1 John 5:15-17

Well, we've arrived at the last two paragraphs here in the Epistle of First John. And it has been an incredible journey, has it not. There's so much here. And one of the things that's been interesting preaching through First John and reading through First John over and over and over again is how many of these passages or verses in the Book of First John are so incredibly familiar to us. We usually don't think about First John as a favorite epistle or as one of those go to epistles. But as we've looked through the Book of First John time and time again, we've seen those verses that are so familiar to us and so comforting to us. And today is no exception to that. As we come to First jo Chapter five, we're going to look at verses thirteen through seventeen. John writes, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request that we have asked of him. If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life. To those who commit sins that do not lead to death, there is sin that leads to death. I do not say that one should pray for that all wrongdoing is sin, But there is sin that does not lead to death. Now, besides the last part of this paragraph being one the most difficult passages in all of the New Testament, or all of the Bible for that matter, this first part of the passage is something that is very familiar to us. This passage of scripture is about our assurance. It's about our confidence, and it's about our assurance in three areas, the assurance of our salvation, our assurance in prayer, and our assurance in intercession. And so let's look in turn these three issues. All of these three issues are very important doctrinal issues for us to address. There are also very important doctrinal issues where error is not only possible, it's prevalent. Error is not only possible in these issues, but it's prevalent in these issues. The first is the assurance of our salvation. Look what he says, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know the word he uses there for no means a knowledge gained through experience, that you may know that you have eternal life. I write these things to you who believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. Now, there are a couple of things that leap off the page here. The first is this that there is a condition here that's not to be ignored. There's a condition here that's not to be ignored. These things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, who believe in the name of the Son of God. Now, interestingly enough, I mean there are a lot of people who believe in the name of Jesus. So does he just mean if you believe that Jesus is the name of this guy that we talk about in the Bible, then you have eternal life. We've talked about this before. Muslims believe in Jesus. In fact, Muslims believe more about Jesus than liberal Christians do. Liberal so called Christians, the liberal Christians and academia, for example, deny things like the virgin birth Shelby Spong I've quoted him before, but he says, and I quote, I do not believe that Jesus was born by virgin birth, nor do I believe that virgin births occur anywhere except in mythology. Now, John Shelby's Pong was a pastor for thirty years, an episcopal bishop thirty years, and he doesn't believe in the virgin birth. However, Qur'an clearly teaches that Jesus was born of a virgin. So Muslims believe that Jesus was born of a virgin. John Shelby Spong doesn't even believe that. But both of them are in trouble. Why because John is not talking about merely believing that Jesus is his name. How do we know that? Well? The rest of the epistle, for example of chapter two and verse twenty two. Who is the liar? But he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the Antichrist, He who denies the father and the son. No one who denies the son has the father. Whoever confesses the son has the father? Also, Who's the antichrist? The one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? Who denies that Jesus is the son of God. In other words, in chapter two, John makes it clear that if we don't believe that Jesus is God in the flesh, then we don't really believe in Jesus at all. So it's very important that we don't rip one John five point thirteen out of context. Anybody who believes that name. As we've said before, our Mormon friends believe that name. They believe he's the spirit brother of Lucifer. But they believe that name. Okay, our Jehovah's witness friends, they believe that name. They believe he's a god, lesser God than Jehovah God, but they believe that name nonetheless. So we have to put this in its proper context. There's a caveat here. Who has the assurance of their salvation the one who believes appropriately, the one who believes that Jesus is who the Bible declares him to be. Remember that this whole epistle is about confronting heresy. This entire epistle is about making believers aware of the fact that there are those who claim to be Christian but whose doctrine would not allow for such a distinction. So the first thing we need to see is that caveat. And here's what we also need to see. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God. And once we're clear there, once we're clear about to whom he speaks, here's another thing that we can't deny. That you may know that you have, by the way, as a present possession, you have, as a present possession, the opportunity for eternal life. It's not what the text says, potential eternal life. That's not what the text says. That you may know that you have as a present possession eternal life, by the way, eternal life, by definition, ends when never. This verse teaches that you can't lose your salvation. This verse teaches the eternal security of the believer who's a believer. Indeed, this verse right here, all by itself, if we didn't have anything else, this verse right here is enough to argue for the perseverance of the elect This one verse right here. Why Because if you believe what you're supposed to believe, if you've come to repentance and faith, the text says you have as a present possession right here, right now, eternal life. If you could lose it, it wouldn't be eternal by definition. He would have to call it something else. If you could lose it. It's only potentially eternal life. The text says, you have right here, right now, eternal life. It's yours. It's yours, right here, right now. And again, why do people have a problem with this doctrine. Here's why people have a problem with this doctrine. We've talked about this before, but it bears mentioning again. The reason people have a problem with this doctrine, Number one is because they don't understand salvation. They don't understand salvation, and so they make a two step error. Here are the two steps in the error. Step number one in the error, salvation is asking Jesus into your heart. That's nowhere in the Bible. Nowhere in the Bible is anyone told to ask Jesus into their heart. Never ever, ever a salvation described like that, Never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever a salvation described as asking Jesus into your heart. You can't get there from here. That's not biblical. Okay, that's not or praying to receive Jesus not there. It's not there, all right. Hell is gonna be chock full of people who pray to receive Jesus. It's gonna be chock full of people who received, who asked Jesus in their their heart. There are people by the millions, by the millions, who've prayed the sinner's prayer who are gonna bust hell wide open when they die. Well, but that's step one in the error. What have we seen throughout First John? First John says, basically, if you don't believe the Gospel as it was proclaimed, you don't have eternal life. I don't care what words you repeat after the preacher who then told you go write down this date in your Bible and sign your name there, because this day your name was sealed in the Lamb's Book of Life, as though with your pin you wrote your own name and in the Lamb's Book of life. Lord help us. So that's error number one. We believe that salvation equals an individual repeating the sinner's prayer, asking Jesus into their heart or receiving Jesus whatever. That's step number one. Here's step number two. In the process, we rename the doctrine of eternal security rather than the perseverance of the elect which bears with it a whole lot of other theological presuppositions. We say once saved, always saved. That's the second step in the error. First of all, we redefine what it means to be saved. What it means to be saved is to walk the isle and pray the prayer, and then after that we say once saved, always saved. That's why every time somebody finds out that you believe in eternal security, they ask, well, what if somebody gets saved? Their definition is walk the o'le, pray the prayer, and then after that they go out and they just shoot fifty seven hundred people. It's always something ridiculous, you know, commit adultry ninety eight thousand times, you know, and then you know all of these you know, well, what if they do that? What if they do that? That's always the question, What if they do that? You believe in this one saved, always saved stuff. Here's what they're saying. And by the way, they're absolutely right. They're just turned upside down theologically. They're absolutely right that that doctrine of one saved, always saved. If we define salvation as you ask Jesus into your heart, if we define salvation as you walk the aisle, you pray the prayer. Then they're absolutely right. It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. But here's where they're making a theological error. A lot of people who walk down an aisle and prayer prayer are not saved. Parable of the soils four soils, three of them look real good. Only one of the three that look good actually bore fruit, which means three quarters of those who heard the Gospel according to Jesus parable nothing, and two thirds of those who heard it and responded affirmatively nothing. They heard it and they responded affirmatively, and it looked like, oh, that's good stuff right there. Gone, two thirds of it gone. We have the parable of the soils. But we got the scariest verse in the whole Bible, scariest passage in the whole Bible. Matthew seven, twenty one, twenty two. Man, that's just scary stuff. Not everyone who says to me, Lord Lord, they're calling him lord. They're saying Jesus is their lord. Not everyone who says to me, Lord Lord will enter into the Kingdom of heaven. But he who does the will of my Father is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name. Its preachers, by the way, and your name cast out demons and perform many miracles. And I will say to them, depart from me. I never knew you, you worker of iniquity. They pray to prayer, they called him Lord, they even did churchy stuff, and Jesus says they're lost. So the problem with this whole idea of once saved always say it's twofold number one, it's in precise theological language, because that's not the doctrine. The doctrine is the perseverance of the elect. That's different than one saved, always saved. The perseverance of the elect is basically this one of the ways you know that somebody's really saved. They endure to the end. Amen. One saved, always saved. That's an entirely different that's an entirely different animal altogether. Bible doesn't teach that unless you understand salvation from a Biblical perspective. If a person's truly saved, they're going to remain saved. Absolutely, Yes, Amen, Hallelujah, Praise the Lord. If a person is truly saved, they're going to remain saved throughout all eternity. That's what this verse teach is right here. Not if a person walks an aisle and praise a prayer, that's it. You and I both know. I mean, we could stand up in here and testify from now until next Sunday about the people we know personally who have prayed the prayer. People that we know are as lost as the day is long, and it's almost impossible to witness to them because they walked an aisle one day and they pray the prayer one day. There is nothing in them, around them or about them that says born again. But when you go to talk to them about the Gospel, they always tell you done that already. I asked Jesus into my heart, especially around here. That's one of the reasons I just I'm so relieved when I get a chance to go preach outside the Bible belt. I am because around here everybody's a Christian. Not everybody, everybody beyond everybody, Okay, everybody's a Christian. It's great every now and then to go to the Pacific Northwest where people just go, no, I'm not one of those. I'm a wicked Just look at him and start smiling like, man, I love you, but I just said I'm a wicked I know, but that means you don't believe you're a Christian. It's a great place for us to start. We're back home in Texas. I'm looking at people who lived the wicked lifestyle. But I start talking to him about Jesus and they go, oh yeah, me and him, we right here, man, like my brother from another mother. You know, we just in Jesus. In Jesus, we got an understanding. That's what you hear around the South, and it's absolute wickedness. And by the way, John has already addressed that. Look back again chapter two and verse nineteen. What does he say about individuals who walked an aisle pray to prayer started real good, but then they just went off the deep end? What does John say about them? Does he say that they had salvation and they lost it? Look at John chapter first, John chapter two and verse nineteen. They went out from us, but they were not all of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. That's the doctrine of eternal security right there. That's the doctrine of the perseverance of the elect John says, one of the evidences that a person is a Christian is they remain till the end. That's one of the evidences, not that it's a license to sin if you pray a prayer at an altar, but that one of the evidences that a person is truly converted is that they remain till the end. That's the doctrine of eternal security, not this one saved, always say live any kind of way you want. They went out from us because they were not all of us. If they had been able to continue with us, with us look at the next part of the verse. But they went out that it might become plain that they all are not of us. Why'd they leave so that we would see that they weren't really Christian. There's not a dilemma there, there's no dilemma. So these people who argue for you know, they make that two step error Era number one, how we define Christianity, Era number two, misstating the doctrine. You know, yeah, y'all believe in that once saved, always save stuff, like a person can go live any kind of way they want to live. You know, if this is how people when they find out you believe in eternal security. That's where they go. That's where they go. And it all starts with that two step error. That's not what John is speaking of in One John, chapter five and verse thirteen. A person is truly converted, a person is truly born again. They have eternal life as a present possession. And one of the evidences of that, and we already looked at the evidence that they will bear fruit. We already talked about that. But one of the other evidences of that is they will endure. They will endure. It's going to happen. They will endure when it's all said and done, and be there in the end. Does this doctrine teach that they won't fall? Help you if you believe that. That's not what this doctrine teaches. This doctrine just teaches that they'll endure to the end, they'll get up, they'll come to repentance. In fact, they're His, So it may even be worse for them than for others. Why he says in Revelation three nineteen, those whom I love I reprove and discipline. Therefore, be zealous and rep In other words, Jesus says, if you're mind, I'll take you to the woodshed. Amen, And some of you know what I'm talking about because you know other people who've gone through that, you see, and you could just come up here and testify about those other people that you know who went through a time where they weren't walking like they were supposed to be walking, and thought they were just gonna get away with it, and God just beat them like a tied up goat and brought them back home, a little bloody and bruised, but back home. So the first assurance that we have as he closes this letter, that's what this letter's about. By the way, a lot of people look at First John and think, man, First John's about making us doubt our salvation. And remember when we started to this, I told you that there were going to be weeks for each one of us in this room where we'd sit there and go, oh, I'm not saved. There's just no way in the world. Man, I'm just oh, well, there's me right there, I'm going I'm out. First John's not about making us doubt our salvation. If anything, is we've gone through this entire letter, what it does for those who belong to him is it actually settles us and encourages us. Amen, where we go. You know, I may do ABC from time to time, but that's not my walk, that's not my life, that's not my character, and that's why when I do it, it just eats me up. He wrote this not so that believers would doubt their salvation. He wrote this so when people came from the outside and tried to redefine what it meant to be a believer, when people came from the outside and tried to make believers doubt that they had what they had, that these individuals would know that they have eternal life. I don't need what you're selling, because it doesn't get any better than eternal Amen. I don't need what you're selling. I got it all God, eternal life, I got Jesus. That's all I need. Everything that I need is found in Him. I am lacking nothing, nothing. So we can have confidence, we can know that we're His, We can know that we have eternal life as a present possession. Does that mean we can have arrogance. No, not arrogance. In fact, the arrogance would come from that other two step false definition. You know, I got insurance. Now I can do whatever I want. That's the arrogance. No, this brings us to humility, This brings us to This keeps us on our face before Almighty God. This keeps us examining our belief. Do I believe? Am I believing? And by the way, that's what he says here, those of you who are believing on the name of the Son of God, Am I believing? By the way, let me just say a word here, just about that verb tense, because some of us just need to be freed up. There are some of you in this room and you doubt your salvation because of this same deal over here, over here, people define being saved as you know, you walk the aisle, you prayed the prayer, and so it's you know, this kind of vision of a moment in time where they point to and say, on this day and that there are some people because of the lives that we led before we came to faith in Christ, we had that. I'm one of those individuals. Didn't up in the church. I didn't grow up around Christians. I did grow up around Christianity. Never heard of the Gospel to my freshman year in college. Raised by a single teenage Buddhist mother, it was radical and obvious when I came to faith in Jesus Christ from darkness to light, the darker the darkness the brighter of the light. Amen. And some people look at that and they go, well, I don't have that. I don't have that. Why don't I have that? Am I really saved? Was I really saved? Especially individuals who grew up in church. You grew up in church, you grew up around Christians, you were brought up in the Word. And as a result of that. And my prayer is that this is every one of our children's experience, that they are so immersed and so bathed in the Word that one day they just realized that they are believing. Amen. Not that it was radical darkness and then they come to light, but that one day they just realized that they're believing. Or some go through this. You have this experience early on. You know, you're four or five years old, Where's where's Jesus he in my heart? You four or five years old? They baptized you before you can reach the bottom of the pool. And then several years later you realize you had no idea what you were doing, no understanding of any of that, and you're living like an unbeliever. It's two problems. Problem number one, what do you do? This is the classic fifteen sixteen, seventeen year old who grew up, you know, in church and had that early experience. You know, that's the first question, what do you do? Do I need to get saved again? Well? No, if you were saved, there is no getting saved again. Well do I need to really get saved this time? Was my baptism fraudulent? Was it appropriate? Was it? You know? And then we go through that whole difficulty, And if we don't handle that appropriately, then here's what ends up happening. The next time you find yourself in a place where Satan tempts you with despair, you ask, what was the second time real? First time was it? And I went through the whole thing again, So maybe the second time I went through it? Maybe that wasn't real either, And the first time wasn't real, and the second time wasn't really. How will I ever know that the third time is real if I decide to do that again. Guys, just bring some comfort to us all. I write these things to those of you who are believing the name of the Son of God. You may not be able to settle the question as to when you were saved. That's not as important as the question of whether you're saved. Are you believing? You may not be able to work out though? Was it then, was it later? Was it now? You may not be able to work that out. And you can beat yourself up over that if you want to. I mean, if you just feel like you need to do that, I mean, you just go ahead and you can do that if you feel like that's what you need to do and that's the way you need to spend your time. But I would like to suggest that there might be a better way, and that better way might be Are you believing right now? Well, I was wrong on Jesus, and I had all these false doctrines and I was all of this and all of that. Okay, fine, Repentance and faith that's all we got. How do you come to Christ? Repentance and faith? Well, I don't know if back then, if I was really okay, fine, what do you got right now? Repentance and faith? Are you believing? That's who has assurance, the one who's believing, the one who's trust, the one who's walking, the one who's following. Are you believing? Are you right now? Living the life of repentance and faith. That's the question you ask yourself. That's when we have assurance. Not only do we have that assurance in our salvation, but in prayer as well. Look at verse fourteen. And this is the confidence that we have toward him that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, and whatever we ask, we know that we have the request that we have asked of him. Now here's where we make another series of doctrinal errors. Okay, First of all, what does he mean here by confidence? This is the confidence? Is that confidence our attitude? Does it have to do with something else? He uses that word confidence, The Greek word is translated confidence. He uses several times here in the book of First John. I want us to look at those places where he use it uses it. First of all, look at First John, chapter two and verse twenty eight. Now, little children abide in him, so that when he appears, we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. So that would be the opposite of shrinking from him in shame. Now look at chapter three and verse twenty one. But loved, if your heart does not. If our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God, and when whatever we ask, we receive from Him because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. Then he uses it again in chapter four and verse seventeen, by this is love perfected with us. So have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in this world. But the word is used elsewhere in a different way. Look at the way John uses it here in a few other passages. For example, in the Gospel of John John chapter seven. If you want to get to the Gospel of John John chapter seven, is a few from chapter seven heep in chapter ten, chapter eleven, chapter sixteen. Well, just look at a few of these to give you an idea of this this word group, this Greek word group coming from this particular route John chapter seven and verse four. And it's parisa for no one works in secret, if he seeks to be known openly. That's the Greek word to be known openly. Look at John seven thirteen. Yet for fear of the Jews, no one spoke openly of him. That's the same word speaking openly. Look at ten and verse twenty four. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, how long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ? Tell us plainly, same Greek word, same Greek root, tell us plainly now Chapter eleven, verse fifty four. Jesus therefore no longer walked openly among us, walked openly among us. The word that's used here is not about just having an attitude of confidence. The word used here for being confident is about us speaking openly. In fact, one of the translations of this word is freedom of speech. Freedom. We have freedom of speech. So, in other words, this is the freedom that we have to speak to him openly. This is the freedom that we have to speak. Why do we have freedom to speak to God openly? Why can we bring anything to God in prayer and speak openly to God about all these things? Here's the freedom that we have back in our passage that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And let's just be clear on something. Our assurance in prayer is not based in formulas. It's not based in tricks. There's one school of thought, and it's a heretical school of thought, and It basically goes like this, faith is a force. Words are the containers of that force. Therefore, with our words we can speak things into reality if we have the proper faith. That's the idea, So I become sovereign, not God. And those who believe this will often take it to the next level and say that when we pray, we shouldn't say things like if it's your will, because that's doubt. We don't want doubt to enter in. Listen to what Fred Price has said. Now this is a shocker, but God has to be given permission to work in this earth realm on behalf of man. Yes, you are in control. So if man has control, who no longer has it God? When God gave Adam dominion, that meant God no longer had dominion. So God cannot do anything in this earth unless we let him. And the way we let him or give him permission is through prayer. Chrice goes on to say this, if you have to say if it be thy will or thy will be done, then you're calling God a fool. How about his friend Benny hen never ever ever go to the Lord and say if it be thy will. Don't allow such faith destroying words to be spoken from your mouth. There are a couple of problems with this number one the verse at hand. The verse at hand says, this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. Here's the second problem. When Jesus is in the garden of Yssemite and he's praying. First of all, when he teaches us to pray, he teaches us to pray, Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done. So Jesus teaches us how to pray, and he teaches us to pray that God's will be done. Not only does he teach us that, but he models it for us in the garden of Gysemone, if there's any other way, let this bitter cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. So the Kenneth Hagen's of the world, the kene Copelands of the world, the many Hens of the world, the fred Prices of the world, the Maryland Hickeys of the world, and the list goes on and on and on and on. The whole word faith movement has basically twisted scripture up in a knot. What does the Bible say about this listen to this. You have to turn to these there several of them in a lot of different places. Matthew chapter six, verse nine. Pray, then, like this, our father arred in heaven. How will be thy name, your kingdom? Come? Your will be done onough as it is in Heaven Acts Chapter eighteen, verse twenty one. But on taking leave of them, he said, I will return to you if God wills, First Corinthians, chapter four and verse nineteen. But I will come to you soon if the Lord wills, and will find out and will find out not the talk of these arrogant people, but their power First Corinthians sixteen and seven. For I do not want to see you now, just in passing. I hope to spend some time with you if the Lord permits. Hebrews chapter six and verse three. And this we will do if God permits. And of course, James four fifteen, don't go around talking about what you're gonna do, but instead you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. First Peter three seventeen. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil. First Peter four nineteen Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will and trust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good. It's his will. It's his will. You know if often have people come to me and they'll say to me things like, you know, I notice it. Sometimes you don't pray in Jesus' name, my God, I always pray in Jesus name. Well, no, sometimes you don't. You know, when you in your prayer you don't say in Jesus name. Amen. Well. Why why is it that sometimes when you in your prayer you don't say in Jesus name amen. Well? For several reasons. Number one, because in Jesus's name is not a stamp that you put at the end of prayers. You know, if we ask anything in his name, then we have what we ask. That doesn't mean that you put the phrase in Jesus' name on the end of your prayer. How do I know this? There's not one prayer in the New Testament that ends with the phrase in Jesus' name, No one. Out of all the prayers recorded in the New Testament, not one of them has at the end of it in Jesus' name, amen. Not one. Here's the other thing, What does it mean to pray in Jesus' name? Was Jesus actually trying to say to us? If you say a prayer and at the end of the prayer you put this proper stamp, because you can't be delivered if you don't put the right stamp, and that stamp is the phrase in Jesus's name, then whatever you've just asked for, if you put that stamp on the end of it, then you're gonna get it. Well, if Jesus meant that, then here's what I could do. I can say, Jesus, stop being God in Jesus's name. I put the phrase on the end. Am I going to get it? No? Why? Because it violates his will? It violates his character or his nature. What does it mean to pray in Jesus' name? Means the same thing that it means to be an ambassador in someone's name. If I'm an ambassador, you know, the president says, body, I want you to be the ambassador to whatever. Okay, fine, what does that mean? That means? As the ambassador, I go to that foreign land, and I represent the president of this country, and I speak things in his name, which means what according to his will, according to his authority, and according to his nature. So when I pray in Jesus' name, that's why a lot of times, at the end of my prayer I say, we asked this because we believe that it's in accordance with your will and your nature and your authority. If it's outside of his will, is that what we're gonna get? Nope, if it's outside of his nature. Can I ask God for something outside of the nature of God and expect that. No, if it's outside of his authority, it's about my authority and not God's authority. I'm not gonna get that. Absolutely not. Now does that mean that when we say our prayers we shouldn't say at the end in Jesus. Nay, that's not what I'm saying. Sometimes I say that, but at other times I don't. To remind myself here, I want to remind myself that prayer is not a formula to get what I want. Prayer is an act of obedience to Almighty God. Well, then some ask this, Well, what I mean, If that's the case, then why pray? If God's just gonna do what's in accordance with his will and his nature and authority. Then why pray? Well, at least a couple of reasons. Number one, because he told us to Amen. Here's the other. I don't pray to bend God's will to me. I pray to bend me to God's will. Did you guess that? Unfortunately most of us think prayer is about bending God's will to us. Think of yourself as a ship and God as the land there were You're gonna war your ship. Now if I tie my ship to that port and pull on the rope, is the port gonna come to my ship? Or is my ship gonna come to the port? God's the port, not the ship. When we pray, we are bringing ourselves in with the will of God, not God, in line with our will. And by the way, who among us would really want God's will to be bent toward us. I don't have all the facts, people, Amen, I don't see the whole field. God does. God sees it all. So the last thing I want is for God to see it all and to know everything down there that would be in accordance with him gaining maximum glory, and then have me request something that would bring me some glory and compromise some of his glory. But because I said it with the right formula, he compromises his own glory in favor of mine. You can have that all day, every day, and twice on Sunday. That's not biblical prayer. That's not biblical prayer. Was it meaningless? No, it's a means that God employs. Look at here in the last part of this text. We also have confidence and intercession. If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life. To those who commit sins that do not lead to death, there is sin that leads to death. I do not say that one should pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death. There are a couple of questions. JA. First of all, before we ask those questions, here's what we know. Here's what we know. We know that God is saying here that our prayer on behalf of our brethren is a means that God honors and uses. That's good news. Amen. Our prayer on behalf of our brethren is a means that God uses. So it's meaningful for us to do that, just empty for us to do that. Listen, to what Calvin says about this, the apostle extends still further the benefits of this faith which he has mentioned, so that our prayers may also avail for our brethren. It is a great thing that as soon as we are oppressed, God kindly invites us to himself and is ready to give us help. But that he hears us asking for others is no small confirmation to our faith, in order that we may be fully assured that we shall never meet with a repulse in our own case. A man Calvin says, this is just good news. God hears me when I pray on behalf of the brethren. God will use my prayer as a means on behalf of the brethren. How much more will he use it on my own behalf? God will use it so just like if my brother is in sane and God will use a direct rebuke or confrontation. Here's what's just been said in this text. God will use that. And we understand that, we understand God using that means of instruction and correction and confrontation or encouragement or whatever. But what this text teaches is that my prayer on behalf of the brethren is as much a means to be used by God as my words. Two, my brethren, just try to wrap your mind around that one for a minute. That'll lead us to more prayer, not less. Amen. But then there's this statement here, a by the sin not leading to death. Let's finish up here, make a clarification or two and wrap this all up together. There are three ways that he uses death. Number one, we can talk about physical death a person's body dies, fy and some argue here that that's what this means. I don't agree. For example, Charles Ryer says believers can sin to the point of physical death, to the point where physical death results as a judgment of God. The Greek reads sin not a sin in verse sixteen and seventeen, implying not a single act, but acts that have the character of sin leading to death. So Rary argues that he's talking about physical death here. I disagree with that position. I understand, but I disagree with that position for a number of reasons, not least of which is this, how do we know which sin is going to lead to physical death? And what he's talking about here? He assumes that his readers understand, how do we know if it's a sin? That leads the physical death. Now we know that sin lead to physical death. Acts chapter five and an I sins ter fire, God killed them in church. No less amen doesn't really happen a lot though, But it happened. It happened. But I mean, why do we know? Do we have this category? Has this category been given to us? We also know, for example, in One Corinthians, chapter eleven, Paul talks about the Lord's table and about judging ourselves rightly. Some of you haven't and that's why some of you are sick and some of you have died. So again we know there's a connection that a physical death, but that's problematic. Secondly, there's spiritual death, and thirdly there's the second death. Let me say that I believe when he's talking about the sin not leading to death, and that he's talking about the latter. He's talking about the latter, not just physical death. No, No, he's talking about a sin that leads us to the death that separates us from God. Why do I believe that one? Well, there's a couple of reasons. Number one, he says that for that one he wouldn't advise us to pray. Look at what he says I do not say that one should pray for that. At the end of verse sixteen, there's a sin that leads to death. I do not say that one should pray for that. In other words, there's a brother who is committing a sin that leads to the kind of death that he's talking about, and he says, for that one you shouldn't pray. Well, why not? Here's why. What does Jesus tell us about this sin that leads to that kind of death? Everything else will be forgiven. There's one that won't. Blashing me against the Holy Spirit, which we know through our treatment of that text earlier, is a rejection of the spirit of God. It's a rejection of the spirit of God. That's it. There's no pardon for it's done. You've rejected the only means of salvation. It's over. It's done. So am I going to pray this God? This person has rejected your spirit. They have completely rejected the salvation that you've offered. But would you please save them anyway that would not be in accordance with His will, his nature, or his authority. Now I may pray that they wouldn't do that, but I'm not going to pray that God would somehow change the rules for this individual. When I see my brother in sin, I pray for him. By the way, this is why we're at the back. Listen to this James five thirteen to fifteen. Is anyone among you suffering, let him pray? Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise? Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil and the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. They connect sin and sickness there, and again we know from First Corinthians chapter eleven there's that connection between sin and sickness. So when he's talking about this particular prayer here, what he's talking about is not you know, I have an ache, would you pray for me? That's not while we're at the back. We're at the back because sometimes you're sick because of sin, and you need to confess and repent and be prayed for dealing with something that you think might be connected to sin. That's when you call for the elders. And God says that prayers effectual. Why because obviously he wills it, So if he didn't, it wouldn't be. And so when he talks about this, God, would you heal this or that, remove this or that. He makes it very clear, and we're not talking about that sin that leads to death, that rejection of God. See, if you're rejecting God, what you desperately need is to come to that place of repentance and faith. So where do we have assurance? We have assurance first and foremost of eternal life for those of us who come to that place of repentance and faith and believe the Gospel as it's been proclaimed and preserved. Secondly, we have assurance in prayer for those of us who ask according to the will and the nature and the authority of our Lord and our Savior, Jesus Christ, the author and perfector of our faith. Finally, we have assurance in the intercession that God, in his wisdom, has chosen to use the means of brothers praying for one another when they find themselves having fallen into sin. And all of these things we have assurance not because of ourselves, but because of Christ, who purchased our pardon on Calvary's tree. That's where our assurance lies. So I'm not assured of my salvation because of me. I'm not assured in my prayer. Because of me. I have more faith than everybody else. I know how to tie God up in knots and force him to do what I want him to do, better than everybody. Yet, no, no, no, that's not why. That's not why. It's because of Christ. And finally, I have assurance in intercession because the Lord has told us that when we pray for one another, that prayer will avail, that that prayer is meaningful, that that prayer is what He desires from us and for us as a means that He has chosen to employ. So what do we do with this. Let's have confidence that we belong to him for those of us who come to repentance and faith. Let's have confidence as we pray, making sure that we're praying in accordance with the will and the nature and the authority of Christ, which means that the scriptures are to guide our prayer and not just our own selfish desires. Amen. And finally, let's have confidence as we intercede for one another because God would have us do that, and God will use that. So let's take it seriously. When that prayergram comes across our email, we put it wherever we put it. Let's take seriously our opportunity and our privilege to intercede for one another, trusting that God will honor that, trusting that God will use that not because of who we are, but because of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. That's why, no other reason, let's pray