In this sermon, the preacher begins by using an illustration of a goldfish in a bowl to emphasize the importance of having Jesus in our hearts for eternal life. He then extends an invitation to the viewers to repent of their sins and believe in Jesus to receive God's gift of eternal life. The preacher also encourages the audience to believe in God's work in their lives, churches, and country. The sermon concludes with a verse from Isaiah 57:15, highlighting the need for a contrite and humble spirit to experience revival and dwell with God in eternity.

Okay, starting in verse 10 of 1 John, chapter 5. 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. He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this passage, and I pray that by your Spirit, you would help us to understand something about yourself, your eternal being, and also that we would understand this wonderful thing of eternal life that you have given to us as a gift, if we're born again by your Spirit. We thank you now for the Word, we thank you for the Holy Spirit, we thank you for the time that you've given us, and as we look forward to a time of worship and praise with more songs later on, I just pray that you prepare our hearts to truly worship you in spirit and in truth. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. I'll probably be sharing with you some about the trip. I don't think you make a trip of 2,600 miles in nine states without some kind of significance. And there is something that I've never shared with my family, and I guess I'll share it with them now. God has continually through the years wanted me to live by faith. And to help me out, He gives me opportunities. Doesn't He do it with you? And my family didn't know it, but we had a... since we had the trip lined up to go to the wedding, and then the Lord opened up for the sharing in the church out there, and then we were going to make our trip on up to Washington and make our once-in-a-lifetime vacation trip. The day before that, we had a financial thing hit that I never told them, they never heard about it until now, that would have made that trip impossible. But I felt like God wanted us to make the complete trip all the way around. And the thing that hit was a $300 setback the day before. And I never said that to them, they don't know it until now. But when we got there, the day that we got ready to leave, that we were supposed to go up to Washington, which we really couldn't do it because we had that setback, there was $300 provided on that very day. Boy, I shouldn't set my Bible on the edge of things. What it was, you know, we were gone for about 10 days, we had 20 motel rooms, and then you don't feed a crowd our size, nine of us, without some kind of significance, and we ate pretty good. But the whole trip, as we go along, I'll share some things with you, was just God guiding and providing. And, you know, we'd come out of our motel after being there that weekend for the wedding, and the pastor, after he'd heard the kids play, wanted them to stay in the church, so we stayed for two services. I didn't really want to stay because I knew, well, Lord, this could be an extra day, extra motel rooms, and all like that. But we committed to him, and as I shared in the prayer request, because of that, some unsaved relatives stayed for the church service and heard the gospel. And I just committed it to the Lord. I said, you have a purpose in this. We believe God to have a purpose in all of our goings about, and so I was rejoicing. As we went to check out of the motel, the lady went up to us, and said, I want to pay you. She said, you don't have nothing to pay. Somebody's paid for your room. So there was over $200 right there. And then as we were leaving to head out, then the pastor handed us an envelope and said, enjoy Washington, and another gift of $100. Now, that helped out a lot. And the day we got back, the morning we got back, God was just that working, and he brought in double that through some unusual circumstances the Monday morning after we were back. I won't share the details with you, but just things were popping around here. You know that old car I've had, I've been trying to sell? Somebody bought it that very morning. So I don't have to fix it up anymore. I've been meditating on something the last couple weeks, and it's on the eternity of God. The eternity of God. Think about our God being eternal. I read something about him that he said, this is really unusual, but God said this. He said, for I lift up my hand to heaven and say, I live forever. God said that. He said that in Deuteronomy chapter 32 and verse 40. The eternal God. If God doesn't affect you, you ain't been touched. If God doesn't bless you, then you're just not in touch with things. All he is is love. That's just God. God is love, and he is life. And all that he is, he is for us. And as we travel back about the disciples, they said, in him we live and move and have our being. And for them to get up in the morning was just God to live his life through them. And that's the description of a Christian. One that has life and has God live in his life through them. But to think about God and to meditate upon God would lead you to this discovery. Meditating upon God leads you to only this conclusion. It has to, to worship him. Because as you meditate on him, and we talked about worship the last time I was here. What was it, three weeks ago or so? There's a how to worship. Here's a little practical handle. Just get a hold of one aspect of God and meditate upon that about the Lord. And that's what I did for two weeks, basically. The eternity of God. And I started off in a psalm. I started off in Psalms 102. I spent a lot of time in the Psalms. But this is where I started off in Psalms 102. I noticed this about God. And verse 12. But thou, O Lord, shalt endure forever in thy remembrance unto all generations. And then also look at verse 26 and 27. This is really what caught me. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure. Yea, all of them shall wax old as like a garment, as a vesture. Shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end. And so I just meditated about this when I'd come in the mornings and have my devotions. About the eternity of God. And sometimes through the day this thought would come back that God is eternal. And we know if we want to blow a gasket in our old computer up here between our ears, you try to figure out where God came from. I'll tell you where He came from. He just always has been. And that's what He said about Himself. He has always been. And He is Spirit. And He seeks for us to worship Him. He is seeking for us to worship Him. I have an unusual little book. It was given to me probably about, I don't know, 20... 75, 85, 95. About 22, 23 years ago by an old godly preacher. The book is over 100 years old. It was written in 1892. And it's called Natural Law in the Spiritual World by Henry Drummond. And as I read through this, I decided, well there's something on eternal life in here. And I haven't finished it yet. As I began to read it and just really absorbed it, it began to hit me. This man understands the correlation between nature and God. And what he was saying... I don't know if I do this, if it'll make sense or not. If I were to read you some phrases in here. What he was saying basically was this. That up until this time, science has never had a definition for eternal life. I've never thought about that. You know, we went through the Smithsonian's and we went through the science museums and all of this. But if you think about it, that's true. I never do hear these guys talking about eternal existence. They're always trying to figure out where we came from. They're not even in the present because they have not believed God. They're way back in the past. And if you want to really shut them down, you just talk about eternity. They've got an appointment to go to real quick or something. They have no handle on it. Here is a scientist that finally made a definition by this author. He's a believer, he's a Christian, probably he's a pastor. I think he was a preacher. And he found a scientist that made a definition of eternal life. And he said it was the first valid one that he had ever seen. Maybe the only one he had ever seen. And so as I thought about that and I read about this and I thought about eternity with God, I said, this is really good. Maybe I need to give you an illustration before we begin. I have right here a bowl in my hand. Do you see it? Everybody see this bowl? What's in this bowl? Do you see it? Swimming around in that bowl is what? It's a goldfish. Anybody here not see it? Okay. I'll put it over here. In that bowl is swimming around a goldfish. Everybody see that goldfish real good? Okay. Now, I'm going to reach in the bowl. And I'm going to take that goldfish out. I'm going to grab him. He's a little bit slippery. There, I got him. Oh, I got him by the tail. I've pulled him out. There he is. He's flopping. You hope I don't drop him, right? Now, what's going to happen if I just hang on to this goldfish and I don't put him back in the bowl? Fish for dinner? Not really. But he's going to do what? He's going to expire. And we could use him for fertilizer or something. Now, we'll put him back in the bowl. And he's happy to be back in the bowl. Now, I'm going to set the bowl right here. Try not to knock anything over. And over here, I have in my hand a what? See it? What color is it? It's a bird. And it is a redbird. Redbirds fly around our house a lot. We've got this little bird feeder. But this little redbird, his environment is different from the goldfish, right? Now, what's going to happen if I take this redbird and I put him down in there to have fellowship with that goldfish? Should we try it? What's going to happen? One kid out here said, let's see that happen. He likes action. That's your son, Boyd. He'd like to see that bird fellowship with that goldfish. The goldfish was made for a certain environment. The bird was made for a certain environment. And as long as their environment around them is safe, there's no cats around to get the bird, or there's no other bigger fish around to get the fish, they're okay. But it just so happens that their environments are not perfect. And that's why they will not live forever. And so what this scientist came up with was a statement describing eternal life like this. And I'll go back and I'll read his statement. His name was Mr. Herbert Spencer, and this is back over a hundred years ago. But he said this. And he talked about eternal life as correspondence. You know, when we have correspondence with somebody, we write them a letter, or we correspond a message to them, we send them an email or something, that's correspondence. God has corresponded with us, hasn't He? He's given us the Bible. He loves us. He wants us to live with Him forever. He's corresponded that He's proved His love by dying on the cross for our sins. That's correspondence. Correspondence is the beginning level. It moves on to communion and moves on into deep faith and love. But correspondence is the beginning. So this scientist said this. In describing eternal life. He said, perfect correspondence would be perfect life. In other words, he's saying perfect environment with no change whatever to hurt you, to harm you, to destroy you would be perfect life. Perfect correspondence would be perfect life. Were there no changes in the environment, but such as the organism had adapted changes to meet and were it never to fail in the efficiency with which it met them, there would be eternal existence and eternal knowledge. In other words, given the right conditions in the right place at the right time, this is a theory, of course, of science. Because it does not work in the natural world. We're not in a perfect environment. So, the question is then, how does all this imperfect get to the place to where it's going to be perfect? And let's not even bother about all of this because the Bible already tells us He's going to burn all this stuff up. All the homes, the trees, the earth it's going to be burned up. So, we know this is not going to... But what about us? This is where you come into the part of getting to know an eternal God. Getting to know an eternal God. Because what's the definition of eternal life? Eternal life has a very simple definition. It was given to us in John 17, 3. Eternal life is what? Eternal life is to know the Father. Maybe we should turn there. Do you know it? Eternal life. Jesus described eternal life in John 17, 3. And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. Eternal life. Now, get this word, is knowing. Somebody might say, well, eternal life is to live forever. Is that true? Once you are born into this world, you are going to live forever. So, does that mean because you are going to live forever, you are going to have eternal life? What's the Bible say? And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. Let me stop you right here and say, if you do not know Jesus Christ, then you will not have eternal life, but you will live forever. But your environment will not be heaven, because you will not be adapted for heaven no more than this red bird is adapted to live with the goldfish. Or the goldfish is adapted to live with the red bird in the air. And so, God has to do something to us to adapt us for His environment. And if somehow someone were to get into heaven without Jesus Christ, they could not live there. Why? Because they do not have eternal life inside of them. Now, if by some reckless means I could do something to this goldfish, and I could go blap, and I could blap him with, let's say, eternal life, and I could pull him out of the bowl, and he could go off and spend the day with the red bird, he had something changed within him, didn't he? Or vice versa, we could take the red bird and I could blap him, and he could go in and swim around with the goldfish. Something has to happen to man in order for him to have eternal life. And this is what this little article is about. And it's very interesting statements that he made. But I don't think I'll read you these things. I'm tempted to read you some of it. It was so good. And he talked about the popular idea. He said this, in spite of a hundred protests, is that eternal life is to live forever. See, he protested. He understood there's a difference between living forever because you can live forever in hell. Do you have eternal life? Not according to the Scripture. Eternal life is to know the true God and Jesus Christ. So you have an existence, but it's not going to be living. It's going to be death, an eternal death. Now, he said a single glance at this might have made this error impossible. He used a big Latin word or something. There we are told that life eternal is not to live. This is life eternal, to know. And yet it is a notorious instance of the fact that men who are opposed to religion will take their conceptions of its profoundest truths from mere vulgar perversions. This view still represents to many cultivated men the scriptural doctrine of eternal life. From time to time, the taught has drawn at religion, not unseldom, from lips which science ought to have taught them more caution, that the future life of Christianity is simply a prolonged existence, an eternal monotony, a blind and indefinite continuance of being. The Bible never could commit itself to any such empty platitude, nor could Christianity ever offer to the world a hope so colorless. Not that eternal life has nothing to do with everlastingness. That is part of the conception. And it is this aspect of the question that first arrests us in the field of science. Benigni goes on and on and on. Do you see the difference between just living forever and having eternal life? This is why so many people, when they come out of church on Sunday, their life has not been affected. They're just as dead and dull, and their life is just as full of boredom and meaningless as it was when they get in, because they have not made contact yet with Jesus Christ. Now, the people that I had you pray for this morning, I believe they're religious people. But I don't believe they have eternal life. When we go up and we meet somebody, say in the airport or in the store or whatever, what is your business? Are you there in the store to shop or in the airport to make a flight? What is your business? Matter of fact, we might come back and ask the same question that Job asked. I was reading this, and I thought, that's really interesting. In Job chapter 22, he had this question. He didn't put it like that, what is your business? But he said this in Job chapter 22, in verse 2, Can a man be profitable unto God? While you're there at the airport or in the mall shopping, what is your business? Well, I'm here to buy a dress. Is that your business? Well, that's something you've got to get done, but is that your business in life? To do all these things? Is there a deeper meaning for us in knowing Jesus Christ than just to know, oh, well, I've received Christ as my Savior. I get to go to heaven. Or is there more to it? See, Eliphaz is answering the question of Job. Job had asked this, what is my business? He didn't say it like that, because in 2115, Job had said, what is the Almighty that we should serve Him? And what profit should we have if we pray unto Him? Eliphaz comes back and he says, Can a man be profitable unto God? As he that is wise may be profitable unto himself. What is your business? Well, we know that our business is to reveal Jesus Christ. So, as you're shopping for your dress, you're getting on your plane to fly, your business, I must be about my Father's business. Remember Jesus said, I must be about my Father's work. I also and you also must be about our Father's work. Well, we're going to have to cut in right here on Eagle's Wings and stop the program, but we'll continue this message and finish it up next week, Lord willing. I have a verse for you. It's Isaiah 57, verse 15. For thus saith the High and Lofty One that inhabited eternity, whose name is Holy, I dwell in the high and holy place with Him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Our invitation to you is one that God extends and that you would receive Christ as your Savior. If you plan on inhabiting eternity with God, then you must have Jesus Christ in your heart. He that has the Son has life. If you're going to have eternal life, you must have Jesus in your heart. We extend this invitation to you from God to receive of God's gift eternal life. Repent of your sins, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Well, until next week, we're going to believe God to work in our lives. We're going to believe Him to work in our churches. And we're going to believe Him to work in our country also. Until next time, may God richly bless you, my friend.