Bulletins - First Baptist Church Litchfield

- - 1 Samuel 2:2ESV
All Hail The Power Of Jesus' Name
Lion Of Judah
- - Psalm 98:1–4ESV
O Worship The King
Only A Holy God
- - Revelation 15:4ESV
Holy Holy Holy
Two Responses to the Same Savior
Matthew records a dramatic scene: a man who was blind and mute because of a demon is healed by Jesus. The crowd marvels, “Can this be the Son of David?” But the Pharisees, hardened in unbelief, accuse Jesus of being empowered by Satan. Same Savior, same miracle—two opposite responses. This passage presses one decision on every heart in the room: do not resist the Spirit, but receive the kingdom of God.
Do not resist the Spirit, but receive the kingdom of God.
Doctors sometimes warn about a condition called calcification of the heart. Over time, calcium deposits can harden in the arteries or valves of the heart, restricting blood flow and leading to deadly consequences. What’s sobering is that calcification doesn’t happen overnight—it builds slowly, quietly, almost unnoticed, until the heart becomes so stiff it can no longer respond properly to life-giving blood.
That is a picture of the Pharisees in Jesus’ day. They had so resisted the Spirit’s testimony to Christ that their hearts became calcified—hard, unresponsive, unmoved by God’s grace. When Jesus healed the blind and cast out demons, they could have rejoiced. Instead, their hardened hearts blasphemed, saying, “He casts out demons by the power of Beelzebul.” Like calcium building up in an artery, each rejection of truth made their hearts harder until they reached the point of no return.
And friend, that is the danger for every one of us. The unforgivable sin is not a slip of the tongue, but a settled condition—a heart so hardened that it no longer hears the Spirit’s prompting, no longer sees Christ as Savior, and attributes God’s work to evil. The calcified heart no longer pumps with faith; it simply grows colder and stiffer until it stops altogether.
What is going on in your heart this morning? Have you closed your heart to hear God’s truth? Are you open to listening to the Spirit, even if you don’t like what He has to say? Are you submissive to his leading in our church? Do you have a humble and repentant heart? The warning is clear—do not harden your heart when the Spirit speaks.
Thankfully, Jesus doesn’t leave us only with a warning. He also gives us assurance that whoever believes in Him has eternal forgiveness, for He came not to condemn the world but to save it. This morning He gives you three reasons why you must not resist the Spirit, but receive the kingdom of God.
Three reasons to receive the kingdom:
Receive the kingdom because the Spirit shines Christ’s light into our darkness (Matthew 12:22-24)
Matthew sets the stage in verse 22 with a dramatic confrontation between the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of Christ. We read: “Then a demon-oppressed man who was blind and mute was brought to him, and he healed him, so that the man spoke and saw.” Right away, you see the oppression of the darkness.
Demons are not myths or cultural superstitions; they are fallen angels who rebelled against God. Jude describes them as “angels who did not stay within their own position of authority… kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day” (Jude 6). Some are bound, but many are allowed to roam the earth, wreaking havoc on image bearers of God. That havoc sometimes takes the form of possession, as here in Matthew 12:22-24, and sometimes it comes as oppression, harassment, and temptation.
Beloved, demonic oppression is real, and Scripture tells us to take it seriously. Paul reminds us in Ephesians 6:12, “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Satan is called the ruler of darkness. His kingdom seeks to blind minds, enslave hearts, and destroy lives. And though Christians cannot be possessed—for the Holy Spirit indwells every child of God (1 Cor. 6:19)—we are not immune to his attacks. Temptations, addictions, cycles of bitterness, and seasons of despair can be fiery darts from the evil one.
Think of a computer virus that invades a system. It doesn’t usually destroy the hard drive in an instant—it corrupts files slowly, weakens programs, and eventually renders the machine useless unless it is cleaned and secured. That is what oppression looks like in the soul. The enemy cannot own the believer’s heart, but he can seek to corrupt joy, drain faith, and cripple obedience. Like the man in Matthew 12:22, only Christ has the power to bring true deliverance.
The good news is that Jesus has triumphed over the darkness. John 10:10 says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” Colossians 2:15 proclaims that on the cross, Christ “disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.” The weapons of our warfare are not rituals, formulas, or human willpower—they are prayer, the Word, repentance, and faith in the victorious name of Jesus.
Jesus’ light shines into your darkness and empowers you to“Resist the devil, so he will flee from you. Draw near to God, so he will draw near to you.” (James 4:7–8). Christian, your call is not to live in fear of the enemy, but to live in the light of Christ by faith in Christ. The serpent’s head has already been crushed (Gen. 3:15). Greater is the Spirit who dwells in you than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4).
The man in Matthew 12, was helpless until Christ intervened. And so are we. If you are at all feeling like you are wandering away from the faith, if your your love for Jesus seems to be growing cold, if your obedience to him is becoming more like duty than delight, then I beg you this morning to plead with God to shine the light of Jesus into your darkness. Forsake your sin and receive His kingdom. For where Christ reigns, the chains of oppression are broken, and the darkness flees. When the Spirit shines Christ’s light, do not resist—bring your darkness into His light and receive His reign.
Jesus has just shown us in verse 22 that He alone can shine light into our darkness. A man oppressed, blind, and mute was set free to see and speak because the kingdom of God broke into his bondage. Yet in verses 23–24, instead of rejoicing, the Pharisees harden their hearts and accuse Jesus of being in league with Satan. They cannot deny the miracle, so they slander the source. But Jesus will not leave their accusation unanswered. Beginning in verse 25, He exposes the absurdity of their charge and then unveils a greater truth.
Receive the Kingdom because the Spirit is plundering Satan’s house through Jesus (Matthew 12:25-29)
Verse 25 says, Knowing their thoughts, Jesus answers the hard hearted Pharisees,
…“Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. 26 And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? 27 And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. 28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. 29 Or how can someone enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house.” Matthew 12:25–29
Jesus answers the Pharisees with simple, undeniable logic. Their accusation collapses under its own weight. “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand” (Matt. 12:25). Any kingdom at war with itself is doomed to fall. History agrees with Jesus’ logic.
The Roman Empire was not ultimately toppled by one mighty enemy—it was undone by its own divisions. Civil wars raged, emperors assassinated rivals, generals betrayed one another, and provinces broke away. By the time the barbarians swept in, Rome was already rotting from within. A kingdom divided against itself could not stand.
Centuries later, Abraham Lincoln, quoting Jesus’ words, warned a divided America: “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” The Civil War nearly destroyed the nation, as brother fought against brother and the land bled from within.
Even in modern times, the Soviet Union looked strong from the outside. Yet behind the Iron Curtain, ethnic divisions, economic strife, and political corruption fractured it until it collapsed under its own unrest. No kingdom can long survive when it devours itself.
And Scripture tells the same story. The northern kingdom of Israel, led into idolatry by Jeroboam, turned in on itself. Assassinations, coups, and betrayals weakened it until Assyria swept them away. When God’s people refused to unite under His kingship, their house crumbled.
So Jesus reasons with the Pharisees: if Satan is casting out Satan, then his kingdom is divided and doomed. It makes no sense. Demons do the devil’s work. For him to cast himself out would be self-destruction. No kingdom divided can stand.
Instead, Jesus says something far greater is happening. “If it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Matt. 12:28). He has come not merely to heal one man, but to plunder Satan’s house, to bind the strong man, and to set captives free. Jesus does not negotiate with the enemy; He overthrows him. Satan’s kingdom will fall not by civil war but by conquest: Christ binds the strong man and carries out the captives. And the conquest of Satan’s kingdom of darkness with the light of Christ has always been God’s plan.
From the beginning, the story of Scripture is the story of light overcoming darkness.
In Egypt, one of the final plagues was three days of thick, suffocating darkness—a darkness so deep that no one could move. Yet the text says, “all the people of Israel had light where they lived.” God’s light marked His people off from judgment (Exodus 10:21-23)
When Israel was hemmed in between Pharaoh’s army and the sea, God placed His pillar of cloud and fire between them. To the Egyptians it was darkness, but to Israel it gave light all night long until the sea parted (Exodus 14:19-20).
Gideon’s army carried torches hidden in jars. At the Lord’s signal, they broke the jars, lifted up the torches, and shouted. The sudden blaze of light threw the Midianite army into panic and confusion, proving that God delivers by His light, not human might (Judges 7:16-22).
David sings, “The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear?” (Ps. 27:1). Again in Psalm 18:28, “It is you who light my lamp; the Lord my God lightens my darkness.” Isaiah prophesied: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.”
John says the light came into the world, and the darkness could not overcome it (John 1:5). Matthew says this prophecy was fulfilled in Jesus, the Light of the World.(Isaiah 9:2; Matthew 4:16)
The darkest day in history was the crucifixion of Jesus, when the sky itself grew dark. Yet on the third day, light burst forth from the empty tomb. Death’s shadow was shattered forever (Luke 24:1-7).
At the end of Scripture, the story closes where it began—with light. John says the New Jerusalem “has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.” In that city, “night will be no more. (Revelation 21:23-25).”
When Jesus shines His light into the darkness, the darkness cannot overcome it (John 1:5). He binds the strong man. He plunders Satan’s house. He rescues sinners bound in chains of sin and death and brings them into a kingdom where darkness no longer exists.
Beloved, do not resist the Spirit of God as the Pharisees did. Do not explain away the work of Christ. The kingdom of God has come upon you in Jesus. Receive Him. Plead with Him to shine His light into your darkness. Trust Him to set you free. For when Jesus shines, the darkness cannot overcome Him. And when He plunders Satan’s house, He brings you out of the kingdom of darkness and into a kingdom where night will be no more.
Jesus not only heals the oppressed man and exposes the Pharisees’ foolish logic—He reveals His true mission: to overthrow the darkness and establish God’s kingdom. But in verses 30–32, He presses the crowd with a sobering warning. If you reject His Spirit, you reject His kingdom.
Receive the Kingdom because resisting the Spirit calcifies into blaspheme (Matthew 12:30-32)
Jesus leaves no ambiguity here: there is no neutrality in His kingdom. You cannot straddle the line. You cannot claim to love Jesus while still clinging to the world. You cannot confess Christ with your lips while living as though He makes no difference in your life. Just as no one can balance with one foot on the dock and one in the boat—you will either go with the boat or fall into the water—so too you cannot live with one foot in the world and one foot in heaven. Sooner or later, you will go where your heart truly belongs.
Jesus makes it plain: “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters” (Matt. 12:30). Neutrality is impossible. If you are not gathering with Christ, you are scattering against Him. If you are not standing with the Spirit, you are resisting Him.
Think back to cardiac calcification, the slow, quiet build-up that hardens the heart until it can no longer respond to life-giving blood. That is the Pharisees. Each refusal of the Spirit’s witness layered more hardness until they called the Holy Spirit’s work the devil’s. That is, they blaspheme the Spirit.
What is blaspheme?
The Hebrew word for blaspheme literally means “to pierce, bore through, designate, or pronounce distinctly.” In Leviticus 24:16, it is used to mean “to pronounce (or pierce) the Name” — that is, to misuse or curse God’s holy Name: “Whoever blasphemes the name of the LORD shall surely be put to death” (Lev. 24:16, ESV). The sense is that of cutting or tearing down God’s holy reputation.
Another word used for blaspheme is gadap, which means “to revile, reproach, or insult.” It is often used in the prophetic books when people insult or reproach God by idolatry or rebellion. For example, Isaiah 37:6: “Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the young men of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.”
So in Hebrew thought, to blaspheme is to tear down, pierce, or insult the holiness and reputation of God by speech or action.
The word used in our text, the greek word blasphemia, which literally means “to speak harm” or “to slander.” In Scripture, it refers to speech, thoughts, or actions that dishonor, mock, or misrepresent God and His works. In the New Testament, it expands to include reviling Christ (Matt. 27:39), mocking the Spirit’s work (Matt. 12:31–32), or speaking against God’s truth (Rev. 13:6). In its essence, blasphemy is willful irreverence — treating the holy as common, or worse, attributing the works of God to Satan.
What does it mean to blaspheme the Holy Spirit?
To blaspheme the Holy Spirit is not a careless word or a slip of the tongue. It is far more serious. It is the willful rejection of the clear revelation of the Spirit of God. The Spirit shines the light of Christ into the darkness of our hearts, but blasphemy deliberately shuts out that light. It is to look at what is undeniably the work of God, and yet call it the work of Satan.
This is why Jesus warns the Pharisees so strongly. They saw demons cast out, the blind given sight, and the mute made to speak—all unmistakable evidence of the Spirit’s power working through the Son of God. Yet rather than rejoice, they hardened their hearts and declared, “This is the work of Beelzebul.” To do so is to place yourself in direct opposition to God, closing your heart to forgiveness and resisting the Spirit’s saving work.
“Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven” (Matt. 12:31). The danger is not that the blood of Christ is insufficient—it is that a calcified heart refuses to receive it. Every sin—no matter how shameful—can be covered by Christ’s blood. But if you persist in resisting the Spirit, attributing His work to evil, and hardening your heart against His testimony to Christ, you cut yourself off from the only source of forgiveness. It is not that God is unwilling to forgive; it is that the one who resists the Spirit will never come to Christ for forgiveness.
Jesus’ words are not meant to drive the humble sinner to despair. This sin is only “unforgivable” if it is persisted in to the end. As long as there is repentance, there is hope.
So, beloved, do not resist the Spirit. Do not explain away the work of Christ. Plead with God to keep your heart tender. If the Spirit convicts you, do not harden yourself as the Pharisees did. Instead, repent and receive the kingdom of God in Christ Jesus, for where the Spirit opens hearts, there forgiveness and life are found.
The Spirit always points us to Christ. He convicts of sin, opens our eyes, and gives new life. The only unforgivable sin is final rejection of His testimony. But for all who turn to Christ—even with weak, trembling faith—there is full forgiveness.
Think of Peter and Judas. Both sinned grievously. Judas hardened his heart and despaired; Peter wept and returned to Jesus. One was lost, the other restored. The difference? Yielding to the Spirit’s conviction.
What is your response?
We began with two responses to the same Savior: the crowd wondered; the Pharisees resisted. Matthew 12:22-32, has shown us three reasons to receive the kingdom of God:
The Spirit shines Christ’s light—so don’t resist; receive it.
The Spirit plunders Satan’s house through Jesus—so don’t resist; receive His reign.
The Spirit warns that persistent resistance hardens into blasphemy—so don’t resist; repent and receive while it is called “today.”
Beloved, the kingdom of God has come upon you in Christ. Do not explain away His work. Do not keep one foot on the dock and one in the boat. Step in. Do not resist the Spirit, but receive the kingdom of God—turn from your sin, trust the crucified and risen Son, and walk in the light that no darkness can overcome.
- - Matthew 12:22–32ESV
- - Matthew 12:22–24ESV
- - Matthew 12:25–29ESV
- - Matthew 12:25–29ESV
All Hail King Jesus

1 Samuel 2:2ESV

Psalm 98:1–4ESV

Revelation 15:4ESV

Two Responses to the Same Savior

Do not resist the Spirit, but receive the kingdom of God.

Three reasons to receive the kingdom:

Receive the kingdom because the Spirit shines Christ’s light into our darkness (Matthew 12:22-24)

Receive the Kingdom because the Spirit is plundering Satan’s house through Jesus (Matthew 12:25-29)

Receive the Kingdom because resisting the Spirit calcifies into blaspheme (Matthew 12:30-32)

What is blaspheme?

What does it mean to blaspheme the Holy Spirit?

What is your response?

The Spirit shines Christ’s light—so don’t resist; receive it.

The Spirit plunders Satan’s house through Jesus—so don’t resist; receive His reign.

The Spirit warns that persistent resistance hardens into blasphemy—so don’t resist; repent and receive while it is called “today.”

Matthew 12:22–32ESV

Matthew 12:22–24ESV

Matthew 12:25–29ESV

Matthew 12:25–29ESV