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Lest anyone misunderstand this lesson, I must begin by stating that one sin is not greater than another in that any sin will keep you out of heaven. The word "sin" in the Greek literally means "to miss the mark" or "to miss the right path." If you miss the right path of what God wants you to do, then you will miss heaven. So any sin that is left unrepented or continued in, no matter how small or large that we might think, can cause you to be eternally lost. Also realize that EVERY sin has the effect of death in our life in some way. Some sins may not be obvious in their effect, but they bring hurt and detriment in the person's life. That is why God has labeled things sins.

Sins fall into two categories: sins of commission and sins of omission. Commission is when you do something that you should not. Omission is when you do not do something that you should. Both can cause us to "miss the mark" spiritually. We tend to think of sin as specific acts and if you wish to study exactly what things the Bible clearly labels as sin, then there are various lists throughout the Bible, seven of which came from the Apostle Paul which make for an interesting study (see I Corinthians 5:11; 6:9-11; Galations 5:19-21; Ephesians 5:3-7; Colossians 3:5-9; Romans 1:28-32; II Timothy 5:1-7)

Keeping all of this in mind understand that not all sins are judged equally upon the earth. Some sins are "bigger sins" in our minds simply because the government has laws to punish them. Examples are murder, embezzlement, rape, drugs, and robbery. The scripture says that God uses the government to immediately punish these sort of sins (Romans 13:1-5)! These things bring spiritual death and hurt but they also lead to immediate physical punishment as well.

Also God considers someone who professes to be righteous and yet is a hypocrite to have sinned worse than someone who has never been taught. What this means is that the judgment of God is quicker to come upon someone who knows what they are doing is wrong rather than someone who sins in ignorance. For example Jesus told Pilate:

What Pilate did was sin and, if he never repented and got things right with God, would cause him to be eternally lost, but it was not as great as what the Pharisees and the scribes, who knew the Word of God, were doing! Hell is a real place of torment and you do not want to go there for any reason at all. However, the scriptures clearly teach that there are different degrees of torment in hell with certain sins receiving "greater condemnation." Here are some sins that God will punish extremely severely if not repented of and corrected:

1. Hypocrisy - claiming to live for God and secretly living for yourself or the devil.

2. Child abuse - Any kind: verbal, physical, sexual, or mental.

3. People who tempt others to sin - the word for "offences" here means "temptations."

4. People who have been delivered from a life of sin and then turn and walk away from God to blatantly return to their old lifestyle.

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Now that we have discussed the fact that God does make distinction between some sins, let's ask ourselves "what are the three worst possible sins?" The answer may surprise you. Here are the three worst sins according to scripture beginning with number 1:

1. Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost.

It is very doubtful that anyone in here has committed this sin or you probably would not be at church. There have been some crazy theories about what this sin is and the devil likes to use this as a condemnation tool by trying to make people think that they have committed it. We will discuss exactly what "blasphemy against the Holy Ghost" is and therefore clear up any confusion. Let's read one other scripture about it before we go further:

The seriousness of this sin is evident from these scriptures: it is the number one worst sin because when a person commits it, they cannot be forgiven! This also clears up another confusing point that Satan uses against people: this is the ONLY sin that cannot be unforgiven. Every other sin, no matter how dirty or vile or repulsive, can be forgiven except this one. Also notice in verse 31 above that all other blasphemies can be forgiven, but only "blasphemy against the Holy Ghost" cannot be forgiven.

The word "blasphemy" means "to speak out against vocally" or "to denounce or curse vocally." You must say something to commit blasphemy. All blasphemies can be forgiven except that against the Holy Ghost. In other words, perhaps at one time you "blasphemed" the Bible and said "it's not real." That can be forgiven. You might have blasphemed people shouting and raising their hands in church by making fun of them. That can be forgiven. Verse 32 says that you can even blaspheme against the "Son of man" meaning that you may have doubted that Jesus Christ was God in flesh at all and be forgiven. But it's blasphemy against the Holy Ghost that is unforgivable.

We know that there are not three gods and that Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are just three of many titles of the one, true God. In fact this scripture helps prove that there is not a trinity of co-equal Godhead, because if they are all supposed to be equal, then Jesus said you can blaspheme against two of them and be forgiven but not against the Holy Ghost. If you believe in a trinity, then you have problems with this scripture because it elevates the Holy Ghost above the other two.

The term Holy Ghost always refers to God's Spirit moving in and among men. If God's Spirit comes into the building we say "the Holy Ghost is here!" If God heals someone we say "the Holy Ghost did the work!" If someone receives God's Spirit into their life, we say "they received the Holy Ghost." By using the term "Holy Ghost" or "Holy Spirit" we are acknowledging that God is working among us or in us. So "Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost" is in some way speaking out vocally against the moving of the Holy Ghost. That's our first part of the definition; let's look at the context of the scriptures that we just read for our second part:

Jesus warned about blasphemy against the Holy Ghost when the scribes accused Him of being able to cast out devils because He was a servant of the devil! In other words, they were saying "you are devil possessed yourself, that's the only way you can do this stuff." And it was because of these sayings that Jesus stopped and warned about blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. So our second part of the definition of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is that involves attributing the work of God's Spirit as being the work of Satan. In other words, you must see the work of the Holy Ghost and say "that is really the spirit of Satan."

So the definition that we have of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost so far is that it is when a person speaks out vocally against the moving of the Holy Ghost and says that it is really not the Spirit of God at all but the work of Satan. There is, however, a third part to the definition that people tend to forget. The Apostle Paul wrote:

The Apostle Paul blasphemed the Holy Ghost and had dedicated his life to stamping out the Apostolic church before his conversion because he thought it was of the devil! Yet, even though he blasphemed against the Holy Ghost, he was forgiven because he did it "ignorantly in unbelief!" In other words, he had never received the Holy Ghost so God forgave him because he did it in ignorance. The third part of our definition of the unforgivable sin is that it can only be done by those who have received the Holy Ghost and been taught the scriptures about their experience. If you have ever said that the Holy Ghost or talking in tongues was of the devil BEFORE you received the Holy Ghost yourself, then you can be forgiven because you did it in unbelief.

So our definition of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is when a person who has been filled with the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues and been thoroughly taught on it by the scriptures, turns from God and begins to say that the moving of the Holy Ghost and all that comes along with it is really the spirit of Satan and not of God. It is the unforgivable sin not because God doesn't want to forgive, but because if every time the person feels the presence of God drawing them to repent, they say it's Satan, then they never will!

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Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is the number one sin because it causes a person to become eternally lost before they die. The number two sin may surprise you:

2. Unforgiveness towards others. Notice the following scriptures:

Jesus also taught a parable which clearly explains this principle:

I looked up the dollar amounts and converted them to English. The first servant owed the king 10 million dollars and he was forgiven. The second servant owed him a measly 2,000 dollars! When you refuse to forgive someone else, God looks at it light of all of the sins that He has forgiven you and says, "well, if you will not forgive them of that small thing, then I will bring back the debt of all your past sins!" Unforgivness is the second worst sin because as long as you do not forgive, God brings back all of your past sins and holds you responsible for them! We must be quick to forgive!

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The third worst sin may also come as a surprise:

3. Fornication - any sexual activity outside of the bounds of marriage.

Of the seven lists of sins found in the writings of the apostle Paul that we talked about before, the word fornication is found in five of them and is first on the list each time. The reason why is found in the following scripture:

Fornication is the only sin that causeth a man to "sin against his own body." What this means is that fornication brings the most immediate destruction and detriment to a person of any sin. Here is a brief list of the destructive dangers of fornication:

1. It brings destruction to the marriage relationship. If you are married, then you are doing the worst damage to your relationship that you can do. If you are not married, then remember that you are somebody's spouse according to God's will and so are doing damage to your future relationship. The baggage that comes from past sexual promiscuity is the number one reason why the divorce rate is over 50%.

2. It brings an emotional bond to someone who is not your spouse. The scriptures say that you become "one" with the person that you sleep with. In other words there is a bonding in the spirit as well as the flesh. If a woman sleeps with a man before she is married to him, then her ability to accurately analyze whether or not he is God's will for her becomes cloudy because she has an emotional bond to him. They often mistake that feeling of closeness and intimacy as "true love," when it is actually a result of their sin.

3. It causes an immediate separation in your relationship with God. In order to continue in fornication, a person must harden their heart to justify it. When you receive the Holy Ghost, there is an emotional bond with God and a closeness with the Holy Ghost. You are automatically sensitive to the Holy Ghost and it's gentle nudges. No sin causes a person to become callused and hard to the moving of the Holy Ghost like fornication, because God considers your body His temple and therefore when you sleep with someone that you are not married to, He considers that you have cheated on HIM!

4. A lifestyle of sexual promiscuity and multiple partners opens you up to many physical sicknesses and diseases. This should be obvious to anyone alive today.

5. It opens your household to violence. When David committed sexual sin with Bathsheba, the prophet of God, Nathan, came and told David that because of it, violence would become commonplace in his family (II Samuel 12:10-11)! God's word came true and one disaster after another struck David's family including incestuous rape, murder, and the revolt of his own sons and many others in his kingdom (II Samuel chapters 13-15). Not only that, but his second son by Bathsheba, the great King Solomon lost out with God because of his own fornication!

You see, the devil knows that fornication brings the quickest detriment to a person's life and that is why our culture is so sex-craved! The devil wants as much hurt as possible in our lives! That is why we cannot give in to this blatantly sexual world's doctrine that says that there is nothing wrong with fornication or sexual promiscuity. There is everything wrong with it, and in fact it is the third worst sin that you can commit and the one that will bring the fastest judgment into your life and family!

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The following is not a comprehensive view of every sin or meant to be authoritative. It is meant to provoke you to personal study and thinking on God's Word. Even the smallest sin is enough to keep you from heaven, but if I were to look at scripture and try to number sins according to their degree of severity, here would be a fairly accurate list of the 27 worst:

1. Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost - the only unforgivable sin.

2. Unforgiveness - the only sin that can cause all of your past sins to come back!

3. Fornication / Adultery - the sin that brings the quickest judgment.

4. Child Abuse - the sin with special curse pronounced by Christ

5. Hypocrisy - the sin that receives the "greater damnation."

6. Knowingly tempting others to sin - Jesus said "woe unto you."

7. Returning to a life of sin after being delivered - It would have better to never have come at all to God!

8. Sowing discord among the brethren - Going from saint to saint causing confusion and disunity with your mouth.

9. A false witness - lying on someone else to purposefully hurt them.

10. Feet that be swift to run into mischief - being quick and willing to spread evil around.

11. A heart that deviseth wicked imaginations - Using your God-given ability to think to invent evil things!

12. Murder

13. Habitually telling lies.

14. Pride - trusting in yourself more than God

The next are abominations unto God (things that God particularly hates)

15. Idol worship - Deuteronomy 7:25

16. Human sacrifices - Deuteronomy 12:31

17. Witchcraft and spiritualism - Deuteronomy 18:10-12

18. Religious prostitution - Deuteronomy 23:18

19. Having a legal affair - divorcing your spouse marrying someone else so that you can legally have a sexual relationship with them and then divorcing them and going back to your original spouse - Deuteronomy 24:4

20. Interchange of apparel between the sexes - a woman that dresses and wears the clothing of a man and vice versa; the blending of the sexes in a unisex look - Deuteronomy 22:5; I Corinthians 6:9-10; I Corinthians 11:4-15

21. Homosexuality - Leviticus 20:13; Romans 1:24-28

22. False balances / Dishonest in business - Proverbs 11:1; 20:23

23. Drunkeness / Drinking intoxicating beverages and substances - Proverbs 23:29-33; 20:1; Luke 21:34-35; Romans 6:16; Ephesians 5:18 just to name a few.

24. Lust of the eye - sinning by what you allow yourself to watch - Matthew 5:27-28; Psalms 101:2-3; Isaiah 33:15-16; Luke 11:34-35; I John 2:16 to name a few.

25. Not paying tithing and offering - "robbing God" - Malachi 3:8-10; I Corinthians 9:14; II Corinthians 9:6-7; Proverbs 3:9

25. Murmuring and complaining - Ephesians 4:31-32; Phillipians 2:14; James 1:19-20

26. Not providing for your family - "worse than an unbeliever" - I Timothy 5:8; II Thessalonians 3:10

27. Immodesty of dress - Romans 12:2; I Timothy 2:8-10; I Peter 3:3-5; I John 2:16; Proverbs 7:10; Isaiah 47:1-3; Jeremiah 4:30;