Rev. David Holwick E
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
February 3, 2002
Mark 3:28-30
|
I. Knowing you are doomed.
A. Soren Kierkegaard's father.
The dour Danish philosopher grew up in a devout home.
Most of Denmark was devout then, of course.
When Soren was young, his father became very angry at
God.
He actually went up on a hillside and shook his fist at him.
Afterwards his father regretted his action.
He wanted to believe but in his heart he felt he had
committed the unpardonable sin.
The rest of his life he could never bring himself to believe
he could be forgiven.
Ever.
His father died a broken man.[1]
B. Blasphemy carries the death penalty in many Moslem countries.
Since 1996, Ayub Masih has been languishing in a Pakistan
prison on blasphemy charges.
In 1998 he was sentenced to death.
His crime is becoming a Christian, which is construed as
blasphemy against Allah.
Christianity Today, 10/8/01
II. Old Testament background of blasphemy.
A. Blasphemy is serious stuff.
1) Blasphemy questions God's sovereignty and breaks the
Creator/creature relationship.
a) Swearing - cursing name of God. Leviticus 24:11
b) Dishonoring and reviling of the name, being, or
work of God by word or action.
2) Usually committed by pagans (non-believers)
a) Also, when God's people follow pagan practices.
3) Carried death penalty. Leviticus 24:15-16
a) Application in New Testament. 1 Corinthians 10:5-13
1> Idolaters. 10:7
2> Sexually immoral - died as a result. 10:8
3> Tested God - killed by snakes. 10:9
4> Grumbled - killed by destroying angel. 10:10
b) Be careful you don't fall - loss of salvation in sight?
B. There are degrees of sin in Bible.
1) Sins of ignorance that can be atoned for. Num 15:22-29
2) Deliberate or presumptuous sins. Num 15:30-31
a) Defiant, open rebellion against God
1> "Sinning with a high hand."
b) No atonement, just penalty of death.
1> (Some believe their death was their atonement:
God had to kill them to save them.)
III. New Testament considered it just as serious.
A. Jesus himself was accused of blasphemy at his trial.
1) Claiming to be God?
2) Or, claiming to be Messiah but being too shabby at it.
B. Jesus on blasphemy against Spirit.
1) Different from blasphemy against Jesus himself.
a) Blasphemy against Spirit would be against God's power.
1> In gospel of John, Jesus says the main purpose of
Holy Spirit is to convict people of their sin.
2> If you keep resisting that prompting, you are
calling God a liar.
b) Unforgivable, forever.
2) Clues in context - Pharisees and Jesus.
a) They denigrate an obvious miracle.
b) If they can't acknowledge God's power in this, they
will never recognize it.
c) They have "hardened their hearts."
C. Sin that leads to death. 1 John 5:16
1) Ambiguous statement.
a) One sin (=blasphemy against Spirit) or many (murder...)?
2) Context points to false teachers.
a) Not even worth praying for them.
b) Once again, they have hardened their hearts to God's
message.
c) They have rejected Jesus as their Savior.
IV. Being beyond forgiveness.
A. Topic has caused great anxiety.
1) Like disciples at Last Supper - "Not me, Lord?"
2) Some have felt they have blown their chance of heaven.
B. Settled condition of the soul, not isolated act.
1) Blasphemy is not merely swearing or cursing, being angry at
God, committing horrible sins as a non-Christian, or
falling into sinful behavior after conversion.
2) If the person involved cannot be forgiven it is not so much
that God refuses to forgive as it is the sinner refuses
to allow him to forgive them.
3) Ryle's famous words are great reassurance to any who might
be uptight about this sin:
"There is such a thing as a sin which is never forgiven.
But those who are troubled about it are most unlikely to
have committed it."
(J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels)
4) Those who actually do commit the sin are so dominated by
evil that it is unlikely that they would be aware of it.
C. Genuine Christians cannot commit unpardonable sin.
1) God can forgive whatever we do.
V. You could be committing it right now.
A. Outright rejection of God.
1) Blasphemy can still be committed today.
a) Sam Kinison, renegade comic.
Son of a Pentecostal preacher, became a preacher
himself.
His preaching turned so wild he decided to make
it a comedy routine.
The jokes were blasphemous and anti-Christian,
and hugely popular.
Drugs and wild-living went hand-in-hand with him.
He was killed by a teenaged drunk driver while on
his honeymoon.
b) Many hostile attitudes toward God in our culture.
1> Some is understandable, a reaction against
hypocritical Christians.
2> But most of it is rebellion against God's moral
standards.
3> (We criticize the hypocrites but want to live
just like they do!)
2) This verse is a solemn warning against persistent rejection
of the Spirit's call to become saved by Christ.
a) Longer you reject him, the harder your heart becomes.
b) The time to turn to him is NOW.
B. Living life without recognition of God's presence and power.
1) Quiet blasphemy.
2) We see signs of God's grace but ignore them.
a) Clueless, like Pharisees.
3) End result is the same - unforgiveness.
C. Openly confess faith in God and then obey him.
1) You can know you are forgiven.
=======================================================================
[1] More detail on Kierkegaard's father:
Kierkegaard's father, Michael Pederson Kierkegaard, was a farm laborer who led a desperately unhappy life of grinding poverty. One day (I gather while he was still in his teens), full of rage at his lot, and God's apparent indifference to it, he stood on a hilltop, shook his fists at the sky, and solemnly cursed God.
Soon after, by a series of strokes of remarkable good fortune, he prospered, and ended a long life by dying a rich man. However, he carried a tremendous burden of guilt for his cursing, and his life was not happy, for his wife and five of his seven children died within a space of two years, and he felt that God was punishing him. {James E. Kiefer, http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/68.html]
Study Notes:
HOLWICK'S COLLECTION Number: 3501
SOURCE: Discipleship Journal, #91
TITLE: What Is Blasphemy Against The Holy Spirit?
AUTHOR: Clinton Arnold
PAGE: 62
DATE: 1196
ILLUSTRATION: Blasphemy against the Spirit is not just doubting the
miracles Christ has done, but attributing the work to Satan. Blasphemy
is not merely swearing or cursing, being angry at God, committing
horrible sins as a non-Christian, or falling into sinful behavior after
conversion. In 1 John 5:16, the "sin that leads to death" is the
deliberate rejection of Jesus. These people will show no fruit of the
Spirit.
#3501
WHAT IS BLASPHEMY AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT?
In the midst of his public ministry on earth, Jesus made a startling
pronouncement that has struck fear into the hearts of many people since
that time. Jesus exclaimed, "And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy
will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be
forgiven" (Matthew 12:31). It is stated even more starkly in Mark's
gospel: "Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be
forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin" (Mark 3:29). What is this
terribly heinous sin that God will not forgive? How can we be sure that
we have not crossed over this dangerous line?
WHO WAS JESUS SPEAKING TO?
Jesus uttered this saying to a group of Pharisees, not to His disciples.
Jesus had just performed a miraculous healing of a demonized man who was
blind and unable to speak. In response to this amazing demonstration of
the Kingdom power of God, these particular Pharisees did not merely
entertain some doubt about what Christ had done, they actually
attributed His work to Satan! They defiantly remarked, "It is only by
Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons"
(Matthew 12:24).
These people had already heard and seen what Christ had done. They had
already heard Christ's teaching and who He claimed to be. Their minds
were made up. Jesus was not the Son of David, the Messiah. Jesus was
not the one through whom God was working to provide forgiveness of sin.
These people openly and antagonistically expressed their rejection of
Christ and portrayed Him as a demonically inspired liar and wonder
worker. These were people who could look Jesus in the face and
arrogantly call Him a devil.
This was "blasphemy against the Spirit" because Jesus was the Father's
Spirit-anointed agent. Jesus came and ministered in the power of the
Spirit in fulfillment of the prophecies of Isaiah (see Isaiah 42:1-4;
Isaiah 61:1-2). It was "by the Spirit of God" that Jesus cast out
demons (Matthew 12:28). Luke says that "the Spirit of the Lord" was on
Jesus as He came to "proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of
sight for the blind" (Luke 4:18; Isaiah 61:1).
WHO WOULD DO THIS TODAY?
If you are worried that you may have committed this unforgivable sin,
then this concern alone is sufficient proof that you have not. A
sensitivity to sin and to God is a demonstration of the Spirit's work in
your life (even if you have a long way to grow to maturity). Blasphemy
against the Spirit is not:
* merely swearing or uttering a curse (e.g., "God d-him")
* going through a time of disappointment with God (e.g., over the
death of a loved one)
* having done some awful things before becoming a Christian
* falling into a period of sinful behavior as a Christian.
Blasphemy against the Spirit is an overt rejection of who Christ is and
what He has done. One might say it is rejecting Christ to His face.
THE "SIN THAT LEADS TO DEATH"
John speaks of a similar unpardonable sin in his first letter. He says,
"There is a sin that leads to death" (1 John 5:16). Based upon the
context of this statement in the overall setting of the letter, we can
conclude that this grievous sin is the deliberate rejection of Jesus
(especially His incarnation), as some had done in first-century Ephesus.
These people who denied Christ also gave themselves away through their
willful disobedience of God's commands and showing no evidence of the
most important tangible characteristic of a Christian - love for one's
fellow believers. Thus a person who commits the "sin that leads to
death" openly rejects Jesus and shows no fruit of the Spirit.
- CLINTON ARNOLD
______________________________________
Bibliotheca Sacra, V123 #491_Jul 66_249
Hamartiological Problems in First John (1 John 5:16)
W. Robert Cook
But what is "sin unto death?" Both the Authorized Version and the
American Standard Version, by placing the article "a" before "sin,"
suggest that this is some identifiable sin. This is grammatically
misleading. The Revised Standard Version, with the translation "a mortal
sin," and the New English Bible, with "a deadly sin," are theologically
misleading. The absence of the definite article before the word "sin"
emphasizes the character of the sin rather than identity, specificity,
or degree of sin. Most commentators, although acknowledging the
difficulty if not the impossibility of identifying the particular sin in
view here, understand this as either a reference to apostasy (that is,
denial of Christ by a believer which leads to the loss of eternal
life) or to the unpardonable sin (blasphemy against the Holy Spirit)
of Matthew 12:31ff. However, it cannot refer to apostasy in the sense
described above, since a true believer cannot persist in sin (1 John 3:9), and it cannot refer to the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, since this
was a sin related to our Lord's earthly ministry and the circumstances
which made it possible are not reproducible today.
Barclay's statement probably comes as near to the truth of the passage
as it is possible to come. "The sin unto death is the state of the man
who has listened to sin so often, and refused to listen to God so often,
that he has come to a state when he loves his sin, and when he regards
sin as the most profitable thing in the world."
_____________________________________________________________________
http://www.probe.org/docs/e-unforgivable.html
"Can a True Believer Commit the Unforgivable Sin?" Can a true believer
turn away from God at some point and eventually commit blasphemy against
the Holy Spirit? I don't believe a true Christian would be capable of
that no matter how far they strayed because one saved, always saved, but
I need verses to support my opinion to share with someone else.
Thank you for your question. The "unpardonable sin" of blasphemy against
the Holy Spirit is mentioned in the three synoptic Gospels: Matthew
12:31-32, Mark 3:28-29, and Luke 12:10. Historically, these verses have
aroused a great deal of anxiety and fear, especially in those with a
sensitive conscience. But what do these sayings mean?
In my opinion, the two best positions are the following:
This sin is committed when someone willfully attributes the work of God
the Holy Spirit to Satan. This sin is simply willful and persistent
rejection of, and lack of faith in, the person and work of Christ. If
the first option is correct, some would hold that it is not even
possible to commit this sin today. In this view, this sin could only
have been committed while Christ was physically present on earth and
performing miraculous feats through the power of the Holy Spirit. Others
would hold that the sin can be committed today; nevertheless, there is a
pretty large consensus among evangelical Christians that a true believer
could never commit this sin. After all, Peter says that all true
believers "are protected by the power of God through faith for a
salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" (1 Pet. 1:5). And Paul
tells the Philippian believers that he is "confident of this very thing,
that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of
Christ Jesus" (Phil. 1:6).
Although I may certainly be wrong, I honestly prefer the second view.
Please notice that if this view is correct, a true believer could not
possibly commit this sin by definition. While I could list many reasons
why I prefer this view, let me mention just a few.
First, it is by far the easiest way to make Scriptural revelation self-
consistent. For instance, we know that persistent unbelief is an
unpardonable sin. But Jesus says that all sins and blasphemies will be
forgiven except blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (Mark 3:28-29). Logic,
then, seems to require that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is
persistent unbelief.
Second, notice the progression of ideas in Matthew 12:30-33. Jesus
begins by stating the importance of being rightly related to Him (v.
30). He then describes the unpardonable sin (vv. 31-32). He then seems
to present His listeners with a choice: "Either make the tree good...or
make the tree bad; for the tree is known by its fruit" (v. 33). Could
Jesus be offering those who had spoken against Him in v. 24 (they are
the ones He is speaking to - v. 25), an opportunity to repent (i.e.
change their minds about His identity) and become rightly related to Him
in v. 33? If so, it would seem to indicate that blasphemy against the
Holy Spirit is persistent unbelief. And the cure is faith, leading to
forgiveness.
Third, although Mark's parenthetical explanation in 3:30 could be taken
as evidence of the first view; nevertheless, I see in it evidence for
the second view as well. After all, if they were saying that Jesus "has
an unclean spirit" (v. 30), it certainly indicates that they did not
believe Him to be who He actually was (and is). Thus, this statement is
consistent with simple unbelief in the person of Christ.
Finally, why doesn't John mention this sin? It certainly seems like it
would have been important. But what if he did mention it, but simply
described it differently? Look at John 16:8-9. Jesus is speaking of
sending the Holy Spirit after His ascension. Notice what He says of the
Holy Spirit: "And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning
sin, and righteousness, and judgment; concerning sin, because they do
not believe in Me...." The Holy Spirit convicts the world concerning the
sin of unbelief, or lack of personal faith, in Jesus! Could the
persistent rejection of the Holy Spirit's conviction, and the willful
refusal to believe in Jesus, thus be blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?
That, at any rate, is my opinion. Thus, by definition, it is absolutely
impossible for a true believer to commit this terrible sin. It can only
be committed by someone who persistently rejects the convicting ministry
of the Holy Spirit, choosing to remain in their unbelief.
Additionally, this ties in very well with what is said in other parts of
the New Testament concerning the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life
of the believer. All true believers receive the Holy Spirit (Rom.8:9,
14). The Holy Spirit testifies that believers are God's adopted children
(Rom. 8:16). The indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit in the
believer's life is said to be permanent (John 14:16-17), a pledge or
"down-payment" of an eternal inheritance (Eph. 1:13-14). Indeed, the
Holy Spirit is said to "seal" believers "for the day of redemption"
(Eph. 4:30)!
Just a very few of the many good passages on the security of the
believer can be found in Rom. 8:28-39; John 10:27-30; and 1 John 5:9-13.
But my own favorite is John 6:35-40. Read this passage carefully. Notice
v. 37, that the one who comes to Jesus will certainly not be cast out.
Notice that Jesus came to do the will of His Father (v. 38). But what
was His Father's will? That the Son lose none of those who come to Him
(v. 39)! But think about this. If Jesus loses even a single one who
truly comes to Him for salvation, then He has not fulfilled the Father's
will! But this is impossible for Jesus always does what is pleasing to
His Father (John 8:29). Thus, it is impossible that Jesus will lose any
who come to Him for salvation. Thus, Christians cannot commit the
unpardonable sin.
Hope this helps. God bless you!
Michael Gleghorn
Probe Ministries
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
Created with the Freeware Edition of HelpNDoc: Free Web Help generator