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HopeLives365

Mark Finley

Is the Holy Spirit a Real Person? (And What’s the Unpardonable Sin?)

As I travel the world, I note that there is a heresy that is impacting many, many Christians.

That heresy has to do with the Holy Spirit.

There are many people, Christians included, that believe that the Holy Spirit is simply an influence, not the third person of the Godhead.

If you think the Holy Spirit is an influence, simply a power that comes from God and not the third person of the Godhead, first you deny clear biblical statements.

Secondly, if the Holy Spirit's just an influence, then you want to use that influence for your own glory.

We're going to look today in our presentation at 3 things.

Secondly, what is the work of the Holy Spirit?

Now I might surprise you today because I'm going to begin with dealing with the unpardonable sin, and that'll lead us into who is the Holy Spirit and how he works on the life.

Father in heaven, thank you so much for the clarity of your word on this topic.

Thank you that we can clearly understand who the Holy Spirit is, the role of the Holy Spirit, and how to avoid ever getting near committing the unpardonable sin.

So open our eyes, may your Spirit come and guide us, in Christ's name, Amen.

It was right after a meeting, I was greeting people at the door as they left my evangelistic meeting.

I could tell by the troubled look on his face that something was really bothering him.

As we shook hands, Todd said to me, Pastor Mark, can we talk?

Is there something urgent we need to talk about?

Or we could make an appointment this week.

No, pastor, I need to talk to you about this right now.

Once I get through greeting people here at the door and they've left the meeting, the church will be empty and let's go in and we can talk at the church.

So after a few moments of greeting, we went in, sat down in 1 of the pews and Todd looked at me.

I could tell by the pale look on his face, his quivering lips and shaking hands, that something was really bothering him as he trembled.

And he said, pastor, I think I've committed it.

I said, Todd, I don't understand, what do you think you've committed?

I think I've committed the unpardonable sin.

He said, you know, I've gone so far in sin that I don't think that God could ever forgive me.

Todd, if you have that desire to be forgiven, if you have that desire to know God, I can assure you, you've not committed the unpardonable sin.

That night I studied with Todd about what the unpardonable sin is, how the Holy Spirit works in our life, and how to be filled with the Spirit.

Let's look at that topic first of the unpardonable sin.

It's mentioned here in Matthew chapter 12, verse 31 and 32.

And notice, this is Christ speaking and he says, Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, But this blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven men.

Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it'll be forgiven him.

But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or the age to come.

Now notice verse 31 I think is a key verse.

It says, therefore I say to you every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven unto men.

In the King James Version of the Bible, I've read from the New King James, says every manner of sin and blasphemy will be forgiven.

So the unpardonable sin is not a type of sin.

It's not a kind of sin, but it's rather a degree in sin.

The unpardonable sin occurs when a person persistently rebels against or rejects the influence of the Holy Spirit upon their heart and upon their life.

The Holy Spirit is really the voice of God that speaks to our soul.

It's the voice, you remember what it says in Isaiah.

It says, you'll hear a voice behind you saying, turn this way or that way.

That's 1 of the roles of the Holy Spirit, 1 of the functions of the Holy Spirit.

So The Holy Spirit works through the Bible.

In fact, in John 6, verse 63, it says, the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.

So when Christ speaks to us through his word, John 6, verse 62 and 63, What then if you should see the son of man ascend where he was before?

Verse 63, The words that I speak to you are spirit and life.

All scripture, 2 Timothy 3, verse 16, all scripture is given by inspiration of God.

In 2 Peter 1 verse 21, it talks about the fact that the holy scriptures were given to us through the Holy Spirit.

Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes he convicts us directly in our minds.

Most often he speaks to us through his word revealing truth.

As God speaks to us, let's suppose that I was speaking, that you were speaking to me.

And you're standing here on my left, and I am walking in this direction.

Could I ever come to a point where I walked out of range of what you were saying?

If I keep walking that way, and if you keep saying to me, come back, come back, come back, but I keep walking that way, what's gonna happen?

Pretty soon, I'm gonna walk beyond where I can hear your voice any longer.

So the unpardonable sin is not the first step away from God, but it's the persistent walking from God and denying his voice, resisting the convictions of the Spirit on my mind, rebelling against what he said in his word, and coming to the place, not that God stops calling, but that I stop hearing.

And let's suppose that that room is 30 feet long.

And we decide that we want to make 2 rooms out of it.

And what we're going to do is make a brick wall so that each section of the room is 30 feet.

And so you're on 1 side and I'm on the other.

Well pretty soon there's only a hole with 10 bricks left where we can put in.

Then there's only 1 room for 1 more brick, and I can see you there, and you can see me through that little brick hole.

But then I put in the final brick, and we are completely shut off now from communication through the brick wall.

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Is the Holy Spirit a Real Person? (And What’s the Unpardonable Sin?)

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