Would you turn back to 1 John
chapter 3? I'd like to read these two verses
again. Beginning in verse 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. Whosoever hateth his brother
is a murderer. And you know that no murderer
hath eternal life. abiding in Him. Now there are four big words
in this verse of scripture. Death, life, love, and hatred. Those are four big words and
these four words tell us what eternal life really is. death,
life, love, and hatred. We know that we've passed from
death unto life because we love the brethren. He that loveth
not his brother abideth in death, death. Death in the scripture has three
different meanings to it. First, there's spiritual death.
Then there's physical death. And then there is eternal death.
Spiritual death is what happened to our first parents in the garden.
You remember when God said, in the day you eat thereof. You
shall surely die. And you know they didn't die
physically that very day and they weren't sent to hell that
very day. So it doesn't mean either one of those aspects of
death. It's talking about spiritual
death. Now this is seen so clearly in
Adam and Eve's response. There was a time when they relished
being in God's presence. What's it like to be around someone
you love to be in their presence? Well, you think of that and multiply
it infinitely. That's how much they relish being
in God's presence. And now they run and hide from
his presence. They no longer want to be around
him. That's a demonstration of their death. This is what death
is, spiritual death. They now thought that they could
cover themselves with the fig leaves of their own righteousness.
This is what that represents when they knew they were naked
and they thought I'm going to provide a covering that's going
to hide my nakedness. And that's symbolic of trying
to provide a covering that's going to hide your sin. They
thought they could do it. This shows what a low opinion they
now have of God. That they thought they could
produce something that he could be pleased with and accept. They
demonstrated their death in that they wouldn't take responsibility
for their sin. Adam said, the woman you gave me, well, first
Eve said, the serpent beguiled me. He gave me and I did, really
his fault. And he says, the woman that you
gave me, she gave me the fruit and I did eat. Now, This demonstrates
spiritual death, this attitude. No love for God, no spiritual
life. And all men are born into this
world dead in sins. Dead in sins. Right now, if you have not been
given spiritual life, you are dead in sins to be carnally minded,
That's the way we're born into this world. Carnally minded. Fleshly minded. Just the way
we naturally think. To be carnally minded is death. Paul said. But to be spiritually
minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind, the
fleshly mind is enmity against God. Now this is what spiritual
death is. It's enmity with God. It's no
love for God. It's being critical of God. It's
judging God. It's not liking the way God is.
It's changing him if I could. That's what idolatry is all about.
The carnal mind is enmity against God. It's not subject to the
law of God. Neither indeed can be. So then
they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Now that's what it
is to be dead, a state of death, dead to God, at enmity with God. And because of this spiritual
death, there will be physical death. That's why men die. And
if I die spiritually dead, I'm going to experience eternal death. Oh, I don't even like thinking
about it. The thought of someone going to hell eternally, death. Now, John says we pass from death
to life. What a passage. You know, there
was a time when I was dead in trespasses and sins, that I hated
God, I was in enmity with God. I might not have said it vocally,
but it's the state of my heart. I was dead in sin, graveyard
dead. No understanding of God, no love
for God, no understanding of the gospel, no understanding
of myself, dead. And there was a time when I passed
from death to life." Now, when he's speaking of this life, he's
not talking about the life, the physical life. He's not talking
about entering into heaven. That's called life too. If thou
will enter into life, I love the way the Lord says that. If
thou will enter into life, this is not life. It really is. We don't have any idea. This
is not life. We won't really know anything
about life till we enter into glory. But he's talking about
spiritual life, going from spiritual death to spiritual life. It's what Paul calls in Romans
8 too, the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Now, life. You know what that
means? If I have life, that new man,
that life he is given is not an enmity with God. That new
man, that life, loves God. I love him as he is. I love his
holiness. I love his justice. I love his
immutability to the fact that he never changes. I love his
eternity that he never began to be. I love his grace. I love his wisdom. I love his
power. Oh, and how I love his son. You know, the father love
with the son. I do too. I love the way he is. I love
that he's equal with the father. I love that he's altogether lovely.
I'm not, the new man is not at enmity with God anymore. Not
the new man, he loves God. And not only that, I'm not in
a state of inability in the sense that I find myself doing what
I at one time could not do. I believe the gospel. There was
a time when I couldn't, but I do now. I believe the gospel. He's
caused me to believe. I was listening to a guy this
day, today, actually. He said we, if this guy was what
they call reform, he said we believe with our own volition.
We will to believe. And I thought, I don't, I just
believe. It's my nature now. I just believe. I believe the
gospel. God has caused me to, but I repent. I'm in a state
of repentance all the time. Changing my mind because my mind
is always thinking wrong thoughts about God, wrong thoughts about
myself, and I'm always in a state of repentance. I now believe,
I now repent, I love, I do what I could not do before. That is life. That's being born
of God. And we know we passed from death
to life, John says, because we love. Here's the third word.
We've seen spiritual death, we've seen spiritual life, and here's
how we know we pass from death to life, because we love the
brethren. And the love he is speaking of
comes from spiritual life. Turn to 1 John 4. Verse 7. Beloved, let us love one another,
For love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born
of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. Now notice, everyone that has
this love, only the elect do. Only those who are born again
do. This is impossible for the natural man, the love we're speaking
of here. This is caused by the Spirit of God. He that loveth
not knoweth not God, for God is love. Look in verse 19 of
this same chapter. We love him, verse 19, because
he first loved us. If a man say, I love God and
hates his brother, he's a liar. For he that loveth not his brother
whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
In this commandment, if we And this commandment have we from
him that he who loveth God loves his brother also. Whosoever believeth
that Jesus is the Christ is born of God and everyone that loveth
him, that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this
we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep
his commandments. Now let me tell you something.
If you love God, you love his children. It's just natural. you do. Now what is this love
that I'm speaking of? I need to say this. I wish I
didn't have to say it this way, but you know the love we're speaking
of here is a love where you can genuinely from the depths of
your heart love somebody and not like them. Now somebody says, why are you
saying that? Well, it's You gotta say it now. Somebody's saying,
is there somebody in here you don't like? No, I like everybody
here. I really do. The Lord is my witness. But here's the point I'm making
in making this statement. You can have a difficult time
with somebody, but if you love them, you know what you want?
You want them to have what you do. That's what love is. You want them to have what you
do. Yes, if you see him in need,
look in 1 John 3, verse 17. But whoso hath this world's good,
and see his brother have need, and shuts up his bowels of compassion
from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? The fact of the
matter is it doesn't. It doesn't. But that's not only talking about
physical need. Now listen real carefully. I
want you to have what I have. I want you to have the forgiveness
of sins. I want you to know the joy of
being justified by Christ and by grace. I want you to know
the joy of having His righteousness. I want you to be slain and see
that you're nothing but sin. I want that for myself. I want
it for you, too. I want you to see and experience
that you are nothing but sin. And in seeing that you're nothing
but sin, I want you to see how Christ really is all in your
salvation. Now, that's what love is. You're
desiring for that person the same thing you desire for yourself. I want to be accepted in the
Beloved, don't you? I want to be completely accepted by Christ.
I want you to be completely accepted by Christ. I want to be able
to hear the Gospel in the power of God the Holy Spirit. I don't
want to hear just with dead ears. I want to hear where I know this
is God speaking to me. I want that for you. I desperately
want that for you. That's what it is to love somebody.
If you love somebody, what you have, you want them to have. You really do. And it might be
someone who, just on a personal level, you know, get along with
that well, just on a personal level. You ought to, you ought
to make it your business too, but there can be strife, struggles,
so on. But for that person, you really
love them. That's what love is. It's desiring
for them the same thing you desire for yourself. Wouldn't the Lord
say, as you would others If, as you want to be treated, you
treat others. Well, how do I want to be treated?
I want to be saved by the grace of God. I want to be accepted
in the beloved. I want to be one of his. I want
to follow Christ. And that is what I want for you.
That's what love means. It's, it's not just a, love is
not a feeling, although it is a feeling, but it's not a feeling.
It's more than a feeling. It has this behind it. Now, this
is the love that he's speaking of, this true love for the brethren,
love for men, desiring for them to be saved, desiring for them
to hear the gospel. You want them to know Christ.
You want them to know the joy of repentance. You want them
to love your Redeemer. Think of this. You would be real happy if this
person you love loves Christ a whole lot more than they love
you. It'd make you happy, wouldn't it? You would actually rejoice
that they love Christ much more than they love you. And you know,
the only true friend you ever really have is a believer. And here's why. A believer's
the only one who'll tell you the truth. Faithful are the wounds
of a friend. But the kisses of an enemy are
deceitful. I want somebody to tell me the
truth. I want to be wounded. I want somebody to tell me the
truth of the gospel rather than flatter me with kisses of deceit. Now, in reality, the only friend,
the only true friend you're ever going to have is someone who
believes the gospel and tells you the gospel. That is love. And what about hatred? Notice
what he says back in our text. We know that we pass from death
into life, verse 14, because we love the brethren. He that
loveth not his brother abideth in death. You know what it is
to hate? It's to not love. To not love is to hate. Whosoever
hateth his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer
hath eternal life abiding in him. Now, if you hate somebody,
you know what you've done? You've murdered him. Now, what's that
mean? I would say most of the people,
maybe all the people, I hope all the people in this room have
never murdered anybody as far as putting somebody to death
physically. But this is something that I
think I've never really thought of that much as to what it means
to murder. Look in verse 11 of this chapter. For this is the message that
you've heard from the beginning, that you should love one another.
Well, what's that love look like? Well, it doesn't look like Cain.
If you want to know what it looks like, it doesn't look like Cain.
Who was it that wicked one and slew his brother? He murdered
him. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil
and his brother's righteous. Now, to hate is to not wish for
your brother what you don't have. What do I mean by that? Well,
you don't have justification and you sure don't want your
brother to have it. You don't want him to hear the gospel.
You hate eternal life. You don't have eternal life and
you don't want your brother to have it. You'd rather him not
have it. You have no love for the gospel. You don't want your
brother to have any love for the gospel. Now, this man who
is like this is like Cain. What did he do? He murdered his
brother. And what did he murder his brother
over? The Gospel. That's why he murdered his brother,
because of the Gospel. He hated the Gospel that saved
his brother. He didn't agree with... He thought it was unfair. He
didn't like the way God treated his brother and the way He treated
him. And so he murdered his brother over the Gospel. He was a murderer.
You know when you murder somebody? It's when you withhold the Gospel
from them. That's soul murder. That's what that is. That's soul
murder. When you don't want them to hear the gospel, when you
want to hinder them in hearing the gospel, that's the kind of
murder he's talking about. Not merely physical murder, but
soul murder. For instance, David committed
physical murder. Oh, what a horrible thing it
was that he committed, but he didn't commit soul murder. That's
what the man who abides in death does. You read where he said,
no murder hath eternal life in him. Turn with me for a moment
to John chapter 8. Remember that Abel was of that wicked one.
He was of the devil. Turn to John chapter 8, verse
44. Not as Cain, who was of that
wicked one, and so his brother. Now, let's see what all that
means. John chapter 8, verse 44. Ye are of your father, the devil. And the lusts, the wicked desires
of your father, you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning. Who'd he murder? He murdered
Adam and Eve. He was their spiritual murderer. He was the one God used and allowed
to put them in that position to where he had them pass from
life to death. He murdered Adam and Eve. He was a murderer from the beginning.
He, what's it say? He was a murderer from the beginning
and abode not in the truth, because there's no truth in him. When
he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he's a liar and
the father of it. Now, Cain was of his father,
the devil. Just like the devil wanted to
murder Adam and Eve, Cain wanted to murder his brother over the
gospel. Now the man who has passed from
death to life is the man who loves the brethren. The one who
does not love is abiding or remaining in death. He's still in death,
and that's where he's going to stay. And then John tells us,
you know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.
And this is talking, this murder that he's speaking of is soul
murder. Murder, not identifying with
the gospel, identifying with a false gospel, preaching another
gospel, not standing for the gospel. That is soul murder. That's what that's talking about.
Now, the one who loves his brother is the one who has eternal life
abiding in him. And this thing of death, life, love and hatred,
we learn something about what eternal life actually is. You know, it's a mysterious thing
to talk about eternal life, isn't it? A life that never had a beginning,
a life that's the life of God in the soul, eternal life, what
every believer possesses. Eternal life, first of all, is
the life of Christ. That makes it easier to grasp. It's the life of Christ. In Him
was life, and the life was the light of men. I am the way, the
truth, and the life. Now, according to the scriptures,
His life is the life of the believer. It is a life that never had a
beginning and will never end. How did it never have a beginning
and never an end? Well, does Christ ever have a
beginning? Will Christ ever have an end?
If his life is my life before God, and this is the believer's
hope, this is our hope of justification. When my name is called on Judgment
Day, The life of Jesus Christ the Lord, the perfect life that
he worked out, is my life. It's my justification. Colossians
3, 4 says, when Christ, who is our life, shall appear. And the
who is, is in italics, is when Christ, our life, That's my life
before God, the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why I have
confidence on Judgment Day. When my name is called, I'm going
to have a perfect life, the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
there's a life that never had a beginning, and it'll never
end. And that is my life before God. That is eternal life, the life
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this thing of eternal life,
if I have the life of Christ, You know what Christ has? A capacity
to know God. No man knows the Father, save
the Son. And he to whomsoever the Son
will reveal Him. This is eternal life. John chapter
17, verse 3. This is eternal life, that they
might know Thee. the only true God. And Jesus Christ whom thou hast
sent. Now if you have eternal life,
you know what that means? That means you know God. That means
you have the capacity to know God. That means you have the
fitness to know God. Because Christ is your life. He's equal to the Father. If
His life is your life, you have a Capacity to know God. Capacity to have fellowship with
God. I love that scripture in 1 Corinthians 1.30, Of Him are
you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us. Wisdom. I'm
wise enough to have fellowship with God because He is my wisdom. He's made unto us righteousness. God can embrace me as perfectly
righteous. I can have fellowship with God.
He's made unto us sanctification. He is my holiness. You know one
thing I'm real thankful for, there's no such thing as getting
more holy. I'm holy in Christ Jesus, can't get any holier.
I'm holy to where God embraces me and says, he smells good,
he's perfectly holy, he's righteous in my sight, he is my redemption,
he is my full deliverance. Eternal life. is the life of
Christ, it's the capacity to know the living God, and eternal
life is the gift of God. It's something He gives you.
The wages of sin is death. The gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, there's another reason why
I know I can have eternal life, because it's His free gift. He
gives it. John chapter 17 verse 2, Thou
hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal
life to as many as Thou hast given him. It's the gift of the
Spirit. If any man thirsts, let him come
to me and drink. As the scripture says, out of
his belly shall flow rivers of living water. This he spake of
the Spirit. This eternal life is God the
Holy Spirit springing up within you. Now all this is not understood. It's believed. It's experienced
and it's believed. The life of God in the soul.
And let me tell you one way that you can know. I don't want to
leave this out. The only reason you know of your
own sinfulness is because of this eternal life you have. You
wouldn't have any capacity to understand your own sinfulness
and need of Christ and need of His grace unless you had this
thing called eternal life. It finds as its fountain divine
election. As many as were ordained to eternal
life believed. I love those scriptures about
the book of life. The Lamb's book of life with
the names of all of God's elect written in it. In that one book,
the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of
the world. And since it's a gift of his
grace, that means it's not given. God doesn't give it in response
to something you do. you hear that? God does not give
the gift of eternal life in response to something you do. He gives
it in response to His Son, what He did. Turn with me to Titus
chapter 3. Verse five, not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by
the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost,
which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior,
that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life. And here's the hope of eternal
life, justification by grace. That's simple. Justification. That means before God, right
now, I've never sinned. I really haven't, if I'm justified.
I'm perfect in Christ Jesus. My sin is put away. And that
is where that eternal life comes from. Now, there are three evidences
of eternal life. You can know whether or not you
have eternal life by these three evidences. Number one, faith. Faith. Faith is the evidence
of eternal life. If you don't believe the gospel,
you don't have eternal life. But faith is the evidence of eternal
life. You believe His words. John 3,
36. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. John 5, 24. He that heareth my
word. I hear what He's saying. Salvation's
of the Lord. I hear that. I love His word. I love what his word revealed.
He that heareth his word, or he that heareth my word, and
believeth on him that sent me. I believe that God sent him,
do you? I believe he was before God sent
him. I believe he's eternal. I believe
God sent him. And I believe that he did what
God sent him to do. Now, anybody who hears his word,
and believes on Him that sent Him, what does the Lord say? He hath eternal life. That means He's got it. He's
got it. If you believe the gospel, you
have eternal life. John chapter 6 verse 40, this
is the will of Him that sent me, that everyone that seeth
the Son and believeth on Him may have everlasting life. Faith, is the evidence of things
not seen. Now, I can't see my eternal life.
I can't look at myself and say, yeah, I can't see it. It's not
something that I can observe by observation. It's not something
that I can, yeah, must have eternal life. What is the evidence? Faith. What's the evidence God's done
something for you? You rely on Christ only. You look nowhere
else. He's all you. Need, he's all
you have, he's all you want. Faith in Christ. If you have
faith in Christ, if you look to him only, you have everlasting
life. The second evidence of having
everlasting life is repentance. Acts 11, 18, then hath God granted
also to the Gentiles repentance of unto life. Repentance unto
life. Now repentance, it's such a shame
that preachers have made this thing of repentance how you feel
about sin. Have you repented of your sin?
Have you repented of your sins? Well, did you know the Bible
never says anything about you repenting of your sins? That
phrase is not found in the scriptures. It's not in there. Now I want
to have the right attitude about my sin. I want to not sin. I want to be delivered from my
sin, but repentance is not. Understand this. Repentance is
not you're real sorry for your sin, and you intend to never
commit that sin again. You ought to feel that way, but
that's not repentance. If that's what repentance is, nobody in
this room's ever really repented. You haven't been sorry enough,
and name me one sin that you've completely stopped in your heart. You haven't stopped any of them
in that sense. So that's not what repentance is. Repentance is a change of mind about God. You used to dislike His sovereignty.
You love it now. You used to dislike His holiness.
Too strict. You love it now. You admire Him.
you used to dislike as justice. You thought it was just too much.
You love it now. You really believe that it is
justice that causes you to be saved. You understand the gospel.
You've had a complete change of mind about God. Repentance
is a change of mind about yourself. You used to think that if you
were given the right conditions and put in the right place, you'd
be good. You don't believe that anymore.
You've changed your mind about yourself. You used to think that
you had a free will. You know you don't now. You know
your will's under the bondage of sin. There's all kinds of
things you used to believe about yourself that you don't believe
anymore. You've repented. and you have repented of anything
that's contrary to Christ being all in your salvation. You've
repented. You don't have anything to do
with anything that doesn't exalt Christ as everything in your
salvation. Now that's what repentance unto
life is. When you have life, you'll have this repentance unto
life. Beloved, it's not a one-time act. It's not something you do
once. It's something you do all the
time. Job said, I've heard of thee
with the hearing of the ear, but now mine eyes have seen thee,
wherefore I hate myself and repent in dust and ashes. The third evidence is love. By this we know we pass from
death to life because we love the brethren. We want them to
have what we have, and we will be pleased, as I've already said,
if they love Christ more than they love us. Wouldn't you be
pleased if I loved Christ more than I did you? If you loved
Christ, you would. You certainly would. And eternal life cannot
be separated from the words of eternal life. In other words,
it can't be separated from the actual content of the gospel. John 6, verse 63, the words that
I speak unto you, their spirit, their life. Life. To whom shall we go? Thou hast
the words of life. Do you find the words of Christ
to be words of life? Everything is dependent on what
He says. Now, eternal life cannot be separated from the words of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this eternal life is to
be laid hold of, lay hold upon eternal life. I want to do that,
whatever it means. Somebody says, how do you do
it? Well, here's the best way I can think of laying hold of
eternal life. Whosoever will, let him take
the water of life freely. With no cause in you, take it. And that is to lay hold upon
eternal life. I want to look at one last scripture. Turn to John chapter 20. While you're turning there, you
can know you have eternal life. These things have I written unto
you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may
know you have eternal life. And to believe in him, you might
have life through his name. Now look in John chapter 20. Verse 30. And many other signs truly did
Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written
in this book. Can you imagine all the things
those guys saw over that three year period? You know, I was
a I was, I don't know why I was thinking about this, but I was
reading out of John chapter 17, and I was thinking about the
disciples listening to that prayer. And I bet sometimes they opened
their eyes and looked at each other, too. I mean, they were
just amazed and astounded. And you think of all the things
that would have taken place during that three year period, the many
things that are not written in this book. But, verse 31, these
are written. Everything that is written is
written for this purpose. These are written that you might
believe that you are saved. That Christ died for you. That
you've been born again. No! These things are written that
you might believe that Jesus is the Christ. Do you believe
that? These things are written that
you might believe that Jesus is the Son of God. Do you believe
that? And that believing, you might
have life. You see that? Believing. Believing
that he is the Christ, God's prophet, God's priest, God's
king, believing that he is the son of God. Now understand, faith
has nothing to do with what you believe about yourself. It really doesn't. That falls
into the realm of assurance. But true faith has absolutely
nothing to do with what you believe about yourself. It has wholly,
100%, what you believe regarding Him. Do you believe He's the Christ?
Do you believe He's the Son of God? Then you have life through
His name. Now where there's life, there's
love. where there's death, there's
hatred. Hatred for the gospel. Hatred
for the way of salvation. You know, I got a lot of things
I reckon that I would say are wrong with me. You probably think
the same thing about yourself. But I know I have eternal life. the life of God in my soul. And as soon as I say that, I
think, what if you don't? So I shouldn't say that. I shouldn't
sit there and say, I know I have eternal life. I know that Jesus
is the Christ, the son of the living God. That's what I know.
And to be honest with you, I don't know anything else. And we'll
leave it right there. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you that thy son Jesus is the Christ,
your prophet, your priest, and your king, the son of the living God. Lord,
give us grace simply to behold him. We thank you for the simplicity
of the gospel. We thank you for the simplicity
of faith. Lord, we thank you for the gift
of eternal life. In Christ's blessed name, we
pray. Matt, could you come?