Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Evidence of Eternal Life Pt.1

Remember to continue to pray for the outreach in Africa. Things are going well. Nothing monumental has taken place lately; they're just grinding out the gospel. The church is continuing to grow. I think in our last report, we had, with children and adults, right around ninety or so. Can you say, "Praise God" for that? In Nairobi, things are going along well. We've had another defection there. John has bailed out and gone the way of all Kenyans. We've found very few that are less than--I should say "more than"--con men. It's a very difficult thing. Therefore, we encourage you to continue to pray.

It's a nation, if you can imagine, that's living under the same spirit as was evidenced in the day of Constantine. It's truly, far more than America, a Christian nation, but they're not saved. It's a religious nation professing Christendom without regeneration. It's very interesting how their traditions have become the strongholds that dictate their lives and their perverted view of Scripture. We're warring against principalities and powers, so pray for the guys for continual discernment, and that they would remain faithful. It's very, very discouraging to try to pour your life into people that say they're with you, and who then, at the slightest thing, desert you. Hold up the guys' hands and rejoice in those that are being reached. You'll find that this is primarily in the leadership, as it always is. These put themselves up as leaders and teachers, but are not willing to live the life that's commensurate. It's very important to understand what is taking place there.

Good things are happening, praise God! Kakamega is going well. Pastor Charles is just doing a great job there. He is just so appreciative of your prayer and the support that's going on, so continue to lift up those hands. We're constantly running into people that are interested in the message that's going forth. Patrick, the brother, the CIA guy from way, way back, he's still there. He was the first member of the church in Nairobi. He is just doing a great job. He spent his vacation full time, working on the streets with us there. That's how he spent his vacation, excited about what God is doing. He's praying about wanting to go full time. The guys are interested in that. I just encouraged them to slow down a little bit in that area. Let God deal with his heart. There are things that you might help pray about there with his family. I don't think his wife is as gung-ho about him jumping in as he is. To give you an idea of where he is, he's probably making the equivalent, if he were here in America, of one hundred thousand dollars or one hundred fifty thousand dollars a year. He would be taking a cut to about twelve thousand dollars a year, so you all know how anxious you'd be to jump into that. He's ready to go. Mama's not real fast on this. So it's one of those "throw mama from the train"--a kiss--situations, as you go and do Father's will. Those are some of the things that are taking place. Be prayerful, and we'll believe for God's will to be done.

Let's turn to John 15, and then also, if you would, to 1 John. We're going to start on another subject. We're going to talk about the evidence of eternal life. I want to talk about this in light of the age that we're living in, to examine our own hearts as to whether we will be standing in this warfare that's raging around us, to make sure that our foundations are sure. The fact of the matter is, if you are born again there will be evidence of it. There will be signs that do follow the believer. We're not talking about the miraculous alone, the supernatural expression of the indwelling presence of God. That's part of it, but that's not the primary evidence that the Spirit of God lives within us. The Bible is full of our understanding of what these evidences are. Very clearly, we understand that it's a love for God, the keeping of His commandments, and a love for the brethren--in a nutshell; loving others better than you love yourself.

We can really misunderstand that as we go on into this study, so we're going to spend a little bit of time explaining that. All of us have our selfish tendencies. We seem to think that our tendencies, or our emotional responses to something that may even be selfish, indicate a lack of love. "Where is that love for the brethren? Where is that willingness, that desire, that excitement about laying my life down?" It won't always be there. Sometimes it is. Sometimes you feel like it, and sometimes you don't. The issue is, what do you do? Do you still obey? Do you still serve? Do you still humble yourself? Do you still prefer others? Do you still prefer the kingdom even when you don't feel like it? That begins to be the true evidence of whether or not regeneration has occurred in your life, whether there is a new man dominating your activities. We're going to use that as the basic principle that we're going to work off of.

We're going to go a lot of other ways. I'm going to talk, as we go on into the subject, about what true repentance is. We want to talk about this as we go into this subject: what true humility is, and service in the kingdom of God. As you study the Scriptures out, one of the most important parables that you and I need to understand is the parable of the sheep and the goats. How many of you don't want to be a goat? That's not a very tough parable, and yet it's one of the most crucial in all of the Scriptures as it pertains to you and me. That's the final separation of who embraces eternal life, and who experiences damnation. Jesus summarizes the whole thing in that parable by saying, "Let me tell you how this works. The sheep that are going to enter in are those that represented Me through obedience to serve others: to give Me drink, to give Me food, to give Me shelter, and to visit Me in My times of adversity." "Lord, when did we do that?" "When you did it unto the least of these, you did it to Me," Jesus said.

We understand, then, that what the Spirit of God is looking for is lives totally poured out to the kingdom, of serving and representing His desire to reconcile men to Himself. If you're not careful, you'll read that parable and get into a social gospel. Jesus was not talking about a social gospel. He was talking about representing the kingdom to the needy, of bringing the gospel (the good news of the fact that Satan has beat you down into that position, and God has freely made provision to reconcile you back to Himself as sons, so that you could rule and reign with Him). We're going to spend a little bit of time on that parable. There's a lot of ground to cover. We can go so many different ways, and I believe the Holy Spirit is going to emphasize to us the things that we're needing here as a fellowship.

One of the things we're also going to be talking about is--we said there is evidence of eternal life, and we're going to see what that is--that in that evidence of eternal life, there needs to an understanding of what it means to observe fruit in the lives of ourselves and those that are around us. We've talked a lot in the past about righteous judgment, and how it's so necessary in the body of Christ--how we need reproof and instruction into righteousness, and we need iron that sharpens iron--and we need to be observing whether or not there is fruit in the lives of those that are around us. If there isn't, then, the one thing that's obvious in the Scriptures, that we're going to see in John 15 here in just a moment, is that God chooses to use the body of Christ as part of His pruning process to either bring forth more fruit, or to see to it that branches are cast aside. The keys of the kingdom and the authority of Matthew 18 have been given to the church. As we come into the last days, we understand that a little leaven does what? It leavens the whole lump. When we look at the evidence of eternal life, we have to make sure that eternal life is what is permeating this place--our fellowship, our lives--and to guard ourselves against the wolves, the leaven, and the fruitlessness that's contagious in a body of believers. God makes very clear to us how to respond to each one of these situations. That's a little bit of where we're going to go. We'll probably be more than two services, I think, on this one.

Let's go to 1 John, pick it up, and read a couple of passages that are classics. As we're going through this, the motivation for this is to prepare us for these last days, so that we're not deceived into thinking that we're going to stand when in fact, we're building on the sand. You see, there are a lot of people busy in our nation today, busy building, but they're building on sand. Beautiful edifices, whether we want to talk about ministries as a whole or individual lives, things look great. The family looks great, and we're focusing on it. Everybody is sitting there, focusing on that family, and we're all happy--we're just not saved. There's no foundation; and when the wind comes, and the rains begin to beat down all of that beautiful image, how great is the fall of it. So the real issue, as we're talking about eternal life, is, what are you building on? This whole thing has to start with the proper foundation: the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, the Scripture says, and Jesus is the Chief Cornerstone. It's obvious, then, that the foundation is men and women of God who live the gospel, who live the Word of God. The foundation that we build upon is those who were doers of the Word, not hearers of the Word. We want to talk about these aspects a little bit.

In 1 John, chapter 5, we find a couple of the foundational Scriptures that we're going to be using. Chapter 5 of 1 John, verse 1: "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God." We need to understand what that means, "born of God."

Did any of you get a chance to watch all of the programming during Passion Week, Holy Week, this week? It's really neat. The good thing is that they play these over and over. It's cool. By the time you get home and settle in at one or two o'clock in the morning, you can turn on like Discovery or The Learning Channel and some of these and catch what's been going on. I watched A&E, Biography, Discovery, and there was one other. They had just series after series of documentaries on the Holy Land and the life of Jesus. I was amazed at how much time and effort had been spent in all of the historical investigation, all of the archeological work that had been done, and the hours and hours and hours. It was phenomenal. Every one of them was making statements like this: "There is no doubt in the evidence for the historical Jesus." Isn't that interesting? "There's no doubt." The "evidence," this is not a myth, they're saying. Now, to you and me this isn't big news. "This is not a myth. There was a man who lived two thousand years ago. It is irrefutable. This man, Jesus Christ, who had these followers, it is real that He lived." They recreated the environment He lived in.

One of them reproduced the face of Jesus with computerization. Did any of you see that? Then they came on and said, "Now, this is probably not the exact image of Jesus, but we wanted to show you by probability." What they did was, with the computers they took images of Jewish people for as far back as they could go, to get true images of those in Palestine. They did all of these mathematical calculations, put it all together, and made this face of a Jew. They said, "This is the typical Jew." They were basically trying to say that He didn't have blond hair and blue eyes. They showed this Jew. It's obvious this guy was just a common, rugged looking, plain-as-a-mud-fence Jew. You know what? There's a very good chance that He may have looked like that. Who knows? They said, "He probably looked more like this than He does this picture." They showed the long, flowing hair and the blue eyes. Granted.

To make a long story short, through these hours of documentaries, all of the scholarship that was put into them, and all of the academic effort, they were convinced in the historical Jesus--but they didn't even come close to the Jesus of the Bible. In one of them, they took a whole hour to prove that Judas was not a traitor. They gave all kinds of evidence for it, to support the fact that he was actually helping Jesus in His political campaign. That's all they saw Jesus as: a politician, a zealot. They totally disregarded all of the scriptural passages that indicate that he was, in fact, a defector, a traitor, the son of perdition who was lost to the devil, as it was prophesied.

The world believes in the historical Jesus. "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God." It's not the historical Jesus. It's the biblical Jesus, who was born of a virgin, the incarnation. His name is Emmanuel, "God with us." "The Word [God] was made flesh, and dwelt among us," the Scripture says. "Believing in Jesus," "believing that He is the Christ," which causes you and I to be born again, is believing, then, that Jesus was God manifested in the flesh. It's believing He was the Messiah, the promised redeemer of humanity; not to reconcile the nation, Israel, but to reconcile humanity back to Himself for the purposes of God, not the purposes of man. To "believe that Jesus is the Christ" mandates absolute, total submission and obedience to His lordship, because what we're saying here is that Jesus is God.

"Whosoever believeth that...and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him" (1 John 5:1). In other words, what it's saying is that if we believe that Jesus is the Christ, and we love Him, and we're thankful for His invasion into our lives--that He's redeemed us by His blood and reconciled us back to Himself by grace through faith. If we freely accept that love that God has for us, he says there has to be, in the life (and this is one of the first evidences that we're going to talk about) that has encountered God--freely received salvation, freely received being loved though we are unlovely--this man is obligated to do what? To love others. The evidence that we have been born again is the fact that we love the unlovely; we love those who are not loving us.

It begins to reveal in us the work of regeneration that makes us so discernibly different from natural man, who is absolutely selfish. "Everything is about me!" It doesn't take long to look around and hear those who are naming the name of Jesus, say they're Christians, say that they believe in the Christ, but their jobs are more important than faithfulness to the house of God. They can play, but they can't pray. Their goals are the treasures of this world and not those that are above. They seek the things that are temporal and not the things that are eternal at the right hand of God.

We look and we say "It's obvious," but then we check ourselves. We say, "I don't want to judge this person. They're saying that they believe in Jesus." Jesus Himself says there's going to be a whole generation that says, "Lord, Lord, we believed in You. We did these things." He's going to say, "I never knew you. I never approved of you." He's not going to say, "You were a part of Me and left," but "You were never a part of Me, and I never recognized you."

We are going to have to, as we go into this study, see how discerning we need to be to represent Him properly: when to bring about judgment and justice, when to be concerned about our own lives and the condition that we see ourselves in when brothers and sisters come and reprove us, to use the wisdom of God and make sure that we follow the kingdom mandates of not pulling tares up with wheat. You want to know something? Tares and wheat are almost indiscernible; it's not an obvious contrast to the work of regeneration in the life of an individual. All they're doing is mimicking God through words, or Christianity through words, or a profession of faith through words. It's to the place where everything looks so right, and I can't really discern the difference. You say, "Well if it looks so good, why would you even be concerned?" Because the Spirit can bear witness. You leave it alone; but not the blatant, obvious, fruitless, hypocritical expressions that are made in the name of Jesus.

We don't have quite as much of that here in our midst, but we run into a lot of it in the work place, don't we? People that are saying they're believers and living like the devil. What do you do? "Who am I? I don't necessarily want to get messed up out there and start confronting people. It causes stress on the job and whatever else." Well, too bad! We're going to see in this study that is part of what you and I have been called to do, to bring about assurance and evidence in the lives of others that they have eternal life abiding in them. That's where we get uncomfortable in representing the kingdom, truly laying down our lives, and loving one another. What he's saying is, "Here's how you know you've been born of God, when you love Him that regenerated you, and you love those whom He has begotten that you may not even have a close relationship with."

"By this we know that we love the children of God...." How do I know when I love my brothers and sisters? "...when we love God, and keep his commandments." The proper love for the brethren is when we represent God's love to them and not humanistic love; when we bring to them truth, the revelation of light. How do we treat them? We don't treat them like candy; we treat them like salt. I'm talking about us. We all want to be sweet, ooey-gooey, loving, kind, and all of these different things, and we don't understand what love and kindness really is. You can't love anybody more then being salt to them: preserving them, flavoring their life with God's righteousness. We are the light of the world. We don't respond to one another by encouraging them in their folly. We bring them the revelation of the truth of God's Word.

Look what he goes on to say. "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments" (verse 3). That's the love of God. There is no greater expression of your love for God than that you keep His commandments; and there is no greater expression of love to the brothers and sisters but that you require them to keep His commandments--at all times, in every situation. "It is written...."

Look at the clincher here. Look what the next phrase is: "and his commandments are not grievous." If you're born again, it's not grievous. I'm not talking about the fact that you don't have to many times think, "This is tough. I wish I didn't have to do this. Nevertheless, not my will, Your will be done. " I do it and I don't go on and on. When it's grievous, you go on complaining, moping around, and trying to justify why you're now wanting to move away from that which you've committed to. "Grievous," it begins to make you heartsick that you're doing the will of God. His commandments are joy to us and strength. We find them, we eat them, and they become the joy and the rejoicing of our heart. His Word, His commandments, is truth. They're holy and just, and we delight in them.

Let me ask you this. Is reading the Word of God grievous to you? Do you have to do it, or do you realize the gift that this is to us, that you can open this and have an encounter with the living God? Do you realize that God Himself has chosen to speak to you every time you open this book, and that it becomes the mirror that changes your life? It becomes the water that washes you from all of your vile filthiness that you get in the world on a daily basis. It is a lamp to your feet that keeps you from stumbling. Do you want some evidence of eternal life? You'll love the Word of God, and His commandments will not be grievous to you. You'll look for every way possible to learn more of what God wants you to do. "What more can I do to keep the Word of God?" We begin to look at the evidences in our life, and we begin to examine our own hearts. "How do I respond to the commandments of God, to the will of God?"

Verse 4 goes on, "For whatsoever is born of God [Say the next three words with me.] overcometh the world." What is in the "world"? The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. If you're born of God, it'll be evidenced by the fact that you do what? Say it with me. "Overcome the world." It didn't say you wouldn't have an opportunity to get off into excess in the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. What it says here is that the man that is born of God does what? "Overcomes the world."

Let me ask you something. Does the world have the same hold on you as it has always had? How long have you been saved, yet the world has the same hold on you that it's always had? I'm not talking about the same "appeal." I'm talking about the same "power." The appeal will never go away. It's in every one of our members. "I've just been praying to God to take the appetite away." The appetite isn't going. Don't eat! Choose not to eat. Stay home. Don't go to the restaurant. Don't go to the corner, you fool, who's going to be stricken through with a dart in your liver. "Well, I've got this appetite!" Don't feed it. Don't give it opportunity. "Give no place to the devil." "Flee youthful lusts." The point we're making here is that the man that's born again really understands who he is. Many of us here are under the delusion that somehow we're a little better then we used to be, because we've professed in Jesus Christ and have had a sporadic, victorious life. The key is to understand the absolute dependency on the presence of the Holy Spirit and the lordship of Jesus in every area of our lives, that without Him we can do nothing. The man who's regenerated understands, "Without His lordship, I will constantly, continually be overcome by the sin that's in my members, and by the power of the world's system." "For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith [our reliance upon the presence of God in our lives]" (verse 4).

We're talking about evidences of eternal life. The evidence is: the world no longer has power over you. When we talk about "the world," we're not going to just talk about the appeal of the natural things. Do you know what a lot of us think of when we think of "the world"? What would be synonymous with the world? "The mall." Okay, the mall is, I think, a microcosm. I was over there again today. We went over to mall. We took a few minutes, and went over to the mall. Today is Elyssa's birthday. Janet and I took her over to the eatery and got her a little cake with her candles. Hailey and Hope were there, and we were having a big celebration. I told them, "When we go, here's how we're going to do it. First, we're going to eat." You know how little kids are. They can miss out on eating when there are other exciting things going on. I said, "We'll eat, then we'll take them to the playground, and then we'll woo them from the playground with ice cream. Then we'll go home."

We went to the mall, and there we were in the mall. You get to see all the little kids. I love going to the playground, because it's just a study on flesh. You get to see all these little kids, and they're all selfish and doing these different things. They're playing, and you get to see all this. Then you get to see just what's going on. Somebody had a field trip there, and you've got all these Junior High kids running in there. You've got these totally brain-dead kids who are moving around, and you get to watch them and check out their behavior. You take the stroll down the "aisle of lust" as you walk down the corridor. The windows are full of things you don't need, all saying, "Buy me! It will make you happy! It will elevate your status in the eyes of others!" One of the things that I saw that had such an appeal to me, and I knew it would elevate my status as I looked in this window: there was this lava lamp. They're trying to sell those things we threw away, and people are buying them! They're buying those. Those things don't work without pot. They need to sell it right with the lamp. It just doesn't have the same effect.

We're talking about the world and all of that stuff that's out there, but let's not limit it to the lust of the eyes and all of these things, the materialism that we know is such an appeal to us in our society today and in our great affluence. The world's system; when we talk about "the world," we're really talking about the power of selfishness. That's the bottom line of everything that governs the world's system from the original sin of Eve: selfishness. It's the desire to exalt self above the lordship of Jesus, the broken order of the woman coming out from under the man, and obviously part of the curse where God said she would now be in a subservient role. She was in a role of equality, and she is now put into a subservient role because of that self-elevation, that selfishness. This begins to be the spirit that we're contending with.

I was listening to Focus On The Family the other day. I was riding down the road and listening. They were saying that one of the real problems today is the fact that our males are losing their masculinity in our society. They talked about the problem in the world today in the single parent home, and the epidemic conditions in the inner cities. They talked about inner city blacks: seventy percent are born out of wedlock, was the statistic that they gave. Seventy percent probably don't even know who their fathers are. There are no males in the home. Then you take this, and you put it along with the philosophy that's in the world today. You have the fact that within these homes are these matriarchal societies, and it's mixed with those who are the bleeding liberals--and the demonic spirit that governs that particular segment of our society. It is demonic; it's not natural. We come up with principles that talk about the fact that--and they were relating to this--we need to somehow take these males and subdue their aggressiveness. So, we shouldn't have contact sports in school, and there shouldn't be any of this aggressive behavior allowed. The fact of the matter is, that's one of the distinguishing factors between the masculine and the feminine. It had to do with God's purposes of preservation.

We all know it can be abused. We all know that it has to be controlled, but the world in their wisdom is wanting to bring about this unisex--the dissolving of the masculine--and that's how they're going to arrive at it. I've noticed in our society today--you'll see where we're going here--as I get out into society, that there's a double standard today. It never ceases to amaze me how many men today are just whipped. I've watched them in society and they're afraid. Men! The men are afraid of the women. The assertiveness of these women, expecting this double standard to be honored. There are times that I've noticed this, and I've look at some of the ways these women have responded to me when I let them know flat out that wasn't going to fly. It was interesting to see the response. You talk about "politically incorrect."

It is so offensive to me to encounter the spirit, which is antichrist, which is the absolute expression of a world moving in rebellion to God's order. It offends me. Does it offend you? How many of you are aware of it? How many of you have even noticed it? Have you encountered it? Are you being seduced? Do you understand? Are you seeing what's going on out there in the world? If you can embrace that, if you're not even offended by it, then what next, when that's one of the most dangerous expressions of broken order in our society today?

If you're not seeing it, just keep your eyes open. Begin to start looking around, and see what you're experiencing. It's evident from the subtlest TV commercials. Who's the bumbling idiot, always, on the TV commercials? Who is it? The man, the husband. He's the idiot. We've got commercials now where the mother has to tell the father when it's time to change the oil in the cars. Have any of you seen that commercial? Get out of here! I'm not doubting that has to happen in some homes. What I'm saying is, it shouldn't. Is that acceptable? Is that where we are today? Is the world seducing us to the place where we've lost sight of what a godly home is, what orderliness is in our homes, in society, in the church? Have we so lost order and discipline in our lives, that we're afraid to confront others in theirs because of the way we're living? That's what I'm talking about.

When he says, "For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world," he's talking about this spirit of the world that is broken order, the spirit of the world that is seducing the church with the cares, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust of other things, that are entering in and choking the Word of God out.

Ask yourself this question this evening. Somebody asked the other day, "How much is too much?" One of the deacons was asking about a situation that they were concerned about with different excesses of entertainment, and different areas along these lines. I won't say any more. I'm not interested in revealing any individuals. I just shared with him that you know when it's too much when things you used to do, that the Word of God dictated, you're not doing any more. It's not only easy, now, to forsake the assembling of yourselves together, but you're looking for other ways to do it. You're making excuses. You're generating opportunities. We can't pray, like we've just gone through in our study, because of all of the other obligations we have. "I've got school on this particular night. I've got [whatever it might be] hug your local tree. I've got my friends at work, and we're involved in this project."

What do you mean, "friends at work"? There are no such things as "friends" outside the body of Christ. You'd better watch how you use those terms, and what it means. Jesus said, "You are my friend if you love Me and keep My commandments." How can you have a friend that doesn't love Jesus and keep His commandments? I have no friends that don't love God and keep His commandments. I have business associates to whom I owe nothing but to do the job I was hired to do, and share the gospel with. That's the separateness that we begin to see when you've experienced eternal life. The world no longer has power. There's no gravitation towards these people. There's nothing in common. There's nothing they have that we desire. All we do is relate to them based upon the secular commitment that we've made and the opportunity to share the gospel. Any other enticement and any other involvement is evidence that you haven't been regenerated; that world is continually holding something up that you have an appetite for, that you long for, that you identify with. The "world" is a very interesting evidence of whether regeneration has occurred in our lives or not.

He goes on in this fifth chapter. Look over in verse 11. It says, "And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." We find out that the very evidence of eternal life in us is whether we're abiding in the Son. This is life eternal: it's whether or not we're in His Son. "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life" (verse 12). That's pretty simple, isn't it? "He that has the Son:" he that has the Son as Lord; he that has the Son as Counselor; he that has the Son as Friend; he that has the Son as the Pearl of Great Price; he that recognizes the Son as Lord God, Creator, Savior, and King; he that has the Son as the source of life, because, "It's no longer I that live, but Christ that liveth in me." It's all about Jesus.

We were down at the chemo thing the other day with Janet, and this lady was talking. I don't even remember how we got there. We were just sharing the fact that we're believing the Lord, that God's going to raise her up. Then the lady said something about, "Did you get out to church on Easter?" I said, "Yeah. Janet was feeling strong enough that she got out Sunday night." She said, "You went out on a Sunday night?" I said, "Yeah. We have church every Sunday night." She thought it was a special service. "Every Sunday night?" "Yeah, and every Wednesday night, and prayer Tuesday and Thursday." "Wow! That must be a big part of your life." I said, "No, it is our life." There is nothing else. That's not just for those of us that have been separated into the fivefold ministry. Your vocation is your ministry; we've shared that. You've been ordained of God, just like I have, to go and bear fruit, and your fruit should remain. You've been ordained. Your life is not your own. For you, to live is Christ. The fact that you work secular hours doesn't negate your ambassadorship.

So it's very important for us. As we're looking at this evidence in our life, it says, "And [God has given us] this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life" (verses 11-13). "I've written these things that you might know that you have eternal life." This whole epistle is so that you can know that you have eternal life. If you don't know whether you have eternal life or not, I'd encourage you to sit down and read this. This is the easiest epistle that there is to read, and probably the most profound. You can meditate on it until Jesus comes, and you'll never exhaust the truth or the life that'll come out of it. He said, "I've written these things that you might know...." The word for "know" there is oida in the Greek. It means "full comprehension." In other words, all that you need to know is revealed here. It will reveal to you the knowledge that you have eternal life abiding in you. It will enable you to believe on the name of the Son of God. Read this epistle; it'll enable you to believe on the Son of God. Read this epistle; it'll cause you know that you have eternal life abiding in you. It'll let you understand what it means to abide in the Son, and that His life is abiding in you. The one thing you'll find over and over and over and over again: God is light and in Him is no darkness at all, one of the major truths. "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments and they'll not be grievous unto you." This is how you know that you have love for God: that you love Him and keep His commandments. That's how you know that you love the brethren.

One of the great truths in all of this epistle is the understanding of the fact that "all unrighteousness is sin" (verse 17). In this epistle, you'll find this other great truth. "Whosoever is born of God sinneth not" (verse 18).

This is how you know you have eternal life abiding in you. "Whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness" (verse 18-19). This is a beautiful revelation here. Can I ask you something? Do you see yourself totally separate from the world? Do you understand how vile, how wicked, that these are God-haters, these are people who would love to destroy God? They hate righteousness. They hate light. They disguise it in many ways by pseudo-doctrines of morality and all these different things, but these are God haters, full of self-righteousness, deities unto themselves, lords of their own lives, and we need to see ourselves absolutely distinct. If you're born again, if you are regenerated, you'll understand there's nothing in this world's system of any worth. "He that committeth sin is of the devil" (1 John 3:8).

We begin to get that clarity here in this epistle. We're going to end with this for this evening, to give us just some things to chew on until Sunday. He that sins is of the devil. Is that pretty clear, or what? Okay? "Well, I believe in Jesus. It's just that I've lived so long this way, it's who I am." Yeah, you're a child of the devil; that's who you are. I don't care what words are coming out of your mouth. If you are not living victoriously and overcoming the world, you are of your father, the devil. If you are not living in righteousness, a doer, then you're of your father, the devil.

So many of us, because of our misapplication of mercy and grace--we talked about how we as a fellowship here, were overboard the other way, into works. We took a long time. We took years to try and bring us back to a balance, because of that "works" mentality, and to be able to absolutely rest in the finished work of Jesus Christ, and to understand entirely that our salvation is not by works. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. If we're thinking that there's a righteousness that comes by the law, then Jesus died in vain. How we need to know that the apprehension by faith, the apprehension of the grace and the mercy of God--and this is where we're going to go on Sunday--mandates fruit of obedience! It mandates it. If you have been born again, it will be evidenced by the obedience in your life to the commandments of God. We're going to talk about that a little on Sunday.

Which commandments are we talking about, the Decalogue, or the Levitical ordinances? The one thing we do know is that the law is good, holy, and just. We're not trying to keep the law; we're trying to abide in Jesus. I'm not worried about keeping the law. I'm not worried about the Ten Commandments. If I'm seeking to be conformed into the image of Jesus, if I'm seeking to love Him with all of my heart, and love others as He loves them, if I'm grieved by any expression of self-will and selfishness, then I'm on the right track. If my life is becoming more disciplined toward obedience on a daily basis, then I'm walking in the spirit, and I'm living in the peace of God, and I have the assurance of eternal life. If I'm spiritually minded, if everything in me is intent upon being more Christlike and fulfilling the will of God in my life, then I'm in life; but to be carnally minded is death. To be no different than the world, to think the way I've always thought, to be making no progress in deliverance from self, is death.

We had a little girl here just recently, one of our young people, one of our young adults. They just went from high school, and then bailed out. They're walking down the road now. Here are the words of this young person's mouth: "I just want to be in charge of my own life. I just don't want anybody telling me what to do. I want to do what I want to do. I want to make my own decisions. As it pertains to theology, I don't want anybody telling me what the Bible says." With all of her years of experience, study, expertise, and revelation, she's going to make her own decisions. She needs no counselors.

That's nothing to look at and say, "She's so...." That's the typical sinner. That's the typical natural man. There's nothing distinct about that. The one thing you do know is, that there's no eternal life abiding in you. Those of you who are still sitting here, you young people who are now under the law, and you haven't graduated yet--to where at eighteen you are free and can do everything in life that you want to do--and you're just waiting for that time, you're not born again. If you're not embracing the opportunity of the counselors that are here in you midst--your parents, your deacons, and the pastors that are here--if you're not going and soliciting from them advice and wisdom, then you're no different then the rest of the world. You're just an adolescent waiting for the opportunity to rebel, and the only reason you haven't is because we've kept you so confined.

Mom and Dad, what are they doing around the house? Do you have to tell them every time, or are they looking for opportunities to serve the rest of the family? Do you want to find out when an adolescent is born again? They begin to serve others. They begin to think of something other than their pimples. They're not so totally engrossed in self. Now, this is one of the worst times in life for this. We understand that. We're here to help you out. The fact that you're so preoccupied with self, we understand that. We understand the chemistry that's behind it, the surging of all of the hormones, and everything that makes you temporally insane. We understand.

That's why God put love in parents' hearts for kids. Otherwise, you'd be dead meat, if it was on merit. That's how God responds to us. In the process, though, I want you to understand something. That is natural for an adolescent, but you have supernatural presence living in you. You are a new creature. That propensity is there. The tendencies are there, but the power isn't there, because those that have been born of God have overcome the world. So I want to ask you teenagers about your service. How are you looking to serve around the household, to serve your brothers and sisters here on the campus instead of always wanting to vaunt yourself to be the big shot? Where's the fruit of eternal life, the evidence?

The fact of the matter is, nothing else is acceptable. As parents, counselors, and teachers, understanding the natural tendencies of adolescents doesn't mean that we allow it to be dominant in our midst or to evidence itself. It's not acceptable. We understand the war that you're battling. We understand you're going to lose some of the battles, but you will not lose the war. If you're spiritually minded, you're going to come and seek out and say, "How can I get through this thing? Help me out. This is what's happening in my mind. Am I going insane?" "No, you're normal. Here's how you deal with these things." The evidence of a man that's regenerated is that he's one that will come to the light. He isn't interested in image; he's interested in truth. He's interested in deliverance, interested in the righteousness of God.

I'll make this statement, close with it, and pick it up on Sunday. We were going to go over to John, chapter 15. There is one thing we that we do know about this. Turn over to John, chapter 15 real quick. God's desire for us John makes very evident. I'll paraphrase it. "I am the true Vine. True branches bear fruit." That's paraphrased: "I am the true Vine. True branches bear fruit." Now, if you're carnal or a baby, then you've got itty-bitty fruit that's growing out there. Brothers and sisters that think no evil are trying to find fruit. If you think everybody's out to get you, you're not born again. You're not regenerated. If you think the rest of us are out to get you, put you down, nobody loves you--we've tolerated you this long. What do you think it is, if it's not love? We look at you with a magnifying glass! "What do you think?" "Hmm." "Does it look like fruit?" "I think something's just getting ready to burst out. I think I see a little nub." "What's it look like?" Umm, it could be an apple. Let's wait and see. Let's dung around it one more year, [now, listen to the mandate:] and if it doesn't bear fruit in the given time, then I myself will cut it down." One of the things that needs to be done is we need to let folks know, "You've got this much time. If you don't start producing, you're out of here, because if you were abiding in the true vine, there will be fruit. We'll give you one more season, and we'll give you no more excuses." Why? It's very evident, beloved. The true vine that has true branches brings forth fruit.

Now when I say, "you're out of here," what am I saying? We're not going to talk to you or preach to you anymore? No. We're talking about the community. You can't be a part of us. You have to acknowledge at this juncture that there's nothing working in you. Are you a seeker? That's fine. Are you someone who wants to hear the Word of God? Fine, come and sit, but you can't be part of us. The Bible doesn't allow us to let you in if there's no fruit.

If there is fruit, then one thing is very obvious according to the Scripture. What will happen? What is the next event that's going to happen? If there is any fruit at all, regardless of how miniscule it might be, what's the next thing that happens? Purging. "You aren't purging me!" No fruit. We were wrong; it wasn't fruit. You can tell whether it's fruit by how the people respond to the purging. If they reject, then it's no fruit. We were mistaken.

How many of you are not comfortable by your ability to judge fruit in somebody else's life, truthfully? Let me see your hands. You're not real comfortable about that? That's natural. One of the reasons is we don't want to do what? We don't want to make a mistake. We don't want to cut somebody off that God is--God has been merciful to us. "I sure don't want to cut somebody off too early." All of our tendencies are to think good and to dung around it one more year. That's the natural tendency. You should feel that way, but do you want me to make you a little more comfortable in judging fruit? This will make you one hundred percent sure every time: how do they respond to chastening? You'll know if it's real fruit. "Well, it seems to be fruit. They're saying the right things. They're really making an effort." Is that effort in the flesh or in the spirit? Let's find out. Put some purging on it. If it comes up fighting, guess what it is? It's flesh.

Do you want to make a clear discernment? Go to Galatians: fruit of the spirit/works of the flesh. How do they respond to pressure? That tells you what it is. It's not really that hard when we begin to use the biblical standards, but the thing that we need to understand is this, beloved: fruitlessness is not neutrality; it's hatred for God. Fruitlessness is opposition to God. It's not neutral. It's not just weak character. It is rebellion to the lordship of Jesus, because if we abide in Him and His Words abide in us we will bring forth fruit to righteousness.

Father, we thank You for the Word of God, and we ask that as we begin to examine our own hearts through this study, as we look at our lives and apply these principles to ourselves, bring about the purging necessary that we might bring forth more fruit. As more fruit begins to evidence in our life, then purge us again that we might bring forth much fruit. The purging never stops; the discipline never stops; the pouring out of our lives in pursuit of Your righteousness never stops. It never gets easier. There are no vacations. It's a daily crucifying of self that You might be all in all. Father, let this willful death to self be the evidence of the eternal life that abides in us. By Your grace, by Your strength, fruit will manifest to glorify You. That's our hearts desire, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Let's stand before the Lord tonight. We'll take just a moment while Gary plays. We just rest, quiet our minds for a moment. What does God say? "Show Me the fruit. Show Me the fruit. Don't say, 'Lord, Lord.' Show Me the fruit." "I did all these things." "I never knew you." You see, casting out devils doesn't take character. There's no character of life, no real humility in casting out devils. "I never knew you." Though we have all faith to remove mountains and have not love, it profits us nothing. Where's the love for the lost, for the unlovely? Where's the love that tells people the truth and doesn't leave them in their bondage and in the power of sin in their flesh? Where's the love that takes up a cross that so many others shrink away from? Where's the love that visits those that are in prison, bound by their own flesh? He said, "When you did it to the least of these, you've done it to Me." They're hungry, and only one thing will satisfy them: the bread of life. "They're hungry. I need to give them more attention. I need to pour more time into their lives. We need a better lifestyle." That's not what they need; it'll never satisfy. That food will not satisfy them. They need to see someone that lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. "I have meat to eat that you don't know anything about, to do the will of My Father."

"I was thirsty." "Satisfy me with the pause that refreshes, all that the world offers, the oasis. I'm just so weary. We need to go on a vacation. We need to go to the spa. We need to go to Disney World." "Rivers of living water that'll flow out of your innermost being; I'll give you water that you can drink of so you'll never thirst again." Do you let the Word of God satisfy you? I want to tell you something. Fifteen minutes in the presence of God will refresh you more than two weeks on the beach. The fruit of eternal life. Make it real, Father, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

Before you go, turn to somebody, and say, "By their fruit, you'll know them." Go in peace; God's love go with you.

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