and for our blessing eternally. The discipline of the Lord involves enrichment for us; enrichment for the one who is the subject of the discipline. The making of disciples involves that, that there will be blessing for us, and that is what you get in each of these passages I have read.

Matthew 5 is a great chapter of the beatitudes. It begins with the beatitudes, blessings, how many blessings there are between verse 1 and verse 12. The Lord has in mind that blessing will come to every soul in this room this afternoon. One of the first steps in discipleship is that your light is to shine. The Lord says in verse 13, “Ye are the salt of the earth”. That is how the Lord regards disciples as salt of the earth, that is testimony in the world; testimony at work; testimony among colleagues; ye are the salt of the earth. Have you ever heard them say your presence is a restraint? I am sure you have as a believer who is true to the Lord Jesus in the work place. I do not mean that you are always talking about Him in the work place, because in the work place you are there to do your secular business. But there is a manner of man, a manner of life that shines through even in the work place; without speaking too much it is taken account of, and men would have to acknowledge that “Ye are the salt of the earth”.

You see the believer’s presence is a restraint upon evil; that is true, the assembly’s presence upon the earth is a restraint upon evil. 2 Thessalonians brings that out, because He who restrains is the Holy Spirit, and that no doubt includes the testimony in believers. Let us be the salt of the earth. Let us be a testimony to the Lord whom we know. It says, “Let your light thus shine before men, so that they may see your upright works, and glorify your Father who is in the heavens” (Matthew 5: 16). There is something returning to God from men, even an

unregenerate man, a man affected in his conscience and brought to face things through your testimony, that is the testimony of a disciple; the disciple of an absent Christ; the disciple of a rejected Lord, but through that testimony there is light shining.

Moses’ face shone when he came out from the presence of God. It is not that believers wear halos, but there is something about the countenance of a believer that is related to the dignity of the anointing. A believer who has the Spirit of God is anointed; it is something that is there by the presence of the Holy Spirit. So as your light shines before men they may see your upright works, and glorify your Father who is in the heavens. They take account of your works. I say to each one, as I say to myself, when you have to go to work, when you have to go among colleagues, seek the Lord’s help to comport yourself as a believer. That is important, we are not self-sufficient, believers in the Lord Jesus are not self-sufficient. As we go to work each day we have to pray that we may be kept; that is the practice of discipleship.

Men may take account of your work, walk, and comportment, but they do not know the secret of your strength. The believer knows the secret of his strength, the secret of the strength of a believer does not lie in himself, it lies in the Spirit of God. When you are reproached in the name of the Lord Jesus, the Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God rests upon you. It is a holy, unseen, unknown by the world protection that enshrouds the believer. The believer, the disciple of the Lord Jesus, is to work and shine before men, so that “they may see your upright works, and glorify your Father who is in the heavens”. That is the Father, One of the Persons of the Godhead, to which Name you have been baptised, but now you have come under the influence of the Father, a known Person of the Godhead, known as your Father.

Chapter 6 brings out the matter of when you pray, you shut your door, and speak to thy Father in secret (Matthew 6: 6), that is the secret life of a believer. He is known publicly, but the secret life

of a believer is known only to the believer in God. Do not cast your pearls before swine, keep your secrets with the Lord, keep your secrets with God, and you will be helped in your testimony.

In Matthew 10 it is persons who are in service. The section begins at the beginning of chapter 10 and relates to the apostles, persons who are in service. None of us here is an apostle, and none of us does very much in an outstanding way for the Lord. I think all of us would desire to be in the service of the Lord. Here it says, “And he who does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me”. Are we prepared to take up the cross? Each one of us has a path to tread. We have exercises, each has his own with God. One man wrote—

‘Thus joyful, bright and free,

I take the heav’nly road’. (Hymn 228)

Are you prepared to take that road? Mr. Darby wrote—

‘That way is upward still,

Where life and glory are’. (Hymn 12)

Are you prepared for that way? There is blessing in that way, but here it is association with a rejected Saviour, a rejected Lord. He gives guidance in this section to His representatives here below. It comes down to the fact that if somebody gives a cup of cold water to someone on account of the testimony of the Lord he will not be without His blessing. That is true, just to give a disciple of the Lord a cup of cold water, recognising he is a disciple of the Lord Jesus, the giver will not be without a blessing. How heaven takes account of the smallest thing that may be done in the recognition of a rejected Saviour! O, to be identified with the Lord Jesus in His rejection! He is despised and rejected, and His servants are despised and rejected; you are not going to have any honours in this world. The Lord Jesus says, “And he who does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me”. Has everybody taken up his cross whatever that pathway holds? Confidence in Himself He encourages in us when

we are younger; He is very gracious to us when we are younger. The children of Israel, in their first steps into the wilderness, God was gracious to them; He is gracious to you when you are younger. When you get older you have to learn His discipline, but you are made equal to it, not by what is in yourself but by what the Spirit of God has wrought in you.

Always seek in the Father’s discipline the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Discipline is not pleasant, it is not meant to be pleasant, but it is meant to exercise the soul, the subject of that discipline, who has the cross to bear in relation to the testimony of the Lord, not only in personal matters but in matters pertaining to the assembly. The Lord is forming disciples that are equal to bearing assembly burdens. It is one thing to bear personal burdens and family burdens, but what is more testing and exercising is to bear assembly burdens, to carry them before the Lord. Someone is carrying the burdens of the present time in the presence of the Lord; we may be assured of that! The Lord appreciates such persons, discipleship involves the making of persons like that. So that everything that arises in your path as a believer in the Lord Jesus, seeking to walk in the light of the church, is forming you in view of the testimony continuing and in view of bearing burdens, church burdens, burdens of assembly character.

That is what those men, the apostles, were intended to carry. How they carried them, Peter and the others, so the twelve apostles have the distinctive honour of their names being in the foundations of the wall of the holy city, Revelation 21.

Then there is Matthew 13 where the Lord says, “Have ye understood all these things?” He has instructed them in relation to the parables, three involving the public side of the kingdom, then two involving more the intrinsic side, and the last one the kingdom of the heavens like a seine cast into the sea. It says there (Matthew 13: 48), “having drawn up on the shore and sat down”, that is the fishermen, “they gathered the good into vessels”; the Lord’s servants seeking to gather the

good into vessels. The good is gathered into vessels; it is a very great privilege to be among persons who have the light of the local assembly, the light of an administration under the hand of the Trinity, which is established here on the earth in an economy of local assemblies.

The good is gathered into vessels where there is protection and teaching. So the Lord could say, “Have ye understood all these things?” They say to Him, “Yea, Lord”. Then He said to them, “every scribe discipled to the kingdom of the heavens is like a man that is a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old”. You become enriched; discipleship involves enrichment. As you become a householder you acquire an administration under your hand, it becomes very interesting, and as you go on in your household you acquire quite an arrangement of things, then you find you can bring out things new and old. I am speaking in a sense literally to help to understand the scripture, things new and old. When you start off everything is new. When you grow older you find your new things then become old things, and there are treasures attached to them. That is so in divine things, there are things that are new and there are things that are old. Things that are fresh with Christ and things in your history you can bring out, things new and old. It is going to enrich every disciple, every “scribe discipled to the kingdom of the heavens”. A scribe is a man who writes down things; writes down what God has wrought. It is not attributed to your own glory but attributed to what God has wrought. He has wrought something in your soul, so as the Lord helps you, you can bring out things that are new and bring out things that are old. Fresh thoughts of Christ, and thoughts of Christ that have been in your history can be brought out freshly, not in staleness but in freshness, to stimulate the work of God in another.

So as you meet another believer the exercise is to have a bond of affinity, in so far as you can, to stimulate the work of God in each other. Let us not despise believers who have a link with the Lord; as having the Spirit they belong to the body,

and you may stimulate the work of God in them, and you may find that they will stimulate the work of God in you. Householders meeting one another, scribes discipled to the kingdom of the heavens, can bring out of their treasures things new and old.

In Matthew 18 we come to a very interesting section, because the Lord had brought out in chapter 16 the light of the assembly to Peter, following the Father’s revelation to Peter, saying, “on this rock I will build my assembly” (Matthew 16: 18). In chapter 18 the Lord then discloses something. It is a most interesting chapter, one that behoves us well to consider all the time. It begins by a most surprising matter, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of the heavens?” We do not want to be on the line of being the greatest. You find the disciples of the Lord show evidences of the flesh, and it is recorded in the Scripture for our benefit. You get it in Luke 22 after the Supper—there was strife among them which of them should be held to be the greatest. In this chapter, Matthew 18, the Lord Jesus called a little child. He was going to show something of how things would work in His absence among those gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus, “For where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them”, Matthew 18: 20. What kind of persons is that true of? It is right to be ecclesiastically correct but it is not the whole thing. It involves the character of the persons. Here the Lord points out to them a little child with no pretensions.

Not all little children are like this, but the Lord uses it to illustrate His point, to show what He has in mind.

What drives the world is power; the more you have to touch systems of business, the more you are aware of it, particularly in the private sector but perhaps also in the public sector.

What drives men is power, it is not money so much, a lot of money is there, men have millions, literally millions, but they are discharged from their jobs on one day and someone else replaces them;

they are in the doldrums and despondent. Why? What have they lost? Not millions of money, but power has been lost. What drives the world’s system is power; what will drive the man of sin is power; that is foreign to the assembly. What drove Saul of Tarsus was zeal and power, zeal was his work for God but not according to knowledge (Romans 10: 2), and persecuting the assembly (Philippians 3: 6), but behind that was an insolent overbearing man (1 Timothy 1: 13); he was a man seeking power. These things are foreign to the kingdom of the heavens.

We have to learn that, and it is a very bitter lesson to learn, a very protracted lesson with many of us, because you find that, given the opportunity, in your own heart lies latent the desire for power. I say that soberly. So you can see how the discipline of the Lord enters into how He curtails you with a view to controlling features in yourself that otherwise you would not be able to control. Let us pay attention to it, dear brethren, that the features of the little child be with us. If we are going to administrate in the name of the Lord Jesus those features must be with us, otherwise what is it? “For where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them”, that is a certain character of persons.

The chapter finishes with a man who was forgiven by his master a large sum of money, you might say millions, but he throttled his brother for a hundred denarii, he throttled his brother because he had power over his brother; that is not the spirit of Christianity. If we are going to carry the burdens of the testimony as the Lord may continue the testimony here below, the only kind of persons who are equal to carrying them according to the divine mind and the divine pleasure are persons who are like this little child. I say again, it is a difficult lesson to learn but a very necessary one, and to continue in it. May the Lord help us to continue learning it.

Then finally in chapter 24, “Watch therefore, for ye

know not in what hour your Lord comes”. This is not watching lest He come and find you doing naughty things. It says in verse 45, “Who then is the faithful and prudent bondman whom his lord has set over his household, to give them food in season? Blessed is that bondman whom his lord on coming shall find doing thus”. That is the kind of watching. You see discipleship produces bondmanship, and bondmanship with substance; he is able to produce a little food for the household in season. That is what the Lord is looking for. All the toiling in life under the hand of Christ has in mind that you become equal to providing food in season for the household. That is a blessed occupation, and that is what the bondman is doing, he is looking for the Master to come, but the Master can come at any time as far as this bondman is concerned because he is doing the will of the Master. The Lord questions others who may not, we are not to be casual in relation to divine things. Habakkuk says, “I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will look forth to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer as to my reproof”, (Habakkuk 2: 1). There is a man who has administration under his hand, maybe himself personally, household-wise or assembly-wise, but he says, I have a Master to answer to, and what am I going to say when He comes as to my reproof? Now that applies to us all, whatever circumstances we are in, whatever influence you have, over yourself, over your household if you have a household, or over those in your locality if you have influence in eldership. What are you going to answer to the Lord? Paul says, He who examines me is the Lord. We have to be watching all the time, not watching because we may be doing naughty things, and we all know that, particularly in our teen-ages, we look over our shoulders to see if we have been seen. That is not the idea, you are watching because you are careful in relation to the Lord’s interests; careful in relation to the One who has bought you; you are not your own. Paul says in 1 Corinthians, “Do ye not know that ... ye are not your own? for ye have been bought with a price,

glorify now then God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6: 19, 20). See that you watch over your body. It is important for young believers to watch over their bodies. Scripture says the body is not for fornication, the body is for the Lord; you have to watch over your body, how you use your body. So it applies to every one, there is no one excluded from what the Lord says,

“Watch therefore, for ye know not in what hour your Lord comes”. May the Lord find us occupied with what is pleasing to Himself for His name’s sake.

Address at Dundee
23 January 1993