Hearing and Doing

Announcer:

This is Today With Derek Prince. The internationally recognized Bible teacher and author presents to you Keys To Successful Living.

Yesterday Derek Prince continued his message ‘Founded On the Rock’ by giving us the necessary steps of a personal encounter with Jesus in order to start with a solid foundation built upon Him. In his program today, Derek will share two ways in which we can begin to wisely build on our foundation, but first there are things in our lives that must be dug out of the way. Join Derek now as he continues this teaching, And listen at the at the end of today’s message for our address and this week’s special offer.

Derek Prince:

“And the Scripture says in Hebrews 13:8:
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.”

There has been no change in Him, there never will be. So, it’s not a question of language or culture or clothing, but it’s a question of the eternal person of Jesus. That’s what Peter encountered maybe for the first time in his life. He really had a revelation of who Jesus is.

Secondly, the revelation was granted through the Holy Spirit. The Bible calls the Holy Spirit the eternal Spirit, the timeless Spirit. Time, fashion, history, customs, language—they don’t change the Holy Spirit.

So for those two reasons it is equally possible for you and me to have this direct, personal revelation of Jesus, just as possible as it was for Peter. First of all, because it’s the eternal Son of God who is revealed. And secondly, because it’s the eternal Spirit who reveals Him.

Now we come to the next important practical issue, if you have laid the foundation, how do you proceed to build on it? You remember that the metaphors we used at the beginning all spoke about building. So here’s the next vitally important and practical issue: how do you build on the foundation? I want to go to a parable of Jesus that He spoke at the end of Matthew chapter 7, a well known parable about the wise man and the foolish man, each of whom built a house but they built it different ways. Beginning in Matthew 7:24:

“‘Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock’ [the bedrock, petra]. And the rain descended, the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house and it did not fall, for it was founded on the bedrock. Now everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain descended, the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house and it fell, and great was its fall.’”

First of all, it’s important to see that each house was subjected to the same test. There was no house that was free from being tested. The same storm that hit one house hit the other. And let me tell you the Christian life is not a storm-free life. You will go through storms. God has never guaranteed that you won’t. In fact, Paul and Barnabas said to an early church, ‘We must through much tribulation enter the kingdom of God.’ If you’re on a road that has no tribulation, it’s questionable whether it leads to the kingdom of God because that’s what Paul said, ‘we must through much tribulation enter the kingdom of God.’ It’s not in the scope of this talk to explain why we go through tribulation but believe me, God has a purpose in it. If you’re going through it now, don’t give up, God will bring you through and you’ll find at the end that He’s dealt with you and taught you things you couldn’t learn any other way.

Do you know how I know that? From personal experience. I very seldom preach theories. So, how does the wise man build? Very simply, two ways. By hearing and doing the words of Jesus, the words of the Bible. So how can you build on that foundation? Just the same way. Hearing what the Bible says and doing it. Don’t be just a hearer only because the Bible has no promises for them, but a hearer and a doer. It’s practical. It’s applying the teaching of the Bible and the teaching of Jesus in your own life. And you will find as you go on in this that God will continually open up to you new areas in which you need to apply the truth.

I want to tell you I’ve been a Christian for more than fifty years but God is continually showing me new ways in which to apply His word. New areas of my life in which I need to apply it. My building isn’t complete, it’s being built. But I thank God it’s passed through a number of storms successfully.

Now there’s one other parable of Jesus in Luke chapter 6, which is very similar, but there’s an important addition. I’m going to turn to Luke chapter 6 for a moment, verses 46 through 49. Again, it’s Jesus who is speaking. And He says,

“‘But why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do the things which I say?’”

That’s an important question. It is futile to call Jesus Lord if you don’t obey Him because the very title ‘Lord’ means someone who is to be obeyed. Jesus says beware of just having a vocal confession which doesn’t affect the way you live.

“Then He goes on with this parable:
‘Whoever comes to me and hears my sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like. He is like a man building a house who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock.’ [the bedrock, the petra]. But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built his house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently and immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.’”

Now there’s one important detail added in Luke which is not in Matthew. I wonder how many of you noticed it. It says the man who wanted to reach the bedrock had to dig deep. He had to get a lot of things out of the way before he could build on the bedrock. And that is true with many of us, maybe not with all of us, but most of us who’ve grown up in a nominal Christian culture, there’s a lot of things we have to get out of the way before we reach the bedrock. Others, too, who have grown up in a completely non Christian culture will have to eliminate things, too, but they’ll be different.

And I want to suggest to you five things that we need to dig out of the way. The first is traditions. Now, not all traditions are bad, some traditions are good. We don’t want to throw out all the traditions but Jesus said to the people of his day, ‘By your traditions you have made the Word of God of no effect.’ You’re believing traditions and acting on them, which are not in line with the Scripture. And I have to say, according to my observation, Jesus would say exactly the same thing to the same Jewish people today. ‘By your traditions you have made the Word of God of no effect.’ But let’s not just look at the Jews because it’s true of many others of Christian backgrounds—we’ve inherited traditions, ways of acting, things we do, words we speak, which are not necessarily in line with Scripture. So we have to be very careful to check.

I think I’ll refrain from making any specific suggestions but there are many I could make. Then the second thing we need to eliminate is prejudices. There’s no one here who hasn’t had some prejudices at one time. You may have got rid of them, I don’t know. But there are all sorts of prejudices. There are racial prejudices. Unfortunately, the world is full today of racial prejudice. We know in countries like South Africa, for instance, where there’s been a wonderful change, let me add, where racial prejudices eliminated certain people from being part of the church. A terrible thought! But that’s not the only area where there’s racial prejudice. The United States of America has been full of racial prejudice and in many places still is today.

I’m from a British background. Let me say, the British people have their prejudices, too. I grew up with many of them. I had to dig deep to get rid of them. My own family background is from India. All my forbears served with British forces in India. I remember as a boy of about twelve saying innocently at a lunch, ‘I don’t see why you couldn’t invite an Indian to lunch.’ The reaction was one of horror in my family. I thought to myself what is the reason for this? Well, later on I realized this is a prejudice. Believe me, I’m looking at a lot of different people from different racial backgrounds, but very few of you are free from all racial prejudice.

Then there’s denominational prejudice. Most of us react in a somewhat negative way to certain denominations. My first wife, who is with the Lord, was Danish. She grew up in the Danish Lutheran Church and then she did something that was terrible in their eyes, she was baptized as a believer, which they call in Danish ginderker (phonetic), a second time baptizer. In her case, because she was a teacher in the Danish state school system, actually went before the Parliament as to whether she could remain a teacher. And I’d have to say that my wife continued in a running war with the Lutheran Church really to the end of her days. I don’t justify that, I think it was a weakness in her.

But, I’ve learned myself when I hear about people belonging to a certain denomination, I develop an attitude against them without ever meeting them. I think, ‘Well, they’re going to be like that and this is where they’re wrong,’ and so on. Experience has taught me, if possible, never judge a person till you’ve met them. I’ve met people from the wrong denominational background who are some of the most right people I’ve known. And, some who were from the right background who were wrong. So please, don’t give way to denominational prejudice.

Announcer:

Tomorrow Derek Prince will continue his teaching ‘Founded on the Rock’ by beginning to focus on the Bible and our attitude toward it and it’s authority. Please join us again for this broadcast. Derek’s teaching this week is available on audiocassette No. RC4160 and also on video. Our special offer this week is his book If You Want God’s Best, which shares how important it is to listen and obey God’s Word.

To receive your copy ‘Founded On the Rock’ write to us today and include a contribution of $5.00 or more for the audio cassette RC4160 or $14.95 for the video teaching. Include a gift of any amount for the book If You Want God’s Best.

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