Now we'll stay right there in
Matthew chapter 12, where Brother Mark just read. The title of
the message is three words, accounts, words, and judgment. Accounts, words, and judgment. And I've taken that title from
the last few verses that Mark read, beginning there at verse
36. Look at Matthew 12, 36. Christ
saying, but I say in you that every idle word that men shall
speak, they shall give account, therefore in the day of judgment.
There it is, accounts, words, and judgment. He says, for by
thy words thou shalt be justified, or vindicated, and by thy words
thou shalt be condemned. What does that mean? Well, we're
gonna go back up here, and I wanna reread some of those verses that
Mark read, because number one, In coming to an understanding
of what's being taught here, we need to understand the context
of that statement. Every idle word. Think about
that. Think about that. Every idle word that men shall
speak, they'll give an account. How does that apply? You know,
we've been talking in the past few messages about judgment and
the works of believers at judgment. What does it mean? And I've dealt
with that. And really what I'm doing now is I'm just taking
some passages. I call that the whatabouts. You
know, when we talk about how salvation is by grace through
Christ, that when we come to judgment as believers in the
Lord Jesus Christ, we plead His righteousness. Our works have
no merit to earn us anything. They are just evidences of our
union with Christ. What Paul expressed in Philippians
3, Oh, to know him and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith or
the faithfulness of Christ. And people always come up with
passages of scripture and they say, well, what about this? What
about that? Last week I dealt with Matthew 25, you know. What
about? Well, this is one of those what
abouts. What does it mean? You know, he says every idol
works. Does that mean that, you know, I told you a couple weeks
ago about how when I was a boy, they used to circulate this pamphlet
called This Was Your Life and how it was a cartoon pamphlet
about a guy who died and went to judgment The judge, God, flashed
a big screen up there and all of his life, and it had one little
segment there where he was telling a dirty joke, and it quoted this
verse right here, every idle word. Is that what this is talking
about? Well, the answer is no, that's
not what this is talking about. It's talking about something
else. I mean, you know, we can sit and talk about the sinfulness
of our words, the idleness of our words. We all have that problem.
We all have that. But that's not what this is talking
about. So I want to deal with this. What about this idle words
at judgment? By thy words thou shalt be justified. By thy words thou shalt be condemned.
What does it mean? Well, this is in the context
of probably a familiar passage of scripture, familiar to most
people. Most people call this the passage where Christ taught
what men call the unforgivable or unpardonable sin. What does
it mean? Well, first of all, let's read
it again to make sure we're familiar with it. Christ is going to heal
a person who is possessed of a devil, a demon. Verse 22, then
was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind and dumb,
and he healed him. Christ healed him. Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, the great physician, The healer of all healers healed
this man insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw.
He healed him of his blindness and his inability to speak. And it says, and all the people
were amazed and said, is not this the son of David? And Mark
had that right. That's what they're saying. Isn't
this the Messiah? He's healed this man. He's performed
a miracle. And he's healed this man. But
here the Pharisees come, verse 24. When the Pharisees heard
it, they said, this fellow, this person doth not cast out devils,
but by Beelzebub, Beelzebub is another name for Satan. And it's
the prince of devils, they called it. So in other words, the power
that Christ used, that Jesus of Nazareth was using to cast
out these demons was the power of the devil, not the power of
God. Now that's what these Pharisees were saying, these unbelieving
Pharisees. Well, Jesus knew their thoughts. And that's the way
it is with all of us. The Word of God, sharper and
powerful than any two-edged sword. One passage in John chapter 5,
it talks about how he knew their hearts, he knew their mind, he
knew their affections, he knew their will. And he said unto
them, every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation,
every city or house divided against itself shall not stand. If Satan,
cast out Satan, he's divided against himself, and how shall
then his kingdom stand?" And his point here is that Satan
is not fighting to defeat himself. That's what he's saying. Now
Satan is a subtle, deceptive devil. We're going to see that.
And some things that may seem as miracles, even seem as casting
out devils, are the work of Satan. But he's not working to defeat
himself. And that's what his point is.
I'm in this, the Messiah is the one who was identified from the
beginning in Genesis chapter three as the seed of woman who
would be at enmity with the seed of the serpent. That's the enmity. They're against each other, you
see. Now there has never been a time
or never will be a time that Satan had the upper hand upon
Christ the Messiah. The victory of Christ over Satan
and the world and the flesh has always been assured. That's the
power of God. There is no, never has been a
possibility of victory for Satan. But Satan is limited. Now he's
a powerful, powerful fallen angel. But his knowledge, is limited,
not as much as our knowledge, but it is limited. So he doesn't
know of his own defeat. He's not fighting against himself.
That's impossible. And he says, look here, he says
in verse 27, and if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your
children cast them out? Therefore they shall be your
judges. Now the Pharisees were also people who came to be able
to cast out demons. And so they sent out their children,
their followers, that's who he's talking about, to do the same.
And what Christ is doing, he's drawing a line of distinction
here showing who really is working under the power of God here and
who's really working under the power of Satan. And it's them. The ones who accused him of working
under the power of Satan were actually working themselves under
Satan's deception and power, and their own followers will
be their judges. That is, will stand against them
to witness against them at the judgment. That's what he's saying.
So in other words, they're like those who John wrote about in
Revelation 20 about being judged out of the books that will stand
against them, their sins. And he's showing. You remember
in John chapter 8 and verse 44, Christ told the Pharisees, you're
of your father, the devil, and the works of your father you
do. He was a liar from the beginning. You can read that sometime. But
that's what he's saying. He said, it's really gonna come
out here at the judgment, who's really working under the power
of God and who's really working under the power of Satan. Well,
obviously, the Lord himself, who is God incarnate, God in
human flesh, Emmanuel, God, he who had the fullness of the Godhead
bodily, he's working under the power of God, he is God. And
then the Pharisees who appeared righteous unto men, they're truly
working under the power of Satan. So their followers will be their
judge. But look at verse 28. He says, but if I cast out devils
by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.
Now that's a full statement there. Christ is saying this, if what
I do, I do by the power of God, and that was the way it is, That's
the way it was. He said, if I am who I say I
am, the Messiah, the Lord our righteousness, the Savior, if
I am who I say I am, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. The Messiah has come. That's
what he's saying. What did the Messiah come to
do? He came to establish the kingdom of God on earth. And
he did that in his obedience unto death. for the sins of his
people. The surety and substitute. He
established the kingdom of heaven on earth through his church.
And has to do with saving God's elect. It has to do with redeeming
them by the price of his blood. Now is the kingdom of God come. It has to do with the calling
of them unto himself, which he calls a gathering here. But look,
he says in verse 29, or how else, how can one enter into a strong
man's house and spoil his good except he first bind the strong
man and then he will spoil his house. He's talking about defeating
Satan here. He's talking about his work as
the Messiah to establish the kingdom of God. And in that process,
he's defeating Satan. He defeated Satan on the cross
when he established the only righteousness whereby God can
be just and justify the ungodly. But there's another time that
he defeats Satan. And that's when he, by the Holy
Spirit, comes to a sinner and brings that sinner under the
preaching of the gospel and reveals himself in his glory in that
sinner to bring them to faith in Christ. Now, let me show you
that. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter four, and this is really important
to understand this passage now, if we're gonna understand it
at all. And it comes down to this. When it comes to, let's
say, casting out demons or any of the miracles, and we'll look
at this in just a moment, what is God's main goal? and contrast
God's main goal with Satan's main goal. What is Satan's main
goal in his deceptions? Satan is a deceiver, Satan is
an accuser, all of those things. What is his main goal? Well,
look at 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 3. He says, but if
our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. In whom
the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe
not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the
image of God, should shine unto them. That's Satan's main goal,
to keep sinners from seeing the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ. Look at verse five. For we preach
not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your
servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. God's goal in the salvation of
his people is to cast out the darkness, the blindness, the
dumbness of Satan's deceptions and give them a new heart to
see and hear the light of the glorious gospel of God in Christ
Jesus. To bring them to faith in Christ.
By nature, we're just like back here in Matthew 12. By nature,
spiritually speaking, we're just as blind and dumb as this blind
and dumb man was physically. And in fact, here's what you
see. Now think about this passage.
Here he healed a blind man, a dumb man, cast out a demon. We have a spiritual picture there.
A spiritual illustration of what we are by nature. We're deceived
in darkness by Satan. In essence, demon possessed in
that way by nature because we're spiritually dead. And when Christ
sends his spirit in the new birth to bring us under the preaching
of the gospel, what does he do? He gives us eyes to see, ears
to hear. He changes our speech to spiritual
things. And so what we see number one
there is this, you know, and this is, you can look at Christ's
whole earthly ministry this way. The purpose of these miracles,
all the miracles that the Lord performed, was to show forth
his power as God in human flesh and to support his sovereign
power and authority in the salvation of sinners by leading them to
believe the truth of the gospel. Mark 16 talks about the miracles
that the apostles were to perform, and the reason they were to perform
those miracles was three words, to confirm the word. Confirm the word. In other words,
these miracles were not to be ends and of themselves. Listen,
there were many people that Christ healed physically who were not
healed spiritually. You remember the Lord himself.
He spoke of those who he fed with the loaves and the fishes,
and he said, you come to me because of the loaves and the fishes,
but not because you believe him to be the Son of God, not because
you're interested in spiritual things, spiritual eternal life. One time he healed ten lepers,
and it says that only five returned to glorify God. He spoke of those
who claimed to cast out demons in Matthew 7 and at judgment,
even though they had that power to cast out demons, they didn't
know Christ. He said, depart from me, you
that work iniquity, I never knew you. Sinners were not saved eternally
by physical miracles. Sinners are saved spiritually
by the miracle of regeneration and conversion, the new birth.
And for that to take place, there's two things that have to be present.
The external ministry of preaching the gospel. Faith cometh by hearing,
hearing by the word of God. And there must be the powerful
ministry of the Holy Spirit to give us spiritual life. And all
in the power of and applied by the Holy Spirit sit from the
Father and the Son. And you know that's what he's
talking about here? Look at verse 30 of Matthew 12. He says, he
that is not with me is against me. There's no middle ground.
And he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. What was
he sent to do? To gather his people. What did
he send out his disciples to do in preaching the gospel? Go
into all the world and preach the gospel. Why? To gather his
people. Why are we preaching the gospel
now, today, in the internet? We're seeking his sheep, his
lost sheep, to gather his people. That's what it's all about. So
remember that, number one, that's the purpose of these miracles.
It was not the miracle in and of itself, but it was to lead
them to hear the truth. And then secondly, as we said,
Satan's goal was the opposite of Christ. Satan is a deceiver.
His main goal is to keep sinners from hearing and believing the
gospel. And whatever way he can do that, if he can have you in
a false church somewhere, pleading a false gospel, a false ground
of salvation, listening to a lie, that's where he'll have you. Christ spoke of that. Matthew
24, 24, he talked about there will arise false Christ, false
prophets, show great signs and wonders, he said, inasmuch that
if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Thank
God it's not possible. You notice one other thing here
too. These Pharisees, they accused him of casting out demons in
the name of Beelzebub. It shows us there, you know,
that not all the Pharisees agreed. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, remember
what he said? He said, no man can do the miracles
you do, but by, unless he be sin of God. So they were divided
on that, even though Nicodemus didn't know the Lord. But now
remember that, Satan's main goal is to keep sinners in the deception
and darkness of a lie, to keep them blinded to the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ, how God justifies the ungodly.
And then this verse 30, Here, he that is not with me is against
me. It shows us there's no neutrality when it comes to how we see and
relate to Jesus Christ. If you're not for him, you're
against him. That's what he says. To fail to acknowledge his deity,
who Jesus Christ is, God in human flesh. To fail to acknowledge
his messiahship, he is the one and only way of salvation. No
other way. To fail to acknowledge his righteousness
as the only ground of salvation, the only way a sinner can be
just before holy God. To fail to acknowledge these
things, that his blood cleanses his people from all sin and secures
their salvation unto eternal glory. You know what it means? It means to call him a liar.
It's the same as calling him a blasphemer. If I fail to acknowledge
his deity, I'm calling him a blasphemer. And the reason is, is because
he claimed to be God. To fail to acknowledge any of
those things is even to call him a devil or an agent of the
devil. If Jesus of Nazareth was and
is not who he claimed to be and did not do what he claimed to
do, he's a deceiver. just like Satan. And any miracle
he performed would have been a deception by the power of Satan.
But we know he is who he claimed to be. He's God in human flesh. He's Emmanuel, God with us. We know by the power of the Spirit
through the word that he did accomplish redemption for his
people. He accomplished fully 100% what
he claimed to finish. That is the complete salvation
and security of all for whom he died. He established righteousness. And then that verse 30 gives
us another clue. He that gathereth not with me
scattereth abroad. Christ, the good shepherd who
died for his sheep, gathers them unto himself by the ministry
of the Holy Spirit in the preaching of the gospel. That one way of
salvation, that one way of righteousness, that one way of forgiveness.
And in light of that, he is gathering his people unto himself by the
power of God. Here he mentions blasphemy of
the Holy Spirit. Look at verse 31. Wherefore,
that means for this reason, You notice that? For this reason,
I say unto you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven
unto men. But, or except, the blasphemy
against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. He
says in verse 32, whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of Man,
it shall be forgiven him. But whosoever speaketh against
the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this
world, neither in the world to come. Now, I used to think that
means you can say anything you want to about God the Father,
you can say anything you want to about God the Son, but you
better not say anything against the Holy Spirit. That's not what
that's saying. First of all, don't say anything
against God at all, period, Father, Son, or Holy Spirit. Secondly,
we all, by nature, stand against and speak against all three persons
of the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, until God brings
us to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Every
one of us. That's so. Whatever form it took
in our lives, it may have been a religious form, may have been
an irreligious form, but that's what we do by nature. We speak
against the whole Godhead. When a sinner doesn't see and
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as his whole salvation, he is
standing against, speaking against the Godhead, including the Holy
Spirit. Well, what is this blasphemy
against the Holy Spirit? Well, to blaspheme the Holy Spirit
is to deny that Jesus Christ and Him crucified and risen is
the one way of forgiveness, the one way of righteousness, the
one way of salvation. My friend, there's one way of
salvation. Christ said, I'm the way, the
truth, the life. Nobody comes under the Father
but by me. Every other way that men can connive and devise is
blasphemy. Do you believe that? Every other way but Jesus Christ
is blasphemy. Now what is the work of the Holy
Spirit in salvation? Well, the Bible teaches us. It's
His work to reveal and bring us to Christ, the one way of
salvation. That's what Christ Himself taught.
He said, the Spirit, the Comforter, will come and He will convict
the world of sin because they believe not of Me, of righteousness
because I go unto My Father, of judgment because the Prince
of this world is judged. He said, He shall not speak of
Himself, He shall testify of Me. He's going to appoint sinners
to Christ. That's His work. The work of the Holy Spirit is
to reveal Christ. And those who go through this
life and fail to come to Christ for salvation will not be forgiven
of their sins. In other words, here's what He's
saying. There's no hope of salvation for any sinner of any sin but
Christ. And if you don't have Christ,
no sin is forgiven. None. One way of forgiveness. That's what the Holy Spirit testifies.
You reject Christ, you blaspheme the Holy Spirit. You say, well,
what is the unpardonable sin? My friend, the Bible tells us
that in sinners saved by grace, that the blood of Jesus Christ
washes away what? Cleanses what? All sin. Without Jesus Christ, all sin
condemns us. You see, it's not that there's
any particular sin that is unforgivable as if God cannot forgive it.
Because God forgives all sin through the blood of Christ.
But without the blood of Christ, God forgives absolutely no sin. Some people say, well, that's
the sin of unbelief. Well, my friend, if that's true,
then we're all damned forever. Because that's exactly what I
was before God saved me. How about you? What about Saul
of Tarsus? Was he a believer when he was
walking on the Damascus Road to arrest Christians? and wipe the name of Jesus of
Nazareth off the face of the earth? If the sin of unbelief is not
forgivable, then we're in trouble. Some people say, well, it's belief
at death or unbelief at death. That's not what the Bible says
here. It's not what it says at all. I know this. That if we stand before God washed
in the blood of Christ, clothed in his righteousness, no sin
is charged to our account. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Now people can haggle over this,
they can talk about what is blasphemy, what is not. Have I committed
the unpardonable sin or have I not committed it? Some people
will cover it this way, they'll say, well I can tell you this
right now, that if you're worried about it, you haven't committed
it. Where does it say that in the scripture? It doesn't say
that. And people wonder, well, what's
going on? I remember one time when we were on vacation down
in Florida with two or three families from a church that I
was going to. And us boys, we got to playing
around and fooling around. And we started baptizing each
other in the swimming pool, just making fun. And one of the men
come up there and said, now, boys, you better be careful.
You might commit the unpardonable sin. I couldn't sleep that night.
I thought I had committed it. Let me be honest with you. That
is just a tactic devised by false legal religionists to keep people
scared. Listen. This, what he's talking
about, has to do with a sinner who stands before God at judgment
without Christ. And look at verse 30, Matthew
12 here. Look at verse 31. Well, I'm sorry, verse 33, that's
where we're going to. He speaks, he says, either make
the tree good and his fruit good or else make the tree corrupt
and his fruit corrupt for the tree is known by his fruit. Now
you know in the scripture, a good tree is mentioned and an evil
tree is mentioned in Matthew chapter seven in the context
of the Sermon on the Mount. And what he's talking about is
preaching. And he starts out this way, he
says there's two ways. There's a straight and narrow
way, that's the way of God's grace in Christ, the way of salvation
by the righteousness of Christ, by his blood alone. And then
there's the broad way that leads to destruction. And then he talks
about false preachers. He said, beware of those who
come, wolves come in sheep's clothing. Who are they? They
are those who lead people on the broad road that leads to
destruction. He said, you'll know them by
their fruits. And he says a good tree cannot produce evil fruit
and an evil tree cannot produce good fruit. What's he talking
about? And right away people take that out of context and
they start talking about the fruit in a believer's life. That's
not what he's talking about. He's talking about the gospel. of Christ. Christ is the good
tree. And he doesn't produce evil fruit.
He produces good fruit. That's a sinner saved by grace
under the preaching of the gospel. Those false prophets, those wolves
in sheep's clothing, that's the evil tree. They produce evil
fruit, unbelievers. And that's what he's talking
about here. Satan doesn't produce good fruit. He produces evil
fruit. The good fruit is produced by
God. And then he says in verse 34,
listen, he says, old generation of vipers. Who's he talking about?
Those Pharisees, those false shepherds. How can you being
evil speak good things? You can't tell people the way
of salvation. You believe salvation by works. There were a lot, listen, there
were a lot of good things that they said. For example, to go
back to Nicodemus, now he was a Pharisee. He said to the Lord
Jesus Christ, he said, nobody can do the miracles you do except
they be sin of God. That's a good thing to say, but
he didn't preach the gospel. He didn't preach the one way
of salvation. Because he believes salvation by works. He believes
salvation conditioned on the sinner. He says, for out of the
abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. The reason you speak
that false gospel is because that's where your heart is. That's
what you're set up on. You don't have spiritual life.
You're as dumb and blind as that man that Christ just healed in
a spiritual way. You don't know the way of truth.
So how can you speak the good things of God's glory in Christ,
of how God is just to justify the ungodly based on the righteousness
of God in Christ imputed and received by faith? How can you
tell sinners the one way of forgiveness? Because you're leading them on
the road to destruction. He says in verse 35, a good man
out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things.
What is our treasure? You know, after that, in that
2 Corinthians 4 passage, when Paul was talking about Satan's
goal and God's goal, and he talked about God's goal as glorifying
himself in the hearts of his people, in the next verse he
says, for we have this treasure in earthen vessels. It's the
gospel. It's the good news of salvation
by grace for sinners. And a good man, what is a good
man in the Bible? It's a sinner saved by grace.
made so by the Spirit of God. So a good man out of the good
treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things, and an evil
man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things."
Those who preach the gospel by the power and goodness and grace
of God. Those who preach a false gospel, what are they doing? They're just Speaking what comes
naturally and therefore here we come to a verse 36 But I saying
you that every idle word that men shall speak They shall give
account therefore at the day of judgment. What's he talking
about? He's talking about preaching that leads sinners to destruction
That's the idle word that he's talking about That's what he that's what it
means that's the conclusion of judgment speaking of their judgment
of Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth as blasphemer, but also of their
false gospel, their way of salvation, their confidence of forgiveness,
it reveals the state of their hearts. Look at it, he says,
he says, for by thy words thou shalt be either vindicated or
by thy words thou shalt be condemned. Now think about their words.
Think about the words again of those who preached in Matthew
7 who said, Lord, Lord, haven't we prophesied in your name? Haven't
we cast out demons? Haven't we done many wonderful
works? What do their words say about their heart? Pride, unbelief,
darkness, self-righteousness. You see what I'm saying? Their
words, their gospel, their hope, their assurance, their refuge
revealed the state of their heart. What is it about the people of
God who stand before God at judgment? What do we plead? What do our
words say? Christ crucified and risen. I stand before God in his righteousness. That reveals the state of the
heart. That's a regenerate heart. He says here everybody's gonna
give account. Well, let me ask you this. What
is every believer's account? What is my account? I'll tell
you exactly what it is. My account is with Jesus Christ,
who died for my sins and made me righteous before God. There's
my account. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves. Account yourselves. Reckon, that
means account. My account is with Him. My sins
were charged to Him, imputed to Him. Who shall lay anything
to my charge? He's my account. Christ is. He's my righteousness. My account
before God is my standing in Jesus Christ. Washed in his blood
and clothed in his righteousness. What is the account of everyone
who doesn't have Christ? It's their works. They'll be
judged out of the books. And their sins will condemn them.
That's what it says. So that's the issue of this.
Giving account. Well, give an account, here's
my account, that I may know him and be found in him, not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which
is through the faithfulness of Christ. What an account that
is. Believe on him, rest in him,
all right.