“By Water and Blood”

"By Water and Blood"

(No. 3252)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 1911.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
FEBRUARY 7, 1864.

"This is He that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ–not by
water only, but by water and blood." 1 John 5:6.

BY the terms "water" and "blood" we understand the purifying and the
pardoning effects of Christ's work for His people. He came to purify
them from the power of sin, that they might no longer live in it. This
is indicated by the declaration that He "came by water." He also came
to put away the guilt of their sin, that they might not be condemned
for it. This is set forth by the intimation that He also came "by
blood." We might say that all the Lord's Prophets who came before
Christ, in a certain sense, "came by water." That is to say, they all
sought the purification of the Lord's people. Whether it was Isaiah,
whose lips had been touched with the live coal from the altar, or
Jeremiah, whose eyes were fountains of tears as he wept over sinners,
or Amos, who spoke as a herdsman, or Ezekiel, whose message was one of
grandeur and sublimity, the objective of every one of them was to purge
the people from their sins. It was against sin that they all lifted up
their voices, yet none of them could pardon sin and no one of them ever
professed to be able to do so! Of the whole of them it must to said
that they came by water only, and not by blood.

But Jesus Christ does what the Prophets could not do. It is true that
He does seek to make His people holy, but it is by His blood that all
their sins are forever put away. John the Baptist was the last and the
greatest of all the Prophets who came before Christ yet he had to say,
"He that comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy
to bear." John never spoke of his own blood having any power to take
away sin, but he pointed to Christ and said, "Behold the Lamb of God,
which takes away the sin of the world." So far as our Lord's first
disciples were concerned, He certainly "came by water," for contact
with His unique Personality must have tended to purify their lives. Yet
He also came "by blood" as well as by water, for it was by virtue of
His atoning Sacrifice that their sins were blotted out and that they
became "accepted in the Beloved."

The two ordinances of our holy religion were intended, I take it, to
sum up the teaching of Christ. The one is Baptism, which represents the
cleansing of the conscience as the body is washed with water, the death
of the soul to the old carnal life, its burial with Christ and its
resurrection to a life of holiness. Then comes the ordinance of the
Lord's Supper which sets forth, in the broken bread and the poured-out
wine, the great Truth of Christ's Atonement–the fact that He has, by
His death, perfected forever all those who have been set apart unto
Him.

It is very important that we should always carry in our minds the
remembrance of these two Truths of God–first, that Jesus Christ "came
by water, "that is, it was His Divine purpose to purify His people and
make them holy. And, secondly, that Jesus Christ "came by blood," that
is, it was His grand aim and objective to deliver His people from the
guilt of sin. These are the two topics upon which I am going to speak
to you as the Holy Spirit shall graciously guide me.

I. So, first, JESUS CHRIST "CAME BY WATER"–it was His Divine purpose
to purify His people.

It is manifest that there was an urgent necessity for this
purification, for all of us had become as an unclean thing in the sight
of God. Even our righteousnesses were as filthy rags. We could not
cleanse ourselves, neither could we obtain cleansing through the works
of the Law. Yet it was imperatively necessary that we should be made
holy–otherwise, where God is and where His holy angels dwell, we could
never be–and, therefore, what we ourselves could not do, and what the
Law could not do, "God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh" has perfectly accomplished!

If any of you ask me how Christ makes His people holy, I would remind
you that when the Spirit of God reveals Jesus Christ to our heart, we
then begin to perceive the exceeding sinfulness of sin. What? Did sin
stab my Savior to the heart?

Did sin nail my Best-Beloved to the Cross? Then I hate sin with a
perfect hatred and will be revenged upon it! The Atonement of Christ
gives such an exhibition of the guilt of sin as is not to be seen
anywhere else–no, not even in the flames of Hell! And when a soul sees
Christ despised, rejected, wounded, bleeding and dying because of sin,
it realizes how foul and vile a thing sin is and so is moved to hate
it, not only because of its foulness and blackness, but also out of
gratitude to Christ who has put it away. Did my Savior love me so much
as to bear the dread penalty of my sin? Then I will give sin no
quarter, but seek to utterly destroy it–

"The dearest idol I have known,

Whate'er that idol is"–

shall be cast down from the throne which it has usurped that I may
worship my gracious God, and Him alone!

This gratitude to Christ begets a more and more intense love to Christ
and the more we love Him, the more we become like He–and becoming like
He is, sin is cast out and virtue is nourished. Ask any Christian
whether he has not found that the best weapon with which to smite his
sins has been a nail from Christ's Cross or the spear that pierced His
side! Men have tried to overcome sin by the reasoning of philosophy, or
by arguments fetched from common sense–but those blunt wooden swords
have been powerless to destroy it! It is only the sharp two-edged sword
of the Spirit–the grand Doctrine of the love and Grace of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ that can pierce our sin to the heart and lay it in
the dust! You have, Beloved, but to meditate upon His passion to
receive the virtue of the water which flowed from His side, and that
shall enable you to trample upon your lusts and to consecrate all your
powers and passions to His service.

I appeal to the experience of every Christian here to confirm what I
have said–my Brother or Sister in Christ, was there not great need for
Christ to come "by water" to you? For, first, what was your nature? No,
what isit? If you were left to yourself, what might you not become? If
circumstances put temptation in your way and God's Grace did not
restrain you, what sin might you not commit? Have you not, sometimes,
when your feet have almost gone and your steps have well-near slipped,
looked down into the depths of the horrible pit of human corruption and
shuddered with alarm at the discovery of possibilities of evil which
you had scarcely suspected? Well, then, if you have such a nature as
this, you do indeed need the purifying streams from the heart of Christ
to make it clean, and you may well pray to Him, with Top-lady–

"Let the water and the blood, From Your split side which flowed, Be of
sin the double cure, Cleanse me from its guilt andpower."

Then, next, what about our thoughts? As I walked to this House of
Prayer tonight and tried to concentrate my meditations upon the Person
and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, I could not help feeling how
mysterious it is that the more we try to guide our thoughts into right
channels, the more determined they seem to be to run towards evil. Have
you not sometimes found that even in your most hallowed moments, some
unchaste and vile thought which you abhor as you hate the very fiend,
himself, will suddenly come into your mind? Does not blasphemy at times
intrude into your prayers? Does it not occasionally happen that the
hymn you are singing suggests something the very reverse of praise to
God and that the text of the sermon, or some part of the discourse,
itself, becomes a peg upon which the devil hangs a temptation to sin?
Alas, alas, our thoughts, if left to themselves, are as a cage of
unclean birds or a den of wild beasts! And as Hercules needed to turn a
stream of water to clean the Augean stable, our Lord Jesus Christ
needed to pour rivers of water out of His own heart to cleanse the foul
stable of our corrupt thoughts!

Then think of our words. I am not now speaking of carnal man–I am
talking of professing Christians!. Would any of us like to have all our
words printed for a single week? If any of you would, I can honestly
say that I would not. One does earnestly try to keep the tongue from
evil and the lips from speaking guile, but oh, how many idle words, how
many frivolous words, how many sharp, angry, hot, unkind words fly from
our lips almost before we are aware of it! God forgive us for the sins
of the tongue! If we had nothing else for which to praise Christ, we
ought to bless Him to all eternity that He came "by water" to cleanse
that tongue which is naturally so foul!

Then look at our actions. John writes truly, "Whoever is born of God
does not commit sin, for His seed remains in him and he cannot sin,
because he is born of God"–that is to say, he does not sin willfully,
he does not continue sinning, yet he does sin. Need I try to prove that
he does? O Beloved, look at your lives since you have known the Lord,
and see what sin there has been in them! Can you set even one week's
action in the light of God's Countenance and say, "O Lord,

my life this week has been perfectly pure"? You know that you cannot!
Well then, if with the utmost possible guard upon your own conduct,
with the most diligent check upon your conversation, with the greatest
watchfulness concerning your thoughts, you are still made to feel that
there is a corrupt nature within you and that the flesh still lusts
against the Spirit, how thankful you ought to be that Jesus Christ
"came by water" that He might purge your nature and make it clean!

Thus have I shown you the necessity for this purification. Now let me
try to set before you the power of this "water" which makes the
Christian clean. It is not a matter of speculation as to whether Christ
makes sinners into saints–He is constantly performing this blessed
work, which no power but that which is Divine could ever accomplish!
Think for a minute or two of the forces which it has to overcome. There
is the old nature of which I have been speaking, and that is not an
enemy that can be easily overthrown. Have you ever tried to bind it
fast with fetters and to keep it in chains? That "old Adam" is very
strong–and even in aged Christians who sometimes seem to fancy that
their corruptions have grown as aged and as feeble as they are, it has
been, alas, only too sadly proved that the "old Adam" does not become
weak as easily as the old man does! The opposition of our carnal nature
to the Grace and work of Christ is so strong that nothing but
Omnipotence, itself, can overcome it, yet Jesus Christ so gloriously
"came by water" that He completely conquers the flesh!

Then there is the enmity of the world, which is always in antagonism to
Christ and to His people, too. Worldlings are always ready to turn us
aside to sin, and they will never help us to walk the narrow way that
leads unto life. The way of the world is always towards evil–the
habits and customs of the world are evil, only evil, and that
continually! As the Apostle John says, "All that is in the world, the
lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is
not of the Father, but is of the world."All these evils continually
beset us and powerful, indeed, must be that stream which can counteract
and overcome them! Yet Jesus Christ does this through coming "by water"
as well as by blood!

There is also the devil to be overthrown and we must never think
lightly of his powers. He has overcome many mighty men and he would
easily overpower us if we were left to contend with him in our own
unaided strength. Bunyan's pilgrim found it to be no child's play to
fight with Apollyon, nor shall we! "We wrestle not against flesh and
blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high
places." But, blessed be God, we go not to this warfare at our own
charges! And greater is He who is with us than all that can be against
us!

Yes, that awful trinity of evil–the world, the flesh and the
devil–shall not be able to overcome even one Believer in the Lord
Jesus Christ! Think of this, Beloved, and let your eyes sparkle with
the delight of anticipation–you shall one day have no tendencies to
sin–you shall then be as pure in nature as the holy angels! You shall
then be fit to consort with cherubim and seraphim and the glorified
spirits that day without night circle the Throne of God! And even the
Lord God, Himself, the Infinitely Pure and Holy One, shall not disdain
to dwell among you, for then you shall be perfectly free from sin,
"without fault before the Throne of God." Not even the all-piercing
eyes of God shall be able to discover in you any thought of wrong, any
word of evil, any act of sin, any corruption of nature, any sloth, or
pride, or lust, or temper, or anything contrary to His holy will! Free
from all sin forever are all those who shall stand "before the Throne
and before the Lord, clothed with white robes, and palms in their
hands." And I shall be there and you shall be there, if here we are
trusting in Him who "came by water" to "purify unto Himself a peculiar
people, zealous of good works." Have no doubt concerning it, my Brother
or Sister in Jesus! Strong are your foes, but far stronger is your
glorious Helper! Many and mighty are your enemies, but Almighty is your
Friend! Stern is the conflict that has to be faced, but sure is the
victory that shall, in due time, be won! So press on bravely day by
day, and moment by moment, resisting even unto blood, striving against
sin!

How many of us have already proved the purifying power of this "water"
by which Christ came? Of course, I need hardly point out to you that
there is no support here for the unscriptural doctrine of baptismal
regeneration! The water that flowed from Christ's side is typical of
the cleansing work of the Truth that He has revealed, even as He said
to His disciples, "You are clean through the Word which I have spoken
unto you." Have you, Beloved, felt the cleansing power of the Truth as
it is in Jesus? If not, God grant that you may realize it now–and to
Him shall be the praise forever!

II. Now, secondly, I have to remind you that JESUS CHRIST CAME BY BLOOD
AS WELL AS BY WATER. Not by water only, but by water and blood–that is
to say, it was His grand aim and objective, by His atoning Sacrifice,
to deliver His people from the guilt of sin!

There are some who are continually trying to get the Doctrine of the
Atonement out of the Bible. Certain philosophical divines, who have
just a smattering of theological knowledge, and who seem to forget the
couplet–

"A little learning is a dangerous thing Drink deep, or taste not the
Pierian spring "–

try to hold up Christ for our admiration as a great Teacher, as a
mighty Prophet, and as our perfect Exemplar–but as to the idea of
Christ shedding His blood to wash away sin, they cry, "Away with it!
Away with it!" And yet, my dear Friends, Christ cannot be of the
slightest service to any of us if He did not come "by blood" to put
away the guilt of our sin as well as "by water" to purify us from its
defilement! For, supposing you and I could, by some mysterious
influence, become from this time forth perfectly holy–what would be
the good of that to us? I do not know that it would be any benefit to
us at all if there were no Atonement! I think that it would be a curse
rather than a blessing, for we would still be under condemnation on
account of the sins which we have already committed! We are even now in
the position of condemned criminals–and if there is no atoning
Sacrifice of Christ to put away the guilt of our many
transgressions–and we have to pay the penalty which is the inevitable
consequence of our past sins, how intense and, indeed, intensified must
be our anguish as after being made holy, we have to suffer for the
iniquities which we committed before that great change was worked upon
us! I have only to state the matter thus for you to see that such a
condition of things is utterly impossible. Oh, no! If I must be lost, I
will remain as I am! If there is no pardon for my past transgressions,
it is of no use for me to have purity for the future! If I could become
perfectly holy for a time, but would, after all, be cast away from
God's Presence, I do not want a temporary holiness of that sort, for I
do not see how it could be of the slightest possible use to me! And my
very nature recoils against even a good thing which would only increase
my misery to an intolerable degree.

But, Beloved, I have only been supposing for the sake of argument, what
is not true, for Jesus Christ did come "by blood" as weel as "by water"
Paul truly wrote to the Hebrews, "Once in the end of the world has He
appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." And He has
forever put away all the sin of everyone who believes in Him. That
great Sacrifice was once and for all completed on Calvary–and it is
made efficacious to each one of the innumerable host for whom Christ
died as soon as, by faith, he appropriates the blessing to himself! As
Joseph Hart sings–

"The moment a sinner believes,

And trusts in his crucified God,

His pardon at once he receives,

Redemption in full through His blood" It was by virtue of Christ's
atoning Sacrifice that Paul was able to say at Antioch what we can
truthfully repeat in your hearing today, "Be it known unto you,
therefore, men and brethren, that through this Man is preached unto you
the forgiveness of sins: and by Him, all that believe are justified
from all things, from which you could not be justified by the Law of
Moses." The precious blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses from
all sin all those who put their trust in Him! It is no sooner applied
by the Holy Spirit to the heart and conscience than every sin that a
man has ever committed ceases to be! And the virtue in Christ's blood
is so great that it covers all the sin that the man will ever commit,
as John Kent sings–

"Here's pardon for transgressions past, It matters not how black their
cast! And, oh, my Soul, with wonder view, For sins to come here's
pardon too!"

A Believer in Jesus has no record against him in God's Book of
Remembrance. The Lord says to him as He said to Israel of old, "I have
blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions and, as a cloud,
your sins." They are as completely obliterated, annihilated and
destroyed as if they had never been committed! It is this glorious
Truth of God which sets Christ apart from all the Prophets that came
before Him–and all His servants who have or will come after Him–they
all "came by water," seeking to make their message the means of
purification to the Lord's people. But Christ came "not by water, only,
but by water and blood," for He came both to purify His people and to
put away the guilt of their transgression!

Those who deny the Atonement of Christ must have very low views of what
God is and of what is due to His offended Majesty. According to them,
God is to be insulted, His Throne is to be attacked, His crown is to be
assailed and His honor is to be impugned–and yet no adequate
recompense is to be made to Him! Such persons must also have very low
views

of sin. They make it out to be a mere trifle which God is to forgive
without exacting any penalty for it. They seem to think that in His
mercy, He can put away sin without any reparation to His broken Law and
without any satisfaction being rendered to His offended Justice! But he
who reads his Bible aright knows that all such notions are altogether
erroneous! He has learned from the Scriptures that God is inflexibly
stern in His Justice although He is supremely gracious in His Love. God
hates sin so much that He had to turn away His face even from His
well-beloved Son when He was, by imputation, bearing the sins of His
people upon Calvary! And it was that desertion by His Father that wrung
from Christ that saddest of all the cries from the Cross, "My God, My
God, why have You forsaken Me?" But now that Christ has endured the
full penalty for His people's sin, God can "be just and the Justifier
of him who believes in Jesus." God's love can be displayed to the
utmost without in any way infringing the rightful claims of His
Justice. And all His attributes remain absolutely unsullied after the
vindication they have received through the atoning Sacrifice of Christ.

All this has been accomplished because Jesus Christ came "not by water
only, but by water and blood. "Oh, the power of the precious blood of
Jesus! Did you ever feel it, dear Friends? If so, you will never doubt
the truth of the Atonement, for it will be very real to you. Never can
I forget the day when I first felt in my soul the power of the blood of
Jesus! Christ's blood has the power to put away sin from the sight of
the all-seeing Jehovah, but it also has the power, so far as man is
concerned, to give peace to the troubled conscience, rest to the weary
heart, joy to the miserable life! No one could ever have been more
wretched and sad than I was, when under a sense of sin, life had become
almost unbearable though I was but a lad. But oh, what a leap my soul
gave from the very depths of despair up to the heights of overflowing
joy when I realized that Christ had come to me–"not by water only, but
by water and blood"–and that He had put away my sins as far as the
East is from the West, so that they should be remembered against me no
more forever!–

"Ever since by faith I saw the stream His flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme, And shall be till I die."

Remember, my dear Hearer, that Jesus Christ must come to you "by blood"
or else He will never come to you "by water " Christ never gives a man
holiness of life unless that man accepts Him as the great Propitiation
for sin. Do you ask, "How can Christ come to me by water and by blood?"
The only way that I know is the one that I have pointed out to you over
and over again. It is this–you are a sinner, lost and undone. Jesus
Christ came to seek and to save the lost. To do this, He had to take
the sinner's place–to bear the sinner's guilt and to suffer the
penalty that the sinner deserved to suffer. "He was wounded for our
transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of
our peace was upon Him and with His stripes we are healed." Have you
faith enough to appropriate His work? Perhaps you question whether you
may do so. Well, rest assured of this–there never was a sinner who
trusted Christ and then was told that he had no right to trust Him. Oh,
no! He, Himself, said, "Him that comes to me I will in no wise cast
out," and He will not cast you out if you come to Him! Can you believe
that His blood was shed for you? Dare you rest your soul's salvation
upon the great work of which He said, "It is finished," before He bowed
His head and gave up the ghost? Will you now trust Christ as your
Substitute and Savior? You know the verses that we often sing–

"Just as I am–without one plea But that Your blood was shed for me,
And that You bid me come to You, O Lamb of God, I come. Just as I
am–and waiting not To rid my soul of one dark blot, To You, whose
blood can cleanse each spot, O Lamb of God, I come."

Is this the language of your heart? Then I venture to say that Christ
has come to you, "not by water only but by water and blood," that
Christ died for your sins according to the Scriptures and that God will
never punish you for your transgressions as Christ has borne the full
penalty for them all! Then if you have received Christ, thus, as coming
to you by blood, I feel sure that you will also believe that He has
come to you by water, to purify you from all defilement and, therefore,
you will not any longer knowingly and willfully continue in sin! The
gratitude which you must feel in your

heart for all that Christ has done for you will constrain you to walk
before Him in holiness and humility, and to seek to obey His will at
all times!

Now, many of us are coming to the Table of our Lord to commune with Him
and with one another–and there we must especially think of how He came
to us, "not by water only, but by water and blood." The broken bread
will remind us of His body broken for us, and the wine in the cup will
bring to our remembrance His precious blood of the New Covenant shed
for us for the remission of our sins. Oh, what a wonder it is that we,
who once were as the prodigal son in the far country, wasting our
substance in riotous living, or perhaps even herding among the
swine–are now welcomed at our Father's board among His happy forgiven
children! A few years ago, no, even a few months ago, some of us would
not have been spending the Sabbath evening among the Lord's people in a
House of Prayer–and it would never have entered into our thoughts that
we should be found sitting as honored guests at His Table! Our ideas of
enjoyment, then, were very different from what they are now. The
laughter of fools was then in our mouth and perhaps the song of the
drunkard issued from our lips. But now, by God's Grace, a blessed
change has been worked in us, for we are washed, we are sanctified, we
are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our
God! So, as we come to this Table of Communion, let us come humbly
remembering what we once were, thankfully recollecting what Christ has
done for us and earnestly entreating Him to continue and complete His
good work in us by purifying us with water even as He has already put
away our guilt by His blood! And to Him shall be the Glory forever and
ever! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: IJOHN5.

Verse 1. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. [See
Sermon #979, Volume 17–faith and regeneration.] Take comfort,
Believer, from that declaration! You have accepted Jesus as the Christ,
the anointed of God, so the Apostle affirms that you are "born of God."
It may be only lately that you have been born-again. You may be only a
babe in Grace, but if you have a true faith in Christ as God's
Anointed, you are "born of God."

1. And everyone that loves Him who begot, loves him also that is
begotten of Him. If you truly love God, you also love His well-beloved
and only-begotten Son–and you also love all His children! There cannot
be a true love to the Father and a hatred to His family, that is
impossible. Judge, therefore, by this test whether you love God or not.

2, 3. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love
Godandkeep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep
His commandments and His commandments are not grievous. Love is a
practical thing. Love without obedience is a mere pretense. True love
shows itself by seeking to please the one who is loved. May God the
Holy Spirit work in us perfect obedience to the commands of God, that
we may prove that we really do love Him!

4. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world: and this is the
victory that overcomes the world, even our

faith. [See Sermons #14, Volume 1–THE VICTORY OF FAITH and #2757,
Volume 47–VICTORIOUS FAITH.] This is the conquering weapon! He who
truly believes in Jesus cannot be overthrown by the combined forces of
the world, the flesh and the devil! Remember the lesson that Haman
learned when he contended in vain against Mordecai because Mordecai was
of the seed of the Jews–and learn that they who belong to Christ
shall, like Christ, be more than conquerors!

5. Who is he that overcomes the world, but he that believes that Jesus
is the Son of God?Let that Truth of God be firmly fixed in your mind
and nerve you in your conflict with the world. The old cry, Athanasius
contra mundum, "Athanasius against the world," may be uttered by every
Believer in Jesus into Christianus contra mundum. "Who is he that
overcomes the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of
God?"

6. 7. This is He that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ, not
by water only, but by water and blood. Andit is the Spirit that bears
witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear
recordin Heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit: and these
Three are One. Thus all the Persons in the blessed Trinity confirm the
faith of the Christian–the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit bear
united witness to the faith which God, Himself, gives us.

8. And there are three that bear witness on earth, the Spirit, and the
water, and the blood: and these three agree in

one. [See Sermon #1187, Volume 20–THE THREE WITNESSES.] Three candles

in the room, but the light is one. Three witnesses to our heart, but
the witness is the same. If we have the witness of the Spirit, the
water, and the blood, we know that we have received the Truth of God!

9, 10. If we receive the witness ofmen, the witness of God is greater:
for this is the witness of God which He has testified of His Son. He
that believes on the Son of God has the witness in himself. [See
Sermons #1250, Volume 21–the priest dispensed WITH and #1428, Volume
24–THE TRUE POSITION OF THE WITNESS WITHIN.] What better witness than
this, could he have?

10. He that believes not God has made Him a liar–[See Sermon #1207,
Volume 20–A solemn impeachment of unbelievers.] He need not actually
say that God is a liar-the fact that he

does not believe Him has practically made out that God is a liar. How
many of us are there to whom this passage applies? "He that believes
not God has made Him a liar"–

10. Because he believes not the record that God gave of His Son. Is
this true concerning anyone here? If so, perhaps you have not been
aware of the extent of your guilt. You have remained unbelievers out of
sheer carelessness, out of neglect of the Word. I pray you, rest not in
such a state of mind and heart now that you are informed by the Spirit
of God that by your unbelief, you are making God a liar! Who would
willfully commit that great sin? Let us shudder at the thought of the
bare possibility of such guilt as this!

11. And this is the record, that God has given to us eternal life, and
this life is in His Son. Our only hope lies in Christ! But there is
life for us in Christ and life eternal, if we do but believe in Him!

12. He that has the Son, has life, and he that has not the Son of God
has not life. You exist, and you always will exist, but true life is
not yours if you have not Christ as your Savior. Life is something
infinitely superior to mere existence! "He that has the Son, has life,
and he that has not the Son of God has not life."

13-15. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of
the Son of God; that you may know that you have eternal life, and that
you may believe on the name of the Son of God. And this is the
confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to
His will, He hears us: and if we know that He hears us, whatever we
ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him. A very
wonderful thing is prayer, yet it is not every man's prayer that is
heard. But he that has the life of God within him shall have his
petitions granted because the Holy Spirit will move him to ask in
accordance with the will of God!

16-18. If any man sees his brother sin a sin which is not unto death,
he shallask, andHe shall give him life for them that sin not unto
death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for
it. All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death. We
know that whatever is born of God sins not; but he that is begotten of
God keeps himself, and the Wicked One touches him not He who has
committed the sin which is unto death has no desire for forgiveness. He
will never repent, he will never seek faith in Christ, but he will
continue hardened and unbelieving. He will henceforth never be the
subject of holy influences, for he has crossed over into that dark
region of despair where hope and mercy never come!

Perhaps some of you think that you have committed that unpardonable sin
and are at this moment grieving over it. If so, it is clear that you
cannot have committed that sin, or else you could not grieve over it!
If you have any fear concerning it, you have not committed that sin
which is unto death, for even faris a sign of life! Whoever repents of
sin and trusts in Jesus Christ is freely and fully forgiven, therefore
it is clear that he has not committed a sin which will not be forgiven.
There is much in this passage to make us prayerful and watchful, but
there is nothing here to make a single troubled heart feel anything
like despair. He that is born-again, born from above, can never commit
this unpardonable sin. He is kept from it–"the Wicked One" cannot even
touch him, for he is preserved by Sovereign Grace against this dreadful
damage to his soul!

You need not be curious to enquire what this unpardonable sin is. I
will give you an old illustration of mine concerning it. You may
sometimes have seen a notice put up on certain estates in the country,
"Man-traps and spring guns set here," but if so, did you ever go round
to the front door of the mansion and say, "If you please, will you tell
me where the man-traps are, and whereabouts the spring guns are set?"
If you had asked that question, the answer would have been, "It is the
very purpose of this warning not to tell you where they are, for you
have no business to trespass there at all." So, "all unrighteousness is
sin," and you are warned to keep clear of it. "There is a sin unto
death," but you are not told what that sin is on purpose that you may,
by the Grace of God, keep clear of sin altogether!

19-21. And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in
wickedness. And we know that the Son of God is come, and has given us
an understanding, that we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him
that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ This is the true God, and
eternal life. Little children keep yourselves from idols. Amen. After
the Reformation in England, there was a certain part of the Church
called the rood-loft, where the crucifix used to be, and it was ordered
by the Reformers, when "the holy rood" was taken away, that these words
should be printed in capital letters in its place–

"LITTLE CHILDREN KEEP YOURSELVES FROM IDOLS." This was an admirable
arrangement and this text might very profitably be put up in a good
many Ritualistic churches now, instead of the Agnus Dei and the
crucifix– "Little children, keep yourselves from idols." Might we not
also say to many a mother and many a father concerning their children,
and to many a lover of money and hunger after gold, "Keep yourselves
from idols"? Idolatry will intrude itself in one form or another. Some
idolize themselves– they look in the mirror and there see the face of
their god! O beware of all idolatry! "Little children, keep yourselves
from idols. Amen." We may very well say, "Amen," to that!