Mathew 12 Lesson

THE UNPARDONABLE SIN

There is only one sin that the Bible says will not be forgiven.

And that sin is described inMathew Chapter 12.

• “Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgivenpeople, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. 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.” –Mathew 12:31-32.

EVERYONE HAS AN IMPORTANT DECISION TO MAKE

Mathew Chapter 12takes place at an interesting time in Jesus’ ministry. 

As the word of Jesus and the miracles that He was performing spread, everyone had an important decision to make.

Would they believe in Jesus and follow Him, or would they pursue their own passions and follow the ways of the world? 

As for the Pharisees, they were jealous of the attention that Jesus was getting.

They were also threatened by the unprecedented impact that He was having on people. 

And because of this, they had begun looking for ways to kill Him.

They were not interested in what Jesus had to say, and they were not swayed by the miracles He performed that they witnessed with their own eyes. 

Like us, the Pharisees and scribes had a choice to make:

• They could follow Jesus,
• Or they could pursue their own selfish ambitions and desires.

Unfortunately for them, they made the wrong choice.

Sadly, the hearts of the Pharisees were hardened, and their minds were made up. 

They would rather see Jesus killed than follow Him and His teachings. 

FREEWILL

God gives us free will!

He knows that we are going to have good days and bad days, even good years, and bad years. 

But at our core, we all must decide if we want to be “good” or “bad.” 

We must decide if we are going to follow Jesus and His teachings or the evil ways of the world.

The Pharisees had abandoned any idea of following Jesus. 

Their minds were made up, their hearts were hardened, and now their souls had crossed over to the point that they were never going to turn back.  They had committed what is referred to as, “Blasphemy against the Spirit.” – Mathew 12:31. 

To commit blasphemy of the Spirit means that you have given up on ever following Jesus.  And because only God knows our hearts, only He knows who has committed this unpardonable sin. 

“THE TREE WILL BE KNOWN BY ITS FRUIT”

Jesus said:

• “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.” – Mathew 12:32.

Building on that scripture, Jesus continued:

• “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit.” – Mathew 12:33.

Jesus is telling us that we will be known by the fruit that we produce.

If we are “good,” God will bless us, and our work will be fruitful.

If we are “bad,” God will punish us and our hearts will become hardened, which puts us at risk of spending eternity in Hell.

Jesus said:

• “He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters.” – Mathew 12:30.

God has a plan for each of us.

The prophet Jeremiah wrote:

• “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” – Jeremiah 29:11.

But God’s plan will not work if we reject His Son and His teachings. 

If we do not believe in Jesus, we cannot, and will not be saved. 

In fact, there are five matters of salvationthat are mentioned in the Bible:

1. Confess our belief in Him. “For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” – Romans 10:10, 
2. Repent (turn away from) of our sins. “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” – Luke 13:3, 
3. Be baptized. “Baptism now saves you—not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ .” – 1 Peter 3:21 and “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” – Mark 16:16, 
4. Obey God’s commandments. “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.” – Mathew 7:21. 

CONCLUSION

There are many sins listed in the Bible, but there is only one unpardonable sin that will never be forgiven. 

This sin is referred to as “Blasphemy of the Spirit.”

Jesus talks about this in the following verse:

• “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.” – Mathew 12:32.

To commit blasphemy of the Spirit means that you have given up on ever following Jesus. 

It means that your heart has hardened to the point where you belong to the world, not God, and not Jesus. 

God gives us freewill to decide for ourselves who we are going to follow.

It is a choice that we all must make. 

We are either followers of Jesus, or we are not! There is no middle ground.

We will end today’s lesson with the following verse about the most important decision we will ever make, whether we are going to follow Jesus or the sinful ways of the world:

• “Choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” – Joshua 24:15.