Back to Mark chapter three, let's
read verses 28 through 30 once again. Verily I say unto you, and there's something so powerful
about that when the Lord says that, all sins shall be forgiven unto
the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewithsoever they shall blaspheme." What a blessed promise. But, he that shall blaspheme against
the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness. He will not be forgiven but he
is consigned. Doesn't mean maybe he won't be
eternally damned. He's in danger of it, but maybe
he can get out of it. The word is literally, he is
consigned to eternal damnation because they said he hath an
unclean spirit. I've entitled this message a
blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. And I'll guarantee you everybody
in here, if you paid attention to what was being said, it scared
you. It's a fearful thing to even
read something like this. Blasphemy is a sin that God does
forgive. Now, blasphemy always has something
to do with speech. It's something you say. Speaking against the divine majesty
But the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, the third person
of the blessed Trinity, will not be forgiven. Now we know
from Matthew's account that the Lord had just cast out a demonic
spirit that had made a man to be both blind and dumb. He couldn't see, he couldn't
speak. You can't speak of what you've
never seen, can you? You can't speak accurately of that which
you have never seen. But the Lord cast this demon
out, and he both saw and spake. He was able to see now, and he
was able to articulate what it was he had seen. Now that's the
way the gospel works. You can't articulate and speak
that which you've never seen. It's impossible. But when the
Lord gives you eyes to see, You speak, don't you? By your words,
you'll be justified. And by your words, you'll be
condemned. Your words will line up with
the gospel or they will not line up with the gospel. But this
man both saw and spake. Now, when you look for just a
moment at Matthew's account of this in Matthew chapter 12, Verse 22, this is the same event
as recorded by Matthew. Then was brought unto him one
possessed with the devil, blind and dumb, and he healed him. And remember all of these healings
are given to teach us something in the gospel, just like everything
else in the Bible is. In so much that the blind and
dumb both spake and saw, And all the people were amazed and
said, is not this the son of David? That's the only conclusion
they could come up with. Only the son of David could do
something like this. That was the response of the
people. Did they believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ? I don't know, but I know they
said only the son of David could do something like this. Now back
to our text. Here is the scribes response. Now the scribes, were the teachers
of the law. They were the ones who transcribed
the Bible and they were the teachers, they were the scholars. Somebody
once said the scribes were the teachers, the Pharisees were
the enforcers of the law. And this was their response to
seeing this miracle. Verse 22, and the scribes which
came down from Jerusalem said, he hath Beelzebub, he is possessed
with a demon. They demonized him. And you know,
that's what people do when they can't come up with a scriptural
answer and they can't justify themselves. They demonize someone. And the Lord was demonized a
lot. He's demon possessed. He's demon possessed. Now they
saw this, that everybody else said, this could only be the
work of the son of David. And they said, he's possessed
with the devil. Go on reading. he hath Beelzebub, and by the
prince of the devils casteth he out devils. Now, the scribes already hated
the Lord Jesus Christ, and they were looking for reasons to accuse
him. Look in verse 22 of chapter one. And they, after he preached this
message, were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them
as one that had authority, not as the scribes. Now they were
already the losers by him. And they saw that people were
losing respect for them. He taught as one of having authority,
not like the scribes. Look in chapter two, verses six
and seven. This is after the Lord said to
that young man, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee. Verse six, but there were certain
of the scribes sitting there, reasoning in their hearts, why
does this man thus speak blasphemies? He's speaking blasphemies. Who
can forgive sins but God only? Look in verse 16 of chapter 2,
and when the scribes and the Pharisees, there we have them
together, the scribes and the Pharisees saw him eat with publicans
and sinners, they said unto his disciples, how is it that he
eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners? There's something
wrong with this. There's something immoral about this. This is not
right. So they had already felt like
they were losing their grip because of the preaching of the Lord
Jesus Christ. They didn't like him and they're
going to try to incriminate anything that he does. And so they see
this miracle that the regular person said, surely this is the
work of the son of David. And he said, this is the work
of a demon. This is the work of Satan. Now
look what they say next, or look how the Lord responded to this. And he called them unto him and
he said, and then in parables, how can Satan cast out Satan? That doesn't even make sense. You know, most of what goes on
under the name of religion doesn't make any sense, does it? And
this did not make sense. This was a willful hatred of
Jesus Christ. That's all it was. It sure didn't
make sense. Now look what the Lord says.
Verse 24, and if a kingdom be divided against itself, That
king cannot stand. And if a house be divided against
itself, that house cannot stand. Anybody know what's on the flag
for Kentucky? But you un-Kentuckians don't
know. It says, united we stand and
divided we fall. That's what's said on our flag,
and it's a self-evident truth. Look what he says in verse 26. And if Satan rise up against
himself and be divided, he cannot stand but has an end. He's gonna
put himself out of business. This is how ludicrous, this is
how stupid, this is how ridiculous this accusation is. That's what
the Lord is saying, and he's exposing unreasonable and willful misrepresentation
that they were making. Now, all you can call this accusation
is wide-opened, wide-eye-opened, willful, malicious misrepresentation
of the Lord. As a matter of fact, if you look
at that last verse, verse 30, because they said he hath an
unclean spirit, that's what's motivating this, an unclean Spirit. Now look what the Lord says next.
I love these next, uh, this next verse, verse 27. No man can 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. Now who is the strong man? The
devil. And while he is with his self
and his goods, his people, men, his goods are at peace. No problem
whatsoever. You know, these people are fine
with Satan as their master. They don't know he's their master.
They're everyday Joes like me and you going on, and they're
at peace. They're not seeking God. They
think, hey, I'm OK. I'm OK. I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied with where I'm
at. my experience and my salvation and so on. They're satisfied.
They're at peace. They're at peace. They're not thinking I'm
in trouble. No, they're at peace. It's not
the Lord's peace, but they're at peace. They think everything's
fine. Look in Luke chapter 11 in Luke's account, Luke chapter
11. Now this strong man, the devil, You and I are no match
for him. Eve did not have a sinful nature
and he got her to sin. You think he'd have any problem
with me or you? He's got so much to work with. He has his goods at peace. Chapter 11, verse 18, if Satan
also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand?
Because you say that I cast out devils through Beelzebub. And
if I, by Beelzebub, Satan, cast out devils, by whom do your sons
cast them out? Therefore they shall be your
judges. But if I, with the finger of God, and I like the way he
uses the word finger. It's not hard for me. This is not hard
for me. I just use my finger for this.
I don't have to use my mighty bare arm. I just use my finger.
And if I, with the finger of God, cast out devils, no doubt
the kingdom of God is coming to you. And then he says, when
a strong man arm keeps his palace, his goods are at peace. But when
a stronger than he shall come upon him and overcome him, he
taketh away from him all his armor wherein he trusted. and
divideth his spoils. Now, the palace is the human
heart that this strong man lives in. Everybody by nature, I mean,
children, he says even to believers, you were by nature children of
wrath. You were just like everybody else, children of the devil,
and you were very satisfied in that condition and very peace. Now, it's not the peace Christ
gives. Christ said, my peace I give
unto you. Having made peace through the
blood of his cross. Now listen to me, the only peace
I have is the peace he made for me. And what peace there is in
that? Being justified by faith we have
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. It's the peace
that comes from grace. grace unto you, and peace, and
it's a real peace. But these people don't have any of that,
but they have a false peace. Are you saved? Yeah. Are you going
to go to heaven when you die? Absolutely. I'm as sure for there
as if I'm already there. I've made my peace with God. It's the peace of superstition
and ignorance. And the strong man armed makes
them content, and then the stronger than he comes the Lord Jesus
Christ, the omnipotent one. Now, how much stronger is omnipotence
than real strong? Infinite. Infinite. He has the strength of omnipotence. Is anything too hard for the
Lord? He has the strength of absolute
sovereignty. His will is always done. He has the strength of independence. He has no needs that must be
met before his will can be done. He's utterly and completely independent. He has the strength of omniscience
and omnipresence. It's not like he's gonna not
be somewhere and can't prevent it from happening because he's
everywhere, controlling everything. And he has the wisdom to make
sure his will always comes to pass. He has the strength of
holiness and justice. He has the strength of divine
love. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? The stronger
than he comes and overcomes him. And my dear friends, that's exactly
what took place on the cross. Satan's head was crushed. in answer to the ancient prophecy
of Genesis 3, 15, the seed of woman. That's the Lord Jesus
Christ. He wasn't the seed of Adam. He was the seed of woman.
He'll come and crush the serpent's head. The serpent thought, I'm
defeating him. And he didn't know he was being
utterly destroyed and overcame and bound by the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, only omnipotence That's
the stronger one. Whatever you say about strength,
the Lord's stronger. Always stronger. He's the stronger one. Only omnipotence
can make something that is not to be. And only omnipotence can
make that which is to not be anymore. Now that's the strength
of our Redeemer. I was born bad. I was shaping
in iniquity and sin my mother conceived me, same with you.
I was born bad. And there's nothing I can do
to change that. But omnipotence made it to where I am perfectly
conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. My sin, it's made to
not be. Not simply forgiven, but it's
not. It's gone. Where is it? It's
gone. It's not just covered up somewhere
waiting to come back out. It's non-existent. That's what
the Lord did with the sins of his people. Oh, the stronger
than he. Satan may say with regard to
me, why he pledged allegiance to me to be mine. And Christ
will reply, he's always been mine. He can't make a statement
like that. He's always been mine. I knew
him before the foundation of the world. Satan may say, but
he committed great sin. But the Lord said, but I justified
him. What are you gonna do about that? Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God to let God justify it? Who is he that can
condemn? It's Christ that died, yea, rather
that's risen again. who's even at the right hand
of God. But they're still so sinful. He's still so sinful.
Well, sin's not gonna have dominion over him because he's not under
the law. He's under grace. But his flesh is just as bad
as it ever was. Yeah, but I've given him a new
heart and a new nature that does not sin. He's mine. All answers
made by the one who is stronger. And Satan is overcome and bound
and can only do what God directs him to do as part of his great
purpose of grace. I love thinking about this. I
mean, I don't want to have anything to do with the devil. I like
what Michael the Oracle angel said, the Lord rebuke you. When
I hear these preachers talking about, we rebuke you, Satan,
I just cringe. They're in his palm doing his
will. But he's in the Lord's hand. He's God's devil. I love
saying that. He's God's devil. And he can only do what God allows
him to do for his purpose of grace. And I love the way Luke's
account says, he takes away the armor which he trusted in. When
Christ saves somebody, he takes away all the armor they trusted
in. Their experience, their knowledge,
their progress and holiness and good works, it's all taken away. And they're left with nothing
but Christ. And when you have nothing but
Christ, you know what? Christ is all to you. He is all to you. And he divides the spoils with
his people. Now, Mark says in verse 28, or
the Lord says, verily I say unto you that all sin shall be forgiven
unto the sons of men. Aren't you thankful for that?
All the sins shall be forgiven. and blasphemies. Men have spoke
harsh things regarding the Lord, wherewithsoever they shall blaspheme.
But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost, he's not gonna
have forgiveness. He's gonna have eternal damnation. Now I know three other places
in the New Testament where we speak of, where the New Testament
speaks of sin that will not be forgiven. Turn to Hebrews chapter
10. Verse 26, for if we sin willfully after that we've received the
knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for
sins. Now, the key is if we sin willfully
after we have received the knowledge
of the truth. Now Hebrews chapter 10 is such
a declaration of the knowledge of the truth. Wherefore by one offering he
hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Now, that's the
knowledge of the truth. Christ accomplishing salvation. Now, if somebody, after having
received that knowledge, goes back to salvation by works, there
is no other sacrifice. You've left Christ. There is no salvation for that
person. Now, there's been times where
I didn't understand that. I'd think of a willful sin being
you know better, you know better, and you go ahead and do it anyway.
Well, that's awful, but that's not what he's talking about.
That's not what he's talking about at all. He's talking about
turning your back on the only way of salvation and going back
to works. Turn to 2 Peter 2. Verse 20. For if, after they've escaped
the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome,
the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For
it had been better for them not to have known what the way of
righteousness, the way of Christ, the way of grace. It would have
been better for them not to have known it than after they've known it to
turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. He turned
from that. But it's happened unto them according
to the true proverb, the dog has turned to his own vomit again
and the pig that was washed to a wallowing in the mire. Turn to 1 John chapter five, verse 15. Verse 16, if any brother, if
any man see his brother sin a sin, which is not unto death, he shall
ask and he shall give him life for that sin that's not unto
death. There is a sin unto death. I don't say that he shall pray
for it, all unrighteousness is sin and there's a sin not unto
death. Now, in all three of these instances, we're looking at people
who heard the gospel, believed the gospel, and went back to
works. Do you have any temptation to
do that? No. No, I wouldn't be in these... I know I would be in these shoes,
apart from God's grace, but I wouldn't be in one of these people's shoes
for anything. To hear the gospel and to go
back to works? hear a free grace and go back
to free will? Oh, no. And if someone does that,
they go back to, listen, if any of you here listening end up
going to a church where what is preached from this pulpit
is not preached, that's what he's talking about. That's exactly
what he's talking about. But the men who have blasphemed
the Holy Spirit never profess to believe the gospel. They said the work of Christ
was carried on by the devil, and he was operating from an
unclean spirit. Now turn with me for a moment
to Jude, the book of Jude, right before Revelation, next to the last book of the
Bible. beginning in verse three. Beloved, when I gave all diligence
to write unto you of the common salvation, and I like the way
he calls it the common salvation. That means that which is general
to all as opposed to that which is peculiar to the few. It is
what all of God's people experience. It's the common salvation. It's
not one's up here and one's, no, it's the common salvation. Beloved, when I gave all diligence
to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for
me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly
contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. You know, this book's a closed
book. This is a closed revelation. It's been once delivered. There
are no revelations. It's once delivered, and it's
already been delivered. Now verse four, for there are
certain men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained
to this condemnation. Somebody says, that sounds like
double predestination. Well, I don't know. I don't care what
it sounds like. There it is. And I'm not going to apologize
for that. This is the word of God. And I don't understand all
the ramifications behind it, but I don't have to. I know that
they're responsible and they're not victims of God's sovereignty.
And what they do is their fault. They can't charge God with injustice
for this, but they were before of old. You know what that means?
Before the foundation of the world. Before of old, ordained
to this condemnation. Now don't miss that. He's talking
about eternal damnation. The same thing that the person
who has blasphemed against the Holy Spirit has been guilty of. For there are certain men crept
in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation
ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness
and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what were these men doing? Now, the way most people interpret
this, and look at it, and perhaps you have, these men are saying
the grace of God is an excuse for lasciviousness. If you believe
grace, you don't need to worry about your conduct. You don't
need to worry about how you conduct yourself. You don't need to worry
about sin. Salvation's by grace. Hey, since salvation's by grace,
any kind of sin is OK. sexual sin, stealing, covetousness,
lying, you name it, go for it. Salvation is by grace. You don't
have anything to worry about. You've got a diplomatic immunity. You're all right. Salvation is
by grace. Don't worry about it. Have you
ever heard any preacher say that? I never have in my life. I think
there's probably people, I know, as a matter of fact, I've only
known one person in all my life that actually articulated that. He wasn't a preacher, but he
actually was saying things of that nature. And that's evil.
That's ungodly. You know it, and I know it. The
grace of God does not give people a reason to think, hey, sin's
OK because salvation's by grace. That's a hellish sentiment. That's all it is. And I, oh,
may the Lord ever deliver us from that. But is that what Judah's
saying? No. Now, the word turn, look
in our text, Turning the grace of our God
into lasciviousness. Now that's not the word that
generally means, that's generally translated turn. As a matter
of fact, most of the time it's translated translate. Translate. Here is their translation. Grace will lead to sin. Grace
is evil. Grace will lead, this is false
teaching. This is, this will, Make it to
where your conduct doesn't matter and your works don't matter.
You can sin all you want. That's what grace does. Grace
leads to sin. Now, it leads to lasciviousness. It leads to unbridled lust. Why,
if you preach grace, you're giving people the opportunity to sin
all they want. Why, this is diabolical. This
is demonic. That is the sin against the Holy
Spirit. There's a time when the lights
go out and it's gone out at that point. To take the only way of
holiness, the grace of God, and to turn it into the work of Satan,
that's satanic. It's Beelzebub that does this. This is the spirit of uncleanness. There's no care for righteousness
or morality. This is just gonna lead people
to sin. That, my dear friends, is the sin against the Holy Spirit. This is willfully saying concerning
the only way man can be holy, It's satanic and an act of uncleanness. Now, in Matthew and Luke's account,
he ends up with this. He that's not with me is against
me. And he that gathers not with me scatters abroad. What he means
by that is there's no neutrality, in or out, grace or works. But I don't want to just Go back to our text in Mark chapter
three. Now, by his grace, I don't dare believe that his
grace is going to lead people to sin. You know, folks who believe
that's because they don't really believe grace, period. They don't
really have any understanding. They're natural men. They're
men without the Holy Spirit. And by his grace, I don't have
any interest in going back to works. Now it's only by his grace
I realize that, but I don't have any interest at all in going
back to salvation, depending upon what I do in any way. I
don't want that. But I love what the Lord says
in verse 28. Verily I say unto you, all sins. That's a big umbrella. All sins. The sins you've regrettably committed
today, the sins you'll commit tomorrow, they're awful. This is no excuse
for anything like that. But aren't you thankful the Lord
says this? All sins shall be forgiven unto
the sons of men, and the blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme. Now here's a reason for joy and
a reason for warning. May the Lord deliver us from
this sin of taking the grace of God and saying, well, that'll
lead to sin. That's a complete, willful, wicked
misrepresentation of the gospel. And may the Lord deliver us from
that. Let's pray. Lord, we tremble in fear at our
own sinfulness and how we know that apart from your grace, there's
nothing we couldn't or wouldn't do. And Lord, we ask that we
might be delivered from the evil one. We ask that we might be
delivered from the evil of ourself. We ask that we might be made
to look to thy son only and always. And Lord, enable us to preach
your gospel in our day. for your glory and for our good.
And how we thank you that all sin shall be forgiven, whatever
it is, in your people for Christ's sake. And Lord, we ask for grace. Lord, we ask for grace to walk,
to talk, and to think in a way that honors you and glorifies
your grace. In Christ's name we pray, amen.