Let's turn to Matthew chapter 12. I would definitely encourage you to have God's Word open to Matthew 12, because this morning we're going to deal with a question that a lot of people have had, and the answer is in the text. If you walk away someday saying, I know the answer to this question because Brother Jason told me, You gotta find the answer in here, not from me. So Matthew chapter 12, our text this morning is gonna be verses 22 through 37. It's kind of a long section. But all of it fits together, even though if you have a Bible with section headers, it might break this up into three parts. You're gonna see how it all goes together. Matthew chapter 12, starting at verse 22. Then one was brought to him who was demon possessed, blind and mute. And he, this is Jesus, healed him so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. And all the multitudes were amazed and said, could this be the son of David? Now when the Pharisees heard this, they said, this fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons. But Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation. And every city or house divided against itself will not stand. If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or, how can one enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house? He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters abroad. Therefore, I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come. either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for a tree is known by its fruits. Brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things. And an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give an account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned. It's been my experience and I assume the experience of most pastors that at least probably once or twice a year somebody is going to ask about the unpardonable sin, the unforgivable sin. What is the sin Jesus talks about that is so bad that it can never be forgiven? I've been asked because somebody reads this text, or a similar text in Matthew, or in Mark, or Luke, and is simply curious about the meaning. I've been asked because someone has been told, and they are racked with guilt and worry that they have committed the unforgivable sin. I've even had one man stop me while I was sharing the gospel with him and smile at me and say, Pastor, I have already committed the unforgivable sin. You are wasting both of our times. For what it's worth, he didn't mean it. Because when I told him, okay, well, if you're already condemned to hell, I'm just gonna assume you're right. You are a hopeless case. He was like, wait, what? He just wanted me to stop talking about Jesus and start arguing about the unforgivable sin. Y'all, the unforgivable sin is all about Jesus. The text this morning is going to bear this out. The unpardonable sin is probably not what you think it is. but there is an unpardonable sin. There is a sin that will not be forgiven. In fact, it isn't just mentioned by Jesus in his ministry, it is affirmed later in the New Testament. For example, in 1 John 5, 16, the apostle says that we should pray for the sins of others, and then he adds that there is a sin that leads to death, and I am not saying you should pray about that. Like, there is sin that is not forgivable. Matthew 12 offers us, by far, the most detailed account of this back-and-forth interaction between Jesus and the Pharisees. And if we put this question about, well, what is the unforgivable sin, into the context of the whole Bible, and this chapter in particular, it will tell us everything we need to know. What is the unforgivable sin? Have you committed it? Is it possible that forgiveness is not available to you? Well, let's look at the text and find out. First off, let's think about the occasion here. Verses 22 and 23 set this specific conversation into motion. But even before that, the context of this is a bigger story that Matthew is telling. And so, just as a quick reminder, look back at verses one through eight. There is an argument that gets sparked when the Pharisees see Jesus' disciples plucking and eating some grain as they walk through fields on the Sabbath day. What's Jesus' response to the Pharisees? He asked them, don't you know the Old Testament? Which, by the way, what's the answer to that? They're Jewish Pharisees for crying out loud. Of course they know the Old Testament. And Jesus, assuming that they in fact do, makes several references to the Old Testament. He refers to David eating the showbread and the priests working in the temple. He talks about the prophet Hosea and the principle of mercy. All references to the Old Testament which they knew. Verses nine through 13, this mobile argument gets taken into the synagogue where Jesus heals on the Sabbath day a man with a shriveled hand. And the Pharisees' reaction to the miracle of Jesus was, in verse 14, the Pharisees went out and plotted against him how they might destroy him. They began plotting his murder. So Jesus, Matthew tells us in verse 15, leaves that place. He says in the end of verse 15 that great multitudes followed him and he healed them all. What's the point of that healing? According to Matthew, verses 17 through 21, he quotes, the Old Testament prophet Isaiah in chapter 42, and explains that all of those miracles and the ministry of Jesus is a fulfillment of what was promised in the Old Testament about the Messiah. Now, you see how the fulfillment and understanding of the Old Testament is sort of a continued theme in this chapter? Is there anybody, ask this question, is there anybody in this chapter who should be able to see and know and recognize that Jesus is the promised Messiah. If there's anybody who should know, who would it be? The Pharisees. They should know. I'm going to argue with you that they do know. At the very least, they understood that he was sent by God. We see in John chapter 3 in Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus the Pharisee. Nicodemus came telling Jesus, Rabbi, we know that you're a teacher sent by God because no one could do the things you're doing unless God had sent him. The Pharisees understood this. The religious leaders of Israel know the Old Testament, that the promised Messiah is going to come and they are expecting a great political and military and religious savior. And if that's Jesus, if he is the Messiah coming into his kingdom, coming into power, in the process of that happening, who's gonna lose power? The Pharisees, right? And Jesus has already showed this by showing that he's defied their interpretation of what righteousness looks like. They, of all people, should recognize that the words and works of Jesus are the righteousness sent by God. But they don't want to lose their influence. They just want him dead. And so Jesus withdrew from them, continued doing miracles, and pretty soon in this chapter, it's not the religious leaders recognizing Him, it's the common folks who are recognizing Him. Look at verses 22 and 23. Then one was brought to Him who was demon-possessed, blind, and mute. He healed him so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. And listen, all the multitudes were amazed and said, could this be the son of David? So specifically, there is a man who was blind and mute. He was unable to see, unable to speak. Actually, that muteness might hint that he was also deaf, but at the very least, he can't see, he can't talk, and it is as a result of being possessed by an evil spirit. He's brought to Jesus. And since Jesus has all power, all authority, he can cast the demon out of that man and bring him healing. And when the multitudes, it says, right, the common people see this, they conclude, hey, could this be the son of David? That is a messianic title. They're asking each other, is this the promised Messiah? Now the way that question is worded in the original language, it is a long way from saying that they're convinced. The way we might say what they were saying today would be something like, this isn't the son of David, is it? Like, they're just not sure. The answer to their question, by the way, is yes, unequivocally, yes, Jesus is the promised Messiah. But if you're reading along in this chapter, and the public starts bantering about this interesting question about, well, you know, Is this the Messiah? Is this not the Messiah? As you're reading along in this chapter, you know. You know who is gonna step in and try to answer their question. So verses 22 and 23 set up the occasion. Verse 24 is an accusation. Now when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons. Now you see how this is going, right? When the people wonder if Jesus could be the promised Messiah of the Old Testament because they hear his teaching and they see his miraculous power, the Pharisees jump in and say, no, no way is he the Messiah. But they also have to have some way of explaining what it is that the people just saw. Like they just saw a miracle. They just saw miraculous, supernatural power in front of them. And so if the Pharisees are gonna convince the people to say, no, this is not the Messiah, he does not have power from God, they also have to answer, well, where's this power coming from? And so they say the Lord Jesus doesn't get his power and authority from God in heaven. They say he gets it from Beelzebub. There's a couple of words this morning we're gonna have to talk about. One of them is this title Beelzebub. This term, let me just simplify it. They mean Satan, okay? So if that's all you wanna take from it, Press pause, fast forward another couple of minutes and pick up, okay? This term Beelzebub. is a clever way for the Jewish people to mock false gods. If you picked up a different modern translation, it might say Beelzebul instead of Beelzebub, and here's what's going on. Beelzebul was the name of a Canaanite false god. That's a word meaning lord of the high place. You can imagine how the Canaanites would worship. Lord of the high place. Well, the Jewish people assumed that high place is where demons reigned. And so they took that term Beelzebul, Lord of the high place, and started referring to him as Beelzebub, a word which means Lord of the flies, or more specifically, the Lord of dung, you know, that stuff that draws flies. So there's really no greater insult that the Pharisees could hurl at Jesus than to say his power comes from Beelzebub. For all intents and purposes, they're saying, well, yes, Jesus does obviously have supernatural power, but that power's not from Yahweh in heaven. That power is coming from Satan himself. Now, if you recall, this is not the first time they've made this argument. Look in your Bibles back a couple of chapters to Matthew chapter 9, verse 32. Matthew 9, starting at verse 32 through 34, it says, they went out and behold, they brought to him a man mute and demon-possessed. And when the demon was cast out, the mute spoke. The multitudes marveled, saying, it was never seen like this in Israel. Now you see how this earlier conversation is not, is this the son of David? Their first reaction was, we've never seen anything like this before. But the Pharisees, verse 34 in chapter nine, said, he casts out demons by the ruler of demons. So this is something they're consistently saying about Jesus. It is such a grave insult that in chapter 10 when Jesus sends out his disciples on a gospel mission trip, chapter 10 verses 24 and 25, he warns them to expect the same insult. A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, a servant like his master. If they call the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household? So their rejection of Jesus and his power and his authority is continual, right? It's not just that they've said this for the first time and it's come out of nowhere. This has been a continual pattern. In fact, open a filing cabinet in the back of your head, pull out a drawer, label it, put that word continual in there. We're gonna pull it out again in a little while. Early on, The first time they said this, it was insulting, but Jesus did not scold them the way that he does here. Maybe it could be said that early on, their ignorance of his miracles and his ministry caused them to misunderstand the source of his power. But now, They have heard him teach. They have seen the Old Testament fulfilled. Even the common folks are starting to say, isn't this the Messiah? Isn't this the son of David that God promised? And the Pharisees of all people should know it. There is no other explanation here than that they are being willfully ignorant. In fact, that's another term tucked back there in the filing cabinet. They are being willfully ignorant. This accusation against Jesus, it's not really because of a misunderstanding at this point. It's not the first time that it happened either. They say the power of Jesus's ministry and miracles is sourced in Satan. And pretty soon, Jesus is going to tell them, well, that shows whose side you're on. In verse 34, he's actually gonna pick up John the Baptist's accusation and call them brood of vipers. If anybody is in league with Satan, it's them. Now, just think about this for a moment. What is the work of Satan? The Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4 verses three and four, the goal of Satan is to blind the people of the world and to block the light of the gospel. Here's how Paul says it in 2 Corinthians 4, verses three and four. If our gospel is veiled or hid, it is veiled from those who are perishing, whose minds Satan, the God of this world, has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. These Pharisees, by accusing Jesus of being in league with Satan, The Pharisees are ultimately deliberately doing the work of Satan for him. What's their aim of making this accusation? It's not just to be insulting to Jesus, it is to tell the crowds, don't believe in Jesus. Do not entrust yourself to this man. The miracles that he's doing, they are through Satan's power. They are attempting to obstruct others from seeing Jesus as the Savior. So again, open that filing cabinet in your mind and tuck that back there. They are obstructing others from faith in Jesus. Now we've seen the occasion, the accusation they made. Now look at how Jesus responds. The accusation of the Pharisees is vital to understanding the unforgivable sin. One would have hoped at this point I could be further along in the text, but we'll go quickly. from verses 25 through 27. All of this is Jesus answering that accusation from the Pharisees. And it's equal parts a defense of himself and a prosecution of them. You know, Jesus' response I just want you to see Jesus' response in two perspectives. He says that their accusation is illogical on one hand, and it is inconsistent on the other. So you'll see this and he kind of rotates back between those two things. It's illogical and it's inconsistent. Verse 25, Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself, how then will his kingdom stand? Y'all know Abraham Lincoln famously used this house divided passage as his justification and rationale for the civil war. A house divided against itself cannot stand. Jesus originated this argument and he's using it here to say to those who are accusing him, saying Jesus gets his power from Satan. Jesus is using this to say, how does that even make sense? Right in verse 26, if Satan casts out Satan, this is self-defeating. Satan's not stupid, he's not gonna get ahead by opposing himself. He's proving their accusation is illogical. But then he goes on to say it's also inconsistent, verses 27 and 28. If I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. There were like traveling Jewish exorcists at the time who at the very least claimed to be able to cast out demons. Now we don't have any record of their success in scripture. We've got some pretty hilarious records of their failure in scripture. So, for example, in Acts 19, there were the seven sons of a man named Siva and they tried to cast out a demon and they end up running away beaten and bloody and naked in the process. In general, the Pharisees had no problem with claims people made of being able to exercise demons. Their response would have been, oh, you're going to oppose evil spirits? Great, more power to you. But they never questioned the motivation and authority of those people who, shall we say, had questionable failures. So it is inconsistent for them to look at Jesus who is empowered over Satan and argue with his clear success. Like he's actually able to do this. And if they won't question the supposed authority and power of other people, why would they question the power and authority of Jesus who can clearly do what he says he can? The only logical and consistent determination would be, verse 28, that Jesus is casting out evil spirits by the Holy Spirit of God. And so surely that is a manifestation that the kingdom of God has come to earth. Their accusation is illogical. It is inconsistent. Then Jesus goes back around to say, well, and it's illogical in other ways. Verse 29. How can one enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man and then he will plunder his house? Incidentally, this is not Jesus giving permission to anybody to break into somebody's house, tie them up and steal their stuff. He's using this as a parable. And in this little parable, Satan is the strong man. And the logic here is undeniable. If you tried to go into a powerful man's house in order to take his stuff away from him, he's going to resist you. You cannot, Jesus says, plunder his goods unless you handcuff him, tie him up, put him duct taped in the corner or something until the power of the strong man is incapacitated He's going to resist. When Jesus removed the demon from possessing this blind mute man in verse 22, it was proof that he had greater power than whatever was holding onto that man. By the power of the Holy Spirit of God, Jesus, invaded enemy territory and plundered it. He took that man's soul back from the grasp of Satan to be a prize of God. The Pharisees say that Jesus is using Satan's power, but the very nature of what Jesus did proves his power exceeds that of Satan. Their accusation is illogical. And again, their accusation is inconsistent. Jesus goes back to that. We're gonna skip down to verse 33 for a moment, but we'll be back. Verse 33, either make the tree good and its fruit good or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad. A tree is known by its fruit. Brood of vipers, how can you being evil speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. Just think through verse 33 for a second. Make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad. Jesus uses the term make. Can the Pharisees make a tree anything? No, they don't have that power. Obviously they don't. They don't have any more power to make a tree good or bad than you have power to take a brown and black banana on your kitchen shelf and turn it back into a yellowish green color again. We don't have that kind of power. But that's okay because what Jesus is telling them here is that what they need to make is a better argument, right? They just said he's doing verifiably good things through an evil source, right? That is as dumb as saying good fruit comes from bad trees. It's inconsistent. The only way Jesus could be doing these good things is if he is empowered by a verifiably good source. He's not got power and authority from Satan. Jesus is empowered and authorized by the Holy Spirit of God himself. But, and I love this part, but, it's like Jesus says, as long as we're talking about being consistent, What could possibly be the source of this wicked accusation that the Pharisees just made? He doesn't let them answer or let them stew on it, he pre-asserts his answer before asking the question in verse 34. Brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? Evil words are coming out your face because evil intentions are churning in your heart. Jesus calls them, as John the Baptist did, a brood of vipers. You generation, this is what the word brood means, generation, offspring, children, sons of vipers, of serpents, of snakes. They knew what Jesus means here. I wanna remind you what Jesus means here. All the way back in Genesis chapter three. Satan entered into the Garden of Eden in the form of a serpent, and he beguiled, he tempted Eve. And after Adam and Eve willfully sinned, God cursed that serpent, and Satan by extension, with a promise that someday that woman, a descendant from that woman, was going to come and crush him. Genesis 3 verse 15 says, I will put enmity, hostility between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed and he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. Jesus is the promised seed of the woman who has come to crush the head of Satan. In his mind, this like multi-generational hostility that started in Genesis 3 between what God describes as the offspring of Satan and the offspring of the woman, all of that hostility has continued right up until this chapter right here in this text. Jesus represents that promised seed of the woman. The Pharisees are what? Oh, you brood of vipers. You sons of snakes. It is the accusers who are supernaturally empowered by Satan himself. As a result, their accusation isn't merely illogical, and inconsistent, it is incriminating. They're guilty, Jesus says. Now maybe they think that the accusation they spoke that day, they just spoke it thoughtlessly. It's no big deal. But in verses 36 and 37, Jesus says that you will have to give an account for this in the day of judgment. Their words proved what's in their heart. They will be condemned. These Pharisees have committed the unpardonable sin. So when you consider the whole context here, do you think that you have or might have committed the unforgivable sin? Well, let's back up to the central part of Jesus' answer and see what he says specifically about that. Verse 30. He who is not with me is against me. He who does not gather with me scatters abroad. Let's be clear about this verse. There is no neutrality in regard to Jesus. So many folks, and no doubt even some folks here today, think of themselves in the sense of, well, I'm on the fence about Jesus. Yeah, I've heard about him. I don't reject him. I don't trust him. I'm indifferent to him. I'm on the fence. You're not. There is no fence. There is no middle ground in regard to Jesus. Listen to his own words. You're either for me or against me. I'm gathering, he's describing like gathering sheep together. And you are either working with me, gathering, or you are scattering abroad. You are actively working against me. There's no neutrality here. And this no neutrality message is a consistent theme of Jesus's ministry. Y'all probably know in John 3 when that Pharisee Nicodemus came, the explanation in John 3 is this great love of God that sent salvation. And we know John 3, 16, right? For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Let me tell you what the next two verses say. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He that believes is not condemned. Whoever does not believe is condemned already, because they've not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Think about this, condemned already. That is the default position of humanity. And in order to leave that side that is opposed to Jesus, that is already condemned, you have to repent of your sin and trust in Jesus as Savior in order to be removed from that side and have everlasting life. Johnson, he didn't come to condemn people. He didn't have to come to condemn people. We're condemned already. He came to save. And so you're not on the fence. You are, according to Jesus, you're either for him or against him. So get this, this is not about choosing sides. You are on a side. But it's more than that. You can picture it, if you want, as like a supernatural tug-of-war. You're either on Jesus' side, pulling on his side of the rope, or you're on the other side, pulling against him. However you wanna picture this, there are no spectators. Neutrality is impossible. Now look at verse 31. Therefore, because of that, I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come. The unforgivable sin according to Jesus is blasphemy, specifically blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Now let me just pause here and you can reread this whole thing. Have the Pharisees said anything to the Holy Spirit? Have they used the words Holy Spirit at all? This is a specific kind of sin and Jesus is explaining to us what's happening on this day in front of him. Blasphemy is an act of speaking. It is to speak against or slander specifically God. Even blasphemy can be forgiven, Jesus says. He says every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven. That is, forgiveness is available even for the sin of blasphemy through repentance and faith in Him. Even blasphemy of Jesus Himself is forgivable. He says this in verse 32. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him. Right, forgiveness is still available for this. even blasphemy against Jesus. Just think about this. Not every person who saw Jesus walk down the road or work or teach or do miracles, his divine nature was not necessarily obvious. You could know him without really knowing him. And he doesn't excuse that, but he labels it as a forgivable sin. You can even actively work against Jesus and still not have committed the unforgivable sin. Good thing, because the Apostle Paul would have been guilty of that. Here's how Paul describes himself in 1 Timothy 1.13. He says, though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor and an insolent man, but I obtained mercy." Listen closely. I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. Paul found forgiveness was available partially because when he opposed and slandered Jesus, he literally did not grasp what it was he was doing. The Pharisees in this chapter, They know what they're doing. In the face of the revelation of the Old Testament, right? All of that word that was inspired by the Holy Spirit. Watching the miraculous ministry of Jesus that was empowered by the Holy Spirit. They not only denied that Jesus was the Messiah, they knowingly and willfully attributed the work of the Holy Spirit to Satan himself. And that's not the first time they did it. Right? It is an extended, continual pattern. Okay. Open that filing cabinet in the back of your head. Reach in there and let's pull some things out here for a second. Continual, willfully ignorant, attributing the work of the Holy Spirit to Satan's work, and actively obstructing others from putting their trust in Jesus as Savior. Now, have you done that? No? If you haven't done that, you have not committed the unforgivable sin. I would go so far as to say I don't know that it's possible for anyone today to commit the unforgivable sin without Jesus on earth so you can point at his ministry and miracles and attribute that to the work of Satan in order to purposefully obstruct others from believing in him. I don't think anybody in here today has committed the unforgivable sin. But this text is intended to be a frightening warning. And lest I leave you comforted from a text that is supposed to make you uncomfortable, let me assure you, just because you have not committed the unforgivable sin does not mean that your sins have been forgiven. In fact, I would say, It's evident that there is no one closer to having committed the unforgivable sin than those who spend a lifetime hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ and who know they are under the judgment of God and yet they refuse to repent of their sins and trust in Jesus as Savior. Your sin is forgivable. Jesus said all kinds of sin and blasphemy can be forgiven, but it's not forgiven as long as you are against him. Whoever is not with me is against me, he says, and the day is soon approaching when the evil that is stored up in your heart will be exposed and you will give an account for it. So here's Jesus, the fulfillment of the promise of a savior. He is stronger than sin, stronger than Satan. He's willing to forgive you. He's willing to save your soul. Are you for him or not? Because if you remain against him, continually, willfully, if you refuse to repent of your sins and trust in his salvation, if you persist in that sin, you are the unforgiven.