If you have your Bibles, please turn with me in them to 1 John 5. Looking this evening at verses 15 and 16. Excuse me, 16 and 17. The title of the sermon, Pray for Each Other. Throughout this final chapter, we've been considering a thematic chain of assertions related to the confidence that we have in the Christian life. 1 John is a book that is intended to draw us into fullness of joy. It's a book that's intended to draw us into confidence in our Christian life. The man who believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God is born of God, we began in 1 John 5. This witness of God exists in heaven and upon earth and also in our hearts. through the Holy Spirit of God. Our confidence in our position in Christ then gives us confidence, as we talked about last week and as we considered also in our time this morning, to trust God's intentions toward us and so seek unto the Lord's will and receive those things that we asked of Him as we talked last week about asking and receiving in prayer. And this week we turn our minds Back to the brethren. As we near the finishing of our study of this epistle, we've spent a good amount of time on this command that we have in the scriptures to love the brethren. We spent, I believe, five weeks asking the question, what does loving the brethren look like? And we walked through all of the various elements of loving the brethren as we find it in the scriptures, how it is that we are called to invest in one another. And we're going to consider that again this week in a slightly different way through the context of prayer. Now we were talking about prayer last week. We remain in that context this week. Recall last time we were compelled to ask so that we might receive those things that are the will of God for us. Our text is, in a manner of speaking, more controversial this week. We're coming into a question, we're coming into a phrase that instills some questions in our minds. So we read in verses 16 and 17 of 1 John chapter 5, All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not unto death." Okay, so at this point, we've been studying 1 John for a while now. This is message 30. We have a precedent of interpretation that we have carried through our understanding of John, and a catalog of context at this point. Let's start working through, then, what we have established and what we've thought through as it relates to the ideas that we're seeing here. First, as the text says, So first we see this idea, once again, of a brother. Now, it's been a little while since we talked about the concept as John uses it in the book of 1 John related to brother. And what we came to in our study, the conclusion we came to, is that this is not talking about a blood kin, blood brother, in that sense, but this is talking about someone who has accepted Christ as their Savior, as we have accepted Christ as our Savior, and so we are brothers and sisters in Christ. In consistency with our context since the beginning of 1 John, we are going to interpret this as an interaction with another believer. Not with blood relatives, but with, as it were, spiritual relatives. So when John says, if a man sees a brother or his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, we're talking about interaction within the church, right? When we talk about loving the brother, when we talk about praying for our brethren, we are talking about interactions within the group of people who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior, and so they are a part of the family of God by grace through faith. Two people who have both accepted Christ have a relationship then one with another, and of course most fundamentally, while we understand that there are people who have accepted Christ who we interact with throughout the course of our lives, most fundamentally, this idea, as we talked about it earlier in the book, this idea of those who we are to love, those who we feel obligated unto, those who we are connected to, this is most clearly realized through the connection that is found in the local church. So that as we're thinking through this call, yes, certainly there are brothers and sisters in Christ that you are close to that are not in this church, but to those of you who have connected yourself to this church, we would understand one another to be the most natural outworking of this idea here. And as we always do with our interpretive method, we fall back upon what I have labeled in the past the principle of compounding clarity. And the idea of that principle is that we do not threaten doctrines which are more clear in order to explain statements that are less clear. So when we have clear statements in the Word of God, such as believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, we are not going to allow something which is ambiguous and less clear to necessarily threaten the clarity and the simplicity of that statement. as long as there is some other possible explanation for the less clear or more ambiguous statement, which does not threaten the foundational clear doctrine, then we favor that interpretation. Now, only when there is no rational, reasonable, theological explanation for a passage within the context, then one that would threaten a foundational doctrine, would we ever threaten a foundational doctrine for that context? And at that point, we are then compelled to rethink how we understand those clearer, more consistent or foundational doctrines in order to be consistent with these other passages of Scripture. So that's kind of, recall, how we work that out and how we think through that process together. Now, as we think through this related to what we find here in 1 John 5, verses 16 and 17. The word death, as we understand it in the scriptures, means separation. Its first use in the Bible, we studied a while ago in the book of Genesis, in our morning series, was to describe the death that Adam and Eve experienced at the moment that they partook of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. At that moment, God promised them that the day that they partook of that fruit, they would surely die. Now, we know that in that moment, they did not keel over dead. We know in that moment, the immaterial part of them did not separate from the material part of them, and they fell over and they ceased to be living in the sense of biological life. However, what we do understand is in that moment when they sinned, when they partook of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, in that moment, they knew that they were naked and they hid themselves in shame and in fear. And what we see experienced there when they hid themselves in shame and in fear is a spiritual separation from God. That the life of joy, that the life of innocence, that that life which they had otherwise been living, that they had previously known of virtue was destroyed, was removed from them and they became guilty before God and thus they were separated from God. So then as we think through this idea, the first and most natural idea of a sin unto death would be to see this as the sin that leads to an eternal separation from God. The sin unto eternal separation from God. And in this eternal sense, We would think of, okay, well, what is that sin that is the eternal separation from God? Well, what we know about this sin is that it would have to rest outside of the forgiveness that is found in Christ. And there are a couple of ways that this might be understood biblically, but the only one that really makes sense in our context for the sin unto death for a sin that is outside of the forgiveness of Christ is the idea that Jesus speaks of in Matthew chapter 12 verse 31. In that passage Jesus says this, but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men." So, we think of the idea of sin unto death. Again, there's a couple of possible different ways that we could talk about sin unto death if we're in the context of eternal death. But the most natural way might be a sin that rests outside of Christ's forgiveness. Now Jesus speaks of this thing which is often called in various circles the unforgivable sin. Jesus says that God will forgive all manner of sin except one, and that sin is blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. And let's just discuss what this sin is, because it's one of those things that if you interact with people who are of various other denominations and of other faith systems, of other religious systems, this is something that they might bring up, that they might struggle with, that there might be questions about what is the unforgivable sin? What does it mean to blaspheme the Holy Ghost? And once again, We use what I call the principle of compounding clarity. We allow that which is clear to interpret that which is unclear. So let's walk through a chain of thought. Walk through it with me this evening if you would. There's a singular sin, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which God will not forgive. Well, we then compare this with Jesus' teaching to Nicodemus in 1 John 3, verses 16-18. Now, did I say 1 John? If I said 1 John, I didn't mean 1 John. John 3, 16. And it's because I put 1 John 3 in my notes, so that's why I said 1 John. I didn't mean 1 John. John 3, 16-18. In John 3, 16, of course, we have that very well-known gospel verse. Most of us have memorized it. Most of us know it. But it's very important that we continue when we're reading John 3.16. In 1 John, I'm quoting John. I'm struggling a little bit this evening. It's very important that we continue in John. I encourage you, if you've memorized John 3.16, memorize it all the way to verse 18. You can go past that, but I really encourage you to memorize to verse 18 so that you can share the gospel in perhaps a little bit more of a complete way. We know John 3, 16, the Bible says, Jesus says, He goes on to say this though. Notice verse 18. but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." All right, so Jesus says back in Matthew, he says that all manner of sin will be forgiven against Christ, but blasphemy against the Holy Ghost will not be forgiven. That's Matthew 12, 31. Then Jesus says to Nicodemus in John 3, 16 through 18, that he that believeth on the Son of God, that he that believeth on Jesus Christ is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already. because he hath not believed in the name of the Son of God." Okay, so we have this offense against Christ, which is the offense of unbelief. However, Jesus said all manner of sin against Christ would be forgiven. And then we have this idea from Matthew 12 of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, for which men will not be forgiven. So then we ask the question, as we're thinking through this, is there a way, is there some link between the Holy Spirit and believing on the name of Jesus Christ to be saved, so that we can reconcile these two seemingly contradictory passages one with another. And indeed, there is. And we find that, and I've read it before in 1 John, we find it in John 16. In John 16, speaking of the Holy Spirit, Jesus said this in verses 7 through 11. He said, This comforter is the Holy Spirit. We've established that earlier in the book. When He has come, He will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Of sin, because they believe not on me. Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more. Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. Okay, so think through this with me. Jesus tells his disciples that when he leaves, it would be expedient that he goes away, because when he goes away, the Holy Spirit will come. And when the Holy Spirit comes, Jesus said that one of the things the Spirit of God would do is that he would reprove the world. And he would reprove the world or convict the world of sin, righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin, he says, because they believe not on me. Of righteousness, because I go to my father and you see me no more. And of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. So if the function of the Holy Spirit in the world, if God, if when Jesus ascends to heaven, God will send the Holy Spirit of God down, the comforter, to work in the hearts of believers, but not just to work in the hearts of believers, but also to do this thing in the world. Thinking all the way back to what we saw in 1 John 2, verse 2. that Jesus Christ is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also the sins of the whole world. So there is a work that was done for the whole world. went on the cross, and the whole world is not necessarily a recipient of that gift, because they have rejected that gift when they rejected Jesus Christ, when they have not believed on his name, but that the Spirit of God is busy in the world convincing and convicting every man of this sin, this sin of unbelief, the reality of Jesus Christ's righteousness, and of sure future judgment if they do not come to Christ. So if the Holy Spirit of God functions to reprove the world of their sin of unbelief, and that sin of unbelief rests in the fact that they have not believed on the name of the only begotten Son to be saved, then can we not put those together and say that to refuse to believe on the name of the Son of God, to refuse to believe in the name of Jesus Christ, is to reject the work of the Holy Spirit of God in my heart, which blasphemes his ministry, so that when a man stands before God on judgment day, all sins will be forgiven through the finished work of Christ on the cross. He's the propitiation for our sin and not for ours only, but also the sin of the entire world, except one. And that one sin for which they will not be forgiven, is the sin of those who blasphemed the convicting work, the name of the Holy Spirit of God, by refusing his work, calling them to believe on the name of the Son to be forgiven. And so they'll be cast into the lake of fire. Now, it is entirely possible that this is the sin which John speaks here, this sin unto death, as long as we take his meaning very carefully. Notice that in relation to a brother, John says that the sin that this brother would be committing is a sin not unto death. So John commands the brother to pray for another brother regarding sins that he commits which are already under the blood of Jesus Christ, the kind of sins which 1 John 1 verse 9 says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And within this interpretation then, John would be contrasting these sins, the sins which a brother commits following his forgiveness, following salvation in Jesus Christ, with the sins that another is committing, namely the sin of rejecting Christ. And of course, if we think about this in context, In 1 John, this would be the sins committed by those, probably specifically the false teachers who John is rebuking in this book, who deny that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. If we go all the way back to the beginning of 1 John 5, So when one is born of God, then he is still going to sin. 1 John 1 tells us if we say we have no sin, we're a liar and the truth is not in us. We've deceived ourselves. So we're still going to sin, but if we confess our sin, He's faithful, He's just to forgive us our sin, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. However, there is a sin unto death, and that is what Jesus talks about in Matthew 12, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. which we can connect to John 3, 16, believing on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved, which comes together in John 16, where it tells us that the work of the Spirit of God in the hearts of unbelievers is to convince them, to reprove them, to convict their hearts of the reality of Jesus' finished work on the cross. And those men would be sinning a sin which is unto death. And John says, don't pray for them, For Jesus has already taught us, or you don't have to pray for them. He doesn't say don't pray for them. But John says you don't have to pray for them because Jesus has already taught us that for one who is denying the person the work of Jesus Christ, they are outside of faith. And since they are outside of faith, whatsoever is not of faith is sin. To pray for any sort of a clarity or a restoration or a giving of life here, we'll discuss what that means here in a little bit, to pray for that for one who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior is to pray for something which is not going to happen outside of them accepting Christ. So instead, Pray for those who are struggling with the sins of the flesh, those who are wrestling with their sin nature, perhaps losing the battle to keep their hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. And this is good interpretation, I think, as long as we don't overextend the context to imply One of two things. First, that, as we'll talk about in a little bit, that somehow believers can confer forgiveness for sin. We'll talk about why that's not what the Bible says here. And second, the idea that a believer can lose his salvation, sin a sin unto death, if death is in fact separation from God for eternity. And we've talked several times already about the fact throughout the book of 1 John that we do not see anywhere in the scriptures that lends us to the idea that a believer can, once they have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior, lose their salvation. Now it is entirely possible, and again, we can think through that a little bit more in just a moment. We've referenced several times throughout the book of 1 John, the statement that the Bible makes regarding salvation, do not lend themselves to this transaction of accepting Jesus Christ as being reversible. Again, I encourage you to go back in 1 John if you weren't here or if you do not recall those messages and you're still struggling with this idea of, can I lose my salvation? Even as we consider the nature of the Holy Spirit's witness in our hearts just a couple of weeks ago, we saw the Holy Spirit described in two ways. The Holy Spirit was described as the earnest of our inheritance, the down payment of that which is to come. That God has promised us that one day we will be saved and we will be redeemed and we will be brought. into his kingdom, and the Holy Spirit of God exists in our hearts to be a small glimmer, a shadow of all that is to come as he bears his fruit in our lives and as we live in a manner that is right before God, but is also said of the Holy Spirit that he is our seal, that through him we are sealed until the day of redemption. The sealing ministry of the Holy Spirit, however, only makes sense if, in fact, we're sealed. We stay sealed. What does it mean that we are sealed until the day of redemption if somehow we can have the Holy Spirit of God at some point and not make it to the day of redemption? It really doesn't make much sense. And as we've talked about before in various other contexts, How can a person who is born again become unborn? A person who is born can certainly die, but how can something that is born become unborn? How can one who is a new creation, who has been transformed in Christ, be uncreated, be untransformed? How can I be plucked out of the hand of one who says in the book of John, no man can pluck you out of my hand? So the context here gives us no reason to assume that this idea of a sin unto death, if it does mean eternal damnation or hell or the lake of fire, no reason to assume that a brother could sin this sin if indeed this were the case. In the context of the brother, it's a sin that is not unto death. Why would a sin unto death be spoken of here? Well, because we are in a book that is dealing with a great deal of error. people who were espousing a great deal of error. And within the context, the scenario that we find is praying for a brother that is sinning a sin not unto death, a sin that is under the blood of Christ but must be confessed and forsaken by those who have already believed on the name of God to be saved, on the name of Christ. Now, there are a couple other possible explanations for the idea of sending a sin unto death. So far, all I've covered is the idea that this is the lake of fire. This is the idea that when a person dies, he is judged by God, he is found guilty, and he ends up in the place of eternal conscious torment called the lake of fire. However, death is used in a couple of other contexts in the Bible, right? The word death can speak of biological death or physical death. The separation of the material man from the immaterial parts of man. When the heart stops beating and the man stops breathing and his body returns to the dust from which he was made. And so, John could be speaking of that as a sin unto death. And if he was, well, it would be a very, very narrow application. We could interpret it in two ways. That would either mean a sin that leads to the death of one committing a sin, right? So a sin that leads to my own death, or a sin that leads to the death of another. Some have taken this to mean murder or self-murder. That's the idea of suicide and the like. And while this is possible, and it's kind of this passage from which is drawn the Catholic idea of suicide being an unforgivable sin, a sin unto death, that also connects to the fact that they believe that you cannot confess that sin before you die, and because you cannot confess that sin, then that sin cannot be forgiven, and thus it's an unforgivable sin and these sorts of things, none of which we find in the Word of God. This would be one of the places that they might go to in order to find some sort of biblical basis for that idea. And while in one sense we would say it's possible because the word death can mean that, it's very unlikely. And there's a couple of reasons. First, it's oddly specific. Why separate between sins that don't involve death? and sins that do. And why could one not pray for someone who has perhaps killed someone else? Paul was a murderer, and after Paul meets the Lord on the road, does God not command Ananias to pray for him? And so we don't really see a consistency there. Second, There simply isn't anything within the context of 1 John about murder or self-murder or death or anything of the sort. That wasn't the problem in the church unto whom John wrote. The problem was not that they were dealing with anger or murder, not even the James 4 idea of murdering people in their hearts. False teaching was the problem. Confusion about sanctification was the problem. Why then, all of a sudden, are we talking about a sin unto death if that death is just murder? Doesn't really make much sense. So we discard that one on the fact that, within the context, that doesn't really make any sense. And then the final possible interpretation for the idea of sin unto death, we've seen death as an eternal death, the lake of fire. We've seen death as in physical or biological death. The third way that we find this word death used in the Bible is how it was used earlier in the book of 1 John. We see this word appear only one other time in 1 John, that's in 1 John 3, verse 14, where the Bible says this, So here we see precedent for the idea of a different sort of death in the idea of abiding in death. That someone who has passed from eternal death to eternal life can still, if he is not loving his brother, abide in death. So he's passed out of death, but he's still abiding in death. This is like the idea, and I give this from time to time when I'm sharing the gospel, I also give this from time to time when I'm talking about sanctification. This is like the idea of a person who has been set free from prison, or who has been redeemed from the gutter. He was sitting in the gutter, and he was in torn and ragged clothes, and he was hungry, and he was starving. And the king comes by, and the king looks at this torn, tattered clothes, starving man, and he picks him up, and he puts him on his horse, and he takes him to the palace, and he cleans him up, and he gives him beautiful clothes, and he sets him at the banquet table. and that person is fed, and that person is clothed, and that person is comfortable, and then he says, well, thank you, and he pushes himself away from the table, and he leaves the castle, and he goes, and he sits back down in that gutter, and he lives in torn clothes, and he's hungry again, and though he has been redeemed from that, though he has been brought out of that, though he has been placed at the table of the king, he is still sitting in the gutter, living in the death from which he's been delivered. And so we see that sort of an idea here in 1 John chapter 3. A brother who is living in rebellion to the very nature into which he has been born again. Who is walking in the flesh rather than walking in the spirit. Who is abiding in death rather than abiding in Christ. But this doesn't really make sense either in the context of 1 John 5. We see it here in 1 John 3, but in 1 John 5 verses 16 and 17, it doesn't really make sense in this context. See, Romans chapter 6 verse 23 tells me that the wages of sin is death, right? That when I sin, the functional result of that sin, whether I'm a believer or not, when Paul is writing that in Romans chapter 6, he's writing it to believers. Remember, the beginning of Romans 6 says, what should we say then? Should we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. So we're writing to believers who have received the grace of God that Romans 1 through 5 talk about. And now Paul is talking about how to live in that grace. But he warns those believers that the wages of sin is death, that when I sin, There is a separation. It is not a separation unto eternal hellfire. It is a separation in fellowship from God. I've given the illustration before. My wife and I are married. Fancy that. We've been married now for almost 15 years. We have been married for 15 years in May. When my wife and I got married, we came to the altar. She said, I do. I said, I do. Not in that order. And then we got married. We bound ourselves one to another with a covenant. Do you? I do. Do you? I do. Yes, we do. We did. Now, my wife and I have not gotten along every single day since the day we went to that altar. That may surprise you as well, but my wife and I have not always gotten along. There have been times where I have done something wrong and I have offended her, or she has done something wrong and she has offended me. And when that happens, we do not become unmarried. But there is a natural distance that is put between my wife and I by nature of the fact that there is something between us. There is an offense between us. Now, when it is time for whoever did the wrong to humble themselves and to make it right, we do not have to go find a preacher and go back to the altar and get married again. We are already married. We are already bound by that covenant. It is simply for us to acknowledge our fault, humble ourselves before the other, and reconcile that relationship to be brought back into relationship and fellowship one with another. And the same idea exists as it relates to our relationship with God, right? That the wages of sin is always death. That when I sin, there is a separation that is put between me and God. I do not become unsaved. I do not lose my salvation. If I am a child of God, I am sealed until the day of redemption. I am born again. I am transformed. However, I have, through my sin, been separated in fellowship. from God. Okay, so we know this idea. The wages of sin is death. That's why it doesn't make sense in this context. How is it possible then that there is a sin not unto death if that's what we're talking about here? There is no sin not unto death. It's a death that John is talking about here. It's simply a loss of fellowship. There can't be a sin not unto death because every sin, the wages of sin, is that death, that separation from God. So that doesn't make sense, all right? So it doesn't really make sense that the wages of sin is, because the wages of sin is death, it doesn't make sense that we're talking about separation from God in the fellowship sense here. And it doesn't really make sense that we're talking about biological death, the sin unto death here, because it's oddly specific and outside of context. That lends us to the idea that the death that is the sin unto death is eternal death. But as we think of it that way, we do it with this careful framework in mind that the sin unto death, there's nothing in this verse or in these verses that says that that sin unto death is a threat to the believer. The brother here is sinning a sin not unto death. The sin unto death would be those false teachers who are leading others astray, who are teaching that Jesus is not the Christ, who are teaching that Jesus has not come in the flesh, they have rejected the person and work of Jesus Christ. They are living and they are sending the sin unto death in the manner in which they have rejected Christ. Thus, by rejecting Christ, rejecting the work of the gospel, the convicting work of the Holy Spirit through the gospel, thus blaspheming the Holy Spirit of God, thus Matthew chapter 12, the unforgivable sin. I hope that's clear. And so we then come to this idea, this conclusion, that when we think through this sin unto death, we are most likely speaking of a rejection of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And John says here in passing, I do not say that you shall pray for it. There is no call to pray for those who are living dead in their trespasses and sins to come out of the individual things that they are doing until they first come out of their death and receive Jesus Christ as their Savior. But going back to the beginning of verse 16, John does command the brethren to pray for one another regarding the sins which are not unto death. that as we intercede for our brothers and sisters in Christ for their sin, the Bible says he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. Now there's a question about pronoun reference here. Who is giving who life? The idea could be that when a brother prays for another brother, that God would give the sinner life. This would be the idea that A brother is in sin, another brother prays for him, and there is a conferring of forgiveness or a restoration of fellowship through that prayer on behalf of the intercessor. Or that the man who prays would be conferring that life upon the man he is praying for. And that second idea, the man who prays would be conferring life, would be the one that might most naturally flow from the context where John is teaching us to pray according to God's will with confidence that God will hear and answer our prayers. Either way, however, what we find is that there is precedent for the idea of the church praying one for another as it relates to sin in the Bible. But what this does not mean is that my brothers and sisters in Christ are dependent upon me to confer upon them forgiveness in order to be forgiven. And we make that distinction very clearly. Let's walk through the precedent that we find in the Word of God for the idea that the relationship that we have with one another matters as it relates to the spiritual. In James chapter 5, verses 13 through 16, the Bible says this, Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? Let him call the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up, and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." So we see in that similar idea here in James chapter 5. Now we can interpret the nature of praying for the sick in a couple of different ways. That's a discussion for another day. But we do see here that there is a connection to confessing our faults one to another and praying one for another that we may be healed, that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. There is a connection between the idea of a church's intercessions for one another and the power of God upon a soul to bring them healing, in the words of 1 John, to bring them life. We dare not deny that we see this connection in the scripture because there are various scriptures that speak to it. But let's talk about what this does not mean. This does not mean, as I said, that we are dependent upon other believers for God's forgiveness. 1 Timothy 2, verse 5 says, There is no man, nor is there any institution that stands between you and God. When Jesus was on the cross, he made a great cry. He said, is finished and the veil of the temple between the holy place and the holy of holies was rent in two. The scriptures signifying that the way into the holy of holies was now made clear so that a man could enter directly into the presence of the living God, not going through a human mediator as the Old Testament demanded and required. The blood of Jesus Christ broke down the partition between man and God, making him the singular mediator of the new covenant and establishing the ability for each of us to come to the Father in the name of the Son without the necessity of any earthly mediator. So that way back at the beginning of 1 John, we read this, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I acknowledge my sin before the Lord as David did in the Psalms. My sin is ever before me. And the Bible says that God cleanses us of that sin. And so we are clear here that as we're talking about the idea of praying one for another, of interceding one for another, we are not talking about a mediatorial role. That is foreign to the scriptures, the idea that you and I carry a mediatorial role. But that does not mean that there is no connection between brothers and sisters in Christ and our relationship with God. And we know that it doesn't mean that because 1 John literally tells us that if we reject our brother, if we hate our brother, if we do not love our brother, we are abiding in death. We are naturally separated from God. That my relationship to my brothers and sisters in Christ is actually fundamental. The way I treat you is fundamental to how God treats me. We see that in 1 John. We see that in Matthew 7, verses 1 and 2. Jesus warns that God will treat me in a manner that is consistent with how I treat others. Not that I'll lose my salvation if I judge others. Not that Christ's sacrifice is not sufficient for the cleansing of sin. Not that I will be out of fellowship as it relates to the things that I have done in my life that I've confessed before him, but that as I'm living in this manner of judgment, I am living out of sync with, I am living outside of the commands of Christ, and so I'm out of fellowship in that way. And in order to reconcile myself with God, I must first reconcile myself with my brother. And when I am reconciled with my brother, then I can be cleansed of that sin that I am hating my brother, that I am rejecting my brother, that I am out of step with my brother in Christ. I can confess that sin all day, but if I don't make it right with my brother, then the minute I confess it, I'm still out of sync with my brother. I'm still not right with my brother. I am still in that place of sin because I haven't reconciled to my brother. I'm still judging my brother. I have offended my brother and I have not righted that offense. We see also in Matthew chapter 18, the connection between the church and those within the body. Jesus says, Matthew 18, 18-20, Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Now Jesus speaks these words in context of what we often call church discipline. This context begins with Jesus saying that if a brother has offended you, that you go to him and you get it right with him individually. So we're talking about offenses. We're talking about offenses between brethren. We're talking about this area of loving the brethren, of being right with the brethren. And what you'll notice as it relates to praying for forgiveness one of another is that within the context there's always some connection praying for forgiveness one of another to the idea that we have been out of sync one with another as brothers and sisters in Christ. And so as I confer upon you forgiveness for the wrong that you've done to me, then there is, if I may say it this way, a release in the heavens by which then God may confer said forgiveness as well because there's been a reconciliation among brothers. So within this context, if a brother offends me personally, I go to him. And if that does not work, if I confront him with a wrong, and he will not repent, then I bring two or three witnesses. And if he will not repent, then we bring it before the church. And if he will not repent, then we treat him as a publican and as a sinner. Now, we take note. How do we treat publicans and sinners? We do not cast them out. We do not throw bricks through their windows. That is not what we do to publicans and sinners. We do not have a regular track record in our lives of tripping publicans and sinners as they walk by us along the road. We are kind to them. We love them. We treat them with the love of Christ. We reflect that to them. But what we are not going to do is get into intimate spiritual fellowship with them because they are not spiritually born again. They have no spiritual life in them, so it makes no sense that we would engage in spiritual fellowship. That's the idea of not treating them as believers, as treating them as publicans and sinners. If a person is walking an open, overt, and obvious rebellion to the Word of God that has been validated by the church, that this is something that is contrary to the Word of God according to the leading of the Spirit of God through the body of Christ, then they're walking out of step with the church, they're walking out of step with Christ. They're walking out of step with His Word. Now again, if the church is imposing upon them expectations that are not found in the Word, then we'd say that that's an errant church. But if they've come to the Word, if they've checked it before the Word, and if there's the authority of Jesus Christ through His Word that is carrying with them here, then for them to be walking in open rebellion means they are out of step with, out of fellowship with the body of Christ, and so there is no place for them to engage in said spiritual fellowship. And that is where Matthew 18, verses 18-20 comes in. In the context of Jesus' exhortation, as it relates to the connection of the believers to the body of Christ, the body itself carries God's authority. So that to remove a man from fellowship with the body of Christ is a very, very serious issue, which will have heavenly effects upon that man who is persisting in sin. So that if he has offended one in the body and he refuses to repent of this thing, and the body of Christ confronts him and he does not repent, he does not acknowledge said fault when it has been established biblically, then we would recognize that there is some connection between the inability of the church to confer upon him a forgiveness which he has not sought, and the way God will treat that believer, even if he ups and leaves and goes to another church, which is what we often find, right? But we also understand that there is a true heavenly weight to that decision. We talked about that already in James chapter 5 verses 13 and 16. Now one other passage that I want to take you to to demonstrate this idea that we might find this balance between an understanding that there is a connection between God's people in the body and us as individuals, while also understanding that God has given us personal agency, what we call in our doctrines the priesthood of the believer, the right to stand and fall before our own masters, Romans chapter 14 says very clearly, that you will not rise or fall before me. and I will not rise or fall before you. On the day of judgment, you won't stand before me. I won't stand before you. We will stand before Christ and we will rise and fall before him. We talked about that in our week of brethren message a few weeks ago. The last passage I want to take you to is Galatians chapter 6, verses 1 and 2, where the Bible says this. Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such in one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Notice this in verse 2. bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." So we find here that responsibility cuts both ways. That the same way that the church has the authority of God and so obligation in this sense to police her own as it relates to sin, to identify sin, to deal with sin, to pray for one another, The church also, in agreement with James 5.16, has the authority to restore a man unto fellowship, praying for him that he may be healed, giving him life. So while we regard the clarity of that doctrine, the priesthood of the believer, that Romans 14 idea, that we will rise and fall before one master and that's Jesus Christ alone, this does not mean that our relationship with the body of Christ does not carry some spiritual weight unto consequence and blessing. Much to the contrary, God has designed the body to function together. And we've described this in so many ways, haven't we? That when my knee hurts, it's not only my knee that's going to be affected by that in the body. If my knee hurts and so I start to favor that knee and so I start to use the other knee more heavily, that knee's going to start hurting. That hip's going to start hurting. And it could get into my lower back, right? There are many parts of the body that will be affected when one part is out of step, when one part is wounded, when one part is confused, when one part is not functioning properly. And this is the same idea that we find in 1 John 5, that there's a brother who has sinned a sin and it is not unto death. And that brother who has sinned a sin that is not unto death needs to be prayed for. There needs to be a restoration. There needs to be a restoration to life, not getting resaved, not coming back into the body of Christ. Not that I am conferring, I have the authority to confer upon him forgiveness in the heavenlies. but that he is out of step with the body of Christ, he is out of step with Christ, and as he acknowledges said thing, and he gets it right, and he's working toward reconciliation with Christ and getting past this sin in his life, that the body of Christ has a real vested interest in helping him along in this way. Restoring such a one, bearing one another's burdens. And that's the idea here. The will, direction, leading, and judgment of the body will help a brother who is sinning a sin, not unto death, come into this place of reconciliation with Christ through love, through accountability, through prayer, through acknowledgement, unto the end that he is restored back to that place of fellowship, that place of life. And as it has weights in the heavenlies, it should have weights in our own heart and life as well. So it's entirely consistent with the scriptures for our pronoun reference to mean that as I pray for my brother, this prayer will be instrumental in him living in the life that the fellowship of Christ affords, walking in the spirit, rather than in the death of sin and rebellion. But we also recognize this doesn't mean that I can confess my brother's sin for him. or that he cannot be restored into fellowship with God if I somehow seek to withhold from him my forgiveness. Ezekiel chapter 18 verse 4 says, Within that passage, God makes it very clear that the fathers do not die for the sins of the children, that the children do not die for the sins of the fathers, that you do not die for my sins and I do not die for your sins, that we stand before God accountable for our own sin. And in Christ, that sin has been remitted through his blood. So then what do we take from this command this evening? A bit of a controversial passage. I hope that there's been some clarity that has been brought to it. What we take is this. A vital and an integral part of your Christian walk is your interaction with the body of Christ, the brethren. A man who does not love his brethren abides in death. And a vital integral part of loving the brethren is interacting with one another on a spiritual plane. Not on a religious plane. Not on a interpersonal plane. On a spiritual plane. Edifying one another. Provoking one another unto love and good works. And here it is. Praying one for another. These prayers have weight before the throne of God, so that to pray for those who are overtaken in a fault is to invoke the power of God unto their healing, unto their restoration, unto their giving of life. This is one of the reasons why we encourage accountability within the church. We are a very private culture, particularly as it relates to our sins. We are a very private culture. And yet we understand that there is value in getting help. There's value in having someone not pray to confer upon me forgiveness, but to pray that I might have help. To pray for me as I am seeking to overcome the spiritual temptations and trials that are in my life. so that I come up to a brother or sister in Christ and I say, hey, brother, pray for me. I'm struggling. Pray for me. We're talking about, we're having our parent series in the morning service. For me to go up to a brother in Christ and say, hey, pray for me. I'm working on this as a parent. I am working as a parent on this thing and I know I need to fix it. And what I need is other people to help pray for me to invoke the power of God in the heavenlies as a part of the process of overcoming this thing that I am struggling with in my life. Will you pray for me? This is right, this is good, this is necessary. Now it's not nearly as common or comfortable of a thing for us to pray for the faults of our brethren within our circles as is pray for the needs of others or the needs of our brethren. And it's certainly not as common or as comfortable a thing to pray for the faults of our brethren as it is to maybe complain or gossip about their faults. And God forgive us for this. God forgive us for complaining to our friends. or our spouse, or our parents, or our children about the perceived faults of a brother or sister in Christ, rather than praying to God for their faults and asking God to help them and heal them and restore them. And we know why we'd rather complain to someone about the faults of another than to pray to God about their faults. Because when I complain to others about their faults, It allows me, first, to express my own displeasure in what they're doing, and perhaps also to feel better about what I'm doing. That when I go to someone and say, did you see what so-and-so did? Man, wasn't that annoying? Wasn't that a problem? Wasn't that a frustration? Did you see what they were? Did you hear what they said? It's a great way for me to feel better about myself. But you know what that doesn't do? That doesn't help them. But I can tell you what will happen if you start going to the Lord in prayer for them. You'll start praying for them because they're struggling with a sin. You see it. They're struggling with a sin and you start to pray for them. Maybe that's it. Maybe they're working on it and your prayer will get them over the line. Or maybe it won't. And you know what? Probably the next thing that's going to happen is you're praying for them. your prayers are going to start to feel heavy. And there's going to be this weight upon you that maybe you need to be a part of the solution. Which will probably be accompanied by the Spirit convicting you to do something like talk to your brother about their sin. Offer to disciple them. Offer to hold them accountable. or some other manner of investing in them. And that's maybe why we don't get into the habit of praying for them. Because when we start to pray for them, we feel invested in their success. And then this is going to ask of my spiritual, emotional energy and my time. And maybe I don't want to give of my time and my spiritual and emotional energy. And so I'll just complain about them instead. But God forbid that we would do this, Christian. God forbid that we would point out the faults of others rather than pray for the faults of others. If you want to point them out to someone, let's point them out to God, not in a complaining way, but in a Lord help them way. Don't be surprised, however, when you do that, that the Lord lays upon your heart that maybe you can just be a part of the solution. And that's going to mean sitting down with your brother, or your sister in Christ, looking them in the eye, affirming your love for them, and telling them, hey, brother or sister in Christ, I see something here. And what I see here is not right. And I'm concerned about you. And I want to help you. Is there some way I can help you? Is there some way we can put something in place to give you life where you're living in death? And they may say yes. And that may mean time. That may mean meeting once a week, once every other week, sitting down and opening the Bible. That may mean giving them a phone call and saying, hey, how did the day go today? How did the day go? Are you living in it today? That may be a morning text every morning, sending a Bible verse. Hey, live in this verse today. This is what God says for today. Believe it for today. It's going to take some work. It's going to take some effort. Bear ye one another's burdens. Galatians 6.2. and so fulfill the law of Christ. That's what we're talking about here. That's what we're talking about when we see a brother sin a sin not unto death. That's what we're talking about when we're talking about praying one for another that we may be healed. That's what we're talking about when we're talking about restoring such in one in the spirit of meekness and fear. We're not talking about my spiritual authority. We're talking about conferring life. We're talking about bringing these men and these women before the throne of God in order that they may be healed by the power of God in their lives. Let us, when we see a brother sin a sin, not unto death, go to God in prayer for that brother or sister in Christ. Ask God to help them see their sin, to bring them unto repentance. Let us be accountable one to another, loving and carefully calling each other unto obedience, provoking one another unto love and good works, helping each other navigate the temptations of life. Let us also foster an environment of accountability, where when we are struggling with sin, we don't feel we have to share it with one another, but where we find ourselves in an environment where we most certainly can come to our brothers and sisters in Christ for help, for support, for assistance, for prayer, not in the spirit of airing our dirty laundry or of judgment, but that the body might indeed pray one for another that we may be healed, that we may be restored, that we might abide in the life that Jesus Christ has purchased for us and we have received through his blood. And we do so unto this end, that we can be right with one another. Because if we're not right with one another, then we're not right with God. And if we're not right with God, then we're not walking in the Spirit, but we're abiding in death. And if we're abiding in death and not in life, then there's one thing that certainly won't be evident in our Christian life, and that's joy. And these things are written that we might have fullness of joy. May God help us to do that as we rally around one another, as we love one another, as we bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Thank you for listening to Pastor Jamin Wickler from Legacy Baptist Church in Buffalo, Minnesota. More information about Legacy Baptist Church and a library of sermons are available at www.legacybaptistchurch.net.