I've told you so many times that
the Word of God is written to believers. The only thing that a rebel and
an unbeliever has in this book is judgment. The promises of
God are in Christ. Outside of Christ, our gods are
consuming fire. And John very emphatically says,
I've written to you that believe on the name of the Son of God,
that you may know, that you may have confidence and be assured
that you have, not going to have, that you do now have. Beloved,
now are we sons of God. Right now. Spurgeon said, he
that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. H-A-T-H. He said, you know what that spells?
Hath, H-A-T-H. It spells got it. That's right,
right now. He hath. Got it, right now. Everlasting life. Not the future
gift. Ours right now. Hath everlasting
life. And you may believe, keep on
believing, continue to believe, never stop believing. I've said
so many times here, and I'll repeat it because it bears repeating. People say, well, I repented.
No. Repentance is not an isolated
act. It takes place in the past. I
have repented. I am repenting. And I will repent. I have believed. I am believing. I will believe. To you who have
been saved, he's the power and wisdom of God. To you who are
being saved, he's the power and wisdom of God. And to you whose
salvation is nearer than when you believe, he's the power and
wisdom of God. We are being saved, we shall
be saved. So you continue to believe. Now
look at verse 14. And this is the confidence. that
we have in Him. In whom? In ourselves? No, sir. In our Lord. We have total, complete
confidence, not in ourselves, not in our flesh, never at any
time, but in our Mediator, all confidence. In our Lord, in our
Mediator, in our Redeemer. He cannot lie. Paul said over
here in his letter to Titus, let me just read it to you. Paul,
a servant of God, an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to
the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledging of the truth
which is after godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God,
who cannot lie, which God, who cannot lie, promised,
promised in Christ before the world began." So this is the
confidence. Absolute confidence we have in
our Lord and our Mediator and our Redeemer who cannot lie.
Listen. That whatsoever we ask, that if we ask anything, verse
14, we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. Now
here's what He's saying. It's according to His will. That's where it rests. If we
ask anything according to His will. And we don't want to ask
anything that's not according to His will, do we? Here's the
way it is. We ask. We don't demand. We don't deserve. We ask. Like the leper who met our Lord,
and he said, Lord, as he fell at His feet, worshiped Him, he
said, if You will, You can make me clean. I'm asking. Like the thief on the cross,
Lord, I'm getting what I deserve. You're not going to stay dead,
you're coming into a kingdom. Would you remember me? I'm asking. The publican in the temple who
wouldn't so much as, he wouldn't lift his holy hands, he wouldn't
lift his eyes to heaven, but smote on his breast and cried,
God, oh God, be merciful to me. Be sinner. Now we ask. And we ask according
to His will. What is that? That's submitting
our will to His will. That's the way our Lord prayed,
Father, not my will, but I will be done. And if that's the case,
He hears us. We ask, not demand, not deserve,
we ask. Not my will, surrendering, submitting
my will to His will, I ask. in the name of Christ. You'll
hear me. Psalm 130 is a classic example
of that. Psalm 130. I just feel like we
need to read it every day. Here's Psalm 130. David said,
Lord, here's prayer. Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee. O Lord, hear my voice. Let thine ears be attentive to
the voice of my supplications. If thou, Lord, shouldst mark
iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness
with thee, that thou mayest be feared. So I wait for the Lord. Waiting I waited. My soul doth
wait. In his word do I hope. He cannot lie, his promises.
My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for
the morning." I say, more than they that watch for the morning.
That is for the hope of the Lord. With the Lord is mercy. With
Him is plenteous redemption. He shall redeem Israel from all
their iniquities. There it is. That being the case,
this is our confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything
according to His will, He hears us. Now look at the next verse.
And we know that He hears us. Whatsoever we ask, we know that
we have the petitions that we desired of Him. Now there's not
anyone here tonight, I'm just certain as I'm standing here,
there's not a soul here who thinks that God's prepared to grant
to me or to you every petition we desire of him." Sounds like
it there, doesn't it? And if we know that he hears
us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions we
desire of him. There are a lot of preachers
that want to lead you to believe that anything you ask, anything
you want, if you can get enough people to agree with you, God's
obliged to do it. This is applicable to those desires
which are according to His will. My desires are going to have
to become submissive to His will. My desires are going to have
to be in accordance with His desires, His purposes, His will.
You can be sure of this, that nothing good For your good, and
his glory, and the good of his church, nothing good will he
withhold from them that ask him." Nothing good. For example, I
listened to your prayer, and I quote you verbatim, Father,
we pray for grace and mercy, that whatever comes our way, from your hands that we'll have
the patience and grace to submit. I guarantee he'll answer that. You want grace? He'll give it
to you. You want mercy? He'll give it
to you. You want redemption? That's why
he died. You want to love others? You'll
shatter both his love and your heart. You want to be like Christ?
Ask Him. Am I right, Bob? If these are
my desires, and they ought to be my desires if I'm in accordance
with His will, God is plenteous in mercy. And I just love that. When you said that, I had to
write it down. I said, that's what I'm preaching right here
in this verse. We know He hears us, and whatever we ask, It's for good, His glory, His
purpose according to His will. We don't have those petitions. So, Lord, give me right desires. Give me right petitions. Create
in my heart a hunger and a thirst for righteousness. And you'll
grant it. All right. That's so. That's
just so. All right, verse 16. See his brother, seeing a sin
which is not unto death. And that includes just about
everything. All manner of sin and blasphemy
shall be forgiven. God forgives all things. But
there is, listen to the next line, And He'll give life. Any man
see his brother sin, a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask
and He'll give him life for them that sin not unto death. We need
to pray for one another. Forgive my sins, forgive my brother's
sins. Let's pray for forgiveness, cleansing,
mercy, grace, day by day. There is a sin unto death. I do not say that you'll pray
for it. This sin unto death, it's not only deserving of death,
but it'll certainly lead to death. There is a sin unto death that
is deserving of death, and it'll lead to death. What is it? Well,
it's not a partial fall. We can go back through the Scripture
and see. Lot, Abraham, David, Prophets
of God, Peter, Barnabas, Paul, down through the ages, ourselves,
you, me. We've had plenty of stumblings
and plenty of falls. This is not a partial fall. This
is not a transgression of a single commandment. God will forgive
murder, adultery, theft, covetousness, blasphemy, all manner of sin.
I'll tell you what this is, this is apostasy. Sin under death is apostasy.
It cannot be forgiven, it will not be forgiven, it's deserving
of death, and it will result in death. That is when men depart
from Christ. When men depart from the gospel.
We're not of them that turn back, like the dog to his vomit, or
the hog to his waller. And this sin is apostasy, by
which men depart from Christ and renounce the gospel of substitution
and the gospel of His grace, and surrender themselves to the
pleasing of other people." Depart from the gospel. For whatever
reason, money, fame, whatever. And if a man does this, if a
man departs from the gospel, he's apostate, and God said,
don't pray for him. Ephraim has turned to his idols. What? Leave him alone. When Aaron's two sons turned from the priesthood and
burned strange fire, God killed them. And what did it say about
Aaron? Lord, don't do that. Please don't do that. I'm begging
you not to do that. You know who I am? No, sir. He held his peace. He never opened
his mouth. You know what it says? Young Samuel came to Eli. Eli
said, what did the Lord say to you? I'd rather not tell you.
Well, does the Lord do the same to you if you don't tell me?
So Samuel told him. He said, well, he's going to
kill your sons because of the apostate. You know what the old
man said? He didn't pray for him. He said,
it's the Lord. Let him do what he will. That's
right. That's our example. So that's
what he's saying here. And one of the old writers said
this, if one does this, departs from
Christ and denies the gospel, let us not contend with the justice
of God. Let us not find ourselves contending
with justice and taking the opposite view and sides with God in His
justice. Or let us not seek to be more
merciful than our Heavenly Father. We don't pray for apostates.
We pray for everybody under any circumstance. Not those who deny
the gospel. That's what John said when I
read 2 John, don't you bid him Godspeed. If he preaches another
gospel, another spirit, another Christ, you're a partaker of
his evil deeds. Don't side against God. Don't
be found on the opposite side of justice and righteousness. Because Christ is too precious
to the Father. Too precious. for His gospel
to be violated, even by me. All unrighteousness is sin, verse
17, but there is a sin not unto death. Plenty of them. And this
is the only one I know that is unforgivable, is to reject Christ
and His righteousness and His blood, His gospel, and turn to
another gospel. Verse 18, we know that whosoever
is born of God, sin is not. We've been talking about we're
born of God, regenerated by the Holy Spirit. We've heard the
Word, believe on Christ, and the love of God shed abroad in
our hearts. We have Christ formed in us. That person sins not. That is,
he can't sin to sin unto death. He's not going to go back. He's
not going to turn from Christ to beggarly elements. He's not
going to do it. My sheep hear my voice, they
follow me. Another shepherd they will not
follow. Another voice they will not hear.
That's right. We are not of them that turn
back. Not going to by His grace. They don't sin in that respect.
They don't sin the sin of death. Well, it means another thing.
Whosoever is born of God's sin, if not now, we know. that there
is no man that doeth good and sinneth not. If any man say he has no sin,
he deceives himself, and the truth is not in him, and he has
made God a liar. But what this is saying is this, that the man
that is truly born of God will never sin, that sin unto death. And secondly, that man who is
truly born of God does not live and walk in sin. Sin is not his
master. He doesn't walk in the darkness,
he walks in light. He doesn't walk in the flesh,
he walks in the Spirit. He's not the servant of sin,
he's a servant of God. He does not walk in sin. He walks
in righteousness and godliness. Oh, he stumbles and he fumbles
and he falls, but the tenor of his life and the bend of his
will is holiness to the Lord. He's an honest man. He's a man
of integrity. He's a man of truth. He's a man
of godliness. A man of righteousness. And he
doesn't walk the way of sin and flesh. But there's a third thing
here. Whosoever is truly born of God, truly redeemed, has Christ formed
within, he can never commit the unpardonable sin. He can never
apostatize. And he cannot walk the path of
disobedience and ungodliness. He cannot be a servant of God
and a servant of sin. He can't do it. But the third
thing is, he actually has a nature that does not sin. Actually, that new man born of
God, like I told you this morning, sins not. It absolutely is righteous
and holy and perfect and cannot and does not sin without sin. Look at 1 John 3 verse 9. Whosoever is born of God does
not commit sin. His seed remaineth in him. He
cannot sin. He is born of God. It's the nature
of God. I'm saying that when a person
is redeemed, God doesn't take the old man and put patches on
him and dress him up and change his habits and teach him a new
direction. The old man is still the old
man. The old man which must be crucified, mortified, put down
all the time. The old man that wars against
the new man, chafes again. This old man can do no good.
He's got to be crucified daily. Someday he's got to be put in
the ground and go to nothing, and exist no more. But this new
man, this new nature, this nature of Christ, Christ in you, that's
the hope of glory. This new creature, this new man,
is holy, righteous, it's the life of God, it's the nature
of God, and it cannot sin. And when my life is over, you
know, just not too long from now, This old man with whom I've
had such a struggle for 72 years now, and so much conflict and
all this, he's going to die, annihilated, never to be heard
from again. And I'm going to be what I want
to be, and desire to be, and long to be above all things,
just like Christ, the life of God, in perfect holiness. That's that new nature. And like
I said this morning, that conflict, It's not the new man causing
the conflict. It's the old man. The new man wants to be good.
He wants to be perfect. He wants to be like Christ. He
loves the Lord. It's the old man that's giving
the problem. And we need to get rid of him. And we will, by God's grace,
get rid of him. But that whosoever is born of
God does not sin. That's just it. As God said,
that's all there are to it. But he that lusteth not, he that
is begotten of God keepeth himself. You know, that's strange language
for a grace preacher. He keeps himself. He keeps himself. Well, that doesn't mean what
it sounds like it means. No man keeps himself by his own
power or strength. No. I know that. You know that.
Christ prayed this. He said, Father, while I was
with them in the world, I kept them. I kept them. Now I come
to Thee. Holy Father, I pray for these
whom Thou hast given Me that You will keep them. Keep them
from the wicked one. Protect them. Hedge them about
and keep them. We are kept by the power of God
through faith. Work out your own salvation with
fear and trembling, but it is God who works in you. with his
workmanship created in Christ Jesus. But what this is saying
here, keep yourselves. He that is begotten of God keeps
himself. And this will help you. Turn
to Jude, verse 20. Jude, verse 20. And Jude says
the same thing. He says in verse 20, You, beloved,
build yourselves Build up, building up yourselves on your most holy
faith. Faith is the gift of God. But
faith grows. And faith can be built up. The
object of faith is Christ, but the foundation of faith is the
Word. So as I study the Word, read the Word, hear the Word
preached, desire the sincere milk of the Word, I'll grow in
faith. I'll grow in grace. I'll grow
in the knowledge of Christ. So build up yourself. See? It's
God who reveals the Word to us. It's God who gives us the thirst
and the hunger and the desire. But God doesn't read the Bible
for me. I know it's like some things
like that. But the Holy Spirit does not come to church and listen
to the preacher for me. The Holy Spirit doesn't get down
to the Bible and sit and read it and ask God, show me Your
Word. Show me Your way. Show me Your
glory. That's what you do. Is that all right? Build yourself
up on this faith. Take advantage of opportunities
of worship and study and seek the Lord. And here, listen, Jude
goes on. He says, build yourself up on
your most holy faith. Pray in the Holy Ghost. Pray! Prayer is such a vital part of
the believer's life. Pray without ceasing, the Scripture
says. John Bunyan said, sooner expect
a natural man to live without breathing as a spiritual man
to live without praying. Sooner expect a natural man to
live without breathing as a spiritual man to live without communion
with God. I've got to pray. Got to pray. And then the next line, he says,
keep yourselves in the love of God. Keeping yourself. Isn't that what John just said?
You beloved, keep yourselves. Keep yourselves in the love of
God. I see three things here. Now I know he loved me without
a cause. I love him because he first loved me. But here's three
things I said. I see in this, keep yourselves
in the love of God. It's God who keeps me. This is important. Keep the eternal
love of Christ for me always before me. Keep that love of Christ for
me. The love of Christ, Paul said,
constraineth me. It's constant. If He loved me
and died for me, I don't live unto myself. I live for Him.
Keep that before you. Isn't that what Paul said? The
love of Christ constrains me, restrains me, motivates me. If He loved me and died for me,
what kind of creature am I to live for myself? Keep it before
you. Meditate upon it. Speak often
of it. Rejoice together in it. The love
of God. He just sang it for us. Wasn't
that wonderful? About His love. Keep on singing
it. And secondly, Your love for Him uppermost. Now Christ said, if any man loved
father, mother, brother, sister, husband, wife, yea, his own life
more than me, he's not worthy of me. So keep that always uppermost
in your mind. He loves me. I love Him. I love Him first, foremost. I am my Beloved's and He is mine. Your love for Him, keep it constantly
before you. His love for you, love Him first. Thirdly, keep your love for believers
and among believers strong and perfect. This is the love of God that
He gives us. This is the love of God He demonstrates
for us. He said, you love one another
as I love you. This is the love of God He requires
of us. This is His commandment to us.
Love one another. And when you feel agitation, and you get a little
put out with the general trend of things and you began to take
more notice of the afflictions and infirmities of your brethren
or sisters, just kind of come back and love each other. Come back. The first love. Christ
loved me. I love Him. His love shed abroad. We love one another. We forgive
one another. We'll keep on loving one another.
Keep yourselves in the love of God. Look back at our text. Let me
move on quickly. That's what that's talking about.
Whosoever is born of God, sin is not. He won't fall away. He won't apostatize. He won't
walk in rebellion. That new man can't sin, thankfully. And he that is begotten of God
will keep himself. And that wicked one, Can't touch
him. Toucheth him not. Now Satan may
be allowed of God to tempt us, and to sift us, and to buffet
us, and even to afflict us, and to grieve us, but he can't touch
the life of one of God's children. He can't destroy us. He can't
overwhelm us and He can't overcome us. He can't do it. That wicked
one touches Him not. Boy, that's so comforting. And we know we are of God. We
are of God. How are we of God? We are beloved
of God. Beloved of God. That's what Scripture
calls us. We are chosen of God in Christ. We're redeemed of God by His
beloved Son. We're the called of Christ Jesus. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God? We're of God. He says they're
not of this world. That's what you just read. Even
as I'm not of this world, they're of God. We're a different race. We're a different kingdom. We're
a different citizenship. We're sojourners here. We're
of God. Listen, the whole world lies
in wickedness, but you don't. I don't. That's what I said Wednesday
night about, I want grace preachers to quit preaching like everybody's
alike. There ain't alike. We're of God. We used to be. Such were some of you, but not
now. You're washed. You're of God. Sons of God. Sons of God. And bless the Lord,
we know that the Son of God, the second person in the Godhead,
equal to the Father, of the same nature, expressed person, exact
image, He has come. He has come from the Father.
He has come from the throne. He has come into this world,
not just for a visit, not just for an appearance. He came here
and lived. He came here and lived as a man. Thirty-five, thirty-four years,
suffered, bled and died, worked out a perfect righteousness,
took upon Himself our nature, our flesh, born of a woman, despised
of men. John said, I saw it! I heard
Him! I touched Him! I saw the miracles
that He did. I saw Him down on a cross. I
saw Him after He rose from the grave. I saw Him ascend to heaven. This eternal life, I saw. He's come, and listen, and He
has given us an understanding, something we never had before,
a spiritual understanding. He has come and He gave it. He
gave it. It wasn't there by nature. He
gave us this understanding. Why do you speak to them in parables?
Because they have ears and they can't hear. And they have eyes,
and they can't see, and they have hearts, but they don't understand.
Blessed are your eyes, they see, and your ears, they hear, and
your hearts, they understand. God gave you that understanding. He gave us that understanding
that we may know Him that is true. God the Father, He's the true
God. This is eternal life, that they might know Thee, the only
true God. And Jesus Christ whom God sent.
He's come, the great prophet of the covenant, and given us
an understanding that we may know Him that is true. The true
God. And that He, the Lord Jesus Christ,
is the Son of the true God. That He Himself is the true and
living God. That He Himself is truly man.
That He is that true tabernacle. That true prophet, priest, and
king, and He Himself is the embodiment of truth. We have an understanding
that we may know Him that is true. And here, listen, and we're
in Him. We are in Him that is true, even in His Son. Father, You love them just like
You love me, even in His Son. And the glory which You've given
me, I've given them, that they may be one as we are one. As the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit is one, inseparable. Christ and His Church are one. Inseparable. We're in Him. What is it to be in Christ? Well,
I know that all the promises of God are in Christ. I know
that all the truth and the treasure of the gospel is in Christ. I
know that all the fullness of the Godhead bodily dwells in
Christ. But how am I in Christ? Well, I'm in Him Secretly from
the foundation of the world. Chosen in Him. Loved in Him. Accepted in Him. Always have
been since God purposed the covenant. I was chosen and put in His hands. My surety. And He was given the
charge to redeem my soul and bring me to God. I'm in Him when
He lived on this earth. As I was in Adam when He fell,
I was in Christ when He lived. I was in Christ when He died.
Every believer's in Him. Crucified with Christ, buried
with Christ, risen in Christ, and right now, we're exalted,
ascended, and seated in Him. Like the branches and the vine
and the members of a body, one with Christ. Explain it, I cannot. Believe it, I do. That they may
be one, even father as we are one. That's the making of a believer
and the security of a believer. And that's an awesome thing and
it's a whole lot bigger, more miraculous and greater than making
some kind of decision and doing your dead level best, keeping
departing from it. It's kept by the power of God. Now this, listen, this is the
true God. This is eternal life.