Ascension Presbyterian Lord's Day Worship

The Lord reigns. Let the peoples tremble. He dwells between the cherubim. Let the earth be moved. The Lord is great in Zion, and he is high above all the peoples. Let them praise your great and awesome name.

He is holy. The King's strength also loves justice. You have established equity. You have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob. Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his footstool. He is holy. Come now, let us worship him.

Let's pray together. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we joyfully enter into your presence, heeding your call. We come to worship you. O Lord, we pray that you would enable us to worship in spirit and in truth.

We know that this is possible because we have the perfect mediator, who is your Son, Jesus Christ the Lord. It is in his name that we pray. Amen. Please kneel for the corporate confession of sin. Let us confess with one voice now.

Gracious God, our sins are too heavy to carry, too real to hide, and too deep to undo. Forgive what our lips tremble to name, what our hearts can no longer bear, and what has become for us a consuming fire of judgment.

Set us free from a past that we cannot change. Open to us a future in which we can be changed. And grant us grace to grow more and more in your likeness. Through Jesus Christ, the light of the world. Amen.

Please stand. Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. O people of God, you are great sinners, but you have a great Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

If you be united to him by faith, your sins are forgiven. Amen? Let's take up the hymnal now and turn to number 116. For the Beauty of the Earth.

116. Please take up the insert. Psalm 98 is coming into shape for us. It is the Psalm of the Week.

Please practice with your family at home in devotions, and we'll be singing as the Psalm of the Month in the month of December. Let us begin. Psalm 98.

The only way to do a thing is to do a thing, it seems. Praise the Lord. That's great.

Please hang on to Psalm 98. I hope that we will do one more practice session before lunch today. I'd also like to sing it at the Lemke's next week, at Thanksgiving meal there. So hang on to the copy or turn it in to us, and we'll hold on to a copy for you.

Please remain standing now for the reading of the word from Genesis in chapter 30.

Do you have your Bible?

Genesis chapter 30. And she shall bear upon my needs, that I may also have children by her. And she gave him Bilhah, her handmaid, to wife, and Jacob went in unto her. And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son.

And Rachel said, God hath judged me, and hath also heard my voice, and hath given me a son. Therefore called she his name Dan. And Bilhah, Rachel's maid, conceived again, and bore Jacob a second son. And Rachel said, with great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed.

And she called his name Naphtali. When Leah said that she had left bearing, she took Zilpah, her maid, and gave her Jacob to wife. And Zilpah, Leah's maid, bore Jacob a son. And Leah said, a troop cometh, and she called his name Gad.

And Zilpah, Leah's maid, bore Jacob a second son. And Leah said, happy am I, for the daughter will call me blessed. And she called his name Asher. And Reuben went in the days of wheat and harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them unto his mother Leah.

Then Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray thee, of thy son's mandrakes. And she said unto her, Is it a small matter that thou hath taken my husband? And wouldst thou take away my son's mandrakes also?

And Rachel said, Therefore he shall lie with thee to-night for thy son's mandrakes. And Jacob came out of the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and said, Thou must come in unto me, for surely I have hired thee with my son's mandrakes, and he lay with her that night.

And God hearkened unto Leah, and she conceived, and bore Jacob the fifth son. And Leah said, God hath given me my hire, because I have given my maiden to my husband, and she called his name Issachar. And Leah conceived again, and bore Jacob the sixth son.

And Leah said, God hath endued me with a good dowry. Now will my husband dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons, and she called his name Zebulun. And after she bore a daughter, and called her name Dinah.

And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and opened her womb. And she conceived and bore a son, and said, God hath taken away my reproach. And she called his name Joseph, and said, The Lord shall add to me another son.

And came to pass, when Jacob had borne Joseph, that Jacob said unto Laban, Send me away, that I may go unto mine own place, and to my country. Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served thee.

And let me go, for thou knowest my service, which I have done thee. And Laban said unto him, I pray thee, if I found favor in thine eyes, Terry. For I have learned by experience, that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake.

And he said, Appoint me thy wages, and I will give it. And he said unto him, Thou knowest how I have served thee, and how thy cattle was with me. For it was little, which thou hath before I came, and it is now increased unto a multitude.

And the Lord hath blessed thee since my coming. And now when shall I provide for mine own house also? And he said, What shall I give thee? And Jacob said, Thou shall not give me anything. If thou will do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep thy flock.

I will pass through all thy flock to-day, removing from thence all the speckled and spotted cattle, and all the brown cattle among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats. And of such shall be my hire.

So shall my righteousness answer for me in time to come, when it shall come from my hire before thy face. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and brown among the sheep, that shall be counted stolen with me.

And Laban said, Behold, I would it might be according to thy word, if he removed that day that he goats were ring-streaked and spotted, and all that she goats were speckled and spotted, and all of every one that some white in it, and all the brown among the sheep, and gave them into the hand of his sons.

And he set three days' journey betwixt himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flocks. And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chestnut tree, and pilled white streaks in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods.

And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks in the gutters, in the watering troughs, when the flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink. And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle ring-streaked, speckled, and spotted.

And Jacob did separate the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks towards the ring-streaked, and all the brown in the flock of Laban, and he put his own flocks by themselves, and put them not unto Laban's cattle.

And it came to pass, whenceoever the stronger cattle did conceive, that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the cattle in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods. But when the cattle were feeble, he put them not in, so that the feebler were in Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's.

And the man increased exceedingly, and had much cattle, and maidservants, and menservants, and camels, and asses. The word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

What a great joy it is to be studying the book of Genesis through our reading. Let us now confess our faith through the joyful singing of the Apostles' Creed. Let us begin.

I believe in...

521. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Number 521. Please make preparations now for the prayers of the people. Please kneel if you are able. After this manner, therefore, pray ye.

Our Father, who art in heaven,.

Who forgive us our debts, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen. Pray that we may glorify God in all that we do, as we live and work in the creation that displays His power, and be pleased to dispose all things to His own glory.

Pray that Satan's kingdom may be destroyed,.

And that the kingdom of grace may be advanced. Ourselves and others brought into it and kept in it, and the kingdom of glory hastened. Pray that God, for Christ's sake, would freely pardon all our sins.

And we are encouraged to ask this, because by His grace, we are able from the heart to forgive others. Pray that God would either keep us from being tempted to sin, or support and deliver us when we are tempted.

Our Father, taking encouragement and prayer from you alone, in our prayers we praise you, ascribing kingdom, power, and glory to you. And to testify of our desire and assurance to be heard, we say together, Amen.

Please stand and take up the Psalm of the Month. Psalm 78. We are well versed in it now, familiar tune, we're doing well with it. Let's sing it to the Lord. Psalm 78. Please remain standing for the reading of the word from 1 John 5.

We begin reading today in verse 14 to the end of the chapter. And sadly, this is the next to last message in 1 John 5. I hope it's been an encouragement to your faith as we've studied 1 John together.

Let's begin reading in verse 14. This is God's holy and infallible word. Now, this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And we know, and if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

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. There is sin leading to death. 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.

We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. And we know that the Son of God has come and 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.

This is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen. Please pray with me. O Lord, we rejoice to be studying Your Word, and I pray today that we would be diligent and earnest and desire to pray for one another, and to pray for those who are caught in trespasses.

O Lord, I pray that we would be very unselfish, that we would seek to glorify You, and we would seek the good of our brethren in this. And we ask this all in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated. This is one of the four or five puzzling verses in 1 John.

We'll be considering verse 16 today, and 17 of chapter 5. The title of the message is, Praying for Others, and my sermon in a sentence is, Intercede for your brother in sin. Intercede, pray for your brother in sin.

Last week, we learned that we can have a confidence in prayer when you pray in accordance with His will. Our God is eager to make us more like Christ. Those types of prayers, when we seek to be more godly and more God-glorifying, and to love our brother appropriately, God is eager, it seems, to grant those requests.

We also learned last week that we have a deep propensity for selfishness in prayer. And the antidote to that is to know God's will, to get this from His word, to meditate on it day and night, believing it is true and best, and embracing it wholesale.

This will enable us to pray boldly in accordance with His will. Today, we again take up the subject of prayer, but this subject is intercession for others. When we pray for others, we glorify God and demonstrate a real love for our brethren.

There is a purity to this kind of prayer. We look to God and show real concern for our brother, and we fade into the background, very antithesis of what our selfish tendency is. We think of God and we think of our brother when we pray for them.

So let's consider praying for others and interceding for your brother in sin. What do you do when you see a brother sinning? Well, first, you may be tempted to think poorly of them. Maybe this would be an expression of your own pride and self-righteousness.

I would never do such a thing as they are doing. Second, you may be tempted to gossip about their sin with others, and you may feel your sin is justified by theirs because they're doing this terrible thing.

Again, this pride and self-righteousness and self-exaltation enters in. You are better than them, and you want to let everyone know about how much better you are than those who have been fallen into this sin.

Or maybe you write them off as second-class Christians or view them as unbelievers. However, egregious unrepentance and may actually indicate unbelief in them. It's interesting when we see our brother or sister in Christ in sin, we seem to be forgetful about our own sinfulness and the grace of God that has been extended to us in Jesus Christ.

We become judges and enforcers of the law in those situations. There's also a danger when we see our brother sinning, we could be drawn in to his sin. Our text today gives us the proper response to seeing our brother in sin.

Look at verse 16. It says, If anyone sees his brother sinning, a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, this is the interceder asking God, and God will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death.

For those of you who have need of an outline, I have two points. The first is very simple. You should pray for your brother in sin. You should pray for your brother in sin. And second, there is sin that leads to death.

You should pray for your brother in sin. The church must be zealous for holiness. We are, like our culture, too tolerant of evil. We are most tolerant of our own evil. And we're tolerant of the evil of those that we like the most.

But the church is a holy body of Christ. A holy assembly of the saints. The holy ones. So first, we should care about our brother or sister falling into sin. We shouldn't be indifferent. It would be cold and unloving to not care about it.

But it seems that one of the first impulses of the Christian community is to not love and to pray, but to gossip. To think poorly of them. To write them off as second-class citizens. All that we just talked about.

Forgetfulness about the grace of God extended to us and Christ. And what is lost in all of this is the controversy or the difficulty of interpretation. This seems to overtake the main thrust of the message.

When you consider verse 16, we want to talk about the sin which leads to death. The thrust, the emphasis, is we are to pray for our brethren who have fallen into sin. We're going to be more concerned about the controversy or the interpretation of that difficult phrase.

May the Lord help us as we consider all of this. Let's do some exegesis of the text. Surprisingly, there is a lot to be mined here in verse 16. If anyone sees. This is why we need a deeper study of scripture than just a cursory reading of the text.

This is why preaching and study and biblical scholarship is needful. We need to peer more deeply into the text to draw out the marrow of the text. So we might know the depth and breadth of what is being taught here.

Seeing in this case is what we might think seeing to be in English. But it has this idea of perception attached to it. Discernment. It encompasses both the physical act of sight with the eyes. And the metaphorical sense of perceiving or understanding with the mind.

It includes the deeper understanding or realization of spiritual truths. It can indicate an insight granted by God to see is to see with the mind. It could be argued another level to be to be seeing with the spirit.

To understand, to discern. So if anyone sees his brother sinning. Sinning is missing the mark in its literal sense. But it's used to describe that act of violation of God's law or falling short of his standards.

You and I could walk around nitpicking one another for our offenses. And that doesn't seem to be the thrust of the text. But we could do that with one another. And I can tell you that'd be a very unpleasant fellowship to be a part of.

These seem to be egregious sins that are in view. It's a moral failure or transgression in opposition to and rebellion against God and his law. And it's probably habitual and unrepentant and somewhat scandalous.

And affects the body life of the membership of the church. So you and I are observing our brethren. We're not looking to find fault with them. We are not the designated fruit inspectors of our Christian brethren.

But we do have an obligation to one another. To spur each other on to love and good works. To make sure that we're okay in the faith that we're walking in righteousness. We have an obligation and duty to one another.

And all that I've been teaching on the parish and everything in Sunday school all these months now. We have to have a deeper, non-superficial connection to one another. We can't keep each other at arm's length.

We have to be vulnerable with one another. Our lives have to be open to one another so that we can speak truth into each other's lives. And the culture and most Christians don't want that. But we desperately need it.

But now it leads us to the question. Sin has been identified. An egregious sin. A noteworthy sin. But what is a sin not unto? Death. That word unto means towards. Does it lead to? Does it tend towards death?

It refers to a direction or an orientation of life. And so we are all very much sinners. And Jesus came into the world to save sinners like us. And so we have confidence that he will hear us. That he will forgive us our sins.

And we have confidence that our sins are forgiven as we heard in the assurance of pardon. If we be united to Christ. But there's another category of sin. A sin unto death. Which we're going to be considering.

The verse again it says if anyone sees his brother sinning. A sin which does not lead to death. He will ask. This is the petitioner. The Christian who's interceding for the other believer who has fallen into sin.

And he, capital H, God will give him life for those who commit sin. Not leading to death. To further fill out the picture we have to see what death is. Death is both physical and spiritual. It has this like seeing kind of multi-faceted layers.

Physical death is the cessation of life. Spiritual death which what happened in Adam is to be separated from God due to sin. And eternal death is the final separation from God in judgment. All of these are encompassed in the word death.

It is the literal end of life. With the accompanying broader implications of sin and separation from God. Through Hebraic lenses the Jewish world would see it as a separation from the covenant community.

As a consequence of the sin. John was very much a Jew. But in the world that he preached and he seemed so adept to preach. The Greco-Roman world. It was feared as an inevitable fate. Death was feared because it was inevitable and there was nothing that you could do about it.

But the Christian worldview is entirely different. Death for the believer is a defeated enemy and foe through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And the Christian mantra really is, it's very perplexing and almost paradoxical.

We must die with Christ and to ourselves in order to live. The whole world is trying to preserve their lifespan. But we must die to self. I happened upon a trainer, a nutritionist guy. And he's doing all these things.

He's spending all of his years trying to extend his longevity. Which I think is a very ironic thing. His eating, his living, everything is geared. He's researching, he's laboring, his whole life is consumed.

All of his hours are consumed with living longer. He doesn't have a view of eternity in Christ. He thinks this is all there is. But we have a different perspective. And we know that death is serious. But for the Christian, oh, it's the entry point into glory.

It's the beginning of eternal life with Christ forever. Oh, what a joy for the death of the saints. Oh, what a blissful day when the believer in Jesus Christ dies. And enters into the presence of God.

But death must be seen in all of its force and implications here. We need to ask. Look at the text again. It says he will ask. The believer needs to intercede for his brother. When you see a Christian in sin, the first thing you need to do is to pray for them.

I don't know if you would have asked me a few weeks ago what my first act would be. I might have said, well, I have to go talk to them. I have to go confront them or something like that. And certainly necessary.

I should do that. But your first course of action should be to pray for them. Ask the Lord to work in their life. Ask the Holy Spirit to to crack into their hard heartedness. What great practical wisdom there is in Scripture.

Seeing my brother sinning, I need to ask God to help him. And the New Testament is used to ask is to request, but often with a sense of urgency. It is the act of petitioning or making a request in this case to God.

And to ask God, particularly in light of last week. It demonstrates a reliance on God for provision and guidance. We trust and depend on God to answer. It is the seeking of help from the superior, from the inferior.

We cry out to God. Oh, God, help our brother who has fallen into sin. Grant him. Give him gifts. Grant him the authority to have life. Set him free from this sin. We would pray that our brother would be relieved of this burden.

God generously gives, gives life. Zoe, physical, spiritual, eternal life. And this is, of course, the opposite of the aforementioned death that we have been considering. This is life in Christ in its fullest sense.

It encompasses both physical and the spiritual realm. It is used to describe the eternal life granted through faith in Jesus Christ. This life is not merely an unending existence, but a quality of life that is abundant and fulfilling, characterized by communion with God.

It comes from and is sustained by God's self-existent life. True life is found only in God himself. Sadly, our brethren around us are still dead in their trespasses. They have physical life, but they don't have spiritual life.

Christ brings physical, spiritual, eternal life. He comes to give us life abundant, life to the full. A very different life. The Christian life is the best life. Far superior to the mere physical life of the unbelievers, walking in spiritual death.

This is important for us to remember. So basic, yet so profound, Christ gives life. In contrast, true life is found only in God himself. But in contrast, in the ancient world, life was associated with the physical and temporal existence.

And I think that pagan world has reemerged in our time. This is just a physical and temporal existence. Look at the culture. Everything screams this. In the New Testament, true life in Christ, in contrast with the temporary and unfulfilling life is.

That is offered by the world. Christ has come and he's come to grant us life in that in abundance. The granting of life is gospel grace. It removes the presence and power of sin. And it gets us back to walking in the newness of life in Christ.

When we restore an erring brother, he again walks in newness of life. This is such good news for sinners like you and me. Christ came into the world to save sinners like us. Point one, you should, you must pray for your brother in sin.

But now we transition to point two. You're still in verse 16. It says there is sin leading to death. These harder sayings of Scripture often grab our attention. We can't lose sight of the main thing. We have to intercede for our brother in sin, but we do have to get to the bottom of this.

What does this mean? We do have to clarify what this curious statement is about. What sin leads to death? Well, we have to see it in its full scope. Physical death and spiritual death were brought in by the fall in the broadest sense.

Sin brought death into the world. The original cause of death is sin. So the first conclusion to be drawn is that God may judge a believer in his chastening love. And that may result in the physical death of a genuine believer on account of their unrepentant sin.

So the broadest category, there's sin in the world. Rank unbelief leads to ultimately to spiritual death. We start to close in a little bit on it. There's about four of these. God can actually and has struck genuine believers to death that they might not sin anymore.

It's fearful, right? It should bring a little pause in our own life. This should cause us to have a measure of circumspection. That means literally to look on all sides, look around, to be cautious, to be prudent.

Is there anything that you're doing in your life that would draw the friendly fire of our God? That he might take you out, he might kill you because you're not repenting of your sin. Oh, we shouldn't have unrepentant sin.

Particularly that scandalous unrepentant sin. God may see fit to save our soul by killing us. We need to be watchful in every way with attention to guard against any surprise or danger. Unrepentant, egregious sin may cost you your life.

And it may be a merciful act of God to prevent greater evil. He could do it to also warn the church corporately to maintain its peace, unity, and purity. Now, if some Christian dies an untimely death at a young age, we should immediately assume that God is striking them dead because of their sin.

But maybe we should consider it. It's all very sobering. Galatians 6 .1 says, Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.

This should remind us to see how serious sin is. There are sins which lead to death. What else does it mean? One of my favorite passages of Scripture, I don't know what it says about me, is Exodus chapter four.

And I am utterly amazed. And I mean this in the truest sense. Every time I still have the sense of amazement that God speaks to Moses out of the burning bush, causes him to be the prophet and king over his people, to deliver them out of Egypt.

And while he's on the way to accomplish the mission, God appears to him and is on his way to kill him. Because he didn't circumcise his sons, keeping covenant. And his wife, Zipporah, circumcises, I bet you very painfully and very harshly, and all of the drama that she circumcises her sons and averts the just wrath of God.

God is serious about his holiness. God is serious about his word. And Moses, one of the biggest men in the Bible, is in danger of death because he fails to keep covenant. No doubt one of the instances that pops in your mind when you think of this is found in the book of Acts.

Let's turn there, Acts chapter five. There's a great outpouring of generosity between the brethren and the church in Jerusalem immediately after Pentecost. It says in the beginning, in chapter four, With great power, the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

And great grace was upon them all, nor were there was anyone among them who lacked. For all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceedings of the things that were sold and laid them at the apostles' feet.

And they distributed to anyone as they had need. And Joseph, who is also named Barnabas by the apostles, which is translated son of encouragement, a Levite of the country of Cyprus, having land, sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet.

But a certain man named Ananias, this is chapter five, verse one, with Sapphira, his wife, sold a possession. And he kept back part of the proceeds, his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles' feet.

Now, it should be pointed out, the partial gift was probably fine and lawful. It was, however, that they were lying about it. They said, oh, we sold this land, we're giving all the proceeds to the church.

They kept some back. Verse three, 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? While it remained, was it not your own?

And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God. Then Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and breathed his last.

So great fear came upon all those who heard these things. And the young man arose and wrapped him up, carried him out and buried him. Now, it was about three hours later when his wife came in, not knowing what had happened.

And Peter answered her, Tell me whether you sold the land for so much. She said, Yes, for so much. And Peter said to her, How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Now, I should point out to you, this seems to be a recurring theme in the sins that lead to death.

Lying to the Holy Spirit, putting the Spirit of the Lord to the test. It says, Look, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door and they will carry you out. And immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last.

The young man came in and found her dead and carrying her out, buried her by her husband. So great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things. Seems that lying to the Holy Spirit is a sin that leads to death.

Now, this should cause us to be mindful, to be circumspect in the context of First John. Let's go ahead and turn back to our book that we're in. First, John, there are false teachers espousing heretical doctrine.

You guys remember that? They denied that Jesus Christ had come in the flesh. Meaning they denied Christ and his gospel themselves and were leading others astray. That's not something you want to do. It'd be better for you to have a millstone tied around your neck than to cause one of the little ones to stumble.

First John 2 says, Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the father and the son. Whoever denies the son does not have the father either. He who acknowledges the son has the father also.

In First John 4, testing the spirits, that section. And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard was coming and is now already in the world.

Their condemnation is just if they refuse to repent. Another category of sin unto death that would have been before John, and maybe we don't include in this. And I don't know why we wouldn't, but it doesn't seem naturally to follow.

But I think it's very much this. What about the national rejection of Christ by the majority of the Jewish people? Sin unto death. And in fact, death is going to come. The sword, physical and spiritual death are coming in 80 -70.

The blood is going to be like a flood through the streets. The blood of the Jews who reject Christ. What about the destruction of the temple? The decimation of the people? These seem to be sins unto death.

The next category, and I think maybe this gets more people are aggrieved. Some of these are controversial that I've offered, and these are more consistent with what most people think are the sins that could lead to death.

And the next category of sin is apostasy. Some of the harshest words of scripture are given to the apostate. In the Bible, apostasy is the act of a baptized Christian who completely rejects their faith in Christ and the essential teachings and tenets of Christianity.

If you are a person who's done that, you are in grave danger of physical and spiritual and eternal death. That's why we're always calling people to repent and to come back. 1 Timothy 4 says,. Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron.

2 Timothy 4. The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers, and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables.

3 Take heed, Paul would say to Timothy, to your life and your doctrine. This will save yourself and others. Do not tinker with the essential tenets of the Christian faith. Do not entertain the false teachers.

They are on the path and on the way to death. I'm going to ask you to go to one more place. I think this is probably my central textual evidence for this kind of idea. Let's go to Hebrews chapter 10. I want you to see it.

I have one more that's probably the most clear example of this. This is probably the second and the one in Matthew will be the most clear. I'll read that one and you won't have to turn there. Hebrews 10 verse 26.

For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.

Anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. This is all I think tied to apostasy. Verse 29. Of how much worse punishment do you suppose will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot?