INTRO.- This title sounds like a pretty serious subject and it is! Life is serious stuff. Life is both serious and scary. In just a few weeks’ time we’ve had four school shootings in the US. If that isn’t serious I don’t know what is!
Oct. 2, 2006: A gunman killed at least five people, including himself, and wounded more at a one-room Amish schoolhouse in Lancaster, PA.
Sept. 29, 2006: 15-year-old Eric Hainstock brought two guns to Weston Schools in rural Cazenovia, Wisconsin and fatally shot his principal, 49-year-old John Klang, after Klang had given him a disciplinary warning for having tobacco on school grounds.
Sept. 27, 2006: 53-year-old gunman Duane Morrison took six girls hostage at Platte Canyon High School in Bailey, Colorado. Morrison used the girls as human shields for hours before he shot and fatally wounded 16-year-old Emily Keyes and then killed himself.
Aug. 24, 2006: Christopher Williams, 27, went to Essex Elementary School in Essex, Vermont looking for his ex-girlfriend, Andrea Lambesis. He shot and killed teacher Mary Alicia Shanks, 56, and wounded another teacher at the school. Williams also killed Lambesis’ mother.
In the light of these school shootings, we wonder “what is going wrong with this crazy world?” That’s just the point.
More and more people seem to be going crazy or else they are doing all kinds of evil things. I still want to say, “Do you believe in the devil now?”
ILL.- On the CBS evening news, Monday, Oct. 2nd, they had the father of one of the Columbine’s School murders speak about the school shooting problem in the US. Brian Rhorbough whose son was murdered at the Columbine School shooting said, “I’m saddened and shaken by the shooting at an Amish school today, and last week’s school murders.
“When my son Dan was murdered on the sidewalk at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, I hoped that would be the last school shooting. Since that day, I’ve tried to answer the question, "Why did this happen?"
“This country is in a moral free-fall. For over two generations, the public school system has taught in a moral vacuum, expelling God from the school and from the government, replacing him with evolution, where the strong kill the weak, without moral consequences and life has no inherent value.
“We teach there are no absolutes, no right or wrong. And I assure you the murder of innocent children is always wrong, including by abortion. Abortion has diminished the value of children.
“Suicide has become an acceptable action and has further emboldened these criminals. And we are seeing an epidemic increase in murder-suicide attacks on our children.
“Sadly, our schools are not safe. In fact, we now witness that within our schools. Our children have become a target of terrorists from within the United States.”
I think he said a mouthful, the biggest being, “We have expelled God from the school and the government…” There were a number of people who wrote to CBS after his free speech. Some agreed and some totally disagreed. Certainly everyone has a right to their opinion.
I don’t believe that he was without compassion for those people who lost their children, but he did blame the whole mess in America on leaving God out of the school system and the government. And I would certainly add, leaving God out of the family, out of our lives in general. If Christianity isn’t taught and lived out in our lives at home then what we do at school won’t make much difference.
When people have no relationship to the living, loving God who created them there will always be chaos, violence, and all kinds of evil!
If people truly believed in Jesus as the Son of God and Savior and followed Him we wouldn’t be having all these school shootings and a lot of other serious problems.
Life is serious stuff. The problem is that unless we encounter something really tough we don’t get too serious about God, Christ and the church. These horrible things that are happening in America and around the world should be a wake up call to America and to all people everywhere!
PROP.- I want us to look at this text from the standpoint of what Jesus did and does in regard to the devil, blasphemy, and sin, because this is serious stuff.
1- Jesus delivers people from Satan
2- Jesus knows people’s thoughts
3- Jesus forgives all sin but one
I. JESUS DELIVERS PEOPLE FROM SATAN
Matt. 12:22-23 “Then they brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see. All the people were astonished and said, "Could this be the Son of David?"
Demon possession. Is it real? Are there still people today who are demon possessed?
ILL.- What about the fellow (Charles Carl Roberts IV) who shot those girls at that Amish school in Lancaster, PA? He was either crazy or possessed, although the people around him (including family members) considered him to be somewhat normal. But I don’t see how he could be considered normal when he murdered some children execution style by shooting them in the head.
The police said the gunman, Charles Carl Roberts, a 32-year-old truck driver from the nearby town of Bart, was bent on killing young girls as a way of “acting out in revenge for something that happened 20 years ago” when he was a boy.
In a note, Roberts said he was "filled with so much hate, hate toward myself, hate towards God and unimaginable emptiness..."?
Whether some people are demon possessed or just influenced by Satan, there is definitely still evil in our world. Evil exists! I don’t know how anyone can deny it!
ILL.- Let me remind you what preacher Billy Sunday of the early 1900’s said, “I know that the devil is real for two reasons: #1 Because the Bible says so. And #2 Because I’ve done business with him.”
Brothers and sisters, most people have done business with the devil and didn’t even know it. But Jesus is the person who can take the devil and evil right out of people.
How does Jesus deliver people from evil and Satan? When they come to believe in Christ and surrender to Him in faith and obedience then Satan will move out.
When that which is greater moves in, that which is lesser will move out.
Acts 2:38 Peter said at Pentecost, “Repent and be baptized, everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
When Christ moves into a person through the Holy Spirit the spirit of evil must leave! Evil cannot stay where Christ dwells. Of course, this is not to say that we won’t continue to have trouble with Satan at times. He will come knocking on the door of our heart just to see if he can cause us trouble. After Jesus was baptized it wasn’t long before Satan showed up to give him trouble.
ILL.- When I was in Bible College I sold Fuller Brush products door-to-door. My boss was a guy named Lefty. He took me out one to day to show me the ropes and he literally stuck his foot in the door when one lady said she wasn’t interested. As a result of that he ended up getting inside and selling that woman some Fuller Brush products.
The point is simply this. If you let Satan get his foot in the door by any means, he will try to force his way in to gain control and do even more damage in your life. DON’T LET HIM IN! Katy bar the door!
James 4:7-8 “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you.”
How do you bar the door to Satan? How do you resist? With the Word of God. With scripture. With prayer. With worship. With Christian fellowship. With Christian service. When you are busy in the Lord’s work you’ll have no time for Satan’s enticements.
II. JESUS KNOWS PEOPLE’S THOUGHTS
Matthew 12:24-26 “But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, "It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons." Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand?”
ILL.- A businessman dragged himself home and barely made it to his chair before he dropped, exhausted. His sympathetic wife was right there with a tall cool drink and a comforting word.
"Honey, you look tired," she said. "You must have had a hard day today. What happened to make you so exhausted?" "It was terrible," her husband said, "The computer broke down and all of us had to do our own thinking."
We all need to do some thinking for ourselves, but admittedly, sometimes our thinking is not the best and could even get us into trouble.
Jesus knew their thoughts. He knows our thoughts as well. Jesus was and is the greatest mind-reader ever.
ILL.- Someone said, “There is no door through which Christ cannot see.” And there is also no mind that Christ cannot read.
The Pharisees were thinking entirely wrong. They were thinking that Jesus cast out demons by the power of Satan. How foolish of them to think that. It didn’t make any sense at all.
Jesus said that if a kingdom is against itself, how can it stand? Or if a person is against himself, how can he accomplish anything in life?
ILL.- For example, if I were to party every Saturday night and stay up late, like maybe 1 or 2 in the morning and then try to teach and preach the next day, I would be defeating myself. IT JUST WOULDN’T MAKE GOOD SENSE! And the Pharisees of old didn’t make good sense in their thinking either.
And there are probably some people today who think that Jesus was empowered by the devil. How ridiculous and how evil is their thinking!
Jesus knows when we think dumb thoughts or have dumb ideas as well.
ILL.- One man said, “My five year old daughter was misbehaving in worship one day and had to be taken out for corrective measures. When I asked her, "do you know what you are about to get?" She turned her big brown eyes toward me and said, "A piece of candy."
Sometimes our thinking is no better, but it can improve. How can we think good thoughts?
Ps. 119:11 “Thy Word have it hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.”
The more we set our minds on scripture and good stuff, the better our thinking will be. But if we allow our minds to be saturated with the things of the world, we will not think correctly. It always pays to remember that Jesus knows our thinking, good, bad or otherwise.
III. JESUS FORGIVES ALL SIN BUT ONE
Matthew 12:30-32 “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. “Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.”
ILL.- A preacher’s son and his mom had been to a shopping mall where the boy had misbehaved. As they were driving home, he could sense her anger and said, “When we ask God to forgive us when we are bad, He does forgive us, doesn’t he?” His mother replied, “Well, yes, He does.”
The boy continued, “And when he forgives us He buries our sins in the deepest sea, doesn’t he?” The mom replied, “Yes.”
The boy was silent for a while and then said, “I’ve asked God to forgive me, but I bet when we get home, you’re going fishing for those sins aren’t you?” The mother replied, “Definitely, yes!”
Fortunately for us, whenever Jesus forgives us He doesn’t come back and go fishing for our sins.
ILL.- “But preacher,” said the young husband who came in for counseling, “whenever Joan and I quarrel, she becomes historical.” “No, you mean, hysterical.” “No, I mean historical. SHE’S ALWAYS DIGGING UP MY PAST.”
Sometimes we humans won’t leave people alone when it comes to their past, but the Lord doesn’t do this.
Heb. 8:12 “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” Praise God!
You and I are forgetful about many things. But God is forgetful when it comes to the sins that we repent of and ask forgiveness for, etc. Don’t you wish everybody could be that way? We humans hold too many grudges. But there is apparently one sin that God won’t forgive. The blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. And I want to simplify this as best I can.
How do you speak against the Holy Spirit? It is my understanding this is a matter of continuing to reject God and Christ in life. It is when any person doesn’t want to know God or have anything to do with Him. There is no hope for a person like that. If they don’t want God then He doesn’t want them. HE WILL NOT FORCE PEOPLE TO BELIEVE IN HIM AND FOLLOW HIM.
So, don’t worry. You’re safe. It’s obvious that you want God and Christ in your life. But how terrible it will be for those who want nothing to do with Him. There will be no forgiveness.
CONCLUSION-------------------------------
Matthew 12:36 "I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.”
ILL.- An umpire named Babe Pinelli once called Babe Ruth out on strikes. When the crowd booed with sharp disapproval at the call, the legendary Ruth turned to the umpire with disdain and said, "There’s 40,000 people here who know that the last pitch was a ball, tomato head." Suspecting that the umpire would erupt with anger, the coaches and players braced themselves for Ruth’s ejection. However, the cool headed Pinelli replied, "Maybe so, Babe, but mine is the only opinion that counts."
God’s judgment is the only one that counts. Don’t worry about people. Don’t worry about Satan’s accusations. Don’t even condemn yourself. Believe in the Lord Jesus. Trust. Live. Love. Serve. There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ. Live the abundant life. God is on your side.
