Would you open your Bibles with
me to the book of Matthew chapter 12. Matthew chapter 12. And let me
say again how honored and glad that I am to be here to preach
the word of God to you this morning. It is truly a privilege. And the last time I was here,
I didn't live as far away as I do now, but the trip was worth
it. I told Tim and several others
that I came up from the bottom of the country and stopped in
the middle of the country, and now I'm at the top of the country.
So it works out just great. But my son Aaron came with me,
and we're just so glad to be with you. And I hope and pray
that the Lord will give me Words that we need to hear that we
can feed upon as we as I attempt to preach Christ now what I'm
going to do This morning and this evening as I'm going to
preach from this passage here Matthew chapter 12 this this
is a word that involves describes the earthly ministry of the Lord
Jesus Christ as he went about performing miracles and preaching
the gospel of the kingdom And this morning what I want to talk
to you about, we're going to begin in verse 22, I'm going
to talk to you about the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The ministry
of the Holy Spirit. And the passage that I'm going
to deal with is classically known as the passage that concerns
what people call the unforgivable or the unpardonable sin. And that has been A device that
religion has used for centuries to scare people, to keep people
on the edge. And I hope that the Lord will
enable us to get some light. I hope he'll shed some light
on this for us. But what this passage involves
is the ministry of the Holy Spirit. So let's look at the context
here. It says in verse 22, This then
was brought unto him, that is, unto our Savior, unto Jesus of
Nazareth, one possessed with a devil, blind and dumb. Now this man that was brought
to him, possessed with a devil, a demon, blind, dumb, he could
not see, could not speak. And of course, anytime you see
these miracles, there's a great spiritual illustration here,
isn't it? Because doesn't that describe us by nature? Fallen
in Adam. Demon-possessed. And that's it. We fell in Adam.
All this sin that comes short of the glory of God. We took
sides with Satan against God. and every fiber of our being
as the natural in the natural in the flesh before God sends
his spirit to birth us again we could describe literally as
demon possessed couldn't we? I think about Christ in John
8 verse 44 when he told the Pharisees you're of your father the devil
And you do what he bids you to do. The lust of your father,
the unlawful desires that your father inspires and energizes
you to do, you do. He was a liar from the beginning.
And so that's what we are by nature. We're blind spiritually. That's why in the new birth,
the Holy Spirit does what? He gives us eyes to see. And
you remember when Christ, when he began to speak in parables
and the disciples asked him in Matthew, why do you do that?
And he says, because they seen, they have eyes, but they see
not, they have ears, but they hear not. He said, and this is
something, blessed are your eyes for they see, blessed are your
ears for they hear. You see the Holy Spirit in the
new birth gives us eyes to see, that's spiritual eyes. He gives
us ears to hear, spiritual ears. And in fact, we could honestly
say that if we know Christ, if we believe the gospel, we are
miracles, aren't we? Just as much as if we were physically
blind and the Lord gave us physical sight. This is even better, isn't
it? To see spiritually. To see the
glory of God revealed in the face of Jesus Christ. And dumb
means he can't speak. And that's us by nature too.
We don't have words that exalt Christ, that exalt the Lord. Our message, the message of our
lives, the message of our tongues before the Holy Spirit changes
our hearts, gives us a new heart, is nothing but self-righteousness,
self-will, it's not the glory of God in Christ. But it says
here that the Lord healed him in verse 22, insomuch that the
blind and dumb both spake and saw. And that's the spiritual
illustration of the new birth. I'll tell you that's the real
significance of these miracles, but we'll get to that in just
a moment. And it says in verse 23, And all the people were amazed
and said, Is not this the Son of David? That is a distinct
messianic title. Is not this the Messiah? Is not
this the seed of woman? Is not this the Passover? You
can go all through the Old Testament and you can see the identifications
and distinctions of the Messiah in type and picture and prophecy
and that's what there is. Isn't this the one we're looking
for? Isn't he God the Son incarnate? Jehovah Sid Canu, Jeremiah called
him, the Lord our righteousness. And so the Pharisees, when they
heard this, look in verse 24. When the Pharisees heard it,
they heard the people saying, this is the Messiah. They said,
this fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub, the
prince of devils. Now Beelzebub is another name
for Satan. And of course, they didn't believe
that Jesus of Nazareth was the son of David. They didn't believe
him to be Messiah. They didn't believe him to be
the Christ. The Savior, the Lord, God in
human flesh. That's who the son of David is. Unto us a child is born, unto
us a son is given. All those prophecies. They didn't
believe it. And so they accused him of casting
out devils or demons by the devil, by Satan, by Beelzebub. Now right
away you see here that the Pharisees weren't always in agreement,
were they? I can tell you about one Pharisee named Nicodemus
who made this statement in John chapter 3 and verse 2. He says,
Rabbi, call Jesus Rabbi, Master, we know that thou art a teacher
come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest
except God be with him. So Nicodemus disagreed with him
here. Now, Nicodemus did not believe
at that time that Jesus of Nazareth was Messiah. But he certainly
disagreed with his colleagues here on how these miracles were
being performed. So they weren't in agreement.
And that's like religion today. I mean, you know, people aren't
in agreement. The people of God are in agreement on the gospel.
But even they sometimes get sidetracked, don't they? Get off on personal
agendas and things like that. And we pray that the Lord will
bring us together. Tim prayed that, you know, unite
us together. I mean, we don't want to unite
with heresy. We certainly don't want to do
that, but we want to stop trying to promote our personal preferences
and our personal agendas and be instruments to the glory of
God. Now that's what we want, isn't
it? Are we just playing games? You know, Hey, I know what I
want and it may not be what you want. Now, what are we going
to do? Well, we're going to do that,
which is good for the body of Christ. That's what we ought
to do it. So these, these disagreements,
the here, now this, this right here, serious though, it, I mean,
this, this is something that is so serious that it evidences
a person. or a group of people who are
without forgiveness. And that's what he's going to
talk about. But look on, he says in verse 25, Jesus knew their
thoughts. That's his omniscience. He's
God in human flesh. He's the God man. Every attribute
of deity can be attributed without robbery to Jesus Christ. Did
you know that? Now listen further though. Every
attribute of humanity can also be equally attributed to Jesus
Christ except one. Sin. And you know what that makes
him? That makes him Messiah. That makes him qualified to save
us from our sins. anything less disqualifies him
but he knew their thoughts look at verse 25 and said unto them
every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation
destruction and every city or house divided against itself
shall not stand and if satan cast out satan He's divided against
himself. How shall then his kingdom stand? And if I, by Beelzebub, cast
out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they
shall be your judges. Now that verse there, you know,
the Pharisees claim to be able to cast out devils. We also know
that Satan is a very deceptive, subtle devil. But what he's simply
saying here, I believe, is the fact that as they claim to do
these things, they need to take in mind who they're doing it
in the name of and by whose power. And he says, their children shall
be their judges. What he's saying, they will testify
against them at judgment. We'll look at that more later
on, but look at this, he says, In verse 28, But if I cast out
devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come
unto you. If Jesus Christ is who he said
he was and is, if the power that he had is the power of God, then
look here, the kingdom of God is come unto you. Now when the Lord began his earthly
ministry, his public ministry, That was his message, behold
the kingdom of God. Here's the kingdom of God preaching
the kingdom of God. What was he preaching? He's preaching
the establishment of the kingdom of God, which is God's realm
over his people through the Lord Jesus Christ himself, the king
of kings. Messiah has come. Salvation has
come. Righteousness will be established
because his kingdom is a righteous kingdom. So in other words, if what these
Pharisees were saying is true, then Jesus of Nazareth was the
greatest imposter who ever lived. But we know that what they were
saying is not true. He says in verse 29, or else
how can one enter into a strong man's house and spoil his goods
except he first bind the strong man and then he will spoil his
house. What he's saying here is that
he and Satan are not in cahoots here. He and Satan are not together
in this. He's not casting out demons.
In other words, Satan is his enemy, and what he does in the
salvation of sinners, and Luke spoke of this, he comes in, he
binds the strong man and casts him out and spoils his goods.
That's a good description of the new birth. When the Spirit of God comes
under the preaching of the gospel, and empower, convicts us of sin
and of righteousness and of judgment, shows us our sinfulness, our
depravity, and drives us to who? To Jesus Christ for all salvation,
for the forgiveness of all sins, for all righteousness, for all
glory, all eternal glory. And leaves us with no hope, no
confidence, but Jesus Christ crucified and risen The Lord
of glory, that's exactly what he does. He's bound the strong
man, Satan, who has such a hold upon us in darkness and deception. And he spoils his goods. They're
enemies, you see, they're not friends. And then he says in
verse 30, he that is not with me is against me. He that gathereth
not with me scattereth abroad. Now let me give you a few points
here. First of all, we understand from this and from other passages
of scripture that the purpose of these miracles, Christ actually
cast out a demon, gave a blind man sight, and made a dumb man
speak. The purpose of these miracles
was not simply to impress people with a physical miracle. The purpose of these miracles
was to show forth the power and the glory and the majesty of
Jesus Christ, God in human flesh, and to show his sovereign power
and authority in the salvation of sinners to lead sinners to
believe the truth of the gospel. That's what they were for. The disciples were given the
great commission as recorded in the book of Mark chapter 16.
And he talked about them going about doing great works, powerful
miracles by the power of God, not by their own power. What
was the reason he said these miracles would be performed?
Does anybody remember? To do what? To confirm the word. so that people would hear what
you're preaching and listen. They'd look at that and they'd
say, I better listen to this fella. Just like Nicodemus, you
couldn't do such things except by the power of God, I better
hear what you're saying. It was to support the gospel
message. The Bible says that the gospel
is the power of God unto what? Salvation. For therein is the
righteousness of God revealed. And the disciples, when they
went out, they couldn't tell people, now turn to Romans chapter
10. Romans chapter 10 hasn't been
written yet. They could have turned to some of the Old Testament
scriptures, but you know, if anybody had a copy of the scriptures
back then, you know what they were? Rich. The average everyday
person like us, they didn't have the scriptures. Remember the
Ethiopian eunuch? He had the scroll of Isaac. He
was a rich man. You just couldn't go into a bookstore
and buy a Bible or go into a motel room and get it out of the drawer.
They didn't have it. So here comes a man and says,
now I'm preaching to you the word of God. I'm telling you
the one way of salvation and every other way is a way of death. And he gave them the power to
do these miracles to confirm the word. Sinners and listen
to sinners were not saved eternally by physical miracles. They're saved by the miracle
of regeneration, the new birth. And that involved the external
ministry of preaching the word and the internal ministry of
the new birth by the power of the Holy spirit. All in the power
of and applied by the Spirit of God sent forth from the Father
and the Son. Who sends the Holy Spirit to
do his great work in the new birth? The Father and the Son.
Upon what basis is the Holy Spirit sent to do that work? Romans
8 and verse 10. This body is dead because of
sin. The Spirit is life because of
what? Righteousness. He comes forth
by Christ, by the power of Christ, to apply life to dead sinners. And then here's the second thing.
Incidentally, I would tell you this too. I have stopped arguing
with the Charismatics over their supposed miracles. I've stopped
arguing with them. The only thing I talk to them
about is what gospel do you preach? Because I don't care what miracle
you claim to perform. Incidentally, too, there was
no arguing about these miracles. They didn't have to get confirmation
that this thing was done or that thing. Everybody knew this blind
man, he was blind, now he can see. This was no scam. But here's the issue, what gospel
do they preach? If they preach a false gospel,
I don't care if they do heal the sick, heal the blind, it's
for nothing. Eternally and spiritually, if
they don't preach the true gospel of Jesus Christ and Him crucified,
it's for nothing. And understand, secondly here
now, Satan's goal is just the opposite. Satan is a great deceiver. What Christ is saying here is
that his purpose is to enlighten his people. To bring his people
to a saving knowledge of the true and living God through Jesus
Christ. How God saves sinners. How God justifies the ungodly. But Satan's goal is just the
opposite. He's a great deceiver. In 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2 it talks about the deceivableness of unrighteousness
in the man of sin who's inspired by Satan. People in religion
today, they'll see some amazing things and it will really impress
them. But here's the issue. Who or
what is your hope of salvation? Who is your savior? I've heard
people say, well, I believe so-and-so is under Holy Spirit conviction. Well, that's a great thing if
they are. But how do you know if it's Holy Spirit conviction?
There's only one way you can know. Where do they end up? Where do they find salvation?
Where do they find relief from the guilt of sin? Where do they
find comfort and assurance and peace? If it's anywhere but Jesus
Christ and Him crucified, if it's anywhere but His blood alone,
His righteousness alone, I can tell you right now, it's not
the Holy Spirit. Because His ministry is to drive
sinners to Christ. His ministry in the preaching
is to inspire and empower the preacher to preach Christ to
you. His ministry is not even to talk
about Himself. His ministry is to show you the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Satan's ministry is just
the opposite. Look over at 2 Corinthians chapter
4 with me. And listen to this spelled out
plainly. Verse three of second Corinthians
four. He says, but if our gospel be
hid, it is hid to them that are lost in whom the God of this
world have blinded the minds of them, which what believe not. You know what Satan's goal is,
is to keep centers in unbelief. He'll use any tool he can use
to do that even if it's a miracle or a supposed miracle or a seeming
miracle. Satan would just as soon have
you sitting in one of the biggest churches in this nation hearing
a false gospel trusting in your own works and your own will as
he would having you in the biggest brothel in this country. in whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not lest the light
of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God should
shine unto them for we preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus
the Lord and ourselves your servants for Jesus say that is we're not
trying to push our own personal agenda here we're just trying
to preach Christ What John the Baptist say? I must decrease,
Christ must increase. And then he says, for God who
commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in
our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And then he went on to say, we
have this treasure in earthly vessels. That means don't look
to me. I'm a, I'm a earthly vessel. I'm a clay pot. I'm breakable,
but I've got a treasure. There's a treasure here, look
to the treasure, that's Christ and him crucified. And what he
accomplished on Calvary's cross to put away our sins and to make
us righteous before God. That's the treasure. Go back
to Matthew 12. You see, Satan's goal is not
to glorify and honor God. So you couldn't say that Jesus
of Nazareth was doing this by the power of Satan. His goal
was not to honor men. His goal was to honor his father.
His goal was to point sinners to himself for salvation. And that's what the Holy Spirit
does. Here's the third thing, back over here in verse 30. He
says, he that is not with me is against me. What does that
show us? There's no neutrality when it
comes to how we see and relate to Jesus Christ. Now again, the
Holy Spirit's ministry is to point sinners to Christ. His
ministry is not to point to Himself. Listen, I'll tell you another
thing. His ministry is not to try to get you to figure out
how to describe theologically and doctrinally the inner workings
of the Spirit within you. That's not His ministry. How
did I know that? It's not in the Bible. I know
people today, they try to figure this thing out. They try to give
us some kind of a spiritual physiology of what goes on inside the center
when the Holy Spirit does his work. You know what Christ told
Nicodemus? He said, the wind bloweth and
listeth where it will. You don't know where it comes
from, where it's going. All you know is you feel the effects
of it. How do I know the Holy Spirit has done his work in the
heart of a sinner? I'll tell you, that sinner is
convicted of sin, he knows his sinfulness and depravity, and
he finds no way of salvation, no relief, no comfort, no peace,
but in Jesus Christ the Lord of Glory and what he accomplished
on Calvary through his blood and to establish righteousness.
That's how you know. How you describe it, people have
argued and fussed and divided over it for centuries. And that's
just man, again, trying to promote his own personal agenda. It doesn't
work. It doesn't work. But here's what
Christ said. You're either for me or against
me. There's no neutrality. And here's what he's saying.
To fail to acknowledge the deity of Jesus Christ, the messiahship
of Christ, the humanity without sin of Christ, His righteousness
established on the cross to justify me before God, I stand before
God justified. I mean, that's something. You
say, how can you say such a thing? Because God's word says it. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. And to fail to acknowledge that
and to deny that is to call him a liar and a blasphemer. It's
to call the Holy Spirit a liar and a blasphemer. Even a devil, an agent of Satan. If Jesus of Nazareth, again,
if he's not who he claimed to be and did not do what he claimed
to do, he's a deceiver, just like Satan. And any miracle he
performed would be a deception by the power of Satan. But here's
the truth. He is who he claimed to be. He accomplished what he claimed
to finish. He said it's finished. And all
the unbelieving Jews who persecuted believers including Saul of Tarsus. You remember Saul of Tarsus?
You know what he was doing when he was on the road to Damascus? Brother Mahan, you say he wasn't
on his way to a prayer meeting, was he? He was on his way to
arrest Christians. His goal in his mind was to wipe
the name of Jesus of Nazareth off the face of the earth. And
you want to know why? Because he thought Jesus of Nazareth
was a blasphemer. And you talk about the powerful
work of the Holy Spirit. How did that man change when
God put him in the dust? Think about that. They all attributed
the work of the Spirit to the devil, they all did. You know
in John 16 when Christ was talking about how the world would hate
his disciples, he said they'll throw you out of their synagogues,
their church services, their worship services, thinking they're
doing God a favor, thinking they're doing God's work. There's no neutrality here, is
there? Here's the fourth thing. Christ said here, now look at
verse 30. He says in the last part, he says, he that gathereth
not with me scattereth abroad. Now what does he mean gathering
with him? He's talking about calling his people into the fold,
isn't he? What did he do? He came to gather
his people to seek and to save. And that's what the ministry
of the Holy Spirit is in the preaching of the gospel. Somebody said, we're not called
here on earth to be keepers of the aquarium. We're called to
be fishers of men. Well, in essence, we're called
to be both, actually, aren't we? Because we're here to do
one thing. Why are you here in Almonte,
Michigan? You're here to be a witness to a lost world of the only way
of salvation. That's the ministry of the Spirit
that's been given to you here in this city, in this area. That's what you're here for.
You're not here to promote this group or that group or this one,
this preacher or that one. You're here to preach Christ
to a lost world. That's your ministry. That's
the ministry of the Spirit. And then we're here to feed the
sheep, aren't we? So that we'll grow in grace and
in knowledge. To be a living testimony to the
glory of God in Christ. That's what we are. And so Christ
says, what he's doing in performing these miracles and preaching,
he's gathering his sheep. Now, if you're not gathering
with him, you're scattering. That's what he's saying. Now,
what were the Pharisees doing? They were scattering the sheep.
Oh, they were proselytizing. They were trying to get followers.
They were trying to promote their own personal agendas. But what they were doing in essence
was keeping division and scattering alive. And they were doing it by promoting
self. They were preaching a false gospel.
But here comes Christ, the good shepherd who died for his sheep.
He gathers them unto himself by the ministry of the Holy Spirit
in the preaching of the gospel. The preaching of the one and
only way of the forgiveness of sins. That's what he's talking
about. His ministry, the ministry of
Christ through the Holy Spirit in the preaching of the gospel
is gathering together. Every other ministry is scattering
in one way or another. And now look at verse 31. He
says, wherefore, that means for this reason, This is why I say
unto you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto
men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven
unto men. Verse 32. Whosoever speaketh
a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him. But
whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven
him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come. What is he talking about? What
is it to blaspheme the Holy Spirit? Do you know what it is? It's
to deny Christ and the one way of forgiveness. Do you know there's
only one way of the forgiveness of sin? All sins. One way. Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. There's only one way that a sinner
like me and like you can stand before holy God and be declared
righteously not guilty. Jesus Christ in Him crucified.
There's only one way that we can stand before God without
charge. That we can stand before God
and hear him say, well done, thou good and faithful servant.
There's only one way that we can stand before a holy God and
actually hear the God of glory say to us, righteous. Jesus Christ in him crucified. That's what the Holy Spirit does.
He points us to Christ. And to deny Christ, to resist
Christ, to fail to acknowledge Him is blasphemy of the Holy
Spirit. And you know what that means?
No forgiveness. That's what he's saying. He's
not talking about one particular sin here that if you commit it,
it cannot be forgiven or that God cannot forgive it. He's talking about this. There
is absolutely no forgiveness of any sin at all without Christ. Right here standing before these
Pharisees was the one way of salvation. The one way of forgiveness. And they said we'll have none
of it. That verse 32 has given people
a lot of fits happening. Whosoever speaketh a word against
the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him. But whosoever speaketh against
the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this
world or the next world. People say, well, see, that means
you can say anything you want to about the Son, but you better
not say anything against the Spirit. That's not what he's
saying at all. You see, these Pharisees, they
attributed the work that Jesus of Nazareth did to the devil,
didn't they? They spoke against the Son of
Man. You say, well, that's the unforgivable sin. Well, what
was Saul of Tarsus doing when he was on the road to Damascus?
Do you know it says that Saul held the coats of those who stoned
the evangelist Stephen? Do you know it said that Saul
made havoc of the church? Do you know why Saul, why Paul
said he did that? because he thought he was doing
the work of God. Didn't he attribute the work
of Jesus of Nazareth to the devil at that time? Well, yes. But
when the Holy Spirit came and brought him down into the dust
and gave him life, what did he do? He said, Lord, didn't he? Somebody changed that man and
he didn't do it of his own free will. Somebody changed his will
and brought him to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, brought him
to submit to the very righteousness that you read about him. You see, for a sinner, to come
into this life, spend his life, and die without Christ, there
is no forgiveness there. That is blasphemy of the Holy
Spirit who testifies of Jesus Christ. One more thing, and I'll
close, and I'm gonna pick back up here tonight on some more
of this. And I'll show you this, I won't turn to these scriptures
right now, but I'll turn to them tonight. But look at verse 33,
I wanna show you something here. either make the tree good and
his fruit good or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt
for the tree is known by his fruit. You know who the good
tree is? It's our Savior. You know the
only kind of fruit he produces is good fruit. He didn't produce
any corrupt fruit. That's what that passage means
back in Matthew 7. The preaching of the gospel of
Christ, the good tree, produces good fruit. Satan, the corrupt
tree, never produces any good fruit. All he produces are tears. That's all he produces. And it
can be impressive to men, it can appear righteous unto men,
it can be dedicated, but all it is is tears. The ministry of the Holy Spirit
who leads sinners to Christ always produces good fruit. Now what's
the good fruit? A sinner saved by the grace of
God. Forgiven of all their sins by
the blood of Jesus Christ. Righteous in Him. The Holy Spirit
never leads sinners to think highly of themselves, to plead
themselves, or to think that they're saved by their own power,
their own goodness, or their own will. He always shows us
our sin and our depravity drives us to Christ for all salvation
and nowhere else. The tree is known by its fruit.
How do I know that Jesus Christ is the one and only way of salvation?
Because God's word says it. What do we believe? We believe
in Him, whom to know is life eternal. All right. Heavenly
Father, I pray that you will guide us through your truth,
help us to learn more of Christ and Him crucified and risen,
and our standing in Him, for it's in Christ's name we pray.
Amen.