{"id":19123,"date":"2016-09-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-09-18T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/soteriology-032\/"},"modified":"2016-09-18T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-09-18T05:00:00","slug":"soteriology-032","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/soteriology-032\/","title":{"rendered":"Soteriology 032"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[85],"series_event":[459],"sermon_service_type":[473],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19123","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-matthew","series_event-soteriology","sermon_service_type-sunday-school","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Soteriology 032","sermon_date":"20160918","sermon_month":"9","sermon_year":"2016","sermon_notes":3949,"sermon_slides":3950,"sermon_mp3":3956,"sermon_id":"918161026506","series_or_event":459,"service_type":[473],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":85,"chapter_and_verse":"12:31-32","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nSoteriology 32, \u00a0Matthew 12:31-32\n\nSeptember 18, 2016\n\nIf you could open your Bibles to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 12, and taking a look at verses 31 and 32.\u00a0 Of course, as you know we\u2019ve been inching our way through the doctrine of eternal security.\u00a0 Eternal security, as you know, means the grace that saved you is the grace that keeps you so there really is nothing you can do to lose your salvation, as we\u2019ve tried to argue.\u00a0 I\u2019ve given you about thirteen arguments why once saved always saved.\u00a0 And then from there we moved into a discussion of passages that seem to contradict the idea that once saved always saved.\u00a0 So how do we learn how to harmonize these passages with the clear ones that say you can never lose your salvation?\n\nWe\u2019ve looked at a bunch of passages from the Old Testament, you recall, and then the last few Sundays we\u2019ve moved into looking at the various passages from Matthew and we\u2019ve looked at Matthew 6:14-15 last week; Matthew 7:21-23, I guess the prior week, Matthew 11:8, 12 last week, Matthew 10:32-33 last week, we skipped Matthew 12, not because we\u2019re trying to avoid tough subjects but it was just too big a topic to get into last week so we finished off with Matthew 24:13 and Matthew 25:41.\u00a0 None of those passages, as we\u2019ve looked at them, teach that you can lose your salvation.\n\nSo now we\u2019re going to circle back this morning and look at the passage that\u2019s probably the most difficult to understand.\u00a0 It\u2019s a passage that if you just read these verses with no background they would cause you fear and terror all your days.\u00a0 And those are the passages, verses that talk about the so-called unpardonable sin.\n\nSo here is Matthew 12:31-32, here are the verses.\u00a0 No doubt as a Christian you\u2019ve run into these or someone has pointed them out to you.\u00a0 Jesus says, \u201cTherefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. [32] Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.\u201d\n\nSo people look at that verse, or these verses and this is where you get this idea, the unpardonable sin, and people live in terror, have they committed the unpardonable sin because it says if you do it, whatever it is, you can\u2019t be forgiven today or forever.\u00a0 So when someone asks me, have I committed the unpardonable sin, or do you think in my life that I\u2019ve ever committed the unpardonable sin I usually like to ask them, well, what is the unpardonable sin?\u00a0 And they never can give you an answer, they just know it\u2019s really bad, whatever it is, because the text in these verses doesn\u2019t define the unpardonable sin.\u00a0 So unless you have some background in these verses these verses will just run rampant in your mind, putting you into a state of fear because it speaks of some kind of sin that can\u2019t be forgiven and it never defines it, which opens the door to people wondering their whole lives, have I committed it.\u00a0 So we\u2019re going to try to look at these verses this morning and we\u2019re going to basically look at it in four angles.\n\nNumber 1, I want to give you the context of these verses.\u00a0 Number 2 we\u2019re going to ask and answer five key questions which will help us understand what the unpardonable sin is.\u00a0 And then there\u2019ll be so much information I\u2019ll have to do a summary at the end.\u00a0 And if time permits, maybe next week, in fact next week the Sunday School class is not meeting because we have a congregational meeting and you say boring, I\u2019m not going to that.\u00a0 Well, I would encourage you to come to that because it\u2019s a great opportunity to get to know what this church is doing as the different ministry leaders are giving reports but we won\u2019t be formally meeting on the 25th<\/sup> but we\u2019ll come back the following Sunday and what we don\u2019t finish today we\u2019ll finish then.\n\nSo at the end of this presentation I also want to talk about the whole issue of suicide because when people think of the unpardonable sin they connect in their mind suicide which obviously is something we don\u2019t advocate, it\u2019s a terrible thing when someone takes their own life.\u00a0 But they want to know if so and so commits suicide as a Christian are they really going to heaven.\u00a0 And so for some reason people in their minds have this idea that if you commit suicide that\u2019s what the unpardonable sin is, and I\u2019ll try to show you that that\u2019s not true.\n\nBut let\u2019s go ahead and start off with the context of Matthew 12:31-32.\u00a0 Look back at verse 22 for just a minute.\u00a0 It says, \u201cThen a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute was brought to Jesus, and He healed him, so that the mute man spoke and saw.\u201d\u00a0 So Jesus has performed a miracle of healing; it\u2019s a miracle that\u2019s so conspicuous it can\u2019t be denied by Christ\u2019s friends and foes.\u00a0 And then as you go down to verse 23 it says, \u201cAll the crowds were amazed, and were saying, \u2018This man cannot be the Son of David, can he?\u2019\u201d\u00a0 So the masses are starting to get wind of the fact that Jesus is not an ordinary guy; maybe He\u2019s the long-awaited Messiah.\n\nChrist\u2019s enemies didn\u2019t want that popularity to get too far so they immediately tried to discredit the miracle which they do there in verse 24, \u201cBut when the Pharisees heard this, they said, \u2018This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons.\u201d\u00a0 So you\u2019ll notice that the Pharisees can\u2019t deny the miracle that\u2019s happened.\u00a0 They can\u2019t say it\u2019s a parlor trick or something so they attribute it to the devil.\u00a0 And then as you go down to verses 25-26 you see Christ refuting that silly idea.\u00a0 He says in verse 25-26, \u201cAnd knowing their thoughts Jesus said to them, \u2018Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and any city or house divided against itself will not stand.\u201d\u00a0 And you say I thought Abraham Lincoln said that.\u00a0 He did but he got it from Jesus; Jesus is the original of that statement.\u00a0 Even honest Abe had to plagiarize a little bit.\n\nVerse 26, it says, \u201cIf Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then will his kingdom stand?\u201d\u00a0 Jesus says of course the devil did not cast out the devil, or the demon, from this man or else Satan\u2019s kingdom is divided and we all know that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand.\n\nAnd then down in verse 27 Jesus said, \u201cIf I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out?\u201d\u00a0 So they were involved in exorcisms as well; the Pharisees had the ability to perform exorcisms in first century Israel, and so Jesus says if I\u2019m doing this by Satanic power then who are you guys doing it by; you must be doing it by Satanic power also.\u00a0 These are just logical proofs that He\u2019s using to discredit this idea that He\u2019s operating under Satanic power.\u00a0 The rest of verse 27 says, \u201cFor this reason they will be your judges.\u201d\u00a0 And then in verse 28 he says, \u201cBut if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.\u201d\u00a0 So I\u2019m doing this by My authority as the representative of the kingdom and I\u2019m also doing this by the Spirit\u2019s power.\u00a0 In other words, I\u2019m not doing it by satanic powers.\u00a0 And then in verse 29 he says, \u201cOr how can anyone enter the strong man\u2019s house and carry off his property, unless he first binds the strong man?\u00a0 And then he will plunder his house.\u201d\u00a0 Jesus says I\u2019m able to do this because I, through My power, am overpowering Satan because I\u2019m the representative of the King, I\u2019m working by kingdom authority, and if you simply enthrone Me then all this power that you see, first century Israel, will be established upon the whole earth.\n\nAnd then verse 30 He said, \u201cHe who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters.\u201d\u00a0 So He\u2019s saying if you accept what I\u2019m doing then you\u2019re on my side.\u00a0 If you deny what I\u2019m doing or if you attribute it to Satanic powers then you\u2019re working against Me, and He\u2019s showing here that the people have the chance of getting on the right side of the issue whereas the Pharisees, of course, are on the wrong side of the issue.\n\nSo it\u2019s in that context, verses 31-32, that He starts to talk about this unpardonable sin.\u00a0 [32] \u201cWhoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s the whole context of the statement.\n\nSo now we move into five key questions; number 1, What is the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?\u00a0 Number 2, Who committed the blasphemy of this sin?\u00a0 Number 3, What did this sin reveal in the hearts of those who uttered these words and attributed Christ\u2019s miracles to the devil.\u00a0 Number 4, Why can\u2019t this sin be forgiven?\u00a0 And then finally number 5, the question everybody asks is can this sin be committed today?\n\nSo here we go!\u00a0 What is the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?\u00a0 Well, blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, if you look up the word \u201cblasphemy\u201d you\u2019ll see that it means to speak against or to slander.\u00a0 Slander, of course, is a spoken lie.\u00a0 So the reason Jesus\u00a0 uses the expression, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is they attributed to the devil what the Holy Spirit, through Christ, did and they were slandering Christ, they were telling lies about Him.\u00a0 They were saying He is not the long awaited Messiah when it should have been obvious to everybody who saw this miracle happen that Jesus, in fact, is the long awaited Messiah.\u00a0 So that\u2019s what he means by blasphemy; it means to speak against, to insult, to slander, to lie, to misrepresent.\u00a0 So that\u2019s why the word blasphemy is used here.\n\nQuestion number 2, who committed the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit?\u00a0 Well, it\u2019s very obvious here that the people that committed this were the Pharisees. So these are the unbelieving Pharisees; those that spoke this lie that attributed Christ\u2019s miracles to Satan\u2019s power were those that did not have a right relationship with the Lord.\u00a0 So when you understand that background you automatically understand that this verse can\u2019t be a loss of salvation verse because these words were spoken by those who never had a right relationship with God to begin with.\u00a0 Everything we know about the Pharisees in the New Testament indicates that they were a group of people who essentially believed that they were made right with God through self-righteousness.\u00a0 And this is why Jesus, in Matthew 5:20 says, \u201cthat unless your righteousness exceeds the righteous of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven.\u201d\n\nSo the Pharisees were, as we\u2019ve described them in prior lessons, a group of people that were unregenerate, they were unsaved, they thought they had right standing before God through human effort, particularly their own ability to keep the Law.\u00a0 And beyond that all of the extra Biblical regulations promulgated by the Mishnah and the Talmud, this is what Paul, the apostle, was before he got saved while he was still Saul.\n\nSo this obviously, if\u00a0 you understand this, it can\u2019t be a loss of salvation verse because the sin is not committed by those who are saved to begin with.\u00a0 This sin is committed by those who are unregenerate.\n\nThis takes us to question number 3, what did this sin reveal exactly?\u00a0 It revealed several things; number 1, it revealed their unbelief.\u00a0 I mean, these Pharisees were so determined not to believe or trust in Christ as their Messiah that when they saw an obvious miracle they just decided we deny the miracle, deny, deny, deny the con, if that doesn\u2019t work, which they couldn\u2019t deny this one, then you attribute it to another source of power.\u00a0 They knew about Satan, they had the knowledge of the Old Testament.\u00a0 They knew about Satanic miracles, they knew the book of Exodus (most likely), when Moses and Aaron performed miracles, Pharaoh\u2019s magicians to a certain level, up until the multiplication of the gnats or the flies, (if I\u2019m not mistaken) could replicate a lot of the things Moses and Aaron were doing and so these Pharisees just said this man Jesus, this carpenter, is obviously doing these things through satanic power.\n\nSo the moment they said that they were revealing their unbelief.\u00a0 They\u2019re also revealing their self-righteousness; they\u2019re acknowledging that they don\u2019t need the transferred righteousness of Christ to be saved.\u00a0 They don\u2019t need to be saved by faith alone as a free gift; our self-righteousness saves us.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why Jesus, if you drop down to verses 34-35 says \u201cYou brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good?\u00a0 For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.\u201d\u00a0 In other words, what comes up in the bucket was down in the well.\u00a0 There\u2019s nothing but self-righteousness and unbelief in you so you\u2019re speaking those things.\u00a0 And then he says in verse 35, \u201cThe good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil.\u201d\u00a0 So their statement reveals their character, which was a character of unbelief and of self-righteousness.\n\nAnd now we get to the fourth question, why can\u2019t this sin be forgiven.\u00a0 I mean, why did Jesus make such a harsh statement, if you speak against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven but if you speak against the Holy Spirit it will never be forgiven in this age or the age to come?\u00a0 You have to look at this sin at two different levels.\u00a0 There\u2019s first of all the personal level, dealing with the personal salvation of the Pharisees, and most people analyze this statement totally at that level.\u00a0 But you also have to look at this sin at a national level, something strategic, something key, something pivotal was taking place, not just revealing the unbelieving state of the Pharisees but in God\u2019s dealings with the nation of Israel.\u00a0 Something\u00a0 just shifted here in a monumental way.\u00a0 So the national aspect of it is what most people don\u2019t factor in when they use this in their own life, thinking they can lose salvation.\n\nSo let\u2019s look at these two issues: why can\u2019t this sin be forgiven, first of all answering the question personally, and secondly, I think even more important trying to understand this issue nationally.\u00a0 First of all, personally.\u00a0 Why can\u2019t this sin be forgiven?\u00a0 Because these people would not believe in Jesus as their Savior who could save them.\u00a0 And I think Jesus, when He made this statement understood the unbelieving nature of the Pharisees and He understood that if this miracle was not going to change their mind nothing will.\u00a0 And these people are basically going to go to their graves in unbelief.\u00a0 The only sin that sends a person into hell is unbelief.\u00a0 In fact, if a person today has not believed in Jesus Christ then according to John 3:18 they are already under the condemnation of God.\u00a0 [John 3:18, \u201cHe who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.\u201d]\n\nSo they are already condemned.\u00a0 In fact, we are already condemned in the first Adam, we\u2019re just waiting for the condemnation to fall.\u00a0 It\u2019s like the sword of Damocles hanging over somebody ready to fall at any minute.\u00a0 That\u2019s the state of the unsaved.\u00a0 So John 3:18 says, \u201cHe who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.\u201d\u00a0 This was the condition of these Pharisees, and Jesus, in John 8:24, talking to the same crowd really, but on a different occasion, says this in John 8:24, \u201cTherefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.\u201d So there was the great I AM in their presence, they saw the evidence of it and they refused to embrace it by faith.\u00a0 Jesus knew what their character was, that that would never change because if this miracle is not going to change them then nothing will.\u00a0 So he\u2019s really making a statement about their eternity as unbelievers.\n\nKeep your finger in Matthew 10, we\u2019ll be going back to that in just a second, but over in Acts 10:43 it says, \u201cOf Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.\u201d\u00a0 Belief or faith in the Messiah is the only condition that\u2019s necessary to alter one\u2019s eternal destiny, to move someone away from condemnation, which is what they\u2019re under, to having a relationship with God and having that judgment removed.\n\nSo going back to Matthew 12 that\u2019s why this sin could not be forgiven at a personal level.\u00a0 If this miracle is not going to change your mind nothing will and you\u2019re just going to go off into the end of your life in a state of unbelief.\u00a0 And that\u2019s, I think what Jesus is saying to this crowd at a personal level.\u00a0 So you\u2019ll notice that He\u2019s not making a statement here about people that are saved and maybe they\u2019re going to commit some kind of sin and God is going to rip the carpet out from under him.\u00a0 To use this as a loss of salvation passage is to totally ignore the context.\n\nBut there\u2019s something much bigger happening here than at the personal level and this is the part of the equation that most people have not considered or know very little about and it\u2019s nationally what\u2019s happening.\u00a0 Nationally this sin could not be forgiven because these people rejected what we call the offer of the Kingdom.\u00a0 Now you say what is this \u201coffer of the Kingdom\u201d stuff?\u00a0 It relates to God\u2019s dealings with the nation of Israel, you remember Abram, the first Hebrew, or who would become the first Hebrew, was an idolater.\u00a0 He was called out of the Ur of the Chaldeans there on the east of the map.\u00a0 He was told to walk by faith and God would take him to a land that he had never seen before and knew nothing of, called the Promised Land.\u00a0 And this is the beginning of the Hebrew nation.\u00a0 The Hebrew nation as we\u2019ve studied even in our sermons on Sunday morning is very significant because that\u2019s going to be the vehicle through which the redemptive blessings are going to be mediated to planet earth.\n\nSo along the way God gives to Abram (his name later became Abraham) a covenant called the Abrahamic Covenant, unconditionally promising the Jewish people three things: land, seed (or descendants) and personal blessing.\u00a0 And that\u2019s the foundation of everything God does with Israel.\u00a0 All of the work that He does with Israel in subsequent chapters of the Bible He\u2019s reaffirming these Abrahamic promises.\u00a0 And these promises are what we call unconditional meaning that they are not conditioned upon Abraham\u2019s performance.\n\nAnd when you study Genesis 15 that\u2019s the whole significance of God taking animal parts and aligning them in two parallel rows.\u00a0 And when you study Genesis 15\u00a0 you\u2019ll see that played out because in that day when you entered into a covenant both parties passed through the two parallel rows of severed animal pieces because they were saying to themselves if I don\u2019t fulfill my obligations under the covenant then let me be cut asunder as these animals have been cut asunder.\n\nAnd what\u2019s interesting in Genesis 15 is Abram never passed through the animal pieces because he was put asleep, just like God put Adam to sleep in Eden to bring forth woman from his side.\u00a0 And God alone, in Genesis 15, as represented by the oven and the torch, passed through these animal pieces.\u00a0 So that covenant ceremony is all there to explain to us that this is an unconditional covenant, that\u2019s why it\u2019s called eternal, immutable, that\u2019s why there\u2019s no conditions stated for Abram of his descendants to perform.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why the covenant keeps getting reaffirmed to\u00a0 Israel, no matter how wicked she becomes.\u00a0 The covenant is alive and well today even though Israel, by and large, is a Christ rejecting nation, because this is an unconditional covenant.\n\nNow where it gets a little confusing, and by the way, the covenant has never been fulfilled; you can\u2019t point to a specific part of biblical history where God has done everything He said He was going to do.\u00a0 He\u2019s maybe fulfilled parts of it but not the promises in totality and God can never what? Lie!\u00a0 It\u2019s impossible for God to lie.\n\nNow where it gets confusing is then the nation of Israel is 400 years in Egypt, they come out of Egypt, the Red Sea is parted, the Egyptian army is drowned, and they travel down south to a place called Mount Sinai, and it\u2019s at Mount Sinai they receive another covenant, called the Mosaic Covenant, which says this, this is what God said to Israel through His agent, Moses, as they were camped at Mount Sinai and about to enter into this brand new covenant which is given 600 years after the Abrahamic Covenant.\u00a0 \u201cNow if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom\u201d see that word \u201ckingdom,\u201d that word kingdom is a big deal, \u201cyou shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.\u2019\u00a0 These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.\u201d\n\nNow notice this covenant is conditional.\u00a0 How do I know that?\u00a0 Because it says \u201cif\u2026then,\u201d if you \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0do this God says then I will do that.\u00a0 So the form critics\u2026 a form critic is someone who tries to recognize the form that the Bible was written in, the form critics all tell us (and I believe them) that this is what\u2019s called a suzerain vassal treaty, this Mosaic Covenant.\u00a0 The Abrahamic Covenant is what\u2019s called a royal grant, which is an unconditional covenant where someone just decides to do something for someone else.\u00a0 But not the Mosaic Covenant which is a suzerain vassal treaty.\u00a0 Suzerain\u2026 just substitute the word \u201csuperior\u201d and vassal, just substitute the word \u201cinferior.\u201d\u00a0 So it\u2019s a covenant whereby if the inferior agrees to the terms of the superior then the superior is going to bless the inferior.\u00a0 If the inferior disagrees with the terms of the superior then the superior is going to curse the inferior.\n\nSo in a suzerain vassal treaty in all of our knowledge of Ancient Near East demonstrates that these were the kind of treaties which were common in the time of Moses when this was entered into.\u00a0 There\u2019s a preamble, then there\u2019s a tracing of the historical relationship between the two parties before the suzerain vassal treaty is entered into.\u00a0 And then there\u2019s what\u2019s called the covenant obligations; this is what the vassal or the inferior is to do to gain the blessings of the suzerain or\u00a0 \u00a0the superior.\u00a0 Then there\u2019s storage instructions, then witnesses are called and then there\u2019s always blessings and curses.\u00a0 Here\u2019s what\u2019s going to happen to you if you obey the terms of the covenant text; here\u2019s what\u2019s going to happen if you disobey the terms of the covenant text.\u00a0 And I have the chapter divisions there.\u00a0 [Preamble (1:1-5); Prologue (1:6\u20134:40); Covenant obligations (5\u201326) Deuteronomy 17:15 John 5:39, 46; Storage and reading instructions (27:2-3; 31:9, 24, 26); Witnesses (32:1); Blessings and curses (28)]\n\nBut the whole book of Deuteronomy is set up exactly like a suzerain vassal treaty.\u00a0 So remember Deuteronomy basically means second law.\u00a0 So the first generation didn\u2019t obey the terms of the covenant text and so they wandered around in the wilderness for forty years before they died, and \u00a0so then God worked with the kids and He restated the Mosaic Covenant to them in the book of Deuteronomy, Second Law, and the whole\u00a0 thing is shaped like a Suzerain Vassal treaty.\n\nSo Deuteronomy 17:15 is a big deal because what the nation really needs to do to obey the covenant text is to enthrone the king of God\u2019s choosing.\u00a0 That\u2019s when the blessings will come.\u00a0 And Deuteronomy 17:15 says, \u201cyou shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses, one from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman.\u201d\u00a0 So in the ministry of Christ He stands right in front of the Pharisees and He says I\u2019m the guy!\u00a0 In fact, in John 5:39 and then verse 46 he says if you had read Moses you would be reading about Me, for He spoke about Me.\u00a0 [John 5:39, \u201cyou shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses, one from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your country\u00adman.\u201d\u00a0 Verse 46, \u201cFor if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me.\u201d]\n\nSo here\u2019s how the whole thing works.\u00a0 If the nation of Israel complies with the Mosaic Covenant they are not just the owner of land, seed and blessing, but they are the possessor and there\u2019s a big difference between ownership and possession.\u00a0 You can own something but not enjoy it; you can own a beach house but you\u2019re so busy working you can never enter it and enjoy it.\u00a0 The Abrahamic Covenant has given to the nation of Israel ownership of these three blessings.\u00a0 They\u2019re theirs and they will always be theirs but whether a given nation enters into possession of those blessings is totally dependent upon whether that nation responds to the terms of the Mosaic Covenant and the Mosaic Covenant points to who?\u00a0 Jesus!\u00a0 So if the nation of Israel accepts Jesus as their King on His terms (not their terms, His terms) Israel is not just the owner but also the what?\u00a0 Possessor.\u00a0 And once you have an intersection of ownership and possession you have the millennial kingdom.\u00a0 The millennial kingdom exists on the earth at that point.\n\nBut as long as Israel rejects the King of God\u2019s choosing, who is Jesus, which is their condition even today, is it not?\u00a0 And Israel today remains the owner but not the what?\u00a0 The possessor.\u00a0 And as long as she\u2019s the owner but not the possessor then the kingdom remains in a state of what?\u00a0 Not cancellation but what?\u00a0 It starts with a P\u2026 postponement.\u00a0 And what you need to understand about this is you could literally have every Gentile in the world come to Christ but if tiny Israel remains in a state of unbelief towards Messiah, Jesus, who they will call Yeshua, the kingdom will remain in a state of postponement.\u00a0 But the opposite is true, the whole world could reject Christ, the whole Gentile world, but if tiny Israel responds then the kingdom materializes.\u00a0 So whether the kingdom is going to come or not come is waiting completely on the response of national Israel.\n\nAnd that\u2019s why all these ministries that are trying to bring in the kingdom today, it\u2019s a waste of their time. You\u2019re not going to bring in the kingdom until Israel responds to the King.\u00a0 Until Israel responds to the King the kingdom is in postponement and God is working through a totally different man, with a totally different responsibility, called the what?\u00a0 The church, which is us, but we\u2019re not here to bring in the kingdom; we\u2019re here to reach and teach, evangelize and disciple, fulfill the great commission.\u00a0 The whole kingdom program is going to take place once Israel is in repentance eschatologically after the church has been removed from the earth and it\u2019s going to take the events of the great tribulation period to get them into that position.\n\nSo what you have in the meantime is blessings and cursings.\u00a0 In Deuteronomy 28:49-50, actually Deuteronomy 28:15-68 are the cycles of discipline that the nation is going to go through while she is rejecting her king and in a position of unbelief.\n\nThe blessings will come when she acknowledges her Messiah because at that point she\u2019ll be not just the owner but the possessor, leading to the manifestation of the kingdom.\u00a0 And this is all back\u00adground that most people aren\u2019t given to understanding the unpardonable sin.\u00a0 So this gives way to what we call the offer of the kingdom.\u00a0 The kingdom is very well sketched out by the Old Testament prophets.\u00a0 If you were just to read Isaiah 11:6-9 and Isaiah 2:1-4 you would see what this kingdom is going to be like.\n\n[Isaiah 11:6-9, \u201cAnd the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little boy will lead them.\u00a0 [7] Also the cow and the bear will graze, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. [8] The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child \u00a0\u00a0will put his hand on the viper\u2019s den.\u00a0 [9] They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.\n\nIsaiah 2:1-4, \u201cThe word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.\u00a0 [2] Now it will come about that in the last days the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it.\u00a0 [3] And many peoples will come and say, \u2018Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that He may teach us concerning His ways and that we may walk in His paths.\u2019\u00a0 For the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.\u00a0 [4] And He will judge between the nations, and will render decisions for many peoples;\nand they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.\u00a0 Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war.\u201d]\n\nJerusalem is going to be the center of world and spiritual authority; there\u2019s going to be perfect justice.\u00a0 And this is my problem with so much of the social justice mentality that you see in Christianity today.\u00a0 They talk about social justice as if they can bring it in.\u00a0 You\u2019re not going to have social justice in this world until the kingdom comes; then you\u2019re going to get your social justice.\u00a0 So what people have done is they have transferred on the church a responsibility that God never gave the church.\u00a0 Social justice, as God defines it\u2026 and by the way, do you know what social justice is as God defines it?\u00a0 It means you can produce on your own property without the government coming and taking it all away.\u00a0 You\u2019ll see that in Isaiah 65:21-23.\n\n[Isaiah 65:21-23, \u201cThey will build houses and inhabit them; They will also plant vineyards and eat their fruit. [22] They will not build and another inhabit, They will not plant and another eat; For as the lifetime of a tree, so will be the days of My people, And My chosen ones will wear out the work of their hands.\u00a0 [23] They will not labor in vain, Or bear children for calamity; For they are the offspring of those blessed by the LORD, And their descendants with them.\u201d]\n\nToday everybody else is defining social justice as the government needs to come in and redistribute the wealth; that\u2019s not how God defines social justice.\u00a0 But social justice, whatever it is, is coming when the kingdom comes.\u00a0 It\u2019s not going to happen until then.\u00a0 And the world will be in peace when the kingdom comes, they\u2019ll beat their swords into plowshares.\u00a0 By the way, the United Nations has that verse written on their building in New York, \u201cthey will beat their swords into plowshares\u201d which comes from Isaiah 2:11.\u00a0 [Isaiah 2:11, \u201cAnd He will judge between the nations, And will render decisions for many peoples; And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, And never again will they learn war.\u201d]\n\nWhen the United Nations puts that on their building what are they saying?\u00a0 They are assuming a Messianic role; they\u2019re saying to themselves we\u2019re going to bring this in.\u00a0 And biblically what we\u2019re saying is you\u2019re not going to bring it in, nothing will bring it in other than the conversion of Israel.\u00a0 There will even be peace in the animal kingdom, wolf and lamb will lie down together.\u00a0 And there will even come a period of time where they won\u2019t be kicking the Bible and prayer out of the public schools because it says \u201cthe earth will be filled with the know of the LORD.\u201d\u00a0 [Isaiah 11:9, \u201cThey will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea.\u201d]\n\nAnd so the prophets painted a beautiful picture of the kingdom and what it could be and will be once Israel conforms to the Mosaic Covenant.\u00a0 So when John the Baptist shows up in Matthew 3:2 and says, \u201cRepent, for the kingdom of God is at hand,\u201d what he is saying is the King is here, Israel, and if you enthrone Him on His terms then the kingdom, which is \u201cat hand\u201d because he is present, will come.\u00a0 And Jesus preaches the exact same message, \u201cRepent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u201d\u00a0 Why is it called \u201cthe kingdom of heaven\u201d?\u00a0 Because it\u2019s the rule of God from heaven coming to the earth in the millennial kingdom.\n\nAnd then Jesus sends out the apostles and tells them to go out and repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand in Matthew 10, and when He does that He says, \u201cDo not go the way of the Gentiles, do not enter any city of the city of the Samaritans, [6] but rather go\u201d only \u201cto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.\u00a0 [7] And as you go, preach, saying, \u2018Repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u201d\u00a0 And the reason He tells them to only go to Israel is because this is an offer to the nation only.\u00a0 Only Israel\u2019s response to the King will bring in the kingdom.\u00a0 So the kingdom could have come to the world in the first century if Israel had fulfilled her requirement under the condition under the Mosaic Covenant.\u00a0 She would have not been just the owner but the possessor if she had enthroned the King of God\u2019s choosing.\n\nBut we know the tragic story, don\u2019t we?\u00a0 The Gospels explain that Israel rejected this offer and that\u2019s what\u2019s happening in Matthew 12:24.\u00a0 [Matthew 12:24, \u201cBut when the Pharisees heard this,<\/em> they said, \u201cThis man casts out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons.\u201d]\u00a0 When they attribute Christ\u2019s miracles to the devil they are rejecting the offer of the kingdom.\u00a0 And that\u2019s the real turning point in Matthew\u2019s Gospel.\n\nSo what Jesus begins to describe at this point is the discipline, the cycles of discipline found where?\u00a0 Deuteronomy 28:15-68, that\u2019s coming upon national Israel because of their rejection of the offer of the kingdom.\u00a0 And one of those cycles of discipline, going back to Deuteronomy 28:49-50 is it says there, \u201cThe LORD will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as the eagle swoops down, a nation whose language you shall not understand, [50] a nation of fierce countenance who will have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young.\u201d\u00a0 Part of the cycles of discipline involves a foreign power coming against Israel and dispossessing them from their land.\n\nNow the cycles of discipline were announced by Moses 1500 years ago and God has made good on these cycles, over and over again in Israel\u2019s history, as the northern kingdom was scattered by the Assyrians in 722 B.C.; the southern kingdom was taken captive by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. and then Israel goes back into the land as recorded by the books of Ezra and Nehemiah; about 400 years elapse and then Jesus shows up.\u00a0 And God says here\u2019s your chance, Israel, to have the kingdom.\u00a0 We know from the Gospels, we know even from our passage, Matthew 12:24, that they turned down that offer.\n\nSo what does Jesus start talking about?\u00a0 He starts talking about judgment that is coming upon this generation.\u00a0 Which generation?\u00a0 The generation of first century Jews that rejected the offer of the kingdom.\u00a0 That\u2019s why \u201cthis generation\u201d becomes such a big deal in Matthew\u2019s writings.\u00a0 So for example over in Matthew 23:34-37, it says, \u201cTherefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, [35] so that upon you may fall the guilt of<\/em> all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. [36] Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.\u201d\u00a0 All right gang, you turned down the offer of the kingdom, you know the Mosaic Covenant, get ready for the cycles of discipline to start repeating.\n\nOver in Luke 19:41-44, Jesus starts re-articulating.\u00a0 See, Jesus is not inventing anything new, He\u2019s just rehearsing what they already knew from the book of Deuteronomy, the Suzerain vassal treaty.\u00a0 Luke 19:41-43 \u201cWhen He approached Jerusale<\/em>m, He saw the city had wept over it.\u00a0 [42] saying, \u2018If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes.\u201d\u00a0 You could have had the peace of God and the kingdom.\u00a0 [43] \u201cFor the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, [44] and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.\u201d\n\nSo you remember what the Assyrians did to you;\u00a0 you remember what the Babylonians did to you.\u00a0 Jesus says the same thing is about to happen to this generation through Rome.\u00a0 And of course that happened very accurately just as Jesus said it would happen about forty years later in the horrific events; of which era am I thinking of?\u00a0 A.D. 70, the cycles of discipline; over a million Jews were killed in A.D. 70.\n\nSo when God starts the age of the church in Acts 2 and Peter preaches that opening sermon on the day of Pentecost, Acts 2, Peter says to the Jews save yourselves from this perverse generation. \u00a0What generation is he talking about?\u00a0 The generation that\u2019s about ready to move off into discipline, having rejected the offer of the kingdom so come out of that and be part of this new man called the church is what Peter, in essence is saying there.\n\nAnd fortunately 3,000 responded to the message which is pretty small potatoes compared to probably a million Jews in Israel at that time; a large number of them being in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost to hear Peter\u2019s message.\n\nSo judgment is coming upon first century Israel and once you get beyond Matthew 12, which is the key turning point, the kingdom is postponed.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why Jesus begins to articulate the course of the present age that we\u2019ve been in for the last two thousand years, through eight parables.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why He begins to talk about something totally new that He\u2019s never talked about before\u2026 the church.\u00a0 It\u2019s in that section he says in Matthew 16:18, first of all He starts talking about His death, which He\u2019s never spoken of before because see, what\u2019s going to happen is God is going to take lemons and turn them into what?\u00a0 Lemonade, which is what God does.\u00a0 He\u2019s going to take something tragic, the Jewish rejection of their King, and turn it into Israel turning Christ over to Rome for execution and God is not surprised by these events, He\u2019s going to use that transaction to pay the sin debt of the world.\n\nSo at this point Jesus starts talking about His death and the coming church which will consist of those that have accepted by faith in the Jewish King that national Israel rejected.\u00a0 It\u2019s a new man made up of all nations, which we\u2019re a part of.\u00a0 And the church\u2019s mission is not to preach the offer of the kingdom, that\u2019s an offer given only to Israel, but it is to go reach and teach, fulfill the great commission.\u00a0 That\u2019s why the whole language starts changing in Matthew 28:18-20.\n\n[Matthew 28:18-20, \u201cGo therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, [20] teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.\u201d]\n\nSo what I want you to see about Matthew 12 is it\u2019s a switch in the ministry of Christ.\u00a0 It\u2019s a transition from public to private ministry.\u00a0 Christ\u2019s public ministry is in Matthew 1-12 and then everything shifts in Matthew 13-28.\u00a0 The focus of Matthew 1-12 is all about Israel.\u00a0 The focus of the second half of Matthew\u2019s Gospel is the believing remnant who will become the foundations of the church.\u00a0 The miracles in Matthew 1-12, even including the miracle that he performed of the healing, is to prove who He is to the nation but once they say the devil did that miracle the whole shift begins where Jesus starts to do miracles to train the remnant because Israel is off the table at that point.\u00a0 It\u2019s obvious what\u2019s going to happen to Israel.\u00a0 So Jesus starts to train the remnant like Peter, He has Peter walk out on the Sea of Galilee and Peter begins to sink and Jesus is using that to prepare Peter\u2019s faith because he\u2019s part of the remnant and he\u2019s going to be one of the foundation stones in this coming church age.\n\nThat\u2019s why in Matthew 1-12 it keeps saying, three times, \u201cRepent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.\u201d\u00a0 And you get in the second part of Matthew\u2019s Gospel and that language disappears until the very, very end, after the church is gone.\u00a0 Matthew 1-12, Jesus doesn\u2019t even talk in parables.\u00a0 You get to the second half of Matthew\u2019s Gospel suddenly He\u2019s talking in parables.\u00a0 I mean, He never gave the Sermon on the Mount in parables.\u00a0 Why is He talking in parables?\u00a0 Because the purpose of a parable is to conceal and reveal; He is deliberately concealing truth from the nation and its leadership that just rejected Him and the offer of the kingdom and He\u2019s disclosing it to those that He calls the babes, that have eyes to see because He\u2019s preparing them for the church age in those various parables.\n\nThe interim program about this new age of time, called the interadvent age or the church is not spoken of at all in Matthew 1-12 but once you get into the second half of Matthew\u2019s Gospel suddenly that new age of time, the mention of the church and so forth, becomes prominent and the hinge of the whole thing is the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 What shifts the whole thing is when they took His obvious miracle and they attributed it to Satan.\u00a0 At that point it was very clear what their decision was.\u00a0 The offer of the kingdom is withdrawn at that point and Jesus begins to work in preparation for a new man called the age of the church.\n\nSo Matthew\u2019s Gospel as I\u2019ve got it organized here, the hinge of the whole thing is Matthew 12.\u00a0 Once you hit Matthew 12 the whole ministry of Jesus Christ shifts.\u00a0 But Matthew fortunately doesn\u2019t leave the Jews completely in the dust because once you get into Matthew 23:38-39 He says Israel, you\u2019ll not see Me again until you say what?\u00a0 \u201cBlessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.\u201d\u00a0 [Matthew 23:38-39, \u201cBehold, your house is being left to you desolate! \u00a0[39] \u201cFor I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, \u2018BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!\u2019\u201d]\n\nSo He\u2019s offering hope for a distant generation, not this generation but a distant generation who is going to receive the offer of the kingdom.\u00a0 And we know from Matthew 24:14 and the Tribulation period itself after the church is gone the offer is re-extended once again and this time Israel will receive it, after great distress.\u00a0 It\u2019s going to take the abomination of desolation, the desecration of their own temple by the antichrist himself to get them to recognize their need for this offer.\u00a0 But they will receive it and then Jesus will return, Matthew 25:31, and reign from His glorious throne which is David\u2019s throne.\u00a0 [Matthew 25:31, \u201c\u201cBut when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.\u201d]\n\nSo do not expect the Davidic enthronement of Christ until after the Tribulation period is what he\u2019s saying.\u00a0 And today I have all of these theologians trying to tell me that Jesus is on David\u2019s throne right now.\u00a0 That totally violates every contextual normal reading of Matthew\u2019s Gospel.\n\nSo that is the history that people really are never given when they get into this subject of the unpardonable sin.\u00a0 This sin could not be forgiven, number 4, because it was a unique opportunity for Israel to have the kingdom and they made their decision and now that kingdom is not going to come through that generation.\u00a0 That\u2019s the context of the unpardonable sin.\u00a0 And it\u2019s very similar to God cutting off the generation that came out of Egypt when they saw the spies in the land and He said I\u2019m done with that generation (with a few exceptions, like Joshua and Caleb) and I\u2019m going to work with the next generation.\u00a0 That\u2019s what\u2019s happening here in Matthew\u2019s Gospel.\u00a0 It\u2019s over for first century Israel.\u00a0 And God is going to make good on His promises through a distant generation that will respond to Israel\u2019s responsibility.\n\nSo all of this leads us to number 5, can this sin be committed today?\u00a0 No if you define it as a loss of salvation because it\u2019s not a loss of salvation passage.\u00a0 In fact, over and over again in the epistles to the church we\u2019re told to not lie to the Spirit, don\u2019t grieve the Spirit, don\u2019t quench the Spirit, walk according to the Spirit, be filled with the Spirit.\u00a0 What are we never warned against in the epistles?\u00a0 We are never warned against blasphemy of the Spirit, ever.\u00a0 So that must have been something that first century Israel did which was unique to them, not to us.\n\nCan this sin be committed today?\u00a0 No, if you mean loss of salvation; but yes if you define it as dying in unbelief.\u00a0 That\u2019s the closest parallel that I would know of where this sin could be committed because that\u2019s the condition of the Pharisees; they died in unbelief at a personal level.\u00a0 So if a person is convicted of their need to trust Christ and they go throughout their life and say no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no and die in that condition then that\u2019s the closest parallel you can come to in committing the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.\n\nAnd having said all that I\u2019m not even sure that\u2019s even the point that Christ was getting at here.\u00a0 I think He was not speaking so much personally, I\u2019ve given you the personal application, but I think he was speaking nationally and there are many very fine Bible scholars, like my professor, Dwight Pentecost, Arnold Fruchtenbaum, I\u2019ll show you a quote from him in just a minute, who never defined this personally but defined it nationally.\n\nSo Arnold Fruchtenbaum, in his book, \u00a0Israelology, <\/em>on page 617 comments on the unpardonable sin, and he says in verses 30-37, that\u2019s Matthew 12, \u201cHe\u201d that\u2019s Jesus, \u201cpronounced a judgment on the Jewish generation of that day. That generation had committed the unpardonable sin: the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. The unpardonable sin\u201d look at this, \u201cwas not an individual sin but a national sin.\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019ve given you what I think is the personal application but Fruchtenbaum\u2019s point is it\u2019s not even talking about personal salvation here; this is all national.\u00a0 \u201cIt was committed by that generation of Israel in Jesus\u2019 day and cannot be applied to subsequent Jewish generations. The content and definition of the unpardonable sin is the national rejection of the Messiahship of Jesus by Israel while He was physically present on the basis that He was demon possessed. This sin was unpardonable, and judgment was set.\u201d\n\nYou see, you have the King present, the offer of the kingdom is on the table.\u00a0 The miracles are happening.\u00a0 The opportunity to enthrone the King and not just become the owner but the possessor and therefore to have the full possession of the kingdom was right then and there.\u00a0 That was the unique opportunity that first century Israel had, which has never been repeated in subsequent history.\u00a0 Fruchtenbaum goes on and he says, \u201c\u201c<\/em>The judgment came in the year A.D. 70\u201d that\u2019s the covenant curses, \u201c with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple and the world-wide dispersion of the Jewish people. It was a national sin committed by the generation of Jesus\u2019 day, and for that generation the sin was unpardonable. From this point on a special emphasis is placed on this generation\u201d<\/em> first century Israel, \u201cin the gospels, for it was guilty of a <\/strong>very unique sin.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s what I\u2019m trying to communicate.\u00a0 The unpardonable sin is a unique sin nationally.\u00a0 \u201cAt this point, His offer of the Messianic Kingdom was rescinded. It will not now be established in their day because of the unpardonableness of that sin.<\/em>\u201d\n\nAnd how many people, when they think about the unpardonable sin understand this offer of the kingdom background?\u00a0 Very few.\u00a0 That\u2019s why everybody is confused about it, because pastors are not in front of their congregations helping people with these things; they are too busy talking about five ways to improve your life or whatever they\u2019re talking about.\u00a0 And people are basically left to their own devices to try and interpret these things, and they\u2019re in this state of fear all the time.\n\nSo in summary, here\u2019s sort of what we learned: the Pharisees attributed Christ\u2019s miracles to Satan.\u00a0 Number 2, the Pharisees did not believe in Christ as their Messiah.\u00a0 If you want to apply this personally that\u2019s the personal application.\u00a0 Number 3, a person must believe in Jesus to be saved.\u00a0 Number 4, the sin committed by the unbelieving Pharisees marks the nation\u2019s official rejection of the kingdom offer.\u00a0 Next, the sin is a one-time sin that cannot be replicated in subsequent generations or today.\u00a0 The offer of the kingdom is withdrawn as now Christ announces His soon death and the coming church.\u00a0 And last, there is no loss of salvation here because the Pharisees were never saved to begin with.\n\nNow is suicide the unpardonable sin?\u00a0 You already know the answer to that, right?\u00a0 No, but I won\u2019t be able to get into that until not next week but the following week.\u00a0 I hope this helps a little bit unpacking a difficult verse.\u00a0 Once again I elapsed my time but are there any quick questions.\u00a0 Just ruminate on it, think about it.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t