Open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 12, please. For those that are visiting with us today, once again, welcome. We've said that a few times already, but then just to kind of walk you through kind of what we're about here is we sing a lot of songs. You've experienced that already, a variety of songs in different styles because we love to praise the Lord. We say prayers and we spend some time together, but the real centerpiece of the ministry here in our church is the time that we spend in God's word. So we take a good amount of time to carefully consider a passage from the scripture each week, and we try to just follow it through. So probably for over two years now, we've been slowly piecing our way through the Gospel of Matthew, taking a pause here and there. At Christmas time, certainly, we preach about the birth of Christ, and every now and then the Lord will lay something different on my heart, or I'll be gone and one of the deacons will fill in for me. But for the most part, this is what we've been doing, and we've been doing this with me for almost 16 years now. But that's the tradition in our church, is what we really believe everybody on earth needs is an understanding of the Bible. The creation that you see all around you, the diversity of it, to include humans, And just like the stars in the sky, which is unfathomable and immeasurable how much and how big that all is, even down to the micro level and what we know about things at the molecular level and the atomic level and the subatomic level here on Earth and how basic elements are made up and everything, The diversity and complexity of creation, we believe, reveals that God is there, that there must be someone who made all of this. We reject the notion that all of the diversity that you see and the complexity, perhaps the most complex thing of all is the spirit of a human being and their capacity to have a conscience and to reason and to not just act according to instinct but to make decisions and choices based on good and evil. So all of that lends itself to, we believe, the most logical conclusion being that there is someone who has made all of this. Right? It didn't just happen by accident. Now, the reason the Bible is important is because the Bible points us to who that maker is. Right? The Bible starts by telling us, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And the entire story, through the salvation that God brings to us through Jesus, all the way through to things that haven't happened yet, and are still coming on this earth, all of it starts with the notion that God created and made everything. And theologians call what you can see in nature and the fact that it reveals God, and the Bible even describes that, that is clearly understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that men are without excuse, you know, for not knowing Him. But the fact that you can look and just comprehend, and every man, woman does this. Where do we come from? How do we get here? You know, Theologians like to call that general revelation, that anybody can just look and deduce for themselves that this didn't happen by accident, that we're here. But then what the same theologians call special revelation is a reference to the Bible, because the Bible tells us the story of God. The Bible introduces us to the person of God. It tells us His characteristics. It tells us what He's done. It reveals to us what He's going to do. The Bible even tells us of ourselves. The Bible tells us that, points to us our sin and points to us points us to why we are seemingly as a race of people so distant and so far from God and in so much disagreement concerning God and why there is so much evil in the world. The Bible explains all of this to us. Then the Bible points to one specific characteristic of God which is perhaps important above all, and that is that God has this great love, this merciful, compassionate love for people, even though we've all sinned. And what God did is laid out for us in the Bible, that he gave his only begotten son. We're told where he was born. We're told his name, Jesus of Nazareth. We're told that he was the son of Mary, but conceived miraculously through the power of the Holy Spirit, was raised by a man named Joseph and Mary. We're told that he lived a perfect, sinless life, and then offered his life as a sacrifice for our sins. and then, on the third day, rose from the dead. The Bible is what points us to all of that. Then, beyond all of that, you have the Bible teaching those who believe and those who are saved by their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, teaching us how we ought to live and how we ought to serve Him, and grounding us deeper and deeper in the knowledge of God and in the knowledge of His salvation, and even pointing to us our eternal future, pointing us towards that. And so, I say that it's a good reminder for all of us who are part of the church, but especially for those of us who are visiting, if you wonder why we give so much time and so much care and so much energy and seemingly this supreme place to the time that we spend in the Bible, that is why. I feel like the one tangible thing in this world that truly transcends this world is the Bible. It is the one otherworldly thing that is in the world. It is the one connection with that which is bigger than this world. is the Bible, because the Bible teaches us of the world's maker, of the world's judge, of the world's redeemer. And the Bible teaches us of our place in all of that. And so that's why we spend all that time. So welcome to you. And if you've read the Bible your whole life, or if you've never read the Bible before, or you're somewhere in between, probably like most of us, hope that this time that we spend here today is a great blessing to you and we hope to see you coming back for more because what you're seeing today is this is how we've been doing it at least the last 16 years and really I didn't invent all that really before that too. So anyway you're in Matthew chapter 12 now And I want to pick up with where we started last week. I do need to review it a little bit because, you know, last week we observed the Lord's Supper and kind of went quickly through the first little portion of this. But it does all tie together, so a brief review of what we did last week is in order, and then Lord willing, we'll go through the rest of the passage. But you're looking, first of all, at verse 22. Let me lead us in a short prayer, and then we'll pursue. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for this time that we've had together here today already where we've been singing and rejoicing and fellowshipping a little with one another and praying. And now, Lord, we come to the time where we just kind of stop everything and we listen to your word. We know that your word contains everything we need to make us wise unto salvation. through our Lord Jesus Christ. And we know further that Your Word is useful for teaching and reproof and correction, teaching us righteousness, Lord, that that the man of God may be fully mature, complete, and thoroughly equipped for every good work that we might do in service to you. And I pray, Lord God, just knowing as important the scriptures are, that you would guide us through this time that we have here together now. Help us, Lord, to receive it, to understand it. Grant it to us, Lord, to believe it, and to go and be doers of it. Your Word, in Jesus' name, Lord, we pray. Amen. Now, this is Matthew, the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 12, starting in verse 22. Listen to this. Then one was brought to him, that's Jesus, one was brought to him who was demon-possessed, blind and mute, And he healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. And all the multitudes were amazed and said, Could this be the son of David? Now when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons. But Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation. And every city or house divided against itself will not stand. If Satan casts out Satan, he's divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. If I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can one enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then, and then, he will plunder his house. He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters abroad. Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men. But the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him. But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come. Either make the tree good, and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad, and its fruit bad. For a tree is known by its fruit. brood of vipers. How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, brings forth good things. And an evil man, out of the evil treasure, brings forth evil things. But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned." So, we have seen the pattern as we have journeyed through the Gospel of Matthew. of the religious leaders of the day actually opposing Jesus and opposing him with seemingly every device that they can invent. Especially we saw that they opposed him by, I mean, they were aware of his power to do miracles. This, of course, did not convince them of what the purpose of the miracles was to convince them of, but They would bring people to Him for the purpose of seeing Him perform these signs, but not because they wished to believe Jesus knew their thoughts, the Scripture says, but because they were looking for something to accuse Him of, because in their hearts they had already shut Him off. He was a threat to them. He was counter to what they were about. What they were about was the religion, the traditions, the place the religion held in their nation, in the nation of, I guess we would call it Israel today, certainly Israel in its ancient times, known as Judea then. So Jesus was seen as counter what it was they were trying to do. And so they would trap Him, for example, by bringing someone to Him who needed to be healed on the Sabbath. And if Jesus healed them on the Sabbath, then they could accuse Him, ah, Sabbath breaker. And Jesus, of course, with His correct understanding of His own law, rebuked and corrected that. Here comes another example of that in this passage of Scripture. where the Sabbath is not involved, but verse 22 tells us that one was brought to him who was demon-possessed, blind and mute. Right? So, three things you're told about him is that he was possessed by a demon and he couldn't see and he couldn't speak. So this poor soul, his life was messed up pretty bad. Right? Now, we're told later in the passage, down in verse 27 sorry about that in verse 27 we're told we're informed of the fact that Casting out demons among the Jewish people then was a practice that they held. They had their own people who would pray and ask God to take demons out of people. There's not a lot of insight or detail in the Bible describing all of that, so I won't waste time speculating about what that was all about, but it was a practice that occurred. And there's other places in scripture where reference is made to it. But here they bring this one before Jesus, and maybe they thought this would be too powerful for Jesus to handle. Maybe they thought this would be too much. But they certainly found a unique way to accuse Him, didn't they? And we went through some of this last week. It simply tells us Jesus healed him. The blind and mute man both spoke and saw. And so the demon was gone, the guy could speak, and the guy could see. A great blessing had occurred. Now, as I mentioned last week, the key was verse 23, that kind of sets up the whole passage. Look at verse 23, and very carefully consider this. All the multitudes were amazed. That's a good thing, right? So the multitudes that were witnessing or becoming aware of this miracle, they were amazed. in a good way. And that amazement, as amazement always causes in people, caused them to think and caused them to question. And it caused them to think and ask something very good, something very appropriate, something that was the point for the miracles. They asked this question. Could this be the Son of David? See it at the end of verse 23? That's what they asked. Could this be the Son of David? And as I mentioned last week and have before, Son of David is one of the titles given to Jesus in the Gospels in the New Testament, which is a reference to what specifically about Him? the Messiah, because in the Old Testament, and you heard Deacon Steve describing the Sunday School curriculum here, and one of those points that Deacon Steve made in reading those points from the curriculum was that the whole Bible is about salvation. The whole Bible is about God. It's not one God of the Old Testament and one God of the New Testament. Some people like to say, the God of the Old Testament was harsh, the God of the New Testament was more gentle or gracious. That's not true. God is God all the way through. Right? And in the Old Testament, what was prophesied was that anointed one, a Messiah, a Savior, would come who would redeem Israel and would redeem people from their sins. So redemption was going to come through this one and we were told in the Old Testament that, we were not told that this one, his name would be Jesus. Right? We were not given that specific detail. What they were told was that this one who would come would be a descendant of David. David, the first good king of Israel. And God had promised David in the Old Testament that one of his offspring would sit on the throne of Israel forever. And so the prophecies of the coming Messiah always involved a descendant of David. This one would come who would be a descendant of David's lineage. and he would be the one to re-establish David's throne, and be the king of Israel, and re-establish Israel in its place of prominence, which it held when God first established them in the land. That's how they understood it all. And so when they asked themselves, could this be the son of David, this was the proper question. When they saw the miracle, they were amazed, and basically what they're saying was, is this the one? Is this the one that all the prophets talked about? Is this the one that all the way back to Moses, all the way back to the law, all the way back to everything taught in the Old Testament, is this the one? Is this the Messiah? Is this the anointed one? Now, verse 24, when the Pharisees heard it, what did they say? Look at the direct assault against what God was doing in the minds and hearts of those amazed people. Here's Jesus, performs this amazing miracle, the people in their amazement begin to wonder, could this really be the Messiah, which is exactly what the purpose for this great miracle was, and then here come the religious leaders and they say what? The Pharisees. This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons. Right? And so, what do you get? I realize this is all just reviewing what we did last week, but we have to. You can't just pick this one up in the middle and... It has to. It all ties together, this whole passage. What Jesus is basically saying, what Jesus is basically being accused of there by the religious leaders is, it's not the power of God by which Jesus has healed this man, it's the power of the devil. Beelzebub was a name of a foreign god that, among the Jewish people, was particularly associated with Satan and with the demonic realm. So when the Pharisees said, Beelzebub, what they were really saying was, this is the devil at work here, not God. This is the devil at work here, not the Holy Spirit of God. That's basically what they were saying. This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons. So Jesus knows their thoughts. So Jesus, number one, is aware of the fact that it was by the power of the Holy Spirit that He cast this demon out and healed this man. Number two, Jesus is aware of the fact that the multitudes are starting to slowly have their eyes open, that they might understand that He was the Son of David, that He was the Messiah. And Jesus, number three, knows the thoughts of these Pharisees who are standing there deliberately assaulting the work of the Holy Spirit, deliberately trying to undermine what Jesus was doing. Here comes Jesus, preaching His message of salvation, performing works and miracles that pointed to the fact that He indeed was the Messiah, All those works done in the power of the Holy Spirit, who at His baptism, the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove, and sat on Him, and God said, this is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And Jesus, God the Son, is operating in the power of God the Holy Spirit, and performing all these things. And then here come the Pharisees, the religious leaders, saying, uh-uh, this isn't the Holy Spirit at work, this is the devil. Jesus knows their thoughts. And so what does Jesus do? As we said last week, I'll try to go fast. He, He reasons with them. Every kingdom divided against itself shall be brought to desolation. Every city or house divided itself will not stand. Right? In other words, Pharisees, your proposition that I'm casting out demons by the power of Satan, think about it. Demons are in the same realm and under the same authority and work for the same purpose as Satan, right? So what you're basically saying here is Satan, who is the one who has gripped and held this man by possessing him with a demon and kept him in his blindness and his muteness, Basically what you're saying is Satan is fighting against himself. If your notion that I'm doing this by the power of Satan is correct, then you have the devil trying to destroy his own work. That doesn't make any sense. Why would the devil do that? Why would the devil possess a man, and then when the Messiah comes along, empower the Messiah to cast out demons and thwart his own work? Makes no sense, right? And so that's why he says that. And verse 26, if Satan casts out Satan, he's divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? Think about it, right? So he reasons with them. Verse 27, if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, whom do your sons cast them out? Right? Because they had their own exorcists, if you will. They had their own ministry of praying and casting out demons. And there were people among the Israelites, among the religious, among the Israelites, who prayed for demons to come out of people at that time. Right? And Jesus says, therefore they shall be your judges. Because here is a demon being cast out by someone, which is something your own people do, and you're saying it's being done by Satan. So, if I'm doing it by Satan, who are your people having it done by? And it's a rhetorical question, right? It's a rhetorical question to get them to realize it makes no sense. The accusation that you're making makes no sense. It's completely illogical. I mean, the thing about the Sabbath, you can at least see why somebody might think that. Oh, it's the Sabbath and you're not supposed to do any work. So Jesus corrected their understanding of the Sabbath. Here, Jesus is not so much correcting them as He is telling them, this argument you're making makes no sense whatsoever. Right? So He just flat out rebukes them. Now, but then verse 28, He turns it around. See verse 28? But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. So, using His rhetorical argument to show that there's no way I'm casting out demons by the power of Satan, Now, he turns it around and says, but... I mean, you've tried to say that what's happening here is evil. That makes no sense. However, if what's happening here is of God, right? If I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then what? Then you're standing in the very presence of the Kingdom of God. See that? But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or, how can one enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man? Then he will plunder his house. So in other words, Jesus is saying here, this is not the power of Satan. This is the power of God conquering, thwarting, defeating the power of Satan so that this demon can be cast out and this man healed. So, Jesus employs rhetoric, in a good way, and reason to show them this is not satanic, this is God at work. Now, verse 20, verse 30, I'm sorry, very important. He who is not with me is against me. This is a concluding thought A judgment, really, that Jesus makes here in verse 30, that leads to the therefore in verse 31. Because, you see, verse 31 starts with the word therefore. That's a conclusion that's being drawn from what was stated previously, right? Verse 31 is a conclusion that is drawn from what he says in verse 30. He who is not with me is against me. That's very important. That's very important. Look. It wasn't just that the Pharisees were wrong. What Jesus is saying is, by you actually opposing the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit, you're not just wrong, you're actually fighting against what God is trying to do. You're not just making a mistake here. You're not just ignorant here and need to be enlightened. Though maybe for some of them that was the case. The Apostle Paul was a Pharisee, right? But the Apostle Paul was just simply wrong when it came to Jesus until Jesus met him when he was on the road to Damascus and straightened him out and brought him to true saving faith. And then the Apostle Paul had his name changed from Saul to Paul and became the amazingly prolific writer of all these epistles, most of these epistles in the New Testament that we know. But these guys, Jesus said, it's as simple as this. If you're not with me, you're against me. And he who doesn't gather with me scatters abroad. So he actually ups it in the second statement of that, right? If you're not with me, you're against me. And if you don't gather with me, what are you actually doing? You're fighting against the gathering. You're scattering. Right? Scatter and gather are opposites, right? So, you have God, by His power, performing these miracles, putting it in the minds and the hearts of the people to think, maybe this is the Messiah, and then you have these Pharisees coming along and saying, no, no, this is Satan who does this, and you have Jesus saying, look, if you're not with me, you're against me, and if you're not gathering with me, what you're actually doing is you're scattering these people, and God does not take that lightly. The Lord Jesus came to begin... Listen, listen, listen. This affects you personally. This affects you personally and every person on this planet. The Lord Jesus came for the purpose of gathering all of God's elect to Himself. Jews and Gentiles, men and women, rich and poor, old and young, sinners near and sinners far, all who would come to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus started that process with His own appearance on earth, and His own performing of miracles, and His own teachings concerning God's salvation. Then Jesus died, He rose from the dead, He went back to heaven, He sent the Holy Spirit to His apostles, and they picked up the work and they continued it. And eventually they died, and others took it up, and others took it up, and others took it up. Twenty centuries later, here we are, and we've picked it up. What are we doing? We're gathering with Jesus. Jesus says, he who doesn't gather with me scatters abroad. Do you understand? Therefore, verse 31. So here's the conclusion that's brought in verse 31. Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not. Will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, that's another one of the titles that refers to Jesus. Right? He's the son of man. He's the son of God. Right? But Jesus is... Jesus is the Son who is the mediator between the two. There is one God and there is one mediator between God and man, the man, the man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all to be testified in due time. You know that verse well. That's in 1 Timothy chapter 2. Alright? So, Now, if anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, look at that, even a word spoken against Jesus Himself, it will be forgiven him. But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him either in this age or in the age to come. Now, this is kind of where we left off last week. What is blasphemy and what is it to blaspheme the Holy Spirit? Blasphemy, essentially, is any sort of speech. Blasphemy is a word sin. There may be occasions, nothing comes to mind immediately, even when I thought about it some more this morning before I came out here, nothing immediately comes to mind as an example, but maybe there are some examples of things that were considered blasphemous, that were actions, but for the most part, blasphemy is words against God. At the time the Bible was presented to us, at the time the Bible was written, I should say, primarily what you're talking about is spoken words. Because writing was not common. Now, we live in a day and age today where And fewer and fewer people actually talk to each other anymore, right? Everything's done by words. We even call the little things we carry around cell phones, but hardly anybody talks on them, right? I mean, we use them to look at social media. We use them to write text messages to each other. So it's like, but you're still communicating with words. So whether it's a spoken word or a written word, blasphemy, essentially what it is, is words that are issued against God. That's blasphemy. Blasphemy. The sin in the Ten Commandments that is most easily identified as blasphemy is what? You shall not take what? The name of the Lord your God in vain. says, the Lord will not, the Bible says, the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Which is an example of blasphemy, but certainly not the only thing that can be blasphemous. So that's blasphemy. Now here, what Jesus says is, blasphemy, words spoken against even myself, the Son of Man. Jesus is saying that. Those will be forgiven. I'm sure the Apostle Paul, to use the example again, when he was still known as Saul the Pharisee, I'm sure Saul spoke lots of hard things against the Son of Man. Because he was the most zealous of the entire Sanhedrin. He himself said he was more zealous than all of his contemporaries. He was the most zealous when it came to persecuting Christianity in its early days. He was standing there holding the cloaks of those who stoned Stephen to death after Stephen had so eloquently presented and defended the gospel. You know that Paul, as he became known, was an ardent blasphemer against the Son of Man. But then the Lord met him and the Lord drew him to himself and the Lord opened his eyes and brought him to faith, right? Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven him. But, now look at this, whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, now we're talking about blasphemy specifically against that third person of the Trinity. There is God the Father. There is God the Son. There is God the Holy Spirit. And by the way, I should point out to you that This is a tremendous word of support for the divinity of all three members of the Trinity, right? Because how could you blaspheme the Holy Spirit or speak against the Holy Spirit and have it be considered a sin unless the Holy Spirit is God, right? So that's a little twist on the whole thing that you just kind of file that away and remember that one. But the point is, It will not be forgiven him. It will not be forgiven him, in fact, either in this age or in the age to come. What had the Pharisees done here? They had not just blasphemed against the Son of Man. I believe they gave us the example of what it is to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit. Because, because of what it said back in the beginning of the passage in verse 23. Could this be the son of David? The Holy Spirit worked this great miracle through the hands of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to free this man of his demon and to give him his speech and his sight back. And, I would say, since we know, from the Gospel of John especially, that the work of the Holy Spirit is to convince the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. To convince the world that we are sinners. To convince the world that God is righteous. And to convince the world that God is going to judge the world. To prime the heart of the human for repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus. The fact that the Holy Spirit would come and do this work, this miracle, in the sight of these people, and then have that work start to come to fruition in the fact that the people were questioning and saying, could this be the Son of David? The fact that they would squash that with their big fat mouths, shows what? Their hearts, were impenetrably hardened. They had blasphemed against the Holy Spirit. And when you're in the presence of that... I mean, what did Jesus say? If I'm casting out demons by the Holy Spirit here, you're right in the presence of God. The Kingdom of God has come upon you. And if you can, look, if you can stand in the presence, by the way, understand what that means. When He says the kingdom of God has come upon you, that didn't mean that they were rapturously transported to heaven. They were still here on earth. They didn't speak, Jesus wasn't speaking of the kingdom of God as being a place. What was He speaking of? He was speaking of Himself. When He says the Kingdom of God is coming upon you, what He means is, you're standing face to face with the King. You understand? And if you can stand face to face with the King, when the Holy Spirit, by the performing of this miracle, is trying to convince all these people that you're standing in the presence of the King, and you can actually say, Satan did this! There's nothing left. There's nothing left. Right? They had blasphemed the Holy Spirit. And that's why Jesus says, here's a sin that can never be forgiven. because the only way anyone gets their sins forgiven is to believe the gospel. And the work of the Holy Spirit is to convince people of their need for the gospel. And so when you speak and run your mouth against what the Holy Spirit is trying to do, there's nothing left. Now, you clear on that? I told you a story last week of myself, that many years ago, as a Christian, as a young Christian, I became skeptical of some of the things that I saw televangelists do. As a young Christian, back in the late 80s, and Christian TV was on the rise, It's when a lot of the big scandals were coming down because these televangelists were like begging people for money all the time and anybody could see they were making themselves filthy rich and the stuff they were preaching was nonsense. They were just using their position and using the religious tendencies and maybe some of the gullibilities of people who would be up late at night watching a television show in their desperation and tricking them into giving their money. And some of them are still at it today. Many of them have been debunked and they're gone, but some of them are still at it. And as a young man, I mused, that maybe some of these miracles that these guys are doing are actually fake things that Satan is giving them the power to do. And after a little bit of thinking about that, some time passed, and I told you I read this passage of Scripture. And it scared me because I thought I was guilty of blasphemy of the Holy Spirit as I read this. May I say to you one thing? This is so clear in the Scripture. Number one, it is correct and right to be skeptical of anyone who uses religion, preaching, television, anything like that to scheme and rob people of money. It is correct and right to point that out. Number two, this is important. No Christian can possibly be guilty of this sin. Calvin said that. All of the Protestant reformers said that. And I agree with that as well. Not to try to rank myself with those people, but I agree with that as well. Because the work of the Holy Spirit is to bring people to the conviction of their sin that they might, in faith, turn to Jesus Christ and find salvation. And if somebody has done that, Well, they're the fruit of the work of the Holy Spirit. It's not possible for them to do what the Pharisees are doing here. The Pharisees are trying to stop what has already happened in the heart of the believer. Now, I said that last week. Here's what I did not say last week that I want to add, and it leads into the rest of this passage of Scripture, which goes kind of fast. Look, it scared me for a little bit, But that was good, because even though I don't think I was wrong, and even though I know that I didn't blaspheme the Holy Spirit, I was correct in my skepticism concerning a lot of this stuff, I was brash. I was a young believer, and to say something like, you know what? It's Satan who's doing this, you know? There was, as a young believer, I didn't like fully know what I was talking about. And so the fact that it like scared me a little bit was good. May I say to you, we should all be a little fearful about what we do with our mouths. That was a good experience for me. Do you know that in the book of Jude in the New Testament, you ready for this? Some of you know this, some of you know where I'm going already because you know your Bibles. But in the book of Jude, there's a verse, it's only one chapter, but it says that when Michael the archangel contended with Satan over the body of Moses, what is that? Well, that's not a reference to a story that's anywhere in the Old Testament or in the Bible, but Jude maybe is passing on some oral tradition or something that was written somewhere else. But what Jude says is, when Michael the archangel contended with Satan over the body of Moses, he would not raise a reviling accusation against him. All he would say was what? The Lord rebuke you. That's Michael the archangel. In dealing with Satan, all he would say was, the Lord rebuke you. So there was a certain fearfulness. and there was a certain respect. Jude, what he's doing when he writes that letter, is trying to show that one of the characteristics of false believers and false teachers, as he describes them as wild animals, brute beasts. And what he says is, their God is their belly. All they're after is other people's money and getting stuff from people. And he says that they speak about things that they don't know. They're just wild and loose with their mouths. They're brash. In other words, Michael the archangel would not seal any empowerment in himself. He would defer to the only one who knows is truly powerful, which is God. And I, in my youthful exuberance and enthusiasm and zeal, got a good scare because I ran my mouth recklessly, right? I was not wrong to be skeptical. I was wrong to be brash and cavalier and run my mouth about something that I didn't fully understand yet. Yes? You see? And even if I was factually correct, I was still practically wrong. We can learn from that. Now, what this passage goes on to say here in verse 31, the therefore, the conclusion that is drawn from the fact that Jesus says, if you're not with me, you're against me. If you don't gather with me, you scatter abroad. In other words, it's cut or dry. You people are standing here and saying, I'm casting out demons by the power of Satan. Are you kidding me? Look, you're either with me or you're not. We're either gathering or you're scattering. One or the other. No in-between. Therefore, right? I say to you, the thing about, really what I want to get to is verse 33. But, therefore, I say to you, and he makes the judgment, the pronouncement about the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Let me not dwell on that again, but go to 33. He makes this conclusion. Either make the tree good, and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad, and its fruit bad, for a tree is known by its fruit. Now keep in mind what is in view. What's in view is blasphemy. What is in view is the words that people use. We're getting here towards why this sermon is titled, The Heart and the Mouth. There's a connection between... And really, I called it The Heart and the Mouth, but what it should be called is The Heart and the Words. Because we live in the culture of the written word today. in even basic communication. I mean, come on, you do it too. Sometimes I'm in my house and I'm sitting in my chair downstairs and I need my daughter who's upstairs in her room and so what do I do? I send her a text message to summon her, right? Because I know that's got the best shot of actually making it happen, right? You're laughing because you've done it too. Am I the only one? Raise your hand if you've ever sent a text message to someone who's in the same building. Raise your hand, come on. Raise your hand if you've ever texted to someone who's in the same building with you. Okay, good. So you know we live in the age of the written word to communicate as well. All right, good. I'm glad I'm not alone. That would have been really too much information. But I want to point out to you that verse 33 does not say the following. Ready? Here we go. Verse 33 does not say either the tree is good and it's fruit good or the tree is bad and it's fruit bad. Does not say that, right? What does it say? It says either make the tree good and it's fruit good or else make the tree bad and it's fruit bad. May I suggest to you that in this illustration the tree is that which the fruit emanates from. The tree is the heart. The fruit is the Word. And he goes on to say that, doesn't he? Doesn't he say at the end of verse 34, really the profound statement, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Out of the abundance of the heart, the text message flows. Out of the abundance of the heart, the Facebook post is created. Have to add that in the modern world because we communicate that way. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks what we say. And the end of the passage is so deep that at the end of the passage he says, by your words you're justified and by your words you're condemned. That's how much, that's not a description of like, well, if I say the right things, I'll be saved. And if I say the wrong things, I won't. No, what he's talking about is how perfectly our words reveal our hearts. That's why the Pharisees were guilty of blaspheming the Spirit. Because when they said, by Beelzebub He casts out these demons, the Word was revealing the heart. The heart that was impenetrably hardened against God. When someone would go so far to... See, when someone spoke a word against Jesus, it might just be because they didn't understand. They didn't believe because they were raised in a different tradition. But when the work of the Holy Spirit was being done, you were right in the presence of the Kingdom of God. And if your reaction is, oh, that Satan is at work, your heart is being laid out for everybody to see. Our words reveal our hearts. That's axiomatic. So make the tree good and it's fruit good, or make the tree bad and it's fruit bad. Make. I looked up five different translations of the Bible. The Old King James. I looked in the New International Version. I looked in the New Living Translation, which is as modern as you can get. Every one of them renders this verse this way, with the word, make. Make. In other words, it's not so much a statement of fact, if the tree is good, then the fruit will be good. But rather, it's a command concerning what you ought to do. Make the tree good, and the fruit will be good. Or make the tree bad, and the fruit will be bad. So, what I think it behooves the Christian to do in response to this is to think about, how is the tree? How is my tree? He's challenging their hearts. Where is your heart? How is your heart? Your heart produces your words and your words reveal your heart. But maybe you don't pay attention to your own words. Other people do. Maybe you don't. There's three things in this little paragraph, just three quick things that he says. First, in verses 33 through 35, he talks about, I believe, the maintenance of the heart, just as he talks about the maintenance of a tree. Make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for a tree is known by its fruit. You bunch of snakes!" That's what brood of vipers means. You bunch of snakes! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, brings forth good things. And an evil man, out of the evil treasure, brings forth evil things. Now, being evangelical for many years, I know the quick, instant, knee-jerk reaction is for someone to say, well, there is none good. No, not one. And that's true. in the absolute sense, in describing the absolute goodness and righteousness of God and therefore our inability to justify ourselves before Him, which is the context in Romans chapter 3, by the way, when all that is brought out, all of that is very true. But when he talks about here making the tree good and its fruit good, and he talks about a good man bringing out of the good treasure of his heart good things and the evil, evil. What I think is happening here is we are being challenged to examine our hearts. We should examine our mouths, and we should examine our words, and we should be careful about how we speak. But this is not specifically an exhortation about checking your words, though that's biblical too. But this is more about the root of what it is that we say. Where is your heart? Oh, you Pharisees who could actually stand in the presence of the King and say, Satan did this miracle, where's your heart? Make the tree good, then the fruit will be good. As Christians, can we learn anything from this? It's a little off the subject of Jesus specifically condemning the Pharisees. But listen, what we say matters. What you write, what you post, It has an effect on other people's minds and hearts. And what this scripture admonishes us is not just to check your words, but go deeper. Check what produces your words, your heart. Don't just check the fruit, check the tree and make it good. And don't tell me, listen, look, there is none who does good, no, not one, right? Hey, listen, maybe that's why the Bible tells us to be swift to hear and slow to what? Right? Maybe we need to be a little more about our ears and a little less about our mouths because we're inclined to evil. The heart is this like desperately wicked thing. Right? The heart is bent towards evil as flames or sparks fly upward. Right? You ever see a campfire and the flames are being forced down into the ground? That typically doesn't happen. Usually you light a little campfire and you watch the flames go up. Right? They always do. They go up. The heart is like bent towards wickedness like fire goes up. In other words, always. So we should be slow to speak. That's not an option. That's an admonishment, a command. Swift to hear, listen. Close your mouth and listen. Slow to speak. When I was young, I told you, listen, the reason I had that scare 30 years ago about the blasphemy, it was because I was quick to speak. Hey, wanted maybe, I don't remember the exact, maybe I wanted to impress my friend with my knowledge or whatever I was with, I don't know. But we should, we should quiet down. Why do we speak, that's what the false teachers in Jude were doing. They were talking about stuff they had no idea what they were talking about. Waxing eloquent about nothing that meant nothing to nobody. saying useless things. It's why the Apostle Paul said, avoid vain disputes. The useless wranglings of men who are destitute of the truth. Avoid it. Stay out of it. It produces nothing good and it reveals where their hearts are. Turn to Proverbs 23, verse 17. Just a couple verses to show you here. Proverbs 23, 17. Don't let your heart envy sinners. but be zealous for the fear of the Lord all day. For surely there is a hereafter, and your hope will not be cut off." What does that really describe? Does not that describe someone whose mind and heart, their hearts, are wrapped up in this world? And because you can get your heart wrapped up in this life, you might look around at the lives of sinners and say, ooh, I wish I had it that good. No. It says, be zealous for the fear of the Lord all day. And that phrase, the fear of the Lord, is a way that describes faith. In other words, be zealous about your faith all day. For surely there's a hereafter. What's that a reference to? It's life beyond now. We're not to go through our days. We're not to go through this life just thinking about this life. We're to go through this life considering that this is just an immeasurably small speck of time compared to an eternity when the such thing as time doesn't even exist. So don't go through life just reaching, and grabbing, and fighting, and crawling, and arguing, and slandering, and gossiping, and backbiting, and complaining, and complaining, and complaining, and being envious of other people, and dragging other people down because you think they have it better than you do, which they probably don't anyway. Right? Listen. You don't go through life that way. Be zealous for your faith all day long, because this isn't it. Surely there's a hereafter. And look, your hope will not be cut off. When you're zealous for sinners, when your life is wrapped up, when you sit in like isolation, and you're not in the Word, and you're not in fellowship, and you're not in prayer, and you're not worshipping the Lord, and your mind is not zealous for your faith, Your hope gets cut off. Before you know it, you're depressed, you're discouraged, you're despondent. Because you're looking around at everybody else. Jealous for sinners. Don't do that. That's one of the ways our hearts, our hearts, maybe the primary way that a Christian's heart becomes corrupt is that. We're wrapped up in carnality. We are wrapped up in the uselessness of this temporary world. And we're always looking around, jealous, depressed that our life isn't so and so. Are you kidding me? This life is temporary and short. It's like a vapor. It appears for a short time and then it vanishes away. Do you believe that or not? Describe that thing, that experience that I had 30 years ago. I can close my eyes and I can be in the place where I said it. 30 years ago, that's more than half my life. That's how fast time goes. Boom. Done. Man. I told you before, I've been preaching here for 16 years. 16 years, I can remember the first day that I stood up here. Yesterday. Preached from 2 Timothy chapter 3. 2002. Nothing. Don't envy anything about this world. Get your heart right before God. Make the tree good. Get your mind and your heart focused on God and what they are to be focused on. And then you know what will follow? The fruit. Yes or no? Make the tree good and the fruit will be good. Make the tree evil and the fruit will be evil because trees are known by their fruit. That's what Jesus says. And the Pharisees were evil trees. Their hearts were hardened to the point where standing face to face with the king, they could say, Satan. The tree was corrupt and so was the fruit. The tree, the heart, was corrupt. And so the fruit, Satan did that. The fruit was corrupt because the tree was corrupt. Because trees are known by their fruit. So make the tree good or make it evil. Make it good. As a Christian, listen, trust in the Lord Jesus Christ with all of your heart. And then get your mind off of just being wrapped up and consumed with the temporary things of this life. And know that there is a hereafter. So your hope flourishes and is not cut off. Look at Colossians chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2. C-O-L, Colossians. No, chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3. If you were raised with Christ, in other words, if you're really a Christian, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind, and let me tell you something about the word mind. The mind there, mind is not so much a reference to your intellect. Mind there is a word that is a reference to the comprehensive workings of the inner man. That's why, I think it's the King James Version, but other translations say, set your affections on things above. Right? Set your mind on things above. In other words, your heart, your whole spirit, your inner man, your inclinations, your desires, your hopes, set it on things above and not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory." Listen, why does the heart get corrupted, and then it manifests itself in slander, gossip, complaining, profanity, lying, blasphemy, Right? I mean, James in the New Testament says that the tongue is like a spark. One little spark kindles a whole forest fire. Words are like that. James says that out of the same mouth proceeds blessing and cursing. Brethren, it ought not to be so. He says, out of our mouths we blaspheme, out of our mouths we speak slander, out of our mouths we speak evil against other people who are made in the likeness and similitude of God. We speak about other people and we have put out of our minds that God created that person and made that person in his image and breathed into him the breath of life. We're speaking against the creation of God. Make the tree good and the fruit will be good. Make the tree evil and the fruit will be evil because trees are known by their fruit. Set your heart on things above. Get your heart where it belongs. Set your affection, set your mind on things, your mind, that whole inner man, everything about you, your drive, your sensibilities, your passion. Set it on heaven and eternity. Surely there is a hereafter. Set it, set it where it belongs. if you're really saved, if you're really in Christ. And your heart will be right. And if your heart is right, your words will be right. Unlike the Pharisees, who blasphemed the Holy Spirit in the presence of the King. There's other passages, but I'm running out of time. Even, he says, Verse 36, I'm back in Matthew 12, just two more quick verses to consider. Verse 36, I say to you that for every idle word men speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. Why don't we think of that? Let me ask you a question. Jesus said that. Did He mean it? Who are men? Yeah. Simple, right? He doesn't say men and women, but when He says man, there He means the whole human race. Right? God created Adam, and he created Eve out of the rib that was part of Adam. So men and women were all created by God at the same time. When he refers to man here, he's referring to all of us! Every even little idle word that we speak, we'll give an account of it. Account. Accountable. Accountability. Responsible for it. An accountant does what? Counts your pennies. Right? My accountant, at tax time, when I give her receipts, she wants to know everything. Very good. She wants to know everything. Everything. Have we forgotten that we almost appear before the judgment seat of Christ? to give an account for what we have done in our bodies, what we have done in this life, whether good or bad. There's that word again. Oh, no one does good. No, not one. That's a reference to something else. When we stand before Jesus Christ who has saved us, we will account for what we have done, what we have said. Every idle word, whether good or bad, each one of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Why doesn't that govern how we speak? Why doesn't that govern what we write? Why doesn't that govern how we act? Maybe it's because the tree is no good. Maybe it's because we make the tree no good. Maybe you need more time with Christ. Maybe you need more time in the Word. Maybe you need more time prioritizing your heart, right? Maybe you need more time setting your heart's affections in the place where they need to be. Lastly, verse 37, for by your words you'll be justified and by your words you'll be condemned. This is one of those statements where you read it and you just step back and you say, wow. Because what Jesus is saying there is so above how the typical person thinks. I mean, it takes us paragraphs to explain this because it's so profound. Jesus is not saying that you're justified or condemned by the action of speaking. You're not saved by works. You're not saved because you go around saying to people, I love God, I believe in God, I believe in Jesus. What Jesus is saying is, your words, you'll be justified, your words, you'll be condemned. Your words reveal where your heart is. Right? God, Jesus knew their thoughts earlier the pastor said. God can see inside of our hearts. But to really know whether or not we're justified or condemned, in the brilliance, all he has to do is listen to what we say, or read what we write. Just look at your words. Your words justify you, your words condemn you. That is, your words reveal where your heart is. True of every man, every woman, every child. Your words reveal where your heart is, and your heart reveals You're standing before God. The Pharisees, their words revealed that they were completely unresponsive even to the presence of the Holy Spirit and the presence of the King of Kings in the Kingdom of God. And therefore, that blasphemy was unforgivable because there is nothing else. That's it. That's the end. Two things to close you with. You can either, if you're here and you're not in Christ, you need to be saved. You need to be born again. This miracle was performed to try to convince the people that they needed to be saved by faith in Jesus. Jesus died for your sins, all of your sinful words, all of your sinful actions. When Jesus died on the cross, He took the penalty, the punishment for that, for you, because God loves you. Every person either dies and goes to hell because they have not trusted in Christ for their salvation, or they die and they go to the hereafter with the Lord because they have trusted in Him and His sacrifice has covered their sins and taken them away. You must come to Christ in faith. Believe in your heart. Trust with all of your heart that Jesus is the son of God and that he died to take your sins away and trust and believe that he rose from the dead. Cry out to him, call out to him, ask him to save you. That's number one. If you need to be saved, you can be saved today. like that hymn we sang, saved, saved, saved, my sins are all forgiven, Christ is mine, I'm on my way to heaven. We just sang it an hour ago. Secondly, if you're here and you're in Christ, praise the Lord for His grace, His sovereign power, but look, let's get this thing right. Make the tree good. Make the tree good. Let's put our hearts and our affections in the right place that our words follow suit and can actually be productive and useful and good in the kingdom of God and not damaging and divisive. So there's a little something for everyone today, isn't there? Stand up with me and let's close with prayer. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, I thank you, Lord, for this time that we've had together here today. Thank you for your word, which is clear and is powerful. And even though a lot of what we said today was a restatement of what we said last week, this passage just all ties together. And I pray, Lord God, that you would help us to Have our hearts in the right place, Lord God, that we would produce fruit which glorifies and honors You. If there is any here today, Lord God, who needs Jesus to be saved, I pray that You'd open their minds and their hearts to what they've heard today, that they might in faith believe and receive You and be saved. And Lord, for those of us who are believers already, because you already brought us to yourself before today, I pray, Lord God, that you'd help us to take the admonishment concerning our hearts, our hearts, with humility and a desire to be a doer of it, so that our words and even our deeds, which we will account for, will fall into place and be good and bring glory to you. Thank you for each person who's here, for each person who's hearing this. Again, help us to be doers and not hearers only deceiving ourselves. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.