Some sins seem to follow us everywhere, to bed at night, into the morning, never quite out of mind. Haunting questions rise up: Have I gone too far? Could I have committed the one sin God won't forgive? If those fears have ever gripped you, today's message will offer profound relief. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll returns to the Gospel of Mark as he unfolds what Jesus meant by the unpardonable sin.
And why the very fact you're worried about it says something important. Let's pick up Chuck's message in Mark chapter three.
Now, Satan, we read, does not work against Satan. If he did, his whole empire would fall.
Now watch closely how he wraps it up with his illustration in verse twenty-seven. He used as a political analogy, domestic analogy, a spirit analogy.
Now look at twenty-seven. But no one can enter the strong man's house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man. Remember earlier, it said he's going to speak in parables in verse 23. Here's an example. Always look for analogies when you hear the word parable.
So we've got a man who is entering the strong man's house. In this case, Jesus would be the one entering into the realm of the evil spirit world. The strong man being Satan. And he's not able to plunder what goes on in that evil kingdom unless he binds the power of Satan. Verse twenty-seven: He must first bind the strong man, and then he will plunder his house.
In effect, he's saying this: When I cast out demons, I've tied up the one in charge of the demonic household. He isn't cooperating with me, and I'm not cooperating with him. How could I be operating with the power of Satan if I'm binding Satan? I've invaded and bound him in his own territory, and I've worked against Satan, which he would never do on his own behalf.
Now, please look closely for the response of the scribes.
Okay, let's all do that together. Hmm. There's a blank space following verse 27, and it's for a reason. They don't have a thing to say. You know, you have gotten quite a ways in an argument when your hearer is absolutely silent.
And here, I think the silence of the scribes is as eloquent as the logic of Jesus. They have nothing to say. They thought they had him, but he simply. Sawed them off with a hard set of facts while they're out there on the end of the limb, and they heard what he said. First, the logical impossibility for Satan to work against Satan.
Second, supernatural authority rests with me, and I'm engaged in disrupting his realm.
Now, they may have heard his voice. But make no mistake about it: the silence doesn't mean they've softened their hearts. And the one who is able to read the hearts of people knows that their hearts remain hardened, which prompts him to address the subject of the unpardonable sin. Before I go any further, let me add that a number of people are greatly troubled that they've committed the unpardonable sin.
So I want to help you understand what the unpardonable sin is, and I want to drive home the importance in this case of context. Context. Guard against pulling a verse out of the Bible and building a whole case on that single verse wrenched from its context. Cults do this all the time. All the time, they will say, "You know, it says in the Bible," and they'll give you half a verse, but they won't give you the context in which the verse appears.
You will not be troubled over the unpardonable sin if you keep in mind the context of where we have been.
Now, in twenty-eight through thirty, he addresses the unpardonable sin, but he starts with a very relieving verse, verse twenty-eight. Look at that. Look at twenty-eight. Truly, I say to you. When you read the word truly, it's the word in the Greek that means amen.
Amen. It's the starting point of a solemn, absolute declaration. I solemnly declare. That's what the word "amen" means. I solemnly declare the following.
What is it? First, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter. That is a wonderful verse of scripture. Thankfully, we who sin regularly have the assurance that no matter what may have been the wrongdoing, the promise of God is that He will forgive that sin as we bring it to Him, acknowledge the wrongness of it, agree that it's sin, and claim His forgiveness. In fact, the word all covers everything.
All sins shall be forgiven.
So far, so good. There is, however, a very significant little particle—three little letters—that begin verse twenty-nine. But here's an exception. Here's a contrast. But whoever.
Blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin. That's a very unusual statement, rarely found anywhere in the Bible. This is the eternal sin, meaning what it goes with you to your grave; it goes with you into eternity. What on earth would be this unpardonable sin?
Well, let's begin with the word blasphemy. We use the word on occasion, but we rarely define it. Blasphemy means defiant irreverence. Defiant irreverence. For example, cursing God, or represent, or cursing those who represent Him, it would be wilful degradation of holy things, or claiming for purely human honor the credit that belongs to God alone.
It would include insolent language directed against God. Defamation, railing, and reviling.
Now then, if it's acknowledged as sin, it's blasphemy, but it can be forgiven. See what he says in verse twenty-eight. We just read it. Whatever blasphemies they utter, even that can be forgiven. Then how are these blasphemies unpardonable?
In verse twenty-nine. Please listen carefully. Sin becomes unpardonable when the sinner refuses to walk the path that leads to pardon. It is continuing in one's rebellion or sinfulness and refusing to bow in submission before God. If I, in an unguarded moment, make a statement that's blasphemous.
It won't be long before my heart is pierced with conviction, and I can't live with myself. I can assure you, long before nightfall, I am coming to the Lord, saying, "I confess to you, I was way out of line. What I said was wrong. It was blasphemous. It was a terrible sin.
And I agree with you, Lord. And I confess it to you with great anxiety. I should never have said such a thing. It's not an unpardonable sin. But if I refuse to do that," If I refuse to go there, it becomes at that point eternal.
Listen to a very helpful word of explanation from William Hendrickson. For a thief, an adulterer, and a murderer, there is hope. The message of the gospel may cause him or her to cry out, "Oh God, be merciful to me, the sinner." But when a man or woman has become so hardened that he or she has made up his mind not to pay any attention to the promptings of the spirit, not even to listen to his pleading and warning voice, he has placed himself on the road that leads to perdition. He has sinned the sin unto death. For anyone who is truly repentant, there's no reason to despair.
No matter how shameful his transgressions may have been. On the other hand, there is no excuse for being indifferent, as if the subject of the unpardonable sin is of no concern to the average church member. The blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Is the result of gradual progress in sin, grieving the spirit. If unrepented of, leads to resisting the spirit, which, if persisted in, develops into quenching the spirit.
Look at verse thirty. See the word because that ties it all together. I mention the unpardonable sin because these scribes were saying he has an unclean spirit, and they didn't stop thinking and saying that, even though he presented to them what he does in these previous series of statements we've just considered. The point is, their hearts never softened. No amount of reproof from even the lips of Jesus brought sufficient conviction for them to say, "We are wrong.
We were sinful in making those statements, and we confess to you our sinfulness and our wrong." Now let me bring some reassuring words to all of us. We need that. Let's do a little personal reflection here regarding criticism in general. When it takes place, and then we'll look later at damaging accusations that occur when they're made in our lives, and finally, when there are troubling sins that really plague us. Look at the first category: when criticism takes place.
And by the way, it will if you haven't been criticized lately. Hold on. It's going to come often from a spouse, right? No, don't answer. It often comes now.
In most cases, they have our good at heart, and so my counsel here is: in most cases, consider the criticism carefully. And I have some teenagers listening to me today. I would urge you to do that as well. You would be wise to consider why Mom and Dad are saying to you what they're saying right now. People who criticize correctly do it privately, and they never do it to embarrass us.
But the criticism bruises us. Write in the margin of your notes, Proverbs twenty seven six. Proverbs twenty seven six, which says. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy. Those who are your enemies will tell you what you want to hear, and it will do you no good.
Those who truly love you and care about you will bruise you with the wounding of their words, but it will be trustworthy. That's what the proverb means. Learn from the faithful wounds of those who care about you. The second case, and when it comes to criticism, there are sometimes you simply completely ignore it. You simply ignore it.
The critic doesn't have your good at heart. Don't waste your time fighting back. I appreciate the words of George Whitfield. He said there was a time in his life when a criticism really troubled him, when it bothered him that people laughed at him. But he said, "I quote, I have seen enough of popularity to be sick of it." And later declared, as he responded to one of his critics, "I thank you heartily." May God reward you for watching over my soul, and as to what my enemies say against me, I know worse things than these of myself, even the things they say about me.
How true that is! You've got to be honest and say when someone criticizes you, you know worse things than even the things they're pointing out, and it's helpful to remember that it will give you perspective. How about when there are damaging accusations made against you? First thing we learn from Jesus: You talk directly with your accuser. If you can't talk to the accuser face to face or on the phone, you write a letter, and you calmly attempt to set the record straight.
However, don't try to do God's job, and that's to change their mind or to change their hearts. You can't do that. Take it from one who has spent half his life trying to do that in other people's lives. I used to be so troubled that people remain carnal. Just week after week, they stayed carnal, and I felt like, "Oh, I'm the pastor; I need to help them become spiritual." And they would stay carnal.
I came to a church, and 23, almost 24 years later, I left the church. And some of the people who were carnal when I came were more carnal when I left. They're not going to change. No amount of strong preaching will change the heart unless God ignites. The change, so you have to know when to back off and say, "I leave it with you, Lord." Or as I heard a radio preacher say some time ago, "Sicum, Lord." Apparently, he had had a lot of criticism come.
So as I just want to say to all of you, "Sicum, Lord." Isn't that a great line? Just sicum, Lord. Trust the Lord to do what you cannot do in anyone else's life. You'll live a lot happier life. I'm telling you, it is so wonderful to live like that.
Now, there are times I honestly couldn't care less. It's a great way to live. I mean, you you care about people, but at a certain point, you say, "Sick'em," or something like that. You just you you you leave it to the Lord. You don't try to fix it yourself.
How about when troubling sins really plague us? I mean, they they haunt us. We go to bed with them. We wake up with them. They're never out of our mind.
Will you remind yourself that they're forgivable? Every one of those sins that you're troubled with, because they recur and they recur. I want you to know that sin is forgivable. You bring it before the Lord; He will forgive it. Reject any idea that it is an unpardonable sin.
You know why? Because you're concerned about it. When a person is committing the unpardonable sin, he's not concerned about it. He finds delight in his sinfulness. As a matter of fact, if you are concerned, it's a good sign.
Conviction accompanies those who have not committed an unpardonable sin. Let me tell you a true story. It happened years ago. In another place with someone you don't know, so don't sit there wondering who in the church was this person.
Okay, so you don't know the person. Happened years ago, decades ago. This person happened to be a very brilliant physician. He had done his work at Harvard. He had even gone to Harvard Medical School, had done his residency at another prestigious place, and and was qualified as a physician.
He and I, through a set of circumstances, became friends, or at least acquaintances, and on occasion we would lunch together. And we spent more and more time together, and I realized, some time into this relationship, the man is lost. I mean, really distant from the things of God. Had very little time in his life even to talk about the spiritual world, and I would on occasion hint those subjects, only to have them rejected. There was an occasion where we were sitting at lunch, and it seemed the right time.
He was a man of few words in that moment, and I, normally a man of many words, had some things to say. And I thought, in my spirit, I thought this is the moment. We built a friendship. We respect each other, and even though our worlds are very different from each other, this is an occasion for me to present clearly the gospel. And so I took a napkin from the other place at the table where no one was sitting.
I pulled over this paper napkin. I took out my pen, and I said, "Doc, so and so, I want to show you something." And so I drew up an area on this side of the of the napkin that looked like a cliff that just dropped off, with a big drop. And I drew on this side another cliff that just dropped off. I said, "Let's let this left side represent." Life in the real world—it's a life of sinfulness. It's a life of selfishness, distance from God, lack of interest in in anything spiritual.
A person who is just living his life or her life mainly for themselves—that's over here. You get across this chasm, you come to this other side. This represents peace, forgiveness. Righteousness that comes from God, purpose, hope, the absence of fear, and the ability to pass from time to eternity with confidence that you're going to be with God.
So he listened, didn't say a word. He's frowning as he's listening, and I got that. I'm drawing it upside down, like they do at Macaroni Grill when they give you their name. I'm drawing the whole thing upside down.
So then I put a then I put a cross here upside down. I draw this perfectly designed cross where the the left side of the cross touches this cliff, and the right side of the cross touches this one. And so I said here. Is how we bridge the gap, and I wrote the name of Christ across the horizontal beam of the cross. You go from there, lostness and sinfulness, to righteousness and forgiveness through Christ.
This is called the bridge illustration.
So I didn't tell him that, but I I drew the bridge in the cross, and I was so pleased with my presentation. I thought, "Good job, Chuck. You have got it." So I just slid the paper across the table and let him look at it. He studied it for a few seconds, blinked, and wadded it up. Not in a million years would I ever believe that kind of nonsense, Chuck.
Never. And he tossed the thing under the table. If he persists in that condition, it is the unpardonable sin. His unbelief will be held against him when he faces his Maker, and the same for any one of you. Let's bow our heads together.
Just close your eyes while you're sitting there. If you've come across the bridge, just pray for the person sitting near you. For all you know, they haven't. No one else can walk the bridge, but you personally. Christ died alone.
You trust in Christ alone. You remain in the condition in which you were born. You will die without hope and without forgiveness. You will die eternally to face a judgment and a future that is beyond miserable. And I offer you the hope of eternal life with God as you walk by faith in Christ alone, His death and resurrection.
He died for you, and by trusting him, you can have his righteousness, his forgiveness, his hope, his power, his enablement, and victory beyond the grave. Without him, you have none of the above. Wouldn't you like to trust him right now? Just simple prayer, right where you're sitting, dear Father, dear God. You and I have never been on speaking terms.
I feel distant from you. I've rarely even prayed to talk to you about anything. But today I come, sinful, lost, without hope. I need your forgiveness. I need your mercy.
I take your grace. Thank you, Christ, for coming into my life. I believe you died for me and paid the complete penalty for my sin, and you have been raised to live forever. I want to live with you. Thank you for coming into my life, Father.
Help us all as we search our own hearts to realize. That there remains hope for those who will turn to you, and those without you, there is no hope. Haunt those who have never trusted in Christ, give them restlessness, uneasiness, a continued lack of peace, sleepless nights, troubled days, till they turn their lives over to you. And give us all strength, our Father, to press on in spite of the critical spirit of some, so that we may walk with you in the power of the Spirit, and leave with you those we cannot change on our own. I ask it in the name of Jesus, our Savior.
Everybody said, "Amen." What a relief to be reminded that no sin we bring to God in honest sorrow is beyond His forgiveness, and that our very concern is a sign of His Spirit at work in us. If today's message spoke to something you've been carrying, we hope you'll rest in that grace. This is insight for living. Chuck Swindoll, our Bible teacher, titled his study in Mark three. Unclean spirit, unpardonable sin.
Resting in grace requires deliberate focus, doesn't it? That's why Christians are encouraged to open God's Word each morning to enjoy a still moment before the busyness of our day begins.
Well, we're happy to offer a brand new resource that will keep God's Word before you each and every day. I'm referring to Swindoll's Living Insights for Every Day, a perpetual flip calendar from Insight for Living. One page, one passage from the New Testament, one clear-eyed insight from Chuck to turn over in your mind. It asks nothing more than a minute, and it gives back a settled heart. Display it where the day tends to grab you—the kitchen counter, the edge of your desk—and let it catch you before the crowd does.
Because it never expires, you'll come back to it year after year. We'd love to send it your way today. Call us at eight hundred seven seven two eighty eight eighty eight, or go to insight dot org slash offer. And if that calendar hands you a moment of stillness each morning, Chuck's new memoir hands you a whole life's worth of it. In Awakened by Grace, Chuck tells for the very first time how God grew an unsure boy into a man who has spoken grace and truth to millions.
You'll find the hard-earned wisdom of 60 years in ministry, the words he'd say to his younger self, and real encouragement for anyone walking through a hard stretch. To purchase a copy, go to insight.org/memoir, or call us at eight hundred seven seven two eighty eight eighty eight. Ever find yourself tuning out? I'm Bill Meyer. Chuck Swindoll describes how Jesus gets our attention.
Friday on Insight for Living. The preceding message, "Unclean Spirit, Unpardonable Sin," was copyrighted in 2010 and 2026, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2026 by Charles R. Swindoll Incorporated. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.
