A pastor asked his congregation this question. “Is there anyone here who has never sinned? If there is, please stand up.” Well In the back of the room John stood up. The pastor said “John, are you telling me that you have never sinned?” “No” said John, “I’m standing on behalf of my wife’s first husband, who died. According to her, he never did anything wrong and I’ve had to live with that.”
The Bible teaches that there are a number of sins we can commit against the Holy Spirit and one of them is what we will look at today… “The Unpardonable Sin” and Jesus says that for this sin there is no forgiveness.
Today I want to focus on the idea of “Have I crossed the line?” Have I committed the unforgivable sin?
People often ask what the “Unpardonable or the unforgivable sin” is and there are many strange interpretations of what it is.
Listen to me…this is an extremely serious and desperately dangerous situation BUT it is one that is easy to avoid!
Today, if you look around you’ll find groups who worship God the Father only, not believing that Jesus is God. Some groups focus on Jesus only.
This may be the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever heard. You can’t worship the Father and not the Son and You would be right.
But you see, we can be critical of such groups but if we are not careful we end up, in the same boat.
All too often, we put little value upon the Holy Spirit who is one of God’s 3 equal persons.
Charles Spurgeon wrote: "Common, too common, is the sin of forgetting the Holy Spirit…the Church will never prosper until more reverently it believes in the Holy Ghost."
SO…What is the unpardonable sin?
Well first let’s look at what was happening.
Christ was performing miracle after miracle, healing physical disease as well as the demon possessed.
People were amazed at His teaching and the works He performed and His popularity was growing, at an alarming rate. This troubled the religious leaders, who also witnessed what Jesus was doing.
Those who witnessed these awesome events responded in one of two ways:
a. Some were amazed and saw it as proof that Christ was the promised Messiah. Matthew’s account tells us, in: Matthew 12: 23 “And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of David?”
b. Others accused Jesus of casting out demons by the power of "Beelzebub," V. 22
This is the name of an ancient Philistine idol, meaning “the god of flies” but the Jews called it the “god of dung” The name was eventually given to Satan as the “prince of unclean spirits.”
They insisted that Christ was nothing more than a demon possessed man., 30
Christ warned them not to speak against the Holy Spirit in Verse, 29
But He first gave the assurance that ALL sin can and WILL be forgiven by God, in verse 28.
• Sometimes people identify certain sins as the "unpardonable sin," Things like suicide…[Rom 8] or
Murder [Moses was a murderer…Paul was an accessory to Stephens murder], or adultery [King David].
These 3 men are men that we often say that we would love to be like.
Each committed terrible sin but found forgiveness. Because Jesus clearly states that ALL sin is forgivable. **No matter what you or I think…about that person who we feel is deserving of hell. It’s not your decision.
• Jesus also deliberately said in, Matthew 12 that a person could speak a word against Him and still be forgiven. I would add…IF that person repents and seeks forgiveness.
I want you to understand something here.
Jesus didn’t say that the Scribes had committed the unforgivable sin.
What He was saying was “Be careful because you are about to cross the line.”
This was not about what they had done, but what they were in danger of doing. So far we see that:
a. They had rejected the witness of Jesus’ words.
b. They had rejected the witness of Jesus’ works.
c. But they had NOT rejected God’s final witness, the Holy Spirit, NOT YET.
The Holy Spirit had not yet come.
The only unforgivable sin is to reject the witness of the Holy Spirit and accepting Christ.
The Holy Spirit comes to convict us of our sin and convince us that we need salvation.
Jesus is saying to these men, “If you treat the Holy Spirit like you do Me. If you reject Him like you do Me, you will never be forgiven”
The reality is that if you treat the nudging of the Spirit with a closed mind and closed heart, you will never receive forgiveness…even though it is offered to you…
Here’s what Jesus was saying.
1. God reached down to fallen man, in an act of love to redeem them.
In Old Testament times, God witnessed to men through His miracles and special revelations and through His prophets.
“Hbr 1:1 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets,”
But we killed the prophets; we stoned them and refused to listen, we rejected them.
So you might say that First God came.
2. Then God, in a second act of love sent His only Son. John 3: 16
During the days of Christ, He Himself was God’s witness, of salvation, to the world.
3. Today, the Holy Spirit is God’s witness to the hearts of people.
• He bears witness of Christ. John 15:26
• He convicts men of their lost condition. John 16:7-11
• He is God’s final call.
Every time a person rejects His witness/conviction, he moves one step closer to eternal judgment and condemnation.
You remember the story about the guy who was given a warning that a flood was coming?
The news report went out and the people of the community were told to get out ASAP.
This man refused to leave, saying “God will rescue me.”
Then a police car came and he refused it…Then a boat came and he still refused…Then a helicopter.
When he stood before God, after drowning, he demanded to know what happened. “God how could you do this to me!?” God simply said, “I sent a police car, a boat and a helicopter and you refused each one.”
God came & people rejected Him…Jesus came & people rejected Him…The Holy Spirit is the last to come. Pastor Bill Purvis said “The Holy Spirit is not greater than…He’s just later than the Father and the Son”
**Have you ever missed a flight, because you were late…missed the bus or train, because you were too late? You know I have never heard of a pilot, a train engineer or bus driver, after leaving the terminal turn around and go back because he left someone.
Your time is now…Please don’t miss your flight…
We live in the wonderful age of grace. The Bible proclaims that "whosoever will" may come.
Through the preaching of the Word and the witness of believers, the Holy Spirit convinces people of their need for a personal relationship with Christ.
He calls to all who will listen and He saves all who choose to receive His offer of the gift of salvation.
There are two groups who will stand before God one day. The ‘whosoever wills’ and “whosoever won’ts.”
God is patient but eventually time is up! He offers, today, the opportunity to receive Christ and to be forgiven of sin.
Here’s the terrible truth…No one knows when God will give His last invitation.
Every time a person puts off receiving Christ, they are in danger of rejecting God’s final invitation.
Let me tell you this. If you struggle with the question of the unpardonable sin, if you wonder “have I crossed the line?” you have not committed it. The unforgivable sin occurs when a heart is so cold and hard toward God and His Spirit that you have no feeling. You could care less anymore…
Dr. Jerry Vines tells a story about a man who crossed this line and committed the unforgivable sin.
The man told how he would sit in church and when the invitation was given he would have such a heavy sense of conviction and one day he walked out of the church with a plan. He said “God I hate feeling this way and I don’t ever want to feel like this again. I will make you a deal right here right now/. If you leave me alone and never again speak to me I will never call on you.” Around 20 years later the man told Dr. Vines that so far he had kept his side of the deal, he had yet to call on God for anything, including salvation. He told Dr. Vines that God had kept His end of the deal as well and has never called on him since and he was happy with that arrangement. THAT’S CROSSING THE LINE…
Let me ask you something, this morning…Is God pricking your heart, today? Please don’t wait.
Maybe you’re saying today that you’re 99% sure you’re saved. You just not quite convinced.
Let me help you by saying that 99% SURE IS 100% LOST. You can be 100% sure right now…TODAY
Invitation: use the John 3: 16 slip.
