Doctrinal Foundation Steps

Announcer:

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

This week Derek Prince will continue his series ‘Laying the Foundation.’ He begins today with the topic ‘Through Repentance to Faith’ which takes us from repentance which originates with God, to faith which comes only through the word of God and is the only basis for righteous living. Let’s listen again as Derek shares and be sure to stay tuned at the end of today’s message for our address and this week’s special offer.

Derek Prince:

Now we’re going to turn to the third session of ‘Laying the Foundation,’ and the title of this message is ‘Through Repentance to Faith.’ I want to say right at the beginning there is no other way to faith except through repentance. Any other way that claims to get you there is a deception. True faith is impossible without repentance.

Let me go back now and remind you briefly of what we have been studying together. First of all, the foundation of the Christian faith, the personal foundation, is Jesus Christ. And everyone who is to be a true Christian has to build his or her life on that foundation. I suggested to you that the confrontation between Jesus and Peter, when Peter declared, ‘You are the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God,’ is a pattern of what needs to happen in each one of our lives in its own particular way. I said there were four elements in that encounter.

Number one, confrontation. Jesus and Peter stood face to face, there was no mediator, no priest, no

third person in between them.

Second, there was a revelation given by the Spirit of God of the eternal identity of Jesus—not the carpenter’s son but the Son of the living God.

“Thirdly, Peter received and acknowledged that revelation. He didn’t refuse it, he embraced it. And fourthly, he made a public confession of his faith.”

And those, I believe, are the elements that must be at the basis of every really successful Christian life. Confrontation, revelation, acknowledgment and confession.

And then we looked at the very important practical question, once you’ve laid this foundation, how do you build on it? And from the parable of the wise and the foolish man, which Jesus told, we saw that building on this foundation, first of all, consists in acknowledging the Bible as the written Word of God and Jesus as the living Word, and hearing and doing what Jesus said. So, building on the foundation is hearing and doing what Jesus said.

Then we looked at the authority and the power of God’s Word. I pointed out that the word authority comes from the word author. So, the authority of any book depends on the author. The authority of the Bible depends on the author and the author is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, God Himself. So the authority of God is in the Bible.

And then I pointed out that there we have the Word in two forms: the written word and the personal word. Jesus, the Word of God made flesh. And I tied this in with your personal relationship to the Bible. I said, and I’ll say it again, you do not love God more than you love His Word. You do not obey God more than you obey His Word. If you want to find out what place God has in your life, find out what place the Bible has because they are the same. The Bible is the written Word, Jesus is the personal Word. Through the written Word the personal Word comes into our lives.

Now I want to go on today by discussing the doctrinal foundation. We’ve looked at the personal foundation which is Jesus Christ. But the New Testament also reveals that there is a doctrinal foundation. This is a revelation which has escaped the notice of millions of Christians but it is very clearly stated in Hebrews chapter 6:1–3. We’ll turn there now. Hebrews 6:1–3, which says:

“Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles [or the basic truths] of Christ, let us go on to perfection [completion or maturity], not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits.”

Now there are two thoughts there which you have to combine. First of all, it’s essential to lay the foundation. If you’ve never laid the foundation you can never do the building. But once you have really laid the foundation then don’t keep re-laying the foundation but go on to a complete building. Those are the two combined thoughts. But you’ll see in Hebrews 6:1 it says the foundation. This is the doctrinal foundation of the Christian faith and it lists six doctrines which I will go through again.

“Number one, repentance from dead works.
Number two, faith toward God.
Number three, the doctrine of baptisms, plural.
Number four, the laying on of hands.
Number five, resurrection of the dead.
And number six, eternal judgment.”

And if you follow that through you’ll see it takes us from the very starting point of the Christian faith to its ultimate fulfillment in eternity. It’s very important to see that the Christian faith does not terminate in time, it does not terminate in this life or this world. It takes us beyond this world, beyond time into eternity. I fear that many, many Christians today hardly have any vision of eternity. They act and think as if everything that matters is going to happen in time. And actually, Paul says if we only in this life have faith in Christ we are of all men the most miserable, the most to be pitied. If you do not have a vision that takes you beyond time and into eternity, your condition is pitiable and you will suffer very many disappointments because time is not the fulfillment. The fulfillment comes in eternity.

And so, these six doctrines take us from the starting point, which is repentance, right through the resurrection and judgment.

Now I want to begin to speak about the first foundation doctrine; that is, repentance from dead works. But I want to point out to you something first of all, a very remarkable thing, in verse 3 of Hebrews 6, the writer says:

“This we will do if God permits.”

We will go on to completion and fulfillment if God permits. Now you might ask, ‘Why would God not permit? Surely He wants us all to go on.’ I’ll answer you from a little, simple example from building. In any major city of the civilized world today, in order to build a building you have to have a plan, you have to get a permit from the authorities and they have to approve your plan. Then they will come and inspect your building stage by stage as you go through with it. The first thing they’ll really inspect is the foundation, because they know that if the foundation is not secure the building will not be secure. And if your foundation isn’t solid they will not issue a permit to continue the building.

And God deals with you and me exactly the same way. He says, ‘I need to inspect your foundation. If it isn’t laid according to my requirements I’m not going to give you a permit to go on.’ You can just go on forever in this elementary stage of the Christian faith never maturing, never coming to completion, never coming to fulfillment because you haven’t laid the right foundation. So you see how absolutely essential it is that we master these six doctrines which are the foundation of the Christian faith.

And we’re going to look now at the first one, repentance from dead works. First of all, what are dead works? Most of the modern translations say works or deeds which lead to death. I don’t believe that’s correct. I believe dead works are anything we do when it’s not done in faith to God. Anything not done in faith is a dead work. The only thing that brings life into our activity is faith. So, you may have been a very good churchgoer, you may have given money to the poor, you may have said prayers, but if it wasn’t done in faith, it was all dead works. We have to turn away from everything not done in faith. Faith alone gives life to what we believe and what we do.

That doesn’t mean that you’ve necessarily been living a sinful life but you just haven’t been alive to God because faith hasn’t come into your heart and brought the life of God.

Now, it’s very important that we understand what repentance is. Repentance is not an emotion. I’ve seen many times preachers will seek to work people up into an emotional attitude and then call them to faith in Christ. And very, very often that leads to a let down because the emotion runs out and they’re left with nothing. So bear in mind repentance as defined in the Bible is not an emotion, it is a decision. It doesn’t spring from the emotions, it springs from the will. If we can reach people’s will and turn their will, we will see permanent conversions. Many of the so-called conversions in the church today are impermanent because they have never really changed the will of the person. They’ve had an emotional experience, they got excited, maybe they felt wonderful for a few weeks, or months or even years. But, in the end they don’t have what it takes to go through because their will has not been touched.

Announcer:

Join us again tomorrow as Derek Prince continues his teaching ‘From Repentance To Faith,’ by sharing what it means to repent through the example of the prodigal son. Many sincere Christians are struggling because they have never understood the true meaning of repentance.

This week’s message is available on audiocassette No. RC4162, and also on video. Our special offer this week is Derek Prince’s book, Faith to Live By which explains what faith is and how to make it grow stronger. To receive your copy of ‘Through Repentance to Faith’ write today and include a contribution of $5 or more for the audio cassette RC4162 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 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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