“IDENTIFYING TRUE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST”
PART 2 (by J.Farrell Fisher) Nov.14-15, 2016
It’s so vitally interesting and important to me to read what Leo Tolstoy, in his writing, “The Kingdom of God is Within You,” had to say: First statement? “The Christian cannot promise to do or not do a given thing at a given time, for he cannot know what the law of love, which is the commanding principle of his life, will demand of him at that time.” But one thing is certain: Holy God, King Jesus, the Holy Spirit will not ask you to say or do anything that would violate His Word, His Will, His character, His eternal truths!
The second statement of Leo Tolstoy? “Christianity, with its doctrine of humility, of forgiveness, of love, is incompatible with the state, with its haughtiness, its violence, its punishments, its wars.” But it’s for certain, as followers of Christ Jesus, as He warned, we warn; as He confronted “religious pretense” or “political inconsistencies with Divine Truth” or “flesh at its worst or best”, so true disciples are silent when He’s silent or vocal as He was vocal; as followers of Christ Jesus, we don’t lean on fleshly instincts of one’s own mind apart from Christ or one’s fleshly instincts of fallen mankind’s mind, will, or emotion but rests upon the Christ within guiding, yes, even one’s investment of his/her life in the midst of a lost, needy, separated-from-God world!
And, I certainly don’t stress ‘religion’s pride’ or the ‘pomp’ and ‘showiness’ of self-indulgent performance, or ‘worldly’, or Hollywood’s interpretations of the ‘good life’ or ‘evil life’ or ‘religious activity’ at its best, when “Christ IN YOU IS the hope of eternal glory” and Him alone! Don’t you think this just might be why Paul said in 2 Corinthians 1:9, “Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead…”? In fact, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:31, “I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I DIE DAILY.” Later, in 2 Corinthians 4:11, Paul stated, “For we who live (in Christ!) ARE ALWAYS delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.”
It’s SO VITAL that every “professing believer”, not only acknowledge, receive and act upon what the Word of God says about every single person convicted and convinced by the Holy Spirit, but affirming the Truth about Holy God’s justification of taking the sin and sin nature of all mankind on the Cross in and through His Son and our Savior and nailing it to the Cross!
Paul acknowledged and affirmed this truth when in Colossians 3:3 he wrote: “For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God,” then challenging us in Colossians 3:5-7, “Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is IDOLATRY. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which YOU YOURSELVES ONCE WALKED when you lived in them.” But you don’t “live” there any longer if YOU ARE IN CHRIST!
I don’t know if YOU are fully aware of what Holy God declares about the “new creation” family of faith, but it is so important that You receive, understand, appropriate, and stand upon 2 Corinthians 13:5-8! “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? – unless indeed you are disqualified. But I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified. Now I pray that you do no evil, not that we should appear approved, but that you should do what is honorable, though we may seem disqualified. For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.”
So the Apostle unveils the “true path”, the “new identity”, and the “everlasting unveiling of the Biblical Truth of God’s redeemed, blood-bought sons and daughters of saving grace, mercy, and love in and through Christ alone”!
FIRST, NEW CREATION SONS AND DAUGHTERS HAVE ACCEPTED THEIR CRUCIFIXION WITH CHRIST AND HIS RESURRECTION TO, IN, AND THROUGH THE ETERNAL LIFE OF HOLY GOD! What did Paul tell us in Galatians 2:20-21a? “I have been CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith IN the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God…!”
Even King David learned the vital, eternal necessity of “new life” in and through the “Promised Messiah” when in Psalm 87: 5-7 he wrote: “And of Zion it will be said, ‘This one and that one were born in her; and the Most High Himself shall establish her.” The Lord will record, when He registers the peoples: ‘This one was born there.’ Both the singers and the players on instruments say, “All my springs (fresh springs!) are in you.”
Oswald Chambers wrote, in “My Utmost For His Highest,” (p.271), “Our Lord never patches up our natural virtues, He re-makes the whole man on the inside. ‘Put on the new man…’”! That’s “new creations”, “the new man,” accepting, resting in, relying upon the “new covenant,” and rejoicing daily in the celebration of Kingdom living in the “new heaven and the new earth”!
Yes, even in Old Testament times there were those, like Abraham, about whom Jesus said, John 8:56, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad,” Jeremiah even hearing the Lord say in his day, Jeremiah 29:11-14, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity!” [For instance, ‘are you still a slave to your old sin nature, maintaining allegiance, even appreciation, of the ‘old man’ nature and character’?].
What does Romans 8:13-14 says: “For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”
As YOU read the Holy Word, do you find it so illuminating in learning to be “through with the old man of sin” and LEANING ON CHRIST’S DEATH, BURIAL, AND RESURRECTION? In Hebrews 3:12-19 there is a dramatic unveiling of “professors of faith” who fell short of entering “God’s Promised Land Through Christ”! It says: “Beware, 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 “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. FOR WE HAVE BECOME PARTAKERS OF CHRIST “IF” we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, BUT TO THOSE WHO DID NOT OBEY? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” Do you see it? “Followers? But limited by their unbiblical ‘faith’, dying in their ‘obedience’(which was so limited!) BEFORE entering the Promised Land”? SO YOU discern that’s “salvation by works”, or truly is it not THE EVIDENCE THAT TRUE SALVATION HAS BEEN BIRTHED? I’ve said it often, I’ll say it again: “Obedience is not an option in the age of grace, but the evidence grace is honoring Christ by doing what He says!” Dare I ask you again? “Have YOU “mortified the deeds of your flesh and “rested” in Christ alone?”
SECOND, NEW CREATION SONS AND DAUGHTERS, ARE, YES, LEGITIMATE FAMILY OF GOD OFF-SPRING BY THE BORN-AGAIN REALITY IN AND THROUGH HIS HOLY SPIRIT! In John 3:5-6 the Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus and us; ‘MOST assuredly, I say to you’, “unless one is born of water (the ‘water of the Word’!) and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
In Romans 8:16 Paul tells us: “The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together.”
In 2 Corinthians 5:17-18a we read: “Therefore, if anyone is IN CHRIST, he IS a New Creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God who has reconciled us to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them…”; and, as “new creations IN CHRIST”, we don’t ‘rest’, rely upon what we think, or ‘try’ to be better – we “TRUST” God’s testimony about us “in Him”!
“In Christ” Holy God “reconciled us to Himself through Christ Only”! “In Christ” divine forgiveness rules and restoration to God’s eternal intent begins – we are the “tent,” the “tabernacle”, the “temple” of Christ’s Resurrection Presence! “Christ IN YOU the hope of glory”!
In 2 Corinthians 5:21 Paul added, “For He (God the Father) made Him (God the Son, Emmanuel) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God In Him (in Christ Jesus).” Worldly religions promote personal redemption by determined, best efforts, believing it “rests” in one’s confidence in himself/herself to overcome, faithfulness to an ‘assembly’, whether Christ is there or not! Worldly religions, agnostics, atheists, even, sad to say, some ‘church folk’, believe Christ Jesus went too far saying, “Come to Me, and I will give you rest,” when often the “worldly” discern ‘salvation’ in themselves!
Again, “God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin FOR US, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” In Romans 6:10-14 Paul illumines one’s lack of salvation knowledge, laying out our true journey! He said: “For the death that Christ Jesus died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. LIKEWISE you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
THEREFORE do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”
Only through the “Blood Atonement” of Christ in and through His sacrificial death on the Cross is there liberty and freedom and eternal blessing in a life re-born by the grace of God to His honor alone! And that miracle of redemption, reconciliation with God, through Christ alone, is the “open door” of eternal opportunity to unveil His Son through the “redeemed”! Galatians 1:15-16 says, “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and CALLED ME through His grace, TO REVEAL HIS SON IN ME…”, but you’re unsure if that’s God’s purpose through you? [You might need to “be born again”!].
THIRD, REDEEMED CHILDREN OF FAITH ARE CALLED BY THE LORD TO BE HIS WITNESSES, HIS AMBASSADORS, HIS MESSENGERS TO A NEEDY WORLD! And, of course, WHO determines what a needy world is? Fallen men or Holy God? Also, when it comes to an individual’s determination what his ‘religious profession’ is all about, is it ‘self-determination’ or Sovereign Calling and ordination and equipping for His eternal plan?
It’s true that the unbelieving world has no awareness of or commitment to being ‘reconciled to God’ because they’ve chosen to be “at peace” with their godlessness and unbelief. But for the “church,” for individual believers, there is the reality, for some, that their ‘intellectual superiority’ sets them apart from a disciple’s or church’s mandate and commissioning of “being His witnesses” – that to them is impractical, unadvisable, degrading to their “biblical brilliance”! Really? Yes, really!
Or, like the Dallas pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church, “The Gospel is opened to all and closed to none,” welcoming homosexuals as ‘true disciples’! Where do you find that in the Word of God! The True Gospel of Christ and the Word liberates from, not opens the door to continue in sin, in debauchery, in rebellion and disobedience to the Holy Word!
I believe the Holy Word when it says in Revelation 21:5-8, Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things NEW.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. BUT the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” And, if you believe ‘sexually immoral’ doesn’t include homosexuality or lesbianism, I’d go into the Word, before the Throne of God, before the community of true “born-again believers” asking them: “Is a homosexual lifestyle acceptable here, in you, and in your church?” And if they said, “Yes”, I’d run as fast as I could AWAY from a compromising, godless, collectively-deceived-mind-set unredeemed by the “Blood of the Lamb”!
In Matthew 28:16 the new disciples went to the mountain where Jesus told them to go. This is after His resurrection and before His ascension. In Verses 18-20 Jesus issued His “Great Commission”! He said: “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen (or “So be it!”).
IF: “I am not my own, but I was bought with a price, the blood of the Lamb of God, and I am under His authority”, and He then tells me, “You shall be My witnesses, My messengers, My earthly representatives to a lost and perishing world of unbelievers,” do I, do we, just turn deaf ears and blinded eyes to a perishing people, or do I share the “Life-Raft” to ‘drowning people’ with no sense at all of personal accountability for my indifference to their eternal need?
I tell you, I truly understand why the ‘modern church’ and ‘modern music leaders’ avoid old hymns that convict, convince, and open uncaring ‘church members’ to a lost world around them – they want no reminders of spiritual responsibility to touch their world with grace, mercy, and love – they are so enamored with their own spiritual concerns that ‘witnessing, evangelizing, touching my world with mercy and grace is just too heavy a responsibility to bear’!
Fanny J. Crosby and William H. Doane, in the old “The American Hymnal,” (compiled and edited by Robert H. Coleman, in cooperation with The Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee, copyright, 1933), wrote the hymn “Rescue the Perishing.” It says:
“Rescue the perishing, Care for the dying, Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave; Weep o’er the erring one, Lift up the fallen, Tell them of Jesus the mighty to save.
Tho’ they are slighting Him, Still He is waiting, Waiting the penitent child to receive; Plead with them earnestly, Plead with them gently, He will forgive if they only believe.
Down in the human heart, Crushed by the tempter, Feelings lie buried that grace can restore; Touched by a loving heart, Wakened by kindness, Chords that are broken will vibrate once more.
Rescue the perishing, Duty demands it; Strength for your labor the Lord will provide; Back to the narrow way Patiently win them; Tell the poor wanderer a Savior has died. Rescue the perishing, Care for the dying; Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save.”
FOURTH, TRUE CHILDREN OF SAVING FAITH ARE NOT ONLY WITNESSES, MESSENGERS, AND AMBASSADORS, THEY ARE ‘FOOT-WASHERS’ AND “TRUE SERVANTS”! In John 13:1-17 there is an amazing revelation of true, heavenly, God-interpreting living, ministry, and service of the true disciples of Christ Jesus! It says: Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.
And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself.
After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to Him, “Lord, are You washing my feet?” Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.”
Peter said to Him, “You shall never wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.” For He knew who would betray Him; therefore He said, “You are not all clean.”
So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, FOR SO I AM. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. FOR I HAVE GIVEN YOU AN EXAMPLE, that you should do as I have done to you.
Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, BLESSED ARE YOU IF YOU DO THEM.”
Dare I give you a hint to successful, Christ-honoring servants? In Philippians 3:10-11 Paul wrote: “…that I MAY KNOW HIM and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” THE DEAD WITHOUT CHRIST ARE NOT ABOUT TO BOW BEFORE OTHERS TO WASH THEIR FEET! They’d SAY, “How disgraceful, how demeaning, how foolish,” yet Christ directs His disciples to be “foot-washers”!
“Foot-washers” ARE “true servants” of the Lord Jesus Christ! They understand humbling one’s self to be exalted in and with Christ Jesus, the “Eternal, God-given foot-washer”! Doesn’t 1 Corinthians 10:31 tell us, “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God”? Whatever YOU do – do YOU sense the Christ in you saying, “Live with the ‘foot-washing’ spirit and attitude of the Christ in you! You’re the “vessel” – I’m the content”! And the Christ in you desires to wash fallen mankind’s feet AND the saved, and as you humble yourself before Him and allow Him to be the foot-washer through you, He’ll humble more and more souls before His Father, Holy God!
Are YOU aware, even as pastors and teachers, of “the calling, the instruction, the EXAMPLE of Christ Himself” as He said in John 12:23-27,But Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
IF anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor. Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for THIS PURPOSE I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name,” (through you and me?)!
I close this message with John’s challenging illumination for true disciples in 1 John 3:16-19! “By this we know love (agape love), because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or tongue, but in deed and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him.”
“Identifying True Disciples of Christ?” I don’t know who wrote it, but his/her challenge is so on target! “My goal is God Himself, not joy nor peace, Nor even blessing, but Himself, my God.” THAT’S “CHRIST IN YOU THE HOPE OF GLORY”!!!