Evidences of Eternal Life - Part 3 — Paris Reidhead

God's Purpose in Making Man His Beloved

Now, this morning I want to quickly review the area we covered yesterday, because it's going to serve as the point of departure for our thinking today. The question, why did God make man? The answer, that he might serve as the beloved of God, the object of God's love.

Love is incomplete without an object, and therefore he made a being in his image and in his likeness, who would have the ministry of being to the elder brother, brethren, to the bridegroom, bride, to the father, children.

Made us to be loved by him and to share in all that he is doing, all that he has. And we therefore have to see that everything that he does to bring man out of death into life is going to be designed to establish that original purpose, and therefore we find that what he accomplished at Calvary had to be sufficient to obtain that goal.

Why Christ's Suffering Went Beyond Forgiveness

If God's only purpose in salvation had been to save people from hell, and leave them as they were, and take them to heaven, then there would have been a different means that he might have employed. For instance, have you ever wondered why it was that the Lord Jesus could not have died on the path out of the garden?

You remember when he came from the garden after praying, the soldiers were there. Why could not the spear of one of the soldiers have pierced his heart then, and he would have died? It's, you see, by the shedding of blood is the remission of sins.

But instead of that, he went led where he was buffeted, blindfolded, and beaten, where a crown of thorns was pressed upon his head. It wasn't the bruises, the blood from the bruises, or from the thorns that made atonement for our sin.

Why did he have to endure that indignity and that suffering for those three hours, from six until nine, then to be scourged? It wasn't the blood from his wounded back that carried with it his life. Why did he endure that, then nailed to a cross, three hours from nine until twelve, all the suffering and the indignity?

Why? Why was it necessary? And then, those three hours from twelve until three? Well, you see, the purpose of God in grace was not just to save us from hell, but to save us from sin. Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.

Christ for Us, Christ as Us, and Christ in Us

And so it was that the Lord Jesus Christ had to accomplish far more for us than just satisfying the law and vindicating the holiness of God so that we could be pardoned from past sins. We said last night, for those of you who were here, that in Romans 5 you see Christ dying for us, in Romans 6 you see him dying as us, and in Romans 8, of course, it's Christ in us, Christ for us, Christ as us, and Christ in us.

But he died for us, that God might be just and the justifier of those who believed in Christ. But he died as us. He was there as you. He identified himself with you, that he might do several things, that he might deliver you from the tyranny of your own traits and tendencies and attitudes and habits and your disposition.

He died to save us from ourselves as well as from hell, to release us from the bondage of those attitudes and those appetites and those habits that had been so deeply ingrained in us. So he went to the cross for you to vindicate the holiness of God.

He went to the cross as you to release you from the tyranny of yourself. Then the Lord Jesus Christ also wanted to redeem us from the power of the enemy, to translate us out of the kingdom of this world into the kingdom of God's dear son.

We are told in Galatians 3 .13 that cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree, and that he has redeemed us from the curse of the law. Now, if we study carefully the scripture, we discover that the curse of the law is not the same as the penalty of the law.

The curse of the law is the foretaste of the penalty given prior to the time the penalty is imposed to induce us to repent and return to God so as to escape from the penalty. That's to make it unnecessary for the penalty to be imposed.

But the curse of the law is that foretaste. Deuteronomy 28 gives us very explicit directions as to what is the curse of the law. We hear the blessings of obedience, but we also find what is that which God calls the curse of the law.

And so, we find that cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Thus the Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross in order that he might deliver us from this bondage to the God of this world. And everything that God knew we needed to become everything that he had promised us and had planned was provided by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, I want to say that so that you realize, and I'll do anything I can to help you to grasp and hold, that when the Lord Jesus went to Calvary, he was not only going there to make it possible for us to be forgiven and pardoned, but to provide everything that we needed to become everything that God had planned for us to be.

Conformity to the Image of Christ

Now understanding that, just a quick view of what he planned for us to be. We are told in Ephesians, the fourth chapter, in that very wonderful statement as to why he gave apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers, that it was for the perfecting or the maturing of the saints into the work of the ministry, onto the building up of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a mature man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

And then, speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head even Christ. So God's purpose was not just to save us by the skin of our teeth and take us to heaven somehow, but his purpose was to bring us into the image and likeness of his dear Son, under the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

In Romans 8, 28 and 29, we are told that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. But what's his purpose? For whom he did foreknow, he did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

So God's purpose in Greece was to save us, of course, from the penalty of our sin, but in more than that, to save us from ourselves and to remake us in the image and likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So everything that was required to do this was accomplished by Christ. Now everything then that God does in bringing men to himself must, of sheer and absolute necessity, must be consistent with this purpose.

Again I go back, if God's purpose in salvation is just to save us from hell, then one set of means might be adequate. But if his purpose is to make us like Christ, then that's quite a different matter.

That's the reason why I've been through these years teaching and preaching on so great salvation, where in Hebrews 2, 3 it is said, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? It's because salvation is so much more than pardon from past sins.

It's everything that God knew we needed to be everything that he purposed for us to be. It's all part of salvation. Now I'm not going to go into that in full detail. That's available to you if you're interested in that series back there, both video and audio tapes, where we've spent many, many hours in trying to establish those principles so that they're clearly understood.

Awakening the Sinner to the Need for Salvation

I think that just a quick review was we talked about it last night, and you will understand that since this is his purpose to make us like Christ, then the first thing he has to do is to find a way to accomplish it.

So he puts alongside of the sinner a person who will be a sample of his grace. And that person is going to live Christ before that sinner, going to intercede for the sinner and witness to the sinner. And then there are some things that God does in response.

First, he awakens the sinner to his need. And of course, what tragedy has happened because some have become awakened many times they fall into the hands of the speed artist who takes them through two or three questions, propositions, and then tell them they're saved.

What a shortcut. What a spiritual abortion. Probably, we know now that in present day modern evangelism across the world, but particularly in America, only one half of one percent of those who make first time decisions for Christ give any evidence of being born of God 12 months later.

Those are not my figures. Those are figures by some very much very close to the mainstream of such evangelism. But I think it behooves you to bear them in mind that only they're stated that only one half of one percent of those who make first time decisions for Christ give any evidence being born of God 12 months later.

That means that it takes 200 decisions for Christ to get one person living for the Lord 12 months later. Well, that's kind of a tragic figure, would you not say, because for one person living for Christ, 199 people have gone back into the unsaved community saying, I tried it and it doesn't work.

Well, if we follow God's plan and the way he's set it out, the first thing that happens is that sinner will be awakened and then the word will be applied to mind and heart and they'll come under conviction.

That's the discovery of the nature of the crime. See, sin is not a congenital disease. It's a crime against God, a crime to which every sinner has consented at the age of accountability saying I'm going to rule my own life, I'm going to do what I want to do.

And we have to teach because, you know, if I have a group of people here and I examine them and we find that five of the ten have congenital syphilis and tell them so, they may become very frightened for their future, but they'll never be convicted of guilt because it is congenital.

It was inherited from their parents. Their parents were the guilty ones, not them. They have a congenital disease and they may become concerned about their lot, but they can never be convicted of any responsibility because they didn't choose their parents.

And so if sin is not presented as the crime that it is, then there's no possibility of conviction. No, sin is a crime. It's a consent of the will to what, to the principle of I'm going to rule and govern and control my life that was affirmed at the age of accountability.

And so it is that we say the scripture declares, all have sin and come short of the glory of God. Conviction is that work of the spirit of God in the heart where a person does discover that he is, in a sense, a criminal against God.

Repentance and Saving Faith

And on the basis of that commitment to I'm going to do what I want to do, recognition of its criminal aspects, that person repents. I'm going to please God, not me. I'm going to do what God wants, not what I want.

That's the essence of repentance, a change of mind from what I want to do to what God wants that I'm going to obey God, not me. A change of direction, a change of mind, a change of intention, a change of purpose.

Christ said, except you repent, you'll perish. So we got repentance. And then on the basis of the genuineness of that change, the spirit of God quickens faith. Oh, how often you've sung it. I know not how this saving faith to me does impart or how believing in his word wrought peace within my heart.

But I know whom I believe. We've sung it. This saving faith he doth impart, he doth release. No one, no impenitent sinner can savingly believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He can intellectually assent to what the Bible says about it.

Anyone with a mind to understand what's being said can do that. But to savingly receive, to believe with the heart, if the heart is still set to do evil, there isn't any way that the heart can believe to salvation and pardon and forgiveness.

Testing the Reality of Conversion

There has to be repentance. And then at the point of saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the miracle is wrought and the spirit of God witnesses to the new birth. Now in the light of what I've said, if you pick up some of the items that I've said in this last few minutes, that there are multitudes of people that have made a profession of faith that have gone back into the world and have said, I tried it and it doesn't work.

There are other multitudes of people who have gone into the church who have never been born of God. R .G. Lee, who was the pastor of the great Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee, at the South Carolina Southern Baptist Convention in Spartanburg in 1950, made the statement that on his 40 years of close observation, he was convinced that no more than one out of ten of the Southern Baptist Church members had any knowledge experientially of the new birth.

And the preachers there went, Dr. Lee said, and if I'm in error, my brethren, it's because I've put the figure too high, or probably far less than 10 were all the facts known. Now that was not an enemy or a critic, that was a dear friend who had a lover's quarrel with what had been taking place, nor did he exempt his own, the church of which he was the pastor, which was the largest church at that time in the Southern Baptist Convention, with some 15 or more thousand members.

Andrew Blackwood, in the book Contemporary Evangelical Thought, which was edited years ago and published, stated in the chapter on contemporary evangelism that he was convinced, based on his observation, that probably no more than one out of ten of the evangelical churches in America, the members of the evangelical churches in America gave Bible evidence of being born of God.

It raised quite a furor. But Andrew Blackwood was a very careful scholar, he wasn't trying to incite riot or disturb anybody, he was trying to call attention to the fact that there's a problem. Several times when he was in the, administering in the tabernacle in New York, where I had the privilege of being pastor there at the church that A .B. Simpsons founded for the Christian Missionary Alliance, Dr. Tozer made the statement over several times over a period of years when he was there, that he was convinced that probably no more than one out of ten of the members of evangelical churches in America, and then he would pause and say, including the society in which I am a part, give Bible evidence of having been born of God.

And that, of course, was a matter of great concern to some and indifference to others. I had one man who I'd known in the years past, he said, you know, Paris, I wouldn't have you come to the church where I'm pastor if you paid me twice as much money as you would hope I'd give you for having come.

Well, I said, that's an interesting observation, why? He said, because if you were there, you'd start talking about the Bible evidence of regeneration. He said, I'm suspicious that probably no more than one out of ten of our people are born of God.

But I don't want to make, that's not what I'm interested in, I just need more like I got. We got a big building program to pay for. And he said, the word is being preached and if they're not sure that's their problem, not mine, but I wouldn't let you come because you'd get them introspective.

What I want is people to come who'll start to tithe and help lift the load we got to carry. And you know what I said? I think you're wise, very wise, in not having me come. Because I would do just exactly what you have said.

I would do it without a moment's hesitation. I would spend my time trying to give the people that were there the criteria by which they could discover whether or not they were born of God. Because frankly, we have a lot of difference in our priorities.

I couldn't care less about the mortgage on your church, but I am terribly concerned about the destiny of men and women. So I said, you're right in not having me with that being your objective. So the point I'm trying to say is that there are around you a great many people who are members of churches, but who will be stirred by the Spirit of God, who will do all that he can consistent with his nature and the nature of man to have men flee from the wrath to come and avail themselves of profit and offered grace.

Helping Those Who Doubt Their Conversion

How are you going to help them? What are you going to do? If somebody comes to you and says, I'm not sure I'm born of God, what are you going to do? Are you going to reach over and pat him on the shoulder and say, hey, hey, we go to the same church, we went to the same school, you're all right, you're going to do that?

What if you were a doctor and one of your friends, close friends, one of the family friends were to come to you and say, doctor, I think, I'm coming to you now not as a family friend, but as my doctor, I think I have cancer.

What would you do, doctor? Would you pat him on the shoulder and say, ha ha ha, you've just been reading too many articles in the Reader's Digest, that's all, get your medicine some, don't, don't, don't worry about it, you're all right.

We had dinner together last Saturday night and we went fishing three months ago and we're friends. What's that got to do with the fear of cancer? Huh? What does that, what's that have to do with it? If he were a friend, a doctor would say something like this, I hope that your fears are groundless, but because I am your friend, I am going to use all the skill, knowledge, and technique that modern medicine has to find out whether or not you do have cancer.

Because if you have it, the time to deal with it is yesterday, not tomorrow. And we're not going to take a chance, so I assure you, I'll do everything I can. Isn't that what you'd want your doctor friend to do?

That's what I'd want mine to do. I wouldn't want his slap on the back and his bone on me and saying some silly nonsense. If I've got reason to go to him and say I'm afraid that I may have, I'd want him to do everything he could.

And when somebody comes to you, what are you going to do? Well, remember what God's purpose and grace is, not just to keep us out of hell, but to bring us to himself, redeem us, release us from the terror of future punishment, yes, but also release us from the tyranny of our own traits, and more than that, to bring us into vital union with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, you may have someone come to you who, upon close examination of the scripture, indeed has been pardoned from past sins and is truly a child of God through faith in Christ, but a babe in Christ, and the Spirit of God is stirring their heart with a hunger to go on and grow up into Christ in all things.

So you've got to be able to distinguish between these things. Well, who of us are wise enough? Have you ever heard anyone say something like this? Well, I know that he or she is a Christian because I personally led them to the Lord.

You ever heard that? Well, I'm sure some of you have, and I'm one who said that on one occasion. And then I began to hear the Spirit of God drawing me into the Word, asking me some questions, and the question was really this.

What did you do? Well, I told them the truth. And what did they do? They responded in the affirmative. Did you know what was truly going on in their hearts? Well, no. I couldn't see their hearts. I just heard what they said.

Well, the Lord looketh on the heart, and man looketh on the outward appearance, and until you can come to the place that you know and can see what is going on in the heart, don't you dare say that you know, because you have to look on the outer appearance.

Oh, God dealt severely with me on that point. And now it's II Timothy 2 .16, the foundation of God's stand is sure. Having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are His, but He's the only one who does.

The Lord knoweth them that are His, and let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. There's absolutely no assurance of pardon or eternal life while one is living in known sin. The evidence that one is born of God is that they eschew evil, that they hate sin, and they love righteousness.

Three best evidences I know of that a person is born of God from my appearance is first, they have a hatred of sin. Secondly, they have a hunger for God. And thirdly, they have a heart of compassion for the lost.

Using Scripture to Examine Spiritual Life

Well, having said that, I want to now bring you into the scripture so that you are going to be able, you're going to be able to use the Word of God to help the person you're going to have come to you in the next few days.

If you're sensitive and alert, saying I'm not sure I'm going to be able to do it, can you help me? Now, I don't know what you'd have done before today, but I do know what I'm urging you to do from today on.

If somebody comes to you and says that, don't give a flip quick answer. Bring them to the Word of God. This book is the x-ray machine. It's the sword of the spirit. It divides between the soul and the spirit and it reveals to a person what is inside.

Now, that's exactly what I'm proposing to do. A series of messages back there entitled Evidences of Eternal Life. I'm giving merely just a very quick because we only have four hours and that represents eight hours so there will be a considerable amount of condensation and perhaps we'll even have to omit certain things.

But what I want you to see here in 1 John is that this little letter is written to answer the question, how can we know that we're born of God? John in his gospel said these things are written that you might have eternal life and in the little letter he said these things are written that you might know you have eternal life.

The gospel was so that you might have eternal life and the letter was written that you might know that you have eternal life. In the fourth verse, these things write we unto you that your joy may be full.

God wants your joy to be full. How can there be fullness of joy or any joy if one is not sure that they're born of God? As long as there's a lingering doubt or question, can there be joy? Can there be happiness and rest if there's a question about this?

I don't think so. I don't see how there can. One must know and therefore he said these things are written that your joy might be full. But in the preceding verse, that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that you also may have fellowship with us.

And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. That which he saw and heard he gave so that we could have fellowship with the saints. If there's uncertainty as to whether you've been born of God, can there be true fellowship?

I'm not sure I'm part of that community. I don't know for sure. Fellowship is going to be of a different kind. Only when we know that we have been born of God, passed from death to life, can there be true fellowship with believers, with the Father and with his Son.

And so that's the purpose that we might have joy, that we might know that we're children of God, that we might have fellowship. Isn't that a wonderful purpose? And that's what this book is all about. Now here's a person.

Counseling a Person Who Doubts Their Relationship with God

Let's just set the scene. Somebody that you know has said to you, you know, I have some rather serious questions about my relationship with the Lord. I'm not terribly sure you know what they're going to say that I'm saying.

And you're going to say, well, there's been a lot of people that have had that concern. And if you, how long have you had this concern? Well, I've had it for quite a while. Have you said anything to anybody else about it?

No. You're the first one I've ever talked about it. But you, yes, I've been afraid that if I said anything they might think the wrong thing, but I know I can trust you. Well, I think you can trust me, but I tell you what we're going to do.

It's such a serious question that we're going to have to arrange some time when we can spend together in the word. Now, what's a good time? Well, we both work here at the same place. How about after work we go over to the cafe and get a sandwich and a cup of coffee and spend an hour or so?

Okay. So that's what you do. Or come over to my home when the children have gone to school and we'll take some time and go into the word. Or I'll come to your office at lunch hour and we'll have a sandwich and we'll go into the word.

I don't care where it is, but try to arrange it so that you've got several opportunities, several meetings, because you're asking the children. You're not going to tell them anything. You're only going to bring them to the word.

Stand them up in front of the x-ray machine and let them look at the picture that the word takes of their heart. They've probably been monkeyed with too much already and you're not going in to monkey with them anymore.

You're going to let God do something in their life now. And this word is the x-ray machine. So you have your first meeting and they'll be in the kitchen after the children have gone to school, in the office during lunch hour, in the cafe afterwards, or wherever you set it up.

Makes no difference. But you open the word to 1 John and you come down to verse 6 and you've got a number 1 put there next to the 6. You go off to the side of the 6, you put a little dash and then at the other left-hand side of the dash you wrote 1.

And so you turn to the person with you and you say, look, I wish you'd read this for me. And he reads, if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. And then you ask a question, how do you walk?

Walking in Darkness Versus Falling into Darkness

Well, what does it mean to walk? I'm not sure I know just exactly, I know what it means to walk, but I don't know what it means to walk here, to walk in darkness. Well, tell me, what is walking? Well, walking is when you put one foot in front of the other with a definite goal in mind.

Okay? What does it mean to fall? To fall means that you start to walk and your ankle turns and you hit the ground. It's not the same at all as walking. Well, it is actually. Walking is controlled falling.

Did you know that? That's what it is, just controlled falling. If you don't think so, follow me. I was down at Oatlands out west of Washington, one of the old Lee family mansions there on one of their plantations and I had mowed the grass.

They had a draft horse day and I've been interested in draft horses and I was walking across the grass trying to get some place off the other side of this large open field. Well, they'd cut the grass and it all looked smooth and I was just going along real good.

But what happened was they cut the grass but there was an indentation about 15 by 12, about four inches deep. Now, I don't know what made it but it was there. The grass was the same level and it was thick grass.

And I put my foot down and it went four inches further than I expected it to go and here I was sprawled out on the grass. Now, I suppose if you'd have been sitting over on the sideline you would have said, ah, isn't that funny?

But to me it wasn't terribly funny. Well, you might have said, look at that drunk old man can't stand up. No, I wasn't drunk. I wasn't drunk. I did. I fell. Do you understand? I was walking and I fell.

Now, do you know the difference between falling and walking? I'm sure you do. The scripture didn't say if we fall into darkness. It says if we walk in darkness. And walk means to take one step after another in a direction that we have selected.

Ephesians 4:17–5:8 and the Marks of Walking in Darkness

So, what are you going to do? How are you going to, this person is going to say, well, tell me, what's it mean to walk in darkness? Well, the thing to do is to write right next to the one Ephesians 4, 17, 2, 5, 8.

And you turn over there to Ephesians 4 and you ask him to look at verses, verse 17 where it says, this I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk. How do they walk?

In the vanity, the emptiness, the soap bubbles of their thinking, their mind. Having the understanding darkened. There's darkness. Being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart.

Now we find out that that's darkness. Now, how do they walk? Well, they give themselves over to lasciviousness. To work all uncleanness with greediness. Lasciviousness is immorality on the mental level.

And then you go on down to verse 25. Put away lying. Speak every man truth with his neighbor. Verse 26, be angry and sin not. Verse 27, give no place to the devil. And verse 28, let him that stole steal no more.

Verse 29, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. Verse 31, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you. All of this is darkness. Now if the person reading this says, hey, these are things that are still in my life.

These are things that I still do. I'm so bitter about what so and so did to me. And there's so much anger in my spirit. And there are times when I get angry and I tell people off. And fornication, in verse 3 of chapter 5, put away.

Don't walk in that. Neither filthiness nor foolish talking. And then let no man deceive you with vain words because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. So now you know how to take that person into the word.

Take them into the word so that the word can do its work in their life. How do you walk? How are you walking? What does it mean to walk in darkness? It means to let these things occur again and again and again and again.

The Word of God as the Final Standard

Now, what did the text say? If you say that you've been born of God and that you have fellowship with God, and with His Son, Jesus Christ, and you walk in darkness, you lie and you do not the truth. Now, you see, you didn't say that.

God said it. The Holy Ghost said it through John. I've often said that I choose to be a devout coward. By that I mean to say I want to hide behind the word of God. I know there are a lot of folks out there with shotguns, but I got as good sense as a rabbit does on the opening day of hunting.

A rabbit knows that if he can stay on the backside of a stump and you've got a shotgun, and if he can keep that stump between you and him, you can shoot all the shells you want. He's not going to be hurt because he's got a stump between him and you, and the stump's going to absorb the shot.

So that's what I try to do when I'm dealing with people about things like this. I hold the word of God up, and then if they get angry, they can shoot at the word of God, and they're not going to hurt me.

If I get out there on my own somewhere, out on a limb with something that isn't supported by the word of God, boy, that's vulnerable. But if you'll just stay in the word. Now, you didn't say he was a liar when he claimed to be a Christian.

You didn't say that. You did not. All you said was, read this verse. And then you said, read these verses and explain this verse. And then you turn to the person and you say, now, how do you walk? Well, I guess I walk like we're not supposed to.

That means alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in you. What makes you think you're a child of God? You mean your walk hasn't changed from what it was? Do you understand? What's the text say?

Distinguishing Backsliding from an Unregenerate Profession

If you say we have fellowship with him and you walk in darkness, you lie and do not the truth. I was invited to a meeting, I told you last week, but that's your fault for being here today. I'm delighted you are.

But I told you about going to a meeting and telling the people that I'd come to help them and that if they would just let me know, I'd be glad to enter into their prayer burden. And the lady came down to see me, first one after I'd finished, and she said, Brother Edead, I want you to pray that during these meetings my backslidden husband be restored to the Lord.

Well, I'm a little bit frightened of that word backslidden because it's not a New Testament word. I don't know very much, I don't really know what they mean when they use that word. So I said, well, tell me about your husband.