Now let's find again in our Bible,
Mark chapter 3. Mark chapter 3. The title of
this sermon, All Sins Shall Be Forgiven. In verse 28, I say
unto you, truly I say unto you, all sins shall be forgiven unto
the sons of men And evil speaking wherewithsoever they shall speak
evil, all sin forgiven in Christ. Now let's go back to verse 20
and verse 21 and then we'll work our way down to verse 29 and
30. And again the multitude cometh
to him. The multitude cometh together
again. So much that they could not so
much eat bread. The house was completely stuffed,
packed. They crowded in there, elbowed
their way in, and pressed in to get a look at Him, to hear
Him speak the gospel, and to hear Him tell the truth, and
to see Him, see Him heal others. And when His friends, and notice
the center reference there, refers to his kinsmen, his relatives,
maybe his mother and his brother, and as it says in verse 31 of
this chapter, when they saw what was going on, and when they saw
all these people flock to him with great need, they said to
him, well, he's beside himself. He's taking, he's trying to do
too much. He's working too hard. Why don't
you cut back a little bit? Slow down. Now the Lord Jesus had prayed
all night and preached all morning being about His Father's business. Having chosen and ordained and
instructed twelve sinners to be apostles to spread the gospel
and to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He had a busy
agenda. He was always about his Father's
business. The multitude of sinners, it
says in verse 20, come together again unto Him to seek mercy
of Him, to hear Him. And He's so busy that it says
in verse 20, they could not so much as eat bread. They were
so busy preaching the gospel and about the work of the Lord,
they did not stop to eat. Verse 21, and when his friends
and family, some of his relatives, heard of this, they tried to
persuade him he was working too much, engaged in too many lives,
providing too much for those who were in need. And they even
went so far as to say he's somewhat delirious in his thinking. He's beside Himself. Or His righteous zeal carries
Him beyond what He is able. They didn't fully understand,
evidently at this time, who they were dealing with and who He
was. You take too much to yourself.
He was eaten up. The Lord Jesus was eaten up with
the zeal of His Father. I'll give you an example of this.
If you turn to John chapter 2, you remember when Paul stood
before Festus and preached the gospel of forgiveness of sin
by the blood atonement of Jesus Christ, and how the Lord Jesus
fulfilled all that was pictured of the Lord Jesus in the Old
Testament, how Christ came and fulfilled all things, salvation
in Him. And Festus turned and said to
him, You are beside yourself. Much learning has made you mad,
crazy. You know, you can be as a business
person, zealous in business, and take much to yourself. And
people think that's admirable. But yet, if you're zealous for
the cause of God and truth, and go to the extreme in preaching
and teaching and loving Christ and preaching the gospel, religious
folks think, You've lost your mind. My friend, I want to lose
my mind for Him and when Christ can be found in Him. Look what
it says here in John chapter 2. John chapter 2 verse 13. And the Jews Passover was at
hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem and found in the temple those
that sold oxen and sheep and doves and changers of money sitting
And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them
all out of the temple, and the sheep and the oxen, and poured
out the changers' money, and over through the table. Oh, it's
a madman! No, he's full of God's zeal. And said unto them that sold
the dove, Take these things hence, make not my father's house a
house of merchandise. And his disciples remembered
that it was written, The zeal of thine house, this is from
Psalm 69 verse 9, The zeal of thy house hath eaten me up. I want to be zealous for the
cause of Christ and the furtherance of the gospel. Oh, they said,
you take too much to yourself. Such are the thoughts of the
natural, unbelieving, carnal mind. Convinced in their sinful
heart that the Lord Jesus takes too much on Himself to provide
all things in salvation. The carnal, natural, religious,
ungodly man would say the same thing of the Lord Jesus. You
take too much on yourself. Let us have a part in salvation. No, in salvation it's all of
Christ. He doesn't take too much upon
Himself. He provides all things for us according to the riches
of His glory in Christ Jesus. He's able to meet all my need.
And I have a lot that I need. But He's able to meet all my
need according to His riches in glory through Christ Jesus.
Thank God He does take Too much unto himself, providing our salvation. Thank God he takes much upon
himself. Much responsibility as our surety. Much responsibility upon himself,
standing in our room and in our steps, answering to the justice
of God on our behalf. He does take much unto himself,
and thank God that he does. I'm not going to complain. Thank
God we have an all-sufficient Savior who does take much unto
Himself. And He is able to save to the
uttermost. I'm persuaded like Abraham, all
that God promised, He's able to perform. Able to save to the
uttermost all that come to God by Him. But they said, oh, He's
beside Himself. No, my friend, He's in His right
mind. I came to do the will of Him that sent me and to finish
His work. Now, that's my introduction. This message has five points.
Verse 22, we see the vicious attack of the enemy, known here
as the scribe. You see verse 22? and the scribe
which came down from Jerusalem, they said he has a devil, he's
Beelzebub, and by the prince of devils he cast out devils. Now they saw the miracles that
he did, and they couldn't doubt them. Those who were blind received
their sight. Those who were lame, he said
to a lame man, your sins are forgiven, take up your bed and
walk. Well they couldn't deny that. They couldn't deny what
he did was real. They couldn't refute his doctrine,
nor deny his miracles. So here's their plan of attack.
Here's what they did. They accused him of being in
union and league with the devil. They couldn't discredit what
he did, so what they did, they tried to discredit him. His person. His character. Now this is not
the first time this happened. If you hold your place there
and turn back to Matthew 9. This happened repeatedly. Matthew
chapter 9. They couldn't deny what he did
was real. They could not refute his teaching,
his doctrine. It was according to the word
of God. In Matthew 9 verse 32. And as they went out, behold,
they brought to him a dumb man possessed with a devil. And when
the devil was cast out in the dumb space, the multitudes marveled,
saying it was never seen in Israel. But the Pharisees said, Oh, here's
this same religious, lost, ungodly crowd. Casteth out devils through
the prince of devils. And Jesus went about all the
cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching
the gospel of the kingdom, healing every sickness and every disease
among the people. They couldn't deny what He did
was real, so they tried to discredit His person. And this happened repeatedly,
again and again and again. Look back at the text now. So the vicious attack of the
enemy. They hated him. You know why they hated him?
They hated the one who sent him. They hated God. Our Lord said
of these same scribes and Pharisees, you are of your father, the devil. They were really the ones who
were in league with Satan, not the Lord Jesus Christ. Well,
here's the second point. The Lord refused their accusation
by giving this parable in verse 23. down to verse 26. And he called them, you see verse
23, Mark 3, he called them unto him and he said unto them in
parables, how can Satan cast out Satan? And if the kingdom
be divided against itself, well that kingdom can't stand. This
is just common sense. And a house be divided, and if
a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And
if Satan rise up against himself and be divided, he cannot stand,
but he has an end. So here he refutes what they
accuse him of. He was plain in his doctrine
and his actions. He was not in league with the
devil. But he came to declare war upon
Satan. Did he not? He came to declare
war upon him. You remember back in chapter
1? Mark chapter 1? Whenever he met someone with
an unclean spirit, whenever he met someone who was demon possessed,
what did he do? Cast him out. You remember Mark
chapter 1? Verse 23, There was in their
synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, saying,
Let us alone. What have we to do with thee,
thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us?
I know thee, who you are. You are the Holy One of God.
And Jesus rebuked him. Hold thy peace, and come out
of him. And when the unclean spirit had
torn him and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him. They
were all amazed in so much they questioned among themselves,
saying, What thing is this? What new doctrine is this? For
with authority commanded He even the unclean spirits, and they
do obey Him. You see, He had all power and
authority over these unclean spirits. He is the Almighty,
the Eternal God. He was not in league with the
devil. He came to declare war upon His kingdom of darkness
and defeated Him soundly and totally. and completely. I want you to turn in your Bible
to Genesis 3 and mark this scripture. Just as God Almighty said it
would come to pass. Genesis 3 verse 15. Here is the
gospel promise. Our Lord God says to Satan, there in the garden,
I will put enmity between thee and a woman Between thy seed
and her seed, and it shall bruise thy head." The seed of the woman.
Who is this? None other than the Lord Jesus
Christ. Between thy seed and her seed, and he shall bruise
your head. Crush your dominion. And you're
going to bruise his humanity, but he's going to stomp on your
head and defeat you. Now, that's the promise. Is it
going to come to pass? Well, let's find out. Turn to
Hebrews 2. You see, the Lord Jesus is not
in league with the kingdom of darkness. He is the king of light. Hebrews chapter 2. Well, there's
God's promise. See the woman crush Satan's dominion
in his head, his power. Will it happen? Hebrews 2. Verse 14, for as much then as
his children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself
likewise took part of the same. Here is the God-man, mediator,
that through death he might destroy him, not hinder him, destroy
him completely. that had power of sin, that had
power of death, that is who had introduced sin, that is the devil. And in destroying him, he delivered
them, who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject
unto bondage. Verily he took not on him the
nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore,
now watch this, in all things that behoove him, became necessary
for him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be
a merciful, faithful high priest in thanks pertaining to God to
make atonement for the sin of the people." God's promise was
that he would win. Righteousness would prevail.
Life would prevail. Evil would be stamped out. Did
it happen? Absolutely. Absolutely, at Calvary. Turn to Colossians chapter 2.
At Calvary, the Lord Jesus crushed sin's power. Put away sin by the sacrifice
of itself. Colossians 2. Notice this carefully. Verse 13. And you, being dead
in your sin and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened
together with him, having forgiving you all trespasses, blotting
out the handwriting, the aborgences that was against us, God's law,
which was contrary to us, took it out of the way, nailing it
to His cross, satisfying God's law and justice, and having spoiled,
verse 15, defeated principalities and powers, He made a show of
them openly, Triumphing over them. And the word there is Himself. By Himself. Again, the Lord Jesus
takes this opportunity here in Mark 3 to declare the gospel
of victory over evil, life over death. He said, I am He that
liveth and was dead. Behold, I am alive forevermore.
Righteousness over sin. He came to bring in everlasting
righteousness for us. God made Him to be sin for us,
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. Did He get the job done when
He said, was He telling a story when He said at Calvary's tree,
it is finished? Or was He proclaiming victory
over sin, death, hell, the devil and the grave. Victorious is
our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ came to destroy the kingdom
of darkness and death and he's not in league with the devil. He's opposed to his kingdom of
darkness. And thanks be unto God who has
given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. He ever lives to make intercession
for us. That's good news, is it not?
The one we serve is the ever-living, reigning, conquering King who
defeated all principalities and powers. He made a show over them
Himself. When He by Himself purged our
sin, He sat down on the throne of glory as the exalted King. He's my Lord. He's my Savior. And He saved me with His blood. Now look back to the text here.
Verse 27. Here's the third point. We see
the greatness of the Lord's power and grace. The greatness of the
Lord's power and grace. No man can enter into a strong
man's house and spoil or rob his goods except he will first
Bind that strongman. If someone breaks into your house
and you've got more ammunition and firepower than the intruder
has, well he's going to first have to overcome you before he
robs your house. As long as you have the upper
hand, he's not coming through the door. If he does, he's a
dead man. That's what he's saying here. No man can enter into a
strongman's house and spoil his good except he first binds the
strongman and then he'll spoil his house. Now Satan is a strong
man and I'm no match for him. But who's the strongest man?
Huh? Who's the strongest man who has
all power over all flesh? The God-man. The Mediator, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Aren't you glad He's the strongest
one? Aren't you glad He's the Almighty
One? Aren't you glad that He comes
into our house? Into this body that we inhabit? This strong arm of the flesh?
And aren't you glad He's able to invade your heart? And bind
up the so-called flesh? We think it's pretty strong,
but in reality, all flesh is grass. But the Lord Jesus Christ
in salvation, this is what He does. We think we're pretty good. We think we're pretty strong.
We think we have some goods. Something we've done, something
we've given, some righteousness we think we've mustered up. We
think we have some good, we think we're some kind of a strong man,
trusting ourselves for salvation. But when the Lord Jesus comes
in, who is stronger than us, He comes in and binds a strong
man, conquers a strong man, and spoils all his goods. Now when He conquers us and when
He binds us, we call all of our so-called goodness. Now we know
it's nothing but filthy rag and His sight. And He invades our
heart. And He conquers our stubborn
will. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of God's power. He invades our thoughts. Spoils
any notion of work salvation and righteousness by the deeds
of the law he takes possession of us in wedding in us and Conquers
us by his grace He plants his flag In the enemy's territory and
said I win And you know what we do What do you do when the
enemy conquers and he plants his flag in your territory? You know what you do? You surrender. Don't you? You surrender. The
fight's all gone. He's done whooped me. And I bow
in submission to him. This is what he does in salvation.
You ever think about that? You ever been invaded? by the
One who has all power in heaven and earth. He said, All the inhabitants
of the earth are as nothing, and I do according to My will
in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of this earth,
and none can stay My hand, nor none can say unto Me, Lord God
Almighty, what are You doing? Thy people shall be willing in
the day of His power. Oh, He binds a strong man. and
spoils his house, and he takes up his residency, enthrones himself
in your heart, Christ in you, the hope of glory. That's salvation.
But he may be in Christ, he's a new creature, a new creation. Old things are passed away, behold,
all things have become new. Well, moving on, here's the fourth
thing, verse 28. The glory of the gospel. We see
the greatness of the Lord's power and grace in saving us. He commands the light to shine
out of darkness and He shines in our heart to give us the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He does this by His commandment.
And here's the glory of the gospel. Verse 28, Verily, truly. That
word verily, whenever you see that means truly. Truly. This
is true. I say unto you, now notice, who's
he talking to here? You remember who he's talking
to? Talking to those self-righteous scribes. And he's speaking to
his people. Verily I say to you, I say to
you, take this personal, to you, to you, I say to you, this is
what the Lord says to his sheep, I say to you, all sin, shall
be forgiven unto the sons of men. That's the best news I've
ever heard. I've sinned against God. I've come short of the glory
of God. All sin shall be forgiven unto
the sons of men. evil speaking, wherewithsoever they shall blaspheme,
all sin forgiven, even you scribes. Who then can be saved? Well,
with men. It's impossible. Not with God. With God all things are possible. There is forgiveness of all sins
for the vilest self-righteous sinner and for the vilest ungodly
sinner. The Lord Jesus Christ died for
the ungodly. Notice it says all sins. All
sins forgiven. Sins original and Adam all sinned. Sins, have you done on your own?
Say, well, I don't like that imputed guilt. Well, have you
done on your own? Huh? You're still a sinner both
ways. By actual sin, original sin,
and actual sin. Sins of heart. Sins of lip. Out of the abundance
of the heart, the mouth speaketh. What's in the well of the heart
usually leaks out through the bucket of the mouth. Sins of
heart. Sins of lip. Sins of life. Sins of thought. Sins of deed. Even evil words spoken against
the Lord Jesus Christ. Forgiven. Forgiven. I'll give
you a prime example of that. Turn to 1 Timothy. You remember
there was a young, self-righteous Pharisee. His name was Saul of
Tarsus. Speaking out evil against the
Gospel, against the Lord Jesus, the Son of Man. And he says in
his testimony in 1 Timothy chapter 1, He says in verse 12, I thank
Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted
me faithful, putting me into the ministry, who was before
a blasphemer, evil speaking, a persecutor of believers, one
who brought injury, even committed believers unto execution and
death, but I obtained mercy. because or although I did it
ignorantly and unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was
exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. That's good news. Paul said,
I'm the chief one. I'm the chief one. How can sin
be forgiven? Does God just simply Lift up
the rug and sweep the dust of our sin under it and put it...
I don't remember it no more. How is sin forgiven? The blood
of bulls and goats could not put away sin. You know, sin is
difficult to put away. I can't put away sin. The law
cannot put away sin. How can sins be forgiven and
forgotten in God's presence? Four things. By payment. By power. By cleansing. Through Christ
Jesus. How can all sin be forgiven?
By payment. By payment. He redeemed us. He ransomed us. And when He pays
my sin debt in full, He sets us at liberty in Christ Jesus. By payment. by payment. We're redeemed not with corruptible
things, but with the precious blood of Christ. Not only by
payment, but by power. Power. It takes power to put
away sin. What kind of power does it take?
God bought us with His own blood. Power. It's just not that a Jewish
man named Jesus of Nazareth died. It's who this man is that gives
power and eternal, infinite merit to what he did. Put away sin. Gospel of Christ is the power
of God and the salvation. Payment, power, cleansing. How are we cleansed daily from
all our sin? You mean, preacher, you still
sin? Oh, I don't want to, but I can't stop. Everything I think, say, and
do, everything is tainted with sin. Because I have that old
rotten sin nature. I've never done anything with
a perfect motive wholly before God. Nothing. Always a little
element of self in it. But I need daily cleansing. I
need the blood of Christ to cleanse this message. There's too much
of me in it. You need the blood of Christ
to cleanse your worship because there's too much of you in it.
Thank God the blood of Christ just keeps right on cleansing
and cleansing and cleansing and cleansing. And one day when we
stand in His presence with a new body without sin, then we'll
be clean. Totally. And all this payment, power,
and cleansing will be done with the presence of sin. The power
of sin. All this is through the Lord
Jesus Christ. Through the Lord Jesus Christ.
He obtained for us eternal redemption. Eternal redemption. That's how
sin is forgiven. But not only forgiven, it's forgotten. You ever had anybody in your
past that really wronged you? I mean they really did something
rotten to you. You still remember it, don't
you? I remember things way back in
my childhood that people did to me that I thought, yeah. It's hard to forget. We may forgive,
But sometimes we want to just hold on. But in the Lord Jesus
Christ, God Almighty said their sin and their iniquity will I
remember no more. The sin of God's people. And
if you're a believer resting in the Lord Jesus Christ, when
God looks at you in the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no sin. Gone. Gone. Completely gone. He said their
sin and their iniquity will I remember no more. As far as the east is
from the west. I have separated you from your
sin. He said they are cast into the
depths of the sea. Blotted out as a thick cloud. And I remember them no more. That's good news. My sin. Who can lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? It's God who has justified me.
It is Christ who has died. Therefore there is now in Christ
no condemnation to those who are in Him. You see, all sin
is forgiven. All sin is forgiven. Even evil speaking forgiven by
the blood atonement of Jesus Christ. Now, here's the fifth
thing. Verse 29 and verse 30. But he
that shall blaspheme against the Holy Spirit hath never forgiven
us, but is in danger of eternal damnation, because they said
he hath an unclean spirit. Now what is the unpardonable
sin? in which there is no forgiveness. I've had people ask me this question.
I guess maybe they're fearful that they have committed this
sin. What is this unpardonable sin in which there is no forgiveness,
now, in this world, or in the world to come, and in danger
of eternal condemnation and punishment? Well, let me see if I can help
us. And I don't have the perfect
answer, but here's some help. Those who, in willful, malicious,
evil words, speak in opposition to the will of God, the way of
God, the word of God, the work of God, who live in rebellion
against the truth of God, and attribute the miracles of grace
and salvation, not unto the Lord, but unto Satan. Speaking evil. And notice carefully, the consequence
of this outrageous sin against God is never forgiveness. To
deny, now listen to me, and here's I think the core of it. To deny
and reject the only remedy for sin. What's the only remedy for
sin? Christ crucified. Christ crucified. And isn't this the testimony
of God the Holy Spirit? Isn't that His principal business?
To magnify and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ and to deny the
message of the gospel and the witness of God the Holy Spirit
who testifies that in salvation Christ is everything. To throw
that away is to throw away any hope of forgiveness. I believe
that's the essence of it here. is to throw away any hope of
pardon, of sin, and seal your eternal doom. It says in Hebrews
10 that those who willfully throw away the gospel, there remaineth
no more sacrifice for sin. You depart from the gospel and
reject the only way of salvation. Well, there is no other forgiveness
of sin. That's what he's saying here. Our Lord said this in John 8,
if you believe not that I am, you will die in your sins. And if you die in your sin, there
is never forgiveness. Not in this life. Now there are some that think
that there is a second chance. Beyond the grave. Well there
is a big problem with that. Salvation is not by chance. Salvation
by grace. But there is no salvation beyond
you dying your sin. And according to God's book,
you'll be raised in your sin. Our Lord said, if you die in
your sin, you cannot come where I am. Never forgiveness. Well, some might ask, have I
committed this unpardonable sin? Well, I think if you have, two
things would be most evident. You would not be here today, and you would never have any
interest in spiritual things. There may be hope for you. There
is forgiveness of sin within. If you have committed this sin,
you wouldn't be here today, you would never have any interest
in spiritual things, because your conscience would be seared
over with a hot iron, reprobates, never, and have no interest in
true repentance. True repentance. Well, hate to
end on a negative note, but that's where the scripture ends right
there. And we'll pick up there next week. The essence of the
message though, forgiveness of sin in Christ. Forgiveness of
sin in Christ. Well I pray the Lord will bless
that.