Praying for Sinners - 1 John 5: 16-17

0:47So I want to look at some of that, taking our time walking through this last portion of Scripture in 1 John. 1 John 5, verse 16. Let me go ahead and read it. If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will for him give life to those who commit sin, not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death. I do not say that he should make request for this. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death.

1:28Wow. Sin is a pain, isn't it? It's a pain. I mean, I think about how wonderful my world would be if I never came across anyone who sinned, including myself, right? Just think how wonderful my family life would be if my kids never sinned. But then sin comes in and it's kind of a pain. It really distorts, it twists, it bends, it breaks. That's what sin does, right? In fact, I heard one person say, church would be great if it wasn't for all these people. Well, the question becomes: how do we deal with sin? How do we deal with sin in our own lives? How do we deal with sin in our families? How do we deal with sin in our society? How do we deal with sin in other people? I mean, planet Earth is a collision of sinners, isn't it? And there's chaos, there's aftermath, there's brokenness, twistedness, pain, sorrow, all because we have a bunch of sinners on planet Earth colliding.

2:53And it's easy to get angry, isn't it, when someone sins against you? It's easy for our first reaction to be one of anger and retaliation, right? Instead of prayer and supplication. What is your first impulse when someone sins against you, when you see sin in society, when you see sin around you? What's your first impulse? Is it to rise up with anger and aggression, retaliation, or is prayer and supplication your first impulse? You remember John, the apostle, at one time he wanted to call fire down from heaven on somebody who he felt sin against him. Remember?

3:48And so later in life, instead of praying, instead of calling down fire from heaven, John became one who prayed down life from heaven upon sinners. You see, sinners need our prayers, don't they? Don't we? Right? What is sin? Sin is life apart from God. And of course, it's going to be messy. Those who do not have life need people who have life to pray for them. That's what John's been talking about. Right, look back at verse 11. We'll just start reading.

4:37And the testimony is this: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has the life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. John is talking about eternal life here. And those who have eternal life, eternal life isn't just about duration of days. Eternal life is about a quality of life, the kind of life that comes out of being in union with God. That's the kind of life. When you accept the Son of God, the name of the Son of God, whom the Holy Spirit has revealed, Jesus Christ, when you accept the Son, He comes in and you receive eternal life. Because the life, the life which is from the very beginning, is in him.

5:41And so, life is a personality. And then he goes on. So we looked at this personality of life, and then in verse 14 and 15, this is all review. Knowing that you have eternal life leads to effective prayer. This is the Confidence which we have before him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from him. Effective prayer. I mean, think about it.

6:19Wouldn't it be nice if you could pray for a sinner and God would grant that sinner life and so change that sinner from the inside out? Wouldn't it be nice that when you sinned, you would pray prayers consistent with life? What is a prayer consistent with life? One that seeks union or reunion with God. That's what life is. Being cut off from God, there is no life. In union with God, there is life. So the promise of answered prayer, which we're looking at today, the promise of answered prayer does not and should not lead us to be preoccupied with ourselves. Whatever you ask, look at what he said. We know that he hears us when whatever we ask, we know we have the requests which we have from him. What a promise. But such a Promise of answered prayer should not lead us to be preoccupied with ourselves.

7:36No. If you're in union with life, if you have this eternal quality of life, you want to see others live and flourish. That's what life does. Life loves to see others flourishing. That's what life is about. Giving, seeing, wanting others to flourish, to live and flourish. This is the very essence of who God is. In Him is life. And that life is the light of men. So, as we go through this passage, and there's some really tricky interpretive issues in this one, I want you to get the big picture here. What John wants to bring about is prayer. He wants to encourage us to pray. He wants you to be praying generously for others, specifically sinners. It's interesting that after he talks about this promise, in whatever we ask, the very next thing that John talks about is: what do you do about other people? How far does this effective prayer go? John, it's like he anticipates this question. What about my loved ones who do not know Jesus? What about those who aren't in a right relationship with God? How far does my effective prayer extend? And John's going to tell us.

9:06That's what he's going to tell us. And after making this incredible statement about answered prayer, John goes on to give us some instructions about praying for people who are caught up in such sin. And so this morning, as I work through this passage, I want to bring to your attention three simple instructions about praying for sinners so that you will constantly be praying for them. Three simple instructions that will encourage you to pray for sinners. Three instructions. We'll look at the first one. First one is understand.

9:52Understand. You need to understand that God distinguishes between two types of sin. God distinguishes between two types of sin. Let me just read to you again these words, verse 16 and 17. If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask God, and God will, for him, give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death. I do not say that he should make requests for this. All unrighteousness is sin. And there is a sin not leading to death. So we have two kinds of sin: the sin that is not leading to death, and the sin that is leading to death. What in the world is that?

10:48Well, the preposition here, sin to death, if you just translate it straight from the Greek, there is the word leading, isn't there? It's sin to death. If you have the King James, sin unto death would probably be a more precise translation. But it's a sin that is linked to death. It's inextricably linked, joined to, the result of. It's a kind of death that automatically connects one to judgment. I mean, it's a kind of sin that automatically connects one to judgment. It's linked.

11:36What is it? Well, it's a major interpretive issue. You need to know what sin that leads to death is, and you need to know what the sin not leading to death is. So I'm just going to go home and we'll talk about it later. That's the thing about expository preaching. You have to take the next path. And you have to deal with it and understand it, right? Well, I can tell you, there are a lot of opinions on what this sin leading to death is, or this sin linked to death.

12:13And I mean, they go everywhere. But at the outset, and we must go through this and we must understand this. First, we're going to have to walk through the complicated briefly. Of course, we don't have a whole lot of time here, but we'll walk through the complicated and then we'll come to the simple. There's something very clear that John is getting to in this passage. He isn't trying to expound upon what the sin of death is. That's not his goal. He's trying to encourage prayer. And that's going to help us understand what John is getting to. And we'll come to that. But first, we will walk through the complicated. What is this sin that leads to death? And what is sin that does not lead to death? Well, first, let's look at what the sin leading to death is.

13:04And there's three key words in this passage that will help, that really you have to make a decision about as to what does John means. Three key words. Number one, brother. If anyone sees his brother, is this brother a strict reference to a believer? Or is John using this in a more general reference to humanity, a neighbor? Anybody. So, brother, second key word that you're going to have to make a decision about is life. Life. Is John talking about eternal life? Is that what's in his mind? Or is he talking about spiritual health, life in the spiritual health sense? Or is he talking about physical health? And so you've got: is life eternal life, spiritual health, or physical health?

14:02Third key word you're going to have to make a decision on is the word death. Does John have physical death in mind or eternal death in mind? You know what physical death is, right? Separation of the soul from the body, right? Then there's spiritual death, eternal death. What is eternal death? Eternal death is that everlasting separation from God forever, a permanent state of being separated from God. That's eternal death. Forever out of God's good presence. Well, let's just start by looking at these. I'm going to start with death and work backwards. It is kind of the easiest. Otherwise, you can come up with a pretty complicated matrix of possibilities here. But we'll start with death, because I think this one is pretty straightforward.

15:05It's the easiest for me to answer. In this context, death is certainly or clearly referring to eternal death, not physical death. Let me show you why I believe that. Look at verse 11. And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life. And this life is in his Son. 13, these things I have written to you so that you may know that you have eternal life. Look at verse 20. This is the true God and eternal life. The whole contrast that's happening in these verses are about eternal life, not physical life. The idea of physical life really isn't even here.

15:49For this to be physical death, you'd have to introduce a new idea, not only just here, but really in the whole book. John hasn't been talking about a... Now, whatever you do, don't do that thing where God automatically zaps you and takes you out. That language isn't even here. No, John is clearly speaking about eternal death, eternal separation from God. That's why he writes, so that people will not be separated eternally from God. So it's best to understand sin leading to death as sin leading to eternal death. There is. A sin which is inextricably linked to eternal death. Judgment cannot be broken. A sin that is inextricably linked with eternal separation from God.

16:48We need to know it, right? There is a sin that inevitably separates a person from God forever. Are you listening? I hope you are. So then, death. So, death is eternal death, not physical death. So, then let's look at life. Life. Having answered the fact that death is eternal death, it's easy to see that John is not talking about physical health and life here. The person he's talking about already has physical life, right? He's clearly talking about spiritual life, specifically the eternal kind of life, right? The eternal kind of life.

17:33And when a person has the eternal kind of life, that has implications for your spiritual vitality or spiritual health now, but it also has implications for spiritual vitality for eternity. So, death, eternal death, life, eternal life, which has implications now, but certainly for eternity. So, that brings us to the third brother. Brother. And often John uses the term brother in this letter and in others to refer to a believer. But even though he often does that, I do not think that's what John has in mind strictly here. I do not think John has a true believer strictly in mind here for several reasons. Number one, it's very clear that John has made elsewhere and in this text that we're studying that a true believer does not commit the sin that results in eternal separation from God. Listen to what John 5:24, Jesus said, truly, truly, when he says truly, truly, Jesus is saying something that's truly, truly, right? Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment, does not come into the second death, does not come into judgment, but has passed out of life, out of death, into life.

19:16So it would make John's statement here pretty superfluous if he is saying, well, if anyone sees a true believer committing a sin not leading to death, guess what? That's all. That's the whole that believers do, sin, is sin that does not lead ultimately to eternal separation. No, I think he has. But listen, what I also believe that John doesn't have a true believer strictly in mind here because it would contradict what he has already said in chapter 3 and verse 14. We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. We know that we have passed out of death into life. It would also contradict what he has just said in verse 13. Really? Look back at verse 13. Remember, this is the whole purpose for the book. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. The whole purpose that he wrote this book, this letter, is so that the people of the churches here would know for sure they had eternal life. And he's not going to then say, by the way, don't sin the sin that leads to eternal death.

20:45That would defeat the whole purpose for what he wrote. It would also contradict what he says immediately after. Look at verse 18. We know that no one who is born Of God sins, is sinning. But he who is born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him. He goes on to say in verse 18, we know that no one who is born of God, and we'll look at this next time, sins. He's talking about is sinning, and he's just talked about this sin leading to death. He says, I know this doesn't apply to you. That's what he is saying.

21:27It would contradict what John has said throughout this book and what he has said in the immediate context. If John is thinking, yeah, as a true believer, I want you to know you have eternal life, but just don't go out and commit that sin that leads to eternal death. Wipe out every assurance you have, right? No. It's best to take John's use of the word brother here in the broader sense of the word. It could be a neighbor. It could be a nominal Christian or both. It could even include a believer. I just think we take this as a general statement. It's very simple, what John is saying. Look back. John is referring to anyone who is not committing a sin that leads to death. Whoever that person may be. What he's just saying is, like, here's the category. Person referring to anyone who is not committing sin that leads to death. Death. That's the category. He doesn't go in to, you don't have to break that brother down any further than that. It's anyone who is not committing a sin that leads to death.

22:45So then, what is the sin leading to death? What does he have in mind? Well, I want to take a few moments and do a brief survey of the unforgivable sins throughout Scripture. And I think that'll help us get our mind around what John has in mind here. It's interesting, he doesn't even elaborate on it. Seems like the congregation really understood what this was. He doesn't elaborate on it. So it's not his main point to define it. But we can do a survey of these unforgivable sins in the Bible, and it'll help us understand what John has in his mind. Way back, the book of Numbers in the Torah, way back in the Old Testament, come across these sins that were called unintentional and intentional sins. Remember in Numbers 15:27, God says this: Also, if one person sins unintentionally, then he shall offer a one-year-old female goat for a sin offering.

24:00The priests shall make atonement before the Lord for the person who goes astray when he sins unintentionally, making atonement for him that he may be forgiven. So, this person who sins unintentionally is forgiven. But then he goes on in verse 30: But the person who does anything defiantly, whether he is native or an alien, that one is blaspheming the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from his people. Because he has despised the word of the Lord and has broken his commandment, that person shall be completely cut off, and his guilt will be on him. So there's the unintentional, and then there's the defiant.

24:50So the unintentionality is not the opposite of defiance. But just looking at this passage in Numbers here, the man defying the words of the Scripture will be completely cut off. Moses has written these down, and the one who goes on and defiantly says, Okay, I know what that says, but I'm going to go on with my own way. He has despised the word, and he is to be completely cut off. That kind of spirit is not going to be tolerated. God does not tolerate that spirit among the people. Then you go on to Deuteronomy.

25:30Chapter 17, verse 12, we get into this presumptuous sin. The man who acts presumptuously by not listening to the priest, who stands there to serve the Lord your God, nor to the judge. So here's the guy who's acting presumptuously. You're not listening to the priest who's there to serve the Lord, nor you're listening to the judge who's there to serve the Lord. What shall happen to him? That man shall die. Thus you shall purge the evil from Israel. Then all the people will hear and be afraid and will not act presumptuously again. So in Deuteronomy 17, 12, it's the man not listening to God will die. Who does not listen to the priest or the judge that God has ordained there, he will die.

26:23And then you come to Deuteronomy 27, or 29, 19, with what we might call a high-handed sin that you see throughout the Old Testament. 29, 19 of Deuteronomy says, It shall be when he hears the words of this curse. So God has just gone through the whole blessings and the curses upon the nation of Israel. Blessings for obedience to the law, curses for disobedience to the law, with the ultimate curse being expulsion from the land. And here is what He speaks about this individual who will commit a high-handed sin. It shall be when he hears the words of this curse that he will boast, saying, I have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart. In other words, tush.

27:21I have peace. I'm going to do what I want to do. Listen to what the response is. The Lord shall never be willing to forgive him. But rather, the anger of the Lord and his jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse which is written in this book will rest on him, and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven. We should tremble when we read words like this. There is a side to God that scares the daylights out of me, okay? He is holy.

28:02This individual says, I will do what I choose. I defy what the word says. I will not listen. Bring it on. And God says, that person is going to be blotted out. That person is not going to stand in my assembly. Well, as you summarize these unfortunately, Forgivable sins in the Old Testament, they all involved intentionality. They directly challenged God's authority, whether they were expressed in the Torah or later. Those who commit these sins sear their own consciences. They sin against truth, but not only do they sear their own consciences, they defile their consciences, they deliberately reprogram their consciences to think good is evil and evil is good.

29:02That obeying God's word is bad and following the contrary desires of their own heart is good. Tush, bring it on, God. I know what you say. I don't believe. I'm going to go on in the stubbornness of my heart. And what is clear is that such people are not and will not be part of the eternal assembly of God's people. That attitude isn't going to be there. So then you come to the New Testament. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. You knew we'd get there, right?

29:40You remember blasphemy of the Holy Spirit? You remember what happens in Matthew chapter 12? Jesus was doing incredible things, and a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute was brought to Jesus and he healed him. So that the mute man spoke. And saw. All the crowds were amazed and were saying, This man cannot be the Son of David, can he? But when the Pharisees heard this, a little jealousy, going to start going after this son of David, Jesus. The Pharisees heard this, they said, This man casts out demons only by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.

30:25Then Jesus goes on to say, in response to this, Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people. But blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, that is against Jesus, it shall be forgiven him. But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him either in this age or the age to come. Wow. This is the judge, right? The Father has given all things into his hand. He is the judge. And he is saying, Look, anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him.

31:12What is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit? Well, in its context, the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit was a sin against the truth and against the Spirit of truth. It was a high-handed sin. It was a rejection of the obvious. It was a rejection of truth. But it was more than just a rejection of the obvious. It was a sin against the spirit of truth. They weren't interested in knowing anymore. They were closed. They sinned against the truth and the spirit of the truth.

31:55God had done something wonderful through Jesus, and they called it evil. But God is good. And the Spirit was testifying that God was with Jesus, doing good things through him. And those who sinned in this way defied the witness of the Spirit of truth. They discredited his testimony as evil. So they sinned against truth, they sinned against the Spirit of truth, and they sinned against the very nature of God, who speaks the truth. It was high-handed. They would not listen to the prophet or the priest that God clearly had raised up. They called something evil that was clearly good. It was a sin against the obvious. It was a sin against truth. And listen, when you sin against truth, there is no way for you to be saved because truth is the only way you can be saved.

32:51And so when you close your mind to the truth or any possibility of the truth, you cannot be saved. I remember a man came into my office one day, and he sat down and had all his farming clothes on. Pastor, I think I've blasphemed the Holy Spirit. He says, I'm a drinker, I cuss, I do a lot of things, but I really think I've sinned against the Holy Spirit. I said, tell me about it. You know, the very fact that you're concerned that you might have blasphemed the Holy Spirit is evidence that you have not. Okay?

33:40So he comes in, and I said, tell me what happened. He says, well, the other day I was farming and building a fence or something, and I got so mad at God, I threw everything down, and I just shook my fist against, and I just yelled, and I screamed at the top of my lungs against God, and I think I've really sinned against the Spirit. And there's no forgiveness for me. I said, well, first of all, are you willing to confess that? Yes, and I explained what went through this passage. Now, are you willing to leave behind your sin?

34:19Are you ready to pray and ask God to forgive you for these things? Well, no, I'm not really ready to go for those other things. I want to hold on to those things. And I said, sir, do you understand? Understand, though you have not committed the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit as is here, you may be well on your way. Do not refuse him. Do not sear your conscience. Do not put him away who now calls you to come to him.

34:56The man wouldn't pray. One more sin that I think is important. You remember Ananias and Sapphira? I just read. I won't read the passage again. But you remember Ananias and Sapphia? They were all excited about what was happening in the church, so they wanted to look like they were part of it all. They went and sold a piece of property, which they didn't have to do. They came and brought the money, which they weren't compelled, they didn't have to do, but they thought they wanted to be part of the whole thing. So they came, they sold, they kept some back, and then they said to everybody, Yeah, we were laying this before him, and here's the full amount.

35:38And both of them died. What was the sin of Ananias and Sapphira? It was a premeditated rejection of the truth. Premeditated rejection of the truth with a conspiracy against the truth. That is unforgivable. If you reject the truth, if no amount of truth will come, Convince you that Jesus is the Christ, and you're not even open to that possibility, you cannot be saved. Because it is only through the truth that you can have a right relationship with God, because God is the truth. And when you reject the truth, you reject Him.

36:20And I want to compel, I want to call upon all of you to receive the truth. Do not be afraid to go where the truth takes you. Look, across the field, here's a graveyard. I'm going to be buried there. I can see the place where I'm going to be buried. I do not want to sell you short and not fail to compel you to receive the truth. God's word is true. Do not set your heart in rejection to the truth before you've even heard it.

37:02Talk about a conspiracy theory. Right? They had conspired in their heart against the truth. And this is what Peter says to Ananias in chapter 5 and verse 3. But Peter said to Ananias, Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? And they're both taken out, right? Ananias had given his heart over to satanic lies. After all that Ananias and Sapphira had witnessed, their hearts had remained unmoved by the truth, just like Judas.

37:51Well, the penalty was for them permanent removal from the community of truth. Christian fellowship is based upon truth. Are you in the truth? I don't want pretender Christians here. Have you received the truth? Does your mouth speak the words of truth? Your mouth gives you away. If you speak the vulgar, if you speak the profane, if you laugh at the, it speaks of who you are. Do not be deceived. Listen what Revelation 21:8 says, But for the cowardly, this is the final judgment, right? But for the cowardly, and the unbelieving, and the abominal, and the murderers, murderers, and the immoral persons, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. Interesting, all liars is at the very end.

38:58You see, a pattern through. Scripture is one that those who reject the truth, God rejects. Because to receive the truth is to receive him. Truth is a person that walked among us. And to receive the truth is to receive him, but to sin against the truth, you cannot be saved. Well, so what is the sin that leads to death? I know we've taken the whole time here. Not the whole time. I've got some more. But this is how I would summarize it all. What is the sin leading to death? A persistent, high-handed, premeditated conspiracy against the truth, the spirit of the truth, and the Christ revealed by the truth.

39:55A persistent, high-handed, premeditated conspiracy against the truth. And the spirit of truth. And the Christ-revealed truth. The reason such a person is destined to destruction is because they cut themselves off from the truth. And no one can be saved and be in a right relationship apart from the truth. And in context, John certainly has the false teachers in mind. That's what he's dealing with through this whole thing. They have rejected the truth. And there are many who are following them. They have rejected the truth. They are saying, Jesus is not the Christ. Jesus is not the Son of God. We will not bow to him as such. Bring it on, John.

40:44Persistent, high-handed, premeditated conspiracy against the truth. And John is saying, I'm not saying you should pray for them. Question: Why didn't Jesus pray for Judas? I mean, he prayed for Peter. Why didn't he pray for Judas? Well, yeah, there's God's purposes and sovereignty, yes. But there is also something about Judas's sin, right? Premeditated, high-handed. I will not bow to Jesus as such as he is. I want him to fit my designs of what he ought to be.

41:28There's something about the nature of the sin that's working in tandem with God's sovereignty. You know, there are threats in every age against the Christ of Scripture. I think one of the ones going around in our current moment, white theology, black theology, LGBTQ theology. A B C D E F G H I J K L M N. Have you impressed yet? O P Q R S T U V I think I'll get it, W X Y Z theology.

42:14No, don't get caught up in that. There's only two kinds of theology, biblical theology and unbiblical theology. And what happens is when you get caught up in these other theologies and you let them start telling you how to interpret Christ, all of a sudden you lose the Christ of Scripture for all people. It's a sin against truth when you start redefining Christ instead of accepting him for as he is. It's a sin against the truth and the spirit of truth and the Christ revealed by that truth. Thank you for that accent.

43:07Okay, so that's sin leading to death. So what is sin not leading to death? Everything else. Pretty simple, right? Everything else. I don't want any of you to leave terrified. All lies, murder, hostilities, stealing, sexual assassination. Of all sorts, idolatry, coveting, all this, all manner of sin is and will be forgiven if you'll turn to Him, if you'll accept the truth about the only atoning sacrifice for your sins, the man Jesus Christ. But if you will persistently refuse him, be warned.

44:03At some point, you may be beyond return. And that is why God exhorts over, today is the day of salvation. Come to Him today. And look, just say, God, I'm ready to receive your truth. Show me the way. Let me walk in it. It can start as humble as a prayer as that. Look at verse 17. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death. All unrighteousness is sin. John's saying, Look, all wrongdoing is sin, but there is a sin that doesn't lead to death. And that's everything if you're willing to receive the truth and embrace that truth.

44:48I want to clarify a couple things before moving on to the next points. John is, I want to clarify what John is not saying here. John is not forbidden. Bidding people to pray for those who are committing the sin leading to death. He's just saying, I don't expect an answer. You know, we don't know who might be committing the sin that leads to death, so we pray, right? We pray. That's why we always say, Lord, your will be done.

45:16But however, when you see somebody sinning in such a high-handed, premeditated fashion, you can be sure that God is raising this person up to show His glory through their destruction. Pharaoh, Judas, on down the line, Antichrist who will to come. All of them. Don't expect God to grant life to such a one as that. But let's go back now. Look at verse 16. Pray. So, first instruction: understand that God distinguishes between two types of sin. Second instruction is pray. God expects us to pray for sinners. Look back at verse 16. If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give for him life.

46:17He shall ask. The promise of answered prayer: if you have life, if you know you have eternal life, you inevitably want to see others have that eternal life. So the natural consequence of having eternal life. Life is praying that others will come to know eternal life. And so, what John is saying here: those who have life naturally pray that God will give it to those who do not. If anyone sees his brother committing a sin, not leading to death, he shall ask. It's interesting. He does not say, you should ask. That's not what he says. He doesn't make a suggestion. He doesn't even command. He doesn't even say, therefore, pray when you see someone in this situation, pray. No, he doesn't do that. He says it's a future, it's an expectation. He will pray. If anyone sees his brother committing the sin, he will pray. He will request God.

47:20It's incredible. Two future realities are going to happen through these people, through those who have eternal life. We'll look at the first one. We'll look at the second one in a minute, but look at the first. Those who have been granted life will express it by praying for those who do not. That's how it's going to happen. They will pray. It will happen. You see, we pray in the specifics of eternal life. I think about in praying for God's will, we are kind of like the ground control, right, in the military operation. What do they do? They have air power, right? And what they do. Do the air power needs exact coordinates, right? And so we're kind of like these on-the-ground operators who are trying to give air power some coordinates. So when you start seeing, so don't be afraid to pray generously for individuals. Pray that God will give them life. Pray, individuals, pray for specifics. It's God's will that we be sanctified. It's God's will that we be able to give thanks in all circumstances. It's God's will that we learn to do what is right with all people around. It is God's will for us to abstain from all forms of sexual immorality. It is God's will, he says this, who desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. All these are God's revealed desires. Those are general. We start praying in the specifics. Lord, this person, we pray for his sanctification. We pray for her salvation. We pray for him, his job, and his situation at work. All this, we start, we're like that ground control that starts praying in the will of God. And that's what John's saying.

49:04Pray and pray generously. God expects us to pray. Third, expect, expect. Look back again. If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will for him give life. Underline that. Circle it. That is not just God must. Might God possibly will. It is a statement. God will give for him life. Do you see how God is working through the prayers of his people? It's easy. This is the future. Those who have experienced life then become that channel, that conduit, that spring, that fountain, that opening of living water, so others can come to know him as well. They become a conduit of life. We have experienced life. We want others to experience life. And that's what life does. Life brings about life. And it's easy in this passage to get caught up in the idea of sin leading to death and get kind of all wrapped around the academic exercise of all that and totally miss the promise that God is giving here. John is not trying to discourage prayer. He's trying to encourage it. And he shows us the astonishing effect that prayer has for sinners. I mean, don't you wish you could just pray for sinners and God would transform their hearts? Maybe our reaction shouldn't be immediately offended at sinners, but prayer for them.

51:00Hear, Lord, power, change, transform. As I mentioned earlier, there are two future realities that will happen in and through those who have eternal life. The first, those who have been granted life will express it by praying for those who do not. And number two, in response, God will grant eternal life to those prayed for. Not suggestions, not maybe, not hopefuls, but future realities as God's people pray in the specifics. And God has not given over the sovereignty of the universe in this, but it's the means. Listen, I don't think we're going to get to heaven and find out that there's a populated with people who weren't prayed for, right?

51:56Life prays for life. God grants life in accordance with our prayers. We can be sure of two scenarios. If a brother here is a believer who's not sinning, the sin that leads to death, spiritual vitality, renewal, and things consistent with eternal life, we can expect God to do. If the sinner is an unbeliever, we can expect God to grant me life. And I wouldn't be too dogmatic about my interpretations on this passage, other than the obvious. Life prays for life. For life, and God grants it. God wants us praying for the well-being, for vitality of others, whether that is a new spiritual birth or whether that is further sanctification. God wants us involved in the enterprises of knowing what is good and praying it for others and watching Him bring it about. I don't know how to go anywhere else with that text.

52:56I just pray that God would allow my heart to keep up with it and my mind to really grasp the incredible truths that are stated here. Well, understand, pray, and expect. I'll leave you with this closing thought: Philippians 2:13. For it is God who is at work in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Do not be afraid to pray generously for sinners. Heavenly Father, thank you for these truths. Thank you that your heart was moved towards us, even though we were dead in our sins. According to your nature, the nature of life, you wanted us to have life, and so you breathe new life in us through the word of truth. Father, we thank you that as Adam and Eve. Sinned against you. Father, you were not content to put them in a permanent state of separation from you, but you block access to the tree of life so that they would go and that they would die.

54:17And yet, Father, it was your good purpose that you would grant them new life through resurrection. And we see in Christ that resurrection King, Lord, Messiah in every sense of the word who has conquered death. May he reign over us completely. In Jesus' name.