The Unpardonable Sin

well good evening welcome north lake baptist church to our midweek bible study time thank you so much for coming out tonight thank you for joining in online to watch and be a part of our service and bible study together we want to begin our service tonight singing a good old-fashioned hymn a gospel song of the baptist uh alma mater how about that or the baptist national anthem victory in jesus let's stand together and sing victory in jesus together and praise god for salvation i heard an old old story how a savior came from glory how he gave his life on calvary to save a wretch like me i heard about his groaning of his precious blood then i repented of my sins and one of victory o victory in jesus my savior forever he saw me and mark me with his redeeming blood he loved the air [Music] he plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing i heard about a mansion he has built for me in glory and i heard about the streets of gold beyond the crystal sea about the angels singing and the old redemption story and some sweet day i'll sing up there the song of victory oh victory in jesus my savior forever he sought me and bought me with his redeeming blog he loved me air i knew him and all my love is to him he plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing floor amen thank you may be seated and i also welcome you here tonight for our wednesday night bible study and it's just a reminder if you have a question about the bible or about christianity uh that you always wanted to know but we're afraid to ask don't be afraid to ask send us an email or a phone call and let us know and we'll try to research it and have a bible study based on that we have one a topic like that tonight if you have your bibles please open to mark chapter 3 mark chapter 3 and we'll begin reading in verse 20 in just a few moments it is good to have the folks who are here in person or not as many here in person tonight for two reasons first of all we still uh have a few copied cases in our church family and also tonight we're uh restarting awana and uh i just went through and talked to some of the children tonight and they are really excited about getting their wanna wanna program up and going again so we're excited about that of course we have a lot of folks who would normally be in here who are working with wanna children tonight wanda is trying to tell me what's the count 22 children tonight that's a very good restart uh so we're looking forward to what uh what's going to happen this year during our awana program uh our question for the evening concerns the unpardonable sin the unpardonable or unforgivable sin is described in matthew chapter 12 31 and also in mark chapter 3 and verse 28 that we'll be reading in just a few moments i recently received a call from a person who was concerned that they had committed the unpardonable sin uh he'd made a profession of faith in christ early in his life but when he got into the teen years he turned his back on christianity and lived a sinful lifestyle and now he wanted a close relationship with god but he was afraid that he had sinned away his day of grace and so that was our question for the evening is what do you think about that can a christian commit the unpardonable sin i looked at the poll for those who had checked in on a while back yes got nine percent no got 81 percent and undecided was at nine percent so we'll try to clear up this question for us tonight uh but let's read what jesus had to say about this in mark chapter three and i'll begin reading verse 20. now when the multitude came together again so that they could not so much as eat bread in other words jesus was gaining in such popularity and notoriety that the crowds were so huge that his own people talking about his own family got concerned about him and they went out to lay hold of him for they said he is out of his mind uh here's jesus who had grown up with these brothers and sisters and they thought he was an ordinary man now he starts doing extraordinary things and crowds start coming to be healed and hear him preach and so they're not real sure what to do with him but then the scribes who came down from jerusalem this is the religious leaders said he has beelzebub and by the ruler of demons he casts out demons so jesus called them to himself and said to them in parables how can satan cast out satan if a kingdom is divided against itself that kingdom cannot stand if a house is divided against itself that house cannot stand and if satan has risen up against himself and is divided he cannot stand but he has an end no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds a strong man and then he will plunder his house assuredly i say unto you all sins will be forgiven the sons of men and whatever blasphemies they may utter but he who blasphemes against the holy spirit never has forgiveness but is subject to eternal condemnation because they said speaking of jesus that he has an unclean spirit or they were saying that that jesus was demon possessed so from there we'll be talking about that unforgivable or the unpardonable sin uh a number of years ago i read a story by a veteran news reporter lowell thomas he was describing the first airplane flight over the south pole it was in the fall of 1963 the u.s air force crews took two c-130 cargo planes and flew from cape town south africa to australia it was a 17-hour flight and it took 9 600 gallons of jet fuel since the flight would be over uninhabited ocean and ice the navigators prepared a very thorough flight plan and in the middle of the chart was a spot marked p n r p n r stood for the point of no return once they passed this point there would be no turning back because there would not be enough fuel for them to turn back and any mistake they made in navigation or mechanical failure or anything after that meant disaster because they didn't have enough fuel to go back and they didn't have enough to go forward if they end up having problems most times these days we don't have to plot a point of no return because we have in-flight refueling and also lots more airports than they had back in the 60s still if you're planning a flight over desolate places like oceans and deserts and jungles you still put in the pnr on there to remind the crew that if there's any problems you better turn back before it's too late before you hit that spot well in verses 28 and 29 that i read here just a few moments ago jesus is warning his critics that in the spiritual realm there is also a point of no return and they had almost crossed it they were danger close to committing the sin for which there is no forgiveness these folks who were criticizing jesus were setting a course for hell that could not be reversed regardless of how hard they worked or how many tears they cried or the size of the love gift that they gave to the church he said there is a sin for which there is no forgiveness there is a sin for which there is no pardon there is a point from which you cannot return these religious leaders were envious of the power and popularity of jesus and they set about to discredit and destroy him well after jesus performed miracles they would actually go out to check on the afflicted person to make sure that it wasn't a hoax but when they get there sure enough they found out that the blind man could see and that the lame could walk and that the sick were healed and that the demon possessed were set free and sane but still they could not indeed they would not accept the fact that jesus was the messiah that he was the one that would be sent from god that he was in fact god's son who was going to save the world and so they accused jesus here of being demon-possessed beelzebub was an ancient hebrew name for satan and so they said jesus casts out demons by the power of the devil well you see jesus respond to him beginning in verse 23. in verse 23 first of all he says it's illogical he said that doesn't even make sense why would satan cast himself out what possible incentive would he have he said a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand why would satan want to cast out you know himself verse 28 he also goes ahead and tells them that what they just did is something called blasphemy blasphemy means to make derogatory or abusive statements against something that is good and so he does the warning in verse 28 but in the matthew passage matthew chapter 12 he actually expands on it listen how that goes therefore i say to you every sin and every blast man will be forgiven men but blasphemy against the holy spirit will not be forgiven men anyone can speak a word against the son of man and it will be forgiven him but whoever speaks against the holy spirit it will not be forgiven in this life or in the one to come so jesus here's telling us that all sins can be forgiven all of them except for one all sins whether it's abortion or adultery whether it's drug abuse or drinking whether it's gambling or gossip whether it's hatred or homosexuality or whether it's lying or lasciviousness whether it's slander or stealing whether it's malice even murder all those things can be forgiven by god if you're willing to confess and repent and turn away from yourself and turn toward the lord and begin to do his keep his commandments even blasphemy speaking evil of your neighbor or your boss or your preacher any of those can be forgiven even speaking evil of the son of man jesus himself all this can be forgiven but he says blasphemy against the holy spirit will not be forgiven in this life or in the one to come so blasphemy against the holy spirit is a spiritual point of no return it's the unpardonable sin well the question then is how does one go about committing the unpardonable sin i know there's some commentaries out there that says you can't commit that sin today because it only applied when jesus was here in the flesh on earth and he was performing miracles and uh and somebody caught you know accused him of doing it by the power of satan other people say that according to verse 30 down there that you only commit this sin by saying that the work of christ is of the devil but before we decide what blasphemy against the holy spirit is i think we need to be reminded of what is the function of the holy spirit what's the holy spirit supposed to be doing in our lives today well there are many functions but let's look at three major ones and i think this will kind of hone in on what this particular sin could be the first thing that the holy spirit does for us is something called inspiration second peter chapter 1 verse 21 tells us that the prophecy of scripture never came by the will of man but holy men of god spoke as they were moved by the holy spirit so again the bible that you hold in your hand was actually spoken to the men who wrote this these prophets who wrote in the old testament the apostles in the new testament by the holy spirit the holy spirit inspired them to write these words that have been passed along to us the second function of the holy spirit is something called illumination john 16 13 says howbeit 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 of things to come and he will glorify me talking about jesus there so he not only inspires these scriptures but he also has the function to illuminate him which means turn the light on whenever you begin to read the scripture the holy spirit is the one that helps you understand and take these words and apply them to your heart so those are two functions right there and the third one that we're told is something called conviction in john chapter 16 verse 8 when the holy spirit has come he will convict the world of sin so the purpose of the holy spirit is to reveal to a lost world the word of god and the work of christ and to convict us of sin and to convince us that we need a savior and so that's the job the holy spirit so jesus is telling his critics said you can speak evil of me and be forgiven but when you speak evil of the work of the holy spirit within me then you've passed the point of no return now despite all the pictures how many of y'all have pictures of jesus at home some of you do and he's always painted look like a happy hippie right long hair good looking handsome guy you know that's that's what you know we really have no idea what jesus looked like um all we have is uh what the dutch uh uh artist that took those pictures and made jesus look like a european and looking cool and all that we have no idea how jesus looked there is no description of him in the new testament there is a description in the old testament isaiah isaiah chapter 53 was looking 700 years in the future and the lord gave him a vision of this messiah and he prophesied that jesus was not going to be handsome he wasn't going to be beautiful he was not going to be cool in his appearance a matter of fact he said there is no beauty that we should desire him so he said he's not going to be anything to write home about how good-looking he is and also in the new testament his sermons were very authoritative but they were not always tactful they definitely were not politically correct he never ingratiated himself to the high and mighty people of the world whether it was the kings and government authority or whether it was high church people the rulers at the church he never had any worldly possessions so that's why jesus said i forgive you if you're offended at my appearance in other words if you don't like the way that i look or you don't like the way that i talk that sort of thing said we understand that completely you know and the same is true with messengers today as i stand to preach some people find fault with the way that i look the way that i talk uh since our broadcast has kind of gone out over the last several months i get all kind of interesting uh thoughts about my accent in other parts of the world where where they write to to talk about the way i talk and you can find fault with the way that i preach and needless to say i am just a man i'm imperfect i'm still learning i'm still growing i still make mistakes my wife here tonight she can fill you in on all those mistakes uh i don't always live out everything that i preach i guess everybody's got a little hypocrisy that goes along with them and so i'm open to criticism and that's okay even if i'm falsely accused you can be forgiven of that but what is unforgivable is when you hear the preaching and teaching of the bible and the holy spirit begins to work in your conscience and in your heart convicting you of sin convincing you that you're a sinner that needs to put your faith and trust in christ and be saved and to obey god and in spite of all that you end up saying no you're getting danger close to that point of no return you're getting close to the unpardonable sin every person in hell today is there because of this sin now there's no doubt they may have committed other sins too like pride and greed and sexual sin and envy and theft and murder all these kind of things but these are just symptoms of the big sin the big sin is the sin of unbelief it's a sin of a lack of faith in the god who made us it's the sin of saying in your heart i'm not going to have jesus be lord of my life it's my life i'm going to live it jolly any way that i want to do it i'm going to do things my own way uh you join in and singing with elvis and frank sinatra i did it my way you know their their famous song that they well that's all it takes to commit the unpardonable sin so i'm not gonna do it god's way i'm gonna do it my own way uh and then the question is is when does one pass this point of no return when does one commit the unpardonable sin and the answer is is only god knows i don't the bible teaches that the unpardonable sin is some combination of unbelief disobedience and time unbelief disobedience and time so let's look at those real quickly first of all unbelief of the holy spirit's inspiration that is the holy spirit reveals jesus to you through the reading the teaching the preaching of the bible and you ignore it you disregard it you treat it as if it's a trivial matter in luke chapter 12 verse 48 it says to whom much is given much will be required in other words everybody will be judged according to the light that they have received uh for example a sinner in the remote jungles of africa who have never heard of jesus christ will have a whole lot lighter sentence in hell than some north georgia good old boy who had churches and christians on every corner up here probably had a bible on his coffee table that he never read or if he did read he didn't do nothing with it be a whole lot more that you'll have to account for why because of your unbelief and the inspiration that the holy spirit took great pains to let you know what god expects out of us in this life and we never cared enough or believed enough in god to even want to find out what that's about so that's the sin of unbelief that's what we call unfaithfulness the second part of that is disobedience of the scriptures illumination once you read the bible and the holy spirit begins to open it up to you and make it clear what you're supposed to do what god expects of us and then you don't pay any attention to that then that's what you call disobedience the holy spirit you know brings the bible to life around you in a variety of ways sometimes it's through your parents sometimes it's through a pastor sometimes through a teacher or friend sometimes it's your spouse maybe your co-workers where you work may even be your children come home and tell you how it went and i wanna last night and uh they're telling you how god is is working around you and uh the spirit speaks to your heart through them uh uh and telling you about who god is and his commandments but still you say i'm not going to do that i'm not going to trust christ i have a short life i'm going to do what i want to with it and i'm not going to obey his word i'll keep the commandments that i want to keep but i'm not going to keep the ones that i don't want to keep and that's what you call disobedience you see it in your children and the lord sees it in us where he has a clear plan for our life he tells us what we're supposed to do with this life through the illuminating power of the holy spirit and we just say i'm not going to do that that's what we call disobedience the third aspect of this is something called time and that one's hard to quantify time is a presumption on the holy spirit's conviction that the holy spirit is working in your heart and life to get you and connected with the god who created you but you assume that you got plenty of time that's a sin of presumption where you presume means that you take god for granted you assume that i've got plenty of time to get around to doing whatever it is that god put me on this planet to do and you're basically saying god i'm going to live my life my way and if i ever need you i'll call you and that's and you keep putting it off and that's where the time factor begins to come in you may go to church and you hear a sermon or hear a bible lesson and you feel guilty you know you need to change but when the invitation is sung and it's time to come forward and make your profession of faith you find yourself holding on to the pew staring at the floor waiting for this thing to hurry up and get over or maybe it's just somebody that you know that witnesses to you and you're starting to feel the lord working in your heart and so you change the subject you want to talk about something else you say no not now i'll i'll do it later i'll i'll i'll make time for the lord later you keep putting the lord off uh you've heard that god will always be there for you we sing some songs like that he'll always be there for you and that's true for christians but not true if you're not a christian he's not going to always be there and so you assume that he's always going to be there and so you've got plenty of time to take care of it later well the question then comes is how many times does god call does the bible tell us how many times we get how many swings of the bat that we get we have a story of pharaoh if you remember the old testament book of exodus moses came to him said let my people go and if you'll remember the lord gave him ten times to get it right ten different plagues like i said ten different plagues were thrown at him and and he still wouldn't change his mind gave him ten opportunities to change and he did not and finally god destroyed you get three strikes and of course the answer to that is i don't know i don't know how many times you get genesis chapter 6 verse 3 says the my spirit shall not strive with man forever in other words there is a limit there is a point where god says enough i've already asked them i've already impressed on their heart that they need to change their life and get right with me and if they're not going to do it then they're not going to do it so it's over there does come a time when the spirit says enough and quits calling proverbs chapter 29 verse 1 says he who is often rebuked and hardens his heart will suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy and when that happens you've gone beyond the point of no return that's what you call the unpardonable the unforgivable sin now usually i remember hearing this being preached when i was a little boy going to revival meetings and things like that with my mother and daddy and used at this point of the sermon the preacher comes out tells a story of some teenager who he was preaching his heart out and he looked back there he knew the guy needed to be saved and he didn't pay any attention and he walked out the door and went out got in the car and had a car wreck and died i can't tell that story because i don't know i don't know the condition of people's hearts can you tell the condition of people's hearts no most of us struggle to know what the condition of our own heart is but we look at people we look at their externals and we try to figure out what kind of person they are but we really don't know so i can't tell you a story about anybody that i know that turned down god and then went out and was suddenly killed so i don't i don't know that but i will tell you this i have preached funerals for people young and old who died without ever making a profession of faith in christ and it's tragic if you read the bible and you believe the bible is true it's tragic to go out into eternity without jesus christ being your savior so even greater tragedy is i remember a particular man who went to a church that laura and i went to before i went away to seminary years ago and he was there at church with his wife almost every time the church doors was open but he told folks that he had committed the unpardonable sin that the lord no longer spoke to him and many people witnessed to him but he said no i i can't make that profession of faith because i don't feel it our pastor at that time was pretty well connected to the southern baptist convention we had some of the greatest pastors in the southern baptist convention that would come to our church and preach and people sitting all around this guy when they would give the invitation would be coming down the aisles with tears in their eyes and the lord doing the work in their life and he would just sit there like a stone he never did move and to my knowledge he never made a profession of faith he didn't certainly while laura and i were there and i'm sure if he got saved somebody would have called us at seminary see that's why it's so important when we have scriptures like isaiah chapter 55 verse 6 that says seek the lord while he may be found call upon him while he is near let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to the lord and the lord will have mercy on him and return to our god and our god will abundantly pardon him do you hear what it says there don't put it off when the lord is near when the holy spirit is working in your soul that's when you need to do business with god don't assume that i can always do it sometime in the future that i can do it next week because next week may never come well when is the lord near well one of the first signs that the lord is near is when your heart mind and soul begin to be overwhelmed with thoughts and emotions that you need to get right with your creator and you say well danny what does that sound like is it an audible voice no it's louder than that if you've ever been saved you know exactly what i'm talking about i mean all kinds of things begin to happen inside your chest and it's not a heart attack it's the lord speaking to you and telling you it's time to get right won't you make your decision today there's another sign that lets you know that the lord is near and that is a spiritual battle anytime the holy spirit begins to do a work inside your heart usually the spirit of satan will also show up to oppose what the holy spirit is doing the holy spirit's whispering in your ear saying now is accepted time and the spirit of the devil is sitting there saying you always do it later the holy spirit says no do it while it's still called today and satan says next week will be better this is a big decision you need to think about this you need to work this around your mind a little bit and all that it's going to be embarrassing to walk down the hall from all these people what are they going to think of if you make some kind of decision all these things begin to go on well you can rest assured that the lord is working with you when you have that dynamic going on inside your heart and don't walk away from that go ahead and trust the lord there is safety and security in saying yes to the holy spirit uh he will save you but there is great danger in saying no to the holy spirit for each time you do it you get a little better at it and your heart gets a little bit harder and then you don't hear the lord quite as distinctly as you did the first time he called and then he becomes more and more distant and more and more distant and again each one of those times you're getting a little bit closer to that point of no return to that unpardonable sin before we close tonight i wanted to go ahead and answer four common questions about the unpardonable sin that i've heard before and hopefully this will help clear it up for folks who are struggling with this and first of all is can people commit the unpardonable sin today or was it just a sin for jesus time when he was here in the flesh and the answer is yes and no can people commit the unpardonable sin today yes was it just for a time when jesus was on the earth and the answer is no people can still commit the unpardonable sin listen to the apostle paul who uses the example of esau the old testament character of esau in the old testament who live before the time of christ in order to preach to us who live after the time of christ about this thing hebrews chapter 12 it says look carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of god lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble and by this many become defiled lest anyone be like a fornicator or profane person like esau was who for a morsel of food sold his birthright for you know that afterwards when he wanted to inherit the blessing he was rejected for he found no place of repentance even though he sought it diligently with tears esau was an example of the unpardonable sin he kept putting he's just a good old boy all he want to do is hunt and fish and all this kind of stuff he had no interest in the things of god he had no interest in the god of his father and his grandfather he didn't want to he didn't want to play that game until later and then whenever he finally got around to it guess what the lord had quit calling him so again that's the warning that yes you need to deal with this because it's still possible to commit this sin a second question is can nations commit the unpardonable sin and i believe the answer to that is yes in jeremiah of course jeremiah was living in the time when jerusalem and the city of jerusalem and judea were all destroyed by the babylonian army and jeremiah 15 1 the lord speaks to jeremiah and says even if moses and samuel stood before me my mind would not be favorable toward this people cast them out of my sight let them go forth to death to the sword to famine to captivity in other words what he's saying we've been preaching these folks for 200 years now about they need to turn away from their sins to turn away from all these other pagan practices of the nations around them and come back and worship the true and living god and they kept saying we're not going to do that and so when jeremiah came along the lord told him don't even pray for these folks anymore it's too late for them so this nation of israel known as god's chosen people had passed the point of no return in their sin their disobedience toward god it was too late for revival it was too late for prayer it was too late for forgiveness it was too late for restoration of their nation this that passage of scripture along should be a wake-up call for the united states of america if god ever would cause his chosen people israel to be defeated in war carried away captivity to babylon and cease to be a nation why do we as americans think we're so special that we're so exceptional that we can reject the god of our fathers with impunity that we can turn our backs on the god who gave us this land and then all of a sudden decide that nothing bad is going to come out of that to find out how close we are to god all you got to do is turn on the news pick up a newspaper turn on cable news turn on one of these online stations and just listen and then just stop a minute and say how many of god's 10 commandments were broken in that one broadcast and we're doing it daily every day and so how close do we think we are uh remember billy graham and his uh evangelistic sermons used to say if god doesn't bring judgment on america what he will have to come back and apologize to sodom and gomorrah because we're committing the same kinds of sins that they did how many of you think god's going to come back and apologize no i think i think we're getting close danger close to the unpardonable sin as a nation the third question is can church members commit the unpardonable sin and the answer is yes all four gospels record the story of judas iscariot and judas was more than just a church member you remember judas was a church leader he was numbered with the 12 disciples the 12 apostles he lived with jesus he saw him uh perform these miracles he listened to him preach and yet he committed the unpardonable sin what caused by three things unbelief disobedience and time he ran out of time acts chapter 1 verse 25 it says he died and went to hell somebody who was that close to jesus but still never made the time to turn from his sin fourth question is can christians commit the unpardonable sin and the answer is no the very fact that you are a christian means that at some point in your life you prayed and received jesus christ as your savior and lord and you've been forgiven and pardoned of your sins and that means all of them however there is a related sin that a christian can commit first john 5 16 calls it the sin unto death the sin unto death is where a christian believes in jesus christ as his or her savior but they never do quite seal the deal to make jesus their lord in other words they ask him to save him from their sins but they never do turn around and become obedient to what god wants them to do they don't get into his word and find out what god expects of christians and so they never really live a life of obedience and the problem with that is sooner or later after a period of this of disobedience the lord will just call you home to heaven early earlier than you were supposed to he's just gonna say look if you're not gonna obey me and you're not gonna serve me and all you're gonna do is be an embarrassment to the church and the christianity in general then i'm just gonna go ahead and bring you on home who wants to go to heaven that way most people want to go to heaven with some rewards that i've done what you told me to do and the lord says well done good and faithful servant well this way here you barely get into heaven you know with your tail feathers on fire because he's having to punish you all the way to heaven who wants to do that paul the apostle refers to this sin this sin unto death in first corinthians 11 most of you heard me read this i read this every time we have the lord's supper and it says in first corinthians 11 but let a man examine himself and let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup for he who eats and drinks unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself not discerning the lord's body for this reason many are weak and sick among you and many sleep and of course sleep for a christian means that you died we don't speak of christians as dying because christians live on forever but when paul talks about a christian sleeping it means that you died so you come and you take part in the lord's supper and you're carrying sin in your life you're living a life of disobedience and he says what you're doing is you're inviting sickness and weakness and if you don't get it straightened out then you die early before the lord wanted you to die because you're simply being disobedient and that's what we call the sin unto death paul is teaching us about the lord's supper and he warns it each time a church comes together for the lord's supper that it's a time for serious soul-searching he warns christians not to be satisfied with just trusting christ as savior and meanwhile neglecting to obey him as lord because he said the consequences of christians living in sin is they'll receive the discipline of sickness and if that doesn't work then you'll have an early death the same later paul warns church members and this year's not christians now this is church members and again who knows one from the other the lord sorts that out but anyways warns church members who are pretending to be christians that they need to be careful of of committing the unpardonable sin while they're sitting in the church house first corinthians chapter 10 paul reminds them of the israelites who came out of egypt he said all those went through the red sea and all of them ate the manna in the wilderness that fell from heaven and he likened that until baptism and the lord's supper uh rituals of good church members today but he goes on to say many of them god was not well pleased and they were overthrown in the wilderness because they played the church game but they never to get their hearts right with god so again if you are a true christian no you cannot commit the unpardonable sin you can commit to sin unto death but not the unpardonable sin but if you're just coming to church sitting in a church but you're really not a christian and you're not living a life of obedience yes even you who've come and sent in the church all this time can commit the unpardonable sin because you never really did business with god say well danny who sorts that out you have to sort that out you hear the word of god you take these things and you apply them and of course the safest thing is to put your faith and trust in jesus christ and then obey him as lord of your life and then you don't have to deal with either one of these scenarios one final thought is god takes no pleasure in sending unpardonable sinners to hell listen to what jesus says in matthew 23 37 o jerusalem jerusalem the one who kills the prophets and stones those who were sent to her how oft i wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings but you were not willing you hear that he don't want to see anybody die and go to hell he said that's why i send prophets i said some of you listen some of you don't listen but i send those prophets why because i want to gather you together like a handgathers or little chickens in order to pull you into a place of safety but what you were not willing peter also writes in second peter chapter three verse nine the lord is not slack concerning his promises but he is patient and long-suffering toward us not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance so there you have it if you commit the unpardonable sin uh and go to hell you go against god's perfect will and you also go um by your own free choice so how do we respond to jesus and this whole message about the unpardonable sin well first of all instead of unbelief why not believe that's the easiest thing to do just put your faith and trust in jesus christ make him lord of your life get into his word keep his commandments why not do those things and instead of disobedience why not obey why not do what he says sometimes we try to complicate it it's not all that complicated just do what the lord says this bible here was not written to spoil your fun this bible was written here so that you could have a full and abundant life when during this life and also heaven when this life is over the lord doesn't do this to punish you he does this in order to bless you so why not just believe trust and obey him and also instead of running out of time why not just make good use of your time when the lord is working in your life respond to him i've always found that it's a whole lot easier to say yes the more you say no to god the more trouble you get yourself in so why not just save the time redeem the time by putting your faith and trust in him and doing it while it's still called today that's why the bible says what behold now is accepted time and today is a day of salvation don't think about i can put it off till later because you have no guarantee of tomorrow you don't know what you'll live tomorrow you don't know what tomorrow holds for you so make your commitment to the lord jesus while it's still called today and let's go the lord in prayer father i thank you for your word i thank you lord for the for the folks who sent in this question and lord i pray that that clears it up in their hearts and minds tonight and maybe there's lots of other folks who are out there listening online who they're also pondering the same thing in their heart and lord we pray to your word clears it up and lord the best way to get away from having to answer these hard and difficult questions is just by being obedient to believe you that you are who you say you are and to obey your word because we believe that you're working all those things together for our good in order to bless us so lord i pray tonight that you'll take this word and you'll apply it to our hearts and lord help us not to be rebellious and disobedient but being trusting you and also do it with a sense of urgency do it while it's still called today so that you can bless us and so that we can spend forever with you when this life is over bless us now we pray in jesus name amen

Channel: Northlake Baptist Church

Views: 2,173

Rating: 4.858407 out of 5

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Id: TutsIFRoa7Y

Length: 42min 20sec (2540 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 07 2020