Sermon # 83 Luke
Sermons
Title: Two Warnings And A Promise
Text: Luke
12:8-12
Subject: Confessing
Christ and Blasphemy
Date: Sunday
Evening -- 2002
Tape # X-11b
Introduction:
The title of my message
tonight is Two Warnings And A
Promise. Our text will be Luke 12:8-12.
(Luke
12:8-12) "Also I say unto you,
Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess
before the angels of God: (9) But he that denieth me before men shall be
denied before the angels of God..(10) And
whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him:
but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven.
(11) And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates,
and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye
shall say: (12) For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what
ye ought to say."
I. Confessing Christ and denying him—In verses
8 and 9, our Lord warns us about denying him, teaching us that true faith
confesses him before men and will not deny him.
(Luke
12:8-9) "Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of
man also confess before the angels of God: (9) But he that denieth me
before men shall be denied before the angels of God."
A. If you
would be saved you must come to Christ.
(Matthew
11:28-30) "Come unto me, all ye that
labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
(29) Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in
heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. (30) For my yoke is easy,
and my burden is light."
I am often asked, “How
do I come to Christ?” Come to Christ any way you can, but come. This
coming to Christ is an act of faith. And I know this…
1. If you come to
Christ in saving faith, you must do so personally.—I wish that I could
believe God for my family; but unless a man in his own heart believes on
Christ, he will perish.
2. If you come to
Christ, you must come sincerely.—You must not
only be persuaded that Christ is the way, but in your heart you must lovingly
and sincerely agree with God's terms of salvation. "My son, give me
thine heart" (Pro.
3. Coming to Christ is
a rational, reasonable thing.—Also those who
come to Christ do so rationally, in knowledge and understanding. Faith
is not a leap in the dark, but a reasonable, rational, knowledgeable trust.
·
I know WHAT Christ saved me from–sin's curse and condemnation.
·
I know WHO saved me–the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man.
·
I know HOW he saved me–by His perfect obedience and precious
blood.
·
I know WHY he saved me–"according to the good pleasure
of His own will" (grace, grace, and more grace).
4. I know this, too.—If you come to Christ, you will never
quit coming to him.—“To whom coming…”
The gift of faith is a
permanent gift of grace. And those who come to Christ come permanently,
with no intention of ever leaving him; and, by his grace, with no possibility
of ever being forsaken by him.
B. Having
come to Christ, we confess him.
(Romans
10:9-13) "That if thou shalt
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that
God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (10) For with
the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is
made unto salvation. (11) For the scripture saith, Whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. (12) For there is no difference
between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that
call upon him. (13) For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved."
·
Before God, the Church, and the World in Believer’s Baptism
(Romans
6:1-6) "What shall we say then?
Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? (2) God forbid. How
shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? (3) Know ye
not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into
his death? (4) Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death:
that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father,
even so we also should walk in newness of life. (5) For if we have been
planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the
likeness of his resurrection: (6) Knowing this, that our old
man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that
henceforth we should not serve sin."
·
Before Men in Daily Conversation
C. If we
deny Christ before men in this world, he will deny us before the angels of God
in the world to come.
This is not talking about an
act of denying Christ, as Peter did. Such a horrid thing a believer may do. Our
Lord is here talking about a person who denies Christ and goes on denying him,
a person who persists in denying him.
(2
Timothy 2:12) "If we suffer, we
shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny
us:"
(1
John 2:23) "Whosoever denieth the
Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath
the Father also."
Let us ever take care, my
brethren, that we confess Christ before men. I am not talking about
button-holing people, making a lot of religious noise, or obnoxiously badgering
people with your religion. But, as God gives you opportunity or in his
providence constrains it, do not allow anyone or anything to make you ashamed
of Christ. Confess him!
I do not go around talking
to people about my wife everywhere I go. But I never miss an opportunity to
talk about her. It is not a forced thing, but very natural. I love her. And it
is very natural to talk about someone you love. Should I ever be in a place
where someone speaks ill of her, I would be ashamed if I did not speak boldly
of her honor. If I failed to do so, she and all who observed such silence would
have every reason to be suspicious of my professed love for her.
Ever confess Christ before
men. Never be ashamed of him, the gospel of his grace, and the goodness and
mercy you experience at his hands. If we deny him, he will deny us. In the
world to come, we will reap the consequences of such cowardice and hypocrisy.
·
He will refuse to own us.
·
He will refuse to plead for us.
·
He will refuse to be an Advocate for us.
II. The Unpardonable Sin—In verse 10 our Lord warns us of that sin which shall not be
forgiven, neither in this world nor in the world to come.
(Luke
12:10) "And whosoever shall speak a
word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but unto him that
blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven."
I will say no more about
this than is obvious. But I will say no less. There is such a thing as the
unpardonable sin. Many who spoke against the Son of man while he was upon the
earth, not knowing who he is, were later converted and forgiven.
But those who blaspheme against the Holy Ghost are forever damned.
(Matthew
12:31-32) "Wherefore I say unto
you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven
unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be
forgiven unto men. (32) 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 world to
come."
(Mark
(1
John 5:16) "If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto
death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto
death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it."
A. We must not make
more of this warning than our Lord does.
This does not,
in any way contradict the plain teachings of Holy Scripture regarding the
freeness of God’s grace and the certainty of it to all who trust Christ.
·
Nothing is impossible with God.
·
The blood of Christ cleanses from all sin.
·
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.
·
He that believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life.
B. What is this
unpardonable sin, this blasphemy against the Holy Spirit that shall never be
forgiven?
In the context in which this
and our Lord’s other warnings about it are given, this blasphemy against the
Holy Spirit appears to be that which was the preeminent crime
of the Pharisees. It is the willful, persistent rejection of the gospel,
the willful, persistent hardening of the heart against the claims of Christ in
the gospel.
(2
Corinthians 2:14-16) "Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to
triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in
every place. (15) For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them
that are saved, and in them that perish: (16) To
the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the
savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?"
(Proverbs
1:23-33) "Turn you at my reproof:
behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto
you. (24) Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my
hand, and no man regarded; (25) But ye have set at nought all my
counsel, and would none of my reproof: (26) I also will laugh at your
calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; (27) When your fear cometh
as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and
anguish cometh upon you. (28) Then shall they call upon me, but I will
not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: (29) For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear
of the LORD: (30) They would none of my counsel: they despised all my
reproof. (31) Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way,
and be filled with their own devices. (32) For the turning away of the
simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. (33)
But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from
fear of evil."
(Proverbs
29:1) "He, that being often
reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that
without remedy."
C. Some of you, I know, are
sitting there with terror in your souls, thinking, “Have I committed this
unpardonable sin? Have I committed this blasphemy against the Holy Ghost/”
This much I know. The sin
here described is a sin accompanied by utter deadness, hardness, and
insensibility of heart. The person whose sin shall never be forgiven him is
precisely the person who will not seek to have his sin forgiven. That is the
very essence of his condemnation. God has left him alone! He is “twice dead!”
Sin hardened and gospel hardened! His conscience is seared as with a hot iron
(1 Tim. 4:2).
Do not be so foolish as to
trifle with such things. Come to Christ now. Trust him now. Today, if you will
hear his voice, harden not your heart!
III. God’s Promise—In verses 11 and 12, our Lord Jesus promises grace to help
in time of need.
(Luke
12:11-12) "And when they bring you
unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye
shall say: (12) For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what
ye ought to say."
Whatever your trial may be,
my brother, whatever your difficulty, my sister, as surely as God is on his
throne, he who brings you into the trial will bring you through the trial; and
he will do it in such a way that it will be obvious that he did it. He will
give you what you need, when you need it.
·
Enabling you to Persevere.
·
Enabling you to Serve Him.
·
Enabling you to Honor Him.
(1
Corinthians 10:13) "There hath no
temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful,
who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the
temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."