Secrets Unsealed

What Jesus Said

Stephen Bohr

1. The Word of God

2. The Unconditional Love of God

3. How Jesus Understood His Self Identity

4. Good and Evil

5. Moses and Jesus

6. Overcoming Life’s Mistakes

7. How to Pray

8. Family Values

9. Relief From Stress

10. History’s Greatest Hoax

11. Holy Spirit Baptism

12. Life and Death

13. Peace in the Middle East

14. The Rapture of the Saints

15. The Final Judgment

16. The End of Evil

17. The Secrets of Health and Wealth

18. The Return of Elijah

19. Religion and Politics

20. The Abomination of Desolation

21. The Unpardonable Sin

22. Prophets and Psychics

The title of it is What Jesus Said About the Unpardonable Sin.

Now before we get into our list of texts that you've received as you came in tonight, I would just like to say that the Bible presents a picture of God as the great forgiver.

We find in the Bible several analogies of God as the magnanimous, as the merciful, as the forgiver, as the generous, as the loving, as the kind.

I'd like to share some of those analogies that the Bible presents about God's forgiveness as we begin our study this evening.

In Psalm 103 and verse 12, God says that He will remove our sins as far as the east is from the west.

That's how far God promises to remove our sins from us.

The Bible also tells us that God promises to exercise divine amnesia when it comes to our sins.

Because in Isaiah 43 and verse 25, God promises that He will remember our sins no more.

Now, an analogy which is very appropriate for Fresno, in Isaiah 44 and verse 22, God says that He will do away with our sins as the sun does away with the fog.

You know, there's fog, and then when it gets to be 10:00, 11:00 in the morning, the fog is gone because the sun has burned it off.

That's what God is going to do with our sins, according to Isaiah 44 and verse 22.

In Micah 7 and verse 19, God says that He will take our sins, He will cast them into the depths of the sea.

In 1st John chapter 1 and verse 9, God uses the laundry analogy.

He says that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

In Matthew 18 and verse 22, God uses the analogy of debt.

There you have the parable of the 2 debtors.

There was 1 debtor who owed his Lord far more than he could ever pay in a lifetime or many lifetimes.

And his overlord forgave him all of his debt.

In Isaiah 38 and verse 17, God says that he will take our sins and he will cast them behind his back where he cannot see them.

The apostle Paul in Romans chapter 4 and verses 3 through 8 uses the analogy of the court of law.

God will justify us or pronounce us not guilty in his court of law.

Hebrews 7 and verse 25, God tells us that he will save us to the uttermost.

So we have a whole series of promises in the Bible as to the total and complete forgiveness of God.

Now, we find illustrations of God's forgiveness in the Bible too.

For example, 1 of the worst sins that I have found in my Bible is the sin or the 2 sins that David committed in the Old Testament.

Actually there were more than 2 but the 2 main ones that we know of are adultery and murder.

Do you know that the Bible tells us in 1 Samuel 12 and verse 13 that God forgave those 2 horrendous sins of David.

Now because of all of these analogies that we find in the Bible, when we turn to our beginning text in our list tonight, we're surprised to discover that there is a sin in the Bible which God cannot forgive.

How is it that we have all of these analogies about the great forgiving power of God and suddenly you have a passage where we're told that there's a sin that God will not forgive.

Turn with me in your Bibles to the passage which speaks about this sin.

It's found in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 12 and we want to read verse 28, and then we'll also read verses 31 and 32.

Here Jesus is speaking and he says, But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.

Now, Jesus cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you." Now Jesus cast out demons by the Spirit of God, right?

Now we notice in this passage that those who were present, particularly the Jewish leaders, said that Jesus cast out demons not by the Spirit of God, but he cast out demons by the Prince of Demons, Beelzebub.

Now let's go to verses 31 and 32, which speak about the sin that these individuals are in the process of committing.

Verse 31 says, Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men.

Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him either in this age or in the age to come.

This God who forgives to a thousand generations according to what it tells us in the commandment.

And here we find a passage that tells us that there's a sin that God will not forgive in this life or in the life to come.

Now what is this sin and why is it not forgivable?

Let's turn in our Bibles now to 1 John 5, 1 John 5 and verse 17.

And the panorama is going to get a little more complicated until it gets simpler.

We're going to find in this verse a very interesting concept.

Here the beloved disciple of Jesus tells us, all unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.

Does it Romans 6 verse 23 say that the wages of sin is death?

It says here all unrighteousness is sin, but there is sin which is not unto death.

Now, What could he mean there is sin that is not unto death?

Evidently, there are 2 categories of sin.

1 category is unto death and the other category is not unto death.

By the way, that's where some people get the idea that there are venial sins and mortal sins.

But we're going to find tonight that that's not exactly what the Bible is trying to say when it tells us that there are sins that are not unto death.

The fact is that this concept of having sins that are unto death and sins that are not unto death actually comes from the Old Testament context.

You see, in the Old Testament, there were also 2 main categories of sin.

There were sins that were unto death, and there were sins that were not unto death.

Go with me to the book of Numbers, chapter 15.

And remember the Lord Jesus is a good Jew.

And so this concept would have been very, very clear in his mind.

And I want you to notice, if you have the seminar Bible, we're not going to read the whole passage, but notice chapter 15 and verse 22.

Basically, these are sins that are committed due to human weakness.

Now, I ask you, if these sins were not confessed, would they lead to death?

If they were not confessed, even these sins?

But these sins, when they were committed, because they were unintentional, due to human weakness, the sinner could take an animal to the sanctuary, shed the blood of the animal, and his sin was forgiven.

Because it was possible to offer blood to atone for that sin because it was not a premeditated sin.

So the first kind of sin is the sin that we commit due to human weakness.

When we commit it, we say, oh, no, I blew it again.

Oh, Lord, I'm so sorry for what I've done.

But there's another kind of sin in the Old Testament.

Notice what it says there also in Numbers chapter 15 and starting with verse 30.

These are sins which are called in the Old Testament sins with a high hand.

People who say, I'm going to sin no matter what, I'm going to do this and I don't care what the consequences are going to be.

They are sins that are committed and there are no pangs of conscience because they are committed.

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What Jesus Said

21. The Unpardonable Sin

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The Call

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Hindered Prayers

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