Sins Against The Spirit Series

Sermon Series: ¡§God, The Holy Spirit¡¨

Sermon #3 ¡§Sins Against the Spirit¡¨

Text: Matthew 12:30-32

OPENING JOKE: ¡§Four Preachers Confess¡¨ Four preachers met for a friendly gathering. During the conversation one preacher said, ¡§Our people come to us and pour out their hearts, confess certain sins and needs. Let¡¦s do the same. Confession is good for the soul.¡¨ In due time all agreed. One of them said that he had a problem with losing his temper on occasion. The second confessed to liking to smoke cigars and the third one confessed to liking golf so much that he would fake being sick so he could play on weekends.. When it came to the fourth one, he wouldn¡¦t confess. The others pressed him saying, ¡§Come now, we confessed ours. What is your secret or vice?¡¨ Finally he answered, ¡§It is gossiping and I can hardly wait to get out of here.¡¨

INTRODUCTION: Welcome to our continuing study on the Holy Spirit

Last week we took a break from our discussion on the Spirit to talk about Memorial Day. Now we will continue on with the series.

So far in this series we have learned about:

(1) How God revealed Himself in Three Persons

ľ In the Old Testament, God the Father (Yahweh) is revealed

ľ In the Gospels, God the Son (Jesus) is revealed

ľ In Acts, at Pentecost, God the Holy Spirit is revealed

(2) The role the Holy Spirit plays in the sovereign act of salvation

ľ He regenerates our hearts

ľ He seals our hearts

ľ He begins the process of making us more and more like Christ

(3) The Ministries of the Holy Spirit

ľ I said it would be impossible to cover them all, so I chose only three to talk about

ľ Illumination

ľ Conviction

ľ Fruit Production

***This week we are going to continue the study with the subject of ¡§Sinning against the Holy Spirit¡¨

JOKE: ¡§Are you for it or against it?¡¨ President Calvin Coolege went to church, and afterwards was asked by a friend what the minister spoke on. ¡§He preached on sin.¡¨ The friend asked what the preacher had to say about sin, and was told, ¡§He¡¦s against it.¡¨

One of the most solemn themes in all of Scripture concerns sins against the Holy Spirit

Believers and unbelievers alike can and do sin against Him. Today we are going to discuss the nature of these sins and how to guard ourselves against committing them.

The first we will discuss is¡K

I. Blaspheming

a. I decided to discuss this first because it is the most feared as well as the most intense of all the sins against the Spirit

i. The reason is clear: It is described in Scripture as ¡¥The Unforgivable Sin¡¦

ii. Mathew 12:31 ¡§Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men.¡¨

b. If ever there was a misunderstood and misrepresented passage in the scripture, it is this one

i. Many people live in fear that they have committed this terrible sin

ii. One notable is the father of Evangelist Dr. Billy Graham

iii. Dr. Graham said that his father lived with dread after having went to a revival meeting and heard a sermon about this sin, and then being convinced that he, himself had committed it

iv. He lived in agony ¡V until he realized that the agony he felt was the conviction of the Spirit in his heart drawing him to Christ ¡V which he would not have felt if he had truly blasphemed the Spirit

c. So what is blasphemy against the Spirit?

i. Quote: Billy Graham went on to say, ¡§All other sins against the Spirit are committed by believers¡Knot so with blaspheming the Spirit. This sin is committed by unbelievers¡¨

ii. With that in mind let me take you back a moment to the sermon two weeks ago and ask a question:

iii. What is the ministry of the Spirit concerning the unbeliever?

1. To draw Him into Christ

2. Remember His role is conviction or ¡¥convincing people of their need for a Savior¡¦

iv. If a person resists that drawing, he then cannot be saved

1. Because a person who has not been saved will not receive the forgiveness of sin, he has in essence committed the unforgivable sin

2. Blasphemy of the Spirit is the conscious rejecting of the convicting work of the Spirit in the life of an unbeliever

d. Stephen later refers to this as ¡¥resisting¡¦ the Holy Spirit when he was rebuking the unbelieving Pharisees

i. Acts 7:51 ¡§You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.¡¨

ii. Stephen was saying that just like their fathers in the OT didn¡¦t heed the warnings to repent given them by the prophets¡K