Matthew 12, verse 22. Then was brought unto him the
Lord Jesus, one possessed with the devil, blind and dumb, and
he healed him insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and
saw. And all the people were amazed
and said, Is not this the son of David? But when the Pharisees
heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but
by Beelzebub, the prince of devils. And Jesus knew their thoughts. And said unto them, Every kingdom
divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city
or house divided against itself shall not stand. And if Satan
cast out Satan, he is 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. But if I cast out devils by the Spirit
of God, then the kingdom of God is come
unto you. And let me say this about that.
If the Christ that I preach, if I preach the gospel this morning,
if I'm not a deceiver, a heretic, a pretender, if I preach the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God's come
to you and come to me, 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. Boy, there's a verse of scripture
that probably not many people have circled in their Bible. You talk about comfort. Our Lord Jesus Christ is preeminent
and supreme. He has no rivals. He's not in
some struggle with anybody or anything. He that is not with me is against
me. And he that gathereth not with
me scattereth abroad. Wherefore I say unto you, he
talking to these Pharisees in particular, but anybody else
who happened to be standing around there and to us this morning,
All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men. Aren't
you glad? Because I've committed all manner
of it. But the blasphemy against the
Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. This passage begins
with a lesson on human nature. It teaches us what we are, and
it's ugly and shameful. You won't find in God's word
much to flatter your flesh or mine. Our Lord had just put these
Pharisees to shame on two different occasions as we've seen in this
very chapter when they accused Christ's disciples of violating
the Sabbath by eating that corn in the early verses of the chapter.
Christ defended his disciples by revealing that the Pharisees
didn't know the scriptures. Verse three, don't have it you
read God's word? That was very offensive. The
very thing that they prided themselves on was their knowledge of the
scriptures, and our Lord just flat humiliated them. And then
in the very next passage, Christ went into their synagogue, verse
9, their synagogue, and openly defied their religious traditions
concerning the Sabbath, and with great authority revealed their own hypocrisy,
in verse 11. He said, if any of you had a
sheep that was in trouble, if it was going to cost you something
to keep the Sabbath, you'd violate it. And yet you begrudge this man
to be healed on the Sabbath day. Hypocrisy. And this, of course,
infuriated them. But notice something very important.
They took counsel together how they might destroy it. That's
how mad they got about this. But notice something very important.
about us. They could not refute Christ's
doctrine. They had nothing whatsoever to say in response to our Lord's
rebuke and exposing of their religious hypocrisy. No answer,
no comeback. But they held a council and talked
about how they might destroy him. And our text this morning
shows the best they could come up with. Surprise, surprise,
they decided to slander him personally. They said, you're full of the
devil, you preaching by the power and delivering people and committing
miracles by the power of Satan. No, no grounds or basis in any
fact or evidence. Just a personal slander, just
something thrown in his face to discredit him. They were always lurking around
the Lord, they just They were mad as they could be at him,
but they happened to be there when he cast out this demon from
this man. They always were there somehow
or another. And when he cast the devil out
of this poor demon possessed man in verse 22, they said, in
effect, the reason the devils do what he says is that he has
demonic power himself. He casteth out devils that way
by that power. The power of Satan. I've seen
this basic principle of depravity and cowardice played out several
times in my life. When you're dead wrong and you
can't deny it, attack the person who proved you wrong. We've all
seen that. Attack their character with personal
slander. As we meet here this morning,
this very thing is happening to one of the preachers that
I love and respect. And it's such a shameful and
destructive thing in the church. When a man or a woman has to
be rebuked for whatever reason, when the truth is undeniable
and yet unacceptable to them, when they know they're wrong
but they will not be submissive and be taught, they will inevitably
resort to personal attacks. But let me say this, there's
something very different about what these Pharisees said. It's
the same basic principles. But the way that they attacked
our Lord makes what they said different than anything I'm thinking
I've ever heard anybody say. Maybe, I don't know. Maybe once. But 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 Ghost now. And that's certain hell. Certain
hell that's the surest ticket to hell available to man right
there Speaking blasphemy against the Holy Ghost For many many
years I've heard people speculate and I'm sure you have an endless
little time concerning what they call the unpardonable sin You
know, what is that? And how do you commit it? I Personally
don't like the title the terminology unpardonable sin Because it implies
that God might want to pardon you for that, but it's unpardonable.
It implies that the unpardonableness is something inherent in the
sin itself. That's not what our Lord said
here. He's saying, God will not forgive you for this. It's not that he might want to,
but cannot because it's unpardonable. But it is that if you commit
this sin, God will never forgive you for it. If you have one unforgiven
sin, you're a goner, and I am too. There's no hope for you. You're as sure for hell as if
you were already there, to paraphrase the language of religion. Now,
I don't pretend this morning to know exactly what constitutes
blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, and neither does anybody else.
That's one thing I've learned from hearing everybody speculate
about. Nobody knows exactly how this is committed. We know what
these Pharisees said and no doubt they were at least in danger
of committing this sin if they hadn't already done it. And I'll
tell you something about that. I know this is right. God deliberately
leaves this somewhat unclear because it has this effect. And
here is a very grave And sobering lesson to all who hear this,
be careful what you say about God. You don't need to really
know what it is. Why would you ever say anything
against God whatsoever? You see what I mean? You don't
need to know how far, how far can I go speaking against God?
You really need to know that? You be careful what you say about
God and the things of God. That's the lesson here. I'm teaching
myself. If you take it upon yourself
to speak for God at all, or the things of God, know what you're
talking about. Know God's word, and do not speculate,
and do not go beyond what God's word says. And do not omit anything
that God said. Paul said, I've preached to you
the whole counsel of God. If I hold anything back, I'm
a liar. And I've spoken against God by what I've not said. Would
that be the unpardonable sin? I don't know, but I don't want
to do it. Do you? I've spoken with people who feared that perhaps
they had when they were younger and didn't know the Lord, that
they might have committed the unpardonable sin. And now, even
if they came to Christ, there'd be no forgiveness for them. That's
unnecessary fear. God's not going to get you on
a technicality. You see what I mean? Our business always and
only with regard to God is to submit now. Don't worry so much
about whether you submitted to Him 10 years ago or 20 years
ago or what you did or didn't do then. Submit to Him now. Today is the day of salvation.
Believe on the Son and honor the Son of God and forget about
the past and don't count on the future. God's not going to get
you on a technicality. He's not going to say on judgment
day, well, you believed on my son and you honored me all my
life, all your life. But there was that one day you
committed that one sin and you're going to have to go to hell for
it because I can't pardon that one. Nonsense. That's what people
are worried about, son, because I've talked to them about it.
God preserves his elect anyway from the day we're born until
the day we die. Our names are written in his
book. Don't worry whether you're gonna commit some sin and he
can't pardon and therefore you're gonna have to go to hell. Just
learn this lesson. Don't ever speak anything against
God. Don't ever say anything about
God or about the things of God that you don't know to be the
word of God, the truth of God. And again, this is my lesson
this morning and of course you too. Some say that unbelief is
the unpardonable sin. That's the one sin that God can't
pardon, unbelief. Because if you don't believe,
you're going to have... Aren't you glad that's not true? We've
all been guilty of unbelief. How can that be the unpardonable
sin? Oh, well, I mean persistent unbelief.
All unbelief is persistent until God reveals His Son in you. You
see what kind of foolish things enter our minds when we depart
from the truth of God. Take comfort in these words,
believer. And let me say this right now. What our Lord said
here has the effect that we discussed already. It causes us to be careful
what we say. Because of what these Pharisees
said, our Lord responded this way. If you speak a word against
the Son of Man, it'll be forgiving you. But if you speak against
the Holy Spirit, it'll never be forgiving. Be careful what
you say. Ecclesiastes 5.2, don't be rash
with your mouth. And I'm not talking about saying
a cuss word or something when you hit your thumb with a hammer.
I'm talking about people saying this is what God said and then
lying on God. You know what I'm talking about?
That's so easy to do. Words are cheap, aren't they?
Talk is cheap. Be not rash with thy mouth, and
let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God. For God is in heaven, and you're
on the earth. Therefore, let thy words be few."
That's good advice. But our Lord's declaration here
concerning this unpardonable sin does not change this fact. Now think with me. The issue
before, as you stand before a holy God, the holy God this morning,
and you do, and I do, the issue is not whether you've committed
the unpardonable sin or not. The issue is what think ye of
Christ? Do you believe on the Son of
God? That's what our Lord asked that blind man in John chapter
9 when the church, so-called of that day, had excommunicated
him. He cut right to the point, didn't he? Do you believe on
the Son of God? That's the question. And what
our Lord says here concerning this unpardonable sin, whatever
it is, and I continue to call it that even though I don't like
it, because that's what everybody knows it is. It doesn't change
this truth. If you do not believe on the
son of God, you have no hope. It doesn't matter what sin you've
committed or hadn't committed. If you don't believe on his son,
you have no hope before God. And if you do believe on the
son of God, then you haven't committed this sin. Because if
you believe on his son, all your sins are forgiven. All manner
of sin will be forgiven unto men. Aren't you glad about that?
So don't ignore these words of our Lord. This is a solid warning,
is it not? Beware and be careful what you
say about God and before God, but know this also. It's not
whosoever hath not committed the unpardonable sin hath everlasting
life. Here's the word of Christ to
all sinners. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. Don't be distracted from that.
And he that believeth not the Son shall not see life. Is that clear? But the wrath
of God abideth on him. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Now let's consider this wonderful
teaching of our Lord in verses 25 through 28. The word children there, by the
way, in verse 27, he said, if I cast out devils by the power
of Satan, by whom do your children cast them out? That word can
be, and I believe likely is here, pupils or students. There were
some of those who the Pharisees themselves had taught who were
casting out devils by the power of the Lord, because the Lord
had called them and given them that gift. Now, our Lord again
here is exposing these Pharisees for the fools that they are by
showing how absurd their accusation is here. Why would Satan cast
out Satan? That's what our Lord is saying
here. What you're saying doesn't make a lick of sense. You see
how he rebuked them? If Satan casted out Satan, he'd
be shooting himself in the foot. He'd be destroying himself. That
would never happen. The fact that there was absolutely
nothing that they could point to to substantiate their accusation
was beside the point, really. Their accusation on the very
face of it was stupid. And don't miss these words in
verse 28. The Pharisees had discounted the truth, just out of hand had
discounted the truth that our Lord did these miracles by the
power of God. Whether they actually in their
heart believed that or not, they wouldn't admit it. They wouldn't
confess him. And our Lord said to them, if
you happen to be wrong about that, think of the consequences
of being wrong about that. If I do this by the power of
God, then you're staring God in the face. That's what he's
saying. The kingdom of God, not just has been presented to you,
but has come to you, is right here in front of you, staring
you in the face. God's, the King of the kingdom
has come. If I do only what God can do,
then you're looking at God. That's just simple truth. And
if only God can do what he did, then he's God. Now, what do you
think this, I'm asking you this morning, what think ye of Christ? And then in verse 29, the Lord
declares what's really taking place here. Look at verse 29
again. How can one enter a strong man's
house and spoil his goods except he first bind the strong man? Satan's not going to fight against
Satan, but here's what's happening. Somebody is not just fighting
against Satan. Somebody is flat going to bind
him and destroy him, overpower him, dominate him and get rid
of him. If you're going to enter a strong
man's house, how are you going to spoil his goods? Which is
what just took place. The devil had taken possession
of that man and the Lord said, he's mine, not yours. How are
you going to do that without first binding him? Satan's strong. He's called the strong man here.
There's no question about that. Look what he did in the garden.
Look what devastation he wrought in the garden of Eden. Look what
he did to Judas. The Lord said to Peter, Satan
hath desired to sift you like wheat, but I've prayed for you. Satan did do that to Judas. He
sifted him in his hand like wheat. He ground him into powder. He walketh about as a roaring
lion, seeking whom he may devour. Look what he did to Job. God
gave him permission to go so far. Don't you take his life. But look what Satan did to him.
He had him wanting to die, didn't he? He wanted badly to die. But we saw in the case of Job
what our Lord is teaching here now in Matthew 12. There's not
some epic struggle going on between Christ and the devil, between
good and evil. Satan is powerful. You don't
have any power against him at all, but Christ is the stronger. who has the power to bind Satan. You think about that. Christ
said here that what just happened is that Satan had taken up residence
in this man, like somebody living in a house, taking over a house
and saying, this is my house. And Christ said to these Pharisees,
I came into Satan's house and took spoil what Satan had possessed. I spoiled him. I took it as spoil. What he had claimed as his own,
I took it from him. How now am I gonna do that without
first tying him up? If somebody comes into my house
and takes everything I own, I'm not gonna stand by there and
watch them do it. They're gonna have to go through me to do it.
That's just simple illustration our Lord used here. And that's
what Christ said that he had just done to Satan. Before their
very eyes, he completely owned him. What was the spoil? This is not just a story. What
was the spoil that our Lord took away from Satan? This one right here, and you,
if you're his, took us away from him. And he didn't have to struggle
to do it. He just did it. He just came
in and dominated. He just came in and exerted his
almighty and authority, and took us over, took possession of us,
and dwells inside us, like a man living in a house. 2 Timothy 2.24, and the servant
of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt
to teach, patient in meekness, instructing those that oppose
themselves, if God, peradventure, will give them repentance to
the acknowledging of the truth, and that they may recover themselves
out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him
at his will. How do you recover yourself out
of the snare of the devil who's taken captive of you at his will?
By the Lord granting you repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.
And what our Lord did here in taking possession of this man
whom Satan had possessed is just giving Satan a little taste of
what's coming. He's just giving him a little
taste of what he's got coming. The very thing that Satan would
consider his greatest triumph will be his undoing. Satan is
going to be caught in his own snare at Calvary on the cross. Our Lord's heel will be bruised.
but Satan's head will be crushed. Our Lord told these very Pharisees
who accused him of being in league with Satan. He said to them,
you're of your father, the devil. They said he was up the devil.
He said, you're of your father, the devil and the lusts of your
father. That's what you'll do. And in verse 14 of our context,
these Pharisees took counsel how they might destroy the Lord
Jesus Christ, but as he taught here in our text, just the opposite
is happening before their very eyes. The Lord in all that he
did and said was destroying Satan and all of his disciples. First
John 3.8, he that committeth sin is of the devil. For the
devil sinneth from the beginning For this purpose, the Son of
God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. That's what happened on that
cross. He redeemed my soul, and in doing so, he destroyed the
works of the devil. He took from Satan what Satan
thought belonged to him. He just thought it. That's what
he got for thinking, because I was his from before the foundation
of the world. Turn to John 12. I'll have you
turn to some scripture in closing here. Verse 31. Now is the judgment of this world. You think about this. This is
our Lord talking about going to the cross. He's talking about
what He's fixing to accomplish. In verse 32, He said, If I be
lifted up from the earth, I'll draw all men unto me. But look
at what He said in that context. Now is the judgment of this world,
now shall the prince of this world be cast out. How's that gonna happen? I, if
I be lifted up from the earth, will draw men unto me. This he
said, signifying what death he should die. Now you think about
this. Rejoice in these two glorious
truths. These two marvelous things Christ
said he was going to accomplish here by his cross, by his death,
by his sin atoning, the shedding of his sin atoning blood. These
two things are going to be accomplished. My people are all going to be
drawn unto me and Satan's a goner. If the Lord would just give us
grace to realize what we're talking about. Think about the and all
the wondrous victory of his cross, what he accomplished there for
you, for me, for sinners like us. All my people, this is the
death I'm going to die. He signified what death he was
going to die. Here it is. I'm going to be lifted
up from this earth and all my people, all my elect will be
drawn to me and Satan's going to be cast out. In a few simple
words, the most monumental of all events is described. Colossians
2.13. Turn there. I haven't had you
turn. But let's look at these last two or three passages together
and we'll be through. Colossians 2.13. Colossians 2.13.
And you being dead in your sins, and
the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with
him, having forgiven you all trespass, blotting out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us,
and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross." That's all
of the condemnation of the law. Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died. He nailed It took all accusers
of us to his cross. The very law of God, which condemns
us and accuses us, the handwriting of God's ordinances that was
against us was contrary to it. There is therefore now no condemnation. Why? Because of his cross. Now
look at it, verse 15, and having spoiled principalities and powers,
he destroyed all of your enemies. The biggest one down to the smallest. The last enemy that shall be
destroyed is death. They're all destroyed. Right
here. Having spoiled all principalities
and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over
them in it. In what? In his death. In his
sacrificial, soul-redeeming death for his people. He saved our
souls and he absolutely dominated and openly destroyed our great
enemy, Satan, along with all of our other enemies. Satan,
as we sit here this morning, is on God's chain. Read Revelation
chapter 20 at your leisure. Satan is on God's chain and the
Lord uses him as he did in Job's case for the good of his people
and for his own glory. Well, oh, the Lord wouldn't use
Satan. He doesn't do that. That's exactly
what he does. He uses everybody and everything
for his own glory and for the good of his elect. And when God
gets done with him, he'll cast him finally and forever into
the lake of fire for good, along with everybody that, as he said
in our text, is not with me. He said, he that is not with
me is against me. The Pharisees chose sides that
day. He that's not with me is against
me. You've chosen a side. That's
what he's saying to those Pharisees. You just picked. You may not
have realized it, but that's what you did. And you may not
realize it this morning, but you're going to choose sides
this morning too. And so am I. Turn to Ephesians 2.1 and we'll
close just with with the reading of this passage of scripture.
Ephesians 2, 1. Very familiar, but in the context of what we're
looking at this morning, this is so helpful, I believe. Ephesians
2, 1. And you hath he quickened, who
were dead in trespasses and sins, And here's another way now of
describing what it is to be dead in trespasses and sin, wherein
time passed, you walked according to the course of this world.
You were a dead man walking. The way that you walked was according
to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
power of the air. People hear the gospel of electing
grace and say, oh, I don't like that. It makes me a puppet. If
you don't, you're Satan's puppet. You're not walking according
to your so-called ridiculously imagined free will. You're walking
according to Satan's will. Who's puppet you want to be?
The spirit that right now worketh. You know what Paul said about
the people of God? It is God that worketh in you
both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Who's working
in those who do not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. The spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience is one or the
other. You're not neutral. There's no
neutrality, is there? If you're not with me, you're
against me. There's nothing in between that.
Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past and
the loss of our flesh. fulfilling the desires of the
flesh and the mind. Satan doesn't want you chanting
some incoherent satanic little things and offering blood sacrifices
and having seances and stuff. He just wants you to live like
you want to live. Isn't that what he's saying here? When Satan
is in control of you, you're just going to live after the
desires of your flesh and your mind. You're not going to be
what this world calls a devil worshipper, you're going to be
what God calls a devil worshipper. And that's anybody that lives
for themselves and not for God. That's anybody who trusts in
themselves and not the Lord Jesus Christ. The number of the beast,
again, is the number of man. Six, six, six. And we're by nature,
we're by nature, all of us, all of us had our conversation, our
conduct, In time passing, the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, that we were by
nature the children of wrath as we're born into this world,
even as others, even as others, equal to just exactly like everybody
else. The difference is not between
us and them. The difference is the grace of God. But God, Exactly the same, but
God. Not exactly the same, but I made
a decision. Not exactly the same, but I exercised
my free will. Exactly the same, but God, who
bless his holy name forever is rich in mercy. He'd have to be rich in mercy
to save somebody like me and like you. For his great love,
wherewith he loved us. It's the same love, but he said,
Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated. For his great love,
wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead. He didn't love
free will exercise and sinners. He didn't love decision-making
sinners. He loved dead sinners, dead ones, dead in trespasses
and sins, without a thought for God, without any desire for God
or His mercy. Even when we were dead in sin,
He quickened us together with Christ by grace are you saved. Satan had us. He didn't know
it then, but it was temporary. He was just borrowing us. We
belonged to the Lord even then. We belonged to him from eternity.
And one day he laid claim to us openly, revealed himself to
us and destroyed all of our enemies. He did it by the blood of his
cross. He redeemed our souls unto God. He redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, and led captivity
captive. He bound the strong man and spoiled
him, took me away from him. And bless God, we'll praise him
forever for it. Let's bow together.