Alright, verse 16, 1 John 5. John writes, 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.
Now if you remember in the previous verses we ended with last week,
John was telling us that believers can have confidence in prayer,
that the Father will Hear our prayer if we ask anything in
His name, according to His will, we'll have the petition that
He asked of Him. Now, since that's true, we ought to use that blessed
privilege that God will hear us, that He'll give us the petitions
that we ask in His name, and use that to help others, to pray
for others. Believers don't have a selfish
attitude. It's not the attitude of a believer,
well, I know God hears me and He'll give me my petitions, so
I'm just going to always be asking for myself. Well, first of all,
that's a selfish attitude. Second of all, that's not in
the will of God, is it? We're not going to waste this privilege
on ourselves. We pray for others. We pray for
the salvation of unbelievers. That's why our pastors on the
radio, they try to get the gospel out. We pray for the salvation
of unbelievers. for our family members, our neighbors,
our friends, people in this town. The Apostle Paul did. He said,
brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that
they might be saved for my nation. I want God to save them. And
we pray that way because the only way they're ever going to
know the Lord is if He does it. He's got to come to them. He's
got to reveal Himself to them. So we pray for unbelievers. We
use this blessing that God hears us to pray for one another. We
need the prayers of each other, don't we? In times of trouble,
trial, heartache, sickness, there's nothing more valuable than prayer. That your name is heard before
the very throne of God. You can be in just an awful time
of trouble and you see someone and they tell you, I've been
praying for you. And you can tell them, I know you have. I
didn't hear them, but I know they have. How? The Lord's granted
grace. He's giving peace in prayer to
the answers to the prayer of His people. And what John's talking
about here is when we see a brother sin. He's talking about a saved
person, someone who knows Christ, and we see him sin. And that's
going to happen now. We're just going to see that
in one another. The very best of men, the strongest
believer, is at their best only a sinner saved by grace. In this
world, we will never rise above being in this body of sin. We
will sin. We sin in thought, word, and
deed every day. And when we sin in each other, don't be harsh
now. Don't be judgmental about one
another. That's what Joe Carroll was telling us Wednesday. That's
self-righteousness. Don't be harsh. He said it might
be your turn next now. Just hold on a minute. Rather
than be harsh and judgmental, Let's do what Scripture says
and pray for one another. Pray that the Lord will grant
repentance. Pray that the Lord won't allow our brother to be
swallowed up in this sin. Pray that the Lord will not allow
our brother to be swallowed up in grief over that sin. Pray
that the Lord will give grace to overcome. And He will give
that to His children. He's not going to let His children
go off astray now. And John says we're to pray for
our brother. that doesn't sin is sin unto
death. He says there is a sin unto death. Now what's John talking
about there? Well, we know every sin deserves
death, don't we? Scripture tells us the wages
of sin is death. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. So every sin deserves death. That's why our Lord Jesus Christ
had to die. The sins of God's elect were
imputed to him. Charged to him, he became guilty
of those sins and he had to die. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. Justice demands death for sin. And the only reason that
any son of Adam, any one of us, can hope not to die eternally
is that Christ died for our sins. All of them. Somebody's got to
die. Either me or my substitute. Somebody's
got to. So we know all sin deserves death. But John's talking about a specific
sin. The sin of apostasy is what he's
talking about. Apostasy is when someone has
received the knowledge of the truth. They received it in their
head. They give agreement to it. They claim to believe it.
And then they willfully deny the gospel. Now, this is a doctrinal
error, a doctrinal denial of the gospel. They'll claim sin. can be put away some other way,
other than the blood of Christ. And usually they don't say that
point blank. They do it by Christ plus something
else. They'll claim righteousness can
come some other way, other than the imputed righteousness of
Christ. They won't, maybe, probably, they won't totally deny the necessity
of their imputed righteousness of Christ, but they'll add to
it. They'll claim men aren't totally
depraved, aren't totally dead in their sins. Life can come
some other way than the sovereign gift of God. Some spark of life
can be mustered up in your flesh. Some spiritual light can be given
to your flesh. Well, if that's true, you're
not spiritually dead, are you? That's a denial of the gospel. And this just isn't a single
act. This isn't somebody just misspeaking. A willful, complete
alienation from the gospel of Christ. It's a departure from
Christ and just giving yourself over, surrender to Satan. And
that sin of apostasy will always bring death. Look over in Hebrews
chapter 12, or I'm sorry, chapter 10, Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10 verse 26 For if we
sin willfully, after that we have received the knowledge of
the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. All
that remains is a certain fearful looking-for of judgment, and
a fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries. He that
despised Moses' law died without mercy, under two or three witnesses.
Of how much sore punishment, suppose ye, should he be thought
worthy who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted
the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing,
and hath done to spite unto the Spirit of grace." If you reject
Christ, you have rejected the only way of life. Hence, all
that is left for you is death. That's why this sin of apostasy
always brings death. Now, some people, the writers,
John Gill's one, calls apostasy sinning against the Holy Sinning
against the Holy Spirit. Now if you look over Matthew
chapter 12, I'll show you where he gets that. Matthew chapter
12. Verse 31. Here our Lord speaking and he
says, Wherefore I say unto you, 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 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, neither in the world to come." Now, I
want to see first, by these two verses, the depth of the mercy
and the grace of God. of sin will be forgiven men."
Truly, the blood of Christ has gone deeper than the stains gone.
All manner of sin, all manner of blasphemy will be forgiven
men. All kinds of sin, every imaginable sin is forgiven under
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no sin so great that
the blood of Christ can't wash it away, that the blood of Christ
can't pay for it. That's what Isaiah said in Isaiah
1. Though your sins be as scarlet, They'll be white as snow. Though
they be red like crimson, they'll be as wool. How is that scarlet
red sin going to be white as snow? It's washed in the blood
of Christ and put away. All of the sin of God's elect
is put away under the blood of Christ. All of them are secret
sins and are open sins that our brethren see. Pray for us. Sins
of the heart, sins of the lips, sins of the hand, all sin is
put away under the blood of Christ. Our Lord says, even the sin of
blasphemy against the Son of Man, even the sin of blasphemy
against Christ will be forgiven. Our Lord said it, and the Apostle
Paul was an example of it. He said, I was once a blasphemer,
I was injurious, but I obtained mercy. That's what I want us
to see first, the mercy of God, forgiving the sins of His people,
all manner of sins. But our Lord does list one exception.
He says, blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven
him. Whosoever speaks against the Holy Ghost, it shall not
be forgiven him. Now, blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, what
is that? Well, it's to deny the work of the Holy Ghost. It's
to deny His work in salvation. That it's the Spirit that reveals
the things of Christ to the elect. It's the Spirit that gives life
in the new birth. That's not something we conjure
up. The Spirit brings that. And these apostates, they deny
the work, the operation of the Holy Ghost. And they deny these
things. It's not something that's mystical
they're denying now. It's things that are plainly
revealed in Scripture. They deny these obvious, the
obvious works of the Holy Spirit to lessen the glory of God. They'll
do that at the expense of the Holy Spirit to prove their own
point or to gain some advantage for themselves. Our Lord is speaking
here to these Pharisees who deny that the miracles our Lord Jesus
worked were under the power of the Holy Spirit. They said, this
is not the Spirit of God working. He does these things under the
Spirit of power of Beelzebub. Satan, the devil. Now, anybody
can see that's not true. Our Lord went around doing good.
Those things that happen for good are not the work of Satan.
That's the work of God. But they denied the work of the
Spirit there so they could keep their religious place, so they
could keep their religious power, and more importantly, so they
could deny, I'm a sinner that needs a Savior. And more specifically,
I'm a sinner that needs this man to be my Savior. If they could deny His works
were of the Spirit of God, they could deny Him as the Messiah.
They could deny their need of Him as a Savior. And my friends,
we need this man to be our Savior. And blasphemy against the Son,
our Lord says, will be forgiven. But blasphemy against the Spirit
won't be forgiven. That's what the Lord says. And
that's not because the Spirit is greater than the Son. They're
both God. They're both deity. Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit are God. They're all equal. But to deny
the Holy Spirit is to deny the necessity of the application
of the blood. Without the application of the
blood, We will die in our sins. The blood's got to be shed, but
the blood's got to be applied. Unless the blood's applied to
me, it will do me no good. Where there's no application
of the blood of Christ, there is no forgiveness. And that's
what the Spirit does to deny the necessity of that is to deny
the Holy Spirit. And this manner of apostasy is
serious, serious business. We're not just Whistling Dixie here, I don't
know how to put this, is serious now. Listen to what John Calvin
said about this. We ought not rashly to conclude
that any professed believer has apostatized. Love ought to make
us think the best. Now that's true with him. But,
he says, if one has departed, let's not contend with the justice
of God or seek to be more merciful than God is. I don't know how
you can be more merciful than God is, but let's not try to
seek to be more merciful than He is. And we're told not to
pray for apostates. If you can read the English language,
you know that's what He's saying. But I, after reading a lot about
this this week, spent a lot of time in prayer and thought about
it, for what it's worth, here's what I'm going to say about that.
Be very, very, very careful. about accusing someone of being
apostate. Just be awful careful. The Apostle Paul listed some
men who would appear, he's saying, as apostate. Alexander the Coppersmith,
Hymenus, and Thylidus. He listed those men by name,
didn't he? So this is not something that
never happens. He listed these men by name.
But you and me aren't the Apostle Paul. We don't have his insight. We don't have his wisdom. We're
not the Apostle. Just be careful. That's all I'm
saying. Be very, very careful. Now, verse 17, John goes on. He says, All unrighteousness
is sin, and there is a sin not unto death. All unrighteousness
is sin against God, and hence it deserves death. And the amazing
declaration of the gospel is these sins are not unto death. The sins of God's elect do not
bring their death. They cause the death of our substitutes.
but not our death. Because He died, we don't die.
Because He lives, we live. And we don't die eternally because
of the amazing grace and untold depths of the mercy of our God. It's as though the Lord's mercies
were not consumed because His compassions fail not. Aren't
you thankful for the mercy of God? These sins are not unto
death because of His mercy. And this is written for our comfort.
When a believer sins, how it troubles. Don't you hate yourself?
Oh, my soul. And when we sin, like David of
old and Peter and Jacob, these things are written for our comfort.
This is not a sin unto death. Because when we sin, our comfort
is the same as David's. I'm a sinner. Oh, my soul. But
there is forgiveness within that thou mayest be feared, that thou
mayest be worshipped, There is forgiveness with thee. That's
why these sins are not unto death. Now, verse 18, he says, We know
that whosoever is born of God sinneth not, but he that is begotten
of God, born of God, keepeth himself, and that wicked one
toucheth him not. Now, we know, I said this last
week, how many times John says in this epistle, we know, we
know, we know. We know that the new man who
is born of God cannot sin. He's born of God, the holy God. He's born of the holy and corruptible,
sinless seed, the Word of God. Now, believers still sin, because
everything we do is done by this fleshly body of sin. That's why
the Lord taught us to pray. Forgive us our sins, because
we sin. We need forgiveness. And there
isn't a sin that any believer will not commit. Apart from God's
keeping grace, there's not a sin we won't commit. Yet, that new
man that's born of God in you cannot sin. And he cannot sin,
and he keeps the believer from living under the control of sin. I didn't say living without sin.
Living not under the control of sin. But what John's talking
about here is the sin of apostasy. When we sin, we know this is
not the sin of apostasy. No believer will commit this
sin ever. Look over in Jeremiah 31. Jeremiah
31 verse 37. I've got the wrong, it's chapter
32, I'm sorry. Chapter 32. Behold, I will gather
them out of all countries, whether I have driven them in my anger,
and in my fury, and in great wrath. And I will bring them
again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely. And
they shall be my people, and I will be their God. And I will
give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever,
for the good of them and for their children after them. And
I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn
away from them to do them good. But I will put my fear in their
hearts that they shall not depart from me." No believer will ever
deny the Lord for safety. No believer will ever deny the
gospel that declares our Savior. No believer will ever leave the
Lord because He won't allow it. He won't let us. That's why no
believer can be touched by the evil one, by Satan. That's why
we pray like our Lord taught us to deliver us from evil, from
the evil one. Now, Satan can tempt you. His
roars can scare you to death, that roaring lion. He can sift
you as wheat like he did Peter. He can buffet you. He can afflict
you like he did the Apostle Paul. But he can never take you away
from Christ. You won't leave willingly, and
He can't take you away. No man can pluck them out of
my Father's hand. And He may be able to touch your
physical life, but He can't touch you. He may be able to take your
physical life, but He can't take your life. Because your life
is hidden with Christ in God, if you're a believer. He might
take your physical life. The Word is looking forward to
laying it down anyway. I mean, honestly, He can have it. But
He can't touch you. He can't touch your soul. And
we know that. Verse 19, here's something else
we know. John says, And we know that we
are of God, and the whole world, life, and wickedness. We know
that we're of God. We know that we're born of God.
We know we've been called by the grace of God. We know we've
been washed in the blood of God's Son. We know we've been made
God's sons, seated with Christ in heavenly places. And we know
that. And we know that by grace. We
know that by revelation. By grace, Paul said, are you
saved through faith. And that not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God. And we know that by the Spirit
of God. We know it by grace and we know
it by the Spirit of God. Look over in Romans chapter 8. Romans 8 verse 16. The Spirit Himself beareth witness
with our spirit that we are the children of God. That's how we
know we're of God, that we're begotten of Him, that we're His
children. The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit
that we're the children of God. And we know what the Lord saved
us from. We know what He saved us out
of, what He took us out of. We know that that whole world,
life and wickedness, and we'd be right there with them and
loving it. if it wasn't for God's electing
love that He plucked us out. That's the only reason we're
not right there with Him. We know this whole world lies in
wickedness. That's why the believer comes
out of it. We still live in the world, but we've come out of
it. We've shunned its ways. We've
shunned its ideas, its thoughts, its methods, its whole way because
the end thereof is death. It's a wicked way. We still live
in this world, traveling through it, but our citizenship's not
here. We've left this place. We've got a new citizenship.
Our Lord has translated us. He's transferred us from the
kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of His dear Son. So we know this
world lies in wickedness. That's why we've come out of
it. In verse 20, John says, And we know that the Son of God has
come and has given us an understanding that we may know Him that is
true and that we're in Him that is true. even in His Son, Jesus
Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. We know that the Son of God,
equal with the Father, came into this world. He's born of a woman
made under the law. This man, Jesus of Nazareth,
is God. He's none other than God. All
the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily. And God's Son
became a man. So He could do what we could
never do. We know that. He came to produce
a perfect righteousness for His people. He came to obey the law
on every jot and tittle. He came to suffer and to die
the death that our sins deserve. He came to die as a substitute
for His people to put away our sin and let us have His life. And we know we're accepted in
Him. We're accepted in His blood, in His righteousness, in His
obedience. We know that, don't we? Is there any doubt about
that in your mind? We know that, don't we? Well, here's what else
we know. The only reason we know that,
these spiritual truths, is because God's given us an understanding
to know Him that is true. And to know Him that is true,
that's salvation. He's given us an understanding
to know Christ who is true. Look over in John 17. to know
Christ who is true, to know God who is true. This is salvation.
John 17, verse 3, And this is life eternal, that
they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
Thou hast sent. We know these things because
of who we know. Now, what you know is completely
dependent on who you know. What you believe is entirely
dependent on who you believe. If you're like the Apostle Paul,
I know whom I have believed. Then all these spiritual truths
line up. Because you know Him who is true. We understand all these things
because we know Him. Because God's revealed Him to
us by grace. In verse 21, John ends, Keep yourselves from idols. Now,
if you know Christ, you're not going to leave Him and start
worshipping a figurine. That's just stupid. I mean, that's
dumb. Christ alone, if you've got the
slightest glimpse of Him, you know this. Christ alone is worthy
of all of our worship, all of our adoration, all of our love.
No idol can compare with God. No figurine, no statue can compare
with God. He chose you. He called you by
His grace. Christ came and became a man
to die for you, to suffer and die for you. As Christ was hanging
there between heaven and earth, suffering, He had your name on
His heart. Just like the priest of old had
the names of the tribes of Israel on his breastplate, our Lord
had your name the names of His elect on His heart as He suffered
and died. What statue can compare to that?
He sent His Spirit to give you life. What dead statue can do
that? He sent the Spirit to comfort you by showing you the things
of Christ. Then you cling to Him. You cling
to Him and Him alone. And you get rid of anything that
would stand in opposition to Him. You get rid of anything
that would be a rival for your affections with Christ. It doesn't just have to be a
statue. I don't worry about you going
to worship a figurine. Don't worry about that a bit.
But beware of things that come up in this world, responsibilities
in this world, things that are important to your life or your
family responsibilities in this world. Beware of them. Beware of activities. and take
you away from the worship of Christ. I'm not talking about
a job activity that comes up on a Wednesday night you have
to go to. Church, I'm talking about something that takes your
attention, your affection, your focus away from Christ. That's
an idol. Now beware of these things. Beware
of these things that could take our time and our energy and our
attention away from Christ. Because that's where life's found.
That's where mercy is found. That's where forgiveness is found.
And that's what we're interested in. All right. Well, I hope that
will bless you.