Motivated by Love

Announcer:

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

In yesterday’s broadcast Derek Prince brought our focus to the word of God, both the written the Bible, and the word made flesh which is Jesus. He then spoke about our attitude toward both. Today Derek concludes this week’s message ‘Founded On The Rock’ by outlining some vital points of how our relationship to God’s word affects our motives for obedience. Let’s join Derek now as he finalizes this teaching. Stay tuned at the end of his message for our address and this week’s special offer at the end of today’s program.

Derek Prince:

“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.

“He said the world will not see me but the disciples will see me.
And then Judas, not Iscariot but the other Judas, asked Him a very relevant question in verse 22: Judas said to Him, ‘Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world?’”

He said that because Jesus said the world will not see me but you will see me. His question was how will you manifest yourself to us and not to the world? Now, the answer that Jesus gave is just full of important truth. Verse 23:

“Jesus answered and said to him [verse 23], ‘If anyone loves me he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.’”

I want to bring out five vitally important facts in the answer of Jesus. First of all, Jesus said He would reveal Himself to His disciples, not to the world. What’s the distinguishing mark between the disciples and the world? The answer is keeping the Word of God. True disciples keep the Word of Jesus. And they’re not marked out by denominational labels, they’re marked out by the way they relate to the Word. That’s what makes you, or otherwise prevents you from being, a true disciple. It’s your relationship to the Word of God. Keeping God’s Word distinguishes disciples from the world.

And in this congregation here this morning every one of us is in one or other of those two categories. If we’re disciples we keep the Word of God. If we don’t keep the Word we belong to the world—to the world that is not under the Lordship of Jesus.

And then the second truth is Jesus said, ‘If anyone loves me, He will keep my Word.’ So, keeping God’s Word is the supreme test of the disciple’s love for God. Love is the motivation for obedience. It’s very important to understand that as believers we are not motivated by fear, we’re motivated by love. In a certain sense, the Law used the motivation of fear. If you do this you’ll be punished. But that doesn’t work. I’ve helped to bring up a large number of children. Some of you wouldn’t believe how many and I won’t go into that. I discovered while they’re under your control as a parent you can use fear, but once they leave you, if they’ve been motivated by fear they’ll change. The only motivation that will keep them loyal and faithful is love. God and Jesus were wise enough not to build on fear but to build on love. So, keeping God’s Word is the supreme test of the disciple’s love for God. ‘If any man loves me He will keep my Word.’ Love is the motivation for obedience.

And then He says, ‘If anyone loves me he will keep my Word, and my Father will love him . . .’ that’s another wonderful fact. Keeping God’s Word is what causes God the Father to love us with a special love. Now, God loved the whole world in a certain way, but God has a very different degree and kind of love for true disciples of Jesus, for those who keep His Word.

And then we had the question that Judas asked, ‘How will you manifest yourself to us and not to the world?’ And Jesus’ answer was, ‘If anybody loves me he will keep my Word.’ So how does Christ manifest Himself to us? Through the Word. It’s through the keeping of the Word that we get to know Jesus better. We can have maybe some wonderful, spiritual experience, we can be caught up to the third heaven or whatever it may be. But that doesn’t happen to most people and it isn’t the basic way by which God reveals Himself and Jesus reveals Himself. It is through keeping the Word of God.

And then finally, and this is an amazing statement: ‘If anyone loves me, my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him.’ There are only a very few places in the Bible where the plural pronoun is used about God but this is one of them. Jesus says We, my Father and I will come to him and make our abode with him. That’s a breathtaking statement, an amazing revelation that God the Father and God the Son want to come and make their dwelling with us. They want to make us their personal abode. But how does it come about? Through the Word. If we are not lovers of the Word, if we’re not obedient to the Word, God will not make His dwelling place with us.

And so, let me say this as I close this morning, and it’s a very solemn thought. You don’t love God more than you love His Word. So if you want to know how much you really love God, how much place God has in your life, you can find out. It’s not something you need to speculate about. You just ask yourself, ‘How much do I love the Bible, how much place does the Bible has in my life?’ Because that’s as much as I love God and that’s as much place as I give to God in my life.

Let me just summarize those five statements about the Bible because they’re crucial. See, so many Christians are in a kind of twilight zone, they don’t really know what is light and what is darkness. They wish and they hope, but they’re not really sure. The reason is they haven’t given the Word of God its rightful place in their lives. Let me make these five statements and then close.

“First of all, keeping God’s Word distinguishes true disciples from the world.”

Second, keeping God’s Word is the supreme test of the disciple’s love for God. Love is our motivation for obedience, not fear.

Third, keeping God’s Word is the supreme cause of God’s love for the disciple. God loves disciples in a special way. He loves the whole world, but He has a special love for disciple. But, those whom He loves as disciples are those who keep God’s Word. If you want to be specially dear to God then you have to keep His Word.

Fourth, through God’s Word, kept and obeyed, Christ manifests Himself to us. The question was, ‘How will you manifest yourself to us and not to the world?’ Jesus said, ‘If you love me you’ll keep my Word. That’s how I’ll manifest myself.’

And, finally, through God’s Word the Father and the Son will come together to indwell us. Isn’t that an amazing thought? It just takes my breath away. God the Father and God the Son want to make their dwelling with us, but they’ll only do it as we keep God’s Word.

“Let me close by praying for all of us.
‘Heavenly Father, we thank you for your Word, the Word of God, the Bible. This sure, authoritative, infallible Word which is a lamp for our feet and a light for our path. I want to pray, Lord, for everybody gathered here and for everybody who ultimately is confronted by this message in any way, that you will cause us to be lovers of your Word. That you by your grace enable us to give your Word, the Bible, its rightful place in our lives that we may be truly disciples of the Lord Jesus. In His name I pray, Amen.’”

Announcer:

Join us again next week when Derek continues his series Laying the Foundation with his topic ‘Authority And Power Of God’s Word.’ He will be sharing with us how the Bible’s power and promises can help us build a successful Christian life if we apply it correctly.

This week’s message is available on audiocassette No. RC4160, and also on video. Our special offer this week is Derek’s 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 of any amount for the book If You Want God’s Best.

Derek Prince also welcomes your letters and your 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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