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All Sins Forgiven
Except Blaspheme of the Holy Ghost

December 12, 2007

Bob Bradley

_________________________ 

Mark 3:20-35

 

20 And the multitude cometh together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread.

21 And when his friends heard of it , they went out to lay hold on him: for they said, He is beside himself.

22 And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils.

23 And he called them unto him , and said unto them in parables, How can Satan cast out Satan?

24 And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.

25 And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.

26 And if Satan rise up against himself, and be divided, he cannot stand, but hath an end.

27 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.

28 Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme:

29 But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation:

30 Because they said, He hath an unclean spirit.

31 There came then his brethren and his mother, and, standing without, sent unto him, calling him.

32 And the multitude sat about him, and they said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee.

33 And he answered them, saying, Who is my mother, or my brethren?

34 And he looked round about on them which sat about him, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren!

35 For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother.

 

 

As we continue through the study of the book of Mark, we talked about His twelve apostles that He called and He was going to send out with a delegated authority to preach the Word, heal sicknesses and so forth...

 

Verse 20 says:

 

20 And the multitude cometh together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread.

 

As we talked about, we are several months into Jesus' ministry maybe 12 to 15 months into His ministry.  Crowds are enormous.  For crowds that are following Him because it takes a little bit of time to spread all over Judea, and Galilee and Samaria and all the region that was there; it took a while for the fame and for His notoriety to go all over the nation.  This time for the most part, He had His name and people knew who He was although they may not have seen Him.  Thousands and thousands of people were coming around here.

 

20 And the multitude cometh together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread.

 

When you look at what Mark is saying is that there were so many people and so many demands upon Jesus and upon those that were around Him that, they did not have time to sit down and eat.  They didn't have any leisure time whatsoever to even sit down and eat.

 

21 And when his friends heard of it , they went out to lay hold on him: for they said, He is beside himself.

 

When you read all the accounts of what is going here, Jesus is going to heal a guy that has a deaf and dumb spirit.  He heals him and makes him whole.  This is what prompts what is going to happen here.  When you read the book of Matthew and Luke, it will tell you about Him healing him and it is in this context of this writing.  Why didn't Mark include that?  Not all the writers included everything that Jesus did. 

 

I have used this picture before:  If we were all standing here and there was two cars hit out here in the parking lot; they would separate us and ask us what we saw then some of would see the same things then some of would see other things that others did not see. 

 

That is basically how the four gospel writers wrote different things down. 

 

In verse 20, it says, "...when his friends heard of it..."  When you look at that word "friends" in the original manuscripts, it tells us that it is not talking about just casual friends, but it is actually talking about His blood relatives.  When we go over to verse 31, we know that they are there and when you read this in the original, it tells us these are His blood relatives.  When it says here, "...when his friends heard of it..."  What they are hearing here is Nazareth, Jesus is now in Capernaum, and they are hearing all that He is doing.  They are hearing about the great miracles that He is doing, about the touching and healing folk even way back over here in Nazareth.  Therefore, when His family, His blood family, His mother and His brethren, hears about what is going on in His life then they are going to come over here and they are going to try to do something.  This is important because look what it says here:

 

21 "...when his friends heard of it they went out to lay hold on him:  for they said, He is beside himself." 

 

His family hears about what is going on.  His family hears about all the things that He is doing, the crowds that are following Him, and the preaching that He is doing, as well as, the stand that He is taking against the Sadducees, scribes and Pharisees.  They hear that and they get in their mind, "We are going to go over here and we are going to lay hold of Him."  What that means is that they are going to go over there and take Him or lay hold of Him and restrain Him or cease Him against His will.  That is what they are thinking.  The reason that they are going to do that is because they said that He is beside himself.  When you look at that word "beside himself" in the original is that, they actually think He is insane.  They actually think that He has lost His mind.  They actually think that all the pressure and everything that has been going on with the rigorous schedule of traveling and moving and all these things.  They actually think that Jesus has lost His mind. 

 

That is not much different from our family that is unsaved.  When you and I get saved and begin living for the Lord Jesus Christ then many times they think that we are crazy.  They think that we have completely lost our mind.  They think that we have been misled or led astray.  That is not much different from what is going on here with Jesus. 

 

His mother and His family thought that He has lost His mind.  The pressure has finally got to Him.  He has cracked and lost His mind.  We are going to go over here and get Him.  We are going to go over here and cease Him and take Him back home.  He just needs some rest.  That is really all that He needs.  That is what they were thinking.  He had not lost His mind.  He knew exactly what He was doing.  It is just great to know that Jesus looked at the needs of people more than His own feelings, more than His own physical well-being.  He looked at the needs of other people.  Sure, there were many demands upon Him.  Sure, there were times that He didn't have time to eat or sit down.  The reason that He was able to continue on doing these things is because He spent time alone with His Father in prayer. 

 

God can do some great things in our life if we just let Him.  God can do...  I've prayed with many people over the years.  I've had people call me and say pray for me and some of them I have prayed for, for many years.  They called, or we go and see and they want us to pray for them.  When we pray today, and we go back a week from now or a month from now, nothing changes.  We pray for them again, we go back a week or two from then, and nothing changes.  It is not that God is not hearing.  It is not that God don't want to change people's lives but the problem is that sometimes we don't want to change.  We like the drama.  We like the attention.  We like people patting us on the back and telling us that we are just ready to kick off.  We like that sometimes. 

 

Jesus here, spent time with His Father and by Him doing that then His Father was able to energize Him or strengthen Him and to be able to give Him the spirit that He needs in this physical body to go out and do those things that God, His Father had wanted Him to do.  That has not changed any. 

 

Just about every day, I need His help.  The older I get, I figure out some things.  I'm not near as strong as I used to be.  I can't work as I used to, I can't do many of the things that I used to be able to do.  Some things I can't do as good as I used to.  I used to use a 25-pound sledgehammer and it didn't bother me a bit.  Now I could do well to pick one up.  You and I, if we will live as we should live and the things that God wills us to do, if we will seek His face, if we will seek the help that comes from Him; God will strengthen us and help us to do those things that we need to do to bring glory to His name.  God will do that.

 

Here He is and they think that they are going to lay hold to Him.  They think that He is crazy and they think that He has lost His mind.  The Bible goes on and says this:

 

22 And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils.

 

As I said to you a while ago, if you will read Matthew's account and Luke's account you will find out that He had just healed a guy with a deaf and dumb spirit, a fellow here that was possessed by and controlled by demons.  Jesus had just cast them out.  When this happens, the scribes had just come from Jerusalem.  They had come down to investigate what Jesus was.  Remember the scribes were the educated people.  They were the ones who took the Law of Moses and rewrote it to suit them.  They came to see what was going on.

 

When the scribes come down, investigate, and see what Jesus is doing, they look around and their opinion here about this guy called Jesus is that He has Beelzebub.  When you look at the word "Beelzebub", it means the god of flies.  It also means the god of dung.  When you read the whole context of things, it says here when he says here, "...He hath Beelzebub..."  When you read that in the original context, it actually says that Beelzebub has Him.  In other words instead of Him having Beelzebub, Beelzebub has control of Him.  What that is saying is that satan is actually in control of Jesus.  That is what the scribes were saying.  They were not about to recognize that Jesus was casting out devils and demons and doing what He was doing by the power of God.  They were not going to do that.  Therefore, they had to come up with something to discredit what He was doing.  Therefore, they said that Beelzebub here has control of Him.  In other words, they are saying that satan himself has control of what He is doing.  satan is empowering Him.  The power that He has here is coming from satan, not coming from God.  That would take a stupid individual to say something like that.  Someone here that has just seen Him do all the miracles that He has done, to cast out demons and do all that He has done.  For a man to make a statement like that, especially a learned individual, it would show that he did not have much smarts. 

 

If you watch much TV today, you saw 10 to 12 people here that we watch today don't have a whole lot of smarts.  If you watch much TV today, you know what I am talking about, but if you didn't watch TV today, it doesn’t make any difference. 

 

The Bible tells us here that:

 

22 ...He hath Beelzebub and that by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils. 

 

What they are saying here is that He has Beelzebub.  Beelzebub is satan.  He says here and "...by the prince of the devils..." satan is the prince or he is the first one in order of the demons or he is the devil.  It says something here that I want you to notice.  He says that "...by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils." 

 

When you think about a prince, you think about someone in royalty.  You think about someone that has been born into the family of royalty.   You think about someone that is about to inherit someone, something or whatever.  The word here means something to that effect.  However, here it is talking about satan, the devil, lucifer or the dragon, but he is also talking about demons.  There are two different orders.  There is only one devil.  There is only one satan but there are many demons.  satan is the one in charge over the demons.  he is the one in control of the demons.  he is the prince of the demons or over the demons, but there are two different orders.  There is one devil and many demons. 

 

In your life as a Christian, you will encounter demons.  They are in the air around us.  Many times, they infiltrate or they influence how that we think many times.  They suggest things to us many times.  They do a lot of things in our minds or our thinking process and, if we are not very careful, we will allow them to influence the way that we think.  The way that we think influences the way that we feel.  The way that we feel dictates what we do and before long, if we are not very careful, it can absolutely ruin our day, month, year or ruin our lives if we will let him.  They are real.  The demons that are around us are real.  Someone said, "What is the answer?"  I have trouble with evil thoughts.  I have trouble just thinking about evil. 

 

There is a difference between an evil thought and sitting around thinking about evil.  I can have an evil thought, but it is different from sitting around thinking about evil all day long.  Someone said, we can't help the birds flying over our heads but we can keep them from building a nest on our head. 

 

What you expose yourself to has a direct impact on what you think.  If you think that you can sit around, look at porn all day, and never have evil thoughts, then you are brain dead.  There is something bad wrong with you.  If you think that you can sit around and listen to some sexually provocative music on some kind of a program like that on TV and it not affects the way that you think, you are wrong.  It will affect how that you think.  If we would understand that then today in our society we would not have so many people in such bad shape today mentally. 

 

One devil, many demons.

 

23 And he called them unto him , and said unto them in parables, How can Satan cast out Satan?

 

Jesus, as they make that statement that He is casting out devils by the prince of devil; in other words they are saying that satan is in control of what He is doing; Jesus says come on over here a little closer.  In the original, the scribes that have come from Jerusalem when they make this statement evidently, they must have been a ways off because when you read that in the original Jesus invites them to come a little bit closer so that they could talk.  In other words, so that He could tell them some things about what was going on.  It says here, "...he called them unto him, and said unto them in parables, How can satan cast out satan?"  What He is actually saying is that it is impossible for satan to cast out satan.  That doesn’t make any sense, does it?  They are saying that He is casting out demons by the power of the prince of the demons.  In other words, he is saying that satan is empowering Him to cast out devils.  satan is not going to do that.  That would make no sense at all.

 

If I was trying to build a house over here, I had two by fours over, and I go and nail up ten two by fours in a wall over and after I got this wall nailed up; I would come with a bulldozer and knock this wall down; that would not make much sense now.  Would it?  I would start building the wall back again and then I would tear it down again.  Do you know what would happen?  I would never get anywhere. 

 

It is an impossibility for satan to cast out satan.  That is what it is saying here.  He says here:

 

24 And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.

25 And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.

26 And if Satan rise up against himself, and be divided, he cannot stand, but hath an end.

 

He uses the kingdom.  He uses the house.  He even uses the word satan.  If a kingdom were divided against itself, it cannot stand.  A nation, America as it is today, as much as we are divided today, our nation cannot stand much longer.  It is because we have the liberal views on one side and the conservatives on the other and when you look at the numbers, they are split down the middle.  It is a house divided and it cannot stand. It cannot continue on this way.  It cannot continue.  I don't know how long it is going to be.  I don't have any idea how long it is going to stand.  I promise you that as long as we are here that it is going to get worse and worse.  It is not going to stand.  When a nation rots on the inside, when it starts its decay on the inside, as America has, that is where our decay started many years ago on the inside; it may look beautiful on the outside.  You can take an apple, watermelon or whatever; it may look pretty on the outside but if you cut the thing open and it is just rotten on the inside and that's about where we are at in America today.  We may look real pretty on the outside but when we start looking at our morals, our leaders of our country and what they believe and what they say that they want to institute and what the majority of America says that they will vote for; we are in bad shape.  When the majority of America stands up and says that Abortion is fine, we are in Bad shape.  When the majority of America stands up and says that same sex marriages is fine; then we are in Bad shape as a country, as a nation.  I make no reservations in saying that.  People are dying lost.  Preachers, churches, pastors, Christian people are crawling in a hole and pulling in the hole behind us and saying it does not really matter.  I guarantee if it was your son or your daughter dying lost then it would matter. 

 

27 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.

 

He is making a very plain statement here that you cannot go into a man's house and spoil his house, or the word "spoil" means to ransack; you can't go inside a man's house and ransack his house thoroughly ransack his house until you first bind the strong man.  It takes someone stronger than the strong man to bind him.  What Jesus is saying here, if satan is casting out satan then the power is the same.  satan is satan it does not matter where he is.  Jesus is a whole lot stronger than what satan is.  He is a whole more cleaver than what satan is.  He is able to bind the strong man and then He is able to go in and take possession or ransack his goods or his equipment.

 

28 Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme:

 

He is talking to the religious crowd here.  I want you to get something here.  It is very important in what He is teaching here.  When you read what these guys are doing here, it speaks about blaspheme and sin being forgiven; He is talking to these fellows that know exactly what He is doing.  Remember that because it is important. 

 

We have a lot people that sit in churches all the time that know Jesus saves, that Jesus heals, and they know that Jesus is going to return and get the church and take them to heaven.  They believe that there is a heaven out there.  They believe that there is a hell out there.  They know that.  There is a difference between knowing it here, [intellectually in our minds] and believing it here, [in our heart]. 

 

These guys knew who Jesus was.  There is no doubt in my mind that these scribes, these religious leaders, knew who Jesus Christ was.  They were not about to accept Him.  They were not about to say that He is using the great power of God because that would upset their whole apple cart.  It would just go against everything that they were trying to do.  These guys knew who Jesus was. 

 

Jesus said that all sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men.  That is plain.  All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme...  Does everybody understand that?  To blaspheme means to speak irreproachably.  It means to speak down about something or about someone, or to rail at, to a make a malicious representation about something or towards something or someone.  That is what blaspheme means.  It says here that all sins and blasphemies shall be forgiven.  Those things can be forgiven.  However, there is something that cannot be forgiven. 

 

29 But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation:

 

Do you believe that?  That is the truth. 

 

I want to notice what He is saying here.  He is saying that all sin is forgivable and that all blaspheme is forgivable unto the sons of men, but it says that he that blaspheme against the Holy Ghost there is no forgiveness in this life or the life to come if you read the whole context of things.  An individual that does that is in danger of eternal damnation.  Eternal damnation is being pronounced into the lake of fire.  Someone that blasphemes against the Holy Ghost...God loves mankind...  God sent His Son, Jesus, to go to the cross to die that a covering or payment could be made for my sin.  He died and He rose from the dead and He goes back to the right hand of the Father, but before He goes, He tells the folks that were there that I am going to pray to the Father and He is going to send you another comforter.  We know that on the day of Pentecost that the Holy Ghost came.  Do you know what the Holy Spirit; the Holy Ghost of God is doing today?  The Holy Ghost today is drawing people and speaking to people.  There are preachers, pastors and people that are spreading the Word of God.  When the Word of God is preached and taught then the Holy Spirit will use the Word of God to convict us and try to convince us that we need to get saved.  When you got saved, it was because you were convinced by the Holy Spirit of God that Jesus loved you, that He died for you, and that if you did not repent of your sins you were going to die in your sins and go to hell.  You were convinced that you needed to change.  The Holy Spirit convinced you of that.  You may not realize that, but that is what happened. 

 

Here is the thing that is so scary.  The Holy Spirit of God comes and stirs peoples' hearts.  He speaks unto people and says you need to get saved.  God loves you and Jesus died for you.  You need to repent of your sins, you need to come and get saved.  Do you know what people do?  They snarl their nose.  They say, "I'm not going to do that."  I have had many people over the last 30 years tells me, "Preacher, I'll never get saved.  The church down the road...this happened...or that happened...I've got family...that goes to church...that lies, steals cheats...I'll never get saved."  Do you know what that individual is doing?  He is blaspheming the Holy Ghost.  What he is actually doing is this.  He is saying I am not going to believe.  I am not going to respond in a positive way to the call or the drawing power of the Holy Spirit; I am not going to do that.

 

I don't care who you are, if you reject the Holy Spirit of God and Him calling, begging, pleading with you to come and make things right with God; Jesus died for you.  He loves you.  You need to come and repent.  Hell is real.  You don't need to go there.  Come and go to heaven.  If you reject that and continually reject that, there is no forgiveness for you.  There can be no forgiveness when we reject or fail to believe what the Holy Spirit is trying to do within us; there is no forgiveness for that.  Murder can be forgiven.  Adultery can be forgiven.  Drunkenness can be forgiven.  Homosexuality can be forgiven.  Drug addicts can be cleaned up and there is going to be a lot up in heaven.  One individual that is not going to be there is every individual that fails to submit to the calling of the Holy Spirit of God.  They are not going to be there.

 

He is telling these scribes.  What I am doing here, I am doing through the power of the Holy Spirit of God.  You guys are saying that I am not doing that.  You guys are saying I am doing that by the power of satan.  What He is saying is there is no forgiveness there if you continue believing that.  There is no forgiveness there if we will not believe the Spirit of God when He speaks unto our hearts.  Sometimes, He uses the Word of God, in the early hours of the morning, to call and to speak unto us and if we do not respond in a positive way, [believe that Jesus died for me, that He loves me, that He is going to come one day and get me] then there is no forgiveness for us.  The only thing that is left is eternal damnation eternally burning in a lake of fire forever. 

 

The sad part is that there is going to be many church members there.  There are going to be many preachers there. 

 

I'm not going there.  I don't want you going there.  Believe Him.  Believe Jesus Christ and you won't have to worry about that.

 

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