Now, if you'll open your Bibles
with me to the book of I John, I'm going to read a text for
this message. I John chapter 4, chapter 3,
I John 3, verse 14, I John 3, 14. We know, we know that we, have passed from death unto life. We know that we have passed from
death unto life. Now, with deep sincerity, I declare
publicly that I do not want to be guilty of presumption in regard
to my relationship with the living God. God deliver us from presuming,
and I fear that many do this. I fear that many preachers hide
in the ministry, church officers hide in their offices, teachers,
people who have attended church and been faithful to the covenant
of their church or to the standards of their church hide in these
outward deeds. I fear many do. I don't want
to be guilty of presumption, of laying claim to something
in reality I do not have, to hope that I do not have. I want
to guard against this. The Word of God is filled with
warnings to false professors. It says, Take heed, brethren,
lest there be found in you. That's written to the professing
Christians, to church members, to professing believers, to people
like you and me. Paul said, Take heed, brethren,
lest there be found in you an evil heart of unbelief in departing
from the living God. He says in Hebrews 4.1, which
I read this morning, Let us therefore fear. Let us. Right here, let
us from pulpit to pew, let us fear, lest a promise being left
to us of these good things to come, this rest in Christ Jesus,
that we fall short of it. He said in 2 Corinthians 13,
5, examine yourselves, that's writing to the church, whether
you be in the faith. Don't you knock your own selves,
how that Christ is in you, or you're reprobate? And Peter said,
give diligence, great concern, to make your calling and election
sure. If you do this, you'll never
fail. The Bible's full of warnings, and our Lord said, many, many,
many, not a few, but many, will say to me in that day, why Lord,
we preached in your name. We did many wonderful works. Cast out devils? I never knew
you. So this troubles me, and I think
about it often, and I want to preach in such a fashion that
I give not to myself or to any of my heroes any reason to presume
to grow indifferent and careless in regard to their relationship
with God. I want us to give diligence,
diligence. I want us to strive to enter
in. I want us to lay hold of Christ. take the kingdom of God
by violence and force. And yet, I don't want to rob
myself or you of the joy and the peace and the rest that comes
from knowing Christ. There's a balance there that
it's difficult to reach. But the Word of God is filled
not only with warnings to false professors, but it's filled with
precious promises to believers. It's filled with comfort and
hope for believers. Scripture says, as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. He that believeth on the Son
hath life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life.
These things are written unto you, that you might believe on
the name of the Son of God, and believing, you might have life.
That's what it says. This is the record God hath given
us. He hasn't sold it to us. He's
given us eternal life. God hath given us eternal life,
and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son of God hath
life. And we know that the Son has
come and given us an understanding that we may know him that is
true, and this is the true God, and this is eternal life. But
here's what causes us to get unbalanced, I believe. We're
preaching to a religious world that's filled with false hope
based on a system of works. Now that's what causes us to
maybe neglect the people of God, the true children of God. Maybe
that's what leads us to rob them of that rest and assurance and
confidence and that blessed treasure of resting in Christ, because
we're preaching and we know it. We're preaching to a religious
world filled with false hope based upon works of the flesh. And yet we must not rob the people
of God of that blessed treasure, which is assurance of an interest
in Christ and the blessings of peace and joy and rest that go
with that assurance. Let me just quote some of these
scriptures. I do want you to turn to 2 Samuel 23, but David
said, With all confidence, the Lord is my shepherd. The Lord
is my shepherd. I shall not walk. He leadeth
me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth
me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though
I walk through a valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no
evil. He's with me. His rod and staff comfort me. My cup runneth over. Surely in
goodness Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the
days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord." David
spoke with an assurance, with a confidence, with a firm hope. And then in 2 Samuel 23, these
be the last words of David. He says in verse 5, "...although
my house be not so with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordering in all things, and sure, this is my salvation."
And this is all my desire, although he make it not to grow." Job
talked like that. He said, I know that my Redeemer
liveth. I know that he liveth. And I
know he'll stand on this earth. And the worms after my skin,
worms destroy this body, in my flesh I'll see the Lord. And
then the Apostle Peter, the Apostle Peter spoke very strongly. He said, And Lord Jesus said,
do you love me? He said, Lord, you know I love
you. You know I love you. You know everything. And you
know I love you. And then over here in the book
of 1 John, over 26 times in the book of 1 John, John uses the
word, know. Know. And I've chosen as my text
here, verse 14, 1 John 3, we know. We know that we pass from death
unto life because we love the brethren. Because we love the
brethren. Now there are three things that
I want examined here and I think it's going to help us. I think
it's going to help us a great deal to understand some things
and also those who really know Christ and love Christ and have
a saving interest in Christ, I believe you're going out of
here with a stronger confidence and assurance than you've ever
had before. There are three things I want
us to look at. First of all, we know that we
were dead. He said we have passed from death,
so we know we were dead. What does it mean to be spiritually
dead? Secondly, I'm going to deal with this, we know that
we've undergone a change. A change has taken place. And
then thirdly, how do we know that that change has taken place?
What are some of the evidences? Well, the first question is this. The first matter I want to deal
with is this. John says we know that we've
passed from death. Now, this is one of the most
difficult things in the world to define, and that is spiritual
death. But I'm not talking about physical
death. John says we have passed from
death to life. We were dead spiritually. I know
now. When I was dead spiritually,
I didn't know. But I know now that I was dead spiritually,
and I know what spiritual death consists of. I know there are
people who are dead spiritually who do not know they're dead
spiritually. In fact, if they knew they were dead spiritually,
they wouldn't be dead. I'm not talking about a physical
death, I'm not talking about a mental death, and please, I'm
not even talking about religious death. I'm talking about spiritual
death. Now, I was dead spiritually.
I was very much alive to the world. I was very much alive
to self. I was very much alive to materialism,
and I was very much alive to religion. To religion. I was very much alive to a conscience. I was very much alive to a religious
tradition, but I was dead spiritually. Dead spiritually. Now, here's
what it means to be dead spiritually. I won't give you these things.
You listen carefully to them. A man is dead spiritually who
has no true knowledge of the attributes and character of the
living God. That's exactly right. He's dead
spiritually. Turn to Romans 10. Now, listen
to me. In the 10th chapter of Romans,
our Lord, the Apostle Paul, is speaking here of a very religious
nation, a very religious people. And he says in Romans 10, my
brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that
they might be saved. I bear them record they have
a zeal of God. They have an interest in God.
They have an enthusiasm for God, but not according to knowledge. for they are ignorant of God's
holiness. And that's what it means to be
dead spiritually. First of all, it means to be
ignorant of God's holiness. Now, a man can be dead spiritually
and have a God. A man can be dead spiritually
and have a zeal for God, an interest in God, an enthusiasm for God.
In fact, most everybody does, because Almighty God has given
every man that comes into this world some light and conscience. That's right. Mentally and emotionally. This world is religious. He said to the Pharisees, he
said, you neither know me nor my father. In Psalm 50, David
wrote, you thought I was altogether such a one as yourself. A man
may be very religious, he may have a zeal for God and an interest
and enthusiasm for God, and yet not have a true knowledge of
God, and the man who does not have a true knowledge of God,
Tom, is dead spiritually. He's alive mentally, he's alive
emotionally, he's alive physically, he's alive traditionally, he's
alive religiously, he's alive morally, respecting the standards
of men. He cares about his character,
he cares about his reputation, he cares about what men think
about him, he even thinks about heaven and hell, but if he doesn't
know God in his true character, he's dead spiritually. That's
so. And then secondly, the man who's
dead spiritually is without a true knowledge of sin. Now we had
an awareness, I had an awareness of right and wrong. There's not
anybody in the world that doesn't have an awareness of right and
wrong and some knowledge of what's right and what's wrong. Turn
to Romans 2 and let me show you that. Romans chapter 2. And my
friends, this is the very area where most religionists are missing
it. You'll never know what happened on the cross until you find out
what happened in the garden. You'll never have, like John
says, a need for Christ until you're convinced of what sin
is. What sin is, not just what The act of sin consists of what
sin is, and a man who doesn't know what sin is, he doesn't
know it because he's dead spiritually. He's acutely alive religiously,
emotionally, mentally, materially, and all these other ways, but
dead spiritually. When the light went out in the
soul, we lost a revelation of God's glory and a knowledge of
ourselves. In Romans 2 it says here, listen
to it, in verse 14, when the Gentiles, who's the Gentiles?
Pagans. Pagans. They didn't have a tabernacle
or a priest or an atonement or anything. He's talking about
the heathen. When the heathen, which have not the law, they
don't have these things of God. When they do by nature, the things
contained in the law, that is, they know it's wrong to kill
a fellow. A heathen, hot and tight, in the pagan, in the darkness
of Africa, knows it's wrong, kills somebody. Who told him
it was wrong? He has a conscience. God gave
him. He's not dead. In that fashion,
he knows it's wrong. Go on. They are law unto themselves,
and they show the work of the law written in their hearts,
their conscience bearing witness in their thoughts, and meanwhile,
accusing or else excusing one another. Yes, we had an awareness
of right and wrong, we had our standards, we had our system
of morality, but we had no awareness, no real knowledge of the principle
and nature of sin as it relates to God. That's the problem. And a man who does not have an
understanding of sin, his sin, not the world's sin, other people's
sin, his sin in relation to God is dead spiritually. I don't
care how much morality he has or lack of it. I don't care how
much he knows about standards and character and reputation
and laws and do's and don'ts. The Pharisee is a perfect example. I thank you, Lord, I'm not like
other men. I fast, I tithe. I give alms,
I don't commit adultery, I'm not an extortioner, I'm not an
unjust, I'm not like that publican, but he was dead spiritually. He did not know sin. He neither
knew God nor sin. I hope you see what I'm saying.
This is what it is to be dead spiritually. It says, you hath
be quickened who were dead. We have passed from death, spiritual
death. A man who is spiritually alive
knows God. A man who's spiritually alive
has an awareness and an understanding and a discernment of sin. Thirdly,
we were without a hunger and thirst for his holiness. Any
man that's satisfied with his own holiness is dead spiritually. Any man who's satisfied with
his fig leaf apron of righteousness is dead spiritually. He's dead.
He don't feel the heat. He doesn't feel the cold. He
doesn't feel the searchlight of God's wrath. He doesn't feel
the sovereign holy eyes of God. He doesn't feel naked. He feels
comfortable. Any man who's satisfied with
the filthy rags of his own righteousness is dead. He's dead spiritually. He'd be ashamed of his rags if
he wasn't dead. He'd be ashamed to claim, look
at me all dressed up. Well, you're not dressed up.
Everybody that can see knows he's not dressed up. Everybody
that's not dumb knows he's not dressed up. Everybody that's
blind thinks he's dressed up because they're dressed just
like him. You see what I'm saying? We didn't hunger for God's holiness. We went about to establish our
own righteousness. We were filled with praise for
our works, and praise for our deeds, and praise for our goodness,
and we heavily criticized everybody that wasn't as good as we were.
Dead! Anytime I hear a man bragging
about his holiness, I say, dead. Anytime I hear a man talking
about his goodness, I say, dead. If he wasn't dead, he'd feel
the draft. If he wasn't dead, he'd feel the heat. If he wasn't
dead, he'd see God's anger. He'd see God's frown. If he wasn't
dead, but he's dead! Oh, he's alive physically. He's
alive mentally. He's alive religiously. He's
playing religion. He's playing church. He's got
aspirations for heaven. He's got fears of hell. He's
going about to establish his own righteousness. But he has
no hunger and thirst for God's holiness. He's dead. See what
I'm saying? Dead. We were dead. And we forcibly were without
true repentance. Oh, we had earthly sorrow. We
cared about our reputations, very much cared about our reputations. We were without true repentance.
We were without godly sorrow. We were without faith. We had
traditional faith. We had faith in our creeds and
faith in our catechisms and faith in our traditions, but we had
no knowledge of the true redemptive work of Christ. How can God be
just and justifier? The dead men don't care. How
can Almighty God be holy and put away the sins of unholy people
that didn't interest or concern me? I had my profession of religion. I had my traditions. I had my
little earth with sorrow and my traditional faith. What did
I care for true heartfelt repentance? What did I care for mourning
apart? What did I care for weeping before
God? What did I care for falling before
the altar? What do I care for looking to
the cross? What do I care for the cleansing blood? What do
I care for the redeeming sacrifice? What care I for the justice of
God and the righteousness of God and the holiness of God,
whether it's satisfied or not? I'm bound for the promised land. I don't care how I get there.
Dead. Dead. A man that's not caring
for the holiness of God is dead. A man that does not care for
the justice and righteousness of God is dead. A man who does
not care whether the law is honored or satisfied is dead, because
he doesn't see that the whole universe is in jeopardy if God
ceases to be God. If God saves one sinner at the
expense of his perfect holiness, the whole universe is in jeopardy.
If God Almighty lets one sin go unpunished, his justice is
denied and his throne is tainted, and we're done for. And angels
and creatures and everybody else is done for. It's a white family.
Fifthly, we were without prayer. Oh no, I prayed. Sure you did.
We prayed formally just like everybody else. Just like the
athlete I heard the other day on television. He said, I want
to thank the good Lord for letting me win. Well, when he lost, I
didn't hear him thanking the good Lord for letting him lose. No, I didn't. I didn't hear him
thanking the good Lord for in his blessed providence sending
him some affliction. No, sir, we prayed just like
everybody else. We prayed about materialism because
we're materialistic. We prayed about health and wealth
and all these other things. We prayed when things were going
our way, and then we found fault with God's providence when they
didn't. We didn't have the spirit of thanksgiving. We prayed formally. We thought we were heard for
our much speaking. We thought we were heard for
the way we formed our prayers and said our beautiful prayers.
We knew nothing about groanings which cannot be uttered. We knew
nothing about laying before God. We knew nothing about insufficiency. We knew nothing about prayers
of the heart, intercession of the Holy Spirit. We always knew
what to ask for. We always knew what to say. Death. Death. And then in the sixth
place, we were without a genuine love for him. Genuine love. I'm not talking about a feigned
love. I'm not talking about a smile on the outside and hatred in
the heart. I'm not talking about a warm hand clasp while the heart
devises mischief. I'm talking about a genuine love
for Christ and a genuine love for his gospel and a genuine
love for his people and a genuine love for his glory. Our interest
was making it to heaven, not being with Christ. Our interest
was making it over yonder, not sharing his eternal glory. And
then in the seventh, dead. And then in the seventh place,
we were filled with pride. Oh, reeking with it. Pride of
race, pride of place, pride of face, and pride of grace. We
knew nothing about that scripture that says, Who maketh thee to
differ? What hast thou that thou didst not receive? We knew nothing
of that scripture that says a man can receive nothing except it
be given him from above. We were filled with malice. self-righteousness,
covetousness, idolatry, all these works of darkness. Oh, on the
outside we appeared beautiful to men. On the outside we were
like a whited sepulchre with the mown grass and the planted
flowers, but on the inside God saw rottenness, filthy, dirty
bones, dead men's bones, corruption. We were dead, rotten and corrupt. That's what it is to be dead
spiritually. And I say unto you, that definition
will hold wherever you want to apply it, wherever you want to
apply it. And people whom we think to be
least dead are the deadest. When a man is dead in sin, he
does not know. If a man's dead physically, he
knows it. If a man's dead mentally, he knows it. He knows he can't
think. He knows he's senile, he knows he's got hardening of
the arteries and not thinking, he knows it. But a man will be
dead spiritually and brag on how much he lives. I say unto you this, and this
is the thing that makes it so difficult for us to discern.
We look on the outward appearance, that's what it says on our bulletin
board. We look on the outward countenance. God looks on the
heart. And that's where the deadness
is, it's within. It's within, and a man who does not have a
knowledge of the glory of God, of the nature of sin, of the
righteousness of Christ, is dead. Because you see, this is spiritual
knowledge, this is spiritual understanding, this is spiritual
life, and these things can only be known as a man is given life
spiritually, as God turns on the light. And I'll say this to you, and
I know a lot of folks are having a little bit of trouble with
this, especially a lot of preachers. They've come to a knowledge of
these things, they say they have, and they go back to that time
back there years ago when they lay in Arminianism and freewillism
and semi-Pelagianism and knew nothing of these things. They
didn't preach them, didn't believe them. Didn't tell their church
about it. But they still saved back then.
No, they weren't. They were dead. They were dead. Is that right, Sid? They were
dead. I was dead. Till I heard the gospel and God
gave me sight, I was dead. Till I heard the gospel and God
gave me ears, I was dead. Till I heard the gospel and God
gave me life, I was dead. I was alive physically, traditionally,
religiously, mentally, emotionally, and all these other things, but
I was dead spiritually. dead. If you're not dead, you
know these things. If you're not dead, you breathe. If you're not dead, you see.
If you're not dead, you hear. If you're not dead, you speak.
If you don't hear, speak, breathe, you're dead. And a man who does
not hear God and see God and love God is dead spiritually. He's dead to God. That's what
I'm saying. All right, here's the second
thing. We've undergone a change. It says we have passed. We know
this. We know we have passed from death,
spiritual death, to life, to life. And let me tell you something. When our Lord stood there by
the grave of Lazarus, he said, roll away the stone. Lazarus
was dead. He'd been dead four days. They
said, he stinketh. Lifeless, he stinketh. And our
Lord said, Lazarus, come forth. And old Lazarus walked out of
the grave. He's alive. He's alive. He's alive to the sunshine. He's
alive to the cooling breeze. He's alive to the touch of his
loved ones. He's alive to the taste of food. He's alive to the feeling of
the cold or the heat. He's alive. He's sensitive. He's
alive. He was dead. Now he's alive. And that's what John said, I
know I was dead, and now I'm alive. How do I know? Number
one, I am sensitive, and I see, and I touch, and I feel, and
I have a knowledge of the living God. I've been brought out of
my dark, physical, religious, traditional grave, and I've been
brought out into the sunshine of his presence. I see his sovereignty. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, eternal
life is to know Thee, the only true God. Eternal life. Now listen to me. I'm going to
show you that in John chapter 17. John 17. If you have some
doubts about what I'm saying, a man who doesn't know God is
dead. He may know the catechism or the doctrine. He may know
the law. He may know all these things, but he's dead if he doesn't
know God. I mean God as He's revealed in His Word. John 17.3,
our Lord said, this is life eternal. This is life. Eternal life, my
friend, when the Bible uses that term, is not how long it's going
to last. That's not what He's talking about. Everybody's going
to live forever, even folks in hell. everlasting death, everlasting
destruction. But life eternal is spiritual
life. It's the life of God. And this
is the life of God that they might know thee, the only true
God. I know God. I know God is sovereign. I know God is holy. He hath come
and given us an understanding, a knowledge of God. They said,
David, where is your God? He said, Our God is in the heavens.
He hath done whatsoever he pleased, whatsoever the Lord pleased that
did he in heaven, earth, and the seas, and all these places.
I know his sovereignty, his justice, his righteousness, his holiness,
his love, his truth, his beauty, his glory. Lazarus came out into
the sunshine, into the light of God's character. And that's
when a man lives, when he comes to know God. Dead men worship
dead gods. Dead men, he said, they make
gods that are like those that make them. That's it. But when a man lives spiritually,
he knows God. Secondly, we have a spirit. I know we live. I know we pass
from death and life because we have a scriptural and spiritual
knowledge of sin. Turn to Romans 7. Romans 7. Romans chapter 7. Listen to Paul.
Romans 7, verse 7, what shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known
sin, but by the law. Now wait a minute. This is a
man who was 40 years old or older. This was a man who was raised
in a religious home. Mother and daddy were Jews. He
was circumcised when he was 8 days old. He was purified. There was
all these other Things were done for him according to the Levitical
law. He went to school as the greatest religious teacher of
his day, Gamaliel. He grew up to be the most religious
man of his day. He was known as an educated,
intellectual theologian. He killed for what he believed. He was a religionist. He was
moral. He said, concerning the law, I was blameless. And yet
here he says, listen, I didn't even know sin. I didn't know
sin. Wait a minute, Paul, you knew
the law, but I didn't know sin. Well, you knew it was wrong to
kill, but it didn't know sin. You knew it was wrong to commit
adultery, but it didn't know sin. You knew it was wrong to
lie, but it didn't know sin. What in the world is he talking
about? He said, I had not known lust, except the law said, Thou
shalt not covet. But sin, taken occasion by the
commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence without
the law. That sin was dormant and dead,
and I was dead with it. He says in verse 9, I was alive
without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived
and myself died. Old Paul, Saul of Tarsus died,
the old nature died, I came alive to God. I saw what sin was. And then he goes down here and
tells us what it is. He said in verse 14, listen,
we know the law is spiritual, but I'm carnal. So here's this
religious man now, coming to knowledge of sin, I'm carnal.
Verse 15, for what I do, I don't agree with. And what I would
do, that do I not. What I hate, that do I. Look
at verse 18, I know in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. You mean this is the same man talking? Same man. The same
man that was such a Pharisee and such a self-righteous man,
the same man that said, I don't have any sin, I'm perfect, I'm
holy, here he is talking about, in my flesh dwelleth. He's alive
now, he was dead. He was a religious dead man.
And now God gave him life and he sees what sin is. Verse 19,
the good that I would, I do not. The evil I would not do, that's
what I do. Verse 24, O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from this body, the body of this death? What are you saying, Preacher? I'm saying that I believe we've
passed from death unto life when we have an understanding, a discernment,
some knowledge of who God is. And when God the Holy Ghost,
through his word, gives us some conception or understanding of
what sin is, sin is a principle. It's a nature. It's a body of
death. It's an old man that lives in
all of us by birth and by nature and by practice. It's that old
nature that makes even our goodness to be sin, makes even our thoughts
of righteousness to be evil. It permeates. It's like leaven. It leaveneth the whole lump.
It contaminates everything that we touch and everything that
we say and everything that we think and everything that we
do. That's the reason Paul, he said, in my flesh dwelleth no
good thing. No good! No good! Oh, wretched man that I am. Wretched. That man's alive. He's sensitive. You take a dead
man and stick him with a pen, he doesn't move. But you take
a man who's alive and stick him, he feels it. And the believer's
alive, he feels every offense. He feels every violation. He feels every act of ill conduct. He feels it. He feels it because
he knows it's sin. And then thirdly, we pass from
death unto life because we have a spiritual, scriptural knowledge
of the law of God and of our own inability. Turn to Romans
3. Romans 3, listen to this. In Romans 3, verse 19, dead men
can't interpret God's law, nor their conduct in the light of
God's law. Romans 3, verse 19, we know this,
we know this, that what things wherever the law saith, the holy
law of God, it saith to those who are under the law, and I'm
talking about the whole Word of God, the whole Word of God. that every mouth may be stopped,
and all the world become guilty before God." That man's alive.
He's alive. He sees the holiness of the law,
he sees his own inability, and he sees the law as just in charging
him with guilt. Therefore, this man that lives
has come to this conclusion, by the deeds of the law, by the
works of the flesh, there shall no flesh be justified in God's
sight. for by the law is the knowledge
of sin. And then in the fourth place, we have passed from death
because we know who God is. We're growing in that, I'll show
you that in just a moment, but we know who God is, we know what
we are. We are made sensitive and alive to his holiness, to
his beauty, to his glory, to his majesty. We have that mechanical, the
good Lord, or the man upstairs, or the superstar, or these uncomplimentary
titles that men give to God. We speak softly. We speak reverently. We speak with an air or note
of glory. We feel our wretchedness and
our sins. We're sensitive. to the arctic
breeze of our own evil. We're sensitive to the burning
heat of God's law. We're sensitive to our thoughts
and deeds and words and offenses. We're sensitive to the nature
of sin. We long to be done with it. We're sensitive to His holy
law, to His righteousness. We can't attain thereunto. We
want nothing. You who will be under the law,
don't you hear the law? Dead men don't hear it, but living
men hear it. And when they hear it, they back
off. when they hear it, they blush. And then fourthly, we
have a spiritual, scriptural knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. I tell you this, a dead man will
never praise the Lord Jesus. He never will. But a living man,
oh, I tell you, he knows who he is, he knows what he did,
he knows why he did it, that God may be just and justify.
He knows where Christ is now. And he talks with the Apostle
Paul like this. Turn to Philippians 3. This is
a living man speaking. Philippians chapter 3. Look,
if you will, at beginning with verse 7. He talked about his
religious background. He said, those things were gain
to me one time. Gain to me, but I counted them
lost for Christ. 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, I do countenance but dumb, that I may win Christ,
and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness." Let
me tell you something. Dead men have no appetite. Men
who are spiritually alive have an appetite for Christ. They
hunger and they thirst. They hunger and they thirst.
And this is the children's brain. And this is the children's drink.
And his body and his blood are the children's meat and drink.
And living men hunger. That's how they do. I run into folks that have no
spiritual appetite. They're dead. They're dead. They care not for the preaching
of the Word. They care not for the teaching of the Word. They
care not for the fellowship of the saints. They care not for
the sharing and exhorting one another. They care not. They
have no hunger and thirst. dead. Boy, I tell you, dead men
don't eat. You go to the funeral home where
they're embalming bodies back then, they had no Coke machines
and they had no snack bars. That's right. You go to the golf
course out here, they have Coke bars, Coke machines and snack
bars. They got hungry folks. And you show me a man that doesn't
hunger and thirst for the things of God, he's dead. He's dead
as a hammer. I don't care what he, he's not
dead religiously. No sir, I agree with you. No
sir, he's not, he's dead spiritually though. Because spiritual people
have a spiritual hunger for Christ. They never get enough of his
gospel. They never get enough of his glory. They never get
enough of his gospel truth. They're always panting after
the living God. They're hungry. Hungry and thirsty. And then we know we've passed
from death unto life because we believe the gospel. Like the
eunuch said, I believe Jesus is the Christ. And then we know
we've passed from death unto life because of the breath of
prayer. You know what John Newton said
prayer is? Prayer is the breath of a child of God. He said, I'd
just as soon expect a dead man to live, a natural man to live
without breathing as a spiritual man to live without prayer. I'm
not talking about organized prayer totally. I'm talking about when
the heart stays in communion with God, when the heart's in
communication with God. That's prayer, praying without
ceasing, praying continually, glowing in his grace, glowing
in his love, glowing in his mercy. We're alive! We pray! That's
what our Lord said to Ananias. He said, Down there in a street
called Straight is a man called Saul of Tarsus. And old Ananias
said, Lord, I've heard about him. Oh, he's the enemy of the
gospel. No, the Lord said, Behold, he
what? He prayeth. He's alive. He's praying. He's not saying
his prayers, he's praying. He's not having a little talk
with Jesus, he's praying. There's a difference. He's praying. I'm sure he wasn't saying a word
where they could hear him down in the next room, but I tell
you, his heart was communing with God. He's praying. We have passed from death unto
life. You want to hear those just briefly?
Because we have a spiritual knowledge of God. eternal life is to know
God, who he is. We have a spiritual, scriptural
understanding of sin, what it is, and how it lives in us, and
what a conflict we have with it, what a monster it is, how
adverse to God it is. And we see it in things that
nobody else sees it in. Now, the world's conception of
sin is touch not, taste not, handle not. It has to do with
the flesh, The awakened believer's concept of sin is a spiritual
concept. That's exactly right. He knows
what sin is. And then he has a knowledge of
God's holy law and his inability before that law. He has a knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ in his redeeming grace, in his redeeming
work, in his redeeming person, in his redeeming glory, and how
God must be just and justify and how the work of Christ is
essential. He's alive. Only a man spiritually
alive can enter into substitution. Substitution. You know what substitution
is? If you can't enter into substitution, you're dead. Because that's the
very life of God's gospel. That's the very heart of God's
gospel. That's the very center core of
God's gospel, is Christ did it in my place. All that God's holiness
and righteousness and justice required to fulfill that, Christ
became a man and obeyed the law and died for me. Don't you get
weary of that? That's what I'm going to claim
when I walk through the gates of whatever they are. I'm going
to say, Christ died for me. Like old John Jasper, the black
preacher, they said, when you get to heaven, suppose somebody
stops you at the door, like they do down here at the restaurants
and the railroad cars and the depots and all these places,
and stops you black man and says, what right you got to be here?
What you going to say, John Jasper? He said, I'm going to say, I
ain't got no right to be here. I'm not here on my rights. I'm
here on the righteousness of another. And he said, they going
to open it wide and say, come in. come in. If you're here on
his righteousness, come in. Last of all, let's look at our
text one more glimpse, one more glimpse. We know we have passed
from death to life because we love. We love. Who do we love? Now, brethren,
let me tell you something. You can feign righteousness and
you can feign all these other things, but this is a heart, experience and a heart attitude
and a heart condition that you can't faint. Old Satan cannot
imitate love. He can imitate an outward righteousness,
he can imitate prayer, he can imitate, but he can't make you
love what you hate. He can't do it. So I'm saying
this right now. I have evidence that I'm saved
because I say with Peter, Lord, you know I love you. as you are
for yourself. I wouldn't have God any other
way. I hear people say, well, a God of election is a monster.
I wouldn't have him any other way. The God of sovereignty,
I couldn't worship a God like that. I know you did. But I tell
you, if you ever get eyes to see his beauty and glory, that's
the only kind of God you can worship. Who wants a peanut God? Who wants a God that has no hands
but your hands? I might as well not have a God.
This is all He's got. Who wants a God that has no feet
but your feet? Boy, am I in bad shape. Who wants
a God that can't walk through the heavenlies? I can't walk
up there. I love Him just like I love His
Word. I flat love the Word. I was sitting
there listening to Charlie read it while I go, and I thought
that's good evidence that I know the Lord.