You will find the text of this morning's message in 1 John chapter 5, verses 16 and 17. 2 Peter 3.16 refers to Paul's letters, and Peter said this, in which are some things hard to understand. There are a number of places in the Bible that are hard to understand. Obviously, the book of Revelation, most of Ezekiel, lots of Jeremiah and Zechariah, but also individual verses. Theologians call them the hard texts. I have a book called The Hard Sayings of the Bible. We've already looked at one or two in 1 John, for example, earlier, verse 6. when he referred to the testimony of the blood and the water. I'm thinking of doing a series one day on the hard sayings in the Bible, like why did God command the Israelites to wipe out the Canaanites? Who or what were the sons of God in Genesis 6? What did Paul mean in 1 Corinthians 15, baptized for the dead? These and others are hard sayings. Today, we've come to another hard saying in 1 John chapter 5. Now, in preparation for the message, I consulted 30 or 40 Bible scholars. And again, they widely differ. It's almost like in proportion to how hard the verse is, the wider the interpretations are. And even Spurgeon. was not brave enough to preach on this. I couldn't find a single sermon of Spurgeon on these verses. But I will preach on this. It would be easy for me to take the easy way out and skip it, but I can't do that. I have to address it as we go verse by verse and phrase by phrase through God's word. So today we're going to address it and try to explain it and apply it to you, my brothers and sisters in Christ. So let's read the two verses and then jump in. Verse 16. If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask and he will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. All unrighteousness is sin. And there is sin not leading to death. First he begins by addressing the question of seeing a brother or sister in Christ in a special kind of sin, if anyone sees his brother sinning. He's not talking about seeing a non-Christian in sin or a non-Christian seeing a Christian in sin. He's envisaging Two Christians, and if you were a Christian, you may wonder, how do you deal with another Christian that is in sin? That's what's in view here. Well, what do we do? Well, the Bible tells us that we need to speak with that brother in certain cases. Leviticus 19, 16 and 17 says, you shall not go about as a tale bearer among your people. You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor. Now, Matthew 18 gives us the formula. If a brother is in sin that rises to a certain level, go to him and talk to him individually. And it says also bring another person with you if necessary, perhaps as a mediator or as a witness. And if the person repents, fine, nobody else needs to know about it. But if he doesn't, keep talking to him. And then if he's very adamant in this very serious sin, then bring it before the church. It would be eligible for church discipline. But something else, because this is what's talking about in this verse. Turn over to the book of Galatians chapter six. Too few people really will turn to Matthew 18. And so instead of addressing a brother or sister that's in sin, we We gossip about or we let it fester in our hearts, but the Bible says in certain cases we need to go and talk to that person. Here's another verse in Galatians 6 that is similar to what is in 1 John 5. Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted. It's like he says, go to him, but also look to yourself, lest you also be tempted. It's comparable to what Jesus said in Matthew 7. It's easy to judge another person and say, let me take the speck out of your eye. Jesus said, but who are you to take a speck out of his eye? You've got a whole log in your eye. Take the log out of your eye. Then you can see clearly to address the sin that's in the other person's eye. By the way, if you've ever had a speck in your eye, you want that person to be very gentle with you. When I was a boy and had a little speck in my eye, I'd go to my mother and say, Mama, and she'd, I still remember, she'd get out a little tissue paper and roll it up with a little point and she'd say, open your eye, and she'd just touch that little speck with the little piece of clean action and pull it out. And I'd say, Mama, be gentle. That's what Paul says here in Galatians 6. Restore such a one. in a spirit of gentleness. This is one case where we need to apply the golden rule. If we're going to a person that's in sin, we should put ourselves in his place and say, now, what if I was in a situation like this? How would I want him to deal with me? Gently and humbly, but also looking to ourself. Now, these and other verses tell us that, yes, we are our brother's keeper in a certain respect, that we should go to him in certain cases. Now, I keep saying in certain cases, because obviously this wouldn't apply to every single sin we see in every single Christian would never get any sleep at night. 24 hours a day would be spent in speaking to our fellow brothers and sister. So we have to be selective and see that, well, certain sins do not rise to a certain level. And it takes wisdom to know which sins need to be addressed in our fellow brothers and sisters. We do not want to become like Mrs. Grundy. Have you ever heard of Mrs. Grundy? I was reading about her not long ago. I think it was Nathaniel Hawthorne that gave her this name. I think her name was Elvira Grundy. Who was she? Well, she crops up in various writings, television shows, movies. Who was Mrs. Grundy? Well, Mrs. Grundy was a self-appointed, self-righteous person who thought it was her mission in life to correct everybody about every fault. Except her own. And of course, Nathaniel Hawthorne and other ones said, Mrs. Grundy is above criticism herself, but then they would like to say yes, but she likes to get drunk on that cough syrup, and she does this and that, but she's always correcting everybody of everything. Well, you've seen how non-Christians will paint Christians as Mrs. Grundy. Well, we got to look out. There's a little bit of Miss Grundy in every one of us, but we should not see her in the bathroom window, a mirror every day. We need to be selective and not correct everybody about everything. The story is told about a famous Baptist preacher a few hundred years ago named John Gill. And there is a Mrs. Grundy type woman in the church that came to him one day and said, Dr. Gill, I am concerned that you are filled with pride because your white ministerial tie is too long and flamboyant." Well, he had never noticed that, so he said, well, maybe it is. I had never thought about it. What do you recommend? She said, well, something should be done here and now. Maybe we should cut off one or two inches of that tie. He said, well, I hadn't thought about it. Well, I happen to have a pair of scissors with me, Dr. Gill. Why don't we do it now? So snip, snip, went the tie. And there he was with a shorter tie. And he's thinking, well, excuse me, ma'am, but there's something about you that is also a little bit too long. Could I borrow your scissors? And she said, well, of course. What is it? Well, my dear sister, it is your tongue. You have been gossiping and criticizing everybody in this church. Come stick it out and we'll take off one or two inches. Well, you see the point here, we shouldn't be like Mrs. Grundy and criticize everything. And yet some things that are addressed here need to be addressed by us in ourselves and in other Christians. But we need to know the wisdom between the two. Maybe you've heard of the great Admiral Nelson of the English Navy 200 years ago. Did you also know that Admiral Nelson only had one eye? He lost it in a naval battle. And sometimes in the heat of battle, one of his captains would come to him and say, Admiral Nelson, look over here, you have to see something. And Nelson was saying, this guy's always telling me to look at something. So he says, OK, I'll have a look. And he'd lift up the eyeglass to his blind eye. and said, I see what you mean. He had the wisdom to know there's some things that have to be overlooked. And brethren, we need to be like that. There are some things in a life of a fellow Christian we need to overlook it and say, yes, it's wrong, but I will leave that to God. But other things we cannot overlook. We need to address. And as it says here in First John, we need to pray about it. And as it says in Galatians 6 and Matthew 18, we need to go and talk to that person. We need to have the wisdom to know the difference. Here is talking about serious sins, serious sins either against you or serious enough to be concerned for that brother's backslidden state. It might even require church discipline. Now, notice, according to this text and elsewhere, when we go to that brother or sister, it is to help them see the error of his ways, to get him to repent and to be restored before God. And we can help the person out there. It is not our job to chasten him, for example. Let's say you have a next door neighbor and he has a little child that has stone rocks and broken some of your windows. What do you do if you catch him doing that? Well, you go to the boy and maybe you talk to him. But better yet, you go and talk to the boy's father who might discipline the boy. Not you. You see the point. We are children of God. And if we see a brother in Christ in sin, such as envisaged here or these other verses, we should go to him and talk to him about it. It's not our job to chasten him, but to talk to him about it and let God do the chastening. That's why it says be gentle and not get out the whip. God's the one that'll do the spanking. He is the father, not us. Now look at this verse for something in particular that we're told to do. These other verses are talking about us going to the person and talking to him. This verse tells us to go to God and talk to him about this person. So we should first pray, even before we go to the brother. It says, if anyone sees his brother sending us sandwiches, does not lead to death, he will ask. Meaning he will ask God. He will pray to God. Well, what do we pray for when we see a brother or sister? in some sort of serious sin that may or may not lead to death. But we should pray. What do we pray for? Pray that God touch his heart, touch his conscience, let him know that this is wrong. And sometimes the problem gets resolved even before we go to the person. If we pray to the person, God might hear the prayer, touch his heart, convict him, Give them repentance. The person confesses it, forsakes it, and is reconciled to God, and he's restored. I think all of this is under the umbrella of what he says here. God will give him life for those that commit sin, not leading to death. Turn back, oh, about a dozen pages in your Bible to the last two verses of James's epistle. James chapter 5. And James envisages a similar scenario here. Notice the similarity. James 5 verses 19 and 20. Brethren, again, brothers are in view. If anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death. and cover a multitude of sins. You see the similarity there that if you see sin in another brother that's serious enough, go to him and turn him back and you might even save him from death. And that this will cover a multitude of sins. Now, the unusual thing about first John five is that it's not only just talking about this unusual sin unto death. But it even envisages a situation where you don't pray for a person. Now, you may look at that and say, is there a typographical error here, Dr. Daniel, where it says you are not to pray about a person? Did they put in the word not when it's not supposed to be there? No, you're reading it correctly here. It says, I do not say that he should pray about that. That meaning a person that is committing a sin unto death. You need to know the wisdom, according to the Bible, is what is a sin unto death and what is not a sin unto death. You can pray for one, but not about the other. Now you know what I meant. We're dealing with a hard saying. You mean there's a situation where we know someone is in sin as a Christian and we're told not to pray for him? What does this mean? Well, let's look a little bit closer at this. Look at the context. The previous couple of verses is talking about prayer. And last week, we looked into that and some of the ins and outs and the context about according to His will. And you remember that we saw that according to the Word of God, there are certain restrictions on prayer, that there are some things that we should pray for and things that we do not pray for. One of them, for example, is this. We are not to pray for people that are already in heaven or in hell. That's a restriction. It would be out of the bounds of legitimate prayer to pray for those that are beyond our prayers. This is another one of those restrictions. There are unusual cases where there is a person outside the scope of our prayers. Jesus himself gave us an illustration of this in John 17, 9, praying to the Father. He said, I do not pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me. In other contexts, he did pray for the world, like on the cross. He prayed, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. But in the context of that prayer, John 17, he did not pray for everybody, but only for some. So you see, there are certain restrictions on the scope of prayer, and first John five gives us an unusual restriction. Notice the language. I do not say that he should pray about that, which is a roundabout way of saying, do not pray for that situation. Now, it's always useful to see the context and also to do cross references. Are there any other places in the Bible where we see where God says, do not pray about that or that person? Well, I found several. Back in Exodus 32, 10, Israel was in idolatry and in sin, and Moses comes to God and is praying and crying out, Father, forgive them. They're in sin. Do something about this. And God says, no, Moses, don't ask me anymore. I'm going to chasten them. So stop your praying for them. We find this also hundreds of years later in the days of Jeremiah. I found three places where God said this to Jeremiah. 7, 16, 11, 14, and 14, 11. Let me just quote one of those. God says, therefore, do not pray for these people, nor lift up a cry or a prayer for them, nor make intercession to me, for I will not hear you. Now, alluding to those, I suppose that we could apply that prohibition if we know someone that is in a similar situation. We apply the principle to this case and say, well, it's close enough to say, I don't need to pray. God forbids me. He is going to do something and He is not going to hear my prayer. But again, that takes wisdom to apply those principles to individual cases. We're looking at one of those this morning. So, according to this verse, who are the ones here that we are not to pray for? And John tells us, these are brethren that have sinned, this sin unto death. Well, what in the world is that? Well, that's one of the hard sayings. Now, in one sense, all sin is deadly. Look at verse 17. All unrighteousness is sin. And there is sin not leading to death. According to the Bible, in one sense, all sin is fatal and deadly. Romans 6.23, the wages of sin is death. Ezekiel 18.4, the soul that sins shall die. James 1 says sin brings forth death like a mother bringing forth a baby. This is why people die. That's why there is death in the world. Romans five says sin came into the world with Adam and through sin kind of come riding on the piggyback of sin comes death. No sin, no death. There was sin. Therefore, there is death. Bible says lost sinners are spiritually dead and will face physical death and eternal death. Now, before we go any further and try to explain this unusual sin unto death, let's first get one thing clear. All sin deserves death. Spiritual death, physical death, eternal death. We all are born under a death sentence. We deserve to die. And if we die in our sins, we will eternally die. And if that's you, dear friends, we played with you. Repent. Turn from your sins while there is still time before the acts of God's judgment comes and takes you out of this life and you face eternal death in hell, which is called the second death. If that's you, repent. And we pray to God to save you while there is still time. But John is not talking about non-Christians here. He's talking about Christians. Look at the verse again. If anyone sees his brother, not his natural brother, but his brother in Christ. What does he mean here? A brother that is sending a sin unto death and we're told not to pray for that. Well, there are many theories about this sin unto death. Let me just list a few of them, and then we will arrive at the true one. Now, there are various ways that you can handle hard sayings like this, and I'm going to give you an illustration now of how to deal with them. You can do study and collect the different interpretations, test them by the word of God, and frequently you can rattle them off one by one and say, it's not that. It can't be that. That contradicts something else. In other words, process of elimination. Recently I've been rereading the novels and short stories of the world's greatest detective, Sherlock Holmes. And in one of the novels he says to Watson, Watson, once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, has to be the truth. And that's how we often solved his cases. Well, that's how we can solve some hard cases like this by saying, what are the possible options and saying, no, it can't be that because that contradicts scripture or the language or something like that. And you might come to one that seems very improbable, but it's the only one that matches all the factors and the language and the context and the flow of scripture. And you say that has to be it. So let's very briefly eliminate some of the ones that have been put forward. Here's the first one, and maybe you've heard it. This theory says the sin unto death, it is what's called a mortal sin. This is the view of the Roman Catholic Church. Some of you were former Catholics, and if you remember your old Baltimore catechism, it says that there is a venial sin and there is mortal sin. A venial sin is the more common kinds of sins that we do, and God will forgive us, but a mortal sin, oh, that's one leading to death. Immortal, that if you die in that state, You don't go to heaven. You don't even go to purgatory. You go straight to hell, eternal death. So if a Catholic commits a mortal sin, he can't go to Mass. He has to go to the priest, confess his sins, do penance, get absolution. Then he goes to Mass. Oh, if he goes to Mass in a state of mortal sin, he has committed a double mortal sin. He's made things even worse. Well, that's not what it says here, because the Bible doesn't teach that system. We don't have to go to a priest. We don't have to do penance and so forth. But ironically, there is a grain of truth in that interpretation. Now, take that grain of truth and set it somewhere in front of you. We'll get back to it later in the message and you'll see the slight grain of truth in that. Now, there's a second interpretation that is somewhat similar to the Roman Catholic view, and it's this. It's the view put forth by Arminian Christians that are evangelical. They're not Catholic. And their view is this. Well, the sin unto death is a sin that a Christian can commit that causes him to lose his salvation. And if he loses his salvation, he'll go to hell. So it's one that leads to death. Now, they're not unanimous on what this is. Some say it's a sin where you consciously give up your faith in your salvation. Others say it's when you deny Christ. After all, Jesus said, he that denies me before men, I'll deny before my Father in heaven. Or they will say it's a deliberate sin rather than a sin of weakness. Or doing one sin too many and God says, that's it, you forfeited your salvation. I've also heard of another view of this relatively recently, where a man said, no, you can lose your salvation. And he himself said he had lost and regained his salvation many times over the years. And I said, well, what kind of a sin is it that causes you to lose your salvation? He said, well, it's a sin of death. And I said, such as? He said, well, Romans and Ephesians and Galatians and a few other places gives you a list of sins It says that if you commit those, you do not inherit the kingdom of God. So if a Christian commits any of those sins, he loses his salvation. He has to repent, get born again and get saved again. And I said, really? He said, yes, it talks about murder and adultery and idolatry. And I said, did you notice one of those lists also includes covetousness? He said, what? I said, now, are you going to say that when a person covets something, let's say, you know, you see something on TV or down at the mall and he covets it, he forfeits his salvation? He said, well, I said, it's in your list. Now, this is what the Arminian view is, that you can commit a sin, whatever kind it is, and you lose your salvation. No point to Hebrews 6 and Hebrews 10 and places like that. But did you see the mistake? It's the same problem as the Roman Catholic idea. Their mistake is that a Christian can do something to lose the salvation. But that contradicts scripture. John 10, 28, Jesus said, I give my sheep eternal life and they shall never perish. Eternal life. Remember, we looked at that a few weeks ago in 1 John 5. Never perish. And there are a host of other verses that tell us very explicitly a Christian cannot do something to lose or forfeit his salvation. So, whatever this sin unto death is, it is not a sin that causes a Christian to die and lose his salvation and to go to hell. OK, we've eliminated two or three of these. Let's look at another one. Another theory is that, well, this sounds like what Jesus said in Matthew 12, this unforgivable sin called the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Maybe you've heard of it. That's another hard text. I don't think it's the same thing, because here it's talking about a brother. If a person commits the unpardonable sin, it's unpardonable. Jesus said in this life or the next, no salvation. Whereas for a Christian, he cannot lose his salvation. Therefore, he cannot commit the unpardonable sin. Now, here's another one, and I'm not going to go on down a long list. Let me just mention this is number. What is it? Four or five? Someone says, well, it says here leading to death, and that's physical death, meaning a sin that is also a capital crime that deserves a death penalty in the Bible mentions oh eighteen or twenty of those and so they said well there you have and they are even argue like this will even in civil law you have misdemeanors And felonies, misdemeanor, they usually either let you off with a warning or they give you a fine, but oh, a felony. That's where you go to the jug. That's where you go to the state penitentiary. And they say in the same way, there are certain felonies that require the death penalty. So they say, here it is. Here's the interpretation. They say, if you see a brother in Christ commit a sin that deserves the death penalty, don't pray for him. Pray instead that he would repent and such and such. Now, of course, there's some Christians that say, oh, no, that could never happen. A Christian do such a crime. But remember, David committed murder and other Christians have been known in some weakness or time of passion to commit a serious sin that is actually a crime deserving The death penalty. A Christian might conceivably commit a capital crime such as murder and be subject to the death penalty. Now, before we go any further on that, whether that's what's talked about in 1 John 5, let's strike while the iron's hot. What should we do in such a case? Now, most of you have probably never faced that sort of a dilemma, but I have. You know that I write to prison inmates regularly. I've written to about 30 of them in this last week. These are guys doing hard time. One of them is doing 279 years out in California. He ain't never getting out. I've written to people on death row. Some of you know about that case a couple of years ago that I mentioned to a couple of you. This fellow over in Indiana was on death row, and the time of his execution was coming up, and he kept writing to me saying, you know, they're going to execute me, but I'm innocent. We looked into it, and the guy was just guilty as sin of murdering a policeman. So he said, help, would you write a letter to the governor? Would you do this? Would you pray that I get a commuted sentence or something like that? Maybe they'll give me life. And I finally wrote back. I said, buddy, You're wasting your time. You are guilty. You need to repent and get right with God, because they were going to be executing you very soon. And they did. So what was my advice to him? I said, get right with God. I said, if you're not a Christian, you need to repent and prepare to meet your God. Now, if you are a Christian, as you say you are, and I don't know if you are, but you say you are. Then you need to stop stalling for time and accept the sentence. In other words, kind of like, don't pray that you would get some sort of last minute reprieve, but instead pray for repentance, pray that you would die with a clean slate or something like that. Kind of an unusual case. Still, this text here doesn't seem to have anything in it that suggests a Christian that's facing a civil death penalty. Rather, it refers to a serious sin that a Christian might commit, but does not cause him to lose his salvation or face capital punishment. Yet, in some sense, it brings death. Let me give you a clue. Kind of like Sherlock Holmes collecting clues. There are places in the Old Testament, such as Numbers 15 and Numbers 35, that does differentiate two kinds of sin. Remember, that's like here, two kinds of sins. We're not talking venial and moral Catholic idea, but the Bible itself says there were sins of ignorance and sins of deliberation. The sins of ignorance is like you didn't know it at the time. There is an offering that you can offer and God will forgive you. Ah, but sins of deliberation, called sins with a high hand, it says there's no sacrifice for those. You are under God's hand of justice, implying You are under a death penalty. You have committed a certain kind of sin. God says, that's it. Justice will come in. Hebrews seems to be implying that in chapter six and chapter ten. Now, when we read those places, friends, that should cause us to breathe heavily and to think very seriously. Those passages are a stern warning to us. First, it's a stern warning to unbelievers. But also, it's a stern warning to believers, such as what's envisaged here. Now, brethren, here's where this gets real serious. We're talking about a brother committing such a heinous kind of sin that is bringing on death to him and that even his closest brothers and sisters in Christ are told, don't pray for him anymore. That sounds very serious. And we should look at ourselves. This is telling us, if not anything else, it's telling us Do not trifle with sin. God takes it serious. Yes, there may be different levels and varieties of sin, but they're all wrong and we shouldn't trifle with any of them. Even if we are believers that are forgiven. So these are the major explanations, but as I've shown, they contradict other things in scripture so we can dismiss them. So, my dear Watson, what one is left? Only one, and it's the only one that fits the context, the language, and other places in scripture and the theology of the Bible, and that's this. The sin that's unto death here is evidently some kind of sin that a believer can commit. that leads to physical death, not spiritual death. Spiritual death, we've already seen, is eternal life that can never be forfeited. Once you are spiritually alive, you are always spiritually alive. Even when you physically die, your spirit is alive. It can never be forfeited. That's not what's in view here. What's in view here is some sort of physical death. But perhaps it can be affected by the sin in a believer that brings it on. And he needs restoration. So the question then is, can a Christian, a true blood-bought, born-again child of God, commit a sin that is of such a nature that it brings God's death upon him, as it were, that he will die before his normal time, as we would say? Does the Bible ever envisage that? Yes, it does. Let me show you a couple of places. Turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. And here is where John's fellow apostle Paul is also being strict, serious and perhaps even stern. Starting at verse 27, therefore, whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord, talking about communion in an unworthy manner, will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. Stop right there. He's not just talking about non-Christians partaking. Non-Christians are not entitled to partake of communion. It's for believers. Just like believers' baptism is only for believers, communion is only for believers. But he's talking about unbelievers partaking communion in an unworthy way. He's already talked about some of them coming to communion drunk or greedy or unconfessed sin of a serious nature. What should they do? Verse 28. Let a man examine himself, because if he eats in an unworthy way, he's guilty of the body and blood of Christ. And then if he examines himself, then let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. In other words, examine himself and repent, and then he's eligible to eat. Verse 29, for he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner, eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. Now here is the coup de grace, verse 30. For this reason, many are weak and sick among you and many sleep. Well, the sick and the ill, we can understand that, but what is the sleep? You're not talking about people falling asleep in church or at home or they're too lazy or sleepy to get out of bed and come to church on Sunday. He's not talking about that. He's talking about people that have died the death of sleep. The Bible uses that as a metaphor. Christian sleep. They use that language to talk about Lazarus. They said Lazarus is dead. He said, no, he's sleeping. They said, sleeping nothing, he's dead. And it says Jesus was talking about the sleep of death. So it's talking about here about a Christian that because of his gross, unrepented sin, God has chastened them, he has made them weak or sick, where God has even taken his life. You can see this is a serious matter, brethren. Why? Because of the context here. The table of the Lord, brethren, is nothing to be trifled with. This is holy communion. We are coming close to God. Now, the elements do not physically change. There's no hocus pocus magic, but this is a holy ordinance ordained by God. Therefore, when we come before God, we should come with utmost seriousness, repentance, humility, reverence, faith, love, holy virtues, not in a slapdash manner, not in a trivial way saying, well, we do this every week and I'm taking it for granted. Never take it for granted. Or people that come here and they're chuckling and joking about this. Or their mind is wandering somewhere else. Or as Paul says, some of them even come and drunk to the table of the Lord. And in such cases, they are submitting themselves to God's chastening. I mean, they're right in the bullseye of God's chastisement if they dare. This is what's called sacrilege. If you dare come to the table of the Lord or any other holy ordinance, like when you read the Bible or baptism or something like that, and you come with impure motives, with unconfessed, gross, heinous sin, you are subjecting yourself to severe chastening from God, because God loves His children too much to let them come in such an attitude and desecrate His holy ordinances. Pretty serious. A sin unto death, as it was here in Corinth. Are there any others? Perhaps. Perhaps especially heinous sins that I'd need to go into. There would be examples in Scripture. Again, we'd need the wisdom to see not every sin rises to the same level. Now, some Christians say all sins are equal. No, all sins are not equal. In John 1911, Jesus himself said, He that delivered me to you, Pilate, is guilty of a greater sin. Some sins are greater than others, and some would require chastening with weakness, sickness or even death. But not all rise to that level. Now, again, some will say, Pastor Daniel, no true Christian could commit such a heinous sin that would require this. I'm sorry, you're wrong. Read your Bible. What about David? Man after God's own heart. Murder, adultery, lies to his people and covers it up. And then a noble prophet comes to him and says, you are the man, David. And God says that to us as well. Who are we to say, oh no, I could never do such a thing. Then look in the mirror of your own heart. Search your own memory. Remember, David, as a pastor, I have counseled Christians that have told me things they've done that you would not believe. You say, oh, that couldn't be a Christian. Christians are still have indwelling sin. We are still capable of committing heinous sins that require severe chastening. Now granted, as 1 John has said several times in his letter, a true Christian does not stay in permanent sin. He may commit a very serious sin, but God might bring him back. Or he might cling to a very serious, heinous sin. And when he clings to it for a period of time, we call that backsliding. Do we find examples of God chastening severe sins with severe chastening? Yes. Acts chapter 5. Ananias and Sapphira conspired together to lie to the apostles, lie to the church out of pride to make themselves look good. And when Peter confronted them, one by one they fell dead in front of the church. Sounds serious to me. Later, the apostle Paul blinded a man. Yes, God is love, but God does not take sin lightly. By the way, talking about Peter and Paul there, note that we are not apostles or prophets that have the authority to strike people dead or blind. And yet, Christians do sometimes backslide into certain very serious areas of sin, and God will deal with them. When I ministered back in Texas many years ago, we had a man like that in our church. He knew his Bible. He'd been to seminary. He witnessed. He had many strong virtues, but he had one weakness that we didn't know about until it caught up with him. He'd been playing around with homosexuality, which the Bible says is a gross sin. It's a heinous sin. And it caught up with him. And he came to some of us and said, I have sinned. And he had contracted HIV and AIDS. And it went downhill. It was awful. It was ghastly to see him die over the space of two years. But he never blamed God. He was repentant. He said, God is taking my life. I have committed a gross sin and I have no one to blame. I think that would fit into this category of a person committing a sin unto death. And those of us that knew him said, should we pray for him? And he says, no, God is chasing me unto death. That's a serious matter. Turn back a couple of pages in First Corinthians to chapter five. Paul spoke strongly to the Corinthians, and we need to hear strong language as well. Chapter 5, verse 5, talking about a person committing gross sexual immorality. Verse 1, such as most even Gentiles wouldn't do. He's committing incest. So he's calling upon church discipline. He says, I'm going to approve of this. Verse 3, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 4, put him out. Discipline him. Now he's talking about a Christian here, a brother. Verse five, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. That could include delivering him for the destruction of his body as sin unto death, saying the person has sinned so heinously and is not repentant of it. We're disciplining him and say, Lord, if you want to take his life, he has committed such a sin and if he does not repent, God would be absolutely just to chasten him even unto death. So in extreme cases of church discipline, God might do this. Notice I said God himself. It's not to the church to execute those that they excommunicate. Unlike medieval Catholic church inquisition, we do not have the right to put to death anyone, even church members that are under discipline. What about the state? Well, the state has the power of the sword to execute those that are guilty of civil crimes, but that might be in view in a case like this. The point is, in extreme cases of unrepentant, heinous sin, God might discipline that person with death. There's an old saying, maybe you've heard it. Dealing with a backslider, it says, God will either bring a backslidden Christian back or bring him home. So, if by applying biblical wisdom we are able to discern that a person is in such a situation as described in 1 John 5, committing a sin unto death, What should we do? Look at the text again. John says, don't pray for him. Pray for the others that have committed a sin that does not lead to death. Pray for him, for God to give him repentance and restore him. But for those that are committing this sin unto death, if In using biblical wisdom, you can identify that perhaps in the context of wisdom of the church and church discipline. What do we do? Well, we're told we do not pray for God to reverse the sentence once it had become obvious, such as that person that developed AIDS. There's no cure for AIDS. He said, I have a death sentence on me, just like that criminal in Indiana. I have a death sentence. It looked at that point. This looks like it's God's intervention. With death, so we are not to pray for God to reverse the sentence once it is become obvious God is intervening. Perhaps we can pray for God. To take him home. If God is working providentially in this area where it's looking like he is taking the person home with eyes of wisdom, we might go along with that. You see, it's indirectly similar to another situation. And we saw that here not too long ago, when a Christian is dying, and they reach the point where the doctors say, we can't save his life. What do we do? We give the person to God, because the time will come in our lives, we'll say, that's me. I'm ready to go home. And you know the famous story about the great Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, who was a doctor who became a Christian. But when he was dying, other people were praying, Lord, keep him alive, oh, the Dr. Lloyd-Jones. And Ian Murray wrote about this in the biography of Lloyd-Jones. He says he would go to the doctor with tears and say, we're still praying. The doctor said, Ian, stop praying for me. Don't hold me back from the glory. God is taking me home. Stop. Pray. Pray in another way. Pray that my death would be glorifying to him, but stop praying that I not die. You see the point. There are certain cases in the life of a Christian where we do not pray, Lord, keep him alive, but rather, Lord, you are taking his life. Give him a good death. It will be glorifying to you. There's an indirect similarity between that and the one here. Perhaps pray that the Lord might give him repentance, even though the Lord will take away the person's life. God Himself is acting, and if He says, do not pray, we do not pray. Now remember, this is an extenuating case, usually very rare. I don't think I can think of more than maybe five that I have ever dealt with in my personal experience. But there's something else. This is where it really gets serious. Boy, pass it down. You're knocking the wind out of me this morning. This is a serious thing. It gets more serious. If anyone sees his brother sinning this kind of a sin. What if you see yourself doing this in the mirror? What if you see in the light of God's word, you are the one that's committing the sin unto death? Or you're not sure if you are committing a serious sin that has reached that level or not. What should you do? You should get real serious before God and say, Lord, I've trifled with sin long enough. I've backstabbed the Lord. Are you leading me into a situation where you will take my life in chastening? Get serious with God. Examine yourself, not just That certain sinner that maybe I should or should not pray for, should I go to him and talk to him? But what if it's you? Repent. If this message is speaking about you, God's word for you is repent the sooner the better, the harder the better. By seeking the face of the Lord, if you don't know if it's a sin unto death or not, seek God's face. God may yet reverse the situation. You do not yet know. There's a case like that in the book of Isaiah. King Hezekiah, who had been playing around with sin and idolatry, and here comes Isaiah the prophet and said, Hezekiah, set your house in order for you shall die and not live. Hezekiah was a righteous man, but he had this sin in his life. And he said, Hezekiah, you're going to die. And yet it goes on to say, he repented and he saw the face of the Lord with tears. God said, Isaiah, go back to him and say, God has seen your tears, he's seen your repentance, and he's going to extend your life. So if you don't know where you are, imitate Hezekiah. You may not know which side of the ledger you are on this in 1 John 5, but seek the face of the Lord and pray for yourself. Furthermore, brethren, let's wrap it up at this point. We've dealt with a hard verse and a hard case with hard applications. Pray for guidance and wisdom as you deal with others and with yourself. You see, in these matters, we are not infallible. Only God is infallible. Be careful you do not jump too hastily and say, that person has committed sin unto death. He may have. He may not have. It takes extra wisdom to say that. Same thing for yourself. Be careful. Secondly, brethren, I realize this is a hard lesson today because it's a hard saying, but we've tied together several other serious truths in the Bible that we need to be aware of. When we look at verses like this and the other ones we've turned to, this reminds us just how serious sin is and how holy God is. And we need to remember that in our lives. And in our prayers, let us pray. Father, we've looked at some very serious subjects this morning. We ask that you would put the searchlight on our hearts, touch our consciences. Before we would confront another or even pray for another, we would first pray for ourselves. Father, see the sin that's in us and give us repentance. Grant that we would confess it without excuse. And in repenting of it, we would again believe your promise of forgiveness. Give us wisdom, Father, as we apply these words to ourselves and to our brothers and sisters in Christ. Guide us by your spirit. And help us to see these things as You see them. In the holy name of Jesus our Lord, we pray. Amen.