[The whole context of the book of first John has focused us upon the evidences of life or the marks of the new birth as evidenced in the life of spiritual Christians.  Through this study we have discovered,] 

• [A Communion To Cherish – Our common ground in Christ.]
• [A Covenant To Proclaim – The glory of the gospel]
• [A Cleansing To Receive – The forgiveness of sins]
• [A Commandment To Keep – Obey God’s Word and will]
• [A Compassion To Show – The Fact of God’s love, the Characteristics of God’s love, The Presence In God’s Love]
• [A Caution To Heed – Love not the world and its things]
• [A Character To Develop – Be conformed to His image]
• [A Confidence To Hold – Defeating Doubt]
• [A Confusion To Face – Spiritual Warfare]
• [A Companion Within – The presence of Christ in us.]

[However, when we look out at those who call themselves Christians, especially in our contemporary culture, we discover confusion.  The lives of many are far from the kind of sacrificial, sanctified, separated, and singular lives described throughout this book of the Bible.  What should we think about the sexual promiscuity and immorality within the Church?   What should we think about homosexuality within the Church?  What should born again Christians think about sin and iniquity of all types within the Church? ] 

[The Apostle John concludes this book of the Bible with a stern and clarifying discourse.] 

Notice In This Text, 

A.     The Will of God and its Rewards (vs 14-15) [- There are dynamic, life changing, and desirable rewards given to God’s people when they are in God’s will.  The most powerful is the distinct privilege and power of prayer.] 

[Sidlow Bacxter once said, “Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons--but they are helpless against our prayers.” ] 

[Samuel Chadwick once said, “The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying.  He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, prayerless religion.  He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray.”] 

[The Apostle John reminds us of,] 

1.      The Acceptance Of Our Petitions (vs 14) [- And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: - Here we have one of the greatest and most incredible promises concerning prayer.  Anything we pray, as God’s redeemed, and within our Heavenly Father’s will receives a guaranteed hearing.  Cameron Thompson once wrote,] 

[God has a shorless ocean of response to the feeblest whisper of the faintest saint, if it be but from a heart contrite and cleansed, and if it be but in utter dependence on the resistless name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” ] 

[Knowing that their petitions and intercessions will, with certainty, be heard by their Heavenly Father, ought to drive each and every Christians to be instantly in prayer.  What ever the desperate need, no matter the decision being made, God’s people ought to be quick to appeal to their Heavenly Fathers wisdom and will.] 

2.      The Access Of Our Petitions (vs 15) [- And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. – The Apostle also reminds us that our Heavenly Father is benevolent and pours His provision upon us.   When we pray in God’s will we not only know that God hears us but we also know that He gives to us.  Hence there is an incredible power afforded God’s people through the blessing of prayer.] 

[Unanswered Prayers - But many a Christian has lost all their confidence in prayer because they do not know the reality of powerful answers to their prayers.  These Christians are not given instantly to prayer, because in their mind prayer really doesn’t make much of a difference.  EM Bounds once wrote,] 

["Child of God, can you pray?  Are your prayers answered?  If not, why not?  Answered prayer is the proof of real praying."] 

["To pray and receive clear answers, not once or twice, but daily this is the sure test, and is the gracious point of our vital connection with Jesus Christ."] 

[Hence, the Apostle John brings us to his next point in his discourse,] 

B.     A Waywardness From God And Its Consequences (vs 16-17) [- Christians who do not see answers to their prayer are either asking for things contrary to the will of God or have a broken fellowship with God.  In these cases the apostle John notes,] 

1.      The Gravity of Sin (vs 16-17; Gal 1.4; 1 John 4.10; 3.5; Heb 12.4-13) [- 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. . . . All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death. – Every child of God needs to understand the gravity of all sin.  The Apostle John does not hesitate to note that all unrighteousness is sin.  There are no little sins with God.   Every sin cost our Lord Jesus Christ dearly.  The Bible reminds us,] 

[Galatians 1:4 ⁴ Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: ]

[1 John 4:10 ¹⁰ Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.]

[Jesus, God’s only begotten son, took the penalty for your sins upon Himself and suffered for your sins.  In suffering for your sins His goal is to take away your sins.]

[1 John 3:5 ⁵ And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin. ]

[Jesus did not suffer for your sins so that you could just go ahead and keep on sinning.  He suffered for your sins so that He might save you and so that you might begin living in a newness of life.]

[Therefore, when you sin as a Christian God will chastise you, ]

[Hebrews 12:4-13 ⁴ Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. ⁵ And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: ⁶ For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. ⁷ If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? ⁸ But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. ⁹ Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? ¹⁰ For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. ¹¹ Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. ¹² Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; ¹³ And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed. ]

[Granted, the word chastisement is not a pretty word.  We the people don’t like the idea of being chastised. But the fact is when we need to be corrected we need to be corrected, and our Heavenly Father openly declares that he will correct us.  Why?  Because the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ is too valuable to trample under foot and our Heavenly Father loves us too much to leave us on the road to ruin.]

[The Forms Of Chastisement]

[Our Heavenly Father correcting hand takes on a series of progressively sterner chastisements designed to bring us to repentance and renewal.  These include,

·        [Deep Conviction – The Holy Spirit will move within the child of God bringing deep conviction in hopes that the great love of their Heavenly Father combined with His deep disappointment will bring the Christian to repentance.

·        [Directing Counsel – Our Heavenly Father will seek to speak to his rebellious child through His Word and His servants with the intention of bringing the sinning Christian to repentance.]

·        [Determined Causes – Our Heavenly Father is seen often in Scripture bringing storms, pestilences, diseases, and many other natural events to bear on those He is striving to correct.  Jonah is an example of just such a case.  This does not mean that every sickness is the result of rebellious sin, but sin can cause illnesses.]

·        [Divine Creations – God will sometimes work supernaturally to bring one of His children into obedience.  Again, in the case of Jonah the Bible states,]

[Jonah 1:17 ¹⁷ Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.]

 [God prepared a special whale to swallow Jonah and deliver him to the specified shore.  We know it was a whale because Jesus said it was a whale in Matthew 12.40.  Therefore, at times God even intervenes supernaturally to correct His own.]

[The Prodigal - Hence, it is possible for a Child of God to go the way of the prodigal.  But if the prodigal is a child of God they will be under the chastening hand of God and that individual will be the most miserable person in the World.  A prodigal will be more miserable than the worst lost sinner, because the hand of God will be moving against them.  Is their Heavenly Father trying to harm them, no, He is trying to correct them.  Their only proper response is repentance.]

[The Bastard – Someone might be thinking.  “I know someone who accepted Christ as a child and today they are living in open sin against God and they don’t seem too miserable.”  Hebrews reveals that in such cases these people are not God’s children at all.  They are bastards and not children.  If they really were God’s children then their lives would be a mess.  The fact that they are happy in sin reveals that they are none of God’s.]

[So what happens if a Christian fails to repent when God chastens them?]

2.      The Grave of Sin (vs 16; 1 Cor 5.5; Heb 12.5-8) [- . . . There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it. – They will eventually find themselves face to face with their Heavenly Father.] 

a.       [God’s Three Deadlines – Dr. J. Harold Smith[1] – Only lost souls can cross deadlines one and two, a saint cannot cross those.  The third deadline can only be cross by a member of the family of God, a true born again believer. ] 

(1)   [Blaspheming the Holy Ghost or committing the unpardonable sin (Matt 12.31-32; Luke 12.10; Num 16.29-34) – All that Jesus did He did by the power of the Holy Spirit, when Jesus healed a man by the power of the Holy Spirit.  When the Pharisees said Jesus healed by the power of Satan they blasphemed and denied the power of the Holy Spirit.  Murder is forgivable, mass murder is forgivable, insane murder is forgivable, but blaspheming the Holy Spirit is not forgivable.  This is denying the powerful activity of the Holy Spirit among men.] 

(2)   [Sinning away your Day of Grace (Prov 29.1; Gen 6.3; John 12.38-40; 6.44) – These are those who are friends of the pastor, they attend Church, they know their Bible, but they are not saved.  These are those in powerful Churches who do not know Christ.  These are greatly evidenced by a lack of appetite for the things of God and the Word of God.  These are those who refuse to accept the invitation of the Holy Spirit of God when it is given. 

(3)   [The Sin unto Death (1 John 5.16; Amos 4.6-12;Eph 4.30; 1 Cor 5.5) – God knows everything about each and every one of us.  God knows if there is a little hidden pet sin in your heart, God sees it, and we cannot hide it.  If you are a born again believer and God sees that sin it grieves Him.  We ought never to grieve the Holy Spirit.  Born Again Christians are saved forever, but if sin gets in our heart and we refuse to confess it, God’s says to Satan “take him.”] 

[The Apostle John speaks of the Sin unto death.  The Bible indicates in more than one place that if a child of God, a truly born again Christian, gets himself bound up in sin and continues in that sin there will come a point when God will take them out of this world.  This is what the apostle John is referring to.] 

[Paul wrote about this same event when he warned the Church of Corinth about one in their midst who had his fathers wife (1 Corinthians 5).  Paul sternly rebuked the Church for allowing such sinfulness into the Church in the first place and in warning the Church wrote,] 

[1 Corinthians 5:5 ⁵ To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. ]

[Without any doubt Paul was referring to the same chastening truth the apostle John is writing about in our text.]

[Hence, if you are a child of God living in sin expect your Heavenly Father to correct you, and more sternly so the longer you tarry in your sin.  Even to the point of taking your life.]

[If you are without any correction, you have more cause to worry, you are not saved.]

C.     A Walk With God And Its Blessedness (vs 18-21)  

1.      The Protected Christian (vs 18) [- We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. – The late Dr. Jerry Falwell used to refer to these Christians as the Indestructible People of God.   The point is that a child of God can walk without fear in this life.  Because, until God finishes His purpose for you in this world no one, not even the Devil himself, can destroy you.] 

2.      The Peculiar Christian (vs 19-21) - And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. ²⁰ And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath 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. . . . – Yet there will be a distinction that will mark those that are God’s  they will have a supernatural Illumination and a A New Relation through Christ. ]

CrossRoads Baptist, Sunday Evening, Oct 19, 2008