Now this passage begins, I guess, with a lesson on human nature. Let's think about this at first. It teaches us what we are, and our ugliness and shame. Our Lord had just put these Pharisees to shame on two different occasions before this, as we've seen in the last couple of lessons, when they accused Christ's disciples of violating the Sabbath day.

Christ defended His disciples. really in two basic ways that stand out in all that he said to them, and one of them was that they don't know the scriptures. They don't know what God's word says, or they wouldn't be cruel and heartless, but they'd understand what mercy is. And then he emphasized who he was because he's the Lord of the Sabbath.

And I thought about this, we didn't talk about this, But the disciples, they never questioned the idea of eating corn on the Sabbath day, because the Lord was with them. They didn't know any better. None of the disciples said, hold on, this is against the law. And I'm sure they had some understanding of the law. But none of them stopped and said that because the Lord was with them.

And I thought to myself, I pray that you and I would never know better than to just trust the Lord. I don't ever want to know better than to trust a person and find in him all of my righteousness before God. Not a Sabbath-keeping, not a living the Christian life, or whatever you want to call it. If anything depends upon us, or is up to us, we have no hope. That's why we so vehemently reject that gospel of free will, man-centered religion.

But he put them to shame there, and the very thing they prided themselves on was knowledge of the Scriptures. And he said, you don't know the Scriptures. Haven't you read where David and his men ate? on the Sabbath day, and then he went into their synagogue, right into the very seat of Satan at the time, the seat of works religion, the seat of trusting in religious heritage and religious rituals, and healed a man on the Sabbath day, and showed by the stretching forth of the hand that the only way, that here they are in the synagogue trying to do what's necessary to please God, and the Lord shows them that the only way a man can do anything good, anything acceptable, is by a miracle of His grace.

The hand represents doing, ability, accomplishment. That doesn't happen by nature. We don't accomplish God's will. We don't please God by anything we do. But by the miracle of God's grace, our hand is restored. And Christ himself is our righteousness, his power, his grace, because how gracious to heal that man of that problem that he'd had all of his life.

He openly defied their religious traditions concerning the Sabbath, with great authority revealed their hypocrisy, and they were infuriated. But notice something about that in our text this morning, when the Pharisees confronted the Lord and vice versa, And remember, he looked on them with anger when they begrudged the man healed, his healing, because it was done. It was not done according to their tradition, according to their religion. The Lord looked on them with anger.

But notice that they never once could refute his doctrine. He taught them from the scriptures, don't you remember, David? And if a man have a sheep fall into the ditch, he told them the truth, he taught them what grace is, and they couldn't say not one single word against that. So what did they do? In our text, they resorted to a personal attack on him, calling him satanic. And that's typical. They had nothing to say in response to his rebuke and the exposing of their religious hypocrisy. No answer, no comeback, but they held a council. Remember that? At the end, after he had healed the man with the withered hand, they held a council. And here's what they came up with in our text. Let's just talk bad about him. Let's just slander his person. Let's just say he's satanic. Let's just use personal text. We can't refute his doctrine. We can't say anything against his obvious power to do as he will.

They were always lurking around the Lord. And this is what their counsel was. When he cast that poor, demon-possessed man, cast the devil out of him, in verse 22, they said in effect that the reason devils do his bidding is because he is the prince of devils. He does it by the prince. He has demonic power himself, and that's why the devils obey him.

And so, back to this being a lesson on our horrible depravity. I've seen this basic principle of cowardly depravity displayed several times in my life. When you're dead wrong and you can't deny it, when the scriptures are clear and you can't refute them, when God's electing grace, when his sovereignty is revealed in his word and you can't say a word against it, you attack the person. that proved you wrong.

And look, we're not in the business of just proving people wrong, but that's the effect of, the gospel is a rebuke to man's reasoning. And it infuriates the flesh just like it did the Pharisees' flesh. And I've seen this happen to people that I love, preachers that you know and love. And it's such a shameful and destructive thing

When a man or woman has to be rebuked for whatever reason, and not face-to-face, one-on-one necessarily, but by the gospel. When the Lord rebukes them for whatever reason, when the truth is undeniable and yet unacceptable to them. When they know they're wrong, but they will not submit. Believing on Christ is a submission to his word, his will, his way. It's to shut up about you having a spark of goodness in you and to say, I'm undone. If God sent me to hell, he'd be doing the right thing. You're not going to come up with that without the word of God. You're not going to figure that out on your own. You have to be rebuked. The word is profitable for what, Paul said? Reproof. Rebuke. Instruction in righteousness.

But if you won't be taught anything, if you won't submit, then you will inevitably resort to personal attacks. But there's something very different about what these Pharisees said, different than anything I've ever heard, personally. They said the power by which Christ performed these miracles was the power of Satan. And our Lord said, you've spoken against the Holy Spirit. He didn't just bring this up randomly. He's telling them, you say a word against the Holy Spirit, you blaspheme the Holy Spirit, you're a goner. That's the surest ticket to hell available to man right there. Not in this world, not in the world to come, will there be any forgiveness for you?

And we see what they did. People have argued endlessly over the centuries about what's the unpardonable sin. And I don't even like the phrase unpardonable sin. That's not what the Bible says. It's not like there's a sin that the character of the sin itself makes it to where Christ can't forgive it, you see. He said, I will not forgive you, you will not be forgiven. The one who forgives said, you will not be forgiven. It's not that the sin is unpardonable, it's that Christ will not pardon you. You see the difference? It's not because he can't, but he won't. He won't. And he makes that clear. to them. The unpardonableness is not something inherent in the sin itself. That's not what our Lord's teaching. He's saying that God will not forgive you for this. It's not that, well, he might want to, but he won't be able to. It's that if you commit this sin, God will never forgive you. There's no hope for you. You're as sure for hell as if you're already there.

And this is not Unique in that regard, the Lord told the Pharisees in one place where they refused to believe on him. They rejected him. They referred to, we have the fathers, you know, we trust in the father. He said, if you, if you to believe them, you'd believe me. So he pulled that rug right out from under their feet. And you remember what he said? You're going to die in your sins. You will die in your sins because you believe not on me. And this is like that, he's saying, you're blaspheming the Holy Spirit, you're saying the spirit by which I do this is satanic, and there's no hope.

So that brings up the next question that people argue about. People are always arguing about things, but you'll see that this is very clear. The teaching here is clear, and that's what I wanted to do, because this is something that comes up quite a bit in religious conversation. What's the unpardonable sin? Well, we know it's blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, but then the question, what is blasphemy against the Holy Ghost? When have you blasphemed against the Holy Ghost? There's a lot of speculation about that, but we know what these Pharisees said.

And God, I'll tell you this, if something in the scriptures is unclear to God's people, and decade after decade, I mean, there may be something unclear to you, but He'll eventually make it clear. He reveals from truth to truth, from understanding to understanding, He'll reveal what we need to know. But if something is unendingly unclear, it's because God intends for it to be unclear. And we can see why that is here. Be careful what you say about God. Why would you need to know specifically what it is? Because you want to say bad things about God, but you don't want to say that one? Be careful about speaking against God. Be careful about saying anything in your heart or with your lips, either one, that is in opposition to the clear, plain gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the simple teaching here. Be careful. Be careful. He's not gonna make it clear. Why would you need to know? Honestly, why would you need to know specifically what it is? The Lord didn't tell us, so I reckon we don't need to know. What we do need to know is don't trifle with God. Don't trifle with God. Don't ever oppose Him. Submit to His Word. Submit to His will. Submit to His way in all things. Know the Word of God. And let's not ever speculate or go beyond what God's Word says. And don't leave out anything that God's Word says. Declare the whole counsel of God when you speak, if you presume to speak for God.

I've spoken to people that thought they had committed the unpardonable sin. I know I've committed the unpardonable sin when I was younger, and so even if I come to Christ, there won't be any forgiveness for me. That's nonsense. This unpardonable sin is not a go to jail, don't pass go, go directly to jail card. If you come, if you believe on Christ, The scripture also says, he that believeth on me shall not perish but have everlasting life. This doesn't contradict that. It doesn't fly in the face. It's not the exception to that. There are no exceptions to that. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.

He said, come to me and I'll give you rest unless you've committed the pardonable sin. No, that's not what he said. And the issue is not whether you commit a certain sin or not. The issue is what think ye of Christ. If you are truly worried about committing the unpardonable sin for the right reason, then you haven't committed it. You haven't committed it. He's not going to say on judgment day, well, you believed on me, but no. No, that's ridiculous. That's contrary to all of God's word in his gospel.

You believed on my son and you honored me all your life, except that one day when you committed that one sin, you're gone. No, come on. God preserves his elect from the day they are born until the day of their death, and then way before that, way before any of that. He preserves us. Have you ever heard anybody say that unbelief is the unpardonable sin? And don't you bless God that it's not? There's no forgiveness for any of us if unbelief is the unpardonable sin. We can't say, Lord, I believe without following it up with the word help. Lord, I believe help. So that's just foolish.

So take comfort in the promise of the Lord, that he that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life, and that God doth put a difference, and you can't mess that up. Don't worry about messing that up, but Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God. For God is in heaven, and you're on earth. Therefore, let thy words be few. Be careful to speak for God at all, and when you do, let your words be very select. Let them be, thus saith the Lord, and not thus what I think.

But our Lord's declaration here concerning the unpardonable sin does not change the fact that if you do not believe on the Son of God, you have no hope, whether you've committed it or not. So let's take the two possible cases here. Or I guess four. You don't believe on Christ, and you've committed the unpardonable sin. I'd say you're a goner. What do you think? You don't believe on Christ and you have not committed the unpardonable sin. Goner. Goner. All right, let's say you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you have not committed the unpardonable sin. I'd say you're in pretty good shape. Pretty good shape. He that believeth on me hath life.

You believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you've committed every sin that there is to commit, more than you can imagine, still safe under the blood. of Jesus, safe though the worlds may crumble. Safe. And you haven't committed the unpardonable sin. Look, if he allowed one sin, unpardonable or not, to go through the protection of his blood, you're a goner. It doesn't have to be the unpardonable one. They're all unpardonable if Christ's blood has not washed them clean. Is that plain? So why did he say this at all? Be careful. Fear him which hath the power to kill you and put you in hell. Don't be afraid of people just killing you. That's not a problem. Be afraid of Him, just one that can do this. He has the keys of hell and of death. Don't be rash.

But this unpardonable sin, He didn't say, whosoever hath not committed the unpardonable sin hath everlasting life. He said, he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. And he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. Christ is the difference, not what you do, no matter how bad it is or how good it is.