Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Evidence of Eternal Life Pt.5

Hallelujah. Thank God for His presence, amen? Let's turn to the epistle of I John and we'll continue on our study of the evidences of eternal life working in us. We know that today in our churches there're so many people that have been told that all they have to do is pray one little prayer and everything's right with God. We realize that the belief in our heart that God has raised Jesus from the dead and the confession of that with our mouths is what allows regeneration to occur in our lives. It's that simple. You believe that God has raised Jesus from the dead. You make that declaration of His lordship and you are born again. Aren't you glad it's that simple?

I was talking to a guy last night. We were up in Crofton, Maryland and this guy had come up. We weren't supposed to be up there. We were down in Bud's Creek and we broke something on the car. So we had to come back. We fixed it and the only place we could find that was open was Crofton up at Capital. We went up there. It's an interesting place. We had been up there a couple of times; I didn't realize it until this time. This lady comes over to me and she says, "Whatever you do, don't leave the trailer here unlocked or unattended," which we don't usually do anyway. And she says, "You know it's really dark over here." I looked around for the lights. She said, "No I don't mean that." She said, "I mean, it's really dark over here." I said, "Oh, okay." I hadn't realized it the other two times we had been there, until she said something. It didn't dawn on me that over on one side of the track are all the white people and over on the other side of the track are all the black people. I said, "Oh, okay." I immediately thought, "Praise God, it's a good thing we're children of light, amen?" It's kind of humorous. So, every time we're there we hang out in the dark section.

We're up there in the dark section and this one fellow comes walking over and I'm standing by the car. He comes over and he gets talking about different things and he said--I can't remember how he even made the comment--he said, "This is a ministry?" I said, "Yeah." He said, "Well I was just at my prayer meeting [or whatever]." He said that he's a Muslim. One of those--what's the term, Shiite is it? He said, "I was just at this meeting it was so great. We had men there of light skin and dark skin." I said, "Really?" He said, "Yeah." I said, "Well you know the book of Acts says we're all one blood." He said, "Yeah, that's true!" And I said, "We're all children of Adam." He said, "That's right." I said, "We're all sinners, as the children of Adam. Every one of us! We're born into sin. We as the children of Adam are depraved in our nature." And I said, "Isn't it fabulous that God who knew no sin was made to be sin with our sin, that we might be made righteous with His righteousness." And he goes, "Ah...yeah." And then he stopped and he looked at me. I said, "You're a Muslim, huh?" He said, "Yeah." I said, "One thing that you really need to understand that will help you is regardless of what your creed is, you know it's not about the Muslim creed or even the creed of Christianity. It's about the person of Jesus Christ and whether or not God's raised Him from the dead. Answer me this. If God raised Jesus from the dead, doesn't that settle everything? Isn't He 'the man'?" He goes, "Well, yeah I guess so."

I said, " So, really it's not about creeds and all the books you're reading. It's not about what you've heard Christians say Christianity is. It's about whether or not you believe that God has raise Jesus Christ from the dead. If God's raised Him from the dead, He is Lord and you need to bow your knee."

He wasn't quite expecting that conversation. He came up to talk about the car. And as we were ministering to him at that particular time, I continued to share with him on that principle. I said, "Christianity is the only "religion" that isn't based upon a creed, a belief system. All of the Christian creed, all that we use as our doctrine, everything Christianity supports in the way of our moral behavior is meaningless, it's worthless, it's a bunch of lies without the personality of Jesus Christ." You see, so many other religions are based upon the truth of their creed and Christianity is based on the person of Jesus Christ. And the sayings then, the teachings, receive their power from the presence.

When we approach the Word of God as we study this morning, we need to realize that. And as we're looking at these principles and we're ascertaining whether or not we have truly become the children of God, it has to do with not the creed, but the fact that He's taken up residence within us and that we now know that the life of God is where we're drawing the ability to exemplify the doctrines that He set forth.

Let's go back to I John. We'll pick this thing up and look at the simplicity of it because of the personality of the Lord Jesus. We talked about the different aspects of checking out whether or not we are truly born again. We said in I John 5:13, you can turn there if you want, but just review your notes a little bit. We said the first point was that we have to believe on His name. That doesn't mean there's something magic about the name Jesus. Because if you spell it and you come from Mexico, it's Jesus. So there's nothing magic about those five letters. It's the person. The Son of God, we know that the name Jesus, Yeshua, in the Hebrew talks about salvation or wholeness. So the name then represents the purpose and the personality. And the purpose of God is our salvation. The personality is God's perfection.

There is no other name under heaven, the Scripture says, whereby a man can be saved but at the name of Jesus. At the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord to the glory of God our Father. So, we realize that to believe in that name is to believe in the personality or the purpose for which the Son of God came and was made flesh and dwelt among us. To believe in the name is to believe in the plan of redemption. To believe in the name is to believe in the success of that plan and that Jesus is raised from the dead and that He is Lord of all. To believe in the name is to have absolute reliance in the personality of Christ and not just in His sayings. That's what it means to believe in the name of Jesus.

And then we saw point two that we've been dealing with: If truly you are born again, if eternal life is abiding in you, the evidence is that we're a people that keep His commandments. Jesus said, don't call me Lord, Lord and not keep my commandments. If you love me He says, you will keep my commandments and they won't be grievous. It won't be hard. It's something you delight in doing. Now that delight, remember we said, isn't necessarily something that in our emotions we feel like doing. But it's a delight in the renewed spirit man. In our hearts, in the renewed spirit man, we want to do the will of God. In our flesh, sin still dwells there. There're still all of those tendencies towards sin. Romans 6 says that the body of sin has been destroyed that henceforth we should no longer serve sin. But that body of sin we know, having been destroyed doesn't mean annihilated. It means made inoperative or to put out of lordship. The body of sin, the sin that's in your flesh and mine is no longer dominant. It still wants to be lazy. It still wants to fulfill its lusts. It still has in it every tendency that unregenerate man has. It's just no longer in control because we've been born again. The Spirit of God dwells in us. So the keeping of the commandments can't be one of just letter or drudgery, it has to be a delight.

Is there something in you now that wants to do the will of God? You say, "Yeah!" Well, praise God. That's the new life. Because the Scripture says no man seeks after God. The Bible says that the Word of God or the wisdom of God is what? Foolishness to man. So if it's no longer foolishness to you and me, then it's an indicator that we've been illuminated that we've become the children of light. The keeping of the commandments--he says the wise man is the one that hears and does, as we were studying in Romans chapter 7. And the greatest among us as Christians--we have two different principles that we need to put together. The greatest among us is who? The servant of all. But then the greatest among us is he who hears, does and teaches. So, being servant of all must mean what? Teaching the commandments, to humble ourselves to disciple others and to humble ourselves and not try to think about ourselves and put our own desires above the needs of the community or the body of Christ. So the greatest are those that are constantly serving and bringing others into more spiritual maturity and into Christlikeness.

In I John 2: 3-5. Let's start here for this morning. That's enough review. Verse 3 of this second chapter is one of the most important questions you'll ever answer in your life. Do I know Him or not? Do I know Jesus Christ? Am I a son of God? Am I in right relationship with Father, or am I an enemy of God? Because Christianity, as we all know, is based on absolutes. You either love Me or you hate Me. There's no middle ground. As Christians, there is no compromise in us with the world, with other religions. It doesn't mean we have to be belligerent. It doesn't mean that we have to be coarse in our conversation. But we're a people that absolutely remain pure and there is no amalgamation of any other philosophies, any other religions. "I am the way, the truth, and the life: No man cometh unto the Father, but by me," Jesus said (John 14:6). My Word is truth, John 17 says. So we're a people that live in absolutes in the midst of a world that loves gray. In the midst of a world that thinks if you are not tolerant you're the enemy of modern society, "we need to be tolerant and accept everybody else's perspective and that everybody has an equal niche," and Christianity, true Christianity doesn't allow that at all. There's only one way, God's way, amen?

We're going to be hated. Jesus said they hated Me they're going to hate you. We'll talk about that as we go on. But, here's one thing you can count on. If you keep the commandments of God, people are going to hate you. So, you'll be able to tell what kind of a job you're doing by the way the world responds to you. Now, when I say "hate you," it doesn't mean people are going to be cussing you out all the time, beating you up on the street corners. That could happen, but most of it is a silent hatred. It's a rejection. It's contempt. Have you ever noticed the contempt that people have for you sometimes, but because they're so civilized, really because they are taught to be so tolerant, you know smoke's coming out of their ears. They spit and the grass doesn't grow. Everything within them to try to stay civilized. We just smile at them. We're having a good time and they're miserable because the truth set you free, praise God.

Now in the keeping of the commandments, this is basically what it's talking about to us. In verses 3-5 listen to what it says, "And hereby we do know that we know him, [How do I know whether I know him or not?] if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, [Ginosko is the Greek here. I have a working relationship with Him. We are intimate. Not oida, know about Him. Ginosko, have a relationship with Him. I know Him by relationship. Here's how we know that we know Him if we keep his commandments.] and keepeth not his commandments, [say it with me] is a liar, and the truth [the Word] is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him."

If we keep His Word, the love of God is perfected in us. Now, what we're going to see here as we go on into the next couple of items is that the keeping of the commandments and the love of God are synonymous. There is no love of God or by God that isn't the representation of the Word of God. You can't love outside God's biblical origin of love, purpose of love. We have human love and we have divine love, agape.

We have the three different aspects that we know love expresses itself. Most of us are familiar with phileo love well, in our society today, and eros love, erotic love. Eros and phileo are many times confused. Eros in fact is not love. It's sexual appetite. I don't want to say lust, because lust, then, indicates that it's sin and aeries is not sin inside God's what? Commandments. See love has to be inside the commandments of God. Eros is great in marriage, in the confines of marriage. God is the author of sex. God is for sex. Yea, God! Okay? So what we're doing, then, is we realize that it has to be in the confines of His divine order. For this love to be proper then our sexual appetites have to be under the control of the commandments of God. Our phileo love, which is an emotional attachment and commitment to people, has to be in the confines of God. We can't love people that God doesn't love. I'll explain that as we go on further. But, many of us want to love beyond God's Word and we begin to treat people equal that need to be reproved, rebuked. People that need to be shamed, whatever. And we think we love them by continuing to show them phileo, or emotional support, and God doesn't allow that. It has to be within the confines of the Word of God. God shows us how to love

The Bible says that those that God loves, He does what? He chastens them. There is no love without chastisement or correction or taking an individual and pointing them toward Christlikeness. Love is not tolerating people's disobedience or rebellion. Love is not unconditional, but it is perfect. It never fails, the Scripture says.

Now, people think unconditional is how we ought to love, and it's not. God's love is absolutely conditional but it's absolutely perfect. And God's love never fails to love. It's there at all times to be received by faith. So we see how the natural mind confuses the Word of God. If we're people that are truly regenerated, we're going to keep the commandments of God, and the Scripture tells us that we're then going to walk as He walked. Verse 6, "He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked." What does that mean in the context here? What does it mean to keep the commandments of God?

The Scripture takes all of these thousands of different commandments, whether they be under the Levitical ordinances, the most famous of course the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, and we say, "I keep the ten commandments." Or "I'm keeping these Levitical ordinances" or whatever the different statutes might be. But let's simplify it, because the Lord simplified it. The greatest commandment is what? Love the Lord with all of your heart, strength, mind, and body. And the second, then, is like unto it, which is what? Love your neighbor as yourself. Now, this statement makes a very great distinction in these two commandments. The first and great commandment is, love God. So everything else in our lives, then--this sounds so simple to us, but listen, we're talking about knowing whether or not eternal life abides in us and whether we're keeping the commandments-- necessitates that God is first.

I was sharing with some people just the other day in counsel, I said, "You know one of the big problems that Christians have today, because of this very thing that you and I are talking about, is that we've taken ordinances and not only ordinances, institutions and we've elevated them above what God's Word allows." The greatest is family. The greatest abuse today is the Church's perspective of family. And very frankly, many people have perverted family and perverted marriage beyond the biblical truths. Now, we're talking about keeping His commandments and knowing whether or not God abides in us. Let me just give you an example of this. The most famous and popular and influential ministry in our nation today on radio and television is "Focus on the Family". Wrong call: Focus on God and the family will be in order. Now I'm not nit picking over the title. The point that I want to make is this. There's so much teaching on marriage.

A man shall leave his father and his mother and cleave unto his wife. How many of you know that's Bible, amen? That's the commandment of God. Misapplication: A man shall leave his godly father and mother and all of the principles of the covenant that was cut by Abraham, and set his own standards over his house. A man shall leave his father and mother and compromise with his wife and idolize his wife and idolize his children. That one mandate is the assumption that when the man leaves, this new unit is going to continue under the covenant. It all has to stay under the lordship of Jesus to be in order. And anytime anything becomes perverted--you shall have no other gods before me. Jesus made it concise when He said if you love mothers, fathers, children, houses and lands more than me you are not worthy of me.

When we talk about keeping his commandments, we see that it has to do with evaluating everything that we do and everything that we put worth upon in light of the supremacy of Father. Sounds very simple. Then why do we, as Christians, pray about things that God has specifically already spoken toward? Why would I pray about a job that's going to take me away from my family in an inordinate amount of time, not allow me to attend the house of God where, the Scripture says, forsake not the assembling of yourselves together and even more as you see the day approaching? Why would I, as a Christian, pray about something that the commandments already have revealed? That begins to indicate whether eternal life is abiding in you. You don't have to pray about things, meditate about things, that God has already spoken. They are done instantly. They are done joyously. Because I have not come to do my will but the will of He that sent me; to speak my words but the words of He that sent me. That's how simple keeping the commandments becomes.

Turn over to John 14 for just a second and let me show you something in the gospel of John. Again, to remind us why the first epistle of John was written. Remember, he was dealing with the spirit of Gnosticism that was in the first century and it was creeping into the Church. We don't call things Gnosticism today. You want to know what we call it? Calvinism. And the Calvin doctrine permeates some of the strongest ministries or Christian churches that we are aware of today. Calvinism permeates the Presbyterian Church, the Baptist Church, many of these different churches. You know, we're talking about a lot of folks here, people that call themselves fundamentalists. They will fight you tooth and nail over the Word of God. Bless God, the Word is truth. It is inerrant. But you know what's happened, tragically? People that have embraced this doctrine have put more confidence in the doctrine, the dogma, than the person of Jesus Christ. They are more committed to defending "truth" than they are to living righteousness and holiness. Their relationship to Father is an intellectual relationship and not a spiritual relationship. That's why sin continues to dominate their lives, and that's why they justify it.

So the doctrine says, "once saved, always saved." You cannot fall from grace, the Calvinist says. But John writes in this epistle, he says, "No, you guys are missing this thing. It's he that doeth righteousness that is righteous. If you say you love Me and are not a keeper of My commandments you are a liar and the truth is not in you." If His seed remains in you, this first epistle of John says, you cannot sin. He that sins is of the devil. Now, you don't have to be a doctor in theology to figure that out. You have to be able to read at a fourth grade level. Now granted, in our school systems today, that's tough. But if you can read at a fourth grade level, you can understand that. He that habitually sins is of the devil. I wonder what that means? Somebody here that's not a doctor in theology interpret that for me. He that sins is of the devil. Could somebody interpret that for me? Who wants to interpret that for me? Let me see your hand. Somebody, come on, I want somebody to interpret that. Yea!

Person in audience: "He that sins is of the devil."

Good one! Praise God! Did you finish the fourth grade? Yeah? Was Jethro in your class? Jethro Bodine? Do your ciphering. Aught plus aught is aught. You don't have to be real sharp. You have to have a heart for God.

Some people say that it's hard to approach God and to understand God. It's not at all. It's simple. Now watch what he goes on to say in John 14 and this is very important for us. Beginning at verse 21: "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." Praise God, so now God not only promises that if we keep His commandments it's the indicator that we love Him, but He says if we keep His commandments He will love us. Look what's neat here. And he will do something else. What? He will manifest Himself to us. Now there's a Bible principle. To he that has, shall more be given. The more we draw nigh unto God, the Scripture says, the more He draws nigh unto us. When you seek Him with all of your heart what happens? You find Him.

You see, a lot of us want to make excuses. "Well you know, I'm just seeking God with all my heart, but I can't find Him." "I'm committing everything to the Lord, but there just doesn't seem to be the grace or the power there to live victoriously." Somebody's lying, you or God. You're either not committing everything, you are not seeking Him, you are not resisting sin with sweat of blood or God's Word's not true. I choose the fact that you're deceived. That you're not doing what you need to be doing because God's Word is sure to a thousand generations, amen?

Jesus says here: "[I] will manifest myself to him. [And then] Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, [that are seeking you] and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man [you] love me, he [you] will keep my words: and my Father will love him, [you] and we [the trinity of God] will come unto him, [you] and make our abode with him [you]. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all [that you need to know to be like me] things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." My word applied by the Holy Spirit will bring you, verse 27, peace.

So here's the principle that we're looking at. If we love Him we keep His commandments. If we keep His commandments, He loves us and reveals Himself to us and the more we have Him revealed to us, the more we love Him. Then we are enabled to keep His commandments, which means He reveals more to us and we then enter the process of sanctification.

We're being conformed to the image of Christ. It all starts with your first decision to do the Word of God.

Now the spirit of Gnosticism that we're combating here says, "Well you know, really if your intentions are right, if you've got a good heart then God will take that into consideration." Well let's go into point three. Point two is the fact that we know that we need to keep His commandments. Point three is realizing that the commandments teach us that we must hate the world's system.

Do you hate the world's system? Let's remind ourselves what the world system is. Most of us seem to think the world's system is, "Well, we got to hate the world, which means we hate drugs and we hate alcohol." Whatever the externals are that we can see that are basically immoral or socially unacceptable behavior. Those things of course are not acceptable in the kingdom, but that's not what the focus is. I John says all that's in the world is what? Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. That's what comprises the world's system. It has it's own god, doesn't it. Corinthians says the god of this world, Satan, blinds the eyes of people so they can't understand the love of God or the gospel message.

Isn't it amazing that you can share the gospel with people, one hears it and the other one doesn't? What's that all about? Satan has everybody's eyes blinded, though we know that, equally; but the Word of God is alive and powerful and it is the power of God unto salvation. And the Word teaches about Itself, that every time you speak the gospel like I was speaking to this gentleman the other night, at the moment that the power of the gospel, Jesus dying for our sins, raised from the dead, sin with our sin, that we might be made righteous with His righteousness, sons of God, (you share that); that message has sufficient power that every time it's spoken, blinded eyes open momentarily. People hear that truth. They're blinded. They're walking around under satanic dominion. They don't understand why they're doing the things they do. They're trying to find some type of purpose in life and fulfillment. They set all kinds of moral codes or they defy all the moral codes. But regardless, each one is seeking to establish what life's really all about and why they're here. The gospel answers that. And momentarily, their eyes are opened, those blind eyes. And then a decision is made. "I want to hear more. I understand that. That's what I've been waiting to hear."

You all remember when you were born again? I remember very clearly my first encounter with the gospel. I understood it; it drew me. I knew it was true and I rejected it. I went on for ten more years scaring my life unnecessarily all the while knowing that the message I heard was truth. Running from it because of wanting to remain the lord of my life.

I very quickly shared with that guy I was talking to last night, as we were talking about these things. I was talking about the lordship of Jesus, and that creeds and culture do not have any thing to do with it. He was talking about culture. I think, by the look on his face, he had another concept. Here I am sharing the gospel with him. He probably perceived me as being at least semi-civil, affluent and a second, third generation Christian. But I shared with him real quickly, I said, "You know it's not creeds."

He was big on culture and heritage. And I said, "...and it's not heritage. Let me tell you real quickly what my heritage is. I come from a family of alcoholics. I myself was abusive in the substances. I've been arrested for attempted murder." His eyes got a little bigger on that one. We all have our stories, don't we? And I was trying to help him understand that it's not creed. It has nothing to do with heritage. It's every individual's decision when they encounter the truth.

Then, thirteen years later, God supernaturally put me in a place of hearing the gospel again and I said, "This is what I need." I was miserable by that time. I was twenty years old at that time and I was already miserable. I had everything going for me that could go for a young man. I was on the verge of being rich. I was only two years away, at that juncture, from signing a big contract for professional football. Everything I'd worked for all my life, and it was there for the taking. And I was miserable. Everything I did to try to fulfill the lusts in my flesh left me so unsatisfied. You'd wake up after a party of lasciviousness of all types more empty than when you went into the party. You all know what I'm talking about. Then you hear the power of the gospel one more time and your eyes are opened. Just like they were when I was seven years old. The same thing happened. I heard the gospel. My eyes opened. And this time I said yes. Walked to the front of that church. Bowed my knee. My heart broke. I made a decision to make Him Lord once and for all.

That's one of the things we need to understand. You don't "try God out." I was convinced of what I was without God. I was a failure. I was on my way to a devil's hell. There was nothing in this life that could satisfy me. I had already proven that to myself. So when I bowed my knee it was once for all. I'm not going back, or as the old hymn says, "No turning back, no turning back," amen?

Now, this is the thing of the hatred for the world's system. But you don't just hate the booze. And you just hate the violence. I came out of a very violent environment. I have a tendency to be a violent person. I was raised in that. My first natural inclination was to hit. My kindergarten report card says, "Bob hits kids for no reason." I still remember as clearly as can be. We had these huge, in those days some of you that are my age, you remember, these big wood building blocks. They had a handle on each end so that the little kids could build things. They'd stack them up and little kids would get in there and I'd push it over on them. Little kids are in there with their arms and legs hanging out, crying. Physically striking out was the first thing that I would do whenever pressure was put on me. That's the world's system.

The philosophies, listen, the philosophies of man today are the world's system. Dr. Spock and how to raise your children and give your children the opportunity to freely express themselves in every area. Let them vent their emotions. When the Scripture very clearly says that if you spare the rod, you hate your child, that it will drive the foolishness far from them. The world has a whole different concept of justice, love, and of truth. So we're talking about, as a people that are regenerated, we have to ask ourselves a question. Do we then hold to their philosophies? Do we hold to their standards of success? Because many of us here are driving ourselves nuts trying to reach a level of success that the world says is success. I want to tell you what success is. It's being able to present a holy seed to God when the smoke clears. You may be barefooted and in tattered pants and living in a shack somewhere, but I want to tell you, in the economy of God if your children call Jesus, Lord, if they love Him and they love you and they're sharing the gospel with another generation, then you're the most successful man that's ever walked on this planet, praise God.

Let me ask you something. All of us that are sitting here that are born again, do you hate the world? Don't mistake what I'm saying. It doesn't mean that we can't have relative success by the world's standards, but we're not seeking it. We're not seeking it for the reason they're seeking it. It seeks us. The Scripture makes it very clear that the blessings of the Lord do what? They overtake us. We seek first the kingdom of God, His righteousness, and all these other things are added to us. The world seeks it. We seek God and He adds it to us. And the blessings of the Lord make rich and what? Add no sorrow. If you get it by the world's methods--you want to know whether what you have, materially or socially that may appear to be success, if God gave it to you or not. Is there any sorrow? Is there sorrow with it? Do you look at that new home and think, "It cost me my child. Dear God, I wish I could go back to those years when he needed me and have been there instead of leaving them some type of a monetary inheritance"? Is there any sorrow?

Hatred of the world's system, then, is to not be dominated by the eye or the flesh or the root problem of all of that, which is the pride of life. We know that's where all sin comes from, the pride of life or self-will, or another way of saying it is just self-determination to the place of personal lordship. I assume control of my own life. I'm going to make the decisions based upon my perception of what's best for me at this moment. Which is totally contrary to the Word of God, which makes decisions based on truth that may have in fact eternal benefits that you'll never see in this life. The natural man can't comprehend that. We want some type of an immediate visible natural return for our investments. The spirit man realizes that much of what He's doing has eternal investments. You just don't know.

Had a guy come here on the property that hadn't been here, I can't remember when. How many of you remember John Murphy? John Murphy came up here the other day. I was up there and John Murphy came walking up and said, "I've been trying to get back here for..." how many ever years he's been gone. I don't remember when he left. He said, "I've been trying to get here all of these years to say one thing." I said, "What's that?" He said, "You were right. I was wrong." He said, "It's amazing how long it takes some of us to grow up." And then he made a comment. I'm talking about making investments that you're just not aware of. They're involved in some type of an outreach right now.

He said, "Do you remember when you came to the hospital to pray for Dorothy?" I said, "No, I don't." He said, "I tell this story every where I go." He went back to his own personal testimony. He was going to commit suicide and he had just gone bankrupt. His wife had left him, whatever. And he was on the verge of committing suicide and he heard a broadcast on the radio. And he said, "Man, that guy sounds like he knows God, that he's not just talking about Him." And he heard a meeting advertised. And he showed up at that meeting. He said, "God, if this guy's talking for You and if You want me, then I want these questions answered." And he said we just hammered out all three of the major questions through the Word of God. He said it put his life on course and he started coming at that time.

Then they had this little baby. I'll try to make the story as concise as possible. At that particular time, he said, there was a call that went out to us and that the baby was dying. There were some rare things with the lungs that you couldn't assimilate enough oxygen, and what you did get in, there was no capacity for the lungs to put off the carbon dioxide. So, basically being poisoned. He said, "When you walked in there she was as purple as a grape." He said, "I tell this story the same way every time. The chief of pediatrics was there and he had just stepped back from the bed and said, 'There's nothing that can be done.' ("In fact," he told John, "my daughter died from this very thing.") And he said, 'She's going to die imminently.'"

He said, "You came rolling through the door." I can kind of envision but I don't remember being there. He said, "You kind of just rolled through the door." He said, "You walked right between those doctors up to the bed." He said, "You reached over, put your hand on her and said, 'Dorothy I command you to live and not die in the name of Jesus, and death I take authority over you, and I speak the peace of God on this body; by the stripes of Jesus we are a healed people.'" He said, "And you turned and left and didn't say anything to anybody." And he said, "Immediately she began to breathe again and the color came back."

She was up there, the little girl. I hadn't seen her. That was seventeen years ago. I think she was here for about 18 months after that incident but I don't every remember seeing her. I didn't hang out in the nursery much. So this is actually the first time I had ever seen this girl, seventeen years later. Isn't that exciting? Talking about making eternal investments. Talking about doing something that lasts, praise God. How about a gift to that little girl of the name of Jesus instead of a success seminar?

What do you have to give? When Peter and John walked up to the temple and the man reached out for alms, they said, "Silver and gold have we none but such as we have, give I thee. In the name of Jesus of Nazareth rise up and walk." What about the times when you've wept with brothers and sisters in the Lord and you saw the pain in their heart and you even had natural ways of helping them out. You could give them a few bucks and that would help them. You'd be able to make some kind of a call for somebody and maybe get them a job, but instead you spoke to the need in their lives. You talked about their carnality. You talked about their slothfulness. And the wounds of a friend came forth and they were delivered. How about that kind of an investment?

The world has it's own method of love. The world has it's own wisdom of how to help people out. The world does. And the Word has it's own distinct truths that the world hates and can't receive because it's foolishness to them.

We didn't get near as far as I planned this morning. Do you hate the world? Do you hate its philosophy? Do you hate its god? Do you hate its goal? When I talk about the world, then, I'm talking about everything that opposes the wisdom of God or the Word of God, everything that opposes the methods of God is the world's system. And it can be very aggressive or it can be very passive, and we can't mistake passivity for acceptance. Listen, we cannot accept the spirit of tolerance for anything other than hatred for the gospel. Once we understand that and can embrace that it's an indicator that we're children of God.

We'll end with this for this morning. If that's one of the indicators, and we'll show you some more Scriptures this evening, if that's one of the indicators then listen, how seductive and powerful must that spirit of the world be to entice us into its wisdom, its methods? And you know what they tell us? It's for your good. It's because we know best. And of course that's why we're getting more and more cameras around in our society today. That's why they're going to implant chips into your hand, either your right hand or your forehead. For your good, not just for buying and selling as the mark of the beast says, so that you can go in and beep. You know what it's going to have? It's going to have all of your personal health records. You'll be able to transact business. You know what else? They'll be able to track you in case somebody kidnaps you. It's for your good. For your children, we'll know where they're at, at all times. This is for your good. And how many of you can see some good in all that? I can. Some of these have very useful purposes, but what's the motive behind it? What's the spirit behind it? The spirit of antichrist that speaks toward this is to be able to make the distinction between who embraces the world and who refuses the mark for the kingdom of God. That's how clearly the lines are defined. That's all for this morning.

Father, we thank You for Your Word, and as we continue this study we ask that You would open our eyes to the truth of the Word of God and the reality of the lordship of Jesus. Is it real in our lives? Is the Word alive in our lives? Is it where we turn first for wisdom and strength and comfort? Is everything that opposes this Word in our eyes and in our hearts a lie? You've said in I John that if we are born of God we overcome the world. We're able to face it with all of its seduction and overcome it and refuse it. It tries to intimidate us and we stand in peace knowing that our God will never leave us nor forsake us. You've said in this great epistle in the fourth chapter that the world will listen to its own people but refuses to hear what we have to say. We can even bring creeds and dogma from the spirit of the world and people will accept it and say, "Yes, that's good. We think that moral standard ought to be implied here, but leave Jesus out of it. Yes, bring the morality in, bring the social order in, but leave Jesus out of it." It's the world. You did not come to bring social order, to improve the standards of men's lives. You came to redeem us from Satan's lordship, the power of sin, and to make us sons of God. And for that we say thank you, Father, in Jesus' name, amen.

Let's stand before the Lord this morning. As Gary plays, I don't know, but I believe that the Lord was speaking to someone this morning. I wasn't even supposed to be here this morning, but I felt impressed to come home and to stay for this morning. We were scheduled to be gone, and I believe that God told us to come and so I'm believing that somebody's life is going to be spoken to, and that somebody's life is going to be changed through the Word. Are you willing to bow your knee to His lordship this morning by keeping His commandments, by hating the world? The whole spirit of the world says, "Hey, you're not getting a fair break here." That's how it all started with Eve. "You're not getting a fair break here--God's holding out. You need to watch out for yourself. You need to become a god to yourself." That's the world's system. That's what it's all about. And the indicator that life has manifested in you is that you are no longer a son of the first Adam, but the last Adam. It's no longer the pursuit of the self-life.

But how can I best represent His love that was so freely given to me? How can I pass that on to my generation, because I freely received and now I freely give? Father, we believe that You order purpose and our steps. We believe it's been done in the name of Jesus and that fruit, whether visible or invisible, manifest to Your glory, and we'll give You all the praise for it, in Jesus' name.

Let's sing it together and worship Him this morning. "I Love You Lord" Sing it one more time. Just let Him know how much you love Him this morning. He's so worthy of our praise.

We thank You, Lord, for Your goodness, Your mercy to us. Hallelujah! We do love You, Lord, and we're so thankful for Your mercy and Your grace. Thank you for loving us while we were so unlovely. Thank you, Lord, for the free gift of eternal life. Help us to really understand the love afforded us at this very moment, perfect, eternal in every way. Never ending, immutable, it doesn't change. You don't love us one day more than another. You're never offended by our failures. You just love us perfectly at all times. We ask that we can continue to embrace that and be made whole by that love. In Jesus' name we ask it, Father. Amen.

When you hear "world," think "self-life." Thank God you're free from it, amen? Turn to somebody next to you and say, "I'm free from the world, praise God." Amen! Go in peace, God's love go with you.

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