Sermons

The Unpardonable Sin!

Posted by Alex on
Sermon on June 17 by Pastor Roland Eskinazi

Scripture: Mark 3:20-30

God and forgiveness go together. If there is a wideness in God’s mercy, what does Jesus mean?

1. WHAT THE UNPARDONABLE SIN IS NOT! (v20-22)

  • Ugly blasphemy
    Misusing God’s name and using it as a curse is serious – but not unpardonable.
  • Unique immorality
    All sexual sin and the most deviant deserves condemnation (1 Cor. 6:18) – but can be forgiven.
  • Tragic suicide
    Life is never ours to take – but if Jesus shed his blood for all sins of a true believer, suicide is not unpardonable.

2. WHAT THE UNPARDONABLE SIN IS! (v23-29)

  • Belittling the Holy Spirit…
    When the Jewish leaders actively spoke of Jesus doing the devil’s work they crossed a line.
    This is the sin of apostasy – tasting enough of the gospel, but turning your back on this.

It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit,, who have tasted the goodness of the Word of God and the powers of the coming age- and who have fallen away to be brought back to repentance
(Heb. 6:4-6)

  • …is playing with Jesus Christ

They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they belonged to us they would have remained with us. But their going showed that none of them belonged to us.
1 JN 2:19

The opposite of blaspheming the Spirit is delighting Him – and His delight is making much of Jesus. Are we?

3. HOW MAY I DELIGHT IN, NOT GRIEVE THE SPIRIT? (v30)

  • …when you live by repentance, not despair
  • …when you are obeying, not quenching Him

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit
1 Thess. 5:16-19

Remember! We need not fear the unpardonable sin if we love Jesus. We ought to fear not being serious about holiness, not being serious about delighting in the Spirit and not being serious about loving Jesus more than the world.

Download the sermon (save link as…) .

 

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

  1. Have you ever felt you may have committed the unpardonable sin? If so, why do you think it was so?
  2. Does God make a distinction between using his name in vain and blaspheming against the Spirit? How were the scribes persisting in doing the second?
  3. How would you counsel a Christian who thinks he or she may have committed this sin? What would you be looking for? And a non-Christian? (Read Heb. 6:4-6; 10:26-29)
  4. If it concerns you that you may have committed this sin, then you haven’t! How though does this still function as a warning and encouragement for Christians?

 

Photo credit FreeImages.com/atirme