Day 65

 

A Hope That Does Not Disappoint

 

And hope does  not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

 

Romans 5:5

 

Thad called me one night when I had not heard from him in years. He had been in my youth group in years back and since that time I had moved to a different state to become a pastor. We chatted a while and caught up on each other's life. I though it odd that he would go to some trouble to locate me and call me unless something was up. I waited for him to bring something up but he never did, at least not then.

He called me again the next week and finally got around to the real reason he had called. He was planning to kill himself. I pleaded with him no to do it. I offered to fly him to Arkansas, where I was living, and told him he could stay with us until he could work things out. He refused my offer and wouldn't give me any contact information.

Desperately I called the city on the west coast where he was living and told them the situation but without an address or a phone number (he was using a disposable cell phone when he called me) or even a description of his car there was not much they could do. I called people I knew that might have some information about him but no one knew a thing. Thad's parents were dead and he had been on his own for years and no one could help me.

A week later he called again, this time late at night. Tonight is the night he told me. He asked for my address because he wanted to send me a letter and had some last wishes he wanted taken care of. I pleaded with him not to go through with it. I asked as I had before what was so bad that it would drive him to this but he refused to tell me. When he hung up I called the police in his town again but with no new information there wasn't a lot they could do.

I sat awake in bed that night praying for him. About 1:45 a. m. my phone rang. It was a friend of his in that city who said that Thad had left his place a few minutes before acting strange and had asked him to mail me a package. I told him, "Call the police, tell them what kind of car he is driving and where he lives, he intends to kill himself."

The next call I received came at about 4:00 a. m. and it was the police. They had found Thad and it was too late. I talked to investigators and told them of the package and letter he wanted sent to me and that I thought it might have some information about his remaining family.

A few days later his family was tracked down and the police forwarded the letter to me. I preached his funeral. I read his letter over and over again but never found any reason why he would take his life. It seems that there was something he just didn't want anybody to know about and he had just lost hope.

Unfortunately that is not the only suicide I have had to deal with. There are people who for some reason have lost hope and think that killing themselves solves the problem. It doesn't. It does not solve a thing; it just creates heartache and problems for others. Thinking it solves the problem is like Sherlock Holmes thinking that quitting the case will solve the mystery.

I confess that I don't really understand such a feeling of hopelessness. I understand people have them, it is just foreign to me. I have had some bad things happen in my life but I have never come close to being that hopeless.

How do people get there? I don't know. I do know that there is a way out of hopelessness. In Romans 5 Paul talks of a chain of events that lead to hope. He tells us to "rejoice in our sufferings" because that suffering will "produce perseverance" (Romans 5:3). The perseverance will in turn produce character and the character will produce hope. (Romans 5:4) I guess for some people a link of that chain is broken and their suffering never produces perseverance, at least not the kind that will lead on to hope.

Paul goes on to say that the hope from God will "not disappoint us." It doesn't disappoint us because it is the love of God washing over our hearts in the person of the Holy Spirit.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read Habakkuk 3:16-19

• What was Habakkuk feeling and why?
• What is in Habakkuk's lists of things that could possibly go wrong? (v. 17)
• If all the things that could go wrong do go wrong what will Habakkuk do? (v. 19)
• How can Habakkuk do that?

Bonus Material

 

Several times after someone has committed suicide I have been asked if suicide is the unpardonable sin. The idea is that in committing suicide a person's last act is a sinful one so there is no opportunity to repent.

The answer to that is simply no; suicide is not the unpardonable sin. People die all the time, some suddenly and some lingering, where there last act is not confessing their sins. I am sure that heaven has plenty of people in it who were not "fessed up."

If confessing our sins in a timely fashion before we die was what got us into heaven it would be a salvation of works. And we know that salvation is not of works but of grace and faith (Ephesians 2:8-9). We do need to acknowledge or confess to God that we are sinners and this comes as his Spirit convicts us. But anything we do, confessing our sins or noble deeds, is pointless unless we receive the free gift of salvation that comes through Jesus Christ and his death on a cross and his resurrection from the dead. When we place our faith in his grace nothing, not the lack of confession of a particular sin, can prevent us from being saved and joining Christ in heaven.

 

Extra Special Bonus Material

 

So, what is the unpardonable sin? In Matthew 12:32 Jesus tells us, "that anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or the age to come." Speaking against the Holy Spirit or blaspheming the Holy Spirit is the unpardonable sin.

Okay, so what does it mean to blaspheme the Holy Spirit? The key to understanding what Jesus means is in the context. Jesus heals a demon possessed man who was blind and mute. Most people who witnessed this were saying, "Could this be the Son of David?" They witnessed a miracle and saw it as a sign that Jesus was the promised Messiah. The Pharisee's reaction is different. They attribute the healing to Jesus using demonic powers.

It was not the first time they had witnessed Jesus do an astounding miracle. There probably was not anyone who watched Jesus more closely than the Pharisees. They had all the information they needed to know that Jesus was the Son of God. The had seen proof of it over and over again and had to know what Jesus claimed was true. Knowing it was true, being convicted in their hearts it was true, they still rejected Jesus. They even suggested he was from Satan when they knew he was from God.

An important verse is Matthew 12:25 when Matthew tells us, "Jesus knew their thoughts." He knew exactly when they crossed that line of saying, "Yes, I believe what Jesus is saying is true but I choose to reject it." Jesus knew in their hearts they had said, "no" to the convicting power of the Spirit of God. And that is blaspheming or speaking against the Holy Spirit.

Don't miss out on something important here. When Jesus is telling us that there is one sin that cannot be forgiven he is also telling us that all others can be forgiven. Paul persecuted the church, held cloaks while Stephen was stoned to death. He was forgiven. David stole another man's wife and arranged for his death. He was forgiven. And so shall you be if you ask for forgiveness and say yes to his convicting Spirit.

 

* For a more detailed explanation of the unpardonable sin I suggest you read John Macarthur's book The Jesus You Can't Ignore. Chapter 7 of the book explains it well and you will see my explanation is essentially John Macarthur's explanation.