Reference: Luke 14:26-35
I have intitled this tract the"Fundamentals Of Discipleship" meaning of course the many things thatmust be considered before a person gets real serious about becoming a discipleor a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. These things absolutely must beconsidered simply because these things are a must in order to be a disciple. Ifyou fail to consider these things, then it won't be very long until thegreatest majority of people who started out following the Lord get discouragedand cease to go on with him. Now the scriptures used as the text of this tractare very strong statements concerning what a person must be willing to do inorder to follow Christ and be his disciple.
Please note that Jesus said that those whocome to him must hate his own household. To hate your father, and your mother,and the rest of your family in order to become a disciple of Christ simplymeans that you must be willing to forsake them if they are not willing to be afollower of Christ themselves.
There are millions of people in the worldtoday who are following in the footsteps of their family about thingsconcerning God and the Bible. The average person today will not take the Biblefor themself and see if what their family is accepting is what the Bibleteaches or not. They just automatically accept what they believe and think itis the way of salvation, but doing this is in reality not working out your ownsalvation like the word of God tells us to do.
If you just accept what your family tellsyou, then you are building on a foundation that will make everybody a onemember body. Now a one member body is a group of people that can only go asfar as the first member has gone. By this I mean that every body who acceptswhat a person believes will be in the same state of being as that individualis. As an illustration, let us consider the Baptist believers.
Each and every member of the Baptistchurch will believe exactly what its pastor teaches. This is not how the bodyof Christ is built. The body of Christ is made up of many members with eachmember being placed in the body by Almighty God himself. The twelfth chapter of first Corinthians tells us that God set the members every one of them in thebody, as it pleased him. (I Corinthians12:18) Now just to accept and believewhat your family says or to accept what the pastor of a church says and teachesis your becoming part of his or their belief, but God was not the one whoplaced you in there. The churches today recruits their members by causing themto take membership in their organization telling them what to accept and whatto believe.
Each member of every church is taughtexactly what its founder taught. This type of church will never come to thefulness and stature of Christ simply because everybody is taught only what thefounder knew and this is not how the true church is built. Now let us considerthat God's true church is on this earth teaching the truths of the Bible. Sincewe can't place ourselves in this church, how then does a person get in it?
Now if you were to go to a true church ofGod you will not be taught just to accept what is being proclaimed, but ratheryou would hear the pastor say that for you to become a disciple of the LordJesus, then you must consider the facts of discipleship and be willing toforsake all and to take up your cross and follow in the same footsteps of theLord. You will hear him say for you to repent of sin and be baptized inChrist's name and begin to search for God with all your heart, soul, mind, andstrength. You will constantly hear sermons concerning what you must do inreguards to what the Bible has to say on the subject.
The type of teaching you will hear willnot be things that will only give you a mental concept of what the Bible says,but rather it will be constant instructions in righteousness and true holiness.The apostle Paul tells us that all scripture is given by inspiration of God toinstruct us in all righteous living that the man of God may be perfect andthroughly furnished unto all good works.
The truth of God's word revealed in thegospel does not make a body of believers giving them a mental concept of whatthe Bible says, but rather it will perform a spiritual work on each and everyperson placing them in a sacrifical position where they will begin to be usedof God to do his will.
There is a great difference in acceptingwhat the true church teaches and what the false churches will teach. The falsechurch will send their members to do the works of men, but the true church willbe sent to do the works of God. The true church will consist of members that'sfilled with the fulness of God living a life without sin and will also do theworks that Jesus did when he was on this earth as a man.
The body of Christ is not one member asthe false church is, but rather it's many members with each one having beenplaced there by Almighty God himself. The works of God will be manifested notthrough a one member body, but rather through a body of more than one. Thisbody of believers are those who have forsaken all to follow Christ no matterhow long it will take to begin to manifest all the works of God.
The word of God tells us that the signswill follow them that believe. It doesn't just say that it will follow himthat believes. God works in and through the body and not just an individual.Before the body of Christ can function then it stands to reason that each andevery member must be placed there by God himself and they must presentthemselves unto God as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable in his sight, sothey can know the will of God for their life.
Those who are not willing to forsake andlose their life as far as this world is concerned will not be a member of thebody of Christ. They will be taken out of the vine and be burned as Jesus saidin his word of John 15:2. In order to be a member of Christ's body then youabsolutely must die out to the lusts and desires of the flesh. To die out tothe flesh simply means to abstain from things pertaining to fleshly desiressuch as the decorating of the body with fancy clothing and make-up such as inthe cosmetic line, and fancy hair do's etc. The flesh loves the things of theworldly fashions which fall under the lusts of the flesh, the eyes, and thepride of life.....