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Hello, and thank you for joining us on The Final Word.
For those of you who have been following along,
you know that we are having a series of in-depth studies
on the Holy Spirit.
We have discussed a great many things concerning
the Holy Spirit, and so we invite you to go to our website,
and catch some of the previous shows, if you have missed them.
Today we have a treat for you.
Today, we will ask the question
"What is Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?"
You know, growing up, I had always heard people say,
"You better not blaspheme against the Holy Spirit,
because if you do, you will never be forgiven of that."
And, so I might have done a lot of wrong things growing up,
but I made sure I never would
blaspheme against the Holy Spirit.
The truth of the matter is,
I didn't even really know what that meant.
Do you? Have you blasphemed the Holy Spirit?
Do you even know how to go about blaspheming him?
Well, we are glad that Charles Leonard is here to help us
understand a little bit more, and to give us
a better understanding of this very misunderstood subject.
So please get your Bibles and your notebooks,
as we learn about "Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit."
We're going to be talking about the blaspheming
of the Holy Spirit.
Now there are different ways that people refer to this.
Sometimes they simply refer to the blasphemy
of the Holy Spirit, sometimes they refer to it
as the "unpardonable sin" and sometimes they may refer to it
as the "sin against the Holy Ghost."
They may use either one of those three terms
or all three of them in conversation regarding it.
It seems that people have an interest in this subject
for at least one good reason.
Do you suppose that I have committed the sin
of blaspheming the Holy Spirit or that I could commit that sin?
Well, the word "blasphemy" literally means
"to speak against in an impious and reproachable speech,
injurious to divine majesty."
And so when you're talking about blasphemy,
you're talking about saying something against
the Holy Spirit, when used referring to the Holy Spirit.
Now there are different views held regarding the blasphemy
of the Holy Spirit, and it might be of interest to you to know
that across the years I have collected from
the Gospel Advocate and have in file at least an index
from 1965 on up to the present time.
And when I started working on the Holy Spirit
and thinking about these subjects, I thought,
"Yes, I'm going to look through that index
and see what I can find on the Holy Spirit."
It was very disappointing because there was
very, very little across a forty-year period
that had been written on the Holy Spirit.
And what you have been dealing with in this series of lectures
is something that you don't normally hear most anywhere,
because there is a lot
that they may not understand about the Holy Spirit
and may never understand about the Holy Spirit,
but whatever it is that's revealed about the Holy Spirit
we ought to be able to understand that and to know
as much as we can about the Holy Spirit
because he is one of the three parties of the Godhead.
Now then I mentioned that there is a variety of positions taken
regarding the Holy Spirit.
There are those, for example, who believe one can blaspheme
the Holy Spirit today.
There are those who say that one could not blaspheme
the Holy Spirit until Christ had ascended back to heaven.
There are those who believe that one would have
to have the same conditions as found in Matthew 12:31,32
to blaspheme the Holy Spirit.
And some think that the Pharisees did not commit sin,
but Christ was only warning them of a grave danger.
Now that's a variety of views
and then when the common man starts looking at all of those,
he wonders, "Now, where's this going to lead?"
So having noticed that there are different views held
regarding that, I want to remind you that
there are three different types of sin.
There is sin where one refuses to repent of it
- it's unpardonable.
Until a person repents, there is no pardon.
Then there are people who have sinned and are willing
to meet the Lord's requirements for forgiveness - that's pardon.
It's sin that they committed, but they've been pardoned
because they met the Lord's conditions.
On the other hand, there is a sin referred to as
"the sin unto death" and this is a sin that needs to be
repented of, and if so, then there can be forgiveness.
But a lot of people, when they read about that sin unto death,
they think back to the Old Testament,
when under the Old Testament there were certain sins that,
if you committed, you suffered the death penalty.
And they want to associate that with the Old Testament.
But any sin that a person refuses to repent of
until he dies, is a sin unto death.
Now having noticed all of that, I want to notice something
that will lay a little foundation here before we get
to the text that we're going to deal with.
Is it possible to blaspheme things and to blaspheme people?
In order to answer this, I'd like to encourage you
to take your Bibles and turn with us as we look
at these passages and at least you'll be convinced of what
you read here concerning the Holy Spirit.
Let's turn first of all to the book of Acts and in chapter 26,
I want us to look at verse 11.
Acts 26:11.
In verse 11, the apostle Paul is talking about what he did
to Christians before he became a Christian.
He says, "I punished them oft in every synagogue
and compelled them to blaspheme."
Now notice Paul was saying, he compelled those Christians
to blaspheme, "And being exceeding mad against them,
I persecuted them even unto strong cities."
Now what Paul is saying here is that he was in a position
and had the power, being in the position that he was in,
to cause those who were Christians to blaspheme.
Well, when you turn over a little bit
from where you are now to Romans 2.
In Romans 2, we're going to look at verse 4.
And it indicates that the Jews were responsible
for God being blasphemed among the Gentiles.
He says, "Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness
"and forbearance and longsuffering,
not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance."
Now he's saying of these Jews here,
that they were responsible for the Gentiles not responding
to the gospel because of the way that they were living.
Then turning over to the writings of Paul in I Timothy 1.
In I Timothy 1, I want us to look at verse 13.
And in this passage, Paul refers to himself as a blasphemer.
He says, "Who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor
"and injurious, but I obtained mercy
because I did it ignorantly in unbelief."
Paul referred to himself at one time,
as being not only a persecutor
but he was also a blasphemer.
Then turning over to chapter 6 of this same epistle,
in chapter 6 and verse 1,
Paul is indicating here that those who are bad servants
can so act as to cause God to be blasphemed.
He says, "Let as many servants as are under the yoke
"count their own masters worth of all honor,
that the name of God and his doctrine not be blasphemed."
In other words, it's possible for servants to live in
such a way to cause God or his doctrine to be blasphemed.
Then turning over to the book of Titus and chapter 2.
There's a passage that I want us to look at
and in this passage he indicates here that failure to live right
can cause the word of God to be blasphemed.
This is Titus 2:4, 5.
Now he's talking about what the aged women are supposed to do -
they're to teach the younger women.
And he says in verse 4 beginning,
"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,"
now notice - "that the word of God be not blasphemed."
Now with all of these passages that we have read,
what conclusion can we reach?
Having read these passages, we know that it is possible
for an individual to blaspheme people or to blaspheme things.
They can blaspheme the Bible, blaspheme the doctrine,
blaspheme people.
These are things that can be done.
So having noticed that there are different things
and people that can be blasphemed,
I want us to notice some different passages
that are often referred to, and in the study that I did
on the Holy Spirit,
I found these three passages referred to, repeatedly.
First of all, turn to Hebrews 6.
In Hebrews 6, there is a passage that refers to those
who were Jews going back under the law.
And we'll notice Hebrews 6:4-6.
Now this same apostle has referred to material
similar to this in the book of Romans
and also in the book of Galatians.
In fact, all three of those epistles were written
to help those that had become Christians to keep them
from going back under the law
and becoming apostates from the faith.
Hebrews 6:4-6, "For if they shall fall away,
"to renew them again unto repentance,
"seeing that they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh
and put him to an open shame."
Verse 4 he says, "It is impossible for those
"who were once enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift
and remain partakers of the Holy Ghost."
Now what's he saying?
He's saying that for those who become Christians,
that they then apostatize and go and leave the faith
and go back under Judaism,
it's impossible to renew them again to repentance.
In other words, people can go so deep in sin
that they're not willing to make a turn.
They can have their conscience seared as with a hot iron.
And once that conscience is seared
and once they go so deep in sin,
it's impossible to renew them again to repentance.
Now, there are those who would try to connect this
with what they call the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.
The only way that this could be connected with the blasphemy
of the Holy Spirit would be that if people's hearts
became so harden and so cold, that they not only
apostatized from the faith, but they begin to speak
against the Holy Spirit or began to speak against the truth,
then from that standpoint, they might able to do that.
Now turning in the book of Hebrews
to another passage found in Hebrews 10.
In Hebrews 10, we're going to look at verse 26.
Here he says, "For if we sin willfully,
"after we have received the knowledge of the truth,
"there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
"but a certain faithful looking for of judgment
and fiery indignation, which devoured the adversaries."
So he's indicating here there's such a thing as a willful sin,
and this would be a sin that a person knows
what the sin is, they know that they are committing it,
and they deliberately and willfully go ahead
and commit that sin or live in that sin.
Now there's a third passage that is often referred to
in I John 5:16.
And this he's referring to as a sin unto death.
I John 5:16, he says, "If any man see his brother sin a sin
"which is not unto death, he shall ask and he shall give him
"life for those who sin not unto death.
"There is a sin unto death, I do not say
that he should pray for that."
Well, a sin unto death from another standpoint would be
any sin that's unrepented of would eventually lead to death.
Now I'm not talking about physical death,
but spiritual death.
Paul said in Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death,
"but the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Now all of these passages are generally brought to the front
when you get started studying on the blaspheming
of the Holy Spirit.
Now what I'd like us to do and get you to look at it
for yourself, turn back to Matthew 12.
In Matthew 12, we're going to begin looking at this
from the standpoint of the background,
and in Matthew 12 and verse 22
is the passage that we want to begin with.
In Matthew 12:22, it says, "Then was brought to him one possessed
"with a devil, blind and dumb, and he healed him
in so much that the blind and the dumb both spake and saw."
And then verse 23, "And all the people were amazed and said,
Is not this the son of David?"
So what had happened here was that the Lord had healed a man.
He was possessed with a demon, he was blind and dumb,
and so the Lord had performed a miracle here.
And as a result of the miracles that he performed, of course,
the Pharisees and others were critical of him,
and I suppose also envious, because they would like,
perhaps, to have the power to do the same thing.
But now as we go on down into this, look down to verse 24.
"But when the Pharisees heard it, they said,
"This fellow does not cast out devils,
but by Beelzebub, the prince of devils."
In other words, they're saying that the only reason
why he could do that is because he was able to cast those out
through Beelzebub, who was the prince of the devils.
Then when we get down to verse 32 of this same chapter,
he says, "And whosoever speaketh a 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 one to come."
Now I want to point out something in verse 32,
if you're looking at the passage.
It talks about this world and the world to come.
When you look up that word "world," in this context,
it's not referring to what we commonly think of as world here,
but it's talking about an age.
And the age that it is referring to was the age
of the Law of Moses, a Jewish age.
Now after the Lord ascended back to heaven
and the church had its beginning,
then we have the Holy Spirit age,
that was the age that was to come.
And so the Lord says, "If they commit this sin,
"they will not be forgiven in this age, the Jewish age,
"or in the age to come, the Christian age.
It's something they can't get forgiveness of."
And the Lord was doing this because he wanted to stop
their criticism of the miracles that he performed.
And as was pointed out by Brother Robert Taylor yesterday,
those miracles that the Lord performed were designed to cause
people to believe that Jesus was the Christ, the son of God.
(John 20:30, 31) And so these miracles were designed to cause
people to believe and if they could discredit
the Lord's miracles that he was performing,
then that would discredit and stop people from believing
on Jesus Christ as the Son of God.
In fact, all these things are recorded in the gospel of John.
There's a summary given in John 20:30, 31,
"Many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence
"of his disciples, but these are written that ye may
"believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and believing, that you might have life through his name."
Why was the book of John written?
To cause people to believe.
What all was found in that book?
All the miracles that John wrote about
that the Lord had performed, and those miracles were recorded
by John the apostle to cause people to believe.
And one cannot read the gospel of John without reading all
of those miracles and being convinced that Jesus Christ
had the power to perform miracles.
But now there's something else that enters the picture.
In verse 28, Jesus told how that he'd performed those miracles.
In verse 28, he says, "But if I cast out devils
"by the Spirit of God,
then the kingdom of God is come unto you."
He did cast out devils by the Spirit of God.
He wasn't casting out devils by the power of Beelzebub,
but by the Spirit of God, and so the Lord wanted to stop that.
The question that often arises and people are wanting
the answer to - can we today commit the sin
or blaspheme the Holy Spirit?
Well, generally speaking, when you put that in its context
there in Matthew 12:22-32, you see that the reason
why the Lord told them this is because he wanted them
to realize they were treading on very shallow ground.
Very dangerous.
And so he's telling them that when one blasphemes
the Holy Ghost, there is no forgiveness in the Jewish age.
There is no forgiveness in the Christian age.
Well, if there is no forgiveness in the Jewish age
and no forgiveness in the Christian age, when would
they ever get forgiven? There would be no forgiveness.
So there would be a sin that would be unpardonable,
and this is what the Lord was doing there,
trying to get them to realize how serious it was for them
to be blaspheming the Lord and blaspheming the Holy Spirit.
Now in all probability, Christians today,
or religious people, are not going
to blaspheme the Holy Spirit.
But on the other hand, if we do what the writer said
in Hebrews 6:4-6, if we shall fall away
after having been exposed to the truth,
he said it's impossible to renew them and if a person's heart or
conscience gets seared, they're not going to turn to the Lord.
They're going to remain in sin.
And what was happening that's touched on in the book of Romans
and in the book of Hebrews and also in the book of Galatians,
is the fact that there were many Jewish converts, who had
given up Judaism to become a Christian and now they were
trying to go back to Judaism to their old way of life.
It reminds me of what Peter said in II Peter 2:20, 22.
He said "it's like a dog that's turned again to its own vomit
and a sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire."
In other words, a person can go so far away from the truth
and get so deep in sin, that it may reach the point that
they'll begin to blaspheme or to speak against the word of God,
the Holy Spirit, the Godhead, and in such case
it would be very similar to what he's talking about here.
Now, as far as everything being clear-cut regarding the
blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, it's not all that clear-cut.
And when you start looking for material on it,
you're going to find that the material is very sparse.
So what we have to do is to remember the teachings found
in Matthew 12:22-32 and then also in Mark 3:28-30
and realize that as Christians we believe in God,
we believe in the Lord,
we believe the Holy Spirit to be the third member of the Godhead,
and we're wanting to do that which is right.
Then I don't believe that there is any possibility for us
to commit the sin, as they call it, against the Holy Spirit
or blaspheme the Holy Spirit.
You know, sometimes we wish we could have more information,
but it's hard to get more information than is revealed.
And we have just read what has been revealed on the subject.
We want to thank Brother Leonard for his wonderful lesson
on the Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.
To sum up - when you speak against,
and live your life against God and the Holy Spirit,
you are in reality blaspheming,
and could be causing people to blaspheme as well.
But, today, when a person blasphemes - he refuses
to repent, he refuses to accept what God has said.
People today can cause others not to obey,
people today can so speak, and so live,
that others will never come to know the Christ.
You and I must be very careful, friend, how we live.
While we cannot exactly blaspheme today,
at least not in the same manner that people did
in the New Testament context,
one thing we need to always be aware of - is that
if we refuse to obey God, if we refuse to do what God has said,
in one aspect we are speaking against what God says,
and what the Holy Spirit has said in his word.
Well, perhaps you are watching this show,
and you are not a child of God, - if not,
you are doing the very thing, you are living directly opposite
to what the Holy Spirit of God would say.
But if you want to be a child of God,
here's some things you need to do.
You need to believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
You need to repent of your sins, change your mind
about living a sinful life.
You need to confess that Jesus is indeed the Son of God.
Upon your confession, you'll be taken, you'll be immersed
in water, in order to have your sins forgiven
and then you can be on the side of God,
on the side of Jesus and on the side of the Holy Spirit.
Thank you for joining us today
as we've looked more at the Holy Spirit.
Please come back next time and join us again
as we continue in this very deep subject.