Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit

Sovereign Grace Family Church

1 view

May 8, 2019

00:13: Well, good evening.
00:29: We are continuing tonight in our study of systematic theology, our overview of Christian theology and doctrine.
00:40: And we are taking this in subsections just like any systematic theology textbook or any doctrinal textbook.
00:49: In fact, we're using a textbook as sort of the foundation of this.
00:53: We're using the Moody Handbook of Theology as just sort of the basic framework for this course.
01:02: It's one that I find to be very easy to navigate and it takes us through the major subheadings of systematic theology.
01:12: We are in the portion typically entitled pneumatology.
01:19: Pneumatology comes from the Greek word pneumos, which means spirit or breath or air.
01:26: So we get the word pneumatic for our modern language, anything to do with air, air tools or pneumatic tools.
01:33: So the spirit is the third person of the Trinity.
01:38: We have already talked about this.
01:39: We've spent the last several weeks, not counting last week as I was out six, but we'd spent the previous weeks looking at the nature of the Holy Spirit.
01:50: By nature, he is personal.
01:52: By nature, he is divine.
01:55: And we know this by how he is described and how he is represented in Scripture.
02:02: This is important because oftentimes people ascribe to the Holy Spirit the pronoun it.
02:09: I noticed this even among seasoned theologians.
02:13: They'll be talking about the Spirit of God and they'll say, well, it does this or it does that.
02:19: He is he and never it in Scripture because it's not a force.
02:26: He is a person.
02:27: And therefore, we talk about the personality and the divinity of the Holy Spirit of God.
02:32: We focused a lot on that in the first portion, the work of the Holy Spirit.
02:37: We looked at six specific things.
02:39: We looked at revelation, inspiration, ministry, indwelling, sealing and filling.
02:46: And that's what we ended in our last.
02:50: We tonight we're going to begin looking at the distinctives of the Holy Spirit.
02:56: I didn't really have another way of saying that because there's three things that we're going to address regarding the Holy Spirit that are unique to him within the Trinity.
03:08: Remember, when we talk about the Trinity, we talk about the ontological Trinity and the economic Trinity ontologically, one being three persons.
03:16: That's the makeup of the Trinity, as the Bible describes.
03:20: But the economic Trinity means that there are things that the father does that the son doesn't do.
03:28: There are things the son does that the spirit doesn't do.
03:30: And there are things that the spirit does that the father does not do.
03:33: They are all God.
03:35: They are all co-equal and co-eternal.
03:39: But yet the father didn't die on the cross.
03:42: The son died on the cross.
03:44: The father sent the son.
03:48: And the son said, I must go or else the spirit can't come.
03:53: And so there's a relationship in the proceeding of the spirit from both the father and the son.
03:59: And we learned in our history course for those who are taking the history course through Sovereign Grace Academy was one of the great historical arguments from the Eastern and Western Church and caused what's called the Great Schism, which happened in 1054, which is where the Eastern Church argued that the spirit proceeds from the father only.
04:20: But the Western or Latin Church, the Catholic Church, added what was called the Filioque clause or the clause of the son to the Nicene Creed, saying that the spirit proceeds not only from the father, but also from the son.
04:36: And so there was an argument as how the economic work of the Trinity happens.
04:41: And it caused a debate, not so much, I believe, because of how the inner workings of the Trinity are, but rather because the Western Church made the decision to add to the Nicene Creed without consulting the Eastern Church, thus creating an issue of authority.
05:01: So the schism was based more on the issue of authority than on theology.
05:06: And I sort of just went a little off topic.
05:09: Sorry, I just just reminding you that when we're talking about the inner workings of the Trinity, when we're talking about the doctrine of the Trinity, this is a this is a subject that I've devoted much of my ministry to, to learning and to teaching on one of the few books that I've written is called God in three persons, the history, the historical and biblical teaching of the Trinity, because I believe it's so foundational.
05:32: And so many people don't even attempt to understand it.
05:37: I remember I was at a pastor's, a pastor was being ordained, and I was invited to come and question him, along with some other men.
05:48: And I asked him if he had a Jehovah Witness come to his church, and they maybe married into somebody in the church, and they came to church.
05:55: I said, Could you defend the doctrine of the Trinity? And everybody got upset with me.
06:02: Why would you ask him such a hard question? I said, because we're not hiring him to cook pancakes.
06:09: We're hiring him to be a pastor.
06:11: We weren't hiring him, but the church was that I was at.
06:14: I said, This man is taking a job.
06:16: He should know this answer.
06:18: This is a serious matter.
06:22: It is a hard question and it deserves an answer.
06:26: So I think the doctrine of the Trinity is important.
06:29: It's worth studying.
06:31: So we look again now, where we are now when we talk about distinctives, what areas of theology relate primarily to the Spirit.
06:43: That's the distinctives, and that's the way I've defined this portion of the course.
06:49: The distinctives of the Holy Spirit, I've outlined them on your worksheet.
06:53: One, tonight we're going to look at the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.
06:57: Only somebody who doesn't know me very well thinks I'm going to get through all of this in one night.
07:03: Just so you know, if we get through the blasphemy portion, I'll be excited because that means we finished that one part.
07:11: The second part is the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
07:14: That's a huge question because that often lends into questions of issues regarding Pentecostalism and the like.
07:22: So we're gonna look at that probably next week, as long as we get through blasphemy tonight.
07:27: And then we're gonna look at the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
07:28: Those two may bleed over together.
07:30: I just spent several months teaching through 1 Corinthians 12, 13, 14.
07:35: So I'm gonna hastily move through that because I don't want to simply repeat everything I said from that study.
07:41: But we are going to look over the next few weeks over what's on your handout.
07:45: Tonight we're gonna look at the subject of the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.
07:51: How many of you have ever heard the term the unforgivable sin? You know, that's the way this is usually described.
08:05: People will ask, Do you think somebody today can commit the unforgivable sin? Or somebody might come to me and in a hushed and whispered tone, Pastor, I think that I have committed the unforgivable sin.
08:27: Right? It's heavy.
08:30: It's weighty.
08:31: Really, if you think of Christian in the Pilgrim's Progress who had a burden, what a burden, brother, to have a burden that you couldn't get rid of.
08:42: It's there forever.
08:44: It is, as it were, stitched with the threat of Almighty God and is not being removed.
08:53: The unforgivable sin.
08:57: Well, where does such language come from? It comes to us from the scripture.
09:03: This is not something that is simply devised by men.
09:09: This was not something that was was created during the Middle Ages to keep the peasants in line under the imperial king or under the papists.
09:18: No, this is something that was said by the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
09:22: And so we want to know what it means.
09:24: We have to know what he said.
09:26: So we're going to look at three sections of scripture tonight.
09:30: And I am concerned about time because I have a lot of scripture to get through.
09:36: But really, if you want to write these down, the texts themselves are not that long.
09:40: But we but I am I am I am committed to contextual teaching.
09:45: So we can't just look at these verses and look at what's around them.
09:48: So but if you want to write them down, it's Matthew chapter 12.
09:53: Oh, wait, it's already in your notes.
09:54: Matthew chapter 12, verse 31, 32, Mark chapter three, verses 28 to 30.
09:59: But there's also a message in Luke 12, 8 to 12.
10:06: Now, I didn't put Luke in there because the statement in Luke really doesn't differ from what we see in Matthew and Mark.
10:15: And it also falls in the middle of a listing of things that Jesus is saying.
10:21: It seems to be a collection of Jesus is saying that Luke is sort of put together.
10:28: You guys understand that the four gospels sometimes are combining events.
10:38: As the writer has need to put things together.
10:41: And sometimes this you might see Jesus talking about something here.
10:46: And then in another book is he's talking about it over here.
10:49: And it's either that he's saying it twice.
10:51: And that does happen.
10:52: Jesus does say the same thing a couple of times.
10:54: And he does things sometimes a couple of times fed 5000 fed 4000 two different situations in the same book.
11:01: Sometimes you have the Sermon on the Mount, you have the Sermon on the plane.
11:05: It's two different messages.
11:07: Jesus is on a mountain, he gives a sermon on the mountain in the Gospel of Luke, he gives almost the same sermon, but he's on a plane.
11:13: And he says some things that are so different that you you come to the conclusion, it's two different sermons.
11:18: And why not? You ever heard me say the same thing? Been here 13 years preaching every Sunday, just about you've heard? Yeah.
11:28: You've heard me repeat myself.
11:30: And Jesus, of course, had a message that bore repeat.
11:34: And so it's no doubt that he certainly said things and repeated things.
11:38: And so so there are repetitions in Scripture, but there are also times when Matthew is giving his account, and it's slightly different than Mark's account.
11:47: And Mark is giving an account that's slightly different from Luke's account.
11:51: But they're so similar that you know, they're talking about the same thing.
11:54: And that's what I think, in Matthew 12, and Luke, or excuse me, Matthew 12, and Mark three, I do think it's the same situation.
12:01: We're going to look at them.
12:03: And I'm going to show you why I think it's the same.
12:05: I could be wrong.
12:06: And I have been known to be wrong.
12:09: But I want to argue for a moment why I see the same thing.
12:13: If you go to Matthew 12.
12:15: We'll start there since Matthew is first, at least in in the way that we order our scriptures.
12:23: And Matthew chapter 12, it's in verse 31, that we see Jesus say these words.
12:31: Therefore, I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.
12:43: Verse 32, and whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age, or in the age to come.
12:56: Stop right there.
12:57: That's verses 31 and 32.
12:59: Okay.
13:01: What's the first word in verse 31? If you got an ESV? Therefore, what is therefore tell us? It's there for a reason.
13:11: Yeah, you need to see what is therefore.
13:14: If there's a therefore, you need to see what it's therefore, because it's telling you that this is connected to what came before.
13:21: All right.
13:23: I think that the context actually begins back up in verse 22.
13:26: So if you look up in verse 22, you'll see the context says in verse 22, then then is a is letting you know something new is happening.
13:37: It was then and now it's now or now and then.
13:42: And so we see then a demon oppressed man who was blind and mute was brought to him.
13:48: Imagine that.
13:50: Blind and mute.
13:52: Can't see, can't speak.
13:56: And he was brought to him and he healed him.
13:59: So the man spoke and saw.
14:04: Could we just stop and worship right now at the feet of Jesus? That a man who couldn't see and couldn't speak, and it only is one verse.
14:14: It doesn't spend a page or two in great prose about this man's life and how it just changed in a twinkling of an eye, it went from no speech, no sight to a new life in Christ.
14:34: What a picture of of people who are blind to the gospel in their eyes are opened.
14:41: Jesus healed him.
14:43: He spoke and saw.
14:45: And all the people were amazed and said, Can this be the son of David? Who's the son of David, the Messiah? Can this be the one we've been waiting on? Well, yes, it can.
14:56: This is him.
14:58: Can this be the son of David? Yes.
15:00: But the Pharisees.
15:05: The enemies of Jesus.
15:07: Who were the Pharisees? Pharisees were the the religious conservatives.
15:14: Always remember this.
15:16: In Jesus's day, there were very much like our day.
15:21: You had the religious conservatives.
15:23: They were the Pharisees.
15:24: You have the religious liberals.
15:26: They were the Sadducees.
15:28: And then you had the politically motivated.
15:31: They were the Herodians.
15:34: And you had the legally minded erudites.
15:37: They were called the scribes.
15:39: Right? So almost like today, you got the religious fundamentalists, you got the religious liberals, you got your politically minded people, and you got your people who are intellectually minded.
15:52: Very much like today.
15:53: These are the religiously minded people.
15:56: The Pharisees heard it and they said, it is only by Beelzebul, which is a title for Satan.
16:05: And he says that it goes on the Prince of Demons.
16:08: We know who this is.
16:09: It's only by the Prince of Demons that this man, Jesus, casts out demons.
16:16: Think about what they just said.
16:18: Jesus came to this guy.
16:20: This guy came to Jesus.
16:21: He's blind and he's mute.
16:25: Jesus heals him and they should rejoice.
16:29: Instead, they say he works for the devil.
16:33: He's doing this by the power of Satan.
16:39: Knowing their thoughts, verse 25, Jesus says he said, Jesus said to them, every kingdom divided against itself is laid to waste and no city or house divided against itself will stand.
16:51: That's a, that's a quote there.
16:54: It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a truism.
16:56: You can't have a house divided.
16:58: Can't have a kingdom that's divided.
17:01: Therefore, verse 26, if, if Satan casts out Satan, he's divided against himself.
17:07: How then will this, his kingdom stand? That's just pure logic.
17:13: How could I be working for the devil if I'm casting out the devil? How can I be working for Satan? If I'm working against Satan, it don't work that way.
17:23: Verse 26.
17:25: If Satan casts out Satan, he's divided against himself.
17:28: How then will his kingdom stand? Verse 27.
17:30: And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Apparently there were some of the religious people who were exercising some kind of exorcism ministry.
17:48: You know what exorcism is? You, you, you hear that word, everybody thinks of the movie, but an exorcism simply means to exercise or to remove a demon.
17:59: And apparently there were some of the Pharisees who had those among them who were doing this same thing.
18:07: Now, were they doing it the same way Jesus was? Probably not.
18:09: There's a lot of charlatans even then.
18:12: There's a lot of people who fake stuff.
18:15: Um, and we don't know anything about them other than what Jesus said here.
18:20: He's saying, if I'm doing this, how are they doing it? If they're doing it, how are they doing it? Are you saying that this is all the devil? Yeah.
18:33: He goes on to say, therefore they will be your judges, meaning your sons.
18:38: These people who are doing this the same as I am, if they're doing what I'm doing, they're going to judge you for this.
18:43: Then we get to a conversative or an adversative statement, verse 28.
18:47: But if it is by the spirit of God that I cast out demons, then if then statement, if it is by the spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
18:59: Remember what they called them earlier? Son of David.
19:02: Who's David? King.
19:03: Jesus is the Messiah.
19:05: He is King, prophet, priest, and King.
19:07: I'm here.
19:07: Well, how do you know where the kingdom is? It's important.
19:12: Jesus, he is the King and the kingdom of God is here because the King is here.
19:17: If what I'm saying is true, it's because I'm the King and I'm here and I'm right.
19:24: Then he sees the verses 29 and 30 are kind of interesting because 29 and 30, Jesus gives a analogy.
19:32: He says, or how can someone enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first finds a strong man, then indeed he will plunder his house.
19:39: Whoever is not with me is against me.
19:40: And whoever does not gather with me scatters.
19:43: That's kind of an odd statement.
19:45: Let me sort of try to unpack it very quickly.
19:46: What Jesus is saying is this.
19:48: In this scenario, Satan is the strong man.
19:54: He's saying, they're saying you're doing that by the power of Satan.
19:57: Jesus said, well, if I did that, I would have to first bind Satan because you can't go in and plunder somebody's house unless you tie him up first.
20:03: If I went into Mr.
20:04: Paul's house and tried to take his stuff, he's going to beat me up unless I tie him down.
20:09: Mr.
20:10: Paul's a tough old guy.
20:12: And so if I, if I'm going to have to first strap him down, then I can make my way out with his stuff.
20:19: That's the picture here.
20:21: Jesus said, if, if, if, if, if I'm working with Satan, how could I be plundering his home? I'd have to be binding him.
20:28: That's, it just doesn't, your logic doesn't work.
20:34: Then he makes this statement.
20:35: Whoever is not with me is against me.
20:38: And whoever does not gather with me scatters.
20:40: That's a, it's a basic truism.
20:44: And he's, here's the thing.
20:46: He's not so much saying whoever's not with me, he's making, he's basically saying this on behalf of the devil.
20:52: He's not with the devil, which makes him against the devil.
20:56: You understand? He's saying whoever's not with me is against me.
20:58: It works on both sides.
21:01: Satan, he's not with the devil.
21:02: He's against the devil.
21:08: Therefore, verse 31, I tell you every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.
21:20: It seems like that came out of nowhere.
21:22: In fact, now that you've read the context, it almost seems like it's an odd place to put that.
21:30: Except when you think about what they've done, they have taken the work of Jesus Christ and the most obvious miracle that you could possibly imagine.
21:41: Blind, mute man, given him his sight, given him his speech, and now said to him, you're of the devil.
21:50: That is blasphemy.
21:54: But to whom is the blasphemy being pointed? You say, well, it's blasphemy against Jesus.
22:02: Oh, no, no.
22:03: Because Jesus is attributing the work that he's doing to the Holy Spirit of God.
22:12: So the blasphemy is against the Holy Spirit.
22:17: What's the blasphemy? That's the devil.
22:20: See, here's the thing.
22:23: I want you to think in your mind for a minute back to the Ten Commandments.
22:32: How many can name all ten? I won't make a reason.
22:36: Have no other gods before the Lord.
22:39: Do not make any idols.
22:41: Do not use the Lord's name in vain.
22:45: Honor your father and mother.
22:46: Do not commit murder.
22:47: We won't go through all of them.
22:49: I missed the Sabbath ones.
22:50: There's number four.
22:51: I missed it.
22:51: There you go, Jen.
22:54: Number three, in the Decalogue, that's another way of saying Ten Commandments, in the Ten.
23:00: Number three, thou shalt not take the Lord's name in vain.
23:07: That is a command against blasphemy.
23:14: By taking the spirit of God and attributing his work to Satan, they are committing blasphemy.
23:31: They are saying the spirit of God is the devil.
23:38: Just stop for a minute.
23:39: Now, that's not that's not the literal thing that they're saying, but that's essentially what they're saying.
23:46: Because Jesus is working by the power of the Spirit of God.
23:49: They say you're working by the power of the devil, which means the spirit of God is the devil.
24:01: And therefore, Jesus says in verse 32, whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven.
24:08: And I must tell you, I have a problem with that.
24:13: Because I'm still incomplete.
24:17: I don't like it that Jesus says they'll be forgiven.
24:21: I don't want people to be forgiven if they speak against Jesus.
24:23: He's my Savior.
24:25: I'm just being just you and me here, right? And the whole world through the Internet.
24:29: But I'm saying I don't like that.
24:30: I want Jesus to not humble himself in this moment.
24:35: But he is.
24:36: Remember what Philippians chapter two says? He humbled himself, taking the form of a servant.
24:42: Though he was in the form of God, he did not consider equality with God a thing to be held on to.
24:46: But he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.
24:49: He humbles himself here.
24:51: He said, you talk about me.
24:54: That will be forgiven.
24:56: But.
24:57: And that's a key adversity.
25:00: But the blasphemy, whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.
25:09: Either in this age.
25:13: Or in the age to come, no temporal forgiveness, no eternal forgiveness.
25:22: Now, if you've if you've ever done Bible study, study with me how to study Scripture, you'll you'll remember, I always say, look at what comes before and what comes after.
25:36: Is this key? If you want to really figure something out, look at what comes after.
25:39: Notice what comes after.
25:42: Either make the tree good and it's good fruit or make the tree bad and it's fruit bad for the tree is known by its fruit.
25:49: You brood of vipers.
25:50: Jesus is still speaking.
25:52: How can you speak good when you are evil for out of the abundance of the mouth or out of the abundance of the heart? The mouth speaks the good person out of the good treasure brings forth good, the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil.
26:06: I tell you, on that day, people will give account for every careless word they speak.
26:12: For by your words, you will be justified.
26:15: By your words, you will be condemned.
26:18: Beloved Matthew is focusing on the spoken word.
26:27: That is the key to understanding Matthew's point here, because, by the way, blasphemy is a spoken sin.
26:37: Blasphemy is something we say.
26:40: Blasphemy is a sin we use our mouths to commit.
26:45: Have no other gods before the Lord.
26:46: Do not make any idols.
26:47: Do not take the Lord, the name of the Lord in vain.
26:51: Do not speak the name of the Lord uselessly.
26:56: All right.
26:56: It's a spoken sin.
26:58: Therefore, this whole section, going all the way back up to the beginning, man who can't even speak, brought to Jesus.
27:06: And this whole thing comes with an emphasis on speech.
27:12: The sin is a spoken sin.
27:14: He said, why does that matter? Matters because what they're saying.
27:20: What does your what is your words say about you? It tells what your heart is.
27:27: Jesus just said that, right? He said, the bad tree bears bad fruit.
27:33: Good tree bears good fruit.
27:35: I used to have professor Dr.
27:36: Powers.
27:37: What's in the well? Comes up in a bucket.
27:41: Right.
27:42: And the mouth's like the bucket.
27:44: The mouth tells you so much about who you are.
27:49: The mouth tells you so much about how your heart is.
27:53: Do we have to know much about the Pharisees to know that they hated Jesus? Simply by what they said.
28:02: Do we have to know much about the Pharisees to know that they hated true righteousness because of what they said? They said they love righteousness.
28:12: In fact, they made their whole lives based on trying to pretend righteousness.
28:18: But their words condemn them.
28:24: Their words condemn them.
28:26: And so Jesus looks at this and he says, your words against the Holy Spirit of God will not be forgiven.
28:37: Why? Because the words are the fruit of an evil heart.
28:47: The words are the fruit of an evil heart.
28:53: Is there more to it? Yes.
28:54: But that's the basis, because what I want to do now is I want to quickly, very quickly, just run over to Mark.
29:03: Time is not my friend.
29:04: Jump over to Mark real quick.
29:05: Just read it real fast.
29:06: I want to show you how Mark is different, but the same.
29:16: Mark chapter 3, verse 20.
29:19: In your notes, it says verse 28.
29:20: But what did we just do? Look at the context.
29:22: We look at the context of Mark.
29:23: Mark's context is different, but I think it's the same situation.
29:30: Mark 3, verse 20.
29:32: By the way, you'll notice one huge thing missing.
29:35: I wish we had time to walk.
29:36: I wish I had both of them on the board and we could walk through and I could show you.
29:38: But what's the hugest thing you're going to notice missing? The guy with the sight and the mute.
29:43: He's not even mentioned.
29:45: But let's read.
29:47: It says, Then he went home.
29:48: Jesus went home.
29:49: The crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat.
29:51: And when his family heard it, they went out and seized him.
29:54: For they were saying, He's out of his mind.
29:58: Who's the focus in this passage? The family of Jesus is saying Jesus is out of his mind.
30:07: I'm sorry, I can't go further without just thinking about that for a second.
30:11: Who is this? This is Jesus' brothers and sisters.
30:15: I don't think it includes Mary.
30:18: Because I think Mary knew who Jesus is.
30:20: I think she knew from the moment he was conceived who he was.
30:23: The angel told him.
30:25: But his brothers and sisters did not believe in him until after the resurrection.
30:29: His brother James became the pastor of the Church of Jerusalem, but only after the resurrection.
30:35: When Jesus was on the cross, who did he give his mother to? His disciple.
30:40: Not his brothers, but his disciple.
30:42: There's a key in that about who Jesus was in relationship with at that moment.
30:48: He goes on to say, Verse 22, And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, He is possessed by Beelzebul, and by the prince of demons he casts out demons.
30:57: Notice it's a different group here.
30:59: It's the scribes.
31:00: That's not the Pharisees.
31:01: It's a different group.
31:03: Does that mean it's a different scenario? Possibly, but I don't think so.
31:06: Oftentimes you'll read in Matthew and in the other Gospels, Pharisees and scribes travel together.
31:11: They did a lot together.
31:14: And so the idea that the scribes are mentioned in Mark and the Pharisees are mentioned in Matthew, I don't think that necessarily proves it's two different situations.
31:21: But that's, you know, if you want to argue that later, we can.
31:24: But that's a major difference.
31:27: It says, And he called them to him, and he said to them in parables, How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, the kingdom cannot stand.
31:35: If a house is divided against itself, the house cannot stand.
31:37: If Satan has risen up against himself and he is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end.
31:41: But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless his first finds the strong man.
31:46: Then indeed, he may plunder his house.
31:47: Does that sound the same? Almost exactly right.
31:51: So if this isn't a different situation, it's really close.
31:55: And Jesus is simply responding the same way he did in the other time.
31:59: But now, verse 28, Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven.
32:02: The children of man and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin.
32:13: That is almost the same way of saying he's not going to be forgiven in this age or in the age to come.
32:19: So this is Luke's way of saying what Jesus said.
32:23: It's just a different way of saying the same thing.
32:25: It's an eternal sin.
32:28: For they were saying he has an unclean spirit.
32:31: They were ascribing the work of Jesus to the devil.
32:35: They are saying he has an unclean spirit.
32:38: Now, verse 31, And his mother and his brothers came and standing outside, they sent and called him.
32:42: And a crowd was sitting around.
32:44: And they said to him, Your mother and your brothers are outside seeking you.
32:46: And he answered them, Who are my mother and my brothers? And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, Here are my mothers and my brothers.
32:54: And whoever does the will of God, he is my mother, brother and sister and mother.
32:58: So what's the context of Mark? The context of Mark starts with the issue of the family and ends with the issue of the family.
33:05: The context of Matthew starts with the issue of speech and ends with the issue of speech.
33:11: So what's the difference? They're both focused on two different things.
33:15: Mark's dealing with the issue of the inter-familial discord that's happening in Jesus' family.
33:20: The inter-discord that's happening in the family of Jesus Christ.
33:23: This just happens to happen in the midst of that.
33:27: So if I were going to compare these two, I would say the the Matthew in verse or the verse in Matthew is more focused on what Jesus said.
33:36: And the verse in Mark is more focused on what was happening in Jesus' life.
33:42: Mark takes it very quickly through Jesus' life.
33:46: In fact, the words that you'll see in the King James, I think it is a straight way, straight way.
33:50: Mark is always boom, boom, boom.
33:52: He's getting from one thing to the next.
33:54: And he's telling these interspersed scenarios but he's doing it very quickly.
33:58: Matthew is much longer and he gives us much more information.
34:01: So he tells us more about the situation.
34:04: So Matthew here tells us what the focus is.
34:07: The focus is Jesus is dealing with the words of his opponents.
34:10: The words of his opponents are, you are of the devil.
34:13: You have an unclean spirit.
34:14: You are not a man of God.
34:18: You are a man of Satan.
34:20: All right.
34:22: Do we understand the text a little better? Good.
34:26: Now we can go on to ask the question.
34:28: Now that we're completely out of time, but that's OK.
34:30: I'm going to hold you for a few more minutes so we don't have to do this whole thing next week.
34:34: I want to ask this question.
34:37: What is the unpardonable sin based on this text? Based on this text, these two and again, I think, Luke, we're not going to read it, but it's the same thing.
34:48: Luke is is even more in the midst of something as Mark.
34:53: The blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is seeing the work of the Lord Jesus Christ and attributing it to the devil.
35:03: Seeing the work of the Lord Jesus Christ and attributing it to the devil.
35:09: So the next question becomes, and by the way, I don't think anybody would really debate that because that's what the text says, right? That's clearly what has happened.
35:19: They saw Jesus do a miracle.
35:22: They said that miracles by the power of Satan.
35:25: Jesus said that's blasphemy against the spirit because the spirit's the one who's empowering me.
35:33: So here's the question.
35:36: Can someone blaspheme the Holy Spirit today? I'm not asking you to answer.
35:46: I'm asking you to think.
35:47: Can someone commit the unpardonable sin today? Well, I've given this a lot of thought over the years.
35:59: I've thought about it.
35:59: I literally have had people say, I wonder if I have done this.
36:06: I'm afraid.
36:08: So I have to deal with that, right? I can't just say, well, get over that.
36:13: Have fun with that, brother.
36:15: That really is rough for you.
36:20: But also back in 2006, there was a group.
36:27: Anybody ever heard of the rational response squad? And my wife has.
36:33: The rational response squad was neither rational.
36:38: I don't know.
36:39: They might have tried to give a response and they may have been a squad, but they were not rational.
36:43: They were a group of atheists who came out trying to encourage atheists to come out of the closet as the way their description was.
36:52: Don't be afraid to claim to be an atheist.
36:54: You know, don't let people scare you.
36:56: Come out of the sheds, come out of the closets and announce your atheism.
37:01: And the way they did that was something called the blasphemy challenge.
37:07: Blasphemy challenge was you go on to your computer, you open up your camera and you record yourself saying, I deny the Holy Spirit or I forget exactly how they worded it.
37:22: They had a specific thing you had to read.
37:25: I don't believe in the Holy Spirit or I don't believe in the work of the spirit or whatever.
37:32: And that was called the blasphemy challenge.
37:34: And there were hundreds of videos posted to YouTube.
37:39: You can go find them still.
37:41: People that were attributing to themselves the power to show their atheism by blaspheming God.
37:50: My wife and I talked about this on the way here, thinking about the fact that that's more than 10 years ago now.
37:56: Amazing how time flies.
37:57: I remember when it was happening.
38:00: And I wonder how many of those people God chose to save 12, 13 years ago now.
38:14: Did they make themselves unsavable by going on to YouTube and saying something that was ridiculous? I don't think so.
38:30: I don't think so.
38:32: And I want to tell you why.
38:33: I want to give you three reasons why tonight, three things to think about when it comes to the subject of the impardonable sin.
38:42: Number one, first thing to think about in regard to this.
38:48: All sin that is not covered by Christ is unpardonable.
38:57: But a person who's outside of him, if a person's not covered by his blood, then they're not forgiven.
39:11: Well, we should.
39:12: There's a lot of people out there that don't know Christ.
39:14: We should be bringing the gospel to them, right? But you understand what I'm saying? Any person outside of Christ, every sin is going to be counted against them.
39:24: So all sin that's outside of Christ is unpardonable because the only way to be pardoned of sin is in Christ.
39:32: So that's the first thing.
39:35: Second thing, the Bible says that in Christ, we are forgiven of all sin.
39:42: And I want to just show you very quickly an important verse on that, Colossians chapter two.
39:48: I'm going to mention this on Sunday in my sermon, but it's a it's a good passage that if you can put it in your mind and in your heart, if you're ever struggling with your own forgiveness, if you're ever struggling with your need to be forgiven, maybe sometimes you sit and you think, I just don't know if God could forgive somebody like me.
40:09: Maybe you think highly of yourself and you've never had that thought.
40:12: Maybe you need to think that way for a second so that you can remember how much you have been saved from the Colossians chapter two, verse 13.
40:23: And you were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh.
40:30: God made alive and you who were dead in the trespasses and circumcision flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.
40:48: This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
40:53: All our trespasses were nailed to the cross.
40:58: And you say, wait, Jesus was nailed to the cross because Jesus became sin for us.
41:03: God made him who knew no sin to become sin for us.
41:12: He became sinner.
41:14: We became saint.
41:16: He became wretched.
41:18: We became holy.
41:25: Based on this, I will say this.
41:27: I don't believe God's elect can commit the unforgivable sin.
41:32: Because all our sins are nailed to the cross.
41:34: If there were anything we couldn't be pardoned from, then that would be an untrue statement.
41:43: So at the very least, I could say, if you're in Christ and Christ is in you, you've not committed the unpardonable sin.
41:54: And I don't think you have to concern yourself with doing it because all your sins have been nailed to the cross.
42:02: Yeah.
42:14: No, what I'm saying, I'm that's I'm I have a third thing I'm about to say.
42:18: And I think it'll clear that up for you, because I don't think that those people really did commit a true blasphemy against the spirit, because that's my third thing.
42:28: I want to read it to you if I can.
42:30: The specific sin of Matthew chapter 12 and Mark 3 and Luke 12 would likely only have been able to be accomplished during the time of Christ, because it was the only time when somebody could see the work of Christ and attribute it to the devil, because it was the only time he was there for that to happen.
42:52: Christ is not here anymore, therefore, for someone to be able to see a legitimate work of the spirit and say that's the devil.
43:02: Through the by calling Jesus or saying that Jesus is being powered by the devil.
43:08: I don't even know that that's possible today.
43:11: Now, somebody asked the question, well, what if we what if somebody saw a miraculous work of the spirit and they said, oh, that's of the devil? And I've heard this before because I've been in some Pentecostal churches and grew up going back and forth to different churches.
43:22: And there were some really wild things going on, some things that were really devilish.
43:33: And I've been told, well, you can't say that because you're blaspheming the Holy Spirit.
43:39: I don't believe I am.
43:41: One, because many of the things that are happening are just completely ungodly, unbiblical and out of line with what the scripture clearly teaches.
43:49: But also there the confirmation.
43:54: Think of the confirmation.
43:55: What confirmation do we get from somebody like Benny Hinn? It's false.
44:02: And yet he'll say, touch not God's anointed.
44:04: I ain't got to worry about you because you ain't God's anointed.
44:06: But that's just now I'm being ugly.
44:08: But but the reality is true.
44:09: Right.
44:10: I don't have to worry about him.
44:13: I don't have to worry about a lot of these guys.
44:18: I want to start naming names here.
44:19: Be here all night.
44:22: Did those young people truly blaspheme the Holy Spirit of God? Did they see a miracle of God and attribute that work to the devil? I don't believe they did.
44:33: Can God save them from their ignorant, stupid speech? Yes, he can.
44:39: He did me and he did all of us in some way or another.
44:44: So I don't know that the ability to fully commit this sin in the same way that was possible when Jesus was on the earth is still possible today.
44:53: Am I willing to be corrected on that? Possibly, if someone were to show me a way that it could happen today.
44:58: And I'm not saying that to alleviate the danger or to say it's not possible.
45:03: What I'm saying is this.
45:06: If a person truly blasphemes the spirit, they will never believe in Christ.
45:20: And every day people die outside of Christ and they die fully guilty of the sins they've committed.
45:28: And they're going to be in hell.
45:33: Did they commit the unforgivable sin? Well, if they didn't come to Christ, every sin they ever committed was unforgivable because there's no forgiveness outside of him.
45:46: No other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
45:51: This is a heavy subject.
45:52: And again, I don't pretend to think that I know everything about it or all of the ins and outs.
45:58: But I do think if God so saw fit to save one of those ignorant young people who decided to film themselves saying something in their ignorance, I think God would be just in doing so, because God is gracious and gracious enough to allow not our ignorance to to keep us from him.
46:20: So I know this is probably went a different direction than you thought it was going to go tonight.
46:25: I hope it was helpful.
46:26: Let me end by saying yes.
46:34: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
46:37: This this should be an encouragement to us.
46:39: Because if we think about it, no one outside of Christ is going to be forgiven.
46:45: No one outside of Christ is going to be forgiven in this age or in the age to come.
46:53: One of the and I don't want to keep you any longer.
46:57: But one of the one of the ways that certain people interpret this, and I'm not sure that I agree, but I'll just end with this because it's an interesting thought.
47:04: Maybe you can ponder on it.
47:05: One of the ways that this has been interpreted is this.
47:08: And this is sort of a non reformed way.
47:10: So I have to be careful what I'm about to say is that is the Spirit of God is the only way we come to Christ.
47:19: Therefore, if you blaspheme the Spirit of God or deny him, you can't come to Christ and you can't receive salvation.
47:25: Therefore, denying the Holy Spirit, i.e.
47:28: blasphemy is not coming to Christ.
47:32: I don't think I agree with that necessarily in its fullness, but it is true.
47:36: I don't know that I agree with it, how to understand this text, but it is a truism.
47:40: And that is this.
47:41: If you deny the Holy Spirit of God, you're denying the only person who can bring you to Christ.
47:48: And if you're denying the only person who can bring you to Christ, you're denying the only one who can save you.
47:53: So you are, in a sense, condemned already.
47:59: So like I said, this was not an easy subject.
48:02: Hopefully what I've said has not brought more confusion.
48:04: Hopefully it's brought a little bit of clarity to a very difficult subject.
48:09: And if you thought tonight was good in the sense of difficult good, then wait for Sunday because we're going to be talking about what it means to be baptized for the dead.
48:17: So I look forward to that because that's our next passage in First Corinthians.
48:22: So we just happen to be falling on some more difficult passages, but hopefully this has been somewhat helpful for you.
48:28: Let's pray.
48:30: Father, I thank you for your word.
48:31: I pray that the word has been taught properly, that we have said what the scripture says.
48:38: And Lord, where we have to make interpretations and we have to apply this to our current situation, I do pray that we would be at least faithful to understand more that we can't know everything.
48:48: But we can know this.
48:50: Those who are in Christ will be saved.
48:52: Those who are in Christ are saved by the blood of the Lamb.
48:55: Our sin has been nailed to the cross.
48:57: And there is no judgment that we will bear in this age or the age to come.
49:02: There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
49:07: Therefore, this sin is not something that could ever be applied to the elect.
49:12: Father, thank you for that great confidence that we have not any way pride, but confidence that we have a salvation wrapped up in our Savior Jesus Christ.
49:25: And it's in his name we pray.
49:27: Amen.