1 John 5 - Part 6

Well, good morning. If you turn to 1 John 5, we will continue. We have established at this point that John wants those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to be certain that they have eternal life because of what Jesus has done for them. That John wants people to experience the fruit of knowing they're children of God through their prayers being heard by God and answered.

So there is a confidence that the Christian believer can have when the Christian believer goes to God in prayer that God is actually listening. He is not so transcendent and separate that he doesn't hear our prayers. And you can ask people of every other religion if their God or their gods hear their prayers, and they're going to say, well, yeah, but they're not going to have the confidence that a Christian believer can truly have. and so what we want is for God to conform us to the image of his son and part of how God conforms us to the image of his son is that we start to become prayers who pray according to God's will we start to ask for things the way that God has told us that we ought to and even supernaturally speaking God causes us to start to pray prayers that he knows he's going to answer to give us that hopeful confidence once we see the answered prayer.

We're not going to always know when that's happening. Sometimes we're going to pray and God's not going to give us what we asked for and we're going to know he did what was right. But in your life as a believer, you will begin to see more often that you'll pray for things that God actually grants, sometimes quickly. And he does that to affirm your faith and to show his power in your life.

So let's read the text from 1 John 5 that we'll look at today. This is a text that might be a little confusing. It is something that I'm guessing is not talked about etan and so we will dig into it verse 16 right after john affirms for us that we already possess what we've asked of him in prayer so the context being our prayer john says if anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death he should ask in my translation says he should ask God who will give life to those who commit this kind of sin.

There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying he should ask regarding that sin. All unrighteousness is sin, yet there is sin that does not lead to death. So that's 1 John 5, 16 and 17 in the Berean Standard Version. It's going to be very similar to the NIV, the NASB, the LSB. The version that actually gets it the best, which we'll go back to once in a while when you're reading, is the King James, a very good translation.

The interesting thing about that verse, and it's not terribly significant, is that in the original language, the word God isn't there. That's implied, that we're asking God in prayer, and that it's God that's going to grant life to the person we're praying for. But I always find it interesting when the translators feel the need to add something that wasn't there.

They do it to be helpful, and I think most of the time they're right. But it is bothersome sometimes that they feel the need to do it. Maybe they could put a little note to let us know that word wasn't there. But the idea here is that there is... So the ESV has a note, at least my eyes say. Oh, does it have a note?

My God says he. Yeah, so what it really says is, and he will give him life. And I think it's implied that it's always God's the ultimate source of life, right, or salvation. Or even if it's through the believer, God giving somebody something through you, it's still God is the one you're asking, right? He's the one granting. It doesn't make sense for what he and the epic and all would say, the blind is God.

Something like that in the book notes rather than the opposite. You know what I'm saying? Yes. It kind of makes more sense to just put he and then put a book note and it's applying that it's God. Yeah. And in the second phrase where it says, and he will give him life, I heard one commentator say that it could be that it's you, the believer, that's giving life to your fellow believer, you being the instrument that God is, of course, using.

And so the he could be God or the believer. But we can talk about that one as much as you want outside of Sunday school, because that wasn't really that important. Just a note in case you didn't know about that. In chapter 22 of our confession, the London Baptist Confession of Faith, paragraph 4 about prayer, the writers said, prayers to be made for things lawful, which is what we talked about last week.

We always want to pray for something that's lawful. We would never pray against God's law. And for all sorts of men living or that shall live hereafter, but not for the dead. So we pray for people who are alive. We pray for people who will one day be alive. You know, you can pray for your yet to be born grandchildren, great grandchildren and things like that.

In fact, many of us being here at all today are likely the product of somebody we never met praying for us. So think about the impact you could have on future generations. But you don pray for the dead And then the final clause says nor for those of whom it may be known that they have sinned the sin unto death And so what I would say is likely a topic that people haven't discussed a ton is what is the sin unto death?

Is this something that we should be able to discern? Is it something that we have a command to follow when we see it? Is it something we can even identify? Was this something only first century believers would have would have understood from John's letter? And I like how Calvin put it. For except that the knowledge of this was certain in vain with the apostle have made this exception.

The idea being that if John's going to write to the people who are receiving his letter, that they are not to pray for the one who's committed the sin that leads to death, that there was some idea that it was going to be identifiable. And it would have been in vain for him to have written that at all, if ultimately we would have read it and determined it to be meaningless or indiscernible. So let's dig into it.

But the sin that leads to death, here's some theories that people have. So I'll give you all the ones that I'm not going to teach, and then we'll teach what I think is the answer. A sin with deathly, earthly consequences, such as suicide, or sins that destroy people, like drug addictions, or some sin with built-in consequences that lead to death, like certain STDs or certain things that could happen to you. so that's one idea that people have had that it's like literal death is in view here so if you see somebody that commits a sin that's going to lead to death you're not to pray for them is what what john's saying and uh in particular some people who take that view they take it to the point of saying you don't really know that they did it until they die at which point now you cannot pray for them and so it's it's almost like a tautology like you've seen them die so don't pray for them I don't think that's the answer.

You can think of this is not something I think we would divide over. A sin that a believer refuses to repent of. So if there's any number of sins that believers can commit and they can be entrenched in a sin and then they decide, I'm not I'm not going to give this up. And you may even have to excommunicate them. That's not necessarily going to be the sin. that is the sin that leads to death.

So, for example, if they refuse to give up their illicit relationship or something like that, or if they refuse to give up hatred, I don't think that that's in view here. A mortal sin of the Roman Catholic variety. So if you understand Roman Catholicism at all, they separate sins into different categories largely based on this verse. And I don't think this is referring to what they call a mortal sin.

And I don't think that a person who has rejected Christ, who has never really believed in Christ or been a part of the church, I don't think that they're in view. So your cousin, you gave him the gospel a few times and they just refused to believe. I don't think that they have committed a sin, this sin, leading to death. So what I think it is, and what a lot of reformers before me thought, so I have a little bit of support with this, and I didn't come up with it on my own anyway, is that it's a hardened, willful, knowing rejection of the truth.

So turn to Mark 3, 29. I'm going to try to identify for you what the sin that leads to death is. I'm going to try to show you what it is turn to Mark 3 and I'm going to try to explain to you what is commanded regarding the sin that leads to death and why it's supportable that that's what John means here from the rest of scripture and then finally we want to get to how do we discern it and every single week I have been afraid that I was going to run out of time, but never so afraid as I am this week of that.

So I want to briefly pause to remind people that if you have a comment or a question, I want you to just go ahead and probably best raise your hand. But even if you didn't, that would be OK. I want to encourage people to feel like sharing and asking questions. Last week after the service or after Sunday school, several people had really good comments. about Sunday school and about prayer.

There are the kind of things I wish more people had heard than just me. I was blessed by it, but feel free to jump in. So in Mark 3, if you go to verse 29, Jesus says, But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. He is guilty of eternal sin. And verse 30, Jesus made this statement because they were saying he has an unclean spirit.

There is a parallel passage in Matthew 12. But this is a passage that describes what most people call the unpardonable sin or the unforgivable sin. It's the idea that something has happened where Jesus announces like every sin and blasphemy that men commits going to be forgiven them. But there's one thing that won't. And ultimately, it is attributing to Satan the works of the spirit of God that he's doing through Christ.

So these people were accusing Jesus of casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub or by the power of demons. And Jesus expertly flips the whole thing around on them and basically shows them that that means they all demonic if they believe this It amazing expertise in argumentation But the point ends up being that Jesus really expands the forgiveness of sins to all manner of sin But he says there is one that can be committed where you will not be forgiven. And that is attributing to Satan the works that Jesus is doing. and so then one of the questions becomes you know how do you know if you've done that and we'll get to that later so if you turn to hebrews 6 i want to i want to show you that it is not just a single passage in scripture that teaches this concept so jesus teaches there's an unpardonable sin some people believe that that was committed by the pharisees that were speaking to him and it could never be repeated there's there's people that are published authors that that believe that in hebrews chapter six another passage that people find difficult in verse four the author writes it is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, it says, and then have fallen away to be restored to repentance because they themselves are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to open shame.

And so this passage, the apostles talking about people who have fallen away from the church in this case, And he says to those that he's writing to, in verse 9, even though we speak like this, beloved, we are convinced of better things, in your case, things that accompany salvation. And so between Hebrews 6 and then Hebrews 10, 26 to 31, another passage about falling away, We have some verses that I think are teaching that there are going to be those who are part of the visible church, people who participate in the heavenly gift. They've tasted of the sweetness of the word of God.

They participated in the means of grace in a sense, but they've done it all in a way that's outward. And in their hearts, they're not truly God's people. Excuse me, they're not truly God's. Apostrophe S there. It doesn't help, probably, but those of you that already knew, knew. So anyway, but at the end of Hebrews 10, verse 26, the apostle writes, if we deliberately go on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no further sacrifice for sin remains.

If you deliberately and defiantly continue in your sin after you've been given that knowledge of truth, With no further sacrifice for sin remains, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume all adversaries. And you can continue in chapter 10 and get the same taste of things. The idea being that there is a form of high handed defiant sin that some people get to the point of being in, which is distinct from a believer backsliding temporarily.

It's distinct from somebody that's never sat in a church and actually heard the word of God taught. They never actually experienced what the rest of us are experiencing. And so they walk away. A guy that comes to church two or three times, he's not committing the sin that leads to death. This is a high-handed defiant sin. 1 John 2.19 that Levi taught through, they went out from us because they were not of us, but we know they weren't of us because they didn't continue with us.

He's referring to those that he previously called antichrists. These are people who are attributing the works that they're seeing to something other than the Holy Spirit, and the only alternative being Satan. In Numbers 15, I'll just read this for you. You can always turn there if you like. Just one verse, just to push the point home a little bit. that there is a type of rebellious nature that God hates in a distinct way.

Verse 30 of Numbers 15, But the person who sins defiantly, whether a native or foreigner, blasphemes Yahweh, that person shall be cut off from among his people. So the sin that leads to death refers to a final state of resolute apostasy, a rejection of Christ so hardened that repentance is no longer possible. So that is the sin that leads to death, I believe.

It is when you recognize that this has occurred in someone. And we'll get to how we know, which is the harder thing. So what's commanded? What's commanded is that we are not to pray for this person. So first, the sin that leads to death is this apostasy. We're not to pray for them.

There's rare cases where God forbids intercession. So I first want to show you in 1 Samuel 12, 23. I think what we want to establish when we're thinking about this is that God's not giving you permission to just stop praying for people. All right. This this is, I think, and I'm sure that the pastors could affirm this. This is going to be an extremely rare situation in your life where you're actually forbidden from praying about a certain situation.

The idea being there's no reason to pray for somebody that God has pointed out clearly he's not one of mine. He's indicated it. But I think it's rare. In 1 Samuel 12 23 Samuel and God are just really annoyed with the Israelites They asking for a king right And then Andrew going to preach about the real king today right But they're asking for a king, and he's telling them how terrible it's all going to be, and this is terrible, what they're doing.

But Samuel says, As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against Yahweh by ceasing to pray for you. he says and i will continue to teach you the good and right way so generally speaking we're not going to give up on people first timothy chapter 2 says i urge you to make supplications prayers petitions and thankfulness for all people right and for kings and for all those in authority for god you know has the desire of everyone to be saved from every tribe tongue and nation so it's going to be rare so don't walk out of here saying well michael said i didn't have to pray for people that I don't like. That's not what I'm saying at all. If you ever get to the point where you think that this verse applies to someone you know, it should be heartbreaking.

Because I'm not talking about some guy in Hollywood that we don't really know. When it applies, if it applies, and it's going to come from the church, we'll skip to the end, it's always going to come through the local church that you would even know to do this, I think. when it applies, it's going to be so heartbreaking that it's not going to be like, oh, sweet. I just say, you know, a few minutes of prayer a day.

This is going to be a horrific thing where you've already poured out prayers about something. But it is scriptural that God sometimes advises us not to pray or his prophets. Quick survey. I'm not going to read them all. But Jeremiah 7, 16 and Jeremiah 11, 14, which I'll read. God says as for you do not pray for these people do not raise up a cry or a prayer on their behalf for I will not be listening when they call out to me in their time of disaster similar at the end of Jeremiah 14 God says in 14.11 do not pray for the well-being of this people he says although they may fast I will not listen to their cry I will finish them off by sword and famine and plague and if you go all the way to verse 1 of chapter 15 if you read the whole end of 14 into 15 it's it's striking but in 15 1 of jeremiah then yahweh said to me even if moses and samuel should stand before me my heart would not go out to this people so basically the best prayers that have ever existed the best prophets and intercessors that god has made prior to christ at this point Like even if they would pray for these people, he wasn't going to help them.

And remember, he did help the people that he was really angry with when Moses stood for them. Remember that? And so he's saying like the best prayers that could come from my people will not change my plan for these people. They're destined for death, it says. and so it is scriptural that God may indicate it is time not to pray but to be clear he doesn't tell us to not be compassionate he doesn't actually say don't serve the person he says not to pray for them that he's not going to answer that prayer that if 1 John 5 14 and 15 are true that you have confidence that you're a Christian because your prayers are heard by God and you know that your prayers are heard by God so you know you already have the things that you're asking of him.

You know that when Jesus said, ask of me whatever you want and I'll give it to you, you know that that's true in regard to praying according to God's will, that he's going to give you everything that's necessary for your life and godliness, that for you to knowingly pray for something that God has said he's not going to do is actually going to hurt your confidence. that's the whole point you have confidence when you pray because you know God hears you so to pray for something that you know he won't do is irrational at best yes we ran out naked Well, I don't always make it, but... It makes a story, but it's like Santa Claus punching Arius. You've got to leave it in there.

But where, you know, he's in the madhouse, he's punching the Gnostic heretic who's in there, and he says, let us flee before God closes in and judgment is building upon us. So he had a strong, visceral reaction against such heretics like that, like a Gnostic that would say this is the truth of God, yet use it in a demonic way. And John didn't have much of an appetite for that.

And so it just reminds me of his reaction against a known heretic like that. It seems like it always reminds me of that. Absolutely. Yeah, that's a good comment. So John is, of course, the writer of 1 John, and he's already referenced the people that have left. So when he's telling people not to pray for an apostate, in this case, he's writing about people they all know.

So to us, it seems abstract. It seems a little confusing. I don't have a person in my mind right now that I actually know this applies to. I mean, we probably sit and talk about it a little bit. Maybe some of you know people who've left or been asked to leave or told to leave LBC. But there's concrete examples in John's mind of people who have left, who have gone out from us, who once were part of the church.

Yeah, and that's a growing issue, too. At that time, there was a lot of false Christ happening. At that time, a lot of people leaving the faith. We think of the early church period as full, just everything's perfect. It was not. A lot of wolves that we see throughout the scriptures, warnings of it, and it happened.

And John is dealing with that at the end of the apostolic age. And so I think there's particularly people of my age that were with us, and now they are so against us, they're gone, they're enemies. Yeah, they're enemies of Christ. It's interesting when people say, we need to go back to the first century church. You ever meet those people? I always think, well, which one do you mean, Corinth? you know wasn't really all roses and daisies turn to John 20 so in 1 John 2 19 we're told that there's people who were part of the church basically and now they're gone and John identifies them as antichrist these are people who have tasted of the heavenly gift they sat and had communion with you, they had fellowship with you, they listened to the preaching of the word, some of them maybe were pastors these are people who absolutely have been given the knowledge of God so clearly and they've even had a chance to enjoy the fellowship of the saints in the church and they have decided that that that this is not what they want that Christ is not their sacrifice that there's something else that must be creating the power that's that's going on here and in John 20 23 we have another verse that I think can be confusing to people.

I'm in John 21, so that's even more confusing. In John 20, we'll just read in 21, again Jesus said to them, peace be with you, as the Father has sent me, so also I am sending you. When he had said this, he breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Spirit. And then he says, if you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven. If you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.

So this verse is really there. He doesn't say, literally, if I forgive sins, they're forgiven. He says, if you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven. If you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld. And what I'm going to tell you without trying to dig into this whole verse, we'll let Andrew deal with exegeting this in 30 weeks or when he gets there.

I can't imagine it being that fast, honestly. But anyway, the point is this, that John is not bestowing upon his apostles a priestly power or authority to forgive sins. What John is saying is that as the church, which is what he's instituting through the apostles, who basically represent the pastors of all the churches now, he's instituting the fact that the church will have declarative authority to say what they think God has done.

So when a person gets baptized in our church, the pastor says this person is a Christian. they're now part of our church they've identified with Christ and we acknowledge what they're saying they believe in their baptism and we say as a church, you're a brother in Christ and that person can walk out the door they can commit a sin that day and we don't look at them and say well you're probably not a Christian now we don't do that why? because we say because of your profession of faith and baptism we believe you really are a Christian and we're going to treat you like one, and we're going to say to you, your sins are forgiven. I hope you would do that. If you're talking to a believer who is a member of your own church especially, you can tell them your sin is forgiven.

You're not forgiving it. You're announcing what we believe God has indicated clearly. So similarly, the argument becomes for the sin that leads to death, if a person has been determined, I'm going to say by the local church, to have committed apostasy, to have walked away from Christ, not just, again, committing some sin that gets us excommunicated temporarily with the hope that they return A person that sat down with the pastors and they have said I deny Christ as Savior I deny that he the one way to salvation I deny he's come in the flesh.

Whatever they say where the pastors realize this guy doesn't want to be part of us, and in fact, he's what we call an apostate. And when that becomes evident, and then it's announced and it's confirmed by the church, that is our way of basically doing the opposite of acknowledging someone's baptism and so we're not announcing that a person is not forgiven because we withhold forgiveness we're not trying to harshly say well because you've denied christ i'm not going to pray for you the goal here is to trust the process of discipline that god's given to his local churches that is overseen by the elders of those churches to say that when a person hits this point, we're going to just believe what God has pointed out to us, that they've committed the sin that leads to death and we won't pray for them in that sense. Go ahead, Andrew.

So would you say, like someone who is under church discipline and they're out of the church, our desire would be that they would come back, right? And we pray to that effect. I would say that for every sin but this one, yes. Yeah, which, forgive me if I'm just not following that argument well, which is very likely the case. But just again, we're going to explain just in like two sentences the difference, again, in light of that reality of the one that isn't that versus this one.

I know you're probably thinking I just did that. I'm sorry. No, I'll let Tim do it, though, because he raised his hand. This is what I heard Michael say. when someone clearly says, you know, I don't believe this anymore. I don't believe that Jesus is the Christ. I do not believe that he came in the flesh.

I deny all that. That's, I think that's what I heard you say, which is not the same as someone who's disciplined for those other reasons, but someone who really clearly says. And that's kind of why we're doing this, That's why I mentioned the story of the Gnostic heretic. Above and beyond that, he was called an alter and he's not repentant of it. He's actually forming himself as the enemy of Christ, of a preaching doctrine that is antagonistic.

So when you say that, it's a different stuff. Yes. Okay. That's why I heard it. I just wanted to make sure I was getting that right. Yes.

No, good clarification. Does anybody else have any questions? Comments? Jason? You mentioned a little bit earlier to an individual that we're not called to pray for it doesn't say we're not called to show kindness to or help out and aid that seems I understand what you're saying but it seems a little counterintuitive maybe does that make sense? I do agree with you but we're praying for their salvation I think in this case and if God has indicated this person is apostate, we're not going to pray for salvation, but if they have a flat tire, help them change their tire, basically.

They're still your neighbor, potentially. I'm not saying you have to go out of your way to go serve somebody in Texas if that's where they ended up, but the assumption becomes this is a, you know, let's bring it close to home. This is a member of LaRue Baptist Church. They've walked with the church for a while, and they do this final apostasy. The elders talk to them and we get together as a church.

We have to excommunicate them because they don't want to be a member anyway. And the elders say, you know what, this person's apostate officially. And it's our responsibility to say we're not going to sit and waste our time praying for their salvation like we would for anyone else in the town. But if the person needs a hot meal on a cold day, give it to them. the fruit of the Spirit.

We don't deny the exchange of the fruit of the Spirit with that when we aid the individual. But our confidence is bound not to pray for them because it's a clear, right scripture. Yeah, and so doing your heaping burning coals on their head so that God can do what he's going to do on the day of judgment as well Greg were you going to say something I just think of a rebellious angry turning away from the truth and showing their disdain for Christ.

You know, when we put people out of the churches because of stuff like this, we would be praying for them. This is a very small... You know, we can see it. Well, we can think of somebody. They're defiant. They're angry.

And they're shown it by their actions. And I think I think it's extremely rare as evidenced by how many people can you even think of? You know, but but also I think the safety point becomes I I follow the decision of the church. John 20, 23. When the church decides to tell someone your sins have been forgiven, I treat them as if that's true, even even if some of their life is to the contrary from my judgment, because my judgment isn't what matters.

What matters is the church said we're baptizing this person. And right now they're in good standing. That's what matters. Not whether I think something about somebody. And once the church decides this person is out and they are apostate, if that really comes to that point, then I would be wrong to oppose that decision of the church as well. That's that's the idea.

I think Jeremy had something first. Yes, I mean, the difference is a person under discipline is saying, I'm going to continue doing this sin, even though the church is telling me not to. repent. Whereas the person we're describing here about prayer is saying, the reason I'm leaving is because I don't believe Jesus anymore. Levi? You kind of keep talking about the church declaring this person apostasy.

So, you know, you just said that this person and gets really antagonistic and hostile to the truth and knows what's coming in terms of discipline, removes themselves from membership, is there a responsibility of the church to go ahead and make an official declaration of apostasy? Is there a before the convicts say, okay, we're not praying for that person? Otherwise, is that necessary?

Tim? I probably would have done it anyway, but he raised his hand and made it easier. I think the advice addressing the situation was some of it was going to bail out before the district was going to come down. Yeah, yeah. What we have done, and it's actually in our Constitution, if someone knows discipline is coming from another design, then we have a responsibility to tell the congregation, this is how you respond.

So if someone does this, this apostasy, and is denying Jesus, denying all that he believes. He said he was used to being. And he presides. And we have to tell the congregation. This is why he presides. This is what we think.

He's apostate, right? Yeah, I... So I'm thinking of a specific example. I don't know if you ever did that. Maybe you did. Yeah, but I would argue if the church agrees with what I just taught, which would be interesting if you had different opinions on it, that it would be the responsibility ultimately of the elders to do this in those situations eventually.

Katie? Yeah, but this is, maybe I need to ask him on this, because it's very home. I know a couple. It isn't hard at home for me. And I know from like all different denominations, you know what I mean this is the word of God So every denomination should read the word of God of what is true But I know someone very personally the one that actually told me about Jesus and lonely Jesus Christ who now was baptized was doing the fruits of the spirit has completely walked away and is leading others into death and saying about astronomy like all these other things And so I, but there's no church, like we keep talking about, like the church has said, no, we're not going to pray for this one.

They've been under church discipline. But from my background and what churches we went to before, like, I feel like baptism is just handed out like candy. Like, you know what I mean? Yeah. And not saying that this person wasn't truly baptized. I think they were, but now they have, and maybe this is where I need counseling.

So send her, Pastor Angie, this will help you before I come talk to you. but that's where I'm struggling with other denominations. Do you know what I mean? Sure. What does that look like then? Because my heart, like how you said it should break our heart, it has broken my heart. Even talking about it right now brings up a lot of emotion.

So how do you handle that if it's a different denomination that doesn't have the same things in place for their members? And they have different disciplinary methods across the board or not yet. So that leads well into the final thing. And we're a little past the time right now is that we just spent 99 percent of the time talking about what is the sin that leads to death, whether we should pray for it or not and all that.

And what's really more important in this section is not when you may mistakenly pray for somebody. Like you're not even a bad person if you ended up doing that. if they were never if they were never officially said don't pray for them like i don't see why you you would have to stop but the the command is actually pray for your brothers and sisters that's that's what's going on here there's one little exception but the command is pray for your brothers and sisters when you see them sinning don't gossip about them don't judge them don't sit and make a big deal out of it, pray for them. And you can have hope that the God that hears your prayers, who can sanctify you, who gave you the discernment to even know what's going on, that that same God has the power to help your brothers and sisters.

So humbly and excitedly pray for people. And frankly, probably spend less time worrying about which person maybe we should not mistakenly pray for in that case. I'll finish with Calvin because he says it best. It may be asked again, by what evidences can we know that a man's fall is fatal? For except the knowledge of this was certain, in vain would the apostle have made this exception, that they were not to pray for a sin of this kind.

It is then right to determine sometimes whether the fallen is without hope or whether there is still a place for a remedy. This indeed is what I allow and what is evident beyond dispute from this passage. But as this very seldom happens, and as God sets before us the infinite riches of his grace and bids us to be merciful, according to his own example, we ought not rashly to conclude that anyone has brought on himself the judgment of eternal death.

On the contrary, love should dispose us to hope well. he says but if the impiety of some appear to us not otherwise than hopeless and this is the key phrase as though the lord pointed it out by the finger we ought not to contend with the just judgment of god or seek to be more merciful than he is so let me pray father in heaven we thank you that your word is always perfect and that it will always teach us what we ought to do so that we can be fruitful servants in your kingdom. Please help us to do so today. We ask that our worship would be pleasing to you through your son, that you would help us free our minds from the little distractions that take us away from proper worship.

And we ask that your word would go forth with power, with the spirit opening our hearts to receive it. In Christ's name I pray. Amen.