FORWARD IN FAITH
Kevin D. Paulson
We have come to the final moments of a momentous series of meetings. It is hard to believe they have gone by so fast. But as Winston Churchill said at Casablanca, at a pivotal point in the Second World War:
“This is not the end, it is not even the beginning of the end; but perhaps it is the end of the beginning.”
We have learned great and powerful and life-changing truths from the pages of God’s Word. Now the question is, What do we do about them?
We are going to address, in these final few moments, what Scripture teaches regarding the call of the Holy Spirit to the human heart, and the consequences of resisting that call.
Jesus promised, in a special way, the bestowal of the gift of the Holy Spirit to the newly-formed Christian church.
The Holy Spirit, of course, has been present in our world since the very beginning. Such Old Testament passages as the following come to mind:
Gen. 1:2:
“And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”
Such Bible characters as Samson, King Saul, Elijah, Elisha, John the Baptist, and Jesus are all recorded as receiving the Holy Spirit before Pentecost. And who can forget the anguished prayer of King David in the 51st Psalm, following his sin with Bathsheba:
Psalm 51:11:
“Cast me not away from Thy presence, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.”
We’re going to examine this statement further as we speak of the sin that God cannot forgive.
So obviously the Day of Pentecost was not the first time the Holy Spirit made His appearance in our world, and in the affairs of human beings. But in His final words to His disciples before His crucifixion, Jesus outlined various functions of the Holy Spirit’s work in the human experience:
John 16:8-12:
“And when He (the Holy Spirit) is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.
“Of sin, because they believe not on Me.
“Of righteousness, because I go to My Father, and ye see Me no more.
“Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.
“I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
“Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak; and He will show you things to come.”
So it is the Holy Spirit task to reprove men and women of sin, and to guide us into all truth. This begins to help us understand what Jesus is talking about, when He speaks of a sin that cannot be forgiven:
Matt. 12:31:
“Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.”
What is Jesus talking about here? Why is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit a sin that cannot be forgiven?
Because of what we saw in the passage from John 16. The Holy Spirit’s purpose is to guide us into truth.
If we refuse to be thus guided, we will never know our true condition. We will never know what in fact our sins are. We won’t understand the difference between truth and error, right and wrong. And if we refuse to understand or confront this condition, God cannot help us.
The sin against the Holy Spirit is not some horrible, despicable act that someone might commit, which God just can’t bring Himself to pardon. This is what many folks mistakenly believe.
Many think they’ve done some dreadfully evil thing that God just won’t forgive. Many men and women in our world refuse to come to God and accept His ways because they are certain that they are too wicked for God to do anything with.
But the Bible teaches no such thing. Look at some of the Biblical examples of sinners that God forgave.
What about Jacob, who lied and cheated in order to receive his father/s birthright?
God forgave him, and in that wonderful dream of the ladder from earth to heaven, promised him:
Gen. 28:14:
“And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, . . . and in thee and thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.”
What about Moses, who killed an Egyptian in a rage, but who God forgave and later called to be the leader of His people? And then, after 40 years of leading Israel through the wilderness, Moses lost his temper in public, and struck the rock twice, when God had told him to speak to it instead (Num. 20).
But even though Moses couldn’t lead Israel into Canaan because of this terrible sin, God forgave Moses, and Moses would become the first human being ever to be raised from the dead, after which he was taken to heaven (Jude 9).
What about Aaron, who made a golden calf and thus led the people of Israel into terrible sin? God forgave him too, and made him the first high priest of Israel.
We’ve already mentioned David, and his sin of adultery and murder, and how God forgave him also.
One of my favorite Bible verses comes from the psalm where David confessed this terrible sin:
Psalm 51:10:
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, a renew a right spirit within me.”
What about Peter, who denied his Lord in a flurry of foul fisherman’s oaths? Jesus forgave him too.
But perhaps my favorite Biblical example of a forgiven sinner is wicked King Manasseh of Judah. The Bible is full of wicked kings, but it is interesting how Manasseh’s wickedness is described in the greatest detail of any of them.
I believe this is for a reason. It is because Manasseh repented. And God wishes for us to know that even one who fell as low as Manasseh did can still be forgiven, if his sins are confessed and forsaken.
Let’s look at some of the things Manasseh did:
II Chron. 33:3:
“For he (Manasseh) built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down, and he reared up altars for Baalim, and made groves, and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served them.
II Chron. 33:4-5:
“Also he built altars in the house of the Lord, whereof the Lord had said, In Jerusalem shall My name be forever.
“And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts in the house of the Lord.
II Chron. 33:6:
“And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom: also he observed times, and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger.”
II Chron. 33:7:
“And he set a carved image, the idol which he had made, in the house of God.”
II Kings 21:16:
“Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; beside his sin wherewith he made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in the sight of the Lord.”
II Chron. 33:9:
“So Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, and to do worse than the heathen, whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel.”
I don’t know how much further a man could fall than this! But there was still hope for wicked King Manasseh.
The remainder of II Chronicles 33 talks about how God permitted him to be taken captive by the Assyrians, and placed in a Babylonian dungeon. And there he found God!
And in that dark and filthy cell, he pled with the God of his fathers for forgiveness, and became a new man.
The rest of the chapter tells us how he tore down the idols and strange gods he had set up, and cast them out of Jerusalem. And the Bible says:
II Chron. 33:13:
“Then Manasseh knew that the Lord He was God.”
I’ve always said: If there was hope for wicked King Manasseh, there must be some hope for me too!
So I hope we understand that there are no sins too great for God to forgive. You can’t get much worse than the sins of Manasseh!
The problem is when you and I refuse to FORSAKE those sins.
We have said before in this series of meetings:
God honors the liberty of His creatures. If we choose to cling to our sins, God can’t forgive them, because by forgiving our sins, He removes them from our hearts.
Remember what David prayed, in his prayer for divine forgiveness:
Psalm 51:10:
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”
Many don’t realize this, but the word for forgiveness in the original language of the New Testament is the same as the word for deliverance. See Luke 4:18; Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14.
God’s forgiveness is not merely the cancellation of a sinful record. It is the removal of sin from our hearts.
This is why Scripture is so clear regarding the conditions for receiving divine forgiveness:
II Chron. 7:14:
“If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins, and heal their land.”
Prov. 28:13:
“He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.”
Isa. 55:7:
“Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him: and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.”
Matt. 6:14-15:
“For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
“But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
I John 1:9:
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
The reason these conditions are necessary is because God honors our free will. He will not take from us what we choose to keep.
And this, at the bottom line, is what the unpardonable sin is all about. In simple words:
The sin that God cannot forgive is the sin that man will not forsake.
This is why God was constrained to say of the people of Ephraim during the Old Testament period:
Hosea 3:17:
“Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.”
Conclusion
Brothers and sisters, “Forward in Faith” is the message with which I would leave you just now. The apostle Paul perhaps says it best in Hebrews, chapter 12:, verses 1-2:
Heb. 12:1-2:
“Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
“Looking unto Jesus the author and the finisher of our faith: who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
In this series of message, we have uncovered momentous truths from the pages of the Bible.
God doesn’t hold people accountable who don’t know, or haven’t learned, what we’ve learned here.
But if we learn and then reject what the Bible has revealed to us, that is quite another matter.
Hosea 4:6:
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee.”
Jesus declared:
Matt. 4:4:
“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”
In another passage He offers this solemn warning, which Christians today must carefully ponder:
Matt. 7:21-23:
“Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven.
“Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? and in Thy name have cast out devils? and in Thy name done many wonderful works.
“And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.”
Brothers and sisters, it is not enough to be Christ-centered in our spirituality. We have to be faithful to the revealed will of God in His Sacred Word.
Jesus declared elsewhere:
John 8:31:
“If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed.”
The apostle Paul declared:
II Thess. 2:13:
“God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.”
I Tim. 4:16:
“Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine: continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.”
So is doctrinal belief a salvation issue? Apparently so.
If we turn our back upon truth that has shone across our pathway, our eternal destiny depends on our response.
In fact, the apostle Paul makes another, very sobering statement in the following passage:
Heb. 6:4-6:
“For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
“And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
“If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to open shame.”
John 12:35:
“Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you.”
Prov. 4:18:
“The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.”
The Bible warns us, in God’s message to the people before Noah’s flood:
Gen. 6:3:
“My Spirit shall not always strive with man.”
And the apostle Paul challenges us:
Heb. 2:3:
“How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?”
II Cor. 6:2:
“Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
We have seen the inspired evidence regarding many great, controversial Bible truths. There is no turning back now. Jesus, even at the present moment, is standing at the door of your heart, seeking admission:
Rev. 3:20:
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to Him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.”
What will your answer be?