"And he entered again into the synagogue, and there was a man there which had a withered hand.
And they watched him, whether he would heal him on the Sabbath day, that they might accuse him.
And he saith unto the man which had the withered hand, Stand forth!
And he saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days, or to do evil?
To save life, or to kill? But they held their peace.
And when he looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts,
he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand!
And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored whole as the other.
And the Pharisees went forth, and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him.
But Jesus withdrew himself with his disciples to the sea.
And a great multitude from Galilee followed him, and from Judea, and from Jerusalem, and from Ijumea, and from beyond Jordan.
And they about tired inside, and a great multitude, when they had heard what great things he did, came unto him.
Inspect his disciples, that a small ship should wait on him, because of the multitude, lest they should throng him.
For he had healed many, and so much that they pressed upon him, for to touch him, as many as had plagues.
And unclean spirits, when they saw him, fell down before him, and cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God.
And he straightly charged them, that they should not make him known.
And he goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would, and they came unto him.
And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach,
and have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils.
And Simon he surname Peter, and James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James.
And he surname them Boanerges, which is the sons of thunder.
And Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alpheus,
and Thaddeus, and Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, which also betrayed him.
And they went into in-house. And the multitude cometh together again,
so that they could not so much as eat bread.
And when his friends heard of it, they went up to lay hold on him, for they said he is beside himself.
And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, Yehath beelzebub,
and by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils.
And he called them unto him, and said unto them in parables,
How can Satan cast out Satan?
If a kingdom divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.
And if Satan rise up against himself and be divided, he cannot stand but hath an end.
No man can enter into a strong man's house and spoil his goods,
except he will first bind the strong man, and then he will spoil his house.
Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies are with,
soever they shall blaspheme.
But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness,
but is in danger of eternal damnation, because, they said, he hath an unclean spirit.
There came then his brethren and his mother, and standing without, sent unto him, calling him.
And the multitude sat about him, and they said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee.
And he answered them, saying, Who is my brother or my brethren?
And he looked round about him, and then sat about him, and said, Behold, my mother and my brethren.
For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same as my brother and my sister and mother.
Let's pray. Dear Lord God, we thank you for this opportunity to hear your word preached.
We just ask now that you'd strengthen our pastor, fill him with your Holy Spirit, and bless the preaching this morning. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen. Okay, we're in Mark chapter 3 this morning, and this morning I want to preach on the subject of blasphemy.
Blasphemy is what I'm going to preach on this morning. Mark chapter 3 and verse 28 says, "Verily I say unto you, all sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme.
But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation."
Now we're going to come back to Mark chapter 3 towards the latter end of the sermon.
Go with me if you would to Leviticus chapter 24, Leviticus chapter 24. Hold your place there in Mark chapter 3.
We're going to go to Leviticus chapter 24. What is blasphemy by biblical standards, by biblical definition?
Blasphemy simply means to curse God, right? It means to revile God, to speak contemptuously about God or the things of God.
To essentially accredit God with evil or ascribe divinity to anyone other than God himself.
Anytime you find people doing any one of these things, the Bible would consider that person to be a blasphemous person.
They are committing the sin of blasphemy.
And this morning, I want to kind of give you an overview of what the Bible says about this particular sin.
And of course, we're going to finish off in Mark chapter three talking about the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost.
Now, first and foremost, let me start off by saying that when it comes to blasphemy, blasphemy against God was actually punishable by death under Old Testament law.
Now, before we get into the scripture, let me just explain something here.
Is that sometimes when we address Old Testament scriptures to talk about the death penalty, things of that nature, people often say, well, that's Old Testament.
That doesn't pertain today.
But what people seem to forget is the fact that, you know, God's morality transcends the Old Testament law.
Meaning it was wrong before it was instituted as being a law at Mount Sinai.
And it's still wrong today, even in the New Covenant.
The only things that were repealed in the New Testament are the meats, drinks, diverse washings,
cardinal ordinances, the observance of days, months, and years, the Sabbath, and also who the chosen people of God are.
These are things that have transitioned into the New Testament.
But here's the thing, folks, is that murder has always been wrong.
Bestiality is always an abomination.
Sonomy is always punishable by death, according to the Bible.
And according to the Bible, blasphemy is not just a grievous sin in God's eyes.
It's also a crime punishable by death, according to Old Testament standards.
So keep that in mind.
When you read the Old Testament and you find these moral standards, these moral laws,
these are things that God still views as being criminal charges.
You understand? You know, kidnapping and murder, sodomy, bestiality.
These things are not just sins in the eyes of God.
They're also capital crimes that are punishable by death.
And you say, well, what about the other things like meats, drinks, diverse washings, the dietary laws, purity laws?
Those things are done away with though they do have an underlying symbolic nature to them
that we can interpret through the New Testament.
That's outside of the scope of this particular sermon.
The point that I'm making here is that we are going back to the Old Testament
to see what God says about blasphemy and how grievous it is in His eyes
and it should be in ours.
You see, blasphemy is not just an extremely wicked sin.
It's a crime punishable by death.
To verbally reproach God or to speak contemptuously about God
or the things of God is a weighty offense in God's eyes.
Look at Leviticus 24 verse 10.
Let's look at an example of this. It says here in Leviticus 24 verse 10,
"And the son of an Israelitish woman, whose father was an Egyptian,
went out among the children of Israel.
And this son of the Israelitish woman and a man of Israel strove together in the camp.
And the Israelitish woman's son blasphemed the name of the Lord and cursed.
And they brought him unto Moses, and his mother's name was Shelometh,
the daughter of Debray of the tribe of Dan."
What we have here is a citizen of the nation of Israel whose father is an Egyptian.
He is fighting with another individual in Israel.
They're striving together.
This may include some sort of physical altercation.
And in the midst of this, this son, this individual decides to blaspheme God.
He curses God.
And obviously, this is something that may not have been done at this point.
Because when they find out about this, they don't necessarily know what to do with this individual.
It says in verse 12, "And they put him in a ward that the mind of the Lord might be showed them."
Meaning that, you know, they obviously know this is a grievous sin in God's eyes.
But they don't really know what the, what the punishment should be, right?
What should be the consequence of committing this particular sin?
So they put him in jail, so to speak, right? A ward.
Just so they can know what is it that God wants us to do with him.
It says in verse thirteen, "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp,
and let all that hurt him lay their hands upon him, and let all the congregation stone him."
So this is what we see here, the consequence of blaspheming God is that he was to be stoned with stones by the congregation.
In other words, a public execution was necessary for someone who blasphemed, cursed, and reviled the name of God.
In verse 15, "And now shall speak unto the children of Israel, saying, Whosoever curseth his God shall bear his sin.
And he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him,
as well as the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord shall be put to death."
This is showing us here that God executed this particular punishment upon this individual so that others may fear.
Again, this is outside of the scope of the sermon, but this is why the death penalty should still be instituted today.
Why? Because it deters criminals from committing criminal acts, and it causes them to think twice about it.
If we still had the death penalty today in the United States of America, a person who may be tempted to commit murder,
a person who may be tempted to commit some abominable crime such as sodomy, is going to think twice about it.
They're going to think, "You know what? I don't know if I want to do that, because I might be put to death if I do so."
The death penalty was instituted not only for justice against the victim,
but it was also instituted so as to discourage others from committing that crime in the future.
Now, would it be successful 100% of the time? Of course not.
We live in a sin-filled world, fallen world, where people are going to sin, they're going to commit crimes.
But the likelihood of that crime being committed again is a lot lower if the death penalty is instituted,
because people recognize there is a consequence to actions, right?
And so obviously when you have the entire congregation participating in the execution of this individual who blasphemed the name of the Lord,
whoever's throwing that rock is like, "You know what? I've got to watch my mouth.
I've got to be careful that I don't get carried away, and I blaspheme God, I blame God, I curse God, I revile God,
because I'm going to be like this individual who's laying on the floor dead because he blasphemed the name of the Lord."
And so we see here that this is a very grievous sin.
And let me just say this is that when you read stories like this, you should never stand in judgment of God's word
and think, "Oh man, God overreacted. Why did he do that? You know, today would be different."
No, this is God's morality. He's the one who's the boss. He's the one that makes the rules.
If he says that it merits punishment by death, then that's what it merits.
And the law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul. Amen.
Go to 2 Timothy chapter 3. 2 Timothy chapter 3.
The point that I'm making here is that blasphemy was not just a sin in God's eyes.
It was a crime punishable by death.
Now obviously it's not a crime today.
But we as Christians should recognize the severity of this sin.
That even in the Old Testament people were killed. They were put to death.
They were stoned to death for committing such a crime.
Showing us how much God hates this particular sin.
To curse God, to revile God, to speak contemptuously about Him.
Or the things of God, things that would be considered sacred according to the Bible.
To ascribe God to evil.
Or to ascribe divinity to anyone other than God Himself.
Is by biblical definition what it means to blaspheme.
Now what are some modern day examples of this?
Well you know atheists who mock Jesus Christ, they're blaspheming God.
When they mock Jesus Christ, when they make sexual innuendos about God, about Jesus Christ.
Or anything that's found in the Bible, that's considered blasphemy according to biblical standards.
Not only that but when Christian religion is so called, and I'm obviously using that term with a broad brush.
Christian's religion is so called that it should be qualities designated only for the Godhead to mere mortals.
That's considered blasphemy.
You know saying that Mary is the co-redemptrix, that's blasphemy according to the Bible.
You're like I don't agree with that. Then you walk into the wrong church.
This is not an orthodox church. This is not a Catholic church.
This is a fundamental Baptist church where we preach the Bible.
And this should be something that is just basic Bible doctrine for every Christian to know that Mary is not divine.
That's blasphemous according to the Bible.
To say that you talk about the immaculate conception of Mary, blasphemy.
To say that she never sinned, blasphemy.
To say that she ascended in a glorified state like Jesus Christ, blasphemy.
Why? Because you're ascribing divine attributes to mere mortals.
And make no mistake about it, Mary was a mere mortal like everyone else.
Okay? Oh, this is absurd. I can't believe you would say that about orthodoxy.
Well, you walked in though. Is that right there? This is not an orthodox church.
Any teaching about the Godhead that deviates from his divinity and passed off as doctrine is blasphemous.
Okay? So anytime someone deviates from the doctrines of Christ
and perverts what the Bible explicitly says about his divinity, that's considered blasphemy according to the Bible.
Now here's the thing, folks, is that we as Christians obviously aren't necessarily guilty of blaspheming God, meaning verbally reproaching God.
It is a temptation for someone. We'll get into that in just a bit.
But here's the thing though, is that sometimes Christians associate with those who blaspheme God, which according to the Bible is still bad, right?
We should not associate or cater to people who openly blaspheme God either.
Meaning that, you know, obviously we want to win people to Christ.
You want to win your family to Christ, your friends, your associates to Christ.
But we should not fellowship with people who openly reproach and revile and blaspheme God.
If you have friends that are constantly mocking Jesus Christ, they're speaking ill of him, they are condescending towards God,
you should cut ties with that individual immediately because your loyalty is to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And you know, most Christians would agree with that.
Have no fellowship with you in fruitful works of darkness, rather reprove them, not being associated with people that, you know, blaspheme God.
And most Christian churches, most Baptist, most non-denom churches would agree with that.
Like, I don't really like to be around people who mock Jesus Christ.
And it's absolutely 100% true, factual. You shouldn't, right?
But you know what? Some of the greatest blasphemers in history are known as the Jews.
And Christians, for some reason, have no issue with supporting, associating with,
and catering to the greatest blasphemers throughout all of history.
You say, "Are they really that blasphemous?"
I mean, folks, they got an entire encyclopedia of blasphemous teachings towards the Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, the Bible tells us that we should not associate with people like this.
So Christians are just like, "Well, I'm not going to have friends and family who do this.
I'll correct an individual if they're blaspheming God in my presence.
We'll correct the Jew then."
Right?
You know, how about you remove the Star of Remphan, the most blasphemous little image there,
that it's an open rejection of Jesus Christ from your platform.
How about that?
Jews blaspheme God, folks.
James chapter 2 and verse number 6 says, "But ye have despised the poor.
Do not rich men oppress you and draw you before the judgment seats?
Do not they blaspheme the worthy name by which ye are called?"
And when you actually read James chapter 2, you recognize that the people he's referring to are Pharisees and Jews
who were infiltrating churches and they were getting the royal treatment from believers amongst Christians
even though it was commonly reported that they blaspheme the name of Jesus Christ.
Very familiar verses here in our church, Revelation 2, 9 says, "I know thy works and tribulation and poverty, but thou are rich.
And I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan."
I turn a blind eye to Jews who blaspheme God when you don't turn a blind eye to your neighbor, your friend, your family member who blasphemes God.
The atheist, the libtard that blasphemes God.
But all of a sudden, when it comes to the so-called chosen people of God, which they're not, you turn a blind eye to that.
They blaspheme the name of Jesus Christ. We should have nothing to do with them.
We should not be a respecter of people.
We should not have partiality within ourselves and think to ourselves, "Well, you know, I definitely won't tolerate this liberal
if they blaspheme God, but, you know, the Jew, you know, we'll cut them some slack
because they got a covenant with God." Well, obviously, your theology is all screwed up.
You don't know what you're talking about.
And at the end of the day, our loyalty should be with the Lord Jesus Christ and not be a respecter of people.
It doesn't matter if someone calls themselves a Christian, a believer.
If they're blaspheming God, they should be corrected for that, okay?
The point that I'm making here is that the world is known for blaspheming God.
You don't have to turn to 2 Kings 19, 22 says, "Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed?
And against whom hast thou exalted thy voice and lifted up thine eyes on high,
even against the Holy One of Israel?"
Let me just say this is that the God of the Bible is the only God that has openly blasphemed more than any other God, right?
You know, no one blasphemes Allah. No one blasphemes Buddha.
No one's out there blaspheming any other false God.
The one that gets blasphemed the most, the name who people take in vain the most, is the Lord Jesus Christ and the God of the Bible. That's a fact.
And here's what people say, "Yeah, but it's because, you know, the reason people don't blaspheme Allah is because people know what will happen if they blaspheme Allah."
In America? No one's going to do anything here. We've got a bunch of liberal Muslims here.
Nothing's going to happen. That's a sorry excuse.
The reality is this. People blaspheme God because they know he's the God of the Bible, he's the God of all the universe, and they hate the Lord Jesus Christ.
They turn his name into a cuss word, they revile God, they have contempt towards God because they know he's the true God.
Not Allah. And look, you know, Muhammad is a pedophile, he's burning in hell right now.
This is not a church who promotes Islam or supports Islam. I don't care if Islam is against Jews in Israel, we're against Islam too.
You know, the enemy of my enemy is not my friend, okay? It's not the way it works.
And so it's important for us to know, look at 2nd Timothy chapter 3 and verse number 1. And you want to shut down a Muslim really quick, just talk about Aisha.
Like, yeah, how many gods do you serve? It's like, well, six years old, how about that?
How about the fact that Aisha was six years old? Yeah, but they consummated at nine. Okay, let's talk about the fact that they consummated at nine.
Like, as if that's even better or something like that. How about that? You know, oh man, yeah, but are you saying that like, man is a god? No, I'm saying that God became a man.
Because the word of God was made flesh and dwelt among us. That's what the Bible says. Okay? And if anybody is deceived and dut by Islam and they know that Muhammad was a legitimate pedophile, something's wrong with you.
You are delusional. You are an idiot because it's a religion that promotes pedophilia. And guess what? Mormonism is the Islam of America. Throw that in there for good measure.
2 Timothy 3 verse 1 says this, "This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come, for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy."
So according to the Bible, blasphemy will become far more regular, it will be far more commonplace in the world in which we live the closer we get to the second coming of Christ.
Perilous times shall come, people will revile God more and more, they will express more contempt towards God the closer we get to the end.
It tells us there, you don't have to turn there, but Revelation 16, go with me if you would to Job chapter 2, Job chapter 2, we are talking about blasphemy here.
Revelation 16 verse 10 says this, "And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seed of the beast, and his kingdom was full of darkness,
and they gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds," the Bible says.
So keep in mind, you know, blasphemy is a grievous sin. It was punishable by death. It means to revile God.
It's not just referring to just speaking flippantly about God. It means to literally revile Him, to hate Him, to show contempt towards His name.
This is what it means to blaspheme God. Now the second point I want to make this morning is that Christians need to avoid committing the sin of blasphemy.
You ever know that unsafe people are going to blaspheme God? That's obvious, right? The Bible talks about that.
We've seen it firsthand. We've had experiences with people. We see it online. We see it with atheists and agnostics and those who hate the Lord blaspheming God.
But make no mistake about it, Christians can also blaspheme the name of the Lord. They are able. They have the potential to curse God in certain situations and circumstances.
Now, why would Christians be tempted to blaspheme God? Well, how about this cursing God for a bad situation that you're in?
You know, sometimes people, Christians, can find themselves in a trial, a tribulation, a difficult situation in their lives where they are weak spiritually, and what do they do? They blame God for that situation, right?
They blame the Lord, they charge God foolishly, and then what do they do? They give in to the sin of blasphemy.
Now, in Job, we have an example of this, right? Because Job experienced just a very grievous trial. He lost all his children.
He lost the respect of his wife. He lost his wealth, his possessions, and it was because of the fact that Satan wanted to destroy Job, and God allowed it, right?
He says, "Hast thou considered my servant Job that there is none like him in all the earth, a perfect and upright man, a man who is cheweth evil?"
I mean, right? You know, Job was a righteous individual. By New Testament standards, we would say he's a great Christian.
He was an excellent Christian. He was a major example, and it's for that reason that Satan wanted to attack him.
Now, this isn't the sermon, but just know this. If you start making strides in your Christian life, Satan's going to come after you, too.
Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat, okay?
If you're doing well in your Bible reading and your soul winning and your church attendance, you're serving God, the Bible says, "Yea, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution."
If you're not doing anything for God, then Satan's not going to go for you because you're not doing anything.
You don't pose a threat. You're not really doing anything to thwart his kingdom. You're not really pulling people out of the fire.
You're kind of just like a docile Christian, apathetic, not really doing anything.
But if you're actually in the fight, fighting the good fight of faith, wrestling against principalities, powers, and the rulers of the darkness of this world,
then yeah, you know what? You've got to fight on your hands.
Satan's going to seek to kind of take you down. There'll be seasons where he comes to attack you.
There'll be seasons where he goes before God to accuse you before the Father and to ask for permission to strike you.
That's a fact. It's going to happen throughout your life if you live a godly life. That's a fact.
So expect it. The message should never be from pulpits.
Well, if you serve God, you get saved, you start serving God, Christianity is just going to be a bed of roses.
Nothing bad is ever going to happen. You're going to prosper. You're going to be fine. Wrong! Wrong!
They crucified Christ. They persecuted the disciples.
And I'm not saying that our entire lives are going to be characterized by persecution,
but you will go through seasons of persecution, right?
And in this particular instance, we have Job going through that season where Satan is attacking him.
He allows the children to be killed, his possessions, his property, his real estate to be destroyed.
And of course, Job does not give in.
Now look at Job chapter 2 verse 4. It says here in verse 4,
"And Satan answered the Lord, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.
But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face."
So let me give you some context here. God's like, hey, you know, Job didn't give in.
And Satan is just like, well, yeah, because, you know, you didn't give him permission to actually afflict his body.
But if you afflict his body, you know, for sure he's going to curse God.
And so God allows Satan to essentially strike Job with boils and such,
because he thinks that, you know, Satan thinks that that will cause and tempt Job to actually blaspheme the name of the Lord.
It says in verse six, and the Lord said to Satan, behold, he is in thine hand, but save his life.
In other words, afflict him physically, but don't kill him.
Verse seven, so when Satan forth from the presence of the Lord
and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot into his crown,
and he took him a pot shirt to scrape himself with thaw and he sat down among the ashes,
then said his wife unto him, "Dost thou still retain thine integrity?
Curse God and die."
And what does that mean? Just blaspheme and get it over with.
Blaspheme God and die. This is what Job's wife is saying.
Now for a long time I held a grudge against Job's wife for this.
It's just like, woman, can't you see I'm going through a hard time?
You really just gotta tell me to curse God and die like this?
Don't you see Satan's hands is against me?
But obviously, you know, she's going through it too.
Those were her children as well.
This is her home as well.
I'm not justifying her actions.
She does speak as a foolish woman, okay, as Job says.
But, you know, at the end of the day, you know, she is the weaker vessel.
And, you know, side note here, the weaker vessel is weaker emotionally,
not just physically, not just mentally, but even emotionally, especially emotionally.
But let me just remind you that the female is the weaker vessel, not the male, right?
So you males out there, you know, you need to get your testosterone up or whatever,
get the estrogen levels down, and, you know, man up, okay?
There's nothing wrong with having a little emotion if you're going through a hard time,
but if you're just constantly breaking down and having these mental breakdowns,
you know, either you got something physical going on that you need to fix,
or you just need to be strong in the Lord and the power of His might, okay?
Don't be womanly, okay?
You know, Job is not womanly.
Job, I mean, his body's afflicted, he lost everything,
and the Bible says that he retained his integrity.
What does that mean, is that he's still doing right,
despite the fact that everything is going wrong.
Verse 10, "But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh."
He's got boils all over him.
And this is what it means in modern English.
You're speaking like a stupid woman.
Foolish means stupid, that's what it means.
Don't be offended, that's what it says.
And God wanted that in there, you know,
to prevent anybody from speaking as a foolish woman speaks, amen?
This is what, "Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?"
And all this did not Job sin with his lips.
I mean, man, that's a boss right there.
He lost everything.
He lost his status in society, all his resources, his children.
And despite all of that, he states, "Shall I receive not evil from the hand of God?"
This is the way life is.
And he didn't sin with his lips, meaning he did not blaspheme God.
Now what does that show us?
It shows us that there is a potential for us to blaspheme God.
You're going through a hard time, right?
You're going through a difficult situation and you begin to blame God,
condemn God, speak ill of God because of your situation.
Retain your integrity.
Be an individual who recognizes this is only for a season.
I'm not going to go through this forever.
I'm not going to be in this situation long term.
The things concerning me have an end, as Jesus Christ said.
This light affliction which is but for a moment is only light.
It's not going to last forever.
Retain your integrity, not just your integrity in serving God,
but your integrity in how you speak to God.
Okay?
Now look, let me just clarify something.
This doesn't mean that you can't express yourself to God
when you're going through a hard time.
You understand what I'm saying?
You know, you can express your grief to God.
You can express your sorrow to God.
You can express your anger to God.
But don't charge God foolishly though, okay?
Where you essentially become somewhat of an enemy of the Lord,
an adversary of the Lord through your verbal assault against God
because of the situation that you're in, okay?
You know, Job, we see here that he didn't sin with his lips.
Go to chapter 1 and verse 21.
It says, "Naked came out of my mother's womb, naked shall I return thither.
The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord, and all this Job sinned not,
nor charged God foolishly."
So in the first instance, the first phase of his persecution,
his resources were taken away, his children were killed,
all this evil came upon him, and he didn't charge God foolishly.
The second phase was when God allowed his body to be afflicted,
and even then he did not blaspheme God.
Folks, you need to predetermine before you go through the trials this year,
because you're probably going to go through some trials this year,
predetermine in your heart, purpose in your heart,
not to blaspheme the name of the Lord because of the situation that you're in.
Especially if it's because of the fact that you're in that situation
because of some bad decision that you made.
Sometimes we blame God for our bad decisions.
Oh God, why did you allow this in my life?
What do you mean allow? You made the decision.
You chose to make that financial decision.
You chose that person. You chose this situation.
That's the consequences of your actions.
Don't revile God for what you did, for the decisions that you made.
Go to 1 Timothy chapter 6, 1 Timothy chapter 6.
So people can, Christians specifically can blaspheme God
because they find themselves in a very difficult situation.
This is a temptation.
So you should not think like, "Oh, not me though. I would never blaspheme God."
Yeah, but you've never been in a situation like Job though, right? First and foremost.
You've never experienced a loss of this magnitude in one instant, right?
We've never really experienced that.
We don't know how far our flesh can go really.
And so all we can do to prevent blaspheming God is making sure that we predetermine
to have the right perspective, the right attitude before we go into that situation.
You know, don't have this preconceived idea that nothing bad will ever happen to you.
The evil will never come upon you. You'll never lose your loved ones.
You'll never lose your possessions because you can lose those things.
And you need to recognize that, you know, life is but a vapor.
Something is here one day, gone the other.
We need to predetermine that in spite of that, we will not curse God in our hearts.
We will not blaspheme the name of the Lord.
We need to retain our integrity like Job did, okay?
You know, a lot of people out there, they go through a hard time
and then they ascribe that evil unto the Lord.
But the Bible tells us in James, you don't have to turn there, James 1.13,
"Let no man say, 'When he is tempted, I am tempted of God.'
For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man."
Okay? So it's important that you don't blaspheme God.
But let me also say this, it's just as important to make sure
that you don't cause others to blaspheme God.
So there's an explicit warning in the Bible for us not to blaspheme God.
We obviously know that that is a real thing.
But it's far more common for Christians to cause others to blaspheme God.
To actually cause the unsaved to blaspheme God.
To speak evil of the Bible. To speak evil of God.
Not because of your beliefs, by the way.
But because of your conduct.
Look folks, we can't prevent the unsaved from blaspheming God because of our beliefs.
You don't have to change your beliefs just because you don't want people to speak evil of God.
Because our beliefs is what the Bible says. We can't stand down on that.
That is what the word of God says. We shall not be moved.
And you know what? If people speak evil of the word of God, that's on them.
So don't be this person who's just like, "Well, I don't want people to speak evil of God."
Therefore, I'm not going to be very open about this particular doctrinal belief.
Then you're a compromiser. Because the Bible tells us not to be ashamed of the word of God.
But the Bible does warn us, though, that we should not cause others to blaspheme God
because of our conversation and conduct, our behavior.
Look at 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse number 1.
He says, "Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters,
"worthy of all honor, that the name of God and His doctrine be not blasphemed."
So we talked about this last week, but this is referring to, you know, if you're working at a job and people know that you're a Christian, but you're a bad employee, you're going to cause others to blaspheme God and His word because of that.
If you're lazy, you're not on time, you're stealing time, you're stealing, you know, property from the company, you're always late, you're a bad testimony, it's not just being a bad testimony at work, you're actually causing others to blaspheme God because of it, especially if you told them that you're a Christian.
Why? Because people, Christians, not Christians, unbelievers out there, expect for Christians in the workplace to be at a certain level, right, at a certain standard, like, oh, you talk the talk, let's see you walk the walk.
But when you don't walk the walk and you only talk the talk, you know what's going to happen, you're going to cause others to talk blasphemy against God.
See, look at this guy. You know, she calls herself, he calls himself a Christian, you know, they dress a certain way, but yet he can't get the job done.
He's always late to work, always calling in sick, doesn't want to work, is lazy, always on his phone, right?
Always on his phone, always on reels, always doing this, that, and the other. He's always getting reprimanded.
You're a bad testimony! But aside from that, you're causing others to blaspheme God.
This is one of the reasons why I don't want to be a Christian. Now, that's not a good enough reason, by the way.
You know, your Gandhi excuse is not a good enough reason. "I'd be a Christian were it not for Christians."
Yeah, what do you think about that now, Gandhi? Because Gandhi's in hell today. He didn't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's a pedophile. You know, don't use your Gandhi reasoning.
People should not use the Gandhi reason to say, "Well, you know, I'd be a Christian were it not for Christians."
Well, that's bad logic. You know, "I'm a Christian because of Jesus Christ.
I'm a Christian because I believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, because I escaped the flames of hell through my faith in Him."
And let me just side note here, the way you get saved is not by your works, it's not by repenting of your sin.
It's not by your baptism, by your ability to keep God's commandments, because none of that can save you because you are not a perfect person.
There's none that doeth good, no not one.
There's not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
All of us have already been condemned to the damnation of hell, but we can escape the flames of hell by placing our faith in Jesus Christ exclusively to be saved.
See, people don't realize that when the Bible says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, it means exclusively believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, at the exclusion of everything else.
And people don't seem to realize that that would include your works, that would include your ability to stop sinning, because you can't, your ability to keep God's commands, your good behavior.
You can't add that to believing on Jesus Christ, because at that point you're saying that the sacrifice of Christ is insufficient to save you.
You're saying, well, Jesus' sacrifice is not enough. I need to make sure that I keep God's commandments.
Well, that's funny because the Bible says, therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
How about that? It says, for by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight.
For by the law is knowledge of sin. That's what the Bible says.
And, you know, it's crazy to think that there's churches out there that preach that you have to repent of your sins to be saved,
because sin, by biblical definition, is the transgression of the law.
So therefore, what they're saying is, in order to be saved, you have to keep the law.
But the Bible explicitly teaches that the law cannot save you. The law is our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ.
It's there to help us to recognize our need for a Savior, and in light of that, place our faith exclusively upon Christ.
So His death pays for all of our sins, past, present, future, big and small. His resurrection delivers us as well.
It justifies us in the eyes of God. He was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification.
That's what Romans 4 says.
And look, folks, salvation is easy. People are like, "Oh, easy to believe." Yeah, it's easy to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because Jesus Christ did all the hard part.
Look, in Acts 16, the Philippian jailer literally asks, "What must I do to be saved?"
Wouldn't you think that would be a great time to get the right answer?
If it was about repenting of your sins, keeping God's commandments,
wouldn't you think that that would be the moment that the Apostle Paul would have stated something like that?
It's just like, ask one question, you get one answer. It's just like, "What must I do to be saved?"
What does he say? "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved in the night house."
If you don't agree with that, you would say that the Apostle Paul is missed out on an opportunity
to preach the right gospel, or that he's preaching a false gospel.
The reason we say that it's easy to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
because placing your faith in what Christ did is easy.
You just believe in it. That's it. You trust in it, and that's it.
Once you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you are eternally secure in the hand of God.
You can never lose your salvation for any reason whatsoever.
I wanted to throw that in there for good measure.
We want to make sure that we don't cause others to speak evil of God because of our conduct.
Employees can do this. Go to Titus chapter 2.
You may think to yourself, "Well, I don't blaspheme God."
"I would never blaspheme God."
Yeah, but you could potentially cause others to blaspheme God because you're a bad Christian.
Especially if others know that you are a believer, that you read the Word of God, that you go to church.
You call yourself a Christian. You've got Christian on your bio.
You have believer on your bio or whatever. You post-Christian things.
But if your behavior doesn't match up with that, you can cause others to blaspheme God.
When people see the reals that you like, "Oh, I got your attention."
Look at Titus chapter 2, verse number 1 here.
It says, "But speak thou of the things which become sound doctrine,
that the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience,
the aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as it becomeeth holiness, not false accusers,
not give it to much wine, teachers of good things, that they may teach the young women
to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet,
chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands."
Notice that the list for the women is a lot longer than the list for the men.
Paul just spent like one verse for the men, and he's like, "Alright, let's move on to the women now."
He wrote it, you know.
But he says, you know, the aged women, meaning the women who are older in the Lord,
not just numerically, but just spiritually as well,
the only kind of preaching they'll do in church is not behind the pulpit.
It's just like a one-on-one discipleship, right?
And what are they supposed to teach?
They're supposed to teach the younger women how to behave themselves as a godly Christian woman.
He says, you know, with holiness, don't be a false accuser.
Just gossiping about people, gossiping about your husband, gossiping about your parents.
To be given to much wine, teachers of good things, to be sober, to love their husbands.
So there should be a community of women in churches, in each church,
teaching other wives to love their husbands, not disrespect their husbands.
Too much in this society, what we have today, is women teaching other women through podcasts,
through lame preaching, how to disrespect their husbands.
Oh girl, he don't take care of you? You should finish it off with, well that's your fault because you married him.
Love him, respect him, reverence him because that's what God requires of thee.
He says to love their husbands. That's the conversation that women should have.
You could talk about other things too, you know, whatever.
But it says here that women should be teaching other women ways to love their husbands.
This is right in God's eyes.
You know, turn off that podcast that's teaching you to be a Christian feminist.
Teaching you how to disrespect your husband and how you could be a boss babe or whatever.
Nonsense. I hate feminism, but I hate feminism in church too.
This superficial Christian so-called movement, this trad cath movement
that seeks to put the wife in the spotlight disrespecting and undermining the biblical authority
which is man here on this earth.
The Bible says to love your husbands and to love your children.
Oh man, I don't like the way you're saying it. This is just saying be a lovely wife.
Be a lovely mother. This is what should be taught.
You don't need to teach women the pre-tribulation rapture.
You don't need to teach them the pitfalls of Zionism.
Leave that to the men. We got this.
You don't need to teach them basic Bible doctrine. We got this.
Your husband got that.
You know what you should teach other women is how to behave themselves.
That's not popular. Maybe some of you don't like what I just said, but too late I already said it though.
Can't really bring that back in.
He says to be discreet. Chaste.
Keepers at home. We need to stay home.
If this rubs you the wrong way, it's because you've been influenced by feminism.
If you're like, "Man, I knew I shouldn't have come to this church. I knew you were going to say something like that."
It's probably because you've been influenced by feminism.
Because it says here keepers at home.
Good. Obedience to their own husbands.
By the way, if you married someone, part of your vow was to obey him.
That's what the Bible says.
What does your wife think about this? She's in agreement with this.
She's in line with this. She loves this.
She agrees with everything that I'm saying right now.
And if she didn't, it wouldn't matter. It's still true.
But here's the main part, folks, that you need to listen to.
To be discreet. Chase. Keepers at home. Good obedience to their own husbands.
That the Word of God be not blasphemed.
You know what that tells me? If you don't do these things, you're causing others to blaspheme the Bible.
You're causing others to point their finger at God, to point their finger at the Word of God,
and blame God for creating this rebellious, loud-mouthed woman. The Bible says.
Go to Romans chapter 2. This is a good Sunday morning sermon, amen?
What's the subject? We're talking about blasphemy.
We need to avoid blasphemy as Christians, but we also need to avoid causing others to blaspheme God by our behavior.
We saw that in 1 Timothy chapter 6. We see it in Titus chapter 2.
But we also see that we can cause others to blaspheme not just by our behavior, but also by our hypocrisy.
Now Romans 2, this individual that's being addressed here, it's not a real individual.
It's just kind of like an illustration that the Apostle Paul is using.
He is talking about a Jew. Okay, so let me just preface this by saying that.
But let me say that we can apply this to ourselves.
But the immediate context is he's talking about the Jew.
But it's applicable to us as well.
Look at verse 17, "Behold, thou art called a Jew." So we know who's, okay.
"And rest us in the law and make us thy boast of God, and know us this will and approve us the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law, and are confident that thou thyself are a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which has the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law."
So this is addressing Jews, but let's just be honest, we can apply this to ourselves as well, right?
We can say that we know the will of God, we can say that we instruct those out of the law, we are an instructor of babes, right?
We're a light to them which are in darkness, we are those who have the form of knowledge and of the truth.
We can apply this to ourselves even though it's directly talking to the Jew.
So he says this, look at verse 21, "Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest not thyself.
Thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery?
Thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law, dishonorest thou God?"
And here's verse 24, here is the main point, "For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you as it is written."
So he's basically saying, "Your hypocrisy, Jew," this is the immediate context, "the hypocrisy of the Jew is causing the heathen, the Gentiles, to blaspheme God because of their hypocritical behavior."
But this is also applicable to us as well. When we are hypocrites as Christians, when we say one thing but live another way, we're being hypocrites, the Bible says that we are causing others to blaspheme the name of God.
Go to 2 Samuel chapter 12. Let me give you a very clear example of this. For good measure, I'm going to throw in Matthew 23 verse 3, go to 2 Samuel 12, Matthew 23.
By the way, if you don't have a Bible, just ask me after the service, I'll get you a Bible. If you're like, "I don't really use a physical Bible," I'll get you a Bible so you can use.
We encourage everyone to bring a Bible to church, to open it up and learn how to navigate through the Scriptures, find the references.
You're in 2 Samuel 12, Matthew 23, in conjunction with what we just read in Romans 2, says, "All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe,"
"they" is referring to the Pharisees. "Whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do, but do not after their works, for they say and do not."
So, you know, the Pharisees were the prime example of hypocrites in the New Testament. They told people to do things that they themselves were not willing to do.
Look at 2 Samuel 12. This is addressing the sin of David. David committed the sin of adultery. He murdered Uriah.
This is taking place over a span of about a year, and he's not confessing this before the Lord. He wasn't repenting of it.
It's not until the prophet, Nathan, confronted him about this sin that he got it right.
It says in verse 13, "And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord; and Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die."
Verse 14, "Albeit because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die."
So the consequence of his actions was that he wasn't going to die, but his child would die.
The point that I'm making here is that his sin of adultery, his sin of murder, gave occasion to the enemies of God to blaspheme the name of God.
And you know what? This means that we can also fall into that same trap as well.
Causing others to blaspheme God because of our sin is why it's important, folks, that we live clean lives,
not lives enthralled in fornication, adultery, drunkenness, filth, all these things that are anti-biblical,
behavior that is not becoming to a Christian, and then what happens?
Be sure your sin will find you out, and you give great occasion to the enemies of God
to blaspheme God because of your behavior, because of your sin, you know?
And by the way, that's further proof that preaching once saved, always saved, preaches also sanctification.
Like, "Oh man, you're giving a license for people to sin." No, actually I'm preaching against it.
Trying to get people to avoid and prevent them from committing grievous sins in their lives so that they don't destroy their lives.
The point that I'm making here is that, you know, you can cause others to blaspheme God.
You know, think about your life, think about your week, think about the people you're around.
Are you causing others to blaspheme God because of your wicked behavior?
Because they know that you're a Christian? Because they know that you are a believer?
You've even given them the gospel. Maybe you've brought them to church.
But you're living such a godless life. You're causing them to blaspheme the name of God.
Shame on you if that's the case.
Clean up your life! Get right with God!
Put the sin away from you. Live a life that's pleasing unto the Lord.
Honor God with your life, right?
You know, the first point is to honor God with your lips.
But we're also supposed to honor God with our life.
Let your life so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
And let me say this young people, you better be living honorable lives before your parents as well.
Don't be the spoiled little brat believer in your home.
Maybe your parents aren't believers, they're not Christians, they don't go to church.
You better behave yourself in your parents' house.
Respect your parents, love your parents, obey your parents.
Your parents tell you to throw out the trash. Throw out the trash!
Tell you to get up at a certain time, get up at a certain time!
Don't talk back to your parents.
Don't get bitter or mad at them because they whoop you. You need whoop-ins.
You young people need whoop-ins.
You know, "Oh man, I can't believe you would hit me."
"I hate you, Dad!"
"I can't believe you, Dad, why would you do that to me?"
"Give me back my Xbox, Dad!"
Wicked.
Get right with God, you're causing people to blaspheme.
You're causing your parents to not like church, to not like the Bible,
because you're acting like a spoiled little Gen Z-er.
I'm sorry, brats. I commend the young people in our church who are respectable,
who've changed. Come to our church, maybe they were brats.
They were disrespectful to their parents, but you know what?
They got right with God, they learned how to obey their parents,
not rebel against them, love their parents, honor their parents.
This is good in the sight of God.
And you're like, "Man, I really want to win my parents to God,
to the Lord, I want to win my parents to Christ."
You know, it starts with your behavior.
I know you know all kinds of Bible knowledge, you know the Gospel,
you know more than your parents, but you know what?
That does nothing if you're just an absolute wreck of a Christian at home, okay?
Where you're just getting up late, you're playing video games all hours of the night,
you're sleeping in, you're lazy, you're not getting a job,
you're mouthing off to your parents, that does nothing!
You're damaging the testimony of Christ by doing so.
Get right with God, amen?
The point that I'm making here is that we as Christians should obviously
refrain from blaspheming God when we're going through a tough situation,
but we should also strive to not cause others to blaspheme God by our conduct.
Go back to Mark chapter 3.
Point number one is that blasphemy was punishable by death according to the Old Testament,
showing us how grievous this sin is in the eyes of God.
Point number two is that we as Christians should refrain from blaspheming God,
and yes, it is possible for Christians to do so,
and it's also possible for us to cause others to blaspheme God.
Now, let's talk about the fact that blasphemy is forgivable, okay?
And yes, I am going to address blasphemy against the Holy Ghost in this sermon,
but let's just talk about the sin of blasphemy and the fact that it is forgivable.
Let me just say this is that blasphemy is a sin common to man,
meaning that people who have done it is just something that is common,
just like fornication, just like lying, just like theft.
These are things that are common to man.
They're sinful, they're wrong in the eyes of God.
Blasphemy is wrong in the eyes of God, but it's a sin common to man.
And look folks, just know this, if you blaspheme the Lord, okay,
prior to salvation or even as a Christian, you can be forgiven of that.
And in fact, you know, think about Paul, the Apostle Paul, you know, not this Paul.
I looked at Paul when I said that.
You know, the Apostle Paul said, "I thank Christ Jesus, my Lord, who hath enabled me
for putting me into the ministry for that he counted me faithful."
And he says, "Who was before a blasphemer, a persecutor, injurious, but I did it ignorantly in unbelief."
The Bible is specifically saying there that the Apostle Paul was a blasphemer prior to salvation.
Now, let me clear up the Apostle Paul's testimony here.
It doesn't say he was a murderer, okay?
A lot of people out there are like, "Oh, Paul killed Christians."
You know, not necessarily.
You got to read through the book of Acts.
There's not necessarily any evidence of him putting anybody to death.
He arrested a lot of Christians.
Yes, he held a coat of them who were stoning Stephen,
but he himself actually never put any Christian to death.
He was sanctioned by the Pharisees to go and arrest Christians, okay?
But that's not to say that he wasn't a blasphemer because he was.
And that's not to say that he wasn't injurious because he was.
What does it mean to be injurious?
It means he probably harmed some people while he was like arresting them, okay?
But he wasn't this like serial killer of Christians.
Remove that from the testimony of the Apostle Paul in order to justify Jeffrey Dahmer getting saved or something like that.
He wasn't a cannibal, okay?
Sometimes it's just like you hear about Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer like, "Oh, they got saved!"
And then you're like, "Oh, this man would say the Apostle Paul didn't get saved."
The Apostle Paul didn't eat people.
He wasn't drugging homosexuals and then taking them back to eat them.
That's two different things there.
And if you don't think there's two different things, there's something wrong up here with you.
Cannibalism is not the same.
Cannibalism is not a sin common to man, by the way.
But blasphemy is, though.
Let me read you another scripture here.
Colossians chapter 3 verse 8 says, "But now..."
This is addressing Christians.
"But now ye also put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy."
Filthy communication out of your mouth.
So, you know, God is commanding us that we should put these things away from us,
not speak in this manner, not revile God,
not, you know, speak contemptuously against God,
showing us that this is something that Christians have the potential of doing.
Mark 7, verse 21 says, "From within, out of the heart of man,
proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts,
covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness."
All these evil things come from within and defile the man.
Look at Mark chapter 3 because let's address the subject of blasphemy against the Holy
Ghost.
Okay?
Now, we know that blasphemy is forgivable, but there's a form of blasphemy according
to the New Testament that was not forgivable, and that is the blasphemy against the Holy
Ghost.
Now, this is something that comes up often.
People ask me about this all the time, especially if they're out evangelizing.
I get messages about this online all the time, and especially when it comes to once saved,
always saved, they're like, "But what about blasphemy against the Holy Ghost?
What if someone blasphemes the Holy Ghost?"
And let me just clarify, first and foremost, no Christian can commit this sin.
Okay?
Now, why is that?
Well, first of all, most people who are asking that don't even know what it means to blaspheme
the Holy Ghost.
And if, let's say they wanted to blaspheme the Holy Ghost, they wouldn't even know how.
It's just a statement that they've heard.
They don't necessarily know how that's carried out, first and foremost.
Secondly, Christians actually have the Holy Ghost in dwelling within them permanently.
Okay?
The Bible says, "And whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the
gospel of your salvation, and whom also after that ye believed, ye were," listen to this,
"sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, unto the
redemption of the purchased possession."
So the Bible says, once you got saved, you were actually sealed with the Holy Spirit,
and sealed means like he's in there.
He's sealed.
And it actually gives us somewhat of a timetable of how long he's in there for.
Ephesians 4 says that he's sealed unto the day of redemption.
It doesn't say until you sin, until you commit the blasphemy of the Holy Ghost, it says he's
there until you get redeemed physically, meaning when the rapture takes place.
So this is showing us that once you're saved, you're always saved because the Holy Spirit
lives within you forever.
This is why Jesus said, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee."
And so the Holy Spirit resides within us.
The Bible also says regarding the Holy Spirit, it says that his spirit bears witness with
our spirit that we are the children of God.
So saved people know by the Holy Spirit residing within them that we are saved, we're the children
of God.
And the Bible tells us no man speaking by the Spirit calleth Jesus accursed.
So this is something that's literally impossible for us to do as Christians because we have
the spirit of truth dwelling within us.
So what does it mean then?
Well, let's look at the context.
So this is why it's important, folks, when you are stumped about a particular doctrine,
when you have a question about the Bible, don't just take the one phrase and run with
it.
You got to study the context.
Context is keen.
Context is what matters.
And the reason why that's important is because false prophets, the way they teach false doctrine
is by ripping things out of context, giving you one verse and building an entire doctrine
off of that one verse.
Now, look, there's instances where we can take one verse and build upon doctrine off
of that one verse because that one verse is repeated throughout the Bible.
Like, for example, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, saturated throughout the New Testament.
That's what the Bible teaches.
Okay?
So let's look at it.
Mark chapter three and verse 22, if you would, it says, "Then the scribes which came down
from Jerusalem said, 'He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils, casteth he out
devils.'"
So what's being said here?
The scribes, the Pharisees, those who were in opposition to Christ, were stating that
Jesus Christ was possessed with the devil.
Beelzebub is another way of saying Satan.
So Jesus Christ is performing all these miracles, right?
Because he has a spirit without measure, he has the fullness of the Holy Ghost, and he's
performing these supernatural feats through the power of the Holy Spirit, right?
Well, in light of that, the Pharisees see this and say, "Well, the only reason he's
able to do this is because he's possessed by the devil."
That's grievous, right?
Look at verse 23.
"And he called unto them and said, and said unto them in parables, 'How can Satan cast
out Satan?'"
Go down to verse 28.
I'm going to skip some of what he says here regarding casting out Satan.
Look at verse 28.
He says, "Verily I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men and blasphemies,
wherewith soever they shall blaspheme."
So it's telling, look, you'll be forgiven of any kind of blaspheme even if you blaspheme
Jesus Christ.
You blaspheme God.
You can't be forgiven of that.
But verse 29, "He that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but
is in danger of eternal damnation."
Now the question is, based upon the context, what is Jesus Christ referring to?
Well, according to verse 22, this is in response to the Pharisees saying, "He hath Beelzebub,"
and by the power of Beelzebub, he's able to do this, right?
But far more clearer than that, look at verse 30, "Because they said, he hath an unclean
spirit."
So if we were to define what it means to blaspheme the Holy Ghost, based upon solely what the
Bible says, it means to physically be there when Jesus Christ was performing the miracles,
the fact that he's doing this by the Spirit, and to say, "You're demon possessed."
That's what it means.
It means to accuse Jesus Christ, when he's physically there, of being possessed by devils
and being empowered by Satan himself.
Basically saying that the Holy Spirit is a demon, okay?
That's a very grievous sin.
Now go to Matthew chapter 12.
We're going to look at a parallel passage of this.
Now what this actually indicates is the fact that the scribes, the Pharisees who were
saying this, were actually reprobate.
And those of you who are new to our church, I'm going to explain to you what it means
to be a reprobate.
This may be something you've never heard before.
Maybe you have in different contexts, but I'm going to show you what the Bible actually
says about this.
First and foremost, look at Matthew 12 verse 32, "And whosoever speaketh the word against
the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost,
it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come."
So this is indicating that the person who committed this sin of blasphemy against the
Holy Ghost can never be saved, right?
He says he doesn't have forgiveness in this world or in the world to come.
It means that they're not only eternally damned, but the opportunity to be saved has been taken
from them even in this world.
That's literally what it says.
No one can deny that that's literally what it's talking about there, right?
He says in verse 33, "Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the
tree corrupt and the fruit corrupt, for the tree is known by its fruit.
O generation of vipers, how can ye being evil speak good things for out of the abundance
of the heart the mouth speaketh?
A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things, and an evil
man out of the evil treasure of the heart bringeth forth evil things.
Now let me explain a couple things here.
First and foremost is that the literal act of blaspheming the Holy Ghost was a first
century phenomenon when Jesus Christ walked on this earth.
How do we know that?
Because Jesus Christ isn't here anymore.
He's in heaven, but he's not physically here performing these miracles, right?
He's not here walking on this earth.
This was literally a first century phenomenon that took place 2000 years ago where the Pharisees
literally looked at the miracles that Jesus was performing, and in light of that said Jesus
is possessed with the devil.
That is clearly seen by the context, and I don't think anybody can argue that.
That's literally what it's saying there.
Okay.
However, the potential of never being forgiven is still possible today.
So even though it's impossible for someone today to blaspheme the Holy Ghost, because
that would require for Jesus Christ to physically be here to perform these miracles, and in
light of that, assess Jesus as being possessed with the devil, that's impossible to do.
However, to not be forgiven here in this world or in the world to come is still possible.
And this is what the Bible refers to as a reprobate.
Now go to John chapter 12, John chapter 12, what does it mean to be a reprobate?
This is a word that's used in the Bible.
And the pure definition of a reprobate is someone who's been rejected by God.
And in fact, we see this in Jeremiah chapter six that says reprobate silver shall men call
them for the Lord hath rejected them, showing us that the rejection is used synonymously
with the term reprobate, implying that the person who is reprobate is someone who has
been rejected of God.
And there's various contexts that this word is used, most commonly in the context of salvation,
meaning a person who is reprobate is a person who's been rejected by God for salvation.
This is not referring to a person who loses their salvation, because you can't lose your
salvation.
The Bible says, "I give them to them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither
can any man pluck them out of my hand."
He also says, "He that cometh to me, I will in no wise pass out for any reason whatsoever."
The condemnation of reprobation can only be given to someone who's not saved.
And it's referring to a person who doesn't only reject the gospel, but in light of rejecting
the gospel, becomes adversarial and hateful towards the Lord Jesus Christ, at which point
God removes their opportunity to ever be saved.
Now let's look at an example of this.
In John chapter 12, verse 37 says, "But though He had done so many miracles before them,
yet they believed not on Him, that the saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled,
which He spake, 'Lord, who hath believed our report, to whom hath the arm of the Lord
been revealed?'"
It says, "Therefore they could not believe, because as Isaiah said again, He," referring
to God, "hath blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, that they should not see with
their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them."
Now that's pretty clear there.
Because what do we have to do to be saved?
Believe.
"Oh, pastor, I thought you'd just say all you have to do is believe."
But what if God removes your ability to believe, though?
Isn't that what it's saying?
He says, "They could not believe."
Why?
"He blinded their eyes.
He hardened their heart."
Now, don't misunderstand what I'm saying.
This isn't something that's given to all unsafe people.
Now, if they remain unsaved and they die in that condition, yes, no one in hell could
ever be saved ever again.
This is referring to a specific segment of the population that not only rejects the truth
of the gospel for whatever reason, but in light of that, they actually become like an
enemy of God.
They hate God.
They don't want to retain God in their knowledge, according to Romans chapter one.
So in other words, it's just like, Oh, I can't believe God will remove someone's ability
to be saved.
Well, what if they don't want to be saved?
What if, if they could, they would remove the aspect of our mind that thinks about God,
because that's what it says.
They don't want to retain God in their knowledge, Romans chapter one, verse 28.
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to
a reprobate mind to do those things, which are not convenient.
So when we talk about a reprobate, it's often associated with a filthy, depraved mind,
but it's a result of being rejected by God for rejecting God and hating God.
Now look, this does not apply to your cousin, your sister or brother, who's just not listening
to you about the gospel.
This doesn't apply to your mom or dad who, yeah, maybe they blaspheme God, they speak
evil of him.
It's wrong that they're doing that, but that doesn't necessarily apply to them.
We're talking about people, the Bible specifically addressing individuals, who literally, if
they could, would surgically remove the knowledge of God from their minds, because they don't
want to think about God.
And sometimes people will say, "Well, are you saying, what if this person becomes open
to the gospel?"
Well, you're ignoring what the Bible actually says, because how do you give someone the
gospel who just doesn't even want to hear it?
How does someone trust Jesus Christ, who doesn't even want to even think about Jesus Christ,
who doesn't even want to retain God in their knowledge?
You and I know family members and friends who don't agree with you, but they still believe
in God.
They're like, "I believe God.
I just don't think he would do this.
I believe that.
I just don't think this, that, and the other."
They kind of make excuses for their beliefs.
These aren't reprobates.
A reprobate is someone who's rejected of God, and here's a good definition, it's a person
who is beyond the hope of salvation.
And let me say this, every person in hell is a reprobate.
You would agree with that.
No one's coming back from hell because they're dead, right?
Well according to the Bible, according to Jude, the Bible says that reprobates are twice
dead, plucked up by the roots.
So when a person is in hell, God views them as being dead.
When a person is a reprobate, he views them as twice dead, because even though they're
walking around living this life, the Bible says that they're dead and their trespasses
is a sin and they can never be saved, that's what the Bible says, okay?
Now this is a hard truth for a lot of people to swallow, but it shouldn't because this
is what the Bible actually says, okay?
Now go to 2 Corinthians 13 because this right here is the coup d'etat, if you don't agree
with what I'm saying, this will convince you beyond a shadow of a doubt, and if it doesn't
convince you, you're just rejecting what the Bible clearly says, okay?
Let me quote you another verse here regarding the reprobate doctrine, 2 Timothy 3.7 says
this, and I want you to pay attention, that they're ever learning and never able to come
to the knowledge of the truth.
Isn't that interesting?
It says that they're ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
And then he says this, "Now as Janice and Jambres whispered Moses, so do these also
resist the truth, men of corrupt minds."
I want you to notice this, reprobate concerning the faith.
What is faith?
Believing.
They're rejected concerning belief.
It's exactly what John 12 says.
They could not believe because God has blinded their eyes.
He hardened their hearts that they should not believe, be converted, and I should heal
them.
Very simple.
I don't know.
I think you're misinterpreting that.
All right.
Second Corinthians 13, verse number five.
Let's read it.
It says, "Examine yourselves whether you be in the faith.
Prove your own selves.
Know not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates."
Paul, whoa, I don't think you, did you really mean that?
You know?
I mean, that's pretty clear right there.
A five-year-old can understand that.
He says, "Look, Christ is in you."
Why?
Because a Christian has Christ in them in the hope of glory.
That's what the Bible says.
"I will never leave thee nor forsake thee."
The apostle Paul said in Colossians that you have Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Jesus Christ dwells within us.
Amen?
"Except ye be reprobates."
Why?
Because a reprobate cannot have Christ in them.
And if a saved person is sealed with the Holy Spirit, if a saved person will never be forsaken
of God, that means they can never be reprobate.
And this is stating here, and the reason he's even telling the Corinthians this, isn't he
addressing Christians?
Yeah, but he's addressing Christians so-called who potentially are rejecting the doctrines
of the faith, such as the resurrection.
Because if you remember 1 Corinthians 15, it's the entire chapter is addressing the
resurrection and the fact that some people in the Corinthian church are questioning whether
there be any resurrection.
And the resurrection is a major staple doctrine of the Christian faith.
If you don't believe in the resurrection, you're not saved.
That's why Jehovah's Witnesses are not saved, okay?
So if someone rejects Jesus Christ as being the son of God, they call themselves the Christians,
they're not saved.
If they don't believe in the resurrection, not saved.
If they believe that Jesus Christ is a God, not saved.
You understand what I'm saying?
And so the reason the apostle Paul is saying this is because of the fact that he's dealing
with the church where there's potentially members that are not saved.
And he says, Christ is in you, except he be reprobates.
What is that showing us?
It's showing us that reprobates do not have Christ in them.
They're eternally damned.
That's what the Bible literally says.
So even though, so although the, the blasphemy of the Holy Ghost is a first century phenomenon
that no longer exists today because it would require Jesus Christ to physically be here
in this world for someone to accuse him of being demon possessed.
The result of that still exists because the rest of New Testament scriptures tell us explicitly
that people can lose out on their opportunity to be saved this side of eternity.
Yeah, but how is that edifying to us though, pastor?
How does that help us?
I'll tell you how it helps you.
It helps you to go and get people saved knowing full well that people can fall into that.
You know what it does?
It motivates us to get children saved.
We love giving kids the gospel.
Kids in our church are constantly hearing the word of God.
And look, some kids in our church pay better attention than the adults.
Don't undermine the attention span of the children.
I got two little ladies here.
They're always front and center.
They're always paying attention.
They're not checking on their phones or anything.
They get in a lot more than you know.
The kids get a lot.
And you know what?
That's why kids in our church get saved at a younger age.
Because they're hearing the word of God at a very young age.
They're not in some Sunday school class, singing some silly song, getting filled up
with sugar or whatever, you know what I mean?
Getting taught a 15 minute lesson of David and Goliath again and then again and again
because the Sunday school teacher doesn't know anything else.
They're here learning the reprobate doctrine, amen?
But then they get saved.
And you know what?
You say, how does this motivate me?
I'll tell you how it should motivate you.
It should cause you to have a burden to get people saved, to preach the gospel to your
family and friends, lest they fall into the trap of ever becoming a reprobate.
Because it is a real danger.
It's a legitimate thing.
You say, well, how do I know if someone's a reprobate?
Well, according to the Romans, one, homosexuals are reprobates.
Pedophiles, reprobates.
You know, Jeffrey Dahmer, reprobate.
Psychopath serial killers, reprobate.
Now, I'm not saying that every libtard is a reprobate, but you know, a lot of them are,
though.
Okay?
You know, I can go on and on.
You know, false prophets, you know, who are just willingly teaching a false gospel, they
are greedy, a filthy lucre, they're preaching heresy, even though they've been corrected
over and over again, they're in bed with Israel, you know, most of them are reprobate!
It's insane!
Because you think they say, "How can a pastor just do this?"
I'll tell you how, because that's what reprobates do.
That's how they are, that's how they act.
They're motivated by money.
They, a reprobate, someone who's been given over to a reprobate mind is past feeling according
to the Bible.
They've had their conscience seared with a hot iron, 1st Timothy chapter 4 verse 2.
Their conscience is seared with a hot iron, their past feeling, Ephesians chapter 4, they've
been given over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient, Romans
chapter 1, they're ever learning, never able to come to the knowledge of the truth, 2nd
Timothy chapter 3 and they don't have Christ in them, 2nd Corinthians chapter 13, now you
give me your verses, the point that I'm making here is that, you know, if you have Christ
in you, you are not a reprobate and look, I'm not saying that every person who's been
molested, who has gotten involved in some sort of homosexual activity is a reprobate
because that's not true either, there's some people who've been coaxed into a perverted
relationship because they have a perverted boyfriend or girlfriend and it was disgusting
to them, they hated it, we're not talking about them, we're not talking about kids who
are molested but you know what, kids who are molested who grow up end up hating the Lord,
they have the potential to become a reprobate which is why it's important to get them saved,
give them the gospel.
And by the way, the Bible says that reprobates are blasphemers, that's what they are, they
speak evil of God and Romans 1 tells us that they're haters of God, well I know a reprobate
or a person that fits that description and they don't hate God, it also says that they're
full of deceit, you know what that means, it means they lie to you, so alright let's
pray.
Thank you so much for this day, help us Lord as your people to avoid the sin of blasphemy.
Blasphemy in the name of the Lord either verbally or by our actions and conduct.
Lord help us to be a good testimony before the unsaved, not, of course we obviously understand
we can't compromise doctrine, our beliefs, but our behavior.
Lord if we behave in a wicked manner, may we not suffer as a murderer, as an evildoer,
as a busybody in other men's matters, that can cause us to cause others to blaspheme
the word of God and the Lord. I pray Lord you to help us to prevent that in our lives
and in light of the fact that people can't become reprobate, I pray that you place a
burden within our hearts to preach the gospel to every creature and may we have the gospel
in the forefront of our minds Lord, recognize that there is a world out there that is lost,
they're going to hell and it's our responsibility to go out there and teach them about the love
of God through Jesus Christ that he died on the cross to pay for their sins, he resurrected on
the third day to save them and if they simply place their faith in him exclusively for salvation
they can be saved eternally. May you place that burden in our hearts to make a difference this
year. We love you, we thank you, pray these things in Jesus name, amen.