Mark 3:28-30 Listen to the Holy Spirit
The Text
Mark 3:28–30 (CSB)
28 “Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for all sins and whatever blasphemies they utter.29 But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”—
30 because they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”
The Devotion
If you are trying to wrap your mind around whether or not you have blasphemed the Holy Spirit, let me stop right there.
If you are struggling with this, the answer is you have not because you have not permanently rejected the Holy Spirit to your dying day.
If you don't care whether or not you have blaspheme the Holy Spirit, you are going to hell. There is no two ways about it.
But what is Christ telling you and me to do in this passage?
Listen to the Holy Spirit.
Let me shortcut it another way: listen to God.
Listen to the Spirit: He proceeds from the Father and testifies about the Son
John 15:26-27 (CSB) “When the Counselor comes, the one I will send to you from the Father —the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father—he will testify about me. You also will testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.
The Counselor counsels. You want to fulfill the Great Commission? Testify about the Lord Jesus Christ. The Spirit of God who is God perfectly testifies about the Son of God who is God.
Listen to the Spirit: He preaches the truth of Christ
John 16:12-15 (CSB) “I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak on his own, but he will speak whatever he hears. He will also declare to you what is to come.
Listen to the Spirit: He glorifies the Son of God
14 He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. Everything the Father has is mine. This is why I told you that he takes from what is mine and will declare it to you.
Listen to the Spirit: He will teach you everything that Christ has taught in his word
John 14:23-26 (CSB) Jesus answered, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. The one who doesn’t love me will not keep my words. The word that you hear is not mine but is from the Father who sent me.
25 “I have spoken these things to you while I remain with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.
Listen to the Spirit: he convicts
John 16:5-11 (CSB) But now I am going away to him who sent me, and not one of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’Yet, because I have spoken these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth. It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment:About sin, because they do not believe in me;about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me;and about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.
He convicts the world of sin.
More so, He convicts us of our righteousness.
More so, He convicts Satan about the oncoming judgment for Him and his demons.
Listen to the Spirit: we are to be led by Him
Romans 8:14 (ESV) For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
Listen to the Spirit: helps us in our weakness and intercedes for us
Romans 8:26 (CSB) In the same way the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings.
Listen to the Spirit: knows exactly what is on your heart and intercedes for you
Romans 8:27 (CSB) And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.