A Powerful Side of Eternal Life Part 1: full transcript and answers

▶ 0:00 Remember in John 17:3, this is eternal life. See, He’s going to define what eternal life is: “that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” See, the Bible defines things, like we just learned today in one of the songs. What is the joy of the Lord, according to the Bible? Your strength. The joy of the Lord is [your strength]. Remember, in math, “is” equals, it’s the equal symbol, you see. And if you don’t have the joy of the Lord, you’re not strong. Let the Bible define itself. All right. Now, the Word of God makes us strong also. There’s always two banks to a river, but the Word of God will direct you to what? The joy of the Lord. Yeah, why do we want to walk around sad when we can walk around glad? Remember last week: believing in Christ equals eternal life. All right. Also, obeying God’s Word equals eternal life. All right. Now, everybody is born into eternity; it’s just whether you will spend--

▶ 1:28 Eternity, what place you spend eternity at, is the equation here. All right. Now, I’m going to liken eternal life to a three-legged stool. Three-legged stool. One of them is believe, the other one is obey, and we’re going to hit the third one this morning. And of course, the top holds it all together, and that is God. Remember, Jesus said you got to believe on the One who sent Me for eternal life. You can’t separate Jesus and God. See, some people try to separate Jesus from God, you can’t do that, and some people try to separate God from Jesus and have only Jesus only. You can’t do either. They’re both in the equation. Can I hear an amen? They’re both in the equation. Okay. Now, as you know, if I had a three-legged stool up here and I took one leg off, I would have to work to use that as a seat. I would have to apply my own strength, you see. So we need all three legs to this. Amen. Now, let’s take a look at how “know” is used in the Bible, the word “know.” All right, and we’re going to find it is used as a personal--

▶ 2:49 Individual--and, uh, your pastor can’t get you through there. There’s no big author that can get you into that. You yourself individually, personally, intimately. It means the touch, is it, the closeness, the touch, the personal, intimate, resulting encounter, resulting meeting with God and Jesus Christ. When you individually touch Him, there is a result. This is what you’re going to find the word “know” is used as. Am I clear? All right. Example: Luke 8:46. The woman with the issue of blood came up, got on her hands and knees, and touched the hem of His garment, and Jesus stopped the whole thing. There were a lot of people touching Jesus, you see, and when Jesus said, “Who touched Me?” the apostles reminded Him, “Everybody’s touching You. You know, the crowd just pushing into You.” He said, “No, no, no, somebody touched Me. Something happened. See, power went out of Me.” Now, let me remind you, this woman believed.

▶ 4:09 Before, and she wasn’t healed. For all these people so sold on faith, faith is only one step in the knowledge and understanding of God. This woman obeyed and came to the crowd, because Jesus has invited everyone to come and He would heal them. So she believed, and she responded and came to that crowd, but she still wasn’t healed. She understood by watching that Jesus was healing people, and here she understood that’s what Jesus was doing. So she believed, she had understanding, and she obeyed, but she wasn’t healed. She wasn’t healed till she got down on her hands and knees, crawled through that crowd, and touched the hem of His garment, and [virtue] flowed out of Him. That’s when Jesus said, “I know someone touched Me.” An individual touched Me, and there was a result of healing.

▶ 5:14 Number two, Luke 1:34. Mary said, “How shall this be,” that I’m going to have a child, I’m going to get pregnant and have a child, “seeing I know not a man.” I’m a virgin. I know not a man. I haven’t personally been in touch with a man resulting in the possibility of a baby being born. Allelujah. Now, the word “know” generally means to understand and have knowledge of, you see. And my point with the woman with the issue of blood is she had knowledge, but it didn’t do anything. See, Mary had knowledge that to have a baby you had to have a man, okay, but that didn’t give her a baby. The knowledge didn’t do it. Her belief in it didn’t do it. Do you understand? It wasn’t till the power of God overshadowed her and the Spirit of the Lord came upon her, and then there was a power, a virtue that went into Mary, and then she--

▶ 6:31 Conceived. The baby started growing in her womb. Are you there? See, that’s how the word “know” is used. Now, let me give you an example, my own example. We can talk about power all we want. You can understand electricity. You can know not to put your finger in that electric socket. All right, you can believe that electricity can hurt you, but you don’t know electricity until you come in contact with it. And I had a great idea today, but I couldn’t perform it: a little generator that you crank, the faster you crank it the more volts come out, and then you’re going to feel the electricity. Then you know what electricity is. When I was in [unclear] Technical School, they were teaching me to repair radios and TVs and all that stuff, and I had a radio, and somebody brought it to me, and it didn’t have a cord on it. So, you know, I knew electricity. I just cut off the end of a cord, plugged it in, put the terminals where, you know, the electricity would go into the radio, and was testing out this radio and all that. And then I forgot that there were bare wires there, and I bared the wires, I wrapped it around the terminals where I could get the radio going, and I forgot, and my hand--while I was looking one way, my hand went another, and it hit that live wire. Well, me went one way, the radio went another way, and the cord went another way. Let me tell you, I experienced--

▶ 8:23 Electricity. The cord went over and hit the radiator. We had a radiator; our house was heated by a radiator, steam. And instead of blowing the fuse, it started a fire. A metal, a metal [unclear], I got a flame six inches high shooting up. I’m over here trying to get my business back together, the radio is over on the floor somewhere, you see. I experienced--

▶ 8:56 Electricity. Now, that’s not all. I was fixing a TV once, and I forgot that they had a capacitor in them, and it has, you know, 30 to 40,000 volts in it, maybe more, and you’re supposed to discharge that capacitor. Well, you know, I’m young, you learn the hard way sometimes, you know what I mean? You’re reminded of the rules you read, but the hard way. And if you know a capacitor, you don’t have to touch it to get zapped. All you got to do is get close enough for that powerful electricity to jump across, and I had my hand passing through, and that electric--boy, you think [unclear] can dance? You should have seen me dance. You see, there was a result. Are you with me? You see, and that’s how the word is used. You see, you can be afraid of a gun. You can have knowledge of a gun, that it can hurt you, it can kill you. You can know how the gun operates, but you don’t know what it is to be shot until you’re shot. And I was up in the mountains about a mile into the ravine, and I’m turned around, and I was heading back down the mountain. I was close to the top, and I heard this shot go off.

▶ 10:16 Ding. And then I felt like somebody hit me with a punch, with a hammer, and that punch was going right through my leg. Now, it all happened just like that, but my mind did not record it that way. My mind recorded it in slow motion. I could literally feel what I thought was a chisel, a punch going through my leg one centimeter at a time. Okay, but it all happened quickly. All right. See, you can have all the knowledge you want, but until you experience it, you don’t know what’s happening. All right, and I’m sitting there, my mind: this thing is going through my leg. Ah, my mind hadn’t registered it as a bullet yet. But anyway, then my body, uh, went into--

▶ 11:19 Shock. Yeah, my body went into shock. I’m on the side of a mountain, literally, the mountain’s like this. I’m not on a trail, as you know, Dave Kincer don’t take trails. I make my own trails. So when my body went into shock, I collapsed, and of course I went rolling down that mountain about 100, 150 feet, just rolled until I hit a bush and stopped. And I laid there, and I got my thoughts together, and I stood up, and I looked, and sure enough there’s a hole right there in my pants. There’s a hole over here, just like the book said it would be. Blood’s coming out on this side. So I unbuckled my belt, let down my pants, and I looked at it. Boy, over here it looked like somebody hit me with a hammer, just black and blue, nice round circle and just a little--

▶ 12:22 Opening. When I looked over to this side, a little bit different. Blood’s flowing out, muscle tissue hanging out, flesh tissue hanging out. I go, “This isn’t good.” So I’m up in the mountains, my car is down by the highway, and so I got my thoughts together, and I said, “Well, I got to get out of here before I pass out, because if I lose a lot of blood I’m going to faint and pass out. I got to get out of here, got to get out where somebody can find me.” So I took off, and let me tell you, I just went through brush, nothing got in my way. The shortest route from me to my car is the route I took. Knocked bushes down, didn’t matter. Ah, but see, I experienced the power of what a gun can do. I can describe it to you, see, the knowledge didn’t do that. The belief in it didn’t do that. It was the experience that did that. And this is how the word “know” is used many times in the Bible. Do you get it?

▶ 13:37 Hallelujah. Don’t I live an interesting life? John 10:27: “My sheep hear My voice, I know them.” See, He says, “I know them.” That intimate, resulting, personal encounter. “They follow Me, and I give them” what? What is the result here? Eternal life. So is just belief necessary for eternal life? It’s one of the things. Is just obedience necessary for eternal life? It’s one of the things. Is knowing Jesus necessary for eternal life? Yes, it’s one of the requirements. And this is why the Congregational church, after Martin Luther put his thesis on the wall of the Catholic church and started the Lutheran movement, then the Presbyterians came in with a presbyter government and started their movement. They were not much different than the--

▶ 14:42 Catholics. But the Congregationalists came in and said, “No, the congregation has to be involved in government,” and there’s two things the Congregationalists brought: the congregation has to be involved in government, not just a few leaders, and you must experience salvation. See, you must be born again. There has to be a spiritual encounter. Hallelujah. [Unclear] Luther, he got justification by faith, and that’s as far as he went. Are you there, church? Hallelujah. And they will never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. When I know Him, nothing can touch me. All right, more examples of “know” used as a personal, intimate, resulting encounter, but this time it’s using the Word of God and the Spirit of God. All right, John 14--uh, John 8:31, Jesus--

▶ 15:53 Said to the Jews who believed on Him--now, were they believers? Were they believers? Yeah, okay, they were believers, but not achievers. Well, that was good. Why? He says, “If you abide in My word, then you’re My disciples indeed.” You see, they were believers but not disciples, because they weren’t living in His Word. See, believers aren’t disciples, and there’s a big difference. Hallelujah. America is at a place, and it’s been here for decades, that we gloat over our faith and our belief, and we’re missing the third leg of this thing, which is the most important one: that is having a personal encounter with Jesus Christ that results--

▶ 16:59 In eternal life and discipleship. “You shall know the truth”--see, when I have an intimate, personal encounter with the Word of God, that truth sets me free. See, they were believers, but they weren’t free. They weren’t disciples. So why we--why do we brag so much about being believers? Because we’ve been taught that’s all that’s necessary. But Paul said, “What I have not cease to declare to you the whole counsel of God,” and how many--you know, the key to a successful life is the whole counsel in the natural, isn’t that right? You know, you just can’t take recreation time, oh, recreation time, and just try to build your life on it. You got to have work time, family time, spouse time, as we learned last week in a home Bible study we had. You got to be balanced in--

▶ 18:08 Everything. All right. “Free.” What am I free from? Well, number one, I’m free from sin. Number two, I’m free from Satan. Number three, I’m free to serve Jesus Christ. Number four, I’m free to worship Him. I’m free to lift up my hand, I’m free to dance. You see, I was telling one of the young people last month, I met somebody that said they were free because they wear casual clothes. I go, “Man, there’s nothing in the Bible about freedom and casual clothes.” So I started wearing a suit. I said, “I’m free no matter what I wear.” Amen. It amazes me how we read--reduce the Bible down to some nonsense. I’m not free because I wear a suit, and I’m not free because I don’t wear a suit. I’m free because I know Him, and I know His Word, and I’ve experienced its--

▶ 19:14 Power. So I can lift my hands, I can dance, I can kneel before God, I can do these things. Why? Because I’m free. I can go to church instead of staying home on Sunday morning. Why? Because I’m free from my flesh running my life. Hallelujah. Believers, they can do anything they want, but they’re wimps, they’re babies, and we learned in our Bible study that babies are jealous, they quarrel and argue all the time, and they divide. Are you there? And that’s what America’s full of: a bunch of quarreling, jealous, dividing believers. We need to grow up. Allelujah. We’ve learned four stages last week of the Christian growth, biblical stages. All right.

▶ 20:14 Now, these disciples knew the truth, and so they went and spoke it. Acts 2:37: when they heard the word on the day of Pentecost, the words of Peter, they were cut to the heart. See, what was the result of hearing a word that Peter knew? The result was the people that heard it were cut to the heart. They were pricked at their heart, they were stirred in their heart, their mind, their emotion. You see, the wind didn’t do that. That us Pentecostals put such an emphasis on the fiery tongues, didn’t do that. All those people speaking the mighty works of God in 15 different languages didn’t do this. When Peter stood up and preached the word that he knew, the word that was alive to him, see, intimate to him, then the people were--

▶ 21:24 Pricked in their heart. So the people said, “What must they do?” So what was the result? They were cut to the heart, and they told him to repent, be what? Baptized, and you shall receive the Holy Ghost. All three things. All right. Now, you got to understand there’s a different encounter here in Acts 7:54, when Stephen preached the word to these people, these accusers, these opponents. They [unclear] the same [unclear], and he preached the word that he knew. [Unclear] cut to the heart, but they ground their teeth at him, they got fighting mad, they dragged him out of the city and stoned him. And see, this is our opponents. I told you the Word of God, when you preach it, the Word of God, it is not--

▶ 22:18 Neutral. It either makes you mad or it makes you glad. And our opponents want to destroy us. They want to bash the Bible, they want to get rid of the Bible: the atheists, the homosexuals, the humanists, the hedonists, the liberals, and all these people in America. They attack the Bible. Why? Because they don’t want to hear that they’ve got to repent of their sins. So when people, you know, react adversely to--just remember that’s part of the package. The Word cuts. They can reject it, but it cuts. Amen. Don’t take it personally. Now, number five, John 14:17: “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him.” See, the world doesn’t know the Spirit of truth, but you know Him. He’s talking to His disciples: “You know Him, He is with you and shall be in you.” Now, who was with them?

▶ 23:33 Jesus. See, God said, “I will pour out My Spirit.” I’m telling you, you can’t separate these three parts of God, and yet you have to, to understand them. Hallelujah. So you see, unlike the Pentecostal brethren who believe you got to be filled with the Holy Ghost and speaking in tongues to be saved, because that’s the sign of the Holy Ghost, Jesus plainly says the Holy Spirit is what? With you. When we invite Jesus into our life, does He come? Yeah. Is He a Spirit? Yeah. You’re saved. You see, the baptism of the Holy Ghost is later, is another experience.