The Unpardonable Sin

Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and it is, I think

March 5th -ish, 2026. My weather app yesterday said we're gonna get eight inches of snow last night.

I think we got one inch and maybe an inch of ice or something like that. I'm just looking out there at the parking lot, tons of snow.

I think it's 80, 90 degrees in California, and here we are in New England. What are we doing? The frozen chosen here in New England.

You can write me, mike, at nocompromiseradio .com. Today, we're going to talk about a fun topic, or will we?

I shouldn't say fun, but I don't wanna have Mario go back and edit it. So an interesting topic, a topic that lots of people wonder about, a topic that some people have had all kinds of anxiety about, and that is the topic of the unpardonable sin.

Is there a sin that you can commit that will make you lose your salvation?

Is there a sin that's so bad that even the death of Christ can't cover it?

It can't forgive it. Is there some kind of sin that you could commit as a

Christian that prevents you from heaven? And so it's called the unpardonable sin in scripture, otherwise known as the blasphemy of the

Holy Spirit. So today on No Compromise Radio, that's what we'll talk about. And I think you'll be encouraged. If you're a Christian, you'll be encouraged.

If you're a Christian who says, I'm nervous, I'm scared that maybe I committed that sin, I think you'll be encouraged.

So today, Luke chapter 12, other gospels talk about this, but we'll be in Luke chapter 12, talking about the sin that can't be forgiven.

If somebody came to you and said, is there a sin that can't be forgiven? What would you say? I've talked to people before, they've done horrible things, awful things that I won't even repeat here on the show.

And they say, could I be forgiven? Pastor, do you think God would ever forgive me? And of course, all we have to do is go to the scripture and see the type of people forgiven, what sins they've been forgiven for, of, and the one who's dying on the cross to grant that forgiveness.

And you can go from David's murder, David's adultery, you can go to Paul's murdering, you can go to Peter's denial, you can look at those in the hall of faith in Hebrews chapter 11 and say,

I can pick out a lot of bad things about Jephthah, easy for me to say.

I can say to myself, what about Samson? What about Adam and his sin?

What about all these people that sin? Maybe I've sinned too much. Maybe even as a

Christian, I've sinned too much. And actually what happens when people say, well, Christians aren't perfect, they're just forgiven.

Okay, we could talk about that. I also think of people who say to me, well, you know what?

I'm not sinless as a Christian, I just sin less and less. I think maybe that trajectory, like California real estate, probably growth and grace, but it's not this.

It's your growing and then there's this horrible sin and Christian sin. Jesus died for the sins of Christian too, but there is growth and grace.

And then one day there'll be this sharp, okay, glorification. But when people say, well, I just sin less and less, most

Christians that I know of that are maturing, they think they actually sin more than they did when they were an unbeliever.

They don't sin more, I don't think, but they recognize their sin now quicker and faster as the spirit of God who dwells in them shows them and convicts.

That's one of the things that he, the spirit does is convict us of sin. And so all this talk about sin boils down to our passage today.

The one who blasphemes, Jesus said in Luke chapter 12, who blasphemes against the

Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. And that's big because we wanna be forgiven.

We have to be forgiven to get into heaven. And so if there's a sin that we can commit to lose our salvation, to be unredeemed, to be now an enemy of God, we don't wanna commit those sins.

But if it's not that, what is it? And of course we realize on this show that once God saves, it can't be undone.

Once God gives you the spirit, he seals you to the day of redemption. Ephesians chapter one, verses 13, 14 and chapter four, verse 30, you're sealed.

So what does this mean? One who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can't be forgiven.

Well, context matters. First thing in hermeneutics, you talk about context. The context is persecution of the

Pharisees to the disciples of Jesus. And of course, persecution of Jesus himself. That's why the disciples are getting persecuted because they're persecuting

Jesus. Fear of man, what will these people do to me? They can kick me out of the synagogue and to get kicked out of a synagogue was a lot worse than getting kicked out of your church.

Today, here, social, economic, civil, food, community, all these things.

If you're out of the synagogue, you're out. And so what do we do with these people that oppress and persecute?

Should we fear them? And Jesus is talking to his man saying, don't fear them.

Only fear the one who can cast into hell. And since you're trusting in Jesus and you're believing in Jesus, you don't have to worry about that, so you're safe.

God's not gonna condemn you if Jesus has justified you. That's Romans chapter eight. And so in the context of persecution, in the context of Jesus saying, remember last show, last week, where it's if you acknowledge

Jesus before men, ultimately trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, he on judgment day will what?

Acknowledge you, confess your name in front of the angels and the father, he's mine.

What joy, what marvel that that would happen. And I ask you like I did last week, just to think about that for about 10 seconds.

What will that day be? Some are getting cast into hell. And Jesus says,

Mike Abendroth, he's mine. He's a friend, he's redeemed, glorified body.

And I'm his mediator, I'm his advocate, and he's not guilty.

Matter of fact, he's righteous. I mean, that will be a great day. The negative side, if you deny Jesus, he's going to deny you before the angels and God the father.

And so with Jesus, eternity at stake, he's the hub of all of time, of all history, of the universe.

He's the center. And if you believe or don't believe, that's the divided line. There's no three ways of salvation, not two ways of salvation, not 10 ways of salvation.

It's Jesus or nothing. Believe on Jesus, knowledge, assent and trust, trusting in Jesus or denying him.

Then he says, if you commit a sin against the son of man, it can be forgiven. Any sin can be forgiven. But now he says, if you've committed a sin against the spirit of God, blasphemy in the

Holy Spirit can't be forgiven. So there's two things I want to talk about today. What's the immediate context and how does it apply to us?

What's going on in the passage and how about for us today? Well, in the passage, I just got done saying that it's about Pharisees who are persecuting.

It's about Pharisees who are saying what? Jesus undeniably heals.

He's raised people from the dead. Remember Luke 7 where the lady, the widow of Nain, her son was dead and Jesus made him alive.

He's touched lepers and healed them. He's walked on water. He's fed 10 ,000, yes, 20 ,000 people with bread and fish.

He has withstood the assailing power of Satan in Luke chapter four.

Virgin born, all these things about Jesus he's done. And they say it's undeniable.

I mean, if CNN were there filming it, they'd have to say, that guy couldn't walk for 30 years, now he can walk.

That person had dropsy, now he doesn't. That person paralyzed, now he isn't.

So if Jesus is from God, they would say, oh, I have to trust in him, that's God's Messiah.

But if they don't, where did Jesus get the power? Somehow Jesus has the power to do these undeniable miracles.

They were undeniable in the masses. These aren't these kinds of things that the Benny Hinn crusade and healing, leg lengthening and your back's bad.

No, no, show me Benny Hinn where people will walk in without legs and now they have legs.

And I'd go, hmm, something's going on there. I could say more about Benny Hinn. Even then

I would say, if Benny Hinn's not preaching the gospel, it doesn't matter. It could be Satan doing these things. By the way, that's what these

Pharisees were saying about Jesus. Chapter 11, he cast these things out, these demons out by the power of Beelzebub.

Essentially, Jesus has power and the power is Satan. Jesus can do these things because of these false gods and the demon behind Beelzebub, Lord of the flies.

And by the way, it gets really gross when you think about it, Lord of the flies. Where do you see flies? You know, sometimes they're just in your house.

When I open up the garbage can, once in a while, if I haven't dumped the trash outside, been out of town,

I come back home from vacation and you open it up and you're like, what in the world, that smell? And you look at the bottom of the trash can and what do you see?

Maggots moving because the flies have gotten in and now there's maggots everywhere. You know, you'll see flies elsewhere.

You'll see it on dung. And so Beelzebub, Lord of the flies, Lord of the dung.

Jesus is the dung God. He's the dung God. I mean, what kind of awful slander that is.

Jesus is committing miracles. He's doing them, but it's by Satan.

Satan's the one who's doing it. It's not by the power of the Holy Spirit. It's not by his own power. It's not by the father's power.

It's casting out demons by Beelzebub. For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebub.

And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, Jesus says, by whom do your sons cast them out?

If it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, the kingdom of God has come upon you.

And so Jesus is casting out demons and doing all these great miracles. And the

Pharisees said, it's not from God, it's from Satan. That's what the blasphemy of the

Holy Spirit is. Attributing the work of Jesus to demons, saying that the work and miracles of Jesus are from Satan.

He's satanic, he's demon possessed. Many times in scripture, they're like, is he demon possessed?

Yes, Jesus is demon possessed. And so this deliberate, obstinate, stubborn denial that Jesus is the

Messiah, they not only could see what he was doing and experience what he was doing and have dinner with him to talk about what he was doing.

They knew what the Old Testament said about the Messiah and what he would be like.

Born in Bethlehem, they knew Micah 5 too. They knew from the tribe of Judah would this great

King come, would come. They knew about Genesis 49 and that prophecy. They knew all the prophecies about the

Messiah. And they still said, there's no possible way we're going to believe. But we've got to explain it somehow.

I mean, how are you gonna explain the miracles of Jesus? Yeah, Satan. Satan did that very thing, attributing to Satan, the work of the

Holy Spirit, even though there's all the evidence in front of them. Talk about slander, talk about shame, talking about, and blasphemy is almost like speaking a word against, to speak harm.

They knew he was the Messiah. They knew the Old Testament. They could see it in him.

Other people saw it. How many people saw what Jesus did and said, I believe, I trust,

I need to be forgiven. So the immediate context is attributing the work of Jesus to Satan.

That's the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Now to us, how does that apply to us?

I mean, Jesus isn't on earth. We're not around with the Pharisees. This leads back to what we talked about last week.

I almost said last Sunday. Maybe I'll preach this on Sunday too. I think I will. If I live long enough, if not

Mario, you can preach it. Mario, you should be on No Compromise Radio sometime. The 30 minutes would go by fast.

We could actually talk. They could see your face. I don't know if that's good or not, but you could put a filter on that show from last week.

Many Christians think they've committed the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit because Christians sin.

Sometimes Christians don't think rightly. Like one time when Luke disobeyed and I was gonna discipline him afterwards.

And I said, son, what were you thinking? And he said, dad, I wasn't thinking. I'm like, that's exactly right.

But Christians will think, you know what? I committed a sin. How could I in light of all that the Lord has done for me? He's loved me, the father's given his son for me.

All these things that he's done for me and yet I sinned. I did it on purpose. I knew better and I still did it.

And they feel like somehow they've committed this sin. Athanasius said,

God has not said pardon is not granted to the blasphemer repenting, but to the blasphemer persevering.

This is the final state. How does it apply to us? If you're a

Christian and you're worried about committing the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, you haven't committed the blasphemy of the

Holy Spirit. Because what does the spirit of God do? What does he do? He convicts of sin.

He wants you to desire holiness. He grants you contrition after you sin and you wanna do the right thing.

Father, I'm so sorry I did these sins. If you think you've committed it, almost every scholar

I know would say, then you haven't committed it because the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit that even the

Pharisees would have would be to the final end saying, Jesus is satanic. Jesus isn't

God. Jesus isn't the Messiah. Can a Christian sin? Can Paul even say for many, many years, the apostle

Paul, along with these Pharisees, because he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees.

Remember Philippians chapter three. I'm sure Paul said, Jesus is not the Messiah. Jesus is a fake.

He's a fraud. He's a phony. And what kind of parlor tricks he does to try to do these miracles. It reminds me back to Exodus where Moses did these things and Pharaoh's magicians copied it.

Many times copied it in a supernatural way. Satan's real. Satan can do false miracles. He can't do every false miracle, but he did plenty back in Exodus.

And so Jesus has done those things. Did Paul the apostle do those kind of machinations in his mind?

Did he think that way about Jesus? The answer is yes and yes. But Paul got saved because he didn't die believing those things.

He repented. He trusted. He believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul did not commit the blasphemy of the

Holy Spirit that's unpardonable because every sin's pardonable because Jesus' death is so great unless you die in the state of denial.

If you die in the state of Jesus isn't the Messiah. Jesus isn't the son of God. Jesus is not the son of man.

I don't know how Jesus did these parlor tricks, but it's not from God. If you die that way, it's unpardonable because the only way you can be pardoned is on earth.

Once you die, your fate is sealed. Now, there's a great theologian,

Dutch theologian. His name was Herman Bovink. And he said about this, it is a conscious, willful and intentional imputation.

I credit these things to the influence and working of Satan, which is clearly recognized as God's work.

In a willful declaration that the Holy Ghost is the spirit of the abyss, that truth is a lie and that Christ is

Satan himself. Christian, do you think Jesus is demon -possessed?

Even though you sinned last week, even though you denied Jesus in front of your friend, you did something really stupid and sinful.

Right now, do you think Jesus is demon -possessed? Do you think the miracles that Jesus did were made up?

Do you think that the Holy Ghost, the spirit of God is fake? Do you think he's a force?

Do you think he doesn't testify to who Jesus is? You are not stubbornly and persistently and resolutely saying

I don't believe in Jesus. You're saying the opposite. And you're saying when I do sin against him, I feel bad and I have shame and I have guilty feelings and I need to be forgiven, even as a

Christian. Therefore, you have not committed the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. You haven't committed an unpardonable sin.

Colossians says, when Jesus died for you, all your sins are forgiven. Past, present, and future.

Can God unjustify you when you sin? No, your future sins are already paid for. Can he say, you know what?

I forgave you, but now I changed my mind. You're not forgiven. You know, kind of like for Tulip, total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saint.

For the Arminian, they say it's a daisy, right? He loves me, he loves me not. God is immutable.

God doesn't change. Once he loves you, he loves you, right? Eternity past, he loves you to the end.

You, Christian, are not stiff -arming God, rejecting him all the way to the end.

Now, are you? Because even your contrition, even your desire to say, I sure hope I didn't commit that sin, is a sign of a

Christian. Absolutely, you have not committed the unpardonable sin when you talk that way.

Somebody came to my house once at four in the morning in Los Angeles, knocking at my door. He had been to a couple of my home

Bible studies. His name was David. And he had thought he'd committed the unpardonable sin.

And if that gets in a Christian's mind, and he hadn't slept for a couple of days, that just was driving him, it was eating him, because he knew he had sinned since he had professed

Christ. And it really ate him up, committed so much anxiety, created anxiety, and he didn't know what to do.

A tragic end to his story. But I just have seen people like David, who've been so concerned that they've committed this sin.

It eats away everything else. It eats away their joy. It eats away ministry to other people. It eats away their evangelism.

Christians can't commit this sin. Did you hear me? Christians cannot commit the unpardonable sin because Christians don't die in a state of sin being unforgiven, because they're forgiven, reconciled, redeemed.

God has assuaged his wrath upon his son in your place, on your behalf, in your stead. Jesus is not in the tomb.

He's been raised from the dead. And one day you'll raise a newness of life too. And he just got done saying, did he not?

If you acknowledge me on earth, confess Jesus as Lord, believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved until you sin and think maybe it's an unpardonable sin.

No, of course not. Christians can't commit this sin. Christians can sin and feel like they maybe have committed this sin because they realize unpardonable sin.

I mean, that gets your attention. Oh, unpardonable sin. Maybe that's it.

Maybe I slept with my girlfriend. Maybe I took the Lord's name in vain. Maybe I looked at pornography.

Whatever those sins are, they're sins, run, repent. Thank God for forgiveness. But you're not dying in the state of Jesus is

Satan. I talked to someone the other day talking about assurance in this very room.

And I said to this person, do you believe everything in the gospel of Luke?

I mean, kind of farfetched stories. Jesus can feed 20 ,000 people with some bread and some fish.

I mean, that Jesus could actually walk on water, it's impossible. That Jesus could go up to a dead person and say, arise.

You know what that would take in terms of every molecule if dead and cold needs to be alive and then have everything function perfectly with the lungs and the kidney and the spleen and the brain and everything else?

That's just farfetched. Do you really believe all the things in the Bible that talk about Jesus, even all those miracles?

And she said, well, of course I do. And I said, I know because it's the spirit of God who testifies to you that those things are very accurate and true.

Christians believe those things. And so when you think, have I committed the adulterous sin?

Well, if you committed adultery, that's close to the unpardonable sin. No, even sexual sins, every sin is forgiven.

And when you commit them on earth, guess what happens? It affects our assurance.

And somehow we don't feel saved when we're sinning. And when we're being caught up in a sin, as Galatians 6 says, you think, okay, now

I'm feeling bad. And then your mind goes to, oh yeah, I remember. Matthew talks about it. Mark talks about it.

Here it is in Luke 12. Is this unpardonable? And here's the good thing about that, I think.

It makes you realize as a Christian, sin is still sin and it's awful and I shouldn't do it.

It should be unpardonable, but Jesus paid for it. Jesus said on the cross, many things, including it is.

Mario, finished, paid in full. The justice of God demands you to go to heaven, dear

Christian, because Jesus paid for your sins. No double jeopardy. You don't have to pay for your sins and Jesus pays for your sins.

What kind of deal is that? I'll tell you what kind of deal it is. It's a bad deal and it's unjust, but God is just.

God is righteous. God's works righteousness and justice, the Bible says in Psalm 103.

And so therefore, the unpardonable sin for us today is, for us, meaning anybody today, is to die rejecting

Jesus. You know about Jesus. You're not gonna be forgiven because after you die, then there's going to be judgment, eternal consequences.

But the good news is if you're an unbeliever and you're watching, if you've got unbelieving friends, say, no matter what

I've done in the past, I can still be forgiven today because it's the brilliance and the wonder and what happens at the cross and Jesus' death can pay for all kinds of sin, every sin.

There's no sin that can't be forgiven on this earth. Later, it can't be forgiven because it's appointed for man once to die and then judgment.

So the context is you're seeing Jesus do miracles and you're saying it's by Satan.

For us, you could say, well, I see Jesus doing these miracles, but the Bible's a lie. He's demonic.

Pharisees are right. This isn't true. He can't be a sin bearer. Jesus is sinful himself.

Jesus is not blameless. He's corrupt. He's one of many ways. There's all kinds of things that if you die believing those things, then there's no hope for you.

If you're a Christian, I wanna assure you when it comes to the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, the unpardonable sin, adultery,

David, forgiven. Murder, David, forgiven. The prodigal son and all his riotous living and prostitutes and defaming his father, forgiven.

Peter, three times denying Jesus, forgiven. How about Paul said that he's the chief of sinners out of all the sinners, the one who's committed the most sins,

Paul, forgiven. How about adultery?

I just said that, forgiven. Fornicators, forgiven. Homosexuals, forgiven.

Thieves, forgiven. Covetous, forgiven. Drunkards, forgiven. Extortioners, forgiven.

And such were some of you, but you are washed, sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus by the

Spirit of God. How about capital crimes?

In the Bible, forgiven. How about, as I said earlier, Paul persecuting the church, forgiven.

How about the thief on the cross, a murderer, a rioter, an insurrectionist, the thief on the cross, even spitting blasphemies against Jesus minutes before he dies is granted eternal life and says, remember me when you come in your kingdom.

And Jesus said, I'm gonna remember you in paradise. But the total refusal till the very end of your day means you can't be forgiven because there's no forgiveness after you die.

The writer of Hebrews says in chapter six, who's tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come.

And then have fallen away to restore them again to repentance since they're crucifying once again, the son of God to their own harm.

That's why it says it's impossible for them to be saved. That's why

Hebrews would say, if you're listening and you're not a Christian, don't harden your hearts today. Oh, that you would listen to his voice and not harden your heart.

So many Christians wonder and struggle, have I committed this sin? And I'll say it again,

I've said it three times. One of the best reasons why, one of the greatest evidences of your

Christianity and that you haven't committed that sin is that you're worried that you did commit it because the spirit of God is working in you.

You're not blaspheming the spirit of God. You're saying he's working in me to say, I don't wanna do that. I don't wanna ever say anything negative about Jesus or the father or the

Holy spirit. I want you to have assurance.

I want you to say, I don't have to worry about that because once you don't have to worry about your salvation's assurance, that it's secure, that you're gonna go to heaven, now you can go live.

Now you can go serve. Now you don't have to keep wondering, what am I doing? What am I doing?

What am I doing? So many times, if you struggle with your assurance and you think you've committed the unpardonable sin you're a

Christian, could I be really kind about it and compassionate? Would you stop looking inwardly and look outwardly to the

Lord Jesus and his promises? And he says, if you look to me, I'll never cast you out.

You look to me, I give you eternal life. You're safe and secure. I'm never going to say to the father, he's not mine because if you confess and acknowledge

Jesus before men and have saving faith, he'll never disown you. Matter of fact, he'll stand up for you.

You have an advocate, you have a mediator, you have a captain of your salvation. You have a savior, you have a

Lord, you have God who says, the God who made this universe with the word. He says, you trust my son, you have eternal life.

You're not saying Jesus is demon possessed. Jesus is the Lord of the flies.

Jesus is Satan. No, no. The unpardonable sin today is essentially dying, committing any sin without forgiveness.

How many times do you have to spit in the King's face before he banishes you? Once, no forgiveness.

And now we've got Adam's sin and we've got our own sins. That's why we need a savior.

So if you've got a bunch of guilt today as a Christian, rest. Be assured of this very fact, that Jesus, Hebrew seven, is able to completely save those who come to God through him.

He's able, he's the one that can do it. You can praise him. These words should not be scary to you.

These words should be something that make you say, I'm thankful that's not me. It could have been.

It wasn't until God intercepted me at 29 years old. It wasn't until God intercepted Mario at,

I'm guessing. 23. We don't wanna die in the state of sin because then it's too late.

We want to believe and we are thankful that the Lord has saved us. So be assured. And if the

Lord is tugging on your heart, if the Lord is convicting you because you've been playing around with Christianity, you don't know if you're gonna believe or not, don't die unforgiven.

Don't die because then it is essentially an equal to you saying,

Jesus is Satan. Not many people would say it, but that is in effect what you functionally will be doing.

Because if he's not from the father, where is he from? Because he did do those miracles.

Aren't you glad for scripture? Aren't you glad that it's so clear? Aren't you glad that when we look at verses, we read them in light of all the scripture?

We cover the passage. It says what it says. But we have all kinds of other things that we think about God's character, how he doesn't change.

When he justifies, he sanctifies, he glorifies. When he redeems, he does it to the end.

He'll never cast us out. He'll never forsake us. He'll always keep us. Jesus is the promise keeper.

In the middle of all these promises, Jesus keeps his promise. I'm glad for that. My name is Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio.