Okay. Good singing. Good hymns. Well worth singing. 1 John 5. I hope you have profited from
this book. And not only that, but I hope you've enjoyed it. I was speaking with one of
our ladies how that we have looked at this book several times, but
the older you get, You see things not completely
differently, but yet you just grow in grace and knowledge of
Christ and the truth, and you see new things that you didn't
see before. These last eight or nine verses,
as you saw while you were reading, are very serious and deal with
a frightening subject. sin unto death. And what this is talking about
is a sin that leads to damnation. And there's only one. So there is a sin unto death. And what that is, is unbelief.
Unbelief. And apostasy, apostasy means
someone who leaves the faith, who's seen to believe, but left. And that's the same thing as
unbelief, is it not? With John, we read in the beginning
of this book, how that it says, if someone went out from us,
they were not of us. If they had been of us, they
would no doubt have continued, because that which is born of
God cannot sin this sin unto death. Now, we need to deal with
this subject. The Word deals with it. But we're
not going to dwell on it. Rather, we're going to dwell
on sin not unto death. Aren't you glad? And we want
to end this study, Lord willing, rejoicing. All right? May the
Lord enable you to forget everything. Forget everything. Everybody
and everything. All right. Verse 13 says, These things have
I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God.
Those of you who believe Christ, the name means who He is. You
have a name. It's who you are. When you think
of someone like Mac Thornton, you think of him as being so
tall, real tall. and so kind and gracious and
all of those things. Well, those of you who believe
on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who you believe. That's who you believe. He is
your Lord. The Lord is my shepherd, saith
it said. Jesus, Savior, Christ. These things are written unto
you who believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, name of
the Son of God. He has but one. Now, he said,
these things have I written. Now, he said a great deal, hasn't
he? God has written quite a bit. John just took dictation. This is God's Word. He wrote many things. Admonitions. He told us over
there, Love not the world, nor the things of the world. So dangerous,
so deadly. Exhortations. Love one another. Love one another as Christ loved
you. Warnings. Try the Spirit. Try the Spirit. Abide and walk
in the light as he is in the light, if not. And in all of
the blessed promises, all the promises that he writes in this
book, like this, in his man's sin, we have an advocate with
the Father. Verse 25 of that same chapter
says, This is the promise that he hath promised us, eternal
life, God who cannot lie, all that trust his Son. It's a promise. We have eternal life. Chapter
3, verse 2 says, Beloved, now are we the sons of God? He says, I know it doth not yet
appear what we shall be, but have the life now. Are we the
sons of God? As He is, so are we. All the blessed promises. Like
this, in chapter 4, verse 9, it says, Here is manifested the
love of God to us. He sent His Son into the world
that we might live through Him. Chapter 5, verse 1, Whosoever
believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. Do you believe? All these blessed promises. These
things are written unto you that believe on the name of the Son
of God. Those of you who truly trust
Him, all your hope is in Him. The name of the Son of God. And
he says in verse 13, he goes on to say, and that you may know
that you have eternal life. Can someone know? Well, God said
you could. Is that presumption? No, it's faith. That's what it
is. It's faith. It's believing God. It's taking
him at his word. It's taking him at his word. And, he said, that you may believe
on the name of the Son of God. That is, believe more fully. Believe more fully. All right, now look at verse
four, fourteen. He said, now this is the confidence that we
have in him, concerning him. This is our confidence that we
have in Christ. All of these things that he's
written, all of these blessed promises that he's written to
believers, should give us confidence. If any man sin, we have an advocate. We have an intercessor, we have
a high priest, that we may have confidence in him. And here's
the confidence we have in this high priest, verse fourteen,
that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth them. Now, we're talking about calling
on God the Father through Christ. And it says here, we may have
confidence that He hears us. And we only call through Christ.
You know that. 1 Timothy 2, 5 says there's one
mediator between God and man. Do you know that? Who do you
call on? When you call on God, I know
who you are, I hear you. Whose name do you speak to the
Father asking him to hear you through? Jesus Christ is one
mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. And he
said, when he prayed at Lazarus' tomb, remember? He said, I know
that you always hear me, but I said it for their sake. And He said that for our sake.
The Father always hears Him and always hears those who pray through
Him. All right, what does this mean?
It says here in verse 14, we ask anything according to His
will, He hears us. Now, first thing you need, we
need to understand it, that He's talking about being heard. That's
the main thing. There's quite a few people that
pray and their prayers don't bounce off the ceiling. I mean,
they do bounce off the ceiling. They don't get beyond that. Go
to Matthew chapter 6. Matthew chapter 6. He says here, though, if we ask
anything according to His will, God's will, He hears us. He hears
us. What does it mean to ask something
according to God's will? Well, look here at Matthew chapter
6. The Lord teaches His disciples to pray. Look at what He said. Matthew 6 verse 9, After this
manner, therefore, pray ye, Our Father, which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. Holy God, Holy Father, thy kingdom
come. Thy will be done. Thy will be done. Thy will be done. You remember when the Lord Himself
prayed, Not my will, but thy will be done. This is what it
meant to pray according to His will. It means to ask everything
and proceed it with that. Lord, I want your will to be
done. Now, here's what I'm asking. I don't know if it's your will
or not. It might not be. But I want your
will to be done. And He'll hear you. He'll hear
you. Go back to the text. He will
hear you. And in fact you know that prayer
the Lord taught us. What did he tell us to ask for? Bread? Forgiveness? And that's about it. Lead us
not into temptation. That's it. Thy will be done. Lord, supply me my bread. Forgive
me my trespasses. Enable me to forgive others.
Don't leave me in the temptation. This is your kingdom. That's
it. You'll hear that. You'll hear
that. And He'll give you all those
things. Let me ask you, what else do you need? What else do you need? having food and rain. Let us
be content. Now go back here. It says that
if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. Now
the heavenly father hears his children. He does. And while
we pray through a mediator, Christ did say, you can go to the father.
You have free access to the father. And, but we are like little children
and we don't know what to ask for most of the time. This is
what Romans 8 verse 26 says. We know not what things we should
ask for as we ought. James rebukes us saying that
you ask amiss to consume it on your own desire, selfish desire. Anybody guilty besides me? And
so we're like little children. We know not what we should pray
for most of the time, and we don't always know the will of
God. The will of God can be summed up two ways. The will of God
can be summed up two ways. The revealed will of God. Things we clearly see that are
His will. And we're going to look at that
in a minute. And the secret will of God, which we don't know. We just don't know what God's
going to do from day to day. We don't know. Most of the time,
we don't know what God's will for the next day is, do we? So we just have to ask, Thy will
be done. But he says here in verse 15,
we know that He hears us. That ought to be comforting in
itself. I remember as a child I used
to ask my father things and sometimes he wouldn't answer
me. And I'd ask him again and again and finally he said, I
heard you. That means don't ask me again. Or he would say something like
this, I'll take care of it, or I'll see to it. And it should
be comforting to us just to know that God hears us. And quite often he does not give
up what we ask for. But he says here, if we ask according
to his will, verse 15 is continuing there, we know we have the petitions
we desired of him. If our desire is really his will
to be done, then we're going to have that.
We're going to have that. Now, every believer As he is,
so are we. Every believer truly in his heart
says, not my will, but thy will be done. Lord, don't let me have
what I want if it's not your will. Lord, don't let me go where
I would go if it's not your will. Don't you? Lord, don't let me
do this if it's not your will. You say, well, how could you?
Well, you understand what we're saying. Quite often the Lord With against with our op according
to our obstinance or our rebellion said, OK. And just leaves us
alone for a little while to do as we would. And we get in deep
trouble. And we find out. I didn't seek
the Lord, I ran ahead. But he did that to teach us.
To teach us. But if we ask God for these things. I know for a fact, from God's
Word, these are the revealed will of God. These things God
will grant to those that ask for them. Our brother read from
the Psalms. In one Psalm, it says 26 times,
His mercy endureth forever. I know our greatest need, because
we're sinners, I'm going to show you some sinners who are not
going to get mercy. But He said, His mercy endureth
forever. Whoever He gives His mercy to,
whoever He shows saving mercy to, lives forever. When we ask for mercy, He's promised
to give it. How about grace? Grace means
gift. We are what we are by the grace
of God. We know what we know. We can
do what we can do by the grace of God. The constraining grace
of God. We don't do what we would do
by the restraining grace of God. Do you need grace? Huh? How much grace do you need? If
you're a great sinner, you need great grace. The Lord promised
to give more grace. He's the God of all grace, and
He's promised to give more. Did you throw away the grace
He gave you yesterday? James said, They may ask, and
He did liberally. And He upbraideth not. Fresh
grace, new grace, daily grace. He's promised to give it. How
about wisdom? Anybody feel like you don't know
what to do and where to go most of the time? Anybody? I'm supposed to be the leader here. James once again said,
any of you like wisdom? Pretty much. Not really. Wisdom to know what to do and
where to go. All wisdom must come from above.
True wisdom. Patience, strength. The Lord
has promised to give these things. These are his will. Throughout
the scriptures, he promises these things. He will give these things.
You will have these things if you ask for them. It's his will. It's his will. Now, he answers
and he gives things in his time. in his time, not yours, not mine. See, we ask, we want, Lord, I
want patience, and I want it now. How do these things generally
come? All of these things are things of great price, invaluable
things. Anything that's worth something
generally is hard to obtain. trial of your faith, work of
patience, and patience, experience, experience, hope, and so forth.
It's a trial and tribulation. God doesn't answer us immediately. Listen, everything is going exactly
according to God's sovereign purpose, which He purposed for
the world again. Everything, the wheels of God's
providence, are turning. And nothing can change it. Nothing
can change it. but to turn slowly. And God's not going to stop and
change anything or do anything or just whenever we holler. He's just not going to do it. There's a much bigger picture.
A much bigger picture. That we have those things, He
promised. And God always answers us, He always answers us basically
one way. Do you want to guess how that
is? He doesn't speak out loud. He doesn't, you're not going
to be sitting up on a mountain in a bolt of lightning striking.
How? How do you answer your children? God speaks one way. So that's how he answered. Now,
the next verse, the next verse has something to do with prayer.
He's talking about prayer, calling on God. He says, we know we have
the petitions that we desire of him. And this is something
that I think you'll notice about older,
mature believers, and I hope it's you, that when you grow
in grace and mature in the faith, what you'll find yourself praying
more for is not for yourself, but for other people. of the people. And God will definitely
answer those who pray for others. Let me give you a scripture.
The scripture says about Job that the Lord turned the captivity
of Job, problems and troubles that Job was going through. When? And I know the answer to the
rest of that. When he prayed for his freedom. The Lord blessed Job. And he
didn't do it for that reason. He did it sincerely. The root of the matter was in
Job. The root? Who's the root? Christ. He was
a Christ-like man. How did Christ pray? intercessor, that's who He was.
And we'll find ourselves, I believe, the older we get, praying more
for other people than ourselves. Your concerns will be, as you
see, that you're a very, very small part of a huge picture. That the world doesn't stop for
you, for us, and it doesn't revolve around us and our problems and
so forth. that there's a greater picture, namely, the glory of
God Almighty, the glory of God, a greater picture,
the good of the Church, which we're a part of. This is
not made up of individuals. There are many members, but one
body. And I'm placed here. You're placed
here. Why? To serve myself? No. Serve the body. And what does the body serve?
The head. That's right. The older we get, I hope, in
the faith, we'll learn that there's something much greater than myself.
And material things won't be such a pressing matter, but rather
spiritual things, spiritual things. And the spiritual welfare of
our brethren, because he goes on to say, verse 16, I've got
to hurry. Santa Santa is talking about
prayer. He may see his brother's hand a fan which is not on the
day he shall ask and God should give him a lot of them and not
on the day there is a fan on the day. I did not say that he
should pray for you. So he says here, if we see a
brother sin, a sin, not unto death. Now what sin is that? Well, all manner of sin, our
Lord said, all manner of sin shall be forgiven. Thank God. All manner, but one. But one. And the believer, and here's
the promise, the believer, the one who truly trusts Christ,
will never be charged with one sin before God, never. That person
does not have one sin charged to his account. Believers have
had all their sins, past, present, and, thank God, future. paid for by the Lord Jesus Christ,
paid in full. Yes, they have. He bore their
sins in His own body on the tree. He took them away, and God promised,
I'll remember them no more. He said, good news, if you're
a sinner in it. But it happens often that we,
all of us, Fall into sin. We all fall into sin. What kind
of sins? Well, name one. If we don't actually do it by
God's restraining grace, we come close to what we think we do. Name one. Belfry fornication,
lying, stealing, cheating, killing. You've been so angry at somebody
if you had been given the opportunity. The Lord just doesn't, by His
restraining grace, just doesn't. Oh, my. Cursing, bitterness,
drunkenness, hatred, malice, anger, name one. Covetousness. Name a believer
in the Scriptures that didn't fall. Abraham. God begins with him. Abraham, father of the people. And you know what he did? Unthinkable. Lot. Jacob. How happy is he to have
the God of Jacob for his help? David. Solomon. Solomon got to be an old man,
Henry, and he didn't learn anything. Peter? All men are sin, shall we forget. How do we know someone is a believer
who commits such things? How do we tell them apart, someone
who falls into these things? How do we tell them apart from
the rest of the world is doing the same thing? Well, Proverbs 24, 16 says this, a
just man falleth seven times. Can you quote the rest of it?
It rises again. Even a believer can fall and
wallow in the pig pen, particle sun, but bless God, and it's
only by the grace and mercy of God. He or she won't stay there. They don't like it there. God
brings them to themselves. That's what repentance is. You
know, that's what repentance is. God brings us to repent,
to realize what have I done? How could I have sinned? I've
sinned against heaven and come running back to the Father like
a prodigal. What does He do? Falls on your neck and kisses
you through the gospel. Seven times. Why? The Lord says
seven, okay? Does that mean just seven? Disciples asked the Lord that
day, Lord, how many times shall we forgive our brother? You better
forgive him as much as I forgive you. How many times? Seven times? Seventy times seven. And that means seventy times
seven times every day. Not lifetime, every day. They
don't stay followed. That's how you know the difference.
They don't live in it. They don't continue in it. They
mourn over it. They repent over it. They're
convicted of it. They turn from it. They repent
of it. And God forgives them. And the
most common sin, I believe he's talking about here, is a brother,
we see a brother's sin, a sin not unto death. The most common
sin we see brethren get into, and it seems to be that there
might be fallen away. Ten months, a year or more. If you hadn't known the story,
you would have thought he was apostate, wouldn't you? How could
a man do what he did and not repent of it? He didn't
for ten months, eleven months, twelve months, and who knows
how long. Rich in mercy, for his great
love was with thee. Love, David, sent him upon thee."
He sent Nathan, sent the gospel, and said, Thou art the man. That's
the first thing the gospel says, Thou art the man, guilty as charged. Again, he wrote Psalm 51, it
gets thee and thee only, as I said, but Nathan went and quickly said,
God has forgiven you, but you're going to have trouble now. We see a brother get into an
attitude, bitterness, cold, malice, pride, whatever, and we ask, Lord, don't let him
fall away. Don't let her fall away. That's
what this is all about. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel.
Don't ever, doesn't every believer in here think, often you think,
if anybody leaves, it'll be me. Well, we all see one another
get in these, if we haven't, we will. And he says, let us
ask. And he says in verse 16, God
will give life, then sin not unto death. And it is. Good news is. It's a lot of it
is a you know you listen to this is only one that is. Only one
how many things are. But he said he's only one man. And if anybody see a brother
saying the same oh how could he do that and be able to let
go of his life. And, but for the grace of God, I do the same
thing. I think it was, who was it? John Bunyan. One of the old writers saw a
drunk stumbling by on the street one day. He said, I think it
was John Bunyan. He said, there goes John Bunyan,
but for the grace of God. We are what we are by the grace
of God. One hundred percent. We're going
to find that out someday. Absolutely. And so he says, ask,
and God will give life. God will give life. Now, all
of us have fallen and thought, I'm a goner. I'm lost. I'm cast out. Like Peter, didn't
he? Peter thought he was lost, but
God grants repentance. God grants to hear the gospel.
Peter heard the gospel. Peter heard it through a man.
The disciples said, Peter, the Lord told us, you too. He's calling for us, and you
too, Peter. He said, and Peter. And God, your ancestors, we hear
the gospel and we feel pardoned all over again. After you've
been down and dirty and the Lord forgives you, you come back to
it and you feel like alive and dead. That's what the Father said about
that prodigal son. This, my son, was dead. He's
alive again. He was lost and now he's found. There is a sin under death, verse
16. I do not say that he should pray
for it. There is a sin under death. What
is that? I've already told you. It's unbelief.
It's apostasy. It's someone leaving the gospel
finally, completely. Now, we don't know when that
is. We don't know. Do we? We don't know. God knows. He
says here, He says, I do not say that you should pray for
it. He doesn't say don't pray. Does He? He doesn't forbid you there to
pray, does He? But he's what he's saying on the side of caution
and that you won't get your hopes up too much. And you see that. He's saying, God might not, probably won't
answer. A heretic after the first and
second admonition. And we all know people who've
been here and left people we love. We still love them. And
we pray for them. But now, let me show you here,
oh, back in Hebrews chapter 6 is the clearest example of this,
okay? Hebrews chapter 6, there are others, Matthew 12, Hebrews
10, but here, Hebrews 6 is the best description of this. It says here in Hebrews 6 verse
4, It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and
have tasted of the heavenly gift, and made partakers of the Holy
Ghost, and have tasted of the good word of God, and powers
of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them
again unto repentance. See, and they crucify to themselves
the Son of God, a friend, and put Him to an open shame. Willful rejection. A word in
Hebrews 10, it talks about if any man sin willfully. That's
what that's talking about. Before that, he says, let's not
forsake the assembly of ourselves together as a matter of some
need. Some do. And they that regard... Jeanette,
you and I... Jonah 2, 8 says, they that regard
lying vanities. forsake their own mercy. That
means anything. If you don't buy the truth and
sell it not, then whatever it is we're taken up with is a lying
vanity. And you've forsaken your own
mercy. Anything or anyone that promises
us something, we go after it at the expense of Christ. God
might let us have it and then leave us alone. That's true. And that's what it means willfully.
You know, it says, if any man sin willfully after he has received
the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for
sin. We don't will to be saved. It's
not of our own will that we're forgotten. James said, No, of
his own will, God's will, hath he forgotten us with the word
of truth. God's choice, God's will of us. But I tell you what,
we will the sin. We don't get the credit of any
part of salvation. No, sir. But we're going to get
the absolute blame if we leave the gospel. Now, how do you explain
that? You don't. That's just the way
it is. If a person leaves the gospel, they didn't love Christ. They love something or somebody
else better, and God lets them have it. And He says, I do not
say that you should pray for that person. They have what they
want. They have what they want. My, my. That's serious, isn't
it? What do we need to be asking for more than anything else?
There's one saying, though, about it. What do we need to ask for
more than anything else? What's our greatest need? Lord,
spare me. Thy will be done on me. Have
thine own way, Lord. Have thine own way. Keep me by
your power. Isn't that our greatest need?
All these other things will be added to you. All these other
things. Well, now he says all unrighteousness
is sin, back in our text. All unrighteousness is sin, and
there's a sin not unto death. We've already looked at that
in the context. He says in verse 18, we know,
and I like this, we know that whosoever is born of God sinneth
not. Back there in Hebrews 6, verse
9, he said, Things that accompany salvation. I just believe that
Nancy Parks is going to make it. I just believe that. Love
believeth all things, hopeth all things. Now, she's gotten
in a bad way before. It might have been my fault. And I pray for her. Come back to her old self, young
self. And I've gotten in that way. And I know she's faithful. And on and on it goes as we go
around the room. I just kind of believe. I just kind of believe
in God. Things that accompany salvation.
Now if somebody manifests an attitude, and keeps manifesting
that, and keeps manifesting that, he talks about loving the brethren.
Somebody seems to love the world more. Somebody that doesn't show
much love and just goes on and on and on, it won't surprise
them if we don't see it again. And we'll pray for them, Lord
please. But it might not. And it probably won't. That's
what that means. That's exactly what that means. Now, let's go on. We know that
whosoever is born of God sinneth not. Don't you see clearly that
you're saved by the sovereign electing mercy and grace of God
Almighty? Who's not going to sin this sin?
Those that are born of God. Born of God, I'm never going
to kick that girl out of my family. Never. Why? She's my chief. Bone of my bone, flesh of my
flesh. Whosoever is born of God, he
won't sin this sin. He won't sin this sin. Well,
look at this, though. This seems confusing, doesn't
it? It says in verse 18, But he that
is begotten of God keepeth himself. Is that contradictory? Is God's
Word contradictory? Is it confusing? No, we're the
confused ones. Man's the one that's confused.
Like this, throughout the Scripture, Scripture says, keep yourselves
under the love of God, in the love of God. Doesn't it say,
hold fast the beginning of your confidence, steadfastness? Doesn't
it say that? It sure does. He says, we'll be saved if we
continue in the faith. What's that saying, that we keep
ourselves? Why, of course not. Of course not. But here's the
fact of the matter. The believer, by God's grace,
by God's grace, puts on the whole armor of God. That's what he's
talking about. He's the keeper of this commandment.
He does what he says. The believer comes to hear the
gospel, keeps himself under the love of God. That's where the
love of God is, isn't it? Where is it? In Christ our Lord.
There is no love of God outside of Christ, the gospel. So a believer
is going to come where he knows he's going to be forgiven. And a believer's not going to
run after this and that and the other wind of doctrine. A believer,
by God's grace, lays hold of Christ and won't let go, even
in the face of their sins, like old Jacob. Jacob said, I will
not let you go. Why did he say that? Because
God took hold of him, John. That's why he said that. And
Paul said the same thing, didn't he? He said, I lay hold of, or
I, that I might apprehend that by which I am apprehended. Keep yourself. You leave this gospel, there
is to remain no more sacrifice. And it says here, I like this,
look at this, you'll like this. It says, and that wicked one
touches him not. Where do you feel molested and
wounded and bruised and molested? Everywhere. As soon as you leave
here, you're bombarded with sin, temptation,
the wicked one molests you. Where do you run for refuge? Where will you not be molested? Under his wing, we sang that
song. Under his wing. Run, quick, run. This is why
we come to hear the gospel. We run into the city of refuge
again. We've been molested. We've been abused, wounded and
bruised, haven't we? And we come running back to the
shelter in the time of trouble. And don't you feel like in here
nothing moves and nothing harms us? This is a—the Lord is a strong
type. Hmm. Right under the gospel,
at the foot of the cross, at Christ's feet, like the woman
caught in the axe. Like the woman caught in the
axe, brought to Christ's feet, bless God. Oh, she blessed God's—the
rest of her days that they brought her to Christ's feet. They brought
her to the only place where she wouldn't be stoned. The law says, what do you say? Oh, he said, not to me. Everybody else is, but not her. Where do you reckon she wanted
to stay from there on out? Lord, if you don't mind, I'd
just like to stay right here at your feet. I feel safe. I feel safe. Now he concludes by saying, we
know, verse 19, that we are of God and the whole world lieth
in wickedness. And once again, this is not presumption,
this is not pride, we're not saying that we're better than
anybody else or that we know anything, know more than other
people. Salvation is not knowing more than other people, it's
being known. Paul said that. He said, After
you have known, or rather are known by. We don't know anything. We're
just based by his knowledge. shall my righteous servant justify
me." Not my mother. She isn't. She is not. Now right here he says, We know
we are of God. How's that? All those things
that have been written. All the things that are written.
You believe on the name of the Son of God? Do you? Because you believe. You love God's people? You don't have to stop and think
about that, do you? You like people? You don't have to stop. I don't
know, but I think I do. Oh, no. Do you love our reason,
John? Oh, but John said, Oh, yeah.
Like, what a stupid question. That's the way to be. It's not presumption, it's
not pride, it's faith. Taking God at His Word, and He
says, You may know. Hereby you may know. How? All
these things. These things are written that
you may know. The will of God. You're looking at one of the
greatest Recipients and example of the
sovereign saving grace of God on the top. You really are. Had you known
me, you'd have thought like some of the old folks at 13th Street,
you'd have thought, no hope for him. But God. Now we know where God is. I wouldn't
be here. I would not be here. but for
the sovereign grace of God." Wouldn't he? He's not bragging
about us or himself. He's just saying it and taking
the facts. And the whole world lies in wickedness. It's pretty
obvious right now, isn't it? I mean, right now at this moment,
it's pretty obvious that the whole world lies in wickedness.
All these people that profess, even these people that profess
Jesus Christ, the whole world is mourning over the Antichrist. Who are we to put our flags at
half-mast over others? A man whom they call the Holy
Father. But here's what Jesus Christ
said, the Father. They that worship God, they worship
the Father, the Holy Father, in spirit and truth. How is it that you know? And
why is it that you're not deceived like the rest of this world?
This is what John is saying. This is exactly what John is
saying. But for the sovereign grace of God, we'd all be a mourning
over a wicked man, putting our trust in him, praying to him. Wouldn't we? It's only by the grace of God
that you know there's one mediator, and that's the one you pray to.
It's only by the grace of God you know that there's one Holy
Father, and you pray to Him. It's only by the grace of God
that you don't crucify Christ afresh. You know that He paid
that one time, and we're not to do it again. And this is just
a memory. We know we're of God. And the
whole world lies in wickedness. The whole world. It's obvious,
the open wickedness is obvious, but the religious wickedness
is even more obvious to those who know the truth. Verse 20, We know that the Son
of God is come, and hath given us an understanding. We wouldn't
know this. You see this? He's just stating
a fact. He hath given us. He keeps saying this, doesn't
he? This is the record. God hath given us. The world
doesn't know that. Vicki, the world doesn't know
that, that salvation is by grace. They say it, but they don't believe
it. They're preaching everything. Their methods deny it. But you
know it, don't you? You know if you're going to be
in heaven, God gave it to you one hundred thousand percent. You know that from the depth
of your heart, don't you? Not just in your head. It's not
a doctrine. It's your hope of eternal life. You know it's so. And you know
it's a person. that you're going to enter heaven
someday, not because Peter opens the gates. We sung it because
He opened the gates. That righteous, the King of kings
walked through, and people are going to get in because of Him.
We're going to be there because Christ is going to stand and
say, He's with me. I died for Him. There's not going
to be a questionnaire. What do you think about it? Christ
is going to answer that. He's come, He's given us an understanding
that we might know Him that is true, and we're in Him that is
true. See that? Even in His Son, Jesus
Christ. Because this is the true God. Again, that's not a doctrine.
No. We say with Thomas, from the
depth of our heart, my Lord and my God, who can forgive sins
but God and eternal life. This is eternal
life. Little children, he closes with
a warning. Because we're in this world,
and it's a dangerous place. They went out from us, and they were not of us. Why did
they go out from us? What did Paul say about Demas? Demas,
in one letter, Paul was saying, Demas says hello. In another
letter he said, Demas hath forsaken them. Why? It's only one thing,
having loved this present world, whatever it was, whoever it was. Little children, keep yourselves
from idols. An idol is anything, anything. Anything we adore, we worship,
we go after, and we've got to have it. Keep yourselves from idols. Aren't
you glad? There is a sin not unto death. Lord, keep us. Amen. All right, stand with me. Our Heavenly Father, thank You,
thank You, thank You for Your Word. Without it, we are in darkness
even as others. Thank You that we not only have
it, but we've heard it, but more than that, we understand. But
we preach in part. We know in part. We don't fully
understand. We do not. We don't pretend to. But we know this from your Word,
that your Son is our hope. And we plead him and look to
him. We ask that for his sake, that
you would keep us, keep us from falling away. We believe you
will according to your promise, according to your riches in glory
and riches in grace in Christ Jesus our Lord. That is my prayer
for our brethren and for myself. Amen. You're dismissed.