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There is a Sin Unto Death

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• Well, let's open our Bibles today to actually two passages. The first one is 1 Chronicles chapter 10 and then 1 John chapter 2. So I will, uh, I'll give you some good news and some bad news to begin with. The good news is the sermon is only about 15 or 20 minutes. The bad news is the introduction is about 45. So it won't be any shorter than a Joshua Boy. The title of the message is "There Is a Sin Unto Death." There is a sin unto death. So I want you to look at 1 Chronicles chapter 10, verses 13 and 14.

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• Now, I am going to be bringing an exposition of these verses toward the end, but there is going to be a lot of groundwork laid before I get back to them. So just look at them. The Bible says, "So Saul died for the transgression which he committed against the Lord, even against the word of the Lord which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit to inquire of it; and he inquired not of the Lord."

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• "Therefore he slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David, the son of Jesse." Now, we do not like to think about death. And the truth is, when we sin, and we know that we are sinning against a holy, just, and righteous God, we hesitate even more to consider death and dying. We know that when we sin we deserve death, and in one sense of the word, we are not struck down instantly or immediately. And we don't expect it instantly, even when we do sin. Now, the Bible declares very plainly in Romans 6:23 that the wages of sin is death. So that is basically the reason why each one of us dies—because we are sinners. That is for sure. And I realize that not all sins are equal. Someone has said, "Well, sin is sin." Well, that's true in one sense of the word, but some sins happen to be more vile and more wicked than other sins. For instance, if a man steals, God requires restitution. But if some man murders another man, God requires that his life be forfeited. So the Bible says, "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." So clearly then, murder is more vile and more heinous and more wicked than thievery. So

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• there is indeed a difference in sins. All those sin is sin. Now, the Word of God makes it exceedingly clear that there is a sin unto death. If you'd look in your Bibles to 1 John chapter 5 and notice verses 16 and 17. And I'm trying to lay the groundwork to come back to 1 Chronicles 10, but if you look in 1 John 5:16, the Scripture says, "If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death.

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• I do not say that he shall pray for it. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin unto death." Interestingly, three times in these two verses the Scripture tells us there is a sin unto death. Now, every sin in one sense of the word is a mortal sin, because that is why we die. But none of us have been struck down instantly and immediately when we sin. That is why we're alive today. If God did indeed strike us down instantly and immediately when we sinned, then no one would be around for long, that is for sure. But John, in 1 John chapter 5, is clearly conceiving and saying that there is a sin that is unto death.

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• Now, the little Greek word "unto" is the preposition pros, and it actually means "unto," "toward," or "to," and "with regard to." So actually, what he's saying is there is a sin which is leaning toward death or heading toward death. In other words, this is a sin where you're actually going to be losing your life. Now, the sin unto death, which I'm going to show you from the Scripture, is a sin which is of such a character that it throws the offender beyond the reach of mercy.

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• So let me say this again. It leads to death. It's a sin in which there is no turning back. Let me say it another way. The bridge is out and you're going to die. That's just all there is to it. Now, when we look at 1 John chapter 5, you can read all the commentators that you want to read. There are going to be some commentators that will tell you that they think that this sin is the unpardonable sin. I think I'm going to show you from the Scripture why that is not true. But I do want you to look in your Bibles to the book of Matthew chapter 12, and let's look just for a moment at the unpardonable sin that was mentioned by our Lord. Now, I will make a statement and I think that you will agree with me when I get through explaining it. There is no way that this unpardonable sin that is mentioned in Matthew chapter 12 could be accomplished today in the same sense. How can I say that?

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• Well, look in Matthew chapter 12, beginning there in verse 22. "Then was brought unto him one possessed with the devil, blind and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw. And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of David? But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand. And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand? And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out?

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• Therefore they shall be your judges. But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. Or else how can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house. Now watch carefully. He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. Wherefore I say unto you,

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• All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come." So here is the sin that is referred to as the unpardonable sin.

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• Jesus Christ has just performed a miracle, and the miracle is He's taken a deaf mute—one who was deaf and dumb, one who was demon-possessed—He's cast out the demon, and the man hears and the man speaks. The Pharisees now ascribe this obvious, clear miracle done by the power of God to the power of Satan. Now, there are two things that we have to remember. The first one is this: Jesus Christ was endowed with the Holy Spirit without measure. The Bible says in John 3:34, "For he whom God the Father hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him." So Jesus Christ walked and worked in the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

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• The second thing you have to consider in this is what is known as the Economical Trinity. I've explained this before, but I'm going to do it again. When you talk about the Trinity, there is the Ontological Trinity and there is the Economical Trinity. The Ontological Trinity is just based upon the Greek word ontos, which means "being." All it is is the logical order of being: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That's what the Ontological Trinity is. But the Economical Trinity is how God works. That is, everything is out of the Father, through the Son, and in the Spirit. So Jesus Christ now, who had the Spirit without measure, has performed this miracle in the presence of all these people, and the Pharisees now ascribe this great power of God to the power of Satan. Now, here's the reason

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• why I say that I do not think that this sin can be committed in this same line today. Because Jesus Christ was on the earth. He was in the flesh, and He was performing the miracle. And when the Pharisees saw Him perform this miracle, they said He did it by Beelzebub. He did it by Satan. Well, Jesus Christ is not on the earth. He is not here in the flesh. He is not performing miracles. Now, I suppose in another sense of the word that sin could be committed today if someone saw what would be an obvious and clear miracle of God and then they turned around and ascribed it to Satan. But what we do today, since we have the completed Word of God, we ascribe the unpardonable sin to those who reject and refuse the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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• Now, because Jesus Christ did everything He did in the power of the Spirit, in John 12:48, our Lord said it like this: "He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day." So, note if you would, He said, "He that rejecteth me"—that is His person, the living Word of God—"and receiveth not my words"—that's the written Word of God—"hath one that judgeth him, even the words which I have spoken at the last day." So, when you go back to 1 John chapter 5, and you look at this passage, it's almost clear that it cannot possibly be what you and I would call the unpardonable sin for several obvious reasons. Number one would be this: we cannot see someone's heart. We cannot see someone's mind, and we do not know what God does instantly and or at the last moment. For instance, let me just tell you, say it like this.

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• Do you realize there's only one deathbed conversion in the Bible? Only one. That's the thief on the cross. And someone has aptly said, "There is only one that none may despair, but there's only one that none may presume." And so it's just like that thief on the cross: he was saved instantly by the Lord. And so someone could be saved instantly at the last moment of his life. So there's no way in the world that we could say that this would be the sin unto death. Now, the sin not unto death is very easily explained because the sin not unto death is any sin that we commit which God chooses not to execute the punishment against us instantly or immediately. So the fact and reality that each of us deserve death—well, we may deserve it, but we're still alive. So He has not executed His judgment against us instantly or immediately.

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• Now, I'm going to give you a quote. The first one is by John Calvin. Here's what he said: "A sin which is not unto death. That we may not cast away all hope of salvation of those who sin, he shows that God does not so grievously punish their faults as to repudiate them. It hence follows that we ought to deem them brethren, since God retains them in the number of his children. For he denies that sins are to death, not only those by which the saints daily offend, but even when it happens that God's wrath is grievously provoked by them. For as long as room for pardon is left, death does not wholly retain its dominion." So Calvin is just saying the same thing, that as long as we're alive, it's obvious that we're sinners, but God has not judged us with the sin unto death instantaneously. Okay. Now, the Word of God gives us two very clear illustrations of people who have sinned, and they sinned in such a way that they deserved and merited the death penalty, but God pardoned them.

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• So let me give you those illustrations. So the first one, if you will turn in your Bibles to 2 Samuel chapter 12. You're all familiar with this one. This is the sin of David when David has committed adultery with Bathsheba and he has had Uriah, her husband, murdered by the sword of the children of Ammon. So, in 2 Samuel chapter 12, I want you to note very closely what God says.

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• Let's begin reading with verse 7. Everyone knows this story. "And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man," after he told them the story about the one little ewe lamb. "Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul; and I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things. Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight? Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun.

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• For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun. And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die." Now, did David deserve to die? And the answer is yes, on two counts. Number one, adultery. Adultery merits the death penalty. And number two, murder. Although he did not physically murder Uriah, he had him murdered because he sent word to Joab to put Uriah on the forefront of the battle and retire from him that he may die. And God has charged him very clearly in this passage with the murder. You must take note of at least two truths.

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• First of all, I want you to look at verses 9 and 10. Look in verse 9. God asks, "Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord?" Now skip down to verse 10: "Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me." So a despising of the Word of God is a despising of God. I'm going to show you a little bit later: you cannot separate God from His Word. That is absolutely true. And so you have to understand that God and His Word are one. The second thing you must understand is this: even though God sovereignly and graciously pardoned David so that he did not die, he did not escape the consequences of his sins. Okay, the child that was born to him and Bathsheba died. Amnon, David's son, raped his own sister Tamar. And then Absalom murdered Amnon, his own brother, for what he did to Tamar. Then Absalom rebelled against his father, ran him off the throne, tried to kill him before he himself was killed. And then Adonijah, another son, tried to usurp the throne, not by revolution, but having himself crowned as king without David's knowledge, without David's approval.

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• So just simply because his sin was pardoned did not mean that he escaped the consequences of those sins. Now, clearly then, just because God pardons you does not mean that you don't carry the consequences of those sins. The second illustration is given to us in the New Testament in 1 Corinthians chapter 5. So I want you to turn there, in 1 Corinthians chapter 5. You're going to find a very interesting, at the same time a very disgusting illustration. 1 Corinthians chapter 5. And I want you to note that this sin that is going to be dealt with here is so absolutely grievous that Paul says it was not even known among the Gentiles, or among the unsaved. So here it is, 1 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 1. He said, "It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife." Hmm. Now, this was not the man's mother. It was his stepmother. So he is having an affair with his father's wife, which is not only a violation of the law of God, but it's also another violation where God said a father and his son shall not go into the same maiden. And here he is committing this grievous sin.

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• Now in verse 2, Paul tells the Corinthian church, "And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ." So this is church discipline where someone is turned out of the church, placed under discipline where the body may be attacked and destroyed by the enemy, but he said that the spirit may be saved.

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• Now, like I said, this was a very grievous sin. And yet, here's the interesting thing. This man that has done this thing deserved death, very clearly, very obviously. But would you like to know what? God pardoned him, God forgave him, because the man repented of his sins.

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• Now, I want to show you this. If you will turn over in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians 2, and look, if you would, beginning there with verse 5. Then we'll go to chapter 7, but 2 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 5. So he said, let's read verse 4: "For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you." So he's talking about this incident in 1 Corinthians chapter 5. He said, "But if any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part: that I may not overcharge you all.

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• Now look what he says concerning this man that they exercised church discipline on. "Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many. So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him." So evidently the man repented and now the Apostle Paul is urging restoration and reconciliation.

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• So if you would turn right over to 2 Corinthians chapter 7, begin there with verse 10. Look what he says. 2 Corinthians 7:10: "For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort"—that is when he wrote them—look what he says concerning this.

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• "What carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter. Wherefore, though I wrote unto you, I did it not for his cause that had done the wrong, nor for his cause that suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear unto you. Therefore we were comforted in your comfort: yea, and exceedingly the more joyed we for the joy of Titus, because his spirit was refreshed by you all." So Paul said, I wrote this for your own benefit, not just for the benefit of him that sinned, not just for the benefit of him that was sinned against, but for everyone.

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• Now, although we have to understand there is indeed a sin unto death, it appears that in these two illustrations God pardoned those individuals so that they did not die instantly. They did not die immediately.

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• Now, let me tell you something else that you may or may not know. In the early church, these individuals that committed such sins, even though they may have been reconciled and restored to the church, they were known as the walking dead. Why were they known as the walking dead? Well, you have to remember, the church did not have, and still does not have, the power or the authority to execute the death penalty, with the exception of church discipline. Neither can you expect a corrupt civil government who hates God to follow God's law and follow through with an execution. So the point being, they were called the walking dead because they realized that although their sins had been forgiven and they had committed a sin worthy of death, the church could not execute them, the state or the government would not execute them, but that would not stop God from executing in His time and in His way. So let me point this out again. There are consequences to sin. The sin may be forgiven, but that does not relieve us of the consequences.

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• So if someone came through that door and shot me before I could ever look or someone could ever holler, I was shot and I was killed. And so all the rest of you draw it out on him, present your weapons, and you stop him and you hold him and the cops come and he's arrested. And guess what? There's a trial, he's found guilty, and he is sentenced to death in the electric chair. Now, let me ask you a question. Could God save him and forgive him? And the answer is yes. But just because God saved him and God forgave him, does that mean he's no longer going to be executed? No. He's going to suffer the consequence of murder. He's going to be executed by the state, which God requires. God forgave him, but he still had to face the consequences, just like David, just like this individual.

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• Now, here's what Adam Clarke said. Listen carefully. "The sin unto death means a case of transgression, particularly of grievous backsliding from the life of power and godliness, which God determines to punish with temporal death, while at the same time he extends mercy to the penitent soul." So what he's saying is God forgives, yes, but God still executes. There is mercy to the penitent soul, but the sin was unto death. Now, the sin unto death, I'm going to show you, is a sin directly against the Word of God and against God Himself. Now, I just pointed out earlier that you cannot separate God and His Word. David said it like this in Psalm 138:2: "I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name." So God's Word is elevated, and if God's Word ever fails, then God is not God. It's just that simple. So God has honored His Word, and you're not going to sin against the Word of God without sinning against God, and you're not going to sin against God without sinning against His Word. Now, 1 John was written to Christians. You read through 1 John. 1 John is one of the easiest

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• books to read in the Greek. It's one of the easiest books to translate. I took Greek for three years. When we first started translating, we started on 1 John. Easiest pie, easiest pie. But as you go through 1 John, you will find that you will find John talking to "beloved," "little children," "young men," "fathers," "dear ones." In other words, he's referring to Christians. Now, if you look in verse 16 of 1 John chapter 5, to show you that John is actually writing to Christians in the context, look what he says in verse 13.

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• "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God." Verse 14: "This is the confidence that we have in him." Verse 15: "And we know that he hear us." Verse 16: "If any man see his brother sin a sin not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death." Then he says in the same context, "There is a sin unto death.

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• I do not say that he shall pray for it. All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death." In other words, there's a sin unto death and there's a sin not unto death. Now, the sin unto death in the context of 1 John chapter 5 is a sin committed by a Christian brother, not an unbeliever. Therefore, it is not what is known as the unpardonable sin.

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• It is not dying without trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because the unpardonable sin, according to our Lord in Matthew chapter 12, can neither be forgiven in this life nor the life which is to come. So what is the sin unto death? Let me put it to you like this: the sin unto death is a willful, continuous, unrepentant sin. God has called each one of us to holiness. He said, "Be ye holy; for I am holy, saith the Lord." And God corrects us when we sin. God chastises us when we sin.

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• We are not punished for our sins the way the ungodly are punished. We do not lose our salvation. We do not end up in the fires of eternal destruction. No, we are disciplined. But this sin unto death is a sin that is committed from which one refuses to hear and heed the Word of God and turn from that sin. Let me say this another way. We could label this sin as being someone that is stubborn, hard-headed, rebellious, who refuses to listen, who will not take heed, who will not obey, and who will not submit himself to the truth of God's Word.

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• Now, there's a good verse in Proverbs 29:1 that amply illustrates this. In that verse, Proverbs 29:1, the Scripture says it like this: "He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." He that being often reproved—in other words, you try to rebuke him, you try to reprove him, you try to teach him, he won't listen.

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• He's hard-headed, he's stubborn, he's rebellious. He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck—he stiffens his neck, he will not bow—shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.

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• Now, the Hebrew word for "suddenly" is the word pith'om, and it means suddenly, instantly, or in an instant. That would be a sin unto death. God says, I'll destroy him instantly, suddenly. It'll just happen.

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• Now, there's another illustration of this. I'm not going to ask that you look at it now, but you can read it later. When you turn in your Bibles to Amos 4 this afternoon sometime and you read through Amos chapter 4, you're going to find that the people had strayed away from God. God had sent judgment after judgment after judgment, and each time He sends a judgment, at the end of the judgment He says this: "And yet ye have not returned unto me, saith the Lord." When you read through that, He sent the judgment of famine. He sent the judgment of drought. He sent the judgment of insects, plagues. He sent the judgment of war. And in each time He said, "Yet ye have not returned unto me," until you get to Amos 4:11-12. And I want you to listen to this. Here's what God said: "I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.

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• Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God." What did He just say? I'll kill you. I'll take you out. Prepare to meet thy God. By the way, this sin of being stubborn and hard-headed and sinning unto death not only can apply to individuals, it can apply to families. It can apply to churches. It can apply to a nation. In fact, that's what Amos 4 was about: an entire nation that refused to hear the Word of God, and God just destroyed them. God took their lives. Now, will you look in your Bibles to the book of Romans chapter 6 and look in verse 16? Romans chapter 6, verse 16. Look what the Scripture says. Romans 6:16: The Word of God says, "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" So he's still talking about sin unto death. Now, the Greek word for "death" in Romans 6 and 1 John 5 is the word thanatos. By the way, we use that word and don't even know it.

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• In fact, we use a lot of Greek words and don't even realize it. But even the term euthanasia—thanatos is the Greek word for death, eu is a preposition which means good or well. Euthanasia just means a good death. That's all it means. But the word thanatos is used several different ways in the Bible. First of all, it could refer to what you and I would call a physical death, when we die. Secondly, it could also refer to a spiritual death in the sense that as a Christian, we lose our testimony. We lose the confidence of people. We lose everything that we've basically worked for. Thirdly, it is also used in reference to what you and I would call eternal death, where death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. And fourthly, of course, I guess it could also be used to talk about all the miseries that we face in this world by rejecting God, and at the same time including physical death and even eternal death. So there is a sin unto death. Now, obviously in 1 John chapter 5, verses 16 and

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• 17, the sin unto death would have to refer number one to physical death, or possibly to—included in that, since it is a Christian involved—would be the loss of our testimony, the loss of our honor, and the loss of being recognized basically as an obedient child of God. Dying in rebellion is a shame and dishonor for the child of God. So clearly God forbids that. Now, I pointed out all this to share with you what happened to Saul. And I'm going to show it to you in the New Testament as well. So I want you to go back in your Bibles to 1 Chronicles chapter 10, and I want you to look again in verses 13 and 14. Look at this. 1 Chronicles 10:13-14: "So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the Lord," look at this, "even against the word of the Lord, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to inquire of it; and he inquired not of the Lord: therefore he slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse." Now, when you talk about King Saul, it is true that God used Saul to defend His people and deliver His people

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• from the Philistines. There is also a debate as to whether or not Saul was genuinely converted.

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• Now, I know that the Bible says when Samuel anointed him that as he left, God turned him into another man, turned his heart into another man. Well, a lot of people try to say that that means God saved him. No, it could also mean God just gave him a kingly spirit. I'm not going to argue as to whether or not Saul was saved or not in that sense of the word. The truth is, I really do not know. But what I do know is that Saul lost his life for his disobedience to the Word of God. Now, another thing is this: you remember when Saul was chosen, the Bible says that he was head and shoulders above all the rest of the Israelites. Lord, Saul was a good-looking man, a very strong man, very powerful man physically speaking. But physical stature does not equal mental competence or spiritual reality. Saul turned out to be a very weak man, although he had great strength physically. He's a very capricious man. He was a man who was unstable in many, many ways. And he sinned against God many times. And so the Bible says, "And so Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the Lord." Now, I want you to note something. Then he says, "even against the word

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• of the Lord." So Saul's sins were against God, but even more specifically, they were against the Word of God. When we read that, we mean, and we understand that it means, that his sins were against the word of the Lord, that is, against God's plain, express, and positive command, which is a great aggravation to any sin. So it's just like, if you told your son, "Do this," and the son says, "Dad, do I understand you mean to say such-and-such?" "Yes, son. That's exactly right." And then your son didn't do that. God, it's bad that he disobeyed, but it's even worse that he understood what you wanted and then disobeyed. So this is what Saul did. He knew, but then Saul disobeyed. A good illustration is found in 1 Samuel chapter 15, where God came to Saul through Samuel and said, "Thus saith the Lord." He said, "I want you to go in and fight with the Amalekites." And He said, "I want you to kill man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and camel and ass.

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• I want everything dead." And what did Saul do? Saul spared Agag the king, the best of the oxen, the best of the sheep. He purposely and deliberately disobeyed God. Now, at that particular point, God rejected Saul from being king, but God did not instantly slay him. So the Bible says, if you look again in verse 13, "So Saul died for his transgression." Look at this now, "which he committed against the Lord, even against the word of the Lord which he kept not." In other words, he deliberately and willingly walked contrary to what he knew. Now, here's a principle that we have to understand because the next verse says, look at it. In fact, we'll finish verse 13.

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• He said, "also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to inquire of it, and inquired not of the Lord: therefore he slew him." Now, wait a minute. If you read the rest of Saul's life, you will find that Saul did inquire of the Lord, and the Lord wouldn't answer him. Now the Bible says he didn't inquire of the Lord. Well, did he? Or did he not? Well, he did, but he didn't.

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• What do I mean by that? Well, he did try, but of course, he was a hypocrite. He was deceitful. He was rebellious. And there was no heart in his wanting to find out what the will of God was. That's when he went to the witch of Endor and told her and asked her to bring up Samuel. Now, you say, did she bring him up? Well, Samuel came up and spoke to him, but she didn't bring him up. In fact, she was shocked herself that Samuel came up. And so Samuel asked, "Why have you bothered me?" Well, said Saul, "Here's the reason: because God won't speak to me. I mean, I have no vision. I have no dream. He won't answer me by the Urim and the Thummim. There are no prophets." Samuel said, "Well, if God won't speak to you, why'd you even bother bringing me up?

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• I'm not going to give you anything. I mean, all I could give you would be the Word of God. And you don't want that." In other words, he never really went to God with a broken heart, with a repentant heart. So here is the principle in Scripture. Let me give it to you. Proverbs 28:9. If you don't get anything today, get this. Proverbs 28:9: "He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination." He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be an abomination.

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• Let me put it to you very plainly. If you won't hear God, God's not going to listen to you. Why in the world should God listen to you if you won't listen to Him? Why in the world should God give you more truth when you won't even obey the truth that He's given you? Saul refused to listen to God, and God would not answer him. And so what did Saul do? Saul then inquired of a witch. Now, Saul had previously run all the witches and the warlocks out of the land. And now he goes to the witch of Endor.

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• By the way, I hope some of you will remember that program used to be on TV, Bewitched. You remember that? With Elizabeth Montgomery. She was supposed to be a good witch. There's no such thing as a good witch, okay? But do you remember what her mother's name was in that program? Endora, the witch of Endor. Isn't that amazing?

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• Now, so anyhow, Samuel refuses. All Samuel said, "By this time tomorrow, you're gonna be where I am. You're gonna be dead. That's all there is to it. God is going to kill you." Now, so clearly then, there is a sin unto death. Listen what John Trapp said, talking about Saul's death here: "For his transgression which he committed, adding rebellion to sin. For he was not so very bad at first, as neither is any wicked person." Now listen to this one. "He first neglected the Word of God, and then despised it, and then harbored in his heart hypocrisy, hatred, envy, cruelty. And here he is taxed for these three vices especially: number one, for flat disobedience, which is as a sin of witchcraft; number two, for consulting with a witch; and number three, for not inquiring of the Lord.

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• He did not draw nigh to God with a true heart and full assurance of faith, having his heart sprinkled from an evil conscience and his body washed with pure water." One more quote in this, and that is Matthew Henry. He says, "Consulting with witches is a sin that fills the measure of iniquity as soon as anything else. Saul inquired of one that had a familiar spirit, and inquired not of the Lord, therefore he slew him. Saul slew himself, and yet it is said God slew him. What is done by wicked hands is yet done by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.

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• Those that abandon themselves to the devil shall be abandoned to him, so shall their doom be. It is said that Saul did inquire of the Lord, as he answered him not, but here it is said Saul did not inquire of God, for he did not till he was brought to his last extremity, and then it was too late." Which is excellent. Which is true.

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• Now, I want to clear something up. Because when you and I think about the sin unto death, we normally tend to think of sins that are so wicked, so vile, so heinous that God just has to kill us. But that's not necessarily so. I'm not going to take the time to go there. I would challenge you to read it for yourself. I will tell you about it. In 1 Kings chapter 13, there are 32 verses in that chapter, and in that chapter there is a prophet of God from Judah, and he goes up to Jeroboam who's there at his false altars, and he says, "Thus saith the Lord, There shall be a man born

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• by the name of Josiah; he's going to take the bones of all these priests and he's going to burn them on these altars and desecrate these altars. And everything that you've done is going to be gone." And he said, "For a sign that this is going to come true, that altar is fixing to break and all the ashes are going to fall off." And it did. And about that time, Jeroboam stuck his hand out to his men, said, "Grab him, stop him," and when he did, his arm froze and he could not retract it. He looked at the prophet and he said, "Uh, would you please pray for me?" And he prayed for him and his arm was restored home. And then Jeroboam looked at him and said, "Come home with me and I will feed thee and I will give thee a reward." And the prophet said, "I will not go home with you.

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• If you gave me your whole house, for God told me not to eat anything or drink anything here and not even return the same way that I came." And he turned around and left. There was an old prophet that lived in the land as well, and his two sons were there, and they went home and they told the old prophet of what had happened. And he looked at his boys and he said, "Saddle me the ass." Since they knew which way he went, and they saddled him the ass and he took off and he ran the man of God down, and he said, "Come home with me and eat and drink at my house." And the prophet from Judah said, "God forbade me," he said, "not to eat or drink in this house or in this land, and I'm not going to do it." "Oh," but the old prophet said, "you don't understand. I, too, am a prophet. And an angel appeared unto me and told me to bring you home and give you food and water."

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• So the man of God from Judah went home with him. And just as he finished eating and drinking, the old prophet jumped up and said, "Thus saith the Lord God, Because thou hast disobeyed my word, and hast eaten and drunk in this land, therefore lions shall meet thee by the way and shall slay thee." And guess what? The old prophet loaned him his ass, and they saddled him up and put him on it. He didn't get far; a lion came out, met the man, killed him, stood there over the corpse, never messed with the corpse, never messed with the ass. And here the man of God lost his life because he was deceived, because he listened to another individual.

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• Which brings me to this truth. You are responsible for what you know and for what God has showed to you. And if somebody comes along and tells you something different, you better not listen to them. You better make sure you listen to God, you hear His Word. So the sin unto death for this prophet was just disobedience. It was a grievous sin, but it was a sin of disobedience.

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• Now, I want to give you another illustration. I want you to turn in your Bibles, if you would, to Acts chapter 5. This one is in the New Testament. And you talk about a sin unto death and one being instantaneous, one being sudden. Here you have it. Look in Acts chapter 5, and let's begin reading there with verse 1. Acts chapter 5, look in verse 1. "But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession, and kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart?

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• Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these things. And the young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out, and buried him. And it was about the space of three hours after, when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in. And Peter answered unto her, Tell me whether ye sold the land for so much? And she said, Yea, for so much. Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out. Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost: and the young men came in, and found her dead, and, carrying her forth, buried her by her husband. And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things." Now look at this husband and wife.

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• They had certain land and they sold it. And they got the money. And they contrived in their heart a plan to pretend like they were giving everything to the apostles to distribute to the widows and the orphans. But yet in reality, they were lying to God and lying to everybody because they were keeping back part of the money. So Peter said, "When you had the land, you didn't have to sell it. When you sold it, you could have kept all of it, it was yours. Why in the world would a husband and wife now lie and contrive such a wicked plan, trying to deceive the apostle, and trying to deceive the church, and trying to deceive God?"

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• Well, let me show you why. If you look in chapter 4 of Acts, in verses 36 and 37, "And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus, having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet." So Barnabas now sold his land, gave all of it to the apostles to distribute to the widows and the orphans. And eminently now Barnabas was praised and held up as an example.

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• And Ananias and Sapphira, they wanted that praise and recognition. But they also wanted the money. And when God struck Ananias dead for lying to the Holy Spirit, and when Sapphira came in and Peter realized if God had killed the husband, He's going to kill her as well. And he said, "Tell me, did you sell the land for so much?" "Yep. That's exactly what we sold it for. We wonderful Christians.

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• We've just given it all to you." Peter said, "Why in the world has Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost? Thou hast not lied unto man, but thou hast lied unto God. Behold, the feet of the young men who carried thy husband out shall carry thee out as well." Was that a sin unto death? Very obviously. And here they were just simply lying. And that was it. And so it does not necessarily have to be some kind of grievous, heinous, vile and wicked sin. It just has to be a sin that is basically unrepentant of and one against God and one against His Word. Now, if you will turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 11, I will show you another illustration of a sin unto death which you and I would never think about. But yet this is true, and this is in reference to the Lord's Supper. So look at it. 1 Corinthians chapter 11, and let's begin reading there with verse 27. Our Lord says, "Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the

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• Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world." Now, look what he said. There are people that are sickly and there are people that are asleep—that is, they're dead—because they partook of the Lord's Supper unworthily. How in the world do you partake of the Lord's Supper unworthily?

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• Well, think about it like this. The wine and the bread—the wine, of course, represents the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the bread represents the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we observe the Lord's Supper, what are we doing? We're saying we are remembering the Lord Jesus Christ in His great sacrifice where He gave Himself to save us from our sins. Hmm. So here we are, we partake of the Lord's Supper, and we have known sin and wickedness and rebellion in our hearts which we refuse to repent of, and we take the body and the blood of our Lord in the symbols and pretend like, "Oh Lord, we're living for You. We're forgiven," when we're lying.

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• We're deceitful, we're hypocritical. And notice what he said: "For this cause"—from this specific cause—"many are sickly and many sleep." Then he went on to say, "If we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged of God." So the way to not partake of the Lord's Supper unworthily is to judge yourself, confess your sins, acknowledge your sins, judge them that they are deserving of death, repent of them, turn from them. He said, "If we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged of God. But when we are judged of God, we are chastened that we might not be condemned with the world." So here are two sins unto death that are not vile and heinous as you and I would normally think.

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• So let me make some applications and try to tie this together. Here's the first one. Each of us must die. I don't care how young, don't care how old. Each of us must die, and we know that we should prepare ourselves for death. We will meet the Lord. There's no question about that. And I can assure you of one thing, and that is I wish to die in obedience and not in disobedience. I've often thought—I've thought about people going to places and doing things that they should never go to and should never do—and I've often thought, "Lord, if I went to that place and did those things, that'd either be the moment You came back or the moment You kill me. I sure would hate to face You with all that on my heart." Wow. So you have to understand, we do not wish to die in rebellion to His Word. Here's the second one: in order to be right with God and to stay right with God, we must be willing to give Him the benefit of the doubt in all things.

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• What in the world do I mean by giving Him the benefit of the doubt in all things? Well, have you ever wondered, "Well, I wonder if this is wrong. I wonder if this is sin. I wonder if I could do this and get by with it. I wonder if this would impact my Christian testimony." Listen, if there is any doubt, don't. Romans 14:23 says, "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." Whatever you cannot do in faith to honor and glorify God, God says don't do it. It's sin. If you cannot do it in faith, it is sin.

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• I never will forget reading about Lorenzo Dow. He was a Methodist preacher. He was a circuit-riding preacher. He had his peculiarities, that is for sure. But he was staying at a tavern, an inn, and of course he was there eating, and they started dancing. And this young woman came to the preacher and was going to pull him out and make him dance with her. He says, "No.

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• No," he said, "I can't do this." "Yes. Yes, you can." And she kept pulling him and begging him to come out and dance with her. He said, "Look, okay, I'll do so." But he said, "There's one thing I require first." He said, "I never do anything but asking the Lord's blessing." And he hit the floor with his knees and jerked her down with him and started praying, asking the Lord if He wanted him to dance with this girl.

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• And of course, that stopped the whole scenario right at that particular time. So when in doubt, don't. It's just that simple. Here's the third thing. In order to be right and stay right with God, we must be willing to acknowledge, confess, and turn from our sins on a daily basis. Sometimes, I might add, on an hourly basis, or sometimes minute by minute. Because the Bible says in Proverbs 28:13, "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy." I don't know about you, but I'd rather confess and forsake my sins and have mercy than to try to cover my sins. As we saw in the life of David, it doesn't work because God knows everything about it. So here's the truth. The Scripture says there is a sin unto death.

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• It could be something heinous, it could be something vile, or it could be something as easy as lying to God. It could be something as easy as, you know, being deceitful, being hypocritical. Whatever it is, it's when God says, "That's it. I've had enough. You're not going to do this to Me any longer." It's kind of like a parent. And I've seen this. My father had a great philosophy when it came to discipline his children. It was this.

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• "If you do it right, you don't have to do it often." And the truth of the matter is, when my dad got a hold of me, I didn't want any more of it.

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• Now, I didn't mind my mother so much, because she was a piece of cake. She wouldn't hit me that hard. But boy, Dad? Nah. But you know, I've seen parents keep rebuking the child, rebuking the child, rebuking the child, and the child just keeps going on and on and on, and finally the parent has enough. I mean, they snatch that kid up and just whale the living daylights out of him. Well, you know, God the Father puts

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• up with a lot of things like we do, but there comes a time He says, "That's it. You'll not do Me this way any longer." Yeah, it's over. So let me tell you my position. I know that I'm going to die a sinner because the wages of sin is death, but by God's grace and God's mercy, I do not want to die as a stubborn, hard-headed, rebellious, stiff-necked reprobate who will not listen to the Word of God and will not listen to God. If I die, I want to die as a sinner. I don't want to die as somebody that just refuses to hear His Word and refuses to hear Him. So John said there is a sin unto death. We need to make sure that that is not in our life, that we die just as a sinner, not as a rebellious brother or sister who refuses to hear the Word of God and refuses to repent. Father, we pray in the name of Jesus Christ that You would help us, teach us, build us up in the most holy faith, and help us to understand, Lord, Your Word when You say there is a sin unto death.

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• May this, Lord, encourage us to holiness, encourage us to obedience, encourage us to examine ourselves, encourage us, Lord, to give You the benefit of the doubt in all things, and encourage us, Lord, to seek to honor and glorify Thee in every area of our lives. Lord, help us to be holy, to be godly, and to give Thee the praise. In the name of Jesus Christ we ask, amen.

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• so so

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-06T03:55:44Z