Attitudes

Announcer:

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

In yesterday’s program Derek Prince helped us identify obstacles that we must first dig out of our lives to be able to build successfully on our foundation in Christ. As he continues this week’s message ‘Founded On the Rock’ he focuses on the Bible and our attitude toward it and it’s authority and accuracy. Listen now as Derek brings this teaching at a New Zealand conference, and stay tuned at the end of his message for our address and this week’s special offer.

Derek Prince:

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. Because 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.

And then there’s social prejudice. Again, I’m an example of somebody brought up in social prejudice. I wasn’t even aware that I had prejudice but I was educated in Britain at Eton and then at Cambridge University. I just didn’t know how the rest of the world lived. Then I got plunged into the British Army and I was together with all sorts of people I’d never have been together with. I began to realize how limited my knowledge of my own British people was. I thank God for that experience, five and a half years in the British Army, but it cleansed me of a lot of social prejudices. Having been from a family of officers, I was used to being on that level, and when I was not on that level I learned something. When you see people from the same level, they look one way. But when you see them from underneath, they look different. I’ve always tried to say ever since, ‘God, how do I look to the people who may see me from underneath?’

So, there’s various kinds of prejudice. There’s personal prejudice. Some people don’t like people with a loud voice. Some people don’t like people with red hair. There’s all sorts of silly, personal prejudices most of us have. I have a prejudice against people who munch apples. I really fight it but it’s still there in the background because I just don’t like that noise.

Going beyond that, there’s preconceptions, people who’ve got a completely false view of who Jesus is. Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, turning up at the Christmas party, that’s not the real Jesus. He was a very different kind of person, very shocking, very prone to eliminate our prejudices and our preconceptions.

There are many other ways we can have preconceptions. Preconceptions of what it’s like to be a Christian. Growing up, as I did in the background I’ve related, I thought to myself, ‘Well, if I were to become a Christian it would mean misery for the rest of my life.’ Like Pat Boone I thought, ‘Heaven isn’t worth seventy years of misery on earth,’ so I completely eliminated the possibility of being a Christian — until I met Jesus.

Then there’s something else that’s very, very dangerous, and that is unbelief. Sometimes when I’m going to teach I’ll begin by getting all the people, together with myself, to renounce unbelief, because many of us are still beset by unbelief in various areas. Our minds are not really open to faith.

And lastly, and I think the most important, is rebellion. You might say, ‘Well, Brother Prince, I’m not a rebel.’ Oh, yes you are! And if you haven’t discovered it, you’ll go on being one. You see, I don’t want to go into the theology of this, but every descendant of Adam is born with a rebel inside. We have to identify that rebel and deal with it. God has only got one remedy for the rebel, do you know what that is? Execution, that’s right. He doesn’t send him to church, He doesn’t teach him the Golden Rule, He doesn’t have him memorizing Scripture. He puts him to death. But the mercy of God is the execution took place nearly 2,000 years ago when Jesus died on the cross. Our old man was crucified with Him. We have to come to the place where we identify that rebel inside us and we willingly submit to execution.

Now I come to the Bible because this is as important as anything else in the Christian life. What is your attitude to the Bible? Is your attitude the same as that of Jesus? I just want to take one passage of John’s gospel, chapter 10, verse 35. I’m not going into the context because it would take quite a while to do so. Jesus said:

“‘If he [that’s God] called them gods to whom the word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be broken.’”

That’s a very significant verse because in it Jesus uses the two main titles for the Bible. The ‘Word of God’ and ‘the scripture.’ When it calls the Bible the Word of God it means that it proceeded from God, it didn’t proceed from man. It may have come through human channels but it’s a word that comes from God.

The phrase ‘the Scripture’ is a limiting phrase. It means that which has been set down in writing. God has said many things which are not set down in writing. But by divine overruling the Bible contains those things which God said which He saw needed to be set down in writing. That is the Scripture. That means that which is written.

And concerning that, Jesus made one, simple, sweeping statement. ‘The scripture cannot be broken.’ You can argue as much as you like about the inspiration of the Bible or the authority of the Bible, but Jesus has said it all. It cannot be broken. It is absolutely authoritative. It will be totally fulfilled. Everything in it will be exactly worked out. You can take your stand against it, you can deny it but you cannot break it. In fact, if you deny it, ultimately it will break you. The Scripture cannot be broken.

I think I’d like to ask all of you to say that together with me once. ‘The Scripture cannot be broken.’ Now turn and look to somebody next to you and say it to that person, looking them right in the eyes. ‘The Scripture cannot be broken.’

All right, now that’s something settled. You see, there’s a thing called the higher criticism which subjects the Scriptures to all sorts of ridiculous fantasies and ends up by making it really a totally ineffective book. If there’s one thing that the devil wants to do in your life and mine, it is to undermine our faith in the authority and accuracy of the Bible. But if we are like Jesus we simply say the Scripture cannot be broken. Did you hear me Satan? The Scripture cannot be broken. All right.

Now the next thing I want to say that is not only is the Bible the Word of God but Jesus Himself is the Word of God. This comes out in John’s gospel in two places, in John chapter 1:1, a familiar verse:

“In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God and the Word was God.”

That refers to Jesus. He was the Word, He is the Word.
And in John 1:14 it says:

“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

So when Jesus was born, the season that we commemorate at Christmas, though that was not actually the season, the Word became flesh. But He was always the Word. Eternally He was the Word with God. And when He comes back, do you know how He’s coming back? Do you know what His name will be? Let me tell you, Revelation chapter 19. This is really remarkable in the sense that when He first came He was the Word, when He comes back He will be the Word. This is a picture of Jesus coming out of heaven in glory to establish His kingdom on earth. Revelation 19:11, 12 and 13:

“Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on it was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns [diadems, royal crowns]. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood and His name is called The Word of God.
So He always was the Word, still is the Word and will be the Word.”

And that brings out something very important. There is total agreement between Jesus and the Bible.

Your attitude toward one is the attitude toward the other. You cannot believe in Jesus and disbelieve the Bible. Did you absorb that fact? Jesus is the Word of God. He’s the Word made flesh. The Bible is the Word in Scripture, writing. Your attitude toward the one must be the same as your attitude toward the other. There is total agreement between the two.

And now as I draw near the end I want to take five vital facts about the Word of God, and your relationship to it, which are contained in John’s gospel, chapter 14. Just three verses. Jesus is, in a sense, taking farewell of His disciples, He’s warning them that He’s about to leave and they’ll be left on their own for a while. It’s a very traumatic time for the disciples. They’re overwhelmed with this revelation. But in the middle of it Jesus gives a marvelous revelation of what the Bible should mean to us as believers. He says in John 14:19:

“A little while longer and the world will see me no more. But you will see me. Because I live you will live also.”

So Jesus made a distinction there between the world—that’s those who do not acknowledge Jesus— and His own disciples.

Announcer:

Tune in again tomorrow when Derek concludes his message ‘Founded On The Rock.’ He’ll share about the important role of the word of God in a disciple’s life and relationship with God, and the results of obedience to God’s word.

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 to and obey God’s word. To receive your copy of ‘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 if any amount for the book If You Want God’s Best.

Derek Prince also welcomes your letters and prayer requests. Our mailing address is Derek Prince Ministries, Box 19501, Charlotte, North Carolina 28219. That’s Derek Prince Ministries, Box 19501, Charlotte, North Carolina 28219. In Canada write to Derek Prince Ministries, Box 8354, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3K 5M1. The Canadian address again is Box 8354, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3K 5M1,and please give us the call letters of this station when you write.

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