Revelation 3:16-19 “So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. (17) Because you say, 'I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing'--and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked-- (18) I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. (19) As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore, be zealous and repent.”
When our Lord Jesus wrote to the church in Laodicea as quoted above, He warned them that unless they turned around from the path that they were on, that He would eventually vomit them out of His mouth. In other words, very graphically, our Lord stated that they would no longer be in the body of Christ. Many ministers who teach the error of “eternal security” will go to any lengths to proclaim their message, some even to blasphemy. I have actually heard a minister teach from this passage that the Lord is able to take up that vomit again, thus comparing the Lord Jesus to a dog that returns to his own vomit (Proverbs 26:11). And so we can see that scripture plainly teaches us that it is certainly possible for believers to reverse their decision to yield to the Lordship of Jesus, and the Lord warns us about this. I also want you to notice that in all three scriptures quoted above, the Holy Spirit is writing to born-again believers. Some who teach falsely that no one can lose their salvation; claim that people that fall away were never really saved to begin with. However, the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit know the difference between those who are saved and those who are not saved. And in these scriptures they are warning those who are saved.
1 John 5:16 “If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin not to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not to death. There is sin to death. I do not say that he should pray about that.”
In the passage of scripture quoted above the apostle John refers to two types of sin that believers can commit, for in the context of this passage John is writing to believers. He refers to sin which is not to death and he refers to sin which is to death. The death that John is speaking about in this passage is spiritual death, not physical death. And so we see that there is a type of sin that believers can commit which does not result in spiritual death, and he tells us that we can pray for forgiveness for the believer who commits this type of sin, and that the Lord will forgive those sins. But he also refers to a type of sin which does result in spiritual death, and he tells us that we cannot pray for forgiveness for the believer who commits this type of sin. So why can’t we pray for forgiveness for the believer who commits the sin which results in spiritual death? The reason we cannot pray for forgiveness for this type of sin is simply because, just as with the sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit, there is no forgiveness available for this type of sin and those who commit it are therefore subject to eternal condemnation (Mark 3:29).
Michael E.B. Maher
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