Peter Barnes | Matthew 12:31-32
SERMON NOTES
BLASPHEMY AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT
Psalm 95; Matthew 12:31-32
1. Christ makes a wonderful offer of salvation.
– 12:31a. Martin Luther: Although our sin is great indeed,/ God’s mercies far exceed it.
– Luke 23:34; Paul in 1 Tim.1:13; the prodigal son in Luke 15; David in 2 Sam.11; King Manasseh in 2 Chron.33. 1 John 1:7. The ‘all’ is central to the gospel.
2. Christ warns against the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.
– 12:31b. Peter’s threefold denial of Christ is not this. Note the Pharisees in 12:14, 24, 34.
– 1 John 5:16, but Hebrews 6:4-6 is from within the church, unlike the Pharisees. Isa.5:20.
3. The meaning of the blasphemy against the Spirit.
– 12:32.
(a) If you are worried you have committed the blasphemy against the Spirit, you have not.
(b) It does not mean that the Spirit is more divine than Christ.
(c) The blasphemy against the Holy Spirit refers to men and women who willfully persist in hard-hearted unbelief and inexcusable impenitence.
– Heb.3:7-8a.