(Apostolic Vision) He That Hath the Son Hath Life — Dale Heisey

And again, this evening is a special blessing to, in the name of the Lord, be gathered together, meet together, worship together, pray together, humble our hearts together, be humbled together, and we welcome all of you to this service.

This meeting has been very well attended throughout this week, and there's a good attendance here tonight, there's been a good attendance throughout the week, and we really have appreciated the fellowship we've had with the Tangent congregation here and with surrounding and neighboring congregations that have very, very faithfully attended this meeting.

And all of you are very welcome to this meeting tonight. And we probably will not have time to, or the opportunity to visit with all of you when this service is over, but I do thank you for your prayer support, the love that we've felt for this congregation, and from all of you who have been participating in this meeting.

And I would just ask your continued prayers for us as we leave and start a week of meetings tomorrow night in the state of Virginia, and that will go through then next Sunday night with the Lord Tarris.

And then it would be then the following Monday that we have plans to return home to Costa Rica. And so it's a rather long time for Suzanne to be alone, and she is very busy during this time, and so we would appreciate your prayers.

I have not spent any of your time talking about the work that the brothers and sisters are doing in Costa Rica, except a few snapshots here and there through the sermons, perhaps. But I just want you to know that the blessing of God is upon us there, and we feel the peace of his presence.

And there's someone who told me this morning that the concepts of church life have been presented throughout this week. Someone has said that they never don't know of any place in the world where those concepts are working.

And I want to humbly say that what we have taught you is working. It works where people believe God and where there's faith in the Lord Jesus. It works. And it works because it's God's way, and God's way works, and we do well to humble ourselves and take God's way.

I want you to know that it works. There's maybe one more word I should say before we go into the message tonight, and that is somebody noticed this thought about a burden for lost souls. And I don't want you to, quickly, I don't want you to excuse yourself and relax from the spiritual battle because you do not have a burden.

Developing a Burden for Lost Souls

I would like to urge upon you the responsibility of making sufficient investment so that you have a burden. And if there is no burden for the lost around this, then that tells me there has not been sufficient investment into the work of saving souls in order to get a burden.

And if you feel that you cannot be effective in this work because you do not have a burden, then I would suggest that you get at it a while and see how many souls you can save until you get a burden. And as you're working at it, you're going to find a burden coming.

And as you invest your life in the lives of others, a burden will come. And you will not get a burden thinking about it, and you will not get a burden reading books about it, and you will not get a burden hearing sermons about it.

You get a burden by doing it. You get a burden by walking through the city of Nineveh a several days' journey. You get a burden by standing upon the brow above the city of Jerusalem and looking down upon the city.

You get a burden. You get a burden by walking up and down the roads and stopping by the houses and huts and talking to the people. The burden comes where the people are. The burden doesn't come from the ivory tower.

The burden doesn't come from the air-conditioned office. The burden comes in the lives of the people. So go out and win those people. And don't excuse yourself because you don't have a burden. Make a bigger investment so that the burden comes.

Would you take the church handle there and turn to number 365? Are you too crowded into your seats this evening to be able to stand? Is there enough room around you that you can stand where you are? Are you too crowded?

Can you stand? And we'll sing 365 together. Oh, for a heart tonight from sin set free, for a heart that's sprinkled with the blood that has been so freely shed for us, and tonight we choose to believe it.

We choose to believe the work and the power and the efficacy and the victory. We choose to believe what you can do because Christ is here. We choose to believe what Jesus does when Jesus comes. We choose to believe what happens in the church when God comes.

We choose to believe what you can do in a heart when the message of faith is believed, the message of truth is received. We choose to believe tonight that you will bless your word. We choose to believe that you will visit this congregation.

We choose to believe that you will be honored and glorified in this place. And we so desire to humble ourselves and hide ourselves in thee. Bless this assembly of God tonight. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated.

Spiritual Power as the Ability to Do Christ’s Will

The young man asked me a very interesting question, and I thought it would be inappropriate to close this series of services without bringing his question before us and looking at it. And he, in a very simple way, just asked, What is power?

And we were riding along in a very nice vehicle. We were riding along in a, you know, it seemed to me like a pickup truck that was made to get the job done. And he said, What is power? And he was not talking about horsepower.

He wasn't talking about candle power. He was talking about spiritual power. But we used the illustration of the engine. I said, When you say this truck has a lot of power, what do you mean? He said, Well, you know, it can haul a lot.

And when it gets to a hill, it just goes right over the top of it. And it just seems like anything it needs to do, it can do it. He says, Power. That's what power is. Spiritual power is the capacity or the ability, it's the holy possibility to do the will of God in any and all circumstances of life.

Spiritual power is the power of Jesus. It is the power to do at any moment in your life exactly what Jesus would do in that exact moment of your life if He was in the situation that you are in. It is what Christ would do if He was in your situation.

And what Christ would do, you can do. And power is the gift from God. Power is the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Christian to enable you to be Christ-like in every moment of your life. I realize you can't tell them to roll the stone away.

I realize you can't say, Lazarus, come forth. I know you cannot do that. Now, if God gives you the power to do that, then do it. Please, please do it if God can give you the power to do that. But what Christ did, we can do.

And how Christ responded, we can respond. And the attitude of Christ, we can have. And the victorious life of Christ is for us to enjoy. It's for us to experience. That is power. And we either have that power or we do not have that power.

And when I was young and early in the ministry in my earlier years, I thought that power, I thought in power in terms of decibels. I thought of power in terms of the size of weight you can move. And I thought that spiritual power was the most dramatic and the extraordinary and the very great and sensational.

And I was searching for that. That's what I felt power was. And then one day I read a few verses in the first chapter of Colossians. This is not my text. I only turned to it to help that young man understand what power is.

And if you have not noticed these beautiful verses, then I want you to see them and begin reading them in verse 9. For this cause we also since the day we heard it do not cease to pray for you and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

Now notice this next verse. Verse 11. Strengthened with all might according to his glorious power. And I like to stop right there. Oh, that was as far as I wanted to go. That is what I wanted. Strengthened with all might according to his glorious power.

And what could the church do but add access to this might and glorious power? And then I saw what it does in the end of the verse. Unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness. That's power. You know, you can jump in your spiritual life.

You can jump in your spiritual experience and touch this ceiling. But the measure of your power is how you walk after you come back down and hit the ground. You walk from there away. Look at this patience here.

Look at this longsuffering. Longsuffering is power. Longsuffering is power. How long do you suffer that employee you got in the shop? How long do you suffer the irritations and frustrations of that unconverted husband you have?

How long do you suffer? How long do you patiently bear? How much do you put up with? Conditions in the congregation that you just so much wish would quickly change. How long can you suffer? Spiritual power.

And that longsuffering is not only longsuffering. It's not just bearing it. It's not just living under it. It's just not being put underneath the load of it. It's not just trying to hold up under it. It's not just trying to hold on patiently until this thing is over.

But with joyfulness. Now where is that in this congregation? How much of that is there around us? When is the last time you saw that? Power unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness. Giving thanks unto the Father which has made us meet to be protectors of the inheritance of the saints in light.

Who has delivered us from the power of darkness. And has translated us into the kingdom of his dear son. That is power. And without that power we cannot live the Christian life. We cannot live it. At all.

“He That Hath the Son Hath Life”

I'd like to speak to you tonight from a text. And you might want to in your notations. And in your Bible markings note this verse. If you use a King James version of the Bible. You'll find that this is the simplest verse in the Bible.

This is the easiest verse in the Bible. There is no easier verse. I suppose a first grader by the time they're in school for about four months. Will be able to read this verse with no problem. And understand this verse very well.

It is one of the most profound texts in all the Bible. It is the most simple text in all the Bible. It is probably the easiest to read in all the Bible. And I want to speak to you tonight from this very, very simple verse.

That has 19 words. In the verse. And you might want to turn to 1 John chapter 5. I will first of all read this verse. And then we'll read some of the contextual verses. Then I want to speak with the Lord's help.

From this verse. 1 John chapter 5. Verse 12. You will notice that each one of these words has only one syllable. These are very short words. I think, if I'm not mistaken, the longest word in this sentence has four letters in it.

Some of them only have two. This is a simple verse. He that hath the Son hath life. And he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. I'm going to read it once more. And on the third reading, I want all of you to read it with me.

Now I'm going to read it once more. And then all of us will read it together the third time. He that hath the Son hath life. And he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Ready. He that hath the Son hath life.

And he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Now do you believe that? You see, this verse doesn't mean anything if we don't believe it. This verse is here. This verse means nothing to us if we don't believe it.

It does not help us if we don't believe it. It does not control our lives if we don't believe it. It does not change anything in us if we don't believe it. We leave this meeting tonight exactly the same way we came if we don't believe it.

We have the Son of God, and we have life. Or we do not have the Son of God, and we do not have life. And we do not have the Son of God, and we are dead. That is, you have the Son of God, and you are alive.

What's a God? You have life. You have life, and that is power. If you've got life, you've got power. And if you have not the Son of God, you have no power. We have no life, and we are dead. It's as simple as that.

Now, do we believe what that says? Let's look at the context here. Verse 10. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.

And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. There is no life outside of the Son. The Christian life is the life of the Son, S-O-N, the Son of God. And then He gives us this very simple truth to make sure that we understood it.

He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. It is as simple as that. It is not where you were born. It is not a lot of things that we would think. Save a man from spiritual death.

The whole difference, the whole difference between the saved man and the lost man, the whole difference between the one that is eternal life and the one who does not, is the one who has the Son of God.

And tonight you have the Son of God in your life. And you have life. For you have not the Son of God and have not life. It should be a sobering thought. It should catch our attention. We should want to know.

We should not leave this place tonight without the assurance that we have the Son of God and have life. Or else we have not the Son of God and we have not life. Now it is my responsibility to lead us to an examination of and an understanding of this simple verse.

I'm sure that you can understand it. I'm sure you know that Christ came to bring us life. That is why He came. The life is in His Son. Do you have the life in the Son? Do you have the Son of God? And do you have life?

We either have this life or we do not have it. And we cannot doubt about it. We cannot guess about it. We have to know if we have life or if we do not have life. So we'll just ask several questions about this verse and see if we can answer the questions.

The Gospel as the Message of Life

When we talk about this life, what is it? What are we talking about when we talk about this life? This life is in His Son. And He that hath the Son hath this life. And he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

Of what life is He speaking? What is He talking about? Let's use our Bibles and see if we can understand exactly what He means. And I turn back to chapter 5, verse 20. And here the Lord is speaking to the apostles that were brought out of the prison, to Peter and John.

And He told them in verse 20, Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life, the words of life. The life is the gospel message in this case. It is the message of the gospel.

It is what we preach. It's what we preach to the people. It is the message of the Bible. It is the message of salvation. We sing that song, Wonderful Words of Life. It is the gospel message. Stand and speak to the people the words of this life.

Life is what God gave to His own Son. In John chapter 5 we have that. In verse 26, For as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself. It's what the Father gave to the Son.

The Father gave life to the Son. His own life He gave to the Son. Mary was the mother of Jesus. Joseph was not the father of Jesus. The Father was the eternal Father. And He gave life to that virgin womb.

He breathed life into that virgin womb. And that life was the Son. And that life was the life of God. And men saw this man walking. They heard his voice speaking. And they saw his head fall in death as he bowed his head and died.

And the men said, This is the Son of God. Because He had the life of God. Now what do people see when they see us walking? And what do people hear when they hear us talking? And what do people notice when they see our attitudes?

And what do people think when they observe my driving habits? And what do people observe when they hear my conversation with my wife? And are people convicted and convinced He has the Son and He has life.

And the life is in the Son. And the Father has given Him life. The Father has given Him life. At the same time, this life is not only what the Father gave to the Son. It's what Jesus the Son gave to the world.

1 John chapter 1 verse 2. For the life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. The life has now come to the world.

The life is now here. And we can see it. We can look upon it. Our hands can handle it. It is the word of life. It is the living word. It is the word that's given to the world. It's the life that we can have tonight.

It is this life that Christ brings to us that we have in Him and because of Him that was lost through the fall into sin. And sin separated us from this life. It is this life in God that we lost. It was this life eternal that we do not have.

It's this life that sin destroys. It's this life that separates us from God. It separates us from this life. I'd like to read it in Ephesians chapter 4 in verse 18. Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their hearts who being past feeling have given themselves ever unto lasciviousness to work all in cleanness with greed in them because they're alienated from God.

And when we're apart from God, we don't have His life. And when we're apart from God, we don't have the Son. And if the Son of God is not in us, if we don't have that witness in our hearts, then we have not life.

Alienated from God. Sin has destroyed this life. And that's why the Bible says we are dead in this same book in chapter 2. We are dead in trespasses and sins. We need to be made alive. We need to be quickened.

We need to be given life through Jesus Christ. Now I want to show you another aspect or another meaning of this word life. It refers to our relationship, our presence this evening sitting here in this service.

Our relationship to Jesus is our life. It's a life-giving relationship. That's chapter 5 of John and verse 24. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life.

There's a relationship with God. We believe Him. We've received His word. We know that He came from God. We have this eternal life. It's our relationship with Christ. This life is holiness. This life is righteousness.

Sin brings forth death. And this life in Christ produces holiness in the heart. I'm going to read it to you in Romans, in chapter 6. Gives us victory over sin. Empowers us to do at any moment of time what Christ would do if He would be in that circumstance.

I realize He can do more than we can do. He's divine. We're not divine, but we have His holy life. We have His victorious life. We have His pure heart. We have His noble virtue. We have that if we have the Son.

Chapter 6 of Romans, verse 11. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that ye should obey it in the lust thereof.

Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

And so that life is that life of righteousness. That heart holy man. That life free from sin. That life that is made alive and quickened. Dead to sin and alive unto righteousness as we have just read it here in this 6th chapter of Romans.

We are quickened. We are made alive. I'm trying to explain to you what we're talking about when we talk about this life. Why is it so important that we have this life? The necessity of having the son of God in order to have life.

Some people refer to the word life as the thing that we are living for. You know sports is his life. Girls is his life. Her life. He lives for money. She lives for money. She lives for fame. She lives for whatever.

Some people say that your life is what you're living for. But in this Bible context tonight our life is what enables us to live. The life of Christ. The life that we're speaking about here. He does. The son has life.

The life is in his son. That is the power and the enablement to live what we ought to live. To be what we ought to be. Not so much to do but to be. Now Martin Luther when he translated the Bible from the Vulgate into German added a word in his translation the Book of Romans.

He added the German word alone. Faith alone. He was so convinced that nothing but faith is what it took to save a man. He added that word to make sure it was in there faith alone. And that is not a bad thought theologically if you understand what faith means.

If you have a true understanding of Bible faith then that word alone maybe is alright. But what we be what we are what I am will determine what I do. Maybe I can illustrate this with a simple illustration yet a beautiful illustration.

I've used this before. I don't know if in English or not. I know I use this illustration in another language. But I have at home a picture of the work of art wrought by the weaver bird. Now a weaver bird is a very small animal.

A very small bird as far as birds go. Not as big as a robin. Just a little bird. Maybe a little bit bigger than a peach. Just a little fella. Cute little bird. And he has a most interesting nest. He builds his nest on a twig maybe some kind of a fruit tree.

And this nest is like a sack that hangs down from the nest. Looks like a stocking. And this whole nest is woven with very very fine grass. Woven with very fine material. And woven it looks like someone made it on a loom.

And if that's not complicated enough for this weaver bird's nest he has an entranceway that he puts in the nest. There's a little tube that comes out the side of this sack. Just about this long. And just round enough small enough for him to get his body in.

He goes in this little tube then down inside the nest. And he weaves this whole thing. The whole thing is woven together in the most interesting way. And I don't know what size needles he uses or what size yarn.

I don't know how he does that. But he's got this neat little nest. Now we're talking about life. And we're talking about the importance of having life. And we're talking about the importance of having life in the sun.

And we're saying that our life in Christ Jesus is not only what we're living for but it's the power we have to live it. And I'm trying to give you an illustration using this weaver bird to keep your mind on what the point is.

The point is not bird. It's not nest. And it's not weaving. The point is life. So now some scientists took some eggs out of a weaver bird's nest before they hatched and put them into a glass box. And heated those eggs and those eggs hatched without a mama and a daddy without being in a nest hatched in a glass box.

And those little birdies were fed the feed that they need artificially by these scientists and these birdies grew up. These birdies grew up and they were given a chance to mate still inside a glass box.

And when it came time to lay the eggs the only thing they could do was lay the eggs in the corner of the glass box. And so many days later those eggs hatched inside the glass box. And those birds were raised inside a glass box.

And those birds were given a chance to mate. And those birds laid eggs. And the third generation of weaver birds was hatched inside a glass box. They never saw the outside. Never saw the forest. Never saw the front yard.

Never saw the orchard. They never saw a hay field. They never saw a nest. They never saw other weaver birds. They never saw a nest. Never saw anyone build one. And now the third generation of weaver birds were now adult birds and it was mating season.

And the scientists released these birds to the outside. And the first thing they did was gather up twigs and grass and made that most beautiful weaving and formed that most beautiful nest with all the intricacy and all the exactness that has been done for generations after generations.

And they made that nest exactly right. And when they were done they went inside there and laid those eggs. And the weaver birds were born inside the nest. I'm going to ask you something. How did they know how to build that nest?

And I answer you. The life was in the bird. The life was in the bird. Not spiritual life. God's life. The created life that God put there. And that bird never needed to listen to a record player or listen to a CD in order to learn that song, that weaver bird song.

It was in his heart to sing that song. He sang as weaver birds sing because it was in there. And he never went to art school to learn how to paint an egg so that it would be just like a weaver bird's egg.

When that egg came out just like it was supposed to come out because the life was in the bird. He never went to the fabric shop and went to sewing class to see how to make his feathers and see how to make his clothes and see that the feathers came out there right.

When those feathers came on that bird they were just like a weaver bird because the life was in the bird. When it came time to make the nest that little bird made that nest exactly like that nest was supposed to be made because the life was in the bird.

And the life is in the Son. And take a Christian wherever he is and a child of God wherever she is and she'll do what a Christian will do. She'll do what Jesus will do. She'll do what the Son of God will do because the life of the Son is in that dear state of God.

Now can't you understand that? Now you've got an instruction book. It's got 18 to 24 lessons in it. And you get these new converts so they went through instruction. They stood up at a revival meeting made some kind of profession.

It was time to give them some instruction. You went down through those 24 lessons. Lesson number one. What is salvation? Lesson number two. God's part in salvation. Man's part in salvation. Assurance of salvation.

Lesson number five. You went down through those lessons. You get paid for those lessons. You brought the name before the class of the congregation for baptism. You baptized that person. They became part of the fellowship.

But there were a whole lot of things you never taught. I will tell you one lesson that you did not teach in the instruction class. Simple. Simple mother. Three children she had. Simple mother. The only Christian in the whole village.

Everyone else in her family. A Catholic. Never knew anything but going to the Catholic church all her life. The only Christian. The only child of God in a village of about 250 people. And she... The life was in the Son.

And she had the Son. So she had life. She had the Son. She was very ignorant. There was a whole lot of things she didn't know. I'm sure you would have seen mistakes galore in her life. I'm sure you would have thought well this...

You mean that Brother Dale has a member like that in his church? I don't know what you would have said if you would have met her. But she had the Son. And she had life. Because he that hath the Son hath life.

And one day a man that she had known a young fellow. He was a single boy then. And he had known him. And he went away to Nicaragua across the border. He came back. But he came back with a girlfriend. And he was living juntado with her.

You know what that means? Living together. Not married. Living together. Never married. Never a compromiso. Never a marriage vow. Never a pacto. What's the word in English? Never a marriage vow. I guess that's what you call it.

Never did it. Just living together. And she... She saw him at the door and so glad to see this young man. Hadn't seen him before. Didn't know who the young lady was. And sure come on in. And Spanish people are very polite.

And Costa Rican ladies just love to serve and love to be hostess. And they get out the coffee and the bread and they serve right away. But nighttime came. And she said, You need a place to sleep tonight.

I want you to sleep here with us. But listen, young man. Here, I think you can sleep in this room here with my son. And young lady, over here, over in this room, there's a place where you can stay. You cannot sleep together here.

Where did she learn that? In what class, in what lesson of the instruction book was that taught? When what page of the manual was that written? Life is in the Son. He that is the Son of God has life. He that is not the Son of God has not life.

Some people find it hard to believe that we allow these ignorant, brand new, first generation Christians with all the problems that they have and all the ignorance that there is, that we as ministers go to them and present our problems and ask them for their counsel and open up our church situations and look to them to help guide us to make decisions in the life of the congregation.

And some people cannot understand why we do that. But I will tell you why we do that. I will tell you why we do that. Because He that is the Son has life. And he that is not the Son of God has not life.

And if they have the Son of God, they have life. And I need to hear what they say. He that has the Son has life. I hope you are beginning to understand the importance of having this life. I hope these illustrations are serving not to whet your appetite, but to make you hungry for the life.

The life is in the Son. It is the only life that there is. There is no life anywhere else. There is only life in the Son. That is the life of our Jesus. Well, no one can live the Christian life apart from the Son.

Salvation Through Christ’s Death and Resurrection Life

I would like you to turn to Romans chapter 5 again. And just read a very beautiful verse. The importance, the necessity of having the Son of God and having life. Romans chapter 5 verse 10. This is a verse that is quite difficult to understand until you just think and open yourself up to to the light of God's Word.

And just let the Spirit of the Lord show you what this says. Verse 10. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by His life.

The death of Christ was necessary for our justification. The death of Christ was necessary for our reconciliation with God. Apart from the death of Christ we would still be estranged from God. Unless that holy blood would have flown that precious blood of the Lamb without blemish and without spot.

If that blood would not have flown from Calvary if He would not have seen the travail of His soul and been satisfied and by His knowledge His righteous servant had justified many we would still be in sin tonight.

There's no way we could be saved apart from that. And so His death was effective as a penalty paying the penalty for sin. Your sin and my sin. But that crucifix that has that image fastened to it worn around the neck on a chain with the Christ on the cross it is not sufficient to save us.