Sunday, February 13, 2022

PT-4 "The Anathema" (Matt. 12:31-32)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/13/2022 7:11 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                             Focus: PT-4 “The Anathema”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 12:31-32

 

            Message of the verses:31 “Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. 32 "Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.”

 

            In today’s SD we will continue to look at what is called “the unpardonable sin,” and will begin by talking about the fact that Scripture is clear that during our Lord’s ministry on earth that He was submissive to the Father as seen in John 4:24 and also in 5:19-30.  Our Lord was empowered by the Spirit as seen in Matthew 4:1; Mark 1:12; Luke 4:1, 18; John 3:34; Acts 1:2; and in Romans 1:4.  In Acts 10:38 we see that Peter said “"You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”

 

            It is those who spoke against the Holy Spirit who were the ones who saw His divine power working in and through our Lord but they willfully refused to accept the implications of that revelation and, even in some cases, attributed that power to Satan, therein lies the problem.  There were many people who had heard Jesus teach and preach God’s truth in a way that no man had ever heard before as seen in Matthew 7:28-29, and yet they refused to believe Him, and even though we cannot see or hear our Lord preach like He did while on earth we have His Word that testifies of that happening, and so this makes them guilty even today.  While or Lord was on earth many people saw Him heal people and even bring them back from the dead, they saw Him cast out demons, and saw Him forgive every kind of sin, yet they charged Him with deceit, falsehood, and demonism.  MacArthur adds “In the face of every possible evidence of Jesus’ messiahship and deity, they said no.  God could do nothing more for them, and they would therefore remain eternally unforgiven.”

 

            We will end this rather short SD by quoting from MacArthur’s commentary as he quotes William Hendriksen on his book The Exposition of the Gospel According to Matthew.

 

“For penitence they substitute hardening, for confession plotting.  Thus, by means of their own criminal and completely inexcusable callousness, they are dooming themselves.  Their sin is unpardonable because they are unwilling to tread the path that leads to pardon.  For a thief, and adulterer, and a murder there is hope.  The message of the gospel may cause him to cry out, ‘O God be merciful to me, the sinner.’  But when a man has become hardened, so that he has made up his mind not to pay attention to the… Spirit,…he has placed himself on the road that leads to perdition.”

 

2/13/2022 7:32 AM

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