You can exist and not be experiencing real life. Dr. Tony Evans says the difference between merely surviving and truly living comes down to your connection with God's Word. If you want to live, there must be a dynamic, meaningful relationship with the Word of God. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans.
A plant that's been starved of water will begin to wilt, but pour water on its roots and life slowly returns. Dr. Evans says the Word of God works the same way in our hearts. Today he explains how Scripture isn't just informative, it's alive and life-giving.
Let's join him in 1 Peter for a reminder that we can't truly live without God's Word. What you eat has a lot to say about how well you're doing. And if you're not eating, it ought not to be surprised that you're not doing well.
Loss of energy, loss of weight, weakened immune system. The absence of food jeopardizes the vitality of life. Well, that's certainly true in the physical realm, but it's also true in the spiritual realm.
What you eat determines how well you're doing. Everybody wants to be alive, but you've got to eat to live. The Bible positions itself as a life-giving document. Jesus says in John 6 63, he says, my words are life. Peter responds in that same chapter, verse 68, he says, where else do we go to hear the words of life? When the Bible calls itself the word of life, it means it is a life-giving source. In other words, it imparts life. Well, if the Scripture imparts life and you want to live, then that would certainly mean you're gonna eat it. If the Scripture imparts life and you don't eat it, then you don't get life, because it is the source of life. It is called the word of life. It is made equal with Jesus Christ himself. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God, and John 1 14 says, and the Word became flesh.
So the Word became a person. So Jesus gives life, his Word gives life, because the two operate in concert with one another. Hebrews 4 12 says that the Word of God is alive. It is alive so it can impart life. Now, the only way you can get life imparted is that the thing imparting it to you must also be alive.
Living things can make inanimate things, but inanimate things can't make living things. In order to get life, its source must be to impart life. The Scripture gives life, because it is life. So those who eat it live.
Those who don't, don't. If you want to live, there must be a dynamic, meaningful relationship with the Word of God. To understand the concept of life in the Bible, you have to understand the concept of death. You all know it, but let's turn to it very quickly and get the coroner's report. Ephesians chapter 2 gives the coroner's report. A coroner's job is to identify the distinction between life and death, and Paul wants you to get God's assessment of what we are talking about here so that we're on the same subject, and you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
Among them, we too all formerly lived in the lust of our flesh, indulging in the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and we were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. The coroner's report is in the first three verses, and he says, when you were outside of Christ, you were dead. But you said, but I moved, I walked, I talked, I raised the family, I went to work. How was I dead? Death has not anything to do with simply existence. You can exist and not be experiencing real life. In fact, I am sure there are people here today who merely feel like you're existing. You go through the motions of life, but you know inside you're not really alive.
That's existence. He says, men without God can walk. He says, you walked. In verse 2, you walk, you functioned, but you were like those horror movies, Night of the Living Dead, Night of the Living Dead 1, Night of the Living Dead 2. These people are coming out of their graves, and they're moving, and they're terrorizing the city, and they're looking for something. They're looking for a life they cannot find, so they are living in the realm of death. But they're still moving. They're still functioning. They're existing, but they are dead.
The Bible says outside of Christ, men are dead. Now, they're at different states of decomposition. See, some folk are dead, and they're obviously dead.
You're sitting next to them. They look dead. They smell dead. They walk dead. They act dead, but you can be dressed up and dead. You can be affluent and dead. You can have a house in the birds and be dead, because you're existing. And what many people do is they simply trade one level of existence for another level of existence, all still operating in the same graveyard.
So you must look at the backdrop of death having to do with a spiritual dimension. When Adam and Eve rebelled against God, God said, the day you eat of the fruit, you shall surely what? Die. But the day they ate of the fruit, they didn't drop dead. They didn't have heart attacks. They didn't stop functioning. But God said, the day you eat, you shall surely die. What happened the day they ate?
Well, here's what happened. They were separated from fellowship with God. So what is death in the Bible? Death is the absence of spiritual intimacy. Death is where there is no relationship with God.
Where there is no relationship with God, you are dead, even though you're walking and talking and moving and working and acting and doing all the things that people do, because when God talks about life, He's talking about not merely existence, He's talking about a dynamic reality of His presence within. Jesus says, I have come to give you life. And then on top of that, I have come to give it to you more what?
Abundantly. I've come to give you abundant life. So Jesus has come to give you two kinds of life. He's come to give you the reality of life, and then He's come to multiply that and turn that into abundant life. It is the job of the Word of God to move you into life and then into abundant life. God told His people in Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 47, if you listen to My Word, you will live. Jesus says in Matthew chapter 4 verse 4, man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds out of the what?
Out of the mouth of God. What He says is that life is tied to His Word, that you live not by the physical realm only, not by bread, not by the things that you touch and taste and see and hear and feel, not by the five senses. The five senses can affect your existence, but what they cannot give you is life.
And you know what most people do? They look for life in the physical. And He says, man does not live by bread alone, but he lives by every word, the word, the communication of God. God says in Isaiah chapter 55 verses 2 and 3, He says, if you listen to Me, you will live. Material things can't give you life. Money can't give you life. The more money you make, it can make you hide the fact that you don't have life. See, all you can buy are better toys, more toys, more expensive toys, because the more money you have, the more you can camouflage how dead you are.
And so what a lot of people do is they pursue the physical to get what the physical can never give them, but they think it's giving it to them because it provides them the way to buy more camouflage, to hide the death, the emptiness, the ache that is deep within. What is life? The Bible tells us, tells us in St. John chapter 17. Jesus lays it right out. He says, and this is eternal life, that they may know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. Jesus says life is spiritual reality operating in you. Let's get this straight. Life is spiritual reality at work in you. Anything else is saccharine.
It's a substitute. It's not the real thing. And Dr. Evans will talk about where that spiritual reality finds its fullest expression when he continues with today's teaching in just a moment.
Don't go away. As you've listened to Tony Evans preach, have you ever wanted to take a peek at his notes or follow along as he researched the concepts and content he was sharing? Well now you can with the help of the Tony Evans commentary. You get a background-rich introduction to each book of the Bible followed by passage-by-passage exposition that transforms ideas into understanding. Tony Evans has taken a lifetime of insights and illustrations and packed them into this powerful tool you'll want to have with you every time you study God's Word.
The Tony Evans commentary available now at tonyevans.org. The Tony Evans Bible commentary is the result of over 10 years of intense study, offering thousands of clear, relevant notes across all 66 books of Scripture, one of the only resources of its kind written by a contemporary author. And right now, when you make a donation to help support the ministry of the alternative, we'll send it to you as our thank-you gift, along with Tony's six-part audio series, The Benefits of Scripture. In this encouraging, practical teaching collection, Dr. Evans unpacks what the Bible does in our lives, from producing spiritual life and blessing to giving direction, freedom, victory, and counsel. Together, these resources will help you not only understand God's Word, but experience its power in a whole new way. Visit tonyevans.org today to make your donation and request the package, or call us any time at 1-800-800-3222. Again, that's tonyevans.org, or dial 1-800-800-3222.
Well, let's get back to more now from Dr. Evans. You know, we're going to heaven. We're going to heaven.
Everybody who's accepted Jesus Christ, the moment you die, you're ushered into the presence of God. Now, I know we talk about streets of gold. You know, we talk about meeting at the corner of Gold Street and Silver Boulevard. We talk about mansions.
We talk about all that, but that's like sideline stuff. That's not the essence of heaven. The essence of heaven—here it is—is the uninterrupted knowledge of God.
What will make heaven heaven is that you can see God without interruption. No commercials. There are no commercials. You ever be in the middle of a good part, and you're getting right down to the nitty-gritty of the show, and they go to a commercial.
Okay? No commercials in heaven. It is the uninterrupted knowledge of God, and since God is inexhaustive and He never runs out, you will never run out of passion. You'll never run out of joy. You'll never run out of excitement. You'll never run out of love. All the things you've ever wanted, you'll have, and you'll never run out of, and you'll have the capacity to have more.
Okay? So that is heaven. So the mansion is like a bonus. So your house should be a bonus here. Your car should be a bonus here. Your job should be a bonus here.
Your money should be a bonus here. Why? Because it can't give you life, and it is not life. Life, he says, is the reality of God operating on the inside, and to the degree that you do not have that is to the degree you're not alive. If you don't have it at all, it's because you've never come to Christ. If you've come to Christ and you still don't have it, it's because God has not had the freedom to become all He wants to be in you yet. The Word of God is designed to give you life.
Now let's get something straight. Most people think they're in the world of the living on their way to the world of the dying. Nothing could be further from the truth. You're in the world of the dying on your way to the world of the living. You're not in the world of the living on your way to the world of the dying.
Uh-huh. When a baby is born, it begins a 75-year march to death. It comes out of the womb headed toward death. So everybody in this room is in the world of the dying. Every day you live, you're one step closer to death, which when you die, you go to live. So we are in the world of the dying. In the world of the dying, God has said you can be among the living. Even though you and I are in the world of the dying, because of what His Word can do, you can be in the world of the living.
While everything is dying around you. I like how Paul puts it. He says, though our outward man decays day by day, don't we get wrinkles, gray hair, moving slower, gray in the beard, uglier?
No, whatever it is. He says, though the outward man decays day by day, okay, though you got to put on double makeup, double cream, you know, though the outward man is decaying day by day, he says the inward man should be getting younger. The inward man should be being renewed by the Word of God. So if you're getting older on the outside and older on the inside, use the old buzzer, because you're old twice.
You're two times old. You should be getting younger inside. On the inside, you should not be dying. On the inside, you should be living even though all of us are moving toward dying on the outside.
If you are not getting younger as a Christian on the inside, it has to do with diet. The Word of God. How do we know the Word of God is alive?
Because it does what living things do. The Word of God is continually fresh. Now, you can't be fresh all the time unless you're living. I've been preaching for years and I'm just starting to understand the Bible. How can you be preaching from one book and it has something to say every week? How can it have something to say every single week? In fact, how can there be thousands of preachers preaching all over the world and it has something fresh to say in all 1,000 pulpits to every person listed? In fact, how can you have our 2,000 year old book that's still relevant today as it was the day it was written? Unless it's a lie.
You can't stay fresh and relevant. Every time I study for a sermon, I find something new. I like 1 Peter chapter 1. It says this about the Scripture. Peter says in verse 23, Grass comes and grass goes. It's a seasonal situation, but the Word of God abides forever. In fact, watch this now. The Word of God is living when it looked like it's dead.
Okay? When the fall and winter comes, all the leaves fall off the trees, you know? All the most trees. Leaves fall off. It has the look of death.
Everything about the tree appears dead because it's no longer seeming to support life. When in actuality, we have a season issue, not a life issue. Because when springtime rolled back around, it'll prove it never died by giving you new expressions of life. If you are dying on the inside, it's because you're in the wrong season. Because God's Word, He says, does not wither and does not fade. So if your petals are falling off, your life is because you in winter, not in spring.
It has to do with your relationship to the Word of God. We had a lot of rain last week, so I cut my sprinklers off. Saved some money. I cut my sprinklers off because, you know, we got we got water from heaven. Free water. Free water.
You don't have to pay no company. Rain came down from heaven. I cut my sprinklers off. Saved the money.
But when I've done that other times, I'm sure you have too, and forgot you cut it off. So the sun, hot Texas sun, baked your grass. And all of a sudden, green grass became brown grass. And it was going through a direction toward death. You know why it's going toward a direction toward death? It wasn't getting fed.
It didn't have anything to drink. And the sun was beaten down on it, sucking its life out of it, drawing every bit of life. The ground becomes hard. The ground underneath becomes hard. The roots become brittle. And there's no green anymore.
Why? Because it's no longer being fed. It is no longer being watered.
It has nothing to give it the fresh life. But then when you remember and turn back the sprinkler system on, green comes back. There are a lot of brown Christians. Brown in attitude, brown in how they relate to others, brown in how they think about themselves. They just brown. And they don't want to be brown.
They don't want to be changing colors. But they just been in the sun too long. In other words, the world has sapped their energy. The world has sapped their spiritual life.
And because they forgot to turn back on the sprinkler, the relationship, the dynamic relationship to the Word of God, they feel like they're dying when actually all they need is a little bit of water. Scripture is alive because it's fresh. It's also alive because it produces life.
And as I said, only living things can produce life. He says you were born again in 1 Peter 1 23 by the living Word of God. The reason you got saved is because the truth of God sparked life where there was death.
The reason why your eyes popped open when you understood the gospel and you said, whoa, and you received it is because life was birthed in you. Dr. Tony Evans, reminding us of the power of God's Word to transform and renew our lives. Now don't forget to request your copy of Tony's six-part series, The Benefits of Scripture, along with the bonus gift of the Tony Evans Bible Commentary, a powerful passage-by-passage resource designed to deepen your understanding of God's Word. Both are our way of saying thanks when you make a donation to help keep Tony's teaching on this station. Get the details and make your request today at tonyevans.org before this limited-time offer runs out. Again that's tonyevans.org or call our 24-hour resource request line at 1-800-800-3222 and one of our friendly team members will be happy to assist you. That's 1-800-800-3222. You know clutter can crowd out what really matters on our desks, in our homes, and especially in our hearts. Next time Dr. Evans explains why Scripture can't do its life-giving work in us until we clear away the spiritual distractions standing in the way. Be sure to join us for that.
