[0:00] Ephesians 2 John 5, 24 Very, very I played the car 50, very When I was about 10 or 12, we had a radio call in our church They had a Bible question every week, and the first one called in how many areas there were in God I called that sucker in what we abide There and there I see in you, here is my word but he is going to send me out everlasting life shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death under life under grace persons in all the Bible it says if you're saved, you're saved eternally you will never come into condemnation you're passed out of the realm of death into the realm of life tremendous verse hello tremendous verse it's going to be a long day very, very
[1:14] I say to you the hour is coming and now is the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God they that hear shall hear the dead shall hear yeah for if the Father hath life in himself so hath he given the Son to have life in himself alright go to Ephesians 2 now please Ephesians 2 1 you have he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins some of you Bible students didn't know what quicken means made alive made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins wherein in time past he walked according to the course of this world according to the prince of higher there who was that no
[2:17] Satan is in charge of the world yes you walk by him and by his course which is worldly he didn't have much beauty for God he didn't have much time for him you are a worldly more concerned with making a living getting ahead in life keeping up with the Joneses according to the course of this world according to the prince of power there the spirit that now walking from the children of disobedience still has those people around his fingers among whom also we all had our conversation in times past where conversation in this case in his lifestyle in the lust of our flesh for who the desire of the flesh and the mind were by nature the children of wrath he was other but God who is rich in mercy for his great love for which he loved us watch it now even when we were dead in sins two or three times that we've seen that have quickened us together with Christ by grace he our Savior and have raised us up together made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come we might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus for by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourselves it is the gift of God not of works that any man should boast
[3:56] I have a charm that came off the charm of race it has the word friends and friends on it it's silver did anybody lose it okay we'll talk about spiritual death today notice the word dead in several places where we've been in scripture dead shall hear dead folk can't hear yeah and you have been quickened and made alive we were dead he's not talking about the folks in the grave he's talking about legal people that were alive and so there is such a thing that we call spiritual death now death and dead usually refer to physical death in the Bible I checked last night in my recordings probably four out of five times it's mentioned maybe more it's just talking about physical death
[4:58] I also looked up the word death in my Greek dictionary the original language in the New Testament Greek and I confirmed what I've been taught what I've said many times that the principal meaning of the word death is not going out of existence but separation the meaning of the word or death is separation amen nobody nobody ever stops living God breathed into heaven the breath of life therefore the breath of life has its origin in God and that same life passed down through all the generations to all the people on the earth and that life that we have still has its origin in God
[6:01] God is eternal nothing about God can die so we don't die nobody ever died you look at the casket and you say he's dead he's still alive he's just moved out of that home into another one but no death means separation it means separation of the spiritual part from the physical part separation now spiritual death is separation of the person from God himself if you're spiritually dead you and God are nowhere near each other you're separated from you that's a serious thing that's what we're here for we're trying to get quickened people that are spiritually dead that's the reason our church is sitting on the table everybody at some point in his life has to do something about his spiritual death or he'll never be with God or spiritual death means separation from God now as I said death never denotes non-existence everybody that's ever been born is still alive somewhere everybody that shall be born will never go out of existence they'll simply be separated from their body and either separated or united with God according to whether they're spiritually alive or spiritually dead death always carries a penalty that is sin always carries a penalty and you find sin and death connected to the Bible all the time the soul would send it to die wherefore if on one man sin entered into the world and death lies sin sin and death are always connected the reason that we're separated from
[8:20] God is because of our sin God cannot stay in the presence of sin as long as we're sinners by nature and have not been changed we're not close to God and that's a very serious thing I'm going to just give you 1 2 3 4 5 I'm going to give you some things some truths about spiritual death you copy these down and think about it later if you want to and I want you to listen carefully to these truths about spiritual death number 1 it was not God's original plan God never planned for this thing called death God is life heaven is life everything about heaven and God are living there's no death in heaven flower don't die the animals in heaven don't die oh I got you then didn't I if Jesus comes back on a white horse that's an animal my friend one night we was dying one of the last things he asked me he was a lover of ducks he said
[9:35] Larry I'm going to heaven I want to know something I said ask me buddy after all I'm 28 years old and I know anything he said are there ducks in heaven and I said man I think so the bible doesn't say specifically that there are ducks in heaven but there were ducks in the garden of Eden there are ducks on the earth there are going to be ducks in the millennium and all these other places that God made that duck why wouldn't the final thing that he made ever have duck I know it has horses why would a place have horses even that duck I think God enjoyed making animals and the flowers just as much as he enjoyed making people
[10:39] I don't think the same animals are going to be in heaven you got a little kitty cat that died don't look for it when you get that I got a couple of great dogs I wish but I don't expect that I think there will be some why should he make all the birds of animals and not have them have them they'll be changed just like we they won't die and they won't eat you so I said I think so he said I would so I don't think he had about the upset There is no such thing as death in heaven.
[11:26] There was no such thing as death in God's plan. Two people messed things up. One was an angel named Lucifer who brought sin into the universe.
[11:41] Lucifer, one day, decided to rebel against God and take over heaven. You can't do that. You're not big enough to go out to the earth.
[11:54] Lucifer was the top angel, number one guy. He was over all the other angels. He thought if he could get a total rebellion of angels, they all joined him to rebellion.
[12:08] He took over heaven. Anybody know how many of them he got joined? One-third of them. Now there are things. He got one-third.
[12:20] He messed up because God still has him in the blood. God has two-thirds. Now I'm going to tell you this. If all the angels had joined Satan and Rebekah, it wouldn't have been enough to take over God.
[12:36] Yes. Right. But anyway, that war in heaven and all those good angels and the bad ones fought. And the bad ones lost. And God threw him out of heaven. The bad angels became what we call demons today.
[12:51] God took away any good and good things they had. And then Lucifer, the top angel, became saints. God took away all the good things that he had.
[13:02] And they are total evil. That's all they are, total evil. Now I ask myself the question. Why have you gotten just destroyed? Why have you let him live?
[13:14] Look at all the troubles the devil's talking. And he's talking. But the Lord thought, I'm sure. I need to test man.
[13:24] So I'm just leaving the devil down there to test him. See if they want to go with him or me. They want to follow him or me. You've been tested by the devil. That's the way that you go.
[13:37] Every time you yielded to a temptation, you went to the devil. Yeah. Anyway. God made man. Put him in a garden.
[13:50] He said, Reclench the earth with people. I have a rule for you. All these wonderful fruit trees you may eat. Apples and oranges. Bananas.
[14:01] Plums. Papricots. Beaches. Who knows what else? But there's one tree in the middle of the garden. I'm going to test your obedience.
[14:14] Have them. You can't have that. In the day. That you eat that fruit. Off that tree. That one tree. You've got a thousand trees.
[14:26] You can eat that one tree. In the day you eat that fruit. Off that tree. Thou shalt surely die. There is that terrible thing called death.
[14:40] Introduced into man. For a gathering. I wonder if Adam didn't say, What does that mean? Die. But you notice that he said it was a day.
[14:53] Adam, as a man, lived many, many, many more years. Boy, he physically died. But hey, if he died the day he ate the fruit.
[15:05] What kind of death was that? That was spiritual death. There's two kinds of death. Death in the body. Death in the spirit.
[15:16] Both meaning separation. The body separated from the spirit of life inside. And then the spirit of Adam that died that day was separated from God.
[15:28] Remember how God used to come out and walk into the pool today? That fellowship with Adam and Eve. That all ceased. That he was thrown out of the garden.
[15:39] He was thrown into the world. He said, Now you're going to have to eat bread. It's not going to swell to the ground. The earth now is not going to just produce wonderful produce.
[15:51] It's going to have on. It's going to be hard to make a living. As a result of sin. And eventually, Adam.
[16:03] You'll die physically. Adam got saved. Eve got saved. How do we know?
[16:15] Well, because they saw they were naked after they were sinning. They didn't know anything about nakedness. Before that, it was like the animals. But man, when he becomes aware, knows that nakedness is wrong.
[16:33] Hey, I said man knows that nakedness is wrong. Even semi-nakedness is wrong. It's supposed to cover our body. Well, when God killed some animals and used the skins to make roads for Adam and Eve to cover their body.
[16:56] That was the first picture of somebody dying to save somebody else.
[17:07] When those animals died and gave up their skins, that picture of Jesus someday died for the sins of mankind. So death came along in the Garden of Eden.
[17:20] And that verse I just quoted from Romans 9, 12. Therefore, by one man, sin entered into the world. That's Adam. And death by sin.
[17:31] And so death passed upon all men. And all their sins. He gave us a sin in nature, Adam did. And out of that sin in nature grows all sinners in the dead.
[17:44] Every time you commit a sin, God probably waits. You've never been born again, God never been born again. You're making it through this world all by yourself.
[17:57] Because you're spiritually dead. God didn't have that in his plan. But now it's there. Number two. Spiritual death passed upon all of the children of Adam.
[18:13] There is not a person ever born since Adam and Eve. Who wasn't born into sin. And who wasn't born to die. Sin is universal.
[18:25] Everybody sins. Therefore death can be birthed. Everybody dies. That's kind of sad, isn't it? We commit our own sins. We're worthy of death.
[18:38] But I tell you what. I wish Adam and Eve had not eaten that fruit. It would have been a whole lot easier for us. But here we are.
[18:49] Sin comes easily down to us sinful creatures. Number three. Listen carefully now. I said death passed upon all people, right?
[19:01] Everybody's ever come into the world. Came in as a sinner. Is that right? And sinners die. Is that right? But watch it. Babies and infants do not die.
[19:15] They're not spiritually dead. Isn't that good? Isn't that good? All the little babies and infants do approximately five years old.
[19:28] So. Went straight to heaven. they never were spiritually dead they went straight to heaven they didn't have to get saved because they didn't have to get saved from they were not spiritually dead when they even had a little baby to die for eight seven days God healed he said this he cannot come back to me but I can't go with him meaning David had saved him and was going to go to heaven and his little baby was already in heaven proving that babies go straight to heaven alright Paul said this in Romans 7 and 9 Paul giving his testimony said I was alive once without the law without knowing the Bible
[20:35] I was alive once but when the commander came when somebody preached the Bible to me when I understood sin revived up in the evening and I died he didn't die physically he said I died spiritually I was alive I was alive once and then when I got old enough to understand what the Bible said I died now he's got to be saved now he's spiritually dead now he's separated from God that happens at a place that we call the time in life we call the age of accountability we in church we use that term that means there was a certain time in our lives where we became aware we're sinful we're going to die and go to hell I've got to have hell usually it's between five and twelve years old if you're raised in church all like you it'll come early you'll realize that very early you were five
[21:47] I've had a host of kids in my churches saved at five years old some of my kids these were probably where I at least I'll hold you six six okay you get saved pretty early if you're raised in church you understand earlier if you weren't you probably you really understand you we call that the age of accountability when you become accountable if you die before that time you're not accountable and you go straight to that but friend be careful once you come to that point and you know the preacher's reaching at me and I really feel like everybody's looking at me and I'm afraid to die I don't want to go to hell when you start thinking like that you're spiritually dead and you better do something you get caught in an accident guess where you're going and one of the things that tortures my soul is thinking about all those kids in hell it's hard to even imagine what a God of mercy would have had he never did it to anybody without first going to him and saying you got to be saved and giving them a chance everybody that's in hell whatever age rejected God go to hell when you reject God you don't slip in without knowing
[23:17] I still worry about those kids I wish I could go into every one of them and show them and say you know that you're going to die in an accident a couple of days you got to be saved you got to get saved but we didn't get to do that everybody did angel can't go let me ask you a couple of questions tell me when you first became aware and you think you got to be saved just give me the age check some of them eight years old right six eight eight years old you are saved aren't you when did you get lost five just just just 10 10 10 27 27 you didn't know before that you didn't know before that sorry yeah
[24:20] I hate God you hate God well you didn't get you it was early 27 buddy somebody else tell me six six six nine six six four who said four oh that's that's Esther four ten I heard you no ten yes four woo four is the lowest number yet anybody lower than four problem not I've been preaching 55 years yeah 50 something and the youngest child I ever had saved was three and a half years old that only happened one time she was a prodigy she was a brilliant little girl and she stayed in our church every year and when she got to be ten and twelve I asked her
[25:20] I asked her several times sweetheart you still saved and she said yes sir wouldn't you say what I was living never died that's the youngest I've ever seen anybody and that's very unusual four we had two or three fours that's very unusual you gotta be raised in church you gotta you gotta go to Sunday school have the Bible lesson talk to you before you ever get to the age of accountability that early these eight year old ones those are more likely and then even the ten and twelve year olds are very likely but somewhere along that time you will come to the realization I'm not I'm not right I'm afraid they talk about hell I don't want to go there a little three year old doesn't think like that that's the age of accountability and all you've reached we don't have anything and everything we get to now today all you've reached if you haven't done something about it you've been in danger of an accident taking you out of here taking you the wrong place from the time that you became aware that something was wrong spiritually in your heart that's very very scary number five now number four is the age of accountability becomes a different kind number five satan gets involved right there in your life right there he and his ministers are great deceivers and blinders and the moment that he has you and you're aware and you're accountable he tries from that moment to keep you blinded to the truth he doesn't want you to understand how much danger you're in he can't kill you unless God lets you and God may be planning to let you live 75 years what he's got to do is blind you to the truth and say
[27:34] Corinthians 4 says the God of this world has blinded the minds of them who believe lest the light of the glorious rock should shine that's his job is blinding you you're sitting here today in an adult church and you've never been born again you've been blinded to the truth that any accident any aneurysm any heart attack will put you in hell you've been blinded to that the devil doesn't want you to know that or see that or even think about it the devil is a blinder I've got a scripture here I'll read to you I just quoted verse 4 of 1st Corinthians 11 I think I'll turn to 2nd Corinthians 11 2nd Corinthians 4 and then I want to show you some verses here well let me see 11 3 and 4 but I fear lest by any means as the serpent beguiled
[28:44] Eve through his subtlety so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that's in Christ Paul is saying I worry about you if the devil could deceive Eve he could deceive you for if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus whom we have not preached or if you receive another spirit which we have not received or another gospel which we have not accepted you better bear with him because those three things are rampant in the world fake saviors fake spirits and fake gospel that's the way the devil is right you know most churches don't have the truth that's right sad did you know there are tons of people that are going to churches every Sunday and following the teachings and assuming that they'll be okay that church has not the truth and has not taught the truth and they're not okay that's very serious very sad many of you that have been in churches didn't have the truth now you say you think you're smart don't you you're right and everybody wrong
[30:13] I don't think I'm smart God have been merciful to me let me understand that all truth is in this Bible if you got something that's outside this Bible that's not true if any church teaches something for instance there is a church with millions of people that teach that Jesus and Satan were brothers well that's ridiculous I wouldn't go to that church for five minutes but there are millions of people at least many who are trusting that church and think they're going to go to heaven from that church there are some other wild ignorant doctrines that church had and there are many churches with doctrines that are not livid those churches are condemning their people and not giving them the truth why because the devil watch this I wish
[31:16] I could cut off occasion from them which desire occasion for such are false apostles deceitful workers transforming themselves into the apostle of Christ and no marvel for Satan himself is transformed into an angel therefore it's no great thing if his minister are transformed as the ministers are righteous whose end shall be according to their works he's saying that the devil has confused a lot of preachers and they're preaching for the devil and not for God that's a serious thing to say anything that's extra biblical the Lord has said it it's not in this book it's not right the devil has more churches than Jesus does by far by far Satan gets involved with people and tries to blind their minds with false ministries and false doctors for instance most of the people that are religious believe that you have to be baptized and false most of the people that are religious do some churches are so fanatic about that they should be safe where there's not an infant baptized
[32:26] God never baptized anybody that didn't know enough to get more of you but that's church for you that's the devil that's the mind power of the devil I've met many people knocking on doors in this catholic town and saying do you know if you died you would have a child that time later that's not scripture that's not bible that's not because I'm smart because I can read anybody else can read that too but the catholic church for centuries wouldn't let their people read they didn't give them a bible so a lot of false doctrines came into that good church because the people didn't know what was going on they didn't have a bible if they had a bible all those false doctrines would not have been able to be promulgated into the church you take a bible people you can teach them anything some of the best people in this town are catholic folks that are trusting a religion that's extra biblical now many catholics are saved but they got the truth out of the bible from somebody most baptists you know the baptist church is going south baptists used to all read the bible not anymore you know the baptist church is now not there's a there's a fellow that said the southern baptist convention 90% unsaved people that's shocking they don't have to you know that don't trust the church trust yourself get your bible find out what it said for goodness sake it's too serious don't you see it's not the church that will save you anyway did you know that 80% of all the people have been saved before they were 18 years old that's 8 out of 10 the older you get the more blinded you become the more steeped in your false religion you get and the more the less likely it is you ever can save
[34:36] I gave you this statistic till the night after the age of 30 only one out of every 200,000 people can save after the age of 30 how many of you were saved after the age of 30 hands over hold 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 about 15 of you you were 1 in 200,000 that got you wow that's how unlikely it wasn't there I'm talking about serious stuff here I mean spiritual death and spiritual blinds are very very blind be very careful about the devil blinding you to the truth I knocked on one lady's door here a few years ago and I didn't even get a chance to say anything except I'm by the way at this church and that's a dirty word about me and she said how many times you go to church
[35:41] I said three times I didn't want you said that when I go every day get out of here yes ma'am she's blinding me one day God will say pastor Stark will you step up now stand up that lady will be you and God will say you see that man I sent him to your door and you ran him off don't tell me I can do change serious businesses number six God will enlighten those blind eyes through preaching God said I told you the foolishness of preaching to save the food the smartest thing you'll ever do and if we don you folks can come today we get promises every week the smartest thing you do is get your people that you love that you work with your family get them to come to church and listen to a preacher
[36:54] God will open their mind now a lot of people will sit there and not take it in they'll say he don't know what he's talking about I can agree with that but some!
[37:05] some! will listen! Get the confusion the blindness the falseness the false doctrine can be dispelled by the Bible and the preaching of the Bible get them there we can even preach to them if they let us go in the church and preach to them soul winners can talk if their minds are open you can help most times have to get in preaching sometimes God will do a very drastic thing in personal mind I've seen it happen over and over in a church that I had years ago it was a friend of my sister pastor they grew up together his family got his name William and William wouldn't come he had an experience sometimes where he got mad at
[38:07] God and had time for it but his wife and his kids came all the time and the older kid got saved she was a teenage girl of course the mother too they came all the time but we couldn't get away of coming now my associate got a deep burden for him and came in one day and he said I'm going to die William you're not saved but you go with me and talk to him one more time we drove out we he gave him because this is his friend we sat in his living room and we started talking to him telling him how what the bible says about how to do with that he was very hard he was very hard he said I'm not interested I'm fine it's fine for you is that what you want that's fine I'm not interested my friend got on his knees my associate back walked on his knees with tears flowing out of his face got over to
[39:11] William stopped in front of him on his knees and looked up tears blurred eyes and said William I got saved I'm going to heaven and it killed me to realize that you're not going to be there if you don't change the way you feel and you don't let God in and you don't let light in you don't let somebody talk to you you're not going to heaven and I'm going to be there without you now that touched him that touched him a tear dribbled out and I thought man he's going to get saved it's any harder to he said Robert I'm telling you I'm not interested it's good enough for you but I'm not interested when we finally left you remember that teenage girl we just mentioned she got to be 16 got a driver's license that maybe get one 16 it wasn't long but a few months after she was 16 started driving she was crossing a railroad track there was a sign with the lights somehow or another she didn't hear or see the train and that train wiped her car out and took it 150 yards down the track when the train got stopped and the emergency people got there and distracted her body and she was dead listen my listen my glory hands in the carol yes so here is the door of preaching out man they just lost pride and joy he said
[41:09] I'm ready now if I ever see my sweet daughter again I know I got to get started and I'm ready that's a hard crash to have to do sometimes God has to be drastic over his mind William got saved he'll be with his daughter in heaven number seven only God can give spiritual life let me ask you something Paul how did you get physical life where did you get your life you're born from home right how else do you get life except by being born anybody know how many of you have created a God out in Bible earth some of you no no anybody here that didn't get born that's the way you get life didn't get born a man!
[42:13] a man came to Jesus one night and said oh master you must be something you're doing all this miracle and Jesus said except a man be born again he shall never see the kingdom of God born again this man said I don't know what you mean do you enter the second time into your mother's body and be born again Jesus said no there's a physical birth there's a spiritual birth there's two births you gotta be born the second time by the spirit by God God has to birth you into his family that's what we call father we're born again born again oh good bible term except a man be born again he's not going to heaven all right only
[43:14] God can give spiritual life he does it through a birth if that's true can I give spiritual life in that back probably three out of five it is just good work you get it okay can I do good deeds with these hands and get spiritual life you mean working hard to work is the bible right when he says not by works which we've done according to his mercy well there are many many people that think it the good out place bad you're going to heaven can I get it I know I know I can walk down the church and become faithful in church that's what I get is that right why not sir because you can't work for it nothing you can do in your body is going to get you safe because you get it by a bird!
[44:22] and as Tim said you don't pay for this burden for it's free you I read the verses too for a grace means unmarried for grace means that not of service gift to God gift to God what did you do to get that that's it it it it it it it it wasn't because you're a good fellow it wasn't because you did some good work sir you joined the church got baptized you read the Bible you can't do anything in this body to give birth a parent has to give you a birth Paul did you go to your mother and I want you to give birth!
[45:19] people all over the world are trying to work for birth! I'm sorry folks but you got to have birth before you work!
[45:33] Right? Well this is about the last point is this spiritual death if not limited by birth and new birth culminates in the lake of fire which is called the second death there is a second birth if you don't have that you have a second death the first death is physical the second death what did I say what did I say death mean separation from God the second death is when you're thrown into the lake of fire and separated from God and everything ever is death and separation please don't let that happen please don't let it happen the only remedy for spiritual death which we receive from our first birth is having a second birth spiritual life comes from the second birth that's it
[46:49] I don't know I clearly explained that but I tell you what if you're interested we can certainly explain more deeply what we have around here we invite Jesus and let him give them salvation you've earned you can't earn it what any church preacher said you can't earn it it's not our works of righteousness you can't earn it so we have some people come to the invitation and say I want to know more about that spiritual birth what we do here is very speaking