As we close the epistle, we consider what our obligation is to those who are ensnared by sin and temptation, and a final warning against idols.
Springfield Baptist Church
September 8th 2024 - Pastor James Tyler - 1 John 5:16-21
All right, so 1 John 15, beginning at verse 16, "If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life." Pardon me, to those who commit sins that do not lead to death, there is sin that leads to death. I don't say one should pray for that. All wrong doing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death. We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are from God and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one, and we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true, and we are in him who is true in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life, little children keep yourself from idols. All right, all sin leads to death, ultimately, right? So it must be that this is a reference to sin which leads more immediately to death. When James 1, 14, James says, "Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire, then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin and sin when it is fully grown or fully matured brings forth death." And then Paul would write in Romans 3 that the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life. So for John to then turn around and say, "There is sin that doesn't lead to death that really does not help me when people are coming at me saying, "The Bible is full of contradictions." Because it's not, I don't believe the Bible is full of contradictions, nor do I believe that this is a contradiction. I believe it's maybe not a fantastic translation from the original text. So we've got one of two choices here, and I'll be honest with you, I only have energy for option two. Option one would be, "We carefully work through every word in the original Greek so that we can fully comprehend and understand precisely what John said, or you all take my word for it." All sin leads to death. This must be a reference then to sin which leads more immediately and temporally to death. So let me give you an example. Put back a few pages in your Bible to Acts chapter 5. Acts 5, beginning at verse 1, says, "A man named Ananias," you know what's more fun than that, is if we start back at 34 of chapter 4. Because this is context you don't often get when you're dealing with the story of Ananias and Sephira. So 34 of Acts 4, "There was not a needy person among them," and you're talking about the church. "For as many as were owners of lands or houses, sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as they had or as any had need." Thus, Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas, which means son of encouragement, a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet. One of the cool things that happens when you show up to the church and become part of the church and deploy with the church and support the church is you might earn a reputation for yourself among the members of the church, and that's what happened with Joseph, who got a new name from the apostles they just started calling him Barnabas, because he was such an encouragement to them. And one of the things that he did that's recorded here for us that was an encouragement to the church and the apostles was he sold a tract of land and gave all of the money from the sale of the land to the church to supply the needs of those who were in want. That still happens today, sometimes. People sell property and give the proceeds to the church and the church might, I don't know, name a wing of their new building after that person. I don't think any of that's evil, it's just I don't think much of this really translates to like America in 2024, but while we're on the subject, if you look, we've got a lot of space, just joking, 5'1", but a man named Ananias with his wife Sephira sold a piece of property and with his wife's knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it you have contrived this deed in your heart? You've not lied to man but to God. Now what's implied here but not explicitly said is that Ananias suggested when he brought these funds, he suggested to the apostles that it was everything that he had gotten from selling the land. He was not nor any of us under any obligation to give the church all the proceeds of any land that we sell. That's certainly not the lesson to be taken from this. So settle down Emily and Garrett, you guys are fine. Ananias, verse 5, heard these words, "He fell down and breathed his last, and great fear came upon all who heard of it." That's a sin that led to pretty immediate death, it would appear, right? The young men rose, wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him after an interval of about three hours his wife came in, I shouldn't laugh. But knowing what had happened and Peter said to her, "Tell me whether you sold the land for so much." And she said, "Yes, for so much." Peter said to her, "How is it that you have agreed together to test the spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door and they will carry him and they will carry you rather out." Immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. When the young man came in they found her dead and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband and great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things. If you look at Acts 12 verse 20, pardon me, now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon. He came to him with one accord, having persuaded Blastis, the king's chamberlain, they asked for peace because their country depended on the king's country for food. On an appointed day Herod put on his rowal robes, took his seat upon the throne, delivered an oration to them and the people shouted, "The voice of a God and not of a man." Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down because he did not give God the glory and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last. So there are some sins that lead more immediately to death. I think it's important that we consider both of those New Testament examples that I just gave because you've got Ananias and Sephira who in the context of the local church are engaged in basically trying to purchase reputation. Barnabas got his name, we want one like it, so here we'll put on airs like we're really magnanimous and philanthropic too and it costs them their life. Lest we take from that the one thing that will for sure kill you is if you lie to the church about how much you're tithing, we've got to go look at Herod who gives a speech and the people are like, I mean I love how Luke sets it up for us that look there's conflict, they need the approval of the king, he gives a speech and they act like it's the greatest thing they've ever heard, not unlike what we saw at the Democrat National Convention a couple of weeks ago right where we celebrate something that's at best mediocre as though it's the most amazing thing that's ever happened and pretend like it's something other than what it is so that we can ingratiate ourselves to this person. Well Herod is like, you know what I think you all might be right. I think I do have the voice of a god not a man and God lets him know right away that's not the case Herod and he's struck dead. So it's pretty dramatic examples that some sins lead more quickly to death than others. Oh do I have to also malign the Republican National Convention, I'm happy to do that. I got to be fair and balanced. That's alright buddy, you're better off for it, trust me. I think this is probably what John means about sins that lead to death is my point. It seems that God is letting us know we are not obligated, think, think, alright lest I lure you into a trap. It seems like God is letting us know that we are not obligated to pray for the restoration of a sinner whose behavior is particularly persistent and unrepentance, moral repugnance and evil. It seems like that's what's being said here. To triple check this let's go see what Jesus said in Matthew 5 verse 43, it's a party going on in the nursery. He says you've heard that it was said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy but I say to you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven, for he makes his son rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you what reward do you have, don't even the text collectors do the same and if you greet only your brothers what more are you doing than others for do not even the Gentiles do the same therefore you must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. So here's my question, does this passage tell us anything about who we are not obligated to pray for? No, is there anything more persistently evil, morally repugnant? Is there anything more evil and repugnant than the persecution of the church? No, I mean not biblically speaking, no. I realize being intolerant in our day and age is the most repugnant and evil thing that you can be, calling sin, sin is the most disgusting, despicable behavior imaginable but actually biblically the most evil thing you can do is persecute the true church. And what does Jesus say we're to do for those who persecute us? So while reading of 1 John 5 would give you the sense that we are not obligated to pray for those who are engaged in particularly heinous evil acts that might lead to death I would say I don't think that's what John means either because Jesus said pray for the most evil people on the planet, those that go from house to house locking up women and children for refusing to deny the faith. Thank you. There was no time. Most of the people there have no idea what's going on as Peter is going you sold it for how much? Yeah, this much. Any false dead. There was no time for anybody to pray anything. Now they might have started praying for Phiro before she got there, I don't know. But judgment came so swiftly there was no time. All right, so here's an interesting thought. Some of you are going to think that I'm stretching this text because I'm so anti-Catholic and that's not the case at all. But come poke a hole in my argument, I'll give you the microphone. If we're supposed to be praying for the most morally evil, repugnant, reprobate behavior on the planet which is those that persecute the church, John says I'm not saying you have to pray for sins that lead quickly to death, so we're not talking about that. There was no time to pray for Ananias as he was sinning because nobody was aware that it was happening. Could it be that what John is saying is please don't bother praying for people who've already died? There's no point. Hebrews 9, 27 says just as it is appointed for man to die once and after that comes judgment. Should we be praying for lost friends and relatives who've already passed away? Should we be praying that they would repent so that God will forgive them? I think not, for they cannot repent once they are dead. This is part of the edge of the gospel. This is part of the narrowness of the gate in the hardness of the way that leads to life. You only have this life in which to make the right decision concerning the person and work of Jesus Christ. And let me assure you of this, everything that I've read in Scripture tells me that if God in "mercy" opened up the gates of hell and let the inhabitants out, they would run right back to their sin. Nothing about judgment or hell makes a sinner less sinful. The only thing that will redeem a sinner is faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ. And guess what happens once they see Him having rejected Him their whole lives? They see Him, their heart doesn't change, their reality does, their heart remains unchanged. They hate Him the more for having seen Him. What a kindness of God that any of us have been brought to repentance, amen? The examples that the commentators cite on who we shouldn't be praying for, Jeremiah 7-16, 1 Samuel 16-1, I believe are, I would call them descriptive special revelation, like very specific descriptive special revelation where a prophet or a servant of God is told to explicitly stop praying for these people or this person. I don't think that that's normative, nor do I think it's prescriptive. And the commentators that cite it, it was like, I don't know, I probably got too much baggage, but it just felt like, are you getting a little bit of joy out of this? I don't have to pray for the unrepentant drunk once you've talked to Him three or four times. Okay, what else are you going to do? Just sit and hope they go to hell? I've been pretty frustrated with people that, I mean, claim to be Christians and act in a way that I think is completely incongruent, myself at the top of that list, right? And I think I've suffered at the hands of people that claim to be Christians and act in a way that's completely incongruent. I can't imagine being hard enough of heart that I would go, well, thank God for 1 John 5. I don't have to pray for them. Who else is going to change their heart other than the people of God earnestly, faithfully lifting them up? Now, I know, I'm not dealing with the text, I'm dealing with the opposite. So let's look at it just really quickly. 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 immediately to death. There is sin that leads to death. I do not say that one should pray for that. Now, is that a prohibition against praying for somebody who's innocent? What does he say? There is a sin that leads to death. I do not say that one should pray for that. No, it would say do not pray for people who are engaged in sins which lead to death. So if you're doing something real heinous, it would say don't pray for that. He's simply saying I'm not saying prayer doesn't absolutely have to be made for somebody who's engaged in something that's going to lead quickly to their death. It's not a prohibition, so in Matthew 7, 6, the commentators are like, well, Jesus says don't cast pearls before swine, don't give what's holy to dogs or they'll trample under foot and then turn and attack you, which I think relieves us of the obligation for sharing the gospel with those who blaspheme in response. So if I'm sharing the gospel and somebody uses everything that I say to further mock Jesus then I don't need to keep sharing the gospel with that person but I do think I should probably keep praying for them because were it not for the Holy Spirit softening my heart and changing it so that I could believe and obey the Scriptures? I never would have and certainly somebody, whether they knew it was me or not, was praying for me, I'm positive that there were multiple men and multiple pulpits throughout the years between 1980 and 1997-98 who prayed that people who were lost would come to know you and I don't doubt that God took that and used it for my benefit, yeah, we should be praying for all the lost. I would also point out that 1 John 5 doesn't prohibit praying for those engaged in sin which leads to swift death, at most it permits us to stop praying for certain evil doers at most and I'm not even comfortable trying to tell you who that is. So 18, we know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning. We know that he who was born of God protects him and the evil one doesn't touch him, 19. We know that we are from God and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one and we know that the Son of God has common given us understanding so that we may know him who is true and we are in him who is true in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God in eternal life. This is John's review. Christians cannot persist in flagrant willful rebellion. Look right at me, we've been down this road before, we've covered this. Christians cannot persist in flagrant willful rebellion. They can't. You can try but one of two things is going to happen. God is going to paddle you until you come to your senses or and I don't mean literally but spiritually and through life circumstances he will discipline you. He will bring you to heal if you're a Christian or you'll simply prove you're not actually a Christian. One of those two things will happen if you persist in flagrant willful rebellion. Okay, we don't need to retread that tire. John 638 says, this is Jesus, I've come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me and this is the will of him who sent me. Okay, who sent Jesus? The Father, God, right? This is his will. This is God's will that Jesus should lose nothing of all that God has given him but raise it up on the last day for this is the will of my Father that everyone who looks on the son and believes in him should have eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day. So lost and dying sinners on earth are generally I think oblivious to the danger that they are in generally there are some exceptions where people that know the gospel and have rejected it or have turned I don't know it's hard for me to buy the worship of Satan. It's just hard for me to buy it like I just there's a part of me that's like I just think you're trying to be you're trying to get attention. You don't actually worship the devil you can't actually worship the devil. So anyway, but there are those people who I would say are the exception. Most people are are completely oblivious to the danger that they are in when John says we know we are from God and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one that tells us there's two categories of people there's people who belong to God and there's people who belong to the devil Jesus said of the Jews in particular when when he's addressing the Pharisees you are of your father the devil and your desires are like his desires and your nature's like his nature you lie you deceive you would eat your own young before you would ever bend the knee to me. Most of the world is oblivious to the fact that that's their reality. They don't get up in the morning go how can I serve the devil today? What can I do to really put the screws to God they don't think that they're just going through the motions going through life oblivious to this reality the whole world lies in the power of the evil one the fact of the matter is most of those who belong to Satan don't even know it they lie in his power they do his bidding and they damn themselves all the while is this is this something we should mock or is this something that's extremely pitiful? Yeah I agree it's pitiful. So then in 20 he says we know the son of God came or has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true and we are in him who is true in his son Jesus Christ he is the true God in eternal life so we who are in Christ who know him who believe the gospel are where we are and we know what we know and we believe what we believe because what happened listen to the verse again we know that the son of God Jesus has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true I said I believe the vast majority of the world which lies in the power of Satan is oblivious to that reality that they live and move and have their being in the control of the evil one they don't know that but for us we know the son of God has come and given us understanding what did we have before the son of God came and gave us understanding well if you don't have understanding and nobody gives it to you what do you not have yeah so you're operating with without the full mental capacity without the the ability to embrace and comprehend what's real and what's true so when I watch my political opponents actively destroying the country and and cover my face and go what is what is going on why would you celebrate this debauchery and this evil and this wickedness and then I read my Bible and go oh oh I forgot I've been given the gift of understanding I'm not smarter than than them I didn't figure this out because golly gee aren't I wonderful the Lord Jesus came illumined my mind opened my heart to receive and believe what's in the scriptures and now I think about things a little bit differently because I'm no longer in the power of the evil one he did that I didn't do that now if you know that's true about yourself to whatever degree it is what is your obligation to that world out there lying in the power of the evil one well I'll tell you what I'll pray for them once or twice but then I'm done no we should be praying for the world around us the babies have taken over so let me wrap up first John 5 21 little children keep yourself from idols alright so you've sensed already the trajectory that we're on because we've been all the way through first John we've been developing community right love the brethren obey God love the brethren obey the commandments love the brethren obey the commandments don't be self deceived love the brethren obey the commandments developing community so I said at the outset foundation of our church has got to be shared faith in Jesus Christ and on that foundation we we can add fellowship we have shared life but the foundation is faith in Jesus we have shared life the outcome is we grow in grace and knowledge foundation right faith in Jesus Christ shared then we have fellowship the outcome of that is we grow in grace and knowledge and so then all of a sudden we get to like the tail end of the epistle he does a little review you can't persist and sin and call yourself a Christian God will either discipline you or you're not a Christian then he says all this stuff about the world and and and we understand and they don't and it isn't an interesting like all the all of the sudden at the end of this epistle it's almost like John can't help but be like you know what enough about developing a community think about the culture out there for just a second with me they lie in the power of the evil one and this church that he's writing to you is supposed to be on mission with the gospel proclaiming the truth to a lost and dying world that they might believe and receive the gift of faith in Jesus Christ right you see it I'm not making it up okay I mean it's implied he doesn't say any of that with specificity but as soon as he says the whole world lies in the power of the evil one but we've got understanding you got to know he's talking about deploying to the culture and then the last thing that he says is little children you keep yourself from idols because what will happen is the church will make an idol out of mission now our purpose is not fellowship that becomes our foundation foundation is grow the church get more people in here now if that's your foundation what's your purpose and then what's the outcome what's idolatry how does that play into any of this well idolatry is the worship of anything other than God right so the way that I usually describe this we're almost done so whatever Naomi is beating the poor nursery workers with she won't have much longer to do it the way I usually describe this is that God gives us things to enjoy right you have things in your life you enjoy I realize you also have stressors in your life which you don't enjoy that you'd like God to take away but he gives you things to enjoy and sometimes what happens in our hearts is I've got the thing whatever it is it's probably not glasses but it's an object lesson I've got the thing that I enjoy and I begin to fixate on the thing and my joy and my adoration begins to terminate on the thing or the person or the experience rather than on the one who gave it idolatry happens when the affections of your heart terminate on the gifts rather than the giver of those gifts also happens when you're indifferent to the giver of gifts and the affections of your heart ultimately terminate on yourself they become preoccupied with you but for the church as we think about what it means to deploy to culture I think that the warning is keep yourself from the idol perhaps of church growth that's not the foundation it's not even necessarily the outcome we might grow deeper not bigger you're gonna go out guess what's out there the incursions the world is trying to make into your heart and mind all day every day and we get one verse at the end of the epistle hey little children keep yourself from idols because if you're gonna go out there into a lost and dying world and try to proclaim the truth of the gospel and try to see people get saved you're gonna get the attention of the one who's got them in his power and he knows how to seduce you he knows how to lure you away so you got to keep yourself in Christ from idols all right and we'll get into that in our next series lord willing let's pray [BLANK_AUDIO]