Alright, if you'll take your Bibles and turn with me to Matthew, we'll be in chapter 12 again tonight. Chapter 12. We will not cover the remainder of this chapter. We're going to try to get through a good portion of it, but we will have at least one more sermon through this chapter. It's got a lot in it, but we'll be covering verses 15, Let's begin by reading the first little section in our passage tonight, verse 15-21. Jesus aware of this withdrew from there and many followed him and he healed them all and ordered them not to make him known This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah Behold my servant whom I have chosen my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased I will put my spirit upon him and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles He will not quarrel or cry aloud nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench, till he brings justice to victory. And in his name the Gentiles will hope." We pick back up in this chapter, in chapter 12, tonight and Jesus, as we've covered this last passage or this last sermon in chapter 12, Jesus had dared to heal a man, if you recall, on the Sabbath. And this invoked a strong rebuke by the Pharisees who saw this and dared him basically to do this healing on the Sabbath. Jesus had showed himself there obviously to be God, Jesus became aware of their rebuke of Him and their desire. We read there that they desired to destroy Him in v. 14. That's kind of what we end with. It says, but the Pharisees went out and conspired against Him. How to destroy Him? And so Jesus, as we're told here to begin with in v. 15, aware of this, withdrew from there. Now, as we've begun to work through these last couple of chapters, last few passages really, we've begun to see and we've made note that we're starting to see Jesus turn away from the nation of Israel as far as, instead of proclaiming the kingdom and the gospel and making an open declaration of the kingdom being at hand and the king being there. We start to see the process of him turning away from them and simultaneously we're starting to see a mass rejection of Jesus by the nation of Israel. And obviously that is headed most Most by the religious leaders there in Israel the Pharisees the Sadducees we you know these these groups that we see mentioned over and over in the gospel and in tonight's passage we continue to see that work out Specifically with these Pharisees we continue to see the rejection of the Pharisees of Jesus and we see a stern warning if you want to call that in this passage, or in what Jesus says here, or a stern rebuke, or just a stern statement to them about what they are doing, what they have done, and what it means really about the eternal souls. So that is the process, that's what we're working through, that's what this passage will bring out tonight, is this continued rejection of Jesus, and Jesus addressing that with the leaders here, the Pharisees specifically, the religious leaders there in Israel. So we see in verse 15, as I stated, that He withdrew from that area, but He did not go alone, right? He was followed here, and He's almost always followed, really. When Jesus is out in His ministry, He's almost always drawing a crowd. He has people following Him, seeking Him, seeking Him to be healed most of the time. And as we dig into this, and as we really just look at this to begin with, I wanted to, you know, just kind of bring our minds to to Jesus a little bit here in His humanity, okay? You know, I think we often think of Jesus as God, right? And we certainly should do that. But in doing so, as we think of Jesus as God, and we think of Him as the second person in the Trinity, we often look past His humanity, I think, while He was on earth. And He was 100% human. He was a human being. Now, I know that we don't get every minute of his life recorded in any of the Gospels, so I'm sure that there were times of rest and downtime, so to speak, for Jesus during his life and specifically during the ministry, his earthly public ministry. I think one thing we consistently see is that Jesus was always seemingly followed by crowds of people nearly everywhere that he went. All of them seeking something from Him, right? I mean, whether it was teaching, or food, or healing, or exorcisms, nearly all that followed Him, that sought Him, they wanted Him to help them do something for them in some way. And without fail, that is what we see Him doing, right? Over and over. Jesus, He does these things for the people of Israel. And just as Matthew points out again here for us in this passage, we see in verse 16, Well, that He healed, or excuse me, at the end of verse 15, that He healed them all, right? All these that followed Him, many followed Him, He healed them all. There was never a time in human history where any one person exhibited such extensive healing and authority and power as Jesus did during His ministry on what seems like almost a daily occurrence, right? And look, I'm sure that we can think of times, especially those of us with younger children. Moms, you should know probably best about what I'm about to say, but we can think of times when we've had someone or someones that are around you at all times. They're always there. They're always wanting something or needing something from you. And as much as we love our kids too, that can be exhausting eventually, right? But imagine doing that nearly every day, and not just with two or three or five or six kids, but with hundreds or thousands of people. That was the life and ministry of Jesus though. Jesus was so patient and so caring. We don't ever see where He turned them away as they sought Him, right? He was truly the great example He was truly the Good Shepherd to the nation of Israel. That said, I mean, again, as we think of the humanity of Jesus, we can't look past the fact that there's no doubt that He had to be exhausted at the end of days. As He's doing these things, as He's getting ready to lay His head down, thousands, hundreds, thousands of people have been around Him, have been seeking things from Him. He's been teaching them. He's been healing them. And He is God, but He's also human with the same type of limitations that we suffer through on a daily basis. I just didn't want to look past that as we read this and as we continue to see Jesus just heal and do things and be the good shepherd to the nation of Israel. But then, here in verse 16 and 17, Matthew tells us that He ordered these, these many that followed Him, that He healed, not to make Him known, which was something that He often did. And the reason for this would have been twofold, specifically twofold in this passage. First, I mean, Jesus, He did this partly because He wanted to continue in His ministry without the interruption of the Pharisees, right? Who, we were told, were planning to destroy Him. He knew this. If they knew where He was, then Jesus would have had to relocate again, and that would have potentially hindered His ministry, and He's thinking about that. It was not Jesus' time to die yet, right? And so the Pharisees were seeking to kill Him, and in order to prevent that until it was His time, Jesus would often withdraw from an area when that threat became significant, and that's what we see here. The second reason why we see this here is Matthew states why next. This was done in fulfillment of the prophet Isaiah. And then he goes on in verses 18 through 21 to quote the prophet Isaiah. He quotes chapter 42 of Isaiah verses 1 through 4. He says, "...behold my servant to whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my spirit upon him and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not quarrel or cry out loud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break and a smoldering wick he will not quench until he brings justice to victory. And in his name the Gentiles We'll hope. This is a messianic description. This is a description by Isaiah of the Messiah. And Matthew tells us this is a fulfillment or this was fulfilled by Jesus here. This is something that the Matthew's readers, the early first century or the first century Jews, they would have immediately associated this with the Messiah because it was a well understood messianic passage during their day. Verse 18, to begin with, is straightforward, as the Messiah is described here. He's described in several places in the Old Testament as a servant of Yahweh. In this chapter, Isaiah, it's the first chapter of several in a section where the Messiah is described by Isaiah as a suffering servant. the description of this servant of Yahweh suffering in some form or fashion. The last passage, the last chapters or a couple of chapters would probably be most well known as it ends, that portion of the suffering servant ends in chapters 52 and 53 of Isaiah. But this is the beginning of the description of the suffering servant by Isaiah. Jesus came to do the will of the Father while on earth, right, and he did it perfectly. The Messiah is said here to be, then, Yahweh's beloved in whom He is well-pleased. It's possible that's familiar to you as I read that, not just from Isaiah, but it should be familiar as this is the verse that the Father quoted at the baptism of Jesus in Matthew 3, when the Father declared that Jesus was His Son in whom He was well-pleased. And here it says that the Spirit, He put His Spirit upon Him. The Spirit upon Him here seems to be a prophecy by Isaiah of the Spirit descending on Jesus on the baptism, or at His baptism. And that was the beginning of Jesus' ministry, a public declaration of His Sonship, of His Deity, in a time when all of Israel was to begin to recognize that, begin to recognize His Deity, His claim to be King. Now, if you had turned over to Isaiah, and I don't know if you did, and it's fine if you didn't, but if you had turned over to Isaiah to read those verses there in chapter 42, or if you go at some time to read them, you might think that there's a slight variation between Matthew's quotation and what Isaiah wrote concerning the word Gentiles here. We see Gentiles. stated twice, the word Gentiles, we read twice here in our translation, and you won't see that in the Old Testament passage or the Isaiah passage. So it seems like maybe there's a difference there. Matthew's quoting something different, but there's really no difference. It's the same thing. The words in each passage are meant to be the same thing. They're known as the same thing. The word for nations in Isaiah is a word which commonly was a reference in the Old Testament and Hebrew to Gentiles. The word nations was just another way to say Gentiles often. And the word here in Matthew, ethnos, is the word used for Gentiles most often as well. It was a Gentiles, or it was a nations, apart from the nation of Israel. And so this translation of Gentiles, this word, is translated correctly. It's a good translation. Justice to the Gentiles, and then in His name, the Gentiles will hope. Then in verses 19-20, this prophecy continues of the life of Jesus, or the life of the Messiah, and to how He would act and carry Himself. And just as we see Jesus do here, Isaiah prophesies that the Messiah would not quarrel, He would not cry out aloud despite any erroneous attempts to destroy Him that we've seen here from the Pharisees. We don't see Jesus stay and quarrel with them or refute them in that sense. He withdrew from the city and the village instead of staying there to argue and to quarrel. It says, no one would hear His voice in the streets, and likely that means that no one would hear Him in the sense that no one would have ears to hear. Most of Israel would continue to refuse to respond properly to His teaching, to His Messiahship. continues on in verse 20, it says, "...a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench." These are references to things which a shepherd would have. A shepherd used a reed, it would be fashioned into a small musical instrument, and then it would easily at some point begin to crack, and once that happened it would become useless. By the same token, the smoldering wick was also useless, the smoldering wick is, for giving light to the shepherd. But what is being said here, just to quote John MacArthur, I think he had a good way of describing it, these represent people, this reed, this bruised reed and smoldering wick who are deemed useless, thought of as useless, but he states, these represent people deemed useless by the world. But Christ restores and rekindles such people, not breaking or quenching them. So essentially, This passage in Isaiah here, this verse in Isaiah, predicts the compassion and the tenderness of the Messiah toward sinners and even toward the most broken of people. And specifically here, I think, we see the most broken that the Jews saw of people. They believed the Gentiles to be the most broken, right? I mean, they thought they were the broke of the brokest, right? The passage here says the Messiah is to the Gentiles as well, is healing, is restoring and rekindles these broken people. Although it's certainly true that the Messiah will come as a military conqueror and the government will rest on His shoulders, Isaiah here prophesies that He must also come at a time where He will have no political agenda. He will have no military campaign. But instead, the Messiah would come with gentleness and meekness. Jesus' compassion then and His passivity really towards politics and power, they were seen by the Jewish leaders as evidence that He was not the Messiah, right? I mean, that was proof. He's not coming to take over. He's not coming to rid us of Rome. So He can't be the Messiah. But based on Isaiah's prophecies here, these qualities of gentleness and meekness and really passivity again towards this politics or power in that sense, they were very much facts that proved Him to be the Messiah, right? They were arguments for His Messiahship. And then verse 21, We read in His name the Gentiles will hope, and this is a reference to verse 4 there in chapter 42 of Isaiah. It's not a full reference to that verse. It seems to be just a portion of it. Again, if you look in Isaiah, as it reads in the ESV, The portion probably quoted here is, or quoted here is, till he established justice in the earth, talking about the Messiah establishing justice in the earth. And the point behind this, and really the entire passage quoted here of Isaiah, one of the points, Matthew is pointing out that the cross for the Messiah must come before the crown. Right? He's not coming. He didn't come the first time. He wouldn't have a crown the first time, right? The cross would have to come first. He would have to be the suffering servant first. And in that, Gentiles will hope in the name of Jesus, the name of the Jewish Messiah. Now, remember who Matthew's writing to in this. Matthew is writing primarily to Jews in his account. He's trying to show them clearly that Jesus was and is their Messiah King and that he fulfilled Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah King. But this passage in Isaiah that Matthew quotes here, it certainly seems to include the hope of salvation to the Gentile people as well, right? And this is clearly what Isaiah meant when he penned this passage. Jesus' death then is hope to the Jew, but certainly hope to the Gentile as well. Also, His crucifixion, we know, was because the Jewish people rejected Him, right? And that ultimately resulted in the hope of salvation being spread through the Gentile world. So Matthew here, he seems to be preparing the Jewish readers for the proclamation of the gospel to the Gentile world here by drawing attention to this, as well as showing this to be a fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecy there in Isaiah. And then we move on in verse 22, we read, And all the people were amazed and said, Can this be the son of David? But then the Pharisees heard it, But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons. Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself 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 cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. 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. Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven, 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." So, in verse 22 we're told that there's a man that was brought to Jesus who was demon-oppressed, and this demon seems to have made him blind and mute, or unable to talk. We don't know for sure when this scene takes place, but it does seem to be the same setting where Jesus had healed many along with healing many. This is one which He healed and that Matthew draws attention to. We see that the news of this exorcism and the people's amazement of it finds its way back to the Pharisees. They hear of it or they know of it. So it seems that the people went against Jesus' instructions and told people and eventually the Pharisees about where Jesus had gone and about his healing of these people and it's possible the Pharisees were even out there at the time of this healing. What we see though to begin with in this passage is that Jesus did as he often did and as he'd been doing and healed the man and how did he heal him? Entirely. Right? It wasn't a partial healing. It wasn't just a little. He didn't help him a little bit. No, this was open, obvious healing. This miracle was clear. Right? Matthew doesn't just say here that this demon was cast out, but we know that's exactly what happened based off the passage. It's what caused this man's blindness and muteness to go away. This demon apparently had been causing it, and as he exercised this demon, the blindness and the muteness went away. And due to this miracle, the people or the crowds were amazed. Jesus, once again, not only showed his authority over the physical world in doing this, but he also demonstrated his authority of the spiritual world by casting out this demon. Now, this is not the first time that Jesus has done something like this that we've read about in Matthew, but perhaps it was the first time in this area that this had happened, or in front of this crowd which this had taken place. He'd cast out a demon. So in response, they asked this question, can this be the son of David? Now the title, Son of David, as you well know, is a clear reference to the Messiah. They're saying, can this be the Messiah? And as we read that, on first glance, it appears maybe something's finally clicked with this crowd, right? The people are making the connection between the work of the Messiah and Jesus, what's been prophesied in the Old Testament, kingdom works, and the Messiah. But the tone of this question really was not genuine curiosity. The tone, apparently, is not perfectly captured in English, but it's actually more sarcastic. The question could read something along the lines of, this can't be the Messiah, can it? Something along those lines. They're almost questioning in the question that this can't be really true. Despite some recognition here that Jesus is doing messianic work by this crowd, there's still, obviously, major reservations by the people. This is not a proclamation by the people then that Jesus was the Messiah. They're not making this proclamation and this question kind of a rhetorical question. Can this be the Son of David? No, they had seen proof of it. There's no question. But they still would not accept Him. They were still really asking the question, could this meek man from Nazareth, whom our religious leaders had not even accepted really, be the promised Son of David? Can He really be this man? And look, as we read this, I think it is here that we just have it pointed out to us again the importance of shepherds. These Pharisees, who we see make an appearance again here in a moment, or in this passage, they were supposed to be the shepherds in Israel, right? They were supposed to be the religious leaders of the people of Israel. They were supposed to be the people who led the people to God, who pointed out, this is the Son of David, yes, this is Him. But in this generation, to this generation, These spiritual leaders did the complete opposite of that, right? They were constantly pointing people away from God by denying Jesus. Away from God who walked and lived with them. They were the blind leading the blind. And we see that precise example here in these verses. This is not the first time during the ministry of Jesus that the general population of Israel or the crowds had recognized that Jesus was doing works only God could do. But humanly speaking, as the people were seemingly on the verge of grasping who Jesus was, what do we see the religious leaders do here? we see them immediately deny it, right? But they go even further than that. They don't just deny, no, he's not, he's not. No, instead of acknowledging the divine nature of Jesus, they actually say, no, he is working through the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons. Now, it's possible that this was not the first time they'd made this claim about Jesus. It could be something that the Pharisees had been claiming about Jesus for a while because Jesus actually made reference to this back in chapter 10, if you recall. There in warning the apostles about the persecution to come, he told them, a disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher and servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house, a reference to himself, Beelzebul, How much more will they malign those of his household? So Jesus makes reference to this claim that he's of Beelzebul back in chapter 10. And we know from early historical writings that this accusation against Jesus that he was working through demons or that he was working through Beelzebul specifically, It was a belief that was common among first century Jews. And it's possible that the Pharisees had already begun this accusation before it's stated here. Now, I think it's interesting that as we look at this, they don't actually deny the genuineness of the works, right? They don't attack the works themselves because they're obvious. I mean, what he did was clear. They couldn't deny that. The only way they could deny it, the only way they could try to throw cold water, so to speak, on what Jesus was doing was to try to attribute it to something wicked or something evil. And so, they attribute it to Beelzebul, the prince of demons. Who was Beelzebul? Simply put, he was a heathen deity who supposedly had authority over the demons. For a Jew then to claim that someone was under the power of a heathen deity was a clear accusation that they were under the influence of Satan. And this is clear from their description here of Beelzebul as the prince of demons, right? So not only were they calling Jesus a demon, or at least under the influence of a demon, they were calling him a minion of Satan. Look, they refused to see his holiness, But I mean, they're attributing His divine power and authority to Satan himself. Matthew tells us then in verse 25 that Jesus knew their thoughts and He responded to them. So it appears that by this point, whether they had seen this miracle, this act, this casting out of the demon or not, by this point the Pharisees had made their way to Jesus. and begun a conversation with Him. They may not have intended to begin a conversation with Him, but Jesus began the conversation with them. Jesus addressed this claim of demonic possession in a very shocking and direct response, really. He actually addresses their claim with logic. He tells them first that neither a kingdom, nor a city, nor even a house divided against itself will stand. The easiest way for something to be destroyed is for it to be destroyed from the inside out, right? Think of it this way. If you've been alive when America has gone to war against another nation or against another group, whether it be terrorists or another nation, you probably noticed a surge of patriotism, especially at the beginning, right? I mean, think back when the Twin Towers were hit. It didn't matter if you were Republican or Democrat or Green Party or Libertarian or some other political party I have no idea of. You were all American at that point. You were united against terrorists. But when a nation begins to war against itself from the inside, it begins to weaken, right? I think we can see that in America over the last decade, at least. As the nation gets more and more divided by morality and politics, then the possibility of being united grows more and more distant. The desire to even be an American is replaced with hatred for America. It is not a stretch to say, I think, at this point, that our nation is ripe for a fall. And the same goes for a home. When husband and wife are united, they can withstand all kinds of attacks. But when they are divided against one another, then even the smallest thing can end that union and make that house fall. And so logically, Jesus tells them here that what they said makes no sense. If Satan is casting out himself, or he's allowing that to happen through one of his minions, How will His kingdom stand? He is actively working against Himself. Jesus goes on then to address another issue with their allegation in verse 27. He says, And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? If He was in fact casting out demons by this Beelzebub, Then who were their sons casting demons out by? See, at this point there were Jews going around claiming to be exorcists. And it seems from this passage that the Pharisees were affirming these exorcisms of these other Jews. And we actually, I think, see an example of this, or at least of these supposed exorcisms in Acts 19. I don't know if you recall that passage, but there are supposed exorcists that are going around and they start to exorcise in the name of Jesus after they see Paul doing that and having success. But we saw there in Acts 19 that they weren't actually casting out demons. They were just putting on a show for money. They were fakes. So, since they were claiming to cast out demons but weren't actually doing so, and Jesus was really casting out demons, supposedly by Beelzebub, then by whose authority were their sons trying to cast out demons? Now, one implication I think we get here in this is that if these men were attempting to cast out in the name of Yahweh, which is kind of the implication here, and were unable to cast them out, which it seems to be the case, and the Pharisees were likely aware of that, knew that they were not real exorcisms, yet Jesus was really casting out demons, supposedly, again, by the name of Beelzebul, then the only logical conclusion is that Beelzebul had more power than Yahweh, right? Has more authority than Yahweh. If he could do something that the name of Yahweh could not do, the Pharisees would obviously never agree with that, but that's the only logical outcome of their claim. But look, even if these men were actually able to cast out demons, these other men were casting out demons, the proof of those exorcisms that they were performing, they would not have been more obvious and profound than the exorcisms which Jesus had performed. Right? There was no way to look at what they were doing and say, oh, well, it's more proof. They're definitely doing it. Jesus is not. There's something different here. They're more authoritative in the name of Yahweh than Jesus. So Jesus is asking them, how can they claim that these men are casting out demons in the name of God and then turn around and claim that He, Jesus, is doing it in the name of Beelzebul or Satan? Both can't be true. If Jesus cast out demons by Beelzebul, then Beelzebul had to be who those other men were casting out demons by. But since the Pharisees had been willing to affirm these other men and their exorcisms, Their affirmation of them, and then their rejection of Jesus here, it just showed them to be who they truly were. Inconsistent, hypocritical liars. And Jesus points to them and says, they are your judge. They show you to be who you are. In verse 28, Jesus tells them that if in fact the demons that he cast out is done by the Spirit of God instead of Beelzebul though, then a significant truth is in front of them. And that significant truth is this, that the kingdom of God is upon them. Meaning, if His works are by divine power and authority, then that proves Him to be the Messiah. And that also means that the King is walking among them and the kingdom is at hand. It is all around them, in a sense. that every proof they needed to believe and receive the Kingdom of God had been performed in front of their very eyes. There is no greater proof that could be provided to them that their King had arrived and is standing in front of them. Now Jesus says, He states this, He's put the Pharisees in a tough spot, whether they know it or not. He's shown that their logic was completely unreasonable and false. And then He makes the obvious point that if they were wrong, which they so clearly were, and they knew it, then He was the Messiah, and the kingdom of God was before them. Jesus explains in verse 29 that His casting out of demons was even proof of that, obviously. Satan is the strong man described here in verse 29. He is the current ruler of this present age or this kingdom. Obviously that is by the will and the allowance of God, right? But he is. We know that to be true. So for the kingdom of God to come and overthrow the kingdom of Satan, then Satan must be bound and subdued. Jesus' exorcisms were proof then, that he had authority and power over Satan. And they were a taste of the kingdom of God, where Satan will be bound and cast away into a pit for a thousand years. And Jesus is telling them here, I'm showing you proof of the strong man being bound, of being taken away, of Satan being bound here. I'm doing that. I'm performing that act, giving you a taste of the kingdom. Then in verses 30 through 32, Jesus really draws just a clear line for these Pharisees in no uncertain terms. Having proven by miraculous kingdom works, authority in His teaching, and now by simple logic that He is the Son of David, the Messiah, He tells them, whoever is not with Me is against Me. He tells them, whoever is not with the Messiah is against the Messiah. So whoever is not with God is against God. All the same thing. There's no neutrality. There is no middle ground. There can be no sitting on the fence here. Jesus goes on to say that whoever does not gather with him scatters, meaning that if he, as Messiah God, is actively out preaching to gather the lost sheep of Israel, and these men, as the religious leaders of Israel, are not actively working with him to gather the lost sheep, ultimately in order to usher in the kingdom of God, but instead they're working against him, they're actually scattering and working against the kingdom of God itself. Jesus then gives maybe the most jarring rebuke to these Pharisees in all of his ministry. He tells them that every sin and every blasphemy will be forgiven people. Look, this is a divine declaration by a divine being, right? From their creator standing in front of them. He says sins and blasphemy will be forgiven by God. Now, it's not stated here, but we know from Jesus' own ministry and the revealed Word of God that that is through faith in Jesus and repentance of sins, right? But sins and blasphemy can and will be forgiven, he says. By contrast, though, for those who blaspheme against the Spirit, they will not be forgiven. He goes on to say that even speaking a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks a word against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven in this age or the next. So clearly an eternal consequence in this. Look, this statement by Jesus here has often been referred to as the unforgivable sin or the unpardonable sin. All sins can be forgiven except this one, so to speak. And it's caused a bit of debate. It's caused many people to claim that someone is unsavable because they believe them to have done this. There's also, I think, been a lot of people who've spent a lot of time worrying whether or not they had actually done this, and so can they actually be saved? Or they're worried that they might have committed the unforgivable sin at some point and maybe not even known about it. So what is meant by Jesus here? Is that possible? Well, I think there are two real options. I'll give you both. one most likely, the other not as likely, I think. The first is that Jesus could, He just could be making a general declaration here, which applies to every person and every generation. He could be stating that since the Holy Spirit is the one who reveals salvation and is the promise of the New Covenant or in the New Covenant, for those who continue to reject Him and His work and salvation, they continue to reject salvation and the New Covenant blessings. For the one who dies in this rejection, then there is no other way of salvation, and this is ultimately their final condemnation. They have denied and blasphemed the salvific work of the Holy Spirit in life and death, and they cannot be pardoned for that. It's unforgivable at that point. The second option, and I believe this to be the correct option, is that Jesus is making a declaration that is specific to this generation and even more primarily pointed to those religious leaders, those Pharisees. They had seen the works of the Spirit through Jesus. They had seen proof after proof that Jesus was divine, that He was the Messiah, He was God. And despite what they said, they actually knew these works to be divine and from the Spirit of God. Yet they stand here rejecting these works as they rejected Jesus, and even worse, they attributed these works to Satan, instead of the Holy Spirit. And so Jesus says, this blasphemy, it will not be forgiven. This would be a sin which God would not overlook. And I think this is unique. I don't think, I know, this is unique. What they did, what they had was unique to that generation. Because it is the only generation who walked with, talked with, and witnessed the Messiah and the work of the Holy Spirit through Him. As John MacArthur states, no forgiveness is possible for these Pharisees who witness His miracles firsthand, know the truth of His claims, and still blaspheme the Holy Spirit because they have already rejected the fullest possible revelation. Amen. There's no greater revelation than Jesus Himself performing kingdom works in front of them that could be given to them than that. to be unsure of Jesus being the Son of Man or the Messiah, or to reject out of ignorance could be forgiven, but not the obvious rejection of the work of the Spirit in front of them, which they knew to be the work of the Spirit. Now let me state this before we move on. One thing I think we can be sure of is that the one whom Jesus is describing here is one who never desired to profess faith or allegiance in Him. If you've ever read this passage or this verse and you've ever thought, you worried, could this be me? Can I really be saved? Have I done this in the past? Is this something I need to be concerned about? Or you've lost sleep even over this. Look who this is describing. They are people who denied Jesus. And not only denied Him, they intensified their opposition to Him to the point of claiming that His work, the work of the Spirit, was of Satan. And ultimately, they continued their opposition to the point of having Him crucified. If you have ever read this verse and been concerned that it describes you, your concern alone should be proof that it doesn't describe you. Okay? These are people that never have a desire, never have a concern, never had a worry about Jesus and His Messiah shield. Then, to wrap things up in verses 33 through 37, Jesus continues and He just condemns them even more. He tells them in verse 33, He tells them, "...Either make the tree good, and its fruit good, or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad. For the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you speak good when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart of the mouth speaks The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good. The evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you on the day of judgment, people will give account for every careless word they speak. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned. Jesus here tells them they claim to be pious. They can claim to be pious all they want though. They can claim to be righteous and godly, But bad trees do not produce good fruit. Only good trees produce good fruit, and the proof of the tree is in the fruit. And these men, these Pharisees, had produced bad fruit which showed them to be a bad tree despite what they claimed. Jesus uses a term here to describe them that John the Baptist uses. Well, he calls them a brood of vipers. And it's by the mouth that the viper produces death and poison, right? That's why they're described in this way. And so it was with the Pharisees. It's by their mouth, by their proclamation that they produce death and poison. Jesus tells them they cannot speak good because they're evil. What they say can't be good, can't be right, because they're evil. Their teaching, and specifically their claim against Him, was not good, it was not right, it was in fact evil and wrong. Evil was in their hearts, and evil is what came out of their mouth. An evil person, He says, has only evil treasure to pull from. while the good person has good treasure to pull from." This means that those who have evil in their hearts, those who have not been redeemed and been given a new heart can only pull from what is in their hearts, and therefore, what is in their hearts is evil and what they say is evil. Conversely, whoever is righteous or is good because of the work of God in their hearts has good treasure to pull from and will speak what is good. Whether you speak evil or good, then, has significant consequences because we will all be held accountable for what we say in the day of judgment. Now, this does not mean that if you've ever said something sinful, then you're going to stand condemned, okay? Otherwise, we'd all stand condemned. Everyone who's been saved and been given a new heart still battles with sin this side of eternity. And that's sin that comes out of our mouths at times. But if you have professed with your mouth and believed in your heart that Jesus is Lord, then you will stand acquitted for all eternity. But if the words that come out of your mouth and is something to consider are consistently wicked, then there is room for major concern there. For these Pharisees, specifically as Jesus is addressing them and condemning them, their evil declaration about Him that his works were of Beelzebul, of Satan, Jesus tells them that is a guarantee of their condemnation on the Day of Judgment. So, as we wrap up, three quick things to just kind of consider that maybe we didn't think of as we moved through this passage. I did mention that this passage, I think, shows the importance of shepherds and the importance that spiritual leaders are sound and they are sticking to God's Word and they're leading from God's Word and doing it in a way that God expects of shepherds, right? Of those who have been sent to be basically a hand to have His flock or to help His flock while He is not here. But there's also a certain responsibility of the flock as well, right? Just because the Israelites had poor shepherds. It didn't remove the responsibility of the flock, or it didn't obviate their sin and their rejection of Jesus, right? I think we all need to consider that as we go to church every time we're in here, as we're reading our Bible, if we move off, go to another church, or whatever, if we're coming in and we're listening to a pastor, listening to our shepherd, That's great, and if they're teaching biblically, that's wonderful, and we need to follow that, but it's also our responsibility to be sure of that, and not just take the word just because he's standing up and he claims to be a pastor. We need to be sure that our pastors are being biblical, and that they're preaching biblically, and they're leading biblically. And if they're not, if it's any one of us that are not doing that, we don't need to be up here. Second, I think we see clearly from Old Testament passages that Jesus as Messiah was meant to come to earth, He was meant to be rejected, and He was meant to suffer. Despite what the Jews believed when He first came, and what many Jews still believe, there are many prophecies which predicted that, and predicted it would happen, right? But because we know that these earthly events and these actions about the life of Jesus, which were prophesied of, did in fact come true, this is just another reason that we can have absolute certainty that His final victorious coming, reigning, and final judgment of the wicked are also true and can also be dependent on and will happen. We look forward to that. We trust in that because God's words stated that as well. Correct? Lastly, Jesus as our Savior had to suffer. He came, He suffered, and He had to do that before He would return to glory and splendor. Remember that as His followers. In a sense, We must be prepared to do the same as well. We shouldn't go into our life expecting for everything to be glorious through our lives in this life. Everything to be great and for Jesus to make every pain or every bad situation or every sorrow go away while we're here. We should expect suffering as well, whether it be through persecution or because we live in a world of sin. Whatever it might be, our Savior went through much more than we could ever go through. And He did that before He would have His glory and His splendor shown to the whole world, which will happen. We may have to suffer in the same sense. Not to the cross, obviously. But we may suffer, and most likely will suffer and have pain and struggles as we go through this life. But there is a better day coming. We look forward to that. We know our Savior knows what we're going through. He understands it. He's a high priest who understands and takes comfort in that as well. Stand with me.