If you will take your Bibles
and turn with me to Luke chapter 12. Several of the writers that I
read by have written comments down and most
of them have incorporated all these things in Luke chapter
12 for like 16 verses. They include the whole thing.
in their study, but they're not trying to get it into a 30-minute
message. So I've decided to take these
things a few at a time. And this morning, in Luke chapter
12, verses 10 and 12, is where I want to have our lesson. He says, and whosoever shall
speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven
him. But unto him that blasphemeth
against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven. And when they
bring you, talking to his disciples, unto the synagogues and unto
the magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what
thing ye shall answer, or what shall ye say? For the Holy Ghost
shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say." Now, in
these passages, he's talking to two kinds of people. He's talking to some who have
the Holy Spirit of God in them, working effectually in them.
His presence known in them, revealing the Word of God to them. Others
have not the Spirit of God, and they blaspheme against such things
as those who have the Spirit testify their enemies blaspheme
And our Lord had the Spirit, you remember, without measure.
Without measure and how evil they spoke of Him and how they
spoke of the things that He did in the power of God's Spirit,
the things that He did, they spoke evil of it and said He
cast out devils by the Spirit of Beelzebub. Now these passages
set before us by divine inspiration which I've read to you this morning,
they're not to be taken lightly. We don't ever, when we read the
Word of God, want to take it lightly. Don't ever use it as
the butt of your jokes or jokingly say things about it. These are serious things. They're
never to be taken lightly. And anytime you open this book,
just stop and remind yourself how great a treasure it is. and
how few there are that God has allowed to understand it or enter
into its mysteries. Stop and remind yourself of this
great treasure and how deep its mysteries are and how great and
precious it is to have even a little understanding. I was talking
with a lady yesterday and she was telling me some of these
things she said are just above me and I said, A lot is above
me. We're dealing with divine mystery.
We're dealing with things so far over our head, and we know
so little, so little about it. And we're to ask God for an understanding,
because without His assistance, it's just going to be another
book. It'll just be another book. Peter said, we have a more sure
word of prophecy. That is, our prophecy is coming
from God Himself. From God Himself. Where unto
you do well that you take heed. Take heed to what I'm saying.
It's not my opinion. It's not my thoughts. He said this is the Word of God. I'm giving you the message of
God. And you do well that you take heed as unto a light that
shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star
arise in your hearts." What a book, the Word of God. What a book. God breathed, God inspired, holy
men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. A book
Paul wrote that is alone profitable for doctrine. Well, John Gill
said, I appreciate John Gill. I read John Gill a lot. But it's
not John Gill that I base my faith on. It's the Word of God. That's the foundation of my faith. It alone is profitable for doctrine
and for reproof and for correction. How many times have men been
corrected by pastors and evangelists and just People in the church,
and they've been corrected by the Word of God, and they turn
to them and say, I don't care what the Word of God says. My
mama said it. My daddy said it. Our church said it. The Word
of God alone is profitable for correction, and for instruction
in righteousness, that the man of God, God's ambassador, may
be perfect, that is complete, throughly furnished unto all
good works. And I try in my messages to you,
I try to be careful in my studies and in my notes and in my preaching
to show you in the Word of God the very things that I preach
and teach. I don't teach a Sunday School
lesson without reading you the text. I want you to see it in
the text. So having said that, let us never
be surprised when we read the Word of God to find things in
it that are simply beyond the reach of our minds. How could
God become a man? I don't know. I don't know. I just know that he did. How do I know that? Because he
told me. Where did he tell me? In his book. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. Do you understand that? I don't. God, who fills the universe,
the whole universe is in Him. He ain't out here in the universe
floating around. The whole universe is in Him.
And yet, in this tiny baby in Bethlehem's manger, is a body
in which all the fullness of the Godhead bodily is. Here it
is, right here. He said to John the Baptist,
he said, or to Nicodemus, he said, I'm on the earth, you're
looking at me, but I'm in heaven. I'm at the same time. You understand
me, I don't, but I know it so because he said it. And most
of what we know, we know by what he said, not by what we understand. The Bible was divine mystery being
communicated to fallen men. I'll never forget, Brother Mahan
went out west with his son-in-law and his daughter, Bob's wife,
and they were fishing. One of the grandkids come up
to Henry, he was sitting up under a tree, and they were all down
fishing in the river. And one of the grandkids come
up to him and said, that boy said, would you bait my hook
for me? And handed him that can of worms, and Henry reached down
there and got a worm and was baiting that hook. And while
they were doing that, they scared a bald eagle. There was a bald
eagle sitting in the tree directly above them. And that big eagle
took off flying. And Henry was standing there
with that worm in his hand and he was looking at that eagle.
And he came back that Sunday and he said, there's a lot of
difference between an eagle and a worm. And there's a lot of
difference between a sinful man and God. I can't even tell you. It's high, David said, I cannot
attain unto it. Solomon said, Be not rash with
thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything
before God. For God is in heaven, and thou
upon earth. Therefore let thy words be few. Man not heard by as much speaking. And what an awesome privilege
to be able to sit down and read the Word of God and have its
mysteries revealed to us. Luke 12, 12, and whosoever shall
speak a word. Now he's went through many things
with his disciples. We've already been through those
in our studies and I won't recap them. But there's promises and
warnings and descriptions of evil men and enemies of God and
on and on. And then he turns here in Luke
12, verse 10 and said, whosoever shall speak a word against the
Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him. But unto him that blasphemeth
against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven. Now let me tell
you something. The very thought of an unforgiven
sin brings terror to the hearts of a believer. Because that's
my hope. My sins were put away in Christ. I'm fully justified when God
raised Him from the dead. But here, He's talking about
a sin that will not be forgiven. This is an unforgivable sin,
an unpardonable sin. The very foundation of our faith,
risk, our joy and peace, it all comes from the fact that He put
away our sins. Scripture said, Christ also hath
once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might
bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened
by the Spirit, delivered for our offenses, raised again for
our justification. One time, Paul said, in the end
of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. And I can lay down at night and
sleep like a baby with the full assurance of understanding that
he bore my sin in his own body on the tree. But here, there's
a solemn warning that there is a sin, a horrible crime, which
shall not be forgiven. Unto him that blasphemeth against
the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven. Not in this life
and not in that life. And the warning is not to be
taken lightly. There is such a thing as the unpardonable sin.
And if you take a note, I'd like for you to read Matthew 12, 31
through 32, and Mark chapter 3, verse 28, and 1 John 5, verse
16. So what is this unpardonable
sin? What is this blasphemy against
the Holy Ghost? Well, first of all, let's just
consider the distinction that Christ gives between blaspheming
against Him and blaspheming against the Holy Ghost. All those who
rejected Christ did so just like Saul of Tarsus. In 1 Timothy
1.13, he said, I was before a blasphemer and persecutor and injurious,
but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. In 1 Corinthians 2.7, Paul said,
we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom
which God ordained before the world under our glory. which
none of the princes of this world knew, for had they known it,
they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. They did what
they did in ignorance. And God saved thousands of them
at Pentecost who were in that crowd who cried, crucify, crucify,
who went right along with his crucifixion. And thousands were converted
who participated in the crucifixion of Christ. And untold thousands
over the years have been saved out of false religion who practice
a blasphemous religion just like Paul did most of their lives. But they did it, the scripture
says, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from
the life of God through the ignorance that's in them because of the
blindness of their hearts. The sin of blasphemy against
the Holy Ghost is committed by men and women who willfully persist
in unbelief and obstinate impetus and deliberately rejecting the
things of the Spirit of God. The natural man, the Scripture
said, receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. It's not
that they weren't given to them. It's not that they weren't preached
to them. It's that they received them not. for their foolishness unto them. Neither can they know them because
they're spiritually understood. They're such as the scripture
describes as being given over to a reprobate mind. Given over
to rest in that deceit and those lies. Gil said it's a despicable
usage of the spirit of grace opposing, contradicting, and
denying the operations of the spirit, the doctrines revealed
by the spirit, and the means incorporated and used by the
spirit of God. They do this, Gil said, to lessen
the glory of God and to increase their own. Brother Don said the unpardonable
sin is the willful, deliberate rejection of Christ by one who
is fully convinced that Christ was the Son of God. A deliberate refusal to bow to
Him as Lord. It's choosing to save your life
rather than lose it to His dominion. It's described in Hebrews 10.26
as sinning willfully, having received the knowledge of the
truth. The truth was preached to you. You read it in the word
of God. You saw the power of God. They
saw Christ called Lazarus out of a tomb three days dead. They saw him raise the dead. They saw him cleanse lepers.
They saw him take a man 37 years paralyzed and took him by the
hand and stood him up and he got his bed and walked off. How
many times did God say, this is my son, and ratify him by
the power of the Spirit right before their very eyes? And Paul
reminds those Jews of that on Pentecost. It's a deliberate
forsaking of the means of grace and doing despite unto the Spirit
of grace. When you reject His gospel, you're
doing despite unto the Spirit of grace because that gospel
comes in power. It comes with the Spirit of God
attending. Attending the truth. And there's
so many examples in the scripture. Lot's wife. She knew what was
happening. God was burning that city to
cinders. But her heart was still there.
Pharaoh hardened his heart. And after a while, God hardened
his heart. King Saul, same thing. Ahab. Judas Iscariot. You can go on and on and on.
They had light in their heads and darkness in their hearts.
And if we look at this sin, In its context, we'll see that he's
talking about the scribes and Pharisees and their willful and
persistent rejection of Christ and his gospel. A persistent hardening of the
heart against the claims of Christ set before them by the Holy Ghost.
I can tell you, I can say, well, turn over here to Philippians
and you go over there and I can say Paul said, and be right with
what I'm saying. Paul wrote that letter. Or I
go over to Philippians and I can say, the Holy Ghost saith. Because
all Scripture is inspired by Him. Holy men of God wrote as
they were moved by the Holy Spirit. So I can say, the Holy Ghost
saith. And if you reject my Gospel, the same as rejecting the Word
of God, it's the same thing. It's one of those things of the
Spirit of God. Now let me say something. You
cannot teach this doctrine and not have some who will ask themselves
in a terror of heart, have I committed this unforgivable sin? Have I
done this? I've had members of this very
church come to me weeping, saying, I think I've committed the unpardonable
sin. Well, I can't answer that question
for you, but I can offer you some consolation. Those who sincerely
ask if they have, assuredly have not. That's comforting, ain't
it? That's comforting. And I say
that because this unpardonable sin is always accompanied by
an utter deadness, hardness, and insensibility of the heart. They're not touched. They're
not touched. What would frighten a believer
and make him tremble has no effect on him whatsoever. And all those sins should never
be forgiven. If we sin willfully, what's he
talking about? Rejecting that gospel of Jesus
Christ. If you sin willfully and walk
away from that, there remaineth no more sacrifice or sin. That's
it. There is no other sacrifice.
None other name under heaven given among men whereby we must
be saved. You walk away from that, there's
not going to be any forgiveness. There won't be any forgiveness.
There remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. Men become gospel-hardened, sin-hardened,
having even their conscience, as the Scripture said, seared
with a hot iron. Jude says they're twice dead. They were born in a spiritual
death, and now they're under the judgment and wrath of God.
He that believeth not the Son shall not see life. But the wrath
of God abideth on him. He said they're twice dead, plucked
up by the roots. Scripture says they separate
themselves being sensual, sensual. Oh man, I go to funerals or go
somewhere where a funeral is taking place in another church
and I hear another pastor get up to preach Everything about
that funeral is set up for the senses. It's set up for your
hearing and all this stuff. And even their worship services,
they're sensual. Why? Because they have not the
spirit. I tell you, if you have the spirit of God in you, opening
up the treasure house of God and revealing these things to
you, you don't need a guitar. Now, it's wonderful. You know?
I love hearing Paul sing and play the guitar. But he's praising
God in his music. But just the music? I can do
without the music. Well, that's enough about that.
The unpardonable sin. Now, I want to leave you with
this, Luke 12, 11. And when they, that is, these
blasphemers of the Holy Ghost, When they bring you unto the
synagogues and unto the magistrates and powers, take no thought about
what you're going to say. Don't. Take no thought. Take no thought how or what thing
you shall answer or what you shall say, for the Holy Ghost
shall teach you in the same hour what you are to say. Reprobation is when God leaves
a person to themselves. They're completely void of the
Spirit of God. They have nothing to look to
but that black hole they call a heart. And having stated the
unpardonable sin, he turns to the scribes and Pharisees in
Matthew 12, 34, and he said, O generation of backers, How
can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance
of the heart the mouth speaketh. But the believer, on the other
hand, is totally dependent on the Holy Ghost. The Spirit of
God is the power of God in the Gospel to make it effectual in
our hearts, and his people, under his influence, through the Gospel,
are made willing in the day of his power. Now what's that talking
about? My people shall be willing in
the day of my power. What's he talking about? He's
talking about willing to be saved by grace. That's what he's talking
about. What's that mean? Totally dependent
on everything it takes to save your soul coming from God. That's
what that means. My people shall be willing to
be saved by Christ alone, by grace alone, through the scriptures
alone. Huh? Willing. Not forced into
it. Not, well, I guess I better do
it. I'll try. No. No. Willing. Willing. Why? Because you know who Christ
is. And knowing Christ, you know
who God is. And knowing who God is, you know
something about the Spirit of God. And you're willing. You're
willing. His people under his influence
through the gospel are made willing. Listen to this, 1 John 4, verse
4. Ye are God. That's what John
told them. Ye are God, little children. and have overcome them, these
false teachers, these reprobates, dead while they live. You've
overcome them because greater is he that's in you than he that's
in the world. Think about that. You think on that. They are of
the world, therefore speak they of the world, and the world hears
them. My soul, I've had people come up to me in this parking
lot trying to sell me on their ability to preach. Evangelists,
they call themselves. They know no more about the gospel
than the man in the moon. They know nothing whatsoever
about it. And I sit and I listen to them
talk. The world hears them. They're
totally ridiculous to me, but the world hears them. Done. And the world looks at what I
say and says, that's ridiculous. And that's what he's telling
us here. We are of God. He that knoweth God, heareth us. He that's
not of God, heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of
truth and the spirit of error. Paul said, I have not seen, nor
hear, heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things
that God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed
them to us by his Spirit. How dependent we are on the Spirit
of Christ. To take the things of Christ
and show them unto us. To show us things to come. Oh,
you mean he's going to show us about all these... It's been so long since I studied
that I can't remember what they call it anyway. They're talking
about all these beasts and demons and all of this stuff that's
going to... Oh, my soul. I don't know what he's talking
about here. He's going to show us things to come. So what does
the Holy Ghost show believers that are to come? The preservation
of every sign of God. He's kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation. That's to come. Oh man, when I look down that
road, and I think of my weakness and
inabilities, and my tendencies to sin, And this flesh, so wretched
man that I am, and I look down that road and wonder, how am
I going to make it? Well, you're not, apart from
the power of God. But God has preserved us in His
Son. In His Son. Oh, the preservation, that's
one of the things that is to come. The perseverance. We're not of them that draw back
to perdition. We're of them who believe to
the saving of the soul. The effectual calling of his
elect through the gospel. God's people are going to believe.
That's why I preach. I wouldn't waste my time preaching.
I know what's in man. I wouldn't waste my time. Except
this is the means of God. And the gospel is the power of
God unto salvation to everyone that believes. What else is going to come? The
successful trial of every believer through every trial and every
trouble. Oh, how dependent we are on the
Holy Ghost. Everything Christ has done and
shall yet do is given to us by way of His Spirit. It is the
Spirit that quickeneth the flesh, profiteth nothing. Now listen
to one more warning, Hebrews 3 verse 7. Wherefore, because
of Christ and His house, He's the householder. We're going
to talk about that during the worship service. He's the householder.
Because Christ and His house, whose house are we, if we hold
fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.
Wherefore, because of this, as the Holy Ghost saith today, if
you'll hear His voice. You mean a new heart, a godly heart,
a holy heart can be broken? It's the only one who can. And
you know why? Because it sees what God sees. It sees things as they really
are. It sees sin as it really is.
But at the same time, it sees us as Christ sees us, unreprovable,
spotless before his sight. Oh, my soul. God help me to see
these things that harden my mind.