Talk about the kingdom. We're going to go right back to the Gospel
of Matthew chapter 12. Go ahead and open your Bibles to Matthew
chapter 12. Every Sunday we have guests with us. I'm so glad
you're here. We have people worshiping with us online. So glad
you're a part of this. We're going through the Gospel of Matthew
chapter by chapter, verse by verse. It could take us like a year
and a half to make it all the way through. And because of it, what
this means is I can't tell you what's happening today in Matthew
12, 15 and on until I remind you what we covered last week. So
every Sunday, we're going to give you a little recap from the
week before. So last week we looked at the first half of Matthew
12, and it ended with Jesus getting really stern with the Pharisees
calling out their legalistic cold obedience to a bunch of rules
and regulations. And if you remember last week, he said, if only
you understood this. God says, I desire mercy and not sacrifice.
And I explained to you that word mercy is chesed. It's the loving
kindness of God that's referring to the sacrificial system,
like the rules and regulations. He's saying, I'm not
looking for slavish obedience to rules and regulations. I'm looking
for you to experience and give the loving kindness of God. And then
he shows them what it looks like when it's misplaced by healing
a man on the Sabbath. So a man comes in with a withered hand. They
try to test Jesus. He heals this guy, showing the chesed, the
loving kindness of God. And instead of the Pharisees rejoicing
and being excited, they leave there to plot to kill him because
they are so bonkers in their mind, they've missed it completely.
And so what you see at the end of last week is the Pharisees who
are proud and hate filled with, they have vitriol and animosity
toward Jesus. And now what you're gonna see this week is Jesus
is just the opposite. So you finish with the Pharisees plotting
to kill Jesus and their hatred. And it starts today with
Jesus, the lovingly healing people who don't deserve it. And
it's intended to be a juxtaposition to show the opposite
nature of the Pharisees and Jesus. So with last week and the
Pharisees floating around in your mind, let's move on to verse
15 of Matthew 12 and see what it tells us about Jesus. It says,
Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there and many followed him.
And he healed them all and ordered them not to make him known.
This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah. Behold
my servant, whom I have chosen, my beloved, with whom my
soul is well pleased. I will put my spirit upon him, and he will
proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not quarrel or
cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. 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
the Gentiles will hope. Now, this is a long quote from Isaiah
42 that he's given, but I want you to see just how different this
quote describes this man. Jesus and the Pharisees were. So
again, Pharisees, they're filled with hate and vitriol and
animosity. They want to kill Jesus. Jesus, though, is filled with
love and humility and kindness. Now, when it says in verse
15, you got to make sure you understand this, that Jesus, aware
that they were trying to kill him, withdrew from the place. Don't
think for a second Jesus withdrawing because he's afraid.
He's not afraid of the Pharisees. In fact, later on in the
story, the Gospel of Matthew, you're going to see Jesus stand up
to the Pharisees and the Sadducees and everybody else and
get crucified for it. And he knew what he was getting into because
he was not afraid. He's not backing down because he's afraid.
He's just choosing not to fight because he knows this is not
the time for him to fight. So instead of fighting, he's healing.
The Pharisees are trying to poke him and prod him to get him
to fight, and he will not do it because he knows that's not his
purpose at this moment in time. His purpose is to heal. So
you got the hate of the Pharisees and you got this humble
love of Jesus. All these people coming who are wounded and
hurting, and he's healing them all. You see the pride of the Pharisees
and you see the humility of Jesus. He goes, don't even tell people
what I'm doing. And you see just the stark contrast between the
hateful nature of the Pharisees and the loving nature of
Jesus. But it wasn't just the character of the two that Matthew
wanted to compare. It was also the understanding of the mission
of the Messiah that he wants to compare. Because, see, the Pharisees
had a completely wrong understanding of the mission of the
Messiah. Remember, they were proud people. And so they were convinced
that when God brought the Messiah, it was going to be to liberate
the nation of Israel and make them the world power they were supposed
to be. And guess who would be sitting at the top? The cream of
the crop, The Pharisees. They were going to be the center of the
universe, and they were waiting for some Messiah to come
who would be big and bold and brazen and charismatic that would
draw the attention of everybody else so they could overthrow
Rome. And here comes Jesus, and he says, actually, my mission
is to be humble and soft. He says, you won't even hear my voice
in the streets. It's a complete antithesis of what the Pharisees
were looking for. This is why they were so bamboozled and confused
about who Jesus was and why he was doing this. And then Jesus says
something really profound. He says, and I want you to know my mission.
My mission is not to come help you Pharisees. It's not to establish
a ruling class. My mission is to come help a bruised reed and a
smoldering wick. Now, those two things are talking about the
same thing. They're talking about total brokenness and weakness.
So let me tell you what a bruised reed is. Reeds were all over
the place in the swampy waters and the Palestine area. They look
like bamboo, but just smaller. And so if it had a bruise on it,
that was a weak spot. A bruised reed meant that if you just
walk by and touched it, it would snap. It was at the point of
breaking, at any moment, a smoldering wick. If you think about
what that is, that's the wick part of it almost burned down into
the wax where it's just barely a little bit of light. But if there's
just a little. That thing is going out. He's talking about people
who are at the utter end of themselves. They're at a point in
their life where they're going, if one more thing happens
to me, I'm done. I'm collapsing. It's over. One little
straw is gonna break this camel's back. I can't go. It's people
who are exhausted. Exactly what he was talking about back in
chapter 11, if you remember that one back in verse 28 and 29,
he says, come to me if you're weary and burdened. You're exhausted,
you're at the end of yourself. If you go all the way back to chapter
nine, verse 36, it says, Jesus looked around, he saw the people,
and they were harassed and helpless. Like sheep without a shepherd.
He's talking about the same group of people over and over, harassed
and helpless, weary and burdened. A bruised reed and a smoldering
wick. People who said, I can't anymore. God, I got nothing left
in the tank. I don't know if I'm gonna make it till tomorrow.
Maybe. Maybe there are some of you who are here today or worshiping
with us online, and that's where you are. Maybe you came into
this room today going, this is my last ditch effort. This is my
flare up there going, God, if you're real and you can do something,
it's now or never. If that's you, I got really good news for you.
You are the very mission of Jesus Christ. You are the very reason
he came to Earth. You see, the Pharisees, they were looking for
the prominent people and they were walking right past the very
people that Jesus said, no, this is the very reason I came. I
didn't come for the healthy. I came for the sick. I came for those
who knew they were broken and would need my help. If that's you
today, I want to remind you, not only are you Jesus mission, but
Jesus never fails at his mission. If Jesus has anything, it's
power. Now, Jesus, absolutely. We learned this back in Matthew 11:29.
He is gentle and lowly, he is humble and he's kind, but that does
not mean he is afraid and weak. Jesus is courageous and powerful
and there is nothing he cannot do. And this passage is reminding
us about his power specifically, though, by reminding
us that he was filled with the Holy Spirit. That's what verse 18
was talking about. I don't know if you noticed the verbiage,
but it sounds almost identical to what we read back in Matthew chapter
3 When Jesus was baptized. It says here, behold my servant, whom
I've chosen. My beloved, with whom my soul is well pleased. I will
put my spirit upon him. I don't know if any of you remember
chapter three, but that was Jesus baptism says he's baptized
by John the Baptist. And then the Spirit descends on him like a
dove and remains on him. And there's this booming voice from heaven
that says, this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.
Now, I want you to know that is a pivotal moment in Jesus life,
because it is after this moment that Jesus does all his miracles.
I actually taught you this back when we talked about the baptism
of Jesus, but I need to come back to it again because this is
a place where so many of you are still confused and therefore
you miss the power of God when you most need the power of God. Every
time I talk to people, if I were to ask almost anybody, like,
why was Jesus able to do miracles? 99.99% of the people would
say, well, because he was God in the flesh. That's why he was able
to do miracles. And that would be a misunderstanding of the doctrine
of the Incarnation. If you don't know what incarnation, that's
when Jesus took on flesh. For those of you who might not know Latin,
just think of like going to Mexican food restaurant getting carne
asada, carne meat. He incarnated, he took on carne, he
took on flesh. That's the Incarnation. The moment God takes
on flesh. And you think it's just like, yeah, yeah, he just like,
kind of like God is hidden in flesh, but he's still God. He can
do whatever he wants. No, that's not what the Incarnation teaches.
Philippians chapter two tells us that when Jesus took on flesh,
he emptied himself by taking on the form of a servant. Well, what
did he empty himself of? His divine right to use his power however
he wanted. That's what he emptied himself of. Now he's still
God in the flesh, but his divinity is veiled in his humanity,
meaning he can no longer willy nilly, do whatever miracle he wants
to do on his own. Every miracle he now does from this moment
forward has to be by the power of the Holy Spirit inside of him,
because his divinity is covered in flesh. Maybe you go, I
don't know, Jason, if that's the way it really works, well, go
read the Gospel of Luke again and see how it works. Nowhere in
the Bible do you see Jesus doing any miracle at all before the
Holy Spirit comes on him after his baptism. And in Luke specifically,
the verbiage is very clear. It says he's baptized, that he's led
by the Spirit into the wilderness where he's tested. He
passes the test. And then it says, and in the power of the Spirit,
he goes out and starts preaching, teaching and healing.
So spirit comes and now all the miracles come. There's not a
miracle Jesus did when he was on earth that wasn't by the power
of the Holy Spirit. This is exactly why Jesus says In John chapter
16, it's to your advantage that I leave you, because when I
leave, then the Helper, the Holy Spirit, will come upon you.
Now again, put yourself in the shoes of the disciples on this one.
Like, how in the world could it be better for Jesus in the flesh
to leave? Because he can do all These miracles, the only way
it could be better is if his cause of doing miraculous work now
comes inside of us and we can do what Jesus could do. Then you
go to John 14, you read it where Jesus says, greater works will
you do than I, because I am going to the Father. Now, if he didn't
put that last little bit on there, it might be confusing, but
he's very clear. Because I go to the Father, the Spirit will come
and you'll do greater works than me. Which is exactly what you
see in the Bible. You see the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and
John, and it's Jesus doing all the work. Then you get over to the
Book of Acts and you see these hillbilly disciples doing all the
same things that Jesus did. Why? Because in Acts 2, the spirit
of Christ came down upon them and empowered them to do what they
could not do on their own. Every miracle Jesus did was because
the Spirit was upon him. Now maybe you're going. Okay, theological
lesson for me. Great. Thank you. Golf clap. I understand. Now,
what does that matter? It changes everything. Because the best
news of all is the same Spirit that was in Jesus Christ is in this
room right here, right now, this morning. And the same miracles
that Jesus saw can be seen today not because of me, not because
of you, but because of the Holy Spirit in this place. This is
exactly why every Sunday we open up the front for prayer. Because
we still believe our God is doing miracles. We still believe
people can be healed and marriages can be saved. We still
believe that people can be saved from mental illness, saved
from their sins. That miracles happen because the same Spirit is
in here. The most important thing of all though, is that we don't
miss the work of the Holy Spirit. All that power available
and we can completely miss it. This is exactly what the Pharisees
kept doing over and over and over again, right there. Bona fide
proof of the Spirit and of Jesus. And they turned their backs
on it. Well, they're about to do it again. Let me go ahead and
forewarn you. Jesus is about to finally confront it. And he's
going to have to speak some truth into these Pharisees lives.
So why don't you see in verse 22 as we keep on reading, how the
Spirit came in power and how the Pharisees missed it. Picking
back up verse 22, then a demon oppressed man who was blind and mute
was brought to him. And he healed him so that the man spoke
and saw. And all the people were amazed and said, can this be
the Son of David? But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, it
is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts
out demons. Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, every
kingdom divided against itself is laid waste. And no city or house
divided against itself will stand. And 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 will be your judges. But if it is by the
spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has
come upon you. Or how can someone enter a strong man's house
and plunder his goods? Unless he first binds the strongman, then
indeed he may plunder his house. I'm going to pause there.
So what you see here is the demonstration of the spirit's power.
A demon is cast out. You see, some of the people there amazed at
it because they recognize this has to be the son of David. Because
in Isaiah it was predicted that if the blind can see and the
mute can speak, then that's the Messiah. So some of them were
believing. But then you have the Pharisees who come up on a stage,
these hard hearted, mean, angry Pharisees, and they go, no,
no, no, no, he's not doing that by God's power. He's doing that
by Satan's power. That's when he says Beelzebul. That's just another
term used for Satan, the prince of demons. No, no, that's
happening by Satan's power. And they completely miss the miracle
that they're seeing. Now, I mentioned this last week. I got to
say it again. Isn't there a side where you see these Pharisees,
you go, povrecito, man, you're so blind. God, I just feel sorry
for you. Miracle after miracle after miracle. Like, it can't be
God. You just want to like slap him across the face and say,
open up your eyes. You notice they didn't even try to deny the
miracle. They never once said, no, that wasn't a miracle. They can't
deny it. It's too obvious. And they still don't believe. Now, I
want you to know, it's so easy to condemn them and it's so dangerous
to condemn them, because when we do so, we don't realize we're
condemning ourselves. See, the Pharisees, they were just. Actually,
they were just using logic to get to the conclusion that they got
to it made perfect sense in their minds. So let me explain to
you how they're I don't know if you know, like logic, like there's
certain forms. If A equals B and B equals C, then A equals C,
like in mathematical logic is pretty simple structure. So they're
using a logical argument just to connect the dots. So you got the
first issue is that they have seen a bonafide miracle, some supernatural
power to cast out that demon to make that blind man see and speak.
And so, okay, they can't deny it, it's been some kind of miracle.
Well, the next argument and their logical pattern is they know
that this supernatural power has to come from somewhere. And in
the ancient world there were only two sources of supernatural
power. It either came from God and it was divine power, or it came
from dark magic, from Satan himself. Both entities have power.
And so their next line of argument is they are fully convinced
Jesus is not of God, but. But that he's leading the people astray,
so he cannot be of God, therefore it cannot be God's divine
power. Therefore the only conclusion they arrive at can be,
he must be doing this by the power of Satan. This is just their
logical sequence to get to that answer. Now you and I can look
at that and go, well, we see their flaw. They wrongly assess Jesus
as not being of God, but they were utterly blind to that and nobody
was going to convince them that Jesus was on God's side. Jesus
doesn't even try to convince them that he's on God's side. In
fact, what he does is he uses better logic to undo their misguided
logic. It's really fascinating when you study it. Jesus uses the
same logical sequence, but to get them to a different conclusion.
He says, okay, let's start back at the first argument again.
You have just seen divine supernatural power because a demon
has been expelled. No doubt in it. You can all see it. We all agree
here. But let me give you the next line of argument that's different
than yours. The next line is this. If I have cast out a demon,
that demon works for Satan. You get that? I get that. And then
the next line would be, if you're accusing me of working on
behalf of Satan, then Satan is casting out Satan. And that means
the next line. Satan is. His kingdom is divided and therefore
his whole kingdom will fall. It's just a line of argumentation.
Now it's probably not as convincing to you and me as it would
be to them, but this was an incredibly convincing argument because
of the culture they lived in, little historical background for
you. So they lived under the big watchful eye of the Roman Empire.
Rome at the time was the mightiest empire the world had ever
seen. Never had there been an empire more vast, more powerful,
with a greater military. And Rome had had no enemies they were
afraid of out there. They were not afraid of the Persians, they
weren't afraid of the Babylonians, they weren't afraid
of the Egyptians, they weren't afraid of the Europeans or the Mayans
or the Aztecs or the ancient Chinese. They weren't afraid of anybody.
Nobody could take down Rome. Rome had one enemy it was afraid
of, and that enemy was civil war within itself. Rome knew the
only threat to Rome was Rome. If it was divided, it would fall,
which by the way, is the very reason Rome fell. There was infighting
and war within that caused it to collapse. This is the air they
breathe because the Roman Empire is all around them and they
understand that threat, that if a kingdom is divided against itself,
it will fall. So when Jesus says, consider the pattern. If Satan
is fighting against Satan, then the mightiest devilish army
will collapse just like Rome. And therefore I cannot be doing this
from the power of Satan. It was lock solid argumentation they
could not refute. But if that weren't enough, Jesus gives them
one last little slap over there and says, and by the way, you're
condemning your own children. Now, another little background that
you need to know. So exorcism, the casting out of demons was big,
big business in that time. They didn't know about science the
way we do and medicine or mental health and all that. They
firmly believed a demon caused every bad thing there was. And so
if you needed any help, you got a stomach problem, whatever,
you got to cast out the demon, which I don't know if you know that.
There were still some vestiges. It was like when you sneeze
and you go, huchoo, bless you. That's because a demon left you and
now you're healthier and you're saying bless you now. That's
what the mindset was. Demons cause everything. And so when you
have this mindset, then you need somebody to cast out that demon.
So there was a big pagan business where they would have incantations,
they'd cut themselves and look at these black books and dark arts
and stuff. But they were also, they were Jewish exorcists. In fact,
if you read the Book of Acts, you find this story about the Jewish
exorcist. In fact, some of the best Jewish exorcists were the Pharisees.
And this was a massive business that they had. They made
a lot of Money, exorcising demons. So Jesus says, and by the
way, if you think I exercise a demon or cast out a demon and I must
work for Satan, you've just condemned your own people. And all
of a sudden they realize, touche, you got us. And Jesus says,
I'm telling you all this, Pharisees, because you just don't
see it. You think it's the power of Satan, but everything I'm
doing is by the power of the Holy Spirit. And if the Spirit has
come upon you, then the kingdom of God is here. He says.
And he says that the kingdom of God is here. Satan cannot stop
it. That's what he talked about when he mentioned the whole
plundering of the strongman's house. I don't know if you saw that
in there. Let me tell you what he's saying. He's saying Satan is
the strongman and the Holy Spirit has bound the strong man.
And therefore every time I heal, every time I cast out a demon,
every time somebody believes in me and finds salvation, I am plundering
the house of the enemy. And he's saying, right now the reason
you're seeing the miracles is because I'm plundering the house
of the strongman because the Holy Spirit has him bound. I get
real excited about this because I want you to know the same
spirit that was holding back the strongman then is right here,
right now. Which means the house of the enemy is being plundered
today, just like it was back then. There are people being rescued
from the domain of darkness and brought over to the kingdom of
the beloved Son. And it's happening week after week after week.
And it's happening right here in our church. I want you to know
something, some of you maybe you realize this, but we have been
experiencing a multi year revival in our church where we have
seen God save the lost in unprecedented ways. Where the house
of the enemy is being plundered. Do you realize that we
are in July and we have already seen 203 people declare their
faith in Jesus Christ through baptism this year alone. I want to
be clear, this is unusual for us. I remember I've been here for
a long time. For the longest time. I was just talking to Jim about
this. If we ever hit 200, we were popping open the non alcoholic
bubbly and we were celebrating that God would allow us to see 200
people come to the faith in Jesus Christ over the course of a
whole year. That was amazing. Holy cow. Huge celebration. We're
halfway through the year and God's Already done it. And we still
have the rest of the year to see God plunder the house of the
enemy, bring them over to the kingdom. I'm praying it happens this
morning for some of you, because the spirit is at work binding
the enemy. And the enemy has to sit back and watch his house be
plundered as more and more people are saved. That's why we sing
that song. Hell, lost another one. I am free because the house
is being plundered, because the spirit is holding back the enemy
and he cannot stop it. But the most important thing. I said it again.
I'm going to say it again. I said it before. I'm going to say
it again. Do not miss the spirit at work, because nothing could
be more dangerous than that. I'm going to be honest with you.
There are some people. It's not you in this room. It's probably
not you worshiping with us online, but there have been some
people, they don't last long in this church. They are very, very
negative of what God is doing here. I've had some people on their
way out say, yeah, I just think y' all are so concerned with
numbers. You baptize people too fast. They don't really know
Jesus, and that can't possibly be of God. And they're. They're in
grave danger of calling what the Holy Spirit is doing a work of
Satan. And I want you to know that is one of the gravest mistakes
any human can make. Jesus is about to tell us with some of the
most sobering words in all of scripture, the danger of saying what
the Spirit is doing is actually what the enemy is doing.
And my prayer is that you carry this and you deal with it before
you leave here today. What he's about to say. Because seeing
the work of the Holy Spirit and calling it something else is
incredibly dangerous. Verses 30 to 32. Listen to what he says
next. He says, whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever
does not gather with me scatters. 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. Right now, your pits should be sweating. You
should be feeling like this. This is a holy moly moment. Because
there is apparently a sin that would lead to complete unforgiveness.
And we got to be aware of what it is. It would be so much easier
for me just to read past that and keep on going. But I want to
deal with it. But I want to make sure, though, you don't misunderstand
what this is, because I know there are some of you, I've talked
to many of you who struggle with this, who feel like you have
already committed the unforgivable sin and it's over. You
got no hope. As I talk to people, it's usually somebody who
says, there was this time in my past when I was just. I was in
a really dark place and I spoke some things about Jesus or
about the Holy Spirit. I said some things, and I've blasphemed
the Holy Spirit, which blasphemy just means to slander the
Spirit. I've done it. That's over for me. I've got no hope. I've
committed the unforgivable sin. If that's ever crossed your
mind, I want to make sure you don't misunderstand. It is not a
one point in time where you commit this unforgivable sin. That's
not what blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is. Blasphemy of the Holy
Spirit is to slander or to refuse to believe the testimony of
the Holy Spirit about Jesus Christ. It's not a one moment in
time kind of thing. To blaspheme the Spirit is actually
something you have to do ongoing. It's a perpetual rejection,
obstinate rejection of the Holy Spirit's revelation of who Jesus
Christ is. If you do that and completely refuse to accept the testimony
of the Spirit about Christ, you, you are officially eradicating
from you your only hope of believing in Jesus for the salvation
of your sins. That's why your sins can't be forgiven, because you're
not believing the Spirit who leads you to Christ. That's why it's
unforgivable. It's not a one point in time. And you go, well,
how do you know that, Jason? Well, I know about it because if
you take that mindset, it does not jive with the rest of scripture.
I mean, just look at what this says. It says if you blaspheme or
slander Jesus, you're ait. But if you slander the Holy Spirit, you're
done. So now that sounds like it's saying Jesus is down here, but
the Holy Spirit is up here. And so you can blaspheme Jesus, you're
all right, because he's like a lower tier. But if you blaspheme
the Spirit, you're Done. Well, that doesn't agree with Scripture
because the Scripture teaches us the Holy Spirit's job is to elevate
the Son, just like the Son's job is to elevate the Father. So
that's not what it's teaching. Okay, well what is it teaching? It's
teaching that you can blaspheme the Spirit. Or, excuse
me, you can blaspheme Jesus because the Spirit has not yet revealed
to you who Jesus is. But then when there's a moment the Spirit
reveals to you who Jesus is, you can repent and come to faith
in Christ as long as you don't reject what the Spirit is testifying.
Let me give you an example. On the cross, there were three people
crucified. On that day, Jesus was crucified. He was right there.
And there were two thieves on either side of him. Both of them
at the beginning were railing on Jesus, condemning him, slandering,
blaspheming Jesus. But one of the thieves, somewhere along the
moment of the crucifixion, the Holy Spirit reveals to him that Jesus
is innocent and he is the Son of God. And then that thief repents.
And he now says to the other thief, stop. Stop condemning him.
This man is innocent. We deserve what we're getting, but not
him. Then he turns to Jesus and he says, remember me when you
come in your kingdom. And do you know what Jesus says to Him?
Today you'll be with me in paradise. So he blasphemes Jesus,
yet is still saved. Why? Because when the Spirit testified
about who Christ was, he did not blaspheme the Spirit. He believed
the Spirit's testimony and trusted in Jesus and he was saved.
Or think about the apostle Paul. Same scenario. There was nobody
who hated Jesus or the name of Jesus more than the Apostle Paul.
He's literally killing Christians all over the place trying
to eradicate the name of Jesus. He is blaspheming, slandering
the name of Jesus. And then on the road to Damascus, the Spirit
of Christ meets him and reveals Jesus to him. And what does
he do? He believes the Spirit's testimony and gives the
rest of his days following Jesus. Now, I don't know about everybody,
but I know Paul is going to be up in heaven and he's going to be
there even though he slandered the name of Jesus because he did
not blaspheme the Spirit's testimony about Christ. So what right
now Jesus is trying to teach us? Is this not just a one time thing?
You said against the Spirit or against Jesus or One bad moment that
you had, and you've committed the unforgivable sin. It is persistent
rejection of the Spirit's testimony of what Christ is doing.
So if you're here today and you're feeling worried that you've
committed the unforgivable sin, I want to help you. If you're
worried about offending the Spirit, you have not committed the
unforgivable sin. Because it's the Spirit in you that. That makes
you know you shouldn't do that to the Spirit. So go ahead and breathe.
You're okay. Actually, it's those of you who think you would
never do that that are probably the most at risk. Let me
remind you, Jesus is talking to the Pharisees here. These are
the most religious people of the day, the highest of the high,
when it came to Judaism, and he's talking to them. Let me tell
you what that means. It means every Sunday there are people who
come in to worship with us who view themselves as good and holy
and right and religious. And they don't realize that they are
blaspheming the Holy Spirit, and they are in grave danger for
doing so. I want you to know there are certain truths that should
literally scare the hell out of you. Like you don't want to go
to hell. And this is one of those divine truths. And so you should
be asking yourself, how do I ensure I'm not one of those people
who's slandering and resisting the testimony of the Holy Spirit
about Christ? How do I make sure that's not me? The answer is
very simple. Just look at your speech and you'll know. Look at what
comes out of your mouth and you'll know. Blasphemy is something
spoken. They were speaking against Christ. And by what you say,
you'll either be condemned or justified. If you don't believe me,
look at what Jesus says next. Right after talking about the blasphemy
of the Spirit, the next place he goes to is how we use our words.
Verse 33 to verse 37. Let's finish up the passage. Either make
the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its
fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of
vipers. How can you speak good when you are evil? For out of the
abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. The good person out
of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out
of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the Day
of Judgment, people will give an account for every careless word
they speak. For by Your words you will be justified. And by your
words, you will be condemned. Every careless word will be held
to account. If that earlier part wasn't making you sweat in your
pits, this should be making you sweat in your pits. Every careless
word. What we speak reveals the condition of our heart. Do you
want to know whether you're resisting the spirit or not? Just
look at your speech. Do you call the work of God the work of
the enemy? Your heart is revealing. Your mouth is revealing
where your heart is. It's just the overflow of the heart. Now, I
know there are many of you in here going, I would never say that
what God is doing is evil. And so I'm good. That's not referring
to me. Well, I want to slow down a little bit. I want you to
know one of the worst things we can do is grieve the Holy Spirit.
We can miss what the Holy Spirit is doing, but do you want
to know how we grieve the Spirit? We grieve him with our words.
Where do you get that from? Ephesians, chapter 4. If you go to
verse 30, it says, and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by
whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. And right before
says, let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only
such as is good for building up as fits the occasion that it may
give grace to those who hear. So if there's any unwholesome corrupting
talk that tears somebody else down instead of building them up,
then we have grieved the Holy Spirit of God. I'm not asking for
a show of hands here, but I wonder how many of us have let a
word out of our mouth slip that tears somebody else down, either
in front of them or behind their back. Oh, we should be cautious
right after Ephesians 4:30, which says, don't grieve the Holy
Spirit of God. It says, let all bitterness, wrath, anger clamor
and slanderous blasphemy be put away from you along with all
malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving
one another, just as God in Christ forgave you. So the question
is, have you ever had an angry word slip out of your mouth? Then
you are grieving the Spirit. Has a word of bitterness slipped
out of your mouth? It's revealing your heart. Has a word
of unforgiveness gone out of your mouth towards somebody else?
I want you to know this is some thin ice we're stepping on all
the way back in Ephesians 4:25, it says, Therefore, having
put away falsehood, let each one of us speak the truth with his
neighbor, for we are members of one another. Has a little lie
just slipped out of your mouth? Maybe make yourself look a
little better than you actually do, or make somebody else
look a little worse than they actually do. We're grieving the spirit,
we're slandering the spirit, and our words are revealing what's
inside. And some of you right now are going, I'm in trouble. You're
going, what do I do, Jason? Well, first of all, I'll tell you
what you don't do. You don't go, alright? I'm going to be better.
I'm going to leave here, I'm going to talk more wholesome. I'm
going to just be better in my actions and my words and I'm going
to change my fruit. I'm going to tell you why you don't do that.
Because it doesn't work. It might last you a day, a week, maybe
even a month. And it's going to be gone. Because remember, the
problem isn't the fruit. The problem is the root of the tree.
So if you go to a tree and it's producing mushy, nasty apples
and you pluck all the apples off and you go to the store and buy
some Red Delicious and you start stapling it up on that tree
going, alright, my tree's better. Now let me tell you what's
going to happen. It's going to keep on producing mushy, nasty apples
because the change in the fruit doesn't change the root. So
what has to happen is that the heart has to change so the fruit
can change. Now I got some really bad news for you. You can't
change your heart, you can't change yourself. But I got some really
good news for you. Jesus can do for you what you cannot do for
yourself. And where you cannot change your heart, he can change
your heart. I'm going to finish with this passage of scripture.
It's one of my favorite in the Bible. I feel like I say that all
the time, but it really is Ezekiel 36. We're going to leave
just for a moment. Go over to the book of Ezekiel 36, verses 26
and 27. Listen to how he puts the power of the Holy Spirit and
the change of the heart together. Ezekiel 36, 26 says, and
God's speaking, and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit
I will put within you and I will remove the heart of stone from
your flesh and give you A heart of flesh. And I will put my
spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statues and be
careful to obey my rules. You can't change your heart, he says,
but I can. I'm gonna put my spirit in you. And that spirit. My
spirit's gonna do heart surgery in you. He's gonna change
out the old root, put in a new root, and that's when you're finally
gonna change. So if the Lord has revealed to you your brokenness,
your desperation, your need, because maybe, just maybe, you've
been slandering and grieving the spirit of God, it's time for
you to get your heart right with him. It's time for you to say,
I give up. I can't do it, Jesus. You're gonna have to do what
I can't do. Put your spirit inside of him. Because your spirit
still has power today like it did back then. I'm trusting in your
spirit today. You can have the greatest miracle of all today. It
just requires one thing. It just requires you to be broken enough
to know that you need it. Remember I told you earlier that
he's coming for the bruised reed? And the smoldering wick Told
you. The reason he does that is because the only people who respond
to him are those who know they need it. I'm about to finish with
a little story here. I saw this the other day as I was climbing
up Mount Kilimanjaro. If you weren't here, I shared last week.
My daughter and I did the most epic thing ever. We climbed to the
top of Kilimanjaro, and it was phenomenal and painful and beautiful.
But I learned so much on that mountain. Just these little lessons
God taught. But one of them was really the power of weakness.
When Paul says, when I'm weak, then I'm strong. I got to see a picture
of that. So we had a team of 12 of us that were climbing the mountain,
and there was one guy on the trip who was the most muscley, least
fat. He just. I know I don't believe in Greek gods, but every
statue I've seen, it looked like this guy right here, just muscle
everywhere. He was an executive pastor at a different church
who just. He was just regimented. Like, he would work out
a couple of hours every day, and you could tell he was a beast.
He was not, like, arrogant proud. He was a very kind man, but
he was also confident. And when I heard his workout schedule.
Abby, wasn't it crazy when he told us what he did? This guy was
working out Like, I have never heard somebody working out to climb
Kilimanjaro. Like, he has all these hiit training and stair things.
He's trying to increase his VO2. Rob. He sounds like you, Rob
Bethman. Like, this VO2 max training, like, gonna make it. He
had this regimen that was phenomenal. And I remember looking
at Abby going, we're not gonna make it. Because our training regimen
was to get 10,000 steps a day, period. That's all we did. I'm like,
this dude, he's gonna be carrying me like Hercules at the
mountain. And, you know, the first four days or so, the dude was
like, he was strong as an ox, man. He's just helping everybody
else, and he's just fit as can be. And that all changed on summit
night. So it's midnight now, and we started to go up the mountain.
We got to go about 4,000ft over the next eight hours, walking
all through the night. About three hours into the hike, this massive
muscular guy is literally stopping there, weeping uncontrollably
because he's going, I can't go on. The altitude had just sucked
him dry. He had literally. He's walking. He fell asleep on his
poles. And the guide had to wake him up so he could keep walking.
He was just that exhausted by sleep deprivation and altitude sickness.
And he goes a little bit further, and he just stops. And he's
just standing there, and he can't go. And he's crying, I can't
do it. I can't do it. I can't do it. And this little woman, this
little guide named Anna, I mean, she's not much taller than
this. It's Tanzania. We had about five Tanzanian guides help
us get up there. She comes up and she says to this guy, Bradley,
I've changed his name to protect the innocent. Bradley's,
Bradley, give me your backpack. And I saw this big old
man take off his backpack and just lay it on top of this little
woman, Anna, so she could carry it for him. I want you to know,
Bradley, at the beginning of the hike, never would have put his
backpack on top of Anna. But he didn't wait one second, she offered.
He went poof. Here you go. Because he knew there was no way
he was going to make it to the top with that pack on. And here's
little Anna carrying his pack, her pack, and his pack to go up.
He goes maybe about another hour or so, and he vomits. And he
stopped. Now his food is all gone. He's got no energy, can't drink
he's feeling weak and dizzy and he's like, I can't. I can't.
And Anna comes around him and says, put your arm around me. He
puts her arm around her and they just start walking up. And he'd
get some energy and he'd walk on his own. Then he'd get tired again.
She'd come on, he'd put his arm around her. And that little lady.
Anna helped my friend make it all the way to the summit of that
mountain and all the way back down again. And I want you to know,
my friend never would have made it without her help. But he
never would have sought her help if he wasn't so destitute and
broken. He knew he had no other way to make it. He would have
been too proud. He here's what the Lord is teaching me. There's
a moment when you and I have to recognize we cannot summit the
mountain. We cannot make it to where we need to get to. And we will
never make it. And it's not until we are so weak that when Jesus
comes, we'll take off our pack and say, take it. I can't carry it.
It's not until we're so weak that we'll go to Jesus and say, let
me carry. And watch him pick us up. Cause the mountain we have
to make it to is Calvary. And only one man has made it up. And
his name is Jesus. And if we have any hope, it's on his back,
not on our feet. But the only people who will let him help are
those who say, I'm done. I can't. One more hardship and I'm
over. One more failure and it's gone. I just. I think there
are some of you who are here this morning, and that's you. Maybe
you're going right? I don't even know why I'm alive. You're so
at the end of yourself and you're wondering, is there any hope?
I want to remind you, Jesus whole mission is you. He's come for
you. All you have to do is be weak enough to say, jesus, help me.
I can't save myself. Help me. That's what it means to repent. It
means to confess. You are so broken and weak, you cannot help
yourself but to turn to Jesus and let Jesus do for you what you
cannot do for yourself. I believe some of you hear me this
morning, and the Holy Spirit is testifying to you that your only
hope is Jesus Christ. I want to encourage you. Do not slander
the testimony of Jesus Christ through the Spirit of Christ. If
he's calling you to believe in Jesus Christ, it's time for you to
say, yes, I trust in Jesus. You can keep resisting that voice,
but that voice will get dimmer and dimmer as you harden your heart.
Do not harden your heart against the spirit. Do not blaspheme
the spirit. This morning you're going, how do I know it's
the spirit? It's that weird sensation that you have, that like,
holy cow, is there a spotlight on me right now? Because it seems
like he's just talking to me. That's not me. That's the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit is inviting you to believe in Jesus for salvation. The
question is, will you trust the spirit or will you slander the
Spirit's testimony? What do I do? In a moment, I'm gonna have people
down front. You come down front and you let us know I'm broken.
I'm ready to place my faith in Jesus Christ because I believe he's
my only hope. Doesn't have to be those exact words, but you let
us know that you're ready. This baptistery on stage, it's a
picture. It's a picture that the diseased tree is going to go
down and die, and a brand new tree with a new root is going to
come up, changed by the power of the Holy Spirit. A death to the
old self, a resurrection and a new self filled with the Spirit of
Christ. Everything changes when we say, I'm ready to confess
Christ as my savior. If you need that, I'm going to give you
a moment. You can come forward in just a second. One last thing
I want to say, though there are many of you who've made that
decision in this room, and you're still feeling burdened and
overwhelmed, I want to remind you what I said earlier. The same
spirit that brought miracles to Jesus is in this room, and the
same spirit can move in power. But you got to be weak enough to
take that burden off your shoulders and lay it down on Jesus
back. You got to be like Bradley, who said, I can't take it
because Jesus is coming alongside and he's saying, give me
that burden. Give me that burden. Give me that burden. Don't
try to carry it. Give me that burden. You're not going to make
it through life trying to carry your burdens. It's time to
lay them down on the back of Jesus. Let him bring the power that
you need. How do I do that? Well, we're going to have people
down front ready to pray with you. You bring your burden down front.
We join hands, we hear that burden, and we together lay that
burden down on the shoulders of Jesus and we ask him to do what
only he can do. Don't leave here carrying that burden. Invite
you to stand to your feet right now. Invite the prayer team
to come spread down the front. There's gonna be a lot of us because
we're making time for you. If you need to come lay a burden down
before the Lord. There's nothing more important that you can
be doing than to come do that. Or if today you're saying, I'm ready
to trust in Jesus Christ, I'm at the end of myself. I'm weary and
burdened. I'm a bruised reed. I'm a smoldering wick. I'm ready
to find life in Christ. Christ, you come let us know and
we'll help you take that step of faith today. You just got to come.