"And He *came home, and the crowd *gathered again, to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal. When His own people heard of this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, "He has lost His senses." The scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, "He is possessed by Beelzebul," and "He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons." And He called them to Himself and began speaking to them in parables, "How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. If Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished! But no one can enter the strong man’s house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house.
"Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin"— because they were saying, "He has an unclean spirit."
Then His mother and His brothers *arrived, and standing outside they sent word to Him and called Him. A crowd was sitting around Him, and they *said to Him, "Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for You." Answering them, He *said, "Who are My mother and My brothers?" Looking about at those who were sitting around Him, He *said, "Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother."
Good Morning my beloved,
We welcome you to worship in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is my honor and great privilege to study God's Word with you today. We are so thankful that the Lord lead you join us. I want to let you know how grateful I am for each of you, for your faithfulness, dedication and commitment to share God's Word with others. People all around the world are desperate for the Word of God. It's a tremendous blessing, but it's a blessing that brings a huge challenge. With more people coming to Christ, pastors and church leaders are asking for more Bibles in their native languages. I hope you will prayerfully consider helping us to make a difference by meeting their need.
We welcome you to worship in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is my honor and great privilege to study God's Word with you today. We are so thankful that the Lord lead you join us. I want to let you know how grateful I am for each of you, for your faithfulness, dedication and commitment to share God's Word with others. People all around the world are desperate for the Word of God. It's a tremendous blessing, but it's a blessing that brings a huge challenge. With more people coming to Christ, pastors and church leaders are asking for more Bibles in their native languages. I hope you will prayerfully consider helping us to make a difference by meeting their need.
Criticism; the act of expressing disapproval of somebody/something and opinions about their faults or bad qualities; a statement showing this disapproval. It's pretty easy to criticize those who don’t measure up to our standards when we have nothing invested in it. Armchair Generals often criticize the soldiers who in the middle of the battle. The pulpit is a spiritual battleground, for warring against evil forces, I've lost count of times I have heard pastors deliver sermons that violated biblical standards. It's painful to listen to. Many who are true to the faith are reluctant to fight for what they believe in for fear of the repercussions because of the attitude of tolerance embedded in the culture.
Those who preach quite often receive criticism by their congregations if the sermon is too short, too long, or doesn't meet their expectations in fulfilling the need to feel better about themselves or their ongoing sin. However, we are never absolved of the responsibility to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. It is a very challenging responsibility, one I take very seriously. I believe that anybody who is turned off or uncomfortable by preaching what is revealed in the Word of God is not ready for heaven. God will not honor those who dare to tear down the platforms on which they now stand, we need to raise the bar not lower it, bridging the ever widening gap between true and false believers. God will honor those who honor Him, that are willing to sacrifice their lives for something greater than themselves. While there are certainly times in ministry when we are praised for our preaching, and I'm always thankful for that but pleasing Him Who has called me is always my motivation. I don’t preach because I want, I preach because I have to, it is the passion of my life.
It is as Paul wrote in Galatians 1, "As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ." It’s far easier to be critical than correct. While this may be a very familiar passage to most Christians, it is often misunderstood, even instilling fear in some of committing the unpardonable sin because they do not understand the doctrine. Ironically, these same people seem to have no fear in living lives that violate virtually every clear passage in Scripture. Personally, I cannot imagine anything being more vile, more heinous than to murdering the Son of God. What could possibly be worse than that? Yet, it is precisely that sin which Christ demonstrates is forgivable, as He hung on the cross saying, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing."
Because God is a forgiving God, He forgives all kinds of sinners; liars, cheaters,
drunkards, adulterers, fornicators, homosexuals, even thieves and
murders and the Christ rejecters are not beyond pardon. And aren't we grateful that He does or not one of us could be forgiven! However, allow me to add, there is no forgiveness, for anyone, at any time, without repentance and confession and a turning to God.
Let us pray
Heavenly Father,
Father, thank You for the written Word, the source of divine truth, so rich, so powerful. Lord, we pray the Holy Spirit penetrate our hearts and help us to act upon it, applying to our lives. We pray that You would do Your amazing work in the hearts of those who do not yet know Christ, who have yet to embrace this salvation, that there will be some who would come to the knowledge of the Truth and they would finally hear and believe on Christ even before this message ends, that they might escape eternal judgment and receive eternal life. Lord, be gracious to them even now, so that we may rejoice with all of heaven, for Your glory.
In Jesus' name we ask and pray
Amen
Today's Message: The Hottest Hell and the Unforgivable Sin
As we come to the Word of God today, we're approaching the end of our study in Mark chapter 3, it is all one prolonged section but for the sake of time and being able to give each important portion, the attention they deserve, we're going to break them down into several messages, hopefully only two. So, if you would open your Bibles to Mark chapter 3, verses 20-35
and follow along with me as I read these verses to you to
set the text in our minds. I pray that the Lord would help us to hear
and apply what He has to say to each of us today. Mark 3:20-35.
"And He *came home, and the crowd *gathered again, to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal. When His own people heard of this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, "He has lost His senses." The scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, "He is possessed by Beelzebul," and "He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons." And He called them to Himself and began speaking to them in parables, "How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. If Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished! But no one can enter the strong man’s house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house.
"Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin"— because they were saying, "He has an unclean spirit."
Then His mother and His brothers *arrived, and standing outside they sent word to Him and called Him. A crowd was sitting around Him, and they *said to Him, "Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for You." Answering them, He *said, "Who are My mother and My brothers?" Looking about at those who were sitting around Him, He *said, "Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother."
Let's look at verse 20, "And He *came home, and the crowd *gathered again, to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal." Jesus had ministering because He only had about one year left before His crucifixion at this point. Jesus was in Galilee preaching and teaching, casting out demons and healing and He came home. There's nothing that suggests He's anywhere other than Capernaum, probably Peter’s house, but we can't say for sure and the crowd gathered again. The crowd is so overpowering that Jesus and the disciples can’t even get away from the crowd long enough to even eat a meal.
Matthew chapter 12 tells us He healed a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute was brought to Jesus, and He healed him, so that the mute man spoke and saw. By the way, there were no progressive miracles performed by Jesus, all of them were instantaneous. People who could not see were made instantly to see, those who could not hear, were made to hear, and those who had non-functioning legs, were miraculously given legs that functioned. All the crowds were amazed, and were saying, "This man cannot be the Son of David, can he?"
Verse 21, "When His own people heard of this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, "He has lost His senses." The news of what Jesus had been saying and doing made it's way to His family in Nazareth, Mary is probably concerned that He’s going to get Himself killed, so she and His half-brothers and half-sisters went out to take custody of Him. The verb "kratéō," tells us they went to take hold of Him and seize Him. They were convinced that He was in danger. His siblings were convinced He that He had brought it upon Himself, because He's declaring Himself to be God. Of course, Mary knew exactly who He was, the angel Gabriel told her she had found favor with God before He was born, while she was still a virgin the Holy Spirit would come upon her and she would conceive and bear a son, and His name shall be Jesus. She knew that He would be called the Son of the Most High. Mary may not have said anything to His half-brothers and half-sisters about Who He was, if she did they definitely didn't believe it. They were convinced "He has lost His senses," its the verb "exestē," they think He's crazy, that He's gone completely mad, no longer in control of Himself. Which is ridiculous, Jesus never said or did anything that He shouldn't have, its the evidence of mounting rejection. Can a madman perform miracles of healing, cast out demons? Of course not, it’s utterly impossible, it's obvious there's something very different about Him. It was at this point, the gospel writers begin to record the mounting of rejection towards Christ, its beginning to climax. Eventually, His family confessed Him as Lord, James and Jude submitted themselves to Him as slaves to their Lord.
Scripture is clear that she and Joseph had children together, the half-brothers and half-sisters of Jesus. His own people is speaking about His physical family, the family He grew up with, disproving the perpetual virginity of Mary doctrine, the idea that Mary remained a virgin her entire life is foreign to the clear teaching of God's Word. Matthew 1:24-25, "And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus." After Jesus was born, they would have enjoyed the same intimate sexual relationship as any other married couple. There's nothing sinful about that.
Verse 22, "The scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, "He is possessed by Beelzebul," and "He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons." They were relentless in dogging His steps, they followed Him everywhere He went looking to discredit Him, to trap Him, they wanted Him dead. This is a very serious, now they've reached to point of no return, they've crossed the line by calling Him Satanic. Beelzebul had become another name for Satan. The term Beelzebub is a reference to a god of the Philistines, the Ekronites. It literally means "The Lord of the Flies." They purposefully changed the b to an l to corrupt it. They are saying this can’t be the Messiah, Satan is the source of His miracles, because there’s no way to explain His supernatural ability to perform miracles intellectually. It was a derogatory slap at His divinity. They are blinded to the Truth, their minds are darkened.
C.S. Lewis said, "When Jesus claimed to be God, there were only three options:
either He is God, or He is a lunatic, or He is a liar pulling off a
very, very grand scheme of deception." The testimony that Jesus is God is irrefutable, the Father said, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." The demons said, "We know who You are,You’re the Holy One of God." He had power of over sickness and disease, He had power over demons, He even had power over death, raising people from the dead. There's no getting around that, unwilling to say it’s the power of God, and they ascribe He did what He did by the power of Satan. Folks, if that is your conclusion, you can’t be saved. Blaspheming the Holy Spirit is the unforgivable sin. There's no coming back from that, they've put themselves in a position of never being forgiven, they’re headed for eternal hell.
In Matthew 12:21-32, Jesus says "Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come."
They knew the Scriptures, they were the experts, they should have known exactly Who He was, but jaded by their hatred of Him, they were completely oblivious, ignorant of Scriptures meaning. He did not fit their preconceived notions as to what the Messiah would be, Jesus was meek, humble, gentle, compassionate. They were looking for a warrior king who would come and overthrow of the Rome oppression. Jesus was not contrary to the Messiah of the Old Testament, He fit what exactly Isaiah said about the Messiah, He will come in meekness and gentleness and compassion. Jesus came to deliver captive people from the horrendous oppression of sin.
Look at verse 23, "And He called them to Himself and began speaking to them in parables, "How can Satan cast out Satan?" While it's true Scripture teaches that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, he's not going to cast demons out to reinforce that he’s on God’s side. That is an absolutely absurd conclusion! I love the way our Lord calls them to Himself and then began speaking to them in parables, He knew exactly what He needed to say and how He needed to say it to back them into a corner by using their own words. It's not an actual parable, its more like an analogy.
By confronting them in front of the crowds, He's publicly exposing their heresy. I have often been criticized for confronting false teachers, those who spread their damning lies as if it were God's Truth. But that is exactly what we see our Lord doing here, and it's certainly not an isolated incident. In Matthew 23, Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples, saying: "The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses; therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them," before prescribing eight curses or woes on them.
Verse 24, "If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand." Satan is not about to go around destroying his own work by exposing demons, that's completely illogical. He's far too cunning and deceptive to do anything that foolish. There are only two supernatural kingdoms that exist; the kingdom of Light and the kingdom of darkness.Why would Satan do anything to destroy his own kingdom? Verse 25, "If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand." If Satan goes around casting out himself, he is divided against himself; how then will his kingdom stand? It can't, the whole thing will collapse.
They're not rejecting Jesus because there is lack of evidence that He is God, they're rejecting Him because of the wickedness of their hearts, it is a rebellion against the kingdom of God. John 3:19-20,
"This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men
loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed."
Then, in verse 26, He really drives His point home, "If Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished!" He quickly points out the fallacy of their claim, He points out that it
doesn’t make any sense that He would drive out demons by the power of
demons. The prince of darkness driving out the forces of darkness, what kind of sense does that make? It's obvious, if Satan seeks to destroy his own, he’s just brought an end to himself.
In Matthew 12 verse 27, Jesus goes even further, pointing out that the other Jewish leaders are casting
out demons, claiming to do it by the power of God. "If I by Beelzebul
cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? For this reason
they will be your judges." You’re obviously biased, why don't you just let your sons decide. That's what I call an indictment! Now they're really in a perdicament, if they say Satan they’ll only
condemn themselves. If they say God, they'll confirm the source of His
power!
Then in verse 27, He says "But
no one can enter the strong man’s house and plunder his property unless
he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house." Look, if you’re going to go into a strong man's house to take his property, you’re going to have to be strong enough to overpower him to take his possessions, right? If you're going to deliver the people from demon possession, you have to be strong enough to bind him, he’s not going to just sit back and let that happen, he's going to try to stop you. There is only one Who is stronger than Satan, God Himself. Jesus repeatedly proved that He’s able to overpower Satan and cast out the demons by the power of the Holy Spirit.
That brings us to verses 28-30, we'll stop there for today. "Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— because they were saying, "He has an unclean spirit." They've seen the evidence, they interrogated the blind man and his parents, they witnessed the paralytic get up and walk, they didn't care because their minds were made up before they came down from Jerusalem. You can almost feel the tension in the air as Jesus delivers this spiritual warning, all sins can be forgiven except for one; continued rejection of the Holy Spirit’s work by attributing those works to Satan. By attributing His power to the power of Satan, they are saying Jesus is operating by the power of demonic forces, that's what their saying. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit can never be forgiven! They knew only God Himself could do what Jesus did. If you neglect, after that kind of evidence, it’s impossible to renew you to repentance. There's no hope of escaping judgment.
In Closing..
I am always amused by how many Christians attribute every difficult situation that happens to them to Satan, their giving him way too much
credit. Your theology is about the same as Pharisees at that point. Some of you would do well to consider the areas of our life that needs to be addressed, it may well be that God is chastening you. The purpose of chastening is discipline and purification. Hebrews 12:6 teaches us "For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives." Listen, if you are truly in Christ, you do not need to fear Satan! Romans 8:31 says "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?"
Hebrews 10:26-27, "For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries." The hottest hell is reserved for those who rejected Christ with the most knowledge.
May it be so..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen