The Unforgivable Sin Matthew 12:22-32

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A question that people often wonder is this. Are there certain sins that are so egregious that they cannot be forgiven?
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Egregious sins are those sins that stand out more than others because of their heinous nature.
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Some sins are worse than others, and we know this from experience. To yell at someone while losing your anger is not nearly as serious as losing one's anger and then murdering someone.
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To tell a white lie to another is less serious than lying on your resume or lying on your taxes.
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To steal a paperclip is less serious than stealing a car. To have a lustful thought is less serious than committing the physical act of adultery.
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All of these are sins, and God hates all of them, and we must hate them too, but there are different degrees to sins.
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Not all sins are equal. The consequences are much greater with some sins than with others.
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As we have gone through Matthew, what we have seen is that Jesus' greatest earthly opponents were the
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Jewish leaders. He got under their skin like no one else did. He went after them and their false
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Jewish system, and this led Jesus to be a marked man. What we saw in our text two weeks ago in chapter 12, verse 14, is that the
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Pharisees went out and conspired against Him. How to destroy
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Him. As we think about the death of Jesus, who committed the greater sin?
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Was it the Jewish leaders who plotted to kill Him, or was it Pontius Pilate?
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The one who officially sentenced Him to death.
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Jesus tells us very clearly who committed the greater sin in John 19 .11. As He stands before Pilate, this is what
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He said to Pilate, you would have no authority over Me unless it had been given you from above.
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For this reason, He who delivered Me up to you has the greater sin.
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What Jesus tells us is that the people who committed the greater sin than Pilate are the ones who plotted to kill
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Him. The ones who pressured Pilate. They were the ones who were more in guilt.
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Now, all sins are bad, but not all sins are created equal. All sins are grievous in God's sight, but some sins are worse than others.
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And some sins are worthy of a more severe punishment. But as we talk about the severity of sins, we need to revisit the question
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I already asked. Are there any sins that are so serious that if one committed that sin, the offer of forgiveness would be revoked?
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And the answer is in our text today. The blasphemy of the
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Spirit. We're going to find out what in the world does that mean? We'll see this in Matthew 12, verses 22 -32.
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So this time I encourage you to turn there with me. If you have a red Bible, open those up as well.
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This sermon is titled, The Unforgivable Sin. And here's our big idea.
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Rejecting the glory of Christ is a high -risk move. Rejecting the glory of Christ is a high -risk move.
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We're going to see two reasons why in this text. But before we jump in, let me give you a little recap of where we were one week ago.
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We looked at Matthew 12, verses 15 -21. And in that text, we were called to understand the uniqueness of the
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Messiah. We saw six manifestations, how He is unique. And He is unique from sinful earthly power.
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One major theme throughout is that He is unlike so many that have power. His power is meant to help others, not to harm.
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And the time He came to earth, He came in weakness to save sinners through His death and resurrection.
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But when He comes again, He will come in power. This is who the
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Old Testament said the Messiah was going to be and yet most of the Jews missed it. And this is why when
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He came, so many Jews did not receive Him because they were expecting someone else. But they didn't look close enough at the prophecies from the
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Old Testament. And we saw the prophecy last week from Isaiah 42 that described this meek
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Messiah. Meek means power under control. He doesn't use His power to harm others.
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He uses His great power to help others. He did not fit the
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Messiah of their own imagination. Now, this leads us to our text this morning. We're going to begin by reading the first two verses.
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Verses 22 and 23 of Matthew 12. Then a demon -oppressed man, who was blind and mute, was brought to Him.
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And He healed him, so that the man spoke and saw. And all the people were amazed and said,
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Can this be the Son of David? What we read here is that Jesus once again healed someone.
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This has happened so many times already in the Gospel of Matthew. He has healed, specifically, several demon -possessed, demon -oppressed people.
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We even saw Him cast out a legion of demons in chapter 8, verses 28 -34.
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So in our text, Jesus healing a demon -possessed man who was blind and mute was no big deal.
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Through the power of Jesus, the man could now see and speak. Like so many of Jesus' miracles, the people who saw it were blown away by it.
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As we saw a week ago, the people knew that the Messiah would come in power, and Jesus showed power that they had never seen before.
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So this led masses of people witnessing these miracles to ask the question, as verse 23 says,
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Can this be the Son of David? Whenever a Jew in the first century said the
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Son of David, what they meant was the Messiah. This comes from 2
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Samuel 7, where that text predicted that the throne of David would go on forever.
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There was a promise that God made with David. It's known as the Davidic Covenant. And on this throne, it would be a forever throne because the
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Messiah would reign forever. In that way, He is the Son of David.
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Even if people did not believe in Jesus as the Messiah, any honest person had to consider this man may very well be the long -awaited
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Messiah, predicted in the Old Testament. Some didn't want to believe it, but they had to at least ask that question.
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Even the people who hated Him the most had to ask that question. But as we have so often seen in Matthew, and we will continue to see through the
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Gospel, there is this constant conflict between Jesus and the Jewish leaders, the ones who ran this corrupt religious system.
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One sect of Jewish leaders were, of course, the Pharisees, the unhealthy, conservative Bible people who loved their rules but hated the truth.
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Jesus, who is the truth, as He says in John 14 6, did this miracle, and the people run to the
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One who is the Messiah. But they also ran to other people.
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They ran to the people who were supposed to know the Bible. The Jewish leaders, the
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Pharisees, the scribes, the teachers of the law, the chief priests, the religious leaders were supposed to point the common people in the right direction.
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But they were blind guides, as Jesus called them three times in the Gospel of Matthew. But the
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Pharisees do what they do best. They speak against Jesus, and let's see this in verse 24.
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But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, it is only by Belzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.
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Okay, so the Pharisees make a huge claim here in a very dangerous one. This is a high -risk move.
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They are lucky that a bolt of lightning didn't come down and just strike them dead right here.
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According to the Pharisees, the power that Jesus had to do these miracles, and specifically this miracle of casting out this demon, came not from God, but from Satan.
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The term Belzebul was associated with satanic idolatry toward a Philistine God. So to make this charge is quite a charge.
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People knew that when they said Belzebul, they were talking about Satan. The Pharisees were right about one thing.
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All the supernatural things that happen in this world come from one of two sources, either the power of God or the power of angels.
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And of course, Satan and his demons are fallen angels. But the Pharisees were very wrong in their diagnosis about the source of Jesus' miracles.
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Their sinfulness led them to make this irrational charge. The Pharisees' thought process went something like this.
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We strongly oppose this guy. We don't think he is from God because we are from God.
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We are the ones that God is pleased with. And if he is pleased with us, then he can't be pleased with him because we're opposed to one another.
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He is a false Messiah and people are leaving our leadership to go after him.
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We need to do whatever we can to turn people away from him.
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This thought process led them to conclude this man is not from God and they make the bold claim that he is from the devil.
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What's interesting about our passage is that the Pharisees did not even verbalize their outrageous accusation as to the source of Jesus' miracles.
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We learn this from the beginning of verse 25 where the narrator, Matthew, says this, knowing their thoughts.
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Okay, we'll stop right there. So they're thinking these things. His power doesn't come from God.
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It comes from Satan. But little do they know, or they should have known, that the man standing before them can read their thoughts.
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Think of how unnerving this would be to be around someone who knew our thoughts. But this is no ordinary man.
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This is the God -man and he is able to read the evil thoughts of the Pharisees. And this is how he responds to them in verses 25 -28.
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Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste and no city or house divided against itself will stand.
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And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?
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And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out?
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Therefore, they will be your judges. But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
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What Jesus does in these verses is challenge the flawed logic of the
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Pharisees. What he basically tells them is why in the world would Satan cast out demons?
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Only the light casts out darkness. Why would Satan work against himself?
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This would be like a sports team scoring points for their opposition. This happened to my favorite football team, the
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Minnesota Vikings, before I was born in 1964. In a game against the San Francisco 49ers, the
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Vikings defensive end, Jim Marshall, picked up a fumble. He didn't know where he was, and so he sprinted the wrong way, and apparently he couldn't hear it because he kept running, until he crossed the end zone, and then he spiked the football.
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He went the wrong way. He scored a safety for the 49ers. Now, Marshall did this unintentionally, but what
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Jesus is saying to the Pharisees is why would Satan intentionally work against himself?
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Demons possess people to advance Satan's evil cause.
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So why would he work against this cause by having a demon cast out another demon? In verse 26,
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Jesus says this would hurt his kingdom. If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself.
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How then will his kingdom stand? After Jesus tells them that Satan would not work against himself, he then in verse 27 tells them that they're biased in their judgment as certain followers of the
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Pharisees supposedly cast out demons. The first century Jewish historian
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Josephus recorded that these Jewish followers of the Pharisees used strange cultic formulas to cast out demons, and he calls their followers their sons, okay?
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The people who were devoted to the Pharisees and their teachings. These exorcists who cast out demons.
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And what Jesus says is talk to these people, these experts in casting out demons to see whether or not they cast out demons, or whether it's just a fake, or whether it's from different power.
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What Jesus is pointing out to the Pharisees is that they would never say that their followers referred to by Jesus as their sons would cast out demons through Satan's power.
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They would never say that about the people who follow them, but they made this very accusation against Jesus.
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Why did they do it? It's because of their bias against him. Jesus is pointing out their bias and tells them go talk to your followers and ask them by what power they cast out demons.
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And if they answer by Satan, that would be an indictment against the Pharisees because these are the people who follow them.
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And if they say God's power, that would show that Jesus too by God's power casts out demons.
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But it is obvious the motives of the Pharisees. People do not reject God and Christ because of the facts.
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The facts are right there. Pastor John MacArthur comments, the
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Pharisees' response reflects the basic response of every person who intentionally rejects
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Jesus Christ. They did not reject him for lack of evidence, but because they were biased against him.
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Their own deeds were evil and they could not handle the intimidating reality of Jesus' righteousness.
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They were children of darkness and could not tolerate his light. They were not looking for truth, but for ways to justify their own wickedness and to destroy anyone who dared expose them.
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As we look at our world, isn't that true? Anybody who rejects Christ, they're gonna tell you it's because of the facts.
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Let me tell you, it's not because of the facts. It's because their hearts don't want it to be true. They wanna do something else.
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They wanna live for something else. They don't wanna live for Christ. But what they don't realize is that they're forfeiting the only thing that will ever truly make them happy.
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And the Pharisees are doing this right here. Jesus makes very clear in verse 28, the source of his power.
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He says, if it is by the spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
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As we saw last week, Jesus had the spirit without measure. As John 3 .34 says, every
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Christian has the power of the spirit, but Jesus had more of it, way more of it.
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For example, in Matthew chapter eight, as we've already seen, he casts out a legion of demons.
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These demons then possessed 2000 pigs that they marched down the hill and plunged themselves into the water.
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Think of how powerful these demons were. And yet Jesus, with a word, just sends them away.
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He does that through the power of the spirit. And as we see here, Jesus had a way of talking to his opponents, unlike anyone else.
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We see that in this exchange and in numerous other places in the Gospels. What we see him doing here is humiliating his opposition.
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He is putting these evil men in their place by blowing up their arguments.
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And what Jesus is telling the Pharisees is that he does all of his miracles through the power of the spirit.
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He's stating the obvious, correcting their ridiculous accusation. And what he tells them, if indeed this power comes from God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
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In Luke 17, 21, as Jesus was talking to the Pharisees, he told them this very thing, that the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.
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Okay, what does Jesus mean by this? What he means is the king is on the scene and you have the opportunity to believe in the king.
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And if you do, you will dwell with this king in his future kingdom.
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Their opportunity was right there and they didn't want it. Then Jesus continues his charge in verse 29 against the flawed logic of the
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Pharisees. He tells them, how can someone enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first finds the strong man?
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Then indeed he may plunder his house. Okay, what Jesus does here is once again blow up their accusation.
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He does it here by using an illustration. The strong man is Satan and the goods are the evil things that Satan loves and wants to advance in this world.
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What does Satan love? He loves sin and everything that comes from sin.
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He loves suffering. He loves death. He loves when a demon terrorizes a person.
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Satan does not want people to be free from their physical and spiritual suffering. He uses his power to keep people in these horrible places.
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And what do we see in Jesus' ministry? He's undoing everything evil that Satan is doing.
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What Jesus tells the Pharisees is that if he was working on behalf of Satan, then why would he be ruining everything that Satan loves to do?
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Jesus healed people. He cast out demons. He raised the dead. He forgave sins. Jesus has plundered
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Satan's goods. Not advance them. What he tells the
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Pharisees is that I am only able to plunder his goods because I have authority over him.
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You can only take the goods of the strong man if you first have power over the strong man.
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And if he has power over the strong man, then his works come not from Satan, but from God.
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You see how Jesus is talking with them. Jesus is building all of this up until he gets to the unforgivable sin.
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But he says one more thing before he gets to the unforgivable sin. In verse 30 he says, whoever is not with me is against me.
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And whoever does not gather with me scatters. Now we know as we read this that the
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Pharisees are strongly against Jesus. You can't understate that.
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But what's interesting is that Jesus says it is not only the strongly opposed, like the
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Pharisees who are against him, but it is anyone who is not for him. Think about all the people in the world who say that they admire
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Jesus, but do not follow him. When I was working security while going through seminary,
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I had a female supervisor who was in a same -sex relationship with another woman.
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And in her office, she had only one sketch on her wall, a sketch of Jesus.
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This woman did not believe in Jesus the way that we do, that he is God, that he bore the wrath of God at the cross, that by believing in him you have eternal life, that he is the narrow path, that he's coming again in power.
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She did not believe these things about Jesus. Her, like so many, believed he was a man to be admired from history.
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One might be tempted to look on and say that she is not against Jesus. But according to the
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Jesus of the Bible, the only true Jesus there is, she is against him because she does not believe who the
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Bible says he is. And her lifestyle shows that she does not follow him.
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Not only this, but one can intellectually believe in the
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Jesus of the Bible, but not really follow him. This person too does not gather with him and is therefore against him.
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If anyone is not for who he really is, and if anyone does not understand his call to full surrender, then one is against him.
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It sounds harsh, but it comes from the mouth of Jesus. This is what he says. As verse 30 says, if anyone does not gather with him, then one scatters away from him.
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Anyone not truly following Jesus is an enemy of Jesus. No argument against him from the
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Pharisees or anyone else will ever hold up. Any false charge against him, any false depiction of him, and anyone who does not truly join him in his call to follow him will stand in shame in the end.
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The Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 2 verses 11 and 12, that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is
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Lord to the glory of God the Father. Everybody's gonna do it. The most rabid atheist to the person who liked
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Jesus in their own way. Every one of those is gonna stand humiliated, realizing that they did not bow their knee to Christ in their lifetime, but they are bowing to him at that point because they have to, because it's gonna be so obvious, because he's gonna be there.
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He's gonna be the king, and everybody in hell is gonna know it. So may everybody bow their knee to him now and give him the worship that he is due.
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Rejecting the glory of Christ is a high risk move. The first reason why is that Jesus forever humiliates and humiliates the one who opposes him.
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The second reason why rejecting the glory of Christ is a high risk move is that Jesus eventually shuts the door permanently on the impenetrable heart.
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Verses 31 and 32. After addressing their accusation as to the source of Jesus' power, he gives a devastating judgment in verses 31 and 32.
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Let's read that together. Therefore, I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the
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Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the
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Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.
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It is common for people to ask, are there unforgivable sins? And Jesus answers this question right here, and the answer, as we just read, is that there is one.
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The unforgivable sin, as these two verses declare, is blasphemy against the
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Holy Spirit. Okay, so what is this? We have to remember what we saw in the previous nine verses to get the answer to that.
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The blasphemy of the Holy Spirit that the Pharisees committed is calling the Spirit -empowered miracles of Jesus works of the devil.
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Jesus said in verse 28 that these are the works of the Spirit, and the
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Pharisees rejected this and called them the works of Balzabal, that is, Satan. As I have mentioned, it is interesting that the
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Pharisees could not deny the reality that Jesus performed miracles. They couldn't deny that He was glorious in some way.
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It's obvious He was. It's obvious that He did these things and everyone knew it. It would have been very hard to find an atheist in this region during Jesus' ministry.
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A great work of God was being performed in the world and Jesus did things that no one else did. The Pharisees believed in miracles, but their hardness of heart, the depths that their sinfulness led them to believe the lie that the miracles of Christ were from the devil and not from God.
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They saw the Spirit's power in Jesus' life and they outright rejected the
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Spirit's power displayed right in front of them. Their heart of stone was so thick and solid, it was impenetrable.
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It could not be penetrated. Their sin led them to such depths and this sin was so egregious that there was no way they could repent.
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The offer of forgiveness at this point was pointless. It's like trying to run through a brick wall.
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It wasn't going to happen. The tragedy is that their eternal destiny was already sealed, even though they were still alive.
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They made up their minds and they were past the point of no return. These Jewish leaders engulfed in unbelief were on their way to hell.
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Words cannot express what a horrible position they were in. And right now, they are in that eternal prison known as hell.
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Their punishment is great. And not only did they call Jesus a worker of Satan, but forever they would be the ones responsible for the crucifixion of the
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Son of God. Can you imagine what their experience is going to be like at the final judgment? As we look at this, we need to understand why this sin committed by the
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Pharisees was so serious. The Pharisees had tremendous exposure to the truth.
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And Jesus, as I already mentioned, He says He is the truth. I am the way, the truth, and the life.
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John 14, 6. And when Jesus spoke, God was speaking to them.
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He spoke the very words of God. He did such wonderful things among them. And the offer was there for them to repent and believe.
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And yet they didn't want it. They rejected it. Their hard hearts wouldn't have it.
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The Pharisees are similar to Judas, who is arguably the most tragic figure in the Bible. Judas was up close and personal with Jesus for three years during his ministry.
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And yet he sold Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Both these
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Pharisees and Judas are in hell right now. And their punishment is very severe.
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They saw the glory of Jesus right before them, and they did not see Him as glorious. Their sinful hearts thought that something else was more glorious.
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They chose their sinful desires over the glory of God. This led the
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Pharisees to attribute the miracles of Christ to the power of Satan.
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Again, not based on facts, based off of bias. Their sinful hearts said, no,
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He's not the Messiah, He's false. The Spirit worked on their hearts just like He works on everyone's heart.
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To show them the glory of Christ, to bring them to repentance. And they rejected it. They blasphemed the
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Spirit. They committed the unforgivable sin. Now you're probably wondering, okay, well this happened 2 ,000 years ago.
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Does this happen today? There's disagreement about this among Bible interpreters.
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Some say that anyone who rejects Jesus today is rejecting the ministry of the Spirit, and therefore committing the blasphemy of the
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Spirit. In other words, if one keeps heartening his or her heart to the
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Gospel call, as the Spirit knocks on one's heart, one may reach the point where they can no longer repent.
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And that would be the unforgivable sin. I had a professor in seminary who had a different view.
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And his view was that the unforgivable sin can only be committed in the first century because it was a special time.
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They saw the works of Christ. They rejected it. Offer of the
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Gospel is gone. It's over. And so the Jewish leaders committed that.
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But it's not committed today. Now both of these are possibilities. But I think what
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I said at first is the correct view if we broaden the definition of blasphemy of the
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Spirit. If we broaden the definition here of the unforgivable sin. The Bible tells us that people can reach a point where they can no longer be saved.
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The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, is involved in persuading one to be saved.
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In fact, he's the chief member of the Godhead that is active in bringing one to faith in Christ.
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So the unforgivable sin is broadly defined this way, resisting the Holy Spirit who shows the glory of Christ, but the person doesn't want it.
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The Pharisees did this through their rejection and blasphemy. And anyone can do it who continues to reject
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Jesus and therefore reject the ministry of the Spirit. Now we often think that as long as one is living, that person can still be saved.
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This is why it's good to look at every passage of the Bible because the Bible corrects our thinking. It is true that some can be saved till death.
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The thief on the cross is an example of this. And you do hear of deathbed conversions.
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But what people often don't understand that the Bible clearly teaches is that some people also reach a point of no return.
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In other words, their eternal future has been sealed even though they have years left to live.
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The prime example of this in Scripture is Esau. We already saw the tragedy of Esau during our sermon series through Genesis a couple years ago.
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Hebrews 12, verses 15 -17 says this concerning him, See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled, that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.
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For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.
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What this text tells us is that Esau loved earthly things and not the things of God.
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He wanted the earthly blessings that came from the Abrahamic promise, but he didn't want a relationship with God.
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What these promises pointed to, he wanted.
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He wanted the gifts, but he didn't want the giver of the gifts.
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He was so in love with the world that he did not want the heavenly.
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He was unable to repent because his heart was so hard. He reached the point of no return.
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The author of Hebrews also talks generally about people who put themselves in a position where they can no longer be saved.
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In Hebrews 10, verses 26 through 27, he writes, for if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.
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This passage is describing those who received the gospel, appeared to believe in it, but then walked away.
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And I was thinking about this, I was looking at this passage. Do you realize that people don't run away from the faith? They walk away.
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It happens slowly over time. It's amazing. In this past year, by the way, a lot of people have walked away from the faith.
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2020, I mean, it's so interesting. Corruption has just come right to the surface.
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We found out people who they really are. And I've seen more deconversions in 2020 than any other time.
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I mean, we're seeing a lot of corruption exposed, but we're also seeing unbelievers posing as believers being exposed.
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And that's what happens. The offer of truly receiving Jesus was right there before them.
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It may even look like they believed, but it was this superficial. They never really embraced it.
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They were interested. They saw attractive things about it, but never received
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Jesus, never truly received Him. These people never saw the depths of their sin, never saw how much they needed
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Jesus, never saw how glorious He is. But they did have a treasure, and that treasure is whatever idol their hearts were fixed on, and they rejected the
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Son of God. If you want to talk about assurance of salvation, how do we know we're saved? Do you love
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Jesus? Do you really love Him? Do you love Him more than anything else in this world? If you can honestly say yes, then you're saved.
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But if there's something else that has dominance over your heart, that's where you have to be concerned.
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Again, we all wrestle with idols, right? But what is ruling your life?
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Is it Jesus or is it something else? The blasphemy of the
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Spirit also happens to those who hear the Gospel and outright reject it. This person who never appeared to believe, but just said, nope, don't want it, and then they remained that way until the end of their life.
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Now what we see in our text is these are people who clearly rejected the Gospel. They heard it, but they didn't want it.
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John 16 .8 says that the Spirit convicts the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.
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The Holy Spirit convicted them and they refused His ministry, His ministry of drawing people to the
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Savior. Drawing people to the Messiah. Now we need to understand the distinction between rejecting the
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Gospel and slowly coming to believe in it. Sometimes it takes time for someone to come to faith in Christ.
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And in fact, Luke 14 .25 -33 says that one should seriously consider it before truly following Christ.
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You don't go to battle unless you can win the battle. You don't build a tower unless you can afford to build the tower.
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So you have to count the cost before you follow Jesus. And some people believe in Christ later in life, like the thief on the cross.
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Very late in life. However, what this is talking about is those who they reach a point where their heart gets so hard.
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That their love for something else is so strong and it never dissipates.
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And their love for Jesus is lacking because they have a stranglehold loving something else, whatever that idol may be.
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And the idols are countless. And one goes beyond the point of seriously considering the
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Gospel and rejects Jesus and therefore rejecting the ministry of the Spirit, that person has committed the unforgivable sin and there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.
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That is the offer of Christ once for all sacrifice is no longer there. As we have pondered this, the application for us is very clear.
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When people hear the Gospel, they should not harden their heart. Where they reach a point where they can no longer be forgiven.
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Earlier on in the book of Hebrews, the author pleads with his audience to truly follow the
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Lord while their heart is still able. In Hebrews 3, verses 12 -14, he says, "...take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living
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God. But exhort one another every day as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
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For we have come to share in Christ. If indeed we hold all our original confidence and are firm to the end."
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The author of Hebrews is addressing those who were part of a church where many had fallen away.
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And he's saying are you going to fall away too? And the rest here that is achieved is heaven.
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It's communion with God. It's forever communion with God. It's fellowship with Him in the eternal state.
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And as we look at this, you may be thinking about people in your life who were once in the church but are no longer. These are loved ones, family, and friends.
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And as I think about this too, we had a guy in my church probably eight years ago.
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He was pursuing pastoral ministry. He even started as an intern in our church.
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He appeared to be a Christian. One day, he walked away. And it was amazing the course that his life took.
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It was like he was faking it and then plunged into a sinful lifestyle.
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Showing where his heart truly was. And the deceitfulness of sin is so strong because people who walk away don't regret walking away.
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They will regret it one day in hell. But while they're on earth, they think something better is out there.
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So they walk away. That's the power of sin. It'll grab you and pull you away.
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And so as we think about this, you may be asking the question, I knew people who grew up in the church who walked away from the
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Lord. Is there any hope for them? And in some cases, probably not.
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But in other cases, maybe. Only God knows if someone has passed the point of no return. We should still pray for all unbelievers till the day they die.
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Because we don't know for sure. And this sermon should motivate us to get the
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Gospel out with urgency, pleading with people to believe in Jesus as Lord, Savior, and Treasure.
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And once people sincerely see that Jesus is the meaning of life, and all other paths lead to destruction, this is when you know that someone has received the ministry of the
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Holy Spirit. And what the Spirit shows us through His saving ministry is that Jesus is the only one who can save us, and He's the only one who can fully and forever satisfy us.
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And what we have seen in this text is that we should not see specific egregious sins as unforgivable.
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Typically, when people think of this, they think there must be some horrible sin out there that it's just too bad it can't be forgiven.
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The Bible doesn't think in that way. Think about King David, for example. How horrible his sin was.
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He committed adultery with Bathsheba. And he didn't stop there. He sends her husband
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Uriah to the battlefield to die. So he's an adulterer and a murderer.
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And yet, the Bible says that David was a man after God's own heart.
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He repented. He was able to repent, and he did. Psalm 51 is his repentance, and it's a sincere repentance.
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Many egregious sins throughout history will have been covered by the blood of Christ, and all sins make us worthy of eternal punishment, even the ones that aren't as serious as others.
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It is true, as we have seen, that some sins are worse than others, but all sins are serious because they are against the
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Holy God. And when one believes in the Lord Jesus, every sin is forgiven, no matter how serious it is, whether heinous or common.
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And that's such a wonderful truth. You may have done something that's so horrible, but if you have sincere sorrow for that sin,
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Jesus will forgive it. It will not be counted against you. Okay, so do not see the egregious sin as some egregious sin.
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But in another sense, it is the egregious sin, right? It's denying the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
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It's seeing the glory of Christ as not glorious. And it's seeing something else as more glorious, and then reaching the point where you can no longer repent.
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That's what the unforgivable sin is. The Pharisees committed this by blaspheming, saying
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His works done through Jesus were the works of the devil. They hardened their hearts and rejected the glory of God in Jesus Christ.
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And in a similar way, any time the Gospel is offered to people, the Holy Spirit is displaying the glory of Jesus before them.
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To reject His ministry is to forfeit any chance of salvation.
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And this is the greatest tragedy of life. To reject Jesus is to reject eternal glory and to choose in its place eternal misery.
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So if you are here today and have never believed in Jesus, the Holy Spirit is calling you to believe in Him. Do not harden your heart.
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This might be the last time you can do that. Think about that.
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This could be it. So believe today. Believe. And if you're here today and you are a
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Christian, it's urgent. Get the Gospel out. Show the glory of Christ to people.
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I had a conversation with a gentleman just down the road the other day. And just thinking, this could be the last chance
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I ever get to share the Gospel with him. Let's get the good news out.
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Someone may die today or their heart may be so hard that there'll be a dead man or woman walking just awaiting judgment.
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So here's what our sermon is. Here's a summary here. Rejecting the glory of Christ is a high -risk move.
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And we've seen two reasons why in this text. The first reason why is that Jesus forever humiliates the one who opposes
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Him, whether strong opposition or even light opposition. Everyone will stand in shame at the end.
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The second reason why is that Jesus eventually shuts the door permanently on the impenetrable human heart.
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What we have seen is that Jesus puts people in their place who refuse Him. The one who rejects
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Him will experience eternal shame and miss out on the greatest glory that there is.
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Now next Sunday, Jesus is going to tell us something very interesting about the heart.
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We often say we can't know someone's heart. What Jesus is gonna tell us is that, well, in one sense, we can.
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And He's gonna tell us what that is next Sunday. This time, let's bow our heads in prayer.
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Father in heaven, people all over the world are standing on the cliff.
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And today might be the day where they don't fall over the cliff.
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And so my prayer is that everyone who can hear me would believe in the Lord Jesus Christ who hasn't already believed. I pray that this will give us urgency,
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Lord, to offer a hand to the one who is about to go off the cliff, to say, believe in the
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Lord Jesus and you will be saved. May your heart not be impenetrable.
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May you not reach that point. May you believe that we would plead with people if we sincerely believe people will be saved and experience the eternal glory of knowing
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Christ. So Lord, may we take this with us this day.