All right. Well, got third string again. There's a reason. David texts me on Wednesday. I thought he was talking about Wednesday night, so I panicked. Because it wasn't the first time. No, he had a funeral that called him away and asked me to fill in tonight. Of course, I still panicked, if you know my nature, not having a book that I'm working through, so there wasn't a clear direction, and it's a place where I really struggle to just pick out something and go with it, because I prefer to work through a text, as is our practice here. That went on for days, actually. And then Melissa, my dear God-sent wife, asked me a question regarding something she had heard in one of Scott's sermons and how that pertained to the Apostle Paul and his identifying himself as a blasphemer. And we'll read the text. Well, the text, I thought I had it on the screen, from Matthew 12 and many other places, is on the sin of the blasphemy of the Spirit. Or it's called the unpardonable sin or the unforgivable sin in other places. And to be quite honest with you, I didn't know how to answer her question, because it had always been an enigmatic passage to me. I knew the typical answers in the commentaries, but something about it seemed It seemed too much like a system of theology had been imposed on the text rather than that had been derived from exegesis. So when she asked me that, it was just like a lot went off. And I thought, wow, I really don't know. But I need to learn it and study for it. And so hopefully, you guys can benefit from it as well. If you know my background, I grew up in a very Armenian background where it was understood that you readily lost your salvation with a certain degree of sin. So when I first discovered this passage, Needless to say, it quite tormented me. I remember when we first got internet, you're gonna laugh at me, but in the late dial-up in the late 90s, I remember one morning, super early, just with a tormented soul, searching for this. What is this sin and have I committed it? Especially in a Pentecostal background that I came from, so much is attributed to the Holy Spirit that it's presented in such a way that if you question any of that or speak against it, you've committed this sin. So there was a deep and abiding fear that I had for that. So anywho, with that as a backdrop, if you've turned there by now, let's read verses 31, 32, and then we'll pray and try to expound the text. It says, Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. So bring words, let's pray. Father, we look to you for guidance. We acknowledge our need and dependence upon you and upon your spirit. Would we pray that you would illumine our hearts, give us an accurate understanding, help us to see this sin for what it truly is, and help us to either repent or to joy and delight in you who have kept us from such a transgression. Lord, we pray for your grace. We thank you for the privilege that we have to study your word corporately. Pray that we'd make much of you in Christ's name. Amen. Okay, so all three of the synoptic gospels record version of this event. Matthew actually records something similar twice, which would indicate that it wasn't only the one time that Jesus said such a thing. I've chosen to use Matthew's because I think the context that Matthew places it in, Matthew has a very specific theme, if you will, as he records his gospel. And he ties, he tends to tie things back to the Old Testament scriptures and sort of present the gospel from a Jewish perspective. And I think the key to understanding this text is to see it in that context. Luke 8, which I have on the screen, is probably a good summary of what's going on here. This is when Jesus has gone to Galilee. And if you remember, Galilee was known as Galilee of the Gentiles. It was the region, the territory of actually his native home, his native land. Cornbread folk, according, you know, in the eyes of Jerusalem. But this is his second sort of circuit through Galilee. Luke summarizes it like this. He says, soon afterward he went on through cities and villages proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom. Okay, watch that language carefully. The good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him, and also some women, who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities." So, demon possession and sicknesses, they've been delivered from those things by Jesus' ministry. And he lists out some. We won't go into that for now. But to understand what's going on in Matthew 12, more specifically, on this very long day, there's a lot that goes on on this day, we really need to look at verse 9. So if you have, or we need to begin reading at verse 9, let me get a timepiece. Matthew records this after Jesus was walking through, as an event, after Jesus and His disciples had been walking through the grain fields on the Sabbath and plucked the grain, and there had been this contention with the Jews over that. And he says, from there, verse 9, He went on from there and entered their synagogue. and a man was there with a withered hand. And they asked him, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath so that they might accuse him?" Okay, so under, you know, understand at the onset here, the heart of the Pharisees is one of entrapment. Okay, they are predisposed to war against Christ and what he's doing. And he gives them the old covenant precedence of the ox in the ditch. And then verse 13, we'll skip that. Then he said to the man, he said, stretch out your hand. And the man stretched it out, and it was restored healthy like the other. So understand what's happened. This is not a Benny Hinn miracle. This is a can't be explained any other way cosmic signs and wonders type of miracle. And of course, these Jews repented and trusted in Jesus after seeing this miracle, right? Well, look at verse 14. All this builds to understand our text, I'm convinced. Verse 14, what's their response? Repentance and faith? Amazement? Astonishment? See, no. See, they grind their teeth. They harden their hearts. It says, but the Pharisees went out and conspired against Him how to destroy him. Verse 15, Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there, and many followed him, and he healed them all. So see this scene in one of the parallel accounts, and I can't remember where, maybe Luke says that this is a great multitude that's pressing in on him, so much so that his family at one point drags him indoors, says, you're crazy. But he's healing the afflicted. He's delivering those with demon possession. Verse 16, And he ordered them not to make him known. And Matthew says, This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah. And here he quotes Isaiah 42. Now, notice this. I think this is imperative to understanding our text. Matthew says that what's going on here is Isaiah saying, behold, or the Lord through Isaiah saying, behold, my servant, remember that servant from Isaiah, that prominent theme, my servant whom I've chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. Remember Jesus' baptism and that proclamation from the Father. And this, I will put my spirit upon him and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. So here's Jesus, the Christ, that means the anointed one. He's been baptized. The Spirit of God descends upon him and rests upon him, stays upon him. That's indicative or figurative of the anointing of God, the anointed one. The Father proclaims from heaven this language from Isaiah, all this is messianic, and says, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. And now what's he doing? He's out in Galilee of the Gentiles, what? delivering people, proclaiming the kingdom, right? He's proclaiming justice to the Gentiles, if you think of it politically. And in verse 19, he will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. That's, Jesus is commanding them, don't make this known. So he's not, boasting he's not like a typical king, as you would think, that is anxious to set up his kingdom and his rule and his reign. He's depending on God and he's waiting on God to set him on his throne. A bruised reed he will not break and a smoldering wick he will not quench until he brings justice to victory. And in his name, who? the Gentiles will hope." Now, so clearly this is probably not a... what he's doing is not popular with the Pharisees for a number of reasons. We're going to look at them more. So verse 22, here's actually our text. That was all backdrop. I think Matthew sets this up theologically for a reason. Then A demon-oppressed man, who was blind and mute, was brought to him, and he healed him." Now, this is an astounding miracle. In another gospel account of this, the people say, something like this has never been done in Israel. So, don't think this was commonplace. We read the Bible and we think it was. It wasn't. These people never seen or heard anything like this. A man to be released from the power and oppression of the forces of Satan. And the result was so that the man spoke and saw. And all the people were amazed and said, watch this, they said, can this be the son of David? And hopefully you're familiar with that title. It's a messianic title. It's the title of the king that God had promised would come and establish his kingdom and execute justice for his people and ultimately would rule the entire world as God's anointed king. Now, there's good reason why they would think that. I hope you can read that. The new projector's great. Isaiah 11. There's many, many of these, but this is so clear. Now think about what's been going on. Think about what the people are saying in this prophecy. There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse. That's David's daddy, right? And a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him." Critical, critical. The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge, the fear of the Lord, his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth. He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth." Now see that? and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. I included that big long thing so you could see the wide gamut of it. Because when we go to just verse 1, we think spiritual, salvific. We don't tend to think king, kingdom, theocracy, right? See, they didn't. It wasn't their understanding. It was probably, woefully, much more the last down here. God's king is going to come defeat all of God's enemies. Why? Because he's going to be anointed like King David was anointed. Remember that language? So he's going to be, the Spirit of God is going to rest on him. It's not going to, or he, not it, he's not going to depart from him like he did Saul and many other kings when they apostatized. Right? The Spirit of God is going to rest upon him and he's going to accomplish God's purposes. And he's going to establish God's kingdom and he's going to rule over God's world. So when they apply this, they see this man doing this, he's overturning Not just the Romans. He's overturning the chief of enemies, and that's Satan himself. The powers of darkness. The demonic forces that no one can touch. Another one. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me. Because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. Just remember what Jesus is doing. Who He's going out to. Broken hearted, if you will, the destitute. In this day, unless you had just a rich family, if you were crippled and things of that nature, you lived in caves or bagged, right? You were destitute, didn't have welfare systems like we have. They did, but they weren't faithful to them. He sent me to bind up the broken hearted to proclaim liberty to the captives. Think of what he's just done. He set this man free from his demonic oppression. the opening of the prison to those who are bound to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of the vengeance of our God to comfort all who mourn. Now, there's probably more time we need to spend there, but I want you to see how these things are connected and specifically connected to the abiding Spirit of God and the anointed King, the Messiah, because that's what these people are saying. This is the question that they're asking among themselves. Can this be the Messiah? Now, think about this. If Jesus is the Messiah, what does that mean for the Pharisees? That's right. See that? He's the king, and he's God's king, and they're the ones in control, if you will, at the moment. They have the prominence and the influence, and they lose all that. So they must not let this man be accepted by the people as the Messiah, as the Anointed One. So verse 24, Remember the sin that we're trying to define. But when the Pharisees heard it, when they heard this rumbling among the people, could this be the Messiah? Could this be David who is to come? They said, it's only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons. Now, Beelzebul is actually borrowed from a Hebrew word, but essentially this refers to Satan. It was really like a heathen deity that had the control of the demonic realm. So where the people are saying, this is critical, please get this, or please try, where the people are saying, this is God's king, this is why he's able to smash out the enemies of God, deliver people from demonic oppression, the Pharisees come up with this way to explain it that says, no, the reason he's got this power, they couldn't deny what he was doing, they say the reason he has this power is because the spirit of Beelzebul is upon him. You understand that? Beelzebul is the sovereign of the demons. The demons have to listen to Beelzebul. Okay, so understand that. Anything, anything to discredit Christ. And this is very, very, very serious. Now verse 25, I like Matthew's just little nuggets in there. Knowing their thoughts, He's God. He said to them, now look, see I would argue that, I was telling Melissa this today, Jesus shows them the futility of their own logic, of their own thinking, okay? He says, look, every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste. And no city or house divided against itself will stand. Civil war, what happens? The kingdom's divided, the kingdom crumbles. And if Satan casts out Satan, see, bells above Satan, if Satan casts out Satan, he's divided against himself, how then will his kingdom stand? See? It's absurd. You're saying what you're saying is absurd. It doesn't even work. Listen to this. We're here. I've got it. From the Jameson Fawcett Brown commentary. I love this. They said regarding this, the argument here is irresistible. No organized society can stand, whether kingdom, city, or household, when turned against itself. Such, I don't know how to pronounce this in this context, intestine, maybe, war, n-word, war, it's an older commentary, is suicidal. But the works I do are destructive of Satan's kingdom. They're saying this from Jesus. He's paraphrasing. that I should be in league with Satan, therefore, is incredible and absurd. He said, look, the things I'm doing are destroying him. They're undermining his kingdom. They're undermining his efforts. It's absurd to say that I'm in league with him. I think that's a great analysis of what Christ is saying here. But let's move on. Verse 27. He says, again, showing the absurdity of their unbelief. Unbelief is absurd. And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? And what he means by that are the disciples of the Pharisees. And there was a practice of exorcism, if you remember from Acts, Simon the magi, or Simon the sorcerer, It's what he was known for, right? Jewish exorcism. And it was much more sorcery and that sort of thing than it was actual casting out of demons. It was the type of magic that you see in Exodus with Pharaoh's prophets and Moses, right? A lot of trickery and deceit. We see that in Acts and other places. But, here's what Jesus says to them, if I'm doing that, and it's working, what does that say about your sons, your disciples? Therefore, they will be your judges. Another quote, I don't know if I have this one. Nope, I don't. This is good though. from Craig Evans, the students of the Pharisees, he says, will be called as witnesses in the day of judgment and they will accuse their teachers, this is it, knowing that there is no truth to their slander that Jesus is assisted by Beelzebul. Do you see what he's saying? His interpretation, I think it's accurate, is Jesus saying that I'm going to call up your exorcists that operate under your authority as your disciples to testify against you because they know that you know this is true. So what's critical to understanding this sin is that Jesus is Spelling out very explicitly, this is not ignorance. This is knowing and willful sin. They know these things are coming from God. Let me show you how I say that with confidence. Not from Craig Evans, but from Nicodemus. Remember this. Nicodemus, Sanhedrin, ruler of the Jews, comes to Jesus secretly by night, says what? Rabbi, where's my pointer? No pointer. We know that you are a teacher come from God. Why or how? For no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. Do you see that? They knew. It created great problems for them, great obstacles for their authority, as Scott said earlier. But they knew deep down that he was a prophet come from God at the very least because of these attesting signs, which we'll look at more in a moment. But let's go back to our text. Verse 28, see my time, okay. But, so he said if I, you know, kingdom can't fight against itself, Satan can't cast out Satan, verse 28. But, if it isn't Satan, if it isn't Beelzebul who gives me this power, But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, lost my place, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Now, we're gonna come to that, come back to that last little phrase, but consider these things and the importance. This is an important, I say everything is, but this is a text you need to know in the day we live in. And this is Hebrews 2. I put the entire block for context, and I'm referring you here to see the purpose of signs and wonders, the purpose of miracles in Jesus' ministry and the Apostles' ministry. They weren't to heal people in and of themselves. That wasn't the end. That was the means to a much greater end. This is it. Therefore, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, that's the gospel, that the miracles attest, lest we drift away from it. Writing to professing Christians, don't ignore these warnings. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, the law, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, that's Jesus, and it was attested to us by those who heard, that's the apostles, Now verse 4, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of whom? Of the Holy Spirit, distributed according to His will. Let me stop there for a second before we go on. So understand then Jesus is saying, but if it's the power of the Spirit that enables me to do this, if it's the power of the Spirit that's at work, then you guys are in trouble. And we'll get into that more. Look at, I think this is very important as well, Stephen in Act 7. You remember Stephen by these same, I don't know if it's the exact same people, but the same class of people. Okay, the Jewish religious leaders. Stephen is taken for trial and he preaches this what seems like a three-day long redemptive history. And after he gets done summarizing the history of redemption, he says this to the Sanhedrin. He says, you stiff-necked people, Old Covenant language, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist whom? You always resist the Holy Spirit. This is what they were doing. As your fathers did, so do you. This is exactly what's going on here. the Anointed One, the Christ, the Messiah, He's coming in the power of the Spirit, the Spirit of God resting upon Him. He's pouring out the Spirit. I wish I had a couple of texts that I left out. This was to mark the Messianic age. This outpouring of the Spirit and all these cosmic signs and wonders. Think Joel 2. Think Zechariah 14. And this is what's happening, and that's what Jesus refers to. He knows they know this in verse 28 when He says, But if it's by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. And that word that the English translators translate, come upon you, likely carries a connotation of something that's taken you by surprise. It's something that you've not, it's, they've not expected it. It's like when your enemies are at the gates and you were unawares. So the kingdom of God has come upon them. Those who think they're the leaders of the kingdom of God. Now verse 29, he goes on, he emphasizes this strongly, says, or how can someone enter a strongman's house and plunder his goods, children's sermon, unless he first does what? Binds the strongman. Then indeed he may plunder his house. So again, see his logic. saying, you've got this able-bodied soldier, whatever, and the street thug is not gonna be able to plunder this man's house when he's there with his sword, is he? He's probably, I mean, he might get him, he's gonna get taken out with him. So Jesus is saying, remember the accusation, that they're accusing him of what power and of what spirit that he's able to do these signs, and he says, The strong man, which here metaphorically would be Satan, the strong man has to be bound, and then once the strong man's bound, you can plunder his house at will. You see what he's saying? He's saying, I've bound Satan. And what you see, what you're seeing, me telling the demons to flee, and they flee. Me telling them to go into pigs, and they go into pigs. Them testifying to Him. Remember, I can't remember where it's at, but where they say, Jesus, Son of the Most High God, and they testify, we know who you are. They know, and they obey His every word. What's He saying? See, I'm not working in cohorts with Him, right? I've tied Him up, and I'm ravaging His kingdom. I'm destroying His kingdom right here through the spread of the gospel. These signs are just signs that God is with me, and that this is a work of the Spirit of God, and this is the age of the Spirit, and it's come upon you. It's advanced in your presence. Important. Alright. So verse 30. And then he uses this very regal, kingly, national, political language. And he says, Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. I forgot to give you this. I saw it on my notes. You need to know this. Jesus says, later on, well, in John, he says, now is the judgment of this world, now will the ruler of this world be cast out. What events is he referring to? Do you remember? It's the cross, right? He's gonna go to the cross, and he's gonna raise, and when he's risen... So long to that boy. At least his power. Even the power of death. Anywho. But Jesus gives this ultimatum to these Pharisees back in verse 30. He says, if you're not with me, or whoever's not with me is against me, whoever does not gather with me scatters. There's no fence straddling. It's all or nothing proposition. I've said this many times before, but this is the demands of his discipleship. It's all or nothing. But understand what he's saying here. In my opinion, he's speaking like a king. And he's saying, you're either with me or you're with him, Beelzebul, Satan. You're in one kingdom or the other. There's nobody in the middle. One kingdom in the other. And if you're not with me, what's going to happen to you? You're going to scatter. Now, you're a Jew. Does the word scatter mean good things to you? What caused the Jews to scatter? That's right, the judgment of God on their sin. Their enemies would invade and they would scatter. So see this language, this kingdom language. You're not with me, you're gonna scatter, you're gonna lose. Verse 31, and here we go. Now notice, therefore, The cliche is old, but good. See what it's there for. It's in light of all of this, he says, I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, or be forgiven men, literally in the plural. But the blasphemy, excuse me, against the spirit will not be forgiven. Let me track something down just a bit here, I know that's long. Because this language doesn't come from nowhere, like most things in the scripture. Within the Law of Moses, there was a distinction made between, and this is the essence of this sin in my opinion, Because many have thought, have I sinned this sin and is my soul damned because I've thought some irreverent phrase toward the person or work of the Holy Spirit in my mind. And it was presented to me that way as a kid, and I thought for certain I was damned and doomed, especially the way I felt about some of the shenanigans that I saw as a kid that were attributed to the Holy Spirit. You can't get off that easy. In Numbers 15, If one person sins unintentionally, he shall offer a female goat, the priest shall make atonement, verse 28, before the Lord for the person who makes a mistake when he sins unintentionally to make atonement for him, and he shall be forgiven. You shall have one law for him who does anything unintentionally, for him who is native among the people of Israel, and for the stranger who sojourns among them. But the person who does anything with a high hand..." You understand that imagery? That's haughty, if I'm saying that correctly. Proud. Arrogant. knowing the law and arrogantly saying, I don't care. I don't think anything's going to, I don't think these curses are going to come upon me, right? So God, even in these earlier stages of the history of redemption, makes this distinction. Where did we get to? Verse 29, you just have one law... Nope. 30, but a person who does anything to you with a high hand, whether he is a native or a sojourner, he does what? Above 31? He reviles the Lord. and that person shall be cut off from among his people. Because he has despised the word of the Lord and has broken his commandment, that person shall be utterly cut off. Now this is seed form, but my opinion, what we're seeing in our text in Matthew is the fullest expression of this principle, this being utterly cut off. His iniquity shall be on him. Remember, he starts with, this person can make atonement and be forgiven. But down at the bottom, the person who knowingly, willfully, arrogantly despises God's commandments, despises the Lord, reviles the Lord, will be utterly cut off from the people. There's no forgiveness, essentially is what he's saying. Don't think we probably have time for that. You can look that up on your own. Stubbornness in your heart, similar sort of thing about it. But let's go back to our text and examine this again. So again, from 31, Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy, its most basic meaning is just to speak evil of something, will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And watch this, whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven. But whoever speaks against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Now, this is important Christological stuff in this little verse. Why is that? Now, ultimately, is Jesus God? But what we need to understand about Jesus' earthly ministry and the things that Jesus accomplished is that he did so as a man, a real man, not a demigod like the pagan see. He set aside divine prerogatives, those rights and privileges and even sometimes those abilities that belong to his divine nature and he fulfilled the law of God and the purposes of God as a man dependent on whom? The Spirit of God. Now who is at work in Jesus binding the kingdom of Satan here? The Spirit of God. Who is seeing this irrefutably done before their eyes and is knowingly and willfully rejecting it and attributing that work to Satan. It's the Pharisees, specifically in this text. This is the sin that they're committing. This is specifically what they're doing. And look at the We'll go a little bit deeper on it. Look at that next phrase that I stopped at. Consider that Old Testament precedence. He says, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. He'll be utterly cut off from his people. And look at the way Matthew uses it. It says, either in this age or the age to come. Now what does that include? Ever, right? Eternity. Two ages. The present age, the age to come. He says the person who commits this sin won't receive forgiveness ever. Mark gives us some good insight, I think, from one of the parallel passages here. He says, and he clarifies the nature of this sin too, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin. Aionos in the Greek. It has a broad range of meaning. It's the longest and deepest and most lasting word that we have. The ages, eternity, that sort of thing. The point is, there's no end to this guilt. But look at verse 30. And he clarifies what this is. What this sin is. I could have just went here and saved 45 minutes. But then what would we have talked about? Verse 30, For they were saying, He has an unclean spirit. So how were they blaspheming the Spirit of God? By saying that the Spirit of God, by which Jesus was performing these attesting signs and wonders, was an unclean spirit. By attributing that work to Satan. Do you see how the fear I could have of speaking against the charismatic movement as a child? Because everybody's going around saying, thus says the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God told me this, and the Spirit of God helped me do this. And if I say that doesn't come from the Spirit of God, I'm not doing much different than the Pharisees in my thinking. So there's this deep and aboding fear. I would argue if you look at this text in its context, this is not something that a true Christian can do. Now, should we still be warned? I think we should. Why? Because the book of Hebrews and many other places in the scriptures tell us that, or show us very clearly, that not everyone who's baptized and comes to church two and a half times a week is a Christian. Okay? That's just a joke. I call Wednesday the half Sabbath. If you don't know that, it's just light-hearted. But guys, don't mistake religious observance, ritual observance, for being born of God. It's to our great peril if we do. Quickly though, let's move on. Just give me another minute, because I want you to see that this is deeper than just an action. It's deeper than something that you say. This is a matter of the heart. I've always seen this left off and broken because verses 33 through 37 make such a great little pericope in and of themselves to teach or preach that it's usually divorced from this. But Matthew just goes right into this. So somehow, contextually, Matthew intends to connect them. He says, either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad. Why? Let's just get it out in the open. Pick a side. Why? The tree is known by its fruit. Why do these men blaspheme the Spirit? Is their fruit rotten because they blaspheme the Spirit? Thank you. It's the other way around. They blaspheme the Spirit because they're of their father the devil, because the fruit is rotten, because the tree is rotten. Out of the abundance of the heart, he's going to say, the mouth speaks. He goes on to say, you brood of vipers, how can you speak good when you are evil? See that? Their sin leading unto death is a sin from their tongue. They're blaspheming the Spirit of God and the Anointed One of God, the Christ of God. They're attributing the crushing of the head of the seed of the woman's crushing of the head of the serpent to the serpent. And they're mocking and reviling and they're blaspheming, but why are they doing that? because they are evil. He says in verse 34, you brood of vile, I already read that, how can you speak good when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. It's the corruption that testifies to itself. Like those signs and wonders testify to the true nature of the work, the authenticity of the message, the gospel that Jesus proclaimed and the apostles proclaimed, so do these signs testify to the true nature of these Pharisees. Verse 35, he goes on, the good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. Watch this. This is sobering, especially for a blabbermouth like me. I tell you, on the day of judgment, People will give account for every careless word they speak. And look how he's went down in severity from utter blasphemy to mere frivolous, careless words. And he says, people will give an account for every careless word they speak, verse 37. I think this illustrates the point of it all. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned." Now what does he mean? It's not a spell or an incantation. If I say the sinner's prayer, I'm justified. If I recite, I'm not saying that's wrong if you said it, if it came from your heart. But it's not repeating a set of words that causes you to be justified, and it's not saying the wrong words that doesn't. It's because of this premise that it's out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks. So this judgment based on our speech, based on the things we say, is really a reflection of the heart. And the things we say, people will stand against us in the judgment and testify to our careless and reckless words. Why? because it shows us the true nature of our heart, because it's out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks. I know I keep repeating that. And I would argue that this is the essence of this sin. It's, not clarified, it's qualified by willful, I didn't put the Paul thing on there right, Melissa? I'll have to say it from the, this was the question that Melissa asked about Paul. Paul says, and I think you quoted it or read over it maybe in one of the pastoral sermons you had done, is that right? Where Paul says, you know, I was, I'm just so distraught that I don't have this. From 1 Timothy, chapter one, if you guys will bear with me like 45 more seconds. Technology, oh yeah. I thought it was a great question. Where Paul says, I thank Him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because He judged me faithful, appointing me to His service, though formerly I was a blasphemer. Now, had Paul not read Matthew 12? Had Paul not blasphemed God? and the work of Christ. So what's the difference in Paul and these Pharisees? It's in the text itself. And this really shows you the nature of this sin, in my opinion. He says, And this is an enigmatic passage apart from this understanding because it seems to purport works righteousness. But with this understanding, I think it's glorious and beautiful. He says, but I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief. See, these Pharisees, that wasn't the case. That's why Jesus says, your people, your disciples are going to testify against you in judgment that you knew, that you knew these things were valid. You knew these miracles were really happening. You knew they were from God, but you spurned it out of hatred toward him and out of rejection of his servant. So some would argue that this is not a sin that can be committed anymore. you know, in a technical sense that you might could say that this the very specific parameters that this occurred in because Jesus has now died, raised from the dead. He isn't doing signs and wonders in this sense and he's not going around doing signs and wonders for you to attribute to Satan, right? But this heart I'm not saying that's my position. I'm saying it's a somewhat of an accepted position. But this heart that underlies it, that gives birth to this sin, is still very much a fear. I know this is deep and we're out of time and you can ask me later, but any questions or clarifications before we pray that just can't wait and you think everyone might need to hear? OK, thank you for your patience. Let's pray. Father. We thank you for not leaving us in the dark. As regards sin and salvation, righteousness and judgment. We acknowledge our. Native fallenness. and our utter lack of virtue before you in and of ourselves. We thank you for your mercy, for your spirit that's been poured out so lavishly upon us. Thank you for guarding us, for keeping us from sinning this great unpardonable sin. We ask for strength, power of your spirit to go forth, to guard our lips. Thank you for changing our hearts, for that true spiritual circumcision, for giving us the want to, to follow after you. Please give and strengthen our faith and grant us to repent where it's needed. We ask in Christ's name, amen.