Will, please open your Bibles
to 1 John chapter 3. 1 John chapter 3. In this world, in this flesh,
as I walk throughout this earthly walk, I like assurance. If I'm making a financial investment,
I'm not a gambler. I want some assurance of what's
going to happen. If I'm buying a car, I want a good confidence
that it's going to last me a while. It's going to be good. It will
not be breaking down all the time. Someone I know is going to have
surgery. I want to know those surgeons went to medical school. That may sound silly, but I want
to make sure. I want some assurances. I want
to know what's more than likely going to happen. I want some
assurances and things. Do you? We want those things,
don't we? Spiritually, I need assurance. The sin that I am, what I am is nothing but doubt
and unbelief. That's what I walk this world
in. But I want to know some things. I do know that Christ died for
an elect people. I want to know that I'm one of
those people, that I'm one of His. I do know that everyone
that He died for will have eternal life in Him. I want to know,
am I going to be wanted to be conformed to the image of Him?
Am I going to be made in His likeness, be kept forever in
Him? I need to know those things. There was a man I knew once,
a believer, and he come into some trouble and he praised the
Lord for it. And he said, that's fine. He
said, Lord sent this trial to me. He loves me. It's for my
good. And he sent some more hardship
to him. And he said, that's alright,
Lord. Lord's taken care of. It's for His glory, my good.
That's fine. And then it come time for him
to die. And he says, I have a confidence. I have a confidence in Christ.
He's all my righteousness. I've got to go into eternity
that way. And as a member of his family said, I want to know
who He knows. He told me that. He said, I wish
I knew the God that He knew. That's why I know where you can
hear about Him. Wouldn't that be something? I wish the Lord
would give me the grace to walk through this earth when all these
trials take place and all this heartache and sorrows going on
around us, everything that He sends. Somebody says, you know
what? I wish I knew the God that that
man knows. I wish He'd give me that. I want assurance of that. But 18 times, 27 times in 1 John,
John uses the word know. K-N-O-W. And 18 times, he's writing
to the children of God and he tells us what we know. Not what we think, not what might
be, what could be. We know. We know. He says, Hereby
we do know that we know Him if we keep His commandments. We
believe on Christ and love our brethren. Another spot he said,
I have not written unto you because you know not the truth, but because
you know it. And you know that he was manifested
to take away our sins and in him is no sin. Believers know
that. And hereby we know that we are
of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him. We're
going to have some assurance. We're going to know these things.
Hereby we know the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of air.
These things have I written unto you that believe on the name
of the Son of God, that ye may know ye have eternal life. We see there in 1 John 3.11,
For this is the message that ye have heard from the beginning,
that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that
wicked one and slew his brother, and wherefore slew he him, because
his own works were evil and his brothers righteous. Marvel not,
my brethren, if the world hates you." We looked at that last
week, Cain and Abel, how the love in them was shown in their
action. Cain came to God with a sacrifice
that had no blood because he didn't know of the blood. He
was not aware of that. The Lord hadn't revealed himself
to him. Abel came with blood. He said, if I'm to live, someone
else has to die. Those are the actions the Lord
gave. And John tells us there, be not
alarmed that the world hates you because of this. Don't let
it get you down. Why not? It's hard not to be
sad if the whole world hates you. Why shouldn't we be sad? Look here in verse 14, he continues
on. Don't be sad because we know that we have passed from death
unto life. We know we have passed from death
unto life because we love the brethren. Something a believer
knows that gives them assurance is right here. And this will be our three divisions.
Here are three points for tonight. We know we were dead spiritually. We know we are made alive in
Christ. We know that we're alive. Something
happened. We ain't like we were. Something
happened. We went from that death to life. And we know we love
our brethren. We know those things. Our first points will be spiritual
death. John says, we know we have passed from death. Those
alive in Christ were spiritually dead before we were given spiritual
life. I was physically alive. I was
alive to myself. I was alive to the things of
this world. I was alive to religion. but I was dead spiritually. I
thought I was alive spiritually, but I was dead. If I were alive
spiritually, I would have known that I was dead before. I want
to be very basic and very repetitive tonight. We'll turn to a lot
of scripture. It'll keep us good and awake
for it. But those that have been born again, those that are already
been made alive, I pray and I'm confident that you're going to
leave here tonight with assurance. You're going to be looking to
Christ and you're going to leave here fueled up. I pray it's the
case. And those that haven't known
Him yet, haven't come to Him, you haven't known what that body
of this death that Paul spoke of in Romans 7, hear me. Pay
close attention. Listen to me. All of mankind,
born of Adam, is spiritually dead. But the children of God,
Christ's sheep, we're given eyes to see that death, to see what
we are. We're given hearts to understand
in ourselves is nothing but death, and that's what we deserve. Fully
and completely, we deserve eternal death, eternal damnation. But
what is a spiritual death? This is one of the hardest things
to put into words. I can't convey this to someone.
I can put it in words, but I can't convey it so they understand
it, so they have it and they know it in their heart. We have
a hard time because we walk around this earth. I'm standing here
breathing oxygen. If I pinch myself, it hurts.
I know I'm alive physically, but I don't know I'm dead on
the inside. We're physically alive, and we're confident in
our physical life that we're spiritually alive. But what are
the attributes? What are some of the attributes
of someone that's spiritually dead? We turn to Romans chapter
10. Romans chapter 10. Someone that
is spiritually dead does not know the living God of the Bible.
Romans 10 verse 1. My heart's desire and prayer
to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them
record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to
knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's
righteousness, they're ignorant of His holiness. ignorant of
His righteousness. To be spiritually dead is to
be ignorant of God's holiness. Now man can be spiritually dead
and still have a zeal for God. He can be dead and have an interest
in God. He can be enthusiastic. Oh, I'm
excited about this. Oh, I like going to church. I
want to read my Bible more. And be dead as a doornail. Every
person born in this world has a conscience. We know there's
a God. Mentally and emotionally, everyone
born of Adam is religious. We want to worship something
and we make something up if we can't find something that's already
made up. There's some form of religion
in each of us from birth. And that is the source of a false
god, us. The Lord told David there in
Psalm 50, He said, Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a
one as thyself. You thought I was like you. He
ain't. He ain't like us. We've read
before there in Psalm 115, it says, their idols are silver
and gold, the works of men's hands. They have mouths, but
they speak not. Eyes they have, but they see not. They have ears,
but they hear not. Noses they have, but they smell
not. They have hands, but they handle not. Feet they have, but
they walk not. Neither speak they through their
throats. They that make them are like unto them. So is everyone
that trusteth in them. We make what we know. It's all
we know is ourselves. A natural man makes something
that's like him. Spiritually dead men and women make gods
that try, because we try. They make gods that want to do
stuff, because we want to do stuff. They make gods that wish
for things, because we wish for things, but they're dead. Those
that make gods like themselves are just as spiritually dead
as the gods that they make. Dead men and women do not have
a true thirst for God's mercy because they do not know that
they are in sin. Someone that's spiritually dead
does not know the God of the Bible and they do not know about
sin and what God's Word says about it. What the Holy God sees
sin as. Turn over Romans chapter 2. We have an awareness of right
and wrong from birth. but no knowledge of true sin. If we don't know what happened
in the garden, we don't need to hear about what happened on
the cross. Without that knowledge of sin,
we have no desire and we see no need for Christ. We have to
know what we are. He has to reveal that to us.
We're alive mentally, we're alive emotionally enough to know that
we're not perfect. I get tired of seeing that. People
say, well, we know no one's perfect. Ain't that the truth? No, we're not perfect. But we
don't know our guilt and our need of our Savior. To possess
a need to be saved, you must be without ability. If you have
some ability, then you just need help. You don't need saved. Need somebody to help you. Look
at Romans 2 verse 14. For when the Gentiles, who's
he talking about? The pagans. Somebody that didn't
grow up with a tabernacle. They didn't grow up with a priest.
They didn't have any of those religious things. These are just
heathens, wild men and women. For when the Gentiles, which
have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law,
these having not the law, are a law unto themselves, which
show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience
also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing
or else excusing one another." That one over there, I'm not
as bad as they are. I would never act like that.
I would never say that to my children. I would never let my
parents do that, whatever. I wouldn't let my boss talk to
me that way. They're accusing or they're excusing. Well, it's okay that I did this.
I got a good reason for acting that way. The natural man has
an awareness of right and wrong. We have standards to live by.
But someone that is spiritually dead has no true understanding
of sin against that holy God. We know right and wrong, but
we don't know what sin is. Someone that is spiritually dead
does not know God, they don't understand what sin truly is,
and they do not have a desire for the holiness of Christ, but
they have a desire for their own holiness, their own righteousness.
Something they can do. It was there in Romans 10 a second
ago. Let's turn back there. Romans
10. We'll start back at verse 1.
Romans 10, 1. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for
Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them record
that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
For they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about
to establish their own righteousness, having not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. If we were not dead in our nature,
We would know that that fig leaf apron that we made wasn't doing
any good. We would know that the robe of
righteousness we're trying to put on ain't gonna work, but
we're dead. We don't know any better. We
would be ashamed of our attempts at being holy. Someone that's
spiritually dead is comfortable in their own garments of righteousness.
They won't be ashamed to say, look how good I look. I did a
good job today. Oh, I read the scriptures today. They're happy with their piety
and how good they are. Why? Why would they be so happy
with that righteousness? They're full of pride. Someone
that's spiritually dead is filled with pride. God said, these are
the seven things I hate. First thing's pride, isn't it?
Proud look. Solomon told us, pride goeth before destruction
and a haughty spirit before a fall. Better it is to be of a humble
spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoiled with the proud.
Pride's a dangerous thing. Someone that's spiritually dead
doesn't know God, they don't understand what sin is, they
don't have a desire to know the holiness of Christ, what His
holiness and righteousness is. It's because of our pride. We
don't want to see His, we're proud of our own righteousness.
And they're without true repentance and sorrow, and they do not truly
pray. Let me turn it over to Luke 18. Some men will be brought to an
understanding to see how God could be just and a justifier. Some people will be given life
and they'll say, how can God be holy and put away the sin
to someone that's not holy? A dead man don't care. They don't
care how God could be just and a justifier. I just want to get
to heaven. That's all they want. They want that end state. How
could this be? Something had to happen. If we
don't know the God of the Bible, if we don't know about our sin
nature, what we are in our heart, we have no concern for His righteousness.
We're filled with pride. We can't pray. A natural man
says, well, I pray all the time. You don't know who you're praying
to. You want to pray to be seen of men. In the flesh, we pray. We say a lot of words. We're
seen for our much speaking, but we do not submit to Almighty
God. That's what prayer is. We submit
to Him. Come bow, Lord, Your way. Look at Luke 18, verse 10. Two men went up into the temple
to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a Republican. The Pharisee
stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank Thee. Well, that
sounds like everybody else prays. That sounds good. He said he
thanks God. God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are,
extortioners, unjust. He's saying he's none of these
things. He's not an adulterer. Or even as this publican, I fast
twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess.
Look at how good I am. Look at my fig leaf garments.
And the publican standing afar off would not so much lift up
his eyes into heaven, but smote upon his breast saying, God,
be merciful to me, a sinner. That's praise. Mercy Packers,
Lord, save me, forgive me. Have your way, Lord. Our Master
says there, verse 14, I tell you, this man went down to his
house justified rather than the other, for everyone that exalteth
himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall
be exalted. That pride goes away, taken from
us. But if we're dead, we're nothing
but pride. And finally, the spiritually
dead are without a genuine love for Christ and His people. Back
there in our text, 1 John 3.14. 1 John 3.14. We know that we
have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren.
He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Who's our brethren? Well, it starts with our elder
brother, the firstborn among many nations. If we love Christ,
we love our brethren. If we don't love our brethren,
we don't love Him. If we don't love Him, we can't love our brethren.
We abideth in death. Those are sad things, aren't
they? Spiritual death is not a pleasant thing. But, we know. John tells us there, but we know
we've passed from death unto life. We know we were those things. Something changed. Something
happened. If I went From one town to another, I know that
I'm not in that first town anymore, and I know I'm somewhere else.
I broke that down, and I got to thinking, one time, Cass,
I was staying at your house, and I woke up, and it's still
dark out, and I thought I was in New Jersey. Y'all ever done
that, woke up in a motel, not remember where you are? You don't
know what's going on. All of a sudden, wait a second,
that ain't my alarm clock. That ain't the side of the bed
the windows are on. Something happened. I was there, I'm here
now. We passed from death to life.
Something happened. So what's his spiritual life?
What changed after that new birth? Something happened. What's the
things that changed? Those that are alive spiritually
know the living God of the Bible. We know Him. Our Master told
us in John 17, and this is eternal life. that they might know thee the
only true God and Christ Jesus whom thou hast sent." We know
Him, we have eternal life. Turn over to John chapter 10.
How are we going to get this eternal life? Now the eternal
life he's speaking of isn't the quantity, it's the quality. All souls are going to be alive
forever. Some will have eternal life in Christ, others will have
eternal damnation. We'll suffer the torments of
hell for eternity. Our souls will be alive forever. But what's
this eternal life He's speaking of? How do we get that eternal
life? How do we be made like Christ and be conformed to His
image? Look here in John 10, verse 26. But ye believe not, because ye
are not of My sheep as I said unto you. My sheep hear My voice,
and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give unto them eternal
life. He gives it. It's a gift. And they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. We've been made
alive to know Him. We've been given eternal life
in Him. And we'll never perish. And it can't change. No man can
pluck us out of His hand. Is that good news? We're not
spiritually dead no more. I'm not a dead man. I have life.
He gave it to me and it ain't going to go away. Because His
hand is mighty and I'll be kept in it. That's something to hang
your hat on. That's a nail in a sure place.
Those alive spiritually, we know about our sin. That's why that's
so sweet to us. We know what sin is in the eyes
of the Almighty God. Turn to Romans 7. We looked at
parts of this this morning, maybe a good review. Romans chapter
7, verse 7. Romans 7, 7. What shall we say
then? Is the law sin? Is it bad? God
forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but
by the law, for I had not known lust, except the law had said,
Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the
commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For
without the law, sin was dead. It was ignored. I had no knowledge
of it. Then this law came. For I was alive without the law
once. Physically I was alive. But spiritually dead. He thought
he was alive. But when the commandment came,
sin revived and I died. I found out I was spiritually
dead. How would I know that? How would I know I was spiritually
dead? I was made alive. I can feel something now. I can
hear that wind blowing. Feel the heat of God's wrath
on that law. made aware of it, made alive.
Look at verse 18. For I know that in me that is
in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. He knows that. For to
will is present with me, but how to perform that which is
good I find not. For the good that I would, I
do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. We're led to
verse 24, someone that has spiritual life. Romans 7, 24, O wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Those alive spiritually know we were dead under that law.
We know we have no hope, but thanks be to God, we know that
law was given to point us to Christ, to be our schoolmaster.
And it shuts us up before God and makes us know that we're
dead. I looked at that law and I said, I can't do that. Death's
coming. Whoever breaks that law must
die. Look here in verse 19, I'm sorry, Romans three. I'm a whole
couple of chapters off. Romans chapter three, verse 19.
Now we know Now we know that what things
soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become
guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the
law shall there no flesh be justified in his sight. For by the law
is the knowledge of sin. then what do we declare? Romans
3.24, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in His blood to declare His righteousness for
the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God. We have a desire now If we know Him, we know who we
are, we know we're made alive by Him, given eternal life by
Him, we have a desire to declare Christ's righteousness, not our
own. Don't look at what I did, look
at what He did. Those alive spiritually have
a desire for the holiness of Christ. We'll look over Philippians
3. Philippians chapter 3 verse 7,
But what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for
Christ. Yea, doubtless, I count all things
but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do
count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and to be found in
Him, not having my own righteousness. which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith, that I may know Him and the power of His
resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings being made
conformable unto His death. That's our desire, those that
are spiritually alive. We may conform to Him. Those
spiritually alive experience true repentance and true sorrow
as well. Jeremiah told us, we lie down
and our shame and our confusion covereth us, for we have sinned
against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth
even into this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord
our God. We know we didn't just break the law, we know we sinned
against Him. We know who we've broken the
law, whose law we've broken. Those who love spiritually truly
pray. We bow down before the Lord and
we do it often. We come begging, wanting His
will to be done and forgiveness for our sins, don't we? Paul
wrote to that church in Thessalonica, he said, Rejoice evermore. Pray
without ceasing. What's that mean, all day? Happens
all the time. That's constant communion, isn't
it? And everything, give thanks, for this is the will of God and
Christ Jesus concerning you. The Lord gives us spiritual life. We walk through the world thinking,
that's alright, the Lord sent this to me. I stubbed my toe
on the sidewalk. The Lord had that for His glory
and my good. Some of them may look at you
and say, well, I want to know what he knows. I want to know who she knows. But we pray. Those made spiritually
alive pray. Truly pray. Remember whenever
Ann and I, the Lord spoke to him and said, get up. One of
my sheep's down there and you're going to go help him. Oh, solitarcis. And he said, Lord, I've heard
of him. He's got warrants out for us. He persecutes the church. You sure you want me going down
there?" Remember what the Lord told Ananias? He said, you go
get him down on that street called Straight. He said, for behold,
he prayeth. Ananias said, alright, I'll go
down there. It wasn't some vain prayer. It wasn't some repetitious
prayer. It wasn't out loud probably. Everybody could hear him. He
prayed to God. True prayer. Those loved spiritually
are filled with meekness and humbleness. We know that our
nature, what our true nature is in the eyes of God, and we
esteem our brethren higher than ourselves. Like Mike had read
to us earlier there in Philippians 2. What a way to be. When we see
ourselves as the chief of sinners, it's easy to look up to anybody
else. If I'm the chief of sinners, ain't nobody lower than me. You
ever read that? Paul said, I'm the chief of sinners.
You want to pat him on the head and be like, I know you feel
that way, but that ain't true. I am. Somebody else's cross says,
well, that's cute, Kevin, but I know I am. We're all arguing
over who's lowest, ain't we? That's life. The cross put that
in us to be that way. And those alive spiritually have
a genuine love for Christ and for His people. They're in 1
John 3, and I'll wrap this up. 1 John 3, 14. We know, we have
assurance, we have a confidence. We know that we have passed from
death unto life because we love the brethren. Spiritually, godly,
truly love the brethren. Here's the proof of the new birth.
If we love those that Christ loved. Satan can counterfeit
knowledge. That's what he approached our
master with in the garden. Come with him in scriptures, didn't
he? Satan can counterfeit outward righteousness. Coming as that
angel of light. Appearing to us. He ain't some
guy on a bar stool down there trying to get you to do something
bad. He's a clean cut guy that lives cleaner than I do. He can
counterfeit emotionalism. Oh, make you feel good, make
you feel sad, do all those things. But he can't counterfeit love
because he doesn't know anything of it. The God of love is the
one that loves and shows us how to love, puts that love in us.
I ask you, were you dead spiritually? Did the Spirit come through the
preaching of the gospel to you and give you life, give you ears
to hear, eyes to see, make you understand these things, make
you feel, truly feel Him? Do you love Christ for it? If that's happened, do you give
Him praise and thanksgiving? Thank you, Lord. Thank you for
saving a wretch like me. If so, You know you've passed
from death into life and it's eternal and ain't going to go
away. That's what gets me through the
week. I hope I can remember that till we get back here Wednesday. Makes it a little easier to go
to the grocery store, don't it? They're out of my favorite drink. They
don't have pasta. That's all right. I'm alive, and it ain't
going away. I'll be here for everyone. Be
with Him. Be perfect. You ought to worship
Him. See Him as He is. Be made like Him. Boy, that's
something. Amen.