WHEN PEOPLE BELIEVE THEY HAVE SINNED AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT

“But exhort one another daily, while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin”, Heb 3:13

I have come across, quite often, many people who believed they have sinned against the Holy Spirit. We bump on them almost on every corner of this world. I believe firmly these people will be judged, yes, but on account of other sins and not on the one they easily talk about and mention unto us.

The sin against the Holy Spirit is a religious sin. It is also a justifying sin which mostly justifies self. People who condemn themselves of it cannot possibly have committed it. This sin usually holds itself as God in front of God, it meaning that, if the Holy Spirit is not present either, it cannot possibly become a sin against Him. It has got to be a sin “against” the Holy Spirit and for it to be against Him, He has got to be there at work. And because many people never realized or saw what it is when God is really Emanuel, or what it means that the mountains melt at His presence and sinners break down in spite of how hardness may have taken hold of them or not, then these easily bubble words out which have no Scriptural backup nor any truthful sign on them at all.

We read that, Peter preached and people “were cut in the heart” asking just how they should go about to be right with God for once. We read, also, when religious people stoned Stephen, that they also “were cut in the heart” with a different moral decision and reaction as a response to what happened inside. In this extreme action AGAINST the Holy Spirit of God, against inner evidence so clear, there was the man Paul who charged against the Holy Spirit as well and became a mighty apostle after that sin has been committed. Few men of God have been that close to this sin as Paul had, I believe. The only difference is that Paul’s nearness to it was for real, even believing he was doing it justly for God and for Israel. This is not the same as when people are cupbearers to deceit and cry over a sin which they have not committed. Words against the Holy Spirit of God or actions against Him are but the same. There are people who say things against God prompted by the devil and have never been that close to sin irreversibly against God as Paul had been. This sin Paul committed was of the kind Stephen could cry out about and still be heard by saying, “Lord, do not lay this sin to their charge”, Act 7:60.

The sin against the Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven because it cannot be laid down and forsaken. It is the Holy Spirit which works repentance and conviction. How can Prov.28:13 be fulfilled concerning this sin if one sins against the Holy Spirit then? It would be like drying something up with water – it just won’t work. There is forgiveness for any sin one lays down through the Holy Spirit of God and not against Him. There is no forgiveness for any sin which one does not forsake and for which confession leads to the better forsaking of it and serves for the abandonment of it. Light kills sin, confession brings and prompts it to be lighted upon. Abandonment of sin is synonymous of forgiveness, confession leads to the forsaking of it due to the mighty effect Light’s has upon it. The sin against the Holy Spirit cannot be laid down since it is the Holy Spirit Who is Light and would kill it and is worked against.

There are many reasons why people say, or even state, they have sinned the unpardonable sin. I wish I could focus on them all. Yet, it is clear all of them have a same clear point of view and hidden aim to carry on with some other sin which makes them unbelieving. The modern doctrines of “once saved always saved”, are mainly responsible for this, especially for that kind of state of heart among people everywhere. They pray and are not heard, they have problems at home they seem not able to bear or even clear out through God, and either the devil or them start convincing themselves they may have committed a sin which deprives them from eternal rest right here, “before the time”. Some of them believe, as well, they were not chosen of God.

There is no sin great or small which will not turn God’s face against us – anyone of us and any sin whatsoever. If and when someone comes to you claiming he or she has committed a sin against the Holy Spirit, take your time to search out for some other sin such a person is surely holding on to with both hands and cover it up even. I found along my way people in this state of heart who smoke and have been told by pastors they should not or need not quit it for it would stress them more if they did; or people who have stolen stuff in their homes and refuse to either throw it away or find its proper owners to make restitution of it to them OPENLY (for, if stealing is done in the dark, restitution must be done in the opposite way – an eye for an eye it is required here as well); also such as want and wish to have religion after their own way and as they see it; lying is among the list of sins which is holding people from hearing from God as well; any unconfessed sin in the past may also lead to this kind of (un)believing. Never think a sin is too small to be turning someone into an unbeliever and recall it to mind always. It is sin which hinders people from believing rightly, for faith which saves is fruit from the Holy Spirit. Faith is a child born out a relationship with Jesus. If sin is in between, there will be no faith-child born from there at all. Since people pray in sin believing sin is not a problem to people who “have accepted Christ” already, they easily fall back into believing they are fallen from grace irreversibly.

As much as sins in the past may lead anyone to either unbelief or to a wrong kind of faith, it is also true that sins in the future may hold one to a belief of convenience that states one has committed the unpardonable sin somehow. I mean through this that people love to believe they cannot possibly be forgiven so they may carry on with some sin unhindered! People pretend carrying on masturbating, lying, cheating, watching worldly stuff on television or in the movies, carrying on fighting for popularity of some kind before one single person or before a crowd (even if it only in one’s own mind alone and unreal) and therefore believe conveniently they cannot be forgiven ones. There are multitudes of unthinkable sins which people never whish to give up or even see as the sin which prevents them from seeing the face of God so faith might be conceived in them as fruit. People pretend carrying on believing they have no hope out of convenience.

There are some people who seek attention of many a kind and they find they have it for as long as they believe they have been doomed before dying. They see themselves as victims and never as guilty ones, blaming God and beating at their chests at the same time! People also pity themselves and indulge such pet sins as a leading feature in them which is always right in how it feels about something. They believe their hearts above God. Besides sins either in the past or in the future which people pretend hiding or carrying on with, there is also this state of heart which leads people and prevents them from seeing anything else any other way. People reason and think fully based upon a state of heart! In all these cases, there is sin yes, great sins even, but never the one they claim they have committed. The sin against the Holy Spirit is used here as a pretence, excuse or even as a hiding stronghold for many a kind and type of sin. There is no greater sin than the one of hiding sin behind a cloak or garment of truth, however. These will only be forgiven if confessed and laid down for good. The peace that comes into the soul then, will be able to testify they have never committed the unpardonable sin at all – ever. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know (understand) it?” Jer.17:9. Anyone knowing and accepting his own heart as the source of deceit will be easily saved from these type of sins as well. Anyone who believes to have committed this sin, seldom desires after forgiveness because the heart tends to feel sorry for itself all along so it can take care of its sins as comforting pets. Any pet sin will soon grow into a ferocious lion hungry for souls.

Sin may do, may tell, may convince of anything to anyone whatsoever, so it may carry on living as it is. It may convince you you will never be forgiven of any supposed past sin, using your ignorance concerning it so it may keep living in your daily life still. If you lay it down, however, all accusations will cease. Beware because the Bible rightly states that sinners are “deceived” people (self-deceived or not). Any sin brings deceit along with it or it would not work out in man that easily. “Surely in vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird”, Pro 1:17. If the net is out of sight, then, any foolish bird will be caught up into it. Sin scratches you ear and your eye lid so you close your eyes and so it may stab your heart under the cover of the dark. Eve was deceived and so are all of her followers. “But exhort one another daily, while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin”, Heb 3:13. One becomes hardened because of being away from God and there one will believe anything one wishes to believe, from being saved to being eternally doomed. There are no limits to what people may come to believe once away from God. It is sin, any sin whatsoever, which separates us from God. Sin is the direct cause of going apart from God, and the indirect cause for hardness and not the direct of it at all. One becomes hardened because God is away. Sin creeps in, then, and brings its right arm: deceit. This deceit will even come as far as stating one is saved and there is no problem with sinning daily, or it may also state one is doomed with the same purpose in mind, which is, that one carries on sinning. Amen.

José Mateus
zemateus@msn.com