Concerning The Times

The One Sin God Won't Forgive

• Season 3 • Episode 13

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Jesus said that there is one sin that won't be forgiven. When people think of the unforgivable sin, they generally have a list of the so-called big and small ones. Things like murder and rape are usually at the top, while gossip and pride are lesser offenses in society's eyes. But the Bible breaks through the confusion and tells us what the unpardonable sin is and how to avoid it. We'll discuss it together in this episode. 

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Show Notes: Recommended reading,

One Minute After You Die - Erwin Lutzer



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Howard Green (00:01.336)
Hello, friends. This is Howard Green. Welcome back to the Concern at the Times podcast. It is so good to be with you today. I know it's been a couple of weeks, and I was excited to get back into it. So last time we spoke, we mentioned the upcoming topic, which is the unpardonable sin or the unforgivable sin. And we talked about that and said we will tackle that today. So here we go.

When I talk about the unpardonable sin or the unforgivable sin, what comes to mind?

Howard Green (00:36.238)
Some people think about things they've done in the past or things they're presently doing, a sin that they're mired in or involved in. We might think about sins we've committed against other people. Or you might even think about sins we've committed against our own self.

See, the problem with sin is it's multifaceted, friends. There's a victim and there are many times other victims, intended or not, that's just the way it is. Sin doesn't exist in a vacuum. It always affects other people. It affects you and generally, more often than not, it affects other people and sometimes many other people.

But you think about these sins, and when I think of unpardonable sin, you think of unpardonable sin, unforgivable sin. People primarily in the world, but also people that are Christians, some people, have this sort of this, I don't know, hierarchy of sin. Even sincere Christians have a sliding scale. Not all of them, but some Christians, some especially new in the faith, have what I would call a sliding scale of sins.

based on human reasoning, almost like God graves on a bell curve. To some, that sin, that unpardonable sin might be from a list that's been curated by our society over the centuries. And you know how it is, humans, we humans tend to group sins into the big ones and the small ones. And you know exactly what I'm talking about. You know the big ones, right? Think about it, murder, adultery, robbery, divorce.

homosexuality, sexual immorality, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I mean, you can fill in the blank there, right? We call them the big ones. That's what they're commonly known as. You ask the man on the street and he's going to talk about the big ones. And then we have the smaller ones. They would call it the lesser evils, the small sins, the theft, lying, gossip. What else do we have? Slander. How about cheating? Being greedy.

Howard Green (02:58.22)
selfish pride. And the list goes on and on. Now that's not my personal opinion about big sins or small sins because we know in the context of the Bible that all sin is sin before a holy God, right? But I'm talking about generally the way the world groups sins and even some people that are new to the faith and maybe young Christians that still maybe look at it that way.

Howard Green (03:27.054)
But here's the thing, we as humans, we rationalize these sins into different categories. But the reality is, we have to go to the Bible for clarity. And the Bible clarifies unpardonable sin, like in what it is. The Lord does it in Matthew 12 22. He does it in Mark 3 22. And it's mentioned again in Luke 11 14 through 12, roughly verse 10.

So you know the story, most of you know the story. If you don't, I'll tell you the basic story in context. They bring before Jesus, they bring a man before Jesus and he is a man who is possessed by demons and he's blind and he's mute. So the guy can't speak, he can't see and this poor guy is possessed by a demon.

And you know the story, most of you know the story. Jesus has the man brought to him and the Lord of course casts the demon out and heals him. So we have an incredible and notable miracle here. The demon is cast out. This poor man who's been blind can now see, couldn't speak and now he can speak. I mean, can you imagine putting yourself in that situation there? He was probably praising God, right?

I mean, it's the literal fulfillment of, I was blind, but now I see. And I can speak and I can praise God. And I'm not possessed by this demon anymore. I'm back in my right mind, right? This is a notable miracle. All miracles are notable, but this one's amazing.

Howard Green (05:09.166)
They're like the doubters.

The Pharisees, the Pharisees are watching this from a distance and they're talking amongst themselves and here's what they're saying. They're not saying it out loud in front of a bunch of people. kind of, you can picture them huddled in the corner over there. They're speaking as this miracle just happened. They're talking among themselves. You can hear the hushed whispers, know, this guy's not really who he says he is. But the Bible says they, here's exactly what they said.

They say that he cast out demons by the power of demons, by the prince of demons. So basically, what a horrible charge. The work of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God actually involved in this whole miracle. And you have Jesus casting out the demon, healing the man, but you then get the Pharisees saying, nah, among themselves, he's definitely.

Casting out demons with the power of demons with the Prince of Demons.

And you know the story, most of you know the story. Jesus responds. He basically says, a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. And if Satan cast out Satan, how can his kingdom stand? Then he says, I cast out demons. Listen to this very carefully, friends. He says, I cast out demons by the Spirit of God.

Howard Green (06:38.69)
And if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you. It's right here in front of you. It's in your midst.

Howard Green (06:49.742)
So here's the thing. I'm gonna read Matthew 12, 31 and 32. And if you're at home or following along, again, it's the gospel of Matthew chapter 12, verses 31 and 32. And if you're driving or jogging or mowing your lawn or whatever you're doing, I'll read it to you. But Jesus, basically, he breaks down what the unpardonable sin is. And let's read this in context. mean, he basically, notable miracle has been done. The Pharisees were grumbling.

And then here's what Jesus says. find my place here.

Howard Green (07:26.21)
Therefore, I tell you.

Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven of people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, that's Jesus, will be forgiven. But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven either in this age or in the age to come.

very, very harsh and sobering words from our Savior, right?

Howard Green (07:59.106)
Here's the problem.

Jesus said it all sin can be forgiven except for blasphemy of the Holy Spirit What did the Pharisees do they attributed the work the Holy Spirit the work of the Holy Spirit to Satan? Can you imagine that a? Miracle a bona fide legitimate awesome miracle they attributed the work of the Holy Spirit to Satan although it was obviously God's power and here's the thing leave put my

placeholder there in the Word, so we can read a little bit more later. But not only do they attribute the work to the Spirit of Satan, excuse me, the work of the Spirit to Satan, they also resist and ignore the Holy Spirit. Now, here's where it gets interesting, very interesting, because the reality is, is

As Jesus said, it's one thing to sin, you know, and you'd be forgiven of sins if you go to the Lord of repentance, right? But there's one sin you can't be forgiven of.

Howard Green (09:05.218)
These guys are attributing the work of Jesus, the work of the Holy Spirit of God to Satan. But then more than that, it's a notable miracle. Think about this. It is legitimate, bona fide, notable miracle. These guys, these Pharisees, not only Jesus' followers and the disciples that were with him and the 70 and all the other people that followed him around and the people in the crowds in the cities, they'd see these miracles, but not only do they see him,

The Pharisees and the Sadducees saw him. They know what he did. They had people report back to them. I mean, how many times did someone see Jesus do something and they run off to the temple and they tell the Sadducees and Pharisees. And many times they're right there on the site, as in this miracle right here. But they attribute the work of the Spirit to Satan. I mean, think of it, friends. They saw Jesus heal. They saw Jesus feed thousands of people.

They saw him raise a debt. They knew what this man did.

Attrubating the work of the Lord, of the Holy Spirit, the Satan, is not only

Precarious and dangerous. It's eternally dangerous. I mean you are putting your eternity at risk and As I said it goes further because not only do they obviously Attribute the Lord's work to Satan to a demon They also ignored it and they resisted it They ignored the Holy Spirit and they resist him

Howard Green (10:46.582)
It's amazing to me that they can see notable miracles done. They can see the dead raised, people healed, Jesus speaking in authority and power. They ignore him. They resist him. They resist the work of the Holy Spirit. And we're not gonna turn over there now, but think about when Stephen, this great young man of God who was martyred for his faith, basically looked at the Pharisees, went to the council.

when he was being tried before he was executed and he caught him, said, you stiff neck people, aren't you always resisting the work of the Holy Spirit?

Howard Green (11:28.93)
very scary situation to be in. But here's the thing.

It continues today. The work of the Holy Spirit continues today. But not only does the work of the Holy Spirit continue today, the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit also continues today.

I'm going to read something to you. If you have your Bible, you can go over to John chapter 16 verses 7 through 9. And if you don't have your Bible or you're doing something while you're listening, I'll read it to you. So John 16, 7, and 9. Let me find my spot here.

Howard Green (12:05.486)
16 7 and 9

Howard Green (12:28.782)
I tell you the truth, it's to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper, the spirit, will not come to you. But if I go away, I will go and send him to you. And listen to this friends, and when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.

put our finger right there for a minute. So the work of the Holy Spirit, Jesus goes and he sends the helper to convict, who's he convicting? Well, everyone, he's convicting everyone in the world. But it's not just for Christians. He convicts the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.

Howard Green (13:14.452)
Of course, the work of the Holy Spirit, right? You think about it. What does the Holy Spirit do? And I mean, many, many things in the life of believer, right? He dwells in us. He's always guiding us. He's always helping us. He convicts us. He tells us, hey, listen, stop that. You know, if you're a believer and you're starting to defray and kind of drift off, hey, not that way, this way. You stop that or, hey, deal with that. Why are you doing that?

Repent of that.

And other times, really good encouragement. Hey, listen, go there. Do this. Pray for them. Give to that ministry. Talk to that person. Help a friend in need. Give to that poor person. Pray for that person that no one else talks to. You know what I mean. I mean, the Holy Spirit is always there working in our hearts, in our minds, in our lives. And how does this happen? It happens two ways.

It happens through what I have right here in front of me now has it happens through reading the Bible and letting the Lord speak to you through his word Being illuminated by the Holy Spirit all the words we read and then you go into your prayer closet you go into your prayer time Obviously in your your alone time in the mornings or evenings or whenever you pray and then in the car when you're walking when you're jogging when you're riding your bike as you're praying You're talking to the Lord. He's talking back to you. You wouldn't mean how he tells you talking back to me through his Holy Spirit

His word doesn't return void. His spirit's alive. These thoughts that are coming into your mind, these ideas, this glory to God that you're bringing, these thoughts you have about what you're gonna do for the Lord and how you're gonna help certain people and how you're gonna repent of this and how you're gonna get this out of your life and how you're gonna bring more glory to Him. All that is the work of the Holy Spirit. That's how He speaks in us, my friend. And not only that, how many times you've been in a situation when the Holy Spirit speaks through you.

Howard Green (15:19.246)
You're in a situation where you're talking to someone, you're praying for someone, you're witnessing and telling someone about the gospel and about the saving work of Jesus and repentance and that's the Holy Spirit speaking through you. Amen? Okay, so we know the Holy Spirit does that, but He also will convict the world. This is a figgy of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.

Howard Green (15:46.134)
Here's where we'll dive into the unpardonable sin. And this is where the rubber meets the road. This is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. See, understand what Jesus said. He'll convict the world. He'll convict the world of sin and righteousness and coming judgment. For centuries now, the Holy Spirit has convicted the world of sin and righteousness and judgment. Think about it. Tens of thousands of preachers, millions upon millions of believers, radio programs.

TV programs I'm talking about over the centuries now and of course recently with the radio and TV in different areas, gospel tracts, Bibles in almost every hotel room, churches on every corner, and creation itself shouting there is a God, there is a God.

Friends, this gospel message is going out now for 2,000 years, 20 centuries of faithful men and women, young people, teens, witnessing to people, preaching the gospel, talking to people, giving the reason for the hope they have within them and trying to explain the Word of God to them and why they are the way they are. You understand, I was a sinner and I was lost and I was wretched and now the Lord has set me free and I came to repentance and I cannot help.

And speak of what I've seen and what I've heard. Amen? And people for centuries, and think about just this century, people all throughout their life have radio programs, TV, Christians, Bibles laying around, tracts, neighbors, people that know the Bible, know the Lord, and have tried to explain the gospel to them, churches on almost every corner, especially in the United States and in certain parts of Europe, and certainly in the UK and parts of Canada.

almost an evangelical church in every other corner. But what do people do? The people through history know there's a God, that they know that He is God, they choose not to honor Him as God. And worse yet, they completely ignore Him, as Romans 1.21 says. So as the gospel goes out, some people respond with repentance and faith, right? But with the same gospel message,

Howard Green (18:01.634)
many, many others will choose not to respond.

Howard Green (18:10.946)
And you the Bible warns about what happens when you ignore the gospel, when you ignore the good news of Jesus. Before we go any further, real quick, I wanted to explain one thing. Before we go any further, I want to explain one thing. I know that there's people that sometimes tune into the podcast that may not know Jesus, may know about him, but may not be a Christian. Let me explain in a quick 15 second, 10,000 foot few nutshell, what the gospel is.

The gospel message is very simple. That Jesus came into the world to save sinners. You see friends, we were born into sin. We have a sin nature and that makes us offensive to a holy God, to the holy God of the universe. So what did God do? Well, everybody can quote John 3.16, for God so loved the world, he sent his only begotten son that whosoever does what, believes in him, will not perish but have eternal life.

If you believe that, you repent, and you put your faith in Jesus, you found the good news. You received the good news with gladness and made it your own, So if you're listening to the podcast and you don't know Jesus, I just explained the good news to you. You're in deep trouble if you don't know the Lord. There's judgment and fury of a holy God coming upon this world to unrepentant people who continue to sin and sin and sin.

and ignore the work of the Holy Spirit and say, I don't need Jesus, I don't want him. But let's go on.

When people do that, when people choose to ignore that, they're setting themselves up for blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. You can ignore the Spirit's work.

Howard Green (19:59.928)
People do it a lot. I mean, I've seen it even when I preach and I talk to people. You could ignore the Spirit's work. I've been preaching in crowds or churches or Bible studies and then also one-on-one with people talking to people on the street. I've taught, I've preached and why is it that some people respond the very same message, the good news, and other people are like, no way, man. Don't need it, don't want it and kind of wave you off like you're a fool.

It's very sad things. You're setting yourself up for blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. And the fact is there is a— The Bible talks about hardening of the heart. Hardening of the heart.

What does that mean? What does that mean? Well, we know that in the Bible, in context, sometimes you read that like God would harden someone's heart, God hardened Pharaoh's heart, or God hardened such and such's heart.

pride, evil intent will harden the heart. But the other thing that will harden the heart, it's a big thing, it's to continue in unrepentance. You hear the good news, you know about the good news, but you choose not to listen or worse, not only not to listen, but not to respond. You know what the Bible says today? Today is the day of salvation. The Bible also says today, if you hear his voice, don't

hard in your heart. If you continue, dear friends, there's a time that will come when it'll be too late. As one preacher put it, there's a time that you won't repent and then there comes a time where you can't repent. There's no remedy for that. Only eternal punishment and separation from a holy God.

Howard Green (21:53.612)
and regret and total hopelessness.

There's no coming back from that. Right now, if you hear this message and you don't know the Lord and you don't consider yourself a Christian and you know you're not and you haven't come to faith in Jesus, you know about him maybe, you've heard something of him, but you can not think of a time in your life that you've been converted, that you have a conversion story, a friend, you're in trouble. You don't want to continue on the road, down the road and hear people say, you know, come to Jesus, he loves you.

He could save you. could wash your sins clean and say, no, I don't need it or I don't want it.

Howard Green (22:38.926)
Friends, don't let yourself be deceived by Satan or by yourself. Don't do it millions upon millions of others have done and perhaps billions. Don't rationalize sin.

Don't gamble with this generic manmade, watered down, American, westernized, European, soft Santa Claus type of God when you say things like this. God, you know, he knows my heart or it's all under the blood or it gets worse. I've heard this and it makes me really sad to hear this.

The God I know or the Jesus that I serve the Jesus that I know would never send anyone you can fill in the blank. You know how it works to hell. The God that I serve would never send anyone to hell. The God that I know a friends. Again, you're creating an idol of your own liking a God of your own making the God that I serve would never send anyone to hell.

Unfortunate statements. Unfortunate statements. Here's what Billy Graham said. We try to rationalize sin, right? So here's what Billy Graham said. We've tried calling sin errors, mistakes, or poor judgment, but sin itself has always stayed the same.

Listen to what C.S. Lewis said. He said, we have the strange illusion that time cancels sin.

Howard Green (24:05.708)
A.W. Tozer, what did he say? He said, people on earth hate to hear the word repent. Why those in hell wish they could hear it just once more.

Howard Green (24:18.38)
You see friends, when you realize you're in trouble, the worst thing to do is to refuse rescue.

And I'm going to illustrate this by stating the obvious. Can you imagine being in a burning building? You know, you're stuck up there on the, on the, on the fifth or sixth floor and you get fire between you and the, and the, the fire escape and the elevator or the stairs and can't get down. Well, the fire department rolls up with a ladder truck. They got the ladder up there, the platform, you get the firefighter arms extended, ready to pull you out of that building. And you tell them, say no, him or her say, no, I've got this. I'm going to find another way out.

or I'm gonna work harder, work on my own to get out. Or worst case scenario, I don't need your help, I got this.

Howard Green (25:05.022)
Or you're in a car that's just crashed into a pond or a lake and it's submerged, submerging, sinking fast. Or in a boat that's starting to sink and somebody comes in, breaks the window and tries to pull you out of the car or the coast guard comes along and tries to pull you off this raft that's sinking in the ocean and you say, no, I've got this. I've got this. I don't need your help. And I do believe and I think we can show this scripturally that

Over time, there's a lot of people don't even realize they're an imminent danger And why is this? It's because they don't see their sin the way God sees it. God is a holy God dwells in unapproachable light Unapproachable a light in glory and people think that they can just waltz into heaven because they're in their own mind and their own estimation They're pretty good people When the reality is God won't tolerate it

Howard Green (26:03.572)
only thing that you can do to get out from under God's coming wrath and judgment is to go to the foot of the cross, to go to Jesus, to take the work that he did on the cross and have it applied to your life. That's the blood he shed applied to your life to cleanse every sin that you have ever committed, to put all of your faith in him, to come to repentance. I used to go this way. I used to walk this way. I used to think this way.

Now understand, Lord, you were right and I was wrong, not the other way around. And I'm repenting of my sin. I see that my thinking was totally skewed. I'm having a change of mind, a change of heart. I'm gonna go 180 degrees in the other direction. I realize that you're right and I was wrong. You're the only one that can save me. The Bible and Romans, I'm sorry, 10, nine and 10. So if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord.

and you believe in your heart that God did raise him from the dead, the Bible doesn't say that you might be saved, it says that you will be saved.

Howard Green (27:08.184)
But friends, very quickly, let's go back to the unparalleled sin we talked about earlier. Let's talk about, at the very beginning of the podcast, we talked about some of those big sins and small sins, which we know they're all the same. Sin is sin. They affect people differently, and certainly some are more grievous in their consequences and injuries to people and hurt hearts and ruined lives. I'm not trying to make light of any of that by any means, trust me. But at the end of the day, we can think back about

The murderers and the adulteries and the divorces and the fornications and the sexual morality homosexuality stealing lying gossip slander brutality heartlessness Unappeasability just this just as just as meanness of this of the spirit, right? Everything you could fit in that word sin Every single one of those sins can be forgiven friends if you're within the sound of my voice Think about it

Jesus in Revelation, these called the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and end. I want here to tell you that there's not one sin that you've committed that can't be put in between that Alpha and Omega and wash clean. Jesus' blood can atone for every sin that you've ever committed. Don't let Satan lie to you and say that you're so far gone that you can't be forgiven. Yes, you are evil. Yes, I was evil before I...

I was saved and yes, I was a wretch and yes, you're a wretch if you don't know the Lord and yes, you're undone. But let me tell you to have the heart like King David had when he was confronted with his sin. He didn't rationalize it. Didn't say that somebody else made me do it. Didn't say that that's the way I was born or that's what happened in my life and I was traumatized or I'm struggling with this continually. No, no. He said, I've sinned Lord against you and you alone. You get to the point when you realize that instead of resisting the Holy Spirit,

Committing the unpardonable sin by not repenting you realized yes I am wrong and I do need forgiveness and I'm gonna repent I am gonna come to saving faith in Jesus and put all my faith in him Knowing that his blood is able to cleanse all of my sin if you do that if you do that Then you're not guilty than pardonable sin Every sin that you ever committed will be pardoned because the blood of Jesus is

Howard Green (29:25.526)
Efficacious to wash away every single sin, dear friends. Don't ever let Satan tell you that you're too far gone, that God won't love you, God won't forgive you. He sent the Son to do that, So.

Howard Green (29:42.006)
Again, the unpardonable sin. Yeah, all sin is sin. All sin will send you to hell.

unless you come to saving faith in Jesus and repent.

If you don't do that, that's the unpardonable sin. Remember the quote from Tozer I gave a few minutes ago? People on earth hate to hear the word repent or get right with God and there's judgment coming. He says, why those in hell wish they could hear it just one more time. One more invitation. Tell me about the love of Jesus again. Give me a chance to respond again, knowing what I know now. Friends, it'll be too late then. But today, if you hear his voice, don't harden your heart. Today.

Is the day of salvation God sent the son God sent Jesus down to live a holy life a sinless life for you and for me And then go to that cross And die for every sin we could ever commit but you got to take him at his word You got to believe on him. You got to put all of your faith on him If you do it, you'll be saved. Jesus said if you turn to me, I will no wise cast you out I'll never leave you forsake you. I will be with you to the end of the age

That's the kind of Jesus we have. But friends, you have to come with Him. You have to come to Him with faith believing and put all your trust in Him, put all your hope in Him. There's no other way. No other way. So again, this week, very heavy topic, I know, but it's a topic that I wanted to discuss with you and share with you. And if you have, here's the thing, if you have any questions or comments, write to me, either through the podcast,

Howard Green (31:24.846)
Or you can go to the website, you know the website some of you might not it's www.concerningthetimes.com then you go over to our contact us section and respond to me with a prayer request a Comment a suggestion about another podcast you might want to hear a subject might want to hear about and I'll get back with you I love to get your comments and questions and especially a prayer request You can also do that with a podcast and by the way, if you get a chance, I know I ask you this often but

I want to take a moment because friends, I cannot do this without you. I had the Lord and He's definitely with the podcast and with the ministry and we want to bring Him glory and it's all about Him and not about us, right? But at the same time, I need faithful friends, faithful listeners, faithful believers in Jesus to tell other people about the podcast. Because when you do that, what it does, it does two things. It helps us get to more people and encourage people that are already Christians, that are already in the faith, that love Jesus.

that need encouragement and need edifying and need equipping and building up to go out and do the work of the Lord. But it's also for this. That's message goes out and reaches the lost with topics like we talked about today. And someone happens upon the podcast, it was suggested because of another podcast, and they hear it. And they hear the message of salvation through Jesus. They hear the good news. Friends, I try to always make a point during our podcast to never

leave it at that, to always give an invitation to come to saving faith in Jesus, So that's why, if you want to reason, that's why. Please, if you would, go to whatever podcast platform you listen on, make sure that you rate, give us a rating, and I would prefer a rating, a top rating if you could do that. If not, write to me and we can talk about that. But I would love you to give us a rating, and I would love for you to...

Also subscribe and also to tell others that would be a wonderful, a wonderful, encouragement to our ministry. Well friends have a wonderful week. It's great to be with you again today. We'll see you in a couple of weeks with another exciting topic, another biblical topic. And just want you to be blessed today. I wish you and hope for you every blessing in Jesus. God bless you and your families. Take care. We'll see you again soon. Bye-bye.