Love, the Righteous Requirement

Announcer:

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

Yesterday Derek Prince’s message on ‘Faith and Works’ presented the danger of deception in turning away from God’s grace to a religion of works. In today’s program he concludes this teaching by sharing with us the only righteous requirement of the law—love and it’s objectives in the Christian life. Listen for our address and this week’s special offer at the end of today’s broadcast.

Derek Prince:

“Cursed is the man who trusts in man, who makes flesh his arm.”

Let me illustrate this from a personal experience. Ruth and I decided to sell our house in Jerusalem and we went to the real estate dealers and they said, ‘It’s a beautiful house, you’ll sell it quickly, this is what it’s worth.’ For fourteen months it never sold. We couldn’t understand. But I was at a service in Christ Church, the church we attend in Jerusalem, and the rector there said, ‘I’ve got to pray with a man who needs deliverance from evil spirits.’ So I thought I better try and help him. I went along to this session and this man was a missionary from Africa who’d come under the curse, incidentally. He was nearly dying. We ministered and he was delivered from a number of evil spirits and then we began to deal with the whole of his attitude to life. I said to him, ‘You know, it seems to me you’re really trusting in yourself. You’re not really relying on the grace of God.’ I said, ‘As a matter of fact, I’ve had that problem.’ I never planned to say this, it just came out. ‘I’ve had that problem because in selling our house I’ve been trusting on what I could do, I’ve been relying on myself.’ Ruth with characteristic frankness said to me in front of all these people, ‘Then you’re under a curse.’ I said, ‘That’s right, I am.’ So I confessed it, repented of it and released myself from the curse. We left that meeting, drove back to the new apartment where we were living, and on the ground floor we met a real estate agent who said, ‘I would like to show your house to some customers I have.’ Within two weeks the house was sold. Do you understand? The moment I was free from the curse God could move on our behalf.

“I see some of you get the message. All right.”

Let’s go on, where we are. Let me just say a few general remarks about this subject and then I must come to the positive. I’ve said this already but I’ll repeat it, law works from without leaving us to our own ability. Grace works from within supplying supernatural ability. We can only do it by grace.

In Leviticus 11:44 and 1 Peter 1:16 we have the commandment ‘Be holy.’ This is a commandment from God. But if you read in Leviticus 11, it comes at the end of a very elaborate set of rules about what you may or may not eat. The implication is if you’re going to be holy you’ve got to keep all these rules. But in 1 Peter chapter 1:16 it’s not attached to any set of rules. The message is ‘Be holy.’ It’s a message from Jesus, ‘Let me live out my holiness in you.’ Totally different. No longer relying on our own efforts but relying on the grace of God and Jesus to do what we cannot do for ourselves. You have the choice.

Now we’ve just got a little while left to consider the positive side of this. I want to turn to Romans chapter 8:3–4 and just take note of what is said there. Romans 8:3 and 4:

“For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh . . .”

You notice, there’s nothing wrong with the law, it’s our weakness.

“What the law could not do God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh [on account of sin] He condemned sin in the flesh . . .”

Now, what’s the positive?

“. . . that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

That raises what the Americans would call ‘the thousand dollar question.’ What is the righteous requirement of the law? Have you ever given any consideration to that? I can answer you in one word of four letters, and it’s not a dirty word. It’s love. Love is the righteous requirement of the law and I’ll show you that very quickly through a number of Scriptures and then we have to close.

In Matthew chapter 22 Jesus was asked by a lawyer—you know what the legal mind is like—in verse 35:

“Then one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him and saying, ‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?’”

A specific question and Jesus gave an immediate, specific answer.

“Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”

What’s the key word? Love. Love for God, love for our neighbor.

And then Jesus commented, ‘On these two commandments hang the law and the prophets.’ Now, if I were getting hot, which I am, and I wanted to take my jacket off and hang it up I’d need a peg to hang it on. And the peg would have to be there before I could hang my jacket on it. These commandments are the peg on which the whole law and the prophets are hung. In other words, when you’ve read all the law and the prophets, what it’s saying is love God, love your neighbor. That is the righteous requirement of the law.

And then in Romans 13:8 and following Paul says:

“Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. I believe in being out of debt but there’s one debt I can never get out of, what’s that? To love my fellow”

“Christians, to love my fellow human beings. I owe that, I’m continually in debt, I cannot get out of that debt. Paul goes on: For the commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet,’ and if there’s any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no harm to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”

That’s very clear, isn’t it?

And then in Galatians 5:14. It’s marvelous how Romans and Galatians kind of hang together. Galatians 5:14:

“For all the law is fulfilled in one word . . .
All the law is fulfilled in one word.
For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And then a little further back in Galatians 5:6 it says:
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything but faith working through love.
How does faith work? Tell me. Through love.
All right. In James’ epistle it says:
Faith without works is dead.”

And faith works by love so you come to this equation: Faith without love is dead. That’s a shocking statement but it’s true. You can have all the faith that you claim but if there’s no love in your life it’s a dead faith.

And then we read in 1 Timothy chapter 1:5: I could quote it but I want to read it:

“Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience and from sincere faith, from which some having strayed have turned aside to idle talk.”

The New American Standard Bible says ‘the goal of our instruction is love.’ When I read that I said to myself is that really the goal of my instruction? Am I really aiming to produce loving people? I’ve thought of some of the people that have sat under my ministry and I wasn’t so sure because I am essentially a teacher and a teacher imparts knowledge. Do you know what knowledge does? It puffs up, it makes people proud. I’ve learned to try by all the means in my power to teach without producing proud people. But I have to look back at some of the people I’ve produced and say, ‘Well, I didn’t do a very good job.’ The goal of our instruction is love.

“And then Paul says if you stray from that goal all you’re doing is idle talk.”

Let’s just for a moment contemplate the church as we know it. How much idle talk goes on in church? How much preaching and teaching and activity that does not produce love? It’s all wasted effort. It’s all totally ineffective. Brothers and sisters, if you are in any kind of ministry, I want to challenge you, analyze your motives. What are you aiming to produce? And secondly, if you’re aiming to produce love, are you producing it? And if you’re not aiming to produce love all your talk is just empty words. That’s a far reaching statement, isn’t it?

You see, law motivates us through fear but Jesus motivates us through love. He says, ‘If you love me you will keep my commandments.’ Fear doesn’t produce the results. There are many religions that motivate people by fear and they produce the most terrible results, including some professing forms of Christianity.

Then I want to say, and we’re coming to the end, the obedience of love is progressive. You’re not perfect in love, okay. Join me, I’m not perfect in love. But that does not mean I’m not accounted righteous because until we achieve the goal our faith is accounted to us for righteousness. Can you receive that? As long as you continue believing, your faith is counted to you for righteousness. This is wonderfully exemplified by the words of Jesus to Peter at the Last Supper. He said, ‘Peter, you’re going to deny me three times.’ Peter said, ‘Not I, never.’ And then Jesus said, ‘But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.’ What’s the really important thing? That our faith will not fail. We may make a lot of mistakes, we may even commit sins. We haven’t arrived, we’re not perfect. But as long as we continue believing, our faith is accounted to us for righteousness until we arrive.

And let me close with one scripture from James, which I love. I don’t have time to comment on it but just let me give it to you. James chapter 1:25:

“But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the Word, this one will be blessed in what he does.”

What is the perfect law of liberty in one word? Love, that’s right. You see, if you really love, really love, you’re the only totally free person because you can always do what you want. You can always love people. They may snub you, they may persecute you, they may even try to kill you. But they cannot stop you loving them. The person whose motivation is love is the only totally free person in the world. Amen? Amen.

Announcer:

Today Derek Prince concluded his teaching on the theme of ‘Faith and Works,’ by sharing on the perfect law of liberty—love. Next week Derek will continue his series LAYING THE FOUNDATION by introducing the topic ‘Immersion in Water,’ the doctrine of Christian baptism.

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 to us today and include a contribution of $5.00 or more for the 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.

This radio ministry is supported by your prayers and financial contributions. Remember that contributions in excess of the value of the material are tax deductible and we rely on them to keep this ministry on the air.