The Spirit of God
Blaspheming the Holy Spirit
Mark 3:22-30
There is a picture being painted of God in modern culture that is somewhat distorted. We hear quite often about the love and forgiveness and patience of God. In fact, anyone who wants to justify their life choices, no matter how abhorrent or in violation of Scripture simply says, “God is a God of love” as if that absolves them of any responsibility.
If someone dares to bring a Scriptural charge against them, they respond with accusations of intolerance and hate. The popular concept of Jesus Christ is that He was a good man who came to the earth to bring peace and happiness and was accepting of everyone and anything.
But as I said, that image of God is distorted. Mo doubt, God is a God of love. He describes Himself in those very terms in Scripture. He demonstrates that love by sending Jesus to die on a cross for our sins.
But to think of Him only in those terms is to be robbed of an accurate and more complete picture of God. In fact, that image will not only distort the truth about God, it could wind up sending you to hell.
Scripture completes the picture of God by telling us that God is just and holy and righteous. He doesn’t ignore the sins of mankind. He holds in His hands life and death and judgment and justice. And the patience of God is not without limit.
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In fact, with the first destruction of the earth through a flood in the days of Noah, the Bible says of God in Genesis 6 that His Spirit will not always strive with man, and note it is the Spirit that is involved.
We are continuing our study of God’s Spirit this morning and here we find this reference to the Spirit in the earliest days of man and He is involved in some kind of ministry that is strenuous.
The word carries the idea of pleading a cause. The implication is that up to this point, the Holy Spirit has been striving but He’s not going to continue that indefinitely.
Now up to this point, the only time we've seen the Holy Spirit prior to this is in creation. In Genesis 1:2 we find the Holy Spirit moving over the waters and brooding, as it were, over the waters and working in creation. Here we meet the Holy Spirit again and we discover He was not only involved in creation but He's been “striving with men”.
So what does that mean? If you look at the situation in the world with Noah and the evil of mankind, I think it is obvious He’s been trying to bring sinners to repentance. Much like today He convicts of sin and turns hearts toward righteousness. But He says, "I'm not going to do this indefinitely."
And sure, enough, there came a day when God’s judgment was poured out on the earth and with the exception of Noah and his family, it resulted in the destruction of the entire world’s population.
Now with that in mind, I want you to hear what the Bible records for us in
Mark 3: 22-30
These are very serious and solemn words from the lips of our Lord Jesus Christ because in these verses, Jesus Christ Himself says there is a sin which cannot be forgiven. In so many words, He said the same thing God said in the days of Noah.
Jesus said those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit have no forgiveness for sin and they are in danger of eternal damnation because there will come a day when God’s patience runs out and He will no longer give lost mankind an opportunity to repent.
Remember last week what we read in John 16? Jesus said the Holy Spirit will come to convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment. Don’t be deceived or misled. There is coming a day of judgment and when that time comes there will be no more opportunity to repent and get right with God.
So right off the bat that means the unpardonable sin is only committed by lost people. If you are a born again you cannot commit this unpardonable sin.
That’s one of the reasons it is so important we believe correctly about what it means to be saved. If being saved will protect me from committing a sin that is unpardonable, I want to make sure I get it right regarding salvation.
Salvation means I have repented of my sin and confessed my faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross and I am trusting in Him and Him alone for my salvation and eternal destination. It is more than just believing Jesus Christ is real or that He died on a cross.
It involves recognition of His character and mine. He is holy and perfect and righteous. I am sinful and unholy and unrighteous. And in order to be saved, I must confess that sin, take my hands off my life, stop depending on my own goodness and acknowledge Him as Savior and Lord. He purchases me with His own blood and I live under His Lordship. And once that happens, I am exempt from ever committing this unpardonable sin.
Now there a lot of other sins I can commit in relation to the Holy Spirit. As we’ve learned, I can grieve the Holy Spirit. I can quench the Holy Spirit. I can refuse to walk in the Spirit. I can fail to be filled with the Spirit. But it is not possible for a born again child of God to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit.
It also means, if you are here and not yet saved, chances are very strong that you have not committed the unpardonable sin. The very fact that you are here in this building is good indication
that you your heart is still warm toward the Lord.
And I would just suggest if you are afraid you have committed the unpardonable sin that is a pretty good indication you haven’t. If you have committed that sin, chances are that you would not even be in this building today, much less concerned about your salvation.
A person who has committed this sin has no interest whatsoever in spiritual things. There is no interest in church, except to be critical of it. There is no interest in the Bible except to ridicule it. There is no interest in the Lord Jesus Christ unless you need a curse word.
There is no concern about the welfare of their soul or the eternal destiny that awaits them. So I would say it would be very rare to find anybody sitting in this building today that is guilty of committing the sin for which there is no hope of forgiveness.
Now having said that, I do want to quickly add there may be some here today for whom this sin is a possibility. There could be someone here today and you have pointed your life in the direction of this sin and unless there is an about-face, unless you change the direction of your life, unless you stop resisting what the Holy Spirit is saying and doing, it is possible that somewhere down the road you might commit this sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit which Jesus said is unforgivable.
So what does it mean to blaspheme the Holy Spirit and why does it result in forgiveness not being possible?
It is always helpful when we read a statement in the
Bible to put that statement in its context and see what‘s going on around that verse. That is especially true of statements such as this one that carry so much impact.
So to help us with the context, I want to call on Mark’s friend, Matthew because he includes an account of this statement as well. It’s found in Matthew 12.
And what I want us to see from Matthew’s gospel is what Jesus says before He talks about this unforgivable sin.
Leading up to Matthew 11, Jesus has been out in the villages healing and ministering and preaching and while there were many who received Him, the Jews leadership has not.
And toward the end of chapter 11, he pronounces a curse upon many of those cities. In fact, He says it will go easier for Sodom and Gomorrah than for Capernaum because their sin of rejecting Christ is greater.
Then notice what we read in
Matthew 11: 25-30
That is one of the great invitations of Scripture. In fact, in like manner, in just a few minutes I will extend a similar invitation. It is an invitation to come to Jesus Christ and be saved.
Now notice, Jesus says the only ones who really know God are Me and those I introduce to Him. That’s what verse 27 is all about. To get to God, you’ve got to know the Son.
Then notice He invites anyone who wants to come. If you are tired of laboring and being under a burden, then come and find rest. In particular, He was talking about having to keep the law and observe all the commandments and all the stuff the Jewish religion required.
And Jesus says, if you want to be out from under all that, come to God. But remember, to get to God, you’ve got to come to Jesus. Keep that in mind, because that thought will become very critical in just a moment.
So Jesus is pronouncing judgment upon all those who refuse to accept Him as Savior, and He graciously extends this invitation.
So when we move back to the 3rd chapter of Mark, that’s what’s been going on. There is one other time of context we need to see.
In the beginning of the 3rd chapter of Mark the Bible tells us the Pharisees were trying to catch Jesus violating the Sabbath laws as He is teaching in the synagogue. In Matthew 12, they even knew when Jesus and his followers picked some grain and ate it on the Sabbath.
So Jesus is teaching in the synagogue and in the congregation that day, there was a man who had a crippled hand. They are watching this man in particular because Jesus had been healing people. Jesus just might try to heal him on the Sabbath and that would be their opportunity to catch Jesus in violation of the Sabbath.
And sure enough, right on cue, Jesus calls the man to step forward. But what happened next, they certainly weren’t expecting because He doesn’t talk to the man. He turns to the Pharisees. And notice what He asks in
verse 4
They are either too shocked or caught off guard or don’t know what to say, so they don’t respond.
Verses 5-6
Jesus has now thrown down the gauntlet and their hearts are so hardened they decide Jesus must die.
Verse 22
Beelzebub is identified in the verse. He is the prince of the demons. A more literal translation is "Lord of the flies". Now you know what draws flies right? I’m an old country boy, raised on the farm. I know what draws flies out in the pasture. And what you step in that draws flies is literally what Beelzebub means.
He has the high and worthy privilege of being known as "Lord of the manure pile." And that’s what the Pharisees said about Jesus Christ.
Instead of bowing their knees and their hearts to the Creator of the Universe, the spotless, sinless, perfect Son of the Most High, they say He is the servant of the Lord of the manure pile and that’s why He is able to cast our demons.
But Jesus responds by saying, “You’re logic is faulty. There is a problem with your rationale.
1. The Problem
verse 23
His point is how can Satan oppose himself? Jesus was casting out demons and yet they were saying Jesus was a demon. So a demon was casting out demons. There is a problem in that kind of logic. Why would the devil want to upend his own work?
To illustrate the lack of logic, Jesus uses two illustrations.
verse 24
A kingdom or a nation has to be united. There has to be some unity of purpose and a common goal and a unity of commitment to that goal if a nation is going to be successful. Our nation almost destroyed itself in civil war back in the 1800’s when we became a nation divided against itself. Jesus says that doesn't work.
By the way, there is an underlying truth contained in that statement and that is Satan does have a kingdom and he is busy in it doing his work. But it would illogical, contradictory and counterproductive for Jesus, if He were a demon, to be casting out the demons because a nation divided cannot stand.
The same thing is true in a household.
Verse 25
You let a husband and a wife get divided in their goal and purpose for the family and let there be division among the members of that family and you have a recipe for disintegration and destruction on your hands. So Jesus is basically saying the devil is not going to fight the devil.
Then in verse 27, He shares
2. The Parable
Verse 27
The picture is of an extremely strong who has been able to amass an amazing amount of stuff. And Jesus says you can’t get that strong man's property away from him unless you are able to subdue him and tie him up.
So what did Jesus mean in this parable? Let me unpack it for you. The strong man in the story is the devil. No doubt about it, he has power and goods. In particular, the goods the Lord is referencing are the souls of mankind.
Before we get saved, the devil has possession of our soul and his intention is to retain possession. And he’ll do anything he can to keep you from coming to Christ. And he is strong! He has lots of toys and tools to use in the retention of souls.
He’ll use sex and power and luxury and happiness and status and popularity and all the things that make life so good and pleasant and fun. He is a master at deception and he loves to spin what he has to offer and make it attractive while never mentioning the end result.
Now Jesus said the only way you can get the goods away from the strong man is for someone who is able to come in who is stronger than he is, bind him and take what he has.
Obviously Jesus is referring to Himself and what He did. There is only One who is stronger than the devil and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says, "Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world."
And when Jesus came, He came to bind the power of Satan and deliver your soul from death and hell to life and eternity.
The battle began all the way back in the Garden of Eden. It came to an all out face-to-face confrontation in the wilderness temptation and continued all the way to the cross of Calvary. But on that cross, the Bible says Jesus destroyed the one who had the power of death.
In Colossians 2:15 it says Jesus took the principalities and powers of the devil and publicly humiliated them. And now it’s just a matter of time until Jesus Christ comes again and when He does, He will finish the job and the devil will be bound and cast into the lake of fire forever.
And in response to this accusation of being the devil’s errand boy, Jesus says, “Let me tell you about the devil and me. I have come and bound the strong man and one by one I am delivering the souls of lost mankind out of the devil’s hands and into the very presence of God.
Not only am I not of the devil, I am his worst nightmare! He may strut around the earth, roaring like a lion and pretend to be something, but in the presence of the Son of God, he trembles and cowers in fear. And I have come to disarm and expose the devil for what he is. He is a bound, defeated enemy.”
Then He closes with
3. The Peril
Here we come to the matter at hand. Remember, there is a sin which can be committed and no forgiveness is possible.
Verse 28
The first thing we see is God’s position regarding sin. Listen: God wants to forgive all sin. What a tragedy it is that the blood of Jesus Christ is sufficient to forgive all sin and yet, some sin will not be forgiven. God wants to forgive our sin.
Think about the fact that the God of heaven, though we have sinned and grieved and broken His heart, wants to forgive us. His arms of mercy are wide open. God loves us. He pursues us. His Spirit strives with us.
No matter what your sin, God’s grace will reach to where you are . . . with one exception and that is the sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit.
Now Jesus makes a very interesting distinction in the Matthew passage we looked at earlier that is not found in Mark 3.
verse 32
He is saying that you can even blaspheme the Son of God and be forgiven. That was the sin of the Apostle Paul. He was a first century Jewish terrorist. In the name of religion, much like a jihadist of today, he tracked Christians down like animals and killed them in cold blood. The name of Saul caused the blood of first-century Christians to run cold.
In fact, he called himself a blasphemer. In 1
Timothy 1:13 he is talking about his conversion and
his call to the ministry and as he talks about his past
life, he says, "Who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious, but I obtained mercy."
He was a blasphemer against the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and Jesus caught up with Saul one day and changed his life. And next to Jesus Christ Himself, there is no more powerful example of what it means to be a Christian than Paul. Ask Paul about the forgiveness and grace of God. he will tell you I was chief among sinners. But where sin did abound, grace did much more abound.
Some of you sitting right here today have the same testimony. There was a time when you cursed the Lord and cursed others in the name of the Lord. You may have mocked the Bible and made fun of the church and all it teaches and believes. And yet, one day God, rich in love and mercy, tracked you down, arrested you and you received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
I've got news for you. My Bible says, “Every manner of sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men with the exception of one and to commit that sin is to cut yourself off from the forgiveness of God and that sin is to blaspheme God’s Holy Spirit.
Now just so we are real clear, the word, blasphemy means to defame or speak slanderously. It is defamation of character and under the Law, the penalty was death. And Jesus is saying to these Jews that they are in danger of committing this very serious sin which cannot be forgiven.
God gave three witnesses to the Jewish people. There was the witness of God the Father in John the Baptist. John the Baptist came and he preached repentance. For the most part they rejected the witness of God the Father.
Then there was the second witness of the Son of God. Jesus taught and did miracles and healed the sick and raised the dead and cast out demons. He witnessed to them of life and eternity, and yet the
Bible says, "He came unto His own and His own did not receive Him." And the Jews rejected the witness of God the Son.
They are now down to the last opportunity and that is the witness of the Holy Spirit. And Jesus is reminding them they are now in the danger zone. Be careful. Don't cross over that line because when you do, it's a sin for which there is no forgiveness.
Did you realize God has given you three witnesses as well? There is the witness of God the Father in creation. Whoever you are, wherever you may be, you go out and observe God's creation and according to Scripture, that is God the Father's witness. The Bible says "he has not left himself without witness."
Anybody, anywhere on this earth, wherever they may be, can look at God's work of creation and know that there is a God. They can know there is a God of all power. But if you reject that witness you are moving in the wrong direction.
The second witness to every soul is the witness of God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. His witness is one of redemption.
Jesus died on that cross for you. When you see Christ dying on that cross, God is saying, "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Come to me and be saved."
If you reject that witness, there's only one more witness and that is the witness of God the Holy Spirit in conviction. As we saw last week from Acts 7, Stephen told the Jewish leaders they were resisting the Holy Spirit."
The Holy Spirit came to convict us of our sin and convince us of the truth about Jesus. When people hear the message of the Lord Jesus Christ as you’re hearing today, God's Holy Spirit is at work speaking to hearts. To not accept Christ is to resist the Spirit.
And it is possible for the process of rejection to become a position of rejection. Blaspheming against the Holy Spirit is that willful, full, final, irrevocable rejection of the witness of the Holy Spirit to Jesus Christ.
You may remember the story of Aaron Burr from your American history studies. Burr was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1756 as the second child of the Reverend Aaron Burr, Sr., a Presbyterian minister. His mother, Esther, was the daughter of Jonathan Edwards, famous for his sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”.
His father and mother both died in 1757 when Aaron was only two years old. After being passed around, His sister and he were raised by their uncle, Timothy Edwards.
He entered college at 13, graduating with a law degree and after serving as a Continental Army officer in the Revolutionary War, Burr became a successful lawyer and politician. He was elected twice to the New York State, was appointed New York State Attorney General, was chosen as a United States Senator and reached the apex of his career as Vice President.
But his life began a downward turn in 1804, the last full year of his single term as Vice President, when he killed his political rival Alexander Hamilton in a famous duel. He was never tried for the illegal duel, and all charges against him were eventually dropped, but Hamilton's death ended Burr's political career.
Eventually his activities led to his arrest on charges of treason in 1807. He left the United States for Europe and remained overseas until 1812, when he returned to the United States to practice law in New York City. There he spent the remainder of his life in relative obscurity.
Back during his college days, a revival meeting swept over the campus of the college he was attending and many were coming to know Christ. In fact, young Aaron Burr fell under deep conviction of his sin.
In that moment of conviction he came to the point of almost receiving Jesus Christ as His Savior, but he turned and rejected Jesus Christ.
Many years later when someone witnessed to Aaron Burr, he recounted that experience when he was in college and he said, "At that time I said to God, 'God, you leave me alone and I'll leave you alone. He has kept His word and I have kept mine.'"
When you commit the sin of rejecting the Lord Jesus
Christ you put yourself in a process that if continued, will bring you to the point of absolute, total, willful and final rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now the implication of these verses we’ve studied is that these Jews have already blasphemed the name of Jesus. They have already called Him the Lord of the manure pile. They have already called Him a devil.
But they had not yet blasphemed the Holy Spirit. They were in imminent danger, but there was still hope. And I say to you today, if you sense the Holy Spirit speaking to your heart, respond now. Don’t hesitate; don’t put it off another moment. Come while God extends forgiveness to you.
Once you’ve committed the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, it's all over. The book is written. The drama is finished. The curtain comes down. And you are not saved. Some unknown author said
“There is a time, I know not when,
A place, I know not where,
Which marks the destiny of men
To heaven or despair.
There is a line by us not seen
Which crosses every path,
The hidden boundary between
God's patience and His wrath.
To cross that limit is to die,
To die, as if by stealth.
It may not pale the beaming eye,
Nor quench the glowing health.
The conscience may be still at ease,
The spirits light and gay;
That which is pleasing still may please,
And care be thrust away.
But on that forehead God hath set
Indelibly a mark,
By man unseen, for man as yet
Is blind and in the dark.
And still the doomed man's path below
May bloom like Eden bloomed.
He did not, does not, will not know,
Nor feel that he is doomed.
He feels, he sees that all is well,
His every fear is calmed.
He lives, he dies, he wakes in hell,
Not only doomed, but damned.
Oh, where is that mysterious bourn,
By which each path is crossed,
Beyond which God himself hath sworn
That he who goes is lost?
How long may men go on in sin?
How long will God forbear?
Where does hope end, and where begin
The confines of despair?
One answer from those skies is sent,
"Ye who from God depart,
While it is called today, repent,
And harden not your heart."
–Author unknown
What a tragedy it will be to die and go to hell when all you had to do was say yes to Jesus. Do it now.
Let’s pray
