Son of God or Slave of Law

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

In yesterday’s teaching on ‘Faith and Works,’ Derek Prince taught on law and grace and the results of each in our lives. Today he goes on to explain the problem we have when we try to live halfway between law and grace, a problem many Christians have. Listen at the end of the broadcast today for our address and this week’s special offer.

Derek Prince:

And so he goes on with the Holy Spirit walking on the way that leads to his destination. Then he says to the Holy Spirit, to his guide, ‘You know, I’ve got a very excellent map. Maybe I could share the map with you.’ The guide says, ‘Thank you but I don’t need the map, I know the way. Besides, I was the one who made the map. I know the way. Besides I was the one who made the map.’

You see the message? How long will it take before we realize we cannot do it on our own? It’s not our good works, it’s not our keeping rules, it’s the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of grace. As many as are regularly led by the Holy Spirit, these are the sons of God.

And then in Galatians 5 Paul returns to this theme. I want to say to you this theme is one of the major themes of the New Testament. Anybody that has never really mastered this theme is in a state of twilight. I think that’s where a lot of Christians live, they live in a kind of twilight, halfway between law and grace, and they don’t know which is which and they don’t know how to avail themselves of God’s grace. In Galatians 5:18 Paul says:

“But if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law.”

He said earlier as many as are led by the Spirit, these are the sons of God. So, you’ve got the choice. You can live like a son of God, be led by the Holy Spirit, or, you can turn your back on the Holy Spirit and try to keep the law. But you cannot combine the two. This is the essence of what I’m trying to say to you. This is where people get into a twilight. They’re half trusting grace and half trusting their own little set of rules which they’re keeping.

Please understand I’m not saying it’s a bad thing to keep rules. What I’m saying is keeping rules does not make you righteous. Did you get that? I think I better say it again. Keeping rules does not make you righteous.

Most of you belong to some kind of church or denomination and it has its rules. I think if you belong to that particular group you ought to keep the rules. If you can’t keep the rules you shouldn’t belong. But, keeping the rules does not make you righteous. In fact, it’s really a major source of division in the body of Christ because most religious groups have got their own set of rules. The Catholics have one, the Baptists have another, the Seventh Day Adventists have another, the Pentecostals have another, and so on. Most of the people in those groups think, ‘Well keeping our rules makes us righteous.’ Then they look at the people that keep a different set of rules and say, ‘Well, they’re not really righteous because they’re not keeping our rules.’ So you see what legalism does? It divides the body of Christ.

The Baptists are free to keep their rules, provided they’re scriptural. The Pentecostals likewise. The Catholics, provided they’re scriptural. But bear in mind none of them are made righteous by keeping their rules. They’re made righteous by faith.

The problem is if we get focused on rules we’ll probably miss out on faith and we’ll find ourselves in that twilight again. Or, like the young man who thought he could do it by the map and ended up in a bog. Some of you know what it’s like to be in a bog. In fact, some of you are here now because you got out of the bog and you realize you needed the Holy Spirit. Amen? Amen.

Now I’m going to make another shocking statement. I wouldn’t dare to make it if Paul hadn’t made it first. You’ll find it in Romans chapter 7. I tell you, Romans is a most wonderful book. I was a professor of logic before I became a Christian. I really was interested in logic and I think logic is a wonderful thing. It’s like a computer. If you feed the right information into a computer you’ll get the right results. But if you feed the wrong information in you’ll get the wrong results. Logic doesn’t give you the answers, logic merely enables you to see if your conclusions are compatible. And so, I would say myself of all the things I’ve ever read, the Bible is the most logical book. I personally do not feel intellectually inferior because I believe the Bible. That’s my personal attitude. I would suggest to you don’t you feel intellectually inferior. They may label you something like fundamentalist. Okay. Be a fundamentalist, whatever that is. Actually, it’s mainly used as a sort of thing to evoke people’s emotions against you. The people who talk about being fundamentalist haven’t defined what fundamentalism is. There are lots of words that people use just to put a black mark on other people but they don’t define them. Don’t be afraid of being called a fundamentalist. The next time somebody calls you that, say, ‘Please, would you tell me what you mean by a fundamentalist?’

All right. Now we’re coming to this shocking statement of Paul’s in Romans 7. The further you go with him the more shocking he becomes. Romans chapter 7:4 and following:

“Therefore my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another, even to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.”

Paul says at one time if you were a religious Jew you were married to the law. And for you to depart from the law and be married to somebody else would be adultery, spiritual adultery, unless you found out that the law had died. But through the death of Jesus on the cross the law was put to death. Do you understand?

This is a real problem for most Jewish people. They feel if they don’t try to keep the law, and basically they don’t do much about that, they are being unfaithful to their husband. There has to have a revelation that the law was put to death in Christ so that they could be married to another, the risen Messiah. And through Him both they and we can bring forth fruit. Do you understand? Fruit only comes by union. But what we are united to will determine what we bring forth. But if we are united, in union with Christ, then we will bring forth the fruit of the Spirit.

“Now going on, Paul says:
For when we were in the flesh the passions of sins which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.”

That’s an amazing statement, isn’t it? The passions of sins which were by the law. In other words, Paul says, the law stirred up sinful passions. Can you absorb that?

“Let me give you another passage in 1 Corinthians 15:56. This is one of those breathtaking statements. The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law.”

Paul goes on in Romans 7, he says there’s nothing wrong with the law, it’s perfect. The problem is in us. You see, if I can put it this way, law works from without. It says do this, don’t do that. You say, ‘Okay, I’ll do this and I won’t do that.’ And in doing so you are trusting on your own ability. That’s the problem because you don’t have the ability to do what is right and avoid what is wrong. But you see, the essential nature of our flesh is to trust in ourselves and not to want to depend on God.

Let’s go back to the temptation in the Garden of Eden. What was the motivation that Satan used? ‘You will be like God.’ There’s nothing wrong with being like God. What was the problem? They would be like God without depending on God, they would depend on the knowledge of good and evil. That’s the root problem of humanity, it’s the root problem of religious people. We want to be like God but we don’t want to depend on God. The essence of sin is the refusal to depend on God. That is sin in its essence. It’s not some particular sinful act you commit, it’s an attitude of self-reliance which shuts God’s grace out of your life. And this is the hardest thing, I believe, that God has to deal with in you and me, it’s this attitude of self righteousness. ‘I can do it by myself, I don’t need God.’

As far as I know, and this is just an opinion, there are only two kinds of creatures in the universe that wanted to be independent of God. One is the fallen angels that joined Satan in his rebellion, the other is the human race. Nothing else in the universe desires to be independent of God. The birds don’t desire to be independent, the creatures don’t, the fish don’t, the stars don’t, they are all happily dependent on God. But you and I, because of the fall and our fleshly nature, have inherited this problem, we don’t like to depend on God. We like to be able to say, ‘I’ve done it by myself. I didn’t need God.’

Dear friends, you need God in the worst way and you need God the most when you think you don’t need Him. And if you analyze your own Christian experience I think you’ll find that every problem that you’ve encountered in yourself stemmed from trying to do it without God, stemmed from the refusal to depend on the grace of God.

I see this as the basic problem of humanity, is the desire to be in control, to be secure, not to be dependent. And the essence of sin is to be in a universe that was created by a loving, all-wise God and want to be independent of it. Don’t tell me, my dear brothers and sisters, you’ve never had that problem. Because, there’s none of us that’s always been satisfied to depend on God, to let God be in control. That is the real walk of faith. That’s the walk of grace. We don’t achieve it in a few hours. In fact, it’s taken me well over fifty years and I’m not there yet. But, I’m closer than I was, let me encourage you with that.

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Join us for tomorrow’s program when Derek Prince continues his theme, ‘Faith and Works’ by warning us of the danger from turning from grace back to law. This week’s message is available on audiocassette No. RC4163, and also on video. Our special offer this week is Derek’s book Faith to Live By, an excellent resource book for those who want to obey Scripture and receive the promises of a faith filled life. To receive your copy of ‘Faith and Works’ write today and include a contribution of $5.00 or more for audiocassette RC4163 or $14.95 for the video teaching. Include a gift of $5.00 or more for the book Faith To Live By.

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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