1 John 5:16-17 • Don't Pray for That Person

1 John 5:16-17 — There is a sin unto death. But even then, God doesn't cast His child

out. He calls him home.

⛪ Preached at Pilgrim Baptist Church • Cookeville, TN • August 6, 2026.

📚 Continuing our verse-by-verse expository series through 1 John, chapter 5.

This expository preaching message walks through one of the hardest verses in 1 John —

"there is a sin unto death" — and asks the question every honest believer eventually asks:

does God still love a Christian who won't stop sinning? Using Numbers 25, 1 Corinthians 10,

Hosea 4, and Jeremiah 7, 11, and 14, this verse-by-verse teaching through 1 John 5 shows how God has dealt with His people's persistent idolatry and immorality throughout Scripture — and what that means for a believer today who refuses correction.

If you've ever watched someone you love get further and further into sin — a son, a

daughter, a church member, a friend — and wondered if God has given up on them, this message was preached for you. This expository preaching study doesn't offer easy comfort, but it does offer the truth: even under the hardest discipline, a true child of God is never cast

out of the family.

The main text is 1 John 5:16-17, but the sermon reaches back into Old Testament history

(Numbers 25, 1 Corinthians 10, Hosea 4, Jeremiah 7/11/14, Proverbs 1) and forward into the

New Testament (2 Timothy 4, John 21) to build a full biblical picture of the three ways a

believer can die — and why one of those ways is under God's own discipline.

This verse-by-verse expository sermon through 1 John 5:16-17 covers:

- What the "sin unto death" is — and what it is not

- Why Israel's idolatry in Numbers 25 and 1 Corinthians 10 matters for the church today

- Why God sometimes tells His prophets, "Stop praying for them"

- The difference between general intercession and the one prayer John withholds

- Three ways a Christian believer may die, according to Scripture

- Why fathers and mothers are called to deal with sin in their own homes

- Why "all unrighteousness is sin" levels the ground for every believer

- Why a believer under discipline is called home — never cast out

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