J.C. O' Hair – Berean Bible Church – Edgewater, Florida
The Church That Preaches
What The Bible Teaches
Preaching The Grace Of God - From The King James Bible - Dispensationally
Delivered
READ ISAIAH 1:18 -- ROMANS 5:28 AND 21 -- LUKE 7:41 TO 50 -- JOHN 8:3 TO 11
HEBREWS 10:26 -- 8:2 TO 8 -- EPHESIANS 2:4 TO 10
First let us read Acts 2:23 - 3:17 and Acts 3: 26: "Him (Christ) being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain."
"And now, brethren, I know that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers." "Unto
you FIRST God, having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you
FROM HIS INIQUITIES."
Here we read of the greatest crime ever committed by sinners on this earth. "You killed the Prince
of Life." (Acts 3:14 and 15). "The Jews who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets."
( 1Thessalonians 2:14 to 16). But was that worst of all crimes an unpardonable sin? The answer is Acts
2:41 and 4:4, where we learn that first 3000, and then 2000 more, of those murderers were pardoned. The
prayer of Christ on the cross was for this pardon: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what
they do." (Luke 23: 34). They crucified the Lord of glory; because they knew not. (1Corinthians
2:6 to 8). They were ignorant. (Acts 3:17). Paul gave his testimony in 1Tim-othy 1:12 to 16. Read it.
He called himself the chief of sinners. He was fully pardoned.
If the murder of Christ was not unpardonable, surely there is no such thing as an unpardonable sin
during this age of grace. But some Christians ask how about Hebrews 10: 26: "For if we sin wilfully
after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth NO MORE SACRIFICE for sins."
Do not change the word "SACRIFICE" in this verse to read "PARDON," as so many religious
people have done.
Read the condition of the sinner in Ephesians 2: I to 3-2:5-4: 18-2: 11 and 12. In these verses we
learn that the sinner is dead in trespasses and sins, alienated from the life of God, by nature the child
of wrath. He is an atheist. He is without hope. (Ephesians 2: 12). Surely all the sins of all such sinners
were unpardoned unless and until they experienced Ephesians 2:8 and 9: "For by grace are ye saved
through faith: and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God: Not of works lest any man should boast.
"This confirms Isaiah 1:18 and Romans 5:20: "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the
Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow: though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool." "Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where
sin abounded, grace did much more abound." Is not God's abounding grace and the blood of Christ
adequate for any sinner's case?
There is a great difference between THE UNPARDONABLE SIN and THE UNPARDONED SINNER. The very moment
the vilest, or the most respectable sinner, by faith, be-comes the recipient of God's grace, the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is applied to his guilty soul. Thereby all of his sins are pardoned: even
forever put away. Therefore none of his sins were unpardonable, although they were all unpardoned until
God pardoned them.
Little does the average church-member appreciate the efficacy, value and power of the precious shed
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That blood cleanses the believing sinner from all sin, and by Christ
that believer is justified from all things. Christ died for Barabbas. Very few sinners are worse than
Barabbas.
But how about blaspheming against the Holy Spirit? (Matthew 12:30 to 32). Israel committed that UNPARDONABLE
SIN. (Acts 13:45 - 18:5 - 7:51 to 55). First Israel sinned against the Son of man. That sin was pardonable.
Read Acts 5:29 to 32. Christ was raised up in resurrection to be Israel's Saviour. (Acts 5:31 and 13:30
to 40). By rejecting the witness of the Holy Spirit Israel committed THE UNPARDONABLE SIN. Then God did
some-thing awful to Israel and something wonderful for Gentiles. (Romans 11:5 to 15 - 11:25 and 30).
Note Israel's four great sins in Acts 7: 51 to 56 and 1Thessalonians 2:14 to 16. The first two were pardonable.
The last two were unpardonable. Then note John 16:7 to 10; where we learn that the first sin question
is the Son question.
