The Unforgivable Sin

[Music] I heard a story of a pastor who was speaking to his congregation one week and he wanted to make sure that people were getting the message he was trying to convey so he asked his congregation can anyone tell me what you must do before you can receive forgiveness from God a little boy shouted from the back of the room you have to sin well yeah the better answer would have been you need to ask God to forgive you of your sin and turn from it but that is true before you can receive God's forgiveness first you have to sin so to make sure that I'm speaking of the right audience how many of you have ever sinned raise up your hand okay good that's good to know here's some good news something we all know but it's good to be reminded of God forgives sin our God has a big eraser sometimes people will falsely say well you know I believe in the god of the New Testament but I have a struggle with the God of the Old Testament because of the god of the Old Testament is harsh and wrathful and judgmental and the god of the New Testament is loving and forgiving well that's just not true the god of the Old Testament is the same as the god of the New Testament and one thing that is clear from Genesis to Revelation is we serve a forgiving God David said in Psalm 86 5 Lord you are so good so ready to forgive and full of unfailing love for those who ask your aid God described himself to Moses as he passed in front of Moses and said in Exodus 34 I am the bored I am the Lord the merciful and gracious God I am slow to anger and rich and unfailing love and faithfulness I show this unfailing love to many thousands by forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion and then Micah reflecting on this great truth said in Micah 7 where is there another God like you who pardons the sins of the survivors among his people you cannot stay angry with your people forever you delight in showing mercy and compassion you trample our sins under your feet and throw them into the depths of the ocean I love that picture the depths of the ocean experts tell us that the lowest part of the ocean is 36 thousand feet below sea level wow that's deep I once made it down to a hundred feet and I thought it was something I imagined a depth like that and I don't think if we ever actually reach the literal bottom of the ocean though we would suddenly find all those sins here they are but rather it's a picture it's a metaphor God is using and basically what are you saying I will put your sin far away from you when you turn from it and ask for my forgiveness that means you don't have to keep dredging it up we should not choose to remember what God has chosen to forget Corrie ten Boom put it well when she said God has taken our sin he's thrown it into the sea of forgetfulness and he has posted a sign that says no fishing allowed forgiveness it's clearly in the Bible and then when we go to the New Testament we see how the Lord forgave people what better example do we have of God's forgiveness than Jesus hanging on the cross and praying for the very people that pounded the spikes through his hands and feet when he says Father forgive them for they know not what they do and God reassures us some first John 1:9 if we will confess our sin he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness listen the only sin that God will not forgive is the send that we will not confess now having said that Jesus does warn of an unforgivable sin I've had people come to me over the years and ask about selling one soul to the devil I've heard people say well I sold my soul to the devil really I don't think that's possible actually sort of the idea of that is that you entered into some kind of a business transaction with Satan himself where he gave you X in exchange for why you said all right devil give me this and I give you my soul and what you've given your soul to Satan you can never get it back again that's how the idea goes this is not biblical of course your soul is not even yours to give you couldn't sell it if you wanted to I'm sure some would if they good but the idea of selling one soul of the devil is somewhat represented in this message we're looking at know where we are saying there is a point of no return there is an unforgivable sin but what is that well according to Jesus it is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit so let's read about it Matthew 12 starting in verse 22 then one was brought to him who was demon-possessed blind and mute and He healed him so the blind and mute man both spoke and saw and all the multitudes were amazed and said could this be the son of David but when the Pharisees heard that they said all this fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub the ruler of the demons and Beelzebub was just another name for Satan but Jesus view their thoughts he said to them you know every Kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation and every city or house divided against itself will not stand if Satan cast out Satan he's divided against himself how then will his kingdom stand if I cast out demons by Beelzebub but whom do your sons cast them out therefore they will be your judges but if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God surely the kingdom of God has come upon you how can you enter a strongman found some plunderers goods unless you first bind the strongman then you can plunder his house he that is not with me is against me he would just not gather with me scatters abroad so Jesus has sort of blowing their argument of party saying this is illogical you say I'm casting out Satan by the power of Satan why would Satan allow something like that why would the devil want to disrupt his own Kingdom so he's showing that's not true and now he warns them because of this attitude that they've taken on verse 31 therefore I say to you every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men but the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven men and anyone who says the words 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 the age to come we'll stop there now these religious leaders these scribes and Pharisees were royally ticked off at Jesus why because he was bad for business ironically that for their religious business they were insanely envious and jealous of his growing popularity in fact it was this very envy and jealousy that ultimately drove them to have him crucified why were they envious because the people the common people loved Jesus he was understandable he was approachable he was compassionate Jesus was everything the religious elite were not scripture tells us the common people heard him gladly Jesus never spoke over anyone's head he broke it down so most people could understand what he was saying and that is what a good communicator should do you know Jesus was understood by children but the greatest intellects of the time were challenged by his words and I just don't get preachers that are boring to me there's almost not a worse crime than to get up and bore people it reminds me of a illustration I heard of a minister that was asked to go to a civic function and say a few words you know it's kind of challenging the asking minister to say a few words the ministers can be well long-winded so this Minister got up he was given I think 10 minutes and he went through his ten minutes rather quickly he's moving on to 15 minutes now and the moderator as a meeting to conduct so he clears his throat hmm hoping the minister would hear him still the preacher drones on so now we're at 20 minutes and the moderator pounds us gavel down hoping the minister would stop the preacher doesn't slow down he just keeps going and going and now the moderator is pounding down the gavel loudly to stop this Reverend from talking still the minister continued on now we're at 30 minutes moderator I can't take it any more he takes his gavel throws it at the preacher barely misses him and hits an elderly man who had fallen asleep in the front row the old guy wakes up sees the preacher is still speaking it says in the moderator hit me again I can still hear him ever felt that way do you feel that way right now by the way I ripped off that illustration from Billy Graham that was when he used four years but that's how it can be sometimes you listen to some Minister speak some councillors preach and it's like watching paint dry it's just boring and difficult and or they want to use words that will impress people and speak over the heads of the people and people walk on say but that was impressive his vocabulary is amazing I don't understand a thing he said but I'm glad he's on our side you know what if I can't share something with you in an understandable way I am missing what God has called me to do that's what Jesus did that's what we are to do and that's what the religious leaders did not do instead of bringing people close to God in many ways they kept them from God and they wanted to stop Jesus and they actually attribute the work of God - the work of Satan and that shows that their hearts were getting hard and they were actually getting closer to committing the unforgivable sin it's a scary thing when you can see a work of God and say well God's not in it or even go further and say I think the devil did that you know we have people who are critical of our Crusades now I don't expect a non-believer to necessarily always get what we do but yet some of our most ardent critics are not non-believers at all they're so-called Christians who will say things like well you know these Crusades these people aren't really coming to Jesus Christ these conversions are not genuine you know Greg Laurie he doesn't preach about judgment he doesn't tell people to repent he never mentions the death of Jesus Christ and these people are just going to a big rock show and they never cry tears of repentance and my response is have you ever been to a Harvest Crusade because actually I do preach on judgment and I do tell people to repent and I do preach on the cross and they'll say no but still you know they critique it and it's not of God they'll say and others will say maybe a hyper reformed person well the problem is Greg you're you know you're giving false assurance to the non-elect really a lot like the words of dl Moody when he said Lord save the elect and then elect some more you know and I would say this to these critics I don't mind being critiqued in fact I have a lot of criticisms for myself and if it's a valid criticism I'm more than open to hearing it but I think a lot of times they they set up a straw man and knock them down they critique something that doesn't exist to make themselves feel better and I think it says more about them than about the one they're critiquing and I would just warn them and say be careful when God is working and you say that is not a work of God because that's exactly what these Pharisees were doing now when we think of a Pharisee we generally think of someone in a negative light if we were to call someone a Pharisee it would certainly not be a comp if we were to say you know you're a Pharisee that would be like saying you're a self-righteous hypercritical mean-spirited person but actually that's not technically what a Pharisee was a Pharisee was a man who had dedicated his life to the study of Scripture he took a solemn vow before three witnesses that he would spend every moment of his life obeying the Ten Commandments now that's not to say they succeeded because clearly they did not but that's at least what they tried to do there were some good Pharisees not many Nicodemus was a Pharisee and he came to Jesus at night and became a believer but by and large these Pharisees these religious experts had hard hearts here's what is ironic they spent their time studying the Word of God you read of scribes and Pharisees a scribe was someone who wrote down the scripture see they didn't have printing presses and so they would write by hand out the Word of God that was their job so they spent their entire day and night in Scripture carefully writing it and the Pharisee spent their life studying it yet these men immersed in such a spiritual endeavor had hearts that were so hard they attributed to the devil that which was being done by God this just reminds us of one thing the church is a dangerous place let me explain you say what dangerous place I always thought of this is a safe place well it can be it depends where the church is there are some churches today in Islamic countries where Islamic radicals are broken in and literally a beaten and even murdered Christians so in their case the church is literally a dangerous place but here's how it can be a dangerous place for us today this is a place where we honor God this is a place where the Word of God goes out now you have a choice as to how you will react to that I don't know why you're here today I hope you're here because you want to grow spiritually you want to worship the Lord and he want to learn more about Christ but if you've come here out of mere duty and obligation and you're sort of almost like figuring wow if I go to church today I can sin a little more this week because I've kind of done my thing for God and maybe I'll go back tonight so I can even get extra sin creditor and that boy watch out or if you sit there today you know with your arms crossed there's nothing wrong with crossing because I'm old you know I was cold sorry but I just using this as a picture you know with your arms crossed and kind of with a furrowed brow with a skeptical I don't know if I let you know careful now because listen to this the same Sun that softens the wax hardens the clay sometimes the most hardened people can be in the church not outside of it we think that person down there at the bar right now having their first drink of the day at 10:30 6:00 in the morning maybe their third drink I don't know well they're so far from God yeah maybe they are but they may be closer to getting right with God then a person that comes to church every Sunday ok Greg a I lost you there that makes no sense ok using I'm not advocating we all go to bars and drink ok I think you know that but just in case someone doesn't let me state that I'm saying that person drinking they might be saying my life is miserable what am i doing in a bar at this time living my life this way I need to get my life right with God they're thinking about it maybe they'll act on it but the person is sitting in the church they say I know it all I've heard it all I am so spiritual and the problem is they're getting a hard heart because they're arrogant and they're actually resistant to the work that the spirit wants to do in their life easier to get a hard heart in the church than to get it outside so it's dangerous here in as far as you coming without the right motive now if you come with an open heart this is the best place you possibly could be this will be like a green house for you you will flourish and grow but if you come with a critical spirit in a hard heart it can be a dangerous place for you these Pharisees are not doubting Jesus because they merely disagreed with him they were hardened against him remember in our last message when we talked about John the Baptist and we dealt with the subject of doubt they pointed out doubt is a matter of the mind even Christians have moments of doubt we don't always understand what God is doing or why he is doing it in contrast unbelief as a matter of the will it's a choice one makes these Pharisees were full of unbelief they did not reject Jesus for lack of evidence or because he was not consistent with what he said the fact of the matter is Jesus was the perfect example even Pontius Pilate who had examined thousands of men said I find no fault in him Judas Iscariot who spent three concentrated years with Jesus and even betrayed him said I have betrayed innocent blood so Jesus clearly was a model of everything that he said they rejected Jesus because it interfered with the way they wanted to live and that is why people reject him today they don't reject Jesus because they've carefully examined the evidence and have determined it's not convincing enough they don't reject him because they've read through the scripture and have found some apparent contradiction they don't reject him because of the so called hypocrisy of some in the church they reject him because he interferes with their lifestyle they want to live a certain way and Jesus tells them to live a better way here's what Jesus said in John 3:19 this is the verdict light has come into the world but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come to the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed and that brings us to the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit now the very word blasphemy and Holy Spirit shows us we're dealing with I here and not in it sometimes people think of the spirit as a force you know we can understand the idea of God as a father even the idea of God as a son but God is a spirit is harder for us to wrap our minds around but the Holy Spirit a member of the Trinity has a distinct personality in other words you cannot blaspheme an object you can only blaspheme a person you don't blaspheme a car though maybe you've tried because it won't start in the morning you blaspheme a person there are other sins that can be specifically committed against the spirit sins that perhaps even ramp up if you will to the ultimate sin that of the blaspheming of this bear for instance there's a sin of resisting the Spirit Steven mentioned this in acts 7 51 as he spoke to the Sanhedrin and these were the elite of the elite these were the guys that were in charge of the Pharisees effectively when they were the equivalent of a religious Supreme Court if you will and they heard Stephan preached and rejected this message and he said to them you stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears you're just like your father's resisting the Holy Spirit see Stephen is pointing out that the work of the Holy Spirit is to lead a person to God jesus said of the Spirit in John 16 when he has come he will convince the world of sin and of God's righteousness and of the coming judgment the Spirit is incredibly patient and persistent but it's possible to resist his pleadings apparently the spiritual leaders of Israel that Stephen was addressing had done just that they were convinced of the truth of what he was saying but they were rejected it they chose to not believe it and that was resisting the Spirit and that showed itself when they executed this innocent young man then there's a sin of insulting the spirit Hebrews 10:29 says think how much more terrible the punishment will be for those who have on the Son of God and have treated the blood of the Covenant as if we're common and unholy such people listen have insulted and enraged the Holy Spirit who brings God's mercy to his people I don't know about you but I don't want to enrage the spirit how is this done it's done by taking the death of Jesus and dismissing it as nothing again Hebrews 10 says they've treated the blood of the Covenant as if it were common and then holy it would be like this let's say you're gonna propose marriage to your girlfriend of two years so she knows what's coming take her to a nice restaurant and right before your proposal you pull back a curtain and there's a full orchestra playing a beautiful romantic song you get down on one knee you pull out the ring box you open it up in front of all of your friends and family you say to your beloved will you marry me I love you she looks at you and says ah no not only will I not marry you I don't even like you in fact you disgust me but since you're in a nice restaurant let's order something anyway do you mind you know what wait what yeah that that's what she said well that's insulting isn't it now imagine God for a moment he says Toshi and I love you so much and so I sent my son to die for you do you understand what kind of sacrifice it is for a father to give a son I gave my son to suffer and die in your place and if you'll turn from your sin and put your faith in me through my son I will forgive you and you can spend all eternity with me what do you say oh are you serious you know I think all roads lead to God really as long as the person is sincere and with the death of Jesus what does that mean that means nothing to me at all I think that if I just live a good life that's in saltine to God you can you see how these things are escalating resisting the spirit insulting the spirit now we come to blaspheming the spirit what is it well let me tell you what it isn't because people are troubled by this periodically I'll have this question asked you know what is the blasphemy of the spirit why because it's the unforgivable sin because a lot of people before they were Christians they curse pretty much everything in everyone maybe in a drunken stupor or a drug-induced State or just an outright rage they curse the Holy Spirit of the thinking man that I commit the unforgivable sin the answer is no because that's not what it means to blaspheme the Holy Spirit ISM is to insult and reject his very work why is this spirit come we already read that verse he's come to convince us of our sin it's to reject the mission of this spirit it's to say no to the spirit blasphemy represents the conscience denouncing and rejection of God it has a defiant irreverence the sin of intentionally and openly speaking evil against God remember King Belshazzar king of Babylon and he had a grandfather named Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar was a proud arrogant man but one day the Lord got his attention and he repented and turned to God but apparently his grandson didn't learn much from grandpa and went out of his way to defy God in fact one day Belshazzar through this big feast and he invited all his concubines and all of his Lords and subjects and and they're just partying away and he says hey man let's take this thing to the next level go get those like holy objects you know the Jews used in the works of other God let's fill them with wine and let's offer toasts to the false gods that we serve here in Babylon so they bring in these objects that were used by the Jewish people and the worship of the Lord and Belshazzar is like mocking God well God says this God is not mocked whatsoever man so that will he also read well guess what Isabel shaza is drinking away he sees something happening it wasn't a pink elephant either it was a hand just a hand riding on a wall that was lit by a lamb and on the wall these words were written teka teka or many many Tekel you farsan she didn't know what that meant here there was this weird prophet dude named Daniel that could interpret these things they bring up Daniel who's an aging man at this point he reads it hey Belshazzar okay here's what it says you've been weighed in the balances and you've been found lacking and your kingdom is going to be taken from you now Wow now that meant that Belshazzar was waiting God's divine scale and he was a lightweight I don't know about you but I do not like to stand on the scale and weigh myself I'm always disappointed by the result well Belshazzar had no weight he had no substance and that night he lost his life he found out the hard way God is not mocked the Bible tells us that one of the signs of the last days is people will go out of their way to blaspheme God that will be a distinguishing characteristic eric turistic of the Antichrist who the scripture says will blaspheme God even as God's judgment is falling on non-believers in the tribulation we read in Revelation 16:9 they were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God who controlled these things and they refused to repent and glorify Him so to commit this sin does not merely represent unbelief but determined unbelief the Pharisees had intentionally hardened their hearts against God yes there is a point of no return the Bible speaks of Esau who went too far Hebrews 12:16 says make sure that you're not immoral or godless like Esau who traded his birthright for a single meal and afterwards when he wanted his father's blessing he was rejected it was too late for repentance even though he wept bitter tears the wait how could it be too late for repentance because as I said there is a point of no return God looks on the heart and he saws heart was as hard as stone and so you can get a hardened heart to Pharaoh's heart was hard even though he saw miracle after miracle performed by the hand of Moses and Aaron his heart got hard Pharaoh hardened his heart wearied but then we read God hardened Pharaoh's heart and some people are confused by that God hardened his heart yeah after Pharaoh hardened his own heart God will strengthen you if you will and the decision you have already made it's a if it's a decision of belief he will affirm you in it if it's a decision of unbelief God will say is that the way you want to go then I'll affirm you and that as well Pharaoh hardened his heart God merely affirmed it don't get a hardened heart now if a heart is hard it'll come out on what we say look at verse 33 either make the tree good and the fruit good or make the tree bad and it's fruit bad for a tree is known by its fruit brood of vipers how can you beam evil speak good things proud of the abundance of a heart the mouth speaks a good men out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things and I say to you that every idle word that men may speak they'll give an account of on the day of judgment out of the abundance of a heart a man speaks your words will determine where your heart is at now we guard our words and we're careful in certain circumstances but when we get around people we're familiar with the real us comes out it's been said that in an average day from the time we say good morning and then later good evening that we speak enough words to fill a book of fifty to sixty pages or a hundred books a year of 200 pages now girls would do twice that I you know I am convinced girls talk more than guys do generally there are exceptions to this of course but you know just watch guys in a restaurant and watch girls in a restaurant see guys you know though you know one guy will say you know I think the dotted on the other guys will listen to go well we think you know you know there it is girls talk well I think well I think well I think was in there all talking at the same time yet they understand one another I think it's probably a higher intelligence at work perhaps somehow don't clap don't because then I'll have to balance it and you don't want that to happen but you know they just have this intuitive way of communicating that is all their own but here's the thing I don't know if it's always a good thing to say more words because you'll be judged for every word you've said can an average day you speak enough words to fill a book this big that's a pretty small book you can see just just not too many pages that's that's one day okay this is one week that's getting a little bigger you see there's more pages okay but wait there's more this is one month this is the biggest book I have in my library it's called illustrations of seven thousand seven hundred and cyclopædia of seven thousand seven hundred illustrations but this is one month now imagine okay let's say this is one month out of your life and I'm reading it now I'm reading everything I mean in every conversation I've got your text in here too also your emails your facebook entries everything it's all here little notes those little conversations all those cell conversing it's all here and I'm reading every word you're going to be held accountable for what you said now here's the thing it's going to come out on what you say if you're a bitter person for instance you're going to find yourself talking about it bitter people love to spread it around dinner party of one you know if you're around them it won't be long until they bring up that topic their pet peeve this person they're ticked off at and on they go and coming back to that statement about Esau that I quoted let me read it to you now from another translation keep a sharp sharp eye out for weeds a bitter discontent a thistle or two gone deceit can ruin a whole garden in no time watch out for the Esau syndrome treating away God's lifelong gift in order to satisfy a short-term appetite but the weeds of bitter discontent that can ruin a whole garden in no time if your heart is filled with bitterness it will come out in your words if your heart is filled with lust that too will come out in words what is it with some people everything is essential in you endo or a double entendre their minds are so messed up everything they said say seems to have a sexual connotation so you're talking them they say well I don't know but I know there's dah dah dah dah dah dah I'm not even gonna use words to illustrate it but you ended up uh-huh you're like what you know I did huh I don't get it you don't get it it's nice when we don't always get that stuff isn't it like I didn't get that what to explain that oh yeah wow you really are twisted aren't you I get it now yeah I got it but that's what their mind is filled with that's going to come out in their words or in their emails or in their text or whatever else and if you have a heart that's filled with grace and love and wisdom from God's Word that too will come out you know spending time with Billy Graham I have to say that he is the most godly man I've ever met he is everything in private that you think of him think of him in public he's the same guy in fact he's disarmingly a candid and you're amazed at his humility I mean he is Billy Graham but he doesn't act like it he's just a godly man it wasn't open heart and gracious words I can't really think of any times I've heard him speak critically of anyone amazing so it's all going to come out of what you say so after all this here they're having this conversation and and Jesus is warned him is going guys and I just got to warn you right now you are pushing the envelope big time by attributing to the devil that which is being done by God that shows you're getting a heart in art and I'm warning you you might end up blaspheming the Holy Spirit which essentially is the rejection of Christ because the Spirit has come to bring us to Christ so be careful they're like really hey you know what we'd like to see a sign from you now what yeah we want to see a miracle that convinced us like he hasn't done enough miracles then he raised the Daughter of Jairus from the dead then he just touched his demon-possessed man yeah we want to see a miracle you know that show us a trick can you pull a rabbit out of a hat you know I have a little box of tricks I bought for Stella my granddaughter and and you know she loves to do little pranks on people now she hasn't learned the ways of deception very well and because people know what she's doing when she's doing a trick I mean in this box Rin since we have the predictable tricks like the faith fake bar frighten you put it on the floor and oh no barf and then there's a squirting ring you know it's got the little squirter and you hide up there and you hey look at my ring and squirt them in the face and Stella will do it and squirt herself and you know and then there's the dribble glass where you know you has a little holes in and drinking the water drips on the person and then there's the shocking gum where you pull the gum and it shocks you and all that so you know she'll do these tricks to people and they always know but they go along with it you can you know so happy when it happens they do a trick for us Jesus what do you got Jesus says I'm not going to do any tricks for you guys I'm not going to do any signs for you in fact here's a sign that I'm going to give to you right now look at verse 39 an evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign and no sign will be given but out of the prophet Jonah as three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth you know sometimes we think if we could do a miracle for our friends they would believe man if I could just you know pray for this person to be healed they would believe right there I know they would if I could just do something dazzling you know if I'm at a barbecue with some buddies and call fire down to my stake right there man check this up you know do you want to believe in Jesus right now no you know what that wouldn't convince him even when Jesus walked the earth they didn't believe him though he raised people from the dead even after he himself raised bodily from the dead in people saw them with their own eyes they still rejected him so here is what he says here's your sign remember that Jonah guy three days three nights' and the fishes way a fish's belly whale's stomach he said so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights on the heart of the earth in other words Jesus was saying here's my sign to a lost world I'm going to go to a cross I'm going to die and I'm going to rise again from the dead you can accept that and be forgiven and you can reject that and not be forgiven so that is your choice and if you don't accept that that will lead you to the blaspheming of the Spirit where you were insulting the work and mission of the Spirit which is to bring you to Jesus Christ yes there is a point of no return during World War two a United States battleship aircraft carrier and some smaller boats were patrolling the waters of the northern Atlantic in search of German u-boats and one evening several pilots took off from the carrier and we told to be back by a certain hour but the leader of the squadron of four planes purposefully stayed out longer feeling with just a little more time he could score an impressive hit on the enemy but as the Sun was setting a German Armada entered the area and the American fleet was now in trouble for their outgun and out and and outnumbered so they had to order radio silence so they would not be discovered but the German Armada meanwhile those four planes that were out on their mission were coming back they were very low in fuel he needed to land and they called in saying turn on the landing lights but because radio silence had been ordered they would not turn the landing lights on and disclose their position to the Nazis and so as a story is recorded the men in the aircraft carrier stood by in horror as they watch for American planes crash into the icy waters of the Atlantic God says today is a day of salvation the light is shining people hear the word of God but there's going to come a day when the lord the commander in chief will order radio silence the lights will be dimmed and people will not be able to find their way home you know you say well I'll just do it later I don't want to be a Christian now I want to mess around I want to have some fun I'll be a Christian when I'm really old like 40 or I'll make a commitment to Christ on my deathbed yeah really here's my concern maybe by the time you're 40 your heart will be so hard you won't care anymore you know I think it's some of these atheists that have gone out of their way to thumb their nose at God Sam Harris Richard Dawkins Christopher Hitchens who've written books attacking the Christian faith Christopher Hitchens has throat cancer he's debated Christians on multiple occasions including our friend Dinesh D'Souza who is here a while back and a lot of Christians have taken it upon themselves to pray for Christopher Hitchens that God would heal him and that he would come to Jesus Christ and he's actually said please I don't really want your prayers I I appreciate the fact that you care about me but don't pray from eating be converted he's come out and publicly said I will not be converted really I really pray you will be because you know what God can even save atheists CS Lewis was once an atheist and he came to faith in Jesus and became one of the leading apologists of the Christian faith Lee Strobel was an atheist and there was careful research into the claims and promises of Jesus he became a believer in now as an apologist as well there are many people who said there was no God and have come to know God so there's always hope we should pray but we are concerned for those that would go beyond the point of no return don't let that happen to you one closing word from Jesus verse 30 of Matthew 12 he that is not with me is against me he who does not gather with me scatters abroad a mother a more modern translation makes that clear anyone who was in helping me opposes me and anyone who isn't working with me is actually working against me yeah you have to make a decision about Jesus and if you've joined this today and you've never said yes to him do it now say yes to Jesus and be forgiven of your sin don't say well I'll do it later because every day you put it off your heart gets a little harder the Bible says he who was often reproved hardens his heart and he will be cut off and that without remedy don't harden your heart

Channel: Pastor Greg Laurie

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Rating: 4.7403574 out of 5

Keywords: Greg Laurie, sin, forgiveness, God, Bible, blashemy, holy spirit, moderator, preacher, speaking, billy graham, doubt, hebrews 10:29, conversation, talk, girls, men, women, atheist, christopher hitchens

Id: u59bUlEGack

Length: 43min 25sec (2605 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 23 2010