THE UNPARDONABLE SIN

No applause, please.

There is a sin that cannot and will not be forgiven. It is called the unpardonable sin. People commit this sin today, and they are never saved. I hope you don’t commit it.

A sin that can never be forgiven? Yes. The Bible says so. (Turn to I John 5:16; p. 1325)

“If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it” (I John 5:16; p. 1325).

That’s right. Look down at the end of the verse. It says, “There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.”

Is there a sin that kills the soul forever? Is there a sin that is so bad that there is no point in praying for someone who does it? Yes, yes, yes.

This is called the unpardonable sin. It cannot be forgiven.

You say, “Didn’t Jesus die for our sins?” Yes. But still, there is a sin that cannot be forgiven, and there is no point in praying for it.

You say, “I don’t want to do that sin. What is it?”

I. First, what the unpardonable sin is not.

It is not any of what people usually call sins. It is not murder, for Moses killed a man in Egypt. He later found God and brought the Hebrew people out of Egypt. Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible.

It is not sexual sin. David committed adultery (and then had the husband killed), and yet he was saved. Read Psalm 51 to find out about his conversion. Horrible as the sin is, you can be forgiven for it.

It is not stealing. The thief on the cross did that, and Jesus told him he would be in paradise that day.

It is not fornication. It is not worshipping an idol. It is not homosexuality – horrible though it is. It is not being drunk or using drugs. It is not lying. It is not talking bad. The Bible says,

“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God” (I Corinthians 6:9-10; p. 1216).

Wait a minute! It says that those people will not inherit the kingdom of God. So how could they be saved if they had done those things? Look at the next verse, verse 11.

“And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (I Corinthians 6:11).

These people were washed, sanctified, justified in the Lord Jesus Christ.

No, you won’t be saved if you keep on doing those sins. But they didn’t. It says, “such were some of you.”

All the sins I have mentioned can be forgiven if you will turn from them and trust the Lord Jesus Christ. So what sin is it that cannot be forgiven?

II. Second, what the unpardonable sin is.

It is the repeated and final hardening of the soul against the Holy Spirit, who testifies of Christ.

This makes sense. The only way to be forgiven, the only way to be saved, is through Jesus Christ. He said, “No man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).

If you refuse Jesus again and again, you refuse and reject the voice of the Holy Spirit, you do it until you become locked in and hardened in that state. You won’t be saved because you have closed yourself off from the only way to be saved.

Last week I said you could refuse God so much that finally He steps away from you. He gives up on you. This fits with the unpardonable sin. If you get to this place, you will not and you cannot be saved.

I will give you a quote from Dr. Henry C. Thiessen. He used the word “obduracy.” This means “hardening.” If you are “obdurate” it means you are hard set and you won’t be changed. Dr. Thiessen said this:

“Sins of final obduracy [hardening]. The degree to which the soul has hardened itself and become unreceptive to multiplied offers of the grace of God, here determines the degree of guilt. Final obduracy [hardening] is the sin against the Holy Spirit and is unpardonable, because the soul through it has ceased to be receptive of divine influence” (Introductory Lectures in Systematic Theology, Eerdmans, 1949; p. 270).

That’s right. If you refuse offer after offer of salvation, of the grace of God, you harden yourself. If you keep on doing this, you will lock yourself in – this is called “final obduracy (final hardening)” – and you will stop being receptive of divine influence. In other words, you won’t listen to God anymore, and in fact you can’t listen to God anymore.

To do this, you don’t have to say, “I hate you, God. Go away.” If you say, “Let me alone for now,” that counts as a no. If you say, or think, “Later,” that’s a no. If you say, “I want to think about it,” that’s a no. Anything except actually trusting Jesus is a no.

If you keep on postponing, that’s a no. Of course! Anything except yes is a no!

If you keep on with your “no’s,” finally you will get locked into that. You will have committed the unpardonable sin, and you will never be saved. That’s the human side of it.

From God’s side of it, God says, “He doesn’t want me. I’ll step back and let him go and leave him the way he is.” You don’t see God’s side, but it will happen.

This is a terrible situation. But it happens to many people. Every day, many, many people commit the unpardonable sin and are lost forever. So, what about you?

III. Third, have you committed the unpardonable sin?

Many people have asked, “Have I committed the unpardonable sin?” You may be thinking that yourself.

I would have to say, “Probably not.” Here’s why. If you are concerned enough to ask about it, it shows you are still interested. It shows you haven’t yet locked yourself in forever. You haven’t yet built the final wall against Jesus.

If you had committed the unpardonable sin, you probably wouldn’t even ask the question. You would be happy with yourself the way you are. You might think you are a good person, that you are OK with God. You might think you are already saved. But for sure, you wouldn’t be worried about your soul.

Most people who commit the unpardonable sin stop going to church. Why should they? They don’t need it. The Bible says,

“They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us” (I John 2:19).

Those people left the church because they never spiritually belonged to it. They weren’t saved. They weren’t converted. They were in the church, but never a true Christian. That’s why they went out. Maybe you are thinking about leaving. Is it because you never really belonged in the first place?

But I must give you another warning. Warning! Alert! It is possible to commit the unpardonable sin and still stay in the church. Why would you do that? There are many reasons.

You may stay out of habit. You may stay because you don’t want people to think badly of you. That is, you want to keep your reputation. Or you may stay because you think, “Good people go to church” and you want to think you’re good, and you want other people to think you’re good. But you will be lost forever just the same. I hope that doesn’t happen to you.

No applause, please.

The salvation of your soul is a very serious thing. It is the most important thing of all. It is more important than money, than love and marriage, than family, than anything. It makes the difference between spending forever in Heaven or spending forever in Hell.

Please don’t keep on saying no. Don’t keep on neglecting your salvation, letting it go, postponing, saying “later,” or any of that stuff. The Bible says,

“How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation” (Hebrews 2:3).

Don’t keep on sitting in the chair and neglecting your salvation. The Bible says you will not escape. I didn’t say that. God said it. And you will not, you will not, you will not escape.

Don’t keep on hardening your heart until it is hardened finally and forever.

Think of your sin. Think of how you have turned Jesus away, even by your neglect. Oh, please, surrender to Christ. Surrender to Christ before it’s too late! Before it’s too late! Amen.