What Is the Unpardonable Sin?

So, I've been asked to speak about over the last year that I've been here, is I've asked for different ideas, and people have even contacted me, sent me emails. And it's something that comes up in questions. You know, people will send me an email, or they'll call me, or invite me over the house, and say, I have something that bothers me. And out of all the different issues that we deal with all the time, one that comes up on a regular basis, and I... there's certain things that come up on a regular basis no matter what. Certain human conditions, you know. I have a problem with anger. Oh, nobody else has a problem with anger. It's like, oh yeah, they do. You know, I have a problem with this. Well, nobody else has a problem with that. Well, yeah, they do. You know. And one of the questions that come up is the unpardonable sin. What is it? And have I committed it? And has one of my friends committed it? Have some of my relatives committed it? Well, none of us can... we'll get into this. None of us can judge whether a person's committed the unpardonable sin or not. Only God can do that. But we can recognize what it is in terms of our lives and where we are. So is there an unpardonable sin? And what is it? I mean, the unpardonable sin is a sin that is imparted. It cannot be pardoned. So then we say, well, God talks about how merciful he is, how loving he is, how willing to forgive he is. So what in the world can we do that God says, I won't forgive that? And I get people say, well, I got drunk. I've committed the unpardonable sin. I am God's Spirit. I, you know, I get people tell me, I figured out what the unpardonable sin is, is homosexuality. Or it's this. And they'll come up with, this is the unpardonable sin. I had a person probably two years ago get upset with me because they said the unpardonable sin is the sexual abuse of a child. A man who does that can never be forgiven and he will go to like a fire. And I said, you must have been sexually abused as a child. We need to work through that. Nope, nope, that is, that is, God will not forgive that. And the person was so angry that it was almost like if God were to forgive them, then I would not worship God. Which the scary thing is that could lead to the unpardonable sin. So what is it God won't forgive? Murder? I mean, what is it that God will not forgive? I mean, there's lots of sins that he talks about in the Bible that he condemns. And we know that for the wages of sin is death, Paul wrote, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus our Lord. So this is a very important starting point. All sin leads to death. All sin leads to death. And for a person who is not repented, the death penalty is hanging over them. Not only the physical temporary death penalty, but the eternal death penalty. Now they haven't been judged yet, that's the important thing. Sentence has to be passed, but they've committed the crimes worthy of the sentence. See, we're all criminals before God. We have to recognize that. We're all criminals. We've broken the law. So, all sin, every one of us, unless God comes into our lives, have the death penalty on us. But we are offered forgiveness. Now, if all sin leads to death, then what in the world is John talking about in 1 John 5? We're going to read a little passage here from 1 John 5, then we're going to actually go back to it a little bit.

Because if we're going to understand a sin that is not pardoned, we have to understand what... We all understand what sin is. It's anything that's against God. It isn't breaking His laws specifically. Well, we sin against God. We incur upon ourselves because it corrupts our nature. Our nature is so corrupted, God says, I won't give you eternal life the way you are because you'll be miserable forever. So, we have to be forgiven for our sins and have our nature changed. 1 John 5, verse 11. So, here we have, once again, this relationship we have. If you have repented of your sins and you have been baptized and you've received God's Spirit, then we start with verse 11. And this is the testimony that God has given us eternal life and this life is in His Son. So, when we receive God's Spirit, we receive eternal life. Now, the concept, unfortunately, among many people is, well, now that I've received eternal life, I can't lose it, which allows people to do all kinds of horrible things, and it's okay, because I can't lose my eternal life. But we received God's Spirit, which is eternal. So, we receive this eternal life. We have it. What are we going to do with it? He says, He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life, which actually goes in the face of the idea that all paths lead to God. All paths do not lead to God. We can only go to God to receive eternal life through Christ. He says, these things I have written to you, who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. So, continue down this path, because God has given you eternal life. And then if we skip down to verse 16, He makes a rather remarkable statement. If anyone sees His brother sinning, so you see someone that's in the church, they're committing a sin. You know that they're breaking God's law. A sin which does not lead to death, He will ask, and He will give Him life for those who commit sin, not leading to death. Wait a minute. All sin leads to death. How does John now differentiate between praying for someone...well, I guess what, if you steal, that doesn't lead to death. If you lie, that doesn't lead to death. Which sins are we going to say don't lead to death? Well, we know that all sin leads to death. He says, there is a sin leading to death. I do not say that we should pray about that. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death. Now, what does that mean? Now, there have been many attempts to explain these passages, but there's only one way it makes sense. And it is in the context of, you have received eternal life, and you are a brother. So, these are Christians that are sitting. That there are sins in which you can't receive forgiveness and pardon. And there is a sin in which you will not receive a pardon. That leads to not the first death, but what is called the second death. So, let's go to Revelation 21.

You know, when I talk this afternoon, I'm going to talk about Arvid. I'm going to go through three scriptures that proves that since Arvid had God's spirit, he's promised the resurrection. The second death isn't there for him. Because God promises us that he will complete the work he starts in us, and it's not completed until the resurrection.

So, anyone who dies with God's spirit is prepared for the next step. Either that, or God's playing a game with our lives. You think about that. Oh, I let him die. If I had just let him live two more weeks, he'd have made it.

That's not the way this works. That's why sometimes we can live a long time and say, Why am I suffering? And God's answer is, I'm not done with you yet. I'm not done with you yet. The point is that God, when someone with his spirit dies, it's because they're ready for the completion. None of us are, we're all still struggling with sin until the resurrection. So we're not completed to that point. Right? So, he's ready for the next step of completion. The rest of us are still alive. You don't lie. We're not ready. We're not ready? So God keeps us alive.

And sometimes you meet a few people, you think they're ready, but God says, Now I still have work to do for them. Some people are ready. It's just God says, Now I need you to help other people. So He has something He wants them to do.

So we're only alive here in the will of God. Because God has a purpose in our lives. So, we still have to be concerned with the second death. He does not. Because we have God's spirit, and there can be a sin leading to death to those who have been given eternal life. That's an interesting concept that goes through there, isn't it? You have eternal life, but when you see a brother who has committed a sin unto death, don't pray for that one, but also at least the death.

It can't be physical death, He's talking about. Let's look at the second death in Revelation 21, verse 7. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the abominable, the murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burned with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. Now, think about all the people in the Bible who committed some of these sins. David was sexually immoral, and David was a murderer, and David was forgiven.

Paul killed people because they were Christians, and he was forgiven. Peter denied Jesus three times. Denied him, and he was forgiven. So we have to now say, well, okay, it's not sometimes the act. God will pardon an act upon repentance. So what will he not pardon? Something that could lead to the second death. Well, let's go back, remember, and go back to what John says in John again about our relationship to sin, and then we can go into the Scriptures that talk about what we...

The term unpardonable sin isn't in the Bible, but there are some discussions in the Scripture about sins that God will not forgive, and it's very specific who he's talking to. And then we have to look at very specifically what he's talking about. So let's go back to verse John again. When a person is called by God, and that person now has their mind open, and God comes into that person's life, and that person is forgiven, and that person receives God's Spirit, they are still capable of sin.

Isn't that sort of a shock sometimes? You're baptized, you're on this high, you receive God's Spirit, and it's like three days later, it's like, oh my! But I thought I would be perfect. I receive God's Spirit! And then you open the Bible, and you still don't understand everything. In fact, after you receive God's Spirit, you actually... it seems like you understand less, because you really start to get into the Scripture. Right? I had many people come to me six months after baptism and say, God didn't give me His Spirit.

Why? I did not know I had this many sins. And I did not know there was so much about the Bible, I did not understand. And I said, ah, you're a person with God's Spirit. You didn't know what the reflection was before. You didn't know how to measure things before. Now, God's in here, and He's starting to have you measure yourself by Him, and guess what? Not only are we terribly flawed, we're terribly ignorant! So it takes God's Spirit to even get there. So you come into this relationship with God, and you still sin.

What happens when we still sin as a Christian? Because we need to be growing. We just read, He who overcomes. We have to be growing, we have to be overcoming, we have to be moving forward with God in our lives, right? But what happens when we still stumble and fall? What happens when we don't measure up? Well, that's what John says here. Back again in 1 John, verse 1, or chapter 1. And let's start in verse 8. He says, if we say we have no sin, now remember John's writing not to the world.

He's writing to the church. That gives a very personal letter to the church. So this isn't going to the world, but He says to the church, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not innocent.

That's why every year at the Passover is still a little bit of a shock, isn't it? It's like, I'm still not there yet. That's why God says every Passover and every Day of Atonement. Twice a year He makes a stop, look at ourselves and say, no, we're not there yet. We're still in this process. He says, if we confess, now this is real important, if... So this is a qualifier word, you know. It doesn't say God will forgive you. He says, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not innocent. This is real important. If we confess our sins, if we repent, He not only forgives us, He cleanses us, He helps us overcome those sins. If we do not face our sins, and we say, ahh, that's not... no, I don't have that sin, then He says we make Him a liar.

Chapter 2, verse 1, God says, my little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. He says, this gives us a motivation not to sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the whole world.

He says, you have an advocate, you have someone who stands there at the throne of God. And when we come before Him and confess our sins, who says, yes, He is guilty, apply my blood for that person. And God does. And God does. Now, He's talking to the Church. This is a continual state. Repentance is a one-time event. It is a way of living life, in which we approach God all the time with this humility that says, I'm not there.

Please forgive me. And we confess our sins. And Christ is our advocate. This advocacy of Jesus Christ is very important in understanding the impartibles. What He did and who He is, and what He's doing right now. You know, what God did through His sacrifice and resurrection, but what He's doing right now.

And what it means to call God a liar is a very dangerous thing here. Now, remember, He's writing this to the Church. Now, 1 John is a very positive letter. We have eternal life. God's Spirit is eternal. So, if God puts His Spirit in you, what do you have? Eternal life. But remember, it's His eternal life. You know what that means? He can take His eternal life back.

Okay? It's His eternal life that comes into us. You and I will be alive forever because God's Spirit is in us. In His physical state, He can take it back. Under what condition would God take His Spirit back? That's what we have to answer to understand a sin that is not pardoned.

Because God wants to forgive us. He wants to have a relationship with us. He doesn't want us to fail. When He put His Spirit in us, it was what? To guarantee He will do His work. He will do what He says. So, the only variable in the equation is what? Us. The only variable in the equation. God says, I'll give you My Spirit because it's the other way it can be done and I'll do it. So, there is a variable in this equation. And it's not God. It's not His eternity that's the issue. It's not His eternity of His Spirit that's the issue. It's not where our eternity comes from that's the issue.

So, we have to be able to now define the unpardonable sin. There's two definitions that we will find about the unpardonable sin in the Scripture. First, let's go to Hebrews 6. Hebrews 6. Verse 4. This is a very powerful passage.

For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened to have tasted the heavenly gift and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come if they fall away to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame. That is a remarkably exact description of something here. And we start with these are people who have received the Holy Spirit. He's not talking about people in the world who have not received the Holy Spirit. He's talking about those who were called by God, had their minds open to the truth, had their minds open to God, and received God's Holy Spirit because they were repented and forgiven. You can't receive God's Spirit if you're not forgiven. And you receive God's Spirit and they what? They give it back.

So we keep looking for the individual sin. Well, this person committed adultery that must be the unpardonable sin. And if you're the mate that the person did this to, that's the unpardonable sin. So we look at these and this has to be the unpardonable sin. This person committed murder, it must be the unpardonable sin. Not necessarily. If sin is repented of, God forgives it through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. There will be people who committed murders, who will be sons and daughters in God's family forever. There will be people who committed homosexuality that will be God's children forever. Because they repented of those sins, they were cleansed of those things and they were forgiven. And by God giving them His Spirit, they changed. I did not say there will be murderers in God's Kingdom. There will be people who committed murder or were forgiven, cleansed, changed in God's Kingdom. Two different things. Two totally different things. This is why, as we'll look through this, you can see obedience is required of us. Obedience is required of us. But we all fall short. This is where the advocacy of Jesus Christ comes in. He's always there as our defense before the loving God as we come and do what? Remember what it said? Confess our sins. There's this state of humility we have where we're always understanding, I am a child and I am a very wayward child and I wish to have this corrected. It is a constant experience. What we have here is a description of someone. It wasn't an individual sin. Now, it may be an individual sin that lit the fire. Or the individual sin may be the result of someone being rebellious against God for a long time. But the sin itself would have been forgiven. They fall away. They go back to their original state. So, when you fall down and you commit a sin, you say, have I committed the unpardonable sin? And the first thing I ask, have you gone and confessed that sin or repented before God? And usually the person says, no, I have not because I'm so ashamed. And I say, okay, go repent before God. Ask God to restore the relationship. And then God's going to deal with it and it probably won't be pretty. And when they do that, they're restored to God because they haven't committed the unpardonable sin because they go confess it. And they're restored. So we have to understand, when we struggle with, have I committed the unpardonable sin? That's God grabbing us and saying, kid, wake up. You can't keep doing this. You can't be this way. Because if you're like this, you won't repent. In other words, the sin that is unpardonable is the sin that won't be repented of.

We think about what we just... It's impossible. They were renewed. They were like... They have become partakers of the Holy Spirit. And what? They fall away. They can't be renewed. They can't be renewed. Why? They don't want to be renewed. I'm fine just the way I am, thank you. And notice, this is tied into the advocacy of Jesus Christ because it says, they crucify again for themselves. In other words, and this is real important to understand about the unpardonable sin, because there will be people in the lake of fire. This is weeping and gnashing of teeth. There are people that are crying because, oh, if I'd have just listened. People are angry and saying, God, this is unfair. You're wrong. You can't do this to me. The problem is, God says, I will not crucify the second time. Understand that statement. They crucify Him a second time. God says, no, I will not do that to Christ the second time. Yeah, at once. You and I don't get to crucify Jesus Christ the second time. That's why the advocacy of Jesus Christ and the unpardonable sin are tied together. We are not...well, we'll get into that more in a minute. Let me just deal with this here. Let's get to 2 Peter 2. 2 Peter 2. We'll come back even to... even to 2 Peter 2. 2 Peter 3. 2 Peter 3. And verse 20.

I'm breaking into a little bit of a middle of a thought here, but he's talking about false teachers. They're in the church. He says, For if they have escaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it to turn from the Holy Commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb, a dog returned to his own walnut, and a sow having washed through the wallowing in the mire. See where the person goes. So when you and I sin, when you and I get entangled in the world, but we stay there, the problem is we stay there, we return to what we were before we received God's Spirit. We return to our total corrupted human nature, and at that point, we literally, God's Spirit leaves us. Eternal life leaves us. Because you can't keep yourself alive for eternity. Only God's Spirit keeps us alive for eternity. And as John said, you've already received that, but that doesn't mean God can't take it back. There is a point where the rebellion is so great, the hardness of heart is so great, that we reject the Spirit of God. Now, people will say, but I knew what I was doing was wrong. I knew at work that telling that lie to get the promotion was wrong. Even while I was doing it, I could hear, you know, in my head saying, this is wrong! This is breaking God's law! You shouldn't do it! Then you did it, and you said, well, God can't forgive me. Then why are you talking to me? Because I want God to forgive me. I said, you haven't committed the unpartable sin yet. But you've sinned, and like the rest of us, we're all in the same boat. When we sin, we have to go deal with it. We have to go confess it before God, and then say, please be merciful to me, but I'm probably going to get spanking for this one. Because He's going to teach me. And then every once in a while, you go confess, and He says, what you've done to yourself is enough. In fact, that's what He does a lot of times. He just lets us suffer the consequences of sin. He didn't have to punish us. He's like, yeah, but I'm not saving you for these consequences. You're dry drunk. You're going to jail. God, please don't let me go to jail. Please forgive me. Oh, I've forgiven you. The judge won't. You're the least of my warriors right now, son. Right? Think about how we deal with our own children. That's how we deal with our own children sometimes. Sorry. You're going to have to deal with that teacher. You skipped class. And it was wrong. What are you going to do to me? All nothing. You're going to have to go deal with the consequences of what you did wrong. Oh, please spank me. I literally had my kids ask me to spank them. Oh, no.

No, no, no. You're going to go deal with your problem. I'm not going to spank you, then I go deal with your problem. Oh. Is that what God does with us? So we fear, sir, have I committed the unpartable sin? If your relationship with God is damaged and you feel it, no, you haven't yet. But your relationship has been damaged, so you go take care of it. You confess. And you know what happens if you don't confess? God starts beating you up, so you do confess. Your life will just fall apart until you go confess. And you go deal with it, and you repent, and you take responsibility, and you face the consequences. That's what we're supposed to do as Christians. The person who commits the unpartable sin will not do that. They will not do it. And eventually, God's spirit is just shoved out of their lives. It's not God's doing, it's theirs. And finally, he says, I cannot dwell with you. We're going to give a sermon sometime about dwelling in just. What does that really mean? To dwell. I dwell in a house. God says he dwells in us, and we are his house. It's a huge concept. And there's a point where God says, I will not dwell with you. I will not live in this house. And he leaves it. Why? It's because of us. Now, the second... So, I want to ratchet down the fear that I've committed to the unpartable sin, but we also have to have a little bit of fear of the unpartable sin. We need to fear it enough to be reacting, to be repenting, to be going to God, to be confessing. And that we don't have the fear that we've done it. Because God says, no, I've already given you eternal life. What in the world are we going to have to do for him to take it back? Well, we're going to have to shove it back, throw it back, refuse it. Once again, Christ did not sacrifice himself for nothing. But God says, I will do it a second time. The second reason for the committing of the unpartable sin is Mark 3. And this one's interesting because it's different. It's a different reason.

Let's get the full story here. Let's start in verse 20. Then the multitude, this is Mark 3, verse 20. Then the multitude came together again so they could not so much as eat bread. When his own people heard about this, they went out to lay hold of him and he said, he thought of his mind. It's very interesting. So many people came to see him, he couldn't even eat, and everybody said he's just nuts. Now the religious leaders are looking at him and saying, the man's crazy. So look at the next verse. And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, he has bells above. By the ruler of the demons, he cast out demons. So now they're watching him heal people and cast out demons. And their conclusion is, he's demon possessed. He has to be demon possessed. Who are you doing all these miracles? So he called unto himself and he said to them in parables, How can Satan cast out Satan, that the kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand? And house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he has an end. No one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man and then he will plunder his house. So he says to him, look, Satan's not fighting against himself here. I bound Satan so I can do this. And then he makes a very profound statement. Assuredly I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of man, and what are blasphemies they may utter. But he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, never has forgiveness but is subject to eternal condemnation. And Mark adds, you know, this is because they had saidPRO he has an unclean spirit. So, we have to look through this a minute. These are Jewish religious leaders who do not have God's Spirit. These aren't Christians. God's Spirit has not been poured out yet. And these weren't started. There are people in the Old Testament who received God's Spirit, but these weren't. Some of them. Because it was poured out at Pentecost on the populace. So, these people did not have God's Spirit, and yet they're in danger of the lake of fire. You don't have to have God's Spirit in you to commit the impartability. These people saw the power of God. It was there. The Messiah was there. All the Scriptures, they'd studied all their lives that were being fulfilled. And they were so hard, because when it gets their power, and when it gets what they wanted, they were so self-willed that they refused to see the power of God and said the power of God is Satan. Now, Jesus said, you know, you can reject me because you don't know who I am. Here I am, I've come into human flesh, I've come into human body, you don't know who I am, you don't realize I'm the Word of God. Okay, I can forgive that, because God has to open your mind to that. But you people here, He told them, your mind is open. You see this, but you're so hard you won't accept it. Now, that's an interesting comment to realize there are people who have not received God's Spirit who will be the lake of fire. And it's because they've been exposed to the power of God. And they're so hardened, so selfish, they will not accept it. And they take that power and say it's from Satan. It can't be of God. That's a scary statement. Because it's not to us, although I've had to wonder at times, we have to be careful, you know. We come to church for 20 years and never give ourselves to God. We never repent, we never pursue baptism. We believe it's the power of God, but we don't respond.

That's a scary thing. So those are the two definitions of the unpartable sin. One has to do with receiving God's Spirit, returning to an unconverted state, and basically having God take His Spirit back. The other is being exposed to what is obviously the power of God. What is obviously God's doing and saying, that's Satan. That's not God, because that doesn't meet my criteria. Those are the two definitions of the unpartable sin in the Scripture. How do you and I end up doing that? How can we end up committing the unpartable sin? Well, the first one is obvious. We simply begin to become so self-willed that we will not repent. Which means we will not obey.

We find a thousand reasons not to obey and not to repent. And we become find we were just driven by our own self-will. Look back in Hebrews again. Hebrews 10.

Hebrews chapter 10. Verse 26.

For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. Once again, I mentioned this earlier, but I knew I was doing wrong. I willfully did it. Okay. Are you willing now to go to God and say, I have a bad will. I have an evil will, which may have been worse than the first sin. The reason for the sin sometimes is worse than the sin itself. My will is still corrupt. I still have a corrupt human nature. Would you change my will? I'd rather just confess for stealing and keep my will. No, let's go confess the stealing and then confess I knew what was wrong but I wanted it so badly. I did it anyways. Okay, let's go confess not only the sin but the reason for the sin. You haven't committed an impartial sin even though you willfully did it. This is talking about where you're driven and controlled by your will and you're refusing, refusing God's Spirit. God will work with us and work with us. I mean, think about it. People will leave the church for decades and come back and say, man, I messed up. I'm glad to be back. God didn't let him go. I've seen that happen hundreds of times, literally. God didn't let him go. They were throwing temper tantrums, so to speak, as children. They were being willful, a willful child. But God was still working with them. They had not rejected him to the point that his Spirit left.

So, willfully, it takes a period of time here where you just decide, I will not follow God. And usually, you have a thousand reasons why. It's God's fault. It really is God's halt. If God wouldn't let me be in that car accident, if God wouldn't let me get sick, if God wouldn't let my child die, if God wouldn't let this happen, but he did all these things, he let these things, or he caused these things, and because of that, I don't have to do what he says. And it's worse and worse and worse until your will overrides, because God won't possess us. He could. God can make us do it every one. We need to become automatons, but he doesn't. For if we sin willfully, let's go back and look at this verse, willingly, after we have received, or willfully, not willy, willfully, after we receive the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment. I mean, it's obvious that you can receive God's Spirit and have it taken away. Those who believe in what saved always say, and have really convoluted explanations for these passages in Hebrews. And fiery indignation, which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment do you suppose will be thought worthy, who has, now this is real important, it tells us who can do this sin, who has trampled the Son of God on your foot. You know, this isn't a Hindu. This isn't a Buddhist. This isn't even a Muslim. We have had to come into a relationship with God, and a relationship with the Son of God, so that we are actually shaming the advocacy of Jesus Christ. But He's standing there because of His sacrifice, because of His resurrection. He is before the throne of God, intervening for us. You trample under foot the Son of God, counter the blood of the covenant, so you made a covenant with God. This has to be someone who has been part of the new covenant, because you become part of the new covenant through the blood of Jesus Christ. We celebrate that every Passover, when we take the wine. So there's this blood. This isn't the old covenant. I mean, this is the new covenant, the blood of the Son of God. So we have now become partakers of the covenant, and as part of the covenant, we receive God's Spirit. Counter the blood of the covenant by which He was sanctified a common thing, a meaningless thing, and it's solved at the Spirit of grace. God, all of us go before God, only because of His grace. It's a favor that He gives us. He shows us favor. If He doesn't show us favor, how do you get to God? How do we forgive ourselves? How do we even know the Bible? How do we know the truth? You won't even know the Sabbath, because God gave you a favor. God gave you His favor. So you're under the umbrella. We live under the umbrella of God's favor, and so when we mess up, God says, hey, you messed up, and you get to say, I have messed up, and I need some help here. I need some forgiveness, and I need some help to clean up this mess, and you still stay under the umbrella of His grace, of His favor. He says, but what happens when you insult, when you take that and consider it common? It's nothing.

He says, it's verse 30, For we know Him who said, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. And again, the Lord will judge His people, and is a fearful thing that falls in the hands of the living God. You know, sometimes we haven't taught enough about grace, because if we really understand God's grace, we understand it is the rejection of His grace that can lead to the unpardonable sin. His refusal to stay under the umbrella of His favor, of His love, of His mercy, and is to move outside of that and say, I liked it better the way I was before. I want to go back out into that mess. And you know, though, this is why I know somebody who did that, does that mean they've committed the unpardonable sin? I don't know. You know why? Sometimes God says, okay, go out there, remember the parable of the two sons, go out there until you're eating with the pigs. And when you get tired of eating with the pigs, come on back home. And sometimes, you know, the people stagger back in, their lives are a mess. Oh, I've been through two marriages, two divorces, my kids hate my guts, I've lost jobs, and I've been addicted to heroin for 20 years. I want to come back. And God says, ah, finally, come back under the umbrella, son. Come back home. It's when the person says, I'm not going to come back home.

Eating with the hogs is better than coming home, because then I have to do what you tell me to do, and I will not have you tell me what to do. It's the whole problem with the modern concept of God's grace that is taught in mainstream Christianity that is actually a license for lawlessness. It is not the grace of God. It is a license for lawlessness. So, it is to move ourselves, so now it's underneath that umbrella. We have an example of this kind of self-will in Hebrews 12, verse 15. So, let's go over to Hebrews 12, verse 15. Let's go to verse 14, because it's interesting the way he begins this thought to this writer of Hebrews. I still think it's Paul. I know there's different people that come to different conclusions because the writing style is so different, but I still think it's Paul. Verse 14, Pursue peace with all people and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. So, we have to have the peace of God and the holiness of God in us to see God. Looking carefully, lest anyone, now this is interesting, falls short of the grace of God, how in the world are there limits to God's grace? There can't be limits. I mean, is there limits to God's love? No, but there are boundaries. This umbrella is only so big. It's big enough for all of us. The fall short of the grace of God isn't because God is limited. It's because there's boundaries. You can't live outside those boundaries and be under the umbrella of grace. You cannot. Because it's only by His grace that you get to be under to begin with. You understand? We only get there because He lets us. And then we go leave it and say, I don't want it. And His answer is, I'm sorry. Okay. You're outside the boundaries of my grace now. You're falling short of it. He says, looking carefully, lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble. And by this many have become defiled. The greatest, one of the greatest dangers we face is bitterness. Bitterness has destroyed more Christians than adultery. I've seen lots of people repent of adultery. It's destroyed more people than stealing. I see lots of people repent of stealing. It's destroyed more people than, you know, all kinds of things. Because bitterness eats away at you until you're so self-willed, you will not respond to God. Bitterness springing up cause trouble. By this many become defiled. Lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know that afterward when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected. For he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears. You know, this is a very stern warning because you and I have been offered the blessing. We've already been given eternal life. John says, you haven't. God put it in you. Now what are you going to do with it? There is a point in time when there is no more time. There's a point in time we appear before Jesus Christ and we are judged. And Esau said, I want to go back and it's too late.

And sometimes in our love of God's mercy we forget there is a point where there is no more time. We are able, I'm going to do it tomorrow. And there's a point where there's no tomorrow's. Our tomorrow's ran out. Right? There's a point where we have no tomorrow's.

God says, but I'll get you there. I've already given you eternal life. If you will just stay under the umbrella, stay within my grace and I'll get you there. But you and I have free will and we can leave it. We can leave it. This is why obedience, this is why the law is important.

And it is why, though, if we really understand the law of God in the Spirit, we're always being convicted by it. Like Paul says in Romans 7. Oh, what a wretched man I am. And what is his answer? I keep going back and confessing. I didn't throw out the law. Oh, if I throw it out, I don't have to confess anymore. Well, no, because you're just a lawbreaker. I go back and I confess it. And I go before God and I'm like, nothing can separate me from the love of Christ. That was the conclusion in chapter 8 of Romans. Nothing can take me away from that. If I just stay there, if I stay where I'm supposed to be, God will do his work in me. And I have to submit to it. A second way we can commit the impartable sin with this self-will is simply a life of neglect. And this is even more dangerous in some ways, this spiritual neglect, because what we do is we become passive and we just drift away.

I've seen people say, I know this way is right, but you know, I just don't care anymore. I just stopped doing it 20 years ago and I don't care anymore. And you look at them and say, but you know it's right? Oh yeah, I know it's right. I just don't care. I'd rather go out on Friday night and drink with my buddies, and I'm known to have any really interest in loving my neighbor. And I don't pray. I know God's there. I just don't care. Drifting. Just spiritual neglect is a way to end up, or we can't end up, committing the unpardonable sin because we just get to the place. God's Spirit just leaves us? Now, that doesn't happen in a 24-hour period, by the way. So, oh, I haven't been really praying and studying like I should for a couple of months, and I feel so cut off from God I probably committed the unpardonable sin. No, the fact that you feel that way is because you haven't committed the unpardonable sin. God's Spirit is saying, hey, wake up here, kid. Come on back here. Let's talk. God's drawing you back is what's happening. We don't have to live in constant fear of committing the unpardonable sin because God doesn't want us to do that. God will do everything except possess us to keep us from doing that. He just won't take away our free will. But He's going to do everything in His part except that. He won't take away the free will. He will not, though, sacrifice Jesus Christ a second time. That's what He said. How can you insult the Spirit of grace? I won't do that a second time. It's interesting. It didn't say Christ wouldn't do it a second time. His Father will do it a second time. I won't do that to my son again.

He won't give up His relationship with us, but we can give up our relationship with Him. That's the unpardonable sin. God promises to never forsake us. He promises to get us there. He promises to forgive us. He promises to work with us. He promises to punish us once in a while. That's all part of the promises, just like any good parent would.

So God isn't going to give up on you. Remember that. If you feel like He must give up on you, no, He hasn't. He will not forgive up on you. But we also have to be careful. And we have to remember the warning that connects us to Esau. Where we just gave up on Him. We willfully did it, or we did it through neglect, until time goes on and time goes on and God's Spirit just goes away, and we live our lives. And one day, one day, the tomorrow's run out. But what we should be centered on is the promise. He has given us eternal life. And one day, He wants us. God wants us to stand before Him. So He can look at each one of us and say, well done. That's what He wants, because that's what He says He wants. That's what He wants for every one of us. Remember that promise, and you will never commit the unpardonable sin.