The Sin Unto Death Part 2 (Restoration / Galatians 6 )

Prayer for Those Straying and the Difference Between Sin Leading to Death and Sin Not Leading to Death

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. Praying makes the difference. And if you see somebody straying in the wrong direction, you better be praying for them.

If you care about somebody, pray for them. Okay, so he's talking about believers. Notice in verse 16, he uses the term brother. Christians, we call each other what? Brothers and sisters in Christ? So this is a family.

We care about family, right? He says, if anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask and he will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. So pray for that person.

But he also says there is a sin leading to death. Do you see that? There is a sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. Why? Because it's not going to matter if they persist in this behavior.

You can pray and pray and pray some more. It's not going to make a difference. They need help. They need to be rescued. Verse 17, all unrighteousness is sin and there is a sin not leading to death. Okay, so there's a sin that leads to death and a sin that does not lead to death.

What's the title of the message? Bearing one another's burdens. So we want to help people. We want to support people. When we see somebody going down the wrong path, we don't judge the person. Instead, because we care about the person, we want to help the person.

I think one of the things that churches get wrong is when somebody messes up or they do something really bad, everyone kind of turns on the person. And they feel judged because they are judged. And then guess what?

That makes things worse. If something happened in your own family, just imagine your own, you know, one of your parents, your siblings, your children, hey, they make mistakes, right? You don't turn your back on them.

We don't turn our back on family. So sometimes churches have not responded the right way. Sometimes it's not easy. So we don't judge the person because we care about the person. We want to help the person.

So through love and through Christian fellowship, here's the thing. We can keep each other accountable. You know, just by coming on Sunday morning and staying in contact with one another, that helps to some degree to keep each other accountable.

When we're off on our own with nobody knowing what we're doing, nobody caring, nobody touching base, if we're off on our own and we stumble and fall, there's nobody there to pick us back up. And when a person is disconnected from, when a Christian is disconnected from the body of Christ, it's sort of like going up to a vine, cutting off a branch and throwing it in the sunlight.

Eventually it just starts to wither. It can wither away. So according to the Apostle John, writing under inspiration of the Holy Ghost, there is a sin that leads to death and a sin that does not lead to death.

So therefore, when someone is overtaken in a trespass, restore such a one. You realize that's, you say, well, that's the pastor's job, that's the deacon's job. It's really all of our responsibility. Bear one another's burdens, right?

Pastor MacArthur writes this about verses 16 and 17, the sin unto death. He said, John illustrates praying according to God's will with the specific example of sin leading to death. Such a sin could be any premeditated and unconfessed sin that causes the Lord to determine to end a believer's life.

And he's saying, it's not just one particular sin. It's like, okay, just avoid this and you'll be okay. It could really be anything. So it's not one particular sin. Rather, it's whatever sin it is, that's the final straw, so to speak.

The final one in the tolerance of God. MacArthur continues, he says, failure to repent of and forsake sin may eventually lead to the physical death as the judgment of God. No intercessory prayer will be effective for those who have committed such deliberate, high-handed acts.

And again, there are examples in the Bible, Ananias and Sapphira, the people in the Corinthian church who were not discerning the Lord's body. So in Galatians chapter six, what's Paul saying? He's saying if something becomes known as a problem, you see somebody going astray, it's the duty of all the church members.

No, he says it's the duty of the one who's spiritual. So now let's focus in on that. So we want to, can we recognize there's a difference between people who are spiritual and people that are maybe less spiritual than people that aren't really all that spiritual?

So he says it is the duty of the one who is spiritual to restore the person and bring them back into full fellowship and sound practice. Now, I had said the one thing you don't want to do, if you see someone going astray, the one thing you don't want to do is what?

What did I say? Don't, don't judge the person. If you judge the person, that pushes them away. I think we need to spend a moment on this term judge. If I were to ask you, should you judge other people?

I mean, what are people going to say? No, of course not. The Bible says, Jesus says, judge not, right? Let's turn to Matthew chapter seven. This is where Jesus makes this statement, judge not. But at the same time, you make judgments every single day, don't you?

You know, you may need to make judgments based on what's right, what's wrong, what to do, what not to do. We have this thing in our culture, they're called judges and they have this black robe and they, they make judgments, don't they?

And I don't hear anyone saying that we shouldn't have that. So here's my point. In one sense, judging is bad. In another sense, it's absolutely necessary. It's true. Jesus says in Matthew chapter seven, judge not.

But then in John chapter seven, he says, make righteous judgments. So sometimes we have to define terms. So John chapter, excuse me, Matthew chapter seven is this well-known passage where Jesus says, judge not.

I think this term has been so tainted because when people hear the word judge, they think of someone who is a judgmental person. What does that mean? They're just always looking to criticize. A person can't do anything right.

They're just looking to pick people apart. So when the Bible says, don't judge your brother, that's what it's talking about. Don't be looking to criticize each other and picking them apart. On the other hand, if there's someone who says, oh, you should never make any judgments about personal behavior.

They don't really mean that. And the test is go and steal their wallet and see if they judge that as right or wrong. So, you know, don't do that, obviously. So judging, we have to define terminology. Look at Matthew seven, verse one.

This is that well-known passage that everybody knows about where Jesus says what? He starts out, judge not. Judge not that you be not judged for with what judgment you judge, you will be judged. And with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.

So if you want grace for yourself, be gracious to other people. Verse three. And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye and do not consider the plank that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, let me remove the speck from your eye.

Look, a plank is in your own eye. You can just envision this where somebody has this little speck in their eye and you come along with this plank. And let me help you with that. What are you doing? What's his point?

Jesus says, if you do that, you are acting like a hypocrite. You're trying to tell someone what's what and to fix their issues when you have the same issue and you're struggling with it even more than they are.

What's going to be the response when somebody does that? They're going to turn to you and who are you to say this to me? They have a valid point. So when you have two sinners rebuking each other, then that just leads to biting and devouring one another.

So Paul's point, it's the one who's spiritual who should do this, that they should be the one to restore the other person. Someone who doesn't have that same problem. And listen, I don't mean to offend anyone, so don't take this personally.

I'm not talking about anyone individually, but a perfect example of this is, let's say there's a mother and she smokes. And then she finds out her daughter is smoking. Does she really have a leg to stand on to say to her child, don't smoke?

Well, she could say, hey, listen, I know something about this. I wish I could quit. I can't. And maybe she could come at it from a gentle perspective and say, listen, I don't want this for you because it's caused all these problems for me.

She could do that, but she really has no basis to punish her child because why? She's doing the same thing and even more so. So that helps us to understand to some degree what Jesus is talking about. So Jesus continues.

What's the solution then? First, remove the plank from your own eye. And then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. So you can see this is not a passage where Jesus is saying don't ever judge.

What he's saying is don't judge hypocritically. He's saying don't judge when you're doing the same thing. So again, the goal is not pointing out people's flaws. The goal is restoration. The goal is to help people.

So if you have your own issues, it's best to focus on those and not go around trying to fix everybody else. All right, now let's turn to John chapter 21. John chapter 21, because we see a really good example of this.

We have an apostle being restored. I said this last week that there are these churches where they have the stained glass and they have the apostles in the stained glass window and they have this halo around their head, right?

And you get this idea that the disciples of Jesus were just like almost not even human. Like they're just, that is not the way it was. These men were in some ways a lot like us. They had problems too.

So even one of the apostles, Peter, perhaps the leader of the apostles, Peter fell into transgression. Peter was overtaken in a trespass. And did Jesus cut him off for good? We're done with you. No, he restored Peter.

Look at John 21 verse 14. This is now the third time Jesus showed himself to his disciples after he was raised from the dead. So when they, the disciples had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these?

So know what's happening. Peter had denied Jesus three times. Jesus was arrested and crucified. Peter, someone noticed him and said, hey, you're one of his disciples too. Peter didn't want to be arrested.

Peter didn't want to be crucified. So Peter said, I don't even know Jesus. Three times, Peter denied even knowing Christ. And then he went back to his life of fishing. So Jesus says, do you love me more than these?

And he said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. And Jesus said to Peter, feed my lambs. Because Peter was a pastor. He had to feed the sheep. And he said to him a second time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me?

And he said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. And he said to him, tend my sheep. And he said to him the third time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? And Peter at this point was grieved because he had said to him the third time, do you love me?

So he's wondering, why is Jesus keep asking me? Do you love me? Yes. Do you love me? Yes. Do you love me? And he says, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you. And Jesus said to him, feed my sheep.

What's happening here? Jesus is restoring Peter to the ministry by getting the response. I love you three times once for every denial. Thanks for listening. If you'd like to receive a grant from Morris Cornick Church, if you'd like to listen to the complete message, or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, morriscornickchurch .com.

And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett. Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.