REMOVING MASKS (3): THE UNPARDONABLE SIN

(Luke 12:8-12)
May 31, 2015
Intro (Read Lu 12:8-12). Bob Hope hosted many Academy Awards. In
1953 he opened by saying, This is the first time the Academy Awards have
been on television. Youll see the faces of the winners and youll see the
faces of the losers -- congratulating the winners. In other words, tonight
youre gonna see some real Academy Award acting. We all wear masks,
dont we? Often we believe our own lies. Thats a major issue with hypocrisy.
In our text, as Jesus leaves a Pharisees lunch, He turns to His own followers
and challenges them to avoid hypocrisy. In this passage, Jesus gives a
Warning Against Hypocrisy in vv. 1-3. Then He gives Ways to Avoid
Hypocrisy in vv. 4-12. Every member of the Trinity plays a role.
I.

Fear the Father

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Psa 111:10). He is

Ground Zero for reality. So being grounded in reality involves embracing His
holiness and His love by accepting His gift of grace and living in reverence of
Him. To live without respect for the Creator is to step outside reality.
II.

Confess Christ

And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man
also will acknowledge before the angels of God, 9 but the one who denies me
before men will be denied before the angels of God. This is not the meek
and mild Jesus we hear so much about. This is the Jesus who pulls no punches
letting us know when He reigns some people He will acknowledge before the
whole universe as His others He will deny. But Hes the key.
The word acknowledge is elsewhere translated confess like Rom 10:9,
if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart
that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. It describes a publicly
acknowledged commitment. It means to declare publicly for Jesus, to confess
Him, to acknowledge Him as Lord and Savior. This is the outward expression
of a truly changed heart. It tells us two things about saving faith and
authentic life. 1) It confesses Christ - and 2) it confesses Him conspicuously.
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Confess Christ There is no salvation, no heaven, no eternity with God

apart from Jesus. Makes sense, doesnt it? If He died for your sins then Hes
the only way to the Father. So many people today want to have God, but deny
Christ at the same time. That is not possible. V. 9, but the one who denies me
before men will be denied before the angels of God. Crystal clear. Mt 10:33,
but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is
in heaven. You cant deny Christ and get to God, Beloved. That is an
impossibility. Its like saying Im going to Windsor Castle while denying the
Queens authority. Youve denied the only means of access.
Neither can we have access to God without the Son who paid the price for
entry. When His disciples wanted to know how to get to the Father, He told
them, I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except
thru me (Jn 14:6). The entry point to heaven is exactly one person wide.
You must come thru Jesus. There is no other way. Why? No one else came
not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mark
10:45). He alone could and did pay the price of entry. I Jn 2:23, No one who
denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son (there is our word
again confesses, publicly acknowledges) has the Father also.
Clint Hill was the agent who ran after President Kennedys car on that awful
day of his assassination. He was Jackies senior agent. A couple of years ago
he wrote a book detailing delays in mail delivery to evaluate threats. Jackie
wanted to get non-threatening mail from family and friends quickly. Hill came
up with a scheme. He told Jackie, Have family and friends put my name,
Clint Hill, on the envelope along with yours. That will be the code that it is
okay. Jackie thought her friends would find that amusing, and it worked to
perfection. The access code was Clint Hill. And the access code to the Father
is Jesus, Beloved. No other way. No other entry. We must confess Him.

. Confess Conspicuously Believers embrace Jesus openly. To deny Him

means there is an idol somewhere something more important to our heart
than Him. Perhaps we fear being thought stupid or religious, and our
reputation is more important to us that Jesus. Perhaps we fear retaliation
loss of promotion and so ambition is the idol. Perhaps we fear we will lose
friends, and so some relationship is the idol. But failure to acknowledge Jesus
openly means theres an idol somewhere. Even true followers can slip at
times, but if this is a life pattern, Jesus warning is dire: but the one who
denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God (9). That
means you are not genuine, and heaven is not your destiny.
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Genuine believers embrace Jesus in this life. Rev 3:5, The one who conquers
will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of
the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his
angels. We may think were fine because we know and affirm the facts
privately but if we are ashamed of Jesus, we have not been made a new
creation and given a new heart. We are fooling only ourselves. Paul says in II
Tim 2:12, if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also
will deny us. The acid test of faith an open, public declaration for Christ,
starting with baptism, which often meant death in the early church. To deny
Christ is to deny reality; it is hypocrisy. There are no secret agent believers.
Imagine getting married only to overhear your spouse at a class reunion deny
to an old flame that they even know you. Youd be devastated but youd
know their true heart, wouldnt you? And so our public confession or denial
of Jesus reveals who we really are in relation to Him.
An old Methodist circuit rider, Daniel Curry, made a campfire on the NE
prairie one night and fell asleep. He dreamed he had died and gone to heaven
where an angel asked his reason for being there. He said, Im here to claim
the mansion Jesus promised me long ago. But the angel wouldnt let him in,
so Curry pleaded to see God. Arriving at Gods throne he was dumbstruck by
the blaze of glory that greeted him, like 1,000 suns. He fell prostrate before
the God. A stern voice cried out, Who are you and what do you seek? Curry
tried, but was too terrified to speak. But suddenly a scarred hand pulled him to
his feet. Father, this is Daniel Curry. He confessed me before men, and I
now confess him before you. Whatever sins he has committed whatever
stains his record, charge them all to me. Put them on my account. This can
be all of your future; it all depends on what you do with Jesus now.
III.

Savor the Spirit

A. Dont Denounce the Spirits Work

Heres a much debated passage. 10 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. So, is there an unpardonable sin?
Answer Yes. What is it? It is blaspheming the Holy Spirit. So, what does it
mean to blaspheme the Holy Spirit? All kinds of answers have been given
murder, adultery, suicide and many others. But serious as those are, it is
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none of those. David was certainly forgiven of both murder and adultery. So
what is the unpardonable sin? How does one blaspheme the Holy Spirit?
To blaspheme the Holy Spirit is to firmly, finally and fully reject the Holy
Spirits clear, unimpeachable evidence of the Person and Work of Jesus Christ,
and further to attribute that work to Satan to mock it. It is to harden your
heart against full light to the point of no return. Weve seen how Pharaoh did
that in the face of multiple display of Gods power and glory.
Both Matthew and Mark place this comment by Jesus in the context of a
blasphemous accusation. Check Mt 12. Jesus has healed a demonized blind
and mute man. The crowd marvels at His power. Mt 12:24: But when the
Pharisees heard it, they said, It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons,
that this man casts out demons. The Pharisees have reached a watershed
point in their opposition to Jesus. Originally they thought him a nuisance they
could soon silence. But every ill-fated effort had failed. It should have long
ago dawned on them that truth was on His side. For a few, like Nicodemus
and Joseph of Arimathea, it had. But most intensified their opposition. They
could not deny Jesus compassion; it was everywhere. They could not trap
Him verbally; He destroyed them every time. And they never even attempted
to deny His miracles, so obvious were they. You can deny them from 2,000
years distance, but not a single person tried to do so during Jesus lifetime.
So they did they only thing left to them. They claimed He was empowered by
Satan. It was an act of spiritual suicide. With more direct revelation of God
than anyone in history, these men chose to claim it was all from Satan. They
didnt just reject Jesus, which one might do and still repent later. No, their
rejection had reached the point of attributing every work of the HS thru Jesus
to Satan a lifetime choice. They had crossed the Rubicon and were
confirmed in their unbelief, having sinned against more light than anyone in
history. So Jesus, after showing the insanity of their position, concluded by
saying in Mt 12:31, Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be
forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.
Many people worry that they have committed the unpardonable sin. I assure
you, people who have are not worried about it. It is not a question of severity.
Mt 12:31, Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven
people. The worst sin ever committed was killing Jesus who prayed on that
occasion, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Lu 23:34).
Neither is it the number of sins someone may have committed. God assures us
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in Jas 5:20 for any repentant, God will cover a multitude of sins. Neither is
the species of sin an issue. I Jn 1:9: If we confess our sins, He is faithful and
just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The issue
is the persistent suppression of Gods revelation to the point of no return.
Like Judas when he sinned against more light than any person in history to
betray Jesus. Hed reached the point of no return. An unpardonable sin.
It is likely that modern examples include people who have sat under the
teaching of Gods Word for years, only to finally throw it all over. A former
minister, John W. Loftus, has been called the Crown prince of atheists these
days. Why? Because he has 3 degrees in theology, including study under the
prominent apologist, William Lane Craig, pastored for 14 years, then suddenly
left the ministry and declared himself an atheist. Hes founded a blog called
Debunking Christianity. He published a book: Why I Became an Atheist. He
found the church unloving. He also attacks the Bible on multiple fronts. One
example: he claims it advocates child sacrifice using Gods instruction to
Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, which God stopped, of course. And Exod 22:29,
The firstborn of your sons you shall give to me which, of course, was not
advocating child sacrifice but was speaking of service. Loftus never mentions
God provided an alternative whereby the people could pay a tax to support the
Levites as substitute for giving their firstborn to His service.
What is seldom mentioned is that Loftus committed adultery and was
ostracized when he was unrepentant. He later divorced and married another
woman, who happened to be an atheist. It was not for intellectual reasons
that he originally left the faith, but for moral ones. His blog includes
multiple cartoon videos mocking Bible stories and presenting the biblical God
as a buffoon. Blaspheming the HS. Has he committed the unpardonable sin?
Only God can or should judge that. I hope not. But I fear for him because
this is what it would look like. To denounce the Spirits work in such blatant
terms is willful denial of the witness to Himself God has put in every heart. In
the words of Rom 1:18, it is to suppress the truth in unrighteousness. God
gives such people up, to the lusts of their hearts (24), to dishonorable
passions (26) and to a debased mind (28). (Ref John 16:8-11 to talk about
the threefold role of the Spirit in our world).
The unpardonable sin is committed when we have denied God the Father
by denying God the Son, who reveals the Father, and denouncing God the
Spirit who reveals the Son. At that point, youve denied the whole Trinity,
and there is nowhere left to go.
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B. Do Depend on the Spirits Wisdom

Now, in closing Jesus addresses how to handle the persecution that will attach
to publicly acknowledging Him: 11) 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, 12 for the Holy Spirit will
teach you in that very hour what you ought to say. Dont depend on your own
wisdom. Depend on the Holy Spirit. V. 11 Dont worry about what you
should or might say. The HS will show you what you ought what is
necessary () to say not what you think you might say to get free, but
what God wants said testify to His glory and keep you from hypocrisy.
Now when Jesus says the HS will teach you at that very time, He is not
advocating lack of preparation. God urges in II Tim 2: 15) Do your best to
present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be
ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. Peter similarly advises, always
being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the
hope that is in you (I Pet 3:15). There is never an excuse for lack of
preparation. But when the time comes to speak whether in conversation,
teaching or under persecution rely on the HS to take what youve learned
and studied and believed to give you words that He can use to change hearts.
Peter and John did in Acts 4. Arrested for healing a man, in the name of Jesus
Christ, whom the leaders had just crucified and thought they had heard the end
of, Peter and John were threatened if they did not stop talking about Jesus and
His resurrection. But they reply in Acts 4:19-20, Whether it is right in the
sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, 20 for we
cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard. They are not trying to get
out of jail free; they are bearing witness to Jesus under the HSs direction.
Conc So how do we remove the masks of hypocrisy? By our relationship to
the whole of the Trinity of God. Fear the Father reverence both His
holiness and His grace. Confess Christ stand with the Son. And Savor the
Spirit. Seek His control in your life to empower your witness to your faith.
Theres a great story about Branch Rickey Hall of Fame baseball
administrator for several teams primarily the Dodgers where he integrated
baseball in 1947 by employing Jack Robinson. Rickey was a devout Christian
who lived his faith. He was in the middle of trade discussion one time when he
threw down his pencil, pushed back his chair and growled, The deals off.
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Everyone asked, Why? Whats wrong? Everythings going great. Rickey

said, Here why. All day youve been using the name of a friend of mine in
vain, and I dont like it. Everyone was puzzled, What friend? We havent
spoken ill of anyone, let alone a friend of yours. But you have, said
Rickey. Youve made Jesus Christ nothing but a swear word, and Hes my
best friend. Apologies were quick whether sincere or not. And negotiations
continued. But Rickey left with integrity intact, no masks, no hypocrisy
fearing the Father more than men, confessing the Son and savoring the
Spirit. Lets do the same. Lets pray.