Exploring the Sin Unto Death – 1 John 5:13-21

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The foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent word.

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God is light, God is love, God is life. That’s what we’re learning in the New Testament book of 1 John. Welcome to Through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee. I’m Steve Schwetz, your host. And in just a few moments, we’re going to arrive at our final message in the epistle of 1 John. But first, let’s listen to another great introduction by Dr. McGee.

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Now, I have spoken before to some extent about the three great attributes of God that are mentioned here in this epistle. One is God is light, means God is holy, he’s righteous. Everything God does is right, and he will punish sin. He must, since he’s the judge of the entire universe. But God is love, and God loves mankind. Obviously, that’s the reason we’re created. And how God could love us is a little difficult, but that’s the demonstration that I think he’s giving to the created intelligences of this universe. They knew the power of God and they knew all about the tremendous wisdom of God, but they did not know how much God loved until he created a man that rebelled against God and today tries to live his life apart from God and without God, and he’s a lost creature, and God lets him go on. God lets him breathe his air, walk on his earth, use his sunshine, and God doesn’t charge him a thing. But God is going to hold him responsible. Now, the third thing, God is life. And we didn’t say much about that. Have you noticed that we called attention to it last time that you and I live in a lifeless universe? That means, friends, there’s nothing going on. The trip to the moon revealed one thing. There’s nothing alive up there. It’s all dead there. There was nobody to talk to, nobody to converse with. There wasn’t even a little living sprig of grass that you could get interested in. And nobody is going to be going there, I guess, anymore. Now we are penetrating out in this great universe and man is sending out his little beep, beep, squeaks signal saying, are you out there? Well, he’s out there, but man doesn’t want to come his way. God’s left the formula down here on this earth, the Bible, but man’s ignored it and he’s going out by his method to see if he can get somebody out there to respond. God will respond one of these days, but he’s not quite ready. Apparently he’s not. I do not know anything about his plans other than he’s going to break through the blue one of these days and he’s going to interfere with man’s program down here. But you and I apparently live in a lifeless universe. Out there we’ve bumped into no one that wants to talk to us. There’s no response that science can get anywhere. But, you know, the wonderful thing is I can plug in to the creator, this universe, and communicate with him. That is a privilege, by the way. And I wish more humanity knew that because he said that you can come to him. And he’s made a way now through the death of his son, the man living in darkness now. He can come to the light, to the Lord Jesus. And when he comes to the light, he can communicate with God. It’s wonderful to have somebody to talk to. I want to say that I found out that prayer doesn’t mean just getting down on your knees by your bed at night or in the morning. If that’s all it was, I wouldn’t be very good at prayer. I pray all the time, tell the truth. I get in my car, always utter a little prayer. And I found out driving today, you better utter a little prayer. And there are other… Places you can walk and pray, you know. May I say to you why? God is life. And everything in this universe you and I live on today, it’s got its life from him. It’d be as dead as the moon if it wasn’t for God. and today man’s misunderstood what life really is he tries to sort of whip it up you know a group of dead people they get together and they pass around the liquor and they have a drinking session and they all get drunk and they say my what a good time we had and that’s really living now Dead people can’t have a good time like that, friends. They’ll have a big headache in the morning and one day they’ll find out that liquor’s got them and they’re a slave to it. That’s not real life. You can plug into real life. Oh, I know somebody says, but some of the churches today are dead. You can say that again, friend. There are a lot of them that are dead. They’re not plugged into life today. And that life is found in Jesus Christ. And that is what he’s been saying in this epistle. And in this last session we have, we’re going to see that he has said to us what life really is to know Jesus Christ. And by the way, do you know him?

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That was thought-provoking, wasn’t it? Well, let’s ask the Lord for His blessing as we open His Word. Heavenly Father, thank You for the amazing opportunity that You give to us to know You through Your Son. Bless the teaching of Your Word as it goes out into the whole world. We pray many more will hear the name of Jesus and believe. It’s in His name that we pray. Amen. Now here’s Dr. McGee with our final study in the amazing book of 1 John on Through the Bible.

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Now, friends, we’ve come to our final study, and we’ve come to the very key verse of the epistle here in verse 13. Now, we have seen that John has made it very clear what it means to be saved, what it means to be a Christian. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God hath not life. In other words, it’s the one that he’s presented here, the one who came by water and blood, the one that was the Son of God, virgin born, God manifest in the flesh, died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the dead. And that is the gospel. And nothing else is the gospel, by the way. Now, verse 13, he says, These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. A twofold purpose, you see. that they might believe on the name of Son of God, that’s salvation, and that you might know that you have eternal life. Now, if you have Christ, you have life. If you believed him, a great many people say, I just want to believe that I have eternal life. The question is, who do you believe? Not what do you believe, but who do you believe? Do you believe God? You believe the record that he gave? He says, if you have the son, you have life. How do you believe that? He didn’t say if you feel like it or if you’ve joined something. But he says, if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior, and if you have him. And he says, that’s the reason I’ve written this epistle to you, that you might know that you have eternal life. This is made, I think, very clear here, the purpose of his gospel. He says many other signs truly did Jesus, which are not written in this book. That is the gospel of John. But these are written. John didn’t write everything, just certain things. These are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ. That’s who he is. And that believing, you might have life through his name. Now, if you have the son, you have life. Now, he wants you to know that. And you honor God when you know it. And that simply means that you’re not making God a liar. You’re trusting him. It’s not how much faith you got or how you feel about it. It’s whether you’ve trusted Christ or not. That’s all important. Now, this does something for our Christian lives. Verse 14, “…and this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us.” Now, it gives confidence in prayer, you see. And believe me, we need confidence in prayer. And it must be according to the will of God. And if you and I are in fellowship with him, walking with him, then our prayer would be along that line, of course. It would be for God’s will in our lives. George Muller. Put it like this. He says prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance. It is laying hold of his willingness. That is the important thing. It’s not trying to get God to do something that he’s reluctant to do. But prayer is when you and I are thinking his thoughts after him. And that is the thing that gives us confidence when we go to God in prayer. Now he goes on here and he says, This is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. Be sure of one thing, that he not only hears, but he answers. God will hear the prayers of his children, but he doesn’t always answer them. And what it means here that we have a confidence that he will answer it according to the way we prayed because we’re in his will. Now, verse 15, and if we know that he hear us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. Now, that is a wonderful place to come to, to know that you and I have a heavenly father. we’re in fellowship with him, that we’re going to pray, not selfishly, or if we regard sin in our lives, or there could be other hindrances to prayer. But when we’re walking in fellowship with him, we can be sure of one thing, that if we’re following him, that what we ask, we can have confidence that he will hear and answer the prayer. Now, We come to a statement here that’s very important, I think, for us to understand. My feeling is that this will clear up a great deal of misunderstanding, and it also moves into this same area that we’ve been talking about here of assurance of salvation. and of having confidence. That word confidence, I probably should have called your attention to it, actually means boldness. This is the boldness. In other words, it gives boldness in prayer to the child of God. It’s not coming, you know, with mistrust or in a begging attitude, but coming with boldness to ask that God’s will actually be done. Now, we come to a verse that is really one that’s certainly been misunderstood and misconstrued. Verse 16 it is, 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 unto death. There is a sin unto death. I do not say that he shall pray for it. Now, this refers to physical death. It has no reference to spiritual death at all because the child of God has eternal life. And we’re talking now about not that, but a physical death In other words, what he’s saying here is this. Believers can commit a sin for which the heavenly Father will call them home. That is, he’ll remove them from this life physically because they may be disgracing him. Now, let’s look at some that committed a sin, actually, unto death. Moses and Aaron, back in the Old Testament, they committed a sin unto death. You will recall that Moses got angry when the children of Israel kept begging for water, and he smote the rock there twice. Somebody said he just should have smitten it once. He shouldn’t have even touched that rock. It had already been smitten once before. And he should rest upon that, you see. And that was to be an example and a type of Christ. Because Paul said, and that rock which followed them was Christ. And he only died once. And Moses spoiled the tide, really, by doing what he did. And God said, because ye believe me not to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them. That’s in Numbers, the 20th chapter, at verse 12. Now, there was for this man Moses a restoration that he could continue leading. But he began to plead with God, you know, to forgive him and to permit him to enter the land. But the Lord told him, though I’ve restored you to your place of leadership, but you’re not going to enter the land. And when he kept after the Lord, the Lord said to him, speak no more unto me of this matter. In other words, Moses and Aaron both had sinned, a sin unto death. And it was physical death that they had committed. Now you have another example of that when you come to the New Testament. Ananias and Sapphira. They were those that were in the early church. They were guilty, actually, of a lie. You might say, well, they repented, didn’t they? Yes, after they were caught. But they didn’t repent because of what they had done. They repented because they were caught. They were willing to give a false impression to the early church. They were willing to live a lie. And God took them because of that and removed them from this earthly scene. And you have another incident of that. It’s mentioned over in 1 Corinthians. Paul could say to them they had been actually getting drunk, some of them, at the Lord’s Supper. And they were missing the meaning of it altogether. And Paul could write to them in 1 Corinthians 11, 30, For this cause many are weakened sickly among you, and many sleep. That is, they were dead. Many of you are dead. And what he’s saying here, they committed a sin unto death. Now, somebody’s going to say then, what is that sin unto death? Well, to begin with, it’s not an unpardonable sin. It’s just physical death, not spiritual death. These people are God’s children. He would never have taken them home if they hadn’t been his children. The Lord doesn’t whip the devil’s children. He only whips his own. And when his children sin under death, somebody then says, well, what is it? What is it specifically? Well, from Moses and Aaron, it was one thing. They lost their temper. They destroyed a type, actually, of the Lord Jesus. And Ananias and Sapphira, they were living like hypocrites. And we find that in the city of Corinth, why there were believers there that were getting drunk disorderly at the Lord’s table. And some of them had died. They had committed this sin unto death. So it’s no one thing specifically. And I have a notion that for you, it would be different than it would be for me. But I’m of the opinion that That every believer is capable of committing the sin unto death, whatever it is for them. You can go on in sin and God will remove you from the sin. Now, that doesn’t mean that every Christian that dies has committed sin, but it’s possible to do that. I think Absalom committed it. I’m of the opinion that Absalom was really a child of God, but he led a rebellion against his father. And I have noticed this. I’ve watched. Just over a period of years, troublemakers in the church, I have watched how God has dealt with them. And may I say that I’ve seen him not only remove them by death, but I’ve also seen him set them aside so that they have no more use in the service of God at all. I believe that it’s possible to commit a sin unto death. And that’s not spiritual death. It’s just that God’s calling a child home that has committed a sin. Now, I can illustrate that. Here is a mother that has a little boy. It’s her little angel child, of course. Little Willie. And he’s just a fine little fella. And next door, though, there lives a little brat the age of her little angel. And they play together out in the backyard. But one day she’s working in the kitchen and she hears that little brat next door yelling at the top of his voice. And she rushes to the door and she looks out and there is her precious little angel on top of the little brat next door just beating the stuffing out of him. And she says, Willie, you’re going to have to come in the house if you don’t act right, if you are not nice to the little boy next door. And he says, yes, mama, I’ll be better. And she says, well, if you’re not, I’m going to have to bring you in the house. Well, she goes back in and she starts working in the kitchen again. And about 30 minutes or an hour goes by. And again, she hears that familiar cry of the little brat next door. And she goes to the door and that familiar sight greets her. Her little precious angel is on top of the brat next door, just beating the stuffing out of him. And she said, Willie, come in the house. He said, I don’t want to come in the house. She said, I said that if you did that again, you’d have to come in the house. And he said, I don’t want to come in the house. And he balks. Well, what does she do? She goes out there and gets him by the hand. And her precious little angel yelling at the top of his voice, she just takes him in the house. He had to come in. Now, he’s still her, well, he may not be a precious little angel, but he’s her son. And that never was disturbed, but he can no longer play outside. And I think that a child of God can go on down here disgracing the Lord. And the Lord will either set them aside or else they are taken home by death. And God doesn’t mind doing that. He, I think, does it in many instances. Now, he goes on here in verse 17. All unrighteousness is sin. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not unto death. Now, I’m of the opinion that there are many of us that are alive today. We sin, but we didn’t sin a sin unto death. We did something that was wrong. It was unrighteous. But he didn’t take us home. If he was doing that, I’d been taken home a long time ago. But now notice verse 18. We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not. Now, you and I, as we’ve seen before in this epistle, have two natures, an old nature and a new nature. And that new nature will not sin, never sin. That nature has a desire for God and the things of God. That old nature will sin, and it’s because of that. But he that’s begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. And may I say, this is another verse that makes me believe that the child of God can never be demon-possessed. Now, I think that you can be oppressed by demons. I think Christians can get into that place where they’re oppressed, but never possessed by a demon. It’d be impossible for a child of God to do that. Why? Because… Greater is he that’s in you than he that’s in the world. And the Holy Spirit would not be dwelling in that where a demon was. Even the pigs went down into the water when the demons were put in them, you must remember. And I don’t think a child of God could be that. Now, verse 19, And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. In other words, the devil has got the world asleep. And the devil is saying to McGee on the Through the Bible radio, he says, shh, hush, you’re waking people up. And we don’t want to do that. They’re very comfortable. Many people in their churches, they’re dead in trespasses and sins. And we don’t want to wake them up. Let’s let them alone. And that’s the thing that disturbs the devil. But you and I are living in a world that is asleep in the arms of the wicked one. And believe me, when you look around you today, you must agree with that. Now, he says, and we know that the Son of God has come and he has 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 in eternal life. Friends, that’s the reason Christianity is not a religion. It’s a person. That person is Christ. And if you have him, you have salvation. And it’s not a religion. And then he concludes, little children, keep yourselves from idols. Keep yourselves from these things of the world that take your time and attention. Covetousness is idolatry. Other things are idolatry. Many people are worshiping many things in this wicked world we’re in today. There are nothing in the world but idols. Keep yourself from idols. I’ll see you next time in the prophecy of Micah, my beloved.

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What’s taking your time and attention these days? Is there something keeping you from God and the way that he wants you to live? Well, if these studies in 1 John have touched you in a meaningful way and they’re prompting you to reevaluate your priorities, why don’t you write and tell us about it? Drop us a note in the feedback section of our app or email your thoughts to BibleBus at ttb.org or send it to Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109. In Canada, Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C 6B1. You can also call and leave a message anytime at 1-865-BIBLE. As Dr. McGee mentioned, in our next study, we return to the Old Testament and the book of Micah. But if you want to spend a little more time in 1 John, here are a few resources I suggest. First, all of Dr. McGee’s messages in 1 John are available to listen for free in our app or by visiting ttb.org. Another suggestion is our free Bible companion for 1 John that contains a great synopsis of Dr. McGee’s teaching, as well as prompts to both listen to Dr. McGee’s message and read the scripture for yourself, as well as some pretty great questions for reflection, or better yet, group study. Find it in our app at ttb.org, or if you prefer a printed edition, well, we can help you out there too. It’s a soft cover, and you can order your copy at ttb.org or by calling 1-800-65-BIBLE. I’m Steve Schwetz, inviting you to meet me back here next time for our study of Micah. I’ll save a seat just for you.

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Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow.

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