Derek Prince - These Kinds Of Christians Are Often Very Unloving
This is an excerpt from: The Cross In My Life - Part 1
And what results, as I understand it, is what I call the soulish is substituted for the spiritual. Man is spirit, soul and body. The soul has its legitimate functions but it cannot take the place of the spirit. But when people move away from the supernatural and begin to rely on their own ability and efforts, they move out of the spiritual, and into the soulish. And I'll give you just a list of different ways that this manifests itself in the church. And these are just examples, I'm not making a law out of them, I'm just giving you some examples. What I'm saying is a religious substitute takes the place of the spiritual reality. Here's a list of seven substitutions. As I go through them, just check and see. First of all, theology takes the place of revelation. Theology is man's reasoning, it's making rules, inferences; but it's not direct revelation. Education takes the place of character building. I think you should notice that Jesus never just talked to people. They had to follow Him.
In other words, it wasn't just intellectual knowledge but it was a lifestyle that was imparted. It's very, very dangerous to train people intellectually and not deal with their character. Because the scripture says the carnal mind is enmity against God. So, when you educate the carnal mind you're educating an enemy of God. What you get at the end is an educated enemy of God. I would suggest to you the majority of seminaries today are producing educated enemies of God. I'm not trying to be dramatic, I just believe that's the way it is. In a certain sense, the main enemies of the gospel are the products of the seminaries. Thirdly, psychology is substituted, for discernment which is supernatural. Fourth, program is substituted for supernatural direction, the leading of the Holy Spirit. Fifth, eloquence is substituted for supernatural power. Sixth, reasoning is substituted for the walk of faith. And seventh, laws take the place of love. I'll say that very quickly again.
And as I do it, I just want you to think how much of it is relevant to your situation. Theology in place of revelation, education in place of character building, psychology in place of discernment, program in place of supernatural leading of the Holy Spirit, eloquence in place of supernatural power, reasoning in place of the walk of faith and, laws in place of love. Let me ask you a question. If you happen to know any Christians you would categorize as legalistic if you happen to know them. Would you say they're very loving? Somebody came out with the right answer! See, laws and love in the Christian life tend to compete with one another. The people who are busy keeping an enforcing laws are often remarkably unloving people. If you want the standard Biblical illustration, it's the Pharisees.
Have you noticed how many miracles of Jesus they objected to? Blind eyes were opened, lame people walked. They never once expressed satisfaction at that, all they objected to was He was breaking their rules of the Sabbath. You'd thought even a Pharisee with a heart of stone would be glad when somebody who was born blind had his eyes open. Not so. They don't keep the Sabbath. He doesn't keep the Sabbath. Now, the important thing about Galatians is that not only does it reveals the problem, it reveals God's solution. To me this is a wonderful example of the inspiration of scripture because Paul didn't write a theological treatise, he sat down probably in some very difficult situation and dashed off a letter because he was deeply concerned about the Galatians.
The comical thing about the Galatians, they're problem, as I've said, was legalism. Paul wrote letters to other churches and almost invariably he begins by thanking God for the churches he was writing to. He wrote to the Corinthians. There was incest, adultery drunkenness at the Lord's table and he still thanked God, for the grace of God given to them. But when he comes to the Galatians, he is so upset that he doesn't thank God for them, he simply says, 'I marvel that you have so soon moved away from the grace of God.' Legalism disturbed him much more than open sin. It's a much subtler and more dangerous problem. Let's look at the remedies. This is why I've entitled this message 'The Cross in Me.' I want to make this very personal to everybody here.
You see, it's one thing to get excited about what God has done for you on the cross, it's quite different to embrace what the cross is intended to do in you. I have to say in the circles in which I move at present there's very little mentioned of what the cross is intended to do in us. I would say, in my opinion, 90% of the church's problems are due to that one fact. You see, in the long run you will not enjoy the benefits of what the cross has done for you unless you accept what the cross is intended to do in you. The cross in you is the safeguard of all the blessings and provisions of the cross for you.