I'm going to read from John 10 tonight,
and we're going to commence reading of that
one.
The Lord Jesus is the speaker, and he
says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He
that enters not by the door into the
sheepfold, but climbs up some other way, the
same is a thief and a robber.
But he that enters in by the door
is the shepherd of the sheep.
To him the porter opens, and the sheep
hear his voice, and he calls his own
sheep by name, and leads them out.
And when he puts forth his own sheep,
he goes before them, and the sheep follow
him, for they know his voice.
And a stranger will they not follow, but
will flee from him, for they know not
the voice of a stranger.
This parable spake Jesus unto them, but they
understood not what things they were which he
spake unto them.
Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, I am the door
of the sheep.
All that ever came before me are thieves
and robbers, but the sheep did not hear
them.
I am the door, by me if any
man enter in, he shall be saved, and
shall go in and out, and find pasture.
The thief, that means Satan, comes not but
for to steal, and to kill, and to
destroy.
I am come that they might have life,
and that they might have it more abundantly.
I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd
gives his life for the sheep.
But he that is a highling, and not
the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not,
sees the wolf coming, and leads the sheep,
and flees, and the wolf catches them, and
scatters the sheep.
The highling flees, because he is a highling,
and cares not for the sheep.
I am the good shepherd, and know my
sheep.
And have known of mine.
As the father knows me, even so know
I the father, and I lay down my
life for the sheep.
And other sheep I have, which are not
of this fold, them also I must bring,
and they shall hear my voice, and there
shall be one fold, and one shepherd.
Therefore doth my father love me, because I
lay down my life, that I might take
it again.
No man takes it from me, but I
lay it down of myself.
I have power to lay it down, I
have power to take it again.
This commandment have I received of my father.
Verse 27 of that same chapter.
My sheep hear my voice, and I know
them, and they follow me.
I give unto them eternal life, they shall
never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand.
My father which gave them me, is greater
than all, and no man is able to
pluck them out of my father's hand.
I am my father alone.
Now would you turn just to another verse,
it's in Romans 6 verse 23.
The wages of sin is death, but the
gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus
Christ our Lord.
Would you allow me to read that again,
because that's my scripture for tonight.
For the wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life, through
Jesus Christ our Lord.
Now I'm sure God always blesses the weaving
of the Bible.
Someone once said that Christianity was a deathbed
religion.
Now first of all, I want to say
clearly that Christianity shows you how to die
victoriously, but it is not a deathbed religion.
In fact, the Lord Jesus made it very
clear that if you don't have life before
death, you will never get life after death.
So can you see if we're going to
have life after death, we've got to have
eternal life before death.
When we read John's gospel, and it's a
lovely book, when you have a few spare
moments to read it, you will find that
the whole of that book was written that
people might believe that Jesus Christ is the
Christ, and that they're believing they might have
life through his name.
Therefore, almost in every chapter in John's gospel,
there's a reference to life.
In chapter one, he's the light of life.
In chapter three, he is the new birth
of heavenly life.
In chapter four, he is the spring of
life.
In chapter five, he is the security of
life, if you like the assurance of life.
In chapter six, he is the bread of
life.
In chapter seven, he is the river of
life.
In chapter eight, he is the light of
life.
And in chapter ten, he is the abundance
of life.
And in chapter eleven, he is the resurrection
and the life, all life.
And therefore, I want to share with you
tonight, just for a few minutes, this great
gift of eternal life that God is desirous
to give to all people.
The first point is quite obvious and simple.
Why do we need eternal life?
Secondly, what is eternal life?
And then thirdly, how do we receive eternal
life?
Now, why do we need eternal life?
Because the wages of sin is death.
In order to understand that statement, my dear
friends, we have to go right the way
back to the beginning of creation.
And when God made man, he made him,
if I can put it very simply, so
that we can understand, in three parts.
He made him with a body, he made
him with a soul, and he made him
with a spirit.
Now we can prove that immediately.
When you were sitting at the table eating
your food tonight, you were feeding the body.
That's clear.
When you were listening to the music tonight,
you were not feeding your body, you were
feeding your soul.
When we bowed our heads and prayed, all
those who loved the Lord Jesus, were not
feeding their bodies, were not feeding their souls,
but they were feeding their spirits.
We were in contact with God.
So can you see, with the body, man
knew the earth.
With his soul, he knew himself.
With the spirit, he had contact with the
Almighty God.
Now if you spoke to Adam before he
sinned, and if you said something like this
to him, what's the best part of the
day for you?
He would say without hesitation, when the evening
comes, the cool of the garden, I go
out and I meet the Almighty God, and
I move right into a new world.
I move into the world of the Kingdom
of God.
And that was the most precious point in
his experience in life.
God put man under a very simple test.
For instance, every aeroplane, every car is tested.
And so the Lord tested man.
And there in the garden of Eden, there
was a tree.
It wasn't an apple tree, it wasn't an
orange tree, it was a brilliant tree.
It was called the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil.
Now it was the mind of God that
man should know good, but not evil.
And he was forbidden to touch that tree.
Immediately man deliberately sinned, and took of that
tree, he took from the hands of God,
the reins that controlled him, and he became
his own master.
And into that body there came the poison
of sin.
Now the body almost remained the same, though
there were differences.
The soul was almost the same, but there
were some differences.
But the spirit went dead.
Just like being in a house and all
the lights go out, the light of God
went out.
A man had life physically, he had life
socially, but life spiritually was dead.
So that when God came in the evening,
he was afraid, and we hear him saying
something like this, I'm afraid, I've hit myself.
You see instead of being conscious of God,
instead of being aware of God, he was
just conscious of himself.
But that's not all.
Every little baby that comes from Adam is
born dead.
Not physically, not emotionally, but spiritually.
And this is what the word of God
says.
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into
the world, and death by sin, and so
death passed upon all men, for the Lord
has sinned.
And that is the world's greatest problem.
So that when we pick up a lovely
little baby, and we all love them, we
admire them, it's made in the image and
in the likeness of God, admittedly damaged by
sin.
That baby has natural life, it has soulish
life, but it's spiritually dead.
And if that baby when it reaches the
age of responsibility, is then responsible before God
to receive this gift of eternal life.
Now secondly, let's look at the facts of
this.
Can we really see that man is spiritually
dead?
Now here's a fact.
In a place called Milton Keynes, I was
working and evangelizing, and I gave a man
a Bible.
The man knew nothing at all about the
Bible, he knew a very little about God,
he knew a very little about Jesus and
so on.
And then I went back to see him
about two months later, and all this was
arranged, and I said, how did you get
on?
Didn't understand a word.
I tried prayer, but it's all ridiculous.
He said, I knelt down and prayed, but
I was praying into the thin air.
He said, then I went at the Bible
again, couldn't understand it.
What was he saying?
He was saying, I can't understand the Bible,
I can't understand prayer, I believe that God's
there, but I don't know him.
He was saying, I'm spiritually dead.
And that man was being honest.
Now it's possible, dear friends, to be religious.
For instance, in the Bible, there was one
man whose name was Nicodemus, and he was
a religious ruler, he was a Pharisee, he
was a master in Israel.
In fact, he was a brilliant man that
used to teach people religion.
For instance, if Nicodemus stood here, and I
said to him, Nicodemus, I want you to
give me a resume on the personality of
God.
He could have done it beautifully.
But then, if I said to him, Nicodemus,
do you know God intimately and personally?
No.
And that's why he came to Jesus by
now.
He knew that he was spiritually dead, and
that's why the Lord Jesus said to him,
except a man be born from above, he
cannot see the kingdom of God.
Thirdly, I want you to think now of
the loss of spiritual death.
I want you to think of the average
man, now I'm thinking of Britain and I'm
thinking of Australia, and we are very similar,
and the average man in Britain, and this
would mark almost 78% of Britain, he
gets up in the morning, he goes through
his washing hygiene, he sits at the breakfast
table, he reads his paper, he says goodbye
to his wife and children, and he goes
to work, and shall we imagine he's a
carpenter, and he's working there on a particular
house, and then he takes out his sandwiches,
12 o'clock, and then he goes back
to his work, and 5 o'clock, he's
home in his car, and he sits down,
and it's almost noon time, and he switches
on the television, and he watches it, and
then he has his dinner, and then perhaps
he looks at the telly again, and then
it's about 10 or half past 10, and
he's thinking of going to bed.
For 16 hours that man has gone through
the day spiritually dead, unconscious of God, unaware
of God, that's not all, he's married, he's
got a nice little home, nothing wrong with
that, he loves his garden, nothing wrong with
that, he likes to go and watch the
arsenal once a month, and then my dear
friends, he comes home, and he works hard,
brings the money in, puts a little aside,
and he's going through life, and then he
loses his youth, his middle age, he gets
a corporation, and feels a little clumsy, so
he puts himself through some keep fit classes,
and then when he gets about 65, he
retires, and then he says, I put my
feet up.
Now what happens?
30 years he's gone through life without God,
without Christ, without hope, dare I say it,
spiritually dead.
He reaches a good age of roughly about
85, and then he feels ill, he has
a heart attack, and they're all around the
bed, they love him, and that man dies
spiritually dead.
Listen, he lived without Christ, he died without
Christ, and he moves into a Christless eternity.
What a shock!
Now Jesus describes two men, one was rich,
he was a brilliant businessman, he reached the
age of retirement, but he was without Christ,
he was without God, he was without hope,
he was spiritually dead, and suddenly he died,
and do you know what the Lord said?
Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be
required of thee.
There was another rich man that the Lord
Jesus spoke of, and this particular rich man
was obviously a man that fared sumptuously every
day, that means he had the best food
possible, went to the synagogue, wore the purple
garment, that meant he was a man of
dignity, and everyone would recognize him as a
VIP, and then all of a sudden this
man dies, and his spirit, and what a
fuss they made of him at the burial,
but Jesus said, in hell he lifted up
his eyes in torment.
What happened?
He lived without Christ, he died without Christ,
he slipped from time into the yawning jaws
of eternity, and he said, Lord, I'm lost,
spiritually dead.
Now my dear friends, immediately we understand that,
then we shall need eternal life.
Now can I ask you a question?
Have you got eternal life?
Do you realize the wages of sin is
death?
Do you realize if you die in your
sins, you will be eternally lost?
And that's why all of us need eternal
life.
Now what is it?
Now I've been speaking to people that have
no relationship at all with churches, and one
man thought eternal life was stardust from heaven,
another man thought it was like a kind
of a Christian theory that comes to you.
So then what is eternal life?
Now my dear friends, eternal life is the
Lord Jesus.
John chapter 1 says, in him was life,
and the life was the light of men.
John's epistle first chapter says, for the life
was manifested, and we have seen it, and
show unto you that eternal life, which was
with the father, and was manifested unto us.
So it's the life of the Lord Jesus.
The Lord Jesus said, I am come that
ye might have life, and that ye might
have it more abundantly.
Again the Lord Jesus said, I am the
resurrection and the life, he that liveth and
believeth in me shall never die.
And to Martha he says, do you believe
this?
So eternal life is found in the Lord
Jesus.
Now isn't that clear?
Now comes the problem.
How can the Lord Jesus, the son of
man, the son of God, put his life
in me?
Impossible.
Can I say it again?
How can the Lord Jesus actually put his
life in me?
Well that's impossible.
So he said to his disciples, it's expedient
for you that I go away, for if
I go not away, the comforter, the Holy
Spirit will not come.
And then he said, when he has come,
he will be with you, now note this,
and in you.
So can you see my dear friends, the
Holy Spirit is that member of the Trinity
that's indwelling.
When the Lord Jesus died upon the cross,
as we were saying last night, he died
on the cross on behalf of the sins
of the world.
That meant, instead of God's judgment coming upon
us, he volunteered to bear the judgment.
And through that cross, all our sins can
be forgiven, if we receive it.
When he went back to heaven, he did
a wonderful thing.
He went back for one purpose, to send
the Holy Spirit.
And therefore on the day of Pentecost, when
the disciples were all gathered in an upper
room, about 120 of them, as they were
waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit,
they suddenly heard the sound of a rushing
mighty wind.
Must have been wonderful.
And it filled the room.
And the enclovened tongues of fire sat upon
each of them.
And here it comes, they were all filled
with the Holy Ghost.
Now what does that mean?
The Holy Spirit came in them, and brought
into them eternal life.
Wonderful.
Again, some of you will remember this, if
you don't, we'll try and make it clear.
When the Lord Jesus was raised from the
dead, he went among his disciples, and when
they saw the Lord, they were glad.
So would you be, if you thought he
was dead, and now he was risen.
And when the disciples saw the Lord, they
were jubilantly happy, and he showed them his
hands and his side, and then he did
a remarkable thing.
Now grip this.
He went up, and he breathed on each
of them, and said, receive thee the Holy
Spirit.
Now when he made man in good shape
and form, he breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life, and man became a living
being, right at the beginning.
Now he's going to start all over again.
He's going to build a new society.
So he breathes and says, receive ye the
Holy Spirit.
And on the day of Pentecost, they receive
the Holy Spirit.
And when a person receives the Holy Spirit,
he receives into his life, eternal life, and
I know you're going to raise your eyebrows,
but he will never, never die.
Never.
And we shall see that in a few
moments.
Now when this life comes into a person,
the Lord Jesus said, that you shall receive
power, after that the Holy Ghost is come
upon you.
Now this is not an exaggeration, but when
the Holy Spirit comes into you, you are
born anew, and then he will change your
life dramatically.
It won't be you, it will be the
Holy Spirit changing.
Now to prove this point, if you look
at the disciples when they were with the
Lord Jesus, they were good men, but they
all failed like we all do.
But these men, when they were filled with
the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost,
they were completely transformed.
In fact, as you read of them in
the Gospels, and as you read of them
in the book of the Acts, you can
hardly tell they're the same people.
Why?
The Spirit of God was changing.
Now this is the wonder of the Christian
life.
You might see five Christians on this platform,
and you might know the five of them.
But there's one of those Christians that's really
shining for the Lord.
What does that mean?
That he has more of the Holy Spirit
than the others?
No!
It means that he's cultivated the life, so
that the beauty and the loveliness of the
Lord Jesus shines out.
And that's Christianity.
It's Christ reliving his life in you.
And Paul put it like this, I am
crucified with Christ, that was his old unconverted
life.
Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me.
And the life which I now live in
the flesh, meaning in the body, I live
by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me.
Just before we came here, we were working
at Vista.
And just 18 months ago, I was in
a very large house, where they were having
meetings.
And it was the last night, and in
came a lady, and she sat right in
the front.
And the moment I looked at her, I
staggered a little.
She was about 16 stone, six foot three
tall.
She had two of her sons with her.
And the moment I looked at her, I
could see she was a strong personality.
As I was preaching the gospel and showing
to the people how that the Holy Spirit
could completely change their lives.
Somehow I felt that the words were going
right into her heart.
Then they told me that that woman was
a wine alcoholic, and she was under a
leading psychiatrist for 15 years.
She went away from that service, said nothing
to anyone in the room.
She thought all about the message that she
heard.
And then on a Tuesday afternoon, she got
down by a chair and wept her heart
out, and told the Lord she was a
poor wretched sinner.
She thanked the Lord for dying for her.
And she asked the Lord to come into
her life and save her.
The first thing she did was to go
to the social security and tell them that
she had been robbing them for 10 years.
And she said that she would pay it
all back, the new life.
For years, Friday and Saturday and Sunday, the
children saw them in a drunken stupor.
It all went.
And even facially, that woman's life has been
changed.
So much so, that her husband when he
saw the change in her, he said I
must come with you.
And he came almost for about six or
seven months, even coming to a communion service
without taking the bread and wine of course,
because he wanted to get the grip of
this.
And God gloriously saved him.
Two wine alcoholics.
And then the last Sunday I was there,
forgive me being rude, Steve the husband got
up and worshipped the Lord.
Six months old saved.
Worshipping the Lord.
And you could see they were both transformed.
What was it?
The gift of eternal life had come in
and transformed them.
You know some of you Christians that have
been saved for years, you've made a very
little progress.
You know you should be shining bright lights
for God.
And some of you dear people that have
just been saved, that eternal life is in.
And there's some of you dear friends tonight
and you're sitting there and I feel sure
you're saying that's what I need.
And thank God he's waiting to give it.
I must share this with you before I
close.
When you have eternal life, it's eternal life.
So in your body there's a paradox.
The Holy Spirit comes in and he comes
right down into your spirit and makes your
spirit alive and he transforms your personality and
he stamps upon that personality the beauty and
the loveliness of Jesus.
Wonderful to see.
You see when you become a Christian, if
I may use sentimental language, he wants to
make you all beautiful people.
Full of the Lord Jesus.
So that your lives are full of love,
joy and peace.
And then dear friends there's the paradox.
The old exterior, the body is dying.
The soul and the spirit is renewing.
And so a Christian is a paradox.
His body is dying.
The person inside is being renewed.
Now if God gave us eternal life in
this body it would be agonizing.
I knew a lady Mrs Fred Elliot.
Her husband was a well-known evangelist and
she lived till 112.
The oldest lady in Britain.
And would you believe it she was playing
the piano at 111.
And she was all on the TV over
there.
But if you said to Mrs Elliot do
you want to live for another 20 years?
She would say no.
I want to go home.
And that's where she is.
In the glory.
They have buried the exterior and that's in
the ground and it will decompose.
It's called sleeping.
That the real her is in paradise with
the Lord.
And my dear friends the moment you have
received eternal life there is no such thing
as eternal death.
It's gone.
Absent from the body, present with the Lord.
You know when I hear some of my
Christian brothers saying John passed away.
I cringe.
Passed away?
And when I hear another brother say I've
lost my wife.
You've lost your wife?
Of course you've not lost your wife.
You know where she is.
In heaven.
You see beloved Griffith the moment we die
when we've got eternal life we're absent from
the body present with the Lord.
And we're a thousand times happier than we'll
ever be in this body.
Wonderful.
Now you say well how do we receive
it?
Now my dear friends it's the most costly
thing that God ever gives.
Before you could have eternal life the Lord
Jesus had to die upon the cross, bear
our sins and taste death for everyone.
And eternal life is given because of the
precious shed blood of the Lord Jesus.
That's the depth of it.
Secondly eternal life is a gift.
Now please note this.
Bear with me.
That bible was a gift given to me
by a man in Ireland.
But it was a gift from him.
Here is a pen.
And that was a gift given to me
I believe by one of my sons.
But it wasn't the gift of Philip.
It was a gift from Philip.
When God gives you a gift it's not
a gift from God.
Note this.
It's a gift of God.
In other words he puts the Holy Spirit
within you and when he comes into your
life you are completely converted, revolutionized.
And he will go on doing that all
the days of your life.
So when you receive this gift you receive
a gift that's going to change your life.
That's why you receive the Lord Jesus as
your savior and as your Lord.
Now there comes a time in your experience
and we do not want to impose this
we just the Spirit of God will say
this to you.
When you sit in a seat like this
and God in his grace comes to you
and actually offers you the gift of eternal
life.
Now my dear friends allow me to say
this in deep love.
God would never give this subject to me
if he were not to give the gift
tonight.
And I'm absolutely sure that God now is
waiting to give you the gift of eternal
life.
But you can do two things.
You can reject it or you can receive
it.
And you know I want to bow my
head and say this.
I've seen hundreds of people rejecting it and
one day they'll stand before God and they
will realize they will be in hell forever
because they rejected the gift that God wanted
to give.
But I've seen people receiving it.
It's beautiful.
Instead of going away as the others do
they sit behind and you just draw close
to them and say what's your trouble?
And they're quietly say this.
I want to receive the gift of eternal
life tonight.
And then you say well I can't give
it to you.
I know that.
It's only the Lord Jesus and it's beautiful
to see it.
They kneel down, invariably do a little weeping.
They tell the Lord they're sinners.
They thank the Lord for dying for them.
And then quietly they say Lord be my
Savior and my Lord and come into my
life.
Right there they're born of God.
Dear friends all I want to say now
is this.
I commend you to take that gift.
Take it tonight and it will not only
change your life, it will take you to
glory.
When you die the Lord help you to
accept the gift of God which is eternal
life.