Aspects of Eternal Life. by John.

Aspects of eternal life.
John 17:1-5

1. We Christians use the term “Eternal Life” so much that I doubt we really think about what it is.
2. These first verses tell us most clearly that to know God is to live eternally.
(1) That doesn’t mean that knowing God and eternal life are the same thing. It does mean they are inseparable.
(2) You remember the song from a long time ago, “Love and Marriage?” One line says, “Love and marriage go together like a horse and carriage. The point is, you can’t have one without the other.”
(3) The same is absolutely true here. You can’t know God without having eternal life, and if you have eternal life, you know God. Having one requires having the other!
3. So many people, church members included, do not know God.
4. They think they have eternal life because they have spoken the right words, they attend church, and they try to treat people like God wants them to.
5. I’m sure there are many people who are saved and don’t know it. Zechariah 13:6 says, “’What are these wounds on your body?’ he will answer, ‘The wounds I was given at the house of my friends.’” Another translation could be “wounds between your hands.” We believe this to be a prophecy of what will happen when some believers see Christ in heaven. We are sure the next verse is about Jesus. “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.” (You’ll find that in Mt. 26:31.)
It’s obvious those who ask that question have not connected the crucifixion of Jesus with the Lord they love and worship.
6. There are others, as I said, who think they are saved, and they are not. It’s not words we say, nor is it membership in a church. It’s not keeping the Golden Rule either.
7. Let’s look at what eternal life really is, and in the process, we should be able to determine where we stand with God!

I. Eternal life is a relationship.

1. We’ve already talked about that relationship, but let’s go a little further.
2. I think everyone knows “eternal” means life that has no end.
3. When we use the term “everlasting,” it may mean there was a beginning, but that life will never end in the future.
(1) Our word “eternal” and our word “everlasting” both are used to translate “aionion” in Greek.
(2) Aionion is brought over into English as “Eon,” and that means “vast ages.” But the original goes a step further, The Greek word has the definite idea of endlessness in all directions.
(3) Did you ever look at the sky and try to determine where it starts and where it ends? Did you look North, South, East, West? It’s exactly the same in all directions, and according to both creation scientists and evolutionary scientists, the whole universe is expanding! It’s getting bigger and there is no end in sight!
3. Some theologians think God had a beginning. I disagree with them. The Psalmist said of God: “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting.” (Psalm 106: 48) He is everlasting!
4. God told Moses to tell the Israelites that His name was Y,H,W,H. Judging from the rest of the Hebrew language, we think it was pronounced “Ya-way” or “Ya-veh.”
(1) We aren’t 100% sure of the pronunciation or the meaning, but we believe God was telling Moses that His Name is “I AM.”
(2) That logically refers to the timeless quality of God, no beginning, no ending, always present! Present at creation, present now, and present when all this is gone. He is still, “I am.”
5. Today when we are accused of a minor crime, we can go to court, or we can pay the fine. Most of us seem to think being saved is like paying for a minor crime. We write a check, put it in an envelope, drop it in the mail box and never even see the judge!
6. But our sins require much more than that. We must put our trust in Jesus. Then we receive the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit Who is called to stand by us when we meet the judge! We have to meet the judge! ill. I remember the story of a man who went before a Christian judge. He was guilty, and he was found guilty. The judge paid the man’s fine, took the man home with him, fed him and gave him a place to sleep. By that act of kindness, he and that man were related for the rest of their lives! We have to have an experience like that! We are sinners, we have nothing to pay for our sins, God satisfied our debt with the life of His Own Son. Jesus gave His life willingly for us, so that we could be forgiven, and we could become friends of God!
7. Jesus said, “You are my friends if you do what I command.” (John 15:14). That requires a change on our part, but it is natural for us to change when we become children of God.
8. Eternal life is first and foremost a relationship with God.

II. Eternal life is a free gift in Jesus.

1. Ephesians 2:8,9 says concerning salvation, “...it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast.”
2. If God gives it, you can’t buy it, you can’t earn it. It is exactly what God says it is, FREE!
3. So why does God give us eternal life in Jesus?
(1) First of all, He loves us even while we are lost. John 3:16 tells us, “For God so loved the world (that’s us) that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
(2) Second, God loves His Son, and His only born Son Jesus gave His life up willingly to pay for sins, all of them! Not just those we committed yesterday or last year! All of them! That includes your sins in the future!
(3) Third, God always keeps His promises, and He promises to save us when we place our trust in Jesus.
4. People, it is free! But only when we come into the presence of the Father through His Son Jesus!

III. This life in Jesus is really eternal.

1. Now, it may sound like I’m starting over, but I’m not.
2. I am trying to explain an aspect of life with Jesus that many of us don’t understand.
3. Billy Graham said that being saved means, “I will live as long as God lives.” That’s really a good, simple explanation of what eternal life is.
4. Innate in the word eternal, aionion, is this idea that it extends in all directions.
5. That leads me to say that when you put your trust in Jesus and our heavenly Father gives us eternal life, that He gives us part of His own life.
6. Somehow our relationship as children of God becomes really family. ill. When our grandson Brock was a teenager, his mother and father adopted an older brother and sister. That sister was not born into the family. Their blood types and genes are different, but they are family! They are equal with Brock in every way. In the same way, we are partakers of all the family rights and privileges with Jesus. Romans 8:13-17 says, “...you will live because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.”
7. It is not logical to believe that God gives us temporary life.
(1) He says it is eternal. That should settle it!
(2) For us to say, “Yes, it is eternal, but when we sin we lose it!” is simply another way to say God gives temporary life!
(3) Do you know anything about electric circuitry? If a light is burning, like these overhead, you know the electricity is flowing through them, right? Now supposed we hooked some more wires into that circuit with another switch on that circuit, and we pushed the “on” button. Would that light now have a double life? Would it be twice as bright? Would it just flash and burn out? Of course not, it would just keep burning like it is. By the same token, it is silly to think that God, having already provided us with a limited life, would send His Son to die of a cross to give us another limited life on top of the one we already have! There’s no value in that!
(4) The life we are talking about today is one that extends with God over all eternity because He wants it that way! He wants His family around Him just like we like to have our family around us!
8. The life He gives is really eternal!

Conclusion:

1. I think this message needs no particular summation that we haven’t already made.
2. What I want you to do is consider your relationship with the Lord. Is it like you might have with a teacher, a doctor, a policeman, or is it like you have with someone you love with all your heart?
3. Let’s bow our heads and think about that. You may want to talk to the Lord about it.
Shall we bow right now?

Period of Silence....

4. I want to invite you to deepen your relationship with the Lord.
(1) You can address Him as your Father. He is!
(2) You can confess your sins to Him. He will forgive you.
(3) If you do not have a relationship with Him, you can determine to open one right now by making Jesus your Lord and Savior. You can do that in prayer, and you may want to share that with all of us who love you.
5. Father, we are your children. We love you. Help us to be constantly aware of the wonderful life you have given to us. Thanks for making our adoption in Jesus permanent, and for making us your children!

Emmanuel Community Church 10/16/2005

Human Beings Want to Be Clean! by John.

Human Beings Want to be Clean.
Isaiah 1:18

1. We live in an age of unprecedented cleanliness, at least in this country.
2. People used to take a bath a couple of times a year. Now, it’s frequently twice a day!
3. We spend millions on disinfectants, insecticides, and various other cleansing, purifying agents.
4. We have signs in restaurants, service stations, convenience stores and school washrooms saying attendants must wash their hands before leaving.
5. Plastic gloves are a requirement for many food handlers, and no one thinks of drinking from a cup or glass someone else has used.
6. I still remember when there was a bucket of cold well water in grandma’s kitchen with a dipper either floating in it, or hanging nearby. The whole family, and any thirsty visitors were pointed to that bucket and dipper!
7. Cleanliness is important to us, isn’t it?
8. It has always been important even as far back as Biblical days. It was important in Old English Shakespearean days, too.
9. I remember vividly the account of Lady MacBeth killing the good king Duncan to promote her husband in rank. A single drop of blood fell on her hand. She wiped it away, but that drop of Duncan’s blood haunted her. She washed over and over again, and she finally lost her mind because of the guilt she carried in her heart.
10. She wasn’t a lot different from us. We accumulate sin whether anyone tells us we do or not. As we age, that sin cries out to us like the blood of Abel cried out to God, and we begin to yearn to be cleansed and to be clean! Remember what it is like to shower, wash your hair, and then dress again? Clean! What a wonderful feeling! But it does not compare with the feeling that comes when we know our sins are forgiven, and we stand in newness of life before God and the world.
11. Our human race has no idea what it takes to cleanse a soul of its sin. God knows, and God alone can provide a way for us to be clean.
12. Isaiah cried out the words of God to the people of Israel, “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though you sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”
13. We usually let that verse stand alone today, but the context is vitally important.

I. The Mosaic Covenant is Conditional, and this is part of it.

1. From v 1, God tells us Israel was rebellious.
2. Then he tells us that their offerings, their holy days and their sacred meetings were worthless!
3. He said He not only did not like them, but that He could not bear them! ill. When I was a very small boy, I loved to go to Denton’s Dairy. They had an ice cream bar. My sister-in-law took me there one day, and she persuaded me to try a strawberry cone. It was delicious, but before we left I was feeling queasy. Before we reached the car, all that I had eaten was on the pavement! For years after that, I could not stand the sight or thought of strawberry ice cream! Folks religious rituals by lost people make God sick at His stomach!
4. After He gave them the promise of v. 18, He followed it with two conditions.
(1) “Willing and obedient.” They needed to decide to do things God’s way. If they did what He commanded they would take to be blessed.
(2) “resist and rebel.” If they resisted and refused to keep God’s commandments, they would perish by the sword!
5. People, none of us can carry out God’s commands as we are! That requires a tremendous change, and a lot of spiritual help!
6. Now let’s look at v. 18. Why do we usually use it alone today?

II. The First Words are an Invitation.

1. “Come now, let us reason together.”
2. That tells us God is stretching His hand out to help us!
3. Most everyone recognizes that truth, but many go astray immediately.
4. There are probably hundreds of popular misconceptions. Let’s look at a few.
(1) If you want to go to heaven, you have to be good!
a. That’s true, but not the way people usually interpret it.
b. We think that we will please God by “being good,” and we interpret that to mean “if we do nothing bad!”
c. The Scripture shows that to be a lie! Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
aa. Did you notice the word “seek?” Doing nothing bad is not seeking God!
bb. Did you notice the first words? You can’t please God without believing in Him!
ill. The rich young ruler who came to Jesus seeking eternal life, already knew that staying away from evil would not get the job done! “Go, and sell all you have, and come follow me” in essence fulfills Hebrews 11:6. Believe and seek! That’s not the Gospel. If he followed Jesus, he would hear the Gospel in time.
(2) Another misconception about our reasoning with God is that God won’t love us if we are bad.
a. How important is love? In I Corinthians 13:13 we find these words, “And now these three remain, faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
b. That’s the essence of that chapter. When we have done all of the good things we can do, if we haven’t done them out of love for God and our fellow people, we failed to please God!
c. Do you remember what Jesus told His disciples? “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34,35).
d. God won’t love us if we are bad? Silly! Probably the best understanding of John 3:16 is: “For God loved the people of the world so much that he sent his only born-son that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.”
(3) A third misconception. Some, usually among the so-called intelligencia, say, “Well, salvation is really a mystery, and nobody can know for sure that they are going to heaven!” I’ve had many ministers tell me that!
a. It is true that we have not had a single human being go to heaven and come back to give us an account saying the Gospel worked!
b. The problem with this misconception is that it is true, BUT it is misleading.
c. We don’t get to heaven by knowledge, but by faith! Eph. 2:8,9 tells, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast.”
d. Do you remember the parable of Jesus about the rich man who died and left this earth without ever having had any concern for God? (Luke 16:28) “Send Lazarus to my father’s house...” The conclusion of Abraham was, (v. 31) “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead!”
e. Salvation is not a mystery, but it requires your faith to believe God will do what He says He will, then you are ready to accept His invitation to life!

II. When we answer God’s invitation, a miracle takes place.

1. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; thought they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”
2. The size and the quantity of our sins may concern us.
(1) We may see ourselves as great sinners, or we may see ourselves as pretty good people.
(2) Regardless of what we think of ourselves, we are sinners, and one price, Jesus, fits all!
(3) If you’ve sinned tremendously, you may appreciate God’s salvation more. In Luke 7:44ff, Jesus said, v 47, “her many sins have been forgiven--for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.”
(4) How much God forgives you may make you appreciate your salvation more, but your salvation requires the price Jesus paid, and for those who sin little, God requires exactly the same price!
3. No matter where you come to Jesus from, the result is exactly the same! You are miraculously cleansed of all, that’s right, all of your sins!

III. This invitation applies to us differently than it did to Israel.

1. They were under the Mosaic covenant with the Lord. It was a conditional covenant, and the rest of that chapter deals with the conditions.
2. We are under the new covenant of Jesus, a covenant of grace, and there are no conditions. (Romans 8:1), “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
(1) We come to Jesus just as we are.
(2) He forgives us, saves us, makes us new, and He begins His great work in us that lasts all the way through eternity. ill. I was raised believing that I would be weighed in God’s balances. If there was more evil than good, I would go to hell. I didn’t know any difference until I read the Bible while I was in the Navy in 1946. I read John 5:24, and I believed it! “”I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” I’ve already been weighed in God’s balances, and He has found me good! Not because of what I have done and not done, but because His Son Jesus died on a cross for me and other lost souls like me!
(3) We don’t have to be good to be blessed! We are already blessed, and we are obedient to God because we respond to His love and kindness like the woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears!

Conclusion:

1. God’s invitation is still open. “Come now, let us reason together...”
2. Wouldn’t it be a terrible thing to miss this wonderful opportunity?
3. When we are in Jesus, we are cleansed, and we are clean!
4. We are extending God’s invitation to you right now. “Come now, let us reason together!”

ECC 10/9/2005