Luke 12:10

That was Luke 1210 and Matthew chapter 12, verses 31 and 32. In the book of Isaiah, the people of Jerusalem receive a message from the prophet telling them that they are to weep, to mourn, to shave their heads and gird themselves with sacklock. It was a time to repent for their wicked ways, turn from their inequity. The Israelites, protected by the mass of walls of the city of Jerusalem, did not listen to Isaiah. They thought they were well protected from their enemies. Instead, they self. celebrated with joy and gladness, slaying the ox and sheep for a feast, drinking wine in large amounts. They seem to have the attitude let us eat and drink for tomorrow. We’re going to die, so let’s go ahead and enjoy ourselves while we can, get the most that we can out of life. And the Lord declared this in Isaiah 2214, surely, this iniquity shall not be be purged from you till you die. What a frightening message. You’ll never be forgiven for this sin. I will hold it against you and you will perish in your sin. That’s a pretty frightening prospect, isn’t it? In our text, the Lord speaks of what is commonly called the unparonable sin. A sin as a sin as man. Matthew 1232 tells us, never forgiven, neither in this world, neither in the world to come. Now, the language of this verse is somewhat deep and mysterious, and it’s not easily understood. It helps that Matthew’s Gospel provides a little more detail concerning the matter. However, the people of God have been divided down through history. with regard to how they interpret this passage of scripture. We’re going to look at the unpardonable sin this morning and hopefully shed some light on it, even if we can’t explain every aspect with regard to it. There are some views that I do reject regarding this. Jerome and Chryslaustraim thought this sin could only be committed during Christ, during Christ, earthly ministry as he did the miracles and they were attributed to Satan rather than to the Holy Ghost. This limitation seems unwarranted as we’re going to see from Hebrews chapter 6th. There seems to be something we can commit today after Christ has already gone to heaven. It seems to fit in the same category as the unpardonable sin. Augustine, and many of the Lord of God, Lutherans believed that this was persistent impetence until death despite clearly hearing the gospel message. Scripture seems to make this sin I think more specific. Otherwise there’d be an awful lot of people that would be committing the unpartable sin. After they hear the gospel one time, you could be guilty of this. Others say, well, this is committed by truly regenerate people who change their minds and repudiate their faith and revert back to a state of unbelief. Well, the problem is if you’re truly regenerate, obviously you’re not going to revert back to a state of unbelief. If you’re truly regenerate, you’re going to persevere in the faith. So that can’t be true either. Let me speak on the danger. here in the unpardonable sin this morning. Now let me start with this thought. You should realize there is such a thing as an unpardonable sin. You will find that God will forgive all sorts of sin. Verse 12 here in Matthew, excuse me, in Matthew 1231, it says this, Wherefore I say, on you all manner of sin. and blasphemy shall be forgiven on the man. Here Jesus Christ, I think, gives grace assurance of the fact that if one embraces the gospel, they can have forgiveness of all kinds of sins in their lives. Those brought to repentance and faith in Christ by the Savior, by the work of the Spirit, have forgiveness of all their sins. It doesn’t matter what it is. Now, whether your sins are small or great, whether they are secret or open, whether they’re the sins of the heart or the lips or the hand, they can be forgiven. I like Micah 778, or 718. Who is a God like unto thee pardoning iniquity? God is a God who forgives. I don’t know if you know anything about the heathen gods, but a lot of them are very unforgiving. The God is a forgiving God. That’s the one thing that really says. stands out as you read through the Bible. God says in Isaiah 118, come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. I will forgive them. I will cleanse you of. Jeremiah 3, 12 and 13, I am merciful, I am merciful, said the Lord, and will not keep anger forever. Only acknowledge your iniquity. Confess it. come to me and I’ll forgive it. So you find in scripture people are forgiven for all kinds of sins. For example, bearing false witness. Remember Abraham and his son Isaac both lied saying that their wives were actually their sisters. Jacob lied saying that he was his brother Esau to trick his father. They’re all forgiven. Idolatry. The Thessalon. The Thessalon and Lodry. Mycans, the Ephesians, the Corinthians, turned from dumb idols to serve the true and the living God. They were forgiven for worshipping idols. Adultery. David, you recall, committed adultery with Uriah’s wife, Bashiba. We have in the New Testament the story of the woman caught in the very act of adultery who is not condemned by Christ, but forgiven by Jesus Christ. Blasphemy. Paul says, I was before a blasphemer and a persecutor, an injurious, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in an unbelief. He blasphemed in the name of Christ. He had a lot of harsh things to say about Jesus Christ. We could talk even about murder. David was guilty of murdery in Uriah, the Hittite, being put to death, so he could take Bathsheba as his own wife. Moses. Yeah, even though the man that was that God gave the law to, a great man in the Old Testament, well looked up to, killed an Egyptian and buried him in the sand, the Bible tells us. The blood of Jesus Christ will cleanse us of all these sins. Isn’t this the great promise of the gospel? Isn’t this the wonderful thing that we have when we give the good news out? So we must cast ourselves upon divine mercy and seek the forgiveness of God, for there is forgiveness with the Lord that he may be feared, as he tells us in the scriptures. A Christian woman named Anne Lutz was once witnessing to someone that was guilty of some very great sins. life. And this woman’s problem was she thought that she had committed such great sins that that she could never be forgiven. So she was struggling with this whole idea, will God ever forgive me to these great sins that I’ve committed? Ed showed her 1. Timothy 1.15 where it says, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief, Paul says. and if the chief of sinners can be forgiven, then you could be forgiven. Christ came into the world to save sinners, but she still has some dots. So Anne asked this question. Have you ever been to the beach? Have you ever noticed those small holes in the sand that the crabs dig? And the woman said, yes. And then she said, have you ever seen someone dig a hole in which did scoop out the sand and then build sand castles on the beach. She said, yes, I’ve seen that. And then she said, have you ever seen where they’ve dredged out a river or a portion of the ocean? And they pulled it up with these big dredging machines. She says, yeah, I’ve seen that too. And then Anne said, well, what happens when the tide comes in? When the tide comes in all the time. those holes, whether they’re little, whether they’re medium size, whether they’re great, they all get covered. And that is the way it is with the blood of Jesus Christ. Now, what size sin, it can be covered. And we can be cleansed. And we can be forgiven. Now, if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you don’t have to fear condemnation. You may have had great sins in your life, but you don’t have to fear condemnation because you’re accepted in him. all your sins are washed away of the blood of Jesus Christ. So all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven on the men. That’s a wonderful thing. But you must be aware here, he says, of committing the unpardonable sin. Because he goes on to tell us here that this unpardonable sin is speaking against the Holy Ghost. Or blaspheming the Holy Ghost. The word blaspheme, here it comes from the Greek word blasphimo, to rail against, to revile the Holy Ghost. It involves speaking contemptuously of the Holy Ghost. When you blaspheme God, you speak contemptuously of God. Or sacred things. Now, these people that Jesus speaks to, not only just to his disciples. He’s speaking directly to the disciples in Luke, but there’s a broader group of people who are listening. They have witnessed the grace and the goodness of God and casting out demons. Christ’s miracles exhibited the power and the mercy of the Holy Spirit. As verse 22 in Luke tells us, there was brought on him one possessed with the devil blind, and dumb, and he healed in him so much that the dumb and the blind of the dumb both spake and saw. They witnessed that. And what did they say? And all the people were amazed and said, is this not the son of David? What does that mean? They’re saying, is this not the Messiah? Isn’t this the promised son that Scripture talks about? Now the Pharisees, of course, were disturbed by this. They didn’t want to acknowledge Jesus Christ was the Messiah. They didn’t want people even thinking that. So what did they do? They said that they thought that this was being done by Biel’s above the Prince of the Devils. That Christ was working by Satan’s power. So they didn’t just reject it. They wanted to condemn it. this idea that Christ could be the Messiah. Now think about this. They were attributing the work of the spirit of God to the work of Satan himself. The root of this sin that is a, when we really boil it down, this unpardonable sin, has to compound to a conscious, deliberate hatred of God. Such that you would slander and revive. the work of the third person of the Holy Trinity. As being evil. As being the handy work of the devil himself. Those who blasphemed Christ as a winebibber, as a deceiver, as a blasphemer, as a false prophet, could receive repentance and be pardoned. However, this is not true with regard to the work of the Spirit. of God. This is unpardonable. Now think about some of the symptoms of this great sin. Do you have a pronounced hatred of God? Because the Pharisees did. The true God. It’s not just an indifference toward God. I don’t know if there’s a God or not. I’m agnostic. No, that’s not what we’re talking about. We’re not even talking about a denial of his existence. You could be an atheist. But do you call the world? work of the Spirit of God, evil. Calling the work of calling a person to salvation, illuminating their minds, regenerating sinners, to say that that is satanic or evil is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Who does that work? The extraordinary gifts of the Spirit. Prophecy. Speaking in tongues. The word of knowledge. healing. These, if they were spoken against, that would have also a sin against the Holy Spirit. The ordinary gifts of the Spirit, such as the fruit of the Spirit, or the illumination of the mind, teaching you spiritual truth. If we would claim that this is somehow evil or of the devil, do you have such a hardness of that you would slander and vow what is obviously the work of the Holy Spirit before your very eyes. Now, friends, someone has wisely said, and I think truly said, those who worry that they’ve committed the unpardonable sin are not the ones that have committed the unpartnable sin. You’ve got to have a conscience seared with a hot iron to say these things about the work of the Spirit of God. When you ought to know better. So you must be aware of committing the unpardonable sin now. You should ponder Hebrews chapter 6, verses 4 to 6, in light of this reference to the unpardonable sin. So I’ll direct you there this morning. Hebrews chapter 6 and verses 4 to 6. Paul writes here, I believe it’s Paul. He was the author of this book, for it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and word by partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come if they shall fall away to renew them again under repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame. Now notice carefully the ones that are spoken of here in verses 4 and 5. The Apostle does not say here, us who were once enlightened, or you who were once enlightened, speaking to the people to whom he’s writing. But those, in other words, these people are never said to be God’s elect. They’re never said that they are those. for whom Christ died. Never said that these are people who were born of the Spirit, justified, or forgiven, or accepted in the beloved. We never read that about these individuals. In sharp contrast to the those in verse 4, drop down to verse 9. But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you and things that accompany salvation, though thus we speak. He’s saying, you who have salvation, I always speak of better things to you, things that are accompanying salvation. In other words, what he’s saying before, cannot be looked upon as salvation. Whatever, however, we want to classify these things. Those who are described in verse 4 then are not saved people. Obviously, those who possess salvation cannot fall away. nor can they reject the true faith. They persevere in the faith. These people, he describes, are merely false professors. They must be looked on as apostates who repudiate the Christian faith. They were once a group of people who had enjoyed great privileges by their association with the visible church and the preaching of the word of God and they’ve cast it aside. He says here that they were enlightened. Now, this word refers to being enlightened by the light of the knowledge of the truth. In other words, the doctrine of the gospel has caused them to understand something of the things of God. Not to see. same as being enlightened by the spirit, or what we might call regeneration. They’d escape the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as Peter talks about in 2.20. But they were still not saved. For in 220, remember, as you read on, they’re like the dog that goes back to the vomit and the pig that goes back to the wallowing in the mar. They had a knowledge of spiritual things, but they were not transformed by these spiritual things. It says here they tasted of the heavenly gift. They had some association with the work of the Holy Spirit and heavenly things. They tasted. It might use the word sampled. They sampled. They did not fully eat or nor were they nourished by, but they only sampled. There’s an interesting passage about Christ when he was on the cross. They gave him vinegar on a sponge to drink. It was mingled with gall. And the Bible says when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink. So, you could taste without drinking. and we should understand you could taste of the heavenly gift without actually participating fully in the work of salvation. These people are like the stony ground hearers that we read about in Matthew 13. He that heareth the word and anon with joy receiveth it, yet hath he not the root in himself. But dureth for a while, for when the tribulation or persecution, arises because of the word by and by they are offended. And they abandoned the faith. Were they truly converted? No, they were never converted. But they had some knowledge of the truth. Now they have this phrase we have here of made partakers of the Holy Ghost and one could be perhaps confused by that. Sometimes the word Holy Ghost is used for the gifts of the Ghost. Holy Ghost. The Greek word here for partakers actually is sharers. They shared in something with regard to the Holy Ghost. This is a different word than we find Colossians 112 and 2. Peter 1.4 when we’re talking about real Christians. Different Greek word that’s being used here. It’s a more rare word. It would be the idea of being a companion and some type of share some participant with regard to the gifts of the Spirit of God. This is something we should say is external then rather than interim. The Holy Spirit did not work within them regeneration and spiritual enlightenment. He did not dwell within them. But they participated, as we sometimes find, in the extraordinary. ordinary work or gifts of the Spirit, which we find are not confined to believers, which you might find that odd, but it’s true. Hold your place here, but look at Matthew 7 with me. Look at verse 21 to 23 these verses here. Not everyone that saeth unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he that doeth the will of my father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? Now notice this, they prophesied and in thy name have cast out devils, and thy name done many wonderful works or some type of miracles. And then while I professed under them, I never knew thee. You, depart from me ye that work iniquity. Think about that a moment. This is a difficult thought for many, but let me give you three quick examples. My first example is Bealam, the false prophet. You know what the Bible says? He prophesied when the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of God, came upon him in the book of Numbers, 24, verse 2. Now, his problem was he wanted to say something bad about the Israelites, and the Holy Ghost would come upon him and make him bless the people of God. And Balak was not very happy about that, the king of Moab. Baylam was not a believer. He’s called a false prophet in Scripture. And then we have the wicked king, Saul. The Bible said he prophesied, even though he was not regenerate. The Spirit of God was upon him, and he went on prophesied until he came to Naoth in Rama in 1st Samuel 1923. Remember, this is the same man at this very moment who’s trying to kill David. And how does God prevent him from killing David? Cause him to prophesy. And he doesn’t kill David. He’s not a believer. He perishes an unbelief. The traitor, Judas, in the New Testament. He was sent out with the other disciples. He healed. He cast out demons. He did those whitey, wonderful works that we read about in Matthew chapter 7. But it was always the son of perdition. Jesus says all along, there’s one of you that has a devil. So here’s how you could be a share in the gifts of the Spirit, the the spectators, especially the miraculous ones, of course, as we’re talking about, and yet not be converted. They tasted, he says, of the good word of God. This expression relates to the promises of God respecting the Messiah. Jeremiah calls those things associated with the Messiah in the New Covenant that good word, Jeremiah 3314. So the implication seems to be something to have to do with when Christ comes. To taste here is to have a limited participation. It refers to enjoy some of the advantages of the teaching the gospel. You don’t fully eat as to be eternally benefited. You know, somebody who hears the gospel, the Bible says in the Bethany ground here that someone’s, some with joy, embraced it at first. You could find some sweetness in the gospel. Boy, this sounds good. You could be convinced of the goodness and mercy of God towards sinners. He does actually forgive sinners. You could be convinced of that. You could have an interest in participating in the salvation of the gospel proclaims. You say, I want that. Matthew 6 tells us in verse 20 that Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and a holy and observed. And observed, him and when he heard him, he did many things and heard him gladly. Who were those many things that he did? Maybe something to do with the message that he heard from John. But he merely tasted of the good word for here’s the man that beheaded John and certainly was not converted. And then also we find it they participated in the powers of the world to come. Now, the world to come is is the age of the Messiah. The last days. Hebrews 1-2 tells us these are the last days when Christ comes. The air of the new covenant. The powers are described in Hebrews chapter 2, if you just back up in verse 4. God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders with diverse miracles and gifts of the Spirit according to his own will. So these apostates only tasted of these powers. They were personal witnesses, perhaps, of the miracles that Christ did after his ascension through the Spirit of God, and they were conclusive in convincing evidence of the truth of the gospel was set before them. So now they’re without excuse when they cast aside the gospel of Jesus Christ. So here are the persons that are spoken of by the apostles. But notice here the sin they commit, verse 6, if they shall fall away. Now this falling away does not mean they fell down. You know, all Christians may fall. The righteous man falls seven times and he rises again. But this means a falling away, an abandonment of the true faith. a willful repudiation of the gospel making shipwreck therefore in your faith. They are now openly opposed to the gospel they once professed to believe. These apostates, these Hebrew apostates, went back to Judaism, which was a works-oriented religion. By renouncing the Christian faith, what are they saying? That Christ is an imposter. They crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to open shame. They identify themselves with the very people who crucify Christ in the first place, and if Christ was on earth now, they would participate in his crucifixion. They would expose Christ to public shame all over again. They would join forces with the murderers of Jesus Christ. This is the sin they’re committing, and the certain dune may incur is this we read in verse 5 and in part of verse 6. It’s impossible, he says, and then 6, if they fall away to renew them again under repentance. Repentance means a change of mind. You can’t act again and repent. They once professed to repent, but it has become apostate. Now it’s impossible to renew them under repentance. They have denied the plain evidence of the work of the spirit that they witnessed when God saved men and brought them into the kingdom of God. When God did these mighty works and miracles, the gift of tongues, the gifts of tongues, the gifts of healing, the gifts of prophecy, the gifts of knowledge, that he gave out. The Corinthian Church had a lot of people who had these various gifts. They tasted of these things to some extent by being among these people. But now they are declaring that the Holy Spirit’s miraculous gifts are not of God, or else they wouldn’t deny them. Now, since to restore these people is impossible, this makes this an unpardonable sin. And so this is how I think you could positably. be guilty of this unpardonable sin today as well if we would do those kinds of things. Let me conclude with two brief thoughts. The first is this. We should appreciate the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the person of the Godhood who actively reveals God to man. He makes the power, the will, and the truth of God, known to you. He applies salvation to your heart. He inspired the very scriptures by which you come to the knowledge of the truth. It makes you wise under salvation. So to repudiate this salvation of God is to repudiate the work of the spirit of God himself. And that is a serious. sin. You should freely acknowledge and proclaim the works of God that are done by the Holy Spirit. Is it not the Holy Spirit who presently works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure right now in your sanctification? In any way that you see the work of this spirit in your life, you ought to thank and praise God for it. Because it’s a wonderful work that the Spirit of God does. The second thought is this. You should realize that all who profess to receive the gospel are not born again. Your intelligence may be informed. Your conscience may be troubled. Your natural affections may be stirred when you hear the gospel of Christ. You may even be granted many natural gifts. And if you were living in the days of the Apostles, and maybe even some supernatural ones. There has always been a mixed multitude who have accompanied the people of God. Remember when they came out of Egypt, there was this mixed multitude that came with them? They were not Jews. They just came out with them. So despite a glorious profession, your heart may lodge a love of money and worldly things and a desire for carnal ease and pleasure and a loss. longing for the praise of men rather than the praise of God. Because of this, you could cast aside the Christian faith. And deny the very things that you have tasted of the work of the Spirit. Your hardened heart will condemn and ridicule the work of the spirit in the regeneration of sinners. And if we do that, we’re in serious condition. this is a dangerous thing to do. You could reach the point where it’s impossible to renew you under repentance. Friends, we ought to guard our heart with all diligence. Pray for the grace of perseverance to be bestowed upon us and examine your heart. Make sure you do profess and possess true faith. For there are many who did many things who ended up perishing and their sins. Let’s close with a word of prayer.