There are two sad results when a lost sinner crosses the deadline in that definite, final, irrevocable rejection of Jesus Christ. Read carefully, and may God help you, unconverted sinner, to fear these deadly results and to make sure that you do not commit this sin.
1. The Sinner Crossing the Deadline Becomes Hardened, Set Against God, Against Salvation, and So Will Never Repent
What kind of a man was Judas Iscariot? Did you think that he was always a hater of Christ, a covetous thief, a traitor and betrayer? Oh no! Once he was an honest man, so honest and moral and upright that all the apostles agreed he should carry the bag of money for them all. Once he was so highly respected that the disciples could not even think of Judas as betraying the Saviour. When Jesus said plainly, "One of you shall betray me," Peter asked, "Lord is it I?" John and the other apostles each asked, "Lord is it I?" But nobody asked, "Is it Judas?" Nobody suspected that Judas would betray the Saviour. They thought a man so moral. so honest, so reliable, would never stoop to such a sin.
Do not believe that Judas, that first time he came to follow Jesus and be a preacher, was the outrageous that he later became. Do not believe that then Judas thought of betraying Jesus for a paltry thirty pieces of silver. No, the Judas we know, the Christ-betrayer, was a man who one day crossed the deadline! He had seen many miracles. He had heard the parables of Christ. He has stood beside the Saviour as He healed the sick, as He preached with such tenderness and concern, as He had forgiven poor sinners. But Judas had rejected the light, and one day he crossed over the line. Now he was set forever against Jesus Christ. He could not repent. He did not ant to repent.
So one who has driven away the Spirit of God and passed the boundaries of mercy cannot repent. As the Scriptures tell us in Hebrew 6:4-6, it is "impossible...to renew them again unto repentance..." They will not repent, so they cannot be saved.
The character of the one who has committed the unpardonable sin is set against Christ. A man may still pay honest debts. A wife may still be true to her husband. A student may make good grades in school. Outward relations with other people may be commendable. But as far as trusting Christ for salvation is concerned, the soul of the sinner who has rejected Christ too long is set forever. It will not change. That is why God cannot forgive and will not forgive.
2. God's Spirit Does Not Call The Forsaken Sinner
"My Spirit shall not always strive will not always strive with man." What a sad and frightful warning! If God's Spirit does not call, men will trust in Christ. If God's Spirit does not call, the sinner cannot be saved, will not be saved.
What about the promises of God? Did God not say, "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" (Isaiah 1:18)? Yes, but the man who has set his heart against God forever and has insulted and driven away the Holy Spirit will never come for the cleansing which is offered.
Does not the Scripture say again and again that "his mercy endureth forever"? Yes, God's mercy endures. God loves the sinner and will love the sinner even in Hell.
The psalmist said, "If I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there" (Psalm 139:8).
A mother aid to her son, accused and convicted of murder, "Tell me, Son. If you will confess it, the judge said that he would be lenient with you. The court will give a lighter sentence if you confess the crime."
"I did not do it, Mother." And he solemnly protested innocence to the end.
The mother proudly said, "My son did not do it! I know he didn't. He told me he didn't do it!"
The boy was put in the death cell. At last the chaplain came to lead him to the electric chair. "Have you any word for your mother?" the chaplain asked. the lad, facing death, said, "Tell Mother I did it. I am guilty."
The chaplain hurried to tell the mother. "He is guilty. He says he did it."
Turning to the chaplain, the mother said, "Hurry, then; go back and tell him before he goes to the chair that I love him still!"
God loves the sinner even in Hell. God would save every sinner in the world if He could on righteous terms. He is "not will that any should perish but that all should come to repentance" (2nd Peter 3:9).
It saddened the heart of Jesus Christ during His earthly ministry that many, many turned away and would not receive Him. he said unto them reproachfully, "Ye will not come to me, that ye may have life." Make sure of this, that any poor sinner in the world who will turn to Jesus Christ can have mercy and forgiveness. people go to Hell only because they will not come. Even those who have committed the terrible blasphemy against the Holy Spirit are lost forever, condemned, with no hope, only because that they have so set their hearts and minds forever against Christ, they they will not come to Him, they will not repent, they will not trust Him! The unpardonable sin changes the heart of the sinner and sets it like a flint against God. But it does not change the heart of God. God loves the sinner still. God's mercy is still great. But God does not send the Holy Spirit to plead again with a heart which has settled forever against Him.
