Thursday, December 28, 2017

The Word of the Lord is POWERFUL!

Therefore they stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in the Lord, who was bearing witness to the Word of His grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. (Acts 14:3)

This chapter sees Paul and Barnabas in the city of Iconium preaching in the Jewish synagogue. The Christian Standard Bible boldly starts verse 1, “The same thing happened in Iconium...” While this bit of commentary is not fully justified by the underlying text, it is insightful. On Cypress they encountered opposition but God’s word triumphed in Proconsul Sergius Paulus’ conversion. Even more dramatically in Antioch in Pisidia – Paul preaches the Gospel, both Jews and Gentiles are converted, and then due to jealousy, those unbelieving are moved to persecute Barnabas and Paul.

Indeed – In Iconium you see a great multitude of Jews and Gentiles believed (Acts 14:1), and the unbelievers stirred up the Gentiles against them. Verse 3 is a powerful example of God’s Word accomplishing its purpose.

And consider this – because of the poisoning of their minds, Paul and Barnabas grew bold and set the lion out of the cage. God’s Word is a two-edged sword, and we far too often leave it sheathed when it is able to reach deep into the souls of its adversaries. Paul describes this in 2nd Corinthians 10:

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.  For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” (2 Cor. 10:3-5)

 
Paul’s boldness was due to his confidence in the word of God and God honored that confidence since signs and wonders were being done by their hands.

Let us resolve to call upon His name trusting in His holy Word - for our God is mighty to save!

The Lord your God in your midst,
The Mighty One, will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing
.” (Zeph. 3:17)

 For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven,
And do not return there,
But water the earth,
And make it bring forth and bud,
That it may give seed to the sower
And bread to the eater,
So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it
.” (Isa. 55:1-11)

Let us resolve to call upon His name trusting in His holy Word - for our God is mighty to save! 

Wednesday, December 6, 2017

The unpardonable sin

(This message was preached (SermonAudio) at Covenant Reformed Baptist Church on Wed. eve, 12/6/2017)

THESIS: The unpardonable sin is a great warning to all men. Yet the truth of forgiveness in Christ can still ring true in your life! (Heb. 3:15)

This evening we’ll be considering Mark 3:22-30

22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebub,” and, “By the ruler of the demons He casts out demons.”

23 So He called them to Himself and said to them in parables: “How can Satan cast out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. 26 And if Satan has risen up against himself, and is divided, he cannot stand, but has an end. 27 No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. And then he will plunder his house.

28 “Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter; 29 but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation”—30 because they said, “He has an unclean spirit.”

 

The subject of our focus this evening is just the last 3 verses of the passage in question. The unpardonable sin is one of those gotcha texts of the Scriptures. We read a text like this and find ourselves thinking of all the sins of our past, or wondering if by chance this one got us years ago and we’re doomed. Grim thoughts – so I’d like to demystify this sin. When this message is though, you should have a very clear understanding of exactly what this sin is and who is being warned of it. I’d also like to say that what I’ll be pointing out has not come by simple measure. This is probably the most difficult message I have ever prepared.

 

To begin with, let’s consider the negatives – what this sin is not. First of all – this sin is not tied to any of the warning passages in Hebrews. Both Hebrews 6 and 10 are passages which warn of apostasy. But this sin references blasphemy – a very different thing. And the audience of Hebrews is not at all the same as the audience to whom Jesus is speaking. In Hebrews the audience is Jewish Christians – who are thinking about the cost of this commitment.

 
Neither is this sin the same as that we read of in 1 John 5:16.

If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.

Again let me stress that there is a difference in what John is speaking of and what we are considering before us tonight. John’s audience is clearly believers. And contextually, we all know what John tells us in 1 John 1:9 – If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us… John’s whole letter is there to help us distinguish whether we are Christians or not. Christians do sin – but they can have forgiveness for their sin, justly because of the loving sacrifice of our Lord on the Cross. The sin unto death referenced in 1 John 5:16 is something that a Christian brother could commit – whatever it is, death is the result, but here’s the key – The Christian has forgiveness for even that sin. He might pay with his life in the here & now, but his eternity is secure through the blood of Christ.

Finally – as we are thinking about what the unpardonable sin is not – it is not the rejection of Christ. To reject Christ until one’s death is surely a fatal end – but it is not the unpardonable sin. Christ is very specific as to this sin – as we will see in a moment. But ultimate rejection of Christ to the point of one’s death is not what Christ is speaking of in context. It cannot be the unpardonable sin to reject Christ until death – for it to mean that is to make Christ’s warning nonsense – those being warned were living men and if this were the interpretation, it renders Christ’s warning senseless.

Having dealt with the negatives let’s go back to the passage and positively identify the sin at hand so that we can make a proper application to ourselves. Our passage begins in verse 22 with the Scribes who had come from Jerusalem stating that he is possessed by Beelzebub and that it was with this power Christ was casting out demons. But the specifics are found in more detail in Matthew 12:22-32

Then one was brought to Him who was demon-possessed, blind and mute; and He healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. 23 And all the multitudes were amazed and said, “Could this be the Son of David?”[3]…… 31Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. 32 Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.

The healing of a demon possessed man – and not just any demon possessed man, but one who was both blind and mute. Whether the blindness and muteness was due to the demon possession we are not told. We are told that all of this man’s ailments were resolved. He was no-longer demon possessed, and could now see and speak. It was so dramatic that those who saw this miracle were beginning to suggest that perhaps Jesus was the Son of David, by implication the Messiah! This is the backdrop of the Scribes and Pharisees saying “He is possessed by Beelzebul!” and “By the ruler of the demons he expels the demons!”

Doesn’t this strike you as odd? It should! These men are laying a charge against Christ for healing a man?! For freeing a man from demons?! Yet this is exactly what these Scribes were doing! And this is what elicits from Christ the some of the strongest language so far against them.

But before we think about what Christ says – let’s consider the charge. Who is this Beelzebub? If we look to the Greek word and the history, etymology of the word there is a potential reference to the god of Ekron in 2 Kings. It may reference the idea of Baal worship. But we really don’t need to get into all that. A simple grasping of the charge the Scribes lay against Christ is all we need. Whatever the history of this word, by the time of Christ and the Pharisees, they assert that Beelzebub is prince or ruler of the demons. And we know who that is – Satan.

Those of you who were present the last time I spoke may recall that it was the outlandish claim that Christ was in league with Satan which was a backdrop to the families’ charge that Christ had gone crazy. And I noted then that it really was the Pharisees who were the insane ones. Yet it really isn’t only simple insanity which drove these Pharisees to say these things. It was jealousy. They could see the people reasoning out this amazing miracle and wondered rightly – Could this be the Christ?
But the Scribes and the Pharisees accusation isn’t as simple as a onetime comment. The verb ‘said’ in verse 22 is in the imperfect tense. This verb type indicates continuous action in past time. We might read the verse, And the Scribes kept saying, “He has Beelzebub.” They kept saying, “By the ruler of the demons He casts out demons.” This is an active continual accusation – not a single settled statement. Really it’s an intentional murdering of the very character of Jesus!

In response to this very evil accusation Christ first speaks in logical fashion to the issue laid out before the people. But the text says something interesting – Christ called them to himself. In a rather intimate manner Christ begins to destroy their accusations. We read in both Matthew and Luke’s account that He knew their thoughts (Matt. 12:25; Luke 11:17) and this is why he began to expose the foolishness of their hearts. Luke’s account includes some very pointed comments, “And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges.  20 But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.

In verse 28 Jesus vocalizes this great sin. I want to point out to you the very familiar prefix – ‘Assuredly, I say to you’. This phrase has special meaning. It’s rendered ‘Verily, I say unto you’ in the KJV. Several translations put it, ‘Truly I say to you’. This preface tells us – Take Note! Listen! What is about to be stated is very important.

All sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter; 29 but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation

One matter to be aware of is the Greek word for sins in verse 28 is NOT the usual word for sins employed by NT writers. In fact Mark alone has this unusual variant for ‘sins’ which specifically focuses on individual acts of sin. This variety, hamartÄ“ma, occurs only 4 times in the NT whereas the more common hamartia occurs 174 times.  The overwhelming majority of the time when ‘sin’ is referenced it is used in a more theological manner. In other words, the Bible is more interested in our sin condition than the specific sins we commit. We might say that finding a resolution for sins in someone’s life is not so important than dealing with the underlying root problem of sin. Sins are only the symptom of the deeper root problem.

But in our passage alarmingly, Christ speaks of a certain unpardonable sin. An act so evil that it was unforgiveable. So we can’t dodge this so easily. We have to deal with the text rightly.

So what is this unforgivable sin? We might look at the very thing these Scribes and Pharisees had done. This Holy Spirit work which Christ had done – casting out a demon and restoring sight and speech to this man – was being credited to Satan. Aside from the very ridiculousness of the accusation – consider what is really happening in this accusation. This great miracle – this good deed was being called a wicked deed – done for wicked motives actually.

They were saying that Jesus’ motives were not right, that He had ulterior motives. To say that His motives were impure and wicked speaks more to their carnal eyesight than anything about Christ. Remember how I mentioned that Matthew references He knew their thoughts? The Scripture never says that they knew His thoughts. Yet they boldly asserted themselves as though they did!

And think about the goodness of this miracle for a moment. Here we have a person not only without the means to see – but also unable to speak. Christ frees this one so that he can indeed see and speak! His bondage to the demon broken! This very person could be a type of all men before conversion to Christ. We are dead in our trespasses and sins. Blind to our condition – unable to remedy ourselves. We don’t even see how bad we are. John describes the Church in Laodicea as wretched, miserable, poor and blind (Rev. 3:17) – which very aptly describes all unconverted souls.

And this healing – this conversion if you will permit – the Scribes call ‘of the devil’.  There is a very real sense that all conversions get under the skin of the devil. He is a defeated enemy. And Christ, in raising men and women from the deadness of their 1st estate, is plundering the house of the strong man, that is to say, Satan.

So exactly how would I define blasphemy of the Holy Spirit? It is to so twist the work of God into an evil act that one can never really see the work of God in the first place. We read in Isa 5:20, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! The Scribes knew better! These were the very men to teach the people what Messiah’s coming would be like. The very comment of the people, Could this be the Messiah actually condemns the Scribes. To admit that these miracles may indeed point out the Christ as Jesus of Nazareth meant that they would have to submit to Him. These men were never going to submit! That’s why they HAD to speak against Christ. But their continual accusation that Jesus’ miraculous power was demonic at its source also betrayed what they knew to be true – This man indeed was the Messiah.

Since it is the blasphemy of the Spirit that these Scribes were guilty of, I want to share with you just 3 verses that demonstrate the Work of the Holy Spirit in Salvation. Consider Ezekiel 36:26-27, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.” Or John 3:6, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Finally also in John, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” I quoted those verses to demonstrate the critical part the Spirit of God plays in regeneration. Dead men cannot believe and those who deliberately malign the work of the Spirit are in great peril for their lives, even though they don’t see it!

Let’s look at some of the actual motives of these Scribes. The Gospel of John is a great place to see many of the motives of those who encountered Jesus. Just listen as I read some potent dialogue from John chapters 7-11. John 7 – teaching in the temple during the Feast of Tabernacles:

25 Now some of them from Jerusalem said, “Is this not He whom they seek to kill? 26 But look! He speaks boldly, and they say nothing to Him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is truly the Christ? 27 However, we know where this Man is from; but when the Christ comes, no one knows where He is from.”

28 Then Jesus cried out, as He taught in the temple, saying, “You both know Me, and you know where I am from; and I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know. 29 But I know Him, for I am from Him, and He sent Me.”

30 Therefore they sought to take Him; but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come. 31 And many of the people believed in Him, and said, “When the Christ comes, will He do more signs than these which this Man has done?”

John 8 – again teaching in the Temple:

46Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? 47 He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.”

48 Then the Jews answered and said to Him, “Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?”

49 Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon; but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me. 50 And I do not seek My own glory; there is One who seeks and judges. 51 Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death.”

52 Then the Jews said to Him, “Now we know that You have a demon! Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and You say, ‘If anyone keeps My word he shall never taste death.’ 53 Are You greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? And the prophets are dead. Who do You make Yourself out to be?”

John 9 – the man born blind:

30 The man answered and said to them, “Why, this is a marvelous thing, that you do not know where He is from; yet He has opened my eyes! 31 Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him. 32 Since the world began it has been unheard of that anyone opened the eyes of one who was born blind. 33 If this Man were not from God, He could do nothing.”

34 They answered and said to him, “You were completely born in sins, and are you teaching us?” And they cast him out.

John 11 – the case of the raising of Lazarus from the dead:

45Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in Him. 46 But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them the things Jesus did. 47 Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, “What shall we do? For this Man works many signs. 48 If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation.”

In every example I just read the motive of the scribes was to protect themselves. They were more concerned about their own power and prestige than godliness and truth. Jesus is the promised Christ – all the signs demonstrated it. The Scriptures attested so (John 5:39). But they were so twisted that they would now call good evil and evil good. Rather than release Christ – they went so far as to convince the crowds to release a murderer! This is the essence of pure evil. And this is where these Scribes ended up going – they attributed to Satan the good works of Christ in order to defame Jesus and keep their own place.

The miracles of Christ are not in the Scriptures as freak side shows – They were the very essence of the identity of the Messiah. They fulfilled the Scripture in identifying Jesus as the Christ. Yet the very men who ought to have pointed the people to Jesus actually did the very opposite.

But what about us? We’re in this sanctuary, how does any of this information become useful? Why do we consider a warning to the Scribes – probably the strongest warning ever – as relevant to us? Or so what?

My comments are divided to two different parties. Perhaps you’re here and you have had a secret dread in your heart over this warning. Let me encourage you! I cannot say it better than J. C. Ryle:

Ryle’s famous words are great reassurance to any who might be anxious about this sin: “There is such a thing as a sin which is never forgiven. But those who are troubled about it are most unlikely to have committed it” (J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels [New York: Revell], 2:59). On the other hand, those who actually do commit the sin are so dominated by evil that it is unlikely that they would be aware of it

. (Walter W. Wessel, “Mark,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 8 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984), 645–646.)

 
On the other hand – it may be that you have never considered this because you never read it before. Are you reading your Bible? The fact that you are not likely to commit the unpardonable sin should not be a great comfort to you. There are a great many sins you can commit to damn you to hell. But it’s not the matter of sins – rather it is sin which must be dealt with. We never want to cure only the symptoms (which is moralism) we want to cure the disease (which is salvation).

I would rather warn you to examine yourself, as Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 11, to see if you are in the faith or not. Do you go to church only rarely, or only to sooth a guilty conscience? Or are you committed to a group of believers in covenant with them and ready to be where they are as often as possible?

I am not looking to lay heavy guilt on you – I love you. It takes a lot to stand up here and challenge people I care about with hard things.

So if you are thinking to yourself – I’m ok, I’ll never do that – I’ll never say a good work is evil. I’m not as bad as the rest. You are indeed as doomed as the Scribe who committed the unpardonable sin. You however have some hope. But such hope could extinguish in a moment. No one is guaranteed tomorrow. The Scripture says that today is the day of Salvation.

Please do not leave here leaning on hope, but not doing business with God.

Amen.