Unpardonable Sin

Well, good afternoon again, and very nice to see all of you. I'm not going to try to do some technical thing like Dr. Hasselton. You know, there's one thing you can always note whenever you try to do something with anything electronic, especially, at least I've found this with dealing with the feast or dealing in services, if anything can go wrong, it will go wrong. And even if it just worked, then whenever you try to get it to work again, that's often the case. So we're glad it finally got going there. I thought that was going to be a silent sermonette. One of the programs that I remember, I don't remember any other programs at college, but I know that in one of our assemblies, maybe it was a church service, I don't remember, but Dr. Dorothy got up and just said, repent.

Walked off. You can remember the whole sermon, which was, you know, that was different. And yet, you know, I thought about that. Well, that can be very effective, I guess. But I'll go ahead and talk anyway, since I'm here. I want to cover a topic here that I know you are familiar with, but one that I think we need to be reminded of and certainly be continuing to grow in our understanding, and not maybe understanding as much, but know that we are applying what is necessary, even as Dr. Hasselton described in the sermonette.

We've got work to do, every one of us. And I could say, and actually I will say, that all of us, as members of the Church of God and as potential children in God's divine family, all of us must be experts in sin. Now, not that we should be sinning so much, but that we should certainly be experts in understanding sin, in being able to identify sin, and in understanding how it is that we want to move away from sin and draw close to God.

Now, although God is a remarkably merciful God, and His plan of salvation involves redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ, we see Jesus describing a sin that is not forgivable in Mark chapter 3. So I'd like for us to go there. Amazingly, as I said, even though God is extremely merciful, extremely loving, extremely kind and forgiving, extremely desirous of forgiving us of our sins, Jesus describes a sin that is an unpardonable sin.

So that's what I'm going to talk about, the unpardonable sin. And in Mark chapter 3, verse 28, Jesus is actually talking to the Pharisees, and the Pharisees are accusing Him of a lot of things, the worst of which was that you're casting out demons by the prince of the demons himself. They were attributing power, obviously, that Jesus had used to the devil. Now, Jesus made a number of comments here, and I'm not even going to go through all of them. I'm simply going to focus on verse 28. It says, And it says in verse 30, And it says, And it says, Now, this topic of an unclean, or not unclean, but unpardonable sin is one that, for the most part, most people completely misunderstand.

We've read it. It's blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. And in our last Good News, there was a viewer. We have comments, of course, on one page, and people are saying this or that about whatever they do like or whatever they don't like regarding our program or the magazine. And one of the viewers writing in from Toronto, Canada said, My mouth dropped at your Beyond Today program entitled, Is God a Trinity? It said, Do you deny the Holy Spirit? Because if you do, that's the only sin, not pardonable.

See, obviously, that's their concept. That's their understanding. God mentions Himself as Son and the Holy Spirit separately. And when you believe in the saving grace by God through His Son Jesus, you will receive the Holy Spirit, which guides us to be like Jesus. How can you not see the Trinity? And, of course, obviously, they see the Trinity.

They have a perception that is not biblical, a perception that is common and commonly taught in religious circles about the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and three different entities or three different separate persons or personages that make up the Godhead. And no one else could really be a part of that. Of course, that's not what the Bible teaches about what the Holy Spirit is or how it is that God uses the Holy Spirit to help us. And clearly, that's what we want to focus on.

So, even though people greatly misunderstand and they often have a common misbelief about the Holy Spirit and even about unpardonable sin, how can we know? If we have committed this sin, what are the keys to understanding this topic? Have you committed a sin that God will not forgive? A sin that is unpardonable. Sometimes, if we really analyze ourselves, we understand our sins better than anybody else. And we can be awfully condemning. We can be awfully hard on ourselves.

Not that we shouldn't identify sin and be hard on sin, but we don't want to misunderstand what God says as well. Since all of you are here in services today, I think I can assure you that you have not committed the unpardonable sin. See, that's something that I can say because you're actively pursuing a relationship with God.

Because the unpardonable sin involves turning away from God, away from the power that God makes available for us to be a part of His divine family. But what is it that we need to understand to be sure we don't fall into that category? Not only here in Mark, but if we turn back to Matthew 12.

You see Jesus making a similar statement in a different Gospel account. And what He actually tells us is to have a proper fear of God, who is really the judge regarding the second death. Here in Matthew 12, we're reading pretty much the same account. Matthew 12, again, if we jump up to verse 24, the Pharisees are saying, well, it's only by bells above the ruler of the demons that this fellow cast out the demons. See, again, they're completely off base. They have no understanding of who it is that they're talking to, nor what power is behind Him, and how it is that the power of God was how Jesus was able to do the miracles that He did. And clearly, He removed the demons because they understood who He was. But if we drop down to verse 31, He says, Therefore I tell you, people will be forgiven for every sin and blasphemy, but blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. And He even says in verse 32, whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven. But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. So again, Jesus does recognize, or He points out, well, that people can reject God. People can resist God to the point to where God is not going to be as merciful as He obviously wants to be. It's kind of like in another way when Jesus left the area of Nazareth and He said, A prophet is without honor in his own country. He said, I can't do the miracles here. Was it that He couldn't do the miracles? Or was it that the people, because they didn't believe and because they resisted and rejected and pushed back, were just not going to do miracles. We're not going to provide blessing here. See, God is truly interested in how it is we relate to Him, how it is we relate to His Son, how that that is a vital part of our day-to-day living. Not just when we come to church, not just on the Sabbath as we do observe the Sabbath, but as we do every day. We have, and again this was brought up in the sermon, we have a yearning to have a closeness to God because that enables us to have a peace and a tranquility that it is impossible to have any other way.

If we back up a page here in chapter 10 of Matthew, you see Jesus saying, you know, again, how it is that people can fall prey to death. How they can fall prey to the second death. He says here in verse 28, Matthew 10 verse 28, He says, don't fear those who kill the body. And so He was talking about those who might, as they were the followers of Jesus, some might persecute, some might accuse, some might even kill you.

And He says in verse 28, don't fear those who kill the body, or who can kill the body, but cannot kill the soul, but rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell or in Gehenna, in fire, in the second death. He said this is God. God's the one who can consign someone to that second death.

But see, He's not going to do that, or He doesn't want to do that if people respond. If people are truly repentant, you see another verse here in 1 John, and we see some very good information that John, the Apostle John, having lived longer than any of the other apostles, and being the author of the book of Revelation, having been given a vision from Christ about, you know, this is my revelation about what's going to happen and what's going to come upon the earth here shortly, and beyond, because it goes way beyond our time. But here in 1 John, you actually see some very encouraging words, but He does talk about, and so it is correct to understand that there is a sin that will not be forgiven. We need to understand again what it is. In verse 13, He says, I write these things. 1 John 5, verse 13, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. Clearly, He's wanting people, members of the church, those that He was writing to as, in a sense, the oldest elder as far as physically, He was still around. He was still able to write to people who were a part of the Church of God in the latter part of the first century. He was able to encourage them. He told them a lot about how it is they want to continue to draw close to God, but He says in verse 14, this is the boldness that we have in Him, and we say anything according to His will or ask anything according to His will. He hears us. He says, we want to pray. We want to ask for help. We want to beseech God in faith. And no, you know that if we're asking according to His will, He will help us. He will do what we need.

And in verse 16, He says, if you see a brother or sister commit, what is not a mortal sin or a sin that is not unto death? So here's an understanding that needs to be applied to what kind of sin cannot be forgiven. Well, here He says, here is a sin that is a sin not unto death.

It says, you are to ask, beseech God, and God will give life to such a one, to those whose sin is not unto death. See, this is clearly talking about someone who is repentant, someone who is willing to respond and is, in a sense, correctable, and able to receive the nurturing from the Father that, He says, others could even ask for. But He goes on in verse 16 to say there is a sin that is unto death. And so this is what Jesus had said earlier. You know, the unpardonable sin or the sin that would not be forgiven. He says, and I don't say that you should pray about that. But He says, all wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not unto death. And so, you know, it's a matter of understanding not only what Jesus said, because Jesus clearly made reference to an unpardonable sin, but here John starts describing, he starts defining just how it is that a sin that we commit can be forgiven, and that another type of sin that we commit is not forgiven. It is not retrievable in a sense. See, understanding the unforgettable, huh? Unforgivable and unpardonable sin involves denying the authority and power of God deliberately. See, that's what the Pharisees were doing. They were deliberately denying that Jesus was using the power of God to solve the problems that the people had, you know, with unclean spirits. That's what we read earlier. But the crux of the topic, the crux of the topic of what type of sin is unpardonable, and what is pardonable, the crux of the topic is repentance.

Repentance, and then remaining repentant and in subjection to God and His rule in our lives. And as long as one desires to repent, to get his life back in shape spiritually, God will always forgive. But if there's no repentance, there can be no forgiveness. See, that in a sense is a statement that we ought to connect with the topic of an unpardonable sin. Because understanding the forgiveness of God, the mercy of God, the grace of God, thanking God for what He has done for us and even that He has offered the love through His Son to us. You know, if we back up a few, a page or two here, to 1 John 1, you see how it is that John describes. Now he mentions this right at the very end of the book of 1 John. He just points out, you know, this topic that we've just described. But if we look in 1 John 1, you see John describing a warm, a close, a loving relationship with our Heavenly Father. And one that we don't want to allow, again, as our sermonette pointed out, we don't want to allow something else, certainly physical stuff, to get in the way of that communion and that relationship that we have with God. He says in verse 5 of 1 John 1, This is a message we've heard from Him and proclaim to you that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. So clearly God is the author of light. And as we understand regarding the festival of Hanukkah, it's a festival of lights. You know, there's a lot of connection there to light. But here it clearly just shows that God is the author of light. He is the one who is described as light. Jesus said He was the light of the world. And it says in verse 6, if we say that we have fellowship with God, with Him, and yet we're walking in darkness, well then we're lying. And we're not doing what's right. We're not doing what's true. But in verse 7 He says, if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, then we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. And so really John is being very optimistic, very positive, very abundantly encouraging to the brethren to understand, well, we're called to walk and live a certain way, and we don't want to deceive ourselves about that. And we want to walk like He did. But in verse 8 He says, if we say that we have no sin, then we're deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. See, that's a very revealing statement. For people who don't see their sins, for people who don't observe their own actions and their own thoughts to be apart from God. People in general don't usually think about themselves in that way. And yet He tells us here, if we say we have no sin, then we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But, verse 9, if we confess our sins, see, if we are repentant. Now, if we're going to be repentant, if we're going to acknowledge our sins, then we're going to have sinned. We mess up. I mess up every day, every hour, as far as it's a struggle against sin all the time. I mean, you have to be constantly aware of our proclivity towards sin. But it goes on to say, if we confess our sins, then God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. See, how is it that we want, how is it that we can stand before the great God and before His righteous Son?

Well, the only way we can is because of His mercy, because of His grace, because of the fact that we love Him and we want His mercy extended to us. And He caps this off in verse 10. If we say that we have not sinned, then we make God a liar and His Word is not in us. We're not on the right page if we don't come to understand our sins and then, of course, struggle against them. And when we fail, when we miss the mark, that's what sin means, when we miss the mark, then we come back to God. We come back and ask Him, and actually He goes on in verse 1 of chapter 2, My Little Children.

And this is the way that John could write to the whole church, because it appears he may have been as old or older than any of them. My Little Children, I'm writing these things to you so that you won't sin. I don't want you to sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, and that is Jesus Christ the Righteous. And He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

God has sent Jesus Christ to the earth with a mission. And He has achieved that mission while He was in the physical form. He has now assumed once again the glory with God that He had before, and yet He is our advocate before God. And it says in verse 3, now by this we may be sure that we know Him. And so we clearly do want to know God if we obey His commandments. Whoever says that I've come to know Him but does not obey His commandments is a liar, and such a person of truth does not exist. But whoever obeys His Word truly in this person, the love of God, has reached perfection. And by this we may be sure that we are in Him, and whoever says I abide in Him ought to walk just as He walked. We have a perfect example. We have a way of life that is based on love. See, whenever we miss that mark, then we sin. But that's still what we're shooting for. That's still what we desire in our heart, and we want to be sensitive to the words of God.

We want to be sensitive to just how it is that God tells us to come to Him in a repentant way every single day. See, why did Jesus tell the disciples? You need to ask that your sins would be forgiven, and ask that you will be forgiven to others. Forgive us this day, or give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, seemingly on a day-by-day basis. And then ask that we would be forgiving toward others. There's three things that I want to just mention here in the remainder of the time that I hope would be helpful to us to see how we can remain in a repentant state of mind.

The first of these is don't allow ourselves to simply drift away, to simply become complacent about sin. Sin is our enemy. Sin causes death. But if we remain repentant, if we remain vigilant, God is going to help us. We may learn as we go along how to help ourselves in many different ways, some things to avoid, other things that we need to do to be able to help us. But see, we don't want to become complacent and not really care about sin in our lives. When you look at, and this is in Mark 4, and I'm not going to read through it, Mark 4, verse 16 through 19, gives a couple of the categories of the sower and the seed.

I'm not talking about the seed falling on the rocky ground because that's clearly not the case for us. But category 2 and category 3, category 2 being not having a depth, not having a commitment that is sufficient to stand. That's what the second category there in the sower of the parable or the parable of the sower and the seed, you know, it starts, I'm going to have to go back and read it since I can't remember it. Mark 4, Mark 4, verse 16, the one sown on the rocky ground, when they hear the word, they immediately receive it, but they have no root, they have no depth, they endure only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arise on account of the word, immediately they fall away.

They wither, they dry up. So that's talking about a lack of commitment. Now, all of us were considerably younger when we made a commitment to God. And I know, you know, I certainly was. When I was baptized, I was 19 years old, I understood what I was doing, I didn't understand perhaps everything I needed to know, but I did understand at least enough that this is a lifetime commitment, and a commitment that I desperately need to make, God holds out before me the Holy Spirit, and that I truly want to be forgiven.

And we go on in verse 18, those... and so on among the thorns are those... the ones who hear the word but the cares of the world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things come in, and choke the word, and it yields nothing.

So we all want to be in the last category, the fourth one, I'm not going to read it, producing fruit. But see, the other two are ones, you know, if we allow ourselves to drift away, how can we become unrepentant, so complacent, so indifferent? I don't think that happens just like that. I think, you know, we kind of slide, and we decline in our desire to contact God, to stay in relationship with God. Here in Hebrews chapter 6, actually a number of things are said in Hebrews that we can cover in this study.

But Hebrews chapter 6, Paul mentions several of the basic doctrines of the church. He says in verse 1, we should go on beyond that to perfection, you know, we should be continuing to grow. And he says in verse 3, we will do this if God permits. You know, if we're drawing close to God, then God is going to help us grow. But he says in verse 4, it's impossible to restore again to repentance those who are once enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and have shared in the Holy Spirit and have tasted the goodness of the Word of God and the powers of the ages to come, and then having drifted away, having fallen away, since on their own they're crucifying again the Son of God and are holding Him up to contempt.

See, those are powerful words, words that if we read them, they should have impact on our lives. But see, it should just simply show us that, you know, we don't want to drift away. We don't want it. If we find ourselves in a spiritual condition of being lackadaisical and being indifferent, then we need to seek help. We need to seek help from somebody, not just from God, but we can seek help from each other.

We can seek help with the ministry. The ministry needs to seek help. If we find ourselves that we're just kind of becoming indifferent, well, then we need to do something about it because God wants us to remain in a repentant attitude because those sins will always be forgiven. That's what He says. The second area that we might consider is we go over to chapter 10. We don't want to turn away from God in angry hostility. Hebrews 10, in verse 23, again, Paul is being encouraging here, Let us hold fast to the confession of our faith without wavering, for He who has promised is faithful.

Let us consider how to provoke one another in love and good deeds. I mean, that's what our fellowship, if our fellowship was with God the Father and Jesus Christ and with one another, well, that's a part of why we get together. We get together on the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath, but we are worshipping God. We're pleasing and praising God. We're fellowshiping with one another in building each other up.

He says, let us consider how to do that, not neglecting getting together as a habit of some is, but encouraging one another. And all the more as you see the day approaching. In verse 26, He says, Lest if we willfully persist in sin, see, if sin is killing us, well, then we need to do something about it. We need to seek whatever help is available.

If we willfully persist in sin after having received the knowledge of the truth, there is no longer a sacrifice for sin, but simply a fearful prospect of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversary. See, that's a description, you know, that He again puts in here as a warning. And in verse 29, how much worse punishment do you think will be deserved? Those who have spurned the Son of God, who have profaned the blood of the covenant, by which they were sanctified in His outrage, the Spirit of grace. See, that's clearly not where we want to be. And yet, you know, people angrily turn from God. If they get so upset or disturbed, see, this is, there's not, you know, there's a number of ways that we can get into a condition where we are not really pursuing God. And I don't, you know, it may take a while to ever do that. But I don't want any of us to fall prey to that. The last thing I'll mention is kind of in connection with this second point, is that we don't want to allow a root of bitterness to take hold in our lives. See, it talks about, and see, a root of bitterness seems to be something that would start very small and then grow and grow and grow, becoming bitter over what? Trials? Tests? Reversals? Financial problems? Health problems? All the different types of things that we labor with here in chapter 12. Chapter 12 is kind of an interesting chapter here, and it mentions the root of bitterness and watching out for that. Not, maybe this should be the second point and then just angrily being hostile to the third point, but I got those kind of backwards in my thinking. See, a root of bitterness, when this is mentioned, it's actually talking here in chapter 12, verse 7, about the fact that the Lord disciplines those that He loves. See, that's where we always would go to talk about working with our children and how it is that we don't just try to hurt them. We often correct them or direct them and discipline them because for their good so that we would try to help them. And the same thing is true for God and with us. He wants us to be in His divine family. He wants us to grow in His divine nature. He wants us to take on His glory. And it says in verse 7, it says, endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children. For what child is there whom a parent does not discipline? And you do not have that discipline in which children share. You're illegitimate and not His children. Moreover, we have had parents who discipline us, and we respect of them. Wouldn't we even more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? Verse 10, they disciplined us for a short time. They did what seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good in order that we may share in His holiness. That's what He wants. He wants us. And we go through trials. We go through difficulties, many of which we would love to avoid. But in most cases we can't. In most cases, all we can do is not allow ourselves to think other than the fact that God has our best interest at heart. And He goes on to say, now, discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained thereby. So that's what God is wanting. That's what God is producing. God is causing us to grow. And so He says, therefore, lift your drooping knees. And verse 12, your drooping hands strengthen your weak knees. Make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. And then He goes into this section here in verse 14.

See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God by a root of bitterness springing up and causing trouble, and through it many become defiled. See, this is a way in which we don't relate to God. We don't put the emphasis on closeness to God that we should. He says in verse 16, see to it that no one becomes like Esau, an immoral and godless person who's sold his birthright for a single meal. And you know that later when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected.

He found no change or chance to repent even though he sought a blessing with tears. See, Esau came back to Isaac. He wanted him to change his mind. He wanted him to change the blessing. He says, or Isaac said, I can't. I can't. I've already blessed Jacob. Yes, he got it deceitfully, but I've already blessed Jacob. And see, Esau goes out from there highly irritated, almost would seem to be a pretty good description of Cain.

The way since Cain was not accepted by God and that for whatever reason his offering didn't meet the standards that God would wish to see in a little boy from God's standpoint coming to him. And see, he allowed that to grow. He probably even nurtured that bitterness. And I would think you'd have to say that Esau, when you read the story, you see that Jacob and Esau, they had a lot of trouble after that. And of course, Esau's descendants continued to have trouble with Jacob's descendants. And yet, the description that we have here is, beware, beware of a root of bitterness that might come from even a trial that God allows us to go through.

But that we don't realize, well, that is simply for our good. And God doesn't have all of us go through exactly the same things, but he has us go through different things, different situations, different circumstances. He wants each one of us to grow to be in his family. So, those are three things that I think we could keep in mind regarding keeping in an attitude that is one of repentance.

An attitude of being repentant about sin and never falling into a category to where we become hardened toward God. Hardened toward God's working with us. Because he has so much. If we drop back here one page to chapter 10, we can conclude here. Paul was really encouraged to see the Christians that he wrote to in this book. He had, in a sense, some heavy stuff he needed to say, and you see that throughout the book of Hebrews.

And in many ways, maybe some of the Jews relied too much on some of the physical stuff still. They needed to focus on Jesus Christ. They needed to understand him to be above the Moses and above the angels and above everything because he was God. And they clearly needed to understand that. But here in chapter 10, he says in verse 32, he says in order to have a perseverance in your life and to remain repentant and to be, in a sense, in a nurtured condition with God, he says, recall the earlier days.

Recall how it was that God worked with you and brought you to an awareness of your need for him and your need to be drawn to Jesus Christ. Your need to be yoked to Jesus. Your need to have a communion with the Father and with his Son that is enlightening and uplifting. He says, recall those earlier days after you have been enlightened. You endured hard struggle with suffering. And sometimes you were publicly exposed to abuse and persecution, sometimes being partners with those so treated. And in verse 34, you had compassion for those who were imprisoned and you cheerfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you yourselves possessed something that was far better and far more lasting.

See, that was a matter of, you know, remember what God has brought you through? See, that's what you actually find in the Old Testament. And Tom did a very good job when he was discussing Psalm 22 the other day. You know, that's remarkable to me to see, you know, what the outcome of Psalm 22 is. What Jesus understood, that God was going to be with him. He was not going to, you know, forsake him.

He was going to rescue him. And clearly they understood what the plan was. They understood how that was going to happen. But going through that, you know, going through this suffering, we often, even as Jesus said, oh, I'm in such distress. And that would be the mildest description you could give for what he was going through.

I'm in such distress. Where are you? Well, I'm right here. I'm able, as I always have, to deliver. I will provide you the rescue and deliverance that you need. But here, he says, verse 20 to 35, Do not therefore abandon that confidence of yours, because it brings a great reward. For you need endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what he promises.

See, what he promises us, brethren, is eternal life. He promises us to empower us to be able to be the children of God. He promises us that he will not forsake or leave. He will be with us. But he wants us to be repentant. He doesn't tell us we're going to be sinless. And we can read every other example in the Bible outside of Jesus and know that there wasn't anybody else. As prominent of a king of Israel as David was, you read his life. He suffered a lot.

He suffered a lot of bad decisions. He suffered a lot because of some of the ways he did things. He suffered, it appears, even up toward the end of his life. His family was in chaos. His children were trying to kill him. I kind of wonder, how was it that God, what was it about David that God really wanted? Well, he said he's a man after my own heart.

He is repentant. He is able to be touched. And that, of course, I guess, is what we want to remember. To avoid an unpardonable sin, we just want to be in touch with God. We want to be in communion with God, and much of that communion is, Please forgive me, because I need your help.

But I think it's interesting to see just how it is that God is working with us. I think it's uplifting and encouraging. And I hope that in going over this, even though it's kind of a heavy topic, it is one that most people have no understanding about. And we want to have understanding. We want to have understanding that will lead us to eternal life. So I will conclude with that, and we can have our closing hymn.