In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of understanding and teaching the Word of God. He mentions an instruction book with 18 to 24 lessons that new converts or those going through instruction would receive. These lessons cover topics such as salvation, God's part and man's part in salvation, and assurance of salvation. However, the preacher highlights that there are many other things that are not taught in these lessons. He emphasizes the need to focus on the Word of God and the message of salvation, which is the life that Christ brings to us and was lost through sin. The preacher also references Ephesians 4:18, which speaks about being alienated from the life of God due to ignorance and blindness of heart. He concludes by emphasizing that the gospel message is the message of life and salvation, and it is what should be preached to the people.

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 Terry's. 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 is 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. I would like you to, 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 to praise my God, a heart from sin set free, a heart that's sprinkled with the blood so pure, a heart in every thought renewed, thy nature gracious. To praise our God, we ask for a heart tonight from sin set free. We ask for a heart that's sprinkled with the blood that has been so freely shed. For us, 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. 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 the hill, it just goes right over the top of it. And it just seems like anything you need 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 in 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 in, 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 to 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 hath made us meet to be protectors of the inheritance of the saints in light who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath 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. 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 5. I will first of all read this verse and then we'll read some of the contextual verses and then I want to speak with the Lord's help from this verse. 1 John 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 unto 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, or 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. 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 to Acts 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 is 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 is 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 is 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 is 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, 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 present, 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. It gives us victory over sin. It 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 holiness, 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 sixth 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 that hath a Son hath life. The life that 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, making 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 all right. 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 entrance way that he puts in the nest. There's a little tube comes out the side of this sock, just about this long, and it's round enough, small enough for him to get his body in. And 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, and using this weaver bird to keep your mind of what the point is. The point is not bird, and 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. And 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 and 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. Well, 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 his feathers came out there right. When his feathers came out 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, he 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, that 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 son of God. Now, can't you understand that? Now, you've got an instruction book. It's got 18, 24 lessons in it. And you get these new converts. So they went through instruction. They went, 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 faced those lessons. You brought the name before the class, 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, this, uh, you mean that brother Dale has a member like that in his church? I don't know what you would have said if you'd have met her, but she had the son and she had life because he had the son has life. And one day a man that she had used to, 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 when he came back at a girlfriend and he was living with her. You know what that means? Uh, living together, not married, living together, never married, never a compromiso, never a marriage vow, never a, never a pacta. 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, uh, 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 Nicaragua, Costa Rican ladies just love to serve and love to be hostess and they, they, they get out the coffee and the bread and they serve right away. And, but nighttime came and she said, you need a place to sleep tonight. I want you to sleep here with us. But listen, uh, young man, uh, here, I think you could sleep in this room here with my son and, uh, and, and young lady, uh, over here, there's over in this room, there's a place where you can stay. You cannot sleep together here. Where did she learn that? And what class or what lesson instruction book was that taught? When was page of the manual was that written? Life is in the Son. He that is the Son of God hath life. He that is not the Son of God hath 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, and open up our church situations and look to them to, 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 or listen to that. I will tell you why we do that because they, he that the Son hath life and he that is not the Son of God hath not life. And if they have the Son of God, they have life and I need to hear what they say. He that hath the Son hath life. I hope you're beginning to understand the importance of having this life. I hope these illustrations are serving not to, not to waste your appetite, but to make you hungry for the life. The life is in his Son. It's the only life that there is and there's no life anywhere else. There's only life in the Son. That's the life of our Jesus. Well, no one can live the Christian life apart from the Son. I'd like you to turn to Romans chapter five again and just read a very beautiful verse, the importance, the necessity of having the Son of God and having life. But Romans chapter five, 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 a lamb without blemish, without spot, if that blood would not have flown from Calvary, if that, 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. We were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, but much more now being reconciled, we are saved by his life. He is our risen savior. He arose from the grave. And the message of the New Testament church is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and the power that brought forth our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of everlasting covenant is the power and life that we have to live in victory over sin and death. And that is the power we have. Next time you're struggling young man, next time you face a temptation, dear sister, next time your mother in the kitchen. I think that's not real. It is the very first time my daughter, my sister brought her boyfriend home on a Sunday dinner to eat at our house. Very first time. He was never in our house before. My mother was trying to do the best she could do. She wouldn't have this young man. He, you know, you try and make an impression on the, on the boyfriend. The first time he comes home, first time coming for a meal. And when she entered that house, it would look, it looked like a forest fire inside there. Open the windows. We have sandwiches. Power. Life is in the Son. If we were enemies, we reconciled to God by the death of his Son. Much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And the saving life of Christ is ours tonight. What is the evidence of the saving life of Jesus? How do we know that we have it? Do we have this saving life of Christ? Well, number one, it's very hard to have it without the rest knowing it. I mean, the weaver bird, this bird has life. It's evident in everything that it does. You cannot hide that life. Now weaver bird didn't go and borrow somebody's plumage and put it on. He didn't go and try to buy some eggs and put them in a corner of a basket. He had life. And what he was doing was, was not manufactured in a factory. You can make these beautiful Dodge pickup trucks out here in the driveway in a factory, but you cannot produce an orange in a factory. Why there's not an orange in all the world. Minute Maid couldn't make one, no matter what they tried to do. Every orange you ever saw had to grow in a tree. Fruit, you cannot manufacture. It's got to be born. You can tell if you have this life of the Son, if you've got living water flowing out of you, if you've got a light in your lantern, if you have a testimony for Jesus, if you have a word to say for the Son of God, if you know him and believe in him and he has saved you and he's giving you victory and he's giving you life right now, that person sitting beside you, that person you meet will learn about it. You will tell him, I know Jesus. I have met the Son of God. He is my life. He is my victory. And if we cannot witness, if we cannot testify, if we have no testimony, if we have no light, there's only one answer for it. We don't have light and we don't have life. He that the Son hath life. He that the Son hath testimony. He that the Son hath truth. He that the Son hath light in his lantern. He that the Son can reach people for God. And evidence of having this life is righteousness. Righteousness in the heart. Righteousness in the life. Righteousness in what we think and righteousness in what we do and thinking rightly about others and thinking rightly about God and thinking rightly about those who have wronged us and thinking rightly about those who are not what they ought to be and thinking rightly about those who've made mistakes in the church and thinking rightly about the value of a brother who has holes in his neck and thinking rightly about the person who comes to me with correction and thinking rightly about the person that I ought to go to correct. Righteous thinking and righteous doing, righteous living. And that righteousness is evidenced by power to live above sin and power to go and sin no more. And I want to show it to you in John chapter five, because the life is in his son. Verse 14, this man was impotent. This man was there for 38 years. This man could not get into the pool of Bethesda. This man tried to get in and couldn't, had no one to help him. This man tried to do it, couldn't do it. Jesus came and said, take up your bed and walk. But verse 14 says that's where Jesus finds him in the temple and said unto him, behold, thou art made whole, you have life. Sin no more, sin no more. And it says here, lest a worse thing come upon thee, the man departed. He went out with that power to go and sin no more. He told the woman at Samaria, excuse me, the woman taken in adultery. Chapter eight of John verse 11 says, who has condemned thee? Were you accused her? She said, no man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. I'd like us to read first Corinthians chapter 15 and their verse 34, go and sin no more. It says, so when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, verse 34, excuse me, awake to righteousness and sin not for some have not the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. Awake to righteousness and sin not. Now I'm going to ask you something. This is a serious question and really very personal, but did you ever in your life, did you ever in your life look at the terrible consequences of sin and make a decision based upon the life of the son, the life of the son of God, the victory of the son, the power of the son, the presence of the son in your life to go out into this day, to go out into this week and live this life and live this day without sinning. Do you believe it can be done? Do you believe that God wants you to do it? Do you believe that God wants you to live in constant victory over sin? Do you believe that he intends for you to be victorious every moment in every situation? Do you believe that there's power? Do you believe you can live this day without falling in sin, without coming at the end of the day with this guilt, with this condemnation, with this crustiness, with this accumulation? And now we have to live with that defeated life. Have you ever made up your mind? I choose to live without sin. Have you ever made that decision to live without sin? And one of the evidences of the life of the son is the power to live above sin. I'm going to ask you several questions tonight. Anger, anger. We lack one verse in the Bible. There's one, if there's no verse in the Bible that we believe, there's one verse we believe when it comes to anger. There's one verse that we have memorized. I'll quote it for you. Be ye angry and sin not, let not the sun come down upon your wrath. And we say, whew, I'm glad for that one. That gives me a break. That gets me through it. There, there, there, there, there. Kind of a catch all column there, you know. Do you know how many times the Bible says, put away anger, be free of anger. Do not be angry. Don't make excuses for anger. What about your anger, dear brother, dear sister? You fly off the handle. You say words. You throw something. You get impatient. You cannot stand it. People, I've seen people do all kinds of things in anger. I've, the surgeon takes his tools in the, in the, in the operating room. And in his frustration, he throws them across the floor. The scrub nurse doesn't know what to do. How would you like to stand? Is that a doctor like that? You've got to hand him the next tool. He just threw it away. The mechanic can't stand it. The carpenter can't stand it. The carpenter tries to saw his board and it gets crooked. So he takes his, the blade of his power saw and digs it down to the concrete and burns it there until the teeth are all worn off the blade. People do all kinds of things when they're angry. Throwing things, using bad words, raising the voice, swearing, anger, and cannot control the anger. The concrete got hard too quick. We didn't get a trial on time. The cows got the food inside the bucket. I can't stand that. The price fell on the egg market. We can't put up with that. One thing or another, we're angry and we're angry. He that hath a son hath life and he that is not the son of God hath not life. It's time to deal with that anger. We think that anger comes from that anger straight out of a carnal heart. That anger is not the life of the Lord Jesus. Our Lord was not angry. He took it and accepted it. And when he was threatened, he said not a word. He didn't respond, did not retaliate. He was meek and all things. When was Jesus angry? Oh yes. He got that scored out. He drove this cattle out of that temple. He looked upon them with anger. It says in Mark chapter one. Wait a minute. And when they tell me that those dear mothers in search for food for their children crossed the Rio San Juan from Nicaragua into Costa Rica, and they can't get in because they don't have papers. And those mothers, rather than seeing their children starve to death so that they can pass them into the, into the coast to find food, find some job, find a place to work. When those mothers sell themselves to guard on the border for a night, sort of let them go the next morning. That makes me angry. It should make you angry. But there's a great big difference between that kind of anger and self preserving anger because somebody did something to me because something affected my schedule because something didn't go my way because something didn't turn out the way I planned because something is not what I would have chosen. That's a different kind of thing that is carnality and sin in the eyes of God. It's the other anger that you should deal with before the end of the day. Don't let the sun come down upon that. Deal with that in your life. Take that before the cross and ask God's mercy and ask God to bless that dear woman who had to sell herself across the border so she could find food for her children. Ask God to supply the food and load up a basket and take a tour, do something. Let your anger melt down into peace and good works. But this carnal anger, do you have victory over sin? The life is in the sun, the bad pictures. Do you know what pornography is? Pornography is a piece of paper and we are printers. We are printers. And on that piece of paper, we can print in four color print in most beautiful color, the words of scripture and the message of salvation. And on that same piece of paper, we can put a picture, an evil picture. It's the same piece of paper. What is pornography? Pornography is something that is stamped upon the image of this mind. Pornography is a movie. This picture starts the movie. It's designs that are meant for our minds to finish the movie. God created the woman. God created the man. There's nothing wrong there. The problem is the movie. And day after day and year after year, we cannot get victory in our thoughts. And our thoughts lead us to actions. Just like holy thoughts lead to holy actions and holy faith leads to holy response. Impure thoughts lead to impure actions. And we heard that last night. And my question is, do you Can you imagine the Lord Jesus being stumped by those evil pictures? Can you imagine Jesus turning the dial that TV sets and finding the adult channel? Can you imagine Jesus buying that video, going home and getting it there in the den by himself on the family's way somewhere on a shopping trip and putting that video in that VCR? Can you imagine Jesus playing with the digits of that keyboard and bringing up the suggestivity? Can you imagine Jesus propositioning beside the well? Can you imagine Jesus? Would Jesus permit the thoughts you have in your heart tonight? Would Jesus spit the thoughts that you entertain, that you and I entertain when we're on the street that see these things passing by us? You'd be glad you live in a place like this. It's different where we live. Our people are bombarded with living pornography. You don't need to buy a magazine in Costa Rica. You'll need to buy a magazine in the Dominican Republic. And you certainly don't need to buy a magazine in Cuba. That's probably the worst country in all of the world. And how do you live in that? There's only one way. The life is in the Son. And he that hath the Son hath life, victorious life, and pure life, and holy life. He that hath the Son hath life, and he that is not the Son of God hath not life. There's no power there to deal with that problem. It's as simple as that. We're talking about the evidences of spiritual life, freedom from sin. How do we know we have this life when the world loses its attraction? We can walk through a Walmart. We can walk through a used car lot. We can walk through a builder's show and see all those beautiful things and all those nice things and interesting things there at the farm show and interesting things here and there and it's all out there. And we can say, and the music's playing, the music's grabbing for your attention. And you can say, I don't need that. We taught our young people in Costa Rica that when they're out there and it's difficult and the attractions of the world are overcoming them and they know very well that the flesh is weak and they're maybe tired physically and this thing is pulling them down. We taught them a simple song to sing when they get into that difficulty. Hide me under the blood, Lord. Hide me under the blood, Lord. Hide me under the blood, Lord. Hide me under the blood and I shall be satisfied. Let me see thy face, Lord. Let me see thy face, Lord. Let me see thy face and I shall be satisfied. I thought of teaching that song but I didn't know if I should. But we taught our young people to sing that song. You go out and you feel the temptation coming upon you and you have power. You've got life in the sun. You don't need to be overcome by that thing. You'll only be overcome by that picture you see there in the magazine, in the newspaper. You'll only be overcome by that sign that you see there, that billboard that catches your attention. You'll only be overcome by that. She's walking there in front of you in the sidewalk. You'll never be overcome by that. Hide me under the blood, Lord. Let me see thy face, Lord. Then we taught them one more stanza. Wash me with thy blood, Lord. Wash me with the life that's in the sun. I want to ask you one more question. Is the world attractive for you tonight? You just can't stay away from the recreation you have to have. The sports you've got to have. You've just got to play. You've just got to put yourself all out. You've got to simply lift those barbells and lift those weights. You've just got to get that physique going on there. What do you need that for? If you need a physique, I'll tell you how to get one. Put about 70 pounds of Bibles in a knapsack on your back. Put about 70 pounds of untortured delivered God in your backpack and climb those muddy hills and get down those muddy slopes and go up those rivers and cross those villages and hand that out so that pack is empty. You want a physique? I see these young fellows here. You go in this house to stay overnight and there's a barbell sitting there. And I go to the next house to stay overnight and there's a barbell sitting there. And you wonder what these fellows are doing with all these muscles. What's going on around here? You don't do any work. What do you need muscles for? It's not push-button this and pull lever there. You don't need to do anything. What do you get muscles for? You don't even use a hammer. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. All the staples go into the plywood. You don't need muscles. What do you do this for? It's carnality. It's attraction to the world. It's to be something. It's to be a man. It's to be a he-man. It's to be a macho. And that's carnality. That's worldliness. That's pure worldliness. What do you need that suntan lotion for, girls? What do you have that towel lying out behind the house for on a Sunday afternoon? What's that towel out there for in that grass? What's that suntan lotion doing in your hand? What are you doing with that? It's sun worship. If you don't know what that is, it's sun worship. It's the worship of the sun. It's not the worship of the son of God. And he doesn't have the sun. That's life. He doesn't have the sun. He doesn't have the suntan. If you want a suntan, go to Costa Rica and get one. Walk those hills, bump down those roads and witness those neighbors. It's time we got our head on straight and read our Bibles clearly and understood what the will of God is for the son of man. This is the will of God, your sanctification. I don't know if you're used to hearing things like that, but he that the son has life. And I want to tell you something. Everything you're doing in life and I'm doing in life that's not according to the son of God is not life. And we need to stop doing it and do what pleases the son of God. That is the life in the sun. I want us to understand that. How do we know we have the life of the sun by the fruit that the life produces? I just want to say something here. We could spend a lot of time in Galatians chapter five. Don't need to do it, but just want to give the pastors and this audience a simple word of direction. You're dealing with this problem. The congregation senses that there's something all easy here. There's something inappropriate going on. There's something that doesn't line up straight. There's something does not come through clear in this person's testimony. And so you try it here, but the answer seems OK. And so you try it from this angle. And well, you know, you can't quite get a hold of it. And so you wait a while and then some more things come out. So you you go out to get another visit. And there's a yes. Again, there's an explanation. And no, no, we didn't do that. And is it. Don't waste your time. Let's look at this thing another way. Flip the thing over the other side. You take that person that's there kind of hanging on the edge of the church life and just barely making it in their fellowship and can hardly get inside the door. And you and you, you go and make another visit. And then they're absent again and study the fruit. Is there spiritual fruit in the life? Is there victory? Is there peace? Is there joy? Is there love for the brother? Is there spiritual fruit in that life? Is there patience in that life? Is there a meek spirit in that life? Is there suffering with joyfulness in that life? If there's not fruit there, then what do you have? If it doesn't produce fruit, then what is it? You bring those young people up through instruction class, bring before the congregation for approval for baptism. You're not quite sure about this one right here. The hair is a little bit greasy, you know, sideburns a little bit long, hanging down the bottom of the ear, just kind of dragging on there. Can't quite get themselves in line. Almost not quite. Doesn't quite seem to do it. Kind of telltale signs a little bit. Well, listen, we got one brother in church won't put up with this. We're going to get this hair do knock back just a little bit. Turn a little bit of that off and working on that, working on that. You think you got it for a minute, but next, next week is the same way and work on that. Does congregation see fruit in that life? Is there evidence of the spiritual life? Evidence of a desire to pray, evidence of a desire to learn, evidence of a desire to submit, evidence of a desire to, to love the service and love the pastors and love daddy and mama and love the authority of the church. Is there that evidence in the life? Is the fruit in the life? You know, it seems to me that to go and get a razor, trim up about three quarters of an inch of a sideburn. I can do that without spiritual life, but I can't produce fruit. He that hath a son hath life. He that hath not the son of God hath not life. I can fool that preacher, that bishop's old enough. I think I can, his eyes are bad enough. I can get by him, but he that hath a son hath life. He that hath not the son of God hath not life. I can't fool that. The fruit of the spirit, the life is the life of Christ Jesus. And I went into this evening with, with one more question. How do we receive that life? And the brother is hardly aware of how important and how perfect was his devotional reading this evening. It was a very appropriate reading. How do I receive the life, the life of the son? I need that life. I need that gift. My soul without it dies. My soul without it is dead. There are just several simple steps that you would have seen in the story of that blind man from Mark chapter 10. And since it was read to us, I was not planning to use that illustration, but since it was read to us tonight, I will use it. These five points apply to the blind man. Just remember what you read there, Mark to Mass on the way to Jericho. He heard that Jesus was passing by. He called out, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. Let's start at the beginning. Why did he call out? Because the blind man had a need and he knew he had a need. He knew he was blind. He did not have the son of God. He was living in defeat. He did not have a pure life. He could not maintain victory. He tried for a while, stumbled again. He tried for a while, his own strength, tried to put blindfolders on his eyes, tried to hold back his arms, tried to keep his hands from doing that evil thing that he was doing there and practicing that on himself. And he felt guilty though he tried to find somewhere to quit it. And he got victory over about three or four weeks and back into it again. And he couldn't have victory and he knew he had a need. He was blind. He didn't have power. He couldn't have victory over. He couldn't control himself. The man knew he was, the first thing we need to do tonight is humble ourselves and recognize that we have a need. That anger, we can't get over, that bad relationship with my wife. I hollered her, she fusses at me. Then we go into silent retreat for the next two or three days and the children wonder who's living around here. And so we treat each other like that and we can't quit it. There's a need. The life, the power is not there. See that the son has life. And though you have a need and recognize you have a need, you will not come to Jesus. You will not come to the son of God if you have some other option. You got a tin cup out. You say, I'll try to, I'll try to cup, I'll try to cup for a while. I'll sit here and shake this cup. I'll see if I can put the money into it. That'll take care of me for a while. Put the money in the cup. I'm glad I got a white cane over here. I got a CNI dog German shepherd. As long as you have an option, you won't come to Jesus. There's some social security. There's some welfare benefit. For my handicap, I'll get some kind of a pension. As long as there is an alternative, you won't come to Jesus. It's in this condition. I didn't have victory in my life. I decided I'm going to, I'm going to get stricter in my life. We took the curtains off the walls, the rugs off the floors, take the quarter out of the house. We changed the hair arrangement. We did all kinds of things. We, the stockings were blacker. The hat was wider. We went that way as far as we could go. And we were miserable when we were done. And home life was falling apart and the marriage was on the rocks. It was alternative, but it was not Christ. And he that hath a son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. It was the wrong way to go. As long as there's another option, as long as there's some other recourse, some other alternative, I won't come to Christ. And so I come. I've tried everything and I'm still blind. And I'm shaking this cup and it's not meeting the need. I'm still blind. And I come openly before the world. I come up before the church. I come openly before my parents and I confess what I am. I am blind. And I hear about Jesus passing by. And I heard what he can do. And I heard what Jesus does to people. And I saw the testimony in others. And I saw what he does in that man of God and that dear sister and that quiet brother in the congregation. I've seen the stately life. I've seen the holy testimony. And I know that I don't have that for myself. And I know that that came from Jesus. And I know what Jesus can do to others. And I know what he can do to me. And I come with my faith in Jesus. I believe him. I say he can save me from sin. He can take this evil out of my life. He can change my evil heart. And as I come to Jesus with that faith, he offers me that victory and offers me his life and I receive it. And that receiving by faith is not something you do once. It's something you do every day. It's something you do momentarily. It's something you do in every situation. I remember who I am. And I remember what I would be without him. And I remember what he offers me. And I daily take it from him. It's my victory, son. It's my peace, son. It's my quietness, son. You don't need to be angry, son. Here's my patience, son. Here's my grace for the moment. A man 70 some years old heard thoughts similar to these one night in the service. The next day he went out to the job to pour concrete. The concrete truck didn't get done when it was supposed to. Mix wasn't made right. Forms weren't built correctly. He had a terrible job getting this concrete. They started to pour it out there into those forms. Things weren't going. He said, Dale, I'm the kind of fella that when things don't go right, when things don't go right, I pop. I mean, I mean, he said to me, I pop when things don't go right. I pop. And you said, brother Dale, you said that if we get angry and we have no reason to be angry and we get angry because it doesn't suit us, it didn't go my way, well then we don't have it, you said. You said we don't have it. And now to realize that I don't have it, the life and the son, I always pop. This is what I always do. But he said that Jesus offers me something else. He said I don't have to pop. He said I don't have to be angry. He said I can be free from this anger. He said I don't ever have to be angry again for the rest of my life. He said I can't believe what happened next. I looked down at that concrete. I looked down at this mess and I felt peace in my heart and I threw my both hands up to heaven and I said, thank you, Jesus, I have it. Thank you, Jesus, I have it. It's a momentary decision. It's a momentary reaching out of the hand. It's a momentary receiving. It's a constant believing. It's a constant receiving from Jesus the light that he has in himself and it gives us to have light in ourselves and that he is the son of God. It's a testimony. The children see daddy. Daddy's not angry to cow. Daddy's not angry to tractor. Daddy's not angry. Daddy is calm and daddy is quiet and this is beautiful. What happened to my daddy? He that the son hath life and he that not the son of God hath not life and my daddy hath the son of God and he hath life. Do you need it tonight? Do you need the life and the son? Let us pray. We thank you father for this very simple, beautiful, powerful, pure verse in the Bible. We thank you for the holy son that gives us life and offers us life and lives his life in our hearts and our daily lives and father I just simply want to ask you that you would help us understand if we have the son and if we have that life and if there's someone here dear God tonight that does not have that life then he does not have the son and if they do not have the son then they have death. I pray oh God you would give us the faith and the grace to believe that you are the son of God, that you have life for our most difficult moments, for our most trying circumstances. You will give us your life and tonight we step forward and we receive that life. We receive that gift. We believe father. We have need and we believe and we receive. May you bless this church tonight. We pray in Jesus name. The message that you have just listened to is available through livesacrifice.com. 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