do you ever think what you would do if you were Jesus I mean here’s here’s these religious dudes come down from Jerusalem they see you do the greatest Miracle you’ve done up to this point and then they say you’re powered by a demon and you’re Jesus and you have all the power available to you that comes from almighty God you know I’m thinking you want to see somebody cast out watch this I’ll cast you all out I’ll show you something you can’t deny it you know what Jesus did it’s amazing to me there’s no sense that

he even got upset he just presented his argument I want you to see how he goes about this the answer of the Savior first of all he asks a question that’s always a good way to get involved with somebody who’s spoken against you without making an accusation you ask a question you have an inquiry he called them to himself and he said to them in Parables how can Satan cast out Satan one of the questions I have been asked over the years that I’ve been doing what I do is this pastor can I commit a sin that God cannot

forgive quite often this question is asked in the past tense like I think I’ve done something that God will not forgive I’ve tried to get God to forgive me but I don’t feel like he has forgiven me and I can’t forgive myself Pastor I think I may have committed the unpardonable sin now this question usually comes from someone who has an overwhelming sense of guilt for something that they have done in the past and it is usually a reference to the passage of scripture that we’re going to study today for here in Mark

and again in a more fleshed out way in Matthew’s account of this event we are told that there is something which a person can do for which there is no forgiveness in this age or even in the age to come I’m not making that up that’s what the scripture says our context today is the story about a man who was possessed of a demon and in the story our Lord confronts this demon and the demon is cast out and the man is completely healed but the result of what Jesus did is another confrontation with the religious people of his day these people

are not impressed by what Jesus is doing they are actually convicted by it and as we’re going to see in the story out of what Jesus did that day come the three most prominent opinions that people have today about who Jesus Christ really is who is Jesus Christ well in the 20th verse of the third chapter we discover first of all that to his family Jesus was demented now I’m not saying that to get your attention it’s just true verse 20 and 21 of Mark 3 reads like this then the multitude came together again so

that they could not so much as eat bread and when his own people heard about this they went out to lay hold of him for they said he is out of his mind the Bible says the crowd has become intense the pressure has become intense and the word about it gets back to Nazareth where Jesus lived and his family his own more than likely his brothers come to capernium and the Bible says they come and we would call this to perform an intervention we can relax a little bit about that because no doubt they were doing it out of their love for

him their concern for his safety their concerned I mean the man’s not eating we got to get him out of this situation we got to get him where we can take care of him so I’m certain that some of was motivated out of love but the other side of it is that I think they were kind of embarrassed we got to get Jesus home he’s embarrassing us he’s acting in a fanatical insane manner Jesus Brothers thought he was crazy they said he is out of his mind that’s biblical for crazy how many of you know that if

you’re a follower of Christ sooner or later somebody’s going to think you’re crazy the very best thing they were saying about Jesus in the language of today is that Jesus had become a radical so I want to confess to you congregation I am a radical I am a radical to be a radical is to stand for the truth to stand against those who want to tear you away from the truth or tear the truth away from you and so in that respect Jesus surely was Radical but he was not insane to his family Jesus was demented but it gets

worse to his foes he was demonic read with me again from verse 22 the accusation of the scribes who said he was possessed by a demon and the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said he Jesus has Beelzebub now here’s what happened the ministry of Jesus in capernium had come to the attention of the religious establishment in Jerusalem they heard what Jesus was doing that he was Healing The Sick that he was casting out demons that people were flocking to him by the throes and they came to capernium to check it out and the scribes got to

capernium just in time to watch Jesus cast The Demon out of this man and the scribes acknowledged that Jesus performed unusual Miracles and that he did it by some Supernatural power but but without any question they accused Jesus himself of being possessed not just by a demon but being possessed by Beelzebub the Lord of the Flies or the word that is used to describe Satan then one was brought to Jesus who was demon-possessed now watch carefully he was blind and mute and Jesus healed him so that the Blind and mute man both

spoke and saw and all the multitudes were amazed and they said could this be the son of David and when the Pharisees heard it they said this fellow does not cast out demons except by beel abub the ruler of demons the healing of this man by the Lord Jesus when he cast The Demon out of him was so outstanding was so incredible nothing like this has happened up to this point and the people were amazed and they said rightly so could this be the son of David in other words is this the Messiah we’ve been looking for

because the Old Testament prophesied that when the Messiah came he would do marvelous Deeds as Jesus had just done and they had never seen anything like this before in Israel surely this must be the son of David surely this must be the Messiah and when the scribes heard this they went ballistic they said it’s true we saw a miracle it’s true it was an unusual and astounding miracle Miracle but this cannot be explained as a miracle of the son of David this is a miracle that was done in the power of Beelzebub in the

power of Satan the accusation of the scribes now I want you to notice how Jesus deals with this issue the answer of the Savior first of all he asks a question and that’s always a good way to get involved with somebody who’s spoken against you without making an accusation you ask a question you have an inquiry he called them to himself and he said to them in Parables how can Satan cast out Satan and the question really has no answer and Jesus is about to prove it and he goes through three lines of proof

to demonstrate his point first of all his first illustration is a secular one he says you’re saying that Satan cast out Satan well let me just give you an illustration from the secular World Jesus said a kingdom divided against itself can’t stand okay I got that one and then he goes from the secular world to the social world and he says A house divided against itself cannot stand that house cannot stand so a secular illustration a kingdom a social illustration a family now he gives a spiritual illustration

and he says and if Satan has risen up against himself and he is divided he can’t stand either he has an end in other words he’s finished so Jesus makes his point you’re saying to me that I’m casting out Satan by Satan that doesn’t make any sense in the secular world in the social world or in the spiritual world that doesn’t work and then his final argument is this really incredible Insight he says no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his Goods unless he first binds the strong man and then he will plunder

or steal his Goods now watch what Jesus saying entering Satan’s house Jesus bound Satan and he freed is captive Jesus appeals to The Logical argument to answer the scribes accusations and instead of getting angry with them he quietly logically reasons with them and he leaves them speechless with nothing to say by the way what Jesus is saying by this illust ation should give great hope to all of us in the world in which we live even the most ferocious demon flees at the word of Jesus that could only mean that

he’s stronger than Satan and he’s stronger than all of his demons put together Jesus bound the strong man he rendered him impotent and in doing so he draws a straight line to one of my favorite verses in the New Testament 1 John 4:4 he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world ladies and gentlemen you have nothing to fear from Satan or his demons if you are in League with Jesus because the one you have is greater than the one who’s out there so to his family Jesus was DED and to his foes he was

demonic now we come to this part of the story that I started with at the beginning to his followers he was divine what Jesus is going to prove now is that in order for you to be a follower of Jesus there are certain things you must believe you must believe that Jesus is God you must believe that Jesus is the son of God and notice how he goes about this as he addresses the scribes who have come against him with these accusations verse 28 assuredly I say to you all sins will be forgiven the sons of men and whatever blasphemies

they may utter but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness but is subject to Eternal condemnation because they said he has an unclean spirit this final paragraph of our lesson today is the source of some of the greatest misunderstanding in all of Christendom and it has been mistaught many times to the suffering of Untold people the last phrase in this verse tells us why Jesus said what he said he said it because they were accusing him of being filled with an unclean spirit and so he says to them there is a

sin which you are on the verge of committing be careful now you’re on the verge of committing this sin that if you commit it there is no forgiveness available so let me just stop now and let’s do a little theological short session what is the unpardonable sin the way I’d like to start that is by telling you first of all what it is not let’s take some things off the list the unpardonable sin is not cursing Jesus I’ve heard people say that don’t curse Jesus you’re committing the unpardonable sin the

unpardonable sin is not adultery or sexual perversion the unpardonable sin is not murder or multiple murders or genocide the unpardonable sin is not suicide or taking one’s own life I’ve heard that more than any other my brother my father my uncle my sister they took their own life Pastor is that the unpardonable sin does that mean they won’t go to heaven no it doesn’t mean they won’t go to heaven that is not the unpardonable sin by the way I would suggest you not do that because the first person you’re

going to meet on the other side is the Lord Jesus and he’s going to say to you why’d you do that now whatever you do don’t go home and say I went to church today and Dr Jeremiah said that cursing and sexual perversion and murder and taking your own life is okay I’m not saying that these are not these are not okay these are sins these are serious sins but they’re not sins that are unforgivable by almighty God as most people will say and maybe you’ve heard them say that to you or you’ve heard them say it about

somebody you know what is the unpardonable sin I want to take you through just a few things so we can see it completely first of all I need to tell you that the unpardonable sin is very rare it’s very rare in fact in all of the Bible there is only one instance of the Lord Jesus saying anything like he says here it’s in the other gospels but it’s about this event it’s just one occasion it doesn’t occur any place else in the scripture number two as you study this in the context in which it is given to us it’s not only a

rare sin it’s a rehearsed sin the scribes who came down from Jerusalem didn’t just do this on a whim they just didn’t show up without any preparation whatsoever and they see Jesus doing that oh that’s satanic now if you follow the Book of Mark and you follow the Rel leaders in the Book of Mark they’ve been on a journey when you first meet them they’re full of curiosity about all that Jesus is doing they’re seeing Jesus do these things and they have question marks and then their questions become

indifferent and then their indifference begins to metastasize into a a malicious attitude that becomes so hateful and vengeful that It ultimately Nails Jesus Christ to the Cross these religious leaders who’ve come down to accuse Jesus of this terrible thing they didn’t become the way they were in a moment they’ve been on a long journey of hard-heartedness toward the Messiah it was a rare sin it was rehearsed let me tell you another thing about it it was repeated in the language of the New Testament this phrase they

say it is in the imperfect tense don’t let me lose you on that thought the imperfect tense simply means it is an event that keeps on happening you could translate it by saying it this way when they came down and they saw what Jesus had done they kept on saying now they didn’t just say it once they kept on saying this is the work of Satan this is the work of Satan Jesus is doing this in the work of Satan did you hear me he’s doing it in the work of Satan this is satanic they kept on saying it over and

over again the Bible says that we can come to the place of repentance and reject it and reject it and reject it and become so hard-hearted about it that when the repentance is necessary we have put ourselves in a situation where we have no longer the ability to respond calluses grow on our hearts our ears can’t receive the truth we become hardened in our consciences and while the grace of God is still there and he’s still willing to receive us and he’s still willing to forgive us we put ourselves in an

unforgivable situation this was a rare sin this was a rehearsed sin this was a repeated sin and number four it was a religious sin listen to me carefully the sin that Jesus warned the scribes against was not a sin that was going to be committed by the woman taken in adultery it wasn’t going to be committed by the woman at the well of Samaria who had five husbands this sin was committed or was in the process of being committed by the scribes let me ask you a question Today class what do scribes do they scribble right that’s what a

scribe does he scribbles scribes write right do you know what the scribes in the New Testament did they didn’t have printing presses like we have today scribes copied the word of God that was their full-time job every day they would get up they would go to their office they would sit down with a manuscript here and they would take what was written on this manuscript and they would copy it in another manuscript they continually made copies of the word of God their full-time job was studying reading and copying the

scripture and it was these scribes these religious people who had every reason to know that the Son of God was coming as the Messiah who knew what the Old Testament prophets said about the signs of his coming that he would come with great Miracles and great power they had copied that and continue to copy it and that was their daily routine and this sin was committed or was about to be committed by the most religious people of the day how many of you know that you’ve become hardened to spiritual Truth by actually living in the middle

of it you can go to church so much that church no longer makes any difference you can read the Bible until it becomes like a blank stare and the words no longer register with you the scribes had come to the place where they were so familiar with religious things that when the Son of God showed up they didn’t know who he was and thought he was from Satan this was a religious sin you see what Jesus wants us to know is this by ascribing the miracles of Jesus to Satan the religious leaders were denying the deity of Jesus Christ

they were saying that he could not be God and yet it was by his miracles that he was showing himself that he was God cuz only God could do what he had done his followers had to believe in his deity and how many of you know that it is the Holy Spirit who witnesses to the deity of Christ in our world today so when you refuse to accept the ministry of the Holy Spirit or you subscribe his ministry to Satan you give up the final opportunity you have to believe in Jesus as the Son of God now I know that the thought of an unforgivable sin has

haunted sensitive people in every Christian century and maybe it has haunted you so I want to be very clear before we finish this up today to say to you that if you’re bothered in your spirit that you may have committed a sin that God will not forgive the very fact that you have anxiety over that is proof positive that you have not committed the sin and the reason for that is if you’ve committed the unpardonable sin you’ve come to the place where you deny the power of God in essence anywhere you

deny that he has any power to do anything so if he’s still working in your heart and you know that something wrong in your heart don’t say that’s the unforgivable sin cuz it’s not the very fact that you still care about it is a proof positive that you haven’t committed that sin so what is the unforgivable sin today the unforgivable sin today is to harden your heart against God being under the teaching of the word of God as you are in this church every week walk away from it and say I know that’s

probably true but I’m not going to deal with it I know I should become a Christian but I’m not going to mess with it I’ll wait until some other later time and you continue to do that you continue to do it and you build up calluses on your soul until after a while the spirit of God no longer is bringing conviction to your heart and then you go through your life and over a period of time you become hardened so it’s just like water off a duck’s back you hear the word of God and it makes no impact on you and

then you continue like that and if you die in that condition there is no forgiveness for you available the unforgivable sin today for any of us here in this room has not yet been committed but if you go through your life and you don’t receive Jesus Christ before you die you have committed the unpardonable sin there’s no forgiveness in this life or the next for the rejection of Jesus Christ as your savior so what I want to say to you is that don’t worry that you have committed but be concerned that you

might you don’t have to worry about this in the past you have to worry about this in the future if you do not know for certain that you are a Christian that you have invited Jesus Christ to come into your life and you walk out of this building today and you get hit by a truck or you have a heart attack you then have committed the unpardonable sin you can’t be forgiven you don’t get a second chance after death death is it it’s final whatever you do concerning Christ you do in this life Jesus is who he claims to be he is

the Son of God He Is Our Redeemer he is the one who came to receive us into his glory and you can count on it you can bet on it you can bet eternity on it and now with one last word for today’s program here is Dr Jeremiah the question of committing an unforgivable sin does not take into account the Bible’s central theme we all have sinned and come short of God’s righteous standards so rather than being concerned about one one special sin we need to know that we have been forgiven for all of our sins the

good news of the Gospel is that Christ’s death on the cross was sufficient sufficient to pay for every sin in our life we gain God’s forgiveness through faith in Christ which I hope you are sure of with your permission I’d like to send you two free gifts from turning point to encourage you one is a booklet called your greatest turning point and our monthly devotional magazine called turning points both will help you gain the Assurance needed to live a Victorious Life and we’ll gladly send both of them to you free of charge if

you will contact us here at turning point today next time on turning point you can have tons of Faith but if the object of your faith is not worthy of your faith your faith is inconsequential it’s not about how much Faith you have it’s about how much Jesus you know join us next time for Dr Jeremiah’s message what is Faith here on turning point [Music]