Dear Friends,
Years ago, someone wrote to the well-known American evangelist Billy Graham and posed this question:
DEAR DR. GRAHAM: Is there any sin that God can't forgive? I worry about this because I've led kind of a rough life, and I can't imagine God just wiping the slate clean, so to speak, and forgiving all the bad things I've done. -- T.D.
Here was Dr. Graham’s answer.
DEAR T.D.: The only sin God cannot forgive is the sin of refusing to turn to Him and accept His forgiveness. To put it another way, the only sin God can't forgive is the sin of unbelief.
The sin of unbelief? Yes.
But first, I know what some of you are thinking. The unforgivable sin, according to Jesus, is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. That’s what He says in Matthew’s gospel.
“Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven” (Matthew 12:31).
And while there is debate among scholars about what actually constitutes blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, I think we have to recognize there is a connection between what Jesus desctibes in Matthew 12:31 and what He said in the previous verse – “Whoever is not with me is against me” (Matthew 12:30).
In other words, persistent, ongoing, hard hearted, stubborn unbelief is a clear indication that someone is not for Jesus, but is againstHim. And since the work of the Holy Spirit is to point to Jesus, to reveal to us the true nature of His person and work, the person who rejects His revelation calling the Holy Spirit a liar. Sounds like blasphemy to me.
We tend to think of unbelief as a failure to be persuaded that there is a God or that the gospel is true and can be trusted. But the Bible says unbelief goes deeper.
People who are unbelievers are unbelievers because they simply don’t want to believe.
Deep down, everyone knows there is a God. Creation makes that clear. And so does our conscience.
But the Bible says that each all of is inclined to actively suppress what we know is true.
Unbelief is not primarily about a lack of convincing evidence regarding the trut claims of Christianity. We choose unbelief not because of a lack of evidence, but because we recognize that if there is a God, we are accountable to Him.
And we don’t like that idea one bit. We want to be in charge of our own lives. Not accountable to a holy God.
It’s not a lack of credible evidence that leads to unbelief. As JC Ryle says, unbelief is the result of pride and self-righteousness. Stiff necks and hard hearts. We remain spiritual blind until God humbles us, opens our eyes and we see.
At the end of the day, those who don’t believe in God or trust in Jesus don’t need more convincing. They need their hearts to be transformed by the Holy Spirit.
If that never happens, we can bring out as much evidence as we’d like and the unbeliever still won’t budge.
Because it’s not about evidence. It’s about not wanting to believe in the first place.
We are commanded by God to believe Him. Choosing unbelief is a sin. It is an act of wickedness. The Bible makes this clar.
To decide that you don’t believe in God, your Creator, the One who gave you life, the One who gives you breath, who blesses you with the blessings of common grace, the One who sent His Son to die so your sins can be forgiven and you can be reconciled to Him – to reject Him is not a neutral choice. It’s a stubborn, proud, self righteous wicked act.
Unbelief is an unforgivable sin.
There is a deep connection between unbelief and pride. They are two sides of the same coin. To refuse to belief what God has revealed is to say “I know better than God.” That’s pride.
And pride will keep you far from God.
God gives grace to the humble. All who are genuinely humble, God will meet in their humility and grant them grace.
The Pharisees in Jesus’ day were more committed to their unbelief than they were to the truth.
Anyone who hears the gospel and thinks to himself “, I am just not convinced about all this” doesn’t need more evidence or more convincing. He needs to humble himself.
In John 9, Jesus heals a blind man as a way to show the Pharisees just how spiritually blind they are. In their pride, they believed they knew God’s plan and agenda better than Jesus.
The first step to spiritual sight is to say “I don’t think I see things clearly. I need help from above.”
Jesus declared that He came to bring recovery of sight to the blind. He opens our eyes when we acknowledge and confess the sinfulness of our stubborn unbelief and ask Him to reveal Himself to us.
Charles Spurgeon preached a sermon in January of 1855 titled the Sin of Unbelief. If you doubt whether unbelief is really a sin or not, I would commend that sermon to you.
In it, he tells about a group of Christians who were discussing whether unbelief should be considered sinful. And one man in the group was astonished that the question was even being debated. This man, Spurgeon said, asked his friends:
"Is it not a sin for a creature to doubt the word of its Maker?
I"s it not a crime and an insult to the Divinity, for me, an atom, a particle of dust, to dare to deny his words?
"Is it not the very summit of arrogance and extremity of pride for a son of Adam to say, even in his heart, ‘God I doubt thy grace; God I doubt thy love; God I doubt thy power?’
"Oh sirs, believe me, could you roll all sins into one mass,
could you take murder,
and blasphemy,
and lust,
adultery,
and fornication,
and everything that is vile
and unite them all into one vast globe of black corruption, they would not equal even then the sin of unbelief.
"This is the monarch sin, the quintessence of guilt; the mixture of the venom of all crimes; the dregs of the wine of Gomorrah; it is the A1 sin, the masterpiece of Satan, the chief work of the devil."
The first words attributed to Jesus in the Gospel of Mark “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15).
To refuse to repent and believe is to refuse what Jesus calls all of us to do.
There’s a reason that one term for a Christian is “a believer.” Because, as Billy Graham said, unbelief is the sin God cannot and will not forgive.
LOVE LIKE YOU MEAN IT MARRIAGE CLASSCould your marriage use a tune up?
I’m guessing just about everyone could say yes to that question.
(https://us.list-manage.com/5uCsPKq5pMe?e=fbb0a4052b&c2id=0759b7131ae0096a8daaedb620a7ee89)Starting a week from Sunday, we're beginning a 10 week class for couples, taking place on Sunday mornings before church. We’ll be going through the book and video series Love Like You Mean It, looking at the Bible’s definition of love in 1 Corinthians 13 and seeing how it applies to your marriage.
Classes start on May 31. And as of now, there’s no child care available. If that changes, we’ll let you know.
To learn more about the class or to sign up, click here (https://us.list-manage.com/hbBHcjRvWsC?e=fbb0a4052b&c2id=0759b7131ae0096a8daaedb620a7ee89).
BACKYARD BIBLE CLUB FOR KIDSOur annual Backyard Bible Club for kids starts a week from Monday. It’s a great time for our to be able to learn, grow and have a ton of fun. This summer, it will be Christmas in June as the kids hear about why Jesus is the greatest gift God has given us.
CLick here (https://us.list-manage.com/LLT8xi2xaTd?e=fbb0a4052b&c2id=0759b7131ae0096a8daaedb620a7ee89) to find out more or to register your kids.
BACKYARD BURGER BASHPlan to bring the whole family out back to the playground at church on Wednesday, June 3 as we kick off summer with our annual Backyard Burger Bash, featuring Pastor Bob’s famous burgers. Food. Fellowship. Inflatables. And the best burgers in town!WOMEN'S 10:24 GROUPS THIS SUMMERLadies – make sure your summer plans include some informal time together with other women from our church. Learn more about what’s involved and how you can be part of our 10:24 Groups for women by clicking this link (https://us.list-manage.com/hkz2kOvwAX2?e=fbb0a4052b&c2id=0759b7131ae0096a8daaedb620a7ee89).MEN'S SUMMER FORGE GROUPSNot to be outdone – Redeemer men will be getting together for activities and iron sharpening in Forge Groups this summer. More details next week.
STREET REACH IN MEMPHISOur Roots Students are headed to Memphis again this summer for our Street Reach outreach to kids in the Brady Heights neighborhood. Students and parents can find out more about the trip and register to take part in this special week. Just click here (https://us.list-manage.com/8fbQT59yGRE?e=fbb0a4052b&c2id=0759b7131ae0096a8daaedb620a7ee89).ROOTS SUMMER CALENDARSummertime is fun time for our Roots Students. Here’s the summer schedule.RCC SUMMER CALENDARCheck out what we have planned for this summer, all in one location. You can scan our online calendar (https://us.list-manage.com/2ksel11sCdm?e=fbb0a4052b&c2id=0759b7131ae0096a8daaedb620a7ee89), which is up to date. Use the grid display or the list display. Or you can review, download or print the summer schedule here (https://us.list-manage.com/13r9fACssdF?e=fbb0a4052b&c2id=0759b7131ae0096a8daaedb620a7ee89).
READY FOR SUNDAY
Here is the preview (https://us.list-manage.com/1120BI0fg9K?e=fbb0a4052b&c2id=0759b7131ae0096a8daaedb620a7ee89) of the songs we’ll be singing together this weekend.
Most people don’t move from devotion for God to abandoning Him in an instant. But as we’ll see in our study of Judges this week, the abandoning of God can easily occur from one generation to the next. We’ll look this Sunday at the predictable pattern that leads to apostasy and see what kinds of safeguards are necessary to preserve our faith.
See you in church!
Soli Deo Gloria!
Pastor Bob
Resource Info
