The sermon explores the concept of the unforgivable sin, particularly focusing on Matthew 12:31-32. The speaker emphasizes that this sin is the intentional and willful rejection of the work of the Holy Spirit, despite witnessing the displays of God's power and grace. The sermon provides examples from Scripture, such as Pharaoh and the Pharisees, to illustrate the consequences of rejecting the Spirit. However, the speaker also offers assurance to believers that every other sin can be forgiven through the grace and mercy of God. The sermon concludes with applications for unbelievers, those who have not been born again, and believers.

Well children, I want you to imagine, I'm sure this never happens, but I want you to imagine that you did something naughty. I know, never happens in your house, only in my house. But just imagine for a second you did something naughty not major just something small like maybe you You talked back to mommy not really bad just a little bit talked back to mom I know you guys would never do that to your mum but you talked back to mum and she said excuse me don't talk back to me and you said oh sorry mum please forgive you me what would mum do yeah that's right She would forgive you wouldn't she but what if you did something a bit bigger? What if she spoke to you and you yelled back at her? I hope you never do that, but you yelled back at her and then you said oh, I'm sorry I shouldn't have yelled at you mummy would mummy forgive you That's right.

What if you did something way worse like threw a paper plane at her eye and then you said I'm sorry Please forgive me would mummy forgive you Is there anything? That your mummy wouldn't forgive you for if you asked her No, she'd always forgive you wouldn't she why? What do you think yeah, yeah, yeah because she loves us But what about maybe because she's been forgiven You see your mummy knows what it means to be forgiven too, doesn't she? Because your mummy's not I know it's surprising but your mummy's not perfect. I Know it's a shock, but your mom's not perfect She actually makes mistakes too and she gets things wrong and she sins too And so she goes to God and sometimes she has to go to other people and say sorry Sometimes our Mummies and daddies even have to say sorry to us which feels a bit weird.

But what do we do? We say I forgive you Do you know That God is someone who forgives does God forgive Yes, very good. Correct answer. God forgives our sin too. Now.

Do you think there's anything God wouldn't forgive? No If we ask him he'll forgive us that's right, do you know the Bible says there's a sin that God will never forgive Yeah, that's right there is we're gonna be looking at that verse today, it's a really hard verse You know we're doing a series you might remember from last Sunday night If you were here, we're doing a series of really hard verses, and we're doing today the sin that God doesn't forgive and we have to think really clearly but one thing I want you to know is that if you are wondering if you've done it And means you haven't And anyone anyone who goes to God to be forgiven will always be forgiven because God's word Promises that if anyone calls upon the name of the Lord he will be saved But I would encourage you to see if you can listen and figure out what the sin is that God doesn't forgive because it's an important thing to know isn't it because we wouldn't want to do it let's pray and ask God to help us father in heaven we thank you that you are a forgiving God that much more than our mummies and daddies who forgive us you are always gracious and kind to us and we pray that you would help us always to run to you when we do things wrong and always to ask for forgiveness in Jesus name we pray Amen.

We're opening up to the Gospel of Matthew this morning Matthew chapter 12 while you turn there for those who weren't aware we have just begun a small sort of interlude series before we turn to the book of Titus Dealing with some of the hard texts and so we said to you if there's anyone that has any hard texts You can write them down for us. There's still a sheet on the cabinet at that end of the building there's any passages you struggle to understand or you've just always wondered about You're welcome to pop them down there and we'll add them to the list. We're not sure how many will do I'm having a study break a couple of weeks study break shortly. And after that Lord willing will turn to Titus but today we're in Matthew chapter 12 and we're looking and thinking primarily about verse 31 and 32 but I'll read the whole pericope starting at verse 22 Matthew chapter 12 picking up at verse 22 and this is God's holy and infallible word for you this morning Then a demon oppressed man who was blind and mute was brought to him and he healed him so that the man spoke and saw and all the people were amazed and said can this be the son of David?

But when the Pharisees heard it they said it is only by Beelzebul the prince of demons that this man casts out demons. Knowing their thoughts he said to them, every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste and no city or house divided against itself will stand. And if Satan casts out Satan he is divided against himself, How then will his kingdom stand? And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges.

But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons then the kingdom of God has come upon you or How can someone enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man then indeed he may plunder his house whoever is not with me is against me and whoever does not gather with me scatters therefore I tell you every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven and whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven either in this age or in the age to come. Amen. And may God bless the reading of his word to us and before we consider it let us come before him in a time of prayer. Let's pray. Father in heaven we thank you for your holy word.

We pray that you would bless it to us today. We come this morning, Lord, as hungry and thirsty children who have been in the wilderness for another week and we long to be fed That we might go before you and serve you So we ask now Lord that as I speak to the ears of your people that we would all hear the Word of God that we would have a great confidence as we go out from here that we have heard from you we ask that you would exalt your holy name this morning in the preaching of your word in Jesus name we pray amen I wonder if you've ever wondered about the unforgivable sin. It's a striking verse isn't it? The words blasphemy against the spirit will not be forgiven. They're very striking words aren't they?

Of this passage, a Saint Augustine said the following, I tell you my beloved, He said this in his sermon when he preached on this passage. I tell you my beloved Perhaps there is not in all Holy Scripture found a more important or more difficult question Wherefore I have always in my discourses to the people avoided the difficulty and the embarrassment of this question because I did not think I could do justice to the understanding of it. So it's always very alarming as a preacher when you turn to a passage and then you read of one of the greatest writers of human history Who says I've always avoided this passage because it's really hard and then you realize that one of your faithful people Put the passage down on a piece of paper and asked you to preach on it but God's Word is knowable, isn't it and Augustine did go on to preach on it and so must we. What is this passage all about? It's a passage which is notoriously hard to understand and it's also a passage which has caused no small amount of grief for many people.

This struck me a couple of years ago when in my devotional series I was working through 1st Peter and one of my devotions was entitled Losing Salvation. It's one of the most viewed devotions funnily enough and In that I had a discussion with a guy who was sure that he had in fact committed the unforgivable sin he was completely sold on the idea that he had done it and So though he wanted to be saved. He didn't believe he could be saved. He said there's no point in me asking for forgiveness because God won't save me because I've committed this sin. We had a very long discussion and by the end of it Lord willing I think he was able to see that maybe it wasn't the case John Bunyan had the same thing here in the writer of pilgrims progress.

He was convinced that He had in fact blasphemed the Holy Spirit and that there was no hope for him and he writes over a couple of year period of being severely attacked by the devil because this idea of being without hope that there was no mercy on option for him and it's surprised me over the last six years how many times I've had conversations with people even in this room about this question of what is the unforgivable sin and how do I know if I've committed it? And maybe there's some of you sitting here this morning thinking to yourself that's something I have wondered or that's something I am wondering or maybe it might be something you will wonder one day. It's a very important pastoral question Because none of us want to miss out on salvation do we? And Unfortunately this this verse has caused a lot of people to really lose their assurance of salvation and to begin to doubt when in fact what we'll see towards the end is that actually this verse brings great assurance of our salvation. It actually does the opposite We will see at the end that this this section here contains a very hard warning but a very comforting assurance But what's it all about You know, it's it's striking you can imagine how many different views there are on this verse right?

I mean I've told you guys what commentaries are like they love talking about all of the things that Bible passages don't say and and there are a lot of different views but you can kind of boil them all down into just a few around about four different ways of understanding this passage wrongly number one And I actually heard this preached in person once in a church not one of the grace churches but in a church where the preacher said what this passage is talking about is Anyone who looks at something that the Spirit of God is doing and says, ah, that's the work of the devil. And so if you do that, you're out. It's kind of problematic, isn't it? So that means if you have ever looked at a Pentecostal Church and said that is not of God and you were wrong You would be out That's not what this passage means. Okay, just in case you were wondering another option is that the differentiality that Jesus makes here between blaspheming against the Son of Man and blaspheming against the Spirit, blaspheming against Christ, blaspheming against the Spirit, is talking about blaspheming the human man Jesus or blaspheming the triune essence.

The problem is Jesus has God as well right and so it doesn't quite work out and another one is and and you've probably heard this one before that another one is that the the blaspheming of the Spirit is not believing You know, so the only sin that isn't forgivable is not believing in God and So if a person refuses to believe in God all the way to the end of their life and then they die Then they've committed it what the problem with that is Jesus says In the present that the sins won't be forgiven. It is a present act He's not talking about a an act that you will do to the end of your life And then we discover if you've committed it he's talking about something happening with the Pharisees right now He's warning the Pharisees of something. They're tempted to commit right now in front of Jesus and The last one which I have no idea where they got this from is That that the sin is envying the grace of God at work in the life of another person. Yeah I see a few of your eyebrows going up, it's completely acceptable to raise your eyebrows because I have no idea where they got that one from.

But these, but you can imagine all of those then break down into like 58 different options so what do you do with it how do you understand it how do we come to a verse like this and find what Jesus meant because this is the Word of God right When the Word of God says that there is sin that is unforgivable it means it. Well one of the keys is putting this section into its wider context. I know that's always the key right? But we put it into its wider context if you go all the way back to chapter 10 We start there this helps quite a bit So at the end of chapter 9 he's just said we need laborers in chapter 10 Jesus sends out his 12 apostles and Towards the end of it after speaking to his apostles he turns to the crowds from this 40 onwards and says If you receive my representatives thus receiving me you will be blessed There will be a reward for you if you welcome my representatives if you welcome those who come in my name Then in chapter 11, we're confronted with these messengers that come from John the Baptist so chapter 10 the 12 go out Jesus says you are blessed if you receive the Apostles on my behalf then chapter 11 John the Baptist's disciples come and they say to Jesus are you the one we expected to come?

Are you the Messiah effectively? And what does Jesus point to? Jesus says to them in verse 4 and 5 go and tell John what you hear and see the blind receive their sight the lame walk Lepers are cleansed the deaf here the dead are raised up and the poor have good news preached to them Blessed Is the one who is not offended by me so I'm doing the miracles The Spirit of God is working the miracles inside of me. Don't be offended receive me Like the message for the Apostles right receive the Apostles now he says receive me then verse 20 through to 24 Jesus declares this woe upon Chorazin and Bethsaida why This 20 he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works Had been done because they did not repent See what Matthew is doing here Jesus is preaching and he's declaring and he's healing and He declares this whoa because the people refuse to receive him they reject him Then in verse 25 to the end of the chapter. Jesus says come to me all who are weary.

We know these ways well, he invites anyone to come to him and Receive him and receive the blessing of receiving him Then in chapter 12 we get these two miracles on the Sabbath day these abundant displays of the Spirit of God being upon Jesus. Verse 15 onwards Matthew declares that Jesus is the servant chosen by God with the spirit. Verse 18, behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased, I will put my spirit upon him and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. Then in verse 22 we run into this demon oppressed man who by the Spirit of God he's blind and mute he is completely made well and what do the Pharisees do? They're offended aren't they?

They reject Christ. They refuse to receive Him. Do you see this thread running through here? And so then when you come out the other side of this section, In verse 33 down to verse 37 Jesus looks and he says there are two types of people There are those that bear fruit and there are those that bear fruit one's good one's bad Which one are you bear good fruit don't bear bad fruit or to put it in different language receive me or reject me it's one or the other you can't have it both ways the end of this 38 the Pharisees come rejecting him again and say give us a sign prove it. Give us a sign Jesus says the sign of my authority the sign that the Spirit is upon me is my death and resurrection We're almost there Then you get to chapter 13 you get more rejection at the end of chapter 12 when the family come Jesus says no my family are those who do what obey me receive me love me follow me and then in verse 13 you get all of sudden get these parables.

They're connected brothers and sisters First parable, what sort of soil are you? Are you the soil that bears fruit? Parable of the seed and the leaven, kingdom of heaven growing. We learn about weeds, some being torn out and thrown into the fire, others not. And then when we get right down to the end of chapter 13, what takes place?

Jesus goes into Nazareth and gets rejected and we get a big full stop at the end of that. You see from chapter 10 all the way through to chapter 13 there is one huge question being asked of the reader are you a receiver or a rejecter of Christ are you offended At Christ or are you in love with Christ? Will you receive the blessing of receiving Christ or you receive the woe of Rejecting Christ and it's in the middle of that whole large overwhelming section of passage that we get our text. I tell you every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven and whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven either in this age or in the age to come. What's Jesus talking about?

It's not simple enough to just say he's talking about not believing, because there's plenty of people that don't believe and then become believers right you've got a you've got to put it tightly into its context here are these Pharisees and what have they seen around them they've just seen a blind mute demon oppressed man healed prior to that they've seen a man with a withered useless hand restored on the Sabbath day They've heard his sermons, right They've seen the displays of his power. They have every Evidence an individual could ever ask for They are literally drinking in the grace of God being displayed in their midst. You could not ask for a greater testimony Of the grace and mercy and love of God then in the picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, right? I mean, where would you go to find a greater display of God's grace and mercy then in the incarnate Son of God? Restoring healing and saving twisted and broken human beings they're seeing it all but what do they do But what do they do?

They look have a look at the text Verse 23 the People are amazed could this be the Messiah the son of David but when the Pharisees heard it they said ah It is only by beelzebul the prince of demons That this man casts out demons The people See the display of the grace of God and what do they ask is this the Messiah? The religious leaders equally see the display of the grace of God and we know that because they actually say something's taking place right? They don't say well nothing happened here. No one was healed. There was no display of grace.

There was no display of power No, they know there's been a display of power and they have to deal with it because of their idolatrous hearts So they say oh, well, it must be the devil It must be by the devil that he does it do you see the do you see this connection of willfulness and Knowledgeableness you see these Pharisees they know don't they they know they can see what Jesus is doing They are seeing the power of God at work They are seeing and acknowledging it and they're looking at it they're going this is a problem and what do they do they intentionally and willfully and knowledgeably reject reject the Spirit of God that is at work within Christ. They call good evil, Don't they? They look at the goodness and grace of God and they say that's evil Now why is this Why is this so problematic that Jesus would say it is unforgivable I Mean that's a bold thing to say right. I mean can you think of anything else in the world which would be so bad? There's nothing Why does Jesus declare that this sin is unforgivable?

John Calvin says they sin against the Holy Spirit who with evil intention Resist God's truth Although by its brightness they are so touched that they cannot claim ignorance such resistance alone Constitutes this sin and I found about ten different authors that said the same thing. Solid reformed people who said this sin is a intellectually willful refusal to accept God's truth brought to us in God's Spirit. Why does this cause unforgiveness from God? Well let me ask you a different question. Who works regeneration in the heart of a child of God?

The Holy Spirit, right? We are regenerated by the Spirit. Without regeneration is it possible for anyone to believe in God? No. So now you're a Pharisee.

You're not a Pharisee but pretend you're a Pharisee. Okay, don't be a Pharisee Pharisees are not good be don't be a Pharisee pretend you're a Pharisee for a second and And you're looking at Jesus and you're watching him cast out evil spirits restore the blind restore the mute deliver God's grace to image bearers of God preaching the truth of God and all of it is deemed done by the Spirit of God and you're perceiving and understanding what is going on because you know the scriptures off by heart and you look at it all and it's being offered to you freely. All of it is coming to you with the weight of God behind it by the power of the Spirit of God and you say in your heart I Want nothing to do with it And you utterly reject the Holy Spirit that would regenerate your heart. You harden your heart so much that your heart cannot be regenerated any longer. The problem is not on God's side brothers and sisters.

Don't understand this as there's a sin that God is unable to forgive. God's mercy is never ending. There's nothing God cannot forgive. The problems in the heart of these Pharisees who refuse to receive Christ And and there's three three great examples of this in the scriptures one Pharaoh to remember Pharaoh at the Exodus I Mean yeah, we can talk about that God hardening and a him hardening Thing but it says he hardens his heart over and over and over again time and time again Displays of God's power right by God's Spirit being worked out through Moses displays of power at any point Pharaoh could have said I Acknowledge that this is God's power and I bow before him He is king. He is God.

He is Lord and we are not but what did he do? He hardens his heart. He refuses to acknowledge what he knows to be true. Because doesn't he say throughout the story over and over again, well this is surely the hand of God. Only God could do that.

All of his wise men around him, all of the magicians, they're all saying, this is God. Would you just get rid of these people because they're gonna kill us don't you see Pharaoh and what does he do over and over and over again no I'm King and there is no other and he does that all the way to the grave right even after they're gone he chases them out and gets drowned because of his sin but another example is Israel herself In Isaiah 5 God uses this stunning parable picture of a vine. You remember he uses this picture He says that Israel is like a vineyard Isaiah sings a song. It's like a vineyard God came and and planted her and and and put a wall up around her and and pruned her And trimmed her and gave her water and gave her son and fertilizer and gave her everything that she needed to grow Please tell me please tell me he says if there's anything that I didn't do and Yet they have rejected me See Israel Israel knew better didn't they they knew everything they had received all of the blessings all of the promises all of them all of the abundant covenants laid down for them and they rejected it and what was the outcome Babylon Babylon destroyed them but there's one more There's one more example which is probably the most poignant example of this, and it's in a contrast, and it's given to us in the Gospels in two men.

Judas and Peter. You know, for all intents and purposes, there's no real difference between Judas and Peter and what they do, right? Judas denies Christ and sells him, Peter denies Christ and forsakes him. Both of them saw three years of God's display of power in the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of God Both of them heard his teaching both of them felt the love of Christ, both of them had their feet washed by Christ, both of them received communion from the hand of Christ, but one perished in his sin and one didn't both of them regretted what they did do you remember that? Judas regrets what he does and throws the coins back into the temple Peter runs out crying But there is one enormous difference between these two men.

Judas hardened his heart to the Spirit of God and so there was no hope of salvation for him. He's sorry but he does not repent. He's sorry but he does not get forgiven because he had rejected the Lord Jesus Christ outright and in doing so rejected the Spirit of God as well but Peter Peter did not Do you remember that day at the end of John chapter 21 when they're out fishing? And Peter's there and he looks out at the beach and he sees someone and John says, oh it's the Lord! Do you remember what Peter does?

I know it's comical but he strips himself naked and jumps in the water, swims across and runs to Jesus Christ doesn't he? And he runs to Christ and he sees the coals and he falls down in the presence of his Savior and repents. Why? Because though he sinned he did not reject the work of the Spirit of God. You see brothers and sisters this this particular sin in Matthew 12 is as Calvin says to with evil intention resist God's truth although by its brightness we cannot claim ignorance.

You know there are There are three very simple applications that come out of this There are three very simple applications that come out of this firstly For the unbeliever. This is a very severe warning It comes to us similarly to how it came to the Jewish leaders from the mouth of Stephen in the book of Acts. He stands before them on trial and he looks at them and he says to them how long will you go on refusing the Spirit of God? If you're an unbeliever here today the grace of God is being manifested to you the Spirit of God is at work in our midst and the greatest question is will you refuse? Will you reject the work of the Spirit of God?

There's a warning here because if you will reject and refuse the Spirit of God it may be that you are in danger of an unforgivable sin. Of so hardening your heart that it is impossible for you to have your heart softened to turn to God. The other two applications are a bit different. One is for those of you who are considering yourself to be believers, but have never really bowed down before the grace of God. You see, it's one thing, isn't it, to say I'm a believer.

The Pharisees said they were believers in God. It's one thing to attend church, to be baptized, to do your profession of faith, to say the confession when we do confessions, to sing songs, to pray, to attend Bible studies, all of these things are good. But it's one thing to say that and to experience the grace of God is another. To have the Spirit cause you to be born again and to believe in Christ. And so the second application is the question, have you been born again?

Mr. Whitfield was famous for preaching one thing, You must be born again. And one day a person came up to him and said, Mr. Whitfield, why do you always preach on the need to be born again? And he threw up his hands in exasperation and said, Because you need to be born again!

But that's the truth brothers and sisters, because otherwise you're like Nicodemus, right? Happily coming to Jesus at night, speaking to him about the fine points of theology, and dead in your sin have you been born again? The third point of application is for those of you who are children of God. You know there is great comfort in this passage, I know it doesn't look like it, but hear the words of Jesus, Verse 31, I tell you every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven, people. Just stop there.

If you're sitting here and you're a believer Every sin will be forgiven Every sin not some not one not a few but all of them. Have you been a blasphemer? Have you misused the Lord's name? It will be forgiven you. Have you hated in your heart?

It will be forgiven you. Have you borne false testimony? It will be forgiven you have you committed adultery? It will be forgiven you there is no sin for a regenerate heart That is too great to be washed away by the blood of Christ because the mercy and grace of God is greater than all of your sin. You see the comfort of this passage is the exception proves the norm.

The exception of a sin that can't be forgiven proves the norm that all other sins can be forgiven and as James Edward puts it Anyone who was worried about having committed the sin against the Holy Spirit has not yet committed it For anxiety of having done so is evidence of the potential for repentance. There is no record in scripture of Anyone asking for forgiveness of God and being denied it Isn't that beautiful? There is no record in Scripture of anyone asking for forgiveness of God and being denied it. None. Why?

Because the Lord promises Anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. This is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ brothers. You can have assurance that your sins are washed away in the blood of Christ because his grace is sure. Let's pray. Lord these are hard passages to wrestle through and yet they are also declarations of your grace.

And so we pray, fill our hearts with joy before you now, that we might rejoice in the glorious salvation that you have given us that Lord we might have hearts overflowing with a pleasing theme We also pray for those who do not know you here and we ask Lord give them new hearts in Jesus name we pray, Amen.