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That he may know that He have eternal life, and that he may believe on the name of the Son of God. And this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us.
And if we know that He hear us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desire of Him.
If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not of the death.
There is a sin unto that. I do not say that he shall pray for it. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not unto death. We know that whosoever is born of God, sinneth not.
But he that is begotten of God keepeth Himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. And we know that the Son of God is come, and have given us an understanding that we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.
Little children, keep yourselves from island. Amen.
Somebody made the remark, maybe a few bills, but uh, it was about going to Costco, what is consisted of eternal life. And then John's epistle, uh, it's seen in the people and then in the revelation it's, it's dead.
Somebody made that remark today, I think.
I suppose it was I that made it yesterday, and I was just mentioning that John's writing, if we could use that expression, can be summarized simply that John's gospel is eternal life come down to earth and the person of Christ. His epistles are the wonderful consequences for those that accept them and thus have eternal life, and the revelation is the awful consequences for those who reject them.
I suppose this 13th versus what we might.
Look at is a summary of what has gone on before because the question is raised in verse five, who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God. And then in the next few verses it takes up the whole question and it takes up everything that is going on, you might say with God in order to bring that before us, the Spirit and the water and the blood.
And the witnesses that we have on earth.
And then he kind of summarizes it and says these things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that he may know that she have eternal life. And I guess I have enjoyed this in the thought that it's not merely the, shall I say the simple knowledge, Yes, I have eternal life, although it is true, but it is the what we might call the full conscious knowledge in our hearts.
That God has given it to us and that it is fully ours. It's one thing to say, yes, I'm saved and in that sense I have eternal life, but it's another thing to be.
So identified and realizing that I'm identified with the one who is eternal life, that in living it out I have the conscious knowledge of it in my soul. Now I know of course, that John and as we said before, speaks in the abstract, but.
Nevertheless, it's kind of summarizing what he has given us in the previous verses, and it's intended, I believe, not only to mean the.
Conscious sense that I have new life and that I've been delivered from death. But it's the richness and fullness of it that God would have us realize in the soul.
00:05:02
Johns styles seems to be different and I must say that sometimes I ponder over a verse like this and I'd like to ask you perhaps somebody can give some help on it and it's verse 13. It almost seems a bit redundant. It says I've written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God.
That you may know that you have eternal life. We often stop there, but then it goes on, and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. You have any thought on that of the bill? Why it repeats that part?
Maybe someone would read it for us in the Darby. Does anyone have the Darby? I think it's a little clearer. There you got it, Lemoyne.
These things have I written to you, that you may know that you have eternal life, who believe on the name of the Son of God.
Yeah, I remember noticing that some time ago that our King James tends to repeat it. But, uh, I, I, I'm not a Greek scholar, I, I, but I suggest that probably Darby is a little more accurate. And I have heard.
At least on one occasion doctrines built on the fact that this is repeated and so on. And I guess I would suggest that it's just a simple statement of belief on the name of the Son of God and having eternal life.
But maybe others have thoughts on it.
Point out in Revelation chapter 3, during the time of the Reformation, the truth of what it was to be really saved by faith and justification by faith and the blood of Christ. The value of that blood was perhaps you might say, rediscovered and restored to the Church. And it says in Revelation chapter 3 in connection with the Sardis verse 4, thou has a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments.
And they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. This is what made them worthy. He did overcometh. The same shall be clothed in white raiment. And I will not blot out His name out of the Book of Life, but I will confess His name before my Father and before his angels. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. And so lest there should be any, umm, really, uh, confusion as to.
Eternal life and our possession, possession of eternal life. Umm, the Spirit of God just records here in revelation that those that would be tormented perhaps by, uh, those that would bring in false teaching in connection with that eternal life. Why he says, I'm not going to block your name out of the book of life. I will confess your name before my father. And so here he brings out in, in his epistle, John's epistle, John's writings again, I have written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God.
And then that you may know that you have eternal life, that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. And it's here, we were just reading it in the dark translation that he had eternal life. Who believed on the name of the Son of God. So there's no question if we believe on the Lord, we believe that he is the Son of God and we confess freely with our mouths that he is the Son of God. We accept his, the dignity of his person as being the Son of God.
We have life, we have life and umm, so there were to be those in, uh, different times and perhaps even arising in the day that we live in that would, uh, teach that you can lose your life, lose eternal life, that you really don't possess it unless you walk in obedience to the word of God and so on. Well, it's good that we display eternal life, that we walk in the practical good of it. But, uh, it's something that is from God himself and is based on his work.
He gives it, we don't umm, earn it in any way. And so I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish.
You know, when I grew up, I heard about the ID in my head was that if I believe I would receive eternal life, as if I was under condemnation, I was going to die. I was going to go into judgment, but if I believed I would receive eternal life. And it's true that it is again, but there's also a thought and everything that you're bringing out in first John.
00:10:26
Is that we receive a life from God and so in John 5 and uh, verse 2524, which is barely barely understanding even nearest my word and believeth on him that sent me have everlasting life and shall I come in the condemnation but his cross from death of the light. So uh.
The Lord we're dead in our sins and the Lord he imparts light to us and what we have in the gospel shown, as was mentioned, eternal life come down and display it was a manifestation of that life in the Lord Jesus Christ and what we can say and I think what is brought up in John is the life that we have that we recognize ourselves now and what God is imparted to us. It it's not just.
A quality of life or it's not just.
I want to be careful what I see here, but it's not umm, but now I can say I'm going to have them and, uh, that's, that's secure to me, but it's actually.
The response that goes back to God, the life that I lived into, what is needed on that eternal life because.
Umm, so it may be helps us with that verse 12 There or verse 13 that we were reading there. Umm, we have to count both saying what came before what and what came after that. I, I think that's what John and, and the assessment of John's, it's a manifestation of Adelaide. And so that we can say that that is not because we no longer, it's not even a matter of judging, uh, the flash, which we have to do, but in Joan, that's what we are.
I'd like to compare it to us. And that's what it does. So there's no question of it sitting or or even being a struggle in that way. And so it's not the light that we have to have. That's who we are, what we are before God, so that life is immediate. All the things that we've been Speaking of.
So is it like an expert compliment? Do we have an issue that we ask anything according to the flow we hear about? What does that might ask him like in communion of God? It's not that it seems to be talking of a man that's not going to.
Fantastic things that are wrong, but I mean the, the life you've lived and, and, umm, displayed when it just does what it does and that's the right thing. We have to say that what we are now before God, it's, it's uh, uh, it really takes away. There is a struggle always because we have the questions in it and that's not taking up with John here, but and we know the practice in that case, but if we get, you know, I can just think that for life.
That I'm going to enjoy through eternity as that light from God is part of me.
And I believe there were attacks being made here too, which is one reason why this epistle was written. And if we read the previous chapter, we find that it talks about the Antichrist and the spirit of Antichrist and things that were coming in. And no doubt there were doubts being cast on the present possession of eternal life and on the reality of it in the believer. And so I suggest that that's one reason why the apostle takes the time.
To go over these things very carefully, because He wants them to realize that as a present possession, He wants them to know it. And if, as you, as you say, Graham, and what you heard growing up is true, if we believe on the name of the Son of God, according to John 5 and 24, he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. But then there are those that would try and cast a doubt on that, and those would say, well, give me some proof of it, and so on.
And so the apostle develops it here and shows them, and he raises a question in verse 5. Then he develops where it came from, how it had to be through death. It had to be through the Savior's death. There could be nothing, no good at all from the first man. And then he says, now I've written these things to you, You believe on the name of the Son of God. And because of that, I want you to know that you have eternal life.
00:15:08
My dad had a nice shave.
North.
Treasure.
Leave it. That's settled. But then when you turn that around a little bit, it's getting better. God believes that. That settles it. I believe it. When God says something is true already, it's for us to believe.
That gives you confidence when you do believe God.
Confidence is something that is normal in family life, isn't it? You expect there to be confidence with the children toward their parents. And so it's beautiful. This question of confidence is mentioned in the third chapter too. I enjoy it, it says.
In verse 20 and 21, the third chapter four of our heart condemneth. God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God and whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments into those things that are pleasing in His sight.
It's not the conscience you're condemning, it's the heart condemning. And I suggest it's simply when a person doesn't walk close to the Lord, he knows that the Lord wants and to walk close to him, and perhaps there's no conscious deed of doing wrong.
Where your conscience condemns you, but you know in your heart you're not walking closely.
I have two sons and one walks close to me and is talking with me and another is rather distant. Which of those two have more confidence to ask me something? You know, It's the one that's closer and that's the way it should be in family life, isn't it?
To have that confidence, God wants us to have that confidence in him.
Sometimes the father says no. We need to have confidence that he knows best when that's the case.
And also for those two sons, the one who walks close to his father is going to be the one who wants the same things that his father likes because they're in communion. They're they're thinking the same thought, they like the same thing. And so when we walk with God, it's.
And it's that way the unbeliever tries to satisfy his own heart, thinking his own thought independent of others and selfishness, and wants many, many things and can't get him and never is satisfied.
Because you can't get those things you think she wants. And what he really needs to do is change it wants. And, uh, that's you have to have this nature, the life of Christ, uh, to start with, but they also not to have it, but to walk close in practically with those likes and desires, uh, that cause a cave, uh, invest in nature. Well, no, we don't get the requests we ask. Then we need to get closer to the Lord so we can understand his thoughts about things. Don't we? Shouldn't we shouldn't we? And that way.
Getting closer to him, reading His word, understanding his thoughts, then we will be able. We're not going to always understand everything that the Lord allows in our lives, but there is such a thing as walking close to him. As mentioned yesterday, Peter wanted, well the other disciples too, wanted to ask the Lord which one it was that was going to be Tram. But Peter didn't have the courage to ask the Lord directly.
He told him, he said to John, John, you asked. John asked why John? Because he was closer to the Lord. Evidently that was a position that he took close to the Lord, and so he had the confidence to ask.
The confidence is a really important part of our Christian lives, isn't it? I just think of all the verses in Scripture, brethren, encourage us to have confidence in the Lord. Let me just quote a couple because I, I don't know, It just seems to me that Satan's constant effort is to get us to doubt God, to get us to doubt that the goodness of his heart.
00:20:22
He has proved His goodness at the cross and what happens in life. Don't try to judge God by your present circumstances.
But a verse that I've enjoyed so much in Proverbs chapter 3A. Well known verse.
1St 5.
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart.
And lean not unto thine own understanding.
I love that.
So often we trust, but there are little pockets of doubt in our soul that that that hinders us.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart. You know, I often say in South America, there's little kids on the street. Sometimes you might want to befriend those little kids.
That don't have maybe enough to eat, but if they don't trust you.
You really can't help them. They've got to trust you if you come up to them. That's important, and it's important in our lives too. And it says here, lean not to your own understanding.
In the Spanish, I like the way the Spanish puts it, it uses the word leaning, a word that really means the stirrups.
On a saddle that he put on a horse. You know how it is when you're on a horse, you're riding a horse and you start getting off to one side. What you do is put your weight on those stirrups and get yourself straight. You lean on that. Well, do you have understanding about something? I think, brother Bill, you've got some pretty good understanding about feet, don't you? And you ought to use the understanding you have.
But the point is, when it comes to trusting the Lord, don't lean on your understanding, lean fully upon the Lord. And so it doesn't mean that we don't use the understanding we have. We don't need on, we lean on the Lord. That's important.
And so the confidence here, would you agree, Bob? It's not confidence in myself or my knowledge or my ability. Confidence, as we know, is often spoken of and usually is in a positive way in Scripture, not a negative way, but it's confidence in God. Is that right? Exactly. And we are living in a culture where people, and it's even in the education system to have confidence in yourself.
And you know, there's people that lack self-confidence.
Well, I think that Christian ought to be a confident person, but not self confident. Confident in the Lord.
The word confidence is interesting. It really means.
With faith FI is really faith in the original and the Latin language which we get our words and con means with with faith.
That's great.
Question the Lord.
We've all heard the illustration of a little four or five year old child that she's a over there on the table. A butcher knife is unsheathed and wants to grab it.
Well, the cat won't let him have it if they could get it.
And your parent knows that's such a dangerous thing. It might be pretty, but you grab the wrong end of it. You're terrible shape.
We have the confidence in the Lord. He knows everything that's going to come in our pathway and He's training us to do us good. It's in love every, every training.
00:25:04
Surprise India.
That verse you quoted, brother Bob, uh, it speaks of intelligence there as well, Understanding it's really, umm, lean instead of our own intelligence, our own human intelligence to lean on the intelligence of a holy God.
And I like that, you know, we're born in sin and shape and iniquity. We have, uh, we don't have to practice wanting our own will and wanting to get our own way. It's, uh, just built into us. But the Lord works with us doesn't mean all our lives that we might value his will says As for God, his way is perfect and we can improve upon that. And so when we pray and he desires that we would seek to know what is the course of wisdom according to his intelligence.
And he sees things the way we don't see them, and he's forming our circumstances and so on. And he desires that we would trust him and not lean unto our own intelligence in the matter. And so here he says, this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will, is that how we ask? Do we ask according to his will or do we really want it? We just want what we want. Now we know, I know that this is really saying that, uh, in communion, if we're walking so closely with the Lord that we wouldn't ask anything that he wouldn't want.
But, uh, there is that aspect of it that, uh, often times we ask because that's what we want. Our wills are set. And so it's the grace of God, the kindness of the Lord just to give us little portions of Scripture like this that remind us that his way is perfect. And if he, if we will just submit to the wisdom, divine intelligence and wisdom that he has in his way, why we're going to get what we ought to get. And if I could put it that way.
Because we're asking what he wants to give us anyway.
I'd like to go back to the Gospel of John and show some verses that of that perfect relationship of trust and confidence between the more teachers and his father in the 5th chapter of of John.
I've spoken of this many times, but in John 5 and verse, uh, 19 and 20.
That answer Jesus, and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but of what he seeth the Father do for what things so ever he do it as a Father. These also do it for the Son. Likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that Himself doeth, and will show him greater works than these, that he may believe.
We were speaking earlier about how that we have eternal life manifested in the sun in John's Gospel and in our epistle as seen through the believer or in the believer. Here you have the perfect demonstration of this confidence and explicit obedience on the part of the Lord Jesus. This is the perfect remedy for our relationship, uh, to form.
Uh, uh, an obedient son and a father who always shows the right, uh, answer and everything. Never did the Lord Jesus, given the circumstance where the Father wouldn't show him what to do because he was a perfect son and uh, is different with Adam and Eve. If Adam belong to the Father, to God before he took the fruit, he wouldn't have done what he did.
He acted in independence.
Well, the Lord then is a He thinks the thoughts of the Father, and he it's lovely to think about. Later on, in the 17th chapter, the Lord asked something. He expresses his will. Father, I will.
That they whom thou given me be with me. How did He know to pray that? Because He knew the Father was thinking the same thoughts.
So that's an example of prey A a as a asking the right thing.
And then verse 15 really gives us a heart of rest.
That the heart is, uh, in communion with the Lord and we do really lay our own wills aside and we seek that which he would really desire to give us himself. Then the heart is at rest. We know if we know that he hear us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. We just leave it. The, the heart is at rest and it's not striving and fretting. It just says, I, I prayed, I asked the Lord for something and if it's his will.
00:30:23
I'm perfectly at rest. If it's his desire to give it to me, then I know that I'll have it. And if it's not his desire that I have it, oh, because I'm so thankful I'm not going to have it.
Doesn't that help me out to pray? You know, Brother Darby said, made this statement in his writings. He said I fear my own will more than I fear the devil himself.
It's a strong statement. We don't know how self willed we really are, but by the grace of God, if we desire to walk in the Spirit in, in obedience to the Spirit, to the Word of God and in the Spirit, why then we're not going to want our own way. We're going to trust His will and will know that His will.
Is absolute perfection with us. And then when we do pray afterwards, there's going to be a spirit of rest in our souls. We're not going to be fretting about the thing.
And there's no question here just to make a comment on that little word. Yes, there's no question here as to whether or not the Lord will hear us, is there? There are two ways in which the word if can be used, both in Scripture and in the English language at large.
And there is what we might call the if of condition.
If I go to bed too late tonight, then I will be tired tomorrow morning. That's the if of condition. One is predicated on the other. But then there's what we might call the if of argument. And that word could also be another word that could be used. There is since and so here we could read this since we know that he hear us.
And that ties in with what our brother has been saying since we know that he hear us whatsoever we ask. We know that we have the petitions that we desired of him, and so is our brother. Bob has been mentioning it. It's peace and rest to the soul. We have eternal life. We are in that relationship with God. And if our heart does not condemn us as Bob Tony was bringing out, then we have the confidence to go to him.
Make the petition. Yes, there may be times when we don't perfectly know the will of God. It would be nice if we did. The Lord Jesus was absolutely perfect. But at the same time, if we can go to Him in confidence, there's rest in peace. And leaving the petition there, knowing that if it's according to His will, He will give it to us, and if not, then it's still His blessed will for us. And.
We simply need to look into our own hearts and see perhaps where we failed to ask according to his mind. But it's characteristic of that new life to want the same things that God wants, isn't it?
The We have an example of the Lord Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. What a thing to compen contemplate.
Everything within him because of who he was, completely, fully.
Shrunk from the very thought of contact with sin.
Any meals in prayer and sweats, as it were. Great drops of blood and intense agony at the thought.
And yes, in the perfection of his humanity, he vows in subjection to say, not my will, but thine be done.
And in a certain sense, the conflict is over. He knows he's going to go through with it. And he gets up, like you say, Robert, in peace and goes forward. And when they come to rest and he said whom seek ye, that he gives himself up to them. What beautiful perfection.
That's that life that we're talking about. That is the life that we have now too. So like you say, that is quite a statement Rob that fear your own will and it comes in in subtle ways that we don't realize at times none of the thing I think when we ask sometimes we want things right now and the Lord has his tiny business it's.
00:35:19
Sometimes we have the answer he get, he accepts it, but we have to wait his timing.
To show the absolute confidence of the sun and the Father, we read this morning in the eighty 80s song for the Lord's words were I'm afflicted and ready to die from my used up.
Well, I believe that, but he had to wait until he pulled wrong. He fulfilled scripture in every way, but he knew that Mister Father, but he still had to go through it.
And it was love for us to took Him there to bear our sins. That had to be done. Nobody else could do it. What confidence does the Son have? No wonder he trained in agony for those hours of darkness.
Umm, it's good to think about it. Because of his love for us, his confidence in the father, he had to do that work.
I sent was so impulsive to him.
Massage.
We have to stand at a distance, don't we? Like there is a distance of 2000 cubits between the people of Israel when and the ark when the Ark went into the Jordan.
And we stand at a distance present.
No, but it was the distance.
And we will never, never be able to comprehend what it meant to the Lord, those hours of darkness.
But we're following enriched.
By seeking a little comprehension.
I was thinking of John 18 four when they come there with lanterns and torches and weapons.
Their score, says Jesus, therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth.
Went forth they should be going forth to I had all been measured in communion with the father.
And it's interesting in this portion here that you get that.
Eternal life.
And the believing.
On the Son of God. And then there's boldness.
And really, it's bringing in.
Answered prayers.
Confidence in asking.
And then?
It's interesting that John doesn't say.
This sounds terrible, but if any man wants a new Oldsmobile, and I'm just saying that because they don't make them anymore, but I'm just I'm I'm saying that it's not a material thing that he brings out.
He brings up a precious soul.
He's interested in what God is interested in men. We live in such a material age.
They asked for many material things. I mean, it seemed fake doesn't do that. But I'm just saying it's it's so sweet to see where John's interest by. It's with the souls of men now.
Jesus had said to Peter.
I Satan has desired to have you. That's a plural in the King James desire to have all of them.
Because I have prayed for thee. That's singular, Peter.
That type of faith fail not.
It doesn't say here.
All right in in John 18 he doesn't mention the Lord praying for Judas at all.
There was no faith there.
00:40:04
He had been told earlier once they entered into him, I thought he was too quickly.
But here there is this boldness, there is a sin of death.
Uh, but here it is the nearness and realized relationship with the of of.
Eternal life and it's it is the very basis of intercession.
Just like to point out this little 3 letter word ask. It really speaks to us of the spirit in which we pray, we ask, and it's a spirit of humility and meekness in which we ought to ask. And just thinking of Matthew chapter 18.
Or 11 I should say in verse 28 there it speaks there of, uh, how the Lord desires us to come in our need. Says in verse 28 of Matthew 11, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. That's the rest of conscience. And then it says, take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find.
Rest unto your souls. Now we have the rest of our souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. And so we need to recognize that the Lord's heart is for His people. His heart is for you and for me, and His desire is.
That we would be less. And he says here whatsoever, and there are going to be circumstances that come into our lives and, uh, we're burdened. And he said, whatsoever it is, it's a nice word that's used in the New Testament whatsoever. And he says, now here's the spirit in which you're going to, umm, make those requests. You're going to ask, you're not going to demand, you're not going to insist upon, you're not going to have your heart set upon it before you ask. No, you're just going to in a very quiet way.
In meekness and unlowing this.
Follow me as it were, and just ask. That's the spirit of what we, how we pray. That lovely Hezekiah demanded, as it were. He demanded he he wept sore and he just wanted something so bad. It didn't matter what God wanted, as it were, why he that's what he wanted. But the spirit of how we pray is so precious to the Savior. It will exist in submission. Recognize his will as being perfect and submit to it and just ask.
What a lovely spirit, hmm?
Coupled with that, if I could, I'd like to lay some emphasis on what Brother Lemoine was saying, because there's a proper order, a proper way of looking at things that we asked for. And what is the character here? Now we can dwell a little bit on perhaps the whole thought of care for another believer and praying for others, and that is the character of that new life in US, that it doesn't think of its own interests.
It thinks of God's interests. And where are God's interests centered? In his beloved Son and in his people. And so here the character of asking in an example that's given to us is not related to my interests, but my interest is tied in with God's interests, and that is for the welfare and blessing of a fellow believer. And I suggest to my own heart and to each one of our hearts that if we approach.
Asking and prayer in that way.
And if my heart is primarily taken up with God's interests in this world, he'll look after me. He'll look after what I need. Do I need a job? He'll look after that. Do I need a place to live? Do I need something to drive? Do I need whatever it might happen to be as a brother in India now that's very anxious to get married. And he can't seem to, I should say his father can't seem to find him a wife. The Lord knows all about that. The Lord knows what, what is needed.
And we can rest in that. But God says, as it were, if you look after my interests, if your heart is fixed on the same things as mine is fixed on, and that is primarily what is the object of your prayers, you won't need to worry about the other things. No, I don't mean it's wrong to pray for things that have to do with our personal needs. Of course it is. But if that is the primary thrust of our prayers and that's as far as they go.
00:45:01
And I tend to pray only when I have a need. That's not the heart of God, that's not the new life displaying itself, is it? And so I love it here, the way this is presented as an example to us of what prayer should consist of. And it consists first of all of that which is God's interest, and it consists of an interest rate outside of myself.
And she, uh, his brother shin a shin knot unto death.
How would you understand that?
God talks about what happened.
It's interesting, another brother, another member of God's family.
We know that sin breaks fellowship and God wants to have his people walk in fellowship with Him then. So if you see someone that's allowing something in their lives, that is hindering fellowship.
You can pray about that. And he will give him life for them, that sin not unto death. And he says There is a sin unto death. I do not say that he shall pray for it.
So there is a sin unto death, but many times there are things that perhaps we allow, and we see a brother that is allowing it. We can pray for him and pray that that brother will be brought to recognize that that is not a good thing and that he will judge it, and that that hindrance to fellowship will be gone.
There is a sin unto death, and I kind of like to think that this is.
Something that is discipline in the family.
Oh God, it's not discipline of the assembly. John doesn't take that out. That's Paul's ministry in First Corinthians. We have about that, but this is in the family of God. That's the context. And so there may be something sometimes that, uh, a person allows in their life that.
On a persistent way, and then the Lord takes them home.
The Lord knows, but I suppose we could say in a certain way that Ananias and Sapphira are.
Umm, example of a sin unto death, isn't it? In that case it was a lie.
But it was in the churches.
Uh, first days in the testimony was bright and here comes a lie to the testimony and has since I've lied against the Holy Ghost, so I couldn't let that go then.
Ananias didn't tell a lie, he acted a lie. And Sapphira told a lie, so it shows how serious a lie is. In that case it was a sin unto death, wasn't it? And not always do the same thing.
And it's a rather solemn thing, isn't it, to think that here the Lord looks to his own fellow believers to look on another believer, and to discern whether or not it's a sin unto death. What a serious thought that here, if we could use ourselves as an example, that God says you discern.
As to whether he should pray for one to be restored or whether you shouldn't pray for him?
Well, if we're really in the current of God's thoughts, we should be able to discern that. And we have.
Known situation, some of us in the past where that has happened, but it does put a very serious note on things, doesn't it? As to walking with the Lord, because we like to think of what is positive. We like to think of blessing. And I believe that's the primary thrust of this verse. Pray for someone. You want to see them restored. You want to see.
That sin confessed and dealt with, and see them go on in a happy fellowship before the Lord. And sometimes, I must confess, if we're not careful, we pray for souls. But is there the reality there that there ought to be for their blessing and their restoration, that they might go on in the fullest way? But God counts on those that are walking close to Him to recognize occasionally that there is a case where there is a sin unto death.
00:50:15
And there is occasionally a case where we don't pray for someone. And as you pointed out, Bob, there's no record that the Lord prayed for Judas there at the end. Uh, he recognized where Judas was. He recognized the course he had chosen. He recognized where he was headed, and he doesn't pray for him. And so it's a solemn thing to recognize that, uh, yet the Lord counts on those of his own that are walking close to him to make that discernment, doesn't he?
Remember this story? I heard it some time ago about a young sister who was intent on marrying an unbeliever, and the brother in in the area she lived spoke with her and told her that she shouldn't go in that direction.
But she insisted on it and in the course of things she got very ill and it looked like she was going to.
Die And she called the brethren, and.
Told them she wanted them to pray for her, that she would get well and they asked her why do you want us to pray that you get well? Because he's asked for me to marry her.
She said no, they didn't pray that she would get well and the Lord took her home. It was in a certain sense of sin unto death, but it's it's God in his family.
Helpings of person who doesn't have the willpower himself and his effect. I like to think of it this way is that the Lord says I can't trust you down here any longer.
Unless you dishonor my name even more, I'm going to take you home where you won't have this problem anymore.
Sometimes the Lord uses his people as a test to.
Abraham When God was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, he went and visited Abraham, and Abraham interceded and he started with 50 was it, And he interceded down the 10 soles and God said he wouldn't destroy it with those pens, but that Abraham stopped there.
I think it's gone. I'm speaking reverently.
Abraham had in interceded down to two or three Umm God might not have destroyed that city that day, but he he stopped. Another example is the Elijah I believe and umm we have that following report about Umm Elijah interceding against the people of Israel.
Well, we've looked at that as a failure, but I there's another way to look at it too, and that is that was God. Elijah was God's test man to see whether.
The ministry that was presently being exercised had finished it or not. And it be, I believe history tells us that it was because God sent another man to take you like his place with a new kind of ministry. And so, brethren, we, we, we pray for one another. And you know, sometimes we, we see there is a time to cease to intercede. Umm, and uh, this, these, these verses tell us about it.
Mm-hmm.
Let's just point out in John's Gospel chapter 8, the Lord spoke to the adulterous woman there and what did he say to her? He said go and sin no more. Now does that mean that she never sinned again after that day? Well, I don't believe so, but the facade is there. I believe the instruction is not to continue in that course of sin. And he spoke to her and said.
Please and don't continue in this course of sin.
And sin is lawlessness against the Lord. And so he speaks here and says here in verse 16, if a man see if any man see his brother.
Which is not unto death. And so we see a brother, perhaps a sister, and there's a tender heart of the believer that flows out in affection for that one and sees that it's a course that's going to be painful.
00:55:01
It's a course that's going to dishonor the Lord and, umm, we desire to pray for them that they might be delivered from it. But then there comes perhaps a time when we discern that the will is set and, uh, that it's going to have to be the Lord that, uh, deals with the soul, that we're not going to be able to have that influence. And even in prayer, we might not know what to pray for as we ought. We might be working against the Lord. And so there's discernment required there. I just point out as well in first John chapter 2.
It says that if any man's sin, if any man's sin, it's not characteristic of a family at all, sin or lawlessness.
We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and so he's not only an advocate when we sin, but he's our great high priest as well. And his and his great high priestly character, his desires to intercede for us that we might not fall. And the Lord prayed for Peter and umm, we know that Peter was on a course and umm, it says since the Lord let him follow through that course that he might learn.
What the flesh really is. And so this is what the Lord does with us often times is He allows us to get our own way and we find out what the flesh really is and how painful it is not only to ourselves but to His heart of love. And so here we have that liberty to pray for those that are brethren that we have a heart attachment to and that we see here walking in a course that's going to bring dishonor to the Lord and pain in their own lives. But then there needs to be discernment too, that if there's a persistence in a course.
We may be fighting against the Lord, as it were, to continue to persist, to want, umm, perhaps the sickness to be healed, or whatever it might be.
So that's why it says here again, he shall ask, I like that little word. It's the spirit of our prayer. It's fantastic. It's not a demanding and if we just would lay hold of it in our own souls.
Just to ask, not to demand, just to ask is the grace of God to say that hears us.
There is a sin unto death.
And God will, because if we can make a mistake.
And it's dangerous to ask for things that are not good for us. We don't always know. So it's good to protect our prayers. If we're a little bit uncertain about it, I suppose it's good to protect them anyway, because Lord knows that we ought to want to do His will.
There are some things that we could know here at the end of the chapter.
We know that whosoever is born of God, sinning not there it is.
We shouldn't accuse the wrong nature for sin, should we? It's it's always the flesh, you know, when it, when we sin, it's always the flesh. It's never the new nature. It's never the life we have from God when we're born again.
And if I send, I am not acting as a child of God, or am I? So he that is born of God sinneth not.
That new nature does not send. It's because I allow my old nature to act that sin takes place.
Well, there isn't a necessity for keeping ourselves, isn't there? It's a wonderful thing, and it's good to realize the precious truth of the first clause of verse 18. Whatsoever is born of God, sinneth not. Chapter 3 says he that is born of God doth not commit sin.
That is a fact. The new nature cannot sin, but there is the capacity to sin that old nature never gets any better. And how necessary it is to keep ourselves now we there used to be a brother up our way and.
01:00:07
There is an expression we often have. How are you keeping?
And invariably if someone asked him how are you keeping his response was I'm not.
I'm being kept. Well, that was a good response. It was a reminder that the Lord was keeping him. And we do have that in Scripture. The Lord keeps his own, and we're thankful for that. But there is a responsibility placed on us, isn't there? He that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. That is, if I deliberately put myself in the way of temptation, if I deliberately put myself in a position.
For that old sinful self is going to be brought into play, going to be tempted, going to be fed in every way. I am exposing myself to the wicked one who says, all right, now I have an opportunity. He had no opportunity in the Lord Jesus. He tried everything and had to retire defeated. Because the Lord simply said, it is written, it is written, it is written, but you and I were all susceptible to the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye and the pride of life.
And the devil knows very well what he can use. And if someone has said the devil can use just some little bit of something that I might pass by in a shop window or some little thing that he can bring into my life to Take Me Out of happy fellowship with the Lord. But if that isn't good enough, he can up the ante all the way to all the kingdoms of this world. That's what he offered the Lord Jesus.
Took him up there to a high mountain, showed them all the kingdoms of this world. And the devil, as it were, says, well, whatever it takes, I can provide it, whatever you need. And so for some it may be very little, for others it may be an awful lot. The devil says, well, for the moment it's at my disposal and I have it to use it if you've got an opening for me to use it. So there's a need to keep ourselves, isn't there? There's a need for godly exercise, godly care in our lives.
To recognize that that new life is living it out, as we said in the address, in a world that is continually hostile to it, and there's a necessity to be on guard all the time, isn't there?
There's an expression that says keep yourself in the love of God. Does that mean that in the place where God could display that love, or what is that? Remember, keep yourselves in the love of God. That's Jude. Yeah, I remember Albert Hagel speaking about that verse, and you probably remember the illustration is.
In Smith Falls, he says in the winter time there was a Sunnyside of the street and there was a shady side of the street.
Since it was cold, he generally.
Walked across the street and walked on the Sunnyside of the street.
Than he used to say, why would a person want to stay on the shady side of the street? Maybe if he didn't want people to notice him so much, you would walk there. So it's keeping ourselves in the love of God. There is that sense of things that there's another expression in John's epistle that I think perhaps relates to that. You find it in the second chapter.
In verse 28. It's a word that's used a number of times here and also in John's Gospel.
But it's that little word abide.
And now little children.
Abide in Him.
So it's, it's keeping ourselves right there and and fellowship with himself.
I believe Mr. Darby's translation in French, uh, in verse 28 really has this, uh, abide in him as well. In him, dwell with him or dwell in him. There was a, a dwelling, a conscious living in his presence. And so this word keeping speaks to us a spiritual energy as well, doesn't it? We need to have spiritual energy. We need to read the word of God and to be in the presence of the Lord in prayer.
And to be found asking, but there's, uh, asking not only for ourselves, but as it's been brought out the those others that are the family, but umm, there's not going to be that, uh, asking. There's not going to be that confidence if we're not, umm, walking with spiritual energy ourselves. And so there's that necessity of keeping close to the Lord. And it also brings before us to the thought of self judgment, I believe.
01:05:14
Because, uh, it says in Proverbs chapter 23, I think it's uh, verse two, that if thou be a man given to appetite, put a knife to thine throat. And so we have appetites, the natural man, and that the flesh in US has an appetite for this world. And whether it be a small thing or whether it be the kingdoms of the world, every one of us, the flesh in US has an appetite for what this world has. And so we need to exercise the 9th of self judgment and be preserved.
In spiritual energy, that we might not sin against the Lord and walk in lawlessness, but walk in dependence upon Him and submission to what His will really is.
Hmm.
And so if we have a value for the Word of God, it says that wicked one or the wicked, they really Satan himself toucheth him not. And so we have a value for the Word of God. We have a value for the close walk with the Lord. We're going to walk in a safe path. It's not going to be a path where we're falling into the ditch of sin. And God in his grace has desired to give us instruction in his Word. He's designed divine directions.
And, umm, directives that we might, uh, walk through life in a happy course and near the image of his son as we walk through it. And so if we would just exercise self judgment, keep ourselves close to him, then we're not going to fall prey to the enemy. It's as if, uh, you know, there's an easier praise, so to speak. The enemy is looking for a prey. And this is, uh, first peers and it, uh.
That the devil is a roaring lion, walking about, seeking whom he may devour. And so Amalek came and smote behind her most part of those that were the children of Israel, those that were weak and aged, those that were hanging back. And if we hang back in the things of God, we follow afar off. Why, there's going to be a danger of being touched, as it were, by the enemy. The enemy is going to see that there's a prey that could be easily had.
But, uh, it's, uh, safety here that we're Speaking of. I'll just give you a little illustration. When, umm, we were boys, my father would, uh, walk us to school along the railroad track in northern Ontario and, uh, in the winter time. And I asked him one day why he was walking us to school. And then he was coming back and walking us back. And, uh, he said, uh, you just look out there beyond the trees, just beyond the trees, and it would be about where that wall is. And, uh, he said, uh, look there. And I said, well, it looks like the little dogs or dogs there. And he said, no, those aren't dogs, those are wolves.
And, uh, so he would walk with us and as we walked, the wolves would walk and we would go to school and then they didn't touch us in the school house. And then, uh, he would come and get us. They wouldn't touch him because, uh, perhaps he was larger in size, but umm, he would walk his back and the wolves would walk back. And so we need to be kept close to the Lord that he might walk. In communion, the enemy is looking for a prey and he never roars until he has his prey. A lion doesn't roar until he absolutely has his prey and view and knows there's no escape. Otherwise he's stalking that prey.
And he roars. He says I've got him now.
Enemy can't touch a perfectly obedient person, can he? And that's what was the case in the Lord Jesus man. It was completely perfect and he couldn't touch him. I remember the.
Comment made about pilgrims progress, how he comes to a place where he sees these lions ahead and he.
Is afraid and looks at his map, and the map shows that if he will just be careful to stay right on the path that's marked out. They're chained and they can't touch him. And so he watched right in between the lines and goes on his way. And that's the case in the life of a believer, that he keeps himself and the wicked one toucheth him. Not important to the obedient.
Umm, a variation on the word confidence that we've been talking about is confined and confined suggests closeness, nearness. You don't confide in someone unless you have a very close personal relationship with them and they would you. And so that, that ties up a lot of what we've been talking about. And first of all, the relationship between the Lord Jesus and God, there was that confiding.
01:10:26
Continuous between the two of them so that uh obedience was not difficult it was in in his nature and it was it was what he wanted to do and so it is with us to be close to the Lord is.
Uh, in fighting with them and, uh, and hearing his voice, that's the way we get the, uh, that's why we, the way we can pray the right thing is if we're close and, uh, being in that nature of confiding.
So what about this 20th verse, Brother Clem? You called our attention to it at the beginning of the meetings and said it was the best verse in the.
We know. We're just hoping. We know that the Son of God is coming. Please tell God he's God's son. He's God's son. Jesus. He came as a sense of we had some nicely yesterday, ma'am, of water and blood. He was a man. He was born a woman, just like you were.
Is Gordon eternally and you find out that you go through this verse that you you can't distinguish too much between the Son and the Father. I'll just read the rest of you see it. He has given us an understanding that we may know him that is true. Well, who's that and we are in him that is true. Who are we in even in his Son Jesus Christ, who's he.
This is the true God and eternal life.
The Father and Son, eternal life. Oh, it's a lovely verse. We know these things that is come and I'll refer back to, uh, the Spirit of God that came.
In uh John 16 verse 13 which says how be it when he the Spirit of God is come the same verse and he is gone too.
As I referred to the second version of the Bible, the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the water that you know that the Spirit of God is the first person individual of the three that is spoken of individually inverse in the Bible. The second verse of the Bible, the Spirit of God.
What's the second thought? He's gone too.
He moved the formulation of the water well here.
In that verse when he has come.
I'm going to go back to.
John 16 and 13 to read it correctly.
I'll be in my knee. The Spirit of God or the Spirit of fruit is come.
He will guide you into all truth. God doesn't hold back one bit of it. The Spirit of God gives us everything all through.
He shall not speak, it really means independently about himself, because he's in conjunction with the Father and the Son.
They're all together in this and whatsoever he shall hear.
He shall not, for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak. And the future He will show you things to come. Now, that's just pentacles. The Spirit of God has been here. He is tough. He's still the Spirit of God dwelling in this world. He took his position at Pentecost.
01:15:02
On the earth amongst him for the first time, I think that is he was the one that operated God the Father and God the Son had worked on the other dispensations. I don't limit the period of God, but today we living in the time of the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God is here. He's in this room. He's heard every word that's been said and He loves us. He's looking out, of course.
But he is calm, He will guide you into all truth. You want to know the truth, to get it out of God's word and get it from God the Spirit. And so here this epistle ends up. We know that the Son of God is come and have given us an understanding God wants us to know.
In the prophecy like in Daniel 9.
And that might be in another place too. It says no. Therefore, understand Daniel nine from the going for the command to restore, rebuild Jerusalem to Messiah's Prince. I think it's the 24th verse. There's going to be so many weeks. God has told us that he wants us to know it, know it. He wants us to know it. He's told it. He he wants us to know these things here. He wants us to know that he's here.
That he is greater, greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world. And, uh, our brother here was referring to, uh, uh, Malachites and, uh, in the 17th of Genesis.
God has sworn that He will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.
He said he write that the book that was told to be written in the book before the law was told in two chapters later write that in the book that's called genome Amalek is this the flesh has taken over by Satan having like a typical of that the pleasure take it over by safety. That's what you got here.
In the 19th verse the whole world, why I think is the wicked one in the devil?
That's how close they are, the whole world. But the Spirit of God is closer in chapter 2 and verse.
28.
It isn't now little children abide in Him, but when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at his coming. Now there that we. Is that not the apostles?
Yes.
And in this 19th person, the apostles again.
What did they say about it?
Was that brought up before 19th versus the we here we are of God is that is that the apostles?
Which first year is right here first? John 519.
We know that we are of God.
OK, that.
I mean, without the hospital, without the apostles doctrine, we have nothing.
Pardon. The whole world lies in the wicked one, yes.
The last first before we close.
Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
Is it possible?
That we can get into idolatry.
We're reminded of it in Colossians, aren't we, where it says covetousness, which is idolatry. Is that what we're thinking about here?
Anything that takes the place of the glorious Son of God, the one who is the true God in eternal life.
Is idolatry.
Oh, brethren, we've been called into the fellowship of this person. Is there something in my life?