Let's open our Bibles to the Gospel by Mark, chapter 3. We're going to start in verse 20 in just a moment. And before we do, I want to underline in your minds how wonderful a passage this is. This has the gloomiest, darkest verse in the Bible right next door to the brightest and most glorious verse in the Bible. We find a climactic meeting here, but before we jump into verses 28 and 29, I want you to think about who it is that we're looking at. We're looking at Jesus Christ, and he's looking at people who are utterly in disagreement to him and to his ministry. That's the next paragraph that we're studying through in the Gospel by Mark. And we usually just think of Jesus as the carpenter, the one who came, God in human flesh, but we just kind of just think of him in human terms. But I want you to think of this meeting in a different light, because I can never look at the third chapter of Mark without thinking of the creator of the universe, the fashioner and former of the human body, who breathed in the breath of life into Adam and began the whole human race. That man, that God, that God in human flesh, stood and looked at his creatures. Now think of what Jesus thought when he looked at people, and think about how he thought of them as a creator. And that's what's going on here in Mark 3. Jesus, creator of heaven and earth, is walking on earth, and he's confronting the scribes. These were the men of the word of the day. Before we read these 11 verses that record that event, stop and think about what I just said. Jesus was face to face with a group of humans. Have you ever thought about how we as humans appear to Jesus? Not spiritually, physically. He has a whole different perspective than we do. To explain that, think of Jesus, God the Son, who Genesis records took some dirt or soil and from the elements of the crust of this planet shaped a body. That's all we're made of. In fact, if we were going to make a human body this morning, if we were having physical science class this morning and we were going to make one, we would need the following ingredients if you were building a body. We would need 58 pounds of oxygen, 50 quarts of water, 2 ounces of salt, 3 pounds of calcium, 24 pounds of carbon, some chlorine, phosphorus, fat, iron, sulfur, and glycerin. You could bring that home in two good-sized grocery bags. You would have a bunch of dust and a little water. That's a do-it-yourself kit for making a human body. The problem is the instructions, putting it all together. To talk about that, look down at your thumb. That's just over one square inch of your body, okay? Look at your thumb for a second, and I'm going to tell you just what's in the paper-thin top layer of your thumb that you would have to make out of your two grocery bags full of stuff. Because just the skin on our thumb is so complex that this one square inch piece of skin has three million living cells, one yard of blood vessels, four yards of nerves. Now, when I was sharing this last night with Bonnie, she said, no wonder people talk about being a bundle of nerves. If you've got that many, four yards of nerves in one square, paper-inch-thin piece of skin, 100 sweat glands, 15 oil glands, 25 nerve endings. And yet, the evolutionists say that just happened. And it just all got to the right place from that grocery bag. Well, Dr. Mayo, you know him as the founder of the Mayo Clinic, had a humorous way of describing the human body. I'd like to share that. He said, you need enough potassium for one shot of a cap gun, enough fat for seven bars of soap. Now, this was the turn of the century. Most Americans have more than seven bars of soap worth of fat, okay? But this dates him, okay? He also said, enough iron for one large nail, enough sulfur to delouse a dog, enough lime to whitewash a chicken coop, that really dates him, enough magnesium for one dose of medicine, and just enough phosphorus to make a few boxes of matches. The total purchase. would fill not more than two grocery bags. Well, the one who put the grocery bags together, the Creator Himself is looking at the dust, the dirt, and the air that He fashioned. And a group of these creatures that He made walked up to Him. And they come face to face with Jesus. Sobering to think what it's like to come in front of Him. And those creatures that he made faced the Creator, the one who scooped up the dirt and shaped it into a body and ignited the body with a soul and breathed into it the breath of life. That infinite being turned and looked at these creatures. And think of the emotions that Jesus had. As he looks at them and he says, you only exist at my power, you only are here at my will, and you are coming to claim that I am of the devil I am the creator looking at you that's what they're doing and he looked at them And he speaks to them, in this portion of God's Word this morning, three words that are so solemn, and they're in verse 29, so hopeless, so devastating that they're hard to even comprehend for us. Because Jesus, seeing these completely self-hardened and self-blinded souls, warned them and said three words. He said, watch out. you may never have forgiveness." He said, that's the worst thing could happen. If you never have forgiveness of your sins, he said, be careful what you're saying. Be careful where you're headed with that accusation against me. I am your only hope, he said. And if you will persist in what you're doing, He said, you'll never have forgiveness. Every day when I wake up, the first thing I think about, and I was analyzing this as I was working through this passage this week, I started thinking, what is the first thing I think about every day? As soon as I'm aware that I'm really awake and conscious and I can feel the floor and everything, the first thing that floods my heart is, I know that all of my sins are on Jesus Christ and that I am not going to have to pay for any of them. thrilling joy that floods my heart, that my sins are not on me anymore, that they're on Him. And that thought is the most comforting thought. I know that every time I fall, He restores. Every time I sin, He cleanses and restores. And it's so encouraging and it's so hope-filled. But Jesus said in verse 29, You are facing endless doom for your soul. He said, you are facing being forever enduring without respite, my wrath, screaming without any response, burning without any end to the consuming. You are facing endless doom if you're not careful. Well, verse 29 has shaken up many people, even good and very, very sincere Christians, because they are dogged all through life by these words, the unpardonable sin. In fact, if you've ever heard of the unpardonable sin, it's verse 29. That's where it is. Jesus said, That's where we get the term, unpardonable sin. And if you've ever wondered about that this morning, you need to listen to what Jesus said, because Jesus said, never has forgiveness. These are the darkest words of all. These speak of the endless doom of the soul. Last night I was flying in from Los Angeles and sitting on the aisle of the very back seat next to the bathrooms in the galley of a Southwest flight. And I was parked there in the end seat in full flight, had my earplugs in, had my laptop. And just for you to know a little bit about me, I always write my conclusion first. That's the first thing. want to start with what I intend to share with you. Then I fill out how to get there. And the last thing I write is my introduction, the introduction to the idea. And so that's what I was typing on last night. And they had all the lights out. Just that little spotlight that you click on was right there. And I was just working. And I kept the title of my message, The Sin That Has No Forgiveness. You know, in big, big letters. It was on the top of my screen. And I was sitting there with my laptop, and I was just with the earplugs in, and I was working away and erasing and putting in and changing and thinking. And just after we got up to, you know, like this, where you go, and then you start like this, and everybody kind of settles in, and the stewardess would start walking around, I noticed that someone came up behind me and stood. And I thought, They just announced you're not supposed to congregate by the bathroom. Why don't you go in there? Are you a terrorist? But I was going to type. It didn't matter. I'm ready to go. And so I kept typing in the terrorist or whoever it was left. And so I had gotten through and changed it again and someone stood behind me again. Now, it didn't bother me, and so I just kept typing three times. Just about every five minutes, there'd be someone standing back there. And finally, the third time, they bumped against me. And I wasn't going to let that. I was going to finish this message. It was so important. And so finally, the fourth time, this body appeared. Face came down and and looked up at me and so I had to pull out my earplug and I said yes And it was the stewardess and she said sir And she pointed my screen. She said what is the sin for which there's no forgiveness The stewardess she says I have been walking up and down this aisle asking myself over and over again Would you finish typing so I could ask you what is the sin that there's no forgiveness for she says can you tell me? Boy, was that an invitation. She came back five more times to my seat. I don't think she passed any of those peanuts out. I think they saved money last night. And she kept standing there, and she says, can I write this down? And so I said, no, I have it all written down for you. And I took one of our gospel tracts, and I wrote all the way around it. And she turned that thing over when I gave it to her. And she said, Tulsa Bible Church. She said, I'm going to be in St. Louis. St. Louis at the airport tomorrow morning said if I would have been in Tulsa, I wanted to be there. She said because I don't want to commit the sin that has no forgiveness. Have you ever felt that way? Like Rachel did on the flight last night? The scriptures say if you've ever heard of the unpardonable sin, you need to listen to Jesus speak. And if you've ever wondered if you've sinned it, you need to hear what He has to say this morning. If you've ever secretly feared that you might someday face Jesus and have to answer for your sins, and you fear He's going to turn you away, then you need to let Jesus comfort your heart. Because as we look at verse 29, the good news is verse 28 is just before it. And if you back up one verse, you find that after Jesus has said, ìNever has forgiveness, the darkest words in the Bible, the endless doom of the soul, thatís worse than the end of the world, thatís worse than the death of your body or a pain-filled life.î Before He said that, He says the brightest and most glorious, hope-filled words in the Bible, five words that should ring in your heart if you've ever feared the grave, if you've ever feared the judgment, and if you ever fear not making it to heaven. In verse 28, Jesus says this, all sins will be forgiven. Wow. Now comes the problem. How can you say in 28, all sins will be forgiven, and you say in 29, never has forgiveness? Do you see why people are all confused? Because they don't even want to think of verse 28 because of verse 29. Well, side by side, two verses in the Gospel by Mark, the three darkest words of the Bible and the five brightest words. And from them, in the surrounding 11 verses, there's a message for every one of us, a message of hope, a message of comfort, and a very strong warning from Jesus Christ. Let's read those words. And I'm going to read from verse 20 down to verse 30, the next paragraph that we're studying from the Gospel by Mark. Then the multitudes came together again, so they could not so much as eat. But when his own people heard about this, they went to lay hold of him, for they said, He is out of his mind. And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, He has Beelzebub, and by the ruler of demons he is casting out demons. So he called them to himself, and said to them in parables, How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom can't stand. And if a house is divided against itself, the house can't stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand but has an end. No one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house. Verse 28, Jesus changes gears here and says for the 13 times in this gospel, he says that the most riveting statement for the Jews. What he's saying is, I am giving you the absolute truth. And he says this, you know, to us it just sounds like he's still talking, but it's a whole different gear. And he kind of speaks as, you know, like in the Old Testament, say, Thus saith the Lord. Assuredly, I say to you, and they all looked at him, because that's kind of invoking the absolute, I am before God, telling you something that's absolutely true. So he said that. Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven, the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter. But he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation. Verse 30, because they said, he has an unclean spirit. Let's bow together. Father in heaven, I pray that you would just move by your spirit through your word to our hearts. For some who are fearful, may they come to comfort and assurance. For some who are not yet in the arc of safety, not yet in you, O Christ, may they believe and trust and receive and turn from their sinful ways. And for those who are smugly, unconcerned about their sin or their soul, may they hear this most sober warning. about the doom of a soul who turns from the light and won't look back. Oh Lord, work in our hearts, in the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. And to begin our journey through this paragraph, we're looking at one of the most controversial, one of the most misunderstood, one of the least grasped concepts in the scriptures because they're side-by-side. We would be happy if Jesus made this absolute statement about forgiveness over here and he talked about the doom of the soul, but he puts them side-by-side. He does that for a purpose. Jesus First says, there's no sin God can't and won't forgive. I'm glad for that order. Then he warns, there's a sin for which there is no forgiveness. And so to get through this, we have to look at the whole nature of salvation, the whole nature of God's work. And so it's going to be more than we can do this morning, but this will start it. We need to understand, though, the context of this enigma, this passage that's so hard, and then what Jesus is saying. And we'll do that as we go through these verses. The first two verses, 20 and 21, are really simple. This speaks of, in these two verses, the constant problem Jesus had with his own family. And basically what they're saying, and I love how the wording of verse 21 is, but when his own people heard about this, they went to lay hold of him. That's the word that's in the book of Acts for putting in prison. They were going to arrest Jesus. I mean, literally, his family. Remember, he had seven earthly brothers and sisters, stepbrothers and sisters that were Joseph and Mary's children, but not like him conceive the Holy Spirit. And so this group, his extended family, all come down to Galilee from Nazareth, and they are going to grab Jesus and take him because he is out of his mind. That's a real lesson for us. Sometimes the people that give us the most trouble are those that are in our own family that don't know Christ. And so if you're facing that, Jesus faced that. And Jesus had that challenge in his life. But then in verse 22, the scribes came down from Jerusalem. Now I want you to understand who scribes are. Scribes are men of the Word of God. These are young boys who showed a real acute awareness of the Scriptures as they were in synagogue, and so they were kind of selected to be groomed to become the copyists and the protectors of the Scripture. Many of these men, like Ezra, Psalm 119, had memorized the Old Testament. They knew the whole thing. These men were constantly immersed in the Word of God. They were immersed in it, they were studying it, they were marking it, they were seeking to understand it, and they were often memorizing it. So, I mean, we're not talking about a bunch of bums here. We're not talking about pagans. We're talking about the most sophisticated, religious, Bible-possessing people of the day. And that's who comes to Jesus. Very interesting group. And to understand what happens, if you turn back to Matthew 12, you don't have to, but I'll tell you what happens. A blind mute, a man who was not seeing and could not talk, was demon-possessed. And he was brought to Jesus, which is Matthew 12 parallels Mark 3, and it's the same story, but we get two different wonderful perspectives here. And right in front of this whole group, those coming to arrest Jesus, his family, and these coming to criticize Jesus, the men of the word, Jesus steps out and delivers that man from his demon on the spot so that he could see and so that he could talk. And you know what it says in Matthew? It says, everyone, everyone, and the word was for everyone, was everyone, even these men of the word that were coming to criticize were instantly stunned. everyone was utterly overwhelmed. It says they were utterly, all entirely moved because Jesus, because the finger of God had come into their midst. They knew that that was just a supernatural event. So what was their response? Well, verse 22, they were talking among themselves. And you're hearing here supernatural recording. You know, Jesus had a heart tap, you know, a mind tap. He could record what they were thinking and saying, and it's for us in the Word. They were saying, He has Beelzebub. By the ruler of the demons, He cast out demons. They did not want to believe that God was in their midst. And so they were so determined that they said, yes, he delivered that. Yes, he healed him. Yes, he did that. But it's got to be Satan doing it. And so Jesus answers them. I mean, he is so gracious. So he called them to himself and said to them in parables, which is part of what Matthew brings out, that Jesus did not condemn them and say, I'll never forgive your sins. He does that later, by the way, in John chapter 8. We'll see that at the end. But right now, he is still trying to help them. He sees the hardness. He sees the resistance. And he's saying, let's think through this, men. He says, how can Satan cast out Satan? And he goes through a series of discussions with them. He says, first of all, division is deadly. Look at verse 24, if a kingdom is divided. Look at verse 25, if a house is divided. And if Satan, verse 26, is divided. You see that? He's talking about division. And he's saying division is deadly. He says your line of reasoning is wrong. He said, if Satan's fighting against himself, he's going to destroy himself. Satan would never fight against himself and destroy himself. No king would do that, no general would do that, and Satan's not doing it. He said, you've got wrong reasoning here. And so you know what we do? We're comfortable, well-adjusted American readers of the Bible. We go, I'm not a scribe, and I don't have a problem, and I know all about that. And we just right on by, right? But for just a second, stop and look at verse 24, 25, and 26. Jesus says, division in a home, in a marriage, in a church, in a life, is deadly. Now, we might not be disagreeing with Jesus Christ about the way He delivers people. But we must not neglect to hear what he's saying. What he's saying is that any home that is divided in goals and purposes and directions is not going to be able to function and stand as Christ said. Any marriage that isn't mutual, any church that isn't harmonious will not last long as a testimony for Christ. You see that? Division is deadly. Whether it's on the demon level, in the satanic level, or with us. Division is not healthy in a church, in a home, in a marriage, in a family. Let me just share with you what a pastor of a generation ago said. On no point has the abuse of the right of private judgment produced so much evil The divisions of Christians are the one great cause of the weakness of Christ's church. Absorbing the energy, stealing the time, removing the power that have well have been bestowed on better things. Do you ever think about how much time is ruined by division? This helps the devil. It's the prime argument against the truth of Christianity. Satan, indeed, is the chief promoter of religious divisions. If he cannot extinguish Christianity, he labors to make Christians quarrel among one another, to set one against the other. And no one knows better than the devil than to divide is to conquer. This pastor continues, "...let us resolve, so far as in us lies, to avoid all differences, all dissensions, and all disputes in Christ's church." Why? lest we not loathe and abhor them, and the plague begin in our churches. We cannot be too jealous about saving truths." In other words, the gospel. But it is easy to mistake our desires and our zeal about trifles and our zeal about our truth and confuse that with the gospel. And then this is the part I like the best. Nothing justifies separation from a church, but the separation of that church from the gospel. When I was a little boy growing up, I remember they wanted to carpet our church, and a group didn't want to carpet the church. And they carpeted the church, and that group left. They divided from the church, not because the church stepped away from the gospel, but because they didn't get their way. I remember a little bit later on that they wanted to expand the church, and one group said, no, we want to plant a church, and the other one said, no, we want to expand and build a bigger one. And the ones that built the bigger one got it, and so that group left. The church did not depart from the gospel. They departed from the church because they didn't get their own way. And what Jesus' warning is that division is deadly for the testimony of Christ, and we must be ready to concede much and make many sacrifices for the sake of the unity and peace of the church to present the gospel. And so what Jesus says in verse 27, he says, or 26, if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he won't stand and his end has come. And just as division would harm Satan, how much more will division harm? the body of Christ, the church of Christ, the homes, the marriages. Now look at verse 27. Jesus says the way to defeat someone is to disarm them. And boy, that's what's going on here with what Jesus did. He says no one can enter the realm and carry off the strong man's possessions unless he first binds the strong man. Then he can rob him. And what's Jesus talking about? Well, in the ancient world, people that were, remember Abraham back in Genesis, sent an army out of his own servants. He had 318 armed men. If you were wealthy back then, you would have a big castle and you'd have all of your personal bodyguard and servants. It was like your own little army. So no one could get to you and get your stuff unless they first disarmed your army. Well, Jesus said, that's what I've done. He says, I have disarmed Satan. I have come in to plunder." Because he said, when I delivered that demonized guy, it's because Satan I have defeated. 1 John 3.8, for this cause the Son of Man was manifested, to destroy the works of the devil. He says, I am here to show you that Satan is disarmed. But you know what I think about? Do you know why so many Christians are defeated? They're disarmed too. Do you know what Gibbon said was the fall of the Roman Empire? The soldiers stopped wearing their armor. They were so victorious, the Roman legionaries thought the armor was too cumbersome, and they didn't wear it. And that is, again, something Jesus is stressing. If you're disarmed, you will be defeated. In this parable, the house is the realm of evil, of the devil. Satan's possessions were the demons and those that he was demonizing. And the only way to those possessions would be to tie up the strong man. That's what Jesus did. And we know about Satan, his defeat as Hebrews 2, he destroyed him. They had the power of death and all that. But now, look at verse 28. Jesus declares that all sins are forgivable. Verse 28, I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter. Wow. Think about that. The unpardonable sin is not taking God the Father, God the Son, or even God the Holy Spirit's name in vain. Because Jesus said, assuredly, I say unto you, all sins will be forgiven. The unpardonable sin is not any form of sexual sin, no matter how vile, no matter how perverted, adultery, fornication, any sexual sin is not the unforgivable unpardonable sin, because Jesus declares all sins are forgivable. The unpardonable sin is not any form of murder, even the most heinous murders. Jesus declared all, assuredly I say to you, all sins will be forgiven. So what is it? Well, let's listen to the kind voice of a great pastor from Chicago who wrote this. Kent Hughes, he said this, very simply, it's the ongoing, continual rejection of the witness of the Holy Spirit. It's the perversion of the heart that calls light darkness and darkness light. It is the continuous rejection of the witness of the Holy Spirit. Now think about who Jesus is talking to. Jesus is directly interacting with these men who know the word. And he said, you men who know the Old Testament in and out and have memorized it, you know all those sins, all I can forgive, except if you reject my power to forgive you. He's saying, in fact, listen to what was going on. These scribes were at the brink of committing this sin. Remember, the unforgivable sin, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, is a sin which requires knowledge. Those men were daily in the Scriptures. They were constantly face-to-face with the Spirit of God who inspired the Word of God and were confronted with that. That's what their life was. So remember, these were not ignorant blasphemers. And today, it's not an ignorant person on the street who's in danger of committing the unforgivable sin. It is the man or woman of the church who knows the scriptures, who has heard the Word of God set forth, who has seen something of God's great power. They're the ones that are in danger. because that's who Jesus was addressing that day. To those who are afraid they have committed this sin, we can say with absolute confidence that their being so troubled about sinning is an infallible testimony that they have not committed it. You notice that in this section where Jesus talks to them about what they were doing in verse 28 and 29, you notice that as vile as their blasphemy as scribes were, Jesus never said they committed this sin. He just warned them. He didn't say you've done it. He just warned them. He said, be careful. Don't go any further. you keep going that direction, you're going to go too far. You'll never come back. You'll never turn. You'll never repent. You'll never believe. Well, Jesus always offered only one way out of sin. Sorrowful admission of guilt, humble request of mercy, confessing, and confession brings forgiveness, belief, and repentance. And as long as any person seeks Jesus and hates their sin, even if unable to stop that sin at times, Jesus always offers forgiveness. But the one who rejects Him closes the only door of salvation, blocks the only way of escape, and turns out the only light that will lead them to salvation and forgiveness. Jesus declared, Verse 28, all sins are forgivable. And I want you to think about that because I don't want it to just lightly go through your mind. I want you to never forget that in verse 28 Jesus said something profound. He said, all your sins of youth I will forgive. All your sins of old age I will forgive. All your sins of your head I will forgive. All the sins of your eyes, of your mouth, of your mind I will forgive. He said, all sins are forgivable. The sins of persecutors like Saul, the sins of idolaters like Manasseh, the sins of the open enemies of Christ. Remember the Jews? that crucified him? What did Jesus say from the cross? Father, forgive them even of this, of crucifying the sacrifice, the Lamb of God. All sins, even of the backsliders from Christ, like Peter, all may be forgiven, because the blood of Christ can cleanse all sins away. The righteousness of Christ can cover all and hide it from God's eyes. But, verse 29 is next. And verse 29 says that there is one condition that cannot be forgiven. It's not a single act. It's not doing one thing you shouldn't have done. They were in danger, those scribes before Christ. And that persistent state of rejecting what Jesus offered them was their sin that could not be forgiven if they persisted. This condition betrays an irreversible hardness of the heart. And if it's chosen and repeated, the rejection of the work of the Holy Spirit blasphemes the God who sent His Spirit to offer that new heart. Sometimes believers worry they've accidentally committed this unforgivable sin, but only those who have turned their back on God, who have rejected Him, have any need to worry, because Jesus said, all sin, verse 20, is forgivable. I like what Pastor J.C. Ryle, he was in London, or in Liverpool, died in 1900. This is what he said in this passage. I want to read it to you. The sin against the Holy Spirit is ever attended with two symptoms. He's talking about this unpardonable sin. Number one, an absence of all contrition. And number two, an absence of all desire to be forgiven. Those scribes, no contrition, no desire for forgiveness. The common people, contrition, desire for forgiveness. If you believe your sins are a burden, if you desire forgiveness, if you would give anything to attain it, Ryle says, be of good comfort, thou is not yet by God's grace and perhaps shall never commit that unpardonable offense. Now, to close, let me show you the ending. Turn over to John 9. I'm just going to read this and tell you one quick story and we're done. Jesus, in chapter 8 of John, confronts this group again. This time, different tone. In John 8, he looks at them and he points at them and he said, you will die in your sins. In other words, they were on the spot forever doomed. there was no, he knew they would never turn back and he said, you're going to die in your sins. Now look what he says in chapter 9 verse 4, because this is very sobering. I must work the works of him who sent me while it is a day, listen, the night is coming. when no one can work. His work was the glorious news that he was a savior and offering sacrifice for sin and his salvation. The night was when the light was gone. At the height of World War II, when America was trying to help the allies in Europe, there was a great battle for the North Atlantic because the convoys, delivery ships, were trying to take supplies. So America committed a great deal of our naval armada to go up there and clear out the Nazi subs and all the big battleships that were blowing out those supply ships. And at the height of that battle, in the middle of the night, six planes were dispatched from a carrier to go out and find an enemy ship. After they were out there and found it, the carrier was engaged in battle, so the American admiral asked every ship in the Navy to turn off their lights, because they didn't want to be attacked. Well, those six planes were out there, and they finished their work, and they came back, and they radioed, and they said, we're going to land now. Turn on the lights. And there was no response. They radioed back, we're here. Turn on the lights so we can land. And the admiral, weighing between the thousands of sailors in his boats, And six never responded. And history records they kept radioing and radioing and finally said, we're out of gas, we're out of fuel. And they finally landed in the icy waters and all perished. It's a sad story of great sacrifice to save the many by the few. But it reminds me that God says there's a time when I'm going to, John 9 verse 4, turn the lights out. the night's coming. And if you don't respond to the light while you see it, the day is coming when you won't be able to see. And that's the sin that has no forgiveness, rejecting too many times the grace of the God who offers salvation