As the hymn writer said, when
all thy mercies, O my God, my rising soul surveys, transported
with the viewer. I'm lost in wonder, love, and
praise. Unnumbered comforts to my soul,
thy tender care bestows. before my infant heart conceived
from whom those blessings flowed. How wonderful to be privileged,
to be called the sons of God. It's not because of anything
we have done, but because of His grace and mercy that made
it so. We have no place of boasting. And so we come to the fifth chapter of 1 John. 1 John chapter five. And we've looked at most of this
chapter. And I wanna read to you beginning
in verse 11 and to the end of the chapter. It says, And this
is the record that God hath given to us eternal life, and this
life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things
have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son
of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that
ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. And this is the
confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according
to his will, he heareth us. And if we know that he heareth
us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that
we desired of him. 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. We know that whosoever is born
of God sinneth not, but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself,
and that wicked one toucheth him not. And we know that we
are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. And we know
that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding,
that we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that
is true, even in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God
and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves
from idols. Amen. Now, Throughout the book
of 1 John, there are several verses, passages, which men often
take out of the context in which they're given, and they go shipwreck
upon these things, and they miss the glory of those things John
is teaching us in the whole book. and want to look at these specific
verses. Now it is a good thing that a
man looks at individual verses throughout the scripture and
seeks to determine exactly what is being said in that verse just
as it is written. That's a profitable endeavor. But it never is more profitable
than looking at how that verse or those verses fit within the
context of the whole message of what's being said. Now you
can take some verses that are found here, and we read some
of them, that are very confusing and have caused men a lot of
consternation down through the years. I don't claim to have
a full and complete understanding of any part of the scripture.
You know, Paul said we know nothing as we ought to know. That's pretty
comprehensive. He said we know nothing as we
ought to know. When you think you know something,
you know nothing. And so we are weak and our understanding
is limited. But yet, by the grace of God,
he sends his spirit to lead us into all truth. And he will lead
us there. And he will guide us. And we
may not be able to express the truth as clearly as the truth
exists. But nonetheless, the Lord teaches
us and applies these things to us. And we must never lose sight
of the fact that if we're going to know the truth about anything
in the scripture, we have to know the truth. And who is that? The Lord Jesus Christ said, I
am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father
but by me. And so, it's very important that
we understand what John is writing about. He begins with a clear
message and he ends with the same clear message. And throughout
this book, he sets forth that clear message. I'm gonna read
the first verse of the first chapter. 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
of the word of life. This is the same John that wrote
in his gospel, in the beginning was the word, and the word was
with God, and the word was God. Now, that's the glorious thing. I believe the message that the
Lord gave to John to deliver to the church is the unequivocal
understanding that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. He's not part of God. He's not a layer of God. He's
not a subservient person in the Godhead, but he is God. Now again, and I've said this,
and you know, I certainly don't want to get involved in any long
theological discussion and wrangling about how all these terms are
used in Scripture. The Scripture speaks of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost. That cannot be denied. Whenever
you see the Father mentioned, He's God. Whenever you see the
Son mentioned, He's God. Whenever you see the Spirit mentioned,
He's God. And the scripture says these
three are what? They are one. Now you make of
that whatever you want to do, don't go shipwreck on it. Some
people have gone shipwreck even on that very thing. Because they
miss the glory that is found in understanding what that means
as John sets it forth. For the life was manifested and
we have seen it. Who's the life? The Lord Jesus
Christ. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. It's Him. And we have seen it and bear
witness and show unto you that eternal life, which was with
the Father and was manifested unto us. The same life. There is no other. That which we have seen and heard
declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with
the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. And these things
write we unto you that your joy may be full. Now that's how he
starts the chapter. And this is how he ends the chapter. And we know that the Son of God
is come and hath given us an understanding, that we may know
him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in
his Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. Little children, keep yourselves
from idols. Now what is an idol? An idol
is any concoction that a man might come up with as a substitute
for God. That's what an idol is. I mean,
men have been making idols from the beginning. Now, there have
been men who have taken pieces of wood and hewn out objects
and set them up, you know, on the mantel or put them in a temple
or made them out of gold or whatever. There's always been, man has
always sought a substitute for God. He has sought to make man
in his, or to make God in his own image. See, he wants to make
God like he wants him to be. Have you ever heard anybody say,
well, if God's like that, I wouldn't want to serve him? I've heard
some people actually say that. When I have made the statement
to them that God is the one who determines who will have eternal
life and who won't. They say, well, if I believe
that, I wouldn't believe in a God like that. Well, you probably
wouldn't. You know, that's a true thing. Men won't believe in a
God like that. You cannot believe in a God like
that. You will rebel against a God
like that because he is absolutely God. The Lord said, shall not
the potter form the clay into whatever fashion he sees fit? Can the clay say to the potter,
why hast thou made me thus? How foolish. And yet, what are
we? We're clay in the Father's hand,
are we not? He made us from the dust of the
ground. We belong to Him. Creation's
His. He can do whatever He wants to
with it. And all we can do is fall on our face and say, even
so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. he's our lord
and that's what uh... john would indicate here that
this one of whom he's speaking because you see in the days in
which john wrote this and very early on in the script in the
the uh... unfolding of the gospel in the
world many false doctrines were already coming to pass some of
them denied that jesus christ was born in the flesh. They just said, well, he's just
kind of like this spiritual being. He didn't really have a body.
It just appeared that he did. And so, you know, whenever he
died, he didn't really die. And when he was put in the ground,
he wasn't really in the ground. It just seemed like he was. And
so some men have denied that he was born in the flesh. John
testifies that he was born in the flesh. And then on the other hand, some
people deny, well, he was a good man and everything, but he wasn't
God. He kind of had some godly attributes
and went about doing good, but he wasn't really God. Now sadly,
in our day, there's a lot of people, well-meaning people,
people that ought to know better, people that studied the scriptures.
that basically have the same view of Jesus Christ as well. I mean, we say He's God, but
you know what we mean. I mean, He's not really God. I mean, He's just the Son of
God. And what they mean by that is, well, He's on this next tier
down. You got God the Father up here, and then you got, He's
just a notch below. Now, He's in there, you see. But he's not really God. But
John is saying he's really God. Now, you make of that what you
will, but that's what John said. And he said, keep yourself from
idols. Don't serve and worship a false god. Don't worship a
god made in the imaginations of men, however right it might
seem. But may your mind and heart and
soul always be stayed on him who's, what the scripture says,
his name is above every name. His name is above every name. Now what does that mean? That
means he's God. He can't be any higher, he is
what the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He is the express image of God. Now I don't know how
much clearer that has to be, dear brethren, for us to say
unequivocally without any apology that Jesus Christ is
God. I don't apologize for that. And
let men make of it what they will. But John is pretty clear
and straight with it. And so these things have I written
unto you that believe on what? The name of the Son of God, that
ye may know that ye have eternal life, that ye may believe on
the name of the Son of God. What is the name of the Son of
God? Well, we know him as Jesus. That's what the angel told Joseph
that his name was to be called. That's what his disciples knew
him. They never called him Jesus. You realize that? Not one time
did one of the disciples ever come up face to face with the
Lord Jesus Christ and say, hey, Jesus. No, they said, Master, Lord. See, they came to him with terms
of respect, and it bothers me to no end in this day and age
that the name which is above every name is treated with such
lack of respect. People even use it many times
as an expletive, as a curse word. You know, how can that be? This
is a name which is above every name. And this is that one in
whom we believe, that ye may know. He says, I have written
that ye might believe on the name of the Son of God. See,
our determined purpose in declaring to you the gospel of the glory
of God revealed in Jesus Christ is that you might believe these
things. We want you to believe these things, he says. We're
not coming to tell you these things so you won't believe.
We're coming to tell you these things so that you will believe.
That's our purpose. We want men to believe the gospel. We hope men will believe the
gospel. We desire to see men believe
the gospel. And then, Having believed the
gospel, we want you to know that you have eternal life. That's
a glorious thing, is it not? See, that's why the gospel is
preached, is so God's people might know that they have eternal
life. That's why we preach it. Now,
some people think that the gospel's preached so that men might get
saved. Men are saved in hearing the
name of Christ, no doubt about that. But we don't preach the
gospel to get men saved. We preach the gospel to glorify
the name of Christ. And the spirit of God takes that
gospel and applies it to the hearts of sinners whom he has
awakened by his spirit and causes them to believe it. Now that's
a glorious thing. And we want you to know that.
See, we want the people of God, those that believe. Now this
is who he's speaking to. This is who John addresses this
to. This is not addressed to men in general. It's addressed
to the household of faith. He says, we want you to know
that you have eternal life. We want you to know that. And
this is the confidence that we have in Him that if we ask anything
according to His will, He heareth us. Now here's one of those verses
that men just snatch out. Well, look at that. I mean, buddy,
did you read what it says? If we ask anything according
to His will, He heareth us. We can ask Him anything. Lord, I need a new Cadillac. And Lord, if it's your will,
I want that Cadillac. Is that what he's talking about?
If we ask anything according to his will, here's no. His will
precedes our asking. You see, the work of the Spirit
of God works in the people of God to will and to do of his
good pleasure. And that which he is willing
that we should ask is Lord, save us. Lord, help us. Lord, give us faith that we might
believe. That's the request of the people
of God. Lord, have your, may the name
of Christ be lifted up and glorified. Is that not the will of God?
I mean, is that not what God is willing to do to magnify Christ? All that other stuff is just
foolishness. Brethren, we live our lives as
a tale that is told. Our lives are vapor. All these
things that you see in this world here don't amount to a hill of
beans. They don't mean anything. Why would we spend our time worrying
about them if we ask anything according to his will? He's not
willing that any of us should perish. but that all of us should
come to repentance. That's according to his will,
is it not? If we ask anything according
to his will, he heareth us and we know that he hear us. Whatsoever we ask, we know that
we have the petitions we desired of him. He said, I want you to
know that you have eternal life. If you ask him, and he's given
you faith to call upon him, he will answer that prayer. He wants
you to know. And we have the petitions that
we desire to be. Lord, teach me, lead me, help
me to follow you, to love you, to love your word. to pray. The Lord teaches us to pray.
That's what the disciples asked. Did he answer their request? He said, when you pray, here's
how to do it. See, the Lord teaches his people how to pray, and he
teaches them to pray. It's important to know how to
pray. If you wanna know how to pray, look at the model prayer
that the Lord gave. That's how to pray. How does
he begin? He begins by giving glory to
God. Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. See, prayer's gotta start there. So that's learning how to pray. But, See, the Spirit of God doesn't
just teach us how to pray, he teaches us to pray. And that's more important in
many ways than knowing how to pray. Because just like that
little poem I shared with some of y'all, I don't know if I ever,
did I ever print that up and put some copies in the back of
the prayer of, I forget what the guy's name, but either. What
was it? Yeah, okay. And so, I'll try
to remember and print that up and bring it to you. But the
gist of that poem is that he talked about all the different
ways men pray. He said, but the best prayer
I ever prayed was when I was hanging upside down in a well. because he had nowhere else to
turn. He couldn't do anything. He was
in trouble, and he needed help. And you see, that's how the Spirit
of God teaches us to pray. And when he teaches you to pray,
it doesn't matter how you pray, because the Spirit of God will
give you utterance according to that, which is pleased. And
it may not even be in words. I believe probably the most earnest
prayers that we pray don't have any words to them. Because the
scripture says there were groans and prayers that can't be uttered.
When your heart is so burdened that you don't even know what
to say, but you know who the one is, that can offer you that
thing which he would give you, and that's what it says here.
We have the petitions that we desired of him. If any man, now
here we go. A lot of people got a lot of
theories about this, and like I said, I don't claim to have
every answer about this. I think I know what he's saying
here, and I think it's relatively very straightforward in the context
of what it is he's talking about. 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. Now he goes on to
say that there is a sin not unto death. In verse 17, all unrighteousness
is sin and there is a sin which is not unto death. So there's
a sin unto death and there's a sin which is not unto death.
He said there's no need to pray for somebody who is in the sin
unto death. But those not unto death, let's
pray for them if they sin a sin not unto death. Now, what is
the sin which is not unto death? The sin which is not unto death
is the sin of the flesh. There's no sin of the flesh,
the heart, the mind, the being of man, that if a man's a brother
in Christ, that the Lord will not forgive him. There's no sin so great can't
be forgiven. But there is a sin which is unto death, he said.
What is the sin unto death? Well, it's wrapped up in what
the whole thing about what John's talking about. And that is believing
Christ. Now we can pray, oh Lord, help
me to believe in Christ. We want that. We pray for our
children. Lord, help them to believe. But
what we don't do And this would be praying for those that have
committed a sin unto death. What we don't do is say, Lord,
we want you to save them some other way than through Christ. See, that's a sin unto death,
for a man to think that he can come to the Lord in some other
way. And we're not praying for a man like that. Now, we might
pray that the Lord open his eyes But we're not praying for him
in that sin, which is unto death. A man, we can't have pity on
those who won't believe. Now, I can't hardly express this,
how I want to express it. It seems so clear in my mind.
But it's not so clear as what I'm trying to tell you. As the
Lord draws His people unto Himself, He forgives them of their sin.
We pray for them, they come, we ask the Lord for our children,
for instance. Lord, give them faith to believe.
But I'll tell you this. I will not pray for one of my
children to be saved apart from believing Jesus Christ. The Lord said, I know he'll never
believe, but save him anyway. I'm not gonna pray. Lord, bring
him unto yourself. Give him eyes to see that he
might embrace Christ. Because you see, Christ, he's
the one where life is. We don't just have natural pity
on men and just pray, well, Lord, you know, I know they're rebels
against Christ and they'll never believe in Christ, but we want
them to be in your kingdom anyway. No, not apart from Christ. No,
I want the Lord. Oh, Lord, open their eyes that
they might see. But there is a sin which is unto
death, and it's the sin of unbelief. It's the sin of not, see it's
the opposite of what we're called to do. It's the opposite of what
men by the grace of God do when they believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ. The sin which is unto death is
the opposite of that. And I do not say that you should
pray for it. Because there's no help for a man in such a situation
as that. And we know that whatsoever is
born of God sinneth not. That's what Brother Al was talking
about earlier. Whosoever is born of God sinneth
not. That's a strong statement, isn't
it? But it's true. Why is that? Because he's in
Jesus Christ. If a man is born of God, he is
in Christ. and he sinneth not because he
is standing before Almighty God in the righteousness of Christ.
Just like that woman who was taken in adultery was standing
before her accusers and when she got up after the
Lord had rebuked them with what he wrote on the ground, And he
said, let him that's without sin cast the first stone. And
they all went away, and she was still cowered down before me.
And he said, neither do I condemn thee. See, she was uncondemned. How could she be uncondemned?
She was guilty, wasn't she? Sure she was. The Lord never
said you hadn't done what they said you did. But he said, I
don't condemn you. There's therefore now no condemnation
to them which are where? In Christ Jesus, who walk not
after the flesh, but after the spirit. He that's begotten of God, whosoever
is born of God sinneth not, but he that is begotten of God keepeth
himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. The Lord prayed
for Peter, didn't He? The wicked one wanted Him. The
Lord told Peter, He said, you know what, Peter? He said, Satan
has desired to have you. But Peter, I have prayed for
thee that thy faith fail not. See, the wicked one can't touch
the sons of God. Now, he from time to time will
allow him to wound us like he did Job. He used him. You know,
not one time did Job ever say, you know, the devil is causing
me these problems. You hear all these people talking,
you know, well, you know the devil's come on us and he's causing
this. No, God is the one that brings
troubles on men. He may use the devil to do it. But you don't need to worry about
the devil or try to be rebuking the devil or anything else, but
pray to the Lord. He's the God of the devil. See,
the devil's God's devil. He made him. And everything he
does fulfills the purpose of Almighty God, and he can't do
one thing that doesn't. Oh, what a glorious thing. He's
like a dog. that's chained up. And every
now and then the Lord will feed him a little meat, but he never
takes him off the chain. What a glorious God we serve.
The wicked one touches him not. And we know that we're of God
and the whole world lies in wickedness. See, the world's out here unbelieving,
but we're believing. The world doesn't believe God.
I'm not passing judgment on anybody. That's what the scripture says.
The world lies in wickedness. It's in wickedness. We were in
it. And we're presently walking in
it, but we're not of it. But we're of Christ. Because
he made us so. And we know that the Son of God
has come. Do you believe that? Do you believe the Son of God
has come? See, everybody that believes the gospel of Jesus
Christ, they rejoice when they hear that. The Son of God is
come. I mean, if I told you he's in
Live Oak, wouldn't you get in the car and drive up there? No, if you believe him, you would.
See, you want to be where he is. You want him to be where
you are. We know that the Son of God has
come and has given us an understanding to know that he is true. Nobody
has to convince me that what Christ said is true. I mean, I don't need to read somebody's
opinion just to find out whether or not what Christ said is true.
The Spirit of God bears witness within me that what he said is
true. We have the witness where? In ourself. It's given to us
by the Spirit of God. And we testify that he is who
he is. Said he is. And we rejoice. The Spirit, he's given us an
understanding that we may know him as true and we are in him
as true. Even in His Son, Jesus Christ,
this is the true God and eternal life. In His Son. See, that's the place
we want to be. Now when I was growing up, they
told me what I needed to do was join the church. What I needed
to do was make a decision. What I needed to do was be baptized. But I can't remember one of them
ever once saying to me, you need to be in Christ. But dear brethren,
that's where God's people are. They're in Christ. Had to get
there. He put them there. You see, before
they was ever born, before they ever knew it, they were in Christ. When he came into the world before
you were ever born, and he went to Calvary's cross, if you belonged
to him, you were in Christ. Because if you were not, then
your sin still rests on your head, because he paid for the
sin of everyone who was in Christ. Oh, what glorious union that
is, before ever we knew anything about it. where the world was. Now in time, he taught us what
that union is about, and he made us to rejoice in it. See, I didn't
know anything about that I was in Christ until the Spirit of God came
and taught me. And then when I found out, I
said, oh, glory to God, because if I'm in Christ, I'm safe. If I'm in Christ, nobody can
come after me. Nobody can get me. I can't be
condemned because I'm in Christ. And I believe that Christ is
uncondemned before Almighty God. I believe that He paid the sin
debt of His people. See, that's what it is to be
given knowledge of what it is to be in Christ, to rejoice in
Him. This is the true God and eternal
life. See, the scripture says that
eternal life's one place. I know you're gonna hear a lot
of people say that men are immortal, they have an immortal soul. You'll
hear that a lot. Again, I don't wanna get into
no argument with somebody and wrangle about it and all of this
stuff, but just read what scripture says. I never read anywhere in
there where it said we had eternal life until the Lord gave it to
us. And he hadn't given to everybody eternal life, or if he did, they'd
have eternal life. Where is that eternal life? It's in Christ. Remember, we
read it there a moment ago, and this is the record. that God
had given to us eternal life and this life is in His Son. He only hath immortality. Only, that's an important word.
It didn't just say He has eternal life. It says He only has eternal
life. See, He's the one who's the giver
of life because He is life. And if you would have life, if
you would live eternally, you must be in Christ. Little children, keep yourself
from idols. Don't believe anything else. Don't hold anything else. Don't fall for all the different
ideas men have. Don't go through life thinking
that you are the one who controls your destiny. Your life is in his hands. Now
that's a glorious thing, a glorious thought to those who are in Christ.
Glorious thought to those who fled for refuge. Glorious thought
to those who know themselves to be sinners and that Christ
is the Savior. That's a glorious thing to know
that our times, our life is in His hand. It's a very disconcerting
thing, however, to the man who's determined to go his own way. Man who says, well, everything
will be all right. it'll all work out. So that's very disconcerting
for me to tell him that. He gets mad about it. When a
man gets mad about God being an absolute sovereign, he needs to look and check his
pedigree. Because I can't think of anything
more glorious than to consider the eternal God who's the author
and the finisher of our salvation. Little children, keep yourselves
from idols. Christ alone is the true and living God.