Discipline Pt. 1 - George Verwer — From the Pulpit & Classic Sermons

Welcome to From the Pulpit in Classic Sermons. Each week we bring you a different message from some of history's greatest speakers in the faith and powerful sermons from modern preachers too. This week we have George Verwer with part one of his message, Discipline.

Self-Discipline and Becoming a Disciple

Being a disciple we think about discipline. I remember when I used to work in a camp out in Colorado and every time I would mention or someone else would mention self-discipline I would hear groans. Nobody likes self-discipline and I'm becoming convinced that it's completely contrary to our human nature.

We just don't like to be disciplined. We just don't like to do what we're told. We just don't like to pick up paper. We don't like to clean up things. It just goes against us. We just want to go as we feel.

If we feel good, we'll do something. If we don't feel good, we won't do it. We like to be controlled just by our emotions and our feelings. But discipline is just the opposite. Discipline is simply doing what's right whether we feel like it or not.

A disciple is one who is trained or taught. And after I read that definition I begin to wonder, am I a disciple? Am I very well trained? Am I very well taught? Maybe we should say we're in the process of becoming disciples of Jesus Christ.

We are in the process of learning. We are in the process of learning what it is to have not just self-control but spirit control. Because it's not by might or by power but by my spirit, sayeth the Lord.

And certainly discipline is way above us. It's above me. And probably I'm going to speak to myself more than anyone else this morning. And if it hits you, well, praise God. Join the crowd. It's learning, isn't it?

It's learning what God has for us. And we learn in so many different ways. We learn from the Word of God. God teaches us. And he expects us not only to learn it in the mind but to apply it to the heart and life and to live it.

Otherwise it's just knowledge which profits little. We learn by experience. We say experience is the best teacher. Or it's a hard teacher. It is for me. But I tell you, it's a convincing teacher. Experience.

And I believe that God teaches us by one another too. As the Spirit of God brings us in contact with different people. And I remember many times in my own life how perhaps God was beginning to speak to my heart along a certain area.

And just in the next few days I would meet someone else that perhaps was thinking along the same lines. And God would just kind of double and treble the lesson that he was trying to teach me. And so we learn from one another.

In fact, I'm not sure just how much I would know this morning if it hadn't been for other people who had taught me. Some of us, you know, are a lot more privileged than others. Some of us have had Christian training right from the cradle upward.

Some of us have had parents, and I'm speaking for myself, who pray daily and who want just God's best for your lives. Some of us have had more training. We've had more opportunities to learn of Jesus Christ.

And therefore I believe our responsibility is far greater than one who has had little. But we learn from others. And oh, what a joyous thing this is that we can have Christian fellowship where we can learn from one another.

And so we need to take every way in which God teaches us and learn all we can from it and apply it. I'd like to be as practical as possible this morning. I'd like to just take discipline in various realms of our lives.

I'd like to look into the Scripture and see what the Scripture says about it and mention some of the principles. And then, if at all possible, I'd like to apply this to our everyday living, that we might truly be a disciplined one, a real disciple of Jesus Christ.

Discipline in Thought and the Renewal of the Mind

The first area that hits me is discipline in thought, because this is the whole basis, our thought life. And I was amazed as I began to look at Scripture. First, I was going to look at all the Scriptures on thought and on imagination and on discipline.

And I started to look one look at the concordance, and I gave up. And I said, well, Lord, just leave me to some that will be a blessing. I'll never get through all these. It'll take me a couple of weeks.

The Scripture is full of talking about the mind, the heart, the soul, remembrance, not forgetting, thoughts, imaginations, desires, meditation, all these words which describe some aspect of our thinking.

And I feel that this is basic, because if our thoughts are disciplined, our actions will be disciplined. Our words will be disciplined. Perhaps we say, well, we speak without thinking. But somewhere in the past, you have thought what you've said.

And so it's discipline in the thought that affects the rest of our lives. Sometimes there's an unpleasant picture given of the thought life in Scripture. I think of a passage in Genesis chapter 6, verse 5.

And the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thought of his heart was only evil continually. This is the natural man. This is the usual course, that the imagination of our thoughts and of our hearts is evil continually.

This is the way we go. This is the whole pull of our nature, is down, is to be thinking that which we know is wrong, is to be thinking that which we know is evil and is displeasing to God. But then God steps in and he renews the mind.

And so the mind is a great potential for good or evil. And let's face it, we're all faced with it, aren't we? We have it every day. Satan comes in with temptations to think evil. It may be just plain immoral thoughts.

It may be bitterness. It may be jealousy. It may be discouragement. It may be self-pity. My problems are bigger than everybody else here. Surely God knows this. The other people can't have the problems I do.

And so we feed on it, and we feed on it. And we feel sorry for ourselves. And then we want to tell everybody about our problems so they'll sympathize. My, you are going through a rough time. You know how it does our hearts good when we hear about people praying for us because they know we have a lot of problems.

And we just know that, see, we're getting more and more attention. Self-pity. This is the thought life. In the discipline thought life says, cut it out. Tempted to think about our problems and to think we have the worst?

Cut it out and think of what Christ went through for us. Think about what other people are really going through. And consider them before ourselves. Discipline in the thought life. Another passage perhaps that we could mention as the remedy to this evil thought is 2 Corinthians 10, verse 5.

Perhaps we could start with verse 3. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the casting down of strongholds.

Casting down imaginations and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. This, it seems to me, is the remedy. Instead of evil thoughts, bringing every thought into captivity to Christ.

Because if the thought is controlled by Christ, it can't be evil. And if the thought of jealousy comes up, if it's brought in captivity to Christ, then it goes away. It has to. Because Christ and evil don't mix.

And Jesus Christ and a rotten mind don't mix. They can't. And so Paul says bring every thought into the obedience of Christ. Thinking the way he would have us think. It's so easy to have a worldly mind.

Or perhaps not worldly in the usual fundamental sense, but worldly because it's just the human way of looking at things. We don't look at things by faith, we look at them by sight, don't we? That's worldly.

We look at things, what are other people going to say? Instead of what will God think about it? I find it so easy just to begin regarding all my work just in a very human way. Instead of, well now, how does God want this done?

But you see, if it's human in a sense, it's actually worldly. It's not of God, it's not of the Spirit, therefore it must be fleshly. It's of the whole human nature. And so we need to cast down every imagination.

And this is where I feel discipline comes in. It's an act of the will that says no! And it tears it out and comes to Jesus Christ for cleansing and for purifying. And that He might control our thoughts.

He says casting down the imaginations. It's not so bad if they just start to come. But it's that keep thinking about them, that's what hurts. That's where the sin comes in. Just the first thought, we're all tempted, aren't we?

But it's the second and third and fourth and fifth. For several days perhaps, or even for several moments, this is where the sin comes in. Even the root of anger that comes up. The temptation may come to be angry.

But if you feed on it, it becomes bitterness, it becomes hatred. And that's the same as being a murderer. And that's where the sin comes in. And so the very first sign of it, it needs to be cast down.

Every imagination, that which exalts itself against God. And it can be anything. It can be a job. It can be eating. It can be sport. It doesn't matter what it is, but it can begin to take too much place from God.

And we need to cast down every imagination, everything that exalts itself against God. And of course, this is the basic sin, isn't it? Lucifer, I want to be like the Most High God. He was cast out of heaven.

All these kind of imaginations are from Satan. And even as Satan was cast out of heaven, so they need to be cast out of our minds. In the power of the Spirit of God. Isaiah 26 .3, we have a great promise of peace.

Thou will keep him in perfect peace. Note the condition. Whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee. And this is a condition. Unless the mind is stayed on the Lord Jesus Christ, it is not at peace.

It's being tossed to and fro. Conflicts, doubts, all kinds of temptations. But if it's stayed on Christ, it's just another way of saying, looking unto Jesus. Which causes a person to run a race that is steadfast.

And to run it with endurance. And to lay aside every weight and every sin. Stay your mind on Jesus Christ, look unto Jesus. This is what we need to do with our minds. Discipline. Disciplining our thoughts to be stayed on Him.

Meditation, Scripture Memory, and Holy Thought

I think meditation comes in here. I found that memorizing scripture is a great way of keeping the mind disciplined. And I have to confess that in recent weeks, I haven't been doing so much memorizing of scripture.

In all how we need to discipline ourselves to memorize. Even if it is hard to memorize. I remember Krista Fisher, when we worked back at 30 Middleton Road. She sat at the typewriter and above her typewriter, she'd put a new scripture text every day.

Or maybe one or two or three of them. And every spare moment she had, she'd look up and she'd be reading and meditating on that verse until she memorized. But usually we get a spare moment and we just kind of let it slide idly by.

While we're waiting at the bus stop for a bus. Maybe nobody else is there so you can't talk to anybody, you can't give out a track. But then to pull out a New Testament and memorize a word of scripture.

To fill our minds, to occupy our minds with that which is good. It's not enough just to have a clean mind that's still empty. Because if you clean out the mind and it's empty, then pretty soon all sorts of other things will come in and you'll have seven devils instead of one.

It's got to be filled up with that which is truth, with that which is good, with that which is pure. Whatsoever things are pure, lovely, of good report, honest, think on these things. And if it doesn't measure up to that standard that Paul laid down in Philippians 4, don't think on these things.

Meditate, and it's a discipline. It's a discipline because I find that my mind just likes to do nothing. I don't like to think, I don't like to plan. I get going for a while and then about the middle of the day when I get sleepy and tired, I don't want to think of what I should say in the next letter.

I just don't like to. It's lazy. And it's a discipline to say, think. Or maybe in that time, pray and ask God to discipline you to think. But in the idle moment to let the mind, the thoughts wander. You know another thing that's come to me is being very sentimental.

I think this is what homesickness is. Sometimes I go for four years without seeing my parents and every once in a while I get a hankering for my old life out in West Africa. Especially when it was a cold winter and I thought of the 90 degree weather out there.

And the beautiful sunshine and getting that nicely baked feeling when you get out in the sun. And so my mind begins to wander and I just go back to boyhood days and I think of, I didn't have any problems then hardly.

And I just get carried away. And yet how foolish it is, it's unrealistic, I can't go back there. It doesn't do me a bit of good. About five or ten or maybe minutes later or maybe an hour later I come back to reality and have to face up to it all again.

And it's just a waste of time, isn't it? To have all these little fluffy airy feelings about the past or wanting to be somewhere where we aren't. Or sometimes I'm thinking here in England, well I wonder what it would be like to be slugging it out with those there in the Muslim world.

What it would be like just to be with some of those brothers. And I begin to think of some brother and oh I have a great love and I just love to be with them and fellowship again. And it's good to have that bond of unity.

But sometimes it becomes just vain imagination and it's a waste of time. Instead of seeing things as God does. And oh how we need to discipline our minds so they just don't wander all over the place. Doing nothing, going nowhere.

But rather that we might discipline our thoughts. And discipline our whole lives towards one purpose. To know the Lord Jesus Christ and to do His will. Of course we could talk about worry too. A good passage is Matthew 6.

Jesus’ Teaching on Anxiety and Trusting God’s Provision

In case you've never read it before. I think it'd be good to read it again anyway. Because worry is in the mind, isn't it? It may affect the body. It may affect how you feel. But worry is all in the mind.

And most of the time worry isn't even, it's not even reality. You're worrying about something that's in the future that you're not sure how it's going to turn out. And it doesn't help a bit. It doesn't do one thing for you.

As we've heard before. But let's remind ourselves what the Lord Jesus Christ said. Verse 25. Therefore I say unto you. Read 24. No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other.

Or else he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Mammon is worry. Therefore I say unto you. Be not anxious for your life. What ye shall eat or what ye shall drink. Nor yet for your body what ye shall put on.

Is not the life more than the food? And the body than the raiment? Behold the birds of the heaven that they sow not. Neither do they reap nor gather into barns. And your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of much more value than they?

And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit unto the measure of his life? I suppose all you fellows were like me. At one time or another you were shorter than everybody else. Well I still am. But I used to.

My brother is about five, six inches taller than I am. And every couple of weeks when we measured against the bedroom wall of my mother. I was here and his mark was up here. Always above me. And I wanted to be tall like my brother.

But all the thinking about it didn't do a bit of good. And even exercise, I don't think that helped any either. It just doesn't help. It doesn't do anything. And why are you anxious concerning raiment?

You know I found a real problem. When I used to have a lot of clothes. It took me five or ten minutes in the morning trying to make up my mind which shirt to put on. It's so much simpler when you just have one or two changes.

It simplifies life. It's bad here in England but it's even worse in the States. I remember working in a camp and for one week. I remember a girl coming that had twenty blouses for one week. She changed three times a day.

Of course she was catering to the fellows but. Think of it. The decisions that would have to be made to change twenty times in one week. And decisions are what's hard to make. Well, raiment. Consider the lilies of the field.

How they grow. They toil not. Neither do they spin. Yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God does so clothe the grass of the field. Which today is and tomorrow is cast in the oven.

Shall he not much more clothe you. O ye of little faith. An anxiety about dress. And what we're going to wear. Is not a faith. And if it's not a faith. It's sin. Now we've been told we're to be neat. But one can be neat.

Without spending half the day trying to get a wardrobe together. Some people just when they go to pack. It takes them a week to get prepared. Even some of the girls here. I'm used to just telling them well.

You're going for this weekend. But they want to know in advance by two or three days. So they can plan what they have to be ironed. And what has to be washed and so forth. In some ways this is good. But it shows how occupied we get.

With what we wear. And how much time we can spend just on ordinary living. Which should be the minimum. And of course we could say the same for food. Now I enjoy good food. But I don't see that it makes much difference if the radish is whole.

Or if it's peeled in a nice little tulip type thing. And yet I know some ladies that will spend hours. I've been in their homes. They spend hours preparing a meal that's gulped down in a half hour. And that's it.

Well we need to be realistic don't we. About our time. And about just plain ordinary living. Thirty-one. Be not therefore anxious saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink. Or wherewithal shall we be clothed.

We serve tea and coffee. And you have to make up your mind whether it's going to be tea or coffee you're going to drink. For me I just like plain old cold water. But most people don't go for that quite so much.

I'm still trying to convince the Britishers that cold water is good for them. But I'm having a hard time. They like their tea and coffee. Or something else. For after all these things do the Gentiles seek.

For your Heavenly Father knoweth. Well that came in didn't it. For your Heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of all these things. And so what does it matter if I can't get my cold water. I'll drink whatever's available.

But seek ye first his kingdom. And his righteousness. And all these things shall be added unto you. Now this is a promise from the word of God. That if we seek him first. The food, our raiment, whatever we really need.

Will be added unto us. And if we don't rest on that then we're just disregarding what he said. Don't worry. Be anxious for nothing. And I tell you sometimes there are things that humanly speaking. There's something to be anxious about.

But God tells us be anxious for nothing. And I found that most of the time. We're worried about something that's coming in the future. And we're not sure how it's going to come out. We don't worry too much about the past.

It's already happened. And the present, well we're actually in that. But it's something in the future. And many times there's something that's come up in my life. And I know that it's going to be hard to do it.

Maybe it's a situation and I know that I have to tell that person. To do something that I know they aren't going to like. And this is difficult. And I can begin to worry. Well just how are they going to react?

Will I lose their friendship? But God says don't worry about it. Because you can't change it anyway. And we're always worrying about something that we can have no influence over really. And usually when we get to it, it's not nearly as bad.

For instance, when I think of chopping my finger off, I don't like the thought of it. And I could worry about it. If I knew that five minutes from now I was going to have to take a hatchet and chop my finger off.

I would get disturbed. And sometimes when I think of martyrdom, I think of different ways people torture you. I can get bothered by it. And I think what if I had to go through this certain physical torture?

But then when the moment comes and you do chop your finger off, it's just over like that. And then you go about getting it repaired. But it's usually not nearly as bad as your mind imagines. There's that word again, imagination.

Imagines it to be. Usually the real thing is not nearly so bad as the real thing. Of course, sometimes we can imagine something is going to be very wonderful too. And we can get so wrapped up in how wonderful something is going to be.

And then when we get there, it falls flat. Maybe that's happened to you at this conference. Maybe your hopes were so built up that God was going to take one or two people. And they were going to give such wonderful messages that you just had to get blessed.

And therefore you depended on some great speaker coming along. And you've been disappointed. Because if we're going to receive a real blessing, it's got to be God who gives it to us. He uses men, yes.

But it's amazing what kind of men he does use. I guess we'd save ourselves a lot of anxiety. We'd save ourselves perhaps some ulcers. We'd relieve the situation in our mental institutions, a lot of other places, if we could learn this lesson not to worry.

I sometimes find myself doing it. I praise God I have some friends that they can come along and they see if I'm worrying or not. And they say, are you worried? Get back to reality. And it's good. It's good to have brothers and sisters that are honest enough with you and they tell you when something's wrong with you.

Thinking with God: Diligence, Remembrance, and Wisdom

You know how we need to do this, to exhort one another. Because God says don't worry about something, that doesn't mean you're not to ever think about it. Because in the same breath that Jesus would say don't worry, don't be anxious about these things, he also tells us to take care.

And he says I put you in remembrance of these things. For instance, over in 1 Timothy 4 .15, after exhorting Timothy along certain lines to let no man despise his youth but rather be an example and to be a learner and to really give heed to reading and exhortation.

Notice he says in verse 15, be diligent. You can't be diligent without thinking. Be diligent in these things, give thyself wholly to them that thy progress may be manifest unto all. And in other places we read about study or be diligent to show yourself approved unto God.

And give all diligence to add to your faith, virtue, brotherly kindness, love. And so the scripture talks about actually giving thought to something. And many times we are reminded to remember something.

Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth. And Peter mentions in his first epistle, I believe, I put you in remembrance of these things. I remind you of them. And so over and over again we have the same things stated.

In the Old Testament we were commanded to love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind and our neighbor as ourselves. It's recorded another three or four times in scripture to remind us. And we are to remember.

We're not to worry about something but we're to remember the things that God has taught us. And we're to give thought to something. Not in a worrying sense but thinking with God. Depending on Him to give us wisdom.

If we lack wisdom, ask of God in faith and He will give it. Perhaps I could give this illustration. I don't want you to worry about dirty plates left all over the campground. But it would certainly be nice if you would remember them to take them where they're to be washed.

Don't worry about it but just remember it. And then get on with the more important things. Don't worry about if the line's getting too long outside the washroom or outside the dining hall. But remember to redeem the time while you're there in line.

And use it to really fellowship with one another and to make the time profitable. And of course to be sensible and don't all crowd into the doorway so that all the lines get muddled up. Don't worry but remember the things God wants to teach us and has taught us.

Renewal of the Mind and the Pattern of Life

One more thought along this matter of the mind. In Romans 12, 1 and 2, we read about the presenting of our bodies a living sacrifice. But he goes on in the second verse to mention another aspect. And he says, And be not fashioned according to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.

And this is what we need. We need our minds renewed. We need our whole attitude toward life renewed. We need our thinking renewed. And Ephesians 4 tells the same thing that we should be renewed in the spirit of our mind.

And this is the answer to it all. This is the answer to a disciplined mind, get a new one. Instead of ours, get the Lord Jesus Christ mind. Instead of I, Christ. Renewed in our mind. I remember when I was in Montana.

I keep mentioning different places. You probably know that I traveled around a little bit. The Lord keeps shifting me here and there. But when I was out in Montana a couple summers, the Lord taught me this lesson about the thought and how basic it is.

If you sow a thought, you reap an action. And if you sow an action, you reap a habit. If you sow a habit, you reap a life. If you sow a life, you reap an eternity. And it starts with the thought. And unless God comes in and arrests that whole order, He can't stop it at the habit.

He can't even stop it at the life and change the life. We praise God that He can stop at anywhere, except in eternity. And then it's too late. But remember, it starts with the thought. Another area that's very important and very closely linked together with this is the tongue.

Discipline of the Tongue and the Power of Speech

James, chapter 3. Discipline of the tongue. Americans seem to have a great desire to talk a lot. I find it easy to talk. If I'm not careful, I get carried away. You know how we need to be disciplined in what we say.

It's not wrong to talk a lot, but it is wrong to talk a lot about nothing. For in many things we all stumble. It's true enough. If any stumbleth not in word, the same is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also.

Now, if we put the horses' bridles into their mouths, that they may obey us, we turn about their whole body also. Behold, the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by rough winds, are yet turned about by a very small rudder, whither the impulse of the steersman willeth.

So the tongue also is a little member. Behold, how much wood is kindled by how small a fire, and the tongue is a fire. The world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defileth the whole body and setteth on fire the wheel of nature and is set on fire by hell.

For every kind of beast and birds or creeping things and things in the sea is tamed, and hath been tamed by mankind, but the tongue can no man tame. It is a restless evil. It is full of deadly poison.

Therewith bless we the Lord and Father, and therewith curse we men who are made after the likeness of God. Out of the same mouth cometh forth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.

Yes, the unregenerate man may curse God, but not many of us would dare to curse God, really. But instead we'll just talk behind everybody else's back and just run him into the ground. And yet from the same tongue we praise God one moment and we tear a fellow brother down behind his back.

Now, if you tear him down to his face, it's a different thing. If you're saying to his face, perhaps pointing out something you feel is wrong in his life, that's scriptural. That's done in the spirit of love to exhort one another.

But when you say something behind their back that you wouldn't say to his face, or at least you wouldn't say unless you absolutely forced to, then it's wrong. The tongue. It's bad enough to complain inwardly, isn't it?

It's bad enough to murmur and complain within ourselves so that nobody else knows about it. But if you start voicing your complaints, then it influences someone else and they voice their complaints and that's joined together with your complaints and they get greater.

And your complaints are far worse by the time you finish discussing them than they were to start with. And this works in a crowd because we influence one another. And this is what happens usually in a mob when some mob action is started off.

One person says, go get them and off they are to lynch somebody. But just one person saying that, it stirs everybody else up. If he had said that just to one other person sitting down in their living room, they would have laughed it off.

But in a crowd, you see, it influences them. And perhaps you're standing over there by the dining hall and you may make just one little word about the food. Maybe it isn't quite as good as you expected or what you would like.

But this will influence someone else and they say, boy, you know, that's right, I hadn't thought about that. Those beans are a little burnt after all. What have we been eating? Beans? Tomatoes. And so we, our complaints add to each other's and they get worse.

That's why if we have a complaint, voice it to God and not to one another. Or if it is something that can be corrected, voice it to the person in charge. And then if he doesn't take it, then perhaps you can voice it to everybody.

But how easy it is just to talk behind a person's back. And I find this, sometimes we're thinking about people who have applied. This, of course, applies to some of you. And we receive their applications.

And we're looking at them. And to be quite honest, I look through them with the sole, well, more than one purpose, but one of the purposes is to try and find anything that kind of flashes a red light and I want to know more about that person.

Now maybe all of you are really, you really mean business, but some people can write in and they want to apply and, well, it's hard telling what their background's been. And we need to find this out. Because all we have is one little sheet of paper with a few questions at the first part and a little testimony on the back.

Have you ever tried to figure out what a person's like from that much? It's pretty difficult. But I find that perhaps we see the picture there. Now sometimes the picture doesn't always glorify the person.

Or perhaps we see something else. And I can find myself beginning to talk about someone else. Well, look at this. I kind of question about that. And pretty soon we're so talking about what we think might be wrong that we overlook the whole other part.

And instead of taking that and writing to the person and trying to get it straightened out, we can just talk about it. Or we can talk about one another. And in running the camp here, I've found myself, I've got to think of, well, where would these people fit in the best?