Yeah. Good morning. Would you turn
to number 442 in the blue hymnal. Number 442, praise him, praise
him, if you could please stand. Number 442. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. Sing, O earth, His wonderful
love proclaim. Hail Him, hail Him, highest archangels
in glory, strength and honor. Give to His holy name like a
shepherd. Jesus will guard His children
in His arm. He carries them all day long. Praise Him, praise Him, tell
of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. For our sins He suffered and
bled and died. He our rock, our hope of eternal
salvation. Hail Him, hail Him, Jesus the
crucified. Sound His praises, Jesus who
bore our sorrows, love unbounded, wonderful, deep and strong. Praise Him, praise Him, tell
of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song. ? Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer ? Heavenly portals loud with hosannas ring
? Jesus, Savior, reigneth forever and ever ? Crown Him, crown Him,
prophet and priest and king ? Christ is coming over the world victorious
? ? Power and glory unto the Lord belong ? ? Praise Him, praise
Him, tell of His excellent greatness ? ? Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song ? You may be seated. I'd like for everybody to take
their bulletin. This is the last time I'm going to announce this.
Notice the times on the inside of your bulletin, bottom right. And the pizza dinner on Friday
night will begin at 6. We'll need to start cleaning
up around 6.40, 6.45 at the latest to get ready for services at
7. So please plan to be here if you want to eat on friday
night uh... to be able to do that before
before the ladies start cleaning up and uh... saturday remember
we changed our schedule so we're going to stay from ten to four
on saturday and uh... have a lunch break uh... in between
that's right here next weekend by this time next weekend a week
from now will be at the end of our meeting and uh... so uh... please uh... please Remember
to ask the Lord's blessings on the messages, on us. Invite your
friends. A lot of times, I wrote a couple
of bullet points in your bulletin about why we have a Bible conference. And there are people that, you
know, that won't come to a regular service, but if they think it's
something special, they'll come. And so take advantage of that.
Invite them. And I encourage them to come.
You never know. You never know who the Lord's
going who the Lord's going to speak to, who he's going to save. Oh, there's a sign-up sheet on
the, what do you call that, the bar by the kitchen? There's some needs that we have
for the conference that you can help out with. So please take
notice of that and volunteer where you're able. All right. We're going to be in Mark chapter
3 this morning. Let's go to the Lord in prayer
and ask His blessings on our time together. Our merciful and gracious Heavenly
Father, we're so thankful that we're able to offer you heartfelt
praise because of the work of grace that you've done in our
hearts. We thank you, Lord, that you've caused us to come in faith
and to worship you in the person of our Lord Jesus
Christ, our Savior, our Advocate, the Righteous One who stands
in our stead before thee not just in our stead, Lord, but
actually we in him are able to approach your throne of grace
with boldness, knowing that we have acceptance in the beloved.
Father, we pray that you'd be pleased now in this hour to bless
us with thy presence and speak to our hearts and remind us again
of the glorious person and accomplished work of thy dear son and cause
us to find our hope and rest our comfort, our rejoicing, and
all our purpose in Him. We pray for Todd and for Donnie
and for Clay and John and ask Lord that you would prepare their
hearts for the messages that you'd have us to hear next weekend. Pray for ourselves Lord that
you would cause us to have ears to hear prepare our hearts to
hear from you. And Father, we pray for our friends
and loved ones that we've invited in the past and ask, Lord, that
you would move upon them and cause them to want to be here
and pray, Lord, that you would open the eyes of their understanding
and give them the gift of life. We ask it all in Christ's name
and for his sake, amen. Mark chapter 3, Matthew chapter
12 deals with it a little bit more in detail. Mark is an abbreviated
gospel account. And Matthew gives us more of
our Lord's words, but we'll stick with Mark because it gets to
the point. And that's the book that we're
studying. The subject here is the unpardonable sin. Now I wanna know what the unpardonable
sin is. And I don't wanna be guilty of
it. It is a little bit unfortunate,
I think, that most of the messages and most of the comments that
are made on this passage of scripture focus more on the unpardonable
sin than they do on the statement that our Lord made before he
mentioned the unpardonable sin, that all sin shall be forgiven
thee. That's the glorious hope of this
passage and of our gospel and our savior. All sin shall be
forgiven thee. It is much worse in the end to
disobey the gospel than it is to disobey God's law. For in
disobeying God's law, there is a remedy, the gospel. But in disobeying the gospel,
there is no remedy. And so for me and you, the end
of the day, the end of life, the one sin that will not be
forgiven is disobeying the gospel, not believing on the Lord Jesus
Christ. There's no remedy for that. Hebrews
chapter 10 deals very clearly with that. There's no remedy
for unbelief. All other sin, all other violations
of God's commandment will be forgiven thee, be forgiven through
the gospel. Not believing the gospel is a
sin that cannot be forgiven. Now, the Lord makes it clear in this passage
that there's been differing opinions about what exactly is the unpardonable
sin, whether or not it was even possible for someone today to
commit the unpardonable sin. I think it is. Or whether or not this was something
unique to these particular Pharisees that saw the acts of the Lord
Jesus Christ demonstrated right before their eyes and ascribed
to him the power of Beelzebub or the devil for giving him that
power. And in verse 30, our Lord says,
because they said he hath an unclean spirit. So these These Pharisees, when they saw
our Lord perform a miracle, they had to ascribe it to a supernatural
power. They knew that it was of God,
but in order to protect themselves, they accused him of having the
power of the devil. You remember when the Pharisees
got together at the end to plot our Lord's death, they said,
we must get rid of this man. For if he remains, we will lose
both our place and our nation. If we allow him to live, we're
going to lose our position, our power. We're going to lose our
influence. Everything's at stake here. We've
got to do something about him. Now, when Nicodemus came to the
Lord in John chapter 3 and said, we know, we know. He wasn't just speaking for himself.
He was speaking for all the Pharisees. Nicodemus was a Pharisee. He
was a member of the Sanhedrin. He was a ruler of the Jews. He
said, we know that God be with you. for no
man can do the things that you do except except God be with you
so these Pharisees they knew that this this was a work of
God but in order to protect themselves they ascribed the miraculous
works of our Lord to the devil now let me Turn with me to John
chapter 12. John chapter 12. Verse 37, but
though he had done so many miracles before them, he did them right
in their presence. I mean, they saw the raising
of Lazarus. They saw the lame man made whole. They saw Bartimaeus receive his
sight. They saw these miracles. Though
they saw them, they believed not on him, that the saying of
Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke, Lord, who hath
believed, I report, and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been
revealed? Now that's Isaiah Chapter 40. Who hath believed our report? That's Isaiah, that's Isaiah
42 actually. And who has the arm of the Lord
been revealed? Therefore they could not believe
because that Isaiah said again in, this is the most often quoted
passage from the Old Testament to the New Testament, which gives
us some idea of its importance. And it's quoted from Isaiah chapter
6. You remember after the Lord revealed
himself to Isaiah, holy, holy, holy, the seraphim cried. And Isaiah saw the Lord high and
lifted up and his train filled the temple. And Isaiah responded
by saying, woe is me for I am undone. I'm a man of unclean
lips and I live among a people of unclean lips. And the Lord
said, who shall we send? And Isaiah said, send me. Send
me, I'll go tell them. And so the Lord said, okay, I'm
gonna send you. But they're gonna have eyes and
they're not gonna see. They're gonna have ears and they're not
gonna hear. I'm gonna harden their hearts. And Isaiah responded
by saying, Lord, how long? How long do I have to preach
this message knowing that they're not gonna believe? And the Lord
told Isaiah in Isaiah chapter six, until the cities be without
inhabitants and the land be utterly desolate. Isaiah, you just keep
preaching. They're not going to believe
it but you just keep preaching. And so verse 40 says, He had blinded
their eyes and hardened their hearts that they should not see
with their eyes nor understand with their heart and be converted
and I should heal them. These things said Isaiah when
he saw His glory and spake of Him. So the one that Isaiah saw
in Isaiah chapter 6 was none other than the Lord Jesus Christ
who was seated upon His throne. Now look at the next verse. Nevertheless,
among the chief rulers also many believed on him, but because
of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should
be put out of the synagogue, for they loved the praise of
men more than the praise of God. Now, that doesn't mean they believed
on him with saving faith. It means that they knew that
he was who he said he was. They believed the claims that
he made about himself. But because they loved the praise
of men more than the praise of God, they would not confess him.
And what did the Lord say? If you don't confess me before
men, I won't confess you before my Father, which is in heaven.
You deny me before men, I'll deny you before my Father, which
is in heaven. This matter of confession, believing in the
heart, always leads to confession, doesn't it? Scripture makes that
clear. You believe in your heart, the
Lord Jesus Christ, and confess with your mouth. That's the pattern
of salvation. So these scribes, these Pharisees,
they knew just like Nicodemus knew. We know that you've been
son of God. And yet in order to protect themselves,
in order because of their fear of men and because of their need
to maintain their position of power, they ascribed to the Lord
Jesus Christ the work of the devil. for the miracles that
he performed. They had to admit that there
was some supernatural power behind this. And they knew that it was
God. But to protect themselves, they
accused him of doing the work of the devil. Now, go back with me to our text. What did Nicodemus say? Rabbi?
Rabbi, that's all he knew about the Lord was that he was a rabbi.
We know that thou art a teacher sent from God for no man can
do the things that thou doest except God be with him. Nicodemus
had a lot to learn about who the Lord Jesus Christ was, didn't
he? And the Lord was merciful to Nicodemus and Nicodemus of
all these Pharisees confessed the Lord in the end. And the
Lord was merciful to save him. But the rest of these men, they
saw, they had the scriptures, they knew the prophecies concerning
the Messiah, but in order to protect themselves and their
reputation and their position and their power, they ascribed
to the Lord Jesus Christ, the power of the devil. Now, is it
possible for someone to commit the unpardonable sin today? Yes. Yes. But let me quickly say that there have been many tender conscience
children of God who have fretted over the possibility that they've
committed this sin. And my word of encouragement
to you, if that fits you, is that if you were guilty of the
unpardonable sin, you wouldn't feel that way. You wouldn't be
fretting over whether or not you've done it. You wouldn't
be grieving over the possibility that you were guilty of this
sin. These men with a hardened heart
turned away from what they knew was true and they ascribed it
to the devil. Does it happen today? Yeah, I've
seen it happen. I've seen people come and listen
to the gospel. Like that seed that fell on thorny
soil, they sprang up. They could tell you what was
being said. They made a confession of faith. They followed the Lord in baptism and joined in fellowship with
the rest of the believers. And then in time, they fell away,
forsook the gospel, and denied it altogether. I'm not talking
about somebody that because of sin falls out of the church for
a period of time. I'm talking about somebody who
goes to the point of saying that message that I once confessed
is not of God. It's not of God. It's demonic. That's exactly what these people
did and that's exactly what happens in in rare occasions today. But I want to focus some attention
on this passage. Look with me in verse 22, and
the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, he hath Beelzebub
and by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils. And he
called them unto him and said unto them in parable, how can
Satan cast out Satan? how can satan cast out satan?
it doesn't it doesn't make sense and if a kingdom be divided against
itself that kingdom cannot stand and if a house be divided against
itself that house cannot stand and if satan rise up against
himself and be divided he cannot stand but hath an end so a house
divided against itself is not capable of standing A person who says they believe
in grace but they are looking to their
works as either the cause or the evidence of their salvation
has a divided house. That house cannot stand. A person who says that They believe that God is sovereign,
but man has a free will. And that in the end, God gives
over his sovereignty. He steps down off his throne
and he gives it to man to decide for himself whether he's gonna
be saved. That's a house that cannot stand. That's a divided
kingdom. You see, what the Lord's saying
is, this doesn't even make sense. How can you have free grace with
works? And Paul made it clear in Romans,
he said, if it be of grace, it can no longer be of works. Otherwise,
grace is not grace. You can't mix the two. And it
is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth. It is of
God that showeth mercy. Does not God have power over
the clay to make up the same vessel, some vessels of the same
lump, some vessels of honor and some of dishonor? He's the potter,
we're the clay. He hath done whatsoever he wills
with the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth.
No man can stay his hand to say, well, yeah, I believe that. I
believe that God is all powerful. I believe he's omnipotent. I
believe he's sovereign. I believe that he has abdicated
that throne of sovereignty to man when it comes to man's will
and man's decision, man's power to choose. That house cannot
stand. That's a divided house. It doesn't
even make sense. It's not even logical. To say that The Lord Jesus Christ
pleased the Father and was successful in what God sent Him to do, but
that some of the people that He died for are going to end
up in hell because of their unwillingness to choose Him. You see, to say
that He's a successful Savior and then to say that He's a failure,
that's a divided kingdom. It can't stand. it that's what
the Lord saying you're he's he's confronting these Pharisees saying
you're not even making sense how can a kingdom divided against
itself stand why would Satan cast out Satan his house isn't
going to stand if he does that what we see in man-made religion
today is a divided house and it's just as foolish it's just
as foolish and those who go to it Don't believe the gospel. Those who choose it, we're going
to look at Romans chapter, Hebrews chapter 10 in just a moment because
this has a lot to do with the unpardonable sin. It's denying
the blood of Christ and going back to a works freewill gospel. I've seen it happen. I've seen it happen. Robert,
if you or I or you go, Brian, if any of us, Bert, If any of
us forsook this gospel and went back to a works gospel, a freewill
gospel, lights are out. It's over. Now, that's the sobering
thing about this message because the child of God knows that if
the Lord doesn't keep him and he was to revert back to where
he was before, or to what he is by nature, there'd be no hope
of salvation for him. No hope of salvation. I've seen
people do it. Not true believers, but like
those Pharisees spoken of in John chapter 12, they believed,
but because of the fear of man, they would not confess him. Now
this is a message of, this is a sobering message to our young
people. Now they've not, it grieves our
hearts when our young people have to sit in under the gospel
all their lives, grow up and don't show any interest in the
gospel. But that's not what, you know, we still pray for them.
Have they committed the unpardonable sin? No. No, because they didn't
confess Christ when they were here. And they've, and often times
though they fall out of fellowship with the church, they've not
gone back to a false gospel and said that what they heard here
and what they believed here was of the devil. So this divided kingdom of free
will, good works religion has everything to do with this, with
the same accusation that these Pharisees were making. All right? Verse 27, no man can enter
into a strong man's house and spoil his goods except he will
first bind the strong man and then he will spoil his house.
Now, who's the strong man that the Lord Jesus Christ is talking
about here? He's talking about Satan. And he's a strong man. He's stronger than you. He's
stronger than me. A whole lot stronger. And we're held captive
by his lies and we're held, well, the Lord said, upon this rock
I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not be able
to prevail against it. And I'm going to go through those
gates and I'm going to lead captivity captive. I'm going to take those
who are under the captive spell of Satan and I'm going to make
them captive to me. You see, the truth is that all
men, all men are slaves. You're either a slave to God
or you're a slave to the devil. That's it. Don't talk about your
freedom and your independence and your power and your prowess. It's not true. It's not true. So here the Lord says, in order
for me to spoil the strong man's house, I've got to first bind
the strong man. And that's what I've come to
do. I've come to destroy the works of the devil. I've come
to bind him so that he does not have power over my people and
I'm going to set him free. Verse 28, Verily I say unto you,
all sin shall be given unto the sons of men, and blasphemies
wherewith soever they shall blaspheme. Now as I said, it's unfortunate
that that this part of this passage is glossed over because here's
our hope. Here's our hope, child of God.
All sin shall be forgiven you. All sin. You think the thief
on the cross, who the scripture calls a murderer, took comfort
in the fact that the Lord said, this day you shall be with me
in paradise? You see, the point is you can't
sin yourself out of grace. When the Lord sent Joshua and the children of Israel
across the Jordan to take possession of the promised land, the first
city they came to was Jericho, and there was a harlot that lived
in Jericho by the name of Rahab. And out of that whole city Her
and her family were the only ones saved. All sins shall be forgiven thee. What about Saul of Tarsus, the
Apostle Paul? He was on a murderous rampage
to arrest and imprison Christians, persecuting the church and blaspheming
against God. He had heard the gospel. We know
that he would, we don't know if perhaps he was the rich young
ruler. I think there's a possibility
of that, but we don't know. The scripture's not clear, but
we know that he was there at Stephen's stoning and he heard
everything that Stephen said in Acts chapter 7. And he left
there in a rage. And when the Lord stopped him
in his tracks, the Lord said, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? It's hard to kick against the
pricks, isn't it, Saul? The Lord had been goading him
And out of anger he was persecuting the church. But he said, I did
it in ignorance. I did it in ignorance. He had never made
a confession of faith in believing the gospel. Now here's the difference.
Here's the difference. All sin shall be forgiven thee. What about the woman at the well? The Lord told her everything
she had ever done. Lord, I don't have a husband."
You're right. You've spoken the truth for you've had five husbands
and the man you're living with now is not your husband. And what a life that this poor
woman and yet come and meet a man that told me everything I ever
did. Oh, the Lord was merciful to her, wasn't he? What about Mary Magdalene? possessed with seven devils.
You can just imagine what kind of horrible life she had lived. And yet, every time we see the
Lord after her salvation, she's right there at His feet, isn't
she? What about that demoniac? Over
there in the gatherings, when the Lord confronted him, the
demon spoke out of him and said, We are legion. Now, a legion
in the Roman army, from what I understand, was 6,100 footmen
and 725 horsemen. That's a legion. And that's how
many demons were possessing this man in the Gadarenes. And the
Lord put him in his right mind and clothed him and sent him
back to his house to tell everyone what great things the Lord had
done for him. All sin shall be forgiven thee. Now I know what
somebody's thinking right now. Somebody's thinking, yeah, but
those were all sins that were committed before conversion.
And the things that I've done since the Lord has revealed the
gospel to me, is there any hope for me? Have I committed the
unpardonable sin? All sin shall be forgiven thee.
Why do you think the story of David and Bathsheba and Uriah
are in the scriptures? David was a man after God's own
heart. He was a believer. What about Peter? On that fateful night when he
had avowed his allegiance to the Lord most powerfully and
clearly, they may all leave you, but not me. I'm going to be right
there by your side. And three times that night with
cursings, he denied him. What about Abraham? Abraham,
the father of the faithful. Twice Abraham went down to Egypt. Twice. With his wife, Sarah. Pharaoh saw the beauty of his
wife, Sarah, and wanted Sarah, Abraham's wife, into Pharaoh's
harem. And Abraham said, she's my sister,
you can have her. To save his own skin. How horrible is that? How many of you ladies are going
to stick with your husband after they do something like that?
Now, fortunately, the Lord had stopped Pharaoh and revealed
to him that this was not, it was Abraham's half-sister, but
it was his wife. And what about Lot? Lot, righteous Lot, the scripture
calls him. And yet he lingered in Sodom
and had to be drug out by his hand and then ended up getting
drunk and being involved in an incestuous relationship with
his own daughter. I mean, yeah, he's a believer. All sin shall be forgiven thee. Don't think that you have a sin
that God can't forgive, that he hasn't forgiven, that he won't
forgive. Now, but, but, verse 29, he that shall
blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness but is
in danger of eternal damnation. Now I've already described what
these Pharisees were guilty of. They knew who the Lord was. They
could not deny the miracles and they and they ascribe to him
the power of Satan in order to protect their own position of
power. They would not confess him. What
about those who do confess him? What about those who come? And
this is so sobering to me and ought to be to every child of
God. Lord, you've got to keep me. If I forsake you now, after
what you've shown me, after what you've done for me, after what
you've taught me, if I walk away from you now and ascribe to a
freewill works gospel the power of God, I'm done. Lord, keep me. Keep me. Oh, young people, Whatever God
has for you to do, don't make a choice that moves you away
from the gospel. It's the only hope you have.
And it's a whole lot worse. It's a whole lot worse to disobey
the gospel than it is to disobey any one of God's laws. For every
disobedience of God's law has a solution. It has a remedy. And that's the
gospel. But to disobey the gospel, there
is no remedy. There's no remedy. And that's
what Hebrews chapter 10, turn with me there, please. Hebrews
chapter 10, and we'll conclude. Verse 23, let us hold fast the
profession of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful
that promised. You see, holding fast to your
faith is not pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and gritting
your teeth and saying, Lord, I'm going to remain faithful
and doing like Peter and having to be shown your weakness. I
won't deny you. No, it's remembering the Lord
is faithful. Lord, I need your faithfulness
to keep me. And let us consider one another
to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling
of ourselves together as the manner of some is. Now forsaking
the assembling of yourselves together is not missing church
on Sunday because you had to do something or because you just
were tired or whatever. No, it's forsaking the gospel.
It's forsaking the gospel. But exhorting one another and
so much more the more as you see the day approaching, that
word exhort you know means to encourage. I want this message
to be an encouragement. I want to be an encouragement
to you, and I know you want to be an encouragement to me and
to one another. And as God enables us, that's what we want to do.
Why? To remind us of our Lord's faithfulness
and to keep us under His care at all times. For if we sin willfully
after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth
no more sacrifice for sins. Let me ask you a question. When
you sin, is it willful? He's not talking about breaking
God's law. As horrible as that is, we don't
want to break God's law. He's talking about sinning against
the gospel. He's talking about forsaking
the gospel. He's talking about this unpardonable sin of walking
away from the truth and saying, that's not of God. and ascribing
some credit to a freewill works gospel. That's what, that's exactly
what he's talking about. but a certain fearful looking
for judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries.
He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three
witnesses. How much sore punishment suppose ye shall be thought worthy
who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God and counted the blood
of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified. He confessed
he was sanctified by it, but he trodden it underfoot. He said
it was not of God. He denied the gospel altogether
and he called it an unholy thing and hath done despite to the
spirit of grace. Here is the blasphemy of the
Holy Spirit. If you're here and you're listening
to the gospel and you have a desire for Christ, you've not committed
the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. But if you are here and you have
a love for Christ and desire for Him, you know that if the
Lord doesn't keep you, you will. You will. And then there'll be
no hope. There'll be no hope. For we know Him that hath said,
Vengeance belongeth unto me. I will recompense, saith the
Lord. And again, the Lord shall judge His people. It is a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of a living God. Is that clear? All right, let's take a break. Okay.