Evidences of Eternal Life - Part 5 — Paris Reidhead

The means that we employ ought to be consistent with the ends that we design. John Wesley, on one occasion, brought a message that every one of us should acquaint ourselves with. I think it has much to say to us today.

The subject of the message was the danger of enthusiasm. He defined enthusiasm in a particular way. He said, enthusiasm is the expectation of desirable ends without the employment of appropriate means.

I want to repeat that. I think it's valuable for all of us. Enthusiasm is the expectation of desirable ends without the employment of appropriate means. If you are a farmer and you want to have a harvest from 100 acres and you only plant 10, that's enthusiasm, according to Wesley.

If you want a harvest from 100 acres, then you clear and plow and plant and tend 100 acres. But the expectation of desirable ends, oh, it would be so desirable to have a harvest from 100 acres but only have 10 acres.

That, he said, is enthusiasm. To pray for a revival of a town when no contact has been made with the people in the town and no plans for contacting the people in the town is enthusiasm. It's the expectation of desirable ends without the employment of appropriate means.

If you want to see a work of God in the town, then make certain that everyone in the town is contacted with the message that will have the effect of accomplishing the work that you want to see done in the town.

The danger of enthusiasm. If you want to see people grow up into the fullness and likeness of Christ under the measure and stature of a mature man, then you have to use means that are appropriate to that end.

Salvation as New Creation in Christ

If your concept of salvation is that it is basically a hell insurance program and that the main intent of the work of Christ was to save people from the consequences of their choice, their evil choice, then you may have a message to them that is designed for that end.

And it would be appropriate. If, on the other hand, you find the purpose of God in grace is to remake, recreate men, new creation in the image and likeness of God's dear son, then everything that is said and done is going to have to be appropriate to the ultimate end, the end that is seen and is intended.

Therefore, those who have the view that God's only intention in grace is just to, quote, save people, by that mean that they are saved from the penalty of sin, then you would expect that the means would be consistent with that goal.

But if they are to be born into the family of God to become new creations, they are to be shaped and molded by the means of grace that he's provided, brought into, as we found in Ephesians 4, the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, then everything is going to have to be consistent with that goal.

And that is the reason why, in the ministry on so great salvation, we've established first that this is his purpose, not just to save us from hell. Salvation from hell is a byproduct of God's grace, not the prime intent of it.

It is a byproduct. If God cannot save his people from sin, it's absolutely irrational to think that he'll be successful in saving them from hell. Thou shalt call his name Jesus, we are told, for he shall save his people from their sin.

And therefore, the means of grace are to be consistent with the purpose of grace. Now, in the light of that, I started yesterday to talk to you about the evidences of eternal life from 1 John. I know some of you who are not here.

I shall go over it again for the benefit of those who were not with us yesterday in brief review, and then we'll continue. I said that in 1 John, the intent of the epistle is that we might have fellowship with John, with the disciples, with the saints in ages past, whose fellowship was with the Father and with his son, Jesus Christ.

We found in John's gospel that John said, these things are written that you might have eternal life. In the first epistle, it was stated, these things are written that you might know that you have eternal life.

And so, primarily, our study here is for that person who comes to you saying, I'm not sure that I'm born of God. How can I be sure? And instead of you usurping the prerogatives of the Holy Ghost, who is the spirit of adoption, and telling people that they are all right, you're going to bring them to the word of God and let the spirit of God show them what's in their hearts.

The First Evidence: Walking in the Light

And so we put down the first evidence of eternal life is 1 John 1 .6. I suggested that you write a little 1 opposite the 6 so that you know this is the first evidence. And it is this, if we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth.

So we ask that person, how do you walk? And we have to take them then to Ephesians 4 .17 through 5 .8 in order to give them the biblical explanation of what it means to walk in darkness and in turn to walk in the light.

How do you walk? If you've been born of God, you're going to walk in the light. And if anyone says they have fellowship with him and they walk in darkness, they lie and they do not the truth. That's the first evidence.

The Second Evidence: Keeping God's Commandments

How do you walk? And then we put a number 2 directly opposite verse 3 of the second chapter. And I urge them to check verses 4 and 5 so that they would know that those two verses are associated with verse 3.

Hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word in him, verily, is the love of God perfected.

Hereby know we that we are in him. What is your attitude toward the commandments? I love thy law. It is my delight. I delight to do thy will, O God. The one that has been born of God and partaken of the divine nature is going to feel the same way about the commandments as did the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are born again. We're new creations. And we have a new attitude toward the law. We love it. And if someone says, oh, I know him, and doesn't keep his commandments and love to keep his commandments, something is radically wrong.

He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments says the text is a liar, and the truth is not in him. Now that's about as explicit and clear as words can make it. And I submit to you that there isn't any version that anyone is carrying that mitigates the strength of that in any effective way.

The Third Evidence: Rejecting the World

That's what it says. We put a three on chapter two, verse 15. And again, check verses 16 and 17 because this is the third evidence of the new birth. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.

If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world.

The world passeth away and the desire or lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. What is your attitude toward the world? Just that explicit, that clear, and then we tried to explain what the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the, and the pride of life are in relation to the idolatries that captured Israel and brought them under such severe judgment from God.

Those same idolatries prevail now, and the only weapons that Satan has to entice and destroy the men today are these three. I pointed out that if you ever see a picture of Satan with a pitchfork that has more than three tines, you know it's incorrect because the only weapon he has is the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.

That is all that is in the world. There isn't anything else. He has nothing else to work with. That's all he has, but my goodness, it's like a three-note octave. What variations he's been able to play on that in order to seduce men, the people that are willing to abandon the possibility of obtaining that which they cannot lose in exchange for it's something they cannot keep.

The Fourth Evidence: Freedom from Practiced Sin

Astonishing, but it's what's happening all around us. A number four was placed in the third chapter in the eighth verse just opposite verse eight. The fourth evidence of eternal life. He that commit his sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning.

For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God does not keep on practicing sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot practice sin because he is born of God.

In this, the children of God are manifest and the children of the devil. How do you know? Well, this is the test. Someone's asking you how can I be sure I'm a child of God? Do you continue to practice sin?

Well, this strikes right at that modern present day antinomian heresy that sounded from many radio broadcasts, TV program, and pulpit. Everyone sins a thousand times a day in thought, word, and deed. And I used to be numbered among that company that insisted that this was the truth.

There came a time in my experience when I asked the question, if I've got to sin a thousand times a day in thought, word, and deed, wouldn't it be all right for me to work into it something I enjoyed now and then?

And I realized that when I approached that point, that it was antinomianism against the law. And the Bible does not teach that we have to sin every day in thought, word, and deed. Sin is the transgression of the law.

Sin is the choice to disobey what God has commanded. And therefore, therefore, the scripture says it is that all sin, therefore, is preceded by temptation, which is the presentation to the intellect of the opportunity and prospect and possibility of satisfying a good appetite in a bad way.

And therefore, since it is preceded by temptation, the scripture is explicit. There is no temptation overtaken us, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able, but will with the temptation make a way of escape that we may be able to bear it.

God, in his sweet, marvelous grace, provided the way by which we could overcome temptation. Now, that is the text. That's precisely what it says, and I do not believe that it's wise for anyone to try to mollify it or mitigate it or change it.

The Fifth Evidence: Love for the Brethren

This is God's word. Accept it and make certain that you do not continue to practice sin. Now, number five, here's where we begin. We haven't been over this ground before. On chapter three, you put a number five after verse, or just to the left of verse 14.

We know that we have passed from death onto 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.

Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us. We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's good and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his hearts of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?

My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him. Fifth evidence of eternal life.

We know we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. Now we've gotta go back to the first and great commandment in Matthew 22 where our Lord Jesus said, this is the first and great commandment.

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and mind and soul and strength, and the second is likened to it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. This love is in the imperative mood. Yesterday in dealing with it briefly, we saw that it is not an emotion, but it is a choice, a commitment of the will.

A commitment to not feel something, but to do something. The feeling is inconsequential, the doing is essential. The love here is a commitment of the will, a supreme choice of the life to seek the highest good and joy and happiness and well-being and satisfaction of God with you.

That is what it means to love God. It means that you have made a choice that in everything you're going to please him. Now that is the meaning of biblical love. Has little or nothing to do with feeling.

Obviously there has to have been at some point an emotional content to move us to this volitional commitment, but we can't substitute the emotional element for the volitional commitment. And we have to recognize that in addition to the commitment to love God, namely to seek his joy and satisfaction with us, there is another evidence of genuineness that we seek the highest good and blessedness and happiness and joy and fulfillment and satisfaction of our neighbors.

Loving Our Neighbors Through Christian Compassion

Our neighbors, well that is a commandment. That's embraced in this because we love the brethren. The brethren are part of the neighbors. The neighbors may be considered more extensive than just the brethren.

I remember one day I was watching television, a news program, at that time there were serious earthquakes occurring in Guatemala. And they had an on-site TV reporter and they had a remote there and they were giving it to us by satellite.

And they were talking to some of the women by interpreter in that Guatemalan village. What happened, oh it shook, the blocks and bricks fell off the house and the ceiling came down. And you could see behind the anchor person who was doing the remote that there were broken houses.

And then we saw the mothers clutch their children and reach out and get them and hold them. Because the person on the TV said, and there's another tremor and it's a serious one. We don't know how hard it is.

Well here I was just sitting in my home looking at the news and out of that little window in our living room I saw my neighbor. You know I think it was a very interesting thing that God did when he let that little stupid idiot box get so cheap and everywhere present.

You know what he did? I'll tell you what he did. He made every man in the world your neighbor. You see, the neighbor is the person whom you can see from your window. Yeah, that's the one you can see. That's your neighbor, the one whose house you can see, whose yard you can see from your window.

Well some of you out here in Idaho, your neighbor may be four or five miles away but you can look in the direction where they are and there's nobody between so the one that's next is gonna be your neighbor.

But God wanted to increase the scope of that and so he did a very unusual thing. He permitted man to think his thoughts after him and they put together the principles that make up for TV projection reception so that we can sit in our living room and see things from around the world.

And to me it's quite astonishing because we think we're being entertained. Oh no, we're being obligated. That's what's happening. We're being obligated. When you see the starving people in parts of the world, you're looking at your neighbor.

Well aren't you sitting in your living room and you're looking at a window and it's a window on the world and you're seeing your neighbors. No, if you looked out another window in your house and you saw that right next door there's a fire, the children were home and the parents were gone, you would leave the chair you were sitting in immediately and run out the door and do everything you could to rescue the family from the burning house because you're a neighbor.

And there's an obligation on you. Well now when you're sitting in your living room and you see people in Guatemala or Salvador or somewhere else that are in need, they're your neighbors and God has obligated you.

So we define neighbor as anyone whose need we know, need we can see. Now here it says because we love the brethren and that brother obviously has its first meaning in those that are with us in Christ.

Sometimes those that have been born of God were not the people we would have selected for our best friends. I've met a few like that. And I suppose to some of them I've been one of that company they would not have selected as best friend.

But the scripture is clear. They're my brethren and therefore I have to accept them with warts, faults, all or everything about them. I have to accept them as my brother and I have to seek the highest good and joy and blessedness and happiness and well-being of the brethren.

They're my brothers in the Lord. And that is what love means. It doesn't mean to feel all soft and warm and tender. Feelings have nothing to do with this. It's the commitment of the will to seek the highest good in blessedness and happiness and well-being.

That's what it is. And we have to see that and we have to understand that, recognize that, that we're talking about something more than an emotion. We're talking about a commitment. Well, we love the brethren.

Let's suppose that we go back to Matthew 22 again and we hear him say thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Now we know that the essence of sin is an inordinate and improper self-love. I'm gonna please me and satisfy my appetites regardless of what it costs anybody else without regard for the rights of others.

Now, having committed myself to the Lord and loving him with all my heart, I have to love my neighbor, but there's a measure. Love your neighbor as thyself. So now we're talking about an appropriate and a proper self-love.

You didn't think I'd ever get to that, did you? Well, I fooled you, I did. There is an appropriate and proper self-love. I have to want for me the highest good and joy and blessedness and happiness and fulfillment and well-being that I can have consistent with desiring the greatest joy and satisfaction and happiness and well-being of God and consistent with wanting and committing myself to the highest good and joy and satisfaction and well-being of my neighbor.

I can't want anything for me that I don't want for them. Well, there are some things that you can want for you. Why don't you make a list of them? What are some of the things that you can want? Legitimately and properly that you can want for you.

I suppose one of the elements most important is to live in a community where there's peace and protection and security. Don't you want that? I certainly do. I think that's very important. To live in an atmosphere where contracts are protected by law.

Well, I've been an avid reader through the years of Louis Lemoore and of Zane Gray. I love the West from the printed page. I haven't had any time out here. It's my first visit to Idaho. But I go back in time when the only law there was was a .45 revolver on the hip of the person who carried it.

That was what enforced law until law came. But when law came, then they were able to put away the .45s. I guess they did. I've been told about some parts of the country where they still have that, but I've never been there and don't know much about them.

But I do know this, that they have courts and they have law to enforce contracts. And you sign a contract and you have to keep it. If he signs a contract with you, he has to keep it. I'd say this, some years, four years ago, I signed a lease for an automobile.

Well, I want to tell you one thing, that's a contract. Believe thee me. You could get out of three divorce marriages and divorces sooner than you get out of one lease for a automobile. Ooh, that is some contract.

And I wanted to close it out after two years, but I went to, I had some advice, and the advice was, uh-uh, uh-uh, don't touch. And that was a good lawyer who, don't mix in, don't mess with that, that's one of the tightest contracts.

Well, I guess that's good. You sign a contract, you're expected to keep it. I have, I think that's good. An opportunity to work and keep my earnings, some of them at least, what I don't pay to the government, and to decide what to do with those earnings.

I think that's important, to have freedom, to know, to be able to do with what I earn. To develop my potential, and to have the freedom to pursue my ambitions and aspirations and use my talent to my benefit and the benefit of others.

That's something I have a right to want. I think I have a right to want an opportunity to provide for my family, decent education, food and clothing and shelter. Oh, go ahead, make the list, proper and appropriate.

And when you've gotten the list, as long as you wish to make it, sign your name. But as soon as you've signed your name, sign my name. I'm your neighbor. And whatever you want for you, you gotta want for me.

And whatever I want for me, I've gotta want for you. That's what it means to love your brother. To seek their highest good and blessedness and joy and happiness and fulfillment and satisfaction. The benevolent view that the community is going to be made up of people who are concerned not only for their own interests, but for the interests of all that make up that community.

Christian Responsibility for Material Needs

And so it is, then, that we see that there is here a genuine evidence of the new birth. Now, there was a time, not too long ago, I can remember, when there was virtually no public welfare. Welfare was handled by the church.

The community that had the concern for those that had no food or clothing or shelter, the group in our society that was burdened about them was the church. Remember the national publicity that was given to Amy Semple McPherson during the Great Depression?

Because any family in the Los Angeles area that was without fuel or without food or without clothing or without shelter could call Angeles Temple, and they had organized that community so that fuel and food and clothing would be taken to those who had shelter or the people would be picked up and taken to shelter where they would also receive fuel and food and clothing.

This was done in a way that was so unique in our society. Government wasn't doing it, wasn't structured to do it. We were living in more of a laissez-faire environment where people took care of themselves, but here was an event that was of such catastrophic proportions that Amy Semple McPherson and the Angeles Temple became a kind of a prototype for churches all over America.

But at the same time, it was at that point that there came into American history a new element. I was aware of the election back there in 1932. There were three candidates for the presidency, Herbert Hoover, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Norman Thomas, and Norman Thomas was the socialist candidate.

Franklin Roosevelt was elected on the basis of two things, rescinding the 18th Amendment and on the basis of economy. He could be more economical in government and reduce the debt than had been Herbert Hoover.

But he came into the presidency and in the next four years, nine of the 10 planks in Norman Thomas's platform as the socialist candidate were implemented by the Roosevelt, that first administration, and none of the planks in the Democratic platform were implemented.

And at that time, with the men who were the Fabian socialists who had taken over in so many of the areas, we found a total change. Government now became the source of welfare, no longer the church. The government became the means by which the human need was met.

Families were cared for. The coal was supplied and food was supplied. And the welfare was taken away from the church and put in the hands of the government. And it was done deliberately because the people that wanted government to do it wanted to coach and teach the American people that they did not look to the church, but they looked to the government for their protection.

And the total change had been so complete since then that when any church begins to engage in a welfare program, it's almost, why? Why do that? The government does that, but it hasn't always been that way.

Our text tells us, whoso has this world's good and seeth his brother have need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? Now, instead of bringing, getting the fuel or the food or the clothing, most of the times we say, well, look, call this welfare number and they'll have somebody come down, take care of you.

Not done in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, not done as an expression of the commitment of our will to seek the highest good of our brethren, but done in the name of the government. How grateful I am, as we have our brother from the Salvation Army who has through the years with that great movement has had the personal touch in the name of Christ with those that have human need.

And I commend, I was so close to the army there in New York City and saw such enormous evidence of compassion and love and always associated with the name of Christ. So one great sector of the church remains there demonstrating this love to those that have need.

But by and large, at least in the parts of the country where I have lived and had most of my time, it's been the government that has been the agency rather than those who are committed to the Lord Jesus Christ and are offering that compassion as an expression of their love and their joy and their delight in being part of the family of God.

Christian Aid, Missionary Work, and Economic Development

Now, when we come to other areas of the world, other parts of the world, we, when I went, Marjorie and I were in the sedan, our hearts were broken by the realization that the success of our missionary enterprise was causing the impoverishment of the people.

Now, that sounds strange. But you see, before the missionary came into the area, nine out of 10 children that were born died before the end of the first year. And of the 1 1 0 that survived, about half of them died before they reached the fifth year from acute protein deficiency.

And so you had a stabilized population and a means of food production that was adequate to care for the surviving population. When we as missionaries came in, one of the first things we brought with us was medicine.

We were asked to administer all of the various types of inoculations and vaccinations. And over a period of time, the ratio changed from one out of 10 surviving to about one out of 10 dying. But because of this tremendous increase in population, there was a strain on the source of food.

And so we were finding that of the nine that survived, of the nine that survived, five of them died before they reached five years of age. And of the four that survived, probably as high as two of that number had brain damage done that, because they had insufficient protein during that crucial time when the brain was forming between the ages of two, post weaning and five years of age.

And my heart was burdened because we had contributed to a population explosion but nothing was being done to increase the means of production or the food supply. You see the significance of it. And so we came back very burdened about this and asking God to show us how, if there was any way that we might personally become involved.

We had been in Bible school and there we were taught that the indigenous, the church overseas should be indigenous. Indigeneity meant should be self-governing, self-propagating and self-supporting.

And we were spending millions to make it self-governing and self-propagating or doing anything to make it self-supporting. And when I proposed back in 1966 and seven that we start a ministry using our lay people to help our believer lay brethren in the Mission Field Church make a living to provide for themselves and for their families and for the church family, it was, I was accused of being a liberal and a modernist and a social gospel heir and all other assorted crimes because I was recommending we do something new.

But I knew that it wasn't another gospel, it was just the responsibilities for the true gospel. That if you see your brother of need and you shut up your heart when you have the means of helping to meet that need, the love of God doesn't dwell in you.

And so I had to just persevere and became the first evangelical to found an organization designed to provide employment opportunities for our believer brethren overseas. The first evangelical, I say, I don't know, there may have been others, but we were the first ones that under the banner of the Lord Jesus Christ said our purpose for being is to assist in creating employment opportunities for our lay brothers on the mission field.

And that was the Institute for International Development. Well, since that time, there have been institutes still continues located now in Chicago. This year it will channel over $2 million into microeconomic development.

And there have been 96 other organizations patterned after it. And last year in 87, those 97 organizations channeled between 120 and $125 million into small scale, we call microeconomic opportunities for believer brethren on the mission field.

But the point I'm making is how can I see a need and not be concerned about it? It's obvious that when 96 organizations are founded, patterned after one, and that there was a tremendous reservoir of concern and compassion.

Two years ago, some of the men that had been associated with me in the founding of that first one, the Institute for International Development came and said, we believe there's room for another, but we want you to help us with it.

Will you get involved? And I said, no, on only one condition. The only organization I'm interested in seeing formed is one that will help to raise money for the other 96. There are 96 groups out there doing this tremendous job.

Now, what we need is an organization that will help because every one of them has a financial constraint. And so two years ago, we founded Transformation International. And Transformation International is based on this, that funds can be available in larger amounts.

We haven't gotten them in the amounts we're expecting to have in the future, but our first year, we had an impact of over a half a million dollars. We have found that for a sum of between $175 and $200, that we can assist a Christian family to have the means of supporting themselves for the rest of their life.

I wonder if you heard what I said. For less than $200, on the average, we can assist a Christian family in mission field areas to have the means of making a living for the rest of their lives. In some cases, this means maybe four or five hogs in a pen to keep them in.

In some areas, it may mean a small vehicle to attach to an oxen so that they can convey goods for the village to the market. In another case, a widow woman whose husband had been killed in a construction accident, had three little children to support, had a job, but she had to get up at five in the morning there in the Philippines and take a bus and then come back again about seven at night and leave her children with a babysitter.

The program was established and the woman went to those in the local community running the program and said, the Lord has shown me how I can stay at home and care for my family. And her idea was that since her house was on the street, she'd open up the wall against the street, put in a window with heavy doors.

It could be securely locked, a counter under the window. She would buy rice in 100-pound bags and sell it, enough for a meal or a day, or as the housewives wanted to buy it, and she could keep her children with her and she could make enough money.

For less than $200, the window was cut in, the counter was built, the rice was purchased, a scale was obtained, little plastic bags were ordered and received, counts were set up, and she has been doing this now for over six months.

She's three months ahead in repaying it because it was a loan to be repaid in 24 months. She's been tithing to the church and she's staying at home taking care of her children and she has a means of making a living for her and her family for the rest of their lives.

Just a little thing, but there's a need. There's a need, and we are the ones who can see that need. And so we have here a commandment. If you see your brother of need and you shut up your heart of compassion, then how does the love of God dwell in you?

Now this is what he's taught. Love the commitment of the will to seek the highest good and blessedness and joy and honor and satisfaction of God. Love for one's neighbor, one's brother, to seek the highest good and joy and blessing and satisfaction and fulfillment for one's neighbor.

And there it is. He says if we know we have passed from death into life because this purpose is firmly fixed in our hearts, we love the brother. I've dwelled at length on this because I think it's an extremely important principle and one that we need to know.

Do you realize that a great denomination like the Southern Baptist, and I've had missionary conferences and scores of Southern Baptist churches over the years, gave back then when I was deputation secretary an average of three quarters of a stick of gum per member per week for foreign missions because they had so many members it amounted up to quite a lot of money.

But it didn't represent any great degree of love. Now, since then, that was back in 1950 to 53, and we're 35 years down the road, of course things have changed, especially the price of a package of gum.