All right, Matthew chapter 12.
The title of the message is No Forgiveness Without Christ. And that's the lesson here. You
know, he had just healed a man. He'd exercised demons, given
the man a sight. made him speak, and the Pharisees,
because of their hatred of Christ, they accused him of casting out
demons by Satan, Beelzebub, which is another name for Satan. And of course, he told them,
he said, that's impossible. He said, it's even against your
teaching, that if someone has that gift of healing, it comes
from God, and it does. And we talked about that. So
what happens here in verse 31, listen to what he says. He says,
wherefore 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. Now the first thing I want us
to settle in our minds before we go through these verses And
you may recognize these. This is where people get the
notion of what some call the unforgivable sin, the unpardonable
sin. And I'm gonna show you how I
believe that that term can be misleading because it confuses
some people. But let's look and see exactly
what he's saying. Let's understand, first of all,
this issue of the forgiveness of sins. That's the main thing
here. And the forgiveness of sins is
one of the greatest blessings of God's grace that we can experience. When we talk about justification,
a sinner being just before God, you know, Job and one of his
friends asked that question. How can a man, a woman, a sinner,
that's what he's talking about, be justified before God? And what is it to be justified?
Well, it has a negative and a positive. The negative's good though. The
negative is the putting away of all our sins, the forgiveness
of sins. If you're justified before God,
your sins are forgiven, period. And that forgiveness of sin did
not come by anything you've done or will do or try to do. It didn't
come by, you know, I read an article yesterday where one of
these religious cartoons where he's talking about a person who
realized that he was going to hell and he said, what can I
do? And the captain says, well, you
need to repent and you need to accept Jesus and you need to
do this and then your sins will be forgiven. Well, that's not
the case. If we're in Christ, if we ever are brought to faith
in Christ, our sins have already been forgiven by that one offering. The Bible says, by one offering,
Christ hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. And
then the Bible's clear, both Old Testament and New Testament,
as I've got in your lesson, regarding the blessedness of the Lord forgiving
us of our sins. God forgives it, he delights
to show mercy, he forgives it, he's a forgiving God. But here's
what we need to understand plainly, and this is one of the probably
most neglected truths in most religious circles that call themselves
Christian. And here's the way I put it in
the lesson. Forgiveness of sin is not an arbitrary act of God. It's not just God looking at
you and feeling sorry for you and say, well, I'm gonna forgive
you anyway. It's not arbitrary. It's based upon Christ Jesus
and his justice satisfying death on the cross. Now that's what
the forgiveness of sin is all about. In other words, the only
ground upon which God forgives sinners is the blood of Jesus
Christ. And that blood means his death.
And that death means satisfaction to God's law and justice. And
the result of that satisfaction is righteousness established.
So that God is able to be both a just God, He must punish sin,
He's holy. He cannot just overlook sin or
deny it. He can't say just, well, let's
just forget it. Sin has to be dealt with. He must punish sin, the wages
of sin is death. The Bible says this, without
the shedding of blood, there's no remission or pardon or forgiveness
of sins. So when we think of the forgiveness
of sins, think of it not only as the mercy and grace and love
of God, which it is, but think of it as the justice of God satisfied
in the blood of Christ. And that's the negative. Our
sins are born away. We used to sing a chorus. Did you hear what Jesus said
to me? Your sins are all taken away. They're taken away. And the Bible
has different metaphors to show how complete that is. For example,
it'll talk about God casting our sins behind his back. That's
a metaphor. It talks about our sins are gone
as far as the east is from the west, you see. And then it tells
us that our sins cannot be charged to us because they've been charged
to Christ. When the Bible talks about his
being made sin, what that means is that God, before the foundation
of the world, imputed the sins of his elect to Christ. and put
the onus upon his shoulders to deal with those sins before God
in eternity. Now, as we go through this life,
we fell in Adam, and we start out our lives born dead in trespasses
and sins, totally depraved, spiritually dead, and that's our state beginning
with, but God delivers us from that state as the Spirit does
what? He enters our lives. brings us
under the preaching of the gospel, and he gives us a new heart,
a new mind, a new life, new knowledge. And what is that knowledge all
about? How God forgives me of my sins,
through the blood of Jesus Christ. The Bible says, and I've got
this cited in your lesson, Paul, when he quoted, David, King David
in the Psalms, Psalm 32, one through two. And it was concerning
the forgiveness of sins. And Paul wrote in Romans four,
verses six through eight, I've got this cited in your lesson.
Even as David also described the blessedness of the man unto
whom God imputeth charges, accounts, righteousness without works,
saying, now this is what David meant when he wrote Psalm 32,
one through two. And here's the way David wrote
it. It says, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven
and whose sins are covered. Iniquities, which is the inequity,
okay, which is sin, cannot be forgiven unless they're covered. And that doesn't mean covered
over from view or hidden from view. It means covered by the
blood of Jesus Christ. And he went on to say there,
he said, blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute
sin. Now how in the world can God
look at a sinner like me and not charge me with my sins? Well,
he appointed Christ in the covenant of grace to be my surety, my
substitute, and my redeemer. And in time, Christ came into
the world obeyed the law and went to the cross to satisfy
God's justice for my sins. And so the Bible tells me, and
tells you, that the blood of Jesus Christ covers all sin. All sin, past sin, present sin,
future sin, not just part of the way. I remember Brother Casey
was talking about when he was in false religion. Seventh-day
Adventism is what he was in. And he got baptized in that religion,
and the way he understood it was that up to that point of
baptism, all of his sins in the past were forgiven, but now he's
got to do something to take care of the rest of them. He has to
repent. He has to do this. He has to
do that. All right? Understand that every true child
of God must believe and must repent. There's no doubt about
that. But that's not in order to receive
the forgiveness of sins. That's because you have already
been forgiven of all your sins by the one sacrifice, the blood
of Jesus Christ. So understand that. And the Bible
says that God forgives all our sins. There's no exception to
that. And we'll talk about that in
just a moment. But that's the negative side
of justification. All our sins are gone. Taken
away. Now, as we go through this life,
we still feel the effects of that sin. If you don't believe
that, just tell me how you feel today. You having any sicknesses,
any problems? You growing older? That's because
of sin, that's the effects. But we're not condemned. We're
certain for heaven's glory based upon the blood of Christ. So
even though we still go through the effects of sin, we're not
condemned by sin. And the positive side of justification
is righteousness. That is, we're counted righteous
in God's sight. When God forgives our sin, we're
not put in some kind of a neutral state. It's kind of like, I read
where a preacher said this one time, this was years ago, false
preacher. He said, we're forgiven of all
our sins, but we're put in a position where now we can earn our righteousness
before God. No. No. You see, that's what
did David say? What Paul said, blessed is the
blessedness of the man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness
without work. To be justified is to be forgiven
of all my sins and to be counted righteous in God's sight, based
upon the righteousness of Christ. Freely given. No exception. And that's the positive side.
We're justified. Now, in our text, Christ stated
this. He said, all manner of sin and
blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men. Now, what is blasphemy?
In your lesson, I've got this defined. It is a defiant, irreverence,
evidence by unbelief of God's gospel, and intentionally, after
hearing that gospel, speaking evil of and mocking the Lord.
That's blasphemy. Now, in essence, you know, by
nature, we're all blasphemers. You know, just think about the
Apostle Paul before he was converted. His mission in life was to stamp
out the name of Christ and Christianity. That's blasphemy. Idolatry is
blasphemy. Because that's what it is, it's
defiant irreverence of the true and living God. And when you
first hear about the true and living God, until the Holy Spirit
gives us a new heart, we blaspheme. And then the term sin here means,
it's the most common word for sin in the New Testament, means
to miss the mark. It means to fall short of the
perfection of righteousness that can only be found in Christ.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So he says,
he says, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven.
But he further said, now listen to this, he said, but the blasphemy,
the blasphemy, this is verse 31, against the Holy Ghost. And
he says, he says, shall not be forgiven unto men. And this is
where people derive the notion of what they call the unforgivable
or unpardonable sin. And what I said to you at the
beginning is I think that can be misleading because what happens
on that, it causes a whole lot of false professors and even
some true believers a lot of legal fear and anxiety. It can
give the impression, and I'm looking at this in your lesson,
because I want to make sure that we understand this. It can give
the impression that there's one particular sin that God either
cannot or will not forgive for whatever reason, that one unforgivable
sin. And so it causes a lot of people
to be unsure and to wonder whether or not they've committed the
unpardonable sin. You ever heard that? You ever
seen people like that? Even though they're really not
unsure of what it really is. I remember growing up as a boy,
I was telling Randy one time we went on vacation with some
people at our church and us boys were in the swimming pool at
a motel and we were acting like we were baptizing each other,
just kids. Just laughing, and one of the
elderly men came out and said, boys, be careful. You might commit
the unpardonable sin. And boy, we didn't sleep that
night. Have we committed the unpardonable
sin? And I think a lot of people get
that kind of impression. And then I've heard some pastors,
there's a stock answer on this. Some pastors will say something
like this. They say, well, if you're worried about whether
or not you committed the unpardonable sin, that means you've not committed
it. Now the problem with that is that it's human rationalization.
It's not biblical revelation. Some have said that the unpardonable
sin is unbelief. Well, what were you before God
gave you faith to believe? You were an unbeliever. And then
today, as a believer, do you ever in your life have any doubts
at all, any misgivings? Now, I believe a person who'd
say, Yes to that, he or she has never had. I believe they don't
understand what the reality. Do you know complaining is unbelief? You ever complain? I agree with you, sir. Murmuring,
that was unbelief in the children of Israel in the wilderness.
And the Bible tells us that, well, you remember the one who
said, Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief? The Bible says,
I think I've got it listed here, in 2 Timothy chapter, it said,
when we believe not, he is faithful, for he will not deny himself.
We all have our problems, and that's the flesh. Our tenor of
life, as justified, regenerated sinners, is believing. And I
like it in Hebrews 11 where it talks about these all died in
the faith. I believe that God graciously gives us that assurance. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed and I'm persuaded that he's able to keep that which
I've committed. Well, look at verse 32. He says,
and 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. Now you've heard this probably. Somebody says, well, you can
say anything against Jesus, but if you say anything against the
Holy Spirit, that's the unforgivable sin. Is that what this is saying? No, no. To understand this, we
have to understand what the office of the Holy Spirit, the work
of the Holy Spirit is. And what is the work of the Holy
Spirit? It's to bring the truth to God's people and regenerate
them, convert them in the new birth and drive them to Christ
for all salvation. It's to drive them to Christ
for the forgiveness of all our sins, for all righteousness. And this blasphemy of the Holy
Spirit is rejecting that message in life, even unto death, which
renders you to be a person whose sins are not forgiven. Now turn
over to the book of John. John chapter eight. Now here, Jesus was teaching. In verse 21, look at John 8,
21. Listen to what he says. Then Jesus again said unto them,
I go my way and you shall seek me and shall die in your sins. Whither I go, you cannot come.
Well, we know where he was going. He's going to the cross, going
to the grave, going to be resurrected, going to the Father to put away
our sins. And it says in verse 22, then
said the Jews, will he kill himself? Because he saith, whether I go,
you cannot come. And he said unto them, you are
from beneath. I am from above. You are of this
world. I am not of this world. I said
therefore unto you that you shall die in your sins. For if you
believe not that I am, you shall die in your sins. If you die without Christ, There's
no forgiveness. That's what this is teaching.
That's what he's telling these Pharisees back in Matthew 12. He's not
telling them that there's one particular sin that God cannot
forgive. God forgives all sin in Christ.
But those who reject the testimony of the Spirit, which is the gospel,
showing that all forgiveness is in Christ, live their lives
and die in unbelief, there's no forgiveness for them. And
that's what this is teaching. Neither in this world, neither
in the world to come. It's kind of like this. You know,
a person, if you would have met Paul before he was converted,
you would be hard put to say, well, is he one of God's elect?
Is he one for whom Christ died? Well, he gives no evidence of
it at that time. Well, does that mean he'll never
come to faith in Christ? Well, he did, didn't he? God
gave him the gift of faith, just like he did you, just like he
did me. But those who reject the testimony of the Holy Spirit,
they blaspheme the Spirit and live their lives and die in that
blasphemy. This is not teaching that God
cannot forgive them. It's teaching that they don't
have the ground of forgiveness. There is no forgiveness without
Christ. of any sin, not just one particular
sin. That's what the blasphemy of
the Holy Ghost is. The Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit,
points sinners to Christ. And those who live their lives
in rejecting him and die in that state, they're not forgiven. That's what this is teaching.
Neither here. We have to understand that, the
nature of the work. Well, they die in their sins,
they have no savior, they have no high priest, they have no
blood. Remember that was Cain's problem,
no blood in his offering. Indicating that he was blaspheming
the Holy Spirit. And as far as we know, according
to the scripture, he died in that unbelief. No forgiveness
for Cain. All right, no, they have no Christ. They have no propitiation. They
have no mercy seed, rejecting the spirit in the gospel. So
understand that, look at verse 33. He says, 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. Well,
what's he talking about here? The good tree here is a sinner
saved by grace. Not good within himself, but
made good in the grace of God through the Lord Jesus Christ.
And not being perfect within himself, but made so as he's
justified in Christ, based upon his blood and righteousness alone,
and by the work of the Spirit giving him spiritual life and
faith to look to Christ. The corrupt tree is a sinner
in unbelief seeking to establish a righteousness of his own before
God. The fruit of the good tree is faith in Christ, which is
the testimony and work of the Holy Spirit within him, and this
faith works by love to Christ in bringing forth fruit unto
God. And even that fruit unto God is accepted by God in the
beloved. Not on its own merit. And the
fruit of the corrupt tree is unbelief, and he works to bring
forth fruit unto death. That's what he's saying. Verse
34 and 35, look. Oh, generation of vipers. What's
a viper? It's a poisonous snake. He's
calling these Pharisees poisonous snakes. And it is poisonous because
their message is deadly. Just like a snake's venom is
deadly. Their message of salvation by
works People's message today, salvation by the conditioned
on sinners. That's a deadly message. It's
a poison. And he says, how can you, being
evil, speak good things? How can, when it comes to salvation,
when it comes to a right relationship with God, now you understand,
these Pharisees, they were preaching morality. Be a good people. Keep the law. Keep the Sabbath. Be charitable. Remember the Pharisee
outside the temple, I thank God I'm not like other men. I fast
twice in the week, I give more than 10%. They were teaching
human morality, but they weren't teaching salvation by the grace
of God in Christ. We showed their evil hearts.
How could they speak good things when it comes to a right relationship
with God? They couldn't. Their doctrine
was the doctrine of devils. For out of the abundance of the
heart, the mouth speaketh. That's what it is. If a person
speaks a false gospel, what does that tell us about their hearts?
Somebody said, well, I don't know their hearts. Well, I know
what they're saying. And if they preach salvation
by the works or the wills of men, That tells us the state
of their hearts. It's evil. Now what do we do?
We pray for their salvation. God, give them a new heart. And
look at verse 35. A good man out of the good treasure
of the heart bringeth forth good things, and an evil man out of
the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. So you understand. And well, let's go, verse 36,
but I say in you that every idle word that men shall speak, they
shall give account therefore in the day of judgment. Now this
is another verse that has been totally misunderstood. What's
an idle word? It's a worthless word. I've heard
people say, well, you better not tell a dirty joke, because
you're going to have to give account of that. That's not what
it's saying. Don't tell dirty jokes. I mean,
yeah. But that's not what, the idol word is their gospel of
salvation by the works and the wills of men. It's a false gospel. And they're gonna have to give
an account. Remember the ones in Matthew 7, 21 through 23,
Lord, Lord, haven't we done, see they're giving account of
their idol word because their salvation was not wrapped up
in the glorious person and finished work of Christ. It was wrapped
up in what they claim God enabled them to do. Understand that. But look at
verse 37. For by thy words thou shalt be
justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. What is your
gospel? Is it salvation totally by the
sovereign mercy and grace of God based upon the glorious person
and finished work of Christ? You'll be vindicated. That's
what the word justified there means. It'll be declared before
the whole universe that you're a child of God. And you are justified
in God's sight based upon the righteousness of Christ. That'll
be declared. And if those words are salvation
based upon anything that you do or are unable to do, you're
in a state of condemnation. and you'll be condemned. It'll
be declared before the whole universe that you're not a child
of God. Okay.