I'd like you to open your Bibles
to the book of 1 John chapter 5. The New Testament, 1 John chapter
5. We've been going through these
verses and I'm going to conclude that this morning on the subject
of salvation from sin and death. Salvation from sin and death. As I mentioned in the welcoming
remarks, If you have on your mind this morning the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ, then that's what, if you understand
the gospel truth of the death, the burial, and the resurrection,
then you understand something about what I'm going to say concerning
salvation from sin and death, for that's what his death, Christ's
death, and his burial and his resurrection is all about. But
one of the things that I want you to see, look at verse 16
of 1 John chapter 5. It says, if any man see his brother
sin, a sin which is not unto death. Now let me stop there
because I want to make this point. I love the King James Version
of the Bible. I believe it's the closest to
the original. I believe it's the one that has withstood the
test of time in our day. And I love it, that's why I read
from it. Most of you have the King James Version. There are
other versions, some that are not good, some that are not so
good. There's another version that
I like called the New King James, which is just the King James
with all the these and the thous changed to you, and things like
that. I use it as a study Bible sometimes,
and so far I haven't found anything that is doctrinally in error. Some translations change the
doctrine, they do. And I don't recommend them, but
that's another, I don't have time to go into all that. But
here's what I'm saying, a lot of times the translation, even
the King James Version, they would add a comma or a period,
of course in any translation they added those, because in
the original there were no punctuation marks. There were certainly no
paragraph marks, no verse divisions. But sometimes they would at an
article. And this is one of those cases.
Look at verse 16. If any man see his brother sin,
a sin. Scratch out the a. It's simply
sin. If any man see his brother sin,
sin not unto death. That's the original. And then
it says he shall ask and he shall give him life for them that sin
not unto death. He's talking about a sin Or sin,
that's what he's talking about. Sin, that is not unto death. Now the word for sin there is
the most common word for sin used in the New Testament. It
means to fall short. It means to miss the mark. Romans
3.23 is one verse that people quote all the time. For all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. And that's what
that means, we've missed the mark. In other words, the New
Testament gives us a way to think about sin that's not natural
to us. In fact, the natural man, when
we refer to the natural man or the natural woman, we're referring
to an unbeliever. That's what we are naturally,
we are naturally unbelievers, born naturally, fallen in Adam,
dead in trespasses and sins, the unregenerate person, not
born again, that's what that means. So the natural man, the
natural woman. Well, the natural man or woman
really doesn't understand the truth and reality of sin. Now,
they know something about sin. We have a conscience. We know what a bad boy and a
good boy and a bad girl and a good girl is in human terms. We know
about the bad things we do, the immoral things, and what we call
the good things. That's how we relate to one another. But when we're talking about
how we stand before God, here's the way we need to look at sin.
Less than perfection. We miss the mark. I can tell
you that today I'll try to be the best I can be. But I also
can tell you that the best that I can be today is going to miss
the mark. And that's perfection. That's
what God requires. Now, many people will argue and
they say, well, that's not fair. God requiring something that
I cannot be? Well, first of all, you need
to stop talking about fairness when it comes to you and God.
Because if you want to know what's fair, if God ever gave any of
us what we deserve and what we've earned, it would be eternal death.
We're sinners. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. But it's not unfair of God to
require that, because God is God. He is a holy, just, and
righteous God, and He can require nothing less. For him to require
anything less for acceptance, for salvation, for fellowship
with him would be to stop being God and he cannot stop being
himself. Just like you can't stop being
yourself. So God requires perfection. It's
called righteousness. See, righteousness really is
not some kind of moral quality of character. Righteousness is
really the godly standard by which all qualities of character
are measured. And we don't measure up in ourselves. But why is it not unfair? Well,
because God has provided righteousness where it's to be found, the only
place it can be found, in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is my righteousness. He's my substitute. He's my redeemer.
He's my savior, all right? Now this word for sin means to
fall short. In other words, I can try to
be the best I can be, but I'm never gonna equal the love, the
obedience, the goodness of Christ. He's God in human flesh. He did
everything perfectly. I do everything imperfectly.
Even my prayers. That's why the Bible says when
we pray, we need a great high priest who is passed through
into the heavens. Jesus Christ the righteous. See,
my prayers don't even save me. My prayers do not make me righteous.
My prayers do not wash away my sins. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. That's the key. So sin, we miss
the mark. Unbelievers don't understand
it. Believers are sometimes confused about it. But let's look on,
verse 16. If any man see his brother sin,
sin not unto death, he shall ask and he shall give him life
for them. That's sin not unto death. There is, scratch out
the A, there is sin unto death. The problem with people saying
there is a sin unto death is it gets people to thinking about
some specific sin that they commit that deserves death, and the
problem with that is, is that all sin deserves death. What
is sin? Look back over at 1 John 3. What
is sin? In verse four. Whosoever committeth
sin, transgresses, breaks the law, also the law, for sin is
the transgression of the law. In other words, if you're not
a perfect law keeper, then it's sin. You say, well, how could
I be a perfect law? You can't, but Christ did, Romans
10, 4. Christ is the end, the finishing
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. See,
my believing is not my righteousness. My believing doesn't wash away
my sins. I believe in Christ who is my righteousness. Christ
who washed away my sins. How do I know he washed them
away? How do I know he paid for them in full? He's risen from
the dead. All right, go back to 1 John
5 now. It goes on, it says, there is sin unto death, verse 16,
I do not say that he shall pray for it. What's he talking about? Verse 17, all unrighteousness
is sin. It's what John just said, transgression
of the law. And there is, scratch out the,
there is sin not unto death. Okay, so here's what he's talking,
there's sin not unto death, there's sin unto death. What is sin? Coming short of the glory of
God, missing the mark, breaking the law. We're all sinners. There's
only two types of people on this earth today. Sinners lost in
their sins, in unbelief, and sinners saved by the grace of
God. We sing that hymn? I'm only a
sinner saved by grace. You see these bumper stickers
all the time, and I don't particularly like bumper sticker religion. That is what it is though, bumpers.
I don't particularly like bumper sticker religion, but it says
Christians are not perfect, just forgiven. I wonder if the person
driving the car really knows what that means. And that means
this, now David stated, King David stated it in Psalm 103.
He said, Lord, now David stated this as a believer. He said,
Lord, if you, Lord, would mark iniquities, who would stand? Now think about it. You might
say, well, I know I missed the mark, but let's talk about old
Saint so and so. No, my friend, if God would charge
sin, to any of us who would stand. We're sinners. Even Paul said
that. He said, this is a faithful saying
worthy of all acceptation. That means worthy for everybody
to believe it and understand. He said that Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. And somebody
says, well, now we're sinners before we're saved, but we're
not afterward. Well, Paul, he was using present tense there,
writing to Timothy. And he was an elderly gentleman,
old man in the faith. of whom I am chief. Paul said,
O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body
of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ
my Lord. That was the comments of a believer, not somebody who's
unsaved. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. What is the glory of God? It's
His honor, His majesty, the revelation of Himself, Where are you going
to see the glory of God? Well, you can see it in creation,
but that's not enough. The glory of God resides in the
face of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, crucified, buried,
raised from the dead. Why? Because he put away our
sins, the sins of his people, And he established the only righteousness
whereby God can look upon a sinner like me and say, not guilty. Justify, righteous. Look back
at 1 John 3. He said in verse 4, whosoever
committeth sin, Transgress is also the law, for sin is the
transgression of the law. And you know that He, that's
Christ, was manifested, that means He came to earth and dwelt
among men, to do what? To take away our sins. Now how
did He take them away? Did He just snap His finger?
No. He went to the cross bearing
the sins of His people, the debt of their sins, imputed, charged,
accounted to Him. He died as our surety, our substitute,
and it says, in Him is no sin. Now, in Him personally was no
sin, that's true, but that's not what that's saying. That's
saying this, all true believers stand as they are represented
by Jesus Christ. who as their surety substituted
himself in their place on the cross and died for their sins. And in his death we see the full
payment of God's justice worked out perfectly. How do you know
the full payment was worked out? He didn't die to make you savable.
He didn't die to save you if you would let him. The full payment
of the justice of God was fully put forth and finished in His
death. And how do I know that He did
it? He was raised from the dead. That's what that's about. You
see, the miracle of the resurrection is not just life from the dead.
It's the putting away of sin. It's the establishment of righteousness
which is imputed, charged, accounted to His people. So here's the point. Go back
to 1 John 5 now. All sin deserves death. I told you the story about the
man who said, well, I know I'm not perfect, but I haven't done
anything to deserve hell. Well, you don't understand sin. The wages of sin is death. The
false church, They try to tweak things like this to say that
there's some sins that don't deserve death. They say, well,
there's venial sins. Those are lesser sins. They don't
deserve death. And then there's mortal sin. The Bible doesn't
know anything about that. We've all committed mortal sin.
You know, the Bible says unbelief is the mother of all sins. God told Adam, remember back
in the garden? He said, all these trees you
can eat except this one, and the day that you eat thereof
you shall surely die. We all fell in Adam, scripture
says, into sin and death. And then there's our own personal
sins. Now over here in this passage,
if any man see his brother sin, sin which is not unto death.
All sin deserves death, but what is this sin that's not unto death?
Well, what's he talking about? Well, there are two views of
this. One of the most popular is that John is talking about
the chastening of the Lord, the chastening hand of God in taking
one of his children out of this world because of continual sin.
And so he's talking about physical death and not eternal death.
And they always go back and they refer to 1 Corinthians 11. Now
that's where the Corinthian believers were abusing the Lord's Supper.
They were turning it into a big eating party, a smorgasbord instead
of a time of worship and faith. And remember Paul there in 1
Corinthians 11, he said because of this many of you are sick
and many of you sleep and that's the sleep of death. And they say, well, that's what
John's talking about. He's talking about physical death, not eternal
death. Well, listen to me. First of all, there is nothing
in the context of 1 John to warrant that kind of interpretation.
In fact, anytime John talks about sin, go back and read the first
four chapters all the way up to here. Anytime he talks about
sin, he's talking about life or death, life in Christ or death
outside of Christ. That's what he's talking about.
The forgiveness of sins comes by the blood of Jesus Christ.
That's what John says. And if we claim we're not sinners
still, then we make God a liar. The truth is not in us. So our
only hope of sinning sin not unto death is having our sins
covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. That's it. So there's nothing in the context
that would warrant that. To say he's talking about God's
chastising hand. to take one of his children out
of this world. Secondly, I'll tell you what, now you know
what the chastening of God is. Chastening is not payment for
sin, never has been. Because we can't pay for our
sins. If we could pay for our sins, Christ would not have had
to have come. But when it comes to God's chastening hand, we
are just sorely inadequate. to make a judgment there. Listen to it. He says, there
is sin unto death, I do not say that he shall pray for it. Now
how could I ever come to a point in my life that I could look
at you and say, oop, I see you sin a sin unto death. What kind of sin would be a sin
unto death in that case? You might be like the guy who
was arguing with me one time about eternal security. You know,
if you believe in salvation by grace, you believe in eternal
security. You do know that. Those who say,
well, I can be saved and then lost, they don't know anything
about grace. And I asked him, and that's what
he was arguing for. He said, no, he said, you can
be, even God's children who are safe, they can lose that salvation
by sinning. And I said, well, what sin would
they have to sin? And he thought about it for a
minute, and he looked at me, he said, well, I really don't know,
but it'd have to be something pretty bad. If I see you commit a public
sin, how could I say, oh, there's one undead, God's gonna kill
ya. How could I say that? That would be self-righteous.
I couldn't say. You know, when it comes to the
chastening hand of God, here's what I've come to see, and I
know there are consequences for certain sins. If you go out in
speed and get caught, you're gonna get a ticket, I know that.
We know those things. But how could I look at you and
say, well, God's punishing you for that particular sin? You
know who did that? Job's three friends. Let's figure
this thing out, Job. What did you do to deserve what
you got? And they got even Job into thinking about justifying
himself. And there was no particular sin
for which God was doing this. He was testing Job. So how could I say, well, somebody
said, well, that'd be pretty bad. Well, what kind of bad?
Unbelief is terrible, and we have to fight unbelief all the
time. We complain, we murmur, we doubt. Is that the sin under
death? If it is, we're all goners. Well, what if you'd come up on
David at a moment in time? When he was committing adultery
with Bathsheba, is that bad enough to kill a guy? I'm sure Uriah
thought it would be if he ever found out. But that's not God. You see, when it comes to God's
chastening hand dealing with his children, we just leave it
to God. And you step out of that. How
about that? Because you don't have any business there. You
don't have the kind of wisdom that God has. And you don't have the
kind of grace that God has in dealing with his children. He'll
do that. He does chasten his children. He doesn't tempt any
man with evil, that's why I had Brother Randy read that point
in James. You remember what he said? He
said God, now God tests his people, he puts us through tests, but
he doesn't tempt us with sin. And then he said, remember James
said there's sin when it takes over, when it just consumes a
person, and when sin is finished, death. All sin deserves death. Well look here, he says back
here, he says, if any man see his brother sin, sin which is
not unto death. What's John talking about? Well,
look down at verse 18. He says, we know that whosoever
is born of God, now what is that? That's a born again person, that's
a believer. That's one who's been redeemed.
That's one who's been chosen by God before the foundation
of the world. That's one who's been justified before God based
upon not their works but the righteousness of Christ freely
imputed to them. That's one who's been redeemed
by his blood. That's one who's been called
by the Holy Spirit in the new birth. Remember Christ said you
must be born again or you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.
Now, whoever is born of God sinneth not. Well, what's John talking
about? He says, but he that is begotten
of God keepeth himself. That's perseverance. He keeps
himself. Keeps looking to Christ, resting
in Christ, clinging to Christ. And that wicked one, who's that?
That's the devil. That wicked one toucheth him
not. Now, who's the devil? He's the accuser of the brethren.
He's the great deceiver. What's John talking about? Look
back at 1 John 3. Look at verse 8. Now here's what
he's talking about. He says, he that committeth sin
is of the devil. Now that doesn't mean every sin
I commit I can blame on the devil. This is not Flip Wilson theology.
Now most of you young people, you don't know who Flip Wilson
is. But he was a comedian on television back in the 60s or
70s. And he used to play this character who'd all the time
get in trouble, and he dressed up like a woman, played this
character who got into trouble, doing something wrong, and when
she was called on, she'd look at the person and say, the devil
made me do that. No, the devil's not the
cause of all our sins. We are. The problem's not with
the devil, the problem's with us. But he says, he that committeth
sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning.
For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested that he might
destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin, for his seed remaineth, the word seed there
is his children, his offspring, his children remaineth in him. They remain in Christ. Listen,
if you're one of His children born of God, justified by His
righteousness, you'll stay right with Him. You will never forsake
Christ completely. Oh, you might lose sight of Him
for a little while. You might go astray a little
while, but He will not let you go. I'll put it this way, if
it may sound offensive too bad, He's got you on a leash. You ever had a dog, when you
had to walk it, you're gonna put it on a leash. And that's
what God's got his children on. He won't let us go. He said,
no one will pluck him out of my father's, and they will persevere,
for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin. He cannot
leave Christ because he's born of God. That's what he's talking
about. How do you know John's talking about this specifically?
Well, go back to 1 John 2, keep it with the context. And look
at verse 18. In this day and the day of John
here, there were people who professed to be Christians, professed to
be believers, who professed to know the truth and believe the
truth, but then because of persecution or because of other things that
tempted them away, they totally forsook the gospel, they forsook
Christ, they apostatized. You ever heard that word? Apostasy? That means they fell away from
it, even to the point many in Hebrews chapter 10, it says they
called Christ accursed. It'd be like someone of you,
who I've known for over 30 years now, Consider you brothers or sisters
in Christ coming to me and say, Bill, I've decided I don't believe
a word of this. I hate the Christ you preach.
I'm never coming back to church again. That's apostasy. You say, well, where do you get
that? Well, look at verse 18 of 1 John 2. Little children, it
is the last time, the last days, the last age. And as you've heard
that Antichrist shall come, even now are there many Antichrists,
the spirit of Antichrist, whereby we know that it is the last time
in verse 10. They went out from us. You see that? They went out from
the fellowship. Now, did they lose their salvation
like some say today? No, now listen to it. But they
were not of us. For if they had been of us, they
would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out that
they might be made manifest that they were not all of us." They
just, in going out, in apostatizing, in leaving Christ and the gospel,
and leaving the fellowship, they just revealed what they always
were, false religious professors. If you're truly born of God,
will you ever leave Christ completely? Look at verse 20. But you have
an unction, an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all
things. And then over in 1 John 3, if
you're born of God, you'll remain as His child. You won't leave
Him. You cannot sin in this sense. You cannot leave Christ. You'll
sin. Because you're a sinner saved
by grace, but you'll not leave Christ. Now go back to 1 John
5. This is what he's talking about in verse 18. We know that
whosoever is born of God sinneth not, but he that is begotten
of God keepeth himself. What's that mean? It means he
clings to Christ for dear life. She clings to Christ. She won't
leave Christ. She can't let go. And why can't
she let go? Why can't he let go? It's because
he won't let go. We persevere because He preserves.
Christ said it in John 6, 37. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. This is the will of Him that
sent me, that of all which He hath given me I should lose what? Literally no one. But raise him
up again, here's the resurrection, raise him up again at the last
day. His death, burial, and resurrection, my friend, is the guarantee of
the salvation of all for whom he died. They're justified. And they cannot
be condemned, because God cannot charge them with sin. Romans
chapter 8 and verse 33. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather,
is risen again and seated at the right hand of the Father,
ever living to make intercession for us. As long as He intercedes
on my behalf, I cannot be condemned. I cannot be lost, because I stand
before God righteous in Him. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth righteousness without works. Without whose works? Your works, my works. That's
it, that's what the resurrection's all about. It's what his death,
burial, and resurrection, you can't separate those. He'll keep himself, he'll persevere,
and that wicked one toucheth him not. How can the wicked one
not touch us? He cannot rightfully accuse us. Over in Revelation 12, read that
sometime. He's the accuser of the brethren.
How do you turn that accuser back? When he looks at me and
he says, Bill Parker is a sinner. Well, he's right, but what if
his charges don't stick? How do I turn him back? It says
they turned him back by the blood of Christ. and the word of their
testimony. And what is the word of our testimony?
Well, I'll give you an example of it. God forbid that I should
glory, boast, or have confidence save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ. My confidence is not in me. It's
not in you. Not in a big bunch of us. My
confidence is not in my prayers, not in my baptism. It's not in
my works. It's in Christ. We glory in Christ. Look at verse
19, and we know that we are of God and the whole world lieth
in wickedness or literally in the wicked one. You're either
in Christ or in the flesh, in the spirit or in the flesh. Who
is your hope? My hope is built on nothing less
than what? Jesus' blood and righteousness.
And I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus'
name, on Christ the solid rock I stand." And all other is sinking
sand. All other things that people
have confidence in is sinking sand. And so he says in verse
20, and boy, what a line of demarcation that is in verse 19. We're of
God and the whole world. You know, people look at the
word world in the scripture and they say, well, that always means
everybody without exception. No, it doesn't. It never means
that. Read the context. Here he says, the whole world
lieth in the wicked one. The whole world is under the
control and deception of Satan. Well, there's a group that aren't.
We are of God. What does that mean? That means
I'm saved by his grace. I'm justified by his righteousness. I'm washed clean in his blood.
I'm called by his spirit. I'm kept by his power. That's
what it means. Verse 20, we know that the Son
of God has come. Here's the ground of all of it
now. Here's the ground of our confidence. The Son of God has
come. Jesus Christ came into the world
and hath given us an understanding. He's enlightened us. He's given
us a new heart, new knowledge, new mind. That's the new birth.
That we may know Him that is true, that is faithful. And where
in him that is true? Are you clinging to Christ for
salvation? Yes, he died. Yes, he was buried.
Yes, he was raised from the dead. Are you clinging to him for all
righteousness? Even in his son, Jesus Christ,
this is the true God in eternal life. Now, little children, keep
yourself from idols. Don't listen to false messages,
false gospels. There is sin unto death. What
is that sin unto death? Forsaking Christ. Forsaking Him. Because you see, if you forsake
Him, there is no forgiveness. He says here, I do not say that
he shall pray for it. Now, we're to pray for everybody.
We're to pray for their salvation. But I can't pray for a person
who has forsaken Christ like I pray for a brother or a sister
in Christ. I can't say God forgive them
of their sins because they have forsaken the one and only way
of forgiveness. I pray God save them, bring them
to see forgiveness in Christ. But when a brother commits or
a sister commits a public scandalous sin, then I'm to pray for them.
And I'm not to pray for them self-righteously, and I'm not
to treat them self-righteously as if I'm not susceptible. To the same thing, we're to admonish
them. We're to pray for their recovery.
That they be brought to repentance and godly sorrow over sin. That's
what we're to pray. We're to pray for them as a brother
or sister in Christ. One who stands with us in the
gospel of Christ. Yes, he died. And yes, he was
buried. But He arose again, and that's
the guarantee of the salvation of His people.