In
Yugoslavia, a young man applied for a marriage
certificate, but the official said, "You
can't marry. You're dead. It's written here that
you died a month after you were born."
"No!" protested the father. "His
twin brother died. He's alive." "You'll
have to go to the district court," he
replied, "and prove that you're alive.
According to the books you're dead." The
Bible has much to say about folk who are alive
physically, but dead spiritually.
This truth
is taught in 1st
Timothy 5:6, "She that liveth in pleasure is
dead while she liveth." Time goes, but death
comes. It mocks the medicine and defies the
doctor. It devours the lambs as well as the
sheep. Many shudder at the words of Gray:
"The
boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, all that
beauty, all that wealth e'er gave
Await
alike the inevitable hour - the paths of glory
lead but to the grave."
But the
death of which Paul was writing is far more
terrifying. He's not writing of physical death,
but spiritual death. Physical death, according to
the dictionary, "is that state of having
ceased to live." For instance, we see a
friend walk down the sidewalk. We say, "He's
alive!" What do we mean? His body is alive.
But as he crosses the street he's hit by a car,
and we see him lying in a casket. We say,
"He's dead." What do we mean? We see
the same body. But something's missing. His
spirit has departed from his body. He's "in
the state of having ceased to live." As the
spirit of man must indwell his body for him to be
alive physically, so the Spirit of God must
indwell his body for him to be alive spiritually.
The Bible says, "He that hath the Son hath
life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath
not life."
Those who
are spiritually dead are alive to sin, but dead
to the Savior; alive to pleasure, but dead to
prayer; alive to the lusts of man, but dead to
the love of God. They walk in a track. According
to the Bible, it's in "trespasses and
sins." And it's written, "She that
liveth in pleasure is dead while she
liveth." Pat and his friend Mike killed a
snake in the woods. As the tail of the snake
continued to move, Pat asked, "Is he dead,
Mike?" "Oh, yes, Pat," he
answered. "He is, but he doesn't know
it." That's true of the folk who are
"dead in trespasses and sins," who walk
"according to the course of this
world." And what's that? "The spirit of
the age." That is, you're subject to the
aspirations of the age, the tide of thoughts, the
impulses of iniquity. You pattern yourself after
the world, not the Word, and your standards
change with every fad and fancy. When asked about
it, you say, "Everybody's doing it."
Oh, there are times when you try to go against
the tide, but you get caught in an undertow of
ungodliness. And like a dead body, you drift
dangerously to destruction on the smashing sea of
sin. That's why you go wrong and can't explain
it. You don't have life, the abundant life, the
overcoming life that's supernatural. You were
meant to be the master, not the victim, of
circumstances and sin.
But there
can be a transition. The Lord wants to give you
life! Look what He did with Lazarus. For weeks
that story possessed Samuel Chadwick. So he and
his people prayed faithfully and fervently that
the Lord would send them "a man so dead in
sin that his wickedness had become offensively
notorious and hopelessly bad - a Lazarus
indeed." He said, "The man came . . .
Our hearts nearly stood still when we saw the
big, rough fellow walk down the aisle and fling
himself on his knees . . . He was gloriously
saved." Samuel Chadwick said, "The news
of his conversion spread like wildfire. Hundreds
came to church to see the man Christ had raised
from the dead. When it was announced that this
man would tell the story of his conversion,
people flocked from far and near . . . Through
that one witness, hundreds were converted. For
years he's been a standing proof of God's
power." There's no one so dead in sin that
he can't choose this deliverance by the Lord of
life. To choose the Lord is to have the Lord, and
to have the Lord is to have life! The Bible says,
"He that hath the Son hath life; and he that
hath not the Son of God hath not life."
"Life,
life, eternal life! Jesus alone is the Giver!
Life,
life, abundant life! Glory to Jesus
forever!"
copyright 2000 Guido
Evangelistic Association
All Scripture verses are
quoted from the New King James Version.
Click here to go to the next message in this
Sower Scripture Study on the book of First
Timothy.
This series of messages on
the books of the Bible were originally written
for broadcast on Dr. Guido's radio program,
"The Sower." They are collected and
reprinted here for your enjoyment and spiritual
edification.
