First John 5:16-17 Confidence and Certainties of Believers 2

Alright, we're in 1 John chapter 5 and I'm going to read beginning at verse 14 through the end of the chapter because I think Andrew, I think is up next week as he's doing part 3. So the title today is Confidence and Certainties of Believers part 2. And Roger taught part 1 last week and I think Andrew is up next week for part 3. And Andrew if you're out there you can affirm that if you like. No, actually I think Roy's going to do it. Alright, good. Alright, let's begin with verse 14.

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. As we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked for Him or of Him. If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death or does not relate or cause death, he will ask and he will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death and I do not say that he should pray about that. All unrighteousness is sin and there is sin not leading to death. We know that whoever is born of God does not sin, but he who has been born of God keeps himself and the wicked one does not touch him.

And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the way of the wicked one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding that we may know him who is true, and we are in him who is true, in his Son, Jesus Christ. And this is true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

Well, I think this part two of confidence and certainties is really John at his best in terms of the black and white nature of John, the way he deals with a believer. And remember, we've said multiple times to take on John before you really understand Pauline's messages to the church is a challenge. So we have to put that into perspective. So let's summarize last week, which kind of reading the verses they summarize for themselves. The first thing we want to cover is in the text.

The certainty of eternal life is for those who believe. OK, so once you get saved, eternal life is guaranteed. Scripture repeatedly documents that truth. All right. And the Lord hears every prayer. I mean, we can take anything up to Him. We have a relationship. Remember, our position is at the right hand of God in Christ. It's not our condition that we take up, but we pray from our position that He hears every prayer and considers that in terms of how we grow in grace.

And the final point, a very important one, God's will for our lives is always His answer. Okay, so keep in mind, we may pray for the right new car, Carolyn, that if it's a white Chev or a black Ford, you know, to His glory, right? That doesn't mean we make bad decisions for His glory, although sometimes He'll work through bad decisions to bring about His glory in our lives, but we want to, by the power of the Spirit working in us, make decisions that glorify God. Okay, so that was the foundation of the first several verses, 13 through 15 in this section.

All right, let's turn to things getting more difficult here, or more challenging. All right, if anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, who's asking here? We're talking about the person praying, okay? And he will give him life, he, God, the Lord Jesus Christ, will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. and there is sin leading to death, and I do not say that he should pray about that.

All right, so this is a really complex sentence and verse. Let's see if we can drill down, and thanks for sending Rosser to me. I'm not sure... Well, his was good, but, you know, it wasn't everything. We'll see where we're going with this, Roger, because I'm not quite sure that I... We'll see. This is really... Roger gives me the... No, I'm just teasing. I give you all the hard... Okay, let's break this first down.

If anyone sees his brother sinning, which is a present active partisan, that means Jim, if you're continuing to sin, or David's continuing to sin, or Margaret's... I mean, the idea is it's an ongoing activity. It's just not one sin. His brother's sinning a sin. Notice, a sin, too.

We'll come back to that. Which does not lead to death. Now, the caution comes up here. Is this spiritual death? or is this physical death? And we're going to sort this out a little bit. And I think this is really an interesting, I've learned so much since I've taught. I trusted the Lord to kind of give me insight into this. First, is if a first or a third, you know, class conditional. A first class conditional, again, is since. That means it's likely true. Or a third class conditional means it's sometimes true.

What do you think here? Well, think about that because we're going to come back to these four questions. Second, who's our brother? Believers. You're answering too prematurely here. Third, once saved, can we sin unto spiritual death or lose our salvation?

No, no. Don't ask me questions. This is a very interactive group here. This is good. This is what we want. And fourth, can a sin lead to physical death? All right. Let's look at these four questions I've posed up front. First, is this a first or a third class conditional? What do you think? I think it's third. I think it's third. This is a third class conditional, meaning it's possible that sin does not lead to death. Okay. I mean, it's not sin leaves, if sin leaves. Well, Bob, if that was the case, then we would, you know, believe me, drop him like flies.

I'm trying to be a beginner. By the way, I kind of ran into one commentary. I forget who this was. John kind of stumbles with the Greek grammar at times. I mean, I don't know whether... I would appreciate that, not knowing Greek, but Paul was fluent in Hebrew and in Greek and probably five other languages. But anyway, they comment on something like this that maybe John had a little trouble writing it in the Greek. I'm not going to make a judgment on that, but this one person said that.

Second, who's our brother? Okay, this is good. I mean, the brother in Scripture can be interpreted like Clark and Peter are brothers. in Scripture and you know throughout his epistle John repeatedly refers to brother as a brother in one in the Lord. Okay so repeatedly I got some documentation for that. First John 2 7 brethren or below. Somebody asked you a question about that. What's that? Somebody asked you a question. Oh I didn't hear it.

Go ahead. Yeah it's this is Roy. I was looking at that if with you. And it's if we see. The see is the object of that. It's a potential that... Well, I have a little trouble hearing you. Could you maybe get a little closer to the mic? Okay. It's if we see somebody. The verb is see. Yes. See. I guess there's a lot we don't see, right? So, right. Okay. Thank you. All right.

1 John 2, 7. Brethren, I write to you no new commandment, but an old commandment. And when you have heard what you've heard from the beginning, the old commandment is the word which you've heard. He who loves his brother abides in the light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. There are multiple examples. I'm just citing three. Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. I mean, but again, John repeatedly uses the term to mean someone who is saved. They're brothers in the Lord. And that's where our first call is to pray and lift up. All right, third, once saved, can we, you know, lose our, is this spiritual death? Can we lose our salvation? No, and this is incredibly important.

One reason I'm going to dwell down today is, is just to make sure we all understand this. For God so loved the world, and he gave his only begotten Son, so whomever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 5, 24 Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has everlasting life and shall not come under judgment, but has passed from death into life. Romans 8, 1, there's no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. That's positional truth. God sees us as righteous. Remember, he hath made him who knew no sin to be made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Positional truth. And that's where it all starts.

And finally, 1 John 5.13, that verse that was covered last week by Roger. These things have written unto you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. And sometimes that sentence, that whole verse is not completed as it says. But anyway, that's more evidence that are, you know, once saved, you're always saved. All right. Can a sin lead to physical death? Yes. All right, let's think out loud about that. Today, what do you have in mind here? Ananias and Sapphira. Sapphira. Ananias and Sapphira. Well, I said today, what do you have in mind? Oh, today.

We're going to get to the scriptural evidence for this in a second. In fact, Roderick's got ahead, scripturally he's supported, and I'll read this in detail, but we'll come to that in a second. What about today? Can sin lead to death for a believer? Sure. Well, think out loud. That's why I'm asking the question. I don't know. It doesn't seem, I know. Too often. It doesn't seem too often, but sometimes you kind of wonder about that. You make bad decisions. I know. That are, you know. Sure. Well, let's think out loud.

Today, the world we live in, can sin lead to death, physical death? I haven't seen it myself, but I'm sure it happens. You know, somebody who rejects, who is saved and who rejects Christ and continues to live after the world and I'm sure God will. What about suicide for the believer?

Boy, it's probably more common. Clearly suicide is increasing in prevalence for middle-aged men particularly, but also for adolescents and young people. I mean, it's a time the world system is impacting them if they're unsaved. But I think there's, I mean, I don't have any data. I haven't looked up the data.

Who do terrible things and end up dying because of their actions who were in fact saved. I mean, because once saved, you're always saved. You don't lose your salvation because you were stupid. Well, Margaret brings up an important point. I think Roy will be covering this next week, but The sin nature never changes in any of us. The sin nature is always there.

It's just that we've been saved by the great grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and believing who Christ is and what he's done for each and every one of us. Once saved, you're saved, and hopefully the life you live will then be evident of that new life. But we all have a sin nature, and we fall short at times, but that doesn't mean we're not saved. It simply means the old nature plays out. So could sin lead to physical death? I think suicide's a very good example, verbally. Prison, I'm sorry, they become saved. They're still going to the gallows, so to speak. But they're saved in the Lord's eyes.

I'm sure guilt plays a large part in suicide too. For sure. And I knew a guy who was a Vietnam veteran and he was struggling with his salvation. He didn't believe he was saved because of the sin that he committed in Vietnam. I'm sure that guilt is a really big factor. But that guilt is supposed to be left behind. That doesn't mean everybody does. But not everyone realizes that. I mean, keep in mind that there's consequences of sin that relate to the degree of the sin.

I remember sharing with a woman who's very skeptic and was hearing information about us. Margaret Meading made a Bible study and I told her that, I mean, she admitted to be a homosexual, a lesbian. And I said to her, my vanity and pride took Christ to the cross as much as your homosexuality. I mean, I didn't say it so bluntly, but I mean, the idea is all sin falls short of the glory of God.

So we kind of measure this by the consequences of sin. But nevertheless, here are examples, too scripturally, that I pulled out. And this is in Acts, and Rogers mentioned this. And I probably have dot, dot, dot, because I didn't want to put the entire section here.

But a certain man named Ananias, was to fire his wife, sold the possession, and kept part of the proceeds. But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? You have not lied to men, but to God, dot, dot, dot. Then Ananias hearing these words fell down and breathed his last.

So there's an example and we don't understand this. I mean, why are we keeping part of the puzzle? Is that a fatal outcome? Well, before God it was at this time. He lied about, that was a lie. He lied to God, right? He can't lie to God. Now are we going to have a physical death because we've lied to God today?

I don't know. Probably not. And the second example is in 3 Corinthians, it relates to the Lord's table. For he who eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the body, for this reason many are weak and sick among you and many sleep, which means die, basically. Now, you know, so what's the idea?

What's the Lord's table all about? And Mike and Roger both represent this when they present the Lord's table. What's the Lord's table about? Remember what? It's all about the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not about us. So many people think that the Lord's Table is really our confession of our ongoing sin. No, we're looking at the Lord's Table as a documentation that He's taking care of that sin. And we're honoring Him because He requested that we do so, right? Okay. So yes, sin can lead to physical death. In scripture, we've got these couple examples, but I don't think we're seeing that kind of played out today. But I think, keep in mind, suicide is the ultimate of depression. And suicide... Go ahead. Yeah. Roy, was that you? Yeah. Can you hear me better now? Much better. Thank you. Yes.

Okay. The context here, of course, is there's no A, number one. But number two, death is separation, isn't it? That's the concept of that, and it's separation of the body from soul and spirit in physical death, but also separation of fellowship. Okay. We're going now. It helps me see this passage a lot clearer, just to mention that, okay? Well, we're going to get there, Roy. You're a step ahead here. All right, thank you.

So if not unto death, he, meaning you or me, as we pray for our brother, and he will give him life, meaning the Lord will give him life, meaning the person we're praying for, for those who commit sin not leading to death, which presumably is 99.9999% of all sin, what kind of life is this that the Lord gives in answer to prayer? No, because the sin leading to death is unbelief. Okay, alright. So the life is that of the Lord Jesus Christ, is it not? The living life that he gives us as we go through these experiences.

So, Galatians 2.20, a verse we all love here, I've been crucified with Christ, it's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. And probably my favorite verse in the whole Bible is, for me to live is Christ and die is gain. And I say either way you win. So the life that God gives back is this continuing life, Holy Spirit led in that new life we have in Christ. That's what he gives back when there's a sin not leading to death.

That's what we pray for. All right. Would that be that we become sensitive when somebody prays for us when we're sinning? We become likewise. We become sensitive to the sin and go to the Lord with confession because God gives us that sensitivity, His life again. It could be. That's possible for sure. We have the Lord's story, the answer to prayer, to have our prayer for our brethren be exemplified.

I'm not clear, but I don't think Scripture gives us the detail there, but I think that's a good thought, Roy. All right. What happens when we sin but not unto death? And Roy, this is what you just said. I'm going to bounce that in there. We lose our fellowship of the Lord temporarily. So, I mean, that's what the sin not under death really means. It's really we lose our fellowship. So that's a death in terms of our relationship, but it's not a death in terms of our eternal security.

We are once saved and will always be saved if we trusted the work and power of the Lord Jesus Christ and are enabled by the Spirit to live the Christian life. Let's look at some evidence for this. So, this deals with the sin without death to follow, again, which is 99 plus percent. For to be carnally minded is death, okay, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. That's a good contrast, isn't it? So, the sin is death. It's worthless before God, but it also separates us from that ongoing fellowship.

Romans 8.13, for if you live according to the flesh, you will die. Well, that could be physical death, and I'm not sure that's what Paul is talking about here. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. So this is kind of an ongoing activity in our lives, isn't it? Putting to death the sin, leaving it at the cross, and believing that God's grace is sufficient for one time only to forgive our sins and our sin nature has been crucified to.

James 1.15, then When desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. So what's that death? It's not physical death. It's fellowship death. We lose our fellowship with the Lord.

But there's a good news, isn't there? John's already addressed that. But remember always what John's already told us about our sin and sins. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And the truth's not in us. But if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. And again, again, the sin nature never changes. It never changes. But we need to be able to reckon itself and be dead unto the death.

The first reference is Romans 8.6, not 8.1. Oh, is it?

Yeah, Romans 8.1 would be, there's no condemnation. My bad. Good. Yeah. Thank you for correcting me. Okay, good. I'll take care of that before the handout goes out. Okay. All righty.

There is a sin leading to death, and I did not say that we should pray about that. Now, here we're getting into a little bit more of a challenging ethic. We've already talked about the scriptural evidence that sin can be to death. But I think, again, that was, you know, New Testament, early New Testament, church-age times, and we can't reflect back there really very accurately today.

And why would we ever pray for physical or spiritual death for a brother of the Lord anyway? I mean, we wouldn't pray to that end. There's certainly in death I do not say that he, the individual praying, should pray for that. No, we don't pray for physical death. But we pray for spiritual death in that the idea is ultimately to build people up into faith. But how should we pray? And James, there's a lot of ultimately references to James here today, Roger, maybe that's where we're going next, right? Yes, that's right. So James 5, 19 to 20.

Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, that's how we should pray, right? Let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and cover a multitude of sins. I mean, I think to paraphrase, that's lifting him up. It was, as you said, increasing maybe the sensitivity in that individual to their performance, whatever it is. And that's really kind of the challenge to us as believers, to pray for one another, to ultimately turn them back to fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. But then, if this is not physical death, could it be spiritual death?

Now we've already substantiated the fact that once saved, you're always saved. So what is the one sin that's not forgiven? There's one sin that is not forgiven. Unbelief. Thank you. Turning to our Lord and Savior. Therefore, I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven to men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him. But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come. So someone, so why the Holy Ghost? Roger, why the Holy Ghost here?

Can't you know? It's another difficult verse too. Well, remember when Christ was questioned as, what do we do to do the works of God? What did he say? Believe in him whom he hath sent, meaning believe in me. And to believe in him, during the gospel account, there was no Holy Spirit that was indwelling the believer. The believer was believing based on Jewish law leading up to who Christ was, although they didn't really recognize this completely until after the death and resurrection.

But the same principle exists for the Holy Spirit today. The Holy Spirit will lead men to be saved. So denying the Holy Spirit means the Holy Spirit is what brings us to salvation. Now, yes, we have the faith of our own. That whole transition between how much God's Holy Spirit working on us and how much of us turning to the Holy Spirit to get saved is a question we could talk for months about and probably never totally solve. Those of you who are saved here, all of us, How did we come to know the Lord Jesus Christ? Was it, gee, I finally woke up? Or has the Holy Spirit continued to lead us along a path?

And I suspect the Holy Spirit is really what brings us to salvation. And once we're saved, that's why denying the Holy Spirit. Because remember, God is omniscient and omnipresent in the world system. So there's a spirit that exists in his presence around us. So, ultimately denying the Holy Spirit that leads us to Christ is really the only sin, and Roger said it perfectly, it's unbelief. Jim? I think the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the willful, knowledgeable denial of who Jesus Christ really is. Okay.

The Pharisees did that. It's obvious to me that the Pharisees did that. They knew Jesus Christ. was a very special man, but they rejected him because it was willful and knowledgeable rejection. Thou fight'st Jesus is what it was based on. Yeah, it was based on money too. Right. These guys were in control of a lot, you know, and they had a lot of money. They didn't want to give up their lifestyle. So they said, okay, we've got to get rid of Jesus.

Well, think of our life today. Don't we believe that the Holy Spirit continues to activate us in the new life we have in Christ Jesus? And when we sin and fall out of fellowship, we are not Spirit-led. That sin nature we all have drives our behavior. that's not spirit-led, that we confess our sins and are immediately forgiven because Christ isn't going to get back on the cross again, is he? He's done it once and for all. So it's just the fellowship that we die in, but ultimately it's the Holy Spirit that drives the Christian life through the power of this new life we have in Christ Jesus.

Well, and I will say too that, you know, if you're sinning, you've stepped away from the Lord in your life and in your everyday your friends, I mean, the Holy Spirit is the one who continues to just kind of go and aggravate you and put that before you and that little thing that continues to happen and it may take years for that person to really turn around and say, wait, I'm really a believer, what am I doing? But the Holy Spirit is, that's all about the Holy Spirit. All right, Margaret said it beautifully.

Now, it raises the question, in my opinion, could this relate to those brethren previously mentioned by John? In other words, I think Roxford believes very strongly this is physical death, that the interpretation of death in this section is physical death. And as I continued to look at this, I said, sure, I'm sure that's one interpretation. But look at John, I mean, this is one of multiple passages we've been studying the last year or so.

1 John 2.19, I just am using this as one. They went out from us because they weren't one of us. Okay. But if they had been of us, they would have continued with us, but they went out that they might be made manifest that none of them were of us. So is this in fact, in fact I think Wiest has I think a reasonably good interpretation of verse 16.

From the above word led to the conclusion that the sin unto death refers in the context in which John is writing to the denial of the incarnation or the fact that Christ was God, the full God-man and the Son of God. And that it would be committed by those whom John designates as anti-Christ or unbelievers. who did not belong to the true Christian body of the believers but were unsaved. So in a sense, their sin was unto death because Christ said that sin will never be forgiven. So could this be spiritual death and not physical death? I think that's one thing to think about. Roy, do you want to make a comment about that? I was just letting my daughter out the door here. She's on her way. Can we play about that?

But it isn't wonderful when we look at these things that we do have the Holy Spirit in us, teaching us these things and guiding us to His truth. And one of the things that I've been impressed by what you just said is that it is Him whom we are denying. It is our Lord and Savior. I'm seeing us as believers. But certainly in the context, we're dealing with some that were not believers.

So could this passage be more directed towards spiritual death and those antichrists or unbelievers that were claiming to be part of the body but really weren't saved? Go ahead. Oh, yeah. Can you hear me? This is Andrew. Yeah, I hear you well. Go ahead. Oh, great.

Yeah, that Matthew 12, 31 and 32 reference you have, that's interesting because The Holy Spirit has a ministry to unbelievers, right? Convicting them of sin and righteousness and judgment. So that really makes sense that there is a sin leading to death. And that's unbelief, yeah.

You know, from the Gospel of John there. Right. Well, okay. So let's think about this and further the thought here a little bit. I think an alternative example might be this, and here I'm back in 1 Corinthians, so early on in chapter 5. For I indeed, as absent in the body, but present in spirit, have already judged... I'm just setting the stage for what follows.

In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. Now, I find that interesting because this person is going to be delivered unto death. Another example, when we talk about physical death, right? But ultimately, that his soul, his spirit, might be saved in the day of the Lord. So, ultimately, this presumably is a believer. Where, in fact, physical death was the outcome of his or her, perhaps, behavior.

But yet, the reason for this person to experience physical death is because they're saved, and let's get them out of there before that salvation. I mean, he's not going to lose his salvation, but nevertheless, he's not helping the body. He's not furthering the cause and the direction of the Lord Jesus Christ in the body of the church in Corinth.

So, all right. So, let's kind of wrap things up here a little bit. Vincent, relating to Unto Death, claims that, quote, the difficulty of the passage lies in the exploration of these words. It is impossible to determine their exact meaning with certainty. Doesn't that make you feel good? So, my conclusion, well, let's finish this off. The next verse might help a little bit.

All unrighteousness is sin. And there is sin not unto death. That's what Benson claims. I mean, so almost all sin is not unto death. It just is our fellowship that's lost with the Lord as we are not led by the Holy Spirit. So all unrighteousness is sin. This is fact. This is a fact, scriptural fact, that is there from early Genesis all the way through the end of Revelation. It's showing God's grace, basically, right? He's long-suffering.

If He zapped us every time we sin, like I said, we wouldn't be a lot of people around. And let's put the Jewish cloak over this a little bit, but it could be any law system. Whosoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. So we don't live under the Jewish law, or the law that was put forth by Moses to the nation of Israel. We live under the law of Christ. What's the law of Christ? Grace. Simply put. I can't argue with that though. I speak sometimes. You what? Really? We'll talk afterwards. So, what's the name of your attorney?

Isn't this ignored and dismissed by the unsaved in the world system that all unrighteousness is sin? How many people who are reasonably well informed and Perhaps they're educated, they don't have to be, but I mean, you know, I'm basically a good person. You know, if you challenge a political environment or any other sociological or anthropological environment, is man, basically men and women, basically good or evil? And boy, that's a great place to begin a conversation. But I would claim that most of the world's system would claim that man's basically good. We fall short at times. But that's not what the Bible teaches any of us, is it? Well, as long as you haven't killed anyone or decrowned someone, that's in pretty much every world. I mean, that's anywhere in the world. You're a good person.

So to move forward and finish up, so, and there is a sin not unto death, and Roy, you challenged this a little bit. From Thayer, I got that this is, refers to some particular evil deed, but I think in context it does relate to continuing sin. Your thoughts about that, please. In this particular verse, there is a sin not to death. could not that specifically be referring that we sin just like John said earlier if you say we have no sin we lie and do not the truth it's in that context so that there are sins that we commit and he's recognizing that but all unrighteousness is sin some of them don't lead to death but lack of fellowship and And that's where we are in this context. So, you know, Thayer, you know, ultimately divides every Greek word into multiple options in terms of how to interpret it. And he claims that a sin relates to a particular sin. I don't agree with that.

The reason I put this here is to see what the class thought about this. I think that we're relating all sin. There is no article. There is no article. But he interprets it as if there is an article. So I'm just saying that we have to be careful in terms of interpreting scripture. That's one reason I put it here.

I think ultimately we're talking about every sin, but most every sin doesn't lead to death, physical death. And the only spiritual death is this loss of fellowship momentarily, right? All right. So what is this sin here and does it relate to every sin for which we ask forgiveness? And it does. I mean, Roy, that's why I prompted you to give us an explanation for this.

So Alfred makes it to be an appreciable act of sin, namely the denying Jesus to be the Christ and the Son of God in contrast to confess this truth and gives multiple verses to support this. So I think to conclude, we're talking about most every sin, not a single sin. So let's summarize and close.

So the challenge of this verse, these two verses, mostly verse 16, is this physical death or spiritual death? I think it could be physical death, but often not. And the spiritual death would relate to those who are part of our body who, in fact, do not know the Lord Jesus Christ. And that spiritual death is eternal death for not being saved.

And those are the Antichrist within us. And by the way, again, back to the sin nature we all have and fall short of the glory of God. We know that that doesn't influence our eternal security. That we might be hopeful to remember John in his gospel says that the life of Jesus Christ is the light of men. And so when we pray for each other, His life is given unto us, which is the light of God, the truth.

Yes. And that really, I think, applies so strongly. Isn't that a wonderful comfort? Yes. That we can pray for each other. When we're blind to our own sin and be given the light of God, it's life and self. Man, I love that. Well, I'm going to be in Chicago next weekend, so I'm going to miss your lesson, but I'll catch up with it on the handout. But we know that whoever is born of God does not sin. That's the beginning of verse 18.

So you have to really dig down and interpret scripture in context. So if we thought every time you fell short of God's glory by a thought or a deed or a lack thereof that you're basically not saved, it's just not true. All right, so let's close today and close in prayer. Jim, would you close us in prayer, please? Father, we thank you for the truth of your words. It's just so great when we really examine it. It is true, and we can be faithful to it. We thank you for your grace and your love. We love you so much. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.