Mark Finley

HopeLives365

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.

Prophecy Encounter

Doug Batchelor

Amazing Facts

The Woman of Light

This presentation is brought to you by the Friends of the Amazing Facts Ministry.

Known as a brood parasite, the common cuckoo bird lays her eggs in the nest of smaller bird species like a reed warbler.

Once a cuckoo's egg has been laid, which tends to match the host egg in pattern and color, the unsuspecting little mothers incubate, feed, and raise the young imposter, typically at the expense of their own offspring.

1 of the tragedies of nature is to watch a little reed warbler and its mate nearly work themselves to death to satisfy the voracious hunger of a fat little cuckoo chick, while their own starving young are crowded out of the nest.

Many don't realize that the devil has laid a deceptive egg in the church that's been hatched, adopted, and fed until it's grown bigger than life.

But what exactly is this counterfeit and how does it affect you?

So join me now as we unravel this mystery.

We're going to be talking tonight about a very important subject.

The title of the presentation is called The Woman of Light, and it's based upon a woman that appears in Revelation chapter 12, and you'll understand the nature of the title a little better as we proceed but I thought I'd tell you a little story that may segue well with this study tonight, I've made a few trips to India, Pastor Ross has been to India, Amazing Facts has a school, an evangelism training school in India, and I remember hearing the story about a woman, 37 years old, that was bathing some clothes, washing some clothes, and some dishes there by the river, a lot of poor people, India's become very modern, but there's still a lot of very poor people there, and they'd never known of crocodiles on this particular river, but out of nowhere this huge saltwater crocodile lunged out of the river at her as she was doing the washing there and grabbed her by the leg and started to drag her off into the river, and it was big enough to easily have devoured her.

All kinds of things were going through her mind, and it's amazing how quickly your mind works in a terrified moment like that, there's family and children, and she really didn't want to be some reptile's lunch.

And then as he was pulling her off the bank into the river, it occurred to her she had never let go of the aluminum pot that she had been washing.

In her terror she just gripped it and she took the thing and began to thump the crocodile on the head and about the eyes and I guess she walloped him pretty good, he let go.

Revelation chapter 12 talks about a large reptile that is a man eater.

And if you go with me in your Bibles, we're going to begin reading about this and you find it in chapter 12 verse 1.

And this is our first question in our study, how does Revelation picture God's true church?

We talked about this counterfeit church called Babylon in chapter 17, I know we're doing things a little out of order, Now we're looking at chapter 12 and we're going to see how is the true church pictured?

You read there in verse 1, a woman is seen clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet and upon her head a crown of 12 stars.

Now before I go any farther that's why she's called clothed with light.

There are 3 natural forms of light that you find in Genesis, God made the sun and He made the moon and He made the stars, and they illuminate the earth.

God said to the church, you are the light of the world, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven, that's Matthew 5 of course.

So this is a woman who is clothed with light from the stars to the sun to the moon, what do they represent?

The moon has no light of its own, it reflects the light of the sun that is going to rise.

The moon is like the Old Testament, full of light, but it's the foundation on which the woman stands, but she's actually wearing the sun.

Bible tells us in Malachi 4, talking about Christ, the son of righteousness who will arise with healing in his wings.

It's 1 of the places where Christ is sort of compared to the sun, the brightness of the sun.

When Jesus was transfigured on the mount of transfiguration in Mark chapter 9 it says He was shining like the sun, brighter than any laundry soap can make you.

Stars above the head, it represents the leadership, there's 12 stars and Jesus of course, in the Old Testament you've got the 12 patriarchs, including Samuel most people count 12 judges, Moses had 12 princes, and in the New Testament you've got 12 what?

12 apostles that Jesus picks, I told you that number must have been important because they replaced Judas and the Holy Spirit was poured out.

And above the head, a symbol of leadership, it's where the head is, it's guidance, so it's talking about the foundation of the Old Testament shining with the reality of Christ, the New Testament, the leadership of the church, and through this God lets his light shine into the world.But something else that people often miss, she being with child cried travailing in birth and pain to be delivered.

She is pregnant and about to have a baby and going through the labor pains and this is when the dragon is trying to take advantage.

Now as we read on and then I'm going to back up to this verse, what about her child do we learn?

I just want you to know who this child is.

She brought forth a man-child who is to rule all nations with a rod of iron.

Well, it tells us her child is caught up unto God and is thrown.

Christ is sended up to heaven to God and thrown.

It says, I've likened the daughter Zion to a delicate and a comely woman.

Paul says, Husbands love your wives as Christ loves the church.

This woman in chapter 12, sun, moon, stars, the dragon hates her, she must be a good church.

The very fact the dragon hates her is a good sign, right?

Woman in Revelation 17, she's riding along with the dragon.

Again, Isaiah 51.16, Often in the Bible God calls His church, His people, His bride.

Now, just so you'll know, in case you ever see this, some people say, well, the woman in Revelation 12 who brings forth a man child, well, that must be Mary, right?

And you'll often see in a number of churches, you'll see pictures of Mary, I've got a sample of 1 right here, where she's got 12 stars above her head and she's standing on the moon.

They get that idea from Revelation 12, but the woman in Revelation 12 is not Mary, It is true that Mary is the mother of Jesus, but you read on in the chapter and it talks about the dragon chasing the woman through the wilderness.

Well, as far as we know, the Apostle John took Mary in and she stayed with him and she died in Antioch, that's what church history said.

There was no effort of the devil chasing her through the wilderness and the earth opening its ground and all these things that happened in the vision is obviously a symbol of a woman, the church, just like Revelation 17 is symbolic.

Who is the great red dragon that wants to destroy her and her man child?

You look in verse 9, and that great dragon was cast out called that old serpent, the devil and Satan.

Now can a 5 year old understand that verse?

I mean, there's no question about who the dragon is.

The bad guy, the arch fiend, the villain, the devil, consummate evil, the dark side, I mean there's all kinds of terms that you can find for him, he is the embodiment of evil, the first rebel.

And the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered to devour her child as soon as it was born?

I think I told you earlier 3 times in the Bible the devil has made an effort to annihilate all of these children that he was suspicious the Messiah was going to come through He had all the baby boys in Israel thrown in the river, not the girls, the boys, because they knew the Messiah was going to be the promised seed.

Then Athaliah tried to kill all the descendants of David because the devil heard the prophecy that the Messiah would come through David.

And then when Jesus was a baby, the devil tried to use the Roman power and King Herod killed all the babies in Bethlehem right after Joseph and Mary fled.

Alright, what happens third question, after Satan fails to destroy Jesus as a baby, Christ escapes it says her child was caught up to God in his throne, the devil could no longer reach Christ after Jesus completed his mission, he lived 33 and a half years of perfect life, he taught publicly for 3 and a half years, from His baptism at 30 years of age, performed miracles, taught the gospel, ultimately died for the sins of the world, rose the third day, ascended to heaven, and he has been out of the devil's reach because Jesus is in heaven, right?

Satan was cast out of heaven, he can't reach him.

Of course, he's got his divine body now, he's not vulnerable anymore as he was when he was a man.

So when the devil can't reach Christ and he wants to hurt Christ, what does he do?

We'll be back in just a moment with the rest of today's presentation.

No, the Bible never says that Eve ate an apple, nor does it say that 3 wise men came to see Jesus in the manger.

Neither does the Bible say that God made a devil.

And What does it really say about heaven and hell, the origin of the devil, and the second coming of Jesus?

There are so many common misunderstandings about the Word of God.

That's why Amazing Facts wants to send you a special free resource called the Hidden Truth Magazine.

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Let's return now to today's presentation and learn some more amazing facts from the Word of God.

Fourth question, after Jesus was caught up to heaven, what did Satan do to the church?

It says, when the dragon saw that he was cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman that brought forth the man child.

Not only do we know that it happened in the Roman Empire in a very strong sense.

First of all, it started with the Jewish church, not all the Jews, because obviously the early church was all Jewish.

The apostles were Jewish, the testament was written largely by Jews, but there were some religious leaders that hated Jesus, some loved Him like Nicodemus, like Joseph, there were some good religious leaders and there were some bad religious leaders.

Unfortunately, those in power began to really persecute.

Read in Acts chapter 7, it says Stephen was stoned, the supreme court of the Jewish nation basically plugged their ears when Stephen preached the gospel, Paul was an accessory to the murder of Stephen, Paul then went breathing threatenings and slaughter and he went from church to church taking men and women, putting them in jail and killing, so it started there but then the Jews encouraged the Romans to do it, same thing they did with Jesus, the Jews went to Pilate, the Roman governor to get the death decree, and you realize that there were some Jewish enemies of Paul that went all the way to Rome to accuse Paul before Nero, I mean they were really upset because you know why?

All around the Roman Empire where the Jews had churches and synagogues Christians were learning what the scriptures really taught and many in the synagogues, sometimes whole synagogues were turning to Christ you can read about that all through the book of Acts, and so some of the ones who did not want to accept Jesus, they became vicious And so when I talk about the Jews, there were good believing Jews and there were some that were ambivalent and some that were very unkind.

And so then it went, it transferred over to the Romans.

At the same time the Jews were very threatened with the Christians, they also were very angry with the Romans for occupying their country.

A Man After Gods Own Heart: King David

David Wright

Hendersonville Seventh-day Adventist Church, NC

02 God’s Heart, God’s Man, God’s Ways

Today's scripture reading is found in 2 Chronicles 16, verse 9.

He was speaking to King Asa when King Asa was in a time of trouble with the country of Judah.

For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.

You have done foolishly in this, for from now on you will have wars.

Well, we're gonna continue in short today, another piece from David, A Man After God's Own Heart.

And today's piece I've entitled, God's heart, God's man, God's ways.

And so this is part 2, I suppose we can call in this series.

I want to begin by just asking a simple question.

Perhaps you're buying a car, Perhaps you're buying an appliance.

I don't know about you, but for me, 1 of the first things I do is I go to Consumer Reports.

You can purchase even just 1 month subscription, which is long enough to do all the research on which vehicle, which appliance, which gets the best rating, which car is the most reliable, gets the best gas mileage and so on and so forth.

Which washing machine will get our clothes the cleanest or the quietest, maybe the cleanest and the quietest, I don't know, which 1 lasts the longest.

And I'm always amazed that when they show prices, sometimes ones that are priced really high score really poorly.

And so that's why I think I'm gonna keep coming back here to to make some of these decisions Which leaf blower is the most powerful man?

That is the only 1 we're interested in right especially this time of year If you don't know what I'm talking about come see my yard Every couple days we have to blow off some more leaves.

Do they share the same interests that you do?

Do they love the Lord with all their heart?

Do they share your same values, your same thoughts and ideas of raising a family or whatever it may be?

As we read here in 1 Samuel 8, in 1 Samuel 8, verse 7 we read, And the Lord said to Samuel, Heed the voice of the people and all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, Samuel, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.

They saw all the nations around them and they had kings and we want to be like them, we need to be like them, and so in essence they rejected God's original plan that God would be their king, that they weren't going to be like everyone else.

Hosea 13 Verse 11 says, I gave you a king in my anger.

But you said, no, we want to have someone else.

Patriarchs and prophets says this, when men choose to have their own way without seeking counsel from God or in opposition to his revealed will, he often grants their desires, there it is, in order that through the bitter experience that follows they may be led to realize their folly and to repent of their sins." Do we ever do that as parents?

I think you should think about this or think about that.

And we let them do that thing in hopes that they will, in following their own ways, realize, oh, this perhaps wasn't the best idea.

The quote continues, Human pride and wisdom will prove a dangerous guide.

That which the heart desires contrary to the will of God will in the end be found a curse rather than a blessing.

Now don't answer out loud, but have you ever had an experience in your own life where you can say, yep, I can attest to that.

And that is exactly what was the result of their own decision with Saul.

They chose Saul in human pride and human wisdom because he was, well, tall, dark, handsome.

And yes, Saul had a measure of humility to begin with, but before long he became thin-skinned, hot-tempered, given to seasons of depression and even thoughts of murder.

We think it was about 10 years after Saul became king, as the people were on this long drift from God as they were becoming disillusioned with their leader that David was born.

So there's about this 50 year spread or so that we think between Saul and David.

Now if you've ever gotten your own way and it's all wrong, you may understand how it can be a most disillusioning, insecure feeling to recognize that this wasn't the best idea.

And sometimes you can't always put your finger on why.

He graciously intervenes with Samuel, and it is good news for the people, but it's bad news for Saul.

1 Samuel 13, 13, you have done a foolish thing, Samuel said.

You have not kept the command of the Lord your God gave you if you had he would Have established your kingdom over Israel for how long?

All time, but you have acted foolishly You have not kept the command of the Lord So verse 14, but now your kingdom will not endure the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him ruler of his people because you have not kept the Lord's command.

Here we see God choosing a man and what kind of man?

Outside of the Godhead, of course, more has been written about David than any other Biblical character.

Abraham's given about 14 chapters, Joseph is given about the same, Jacob has 11, Elijah 10, but to David is dedicated 66 chapters, if my count is correct.

And that does not include some 59 references to his life in the New Testament.

And it's on 2 occasions he's called, 1 right here that we just read, a man after God's own heart.

And we are told that when he was walking in the counsel of God, that he was called a man after God's own heart.

But friends, this morning I want to ask you, when God chooses a man, When God chooses a woman, a young boy, a young girl, what does he base his choice on?

Back to Menu

All Teachings

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

43m

The Woman of Light

28m

02 God’s Heart, God’s Man, God’s Ways

25m

A Second Look at the First Day

52m

13 The End of God’s Mission

25m

Core Beliefs Pt. 2

38m

Case Studies and Q&A

1h 12m

01 The Nobody Nobody Noticed

37m

A Blanket Solution

51m

We Need Counseling

55m

A Level Above Forgiveness

47m

Prisoners in the House of Freedom

34m

Sound Doctrine