In studying to preach every week in my personal preparations, it's not uncommon for me to read a number of commentaries on a particular passage or even listen to a few sermons from other pastors to try to get an idea of the best way to communicate the truth of a particular text.
And this week, regarding this section of verses, everyone that I read, everyone that I listened to, in some way referred to C.S. Lewis' famous statement about Jesus either being a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord.
When Lewis wrote that, if I remember correctly, it was in Mere Christianity.
When he wrote that, he was frustrated by the all-too-common notion that people would take that said that Jesus was really nothing more than a good moral teacher.
But he thought that an honest, thoughtful reading of the New Testament would make such a conclusion intellectually incoherent.
It just doesn't make sense if you were to read through that and really give your mind to what is happening in Jesus' life and what he's doing and what he's saying.
It doesn't make any kind of intellectual, coherent argument to say that he was just a good moral teacher.
C.S. Lewis determined that only three possibilities exist for us.
When we're considering Jesus, only three possibilities can be at play.
One, Jesus is a liar.
And as a liar, he has constructed the most successful deception that the world has ever known.
Secondly, he said that Jesus is a lunatic.
Lewis said that the third option is that he's actually the Lord of all, to whom everyone will give an account at the end of her life.
Those are really the only three options that are on the table for us when we consider who Jesus is.
Now, it's difficult to read through these ten verses, or maybe even you could go all the way down to verse 35,
and not think that it was the content of this passage that inspired Lewis' words.
When we get to this particular text, Mark is using a sandwich technique in writing about these events.
He starts by relaying an event that was taking place in regards to Jesus' family.
And then he pauses momentarily and fits a story within the story.
And it's the story about the scribes and what assessment they had made about Jesus and his miracles.
And then when we come to verses 31 to 35, Mark circles back around to the story that he started in verse 20.
And he deals again with Jesus' family.
But more than just being a creative way to tell a story, Mark's placement of these two events together speaks to a common theme.
And here's the theme.
Both groups made a wrong assessment of Jesus.
Both of them.
One group loved Jesus.
The other group hated Jesus.
But they both ultimately rejected his true identity and purpose.
As we go through this text, the text reveals these three possible conclusions that C.S. Lewis made famous.
And then it tells us here at the end that the assessment that we make of Jesus has eternal consequences.
And so let's look at what these assessments are.
First, we see his family's assessment.
We see his family's assessment.
Look with me at verse 20.
Then Jesus went home and the crowd gathered again so that they could not even eat.
Now remember, crowds are not presented favorably in Mark's gospel.
And in this instance, the crowds are preventing Jesus and his disciples from even having a moment to eat a meal.
And as frustrating as this must have been for Jesus, he never shows anything but compassion for these people.
Everywhere he goes, these massive crowds come.
He's got to have a boat on the side of the seashore because he's in so much danger.
He's got to have an escape plan.
Now he's just maybe snuck back into Capernaum.
He's in Peter's house and somebody hears a whole crowd's there.
He can't even have a meal.
Yet Jesus never, he never rebukes people for coming to him.
He always shows compassion no matter how much inconvenience comes as a result.
He persistently suffered inconvenience for the sake of others.
This wasn't because Jesus was a good guy that had difficulty telling people no.
His heart was for sinners.
His whole purpose in coming was to save sinners.
And his toleration of inconveniences and difficult circumstances was the overflow of what we sang last week
to be his magnificent, marvelous, matchless love.
Christians demonstrate the heart of Christ best when they live their lives for others rather than themselves.
Look at verse 21.
When his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, he is out of his mind.
Now word had gotten back to Jesus' family and friends in Nazareth of the things that had taken place in his ministry.
And what we see happening here is they set out from Nazareth to actually stop him.
The word here in verse 21, seize or laid hold on it, literally means to arrest.
It implies a physical altercation to where his family had set out to go and find Jesus and then physically restrain him in order to stop him from what he was doing.
They had concluded that Jesus had lost his mind.
Now, why would they want to stop him?
Their fundamental motive here is a motivation of love.
Before we give them too hard of a time, they're only coming to help Jesus or what they thought would be a help to Jesus because they cared about Jesus.
No doubt they had become aware of the dangerous mobs that he had become subject to.
Perhaps they had heard about the murderous plots of the Pharisees to destroy him and the Herodians.
Maybe somebody had told him about he's pinned down in Peter's house again in Capernaum.
We can't even get any bread and wine to him at this point.
He can't even have a meal because the people are pressing against him.
And like any loving family, Jesus' family was concerned about the physical well-being of their brother and son.
The problem, though, is that their love was coupled with unbelief.
They agreed with the crowds that there was something significant and special about who Jesus was.
But for them, he had become just too radical.
It was one thing for him to say that he had the power of God.
It was one thing.
There was no denying that he had some type of significant power.
It was one thing for him to say that.
It's a completely other thing for him to say that he was one with God.
That he himself was God.
For him to refer to himself as being the fulfillment of all these Old Testament prophecies.
That's what Jesus was preaching.
That's what he was teaching.
And his family had come to the conclusion that he's just gone too far.
He's just become too radical.
They assessed that he had lost his mind.
And they thought they needed to stop him before he got himself killed.
Now, some people have always considered Christianity to be insane.
And it continued on through the New Testament.
Remember in Acts 26, Paul was in Caesarea.
He was arrested in Jerusalem.
He was taken to Caesarea.
And this would begin his four-year stint in prison.
In the process of being in Caesarea, the procurator of Judea changed.
And it became a man named Festus.
And he brought in Paul to preach the gospel, to have a hearing.
And so Paul preached the gospel.
And after preaching the gospel, the death and the resurrection of Jesus,
Festus looks at Paul in Acts 26, 24.
And here's what he says.
He says, Paul, you are out of your mind.
Your great learning is driving you out of your mind.
You're just too radical, Paul.
This is crazy.
To the Corinthians, Paul wrote,
The Jews demand signs and the Greeks seek wisdom.
But we preach Christ crucified,
which is a stumbling block to the Jews and its foolishness to the Gentiles.
But to those of us who are called,
it is Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
For the foolishness of God, he writes, is wiser than men.
And the weakness of God is stronger than men.
There will always be people that consider Christianity to be insane.
Perhaps you have family and friends that think you've just taken this too far.
It's one thing for you to be religious.
It's one thing for you to want to follow some of the moral teachings of Jesus.
But to go so far as to say that he rose from the dead, really?
That's crazy.
Kent Hughes said this,
If Christ is who he says he is,
then the sanest thing in the world is to follow him.
If Christ's call to us is total commitment,
anything else is crazy.
And then he said,
Christianity needs more of Christ's madness.
His family's assessment reminds us that closeness to Jesus
is no substitute for allegiance to Jesus in faith and following.
It's not unusual for us to give lip service to the lordship of Christ,
but how many of us actually are following Jesus as Lord?
His family loved him.
They recognized the power in his life.
They recognized even that he was from God,
but they just thought he'd gone too far.
So his family that loved him and appreciated him were lost.
You can be close to Jesus today.
Even love and admire him.
Yet you may not actually be following him.
Appreciation is not the same as belief.
I don't ask you.
Is it that you appreciate Christ?
Is that you even maybe love the dynamic of his life
and some of his teachings?
Or are you actually,
is he lord in your life?
Because there's a difference.
That's his family's assessment.
Secondly,
we see the scribes assessment.
Look with me at verse 22.
And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying,
he is possessed by Beelzebul.
And by the prince of demons,
he cast out demons.
Now we've seen the scribes oppose Jesus several times already in the gospel of Mark.
Jewish society had no natural division of church and state.
And the scribes were the experts on the law.
The scribes' goal was to persuade the people that were following Jesus
or were being influenced by Jesus.
They weren't questioning him directly.
And there were two dynamics.
There was a two-fold assessment that they made.
The first thing was this.
They said that Jesus was possessed by Satan.
Beelzebul here is a synonym for Satan.
It means master of the house.
Or potentially, based on its Old Testament translation,
it means the house of Beel the prince.
Beel being an Old Testament Canaanite god.
And so master of the house or Beel the prince, his abode.
So they said Jesus is actually possessed by Satan himself.
That was the first part of their statement.
The second part was connected to it,
but they said that it was demonic power that Jesus used to cast out demons.
Now, Matthew 12 and Luke 11 both say that it was Jesus casting out a demon
that prompted this statement from the scribes.
These men were essentially claiming that Jesus was using sorcery or witchcraft to perform his works.
So while his family thought that he was a lunatic,
the scribes actually thought that he was a liar from hell.
Interestingly enough,
neither Jesus' family nor the scribes ever denied the reality of his miraculous power.
Have you noticed that?
Nobody ever says that Jesus didn't really do the things.
Nobody ever says or denies the power.
It wasn't a part of anybody's argument.
There was no denying it.
His family said,
Yeah, this power comes from God.
They just wouldn't accept that he himself was God,
that he was Messiah.
The scribes, on the other hand,
credited his mighty works and his mighty deeds to satanic forces.
And that brings us to an interesting point.
There is a mistaken notion
that if we could witness the miracles of Jesus ourselves,
we would believe and follow him.
Maybe you've heard somebody say that before.
Maybe you've thought that yourself.
You know, my faith would be so much stronger.
My doubt would be so much more minimalized.
If I could have actually been there,
if I could have just seen him do these things with my eyes,
if I could have witnessed it myself,
then I would be stronger.
Maybe you've witnessed to someone
and they've said,
Yeah, I just, you know,
I don't know that I can trust the Bible.
You know, maybe if I had actually seen it myself,
I would believe.
But seeing doesn't automatically equate to saving faith.
The scribes were eyewitnesses of his power,
but they did not believe.
When Jesus told the story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16,
he said that people will even witness the resurrection of the dead
and still not believe.
Luke 16, 31.
He said to him,
If they do not hear Moses and the prophets,
that is the Old Testament,
if they do not listen to the Old Testament,
neither will they be convinced
if someone should rise from the dead.
But what if Jesus raises himself from the dead?
Maybe that would make a difference.
But it didn't.
Because in Matthew 28,
we're told that when the guards who were guarding the tomb
came and told the religious leaders in Jerusalem
that Jesus had risen,
they concocted a lie
so that people wouldn't believe it.
They knew it was true.
But they rejected it.
Here's what it says.
Matthew 28, verse 11.
While they were going,
behold, some of the guard went into the city
and told the chief priest all that had taken place.
And when they had assembled with the elders
and taken counsel,
they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers
and said,
Tell people,
His disciples came by night
and stole him away while we were asleep.
And if this comes to the governor's ears,
we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.
They knew the resurrection was real.
But they didn't believe it.
In the end times,
many, many people
will see magnificent demonstrations of God's power.
And yet they will still reject him.
They will acknowledge his existence.
They will acknowledge his sovereignty.
They will acknowledge his power.
They will acknowledge his truth of the gospel.
But they will still reject him.
Seeing is not believing.
Both Jesus' family and scribes saw,
but they didn't believe.
Faith is not a matter of witnessing the spectacular.
It is a matter of believing the word of God.
And if you will not believe the Bible,
you certainly won't believe due to witnessing a miracle either.
The refusal to repent
and the corresponding refusal
to believe the gospel
is not due to a lack of evidence.
It's due to a hardened heart.
If you struggle with doubt today,
it's not because the evidence is not there.
It's not because you can't see it in the words
and in the pages of scripture.
It's because your heart is hardened
to the truth of the gospel.
And we read in Psalm 95
at the beginning of our service,
it's quoted in Hebrews chapter four and verse seven.
Today, if you will hear his voice,
do not harden your heart.
The evidence is there.
There's no denying it.
You hear his voice today?
You recognize the evidence of the scripture today?
Is the Holy Spirit convicting your heart today?
Do not harden your heart.
Look at verse 23.
This is Jesus's response.
And he called them to him
and said to them in parables,
how can Satan cast out Satan?
If a kingdom is divided against itself,
that kingdom cannot stand.
And if a house is divided against itself,
that house will not be able to stand.
And if Satan has risen up against himself
and is divided,
he cannot stand,
but is coming to an end.
I think it's fascinating here
that Jesus called the scribes to him
and initiated this confrontation.
Did you pick up on that as you read?
These scribes weren't addressing Jesus.
That's not what they were doing.
They didn't see him cast out a demon
and then go and confront him
and say, you're doing that
through the power of Satan.
No, they went around to everybody else.
It was all the people
that were being influenced
and impacted by what Jesus was doing.
They started going to them
and they were saying,
this is Satan's power.
This is sorcery.
This is witchcraft.
Don't follow this guy.
He's bad news.
He's casting demons out of people,
but he's bad news.
He's healing people with leprosy,
but he's bad news.
It's all Satan's work.
Don't follow him.
He said, what does Jesus do?
He calls them to him.
Hey, fellas, come here.
Let me ask you something.
He never shied away from confronting error, did he?
Especially when it regarded as gospel purpose.
Now, this was true of the Old Testament prophets.
It was true of the New Testament apostles as well.
Christians are often too quickly silent
in a culture that preaches tolerance.
Sometimes we think that confronting error is unkind.
We get this idea that we just gotta let people do their thing.
We just gotta let people live how they're gonna live.
I'll do my thing.
They can do their thing.
We'll try to be at peace with everybody.
And it would be unkind for me to confront error
in someone else.
But in reality,
there's not actually anything more loving
than sharing the gospel with someone.
The least kind thing that we can do for somebody
is let them remain in their sin.
Is to let them continue in unbelief.
Nothing about this exchange between Jesus and the scribes
indicates at all that Jesus was angry
or that he was sarcastic
or that he was insulting to them.
It was his love for the scribes
and those underneath their influence
that led him to confronting their error.
And we need to follow that example.
We need to love people enough
to tell them the truth.
If people are offended,
let it be an offense against the gospel,
not an offense against the way
that we present the gospel.
Jesus didn't insult these men.
He wasn't angry with them.
He loved them.
He's trying to help them.
We really need to be careful
that we don't fall into this dynamic
of Facebook-based evangelism
that doesn't actually care enough about people
to lovingly share the truth,
but it just desires to be insulting
and angry and belligerent
under the guise of truth.
We offend people all the time,
but it's not because of the message that we preach.
It's because of the way that we carry the message.
Jesus didn't do that.
If people are going to be offended at us,
let it be because of the gospel,
not because we've treated them insultingly
or because we've been hateful
or actually unkind,
but let us develop a love for people
in our hearts so much
that we will actually be willing
to confront them with the gospel,
to actually share with them the truth,
to actually warn them
of the judgment that is to come,
to actually invite them to our homes
to study the Bible together,
to actually invest in their lives.
Let's love people enough to do that,
but in doing that,
let's do it in a way
that is godly and Christ-honoring
and follows his example.
Jesus gave two parables
that confronted the illogical nature
of these men's argument.
First, he said,
a nation cannot survive
if its people fight against one another.
Secondly, he says,
a family cannot survive
if its members are constantly fighting
with each other.
In the same way,
Satan's purposes would be hindered
if he fought against himself.
It just doesn't make sense.
Why would Satan fight against himself?
Why would he do this
against his own purposes?
And furthermore,
Satan doesn't heal.
Satan doesn't help.
He doesn't love people.
He doesn't teach with authority.
All the things that Jesus were doing,
those are not things
that Satan would ever do.
It was illogical
what they were saying.
These are the experts.
They're the experts.
Nobody knew the Old Testament
like they knew it.
Honestly.
They were the experts in the law.
They were the ones
that helped teach people the law.
And yet they still had an argument
that was so foolish.
And again, Paul tells us
this is what happens
when we harden our hearts.
For the word of the cross,
he said,
is foolishness to those who are dying.
But to those of us
who are being saved,
it is the power of God.
For it is written,
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise
and the discernment
of the discerning
I will thwart.
Where is the one
who is wise,
Paul said?
Where's the scribe?
Where's the debater of this age?
Has not God made foolish
the wisdom of the world?
For since in the wisdom of God,
the world did not know God
through wisdom,
it pleased God
through the foolishness
of what we preach
to save those who believe.
Just because somebody's
got a bunch of credentials
doesn't mean that
every argument they have
is logical.
In fact,
the more that their hearts
are hardened toward Christ,
the more illogical
their arguments are going to become.
Trust the word.
So there's the family's assessment,
there's the scribe's assessment.
Thirdly,
there's a true assessment.
Look at verse 27.
No one can enter
a strong man's house
and plunder his goods
unless he first binds
the strong man,
then indeed he may
plunder his house.
Now remember,
C.S. Lewis gave three options
when assessing
who Jesus really is.
Jesus' family had concluded
that he was a lunatic.
The scribes had concluded
that he was a liar.
But the only logical conclusion
is that he's actually
the Lord.
Jesus uses this third parable
in verse 27
to set the record straight.
In this parable,
Satan is represented
by the strong man
and his house
is this fallen world,
the realm over which
he currently rules.
2 Corinthians chapter 4.
Paul says,
in their case,
that is in unbelievers' case,
the God of this world,
that's a reference to Satan,
has blinded the minds
of unbelievers
to keep them from seeing
the light of the gospel
of the glory of Christ
who is the image of God.
And then he says
in Ephesians chapter 2,
you who were dead
in trespasses and sins
in which you once walked,
following the course
of this world,
that is the house,
the world system
that Jesus is referring to,
following the prince
of the power of the air,
the spirit that is now at work
in the sons of disobedience.
The Bible says
that Satan is the ruler
of this world,
not insofar
as he is greater than God,
but he rules this world.
This is his domain.
What's Jesus saying?
I'm not of Satan.
I have come to bind Satan.
And I have come to bind Satan
in order that I might set free
the captives of Satan
to spoil his house,
to plunder his house,
Jesus says.
Well, there's only one being
that can do that.
And it has to be one
that's greater than Satan.
And there's only one being
greater than Satan.
Who is that?
God himself.
Jesus is setting
the record straight.
Casting out demons
was a shadow
of how he would ultimately
defeat Satan
through his death
and resurrection.
Would you turn just quickly
with me to Luke chapter 4?
I just want to show you
one other place.
I don't want to just read
this one to you.
Luke chapter 4.
And would you look with me
at verse 17?
Jesus is in Nazareth.
He'd gone back to his hometown.
He was in the synagogue.
And he was asked to speak.
And here's what Jesus did.
Pay attention to this.
Luke chapter 4.
Verse 17.
And there was given to him
the book of the prophet Isaiah.
And when he had opened the book,
he found the place
where this is written.
The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me.
He hath anointed me
to preach the gospel
to the poor.
He hath sent me
to heal the brokenhearted.
He has preached
deliverance to the captives
and recovering sight
to the blind
and to set at liberty
those who are bruised
to preach the acceptable
year of the Lord.
And he closed the book
and gave it again
to the minister
and sat down.
And the eyes of all of them
that were in the synagogue
were fastened on him.
Now watch verse 21.
And he began to say unto them,
Today, this scripture
is fulfilled
in your ears.
What is Jesus saying?
You are captives to sin.
You are captives
to Satan,
the prince of this world.
But the Bible said
that there would
one day come one
who will set
those captives free.
One day there will come one
that will restore sight
to the blind.
And that's not just
about physical sight,
even though that was
a part of it.
That's spiritual sight.
There is one that will come
that will make all things right.
And then Jesus sits down
and he says,
I am that one.
It's the only logical conclusion
that we could come to.
It's a true assessment
of who Jesus is.
Finally,
fourth,
what is your assessment?
What is your assessment?
His family said
he was a lunatic.
The scribes said
he was a liar.
Jesus set the record straight.
But now Jesus,
in verses 28 to 30,
puts the decision
to you.
In his final statement,
he made it clear
that our assessment of him
has eternal consequences.
Look with me at verse 28.
Truly I say to you,
all sins will be forgiven
the children of man.
Praise the Lord
for that statement.
We're going to come back to it.
Whatsoever blasphemies
they utter,
but whosoever
blasphemes against
the Holy Spirit
never has forgiveness,
but is guilty
of an eternal sin,
for they were saying
he has an unclean spirit.
Do you see the weight
of Jesus' words here?
What you decide about Jesus
affects your eternity.
If you come to the right conclusion,
Jesus said,
all your sins will be forgiven.
If you reject him as Lord,
none of your sins
will be forgiven.
An eternal sin
is one which God judges
for all eternity.
Jesus said that this sin
is blaspheming the Holy Spirit.
But what does that mean?
What does that mean?
Is there a chance
that you have committed
this sin?
And if you have,
does it really mean
that God will refuse
to forgive you?
There's just three simple notes
I want to make
that bring some clarity
to what Jesus is teaching here,
okay?
First,
blaspheming the Holy Spirit
is rejecting
what he has clearly revealed.
That's what it means
to blaspheme the Holy Spirit.
It's to reject
what he has clearly revealed.
Now,
the role of the Holy Spirit,
one of the roles,
is to testify
of the truth of Jesus.
Jesus said as much
in John 15,
he said,
when the helper comes,
whom I will send to you
from the Father,
the Spirit of truth,
he will bear witness
about me.
He will bear witness
about,
that's his role.
The Holy Spirit's role
is not to draw attention
to himself.
The Holy Spirit's role
is to draw attention
to Jesus,
to bear witness
of Jesus
and the truth
of the gospel.
He does this
by convicting our hearts.
He enlightens our minds
to the truth of the word.
We see the examples
of his spectacular work
in the scriptures as well.
To blaspheme
the Holy Spirit
is to willfully
reject
what he has made clear
in your conscience
through the word.
It's unbelief.
It's I see the truth,
I have heard the truth,
I reject that truth.
It's willful unbelief.
And Jesus said
in verse 30
that it was the fact
that the scribes
attributed to Satan
what was the work of God
that equated
to blaspheming
the Holy Spirit.
In other words,
they knew their argument
was illogical.
They knew this.
They knew who Jesus was.
They knew better
than anybody
who Jesus was.
They just wouldn't
accept it.
The Holy Spirit
made it clear
and they willfully
rejected
the truth of Jesus.
So blaspheming
the Holy Spirit
is rejecting
what he's clearly revealed.
Number two,
blaspheming the Holy Spirit
is not a single sin
that eternally disqualifies you
from forgiveness.
It's not something
you do in one moment
and then that's it forever.
That's not what Jesus
is communicating here.
He was referring
to the continual rejection
of the gospel,
not a single occurrence of it.
Now Kent Hughes
is helpful here.
I want to just read you
what he wrote
because he framed it better
than what I thought
that I could.
Very simply,
it is the ongoing
continual rejection
of the witness
of the Holy Spirit
to the divinity
and the saviorhood
of Christ.
It is the perversion
in the heart
that chooses
to call light
darkness
and darkness
light.
It is continuing
rejection
of the witness
of the Holy Spirit
whether that witness
be a quiet witness
of the conscience,
the rational witness
of the word,
or even miracles
and wonders.
And there are many people,
I think,
many believers
who have become anxious
about whether or not
they have committed
an unpardonable sin
that has disqualified
them from God.
But this is not about
a one-time sin.
This is the continual
hardening of the heart,
rejection willfully
of the gospel
of Jesus.
A person who has done
this is completely
indifferent to the fact
that they have done it.
So if you're anxious
today,
well maybe I've done
something that
disqualifies me
in this way,
maybe,
but you desire Christ.
Okay,
a person that has
blasphemed the Holy Spirit
or is blaspheming
the Holy Spirit
is indifferent to that.
They don't believe
that that's even the case.
Okay?
It's just not a single sin
that disqualifies you forever.
It's the continual
rejection of unbelief.
Third,
no one
has ever
sought forgiveness
from God
and been denied.
No one.
Ever.
Not one time
in the scripture
has anyone come
to God
seeking forgiveness
and God said,
nope.
You see this
in verse 28.
Look at it again.
All sins
shall be forgiven
unto the sons of men
and blasphemies
wherewithsoever
they shall blaspheme.
Not only
is forgiveness
available,
but God
delights himself
in it.
He delights
himself in it.
The warning
is about a danger
in not coming
to Christ
before you die
or Jesus returns.
It's not about
blackballing you
for the rest
of your life
saying that
even if you come
asking for forgiveness
he won't give it.
That's not what
Jesus is saying.
The opposite
is actually true.
Jesus is saying
anyone that will
come to me
I will forgive them.
If you will come
to Christ
in faith
and repentance
and follow him
as Lord
he will forgive
your sin.
the danger
is in continuing
in rejection
of Christ
until it's too late
to do anything else.
You say
I've got plenty
of time then.
No you don't.
Your life
is but a vapor.
It appears
for a moment
and then it
vanishes away.
Furthermore
Jesus has promised
that his return
is imminent.
He could come back
at any moment.
You may have
otherwise lived
for another 50 years
but if he comes
this afternoon
what good is that
for you?
You don't have time.
Today is the day
of salvation.
Can I encourage you
with a few verses here?
Acts chapter 3
and verse 19.
Repent therefore
and turn back
that your sins
may be blotted out.
Ephesians 1
7
In Christ
we have redemption
through his blood
the forgiveness
of our sins
according to the riches
of his grace.
Colossians chapter 1
and verse 14
In Christ
we have redemption
the forgiveness
of sins.
1 Corinthians
15 3
I deliver to you
as of first importance
what I also receive
that Christ
died for our sins
according to the scripture.
He was buried
and he rose from the dead
on the third day
in accordance
with the scriptures.
Galatians 1
4
Jesus gave himself
for our sins
to deliver us
from this present
evil age
according to the will
of God
and Father.
1 Peter 3
18
For Christ
also suffered
once for sins
the righteous
for the unrighteous
that he might
bring us to God
being put to death
in the flesh
but made alive
in the spirit.
1 John 1
9
If we confess
our sins
he is faithful
and just
to forgive our sins
and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness.
1 John 2
2
He is the propitiation
for our sins
and not for ours only
but the sins
of the whole world.
You know what the Bible
is about?
It's not just
a book of judgment.
Greater than that
it's a book of mercy.
It's a book of salvation.
And over and over
and over
God promises
if you will turn to me
if you will follow me
if you will follow Christ
your sins
will be forgiven.
But if you will not
turn to me
your sin
will not be forgiven.
You will be guilty
of an eternal sin.
rejecting
the gospel
that he has come
to provide for you
and know
you don't have time
to make the decision later.
Everyone makes
an assessment of Jesus
whether they realize it
or not.
C.S. Lewis
was right.
Seeing Jesus
as a good moral teacher
is not an option
to us.
That's a cop out.
Some think
he's a lunatic.
Others think
he's an imposter.
But what you decide
about him
has eternal consequences.
If Jesus
is Lord
then you will have
to answer to him
at the end of your life.
How do you think
that's going to go?
Today
if you hear
his voice
do not harden
your heart.
Well done.