The Other Side of Eternal Life: full transcript and answers

▶ 0:00 Okay, when you talk about eternal life, most people, well, you’re going to live forever. But we’re going to talk about another side of eternal life. In John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever, everyone that believes in Him, should not perish but have everlasting life.” So here we have the first part of eternal life: believing in Christ, putting your trust in Christ, His death on the cross, forgiveness of sins, cleansing of sins, and you will have everlasting life. And that’s the one we hear about. That’s the one that’s in the football games and all that, right? Okay, now let me ask you this question. James 2:19:

▶ 0:56 “You believe that there’s one God. You do well. Very good. But demons also believe, and they tremble.” So my question is, does everyone that believes go to heaven? Do demons go to heaven? No, they don’t. We know that the lake of fire was made for Satan and his angels, the evil spirits and all that. Amen. Have I got your attention? Okay, that’s the first requirement, is believing in Christ. The second side of eternal life, all right, now watch this closely. “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life.” This is John 3:36, same chapter, just a few verses down. See, first requirement: believe in Christ. Amen. Then He says this statement:

▶ 2:06 “He who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” He who does not believe the Son. Not in the Son, not on the Son, not His virgin birth, not His death on the cross, not His resurrection from the dead, but they do not believe the Son. Now, that statement is pretty clear: they’re not believing what the Son is saying. They believe on what He did, but they’re not believing and trusting in keeping what He said. Are you there?

▶ 2:58 Ah, and the wrath of God abides on them. God’s going to get mad and deal with it. All right. Now John 5:24 backs it up: “He who hears My words and believes in Him who sent Me.” And now He brings in God. You see, you’ve got to believe in God and Jesus Christ. The Bible’s very plain about that. These people cannot get rid of Jesus Christ in the name of worshiping a God, and we cannot get rid of God in the name of the Jesus Christ. They’re both very important. Okay, but “he who hears My word,” listens to and obeys, “and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” See, second requirement of eternal life. John 12:48: “He that rejects

▶ 4:00 Me,” they don’t even believe in Me, they don’t believe in the story, they don’t believe the Bible’s real, they don’t believe Jesus is God and died for our sins and rose again, “and receives not My words,” they reject Jesus’s teaching, reject everything Jesus said, “has one that judges him: the word that I have spoken.” What’s going to judge people? The word that He spoke. See, “he that believes not the Son,” the words that the Son spoke. Are you out there? Hallelujah. Now, this message, really, you don’t hear very much in America. All you hear is the first part of eternal life. Am I right?

▶ 4:55 Absolutely. But Paul said this in Acts, he says, “I have not failed to declare unto you the whole counsel of God.” And how many know we need the whole counsel? Yes. “The same word shall judge him in the last day.” So that word that we reject, that word that we refuse to obey, is going to judge us, sentence us when He comes back. Now remember, in Daniel chapter 12:2: “Many who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to everlasting shame and contempt.” See, it speaks about this in the Old Testament. Now why are some awakening to shame and contempt? Well, we go on with the verse: “Those who are

▶ 5:50 wise, and those who turn many to righteousness.” Is it so? What? Why are some resurrected to shame and contempt? They’re not turning to righteousness. But those that are wise, I mean, you know, he that is wise wins souls. “He that winneth souls is wise.” Yeah, that communicates righteousness, the Bible, morality: “shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, like the stars forever.” And so even back in the Old Testament, righteousness is going to determine whether you are resurrected for honor or shame and contempt, everlasting life or shame and contempt. Now Matthew

▶ 6:42 19:16. This is plain and clear. A rich man came up to Jesus and said, “What must I do to have eternal life?” That was his question. Jesus replied and says, “If you want to enter into eternal life, keep the commandments.” Didn’t say a word about believing. Why? Because He’s dealing with the other side of eternal life. Now, hallelujah, just letting it sink in. See, now the rich man, of course, being arrogant like rich people are and confident, the guy came up to Him so arrogant and confident, he says, “Which ones?” There’s a lot of commandments over there, you know. So Jesus

▶ 7:40 said, and He quoted the last six commandments of the Ten Commandments, only He replaced the last commandment, “Thou shalt not covet,” with “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Okay, the Ten Commandments, the last six, and He replaced the covet commandment with “Love your neighbor as yourself.” “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, thy neighbor’s house,” or whatever is thy neighbor’s, and Jesus just switched it over to “Love your neighbor as yourself.” All right, He says, “You shall not murder, commit adultery, steal, bear false witness, but you shall honor your parents and love your neighbor as yourself. If you do this, you will inherit eternal life.” Now, does that mean we don’t have to believe in Jesus? No. That’s the first step of eternal life, is believing in Jesus. You say trusting in Jesus. The second part is what? Obeying Him, obeying what He said to do. You got it? Hallelujah. All right.

▶ 8:54 Now, Bible morality has always been the goal. It wasn’t just to get you to believe. It wasn’t just to get you into heaven to live forever. Bible morality has always been the goal. We showed you that in the last four lessons, when we talked about the supernatural God and Bible that we have, when we talked about the mysteries hidden from the foundation of the world, and so forth. Bible morality has always been the goal, not you just believing. I’ve told you many a time, my belief in God does not help my family at all. It’s my obedience to God that blesses my

▶ 9:53 children. Okay, blessing is my merit, doing what is right. It is what’s going to help my community. Remember, the demons believed, but they didn’t obey. Now, the other side of eternal life. Now, you can have all the Greek and Hebrew that you want for this stuff, but the Bible gives you definitions of words itself. It may use human words, but the Bible somewhere defines how the Bible is using that word. Do you young adults get that? This is the key to understanding the Bible. You can go to your Hebrew and Greek all day, and I do. I want to make sure I’m using the word in the right context and so forth, but I have to go to the Bible definition, where the Bible defines how the Bible is using that word. All right, now here is the Bible definition of eternal life. Are you ready for this? Here’s the Bible dictionary, and God is going to define what eternal life

▶ 11:16 is. “This is eternal life, that you may know God, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom God has sent.” Wow. Now, how many of you have heard that preached on TV and radio? See, all they basically leave us with is eternal life as you die and you go to hell for eternity, or the lake of fire for eternity, or heaven for eternity. But God Himself, Jesus, is talking here. This is Jesus talking, and He’s saying eternal life is to know God and Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. Has the Holy Spirit got your mind thinking? Now watch

▶ 12:19 this. Acts 19:15: “The evil spirit answered and said, ‘Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who in the world are you?’” See, these sons of [unclear], who wanted to cast out demons, they were mimicking Paul. And that’s what a lot of preachers do. They go to channel 40, and they go to TV and radio, and they go to the Christian bookstore, and they mimic other preachers. Amen. And some of them don’t have anything to mimic, and the ones that do have something to mimic, you can’t get it by pretending you got it. Wow, that was a good statement. And we’ve got a lot of miming going on in the church world. We’re mimicking the real thing when we need to possess the real thing. Could that be an amen? So these seven sons of [unclear], they tried to cast out a demon like Paul was doing with aprons, and you know, Paul was just getting the job done, so they went out and started their own ministry, and this demon just spoke to them and says, “Who in the world are you?” They tried to cast out the demon in the name of Jesus that Paul preached.

▶ 13:31 “[unclear] I cast you out in the name of Jesus that Paul preached.” That tells you something’s wrong. And then the demon responds back and says, “Who in the world are you? I know this Jesus that you mentioned, and I know Paul.” See, now, if demons know Jesus, again I asked you the question: are demons going to live forever in heaven with Christ? No. Why? So we’ve got to find out what the word “know” means. What does the Bible say the word “know” means? What’s the definition of the word “know” in the Bible? Your Hebrew and Greek won’t work here. All right, are you with me so far? Now 1 John 2:3: “By this we know that we know Him.” Now we have the definition of knowing God. It’s coming up. See, here’s God’s dictionary. He’s going to define what knowing God is. And remember, knowing God is what? Eternal life. Knowing God is eternal life. Say “eternal life.” Okay, so what is knowing God?

▶ 14:50 “If we keep His commandments.” Oh, so this is eternal life, that we keep His commandments, God’s commandments and the commandments of Jesus Christ. Going back to John 17:3. Are you there? Hallelujah. John goes on to say this powerful statement: “He who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in you.” He calls people a liar. That is just forbidden in America today. That’s just not politically correct. I get told quite a few times every year, nobody talks like that. When I tell people, you need to grow

▶ 15:45 up, you’re going to hell, nobody talks like that. Well, the Bible talks that way. Okay, when you’re a liar, you are a liar. Ain’t that right? “He who says that Christ abides in him ought.” And the word “ought” is very powerful. Now here’s the Greek word they use. The word “ought” means very necessary, so necessary they use it as owing a debt. In other scriptures that word is used as owing a debt. You see, so when we say we accept Christ and His forgiveness,

▶ 16:30 John is saying we owe Him a debt to obey Him. “It is vitally necessary that we walk just as He walked.” I don’t walk like the preacher. I don’t walk like the ones on TV. I don’t walk after my parents and all that, only as they follow God. I am to walk after who? Jesus Christ. You see, and Jesus Christ became flesh. He was God in the flesh, and He walked, and He obeyed the commandments. Not one commandment did He break. So our example and our idol is who? Jesus Christ. And now, don’t get alarmed here, because immediately we can start condemning ourselves because we’re so short of Jesus. This is the difference between our opponents and us. We make mistakes, and we’re working on some flaws in our life, but we don’t justify it. We admit it’s wrong,

▶ 17:30 and we keep repenting and we keep confessing. They just say there’s nothing wrong with adultery, there’s nothing wrong with homosexuality, nothing wrong. You see, that’s the difference. So don’t go jumping on Christians that are growing in God. Christianity, the Bible says, starts at a baby stage, then we grow to a child stage, and to an adolescent stage, and then an adult stage, and into a fatherhood stage. And while we’re reaching the fatherhood stage, we’re still justified before God. We haven’t grown through some stages yet. Are you there? So see, that’s why the Bible says there’s no condemnation. Why? I am in the growing process. Yes, I’ve got some flaws, but I am pursuing the goal, and I’m not agreeing that wrong is right, even if I’m doing it.

▶ 18:30 Amen. Yeah, don’t let that thing get you under guilt. Now, Bible morality is the other side of eternal life. That’s the bottom line. Doing what’s right is the other side of eternal life. What good does it do me to believe if I do not obey what Jesus said to do? Now, Matthew 7:21 really defines these two. The two sides are in Matthew 7:21: “Not all that say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.” They’re not going to get eternal life with Me, “but he that does the will of My Father, which is in heaven. Many will say unto Me in that day, ‘Lord,

▶ 19:25 Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name? Have we not cast out devils in Your name, and done miracles in Your name?’” You see, these people are believers, and God loves people, so He reaches people. God will, I’ve been in this thing, these uncalled, bad preachers seemingly get results when it’s just God honoring the faith and the seeking heart of those that are coming. How many of you know, if a miracle’s done, no minister gets credit for it? They can’t do it. And remember, Judas did miracles, and he was a

▶ 20:19 betrayer. So you don’t measure them by whether they do miracles and cast out demons. You measure them by their fruit, their lifestyle, how they live. Are they obeying God’s Word? Hallelujah. See, they believed. Now then He says, when they say this to Me, “I will profess unto them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from Me, you that work iniquity.’” You see, they believed, but they didn’t know God. They didn’t obey God. They just believed in Jesus. They believed in His death, burial and resurrection. They believed in His power, but they did

▶ 21:12 not believe what He said and obey what He said. They committed sin. Isn’t it plain? So you have the two illustrations right here: they were believers, and they had results as believers. And this is what American Christians, because they haven’t been taught the Bible. See, they get the same junk whether in the bookstore or on TV, that American Christians can’t make common sense decisions about things. They don’t know how to answer things. Am I right? Yeah. Some of them been in church for 30 years and can’t answer this question. They have no

▶ 22:06 idea. Therefore, and then He goes right into the parable of the wise man building his house on the rock. “For this reason, whosoever hears these sayings of Mine,” and what? And what? See, just hearing and believing isn’t enough. You’ve got to what? Do them. And He goes right into this parable from this statement: “I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock.” Now, how many of you want to be a wise Christian? Yeah. We’ve got to know the Word. The Word is our wisdom, and if you’re going to get the spirit of wisdom, the Spirit’s going to drive you to the Scriptures. Okay. Hallelujah. Now we understand: “He who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” Right here, this is eternal life, that they may know You. “I never knew you.” We had no connection, me and you. You don’t obey My word. See, you know them by their fruits. They weren’t obeying God. Christianity, I’ve told you for decades, is a lifestyle. Bible morality is the other requirement of eternal life.