Laying The Foundation
Part 1 - Founded On The Rock We have laerned by experience
that there is no more effective way to release Gods power
into a situation than by proclaiming
His Word in faith. In fact I've told people many times
but I'm never tired of saying it. I doubt whether either Ruth or I
would be alive here today... if we had not learned to use
this weapon of proclamation. We have both passed through,
at different times, a period of severe sickness. As a matter of fact... I contracted something,
or something was thrust upon me which is normally fatal. But here I am today and,
thanks to the doctors, and to God
and to the power of Scripture I am alive and well and
serving the Lord. – Halelujah So this morning
we’re going to proclaim a passage from
Isaiah chapter 55 verses 10 and 11 which are very
appropriate to this particular series that we’ll be dealing with. For as the rain comes down
and the snow from heaven, and do not return there
but water the earth and make it bring forth and bud,
that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me void but it shall accomplish
what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing
for which I sent it. Amen. Now the title of this first message
is: Founded on the Rock. And that’s what we’re going
to be dealing with to start with. The Bible is a model
of good teaching and it follows various
principles of teaching. One in particular is
that you start from the known to lead people
on to the unknown. You never start with the unknown,
you start with what is known and you proceed from
there to the unknown. One of the ways that
the Bible does this is to take very simple, familiar,
everyday experiences and activities and to give them
a spiritual application. There are various examples. The Bible speaks about
a farmer sowing his seed, about a fisherman
catching fish in a drag net, it speaks about a soldier
putting on his armor. And then in a completely different kind
of context it speaks about a bride preparing herself for her wedding.
Those are just a few examples of this principle. But the particular familiar activity
that I want to focus on is that of constructing a building. And I think this picture
of the Christian life is used at least as many times as
any other picture in the Bible. So we’re going to turn,
first of all to the epistle of Jude,
verse 20 and 21. Which is a word of exhortation
to us as believers. But you, beloved, building yourselves up
on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves
in the love of God. So there the Scripture says
we must build ourselves up in our most holy faith. That’s one of the ways in which
this metaphor of building applies. We are responsible
to build ourselves up. And then in
Ephesians chapter 2, verses 21 and 22, It speaks about
a holy temple in the Lord: in whom you also are
being built together for a habitation [or a dwelling place]
of God in the Spirit. So that speaks about the
collective Christian community that we are to be built together in the Holy Spirit as a place for God to dwell in. And then in 1 Peter
chapter 2, verses 4 and 5, speaking about Jesus as
a living stone, Peter says this: Coming to him, Jesus,
as to a living stone rejected indeed by men
but chosen by God and precious, you also as living stones
are being built up a spiritual house,
a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices
to God through Jesus Christ. So there we are compared,
each one of us, to living stones which are being built together into a holy temple which
the Lord is going to occupy. And then one final example
from Acts chapter 20, The farewell of Paul to the Ephesian elders whom
he loved with a special love. Because it was
in Ephesus that his ministry had had perhaps the
greatest impact of any place. And in this speech in Acts 20 he’s taking farewell
and he’s telling them they’ll never see
him again in this life. It was a very moving situation
for all of them. And this is really the final thing
that he wanted to leave with them. In verse 32 of Acts 20. And now, brethren,
I commend you to God and to the word of His grace
which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among
all those who are sanctified. So there Paul says the
main means that builds us up is the word of God’s grace:
The Bible. And he says it is able
to build us up and to give us an inheritance
among all those who are set apart for
Jesus Christ by faith in Him. Now, I’m not a builder
but I know one thing. In any permanent building,
whether it’s built of brick or stone or concrete
or even timber. The vital area is the foundation. And the Bible deals
specifically with this. And here is an issue of great
importance for every one of us. It’s having the right foundation. Because the foundation
sets limits to the building that
can be built above it both in size and in weight. The foundation sets the limits. And this is true
in the Christian life. You cannot build more
successful Christian life than your foundation will permit. This is the vital issue:
what is your foundation? Have you laid
the right foundation? Now, there is
only one foundation that is adequate and sufficient,
and it’s all-sufficient and it is a person. The person is:
Jesus Christ. And Paul, writing to the Corinthian
Christians, in 1 Corinthians, chapter 3, uses two metaphors. He uses the
agricultural metaphor but then he goes on
to the building metaphor. And he says in verse... nine: For we are God’s fellow workers,
[We’re working together with God.] you are God’s field,
[That’s the agricultural metaphor.] and you are God’s building.
[That’s the construction metaphor.] Then he goes on
with the building metaphor. According to the grace of God
which was given to me as a wise master builder,
[And in Greek that word is architect.] I have laid the foundation
and another builds on it. But let each one take heed
how he builds on it. For no other foundation
can anyone lay than that which is laid,
which is Jesus Christ. So, Paul says,
there’s only one foundation for the Christian life
and that is Jesus Himself. And anything that is
not built on that foundation will not stand the test
of time and of trial. So it’s very important
for every one of us to assess
what our life is built on. Are we truly built
on the Lord Jesus Christ? Do we have a
personal relationship and a personal
knowledge of Jesus that makes us able
to relate personally to Him? The question of
laying this foundation in Jesus is extremely important. And so I want to take some
time to deal with the issue of how we can have
this foundation; that is, the foundation
of Jesus in our lives. And I would invite each one of
you to examine your own life your spiritual condition
and your spiritual experience and to check as to
whether you are really right in your relationship
with the Foundation. I want to turn to
Matthew chapter 16 for some basic teaching. In verses 13 and following,
Jesus is talking to His disciples and he says: When Jesus came
into the region of Caesarea Philippi He asked His disciples, saying: Who do men say that I,
the Son of man, am? So they said, some say
John the Baptist, some Elijah and others Jeremiah
or one of the prophets. Then He makes it very personal. But He said to them:
But who do you say that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said:
You are the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God. That was a crucial moment
in the life of Peter and in the whole
history of Christianity. You are the Christ, the Messiah,
the Son of the living God. And Jesus responded, Blessed
are you, Simon Bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not
revealed this to you but my Father who is in heaven. And I say to you
that you are Peter, and on this rock
I will build my church and the gates of Hades
shall not prevail against it. So Jesus uses this encounter
with Peter to establish the way in which we can lay a
foundation in Jesus Christ Himself. First of all, I need to comment on
some of the words that are used. In verse 18 Peter says:
You are Peter [and the Greek is petros,] And on this rock
[the Greek is petra,] I will build my church. It has often been suggested that
Peter is the foundation of the church. I’d have to say if it were so
it would be a very wobbly building. Because a little later
Jesus rebuked him and said:
Get behind Me, Satan. Later still, he denied
the Lord three times. And even after the resurrection
Paul had to rebuke him for compromising with
the truth of the gospel for fear of his fellow Jews. So, I’m just grateful that the church
is not built on Peter nor am I. What actually emerges
from this passage which is very clear
in the Greek testament which is the original
version that we have. You are Peter
[Petros] and on this rock
[Petra] I will build my church. Now, petros in Greek means a stone or at the most a boulder.
Nothing bigger than that. Normally it would be the kind of
stone that people would take up to stone someone with. On the other hand,
petra means a jagged rock,
that extends from the bedrock. It’s often used of a cliff
or something on that scale. But the important thing to remember
is it is part of the bedrock. And what is the bedrock? It’s just what Peter
had been going through: The recognition of
Jesus for who He is revealed only by the Holy Spirit. No one can know Jesus,
who He really is, unless God the Father by the
Holy Spirit reveals Him to you. And so this is the petra it’s the bedrock on which our
Christian faith must be based. It’s a personal encounter and a personal
revelation of Jesus. Not as the carpenter’s son. Not as a historical figure. But as the eternal,
uncreated Son of God. That’s where we have to come if
we are going to build on that rock. The experience through
which Peter passed must be parallel
in our experience. And I’ve told people many times,
you can join a church, you can go through a religious
ceremony, you can say a prayer, and not be changed. But if you really encounter
Jesus you will be changed. No one encounters Jesus
and remains the same. So, each of us needs to ask: Have I ever had this life-changing
personal encounter... with the Lord Jesus Christ? I would like to suggest to you
four successive phases through which Peter passed
in this encounter. First of all, confrontation. Jesus and Peter
met face to face. There was no mediator, no priest,
no one in between them. It was a direct, personal
confrontation of Jesus. And that’s what we
have to come to. Jesus said in another place:
I am the Door By Me if any man enters in,
he will be saved. There’s only one way
into the kingdom of God. That is through the door. And the door is not a church
it’s not a doctrine, it’s Jesus,
I Am The Door. Secondly, the confrontation was
followed by revelation a revelation, granted by God
the Father through the Holy Spirit. Jesus said: Flesh and blood
has not shown you this. You cannot arrive at it
by your natural senses there has to be a revelation. Again, this is essential. No one can know Jesus as He truly is in His
eternal Sonship of God without a personal revelation. You can study theology,
you can go to a Bible college, you can even become a minister. But, without this personal
revelation of Jesus you cannot know Him. And this revelation comes
from God the Father through Jesus Christ the Son. Let me ask you, don’t respond, but have you had that personal
encounter with Jesus? I have. More than 50 years ago
in the middle of the night in an Army barrack room
in World War Two I encountered Jesus. I didn’t have any doctrinal
knowledge, I didn’t have any... evangelical language, I couldn’t
say I was saved or born again I learned all that later. But I want to tell you
I was changed radically and
permanently changed. I wasn’t made perfect, in fact, let me confess
to you I’m still not perfect but I was changed,
for the better. Then there has to be
an acknowledgment of what the
Holy Spirit shows us. We have to say:
Yes, I believe, I receive. We have to make
some kind of response. It’s not automatic. It requires something
happening in us. And fourthly, there has to be a
public confession of our faith in Jesus. That's what Jesus
brought Peter to, You are the Christ, the Messiah.
He made it public. People speak about
secret believers and I acknowledge there are secret
believers, especially in countries where to acknowledge yourself as
a believer would be to be put to death. But I don’t think that anybody can
permanently remain a secret believer. Let me read to you what
Jesus said in Matthew chapter 10, verses 32 and 33.
Matthew 10:32-33: Therefore, whoever
confesses me before men, him I will also confess before
my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me
before men, him I will also deny before
my Father who is in heaven. So Jesus in His
characteristic way doesn’t leave you three choices.
Only two. You either confess or you deny.
And if you fail to confess, in an appropriate situation,
you are in effect denying. So, each one of us,
at some point, has to come to the place where
we openly acknowledge our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And this
is a critical moment for many. I discovered in the army,
after I had become a believer, that the best thing to do
was to let everybody know the first moment you met them,
where you stand. Then you never have to
go back and say, Well, I didn’t really
tell you at first, but... So, I did something which
is not a religious act but every night in the barrack room,
wherever I was, I would kneel down
at my bed and pray. That just told them that’s the kind
of person you’re dealing with. And it was much easier. I saw other Christians
who waffled and didn’t come right out with saying what they believed
and it was much harder for them to go back afterwards
and make the right confession. So, I want to
recommend that to you. You don’t have to stand on
the street corner and preach. You don’t have to be a preacher. You can be a housewife,
you can be a student. But wherever you are
let people know, you believe in Jesus,
He’s the Son of God. So let me just recapitulate those four successive phases
of this encounter which is so basic,
because this is how we lay the foundation of
Jesus in our lives personally. First of all,
there was a confrontation. Second, there was a revelation granted by God the Father
through the Holy Spirit. Third, Peter responded
with an acknowledgment. And fourth,
he made a public confession. Now you might ask,
and people could ask: Is such a revelation
possible today? Is it possible for people
like you and me to know Jesus just as really
and just as personally as Peter did and
as the other disciples did? We need to see
two important things. First of all, Jesus was
not revealed to Peter as the son of the carpenter. He’d known Him that
way for quite a while. He was revealed to him
as the eternal Son of God. 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
who Jesus is. Secondly, the revelation was
granted through the Holy Spirit. And 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? And 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 verse 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. And 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. 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 50 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. So 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’ve made
the Word of God of no effect. But let’s not just look at the Jews because it’s true of many others
from 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. Now 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. And 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
it still is today. And I’m from a British
background, and 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. And 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. And the reaction was
one of horror in my family. I thought what is the reason
for this? Well, later on I realized this is a prejudice. And believe me, I’m looking at
a lot of different people from different racial backgrounds,
but very few of who 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’s with the Lord,
was Danish and 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,
a second time baptizer. 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. 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. And 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 never had been together with. And 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. And 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. And like Pat Boone I thought: Heaven isn’t worth seventy years
of misery on earth, so I... 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. And we have to identify
that rebel and deal with it. And 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 two thousand 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 just 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. And I’m not going into the context because it would take
quite a while to do so. But 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. Now 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. And that is the Scripture.
That means that which is written. And concerning that, Jesus made
one, simple, sweeping statement. The Scripture cannot be broken. And 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 authoritive. 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 is that 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 verse 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,
verse 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? Because 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. And 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 verse 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. Jesus answered and
said to him, in verse 23: If anyone loves me
he will keep my word, 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. But 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. And 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. And 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 have 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. And the reason is: they haven’t given the Word of God
its rightful place in their lives. So 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 His disciples. 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 will 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. And I want to pray, Lord,
for everybody gathered here and 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. For DPM UK visit:
www.dpmuk.org
