The Unpardonable Sin: What It Really Means for Israel

Hello and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. I'm going to get right back into the book of Matthew. And I'm always having to be reminded to let our television audience know that all our past programs, now that's 44 times 4, that's 160-some programs, are available on videotape. We can also make the audio if you like it, but our largest request has been for the videotapes. But they are available as well as some of them have been transcribed into print. So if you'd be interested in that, and Monty is always reminding me of various things, and I kind of shun to do it because I don't want people to think that I'm being braggadocio or something like that. But there are a lot of folk using the tapes in home Bible studies, Sunday school classes, and what have you. So if someone out there, if you feel you'd like to do more for the Lord and you want to start a home Bible study, the tapes are doing a tremendous work. I mean, it's amazing how we seem to be getting the attention of people who never had a spiritual interest. I've had people call and say, I never studied the Bible before, but you make it so interesting that I'm going to start studying. And that's all we try to do. I'm not trying to build an organization, as I've said so often. I'm not trying to build a following. All we're trying to do is get folks interested in the book of books because once you get into it, I mean, you just can't beat it. It is just so fabulous. But so many people have got the idea it's just a musty, dusty old book, and it's just a bunch of Bible stories. And it's not. Everything fits from cover to cover. It's all written so miraculously. And that's why we know it's not an ordinary book. It is the divinely inspired Word of God, and it is everything that God said it is. Now then, I think that's all we need for announcements at now. We're going to go right into Matthew. I'm going to take you to a portion. Now, like I said when we began the study of Matthew, I'm not going to take it chapter and verse. Now, we've just finished that, as I said in the last program in John's Gospel. That takes forever. I would never finish this series if I were to go chapter and verse. But I'm going to skip various things that I think you're all well acquainted with. And as I said before, I just want to look at the overall scheme of things, the very plan of the ages, as someone has put it, from cover to cover, and then hit some of the things in the meantime that are so apropos. Now, in Matthew chapter 12, beginning with verse 31, we have a few little verses that have raised so many questions. And it used to bother me, but as I've tried to tell my students, if I may call people that, when you come to any portion of Scripture, be ready to constantly ask a question. Question it from your own point of view. Now, right here we're talking about what people normally call the unpardonable sin. And when something is unpardonable, that means that it's going to doom you. In other words, if you are guilty of the unpardonable sin, then you have no hope of glory. You're headed for the lake of fire. And so, I've looked at these verses, and I say, now wait a minute. The only sin that's going to condemn anybody, Jew or Gentile, black or white, rich or poor, is not any particular word we've said, not any particular deed we have done. There is only one thing that will condemn a human being, and that is unbelief. Unbelief. Now, we're not talking about unbelief here. We're talking about something that is spoken. Now, let me prove my point. Keep your hand in Matthew 12, and come back with me to Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 3, and maybe I can make my point from the reverse end of it all. Because I don't want someone to go through life scared to death that maybe they have committed the unpardonable sin, which most people feel, according to this in Matthew 12, is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Well, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is a sin, no doubt about it. But, if I understand Scripture correctly, and if I've taught you correctly, there is no sin that the grace of God doesn't reach beyond. In other words, the vilest of sinners is still a candidate for the grace of God. But what does he have to do? He has to believe. See? All right, Hebrews. Chapter 3. And I think Paul wrote Hebrews. And, of course, he's taking the experience of Israel having just come out of Egypt. God leads them up to the promised land. And if you'll remember when I taught it back there, and they got to Kadesh Barnea, it wasn't God's idea to send in the 12 spies. God never intended for them to go search out the land. When God said, Go in and take the land, and I'll send in hornets ahead of you. I'll do whatever needs to be done to cleanse the land, to drive out the enemy. Go and take it. But Israel, you see, couldn't even take God at His word at that point in time. So then they hedge, and they say, Well, let us spy it out first. Well, now God, in His goodness then, condescended, if I may use that word, condescended to their request, and said, All right, choose out 10 men, and let them go in. And oh, the biggest mistake Israel ever made. Because what did those 12 men come back and say, 10 of them? Oh, we can't do it. Hey, there's no way we can drive out the Canaanites. We're as grasshoppers in their sight. Well, what had God said? I'll drive them out. You follow. So what was their problem? All right, Hebrews, chapter 3. And let's just drop in at verse 15. Hebrews 3, let's drop in at verse 15. While it is said, Today, if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. In other words, as Israel was there in the wilderness. Verse 16. For some, when they had heard, did provoke, howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses, but with whom was he grieved? With whom was God grieved those 40 years? Was it not with them who had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom swear He that they should not enter into His rest, but to them that worshipped that golden calf. Is that what your Bible says? You see what I mean? But to them who committed immorality, and they know they did. Oh, they danced around that golden calf. We were looking at that in one of our classes the other night. And oh, they went into the pagan practices while Moses was up in the mount, you know. Is that what God is holding against them? No. He doesn't even mention that. Vile sin as it was. But what was He able to do with that kind of sin? He could forgive. He could forgive. But what was Israel's problem? Unbelief. They couldn't believe what He said. Read it to the end of the chapter. And to whom, verse 18 again, And to whom swear He that they should not enter into His rest, but to them that believed not. And then the last verse puts the cap on it. So we see that they, that is the children of Israel remember, that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Has anything changed? No. Nothing has changed. God can forgive to the uttermost any sin, the vilest of sin, except one. And what is it? Unbelief. When people refuse to believe that Christ died for them, paid their sin debt, rose from the dead in power. And that's all He's asking. Believe it. And if a person refuses to believe that gospel, then his doom is sealed. All right, now let's come back to Matthew 12. Now again, our last half hour I ran out of time, and I really didn't get to put the point across that I wanted. But you see, Acts 11.19 had just confirmed what I've been saying for several months. That all the way clear up to Saul's conversion, and that's where Acts 11.19 took up, you know, at the stoning of Stephen, and then the next event is the conversion of Saul. But as late as the stoning of Stephen, which is seven years after Pentecost, the Book says, not just me, the Book says that those Jewish believers who were scattered from Saul's persecution went all over that area of the world preaching the Word. They didn't have the New Testament yet, so is the Old Testament, preaching the Word to none but Jew only. That's what the Book says. And that's where I picked up the term. It's Jew only. Only I even temper it a little bit with exceptions. But you've got to get this picture that God is dealing only with the Jew. And I've showed that verse in Ephesians more than once. Ephesians chapter 2, let's look at it. Keep your hand in here, honey. We'll be right back. Ephesians chapter 2, because I know I'm coming into territory that most people are totally unaware of. And as I was telling Iris as I've been preparing for these series of lessons here in Matthew, I just hope that people won't do with me like they did with the Lord Himself. You remember back there in John's Gospel when He said, unless you drink My blood and eat My flesh, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven? And how did they respond to it? And it says it turned them off, in our vernacular, and they turned away, see? Because they couldn't comprehend what He was telling them. Well, I'm scared to death that this is what people might do with me. But I'm hoping that they'll hang in there and hear me out. Because I realize this isn't the way that I grew up. I know that. I guess I grew up with the same mentality. As soon as you get into the Gospels, you've got Christianity, you've got church ground. And I just now know better, and I'll stand on that. But anyway, here in Ephesians, Paul makes it so plain. And we've looked at this verse many times. Verse 11 and 12. And I'm going to read it quickly for sake of time. Paul writes to us Gentiles, and he says, Remember that you being enticed past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcised by those who are the circumcised, that is by the Jew, verse 12, that at that time, what time? When it was Jew only. When God was dealing only with the nation of Israel on those covenant promises. That at that time, you Gentiles were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. That was the lot of the Gentile, because God was dealing only with the Jew. Now, I never like to leave you there, because the next verse is glorious hope for us Gentiles, and what does it say? But, now, see, in Christ Jesus, you who were at one time far off, Gentiles, outside, you who were at one time far off, are made nigh by the what? The blood of Christ. See what a difference that makes? But, until that is announced, we have to stay back here, that it's for the Jew, and what is He to believe? That Jesus is the Christ. Alright, now come back here then to 12, and again, leave it where it sits. This is God dealing with Israel. Not that we can't take some warning from it. I certainly don't tell people, well, go out and blaspheme the Holy Spirit, because, after all, God will forgive you. No way. All I'm saying is, that this is something that doesn't fit church doctrine. It just doesn't fit. Where's Beverly? Remember what you told me a long time ago? You always had to pigeonhole things? That's the word she's always used. I've always had to pigeonhole things, until she came into our class, and hopefully she doesn't do it as often, if at all. Now, she's shaking her head, not at all. And see, here's the reason. If you can just learn to leave these things where they belong, you don't have to pigeonhole it, and say, well, I'll come back to this later. It's so perfectly set. And so now, to the nation of Israel, He says, verse 31, "...Wherefore, I say unto you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of Man, that is the Christ, it shall be forgiven. But whosoever speaketh a word against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this age," now that's a better word than world, many times, "...this age," it's the Greek word aion, A-I-O-N. Now, when it uses the word cosmos, K -O-S-M-O-S, then it speaks of the world system. And then if another force, it may speak of the world, and you can tell it doesn't talk about the system, it's not talking about an age, but it's talking about the planet, planet Earth. So you always sort these things out. All right, read on now then. "...so it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this age, nor in the age to come." Okay, now let's look at a parable that explains this so beautifully, and that'll be over in Matthew 21. Matthew 21. I hope we've got time to read all this verse by verse. We're going to try. Matthew 21, beginning at verse 33. Matthew 21, verse 33. Jesus is speaking. This is all during His earthly ministry, and He's speaking to Jews. Hear another parable. "...there was a certain householder who planted a vineyard, hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and led it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country." Got the picture? "...and when the time of the fruit drew near," in other words, it was time to get some return on his investment, "...and the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits, or the profit, from it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned still another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did unto them likewise. But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, Surely they'll reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him," verse 39, "...and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. When the Lord therefore the vineyard cometh, what will he do to those husbandmen?" Now Jesus is asking the Jews. Now I'm going to, just for sake of time, drop all the way down to verse 45. "...and when the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables," plural, not just this one, "...but every parable that he had spoken, when they had heard his parables, they perceived, they understood." You're already nodding your heads. You're way ahead of me. Who was He talking about? Them. Oh, underline that. "...Now as He spoke to them in all of these parables, including this one I've just read, they suddenly understood that He was pointing the finger at them." All right, now what was the parable all about? Well, you see, when God called the nation of Israel out, gave them the covenant promises, called them His Son, His favored nation, and He dealt with them up through the Old Testament years by sending the prophets. What did they do to the prophets? They killed them. All right, now we always like to talk in terms of the Trinity. So let's look at it this way. God the Father now, and that's all really the Jew understood in the Old Testament economy anyway. So God the Father sent the prophets to His covenant people, and what did they do with them? They killed them, or at best threw them in the dungeon. They refused to hear them. Well, did God cancel the nation of Israel because of that? No. So who did He send next? He sent His Son. He sent the Christ, and He presented Himself to the nation of Israel on the basis of the covenants that we've been harping on for months. And what did they do with the Son? They killed Him. Got the picture? And so these Pharisees are picking up on it. He's talking about us. And so it is in all the parables. All right, now we've got one person of the Trinity left yet. Who is that? The Holy Spirit. Now let's pick up. Now I'm going to qualify this. If you can't go along with this view, that's fine. I'm not going to get upset and somebody says, Well, I still think it's blaspheming the Holy Spirit. That's fine. All I'm trying to show is, and I think there is a better way of looking at this that makes a little more sense in the light of the fact that there's only one sin that condemns us, and that's unbelief concerning the gospel. In other words, I maintain, yes, someone could blaspheme the Holy Spirit. Tomorrow, next week, God can still save him. He's still a candidate for the grace of God. All right, but let's not lose sight of what the unpardonable sin is dealing with. Israel, the nation, that is the one that's coming under this anathema of God. Now come with me all the way to Acts chapter 6. Acts chapter 6. Israel has rejected the overtures from the Father by killing the prophets. They rejected the overture of the Son by killing the Christ. But now, how are they going to deal with the Holy Spirit? Because here is the unpardonable part now. It's how they deal with the third person. See, He could forgive the first two, but the third one, not really. Okay, got Acts chapter 6, and here we have the appointment of these seven men who are normally called deacons. I guess they get the word because of their duty, but anyway, in verse 3, that early Jewish church there at Jerusalem, remember, finally having some problems, and so He said, "...Choose out seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Spirit, wisdom, whom you may appoint over this business." Now verse 5, "...and the saying pleased the whole multitude, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith," and let me put in the verb again, full of what? The Holy Spirit. Now you see, there's two mentions already in just two verses of the Holy Spirit. "...full of the Holy Spirit." All right, come on down to verse, oh, again for sake of time, let's come all the way down to verse 15. I have to hurry. And so Stephen comes before this whole Jewish crowd, "...and all that sat in the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel." What is permeating the man? The presence of the Holy Spirit, to the point they could see the difference. Now let's come into chapter 7, and verse 2, now watch the language of whom he is addressing. And he says, "...men, brethren, and fathers," who's he talking to? Jews, see? "...the God of glory appeared unto our father," can any Gentile claim Abraham as father? Hardly. "...and so the God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham." Now we won't take time, and if ever you want the whole history of Israel in a nutshell, you just read Acts chapter 7. The whole history, beginning with Abraham, is in this one chapter. A lot of little details that the Old Testament leaves out are in this one. But anyway, for sake of time now again, come all the way down to verse 54 -55. So when these Jews had heard Stephen, when they had heard these things, verse 54, "...they were cut to the heart, they gnashed on him with their teeth, but he, being full of the," what? "...Holy Spirit," now do you see the emphasis over and over and over that we're dealing now with the Holy Spirit? "...but he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly into heaven, saw the glory of God, saw Jesus," not sitting! I haven't got time in this program, but there's a reason. Not sitting, but what? Standing! "...and when he said he saw Jesus standing, the Jews got furious." I haven't got time to tell you why. Maybe I can tell you at break time. I'll just leave the TV audience hanging on a string. But there's a reason, see? "...and I saw Jesus standing on the right hand of God." I see heavens open, and you know what happened. "...they sprang on him, they cast him out, and they did," what? "...they stoned him, and they laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul." Now verse 59, "...and they stoned Stephen, calling upon God," that is, Stephen was, "...and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. He kneeled down and cried a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep." Now, from this point on, what is the future of the nation of Israel, especially now in the Book of Acts? All downhill. It's all downhill. And why? Because they had now committed that unpardonable sin of not only rejecting the Father, not only rejecting the Son, but now they've also rejected the Holy Spirit. And for the whole past age of 2 ,000 years, what has the Jew been going through? Suffering, turmoil. Oh, I know in America they're pretty fortunate, but for the last 2,000 years, they've been going through the mill. But, you see, when this age ends, and we come into the next age, which is the Millennial reign, then yes, Israel is going to come into God's goodness and their grace and what have you. But now, like I say, you don't have to take that approach if you don't like it, if you're not comfortable with it. But to me, if you just leave everything sit where it belongs, it all falls in place so beautifully. And then you see, after the stoning of Stephen, the next event of any importance in the chronological unfolding is the conversion of what great man? Saul of Tarsus, see? And then even though Peter will go to the house of Cornelius in chapter 10, after Saul's converted into nine, then in chapter 10 we've got Peter, chapter 11 we have a little mention of Peter, and from then until the end of the book of Acts, Peter is never mentioned again. Isn't that amazing? And why? Because Israel is now falling out of all of the things that God had been promising, and the Gentiles make an ascendancy, and here comes the Body of Christ. Now, of course, that's why when we get to the book of Acts, I'll be pointing out the transitional aspect of the book of Acts. Going from God dealing with His covenant people of Israel under all the Old Testament promises, and everything was in their prospect, but when they rejected it, God now does something totally different, something that the Old Testament knew nothing of. What does He do? He turns to the Gentiles. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer -supported, and your gift is appreciated. 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