Who is Jesus?
- "Lunatic!" Says those that don't KNOW Him. (Mk 3:21-22)
- "Liar!" Says those that don't REJECT Him. (Mk 3:22-30)
- "Lord!" Says those who EMBRACE Him. (Mk 3:31-35)
What is the unforgivable sin?
How do I know I haven't done it?
Hebrews 2:3 - how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?
Hebrews 6:4-6 - For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance
Hebrews 10:26,29 - For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins... How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
-
00:00-00:01
Do you have your Bibles?
00:04-00:10
Open up to Mark chapter 3 and verse 21 as we continue our series through the book of Mark.
00:13-00:19
While you're turning to Mark chapter 3, did I ever tell you the story about how I almost got arrested for attempted murder?
00:21-00:22
Did I ever tell you that story?
00:23-00:25
This is an absolutely true story.
00:27-00:28
There is no embellishment in this story.
00:30-00:35
Some of you are going to hear this story and still think that there was, but there's absolutely no embellishment in this story.
00:35-00:38
I was almost arrested for attempted murder.
00:40-00:41
Here's the story.
00:41-00:43
This was back in my college days.
00:44-00:45
Yeah, I got a lot of stories like that, right?
00:46-00:48
Back in my college days when I was killing people.
00:51-01:05
No, I actually, going to Bible college, I was a pastor of a little community church, wrestling on the weekends, and in my free time I had a job as a magazine vendor.
01:07-01:11
And I had two Wal-Mart's and two K-Mart's that I was responsible for the magazines.
01:12-01:20
Every week I had to go to each store twice to do the weeklies and then change out the various monthly magazines on the, you know, the big rack.
01:20-01:22
You know the big magazine rack at Walmart, right?
01:22-01:29
Well, I was going into, it was actually my Kmart in Chillicothe, Ohio.
01:31-01:34
And as I was walking in, I was eating Spree.
01:34-01:35
You know Spree, right?
01:36-01:40
That delightfully fruity candy, comes in the foil tube.
01:40-01:43
I was never one to like rip the foil because I didn't like little pieces of foil everywhere.
01:43-01:46
So I would slide the Spree up the tube.
01:46-01:56
While I'm eating the Spree and I'm thinking, I don't want them to think I took this off the candy rack, which is right by the magazine rack, so I folded it in half and stuck it in my pocket when I went in.
01:58-02:17
So I'm at the magazine rack and I'm taking off the old magazines, cleaning out all those little mailers and stuff out of the bins and just going about my business, when all of a sudden these two police officers come up to me and they said, "Excuse me, sir.
02:19-02:38
"Do you have a knife?" And I said, "Yeah." I said, "Actually, I do have a knife." And the one cop said, "I want you to pull it out nice and slow." And they were both, like, you know, ready to draw on me.
02:38-02:52
They're like, "Pull it out nice and slow." I had this keychain knife that was literally this long, and it was this wide, and it was -- It was actually like, it was a little like pocket knife, but it folded like into a cross, ironically.
02:54-02:58
So they like pulled out, no joke, they pulled out nice and slow, so I'm like.
03:06-03:19
And the male cop, he goes, "You can put that away." And at that point, the female police officer left.
03:22-03:24
But not before they gave me a thorough frisking.
03:26-03:29
In the front of the store, so do you have this scene?
03:29-03:30
I'm like dressed up.
03:31-03:32
I'm working.
03:33-03:35
I'm in the front of Kmart.
03:38-03:42
Like this, being frisked by two cops.
03:44-03:47
People are walking in the store, "Hey, it's Pastor Jeff!
03:52-04:09
Hope to see you Sunday!" And they said, well, at that point the FEMA officer went to go somewhere, and I was talking to the male cop, and he said, "I need to see your driver's license.
04:09-04:11
I need some ID." So I gave him my driver's license.
04:12-04:44
said, "We got a report that you were coming here to murder someone." And I'm like, "There has to be some mistake. There has to be some mistake." I said, "I work here." I said, "I wouldn't go into my workplace and like kill people. That's He gets on his like radio, his shoulder radio, right?
04:44-05:10
And he's like, "Can you describe the suspect for me?" Click. And it comes back over the feed, Caucasian male, early to mid-20s, blonde hair, maroon, long-sleeved dress shirt, khaki pants, and I'm like, "Oh, crap." That one, pardon the word, but yeah, that's what I said, literally.
05:10-05:13
I'm like, yeah, that's pretty much me.
05:16-05:22
And they said, well, do you have -- is there anybody at this store that you hate or are mad at or another?
05:23-05:23
I'm like, no.
05:24-05:29
I'm not here -- I'm like, I'm the magazine guy.
05:32-05:35
Cutscene, the female officer went to the service desk.
05:37-05:40
And they said, yeah, we're here to investigate this guy.
05:40-07:21
and she's like, "What's his name?" And they, through getting my ID, they're like, "His name's Jeffrey Miller." Well, this female cop says to the manager of Kmart, she said, "Do you know a Jeffrey S. Miller?" And the manager said, "No." And the cop says, "He says he works here." And the manager's like, "Never heard of him." Fortunately, there was a cashier near the manager knew me." And she goes, "Jeff is the magazine guy." And she goes, "Oh yeah, the magazine guy. Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, I know him." And the female cop says, "Well do you think he'd ever hurt anyone?" And the manager goes, "No, he's a preacher." And the cop says, "Ma'am, that might mean something to some people." So there was this whole rigmarole, more questioning the manager and other employees, and then they gave me my ID back, and they're just like, "Okay, have a good night." And they left. And I was like, "What was that all about?" Then it hit me. The spree that I was eating on my way into the store was in a silver foil wrapper, that as I was walking into the store and folding it, somebody thought that I had a switchblade and saw me walking in like switchblade in hand, thinking that I was going to go in and murder someone at Kmart.
07:21-07:29
But that whole event happened over confusion of identity.
07:30-07:40
You're like, "Why are you telling us this story?" Well, in this story, there was all this confusion over who I was, because they're like, "Well, somebody called and said I was a murderer.
07:40-07:41
I have no idea who that was.
07:41-08:03
Somebody just seen me walk in." They're like, "Murderer." And then when they talk to the manager, they're like, "No, he's a preacher." And then when they talk to some other employees, they're like, "No, we think he works here." And there was all this confusion over who I really was.
08:05-08:10
And when we get to this passage in Mark, that's exactly what we see here concerning Jesus Christ.
08:11-08:14
There's all this confusion over who is this guy?
08:15-08:24
Because Jesus had a lot more unusual things happening around Him than certainly was ever happening around me.
08:24-08:25
Who is this guy?
08:26-08:28
I mean, you've been with us in our studies so far, right?
08:28-08:29
Who is this guy?
08:29-08:30
He teaches with authority.
08:32-08:33
We've never heard anybody teach like this.
08:34-08:42
And he eats with sinners, and demons are terrified of him, and he breaks our Sabbath rules, and he heals sick people.
08:45-08:48
And now when we get to this section of Mark, the early verdicts come in.
08:49-08:50
Who is Jesus?
08:50-08:51
Who is He?
08:53-08:59
And actually many preachers have said it, but it was C.S. Lewis who popularized the trilemma.
08:59-09:00
Do you know about the trilemma?
09:01-09:07
C.S. Lewis said that you can only have one of three choices when it comes to Jesus Christ.
09:09-09:11
He says you can't say He was a good man.
09:12-09:14
Okay, that's what a lot of people say, "Jesus was a good man.
09:14-09:22
He was a good man." Jesus Christ was not a good man, because good men don't act the way Jesus acted.
09:22-09:26
around telling people that they're God, they're the Savior of the universe.
09:26-09:28
Good people don't do that kind of thing.
09:28-09:35
So C.S. Lewis, like I said, other theologians and preachers before him, said, "Really, you only have three conclusions when it comes to Jesus.
09:37-09:41
First of all, maybe he was a lunatic, a crazy man.
09:43-09:46
I've met people who told me that they were God, okay?
09:47-09:48
And they believed it.
09:50-09:52
They were mentally unstable, and I'm not making fun of that.
09:53-09:53
That's reality.
09:54-10:00
Whether it was some form of schizophrenia, but they thought they were God.
10:00-10:04
They were mentally deranged.
10:05-10:08
And some people would put Jesus in that category.
10:08-10:11
He's crazy to say the kinds of things that He said.
10:13-10:14
Another choice you have is liar.
10:17-10:23
Like, he knew he wasn't God, but he went around telling everybody that he was.
10:23-10:24
That would make him a what?
10:24-10:25
A liar, right?
10:25-10:26
He's a liar.
10:27-10:37
You know, he's saying, "He comes from the Father, and he's going back to the Father, and he's come to seek and save the lost, and he's…" He knows that stuff isn't true.
10:37-10:38
He's a liar.
10:40-10:41
That's your second option.
10:43-10:46
And the third option is, He's the Lord.
10:47-10:49
He is who He said He is.
10:50-10:54
He is God in the flesh who came to redeem us.
10:56-10:57
So those are your choices.
10:57-11:10
He was liar, or excuse me, lunatic, liar, or Lord, or you would say He was mad, He was bad, or He was God, but those are really your only three options, and you're going to see all three of those come right from this text.
11:12-11:20
The same question that C.S. Lewis asked, and the same questions these theologians asked concerning Jesus, it all comes right from this passage.
11:21-11:25
So just very simply today, we're going to ask you a question you have to answer.
11:25-11:26
Multiple choice test for you today.
11:28-11:29
Who is Jesus?
11:30-11:31
Who is Jesus?
11:35-11:40
Number one on your outline, "Lunatic," says those who don't know Him.
11:42-11:53
verses 21 and 22, it says, "And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem," that's like corporate headquarters, right?
11:53-11:55
These weren't like the local scribes.
11:57-12:00
These were the scribes that came from Jerusalem, from the holy city, right?
12:01-12:02
These were the bigwigs.
12:02-12:15
So these scribes came from Jerusalem, were saying, I'm sorry, I started in the wrong place. Back up to verse 20, we'll get to them in a second. Cut that out of the audio.
12:16-13:19
Verse 20, we'll get to those guys in a second. "Then he went home," okay, Jesus went back to, we talked about this, probably Peter's home. It says, "And the crowds gathered again so that they could not even eat." If you're in any ministry of any type, as many people in this room are, you know that you have seasons like that. You're so busy doing ministry, not even time to eat. It just happens. It just happens. It happened to Jesus. So the crowds gathered again so they could not even eat. But verse 21, it says, "And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were were saying, "He is out of his mind." Now this word for seize is also the word that can be translated "arrested." His family came down and they're like, "He's crazy.
13:21-14:13
Let's just get him and get him out of here for his protection, spare the family some embarrassment." And I totally contract with what's happening here. I totally get this. Because as you know, our children have some issues, some developmental issues. And I totally get this. You know, most times when we go in public, Aaron and I are like, "Okay, time to seize the children and get them out of here because they're acting crazy." Okay? A lot of times, Owen, due to some sensory things, has some meltdowns and we totally get that. Like, let's just grab them and get out of here so that, You know, there's not an embarrassment upon him or upon everybody else, let's just get out of here." And that's what Jesus' family did.
14:14-14:31
But I want you to notice in the text, now that we're reading the right verses, it says Because when his family, look at verse 21, underline the words, "heard it." Were they seeing it?
14:32-14:33
Were they seeing it?
14:34-14:35
What does your Bible say?
14:36-14:36
No.
14:38-14:41
Were they first-hand eyewitnesses to what Jesus was doing?
14:43-14:43
No.
14:44-14:46
My Bible says they heard it.
14:48-14:48
Right?
14:48-14:52
And you can totally get this, right?
14:52-14:53
Could you imagine?
14:53-15:00
You have this relative that lives in another place, and all these reports keep coming back to you.
15:00-15:01
"Hey, you know your cousin?
15:02-15:10
He's going around telling people he's God and that he can drive out demons, and all these people are gathered to listen to him, and he's saying the craziest things.
15:10-15:14
We've never heard anybody talk like this." It'd be like a family meeting.
15:15-15:18
"We've got to go do something about this guy.
15:19-15:26
It says his family heard it and let's go get him." They went out to seize him saying he is out of his mind.
15:27-15:30
Their verdict on Jesus was based on ignorance.
15:32-15:33
And there is nothing new under the sun.
15:33-15:35
That's how some people evaluate Jesus.
15:35-15:36
Did you know that?
15:38-15:45
Anything they think they know were things that they heard, maybe.
15:48-16:00
I think someone told me sometime, like we dealt with that in prison ministry all the time, remember Mark?
16:00-16:05
We'd have people like, "Well, you know, Jesus this and Jesus that." Like, where'd you come up with that?
16:06-16:29
"Well, I went to this church and I had this guy in this church tell me, 'Is that in the Bible?'" "Well, I don't really know where it's at in the Bible, but I'm pretty sure that that's the truth about Jesus." We're like, "If you're going to come to this Bible study and make such a claim, you better be able to back it up biblically because that's our source of authority.
16:29-16:32
We believe what the Bible says about Jesus Christ.
16:32-16:38
So don't be walking in here with, "Here's what I think about Jesus." I really don't care what you think about Jesus.
16:38-16:40
I care what God thinks about Jesus.
16:41-16:43
And that's what happened with his family here.
16:43-16:49
They heard these things and, "Okay, must be crazy." People like that need challenged.
16:50-16:58
Are you interested in what the Bible really does say, or are you willing to hold on to some third-handed opinion that you can't verify?
16:58-17:00
So lunatics as those who don't know him.
17:01-17:07
Secondly, "Liar," says those who reject him.
17:08-17:09
Now let's look at verse 22.
17:09-17:15
It says, "And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem," now they came from Jerusalem, that was a big deal.
17:15-17:16
Did you hear about this?
17:17-17:18
Did you know that?
17:20-17:23
They weren't like the local scribes, they were like from Jerusalem.
17:25-17:42
They were saying, "He is possessed by Beelzebul, and by the prince of demons, he casts out demons." Who is Beelzebul?
17:45-17:48
Well, in the Old Testament, you come across this name five times.
17:48-17:52
It's actually Beelzebub with a B.
17:54-18:00
It was an Ekranite term, which meant the Lord of the high places.
18:00-18:03
And in the Old Testament, it was used to refer to Satan.
18:03-18:05
He's called the Lord of the high places.
18:05-18:08
The New Testament calls him the Prince of the Power of the Air.
18:08-18:12
Old Testament, Beelzebub, he's the Lord of the high places.
18:12-18:15
You're like, "Well, what's up with Beelzebul?" This is actually kind of funny.
18:17-18:18
Kids, you'll get a kick out of this especially.
18:21-18:42
And Jews, in order to sort of make fun of Satan, changed the word from Beelzebub to Beelzebul because in just changing that little part of the word, it goes from "Lord of the high places" to "Lord of the manure pile," just with that change.
18:44-18:46
So that was what they called Satan.
18:48-18:49
He's the Lord of poop.
18:51-18:52
That's literally what that means.
18:53-19:00
And you're like, "Well, I always heard that that was like the Lord of the Flies." Do you know which flies they are referring to?
19:02-19:03
It's true.
19:04-19:06
I don't need to explain that, right?
19:07-19:10
Okay, if you still need help, grab somebody after service.
19:10-19:13
Lord of the Flies, it's the same thing.
19:15-19:17
Just talking about which neighborhood those flies hang out.
19:21-19:25
So it's by Beelzebul.
19:25-19:27
Do you know how he gets his power?
19:27-19:29
They didn't deny that he had power.
19:29-19:30
They saw that he had power.
19:31-19:32
The question is, where does he get his power from?
19:33-19:39
And they said, "He is Satan-energized." Jesus is Satan-energized.
19:39-19:43
He gets his power from the Lord of the Menorah, Satan.
19:48-19:55
what they were saying was, "This man is a deceiver." You know, he's saying that he gets his power from Jehovah.
19:55-19:57
He does not get his power from Jehovah.
19:58-19:59
He gets his power from Satan.
20:00-20:01
He is deceiving you.
20:04-20:07
Do you think Jesus had something to say about that?
20:08-20:24
It says, "And he called them to him and said to them in parables." Now what you're going to see here, four negative statements, one positive statement, Jesus is just showing them how idiotic their accusation is.
20:26-20:29
Jesus is meeting them with this ridiculous premise.
20:31-20:32
"Oh, that's what you think.
20:33-20:42
Well let's kind of reason this out and see what kind of sense it makes." And you'll realize how foolish this accusation is.
20:45-20:50
Jesus said to them in parables, "How can Satan cast out Satan?
20:51-20:55
If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
20:56-21:03
And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.
21:04-21:11
And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand but is coming to an end.
21:15-21:22
But no one enters a strong man's house and plunders his goods unless he first binds the strong man.
21:24-21:26
Then indeed he may plunder his house.
21:27-21:29
See, Satan is the strong man here.
21:30-21:32
What Jesus is saying is, "I'm stronger than Satan.
21:33-21:42
I've come to undo His work, and in order to undo His work, I had to bind Him." He was just making a claim, "I'm stronger than Satan.
21:42-21:49
I'm undoing Satan's work." So, Jesus says, "Okay, here's your theory.
21:50-21:55
Satan's running around, dismantling his own kingdom." That's absolutely a brilliant deduction.
21:57-21:59
But look at what Jesus says next.
22:02-22:09
of the most serious and sober and you better be sitting up listening to every word that Jesus says here.
22:11-22:16
Jesus said, "Truly I say to you," by the way, Jesus was the only person that said that.
22:16-22:19
You don't see any other prophets, apostles, teachers.
22:20-22:25
When Jesus said, "Truly I say to you," that means you have got to listen to what I'm saying right now.
22:26-22:36
Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven, the children of man.
22:37-22:40
And whatever blasphemies they utter.
22:44-22:52
But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness.
22:55-22:59
is guilty of an eternal sin.
23:04-23:18
For they were saying, "He has an unclean spirit." There is a sin that cannot be forgiven.
23:18-23:19
Did you know that?
23:20-23:28
There is a sin that will not ever, ever be forgiven.
23:30-23:51
Jesus in this passage says it is an eternal sin, a sin that someone can commit that a thousand years from now, ten thousand years from now, a million years from now, into eternity, God will not change His mind on this.
23:55-23:59
A sin that cannot be forgiven.
24:01-24:03
So what is the unforgivable sin?
24:04-24:07
I've been asked this question a lot in my ministry.
24:07-24:08
People concerned.
24:09-24:10
Have I done it?
24:12-24:20
It's something that everyone should be concerned about, frankly, but it's something we need to understand biblically.
24:20-24:22
What is the unforgivable sin?
24:22-24:23
If you're writing notes, jot this down.
24:23-24:25
Jesus called it, what?
24:26-24:28
Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.
24:31-24:34
That is the unforgivable sin, blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.
24:37-24:39
The unforgivable sin is not doubting God.
24:39-24:41
That's not the unforgivable sin.
24:41-24:54
Like you know, I went through this season where I didn't pray like I probably should heaven, I kind of doubted whether God was really with me, and I kind of went through that season, but I look back now and that's not it.
24:55-24:56
Everybody say, "That's not it.
24:57-25:05
That's not it." The unforgivable sin is not denying the Lord in a season.
25:06-25:07
Peter did that, right?
25:07-25:09
Three times in a row.
25:09-25:11
I don't even know him.
25:11-25:13
Jesus completely restored him.
25:14-25:21
So, like, you know, if you're like, "You know what, this time at work, you know, I could have stood up for Jesus and I pretended like I didn't care.
25:22-25:26
Is that the unforgivable sin?" The answer is no, that is not the unforgivable sin.
25:27-25:27
Okay?
25:28-25:29
Peter did that.
25:30-25:31
That's not it either.
25:35-25:39
Depending who you ask, some people say divorce is an unforgivable sin.
25:39-25:40
The Bible does not say that.
25:44-25:50
Divorce certainly carries with it painful consequences, nobody's denying that, but it is not an unforgivable sin.
25:51-25:55
Some people say it's some kind of a sexual sin, that's the unforgivable sin.
25:56-25:57
The Bible doesn't say that either.
25:59-26:03
Some people say that suicide is the unforgivable sin, the Bible does not say that.
26:07-26:10
So what is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit?
26:12-26:13
What does that mean?
26:16-26:20
Understand this, the Holy Spirit's job is what?
26:21-26:25
The Holy Spirit's job is to testify about Jesus Christ, correct?
26:26-26:27
That's His job.
26:28-26:35
The Holy Spirit's job is to draw people's hearts towards the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
26:37-26:44
To reveal Him to people, to draw people to Him, to shed light on the glorious truths of the gospel.
26:46-26:56
The scribes in this account saw Jesus at work, and they ascribed His power to Satan.
27:00-27:26
And when the Holy Spirit reveals Jesus to you, and you understand who He is, and you understand what He's done, and you refuse to worship Him, you refuse to receive Him as your Savior and as your Lord, and you instead walk away from Him, that is unforgivable.
27:29-27:31
That is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.
27:32-27:36
It is God's Holy Spirit saying, "Listen, this is who Jesus Christ is.
27:36-27:37
You need to embrace Him.
27:37-27:49
You need to receive Him." And you understand that, but you say no.
27:50-27:52
You choose instead to walk away.
27:56-27:57
It's unforgivable.
27:58-28:02
But understand, this isn't something that's done in ignorance, okay?
28:02-28:03
Like Jesus' family in verse 21.
28:04-28:06
That's not blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.
28:06-28:09
This is done after full revelation.
28:13-28:23
So that leads to this question, "How do I know I haven't done it?" I've talked to a lot of Christians, they're like, "Gosh, I'm really worried.
28:23-28:30
This one day back in 1996, I think I may have blasphemed against the Holy Spirit and the Bible says I can't be forgiven.
28:31-28:34
How do I know I haven't done it?" It's an easy test.
28:37-28:42
If you are the least bit concerned that you have, that means you haven't.
28:44-29:06
And all of God's people said, "If you are sitting here today and you're hearing this, and there's the least bit of concern like, 'Oh gosh, I hope that that's not me,' or I don't think I've ever done that," or if you're concerned about it at any level, at any degree, that means you haven't done it.
29:07-29:12
Because listen, the person who has done it does not care.
29:14-29:19
The person that has done it has decided on full rejection of Jesus Christ.
29:20-29:22
And it doesn't have to be a hostile rejection.
29:22-29:24
It can be a friendly rejection.
29:26-29:34
It doesn't have to be the guy that says, "I have a hatred for him." Some people have that.
29:35-29:40
It can also be the guy that says, "I just love my sin more.
29:41-29:52
I just want to live how I want to live, and I'll allow him his rightful place on the throne of my heart." If you want to go to church, great, good for you.
29:53-29:55
I hope it does something for you, but that's really not my thing.
29:55-30:00
It can be a hostile rejection, it can be a friendly rejection, but listen, it is a rejection.
30:02-30:10
This is a sin that is a settled, final decision.
30:13-30:17
I'd also like to encourage you that this isn't something that just happens in one moment.
30:19-30:24
This is something that happens over time when a person hardens their hearts.
30:28-30:37
The book of Hebrews talks over and over and over and over and over and over, "Do not harden your heart, do not harden your heart, do not harden your heart." Oh, that comes from the Psalms, by the way, but I'm repeating it again, "Do not harden your heart." Why?
30:41-30:56
Because when you know what God's calling you to do and you continually shut Him out, reject say, "No, your heart gets harder, your heart gets harder, your heart gets harder," and it gets to the point nothing spiritual penetrates your heart because you've calloused yourself.
31:01-31:10
This is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, continual, repeated, "I've hardened my heart, no to Jesus, no to God," which is saying no to the Holy Spirit.
31:11-31:20
saying, "Holy Spirit, I do not agree with your assessment of who Jesus Christ is." You've blasphemed the Holy Spirit.
31:23-31:27
And how do we know when a person commits this sin?
31:29-31:29
How do we know?
31:31-31:36
How do we know when someone spiritually goes past the point of no return?
31:36-31:37
How do we know?
31:37-31:39
And the answer is this, we don't know.
31:40-31:40
We don't know.
31:42-31:48
I've encountered guys in ministry that I'm like, "He is never going to get it." I'm like, "You see that guy?
31:48-32:00
He is never going to get it." You know, this is a guy I've shared the gospel with 86 times, and he still can't even find the table of contents in his Bible.
32:00-32:01
He's never going to get it.
32:02-32:03
And I've been wrong.
32:04-32:09
I've seen God take people like that and grab them in repentance and, "Oh my gosh, I was so stupid.
32:09-32:15
Why didn't I see this?" I'm just saying no human knows when this happens.
32:17-32:33
But something we do know is that it does happen, it can happen, it certainly will happen to people that persistently harden their hearts against what the Holy Spirit is trying to do, which is draw someone to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
32:34-32:35
So no human knows.
32:38-32:41
Only God knows when someone truly does this.
32:44-32:50
But God has made it very clear in His Word that this happens.
32:51-32:52
I want you to look.
32:52-32:53
Can we get these verses from Hebrews?
32:54-32:55
I'm going to go through these very, very, very quickly.
32:56-32:57
You can read this.
32:57-33:13
The book of Hebrews talks about this a lot, this very thing, that when you know who Jesus is and you understand that He died for your sins, He rose to give you eternal life, when you understand that, don't walk away from Him.
33:14-33:16
It's just a constant theme.
33:16-33:28
Look at Hebrews 2.3, "How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?" The answer is you will not because you've committed an unforgivable sin.
33:30-33:32
Hebrews 6 talks about this.
33:33-33:52
"For it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the Word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away to restore them again to repentance." That Bible is not talking about somebody losing their salvation.
33:52-33:54
If you're truly saved, you can't lose your salvation.
33:55-33:59
This Bible is talking about that guy that's in church, hanging around.
33:59-34:00
I see God at work stories.
34:00-34:02
I'm hearing testimonies.
34:02-34:05
I'm seeing what the Bible says about Jesus, and I'm still saying no.
34:06-34:10
I'm still saying I'm going to be in charge of my life, not Jesus Christ.
34:11-34:12
That's what this is talking about.
34:16-34:28
Hebrews 10, verses 26 and 29, "For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins." There it is again, full knowledge, reject it.
34:30-34:36
The Holy Spirit's like, "Receive it." You're like, "No, I will not." Well, you don't have another sacrifice for sins, pal.
34:37-34:58
Verse 29, "How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which He was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace." Wow.
35:01-35:08
Understand that this sin is unforgivable by its very nature.
35:10-35:23
To illustrate, let's imagine that you go to a doctor and the doctor says, "I have some concerns about some of the symptoms you have, so we're going to run some tests." And are you there?
35:23-35:24
Are you in the waiting room?
35:26-35:34
The doctor comes back in and he says, "Your test results are back and I'm afraid I have some bad news.
35:34-35:37
you have a terminal disease.
35:40-35:50
And you, by my best estimation, you have less than two weeks to live because this disease is in a stage where it's going to progress very rapidly.
35:51-35:53
You're going to die in under two weeks.
35:56-36:01
And you're like, well, that's the worst news I could have gotten.
36:02-36:07
The doctor says, "But I have some good news." The doctor says, "We have this medication.
36:11-36:14
This medication..." I'm not going to bore you with all the chemistry.
36:14-36:17
I could, but I'm not going to.
36:19-36:26
"But this medication will destroy the disease inside you, guaranteed.
36:28-36:30
I'm 110% sure of this.
36:31-36:34
This medication will destroy the disease that's killing you.
36:34-36:34
It will.
36:35-36:40
All you need to do, take two of these pills a day for the next week, disease is gone, guaranteed.
36:41-36:45
It has worked for every single person that's ever had this disease.
36:47-36:48
Take this and live.
36:50-36:54
And you say, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, Doc.
36:55-36:59
I don't know where you get off pushing your beliefs about pharmacology on me.
37:01-37:05
You know what, why don't you keep your beliefs to yourself, little live and let live.
37:06-37:08
Check out my coexist bumper sticker, man.
37:08-37:09
I don't need your beliefs.
37:10-37:29
I believe that I'm going to conquer the disease just by going home and like thinking really bad things about the disease, and the doctor's like, "That's not gonna do it, you gotta take these." Well, I think that, you know, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna go home and like eat some bark off of the tree And the doctor's like, "Hey, I'm all for holistic things, but that's not going to stop this disease.
37:29-37:35
You need these." "Well, I'm going to talk to Amanda and get on a better diet." And the doctor's like, "You need these.
37:36-37:39
This is the only thing that will..." And you're like, "I'm not taking it.
37:40-37:42
I'm not taking it." What's the doctor going to say?
37:45-38:00
The doctor is going to say, "You're choosing to die because you've rejected the only cure for your disease." And folks, that's what blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is.
38:01-38:04
You have a disease on your soul called sin.
38:05-38:09
And Jesus Christ, the great physician, says, "I can heal that!
38:10-38:15
I've healed that for every single person that's ever come to me by faith." And the Holy Spirit says, "Come to Jesus.
38:17-38:18
He will take your sin away.
38:18-38:29
He will eradicate your sin." And you look at the cure and say, "No." What's God's answer?
38:30-38:31
There is no plan B, right?
38:33-38:36
God didn't send two saviors.
38:38-38:49
God didn't say, "Well, if you're not into the Jesus plan of salvation, I've got this other plan that involves like other people or other ritual, there is no plan B.
38:53-39:01
The only unforgivable sin is rejecting the cure for your sin.
39:13-39:23
"Lunatic," says those who don't know Him, and "Liar," says those who choose to reject Him, and finally, "Lord," says those who embrace Him.
39:24-39:39
Look at verse 31, "And his mother and his brothers came." Apparently, they weren't with the other family members that came previously, but you know things are ratcheted up a couple notches when mom shows up, right? Right or wrong?
39:44-39:57
I'll take that as a yes. Okay, so mom shows up and having brothers that I love very much. I understand also how it gets ratcheted up. Your brothers are here too.
39:59-40:52
Okay, so his mother and his brothers came and standing outside they sent to him and called him." You got that scene? And a crowd was sitting around him and they said to him, "Your mother and your brothers are outside seeking you." And he answered them, "Who are my mother and my brothers?" And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, "Here are my mother and brothers. For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother." You're like, "Well, I thought Mary was like totally clued in on who Jesus is, right?
40:52-41:00
Like, she wasn't in the he's crazy camp. I don't think she was in the he's crazy Honestly, I think that, I think she was in mom mode.
41:01-41:07
Okay, there's all this controversy, people are calling him a demon, people are calling him crazy, and like the family's all stirred up.
41:07-41:12
I really believe Mary at this point was just in mom mode, like she wanted to protect her son.
41:17-41:22
Jesus pointed out the relationship that matters is the spiritual one.
41:24-41:29
You're like, "Well, how do you know I have that relationship?" Well, Jesus said it's whoever does the will of God.
41:31-41:32
What is God's will?
41:34-41:39
God's will is that you turn from your sin and you embrace Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
41:39-41:40
That's God's will.
41:41-41:43
It's believing that He is the Son of God.
41:44-41:53
It's believing that when He died on the cross, He bore God's wrath for your sin, and that when he arose from the dead, he gave us eternal life.
41:56-41:59
And Jesus didn't look at all of this as religion.
41:59-42:03
Notice he looked at it as relationship.
42:06-42:09
Our worship trio would make their way forward.
42:13-42:37
I'd like to remind you that when it comes to eternal life, when it comes to spiritual matters, there might be three assessments concerning Jesus Christ, but we really, it really only boils down to two options, doesn't it?
42:38-42:44
And one option is to receive the gift of God, Jesus Christ, who will forgive any sin that you have ever committed.
42:45-42:46
Did you see that?
42:46-42:48
Look back again at verse 28.
42:49-43:03
Jesus said, "Truly I say to you, all sins will be forgiven to children of man." And whatever blasphemies they utter, aside from the rejection of Jesus Christ, can you name a sin that he will not forgive?
43:06-43:12
out of the mouth of Jesus himself, he said that every other sin will be forgiven.
43:14-43:28
Whether it's murder, or theft, or hatred, or gossip, or lust, those can all be forgiven.
43:34-43:53
So you have that option of receiving the gift of God, Jesus Christ, or you can refuse to allow Jesus Christ His rightful place as Lord over your life, and forfeit any forgiveness because you forfeited the only source of forgiveness.
43:57-43:58
So what's your verdict?
43:59-44:02
Is Jesus Christ a lunatic?
44:03-44:07
And I think all y'all are crazy for sitting here reading a book about him.
44:09-44:10
Is he a liar?
44:11-44:24
Like, "Wow, he pulled the scheme of the history of the universe because there are people still gathering together to sing songs to him and what a deceiver." Are you in that camp?
44:29-44:30
Or is he the Lord?
44:32-44:38
Is He exactly everything that He said He is?
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Mark 3:21-35
Why do you think some people hold on to wrong opinions about Jesus without every really investigating Him for themselves (like His family who heard He was crazy, so they went after Him without verifying anything themselves, Mk 3:21)?
How would you define the “unforgivable sin” (Mk 3:29)? (Hint for discussion leader: It is a wholesale rejection of Jesus Christ, just as these scribes saw Jesus at work and attributed His power to Satan.)
What did Jesus mean by saying those who “do the will of God” are His “brother and sister and mother” (Mk 3:35)?
Breakout Questions:
Have you ever worried that you committed “blasphemy of the Holy Spirit”? What do you think about that now? Pray for one another.