Praying for Sinning Christians #1

Welcome to the Truth Pulpit with Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Hello, I'm Bill Wright. Thanks for joining us as we continue teaching God's people God's Word. Don begins a new message today, so without further delay, let's join him right now in the Truth Pulpit. Turn in your Bibles, if you would, to 1 John chapter 5, as we also mark the passage of time as we come to the near the end of our exposition of 1 John.

All kinds of milestones coming and going here. 1 John chapter 5 is where we're going to be in verses 16 and 17. The Apostle John is drawing near to the end of his letter as we come to this passage, and he's really summarizing it. He's brought the letter to its climax here, and he is reiterating the privileges of eternal life. And I'm going to read verses 13 through 17 to start us, and then we will focus on the last two verses of the passage. But 1 John 5 verse 13, the Apostle wrote, These things I have written to you, who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence which we have before Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request which we have asked from Him. If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death.

I do not say that he should make request for this. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death. This is a wonderful passage designed to instill confidence in those who are true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. First of all, a confidence, an assurance that you actually possess eternal life, never to be taken away from you. John says in verse 13, this is the whole reason I wrote, is so that you would know that you have eternal life. Confidence, spiritual confidence as you walk through this life, knowing that it's ultimately going to lead you to your heavenly home.

And so that's why he wrote. Now, as we said last time that I was up here, which I guess was three weeks ago, that assurance wasn't… isn't a cul-de-sac, it's not meant to stop there. Assurance is simply a checkpoint on the way to something else, and that something else is found in verse 14 when John says this is the confidence that we have before him. This is what assurance is supposed to lead to, it's supposed to lead to a confidence in prayer. He says, verse 14, our confidence is that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

And not only does He hear us, verse 15, when we ask, we know that we have the request which we have asked from Him. And we talked about the limits, the contours of that promise of answered prayer last time, but the idea is that assurance isn't an end in itself, it's a means to spiritual growth, a means to growing in prayer, a means to confidence when we approach the throne of God. And that's all designed to motivate us. It motivates us to pray. It motivates us to pray with confidence because we know that having been reconciled to God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, our heavenly Father hears us with favor when we come before Him. And so, this is all an atmosphere of confidence, an atmosphere of assurance, and a vertical confidence with God that is the birthright of every true Christian. It's a wonderful concept to think about and to meditate upon. We have confidence before God when we pray. And we have that confidence because we know that eternal life is our irrevocable possession as Christians. So we walk through life and we pray from a foundation of confidence, and that's what John has written this whole letter to inculcate into us. Now, having said all of that and transitioning into the last two verses here of the passage that I read, the key for us to recognize is that even that confidence in prayer is not a cul-de-sac.

It's not an end. It's not primarily about us, per se. And what I mean by that is this, is that prayer is not meant to be superficial, and furthermore, prayer is not meant to be selfish. It's not meant to be self-centered.

It's not meant to be a means by which we take advantage of our privilege and position before God so that our own individual lives are ordered according to our own liking. No, John goes on and shows us in verses 16 through 17 where a maturing Christian's prayer life should take him. And it's a place of intercession, it is a place of concern for other believers as we pray. Now throughout the letter, if you've been with us for any length of time here in Grace Life, you know that John has said throughout this letter that the Christian life, true Christians are known by a couple of different things, at least two that we'll mention here this morning. True Christians are marked by a love for other believers.

They're marked by a love for the brethren. They love the body of Christ because other Christians share the same supernatural life that God has given to each one of us in the miracle of regeneration. When God caused you to be born again, He put a spiritual life that is like unto His own spiritual life, and that is now what animates your existence. Well, a true Christian when he encounters other Christians who have that same kind of life, that same life from God, we're drawn to each other like magnets. That's why the body of Christ comes together. We're drawn together by that shared spiritual life that we have, and we love one another because of it.

We love one another because we see the image of God in that person, but also we realize that there's a shared spiritual life that we have together that is of great consequence and a reflection of our deepest affections. Now, keeping that in mind, this love for other brethrens, watch this. True Christians are also marked by a love for holiness. They're marked by a desire for righteousness. John said in 1 John 3, 7, he said, "'Little children, make sure that no one deceives you. The one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous.'" Verse 9, "'No one who is born of God practices sin because his seed abides in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God.'" And so there is this orientation not only towards love, but toward holiness and righteousness as well that is the mark of the true Christian.

Now, that's just by way of background. This is all energy that has been building up into the climax that John leads us to here. And with those things in mind, where he goes with prayer is going to be very evident and self-explanatory to you. Go back to our passage now in 1 John 5, 13 to 15 here. John says that he's written these things that we might know eternal life, and he goes into the whole area of Christian prayer.

And he says in verse 15, if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from him. Here's the question. Here's the question. With that kind of inestimable privilege before the throne of God, what does someone do with that who has a burning love for other Christians and a consuming desire and passion for righteousness?

What do you do with that? Well, in light of those broader themes, the answer to what we do with prayer is obvious. This is obvious, even though I think it's probably an area of weakness for us in the American church, and even let me say within the walls of Grace Life, we could do better at this.

The answer is obvious. If you've got those desires in your heart and you have a privilege of God in prayer, it's obvious what you're going to do with it. The answer is, what are you going to do with it? We will pray so that others will receive the spiritual benefit of our intercession. When we go to prayer, we don't disconnect ourselves from our love for the brothers. We don't disconnect ourselves from our desire, our passion for righteousness. And when we go to prayer, we want to plug those two desires in together into one unified petition before the throne of God that says, God, my desire is to see that the brothers that I love manifest the righteousness and holiness in their lives that I also love and that I know is a priority to You. That becomes a guiding principle in the way that we intercede for one another. I understand, and there's a couple of things that should be said here, I understand that in, you know, just culturally the way that we interact, we don't really expose ourselves too much in terms of the struggles that we have with one another.

We're more private than that. But the discerning, growing Christian understands that the other brothers in Christ that he knows that are in one manner or another experiencing the same kinds of struggles with sin that he himself is. I know that you are struggling and battling with sin in one manner or another and you know that that's true about me. Our words, our actions, our motives, they're not all that they could be. Not one of us has reached a stage of perfection. The truth of the matter is is that perfection is still a future to us. The truth of the matter is is that our daily outworking of our salvation leaves a lot to be desired, doesn't it? It's okay, you can nod and agree with me. I'm not wearing my glasses so I can't really see how vigorously you're agreeing with me anyway, so feel free to agree without the threat that all the pastors going to know too much about me if I agree too much.

Look, I already know about you. I read my Bible so I know about you, and if you read your Bible, you know about me. We're all in this together. We're all in this together, this body life together of growing in righteousness but falling short is something that we're all in together. And so, motivated by a love for one another, motivated by a love for holiness, we realize that when we go to prayer before God, that one of the surpassing and enduring aspects of our prayer life is to ask God to help our brothers and sisters in Christ grow in holiness.

We love them and we want what's best for them, we want what God wants for them, and that's what God wants for us. He wants us to grow in holiness. And so that is where John is going as we come to verse 16, and we're going to look at two different points here from verses 16 and 17 as we consider the topic of praying for sinning Christians.

If you want a title to write at the top of your notes, if you're taking notes, that's the title of today's message, Praying for Sinning Christians. And we're just going to have two points that John brings out of this passage here. The first point is this...the first point is this, is that we're going to discuss the expectation of effective intercession, the expectation of effective intercession, the idea that you and I as Christians would be praying for the spiritual growth of the Christians around us is an expected part of the Christian life.

John makes that plain to us. And when we pray, we should be concerned to see other Christians advance in holiness. Look at verse 16 as we dive into the text here. John says, if anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death.

Let's stop there for now. He says, if anyone...well he's writing to the church, he's talking about anyone within the body of Christ. If anyone in the body of Christ sees his brother, that is another Christian, committing a sin not leading to death, well what does that person who sees this sin do? What does he do?

He writes it in the future tense, in the future indicative. This is the expected response. When you see that situation, it's obvious and natural what you will do as someone who loves Christians and desires holiness, not just in your own life but throughout the body of Christ. If that's your desire, and that's the desire of every true Christian based on everything that John has said up to this point, then when you see that situation, your response is going to be obvious. You're going to turn in prayer to God for that person and ask Him to help them and to intervene so that they might turn away from that sin and grow in holiness.

This passage, in other words, teaches us to expect to see Christians in sin from time to time, that there are going to be times where we see each other falling short of the glory of God as we walk through life and in the outworking of our salvation. It tells us to expect that and it tells us how to respond to it. This is very practical for our relationships within the body and it's transforming in our approach to prayer. Think about it this way with me, the concept of love amongst the body. We are used to thinking about the concept of love as responding to believers who have physical needs. They're in illness, they're in material poverty or whatever, and we say, okay, I have the physical needs, I have the resources that I can help relieve their suffering and out of love for them, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to look to alleviate their physical suffering.

Now, that is good and that is right and that is what we should do. Look over to chapter 3, verse 16, we know love by this, that He laid down His life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world's goods and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue but in deed and truth. So what he's saying is, in this concept of Christian love that is a reflection of the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf, when we see a brother in physical need and we have the world's goods that are necessary to relieve that, it's obvious that we would show a similar spirit of sacrifice in order to relieve their physical need.

That's the idea. And so it is good and right for us to do that. That is an expression of true Christian love. But as good and proper and necessary as that is, that's not the point for today. That's not John's point here in chapter 5.

He's moving beyond the physical needs to teach us another aspect about our love for one another. And what this passage, chapter 5 verses 16 and 17 are teaching us, is this passage teaches us that that same spirit of Christian love also responds to believers who are in spiritual need. They have fallen into sin. They are falling short of the glory of God and you see that, you observe that in real time.

Well, the question is what do you do? And the answer is, is for us to remember that we have the spiritual means of prayer to help them recover. And notice the certainty of this. This is such an untapped resource that we have in the body of Christ to help one another walk in a manner that is worthy of the Lord who saved us. Go back to verse 14 with all of this in mind. John says, this is the confidence which we have before Him that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request we've asked from Him. Now, having said that, he goes into verse 16 and says, if you see your brother in sin, you shall ask and God will give him life. This is an extension of the assurance that we have in salvation.

It is an extension of the promise that we have from God in prayer that He answers our prayers. Now, with everything that we've said here, isn't it obvious that if we see one another falling short of the glory of God in their lives, that we would go to prayer and say, God, increase their sanctification. Help them to grow from where they're at to a place of greater conformity to Christ. Oh God, I see that they've sinned.

I saw his angry reaction. Father, would You work in his life and help him to respond in a way that is righteous and godly? And by the way, Father, as I pray that, I realize that I'm prone to the same sins as well. So Father, I'm not praying in a spirit of pride and condescension toward this brother. I'm praying in a spirit of love knowing that I am also a man of flesh. I am also a man who falls short. But Father, out of my love for Your holiness and my love for my brother, I ask You to work in his life to greater sanctify him so that he might better understand and better experience the blessings of walking an obedient Christian life.

That's the idea. Compare that manner of praying that John brings us to here in verse 16 with, dear Father, please help Aunt Martha with her toe fungus. I know that that toe fungus is bad.

Would You help her with her toe fungus and relieve her suffering? That's so superficial, isn't it? When we get serious about what John says in this letter, when we get serious about what he says in this passage, we realize that our prayer lives have been superficial and that we need to grow in prayer in order to conform ourselves to what Scripture calls us to and also to advance and to grow into what God would have us to be. Because you're like me, most of you anyway, you don't want to be a superficial Christian, do you?

You don't want to be a mediocre believer. You want to grow in holiness. Well here is a particular means of growing in holiness that the Scripture lays out to us. Out of love for God's glory and love for the brethren, we should be consistently and persistently praying that God would soften the hearts of believers against sin and help them better live the spiritual life that He has already given to them. And so, when we see a brother sinning, we avoid the immediate harsh judgment that we're prone to. He calls himself a Christian, look at what he's doing. We avoid the gossip. Hey, you know what John's doing?

Come here, I'll tell you. You avoid the frustration. My family member, my spouse, oh my goodness, I am so frustrated that they don't get this. You steer your heart away from all of those things and you take the humble posture of a praying Christian and you go to God and you ask God to do what you yourself cannot do, which is to increase their sanctification and enable them to overcome remaining sin in their lives. You will be a far more effective Christian and a far better assistance to one another in our spiritual lives if rather than being a spiritual nag and saying, you shouldn't be doing that, if your immediate response becomes one of going to God in prayer and saying, Father, I see them, please give them life. Please enhance their sanctification. Please turn their heart and soften it so that they will be in a position better to live for You.

That's the idea. Now when you pray like that, this passage is teaching us that God will move in response to your prayer so that that sinning believer will in fact turn from sin as part of God's overall faithfulness to hear us when we pray. You have in the gift of prayer that God has given to us, the gift of prayer that God has given us before His throne, you have enormous power for spiritual good in the lives of other believers.

And I dare say that none of us do all that we could to take advantage of that. And when we get consumed with our own life circumstances in prayer, we are neglecting the brothers that we supposedly love and the force that we have for good in their lives by asking God to turn them spiritually into greater, more sanctified believers than what they are right now. We really have to...we really have to get beyond our self-centered approach to praying and our consumption with our own circumstances to look beyond ourselves, beyond our immediate circle and say, what are the believers around me going through? I see them struggling in ah, I need to pray for them.

Right there is the...is the engagement of battle that needs to take place. We have to pray for one another. And we have to pray for one another seriously at a deep, profound level, praying for them out of a sympathy that knows what it's like personally to struggle with indwelling sin, to try to overcome temptation and sometimes fail. You know, if you know that by experience and you see your brother like that, then you say, oh God, I must intercede now for him.

Please help him, Father. And I pray this knowing that if I ask according to Your will, You hear us and that if You hear us, I have the request that I'm asking, I have the request of seeing this brother advance in Christ. Why would we not pray like that all the time? Could it be that the fact that we don't is a reflection of our own spiritual lack and our own spiritual poverty?

Could it be that we all need to grow in this wet manner? I think that's part of the reason why John points this out to us. Because notice what he says. He says, if you see this, if anyone sees his brother sinning like that, he will ask and God will give life. It's expected. This is the expected response when we see those occasions of sin and those around us. And we're happy to pray this way. We're joyful to pray this way because we want to use prayer to benefit others and to benefit them spiritually. Now, this kind of praying follows the model of Christ.

Let me illustrate this for you. Turn back to the gospel of John, if you would. John chapter 17, Jesus is praying in His High Priestly Prayer, John 17 in verse 13. How did Jesus pray to the Father?

As He's prayed for His disciples, look at the way He prays in verse 13. He says, "'Now I come to you and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. I have given them Your Word and the world has hated them because they are not of the world even as I am not of the world. I do not ask You to take them out of the world but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth.

Your Word is truth.'" And so Jesus in the midst of His own trial, in the midst of facing the cross within 24 hours, knowing fully that that is what is about to come, even in the midst of that kind of trial, He is praying for His disciples. He is praying for those around Him. And I am so encouraged and challenged and rebuked all at the same time by the way that He prayed for them. Father, I pray for their joy. Promote joy in their lives. And not just joy, but Father, My joy. And not just My joy, but Father, made full in them. Father, I pray for their joy. Verse 16...or verse 15, Father, keep them from the evil one. Father, I know that they will be tempted. I ask You to keep them from the evil one.

I ask You to preserve them. He is interceding for them in light of the spiritual challenges that await them. On the positive side, give them full joy. On the negative side, keep them from the evil one. You can see this illustrated more specifically if you turn over back a gospel to the gospel of Luke in chapter 22, Luke 22, where Jesus is again with His disciples, soon to go to the Garden of Gethsemane, and He calls out Peter, calling Him by His former name in verse 31, and He said, Simon, Simon, chapter 22 verse 31, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail and you, once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. Knowing full well that Peter was about to deny Him with curses three times, Jesus nevertheless prays for him. Father, help his faith not to fail. Father, once he is turned, may he strengthen his brothers. Work in his life to overcome this sin and temptation.

Work in his life to sanctify him further once he has come back. That's the Lord's model of prayer. This is the spiritual maturity that's laid out before us as well. You see, what John is saying here is that your prayer life should be a means of facilitating another believer's walk with the Lord, that the Lord would guide him away from sin and into the paths of righteousness, away from discouragement and despair and into full joy. That's the way that we are supposed to pray for one another. And you pray that way even though you're doing this privately in your own prayer closet, as it were. Jesus said, when you pray, go into your room, close the door, pray to your Father who's in secret and your Father who sees in secret will be happy to reward you. This isn't a manner of praying that we come in on Sunday morning and we announce to one another this is the faithful burden of your heart and your private prayer before God that you would be interceding faithfully for other believers. There's no pride of recognition that accompanies this, but you are happy to pray this way because you know it's what God calls for. You're happy to pray this way because you love the one for whom you're praying. And the truth of the matter is, is that a lot of our family relationships would get a whole lot better if we focused on this rather than confronting one another about sin and nagging one another, you're still like this after blah, blah years, blah, blah, blah.

I'm frustrated and irritated. Okay, if you're frustrated and irritated and the person's actually sinning, okay, let's see you go to prayer about it. Let's pray about that and trust the Lord to honor his promise to give us what we ask because that intercession has effective results.

So you have the expectation of effective intercession. This is what we do as Christians when we see other believers in sin. Just before we close, my friends, I just want to let you know that this podcast is made possible for you by the generous support of many friends of our ministry. We're grateful for that. And if you have supported us, I want to say a special word of thanks to you for all that you've done to make this possible. And if you would like to join in the support of our ministry, you can do that so easily by going to thetruthpulpit.com.

That's thetruthpulpit.com. You'll see the link to give and you can add your support to the others who make this possible for us. Thank you for whatever you do and whether you give or you don't give, know that our love and prayers are with you. Thank you for joining us. We'll see you next time as we continue to study God's Word together here on The Truth Pulpit. That's Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Thank you so much for listening to The Truth Pulpit. Join us next time for more as we continue teaching God's people God's Word.