me to the 139th Psalm for scripture
reading this evening. Three announcements to make.
Steve got to come home from the hospital this afternoon. Kim
went down and got him. Got him a new chair to come home
to. And that's going to make it very
comfortable for him. I know it may be a blessing to
him. And next Wednesday night, here, next Wednesday night, Jean-Claude
Souillot will be here preaching. Him and his wife Wendy's coming
Tuesday, and he'll be here preaching next Wednesday night. And then
the next Sunday after that, a week from today, a week from today
when he's here, then we're going up to Clay Curtis's on the 21st,
and Bob Coffey will be here preaching on the 23rd. So I'll be here
on Wednesday night, but I'll be gone the weekend up to Clay's. Psalm 139, let's start reading
in verse 14. I will praise thee, for I am
fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvels are thy works, and that
my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from
thee, when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the
lowest parts of the earth. Then eyes did see my substance,
yet being imperfect. And in thy book all my members
were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there
was none of them. How precious also are thy thoughts
unto me, O God. How great is the sum of them!
If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand.
When I awake, I am still with thee. Surely thou wilt slay the
wicked, O God. Depart from me, therefore, ye
bloody men! For they speak against thee wickedly,
and thine enemies take thine aim in vain. Do not I hate them,
O Lord, that hate thee, and am I not greed with those that rise
up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred.
I count them mine enemies. Search me, O God, and know my
heart. Try me and know my thoughts,
and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the
way everlasting. Now, let's look in 1 John, chapter
5. 1 John, chapter 5. 1 John, chapter 5. And look at
verse 16 and 17. If any man see his brother sin
a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give
him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto
death, I do not say that he shall pray for it. All unrighteousness
is sin, and there is a sin not unto death. The Apostle, having
shown us the assurance of salvation, as his primary purpose in writing
back in verse 13 says these things have I written unto you that
believe on the same name of the Son of God that you may know
may know that you have eternal life and that believing on the
name of the Son of God and when you have this assurance then
he comes into prayer he comes to prayer and when you have assurance
and confidence that you have this wonderful, blessed, gracious
relationship with God, that you believe on the Son of God. He
said, then this is the confidence that believers have, that believe
on the name of the Son of God, that we have in God, that we
have in Christ, that if we ask anything of Him, according to
His will, He'll hear us. And that's what just astounds
me, that He hears us, that He hears us. And if we know that
He hears us, that we have the petitions that we desired of
him. Then he comes and shows us something to pray for, a brother
to pray for, and this intercessory prayer. So we have this confidence,
have an assurance. And then he comes and starts
telling us about what we ought to pray for. And that's what
we say. If any man see his brother sin
a sin, which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give
him life. For them that sin not unto death,
there is a sin unto death. I do not say that he shall pray
for it. A few things that I want to say
about this, as I was dealing with this today, and it took
a while to think a lot about it. But it says, if any man see
his brother, and when you go about what all the things that
John said about brotherly love, how many times did he mention
love one another? Brotherly love being born of
God is to be born of love we've passed from death unto life because
we love the breath and So we first of all we got to understand
that this is a brother not an enemy This is a brother a brother
that God made us one in Christ, and he speaks so much about brotherly
love And when you really love somebody, you really love one
another, when you see someone sin a sin, you just, you catch
them, you see them with your own eyes, not what somebody says.
You see them yourself. Sin a sin. I don't know what
the sin is. I could name several sins, but
maybe I'll do that later. I don't know, but it'll hurt
your heart. It hurts your heart to see a brother sin a sin. Some sin that just absolutely,
you know that's uncharacteristic of them, Something that they
you wouldn't have never know that they had done or would have
done and so you're caught Unawares and so here's the thing about
it And that's what he says here if any man sees brothers in a
sin, which is not unto death He said he shall ask He shall
ask for him and he'll give him life for that sin not unto death
not only as this shows us that we have a brother and we have
love for one another and That we are dealing with brothers
sisters So those who have an interest at the throne of grace,
that comes to the throne of grace and have an interest at the throne
of grace, should use it for others. Not just themselves, for others.
What I want for myself, I should want for you. If I don't want
to be caught in sin, I don't want you to be caught in sin.
I want us all to be on the same, what they say, on the same page.
Have the same will, the same desire, the same goal, the same
desires. I want us to do that. he said
for those of us who have an interest at the throne of grace we should
use it for others for others especially especially for weak
brothers and for those that's been overtaken by sin a man do
you know paul told about you know when he is man is overtaken
overtaken with sin or with a fault You know, the scriptures is very
plain to us about praying for the lost. We're to pray for the
lost. Look over in Rome. Keep John
and look in Romans 10. You know, if you have an interest
at the throne of grace, we should use it to pray for others. especially
for weak brethren. But look what the apostle says
here about we're to pray for the lost and we pray that God
will save them. We pray for our children, our
grandchildren, pray for husbands, pray for wives, pray for friends,
pray for neighbors. I was talking to Shirley today
about all of my father's family. And my mother, my brother that
died, as far as I know, none of them had an interest in God.
None of them. They were witnessed to, they
were talked to, and they were told. But they didn't have an
interest. There was a man, they come here
years and years ago, him and his wife, they bought a big farm.
over off of Brewer Road, and they had a big farm over there,
and they bought it, and they'd come down here from up north
somewhere, and they were Calvinists. They were Calvinists. They believed
in Calvin, believed in the five points. They understood the five
points of Calvin. And so they attended for a while, and then
they left, and I asked them, I said, they told me that they
were leaving. I said, well, why are you leaving? Why are you
leaving? He said, I just don't have any
interest. I don't have any interest. So there is those that we pray
for those that are lost. And we pray that God create in
them an interest. If God didn't create an interest
in me, I wouldn't be interested either. And that's what we pray
for our children and our grandchildren. God create in them an interest.
And so that's what we're to pray for the lost. And look what he
says here in Romans 10, 1. Brethren, and here he's talking
to brethren again, brethren, my heart's desire, this desire
of my heart, and prayer to God for Israelites, my brethren,
according to the flesh, that they might be saved, that God
might save them, because I see by this what I bear record of
them, that they don't know God, that they don't know God. And
so we're to pray for the loss, but this verse here in 1 John
5 16 says, if a brother, if any man see his brother, and when
he talks about a brother, he's talking about a born again member
of the church, a born again believer in the church. And if this verse
says, if you see this man, this brother is observed to sin and
as the best man will do. The best man will do that. We sin in word. Oh my goodness
how we sin in our words. How we sin in our thoughts. And
how we sin in our deeds. But this is what he's talking
about. If you see him sin a sin. What kind of sin? I don't know.
I don't know. If you saw a man fall into the
sin of adultery. Brothers do that. That's happened.
God's people's done that. If you see a brother stand and
tell a bold-faced lie. If you saw a brother get mean
and hard and cruel towards somebody, and it's so uncharacteristic
of them, and whatever sin it might be, we know we'd like the
sins of the flesh. But there are sins of the Spirit,
and there are sins of attitude, and there are sins of nature.
And I don't know what he said, but he said, if you see any brother
see a sin, sin of sin, that's what he says, sin of sin. What
kind of sin? I don't know. I don't know. It
doesn't say. But we see this brother fall
into sin, we're to pray for him. Ain't that what he says? If any
man see his brother sin of sin, which is not unto death, He shall
give, he shall ask, he'll ask God. Oh Lord, have mercy on him. Oh Lord, please speak to him.
Oh Lord, please forgive him. Oh Lord, stop him. Oh Lord, keep
him. Oh Lord, preserve him. Oh Lord,
convince him. And he shall give him life. He
shall give him life for that sin that's not unto death. And
oh my, let me show you a verse of scripture that a man was in
this condition, Psalm 51. Psalm, here's a man in this condition.
Here's a man in this condition, right here. That's why David
said in Psalm 19, he said, keep me back from presumptuous sins. Keep me back from secret faults. And God wouldn't have put this
in here if it couldn't happen. And I myself, I myself, I've
sinned in front of people and say, please forgive me. And people
have seen me commit things and say things and do things and
they forgive me. And I think one of the worst
sins that can be committed is the sin of not being able to
forgive. That's what our Lord himself
said, if you're not able to forgive. And so there's sins, and then
there's a sin, which is a sin. And look what he said here in
Psalm verse one. Have mercy upon me, O God, according
to your loving kindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender
mercies. Blot out my transgressions. Wash
me throughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin, for
I acknowledge my transgression and my sin is ever before me. And then he goes down here in
verse 12 and look what he says. This is what he's talking about
giving life. When you pray for a man, you
pray for a man, you see this happen. Restore unto me the joy
of thy salvation. Evidently lost it. Evidently
he lost the comfort and assurance of being a child of God. And
David was more interested in his relationship with God than
he was being king. And oh, look what he says, and
uphold me with thy free spirit. And so, when he talks about God,
we'll give him life. he's already got spiritual life,
he's already called a brother, so it's not a question of God
giving him life. But when he says here God will
give him life, that means I think it means this, that God will
restore him, God will forgive him, God will give him comfort,
God will give him peace again, causing him to live cheerfully
and joyfully again in the presence of the Lord and cheerfully and
joyfully among the saints of God. Unless, you know, so they
won't be swallowed up with despair, be swallowed up with sorrow.
You know, Paul, when he wrote the Corinthians, when they caught
a man taking his dad's wife, his father's wife, and Paul got
on to him about it, talked to him about it, said you take such
a one and you deliver him over to the power of Satan for the
destruction of the flesh that the spirit might be saved in
the day of judgment. That's what it says. Well, then
he goes over to Corinthians chapter 7 and he says, you know, when
I wrote to you about that sin, he said it caused great sorrow,
it caused great afflictions, but it caused you a sorrow unto
repentance. It caused you, it was godly sorrow
that worked in you and brought repentance before you was puffed
up, before you was gloried, that you didn't do that. And then
he says, then you had a godly sorrow and you repented. So I was sorry that I made you
sorry, but yet this sorrow brought repentance, a godly sorrow. And
that's what he's talking about. Oh my, have you ever felt despair
and felt like, oh my, how could I have done that? How could I
have said that? How could I have acted that? And then when he
says, if any man sees his brother sin a sin which is not unto death,
he shall ask and he shall give him life for that sin that's
not unto death. And when we ask and God gives
him life, I'll say this, I'll say this, he doesn't continue
in that sin. He doesn't continue in that sin.
don't do it, he can't do it, he has a sense of that sin, he
has a sorrow over his sin, he's ashamed of his sin, and he forsakes
his sin, and that's why Paul told the Galatians, he says,
Brethren, if you see any man, any brother overtaken with a
fault, use such in the spirit to restore such a one in the
spirit of meekness, unless you yourself And so there's, when
he talks about giving him life, that's talking about raising
him back up, bringing him back, restoring him. And then he says,
look at what it says here. I don't, I'm going to give you
two things that I think the scripture says about this. If any man see
his brother sin a sin, and if you saw me sin a sin, I'd want
you to pray for me, but I would especially, I would especially
want you to talk to me about it and say, preacher, And if
a man couldn't take that, he's got no business being a poop.
But there is a sin under death. I know this. All sin, all sin
deserves death. All sin deserves death. Is that
not right? And if God gave us all what we
deserved, we'd all have death. He would just leave us to ourselves.
But there is a sin under death, which is not only deserving of
death as all sin is, but will certainly lead to death for all
who commit this sin under death. Now what is this sin under death?
I think the scriptures gives us two, and I've thought about
this, and I've talked to some preachers today about it. Listen,
there's two sins that I think the scriptures teaches that's
a sin under death. The first one, look with me in
Matthew 12. Let's see if we can see this one. I think everybody
knows what this one is. In Matthew 12, in verse 32, 31
or 32. Let's see, Matthew 12, 31. Look what our Lord says here. Wherefore I say unto you, our
Lord speaking now, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be
forgiven unto men. But the blasphemy against the
Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whatever, and that's
what the blasphemy of the Holy Ghost is attributing, is attributing,
if I understand it right, things that the Holy Ghost is not responsible
for, using him as an excuse for what you've done. And that's
what our Lord Jesus Christ went on to say in verse 32. And whoso
speaketh a word against the Son of Man. You say something against
Christ. How many of us took his name
in vain? How many of us have told things about him that wasn't
true? How many of us have viewed him
not the way he's worthy to be viewed? Whosoever speaketh the
word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him. But
whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven
him, neither in this world nor in the world to come. Now I'll
say this right off the bat. A believer, a believer cannot
commit that sin. Because he could not be a believer
without the Holy Ghost. He could not be a believer without
the Spirit of God. He couldn't know anything about
Christ without the Holy Ghost. It's the Holy Ghost that enables
us to pray. It's the Holy Ghost that blesses
the gospel to our hearts while you're here and preaching. It's
the Holy Ghost that opens the scriptures to our understanding.
It's the Spirit of God that searches all things of God, yea, the deep
things of God. So a believer, just get that
out of your mind, a believer cannot commit this sin. He cannot
do it. He cannot do it. But then over
here in Hebrews chapter 10, Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 26 here's
the second way of sinning a sin unto death and we know when he
says we don't pray for sin unto death and then what he's actually
saying is that people die over their sin not only do they prove
that they're spiritually dead and it but they will die over
this sin. It'll produce death in them. They will actually die. And you
know good and well you don't pray for people that's already
dead. We don't pray for dead believers. We don't pray for
dead unbelievers. We don't pray for the dead. And
then there are people, and this is what Paul's talking about
here. In verse 26 of Hebrews 10. For if we sin willfully after
that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth
no more sacrifice for sins what he's saying here if you hear
the gospel and you hear the truth and for a while you acknowledge
that truth and you willfully willfully walk away from Christ
and the gospel and the only sacrifice that God made for sin the only
one that God will accept look what he says But a certain, this
is what you got to look forward to. If you walk away from Christ,
and this is what he's saying here, there's no more sacrifice. He said over in Hebrews 6, he
says, if a man, if it were possible for a man to fall away that was
once enlightened, partakers of the Holy Ghost and the Word of
God, if he should fall away, it's impossible, impossible to
renew them again under repentance. It's impossible to do. So if
a man could fall away and walk away from Christ, walk away from
the gospel, walk away from the only sacrifice, all he's got
to look forward to is a certain fearful looking of judgment and
fire indignations which shall devour the adversaries. God's
saying, you're my adversary. You're my enemy from now on.
And that's what he goes on to say. He that despised Moses'
law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of how
much sore punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy
who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God? And that's what it
amounts to. I don't need Christ. I don't
need the gospel. I want to go back to my works.
I want to go back to my free will. I want to go back to my
old profession. I want to go back to the world.
And he goes on to say this. And hath counted the blood of
the covenant wherewith he was set apart an unholy thing. Oh my, to count the blood of
Christ an unholy thing? That you don't need it? That
you don't need to be cleansed by the blood? Ooh, that's scary! That's frightening! And hasn't
it done despite under the Spirit of Grace? Where the Spirit of
Grace was, where the Gospel was preached, where Christ was preached.
When a man turns and walks away from that, he's sinned to sin
unto death. And people do it. People do it.
People do it. You know, there are men who one
time, years and years ago, preached the gospel. Well, let's put it
this way. They were raised under the gospel.
They were taught the gospel. They went out preaching the gospel.
But they seen the gospel wasn't profitable enough for them. Couldn't
get a big enough crowd. Couldn't get enough attention.
So what did they do? They started toning the gospel
down. What's the first thing they think
they did when they toned down the gospel? They took away, first
of all, they took away the blood of Christ. because we can't preach
the love of God if Christ only died for his sheep. We got to
make the gospel enough for everybody and so I can name three men that
off the top of my head that did that. I can name one man that
brother Henry was really eye on and he ended up in a reformed
Baptist church and they ended up with a bunch of elders and
they put him on discipline because he was a big fat fella and they
want him to lose weight. That's what I'm talking about.
That's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm saying. How can
you turn from grace and go over here to law and have to be brought
under discipline to the church because they think that you got
too much weight as a preacher? Those are things that I know
for myself. Another preacher had a great big huge education. Oh, he had education. He had
everywhere. with preachers that preach the
gospel. But he ended up going to Presbyterians, sprinkling
babies, sprinkling babies, because his education got him into Presbyterianism. Got to be real educated to be
the pastor of Presbyterians. And he starts sprinkling babies.
But you know what? He got a great big salary and
a great big church. I mean, I could taste those fellows. Some of you all know them and
remember them. Oh my, that's what he's talking about. But
now here's the difference. Here's the difference. Two sins
unto death, blasphemy of the Holy Ghost and walking away from
Christ, walking away from the gospel. But now here's something
I want us to understand. If someone leaves the fellowship,
Someone say you know they was uncomfortable or whatever here
And they just they wanted to go somewhere else if someone
leaves the fellowship that don't mean they're apostates That doesn't
mean that at all doesn't mean that at all. You know what love
believes the very best charity covers a multitude of sin and
And I you know just the very fact that you show up to hear
me preach Shows you got a lot of charity got an awful lot of
it But if one has departed, the way that we talked about tonight,
falling away, being an apostate, leaving the gospel, leaving Christ,
leaving the only sacrifice, count that blood common, count it unholy,
to take the blood of Christ and make it, and here's the, let
me explain something to you if I can. People say the blood of
Christ is sufficient for everybody, but only efficient for his people.
Well, if it's only efficient for His people, why even say
it's sufficient for everybody? What you're doing is, is that
you're toning down the gospel to do that. It's only a thick
Christ's blood. Whoever Christ shed His blood
for, just as sure as God's on His throne, they're going to
feel the power and effects of that blood sometime in their
life. Now, ain't that right? And that's why we don't use sufficient
and efficient. You understand that? And I'm
going to tell you something else. If one has departed in apostasy,
don't contend with the justice of God about it. Don't seek to
be more merciful than God. But I'm going to tell you something
else. I'm going to tell you something else. It's the first thing I
thought of when I seen this sin under death. I personally, I
know that I do not have the ability, the ability to judge men when
they sin under death. I don't, you know, I don't. I
don't have that ability. I just know if a man walks away
from the gospel, Unless he just absolutely tells me I'm never
coming back. I'm never going to listen to that gospel ever
again. I've had enough of it, don't want no more of it. Then
I cease to pray for it. But as long as I seem like there
was hope, I believe I'd try by God's grace to do it. Because
I don't have the ability to judge whether a man's sinned unto death.
And then look what he said here in verse 17. I hope I've helped
us a little on that. It helped me a little on it today.
But he said, all unrighteousness is sin. And there is a sin not
unto death. When he says all unrighteousness
is sin, some men say that all unrighteousness is sin here is
that when you don't conform to the law, that's all unrighteousness. But all unrighteousness is sin
against God. Yet all unrighteousness is not
unto death. All unrighteousness, all of us
have acted unrighteous at one time or another. There's no way
in the world to get around that. We act unrighteous when we, well,
you come to your own conclusions about it. But I'll tell you why.
All unrighteousness is sin, but then he says there is a sin not
unto death. You know why? All unrighteous
sin is against God. But the reason it's not unto
death is because of God's blessed grace. Oh, thank God for grace. Oh, that's why it's not a sin
unto death. Thank God, it's because of God's
grace. Oh, if God didn't save us by
His grace, not one soul, not one soul would be saved on this
earth. If God's worse sin abounded,
grace did much more about it. That's why it's not a sin unto
death. And that's what grace is, what
causes us to pray for that brother that we see as sinless. And secondly,
why it's not a sin unto death, though all unrighteousness is
sin, because of the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ,
it cleanses us from all sin. And it's the blood of Christ
that justified us. It's the blood of Christ that
justified us before God. It's the blood of Christ that
washed away our sin. It's the blood of Christ by which
we're freely forgiven of God. And I'll tell you another reason
why we're all unrighteous sin, but it's not unto death. Because
of the mercy of God. Oh, how merciful. Oh, how merciful. You know, let me give you some
illustrations from the scriptures if I can. There's David's sins. He committed some awful sins.
First of all, he took a man's wife, got her pregnant, then
killed her husband. And then one day he decided that
he was going to number Israel. He said, I want to see everybody,
how many people is in Israel that I'm king over. Joab said,
don't do it, don't do it. He did it anyway. And God judged
him severely. Severely chastise him for fear
that all unrighteousness in but there was not a sin under there,
and there's Jacob sins Oh Jacob sins of lying and deceit and
fear of doubting God Trying to bargain with God Lord if you'll
do this for me. I'll give you 10% of everything
I got that's the first thing first thing That's what the first
thing you try to do was bargain with God You bless me abundantly,
and I if you give me a hundred cows. I'm gonna give you ten
of them back He wanted to bargain with God right off the bat. And
then God made him go to sleep on a pillow and the Lord got
a hold of him. And then what about Peter's sins? If anybody
seemed like he had sinned unto death, it would be Peter. To
deny the Lord Jesus Christ three times in the camp of the enemy
while Christ is standing over there being tried and being questioned
and they got a big fire here and you're warmed up against
that fire and you're watching Christ over there being questioned.
Oh listen, don't you know that? I don't know him. Your speech
sounds like a Galilean. Ain't he a Galilean? Don't you
know? Oh, no, no, no. Three times he did that. And
you think that there'd be a sin under death? That would surely
be it. But our Lord Jesus says, you go, told Mary, told him disciples,
you go into Galilee and tell the brethren and Peter that I'll
see him over there. ain't you grateful for the grace
of God? Uh-huh. But I'll tell you a fella
whose sin was sin unto death was Esau's sin was the sin unto
death. He couldn't repent. He couldn't
repent. But all of these believers that I just mentioned, they enjoyed
repentance and they rejoined it unto life. They enjoyed God's
pardoning grace to refresh their hearts, to refresh their soul,
and to lift them back up and to encourage them. And oh, if
you're a weak believer, I'm gonna close, I've got three or four
little things I want to show you. Don't despise, don't despair
if you're weak and afraid of sinning unto death. Look in Hebrews
8, 12. I'm gonna give you a couple verses
of scripture and then I'll close. Look what he said here in Hebrews
8, 12. It's the first thing God said.
For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins
and their iniquities. Well, I remember no more. Oh,
man. Oh, my. Put back over here in
1 John with me, 1 John 9, what it says here. Oh, my. I will
be merciful to their unrighteousness. And that's what he said. All
unrighteousness is sin. I'll be merciful to their unrighteousness.
1 John 1 9, if we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And then
John said, little children, I write unto you that you sin not, but
if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous. And I want you to look at this
verse of scripture in 1 John 2.1, no, excuse me, 1 John 2.12. And I'm going to close with this,
because this blessed my heart so today. Now watch what he says. I write unto you, little children,
because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. Oh, boy. Forgiven you for his
name's sake. God give us that love to pray
for one another, to let charity cover a multitude of sins. Oh,
Lord. Our Father, in the precious name
of Christ our Lord, thank you for your grace. Oh, Lord, thank
you for your mercy. Thank you for your blood. Lord,
keep us from sin. Oh, Lord, keep us. Make sin so
distasteful to us and so abhorrent to us. Take our consciences and
our hearts and make them tender, tender, tender towards your word. Tender towards sin. Tender toward
the Holy Ghost. We can be touched by it. Lord,
let us not be presumptuous about our sin. Oh God, forgive us of
everything so unlikely. Have mercy upon us. Bring glory
to yourself through us, here at Lantana Grace. For Christ's
sake I pray. Amen. Amen.