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The Unforgivable Sin
- SERIES: Anatomy of Sin #6 of 8
- 2007-08-12
- PRODUCTION #: 1076
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SPEAKER: Shawn Boonstra
The Bible speaks about a sin that God can never forgive, and millions of people have lived in fear that they may have committed it. Is it really true? Is there something that God is unable to forgive? Get your Bible, and stay tuned, because in a minute, we'll see what God has to say on the subject.
When I was a kid, I was over at a friend's house, and he managed to convince me that swearing was the unforgivable sin.
"If you use a bad word again, you'll never go to heaven."
Well, that really scared me, and for a little while I thought I was on my way to hell, because the more I tried not to think of curse words, the more they just kind of popped into my head.
"I'm never going to make it into heaven!"
Now, of course, today, I know a little better. There's no question that a foul mouth is sinful, but it's not an unforgivable sin. In fact, the Bible says that (1 John 1:9):
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9)
Now, you might have noticed that there were no provisos or exclusions in that verse. It says that if we confess our sins, Jesus will both forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness, and there are no "if's", "but's", or "maybes" attached to that promise.
I remember someone who came to me one day because he had done something pretty terrible, he had cheated on his wife. It had happened years ago, and his marriage was long over, but he was still beating himself up over it.
"I just don't think God could ever forgive me."
That's when I opened my Bible to this very verse in 1 John and showed it to him.
"Dave, I want you to read this passage for me."
And it was very easy for Dave to see which verse I meant because it's underlined in my Bible. He hesitated for a minute, and then read it (1 John 1:9):
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
Dave looked up at me, a little unsure of himself, and I knew he was having trouble believing what he just read. So, I reached into my pocket, pulled out a pen, and handed it to him.
"Dave," I said, "I want you to do me a favor. Take this pen and make just a little change to the verse. At the end where it says that Jesus will "cleanse us from all unrighteousness," I want you to write, except for adultery."
Dave took that pen and his hand hovered over the page for a minute, and then he said, "I'm not going to do it. I can't change what the Bible says!"
You know something, he was right, you can't change what the Bible says. Once God says it, He means it forever. And so I smiled and said, "But Dave, you've been changing it for years, because you won't believe what it says. When Jesus says that He can cleanse you from all unrighteousness, that's exactly what He means, and when He hung on the cross, He did it because He knew you were going to make some pretty big mistakes and you needed Him."
The tears started to run down his cheeks as he realized that Christ could forgive his broken marriage and his broken home. And really, that's some of the best news anybody could ever get, don't you think? There is no sin, to this point in your life, that God can't deal with if you'd only take it to Him.
So, then maybe there's no such thing as an unforgivable sin after all, because if Jesus can forgive anything, how could you do something that He couldn't forgive? Maybe there's nothing in this world you could do that would ever bar you from heaven completely, or is there?
You know, in the book of Matthew, Jesus says something really interesting. He says (Matthe 12:31):
"Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men." (Matthew 12:31)
Well, there it is again, you can be forgiven for anything, because the Bible says so. It says,"all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven," and that's pretty good news. So where do Christians get this idea that there's a sin that God will not forgive? It comes from the very next words that Jesus speaks.
Let me read you that verse again:
"Wherefore I say unto you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men." (Matthew 12:31)
So, it turns out there really is a sin that can't be forgiven, and it's blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, and that raises a really important question, just what is blasphemy against the Holy Ghost?
Well, that's a pretty important question, because this is the one sin the Bible says you can never have forgiven. If you do this one thing, if you blaspheme the Holy Ghost, you will never make it into the kingdom of heaven, and that's pretty serious.
You know, a lot of people have tried to guess what this sin might be, and they've come up with some pretty interesting ideas. For example, some people have said that suicide is the unforgivable sin, because once you are dead, you can't repent of it, and you'll be lost forever.
But I know that can't be true, because the eleventh chapter of Hebrews tells us Samson will definitely be in heaven, and Samson took his own life. Other people have said that murder must be the unpardonable sin, because once you kill somebody, you need to give your own life back in return, forever and ever.
But that can't be true, either, because Moses and David both murdered someone, and the Bible says that they're going to be in heaven, too. And my friend told me that swearing was the unpardonable sin, because this passage talks about "blasphemy," and if swearing isn't "blasphemy," what is?
Well, fortunately, we don't have to do a lot of guesswork on this one, because the Bible actually spells it out pretty clearly. The unforgivable sin is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead; and in order to understand what the sin against the Holy Spirit is, it's important that we understand exactly what the role of the Holy Spirit is.
In the sixteenth chapter of the Gospel according to John, Jesus introduces His disciples to the concept of the Holy Spirit. Now, it's important to realize that the Holy Spirit was at work long before the New Testament era, but here in John chapter 16, Jesus is preparing His disciples for the fact that He's about to leave them and go back to His Father in heaven. Here's what He says (John 16:6, 7):
"But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you." (John 16:6, 7)
Jesus spoke of someone called, the helper, or "the comforter," (in the old King James) who would come to assist the disciples with the work of spreading the gospel and leading the world to a knowledge of God. Today, we refer to this person as the "Holy Spirit," or the third person of the Godhead.
And even though He is a little mysterious, and harder to understand than the Father or the Son, He is every bit as much God as the other two. And I really like the fact that He's called the "helper" and the "comforter" because it gives us a pretty good idea of what God has in mind for us.
Jesus knows, first hand, what it means to live in this tired old planet filled with suffering and disappointment. He knows how hard it can be to be upright and pure in a world that actually cherishes sin, and so when He went back to heaven, He gave us a promise that we would not be alone. God would still be with us, in person, through the presence of the Holy Spirit.
And if you take a look at the first letter that Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, you find one of the ways the Holy Spirit helps the church. Here's what it says in chapter 12 (1 Corinthians 12:3):
"Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit." (1 Corinthians 12:3)
In other words, when you share Jesus Christ with somebody, you do it through the power of the Holy Spirit. If He weren't speaking to your heart and working in your life, you wouldn't be able to claim Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Anybody who turns his or her life over to Jesus is giving dramatic evidence that the Spirit of God is at work in his or her heart. And that fact contradicts what some people seem to think is evidence of the Holy Spirit in a person's life.
Sometimes, we fall into the trap of thinking that miracles and supernatural manifestations are the primary evidence of the Holy Spirit, and many Christians assume they don't have the Spirit because they are not healing people or speaking in a strange language.
But the Bible makes it clear that the minute you find your hope in Christ, the minute you begin to fall in love with the Savior, it's because the Spirit of God is working in your life. According to the Bible, nobody can say that Jesus is Lord, and mean it, without the working of the Holy Spirit.
Now, that doesn't mean that's all the Holy Spirit does for us as a Christian church. In addition to giving us faith in Christ, He also gives us what the Bible calls "spiritual gifts" to help us complete the work Jesus gave the church to do.
Paul continues a little later on with these words (1 Corinthians 12:7):
"But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all." (1 Corinthians 12:7)
Again, I want you to notice that the Bible says that all believers have the Holy Spirit, not just a select few who are able to display miraculous gifts. And going on, in verse eight it is written (1 Corinthians 12:8-11):
"For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills." (1 Corinthians 12:8-11)
There are other passages that list more of these gifts, like Romans 12 and Ephesians 4, but what I want you to notice is that every believer, according to the Bible, has certain talents and abilities to help him or her fill a role in the church. And those gifts are designed to make the church a complete unit, a corporation made up of people with different abilities, that when it works together, can move the whole world for God.
So, one of the jobs of the Holy Spirit is to mobilize us, as believers, into an army for the kingdom of heaven, bringing Christ to a darkened world. But there's even more that He does, and this is where we begin to discover what the unforgivable sin is.
Let's turn back for a moment to the passage in John 16 and pick up where we left off, in verse eight (John 16:8-11):
"And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged." (John 16:8-11)
The Holy Spirit works as a kind of "conscience" for the whole world. You know, a lot of people are saying that guilt is bad, and you should ignore it; and there are counselors who will tell you that you should suppress feelings of guilt by doing the very things that you feel guilty about. But that's a serious mistake, because you might be fighting the voice of God Himself.
Oh, I'll admit that sometimes we feel guilty when we have nothing to feel guilty about, like the times we say no to someone who is making big demands on our time, or when we refuse to be manipulated by other people. But most of the time, when we feel that pang of guilt, it's because the Spirit of God is reminding us that we are falling out of step with our loving heavenly Father.
Jesus continues just a little later on (John 16:13, 14):
"However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you." (John 16:13, 14)
Sometimes, people think of the Holy Spirit as a bit of a policeman, always ready to pounce on you if you have a little fun. But that's not a very accurate picture, according to the Bible. The reason He speaks to your heart and lets you know when you're out of line is because He's trying to lead you closer to Jesus Christ. He knows you need Jesus if you are going to be happy, and if you are going to enter into the kingdom of heaven, and so He keeps working on your heart, letting you know when you are sinning, and constantly leading you into a deeper and deeper relationship with Christ.
And as you follow God and respond to His call, you will find that the Holy Spirit will show you more and more truth from the Word of God. Just like a student working his way up through the grades, the Spirit takes great delight when you make spiritual progress, and He trusts you with more and more responsibility as you grow in Christ. He teaches you deeper and deeper truths as you show yourself capable of following what you already know.
But what happens when you decide not to follow the voice of the Holy Spirit? What happens when you feel the pang of guilt and you know the right thing to do, but you deliberately choose against it? That's actually where we step into the territory of the unforgivable sin, where we grieve the Holy Spirit, as Paul describes it in the book of Ephesians.
On the upper Niagara River, just before you reach the edge of Niagara Falls, there's a point where it becomes too late to turn your boat around, and you are going to be swept over the precipice. Over the years, a lot of people have discovered the hard way that when you ignore the warnings and cross the point of no return, it really means you can't turn back.
And the same is true for spiritual matters. The Holy Spirit speaks to our hearts about the dangers we face every day, but He doesn't violate our freedom of choice. If we choose to ignore the warnings, we will eventually cross a point of no return.
It's not that God gives up on you, it's just that you come to a point where you've trained yourself to stop listening. Years ago, I bought a car that had a radar detector in it, and at first that thing had me hitting the brakes every two blocks, whether I was speeding or not, because it seemed to go off a lot. But over time, I noticed that I hardly heard it any more, even though it was still beeping just as often.
Human beings are pretty good at tuning things out. It's amazing how fast we learn to sleep near a busy railway or how quickly we stop hearing the planes when we live near an airport. It's like we get calluses over things that used to hurt.
I remember one summer as a kid, I was asked to dig a large trench on a construction site. My hands had gotten kind of soft from a couple of semesters at college, and the first night after work, they were blistered and bleeding. The next morning, I didn't think I was going to be able to pick up the shovel, but I forced myself to do it. The next night, my hands were hurting and bleeding even worse than before, and I didn't know how I was going to be able to keep it up. And then the most amazing thing happened. My hands got used to the abuse. I developed calluses over the sore spots, and the muscles toughened up, and even though I was still digging harder than ever, I couldn't feel it any more.
And it's a little like that with the Holy Spirit. All through life, you feel these little guilt pangs that tell you you are doing something wrong. But if you force yourself to ignore the warnings and you keep yourself doing those things, eventually, you won't be able to feel a thing any more. You'll cross a point of no return, and you tune out the voice of the Holy Spirit. It's not that He's become silent, it's that you've become callused. In the language of the Bible, you've hardened your heart.
I once knew a married man who had a wandering eye and suffered from terrible sexual temptations. It bothered him a lot, as it should have, and he went to a counselor for help.
"Listen, Steven, you have got to stop feeling guilty about this. I mean, you are only going to destroy yourself in the long run, and that's not going to do you or anybody else, for that matter, any good. What you need to do is go out and have an affair. Get it over with. So what? Have another one if you need to, and another. Get it good and out of your system and then you'll see the problem will just go away."
And you know something? On one level, that counselor was absolutely right. If you deliberately keep committing the same sin over and over, eventually, you are going to stop feeling remorse, and you are not going to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit warning you that this is a bad choice. You will develop calluses over your heart, and the problem will come to an end, at least until the day of judgment.
It's a dangerous thing to ignore the voice of the Spirit. If you know that something is wrong, you need to stop doing it. If you struggle with the same sin over and over again, you need to take it to the cross and deal with it. If you know that God is calling you to do something but you haven't done it, you need to start right now. Otherwise, you run the risk of ruining your conscience, which is one of the most sensitive instruments in the universe.
That's why the devil is so intent on leading you into one sin after another. He knows that each time you cave in, you are less likely to resist him the next time, and each time you cave in, you're making it harder and harder to hear the voice of God.
Is there a sin that God cannot forgive? The answer is yes, and the sin that God can't forgive is the sin you don't repent of. Over time, you will bring yourself to the point where you don't even feel bad about it, and you stop following God all together.
When I was a kid, there were times I was convinced that I had committed the unpardonable sin. Something would happen, I would feel guilty, and I was absolutely sure that God would never accept me again. But what I didn't understand was that the feelings I had were God's assurance that He was still at work in my life. I felt bad about what I did because God was helping me to feel that way. He was trying to urge me to take my problem to Jesus, and deal with it at the foot of the cross.
My guilty feelings and remorse weren't a problem. They were actually a gift from God! Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would convict us of sin, and that's exactly what happens every time you regret a bad decision that you've made.
Think about what this means. A lot of people worry that they've committed the unpardonable sin, but if they had actually committed it, they wouldn't care, because they wouldn't be able to hear the voice of the Spirit telling them that they had done something wrong. The very fact you're worried means you haven't gone too far. In fact, if you are worried, it's a good thing.
It means you can still hear the voice of God's Spirit speaking to your heart, and it's not too late. Right now, at this very moment, you can still bring your problems to Jesus Christ and ask forgiveness, and His promise is that He will forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.
You know, a lot of people have come to me to tell me that they wrestle with feelings of guilt. They say, "Pastor, I've just gone too far this time. God will never take me back."
The good news, as we've seen today, is that the fact that you are worried, the fact that you are worried, that you might not be in heaven, is strong evidence that God is still working on your heart.
You need to look at those feelings as good news and then take them to Jesus Christ. Let Him deal with them. Let Him help you through them and set you on a better path.
Why don't we pray together today about those very issues. Let's bow our heads together.
PRAYER:
Father in heaven, today someone is fearful that they've gone too far, and you can't forgive them. We understand that that's pretty good news, because you are still speaking to their hearts. The devil is lying about their sins, convincing them not to come to you, when you've been calling them all along. Forgive our sins, we pray, and hold us ever closer to your heart. We ask these things in the wonderful name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Scriptures for Show #1076 THE UNFORGIVABLE SIN
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
—1 John 1:9
"Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men."
—Matthew 12:31
"But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you."
—John 16:6, 7
"Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit."
—1 Corinthians 12:3
"But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all."
—1 Corinthians 12:7
"For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills."
—1 Corinthians 12:8-11
"And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged."
—John 16:8-11
"However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you."
—John 16:13, 14