Please open your Bibles to Matthew 12 this morning. Matthew 12. We're going to break in at verse 22. Matthew 12, verse 22. Let's hear God's Word. Then was brought unto him one possessed with the devil, blind and dumb, and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw. And all the people were amazed and said, Is not this the son of David? But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. Jesus knew their thoughts and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand. And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself. How shall then his kingdom stand? And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. Or else how can one enter into a strong man's house and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? Then he will spoil his house. He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. 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. 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. Amen. And the Lord will add his blessing to that reading for his own glory. Let's bow our heads in prayer and let's seek the Lord together. Father in heaven, In Jesus' name we bow in Thy presence, pleading His merits as we ask for Thy help to preach Thy Word and to receive the engrafted Word with meekness. Grant, Lord, now that gracious ministry of the Gospel. Fill Thy servant with Thy Holy Spirit. Bear him along in the message Grant him the grace today to be thy messenger with thy message spoken through thy Spirit. Allow, Lord, this morning a hearty understanding of the Word. May it be a source of great help to all who will listen. We ask this for the glory of Christ and in His name we pray, Amen and Amen. We're coming near the end of our studies on the person and work of the Holy Spirit. I trust and pray that this series has been a real help to you as we have focused our attention on how great a person the Holy Spirit is how gracious is the work that he does, and how vital is his ministry in our lives. We began this series with a sermon that sought to answer the question, why do we need a study on the Holy Spirit? I pointed out that the work of the Holy Spirit is absolutely foundational to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Without the person and the work of the Holy Spirit, there is no Scripture, because holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. It is the God-breathed Word that we have in our laps this morning, and without His work, We would not have the Bible. We would not have that Gospel written out for our reading. Without the Holy Spirit, there is no salvation. Except a man be born again, born of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. Without the Holy Ghost, there is no sanctification whatsoever. God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. Without the Holy Spirit, there will be no fruit of the Spirit, the love, joy, peace, long-suffering, etc. Therefore, no holiness of life without Him. There is no service apart from the Holy Ghost, no service to God, no service to the kingdom, no service to the church. Jesus said in Acts 1.8, ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you. Power for service comes from the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Ghost there is no supplication. Zechariah chapter 12 verse 10 points out that He is called the Spirit of grace and of supplications. Through Him, the Spirit of adoption, we cry, Abba, Father. There is no solace. apart from the Holy Spirit. He is the Comforter. John 16, 14 shows that there's going to be no sight of Christ apart from the person and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. He shall glorify Me, Jesus said, for He shall receive of Mine and shall show it unto you. So even though it is, according to Colossians 1.18, the will of God that in all things Christ should have the preeminence. It is clearly evident that God has given a place of great honor to the Holy Ghost. In fact, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are equal in time. They're all eternal. They are equal in power. They're all omnipotent. And they are all equal in glory. All of them are infinitely glorious. Yet it is the will of God that in His plan of redemption, the Holy Spirit works primarily behind the scenes so that the Lamb of God might be exalted far above all. Still, there is no denying the fact that God has placed great honor upon the Holy Spirit. And perhaps there are few places in the Word of God where that honor of the Spirit is given than in the passage before us this morning. One of the greatest revelations of the grace of God is seen in the fact that He has forgiven all kinds of sin and blasphemy. In reminding the Christians in Corinth of what their lives were like before the grace of God came in and saved them, Paul told them in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, Be not deceived, Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. Then he makes this profound statement, And such were some of you. Take a look at that list. And such were some of you. But God had mercy upon them and while they were yet sinners, Christ died for them because Christ died for the ungodly. Ungodly. He died for adulterers and fornicators and covetous and sodomites and lesbians and murderers. How great is the saving grace of this triune God. worse than abounded. Grace did much, much more abound. But even though the Word of God is full of such expressions and illustrations of this amazing grace of God, there is a sin for which forgiveness will never be forgiven by God. The Lord Jesus Christ refers to this sin in our text as blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. Verse 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. 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. The sin referred to in this passage is called by most Christians as the unpardonable sin. Whatever this sin is, there is only one unpardonable sin according to what Christ states here in Matthew 12. Every sin but this one. And therefore, all other Scripture verses that speak of, that allude to a sin that cannot be, that will not be forgiven, must be categorized with this sin. They must be one and the same, since there is only one. sin that cannot be pardoned, that will not be pardoned by God. All manner of sin and blasphemy will be forgiven. You can blaspheme the Father. You can blaspheme the Son. Paul told Timothy that prior to his conversion, he was a blasphemer. He tells Agrippa, that even got others whom he had persecuted to blaspheme the name of Christ. But the remarkable thing is that if you blaspheme the Holy Spirit, you will not be forgiven in this world or in the world to come. If a man commits this sin, he can never be saved. One sin is all it takes to be damned to hell. He will never have a second chance, if I can put those words in quotes. He may read the Bible. He may hear the gospel preached in his ears, but entrance into heaven is forever and finally shut out to him. It's too late. God will never pardon this sin. The whole church may pray for him, but he will never find forgiveness. Therefore, it's easy to see, is it not, why it is absolutely necessary that we come to an understanding of what the Bible says about the unpardonable sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. That's my subject. The unpardonable sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. My first heading is what the unpardonable sin is not. What the unpardonable sin is not. There have been quite a number of theories that have been put forth as to the nature of the unpardonable sin. And it certainly has caused quite a bit of concern and despair even among the people of God when they have been subjugated to those various theories. What I want to deal with under this heading are those theories that have absolutely no merit in Scripture whatsoever in spite of the fact that they have no scriptural grounds. Many a child of God has been deeply distressed by these false views of the unpardonable sin. First off, the unpardonable sin is not the sin of final unbelief. It is not the sin of final unbelief. It has been conjectured that the only sin that God will not forgive is unbelief at death. the failure to trust in Christ for pardon. Now obviously, if a man dies in unbelief, he dies a lost sinner. He dies lost. He has lost his soul if he dies in unbelief. So in one sense, you can say that unbelief in Christ can be called an unpardonable sin. But when Jesus speaks of this sin for which there is no pardon, He says that there is no pardon in this world nor in the world to come. The emphasis now, there's no pardon in this world. There's no pardon in this life. Christ was referring to the sin of the Pharisees who were guilty of having already committed the unpardonable sin. But they were not on their deathbed. This was not unbelief at the point of death. Furthermore, the other portions of Scripture that speak of this unpardonable sin describe it in terms that it's being committed long before men come to die. Long before they come to die. Yes, unbelief in Christ. will be a sin that will mark the man who has committed the unpardonable sin, but that is not the sin that Christ was here referring to. Secondly, the denial of Christ is not the unpardonable sin. The denial of Christ is not the sin that can never know forgiveness. Some have said that if a person is confronted numerous times with a powerful and clear presentation of the gospel, so powerful that he comes under deep conviction of the sin and deep conviction of the truth of what's being preached to him, yet rejects that offer of the gospel, he has committed the unpardonable sin. He has denied Jesus Christ. But again, that has no basis in Scripture. In fact, in this very passage, Christ says that men can speak against Him, they can deny Him, and yet that sin can be forgiven. Certainly Paul was a Christ denier at one time, but Christ saved him. He denied the very gospel that was being preached, not once, but over and over again. And yet, he became a follower of Jesus Christ, so it's obviously that his denying of Christ was not the unpardonable sin. You think of the many Jewish priests in Acts who had at one time themselves denied Christ. They had denied that gospel to the point of putting the Savior on the cross. But later they came, we find, to trust in Christ as their Savior. That couldn't be if they had committed the unpardonable sin. And you know, folks, there have been plenty of atheists who were strong deniers of Christ, strong deniers of the Gospel, resisted every effort that friends and family made to bring them to the Savior. But they eventually turned to Christ and were saved. There are atheists that have been converted. Now they're believers in the Kingdom of God. They couldn't be in the Kingdom of God if they had committed the unpardonable sin. What a word of hope that is for those who have denied Christ in the past and are afraid that they're beyond all hope of being saved because they think they've sinned the sin that can never be forgiven. Well, that's just not the sin. Thirdly, the sin of resisting the Holy Spirit is not the unpardonable sin. Stephen accused the Sanhedrin of being stiff-necked Acts 7.51. And always resisting the Holy Ghost. The word resist means to strive against and to oppose. Stephen was referring to how they continually strove against, they opposed the teaching and the preaching of the Spirit through the prophets and the apostles and the gospel ministers. Stephen was stating that those who resist the ministers of the Holy Spirit's Word and the Gospel, they resist Him. The prophets have come to you, the apostles have come to you, those Gospel ministers have come to you, and you have resisted them. It's an awful thing to resist the Holy Spirit as He speaks through ministers. It's an awful thing. As He speaks through His Word, It's an awful thing to resist the Holy Spirit as He speaks through a convicted conscience. And let no one be under any delusion that such continued resistance will be a mark of those who commit the unpardonable sin. It will mark them. But resisting the Holy Ghost is not the sin that is unforgivable. There were Pharisees who had been guilty of that very sin. But they later turned to Christ and were saved. Remember Christ's words to Saul in the Damascus Rodox, chapter 9, verse 5? It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. It was a proverbial expression taken from the beasts that were goaded with sharp rods by the plowmen. And they were only hurting themselves as they tried to kick against the goads. It's a reference to Paul being brought under the goads of conviction by the Holy Ghost, by the Holy Spirit. And he was fighting it, he was kicking against it. They were declaring to him, the Holy Ghost was declaring to him, you're wrong, Paul, and they are right. Look at how they die. Look at how they die with grace in their lives. Look at how they die in holiness of life. They have something, Paul, that you don't have. That's the convicting work of the Spirit of God. And he was resisting it. He was kicking against the pricks. But I ask you today, is Paul in heaven? You better believe he is. He resisted the Holy Ghost. So that can't be the sin being referred to here by Jesus Christ. And there are people to whom the Spirit of God has spoken so often as they have sat under the preaching of many gospel sermons, many appeals to flee to Christ. Family and friends have urged them time and again to turn from their sin, to turn to Christ. But they've kept on resisting. They have kept on rejecting. Then the time, they come to a time in their life when they feel they should now turn from it all. But their testimony has been, I thought it was too late for me. I thought it was too late. I thought I was beyond redemption. I had spurned His call again and again. And now it's just too late. They think they've committed the unpardonable sin. But if they are feeling the convicting power of the Holy Spirit and the slightest desire to have their sins forgiven by God, I will tell you now on the authority of Scripture, they have not committed the unpardonable sin. Fourthly, falling into a great sin is not committing the unpardonable sin. After having committed some heinous sin, some believers have felt that they have committed the unpardonable sin. They feel that they cannot be restored. They feel that they have lost whatever grace they had. They feel like they have fallen from grace. But no matter how vile that sin is that's been committed, By a Christian, he will never, ever be able to commit the sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. And the best way of showing this is to move on to my next point, which is simply what the unpardonable sin is. What it is. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 12, verse 31, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men." So, there is only one sin that is unforgivable. Therefore, every other passage of Scripture that speaks or alludes to this sin that is unforgivable must, as I said, be understood in that light. With that in mind, let's look at those verses and see what they tell us about this sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. Matthew 12 shows us that it is speaking against the Holy Spirit. Alright? Whatever it is, it has to do with speaking against the Holy Spirit. Turn to Mark chapter 3 with me in a parallel account here of this passage of this scene. over a few pages to Mark chapter 3. I want to begin reading at verse 28. The same scene. Christ is cast out the demons. They're saying He's doing it by the devil. Jesus says in verse 28, "'Verily I say unto you, all sin shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewithsoever they shall blaspheme. But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation, because they said he hath an unclean spirit." Now that passage, this passage indicates that speaking against the Holy Ghost, blaspheming the Holy Spirit, it entails attributing to the devil what is clearly shown to be the work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit has done it? Ah, the devil, they say. The Pharisees were saying that Jesus was casting out these demons by the power of Satan himself. Yet the Lord states plainly that He is casting them out by the Spirit of God. In Luke 12, verse 10, This idea is developed. Turn there with me please to Luke chapter 12, verse 10. This is a different scene altogether. It develops the idea of what it is to blaspheme the Holy Spirit. The Lord says in verse 10 of Luke 12, And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him. But unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven." As I said, the context here is not the same of Matthew 12 and Mark 3. This time, the context is that of apostasy from a professed faith in Jesus Christ. The context is Christ warning His disciples about the Pharisees, who were religious apostates, who were, He says earlier in the chapter, hypocrites, and whose teaching they were to guard against. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. Beware of their teaching. And do not be afraid of them. Do not fear the man who can take your life, who can kill your body. I tell you, He says, the one you want to fear, who can cast both body and soul into hell fire. That's the one you must fear. Therefore, therefore, make sure you confess Me before men. Because if you deny Me before men, You will be denied on that day of judgment as being one of God's people. We're talking about now denying Christ. They would be, as he says, you'll be brought into the synagogues. You'll be brought into the synagogues. Those are the places of the religious leaders, the places of the apostates. You'll be put on trial. Don't be afraid of them. They are deniers of Me. They are deniers of the truth. You make sure you confess Me. As a matter of fact, don't even worry. Don't even try to think ahead of what you're going to say. The Holy Ghost will give you at that hour what you need to say. The context is that of apostasy. Speaking a word against the Holy Spirit. So Christ warns them, don't be afraid. of the apostates. Don't be afraid of the Sanhedrin. Don't be afraid when you're brought into the synagogues. Don't deny me. What this denial of Christ is all about becomes clear in our next reference, or I should say references to this sin that is unpardonable. Turn with me now to Hebrews chapter 6. Hebrews chapter 6. There's three verses we want to read there. And then four verses in Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 6, verse 4. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance, seeing they crucified themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame." It's impossible. They've committed a sin that is unpardonable. Turn to Hebrews chapter 10. Look with me at verse 26. For if we sin willfully, after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, There remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of how much sore punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God? and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despot under the spirit of grace." No more sacrifice for sins. Unpardonable. He won't be forgiven. These verses are not about Christians who fall away from Christ and are lost. They're not about those. Hebrews chapter 6 verses 6 and 7 are the key to understanding the passage. The Apostle writes, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance, seeing they crucified themselves, the Son of God afresh, and put Him to open shame, For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh off upon it, and bringeth forth herbs neat for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God. But that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned." Now I want you to note, please, that the earth drinketh in the rain that cometh down. The agricultural setting here. The rain falls down from the heaven upon the earth. There is blessing that falls upon these people. The Lord Jesus said in Matthew 5.45, did He not, that God makes His Son to rise on the evil and the good and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. God does that. Evil men are blessed with good gifts. There's no denying that the sun shining upon the field of the wicked farmer is a good gift. There's no denying that the rain falling upon that field is a good gift. All picturing there are good gifts that God sends down to men and wicked men. But in Matthew chapter 13 verse 32, again, that's the parable of the sower. He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word, and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful." The briars and the thorns that the Apostle mentions here in Hebrews chapter 6. Yes, God gives the blessings. gives good gifts to men, but there is not that reception of the truth into the heart. The ground that does not bring forth fruit, the text says, is cursed. The ground that does not bring forth fruit is cursed, whose end is to be burned. In other words, those being described here in Hebrews 6 and Hebrews 10 were never saved in the first place. If you look at verse 9 of Hebrews 6, Paul says, But beloved, we are persuaded better things of you and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. They had These being described in Hebrews 6. They had many blessings, but they did not have saving grace. There's the difference. Many blessings, but not saving grace. They heard the Word, just like those described by Christ in the parable of the sower. They heard the Word. They heard the same Gospel. It was a good thing. The Gospel is a good thing. They heard it. But the ground was cursed. There was no saving grace. There was no fruit. It's well worth the study, if you have the time, I'm sure you do, to look at the words being described, describing that individual in Hebrews chapter 6 as being nigh unto the cursing whose end is to be burned. That's what scared many a child of God when they read it. Because he says they're enlightened. They've tasted of the heaven they get. They've been partakers of the Holy Ghost. And so the list goes on down. But they end up being cursed. Isn't that describing a Christian? No, it's not. It's not describing a child of God at all. A child of God never ends up cursed. He's blessed by God. He's declared as being one of God's children. And that can never be reversed. Never be reversed. Enlightened. There's plenty of them sitting in churches today. Enlightened. In other words, they have been taught the truth of the Gospel. And they understand it with their minds. They understand it intellectually. But it has never entered into their hearts. It's never entered into their love. It's all mental. They can explain John 3.16 perfectly. But it's heady. It's academic. It's never produced fruit. One iota of fruit in their lives. It's never brought about a change in their behavior. That was the point in the parable of the sower. The one ground, the good ground. You could tell it was good ground because it brought forth fruit. The other three grounds did not. So, you can be enlightened. You can have an understanding of the Word of the Gospel, but it's only intellectual. They had tasted of the heavenly gift. The gift there to be the gospel itself. They had, like that stony ground hearer, they had received it, they had heard it, and they had received it with joy! Oh, this is wonderful! I can be saved from hell and eternal damnation! Wonderful! Happy about that! But then, of course, the thorns come up, or there's not much depth of soil, and the sun rises, the tribulation for the sake of the Word arises, and they wither away. They never do bring forth fruit. Never, never, never bring forth fruit. You see, they had tasted, tasted, but they hadn't eaten. I can taste, doesn't mean I've eaten. They had not eaten the bread of life. They had not digested the gospel where it becomes part of your being. Partakers of the Holy Ghost. My! They're a partaker of the Holy Ghost and they're not saviors saying they weren't ever christened. You're dead, right? The apostle uses an entirely different word from the common word for partaking, which we know the word is koinonia. Communion! It's an entirely different word here. This word simply means companion. And it has the emphasis of that which is external, not internal. External. Companions of the Holy Spirit. You can be a companion of the Holy Spirit in this sense, in feeling what would be called the common operations of the Spirit of God coming under conviction of sin. struck with the great sacrificial love of Jesus Christ. My, that He would do that for people who spat upon Him, but never really be a Christian. They had tasted the good Word of God. They had tasted the good Word of God, the good Word of God. They were living in times when the Old Testament Scriptures were being brought to pass before their very eyes. They were seeing the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies. These were the times of the Messiah. They had tasted. But that's all they had done. Tasted the powers of the world to come. They had seen the Holy Ghost work miracles. You and I would be blown away by what they saw. The Holy Ghost worked miracles in this Kingdom of Christ. But for all of this, they fell away. They were part of the visible church. They attended. They had a knowledge. They had a knowledge of the gospel. They had tasted these various things. But in the end, they turned away from it all. They turned away from it all. They rejected it. And they went right back to their sin, to their life of rebellion. They went right back to it. They said, we want no more of this. You understand, do you not? But the temptation was fierce for the believers, those Jewish Christians who are being persecuted tremendously for their faith in Christ. And the temptation was to go back, to go back to Judaism, to go back to apostasy. The apostle says, you don't want to do that. This is their end. They are nigh unto burning. This is what happens. You go back and you trample underfoot the blood. Hebrews chapter 10. You trample underfoot the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's impossible to renew them again unto repentance. There is no more sacrifice for sin. None. It's over. If we sin willfully, after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries. If we sin willfully, after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, again it's purely academic knowledge, It's not heart knowledge, it's not saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, whom to know is life eternal. It's purely, purely academic. And so therefore, this repudiation of the Gospel, this repudiation of Jesus Christ is open, it is willful, it is deliberate. So you can see, can you not, why this is especially a sin against the Holy Spirit, because this is a sin of special and malignant and willful resistance of the Spirit's light. It is a sin that leaves a man beyond repentance, because the Spirit of God will no longer strive with the apostates. His conscience has been seared as with a hot iron. Seared. Won't even faze him. He's hardened in his rebellion. Judicial blindness has fallen upon him. God has blinded his eyes so that he will not see and he cannot see. Other verses in Scripture that This sin falls under 2 Timothy 3.8. Now as Janus and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith. Reprobate. Titus 1.16. They profess that they know God, but in works They deny Him being abominable and disobedient and unto every good work reprobate. Jude 1.4, these are those 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. We read an entire chapter about them this morning. Denying the Lord who bought them. I have not the time to explain how that word bought is used there, but it's not the bought of redemption and of atonement. It's purely outward. It's purely external. They profess to be, I am redeemed, but they end up denying the Lord that bought them. Repudiate, deny, denounce the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is the sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. Of speaking against the Holy Ghost. The sin of apostasy. Apostasy. Walking away from it all that you professed at one time to believe. Willful, open, deliberate. I personally believe that's what John's referring to in 1 John 5, 16 when he speaks of, there is a sin unto death. I do not say that he shall pray for it. I take that to be that sin, the unforgivable sin. It's a sin unto death. I take to be the sin of damnation." And John says, don't pray for it. Don't pray for it. Now, in closing, what are we to learn from the Scripture's teaching on the unpardonable sin? We learn first that in the biblical sense of the word, there is no forgiveness for the sin of apostasy. It's a solemn thing. But there is no forgiveness for the sin of apostasy. To openly, deliberately reject, denounce the very gospel, the very Christ that the Holy Spirit testifies to. The very reason He has been given is to reveal Christ and to glorify Him. is to commit a sin that will not be forgiven. There is no more sacrifice for this sin. They're hardened. They will not be concerned about eternity. Their consciences are seared. They won't even be fazed by it. Unforgivable. Second lesson, much needed lesson The people of God need to learn and learn it well. No child of God can ever commit this sin. It's impossible. I came across a statement made by Abraham Kuyper. He said, it does not belong to the broken and contrite heart, but cankers only in the proud spirit that opposes the Lord and His holy ordinances. Man, there's someone who's broken about their sin. They're worried. They're troubled about their sin. That's not the apostate. The apostate is full of arrogance. He's full of pride. This then cankers, cankers those who oppose the Lord. You see, I try to look at things very simply. as simply as I can. A lot of people want to make things very confusing. And they're not. I don't mean there aren't deep things in the Word of God that, as Peter says, things that Paul writes are hard to understand. But you see, when Jesus says in John 10 that His sheep have eternal life, eternal means eternal. It doesn't mean they have temporary. eternal life. It means they have it for all eternity. It means it's forever. And there's nothing they will ever do that will take away from them eternal life. If it is, then it's not eternal life. Eternal means eternal. Isn't that simple? It's not confusing. If I have eternal life, I have it for eternity. There's never a day in my life when I won't have eternal life. I have it now, and I'll have it forever. Because Jesus saved me. He put His eternal Spirit in me. And no one and no thing will ever pluck me out of my Father's hand and out of Christ's hand. No devil, no fault, no failure on my part will undo what Jesus has already done for me. It can't happen. That's simplistic thinking, but that's the simplistic thinking of the gospel. When Jesus says, all the Father giveth me will come to me, and him that cometh I will no wise cast out. I will never, ever, and never will I cast them out. He had to mean what he said. That means nothing that I have ever done would move the Savior to cast me aside and reject me. Therefore, I can't commit that unpardonable sin. It's true that it can't be denied. that there are thoughts, evil thoughts, awful thoughts, that will arise against God in the hearts of His people. You can be reading the Word of God, you can be in the place of prayer, you can be in the house of worship, and wicked suggestions can come rushing into your mind. But I ask you the question, what is your initial response when that happens? You recoil at it. You say, why am I thinking that? Oh, that's awful. I shouldn't be thinking that. I hate that thought. I want rid of that thought. Automatically that shows to you it's not of you. It's arising from suggestions of the devil or from that cesspool of iniquity that's still in the soul. You know, we'll never get rid of that sin principle. This is either heaven But your initial reaction to that vile thought, you recoil against that like you would seeing a poisonous stake in front of you. It's happened to the godliest of saints. Just read the biographies. It's not the unpardonable sin. Vile thoughts of God. are not at all repugnant to those who have committed the unpardonable sin. They are not at all repugnant to them. They return, as we saw at the end of 2 Peter 2 this morning, they return to their sinful way of living like a dog to its vomit and like a pig to its mire. You see, they never were changed from the inside. They never were changed from the inside. They still wanted the vomit, they still wanted to sow, they were still dogs, they were still pigs. Christians will wander away from the Lord at times like lost sheep, but they're still the Lord's sheep even though they wander. And straying away from Christ is not the same as repudiating Christ. The third and final lesson It is a dreadful and dangerous thing to sin against light and to trifle with the witness of the Holy Spirit. It's a dangerous thing. Those in Hebrews 6 and Hebrews 10 had heard, had heard the truth, had professed they believed in it, professed. But they ended up turning away. Something happened in their life. Something happened. At some event, it had been building and building and building. And they turned away from it all and repudiated it. It's a dangerous thing to stand against light and to play fast and loose with the witness of the Holy Spirit. To sit and hear the Word of God and to feel the convicting power of the Word and yet just walk away from it. It reminds you of the words of Genesis 6.3 we looked at some months ago. My spirit will not always strive with man. There comes a time when the Lord says, that's it. I will give them over to a reprobate mind. It's done. God gave them up to a reprobate mind. solemn business, to take to heart the light of truth and the witness of the Spirit of God. Let me tell you, if your trust is in Christ alone, Christ Jesus alone, if that gospel has been received into your heart and there's something of the fruit of the Spirit in your life, you're the Lord's. You hear His voice, you're His sheep. And you follow Him. This is one sin you'll never commit. More secure is no one ever than the loved ones of the Savior. Safe and secure from all alarm. God, write His Word upon our hearts for His namesake. Let's all pray. Let's seek the Lord together. Lord, we thank Thee this Lord's Day morning for our safety in the Savior, We thank Thee that Thou dost persevere in our lives through ups and downs, ins and outs, successes and triumphs and failures. We bless Thee, Lord, for owning us as Thy people. We thank Thee, Father, in Heaven that here is one transgression that we will never be guilty of. O God, we pray that we will take to heart even the warning of the Lord Jesus Christ to His disciples in this very context. We would not allow the fear of man bring us to a point where we're afraid to confess Christ. O Lord, we thank Thee that Thou will guarantee our confession of Thee to the day we die. For any in our midst this morning who cannot testify, but they have been to Jesus for that soul-cleansing power, give them no rest, we pray. Keep agitating their souls. Warn them, Lord, to flee from the wrath to come. when there'll be no hiding place on that day from that great wrath of the Lamb. Dear Spirit of God, open their eyes. Grant them life, faith, and repentance. We ask it in Jesus Christ's holy and precious name. Amen and amen.