Our Lord said, Pray for yourself
and for your children. I have prayed for us. The Lord
will bless us. You be praying for yourself.
Lord, bless me. Lord, bless me. Lord, take away
that which would keep me from hearing the message. Lord, I
need to hear the gospel. Lord, I need The Word of God. Lord, I need. I need. Help me. Lord, I believe. Help
my unbelief. This should help your unbelief.
This should be a help to all those who are truly interested
in knowing the Son of God. This is life eternal. They might
know the Son of God, know the true God in Jesus Christ. And
this is how we may know him. He reveals himself to people
through the preaching of the Word, through the gospel. God very really reveals himself,
makes himself known to God's people. And we are wrestling
not with flesh and blood when it comes to hearing the power
of God, the Word of God, their principalities and powers, spiritual
wickedness in high places, rulers of the darkness of this world
that are against us hearing and doing what I'm doing right now.
So I ask you, pray for yourself. Pray for me, that God will give
me utterance. And pray for yourself, that God will give you hearing
ears. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit
saith unto the church. Last Sunday morning, we saw the
seriousness of what we're doing here. Our Lord said the Word
will judge us some day. Well, this Word should comfort
you. In any comfort, I do. Look at
verse 13 of 1 John 5. 1 John 5. It should already be
there. It's in the bulletin. 1 John 5, verse 13, says, These
things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the
Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. Now,
Ellen, I'm interested in that. I want to know. I don't want
to cross my fingers, you know. I want to know. And John says
it eighteen times. That you may know. And we know. I want to know. That I want to
know God. I want to know I know God. I
want to know I have eternal life." He says, these things are written. These things have I written unto
you that believe on the name of the Son of God. The scriptures,
though penned by men, though men actually penned them down,
yet they are written by inspiration of God. No scriptures of any
private or personal interpretation, Peter said. But holy men spake
as they were moved by the Holy Spirit of God." Now, it's either
so or it's not. And that means all of it, all of it or none
of it. All scriptures, he says, are given by inspiration of God.
All. This is God's word. This is not
the word of a man named John. This is the word of the God in
whose hands our breath is right now. This is the one who is speaking. This is the one who wrote this
book. This is no mere sermon. The scriptures are how God reveals
himself. The scriptures are how one comes
to know this God. Are you interested? This is life
eternal, that you might know God. The scriptures are how one
knows God. Nobody's going to know God apart
from the scriptures. The power of God His power, his
Godhead, his creative power and so forth can be seen out in the
mountains, looking at the stars and all that, but his character
can't. How we may get to God can't be known apart from that.
What God's like, how he does things, how he can be known,
how we can be saved are only known through this work. The things of God knows no man
but the Spirit of God. And Paul said, he has revealed
these things unto some people by his Spirit. But God says, to all who ask,
he shall receive. What are we asking for? A new
car? He didn't promise that. What are we asking for? James said, He that asketh for
wisdom, God giveth liberally. We need wisdom. We need to be
wise unto salvation. What is wisdom? The fear of the
Lord is the beginning of wisdom. We need to know God. He said,
Everyone that asketh receiveth, he that seeketh findeth. What
are we seeking? Oh, I need to find my life. I need a new job. I need the
direction in my life. Forget it. were seeking the Lord,
he said, and be found of them that seek me, who search for
me with all their heart." He said, them that ask, those that
seek, those that knock. When you knock on something you
want in, what do you want in? I want in the presence of God. I want to know God. So he said,
ask, seek, and knock, and these things will be given. Things
written unto you that believe." Do you see that? These things
have I written unto you. The Word of God is written to
the people of God. The Word of God is written to
the people of God. Why? Because some believers don't
believe it. It's written to the people of
God. The natural man is not going to receive it anyway. It's not
written to him. But to the people of God. God
sends a letter to the people of God. These things are written
unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God." Not
questioners, not cavaliers, not backtalkers, not game-sayers. God has no time for people who
come questioning his word. He says, "...these things are
written unto them that believe on the name of the Son of God,
that ye may know that ye have eternal life." God proves himself
to believers. He hides himself from unbelievers.
God reveals himself unto babies. I said it earlier that we need
to receive the word as children, childlike listeners. Seekers. Little children. And the younger
they are, the better. They'll listen to you. Let me
tell you something, honey, you'll say to one of these young boys
or girls, let me tell you something. Let me teach you something. And
they'll sit there with their eyes wide open. You tell them the
simplest of things, the most elementary things, can't you?
I mean, if I was a teacher, I'd be an elementary teacher. High
school, whew! There's only a rare few that
want to learn anything. They already know it all, see,
anyway. But little children say, now, wow, wow. The Scripture
says God reveals these things unto babies. Anybody in here
know anything about God? He hides himself from the wise
and the prudent. Oh, I know something. I know
the Bible. I can quote it. You're not going to get a thing out
of this man. He reveals these things unto babes, and hides
them from the wise and the prudent. The Scripture says, Not many
wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble.
That's the reason there aren't many educated preachers, true preachers
of the gospel. are uneducated men. Because not
many wise men, there are a few, but not many wise men, not many
mighty, not many noble are called, God doesn't call educated men.
It's not by the wisdom of this world, but it's by the wisdom
of God, by the power of God. Not by might, not by power, but
by my spirit, the Lord said. Watch this, I'm going to take
uneducated illiterate fishermen and turn the world upside down.
And these scholars are going to say, where do these men get
learning? From the one who made the brain. So I hope you come as a baby.
God gives infinite wisdom to believers, infallible proof,
and he leaves the agnostics in darkness, the intellect in the
darkness, and it's just so. I like it that way. That's the
reason the Lord rejoiced in the Spirit when he said that. Oh,
I thank you, Father, you've hid these things from the wise and Christ, one of the few times
he rejoices when he saw that those wise Pharisees couldn't
figure out his simple little story, his little parables. They
couldn't figure it out. Yet the babes, the common people,
heard him gladly and said, I see. Christ said, I thank you. You've
hid these things. You've shown your power. A smart
man can't figure it out. An ignoramus can. That's power,
isn't it? These things written, he says,
that you may know you have eternal life. What things? What things
did he write? Turn back to 1 John 1. What things? Well, what does
all the scriptures talk about? What's the whole Bible written
about? What's the Holy Spirit take the
things of and show them unto his people? Believers, what does
the Holy Spirit show the people? Who? Where Cain got his wife? No. The seven plagues? No. The mysteries of prophecy?
No. Well, you know what? But not
all those things that the world is talking about, all the little
things, the things the Holy Spirit takes and reveals among the babes,
is the things of Christ. Whom to know? is all you need
to know. It's to have eternal life. Why
do I need to know where Cain got his wife? Why do I need—what
will that benefit me in? I tell you what will benefit
me is if I know that I'm the wife to the bride of the Son
of God. That'll benefit me. Look at 1 through 3, "...that
which was from the beginning," now John's beginning to write,
and he said, now these are the things I've written unto you,
"...that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we
have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our
hands have handled, the word of life." Well, ought to go on. No man can spell no man, the
word of life. God was manifest in the flesh. The Word, he said in the Gospel
of John, was made flesh and dwelt among us. God revealed Himself. God spoke. God came. The Word was with God. The Word was God. The Word became
flesh. God, who cannot be seen, was
seen. We handled Him. God's Spirit. We touched God. God who dwells
in light which no man can approach unto, we stand on his lap. God who is a consuming fire,
put his armor on us. The God which no man hath seen
nor can see, we saw him," John said. Verse 2, life was manifested. We've seen it, life. What's the
essence of life? What's the mystery of life? We
pay scientists billions of dollars to know it. to delve into the
mysteries of life. So now they're splicing genes.
How tell them what life is? How tell them the mystery of
life? Rather, God has already told us, Christ is life. In Him we live and move and have
our being. In Him was life. Life. We handled life without whom
there is no life. We've seen it. What? Life. Oh,
if we could only get to the bottom of life. John said, we did. He was here. We bear witness
and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father,
manifested unto us, revealed unto us. Yes, us. That which
we have seen and heard, we declare unto you, that you also may have
fellowship with us. Truly our fellowship is with
the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. Life, these things,
John said, I've written unto you. The word of life, that life
was, the word was made flesh, and eternal life is in Him. Christ
said, He that believeth on me shall never perish. Do you believe Him? Do you believe
God came here? You do, you don't. Whoever does
is born of God, has eternal life. Look down at verse 9. If we confess
our sin—now, people, I'm not going to expound so much this
morning. We're going to read the Scripture.
John said, These things have I written that you may know.
All right, let's see what he said. These things are written. And all I'm going to do, all
we're going to do is just read the Word of God. And those of you who believe
these things, that you may know. All right, Vicki? You with me?
All right, verse 9. If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Who? Jesus Christ,
the faithful and just One. He is the One who forgives our
sins. Verse 7 says, His blood cleanses
us from all sin. Do you need that? Do you need
forgiveness of sin? Do you need a holy one, a just
one, the righteous one? Do you need a Jehovah's Seeking?
He said, surely one shall say it. In Isaiah 45, surely one
shall say, is there one in here this morning, who can say, in
the Lord have our righteousness and strength, who believe beyond
a shadow of a doubt that Jesus Christ is his or her righteousness.
Do you believe that? That's Christ. Jesus, the Lord. He's the just one. His blood
cleanses. He's the holy one. He is able. He is faithful. The faithful
one. Look at chapter 2, verse 1. Little children. And once again,
these things are written to children. Little children. Ellen, how old
are you now? Seventy? Seventy-one. Little children.
Are you a little child? How many times have you heard
that? Do you know it all? Okay, little Ellen. Would you
listen up? These things right under you,
is nobody else going to listen. Maybe the last, the oldest, will
listen, like a little child. These things are right under
you. Don't say it, Ellen. You say, but it's too late. I
have. If you have it, you've got an
advocate. You need an advocate. Huh? You need a good lawyer. Guilty people do. Ask O.J. Ask O.J.! Need a lawyer? He said, I'll get eight of them.
You need a good one, Ellen? You're guilty! What further things
the law sayeth, the Word of God, it sayeth to them that are under
the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world,
every person in here is guilty as charged. Anybody need a lawyer? Got two, three. We have one. He's with the Father. Jesus Christ is right. You believe
that? You need Him? He's a good one. Never lost a
case. Okay, Ellen, let's go on. Verse 3 says, "...and we know
we know Him if we keep His commandments." We know we know Him. We keep
His commandments. What does keep mean? Does that
mean we do the Ten Commandments? We try. But no man can do them
perfectly. Can't do it. No man can keep
the law perfectly. But one, one man did. And he did it for some men. And
God said, unless you do, you're going to die. Heather, unless
you keep God's law perfectly, you are going to die and pay
in hell. Right? That's what this book
says. Throw it all away if you don't
believe that. That's what it said. You can't do it, Heather. You can't do it no matter how
hard you try. Jesus Christ did. And he says,
I did this for some people. Some people are going to get
this righteousness. You need it, Heather? You need
it? He says, come unto me, I'll give
it to you. All right, Heather, you with me? All right. We keep his commandments, how?
In Christ. In Christ, because as he is,
so are we. Accepted. Holy. Unblameable. Unreprovable in
God. We've kept the law perfectly.
Heather, you've kept it perfectly. How? In Christ. Just by believing
Christ. That's all there is to it. You
need that? I do. The word keep also means
as one that found something that he doesn't intend to lose. Has this gospel, being to anybody
in here, lies a great treasure that you're not willing to do
without? Huh? John, have you found the gospel
to be just about the best thing you've ever heard of? Have you
found it to be the pearl of great price? Christ? Do you need this
gospel? Are you going to need it now?
Are you going to need it tomorrow? Sinners do. Are you going to
need it throughout eternity? You don't want to lose it? Then
you keep his commandments. That's what it means to keep.
I've got some things that I intend to keep. Things I love. Things
I like. I want to keep them. I don't
want to lose them. This is it. This gospel. I don't want to,
oh, gain the world and lose my soul? I'd much as soon lose the
world and gain life. That's what Christ said. The gospel. Never want to lose
it. Lay hold on it. Never want to
be let go or let go. I don't want him to let go of
me and buy God's grace. I don't intend to let go of him.
Do you? That's what it means to keep.
Verse 5, "...whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love
of God perfected." This is how you know you're in it. Keep his
word. What Christ said, all the things
that Christ said, violent. Do you love what Jesus Christ
said? His teachings? Do you hear grace
pour from his precious lips? Blessed are they that mourn.
Blessed are the meek. Blessed are those that hunger
and thirst after righteousness. Come unto me, all ye that labor
in heaven. Are those things precious to you? Huh? You keep His Word in that sense.
Huh? Are you willing to part with
this? Are you? A lot of people are.
They never pick it up. It doesn't mean a thing to them.
Are you willing? Oh, it's a believer. He says,
this is my bread. This is my water. This is my
life. My life. I'm going to keep it. You understand? I'm going to keep it. Keep his
word. And he says with the Psalms,
Lord, hide your word in my heart. Hide it right in there, so it'll
never be gone. Deborah, is that the way you
feel, Lord? Oh, my. Look at verse 12 and 13 of chapter
1. He said, I write unto you, little
children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake.
Any sinners in here? Huh? Oh, are there any sinners
besides me in here? I know there are. I believe there
are. Let me find one. Joe, there you are, you old stropping
sinner, you. Aren't you? Your sins are forgiven, for Christ's
sake. There ain't nothing in you worth
forgiving. Not for your sake. He said, I
didn't do this for your sake, Joe Parts, but for my holy name's
sake, my son's sake. I'm forgiven the likes of Joe
Parts. That's good news. Isn't that good news? Verse 13. Fathers, I write unto
you, you've known him that's from the beginning. I write unto
you, young men, because you've overcome the wicked one." I need
to overcome some things. I need some discernment. A young
man, I need some discernment. I need to... John, do you understand
the difference between the gospel of God and that other gospel
that's being preached out there? You've overcome the wicked one,
John. You've overcome him. Because what he's doing to myriads
of people throughout the world is deceiving them with a gospel
that ain't gospel. Why are you, John? Oh, blessed
are you, John. Bar John. John Bar Sheasley. Flesh and blood didn't reveal
it unto you, but my Father which is in heaven. Written unto you,
young men, because you've overcome the wicked one. You can spot
a wolf when he comes, can't you? You don't hear that stranger's
voice. Oh, that's a blessing. Steve, that's a blessing, buddy,
that you're not taken in by these fellows. Verse 24, he says, Let
that therefore abide in you which you've heard from the beginning.
Let it abide in you. It's the same old simple gospel.
Let me find somebody else in there. Let me find somebody else. Jenny, is the same old gospel
you've been hearing from the very first time you heard it
just as sweet to you? Sweeter? Oh my, it's abiding in you then,
isn't it, huh? It's abiding in you. That's what
it means. Let that abide in you. Let that
abide in you which you heard from the beginning. He said that
in another place. Hold fast the confidence, the
beginning of your confidence, steadfast to the end. Vicki,
you're getting older now. You're up in your forties. Everybody
knows that, doesn't they? Vicki's old now. Up in her forties,
like Roberta, sixty. Old. You're getting older. You're
growing up, doing a little maturity, hopefully. More of a woman now. No more. A little more settledness
and that and the other. Do you really feel any better
than you were years ago, though? Do you really feel any more holy
or righteous or moral or upstanding or better? Are you a better woman
now for all your troubles? Are you? Huh? Well, there's a
gospel. Do you need to hear the gospel
now more than ever? Are you going to hold fast to
this thing? Are you going to go anywhere else now that you've
arrived and accomplished something? Are you going to go somewhere
else and go on to bigger and better things? There is no better
thing. There is no better thing to you.
That which you heard from the beginning abides in you, doesn't
it? Oh, little Bert. He's writing
these things under you. that you may know you have eternal
life. How? The gospel's still sweet. That's the power of God. That's
the power of God to take the same old thing. Same old, same
old. Mary, same old, same old. You going to listen to the same
old, same old again? You going to listen to this old preacher
who's got these plucks of one-string fiddle? Why, there's fellas out
there who got, they can tell you, they can tell you lots.
They won't preach the gospel to you. You need to hear it.
It's abiding in you now. That which you heard from the
beginning abides still there. And it grows sweeter. That's
a sign I'm writing unto you. That believe that you may know,
that you may know, that you may know. It's one of those signs
that you may know. You got reason to worry if the
gospel's losing its sweetness. You've got real reason to worry
if the gospel is losing its sweetness. Verse 28, Now little children
abide in him. Our Lord preached some hard things,
and he turned to his disciples and said, Would you also go away?
You remember their answer, don't you? And this is what every believer
says. Well, where are we going to go? To whom are we going to go? Why would we want to go anyway?
Well, we've seen Him. We've seen and heard Him. That's
what Hosea said. What do we have to do anymore
with idols? There's nothing else going to
draw my attention now that I've seen Him. Right? That's the only reason somebody
could be drawn away by other things when they haven't seen
in Him. Right? The only reason people
could be drawn away by other things is they haven't seen in
Him all things. They haven't seen His glory,
His beauty. Chapter 3, look over here. Chapter 3, verse 1. Behold
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us. Sons of
God, we're called. Beloved, verse 2, it doth not
yet appear. Now we're the sons of God, but
it doesn't yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when
he shall appear, and he's going to, it's coming soon. And for
all it's worth, this preacher believes it's soon, soon. We
shall be like him. I'm going to be satisfied then,
John, aren't you? When I awake with his likeness. and see him as he is. That's
one thing I've desired that I'm looking into, that I may dwell
in the house of the Lord and behold his beauty." Huh? What about you? That's what David
said, to behold his beauty. I want to see him as he is. I
want to see him. I'll just be honest with you,
I'm tired of preaching about him. I want to hear him preach. I'm tired of looking in the mirror
and seeing this old fellow. I don't want to see him. Tired of this. I want to be with
him. I'm a straight betwixt the two.
Verse 5, you know now he was manifested to take away our sin.
You know that? Oh, my. Verse 9, Whosoever is
born of God doth not commit sin. You remember that verse. That's
vital. People, that's my hope of heaven
right there. That's my hope of heaven. We'll
see it again. That's my hope of not committing the impardonable
sin that we read about in 1 John 5. But if I'm born of God, I can't. Remember that, all right? Read
on, verse 14. Look down there. We know we've
passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. If it loveth
not its brother abideth in death. I actually love Henry Sowers.
Sixty... Now, he is old. Sixty-what? Two, three, four, five. Doesn't
what difference does it make? old and I'm young. I'm very young. He's very old. He's from Portland, Colorado. I'm a big city boy. But we love one another, don't
we? He ought not to love. The truth of the matter is known,
he's a much better man than I am for not having gone through the
big city and all those things. And we love one another, don't
we? Why? What do we got in common, Henry? What do we got in common? Christ, that's it, isn't it?
That's it. Is that all? That's it. It is all. That's all. That's all. Hereby we know we've
passed from death unto life because I love Henry Shore. That's what it said. I do. I actually love that old man.
He actually loves me. That's a miracle. That is a miracle. He's saying it about himself,
aren't you? You're saying, that's a miracle you love me. I'm saying
the same thing. It's a miracle you love me. As
I've said so often, if we'd have known each other, if the Lord
hadn't revealed... When we passed from death unto
life, we loved the brethren. As a young man, no interest in
the gospel, old fuddy daddies like him, I wouldn't do anything
to him. Old fuddy daddy. And now I want his constant companionship. Once too cool to be with a fella
like him. Once too cool. Oh my. We know we've passed from death
unto life. We love the brethren. We love
the brethren. Look at chapter 4. Turn over
there very quickly. Chapter 4, verse 1. Beloved, believe not every spirit.
Try the spirits where they are of God. Many false prophets have
gone out into the world. A lot of people following them,
too. Oh, my. A lot of people following
these guys. Unbelievable, isn't it? Isn't
it unbelievable what's going on in religion today? Doesn't
it boggle your mind? Probably isn't it unbelievable
when you look at the likes of Morris Cirillo, or whatever his
name, Benny Hinn. It just keeps going, the list
keeps going and going, unbelievable. I was looking at the TV the other
day, and this Morris, whatever, Cirillo was on there. John, there
must have been 50,000 people in this stadium to come out and
hear this dude. There may have been more than
that. It was one of these huge stadiums. There may have been
a hundred thousand people crowding in the air-bowl room alone to
see this idiot! I thought, my word! I mean, there's some smart people.
There's got to be some smart people in there. They're all
ignoramuses. There's got to be some people
in there with some education or whatever. Some people you'd
think would know better. No, they don't! They're following
these dudes. Many false prophets. Verse 2,
"...hereby know ye the Spirit of God." Every spirit that confesses
Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. Every spirit
that confesses not Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. is not
of God. This is a spirit of antichrist
whereby you have heard that it should come." Verse 4, "'You
are of God, little children. You've overcome them.'" You're
not going to follow Benny Hand there, Brian, are you? Why? Why you and not—and why aren't
you following that dude? It has nothing to do with yours.
Intimate. Your ability to discern between
right and wrong, does it? Has nothing to do—there's smarter
people in this world than you that's following Him. Who makes
you the differ, Deborah? These things have I written unto
you that you may know. You have eternal life. You've
overcome. You know better. You have some
discernment. They that are spiritual discern
all things. Deborah, This is written that
you might know. You ever got doubts about your
salvation? Do you? You ever have doubts about it?
These are written. 1 John 4 is written to you, Deborah. You're of God because you've
overcome these dudes. A stranger's voice, Jerry. You're
a sheep because you can't hear the voice of strangers. You can't.
You hear them and say, that's a stranger. And you hear a man
get up and preach to God, that's my Lord! And you follow. You
believe, don't you? What's there to mark? Sheep!
Sheep, sheep, sheep! These things are written unto
you, Sherry Anderson, that you may know you have eternal life. Isn't that good news? Huh? We take these things for
granted. Sometimes we even pass it off
as our own Wisdom or whatever, you know. I can see through that
guy. Everybody can. Blessed are your eyes. They see. God has put the eyes out. The
Holy Spirit is the Lord of your eyes, just like He did Barnabas.
Blessed are your eyes. Read on. Look down in verse 14. I've got to hurry. We've seen
and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior
of the world. Have you seen Him? Have you seen
Him by faith? Have you seen the Son? Has God shined in your once dark
heart to see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in a person? Do you see that, John? Is Christ
all? I mean, do you see Christ as
all? I mean, is He all? Do you? Not
like you would like to, but you do see now, don't you? You do
see that this whole book is all about Him, that this whole universe
is all about Him, that He's the sum and the substance of everything,
life. You see that? Oh, my. Do you know the difference? Oh,
my. Chapter 5, verse 1. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. Do you believe he's the Christ?
Mary, do you believe that he's the Christ? God sent him to put
away sin. He's the only one that can. Son
of God. Everything he said is true. You
see your need of him. He's the Christ. Born of God. Born of God. A daughter of Abraham. These things are written that
you might know, that you might know. Do you believe? Verse 11 and 12 says, this is
the record God has given us. Who? Those that believe. Eternal
life. No doubt in my mind there's some
in here right now as I speak that don't care a thing about
what I've been saying. And I can't help that. But there's
some that do. There's some that do. And this
record means a whole lot. A lot of people have a big record
collection, don't they, Jonathan? They got the greatest hits of
this and that and the other. This is the only record that
the child of God is really interested in owning. He that hath the Son
hath life. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God
hath no life. A genuine, he that hath a genuine
heart, faith in the Son of God hath life, eternal life, never
perish, never perish. So he says, verse 13, These things
have I written. Anybody still with me? These
things have I written unto you that believe, that you may know,
that you may know. And verse 13 says that you may
believe. Do you believe? Well, yeah, you
say, yeah, I believe, but help my unbelief. There are times
when you don't, aren't there? And there are times when you
have trouble with unbelief, when you don't believe. Well, you need more belief, you
need more faith, you need stronger faith, do you? That's what he
says, these things that I've written, these things that I've
preached. Garnet, these things, same old, same old, same old
thing, you've heard them years now, that you might believe more
firmly than ever. They're written under you, Garnet,
that you might believe more fully than ever on Jesus Christ, on
the name of the Son of God. All right, and I'm not going
into all these verses, but it says we have confidence in him
and he hears us and so forth. Verse 16 and 17, though, are
very important. Verse 16 and 17 say, If any man
see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask
and shall give him life, for God shall give life for them
that sin not unto death. Now, verse 17 says all unrighteousness
is sin. He says that if any man sins
a sin which is not unto death, God shall give life. God forgives
those sins. Our Lord said that. He said,
All manner of sin and unrighteousness shall be forgiven men but one. Verse 16 says there is a sin
unto death. I do not say that he shall pray
for it." What is that? What's he talking about? He's talking about an out-and-out
rejection of the gospel. He's talking about apostasy.
Let me just turn for you. I wish you would, but you don't
have to. Over in Hebrews 10, he says this. Listen to it carefully, please.
Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering.
Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good
work, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as a matter
of some is. Exhorting brethren, brother,
brother, he commands thee a brother, Professor and believer, Henry,
so he's talking about it. As the manner of some is, forsaking
the assembly. Verse 20 says, If we sin willfully
after we receive the knowledge of the truth, there's no more
sacrifice for sin, just a fearful looking for judgment, fiery indignation. Verse 29 says, How much sore
punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath
trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood
of the covenant an unholy thing, that's somebody who comes, hears
the gospel, proclaims, professes to believe it and receive it
and love it and then eventually don't need it anymore. That's
it, Sam. That's what he's talking about. Joe, I've never seen in all my
years, and I ask my pastor the same thing, I've never seen anybody
who left the gospel. and came back to it. Never. Never. It won't happen. And that's
what the Lord said about some Pharisees. He said, Leave them
alone. That's what he says. Don't even pray for them. Forget
it. Waste your breath. Don't waste your breath. They're
not coming back. Is that right? Y'all have seen it
here. That's the reason he tells us,
people. There's a sin under there. That's
the reason he warns. This is written unto you that believe.
There's a warning there. And Peter said it in 2 Peter.
Listen to this. Let me read this to you. In 2
Peter 2, he said, If after they've escaped the pollution of the
world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
they are again entangled therein, and that is in the world, and
overcome The latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
It'd been better they'd not known the way of righteous. It'd been
better a man never have heard the gospel than to hear it, claim
to believe it, and leave it. It'd been better that he'd never
known it. That's what that means. That's
what that means, Stan. That's what that means. Verse 18. John, look at it. John
Davis, look at verse 18. We know whosoever is born of
God can't do that. I like that. That's what that's,
sinneth not. What sins, what not? Sin, this
sin. He won't leave. He won't leave. We know that. Whatsoever God does is forever. Boy, that's good news, isn't
it? That's good news. Born of God, sinneth and cannot
fall of God away. Why? Because he's in God's hand.
Christ said, but you can't pluck him out of my hand. Can't do
it. He said there in Hebrews 10,
we are not of them. We are not of them which draw
away unto perdition. I do want you to turn to Hebrews
12, or I want you to see this. I meant to bring it out when
we preached on that. But I didn't. Hebrews 12, verse
3. I want you to see this. This
is so good. In three little words, there's
great comfort. Somebody who needs it, I hope. Look at it. Study this in verse
three. Consider him that endured such
contradictions as centers against himself. You remember that? Lest
you be wearied and faint and want to quit. Everybody in here
sometime, I quit. I just quit. Don't you? Look what it says there. I bet
you passed over those last three words in your mind. See, all that a believer can
do is just think about it. Oh, my. All a believer can do
is think about it. I think I'll just quit. That's
all you'll do. No, I'm going to quit. Peter
tried it, didn't he? I'm going fishing. Peter said,
I quit. I'm going fishing. Just a couple
days later, the Lord, the command, said, Get Peter back up here.
Go tell my disciples. They went, We'll go too. Oh,
quit. The Lord said, No, you're not.
Get back up here. Get back up here where you belong.
You ain't going anywhere. you like that? Well, I did. I did. Oh, my. We know that whatsoever is born
of God won't sin this sin unto death. He that is begotten of
God, he'll keep himself even. How do you keep yourself? How
do you keep yourself? You keep coming to where you
hear about your safekeeping. You keep coming here to hear
the gospel. What I read to you, let us provoke
one another unto love and tell each other, encourage one another
not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. Keep coming
back to your help. Come back to your help, your
help. Verse 20, We know that the Son
of God is come and has given us an understanding, that we
may know him that is true, and we are in him. of God in Christ,
who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
redemption. We are in Him. That is true. Even in His Son,
Jesus Christ. He's God. This is true God and
eternal life. Little children, keep yourself from that. Don't
go after the world. It's an idol. It's an idol. We have some young people in
here who are going to pursue life, health, home, and happiness. It's an idol, isn't it? It's an elusive dream. Home, health, happiness is an
elusive dream, isn't it, old folks? That home's going to fall
apart, isn't it? And marriage is going to quit.
Either some way or another, you're going to die. You're making them
die. Hell, that's going to fail you,
isn't it? Right early. Vanity fair out there. Vanity
fair. Vanity of vanities. All is vanity. Keep yourself from idols. This
is the true God in eternal life. Keep coming to Christ. Come unto
Christ. Keep yourself from idols. Keep coming to Him. That'll keep
you from idols. Amen. Amen. Can you say that from your heart?
Amen. That means so be it. That's the
way I want it with me. Amen. That's what the word mean.
Amen. I hope somebody says that. Amen. Joe, what was that number
I had picked out? 228.