The Benefits of Fearing God, Part 3 | Fearless in Fearing God

Luke 12:10-12

How can we, today, as Christians know that we will stand firm and confess Christ when it counts? There is going to be a time when we need to confess loyalty to Jesus Christ, and it’s going to cost us. So how do we know we’re going to do that when it counts? How do we know we’re going to make the good confession and especially if we come under some kind of extreme duress? We have been, in our home, working our way through a lecture series on the English Reformation. We recently covered Latimer and Ridley, known as the Oxford Martyrs. I pulled out my copy of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs just to reacquaint myself of what happened on October 16, of 1555.

When Mary Tudor took the throne, the Roman Catholic daughter of Henry VIII, she tried to aggressively rid England of Protestantism. She persecuted Reformed scholars and preachers and replaced them with Roman Catholic scholars. She imprisoned untold numbers of Protestants, many of whom died in prison and she formally executed about 300, more than 300 souls. Mary had Latimer and Ridley arrested and imprisoned in the tower of London. And they were sent to Oxford for a religious trial, a formal trial before their formal execution of burning at the stake. John Foxe writes about the day of their martyrdom.

This is what he says, “When they came to the stake, Mr. Ridley embraced Latimer fervently and bid him, ‘Be of good heart, brother. For God will either assuage the fury of the flame or else strengthen us to abide it.’ He then knelt by the stake and after earnestly praying together, they had a short, private conversation. A lighted faggot of wood was placed at Dr. Ridley’s feet, which caused Mr. Latimer to say, ‘Be of good cheer, Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day by God’s grace light up such a candle in England as I trust will never be put out.’ When Dr. Ridley saw the fire flaming up toward him, he cried out with a wonderful loud voice, ‘Lord, Lord, receive my spirit.’ Master Latimer crying as vehemently on the other side, ‘Oh Father of heaven, receive my soul.’ He received the flame as it were, embracing of it.”

The barbaric reign of Bloody Mary had an unintended consequence of turning England against her and her barbaric Roman Catholic faith. God used the martyrdom of Latimer and Ridley as they had hoped and prayed, to light a candle for an English Reformation. And the fire of their sacrifice, it does continue burning today as churches like ours preach the same doctrines, as we proclaim the same truths, as we stand firm. As they did in their day, we stand firm in our own day in the same boldness with the same Reforming spirit.

Solis Christus, Christ alone is the head of the church since he alone is the Savior of the body. We teach Sola Scriptura, the formal principle of the Reformation that Scripture is the sole authority. It is our authority. It is our only standard. Sola Gratia, salvation by grace alone by God’s sovereign initiative, by his electing grace, his sovereign power. Sola Fide, the material principle of the Reformation that salvation is through faith alone, the means of faith, not by any human initiative or any human merit. And of this Soli Deo Gloria, salvation for the glory of God and the glory of God alone.

That’s the faith that we embrace. That’s the faith we confess. It’s what we believe. It’s what we stand for. So if it comes to our Latimer and Ridley moment, if holding onto that faith comes at the cost of martyrdom, for the right to preach those doctrines, to teach them, to instruct people in those doctrines, do you ever wonder, do you ever wonder about yourself? Whether or not you’ll have the courage of conviction to stand and make the good confession, to stand firm, to be a courageous Christian when it counts, to testify to these Gospel truths?

From our text today, I don’t want you to be in any doubt about the answer to that question. Take a look at the text and we’re going to start again in Luke 12:4 because this all begins, as we’ve seen, in the fear of the Lord. If we fear God, we will fear nothing else. Luke 12:4, Jesus says to his friends, “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him, who after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.

“And I tell you, everyone who, confesses me before men, the Son of Man will also will confess,” or acknowledge, “before the angels of God, but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God. And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”

Jesus, here, is deepening his disciples’ resolve to fear God. He does that by commanding it, obviously, he uses imperatives there at the beginning of the text, but he also deepens the resolve to fear God by commending the fear of God to them. He outlines the benefits here of fearing God, number one, in the fear of God we find Comfort from the father. That is verses 4 to 7.

Number two, we also find Courage from the son, verses 8 and 9 as he confesses us even before the heavenly courtroom. In the verses before us today, verses 10 to 12, we will find confidence in the Holy Spirit. So, comfort, courage, and confidence for those who fear God. Those are benefits that come through intimate communion, notice, with the persons of the Trinity. Comfort in knowing the father cares for us, courage in knowing the son confesses us when it counts, confidence in learning from the Spirit who teaches us.

 Now if you notice in verse 10, to get where we’re going, the Spirit wants us to pass through the gate of Jesus’ teaching on the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, also known as the unforgivable sin, also known as the unpardonable sin. In doing that, we’re going to get an early preview of the Spirit’s ministry to us as believers. It’s going to be a time for strength and comfort and encouragement because this is a powerful text for the encouragement of believers.

Keep in mind at this point in redemption history, Jesus’ disciples have not been able to anticipate, at this point in their thinking, they have not been able to anticipate the church age. We’ve read ahead, so to speak. We know the end of the story. But the disciples don’t know what’s coming. They don’t know what’s facing them in a few short months from now. They don’t know the crucial role the Holy Spirit is going to play in the life and the witness of the church of the risen Lord Jesus Christ.

According to Romans 1:4, Jesus was “declared to be the Son of God in power,” what does it say there? “According to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead.” The resurrection itself is a declaration, a proclamation, a teaching, if you will, of the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit testifying to the truth about Jesus Christ, testifying to who he is, that he is the Son of God in power and that same Spirit who raised Jesus up from the dead is the very one whom Jesus sent to teach and empower the witness of the apostles in Acts Chapter 2. He told them, John 14:25 and 26, he said, “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you.” Remember, this is the night of his betrayal. “But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”

So the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit, giving power, giving remembrance, giving clarity, giving conviction and authority to the apostles’ testimony, absolutely vital for the establishment of the church, essential ministry from the Holy Spirit and we need to add, a holy ministry. Let everyone be forewarned: Blaspheming the Spirit’s testimony will not be forgiven. It is an unpardonable sin.

What is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit? Let’s read this in context, by the way, and start back in verse 8. Jesus says, “Everyone who confesses me before men, the Son of Man will also confess before the angels of God, but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God. And,” notice the word, and. And, is to keep these thoughts together, “the one who denies me before men will be denied before angels of God. And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.”

That is not a warning to Jesus’ disciples that when they are confessing him that they somehow need to be careful that they don’t inadvertently blaspheme the Holy Spirit in the process. No. Jesus is speaking a word of very strong encouragement to his own disciples and at the very same time, he is delivering a warning to those who would deny him. In fact, there is a promise in verse 10, it’s a powerful word of encouragement in verse 10, and especially if your name is Saul of Tarsus.

Earlier in Jesus’ Galilean ministry, he confronted this same Beelzebul charge in Luke chapter 11, same charge came up in his Galilean ministry. He confronted this in the scribes and the Pharisees. Back then, Jesus said, it is recorded in Matthew 12 and Mark chapter 3, as well. Mark 3:28, Jesus says, “Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of men.” He is basically saying, nothing is unforgivable, including, he says, “whatever blasphemies they utter.” Oh, except one. We are finding it here.

Here in Luke 12:10, though, when he speaks of this magnanimous, forgiving grace of God that forgives all sin, whatever blasphemies they utter, Luke’s, Luke records Jesus’ specificity about the extent of that blasphemy. “Even,” he says, “against the Son of Man,” even blasphemies, words spoken against the Son of Man. Forgiveness can be extended to that person, too. Remember, Luke traveled with the Apostle Paul.

No doubt for the Apostle Paul in his own salvation story, his testimony, this promise is particularly meaningful to him, isn’t it? Paul had described himself in 1 Timothy 1:13, as having been “a blasphemer, a persecutor, an insolent opponent” of Jesus Christ. He had spoken a word “against the Son of Man,” probably many, many words. In fact, he had acted on those words by dragging off Christians to prison for that confession, their testimony, throwing them in prison and actually killing them. So yeah, he’s a blasphemer, he’s a persecutor, he’s an insolent opponent of Christ, he has spoken a word against the Son of Man, but God granted him forgiveness by faith in Jesus Christ. He acted in ignorance and unbelief, is what he says.

So it is important starting out here to see this warning in Luke 12:10 not as a warning to believers who confess Jesus, but to unbelievers who deny him. That is what the context shows. The immediate context is so important here. This is not a warning to believers who are confessing Christ. This is a warning to the unbelievers who were denying him. If you go so far in denying Christ that you also commit the sin of blaspheming the Spirit, you’ve crossed the point of no return. That’s what he is saying. The immediate context is so important.

What is the sin itself, then? What, what is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit? The term is blasphemeo, which is translated right in English as blaspheme. Means to slander, and it means, slander’s intended here to damage someone’s reputation, destroy the credibility of their testimony. It’s premeditated. It’s malicious. It’s willful. It’s intentional. And that is what the scribes and Pharisees did with Jesus. But how did they commit such a sin against the Holy Spirit? Was it by saying something negative against the Holy Spirit? Really, we can’t find that in anything that the scribes or Pharisees said, that they said something specifically negative against the Holy Spirit.

But listen, this is how Charismatic false teachers try to intimidate people and at the same time insulate themselves and their teaching from any scrutiny from anybody else. They say if you criticize tongues, you may be guilty of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. If you challenge the claims of miracle workers, be careful you don’t blaspheme the Holy Spirit, that’s an unforgiveable, unpardonable sin. If you question any modern-day prophecy, careful, blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. You’re on thin ice there. You do not need to be afraid of those threats. You have every right to ask questions. The truth welcomes questions. Be good Bereans and ask good questions. Bring the truth to bear. Look at the Scripture and see if these things are so.

None of what those Charismatic false teachers do, none of it comes from the Holy Spirit. Oh it may be, may be spiritually inspired, but not by the Holy Spirit. These modern-day snake-oil salesmen, and I should add snake-oil saleswomen, they’re the ones who ought to fear the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit because they’re doing it all the time.

The blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is not the same as some egregious sin. It’s not saying something wrong or false about the Holy Spirit. Is it, we should ask, is it attributing Jesus’ miracles to the power of Satan? Now, here is where we are getting some context, some contextual support, attributing Jesus’ miracles to the power of Satan. Is that the sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit? Look back at Luke 11:14 for a moment. Just flip a page. This is the kind of Pharisaic blasphemy that informs what Jesus is saying here in our text. Luke 11:14, “Now he was casting out a demon that was mute. When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke, and the people marveled. But some of them said, ‘He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons.’”

As I said, the Pharisees made that same charge during Jesus’ earlier Galilean ministry, Matthew 12:22, Mark 3:22. The connection between that sin, that blasphemy, and this one is the same; it’s clear, immediate, obvious, to attribute the works of Jesus that are performed, empowered by the Holy Spirit to attribute those works to the power of Satan that’s what they were doing, that is a slander. That is a blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. What’s the nature of the slander? Technically, it’s to say the Holy Spirit is not holy at all. That’s the blasphemy.

Instead of holy, he is actually unholy. He’s deployed as an agent of Satan, sent to deceive people by energizing this Jesus, just a man, but to energize this Jesus as a false teacher. So this rumor, started by the scribes and the Pharisees to discredit Jesus, to mislead the people, this is an instance of blaspheming the Spirit. To attribute Jesus’ miracles to the power of Satan is an instance of the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

It may seem like we’ve answered the question at this point. That the sin of the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is to attribute Jesus’ miracles to Satan, to say, “Jesus used Satan’s power.” And the Holy Spirit, then, is the spirit actually of Satan. That was the exact slander of the scribes and the Pharisees, and it was intended, as I said, to discredit Jesus and his ministry. They wanted people to be afraid of Jesus, to be afraid of what he was saying, lest that he’s somehow messing with their minds and that he is able to get in their heads with, with false and twisted teaching.

So they wanted to discredit him so that people would be afraid of him and steer clear of him. They wanted to say that his ministry is really energized by Satan’s power. So all these miracles you’re seeing, oh yeah, they’re miracles. Oh yeah, they’re power, but it’s not from heaven; it’s from below. They’re trying to deceive people into thinking Jesus was nothing more than a Satanic imposter empowered by a Satanic spirit.

Now it may seem like we’ve answered the question, but really, we haven’t answered it just yet, almost, not quite. The blasphemy of the Spirit, I would say, is evident in the scribes and the Pharisees, evident in their attributing Jesus’ miracles to the power of Satan, but it is not the root of this sin, just one fruit of that sin. We can describe the root of the sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit in this way, the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is willful hard-hearted unbelief. The blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is willful hard-hearted unbelief.

When we study that blasphemous charge of the scribes and Pharisees against Jesus back in Luke 11, what we just read from, we noticed how Jesus immediately answered the charge and he picked apart and then completely unraveled their logic in making that charge, that that charge that he casts out demons by Beelzebul the prince of demons.

Jesus knew their thoughts, it says in Luke 11:17. He knew they were just making this up out of whole cloth. They couldn’t deny his miracles. But since they refused to believe the Scriptures that they knew so well, since they refused to accept Jesus is their Messiah sent from God, since they refused to bow the knee, they came up with this ridiculous charge. In verse 17 Jesus confronted that charge, he unravels the logic to it. It exposes, in the process, it exposes their hypocrisy. He says, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls.”

In other words, it is completely absurd for Satan, who already owns all these souls, it is completely absurd for Satan to cast out Satan. He’s working against himself. It’s like staring a restaurant, doing really well, and then starting a competing restaurant right next door and taking away all the customers. Why would you do that? It’s like putting a, an outpost in enemy territory, fighting to secure that outpost as a military force and then attacking your own outpost. It’s, it’s absurd. “If Satan,” verse 18, Luke 11:18, “If Satan is divided against himself, how’s his kingdom gonna stand?” The charge is absurd on its face.

They’re also, though, in their absurdity, they’re also inconsistent, wholly inconsistent in applying the charge. Verse 19, “If I cast out demons by Beelzebul…” Whoa, wait a minute, hold on, time out! “By whom do your sons cast them out?” Pretty selective, aren’t they? in scrutinizing their own exorcists. They had no reason to believe, no reason whatsoever to believe, Jewish exorcists were able to cast out demons. We read through some of that when we went through some of that text. It’s goofy. It’s as goofy as modern-day Charismatic teaching. But they had reason to believe that Jesus could. They’d watched it with their own eyes. They’d seen the impossible made possible. His power was obvious, it was undeniable.

So they’re inconsistent. They’re absurdity in making the charge, and the inconsistency, if that’s what they really believe, they’re totally inconsistent in applying it to any other exorcist and that exposes their hypocrisy. They don’t really believe here, they don’t really believe Satan is working through Jesus. It’s just a rumor they made up. It’s just a lie they chose to believe against all evidence because fundamentally, they willfully will not believe. They refuse to believe the truth.

Again, you need to see this is willful, hard-hearted unbelief and that, folks, is the sin of the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. It is willful, hard-hearted unbelief. For the scribes and Pharisees, this is the form it took, this Beelzebul charge. In our day, it can look different. It is not a sin of ignorance. It is not a sin of lacking information. Remember, these scribes and Pharisees, they’re fully informed; their rebellion, then, is against the truth. It’s against the light. It’s against the Scripture that they know. It’s against the clear evidence of the truth right in front of them. It’s choosing in the face of all that that’s so clear and obvious, it’s choosing to believe a lie in the face of irrefutable proof. Think about it. Scribes and Pharisees, right? These are the guys, they’re steeped in the Scripture.

They are lifelong Bible students from the time they are little toddlers all the way up into their adulthood. They are the teachers of Israel. They are experts in the law and the prophets. Scribes are the theologians, the Pharisees the practitioners of what the scribes taught them, the theology they taught. They cultivated this fastidious attention to detail. They had a sharp eye, a keen eye for discernment, biblical discernment. They formulated sound arguments from biblical logic.

Now that Jesus comes, now that Jesus stands in their midst, he is teaching in complete harmony with all the law and the prophets, saying what Moses says all the time, what all the prophets say. His heavenly insight, power in his teaching, performing works of supernatural power. Now that he is there, they find they don’t want him. They’re not rejoicing in Christ. They’re rejecting him as the Christ.

And they have every reason not do that. They’re rebelling against Christ’s lordship when his entire being commands all men everywhere to repent, to bow at his feet and worship. And their consciences in rejecting Christ, God knows this, their consciences cry out against them because they’ve abandoned all reason, all sound judgment in order to reject the truth and believe the lie.

So for the scribes and Pharisees to quiet their accusing consciences, they concoct this slanderous lie. They spin up this blasphemous charge against the Spirit’s clear witness, the Spirit’s witness in the Scripture that they’ve studied, the Spirit’s witness in Jesus’ teaching that they’re hearing, the Spirit’s witness in Jesus’ miracles that they’re watching.

They reject his ministry. They embrace folly. They reject truth to embrace a lie. They abandon light in preference for darkness and by accusing Jesus on the way out of all that, they blaspheme the Holy Spirit. Big mistake. Grave, grave sin and it’s unforgivable. It’s an unpardonable sin, eternally consequential sin. From this sin they will never ever recover.