The NXR Podcast - THE SERMON - The Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit

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00:00:30.000 This Lord's Day we continue our series through the gospel according to Matthew.

00:00:34.580 I'm regularly using that phrasing, the gospel according to Matthew, because it's not Matthew's gospel, it's the gospel of God.

00:00:41.540 So we have one gospel, not for the gospel of Jesus Christ, but according to four human authors inspired by the one Holy Spirit.

00:00:49.980 So we have the gospel of Jesus Christ according to Matthew, according to Mark, according to Luke, and according to John.

00:00:56.980 John. All four of the gospel narratives agree with one another, and yet each of them is distinct

00:01:03.720 and helpful for us, the people of God. So we're going through the gospel according to Matthew.

00:01:08.780 Today's text is Matthew chapter 12, verses 22 through 37. It's a longer text, and so this is

00:01:15.740 going to be a two-part sermon for the sake of time, but I'll read the entirety of our text

00:01:21.300 today. When I finish reading the text, I would appreciate very much if you would respond by

00:01:25.900 saying thanks be to god one final time our text for today is the gospel according to matthew

00:01:31.900 chapter 12 verses 22 through 37 the bible says this then a demon oppressed man who was blind

00:01:38.780 and mute was brought to him and he healed him so that the man spoke and saw and all the people

00:01:46.540 were amazed and said can this be the son of david but when the pharisees heard it they said it is

00:01:54.020 only by Beelzebul the prince of demons that this man cast out demons knowing their thoughts he

00:02:01.900 said to them every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste and no city or house divided against

00:02:09.880 itself will stand and if Satan cast out Satan he is divided against himself how then will his

00:02:17.820 kingdom stand? And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out?

00:02:26.160 Therefore they will be your judges. But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, 0.90

00:02:34.760 then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can someone enter a strong man's house and plunder

00:02:41.740 his goods, unless he first binds the strong man, then indeed he may plunder his house.

00:02:48.860 Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.

00:02:55.820 Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy

00:03:03.140 against the Spirit will not be forgiven.

00:03:06.780 And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven.

00:03:11.780 But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven,

00:03:17.080 either in this age or the age to come.

00:03:20.720 Either make the tree good and its fruit good,

00:03:23.740 or make the tree bad and its fruit bad.

00:03:27.300 For the tree is known by its fruit, you brood of vipers.

00:03:32.480 How can you speak good when you are evil?

00:03:35.280 for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks the good person out of his good treasure

00:03:41.920 brings forth good and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil i tell you

00:03:49.160 on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak for by your

00:03:56.080 words you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned this is the word of the lord

00:04:02.940 All right, please be seated. The sign of the kingdom, Christ's dominion over Satan. The sign

00:04:12.740 of the kingdom, Christ's dominion over Satan. Focusing our attention now on verse 29 and verse

00:04:20.380 30 of our text. I'll read them once more so they're fresh in our minds. The Bible says this,

00:04:27.260 Jesus speaking.

00:04:29.620 Or how can someone enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man?

00:04:36.280 Then indeed he may plunder his house.

00:04:39.060 Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.

00:04:45.280 In your notes, I've written the following.

00:04:48.060 The passage opens with a marvelous display of divine power.

00:04:52.160 Our Lord heals a man who is not just inflicted by a physical condition, but a physical condition that is clearly caused by a demon.

00:05:03.720 Our Lord heals this man oppressed by a demon who was both blind and mute.

00:05:11.060 In this act, we are to see not merely Christ's compassion, but his dominion over Satan.

00:05:18.320 Christ, as the stronger man, is binding the strong one, Satan, and plundering his house.

00:05:29.380 Jesus has taken back dominion from Satan.

00:05:34.300 The story of earthly dominion throughout the scripture is actually quite simple.

00:05:40.400 God set up Adam as viceroy in the garden over all the earthly cosmos.

00:05:45.980 Not just the Garden of Eden, but ultimately it was given to him, his task, his mission, that the garden would be expanded and extend and eventually cover all the earth.

00:05:58.800 Even in a pre-lapsarian world, lapse meaning sin.

00:06:03.100 So before sin entered the world, before Genesis 3, there were still wilderness places in the world.

00:06:10.300 And we know this because the Bible tells us so.

00:06:13.320 We know that Adam was created not in the garden, but he was actually formed by God from the dust, the dust of the ground in a wilderness and then placed by God in the garden.

00:06:24.680 And then secondly, Eve was formed not from the dust, but from Adam, from a bone in his side.

00:06:32.600 And so we know that before sin entered the world, we had these wilderness, barren, empty places.

00:06:39.180 Now, sin had not yet entered the world, and so these places are not evil, per se.

00:06:43.660 They're not wicked, but they're still in emptiness.

00:06:46.800 The world was not completely cultivated.

00:06:49.340 That was a job, a work, a task assigned to Adam, our father,

00:06:55.580 that he was to fulfill by the strength and grace that God provided.

00:07:00.120 And so to him was given by God dominion over the earth.

00:07:04.640 He was to be fruitful with his wife and multiply.

00:07:09.500 But also he was assigned the task of working and keeping the ground.

00:07:15.860 Working and keeping.

00:07:17.640 Keeping, that is, defending, protecting.

00:07:22.300 Working, that is, cultivating in such a way that the natural implication of that task,

00:07:29.060 if it were to be fulfilled, would be not only that the garden was verdant.

00:07:33.560 Not only that the garden was filled with life, but if it was worked, the garden, the ground, it would expand.

00:07:40.960 And these wilderness, barren places in the world would eventually be cultivated as well.

00:07:46.860 And so you could say that in a sense, it was man's dominion and his task, his mission assigned by God,

00:07:53.880 that all the earth would eventually become a garden place.

00:07:57.260 and all the earth through being fruitful and multiplying this garden earth encompassing

00:08:03.600 garden would also be filled and populated by image bearing people who were worshipers of the

00:08:11.700 triune god this was the eschaton that was assigned to adam and in order to fulfill it god gave him

00:08:19.420 dominion dominion over what his wife yes but more than just that the ground yes but more than just

00:08:27.780 that even the birds of the air and the fish of the sea and the beast of the field adam was granted

00:08:33.980 by god authority and dominion over every single aspect of the earthly creation all of it and one

00:08:43.200 of the ways that he displays and exercises his authority is in granting names to all the pieces

00:08:50.800 of creation. That's actually, biblically speaking, a sign of authority. The one who has the power,

00:08:58.280 the authority to name, is the one who is in authority over that which or whom which is being

00:09:05.700 named. Adam names each of the creatures. I think that we can implicitly assume that he probably

00:09:13.540 also named certain plants and vegetation, but Adam also names his wife. It's not God that assigns

00:09:23.320 this name to her, but God assigns a name to Adam, and then Adam gives a name to Eve, who is the

00:09:31.160 mother of all living. So the story of dominion in the Bible is quite simple. God, who has sovereign

00:09:39.320 authority, uncontested over everything, not just the earthly cosmos and creation, but heavenly as

00:09:47.180 well. God, who has this authority, sets up over earth a viceroy and grants him a human dominion

00:09:57.660 and authority over the earth adam then by his sin he forfeits that dominion and by forfeiting that

00:10:06.880 dominion he grants it to satan and this is why later in the scripture satan is referenced as

00:10:13.960 the prince of the air not heavenly spiritual air in the 17th dimension but the air the cosmos

00:10:24.240 in this earthly plane that satan is the prince of the air this is why satan when tempting jesus

00:10:33.900 in the wilderness after his baptism in his earthly ministry christ is in led by the holy spirit so

00:10:41.160 it's not an accident into the wilderness a wilderness that should have been cultivated by

00:10:46.920 adam in his dominion but that was forfeited to satan and satan likes wilderness he wants the

00:10:53.780 whole world to be taken over by death and doom and destruction. And so the spirit leads Christ

00:11:00.460 into the wilderness where he's tempted by Satan. And one of these three temptations is that Satan

00:11:05.760 promises Jesus that he will give to him the kingdoms of the earth. And this, it's important

00:11:12.320 that we understand that although Satan is a murderer from the beginning and a liar, when he 0.91

00:11:17.440 lies, he speaks his native tongue. This particular offer that he makes to Christ is not a false or

00:11:25.040 empty gesture. This is a valid offer. When Satan offers to Christ the kingdoms of the world, he is

00:11:32.420 offering to Christ something that at that moment Satan actually possessed. He actually had authority

00:11:38.520 over earthly kingdoms because that authority was given to Adam, dominion, and Adam by his sin,

00:11:45.940 he forfeited that dominion to satan think of even in the book of daniel when finally an angel arrives

00:11:54.720 but this angel had been delayed and he gives a reason for his delay he says that he was held up

00:12:03.060 in battle against the prince of persia now this is not a reference to a human political prince

00:12:11.600 but actually a spiritual fallen angel demonic entity that had power over the human authority

00:12:21.640 in persia when the bible speaks of princes and principalities it's speaking of not just human

00:12:30.340 princes but particularly demonic spiritual fallen angels with power earthly power princes

00:12:38.760 and principalities is speaking of earthly regions right like provinces in canada or states in

00:12:48.480 these united states so there are principalities earthly regions and set up over these principalities

00:12:55.980 are princes not speaking of the human political ruler but rather the spiritual entity dark

00:13:04.060 demonic fallen angel entity that satan having received dominion since it was forfeited by adam

00:13:12.000 and his sin he then delegated dominion to many of his followers fallen angels over the whole earth

00:13:19.400 i believe personally i'm often made fun of for this but you know what i'm having fun and the

00:13:27.100 people who make fun of me are miserable so it's okay i believe that greek mythology

00:13:31.160 nailed it. I think they're weird. I think that they missed some of the details, probably a lot 0.96

00:13:38.060 of the details, but the idea that there would be certain lowercase g gods and that these gods are

00:13:44.340 assigned to specific regions. Poseidon, god of the sea. Well, I don't know. In Adam sinning and

00:13:53.340 forfeiting dominion to Satan and Satan having fallen angels underneath his command, could he

00:13:58.780 have assigned the sea to one of these fallen angels and given him power over the sea to use

00:14:04.720 the sea as a particular avenue or mechanism in order to do as much harm and destruction to God's

00:14:12.040 image-bearing creatures mankind as possible of course not only is it plausible I actually think

00:14:19.000 that that's the most faithful reading of biblical text and the sea throughout scripture often

00:14:25.620 represents another wilderness a watery wilderness but it's a place of emptiness and death and the

00:14:33.560 sea represents death that's one of the reasons why since we're on the topic the book of revelation

00:14:38.880 when it speaks of our final eternal heavenly abode there is no sea why have you ever thought of that

00:14:46.400 there's no sea in heaven well because the sea is an untamed place that represents waste and death

00:14:54.780 right the sea is not fresh water that is used as nourishment right it's salt water

00:15:01.480 it's it's a place that yes it's teeming with life in a sense god fills the sea with creatures

00:15:08.100 and we you know eat fish there's a purpose to the sea but it is in spiritual terms viewed as an

00:15:16.060 empty dead place we even have quite literally in our world one particular sea that's called

00:15:23.120 the dead sea because it's so filled with salt that nothing can live in it and in heaven there

00:15:31.100 will be no sea because all of heaven will team with life and only life and death will be no more

00:15:37.880 so adam is given dominion adam sends forfeits dominion to satan satan delegates dominion to

00:15:44.840 different princes over different principalities we know that there was one such prince over the

00:15:51.840 principality of persia this is all real and then satan makes a valid offer with nefarious intent

00:15:59.860 there's the lie there's the deceit but the valid the offer itself is in fact valid when he tempts

00:16:06.160 jesus in the wilderness and one of those particular out of the three temptations being i will give you

00:16:11.700 the kingdoms of the earth if you will bow down and worship me satan can make this offer because

00:16:17.740 the kingdoms of the earth at that time actually were his. Now, of course, this is where the

00:16:24.860 evangelical pietists would insert their peanut gallery opinion and say, but Jesus says no,

00:16:31.380 because Jesus' kingdom is not of this world, and he's not interested in politics.

00:16:38.140 No, Jesus says no, because it's idolatry to bow down and worship Satan. He says no to Satan

00:16:45.460 and his offer, not because he's not interested in the kingdoms of the world, but he is not

00:16:50.500 interested in the means by which Satan is offering them, namely idolatry. In essence,

00:16:59.560 Jesus, his response to Satan could be described such as this. I will not worship you in order to

00:17:07.180 be given the kingdoms of this earth, but I will defeat you and take the kingdoms of this earth.

00:17:15.460 He didn't want Satan to give him the kingdoms because he intended on taking these earthly kingdoms, and he has.

00:17:23.220 Colossians speaks of demonic spiritual entities being held up to open shame

00:17:33.040 because of the finished work of Jesus Christ. 0.99

00:17:37.420 And all their weaponry, or we could at least say in specificity, all their lethal weaponry,

00:17:45.460 has been stripped away from them so that these demonic entities that once ruled the world

00:17:52.680 have been put to open shame and they have been rendered toothless. They have been rendered

00:17:59.540 impotent. And what is the lethal weaponry? Satan can still push and prod and tempt and even to

00:18:09.040 varying degrees for those especially who don't belong to christ he can oppress even now in this

00:18:15.840 gospel age in the church age since the finished work of jesus but what he cannot do not for god's

00:18:24.900 elect not for the christian is use any lethal weapon against them because satan only had at

00:18:32.480 his disposal even in his heyday one lethal weapon do you know what that lethal weapon was

00:18:39.540 it was the accusation of your unforgiven sin that's the only thing that he possessed against

00:18:50.380 you the only leverage the only advantage that satan had against you that was truly in the

00:19:00.500 eternal sense not just earthly but the eternal sense truly lethal meaning your eternal death

00:19:09.060 your eternal destruction that's the only thing he had was the record of all your wrongs that had not

00:19:18.640 been forgiven but because of Christ's death and resurrection that lethal weapon was stripped

00:19:28.540 by christ out of the hands of satan and all his minions were held to open shame and the bible

00:19:35.860 teaches this so god having authority gives dominion to adam adam having sinned forfeits

00:19:42.580 it to satan satan having been mocked and humiliated and defeated by christ has now had his dominion

00:19:51.440 over the earth stripped by christ back to jesus and we as christ ambassadors having union with

00:19:59.860 christ by the spirit through faith have been set up as christ minions his ambassadors

00:20:06.940 and the cultural mandate all the way back from the beginning in genesis 1 and 2

00:20:13.040 has been restored for the christian to be fruitful and multiply multiply both in the

00:20:19.520 literal sense with children and marriage but also in a spiritual sense with doing the work of an

00:20:24.940 evangelist and the great commission and making disciples of nations and also cultivating the

00:20:30.920 earth and making it into a garden city now where do we stand today because all of this is glorious

00:20:39.040 and hopeful and encouraging and comforting and consoling and you on the lord's day as we gather

00:20:46.780 on the market day of the soul as we ascend the delectable hills as the church the excellent

00:20:53.240 ones and all the earth gathering together for the ordinary means of grace word and sacrament

00:20:58.700 we need to be encouraged but we also need to not be naive innocent as doves but as wise

00:21:09.100 and shrewd as serpents so christ is victorious and his people the church will be victorious

00:21:18.740 christ will not win in the bottom of the ninth despite a weak and losing church but christ who

00:21:28.040 is head of the church will win it's his victory it's his doing but the question is how and i

00:21:34.960 believe the bible teaches that christ will win not despite a weak and losing church but christ

00:21:40.300 will win through his body on earth that is the church christ will win through the church

00:21:46.700 i will build my church grow expand advance my church and the gates of hades the gates of hell

00:21:57.760 will not prevail against it now notice that that term gates is a defensive term

00:22:05.940 it is not the church that is up against the ropes receiving blow after blow from the battering rams

00:22:14.240 of hell but being held together and sustained by christ so that we make it to the final bell

00:22:21.020 when Christ tags us out and tags himself in to finally defeat the devil. That's not the biblical

00:22:28.700 language. No, the language of the Bible is that hell is on the ropes and that the church is the 0.99

00:22:35.260 battering ram of Christ and that hell will not be able to withstand blow after blow after blow

00:22:42.220 throughout this gospel church age, that Christ will win progressively, gradually, tangibly

00:22:49.360 through his church not despite the church i believe that you've heard me preach that now

00:22:58.020 for years and my opinion has not changed on the matter that said if you think we're winning right 0.97

00:23:06.140 now you're an idiot we have to be able to hold both truths intention the great post-millennial hope 0.99

00:23:17.000 yes and amen the church getting its butt kicked currently yes and amen 1.00

00:23:24.720 so whether you're pre-millennial i'd encourage you not to be dispensational but

00:23:31.320 a historic pre-millennialism or an all-millennialism or post-millennialism

00:23:36.780 this is what you need to hold in tension especially for you know the hashtag that

00:23:42.540 post-mill guys in the room god bless you i'm one of you but this is what you need to understand

00:23:47.960 even if post-millennialism is true as the biblical eschatology and i personally you

00:23:54.320 know my opinion i think it is that does not mean that it's just this steady guaranteed incline

00:24:01.700 without any dips along the way we are in a heck of a dip right now i would argue

00:24:11.020 a three to five hundred year long dip,

00:24:14.740 particularly in the West.

00:24:20.440 We are murdering, just our nation alone,

00:24:24.140 a million babies in their mother's womb annually.

00:24:30.460 Satan is having a field day.

00:24:33.720 And he is the strong man, back to our text.

00:24:37.340 This is what Jesus is speaking of.

00:24:38.940 they say, you're doing this by Beelzebul, a name for the devil. You are casting out demons by the

00:24:46.180 power of demons, by the power of the king of demons, Satan himself. And Jesus says, that's,

00:24:52.780 that's dumb. A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. Satan doesn't cast out Satan. No. 0.99

00:25:01.800 no but then jesus goes further and says but there is a strong man who did have and at this time as

00:25:12.360 jesus is speaking who does have at that moment an earthly authority and dominion he is the strong

00:25:20.340 man of the house and the house that jesus is referencing was the earth it was satan's house

00:25:28.900 God made the house and he gave the house to Adam and Adam handed the keys over to Satan

00:25:35.480 it was Satan's house he took it fair and square but Jesus says that the house at that moment

00:25:44.020 Satan's house would be plundered but before it be plundered at first needed to be invaded

00:25:52.260 and the strong man the leader of that house needed to be bound and this is what christ has done

00:26:01.180 he has bound satan and then his people you and i are now plundering the house but the fact that

00:26:12.160 satan is bound does not mean that he is yet completely destroyed he is bound and there's

00:26:21.340 a sense in which he knows his time is short and that his doom is certain but a bound man is not

00:26:27.800 the same as a dead man satan has yet to be cast into the lake of fire his final resting place

00:26:35.520 and even though he is bound he is still able to push to prod to tempt to oppress to confuse

00:26:43.720 to cause chaos and for a few hundred years now after receiving the blessing of christendom that

00:26:52.920 god has granted to the west we have forfeited much of those blessings and satan has grown

00:27:00.760 in strength and power in our age in our lifetime

00:27:06.220 think about this satan is a creature not the creator he's not omniscient nor is he omnipresent

00:27:15.140 he is not like god he's not everywhere all at once he's finite but the fact that he is a creature

00:27:21.780 and finite does not make him our peer satan is a creature who has lived for thousands of years

00:27:29.900 acquiring knowledge skills tools and wisdom not the wisdom that comes from god but

00:27:41.440 a satanic and earthly wisdom satan is not your peer satan is a thousand times smarter than you

00:27:49.980 stronger than you even with his hands tied behind his back you are no match

00:27:57.360 We are talking about a formidable enemy. 0.88

00:28:02.720 And he hates you.

00:28:05.260 And he hates this world.

00:28:08.560 And right now, his team is racking up points on the scoreboard.

00:28:15.000 And have been doing so for a few centuries.

00:28:20.680 Not just decades.

00:28:23.140 I believe that Christ has bound him.

00:28:25.560 And I believe that Christ's victory, not despite the church, but through the church, is certain.

00:28:32.440 What is not certain or promised to us in Scripture, even if you are post-millennial,

00:28:38.000 is that we would have tangible progressive victory today.

00:28:43.720 It is not promised to us that in our lifetime, if Christ tarries,

00:28:49.120 it is not promised that in these next few decades,

00:28:52.700 throughout the course of our life

00:28:54.120 or the lives of our children

00:28:55.640 that Satan's spree

00:28:59.500 that he's been on for quite a while now,

00:29:03.640 racking up point after point after point,

00:29:06.820 it is not guaranteed to us

00:29:08.740 that this scoring spree of Satan

00:29:11.820 would stop any time soon.

00:29:15.280 And so the people of God must be hopeful,

00:29:18.620 must be confident,

00:29:20.540 not in ourselves, but in Christ,

00:29:22.700 but also must be watchful, must be vigilant, must be wise, and not naive.

00:29:31.760 So Christ bound the strong man.

00:29:35.080 He has taken back dominion in the ultimate sense.

00:29:39.840 The final doom of Satan is certain.

00:29:43.900 But the tangible, earthly, progressive, and gradual dominion of Christ through his people,

00:29:49.740 the church is still very much in progress and currently under threat.

00:29:57.220 Going on in your notes, I've written,

00:29:59.920 Yet even this, this miracle of Jesus casting out demons

00:30:07.360 and supernaturally healing a man who was both blind and mute,

00:30:13.540 even this miraculous instance, especially this,

00:30:18.440 the Pharisees, enemies of Christ, a tribute to the work of Beelzebul, the devil. 0.62

00:30:28.100 Even when confronted with divine mercy, the corrupt heart turns truth into blasphemy. 0.88

00:30:36.180 Let me read that again.

00:30:37.920 Even when confronted with divine mercy, and not just mercy, but as we saw earlier,

00:30:45.060 This is not merely the mercy and compassion of Christ, but the power and strength and dominion of Christ over the devil.

00:30:54.480 And yet, when it comes to the corrupt heart, even divine mercy and divine power will be turned and twisted into blasphemy.

00:31:07.780 That's what sin does.

00:31:10.800 The enemies of God will call good evil and evil good.

00:31:18.800 They'll call truth blasphemy, mercy cruelty, and power weakness.

00:31:28.540 This is not mere ignorance on the part of the Pharisees, but rather we must see it as willful rebellion.

00:31:36.560 They're not ignorant.

00:31:37.600 they know what has just occurred they know that this is a supernatural miracle of god

00:31:45.960 not only exercising or or rather conveying communicating power over the physical but

00:31:54.980 dominion over the spiritual that jesus has both the power to heal the physical affliction and

00:32:03.360 exercise the spiritual demonic entity. They're not ignorant of this, but rather it is willful

00:32:12.800 rebellion. They could not deny that this is a miracle. If they could have, they would have.

00:32:22.280 Surely, just from a logical standpoint, you can see that if there were any way that the Pharisees,

00:32:29.960 as enemies of christ could have twisted the narrative to say oh it was just a coincidence

00:32:34.700 or this man was healed by some kind of medical means they would have said that they would have

00:32:42.400 said anything to take away and rob christ of a glory and certainly to rob him of any potential

00:32:50.860 status in the eyes of the people as the son of god but this instance is so miraculous so on

00:32:59.820 the nose so undeniable so clear that they can't say well it was a natural occurrence not a miracle

00:33:08.700 no they have to acknowledge that this is a divine supernatural miraculous event and so their only

00:33:15.460 option to still attempt to discredit Christ is to say yes a miracle but performed by the devil

00:33:23.820 we cannot deny that this is proof of supernatural power but whose supernatural power not gods

00:33:35.220 but satan and that's the narrative that they choose

00:33:40.260 the last point for today and then we'll focus on the second half of the text

00:33:46.740 lord willing next week the sign of the reprobate blasphemy of the holy spirit

00:33:54.440 So first we've seen the sign of the kingdom,

00:33:57.060 Christ's dominion over Satan. 0.88

00:33:58.500 Now the sign of the damned. 0.75

00:34:01.580 The sign of the reprobate. 1.00

00:34:03.940 Not just the unbeliever, 1.00

00:34:06.440 who one day, by God's grace,

00:34:08.620 would be converted and saved and regenerated

00:34:11.060 by the work of the Holy Spirit.

00:34:13.000 But no, what Jesus is about to reference

00:34:15.800 is a category of people,

00:34:17.900 namely the reprobate, who will never be saved. 0.83

00:34:21.480 The non-elect. 0.68

00:34:24.660 When the Bible speaks of evangelism and conversion, it is not goats being transformed into sheep, but rather it is lost sheep being found. 0.52

00:34:38.320 That's what conversion is.

00:34:39.600 When Jesus says, my sheep hear my voice, he's not saying that exclusively Christians hear my voice.

00:34:46.360 He's saying all who are elect sheep will hear my voice.

00:34:50.220 some of them having not yet become Christians, but still sheep will hear my voice come and be found.

00:35:00.460 Salvation is not goats going into sheep. Salvation is lost sheep being found sheep.

00:35:07.260 But there is, biblically speaking, a category outside of sheep altogether. It is the category

00:35:14.220 of goats goats are not just non-christians because a sheep can be a non-christian for a time until it

00:35:20.740 is found but a goat is a non-christian who will always be a non-christian a goat is a non-christian

00:35:27.580 who will never be converted who will never be saved who will never be regenerated a goat is 0.95

00:35:33.680 someone who hates christ and will only ever hate christ the reprobate the non-elect the damned 0.54

00:35:43.040 and one sign of a goat the reprobate is the blasphemy of the holy spirit let's look at the 0.73

00:35:53.320 words of jesus now verse 31 of our text says this therefore i tell you every sin and blasphemy will

00:36:00.520 be forgiven people in this context jesus referencing blasphemy against himself the son

00:36:08.900 But the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.

00:36:16.200 Blaspheming the Son could be a lost sheep that one day will be found.

00:36:23.820 Blaspheming the Spirit is not a lost sheep that one day will be found,

00:36:30.360 but a goat who will never, ever change.

00:36:34.580 and in the end, in Christ's final return,

00:36:39.540 he will separate the sheep from the goats

00:36:41.660 at his right and left hand

00:36:43.560 and say to the goats, depart from me, 0.89

00:36:47.300 you workers of iniquity. 0.88

00:36:51.160 This is who is in reference

00:36:53.760 in the mind of Christ at this point in our text.

00:36:58.360 The goat, the reprobate, the non-elect.

00:37:01.820 in your notes i've written this christ now warns of the unpardonable the unforgivable sin

00:37:10.540 namely the blasphemy against the holy spirit this is not every doubt hear me

00:37:18.220 or you will struggle with assurance of salvation as i personally have

00:37:23.140 but when i learned things like this from the word of god

00:37:28.800 the lord used it to provide for my heart a great assurance and i want you to possess that assurance

00:37:36.680 as well this is not this sin unforgivable sin that is the blasphemy against the holy spirit

00:37:45.300 it is not every doubt or blasphemous word but rather a specific and settled rejection

00:37:53.580 of god's truth especially when it has been made known through the spirit's clear testimony

00:38:02.380 when a man with full knowledge calls the spirit's work demonic he reveals a heart

00:38:11.220 that is not only hostile to god but irreversibly seared

00:38:16.740 now as a personal encouragement to you i've written this let us take this not as a point

00:38:26.500 of speculative terror not incessant never-ending introspection puritans hardest hit right

00:38:38.380 i like the puritans in this regard do not be like the puritans

00:38:43.900 this concept of the blasphemy of the holy spirit should not be something that you constantly

00:38:53.620 navel gaze for the rest of your life holding a daisy sitting on a hillside god loves me he loves

00:39:02.780 me not. He loves me. He loves me not. I did blaspheme the spirit. Maybe I didn't blaspheme

00:39:08.800 the spirit. I did blaspheme, but maybe I didn't. Don't do that. No, this warning, and it is a strong

00:39:16.560 warning, but it is not meant to be a point of speculative terror, but as a sober warning.

00:39:25.520 here's the determining factor have i committed this sin here's a good sign a good way to tell

00:39:33.940 if we are grieved by this sin and even the potential of committing it and fear that we

00:39:41.240 ourselves have committed this sin that very grief is an evidence that we have not for the heart

00:39:48.680 that has sinned in such a manner is no longer tender if you are one who has blasphemed

00:39:56.780 the holy spirit committed this sin as a way in the manner that christ references it

00:40:03.600 in our text today you would not be here

00:40:07.100 the the blasphemers of the holy spirit don't go to church well they don't go to our church

00:40:16.780 they go to synagogues 1.00

00:40:22.040 they go to mosques

00:40:25.920 they go to some protestant churches

00:40:29.840 and some catholic churches

00:40:31.520 but they don't go to churches that preach the bible

00:40:36.380 those who truly have committed this sin

00:40:40.020 an unpardonable sin of blaspheming the holy spirit

00:40:43.560 you're talking about someone

00:40:45.200 who has clear undeniable knowledge of the spirit's testimony to the divinity of christ

00:40:55.900 and yet it cannot be waved away in speculation as some kind of natural occurrence they have to do

00:41:05.500 just as the pharisees did and attribute this miraculous testimony by the spirit to the

00:41:11.480 divinity and deity of christ and they have to blaspheme it and somehow twist it into the work

00:41:18.980 of satan himself now one of the reoccurring themes and we'll end with this that we've seen throughout

00:41:26.800 the gospel according to matthew is this principle that i've espoused with great grace comes great

00:41:33.640 responsibility with great grace comes great responsibility remember the woes that jesus

00:41:40.220 pronounced on certain jewish towns and he says if the miracles that he performed in these towns in

00:41:47.680 israel had been performed in sodom or gomorrah they would have repented long ago and then he says

00:41:55.180 that the torment and punishment for these jewish towns that rejected such grapes that it would be 0.75

00:42:02.720 a greater punishment for them on the final day than it would be for sodom and gomorrah why 0.95

00:42:08.720 because their sin was greater than sodom and gomorrah perhaps perhaps not but what we know

00:42:15.900 for sure is that they sinned in the face of a greater degree of revelation than sodom and 0.52

00:42:22.860 gomorrah these jewish towns it may not have been the degree of their sin being greater than the 0.94

00:42:29.620 degree of the sin of sodom and gomorrah but what was greater in the case of these jewish towns 0.69

00:42:35.800 was the degree of revelation and grace having been given to them from God 0.95

00:42:42.900 that they continued to sin in spite of.

00:42:46.980 These people saw Jesus walking in their streets in the flesh.

00:42:53.780 These people were eyewitnesses to the miraculous power of Jesus.

00:42:59.300 These people didn't just listen to a sermon online.

00:43:02.800 They heard the Sermon on the Mount.

00:43:05.020 They heard the preaching of Christ.

00:43:08.280 They witnessed him multiplying food for the 5,000.

00:43:12.080 They witnessed him casting out demons, healing the blind, the mute, the lame, and even raising the dead.

00:43:19.700 And with all that, their heart was only hardened.

00:43:25.780 And this is likened unto the sin of the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

00:43:32.060 this is not someone who occasionally doubts no this is someone who great grace has been given to

00:43:40.940 someone who in the face of supernatural holy spirit wrought revelation that jesus is the messiah

00:43:50.060 still doubles down in their rejection of christ

00:43:55.600 so if you're asking the question have i blasphemed the holy spirit

00:44:02.880 the answer would be another question to arrive at the answer

00:44:09.480 have you received from the holy spirit conviction of sin

00:44:16.040 a revelation of christ and in the midst of that

00:44:21.460 attributed the Spirit's work

00:44:25.040 of bearing witness to the Son

00:44:27.420 as the work of the devil?

00:44:31.100 Have you received the Spirit's witness

00:44:33.740 and testimony in a supernatural way

00:44:36.460 to the deity of Christ

00:44:39.060 and then labeled that the work of Beelzebul? 0.72

00:44:43.380 Called that the work of Satan and demons?

00:44:47.920 Have you witnessed the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit to the degree that you cannot explain it away in natural means?

00:44:59.400 And therefore, because you still did not want to accredit the Spirit with glory, you labeled His work as a supernatural work, albeit, but the supernatural work of the devil.

00:45:13.600 and i can just about guarantee for every single person in the room unless of course you're a

00:45:21.280 journalist that the answer to that question is no you have not and if you had you would not be here 0.78

00:45:29.420 there are plenty of sinful christians and there are certainly plenty of sinful unbelievers

00:45:39.860 who are elect and one day will become Christians. 0.95

00:45:44.760 The blasphemy of the Holy Spirit describes none of them.

00:45:48.920 This is reserved as a descriptor 1.00

00:45:51.560 for not just Christians who still err and sin

00:45:56.360 or non-Christians who are elect and one day will be saved, 0.64

00:46:01.520 but for the goats, for the reprobate, for the non-elect. 0.79

00:46:10.660 And among them, there is no conviction.

00:46:14.880 There is no, not just little.

00:46:18.320 You and I, constantly, one of the things we have to repent of is not just our sin,

00:46:23.160 but the fact that we have too little grief over our sin.

00:46:27.300 And too little conviction for our sin.

00:46:30.500 And too slow to confess and repent of our sin.

00:46:34.660 Not so with the reprobate.

00:46:37.600 His problem is not too little grief.

00:46:39.860 or conviction for sin. His problem is he has no grief for sin. No conviction. No repentance.

00:46:49.040 Remember Romans chapter 3 as it describes such a person. There is no fear of God before his eyes.

00:46:58.060 It's not that his problem is too little and that he needs and requires more sanctification

00:47:03.540 to be further conformed into the image of the Son. His problem is not that he has little faith.

00:47:08.900 His problem is that he has no faith.

00:47:12.740 In John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, the second edition,

00:47:17.160 in their company on the way to the celestial city,

00:47:21.720 there is an individual who goes by the name Little Faith.

00:47:25.920 And there's a moment in the book where a few of the people in the company

00:47:30.620 are arguing or at least discussing with one another

00:47:34.560 whether or not little faith in the end will be able to complete the journey.

00:47:40.440 And one who is wiser among their company responds by saying,

00:47:45.120 Oh, of course, he'll make it.

00:47:48.260 For his name is little faith, not no faith.

00:47:53.840 The whole point of faith that Jesus tells us

00:47:59.380 is not that those who have faith that is the degree of a mountain

00:48:03.920 might be able occasionally to move a mustard seed.

00:48:08.800 It's the complete opposite.

00:48:11.520 The faith of a mustard seed can move a mountain.

00:48:16.280 Yes, we want to grow in faith.

00:48:18.120 Yes, we want to grow in repentance.

00:48:19.860 Yes, we want to grow in godly sorrow,

00:48:22.580 as 2 Corinthians speaks,

00:48:24.200 godly grief over our sin.

00:48:26.620 But if we have any faith at all,

00:48:28.440 if we have any grief at all,

00:48:30.440 any conviction at all,

00:48:32.160 then it is proof that we will grow

00:48:35.680 because he who began a good work in you

00:48:38.640 is faithful to bring it to completion

00:48:40.740 and for those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit

00:48:43.620 their problem is not little godliness

00:48:46.600 but no godliness at all

00:48:48.700 Father bless your word to your people

00:48:50.720 and we pray that through it

00:48:52.320 that we might bring you glory

00:48:54.480 we ask this in Jesus name

00:48:56.020 Amen

The NXR Podcast - September 07, 2025

THE SERMON - The Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit

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