Sermon Central
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The Sin God Won't Forgive Series
Contributed by Jerry Shirley on Nov 2, 2006 (message contributor)
Summary: All sins but one can be forgiven but not all are consistently resisted. Thankfully, the ’unpardonable sin’ is easily avoided. Link included to formatted text and PowerPoint Presentation.
The Sin God Won’t Forgive
Thank you for all the Pastor appreciation you showed in October, and all year round. When one of our deacons came to the front after the closing prayer last Sun. PM I didn’t know if it was good news or bad news!
Good news/bad news for a preacher:
Good News: You baptized seven people today in the river.
Bad News: You lost two of them in the swift current.
Good News: The Ladies Bible Class voted to send you a get-well card.
Bad News: The vote passed by a margin of 12 to 11.
Good News: The deacons accepted your job description the way you wrote it.
Bad News: They were so inspired by it that they also formed a search committee to find somebody capable of fulfilling the position.
Good News: Mrs. Smith is wild about your sermons.
Bad News: Mrs. Smith is also wild about "The Gong Show," "Jerry Springer" and "Texas Chain Saw Massacre."
Good News: The building committee finally voted to add more church parking.
Bad News: They are going to blacktop your front lawn.
Good News: Church attendance rose dramatically the last two weeks.
Bad News: You were on vacation.
Good News: Your elders want to send you to the "Holy Land".
Bad News: They are stalling until the war w/ Hezbollah flares up again.
Good News: A group from your church came to your house for a surprise décor housewarming.
Bad News: They are the teens, it’s in the middle of the night and they are armed with toilet paper and shaving cream.
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The Bible teaches that there are sins we can commit against His Holy Spirit…several of them…and one of them is “The Unpardonable Sin” as we know it, and for this sin there is no forgiveness. Today we’ll talk about all these sins. Thankfully, I’m happy to report right from the very beginning of this sermon that the unforgivable sin we’ll discuss, though it is extremely serious and desperately dangerous…is easily avoidable! We’ll come to that in a minute, but first, we need to lay some groundwork.
Some churches worship God the Father only, not believing that Jesus is God. Some groups focus on Jesus only, placing no importance on God in His other persons. You may say, well, that’s ridiculous. The Father and the Son are both very important. You would be right. But be careful: You see, we can be critical of such groups if we want to, however, we in our movement are often not much better--as we place so little importance upon the Holy Spirit of God, one of God’s 3 equal persons. We have allowed some groups who give ALL the prominence to the Holy Ghost [a place in the spotlight He doesn’t crave] to rob us of a big portion of Who our God is. We cannot do this. If we want to consider ourselves Bible literalists, maintaining the doctrinal fundamentals of the faith, then we need to get reacquainted with the Spirit of our God!
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."
We need to be more aware of the Holy Spirit’s presence, to understand how He wants to perform in our lives, and to become submissive to His leadership. It is not enough to know about the Holy Spirit. We must get to truly know Him intimately and begin to experience the remarkable difference he can make in our lives personally. The Holy Spirit is God, come to live within us. He can perform incredible works in our lives as we yield to Him – or he can be stifled and frustrated by our ignorance or neglect.
Because of much confusion these days surrounding our text, we will begin by examining what is often referred to as the unpardonable sin.
What is the unpardonable sin?
I. Rejecting the Spirit (Matthew 12:31-32; See also Mark 3:28-30)
A. Examination
1. Christ had performed a miracle, healing a demon possessed man. Those who witnessed it responded in one of two ways:
a. Some saw it as proof that Christ was the promised Messiah. Verse 23
b. Others accused Jesus of casting out demons by "Beelzebub," the name of a pagan God. They insisted that Christ was a subordinate of the devil - a demon possessed man. V. 24, Mark 3:30
2. Christ demonstrated the inconsistency of this claim.
a. Jesus reminded them that if Satan was divided against himself, his kingdom could not stand.
b. He also reminded them that others had cast out demons but were not condemned as collaborators with Satan.
3. Christ issued a warning against speaking against the Holy Spirit. (Verses 31-32) Notice two things:
