A Point of No Return – 4/6/25

As you turn to Matthew 12, I want to thank you, hopefully one last time, for your patience with the parking. Lord willing, the parking is going to be paved this week. And so next week, the parking will be effortless, I’m sure. I don’t think it can get any worse than it is right now. But thank you for your patience.

If you search most famous crime duos, you’re likely to see names like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Frank and Jesse James, the Menendez brothers. But at the top of the list, most likely will be Bonnie and Clyde.

Now this is surprising for a number of reasons. One is they weren’t great criminals. The stores and the banks they robbed often resulted in small amounts of cash. But the timing of their crime spree was impeccable. People were suffering in the Great Depression. Big banks were viewed as the real criminals by many. Police officers were often despised by the poor.

So a couple of love-struck kids from the slums of West Dallas were initially viewed, as many would say today, social justice activists. They were fighting an unjust system that kept them in poverty. And they were, in the words of one journalist, Romeo and Juliet in a getaway car. And this picture captured the American imagination.

But their image as storybook Robin Hood characters took a hit on Easter Sunday, April 1, 1934. The Barrow Gang, at the time, consisted of Clyde Barrow, Bonnie Parker, and Henry Methvin. They were waiting outside Dallas off a main road to meet their families for Easter. Bonnie had bought a little, live white rabbit for her mother to give to her for Easter. Two police officers noticed their car off the road and stopped to help. As they approached their car, Clyde and Henry stepped out and gunned down the police officers. Their car was stolen, and Clyde was already wanted for murder. Their Easter Sunday plans changed dramatically as they sped away.

And public sentiment began to change, as well. The two officers had merely stopped to help them. One of the officers was 24-year-old H.D. Murphy. It was his first day on motorcycle patrol. The shotgun he had left on his motorcycle wasn’t even loaded. And in twelve days, he was to marry his fiancee, Marie Tullis. She wore her wedding dress to his funeral. As the news of the murders began to spread, public sentiment began to shift. I think Jeff Guinn in his book Go Down Together exaggerates this a bit, but he’s getting at something. He writes,

“The vicarious love affair between Americans and the Barrow Gang was over. Having been entertained by Clyde and Bonnie for many months, the public now turned on them. It was time for the couple to get its comeuppance. Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker still had seven weeks to live. But during those weeks, they would be more reviled than celebrated. Their destruction, their consuming, had begun.”

Interestingly, Bonnie and Clyde knew their end was near. They had both determined they weren’t going back to jail. As Clyde’s sister wrote later,

“All my brother could do now was to try to stay ahead of the pursuing forces of the law until the chase reached its inevitable conclusion.”

Two days before their car was filled with 112 bullet holes from 167 rounds fired, Bonnie warned a young man,

“Never go crooked…. It’s for the love of a man I’m going to have to die…. I don’t know when, but I know it can’t be long.”

It wasn’t. Less than 48 hours later, Bonnie and Clyde’s bullet-filled car and bodies were towed down the streets of Arcadia, Louisiana with thousands of people gawking at the ghoulish parade.

How does someone get there? How does someone get to a place where there’s no use trying? How does someone get to a place where the options go from bad to worse? To a place where you feel the end is inevitable and change is impossible?

Bonnie believed it was the system that brought them to that place. The police officers made Clyde a criminal, in her view. She had told her family,

“They made him what he is today. He used to be a nice boy…. Folks like us haven’t got a chance.”

Really? They made him start skipping school. They made him start stealing chickens, and then hot-wiring cars, and then breaking into homes, and then holding up banks, and then killing police officers. They made him.

How do we get to that point of no return? That point where the deck feels stacked against us, where it feels like whether I do the right thing or the wrong thing, the end is inevitable. It doesn’t matter. I can’t, I can’t change.

Obviously, there’s no single answer to that question. Bonnie and Clyde experienced real poverty. The world would say they experienced bad luck. In some ways, they were victims. but they were also villains who made real choices that led them to that place of inescapable destiny.

The Bible describes this place — this place of hopelessness, changelessness, that sense of powerlessness, there’s nothing I can do — in a variety of ways. Let me give you some biblical samples. Another ancient Bonnie and Clyde couple, known as Ahab and Jezebel, are described in 1 Kings 21:25.

“There was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord like Ahab, whom Jezebel his wife incited.”

Isn’t that interesting language? “Sold himself.” That has the idea of slavery. Willful slavery, where you lose agency. Or Proverbs 29:18,

“Where there is no prophetic vision [that is revelation from God] the people cast off restraint.”

Here the image is that of a car careening down a hill with no brakes. No control. Or Isaiah 1:5,

“Why will you still be struck down? Why will continue to rebel? The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint.”

The image here is that of an MMA fighter who’s all bloodied and on the ground, should tap out, but still flailing, highlighting the irrationality of sin. Or here’s another one, Hosea 4.17.

“Ephraim is joined to idols; leave him alone.”

Those are the three words you never want God to speak over you. Leave her alone. Leave him alone. We’re done here. One more. 2 Timothy 3:1-5.

“But understand this, that in the last days, there will come times of difficulty [that is, seasons of stress. Why?] for people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable,”

That’s an interesting word. Literally means irreconcilable, implacable. Literally it means, if you break it down, without peaceful solution. You’re taking hopelessness, mercilessness, and some stubbornness, put it in a blender. And you get that. Unappeasable. Keep going.

“slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness but denying its power. Avoid such people.”

Watch out for people who claim to be right but never want to get right. Who can point the fingers at the system and everyone else who’s wrong, but they never change. Shockingly, Clyde Barrow was raised in church. He knew better. In Matthew 12:31-32, Jesus makes one of the most familiar statements of a sin with no exit sign, a point of no return. Look at 12:31.

“Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven either in this age or in the age to come.”

Now these words have terrified sensitive consciences for centuries. It’s really important for us to understand what they mean and what they don’t mean.

Let’s pray and jump into this passage. Father, these are hard words. I think we all have tasted at times what hopelessness is like. When our sin and our sorrow overwhelm us, when we hear voices — What’s the use? Why try? Why repent again? You’ve gone too far. You’ve put this passage here for a reason. You’ve brought us here for a reason. We’re listening. Thank you for speaking. We ask this in Jesus’s name, amen.

By now, the conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders is beginning to look familiar. Jesus is offering rest, the Pharisees are offering resistance. And it creates this cycle, comes in different forms. But Jesus heals, crowds wonder, Pharisees accuse, repeat. Let’s look at each one of those parts.

1.  Jesus heals, verse 22.

“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.”

Someone brings to Jesus a man with spiritual and physical comorbidities. He was oppressed by a demon. He was blind, and he was mute. As we’ve seen in Matthew all the way through, Jesus is King, not only of demonic forces, but also of disease. The text says, rather matter-of-factly, verse 22,

“and he healed him, so that the man spoke and saw.”

He’s delivered from demonic oppression, and his eyes are healed, and Jesus gives him a voice. Jesus heals.

2. The crowds wonder, verse 23.

“And all the people were amazed, and said, can this be the Son of David?”

This word “amaze” simply means to be astounded. But it is a compound word made of two Greek words — “ex” which is where we get our word “exit” from that, “out” and “histemi,” which means “to stand,” to stand out. But it doesn’t mean what we would think, to stand out. It means to stand out of oneself, or to be out of one’s mind. to be beyond oneself in the sense of, the crowds see the mercy and power of Jesus, and they’re saying to one another, he’s blowing me out of my mind. What is this? I have no category for this kind of mercy and power.

And they begin to ask, is this the son of David? Now everybody knew what that meant back then. It’s not just about who your dad was. It was about this line that went from promise given to King David all the way through. And Jesus fulfills this promise as the Messiah, the anointed One, the promised One. And the people are saying among themselves, is this him? Well, the Pharisees hear that and they want to make sure that plane can’t get off the runway. They’ve got to take that down.

3. The Pharisees accuse.

And so, number three, the Pharisees accuse, verse 24.

“But when the Pharisee’s heard it, they said, ‘It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.”

Beelzebul was the god of Ekron, often translated Beelzebub, which means lord of the flies, lord of dung. It’s really a Hebrew swipe at a false deity. But by this time, Beelzebul generally referred to Satan himself, prince of the demons.

Notice — this is really important — the Pharisees weren’t denying the miracle that Jesus did. They couldn’t. But they literally, we’re demonizing Jesus to make sure the people didn’t follow him.

Right in the middle of this cycle of chaos — Jesus healing, crowds wondering, Pharisees accusing — Jesus steps in and provides a divine analysis of what’s really happening.

Jesus explains. He tells us what’s actually going on, verse 25.

“knowing their thoughts”

You can imagine how frustrating that would be for the religious leaders to try to discredit and destroy someone who knows what you’re thinking before you think it. And Jesus here offers two options and then warns of a place of no return.

Option #1, I am casting out demons by a demon.

This is the Pharisees’ position, verse 25.

“Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, ‘Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against its self will stand. And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons  [your students] cast them out? Therefore, they will be your judges.”

Jesus is here exposing the irrationality of the Pharisees. Everybody agrees that for a human being to cast out a demon, we need a power beyond ourselves, either divine or demonic. But Jesus is asking the obvious question, why would Satan cast out Satan? Why would Satan intentionally score an own goal or a touchdown on his own end zone. You can’t win if you’re destroying yourself. That’s option number one.

Option #2, I am casting out demons by the Spirit of God, verse 28.

“But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. 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. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”

Jesus is using an analogy here. If tonight you decide to break into someone’s home while they are home, you’re going to have to deal with the strongman, the homeowner.

When one of my kids bought a home in TR, this sign was on a tree and on the garage.

“This home protected by the good Lord and a gun. If you come here to steal or do harm, you might meet them both.”

Apparently it’s a Christian greeting in TR, a little different than a pineapple, but … Now, we can debate the wisdom of announcing that you are armed or not, but the sign is saying something similar to what Jesus is saying. If you’re planning to plunder someone’s house, you should expect resistance from the person living in it. When you break into someone’s home, there’s no middle ground. That’s what he means by “you’re with me or against me.” You either have to take him out or he will take you out.

If Satan is invading his own home, that doesn’t make any sense. But if Jesus is invading Satan’s house, his territory, by the power of the Spirit, then we need to choose sides. Whom are we with? And Jesus is saying, my coming as king is invading Satan’s house. Therefore, you need to decide. Is Jesus casting out evil by evil? Or is Jesus casting out evil by good? And this leads Jesus right to the point of no return, verse 31.

“Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.”

Now at the beginning of the chapter, Jesus was debating with the Pharisees about the nature of the Sabbath, and he is Lord of the sabbath. So that was a hot debate, as Ryan helped us see. But here, the debate has been ratcheted up to “the point of no return,” what is called the blasphemy against the Spirit.

It’s really important for us to define this clearly, also known as the unpardonable sin. There are three characteristics of this sin. And I’ve modified Grudem’s definition of this, but it’s essentially his. It has three parts: mind, will, words.

First, mind. Clearly knowing the identity and power of Jesus.

The Pharisees saw Jesus do the miracles. They were not experiencing a deficiency of information. They knew.

Secondly, willfully rejecting the evidence one knows is true.

That’s the act of the will. We have to suppress this.

And then third (here’s the mouth) slanderously attributing the work of the Holy Spirit in Christ to Satan. That’s why verse 32 has a big verbal emphasis, speaks against. I’m clearly knowing, willfully rejecting, and then verbally misrepresenting. That is the blasphemy against the Spirit.

What is not the blasphemy against the Spirit? This is so important.

It is not questioning the works of Jesus. It’s not. Jesus welcomed questions. All throughout the Gospels, people were asking good questions, pushing back. He welcomed that.

Secondly, it is not doubting the truth of the gospel. Pretty much all the disciples went through periods of doubt. Even Matthew 28, we’ll see at the end of the book, when Jesus rose from the dead, the disciples were still doubting. That’s not the blasphemy against the Spirit.

Third, it is not having blasphemous thought. John Bunyan, born in 1628, is best known for his book Pilgrim’s Progress, which has, by the way, sold over 250 million copies since 1678. His lesser-known book, Grace Abounding, tells his story of salvation. It is brutal, because for years he battled obsessive thoughts. Let me give you a sampling. He writes this.

“If I had been hearing the word, then uncleanness, blasphemies, and despair would hold me a captive there. if I was reading. then sometimes I had sudden thoughts to question all I read. At other times, my mind would be so strangely snatched away and possessed with other things that I neither knew, regarded nor remembered as much as the sentence that just then I had read.”

He called this experience torture. Some of you can identify, right? You’re right in the middle of worshiping Jesus, and all of a sudden, this blasphemous thought comes out of nowhere. You’re having your time in the Word, and all a sudden you question, “Am I insane to even care about reading my Bible?” Maybe you never do. Many of us battle these random thoughts. Where do they come from? That’s what Bunyan is talking about. It got so bad. He had periods of peace over those years, but it got so that he concluded,

“I feared, therefore, that this wicked sin of mine might be that sin unpardonable….”

And then he went to these passages. Could that be me? Short answer, no. He eventually came to a place of peace. He eventually wrote a book that has sold over 250 million copies that has encouraged believers for centuries. Isn’t that crazy? That’s a little sidebar. When God takes you through a hard thing, he will use it in ways that you can’t imagine even though we hate going through those hard things.

Back on track. It might be that when we experience these blasphemous thoughts that we do not desire and fear that that might be evidence, that we haven’t committed the unpardonable sin. Why? Because people who have don’t care. It is important to understand the difference.

One thing that might help is for us to be able to identify what we could call some mile markers on this path toward the point of no return. And the author of Hebrews provides us some help in chapter 12. Remember, the whole book of Hebrews is all about “Keep at it, he’s worth it,” so that you finish well. He provides an example of someone who appears to have reached the point of no return. We don’t know for sure. He might have repented later. But in Hebrews 12:17,

“For you know that afterward,”

This is Esau, Abraham’s grandson, who sold his birthright for a meal.

“For you know that afterward when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.”

No chance to repent. I mentioned last fall when we touched on this verse that that word “chance” is “topos.” We get our word topographical from that. It literally means place. There was no place. There was no space to repent, so if you can imagine Esau living on an “Island of Regret.” You notice he had tears. He has sorrow. But in order to get from the “Island of Regret” to the “Land of Blessing,” you have to board the ship called “Repentance.” You have to repent, that is to turn from your way to God’s way. And you get transported from the “Island of Regret” to the “Land of Blessing.” Why was there no space to make it over-physical. Why was there no room in the “Ship of Repentance for him to travel to the “Land of Blessing”? And what is more relevant, why might there be no space for us?

The best way probably to answer that is to look at the chapter as a whole. If you go back to the beginning of the chapter, chapter 12:1.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and the perfecter [the author and finisher] of our faith.”

The author of Hebrews is helping us see the only way you can travel from the “Island of Regret” to the “Land of Blessing,” a place of joy and peace and love, is by looking to Jesus who gives us grace to humble ourselves, repent, and move to blessing.

Well, what might keep us from doing that? What might fill the ship or distract the eyes so that I’m not willing or able to move toward this place of blessing? And if we look at the whole of chapter 12, we see at least four what we could call mile markers on the road to the point of no return. And let me be clear, I’m not saying that any of these mean we can’t return. I’m saying that our Father has graciously given us these so that we won’t go there. Here’s a sample.

1. I despise discipline.

I despise discipline. Might be a reason why there’s no space for grace. There’s no room for repentance. Look at verse 5 (Hebrews 12:5).

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

This is God saying to us, when I spank you, everything inside of you is going to scream, “You hate me!” And God is saying, your Father is saying, “I love you. I’m protecting you from things you don’t even know about.” Don’t think lightly of the training of the Lord. He goes on in verse 11.

“For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

Don’t despise, think lightly of the training of God, even when it hurts.

Number two mile marker to keep us from the road of no, the place of no return …

Mile marker #2, I stay hurt. This is all right here in Hebrews 12. I stay hurt. Verse 12.

“Therefore, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.”

You literally cannot run the race with endurance without at times being injured. Everybody will experience times of injury. You will be injured, you might even injure someone else. And so what is the author of Hebrews saying? When that experience happens, do not take your injury as an identity. There are many people who know who they are based on the injury they’ve experienced, and they self-identify as injured.

Now, we’re all going to experience injury, some more serious than others. I’m not minimizing that. And I’m not saying you just put a band aid on, and it’s gone. Sometimes it takes a lot of help, a lot time, a lot grace, a lot wisdom to work toward healing. But what the author of Hebrews is saying is, don’t take an identity of injury. That’s how I know who I am. intentionally or unintentionally. That’s essentially what Bonnie (Bonnie and Clyde), what she means when she said, “They made me. They made him that way.” Things they did resulted in this. I’m a victim, a perpetual victim. Even though we’re killing police officers, we’re the victims. And it’s so tempting to do that. But the author of Hebrews is saying, no, no. Look again at the end of verse 13,

“so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.”

In other words, don’t let a temporary injury turn into a permanent disability, a permanent spiritual disability.

Mile marker #1, I despise discipline.

Mile marker #2, I stay hurt.

Mile marker #3, I hold on to wrongs.

I hold on to wrongs. And he says this a couple different ways. Verse 14,

“Strive for peace with everyone,”

Pursue peace with everyone.

“And for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.”

So in one stunning sentence, he talks about chasing. That’s the word pursue, strive, chase, horizontal peace. That is, keeping things right with one another. Love your neighbor.

Now, quick clarification. Some people do not want to be at peace with you. You can only do your part. You can’t manipulate or coerce people to be a peace with you. Just as much as lies within you (Romans 12) you live peacefully. You seek to restore if you’ve wronged in any way. You pursue. That’s the horizontal.

But then the vertical.

“the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.”

Love God, love neighbor. That’s what he’s talking about. Don’t hold on to wrongs. Why? Verse 15.

“See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no ‘root of bitterness’ springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;”

This root of bitterness is a quotation from Deuteronomy 29:18-19, and it has to do with a stubborn persistence in the wrong direction. “I’m good. Leave me alone.” And a heart begins to simmer with wrong that goes gangrene.

And then one more, I trade the ultimate for the immediate.

I trade for the ultimate, verse 16.

“that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.”

We’re trying to pick up on mile markers that tell us when we’re heading toward that point of no return, long before we get there. This is a big one. where Esau would rather stay on the “Island of Regret” and get the benefits of that. Sensual satisfaction, comfort, image, whatever it is that we want right now rather than repent and move toward real healing and hope.

Now we need to talk for a moment. How do we think about this if we’re a Christian? How do Christians think about this point of no return or this unpardonable sin? We have a weird relationship with it. Because in one sense, as a believer, a follower of Jesus, I don’t fear that at all. I know that when God saved me, I can never lose my salvation. He is the author and the finisher. What he starts, he finishes. So there’s no fear.

But there is also no presumption. I don’t have a mindset like, I could sleep around. And I can treat people like crud, because I know I’m going to heaven. No, I could imagine myself hardening, being blind, self-absorbed. And I’m like, God, I don’t even want to go near there.

What does God, our Father, so graciously do? He gives us these mile markers as warnings. Hey, embrace the discipline. Release the wrong. Don’t hold on to that. And you say, well, what does it matter? I’m saved. No, Christians don’t think that way. They don’t think, what does it matter? Because these mile markers are actually gifts from your Father to keep you from going to a point of no return. Isaiah 55:6.

“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord [why?] that he may have compassion on him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”

That’s the heart of God. Abundantly pardon. Or in Matthew language, what we’ve been learning,

“Come to me. all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

I’ve shared in the past, every morning I start my day on my face praying the Lord’s Prayer. And sometimes I’m moving quickly through it. Sometimes I have to stop and re-pray it because I didn’t even think about what I was praying. But often, the Spirit of God takes a phrase and just takes me in a direction of prayer.

And this week, one of the mornings It was in the section, “Forgive us our debts, as we have also forgiven our debtors.” And I was just overcome with how easy it is to pray that prayer. I did not go out in my back yard and kill a lamb. I did not have to cut myself to do penance or beat myself with chains to try to make myself feel worthy. I simply got down on my face and said, forgive us our debts — all my selfishness, all my greed, my pride, my lust, my insecurities — could you just wipe those clean? And guess what he does? He does it, right then. And he gives us the grace to forgive our debtors, and to live light. Because brothers and sisters, you cannot run the race with endurance if you’re carrying a backpack of resentment and bitterness.

And I know it’s not all easy. There are times where I let go of things, and then two minutes later I have to let go of it again, and again, and again, and again, and again. This is just mind-blowing that what Jesus has provided, he has completely paid for. He gives us everything we need to live this way. There is no reason for any of us to go to a point of no return and become hopeless or changeless or slip into despair.

We want to take time remembering how that happened. Because even though that prayer is simple, it cost Jesus everything for us to be able to pray it and for him to provide it. We call this the Lord’s Supper because it’s a mini meal to remind us. He did everything so that we — if your faith is in Jesus, you’re repenting, you’re not living on the “Island of Regret” anymore, you’re getting in this ship called repentance, you’re turning your back on your way, you’re turn to Christ and putting your faith in him — and he washes you clean. And he gives you grace to be able to live in freedom.

If your faith is in Jesus, please participate and use this time just to say, Lord, thank you. Thank you for doing everything so that my conscience can be clear. And if I need to go make something right or confess, just do it now.

And if you’re not a believer, the Holy Spirit brought you here so that you will trust him. Let go of that bitterness. Let go of that sin. He died for your sin and your sorrow. He carried them so you don’t have to. If you’re not a believer yet, you can just pass those elements by and use this time to pray. So, Matt, come on up and team, whoever is helping to pass out. We’re going to pass out a little piece of broken bread and a cup, and then we will use this time for heart searching and worship. And then I’ll come back up in a few minutes and we will partake together.