Ronnie W. Wolfe
You know, I don’t like football. First, I am not too fond of feet; I mean, who sits around thinking about feet? Someone did, because they thought about it so long and hard that they decided to start using a foot to kick things; thus, the invention of kicking.
Then there is the ball. I like balls, those little (or big) round things that roll and sometimes bounce. One can throw a ball, catch a ball, use a ball for a pillow, exercise with a ball, rolling over it and falling off. One can decorate with balls to make pretty, colored decor for a birthday party or a stage play. I like balls.
But this thing they call a football is not really a ball. It isn’t even a sphere. It’s just a thing that seems to have come from someone’s nightmare. I understand it is hard to throw (unless one goes to university to get a degree in that). It is also very hard to catch, they tell me. It is very interesting when someone twirls it around in a circle in a spinning direction and leaves it there to spin for a while–that I do like about a football.
I am not sure who designed this “ball,” but it looks like someone put their hands into one of those hand warmers (you know, like the English use), then pulled their hands out and brought out the inside of the warmer in the shape of two points, then went home and designed a “ball” like that. How it ever caught on I can never tell.
Then someone played with this football long enough that he made it a game. Now every game needs rules, I suppose; so some people got together and made rules. In order to make rules, they had to have players in the game to do different things in order to fit the rules; so they made a quarter this, a half that and a full something else, a tight this and a tail that, a line this, and a corner that. Well, that is just confusing. I don’t really know how long it took to make all of these rules, but I asked my son once to sit down with me to watch a game and tell me about all the maneuvers, the rules, and the scoring of this game. After an hour of watching kicking, scrambling, falling, butting, rolling, and getting hurt, I was tired of my son’s telling me that every move they made had a rule to it. It’s sort of like Ezekiah’s dry bones: this rule connected to that rule, which overrules another rule, that offsets another rule.
By the time one team got from the center of this playground that was built just for this game to the end of the playground, the players were not the only ones who were exhausted. I was pretty much given out myself.
You know, I cannot play football, and I am pretty much glad for that; because I don’t have to get together with a bunch of ruffians who are bent on killing one another, put on what is the equivalent of three snow suits, a helmet on my head, and a cage on my face and pretend that everything is normal and we are having fun. I could just as soon join the army, go to battle, and fight the enemy. At least I would be doing it for a just cause; but what is the just cause in football?
My birthday is on Monday; and if you would like to really tee me off (I think that’s from golf) instead of wish me a happy birthday, just buy me a football. You may experience a defensive tackle and come to a defensive end.
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
The Benefit of Christ #1 - Grace of Christ
By Pastor Dr. Ronnie W. Wolfe – Beginning 9/11/2013
Wednesday Messages
LESSON ONE – THE GRACE OF CHRIST
_______________________________________________
Galatians 1:6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him
that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:
______________________________________________
I. WE ARE CALLED INTO THE GRACE OF CHRIST
A. You and I do not choose the grace of Christ. It is beyond our nature to do so.
B. John 5:40 And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.
C. Matt 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
D. First God calls us by the Gospel. This is the General Call of God
1. Rom. 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
2. Matt 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
3. Mark 16:15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
a. We are to preach the Gospel to every creature, every human being, no matter what their background or religious persuasion.
b. God takes this Gospel when he sees fit and brings power to be upon people, for we find in Rom. 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
c. This power is what makes the difference in this General Call and our next point, The Effectual Call.
4. In our text, these folks had been called by the General Call of God. We know this, because they were removed from the true Gospel to another Gospel.
E. Then God calls us out of darkness into his glorious light – This is the Effectual Call
1. 1 Peter 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
2. In the General Call, God calls everyone who hears the Gospel, and many reject
3. In this call, he actually calls them effectually out of darkness into his marvelous light.
4. This is the work of God, for we read in 2 Cor 4:6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
5. God calls us out of darkness by shining in our hearts the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
6. This effectual call is also shown in 2 Thess 2:14 Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
a. Here we are called by the Gospel to the obtaining (or receiving) the glory of Jesus Christ.
b. God effectually calls us into his kingdom (1 Thess. 2:12)
7. 1 Peter 5:10 But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.
II. HOW WAS CHRIST’S GRACE MANIFESTED?
A. He Became poor
1. 2 Cor. 8:9 For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.
2. Phil. 2:6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
3. Phil 2:7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
4. Phil. 2:8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
B. Through The Gift of Righteousness
1. Rom 5:17 For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
C. It Is God’s Grace, But Given By Jesus Christ
1. 1 Cor 1:4 I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ;
2. So we know by this that we cannot receive the grace of God any other way except through Jesus Christ.
3. Eph 4:7 But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
III. THE JOY OF CHRIST’S GRACE
A. Col 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
B. This grace in our hearts is from God. It is saving grace, growing grace, sustaining grace, knowing grace, loving grace, Christ’s grace.
IV. GOD’S GRACE AND CHRIST’S GRACE ARE THE SAME
A. 2 Thess 1:12 That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
B. The use of the word "and" here is the ascensive use and can be translated "even."
V. THE GRACE OF CHRIST IS ABUNDANT
A. 1 Tim. 1:14 And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
B. We Are To Be Strong In The Grace of Christ
1. 2 Tim. 2:1 Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
VI. SOME WILL DENY THE GRACE OF JESUS CHRIST
A. Jude 1:4 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.
1. To deny means to prove to oneself that something is not true or that a thing or person does not exist.
2. But to deny that something exists is self-contradictory. You cannot prove that something isn’t. The only way to do that is to have complete universal knowledge of everything, and no human being has that, of course.
3. The only way to logically deny Christ is to put something in his place. Therefore Galatians speaks of “another gospel,” (See our text) and Gal. 1:7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
4. Or another Jesus – 2 Cor. 11:4 For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.
5. So the only way to deny Jesus Christ in this way is to pervert him.
a. That is, to make Jesus something that he is not.
b. Some say, as we have recently noticed, that Jesus casts out devils in the name of Beelzebub.
c. Others say he is no king “We have no king but Caesar” John 19:15.
d. They say he is simply human and not God – Matt. 13:55 Is not this the carpenter’s son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? 56 And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things?
6. But Jesus is the “only Lord God.” Jude 1:4
B. The Fate Of Those Who Deny Him -- Matt 10:33 But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.
C. But we are to deny ourselves – Matt 16:24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
Wednesday Messages
LESSON ONE – THE GRACE OF CHRIST
_______________________________________________
Galatians 1:6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him
that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:
______________________________________________
I. WE ARE CALLED INTO THE GRACE OF CHRIST
A. You and I do not choose the grace of Christ. It is beyond our nature to do so.
B. John 5:40 And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.
C. Matt 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
D. First God calls us by the Gospel. This is the General Call of God
1. Rom. 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
2. Matt 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
3. Mark 16:15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
a. We are to preach the Gospel to every creature, every human being, no matter what their background or religious persuasion.
b. God takes this Gospel when he sees fit and brings power to be upon people, for we find in Rom. 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
c. This power is what makes the difference in this General Call and our next point, The Effectual Call.
4. In our text, these folks had been called by the General Call of God. We know this, because they were removed from the true Gospel to another Gospel.
E. Then God calls us out of darkness into his glorious light – This is the Effectual Call
1. 1 Peter 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
2. In the General Call, God calls everyone who hears the Gospel, and many reject
3. In this call, he actually calls them effectually out of darkness into his marvelous light.
4. This is the work of God, for we read in 2 Cor 4:6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
5. God calls us out of darkness by shining in our hearts the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
6. This effectual call is also shown in 2 Thess 2:14 Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
a. Here we are called by the Gospel to the obtaining (or receiving) the glory of Jesus Christ.
b. God effectually calls us into his kingdom (1 Thess. 2:12)
7. 1 Peter 5:10 But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.
II. HOW WAS CHRIST’S GRACE MANIFESTED?
A. He Became poor
1. 2 Cor. 8:9 For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.
2. Phil. 2:6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
3. Phil 2:7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
4. Phil. 2:8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
B. Through The Gift of Righteousness
1. Rom 5:17 For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
C. It Is God’s Grace, But Given By Jesus Christ
1. 1 Cor 1:4 I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ;
2. So we know by this that we cannot receive the grace of God any other way except through Jesus Christ.
3. Eph 4:7 But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
III. THE JOY OF CHRIST’S GRACE
A. Col 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
B. This grace in our hearts is from God. It is saving grace, growing grace, sustaining grace, knowing grace, loving grace, Christ’s grace.
IV. GOD’S GRACE AND CHRIST’S GRACE ARE THE SAME
A. 2 Thess 1:12 That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
B. The use of the word "and" here is the ascensive use and can be translated "even."
V. THE GRACE OF CHRIST IS ABUNDANT
A. 1 Tim. 1:14 And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
B. We Are To Be Strong In The Grace of Christ
1. 2 Tim. 2:1 Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
VI. SOME WILL DENY THE GRACE OF JESUS CHRIST
A. Jude 1:4 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.
1. To deny means to prove to oneself that something is not true or that a thing or person does not exist.
2. But to deny that something exists is self-contradictory. You cannot prove that something isn’t. The only way to do that is to have complete universal knowledge of everything, and no human being has that, of course.
3. The only way to logically deny Christ is to put something in his place. Therefore Galatians speaks of “another gospel,” (See our text) and Gal. 1:7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
4. Or another Jesus – 2 Cor. 11:4 For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.
5. So the only way to deny Jesus Christ in this way is to pervert him.
a. That is, to make Jesus something that he is not.
b. Some say, as we have recently noticed, that Jesus casts out devils in the name of Beelzebub.
c. Others say he is no king “We have no king but Caesar” John 19:15.
d. They say he is simply human and not God – Matt. 13:55 Is not this the carpenter’s son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? 56 And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things?
6. But Jesus is the “only Lord God.” Jude 1:4
B. The Fate Of Those Who Deny Him -- Matt 10:33 But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.
C. But we are to deny ourselves – Matt 16:24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
Monday, September 2, 2013
The Unpardonable Sin
Dr. Ronnie W. Wolfe – Matthew 12:31-32 – September 1, 2013 PM
I. WRONG DEFINITIONS FOR THIS SIN
A. See also Mark 3:29
B. Ritschl teaches that any sin that comes short of rejection of Christ is ignorance rather than sin.
1. This makes the sin against the Holy Spirit the only real sin.
2. It also makes the sin against the Holy Spirit to be the rejection of Christ, which it is not.
C. A. H. Strong teaches that “There is much incipient hardening of the heart that precedes the sin of final obduracy. . . . a result of continuance in wrong doing, with consequent hardening of the whole moral nature.”
1. Strong goes so far as to say that the “heart is radically and finally set against God that no power which God can consistently use will ever save it . . . . This sin, therefore, can be only the culmination of a long course of self-hardening and self-depraving."
2. Depravity is already total, so man needs no “self-depraving.”
3. Strong goes on and says, “The sin against the Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven, simply because the soul that has committed it has ceased to be receptive of divine influences, even when those influences are exerted in the utmost strength, which God has seen fit to employ in his spiritual administration.” (Pg. 651).
4. Strong uses expressions such as
a. Loss of spiritual sight
b. Loss of religious sensibility
c. Loss of sensitiveness
d. Loss of power to will the good
5. But we have already lost all of this, else salvation is not by grace.
D. Weismann in his “Heredity” says, “If a man should put out his eyes, he could not see; nothing could make him see. So if a man should by obstinate wickedness destroy his power to believe in God’s forgiveness, he would be in a hopeless state. Though God would still be gracious, the man could not see it, and so he could not take God’s forgiveness to himself.”
1. If this were true, then the more a man sins, the more likely it is that he will not receive forgiveness.
2. The sins of Saul of Tarsus teach us that this is not true, for he called himself the chief of sinners.
II. CORRECT DEFINITION FOR THIS SIN
A. John Gill on Matthew 12:31 – “by which is meant, not every ignorant denial of, and opposition to his deity and personality; nor all resistance of him in the external ministry of the word; nor every sin that is knowingly and willfully committed; but it is a despitefull usage of the Spirit of grace, an opposing, contradicting, and denying the operations wrought, or doctrines revealed by him, against a man's own light and conscience, out of willful and obstinate malice, on purpose to lessen the glory of God, and gratify his own lusts: such was the sin of the Scribes and Pharisees; who, though they knew the miracles of Christ were wrought by the Spirit of God, yet maliciously and obstinately imputed them to the devil, with a view to obscure the glory of Christ, and indulge their own wicked passions and resentments against him; which sin was unpardonable at that present time, as well as under that dispensation then to come, when the Spirit of God was poured down in a more plenteous manner.”
B. Dr. J. P. Thompson has an imperfect definition when he says, as quoted by A. H. Strong (pg. 651), “The unpardonable sin is the knowing, willful, persistent, contemptuous, malignant spurning of divine truth and grace, as manifested to the soul by the convincing and illuminating power of the Holy Ghost.”
1. I say it is imperfect, because it implies that, when a person is convinced by the Holy Spirit of his sin, he can resist God’s grace.
2. But the Bible teaches us that the grace of God in salvation is so loving, so gracious, so irresistible and so binding and convincing that no one could nor would he resist it, since the will of the person receiving the divine grace is relieved and grateful for that grace that draws him away from the clutches of his own sin and acquiesces to that grace with ultimate pleasure and willingness.
3. Just as if you were drowning in the ocean and going down for the last time, and someone throws you a lifeline. Your instincts tell you, without casual and determinate deliberation in your mind, and without resistance, that you must take hold of the lifeline to be saved. So, when the grace of God comes upon a person, he reaches out to God's salvation with desperation, knowing that, without it, he will die in his sins. There is no resisting of God's grace here.
III. EXPLANATION OF THIS SIN
A. It Is A Sin Against Only The Holy Spirit.
1. Against Jesus – Matt 12:32 And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.
2. All manner of sin – Matt 12:31 Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.
B. It Is An Active Sin
1. This is not a sin of ignorance or a sin of omission; it is a very positive, active, and purposeful sin.
2. This is a sin that is committed out of hate and jealousy.
C. It Is A Jewish Sin
1. This was a part of finishing the Jewish transgression – Daniel 9:24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression,
2. “The transgression” is Israel's complete rejection of Jesus as Messiah.
3. The final stroke of that transgression was the crucifixion of Jesus on the cross.
4. Part of this rejection was to misrepresent the Messiah.
5. To know that he was the Messiah by every logical proof, to know his Messiah-ship by the reading of the Jewish Scriptures, to understand by his signs, wonders, and his fulfillment of prophecy and then to credit the devil with the work that Jesus did is part of the great transgression in its completion.
6. Perhaps David was speaking of this sin when he wrote in Psalm 19:13 Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. John Gill thinks so, and so do I.
7. John 1:11 He came unto his own, and his own (people) received him not.
D. It Is A Sin For A Special Time
1. This is a sin that could be committed only when Jesus was on the earth, for he was being manifested at that time as the Messiah of God, the Savior of men, and as the King of the Jews.
2. During the manifestation of Jesus as the Messiah, he did many miracles. Among them was the miracle of casting out devils.
a. Matt 12:22 Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw.
3. Jesus was rejected at the time he was showing himself to the world as the Son of God, the Servant of God, the Savior of man, and as the Son of Man.
E. It Is A Sin Committed By A Group, Not An Individual
1. Notice that it was the body of the Pharisees and the scribes who gave credit to Satan for the work of the Holy Spirit, thus blaspheming and sinning directly against the work of the Holy Spirit.
2. The Pharisees rejected him as the Messiah and credited Satan for casting out the devils.
a. Matt 12:24 But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.
3. The scribes did the same.
a. Mark 3:22 And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils.
4. However, the condemnation is to everyone in that group who commits that sin.
a. Mark 3:29-30 But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation: 30 Because they said, He hath an unclean spirit.
F. It Is The Only Sin That Has No Forgiveness
1. We have already noticed, Matt 12:31 Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.
2. It shall not be forgiven in this life nor the life to come.
3. The last part of Matt. 12:32 says, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.
4. All sin is forgiven in his world. There are no second chances in the world to come.
5. The world to come is mentioned due to the fact that some religions allow for that possibility.
6. So, if this sin is not forgiven in this world, then we know that it cannot be forgiven in the world to come–that is logical and scriptural
7. Rev 22:11 He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.
G. It Is A Sin Of Unforgiveness By God's Prerogative
1. Notice that it does not say that the sin CANNOT be forgiven in this world nor the world to come, but that it SHALL NOT be forgiven in this world nor the world to come.
2. That means that God has willfully purposed that he will not forgive this sin; it is not that he cannot but that he will not. It is his prerogative.
IV. IMPLICATION OF THIS SIN
A. The question is most usually asked, “Can anyone commit this sin today?”
1. This sin, as already described, was for the time of the revealing of Jesus as the Messiah, upon his casting out devils by God’s authority, and by the Jews as they finished their great transgression.
2. Therefore, no one commits this sin today.
B. Therefore, all sins today can be forgiven.
C. How are sins forgiven?
1. By Grace – Eph 2:5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
2. By Repentance –
a. Acts 3:19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
b. Mark 1:15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.
3. By Faith – Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
I. WRONG DEFINITIONS FOR THIS SIN
A. See also Mark 3:29
B. Ritschl teaches that any sin that comes short of rejection of Christ is ignorance rather than sin.
1. This makes the sin against the Holy Spirit the only real sin.
2. It also makes the sin against the Holy Spirit to be the rejection of Christ, which it is not.
C. A. H. Strong teaches that “There is much incipient hardening of the heart that precedes the sin of final obduracy. . . . a result of continuance in wrong doing, with consequent hardening of the whole moral nature.”
1. Strong goes so far as to say that the “heart is radically and finally set against God that no power which God can consistently use will ever save it . . . . This sin, therefore, can be only the culmination of a long course of self-hardening and self-depraving."
2. Depravity is already total, so man needs no “self-depraving.”
3. Strong goes on and says, “The sin against the Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven, simply because the soul that has committed it has ceased to be receptive of divine influences, even when those influences are exerted in the utmost strength, which God has seen fit to employ in his spiritual administration.” (Pg. 651).
4. Strong uses expressions such as
a. Loss of spiritual sight
b. Loss of religious sensibility
c. Loss of sensitiveness
d. Loss of power to will the good
5. But we have already lost all of this, else salvation is not by grace.
D. Weismann in his “Heredity” says, “If a man should put out his eyes, he could not see; nothing could make him see. So if a man should by obstinate wickedness destroy his power to believe in God’s forgiveness, he would be in a hopeless state. Though God would still be gracious, the man could not see it, and so he could not take God’s forgiveness to himself.”
1. If this were true, then the more a man sins, the more likely it is that he will not receive forgiveness.
2. The sins of Saul of Tarsus teach us that this is not true, for he called himself the chief of sinners.
II. CORRECT DEFINITION FOR THIS SIN
A. John Gill on Matthew 12:31 – “by which is meant, not every ignorant denial of, and opposition to his deity and personality; nor all resistance of him in the external ministry of the word; nor every sin that is knowingly and willfully committed; but it is a despitefull usage of the Spirit of grace, an opposing, contradicting, and denying the operations wrought, or doctrines revealed by him, against a man's own light and conscience, out of willful and obstinate malice, on purpose to lessen the glory of God, and gratify his own lusts: such was the sin of the Scribes and Pharisees; who, though they knew the miracles of Christ were wrought by the Spirit of God, yet maliciously and obstinately imputed them to the devil, with a view to obscure the glory of Christ, and indulge their own wicked passions and resentments against him; which sin was unpardonable at that present time, as well as under that dispensation then to come, when the Spirit of God was poured down in a more plenteous manner.”
B. Dr. J. P. Thompson has an imperfect definition when he says, as quoted by A. H. Strong (pg. 651), “The unpardonable sin is the knowing, willful, persistent, contemptuous, malignant spurning of divine truth and grace, as manifested to the soul by the convincing and illuminating power of the Holy Ghost.”
1. I say it is imperfect, because it implies that, when a person is convinced by the Holy Spirit of his sin, he can resist God’s grace.
2. But the Bible teaches us that the grace of God in salvation is so loving, so gracious, so irresistible and so binding and convincing that no one could nor would he resist it, since the will of the person receiving the divine grace is relieved and grateful for that grace that draws him away from the clutches of his own sin and acquiesces to that grace with ultimate pleasure and willingness.
3. Just as if you were drowning in the ocean and going down for the last time, and someone throws you a lifeline. Your instincts tell you, without casual and determinate deliberation in your mind, and without resistance, that you must take hold of the lifeline to be saved. So, when the grace of God comes upon a person, he reaches out to God's salvation with desperation, knowing that, without it, he will die in his sins. There is no resisting of God's grace here.
III. EXPLANATION OF THIS SIN
A. It Is A Sin Against Only The Holy Spirit.
1. Against Jesus – Matt 12:32 And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.
2. All manner of sin – Matt 12:31 Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.
B. It Is An Active Sin
1. This is not a sin of ignorance or a sin of omission; it is a very positive, active, and purposeful sin.
2. This is a sin that is committed out of hate and jealousy.
C. It Is A Jewish Sin
1. This was a part of finishing the Jewish transgression – Daniel 9:24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression,
2. “The transgression” is Israel's complete rejection of Jesus as Messiah.
3. The final stroke of that transgression was the crucifixion of Jesus on the cross.
4. Part of this rejection was to misrepresent the Messiah.
5. To know that he was the Messiah by every logical proof, to know his Messiah-ship by the reading of the Jewish Scriptures, to understand by his signs, wonders, and his fulfillment of prophecy and then to credit the devil with the work that Jesus did is part of the great transgression in its completion.
6. Perhaps David was speaking of this sin when he wrote in Psalm 19:13 Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. John Gill thinks so, and so do I.
7. John 1:11 He came unto his own, and his own (people) received him not.
D. It Is A Sin For A Special Time
1. This is a sin that could be committed only when Jesus was on the earth, for he was being manifested at that time as the Messiah of God, the Savior of men, and as the King of the Jews.
2. During the manifestation of Jesus as the Messiah, he did many miracles. Among them was the miracle of casting out devils.
a. Matt 12:22 Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw.
3. Jesus was rejected at the time he was showing himself to the world as the Son of God, the Servant of God, the Savior of man, and as the Son of Man.
E. It Is A Sin Committed By A Group, Not An Individual
1. Notice that it was the body of the Pharisees and the scribes who gave credit to Satan for the work of the Holy Spirit, thus blaspheming and sinning directly against the work of the Holy Spirit.
2. The Pharisees rejected him as the Messiah and credited Satan for casting out the devils.
a. Matt 12:24 But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.
3. The scribes did the same.
a. Mark 3:22 And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils.
4. However, the condemnation is to everyone in that group who commits that sin.
a. Mark 3:29-30 But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation: 30 Because they said, He hath an unclean spirit.
F. It Is The Only Sin That Has No Forgiveness
1. We have already noticed, Matt 12:31 Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.
2. It shall not be forgiven in this life nor the life to come.
3. The last part of Matt. 12:32 says, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.
4. All sin is forgiven in his world. There are no second chances in the world to come.
5. The world to come is mentioned due to the fact that some religions allow for that possibility.
6. So, if this sin is not forgiven in this world, then we know that it cannot be forgiven in the world to come–that is logical and scriptural
7. Rev 22:11 He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.
G. It Is A Sin Of Unforgiveness By God's Prerogative
1. Notice that it does not say that the sin CANNOT be forgiven in this world nor the world to come, but that it SHALL NOT be forgiven in this world nor the world to come.
2. That means that God has willfully purposed that he will not forgive this sin; it is not that he cannot but that he will not. It is his prerogative.
IV. IMPLICATION OF THIS SIN
A. The question is most usually asked, “Can anyone commit this sin today?”
1. This sin, as already described, was for the time of the revealing of Jesus as the Messiah, upon his casting out devils by God’s authority, and by the Jews as they finished their great transgression.
2. Therefore, no one commits this sin today.
B. Therefore, all sins today can be forgiven.
C. How are sins forgiven?
1. By Grace – Eph 2:5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
2. By Repentance –
a. Acts 3:19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
b. Mark 1:15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.
3. By Faith – Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
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